Something exciting happened in April. We had a visit from Jason's family!
As with all exciting things, there was some drama. This time, it took the form of their plane being delayed, and then finally cancelled for the day we expected them to arrive. They arrived the day after they had planned, which threw a spanner in the works of having some time to relax and get a feel for Tokyo.
We met them at the airport, caught the airport bus to their hotel and had room service with them, spesh.
Before we had had a chance to show them the ropes like how to buy a train ticket, or where the best place to get milk and juice was, they were up and about on a guided tour of Hakone and surrounding areas near Mount Fuji. A full day's tour is a pretty intense way to start in Japan, but the next day we were able to catch up with them properly.
After a morning tour, we went out to dinner at an izakaya restaurant called Yama chan, pretty famous in Nagoya for their wings (see my Nagoya post for a pretty terrible photo of them). We had a private room and were able to spread ourselves out.
Jason and I both took a Wednesday and Thursday off to spend time exploring different areas. On Tuesday night we spent the night at their hotel in Shinjuku to make an early start out for the Tsukiji fish markets, and wow haven't times changed. Jason and I visited the fish markets on one of our first trips to Tokyo in 2008. Back then, we showed up on the first train, wandered through the wholesale market, found our way to the tuna auctions, no sweat.
This time, yeah, different story. You now have to show up at about 4 am to get in line for the tuna auctions, and if you don't get into one of the two groups assigned for the day, you can't get access to the wholesale market until mid-morning. The end result of this is, if you catch the first train that gets you in to Tsukiji at 5.30, you're out of luck for the wholesale market until then. Nonetheless, we waited, looked at the outside markets, and had a sushi breakfast.
Gotta get that fish home in one piece.
The next day we headed to Asakusa, an area originally famous for its temple and shrines, and now probably more famous for its shops and crowds. Luckily, Jeffrey and our niece Elizabeth found a rabbit to pat.
After battling the crowds and doing some souvenir shopping, we headed to Ueno park to have a picnic. The ground was pretty wet from the previous day's rain, but we managed, and ate our lunches bought from the nearby convenience store. Generally speaking, lunch wasn't as interesting as feeding the pigeons.
Or teaching me how to do push-ups.
We also made a trip out to Kamakura on the Saturday that Jason's folks were here to visit the giant Buddha (Daibutsu) and the temples in the area. I haven't got many photos of this trip; my Golden Week post from last year has a few. The area is beautiful, and it was a gorgeous day.
Jeffrey, me, Elizabeth and Sophia hanging out in the shade.
Jason's dad Keith at the entrance to Kotoku-in temple.
After the weekend, it was back to work for me, but Jason had one more day with his folks. He headed to Shibuya with them, looked around Harajuku, and finished up in Yoyogi Park, where there was a lot of space to run through the flowers.
Lots of room to play ball with Jeffrey and Denise.
And conveniently, someone to help with blowing gigantic bubbles.
Next update will be our May wrap-up, and what a wrap-up it will be.
Til early June (I'm guessing!),
Bye!
