Japan and Japanese Friends

We have made it our mission to get out and see as much of Asia as our $$$ and time permits while we are here.  After the last trip to Cambodia , which was a slight fiasco, it was a good thing our trip to Japan was already booked or it's unlikely we would have gone.  Luckily, everything was set and the trip turned out great.  This time there were no delayed flights or interruptions and no one was ill.  Most importantly, our little world travelers were just that.  They gave us minimal amount of nagging.  Every once in a while Chris and I needed to reset our own expectations and remind ourselves that the girls are two and four - but that is not any different at home.

Sometimes a spot of Sake helped lower our expectations
for the girls at the nicer restaurants

No we didn't drink this much

What would an Asian vacation be without seeing and feeding monkeys?

The Japanese love Hello Kitty and so
do 2 little people I know

Indi is working on her smile

We spent 3 days in the big capital city of Tokyo and 2 and 1/2 in Kyoto which is more of a traditional Japanese setting.  If you don't know me that well, I must explain that when it comes to traveling, I am quite shallow.  Yes, I enjoy taking in a few temples and a museum or two.  However, just walking around the local neighborhoods, people watching, shopping, having a local beverage, and most importantly EATING are the things I like to do on vacation.  And eat did we!

For the record my favorite cuisine's, in no particular order, are Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, and my first true foreign love.............Japanese (especially Sushi).  Now I haven't had the pleasure of going to India or Vietnam (yet) but I have been to Thailand.  In Thailand it was always somewhat challenging to order and you never knew quite what you would get.  I had some of the best and some of the worst Thai food I have ever had.  Now in Japan, there was not a single meal that I didn't LOVE.  We even picked up a bento box (described on Wiki as "a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bento holds rice, fish or meat, with pickled or cooked vegetables, usually in a box-shaped container.") from a train station that was lovely -- no really!

Best airport, train, or bus station meal ever.  So fresh

Every single thing we ate was fresh, delicious, clean, &  easy to order.
One of our favorite things was ordering food from a vending machine.  You put your money in, select your food vending machine style, take your ticket, sit down and your food is delivered a few minutes later.

Vending machine to order our food

We may have eaten Sushi once or twice (or 12 times) while there

"They pop in my mouth daddy"

kaiten-zushi -- who doesn't love sushi on a conveyor belt? 

Tempura

My mouth waters just thinking about this dish.

Cuteness under the table 

Japanese seems to love their sweet things and so did Helaina

More Sushi

These 'cute' lil' dry fish were consumed by the
girls and Chris.  I wasn't feeling that adventurous

Nabe

Japan had some delicious fried chicken

I could go on and on about food forever.  However, I must tell you that there were so many other things I loved about Japan.  I really do love living in Shanghai but as you may have read there are some challenges that come along with living here.  Japan seemed to answer all the things that are the hardest for me in Shanghai.  Although, I feel physically safe living in Shanghai (despite it being a huge massive city), petty theft is a huge problem.  Pick pockets, scams, & people looking how to make a dollar at someone's else's expense is a big concern here.  In Japan, people operate on trust.  How refreshing it was to see people ride there bikes pull up to where they were going and leave their bikes outside.  NO LOCKS people.  I have never lived or even vacationed in a place like that!  Another Shanghai comparison was the overall cleanliness of everything!  Surprisingly enough there were very few trash cans.  Chris actually had to carry a poopy diaper around for several hours before finding one to deposit it in.  But despite the lack of trash receptacles, there was hardly any trash and things were kept neat and orderly.  I also did not witness one single nose picking, loogie hocking, or public expelling of #1 or #2!  This may sound normal to you but not if you have been to or lived in Shanghai, what a treat!   One of the best clean things....The potty's.  Even the public squat pots were cleaner than many toilets I have seen at friends houses in the US!   They all had running warm water, TP and soap (and many with baday for the adventurous). This was especially helpful since Indigo decided she was ready to full fledged potty train whilst on vacation.  She did a great job but apparently she has great taste in or "WC" AKA, 'dooble-veh-ceh' because she stalled out for a good few weeks after returning to Shanghai.  We are back on track as today was her first accident free day but that is for another blog.

Another thing I loved about Japan was people's willingness to help.  I lost count for the number of times that someone came up to us while we were looking at a map trying to find our way and offered unsolicited help.  One man even walked me 3 blocks to show me where I should go.  It was refreshing.  
Another standout was Japans conveniences.  There were so many cool gadgets that made sense.  My favorite just might be the outlet in the safe in our hotel.  You always need to charge your devices but want to keep them safe while in a hotel -- brilliant! 

Being fair to Shanghai, there were a couple things that did make my return somewhat less painful.  I tried to focus really hard on those things upon our return.   Getting to the airport was a challenge as both airports were a good distance from town.  Taxi's were quite expensive compared to Shanghai -- (however, can you put a price on safe driving and cabs that I might have felt comfortable eating off the floor of?)  The few times we did take a cab, we had to keep reminding ourselves not to open or close the doors as most were automatic.  Because of the high cost, we opted to take the Metro quite a bit.  Although you could get almost anywhere on it, it was quite complicated.  There are many different operators of the trains so getting from one point to another was a bit of work and LOTS of transferring.  Hardly any of the signs were in English but luckily there was always a willing local to answer questions in their perfect English.   Also we did notice that not many people took their small children out to restaurants at night.   This made some of 2 and 4 year old typical outburst a bit more uncomfortable then in Shanghai.

"Intimate" traditional Japanese dining.  The girls loved eating
sitting on the floor but also saw it as an invitation to run around.
We only got scolded once by the waiter.  Yes, we were those people. 

Completely staged but it was tempting.

All in all we had a wonderful time and we got a little wind in our sail to keep booking our loft vacations while we are here.  Although it's not Asia, I would like to take advantage of minimizing my travel time by half (from Florida), not having to change time zones for the kiddos and being able to check out Austrailia and New Zealand in October.  Nothing is booked as of yet but I am hopeful!

And speaking of Japan........
As I have said before, one of my favorite parts of living in Shanghai is the expat community.  We have the pleasure of having friends from all over the world and it is a blessing.   When I got home I was feeling "1st world sorry for myself" that I would no longer have access to the Japanese food that I ate.  Imagine my luck when I received an invitation by two lovely Japanese friends for lunch in one of their homes.  Ayako and Saori are friends in my mommy group with children ages similar to Indigo.  We along with some other friends were invited to a homemade feast.  Everything was delightful and the presentation was stunning.  It was so nice to share the food and conversation while my youngest played with kiddos from all over the world.  While I am eagerly awaiting my visit to US next month, these are the type of experiences that will make my return to Shanghai a bit easier in August.

What a spread

This picture alone reminds me of the value of the girls time in Shanghai

Ayako - one of the lovely hostess