Home Sweet Home

We've been home for four days now and despite how excellent the trip was, it feel so good to be back!  The car company that drove us from our apartment in Yokohama to the Tokyo airport contacted us before the pick-up to say that all they had available was a full sized limo.  So Connor took his first limo ride and held his first champagne glass during the trip to Narita.

Connor was still getting over his cold during the flight, so he did not sleep, which meant the flight was not the same piece of cake that we experienced on the way to Japan.  It was all worth it for something that happened in the middle of the flight (while everyone else on the plane was fast asleep except the three of us) and is now permanently etched in my memory bank of wonderful moments.  I pulled out a container of cheese cubes and asked Connor if he would like some cheese.  He picked up a piece of cheese, got a huge smile on his face, turned to me and said with emphasis, "eat!".  This turned into a back and forth between the three of us saying "eat!" alternating with Connor actually eating pieces of cheese while laughing hysterically.  All three of us were cracking up and could not stop.  Possibly a choking hazard, but it was so funny, and this is the first word that we have heard him use intentionally.

We arrived home to a warm, sunny weekend with blue skies and palm trees swaying in the breeze.  It was a very welcoming scene.  Our house looked amazing, and during our time away we stumbled upon the key to growing artichokes.  Ignore them for a month.  We have actual artichokes now on the plants we put in over a year ago and have never seen action from!

 
It is such a luxury to be able to blabber to strangers in a language I am fluent in, to pop our clothes in the dryer and have them dry 45 min later, and to eat really good cheeseburgers.  And to see my life with fresh eyes upon coming back to it and realize there is absolutely nothing I would change.

Last Day in Japan - Sakura in Bloom

Today was our last full day in Japan - very hard to believe the three weeks have already gone by! It was finally a beautiful, sunny day after two days of cold and pouring rain. Connor and I are both feeling much better, and how can we not after hearing that the cherry blossoms are blooming a week earlier than usual? We are so lucky because in a normal year we would have missed them entirely! This afternoon we set off for Kamonyama Park, set on a hill above Sakuragicho and MM21. It is a well known spot for viewing cherry blossoms, and has a beautiful Japanese garden in the lower part of the park. The walk up the hill took us through the neighborhood with views of the downtown, harbor, ferris wheel and Landmark Tower peeking through the alleys at interesting angles.

Once in the park, we wandered through admiring the blossoming trees and marveling at our luck in timing.  The tranquil garden below provided a nice spot to stand in silence for a moment and reflect on our time in Japan.

This was the perfect way to wrap up the trip.  Japan, you've been wonderful to us.  San Diego, here we come!

Plane Bagels

We stopped at a neighborhood coffee shop to pick up bagels (which are pretty hard to come by here) to pair with the smoked salmon, red onion and cream cheese in our fridge.  We were glad to see that they had "plane":

Cute Japanese Truck of the Day

Finally I caught the garbage truck!  I have been waiting for a full three weeks to snap a shot of a truck so cute that it's hard to believe it carries trash.  Connor, this one's for you!

Takashimaya

Yesterday was a cold and rainy day, and I have caught Connor's ailment now. I never get sick - we are talking like once/year or less and usually I just feel uncomfortable for a day or two, no big deal. This cold is not a fun one, and I am in awe that my trooper of a baby toughed it out liked he did. Hope we are both feeling 100% for the flight home and that Dylan does not succumb!

We donned our rain gear and took the subway to Takashimaya, another huge department store in downtown Yokohama. It was really the best thing we could think of to do since it was pouring outside, and we had also heard that the food floor was even better than Sogo, and it will never get old to explore the food floors of these places. I have to say that I like the layout and the selection at Sogo more, though we have heard that Takashimaya has slightly better food vendors and a more experienced green grocer. We picked out fish to go with our bok choy, and also two small French cakes for dessert. Japanese desserts are really nothing to write home about in my opinion, so the few times that we have wanted sweets, we look for the French patisseries in these department stores. French desserts are never a mistake :)

We also made our final trip to a Japanese toy department and ended up buying a few more things for Connor. We are all kind of crazy for Anpanman at this point, as we started watching the cartoons at night and I now know the names of all the major characters. It is hard not to love a series where the characters heads are made of bread and can be replaced by a baker when something goes wrong. Connor got to add to his toy collection an Anpanman shovel and bucket for the beach, and the most awesome toy yet - an Anpanman firetruck with lights and sirens, and an Anpanman fireman who yells out things in Japanese as he saves people from fires. I never want to forget Connor's face when he first sat down to play with this toy.

We visited a well-known stationary store and picked out a few souvenirs, then made our way home through the wet and the cold streets into our cozy little apartment for the third to last night in Yokohama.

On The Mend

We think the worst of Connor's cold is behind us now - but it packed quite a punch! Yesterday was a tough day for him, with a cough that interfered with his naps by waking him up every ten minutes, and lots of congestion. He was pretty miserable, but strangely this kid does not ever wake up at night, apparently not even when he is really sick, so at least he caught a solid 13 hours of sleep there. We just stayed very close to home yesterday afternoon, with a short trip out to walk down Zaki Mall and then back home for a 5:30pm bedtime for the sick kid (he was ready!). Things are starting to look up today, and hopefully even more so tomorrow. We have taken a short hiatus from our daily adventures to tend to the little guy, so I thought I would post a couple of videos instead. We hope to visit Takashimaya tomorrow, then take our trip to Tokyo on Thursday, and finally wrap up our time in Yokohama with a visit to Sankeien Garden on Friday to view the cherry blossoms which officially have started to bloom!

For now, enjoy the videos :)

Connor has learned to drink from his cup:

And he has just started crawling on all fours as an alternative to the inchworm-drag move. Please excuse the sideways video, my iPhoto has a bug that will not let me rotate videos. Need to download a newer version!:

And he has also learned that gelato is a very delicious treat:

Sunday Afternoon - Local Style

Poor Connor is still sick - even a little worse today than yesterday.  We think it's just your standard cold, but a nasty one, and he did have a very slight fever last night so we started giving him Infant Tylenol (huge thanks to Sylvia for the tip to pack that!)  Fever is gone today, but the other symptoms are still in full swing.  We postponed our lunch plans with Dylan's business associate and his family because we didn't want to spread any germs and also we wanted to just keep things low-key and close to home for Connor.  We decided to walk to Yamashita Park and see what it's like on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.  We passed by a street performer with a nice-sized crowd of locals watching, then a ton of families picnicking, playing frisbee and enjoying the sunny t-shirt weather.  Next we checked out the bottom deck of the Hikawa Maru (fascinating history here) and purchased Seventeen brand ice cream from a vending machine. Finally as we ventured to the northeastern end of the park, we listened to some live music that was part of the Kanagawa Music Summit, whose slogan is "All You Need is Music, Music is All You Need."  Connor even got a balloon that made him excited at first, then angry, and we ended up having to pop it so that it would stop teasing him.  He seemed to really enjoy getting out and seeing the sights, and we are really hoping that he's feeling better tomorrow.