Aug 2009

Jenny and Dave are brave souls to make a transpacific flight with a 13 month old. Evan (their son) was unfazed by this amazing feat and did not even appear to notice that he had changed time zones by 15 or so hours. After one night he was right back on track with his schedule.

We kicked off the trip with a visit to Yoyogi Park. We were racing against the clouds and lost. Unfortunately we weren't able to bounce on the sea of clouds but we did have a joyous 20 minute walk in the rain. It was warm outside so no one minded being drenched by the time we got to the car.

We spent the next day at Joyful Honda buying goodies and eating in the food court. No picture for the blog on this one.

Andrea arrived that night and was tired and ready for bed. I think she slept most of the way on the bus and was not to thrilled to have her picture taken.

We drove to Downtown Tokyo the next day to spend the night at a hotel in the area. This was my first time driving to Tokyo and it was quite hectic. The lanes are very small and there are many turns off he highway but Dave was a good navigator.

We ate lunch in Shibuya and wandered the streets causing trouble. I introduced the group to Chu-Hi and that became our staple drink for the next few days.

Here we are ordering our Ramen noodles from a machine

Beloved Chu-Hi.

Us in the noodle shop. Apparently they don't care if you bring in your own drink ( I asked)

Shibuya Crossing was not that busy today.

We hung out in Yoyogi Park for a couple of hours doing some people watching and letting Evan run around. Gotta love Yoyogi Park. The following picture of Hydrangeas is for Andrea's mom who loves them. We have been seeing them everywhere for the last few months and Quinn is really tired of hearing me say, "Andrea's mom would love this."

The next morning, Andrea and I woke up early to check out the Tsukijii fish market. I am always impressed by how many types of sea creature exist that I have never seen before.

Then we wnet to Asakasa to see Sensoji temple. This is a replica since the original one was bombed during the war.

Any one know what this building is? It is in Asakasa and is very large but we have no clue what it is about.

We met up with Jenny, Dave and Evan in the afternoon to check out the Tokyo Metropolitan Government buildings. This is a must do for all visitors. Therefore, I have been up in this thing about 8 times by now. It is still awe-inspiring.

We attempted to cover Evan up so that he would fall asleep but we just created an awesome hide and go seek game instead.

The cicadas during the summer are LOUD and HUGE.

This is a little Japanese style garden in the Roppongi area. Great spot for a little photo shoot.

We ate lunch in Roppongi at my favorite Chinese food spot. All our visitors come to Japan and we take them out for so many different types of food available in Japan. We have to remember to bring them to Japanese restaurants too.

Our favorite restaurant near hour house is called Bistro Muku. It is a French restaurant with Japanese infusion and the cutest chef you have ever seen. He bows at least 8-9 times every time we leave and they even walk you to the door to see you out. I love it here.

We spent a girls morning along the Tama River near Mitake. It was so hot that we went for a swim with our clothes on. Thanks Dave for watching Evan and giving us some girls time. It was a really nice day. We saw people fishing, kayaking, and painting. We had a little picnic lunch and meandered along the path and sometimes off the path.

That night we went out to Korean style BBQ and grilled up our food. We had quite the group and it took two grills to cook all of our food.

The next day we made another trip to Joyful Honda to show Andrea and to buy some gifts. Plus, Evan had to slurp down a few more Udon noodles.

Friday night was our last night with Jenny, Dave and Evan and it also happened to be the night of my friend Drew's Birthday party. His wife, Candice, planned a surprise Karaoke birthday party. In Japan you don't Karaoke in front of people you don't know like in a restaurant or bar. You rent your own Karaoke room for you and your friends. We had an exceptionally large room this time since there were about 20 people or so at the event. We all had such an awesome time. I can't wait to go back.

Jenny, Dave, and Evan went up to Nagano the next day for the their friend's wedding and we were sad that our time had gone by so quickly. Thanks for coming!

Mt Fuji is the largest volcano and highest point in Japan and stands at 3776 meters tall. Climbing season is from July to August and it is said to be the most climbed mountain in the world. Andrea and Quinn decided that they would like to do this hike and I was happy to stay home! The started the hike at 11pm and it took 6 hours to summit. This was mostly due to the mass amounts of foot traffic and being unable to pass in many areas. Apparently, there are a lot of bottlenecks and one is forced to wait in line as the hords of slow climbers slowly inch their way to the top. Quinn and Andrea are confident they could have made this hike in under 4 hours had they not had to wait in line. The saw the sunrise on the mountain top and proceeded to get rained on the entire climb down. They had a blast and neither of them wants to do it again.

After a day of rest we decided that we would do an easy walking tour of Yokohama. We rode the big ferris wheel, walked around China town, and saw the district where foreigners first settled when the port of Yokohama was first opened 150 years ago.

We stopped at the Red Brick Warehouses to have a snack and drink some wine. Gotta love a sushi roll with Kobe beef! The restaurant is inside the restored brick warehouses seen below.

We are sitting on beds which are the "tables" for the restaurant.

Us walking along the waterfront.

A lot of pigeons.

Really cute shopping street.

Shrine in China Town.

The next day we set out for Hakone. This is a big trip and we decided to stay overnight in a campground I found online. I was worried we wouldn't be able to find it but it is conveniently located near the bus station right along lake Ashinoko. Here we are in Gora Park in Hakone

This is a really weird flower.

As I showed in earlier posts, Hakone is known for its various modes of transportation. Here Andrea and I took the ropeway to the sulfurous area.

Hakone is known for boiling eggs in the sulfur water which turns them black. We ate the black eggs of course but the smell of the sulfur from the mountain was worse than I remember.

Here people are hiking to the top of the mountain to see the sulfurous pools

Here they are sending the black eggs down the mountain so people can buy them, eat them, and extend their life by seven years.

This is the view from the edge of the campground. It is literally right on the lake. At night they had a fireworks show that was great. They have fireworks all around Japan in the months of July and August. Some of the shows have 12,000 fireworks and last more than an hour. There were ships out on the water all lit up and there were people playing Taiko drums to accompany the fireworks display. Awesome.

Our campsite.

In front of the pirate ship that took us across the lake.

Our walk amongst the cedar trees.

We made it back from Hakone and were absolutely exhausted. We at pizza the night before Andrea left and I was sad that Andrea would be leaving the next day.

Thanks for coming friends....we miss you already!