Home again

 I got home close to midnight last night.  My friend Mimi picked me up at the airport. The flight was about an hour late leaving since they had to wait for the flight attendants to arrive from an international flight....not good planning!

Alan accompanied me to the airport via subway and monorail. There's no way I could have navigated all that by myself!

Griffin wants to be a musician, too!

View of Rainbow Bridge from the Monorail

Highrise apartments along the route to the airport

I used the spare yen from my transit card to buy milk tea
from the vending machine at the airport.

They took us from the gate to the airplane on busses and we walked up from the tarmac.

The Dallas airport is huge and has a tram that goes between buildings.

Last day!

 Since this is my last day here, we all went to take the boys to school, so I could say goodbye to them. Taking a fast hike of almost a mile before breakfast is a challenge for me!  This is "culture day", which in Japan is a holiday. At the British School, the children wear costumes from their culture, rather than their uniforms. We were allowed to go up to Kent's classroom since they had asked Alan to come take photos of each child.

On the way back to the apartment from school, we stopped by Starbucks for breakfast. I've never been to a Starbucks before since I don't like coffee, but I found out how good an Earl Grey latte is!

Class photo in costumes

Amazing fabric collage on the wall at the entrance of the school

Enclosed outdoor gym at the school

Interesting street

This is a huge intersection where we have a long wait for a light.

Wall of ivy

Good breakfast!

Quiet Thursday

We didn't have any outings scheduled, so mostly stayed at the apartment, and Alan answered some computer questions for me. We walked to Midtown, which is the huge, multi-level shopping mall near here to pick up something for dinner.

Griffin can crawl really fast! He loves to take the cover off the outlet on the wall, 

so every time we walk by, it's on the floor!

Julian practices after his bath.

Kent is learning touch-typing. His computer program shows him
where to rest his fingers and which one to move when he types something.

Then, it shows a game where he's supposed to type the letter that's in the balloon.

Griffin is learning to eat solids!  He loves lots of things!

Daiso! (Japanese 100-yen store)

After Yuka walked Kent and Julian to school, we took the subway to the Shibuya area so I could shop at the largest Daiso, which is Japan's version of a Dollar Tree on steroids! Most items cost 100 yen, which right now equals 66 cents, and their stuff is pretty good quality, so I love this store! They have all sorts of fun little kitchen, bath, and storage nick knacks. Shibuya is where there's the huge intersection that has masses of pedestrians cross in every direction when all the traffic lights turn red. They also have a fancy grocery store and several high-end bakeries next to the intersection.

The subways here are a complex system of trains running in every direction with thousands of passengers hurrying everywhere. There are LOTS of stairs and corridors, and I had no idea where we were! Alan had put money my account on my watch, so when I went through an entrance or exit, I could just touch my watch to the reader and it would open for me. Pretty cool!

We picked up some lunch, and came back to the apartment to eat. After school, Kent and Julian both had a piano lesson with a teacher who comes here. Kent is learning some piano, but mostly music theory.

This is an art museum that's across the street from their apartment,
and the train station entrance is below it.

Deciding which train to take.

Buildings at the Shibuya intersection

Fancy pastries

Entrance to Daiso store

Dried fish

Tiny dried shrimp and tinier dried shrimp! 

 

At the train station

Train arriving 

Back at the museum

Halloween in Tokyo

 I got up earlier today since Kent wanted me to walk with him to school. It's a .9 mile hike along the city streets, and Yuka does it twice every day! We stopped at Starbucks for breakfast on our way back, and I got my first-ever order from Starbucks!....not coffee, of course.  The Earl Gray latte was amazing!

Today was Halloween, which has been picked up to some extent by the Japanese. The kids love to dress up, of course. Alan's boys are in a British School, which allowed them to dress up last Friday, but not today. Both were Harry Potter characters since Kent has read all the books and is obsessed with the story. There are some Halloween decorations around town, and a few residences have them. Tokyo does not have a lot of single-family homes, so there are not many places to go to Trick or Treat. There is one wealthy section that sets up candy stations at their homes, and mobs of parents and kids go there for candy. I guess it's mostly foreigners, and Alan's family saw several people they know.

Outside of the school

Main entrance to school

Julian changing to his "inside" shoes.

Saying goodbye at the classroom entrance.

Buildings near the school

Sunset from their apartment.
Too bad there's a big tower pole in the way!

Halloween decorations

Waiting to cross the street

Touring the city

Yuka walked Kent and Julian to school as usual this morning, and they left before I got up!  They walk about ¾ mile, with Griffin in his stroller. Hope I can get up early enough in the morning to go with them!

After breakfast, the rest of us walked to the train station (subway) and went to the local government district, where Yuka picked up her updated passport and Griffin's first one. This is also near a major camera store where Alan traded in his camera for an upgraded model. The streets there look very traditionally Asian. We also shopped at a "100 yen store"... similar to our Dollar Tree, and then we ate lunch at a pasta shop, where Alan and Yuka ate when they were dating.

Modern office buildings

Griffin gets a ride

There were two sections like this of watches.

Lots of high-end cameras

Alan looking at the camera model he bought

"Cocoon" tower in the distance

Of course, McDonalds is everywhere!

Building in the distance with a weird top

Closer look at the Cocoon Tower. It's an educational facility.

Traditional street band. They were promoting something.

Took me a while to figure out how to flush the toilet!

Subway platform. The trains are LONG!

There's a 7-Eleven on almost every corner! They have just about everything you need!