Kamakura-Round 2

Sunday we headed out for our last big adventure while here in Japan (well at least with all of us here in Japan--Hans has one more month).  In true Tolf fashion we got off to a late start after waiting for Claire's morning nap.  We first stopped at a little restaurant we had heard about from our friends to have some Yakosoba.  At this restaurant your table has a grill in the middle of the table and you cook up your own food with a little direction from the waiter.  In true Japanese style we sat on the floor on mats which I think is fun and was glad that Hans and mom got to experience it ( I had done it for lunch one other time).  

Here we are headed in...watch your head!
It was a little challenging to keep Claire entertained at a table that she wanted to crawl up on that was mostly a big hot griddle and had lots of other things around that she wasn't suppose to get into either.

Our first dish...shrimp yakosoba.
Waiting in anticipation.

Next we headed over to the big Buddha.  The last time we had gone here Olivia was sleeping so it was fun to get some more pictures with Buddha with Olivia awake and Claire in a pretty good mood.  We also went inside this time which was fun.  There were a lot more people out this weekend than when we went in January, must be that we are getting better weather and getting into cherry blossom season.  A lot of people were taking pictures of the first cherry blossoms that are starting to show.


Hey silly Claire, don't put your hand in front of the camera.

Inside the big Buddha looking up at the head.
Silly Olivia...she really liked going inside and wanted to go in again.
The walls felt warm to the touch which was strange.  It must absorb the heat from the sun.
Peekaboo Olivia!
Peekaboo Claire!
The trees here are really starting to be beautiful.
Eating a big rice cracker.  A little later we had Italian gelato and we liked that a lot better.
We were going to go to the Hasadera Temple to see all the beautiful gardens and temples, but unfortunately since we got off to a late start and took awhile to eat we got to the temple about 10 minutes after it closed.  We were really bummed.  Here is a picture of the cherry tree from outside the gate.  
I love to drink English tea with milk and so I had to try the milk tea from the vending machine as we walked down to the beach.  I am still amazed that a hot drink can come out of a vending machine.  It was really good; too bad I finally ventured to try it on my second to last day here.
Hans down at the beach.
My mom, me and Olivia.
My girls.  It was really cold and so we headed back as we were all tired and ready to be home.

  On the way back home we saw this couple walking in front of us getting off the train.  I had to snap a picture.  It is a little blurry but you get the idea.  His blue underwear were hanging out of the ugliest pants I have ever seen on a man with the white pointy toe boots topping it off.  And the hair; well the hair was just long and ugly.  Yes the one on the right is the man.

Baby Workout

Here are a couple videos of Claire doing her work out here in the apartment.  We usually leave the stroller out behind the couch and she loves to load it up with shoes or anything she can find and then we put one brake on so she can go in circles and not run into anything.  She gets really mad if she runs into things.  She often goes round and round and round for quite awhile.  It is quite entertaining for us and her.  When I was trying to catch the videos though she kept seeing me with the camera and coming over to see what I was doing.  She is also quite the talker and jabberer.  I tried to get some of that on tape as well but again she saw me.  I will have to try again another day.

Steak Night at the Officers Club

Saturday after our day at home we headed into base and the Officer's Club for all you can eat prime rib.  As always we were running late but since we met up with the guys from 2340 they had already gotten us a table.  I was glad because when we first arrived the people standing in front of us were talking to the hostess and she told them that they weren't seating walk-ins till 7:30 (it was a little after 6:30) because they wanted to have enough tables for those people that had tickets for the fashion show.  But we just walked right in.  The food was awesome and it was fun for me to get to see all the guys once more before we leave.  Hans works with a great group of guys.  As a bonus we had a fashion show to watch after we finished eating.  Since there was music playing Olivia wanted to dance.  For some reason anytime she hears music she wants to dance.  So we did some dancing even though no one else was.  Here are some pictures from our fun evening.

The guys from 2340.
Daddy and Livy.  You can see the yummy prime rib in the background.
Olivia took this picture and did a great job.
Olivia doing some dancing.

Here is a short video of the girls having fun dancing.  This is my first attempt at using iMovie on our lap top.  I added the music because you couldn't hear the music in the background.  Sorry for the echo in the last part, I don't know how I managed to make it like that.

Tadpoles

On Saturday, we decided to stay around the apartment, because we were all worn out from all the outings we made all week.  That is the one thing about here it is not like at home where you can go shopping for an hour or two and then be home, when we went to the mall it was a half a day trip with travel to and from.  Anyways it was nice to just stay at home and rest a little.  I remembered that Hidoku at told me that there were tadpoles near by in a little pond so we decided to go find them.  Well it wasn't really a pond more like backed up drain water but I was amazed by how many tadpoles there were.  Olivia loved them and it was a great learning experience for her.  She can't wait to take her daddy to see them probably when we are packing on Monday.  After the tadpoles we went to the grocery store and 100 yen store to get a few things.  It was a nice afternoon.

little tadpoles.
they were everywhere


Some more pretty flowers.  I am so excited for spring and really for summer although I know I will still have a long wait when we get back to Montana and Washington.  I just want to get back and it to be summer. ARG!
This photo is in a little pavilion right by the school and the little pond.  I thought the arial view of the area we live in was pretty cool. It shows how many hills are here.

CoCo Curry

Since we have been here I must admit we have not eaten too much of the local food.  One because we live far away from downtown Yokosuka so getting there to eat is a pain and eating out with children isn't always the best experience, plus Hans and I just haven't been too daring.  We do eat out when we are out for the day sometimes, but often we just get snacks and we eat lunch before we leave and are home for dinner.  This also saves on the money side as well.  But Hans had been hearing great things at work about CoCo Curry so we went last night to try it out.  I must say I really liked it.  From the pictures it doesn't look that great but it really does taste much better than it looks.  We got the spicy level pretty low and really enjoyed it.  We got a kids plate for Claire and Olivia and Claire absolutely loved the curry and rice.  She ate the whole thing while Olivia ate the fried chicken and hot dog.  Olivia tried the rice and curry as well and didn't complain but liked the other better.  Here are a few pictures of the menu outside and Claire and Olivia eating.

Claire was a mess but she loved it.
Olivia and her little kids platter.
Mmmm...isn't there anymore?
The girls this morning just chilling.

Before we went out for curry we met my friend Tonia and her little boy Vann on base at Starbucks.  Claire was so funny this time because she just loved Vann (almost 2).  She was following him around and kissing on him and holding his hand.  I hope this is not an indicator of what she will be like as a teenager or we are in trouble!  Hopefully she just like that he was more her size than Olivia :)

Fun Weekend in Tokyo

Friday morning I was able to score us some last minute reservations at The New Sanno Hotel in Tokyo.  This hotel is a DoD hotel for military and govt. workers in Japan on orders.  The hotel is awesome and really inexpensive which is great.  We had been looking at other hotels online in Tokyo and most of them run 200 to 300 dollars for one room that may or may not fit all 4 of us in it and we needed an extra room for my mom so we were totally psyched.  Our first weekend here we had eaten the Sunday brunch at The New Sanno so we knew how good that was as well and we made reservations for brunch.

On Sunday, we got ready and out the door around 9:30 am headed for the New Sanno and brunch.  It took us a little over 2 hours to travel up there with 2 kids, luggage, and riding a bus, 2 trains and then the subway it is a little challenging to get up there, but we didn't get lost and made it there in time for our reservation.  The brunch was just as good as we remembered and we were glad that we made it.  After that we checked into our room and were able to get into one of the rooms an hour early.  After looking outside at the rain and wind we decided to just take it easy and let the kids play in the pool instead of trying to find something to see in the cold.

Hans teaching Olivia to back float.  Olivia has always loved the water and was so excited to get in the pool.  As soon as we got into the hotel room she walked in and said, "First I have to go pee and then get my swim suit on for swimming!"  She came out of the bathroom with no clothes on looking for her suit.  

They had a great kiddy pool here that was only 1.5 feet deep and Olivia was able to walk around on her hands in there and was having fun learning about swimming.
Claire playing with dad in the hot tub.
After swimming Claire took a nap while my mom and I did some shopping with Olivia in the little shops there in the hotel.  It was nice to have the shops right there.

That night after dinner we got Olivia asleep about 8 (she hadn't been getting enough sleep and was super cranky about everything).  Claire was still up so Hans and I decided to take her and go see the Tokyo tower.  It was originally built as a radio tower, but looks really neat at night all lit up.  It is taller than the Eiffel Tower and we had fun going to check it out.
Romance was in the air :)


Tokyo is the largest city in the world and it is amazing.  There are large buildings and skyscrapers everywhere.  Very cool to see at night.
Claire was having fun even though she was tired.



When we got back Claire was so funny.  I happened to open this drawer and she had fun putting all the shoes she could find in it.  She was so concentrated at her work it was funny to watch.  I was amazed she could walk and hold onto my big heavy boots so well.  Of course I couldn't find half our shoes the next morning because they were all in the drawer.

This picture is looking out our hotel window.  You will find these really narrow buildings all over Japan.  The architecture is very interesting.
Good morning Claire!
Good morning Olivia!
After a small breakfast we headed back to the pool one last time before heading out sight seeing for the day.  We had fun being a family and playing.
The two places we saw on Monday were the Imperial Palace and we went to Ginza a high end shopping district.  The Imperial Palace is home to the Japanese Emperor and his family, the world's longest unbroken line of monarchs.  The 280 acre expanse was chosen in 1590 to be the new headquarters by Ieyasu Tokugawa.  His purpose was to create an unassailable stronghold, a military capital that would reflect his own position as Japan's de facto ruler.  He had a complex system of moats and canals built to form a web that would entrap or at least delay the enemy.  The castle was finished in 1640 and at that time it was the largest fort in the world with 110 entry gates, 30 bridges, 21 watchtowers and 28 armouries.  The inner courts of the castle are only open 2 days out of the year (January 2nd and December 23rd).  Unfortunately, the Imperial Palace East Garden is closed on Mondays and Fridays so we were also unable to see that, but we still had fun seeing what we could.
One of the large moats.
Olivia looking out at anther moat.






It is so interesting to see the old with the new.

This was the statue of Kusunoki Masashige.



All over Tokyo and Yokosuka they have been planting flowers like crazy.  It is starting to look very beautiful here.  I am bummed I won't be here for all the pretty blooms this spring.



The bushes are very close to blooming.  There were a few blooms out, but not like I know it will be in a few weeks.  Very gorgeous.

This is the Tokyo train station.  It has 3,000 trains come through every day.  From here we made our way to the Ginza shopping district.  In Ginza we had fun window shopping and did walk through a few of the shops looking at all the expensive price tags.
A hello kitty flower bouquet.

We ate some lunch at an Italian restaurant and then decided to head back so that we could semi beat the rush hour and get home before the kids were in melt down phase and ready for bed.  The train rides home are always a little trying especially when the train is packed and your baby is screaming wanting to nurse.  Fortunately the people are very nice and a nice older woman let me have her seat so that I could nurse Claire.  A few close calls with Olivia almost gave me a heart attack.  First she tried to go on an escalator by herself but tried to go up the down and fell.  Then on the subway she really likes to do things herself and she will hold onto the handle bar in the train and try to jump the gap between the train and the platform.  Usually it is small enough that she can make it, but we still are constantly insisting that she hold our hands to get off the train, but since most of the time she can make it she is very stubborn and doesn't want to.  This time the gap was way to big for her and she went to get across and luckily I was standing there and grabbed her hand as she almost fell between the train and platform.  A little scary and from then on she did better at holding someone's hand.