Kyoto

This past weekend was a national holiday in Japan. Since Kan was off work on Monday we made the trip to Kyoto to see his parents and let them meet Miyako for the first time. We took the shinkansen (bullet train) from Tokyo to Kyoto and saw some beautiful countryside along the way. We were in Kyoto by lunch time on Saturday (a 2.5 hour train trip would have taken 6 hours in the car) and Miyako got to meet her ojiichan (grandpa) and mommychan (grandma).

Of course they were smitten with Miyako - who wouldn't be right? I was worried that she would not warm up very well since she had never met them before, but after a couple of hours playing and interacting, she did just fine with her Japanese grandparents. We did not do any sightseeing while in Kyoto. We basically just spent time in their home, eating and chatting and letting them get to know Miyako. Oh, I did forget her sippy cup and had to buy one at the local department store for $11. Yes, I could not believe I spent $11 on a plastic sippy cup, but I did not have any other options.

Sunday Mommychan took Miyako shopping and bought her some lovely dresses. Kan's mom is also a wonderful cook and we ate some lovely dinners, both in their presentation and taste. The national holiday was a field day event for elementary age children. Nobody works on this day and parents go to watch their children in the field day event. It turns out that Kan's parents' house is across the street from a school so all day long on Sunday we heard through the loud speaker an announcer calling the events and then kid music playing. It really was all day long! Thankfully Miyako still took a good afternoon nap.

We came back on Monday to lovely weather here in Tokyo. Supposedly it is going to be nice all week! Today Miyako and I ventured to Ueno park. This park has the zoo and several museums including the National Museum of Tokyo. It was a HUGE park and I found where all of the homeless people in Tokyo lived. Up until this point I had not seen a homeless person here and was surprised considering we are in one of the largest cities, if not the largest city, in the world. Well, walking through the park, we saw lots of homeless people and it was quite sad. It was also sad to come upon the zoo and see it was closed today. My friend from Nagoya told me some museums close the Tuesday after a national holiday so I guess this is the policy of the Ueno Zoo. We will try again tomorrow. The National Museum was also closed but the Art Museum was open. I decided to venture in and try it. Turns out you do not pay one price for all of the exhibits, but you pay individually for each exhibit. So, I decided to pick one and since we are in Japan I did the Japanese paintings for 700 yen, a little more than $7. The man who I paid for my ticket was an artist and had some paintings in the exhibit. He proudly walked me to his paintings of Italy. Miyako did great as we skipped her morning nap to venture out. And of course, she made lots of friends on the metro ride to and from the zoo.

A highlight today was my Skype call with my friend out in Arizona! So fun! I love Skype and we decided even when I am home we will Skype so she can see little Miyako.

Here's to tomorrow...let's hope the zoo is open!