Alex and Mom at a cute little cafe in a bus on a side street in Harajuku. The crepes were tasty!
Imperial Palace grounds
Little girl in traditional dress at Meiji Shrine.
Fall at a park in Tokyo.
Purchasing our breakfast tickets from the vending machine outside the noodle shop. Very efficient. Look through display of your food choices (in plastic), purchase ticket via vending machine, give ticket to cook inside, enjoy piping hot bowl of noodles!
"Hey you, yeah, I'm talking to you." Alex at the Imperial Palace grounds. The pebbles were quite fun to play with. Pointing is a skill which was perfected while on our trip.
Jump, Daddy, Jump!
Yanaka, Japan
Mmmmm....mochicream!
Asakusa
Sushi breakfast at Tsujiki Fish Market
Tsujiki Fish Market....look at that tuna!
Tsujiki Fish Market octopus
Zooming around at the fish market
Hi all! Hopefully everyone had a great Thanksgiving and you are enjoying the beginning of the holiday season. I meant to post something before we left, but did not get a chance too. We left on Thanksgiving morning for Tokyo, Japan, on Alex's first big international adventure. We have had a really fun time so far.
Alex (a.k.a. Special Agent Genki Kawaii)was a trooper on the plane, and we luckily were granted the bulkhead row, all to ourselves, so we put out a blanket on the floor and there was enough room that we could all sit down and play. It was a nice new plane, with lots of space, which was great. Alex was quite a hit in Japan, right from the start on the Japan Airlines flight. The cabin attendants loved him and kept coming over to play with him, bring him toys and offer him treats. His Special Agent name came from a couple of sources....the diapers which they gave us on the plane had a brand name of Genki, which we thought was a cool name, and then Kawaii is the Japanese word for "cute" which we heard over and over, as people walked by him. The Japanese people are so nice, helpful and polite. We enjoyed our stay, indeed.
We visited the Tsukiji fish market, which is massive. There are fish and seafood products everywhere! It is quite amazing, seeing huge tuna being cut up. There are little forklifts whizzing around everywhere and activity was quite frenzied. Definitely a lot of things for Alex to track. We had a nice sushi breakfast there in a little restaurant afterwards. We did alot of walking around the city and used their train systems which were fantastic---very well organized, clean and easy to navigate. The Imperial Palace was another sight to see, as well as the Meiji shrine, Harajuku, which was an edgy shopping district, Ginza, a really upscale area, and then a small suburb, Yanaka, which had a few more shrines and temples which were very pretty. The Fall leaves were still on the trees, so it was gorgeous.
All in all, we had a great time there and packed our days full of fun. Alex was such a good traveler the whole time. A couple of times, I think he was a bit overwhelmed with the sheer number of people around him, especially at the train station in Harajuku, but it was nothing a big hug couldn't fix.
Arigato to the people of Tokyo for such a wonderful visit. We will definitely be back to Japan. Hopefully next time we can check out Kyoto, and perhaps the mountains, to ski and snowboard.
Sorry that there are not any pics in this post (update 12/10 with photos). I just realized that the computer that I am posting on does not have a card reader, so I will have to post pics later. Just wanted to send a quick update. We are in Hong Kong now and will be here until next Tuesday.
Alex (a.k.a. Special Agent Genki Kawaii)was a trooper on the plane, and we luckily were granted the bulkhead row, all to ourselves, so we put out a blanket on the floor and there was enough room that we could all sit down and play. It was a nice new plane, with lots of space, which was great. Alex was quite a hit in Japan, right from the start on the Japan Airlines flight. The cabin attendants loved him and kept coming over to play with him, bring him toys and offer him treats. His Special Agent name came from a couple of sources....the diapers which they gave us on the plane had a brand name of Genki, which we thought was a cool name, and then Kawaii is the Japanese word for "cute" which we heard over and over, as people walked by him. The Japanese people are so nice, helpful and polite. We enjoyed our stay, indeed.
We visited the Tsukiji fish market, which is massive. There are fish and seafood products everywhere! It is quite amazing, seeing huge tuna being cut up. There are little forklifts whizzing around everywhere and activity was quite frenzied. Definitely a lot of things for Alex to track. We had a nice sushi breakfast there in a little restaurant afterwards. We did alot of walking around the city and used their train systems which were fantastic---very well organized, clean and easy to navigate. The Imperial Palace was another sight to see, as well as the Meiji shrine, Harajuku, which was an edgy shopping district, Ginza, a really upscale area, and then a small suburb, Yanaka, which had a few more shrines and temples which were very pretty. The Fall leaves were still on the trees, so it was gorgeous.
All in all, we had a great time there and packed our days full of fun. Alex was such a good traveler the whole time. A couple of times, I think he was a bit overwhelmed with the sheer number of people around him, especially at the train station in Harajuku, but it was nothing a big hug couldn't fix.
Arigato to the people of Tokyo for such a wonderful visit. We will definitely be back to Japan. Hopefully next time we can check out Kyoto, and perhaps the mountains, to ski and snowboard.
Sorry that there are not any pics in this post (update 12/10 with photos). I just realized that the computer that I am posting on does not have a card reader, so I will have to post pics later. Just wanted to send a quick update. We are in Hong Kong now and will be here until next Tuesday.
