Leaving Tokyo

At the end of July, right after Steve came back from his trip up Fuji-san and the girls survived a guide camp and Rachel did a school camp, we packed up our little house and got ready for the next part of our trip. It was pretty crazy to be saying goodbye to the place we had come to love. It was also crazy to see how much stuff we had accumulated in four months. 

It had always been my plan to send stuff back to Australia at the point we left Tokyo, because we wouldn't need any of the big winter gear we had brought with us, or Steve's BJJ gi, or hiking stuff anymore. But there was also school things from the girls, and books I had collected for teaching materials. Not to mention the kimono.... Even after boxing up 60kgs of stuff to send off on a ship (sea mail is much cheeper than air mail!), our suitcases were still heavy. 

There wasn't much we could do about it though, so we just strapped everything in as best we could and were thankful for the wheels on the suitcases. 

It was exhaustingly hot almost every time we stepped out of the house at this point of the summer, so I switched up and did some night walks around the neighbourhood instead. So thankful for the beautiful place we had managed to find ourselves in and all the great memories we had made. 

There was again a three week run down of all our food supplies, trying to use up everything we could. Big flash backs to leaving Brisbane in March, though on a much smaller scale. Amazing to look back at those photos of us getting here. Only four months, but Steve might need a haircut now, and both girls are taller than ever. The photo above was the last time Sophie wore those overalls. She's managed to grow out of every pair of shorts she brought with her.

We rolled all the luggage to the station, things a bit more complicated by Steve's still broken hand, but not forgetting anything in the end. I was thankful we didn't pre-book our shinkansen tickets so we didn't have to stress about making the train. They come every fifteen minutes anyway, so easy to catch! 

And suddenly we are off to a new part of Japan and a new adventure. Steve is taking this next two and a bit weeks off so we can have a proper holiday before we settle in a new place for the last stint. Time continues to play tricks on us; fast one moment, slow the next. Will try to get the updates out faster so I can catch up to real time, but no promises! 

Being Tourists

Even though we feel a certain amount of mild distain towards the over tourism situation and thus tourists in general, we sometimes intentionally fall into that category. In between school, work and life, it happens sometimes. Last week, we intentionally booked a very touristy thing in Asakusa - a ninja experience and guided tour at the Samurai and Ninja Museum. It was actually nice to tell the girls that we were intentionally going to be tourists, and Asakusa is only one 20min train ride away, so just the closeness of the destination made it relaxed and fun. 

The experience itself did feel a bit slap dash, "for the tourists", but the guided tour was full of interesting information and cool things to look at. We did get to dress up as samurai and ninja, which the girls loved, and also practice our "ninja skills". 

Throwing the shuriken (throwing stars) was fun - Steve was the most successful of us, but the real highlight was trying the blowing darts. We even tried lying down and shooting. So cool! I was pretty excited to get a bullseye on my first shot, even if I didn't maintain my accuracy going on. 

At the start of May, we also went to a local festival thing at a sports centre near us. This felt much less touristy, way more local, but still lots of fun. There were sumo athletes there, traditional music performance, mochi (rice cakes) making and a stack of other stuff. 

It was cool to see the quintessential Japanese things being embraced by just every day people, not just put on for the tourists. Rachel and I had a go at pounding the rice into mochi, just like the sumo in the picture did. So much fun! 

Tsujiki: Tokyo Fish Market

Being the responsible Australian citizens that we are, Steve and I both went in to the Australian Embassy to cast our votes for the upcoming election last week. The strangest thing about voting was all the people speaking English around us. After that duty was done though, we thought we'd make the most of our trip to central Tokyo and do some exploring, so we went to visit Tsujiki. 

I'll be honest, when people say "Let's go to the fish market", I usually have the same response I did when my high school teacher suggested it over twenty years ago on my first trip to Japan; "Why would anyone want to go to a fish market?" But, we were in the area, and there has to be a reason people rave about it, so we went. 

The whole area was lots of food stalls, selling some amazingly fresh produce. I'm sure you could have visited a section with much more "straight off the boat raw fish", but we just strolled the more mainstream streets. The food looked delicious, so we stopped for some sashimi and we were not disappointed.

Like the matching phone case I made with the leftover fabric from my onigiri dress?

There were also loads of places selling wagyu beef, and Steve thought he'd get a piece to take home for Sophie. We've been really proud of the way the girls have been trying and eating all the new things provided at their school lunch (come back next week for that post!), so we wanted to get them something each they'd love to eat. I went off to get some salmon sashimi for Rachel, but the beef that Steve bought for Sophie got put straight onto a grill for us to eat immediately. A somewhat expensive accidental miscommunication, but one we didn't regret because the wagyu was phenomenal. 

We then successfully bought a larger piece to enjoy for dinner. So delicious. Rachel was happy with her salmon which she made into nigiri with some rice. 

 

I couldn't get any photos of Sophie enjoying her wagyu, because she ate it so fast, but loved every minute of it. Happy little carnivore.

Japan 2024: Part 2

Welcome back for Part 2! If you missed out - you can read about Part 1 here. 

Day four and our first full day in Tokyo, we went to Shinjuku to pick up some train tickets for the next day, and then wandered around. Sophie had a dream of getting Pokemon display things while in Japan, so Steve looked up an anime hobby store and we trekked there in the drizzle to search for her. Anime in Japan can be quite overwhelming, and all we know or like about it barely scratches the surface of what is available and out there. Sophie was successful in finding some well priced Pokemon so she was pretty happy with her morning. 

We then continued on to Harajuku for an explore around. Harajuku is a bit of a weird place, and the weather continued to be very meh (drizzle rain making for lots of umbrellas crowding the street and making it super hard to move), but we enjoyed it. We'd actually eaten so much for lunch that we didn't feel hungry enough for crepes when we got there, much to my horror. Who comes to Harajuku and doesn't get crepes?! 

The girls spotted a cat cafe they were desperate to go into, so while Steve took them there, I drifted down to a second hand store I'd noticed and found some kimono gear for cheap. I picked up a cool new obi and a yukata there. Trying to moderate and pace myself with just these two purchases; it's only day four after all. In the end, we did stay long enough in Harajuku to grab a crepe before riding the Yamanote loop line back to our place. 

Before going home, I met up with a friend of mine from high school at the train station. It was really great to see him even just for a half hour at a Starbucks before he had to go off to Chinese lessons. I had packed some omiyage (souvenirs) from Australia to give him, but then forgot to bring them with us on our big day. Steve, champion that he is, took the girls back to our apartment in the rain and then raced out again to bring the gifts back before my friend had to go. 

With the rainy weather outside, we opted to stay in for dinner, so I made a round of curry rice for everyone. The local convince store (called mai-basuketto which translates pretty directly to "My Basket") was a bit like a tiny grocery store and had everything we needed. We had been eating breakfast at home too, since our Tokyo place had a mini kitchen. Lots of thick Japanese bread toasted in the frypan on the induction stove and eggs for the girls while Steve and I enjoyed melon-pan and other convince store delicacies. 

The grey skies continued the next day, but we had an early morning and were on the Romance Car Train from Shinkjuku to the Hakone region for the day. We covered a lot of ground this day, and in hindsight would have been better off staying for a night in the district, but it is what it is. Even though we spent most of the day traveling, we really enjoyed things because it was a bit of a slower pace. The girls packed their bags and read books on the longer train stretches and I had a hand sewing project that I was working on too. 

When we got to Hakone, we did a cable car and then a sky rail up and over the mountains to Lake Ashi. At the lake we took a pirate ship ride around which was just so much fun. 

Too bad it was absolutely freezing and we couldn't spend more time outside. Still, just cruizing around the lake was lots of fun. We saw this red torii gate across the lake, but unfortunately it was too cloudy to see Mt Fuji at all. 

They were really embracing the pirate theme at the restaurant on the lake. We had skewers of meat and veg on sword shaped skewers (Rachel wanted to take ours home) and Steve had a beer in a barrel mug. Not a beer to get again, but a fun experience none the less. 

Steve did pick up the first of his souvenirs this day too, in the form of some locally brewed craft beer from the Hakone region, a place called Gora. Carried them home safely and enjoyed them over our nights in Tokyo. 

We made it back into Tokyo around six and met up with Sarah, her Stephen and Hugo for dinner. The cousins were happy to see each other and we had shabu shabu together. This was a really filling and delicious dinner. Japanese places aren't really equipped for "large groups" so we had the kids at one table and the four adults at another. I was a little nervous leaving the kids alone with the hot pot in the middle, but they did a great job of cooking for themselves. 

Rachel and Sophie are pretty used to this meal, since we have it at home at least once a month, and even though Sophie isn't as good with the chopsticks, the challenge of looking after cooking things herself really levelled her up. Us adults had sukiyaki flavour and yuzu (my fav!) as well as the kombu.  Delicious! Home to bed and sleep because the next day (still counting? We are up to day six right?) we went to Disney Sea! 

I love Disney Sea. It's just such a fun place. I love the balance of things to look at and do in-between the rides. I remember there being more shows, but I think Covid must have had an impact on that, which is to be expected. Overall though, we had a much better day here than we had at Universal Studios (though that wouldn't have been too hard really :P).

Knowing we wanted to spend most of the day there and the evening for the lights and fireworks shows, we thought we would take it easy in the morning and arrive later than the opening time. I'd been keeping an eye on the wait times on rides the previous two days via the app and it seemed to be pretty manageable and consistent, so we didn't feel that it would impact us too much to get there closer to ten than nine. 

In the end, we were up and ready to go, so we arrived just after nine anyway. We'd read that you weren't allowed outside food in, so we didn't pack, but we wish we had. Not that the food inside was outrageously expensive, but it would have been nice to have some healthier options to snack on in-between the meals (like the carrot sticks and apple slices I'd been taking on our previous days). 

One of the best things for the girls about Disney Sea was that they got to see their cousin Hugo again. Having other people there with us really did make the day easier and more fun. The kids could spend lots of time in line without complaining when they were all together, because they entertained each other quite happily. Having extra people also meant it was easier to split up and do rides and not have to worry about looking after kids so much. Disney Sea also has a great fast pass type system for rides and often a single rider line so you can skip queues pretty easily, or at least make them significantly shorter. 

I remembered the Aladdin area being really fun, but lots of it was closed sadly. I'm guessing they are preparing to re-design it for another Disney brand (Encanto maybe?) We spent loads of time in the Little Mermaid section because there is this excellent playground there with loads of things to explore and the kids just had lots of fun playing together. Sophie told me we could have left the three kids there to play for days and they would have been happy. 

There was a main show at 7:15pm that was staged on the main lake/water area in the park. They put out four huge barges that lit up and people danced and sang from, as well as a main light/screen/fireworks thing in the middle and the pirate ship from Peter Pan sailing around too. Everything lit up and hearing the classic Disney songs is just so fun. The girls had a great time, even though I was singing along to most things. 

That show ended up being so great we didn't really bother hanging around for the 8:30 fireworks, but just decided to head home. It had already been a long day for us and the kids and we had enjoyed ourselves immensely. 

Our next day was a chilled morning at home and then onto the train to visit my homestay family. I was so excited to be seeing them after 18 years. Steve had seen my homestay dad in 2017 when they met up in the States, and we had seen Kana in 2013 when Sophie was born, but all of them together - and my homestay mum and brother - it had really been a long time! 

We had such a delightful lunch together. My homestay dad was just the same, joking with me about how we had brought such horrible weather and now the BBQ plans had to change. 

He and Steve cooked outside while my homestay mum, Kana, the girls and I chatted inside and ate all the food. Sophie was delighted about how much meat there was, and Rachel couldn't wait for the veggies. 

The girls were a little shy at first, but they warmed up when my homestay mum produced a pack of origami paper. They quickly set about showing all they could do and creating origami to fill the whole table. My homestay brother, Yuta, dropped in briefly with his two girls (3 years and 1 year old). They only live a few mins walk away, but his younger daughter wasn't a happy camper, so they left again. It was a little weird to see a guy I remember mostly as a fairly awkward 15 year old come in with two children (wearing the baby carrier and everything!). Changes everywhere!

After we ate, Rachel showed off her balloon animal making skills and impressed everyone. Then my homestay family's lovely, if somewhat excitable, golden retriever, Amelie, came out to show us her tricks. She was very good and delighted the girls, but did take a while to settle down. 

Then it was suddenly over and we had to think about going. I had mentioned that we were not super prepared for the cold weather (no singlets for the girls and only a thin jacket for me), and that we would need to stop at a Uniqlo tomorrow to fix things. My homestay family immediately insisted on driving us to get decked out at their local Uniqlo, which was very handy. Then they drove us to visit another friend of mine who lives in Abiko. 

Saying goodbye was so sudden again and it really made me miss my Japanese family so much more. Even though I knew our time would be short, it had been so wonderful to be together again. 

We had dinner with my friend Michiko, who made us some delicious karaage which was sadly hard to eat because we were so full from the BBQ lunch we'd had. Again, it was beautiful to spend time with a long time friend. I've seen Michiko slightly more frequently than my homestay family because she's made a couple of trips to Australia in the last 15 years. She has unquenchable energy and love for life. 

Back into Tokyo with us on the train (I don't think I could ever get sick or riding on such efficient modes of transportation) and to bed for another night. 

Can't even remember what day we are up to of the trip, but it's now Sunday which is exactly a week after we left Australia. We enjoyed a sleep in and another great breakfast of eggs and toast. This was the last day of catching up with friends of mine from when I lived in Japan 20 years ago. 

Haruka was probably my closest friend from my time at high school in Japan, since we were in the same class and caught the same train to school each day. I haven't seen her since she came to our wedding in 2008, so it was really great to see her and meet her little four year old son, Toru. 

We met at a big park in Shinjuku, which we thought we could just walk through, but with Cherry Blossom season in full swing, the park was actually ticketed access only! We stood at the entrance reading the sign (both English and Japanese) that told us all the tickets were sold out for today wondering what we should do, when a group of obaasan (grandmas) walked past and told us that since we had kids with us, we'd be able to get in at the main gate. Knew we had those kids for a reason!

Anyway, we trekked down to the main gate and the security guards there saw our kids and waved us through. We adults still had to buy tickets, but the kids got in for free. Once in, we walked around admiring all the stunning flowers. The weather was finally warm and sunny (after four days of cold and grey and rain) and it was a beautiful day. 

Rachel was pretty happy trying to find all the different types of blossoms listed on the information flyer we got. Sophie was happy when I was catching Pokemon. Haruka's little boy, Toru, ran around everywhere asking "Where will we play?" which was pretty hilarious but understandable since there was no playground anywhere. We only stayed for about an hour or so before we knew it was time to wander out and find somewhere for lunch. 

Haruka told me that Toru didn't love rice, but would eat anything noodle related, so we ended up at a spaghetti place. Sophie was pretty happy to eat something not Japanese for a change, and it was delicious pasta. I had asparagus and bacon while Steve had a carbonara. Girls and Toru had spagbol. Rachel used her last two balloons at the restaurant to make a trumpet turtle armband and bird on a swing for Toru. 

All too soon time to say goodbye, so we wandered off to explore a bit more of Shinjuku (also known as "find the second hand kimono stores".) I found a good kimono place pretty quickly and got a few things (I think a haori, yukata and two packs of fabric off-cuts (one for Rachel!)). The girls got bored so Steve took them for a little walk up and back the street. I think we ended up finding one more hobby store for Sophie to get some more Pokemon in before we started feeling like needing a break. 

We did see Godzilla doing some roar-ing above the buildings of Shinjuku on the hour. 

Then I ended up taking the girls home and Steve took a train to explore Akihabara (Electric Town) for a couple of hours. This was the first time we really split up, and since we only had one wifi, it was somewhat risky, but we were pretty confident with the trains (particularly the Yamanote Loop Line) and the way home at that point that it was fine. I needed to do some washing and spend some time at the coin laundry drying everything anyway. 

We had dinner that night at a Katsu restaurant near our local station that was delicious, and let the girls explore the 100 Yen store there where we picked up some fun Japanese things. 

Last full day in Tokyo and we hit Asakusa early in the morning. Again, early was the right choice to miss the crowds. It did get busy pretty quickly, but we spent a couple of hours there eating lots of street food and just enjoying looking around at all the old-new mix of things that is Japan. 

Rachel's favourite thing was these candied fruit (like a toffee apple, but way more fruit options. I would rate the strawberries!) and Sophie loved the detour we took to find her some curry pan (curry bread) that turned out to have surprise cheese in it. 

I left Steve with the girls for a bit to visit another kimono shop and came back with my first ever hakama (skirt/pants to wear with kimono), a men's obi and some obi-jime. The shop I went to was hard to find on the third floor above another random shop and a sukiyaki restaurant. The guy inside was also very disinterested in me which was a complete 180 from the excellent service I'd had in Shinjuku the previous day. Still, a successful shop.

While Sophie was eating her curry-pan, Rachel and I looked in the shop across the street and she made a purchase of a small wooden cow daruma. The one in the shop was sitting on a flat cushion that you could also buy, but Rachel told me she could just sew her own, especially since we'd gotten fabric from the second hand kimono store and I had my housewife with us for the trip. 

After that, we walked over to the Skytree tower, even though it was booked out and we couldn't go up, it was still a fun walk and interesting to see. The walk over was fun too, because we found more cherry blossom trees and walked over a bridge, so we got to watch the blossoms falling into the water for a bit too. 

I think lunch that day was in a food court type place with lots of different places you could get food. Steve and I had tempura and cold udon noodles, Rachel got a bowl of raw salmon on rice and Sophie had karaage. 

We went to the Pokemon Centre in Skytree, and while the girls lingered for a long time, Sophie especially considering purchase options, we walked out without anything. 

Now it was my turn to adventure on my own while Steve took the girls home for the rest of the afternoon. I went off to Nippori to visit Fabric Town. 

It was actually very strange to be there because after a very busy Asakusa and Skytree, which were both packed full of tourists, Nippori was practically empty. The fabric stores had customers, both tourists and locals, but it was comparatively a ghost town. I had fun looking through the fabric and trying my best to be reasonable about things. 

One thing I did find was that I'm not great at shopping by myself for fabric, because I like to have someone else's input. Good thing that I had the wifi, and when Steve got back to our holiday place, he also had wifi. Though the fabric was so cheap, compared to Australian prices, I was pretty careful about the purchases, knowing that we still had another week of carting all our luggage around and whether I liked it or not, fabric is heavy! 

My only disappointment here was that I couldn't get any kimono fabric. I found only once place that had a potential bolt, but it was on the more expensive side. Steve was advocating for me to get it and have no regrets, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I left with some pretty fabric and hope for our time in Kyoto to deliver a bolt of kimono fabric for me. Stay tuned for what I make with the pretty pretty fabric!

Our last night in Tokyo we had dinner from mai-basuketto again. Sophie was feeling pretty over the choices (since the only onigiri she would eat was the plain rice, I can kind of understand her being over that food choice), but we found some frozen gyoza for her that I cooked up on the stove at home. Whew! Here is a photo of Rachel with her choice.

Yes, she had a bowl of raw salmon for lunch, and also raw salmon and king fish nigiri for dinner. I think she could live here quite happily; just saying. 

We spent the night repacking and shuffling bags around. Our purchases (mostly my slowly growing kimono acquisitions and fabric) had warranted a reshuffle of the suitcases. We had strategically packed two duffle bags in our suitcase for this purpose and one of them came out now. I'd be hoping to put it off, but it was the right choice to balance things out and make sure nothing was too heavy. 

The next morning we'd be off on an adventure to another part of Japan, but I think this post is probably already long enough, so I'll sign off until then. Thanks for reading!