Tsukuba-Dooba-Doo

It was our final day in Tokyo (EVER!) and we still had some unfinished business.  Everyone woke up late because we were still recovering from our long night before.  We were even late on our check out from the hotel, but Seth worked his magic so we didn't have to pay a late fee! Yay!  We used Chisun hotels because they are a cheap "Western-Style" Japanese hotel chain that are all over the country.

A quick train ride put us into Asakusa.  This is where we had an excellent dinner a couple nights before, but we decided a day trip was in order.


After some shopping, we scuttled over to the Tokyo bay Cruse line and waited to give our guests a more aquatic perspective of Tokyo.  We have done a similar adventure with our guest back when the Walkers and Louis came to visit. Here are some photos of group before we got on the boat.

We do try  to change it up when we have different visitors and what we did differently was we took the boat to the reclaimed (a.k.a. man-made) island of Odaiba.

On the way to Odaiba there was a lot of bird feeding going on from the passengers on the boat.  Leon was quick to jump in on the fun by trying to get the birds to eat food from his beanie.   As for Amanda, Jill, and I, we decided to turn the other direction to enjoy the beautiful city scenery and try to block out all of the birds diving at the people behind us.  (Amanda and I are not bird people!)

As we approached the Island we had to switch boats which was fine by us because we were all getting a little chilled by sitting outside.  So we grabbed some coffee and sat below decks for the next boat ride across the seaway.

When we got to Odaiba we were all really excited.  The "ichiban" (#1) priority was to check out their 1/4 replica Statue of Liberty.

When I would look east, over the ocean, I would always picture someone sitting on the beach in California looking back at me.  The reality of the situation was that it was 4pm Japan time which meant that was like 2 am in California.  Odds are that not many people would be looking out to us quite yet.

This day was a day of leisurely play.  We took our time everywhere we went and simply enjoyed eachother's company.  The big mall on Odaiba had some fun decorations, a HUGE Hello Kitty store, and a car museum so we made sure to hit them all up.  Leon, being a big gearhead, wanted to spend a lot of time checking out cars...actually everyone did except Jill and I.  We decided that a pet shop with puppies sounded more appealing.  


It was a great last day in Tokyo, but I know that everyone was getting really tired.  I can speak for all of us in saying that we were ready to have a relaxing day on Thursday.  Unfortunately, Seth and I didn't plan on this being our LAST visit to Tokyo before coming back to the U.S.  However, the earthquake had a way of prioritizing our last days in Japan.

Thursday:
Today was a fairly chill day, we just showed everyone around Tsukuba. We did some shopping at Wonder Rex which was my most favorite shop in Tsukuba.   We also took it easy Thursday night by just watched a movie at our house and Seth got ready for his big presentation the next day. 

~Kate

We all woke up pretty early and all 8 of us headed on our way to Kamakura, which was about an hour train ride from the hotel.  As I stepped out of the train I fell instantly in love with the atmosphere, it's an older area and a stones throw from the bay.  Our first stop was the famous "sitting Buddha".  Seth and Matt had been here during Golden Week, but for the rest of us it was a first.

I had been watching the weather for about a week before our three day stint in Tokyo and Monday was going to be a wet one. I was thinking rain, but mother nature was thinking...SNOW!  Impeccable timing considering the fact that Tokyo gets snow about 4 days per year.  ;(

Leon and Seth dropped us girls off at the train station, took the car back to the rental shop, and walked the half mile back to the train station.  During that time we got the tickets ready for Tokyo, not knowing that the train was going to take waaaaaaaay longer than we expected.

Seth had told the Haines we would meet them at the Starbucks outside the station. Well he was off about an hour... he just kept looking at his clock and wishing and praying that they were also late.  After all, lets be honest, they have been known to have punctuality issues in the past.  Watching our tardiness go from 15 minutes to 60 minutes was killing us.  This would be the downside to not having cell phones in Japan.  We ran up to the Haines' with sympathetic hearts, but to our surprise, they laughed it off.  Instantly Matt whipped this one out:

DANG IT!  We were saving that up for a rainy day...oh wait...I guess this counts.  And that was that.  We then left Starbucks to take on Tokyo together.  First on our list was the Tokyo Metropolitan Building.  It has a great view of Tokyo like the Tokyo Tower, but at zero the cost.  Unfortunately with it being snowy, it also had zero the visibility.  No worries though, everyone still liked being up super high up.


We all laughed and agreed that at least it was free and we had meet an American traveler named Jack. I had started asking Jack some question and quickly realized that Jack had been on the same flight TO and FROM Japan as our friends.  Small world!  We had some delicious ramen as a group and then got back on our coats and went to Cat Magic...yes, I said it.  Cat Magic!

Cat Magic- a cafe with about 20 cats walking around while you can enjoy coffee/tea. I can't do this place justice with words.  Luckily, Seth made this little doo-dad that sums it up quite well.




Everyone was enjoying themselves, except me who just kept rubbing my eyes and sneezing. Right when I walked in I said "wow that burns the eyes!" I guess if you have cat allergies this place is not for you but for everyone else, this is a must for Tokyo!



We said our goodbyes to the Haines and agreed to meet them at Asakusa at 6pm. We were not late this time!  Next stop was Shibuya to show our friends the insane frenzy that Tokyo can be.


A train hop away was Asakusa, where we walked around before grabbing some dinner at Chelsae and my favorite restaurant around.  This restaurant reminded Chels and I of an American chain, Applebees.  Naturally, we coined this place "JApplebees."  After the restaurant we went to the Asakusa's Temple (Sensoji) and then we headed to our hotel for some much needed R&R before our next big day.


~Kate

Waking up was hard to do after our insanely busy Saturday, but everyone was in high spirits for our 10:30 church service at Agape International Chapel.  Our close, intimate church family was one of the best things about Tsukuba, and we LOVED showing the church off to all of our guests. The people there are especially warm and inviting.  You feel at home right away.  This particular Sunday was special for two reasons:

In fact, we passed the Haines family riding their bikes that way.  After seeing us, Reagan exclaimed "My people!!!"  It was, of course, a lot of fun watching our friends out of their element here.  Some cultural differences really show when comparing Agape to the churches we are used to in America. When it was time to stand up and greet one another, Amanda, Jill, and Leon got bombarded with curious/excited Agape members.  Seth and I enjoyed watching these people pour out their love to total strangers.

After the service, we had our usual lunch at the church and enjoyed the conversations between our American friends and our Japanese friends. We were like proud parents showing off our children!  The food was AMAZING!  So much so that almost all of us had seconds (and...maybe...thirds...?).

After church we we were mountain-bound to do some good 'ol fashioned ume viewing.  Mt. Tsukuba has a fantastic ume (plum) blossom grove and it was supposed to be about time for some bloomin'.  Well...not quite yet... There were some pretty sections, but we could tell that the prime time was still a couple weeks away.




We walked around Mt. Tsukuba for a couple hours, visited some shops, and were properly pooped.  Luckily, there was an onsen (naked hot bath) just around the corner!  We were planning on meeting the Haines' at the onsen around 5:30, so we killed some time by enjoying a beer and the smoggy Tokyo skyline. Unfortunately, it was so smoggy that we weren't able to see much of that skyline.  That being said, it was hard to deny the still gorgeous view from the mountain side. After our beers, we strolled over to take a dip in the only true onsen in the Tsukuba area.   Ahhh, there is nothing like the relaxation and bonding that comes from an onsen... Truly, there isn't anything like it in the USA.

Unfortunately the Haines' couldn't make it to the bathhouse, but at least they met us for dinner that night.


What an incredible day!  ANNNND this week was only going to get better.  That night we all headed to bed early because tomorrow we were starting our three day adventure in Tokyo!

~Kate

We have enjoyed all of our guests here in the Far East! However, we knew that the adventures with this group was going to be epic!

Mazda was doing a killer deal where you have the car from Friday at 5 through Monday at 10 am for 10,000yen which was about $120.  Hooray!  Getting to the Mazda car rental was a hassle.  It was 15 minute bus ride, 2 different trains and a 1/2mile walk annnd Seth had to work later than he thought annnnnd their flight was coming in early....(deep breath) Here we go!

Seth and I ran to the bus stop to catch the bus.  Lets be honest, Seth and I are pros at public transportation so it all went very smoothly, we even got to the airport early!  Man, we are getting good at this whole Japan thing!

Seth and I could not stop smiling at the airport!  As we waited, we daydreamed about the upcoming awesomeness until...they came around the corner.  I ran up to them so fast that I basically tackled Amanda.  In the car we just picked up from where we all left off a year ago.  I think that is how you know your best friends for life, you just pick up like no time has past at all.  

When we got back to the house we set up the Ross' air mattress and invited the Haines' over.  Everyone was so excited to see each other!  After some stories and laughter we let our new house guests go to bed.  It was a "snug" set up with 5 adults in 600sqft. apartment....the perfect setup for a great week.

Saturday:  Nikko
Because we had the car for the whole weekend we decided to take everyone to Nikko for them to get the true feel of the Edo period.  Since we have already talked about the history of Nikko Temples here, we are going to just dive into our favorite photos of the temples.





After we got templed-out we wanted to check out the waterfalls nearby.  Unfortunately, when we went to Nikko with Seth's parents the roads were too icy.  On top of the mountain is Lake Chuzenji (Chuzenjiko), which is the coolest lake I saw in Japan. Especially with the wintery scenery!


Of course since we are New Mexicans and snow is unusual when it stays longer than 12 hours. It goes without saying that we had to play in the snow and check out this icy lake...haha what is that!?


Us girls started voicing that we were starting to get cold and that we wanted to check out the BIG (Kegon) waterfall ASAP!  So we left our frozen lake, walked back to the car, and got to the falls in no time.  Once there, we got our warm coffee from the vending machines which got us all jacked up on caffeine.  Said 'jacked up-ness' is very apparent in our photos.

We woke up Wednesday morning and started getting the Haines’s ready for the airport.  We said our tearful goodbyes, then Seth and I relaxed for a few hours before we headed to the airport as well.  Our bus ride to the airport was supposed to be only 15 minutes, but due to a car accident and some crazy maneuvering from our driver we got there 45 minutes later. We arrived at the airport and was instantly consumed by the pandemonium around us.  We found the Singapore ticket gate and started the line for check-in since we were there 4-hours before ticketing started.  While we waited, I got on-line and did an internet check-in.  For some reason, I couldn't check Seth in, but I didn't think too much about it at the time.

 We took turns walking around to stretch our legs during our four hours of waiting.  During that time we met some really nice people and experienced two Mag6.0 quakes.  These quakes knocked out the internet, but after our three hours of waiting we tried checking Seth in again... it still didn't work! I asked him if he could have copied the reservation number down wrong, he pulls up the email and nope that is the reservation number, “ah.... Seth I hate asking this question but what is the day for your ticket” “it says Wednesday the….wait what is today?” “The 16^th” “…it’s for the 23^rd”  “NO!!! NO!!! NO!! NO!! NO!! NO!!!!”
  
Instantly we started freaking out, every fear is now coming out in my mind. After a 20 seconds of panic we put on our survival caps.  I instantly got on www.singaporair.com and Seth borrowed someones phone to see if he could switch his flight.  On the website they were still listing the tickets for that flight, which means that there are still open seats!  Whew! Seth found out on the phone call that there was 5 open seats still but they could not move his ticket over because it was to close to check-in. We had to make sure we bought one of those tickets before 5 others did.
I started praying “Jesus we just need one seat, please just one.” After about 45 minutes of panic, Seth saw a man tangling a credit card in front of a Singapore airlines ticket counter worker!  "What the..?!"  Seth jumped over to the counter faster than you can say "natural disaster!"  He drenched that lady in a thick layer of Walker charm.  It totally paid off because he turned to me and said "I got a ticket!" Praise God!!!  And wait...it gets better...the open seat that Seth got was right next to me!  Oh God is so, SO good!




During our short flight (9hrs), I just kept looking over at Seth and thanking God that he was right there next to me.  We watched movies and tried sleeping, but the turbulence reminded us so much of aftershocks that we could not fall asleep.  We would later find out how bad our PTSD actually was. 







We made it to my parents house and had Dion's pizza for dinner.  I looked at Seth and asked him if he felt like the ground was still shaking.  He responded with an exhausted "yes."  It was like when your on a boat for hours and you get back on land. You still feel like you're rocking on the ocean. 


We went to bed that night so thankful that we were safe, but we also felt very sad.  It was not the way we had imagined saying goodbye.  Our good friends in Japan are always in our prayers as well as all of the Japanese. 


~ Kate