Japan [Day 3] - Anpanman Musuem

They have this little pastry snack called taiyaki. It's basically a pancake that is shaped into a fish shape that is filled with red bean. Delicious. I had a plate of these in the morning...they are best when they are made fresh and you eat them straight off the grill. You can buy these in Japantown in SF, but why not try the real thing when in Japan?


Today we ventured out to Yokohoma to visit the Anpanman museum. For whatever reason, Anpanman is huge in Japan. I don't quite get it, but amazingly enough Kai is also completely mad about Anpanman. What is even more amazing is that they have an entire museum dedicated to the Anpanman cartoon and all the characters. It's amazing what you will do once you have kids. It has been near winter-like conditions in Japan since we got here, and this was the first day that the sun really came out and the temperature finally hit the mid 50's.


If you wanted to know what Anpanman looks like, here you go. I never realized it, but I think Kai looks like a little Japanese anime when he smiles.


Here is the full cast of the Anpanman cartoon. I only know 3-4 characters in the show, but I figure I'll eventually need to learn their names.



Througout the day, they had different activities for kids. Kai was really into this one activity where they were making Anpanman masks.



The museum is basically one massive warehouse with three floors. On the first floor they have gifts shops, an outdoor play area, and a series of brightly colored slides. Kai must have ridden the slides 10 times or more...wiped him out. He even explained to the workers there that he was "san-sai" (three years old), the minimum age to ride the slides. Below is an artsy view of the slides on the first floor.


Japan is a really clean country...and it's a real challenge to a find a garbage can. Everyone is encouraged to take their own garbage with them. As you can tell in the photo below, not a shred of trash to be seen.

Japan [Day 2] - Shopping followed by Shinjuku & Shibuya

Today was a low-key day following yesterday's insane early morning start at the Fish Market. We all slept in to catch some Zzzzz's. One of the things I love about Japan is the 7/11-like convenience stores. I kid you not...they are not like the ones we have in the states. You can get all kinds of goodies at the local 7/11 store. My personal favorite is little snacks called onigiris which are nori (seaweed paper) wrapped over a rice ball with some sort of tasty filling. I can live off these things.

In line with the low-key theme, we just went shopping in the morning in Urawa Misuno. There is a mall just walking distance from the train station where we met up with Ami's aunt and uncle. The great thing about being in Japan is that it's nice actually finding clothes that fit. Kai had a blast as usual. He got a kick out of the Anpanman strollers in the mall.



For the evening's festivities, we left Kai with grandma and auntie so that we could check out Shinjuku and Shibuya. Try to imagine the lights and craziness of Times Square in NYC but multiply it by twice as many people. I was flippin' claustrophobic in Shinjuku getting poked and prodded working our way through the crowds. I felt like I needed to tip someone at the end. Just like Times Square, Shinjuku and Shibuya are loaded with lots of neon signs, super-sized tv screens, and a crazed mass of people.




In Shinjuku, Ami took me to one of the restaurants she used to eat at when she worked in Japan called Tengu. It was a chain restaurant but still very nice...just what we needed to relax. Bring on the sake.



I'm a big carnivore, but this was an extreme. Horse meat sashimi?

Japan [Day 1] - Rikugien Cherry Blossoms

After the morning trip to the Fish Market, we took a short break. No rest when you are on vacation. :) We went to Rikugien (near Komagome) to check out the cherry blossoms that were just starting to bloom. Japan is packed with these trees, and when they all bloom at the same time it's like looking at a painting.

There is an old shogun estate in Komagome at a place called Rikugien that had a few cherry blossom trees. They hadn't quite bloomed, but it was a good sneak peak. Later during this vacation, we check out some of the more well-known spots, but here is a sneak peak of what they look like.
It may have been spring but it felt like winter. Kai was bundled up head to toe today. Japan is not stroller-accessible, and it's been a pain trying to find elevators and escalators at train stations, stores, restaurants, etc... Otherwise, Kai has been loving Japan so far (he's addicted to rice crackers and Anpanman). Anpanman is a Japanese children's cartoon character. I don't quite get the fascination with Anpanman, but he is the rage here in Japan for all the kids.


Day 1 was a long day (4:00 am start). Ami's aunt took us to a local favorite restaurant. There is supposedly a better tempura restaurant we are going to later but this was still the best I've had thus far. Unlike in the US, authentic places in Japan only lightly batter the tempura. It's so tasty you don't even use the usual dipping sauce when you eat tempura. Instead, they give you this special type of salt to season your tempura (I think it is some type of toasted salt). You can see the toasted salt below.

The sashimi salad was rockin! As you all know...I'm really into food so I'm expecting to gain at least 10 lbs on this trip :) More food pictures to come.

Japan [Day 1] - Tsukiji Fish Market

We’ve been up all night traveling and our personal clocks are a wreck….so what to do? Well…how about we go to the Tsukiji Fish Market around 4am to watch the auction and eat some of the best sushi around? Done and done.

When we got the train station around 4:30am it was a ghost town. It is a sharp contrast to rush hour when it is a mad house. When we got to Tsukiji the auction was already shutting down so we caught the tail end of it. It’s amazing to see the fresh/frozen fish auctioned off…and walking through the Fish Market isn’t for the faint of heart.







I have no idea what the heck this is…




We asked one of the local fishermen the best place to eat sushi in Tsukiji and told us about Sushi Dai. He warned us that the line would be long. Yes…this is the line for Sushi Dai (e.g. 2 hour wait).



After we finally got in I was starving…I still don’t know what exactly we ate but it was all damn good. I know there was some toro, uni, clam, bonito, etc… It was all so fresh…straight off the boat. Tsukiji is absolutely the best sushi I’ve ever had.

Japan [Day 0] - On Our Way

After years of traveling for work you'd think it would get easier packing for vacation. It ain't so. We were scrambling till the last minute packing for the three of us. All in all we took 4 suite cases plus two backpacks. Kai had a bag all his own to hold his essentials and any bribes we could think of to help with the 10 hour flight to Japan (e.g. Disney Cars, DVD player, color books).

When we got there we were exhausted. It was about 2pm local time in Tokyo and about midnight for us. The great thing about Tokyo is that their rail system is amazing so we just hopped on a train for our homebase for the trip.