The Kimono

I had a wonderful opportunity to try on a traditional Japanese kimono!  Unfortunately it was a bit small, but it was still an enjoyable experience!  I had the help of three women to put the whole outfit together.  To wear a kimono, you have to put on over 10 articles.  I wore 10, but I wore my clothes underneath and there are a multitude of undergarments you should wear.  There are also a lot of straps and clips to hold and drape the fabric in the right way.  Afterwards we had a little tea ceremony.

Ikebukuro for the second time!

We went back to Ikebukuro and managed to find the attractions we wanted due to careful planning before we left.  Since we do not have working phones/data plans here, there is no opportunity to look at a map while we are trying to find something.  So I found some interesting attractions, looked up the locations on Google maps, took pictures of said maps and also wrote down in Japanese characters the names of the buildings we wanted to go to and the address in case we needed to ask someone.  It worked out perfectly, and we were easily able to find every location without asking for help!  After I felt very confided we can go anywhere around Japan as long as I plan before hand.  The had part about finding your way here is that no roads are named.  I still can't figure out how people know where they are going, and even Miki said she can't understand how areas are labelled.  But every address has 3 numbers to it, I believe in reference to the area, block, and location on the block.

I took some pictures on the train again because the mountains and valleys are so beautiful.

After we arrived we went to a well known sunday restaurant called Milky Way.  Even though the sunday was big, there was only two small scoops of actual ice cream.  The rest was a weird assortment of some kind of whipped cheese, whipped cream, ritz crackers, plain yoghurt, blueberry sauce and cereal flakes.  Greg refused a sunday but did eat the plain yoghurt from mine and Aiden's.  He got a boring old pita. Aiden was so cute, after he ate all the ice cream he said very remorsefully to me "sorry mommy".  I asked him what for, and he said "I ate all the ice cream and didn't leave any for you...".  He was so regretful, what a sweet boy!

 After that we went to a popular building called Tokyu Hands that had a large assortment of gadgets and house hold items.  There were some really interesting things to see, and maybe the most interesting was the top floor which housed 20 cats.  Customers can go there and pay to play with the cats.  Aiden wanted to go but Greg definitely didn't, and since we both have allergies, we passed on the opportunity.

Next we went back to Sunshine shopping mall (where we had originally visited the aquarium) and went to the planetarium.  That didn't go over too well since it was only in Japanese.  I thought it wouldn't matter and we could just enjoy the visuals, but it was a little boring for Greg and Aiden.  Greg fell asleep and Aiden snoozed too, it was only me to enjoy the constellations.  Luckily I had just watched a documentary on black holes (which is what the movie was about) and so based on what I learned from that, and the few sentences I could understand, I had a good time.

After we went to the Sunshine 60 building and up to the 60th floor to the observatory.

That might be the Skytree in the background.  If so, that's the tallest building in Japan!

The train station is at the Seibu/Parco sign

We then had to head back to catch out train.  Greg wanted to get a hamburger, so we stopped to pick some up.  We went to eat them on the train and much to Greg's surprise, they were 2 bite burgers! (I had previously experienced tiny Japanese burgers last time I was here!)  Thankfully we also got dinner out of the train station basement.  On a side note, many department store/large buildings have elaborate food courts in their basements, so if you are ever hungry in Japan and want a wide variety of food, head to the basement!

My burger, the size of three fingers. 

Working in the garden/ Happy Birthday Dad!

We had been trying to find a cake to celebrate dad's birthday.  We finally found one when we went to Ikebukuro by ourselves (post to come) and for one small piece (honestly about 2 bites) it cost $4.50!  For a 10" small-regular size cake it was over $50!  If I come back to Japan maybe teaching English is not the right profession.... Anyway, Happy Birthday Dad!  Hope you had a great time and sorry we missed it!  We were thinking of you!

Most mornings Aiden likes to go outside and help Otosan in the vegetable garden.  Yesterday I went out to find him digging a hole right between the veggies...poor otosan who doesn't speak English is too lenient with Aiden.  Needless to say I have redirected Aiden to only dig in an empty spot.  

What is he doing?....

Aiden was very proud of his hole, he was digging to plant seeds!

Aiden filling the hole back in

Walking around exploring

We decided to be adventurous and go for a little exploration of Chichibu.  We actually live in a suburb of Chichibu/near Chichibu called Onohara.  So we hopped on the little town train and went to Chichibu station. We walked along the main road and found a small shrine where some tourists were.  We have no idea what is was called, but since tourists were already there we decided to go too!  The people who looked after the shrine were very nice and gave us free tea and candy.  We bought a little carved monk/buddha sculpture that Aiden really wanted because it was "a little Jesus".  Although he was a little confused, at least he got that it is a religious place! We also bought a plaque and wrote down our wish and hung it up.  You can notice in the pictures more of the name sticker pasted to the ceiling.  I really want to find out a clearer explanation for them!

After we stopped at the shrine we decided to get some lunch.  Miki wrote out on a note card in Japanese that I have a seafood allergy and can't eat any seafood including food made with fish and seafood sauce.  It has come in really handy and to date there have been no bad incidents because of it!  So be found a pork restaurant, not knowing that was what is was.  We kept asking for chicken and beef, and it was humorous since the server spoke no English and resorted to large body gestures accompanied by her Japanese.

We also took some pictures of downtown and the surrounding mountain from the top floor of a department store.  I forget when the mountain is called, but it is mined for concrete or materials to make concrete/cement.  It you look closely, you can see the tiered cuts they have made.  

nothing like a happy pile of poo to get your message across!

We then went back to the train station and had to wait for the next train to come for 20 mins.  Greg wanted to pass the time away by taking jumping pictures of himself and Aiden.