Six Days in Tokyo

Day One in Tokyo ... arriving from Hong Kong where we'd been experiencing some unusually cold weather, Tokyo was even colder. So out came the woolies, gloves, scarves and beanies. However despite the low temperatures, we had clear blue skies and gorgeous sunny days throughout our entire trip.

A beautiful view of Tokyo from our hotel room.

Evening stroll in search of food (what else??)

Day Two in Tokyo ... coming back from Yuzawa, we headed straight out to get some dinner. I'd been craving yakitori for awhile so we made our way down to Yurakucho yakitori alley in Ginza. Here under the railway tracks we found row after row of tiny yakitori bars. The smells coming from each "yakitori-ya" were heavenly. We randomly chose one and had our fill of freshly grilled meats, vegetables, and my favourite, gizzards, stomach and tongue ... yum ...

Plastic sheets for shelter, beer crates for tables, delicious skewers of a variety of delights, tasty Japanese potato salad, what more could you ask for?

Day Three in Tokyo ... a beautiful sunny day. So Ryan and I set out on our animal adventure at the Ueno Zoo located in the Ueno Park in downtown Tokyo. We'd come across this zoo when we were last here a couple of years ago but Ryan was too young to appreciate it then. He had a blast this time.

The smell in the nocturnal mammals enclosure was rather overpowering as you can tell from Ryan's reaction!


Ryan's favourite pals in the safari world

"Mama, are they all dressed up?" This must surely qualify for Bill Cosby's "Kids say the darndest things". But Ryan was absolutely right, it does look like a half dressed zebra! This is actually an "okapi", a mammal of the Ituri rainforest in Central Africa.


Double headed hippo?


Ryan was on cloud nine when we got to the petting zoo, running around looking and touching the animals. Those sweet little Japanese pre-schoolers might look innocent, but in this case, looks definitely are deceiving. They terrorised those poor animals by chasing and running after them shouting at the top of their voices.

Ryan and his furry friend

Moments before the terrorising of pre-schoolers began (little did this alpaca know what it was in for!)

Unfortunately after awhile, the smell of animal poo was getting a little too much for this little boy's sensitive nose!

The perfect meal on a cold winter's night. Shabu shabu at an old established restaurant near our hotel in Nihonbashi.


Restaurant district in Nihonbashi

Day Four in Tokyo ... today we headed out on our underwater adventure. Shad's colleague had told him about an aquarium with an indoor dolphin pool which we thought Ryan would really enjoy. So Ryan and I took the train on the JR line (which I found to be slightly more challenging to navigate compared to the Metro lines) to Shinagawa station and walked to the Epson Aqua Stadium. We spent several hours in the submarine tunnel watching the fish, sharks, stingrays and of course catching the dophin and sea lion shows.

Unfortunately dolphin shows seem the be the same all around the world

Day Five in Tokyo ... today we joined the hip and happening crowd along the Omote Sando in Harajuku. Who cares about the beautiful people and expensive shops, Ryan was more impressed with the six-storey toy store, Kiddy Land where we spent over an hour just looking (and playing) with all the interesting toys. In the end, I had to forcibly drag him screaming and screeching out of the shop. Talk about embarrassing moments!

In happier spirits after a cookie bribe

Our ramen lunch restaurant (I think this is where Ryan figured out that it was ok to slurp his noodles after seeing and hearing all the people around us doing it).

Stopping for an afternoon cuppa at a cute little coffee van


After dinner stroll in Ginza to see the bright lights


Glitzy Ginza

Day Six in Tokyo ... on our last visit here, we visited Asakusa but Ryan spent most of the time covered up in his pram fast asleep. This time around however, he had the full experience from tasting a sembei (rice crackers) which are a specialty of this area and a deep fried sweet potato dumpling to shopping at Nakamise-dori (a market within the temple precinct) and finally a ride in a rickshaw around the Senso-ji temple.

Infront of the "Kaminarimon" (Thunder Gate) leading into the Senso-ji

Flashback to April 2006


Sembei galore


Our charming rickshaw driver not only gave a brief history of the area but also pointed out all his favourite coffee and cake shops!


Tempura-don for lunch (this area is also famous for their tempura restaurants)


Showing off our wares from the Nakamise-dori


After a long day of exploring around Asakusa, we headed out for a relaxing weekend at Hakone

Snow Explorer

It has been an action packed couple of weeks, which is why I am so far behind in my updates! Shad had to make a trip to Tokyo for work, so Ryan and I tagged along for some fun and adventure. We flew into Tokyo on Saturday, checked into the hotel, ate a delicious tonkatsu dinner, had a comfortable night's sleep then excitedly headed out on our two-day snow adventure the following morning.

After a short 70min ride on the "shinkansen" (bullet train), we arrived at the Echigo Yuzawa station. Yuzawa is located about 200km from Tokyo and on the southern border of Niigata Prefecture, just to the north of Gunma Prefecture. As soon as we stepped out of the station, we were in winter wonderland. It was snowing lightly and snow covered everything in sight. Ryan was so excited that he immediately ran out to touch the snow. On the quick bus ride from the station to our hotel, Sierra Resort in Iwappara, our little broken gramophone kept saying "there is snow, and there is more snow here, and more here..."

The location of our hotel was just perfect. The description on their hotel website was extremely accurate (having been "misled" by such explanations many times before, it was a lovely surprise). "A true ski-in, ski-out resort, Sierra Resort Hotel Yuzawa is situated in the middle of the main run on one of the most easily accessible ski areas from Tokyo. Our hotel provides unparalleled panoramic views over ski fields and a large valley across to a broad mountain range."

Night view of Tokyo from our hotel room

Man, these early morning tour starts are killing me!

Charging up our batteries with a heavy breakfast for a full day ahead.

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On the Joetsu Shinkansen heading to Yuzawa


The day after a heavy snow fall


Yuzawa landscape


Our little "hum yuk chung" (chinese stuffed rice dumpling) all dressed up for his first play in the snow


Making our first snow man


Me and my new icy friend (due to stamina constraints, our snow man was mini sized!)


Mother and son toboggan team


The lonely walk back to the top!


Refuelling for the afternoon play session

Ryan was absolutely ravenous when we finally stopped for lunch. He polished off three quarters of the pizza, much to our amazement!


Our hotel in the snow. Our room was the one on the left, on the second floor with the curtains drawn.


View of the chair lift (or table lift as Ryan calls them!) and skiers from our hotel room


Wind burned cheeks!


Night time snow explorer (day or night, our work is never done!)


Night skiing at Iwappara resort (this ski run was directly infront of our hotel)


Dinner at the local "pittoria". For some reason, this little ski area had quite a few Italian restaurants. The pizzas were pretty darn tasty too!


The lonely planet describes Japan as the "land of vending machines". Even out in the middle of a snow field, you can find your drink of choice!


Why walk when you can just toboggan home?


Chilling out in our snow armchair


In the middle of a ski run that was closed for the day. That is our hotel in the background, you can even see our room.


Ahh, I could stay here forever!

Kong Hei Fatt Choy

Shad was in Australia for a week on business so Ryan and I were left to our own devices this week. Whenever Shad's away, we seem to fall into a familiar routine. We keep our days busy with school and playdates, we find fun ways of entertaining ourselves during our indoor play time in the evenings and of course bedtime is a lot earlier (much to Ryan's dismay, but on these days when the night relief staff is not around, by 8pm Mama's about ready for bed too!).

Thanks to the company of good friends, our week passed by very quickly. Sunday dinner at Dee and Alex's started off with all of us giggling at Ryan's attempts at bowling on the Wii. It was hilarious just to see him run up to the tv then look expectedly at the screen waiting for the ball to move even though he did not press the button on the handset! We'd promised to buy Ryan a play cooking set for awhile now, so before Shad left, we finally went to Toys R Us and got him one. Unfortunately neither of us thought to check the colour of the toy before we bought it. So now we have a "very pink" stove in the middle of our living room! For the rest of the week, Ryan had loads of fun wearing his chef's hat and cooking "pretend meals" for us and also all his little friends who came over for playdates.

Our friends Chris and Sharon gave Ryan a digital camera for Christmas last year. Ryan's gotten quite good at using the camera and goes around the house capturing all his favourite toys as well as all kinds of funny pictures of Mama and Daddy.

Eerr, who's having more fun???

Here's to a meal well cooked!

Chinese New Year party at school. Those little hands just couldn't resist all that sweet yummy treats laid out infront of them!

After a last minute change of plans, we decided to postpone our trip back to Melbourne. So instead of being surrounded by family and friends, Ryan and I had a very quiet Chinese New Year (I guess we should feel even worse for poor Shad who was stuck in Dubbo on his own). Despite missing out of the big feast back home, we still managed to have our own yummy reunion dinner with our friends, the Yings. Christine, Alex, Maria and Jaden joined us for a lovely hot pot dinner at our place. The adults ate until we couldn't move while the two boys got reacquainted again (they haven't seen each other since November). For me, Chinese New Year has always been about getting together with family, eating endless amounts of cookies and "long yuk" (dried bbq meat), and of course the lion dances and the loud fireworks displays. This year Ryan saw his first lion dance performance up close and I got the chance to explain the significance of it to him. This may sound a little silly, but for me, it was a very special moment. Even though he may not fully understand the significance of it, I felt like I was sharing an important part our culture and who we are with my son.

Reunion hotpot dinner with the Yings

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Lion dance at the AMC

Three lions bringing good luck to the residents of the Belcher's

Our little boy loves music. He sings himself to sleep, he sings to himself when he wakes up, and he sings when he plays. And thankfully, he can hold a tune!