comings and goings

So we have been busy lately.  Mostly every afternoon we head out to explore something or someplace new.  Here are a few of the things we have come across.

The boys having fun with each other on another adventure

Alec's king of the world

This is Tokyo Sea Life Aquarium.  Again the architecture is stunning.  It sits on the water but the only thing above ground is a glass dome.

smiling sting ray

Jackson noticing the first "attack"

So this was strange.  You never really think that the fish and animals can see you through the tanks, but not true.  For some reason Alec is penguin bait.  The penguins and other fish loved his hair. Every time Alec got close to the window the call went out and the penguins descended.  This did not happen with the rest of us.  Kind of freaky.

red alert hairy blond dinner at one o'clock

Good thing he wasn't scuba diving!

outside the dome of the aquarium

sunset with fountains on

can you believe the sunset?

One day we took a trip to see how rural Japanese families lived during Edo times.

the rocks hold the tiles down in wind storms

We went to an amazing outdoor folk architecture museum that brought country homes from the edo period from all over Japan and reassembled stone by stone, thatched roof by thatched roof.  They were really incredible and while aesthetically beautiful they must have been miserable during the winters.

One day when Jackson was sick, Nick Alec and I headed to Yokohama Bay and Chinatown for the 10/10/10 festival.

Yokohama Landmark Tower, the third tallest building in Japan

 A fun amusement park on the bay

night rides

Chinatown with talking Gyoza Man Statue

Dragon about to enter restaurant

The dragon dancers would go to individual restaurants and do a long blessing dance and then at the end eat the small vegetable offering left above the doorway under the signs.  I think that the store owners would also give them envelopes of money.  I don't know how specific restaurants were picked.  Although the patrons seemed to enjoy the disruption, the store owners did not seem happy at first. The dance was done to loud drumming and each time at the end of the performance hundreds of firecrackers would be set off. 

Dragon reaching for lettuce and carrot offering above doorway

Fresh coconut juice

Next it was off the Studio Ghibli Museum which highlights the films of Miyazaki

His anime include Castle in the Sky, in 1986; My Neighbor Totoro, in 1988; and Kiki's Delivery Service, in 1989. In 2002, Spirited Away won an Oscar for Best Animated Feature and it remains the only film made outside the English-speaking world to have done so.  Studio Ghibli's most recent anime shown in the US is Ponya.

Us with Totoro

Ian at Ghibli

It wasn't as "magical" as I had expected, but they did have a stuffed Cheshire cat school bus from Totoro that small children could play in that our kids all wished their cousins Zoe and Ziggy could experience.

Alec with Castle in the Sky Robot

Another day I took the kids to a tea ceremony but it was a bust as we arrived at 12:02 pm and it started at 12:00 p.m. so they told me it was too late.  We were allowed to watch though, if not participate, but after ten minutes the kids were bored silly and we slipped away to see a geisha dance performance.

playing the shamisen

geisha dancing

A bonzai tree hundreds of years old

We walked around the gardens after the performance and discovered a 300 year old bonzai.  Notice that the base is on the hill but the branches are trained out and down.

bonzai support structure

creating fall one deleafed tree at a time

We came home to find a strange site.  The public works people were changing the neighborhood from summer to fall. I guess this is called "preemptive raking".  They not only cut the leaves, but all the branches of all the trees straight down the blocks.  How ugly and depressing.  Is this supposed to get us

 into the fall spirit? It made me want to head to the neighborhood McDonald's and grab a good old cheese fondue.

Yum, which is your favorite iCon?

Dragged the kids to another dragon dance festival.  This time Japanese, not Chinese.  But arrived at the tail end literally as the dragon was dancing back into the temple and the doors closed.  So walked around Asakusa Shrine area checking things out.  Traditionally, Kabuki performers are only men but play both men's and women's roles.  Certainly these guys below do injustice to the geisha we saw only days before.

Asakusa Shrine

making tai-yaki: sweets stuffed with red bean paste

walking the back streets

Alec enjoying the shopping opportunities