The Adventure Never Ends

Just when I though that our adventure (and constant blog posting) was
over, the kids spotted these dinosaur bones in the Atlanta airport and
insisted I take a picture.

Thanks to everyone who has followed along with us on our journey. I
won't be posting regularly after this, but if you stop by to view the
site, leave a comment to tell us you were here and we'll get it.

Us and our stuff

Here we are, just like when we left.

One more train ride

One more train in the Atlanta airport. Not quite as exciting as it was
two months ago.

We're baack...

Here we are waiting for luggage at the Atlanta airport. We are staying
here overnight then tomorrow we fly to North Carolina, rent a car to
drive to the ocean, then take a ferry to Bald Head Island where we
will spend Thanksgiving with family. By the way, they only drive golf
carts on the island. Are there any modes of transportation we have
overlooked on this trip?

For Susanna

In answer to some of your questions...

The 7-11 is run by Japanese people (we noticed almost no immigrant
labor). And they would literally run to open a new register if it
looked like anyone was ready to check out.

And no, I didn't take a sushi class. I already knew how to make
tamago. I even have a special pan. I just didn't know how popular it
is with the kids. I know how to make sushi too - enough to know that
I'd rather eat it at a restaurant. But I do have a good hand-roll
sushi set at home. Wait until you see my stash of new bento box gear.

And you got mikan at HK? Are you sure they aren't Spanish clementines?
Are they as delicious as I described?

Thanks for all of your comments on posts. It is nice to know someone
is reading the blog, even when Grammie and Grampie are out of town.

Our favorite foods: crepes

Plenty of places here sell crepes and that means a giant crepe rolled
into a cone and filled with ice cream, whipped cream, fruit,
chocolate, all the goodies.

This picture was taken in Harajuku. Can you see the girls in their
crazy get ups, ready for a Sunday stroll? The kids couldn't believe it.

Our favorite foods: Tamago

I can make this rolled egg omelet at home, but that doesn't stop the
kids from begging for it every chance they get, especially at sushi
restaurants (yes, we had sushi again today).

Our favorite foods: Mikan

We sure will miss mikan. These tiny oranges are way better than
clementines. They must be the same ones they use for canned mandarin
oranges because they taste the same. They were also our primary source
of fruit since most other fruits here are perfect and exorbitant.
We'll miss you mikan.

Wood shop

Ellie and Trip's favorite place at their favorite place is the
woodshop at the Children's Hall. The kids go in on their own, choose a
project based on their age, and use all of the real tools to make a
clever variety of wooden toys.

They also were thrilled with the roof where kids can practice with
unicycles, rollerskates, hula hoops and jump ropes. If only Ellie and
Trip had a space like that at home... Oh wait, there's always the
driveway, not to mention the basement.

Children's Hall

On our last Sunday in Tokyo, the kids wanted to make one last visit to
their favorite spot, the Tokyo Metropolitan Children's Hall. It is
free and five floors of fun. Today Ellie made a very cool kaliedescope
in the science room. In this picture she is working in the arts and
crafts studio where they are set up for some very cool projects. At
the time of this picture Trip was in the music room banging around on
all of the open instruments.

Fashion flashdance flashback

Bad news straight from the streets of Shibuya: leg warmers are back.

Everyone loves toast

We've been eating a lot of toast here because the kids are thrilled
with unfettered access to non-whole-wheat bread. Not only is it white
and fluffy, it is sliced extra thick. Bitsy likes it with Nutella-like
Choco spread.

Convenience

It has been way too convenient living across the street from a
convenience store. And this is a particularly good one because it is
attached to the 7-11 corporate headquarters building.

We are in this store at least once, sometimes three times a day. I
should say that convenience stores here much nicer, cleaner, and sell
great fresh Japanese food. And late night ice cream.

Getting ready for New Year's

In addition to all of the Christmas trimmings, the stores are also
getting ready for New Year's a holiday which is enthusiastically here.
I can only assume that it will be the year of the cow as there are
"ushi" calendars and decorations everywhere.

It is the tradition for the woman of the house to prepare a variety of
foods that keep well and pack them into square stacking boxes. It must
have been some clever women who started this tradition because the
result is that everyone can relax and enjoy the the days of
celebrations without having to worry about cooking.

Even more carefree, you can stop by your favorite department store and
peruse this display of stacking boxes packed with plastic food. Just
place your order for the ones that look good to you and pick them up
on December 30. Now that sounds like a relaxing holiday.

Beaujolais Nouveau in Tokyo

You might be surprised to know that they have been hyping the arrival
of this year's Beaujolais Nouveau all over Tokyo, usually packaged up
in frilly wrapping for gift giving. Last night in the department
store, ladies dressed in berets were handing out samples. It tasted
pretty good, but I haven't had any wine for two months.

More, more, more sushi!

Are you wondering whether the kids have had their fill of sushi? They
have not.

Geta

Trip is glad that kids in Japan don't wear these wooden sandals
anymore: "These are tricky! I could never run in shoes like these!"

Nice ride

Ellis wishes she had one of these and a strong guy to go with it so
she could ride to school in style.

Kabuki

Yesterday we visited the big Edo-Tokyo museum but I fell asleep before
I posted the photos.

Ellie and Trip were very interested in this exhibit on Kabuki theater.
They found it particularly hilarious that all of the roles, including
this beautiful woman behind them, are played by men.

Racetrack

It may be a bit hard to see in this picture, but after we left the
obstacle course park, we came upon a very unusual racetrack. It was
set up just like a dog or horse track with a stadium, giant video
screen and betting. But instead of a dirt track, there was a huge
expanse of water. The racers were little speedboats with drivers
wearing colors to match their boats. Needless to say we all, Trip
especially, found this pretty exciting.

After leaving the racetrack, we went to a hot spring spa to soak in
the baths, sleep and watch videos in the relaxation rooms, and have
dinner in the big tatami mat room. (yes, Polk complained about having
to sit on the floor.)

Just another Japanese commuter

Ellie fits right in on a train across Tokyo.

Water Hazard

Ellie takes the zip line across the water at the obstacle course.

Obstacle Course

For our last Saturday in Tokyo, we went about 45 minutes outside of
town to a big park with a crazy obstacle course in it.

The obstacle course had 47 different setups on it, and was pretty
difficult. Let's just say it is very clear that the laws related to
personal injury torts are quite different in Japan!

More to follow.

Sumo stadium

Ellie and Trip demonstrate their best sumo stance outside the national
sumo stadium and museum.

I see sumo

That's Ellie on the left. Didn't recognize her? She's been eating a
lot of Japanese food.

Tunnels!

We also visited yet another very cool playground. It was all built
around a central "mountain" or pyramid that had climbing walls, rope
ladders, and slides up three levels of two sides. The other two sides
appeared to be covered with thick shrubs. But then we noticed that the
shrubs were loaded with a maze of tunnels. Ellie and Trip disappeared
into them just after we took this picture and played in there until it
was time to go.

Origami

In the same farmhouse we found a group of people doing origami which
is something Ellie loves. They taught her to make a cow's head and
Santa Claus. And for an origami Santa, he is pretty jolly. We are
bringing home several samples so we can try to make more for our
Christmas decorations this year.

Sitting around the kitchen fire

In this picture we are in a traditional farmhouse with a sunken fire
pit in the center of the room. It was the perfect spot on a brisk fall
day.

Open Air Museum

Today we took a little trip to a park in a Tokyo suburb that houses
the Edo-Tokyo Museum's open air branch. It is a wonderful park where
they have transplanted historical houses and buildings from a variety
of areas and in a wide range of architectural styles. Visitors are
welcome to take off their shoes and walk through the buildings.

It was a sparkling fall day and we even caught a glimpse of Mt. Fuji
from the train on the way there. We were enjoying our picnic lunch
when Trip took this picture of us.

Girl Scouts

Ellie has really enjoyed being a brownie girl scout and she was
interested in the fact that girls all over the world are involved in
scouting. We brought her brownie vest and visited the Japan girl
scout headquarters. We learned a lot about the history of girl scouts
in Japan and got a cool patch for Ellie's vest.

Memo to Friendly's

At home, Ellie and Trip love to eat at Friendly's. Not far from our
apartment is a chain restaurant called Jonathan's that is kind of like
a 24 hour Japanese Friendly's.

They have one trick that the kids LOVE. Their pancakes come with a
chocolate crayon: a crayon shaped plastic tube filled with liquid
chocolate that the kids can use to draw or write. In this picture,
Ellie has drawn a picture of herself and is practicing writing her
name in Japanese.

Goo

This huge lighted sign in Ginza reads "Goo". We're not sure what kind
of business this sign is advertising but considering all of the weird
and wonderful things we've found during our travels in Japan, the kids
had plenty of ideas:

Trip: maybe that building has baby stuff in it because babies
sometimes say goo

Ellie: it could be a grocery store that sells gooey foods

Trip: I think that on the seventh floor there might be a big vat of
goo that kids can put their hands in and play with.

Ellie: it could be a company that makes stuff like gel for your hair
but here they call it goo.

We have only a few days left in Tokyo so I guess we'll never know.

DIY Christmas lights

If you weren't sufficiently impressed with the environmentally
responsible use of water in the toilet in the previous post, maybe
you'll like this.

Just like at home, on the day after Halloween, all of the stores and
malls busted out their Christmas lights, decorations, music,etc. This
is particularly perplexing since Japan is not a Christian country and
people generally do not celebrate Christmas. If they do, it is kind if
like Valentine's Day. They might get a few decorations, a special
cake, give a small gift to a friend. And most people would not
understand or recognize the carols playing. But nevertheless, the
halls are decked.

One night this week we went to the Tokyo Dome amusement area. They had
several stations with exercise bikes powering different sections of
Christmas lights. I'm going to suggest to Polk that he hook up the
same kind of system to the lights on our house when we get home.

Gadget grand finale

Ok, so some of our readers don't find the gadgets as exciting as we
do. These last few days we have been going back to some of our
favorite spots so we don't have as many new pictures, but I have been
holding a few posts until I complete the Parade o' Gadgets so stay
tuned.

I couldn't end our gadget tour without the grand finale: the toilet!
The little arm and control panel along side the toilet is a common
feature on Japanese toilets. It controls the temperature of the heated
seat. It has buttons plus temperature and power level control for
spray wash, front and back. Trip particularly loves this feature but
sometimes manages to spray water everywhere, even on the ceiling. The
flush can be flushed two ways with little symbols that we later
figured out mean "small" and "large" - talk about too much
information! And lastly, check out the little sink on the back of the
tank. When you flush, the clean water that comes in to refill the tank
first runs out automatically through a faucet so you can use that
water to wash your hands. Ingenious!

Gadget: washer/dryer

This is a gadget we dont love, but it is interesting and we are glad
to gave it. It is a single unit washer and dryer. The entire cycle
takes about 5 hours, but it is pretty nice to set it and forget it, or
go to bed. The only problem is that it doesn't really tumble dry
things, so some clothes can come out pretty wrinkled. We have found
that for pants, button down shirts, it us best to hang those in the
shower with the blowers on and let the washer/dryer dry the knit
shirts and small items. Also, this washer produces tons of lint. All
the technology in Japan and I can't believe they haven't solved this
problem by now. But in any case, we are glad to have a dryer because
they are not common and most people still hang their clothes outside
here.

Gadget: ventilation control panel

This control panel is on the wall outside of the bath/shower room.
After you get out of the bath, one push of the yellow button launches
a system of fans and blowers that completely dry the entire room. The
other button are used to pre-warm or pre-cool the room, a feature
which you can set to turn on in a certain number of hours (such as
before you wake up) or turn off in a certain number of hours. This
system also dries clothes on hangers in almost no time and keeps the
bathroom very dry and clean. Who knew ventilation could be so exciting?

Gadget: Bath Room

When Japanese people say bathroom, they actually mean bath room. If
they are instead referring to the toilet room, they say toilet...
Crazy but true.

So this is our bath room, though it is a little hard to capture in one
photo. The door to the room is a frosted glass water sealed door and
everything in the room can get wet. You can see the tub which would be
prefilled as described in my previous post.

Not so fast. You can't get in the bath yet. It is the American habit
to rarely take baths and when we do, to just hop in and stew in our
own dirt. The Japanese way is to enjoy a bath every night, but only
after first scrubbing clean and rinsing off.

You can see the silver control bar in the picture. I don't know why we
can't have something like this. With the knob on the left end, you set
the exact temperature you like, by number. We have learned that we
like it at about 42 Celsius. With the knob on the right, you can turn
on a faucet or a hand held sprayer. So easy without so much adjusting
the knob all the time. I'll miss this too.

Gadget: Bath Control Panel

This might be our favorite item in the parade o' gadgets. This control
panel is in the kitchen on the wall. There is also one in the bath
room. The label next to it shows the English translation of the
buttons. It allows you to set the water temperature for the bathtub as
well as the shower and faucets seperately. A simple push of the pink
button automatically fills the tub to your desired temperature and
keeps it at that temperature for an hour. If you don't get in right
away, a push of the yellow button reheats the bath to your set
temperature. About 2 minutes before the bath is ready, a nice Japanese
lady's voice says something which we have translated as, "time to get
naked!" but I am sure it is something much more polite. Then when the
bath is ready, it chimes a nice little song. Ah, I will miss that song.

Gadget: entertainment system

Next on the parade o' gadgets, this is not really a unique Japanese
gadget, but you knew Polk could not survive two months without a nice
TV. And the little box in the upper right is our Apple TV which feeds
us our podcast versions of the Today Show, nightly news, Weeds, Mad
Men, etc. We can also connect Polk's computer via Slingbox and get
shows recorded on our home DVR, namely the Office, Daily Show, and
Colbert. When we are not watching TV, we gave a revolving slide show
of all our photos so we see our friends and family every day. When
Winston's picture comes up, someone always says, "awww, I miss him!"

Gadget: remote climate control

Next in the apartment parade o' gadgets: each room has a remote
control for the heat/AC unit. Very handy, but we have to hide the
remotes from Trip and it took us a while to figure out what
temperature we wanted in Celsius.

Gadget: video doorbell

Last week I promised to show you the gadgetry packed into our 55
square meter apartment... So here we go on the parade o' gadgets.

This is a video screen intercom for when someone comes to the building
to visit us. Nobody comes to visit us, so we haven't really used this
one, but it is still cool.

For Emily

To Laura and Emily,

To answer your questions, yes Hello Kitty and friends are everywhere,
with loot for kids and adults, modern and traditional, inexpensive and
exorbitant. And yes, there are Hello Kitty theme parks. We did not go
there, but I did not go out of my way at all today to snap this
picture for you. Hello Kitty is indeed ubiquitous in Japan.

We love karaoke!

Ellie and Trip are really getting into karaoke. Ellie can read the
lyrics on the screen and Trip usually chimes in on the chorus. We were
a little surprised tonight though to realize that Trip knew almost all
the words to a Kelly Clarkson song.

Sushi Math

Ellie is doing her math homework - adding up our bill at the kaiten
sushi place. Who said Japan wouldn't be educational?!

Hello Kitty, Hello Christmas

I decided to start my Christmas shopping and Japanese department
stores are the place to do it. Gift wrapping and service with a smile.

Trip in Edo

Trip is pretending that his mother sent him to buy vegetables at this
shop and then he is supposed to meet her back at the river by sundown.

Imaginary Old Tokyo

Our last stop today was a very interesting little museum where they
recreated a little town meant to show life in Tokyo in the 1800's. You
could freely walk among the buildings and along the river. You could
even take off your shoes and step into the homes and shops. Polk and
I walked around for a while and then found a bench, but this place
really captured Ellie and Trip's imagination. They pretended they
lived in the town and kept themselves busy here for the rest of the
afternoon.

Japanese Garden

Today we visited a beautiful Japanese garden. I was worried it would
be too quiet and formal for the kids, but they loved the paths,
bridges, stepping stones, ducks, and carp.

Hey, who is that?

There have been so many pictures of Trip and Ellie that you may not
recognize us. Wait! Who is taking the picture? Trip did. He really
likes to take photos and has gotten pretty good at it. We brought our
old camera as the "kids camera" and he gas been practicing enough that
I let him use my iPhone to take this one.

Two Tokyo Girls

Here is Ellie with the other little girl who went into the temple for
the ceremony at the same time as Ellie.

Shichi-Go-San

That's Seven-Five-Three. Today was the festival day when children who
turned seven, five, or three in the last year go to the temple dressed
in their finest clothes. They have their picture taken, participate in
a ceremony in the temple, and get bags of goodies including long-life
candy. Ellie's kimono was not nearly as fancy as the other girls' and
apparently I didn't even have it tied quite right because a lady re-
did it for her just before we went into the temple, but we had a great
adventure muddling through the whole process and Ellie made a lot of
people smile.

Trip, by the way, is sporting a pirate tie from the Japan equivalent
of the dollar store. Also handsome.