The Last Two Days

The last two days we walked all over Tokyo from train station to train station, we averaged 14,000 steps each day until my pedometer broke.  (Cheap pedometer!  I only dropped it 3 times and now the display won't work.)  I am sitting here this morning with swollen legs and feet.  I have cankles.  It feels like someone sliced of my heels.  I can't walk another step.  But at noon I will have to lug our 50 lb suitcase and two carry-ons through the streets of Tokyo, down to the busy subway station, take 3 different trains and then through the airport to baggage check.  But I'm not complaining because we're going to Beijing China!

Zack and Steve went out to find the fish market and eat one last excellent meal.

This is what we have been up to the last two days:

Monday: 

-Two Beautiful Shinto Temples: lots of clapping, bowing, coin throwing and incense lighting.  While there you are not to sit down on ledges in the temples and apply band aids to your feet or linger in front of the gates; and when you pour the cleansing water over some one's hands (Zack) make sure the dirty water does not go back into the clean water.  For these things you will be scolded.

-The Great Buddha Kamakura: the coolest Buddha I have ever seen.  Big and green and hollow inside.  We even went inside it.  Made in 1252.

-Katsu Curry for lunch, breaded pork cutlet served over curry rice with lettuce and pickled something.  Delish. 

-Yaki Niku for dinner.  All you can eat meat and veggies cooked over hot coals by us at our table.  Best 'salt salad' I have ever had.  I ate two.  Zack slept through dinner.

Tuesday:

-Giant Poke Mon store.  Zack spent an hour deciding what to buy only to discover he lost his 1000 yen note ($12.00 USD).  Good thing his daddy loves him and gave him the needed money. Have yet to find missing money.  Steve and grandma said "I can't believe he lost his money!"  I can believe it, welcome to my life.  Poor kid, cursed with the 'lose things syndrome'.

-Museum and park.  Walked around a huge park, saw some shrines, performers, etc.  Then we went to the National Museum and saw ancient Japanese relics, art and a special exhibit on the life of Buddha.  One of my favorite things we have done.  I love museums with ancient relics!  And I really enjoy all things Buddha.

-Electronics district.  Loud and bright with floors and floors of electronics and other wonderful inventions.  Rice cookers, personal beauty products, feather light suitcases, gadgets I'd never seen but need, game and music gadgets, ear phones...I could have bought everything!  Steve and mom had to hurry me out of the store, I had that crazy look in my eyes!  But...I bought a new pedometer!  Yea!

-Festival.  We heard there was a festival but really it was just a long street with food and shopping.  We ate more octopus balls, some pancake thing that was gross because it had fish flakes on it and ice cream.  I bought some sockletts.  Some guy gave Zack a huge apple for free.  He was selling them for 1000 yen!  Everyone is very nice.

-Shabu Shabu for dinner.  Our favorite.  All you can eat meat, veggies, noodles, tofu and gyoza that you cook yourself in 3 different kinds of hot broth.  Delish!

**I just found out it is recommended that everyone take 10,000 steps each day.  I guess I am beyond lazy because it's right around 10,000 steps that I start to die.  Also, 2000 steps= 1 mile (approx, everyone is diff).  So that means we walk about 7 miles per day.  Yikes!

The Giant Buddha.

Inside the Giant Buddha.

The gardens were so beautiful!

It pretty much rained all day, good thing we had our umbrellas.

The giant Buddha was in a coastal town, as was the temple.

Steve and Zack washing up.

Sharon:  "That man is a MACHINE!"

Resting and eating some delicious katsu curry.

A famous statue in downtown Tokyo of a dog.  The story says that the dog always met his master at the train station, even after the master died, the dog would show up every day.

So many lights!  Vegas has nothing on downtown Tokyo at night!

Pokemon store!

So happy!

Performers in the park.

A giant whale at one of the museums.

Samurai uniforms.

Lots of beautiful old kimonos.

The "festival" street.

Steve makes this for us at home.  This guy made it super gross like we had never had before.  Too many fish flakes!  We could barely eat it.

Octopus balls!

Biggest apples we had ever seen.  This picture does not do them justice at all!

Steve loves these burgers and even though we had just eaten and it was almost dinner time, we all had to try one.  It has a rice bun and was definitely delicious!

Before Shabu Shabu.

After Shabu Shabu.  We are exhausted!

20,000 steps and a Japanese Bath House

Today I walked 20,000 steps.  I know this because my place of employment gave me a pedometer a few weeks ago and I brought it on the trip.  Right now my legs and feet are throbbing!  It is 10:30 pm and we are going to bed but first I had to recap our day. 

First off we found an awesome bakery and had a hard time choosing from the many options.  I got a sandwhich thing and a cream filled croissant.  Soooo good.  I will lobby to go again in the morning.

Best bakery in the history of bakery's.

Next we were off to see a Shinto Shrine.  While there we were able to catch a drum show and a traditional wedding.  

You could FEEL the sound from the drums.  These drummers must get a great workout! 

The main gate to the shrine.

Entrance to the shrine.

Several seconds after sitting down to patch up my blistered feet,  we were shooed off this ledge and told we could not sit there.  Japan is strict!

The wedding.

The Bride.

The thing about this Japan is:  very few places to sit, everyone walks a ton and all the women are wearing high heels.  Also, the fashion is awesome.  These ladies are all about the socks.  Tons of cool tights, thigh high's, fishnets and leggings.  All paired with short shorts.  It's like their all on their way to roller derby!

No where to sit but on the ground.

Then we walked down a street that is the Japanese Champs De Le Elysee's.  Lot's of high end shops, etc.  Zack found a toy store and bought a Bay Blade and he is very excited to show his friends at home.  We also found a little stand selling octopus balls which we all love so we sat and ate 2 orders.  It was a beautiful sunny day.

Octopus Balls! (Tiny pieces of octopus meat with a breaded coating and sauce)

Fancy cars on a fancy street.

We had been told that there was a good revolving sushi bar in the area so we spent about an hour trying to find it and then ate there.  It was fun, you sit around a circular bar with sushi chefs in the middle and a conveyor belt circles in front of you.  You just grab a plate of whatever you like and at the end they add up your plates and you pay by the plate.  Steve ate 15 plates, I had 7!

The revolving sushi bar.  You can see the drinks on the plates right there.  They don't have rolls like we do.  It' s all just fish.  It was delish.

Even Zack partook of some sushi.

Next we were off to the Ghibli museum, which Zack was excited to see since we love Hayao Myazaki movies at our house.  When we came out of the subway it was pouring rain and cold.  So much for the beautiful day.  The museum was fun, but everything was in Japanese so we didn't know what we were looking at all the time.  Steve says his reading skills have waned.

The museum gardens.

The Ghibli Museum in the background.

**Post-Edit Warning:  The following may contain TMI, read at your own risk.
Now for our bath house adventure.  Steve has been wanting to take us to an authentic bath house.  I was not so hip on the idea.  First of all it's totally nude.  Second the men and women are separate.  That is good and bad.  Good because, well, you know, it's nude!  Bad because my translator and guide would not be with me to tell me what to do.  Thirdly, we were all jet lagged and exhausted.  Do you know what I do when I'm exhausted and stressed?  I cry.  So yes, there were a few tears shed.  I got over it quick and Steve asked a worker to help my mom and I. 

We went in and rented a towel and wash cloth, stowed our shoes in a locker and then to the women's locker room.  You're supposed to shower and clean up before you soak in the hot water baths.  We just bit the bullet and stripped everything off, just like everyone else did and headed in the direction everyone else was going.  I tried not to stare, but at the same time I needed to see what the others were doing so we wouldn't commit any no no's, so I stared alot.  We got into the bath area and there were little stools in front of shower head things and soaps and a big bowl.  Everyone was soapin up and scrubbing down so we sat down and did the same.  After a while I realized my naughty bits were touching the same plastic stool that everyone elses had touched.  I tried not to think about it. 

After we were thoroughly clean, we couldn't decide what to do with our washcloths.  So we stared and noticed everyone was carrying them around with them and some were covering their bits a little so we did the same.  This made me feel better because I recently had some laser hair removal done and there is nothing covering my whoo hoo, if you know what I mean.  Annnnyway...We enjoyed our time flitting from pool to pool, some indoor some outdoor, some salty, some scalding, some freezing.  At one point we were told by a nice Korean lady who spoke English that we were not supposed to put our wash clothes into the baths, just to keep them on our heads or on a nearby rock.  Ooops. 

After we were sufficiently dizzy and overheated, we decide to go back to the locker room and change.  While changing, the valet lady from the entrance came in holding my mom's backpack. She had left it in the cab on the way there and the cab driver realized and brought it back to us.  We were very surprised and happy that he was so caring and honest. 

So, it was a bit awkward of an experience but not as bad as I thought.  Sorry, no pictures of this!

Now we are nice and clean and relaxed and going to bed!

We're in Japan!

Zack's first ever plane ride!

The Plane

After a super long day of flying, which started at 6:30 am, we arrived in Japan yesterday (Saturday) at 2:30 pm.  (Can I just say that I envy people who fly first class?  We were like sardines in a plane!)  We took a train into Tokyo and then had to drag our luggage through the busiest subway stations, up and down stairs, and then down the streets of Tokyo to our hotel.  It's a good thing I do roller derby because my awesome skillz came in handy.  I just had to literally push through people because they do not move for you!  I did a couple of hip hits, took a whip from Steve and rolled my suitcase over some guys feet.  No problem. 

The Japan subway turned us into devils!

Our room.  The futons were surprisingly comfortable and the guesthouse was very clean.

We are at a cool hotel with futons on the floor.  Last night we found a Ramen shop and had Delicious ramen and gyoza.  We were going to go to a bath house but Zack was falling apart so we'll try and go tonight. We slept well and were all up at 5:30 this morning feeling much better!

The Kimi Ryokan - our guest house hotel while in Tokyo.

The Delicious Ramen shop we found.  The two cooks were very friendly.

Zack only asked to go home 4 times last night.  We'll see how he does today, having slept.

Robes and slippers were provided by the Kimi.  Zack's is a little big!

It's a good thing that Steve speaks Japanese or we would be completely lost here!  It's funny to see people's reactions when this tall white boy starts speaking their language to them, they are usually quite surprised.


We are having a great time and I will post when I can!

Zack was exhausted by the time we got on the train from the airport into Tokyo.

The bathroom area of our hotel with showers on either side.  The toilets were around the corner, as was a wooden bathtub.