Japanese surprise

I didn't think today had a lot of great things to share since we mainly shopped, but tonight we reluctantly left the hotel (we were tired and worn out) and stumbled on a great surprise. We needed dinner, but most of the places in the hotel, and there are like 10 of them, are very expensive. After getting some information from princess staff for tomorrow they provided a map with a ton of local food places. We decided upon a Japanese pub. 

I had no idea what a Japanese pub was, but I figured we should try. I do think a bit of my Midwestern meat eating self thought that maybe, just maybe it might be like a pub I know. I think that was my subconscious thought. Anywho, it was a wonderful experience! 

Starting we had to remove our shoes and place them in a box that we could lock and take the key. Then try led us to our table. Our table was at floor level with a cut out under it for you feet. So when you enter your individual room you get down on the floor and slide yourself in and under the table. The waitresses kneeled to get your order after you ring a bell to call them. It's really eat. 

We had tofu dumplings, rice, some fried chicken bits and grilled chicken on a stick. And to top it off we had tofu ice cream. Good and interesting, I did not like everything, but I tried most. 

It was just a really fun and different experience!

Much love

Extra day in Tokyo

With our cruise being delayed a day, we have had today as an extra day in Tokyo. It has been a rainy day today, so not near as nice as yesterday. The cruise line arranged our accommodation for tonight, so we changed hotels this morning. All of our luggage and us made in one taxi...crazy!  

In the afternoon we went back to Asakusa to do some shopping. Not a lot really to share, we enjoyed ourselves and got some souvenirs. This evening we are relaxing some and preparing to board the ship. 

In lieu of fun information, a few pictures. 

Much love

Shopping area side street near Asakusa.

What looks yummy?

Tokyo

As we woke this morning at 6am the skies were clear and from the 29th floor it looked beautiful. Vongfong played nice with us, moving over during the overnight hours impacting us only a little yesterday and leaving today a bit windy, but nice. Our fears of a totally rainy day we not realized. 

We hopped aboard a bus for our day tour of the city. We first went to the Meiji Shrine which is a Shinto shrine. It was fascinating to learn about the Shinto and Buddhist religions. The shrine was really neat. Everyone is supposed to wash their hands, and mouth before entering. They had a location where everyone could do this, it was neat. 

We learned the difference between the two religions in Japan, Shinto and Buddhism. Shinto is connected with nature and they believe that the gods are in the mountains, large natural things. They believe in their ancestors, eat. There are over 8 million deities. When you want to get their attention to listen to your wish you throw a coin in to get their attention, bow twice then clap twice. Then say your wish and clap one last time. Buddhism gives an understanding for life after death. Shinto only deals with current lives. At a Buddhist temple you also throw a coin, but then you bow and say a phrase then your wish and bow. I think I recalled that right. I may be incorrect in some sections, but it's close. Then the guide said they are all instant Christians at Christmas. Most japanese people are both Shinto and Buddhist. 

Next we went to the imperial place bridge. The imperial palace is where the Emperor lives and the bridge is where they cross to exit to the city. 

Later we went to Asakusa a Buddhist temple. It was very neat a but more ornate than the Shinto shrine. We got our fortunes. The available fortunes come in good, medium and bad fortunes. You give some money and shake a container until a stick with a symbol comes out. You then match up the symbol to get your fortune. I got a medium fortune, Travis got a bad fortune. You leave your bad fortunes in the temple for the spirits to take away, so Travis did that. 

There is a lot of shopping near Asakusa, but we mainly looked. Next we went to lunch and then to a man made island of reclaimed land, Diaba. Diaba is a higher tech area, but we mainly just walked around. 

We finished our day at the Ginza a higher end shopping area. We went into a department store that had a huge food market on the basement floors and then two floors of restaurants on the top floor. 

It was a full day in Tokyo and we enjoyed ourselves. 

The Meiji shrine

The imperial bridge

Asakusa 

Panoramic on Diaba island

Arrived safe and sound in Japan

After a delay in Dallas we arrived only an hour late and all was fine. Vongfong was kind and slowed down a little and won't impact Tokyo until this evening and in to the day Tuesday. Just for your knowledge we are 14 hours ahead of central time making it 9 pm Monday night.

Typhoon Vongfong is expected to impact Tokyo later tonight through tomorrow (Tuesday) according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. It's tropical storm strength. It has been raining since we arrived, but it's really picked up in the past couple of hours. But so far the winds have been light. Tonight and tomorrow could be interesting. 

We have a tour scheduled for Tuesday and we are pretty sure it'll be rainy through much of it. Oh and we forgot our umbrella...so that was our first purchase in Tokyo. We are set for tomorrow. 

We walked to a nearby shopping center and got some dinner at a Ramen shop. It was good, different than Raman in the states. We also had some yummy garlic dumplings. And for dessert we grabbed a McFlurry from McDonalds, a special Halloween one. Fun.

Every place was closing down early at 8pm, and our guess was for the Typhoon. Interesting. It'll be interesting to see how tomorrow is with the natives. Nothing new to them. 

I expected this, but I've found it interesting and difficult and at times isolating to not be able to read the language or understand it. Now this is not new to me in my travels, but this is the first time that I can't match the characters to make out a word. But I love learning it and am enjoying my time. Travis knows some words and phrases in Japanese, so we have a start, thankfully!  

Well with rain hitting the windows on the 29th floor of our hotel and it being nearly 36 hours since I've had a little bit of sleep in a bed...I'm going to say lights out for hopefully a great nights sleep! 

Much love!

And we're off!

We are headed on an Asian cruise adventure. First stop Tokyo!

We have boarded our flight for Japan and Typhoon Vongfong allowing us to land they say. Our flight is 13.5 hours and we hope for some sleep.

See ya on the other side of the Pacific.

It must come to an end.

My time in England is nearing the end. I head to the airport tomorrow and I'll be back in America in a few days.

The last few days have been great. I ended my time in Reading with a great evening with Claire and Chris. We BBQ'd and just chatted out on the deck on a beautiful evening.

On Saturday I headed back to Birmingham and spent the day with Duick. We headed to the pub to help a friend celebrate her birthday. We just sat out in the beer garden out back for a long time on a beautiful warm summers day. And by warm summer day I mean highs in the mid to upper 70s. Who would have thought I needed to go to England to get a tan.

On Sunday Duick and I headed out to Hanbury House a National Trust site. The National Trust keeps historical places restored and people can visit them. This house was built in the late 1600s in the William and Mary style. It was very pretty. We went on a self guided tour which was very easy to follow and had done fun facts to learn. We then walked around the gardens of the home a beautiful estate. Then we watched the Closing Ceremonies, I think I liked them even more than the Opening Ceremonies.

Today I began to get everything packed back up and then spent the afternoon with Duick. I helped him at a field site and the we went down to the city center. Tonight is a calm night before heading off tomorrow. I have everything packed back up and am all ready to go.

It is so hard to believe my time has come to an end and I'll be home in a few days. Although like any trip I will enjoy getting back home, into my own bed and not living out of a suitcase. I've been able to see some friends I haven't seen in ages and that right there is worth the trip. Outside of the Olympic events, some of my favorite times were getting to go to Elin's hometown and Duick's hometown. The real life, not the tourist life...that's what is most fun.

Love

The pictures: one is of a package of hamburger buns...they call them giant baps. I thought it was funny!!! The other is a picture of the stadium from the closing ceremonies. I did not take that picture it was from the official London 2012 Facebook page.

Days 13 and 14

Day 13 - Tuesday August 7th
Today was my final Olympic event and it was the Men's 3m Springboard Diving Finals. The exciting things about this was 1. It was a medals round and 2. It was in the evening so I didn't have to be up at the butt crack of dawn to get there. Because Monday had been so tiring, I allowed myself to sleep in, which was very nice. I got ready and around 2:30 I headed into the Reading Train Station to get back to London.

I decided to take a detour to the Olympic Park stopping at Hyde Park. I didn't have much of a plan, just decided to walk around some as I'd only seen Horse Guard Parade and the Olympic Park in London and wanted to see a bit more. Eventually I headed into the Olympic Park via the Stratford Gate which was the busier gate. I didn't leave myself as much time since I knew how well the previous day had gone. Thankfully I was right, and Security and everything was very quick. I got to the Aquatics center and into my seat with about 30 min before the event. This time in the arena I was sitting my more Americans than I had at any other event...so there were a few more cheers in my area for Troy Dumais the USA Diver in the Finals. My seats were pretty high up, but I was on the side of the arena of the diving and the side of the springboards vs. the platforms. I've had good luck with my "cheap" seats.

The Diving event was good. I didn't totally know how it went, but I had a good idea. It's 6 rounds of dives with each one getting judged by 7 judges. The top 2 and bottom 2 scores are dropped and the middle 3 are added together and then multiplied by the degree of difficulty. There were 12 Divers representing 11 Nations. China had two divers and they were favored some. The event took a little over an hour and by the end there were about 3 divers that it was really between...the scores were divided such that it was easy to see who had a chance. Troy, the USA diver did well, ending the first round in 1st, but eventually finished 5th. It came down to the Russian and the Chinese Divers. They were all very good, but the Russian was very good and at the end, squeaked out a victory. The Chinese guy who was favored was crushed.

Next came the Medal's Ceremony. I really enjoyed this, despite there not being an American on the stand. It was really neat to see each person be awarded their Gold/Silver/Bronze Medal. Then watching them as they rose the flags and sang the Russian National Anthem. Just really neat thing to experience and I'm glad I was able to see it!

Day 14 - Wednesday August 8th
Well today has little of excitement in it, but I greatly enjoyed it. I finally took, after 2 weeks a down day. I just slept in and relaxed. Claire, Chris and I went out for dinner and had a good time chatting. Tomorrow I'm heading back into London to see some friends, should be a busy afternoon/evening.

Love