Tokyo

Hello all - so sorry about not posting lately - life has been busy. I can hardly believe our time in Tokyo is almost over - we leave in just two short days for Kyoto. We have had many great adventures - so I will slowly start to share them all with you may take a couple of days to catch up - so bear with me.

Yesterday we stayed fairly close to home and explored a science museum - National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation. It was really cool - they had exhibits on space aliens, nanotechnology, robots, genomes, and all things futuristic. We decided to have a quick bite in the cafe - and there was a poster next to our table - the world according to a Houstonian - we were quite amused. Jeremy was quite impressed with the aliens exhibit and decided to stay and explore the museum until it closed, while Ashley and I were a bit restless. We decided to leave him there and walk to a building called "Venus Fort". This was an indoor shopping arena designed to look lie an Italian piazza or plaza. It even had a ceiling painted lie a sky with clouds that changed throughout the day to show sunset, stars, etc. There were many very expensive shops, but most intriguing were the pet shops on the bottom floor. They had everything for your dog or cat. It is very trendy in Tokyo to have a pet - but the pets are often catered to more than their own children. For example, we have come across many who stroll along with their treasured friends in specially designed strollers. These we noted at the shops are priced well above $200. I guess it is cheap compared to the cost of the animals which run from 3-4,000. If you are not sure a small dog is your thing, a kitten is much cheaper at around 2,500. - Dollars - not yen :)

These stores have photo studios where you dress up your pooch and take his picture - and can put it on a pillow or handbag for an additional $200. You can order a birthday cake at the bakery for about $60 made by hand for any celebration - just don't forget the custom printed invitations with a dog treat attached for all of his friends. Rows and rows of out fits and handmade doggie sweets and treats are also for sale. The average outfit only runs about $80 and would fit a small dog only. The larger dogs need theirs custom ordered and tailored.

Once we past this extravaganza, we made our way to the family center. Ashley eagerly ran to the "jumpzone" and signed up. That child has no fear! She jumped as high as 100 feet I think. After that, we snacked on a crepe - wrapped like an ice cream cone stuffed with our choice of fruit. Fruit is slightly hard to come by here - so for about $4 you get two strawberries - cut in half for your strawberry crepe. Ash had 4 sliced of canned peach on hers. They were yummy though!

We then wandered into the Toyota showroom where we oogled at the newest designs. Some amazing stuff to look forward to! There were more than 150 models to peruse. Ashley tried many out. We signed both the kids up for a ride on the kids hybrid track for later and then went to find Jeremy. On the way back through the shops - we passed a Lego store and realized that Jeremy had missed some special treats. We were sad but knew he would still be happy he had all that time in the science museum.

We walked back and went into a room with couches that you could lie on so you could watch this constantly changing Earth. It was made of little tiny screens and was updated every hour by satellites. It was run by one of the largest supercomputers in the world. It shows in real time the land temperatures, air currents, water currents and temperatures, cloud movements, among other things. It was truly beautiful and amazing. Ashley and I lay there for about 30 minutes totally mesmerized and then Jeremy walked in. We were delighted to see him. He described the many treasures he had discovered and told us about the snack he had found in the cafe - some kind of delicious vegetable soup.

We all decided to head back to the Venus Fort because it was there that housed a large Ferris Wheel - in 1999 it was the largest in the world - 115 meters. We knew we would have to ride it - all 16 minutes of the terrible heights of it.

We arrived in this bizarre shopping mall and decided to have dinner. We found a place that served Tepinyaki - some kind of egg pizza thing on tofu with octopus shavings. We opted for a sampling of appetizers - bacon and cream cheese spring rolls, potatoes with corn and cheese, Chinese steamed dumplings, and something else I am still not sure what it was. We were seated across the table from another family who showed us ho to turn our chopsticks wrapper into an origami chopstick holder. It was lovely.

After dinner we had to rush out to keep our appointment at Toyota - Jeremy and Ashley both got to drive human powered cars. They had to stomp on these pedals to charge a battery which then operated a car. It was fun. Then Jeremy tried out the Jumpzone, then on to the Ferris Wheel. Pictures should be attached.

We at this point were quite exhausted and still had to do a lot of walking and subway riding. We made our way back home - only to realize we only have two more days in this amazing city and then we would have to adjust to a whole new world. We are just beginning to discover all of its secrets and to come into harmony with its rhythm. We will miss Tokyo very much. I mean - where else can you leave a 10 year old alone for three hours while you explore? It is so amazingly safe here - it is not something that can explain in words - but it is really special and attests to the greatness of the people here. Utopia may not exist, but they have mastered human decency here.