the world of sega

We began the day doing wash in our hotel room. This is no easy task! With as many clothes as we have, washing them in the sink would take forever. Using the hotel laundry service would be incredibly expensive. The only logical solution left was to fill the bathtub with soapy water (Tide travel packs from home) and to have a "wine stomp" party in the bathtub. Our bathrooms looked like a laundry forest with clothes all over, but it worked. We only allowed one carry on suitcase each, so we need to keep those valuable clothes clean!

Ali and Andrew on laundry duty.

Andrew loved his little spot on the balcony where he could see the water, boats and people.

Jon had read about Sega Joypolis as he was preparing for our trip, so we were excited to try it out. It is an amusement park of Sega rides. The kids had a great time. We realized again, that it is difficult to not understand the language as they were explaining to the group the safety rules of the rides. I kept thinking - sure hope these instructions are not too important! I just assumed that they were telling us to keep our seat belts on and not stick our heads and feet outside the rides.

The lobby of Sega Joypolis.

This ride was fun. You get in these cars and there is a simulated racetrack on the screen. The car shakes and moves according to how you drive.

This was called the Tokyo Half Pipe. You stand on the surfboard type thing and go up and down the half pipe. The team that can spin it the most wins.

I liked this one the best. You stand on this treadmill and physically do the running, hurdles and long jump in the video game. It keeps track of your results and shows who won on the screen.

I have been very surprised that we are the only Americans we see anywhere. This really is a homogeneous society. It is not at all like America where we see people of all nationalities, colors and races everyday. Maybe we will when we do more of the touristy things later in our trip. We are staying and playing where all of the Japanese stay and play. There are 4 huge malls/amusement parks within walking distance of our hotel.

Guarding one of the newest malls (opened 4 months ago) is this huge statue of a robot named Gundam. He is from a series of comics/toys/movies. It is an impressive statue. We saw everyone gathering on the plaza in front of the statue, so we did also. Jon asked the person next to us if there was a show and they said they heard that the statue walks. Walks? This thing is huge. We wondered if we should move to a safer location in case as it is walking it trips, but knew that the security guards everywhere would have probably insisted we move if it were not safe. Well, there is some Disneyesque music and lights flash on the robot and then the finale is that steam comes out of all over. We found it to be not that exciting, but it was nice to sit down for a minute.

Here is a museum/store with all the robot toys like Gundam.  There also was an amusement park place in the mall where you could go on rides and act out the Gundam action.  We did not go there.

Speaking of sitting, they must not do it much here. There are no opportunities to sit all over as we have. No benches on the street, no benches in the mall, no place to sit in dressing rooms (or outside of them), no tables and chairs anywhere but in restaurants. I realized I actually really like sitting and I miss it. I guess I will have enough of that on the flight home.

We have a policy when we travel that we eat what the local people eat. We don't usually eat at the McDonalds and Subways that we see. We can get that at home. However, we make an exception here. We have been told that visiting McDonalds in Japan actually is a cultural experience. They use better quality meat and they have some interesting sandwiches available. So we went to McDonalds for lunch. Here is their menu.

Of note here are the Ebi Fillet of Fish and the Teriyaki Burger.

The "Juicy Shaka Shaka Chicken" was not the party it sounds like.  Dark meat spicy nuggets.  Not the kids' favorite.

Just a few special sandwiches they feature with tastes from around the world.

Even though many restaurants have English menus they provide to us to read, it can still be difficult to understand them. Here is the menu from the ramen restaurant we went to for dinner. Luckily Jon can communicate with them and we are not reliant on those English menus.  Everyone loved their ramen.

The harbor was beautiful at night and we enjoyed seeing all the boats lit up with different colored lights.

Yes, the following picture is a statue of liberty.  I am not sure why it is there, but it was a nice reminder of home!

some japanese american traditions

Today we discovered some of the many ways that Japan is similar to America, and a few ways that they are different. The day started with a visit to a huge department store in the Ginza area, Mitsukoshi. We wanted to show the kids what we saw when Jon and I went last year - the opening of the store. This is quite the occasion. All the staff meet in straight lines to hear the orders of the day. Then they return to their posts as the door is opened and the public comes in. As the public walks by them, they bow to everyone, welcoming them into the store.

The store itself is a 12 story building. The bottom floor is filled with treats, pastries, fruit and foods. The top two floors are filled with a variety of sit down restaurants. The remaining floors include clothes, electronics and home goods. We went to the bottom floor and chose things for breakfast - freshly squeezed juice, fruit and french pastries with a Japanese twist. Love those pastries! People in Japan do not walk around eating. Because of that, they do not need garbage cans on every corner like we do. In fact, there are no garbage cans in sight. You need to bring your garbage with you until you either are in a bathroom, or you are home. So when we buy breakfast at the department store, we then have to go up to another "eating" floor to enjoy it. This is where we ate our breakfast.

After browsing the department store, we went to this toy store. This has four floors of little trinkets, toys and fun items. (This is where we got our lightsaber chopsticks last time we were here.) We all had fun looking around - Lauren especially enjoyed looking for very funny items to bring back to friends.

On the top floor of the toy store, there was this huge electronic car track. Like an arcade game, you inserted coins and then could drive a car of your choice around the track. The kids loved this and we spent a long time here racing cars.

After shopping and eating a tempura lunch, we took the train to the Tokyo Giants vs Hanshin Tigers baseball game. It was at the Tokyo Dome.

Keeping with the American vibe that usually accompanies baseball, we got a kick out of the concessions and restaurants available at the game. Here is a restaurant right outside of the stadium called "Vicky's" that served hamburgs. (No, that is not a typo, they just say hamburgs. Oh, and they don't come in a bun....and they taste like meatballs.)

This is the part of Vicky's we most enjoyed seeing - Look at the sign...."It is the soft and juicy handmade hamburg steak which shut up the taste of beef. Since you place an order, it is the hamburg Steak of the boast roasted carefully. The dish which put and made the heart - the time of one (pleasant at Vicky's) - pleasing." It is fun how they want to use English, but it doesn't make a lot of sense. It really is endearing.

This is their mascot. They have many of them which entertain at the game.

Here is another twist of American tradition - at their baseball games they have cheerleaders. They dance during inning breaks.

This stadium was amazing. First of all, it was INSIDE which made it an amazing activity on a very hot day! One whole half of the stadium were Giants fans and the other, Tiger fans. It just so happened that the tickets we got were on the side of the Tigers fans. It did not take long for Matthew to change his allegiance and cheer for the Tigers as well. Each side had a music section which played non stop chanting which the entire half of the stadium joined in. It switched according to who was up to bat. 

Speaking of bats, almost every fan came equipped with little plastic bats which they hit together in rhythmic patterns with the music. Matthew and Andrew joyfully participated. Little did we know when we bought the little bats, that the cheering continued nonstop throughout the whole game. We made it through five innings and then the jet lag caught up with us. It was fun to get a feel for Japanese baseball and the culture surrounding it.

Could I share a few more food items? Here is what the hot dog stand looked like.

And here is the fast food stand.

This was fun to see....These were the concession girls. They dressed in bright neon colors and have a keg of beer as a backpack. When they walked by, if someone wanted a drink, they would pour them one right from the fountain on their back. Each brand of beverage had a different color of outfit on. What a workout to carry those backpacks around the stadium!

One last take on American, Japanese similarities. We all enjoyed this sign on a building near the shopping malls. It is for BVD underwear. It says "BVD - the REAL American underwear. Since 1876." I had no idea we were not wearing real American underwear. Perhaps ours is made in China.

konnichiwa

Once again, I am surprised and impressed by how well the kids travel. They did great on the airplane and Andrew has dealt with jet lag the best of all! We are in Tokyo having a great time. The plane was very long and we got here in the evening (Thanks to Jon's great planning) and were able to go right to bed. Andrew especially was excited about his little japanese pajamas and slippers they provided. Our hotel is right on the bay and has a beautiful view of rainbow bridge.

Monday morning, we got up early and went to the Tsukiji fish market - the largest fish market in the world! This place was incredible. There are over 2800 fish vendors selling their fresh catch of the day. Although many tourists visit the market, they have done nothing to make it easy for them. It is a working market and people are moving fish on little carts and trucks all around. You really have to be careful not to get hit! We saw many different kinds of fish - many still alive and most whole with eyes staring back. All around the fish market there are vegetable and fruit stands. We had some fruit and tomago egg skewers for breakfast. Here is a map of the market.

These are the carts that zip all around carrying boxes of fish.

Looking at piles of tuna.

Endless rows of fish vendors.

I thought these were some of the more attractive fish looking back at me.

All different shapes and sizes.

This man was very kind to the kids and kept showing them live fish from his tank.

These are actually thousands of little tiny fish. Now that's a party in a box!

After the market, we came back to the hotel and rested for a minute. Our next stop was the Miraikan museum - the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (also known as the Future Museum). There they have many displays and shows about key innovations that are happening now and have happened in the past. We saw a show where the robot "Asimo" responded to the verbal commands and interacted with him. It kicked a soccer ball to someone from the audience and then danced. It was cool - I think. I realized it is really hard to go to a foreign museum where you do not understand the language. We could go around and read the signs in English, but the interactive displays were lost on us. I wonder how many people feel like that in the United States? Here is Asimo dancing.

This was actually kind of creepy to me. This is an example of robots that they think would be useful in a classroom setting. They listen for breaks in conversation and then nod approvingly. The benefit in the classroom is that the students will be more interested as they see the robots nodding, and the teacher will feel encouraged by the interaction. Maybe this is the answer for our problems in education?

This robot is used in therapy situations. It is a little stuffed animal seal, and it has very real emotional responses. The result would be benefits similar to having a pet for those who otherwise could not. The boys loved holding it.

In the center of the museum is a huge globe made out of thousands of computer screens. They have a show where the earth changes displays depending on what the guide is talking about (wish I knew what that was). The coolest thing, though, is under the huge globe - where there are all these lounges where you could lay down and gaze at the world. That was a perfect break from all the walking and standing. We enjoyed that moment. The boys started kind of wrestling on the foam lounges and I was calming them when I glanced over to another grouping of lounges and found that two Japanese boys were doing the exact same thing. I remembered we are much more alike than different!

The kids are doing a great job trying to speak the language and experiencing Japanese culture. Jon made a great incentive program where they have three categories of things to try - trying certain foods, speaking certain phrases, and trying new experiences in Japan. Next to each item is a number of Yen - when they do those things, they get souvenir money. They have been speaking to people, trying different food, and even used a squatter toilet! Andrew, trying to immerse himself in the culture asked Jon, "How do you laugh in Japanese?" Our last activity before dinner was to visit the Toyota Showroom. This is more than just a car showroom, although it does have every kind of car they make. They also have a little car course where the kids can drive a little car while following street signs, simulated race cars and a go kart track. I loved seeing all the new cars they are coming out with this year. Here is Matthew driving the Toyota track.

Ali in the safety simulator.

Andrew and I in the race car simulator.

Here are some of the cars we liked. This one is called the Aqua. It came in really cute colors that the girls and I loved.

She found her dream car.

This van looked more my style.

We got a little more presentable, and went to dinner at our hotel with some employees from Jon's work. It was a teppanyaki restaurant where they cook steak in front of you. Delicious! They said it was "like our Benihana restaurant, but without the entertainment." At one point in the meal, they took some shrimp that were still kicking and flipping and placed them on the grill. Eventually, they no longer kicked. The kids had big eyes and gaping mouths as the chefs removed the eyeballs and carefully grilled the heads as well as the rest of the bodies. When the final product resembled the shrimp we were used to seeing, we enjoyed the best shrimp of our lives. We happily passed the heads on to our Japanese friends to enjoy. The steak was amazing and as Jon tried to take Andrew's last bite, we saw a brief moment of violence. We all loved the dinner. Here is our chef and the shrimp while they were still kicking and flipping.

The boys and our friends watching the shrimp action.

The girls. Lauren was feeling a little camera shy. I think her emotions in regard to the too short lives of the shrimp got the best of her.