Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving in Japan has definitely been an experience.  We started off the day like every other with school until 12.  After school Seth said he wanted to go to Tachikawa (a few stations away) to go for a nice lunch as our Thanksgiving meal.  We found a tappanyaki restaurant that looked good.  Not recognizing much on the menu we guessed and hoped it would be good.  We ended up with two types of yakisoba noodles with cabbage and pork which was mostly good, the sauce was a little over powering though.  And then we also ordered what appeared to be a seafood pancake.  On the pictures it was covered in some type of brown sauce and then a white sauce drizzled all over.  When the lady brought the pancake out it only had the brown sauce.  She was carry a bottle of something white, she asked if we wanted the mayonnaise on it as she was turning the bottle over.  Seth, who is completely disgusted by mayonnaise, and me, who knew that about Seth's disgust, both practically shouted NO before she could even finish the sentence. The pancake type dish was okay.  It had cuttlefish, shrimp, and some type of tentacle that we assumed was octopus inside it.  Again the sauce was a little too strong.

After this meal we all agreed that it isn't really a Thanksgiving unless we are all too stuffed to eat.  No one was at that point yet so we decided to go up to the next floor and try another restaurant.  We settled for a dessert waffle place called Mother's Leaf and Tea House.  We ordered 3 different types.  The first was a chocolate waffle with fresh raspberries, raspberry sauce, and a scoop of mango ice cream and raspberry whip cream.  This was by far the best of the three!  The second was a regular waffle with bananas and almond slices and drizzled in chocolate sauce.  It also had a scoop of mango ice cream and whip cream.  Very good.  The third however was more of what we were hoping to avoid haha  It was a regular waffle with a scoop of mango ice cream and whip cream.  But onto of the waffle and scoops was a heap of purple bean paste frosting.  As if that wasn't bad enough, there were also candied sweet potatoes, kidney beans, and some mixture of lentils and beans all on top.  What is it with beans in this place!!

After the waffles we weren't quite feeling ready to go home yet.  While walking around the train station Marley spotted the Krispy Kreme haha

It was definitely a dessert filled Thanksgiving!

Cats

We took Marley to the 8 story toy store he loves this weekend while we waited for our turn at the Skytree.  It has floors upon floors of toys and things for him to play with.  Trains, puzzles, games, wooden blocks, legos, and the list keeps going.  They have one floor of all stuffed animals.  We told Marley to hold one of the cats so we could take a picture.  After the picture was done he said he wanted to take the kitty home because he missed his other cats back in Bellingham.  Kelly looked at the price tag and laughed and then handed it to me.  Marley was hugging a $170 stuffed cat!  Is that a famous cat? Can it make my dinner and do my laundry?

Expensive grey kitty!

Giant Foods

After giving up on day one to the Skytree we decided to stop and grab lunch at nearby Chinese restaurant.  We ordered a few dishes and one was gyoza (pot stickers).  Normally you can get 6 for $3 or 12 for $6.  At this place we noticed that they were 5 for $10.  Widely expensive! But we got them because Marley loves them and needed something to make him happy until we got home.  When the food came we realized why they were so expensive.  They were the huge! Seriously the biggest gyoza I've ever seen, they were the size of hot dogs!

Tokyo Skytree - take 2

We decided Sunday morning that we would attempt yet again to see the Skytree.  Seth decided he would take Marley early and head down there to get tickets and Kelly and I would join a little later.  He left and was at the Skytree before 10:30 and still our ticket time wasn't until 3:30!  So Kelly and I headed down that way and met them at the Kanda station.  We still had 2 hours to kill so we took Marley to the 8 story toy store in town.  Then it was finally time to head to the Skytree. Of course though at this point Marley was tired and cranky so waiting in line was no fun.  But we made it up, 350 meters up! We made it up right at sunset so the view was amazing.  Its unbelievable how big the city is!  It looked like it never ended!  We were lucky because it was a mostly clear day and we were able to see Mount Fuji!

Tokyo Skytree - part 1

We realized this past weekend that I only have a little time left in Japan.  (Exactly two weeks from today!) So we started thinking about what I wanted to do/see before I left.  One thing we wanted to do was go up the Tokyo Skytree Tower and see the city.  It was finished in the spring of 2012 and the main observatory area is 350 meters above sea level.  Kelly and I went to the Tokyo Tower those first few days in Tokyo.  That was cool as well but it was only 150 meters above sea level.

So we set out and headed to downtown Tokyo around 11:00 on Saturday.  It takes probably a good hour to get to Tokyo station.  We stopped here and got some food and went to find the Miffy store.  Kelly really wanted to buy something miffy.  It took us close to 45 minutes to find the store because the shopping area outside the mall has two different buildings, 8 floors each, and hundreds of people! We finally found the miffy store on the character floor which consisted of dozens of shops each dedicated to some type of animated cartoon character.  It was awesome!

We then caught the train to the Skytree.  Walking up to it was insane, it just kept getting bigger!  By the time we got there it was probably about 1 o'clock.  Seth went to go get tickets while Kelly and I walked around with Marley.  He came back a few minutes later with a defeated look on his face.  He then handed me 4 paper cards with the time 19:30-20:00 written on it.  since it was a Saturday there was a huge wait to get in.  They hand out these place holders, you are to return and get in line at your designated time and then wait in line to buy the ticket and then to go up.  It said you can expect to wait between 30-60 minutes of waiting in line after your designated time.  We all looked at Marley and laughed because we knew there was no way he was going to last until 730 just to get in line since his normal bed time is 6. It was so defeating to travel all the way there and yet not be able to do it.

We ended up walking to Asakusa, the next city, and walking around in a shopping area and seeing a temple.  This at least made up for the fail of the attempt before!

This is as close as we got to going up.

These pictures are of the temple at Asakusa 

Meat on a Stick

Saturday there was parent's day at Marley's school to show all of the art work the kids have created.  Marley was finally feeling a little better so Seth decided to take Marley while Kelly and I did some stuff around the house.  We got a text message from him 45 minutes later saying "bring money and bikes to gym, meet in 10".  It turns out there was some sort of Farmers Market going on with little booths and stands set up all around the square.  We bought some fried chicken and jo-jos and ate near the fountain.  That was good but after Marley said he was still hungry.  So we decided to try meat on a stick.  Seth bought two different kinds.  I thought one was chicken and the other was seafood.  The chicken turned out to look like beef when it was cooked.  I had the first bite, definitely not beef!  Seth tried it next and ended up spitting it out, he doesn't have much of a tolerance for new/different things.  What we thought was chicken turned out to be some animals tongue!  We threw that away and went on to the seafood.  It was in little pieces and was white.  It was a little chewy and slimy but wasn't as bad as the tongue.  That was until we realized it wasn't seafood but rather intestines.  The after taste was worse than actually eating the intestines! As soon as we got back to the house we all quickly drank some coke to get rid of that taste!!

You mad bro?

Why would anyone want there face to have a constant look of anger and frustration?  Beats me, but that exactly what this women looked like on the train.  She had removed both eyebrows and instead drew on new ones but in downward lines so her expression never changed haha