Conveyor Belt Sushi

    Last weekend, we had conveyor belt sushi, known as kaiten sushi. While the quality of kaiten sushi is generally lower than that of a traditional sushi bar, it is fun for kids and serves a broader array of non-sushi items, like noodles, fried chicken, and rice bowls among other things. 

    We went to a place called Kura Sushi in Harajuku (they have many locations, including ones outside Japan). The Harajuku location is known for its fun atmosphere and extensive dessert menu. The Harajuku area is known for its over the top dessert crepes, which you can order at Kura. They also have Blue Seal ice cream, an Okinawan brand that boasts distinctive flavors, like Okinawan Salt Cookies, Royal Milk Tea, and Brown Sugar Cane (Okinawa is famous for its brown sugar canes). I ordered the Okinawan Sweet Potato with its distinctive purple color. It's one of my favorite flavors, and the texture is nice and fluffly, almost like gelato. 

    Other dishes we enjoyed were onion rings (freshly fried) and grilled fish, but to be honest, the quality of the food is not the focal point here. Although you could undoubtedly find better sushi in Tokyo, this was nevertheless a good experience. Kura is one of those places where you have to embrace the entire environment. 

    We went with E's cousins, who range from age 5 to 13 and are here in Tokyo for the summer. 

    We ordered via iPad, which is typical of kaiten sushi these days. Since Covid-19 began, many restaurants place plastic models of food on their conveyor belts instead of the real thing. You order by iPad. Kura does a hybrid. There are two conveyor belts: a top one and a bottom one. The bottom one carries a variety of dishes. You can look and take whatever you like. Or you could order via iPad. The order then arrives on the top belt, zooming to your table at super speed. 

    After we ate, the empty plates went into a slot at the end of each table. The slot automatically counted and calculated our bill based on these plates. We let M do this, and she loved doing it. We received "points," for each plate that went in, and after a certain number of points, we got to play a game on the iPad. The game is really a lottery where you can win a small capsule toy. We won one toy after thirty something dishes, so don't get your hopes up. 

The booth seating gives you relative privacy - another reason this place was good for families. 

    

    Kura Sushi was a hit with my kids and their cousins. As with so many things, the adults are happy when the kids are happy (to a degree). It wasn't a bad way to spend a hot summer night. Gochisousamadeshita!

Global Warming Blues, Joypolis, and Other Ways of Surviving a Heat Wave

    Every day in Tokyo for the last five days, and everyday for the next five days, temperatures will reach 35 to 36 degrees Celsius. That's 96-98 degrees in Fahrenheit. There has been no rain, despite this being the rainy season. The heat is oppressive, dangerous even. And it is days like these that make me think about what the world will be like when my children are my age. It makes me wonder about each choice I make: should I turn the air conditioning on for short-term comfort but at the expense of long-term harm to the environment? Why do I need chilled wine on demand when people are dying from natural disasters stemming from climate change? How can we avoid fish caught by trawling? Do my individual choices matter in the shadow of behemoth corporate, government, and military action? Even if my actions don't make a big difference, surely they matter to some extent. And of course, our collective choices do make a difference. 

    I think about how, in Japan and in many other places in the world, the majority of housework is shouldered by women. How collapsing cardboard boxes, rinsing and flattening milk cartons, dropping off the recycling at collection centers, using and cleaning rags instead of paper towels, using gentler solutions that require more effort, feeding your family more sustainable foods while ensuring their health and satiety, sorting through an infinite number of kids art projects to recycle and reuse - how so much of this is the work of women. Even so, as a woman completing many (but luckily not all) of these tasks, when I get cynical, I remind myself that there is always an opportunity cost to my actions (or lack of action). Convenience is rarely free. It also makes me aware that gender equality is another step to a more sustainable world. 

    Enough brooding. This post is really about the ways we have been trying to stay cool. The first is staying indoors as much as possible whilst keeping our kids entertained. On the weekends, they can only stay at home for so long without going crazy, so we looked into possible indoor outings. We decided on Joypolis, an indoor amusement park. My nephews and niece are also here for the summer, so we all went together. I was under the impression that Joypolis was somehwere between Chuck-E-Cheese and Dave and Buster's, but that is totally not the case. It was great for my almost 14-year-old and 11-year-old nephews, but it was a bit intense even for my 8-year-old niece, let alone my kids. It is probably the most fun for teenagers and young adults.    

Entering the Joypolis universe. 

    Joypolis was more like an arcade on steroids: bright artificial light everywhere, screens and sounds everywhere. It gave me sensory overload. My husband went here when he was a kid and said that it was more low-key fifteen, twenty years ago. I'm sure it was. 

    Kids under 7 are free (makes sense now). The entrance fee for kids 7-17 is about $4 USD and $6.50 USD for adults. Once you enter, each ride will cost about $5 and games are usually between $1-6. If you expect to go on a lot of rides, you can purchase the passport ticket for $30 for kids and $40 for adults. The passport tickets allow access to all the rides, but not the games. 

This looked like a good game for little kids, but it was hard, even for adults!

     We purchased the passport tickets for the older kids. They would have had to go on five rides to get their tickets' worth. However, there was an hour-long line for each ride, which would mean spending all day waiting in line. In the end, they went on three rides and played a bunch of games. They also played with a lot of claw crane games, if you can call those games, and actually won two massive stuffies without spending all their money. I was impressed. Preteens and their unexpected talents. 

    Joypolis is in Odaiba and located in a large shopping complex next to several other shopping complexes. The entire area is a neighborhood of malls. While this doesn't make for the nicest neighborhood, it makes it easier to find lunch. Joypolis has a few eateries, but they fill up quickly. Plus, so long as you keep your ticket, re-entry is permitted. 

Odaiba: Tokyo Bay on one side, entertainment hub on the other. 

    After lunch, I went with M and my mother in law to a nearby mall to take a break from Joypolis. E, though too young for most games and rides, was nevertheless having a good time since she was in the company of her cousins. So my husband stayed with the four older kids while I got a napping toddler. I would say that I got the better end of the deal. I spent the rest of the afternoon looking at art supplies for E's approaching summer holiday. So that was one hot day down, eight more to go. 

    We have also been consuming a lot of frozen desserts - a time-tested, much simpler way of coping with the heat. There are the usual frozen pops, but also more interesting ones we are trying for the first time. One of my favorites is the Crunch Choco Monaka, which is a wafer filled with half vanilla ice cream and half chocolate crunch. Although it is marketed as Hershey's product, I have only seen this in Japan. Another favorite is matcha ice cream topped with brown sugar, mochi, and matcha powder. Here is to making the best of the heat with sweets. 

A Baseball Outing

Last Friday, my husband and I went to watch our first baseball game since Covid-19 began. This makes it sound like we regularly went to games before Covid-19, and we didn't. We actually have not been to a game in six years. This was only my second Japanese baseball game, the first one being seven years ago, also in Tokyo.  

I can't tell you how to get tickets because my husband got them. It is a somewhat complicated process involving different dates and different seating areas for different membership tiers, including the free membership which is what we got to buy the tickets. Last Friday's game was between the Tokyo Yakult Swallows and Hiroshima Toyo Carp. The Swallows won the Japan Series last year, so they have been popular, and the stadium was nearly full. Since we bought the tickets on the first day they became available for our membership tier, we were still able to get great seats. 

A perfectly balmy evening for a baseball game. 

Baseball is just as popular, if not more so, in Japan as it is in the U.S. In the U.S., I've been to a few Mets games and a few White Sox games. There are lots of similarities between baseball here and there, but some differences as well. The most notable differences:

The Seats

The Meiji Jingu Stadium is old, dating back to 1926. Apparently it is one of the few standing professional stadiums, along with Wrigley Field and Fenway Park, that existed when Babe Ruth played. 

Perhaps because of its age, the stadium seats are narrow and small for just about anyone. Our friend J is tall and mostly sat with his legs together. He savored the minutes when his seat mates were getting food and drinks. While the seating is not luxurious, I didn't mind it. Our neighbors were respectful about keeping to their own space. Despite there being no government mandate for mask wearing outdoors, the majority wore masks. Everyone cleaned up after themselves (People say this is a Japanese phenomenon, and I have to say, I don't understand why this is phenomenon. It should be common sense.) and kept their rubbish in their own space.

The Food

The food is similar to its American counterpart, though there is more variety. It is definitely not healthy, but you can buy edamame, which is considered a good beer snack. You can easily buy food at grocery stores or convenience stores nearby and bring them with you into the stadium. Stadium food is reasonably priced, but outside food is still less expensive. 

Concession stands sell hot dogs, fried noodles, yakitori, fried chicken, etc. Let me show you some of the things we ate: 

Different types of bentos boxes. 

Takoyaki (grilled squid balls) with scallions and chili sauce. 

Pineapple shaved ice. 

A concession stand selling Chinese food. 

Three cheese french fries and a Kirin beer. 

Curry...with imprinted cheese. 

The Volume

The final major difference I noticed is the noise level at Japanese baseball games. I don't know what it is about sporting events in America, but the noise is deafeningly loud. The speakers blast music, and then people have to shout over the speakers to converse with each other. And then you have to buy baby earmuffs to prevent damage to your kid's ears. While there are also chants and cheers here, I found that I could talk at a normal volume and hear what my seat mates were saying. 

It's the same game around the world, but the experience of watching baseball is definitely unique in Japan. Even though I don't know anything about baseball (I mostly follow what is happening based on crowd cues), I had a great time. I would even say that it was more fun to watch baseball in Japan than in the U.S. as someone who is not a big baseball fan. The environment was more relaxed. After all, there was so much to enjoy - the food, the company, and the beautiful spring evening. 

Rainy Season is Here Again

Rainy season is here once more. I don't mind it much, except for two things: 1) it makes commuting by bicycle trickier, though a massive poncho solves most of my commute problems (if the rain and wind is typhoon-grade, we take a taxi), and 2) more than anything, I hate the mosquitos. 

With temperatures climbing and the sun getting stronger by day, you - by which I mean, me - seek refuge in shady, cool places and avoid outdoor activities when it is really sunny and hot. Unfortunately, so do mosquitos. Even though they are warm weather bugs, mosquitos avoid the sun. So if your kids want to go to the park, you can either bake in the sun or get eaten alive by mosquitos in the shade. It sounds dramatic, but it is true. 

Last night, a mosquito somehow got into my daughter's bedroom. She awoke in the morning with FOURTEEN mosquito bites. Lucky for us, we have muhi patches. Muhi patches are small, round adhesives placed on bug bites to reduce itching and inflammation. For young kids, this is doubly convenient because it prevents them from scratching their skin into oblivion and risking infection. They are also peachy-tan in color, which makes them subtle and nice to use for adults as well. 

As for commuting, commuter bicycles in Japan are well-equipped to handle the rain. Mine, like most, is waterproof and comes with a rain cover for the rear child seat. Since M rarely rides it, unlike E, who rides it everyday, we didn't get a cover for the front child seat where she sits. If we had wanted, though, it would have been easy to cover the front as well. 

It may sound extreme to cycle in the rain with kids, but even in the rain, it is the most effective mode of transportation. On most rainy days, it is easier to cycle than to hail a taxi or take public transport. It can be difficult to find an unoccupied taxi when it is raining during the morning rush hour. Our bicycle ride to school takes 7-8 minutes, so in the time it takes to flag a taxi, we would nearly be there. From our home, the metro is a 7 minute walk. On the other end, it's another 5 minute walk from the nearest station to school. The bus is 5 minutes and 4 minutes, respectively. Likewise, it would be faster to cycle than to use the metro or bus. And so we cycle. 

In a couple more weeks, we will need not only bug repellent but also a hat, sun cream, and a handy water bottle. At least the temperatures are still relatively low right now. We have had the occasional hot day, but for the most part, it has been in the 60s and 70s.  The cloud coverage allows you to go outside without slathering on sun cream. These are the best things about rainy season, and I am going to enjoy them while they last. 

Ueno Zoo (Post-Corona Restrictions)

    It is 65 degrees Fahrenheit today, but last Sunday, it was in the upper 80s. It was the rare hot spring day in Tokyo, though it is getting frighteningly less rare. Despite the heat, we went to Ueno Zoo. 

    It had been impossible to obtain reservations due to Covid restrictions. Every Saturday morning at 9am, a limited number of online reservations would become available on a first-come first-serve basis for the following week. Every time I tried, waiting on my computer until 9am sharp, I failed. No matter how quickly I clicked, all feasible time slots were full. So when this reservation system finally gave way to a less restrictive one last weekend, I jumped at the opportunity. 

   It is hard to exaggerate the number of people lined up outside the zoo when we arrived. I had purchased online tickets and arrived right at opening time, and so had everyone else. In fact, there was no wait to purchase tickets in-person, which kind of defeats the purpose of pre-purchasing tickets online. It took 45 minutes just to get inside the zoo! I thought this was typically Tokyo - everyone is an early bird, and everyone plans ahead. So we all end up in the same long line. 

    Of course, the animals were lethargic too. The heat wasn't too bad in the morning, but the sun was intense. I would have preferred a drizzle. When you first arrive in Japan and see people with arm bands, humongous visors, and parasols, you may think that they are simply warding off tans. I certainly thought so. After a year of living here, I realized that without these things, I would probably develop skin cancer and cataracts. Sun cream, sunglasses, and hats are musts for outdoor outings in Tokyo! 

The elephant, wondering why it is so hot in May. 

The tiger, wondering why it is so hot in May.

Hedwig, wondering why it is so hot in May. 

    Going to the zoo always makes me think about this New Yorker article I read a few years ago. It is about the social role of zoos, the moral and ethical considerations of their existence, and their impact on animal welfare and endangerment. I loved going to zoos before I was old enough to consider any of these issues. Being an adult has not made the zoo less fun, but rather more interesting. 

    The Ueno Zoo is centrally located but not large. Actually, Tama Zoo, which is farther from central Tokyo, is much bigger. This makes Ueno suitable for younger kids with less endurance. But it also means longer lunch lines on the weekends. 

    The main sit-down restaurant in Ueno is near the monkeys in the East Garden. It was nearly full when we headed there around 11am. In Japan, it is normal to reserve a seat with personal items. There are people who reserve with bags and jackets (normal), and there are those who reserve with a plastic water bottle (questionable, but still works since no one will steal your water bottle and even fewer who want a confrontation over a water bottle). This is how an entire restaurant fills up before anyone has even gotten their food. We luckily found one of the last remaining booths indoors. 

The ever-popular panda nikuman (steamed bun with pork inside)

Reserve your seats first!

    These jelly pouches are nice for hot days like Saturday. I froze them beforehand so they would still be cold during our outing. It took nearly an hour to get our food, but since the kids had had their mid-morning snack, the wait wasn't so bad. 

    By the time lunch ended around 12:45, the temperature had climbed to a sweltering 88 F. The East Garden and the West Garden are connected by short walkway. While the east side has a restaurant, the west side has more food trucks and snack food. It also houses the large African mammals, such as the giraffes, okapi, rhinos, etc. 

    We entered the zoo shortly after 10am and finished seeing everything before 2pm. Between then, we took a long lunch break and plenty of snack and toilet breaks. 

Food options outside the zoo: an old-timey concession stand.

    This was our first Ueno Zoo outing as a family since we moved here. It was fun, but if I am honest, I I would prefer overcast conditions next time - even a drizzle!  On the other hand, kids don't mind it nearly as much as adults do. After all, a hot and crowded day at the zoo is a classic day at the zoo. 

Izakaya

    An izakaya is a Japanese bar, and one of my favorite places to eat. Not that I like all izakayas, for they are as varied as bars and pubs are anywhere else. Some izakayas cater to younger people, some to office workers, and others to a more diverse clientele. Some have really great food while others have food that you would only want to put inside your body after an adequate number of drinks. I obviously like the ones that serve great food. 

    In Japan, it's typical for restaurants to specialize. Just as you would go to a ramen shop for only ramen, you would do the same for soba (buckwheat noodles) or yakitori (grilled chicken). The same for grilled eel, sushi, pork cutlets, udon, tempura, etc. These restaurants will all do one thing but do them well. You won't see many Japanese places with eclectic menus. The izakaya is unique in this aspect and usually serves many different types of dishes in small portions. Their varied menu gives them more creative latitude too, so it's fun to discover Japanese flavors presented in novel and modern ways. This is one of the main reasons I like izakayas. 

    The downside of izakayas is that they can be really smoky inside. They are not places you would want to go with little kids. Anyways, they are places where you would want to sit, talk, and eat slowly - things that are difficult to do with toddlers. Because of this, and because izakayas are part of the nightlife establishment, we haven't been to even one since moving to Japan. So it was really very exciting when we handed the kids over to the grandparents on Saturday and headed to our neighborhood izakaya, Kogane. 

    Kogane is a small izakaya that uses variety meats in its menu, which includes many other things such as seafood, vegetables, and noodles. They have a good selection of sake, which pairs nicely with the food. Kogane is also a non-smoking establishment, which is great even if you don't have kids. There are several options for seating: floor, bar, or table. We chose the bar. 

    The food is some of the most delicious and interesting I've ever had. Even the ordinary items like onigiri and truffle fries are really well made. One particularly memorable dish was thinly sliced tripe and vegetables, chilled, mixed with pesto, topped with walnuts and served as a salad. No photo of that one, unfortunately, but here are other things we ate: 

Onigiri with ume (pickled plum).

Bonito sashimi in the front and braised beef tendon and daikon soup in the back. 

Truffle fries.

Japanese horse mackerel, fried and served with Japanese tartar sauce.

Grilled duck with negi. 

    As for drink, I had an organic lemon sour and a shared flask of sake. We chose a sake based on their recommendation. I know nothing about sake and rarely drink it, so there is not much basis for comparison. The only thing I can say about it is that it was light and sweet and paired beautifully with the food. 

    Given that I had an organic lemon sour, you can likely guess that this particular izakaya belongs to a newer breed of izakayas. Kogane's food and atmosphere reflects modern sentiments for fine-casual dining while retaining the essence of izakaya culture. Like Tokyo itself, it is a flattering mix of the new and old. 

    Izakaya food is rarely pretentious. It's first and foremost about flavor and enjoyment (and in some cases, simply putting something in your stomach to absorb the alcohol). In the case of this izakaya, I love that it could transform a humble ingredient like tripe into a great dish that most people would enjoy. Here's to a nice night out and many more to come. 

A Weekend in Tokyo

    Between extracurricular activities, birthday parties, and day drips, it's rare for us to spend the weekend in the city with no agenda. But that is how we spent last Saturday. There is someone else in Tokyo as well: Joe Biden, my mother-in-law tells me. One clue was the incessant sound of helicopters overhead. American heads of state and diplomats always exact the biggest fanfare. Since we mostly stay in our neighborhood and get around by bicycle, the visit didn't really affect us. 

    Saturday started out cool and cloudy - perfect weather for a cup of coffee and some reading. Although I received a kindle for my birthday last year, it took me a long time to warm up to it. I used to read a lot (also a symptom of living down the street from a public library), mostly during my commute to work and during lunch. Once I no longer had that, I found it difficult to sit still and read. Something about moving and settling into a new environment threw my head into disarray. Daily tasks required more energy than usual, and I guess there was just no mental space for anything other than surviving gracefully day to day. 

    A few months ago, at the one year mark of our arrival in Japan, I suddenly started reading with my kindle. I just felt like it one day. And I realized that I could access any English book I wanted this way (it's obvious, I know). I've been reading a lot of Murakami recently. I am now reading his book Underground, which is a collection of interviews and reflection about the 1995 sarin attacks in Tokyo. For a terrorist attack of that magnitude, there isn't as much literature as you would expect. The book is thought-provoking and introspective. It asks how the event, and even more so the public's reaction to it, reflected Japanese society and its psyche at the time, and perhaps even now. 

    Anyways, I was able to read a good hour before my kids woke up. This is a true luxury. Since the kids must get up and get ready early on weekdays, their accumulated sleep deprivation allows them to sleep as late as 8:30 am on Saturday mornings. M slept until 9 am, a real win win situation. Naturally, we had a slow morning. By the time everyone at breakfast and got ready, it was 10:30 am. Despite a light drizzle, we headed to our local park, which was pleasantly empty. 

Our playground outing was short lived, as the rain started coming down hard after fifteen minutes. Our bicycles are rain proof, but it is never fun cycling in the rain, so we waited for the rain to die down before heading home. 

Since we moved so slowly through the morning, it was already past eleven when we returned home. Time to prepare lunch. We usually get ramen at our favorite neighborhood shop but stayed home for homemade ramen (i.e., packaged ramen from the supermarket). I had bought quail eggs on a whim a few days prior. Quail eggs are common in Japan. Ten quail eggs cost the equivalent of $1.50, so I wouldn't call them a delicacy here. Nonetheless, it is not something we usually eat, so it was interesting to try. They taste similar to chicken eggs. The kids loved eating them because they are small and therefore "cute".

They look different from chicken eggs, but they don't taste all that different. 

E no longer naps regularly, but she occasionally will on the weekends. So after lunch came nap time for the kids and coffee time and Japanese studying for me. On the one hand, I'm happy to have the free time while the kids nap. On the other hand, napping takes a big chunk out of the day and makes it trickier to make plans. 

Post-nap playtime. M wearing her sister's lunch bag. This went on for half an hour. Visual proof that anything can be a toy or a prop. 

    By the time the two wake up close to 4pm, it's almost time to go to Grandma's house. My mother-in-law was in Karuizawa for the last few weeks, so E had requested dinner with them. Usually my husband's grandmother cooks, but she too had just returned from a trip, so takeaway it was. 

    Japan makes it easy. Most large department stores have a food hall in the basement with a grocery store, gift foods, and different restaurant counters. You are spoiled for choice. The grandparents delivered with this beautiful sushi assortment in addition to a few side dishes. I don't know what it is about salmon eggs, ikura in Japanese, but kids love them. It's a little scary because they are on the pricey side as far as sushi selections go, and they throw them back like pizza rolls. While both love ikura, E doesn't like sushi as much as M, who really loves it, particularly the tuna rolls. She even surprised us by pointing to the roll and calling it "maguro." Who knew that she knew the specific names of fish? We don't even eat sushi often.

    Anyways, it was a really delicious end to our Saturday. I leave you to feast your eyes on these beautiful boxes of sushi:

Showa Kinen Park in the Spring

    One of the nicest things about Tokyo is the many parks around the city. Not that it helps reduce crowding; there is never enough of a good thing to go around at once in this metropolis. So while we love exploring new parks, the question holding us back is: will it be too crowded? Alas, we can't afford to think too much about it, or we would be sitting at home most of the time. 

    Last weekend we visited Showa Kinen Park for the second time. The first time was last summer, at the peak of summer. It was sunny and scorching hot then. We drank water constantly and ate shaved ice just to stay cool. Despite the heat, it was still fun. Since the spring weather has been nice lately, a return to Showa Kinen had been on my mind. So when I saw a cool and cloudy projection for Saturday, we decided to visit again. 

    Last time, we went by metro, which took an hour with one transfer. This time, we drove, which took about the same time. The kids prefer the metro, which is more fun and engaging. We also avoid sitting in traffic this way, so it will probably be our transportation of choice in the future. 

    The Tulip Garden was the main attraction last month. Sadly, all the tulips had faded and the main flower attraction were these little blue things (I've no idea what they are called).  

The kids, as soon as they saw the pedal boats, wanted to ride on them. Last year, M was too little. This year, she got to go along the ride as well. The rental is for half an hour, and though the kids are on the boat, their legs are not long enough to actually pedal. Nor would they have had enough strength even if their legs were long enough. The pedaling was hard work. Definitely two adults' worth of work. Half an hour of fun for the kids, half an hour of moderate exercise for the parents. 

    There are at least two large play areas for kids. Each area has multiple play structures for a wide range of ages. This was nice - it allowed us to keep an eye on both kids even as they could play with different things. We stayed in the first area for over an hour. We actually had to use lunch to bribe the kids away. We knew they would like the second play area even more, and it was already past 1 pm. 

    There are plenty of eating options inside the park. There are sit down restaurants, food trucks, and numerous stands all around. Last time, we ate at a sit down restaurant by the lake. This time, I brought plenty of food with us, and we supplemented with snacks from stands. The stands sell things like hotdogs, yakisoba, karaage, french fries, and of course soft serve. The restaurant we tried has your standard Japanese/modern Japanese fare (soba, curry, ramen, etc.). We got a doner kebab from the food trucks, which offer more variety. As with most public Japanese facilities, prices are reasonable. 

    After lunch, we finally make it to the area called the Children's Forest. This includes a massive playground with multiple tornado slides, a network of nets on which kids can climb and jump, and a series of bouncing domes. At this point, M was deteriorating without her usual nap, though E was still going strong. What a difference a year makes. E shied away from the intense slides last year and loved them this year, lining up to go again and again. On the nets, she managed to climb up different levels whereas last year, she only bounced around here and there. 

    Even after two hours, E had not gotten to the bouncing domes that she had loved last year. M, by then, was in no condition to try anything else. So we bought shaved ice for an afternoon treat and called it a day. 

    In the summer, the park opens up a section for water play. This was not open last year due to Covid but will likely be open this summer. Even though we did not get to everything on this trip, we will surely be back soon for the water park. We focused on kid friendly activities, but there is also a lot for adults, including a woodworking shop, a Japanese garden, and special events. This week, for example, there is a special Bonsai exhibition. It's truly a day trip destination. 

    As we had hoped, the kids fell asleep in the car just as they had last year on the train. Whatever effort it takes to get to here, you are nearly guaranteed a good nap afterwards! Goodbye and see you in a few months, Showa Kinen Park. 

Golden Week 2022

Golden Week is a cluster of Japanese holidays that all occur in the last week of April and the first week of May. The first two are historical holidays: Showa Day (honoring the Emperor Showa) and Constitution Day (celebrating the establishment of the modern Japanese Constitution). Then comes Greenery Day, which as its name would suggests, celebrates nature. Finally, there is Children's Day, which traditionally celebrated boys and fathers (there is a Girls Day in March) but now celebrates boys and girls as well as their parents and family unity in general. 

Japanese workplaces don't offer as many annual personal days or vacation days compared to its western European or even American counterparts. Yet the total number of days off most workers receive annually is not bad thanks to these national holidays. It's just that everyone has to take the same holidays, so it gets really, really crowded. Add to it the fact that foreign travel is still pretty much off limits, and you get crowds everywhere: the supermarket, parks, roads, museums, city offices - quite literally, everywhere. What to do then during Golden Week?

We went to Karuizawa in Nagano Prefecture last weekend. Of course, since Karuizawa is only a couple hours from Tokyo, it was also crowded, but we were able to stay away from the crowds for the most part. My mother-in-law's friend, who is also a tennis coach, gifted our girls two small tennis rackets and a net. We gave it a go in the backyard. Although they can't hit the ball over the net yet, they had a lot of fun trying. We also went hiking, as Karuizawa is home to many hiking paths with views of the Japanese Northern Alps. While the shopping streets were totally congested with people, the hiking paths were surprisingly empty. The rest of the time, it was raining anyways, so we stayed indoors doing puzzles and games. 

In a country as mountainous as Japan, you don't have to go far to experience early spring again. You might recall that Hakone. Though south of Tokyo, Hakone still had plenty of sakura blossoms due to its higher elevation. Karuizawa, on the other hand, is north of Tokyo and higher in elevation. There, you could still see sakura blossoms and many other ones, like these:

The last few days back in Tokyo, we have been taking a lot of walks, frequenting our regular park, and exploring new parks. And reading. A few weeks ago, I read Haruki Murakami's What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, which inspired me to read South of the Border West of the Sun (one of the few Murakami ebooks immediately available to borrow at the library). I enjoyed it more than expected, and so I am now reading Men Without Women, a collection of short stories. At least Golden Week gave me more time to read. 

Days off are great, but when the entire country is taking the same days off, and international travel is still unfeasible (per Japanese border regulations), the country feels like it is bursting at the seams with people. I suppose we will think of this the same way as we thought of the first lockdown: how many opportunities will we have to sit around and spend time together without distraction? That said, I hope next year brings more travel opportunities during Golden Week.