A Visitor from Nagoya

As you can tell from my lack of posting this week, we have been busy!! So much fun to be had the last couple of days. Wednesday I went with a Dutch lady to a Western grocery store. They had everything from Campbell's soups to salsa and cheddar cheese. I was hoping to find Gerber baby food but no such luck. I did splurge and get Miyako some goldfish and myself some cheese and wheat bread. However, the prices were outrageous. A box of Betty Crocker brownie mix was $8. A Sam's size bag of m and m's was $22. I am not kidding. More than gocking at the types of food in the store, I was gocking at the ridiculous prices.

Wednesday afternoon our friend Darlene arrived from Nagoya. We met Darlene through Kan's American family and she has been in Japan for 9 years now. What a blessing her visit was to me and Miyako. On Wednesday night Darlene and I went to eat at a restaurant near our house. We had okonomiyaki. It is a pancake like dish with egg, cabbage, a meat of some kind (we chose pork) and ginger. Typically you cook your own dish at your table, but since we were gaijin (foreigners) and the only people at the restaurant they cooked it for us at our table. It was delicious. I even ate mine with the fish flakes they put on top and enjoyed it. We also set up a Skype call with Kan's American mom. The crazy thing is his sister and brother-in-law were also online. So, we were skyping with Momma Di on one computer and Kim and Tom on the other computer. It was a lot of fun and Darlene enjoyed being able to catch up with Dianne.

Thursday there was supposed to be a typhoon so we thought we would be housebound. Instead, it rained in the morning and by noon Darlene, Miyako and I were out and about. We went to Asakusa which is considered the Old Town of Tokyo. It is well known for the Asakusa Kannon temple (also called Senso-ji) which is the oldest temple in Tokyo. The Buddhist goddess of mercy sits at this temple and is protected by the god of wind and fire (I think). This area also housed a Shinto shrine called Asakusa Jinja which was built in 1649. The main gate to the temple was hard to miss with the gigantic red lantern (called Kaminarimon). We enjoyed walking around the area and feeling like tourists with all of the other foreigners. After this we took Darlene to Ginza, the big shopping center with Prada, Tiffany, etc that I referenced earlier. It was nice to walk around on a beautiful day and really get to look at everything.

For dinner Thursday night we ventured to Roppongi, another area known for foreigners. Once I got there, I understood why. We saw Outback Steakhouse, Hard Rock Cafe, and TGI Friday's within blocks of each other. Our mission though was a Mexican restaurant we found on a side street. It was delicious. It did not come with free chips and salsa which is probably a good thing because you did not overeat, but the chicken burrito, Mexican rice and refried beans tasted just like Rincon from home. After dinner we stumbled across a Coldstone Ice cream and inevitably had to stop for dessert. The area we were in is called Roppongi Hills. I read in my tour book that it gets an estimated 100,000 visitors each week day and up to 300,000 people come here on the weekend days. Amazing. Being in Roppongi felt like what you see of Tokyo in the movies - lots of people, hustle and bustle, and lots and lots of lights.

I was so thankful to have Darlene with us as I did not see many elevators on the metro system so she helped me carry Miyako in the stroller up and down stairs. I do not know what I will do next week when I try to go to the zoo. I am praying for divine appointments with elevators or else I might get a little discouraged.

After breakfast today at a restaurant across the street from us called Jonathan's (no it is not like the fancy Jonathan's in Lexington but it did have pancakes!) Darlene went back to Nagoya. Miyako and I ventured to her indoor play area after lunch and the workers were so happy to see us back. The lady I met last time was there again today and I enjoyed talking to her while our kids played. Miyako likes having all of the different toys to play with and watching the other kids. Let me just brag a little bit too on Miyako. She is a big hit here. Everywhere we go, people smile at her and she smiles back. One man on the train was making funny faces at her and she just laughed. She is a big hit and people keep saying "kawaii" which means "cute." I think she is a little star over here and people have been so nice to her. It is fun to watch.

We are heading to Kyoto tomorrow for Miyako to meet her Japanese grandparents for the first time. It is a holiday on Monday so we will be back in Tokyo Monday evening. I will update the blog once we get back.