Sumo-A battle of Wedgies

Max and I went on a trip to Tokyo to see the Sumo Tournament. We rode down on a tour bus on Sunday. He started out throwing up on the bus twice before we left the city limits, but did fine on the rest of the 8 hour ride. Though he was real angry that I wouldn't let him get ice cream at each of the rest stops! He did get some the next day at the tournament. We got to Tokyo and went on a walk to see The Temple. Being Sunday it was closed but he enjoyed seeing it and I again felt a great sense of peace just standing on the corner in front of the temple gates. We then went and found some dinner, Max- McDonalds and me Subway, yes I am getting tired of trying to find food for Max and sometimes myself to eat in Japan, kinda wanted to have some american food around but didn't want to take the Subway to Outback (Tokyo actually has a few american options).
We spent the rest of the evening in the hotel reading and we watched a conference talk of President Monson for our spiritual dinner.

Monday was the tournament. Our tour, through the Misawa Travel Agency, took us to the Edo-Tokyo Museum and the Sumo venue which are neighboring buildings. The good Sumo wrestlers don't fight til later in the afternoon so we spent the a few hours at the museum first. They had free museum guides and she was great. If you can make the history of Tokyo, (how it started out as a little town in the 1600s called Edo and then grew through the powerful influenced of the Tokugawa Shoguns into a thriving city which became know as Tokyo as the Emporer Meji allowed the Western influence to enter the Japanese culture), interesting to a 9 year old and a 33 year old, then you are a fabulous tour guide. It was fun. It took you through scale models of what Edo looked like and had some life size building replicas and so on and then took you into the transition from Edo to Tokyo. 

After the Museum we headed to the Kokugikan, the Tokyo Sumo Arena. We ate lunch and watched the lesser Sumo guys while we ate lunch. We enjoyed it a lot. It was fascinating stuff with a lot of ceremony. Each match takes about 5 minutes and the wrestling part is about 5 seconds. It rivals baseball for excitement. I definitely got into it and cheered. There were a lot of good matches and  a few that lasted less then a second as one wrestler would move out of the way as they lept for each other causing the other to fall on the ground. (One wins by forcing the opponent out of the ring or to touch the ground with any body part.) There are numerous moves one can do by grabbing their loin cloth, thus making a "Battle of Wedgies." Sam thinks they are all immodest. After an exciting final match, where the guy who was undefeated almost lost but pulled off a great victory, we headed back to the hotel for dinner, where Max forwent his hot dog and had two salads!, then went swimming.

I turned my reading light out around 10:30 and later heard Max exclaim, "Wow. It's 12:30!" as he turned his off. He had tried to finish Harry Potter Book 5 but just couldn't pull it off. The next morning was comical. I could barely get him out of the room to go the breakfast buffet, his favorite thing in the world. After one bite of french toast and two bits of pineapple he took the room key and left me eating my yummy scrambled eggs and potatoes. I returned to find him back in bed, which is where he was when I left at 9:30 for the Temple, leaving him with some Filipino hotel babysitter, and where he was when I came back at 12:30.

I eventually forced him back out into Tokyo and we visited the Sensoji Temple, dated back to 1600's.

 Max finally got his souvenir samurai swords, he's been wanting for 2.5 years. After this we took a variety of subways and monorail to get to Odaiba island, a man made island where one can find Joypolis (the spelling still bugs me I want it to be Joyopolis), an indoor Sega themepark.

Max loved it. There was a giant half pipe where you were strapped to a giant skate board and could try 360's. Max screamed the whole time, awesome. At the end of the evening I started feeling sick and Max had to go on the last ride by himself. Outside, despite a growing sense of queasiness, I stopped to take some pictures of the beautiful night scene of the Rainbow Bridge and Tokyo skyline.

Then I looked around for a garbage can and barely made it to one before I throw up. Let me tell you, I did not like having the Tokyo subway system between me and the hotel with my queasy feelings. I made it eventually, only having to hover above a squatty potty in the subway station for a minute before my body thought it was ridiculous to attempt that one!

We eventually made it back to Misawa the next day and we glad to see Em and the other 3 boys again. It was a fabulous trip with Max. He is such a good kid. It was nice to share this trip with him.

Thailand Last Day

We had a late check-out time for Anantara (which is Sanskrit for "without end") so Emily slept in while I went out to do some flower photography and scope out the breakfast choices.

The breakfast here was the best yet: awesome omelet station, Belgian Waffles, fresh fruit, fried egg station, fresh fruit, fruit smoothies (banana vanilla was the best), fresh pineapple and mango, bacon, breads and cheeses.

I ate A LOT! It was fabulous. Then we headed down to the beach and and relaxed in the sun for an hour and played in the ocean for a long time.

We headed to the pool for some more sun and refreshing swimming.

We then retired to the luxurious bath tub with the provided bath salts--which left a wonderful fragrance in our room.

Alas, we had to pack up and check out and then went to enjoy one last poolside meal, and one last chocolate and banana and whipped cream smoothie by the pool for Em.

We loved Anantara! And luckily we were charged in Bot so we have no idea how much it was!!! (I wish.) Our driver came and took us back to Bangkok were I stayed the night while Em took the red eye back to Tokyo, stopping for the a temple visit and then on to Misawa. Before she left we went across the street to the massage parlor. Em was in heaven and I had a Thai lady walking on my back! Which is actually heaven for me too!

The next morning I uneventfully flew back to Tokyo, I about cried when our plan was landing from happiness to be home! (Weird since it was Japan soil and not US, but I happen to live in Japan.) I stopped by the JAL counter in hopes of running into Em checking into her flight, but was too late. So I headed out to the Temple and and successfully navigated to the correct subway station. As I got off I saw a white man in a suit who looked like he had to be heading toward the temple. So I followed him and realized I had gone the complete wrong direction as he stopped at the New Sanno (military) hotel nearby. Oh well, I went in and got directions to the Temple from the hotel. Shortly I arrived at the temple, which was a block away from my original subway station.

As the Angel Moroni atop the temple came into view I was overwhelmed with joy. I stepped into the temple and my mind was filled with peace and I felt full of light. I had been to many different Thai temple (Wats) and shrines and even felt some holiness at some of them, but nothing compares to the presence of the Holy Ghost I felt as I entered just the lobby of the Tokyo Temple not to mention the rest of the Temple rooms.

I stopped for Raman and then came back to the hotel and now am awaiting my flight the next morning. Can't wait to be home again!!!! I miss my boys!!!

I'm off to check into my flight now!

The Truth About Em

Why did I marry Em you may wonder? Well it is obvious so you may not have such a ridiculous question. Was her great ability to find the best bargains? Or was it the great way she does awesome accents? Maybe because she has a great vocabulary. Her looks? (well duh! but that's not where we are going.) Or perhaps it is her great love of literature.


NOPE

...It is because (careful it may get sappy) she is a great nurturer. Yes one who nurtures. I observed her during our long 2 month courtship and even longer 2.5 month engagement as she played, cared for, loved, helped, etc her nieces and nephews. She was great and I knew she would be a great mother.

CASE IN POINT

We were both riding the monorail back to the Haneda Airport in Tokyo after walking around the imperial gardens like zombies, exhausted after our flight from Honolulu. Sitting across from us was a cute little Japanese boy. After riding for a little while he began to fall asleep, head bob and all.
His mother next to him didn't do anything! This really bothered Em and she began stirring. I expected her to come up with some Japanese phrase to tell the Mom to put an arm around the poor little tyke and give him a little comfort and love. (Incidentally there was another kid behind us and he began falling asleep too). I too could barely restrain myself from reaching out and putting the ladies arm around the poor kid or putting my own around him. Its a good thing we didn't do anything because as we arrived at the Airport stop, we saw a different lady come over and wake up child number 2 and then pick up boy number 1. She also had a third child in a stroller. (Sorry innocent Lady on train who was incorrectly judged, just make sure you do take good care of your own kids...if you have kids...if you feel that's the right thing for you...!) So Em had me hop up and help get the little girl in the stroller off the train for her. Then Em helped push the stroller. The girl didn't like Em so she let the mom push and Em carried the sleeping boy while I helped the older boy drag a small suitcase. Em said the whole exhausting jaunt into Tokyo was worth it to get to hold the sweet little guy. I think she REALLY missed our kids!!! She is the greatest mom with the biggest heart for her kids!












*Oddly enough it was a Japanese couple who took that picture of us at the top. =)
*Sorry Google Reader people who got the accidentally published version of this blog. It was some weird keyboard shortcut error.

Tokyo Recon

In November I went TDY to Chicago (Temporary Duty) for a conference. On the way back I overnighted in Tokyo. I had initially planned to go find the LDS Tokyo Temple. So when I got to the hotel at the airport a lady took my luggage up to my room for me* and I got her to explain in half English and half Japanese and 1/8 gesticulating.** After she left I realized I brought my expired temple recommend. So instead of watching Japanese TV and/or sleep, I decided to go explore the city and reconnoiter for our future family trip to Tokyo. I asked the hotel concierge*** where to go and after thinking for a minute, said "Tokyo Tower." (This is the same response I received in the morning from the lady at the Airport Info when I asked where to go during my two hours of waiting for my flight.) So she instructed me how to take the monorail to the Tokyo Tower and off I went with nothing but some yen and a recently purchased phrase book. I successfully navigated my way around 1/100,000,000th of Tokyo! It was yet another amazing city. Big cities give off an energy to me that vitalizes me and makes me excited to explore. This city was astounding in it vastness. I couldn't believe how huge it was. When I got to the top of the Tokyo Tower, which is built as a replica of the Eiffel Tower, I looked out and the city continued in lights until reaching the horizon for 360 degrees! Here are a few of the photos I took from the tower:The brighter area is the Ginza district a trendy shopping area. It looks a lot like Time Square to me, but I haven't been to it YET.

On my way back I saw a welcome sight of Wendy's but passed it up for a try here:and ate this (Chicken Yakitori): I think I definitely made the right choice. It was a fun evening of exploration and I did it again in the morning. I was pointed to a shopping district but when I got there I just started walking down some side streets seeing what the neighborhoods looked like. That was really cool.

Here was a cool house, notice the underwear hanging on the line. Next door between a bunch of houses was a Buddhist cemetery.This is one of the parking garages near by!!!And on the way back I befriended these cute little kids! It was comic to watch this little two year old struggle to get his tiny fingers into the peace sign for the photo! I don't think I've ever seen a Japanese person take a photo without doing it!
We hope to go down to Tokyo when it warms up and tour the city and check out Tokyo Disney.
*She opened the door and placed the key card in a little slot inside the door. As I left latter I took it out and then went back into the room only to be plunged into darkness. The lights only work if the card is left in the slot by the door. An ingenious way to save on energy! I also had my first experience with a high tech Japanese toilet complete with heated seats and an automated bode!
**I know it doesn't add up Nate...or does it? Hmmm
***"A concierge is the Winnipeg equivalent of a geisha. This is a woman who has been trained in the fine art of fanciness and pleasure. And when you meet on it is intoxicating. Just what the doctor ordered." (Michael Scott, The Office Season 5, The Business Trip)