Rakuten Open 2011

On Thursday, October 6th, Scott and I joined our friends Kim and Ken Graham at the Rakuten Open Men's professional tennis tournament. We had fantastic weather (almost too hot for sitting outdoors all day), and had the chance to see David Ferrer (ATP rank #6), Rafael Nadal (ATP rank #2) and Andy Murray (ATP rank #4) play and the tennis was fantastic. They all won, and all but the last match was pretty close. Nadal's opponent, Milos Radnic had a serve of about 140  miles an hour- Nadal rarely returned it, which is why the match was so close. What a fantastic day!

In front of the Rakuten Open 2011 sign

Rafael Nadal

Showa Kinen Park

We went for the third time to Showa Kinen Park in Tachikawa, Japan. This is the girls FAVORITE park. It is an old U.S. Military base that was turned into a beautiful park with great biking trails, ponds, mini-golf, paddle boats and a wonderful children's play area.

Girls on Dragon

Toray Pan Pacific Open 2011

With Joey Gibson, Dawn Grespan and Kelly Hadden

I had the opportunity to spend the day with friends watching some great women's tennis at the Toray Pan Pacific Open. We had the chance to see the number 4 women's player in the world, Victoria Azarenka play (and handily beat) Irina-Camilia Begu. We also saw Agnieszka Radwanski beat Angelique Kerber, Ana Ivanovic beat Laura Robson and Julie Goerges beat Greta Arn. The weather was partly sunny and mid-70's- a perfect day for watching tennis!

Victoria Azarenka: Someday, I will look like this...NOT!

Victoria Azarenka: Someday I will look like this...NOT!

Next week, October 6th, Scott and I, along with our friends Kim and Ken Graham, are heading to the Rakuten open where we will hopefully see Rafael Nadal, Andy Murry and Mardy Fish (among others- had to put in the highest ranked American playing!) play.

Kyoto- Happy 11th Anniversary!

Our Wedding Anniversary is September 23, and this year, we celebrated 11 married years (16 years together) by taking a kid-free weekend trip to Kyoto. Kyoto is about 2.5 hours away, by Shinkansen (bullet train- my first time on the bullet train!). The girls stayed with our family friend, and Hanna's former Preschool teacher, Kana Otsu. They love her and had such a fun weekend. Kyoto is a very historical city, with a TON of shrines and temples, and a place everyone says is a "must see" while you are here in Tokyo.

Kyoto (京都, Kyōto) served as Japan's capital and the emperor's residence from 794 until 1868. It is now the country's seventh largest city with a population of 1.4 million people and a modern face. Over the centuries, Kyoto was destroyed by many wars and fires, but due to its historic value, the city was dropped from the list of target cities for the atomic bomb and spared from air raids during World War II. Countless temples, shrines and other historically priceless structures survive in the city today.

We trained out early Saturday morning, arriving in Kyoto around 10:30am. We stayed at the Hyatt, where we were allowed to check in right away (how many times does that happen?). Saturday, we visited one Shrine, one Temple and went down to the Gion (old city) district that night, in hopes of seeing an actual Geisha (which we didn't)!

The first shrine we went to was the Fushimi Inari Shrine. This was the Shrine I most wanted to see and was not disappointed. I was very glad that the girls didn't come, because we walked gradually uphill for over an hour to get to the top of the Torii Gates!

Torii Gates at Fushimi Inari Shrine

Fushimi Inari Shrine (伏見稲荷大社, Fushimi Inari Taisha) is an important Shinto shrine in southern Kyoto. It is famous for its thousands of vermilion torii gates, which straddle a network of trails behind its main buildings. The trails lead into the wooded forest of the sacred Mount Inari, which stands at 233 meters and belongs to the shrine grounds.Fushimi Inari is the most important of several thousands of shrines dedicated to Inari, the Shinto god of rice. Foxes are thought to be Inari's messengers, resulting in many fox statues across the shrine grounds. Fushimi Inari Shrine has ancient origins, predating the capital's move to Kyoto in 794.

Scott and I

From there we ended up going to an Irish Pub, called the Gael, that I had read about on Lonely Planet, and it did not disappoint. The food was delicious, and we had the chance to drink a few beers and watch some rugby- Scott actually said if that and the shrine were all we did, it would still be an awesome day. From here, we continued on to the Kiyomizu-dera temple. This temple was VERY old and had a lot of really neat things to look at and many places to place your prayers (including a Love Stone- if you were able to walk straight from one love stone to the other, your love would last forever!).



Kiyomizudera (清水寺, literally "Pure Water Temple") is one of the most celebrated temples of Japan. It was founded in 780 on the site of the Otowa Waterfall in the wooded hills east of Kyoto, and derives its name from the fall's pure waters. The temple was originally associated with the Hosso sect, one of the oldest schools within Japanese Buddhism, but formed its own Kita Hosso sect in 1965. In 1994, the temple was added to the list of UNESCO world heritage sites.

Kiyomizu Temple

That night, we went down to the Gion District of Kyoto hoping to see an actual Geisha. Unfortunately, we did not. :( But the area was old and beautiful and definitely nice to walk around at night. We also toured around that general area, walking down by the river, through small, extremely crowded streets packed with restaurants and back home for dinner of Sashimi, Sushi rolls, donburi bowls and beer!

Gion (祇園) is Kyoto's most famous geisha district, located around Shijo Avenue between Yasaka Shrine in the east and the Kamo River in the west. It is filled with shops, restaurants and ochaya (teahouses), where geiko (Kyoto dialect for geisha) and maiko (geiko apprentices) entertain. Gion attracts tourists with its high concentration of traditional wooden machiya merchant houses. Due to the fact that property taxes were formerly based upon street frontage, the houses were built with narrow facades only five to six meters wide, but extend up to twenty meters in from the street.

On Sunday, we started the day visiting the Nijo Castle. The castle was very old and squeaky - the floors were made to squeak whenever walked on to detect enemies if they were somehow able to get into the castle- very cool. The grounds were beautiful, and gardens gorgeous.

Gardens at Nijo Castle

Nijo Castle (二条城, Nijōjō) was built in 1603 as the Kyoto residence of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first shogun of the Edo Period (1603-1867). His grandson Iemitsu completed the castle's palace buildings 23 years later and further expanded the castle by adding a five story castle keep. After the Tokugawa Shogunate fell in 1867, Nijo Castle was used as an imperial palace for a while before being donated to the city and opened up to the public as a historic site. Its palace buildings are arguably the best surviving examples of castle palace architecture of Japan's feudal era, and the castle was designated a UNESCO world heritage site in 1994. Nijo Castle can be divided into three areas: the Honmaru (main circle of defense), the Ninomaru (secondary circle of defense) and some gardens that encircle the Honmaru and Ninomaru. The entire castle grounds and the Honmaru are surrounded by stone walls and moats.

After the Nijo Castle, we ended our Kyoto weekend by visiting the Kinkakuji Temple, otherwise known as the Golden Pavillion. The temple was beautiful and definitely a great picture!

Kinkakuji (金閣寺, Golden Pavilion) is a Zen temple in northern Kyoto whose top two floors are completely covered in gold leaf. Formally known as Rokuonji, the temple was the retirement villa of the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, and according to his will it became a Zen temple of the Rinzai sect after his death in 1408. Kinkakuji was the inspiration for the similarly named Ginkakuji (Silver Pavilion), built by Yoshimitsu's grandson, Ashikaga Yoshimasa, on the other side of the city a few decades later.

Golden Pavillion

We arrived home on Sunday night to wonderfully taken care of kiddos, happy as can be to see us. They decorated the entire apartment with welcome home signs, homemade crafts and fantastically warm hugs! Then, about 10 minutes after Ms. Kana left, they asked us if we could go somewhere else! Ahhh....Home Sweet Home!

Best way to come home!

Kumon

Both of my girls have started going to Kumon for Math. It is a repetition style program, that they have to complete their current level, get it all correct in a certain amount of time before being able to advance. It helps with memorization of math (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division), as well as with focus. They get work booklets for every day of the week, and they attend every Tuesday and Friday after school.

Yoyogi Mom's Night Out and Mexican Day!

Yoyogi Mom's Night out at the 280Y Izaka in Shibuya

Mexican and Margarita's!

Baseball in Japan!!

A day at the Ball Park

Last night we went to the Yakult Swallows vs Hanshin Tigers baseball game at the Meiji Jingu stadium. It was our first baseball game here in Japan (Scott has gone with friends during the summers, but it was a first for the girls and I!), and we had a fantastic time! The crowds here are so charged up and excited, which made for a fantastic atmosphere in the Stadium. I compare it to a football crowd at an NFL or Major College football game- just excited and in love with their team of choice. I found it interesting that they split the stadium into a Swallows fan side and a Tigers fan side. I also was so impressed with all the cheering that went on- actual cheers, chants, singing...it was so much fun to watch. One thing I found very different is that the cheering is constant- they do not stop for the batter- they cheer right through it- there is rarely if ever silence while the game is being played. I also loved the beer keg sellers- they carried a mini-keg on their backs, and had cups, and would pour you a beer right at your seat! The girls purchased their Swallow umbrellas - every time the Swallows scored, music would come on, and the whole crowd would open up colored umbrellas and move them to the music. The girls loved this part, and needed, needed, needed to get their own umbrellas! The Swallows won 6-2, there were a lot of hits and several home runs- what a fun experience!

Meiji Jingu Stadium under the lights

Hanna and I

Scott and the Girls

Maya really got into it!

We ended up going to the game with our friends the Vaughn's, who have girls that are the same ages as Maya and Hanna. The crowd was LOVING the girls, and at times, there was more attention paid to them by the fans around us, then there was to the actual game. The four girls found empty seats a few rows up from us (which was nice, because it was hot, with 100% humidity and seats sized for the smaller Japanese), and they had a blast being a bit independent. We in turn had more space (though it didn't stop the sweating!), and were much more comfortable. The four adults also ended up on the Jumbo Tron which made the kids super jealous!