Japan Revisisted

---

My adventure starts anew, almost exactly 5 years later. It took awhile, but I made it back to Japan. This time I have an almost two year old in tow and a husband as well. I guess a lot can happen to a 26 year old woman in five years time!

Thankfully we made it to Tokyo just fine. There was a lot stress at the airport as our flight from Denver was behind and we doubted we were going to make the connection. Amazingly a woman behind the American Airlines counter jumped to our rescue and took us off our not-going-to-make-it Korean Air flight and scheduled us for a "we'll have extra time to walk around and get lunch" flight. 2nd best part, we made it to Japan just 15minutes later then we were originally scheduled!

Keira - my almost 2 year old - did amazing on the plane. She slept to LA and then played on the plane to Japan. She slept some at the beginning but never really took on a nap on the flight - until we were about to land. She woke up in the train station in Narita as we were waiting to make our way to Tokyo. Keira was smiling, but shaking. I think she was a bit freaked out and had NO IDEA where we were!

Everything that night worked out well enough. There was a small incident where we were trying to find dinner and I had to push some buttons on a vending like machine that told our cook what to make for us. I couldn't figure out the darn thing until I realized it needed money first. Yes, to make the buttons work money must be dished out first. YAY - Everything is good. We got our food, we got our hotel room, Keira is passed out and we're on our way too.



11/16/2012

Saturday morning took it's time, and we were up waiting for it. The whole family woke up around 5:30am and as we tried to take our time making our journey through Tokyo for the first time together, we hardly waited long enough. Nothing was open, in fact it looked like even cafes opened up around 11am and here we are wondering the streets at 9am! We did arrive upon a French Bakery. As my Japanese is beyond limited, all I can assume is they either make their own fancy butter or import it from some fancy-pants location. It was worth the 40minute wait to get our food (we're so jet lagged you could have told us we waited only 15minutes and wouldn't have known any better). I had a pan au chocolate and Jeff had a pan au something else with raisins and pistachios. We even got a regular croissant that was crazy buttery. Like Queen of Butter Paula Dean may have acknowledged an over use of her favorite ingredient! As we walked around, in an effort to work off some butter, we came by Chocolate store. I noticed in the windows they had French macaroons (I later discovered that Tokyo embraces the delicate cookie even more then I do!). I was grateful to pick up a pack of 6 in which the lady was very careful in handing me the bag that carried my favorite cookies! She almost panicked when I took the bag from her and it tilted ever so slightly. Regardless my carelessness was rewarded with two small bites of a free chocolate sample that I shared with Jeff. It was amazing and took me back to my promise that if I was ever given a second chance in life I might go into pastry school and then spend the next 10 years mastering the art that is chocolate!

The rest of our time was spent wondering around Ginza. We bought Keira a Finding Nemo Christmas ornament. While they had no "fisch" (as Keira calls them) they did have "tut-tle". I figured this would be a fun present for her to bring back and hang out on our Christmas tree. I will also say that I'm surprised at all the Christmas decorations and songs that were playing through out the shopping district. I understand that it shouldn't expect Japan to wait until after Thanksgiving (in which I could hear them replying "What's a Thanksgiving?") like we wish for at home, but I was in Japan five years ago and during Christmas. I remember seeing some lights strung up in one place in Kyoto and maybe a few Christmas decorations up around some department stores, but nothing that really showed they embrace the Christmas Holiday like we do back east. This time was a completely new experience for me. I guess it just goes to show that one can't even travel west to escape what is now Christmas in November.

We wondered around a few more stores until we finally came upon it! We found the one thing that would give my not-even-two-year a full on brain aneurysm! A store FULL of Hello Kitty. Keira found one or two and began to cry as she thought we were taking her away from her love until she realized we were not taking her away from it, we were herding her towards more and more 'mao's. I must take a time out and say that my daughter never address a cat by, cat or kitty, or kitten. They are maos. Not meows, but maos. Even Hello Kitty has been redubbed and slowly, but ever so surely, "Hello Kitty" will be erased from Jeff and my vocab. Soon my excited I felt for my daughter's happiness (which came with a small side of stress for each parent) was consumed by my own excitement. THERE'S A REI AIYANAMI AND ASUKA HELLO KITTY!! I almost started to hyperventilate myself! I desperately looked all over the toy figure for a price only to find none. I finally resorted to the 100s of hours I've spent studying Japanese and came up with me "Sumimasen, ikura desu ka?". My ears waited to hear a price, going over in my head different amounts in Japanese only to be confused when the clerk said "lottery". My confused face showed I didn't understand and she then showed me a box with papers in it saying again, "lottery". I finally understood and at the risk of making an adult cry the clerk then mentioned that there was another store on the second floor that had more items. We finally make our way up there only to see the same display with the same lottery prizes. No luck for me. I finally gave up, excepting pictures as my only prize, and wondered the store that would was surely to turn my daughter into a shop lifter as she hoarded many maos in her tiny arms. We're almost done looking through the store and then I turn a corner and I find it! I found a Hello Kitty Eva display that had PRICES ON IT - That meant I could finally buy a cute Rei Hello Kitty! I held back my excitement until I could find a price. These plush had to be expensive and with the conversation rate not working in my favor this time, I needed to be careful. I picked up a small, medium, and large and realized I could easily take home a 'large' (maybe 8inch) Rei Hello Kitty - oh how empowered I felt at that moment! It wasn't until 10minutes later that I realize we're leaving the Hello Kitty store (a 'store' may be the wrong word as it did cover two floors and may have been split up between 4 stores in itself), with something for myself and only a 200yen little dispenser toy for Keira (oh - and I got one of those too! It was a Hello Kitty Rei Keychain!).

As the rain grew in intensity, we fled to the underground trains and made our way back to the hotel. Upon leaving the station and making our way to the hotel, we were greeted by one of the nicest people ever! We brought only one umbrella (the same one I bought in Tokyo five years ago) that I had as I held it while also holding Keira. A man stopped his car, got out, yelled at Jeff, handed him his umbrella, and ran back into his car and drove away! We were taken back by this man's generosity and kindness that he had for my husband! Even though we were in one of the biggest cities in the world, it's humbling to know that someone would take out time to do an amazing act of kindness! This man will forever be in our memories!

---