Road Trip! - Saturday the 28th

Saturday we had a leisurely morning of sleeping in & a yummy breakfast of muesli (a family recipe of Jonathan's). We hopped into the car & headed north across Japan to to the seaside. We stayed at the Seikiro Inn; a traditional Japanese inn with the tatami floors. We were served tea & a snack upon our arrival (the picture of J&K). We walked around a little to get the lay of the land & then changed into our Yukata (summer Kimono). We were given tabi (the socks with the split between big toe & the other toes) to wear around. Our shoes were left at the front door of the inn. The socks definitely gave me a "ninja" feeling coupled with the Yukata, all I was missing was my sword & stars... Fortunately, there were no bad guys to be found & we were just there to relax & take in the experience. The picture of the inn is from the garden that we found when we were checking things out. 

Heroshima - Friday, June 27

Friday morning the guys worked. Chris walked from Jonathan's office at Lilly to Kitano Kobe Kohl Residence by himself (I was quite impressed). Jonathan met us at the train station when he was done & we took a bullet to Heroshima. The picture is of Chris & I napping after our picnic lunch while the world zoomed by us. It's not even fair to say "while the world passed us by" since we were traveling at about 300 km/hr. There's no stopping to smell the roses on that train! The picture of the building with the dome is the only remaining building from the A-Bomb. The picture of the bridge is the "T bridge" that was the intended target for the A-Bomb to hit (this is obviously a rebuild). It's amazing to see what has been done in the 63 years since the bomb. There are 2 pictures from what I call the "Cabbage House" or okonomi muri. Essentially, there is 1 building that houses all these little restaurants that cook the same thing. The story behind it is that after the bomb, Heroshima which once was bustling, was left decimated. So in this particular area people erected tents & cooked these pancake-type-things with cabbage on them. If you had carrots, you could add those. If you had pork, you could add it. So it translates to "grill whatever you like" since each is unique to the person that is cooking it, as well as, the person eating it. The tents eventually gave way to a building & now there is an entire building with several floors dedicated to "grill what you like". The lady that cooked ours has been doing it in her stand for 46 years. J&K have been going back to her each time they take someone to Heroshima. It's definitely worth the trip to see the museum, memorial & to eat the pancake/pizza dudes that we can't find a name for!

Friday's on a Thursday?!?

That can't be possible! Oh but it is! We stopped at TGI Friday's for dinner near the station before catching the bullet back to Kobe. I giggled to myself as Chris ordered Mexican... As much as we love Japanese food, he still loves his Mexican. The portions were totally American so it was shocking to see it after we've been eating all these Japanese meals. There's a huge difference in presentation and portion size. It seems Japanese don't eat too much of 1 thing. It's 6 small things to make up a meal. We eat 1 big thing in a meal. We also found 1 of the 2 Krispy Kreme's in Tokyo. We didn't stop but notice the sign says there's a 30 minute wait for the donuts. That is just from that point. Not pictured is the line extending through the door and around the corner so total wait time was probably 90 minutes. For a donut. 

Tokyo - Thursday the 26th

The city shot is from our hotel window. It's amazing to me to see the sprawl of the city. We walked around Tokyo quite a bit; saw the Rodeo Drive/Michigan Avenue/Park Avenue type area; the business district with all the banks, etc.; the Emperor's Palace & the Meiji Shrine. The picture with the 4 of us is outside the Emperor's Palace. There is a close-up of one of the guard houses. Even though commoners are not allowed within the Palace gates, we discovered that to even get that far one would have to swim through 2 motes, climb 2 walls & shimmy across an open field all without being seen by the guards. Now if J&C were ninjas.... we're sure they could do it no problem. We lunched at a little spot by the train station. It wasn't quite bento box lunch as the meat was presented separately than all the sides. Hopefully you can see from the picture the emphasis on presentation. Everything has it's own little dish. Each dish is different yet they all compliment each other. The last picture is of one of the gates entering the Meiji Temple. It's another shrine for peace & prosperity. I'm on the left side in yellow & Chris on the right in orange. Gives you some perspective of just how big the gate is. 

Dinner in Tokyo Wednesday evening

J&K treated us to a delight! We had Korean BBQ. We sat on the floor with the George Forman predecessor in-front of us. We had noodles, a pancake type of thing and then dinner! Basically, it was the Korean version of lettuce wraps with some yummy tastes in there. I have no idea what we were topping our wraps with... I think one topping was kimchi which is a spicy pickled cabbage. I should have asked J&K what it was again so I could document but nonetheless, tasty! The base of the wrap was pork which is what you see on the grill. You can see from our smiles on the train, we were very happy with dinner. We finished our night by having tea in the Aura lounge on the 45th floor of some building. It afforded us a fabulous view of Tokyo at night. Unfortunately, pictures just wouldn't have done it justice so you'll have to take my word for it.

Tokyo - Wednesday the 25th

While Chris & Jonathan worked Wednesday morning, Kendra & I got our stuff together along with a picnic lunch for the train. Here we are walking to the train station. We took the bullet train 3 hours north to Tokyo. If we had taken the "normal" train, it would have lengthened the trip to about 10 hours with the stops, etc. We checked into the hotel, freshened up & headed to Starbuck's to watch the throngs of people at Shibuya intersection. The picture of C&K is from the 2nd story window of Starbuck's with all the people in the background. There are roughly 19 million that live in Tokyo. 

The picture of Jonathan is on the subway. I was trying to give a better view of just how crowded it is. This isn't even during rush hour - this is mid-afternoon! One of our goals was to find "Little Bo Peep" before dinner. We found her! Actually, we found several! Apparently, there is a sub-culture that J&K have affectionately nick-named "Little Bo Peeps" as they dress up like one. Here is called Lolita style of dressing. We actually came across a shop that sold the outfits. We tried to take pictures of me & K with them but were told no photos. Probably a good thing.

Costco - Tuesday the 24th

Tuesday we headed to Costco! I know it - crazy to think of it here in Japan! One of Kendra's friends & her 17-month-old daughter came with. Because of space, the Japanese go up & not out. Costco had a parking garage. So to get your cart to your car, they have a moving walkway. It's magnetic so it holds the carts in place while it sends you to your floor! Other different things - you can buy a whole octopus (as pictured), they offered raw salmon samples & wine samples but maple syrup is $30 (about 3000 yen)! One thing that's the same is the food court! It even offers a hot dog & soda combination, a slice of pizza or Caesar salad. It didn't have soft pretzels, but it did have plastic wrap by the napkins in case you didn't finish your snack & want to take it home (since it's in US proportions & the Japanese don't typically eat that much of one thing). 

Cooking with Kendra - Monday the 23rd

While the guys worked on Monday, Kendra & I took a cooking class. We learned how to make focaccia bread. The school is a neat concept in that they offer a variety of menus or single-item options that one can sign up for, take the class & then eat what's made. With the translation, the bread class was deemed the most appropriate for us. It was a fun morning; partly because I made bread & partly because I was afforded the opportunity to experience Kendra's everyday life here in Japan. Some months she takes one class, some months three just depending on schedule & what's offered. After shopping, we lunched on soup & salad & then spent the rest of the afternoon shopping. Since the guys were slaying dragons through dinner, we alleviated the burden of shopping from them & took care of it ourselves (thoughtful, right?). For dinner, we had Thai food. It's one of my favorites, but not Chris's, so this was a great chance for me to fill a void. It was delicious! Have we said this about everything we've eaten thus far? I have except for the mochi with soybean powder. Not a repeat in my book. I think Chris has enjoyed everything including that! 

Sunday in Kobe

Sunday we had a nice morning sleeping in. Chris was shooting for noon but came up short at 11:15am. Not bad since it's probably been 4 1/2 years since he's slept in... We had a wonderful lunch of Kobe beef at ITOH dining. There were several courses involved with the meal, but all were appropriately sized and we never felt overwhelmingly full. It was, of course, delicious. After lunch we walked through Kobe to take in more of the sights and just how life is here. We were able to join the Kohl's at their church, Kobe Bible Fellowship. It was amazing to experience a worship/sermon in another country - let alone Japan. The songs switched from English to Japanese halfway through each song. Fortunately, it was all on screen and phonetically spelled for us to follow along. After church, we were going to have a "light dinner" after our Kobe beef lunch... We ended up at a sushi restaurant (surprise, surprise). I don't know the name of it but as you can see, it has a conveyor belt that runs through it. We just grabbed what we wanted off the line as it came by! It didn't end up being such a light dinner, for me at any rate, because I completely lacked self control... I can't speak for the others but I can say that all the plates in front of us were not just ours! During our time here with J&K, I have been struck by a verse in 2 Timothy that says..."Pursue faith and love and peace, and enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts." 

Saturday in Kyoto

Saturday we took the bullet train to Kyoto. 
We started at the To Ji Temple which happens to turn into a market place once a month. The picture of Chris eating warabi mochi (basically jellied rice covered in soy bean powder) is at the market. At the market the guys wondered, talked & snacked while Kendra & I did some GOOD shopping. Afterwards we headed by taxi to the Golden Pavilion Temple. The top 2 floors are covered in gold leaf. We were unable to go into the temple, but the beauty is amazing! From here we headed to Ryoanji (Zen Rock Garden). I didn't put any pictures of this in but if you've seen the desk sets of rocks with sand, you get the idea. This was just much much bigger and all rock - no sand. Next stop was Nijo Castle (also not pictured). We were unable to take pictures inside, but the Shogun castle has the nightingale floors that sing as you walk across. I didn't hear all of C&J's conversations but I imagine this may have prompted conversation of them being ninjas with stealth moves & swords... After Nijo, we headed to Heian Shrine & Torii Shrine Gate (they are across from one another). The 4 of us are pictured with the Torii Shrine Gate behind us. We snacked at a 7-11 here. You can choose a sandwich here just like the US, but you can also choose a rice ball which typically has different things inside (mine had shrimp, J's had tuna, etc.) but it's with mayo and wrapped in seaweed. It was very tasty even though I was sure I would be turned off by the mayo. Our last couple of stops included walking up a hill lined with shops and who do we find? That's right! Spiderman is saving the day in Kyoto! Given our family's penchant for superheroes, I had to include this one! Last picture is the view of Kyoto from Kiyomizu Temple. Amazing, isn't it? This temple is supposedly for health, wealth or wisdom (can't ask for all 3). Apparently, people used to throw themselves off the balcony asking for health, wealth or wisdom & if survived, they were considered blessed... How many do you think survived? The other one we went to (the Heian Temple) was for peace. It strikes me that in the US, we can go to church and ask one God for all these things instead of running around to the different temples or shrines asking different gods separately...

Friday, June 20

The view here is from the top of Kitano Tenmangu Shrine. It supposedly enshrines a patron saint of learning. As you can see, it's a gray day. We're here during the rainy season so there are random showers. But because it is amazingly muggy and somewhat hot, the rain is not intolerable. Temperature is probably around mid-80s but the humidity is insane. Most Japanese carry these little washcloth-type-things around with them to blot. Considering the heat & lack of deodorant (just antiperspirant), I'm amazed that the people don't stink... if you ask a Japanese why there's no odor, he'll tell you because the Japanese are more evolved than Americans.... LOL.  


The steps are the 3rd set to get up to the shrine. On our way down, we decided that we earned a "31 flavors" after all our climbing & walking. I'm sure you can guess what "31 flavors" here is in the US... Most flavors are same as US except for Matcha (green tea) ice-cream. None of us really care for it... It's very overpowering. Also pictured is a car getting towed (hey - you want the FULL experience, right?). Notice how they put the wheels on individual buggy things instead of one flat-bed like we do. The police supervised the process. We learned they don't carry guns here. Japan is a very place. 

Friday, June 20

Jonathan & Chris head off to work for the
morning. Kendra & I relax after breakfast & catch up (At this point - I'm thrilled that I ate my own breakfast without sharing any off it, drank a full cup of coffee before it went cold AND didn't have to clean anything off the floor). While the guys worked, we headed to a local department store. It had over 8 floors!I didn't take a picture of the shoe dept but it puts Nordstrom's to shame. It was HUGE. Kendra is pictured with the summer kimono (aka Yukata). I didn't think people still wear kimono. They don't really in public (except maybe special occasions) so these are more for home wear - like we wear robes. We met J&C for lunch so we've had our 1st sushi (of hopefully many) meal - let's just say that the stuff in the states is good... this is AMAZING. We didn't have anything crazy but had a standard lunch special. It included miso soup, tuna, squid, yellow tail, shrimp, makeral, squid ear (a new one for us), eel, & I can't remember the other 2. The experience is very similar to sushi in states - 2 differences are: 1) tastes fresher probably because it was still alive that morning; 2) they put the wasabi in-between the rice and fish not a big glob on the side. I was excited to see Kendra's every day life of the grocery, post, etc. so after lunch we stopped at the grocery to pick up a few items. J drove the "cart" which is basically the basket in a metal holder. Fruit can be very expensive here. Just to prove the point, pictured is the $60 (6000 yen) melon.