Saturday, July 16, 2011
Japan
Mom, Ricky and Kim escorted us all the way to security at the airport. Now Mom and Ricky are trekking around the desert in Mongolia together!
A shot of us on the subway to the airport...Brent and I built some muscle hauling around a stroller, pack and play, car seat, suitcase and two backpacks. So different from traveling just the two of us! We missed Ricky's extra set of hands in Japan when it was just up to us to get our stuff from place to place.
In Japan we stayed at a hostel in the Asakusa area of Tokyo. After naps, we headed out to walk around and take in a late dinner. It was a lively scene!
Asakusa has more traditional Japanese culture in the middle of modern Tokyo, so it was not uncommon to see people dressed in kimonos and wooden shoes.
Harper tried really hard to use chopsticks! :)
Harper felt like a big girl holding onto the handles in the subway.
Our first full day in Japan, we woke up really early to check out the famous Tsukiji fish market. This place is seriously huge! It spans 55 1/2 acres and moves out more than 2,000 tons of fish per day. There is nothing that comes close to it anywhere else in the world. You just walk by rows and rows of every fish imaginable and dodge the motorized carts that swerve and bustle down the narrow aisles.
Harper stayed with me in the carrier for this experience. She would say, "More fish!" as if she were afraid we were about to stop seeing fish. Luckily she had plenty of acres of fish to see! Here you can see the most prized fish in the market, the giant tunas.
60,000 people work in the fish market daily and here are two making a deal.
Brent wanted to eat at Daiwa, which is said to have some of the best sushi in the world, and certainly the freshest. We stopped to ask directions on how to find the small restaurant, and this man told us to hop on his cart! He graciously maneuvered the maze and dropped us off right at the restaurant! We probably would have asked directions ten times if he hadn't!
We had to wait a long time to get in because the restaurant is only one small counter of seats. There is Brent at the counter.
Pretty artfully made piece of sushi
This sushi master prepared everything right in front of the customers.
After the fish market, we went to some nearby gardens to relax and let Harper run around.
And she ran around joyfully!
Pure joy as she ran up to Daddy.
Brent took his relaxation seriously.
Then for lunch we ate at a Japanese noodle place. Harper devours noodles in any form, so she loved this place.
In both Korea and Japan, everyone takes off their shoes before entering a living space. I thought it was sweet seeing Harper's little shoes among all the big ones each time.
That night we ate okonomiyaki, which is a savory Japanese pancake. The batter is mixed with whatever ingredients you choose and cooked on a hot skillet in front of you. Very fun and tasty, but also very hot!
And to conclude our full day, we went to Shibuya that night, which is the Time Square of Tokyo. Supposedly it is a little less "bright" since the earthquake and energy crisis, but we still were impressed with the sheer crowds.
Geisha girl we ran into in Asakusa
After visiting Seoul and Tokyo, the two largest cities in the world, we wanted to also experience a smaller aspect of Japan. So we left the next morning on a two hour train to Nikko, which is nestled in natural beauty. We immediately felt a little calmer as we stepped off the train. The hostel we stayed at was right on a river and Brent took a swim in it as often as he could.
We were surrounded by forest...
...and our private room (a former shipping container) had a wall of windows looking out on the river. We could hear it all night long and Harper was checking out the view wondering when she was going to get to swim in the river!
After naps, we spent the afternoon at the temples and shrines that Nikko is famous for.
The prevailing religion in Japan is Shinto. These women are tying on fortunes at the shrine.
A Shinto cleansing ritual
More Harper running around! She was a temple/shrine expert by the end of our trip. I'm sure she could tell you some key differences between Buddhist and Shinto holy places.
We had a neat experience after the temples as we were walking back to the train station to head back home for the night. We passed a store that advertised "cake bread," and I felt pretty sure Harper and I needed a piece of cake. As Brent and I were quietly haggling over whether the high price justified the piece of cake, we became engaged in stilted English conversation with the mother/daughter pair that was manning the store. We couldn't help but admire the hand crafted artwork for sale, which was done by the old woman's husband. They slashed the price more than half for us as we had struck a friendly bond at this point, and we did end up enjoying some delicious chocolate cake as the woman arranged flowers and taught us to say her name in Japanese.
The nice, witty woman from the cake bread store. We are happy to have her husband's artwork now in our home.
One of the highlights of our hostel (besides its location) was that the man who ran the hostel was a killer cook! He made an outstanding vegetable pizza for us for dinner and a huge breakfast each morning. Harper and I were both happy to get a little pizza!
The following day, we slept in and took a bus high into the mountains to see a very nice waterfall and a lake. Here is our family shot at the waterfall.
We ate fish on a stick and ice cream before we headed to the lake.
The beautiful lake...
We saw a nice deer close up...
...and Harper obligingly fell asleep in the carrier as we had a peaceful hike around the entire perimeter of the lake. The temperatures were nice and cool with the higher altitudes.
When she woke up, we sat by the water's edge and Harper collected rocks.
We capped off our day of nature with a family swim in the river. It was cold but felt so nice once you got used to it. Harper will sometimes sweetly give spontaneous Eskimo kisses, and she is doing that here.
She loved being lifted up and down by Daddy!
Our second night's dinner was also a treat. The man pictured is 85 years old, and his name is Noburusan. He makes his soba and udon noodles by hand, as well as grilled fish from the river and vegetables. It was delicious!
Harper was getting "done" with it all, and I was a little stressed as we were eating with other travelers from the hostel. I didn't want our toddler to be spoiling anyone else's dinner. Luckily Noburusan came to the rescue with this wooden toy where a ball rolls down and sets off these little chimes. It kept Harper entertained and happy, and he was sweet to interact with her and encourage her when she would roll the ball.
Back in Tokyo, Brent went out during Harper's nap and went up a tower for sprawling views of the city.
Interesting architecture
The under construction Tokyo Sky Tree at night--world's tallest concrete tower at over 2000 feet
Local temple in Tokyo...had to get one more temple in! :)
And our last night ended with a chance encounter with this fun street band called Transparency. They sang John Denver's "Country Road" for us, and the verses were in Japanese. We loved it, but Harper wasn't sure what to think of their boisterous energy.
Contemplating our time in Japan and wondering if we would survive 15 hours of air travel the next day.
Well, I will not lie and say the return trip was fun because the return trip is never as fun. Plus our long flight fell during the daytime, whereas on our arrival, it had been over the course of a night. So Harper didn't sleep nearly as much, so it felt LONG. Thank goodness for her favorite ladybug DVD, which she watched in its entirety probably three times. We are happy to be home, and jet lag adjusting has been easier on this end we have felt. Although Brent and I both agree that traveling in this manner with a toddler was definitely "work" at times, we had a wonderful trip and hopefully we are molding our little girl into a proper traveler! :)
