For our 5th anniversary, we went on a date. We first went to get coffee (Leanne loves her pumpkin lattes). Then we walked to the only Mexican restaurant in Misawa, since we went to a Mexican restaurant for our first date. When we got there, they were closed because every place in Japan seems to have weird hours. We ended up at a Korean restaurant that was pretty good.
This was the sign at the Korean restaurant. Are they telling us to break in when they’re closed?
In the evening, Leanne, Forrest, and I returned to the Mexican restaurant for dinner. Forrest was dressed up very dapper. He liked playing peekaboo with the other patrons as well as waving at women from other tables. Basically, he flirted the entire time.
For Leanne’s 35th birthday, I took her on a birthday hike along the Shiokaze trail in Hachinohe, Japan. We hiked for hours, stopping for food at a sashimi restaurant where we literally saw the chef catching the food, banana flavored ice cream, and at every torri gate shrine we saw. We hiked along the beach, through forests, and along a huge natural lawn plain. The plan was to hike to the end, and then take a train back to start. Unlike every other train in Japan though, this one only went at 2pm and 6pm, and we got to the “station” (literally two chairs and an awning) at 3pm. Yikes! Luckily, a taxi company was able to rescue us.
We went to the Pokémon CenterBeing silly on the subwayAte delicious oysters here!Forrest liked the grilled oysters
Forrest was bored so our poor taxi driver had to deal with us being silly in the backseat.
Another place we went was an outlet mall that had a ferris wheel. This was Forrest’s first time on one!Forrest skipped his nap and by 4pm he was so tired he conked outForrest likes singing on our way to places
Another place we went was Sendai Zoo. Of all the exotic animals at the zoo, Forrest was by far the most interested in the ducks.
The rock on the floor is more interesting than the elephant
This morning we went to the Sendai Aquarium. Forrest loved seeing all the fish, dolphins, penguins, turtles, seals, sea lions, and jellyfish!
We got to feed the penguins!
After seeing all the animals, Forrest needed to rest and process! He took a nice nap to recharge for the evening’s adventures.
Once he woke up, we went to Sendai Station to get some delicious beef tongue, the specialty of Sendai. Of course we also got zunda shakes! Zunda is made of green soybeans and makes for a delicious milkshake, and is another specialty of Sendai.
In the middle is grade A wagyu beef that is so insanely delicious and tender, it requires no knife.
After eating way too much, we went to a cat café so Forrest could play with the “nyan nyans.” Yesterday we saw all the cats from outside, but today we got to go inside and play with all the cats. Forrest got so excited around them that all the cats ran away from Forrest. One cat was ok with Forrest feeding him though so we spent most of our time with him. Forrest absolutely loved the experience.
Today was probably the best day of Forrest’s life yet. We went to the Sendai Anpanman Museum! For the viewers here who haven’t lived in Japan, Anpanman is a huge cartoon character that’s extremely popular with young children. His head is a bun filled with red bean paste, and he breaks off pieces of himself to feed hungry children. A chef then remakes him. There’s a weird cat alien looking thing that’s apparently the bad guy. Anyway, Forrest is obsessed and will always get excited when he sees the characters. Today we found out there’s an Anpanman Museum and when we showed Forrest the pamphlet, he got so excited. We knew we had to go!
Right from the exit of the train station, we started seeing lots of Anpanman stuff, including tiles and signs pointing us to where the Anpanman wasAnpanman character statues all along the way to the museum.We made it!Forrest got so excited when he saw the giant Anpanman at the entrance!Are you making Anpanman?Help! Forrest was naughty and now he’s in jail!Forrest really really loves Anpanman.Forrest made an Anpanman hat! He then promptly took it off!Forrest picked out his favorite plushie, which was Baikinman (the bad guy) dressed up as Anpanman!
After naptime, we went to the Sendai Pokémon Center. Forrest went crazy looking at and holding all the different Pokémon plushies. For someone who doesn’t watch TV, he sure does love the characters from the TV shows Anpanman and Pokémon. Then we found a cat café, or a “nyan nyan” café as Forrest would call it. We couldn’t go inside because we were after last entry time but we enjoyed watching the “nyan nyans” from the window!
One of the many things I love about Japan is the public transportation. From Hachinohe station (about 30 min away), we took the Shinkansen bullet train to Sendai making a 3 hour cramped driving trip into a 1 hour laid-back relaxing trip where Forrest could play and enjoy the whole ride! We got him new toys for the trip including an Etch-a-Sketch since he loves drawing.
Shinkansen loungin’
Once we got to Sendai, early check-in made life so easy since Forrest could take a nice nap. Leanne checked out the city while I watched the little one and studied Japanese while he snoozed.
Once he woke up, we went to one of Sendai’s specialties, a beef tongue restaurant! Delicious!
Then, it was time to see a band I’ve wanted to see since medical school over a decade ago, Asian Kung-Fu Generation!! The best part was Forrest saw the way others were pumping their fists and he copied them the best he could, even clapping when everyone else clapped. I think he loved his first concert!
Our friend Kate had some time off so she came to visit us in Japan! We took her to some cool spots in Tokyo.
We are all foodies so we went to get top rated ramen, fluffy pancakes, trendy chestnut desserts, etc.
This ramen and sake was decorated with edible gold flakes!
Walking around the city is one of my favorite activities because you never know what adventures you’ll have. We happened across Tokyo’s Pokémon Center!
Not quite Seattle, but Tokyo has a burgeoning coffee scene. We went to Glitch coffee where they get the best beans from around the world and make it as perfectly extracted pour overs. I didn’t use to think much of coffee notes until trying coffee from Glitch.
Start them on coffee young!
Forrest loved the Art Aquarium Museum that hosts 30,000 living goldfish on display in really cool and unique ways. Forrest loved seeing the fish and saying “fshhh.”
We went on a food tour around Tokyo that took us to 5 different restaurants/izakayas and allowed us to try food from around Japan. We also got to walk around other parts of the city we didn’t know about before, like “piss alley” so named because there didn’t use to be a restroom there (thankfully there is now!), as well as around Kabukichou.
Forrest loved this Okinawan fruit juice.
We ended the tour with delicious taiyaki desserts. Forrest is definitely a foodie!
One of the highlights of our trip to Tokyo was TeamLabs Borderless. It’s basically an art museum that you walk through that doesn’t follow a map or route. You can go anywhere and every room is different. Forrest loved all the projected interactive designs.
Since we couldn’t take Forrest to a sumo match (you have to be at least 3), we took him to a sumo experience. At the sumo experience, retired sumo wrestlers showed us the rules and did matches for us to watch while we ate sumo wrestler food (hot pot). Leanne got to compete against one of the sumo wrestlers and won!
The last highlight was Tokyo Disneyland! We stayed at the one of the Disneyland hotels so Forrest could take a nap during the day. Forrest loved all the rides, food, characters, and music! While Forrest napped during the day (I went back to the hotel with him), Leanne and Kate went on a Disneyland food tour and ate all the fall exclusive goodies.
Here in Japan, summer is “matsuri”, or festival, season! There are festivals in towns and cities, from small as in Downtown Misawa to huge in cities like Sendai and Akita. The best festival this year, however, was the one that Forrest’s daycare threw for the kids! Forrest was given a special outfit with his name on it, and when he came there were 12 stations set up! Each station had a game or activity, that when completed, Forrest would get a stamp. Once he got all the stamps, he got a fun prize. The games and activities all had little prizes too. Forrest had a field day!
Pokemon is taken very seriously in Japan. Though Pokemon Go may have died down in the states, it is very much alive and well here. In our nearest “big” city, Hachinohe, the art museum has a limited-time exhibition for Pokemon art intricately handmade in traditional Japanese art styles. Going to the museum was a blast! Leanne and I went there on a date while Forrest was in daycare.
