Introducing our newest family member - LIZZY, the spotted leopard gecko!

Lizzy - her first night in her new home - Jan 4, 2014!

 Soooo, Ryan, our little animal-lover has been talking about wanting a pet for quite a while... and for the past few months, he kept talking about geckos (or "echo" as he pronounced it, which amused me to no end).

So, as Christmas and birthdays approached, I had ZERO good ideas for a gift for Ryan.  As desperation set in, as to what we could give our sweet little boy for Christmas and his birthday, I decided to take his desire for a gecko/echo more seriously.  I started where any self-respecting person starts these days, Google, and I quickly learned that geckos are considered an ideal pet for young children.  Whaaaaat??? Who knew?  Well, apparently Ryan knew, but I was clueless.  So, after several weeks of intense internet research, Kevin and I decided that getting a gecko would be just grand.

As with everything else here, that one decision left us with a few more hurdles to climb.  Just exactly where in the heck do you buy such an animal in Tokyo?  Here began a very interesting process.  My internet search (in Japanese) proved not very fruitful, so I just started asking random people.  Some moms looked at me like I was certifiably insane (which I'm used to these days) and others seemed politely amused.  Still others seemed downright excited by the idea.  Within hours of me asking a  friend from soccer, she had e-mailed me a list of several pet shops in Tokyo (turns out she had had a pet salamander for 10 years so she understood the situation more than others).

Then came the fun part.  Calling these pet shops to ask IN JAPANESE if they had spotted leopard geckos, high-yellow type (the least expensive species), if they expected to have them in January, how old they were, the price, etc.  Based on these calls, I narrowed it down to about three different pet shops, scattered all around Tokyo, and over a span of several weeks in late November / early December, I visited all three.

Completely unrelated, but I have the oddest assortment of Japanese vocabulary than any non-fluent foreigner I know.  Dragonfly larva in Japanese - check.  Spotted leopard gecko in Japanese - check.  In case you're wondering, Lizzy is a hyoumon tokage modoki (ひょうもんとかげもどき).  At about the same time as I'm calling all the pet shops in Tokyo, Kevin tells me that someone from work overheard him on the phone making dinner reservations in Japanese and was VERY impressed.  What the Hades?  Kevin gets kudos for saying "4 people at 8 o'clock" in Japanese and I'm having to ask questions about care of a spotted leopard gecko species.  Seriously?  Where is justice in this world?

Back to the Lizzy story.  I also asked a friend in my Japanese class and it turns out a guy in her lab has 10 geckos and random lizards and he was happy to recommend a huge reptile shop in Tokyo (my friend is an animal behavior researcher at Tokyo University, mostly dogs and horses though, not lizards).  Unfortunately, this shop is waaaaay on the other side of Tokyo but it's added to the top of the list.  So, I visited about 3 different places that had these geckos and I was smitten.  They let me hold them and I became completely and utterly convinced that Ryan would love one (or maybe I was just convinced that I would love one)!

One last hurdle.  Turns out that the life span for this kind of gecko can be up to TWENTY years, so here I am on the phone with the US Fish and Wildlife Service (thankfully this was in English) to find out if and how one might import this kind of animal from Japan to the US.  Assuming we end up back in the US within this pet's lifespan (ie 20 years), I had to know that we could bring it back with us.  I was not about to make Ryan leave his pet behind this time.  I spoke to a very kind Fish and Wildlife agent and she explained that we can import it from Japan to the US, that we just have to make an appointment with them at our port of entry to inspect her (free during regular business hours and an overtime charge if we land after normal business hours).  No quarantine or anything, so that was good.  One potentially tricky thing might be finding an airline or flight that will transport her, but that's a bridge we will have to cross later...

Lizzy's cozy little cage...

With that last piece of the puzzle in place, we made the plan to give Ryan the gecko accessories for Christmas, and the actual gecko for his birthday (after we got back from our trip to Thailand).  We also planned on taking Ryan to the pet shop on his birthday to see the geckos, but our thought at the time was that we wouldn't actually get the gecko until a month later after returning from our trip to LA for Dan's wedding. Ummm.... didn't quite work out that way.

On Ryan's birthday, we headed to the reptile shop of choice.  It was about an hour away by train... and they had a lot of geckos!  We all went there with the understanding that we would not be getting a gecko on that day.  Ryan actually seemed fine with that - he was acting way, way more mature than me.   Ryan had immediately selected the gecko that he liked and I pointed out that it might not be here when we come back, so we might end up buying a different one.  I might have over-emphasized that point out of my own self-interest.  For me, it had been m-o-n-t-h-s of waiting and anticipation for Ryan to get this pet, and maybe, just maybe, I sort-of-kind-of-encouraged us to go ahead and get the gecko.   Maybe...

So, we brought her home!  We learned that she had been bred in the US and that she was a female (?).  On the walk and train ride home, the name Lizzy was suggested and it stuck!

We left the reptile shop with a few key pieces of information - she needed to eat 3-5 live crickets per day and the temperature of her cage needed to be between 28-32 degrees Celsius (82-90 degrees Fahrenheit).  We already had her cage, the undercage heating mat, the cage thermometer, her dry shelter, and her wet shelter.  But we also came home with 50 live crickets that day.

First step was to try to get her cage warm enough in our freezing cold house.  Nothing we were doing seemed to be working; the thermometer was not reading more than 18 degrees.  We even put an electric blanket around her cage, but to no avail.  I went to bed that night fearing that we would wake up to an unhappy or unhealthy and very cold gecko.  The next morning, I called the reptile shop and explained that the heater was not keeping her cage warm enough.  Through this conversation, we learned that we had the thermometer on the wrong setting - why it is supposed to be set on the "in water" setting and not the "air" setting is something I still do not understand, but once we changed the thermometer setting, the temperature was much, much closer to the correct range.  Whew!  That was a close one...

A few fun tidbits of Lizzy's life (and most spotted leopard geckos):

• She was 3 months old when we brought her home, but Ryan has decided that her birthday will be the day she first came to live with us - which just happens to be his birthday, January 4. 
• They told us that she might not eat for a week while she was getting used to her new environment.  Lucky for us, she ate on Day 2.  
• She sheds her skin every 2-3 weeks - this is why she needs a "wet shelter," a small box in her cage that is high in humidity and aids in shedding her skin.  Just before she sheds, she turns sort of a milky white color and within a day or 2 later, she is back to her normal color.  Geckos eat their skin so as not to leave any traces behind to alert possible predators.
• She is quite a good cricket hunter!  The reptile shop guys told us that we should remove the crickets' legs to make it easier for her to catch them.  We did that for the first few days, but quickly learned that she is perfectly capable of catching the crickets on her own, so we stopped doing that.
• She swallows the crickets whole, and she needs the surface heat to help her digest the whole crickets.  And the crickets she eats are not at all small - they are about the size of her head.  She also stores fat reserves in her tail - and clearly she is not underfed as her tail is HUGE, as in about the same width as her body.
• She often licks her lips with her long tongue after she eats a gecko - it's rather amusing to watch!
• Unlike most other geckos, spotted leopard geckos have moveable eyelids.  They also sometimes clean their eyelids with their tongue - also very interesting to watch.
• Geckos can lose their tails and regenerate new ones - it's a defense mechanism, but so far, Lizzy's tail is doing just fine.
• Leopard geckos in the wild originate from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northwestern India.
• She always poops in the exact same place in her cage EVERYTIME - this makes cleaning up quite easy.  For some reason, she has chosen her spot to be inside her rock shelter.  As Kevin said, "apparently she is used to indoor plumbing."
• She likes to come out of her cage and she seems quite happy to climb up your sleeve, sit on your shoulder, and climb back down.  She sometimes stands on her hind legs and tries to climb up and out of her cage - Ryan thinks this means she wants to be held.
• Lizzy was 5 inches long (head to tail) when we brought her home.  We just measured her a few days ago (not quite 2 months later) and she was 7 inches long.  They are typically 8-10 inches when full-grown.

Ryan takes great care of Lizzy, feeding her, cleaning her cage, and often building her playgrounds in various cardboard boxes.  

She is a hit and a fun new member of our family!

And just for fun, here's Lizzy starring in her first movie!  Enjoy... (and just for a little background, this is a clip from a DVD we made for for 2 1/2 year old cousin Stephen and he loves dinosaurs)

Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunty Susan Visit

TRUMPET FANFARE!!!!! THE GRANDMA, GRANDPA, AND AUNTY SUSAN VISIT.

We waited a long time to make our visit to see Ethan, Ryan, Kevin and Stephanie in Japan and you have all waited a long time for this blog.  As we sit in frigid weather back in Geneva, it seems like a long time since we were dripping with perspiration as we got off our long 13 hour flight on ANA and went through customs.  Boy, were we glad to see Kevin waiting for us....especially because we were carrying 3 extra big bags and not maneuvering too quickly.  The train ride was cool and relaxing and I think we all took a little snooze somewhere along the line.  We mercifully were treated to a taxi ride from the train station home and as expected the taxi driver had on gloves and a very clean but small taxi.  Cars are very clean and actually no old cars on the streets.  The older the car the more taxes you pay on it.  The cars seemed to be parked in tiny little garages and the people drive them on weekends only.  We were quite mesmerized and completely lost and anticipation built up to see Stephanie, Ethan and Ryan and their new home! Kevin impressed us with his directions to the taxi driver, he sounded quite confident but later we learned who the really impressive Japanese speakers were in the family.  I was also amazed at Stephanie's ability to sound just like a Japanese lady whenever speaking to someone.  Her inflections and tone were right on, so if she didn't know a word, they still knew what she was trying to say and she seemed to communicate well with all the people she had to deal with and she has a LOT to deal with.

The family home (the one in back)....amazing how the houses are laid out to conserve space and although the front is small, it is quite spacious and has a large kitchen and a yard that is behind the house to the right.  They were doing a tear down right next door to the house in front, so it was interesting to see how they build.  They are constantly doing tear downs and rebuilding according to new codes etc.  Oh yes, did I tell you we experienced a typhoon and an earthquake while in Japan.  No big deal......hmmm....longest I have felt an earthquake last...although the house felt very safe.

The Japanese have clever ways to be surrounded by greenery because there is not a lot of room for gardens and yards.

Dinner out and the food fest begins.  But at least the first night we were comfortable sitting with wells for our legs.  Stephanie told us that the last time they ate here, they came out with a bag of veggies for them when they left.  Sure enough, we each got a bag of fresh veggies (carrots, etc.)  when we left.

You will notice that a lot of our adventures included eating food with gusto!  Both Ethan and Ryan love the food and they are good eaters and try everything.  Quite expensive too!

One of the first places we wanted to see was called "Kidzania" and from the descriptions we heard it was going to be amazing.  Kevin and Stephanie wanted us to feel the whole true adventure  of taking the kids to "Kidzania"  so they went on a "date" and left us with Ethan and Ryan...since they have been there quite a few times already.  In order to reserve tickets, you can go on- line and choose a morning session or an afternoon session.  On the day of the outing, we had tickets for the afternoon session which opened at 4:30pm.  Stephanie left around 9:00am to get a (low) number for us to stand in line.  Kidzania is in a huge indoor shopping mall and the lines wind along the third and fourth floors.  Everyone is instructed to stand in line according to the number you received that day.  Stephanie got us a pretty low number, in the teens) .  We got in line around 3:00.  You left open spaces for people who were not there yet, and attendants kept the order pretty efficiently.  At around 4, the natives get restless and the line starts moving.  Than we were on our own.  Ethan and Ryan had chosen to go to the candy making store first so we hurried over there and they were put on a list and were told to come back at 6:00 for their session.
This place is truly amazing.  It is like walking in to a Main Street of a little town.  All little store front type businesses and a fire station, police station, bus station, drs., hospital, a dentist office, a veterinarian... anything you can imagine.  The sessions are timed to do what you would do in playing the role of a baker, candy maker, pizza maker, a store sales clerk, bottling  Coke, photo-journalists, a soccer camp where they take videos of your shots, after getting instructions from coaches.  The fire station puts out a pretty realistic fire, with hoses and real water.  The police guard and walk around to make sure all is safe.  I hope the following photos capture the absolute genius of this place.  As I said, the boys chose to do the candy making together...(they get the box of candy they make...a very popular brand).  Ryan went to do the soccer video, and he was on a construction crew, that was doing utility work.  Ethan did news and commentated on a radio station and was a clerk at one of the famous dept. stores in Japan, also a policeman.  The people who instruct and help with gettiing the jobs done are pretty thorough teachers and each session is about an hour or so.  The afternoon session was over at 9:00....can you imagine how tired we (the adults) were?

The line and you can see across the way, it winds throughout the floors of the Mall.

Ethan getting ready to be a store clerk

I would buy anything from this handsome man.

Ryan getting ready to make his DVD shooting at the soccer net

Ethan getting ready to patrol.  There is also a court room in police station and they also choose a captain, guess who.

Ryan getting instruction on taking care of utility poles

A determined crew.

They all get a chance to go up and work the crane and simulate some emergencies.

Finally, the candy making factory.   Can you imagine the work to put a place like this together?

All these uniforms and hats and the safety and sanitary rules that are followed!

 The fire engine for the town and the crew gets to put out a fire with real water hoses.  Ethan and Ryan did not do this one.  Although they have been here several times, they can choose what they want to do each time and the activities are unending.

Ethan speaking on his radio show....you get a disk of his commentating

I think the rest of the blog will not be so detailed but just could not get over this place!  I will be dividing the rest of this blog in groupings...you must realize I had thousands of photos to choose from and so I think it best to show you our trip in photos....that's what you want to see anyway and I will add comments as we go along.
Our other trips to Japan were more for business and the experience of being in a Japanese home, and living a typical family life there was new to us so we really wanted to get to see what life was like for Kevin, Stephanie, Ethan and Ryan.  A lot of adjustments for them and they are doing beautifully, taking full advantage of what this new adventure has to offer, as you can tell by Stephanie's blogs.  We also had adjustments to make and reality to come face to face to...like sleeping on the floor on futons, no central air or heat, they don't need a car so they walk, bike and take the train everywhere.  They navigate really well and we got used to the walking and taking the train.  I still don't bike....so my encounters with bikes was to try and stay away from them as old and young pedaled all around us on the sidewalks.  Hundreds on the streets, especially with the little seats on the back, going to and from school, stores, houses...everywhere!  We enjoyed the little shopping streets with open storefronts with everything beautifully displayed, like going to a street fair everyday as you walked to the train station.  There was a florist with huge beautiful, unusual blooms that had one wall as a climbing wall for the kids to climb.  We fell in love with a huge department store called Dai Ei,  similar to Target, that had everything including a little game section for the kids to play games and taiko(drums)  and spend their money.  Also the 100 Yen store that had everything...but for only $1.00.  Food was beautifully displayed everywhere and we took home delicious prepared "bentos" frequently.  Kevin and Stephanie also cooked their specialties for us and Susan, Stephanie and I took a cooking class and made the dinner one night.
Summer in Japan has Fairs and Markets and fun things to do every week and great food to eat.

The kitchen is quite big and Kevin cooks his one dish specialties and we eat in the dining/family/living room on a Japanese table, sitting on cushions.  In the winter the table is actually heated, as is their fancy toilet.  It has so many buttons to push for all kinds of luxuries.  Heat, warm water rinse..gentle or strong, and innovative and conservation smart...at the top of the tank is a water faucet for you to wash your hands and the water then goes into the tank to use to flush.  Clever!  Oh, yes and a Japanese style bath, which is a room that has a shower and a deep bath tub to sit in after you take a shower and clean yourself.

Stephanie's creative genius as she has to prepare these "bento" boxes for Ryan for lunch.

Climbing wall in a Florist shop.  Just stop by as you are walking to train station and do a wall climb.

At the (Dai Ei) dept. store you can use yen to play a game that gives you little tokens if you win.  The only value of the tokens is to use in these games to help you win more tokens, but spending your money each time.

This the the "target" department store that has a game/toy department where the kids can spend time and money, put your coin in to play the drums.

Ryan in this cute hat and he gets a ride from Mom to school everyday and gets picked up via same transportation.  About a 1/2 hour bike ride each way.

We went walking, walking everywhere!

More Fairs and Food coming up. 

This was a special " Fish" Festival for a certain kind of fish they grilled.

Along the streets are parkways that have benches and fun animals to sit and rest and play.

Had to visit Hatchiko, the dog's monument at Shibuya train station.  If you haven't read the book (really?) you need to.  Starring Richard Gere and he looks great and the story is a tear-jerker.

Yes, those are touch screens to order your sushi.  Really good Sushi for being a novelty restaurant.

Little plates, far too easy to eat a lot of sushi!

Besides eating we visited both Ethan and Ryan's schools....a rude awakening for a teacher.  Ethan's teacher is with those kids all day, including taking them outside for gym and giving them a hot lunch that is brought to their classroom.  She has children helpers who take turns helping to serve and she eats right there with them.  Ryan has a couple of teachers doing activities with them but in no particular schedule or order.  The children go from one thing to another and all in one room and all 20 or more, exuberant and loud!  They have a great time.  Kei and sat among the activity and were ready after an hour.  Of course, there also was soccer practice, and Ethan's soccer tournament, and English tutoring, calligraphy, Japanese tutoring.....we made some but not all.

On to some trips we took.  To Nikko for a weekend in the mountains.  Which was a nice relief from the hot weather in Tokyo and a fun trip for the boys to what they called "Ninja Land".  It is really called Edo Wonderland,  a cultural park that historically reenacts life back in the days of the Shogun from about 1603 to 1867 and has ninjas, geishas, all in period costumes, shows, activities with the weapons and cultural arts classes.  The Edo period is completely recreated in this village and another attraction that is mind boggling.  Again, Kevin and Stephanie wanted us to experience the true joy of being grandparents and aunt and went on a romantic getaway for the day.  As we walked through the park, we stopped for the kids to do archery,  throw those ninja pinwheel knives...these were games for prizes but actually using the real weapons.  We saw Ninja battles, action shows and a beautiful water show where geisha's spout water rhythmically from hands and feet that is indescribable and we couldn't take pictures.  Of course, there was food....grilled skewers and rice cakes and all yummy stuff.  The first day of our weekend we did take in some other scenic spots and some beautiful photos.

Edo was the capital before Tokyo during the Edo period.  It was a culturally advanced and was a large metropolis with a huge population.

Beautiful red bridge at entrance to park with shrines.  Did not take too many photos of temples and shrines....they all look alike.

There was a beautiful waterfall here....we are in the mountains so you see them cascading from high.

Sunset on Lake Chuzenjiko in Nikko

Something about the sign of the Ninja?

The battle was to knock off the small beach balls attached to the warriors clothes before he knocked yours off.

Back to Tokyo and more adventures.
Kei and I also got up at 2am to go to the famous Shijiki (?) Fish Market.  We got there by taxi to wait in line, only 60 people a day, in 2 groups get in to see the fish auction of huge Tuna.  You end up getting in line so early that everyone is down sitting on the floor for a couple of hours to wait but if you don't get there in time, you got up at 2 for nothing.  They just turn you away once they get their quota of crazy sightseers.

We were warned to stay behind the ropes, be quiet and don't point your finger or wave your hand or you might end up with a huge tuna at a hefty price!

Of course, after the tour you have to go and eat sushi at 6 AM.  But it is really FRESH.

Not that appealing for someone (Jean) who doesn't like to eat fish.  But, it is so fresh that you do NOT smell any fish smells at all.  Also is really cold...these fish are frozen.

Saved the best for the last.  In the summer, the temples move their portable shrines to different locations, now the why and details of this is not understood to us (foreigners).  It is called "Mikoshi". Stephanie has asked but the people who invited her to these festivals have no clue why they do this.  They only know it is a great time, good food (free) and lots of drinking.  You will see the portable shrines, they have one for children (which was moved on one day)  and one for adults (moved on another day....thus you have 2 days for having fun!)  These are heavy, heavy shrines, made elaborately, gilded gold and ornate with decorations.  The adult one has lights because the parade to move it lasts into the night.  They rest on two by fours that are then carried on the shoulders of men and women on each side.  There are drums, and chants and shouts to keep the cadence and if you don't , you get stepped on.  They meander the streets of town to get to the destination but you stop for a rest along the way and this is where the food and drink comes in.  There are sponsors who provide really great food, skewers of grilled stuff, noodles, sweets, candy for the kids and lots of beer and sake.  They rest a lot and so the parade takes a few hours to complete also, you do have to dodge  cars and stop traffic as you go along.  As you are marching along, you get people who come in and out of the line to take their place and shoulder the load.  Even I got a chance to participate...however, if you are short, all you do is get between tall people and just hold on the the wood.  Kevin and Stephanie, Ethan and Ryan did this last year and they asked if we would like to join them in this festival.  This was a lot of fun and a highlight of our trip.  It was the ultimate blending in to the new culture and neighborhood and we are glad we got the experience of seeing them thoroughly take part and be around friends they have made.

The kids shrine.

Kevin, Stephanie, Ethan, Ryan and me with their friends who treated us and welcomed us so nicely.

I think this is the end.  But you can see what a wonderful time we had and the memories we will cherish.  This is but a tiny piece of recollections....if you want more.....no, I don't think you want more!
Grandma, Grandpa and Susan....but written and produced by Grandma Jean