Summer 4-H camping trip

camping trip at manchester state park - not the best park ever, but the kids still had fun. 

our new tent that arrived the day after we got back. 

Japan day 14, heading home

so, at 9:30am on sunday, tony went for a run - it was 88 degrees with 70% humidity.  yes, he's crazy.  i really wanted to walk to the neighborhood park before we left, though i almost chickened out with the heat - tony came with me, but the kids (probably somewhat wisely) opted to stay in air conditioning).  lots of people fishing and a nice little waterfall at the neighborhood park - luckily there was a bit of a breeze, so it wasn't too bad. we walked by a neighborhood police station on the way there - tiny little building with three police men, no air conditioning! they had all the doors and windows open. 

had to take a picture of this because though you often see 3 vending machines together - i had not seen this many! - there were 20!

japanese fast food. 

one of the vending machines we passed - it appears that you do have to put in some special card that tells the machine you are over 20 in order to purchase.  

so.... just two blocks away from tony's uncles house (but not in the usual direction we walked) was this store - tons of cards (like anime/pokeman kind of cards) tables where kids were trading/playing and lots of magaznies and cheap anime figurines.  and these - i was a bit shocked you could buy this in a culture where guns are quite frowned upon.  notice the realistic look and the lack of any orange paint on the muzzle etc.

had to take some pictures of the yen.

tokyo airport.  kaitlyn was really craving a burger and fries, though tony frowned upon her choice, she got it, though she did not get the megamac!

hello kitty store.  

flavored kitkats!! and psychotic model

the wasabi and melon ones are fantastic!!!

origami displays at the airport.

on our way home! a view of narita from the air - lots of rice paddies  - unlie us where farmhouses are scattered in among the fiels, here the houses are clustered in a communal area and you commute out to your fields.

ocean!  then eight + hours of movies!

kaitlyn and i in the plane - her just in her shorts and t-shirt, me with my jacket on and a blanket over my lap!

sunrise after a very brief night and we crossed th dateline - so it's still sunday morning!

matt fell asleep on the last hour of your flight (we landed before 9am, 1am monday mornign tokyo time) and he continued to sleep in random areas through the airport as we made it through customs and got luggage.

my favorite boy was happy to have us home! and we were very happy to see all our kitties and even the dog!

i took a few hour nap and got up so i could go back to bed tonight - problem is i had a hard time waking the kiddos - i have a feeling matt will be up all night and kaitlyn maybe most of it!!!  i have unpacked my favorite souvenier - a solar powered waving tail kitty that looks like TC baby!

overall a great trip.  happy to be back at home watching some early fireworks over the water!

Japan day 13 asakusa, kappabashi street, katsushika-ko

the animals keeping the bed occupied while we are out on adventures!

first stop asuakuso with tony, the kids, kiwako and I. the senso-ji temple in asakusa.  you walk through a touristy shopping street to get there.  Saturday morning - one of the most crowded places we've been.  I would have enjoyed poking through the shops more if it hadn't been so, so, hot and muggy and crowded, not to mention a bored matt!  the temple's main attraction appears to be the very large incense burner - you can apparently create good luck by wafting the smoke over you. 
on the shopping street, Kaitlyn and tony bought an ice cream cone to share, but when they tried to walk out of the stall with it they were told that eating was not allowed on this street and they had to stay there until they finished it!  so they had to eat crammed into this tiny little stall with all the others while they finished their ice cream - gave me a chance to look in the manekineko store across the way!

no, we did not eat at denny's.  but tony and I enjoy looking at menus for the American chain restaurants here (mcdonalds, kfc, etc) to see what's the same and what's different.  I didn't get to look at the whole menu, and everything is in Japanese but denny's appears to have a mix of American and Japanese food. 

kappabashi street - restaurant supply stores - Kaitlyn and I wanted to come here for the plastic food stores, we had no idea how many kitchen/restaurant supply stores there would be!  I would have liked to look more, but again, heat, uncooperative walking companions, etc.  and after we all looked at the plastic food - we were all hungry!

not even sure what this little statue is, but had to snap a picture as we walked by.

plastic food!  some is basic, some had some pretty amazing artistry.  it's expensive! Kaitlyn and I both bought a few things - she bought a French fry with ketchup and a squid ball (not sure what these are called but its squid and dough baked in a little ball and served with sauce on top - popular street food, I got a little piece of toast with butter and jam which is what I have been eating for breakfast here almost every morning. 

we tried to go to a popular ramen shop for lunch - but they had no vegetarian.  I told the others they could go without me, but that had been earlier in the day and no one was really hungry then.  after plastic food shopping though we were all hungry!  Kaitlyn and I spotted this yakisoba shop, but they had no rice for matt.  however two doors down was tempura which kiwako wanted anyway, so she, tony and matt went there and Kaitlyn and I had yakisoba.  there is a container of sauce on the table and Kaitlyn started to pour it into the dish on the table, but I stopped her and told her I thought that looked like an ashtray and she should just pour the sauce on her noodles.  the ashtray was a bit shocking as I have been very pleasantly surprised at the lack of second hand smoke in japan - far less than in the u.s.  people do not smoke on the streets, but in little ventilated smoking areas. other than the very brief venture into a pachinko parlor I have hardly smelled cigarette smoke for two weeks!! but apparently owners can allow smoking in restaurants.  this is a very open air shop, so there was no lingering smell of smoke and no one was smoking when we went in, but someone did light up just as we were leaving.  the noodles were fabulous, vegetarian and only 400 yen/plate!

kiwako bought taiyaki when we got back to kanamichi station, one with traditional red bean paste and one with custard.  they were both good, though I prefer the non-traditional custard.  she bought them at a shop near the station, but I had to take a picture of this little vintage vw bus selling mini taiyakis that we walked by. 
we did get a bit lost once on the trains on the way home.  there are several different train lines in asakusa and many require you to go up to the street an down a different area of stairs.  but between my map reading skills and kiwako's familiarity with the trains and native speaking skills we managed to figure it out.  we never would have been able to make train transitions as fast without her.  tony and I have to wait for signs to scroll though to the English and wander the platforms and she knows right where to go!

back to tony's uncle's house in the afternoon (in katushika-ko) as we were invited to witness and participate in a Buddhist ritual for saturosan's wife, kumiko, who passed away last year.  a monk came to the house to perform the ritual which involved incense, a chime and chanting.  the chanting was impressive, don't know how he was breathing. 

in the evening we headed off toward the station to have dinner at a Chinese restaurant - had to stop by the zipline again (going and coming)

at the restaurant matt and I were just going to have rice (my being a picky vegetarian and matt's eating limitations) but I ended up also getting mango pudding and sesame red bean balls - I was stuffed!  matt got a roll at the bakery afterward.  we stopped in at the grocery store on the way home so tony could stock up on dried fish and the like to take home. 
on the way home I had to take a picture of one of my favorite Lawson signs. 

this is a little tiny restaurant/bar near satoru's house.  it is a tiny triangular building that probably fits 6 people inside!

I realized that I hadn't taken any pictures of the vending machines that are everywhere!!  so, I took a few on the walk home. we have tried a good number of the drinks, though a fair few of them are iced teas and coffees (though I do like the coffee milks)

Japan day 12 - karuizawa, shinjuku

closed up the house in karuizawa this morning and drove home.  satoru-san took pity on us motion sick types and took the new (straighter) road out of town.  stopped by a rest stop again - had to take a picture of the squid on a stick. 

got home, tony went for a run in 86 degree heat with about that humidity, then we headed out for Shinjuku.  well, tony, kaitlyn and i did.  matt was tired and opted to stay home with obachan and satoru-san.  this is an old shrine we pass on the way to the kanamachi train station, I've been meaning to take some pictures. 

came across these - aromatic wood chips.  selling for 1000 yen/small bag ($10) thought about getting some for dad - but tony thought he has plenty of wood. 

only our second ramen stop!!  it was great.  Kaitlyn and I shared a bowl (though they weren't as huge this time).  this one was shoyu ramen - we had no interpreter, but they had an English menu, so I was able to get shoyu rather than pork bone broth.  but still came with slab of pork on top that I quickly handed off to tony!  Kaitlyn got her own bowl to put some broth in so she could add seaweed!

stopped into a family mart - apparently I can't have these pocky?  we also went into a hello kitty store that had a men's line of hello kitty shirts!  tony said no.

the robot restaurant was a very, very loud affair in a narrow street with several people hawking it lots of bright flashing lights and loud noises.  if the inside was anything like the outside, i'm glad we didn't go in!

kitty!  it's ear tipped - wondering if they do TNR here as well? (trap, neuter, release - they tip the ear so people can tell at a distance that they have been spayed/neutered)

this pretty, more old fashioned restaurant was right across the street from the robot restaurant. 

a car elevator!!for tight parking garages (see - fast and furious 3 - Tokyo drift)

it's fun to try new foods, but sometimes it's fun to find your usual favorites in another country!

wasn't sure what a chococro was, but figured it was a safe gamble - chocolate croissant!!

gearing up for 2020 Olympics. 

found the Tokyo metropolitan building - free elevator ride to the 45th floor and the observatory!! the view was impressive - city as far as you can see in any direction. 

stopped in a department store food court and had some pineapple raspberry joice and pastries and found these - square and heart shaped watermelons!  yes, that square one is $100! - the heart shaped didn't even have a price.  tony and I got the train there with two transfers and the train home with two transfers with no interpreter and no mishaps!!