Kiddyland – Part 2

November 15th, 2007 Posted in Tokyo, Travel | 4 Comments »

Kiddyland

In a previous post, I talked about Kiddyland and some of the remarkable products that we found while we were there. While some of the products were strange and interesting, the majority of the store was just downright cute. If the Japanese do one thing very well, it is definitely the cute that they’ve got down pat.

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Ooedo Onsen Monogatari

November 12th, 2007 Posted in Tokyo, Travel | 6 Comments »

During our long weekend in Tokyo we all ended up being a wee bit travel weary. It rained, alot. I was coming down with a cold. It was quite chilly outside. And we had spent several days pounding the pavement, seeing the sights.

Fortunately, Japan has the perfect answer for soothing the body and soul after a hard day, or days. They like to take a good, long soak. In general, Aaron and I soak in our own, private ofuro (deep bathtub) at the end of each day. But since we were not at home, and we had visitors, we thought it would be fun to take them to an onsen.

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Free Hugs

November 10th, 2007 Posted in Just for Fun, Tokyo, Travel | No Comments »

Free Hugs

When you see someone standing on the streets of Tokyo holding a big old sign offering free hugs, how can you pass it up?

Well, I didn’t. Pass it up, that is.

Too Good To Pass UP

Cuttlefish, But No Coins

November 7th, 2007 Posted in Food, Tokyo, Travel | 3 Comments »

Outside of Tsukiji were a number of retail markets and restaurants where you could buy and enjoy many of the fish that we saw in person at the wholesale market. Ben referred to Tsukiji as the nine rings of fish hell, I suppose this retail area was just another ring.

As we walked around, seeing sushi restaurants packed with tourists, we decided to pass on the sushi. It was simply way too early for raw fish. At 7am in the morning, most of us were craving a proper breakfast not raw fish on rice. That didn’t stop us from walking around and looking at the offerings.

We looked, long and hard, for cuttlefish coin. I think that if we had found a restaurant offering it, we would have moved beyond the early hour, and treated ourselves to a bit. But, cuttlefish coin was not to be found.

We did, however, find common cuttlefish.

Common Cuttlefish

And cuttlefish tentacles.

Cuttlefish Tentacles

And we found some sushi that we have no idea what it is. Sometimes it is funny when the English translations don’t help anymore than the Japanese.

What is this?

Olympic Museum

November 5th, 2007 Posted in Tokyo, Travel | 1 Comment »

Aaron Wins Gold

As I have mentioned in previous posts, we visited Tokyo while it was being hit by the fringes of a nearby typhoon. As a result, we had to find several indoor venues while we visited the city to make our trip a bit more hospitable.

Jill is quite an olympic fanatic, some may even say that she is a tad obsessive (I love you Jill). So, a stop at the olympic museum, the Chichibu Memorial Sports museum, was definitely high on her list of things to do when visiting Japan.

I, also, love the olympics. In fact, visiting Bejing in August next year during the 2008 Olympics has been high on my own list for quite some time. Fortunately, being on this side of the world makes this a much easier goal. As does the fact that Aaron and I already have hostel reservations in Bejing for a week during the summer games!!

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Yebisu Beer Museum

November 4th, 2007 Posted in Tokyo, Travel | No Comments »

Yebisu Tasting Room

Ben and Jill both write for the Beer Dorks website, so, it went without saying that part of their visit would have to involve introducing them to some of Japan’s brews, not that we really have terribly much to offer. One of our stops during our time in Tokyo was the Yebisu Beer Museum.

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Tsukiji Fish Market

November 1st, 2007 Posted in Tokyo, Travel | 4 Comments »

Us at the Market

I have been fascinated by the Tsukiji Fish Market since the first time I read about it in the travel guides before we left. I became even more interested when Jill-san sent me an article from Vanity Fair. I knew that a weekend trip to Tokyo would be incomplete if we didn’t visit the market and see for ourselves what all the hub-bub was about.

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Kiddyland

October 31st, 2007 Posted in Just for Fun, Tokyo, Travel | 1 Comment »

During our time in Tokyo, we were graced by the presence of a typhoon along the coast. As a result, two entire days (Friday and Saturday) were filled with rain from morning to night. We had to find indoor venues to spend time, and a lot of that time was spent shopping.

One of my favorite stores that we visited was Kiddyland. Kiddyland is one of the largest toy stores in Tokyo, and it was quite a phenomenon. It had enough cute in it to make anyone smile. And smile we did.

We walked around the store for almost two hours. Ooohing and Aaahing over some of the neat products we found, laughing at some of the strange ones, and staring, completely befuddled, at others. Like, the humping dog. This one was a real gem and had us laughing for a good, long while. And, lucky for you, you can see it for yourself. Thanks to the magic of YouTube.



Orientation Day 1

July 31st, 2007 Posted in Tokyo | No Comments »

So now that we are in tokyo we have spent the last two days immersed in orientation. Lots and lots of orientation, all of it kind of a whirlwind, as we are very jet-lagged. All and all it has been very fun. There has been lots of time to sit and chat with other jets from all over the world, who going to all sorts of places in japan.

Here is a quick outline of what we did the first day.

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Holy Cow, I’m in Japan

July 31st, 2007 Posted in Tokyo, Travel | No Comments »

Danielle with the Temple

These first few days in Tokyo have been somewhat strange. We have been so sheltered from the real Japan because we have been in a hotel with over a thousand foreigners. The hotel has been wonderful and the accommodations and meals have been very, well, western. We have even had real silverware at every meal that we’ve eaten in the hotel.

As a result, it is almost difficult to remember that I am in Japan sometimes. It is interesting when little things catch me off guard. And all of a sudden it’s like, wow, I’m in Japan. How’d that happen?

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