Japan 5

 

The next day was Sunday.  We got to go to the English-speaking ward that meets in the building attached to the Tokyo temple.  It was a little confusing because the two wards in the building have their own sacrament meeting but a combined second hour, so we showed up for the ward, and it was second hour first.  We just shrugged our shoulders, accepted it and went to the ward.  Seth was a little nervous about going to Primary on his own, so I joined him as a cheerleader.  They did their Primary Program practice.  They were very cute, and Seth was thrilled that they sang Sacred Grove by our Killian cousin.  Jer saw one of his coworkers that's stationed in Japan.  That was a fun surprise.  We had had to check out of our Airbnb, so we just brought our luggage and tucked it under a handy stairwell in the lobby of the church.  While we were there, a cute middle-aged woman approached me and asked me to teach her.  Through Google, I told her that it was my first time in that building and helped her meet one of the men in the ward that looked like he was a part of the bishopric.  She enjoyed watching the kids practice for the program, stayed for the sacrament and left before the talks.  I was glad to meet her. After the meeting, we walked around the temple and ran off to the train station to catch the high-speed Shinkansen train to our next stop.  Seth and Grandpa were both properly wowed by the train.  Jer reserved seats for us along the side of the train that we could see Mt Fuji.  That was fun.  I got pictures of each of the people with Mt Fuji in the window.  If it had been earlier in the year, we might have taken a trip over to see the monkeys on the mountain, but they said that sometimes it's closed by October because of snow.

Our new hotel in Nagoya had a workout room.  I did some laundry with Grandpa while he did a run.  Then the next morning, Ada and Jer got up early to do some weights.

Our first ramen place.  You actually order from a machine on the wall, and the chef serves you right at the counter.  It was fun, but it was our first real time trying to order completely from a Japanese menu with no English.  It took a minute.

These drink vending machines were the most fun things.  Especially for Ada that loves variety in flavors. We did eventually find the ones that sell soup, fresh orange juice and even sushi.

Japan 4

 

The next day was Senso-Ji and Nakamise shopping street.  It was about a 5 minute walk to where we were staying, so that was a nice commute.  We started at Senso-Ji and Grandma called, so Grandpa gave her a tour.  It was very cute and started a cute trend of calling during some of the stuff that Grandpa wanted to show Grandma.  I have several pictures of Grandpa with his phone out at arms length.  They are mostly pictures of a quick Grandma tour.  We found out as we got to the grounds that we just happened to be there when they were going to be doing a special celebration with a dragon show.  We toured around the grounds and then found a good vantage point to watch the show.  After that, we tried octopus balls and found a good lunch spot down a side alley.  Then we shopped the rest of the day.  Mostly in a shopping street specifically for tourists, then I went to rest after dinner while everyone that wanted to found the nerdy anime/game/train stores.  I hand washed a few clothes and tried to lay them out to dry in the apartment.  It reminded me why you need sun to dry clothes in humid places.

Train boys looking at trains.

They needed a bathroom, so they got a quick treat so they could be customers.  Sam found out quickly that you don't freely use bathrooms without being a customer.  He wanted to wash his hands and disappeared for a minute... he was stopped by a man that told him, "You no use toilet in Japan."  We had to explain to Sam that we needed to be paying customers to use the bathrooms unless they were public ones.  Grandpa said that it was going to be a long trip for Sam not being able to use any toilets in Japan and holding it til we went home.... hehehe.

This was our first experience with cream filled mochi.  We were hooked.

I reached up to get a picture of the street exactly when Ada did.  I thought that was pretty funny so I thought I'd include the picture here too.

After the dragon show, they allowed people to come touch it if they wanted.  I think all of us got a chance to sneak between the crowd and touch this beautiful puppet.

Sam was absolutely amazed by the Japanese flutes.  They're made out of bamboo and are really neat.

You can see the incense.

Octopus ball. Evelyn and I liked them.... everyone was only so so on them.

Seth got bit by some mosquitos at the park the day before and developed an allergic reaction.  His arm was swollen and hot to touch.  Grandpa had some Benadryl and we gladly gave some to Seth for about two days.  We kept Sam's 2 epi pens handy too.... just in case it was needed.