Hi, everyone!
Tuesday, after the earthquake, we met Uncle David and Aunt Emi in the lobby of our hotel. It is on the 20th floor of the building and has big windows to see around the city! Joe-san wanted to go to Kappabashi-dori to look for cooking equipment, so that’s where we went first. We had to take a train and two subway lines to get there! I’m glad Aunt Emi knew the way!
The stores on Kappabashi street specialize in different kinds of cooking and restaurant equipment. We visited the small bowl shop first! Then we found a store with a rack of little metal designs on handles. They are for putting brands on pancakes! Then we found a brush store. I especially wanted Moose-san to see the plastic food stores. They are my favorites! Joe-san found a chef’s knife he liked at the knife store. When he bought it, they stamped his name on the blade! Moose-san and I almost fell into the giant rice cooker, but Grandma saved us!
It’s not very far from the Kappabashi district to Asakusa, where there’s a very old Shinto shrine. I’d been there before with Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle David and Aunt Emi, but it was new for Joe-san and Nancy-san and Moose-san! The temple there is a very popular place to visit, and there is a row of small shops selling souvenirs and snacks between the two gates leading to the temple. I showed Moose-san the incense smoke that is supposed to make you smarter. Then we took a look at a very big bronze urn. It was even bigger than the rice cooker on Kappabashi street!
From the temple in Asakusa, you can see Skytree! We could have taken another subway ride to get there, but it was a pretty day, so we walked. It wasn’t hard to know which way to go, because Skytree sticks up over everything else!
There was no waiting line at Skytree, so we got to go up in the elevator right away! There was some haze, but we did manage to see Mount Fuji, sort of! Like the rest of Tokyo, Skytree is already decorated for Christmas! Moose-san and I checked out some of the decorations on the very highest level, the Tembo Galleria.
Uncle David and Aunt Emi helped us find the trains back to our hotel after our busy day of walking! The sun was just setting when we got back. We made friends with some of the Christmas decorations on the plaza near our hotel and in the Southern Tower lobby. Grandma said we weren’t likely to have another earthquake, so Moose-san and I had a sleepover on the window sill of our hotel room. The traffic never completely stops at any hour in Shinjuku!
Wednesday was a national holiday in Japan — Thanksgiving Labor Day — so we had an adventure with Bill-kun and Karin-chan. We went to the Imperial Palace East Gardens in another part of Tokyo. The gardens are built on the site of a very old government fort, Edo Castle. The surviving walls are very heavy stone and the door is very thick wood with metal bands! Inside are buildings where samurai warriors who guarded the castle lived.
The gardens that have been planted represent Japanese culture. First, we visited the orchard of classical species — heirloom fruit tree varieties. Moose-san and I were surprised to see ripe oranges and tangerines! We thought the persimmon tree had very nice colors! The orchard is right across the path from the great lawn, so that’s where we went next. Bill-kun and Karin-chan had fun chasing each other around that great big space! From the lawn, it’s easy to see that the Imperial Palace is surrounded by tall city buildings!
The remains of the main tower of Edo Castle are at the far end of the great lawn. That’s the highest place in the gardens, so we climbed up to see the view. It’s a very pretty place!
When we came down, we walked around some other pretty areas. Moose-san and I were surprised the camellia trees were still blooming at the end of November. Some of the native trees were just turning fall colors, too! There was a moat protecting a part of the castle that isn’t there any more. Grandma wanted to look for the garden of fall flowers, but they were already gone. My favorite bamboo grove was right next to them, so I got to show that to Moose-san and Joe-san!
After our visit to the Imperial Gardens, we walked over to a big shopping mall. Most Tokyo malls and department stores have lots of restaurants in their basements and on their top floors. We found a nice restaurant on the top floor where we could all eat together! Grandma and Grandpa had curry udon noodles that were just about the same color as me! This mall turned out to be a big bookstore, so Karin-chan and Bill-kun bought new books to read before we headed home. This time, there was a direct train back to Shinjuku with no transfers needed!
Thursday was Thanksgiving Day in the United States, but just a regular work and school day in Japan. Grandpa had made reservations for a day trip to see Mount Fuji. When we got up, though, it was snowing! It hadn’t snowed in Tokyo in November for 75 years! Uncle David called to tell us that the road our tour bus would take had very bad slowdowns, and we might not even get to Mount Fuji before it was time to come back! We walked over to the tour office in the very wet snow to cancel our tour, and Grandpa rebooked us for Friday. Then we spent most of the rest of the day inside!
The snow stopped in the late afternoon, so we did go across the terrace to a katsu restaurant for dinner. It was nice enough to walk around the Christmas decorations on Southern Terrace after dark. Some of the trees still have orange leaves and are covered with pink lights!
Friday was MUCH better weather! When we got up, we could see Mount Fuji clearly from our hotel room window! Moose-san and I were happy we were going on our day trip on a much nicer day! We made friends with a special Christmas pastry, but then Grandma and Grandpa and Joe-san and Nancy-san ate him for breakfast! It was much nicer walking over to the tour office on Friday than Thursday. Moose-san had a little trouble climbing onto the tour bus, but Grandma and I helped him. Grandpa explained to us where we were going.
Most of the snow was gone in Tokyo by Friday morning, but there was still some in the countryside. We could see more snow on the ground as we got closer to Mount Fuji, but no clouds hiding the mountain! The roads on Mount Fuji were still closed because of the snow the day before, so we went to Oishi Park on Lake Kawaguchi, instead. Lots of visitors were playing in the snow as though they had never had that chance before, but Moose-san and I knew enough to keep from getting ourselves cold and wet! Lake Kawaguchi has a very nice view of the north slope of Mount Fuji and the conditions were perfect for seeing it. We also made a snow friend!
After Lake Kawaguchi, we went to a restaurant for a traditional Japanese meal. It was served in a vertical bento box, with different foods stacked in bowls on top of each other, instead of in a divided tray. We could see Mount Fuji from the restaurant window! After lunch, we walked around a bit to see the fall colors in the snow. I’m glad most of the trees with leaves still on them weren’t hurt by the snow burden!
We got back on the tour bus to go to Hakone, which is another volcanic mountain. We could see Mount Fuji for part of the trip there, but then the clouds started to roll in and Mount Fuji was hidden. Grandma and Grandpa and I spent two days in Hakone three years ago, but we didn’t do any of the same activities this time! We took a short boat ride along the north shore of Lake Ashinoko. I made sure Moose-san saw the pirate boats that made the longer trip I took last time!
Our boat ride ended at the Hakone Inn, where we took the Komagatake Ropeway to the top of Hakone’s volcanic crater. This Ropeway has big cars holding 100 people, so I didn’t get to see out the windows. Partway up, the mountain started to be covered by clouds and nobody could see anything! We only stayed on top of the mountain long enough for me to make friends with a snowman, then we came right down! On the way down, Moose-san and I did get to be right next to a window, but there wasn’t much to see.
We had some extra time before our tour bus left, so we went shopping at the base of the Ropeway. Grandma found some Christmas ornaments, and Moose-san and I made a lot of new friends! (Totoro is a forest character out of a Japanese children’s story.)
The last part of our tour was a return to Tokyo on a shinkansen, or bullet train. This was another experience I wanted to share with Moose-san! We had a very nice ride back to Tokyo station, then took a Chuo line rapid train back to Shinjuku. (Rapid trains aren’t as fast as shinkansen, but they don’t stop at every stop along the route.) Grandma wanted Joe-san and Nancy-san to try okonomiyaki for dinner. Okonomiyaki is a kind of shredded cabbage and egg pancake cooked on a hot griddle in the middle of the table. We found an okonomiyaki restaurant on the sixth floor of one of the Shinjuku department stores and had a very nice meal!
Love,
Lion-san
Did you get my earlier comments? I do not know if I posted properly or not. I looked up Suica Penguin on Google and here is what I found:
http://www.cutetravels.com/2016/10/suica-penguin-store.html
Did you go in this store, Lion-san! As Grandma to tell you about all the penguins that live at my house.
Earlier I wrote that I would love to have that big gold penguin. I have a perfect place for it in my back yard, Lion-san! Great Aunt Betsy
Aunt Betsy, we took the shinkansen back from Mount Fuji to Tokyo station, but we got there at rush hour. There was a traffic jam of people, so we didn’t notice the suica penguin store that’s supposed to be nearby. Tokyo station is really big, with tunnels connecting to other buildings in all directions and multiple levels. Next time we get there, Grandma says we can look at the map of stores and find the penguin store. I made friends with some of your penguins when Grandma and Grandpa and I visited you. The Suica penguin would have lots of friends at your house, but I think it wants to stay where it is. The area around it is called Penguin Plaza!
We all had a good time! Joe-san likes his knife and had fun looking at all the plastic food. The Imperial Gardens were amazing as was the snow and Mt. Fuji. The Skytree was fun too and we could see a lot of Toyko.