Bye-bye Japan, Tokyo. It's been great !!! - Wednesday

We all enjoyed visiting the Ferrantes in Tokyo and exploring the many landmarks in Tokyo and Kyoto. We did numerous visits to Gardens, Temples, Shrines, local shopping districts, restaurants (both western and Japanese), two observation decks and three Onsens during our 17 days and we were busy nearly every. The Shinkansen to Kyoto and our stay at the Hotel Granvia was the highlight of the trip, for me. Although the National Gardens were spectacular.

Here we are leaving the station from Ebisu to catch the Narita Express in Shinagawa...

When I think of this trip now, I can recall this picture in my mind......taken from the scenic walkway on the grounds surrounding GinKaku-ji Temple, and with Kyoto in the background.

Yebisu Garden - Observation Deck, Traditional Japanese Dining, Some Good Italian Too - Tuesday

Check out the Japan-guide.com pictures of the building, link below.....we didn't take any pictures near that flattering....oh well..

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3028.html

More to come once Ive caught up ......

National Holiday - Visit to Michaels colleague Liz - Monday

Visited colleague of Michael from Merck (Banyu in Japan), Liz, her husband Bart, Son Ken and Mother Sara Lee for a traditional American Grill Out/Housewarming and Bart's new grill initiation. They recently moved into this new place, and so Deanna and Michael bought some beautiful blue flowers (Mia picked out the flowers) as a housewarming gift.

The apartment is within a gated, US-only, housing project. Outside their windows, in the back of the apartment, is a Shinto Shrine, so they have plenty of trees and a relatively quiet setting for their two patios. Very nice place. Living in the US complex allows you to shop at a US subsidised store with US products, including the Weber gas grill of Bart's (and probably the beef too).

Sara Lee shared her recipe for German Style Potato salad. It was a nice change from the mayonnaise and egg based salad you always seem to get in Michigan. Bart grilled up some hot-dogs and Hamburgers that were quite tasty. Also had a really nice tossed salad with some blue cheese dressing. Bart, Michael and I sampled a couple of "Sam Adams" beers to compliment the lunch, while Deanna and Sara Lee sipped some white wine. Had Deanna's dessert cake with nuts, chocolate and raisins on top, which was complimented by ice cream....

The kids played on some bikes and and few other toys for a while and then we walked down to the playground. Anthony had a little mishap that resulted in a bloody nose, but it wasn't really all that bad in the end.

Park, Indoor Pool and Onsen for the whole Family

On Sunday we had two.....well OK, three goals: 1 Visit this great park that has an obstacle course (the name of which escapes me now), 2 visit a "Family" Onsen, and keep three kids entertained all the while !!

We started out with a short walk from the train station to the park (everything starts and ends with a walk), where we ate a picnic lunch of some sandwiches, a few pastries, some McDonalds Fries (for Anthony), and Onigiri while we sipped some cold beverages. Michael had a frosty, or the McDonalds equivalent...still can't eat real food.

After lunch, and checking out the park fountain, we all walked to the entrance to the playground. There were two playgrounds, one small version for younger kids, and another more complex and dangerous "Obstacle Course" style play area for 6 and up kids.

Below are the pictures from the "Little park" as Anthony put it. Deanna, Mia, Todd and Anthony visited the bigger park after this. It was really neat, but not very safe, primarily for younger children......but Anthony enjoyed it. Seems the Japanese don't have the same safety standards for playground equipment.

I like to call this piece of playground equipment "The Ankle Breaker"....

On this "ride", you are counterweighted can be spun around. Keep your hands up and stay off the landings when someone is riding or you could easily get pinched or break a limb....really dangerous.

After the park ,we walked about a quarter mile to an indoor mall/children's play area. The whole complex takes up an entire block and is 6 or 7 stories high. The children were all under the height restriction for the regular pool, so we spent some time in the kiddie pool. Neat set-up for the kiddie pool....it's about 18 inches deep and runs along the back of the public pool area, behind the circular adult pool. Best part of the kiddie pool was the marble waterfall in the middle and against the back wall. There were also two Jacuzzis. After a short dip in the kiddie pool, the men took the Andrew and Anthony to the Onsen. There were several pools and baths, but none was cool enough for either of the them. Both, I think, did like the bathing area. Anthony was having fun dumping the wash bucket over his head. Linda and Deanna spent some time in the hot tub, then Linda went for a message while Deanna took Emilia to the Onsen with her.

The Onsens public gathering/rest area, where you would generally wear your Onsen pajamas to relax between baths, was the least formal of the three Onsens I visited. This was geared more for kids and families and was less like a resort and more like Chucky Cheese (had an arcade attached). Huge bank of vending machines dispensed at least 100 different beverages, snacks, pastries, microwavable food and beer. Another first for me were vending machines that dispensed HOT food and beverages.

Everyone seemed to have had a good time. We did a quick walk back to the train stations, with a short ride home.

Shopping for Pottery - Saturday

The whole crew assembled for a trip to Asukusa to visit Senso-Ji temple and to shop for pottery for the Lo Cicero's to take home. Upon leaving the train we were in the heart of the shopping district where the number of pottery shops and convenience stores is staggering. Bought a beer in the vending machine while getting Anthony some Lemon Water (his favorite Japanese drink). In Japan you can buy and drink beer nearly anywhere, except for the store where you bought it, and some government locations (or shrines and temples).

Linda and I stopped to give some serious consideration to the color and pattern we would like for our collection of pottery, including sake cups (sakazuki) and ceramic bottle (tokkuri). Most of the individual stores had enough choices to make the decision difficult but there were hundreds of these stores, and this was one of the more modest. One store we visited had barely enough room to walk as there was pottery on the floor and stacked up to the ceiling. It was like the last scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark when they go to put the ark away in hiding in a huge warehouse and it seems to go on forever......

After taking a couple hours to tour the many stores, we realized that we hadn't really made any decisions, most likely due to the fact that we didn't know that our choices would be so wide. Should we go with black and white...how about white with blue accent....and there were a variety of earth tones as well.... We decided we needed to narrow our focus on specific colors and patterns or we could spend days making the decision.

During this search, an unusually strong storm kicked up that brought 30-40 mph winds and a drop in the temperature of 20 degrees. Just rain would have been no problem as the sidewalks are covered with awnings. The sky turned dark...then a little green, so we all sought refuge in a restaurant grocery store. You could immediately tell it was for restaurants because the sizes of the store contents were large, not tiny as in the grocery stores. We spent about 20-30 minutes hanging out in the store, trying to entertain the kids with only a few cookies and some purchased fruit snacks.

Anthony could not resist the temptation to touch everything in the stores. This was especially bad because nearly everything in the pottery stores was fragile, and much of it was stacked without much consideration for kids. It had to be a rough time for him because he loves to touch everything, and even more so when we tell him NOT to touch....go figure....

Before Emilia, Anthony and Andrew could go into full meltdown, we headed back to the Ferrante ranch. Myrna, their housekeeper/sitter, was to visit in the late afternoon and early evening, so we thought we'd take advantage of her watching the kids to get a little quiet time for the adults. The adults had dinner out, ALONE, at a nice Italian restaurant. Michael and I each ordered a glass of red wine, Deanna had a Spumante and Linda, a diet coke. We sat on the terrace, which was a small patch of cement on the sidewalk surrounded by potted plants. Michael pointed out that, in Tokyo, it's amazing what passes for a terrace. We ordered a pizza, Caprese salad and a baked eggplant and cheese appetizer and split them, except for Michael who is still healing his broken jaw.

Afterward, Michael and Todd went to the LaQua spa , near the Tokyo Dome, to use the Onsen. http://www.tokyo-dome.co.jp/e/laqua/spa.htm

The Tokyo Dome complex is like an amusement park, with a huge Ferris wheel and a roller coaster that runs through the middle of the Ferris wheel. The area was pretty busy, as this was Saturday night, so we were as entertained by the teens and young adults as much as the sights. This Onsen was considerably more elaborate than the first we visited. Upon arrival, you are given an armband with a chip in it. When purchasing anything from a vending machine, or even a massage, you simply swipe the armband and it keeps track of your purchases. This is really convenient, as when you are bathing naked you can't keep spare change in your pocket.

The bathing area was much larger than that of the first Onsen, with more pools to choose from and each being larger to accommodate more people. It is common for each of the pools to be regulated to a specific temperature, ranging from 43C down to only 22C (the cool down pool). In addition to the Onsen pools there were several large Sauna's, both dry and moist, as well as a massage area (ladies doing the massages) and standard jacuzzi tub's.

Another great feature at this Onsen was a sleeping/relaxation area. Within a large room, there are many "individual" couches, each with it's own entertainment area and side stand. It is common for people to spend the night here should they miss their train, or just elect to make an evening of bathing and pampering. We ordered a couple of frozen strawberry drinks and relaxed between baths. Frozen drinks were a great way to recover from the extremely hot baths.

Disney Sea Tokyo - Friday

What a great idea for us to go to Disney Sea - Tokyo today! We took a couple of different trains to get to the Disney property, but skipped the Disney Monorail due to huge crowding. We walked about half a mile instead of riding to get to the entrance and arrived a little before opening time, 10am. We were to meet Deanna and Michaels friend John and his daughter, Phoebe, who is one 1/2, at the entrance at opening time, which worked out fine.

Unlike Disney in the US, the majority of the patrons were groups of teenagers and young adults, not families. When entering the park everyone was dressed normally, but there was a mad dash (no kidding, they sprinted) to the trash and trinkets with most everyone purchasing Mouse Head Bands with the ears, and some with bows (Minnie), even some some of the adult guys. I had to chuckle seeing these girlie ears on young men, but they seemed to be as amused wearing them as I was viewing them and the nonsense of it all. Fortunately we were among the first few into the park and Anthony was able to snag a pair of ears that looked like American flags. How lucky. He was very happy with this souvenir and very excited to be at the park.


When we met up with John and Phoebe we headed toward the boat ride,

but Phoebe had a Class 2 accident that required the rinsing of her clothing and the stroller and a complete change of clothes (I didn't ask what a Class 1 accident is, but it must be really bad!!). After that incident, John and Phoebe caught up with us while having lunch at a little cafeteria. The eating area had a stage and they did a cute Donald Duck/Chip-n-Dale show that captured the kids attention while the ate chicken nuggets and french fries. Deanna bought Anthony a cute souvenir cup that contained a strawberry and whipped cream dessert....all the kids loved it.


Following lunch, we headed to Ariel's playground which is an indoor play area with kiddie rides, a movie theater, little playground, etc. The design is really neat and you really feel like you're under water. The play area was not crowded at all so we were able to ride the rides over and over without waiting. There was a cup-n-saucer ride that spins you round-n round inside a big cup as well as a jelly fish ride where you sit under brightly colored jellyfish, in two's, and the seats go up and down gently, with all kinds of pretty lights and colors. At the highest point, you are probably 30 ft off the ground, so Linda was a little queasy, but she powered through it !!

The Saucer Ride.....again no line....how lucky we were !

Ariel's Playground from the entrance overlooking the indoor playground.

Linda and Anthony enter Ariel's Playground

Here, Andrew peeks through the "Coral" like railing looking into Ariel's Playground.
From my opposite side and reaching out to the opposite side of the railing, a picture of Phoebe peeking through.
Afterward, the adults did some rides like Indiana Jones and 20,000 Leagues under the sea. Linda and Deanna did the "Mine Ride". Sometime during our day the weather changed from sunny and calm to windy and a bit cool. Seems to happen like that quite often in Japan and I understand that it's due to the proximity to the Ocean. You're never very far from the Ocean on this island !! Deanna and John were interested in the "Tower of Terror", which is similar to the "Demon Drop" at Cedar Point, but much taller. They had a blast and have the ride picture, with their terrified faces, to prove it.

Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, Tokyo Metro Government Observatory - Thursday

Tokyo Metro Government Building


On Thursday, Anthony, Linda and I traveled to Shinjuku to visit two "Must See" destinations, the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden and the Tokyo Metro Government Building. Although we had excellent directions, upon arriving at the station, we got a bit turned around. While looking for an elevator we ended up on the opposite end of the station. You would think it would be no big deal, but the station is huge. Another factor is that, from street level, it is impossible to see any distance, so we were left asking directions. We spoke with a policeman, electrical worker and a guy from the train station. You'd think the local folks would know the exact directions, but we actually had some people give us really poor directions.

We intended to visit the Metro Goverment building first to see the sites of the city and then we were going to have a picnic lunch at the gardens, but we were so hungry that we stopped in a western style restaurant for a little snack before visiting the observatory. Really unusual that you are allowed to smoke in a large government building, with the non-smoking section being at the back near the bathrooms, and really small.

Anyway, we ate quickly and moved on the the observatory, which is at the 45th floor of the twin towers of the building.

The weather was a little cloudy, so we couldn't see some of the more distant landmarks, like Mt. Fuji. Great views of the surrounding area, including Yoyogi Park and the National Gardens. Spent an hour looking out the window, watching helicopters land on nearby rooftops, and looking at "trash and trinkets" at the souvineer shop.

Afterward, we headed toward the National Gardens. It was supposed to be about a 15 minute walk, but again, we got turned around and we ended up walking about 30 minutes. Linda and I found it funny that this landmark was on our map, but there was no indication of where the entrance was, and the locals had a hard time describing where to go (or maybe it was our lack of knowledge of the language). Wandered for quite a while until we stumbled on gate. Admission was cheap, 250 Y for adults, and the lunch we grabbed for the picnic was reasonable too. We got some mixed sandwiches (strips of egg salad, ham, and cheese sandwiches, not an entire sandwich) and some sushi, as well as some green tea and a couple Coca Colas and spread out our blanket for lunch. Soon after we set-up, the local birds started landing around us. One large Crow was really brave and came up close enough to steal a Goldfish cracker from near out blanket.

The Gardens were exceptionally beautiful and with each tree being manicured, the grass looked like a putting green, and the flowers were numerous and in bloom.

The Japanese Gardens:




English Garden Area: