Hi, Everyone!
Grandma and Grandpa brought me to Japan! Grandma says this is really my new home, because Bill-kun and Karin-chan live here now. The flight to Tokyo is very long! The sun was just coming up on Thursday when we left Rochester, but it was Friday evening when we finally got to the Tokyo airport. Bill-kun and Karin-chan’s daddy met us there and helped us take the train to our hotel.We are staying right next to a big train station in downtown Tokyo, so it’s very easy to use the trains to get around.
On Saturday morning, Bill-kun and Karin-chan’s daddy came to get us and help us take the train to Bill-kun’s school. (Yes, Bill-kun’s preschool has classes on Saturday morning some weeks!) Karin-chan and her mother took another train and met us there. There are lots of trains in Japan, and that’s the main way Bill-kun’s family gets around. It was raining out, so I had to stay in the backpack to keep dry on the walk from the train to Bill-kun’s school. When we got there, Bill-kun showed me around his classroom.
After school was over, we took another train to see Bill-kun and Karin-chan’s new house. I guess it’s my new house, too! It’s almost done inside and Bill-kun’s family can move in soon. The kitchen is very nice and roomy. Bill-kun and I made a fort in the bathtub, and Bill-kun showed me the special place for me to take a nap. Then Bill-kun and Karin-chan and I played in the little room under the stairs. That’s where all the toys will be!
We took another train to get back from the new house to Bill-kun and Karin-chan’s Japanese grandparents’ house, where they’re staying now. On the way, we watched Dora the Explorer on Bill-kun’s daddy’s smart phone. I didn’t know you could watch Dora on a train! Then we took ANOTHER train to go to an okonomiyaki restaurant for dinner. Okonomiyaki are Japanese pancakes with lots of different fillings. We got to watch the cook make them on a griddle in the middle of the table. I had to be careful not to burn my paws on the hot surface! Doesn’t this okonomiyaki look good? It was yummy!
On Sunday, it stopped raining. We took a different set of trains to go to the Imperial Palace East gardens. The emperor used to live there before the buildings were destroyed, but only the stone walls that protected the palace are there now. When the palace was rebuilt in a different place, the gardens became a public park. It is a very pretty place! Bill-kun and I ran up the road to the top of this stone wall, so we could look down at the Peach Blossom Music Hall. Then Karin-chan and Bill-kun and I ran around looking at the trees in the meadow.
We took a train back to the main train station by the hotel and had soba (buckwheat noodles) for lunch. I got to practice eating with chopsticks, but it’s still hard to do with little lion paws. Later, we took another train back to Bill-kun and Karin-chan’s Japanese grandparents’ house and walked to a ramen restaurant for dinner. Japanese people get lots of exercise walking to and from train stations and climbing the stairs to the train platforms! At the ramen restaurant, we ordered and paid for our meals from a vending machine, even though the cooks made the ramen right in front of us. Lots of people think of ramen noodles as a packaged snack made with boiling water, but the fresh ones are very different and delicious! Grandma helped me order, and Bill-kun helped me with dinner.
Monday was the big event of our trip. Shichi-go-san means “seven-five-three” in Japanese. It is a festival in the middle of November when three and seven year old girls and five year old boys dress up and go to the Shinto shrine for blessings. Bill-kun just turned five and Karin-chan is almost three, so they both got to dress up in traditional Japanese outfits. The Shinto shrine has big red gates that are very pretty, and it’s like a park inside. At Shichi-go-san, everybody offers prayers that children will stay healthy and grow up strong and happy. It’s also a traditional day for taking pictures! Grandma and Grandpa took lots of them! The priests gave all the children balloons and arrows with no points, and there was special stick candy in lucky colors. Bill-kun’s daddy told Bill-kun that his outfit was like a superhero costume from long ago in Japanese history. Bill-kun and Karin-chan had both sets of grandparents there to wish them blessings.
After the ceremony and lots of photography, we all went to lunch at a restaurant in the same building as Grandma and Grandpa’s hotel. Bill-kun helped me with my lunch. Look at how well Karin-chan can use chopsticks to eat! The adults had several courses of Japanese food, so Bill-kun and Karin-chan and I got tired of sitting at the table and played on the floor. Then everybody came up to our hotel room so Bill-kun and Karin-chan could change back into regular clothes to take the train home. Karin-chan let me try on the medal the priests gave her. I was getting really tired, so she tucked me into bed for a nap. We’d had such a big, long lunch that I slept right through dinner! When I woke up, Grandma and Grandpa shared a fancy dessert they had bought at the big store across the terrace from the hotel. What a very special day!
Love,
Lion-san