Another reason why a college education (and beyond) is helpful for a stay at home mom.

Yes, I painted that on Alessandra's face.

And I painted that too.

All of my time in college helped give me the patience to paint little pictures on my children's faces (and 2 more small girls that live in the residence above me). Not the creativity mind you (because in truth, it all was shown in a book). For a few brief moments (and with the help of Laurie's awesome face painting kit), I was the coolest mom anywhere. Thanks to knowing how to read, deciper instructions and be able to make something look really groovy on the face of a kid.

(and no, loyal readers, I haven't forgotten you. I WILL finish my posts on Tokyo this week).

Tokyo - Day 5

Our first full day in Tokyo was a little overwhelming. As I mentioned in the previous post, there is SO much to do in Tokyo (think NYC), that it was difficult to decide where to begin.

We opted to do another half-day bus tour. It got us out and about and let us enjoy a few sight seeing locations.

Our first stop: The Tokyo Tower. It resembles the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and is primarily used to communication/broadcasting. We enjoyed the quick ride up to the observation decks and got a chance to see the city from up top. Unfortunately for us, the day was a bit hazy, but it did show us that in fact, Tokyo is enormous!

Alessandra by one of the windows.

Yep, here we are, in the Tokyo Tower. Tokyo Bay behind us.

Looking down through the windows that faced the ground. The girls loved this.

As for if that part of the tour was worth it: Sure, especially if you have 2 kids in tow. They are great travelers, but there are only so many shrines that kids are happy to see. This was much more exciting.

Looking up...

Our next stop: Meiji Shrine

One of the major (and most well known) Shinto Shrines in Tokyo, Meiji Shrine is dedicated to one of the past Emperors of Japan (Emperor Meiji). It is surrounded by beautiful trees (apparently trees were brought in from all over the world and planted here) and is remarkably quiet even though it is located in close proximity to the famed Harajuku district.

As you enter the main gate, there are casks of Sake (and other wine) showcased. Gifts (if I remember correctly) in honor of the Emperor.

The main Torii entrance - one of (if not The) largest in Japan. (Torii gates are always around when the shrine is Shinto)

As you enter, you are supposed to cleanse your hands and your mouth (don't drink the water, you actually spit it out). Alessandra cleansing.

and now Olivia's turn. (You might remember this from our New Year's visits in previous posts).

Handwritten prayers that are hundreds (likely thousands) deep

After departing Meiji, we went to the Imperial Palace gate area. The East Gardens were closed this day.

Alessandra took this. Olivia, looking non-plussed.

We arrive in a large bus parking lot and walk across a park. There was this great statue of a Samurai  in the center of it.

The double bridge to the entrance of the Imperial Palace.

And the following photo is simply for my sheer fascination and pleasure. This family was on our tour and I couldn't help but be amazed by the mom's shoes. Check out those heels...

At the Double Bridge

Kelly with part of Tokyo in the background

Crazy girls

Our tour dropped us off (just in time for lunch) in Ginza. Ginza is one of the most exclusive and expensive shopping areas that exist. (You can tell how well we fit in, no?)

Big city, big stores,

lots of people in dark colors...

So, what do we find? A Toy Store of course! A 5 story toy store (what could be better?) We found this race car area on one of the floors. The girls were in heaven - ALL of our cousins and uncles would have loved it.

The employee who ran the racetrack putting a police car out on the track to "catch" the girls for speeding.

Heading back from Ginza, we needed to hit the subway once again.

At the subway station - oh, yes, that's right. Women only. :)

It was a great view of Tokyo for the day.

Kyoto to Tokyo, Day 4

One of the great pieces of advice I received about traveling to Kyoto was about the Shinkansen (aka Bullet Train). You can buy your tickets in advance and you can even purchase reserved seats if you want too. I took care of those fun details from a little office in Okinawa a couple of weeks before our trip. Since we were departing Kyoto on a Sunday (normal day off for Japanese people), we splurged on the reserved seats and had a reservation for 1:05pm. WHICH, when you are on vacation gives you an entire chunk of time to do something with! Ahh, the options.

Breakfast. We had a nice breakfast option in our hotel (as well as a kitchen in our room, so really we didn't need to go anywhere at all). However, the girls wanted pancakes. Fortunately for us, there was a McDonald's located 4 doors down from our hotel. Note here: Our children have NEVER had McDonald's breakfast, so I had to take a photo because I never would have guessed that their first time would have been on a corner in Kyoto, Japan.


Those hotcakes were so good, we had to get two orders.

Brad saw this outside of the McDonald's. A couple of bikes (a normal means of travel in Japan)

Parked right underneath this sign...  made us giggle.

I had mentioned on the second day here that Olivia and I had made our way to Nishiki Market. We decided since we had a few hours to kill, we would head over there to show it to Alessandra and Brad. It was a quiet Sunday morning, so not a lot was going on, but still fun to walk around.

Walking into the Market area. Shops starting to open

We almost tried these little gems for a snack (okay, Brad almost did), but he wasn't hungry enough. They were Octopus, but the head was a quail egg. Still wondering about the taste of this...

It's all in the presentation.

Alessandra pointing out Aritsugu - the knife shop. There are a lot of places (apparently) to purchase knives in Kyoto/Japan. Aritsugu makes a good knife, so we decided to invest in one (or two) while here.

After you purchase your knife/knives, they will stamp your name into it (in English or kana, or both). Here is the guy taking care of all of our purchases. Poor guy, I kept adding knives to the order...

Quite a selection.

After you make your way down the market area, there are more shops and one of the other priceless things that you see all over Japan, shrines amidst the shopping areas. This one was nestled inside (and completely surrounded by) a shopping zone.

AND, the infamous KFC. They are all over Japan and I just didn't get it. While on one of our tours the guide told us that even though Japanese don't celebrate Christmas (in the traditional American sense), Christmas Eve dinner always consists of Fried Chicken. HMMMM. Maybe I sense a new tradition going on?

And also, they love the Colonel. He does look a bit like Santa, no?

This fun shop where they were making these sweet pancake/cookie things.

Next we made our way back to the hotel to check out, hit the bathroom and make our way to the Kyoto Train Station. We have a BULLET TRAIN to catch!!

We are heading to Tokyo via the Shinkansen. We head into the part of the train station that leads us to the tracks. Here is our sign telling us which platform to go to. We are the 13:05 train. :) Track 11.

After a quick browse at the souvenir shop (for my Nephew Oscar who wants to drive the bullet train when he grows up), we make our way up to the platform.

Incoming...

Here she is - our Bullet Train!

The girls in a very hurried photo of the train (they really do not wait for you...)

Our seats were cushy and comfy. If I had my druthers (and if the USA were a bit smaller), I would take the train everywhere. SO much room and space.

En route we pass the iconic Mt. Fuji. it was a pretty overcast day, so we were excited that she popped her head out.

Once we got to Tokyo we took a cab to our hotel, the New Sanno. It had been a pretty busy day, AND whenever we go on vacation we promise the girls swimming (when there is a pool). Brad took the girls to the pool, I took the laundry to the laundry room and we stayed at the hotel for dinner. We also started pouring over our books/brochures about what we were going to do the next day. We had been so busy working on Kyoto, that Tokyo sort of took a back seat.
Looking forward to the adventure!