Yakitori

Yakitori dinner with Miki, Fusako and Mika in the Shinjuku district. Miki on the far left lived with us for 1 year.


Grayson and Sarah on a bridge inside the restaurant.


Mika and Bryn enjoying dinner.


Hunter and Fusako trying dessert.

Mochi

My family loves mochi. Personally, I don't like the texture. Even better than homemade mochi for my family is ice cream mochi. Much excitement from our group when coming across this little shop.

Even I was in awe over the simple, uniform and unique ice cream mochi before us. The big question was which flavors to try.

Tokyo Transportation

It's a tight squeeze sometimes on the subway. People on the subway have been so kind to our loud American children.


If you're lucky enough to get a seat your choices are play with your cell phone, play with your Nintendo DS, read a book or sleep.

Akihabara (Electronics District)

We were all very excited to visit the electronics shopping district known as the Akihabara.


Sean on a side street in the Akihabara.


A 12 foot tall Mario!

GINZA~

Our first stop in Tokyo was the GINZA. The concept was lost on the children. They were playing an imaginary game with each other and barely looked up. Between corralling children and looking up at the brights lights I was able to make my first Tokyo Ginza purchase. An Italian made Milsa hat. It's to hot to wear it in Tokyo but I'll take a picture soon.

gaming or gambling?

I had about 30 seconds to take this picture. A sweet girl named Marina was showing us to the subway station but I couldn't resist taking a picture of the men in suits row after row. At first I thought they were video games but I think they were gambling. This was at about 8:00pm at night and it was packed!

Tokyo Subway

Q: How many Stephens Family members does it take to buy bus tickets?

A: All of them.



Sean and Hunter learning how to buy tickets.


Bryn helping us find our way.

TOKYO TIME

We're traveling to Tokyo today. Sayonara Utsunomiya!

Pictures from the Grand Hotel in Utsunomiya

GAME TIME

TAIKO Arcade Game


Why can't arcades in the U.S. be this clean and bright?


Mario Kart!

bicycles, umbrellas, and uniforms oh my!

My 3 favorite things about Japan.


UMBREALLAS!!!!


UNIFORMS! Everyone has a uniform. So much better than our standard uniform of khaki pants and a red shirt.



BICYCLES. These are just a handful of bicycles at the local department store. None of them are locked up. The only negative thing is that no one wears a helment.

asain pears

nashi - asian pears. Are in season right now in Japan. They taste like candy.

We were given two asian pears by some friends and wanted to eat them this morning in our hotel room. We didn't have a knife so we asked the front desk for a knife. Afraid we would start stabbing people they told us that they would cut it up for us.

What they brought to us was sagoy (amazing)!

sensei

Takeuchi sensei leads traditional radio exercises every morning at 6:30am. Lu, Sean, Hunter and Bryn woke up bright and early to join them this morning in a beautiful local park.

They also did Tai Chi, Kendo and many other games that Takeuchi sensei had prepared for Hunter and Bryn.

Sensei is 87 years old. Years of martial arts training has made him solid as a rock.