Christmas came early this year. Really early. Like...'before Thanksgiving' early. On the first morning of the Walkers & Grenawalts stay in Japan we celebrated Christmas with a small gift exchange. Joe was fresh from a recent business trip to The Hague. For the geographically challenged, like myself, it's located in The Netherlands. I always think that The Hague = 'The Plague' = the 'Black Death', = the 'bubonic plague'. So in my mind, The Hague is a terrible place with sick people and rats everywhere, like Somalia or Snooki's House. (Note: if you don't know who 'Snooki" is, then click here.) Anyway, Joe had purchased some big, furry, bubonic plague-free winter hats for the Katies. Jonce and I also received winter hats.
Following our mini-Christmas was a drive to the big Buddha. Everyone is always completely awestruck at the magnitude of this statue.
The first full day went off without a hitch and the next day was going to be a big one. As always, we had very ambitious plans for Tokyo so we were going to get an early start.
Stay tuned for the next chapter!
-Seth
It was as if these hats emitted a potent laughing gas. Placing them atop our heads induced an instant frenzy of laughter. Joe was especially susceptible to this as he went into an uncontrollable laughing episode the instant these hats touched our domes.
Following our mini-Christmas was a drive to the big Buddha. Everyone is always completely awestruck at the magnitude of this statue.
Having fun with the big guy.
The helicopter ride was really expensive, but totally worth it... ok, Ok, OK! I lied. Actually, I just took a photo of a photo... I think this gives an excellent perspective on the size of the statue.
We had the car for a little longer and it was lunch time. Sushi anyone?! We made our way back to Tsukuba to eat at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant. Eating at this type of restaurant is a must when visiting Japan. Even if you aren't keen on raw fish, you can still fill your belly with all sorts of delicious dishes. You can read a brief write up about the creation of this type of restaurant by clicking here.
Language barriers are not a problem when you can just grab any plate of sushi that passes by.
After returning the car we took some time to relax at the Ninomiya house. We scoped out the city from the 9th floor balcony and us young people made a quick trip to Doho park. On the way, the Katies were discussing Riki-Tikki-Tavi for some reason when Jonce quickly disappeared from my periphery. We all stopped to find him giggling on the ground. He thought it would be a good idea to slam on his front brakes (front and rear brakes are opposite for Japanese and American bikes) as he rode over dead leaves. The front tire locked up, the bike slid sideways, and he almost went over the handle bars. As we gazed back at him, we all became paralyzed with laughter. Jonce quickly picked up his bike (and his pride) and we continued on. After the bike ride around the park we rested for a bit and got ready for dinner.
That night we ate a flat iron grill restaurant which specializes in a dish called 'okonomiyaki' from Osaka.
We decided to walk off some of dinner by heading to Tsukuba Center. Christmas lights were already on display.
Photo shoot by the increasingly famous Tsukuba Center stairs.
The first full day went off without a hitch and the next day was going to be a big one. As always, we had very ambitious plans for Tokyo so we were going to get an early start.
Stay tuned for the next chapter!
-Seth
January 2, 2011 at 4:21 PM
man! I wish we were eating conveyor belt sushi with you guys tonight instead of egg salad sandwiches! I can't wait to read the rest...we did SO MUCH stuff!
this is such a great documentation...I am going to print it :)
January 2, 2011 at 5:33 PM
Please note, the bike Jonce wrecked of course had to be mine, haha.