Day 8: 6/20-
Wednesday
Our relaxing didn’t
last long! We headed to Higashiyamato City to meet my Wednesday English class
for lunch. They were so sweet. When they heard my parents were coming to Japan
to visit they insisted on throwing them a welcome party. Parties with my
students always involve food and a good time. We met Michiko-san at one of our
favorite Japanese landmark’s, Mikdonarud’s… AKA McDonald’s. We followed her to
a very beautiful and fancy restaurant. We had a great time! This class consists
of 7 female students, and every one of them is adorable and fun. I truly leave that
class with my cheeks hurting because I’ve smiled through the whole lesson. They
were just as wonderful in a restaurant setting. I didn’t take a picture in the
room we ate in, but it was really cool to give my parents a true traditional
meal in a traditional style restaurant. The room had the sliding screen doors
where we took off our shoes and stepped up into a room with tatami (straw) mats
on the floor. The waitresses wore buns in their hair and kimonos. My mom and my
students all ordered a 10-course meal (I think) that had fish, salad, soup,
mochi etc. Mom was a real trouper and tried everything that was presented. I
was very proud! Dad did well too. We ordered sukiyaki (which I had never had)
which was served with raw egg (we traded with some of our students cause while
I’m adventurous I do have limits, y’all.) There were really thick udon noodles
served in a sweet soy sauce based bowl with beef and vegetables. We also had
sashimi (raw fish) and even my dad tried it! I was so proud of them!
After our lunch we went to the community center where I
teach and had our regularly scheduled class. It was a delight for me to share
that experience with my parents. Teaching English has given me a huge insight
into the Japanese culture and the Japanese people’s lives.
The whole time my parents had been in Japan they just kept
asking me questions. “What’s that? What’s this? What do they use that for? Why
do they do things like that? Who is that guy? What year did ___ happen in?
What’s the point of this? Why? Who? What?” Aaaargh. I realized during their
trip I don’t actually know a thing about Japan. So my answer was always “I
don’t know. Ask my English students.” So my mom had a running list of questions
to ask them. And I let her, and they answered. It all worked out. I can’t
remember all of her questions but I remembered a couple… “Do you have clothes dryers?” (Almost
everyone hangs their clothes on clotheslines here.) “What are the sticks in the
cemeteries? What is their significance?” (They’re prayers written to the god’s
for their loved ones.)
After the lesson I took my parents to my favorite place in
Japan. The Daiso. Daiso’s are basically dollar stores, except you pay in yen,
which makes them 100 yen stores, which with the conversion rate is really
$1.30ish. It’s really not that confusing. We spent about 2.5 hours in there.
There is SO much to see and buy. The Japanese are really innovative and you can
find a lot of really cool things for 100 yen that you see in American “As Seen
on TV” ads. What fun we had buying a bunch of crap. :)
That evening the sun was setting and it was a pretty clear
day. It had been raining quite a bit on the trip thus far and I just had a
feeling we could maybe see Fuji-san from the roof of the Yokota Community
Center. I was right.
Day 9: 6/21- Thursday
We got a late start to our day again on this day. We were
doing that because my parents were still jet-lagged. My dad would wake up at 4
or 5am and then I’d get up around 9 (or 10), and Dad would be ready for a nap.
So he’d nap for an hour or two, then we’d be on our way.
We decided to head for Mt. Mitake, which I had never been
to. My mom wanted me to have new experiences while they were here and not just
the same ones over and over. But because we were getting such a late start to
our day and it was starting to rain and I didn’t really know how to get to Mt.
Mitake I changed my mind and decided to take them to Mt. Takao instead!
I headed for the train station (dragging my parents along
behind me) and made it just in time. Because it’s rainy season in Japan, it
started to rain on our train ride up to Takao. We were a little hesitant about
what to do once we got there because it was pouring down rain and we didn’t
have any umbrellas. We took a 10 minute breather at a little market near the
train station and bought some Chu-hi’s! Chu-hi’s are alcoholic cocktails in a
can. They’re delightful! We decided to walk to the cable car entrance to the
mountain and go on up since we were there, despite the rain. On this walk my
parents got to see the sweet hospitality of the Japanese people. A man who (we
guessed) was returning from the mountain stopped and handed my dad his
umbrella. I was ahead of them (as usual) but they got a free umbrella—how sweet
and cool is that?
Hachioji Train Station
At the Takao Train Station
On a very empty train!
We took the cable car up the mountain and walked around. Mt.
Takao has a handful of temples and beautiful nature to see. When we got to the
top there was a nice steady drizzle so we found a place to purchase another
umbrella.
The Cable Car
I am not exactly sure what these sticks are for, but I guessed maybe it was things people were thankful for??? Looks like they got an obnoxious American in the plaque painting!
A slug we helped safely cross the path!
We hiked the path to the furthest point, had some ice cream, (we love ice cream) and then tried to figure out how to get back down. We wanted to take a different trail but the one we wanted to take was closed, probably due to the rain. We found another way and hiked back to where the cable car entrance was and took that back down the mountain. We caught the train out of there and made it home by sunset.
As we got home and had some dinner I ran into our friends Matt and Melissa and their two 18 year old house guests who were also here visiting for the 3 weeks! We decided to all go bowling at Round 1, a huge amusement center near the base. We got there and discovered it was 1,000yen to bowl (roughly $12) per person. Per game. Keep in mind on the base it’s like $1 a game, and that includes shoes. $.50 if you go during lunch. So we had a debate and decided to go for it. We’re glad we did! It was pretty cool to see how Japanese bowling works.
First of all, you get your shoes out of a giant vending machine. Did you hear me? Shoes. Out of a vending machine. COOL! Then the balls are all very fluorescent. And they look like basketballs. Except they’re bowling balls. Those two things are really the coolest part of the bowling off base. But they made it worth it. Dad schooled us all in bowling (surprise, surprise) and Mom took second. I think I was third? Maybe? Basically, team Brassfield dominated the Smith’s. Winning!!!
Day 10: 6/22- Friday
We decided to take the Smith’s two visiting girls, Lexi and
Sydney to Kamakura with us the next day. We woke up to torrential downpours and
decided to nix that plan. Instead we spent the day going to Joyful Honda, one
of my favorite stores! They have a food court where we all got KFC (it’s an
experience here, don’t judge our American food cravings) except for my mom, who
opted for the more Japanese experience and had ramen. She used a fork. JH has
tons of cool things to see, food court, a craft store, pet shop, a whole wall
of umbrellas, bikes, outdoor things, lumber, kitchen supplies—you name it, it’s
there. It’s a cross between Home Depot and Wal-mart. Or something. The best
part was being able to take my mom to the gardening section with me and have
her teach me a thing or two about gardening! We selected marigolds and vinca’s
to plant in my garden, as well as basil and parsley.
Dog washing machine at Joyful Honda! Cheyenne would hate me if I put her in there!!!
Mom being really American and eating her ramen with a fork!
Next we made a trip through Don Quixote! It’s a store that is all kinds of crazy. There’s liquor, clothes, jewelry, massagers, cosmetics, toys, food, it’s very strange. It’s one of those places that is not wheel chair accessible and there is always crazy things to see around each corner. It can be overwhelming!
The trip details are getting fuzzy at this point but I’m pretty sure this is the night we came home, had Thai food from our base’s bowling alley (DE-lish btw), and then Melissa, Lexi, Sydney, my mom and I all went Karaokeing (spellcheck tells me this is not a real verb) while Matt took my dad out to the Drop Bar. Not many dads who visit Japan make it to the Drop Bar, so obviously MY dad is the coolest.
I’m not sure how we stayed out until almost 2am again, but we did! WOW!
Day 11: 6/23- Saturday
This day was BEATLES day! Hooray! I booked us a room for 4
nights down at the New Sanno hotel in downtown Tokyo. It’s expensive (about
$10, one way) to get into town and back on the train so it made more sense to
spend that money to sleep downtown and be able to have more time there for the
next few days. It worked out well.
My sweet friend Laura worked hard to coordinate a big group
of us to go to the Beatles Night the New Sanno hotel hosts twice a year. We
went last year and had a total blast! Check out that blog here. We slept in and
then got on the road (before stopping to have some ramen) and made it to the
hotel in record time! We had a couple of drinks in our room, got ready and then
headed to the ball room for the event. Hats, glasses and food were provided.
The Parrot’s came on the stage and everyone danced! I don’t know why but I
didn’t bask in the moment. I was missing George and was just in a weird mood.
We had a great time though. And I know I keep saying this, but it was really
special to have that experience with my Mom (and Dad, of course!!!). We’re true
Beatles fans and will be forever. We dance, dance, danced.
Getting ready in our hotel room!
All the people from our squadron!
Thankful for the relationship they have and the example they set for George and I!
After the show I ran into the Parrot’s in the lobby and I
took a picture with them. They don’t speak much English but I was able to ask
them if I come to the club where they play (it’s called the Abbey Road club)
can I dance? (As their website states ‘No Dancing Allowed’.) They told me no.
Mom and Dad did the responsible adult thing and went to bed and
I went out with a few friends to bar called Heartland, some tequila bar (where
I did NOT have any tequila) and finally a happy stop at McDonald’s! I made it
back to the room and crashed!
Day 12: 6/24- Sunday
We got up the next day and headed for the train! At this
point my parents were doing much better at keeping up, though not great. :) We
made it to Shibuya Crossing! It’s the busiest intersection in the world.
Shibuya Crossing is to Tokyo as Times Square is to NYC. We spent about half an
hour crossing the intersection over and over before heading up to the Starbucks
at that intersection and taking pictures. Our favorite moment was watching a
guy in a big diaper and a guy dressed in some sort of gold-crazy doing jumping
jack-things in the middle of the intersection. Hysterical.
We decided I’d stay in the Starbucks and let my parents go
down into the sea of people and I’d take their picture. We didn’t have a game
plan to find each other. After I shot them (with the camera, not a gun) I
waited and waited for them to come back into the Starbucks. After a
considerable amount of time I finally went down to find my dad but my mom was
now missing because she went back into the coffee shop to find me. Eventually
we found each other, but at the biggest intersection in the world, there was
the small chance we never would’ve!
Oh! Oh! AND we finally found Hachi! Hachiko is a legend in
Japan. Hachiko was a dog who would wait for his owner at the exit of the train
station every day until he came home from work. Once his owner died Hachiko sat
there and waited each day, until his own death. It’s heartbreaking. Richard
Gere starred in an Americanized version of this story. I watched it last week.
And I cried through the whole movie. Anywho, there is a statue in his honor
placed outside of the Shibuya train station. I’ve been through that station
many times but had never seen the statue until that day!
We eventually wound our way through the streets to Harajuku.
We did a lap through Yoyogi Park and checked out the Tokyo riffraff. We found
more ice cream near the giant venue adjacent to Yoyogi Park. There were
thousands of girls going into this venue and almost all of them were wearing
t-shirts that said ‘Shinee’ on them. I didn’t have a clue who they were but
eventually found out they’re a Korean pop boy band. What can I say? Asia tends
to be about 10 years behind the American music/fashion scene.
We saw the dancing Elvis’s, a mime show, a bubble magician
(he wasn’t doing magic tricks but his craft was indeed magical) and many
musical groups, among a collection of eclectic people of Tokyo.
We also went down Takeshita Street, of course, and saw the crazy
there. It’s a nut-so street filled with people screaming at you to purchase
their items, and shop in their stores. It never fails to amaze me what the kids
are wearing these days. Oh my word. I think I’m old. Kids these days have crazy hair, short dresses, and weird makeup. Did I just use the phrase "kids these days?!" Maybe I really am getting old?!
We had reservations for the Ninja Restaurant with Melissa,
Matt, and the girls but Matt ended up not being able to come to dinner. The
Ninja Restaurant is a themed dinner experience! I really don’t want to write
all about it because it’s one of those things with surprises happening here and
there and I’d hate to ruin some of the surprises for those friends/readers who
will eventually go there and have their experience ruined. I’ll just say that
the food was delicious. There were ninjas, though our waiter was a very clumsy
ninja! He kept dropping things and over pouring the beer. I thought maybe it
could be a comedy act, but in the end, I think he was just an overweight,
clumsy ninja. There was also fire. It was very cool!
With the Ninja Menu
Melissa won by ordering the coolest dish!
Day 13: 6/25- Monday
Tokyo has a really cool bus system that is for locals but
highly advertised to foreigners in the area, which worked great for us. It
visits about 12 different areas of Tokyo and you can pay 500Yen for the day and
ride the bus at your convenience. My goal of the day was to get to that bus!
We started our day by taking the train to Akihabara. Its
nickname is Electric Street, and is a huge electronic district amidst the tall
buildings of Tokyo. We checked out tons of camera, computer, wire, and light
stores. There were teeny tiny alleys filled with all sorts of gadgets. It’s
almost magical. I visited the Akihabara area last summer but because of the
nuclear energy crisis in Japan, almost everything was turned off. This
experience was much more electric!
Once we had seen enough cameras and rice cookers we couldn’t
find the bus stop to hop on the cool bus so instead we walked through the
streets to our next destination—Ueno. Ueno is a very interesting place! We found
ourselves on a busy street with clothing vendors, food vendors, souvenir
vendors etc. It was a pretty eccentric scene for a Monday afternoon! We knew
the Ueno Zoo was close by but we had little interest in seeing it so we walked
through Ueno Park searching for the ponds. We eventually found them and they
were covered in lily pads! You could hardly see the water. For one reason or
another I began to get grumpy. We were lost and confused. The maps didn’t make
sense, my feet hurt and I was just done with Ueno. We couldn’t find the bus
stop yet again but after conversing (poorly) with a few locals we figured out
where to catch the bus and how to get to Kappabashi, the kitchen district.
Hallelujah.
The Eternal Flame in Ueno Park.
About 5 minutes on the bus and we were on a street filled
with restaurant vendors. This is where you go to buy industrial equipment,
dishes, chopsticks, and plastic model food, which is very popular here.
Kappabashi has been on my list of things to do for quite some time and I was
really looking forward to seeing it! Unfortunately it was a letdown. Everything
was really expensive and I didn’t find anything I wanted to purchase. Plus my
mom made me concerned everything had lead in it. Thanks for the paranoia Mom!
One cool thing did happen there. We needed to use the bathroom and found a
public bathroom but the door was locked. My mom tried to ask the one woman in
the building for a key. She spoke a little English and ended up leading us down
the block to her own business office which was already closed to let us in to
use the bathroom. How sweet!
With rows and rows of plastic display food!
We left Kappabashi empty handed and walked down to Asakusa.
On the way there we stumbled into beer vending machines. FINALLY.
When talking about Japan and my favorite things about this
country I almost always mention the vending machines. The variety of things you
can purchase in a vending machine is so very fun, and this includes beer. So,
my parents wanted to see the beer vending machines, but 2 weeks into their trip,
and we hadn’t found one yet. So I was thrilled to walk them down a random
street and find a few. We didn’t even buy beer out of them, but it was good to
be justified that they existed- I’m sure at this point in the trip they doubted
they were real!
Birru Onegaishimasu!
Asakusa is one beautiful city, particularly at night when its
lights are all lit up. It was creeping up on dark and as we walked through the
shrines to the river where we hoped to see some boats for my dad’s sake. Poor
guy had been putting up with our walking and shopping all day and deserved to
see a few boats! As we hit the edge of the river we saw an advertisement for a
Boat Tour. I was curious to see how much it would cost and we found it only
cost 600Yen for a 40 minute ride down the river. We figured that was totally
doable and we had about 30 minutes to spare!
In those 30 minutes we grabbed a snack from a 7-11, checked
out the closing up Shrine’s and busy streets and made it in time to be the last
people to hop in line. We gathered on a ramp leading down to the dock behind
100 Japanese elderly tourists. Just before the line began to move, in walked an
entourage.
Our first glimpse of the giant Sky Tree!
Being real silly.
An older lady and a younger man captured the full attention
of the 100 tourists. They all “oohed and awed” at the celebrities. It was hysterical.
Not only was there the 2 famous people who shook our hands, but also a series
of cameramen, sound guys and what I assumed to be directors or producers, with
clipboards. I think they were filming a TV show! I had no idea who the
celebrities were but the Japanese sure did!!!
The line began to move and we scooted on the boat behind the
100 tourists. The tourists had all taken their seats on the boat and since we
were last we were left standing. Just as we realized we were going to be
standing the whole time the celebs made their way onto the boat; they were actually
going to ride too! As the other passengers realized this they hopped out of
their seats and crowded around the famous people. My mom shouted at me to take
their picture! I shouted back to go steal the seats of the tourists who had
just gotten up from their seats! She did her thing, I did mine and then went to
join my mom and dad in the booth they had found.
And guess who sat across from us in the booth?
That’s right- the celebrities.
The next 40 minutes down the river were the most awkward and
broken conversations I’ve ever had. Mom says “Are you famous?” to the people. “Yes.”
Says the lady, in the deepest voice imaginable. I almost peed myself when I
realized this beautiful older lady is actually a man. A celebrity Japanese drag
queen. ONLY MY MOM AND I COULD GET OURSELVES INTO THIS KIND OF SITUATION. My
dad is squished in between us. I couldn’t help but whisper to him “That’s a man”
because I knew he might be the only one of the 3 of us who wouldn’t pick up on
this. He whispers it to my mom who elbows him because of all of the cameras and
microphones around us.
I know they both spoke at least a little English but I think
with the camera’s on them they weren’t feeling the English communication. They
spoke mostly in Japanese and I tried really hard to catch a few words here and
there. They asked us how long we would be in Japan. We responded 3 weeks. I
didn’t dare tell them I had actually lived in Japan for 2 years and spoke very
little Japanese. I was worried I’d be “that stupid American.”
We figured out they had something to do with a documentary
on the Sky Tree, Japan’s newest pride and joy! Later that night we asked the
hotel concierge if he knew who the people were in the picture. He responded
with… “Well… ummm… that one is um… bisexual.”
My Japanese friends on Facebook were able to tell me they are really "Arino", a Japanese comedian who plays video games on a tv show and "Kenichi Mikawa", a really famous singer from the 70's who recently returned to the spotlight as a drag queen. S/He's beloved by all ages too! They were really nice and I'm sure I'm going to wind up on Japanese TV somewhere, so if anybody sees us on TV, please let me know!!!
An obligatory but horrible picture of the Sky Tree from the boat.
With our new best friends!
Rainbow bridge from the boat.
From the local monorail.
The boat took us down the river from where we actually
needed to be so we wound up in Roppongi for dinner. Not many parents make their
way to Roppongi so it’s just one more bit of proof that my parents are actually
the coolest.
The coolest!
Tokyo Time