nacken

Ritsu was out for the day for some Onsen fun with Utako .. so Julius and I had the whole day to ourselves:

Butter face toast for breakfast. (Butter in a tube .. always amazes me!)

Meeting a nice dog at the supermarket.

Trying to order in Japanese at the local McDonalds (yep . it worked)

And discovering yet another new playground

We will be traveling a bit more from tomorrow .. so .. updates might return in 3 - 4 days ..

Julius and Ritsu went down again for some more no-snow sledding (while I was out with a bad back) and this time Julius showed his tricks to 2 Indian looking girls (but from what Ritsu tells they were fluent in Japanese)

For the rest of the day I tried to stay in bed as much as possible while Ritsu went to town meeting with Eiko (who we had recently dinner with in Turin)

January 2nd is the beginning of the crazy winter / new year sales season in Japan, so Ritsu and I went to Fuchu (instead the much more crowded center of Tokyo) and did some fantastic clothes shopping for Julius and Ritsu (I am too big for clothes shopping in Japan)

For lunch we found a tiny ramen place and I had the probably most spicy noodle dish in Japan. The so called ‘Hell Ramen’ comes in 3 different grades of hotness and the hotter, you pay 50Y extra, it was delicious.

In the meantime, Julius spent time with o-bachan, did some more hilarious arts&crafts and then went with his grandma to meet some of her friends (as Julius later told us, there were 3 other o-bachans)

He was very intrigued by his new clothing, especially his first black turtle-neck sweater (something that usually kids’ clothing designers shy away from, black for kids, but not so “Comme Ça”

This winter there is no snow here (yet), but Julius created his own sledding fun in a nearby play installation using some cardboard and sand (for extra sliding power)

Gotta love Japanese new year traditions. We slept in some and had nice osechi for late breakfast. Again very diverse and colorful. Julius was very fascinated, especially by the little fishies.

Just like four years ago and while Julius was sleeping with o-bachan, Ritsu and I set off to re-visit the neighborhood shrine we had been to before (Kasumine, 35° 39.003′ N, 139° 34.983′ E).

We first got lost somehow (we had counted on eventually finding a stream of people walking to the shrine, but then we found only a couple who were on the way, but opposite direction, we had missed it!

This year it was much more crowded (no snow) but still very manageable.

We did the usual song and dance, Ritsu’s hair nearly caught fire, we got our fortune for next year told and ‘enjoyed’ this very sweet, hot sake and then we went back home.

Happy 2009 everyone!!!

One of my favorite winter dishes! And Julius had lots of fun with it, too!

SO much fun stuff going on today .. hardly anytime to catch up with blogging .. but at least one collage:

and a rundown of what went on today (more of a reminder for me what I should post later)

- Taking Julius to an aquarium in Shingawa, first a sea-lion show, then penguin feeding, then a spectacular dolphin show, I have 30 mins of video of that, which I have to edit.

- Lunch at a very nice tempura place.

- Some shopping on the way home, lots of fun at the 100Y store.

- Meeting a very friendly cat along the way,

- Fantastic sukiyaki dinner at home with o-bachan and o-jichan. ✔

- Later, after Julius and o-bachan were already in bed, we went to the local shrine (around midnight). ✔

From today’s raid at Muji

Kiddo was a good boy and stayed with o-bachan and o-jichan, which was a good idea after we had seen the masses at Tsukiji. Seems he had a great time, but was also happy to see us again.

And he loves his new pajama!

Today we met Utako again, last time has been 2 years ago.

Back then we did a double lunch at the food stalls of the Tsukiji fish market .. I don’t know it was because of the date AFTER new years or of the rain back then, but today it was crazy crowded. By 10:40 there were masses of people piled up to get into the lunch restaurants and the market spaces were just crazy (by now, they don’t even let tourists into the main auction halls anymore)

It is tricky to shot video and not getting run down by one of those funky transport vehicles I have never encountered anywhere else. Last time it was easy to notice them, by their loud diesel engine … but nowadays many of them run on electricity and all you hear are their wheels …

Afterwards we ventured a bit further, but still had to wait for a table for 40 minutes, but into return got some fantastic Sushi. Ritsu and I went for the quintuple sampler of tuna, plus some extra bits and pieces.

For some further shopping we moved on to Ginza, where we raided Bic Camera and Muji.