Our First Foray Outside of Tokyo... to Kamakura!

After a month and a half in Tokyo, we were itching to explore a little beyond.  Not that we've even scratched the surface of Tokyo itself, but we were just ready to see outside the city - even if only for the day.  So, we hopped on a train and headed to Kamakura.  It's only about an hour away by train and we had some great ocean and surfer views on the trip out.

The best way to sum up Kamakura (based on a whoppin' 8 hours there) is to describe it as a little sea-side-tourist-town-Japanese-style.  Nice views of the ocean.  Lots of little shops.  Tons of street food (and I'm pretty sure we tried almost all of it).  Very crowded with lots of Japanese tourists - surprisingly few foreigners.  Oh yeah, and a Big Buddha!

The Daibutsu ("Big Buddha") was quite impressive.  Kids enjoyed taking pictures of it on their Leapster Explorers.  We paid a whoppin' 20 yen (25cents - adults only, free for kids) to go inside the Buddha, where we learned all about the amazing feat of its construction - it was built in 1252.  Also, the story goes that there was a large earthquake and tsunami and the adjoining temple was completely destroyed, yet the Buddha remained intact.  Just sayin'.

Explored the Hase-dera temple and gardens.  Kids were most excited about the koi, as is par for the course.  There was a nice rock path up the hill, which afforded great views over the town and the seaside, several different walking paths, many, many flowers, and a cave to explore that had 16 children chiseled out of the rock walls (the Benten-kutsu cave).  There were many lit candles in the cave as well, adding to the general mystique.

Kids with the Jizo stone statues...

There is also a very touching part of the temple grounds that is meant to "comfort the souls of unborn children."  There are thousands of little stone statues, some wearing knitted baby hats or bibs, whose purpose it is to comfort the souls of the unborn children.

Several weeks ago, I had read about this part of the Japanese culture but had not realized that this was an element of our temple visit today.   It kind of caught me off guard and I was surprised by my own emotions.

We finished our day with a trip to one more shrine - the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine (and a few more street food snacks - more on that later).  There, Kevin and the kids partook in the cleansing away of the bad spirits....

Washing the bad spirits away...

Perhaps one too many stops for the little guy?

Our Tokyo Abode

So, after much much (and then some more) searching and deliberating, we FINALLY chose a house.  Western and warm or Japanese and cold?  We decided to honor the spirit of our experience in Japan and forgo some of the physical comforts.  It feels right, the house is becoming a home, and when I look around, I am constantly reminded that this is a cultural adventure, not just a place we decided to move.

Just today, the kids were saying, as we walked down the road, "I really like our house here."  That's all I needed.  Though, I must admit, they both commented over and over again while we were looking and discussing houses that this was the "smelly house."  It did have a strong fresh hay smell from the tatami at first (that they insisted smelled like fish), but that seems to be long forgotten.

An aside: most homes in Tokyo don't have central heat, but many of the newer homes have radiant heat or at least built-in heaters /air conditioners in most of the rooms.  Someone told us that it's often colder inside Japanese homes than it is outside.  I didn't believe them - how is that even possible, I thought?  But after 3 weeks in the house, let me assure you that it is indeed true.  Our living room and the kids' room has heat (and we have since installed a heater in our room) so we spend 90% of our waking hours in the living room.  I could even see my breath while fixing dinner in our unheated kitchen... it's kind of like camping - only we're in the middle of Tokyo.  Details...

And to top it off, Tokyo had a snowstorm on our move-in day.  So, there we were, decked out in our rainboots and umbrellas - the best snow gear we had - trudging 1 km from the train station through the snow with roller bags and duffel bags.  We were a sight to behold...

Our new home is a traditional Japanese house and in fact, it is the ONLY traditional house that we could find. Every other house we looked at was as Western as could be - I mean, we might as well have been living in Fremont. And apparently, most Japanese prefer Western-style homes...

Here is R showing off his new bike and also shows the entrance to our house - we are literally behind a big orange house, affectionately termed the "dreamsicle house" by Kevin. All the bedrooms have grass (tatami) floors and rice paper window screens. We even have a guest room so you're all welcome! First visitor wins a prize...

Kids share a room and have a "ninja" bed - you gotta love Craigslist. We went to someone's house to buy 4 Kung Fu Panda books and the woman sooo loved the kids that she gave us the "ninja bed" set (loft bed, dresser, desk, bookshelf) for free - SCORE!

A few other random pics - our room (sleeping on a futon - all of our new Japanese friends are very surprised by this), the kids play and study room, and the guest room (currently empty, but we're getting a double futon tomorrow so it will be all ready for visitors).

Guest room, awaiting its first visitor

Kids' play room and study room

Our room

The other great thing about the house is that it has a small bit of outdoor space - which has already been a godsend for the kids.  It's not big and not much at all compared to what we left behind, but it also feeds the soul in a very important way.  We can look outside and see some green and even have 2 beautiful trees that are just starting to bloom.  We originally thought they were cherry blossom trees, but that may have been wishful thinking.  We even have grand plans to plant a small garden - as vegetables are craaazy expensive.  Any gardening experts who want to share their knowledge?  I'm a novice, I'm afraid to admit.

Our backyard on move-in day.  No snow since then - but the kids had a great time having a snowball fight while we spent the day unpacking.

Fun Stuff in Tokyo so far...

Our first several weeks in Tokyo consisted largely of somewhat-unfun activities - especially if you're 4 and 6 years old. Looking at apartments, houses, and more apartments. Standing in lines at government offices registering to be an "alien" (ok, so the kids kinda liked that one), setting up cell phones, trekking all over Tokyo buying used stuff off of craigslist, and the list goes on.

But, we tried to spice it up with some fun adventures along the way...

• Hachiko -  a dog statue at the Shibuya train station that honors the story of a very loyal Japanese dog, who came to the train station every day for TEN years waiting for his master to come home (the master had died - check out the book or the movie!)

• Several visits to temples - R has the deep, respectful bow down to a science. He got some good coaching from Hibachan.

• Checked out the Tokyo Tower - during the day and at night. For any Lightning McQueen fans, this is where Tow Mater went in the Mater's Tall Tales DVD, and thus, it's a big hit for our boys.

• Explored many a Japanese garden... and many more to come, I'm guessing...

• And who knew there would be a Denny's in Tokyo? Kids were beyond thrilled (though the menu is absolutely nothing like at home).

Settling in... to blog or not to blog?

So, we've been in Japan for 7 weeks now, and in our new house for 3. It's starting to feel like home... the house, that is, not yet the country.

I'm not too sure about this whole blog thing, but I figured it was worth a try to let folks know how we're doing and what random daily adventures we manage to find with which to entertain ourselves.

But.... my biggest blogging fears are

1) that it will be a one-way communication street. I survive (or at least thrive) on hearing from friends and family, so please, please don't stop e-mailing / skyping me. I'm a little old school that way. Or else, I might have to stop this blog. And I've only just begun, so that seems rather unfortunate.

2) I won't keep it up, which is quite possible...