Christmas Illuminations

On Sunday before Christmas we headed into downtown Tokyo to see the Christmas illuminations.  We got to Shinjuku before the lights came on, so we joined the long line of doughnut lovers at Krispy Kreme.  The sign said it would be a 40 minute wait, but we joined the queue anyway and were soon greeted by a tray of hot glazed doughnuts right from the fryer being passed out to the waiting patrons.  It only took about 15 minutes to get inside, where we ordered a selection of doughnuts and hot coffee.  We sat outside as the sun set and the lights came on.   
The Takashimaya department store decorated to the theme of a Christmas circus.


Thousands of lights illuminated the southern terrace of Shinjuku.

To end the evening's adventure, we headed to Shibuya and the large intersection in front of the station which is heavily decorated by neon advertisements and giant video screens and gets crossed by amazingly large crowds of pedestrians each time the traffic light turns green.
Maddie says, "We had tons of fun!"

Sagamigawa River

Not far from Camp Zama is the Sagamigawa river.  During the spring, this is a very wide river due to the snow melt in the mountains.  In the winter, it is a small, slow moving river.   Last weekend we decided to check it out and have a picnic.  There were picnic tables on higher land but we decided to eat amongst the rocks.  The rocks were really cool and Madeleine picked up a few for her collection.  (She's just like her Nana in that regard.)  We had a nice lunch that we picked up at the convenience store along the way.  We love the food at the convenience stores.  They are very different than the frozen burritos and withering hot dogs you find back in Texas.  We had freshly fried chicken, salad, inari sushi, pasta salad with crab, kiwi yogurt, chocolate pudding, and more.  It was a beautiful day so we walked along the water's edge after our picnic.  We saw several fisherman and one of them slowly pulled in a large, golden colored fish.  It might have been a carp.  He very slowly reeled it in all the way onto the rocks.  He removed the hook, gave it a kiss and let it back in the water.  I'm just kidding about the kiss.  We are looking forward to going back in the summer because there is a big kite festival held there.  Thanks for reading our blog!

Leaves!

Coming from a new neighborhood in Katy, Texas, with very few trees, we have found ourselves in an unfamiliar leafy situation here.  There are quite a few large trees around our house that drop a lot of leaves.  Every household is responsible for maintaining their yards for 75 feet around the house.  Maintenance includes raking and bagging leaves.  So, during the Fall, we have been raking and bagging leaves every weekend.  We make it a family affair.  Vanessa and Madeleine take on most of the raking duties while Troy does most of the bagging.   The Self Help store (an on-base facility that loans out all kinds of lawn and hardware equipment) provides these large plastic bags.  We fill them and then jump on them to compress the leaves.  That part is pretty fun!  By Sunday night, there are hundreds of these stacked bags all over the neighborhood.  Last week we had a couple of very windy days and the leaves really came down.  There were drifts of leaves in some places a foot deep or more.  The pictures are from our little courtyard cleanup.  By the end of the day there were even more bags!

Enoshima

Last weekend we went to a town on the coast called Enoshima.  It is an hour train ride from our house.  From the Enoshima train station we walked across a bridge to an island.  It is a small island that has a big hill.  There is a small winding walkway with lots of little shops and restaurants.  The walkway goes up and up until you reach a shrine.  We visited the shrine, said a few prayers and then went to an outdoor food court.  Maddie got some corn on the cob, I got some grilled squid and a beer.  Vanessa went to a vendor that appeared to be selling some kind of octopus (tako) dish.  The attendant was standing behind a big metal press type of machine.  She put three small raw octupusses (octopi?) that had been dipped in some kind of batter on the surface and they sizzled from the heat.  She then lowered the top and began cranking a handle that pressed the octopus.  It made a very loud hissing noise as she continued to crank it.  After a few minutes she released the crank and to Vanessa's surprise handed her a huge, extremely thin cracker!  You could see through it and could clearly make out pieces of octopus.  It tasted great.  We were so eager to eat it we forgot to get a picture.

We wandered around the area and enjoyed the beautiful scenery.  There were fishing boats in the water.  These amazing hawks were flying all around the area and making screeching calls.  It was kind of like a typical hawk screech followed by a sound that seemed to me like a giggle.  Vanessa thought they sounded eerie.  We made our way back down the hill stopping to shop and eat various things like cheese puffs, potatoes, chicken and croquettes.  We didn't eat the sea snails that were being offered at many of the street vendors.  They were cooking them in the shells on little hibachi style grills.  The island is famous for these sea snails.   Vanessa and I had eaten them on previous trips and they were not our favorite.  I think I will give it another try next time we go.  We walked back across the bridge and took the train back home.  It was a great day trip.  Here are a few pictures: