2/9/13: Asakusabashi, Koshikawa Korakuen, and Ginza

I'm back with another re-cap.  Had a couple of days to get over my jet lag and need to get ready to go back to work tomorrow!  Wanted to catch up on my trip posts before I have to return to work, so here they are!

Saturday was our last full day in Tokyo before we were headed home.  Had to make the most of the last full day, so we decided to push on to see how much we could do.  First task was to find me some craft supplies!  I was open to trying a new store and was referred by two friends to try Shimojima.  I'll post a Japan Haul later on to show you what I ended up getting from there, but let's just say.. mission accomplished!  Bought so much stuff, we had to drop it off at the hotel before moving on...

Saw these cute animal baskets. I wanted one of each, but limited myself to just a few.

More animal baskets.. cute yah?

And here's the wall of washi!  I gotta say, their washi was pretty darn cheap.  I liked some of their designs so I ended up getting a handful, but some of them were common ones that I already had in my stash. If I didn't have that much washi already, I would have definitely bought more.  This photo is a panoramic taken by my iphone, so you should click on the photo to get the full effect.

While I was off in washi heaven, Paul took Akemi to meet our friend Randy, who live in Tokyo.  You may remember from our last trip, that we had lunch with Randy the same day of  the earthquake.  Akemi was hungry while they waited, so they decided to try McDonald's Shaka Shaka fries (seriously ate McDonalds again in Japan- shaking my head)...  Its called shaka shaka because you shake the packet onto the fries.  Paul said it was OK, probably wouldn't bother with it again.

As I mentioned, they went to meet Randy, who runs a English school in Japan and is originally from Hilo.  See him on the left?

So after we met up again and headed back to the hotel, we ate a fast lunch and were getting ready to go back out when I felt the hotel move... I looked at Paul and asked him if he felt that. Oh no?!  Was it happening again?  He didn't feel it, but then it shook again and he definitely felt that one.. so did Akemi.  We waited a few minutes and it stopped.. Thank goodness!  Paul looked it up and it was about 5.5.  Sheesh.  I am staring to believe that Paul and Randy shouldn't meet up in Tokyo anymore.  I'm thinking it was only a small one since they only saw each other for a short while.  Yikes!

Next we headed to Koshikawa Korakuen in hopes of seeing the plum blossoms (ume).  It's supposed to be one of the first signs of spring, so we were hoping to get a glimpse of them before we left.  This park was supposed to have quite a few trees, so we were hopeful that they would be in bloom.  

The station we got off on had the longest escalator I've ever seen!

Finally made it to the park without getting lost...

At the entrance to the park, we saw this kimono on the stand.. Do you know who it belonged to?

Don't feel bad because I didn't know either.  Paul said it belonged to Mito Komon, which was a character in a long running series in Japan and was even made into a cartoon.

On our way to the ume trees, we saw a lot of koi... or as Akemi called them.. catfish.  Is it catfish?

OK I know this one is definitely a koi.

Success!  We found the ume trees and some of them were in bloom!  

They even had white ones...

Found out I'm a pretty horrible photographer.  Where's Les when I need her?  I finally managed to get a close up of the blossoms.

We stuck around for a bit and enjoyed the scenery.  It really is a pretty park.

We decided to take the long route back to the entrance and found this pretty path.

I like this shot taken by Paul...  The Japanese even make their pathways look pretty.

I even found a heart shaped stone!

The path led us to the other side of the pond.  I used my panoramic mode to capture this photo.

After we left the park, we decided to check out Ginza for more shopping.

First stop was Itoya!  We found it pretty quickly after getting off the subway.  Paul and Akemi headed to Starbucks to read and rest while I checked out this new store.  It had a lot of stationary stuff, so I picked up the Frixion Pens that were requested (I'll post them later) and more washi paper!  I don't have any photos of the store, but I'll post the washi paper I got from there in a haul post.

Next we wanted to get another Baumkuchen cake to take back home.  We finally found the store that carries them!

We bought a set for the family back in Hilo and dessert for us!  Yummy!

The highlight of our trip was getting the omiyage from Hakuhinkan Toy Park.  We wanted to get them last time, but because of the earthquake, they were closed when we went back.  Paul was determined this time and spent quite some time at the machine. I will post the pics of what we got after we give everyone their omiyage.  It's pretty cool.

Ater the Toy Park, we got some food (more curry and rahmen for Akemi) and then headed back to Asakusa.  Overall a very successful shopping trip!

I got one more day of posts to go!

2/8/13: Sapporo and Travel Day back to Tokyo

We have some down time before we have to head to the airport, so I thought I'd catch up on my posts since Paul and Akemi are taking a nap.  I just couldn't sleep...

So I think I last left off in Sapporo right?  We had an afternoon flight, so we didn't have too much time to spend exploring.  Akemi really wanted to play in the snow one last time, so we agreed to let her indulge before we had to leave.

We decided to walk to Mr. Donut for some breakfast since our hotel didn't offer freebies.  On our way, we checked on Bob.  This is Bob the Snowman.  Akemi worked really hard on him, but he didn't have a face, so they added in some pine needles.  He even looks Japanese if you ask me.

And here's the two posing w/Bob.

We kept seeing this on every table at Mr. Donut.  We totally thought it was a lady, but Paul's friend Ai said it was a man.  No wonder!

After breakfast, I dropped the family off near the Sapporo Clock Tower to indulge in some final snowball fighting.  I decided to depart so as not to get caught in the cross fire.

Talk about perfect timing!  Paul snapped this selfie pix of him and Akemi just as she threw the snowball in his face!

You can take the girl out of Hawaii but you can't take the Hawaii out of the girl!

After the last snowball fight, Paul wanted to find a cache that was supposed to be at the Clock Tower, so we headed for the back of the building... but when we go there, the snow was so high, they couldn't find it at first...

Then we met some fellow Geocachers from Okinawa, who helped us find it!

After the Sapporo Geocache mission was accomplished, I wanted to walk through the park once more to see if I could find some things I missed the night before. (Yes, I always want to look).  I found it!  It was the Yuki/White version of the Baumkuchen.  Everything is made to look like snow during the festival.  So cool yah?

After I found the cake, we saw this booth... Crab, some kind of mollusk and Ika.  We couldn't resist getting a bowl of Kane Soup.

Only thing is that it's hard to shell a crab while holding your bowl of soup!  So we headed back to the hotel room to eat our soup.

 Then it was time to pack up and say sayoonara to Sapporo.  We headed for the station and took the subway to the train station.  There, we found some cool shops and unreal food kiosks!  One of them was called The Little Mermaid and it had wonderful breads.. just think of a waaaaay better version of St. Germain Bakery back home and you'll get the idea.  All of their breads are crunchy on the outside and super soft on the inside.  In fact, all Japan bakeries are just like this one.

We also stumbled onto a kiosk that sold these little pastry cups. When I first saw them, I thought it was custard cups, the kind you see at Dim Sum places.  They looked really good, so I bought one to eat at the airport.  One we got to the airport, we shared it.  OMG it was soooo ono!  The crust was really crunchy and the inside was actually a really really light cheescake!  I wish I could find the photo of the pix I took of Paul with the sign in the back so we know who made them.

And look what I found in the vending machine at the airport!?  Its Qoo.  Never heard of it until I read Marceline's blog and zines...  I think this one was apple, kinda tasted like the Natchan Apple.  Akemi ended up drinking most of it.

OK I just had to add this picture cause it makes me laugh everytime I see it!   Paul was trying to teach Akemi about shooting photos, so he was showing off a bit in the Qoo photo.  Akemi wanted to do the same pose as me, so he made her do the same and I photo bombed her!  Bwahahahahaha!

See, I couldn't stop laughing!  I totally had the giggles... I knew she was putting bunny ears on me but I didn't care.

Maybe I had the giggles because we had so many drinks!  I was also craving a milk tea, so I decided to take a photo with the one I bought earlier.  Again.. I knew she was doing bunny ears on me.

We finally got on the plane and realized it was snowing!  Bye Bye Sapporo!  It was fun!  I love the heart on the wing.

After getting off the plane, we saw a Fuji TV stand.  As Akemi and I were browsing, we saw this!  What the heck?  Paul found it amusing, so he took a photo. I think it was a bag of potato chips.

And here's a shot from the monorail back in Tokyo.  We saw the sun setting behind Fuji-san!  This photo doesn't do it justice.

After we got back to our hotel and dropped off our luggage, we headed out for some food.  We found a good tempura place near Nakamise.  It was very good.  You would never guess that there was seating on multiple floors!  They told us to go to the 5th floor to be seated.

On our way back, we decided to pick up some fruit at the grocery store.  Look what we found!  Sweet Secret!  Yummy Yummy!

OK I guess that's it for this post!  I'll have to finish off the trip posts when I get back home.  Until then, goodbye Tokyo!  We'll miss you!!

2/7/13: Sapporo- Susukino, Tsu Dome, and Odori Park

Since we only had one full day in Sapporo, we had to make the most of it.  We started the day early and ended up eating (of all places) McDonald's.  Not sure how we landed there, but I must say that their McDonald's breakfasts were pretty darn good.  I guess everything is better in Japan.  Even their coffee is full of beans... what?

This is what we saw on our way to McDonalds!  It snowed so much, you couldn't even see the bicycle!

McDonald's was near the Susukino area, which is where they have all the ice scupltures.  Since nothing else was open yet, we decided to check out this area.  It was pretty neat-o.

It's famous for having fish and other sea creatures in the ice sculpture!

At night, they close down the street so you can get closer to the scupltures. We went back that night, so I'll post some of those too.. Here's more fishies..

I thought these were cute.  The middle guy is the On mascot.  Don't ask me what On is.... but if you look at his eyes, one is a "o" and one is an "n".  He's normally yellow.

Paul liked this sculpture.  It was a Suntory Whisky ice bar.

After Susukino, we got some winter necessities from one of the convenience stores.  Someone told us to get spikes that can slip on over your shoes so that you don't slip in the ice.  They really helped when things got slippery.

Then we went back to the hotel for what reason I can't remember.  But it allowed me the chance to ask the hotel staff how to find the shuttle stop for the Tsu Dome site.  You can only get there by shuttle or subway, but the subway was about a 15 min walk away from the site.  It was snowing, so I really wanted to find that shuttle!  It turns out the shuttle stop was very close by- just a hop skip and jump across the park. Yay!

The shuttle was very reasonable.  A round trip ticket per adult was 800 yen and Akemi was free.  Yay! The bus ride was a bit long and made me sleepy, but it was nice not having to worry about what stop to get off of.

Look who was there to greet us at the Tsu Dome!

Love these small snowmen!!

The first thing Akemi wanted to do was the tube slide.  You had to take your inner tube up to the top and then slide down the ice ramp.  I decided to sit this out while they stood in line so I could look around.

Sorry.. photos are really dark and I can't figure out how to brighten them up on Paul's mac.  They had some snow sculptures there too. I liked a lot of them- most were kawaii... I guess because it was more geared to children (and me!).  Cute yah?

I liked the Maneki Neko... for sentimental reasons.  See I'm beckoning like him...

And one for Year of the Snake!  Even their snake is cute!

After walking around a bit, I decided to go back to the snow tube ride so as not to miss them.  They were still in line at the time..  Then the temperature dropped and the wind picked up and it started snowing pretty hard.  I was FREEEEEEEEZING!!!  OMG.. totally thought I was going to freeze to death!  I was amazed that all the little kids were still having so much fun on the ride.  Every single one of them that came off the ride said "Yokatta!"  Now I wanted to go too.  Too late for this round as Akemi and Paul were almost at the front of the line.  They then told me to go up the stairs where I could get a better shot of them sliding down.  I went up the steps to a deck and froze my buns off!  I did get good video though.  I'll have to figure out how to post that  later.

Paul said it was so much fun and said I had to go too.  For now, I wanted to thaw a bit, so we headed inside the Tsu Dome to warm up.

Inside, we found Yuki Daruma!  I think that's his name.  He's kawaii no?  I think he's the Tsu Dome mascot- for the Yuki Matsuri at least.

We sat and thawed for awhile. I ate a really good dessert but have no idea what it was!  Paul ended up eating a tako yaki and Akemi had some hot chocolate.

After our short break, Akemi wanted to head back outside.   Akemi had fun trying to catch snowflakes on her tongue.  I think we all did that after watching Charlie Brown!

I told Akemi that there was an ice slide that she might want to try.. She went once and didn't want to stop!  Good thing she had on her ski pants!

 After a few times on the ice slide, we decided to try the tube slide again and this time I went with them!  No photos though since we were all on board.  The guy was laughing at me because I was laughing and screaming at the same time.  I'm glad I went.. it was really fun but kinda scary. I thought I was going to flip over!

After the ice slide, that was enough excitement for me.... we wandered over to the kiddie area or waku-waku Tappy Land.  It ended up being too small for Akemi.. I guess she's getting to be old now!  She really wanted to make a snowman, so we went to the Yukidaruman Republic area...

 Next to this huge Yukidaruma, we saw all his minions!

These are all the snowmen that visitors made and left there.  Akemi really wanted to make one, so she started working on it, but the guy stopped us and told us to come back at 1:30... so we headed back to the Tsu Dome again because I was freezing again and needed to warm up...  Around 1:30, we headed back to the Yukidaruman Republic area and were able to make our own snowman!  Here's ours.  I think he kinda looks like a cuter version of the scary doll in Nigthmare Before Christmas.

After a few more slides down the ice slide, Akemi made snow angles.  I think every kid wants to do that!  After she made a few, we saw other kids doing the same.

Then it was time to head back to the hotel.  We took the shuttle back to Odori and went back to the hotel to clean up a bit and get ready to check out the ice sculptures.  By the time we got back, it was getting dark.  And because it had snowed so much, many of the details on the sculptures were hard to see...  Here's some of my faves...

It's Totoro!!!!

And we found the Hawaii team!  I think their's was some kind of hunting sculpture. I recognized the wild boar...

This is the Kabuki-za which is currently under re-construction and will be re-opening sometime in 2013.

And this is Maruko-chan  She is so Kawaii!  This sculpture is of her in Hawaii!  We also found the Hawaiian Airlines booth nearby.

Then we went to go get some dinner.  Rahmen to warm us up!!

The Rahmen shop was in a shopping arcade, so we ended up doing some shopping...  Funny how there  were a lot of stores and which one do we go in?  Don K! (For you Hawaii folks, that's like Don Quiote).  We found this pet shop too and stopped in to see all the cute doggies... Japanese seem to like Daschunds too!  We saw several waiting to be bought. This one was playing with Akemi through the glass.

The shops started to close up, so we headed back to Susukino to see the ice sculptures illuminated...

When we got there, we realized they closed the street, so we could get closer to the scupltures!  The kids were all riding on the sculptures, so I made Akemi go on the car...

Don't these look like huge beers?

I'm not sure what the significance of the tunnel is, but everyone was taking photos by it, so we did too!

This was taken inside the tunnel.. much better lighting....

On our way back to the hotel, Paul noticed that we lost our Don K! package.  After Don K, we had gone to McDonalds so Akemi could use the western toilet (no squats for her), so he thought he left it there.  We headed for the hotel and would meet him there...  In the meantime, Akemi was trying to make a huge snowball...  She carried it all around Sapporo.

When we got back to the hotel, she put the snowball in front and made another snowman, who she named Bob.  Bob will make an appearance in my next post.

After we met back up with Paul, we found out what happened at McDonalds.  He attempted to ask them if anyone turned in his Don K! bag which was left on the 2nd floor, but the guy gave him a weird look and found someone else who spoke more English. That guy figured out what Paul was talking about and gave him his bag!  Yay!  Japanese people are so honest! They rock!

After Akemi finished another homework assignment (junk yah?), we headed back out one more time.  I wanted to get a few more gifts before the stands closed up for the night.  I didn't know if they would be open the next day before we left, so I wanted to pick stuff up that night.  Paul decided to hang back with Akemi in the park and found an area where they could have another snowball fight without hitting bystanders.  We separated while I walked a few blocks to find my omiyage.  While on my walk, I caught one of the light shows that is projected on the Hoheikan (Historical Guest House).  It's pretty awesome. I'll try to get a video up that I took of it.

Just before I found my family, I spotted the cutest felt snowmen ever!  I got one snow bunny and one snowman.   The girl was happy I bought both of them!  

By the time I found Paul and Akemi, they were pretty much covered in snow.  What a long but fun day!  Next up is travel back to Tokyo.