Day 1: Longest Day Ever! It began early, like 5 am or something, as we loaded up and headed to the airport. After all the airport rigmarole, we were on our way to Hawaii. When we arrived, it felt like late afternoon, but it was only noon on the Islands. Seven hour layover?
So we visited Pearl Harbor!
It was a beautiful monument! And came along with lots of great history!
(P.S. Please note, because of this adventure, lil' Eddie did not nap.)
And then! We're off! Boarding a jet plane!
Late evening we left Hawaii with one bonkers toddler--we're talking uber slap-happy! The goal was to keep him awake as long as possible because our arrival time in Japan, after an 8 hour flight, was only 11:00 pm, so the goal was to jump-start his acclimation to the time difference. We ate. We played. He had a major meltdown. He crashed. Not bad. Not bad at all, this kiddo wins the medal for traveling toddlers, hands down!
Whew! So we're off to an adventuresome start! Touch down at Haneda airport. Little mister was obviously awake for the airport and customs, he's too curious to sleep through that. A little wait for our hotel shuttle, during which I was desperately trying to force food into Eddie's stomach so he wouldn't wake up hungry once we all finally crashed at the hotel.
And what a hotel! I'm sure it's been said somewhere by someone before, but Japan wins the prize for beautiful, well-designed efficiency.
Here's our room.
Photo taken just inside the doorway in the (very) narrow hallway.
Bathroom was to the left. Super small, but still had the shower and sink separate from the toilet, a must (and let me just insert, I THINK THAT'S BRILLIANT! Why would you want to brush your your teeth and wash yourself where you just flushed away all the yuck?). The picture may lead you to believe that way down at the end where the bed is, the room gets wider. Barely. Hardly at all. But they still managed to fit in a table back there (to eat your rice at, that counter midway on the left was the kichenette complete with rice cooker, of course). Wow! What a feat! For being so small, it was comfortable and had more amenities than we needed. But enough of the hotel review. The important thing was sleep. After such an incredibly long day chasing the sunset across the world, it felt so good to lay down in a bed! And Eddie did sleep several hours straight! Mission accomplished! We awoke rested!
Food was one adventure after another! To be expected, but what I didn't expect was how much I'd love the food. Me. The one who'd never even really had Japanese food, sushi included, until I was brought into the Sauder family!
I ate that.
That thing, the one staring back at the camera. It was actually delicious!
And this. Yep. Even the flowers and greens.
(As you can see, presentation is half the battle.
If it looks that pretty, anything is worth at least trying.)
The one thing I didn't love.
Mochi. Just saying it makes me gag. It's just that I don't do super chewy.
And this is super-duper-duper-lump-in-my-mouth-why-can't-get-this-swallowed chewy.
Did I mention the above pictures were all part of one meal? An eight course meal. It lasted 2 and half hours. Two and half hours of very quiet, very formal dining consisting of foods Eddie could not/would not eat. How did he do? FANTASTIC! He sat at the table the whole time, ate the few snacks I had packed in his diaper bag, and played with one small bag of toys the whole time. Miracle child. Or just plain miracle, one could say.
This next food experience was wonderfully memorable as well!
The restaurant, consisting of numerous small traditional huts, private rooms,
was surrounded by gorgeous gardens--put the Huntington to shame!
First we just walked around oohing and ahhing!
Fish!
This is the view looking from the gardens into our dining hut.
Tatami floor, of course, but we didn't have to dine sitting our our
knees with our legs falling asleep, they had "western-style" chairs for
us to sit in.
The main course was brought out as raw chicken and vegetables on skewers
to be cooked over the coals placed in the center of the table.
It was an epic evening! So beautiful, so delicious, and wonderful company too!
Other eating adventures...
Crazy crepes!
Never ingested so much whipped cream in one setting in my life.
Haha! And this one! Good story!
Shortly after we arrived and were settled into our accommodations at Shioda church, we were struggling with some jet lag, feeling hungry at odd times, and I was feeling a bit queasy from the lack of sleep and long drive from the city out into the country. So when someone stopped by bearing Pizza Hut, we were thrilled! It sounded delicious! Hit-the-spot material! Even Eddie was chanting "pizz, pizz!" Until we opened it. One was topped with seaweed. No joke. The other sported mayonnaise for the sauce, and corn and potatoes for topping. Umm. No thanks! Some brave souls tried it, even enjoyed it. I was not one of them!
Let's see. Other adventures...
Meiji Shrine
We took off one afternoon, just us 4 to do some exploring of Tokyo.
(Jonathan did a stellar job navigating Tokyo's intense train system,
hence why it went smoothly and we didn't get lost!)
Jonathan spent one day meeting up with some work connections and ended up sampling this guy's sushi which he heard about through an NPR feature. He's a true chef, wants you to get the best tasting sushi, which means it can't sit at all, even for a few seconds. He told Jonathan to use his fingers if he wasn't adept enough at chopsticks--anything to get the sushi into his mouth while it was still fresh!
Not pictured, for obvious reasons as you'll soon understand, was our delightful evening at the onsen. It's a public bath. Uh huh. As in, you go in, men go one way, women go the other, you undress, down to your birthday suit (appropriately, we went on Mom Sauder's birthday), and bathe with a bunch of other people. Sounds weird. It's cultural, folks. When in Rome... It was a little strange, but that sort of faded as you felt the glorious hot spring mineral water! For all the weird, we wished we didn't have to leave and talked often throughout the trip of how much we wished for another free day to spend at an onsen.
Dipped our toes in the other side of the Pacific!
(The beach was black sand, hard to tell from photo.)
What do you think? Christmas card worthy?
These crazies went to the zoo. Ask 'em about it!
Hottest, most humid, sticky, sweltering day, I've ever experienced.
(And I lived in Mexico in the summertime in rainy season without air conditioning.)
Seriously. Never been so hot in my life.
Usually, you can't get Eddie out of the stroller, he loves it. Not this day, it was too hot. He was a sweaty, miserable little boy!
Adventures by train:
Adventures by car:
These narrow ally ways are meant for 2-way traffic!
Yikes! Way to go, Dad Sauder, our faithful chauffeur!
Visiting the tallest tower in the world!
This guy. That double chin.
(Oh, and the glass floor that one is supposed to be scared to walk on? He laid down on it. Just laid down. Didn't want to get up.)
Senso-ji Temple
We are very sweaty here.
Odawara Castle.
Couldn't go inside as it's being refurbished, or whatever they do to thousand year old castles.
But the greatest adventure of them all...da da da daaaaaa!
Oh, but surely you're all tired of reading this extremely long post. I'll have to save that one for another day...
