Oct 23 - last supper

:(

Oct 23 - signing off

Hasunuma was a great way to conclude this trip - laid back and with family.

This is the last travel day and Savannah is still trying to wrap her head around arriving SFO before we even took off.

I have been to many of the Japanes sites and cities before, however, my adventure was hanging out with Savannah for 12 days and sharing her experiences.  I have learned a lot and I hope the memories will remain for a long time.

Thank you all for following (looking at the stats, there is surprisingly a large audience) and feel free to post your comments as this blog will be used for a school project for Savannah.

Oct 22

Today we went to Hajime's parents restaurant with Taiga. We met with Hajime's sister,then we went to a shrine. After that we went to go pick up Ai, she's 5 years old. After we picked her up we went to the pacific ocean (but not on a boat). Then we went back to the house and hung out for awhile then Michyo and Ai went back to the restaurant. At 5 we walked over to a restaurant to meet Hajime. After we had dinner Michyo met up with us at the restaurant and we all walked back. When we got back we blew up a couple of paper balls and hit them around for a bit. After that we played Just Dance 4.

Oct 22 - Hasunuma

Today was a much needed sleep in day with a quiet morning in my cousin family's house ( everyone was working ).

Went to the Kawashima family restaurant for an amazing lunch and Savannah liked the special chicken liver dish - even after I told her what it was.  Did a short local tour with Hajime's sister, Michiyo and her little one, Ai.  Checked out the ocean which was starting to wake up with the coming typhoon - to hit just after we depart.

There were no bugs in the cities at all but in the country side, the spiders are huge - below is average and the size of my palm.

Finished with another spectacular dinner at a local restaurant and met some of the locals. 

Oct 21 - skytree

Cool pic from Disney Sea - can see Cinderella's castle which is in the adjacent property and Skytree which is 15 kilometers away and still taller.

Oct 21

Today we went to the Disney sea resort. It was full of awesome rides. My 2 favorite rides were Tower of Terror and Indiana Jones Curse of the Crystal Skull. Tower of Terror was a free falling ride through pitch black. Indiana Jones was a ride in a vehicle through a cave. Before all this we had to get on the subway which was filled with people, and we had our backpacks which were huge. The drive to Hajimaes was about 2 hours and I slept most of the way.

Oct 21 - disney sea

Off to start the final chapter to a rural area along the coast line to a quiet town called Hasunuma; but first we will hit Disney Sea.

This was an amazing park for its attention to detail and beer prices ;)

Had fun battling the line ups for the rides and enjoyed the company of my cousin Hajime and his son Taiga.

Oct 20

Today we went to the Tokyo sky tree, we went to the 340 floor. It is the biggest tower in the world. After that we went to Kingyu sukui which is a restaurant with gold fish scooping in the back of the store, I caught 2 big fish and about 6 little fish. After that we headed back to the hotel and waited for mikes cousin Hajime and his son Taiga. We went to a skewer restaurant and an odd vending machine restaurant that gave you your ticket that had your food name on it and when you went into the restaurant you exchange the ticket for your meal.

Oct 20 - tokyo is big

Tried to lay low today with a meager two stops but took all day to make the trip.

- Kingyu Sukui or gold fish scooping is a game generally performed during summer festivals so was quite hard to find at this time of year.  However, Miki saved the day again and was pointed towards north Toyko to a tea house that offers the game. 

- next was Tokyo Skytree (new version Tokyo Tower) - was a little cloudy to fully appreciate the view however, the tallest structure in the world was quite impressive.  It starts out as a triangle at the bottom and ends up a circle at the top.

- two stops but took 4 lines and 10 trains to make the trip (albeit different parts of town) - goes to show how much area we are working with and the train complexity (at least for me) - met my cousin Hajime later for dinner and hit a skewer house.

Oct 19

Today we met with another of mikes friend's and her son. Before that we went to a kimono store and I bought a summer yukata. When we met Miki we went to the teenage shopping district, then we went to a manga store and I finally found three manga books in English. After we parted ways me and Mike went to a Japanese fry house.

Oct 19 - apples don't fall far

Today was shopping/fashion day in Shibuya and Harakuju and wow - I have never seen so much pink, so many teenagers and make-up and the variety of merchandise being up-sold all in one place.

We searched high and low for English manga in the depths of Tokyo but only with the help of a friend, Miki, we were able to find a few books for Savannah.  Interesting where pop-culture in one of the largest cities in the world can lead you.

Hit the alleyways for dinner and Savannah found this cool hibachi-style steak house that was more of a locals joint.  Dinner was awesome and the best part was not having to be somewhere or distracted from the moment (why do you have to take a vacation to reach this state?) and I noticed a few mannerism that resemble mom and I explained the expression, "apples don't fall far from the tree" thinking that it would take awhile to understand but Savannah got it right away.  She's much wiser beyond the surface.

Oct 18 - tokyo

Travel day - interesting the train ride back was only 3 hours vs. the 8 it took get there.

Was able to connect with a long time family friend Chieko and Taro for dinner; once the (chinese) pizza hit the table - look out, Savannah was sure happy to see a familiar food, had to order 2 :-)

Oct 17 - golden farewell

Another jammed day and the delegation crew is getting tired.
- Kinkaku-ji is famous for the golden wrap; it was amazing how many local school kids were there
- Uji botanical gardens was the stop for lunch - saw Kamloops street and where the former Mayor built totem poles based on the miniature versions he received as gifts because he like them so much
- ended with a welcome/farewell party with music, crafts and dinner

Oct 17

Today the delegation went to the Kinkaku-ji Temple, one of the shrines was painted gold and we also saw a crane. After that we went to the Uji botanical garden and saw tons of different types of flowers. Then we went to the tale of Genji museum to watch a short film about the tale of genji. After that we went to the international friendship club for a welcome ceremony. Me and Morgan got to dress-up in traditional Japanese kimonos, also known as a yukata. We also folded origami and watches drumming and a traditional Japanese dance.

Oct 16 - friendships

First full, full day of the delegation with more gifts, tours and remarkably thoughtful leaders.

We toured both an elementary school and our sister university; I was quite impressed with the grade 4 class as they were very interactive and had to speak English.  The university leaders were charismatic and easy to listen to (translators spoke almost perfect English) but the students were painfully shy.  Both schools spoke about the importance of friendships for sustainable futures.

Had a chance to chat with delegation members and they all have very different motives and reasons for being here.  The benefits of sister city relations are to increase economic, educational and cultural ties and certainly lesser of the former which begs the question is it worth taxpayer dollars to continue (the relationship has cost Kamloops 225k over the 23 years) but the responses I got is sometimes you need to do things because its the right thing to do, in my mind, this means comraderie and/or tradition.

Highlight for sure was the family hosted dinner, was not sure at first as the grandfather seemed quite nervous and spoke no English but as the house filled with the grandmother and the grandkids we had a delightful time although leaning on my Japanese (or lack of) was interesting but we made it work.

Savannah is starting to be, well, Savannah ;) and has, without providing any rhyme or reason, started to call me Mike (used to be Pappi - Icelandic for Dad) - I like where this friendship is going.

Oct 16-family host dinner

Today we went to a family's place for a traditional Japanese dinner. Our hosts had 2 grandchildren, we learned a Japanese game sort of like spoons. We also learned a stick game called kendama, its when you have stick with three different sides and a ball attached. Before the dinner we went to an elementary school and the students taught us how to make origami. We also had a traditional Japanese tea ceremony. We also visited the Kyoto bunkyo university.