Tokyo (May 24-26)

We took an excursion to another trendy youth shopping area called Shibuya.  Not as out there as the Harjuku area.  Shibuya has one of the busiest pedestrian crosswalks in Japan.  It is usually the one they show on TV.

On the way to the metro,we ran into a thousand school kids heading to the buses and metros.  They are so cute  in their little outfits!  We are always amazed how they walk around Tokyo with no adults in sight.  It is very safe for children here.

Here is the intersection at Shibuya station.

Window shopping along the side streets.

I have fallen in love with Gyoza (aka "potstickers") since we moved to Okinawa.  We found a great Korean place that served them.  Jerry's first...

Lady GaGa's newest CD came out that day.  Patrick was in heaven.

You can see "109" in the background.  This is one of Caroline's favorite places to shop.  7 floors of trendy girls clothes.

The next day we headed to Odaiba.  Odaiba is a manmade island that has some of the best modern architectural buildings in Tokyo.  There are a few malls too.    We had to take the metro then switch to a monorail over to the island.  We grabbed the first car to get the best views.

Rainbow bridge.

The Fuji Tech Center.  The giant ferris wheel is in the background.  The second largest in Japan.  We were on our way over to that complex.

Jerry and Caroline grabbed the very front just as soon as it cleared out for a great view from the mono rail.

I had a surprise lined up for Bill.  The Toyota complex actually housed several floors of cars (versus 7 floors of trendy fashion!).  

He is happy...

They even had simulators...fun.  One was for race cars, the other for "off road."

OK.  I had no idea what I was doing.  I kept stopping "red lights."  Caroline finally told me that there are NO red lights on a race tracks.  Got it finally.

But there are spectators!  Note to self, "Don't run over spectators."

Bill in the "off road" simulator.  This one had lots of jumping and bouncing around.

First place!  Seriously, first place!

Next door is the Venus Fort Mall.  It is all indoors but is modeled to look like early Rome.  The "sky" has moving clouds and even turns to a "night sky."

Stopped by an Italian restaurant.

Bill takes a test drive of a hybrid.  It felt nice to sit in a "normal" size car.  I still have to show you our cars in Okinawa.

On the giant ferris wheel.  It took over 20 minutes to go around.  A real blast.

These are the famous "puri-puri" photo booths.   AKA "sticky pics."  We take pictures in the booths and then decorate them after.  You can change hair color, add words, add icons etc.  They are really popular here and truly addictive.  They are so fun!  Caroline and Jerry go a lot.  I will show you our family sticky pics when we get back and I can scan them in.  They are called sticky pics because they are peel and stick.  So fun!  We had laughed so hard posing.

Caroline and Jerry "photo shopping" the pics.  They took forever!

Patrick wanted to go to the haunted house.  Ho Hum.  Ok, I screamed a couple times (really loud) but overall a thumbs down.  The Japanese like happy stuff (I mean cute, happy, happy stuff all over the place) and don't do scary very well.   

More shots from the mall.  Really beautiful.

Tokyo (May 23)

We all met Jerry in Tokyo yesterday and we are spending 5 days here as a family.  Bill has to come over here about 4X a year to visit the prisoners and have other meetings.
The hotel is beautiful and close to everything.
First, my Tokyo manicure...

Caroline's manicure...

Bill is off to work and we are off touring....

Caroline explains the Tokyo metro to Jerry

We made it!  Caroline and Jerry navigated our way around all day.  I literally fell asleep in between stops.  The day I have been praying for has arrived!

First Tokyo Metro for Patrick and Jerry

I am relaxed.

Our first stop was Sensoji Temple.  A bunch a shops line the way to the temple.  You may recall Sensoji from an earlier post back last Fall.  I thought this would be a slam dunk.  Funny, when the day you have been praying for finally arrives, it isn't what you thought.

Now, my cool excursion does not appeal to the teenage set, they don't need me to get around and Bill was at work.

Hmmm...

They were not as impressed as I thought they would be.  I still love coming here and looking around.  The shops did not even grab them.

They were mostly into horsing around and having fun together.  Maybe the day I had been praying for did arrive after all, but better.

At the gate entering the temple grounds and heading toward the shops.

I took this picture as we were crossing the street. The gold building behind them is the Orion Beer Factory.  It is designed to look like a mug of beer.  Gold bottom for the beer and silver top for the foam.

Caroline was explaining the meaning of the urn to Patrick and Jerry.  People burn their wishes. Buddha can not see you but he knows your presence by smell and sound.  People gather the smoke on themselves for luck.  Then they toss a coin inside the bin that has bars on it.  Each coin toss produces a unique sound for Buddha to hear your wish.

OK, back on the Metro to check out the trendy-outlandish Tokyo fashion scene.  They were more interested in seeing this.

We stopped at the Nescafe Cafe (yes, Nescafe) for lunch.

Patrick is heading up the stairs to a trendy shop.

This area actually ended up being too far out there for Jerry.  Patrick is exploring a new look (from bleach blond to jet black hair).  So this wasn't a great stop either.  I like to people watch.  Some of the clothes is much crazier than New York City.  

So tomorrow we will look for a less out-there look.    The mall that I want to take them to will have to wait until Thursday when Bill can join us.  I have a surprise planned for him.

We caught up with Bill about 5 and had dinner in the Teppanyaki restaurant in the hotel.

Our Chef.

Jerry thought it would be good idea to put the entire serving of Wasabi in his mouth at once.  He just about exploded.  His eyes were watering and he could not breathe, just laughed.

A good day!