What's Next?: May 2012

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

The Georges in Tokyo: Ueno Park Zoo and the Tokyo Dome!

Thursday we awoke early and had some coffee and/or tea and breakfast. It was going to be a busy day. It looked to be a bit drizzly, so we put on our rain gear and decided to head out to Ueno Park and see the zoo there. Then, that evening, the plan was to head over to the Tokyo Dome and catch a baseball game. Christina's family had been to Ueno Park a couple of weeks earlier when the Cherry Blossoms were bursting and said it was amazing. She also said people were packed in to see them all and literally camped out to get good spots!

Just love this one for SO many reasons!
On the subway again!

We made our way down through the streets of houses and businesses scattered here and there to Azabu-Juban Station. Again, Jack, our subway expert, told us where we would be headed, where to get off and switch trains, and what stop we needed to get out at.

When we arrived at the Ueno Park Station, you could tell right away that this was a beautiful place. Although it was completely different than Central Park in New York, it had the same kind of feel to it. I liked it! One thing that we noticed on our way to the zoo, was that there were tarps set up off to the sides in some areas for the homeless (something we had yet to see in Tokyo).

At the zoo, we paid for our admission through a kiosk and headed in. First on our list to visit: Pandas! So cute and cool! The zoo was very clean and modern and the kids had a blast. Somewhere around lunchtime, Elliott started not feeling well. He refused to eat and even felt warm. :( Poor little guy. Adam and I ended up staying with him while he slept in my arms and the others went to explore some other parts of the zoo. When he woke up, Elliott wanted to go and see the elephants again. He seemed to be feeling a bit better, but he still didn't want any food. We went to see the elephants and soon met up with the others.

Elliott looks thrilled, huh?
I loved the "old fashoned" stroller we rented, very retro!

Such cool creatures!

It's hard work to be a panda at the zoo

Spencer and the sea lions!

Elliott loved this elephant! He was SO friendly.

I love this shot! The look on Spencer and Jack's faces is priceless!

Coming right at me!

Very cool animal indeed.

We figured we'd better get back home so we could get ready for the baseball game that night. It was beginning to become apparent that Elliott had probably better sit the game out. Deb, my mother-in-law, was more than willing to stay with him that night. I was a bit worried that he might just want his mama, but she insisted. We left Elliott and Deb behind. Elliott pretty much slept the entire time, poor little guy.

The baseball game was pretty cool. Larry found a couple of guys to take to the ballgame in the place of Deb and Elliott, however, the "big guys" soon found out they could have used the extra space in the bleachers because the seats were designed for people of "small stature" NOT Larry and Adam, for sure! ;) They managed, though.

Tokyo Dome!

Players taking the field.

The food at the game was very different from American ball game food, for example, I think we sampled the chicken on a stick, fried octopus (in a ball shape) and noodles. One perk Adam enjoyed was that our tickets came with two free beers and a beef stick. I don't know what was in the "beef stick", but even Adam and Spencer didn't like them! (So you can imagine how bad they had to have been!)

The fans were pretty hilarious: Neither team that played called The Tokyo Dome their home field, but each team brought in whole sections of bleachers that had on spirit clothing, instruments and noise makers. They had whole songs/cheers that they did in unison only when their team was up-no booing here!

The Fighters' Cheering Section

The Marines' Cheering Section

Also, another interesting quirk were the "beer girls" They were quite funny to watch. Each girl had a different brand of beer in a small keg on their back. The girls wore different brightly colored outfits (with ridiculously placed ball caps on their heads) depending on the brand they were selling. At the beginning of the game they must have had one heck of a pep talk, because they were all so peppy and bubbly, but towards the end of the night, they were SO sweaty and gross from running up and down the bleachers with the kegs of beer strapped to their backs. Hard work for sure! Bummed I didn't snap a shot of them!

Will and Larry are very into the game!

Discussing a bit of baseball

Jack and Spencer seem to be also!

Jen and Christina enjoying the game.

What a great day!

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

The Georges in Tokyo: Tokyo Tower and Zojoji Temple

After our first "night of sleep" (Interrupted by a slight play time at 2 a.m.) we decided to get up and head out to Toyko Tower. Larry (our host) was working that day and Christina had been here before and said it was a good place to visit.

"Quiet Simon Says"

The Kruses live within walking distance of two subway stations that we used to get around everywhere we decided to go that week. Pretty awesome! We walked down to Hiro-o, which was past Arisugawa park mentioned in the first post. The walk was a very nice one (downhill) and it took us about 15 minutes to get there. We had to make a stop at the Citi-Bank Branch to get our cash changed into yen, because many of the places do not accept credit and if they do there is a pretty steep transaction fee. The boys were getting a bit antsy, so we played a game of "Quiet Simon Says." Pretty hilarious!

Well, after all that we all got our fare cards, put some yen on them for our subway fare and went to wait for our train. Jack, who is seven, has apparently been obsessed with the trains and the whole subway system since arriving there in late December. I kid you not, this kid has been paying attention! He could recite the stops (and pronounce them perfectly) ahead of the voice over the intercom, tell you what stations you need to get off to switch trains to get to a specific location and beat the intercom telling people that the doors were closing soon. Really, REALLY impressive. And the "locals" really got a kick out of it too!

Waiting for our train at Hiro-o Station

Our trip on the subway was very successful, the boys behaved well, and we got to where we were going, thanks to our subway experts. Seriously, I don't know if it would have gone well AT ALL if they weren't there. The language barrier over there was much worse than I had expected. Sure, I have traveled overseas and to other countries, BUT, you couldn't phonetically figure out anything, and it seemed like the four things I could say in Japanese never would come out at the appropriate times.

There it is! 30 feet higher than the
Eifel Tower.

Tokyo Tower is a radio tower that resembles the Eifel Tower, only its orange. We all enjoyed looking around and the boys loved the fast elevator ride up, looking out over the city and the small "amusement park" a few stories up that they got to play around in for a while.

Walking to Tokyo Tower

Neat!

The boys are ready to go up!

Cool Signage

The Fam.

Looking straight down

One view

Another...

And yet another...you can see the
Rainbow Bridge in the distance. (barely)

Yay! Rides!

The big boys took the front on this ride.
Note the VERY SMALL chairs they are sitting on.

Also of note, the "BreadMan" thing on the back,
he had a cape and everything...

After we were done there, one of the landmarks that we could see from the Tower, was the Zojoji Temple. There were many buildings here and if you'd like more information about either of these tourist attractions you can visit this site I found: http://www.artisandevelopers.com/web/tokyo/ttower.htm

View of Zojoji Temple from the top of Tokyo Tower

Spencer posing in front of one of the buildings

Cool.

We explored here for a while because it was quite impressive. Apparently, it was founded in 1393 (!!!) and the main gate, which is still standing, was built in 1605. It was the only thing spared in the 1945 air raids by the U.S. The golden alter was really impressive and I wonder how much $$$ is stored there.

How much gold is this???

One thing that was really moving for me was the shrines to the stillborn children. These are statues of Jizobosatusu, the protector of the souls of stillborn children. (Apparently, its like a Buddist version of an angel) Mothers can dedicate one of these statues to a lost child and decorate it with crocheted bonnets and toys. I have known two people who are VERY close to me within the last couple of years lose children late in pregnancy and it was humbling to see how another culture deals with a loss as great as that.

A statue of Jizobosatusu decorated by a family who has lost a child before birth

I cannot say how many of these statues there were,
but they lined the whole grounds.
Thousands and thousands of them.

While there, we ran into a couple that my husband works with (another pilot and a flight attendant) who were coincidentally on our same flight over to Tokyo. We decided to try and meet up with them for dinner that night. That actually didn't end up working out, but Grandma Deb agreed to watch the boys at home while the other adults hit the town. We met Larry at a British Pub and found an excellent sushi place for dinner. Best. Sushi. Ever! YUM!!!

This trip is fantastic!

Monday, May 7, 2012

The Georges in Tokyo: Sleeping

Let me backtrack a bit...

Monday/Tuesday (Also known as the neverending day) was an EXTREMELY long day for everyone. I mean, we got up at 6ish, were on the plane at 10:30 a.m. and it was a thirteen+ hour plane ride over across the world. So technically, it was like midnight in Houston when we landed in Tokyo. Elliott got in two power-hour naps and Spencer caught a few winks, but he watched THREE movies on the flight over (yeah, I did too...I know, I know) So we were a bit rough around the edges when we landed.

And what is a great flight without someone puking? Spencer took care of that for us and puked in the airport just after landing. Coincidentally, just AFTER leaving the bathroom. Yep. Oh, well. We checked that off of our list of things to do.

So, as I said, we went to the Kruse's house and to their neighborhood park. Christina ordered some great food from a local take out place called Kiwi Kitchen (yay, New Zealand!) And being totally exhausted, decided to round up the kiddos and go to bed at about 7 p.m., which was really 5 in the morning Houston-Time. Seriously, we had ALL been up for almost 24 hours straight!!! Yeah, I am going to sleep good...

It seemed as though we had been sleeping quite some time when I hear some talking in the next room, where Spencer and Grandma Deb were staying. Elliott hears it too.
"MOM! It's Morning Time!"
"Ugh, no, Elliott, the sun's not up, go back to sleep."
"No, Mom, I hear Spencer!" So Elliott and I get up and go investigate. Spencer and Grandma are up playing and reading in Jack and Will's (our hosts' children's) room. Spencer had even gone out to get his backpack and was reading some of the books he brought. *Proud* For a moment...

Okay, I thought, I will let them play. It's probably a little early, but the Kruse kids are notorious for getting up early, so we should be okay. I decided I would check and see what time it really was. I found the clock on the oven downstairs.

2 a.m.

"Okay, boys, back to bed...It's still the middle of the night!"

Needless to say, that didn't go over very well. I could hear Spencer tossing and turning in the next room and it took about an hour to an hour and a half to get Elliott back to sleep. But we were up bright and early again the next morning. I don't think we ever slept past 6 a.m.

If anyone truly knows me, they know I am the anti-morning person. I have got to say, though, getting up early on this trip was not too bad. 5:00 a.m. is surprisingly bright and cheery! I, in fact, loved mornings over there. Maybe it's because it was really nighttime in the States? Strange and weird and it did NOT transfer back over here, so I'm thinking it was an Eastern Hemispheric fluke.

I have to say before I close this post out, The Kruses sure do know how to put their guests up! We had two whole rooms to ourselves, in fact...a whole floor of their three story house! And everyone had a comfortable bed to sleep on. (Well, Little Mr. Tooth-Grinder shared with Mom and Dad, but there was plenty of room!)

The boys all snuggled up watching a movie.
No, they all did NOT sleep here! :)

Adjusting to the time change coming back was a lot easier. The kids slept a lot on the 11 hour plane ride home, and we even went to Spencer's baseball game that night (three and a half hours later)! They did get up the next couple of nights, and it took awhile to get them back to bed the first night. But, here's what made up for it ALL:

MY BOYS SLEPT IN UNTIL 10 am (or later) ON BOTH SATURDAY AND SUNDAY!!!

Their Momma loves them.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

The Georges in Tokyo! Day One, er...or is it Day Two?

Wow! I don't even know where to start this post. So much to say, so afraid of boring people! So, I think I will break it down a bit and share a little at at time.

Here's the low-down:

Christina and I at the movies!

I have a friend who I've known for a couple of years. She has two boys who are four years apart like me. Our oldest boys were in preschool, t-ball and football together. She goes to the same gym as me. Our youngest boys are quite alike and consider themselves good friends. (The kind that fight a lot and never want to compromise, you know the kind!) Needless to say, we did a lot together and are good friends.

Well, her family up and decides to leave Houston and move to Tokyo, Japan. (Okay, so her husband got put on a project at work, by choice) Their family has been there since just after Christmas. I told her that we were going to come and visit. WE DID!

My Mother-in-law (Grandma Deb) was gracious enough to come with us, so off we went. We left on a Monday morning and followed the sun around the globe. Thirteen hours later, when we touched down, it was Tuesday afternoon! The boys did great on the flight, but really didn't nap more than a couple of hours, so...you guessed it REALLY messed up sleep schedules for the next few days!

Grandma Deb and Spencer, ready to cross the Pacific!

Elliott and Dad are ready, too!

How cool are WE. The Kruse's hired a car to take us from the airport to their house. SO fancy!

Well, we get to their house, put our bags in our room, take a tour of their ultra-cool three-story urban home and decide to head out to the park, why not? The kids are still not showing any signs of being tired...so okay, let's go! They live one block away from the beautiful Arisugawa Park. We just missed the cherry blossoms by a couple of weeks, but the park still had plenty of other beautiful trees and flowers in bloom: Check it out! (You can click on any image to see a bigger version!)