Azabujuban and beyond

It's been all of five days now that we have called Tokyo our home.  I adore our sweet neighborhood tucked away in Azabujuban.  It's full of character and small shops that make it cozy enough to not feel overwhelmed by the vastness that is Tokyo.

I will have to take a picture of our apartment from the outside, this picture is taken from down the street.  We are a few doors down from the green building.  The streets are always busy.  Cars are all over, people are all over.  They weave in and out of each other, we do our best to blend in with the flow.

We have walked, walked and walked some more.  When we aren't walking, we're eating.  Eating  more than I could imagine.  Everything needs to be tried, right?  I mean, we are *only* here for 7-months, I need to get this in, now.  Donuts, French bakeries and ice cream shops are on EVERY corner.  TO excess.  And sushi.  More and better sushi than I have ever had in ma liiiife.  Who knew I would ever eat RAW fish from 7-Eleven and have it taste better than ANY sushi place in the US.  For all these reasons and more,  I thank you, Tokyo.  My pants, however, they are less appreciative.

I will have to break my rule of not taking food picture and get on that...  Foodies stay tuned.

We went to the Tokyo Tower this week.  It was wonderfully touristy.  The exception to experiencing a new place with my littles is that people interact on a different level with us.  A woman with her granddaughter sat next to us as we looked outside from the Tower, suddenly an origami frog jumped on to my leg. She laughed and then showed the kids how to jump the frogs.  She continued making them with us, showing us how to do hearts and birds.  It was a lovely example of the culture's loving spirit. Both littles were pretty fascinated.

Here I am trying to take a picture on the sly...  She's folding away while both of them play with her creations.

It is less beautiful than say...  the Eiffel Tower, or even the Space Needle.  But all the same, it was fantastically fun to see this landmark.

This is the deluxe Tokyo style, double seat bike that I'm swooning over.  I really very much want one.  I also very much love living, so I'm not sure the two go together.

The city of Minato's (where we live, within Tokyo) flower is the blue hydrangea.  It was also my grandma's flower, she had them all over her yard.  Seeing them all over Tokyo has been so wonderfully comforting.

We went on the Subway to Odiaba on Tuesday after Justin got home from work...  After Melia took a good nap.  It was our first GO at the subway with dad.  Sure glad I let him take us for the first time, it's crazy town down there.

Odiaba is a man-made city with a beautiful bay.  You can get to the rocky beach from there, if you'd like.  We went there at night, so I can't tell you much about the Beach front other than the bridge is BEAUTIFUL and there's a Statue of Liberty replica on it.  That has it's own history worthy of a google search.

Jacer and Melia's  too their "last day of school" pictures since we had already left by the time school got out.

Shrines are all over the place.  Off side streets, alleyways, parks--everywhere.  They are all very special, and well tended to even if the surrounding area isn't.  I find them fascinating.  Both littles aren't as interested yet.

...unless there is water.  And cups.  Then they are VERY interested.

I took the kids for the first time (second time EVER) on the subway today to a museum about 30 minutes away.  This was my route.  Not complicated at all (sarcasm).  We got there, and home.  Safe to say we will get around this place in no time.

THEY think it's amazing.  I think it's stressful and I need a solid nap and whiskey when we return home.  J & M are oblivious to the complexities of the system, and I'm glad they are game for wherever I take them.

However.

This is how Melia feels about me having her walk.  She's royally peeved.  But that's the deal, sister.  Here we are trying to find our way around Uedo.  We found the museum after a mile walk.  We found ourselves in a CRAZY market, Pike Place Market style, in Japanese on speed.  With Octopus and other creatures I am not entirely sure I have ever seen, it was quite the adventure that left both babies with BIG eyes and BIGGERquestions.

The museum was fantastic.  While not one word was in English we figured it out just fine!  Kids had a ball seeing all the dinosaur bones, and I had fun tailing them around the place.

Until this.  Then I felt like there was far too much explaining.

That's about it...  Not much new.

Texas tykes

We are HERE.  THIS is Tokyo.  It's surprisingly everything I expected, while being most unexpected at the same time.

Our journey from Seattle was remarkably uneventful.  I almost wish there was some story to mark the beginning of this journey, something to seal the memory of arriving in this beautiful patchwork quilt country.  Perhaps business class seats--with a five course meal, fully reclining seats, and every movie you can imagine at your fingertips--softens the blow of a 10-hour flight with two Texas tykes.

From start to finish we were in transit for 24 hours.  We had two humans waving the white flag on the last hour stretch from the airport to our apartment.  Melia and Jace were tired too.

So far there hasn't been a moment where I felt overwhelmed, scared, or unsure about my environment.  It feels safe.  More safe than any place I have called home in the US.  Moms here leave their designer purses hanging from the fence around the park.  Men leave their suitcases outside of the bathroom in the airport.  Parents let their children Jace's age, perhaps younger, walk the streets and subways alone. That last part makes me feel like if a 6 year old can deal with this, I can figure it out too.

The first day here was beautiful.  In the 70s we took the streets to find a park.  Ajiro Park was only three blocks away, so off we went!  It's called the dirt park by the locals, and that did not disappoint.  Both of the kids were covered in black residue and scrapped knees on our walk home, they loved every bit of it.

The day started at 4:30 AM, when the sun rises.  How on earth these kids are ready for their day at 4:30AM is beyond me.  But by 5AM I had had two cups of coffee and busted out paint and playdoh, so we are well on our way to our day.

I found a local "kid friendly" restaurant in my google searches for dinner.  It was called "eat more greens" and it was vegetarian... which was fine... except it's not quite what we know (which is why we're here, right?!).  Jace got a gorgonzola pizza that had apples and honey on it.  Why not?  In between the coffee and honey pizza we consumed a whole lot of sushi and rice balls from 7-Eleven.  Raw fish from a convenience store, and it's the best sushi I have ever (EVER!) had.

And that wraps up our first couple days.

I'm sure once I get subway passes my simple, uneventful explorations might open up a bit.  Until then, hang tight to our trilling ice cream and park adventures...  Hopefully I'll get better at this whole blogging thang.