Happy Christmas Coke

Can your US Coke bottle do what my Japanese one can? I saw them at my local vending machine. 

 

I Hate Heights!

We took a trip out to Odiaba. Super fun place to shop. There is a mall just like home. Old Navy, American Eagle,etc, etc, all at ridiculous prices but whatever it's normal. Of course we couldn't possibly head home until we took a ride on the ferris wheel.

This used to be the tallest in the world but now it's #5, I think. Regardless its high, and did I mention it was high? I am not a lover of heights. I never let the fear keep me from doing fun things, like rollercoasters, now those are fun. Going around in a small container that is attached to a big wheel supported by two sticks in the ground is NOT fun. Especially in earthquake country. Just how do you suppose one would get down if they got stranded at the top of a 337 ft tall ferris wheel? You don't that's how. You die! I lived to tell my tale and I hope I'm done with them for a while.

We did also see a very cool transformer type robot that was as tall as the mall out there too.

Well Howdy Neighbor

Being in a city you would expect some pretty up close and personal experiences with your neighbors. Apartment living is great people entertainment as long as you don't have a herd of elephants above you or a superhero with super sonic hearing below you. When you get a little out of the city you would expect some lawns maybe, but it's pretty cramped there too. These houses are all but on top of each other. Those are 4 seperate homes.

A Little Warm in the Cold

If you haven't noticed by now my life is about food. Where I shop for it, how I find it and how often I can eat. It's a problem I know but when you average 20K steps a day you care a little less about consumption. I was excited to see not that it is cooling off my favorite drink dispensers are now carrying warm drinks in addition to the cold ones. Once again outdoing America and their vending machines. Still only 100 yen ($1). I'm so impressed!

Parking at it's finest.

When apartments charge more than a car payment every month to park your car you quickly determine cars are overrated and pay to park your bike instead.

7-Eleven: It's What's for Lunch.

Lunch at 7-Eleven sounds absolutely disgusting, right?!? Well in Japan that is so not the case. It is the place to go get a quick, yummy, inexpensive meal. First step: Pick your poison.

There are a ton of options to choose from. Some I was able to figure out upon inspection others not so much. I wasn't feeling adventurous today and I went with a four cheese pasta bowl. After paying you go and wait in the queue for turn at the microwaves. The hoity toity 7-Elevens will microwave your dish for you. I went to the regular peeps one today.

Now there are a slew of Hiragana characters on the wrapper. I was already googled out for the day (and it was only lunchtime) but I needed to know how long I needed to cook my meal. Not only that but if you look at the microwaves they are not normal. So, I smiled sweetly at the guy next to me in line and asked for help. He smiled back and made my lunch for me. Love that Japanese kindness!

Voila! My lunch, with a soba tea cost me all of $5. It was actually really yummy. 7-Eleven, who knew!

Fishy Face

I laughed out loud (Which is bad manners here...more on that later) when I saw this building this morning. I was in an area I haven't been before. I had to share. Hope you get a giggle out of it too. 

Shinjuku Gyoen Gardens

I spent the day with some friends at the gardens today enjoying the beautiful fall weather and the emperial chrysanthemums on display. Apparently the chrysanthemum is the flower of the emperial family here.

It has been for hundreds of years. No one is allowed to use this symbol for anything or on anything. It's use is exclusively for the emperor and his family. The emperor used to open up his gardens to a select group of individuals every year to come and enjoy this beautiful flower. At some point, not real sure when, the tradition changed and now us regular peeps are allowed to come and take a gander.

They truely were beautiful and the ingenious way they are pruned and trained really make them that much more enjoyable.

The gardens are beautiful and I can't wait to go back and visit when the cherry blossoms are in bloom.

This place just screams, "bring a book and hot chocolate and stay a while."

All Things Big and Small

I have found there are a great number of size descrepancies in Japan aside from the people size, which is surprisingly more normal than I thought. I was afraid I was going to be a giant, but not the case. I fit right in although there have been times I have been able to see very clearly a head above everyone else in the subway car. I'm off track, here are some size issues I have found.

The Japanese king size mattress fit into my US king bed frame with a cool 2-3 inches all the way around to spare. Luckily my real mattress showed up a few days later.

I bought a broom from Amazon Jp. Most of the info was in Japanese even after translation (go figure) but this is what showed up. I laughed so hard! All brooms are not created equal and this little one is guaranteed to leave you hunched over for the day. I had to have my daughter sweep until my real broom came.

Dishwasher tabs. Why do we have such big dishwasher tabs in the states? My dishwasher is the same size here and cleans just as well with less soap. Hmmm...

Now that is a backpack!

The cup on the left is a small, and the one on the right a large. The hand is my son's. There is a major problem with this picture. I want my 99 cent large 40 oz diet coke please! I'd have to order 3 or 4 to get equivalent of a US large. Maybe this is why we are overweight as a nation. Food for thought...to be continued.

Hasedera Temple

I was going to say this temple has a cool story but they all seem to have a cool story. So, here is this one, paraphrased of course. There as a big camphor tree in city of Hase. A munk stumbled across it and had two sculptures carve, two eleven-headed Kannon statues out of it. One for the temple in Nara and the other one was thrown into the sea with a prayer that it would reappear to save the people. (This seems like a big waste, but to each one their own) 15 years later, in 736, it washed ashore and like all sacred statues they built a temple to put it in. Oh wait, it gave off rays of light (that saved the people? this part of the story is unclear) Anyhow, this is that temple (cool beans) and the Kannon statue (which you can't take a picture of, sorry). 

The Kannon statue is one of the largest wooden statues in Japan. A little over 30 ft tall, (that's a lot of wood. That tree had to be humongous to make two of these bad boys). Kannon, BTW is the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy. I'm getting a head of myself. We had a few flights of stairs to climb before we made it up to the temple. This is Japan after all you have to have stairs.

On our way up we came across the Jizo-do Hall. There are thousands of little Jizo statues standing in long rows. They are to comfort the souls of miscarried and deceased children. Jizo is a Buddhist saint who is believed to protect children.

My favorite were the cluster of these three little Jizo. Aren't they cute!?!

A little farther up, there is the Kyozo. It's a place for storing Buddhist scriptures. 

Here is the good part, (and may I just say one more time how clever the Japanese are) it is said if you spin the Rinzo once, you receive the same amount of virtue as when you recite the complete scriptures. 

Now...if I could just put the Book of Mormon in here and give it a good spin, I'd come to visit every day. :) 

This is the entrance into the Benten-kutsu Cave. Our phones were borderline dead at this point. I had to take this picture for my brother though. Living in Japan and being a semi-tall female there are times when I am inclined to duck my head to get through certain doorways, Torii gates, etc. My poor brother would live his life here bent in two. Love you, Toad!

One our way out we had to stop and give this cute little guy's cubby cheeks a rub for good luck!

Great Buddha of Kamakura

     Let me first say this thing is HUGE! It's 13.4m (about 44ft) tall and weighs about 121 tons. It's a pretty impressive sight. Construction started in 1252 and took about 10 years to complete.
     Some interesting facts about Buddha. The word Buddha comes from the Sanskrit word, Buddh, meaning, "to awaken" or "to know" when translated to English, "one who has awakened to the truth."
     The 3rd eye (the all-seeing one) is made from pure silver and weights 13.3 kilos (almost 30lbs). The elongated ears represent he is also all-hearing. This particular Buddha is sittingin the Meditation Mudra position, which is used exclusively for the Amida Buddha. Mudra is a specific placement of fingers producing the feeling of joy and happiness during meditation.
     This bronze statue was originally inside a temple (well a few temples) but due to typhoons, earthquakes and tsumanis the temples kept being destroyed so now Buddha can enjoy the sun.

I think I would have taken the hint after the second temple rebuild, that some things are meant to be outside, but that's just me. One of the coolest things about this sight is you can actually go inside the Buddha and see how it was constructed. It will put you back a whole 20 yen ($0.20). It's a wallet breaker but worth it. :) You are able to see how the different sections were put together and right up into Buddha's head. (I can't help but mention how it is empty. That was bad I know.) 

A little more about Buddha's head. He as 656 curls all winding clockwise. Google failed me and I can't find why there are that specific amount and direction. It has something to do with a prince cutting off his topknot and having little curls left. As part of the initial temple there was a bronze lotus blossom constructed. This is what is left. 

The lotus blossom has some pretty cool meaning behind it. There is a Buddhist Proverb, "The lotus flower blooms most beautifully from the deepest mud." It is an amazing flower as it emerges from the bottom of a diry and muddy pond, but remains untouched by its soiled surroundings. There's some food for thought for you. Be like a lotus! 

Trick or Treat

     We were all happily surprised to find out Halloween is celebrated here. Everyone loves to dress up. They don't trick or treat quite like the Americans do, but if you know the right people you get the map. It was a treasure hunt kind of night trying to find the houses who would offer us a little treat.

We walked about 3 miles and hit all of maybe 10 houses. The kids really had to work for their candy this year and they loved it!

Now the candy or non-candy is a whole other story. This is some of the strange stuff we found in our sacks.

I can't wait to video the kids trying it tonight. I will post for sure! My particular favorites are the corn in a bag and raw pasta. LOL!

Halloween in Shibuya

I've told you before about the craziness of Shibuya (the busiest crosswalk in the world). Well we decided to check it out on Halloween. It was wall to wall people. Something akin to New Years Eve in Time Square.






It was hard to get pics of people from the front it was so busy you just moved in the sea of people with your hands at your sides. It was AWESOME!

The police were out in full force. This was the first year they actually shut down a number of the streets to vehicular traffic.

What I learned... If you can dress up as something and then make yourself dead you are one cool individual. I saw dead Marios, Pokemons, brides, Playboy bunnies, Disney princesses, you name it, they made it dead. It was incredibly entertaining.

I Love Toy Story!

Power Rangers in Japan made me giggle.

There were plenty of people I just had no words for. There were a few I wish I could scrub from my brain, but my all time favorite was the Ramen Noodles. 

I Just Couldn't Help Myself...

I found these at the 100 yen store (Dollar Store) in the office supply section. I actually did a double take and busted out laughing. (Here you get a glimpse of my inappropriate mind) 

In their defense they were next to these but it didn't stop me from laughing.

Hello Kitty

For all you men out there who just love Hello Kitty and can't find anything to wear to sport your obsession worry no more. Hello Kitty Men Pop Up Store just opened for your trendy pleasure. ROFL...

Impressive

I've never been much of a "back into a space" kind of girl. I can make it happen if I need to but will drive around the block a few times to avoid it (that and parallel parking). I saw this with Scott the other night and I just have to say I'm impressed. When you have carparks this thin you really don't have much choice than to park this way or to crawl through your sun roof to exit your vehicle, which is what I would be doing. Reason #5 why I don't drive here.