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!

Sid tries to slide down the hill at Kodomonokuni

Back in Japan

We enjoyed our trip to China, but were really happy to be headed back to Japan despite the continued aftershocks and threat of nuclear meltdown.  Even now, weeks later, we have to be cautious about where the vegetables we eat come from, using bottled water, and not leaving things around that could fall during an earthquake (although our apartment is on the first floor and doesn't suffer nearly as much shaking and disruption as apartments higher up). 

We were especially happy to return when we did as cherry blossoms were just beginning to bloom and we got to see them in their full glory.  It was beautiful.

 

Near the moat.

 

Sam and I rode the boats the next weekend.  There were fewer cherry blossoms and I ran us up on the rocks, but it was still very pretty and fun.  These lucky people got to float around under the cherry blossoms hanging down over the water.  But the line was too long for us.

 

Cherry blossoms at the moat.

 

The white on the water is not scum, but fallen cherry blossoms.

 

Yasakuni Jinja.

 

The Americans have tea, cake, and cookies at a little eatery after viewing the cherry blossoms.

 

You can see the cherry blossoms through the window. We will soon all weigh ten thousand pounds from eating tea and cake!

 

Sam gets a haircut.

 

Mr. Ulu helps Sam off the beehive at Kodomonokuni (Kid's Country).  We went on a school trip to here one Saturday. It was very fun.  It is a huge park with many play areas, paddle boats, farm animals, a bouncing thing,   a petting zoo.... Mr. Ulu is Sam's principal.

 

Entrance to Kodomonokuni.

 

Sam and Busra scout things out.

 

Bouncing on the bouncy thing.

 

Running up the hill in preparation for sliding down.

Last night in China

Our last night in China we went to the hotel gift shop to buy a few little things.  The shop is run by three sisters and one of them had her 7 year old son, Li, there with her. Sam and Li became fast friends.  Li studies Japanese as does Sam so that became their common language.  They played in the hotel lobby for about two hours!

 

Li gave Sam this little toy to bring home with him. It is basically an Asian hackysack.

Cute Panda Misbehaves.

Sam and the Panda.

Chengdu

From Xian we moved further south to Chengdu. This ended up being our favorite place that we visited. Here we saw even fewer westerners than anywhere else.  People essentially come to Chengdu for two reasons--to visit the Panda Preserve (there is both a breeding center in Chengdu itself and a larger Panda Preserve two hours outside the city at Bifengxia) or as a stopping point on the way to Tibet.  The countryside was absolutely beautiful around Chengdu.

So, we arrived, had to fight once again about the smoking room, and ended up with a wonderful suite that looked out over the city square.

Our first day we visited an ancient irrigation system. I was reluctant to go there as it sounded really boring. But, it was a pretty drive and a cool place. We all walked across a long bridge (one of those rope things) that swayed and swayed. It was scary but also really fun. 

 

The beautiful river at the irrigation works.  There are also lovely buildings but many of these are new.  A few years back there was a terrible earthquake that destroyed many things (including the Panda Preserve which was then moved from Woolong to Bifengxia).

 

Sam looking out at the river.

 

A pagoda on the hill overlooking the river.

 

The next day was our day to go to the Panda Preserve in Bifengxia.  It was a long drive but very pretty.  All along the roads were tea farms and rapeseed fields.

 

Rapeseed field seen from the window of our very fast moving vehicle!

 

Graham getting ready to volunteer at the Panda Preserve. Shortly after this photo was snapped he decided he looked dorky and tried to get out of volunteering. But, he put on his sunglasses (disguise-wear) and stuck it out.

 

Volunteer Sam. 

 

Sam and a panda. Pandas are very naughty. They are rather slow-moving but can be really ornery.

 

Volunteers get to hand feed some pandas, but the pandas are herded into their cages for this. They have been known to take a bit out of people when the idea pops into their heads.

 

Sam got to visit with a panda. This panda is about a year and a half old.  It was so cute to see them together.

 

The panda was supposed to go back in his enclosure after his encounter with Sam but instead he hopped up and broke a sink and then climbed back into the swing and refused to leave!

 

Sleepy panda.

 

After a long day with pandas, why not a little cup of tea?

Our last day we went to see the Leshan Buddha. I do NOT recommend this side trip. It took forever to get there and was not really all that interesting.

 

The walkways to get to the Leshan Buddha.

 

The Leshan Buddha.

 

Walking to the Leshan Buddha.

 

Pagoda at the Buddha.

 

The dragon enclosed at the Buddha.

The Buddha's big head.