Tokyo!

Hello there friends and family!

We are in Tokyo, finally over the worst of the jet-lag, and enjoying the very kind people of Tokyo. So far, things have been fun and interesting, to say the least. We arrived on Monday evening, and we were surprised how good we felt. Luna has done pretty well, but her jet-lag has been the most difficult. Normally a pretty easy child when it comes to sleep, this kid has literally been screaming at the top of her lungs “I don’t want to sleep!” multiple times throughout the past few nights. It has been trying, but we knew what we were in for, and we’re trying to make the best of it- and each day is getting easier!

We are staying right next to Tokyo Station, which is a great, central location near Ginza and our hotel has been wonderful. Yesterday when we woke up- it was Luna’s 5th Birthday! The hotel had arranged a special Birthday celebration in the morning and we had breakfast and then they came our singing “Happy Birthday” with a cake and a bear from the hotel. I’ve never had Birthday cake for breakfast, but it was so sweet. Luna loved her chocolate cake, of course, and from there we came back to the room and opened a few gifts that we’d brought from home. After opening presents, we made our way to the big park of Tokyo- at least as large as Central Park, and found the playground there. It was a bit overgrown and Luna was the only kid there, but she didn’t care. She ran around and played in the dirt, putting on a show, and although it was only 9am, it was 99 degrees with the heat index and we were so hot. Luna looked like a street urchin when we left an hour later- covered in a dirty mess. It was awesome.

We had a fun day planned, and we went to Ginza Hakuhinkan Toy Park- a 5 level store full of toys you can play with the explore. The highlight for us was a race track on the top floor where we were able to race toy cars around a huge track. From there, we made our way to the Mitzukoshi Department store, where we went to LaDuree- the famous Parisian Cafe and Patisserie for lunch. Why French food, you may ask? When Josh and I asked Luna what her favorite thing about travel was before we left, she said macarons, so we decided to take here there when in Tokyo. She loved it. We then strolled around while Luna took a nap, and then went to the Ninja Restaurant for dinner. If you are ever in Tokyo or New York City (they recently opened there) you should eat here. The food is fantastic, the surroundings are a secret Ninja village, and all servers are ninjas that do tricks and magic while you are eating. This kid was so cute throughout the night as she had her jaw drop to the floor when the magical tricks were being done. And they were good. What a way to celebrate being 5!

This morning we woke up and headed to Tsukiji Fish market. Tsukiji is the largest fish market in the world- and small stalls sprawl over a massive area. You sometimes splash your way through a mixture of fish guts, blood and water which covers the floor. The people that work there, 90 % men, are wearing plastic wellies and yield long 3 foot knives to cut Tuna as large as my couch. It’s overwhelming, and bustling. Tsukiji becomes active at about 3AM, so the time that we arrived, at 9AM- the Tuna auction was long over and many vendors were cleaning up all of the mess and packing up fish to be shipped all over the world. There are little forklifts teetering styrofoam boxes of fish, zooming all over the floor and it’s important to keep your eyes open so that you don’t get hit. Fish is big business.

As we walked around this morning, Luna took a moment to kind of warm up to the idea of being there. She didn’t like seeing live fish get killed (we saw this happen once), and it is still difficult for her to make the connection between fish that she eats and fish that swim in the ocean being the same thing. She watched with fascination as we walked around and saw all kinds of fish and sea creatures among the boxes being sent around the world. After our 30 minute walk through the market, we stumbled upon some stalls outside of the market- they sell the freshest sushi in the world. We ate some for breakfast. The place we went was small, only had 12 stools at the sushi counter, and three chefs expertly prepared our food. They were surprised to see Luna there, and when she began chowing down on salmon roe- she exclaimed, “I’m in roe- Heaven!” the sushi chefs were proud and beaming. The sushi melted in our mouths and we were in sushi heaven, too. As Luna kept munching, and practicing her Japanese with them- the chefs made her a very special plate. The smallest sushi in the world! They created nigiri on a single grain of rice, and a little cucumber roll made the same way. It was awesome. Luna squealed in delight and everyone was smiling ear to ear.

Now, in Japan- we are paying attention to a  few surprising things:

1) Vending machines. Josh is taking tons of photos of the vending machines here- selling everything from coffee to ramen soup, to beer (no ID required) and cigarettes on the streets.

2) We don’t see English too often, but when we do, it’s usually on signs. There are delightful moments, however, when we see the occasional t-shirt with English on it, and the English doesn’t make sense at all. The winner today was “Medicine your dreams and watch them glow.” Could this be a language pronunciation mistake for an L and R? maybe.. Seeing these shirts are really funny to us and we are on the lookout each day.

3) It is remarkably difficult to find a green salad. Even at high end places, they might have pickled vegetables, but just a leafy green salad can be hard to find.

4) The toilets here are heated, can sing, can make noise if you want to “cover up” any noise you may be making, can wash and dry your bottom at the touch of a button.

We are really enjoying our time together, exploring this city. We’re off to a baseball game now- Giants vs. Swallows! We’ll check in again soon.

xo,

Carly