Freezin' in Wisconsin

We are back home, and man, this repatriation stuff is hard. 

Well, okay, stopping in Hawaii on the way home was really nice.  The jetlag was quite manageable, actually.  Oahu's weather is about 80 degrees and breezy all the time.  That doesn't make for good swimming weather, though.  It was freezing getting out of the pool.  Of course, the kids wanted to go swimming all the time. 

We stayed on the North Shore of Oahu, which is as far away from Waikiki as you can get, in terms of distance and feel.  It was so great being up there.  That being said, I saw how poor many Hawaiians are.  :(  The tourists are the ones with money.

We did some cool things in our few days there.  We went to the Dole Pineapple Plantation:

We went to Pearl Harbor.  I had a really interesting chat with one of the park rangers while we were there.  I told him I had been to Hiroshima and saw the Peace Memorial there.  I am a well rounded WWII site visitor!

The kids did some pony rides and became a cowgirl and cowboy:

We went to the Polynesian Cultural Center.  I actually remember going there with my parents back in 1980.  Boy, I feel old.  In this picture, we're showing off our tattoos.

We also ate from one of the many "shrimp trucks" on the north shore.  One of our neighbors in Tokyo assured us that these shrimp trucks (even though they look shady) are quite good.

Finally, here is a picture of Gracie that is too cute not to share.  She often puts her lovey, Miss Pinky, on top of her head while we are driving.

One cool thing is that we met this really great family while we were at our hotel.  I just struck up a conversation with the mom, and it turns out our families have a lot in common.  Loretta's dad is from the south side of Chicago (like my parents).  She used to work for the Mint (and I worked for the Fed).  Brad is a graduate of West Point.  Loretta and Brad met in grad school (just like Christian and me).  Anyway, really nice and fun family.  They are stationed in Hawaii; he is still in the army.  We are exchanging Christmas cards!

After a few days in Hawaii, we headed back to the cold Midwest.  Fortunately, our first few days were spent with Christian's family for Thanksgiving.  Then reality hit.  Christian had to go to work for a little bit, and I had no routine for the kids.  Worse yet, the kids were used to being outside A LOT.  The weather was so mild in Tokyo that they played outside every day.  The Walters family has some serious cabin fever.  I need a job.

Oh, and I'm missing Tokyo more than I thought I would.  Japan, quite simply, grew on me.  I miss the people.  I miss the cleanliness.  I miss the excellent customer service.  I miss not worrying that my things will get stolen if I leave them outside.  I miss the food.  I have a craving for seafood.  Strange, huh?  Yeah, I miss fish, big time.

I ordered a pizza from Papa John's one night, and it was 70 (that's SEVENTY) minutes late.  That would never happen in Tokyo.  I kid you not.

More updates coming.

The End is Here

Tonight is our last night in our apartment.  Tomorrow night, we'll be in a hotel.  Then we're off to Hawaii for a few nights.  And finally, we are going to be home.  I have mixed feelings, for sure.  I've said good-bye to a lot of people here, and I feel sick to my stomach every time I do so.

Our computer is being packed up for the air shipment, so I probably won't be able to post for 2 weeks.

I'll write more later (as a summary of our experiences in Tokyo).

I wanted to share a few photos of Tokyo residents who have really made our lives easy and fun.

This is my chiropractor, Dr. Kaz, and his daughter, Ai.  Their office is right near our apartment.  I walk past their and wave at them every day.  Dr. Kaz said something so sweet to me tonight.  He said that seeing me walk around (confidently) after the earthquake made him feel a lot better about the safety of Japan.

This is Steve, my personal trainer. Christian is also taking a "boot camp" class with him.  Steve is 60 but seems like he's 40.  He has been kicking my @$$ once a week.  My muscles dislike him.

This is the manager of the Rainbow Cafe at the Tokyo American Club.  He has been so great to our family.  (although in this photo, Joseph doesn't seem too happy with him!)

This is Mika.  She cuts Joseph and Christian's hair.

This is Kay (Kaori), my massage therapist.  My back is going to miss her.  She really is the best massage therapist I've ever had.

This is a couple that runs the "Giraffe House," a takeaway curry place.  I go here once a week.

These are friends of mine: Maya and Kazuko.  We are having one last lunch - an unagi (eel) lunch.

There are many, many more people I need to include on this blog posting.  However, I always forget to take my camera with me!

See you in the US!

Joseph's 4th birthday

Joseph's birthday is this Friday, but we've already had a few celebrations.  We had a birthday party at our home for a bunch of kids.  It was a bit larger than I thought it would be, but I wanted to invite all the neighborhood kids.  It was a lot of fun.  (I hope others thought so, too)  I hired this guy named Kei who read stories and played the ukelele.  He was a very animated guy.

Here's Joseph opening up his loot:

There was also a party at school:

I can't believe he's going to be 4!!

My first experience with a rude/scary Japanese guy

With Christian on a very long business trip, I treated myself to my last massage in Japan.  I go to this woman named Kay (Kaori), and she is incredible.

Anyway, while I was laying on the massage table being treated, some man knocked on her office door.  He then opened the door (she forgot to lock it), and he said (in English), "may I come in?"  Kay then ran out toward the door, and I could tell that this was not like the usual cordial conversations I hear out and about.

Kay finally got him to leave, and then she told me what happened.  She told him (now they had a Japanese conversation) that she was with a client and could not talk with him.  He then responded, "you are so rude; I am not going to hit you."  WTF???  Kay then told him to leave.  She thought he was a salesman.  I asked her if he was drunk. She didn't think so.

It was just bizarre.

Oh, I forgot to mention a few weeks back that a homeless guy started to chase Christian and Joseph while they were on a run.  This guy was swinging a stick at them.

This was bizarre, too.

Nikko

Last week I took the train by myself to a town called Nikko.  It's a 2 hour train ride from Tokyo.  This town is known for World Heritage designated shrines and temples.  Let me tell you that shrines are used in Shintoism and temples in Buddhism.  Autumn in Nikko is supposed to be gorgeous.

This town did not disappoint.  I will dump a lot of photos on you and try to explain what you will see.

First of all, I had to catch this express train from the Asakusa station.  Right outside of the station is this strange thing.  It's almost like seeing the "Magikist" lips off the highway in Chicago. It's supposedly called the "golden flame."

So I arrive in Nikko, and it has just started to sprinkle.  Rather than be a soaking wet miserable person, I bought an umbrella at the convenience store.  Of course, after I used the umbrella for 5 minutes, it became sunny for the rest of the day.  My investment of 500 yen toward sunshine was worth it!


Here are the sights:

The sacred bridge.

On the way up to the shrine/temple area.

A huge pagoda.

A monk ringing this huge bell.

The first big temple.  I've already forgotten the name!

It was a gorgeous fall day.

This is part of the big shrine area.  Just beautiful.

Water was flowing everywhere.  Of course, in Japan, this water is clean.  If I needed to, I'd have no problem drinking this water in the gutter!  Honest to God.

A stairway to some more temples/shrines.

I missed seeing these colors in Wisconsin!

This is a scary snake guy.  I don't remember what his significance is.

More beautiful architecture.

This is something like a "wishing well."  You write your wishes/prayers on a piece of a paper, and they're offered up in prayer.  Or something like that.

I decided to go on this 3 mile walk to see some different sights. This was some monument to poets, I think.  The red bib and hats have something to do with Buddhism.  

A beautiful little river.

This is something I won't miss about Japan.  Coming across signs where I have no freakin' idea what they say!!

More poets.

This poet is having a bad day (or a bad life).

Even though I can't read this sign, I can only guess it means "watch out for monkeys!"  Fortunately, I did not see any.  

After I managed to avoid the monkeys, I headed back to the train station.  Near the station was this food vendor with a really long line.  I checked it out and found they were selling salty fried tofu covering some sweet bean paste.  It was amazing!  Worth the wait.

The End is Near....

We are leaving Japan in one week!  I hope you all knew this.  We have been planning a fall departure, and now it's come up so suddenly.  I'm trying to cram everything in before we leave.  This includes seeing some more sights, going shopping, and meeting up with friends one last time.  We have very mixed feelings about leaving.  It'll be nice to return home and see family and friends (and our house!).  However, we've met some great friends here, and Tokyo is, well, exciting.  One of my friends saw Brad Pitt yesterday.  That sort of thing does not happen in Milwaukee.

So I'll try to blog as much as I can before we leave.

I'm considering updating the blog once in a while after we get back to the US.  But that may be boring for you.  :)

Halloween

Everyone, meet my favorite policeman and strawberry:

There will be a party at school tomorrow, and then the madness begins on our street.

On Saturday, we had a block party, and the kids dressed up in their costumes.  It was so much fun to see everyone!