Trip to Japan: Day 6

Day 6 of our trip was probably our most uneventful day. It was the day before we were supposed to leave and it decided to rain. We decided to head back into Tokyo and go to a market called Ameyoko.

Ameyoko used to be the site of the black market after World War II. The market runs along/underneath the subway there and they sell a little bit of everything. Like fish for instance...

Because it rained we decided to buy an umbrella so Gabriel didn't get super wet. Gabriel was so cute though because he would not, under any circumstances, let go of that umbrella once we put it up. 

I did not have an umbrella though... what can I say, I'm too cheap to buy something that I can't even take back with me! I would rather just get rained on.

They had these weird gaming buildings there. They were a couple of stories high and were just lined with these games and were super loud. Josh said he had heard about them before and them being super popular but he couldn't remember why...

... and I shopped a little bit! I got a cute purse, a door hanging, and Josh got some cuff links because one of his shirts never came with buttons, odd, I know...

Then we headed back to the hotel and actually ate dinner there! 

Ok, so it may have sounded odd when I say that we 'actually' ate dinner at our hotel. See we try not to eat out much on vacation. It saves so much money to just find a grocery store and buy your food there instead. And yes, I said grocery shopping on vacation! When you vacation on a budget you need to find little ways to save money, and this was one of those things for us! 

Trip to Japan: Day 5

On our next day in Japan we decided to make the very long trip out to Hakone. Hakone is an area outside of Tokyo that many tourist or locals of Tokyo go to just to escape the busyness of the city. It's a very beautiful place and on a clear day you can actually see Mt. Fuji, but it was not clear the day that we went but we still had so much fun!

First we had to take a bus into Tokyo. Normally we would take the train but we wanted to get an early start and the hotel that we stayed at had shuttle buses into town where the train station was but none of them were early enough. So the bus was the better option for us. It took a little over an hour to get to Tokyo Station and then we hopped on the train there for the next hour and a half and made our way to a place called Odawara. Getting to Hakone is not easy, it's way up the mountains and it's kind of like a national park so there were lots of changing modes of transportation. Hakone is also very famous for their natural hot springs and there are many places that you can go to enjoy those. We didn't think that was a very good idea with a baby though so we enjoyed everything else Hakone had to offer.

Gabriel thought he would be helpful and show Josh where to go on the map!

At one point we had to hop on this very old fashion subway line that went up the mountain. I'm not kidding when I say old fashion either. This thing had a hard time getting up parts of the mountain and we always had to stop and switch tracks because the track kind of went zig zag up the hill. 

We totally did not mind the old fashion subway ride or how long it took. It was amazing to be honest with you. Josh and I love nature and we just watched out the window us getting higher and higher and Gabriel loved it too!

The track was also 'old fashion' you could say, meaning it looked like this...

... most of the time and some very beautiful old bridges and old tunnels that looked like this...

...sorry about the quality of the pictures. Though we were at the front of the train the majority of the time, I had to take pictures through the window which always created a glare. 

We hopped on yet another train line and literally seemed to go straight up the mountain. It was very steep at times! But when we got to the top it was so beautiful!

Then we got to hop on one of these, a rope-line car... Josh and I both agreed that we think our moms would have been freaking out when we were on this...

... and then when we got to this point I started to freak out a little...

... and then when we started going down hill I was done freaking out but it made Josh nervous to be going down hill.

Gabe was cool with it though!

When we finally got down to the bottom the rope-line dropped us right off at Lake Ashi. We were then able to hop on one of these...

... old Japanese pirate tour ships!

Ahar matey!!!

And we actually got a family picture from a nice Japanese lady when we were on the deck!

Cruising across the lake...

... and we saw another pirate ship going the other way...

... and then my camera died:( But after that we just took many modes of transportation again and went back to the hotel! It was a fun day!

Trip to Japan: Day 4

On day four of our vacation we went to the biggest city in the entire world, Tokyo! We learned of this cool little place called Asakusa. Asakusa is the center of Tokyo's shitamachi, "low city", one of Tokyo's few districts, which have preserved a certain atmosphere of the old Tokyo. 

For many centuries, Asakusa used to be Tokyo's leading entertainment district. During the Edo Period, when the district was still located outside the city limits, Asakusa was the site of kabuki theaters. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, modern types of entertainment, including movies, set foot in Asakusa. Large parts of Asakusa were destroyed in the air raids of World War II. While the area around the rebuilt Sensoji (the temple) has regained its former popularity after the war, the same cannot be said for Asakusa's entertainment district.

It had a very large street with a canopy over it and along both sides were tons and tons of little shops. 

Since Asakusa is one of the few destricts that still strives to preserve old Tokyo you can find things like professional old fashion doll makers, wooden shoe makers, and candy makers. It was pretty cool.

We then headed to Asakusa's main attraction, a very popular Buddhist temple, Sensoji, which was built in the 7th century. 

There was a shrine at the front of the temple but tourist were not allowed in so this was the best picture I could get of it. 

At the front of the shrine and the temple there were these huge metal containers that people would throw money in and pray to the shrine... we felt a little weird being there and watching people do there thing but it was interesting. 

There was some very cool paintings on the ceiling though, I always wonder how long it took people to paint things like this and how uncomfortable it must have been doing so...

Anyway. The we made our way to Tokyo Tower!

Close to Tokyo Tower we found this cute little set up that was kind of hidden behind some bushes. I thought it was pretty! 

Tokyo Tower is 333 meters high and is 13 meters taller than its model, the Eiffel Tower of Paris, and the world's tallest self-supporting steel tower. It was completed in the year 1958 as a symbol for Japan's rebirth as a major economic power. There were two main observatories, we went up the the first one, 150 meters and got to see all of this...

You really got to see how big Tokyo actually was! We had planned on going all the way to the top but that was only if the weather really good because we wanted to see Mt. Fuji, but it was too cloudy. This is us in the tower...

They did have a few places that had observation windows that you could walk on top of glass and look straight down... there was a lady there that reminded me of my mom... the lady was freaking out and I think my mom would have too =D Love you mom:)

Then it was time to go home and Gabriel fell asleep in Josh's arms! 

When you travel with a baby you always have to try to make it back to your hotel early. So to some people it may seem like we don't do that much in one day but it's as much as you can do with a baby. That and transportation took forever in Japan and you have to walk a lot which kills time too. It didn't bother us though, Josh and I are pretty laid back and like to relax on vacation so getting back to the hotel early was perfect for us! 

Trip to Japan: Day 3

The day after we arrived in Japan, Wednesday, we headed to a place called Onjuku. It is a small town on the edge of the Pacific Ocean.

We wanted to head there within the first couple of days because there was a tropical storm right off the coast of Japan and there was supposed to be some big waves coming in because of it. I also wanted to just see the ocean once and for all. No Sea of Japan, no Mediterranean Sea, no Lake Superior (ok, that one is not comparable), but just THE ocean and I finally did so I had to get a picture of it!

We had to take the train of course...

...and we found out that some of the trains in Japan are really nasty and super old and really just not comfortable. You can kind of see it in this picture of my men!

And then we walked around and tried to find a place to eat. We were really surprised to find out that considering this was supposed to be a tourist town, there were hardly any restaurants so we ended up going to this place...

...it ended up being the best decision EVER! Oh. My. Gosh. They had amazing food! Oh my! Honestly, when you haven't had really any good food for almost 6 months and then you have something like gravy and meatloaf and green beans... oh so good! I almost cried it was so good... or not, but whatever, you get the point!

Then we headed down to the beach!

We found this camel statue thing that was pretty cool and it was right along the beach. I don't know what was up with this town but they had a ton of camels everywhere... we thought it was a little odd. Gabriel was very tired and didn't feel like looking at the camera though...

...but we got him to look at me once...

...and by the time he got to Daddy it was pretty well time to fall asleep...

So underneath this bridge that heads to the beach, do you notice all the little dots in the water?

Well all those little dots are these honkin' fish!

The little canal they are swimming in came right from the ocean and the fish would come up to the top of the water near where you would stand over the bridge and wait to be fed. Unfortunately we didn't have any food to give them:(

So then we spent a little bit of time at the beach, we found some very unique sea shells and Gabriel finally fell asleep.

Then we walked back to the train station and hopped on the train. These pictures are from by the train station. I wasn't kidding when I said the town was small and it was very out there, this was the scenery for most the the train ride. 

We had a ton of fun and we were super glad that we took the long train ride all the way out there!