Friday, March 4, 2011
03/03/2011 (part two)
It's like Groundhog Day here. Yesterday, when we left Japan, it was 11:30 a.m. on March 3rd. When we arrived home in Chicago, it was 8:45 a.m. on March 3rd. I'm just glad I get to relive the second March 3rd at home with my kitty :)
I didn't sleep at all on the plane. I watched Black Swan, Love & Other Drugs, Due Date and (for the second time) Social Network. It's amazing what eleven hours does to a girl who normally doesn't watch movies.
So, right now it's 2:26 a.m. on March 4th and I am WIDE awake...maybe because my body thinks I'm still in Japan (where it is 5:26 p.m.) or maaaybe it's because the second we got home & cuddled Presley, we both crashed. We were in such deep sleeps that we didn't hear our neighbor drop in to check on Presley (once he saw our bags by the door, he realized we were home & quietly snuck back out). We slept until 6:30 p.m. We had dinner at 9 (Portillos hot dogs!) and I have all of our laundry done. Naoto & Presley are both asleep (Presley is snoozing here by me...she hasn't really let me out of her sight since returning home!) and I think I might have to head to bed soon.
More Japan reflections later :)
I didn't sleep at all on the plane. I watched Black Swan, Love & Other Drugs, Due Date and (for the second time) Social Network. It's amazing what eleven hours does to a girl who normally doesn't watch movies.
So, right now it's 2:26 a.m. on March 4th and I am WIDE awake...maybe because my body thinks I'm still in Japan (where it is 5:26 p.m.) or maaaybe it's because the second we got home & cuddled Presley, we both crashed. We were in such deep sleeps that we didn't hear our neighbor drop in to check on Presley (once he saw our bags by the door, he realized we were home & quietly snuck back out). We slept until 6:30 p.m. We had dinner at 9 (Portillos hot dogs!) and I have all of our laundry done. Naoto & Presley are both asleep (Presley is snoozing here by me...she hasn't really let me out of her sight since returning home!) and I think I might have to head to bed soon.
More Japan reflections later :)
03/03/2011 (part one)
Flight day! Up at 7:30 (after more messed up sleep in the middle of the night), breakfast, airport, upgraded to premier economy class for free, last minute purchases, looooong flight and then HOME!
Here are pictures of our breakfasts.
Naoto:
Me:
Here are pictures of our breakfasts.
Naoto:
Me:
02.03.2011
Today was our last day in Japan. We spent most of the day traveling back to Narita to stay the night at a hotel for our flight tomorrow morning. We started the day at Mister Donut with Hisae & Norio. We each had noodles for lunch there, followed by donuts & coffee...many coffees. I think we each had three refills, partly because it was warm & tasty, but also partly because leaving meant saying goodbye.
After lunch, we drove to the train station. We only had minutes to spare, which resulted in a mad dash to the train (carrying our extra luggage made a 'dash' more of a crawl) and quick goodbyes. We took a local train (comparable to Chicago's Metra) to a bullet train to another train and then took a bus to our hotel...it was about an hour ride on each train which made for an exhausting trip. We had visions of heading into the city of Narita for one last hurrah in Japan, but decided instead to eat dinner at the hotel. The food was good and the short elevator ride up to our beds was better!
My favorite part of dinner was dessert...sukura ice cream! Sakura (cherry blossom) flavor was in full force during our stay in Japan--Mister Donut had the donut, Starbucks had a latte, a scone & a macaroon (I tried all three!), sakura KitKats and other candies, rice balls...anything you could think of had this sweet floral flavor. By the end of the month, the cherry blossoms will be in full force in Japan. Next year, I want to visit during this season :) Anyway, back to dessert--
--yum!
After lunch, we drove to the train station. We only had minutes to spare, which resulted in a mad dash to the train (carrying our extra luggage made a 'dash' more of a crawl) and quick goodbyes. We took a local train (comparable to Chicago's Metra) to a bullet train to another train and then took a bus to our hotel...it was about an hour ride on each train which made for an exhausting trip. We had visions of heading into the city of Narita for one last hurrah in Japan, but decided instead to eat dinner at the hotel. The food was good and the short elevator ride up to our beds was better!
My favorite part of dinner was dessert...sukura ice cream! Sakura (cherry blossom) flavor was in full force during our stay in Japan--Mister Donut had the donut, Starbucks had a latte, a scone & a macaroon (I tried all three!), sakura KitKats and other candies, rice balls...anything you could think of had this sweet floral flavor. By the end of the month, the cherry blossoms will be in full force in Japan. Next year, I want to visit during this season :) Anyway, back to dessert--
--yum!
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
01/03/2011
We are in Mie visiting Hisae & Norio (my sister & brother in law). Their home is in a more rural part of the country, so it is a whole different experience than Tokyo. We took a 2-hour bullet train/local train combo from Tokyo with them. It was fun to travel & snack on the train while catching up with them! Once we arrived, we went to Norio's parents, the Setas, for dinner. The Setas have an outdoor shed with fire pits & wood-burning stoves. They prepared a feast for us that included clams, mussels, snapper, fresh (as in still moving) lobster & other seafood that comes in shells I've only seen in Florida gift shops. We had too much sake before walking home to their apartment to sleep.
This moring, we went to Lotteria, a Japanese fast food burger joint. We saw Lotteria on a Japanese TV program this week and we wanted to try their specialties. Naoto had a hamburger with a poached egg & teriyaki sauce on it and I had a shrimp burger with lettuce & tartar sauce on top. It was soooo good!
After lunch, we went to the Ise Shrine, a large shrine in Mie. It was pouring & chilly, but we had a fun time making a trek to the shrine and then walking through the shops and seeing the traditional Japanese crafts. I found my favorite snack here, a toasted rice cracker coated in sugar. It is soooo good because it is served hot & fresh and it brought back good memories of eating in Kyoto in 2008.
We spent the evening at the grocery store stocking up on our favorite snacks and then tonight we went to dinner at Douton-Bori where we grilled our own Japanese pancakes. Norio was an excellent host who just might have a career in Beni Hana :)
Tomorrow is our last day, so off to bed so I can make the most of it!
This moring, we went to Lotteria, a Japanese fast food burger joint. We saw Lotteria on a Japanese TV program this week and we wanted to try their specialties. Naoto had a hamburger with a poached egg & teriyaki sauce on it and I had a shrimp burger with lettuce & tartar sauce on top. It was soooo good!
After lunch, we went to the Ise Shrine, a large shrine in Mie. It was pouring & chilly, but we had a fun time making a trek to the shrine and then walking through the shops and seeing the traditional Japanese crafts. I found my favorite snack here, a toasted rice cracker coated in sugar. It is soooo good because it is served hot & fresh and it brought back good memories of eating in Kyoto in 2008.
We spent the evening at the grocery store stocking up on our favorite snacks and then tonight we went to dinner at Douton-Bori where we grilled our own Japanese pancakes. Norio was an excellent host who just might have a career in Beni Hana :)
Tomorrow is our last day, so off to bed so I can make the most of it!
Sunday, February 27, 2011
27/02/2011
We spent some time in a Japanese fabric store today. I really wanted to buy some fabric here to make a quilt for our bed next month, but we didn't see anything I had in mind. This fabric store was really wild, not at all organized like American ones, which is a little surprising since this country wrote the book on order and organization. It was fun to look though, before we moved on to a stationery store.
In the evening, we went to Naoko's (Naoto's younger sister) house for dinner. Naoko lives in a neighborhood of Tokyo. Once we got off the train, we met Naoto's other sister, Noriko, in a grocery store and she showed us the way to Naoko's. It was fun to walk the little side streets and see the houses and little mom & pop neighborhood restaurants.
Naoko made us a feast of pork cutlet, chicken, macaroni salad, tofu & avocado salad (with salmon roe) and she ordered sushi that was so fresh & tasty! I was stuffed! Naoko's house is two stories, but very tiny. The first floor consisted of a tiny entryway & hall, a bathroom and the main room--kitchen/living/dining room. It was quite the crowded sight with all of us--Naoko, (her boyfriend) Satoshi, (her sons) Ren & Rin, Noriko and her son, Hiroki, Naoto & me all sitting on the floor around a big table eating and drinking and talking and (Naoto) translating.
26/02/2011
Today was our first full day in Tokyo...wow! Is it crazy here! After a good night's sleep (oh, hello, real bed!) we got up and went to the Ginza area where there is an amazingly large stationery store. Itoya has NINE floors of stationery, pens, journals, rubber stamps, inks, stickers...I had to restrain myself from buying one of everything :) During our shopping, Naoto & I stopped on the top floor for a snack:
HOT DOG! Although it might seem like we are eating a lot of American food (with our daily trips to Mister Donut), even hot dogs & hamburgers have a Japanese twist. This hot dog in particular had dijon mustard, tomato sauce (NOT ketchup) and lettuce and the bun was a-MAZE-ing! It was lightly toasted and soft and fluffy...it's the little details that make Japanese foods so good :)
I also had a lemon sukashu to drink--freshly squeezed lemon with a little bit of sugar mixed with sparkling soda...soooo gooooood!
After Itoya (where I only spent a respectable 7,000 yen), we went to Tokyu Hands, another store with several stories of craft items, household goods, travel gadgets, people trying to sell you fancy pillows...
After all that shopping, we were ready for a trip to Mister Donut (did you think we would go a day without a stop there?) We had our usual, a sampling of donuts & coffee, and then headed back to the hotel for some rest before dinner.
We went to a izakaya (Japanese pub) for dinner. At the izakaya, you order small plates of food to share while you drink your sake or beer. We had sashimi, noodles and tatsutage (fried patty with vegetables, seafood and tofu--once I saw the octopus tentacles, Naoto got the rest!) It was a good experience that we might have to repeat again :)
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