Japan [Day 12] - Cousins

Kai's cousin Kento stopped by to visit. It was like the meeting of two world superpowers. The amount of mischief this two were able to get into was staggering.

Japan [Day 11] - Asakusa

We went to Asuksa today to checkout a nearby shrine. The shrine is a popular tourist spot and it is surrounded by tons of tourist shops. The temple is well kept and has a bright red exterior.






In one of the tourist shops, they had political comic desserts, including some with Barrack Obama.


We capped off the day with some tasty crepes in Harajuku. My personal favorite was the custard, vanilla ice cream, banana, chocolate, and whip cream crepe (right).

Japan [Day 10] - Tofu?

We survived Tokyo Disneyland. We stayed at one of the Disneyland resort hotels, so we stayed pretty late at Disneyland. The hotel was really tailored for kids and had a great play area. Kai of course loved the play area.


There is this great little tofu shop down the street from where we were staying at Ami's aunt's house in Komagome. All they sell is homemade tofu. If you have never had fresh homemade tofu, you are missing out. It has a milky buttery taste. I'm a hardcore carnivore, but even I was craving seconds after trying it.

Japan [Day 9] - Tonkatsu in Nishi-Azabu

Today we had the two best meals we had all vacation. Ami took us to this little place that had the best tempura I've had sofar. It was a tiny little place in Ueno called Tsuna Hachi (5th floor). It was so good that all you needed to add was salt ... no need for all that sauce, etc


For dinner, we we went to a tonkatsu (pork cutlet) restaurant called Butagumi. It was THE best tonkatsu I've ever had!! I was blown away. I got the sampler dish, and it came with 5 different types of tonkatsu, each with different texture and fat content. When I got to the last pieces, they were as tender as biting into a rib-eye steak with all the flavor. I was in love.

Japan [Day 8] - Tokyo Disneyland

It's judgment day. Time to go to Tokyo Disneyland! Actually, it wasn't so bad. We specifically chose a day when we knew it wasn't going to be crowded. It was an easy train ride into Disneyland. As you can tell, the trains were pretty empty.

Tokyo Disneyland and all the hotels were easy to get to from the train station, Maihama.


Kai had a blast at Disneyland. He loved all the rides, especially the the safari boat ride.


But probably his favorite part of Disneyland was the parade. He loved seeing all his favorite Disney characters. He was clapping along with all the songs and singing, "Twenty-five!" (Twenty-five year anniversary of Tokyo Disneyland.)


I think Ami's favorite part of Disneyland was "It's A Small World."



Early in the day, it was a little crowded. At almost every ride, there was a parking lot of strollers. It's amazing how organized they kept all the strollers.


They had a very odd assortment of food at Tokyo Disneyland. There were many different popcorn flavors.


For lunch, we had pizza, which was probably the worst food I had the entire trip. I had the mentaiko (spicy fish roe), mayo, cheese, sausage, broccoli, and potato pizza (picture on right) Ami had the seafood pizza, complete with squid, octopus, etc. (picture on left)


Kai probably had the best lunch, which was a standard jelly sandwich.


Here are two shots of the castle. One taken during the day and the other at night when we came back for the fireworks show (which got canceled due to the weather) and dream light parade.

Japan [Day 7] - Meiji Shrine

I had a family-free morning today to just explore Tokyo on my own. I just jumped on the train and headed out to Harujuku to check out a local shrine (Meiji Shrine).

I stumbled across a Japanese wedding. There was a whole group of tourists just watching. It must be weird having a bunch of tourists watch you take your wedding portraits. :) They must have forced the little kid in the green basketball shorts and athletic shoes to be in the picture.

Japan [Day 6] - Park and Shibuya

Since we had the marathon train ride yesterday, we wanted to take it easy today. We took Kai to a local park, which of course was showered with cherry blossoms.

For the afternoon, we headed out to Shibuya to meet one of Ami's college friends, Aya, for dinner. Shibuya is just a crazy place. As a you can tell below, it is jam-packed with bodies.
There was some sort of rally going on at Shibuya. I guess they were rolling out a new jury system in Japan that folks weren't too happy about. I'm not sure how the bird ties into the rally, but it just added to the craziness of Shibuya.
We had dinner at this quaint little place that served okonomiyaki. It is basically a omlette/doughy-like dish you can order with all kinds of fillings. You mix the ingredients at your table and cook it yourself on the grill. You put special sauces and shaved bonito on top after it cooks. I've never seen this before in the US but definitely a must-try when in Japan. We tried three different types that night - a seafood version, a veggie version, and of course a meat version (with pork, etc.) This is what it looks like when you get it from the waitress.
When you cook it, it looks like this. After you brown it on both sides, you put all the sauces and fixings on top. For dessert, we went to a dessert shop in Shibuya called Cozy Corner. By Japanese standards, they serve monster-sized desserts (what we would consider normal size in the US). Ami's aunt loves cats. Loves cats. However, the cats really didn't like us too much and pretty much hid from us (namely Kai) when we were there. The one rare instance one of them came out of hiding, I was able to shoot a picture. This is Pal-chan, or with a Japanese accent, "Paru-chan."

Japan [Day 5] - Visiting Family in Ibaraki-ken

Off to the countryside to visit family. It was nice to head out of Tokyo for a while...starting to feel a little claustrophobic. It was about a 2-hour train ride to Yuki-shi, Ibaraki-ken. On a side note, I love the vending machines in Japan. You can get both hot and cold drinks. These machines are everywhere...even in the most random spots.


For a lot of folks here, they spend a lot of time riding the train. I saw the blank stare of this guy and thought it pretty much summed up what it would feel like to have to take a long train ride everyday.

We attended a nice memorial service (hoji) for Ami's grandfather. They were nice enough to let me take pictures during the service.



Then we visited the family gravesite to offer incense ... while trying not to start a fire.




After the service, we had a family lunch at a local restaurant, kaiseki style.

Japan [Day 4] - Sakura (Cherry Blossoms)

The sun has finally started to come out, so we decided to check out some popular cherry blossom sites. I love how everything is accessible via train. The first place we checked out was Chidorigafuchi. As soon as we stepped off the train, cherry blossoms were blooming all over the city.


On the way to the sakura location, we stopped by Yasukuni Jinja (shrine) to check out the architecture and scenery. The sky was clear and blue, so it made a nice backdrop for the jinja.

The cherry blossoms at Chidorigafuchi literally drape over an old moat, which makes for a beautiful scene. You could actually rent a boat and sail around the moat to get a closer view of the cherry blossoms.





For the afternoon, we decided to go to Ueno, so Ami, her mom, and aunt could do some shopping. It was my perfect excuse to explore the city on my own. Ueno also had a famous cherry blossom setup. In true Japan form, it was very crowded there.
The cherry blossoms lined either end of the sidewalk, creating a canopy.


Along the sidewalks, the locals were camped out with blankets, chairs, alcohol, food etc... At night they light up the cherry blossoms, and, basically, it turns into one big party. Supposedly, new hires at companies are sent to the park to reserve spots during the day so that their co-workers can come by after work to kick off the party.

On the other side of the park, vendors were lined up all around the temple. They were selling some pretty tasty stuff and other items not-so-appealing.


From Ueno Park, this is a shot of the city landscape. Unfortunately, the lake was littered with empty bottles and tons of trash. I tried to find the least cluttered spot to get a shot.

There were some pretty impressive cameras out there today. Everyone was taking pictures, and lots of hardcore photography types were out in full camera gear. This is Japan, so even the non-photographer was at least armed with a camera-equipped phone. Every five feet, I would bump into someone trying to shoot a photo using their phone.


Here are some close-up views of what sakuras really look like.