Odds and Ends

 

Sam and Mama boat around the moat at the end of Cherry Blossom season.

 

Graham learns to shave.

 

After the second shave, Graham's face was a mess. He has not been able to shave in weeks.

 

In Japan, it is easy to run out of clothes and end up in your wife's pink t-shirt. But, in Japan, where so many men wear pink, nobody will even notice.

 

One of our tea and cake shops seen from the outside.

 

We went with friends to the Ninja restaurant.

 

Marisa and Sam at the tea and cake shop shown above.

 

There are many, many little French bistros and cafes and cake shops in Tokyo. Here are Sid and me at "Anniversarie" near Sam's school.  The lemonade is very strong lemonade stuff in the bottom of the glass and then they bring you perrier to pour in and mix with a little glass stirrer.  This particular little place has the best chocolate cake in town.  It is in Omotesando.

 

After a long day, Sid and Sam go to sleep.  Which one should I carry to their own bed?

 

For Mothers' Day we traveled outside Tokyo to Enoshima. Just outside of Kamakura, Enoshima is a cute little beach island complete with little beach shops and beach food.  The beaches in Japan open July 1 and close August 31, so there are no swimmers yet.  But, we saw surfers and plenty of people out on boats enjoying the sunny day. This is a view from the shrine complex.

 

The shrine at Enoshima is somewhat unique as it has this place for lovers to hang their wishes or good luck charms. They sell these pink ones at the shrine.

 

The pink wishing spot.

 

Graham....still looking cool in his shades.

 

We had a snack at a little restaurant on top of the hill overlooking the ocean and sailboats.

 

Still in Enoshima.

 

At the end of the day we went up in the giant light house on Enoshima. From there we watched the sunset. The pictures are not totally clear, but we could see the sun setting over Fuji-san.  It was very lovely.

 

"I wear my sunglasses at night, so I can...."

 

If you look closely you can see Fuji-san on the left.

 

Fuji-san sunset.

 

Mt. Fuji.

 

The lighthouse was very, very tall, much larger than it looks here. We went up by elevator, but Sam forced me to climb down the stairs on our descent. You can see the stairs here snaking around the lighthouse. It was terrifying. Fortunately, a very nice young Japanese couple stayed with us so that I didn't get left behind a million feet in the air.

 

After our day at Enoshima we ate a beach restaurant. Sam and I had vegetable tempura, Sid had regular tempura, and Graham, always the most adventurous, ate a fish and snail plate.  To get back to the station you walk over the sea on a little pedestrian bridge where these stone lamps light the way.  I put down my backpack to take a picture of this and Graham started saying, "Mom, mom, lift up your bag!!! Lift it up!!!"  When I did I saw that a big millipede thing had crawled under it. I would have hated to take that home with me!