Dinner out in town

I'm a little slow with this post...and, it will just be a short one.  Last weekend we decided to wander around town for a little bit.  After walking for a while we thought we would try a new restaurant.  We walked down the streets looking at all the plastic food (a lot of eateries here have plastic models of the dishes they serve displayed in cases by the front door), and finally settled on the place below....don't know the name because I can't read it.  :)

We picked out the plastic meals we thought would be the tastiest and headed in.  Just inside the door, to the left, was an ordering machine.  It took us a few minutes to figure out which picture in the machine corresponded to the plastic dishes we saw outside, but we finally figured it out.  So, Kris pushed the button to order the food and a red box popped up with Kanji in it....well, we couldn't read it, so we cleared the screen and tried again....again, the red box popped up.  We did this three or four times before Kris said, "let's try putting the money in first."  That worked!  We ordered three meals and a side then picked out a table toward the back.  Within minutes our plates were on the table. 

My dish:  Chicken, tempura shrimp, salad.  The chicken and shrimp had some kind of mayonnaise sauce on top.  The shrimp was amazing!  I could have eaten a dozen of those things!  The chicken was ok, the sauce was great!

Kris' dish:  Chicken, steak, hamburger steak and a chunk of bacon, the white things on the left side of the main dish are potatoes, and green beans.

The kids' dish:  chicken and salad.  The fries were the extra dish we ordered because we were pretty sure Miss Picky (Mackenzie) wouldn't eat anything we ordered.  She at least tasted the chicken, but only one small piece.

Each meal came with white rice, a block of tofu (I think that's what that is, didn't have much taste to it), and a bowl of soup. 

We all started to dig in.  Garytt was happily tasting everything on his plate.  He dipped his chicken into each of the two sauces on his plate, took a few sips of the soup, dipped some of Mackenzie's fries into the sauces.  About ten minutes into the meal Garytt bumped me on the arm.  I turned and asked him what he needed only to find him holding his neck with both hands, his face a very deep red.  I thought, "oh no!  The Boy is choking!"  I put my hand to his back, getting ready to give him a BIG whack, when he muttered "It's burning my neck".  I asked what was burning and he pointed to this:

A small dollop of spicy mustard.  I'm pretty sure that, if we were cartoons, he would have had steam coming out of his ears!  We got it washed down with water and within minutes he was back to his chicken.  Ha ha  :)  I'm so glad The Boy is adventurous!  This was a nice meal for less than 3,000 Yen...and, a funny story that still makes us laugh!  :)

Tokyo's Imperial Palace Grounds

We were lucky enough to have our first visitors this week!!!  My sister-in-law's parents were in town, on a one day stop during their Pacific cruise.  :)  Yay!  Family!  What's on the itinerary....The Imperial Palace, Tokyo.

We all got up pretty early, ate our breakfast, and headed out.  We hopped on the Limited Express from Yokosuka Chuo to Yokohama, then switched to the subway and headed on to Nihon-obashi station.

We said our "hello"s and Garytt even said "ohayogozaimasu" (good morning).  Then, we hopped back on the subway to Yokohama and then on the train to Tokyo station.  We have been to this station before, but we just switched trains inside.  This is a beautiful station!  I would love to go back and take pictures of the building....the kids were ready to run and I wasn't prepared to take pictures, so I will have to wait till next time.  

Once outside the station, we walked a few blocks to the palace grounds.  I at least thought we would be able to see the palace, but we didn't.  Maybe we need to hit the grounds from another angle.  I'll have to research that.  We did get to see a few beautiful swans!  And, we saw fish in the moat.  It's amazing to me how much work went into constructing those massive walls!  We were lucky enough to have beautiful weather!  I checked the forecast every day and the last I looked at it (10 pm the night before) we were forecast to have 60% chance of rain from midnight to 3 pm.  But, the rain decided not to show!  YAY!  

Tokyo Station

Palace Hotel...probably a beautiful view of the city from the top floors.

We arrived just in time to see the fountains.  A few minutes later they all shut off.

 The kids took off when we got to this little park.  They ran around the fountains and jumped over the little waterways.  I was exhausted just watching!

Getting a better look at the swan

The first gate we went through was the Oteman Gate. 

That's a mighty big door!

Mackenzie thought this was the mailbox because there was an opening at the mouth.

We walked through the museum and then took a nice stroll through the East Gardens (Higashi Gyoen).

Taking a rest and munching on carrots

After walking for a couple hours we decided it was time for lunch.  So, we exited through the Kita-Hanebashimon Gate and turned right.  We found a Chinese restaurant and found a place to sit.  We ordered three dishes and then Gayle tried to teach The Boy how to use chopsticks.  We ended up ordering shrimp and cashews (slightly spicy), beef and peppers, and sweet and sour pork.  All very yummy!!  Mackenzie had a turkey and cheese sandwich from our backpack.  (sigh).

Chopstick lesson

Turn table lunch.  Garytt likes this kind of table (Garytt saw:  "toy")

Cashew shrimp and the beef and peppers.

After lunch, we hopped on the train at Takebashi Station.  We decided to go one station past Nihon-odori (in Yokohama) and take a walk back to the ship through Yamashita Park.  What a great idea!  The flowers were amazing!!!!  (The pictures below aren't in order...sometimes I can't get Blogger to do what I want it to do....grrr....so...after the fishyfalls came the roses and then the flower bed arrangements.)

A fishy waterfall

  
After our walk through the garden we found the Kings' ship.  We all said our good byes, and gave hugs, then walked back to the station and headed home.

What a great day!  I'm so glad the weather turned out to be beautiful so we could take a nice tour of Tokyo with wonderful family!!!  A big THANK YOU to the Kings for taking time in their cruise to spend the day with us.  :)  Much love to you both!  (And, Mr. Gayle....You are a very sneaky man!  Thank you :)  We hope the rest of your cruise clears up with beautiful skies on the way back to the States.

Kurihama Flower World (Kurihama Hana no Kuni)

I did it!!  I ventured off base AND on the train BY MYSELF!!!  Woo hoo!  :)  Friday, the kids and I decided to take a look at Kurihama Flower World.  I kept most of the park a secret from the kids, just in case I got lost or couldn't find the park.  So, we set out at 1040 and walked to Yokosuka Chuo Station.  It took me just a second to figure out which platform to stand on, but when the trains started coming they didn't have the cities I expected on them.  So, I had to dig for my train map to make sure I was headed in the right direction.  We could have made it on the 1108 train, but because I double checked the map we had to wait for the 1118.  Just a few stops down the line, about ten minutes on the train, we got off at Keikyu Kurihama.  I pulled out the directions I scribbled on a small piece of paper out of my back pocket and started looking for the East Exit.  After a quick restroom stop we found our exit and headed out into Kurihama.  Right off the bat, my directions didn't make sense, but I headed in the direction I thought was the right way from what I remembered from the map the night before.  We crossed the street and headed along the road I hoped was the right way.  Just when I realized I forgot to count red lights to make sure I turned at the right one, we saw a light post with pretty flowers painted on it.  Then, a big sign, all in Kanji, with a flower on it.  I decided to give it a whirl. If it wasn't the right way we could turn around and look on a different road.

We walked down this road for 15 minutes or so...stopping to look at the pretty azaleas on the way.

I should have started this post explaining that I have no idea what kinds of flowers we looked at....I am horrible with remembering the names of flowers anyway (it took me ten minutes to search the internet for the name azalea, and I had three of those bushes in my front yard in Mississippi!).  So, please forgive me for my lack of flower knowledge...and, if you know what they are, please fill me in! I'll number the pictures so you can reference them. :)

We arrived at the entrance to Flower World at just about noon.  We sat at the entrance and had our lunch while we walked around and checked out some of the flowers.

1.  This was in the entrance garden display

2.

3.  Is this a poppy?  Kurihama is known for it's HUGE poppy display in the spring, and since I saw this flower in many different colors, I'm guessing it is the poppy.

After lunch, we headed up the flower paths.  The flower park was pretty empty, so we were able to walk around and take lots of pictures and check out the little bugs crawling around.  It was a nice, relaxed journey.  I'm not sure my kids will think the flowers are so cool the next time we go....

Mackenzie actually initiated this hug....she doesn't offer to hug her stinky brother often!

4.  Are those blue flowers also poppies?

5.

Dare to be different!

This is a view of the park from the back to the front.  We climbed a staircase at the back of the park for this view.

Now, I let the secret out of the bag.  The big kid-attraction at this park....at just the right time.  At the mid-point of the staircase they were both complaining about how much their legs hurt and they were ready to go home.

I said, "What do you think we will find if we go to the left?"  Garytt said, "A MONSTER!!!!!!!!  Hurry, let's goooo!"

Godzilla slide.  Enter into his belly....

...slide down his tail.

After the kids went down the slide a few times they decided it was probably much more fun to run around on the playground, which opened up a whole new kind of terror for me...

...how in the world am I supposed to keep track of my kids in that maze, with all those people??!!  We walk up the steps and I put the kids next to each other and say, "you HAVE to stay together!  Mackenzie, keep an eye on your little brother.  Garytt, make sure you stay near your big sister.  I can't keep my eyes on both of you if you are in different sections of the playground.  I don't want you to get lost.  PLEASE stick together!"  "OK" they both say and start up the rope ladder.

The Boy started up first with Mackenzie just behind him (bottom left of pic).

Within minutes Mackenzie got ahead of Garytt.  When she got to the top she forgot all about her brother and started exploring the tower.  I kept moving my eyes from where Garytt was on the ladder to where I thought Mackenzie would exit the tower.  Once Garytt got to the top he started exploring.  I never saw Mackenzie come out of the tower, and then Garytt went in.  Once he was in, I lost sight of both kids.  Terror started to settle in....how in the world was I going to find the kids!!!  I'd probably break a leg trying to get up that ladder....OMG!  So, I paced on the platform watching for the kids, finally, they appeared at the top of the hill. 

Once I got them back to me I had to make a decision....let them play, or go with my fear and tell them it's time to leave.  I sided with sanity....I told them where I would be sitting and to come check in with me every once in awhile so they would know when it was time to leave.  Garytt ran to the closest climbing contraption and Mackenzie headed back to the towers. 

Within minutes I noticed a crowd around Garytt.  The boys around him were pointing to his shirt (Star Wars) and they were all nodding and making hand gestures.  Then, Garytt and his entourage took off across the platform.  They played for over an hour.  Mackenzie would come back and tell me she found some friends and then run off again.  Garytt brought his friends over to say hi, the boys all said hi and waved.  Then, they took off across the yard, the boys stopped, turned back around to me and bowed....so sweet!  So, I bowed back and they were off running again.

I wanted to make sure we got back to the train before all the school groups started making their way to the station, so we headed back toward the entrance.  I got several groans about the walk, but once I reminded them that there was an ice cream store back at the entrance they were ready to go!

Garytt had sweet potato

Vanilla for Mackenzie

We were back on the train and walking into the house by 1500.  Garytt is already begging to go back.  I have a feeling this will be a frequently visited park.  It was a cheap excursion....only 190 Yen each way on the train and the park was free.  The ice cream was the most expensive part...300 Yen per cone.  And, the biggest revelations of the day....I can find my way around without assistance and I can let go of my kids' hands every once in awhile so they can experience the world in their way!  :)