Out & About

Another "compilation" entry of several days mashed into one blog! We've been enjoying having this week off together as a family during "Obon." It's a vacation week (for us) where people return to their ancestral homes to pay respects to their deceased relatives and visit with family. We used this opportunity to go out around town and explore on the cheap and without the crowds. The weekends around here are insane - a city with a population of nearly 2.5 million enjoys relaxing after the work week, and anywhere to shop or eat is beyond packed (think Friday night anywhere in Wisconsin times a few thousand). Here we are (below) in the elevator to the subway. I picked this glamorous shot to highlight Noah's vampire tooth gap that just cracks me up, as both this front teeth are currently missing. I think Sydney was yelling something. 

Earlier in the week we headed down to the Port of Nagoya Aquarium. This was our biggest journey yet, since we had to take the subway, transfer to another line, and walk a little bit. It's still been ridiculously hot (for us) hovering pretty steady around 90 Fahrenheit, with lots to humidity. I never paid attention to those "heat index" parts of the forecast, which estimate the actual temperature "feel" including the humidity. Now, I do. If you look it up, that has been closer to 95-100. Here are the boys with awesome faces in front of a ship in the bay before we headed into the aquarium: (keeping it classy)

The aquarium was pretty cool, if a bit crowded. We managed to squeeze in so the kids got good views of most of the exhibits. This was one of the small (can't remember which) whale tanks, with all three kids in one silhouette shot:

Here's Sydney using a magnifying glass to look at some coral:

The jellyfish area. Probably my personal favorite because of the ambient lighting/atmosphere. The room is darkened, and the different types of jellyfish were housed in different tanks with different (and sometimes changing) light color schemes.

A closer look:

We only stayed about 1.5 hours or so in the aquarium because it started to get crazy busy after lunch time (tour groups, etc). Just outside the building, there was a bridge that went over the harbor, and you could follow it to this ship, which is a Japanese Antarctic explorer ship. It was not stroller-friendly, so I took the boys inside.

The downstairs wasn't too interesting. There were some "open" rooms with plastic windows over the doorways and mannequins posed as if they were working onboard. The boys enjoyed the kitchen/mess area, because you could walk right up to the counter, and I pretended I was asking them for food… It's fun to mess with them, but Noah called me out that they weren't real… Here he is up top steering the ship:

After our quick tour we needed a pick-me-up. So Angela, Noah, and (sleeping) Sydney went to "Cat Cafe" for ice cream smoothies. Apparently though, there were no cats at this place - it was in name only. I went into this building that had a bunch of lunch restaurants (including Red Lobster, which had a huge line) for ice cream cones for me and Seth. They're only $1, same as back in CT (although in WI $1 will get you a dipped cone). Afterward, since the other 3/5 of our family were waiting for their desserts, Seth and I explored the upstairs arcade.

The next day we went to Nitori, which is sort of like Japanese IKEA. We meant to go here much closer to our arrival, but had just been too busy. It was great to see what they have, and we grabbed some small stuff, and took notes of what to order later to be shipped. This photo was a cool looking bridge that we walked under. The photo does it no justice!

We passed by this truly amazing find just up the street from Nitori. McDonald's DELIVERY. McDelivery. For real. I swear this isn't photoshopped! You order, they deliver. They also use similar motorbikes for delivering the mail, Domino's Pizza, and several other places we've seen. This location also had the TRUE McCafe, where you could actually sit at the bar while they made your coffee beverage. The normal McDonald's counter was in a different part of the restaurant. We also passed another foreigner family of five who were eating here. It was good to know we weren't the only ones lame enough to eat McD's in a foreign country. But when you've got three kids, sometimes you just have to, so that you can eat a meal in peace without "But I don't wike noodles!!" (Seth). Also, for the record, the food here is much better. I think that like in Europe, there are tighter regulations on some ingredients, so things that are okay in the U.S. aren't allowed here. I can't speak to any specifics in regards to McDonald's, but I can tell you that it does taste better. In the U.S. I felt sick after eating here, which we rarely ever did - but didn't here in Japan. Also, the staff is way more friendly, they had a guy walking around passing out balloons to the kids while we ate… just better.

Here's a closer shot of the amazing sign:

Here's Sydney clutching "My Dog" as she says, which was her big purchase at Nitori. She loves this thing, and sleeps next to it every night now.

The balloons survived the train ride back to our station! But then we had "ninja balloon fights" as the boys called them. Here's a quick shot before they all got popped:

The next day we had gone down to grab our bikes and I saw this guy on our neighbor's bike. You never know what bug awaits you down on the street or in the alley where our bikes are stored. I don't know what this is, sort of looks like a praying mantis but isn't like the ones in the U.S. Grasshopper? I've also seen leaf-bugs (they probably have some official name, but they're the ones that just look like a leaf), and the rhinoceros beetle of course! What's next?

We stopped by our favorite place to eat, Nan Master. Sydney loved the soup (in a rare moment of peace here). Unfortunately, I had a bug encounter here. I felt something on my back, just thought it was sweat. Then I felt something on my leg… Swatted it away. But then it was back a second later. Well, I think it was a cockroach. Yuck. It ran by the table next to us, where I could finally see it, and the people there called the waiter out, who grabbed it in a towel and ran away. Yuck. I don't get that phased by bugs, but it was gross to think it had been crawling on me while we ate. Now we're a little scarred, and probably won't go back to Nan Master for a week or two (or we'll check under the table first!).

We headed out for a nighttime adventure the other night to Osu Kannon. We'd seen pictures before of it  - there is a temple, and its surrounded by a covered shopping "arcade" that stretches on and on in different directions. Tons of small shops selling everything from thrift clothes to musical instruments, and of course - tons of different small restaurants. We got here late, as Sydney had napped earlier, so we braved this "late" adventure around 7pm. Most of the shops were closed except for the food, but we were just sightseeing anyways. Here's the temple at night, with all the lanterns:

Here's the entry to the shopping area:

Another shot inside. It's a cool design because you'd feel like you're inside a mall, but suddenly you'd come upon a intersection (as in, cars), and have to wait for the walk signal (and grab the kids so they didn't run across!). Also, I enjoyed being out at night in this area because we finally saw the "alt-Japanese". Typically, everyone around during the day is dressed modestly, with no crazy hair or tattoos. But here at night, I saw a mowhawk, many different dyed hair colors (pink and blue, etc), punk-rock looking kids with tattoos (which are still probably not considered acceptable by most, you definitely don't seen many people flaunting them). It was cool to see that these people exist - and that not everyone in Japan in a office-dress salaryman.

On Thursday we headed to Sakae to see a Cat Cafe. You pay money to sit in a room with cats. Some places offer free drinks while you're there (this one did, as Angela found out), and other charge extra. Seriously. This place was small, and up on the 4th floor of this small building. And it was packed. Angela and the boys waited 2 hours to get inside, and spent 30 min with the cats. I love cats, but this was an insane concept for me. Angela did it for the boys. I left after about 45 min with Sydney, and hit up Starbucks. I meant to get an iced coffee, but they hand you menus when you walk in, and the top item was a Matcha Brown Frappuccino. I have pretty much sworn off Fraps since I worked at Sbux (and they were free, plus they're as bad as eating a Big Mac calorie/fat-wise practically), but I couldn't pass this up! I got a Venti (which in Japan is a Grande size). Sydney got an Iced Short Chai (which was actually a iced short size, for all my sbux readers). Here she is, enjoying it:

Here's a photo of Sydney waiting with me for the boys and Mama to come downstairs from the Cat Cafe: