Japan!

Hi, everyone!

Moose-san and I are on a big adventure with Grandma and Grandpa and Joe-san and Nancy-san.  We are in Japan visiting Uncle David’s family!  The flight from O’Hare to Narita was thirteen hours long, and then we took a bus to Tama Center.  The rush hour traffic was heavy in Tokyo, so that bus ride was another three and a half hours.  We were really tired when Uncle David’s family met us at the bus stop!  Our hotel was right across the street from the bus stop and Bill-kun and Karin-chan helped us check in.

We left Rochester on Thursday morning, and it was Friday night when we got to Tama Center.  On Saturday morning, we took the train to the station closest to Uncle David’s house.  It was raining, so he picked us up in the van.  We had to get there early because Uncle David was having a Thanksgiving party.  Grandma had to make an apple pie and get it baked before the turkey needed to go in the oven.  Everybody helped with the apple pie!  Moose-san and I helped roll out the crust and we showed Original Lion-san and hitsuji-san how to do it!  Our crust made a very pretty pie!

After that, we helped Joe-san and Uncle David defrost the turkey and put some herbs inside.  The pie came out of the oven just in time to get the turkey started!

Japan doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving the way we do in the United States, or even on the same day.  Uncle David’s party was for his friends from the United States now living in Japan with their families.  Everybody brought food to share, and it was all yummy!  There were surprise guests, too, that Grandma and Nancy-san hadn’t seen in several years.  Moose-san and I were happy to meet them!

On Sunday, we had more adventures!  Grandma and Grandpa brought all the Christmas presents for Uncle David’s family with them on the plane, so we helped carry them to Uncle David’s on the train.  When we got off the train, there was an outdoor art exhibit right outside! Grandma brought two new Lego sets for Bill-kun and Karin-chan to have right away, and they built them after breakfast.

The weather was sunny, so we all took a hike on the Tama Yokoyama trail.  There were clouds over Mount Fuji, so we walked the part toward the farmer’s market instead of the part up the ridge.  There was more art from the outdoor exhibit along the trail!

Grandma and Nancy-san made sandwiches out of the leftover turkey from the party, so we could have a picnic at the playground.  I showed Moose-san where Uncle David’s garden is, in the clearing across the valley and up the hill.  Bill-kun and Karin-chan both showed off their gymnastics skills on the playground equipment!

When we finished our picnic, we walked the rest of the way to the farmers’ market.  There was more art on the way!  Moose-san and I weren’t sure the “receipt house” was art, but it looked like a fun place to play.  There are little farms surrounding the farmers’ market, so we could see flowers and broccoli growing!

At the farmers’ market, we saw potatoes for sale that were really cousins of the taro plants we met in Hawaii.  We took a different path back to Uncle David’s house, and the colors of the leaves were really pretty!  Then we got to visit two farmers!  One of them was harvesting root crops and both of them were growing shitake mushrooms!  Moose-san and I had never seen a mushroom growing place before:  they grow on logs in the very shadiest part of the woods!  The last piece of art we saw looked as if somebody started a sculpture of one of my cousins but forgot to put on the head!

After dinner, we had another adventure!  In Japan, business Christmas decorations go up as soon as Halloween is over.  Uncle David always puts his Christmas tree up right after his Thanksgiving party.  Moose-san and I got to help!  Bill-kun put on some of the lights, and he and Karin-chan hung the ornaments.  Since Mocha the puppy and Shadow the kitten are around this year, we had to make sure all the ornaments they could reach would be safe for them and from them!  I recognized some of the ornaments because they used to be on Grandma and Grandpa’s Christmas tree!  When the tree was all decorated, Original Lion-san and hitsuji-san and Kitty-san all decided they wanted to be ornaments, too!

When we took the train back to Tama Center, it was dark and all the Christmas decorations were lit up. Tama Center is Hello Kitty Town, so we made friends with Hello Kitty on the way to our hotel.  We made  penguin friends, too!

On Monday, we moved to a different hotel in downtown Tokyo, near a big train station.  There are a lot of stores and restaurants around us, so we spent the rest of the day exploring.  First, we bought postcards to send to all our friends.  Moose-san and I got to practice with chopsticks at the soup dumpling restaurant.  We both need more practice to pick up the dumplings without breaking them and letting the soup run out!  Then we met a robot named Pepper and his friendly partner.  We’re making lots of friends here!

This morning, early, we had an unexpected adventure.  Japan jiggled!  There was a big earthquake to the north of us and our hotel room on the 30th floor swayed back and forth for several minutes.  It was a little scary, but Grandpa told us that Japanese buildings are constructed to stay safe in earthquakes.  Grandma gave me a big hug and we are all fine!

Love,

Lion-san