Hi Crafters! In case you missed this... shop at Ben Franklin Crafts on Saturday, April 9th and receive 20% off your total craft purchase! A portion of their sales that day will be donated to the Japanese Red Cross Society. They are also doing free demos and make 'n takes. Click here for more info... How awesome is that?
Hello Bloggers!
I guess I've been really busy lately and forgot about my blogaversary! Wow- 2 years has gone by so quickly. I also noticed that I hit 101 followers!! OK- I know there's a duplicate, so its really 100, but that's still cause for celebration right? This blog candy is open to all of my 100 followers! All you need to do is leave a comment on my blog between now and Saturday, April 2nd at 11:59pm HST. Sorry, only the first 100 followers are eligible for this candy. Its just a little something to reward you for your interest in my little blog.
Decided to grab some goodies that remind me of Japan... and some other misc. items. Good Luck!
OK- so we forgot to take a photo at the restaurant, so we took a quick one on the side of the road outside of the train station. Here's us with Etsuko...
And here we are with Randy...
After we left the Fernandez's, we thought about going straight to Puroland, but decided against it since they had given us a lot of omiyage, plus all the stuff we bought, and DH forgot his jacket and Randy said it might snow that night. So we went back to the hotel to drop off our stuff and grab Paul's jacket, but the maid was cleaning our room at the time, so we couldn't get in. All of the other rooms on our floor were wide open, except ours. I think she still had our key, so we went back to the lobby to wait. After about 1/2 hour, she came down with the key so we headed up to the room. Of course DH had to login and not sure what he was checking- maybe the subway map for the Puroland route. We started discussing our plans and DH suggested we start heading towards Puroland, but I told him that it was late and by the time we would get there, we'd only have about 1 1/2 hours there, which didn't seem worth the price of admission to me, so I told him we could go somewhere else.
Anyway, I'll never forget his face as I looked as his reflection in the mirror (I was sitting on the bed behind him), as his eyes got really wide. At first I didn't know why he was making that face at me, but then I too felt the shaking. It started off slow, but gradually got faster and the whole hotel started to sway back and forth. We grabbed our bags and headed to the hallway, where we saw the maid. She kept saying "sugoi" and laughing nervously. Needless to say all my reasonable thinking went out the door and I just froze. After what seemed like an eternity, the shaking finally stopped and we decided it was OK to try to get out of there... yup took the stairs 7 floors down and saw the other maids walking back up. We also saw a lot of people in the street waiting to see if it was OK to go back in. I think somehow my DH managed to post something on facebook before we left and grabbed the computer in case we could connect somewhere else besides our hotel room. I wasn't about to stay in the room, so we headed down the street to the shopping area. I figured better to be with everyone else, that way I can do as they do.
Since we were in the Nakamise area again, I decided to go back to the Washi store again! Yes, as I was pulling out paper, there was an aftershock- a quite large one. So we all ran out of the store. I saw everyone going in the middle of the street, so we followed. There was a police box in front near the street and one of the officers made an announcement. Everyone just stayed in the middle of the street until the shaking stopped, then another announcement was made and everyone walked back into the shops. I just followed everyone- totally clueless. Went back into the store and bought my paper. Dum yah?
The rest is kind of a blur. I think we tried to go down to the subway to go to Ginza, but left when we saw everyone just standing around in the station. I had a bad feeling after that. Never seen people hanging around a subway station before. We decided to walk back to the hotel to find out what was going on and stayed in the lobby for quite awhile as DH tried to get our computer online. The connection was junk to regular sites but for some reason we were able to get onto Skype and just so happened my MIL was online, so we were able to chat with her. She seemed very relieved to see that we were OK. Then we sent out emails/facebook messages to everyone back home and tried to find out what was happening in Japan. We found out there was a tsunami warning, and then got really worried.
As I sat in the lobby area, I watched the Hotel Manager place a sign on the outside of the hotel. Then as people walked up to the hotel, some turned around after they saw the sign. Some didn't see the sign and ended up walking in, talking to the front desk clerk, then turning around. None of them had suitcases, so I finally figured out that they were trying to get rooms for the night. We guessed that none of the trains/subways were running, so they were stranded. I felt really bad for everyone that got turned away and hoped they were able to find another hotel. On the upside, I felt a little relief that they were trying to get a room at our hotel, which probably meant that we didn't need to evacuate. Let me tell you how scary it is to see so many people walking in one direction! I kept asking Paul if we were supposed to evacuate, but he said he thought we were ok for now. I decided to keep an eye on the front desk clerk- if she left, I would be right behind her.
After a few hours, we decided to go back out and try to find some food before walking up the 7 floors to our room. We found an ono katsu place and decided to have a beer to help us relax. Glad I did since I don't think I would've been able to sleep otherwise. Here's a picture of my dinner that night. The tonkatsu was actually better than the shrimp.
I don't know if you can tell from the next photo, but this was one of the many bus stops on our route to the restaurant. There were so many people in line- like blocks long... trying to find a way home. I felt really bad for them since some of the busses that pulled up were already full. We headed back to the hotel after dinner and tried to figure out what the Japan News was reporting. We were tripping out at what happened as we saw video of the Tsunami.
The next day was our last day in Japan. We were scheduled to return home that night to Hawaii, but had no idea if we'd be able to get home. We tried calling Hawaiian, but had problems, so continued to check their website for updates. It appeared that it was still scheduled, so we decided to keep checking to see if the flight from Hawaii flew out on time.
Since we had a whole day, DH asks me if I want to go to Puroland. Uh- No! Puroland is about 1 hour by train outside of Tokyo, so I had no desire. I wanted to stay as close as possible to our hotel. We didn't know if the subways were running anyway, so we went to one of the stations. It looked like it was working, so we decided to head to Ginza to see if that Toy Park was open. Ginza was not that far away and we probably could've walked if worse came to worse.
I guess Ginza opens later, so many stores were not open when we got there. Don K! was open, so we bought more of that instant sushi. The Toy Park was not open and we later found out that they weren't planning on opening. So much for our cool omiyage we wanted to get. Oh well- maybe next time.
Before we left Ginza, I really wanted to try this cool donut looking thing....
The outside was like a donut, but the inside was layers and layers of cake.. soooo good! People were in line before the store opened for this. We had no idea if it was good, but should have taken the cue from everyone standing in line. Duh! Anyway, we decided to try the smaller pieces (outside pieces) of the regular one and the chocolate one. OMG! This was sooooo good! Sorry, I have no idea what the name is or the name of the department store. All I can tell you is that you can see them making it from the street, which is why I was attracted to it. Its right near the Yamaha store. I wish I brought back more. Definitely on my to get for next time.
After Ginza, we had some time, so we headed to Akihabara. I think this is the only photo we took there. Frankly we didn't have that much fun there. We went into one big department store, but didn't get anything. Also went into a porn shop without knowing it was a porn shop. Gotta be careful when they have anime characters in the front of the store. Some of them are not that innocent.
Went back to Asakusa to try to get one last age-manju and find something to eat. I've been meaning to get a shot of the rickshaws and finally got one- but not so good since he was facing the wrong way. Those guys were really aggressive and would come up to us to ask us if we wanted a ride. We laughed and told them that they would not be able to lift us since we are too heavy. I give them credit since most of them are really skinny.
Finally decided on udon as our last meal and had our last age-manju. Boy will I miss that! We brought some home, but its just not the same.
After that, we headed back to the hotel and asked for help in calling a taxi. Our strategy was to take a taxi to the monorail station and then take the monorail to the airport. So far it seemed like our flight was going out and the airport was not closed. As much as I loved Tokyo, I really wanted to get home to Akemi. The thought of not seeing her again was scary and I was ready to do anything to get home. Once I got to the airport and checked in I felt much better. We got there so early that I checked out some of the shops. Found this wasabi Kit Kat that Randy recommended we bring back, so I got some for the boys back home. They said it was mild tasting- I didn't try, but took a photo for you to see. Weird how we had to go all the way to Japan to get something American.
I really really enjoyed our trip to Japan and can't wait to go back again. We were very lucky throughout our trip and feel very fortunate to have returned home safely. We continue to pray for the people of Japan and hope that all the tragedy comes to an end soon so they can start rebuilding. To our friends- Randy and Etsuko, please stay safe! And for those of you who have family and friends there, our thoughts and prayers are with you. Hope you enjoyed our earth shaking adventure!
Hi Everyone! Saw these on Facebook and then I saw someone in Hilo wearing them! How awesome is that? Come to find out this company is based in Hilo-even more awesome! Anyway, you can purchase these shirts on their website here... Shirt sale proceeds will be donated to Japan in the earthquake/tsunami recovery.
Ooh- just saw this on Berenice's blog... You can get these cute Karber images and they will make a donation to help Japan's earthquake recovery. Check it out here...
Hi Stampers- saw this post this morning on Creating Cupcake's site! They will be donating $$ made from this set to Japan for recovery efforts. What a great way for us fellow crafters to help out. Go get your set this week so that it will help out everyone in Japan! Looking for other stuff we can do and will post as I see them.
Our trip is winding down so we took it a little slower today due to my aching feet and getting ready to go home. We also had to switch rooms, so we had to pack up and move house, which meant we couldn't come back to the room until after 4:00pm.
After getting a late start, we decided to go to the Imperial Palace and say hi to the Emperor. If you look really closely, you can see him across the moat waving at the camera. Only kidding, no one is allowed near the palace, so we just did as everyone else did and take photos from across the bridge.
After the Imperial Palace, we headed towards Tsukiji for some sushi. We really didn't know where to go eat, but figured every restaurant there should have good sushi since its fresh. Since I don't like raw fish (I know, I know, what kind of Japanese am I?), I settled on anago or salt water eel. I also ordered crab, but the anago was waaaaay better. Just melted in your mouth! Look how big the pieces were. You can't even see the rice under it!
After lunch, we headed back to Asakusa so that Paul could visit the Miyamoto Drum Museum. We didn't have time to do that last time, so we headed upstairs this time to check it out. They normally charge admission, but they kindly let us go up for free. I guess the Big Island Candies and Mauna Loa Macadamia Nuts worked! :) The guy recognized Paul from the other day and said we could go up for free. How nice yah? This photo was taken in the store portion- cool yah?
This was taken in the drum museum. I also got scoldings since we weren't supposed to take pictures in there. I think I made Paul shame.
After Miyamoto's, we headed back to Nakamise so I could get my washi paper. On the way, we saw another arcades where you can play those crane games and win prizes. Apparently these are very popular here in Japan since we see them everywhere. This one had anime looking mannequins so I made DH pose with them. I told him he forgot to wink like the girl was winking.
(BTW- DH does not stand for Department Head or Dick Head!!! ha ha ha ha ha)
I finally got my hands on some washi paper!!!!! Hooray! I was on a mission and finally succeeded. They had so much to choose from! Also got some other cute souveniers that I've been eyeing everytime we pass by. I figure this might be the last time we go there, so I don't want to miss out on anything.
After my mission was accomplished, we decided to go get more of that age-manju since they were still open. We decided to get our own and share 2 flavors this time cause it was so good last time. I got the custard again and DH got the green tea flavor. I liked the green tea one too- can't decide which one is my favorite. I will miss this when we leave.
One of the cool things we saw them making was fresh arare! Its pretty neat how they cook it on a grill. DH said he is going to figure out how to make his own on the hibachi! You can't beat fresh arare.
I thought this was a funny site to see in Japan... muu muu's and other Hawaiian stuff! Maybe I can sell my clothes from Hawaii there and make room for more souveniors! I'm ready to start trashing my clothes in order to make more room in my suitcase!
Since it was dinner time, we decided to just find food before going back to the hotel. Mikey gave us one last recommendation for tenpura, so we found the restaurant had the tendon. I guess I was really hungry since I have 2 bowls!
Isn't this funny? We saw this cutout on the street, so I made Paul stick his head in it. I guess it doesn't look that different from how he normally looks since he's bolo head too! hee hee hee.
Ahhh, and on our way back home, we ran into Mister Donut again. He's so nice to give us more donuts yah? We chose two that look like this shape. I don't know what its called but one was chocolate with a sugar glaze and this one was chocolate dipped in chocolate. Both were yummy. We figured since we were walking home, we could have dessert. I can't explain it but somehow it reminded me of eating mochi. Not that it was sticky, but chewy. I loved it! Gotta get my fix before we head back to Hawaii and can't get it anymore. How come no one who went to Japan told me about him?
Just wanted to say thanks to all of you who are leaving comments to us. I just decided to blog about our trip as a way to help me remember where we went on each day so it would be easier to do my scrapbook later on. I'm glad so many of you are getting some enjoyment out of it! Its truly and adventure doing this all on our own, but so much fun because we are not tied to any tour schedule. Well, one more full day tomorrow and then we gotta get ready to go home. We are hoping to head towards Puroland tomorrow to visit Hello Kitty. Wish us luck!
Konbanwa! Got back to our hotel a little while ago and boy are we tired! Managed to get through the "rush hour" on the subway/train rides today and boy was that crazy! I literally had to suck my butt in so it would fit into the train before the door closed on me!!
Anyway, we did mostly sightseeing today and started off at Ueno Park. I really liked it here- very peaceful and different from the rest of Tokyo. This is the place to go when cherry
blossoms are blooming- the park is covered with trees, so I'm sure it must be beautiful.
Went to the Toshogu Shrine first, which is right next to the Ueno Zoo. Paul is demonstrating showing his respect to the shrine by bowing, offering, and ringing the bell, etc.
We also bought this wood thing that I'm holding, where you write your wishes and hang it up at the shrine.
We lucked out and even saw some cherry blossoms blooming! Woo hoo! Check that off my list!
After strolling through the park, Paul wanted to see the National Science Museum. This photo shows the evolution of Paul! It was funny- they actually had an empty space where you could go and be the next in the evolution line. At least that's what we think it said... none of the volunteers stopped us, so we entertained ourselves by taking pictures of the Paul exhibit!
After all that sightseeing, we got some lunch and then headed towards Ameyokocho. It was fun to look at all the vendors- kinda like a cross between farmers market and the swap meet, except everyone is way more aggressive. This photo doesn't show how crowded the street was even during mid-day. Does anyone work around here?
I just had to take this photo as we passed by. I don't know what it is exactly, but its huge! Paul thinks its dried squid.
One of the reasons I liked Ueno was all their panda and cherry blossom themed items. So cute! This poster was on a pillar at the train station.
Couldn't resist getting this panda cookie. They also had panda candy, panda ampan, and what looked like Panda manapua.
After Ueno, we headed to Mitaka to get to the Studio Ghibli where Hayao Miyazaki's studio is located. A nice man helped us get there and even caught up to us on his bike later to make sure we knew where to turn. He was so nice- reminded me of my friend's dad. We gave him some mac nuts to thank him for his help.
Look who was at the gate to greet us! It's my neighbor Totoro! I don't have much more photos since we were not supposed to take pictures inside the museum. Inside we watched a cartoon about the Egg Princess and Mr. Dough. It was so cute I bought some stuff with the egg princess on it. She looks like humpty dumpty in a dress. The exhibits were trippy! I still can't wrap my brain on how they did some of them- you gotta see it for yourself if you ever go to Japan. Oh yah- they also had a catbus! Too bad it was only for little ones, otherwise Paul and I would have rode on it for sure! Too bad nekobasu couldn't take us back to our hotel!
Konbanwa! All I can say is.... Mission Accomplished! We got so many things checked off our to do list today. Started out by going to Harajuku. Apparently the girls who dress as anime characters and yell at each other don't hang out there anymore, so we didn't get to see them. We settled on shopping to get some omiyage stuff for everyone back home. First stop was Takeshita-dori, where we found the Daiso 100 yen store. Woo hoo! Check that off my list. We found choke stuff for everyone and more!
Next stop was Kiddie Land... It was a fun 3 level toy store with all kinds of fun stuff. Picked up some Snoopy stuff for Akemi and Hello Kitty for mom. Isn't this picture funny?
After Kiddie Land, we found Oriental Bazaar. I totally thought it was going to be a cheapy omiyage store, but they had really nice stuff. Got things for the adults here and something for myself too.
After Oriental Bazaar, we headed towards Shibuya. As soon as we got off the train, we saw a Beard Papa shop and picked up this chocolate cake thing. I saw Les post about when she went last year and Joy recommended we try something from Beard Papa while in Japan... so here it is... It was really rich, but really good.
After our snack, we found Hachiko. He is a loyal doggie that kept going to the station for ~10 years after his master died. Sad yah? They built this statue in honor of him. I seriously doubt Kiki would do that for us.
While in Shibuya, I got to go to Tokyo Hands, which had craft stuff! Yay! That was fun. Found me some Totoro rubber stamps and some other goodies too. Then we headed towards the Loft, where I found stickers and other goodies. We decided to head home after that since our bags were getting heavy.
After we had a chance to rest a bit, we decided at the last minute to go to Ginza to try to find the Hakuhinkan Toy Park. We got there with only about 10 min. to shop, but found a couple things in the process. Found this display with all the pandas, so cute!
On our way to the Toy Park, we saw a Don Quiote or DonK! Its very different from the one back home. Way more stuff all stuffed into a small 2 story space. There we found Melty Blend (yum) and the instant sushi kit for the boys back home... If you want to know what this is, click here..
After our shopping excursion, we were hungry, so we went looking for a place to eat. We settled on this rahmen shop right next to the subway station. When you order, its at the vending machine, so we had no idea what we were ordering. After you pay at the vending machine, you give the ticket to the waitress. It sure was yummy. Look at DH finishing up my soup too!
My feet are aching! DH is already sleeping, so I guess he'll read my re-cap tomorrow morning. I think we might try to hit Ueno tomorrow since we passed through the train station today and I saw all the panda madness there. So cute! We'll also try to hit Ameyokocho while there. We FINALLY got tickets to the Totoro museum for tomorrow afternoon, so after Ueno, we'll be heading there. I hope DH did the ticket thing right. Poor thing, had to try about 5xs to get the ticket to print. Apparently, they don't sell the museum tickets at the door, you can only get them from this Loppi machine at the Lawson Station convenience store and its all in Japanese. DH was searching all kinds of kanji to figure out what the problem was. I told him he needs to do a tutorial on it for others. Better yet, just tell others to go get their tickets at a local travel agency in Hawaii. Don't do what we did. I'll let you know later if we got the right tickets or not. Ja mata!
Ohayogozaimasu! We finally remembered to take a photo of our free breakfast that the hotel provides. The musubis are soooooo good and so is the miso soup. DH doesn't normally eat the bread, but they also have good japanese bread... the kind you get from Shirokiya. They also had coffee, so we weren't dying every morning.
Since our Tokyo Seas tickets were only good for 3/7, we headed out to the subway line and saw this..... It snowed!!!!!! I've never actually seen snow falling before, so I was so excited that we had to take a bunch of photos. It was a mixture of snow and rain, so we still got wet too, but its not as bad as when it rains. I was probably the only dummy who took pictures in the snow.
After our two subway rides and a train ride to Tokyo Seas, we got a bit lost. DH led me (Ryoga style) on foot in the wrong direction. I guess its my fault for not knowing what direction to go.. On our adventure, we found the snow had built up enough on the plants and ground... Thought it was funny to see snow on palm trees.
So after we had asked 2 cast members how to get to Tokyo Seas, DH finally listened to the 2nd one and we boarded the monorail. Here's a photo inside... I liked the straps hanging down.. Pure Disney fashion.
It was snowing bad when we got in the park. We almost didn't take this photo, but decided to do it anyway. This huge globe was in the middle of a fountain. I guess the theme at Tokyo Seas is an international one, so its fitting to have this globe at the front.
This next picture was taken in the Mediterranian area. It totally reminded us of Hogwarts, so we took a photo. Maybe its because it was snowing too?
Aaah, we got smarter this time around and headed straight for the Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull ride to get fast passes. Yay! Here's a photo of the outside. That's me with my Mickey ears. I must say, this ride was soooo fun! I haven't been on this type of ride in years since I've been going with Akemi. Maybe now that she's older we can try going on these now.
While we were killing time waiting for our fastpasses, we went to the Mermaid Lagoon area to see the Little Mermaid stuff. I love Little Mermaid, so I was eager to see this section even though it was geared to kids. We lucked out and as soon as we got there, there was another show of Under the Sea at the Little Mermaid Theater. I really really enjoyed this show. It was all in Japanese, but you can follow along.. all of the songs remained in English. Ariel and her friends were suspended from wires, which allowed them to look like they were swimming. The puppets they used for the sea life were very well done too. I highly recommend this for all ages. We couldn't take any photos inside the theater, so I took some outside. Here's the jellyfish ride- so cute!
After our Indiana Jones ride, we went to the Arabian Coast to see Sinbad's Storybook Voyage and The Magic Lamp Theater. We liked both of these attractions a lot. The Sinbad ride was really cute for kids and similar to Small World. The Magic Lamp theater featured Genie from Aladdin in a 3-D show. I forgot how much I liked that movie. I think I'll go home and watch it again.
I think this photo just sums up the day... isn't it so cute? We saw snow Mickeys all over the park but this was the first snow Mickey and Minnie. Love it!
This was taken at the Cape Cod area. I decided to help Mickey steer the boat... Oh yah- see that bucket around my neck? It was my new Minnie bucket with Strawberry flavored popcorn inside! Tokyo Seas had some different flavors from Disneyland... Strawberry was my favorite by far. After I wolfed down my first bucket, we refilled it on the way home so we'd have some to savor for later. The other unique flavor they had at this park was the Milk Tea flavor. I don't know how they did it, but it had a tea aftertaste!
Forgot to mention that we also went on the ride 2000 leagues under the sea. It was cool- reminded me of the submarine ride. Decided not to go on Journey to the Center of the Earth since DH is not into roller coasters. We decided to leave the park early since we had done everything we wanted to do and more.
After resting at the hotel for a bit, we were hungry and headed out to find another recommended restaurant by Mikey. This rahmen shop was called Yoroiya and it was so good! Perfect for a cold night in Tokyo. Here you see DH dipping his noodles into the broth.
Here's a photo of everything we got... we ordered the gyoza on the side. It was the best gyoza I ever had. They were huge and seared perfectly. Thanks Mikey!
Oh, and remember I told you about Mister Donut? Here he is! Funny yah? I tried to look like him in this photo. Had me some donuts for dessert. We had a strawberry one filled with strawberry cream and a chocolate one filled with whipped cream. Both were awesome. Joy- if you are reading this.. I did not know which one was the Lion donut... was it the one that looked like a big circle of beads?
So that concludes Day 3. Today we are going to try to hit Ueno and Harajuku/Shibuya area to find the 100yen store. Wish us luck!
