JAPAN - Day 1

Nippon ni itta!!!  Sugoku tanoshikatta desu!  [Marubagu San wa kuru kuru pa.  Sono kotoba wo iita koto o kare ni oshienaide kudasai.]

Yeah, I'm really good at Japanese.  eck-hem - yeah, so --- we went to Japan!!!!  And to be completely honest, a few days before we left I turned to Joey and in my whiniest voice said "I don't want to go to Japaaaaan! :( :( "   Because I just felt overwhelmed by trying to get everything ready and I was nervous I wouldn't be able to speak Japanese and that I would feel dumb. He assured me he was excited enough for the both of us. (he'd been watching youtube videos for weeks and bouncing off the walls with excitement)  But this trip ended up being so incredibly fun for me and everything just worked out. Once everything at home was taken care of (thanks kate and m&d!) - I really was able to just relax and I enjoyed every minute of it. 

Our first meal all together after flying all day and night.  We were soooo tired.  We hung out at the Hale house catching up and then they took us to a Ramen place.  Willa had to wake me up in their van when we got back to their house. 

Oh and this was also the night joey bought his first drink from a japanese vending machine - a Calpis.
  This is important because it was the beginning of a beautiful relationship for Joey and these vending machines and the many, many drinks that they held.

And - the Malmborgs' luggage was lost and they had to wait a couple days for it.  This is also important because it marks the beginning of a series of unfortunate events for the Malmborgians.

 Takeshita Street in Harajuku 

can you see Mike taking our picture in the screen above us? :)

 This was so exciting for me to be back and see all the familiar sights.  The most exciting thing was actually just the 7-11 and getting melon pan and onigiri (rice triangles wrapped in in seaweed - usually with fish in the middle) and all the smells and sounds were so nostalgic for me.

Next was Meiji Shrine

The torii gates at Meiji Shrine were enormous. 

   
The thing that set Meiji shrine apart from other temples we saw was probably the forest.  The trees were towering and absolutely beautiful.  There were 365 different species of trees donated from all over the world.  It's like central park in that it is a huge green area in the middle of a bustling city but it is a lot more dense and wild forest. It's 170 acres in Shibuya Tokyo!  The structure was destroyed in WWII but rebuilt in 1958.
Oh - so here's a picture we took from a tower a couple days later -

We got to see a wedding there - it was so cool!!

And we got to meet little Yui Chan who is almost 3. I met her because she is cute.

Joey and Mike admiring the trees - they were naming off all the species they knew.  It's fun being with people that know stuff - makes everything so enjoyable.

After wandering around for a bit we finally landed on this conveyor belt sushi place and I was so happy!!  Real Japanese sushi with the big fat slabs of fish on top.  It was so yummy.  These places charge by the color of the plate.  They come and count the number of empty plates at the end.   Well, the only plates we saw were the expensive ones - so we just got those.  When we were leaving we found out that there are tons of options for the cheaper ones and you just order those.  whoopsie.  That's something I guess I should have figured out.  But oh well.  It was still only $35 a couple.

Mike's cool time-lapse video

IMG 0583 from katiehale on Vimeo.

 After lunch we went shopping and just walked around a lot.  I bought a bunch of stuff at Kiddy Land - this insane 3 story store with a major cuteness overload. 

even cute little rons, hermiones and harrys

 

kiddyland from katiehale on Vimeo.

Then we walked over to the huge and busy and famous Shibuya crossing and got a nice little time-lapse video of that too.  Makes the business seem even busier.
IMG 3989 from katiehale on Vimeo.

 And we had to stop by and see the Hachiko statue.  This is a cool story....  In 1924 there was a professor who had a little golden brown Akita dog who would come every day to meet him at Shibuya station after his commute home.  Well, one day his owner died and never came back to the station.  Each day for the next nine years, nine months and fifteen days, Hachikō awaited his master's return, getting there right when the train was due at the station.  Everyone loved that dog and started feeding him treats and food while he waited.   He is sort of an icon of loyalty and fidelity and now has a statue at Shibuya station.  People come and rub his statue for good luck.
Us with Hachiko in the background (and Lucy's baby wolf that stowed away in our luggage and you might see him sneak in a few of our pictures - that baby wolf smh)  

Then it was back home to our hosts for a lovely home-cooked meal of mapodofu and japanese curry.  Michael was so proud of his little intrepid visitors for going off on our own and exploring the city.  Joey was the king of google maps and the train system.  I'm so glad he was our navigator.