Part 4

Japanese people get married... a lot!  :)

Isn't he soooooo cute?  Just like a teddy bear.  If your teddy bear wanted to tear the nose off your face and beat you over the head with that wooden bat thingy.  He "works" at the Meji Shrine.  I guess he's some sort of Shinto monk... or the bouncer. 

A pic of Paul and me!!!  We are sooooo hot. :)

And yet again, more pics!

Here are Paul and the girls at the Meji Shrine.

This path goes from the main courtyard of the Shrine into the gardens.  I just thought it looked really pretty.

These are prayer requests.  You write your wish down, put your offering into a box, pray to the Gods for whatever it is you wish and hang up your prayer request.

More Tokyo pics

This is part of a cleansing ritual you do to cleanse yourself before entering a shrine and going before the Gods.  You dip the dipper into the water, pour it over your hands (first the left then the right), and then you rinse your mouth but DO NOT LET YOUR LIPS TOUCH THE DIPPER.  That's a big no-no!

The water was cold and I had a hard time spitting it out gracefully.

Another view of the fount.

Tokyo Trip Part 1

The girls before our trip...  Aren't they so sweet?!
SAKE!!!!!
This is a huge a#% Torri gate made from Japanese cypress at the Meji Shrine.
Ok, here we go.  We went to Tokyo today:  the Meiji Shrine, Tokyo Tower, another shrine and then a really long boat ride... all in all it was a pretty good trip.  Enjoy!

Megans new haircut

We got Megans hair cut; about 4 inches in all.  I really like it.  What do you think?

Pudding time

No time to make it to the table, they had to sit down right there on the floor and eat the chocolate pudding...nice!

These boots are made for walking

Cricket loves her new rain boots, she's got this whole shoe fetish thing going on....she loves shoes, weirdo.

Cheese!!!!

She's working her way up to MT. Everest

Every time I pull her down from someplace she has been climbing, I feel a little bad... like I'm repressing her climbing spirit and holding her back from her destiny.

Kurihama Flower World

...only, it's too early in the year for a lot of flowers.  So it was more like Kurihama one flower world - on a bunch of freaking hills.  OH, there was a HUGE Godzilla slide, so I guess that part was ok.

I am so not kidding.

This is not the boys bathroom.  Do you see now why Megan freaked out?  Oh, and old Japanese ladies get upset when you bring a camera into the bathroom :)~

I'm not that kind of mom.

Ok, so most of the time, I don't mind having the girls around. They are cute, and they amuse me. And while there are moments when I wish them on my worst enemy (tee-hee), for the most part, they are pretty cool little dudettes. However, I am not one of those mommy moms. I took Maddie to this "PT Tots" class, there were a bunch of soft gym things for little ones to climb and play on. I thought, great, she'll have a blast. Only, we had to do "circle time". I know that the concept of connecting with your community through a circle has roots in the ancient world. I just don't buy it with a bunch of 18 month olds though. She wanted no part of it, she just wanted to play. So I let her play, while all the other parents and kids were singing "The Wheels on the Bus" I was NOT singing and Maddie was playing happily. I don't WANT to sing stupid kid songs. I don't WANT to run around a gym clapping my hands trying to get Maddie to do the same thing. So I don't quite understand the looks I was getting from the other moms.....:) We did our own thing, and we were happy.

We went to Yokohama on Saturday and rode on the world's tallest ferris wheel. It was really, really tall. After that Megan and I rode on the log ride. We had a great time!

The good news....there was toilet paper.

In the train station at Yokohama, the second biggest city in Japan, the toilets are holes in the floor. Seriously. I wish I had taken the camera in to show you, next time I will. Walking into the bathroom, it looks all high tech, a grid on the wall tells you when and which stall is empty. So we go into one, and Megan freaks. "THIS IS A BOYS BATHROOM!", she yelled loudly. Luckily, there is a good chance no one there understood her but me. There is a bar to hold onto as you squat and try to keep your pants and undies from getting wet. And, when you squat down, there is a sound of a waterfall, I guess to keep others from hearing your bodily functions. It was interesting to say the least.

The Green Goblin!

Yes, we have another minivan. This is our 1994 Toyota Lucida, aka the Green Goblin. It's great... for a minivan. ;-) It has a sunroof, a moon roof, captains chairs that spin all the way around, sonar on the bumpers so you don't hit anything while you are parking, it is sea foam green... Best of all, the ac and heat work.
That is our tower in the background. If you look very closely, two balconies above the roof of the van, you can see Megan sitting on our balcony in a pink shirt and yellow pants! (You may have to click on the picture and enlarge it to see her.)
PS - Minivans are tangible evidence of evil.

Maddie Hanging Out

Maddie loves to be outside.  She knows how to open the doors that lead to our balcony, last night, she just sat in her little pooh chair and watched the world below....she's such an old person sometimes.

Megan lost her tooth (she ate it)

Megan's tooth finally came out.  Unfortunately she didn't know it at the time and she swallowed it.  It's all good though, the tooth fairy totally understands!  

More pics from Japan.

Here is Megan in front of our tower, notice all the cherry blossoms down the street?!

Here are some more cherry blossoms, this is across the street from our tower.
Cricket with a cool hair do.
Here is Paul putting down some flooring.  Notice how helpful the girls are?  What would he do without them?
Megan gave up, there is no helping dad sometimes!

We Crashed a Japanese Wedding!!

Okay.... so we really didn't crash it...  We visited a temple in Kamakura and it just so happened that there was a wedding there in public at the temple.  Isn't she a beautiful bride?!!  While we were watching the wedding, several Japanese people who were also watching began to crowd around the girls and asked to take pictures of Megan and Maddie, our little models.  They could sooo easily be models here.
We walked around Kamakura, took pictures, tasted Japanese fare from street vendors, had our first ice cream here, and just had a really relaxing and enjoyable day being tourists. It is so neat to feel like you are on vacation and be tourists everywhere you go!!

PS - I'm able to upload pics again. Did you notice?! So, you'll be seeing a lot more of us and Japan soon!!!

PPS - Paul was with us. Really... He was just having fun with our new camera - we love it. We had to get a new one because our last one was run over by a taxi!! Ooops!

Not able to upload pictures

Ok, so for some reason, I'm not able to upload pictures to the blog....it's been that way for some weeks now. If it continues, I'll search for a new way to get pics to people. We've been doing great. Paul enjoys his new job so far, he's really important, doing a really big job...I'm not sure what it is, but it's great! I know he likes the people he is working with.
Megan started school a couple of weeks ago, she loves her teacher and has a new friend. I think she gets shy like me, and is slow to make friends, she'll get there.
We've been exploring the surrounding area, we went back to Kamakura today, it was so neat, we could spend all weekend there, a lot of little shops and restaurants.  We went to a shrine and saw a Japanese wedding that was sooo neat.  While we where there, Cricket got her picture taken by about 5 or 6 different people, we where the only white people around.  It was a bit weird, but not as much as you would think.  Everyone was really nice, we had a great time and plan on going back soon.