Christmas in Tokyo

The Sunday before Christmas, we received a distressing call--Camille and Abby were stuck in Seattle, missing their connecting flight.  It was still at the gate, but doors were closed, no one allowed--you know, security and all.  How frustrating for them to watch it for a full hour and a half and not be able to do anything!  We redeemed the extra day on the end of the trip, though, demanding their return flight be changed.  So…we had to get straight to business once they were here.  You don't have to imagine the happiness of the youngest, being reunited with two older sisters--you can see it on her face below.  Plus, she got to show her mean training (yes, in English speaking Tokyo, train becomes a verb) skills.

My happy face that at least some of our family is together.  Don't know the lady who is obviously sick AND photo bombed our picture.  One man, while we were "training" was shocked that we had three children and about had a heart attack when we told him two were missing.  I guess when you are blonde in Tokyo you attract a lot of attention.  Just ask Emma how often that happens.

First day, Asakuka.  

Had to do the first of "Life imitates art" photos.  Sorry for the blur--either my i-phone or my photography skill--probably the latter.  We found some awesome umbrellas that were functional and pretty--so Japanesey underneath and a pattern of cherry blossoms show when they get wet.

And of course, Asakusa wouldn't be complete without dango.  Camille and Abby figured out why all these years we bought Mochi at Daiei in Kailua and toasted it with shoyu.  They are in love and joined us in our quest for the perfect soy sauce roasted pounded rice balls.

A perfectly crafted day to Asakusa wouldn't be complete without a trip to Skytree--except it wasn't perfect.  Where was the jumbo deluxe Christmas village everyone talked about?  I couldn't live that one down and it failed like our visit to Shinjuku--pictures NOT included.

At least the structure is impressive.  So much for bringing Christmas into the holiday.  Scott and Camille stopped in Ginza for THE most incredible waffles for Christmas breakfast, a must if you plan to come visit--in fact plan your whole trip on this post.  Then we met up at Roppongi at (Hawaii friends, please take note) ドん(my keyboard won't do the right "n") キホテ!  You read that right, Don Quiote!  This is the equivalent of the ABC store in Waikiki except with all sorts of kitsch  for the seeker-of-Japanese souvenir stuff. And just look at the treasures we found!  

 Roppongi had some amazing decorations and lights, but no Christ anywhere, not sure why I expected differently, just hoped.

Day two just happened to be Christmas!  Our day started the way I wish it could start everyday--a Skype call with our favorite missionary serving in Santiago, Chile.  What a happy boy, loves his mission, his companion, the members, etc., etc.  The day would have been complete just visiting with him, hearing his adventures.  Love this boy, uh…man.

After drying our tears that our hour was up... we opened presents. Abby has got the whole Japanese girl pose thing down.  Not sure what Emma is proposing…ready to heft an omikoshi down the street, I guess.

So what do you do on Christmas day to honor Christ?  You visit the iconic Buddha in Kamakura, of course.  You people know I really didn't mean that, right?  But, when Delta has stripped you of a day with your daughters, you compact and regroup and just feel grateful you are with family for this most special of days.  We are sorely missing Joe, Kate and Ammon and our little grand babies at this point.  And our soon-to-be member, Casey.  Camille, I know this is a sentence fragment, don't judge, it just sounded better when I said it in my head than it looks on my post.

Truly our favorite day!  

Inside the statue.  

All three figured out the standard pose.  Driving home, we got a glimpse of Mt. Fuji--just gorgeous.

Day three--Nikko!  My sisters and I have a similar photo from over thirty years ago.  Yes, my family came to pick me up from my mission.  Fun thing, I talked to my parents FaceTime while driving up to Nikko.  Wish they could have come again with us this time!  I got to show them the town we rode through years and years ago.  They didn't remember.  However, the structures at Nikko are hard to forget--just amazing.  See earlier post for more information on Nikko--the resting place of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the most important Shogun from Japanese history.

Have to do the obvious!  How true to life this picture is..or is it?

Yes, another "life imitates art" photo, I couldn't help it.

We took a drive up to Kegon Falls.  This time we saw the lake.  The falls were shrouded in fog the last time we were here with the Ringwoods, but this time--they were mostly ice-covered.  Gorgeous either way.  We found this ice cave--man made, of course, but there was a smaller one next to it--a sign said, "Is this where pigs sleep?"

Gorgeous falls!  And as an added bonus, there were monkeys wandering around the village.  We got within a yard of three, one was a baby.  What a thrill!  I think the weather forced them into the town from the mountains.  

Day four at the Aoyagi's home in Chiba.  He is the first counselor in the Area Presidency and my goodness, they really are two of the dearest people we know!  Shiroko dressed the girls in her own kimonos, me too. It took hours, no kidding.  Never mind that none of us could breathe, nor had any curves to speak of, but that is beside the point.  They made us sukiyaki, gyoza, tempura and sushi all in one sitting!  We had to eat while not breathing while wearing kimonos--part of the cultural experience, she said.  Fun, fun day!

I don't know what day this was, they are starting to merge one into the other, but we saw a lot of things at night.  Shibuya, Odaiba, etc.  All of it wonderful, but my two non-fish eating girls were disturbed by this poster of sushi.  Comes in handy when ordering.  Our "sushi is my favorite food" Emma refused to participate in this blasphemous photo.

Below, evening shot from Odaiba.  Girls loved this place, as do I.  See Tokyo Tower?  We live just east of that.  This is our City!  This is our home.  This photo does not even do it justice, it goes on forever.

Last day was at Disney Sea.  Honestly, the best Disney experience we have had.  Thanks to the girls for convincing us to do it.  It was on New Year's Eve and we had a great time.  The park closed at 6:00 p.m., only to reopen (and charge a ticket again, clever marketing) at 8:00.  They know how to do it.  We were tired and went home.  It was dead in our part.  Everyone was either at Disney or at the neighborhood temples.  We were in our beds.

Loved, loved having Camille and Abby here with us!  Stay tuned for a movie Camille is making to show the world their trip.  Hurry up, Camille!  

Christmas is different here.  I didn't see one depiction of Christ anywhere except at church and in our home.  We have wonderful creches from all over and this year I got to add two from Japan.  For all you who might be wondering if Jesus is white--I have news, no He isn't.  He is actually Jewish.  But this year baby Jesus was Japanese.  It made me happy to celebrate His birth with three of my four favorite daughters.  Love you guys.

How my driving is (absolutely) different than yours.

Japanese license obtained, legality confirmed and experience had--to Costco.  It was terrifying and this is why…

1.  The navi speaks Japanese.  Okay, it speaks English too, but we have to program it using only Japanese, so it has taken some time to learn, but it accepts phone numbers as a destination!  Do navigators in America do that?!  It also tells me where there are traffic jams, which seem to happen a lot, because…

2. There are usually only two lanes on the freeway and no shoulder!  And…

3. We not only drive on the left (wrong) side of the road, but the driver drives from what we know as the passenger side.  Okay, this isn't news for anybody, but it sure is hard to make that switch in your head and to recalibrate.  Scott spent the whole drive as a passenger uncomfortably leaning to the right, which signaled to me I was too close on the left.  I thought I was as far right as I could go. There is no wiggle room.

4.  Our van is ultra skinny as are most other cars and trucks on the road…thank Heavens!

5.  Bikers have either no rules, or they don't follow the rules outlined for them.  Honestly, they scare me to death.  On the freeway, they go in the middle of lanes, they weave, they go on the non-shoulder which looks to be about six inches.  On surface roads, they creep up to the side of you as you are making a left turn (from the far left lane--remember, we are opposite here) and about scare you to death as roads are so narrow in the first place.  There is no second place.

6.  The road signs in Tokyo are in Japanese AND English, whew!

7.  Oftentimes there are surface roads under the freeways and the navi doesn't know that and cannot fix its directions until you pull away from such a road.

Other observations:

They have great names for their cars.  Case in point below.  Look to the right of the license plate under "Hybrid".  What?   She's what?  I could understand if it was "Hers".  Our van is an El Grande--heh, heh.

There is this cool little sensor on our van which beeps when objects are too close, which happens quite often.  A person can walk by, a bike ride by and touch it off.  It comes in handy when it is time to park as more often than not you are expected to back in.  See the little blue light on the left just above the dashboard?  It retracts completely when parked.

Speaking of parking, there are always one or two attendants to help you back in as the parking spaces are as narrow as the roads, in relative terms.  Great job, parking, dear husband.  Don't even get me started on our driveway (narrow, yes, and steep) and we do have to back in.

We drove once for almost twenty minutes before we felt like we were out of the city proper--it is that huge!  It is after all the biggest city in the world, which makes a navi essential.  As long as I see three different landmarks, I know I am close to home and I know I can figure it out without help--Tokyo tower, Mori tower and this building in Shinjuku which looks like it is the Empire State building, Asian style (bottom picture).

Imagine living this close to the freeway!  There are apartment buildings within yards, or should I say meters of the guardrail, and remember, there is no shoulder to speak of.

Getting a license was a month-long odyssey in itself.  We had to take a whole day filling out papers, taking a written test…wait, I am whining.  Anyway, I passed the driving test on the first try..only because the foreigner testing before me did such a bad job.  I think the tester just wanted to feel accomplished for the day.  Anyhow, we are free to go anywhere and Tokyo looks a lot different from the road than it does from the subway.  We love it here!

Korea, part 2 and Yokohama

Our third trip to Korea!  We love it there, but with apologies to the Ringwoods and Heather Morgan, Tokyo is better!  

What are these (top and bottom photos)?  Any guesses?  We saw a lot of them at Nandaemon, an old but huge marketplace in Seoul.  Top are pigs hands, knuckles and meaty parts, they look frightening to me and were almost enough to make me go vegetarian.  There was a pig head somehow preserved right next to these, but the woman running the stall wouldn't let me photograph.  Bottom, I just don't know, probably some kind of roots suspended in fluid. Looks Harry Potterish, don't you think?

 We were in Seoul for a Mission President's Training Seminar.  And although I can neither read Korean nor Russian, apparently these banners were celebrating the arrival and meeting of Vladimir Putin to have talks with South Korean officials.  I don't know if he was staying at our hotel or if the "talks" were there, but we were out doing other important things when he came.  Don't believe he was there?  "Look it up, its in the thing." Google it or ask the NSA--certainly they know.  We did see him arriving at the hotel later on that night on the news, he is really, really short.

See these dear people?  They (other than Adam in the center) work at the Korean office for the Asia North area.  They are incredibly hard-working, detail oriented and dedicated people (include Adam in that definition).  

Here are the mission presidents for the area (plus a few) after making makizushi for the missionaries to hand out.  Incredible men, each one.  Later that evening, we walked a lantern festival in downtown Seoul along a canal.  It depicted different scenes from Korean history.

Does this not look like a pig Mona Lisa?  For all you hiragana and katakana readers who might doubt this was actually in Seoul, look again.  I guarantee it was in Korea.

Hawaii friends…remember hosting Japanese students and taking them to Ala Moana for an outing?  Remember waiting outside Louis Vuitton and Channel shops while they put down $400 for wallets?  Maybe you will remember them turning up their noses when they saw "Made in Korea" on labels of scarves?  Maybe there was a reason.  I saw a scarf and should have opened it, but was satisfied with its pretty colors all folded up.  Upon unfolding it in our home in Tokyo, Emma suddenly fell in love.  It is actually a British flag with a crowned skull and the words "God Save McQueen".  It now hangs in her room.  Fail for me, one man's trash is another's treasure.

On an unrelated note, nothing to do with Korea or Yokohama, we went out for pizza last night and swear we sat next to an Asian Charles Barkley.

The rest of the photos are from a park we visited in Yokohama called Sankeien Garden.  It was assembled by a successful silk businessman over 100 years ago.  He had  ancient buildings brought to this park which faces Tokyo Bay.  Many of these structures are over 500 years old.  This is a 500+ year old door!  Isn't it gorgeous?!

We saw two brides and their grooms in the garden.  

I have seen too many brand new, made-of-cement Japanese garden lanterns in the city lately, these just struck me for some reason.  They truly are hand made and, well, ancient.

Not sure which was more impressive, nature or the old tea houses, bridges and gates--maybe the combination of the two.

Emma loved it as well.  So glad she decided to come with us today.  She was supposed to leave on a school trip, but stayed with the parentals instead.  So lucky to have her with us here during her last year.  So glad she loves Japan.

Scott and Emma are always in search for the perfect dango--mochi rice balls grilled in soy sauce.  Although Scott introduced them to her in Asakusa (see previous post), they swear the ones in Nikko (another post) are the best.  Today's weren't so bad.  I snap chatted a picture to Kate of a mochi maker and she snap chatted back a picture of herself labeled "mochi eater".  Wish she was here.

This was one of the most ancient buildings, built during the Edo period.

So much more to show, so much more to see.  So much more work to be done here!