Adventures in Tokyo....

The plan for today was to explore Tokyo. Big city....here we come! Christie has mad mad skills at navigating the train and subway systems in Japan. We loaded the express train like sardines and headed into the city....a couple transfers later...we walked up the stairs to the big beautiful city. I thought San Francisco was big....nope...San Francisco's got nothing on Tokyo. The subways there amaze me. It's so well organized and so many lines that you can literally get on the subway and make it anywhere you need to go. We may have been packed in like sardines but you would not know it...the Japanese are so polite and have an understanding that people need personal space. No one was touching each other. We were all just 1/2 inch apart from each other...but no one touches. It kinda amazed me. No one talks either....it's so silent. They even have signs asking you to be silent and not to use your cell phones on the subway! I think you could have heard a pin drop on that subway packed with people.

 

 

We walked through an open air market. The shops along the market were all unique and beautiful.

 

We even saw a Monk...but he was begging for money which I found odd.

They had real and fake Japanese blossoms all over. Once the area opened up there was a huge shrine and GINORMOUS red lanterns. To the sides there were rows of black and white lanterns as well. I wish I knew the significance of the lanterns. *Note to self...Google this later*

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

Remember when I talked about the food...yaaaaaa baby...the amazing food continues. I have now officially eaten my weight in food and LOVED every second of it.

 

 

 

 

The architecture is really different here. There was one building that was a bunch of cubes stacked on top of each other, all just a little off centered. Each looked like an a apartment no bigger than 300-400 sq feet total...with one round window facing the street.

 
Another building was flat on one side and looked like a bow of a ship...the other side bowed out a bit and became larger at the top.

 

 
We walked through the city streets to the gardens. It reminds me of what I think Central Park would look like. This huge beautiful park surrounded by enormously tall, new age structures. At the entrance of the park was a huge stone wall...each stone carved to perfectly fit the stone below it!

 

The park winds around with the many different breeds of trees but it seems like they are sectioned off. Pines in one area, blossoms in another, ect. There are several bridges crossing over a lake....it's like the entire area is calling out, "Sammi photograph me!" There are large tour groups visiting this garden as well, making it hard to get photos without someone's head in the way...but we managed to do it. This is the first time that we have seen tourists. We have seen one or two tourists here and there but the majority in the smaller towns has been filled with the locals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we were sitting on a bench, a nice Japanese man came up to me saying something I could not understand. I am learning that communicating in a foreign country is like communicating when you are two years old. You use hand signals, facial expressions, point at things and grunt a little. You look for pictures as a clue..when you see a picture that looks familiar and try to piece together what it could be. Anyways, back to the sweet Japanese man. He was pointing at my camera, smiling so I thought he was asking what kind of camera I had....I just smiled back. But then through hand signals I figured out that he wanted to take a picture of all of us together. That's just one example of how sweet the Japanese people are. Even when they don't need to, they go out of their way to be helpful!

There were several different types of blossoms in this area, including the double blossom trees. Each blossom has a white and pink blossom and they are so soft. They look so delicate, that they seem like they would fall apart when you touch them.

 

We sprawled out on the grass and let the kids play...a cute little Japanese boy took to Aubrey right away...wanted to hold her hand and do everything that she did. Again, another interesting thing to watch with kids....language barriers are not barriers. They use those same cues from each other....but are much better at it than adults.

This garden area is along the riverfront. You can see the rainbow bridge (the rainbow bridge lights up in all kinds of colors at night) from here...so naturally we took "fun jumping in the air pictures" in front of the bridge. ;)

Just before the exit of the garden is the 300 year old tree. It's a pine that swoops downward and almost touches the ground.

 

Headed to the fish market next but it was closed....this is the spot where you can watch them auction off the huge tuna first thing in the morning. 

Headed out for a Chinese dinner, since I did not have any good Chinese food in China, I was excited for this meal...and it did not disappoint. Usually ordering at a restaurant is pretty easy....you point to what you want and you get it...but if there are options it gets confusing. The waitress was trying to ask us questions and it became a ten minute journey of using words that we thought...then they thought would work. In the end...you always get food and it's always delicious.

Time to head back home. We played "guess what I am thinking about" games with the kids on the train home. Since the train was almost empty we were able to spread out a bit and "monkey around."

 
 I have grown to really love Austin and Aubrey on this trip. They are great kids....super funny,  great to talk to and keep us entertained. They have impressed me with their stellar behavior and ability to troop through even when we have walked a million miles. They see the beauty in the things that most kids would just pass by. They want to show me things to take pictures of and genuinely care for others. I knew I loved Randy and Christie before the trip....but my heart has grown much larger spending time with Aubrey and Austin. 

Tokyo was a great mix of beautiful high rise buildings and gardens....and don't forget about the amazing food! Ahhhhhhhh happy girl!

The good...the Bad...and the Ugly in China!

So China was a bit of a culture shock to say the least. I expected it because I did a lot of research before going, but that saying "you don't know what it's like until you experience it"....YEP it's so true. So I thought I would do a list of things that I learned in China.
-the rooftop bars in China are AWESOME...

-the lack of sanatary habits is disturbing. Here are some examples

1.People hock a loogie and spit , no matter where or who's around....you have to dodge loogies. 

2.The bathrooms smell really bad....I mean really bad...even in places like mcdonalds 

3.Finding toilet paper and paper towels in the country is like trying to find Bigfoot....it's impossible. 

4.Most toilets are "squat toilets", a hole in the ground, you put your feet on each side and let your business flow. 

5.NOONE washes their hands after using the restroom.....NOONE!!!!!!!! They don't even have soap in most restrooms.
-to turn on the lights in your hotel room, you have to put the key card in a slot. It saves electricity because all lights are turned off when you take the card out to leave the room. I think this is a great idea. I just wish that when I checked in the hotel, they told us this. I was the fool trying to turn lights on in the dark...LOL

 

-people are very loud and there is constant noise from TVs and media all around. 

Every cab has a tv in the backseat and they usually have a iPod playing as well.

-everyone has a bike...or motorbike and the amount of people and stuff they can fit on the bikes is incredible. I wonder if they have a class in school about how to stack stuff on a bike?

There seemed to be more bikes in Beijing than people.

 

They work on the honor system, I never saw one person lock their bike up. 

They drive their bikes like the cars, in the traffic lanes and do not stop for pedestrians. 

-pedestrians do not have the right away even in a crosswalk. A CAR WILL HIT YOU.

You would be crossing the street and a car would turn right or left into and not slow down...if not for Amy's eye site...I would have been a pancake on the street.
-I did not like the food in China...everything just had a weird taste...so I ended up eating burgers and pizza...and that was still weird too!

-I did LOVE the snack foods....I tried just a few...can you tell???? I had  to have supplies for the train ride! :)

-until babies are potty trained...they walk around with a hole sewed out of their pants....they just poop and pee wherever they are. EICK.

-no one smiles as you walk by

I am used to walking by people on the street, smiling and saying hi...here I walk by and say knee how (that's not how you spell it but how you say it...Hi in Chinese) and smile....nothing...not even a smile in their eyes....kinda sad. 

-"Yellow haired tall girls" are definitely a side show in China. 

I have never been stared at, talked about, pointed at and had my picture taken so much in my life. The first couple days it was funny...after a while it got old. Every person that passes me would take a double take...sometimes point and if they were with someone whisper something about me. I started having fun with it. When someone would take my photo, I started waving at the camera or giving them the cheesiest smile possible. The children would stare at me with disbelief that someone could look like me. 

-when walking over a threshold at a holy place, women walk over right foot first....men left foot first. Then we say a mantra as you pass over.
-I thought that a lot of people would have big SLR cameras like mine...but they didn't. I actually saw very few people taking photos.

-cab rides are super cheap...I mean cheap! You can get across town for $3. But none of the cab drivers speak a lick of English.
-the hotel provided us with gas masks...not going to lie...that made me a lil worried!

-there is a distinct smell in China. Not a good one. 

-the older neighborhoods have shared bathrooms. Several homes all share one public restroom....which is also available to the general public.

-they don't have normal car seats...they are the kind of straps you carry a baby on your chest...but they strap it to the seat.
-they value exercise. Walking, riding bikes, exercise machines in the parks...I love that everyone is active.

-you don't tip waiters or cab drivers...but the people you are supposed to tip will tell you they deserve a tip 8,000 times before you give it to them. 

-the waiters stand and stare at you from a few feet from your table...awkward. 

-the countryside is absolutely breath taking! Seriously...I have been fortunate to travel a lot and the countryside in China is AMAZING!!!!

-everyone honks their horn while driving...at first I thought it was out of anger...but after watching the drivers and noticing when they honk...I think it's more of a communication system. When you are in someone's blind spot, you honk. When you pull up behind someone, you honk. When you do really anything...you honk. No one got angry....they just honk all the time. 

-just when you think there is no way that bus or car can fit in between that semi and car....it does. There were times when a car was 2 inches next to our bus or cab...and no one bats an eye....and with that said....I only saw one accident the entire time I was there. Maybe they do know what they are doing.
-they can balance and carry more on their shoulders than I would even attempt to carry from the trunk of my car to the house...makes you rethink how strong you really could be.

-there is NO Facebook in China. They block it so visitors can't even get on. Instagram works though.
-Also...no Hulu or Netflix....so weird.

-I saw the steepest escalator in the world in the subway. I debated if I should go on it...

 

- everyone wants to see your passport...your hotel...the money exchange...the tour company. It became the joke...."you want a glass of water?" Can I see your passport?
-Everyone seems like the are going somewhere. Unless you are in a park...everyone is busy and moving.
-they have Starbucks and McDonalds....and it tastes just like it does in America. I ordered ok at McDonalds because they had pictures...Starbucks was a hot mess. I just pointed to the big menu board on the wall...then got a slip of paper that was in Chinese...waited until no one grabbed the cup of coffee on the counter and got that one. Lucky for me...it was GOOD.

There were pros and cons to China. I am so glad that I spent time there. It gave me a different perspective on a lot of things. Makes me appreciate home...and even though our country has issues...we also are very blessed. We make choices in our life to be who we want. The people in China have those choices made for them. It was an experience I will not forget and so glad to check a few more things off my bucket list. :)