You will find stories of our adventures around the world: some silly, some exciting, some confusing, but all amazing experiences!! We hope you enjoy experiencing this beautiful world as much as we are enjoying it!
This was my third year visiting the pottery fair in Ningyocho. The first year I was by myself (that was the year I got lost on the train for like two hours!) and I found a lot of neat little bowls and sauce plates. The second year Kris had to work so I took the kids with me to the fair. It was so insanely hot that the kids and I only picked out a few things before we retreated to the air conditioned subway and made our way home. This year it was another hot day...in the mid-90's...and it was overcast, threatening to rain on us all day. Somehow, I managed to convince the kids that it would be an awesome day out in the city, so we made our way to the pottery fair!
Well, at least they had a delicious lunch that they thoroughly enjoyed!
On our way home the clouds turned from dark and rainy to blue and sunshiney!
This year I was in search of plates. I didn't quite think through the logistics of carrying around said dishes while we enjoyed the fair. I found the plates I wanted at the third booth we came to. They were so so heavy! I put them, and the free dish the booth-owner gave me :), into my backpack. We walked another two booths when I looked at the kids and said, "There is no way I'm going to walk six blocks with all this weight on my back, in this heat. No way." They were more than happy to turn around and head back to the subway station so we could make our way home.
My treasures from the day! I love the top right and the bottom left.
This is the center of the top right dish.
This is the perfect plate for curry. It has slightly curved edges to hold all the yummy curry in the center of the plate.
I may have mentioned this a time or a hundred....we love Miyazaki movies!! So, when I heard there was going to be a limited time, special exhibit of Ghibli art we were all in!!! I was pretty sure the place would be busy because the Japanese schools are still out for the summer, but we were going to brave the crowds anyway. Wednesday morning I rushed the littles through their breakfasts and we walked our way to Yokosuka Chuo station where we caught the bus for Roppongi Station, about an hour and 10 minutes with two train changes and about 930 Yen for me one way.
From Roppongi Station we walked just a few minutes down the road to Mori Tower. It did take us a few minutes to figure out where to go once we were there. I wasn't sure where the entrance was for the elevator to the top. I just happened to see a sign about 15 feet down a covered path that said, "City View". That's where we want to be! From here we just followed the path around to a glass entranceway, then took the stairs to the elevator entrance. Easy peasy!
Now, with tickets in hand (1800 Yen for me, 600 each for the kids) we hopped on the elevator and it whisked us to the 52nd floor to see what Ghibli has amazed us with through the last 30 years!
What. A. View.
Perhaps the clearest view we've ever had!
Garytt was so amazed by the view! He just wanted to stand there and point out all the different things he saw below. I had to drag him away so we could look at the exhibit.
So, all the articles I've read about this exhibit had tons of pictures of all the artwork inside. There's even a Mackenzie-high Totoro statue!!!! Welllll....you aren't allowed to take pictures for most of the exhibit. :( I'm not sure how all those other people took pictures. The first half of the exhibit was filled with art....the first section was dedicated to the new movie, "The Red Turtle", which is supposed to be released sometime this month. There were sketches of many scenes and a lot of character sketches as well. The next section has artwork from several of Studio Ghibli's movies...."Kiki's Delivery Service", "Princess Mononoke", "My Neighbor Totoro", "Ponyo", and several more that we haven't seen yet ("Tales from EarthSea" is now on our list to buy ~ Garytt was soooo impressed with the dragons on the posters!). The walls of the next little section were covered with newspaper clippings and posters from all of the movies. If we hadn't seen as many of the movies as we have, the kids would have been very disappointed. It was fun to see them recognize certain scenes from their favorite movies.
As we turned the corner away from the newspaper clipping section, we found ourselves faced with a giant Neko Bus (Cat Bus)!!! Nooooo waaaayyyyy!!!!! We queued up in line. Well, Garytt and I did, Mackenzie was upset because the line was so long and she didn't want to wait....when I gave her the choice of going inside CatBus or taking a picture of Garytt and I going in CatBus, she opted to go in with her brother.
Two little Havenses going in....
Two happy little Havenses looking out!
She said he was "soooooo soffffttttt"
Finally...we found a beautiful painting to take a picture with!!!
And, this is moment when she discovered....
...past all the beautiful paintings...
...here's a hint...
...an even better hint...
....so many moving machines!!!
This area is called "The Land of Vehicles"
I loved how they all look like they are flying in that crystal clear blue sky out there!!!
It's Dola and her boys!!!!
And, then the ship....the huge...moving.....ship!!!! We tried to find Laputa, but it was nowhere in sight....maybe just beyond one of those puffy white clouds out there...with the typhoon that just passed over Japan the day before, this was our best chance of ever finding it!!
Along the walls there was a bit of history on flight and machines. All in Japanese, and the kids didn't give me enough time to translate any of it. I did see the Wright Brothers on the board though.
That was the end of the exhibit. We really enjoyed looking at the artwork. Since everything was in Japanese, we moved through a lot faster than most other people. I think we were there for about an hour and a half. I would have stayed longer (Garytt too) and just walked around the observation deck to look and take pictures. But, Her Highness was stttaaaarrrrrvvvviiiinnnnggggg ("You know, Mom, you only let me have one breakfast this morning and I usually have three"). So, we quickly took a few more pictures and then made our way back down the elevator.
We've walked around that wavy museum....it was on our infamous "It's just a short walk to see Godzilla from this hotel" trip. It was actually several miles and the Godzilla I thought was there was something I read from an article that was posted two years before. Oy!
To the left of the helicopter pad is Hardy Barracks and it's Exchange building.
This was Garytt's find. It was his favorite building and thinks it would be amazing to live there.
Once we were back down to the ground floor we made our way to Family Mart for lunch, then we walked back to the benches surrounding Mori Tower to sit and eat our yummy delicious finds.
Such a beautiful, crisp sky! We don't get this very often around here!
The Boy and his egg salad sandwiches. He followed this up with a vanilla Coolish and then when we got to Yokosuka he had the 7-grain rice with plums onigiri that Mackenzie refused to eat. It's not very visible in the picture, but the wall out in front of us had water running down it, and then the roof of the overhang here had mist constantly spraying out to keep you cool in the crazy heat.
Mackenzie had fried rice "with boring green things" onigiri. Yes, that's the actual translation. She followed her lunch with a chocolate Coolish.
What a great day! We had fun seeing the progression of artist's drawings and then following along as each individual picture combined to created a few seconds of moving scene. And, how could a trip ever be bad when it's ended with a seat on the Cat Bus?!
It was a pretty hot day...the real feel was about 99 degrees and the sun was crazy! But, it was so clear and beautiful that we didn't complain too much. We made it home by 3, so it was about a 6 or so hour day. The hard part was convincing ourselves (okay...me convincing myself, because we all know a Havens NEVER passes up a chance to play soccer) to get out of the cool apartment with its comfy chairs and run around in the heat for an hour of soccer practice.
A couple weeks ago we were invited to have a BBQ with friends at Taura Ume no Sato (Taura Plum Park). In my planning for the meal I ran over my normal cookout recipes: macaroni salad, potato salad, deviled eggs. About a week before the BBQ my friend said she would bring the main course and I agreed to bring dessert. Well, I'm glad it was dessert I ended up bringing, because Japanese BBQs are a bit different from those I've hosted/attended with my American friends.
Hiding from the sun as we are almost at the top of the hill
So, that beautiful Sunday morning, we made our way to the JR station, rode one stop to Taura Station and then hiked 3 miles to the park. Oh my...we almost melted on our way up that mountain...yes, it's only a couple hundred feet high, but daggonit, we sweat out at least five pounds walking in the insane heat and humidity and I'm almost certain we climbed 7,459 steps!
The view from the top was amazing though!
At the top of the hill we continued on to the other side, into the trees and then down a path for a bit until we arrived at the campsites. There's no parking here, so if you are going to BBQ, you have to lug everything up the MOUNTAIN and through the woods to this site. Well, not quite everything.
See that cabin in the picture below? Well, there is a very nice gentleman in there that will rent almost anything you can think of to cook your meal! So convenient!!! There's also a little tram that runs from somewhere at the bottom of the MOUNTAIN to the camp entrance. This is so you can get your camping gear-tents, sleeping bags, etc; but no people-up without killing yourself from exertion.
After we took our shoes off, and immediately took hold of one fan per person to try and air dry some of the 8 pounds of sweat dripping off our clothes, Junko got a checklist and walked around the cabin with the campground-man as she told him all the things she needed to fix lunch. Special rice cookers,
it's a nice little kidney-shaped tin that you load with rice and water then heat on low for a few minutes, medium for a few minutes, high for a few minutes, then flip it over and let it sit for 10 or 20 minutes, I can't remember the exact times), pots for boiling, cutting boards, knives, several bowls, silverware, bowls, cups, the works!
The office
Here is the cooking station. There are four...two on each side contain a large sink, stove, and tables for preparation.
Here's a better view of the huge sink and then the two stoves and then the other sink.
There are toilets (the cabin on the right) and I'm not sure what the other cabin is for. I didn't go over there to explore.
There are a few platforms for tents to be set up....there are two in the center of the picture below.
Here's a view of the tent area next to the cooking area.
Okay...so, while the boys all worked to get the fire started the girls started pealing and cutting. Mackenzie actually asked if she could help! Usually, Princess Maki-chan prefers everyone else to prepare her food and serve it to her. :) She peeled and cut carrots, tomatoes, eggplant, and potatoes.
While we were cutting and Kris, Isao and Uta were getting the rice going and the ground beef and curry sauce cooking, Garytt and Kenta took some time to be boys! They chopped wood...and listened to Kris tell the story of when he took a hatchet and chopped off the end of his finger....gasp! Garytt insisted he would be careful (I forgot to take a picture of the bruises and four or five cuts on his hand where he wasn't so careful, good thing the hatchet wasn't sharp at all).
The veggies are now in the curry so Mackenzie and Momo-chan are cleaning off the loaner dishes.
Once lunch was ready, the boys plated the rice and curry for us and we all sat down to eat an amazing lunch! The curry was so delicious! We will definitely be adding eggplant and potatoes to our curry in the future! Delicious!!!
Garytt really liked this tree trunk seat. It's hard to see, but he's covered in dirt from head to toe...a sure fire sign that he had a fun-filled Boy-stuff kind of day!!
Mmmmm.....yummmmmmmyyyyy!!!
Once we were done eating, we cleaned up all the dishes and then Kris, Isao and the kids ran to the Ninja Park to play for a bit. After they were thoroughly sweaty, they returned for drinks and some sitting time to cool off. Since it was after 2 the heat started to subside a bit....a tiny bit. We had ourselves some dessert and then returned all of our gear to the office before setting off toward the car and train station. We made one more little stop at the Ninja Park so the kids could run a bit more, then we walked our way back down the MOUNTAIN. It wasn't as bad at 3 pm and at a downward direction. We hitched a ride back to the base and then walked home. What a fun day!!! Who would have thought to eat curry at a picnic? It was so perfect and delicious! The heat tried to knock us down, but we sweated our way right on through :)
We found this plant at the campsite. I'm not sure what it is, but it has neat little water holders built right into it!
