Ueno Zoo

This was our first no basketball or other activities weekend in a long long time. So we decided to go out to the Ueno Zoo. It is the zoo famous for pandas and I think it is the only zoo in the city of Tokyo. It is about a 35 minutes train ride from our station. We saw elephants and tigers and gorillas. Oh my!



We watched a male bear hog the fish to himself and growl loudly whenever the female bear tried to come near. We also watched the female bear work really hard from many different angles to get a piece of the fish for herself. And she did!
We learned that baby seals obey their mothers! This baby seal was playing with a piece of wood in a small hidden area. He came over and began playing in front of us and interacting a bit with the crowd. The mother was on the other side of the tank and gave him a warning bark. She then came over and barked at all of us and then at the baby who went back to his area. A few minutes later he came back out. This time she barked at him once from across the tank and he went directly back and didn't come out again!! I love object lessons! Even baby seals obey their mothers!!





Kie said the nikuman (meat-filled bun) was the best she ever had. She is our nikuman connoisseur! So it must be good!


These are my favorite animals! Now if I could only get them to be less like the bears and more like the baby seal!

Service (SaaBeeSue)

Today Takeshi and I went on a date to Yokohama. We had a great time and came back to our station around 4pm. We stopped in at the toy shop on the way home to see if they had any tea dogs (ochaken). That started a chain of "service" events. In Japan, regular customers are rewarded by "service" which usually refers to extra merchandise. The toy store did not have any tea dogs, but asked if Kie liked them. We said that she did but we were looking for a friend of hers in the States. Well do you think she might like a little stuffed tea dog? You may have it for her. So they gave it to us. From there we went to the vegetable shop, I was given some candied apple slices and Takeshi was given two packs of Kimchee. From there we went to the meat shop and met someone we knew who gave us a calendar. I asked Takeshi if there were any other places to go before returning home since we seemed to be on a roll today....

Did I mention that we stayed in the toy shop for over an hour just talking to the owners and a customer we knew? We didn't even buy anything....

Cheerleading!

Today I got to see my son play basketball on the Junior High School team. This is what I wore to sit INSIDE the gym and watch. ( The soccer mom's watching on the outside field had less on than I!!!) It was freezing!! This was the first game I was able to attend and it was fun to watch Kei play. I hope to be able to see more games. Takeshi was able to join us for the first half before leaving for baseball practice. We were the only parents yelling on the sidelines. This is partly because there were very very few parents there and partly because Takeshi likes to be involved! Once he starts I find myself joining in to the point that after he left I am the only one yelling. Nice play! Good shot! Defense! Don't give up! Go for it! One more basket! That's the way! LOOK! and SHOOOOT!!! (No I am not yelling this in English...)

I'm BAAAACK!!!!

Where have you been, you ask? Well, it is not like I have been anywhere since returning from the States on December 20th. It is more to do with who has been here!!! Too busy having fun with friends.... It has been especially fun to catch up with some friends I have not seen in years. This picture shows some of their shoes!!

If you don't see your shoes here, then you need to think about coming!!!

(Those whose shoes are shown are welcome to return as well!!!!)