Countdown

I will admit, this week I have been thinking, oh my sister will be here on Monday, so I will just wait to do that.... Plus, it is still hot. When my sister is here, we will brave the heat, but for now, I am soaking up the A/C. Here are the couple of times I ventured outside this week.

I went out one day and ordered a caesar salad for lunch, and it came with an egg on top. This was my first encounter with the egg, which everyone says is very japanese, and I forgot to take a picture. Then I went to the grocery store and noticed this great picture of the temple.

After going to the temple I walked to Azabujuban, which was a pretty residential walk, and had dinner with Tim.

Tim and I went to lunch with a friend, and it was delicious food.


I went swimming with my friends and their kids. Nothing beats hot weather like a pool.

Tim and I got some tempura, which was fantastic, especially the butternut squash. I also made cashew chicken this week. So all in all it was a nice, low key week.

Art

Tim and I found a great Saturday indoor activity to avoid the heat. We went to the Mori Tower where you can view the Tokyo Skyline, and see an Art Museum. It was fantastic!

The snow was my favorite exhibit:


My second favorite was the part where you walk underneath paper, and poke your head up, and see the forest from the perspective of a bug:



Then there was one that was three huge screens with movies playing, showing nature in the concrete jungle of Tokyo:



Basically all of the displays were awesome.

Then we saw the view of Tokyo. It was a bit hazy with the heat that day, so some of the other tower views I have done were a bit clearer. I was entertained by the window washers. And you could see the temple.

Heat Wave

Last week was a heat wave, so I didn't do much outside. One day I wanted to beat the heat, so I went to a mall located right on the water, called LaLaPort. The mall is set up to have different boat shaped configurations inside, which is interesting. I liked the section with the furniture stores. I think cute little japanese couches are fun. But the best part was outside, where you had a drawbridge and a waterfall you could walk under.




I experienced my first earthquake. I woke up in the middle of the night and the bed was shaking. Tim told me it was an earthquake. For a minute I was like, whoa. But then it was over and I went back to sleep.

We went out with a couple of friends to a movie (Inception, it was great), and then got desert. Yummy!

Working for the Weekend

Yea, I know. You are probably rolling your eyes, wondering how someone who doesn't work actually keeps track of the days. Honestly, I don't really keep track of days, but Tim does have more time off on the weekends, so we try to do some fun things.

We decided to have a lunch date and use one of the gift certificates we got for our wedding to a restaurant here in Tokyo, Nobu. It was a really nice lunch. Tim ordered tempura and I got the california rolls. Delicious! Then we walked to the Izumi Tower to ride the glass elevator. The really really cool elevator is private, and hangs on the side of the building on the rails in this picture:


The one we road was in a glass box on the other side of the building. Still pretty fun and a good view.




Then the ward had an activity at the local baseball game. Our team is the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. They played really great tonight, and won. The fascinating thing about a Japanese baseball game is that the fans are not Americans. There is no whooping, whistling or hollering. When the opposing team is up to bat, you are quiet and give that team time to do their cheers. When your team is up to bat, you do the specific cheers in specific order. For example, the umberella cheer is only done when we score a run. Most of the cheers involve singing.




Oh, and when the mascot comes out to shoot out t-shirts, no one jumps up and down yelling like crazy to win the t-shirt. You stand and wave calmly, hoping that it is you, but if it is someone else, that is perfectly fine. When the camera pans over to your section, you don't jump up and down and wave and go crazy because you see yourself on the big screen. All in all it was a very quiet, demure way to watch baseball. The food was also different. Hotdogs come on a plate, with toothpicks. You can get rice and curry. The vendors carry kegs of beer on their backs and pour them from a tap.

Ice cream has it's own special packaging. It was quite the experience.


Then I taught the three year olds in Primary, and Tim taught Elders Quorum. We got to enjoy dinner with some friends from the ward.

Monday was a holiday, Marine Day. So we went up to Ikebukuro to check out Sunshine City and the view.



We ate a good lunch, Katsu. It is pork that is breaded, with some cabbage, rice, miso soup, and some sauces.


The views were amazing. For me, seeing all these different views just proves how enormous Tokyo really is. This tower, Sunshine 60, is about a half hour subway ride from the Tokyo Tower. You can see the Tokyo Tower as part of the sea of buildings from this building, and it really isn't that far away......

Tokyo Tower

Another day this week Tim helped me plan an adventure. There is a temple or shrine (I still can't tell the difference) near the Tokyo Tower.

Walking up to the temple, you can see the Tokyo Tower in the background.


The temple consists of the entrance building, and then the actual temple.



In the Tokyo tower, you can go up 150 meters to the main observation deck, or 250 meters to the special observation deck. I did the main observation deck. The view is really good, and then there are windows in the floor to see down the tower.







Then I was going to walk to Roppongi Hills, but decided it was way to hot. So I rode the subway over to Ginza. Down one of the alleys was a Haagen Dazs, and I thought a smoothie or a scoop of ice cream would be really refreshing. Before I knew what was happening I was shown into an elevator and seated at a really nice table. This was no ordinary scoop of ice cream.



It was amazing. I walked around the streets of Ginza for a while. Then I got on the subway to head back home. However, I walked out of our subway station a completely different way than I am used to. I couldn't see any of the usual landmarks. So I called Tim. I told him what I could see, and he told me what streets to walk up to get back to familiar territory. Whew! It was quite an adventure.

Also this week we had dinner with friends, which was really nice.

Imperial Palace

To prove my own dexterity for getting around Tokyo, I decided to take an adventure to a part of town I haven't been. The Imperial Palace is located at the Tokyo Subway stop, which is about half an hour ride from my stop. They are doing alot of construction at that subway stop, but the Imperial Palace is just a few blocks up, so it wasn't very hard to find. There were some interesting buildings built on top of other buildings:




Around the outside of the Imperial Palace is a moat, a really big, really slimy green moat. I would be discouraged from invading :)



There is also a beautiful fountain park.



And then my camera battery died. I rode a different subway back home. I went into a different subway entrance, and was trying to figure out which direction home was. I must have been standing there looking at the map for too long, because the guy at the ticket booth came out and handed me a mini english map of the subway. It has been very useful.

I needed to pick up some supplies before I really went home, so I went into Shibuya where all the shops were. I was trying to find toilet paper, but my favorite store, Loft, didn't have any. I called Tim to ask where to buy toilet paper. He told me there was a store called Don Quixote across from the H&M. Immediately I am singing in my head:



I knew where the H&M was, so I went there, and walked up the street. And down the street. And around the corner. I am not seeing a huge sign with the word Don Quixote. So finally I noticed this one store that had stuff spilling out of it, and I thought, well, that looks like a dollar store or a kmart style, so maybe they would have toilet paper. In fact, they did.

Here is what the store sign really looks like:


Tim did tell me that the sign would be in Japanese and that it was big and neon, but I was too busy singing to listen to his careful instructions, and it all turned out fine in the end.

Kamakura

This weekend some executive's from Tim's company were in town, so we went sightseeing with them and some of Tim's coworkers and their families.
Kamakura is near the coast, and has several shrines and temples and a big Buddha statue. First we went to a restaurant for lunch. The best part was the japanese coworkers just ordered everyone plates of food, so I didn't have to read the menu or guess at what I would like. I really enjoyed just trying everything on the plate. It would be really nice to have someone do that all the time :) I know, technically I could be more adventurous and just order something even if I don't know what it is. But then you run the risk of not liking what you ordered.

Then we went to the temple, Hase-dera, and it was gorgeous, with a view of the ocean.


Then we walked to the Buddha statue.

Then we walked through the shopping area, and got some desert.
Then we went to a shrine, Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu. The path up to the temple is in the middle of the street, lined with trees. A person on the way told us that it narrows as it gets closer to the temple.

Ikea

Tim and I joke about my country club life.... having lunch with other ladies and shopping the afternoon away. But as you can see, this is pretty much how I spend my time :)

Since my hair gel got confiscated in Hong Kong, I needed to get a new bottle. After much research, we determined that my favorite kind does not exist in Japan. So I went back to the hair salon to buy another American product. This was a safer bet than going to a regular store where I can't read any labels.
The adventure part of the day was taking a new train to a different station to go grocery shopping. Unfortunately I couldn't find the main road that goes back to the house, so I took a longer way home. I did find the fruit and vegetable stand and got some really good plums. Or were they nectarines? Hard to say :)

Thursday I went to Ikea to get pillows for the guest bed. To get to Ikea you ride the train and then take a bus. Here is a quick picture of the Easter Island Head outside of my train station:


Getting to Ikea was no problem, and I got to read my book on the train. Ikea is the same in Japan, funky modern furniture and cool accessories. Here Ikea does home delivery, so you just put all your purchases into a box, and they bring it to your house. This way you don't have to haul it home yourself on the bus/train. Then I got on the bus to go home, but I apparently got on a different bus because I ended up at a different train station. So I got on the train and figured I could switch somewhere to get home. Then I followed some people onto another train. Then I finally saw a city I recognized and got on a train to there, and then home. The great thing about this was I could figure it out on my own. Of course, I do have a cell phone here so that I could have called Tim and had help figuring out how to get home. So I wasn't really lost. Also, I should point out that the train system, while complicated, does not feel like NYC. Tokyo is much safer. You are never worried you will be mugged. Children ride the trains and buses alone all the time, and no one harms them. So it is safe, which means you don't have to panic about ending up in a bad neighborhood. When I got home, I realized that I should have asked for a date on the delivery. Apparently in Japan they don't just leave boxes on your doorstep. So you have to be home to receive any packages. I couldn't really understand the label for delivery, so I didn't ask for a date. In the end, I called the delivery company and ikea, trying to figure out where my box was, and then Tim called and tracked it down for me, and everything arrived safe and sound.

Friday a friend and her kids and I were going to go to a park and rent bikes and have a picnic. But she hurt her foot, so we just went out to lunch. And then it was raining, so it was a good thing we didn't go to the park. Instead I went shopping since I hadn't been up to that particular part of town yet. I found a cute store that had fun bags and things, and then the Gap was having a sale, so I got a tshirt. Gap has universal sizing, which means that in Japan I am still a size small, which is so much better! Oh, but you still get a Japanese style bag.... first, they place the item in the regular bag and tape it shut, then they put the special rain bag over top, and tape that shut.

As I was wandering through one of the department stores, I found a store named after me:

Hong Kong

Our trip started out delayed. The plane was coming from Seattle, and it left there two hours late, so it arrived late, and would leave Tokyo late. The Narita airport in Tokyo is outside of the city, so we rode one of the nice new trains to the airport. Once we arrived at the airport, we were able to get in the short line to check in because Tim is a SkyPriority member. Even though we had checked in online, we still had to have our documents reviewed in person 5 times :) We then went to the Delta lounge to wait. The Delta lounge has free food and drinks, Apple computers, comfy chairs, and clean bathrooms. It is a really nice way to wait for your plane. Then after another brief delay, we were able to board our plane. Tim turned in some miles, so we were in business class (formerly known as first class). This is the first time I have flown business class. It is seriously deluxe. Very cushy seats that recline almost all the way, and plenty of leg room. You get a beverage immediately while you wait for everyone to get on the plane. Dinner comes with real plates and real silverware. You have a nice pillow and blanket. Back on the seat reclining, it had 5 different buttons, so that you could adjust the lumbar angle, the foot rest, basically you can set it so that it is just right. There was the overhead light, but also a special reading light in case you were leaned back. Oh, and there is plenty of overhead bin room, so you don't have to have anything under the seat in front of you. But your feet can't even reach the seat in front of you, so you really aren't cramped.



Hong Kong the city consists of many different islands, each with it's own name. The main island is called Hong Kong island. The airport is on Lantau island, and our hotel was on Kowloon island. We had a great view from the 24th floor of the hotel looking out onto the Hong Kong skyline. Someone in Hong Kong decided that bridges to the island would not be good, so they built tunnels instead. This was a fantastic idea because the view to the island is unobstructed, and driving through tunnels under water is just fun.

We went to the temple, which is also on the Kowloon island. It isn't quite as "in the middle of the city" as the Manhattan Temple feels. But it was pretty.


We ate some dim sum and some lemon chicken and fried rice. It was really good chinese food. I can see where PF Chang's gets their lemon chicken inspiration :) One thing we noticed all over was the use of bamboo in construction. Instead of building scaffolding using metal bars, it was bamboo. I never figured out how this could be so strong, especially when the bottom of the bamboo is cut at an angle, so only a point sits on the ground.



Then we went across to the Hong Kong Island, and walked around for a bit. One of the differences between Hong Kong and Tokyo is that Hong Kong still has old architecture. Tokyo has a mid-century modern feeling to all of it's buildings, mainly because most of them were rebuilt after World War II. Hong Kong has colonial architecture along with modern architecture, and that just makes it an interesting place to walk around.




We had thought about going up to the Peak, but it was so crowded, that we rode the Trolley through downtown instead. This was a great way to take in the city, especially because it was really really hot and humid, so you got to feel a breeze on the trolley. Then we went up to the SoHo district, and got a really nice steak dinner.





We ate a good breakfast near SoHo, but it wasn't quite as unique as the Chicago breakfast place. I had waffles with strawberries. We walked around Hollywood street and Soho and saw some more cool buildings.




Then we rode the tram up the peak. The tram is very steep, sometimes you are sitting almost perpendicular. Victoria Peak is the top of the mountain on Hong Kong island, so you can see the skyline from behind, and looking towards Kowloon island. It was really cool. The way the clouds roll over the hill from the other side of the island was interesting. It was a spectacular view.





Then we rode the longest escalator in the world, and stopped in at a grocery store halfway up. The best part about the grocery store was that it was mostly in English. Because the island used to be British, there is more imported items and more English labels on buildings, roads, menus and in stores. You don't feel quite as illiterate walking around Hong Kong. After walking through the grocery store and recognizing many food items, Tim and I decided that we could live in Hong Kong if the opportunity ever came. Then we went to a mall to cool off, and got some great Thai food. Seriously best fried rice ever! There is no Krispy Kreme in Hong Kong, but there is ice cream and gelato. We walked by a Ben and Jerry's and got a couple of scoops.
This is a view of the escalator between the buildings.


We went to the other side of the island, where the beaches are. Stanley has an outdoor market and a strong British influence, so we were able to get fish and chips for lunch. The outdoor market wasn't quite what we were expecting. Apparently Hong Kong is not the imitation-product capital, so the outdoor market just had trinkets and random stuff. We also went to Repulse Bay, which was gorgeous, but I was hot and didn't want to get sunburned, so we headed back to the hotel and the pool there. The drive to the other side of the island is spectacular. The mountains are green, and you can see the bays and inlets and the big ships off in the distance.





We also went to a tailor. The tailor had so many sample fabrics, it was fun to flip through the fabric books. We ate another chinese dinner, and then went to see the Symphony of Light show. The skyscrapers and other buildings are outfitted with lights that turn off and on to music. It was really cool to watch.

On the flights I read:
- The Summer We Read Gatsby - I would recommend this as a good light read.
- Notes on a Scandal - I didn't realize this had been made into a movie. It was not a light read, but was interestingly written.
- In Defense of Food - I am not completely finished with this one yet. So far it is really interesting.