A week and a half of Firsts!

The past 12 days have been a period of firsts for us(me)- we had our first visitor, took our first trip to Tokyo Disney, the girls tried Sushi for the first time (and kind of liked it!), went to Kamakura for the first time, I drove for the first time alone to the airport (about a 90 min drive), was told I was as "fresh as a stick of pineapple, baby", and got lost for the first time....crazy, fun 12 days, and now, I am completely exhausted!

On Saturday, May 15, our longtime babysitter from Michigan came for a 12 day visit. She was our first visitor, and had a list of things she wanted to see/do while we were here. First off, I want to say that I wasn't sure how it would be- having someone in our place for 12 days (I am pretty sure we have never experienced that before). It was wonderful! The girls LOVE Karen- she is as close as family to them, and they enjoyed every minute they got to spend with her. I enjoyed having her here- we got to tour around Tokyo during the day, and relax and chill out at night. Scott has, again, been exceptionally busy with work, and hasn't been getting home until 8 or 9 every night. It was nice to have another mediator on hand, someone to play Super Mario with the girls, help with dinner, etc. And, someone to talk to and laugh with after the kids went to bed. Overall, the visit was fantastic, and very, very tiring!!

Sunday, May 16
The girls and I took Karen to the Tokyo Tower (they couldn't wait- Maya has been talking about going to the Tokyo Tower since we moved here). The Tokyo Tower is higher than the Eiffel tower, but red and white, and not nearly as beautiful. It is kind of an eyesore, but is quite incredible when you are up close to it. At night, it is always lit up, and not always lit up the same way- it is actually prettier at night than during the day. After going up to the observation deck (which freaked me out), the elevator deposited us on top of the building under the tower, which was filled with a mini-kids carnival- a clown, silly little pointless rides, carnival games...it sucked us in for a solid 45 minutes, and the girls loved EVERY minute of it. From there, we had to go down past a few floors of shopping. I had no intentions of buying the girls anything, but then Maya made a compelling argument: "How are we supposed to have and keep our re-memories of the Tokyo Tower, if you don't buy us something to remember it by?"..ugghhh. So, I have two miniature Tokyo Towers in my hutch right now, for re-memory purposes. :) We also took her to Harajuku to see the Harajuku kids dressed up in their weird costumes (I told Karen she should take this tradition back to WMU- see if she can get any of her friends to go out and dress like cartoon characters on the weekends..she didn't think it would go over very well!), and then on to Yoyogi Park to see the Rockabilies (there were 4 "gangs" there that day- lots of 1950's people, dancing and playing the roles).



Monday, May 17
With both girls in school, Karen, my friend Pam and I headed down to Ginza, to the Tsukiji Fish market. This market is the largest fish market in the world. I will say, it is something I am glad that I have seen, but not something I really want to go back to!! It is crazy- fish, dead fish, guts, blood....got all of that in one visit! We saw more fish, and types of fish than I have ever seen in my entire life. They also have a really cool street market outside, with restaurants, shops, etc. It was a good place to visit, and a great place to take Karen (who, by the way, HATES fish!)


Tuesday, May 18


We spent the day on Tuesday at Tokyo Disneyland. I pulled both girls out of school, and the four of us headed out early in the morning. I drove, which I was quite nervous about- it was the farthest I have ever driven in Tokyo, but in actuality, it was a very simple drive, and only took about 30 minutes (YAHOO- we have a Disneyland only 30 minutes away!!) Tokyo also has a Disney by the Sea, which we didn't get to this time. Disneyland is very similar to the original Disneyland in California, and because we went on a Tuesday, it was not super crowded. The longest we had to wait was 45 min, but most rides were only about a 30 minute wait. We got on everything we wanted to, ate dinner and were home and getting ready for bed by 7pm! The weirdest thing about this Disney, is that the language of the rides and characters/songs is split- some English, come Japanese! So, for example, we went on the Buzz Lightyear ride, and Buzz spoke all Japanese...but the song on the Pirates of the Caribbean went from English to Japanese, depending on what part of the ride you were on!! The funniest part of our Disney adventure was the fact that they were celebrating an "Easter Wonderland"...at the end of May....Maya kept saying- Easter, in May?? It was very odd- the whole park was decorated in Easter (think pastels, Easter eggs, etc)-- they even had an Easter Parade!! On the Tokyo Disney website, it explains Easter as "a time where people wear bonnets, color Easter eggs, and do egg hunts"....hmmm..I am pretty sure that those are the "extra" things about Easter, and that the main point was missed somewhere in that whole explanation...seeing as most people here in Japan are not Christians, I don't think they would get the real meaning anyway!

Wednesday, May 19
I took Karen up to Asakusa to visit the Senso-ji Temple, as well as to the Meiji Shrine, near Yoyogi park. It was a great day- I actually got to enjoy the Senso-ji Temple this time (as opposed to when we took the girls there and they cried through the entire day!). I found that there were more parts to the shrine area than just that one shrine- a tomb or two, some praying stations...quite interesting! At the Meiji Shrine, we met an older college professor from the University of Texas, who was spending three weeks touring all over Japan. He was completely amazing- spoke no Japanese, was all alone and had more energy than my 4 year old...he also talked like mad, and kept finding us to "chat" us up (I am sure, happy to have a few native English speakers to talk to!). He told me some things I needed to make sure I did before I left Japan!! :)

Thursday, May 20
Thursday we had Maya's Portfolio day out at ASIJ. Instead of doing an end of the year program, they invite the parents out to actually see what the kids did through out the entire year. The kids keep portfolios of their work- including all areas- science, math, art, reading, writing, and they get to walk us through all the stuff they have learned. Maya's teacher, Mrs. Marty Olson, also put together a photo album of each child, doing special things throughout the year. Finally, the kids put on a little music program for the parents, while the teacher explained all that they have learned in Music (which, I will say, is a LOT more in depth than I ever learned in music in grade school). Maya was so very proud of all her accomplishments. It has been such a joy to see her blossom here in her Japan environment. She truly loves the school and the friends she has made, which helps so much with life in general here in Japan. I am so proud of her, and how far she has come in gaining independence, learning new things and adapting to her very strange, new environment.

Friday, May 21
I experienced a "first" that I never wanted to experience while living here in Tokyo...I got LOST. I didn't just get lost by taking a wrong turn and then figuring it out....I got lost for an hour and a half, driving around Tokyo, listening to my Navi tell me to "turn right now" as I pass the street, over and over again. Thank god I had Karen in the car, or I might still be lost!! It was an incredibly frustrating experience, but I think I got to know the city of Tokyo a bit better, so all isn't bad! To add to that experience, I had to bring Maya and a friend to a birthday party in another part of Tokyo, so I had to buck up, get back in the car and drive again, not soon after I got home from my previous adventure. I had our front desk put the address of her friend into my navigation system (phone numbers don't always work, and addresses have to be entered in in Kanji), as well as the address for National Azabu, one of the international grocery stores that I go to on occasion. Lucky for me, I had a conversation with the birthday girl's mom and for some reason, the directions to their home from the grocery store stuck in my head..because, the Navi DIDN"T work!! I was driving (with no idea where I was in relation to anything else), and it randomly says "you have arrived at your destination"!! I knew we were not even close....so I punched in the grocery store and had to figure it out from there! They were 30 min late, but they made it, right???

Saturday, May 22
Maya had another birthday party to go to at the 100 Yen park in Meiji Jingumae. The girls love this park, and it was OK if Hanna went as well. The weather was beautiful, and after, we took Karen to the Hard Rock Cafe so she could get a tshirt!

Monday, May 24
So, this was the day we had planned to go to Ueno and check out the National Museum. We got our umbrellas, trained all the way up there (30+ min), walked through the park to the museum, only to see that it was CLOSED!! UUGGHH. Because I had not done the museum type touristy stuff here in Tokyo, I did not know that all museums are closed on Mondays. We were not the only ones left to figure out what the heck to do- there were quite a few foreigners left scrambling with no agenda! So, we went to Ueno's market street, and enjoyed perusing the markets...it was here that a young, Japanese man, trying to get me to buy his wares, told me that his pineapple on a stick was "as fresh as you, baby"! I think Karen and I laughed most of the day on that one!! So, if any of you think differently, there is a young Japanese man here who thinks I am pretty darn fresh... (or his pineapples were really pretty darn stale..hmmm..I think I will go with the first option!)

We also cruised through Harajuku, as well as went Kimono shopping in Omotesando! Fun times!!

Tuesday, May 25


We went to Kamakura, home of many temples and shrines, as well as the second largest Bronze Buddha in Japan. The seated Buddha, known as Kamakura Daibutsu, was constructed in 1252, and took 10 years to complete. It is 13.4m high and weighs 121 tons. It is unbelievable and completely amazing. Maya is starting to get very interested in temples, shrines and all things uniquely Japanese. We also took them down to what is probably the worst beach I have ever been to (they didn't care- took off their shoes and went running through the water!), and concluded the day with a trip to Baskin Robbins!

Wednesday, May 26
I took Karen into Shimokitizawa, a little neighborhood right near ours, that is quite unique- lots of shops and restaurants, and we are told, a good nightlife! We had lunch at a great little Italian place, La Verde, and then headed off to Shinjuku, which is, I believe, the largest train station in the world. I have never attempted to go to Shinjuku alone, as I am a bit intimidated by it. However, we had some gift cards that I needed to trade in for cash, and that was the place I was told I had to go to do it. My front desk (once again, thank you, Mr. Ishyzaki) printed out a map of where I had to go (not a very good one, just a rough map of the train station), wrote down on the bottom in Japanese what I wanted to do with the gift certificates and the exit at the station I needed to find and sent me on my merry way. So, Karen and I get to the exit (there were levels of this exit- so we had no idea which one we were supposed to go out of), and start comparing our map to the map outside of the station. We must have looked very confused, because this elderly Japanese man, who spoke very little English, came up to me and said "help"?..I shook my head enthusiatically (at this point, I had to idea he didn't know english- the word Help sounded pretty good!), and handed him my map. He proceeded to look at the map for a solid 7 or 8 minutes, and turns to me and points and says "you, follow me, you, follow me" and proceeds to WALK us to the place!! I am telling you, the place was not right outside the station, and this man, who couldn't even communicate with us, took the time out of his day to walk us there! What an uplifting and happy experience. One thing about Japan- the people here are so very helpful- I could not picture that happening anywhere else that we have lived. What a great experience and a good feeling!

I took Karen to the airport on Thursday- another driving first for me. This experience went perfectly well, and I am happy that I did it (as hopefully, if anyone else comes to visit, I will be doing it again!)

We are getting ready to wrap up the school year here, and thus, our first 1/4 of our stay here in Tokyo. I want to say that it has been simply an AMAZING first 6 months. I think Scott, the girls and I have experienced so many different feelings and emotions, both good and bad, than we have ever had to deal with as a family before. The one thing this experience has proven to me is that we are a pretty great family unit- we have helped each other, encouraged each other, and supported each other like never before- it has defintely made our family a lot closer and stronger. Sounds cheesy, but when you are in a foreign country,especially one whose language and culture is so vastly different from your own, it is sink or swim- be flexible or be miserable (and a lot of you who know us well know how flexible by nature both Scott and I are!!). We are still working through things, and getting used to this new life we are temporarily living, but things here in Japan are good!