Tokyo Romance

On Tuesday Sterling took an extra day off of work. The kids had school. Sterling planned for us to go to Tokyo without them and hopefully have a successful trip and experience in Japan.

We know we are not moving. We have no choice but to be happy because we cannot leave. So, we tried to restart. A fresh start. Give Japan another chance.

 

I arranged for a friend who also has a child in Athena's class to take Athena home with them after school. I gave Ty a key to the house since he gets home first after school. And Luke would follow a little after to help Ty feel more comfortable at home without the parents. 

The kids got out of school at 1:10pm, it being an Early Release school day.

Here is how Ster and my day went...

We dropped Athena off at school then drove to the South side of base. Leaving our car parked on based near the Fussa gate. We walked maybe 15 minutes down to the train station. It was a cold morning! I had on a sweater, jacket, scarf and gloves. My hair was full and kept my head warm which meant I didn't need a hat. Ster didn't bundle up as well as I did. We hoped it would warm up and be a nice day. But it started out so bitter and windy!

Sterling has a Suica card. Since we can't read Japanese to know how to buy tickets from place to place a Suica card is very convenient. You add money to it as needed and use it like a credit card. You swipe it at the train station and when you leave the next train station you swipe again. It will then use up the amount of money it cost to get from your start point to your end point based on distance. 

Sterling got me a Suica card and we waited just a couple minutes to board the train.

I was thankful to get out of the cold!

It takes over an hour to get to the main parts of Tokyo on the train. Starting at Fussa it's not too crowded. The closer you get to the city the more people get on...heading for Tokyo. 

It was 9am and people were heading to the city for work. 

It became so crowded that we were packed in like sardines. I was warned previously that it will happen each time I go to Tokyo and my first train ride proved it.

I was pressed against Sterling behind me and a strange man in front of me. Squished together. When people wanted off they train they had to push their way through to the exit. And people coming on would push their way through to get deeper in the train if they knew they were traveling longer distances and maybe wanted a chance to get a seat as others left.

 The Japanese ride the train every day to work so they have the balance it takes to ride the train without falling over. Not all of them need to hold on to the handles or bars. Sterling and I were unstable though!

 I saw an interesting advertisement on the train. I am guessing it's a bismuth medicine ad. Above is the Japanese ad vs an American one.

Here is the Tokyo train station we got off at. We had a trick figuring out how to exit the building. It was confusing. But we got out and saw how beautiful the building is from the outside.

 We walked down the city streets but the view was unimpressive. Yes, the buildings were tall but...I don't like the city. I don't see beauty in tall or industrious. And I hate heights so I wouldn't want to go up in one of the buildings.
 
 However, there were occasional buildings that stood out! That were beautiful because of the artistic designs.

And the shops, there were of course multitudes of them, had to be creative to make theirs stand out and grab your attention. I enjoyed seeing a lot of their creativity.

This one is a theater I saw a building listing of the stores inside that had my name in it Tiffa Ginza. A hair salon.

 

We walked down to a market. Multiples streets had vendors selling all kinds of things. When we arrived at the food streets we started buying foods to sample. It was about lunch time. We started with a cheesy flaky bread. Then we tried skewered fish; Ster had squid on a stick and I had scallops. They were both yummy. And lastly we tried the ice cream. I went with chocolate and Ster went with black sesame. Both were good. Ster preferred his flavor over mine and I the opposite. It was perfect. We sat in the sun to eat our ice cream and it was wonderful!

Little octopus:

 Dried squids:

 

 Walking down the streets the wind was strong and cold. The tall buildings made a tunnel of the streets and the wind took advantage. However, it wasn't as cold in Tokyo as it was in Fussa even with the wind.
In the market, thankfully, there wasn't a wind. That made it a lot warmer.
 
We stopped at a little temple area before heading to a Japanese garden nearby. To get there we crossed a beautiful bridge.

 In the photo below you see the street and city is on the water! And on the right you see a wall and trees that separate the city from the garden we were about to enter. Like entering a different world. That's what I like ...go to a garden and away from the city.

 Even though it is winter there was a good amount of green and beauty. And we didn't have much wind in the garden as well. Thankfully.

 The city is so much pretty and amazing from far away and with a garden view in front of it! ;)

 We took off our jackets and pretended not to be cold without them...for a couple pictures. So worth it!

 After the garden we walked to the nearest train station. It was about 12 minutes of a walk. We were confused about where to go and which train to get on. We got onto a train then realized it was wrong. So we got off at the next stop and figured out which train to take. When we did head back to Fussa it wasn't crowded. It was about 1pm. So, people were not heading home from work at that time. That was a nice change!

When we arrived in Fussa the weather had not warmed up at all. It was freezing! I had to rebundle up and I was still freezing. We walked quickly back to the base.
We made breakfast for dinner. A dinner the kids love. Bacon, eggs, waffles, whip cream and fruit.

It had been a successful and wonderful day! A great restart to our time in Japan. And it made me look forward to Spring when it warms up! Athena has been wishing for warmer weather too. She misses the snow but she also misses warm weather.

Luke wears shorts to school every day! I tell him to wear pants but he chooses not to. He has come a long way from needing to be hot all the time just a few years ago.

Tiberias loves wearing his flip flops to go outside to play all the time. I have to make him wear his coat !
Athena follows the example of the neighbor kids and tries to go outside barefoot and without a coat! She usually comes back for her coat but still tries to escape without socks or shoes.

Not me! I bundle up!