Fish Market, Tokyo Tower, and Imperial Gardens

We woke up in the morning and headed to the Tsujiki fish market, which is the largest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world.  We didn't go to the live auction. They only allow a limited number of visitors each day.  The auction starts at 5 AM, so you have to get there between 3 and 4 AM to get a spot.  We decided a visit to the outer market at 9 would be just fine.  The market was crowded. There were many stalls set up selling various types of seafood, as well as dried fish and seaweed. Several of them gave samples and were amused to see all the different things Charlotte would try and liked.  All the lines for the restaurants were all really long, so we just bought a few snacks from vendors and decided to get lunch somewhere else.  The market was crowded and at one point a lady and I bumped into each other.  I turned around and apologized, she bowed at the same time.  I love how polite the Japanese are!

Tsujiki maket

Next, we headed to the Tokyo Tower.  The Tokyo Tower was designed to look like the Eiffel Tower, except they made it 13 meters taller so it would be the tallest tower in the world.  The kids had a lot of fun looking at the views from the observation deck. 

view from the top

After the tower, we went to the gardens of the Imperial Palace.  This is a popular time to visit Japan because the cherry blossoms are in bloom.  Some of the parks had hundreds of them and they are breathtaking.  On the way, we stopped to see the Zojo-ji Temple.  The path to the temple had little statues.  They each had brightly colored hats, flowers, and outfits. 

overhead view of Zojo-ji temple from the Tokyo Tower

 

Zojo-ji Temple

decorated statues

Cherry blossoms with the Zojo-ji Temple in the background

We took a train to the Tokyo station, which is a beautiful and huge old building.  Then we walked to the Imperial Palace.  It was a long walk.  We stopped at a park on the way, with lots of fountains

Tokyo station

Beautiful fountains

  

I was surprised how many people were enjoying the Imperial Gardens.  I thought they would be considered sacred, instead there were hundreds of people lounging on the lawn and enjoying the beautiful spring day. 

Imperial Gardens

The walk around the gardens was long, about an hour.  The kids were pretty tired by the end.  We decided to get some ice cream from the snack shop.  They had ice cream bars covered in chocolate with a waffle around it.  They were delicious.

Japan -Day 1

We decided to go to Japan for Spring Break.  The kids had 2 weeks off school, but Tom couldn't take too much time off work and my parents were coming to visit toward the end of the break so we decided to go to Japan for a week.  We would spend 4 days in Tokyo, then stop for a day in Hakone near Mt. Fuji, before spending the last 2 days in Kyoto.  

We flew Japan Airlines.  It is such a different experience flying Asian airlines versus US airlines.  The gate agents and flight attendants are exceptionally polite.  At the beginning of the flight, they brought the kids both a (nice) toy airplane.  The flight was less than 4 hours, but included a full meal.  I had ordered kids meals when I booked the tickets.  When they started meal service, they brought the kids meals out first so they didn't have to wait.  

Tommy with his kid's meal

While we were waiting for our train to take us to our hotel, Tom decided to try some drinks from the vending machine.  First he tried a lemon lime soda, then he got a can with corn on it.  He was surprised when the can came out warm (the cold soda was from the same machine).  It was basically a creamed corn drink.  Tom liked it, the rest of us were not big fans, although Tom really likes creamed corn and used to eat it straight out of the can.

They had these vending machines all over Japan

Creamed corn drink

We took the Narita Express, a fast, comfortable train from the airport to Tokyo.  Then we changed trains at Shinjuku, the busiest train station in the world.  Luckily, we had packed pretty lightly, 2 carry-ones and 2 backpacks.  We knew we would have our luggage on busy trains several times and wanted to make sure it was manageable.

On the Narita Express

Hotel rooms in Japan are small and I had problems finding a hotel that would allow 4 people.  It was also cherry blossom season in Japan, so many hotels were booked.  We decided to use airbnb and book an apartment instead.  We ended up with a very small 2 bedroom apartment, but it had a little kitchen and a separate bedroom for the kids.  Except for the sirens from the nearby fire station every night, it was a good place to stay.

Our bedroom

The kids' bedroom/living room

 

Tom had to duck to go through the doorways.

 We went down the street from our hotel to find some dinner.  We found a Japanese-Italian restaurant.  We got a menu and it was all in Japanese.  Tommy really wanted pizza.  I was going to just pick one to order.  Luckily, they brought us another menu in English.  Most of the pizza flavors were not things I thought Tommy would like, including garlic and anchovy.  Luckily, we found something he liked.  I had a seafood salad that had a wide variety of seafood, including octopus tentacles.  It was a good meal.

Japanese menu

My seafood salad

Tai Mei Tuk

On Sunday, we went to Tai Mei Tuk.  It is an area near us we had never been before.  Another mom in Charlotte's class was telling me about an American grocery store there and when I mentioned it to a friend of mine, she said it was a fun area to visit with a lake to do fishing.  After a big day yesterday and a rainy start to the day, the kids were happy spending the morning at home dancing and playing monopoly.  After lunch, we headed out to Tai Mei Tuk.  They weren't very excited because it sounded "boring", but I told them they had said the same thing about the rugby tournament the day before and they had ended up having a great time.  They decided they would trust Mommy and Daddy to pick fun things to do even if they sounded boring to them.

When the taxi pulled up, we saw an area with lots of people.  There was a BBQ area with tables that had grills built into them for people to cook their own meat.  There was a bike path with LOTS of people riding bikes and walking.  There was also a bay with many people out on boats.  I did not see any area with people fishing (nor the small stocked lake I read about online), but we decided to rent a row boat instead.  That sounded more exciting to all of us anyway.

We got our life jackets on and headed out on the boat.  Tom rowed us around the water.  We had fun looking at the other boats in the water.  After a while, Tommy and Charlotte decided rowing looked way too fun (and easy) and wanted a turn.  They did a great job , but lost a little of their confidence when Tom told them to turn the boat in the right direction and row it back to the dock.  They decided Tom should take over again.

Then we walked around the area.  We found a pier where a lot of people were riding bikes, walking, and flying kites.  We finally saw the lake, but didn't see anyone fishing.  After exploring the area, we ate dinner at a delicious Thai restaurant.  I stopped by the American store, but decided not to get anything.  We all had a great time.  It was another fun day.

Lots of kites

We decided next time we are going to rent one of these "bikes" 

delicious Thai food 

Rugby at Repulse Bay Beach

We had a very busy weekend.  On Friday, Charlotte brought home her classroom stuffed animal.  It is a mama and baby koala named Lemonade and Pom Pom.  We were supposed to take pictures of Charlotte doing things with them this weekend and fill out the classroom book for Charlotte to take to school and share.

Charlotte feeding Lemonade and  Pom Pom breakfast on Saturday morning

On Saturday, we wanted to go down to Repulse Bay for a rugby tournament.  Tom has expressed interest in learning to play rugby in Hong Kong.  He sent me a message earlier that week letting me know his coworker, Michael, had a team playing in a tournament this weekend and he wanted Tom to be on his team.  Tom was excited, but nervous and I told him I didn't think a tournament was necessarily the best place to play for the first time.  He doesn't know the rules or positions and would probably do better to attend a practice or 2 before playing in a tournament.  Another coworker of Tom's told him he would probably get killed if he played.  Tom told me he wasn't going to play, but he still wanted to go and watch and that Michael said the tournament was fun and good for kids.

When we were getting ready Saturday morning, Tom was taking a little while to get ready and put on much more athletic clothes than he would normally wear.  I had a feeling he was no longer going just to watch.  We saw Michael soon after we got there.  He clearly was planning on Tom playing.  I told him we were taking a trip to Japan next week and I was going to hold him personally responsible if Tom was on crutches for our trip.  His response was he would make sure if Tom broke a bone, it would be one of his arms instead.  I did not feel reassured.

The kids were really excited when they saw the beach.  Tommy had no interest in watching any rugby, all he wanted to do was play in the sand and water.

After playing in the sand and water for a while, Tom really wanted to go up and watch rugby for a little bit.  They had kids games in the morning and Tom thought Tommy and Charlotte might enjoy watching.  Tommy was not happy to leave the beach and made it clear he was not the least bit interested in rugby.  After watching for a little while, Tom went to see the rest of his teammates.  Once Tommy realized Tom was going to play, he was suddenly very into it.  We got a rugby ball and practiced throwing it around.  Then Tommy and Charlotte had a lot of fun running around in the sand playing rugby with an imaginary ball and occasionally tackling each other.

They love tackling each other

Then it was time for Tom to play.  He did a great job.  Apparently rugby is normally played with 15 players per side, but this was a modified game to play on sand, so they only play with 5 per side at a time.  Tom was not in the first rotation and there were several hard hits.  A few players got grabbed around the collar and dragged down to the ground.  I was getting pretty nervous.  Then it was Tom's turn.  He did really well.  He carried the ball a few times, but he didn't get hit too hard.  The kids were so excited to watch him and cheer for him.  His team didn't win the match, but we were SO proud of him!

Tom in his jersey before the game

In action, number 10

After Tom's game, he could relax and enjoy the rest of the day.  We spent some more time playing in the sand.  The kids wanted to go to the beach and spend more time running around and pretending to play rugby "just like daddy".  All Tommy talked about wanting to do was play rugby, which was quite a change from 4 hours earlier.  They also had bounce houses the kids enjoyed.  We got some hamburgers and an ice pop and it was time to head home.  It had been a really fun day.

Lemonade and Pom Pom chilling in the sun

After showers and dinner at home, there was time for a few quick games of Yahtzee.  Then it was off to bed.