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