Fallon

I about had to drag the boys home.... They had a fantastic time with cousins and Mr. Bechtel and I had a great time driving out to pick them up. Thank you so much for taking such good care of them!

We were all loaded up to go home, seatbelts on and everything, when we had to make a last minute stop at the shop to test a few home made devices.

They worked great....!!!

Takao San

Takao San is a little mountain town where you can go hiking. All of Tokyo came with us as we rode the subway out. It was a national holiday and everyone was coming to see the fall colors and spend a day, "in the country". We stopped and got some roasted chestnuts to snack on while we climbed.

Then we consulted the map. There were six different trails up the mountain. We chose number two up, and number six down.

Ah, the beauty of solitude in the wilderness...

Some people had nicely put hats on some of the shrine people so they wouldn't get cold.

This is a little temple by a waterfall part way up the mountain.

On the way down there was this great swinging bridge. The little kids loved it. They would walk part way out, feel the bridge swaying, and stop with big round eyes! I felt like Indiana Jones.

Then we came home and had sukiyaki (I know I'm spelling that wrong, but Mr. Bechtel isn't here to fix my mistakes), and I'm very sorry I didn't have my camera for that. It was delicious. They brought us plates of paper thin beef, and another plate of thin pork, and another plate of cut vegetables. Then they put a little pan with boiling soy sauce stuff in the middle of the table. You take a piece of meat with your chopsticks and put it into the boiling sauce to cook and it was really yummy. Mr. Bechtel ate his dipped in raw egg. I skipped that part. No sense of adventure, I guess....

Various Snapshots

I couldn't resist taking a picture of this building. It must be world headquarters for the daikon radish or something.... strange to have a golden daikon (or whatever it is) balancing on top of your building!

One of the rivers... I cannot remember the name... There was a nice walkway along the river which we followed for awhile. Lots of fun boats going up and down.

Octopus, anyone??

The large temple at Asakusa. There were lots of little shrines around it. Also a smudge fire so you could cleanse yourself in the smoke, and tons of incense sticks that people were burning.

Tonkatsu

This was a yummy lunch! Mr. Bechtel found this little basement restaurant that serves great tonkatsu (pork cutlet breaded with panko crumbs.)

They brought us rice tea, which took me right back to the Peconic Drive house in Boise instantly! Calli Tea. I hadn't tasted that flavor for a long time! Then they brought us these little mortar and pestle bowls. We put several teaspoons of roasted sesame seeds in the bowls and started to stir. It smelled fantastic - I was starving! then after you've ground up the seeds you add the sauce and stir and sip your tea and try to be patient...

Yeah! Lunch! I wish I could make shredded cabbage like this. It's very light, long and crispy. The miso soup (in the little black bowl) was great, and the pickled radishes (left hand corner) were also pretty good. I put a teeny bit of hot chinese mustard on the meat and then dipped it in the sesame sauce, and tried to not drop it with my chopsticks. It was great.

Ninja!

We came upon this little ninja play as we were walking from shop to shop. They were sort of "The 3 Stooges become Ninja's". One was trying to teach the other one how to use his sword, and the apprentice kept accidentally hitting the other guy on the head, or stabbing him in the back or something goofy.

Here the mentor is getting ready to jump off the 2nd story building.

I looked around at the crowd watching and saw these little boys right up front. they were riveted!

Market Place

I wish I could remember the name of this town! Asaksa, or something like that. Anyway, we had a great time wandering around the streets filled with vendors of different kinds. Mr. Bechtel never gets out of Tokyo when he's here, so this was really fun for him. The narrow streets and more country type people reminded him of his mission. This street has a covering just in case it rains.

There were tons of little cracker shops. The cooks would stand behind a charcoal type grill, flipping little rice crackers. Then they would dip them in a glaze. There are dozens of different kinds of crackers. Small, big, seaweed wrapped, puffed. You name it. And they are all displayed in these great containers. We bought several kinds to bring home for samples.

Here's some Kobe Beef. Look how marbled with fat it is! This little piece of meat costs about $24.00. Kindof pricey!

And here's my latest, greatest idea for becoming millionaires: winter squash! Imagine how much money we could make with Morell's squash and our squash at $6.00 each. A fortune!

Ah - The Train! The Train!

Oh good, more out of focus pictures! I just couldn't STOP in the middle of everything, but still wanted to show the little bits of regular life. What a dilemma!

The train systems seems incomprehensible to me, but I'm going to figure it out before we're done here. We bought tickets and fed them into a machine, which spit them back out to us at the other end. And we headed down into the earth.

Hi, Mr. Bechtel!

The inside of the train was busy, standing room only. You grab the overhead handles and try not to lose your balance.

There were lots of little children everywhere. All of them adorable and friendly. The parents are so kind to the little children too. It's such a relief from "Walmart Syndrome" where you have these awful parents hollering at their kids and basically being terrible parents. In Japan, the mothers usually stay at home with their children. Day Care is not common. When the kids are young the parents are extremely patient with them. Then they go to school, and everything changes. But the little kids are happy. This girl thought Mr. Bechtel was very interesting and kept waving to him. All children (and me) love him.

Walking to the Subway

It's about a 15 minute walk from the hotel to the subway (the JR) we wanted. I hated to take people's pictures so I just held the camera in front of me and took pictures discreetly which is why so many of these are out of focus!

There are tons of bikes everywhere. Most of them are really comfortable looking with baskets on front and back, baby carriers and umbrella holders, etc.

There were several people in traditional dress. Since it was Saturday, we figured many of them were going to weddings or parties. The little sandals with socks underneath are great. The sandals appear to be made of only colored paper and look like they would dissolve instantly if you stepped in water.

The part of Tokyo we're in is called Shinjuku. Mr. Bechtel's business is here. There are lots of amazing skyscrapers. One looks like a huge corn cob to me. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government building complex is here to. It looks British - sort of. A Great and Spacious Building. Since it was Saturday the streets weren't too busy. Time to get our tickets...