a mid-summer nights post

How is every one's Summer going? We have been busy polishing off our final Japan wish lists and soaking up every bit of our favorite Japanese things that we possibly can. We've started going out to eat more, braving our nearly two-year old and her "moods". We've added morning walks for coffee, trips to the beach and more visits with treasured friends. For awhile we thought of them as "new friends", but now they are a close kind of family. We will miss them. Oh, and we started selling our stuff - so there's that.

Enjoy these photos from our summer, thus far!

We made it up Mt. Fuji!

Evening baseball game, The Yokohama Baystars

Staycation at The Park Hyatt, compliments of our visitor, Jesse.

Zushi Beach

and...

We had a Nephew! Welcome, Henry!

Current Happenings

Check out these awesome new vending machines! Spotted at Shinagawa station.

Kitty Cafe

At long last we sought out a Cat Cafe! Thanks to our good friend Laura, who was in town for business, we found a great one in Shibuya. How hilariously brilliant is this concept? You pay for increments of time and get to sip a latte while you hang out with nearly 15 cats. It makes perfect sense for all of those people that can't have a pet in their building. Everyone loves some form of a furry animal and why not get that chance to enjoy it?! Being that I am highly allergic and we had Ella in tow, we maxed out at 30 minutes, but it was well worth my throat closing up.

As we understand it there are also bunny and dog cafes out there. Looks like we have a new mission.

Letting Up

Last weekend we left Ella with a sitter for the first time and headed into the city to see a show. Finally! Amazingly enough an old friend from high school, Kent, was traveling through Japan on tour with his band, Letting Up Despite Great Faults. Going to see them was a no-brainer. How often does that happen in your life? It only helps that they are a talented group. So, if you ever see them on the set list of your local music festival don't turn your head, you will pleasantly surprised!

Cute DJ girls.

Surprisingly enough, Kent looks identical to my brother, Nathan, beard and all...is it weird that I never recognized that?

Visit Lettingup.com to learn more about Kent's band and mates.

our baby rocks::to tokyo, again.

We had another house guest! Stephanie from Okinawa by way of Texas came to visit our new digs. We haven't seen her since our "White Trash" going away party in Dallas 2 years ago. She now lives in Okinawa where she works for the same company as Brandon. Here is how we spent our last two days. A crash course in Japan. A mix of old and new. Valuable sights it's taken us a year to discover and to combine into one day.

We started the day at Meiji Shrine. An absolutely picture perfect setting of nature, Japanese tradition and culture set in the middle of the bustling city. It's beautiful here and Sunday is the best day. Why? Because everyone gets married, that's why. We witnessed at least 5 weddings happening within the 20 minutes we were at the main shrine.

Stephanie actually recognized this Kimono as Okinawan because of the head-dress. The large white one above is what we have always seen in photos, it was awesome to see both! It seems to have been a very important family, as they had security guards clearing traffic and stopping paparazzi tourist like myself. However, they could have just sprung for the better package.

Directly across the street you can find where insanity comes to life. Harajuku. This neighborhood hosts street after street of wild n' crazy stores and people. This is where you find the "Goths" & "Lolita's" and such. Except, we saw none. Please take notice of the man below, wearing gold-fish earrings...live goldfish. I had a great full body shot until he decided to whip out a ninja kick in the middle of my click. I would have taken the time to set up another but a local complained too many Gaijin (foreigners) were blocking the street. So, since I understood - much to their surprise - I moved along.

Ella was one of the attractions. People kept stopping us to take her photo!

We picked up some Gyros from this awesome guy, who also promptly fell in love with Ella. Proceeded to find a curb and be told by an old Japanese lady that we were spilling too much food on the ground. Forgive us, we are not skilled in the ancient art of eating messy street food with a baby in tow.

And lastly, why do we have the best baby ever? Well, just look below for (the best) example 1. of millions.

Just plain passed out in the middle of chaos.

Oh! And, we went to the Buddha. Again.

Tokyo

As promised, we do more than eat. Last weekend was the rendezvous with Mama & Papa Willett. Or should I say, Nana Sue and Grandpa. The main event was obviously Ella spending time with her grandparents but we managed a few other things too. One thing we didn't do (very well) on our last trip was visit the Imperial Palace. Saturday we walked through Marunouchi-naka-dori Ave., a wonderlust of high-end boutiques, window shopping while we made our way. The Palace was as beautiful as we had imagined. There is something about standing in front of a 100+ year old gate (Japan's capitol moved from Kyoto in 1888) that guards one of the worlds only living emperor's. It creates two moments: 1. You realize how old the world really is and, 2. you realize you are so far from the United States which is really so, so young. We didn't get to do much except stare at the iron fence and bamboo gate with the Palace peaking up out of the perfectly sculpted trees. You can only enter the grounds two days a year, Jan. 2 for a New Year's greeting and December 23 for the Emperor's Birthday. On these days you can tour the grounds and stand outside the Palace hearing speeches from the Emperor and writing him letters about what you want - which he actually reads.

After the palace we walked to the Ginza to do a little more window shopping. We took Mama & Papa Willett to a little Udon noodle shop for lunch and then through a Japanese department store. Something everyone should see once in their life. The bottom floor is usually a grocery store, packed with chef's cases as far as the eye can see. Each filled with every kind of food and pastry one could imagine. Okay, you caught me. While this post wasn't about eating we did happen to visit what could be called a "food city". But we didn't buy anything! Oh wait, Yes we did.

Part III: Tokyo Disney

Wow! Disney would have been awesome if there wasn't an average wait of 180-320 minutes for every ride and the surprise sub-zero rainy weather (as exhibited by our awesome fashions a few photos below). See ya later Fast Pass. As we learned all Fast Passes run out with-in the first hour the park is open. We all collectively agreed we had never seen more people in our lives in one place. I was fully prepared to sit around with my baby belly and not ride anything - but no one else was! In fact, I started a covert operation to run around with every one's tickets gathering as many fast passes as I could before the all sold out: 2. That's right - only 2. So, the best part of our Disney excursion was looking at all of the details. In true Disney style everything was magically designed to perfection. And if you thought Disney World was the cleanest park you'd ever seen wait until you see a Disney park in Japan. It was almost creepy how clean everything was! So, while we were cold, it was fun to look at everything through our shivering eyes.

Here is a view of our Hotel. We stayed right inside the park and went to bed and woke up hearing Disney music.

King Triton's Castle! It was an attraction I have never seen before, the inside was full of kids rides. Dang! 7 Months too early! I love the Little Mermaid.

Here we are looking like a "cold mess". There is nothing good about the way Sue and I look, but we were warm! And I am publishing this photo just to show you what we are willing to put ourselves through for the Disney experience.


Tower of Terror. While I was trying to look scared it actually depicts the weather much better!

Well, it's official. I have now travel to Disney parks in three different countries. I deserve a prize!

Part II: To Tokyo

Part II: The Tokyo Cavern Club

If you must know, this event gets it's own post because it's no lie that we are obsessed with The Beatles. So, after seeing a CNN report about a year ago when researching living in Japan, we already knew that this night was happening, some way, some how. So, on our only night in Tokyo we took our parents to the ever so tame Roppongi neighborhood to hear a Japanese Beatles tribute band. By tame, I mean that it's not tame at all. For those of you from Texas, imagine 6th Street in Austin times 10.

It is designed like the original Cavern Club The Beatles first played in and the walls are covered with albums, autographs, and photos at every inch. They serve themed cocktails also! We were able to reserve a table and since we called so far ahead of time we were right in front of center stage. What makes the whole experience so insanely cool, is the band doesn't speak a lick of English, but sings every song perfectly. It was fantastic. I would definitely NOT miss this if you are ever in Tokyo!

To Tokyo

So, we have made you wait long enough! Here are a few summaries of our amazing trek across Japan!

Part I: To Tokyo

Bright and early we caught our first train out of Sasebo, the start of a nine hour journey to Tokyo! We didn't exactly know it would take nine hours, but in true Amazing Race style we stumbled upon a few moments of "what do you mean we can't take the train from Fukuoka to Tokyo?!" So, after we made all of the right connection plans and cursed the train schedule the man at the domestic travel agency had given me, we were on our way!

The Shinkansen (Bullet Train)

Upon arrival at the most amazing hotel (Westin Tokyo) we have stayed at to date we cleaned up for a wonderful traditional Japanese meal, they even had veggie sushi rolls for me and the baby! After a full night of rest(in an actual bed!) we boarded a tour bus for a half-day tour of major sites in Tokyo. We are usually very anti-organized tour, but when given one day to conquer a city that should really be given 7 days, we agreed to cave in, but just to a half day. After we disembarked from our crazy little tour guide we found our way through the Tokyo Subway to Shibuya. The sole purpose of this adventure was to a. conquer the subway system and, b. walk across Shibuya Crossing. If you haven't heard about the Tokyo Subway, it basically looks like you threw some multi-colored noodles on a plate and attached Japanese characters to particular destinations along each noodle. Also, equally intimidating is the Shibuya Crossing. This is a 5-way intersection in-which it's said 1,000 people cross each time the light changes. Although, I am now convinced from experience - it's probably more. Awesome. Well, we conquered each task with such ease and delight that we moved on to the next thing. Finding the H&M. For some big city shopping. Funny how we could find our way through a plate of spaghetti and pass safely across the street with 1,000 people but we couldn't locate a store 150meters away from us. Eventually, it happened and we successfully completed 3 things on the top of our "Must Do" list.

Outside the Imperial Palace, well a guard tower at least.

Walking through a temple market.

Shibuya Crossing in action.

Hope you have enjoyed this first portion of our trip, in the next section you get to hear all about the Beatles Club!