Visitors in Japan

Highlights of Japan also include visits with friends and family from Australia. These have been fun and provided much delight for everyone. The girls particularly have enjoyed showing off their Japanese in these situations, which has been a bit of a confidence boost when they have been feeling overwhelmed in Japanese school. They often feeling like they aren't getting anywhere, then just in time, a friendly face comes along to be appropriately in awe as the girls use their Japanese to talk, order things at shops or read the kanji on the train maps. 

Our first international catch up was with my friend from uni, who I've talked about already. We also managed to catch up with another of my uni friends who has moved around so often since uni that this might have been the first time I'd seen him in 16 years! That was a lot of fun having dinner with him and his kids at a random Saizeriya restaurant in Saitama which was a halfway point for both of us on the train line. 

Then my uncle from Sydney flew in for a week. I'd actually just started my language course in Saitama, so the timing was a little less than perfect, but we managed to catch up three times while he was here and have a great time. There is lots to do in Tokyo, so he didn't languish without us. 

I first saw him in Ginza after we had come down for a cultural experience in Asakusa. It was a cold and rainy day, so we just did shopping and then found a delicious noodle place for dinner. Warm soba was just what the weather called for. 

Ginza isn't an area we have frequented too often, so catching the train home from there in the evening was even fun. Can't believe this was the view from the station platform. 

Then on the Friday night, I dashed home to grab the girls and head back out to meet UJ for dinner together in Asakusa. I knew I wanted him to try some monja, since it's so unique. Lots of fun! 

The girls got given small toys from the box at the restaurant.

We also wandered around Asakusa, which was much less crowded in the evening as the shops closed up, but none the less vibe-y and fun. Even the closed shops were fun. And there was no ridiculous crowd here and no waiting to get a picture with the iconic kaminari-mon (Thunder Gate). 

Of course we also took photos with our favourite Tokyo landmark; Skytree. 

Then, Saturday morning, we all took a trip to Skytree together, this time actually going all the way to the observation deck to see the city from the sky. It was especially cool when we could locate our little corner of Tokyo (defined by the surrounding rivers) and know we lived down there. 

I loved the use of the Japanese motif asanoha, which was on the uniforms, on the mascot and on the ceiling. It was interesting to see it in different places with new parts of the pattern highlighted. It almost made it a new design each time. 

Skytree - so tall!

We visited the pop-up Ghibli store to see Totoro and the girls made spontaneous badge purchases. 

Lastly, we had a delicious sushi lunch at one of the restaurants "downstairs" which was on level 6 of the shopping complex that is at the foundation of the tower.  

Then off on a train to the airport went my uncle, and home we went for the evening. If anyone else is wanting to come visit, we won't say no! 

Shibamata and Monja

Quite close to where we live is a little neighbourhood called Shibamata. It's a pretty quiet place, but the Main Street from the train station is full of shops with older style Japanese architecture. They are also selling lots of traditional food - mochi and red bean galore, as well as all kinds of rice crackers and seaweed. 

It's a fun place to stroll around and take in - especially because it's not over filled with tourists. I met my friend Michiko there back in May just before I started attending the language course in Saitama and we had a good time exploring. Down near the river there is a Tora-san Museum, which we went to. Tora-san is a Japanese movie character from the 50s. He is in 48 different movies (all with a different female lead called "Madonna") actually played by the same actor for all of them. The museum was all in Japanese, but there was lots to look at and dioramas of traditional Japanese houses, movie sets and more to see. 

After this, Michiko asked where we should go for lunch and asked if I'd ever had monja before. I'd actually never even heard of it, so we did a quick google and found a place to go. Monja (or monja-yaki) is the Tokyo version of the much more well known okonomiyaki from Osaka (Hiroshima have their own okonomiyaki version too). It's the same kind of ingredients - cabbage and a batter with your choice of meat and flavours that you get to cook on the hot plate at the table. Instead of coming out like a big pancake though, monja batter is super runny and soft, so you scrape it off the hot plate bit by bit.

It was so different, strange at first, but really delicious. We had the kind with roe (fish eggs), mochi and cheese. I was so interested to see how the mochi (usually a sweet, dessert type food) would turn out, but it was amazing. Super thankful to Michiko for thinking to see if I'd had it before - honestly can't believe I haven't. Then again, my homestay mum from when I lived in Japan for a year in 2004, came from Osaka, so she only ever made Osaka style okonomiyaki at home. 

A whole new world of monja opened up, so when my Uncle visited from Sydney a week or two later, I took him and the girls to a monja restaurant in Asakusa for dinner (post coming soon!). We tried a curry beef flavoured one there too. Steve, who had been sick, and I got to have monja together in Shibamata when the girls were at guides one Sunday. 

We will be back to Shibamata one more time before we leave Tokyo in a few weeks, but I don't think we will have monja. We are going to see the fireworks festival by the river so hopefully will enjoy street food and kakigaori (shaved ice). So long as it doesn't rain!