We’ve had a busy week this week! To start things off, at some point last weekend Lisa snuck a shot of Alan and I taking a nap. It was a good nap.

Also last week, we took a walk to a local park (a different one from one of the parks that I’ve mentioned on this blog before) and on the way home stopped at a nice cafe not too far from our house. They are a cute little cafe called Les Cinq Épices in Aomono Yokocho that makes their own cakes and bread. We stopped over there and had some cakes, which were great. I love how there are all sorts of little cafes all over Tokyo with small cakes, and they usually have a tea and cake (or coffee, if that’s your thing) set that you can get. We enjoyed a nice walk through the park in the sun, and had some tasty cakes on the sidewalk cafe, then had a nice walk home. On the way back we rented “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” (the newer one) and “Kung-Fu Panda”. It took us a week to watch them, but we actually were able to watch them before they were due. Both good movies, although nothing to rave about or anything I would write a blog entry about. I will note though that they were our first movies post-Alan!

Sometime during the week while I was working, one of Lisa’s friends, Julie, stopped by for a visit. Apparently a few other people stopped by also, but I was never around so I’m just going on rumor. I did find some photographic evidence of one visit though, and it looks like Alan was having a good time. He seems to be pretty popular with the ladies. I can’t blame them, I think he’s a cutie myself.

On the weekend we decided to go to Ginza. After our stop at the local cafe I was in the mood for more cafes so that put Ginza on the plate. With the additional “todo” item of getting our broken Time Capsule looked at, it was pretty clear that a stop at the Apple store in Ginza might be useful. Finally, Lisa planned to meet her friend Mibe, the jeweler, who just finished up a bracelet for little Alan. So we set that meeting for our favorite place in Ginza, and decided to make a day of it.

Wandering around the area, we came across a lot of people taking pictures. I fought through the crowd and found that they were taking pictures of a Geisha! That is pretty rare in Tokyo (this isn’t Kyoto!) but it looks like she was selling a CD and some postcards. So that made some sense. Interesting!

Our first stop was the Tokyu Hands store, but we didn’t find what we were looking for (glasses to view the upcoming Solar Eclipse) – they were sold out! So we ordered some from Amazon Japan on Lisa’s phone. They actually did arrive the next day (Sunday) in time for the solar eclipse on Monday.

Our next stop was a cafe. I didn’t really know where to go, but we wandered around and decided to go to Mitsukoshi, which has a rooftop garden and some restaurants up there. We got some gelato and tea and then hung out with Alan for a while. There were lots and lots of families out there. You really get the feeling that there are not many places in Tokyo for families to hang out on grass at all, so they all congregate at any place that looks like it might be nice. We did have maybe a 15 minute wait just to order our gelato and tea, but at least we were able to find a place to sit without any problem. We spent a bit of time on the grass, but since Alan can’t walk around yet we didn’t really have too much to do there with him. He likes it when I lift him up high, so I gave him a few tosses. He seemed to enjoy it.

I should mention that right now we are at that one very brief period in Tokyo where the weather is nice. It is warm, but not humid. Pretty soon it will get humid and then oppressively hot and you will not want to spend any more time outside than possible. Because all of the nuclear power plants are currently shut down, we also will have to reduce energy consumption by about 10% over the summer, which means there will not be enough air conditioning and I am going to have a terrible summer.

I should also mention that I think this picture of Lisa and Alan is really great. It isn’t like I’m a good photographer or anything and know what Bokeh is or how to cause it, but if you take enough pictures eventually one of them must turn out well. It looks like this one is it!

On the walk to the Apple store I came across these two cool cats, hanging out on a Ginza street sign. Those cats were just taking a break, oblivious to everything. I have no idea if that is normal or not (I doubt it) but it was super cool.

After a nice dinner at Hayase, we headed home for a good night’s sleep, because the next day was shaping up to be a busy one! We also got a nice bracelet for Alan that our friend Mibe made. We hope that it will last him until his coming-of-age celebration (at 20 years old) but we’ll have to see.

On Sunday, Lisa had to a attend a friend’s wedding, but neither Alan nor I were invited! Since the wedding is in Kamakura, we thought it would be fun to head down there and hang out while Lisa has fun at her wedding. So it was decided! A boy’s afternoon out on the (small, temple-laden) town! We drove down to Kamakura, got stuck in traffic for a bit (about half an hour) but still made it in time for Lisa’s wedding. We parted ways, and Alan and I struck off on our own.

The first place we stopped was a nice cafe that had organic homemade food. I ordered the set lunch (it was some sort of beef bowl, very delicious!) but before I could eat Alan started to get fidgety. I prepared some milk for him, and we sat by the window for half an hour or so while he drank his bottle. I noticed quite a few people walking by and looking at Alan. I guess we make for a bit of an unusual pair, but no matter. The owner of the cafe liked Alan and chatted with us a bit. She got a few smiles out of him; he’s a really friendly guy so far. After Alan’s lunch I changed his diapers and he was calm enough to sit in his stroller for a bit while I ate. We left after a relaxed lunch, and headed to Hachiman-gu temple.

The street was pretty crowded. Kamakura is a small town, and pretty heavily driven by tourism of some kind. It is on the sea, so there are beaches that people go to, and there are also a whole bunch of temples. Kamakura was, for a very short time (about 200 years – and that is a short time!) the seat of the government. So the government, as they were wont to do in those days, helped out with local temples. There are lots of them. In our case, I had hoped to visit the large Buddha shrine, but that would have required a trip on the train, so we went to the closest one instead. That worked out well, because we had a nice walk and it was just about the right distance for a there-and-back-again in time to meet Lisa.

Lisa did mention when we were in the car that there are some steps at the temple, but I thought “ah, that shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll just pick up the baby carriage.”

The main street in front of the temple entrance was a 5-way crossing with a nice big gate. It made for a busy intersection, but an interesting picture. After that I got a few pictures of Alan: in front of some (presumably?) famous bridge, in front of the long walk up the temple, and in front of a whole bunch of sake lined up. These monks are prepared for a party, if one ever spontaneously breaks out. Actually, I’m not sure why but temples always have lots of sake around. I think it is because Sake is somehow sacred, but I don’t really know. I’ll have to remember to ask someone sometime.

At the temple there was a couple that was getting married, and I snapped a few quick photos of that. I don’t have any super good ones, but they looked like a very nice traditional couple.

Do you see that staircase? Man, that is more stairs than I was expecting. Alan and I gave it our best though, and we made it to the top. Alan was pretty tired, so he’s got his eyes closed up there. You have a really nice view of the street. I doubt you can see it, but that street goes right up to the ocean, and we walked the entire length. On the way back we stopped for a bit in front of a nice pond with lilies.

On the walk back I spotted a woman getting on her motorcycle. This has nothing to do with temples or Japan, I just thought she looked cool riding and old (maybe?) Yamaha. You see a lot of women on small scooters, or these strange scooter-like things that can fit two people and look like space-aged minibikes, but this might be the first time I’ve seen a woman on a serious looking bike. She had leather boots and leather gloves too, really looked like she knew what she was doing.

We stopped at the end at a Mister Donut, where I had a donut and Alan got some more milk. From the temple to the shop, he was completely zonked out, sound asleep. He slept for quite a while at the shop too, but when he woke up I think he was confused. He didn’t know where he was, he hadn’t seen mommy for hours, and the place was full of strange people. So he really started to let loose with some loud crying. I got busy making a bottle for him, but the woman next to me actually offered to hold Alan if that would help. I was pretty close to finished with the bottle by then, so I thanked her but declined, and Alan was happy as a peach once he got some of that milk.

After he finished his bottle we had a bit longer to wait around in the shop, but Lisa called not too long after that was we were ready to go. We hopped back in the stroller and headed out. By the time we got back to the wedding venue, Alan was super happy to see mommy!

Unfortunately, we had an hour and a half ride back to Tokyo, but he’s a good kid and really loves riding in the car. He fell back asleep after a bit of fussing and crying.

All in all a really fun day! I think Alan enjoyed his boys-afternoon-out, and I know I did!