A Kid-Free Trip to Machida

I have been going a little crazy since we moved here. We will venture out, skim through awesome stores, peer in the windows of colorful pastry shops, glance at intricate displays...and then move on because we have three kids with us and it just works best to get from point A to point B efficiently. I have always been a person that wants to pick things up, read labels, feel them, and then move on to the next thing and continue with this until I die or until there are no more things, whichever comes first.

So all I wanted for my birthday was an outing without kids where I could just STOP and LOOK to my heart's content. We got a babysitter for Wednesday night and we made a plan to visit Machida, a city in the western part of the Tokyo Metropolis. (Japan is divided into prefectures, which is roughly equivalent to states in the US. The prefecture in which we live is Kanagawa, Machida is in Tokyo.) It is less than 20 minutes from us, and only a couple of train stops away.

Luke and I walked to the train station and rode to Machida, but not before taking a few selfies at the train station.

<3

Machida had so much going on! There are two tall towers called the twins where you can buy everything from fancy breads and jellies to high-end clothes and accessories. They even have restaurants up on the top floors. We started at the bottom and I just wandered around like a toddler with ADHD, looking at anything that looked interesting. Which was everything. 

I'm not sure if you can tell in this picture, but the prices on this fruit are ludicrous! The top two grape packages are ¥5,400, or about $57 and the bottom single bunches are ¥1.900. A single peach is $7. (Side note: we got some peaches like this at Costco for much cheaper and best. peaches. ever.) These are meant to be given as gifts and they are in a specialty foods store, so they are pricier than average. 

Our search for a wallet for me brought is here, to the sandal socks. Look at Luke's naked sandaled foot in that picture?! Don't you think a pair of those pink panda socks would suit him? Those weird purses are for men, I think. Like I said, it's a thing.

As much as I wanted to get this wallet that said, "A treasure chest overflowing with pleasant functions," it was $70. All the wallets in the store had the same words. 

At least a hundred stores later, we made our way up to the top floor for dinner. Luke remembered a dish called okonomiyaki from his mission, so we opted for that. It was described to me as a cabbage pancake. I wasn't enthused, but I like Luke a lot so I gave it a try. 

Restaurants almost always give you some kind of moist washcloth before eating. These ones were warm. Hence the face rubbin'. 

 I picked the top right, still not really sure what I was getting. 

The ominous hot sauce a the table. 

Then they brought these little guys that looked...interesting. Luke's is the one covered in what looks like frosting but is actually mayonnaise.

Mine was like an egg, cabbage, ginger pancake with shrimp, fish, and beef inside. It was actually delicious and I even put some of the mayonnaise on as well. The hot sauce was not as spicy as advertised. I kept waiting for Luke to turn into an anime character and writhe around on the floor after tasting it. Very disappointing indeed. 

After we ate. Luke wanted to scope out all the restaurants up there, so we did a little window tour. As is a case with many food establishments out here, they all had big glass cases displaying astoundingly realistic replicas of the items on their menu. 

This one was so lovely I just had to have an ice cream cone to keep me company for the rest of our walk. It was Hokkaido, my one true love. I have determined that the taste is actually more like sweetened condensed milk rather than whipping cream, though it is sufficient to say that it tasted like heaven. 

Not sure if you can tell, but the spoons in the soups on the top row are suspended in air by an artificial noodle. That's some fancy fake soup. 

And in case those posts were making you feel too snacky, here is this gross replica of some egg patty things with emoji ketchup faces. Fairly put me off my dinner. Except that I already ate. And nothing could put me off my ice cream cone. Not even ketchup winks.

We next visited a ¥100 store, which is about dollar, depending on the exchange rate. I love these places. There is the typical cheap. junky stuff that you find at a dollar store, but there are also really fun, hilarious, or awesome things. We were determined to buy a bunch of these bath bombs for kids we got last time, not realizing then that they had wee little toys in the middle. Needless to say, Ivy and June's baths have been lackluster since we ran out. We bought a ton of those, then I did what I do best - wandered and inspected.

Really, a blog post wouldn't be complete unless I mocked Japanese things, right?

It's like Justin Bieber lyrics that got run back and forth between translators a few too many times. 

Thanks for the guilt trip, whimsical tote bag. 

"a cup of happiness a lot of happiness a cup of happiness a lot of happiness" repeated infinitely sounds a little like something someone would mumble to themselves while rocking back and forth in the corner of a mental hospital. 

These cozy cushions don't seem out of place here at all. The bathroom comforts really know no bounds. Most of the public restrooms I have used have heated seats, bidets, buttons that activate music or ambient noises (presumably to mask the sounds of any bathroom unpleasantness) and buttons for a south side air dry. Word to the wise: button pressing two-year-old's make terrible bathroom companions. Trust me. 

Overall, it was a wonderful evening and the kids did great at home. We can't wait to go exploring again!

Enoshima Aquarium and Beach

Today was an unmitigated success. It's hard to toe that line between enjoying all the new experiences that Japan has to offer and being overly ambitious with our plans with three kids in tow. Last night we made a plan: go to Enoshima, a city on the coast with an aquarium and a beach and just sort of see what it was like. It was an exploratory mission, mainly.

It began with a train ride, which Ivy loves without reservation. I also love the trains here. They are efficient, timely, and clean and you can get basically anywhere. It's a lovely system. I'm getting the hang of trains here, but I am so grateful that Luke speaks Japanese. It's so useful. And pretty attractive, too. ;)

It's been pretty rainy and overcast, so we didn't plan on a full fledged beach day. Just a nice walk at the beach where our sweet, obedient daughters merely dipped their toes in and then scurried back to the sand where they played without getting dirty.

So that's totally what happened. 

Yeah, Ivy totally did not play at the beach in her undies for hours. 

And June definitely didn't sport her soggy diaper, filled with sand. 

Yes. We are far too classy for such indignities. 

In reality, we realized that our plan just wasn't going to happen. Over four years of parenthood and we still make rookie mistakes all the time. But even with our lack of foresight, the girls had the best time. I found a shell that contained a real live hermit crab and Ivy cared for it tenderly for the duration of our visit. 

After they were all beached out, we got them dressed in whatever spare clothes we had in our backpack. So they looked a little mismatched and outlandish. In other words, they fit right in in this wonderful country. 

We all shared a fresh mango boba shake and some overpriced, under-portioned street food. 

We all loved the Enoshima Aquarium. We ended up getting season passes. 

Totally creepy.

There were so many beautiful things to see. I especially loved all the different species of jellyfish. 

And because I am awful, I took pictures of all the descriptions and their weirdly poetic translations. I'm guessing the tone of the original one was more lighthearted. Maybe?

These little guys are already strange enough without the commentary, thank you very much!

Delicious, amazing Hokkaido ice cream. It's like eating whipping cream with the creamy texture of frozen yogurt.

A super gross "fantasy drink" that I ordered because it looked so fun.

And delicious strawberry pan. 

NOT PICTURED: The leathery old man on the beach wearing a sumo-style "bathing suit." You can all thank me for that. 

All in all, so much fun. 10/10. Would recommend. 

Let's Talk Tokyo

Last Wednesday, Luke came home from work and I was in a cramped hotel room with three small children and our conversation went something like this:

Luke: "What do you want to do tonight?"

Me: "I want to go to Tokyo." 

L: "Hmmm....it might be crazy on the train coming home." 

M: "Oh well." 

L: "You want to go tonight?" 

M: "Yes. I want to go right now." 

L: "All right...." 

So yeah. Somehow that whole three babies thing hasn't totally killed the spontaneous side of me, though it probably should. We packed up our kids, brought along our spare ergo for June's inevitable cry of "I want you to hooooold meeee!" which has the tendency to ruin everything, and headed to the train station. Sure enough, June was on my back before we even left the base.

I don't think this is from that day, but you can enjoy looking at the train and my ticked looking face. 

The train ride to Tokyo was longer than any we had done before, and June slept for nearly the entire 30 minutes. The train wasn't crowded so Ivy and I had seats with June still on my back like a giant, tan, hairless baby monkey. We got off at a station in Shinjuku, which was starting to get busy. As I said, train stations here can be like malls. Some are very basic, but some, like the one we entered, are huge. Eight floors of stores and restaurants and booth type things and so many people.

We left the train station and walked around the block, but it was so insanely crowded that we decided to just go back in and eat there. The clothes here are so lovely - I want to save up some serious yen and get a new wardrobe. Long flowing skirts and tee shirts are in style, and many women wear hats. There are also funny things, like I said, where English words are just randomly put on clothes. I want some of those too.

The upper shirt says "crushed ice." Awww yeah. I love that stuff. 

This was a dress at a fancy children's boutique. On the back, I was hoping to see the secret which makes a good hamburger...

and I was not disappointed! 

I actually really wanted to buy this for Marielle. 

Advice we could all live by. 

We were having difficulty finding a ramen place, which is what I was craving, but we finally found a place that served ramen with a tomato broth base which was excellent. I opted for the basil variety. The little wonton things were the best ever. I ordered 10 more and ate them all.

Just looking at those pictures makes me want to go back. Until I think about the train ride home.

Picture all the Japanese people you can imagine comfortably fitting into a train, then double that amount and add 5 Americans. That's how it was. William was almost sleeping in the Ergo and tired out of his mind when we got on the train. It was stressful, trying to stand still and not touch other people and also trying to keep an eye on June and Ivy who were somewhere by my legs or someone else's legs. And then we stopped at a station where a few people got off, but many more got on. The sudden press of people, at least 8 of whom were directly in contact with him, caused William to go ballistic.

Eventually, though, the sheer amount of bodies acted as a sort of cocoon and lulled him into a sweaty little REM cycle. In the mean time, a man carrying a gigantic man purse (which is totally a thing out here) kept bonking me with it and I finally just shoved it away. He didn't even turn around as he shifted it to his other arm. Sorry, guy. But not really.

We got off the train in a big lump and somehow managed to peel ourselves apart from each other, with the Japanese people rushing off with purpose and direction and us ambling feebly towards the exit.

So, the moral of the story is: you should always go to Tokyo on a Wednesday night if that's what your heart desires. Even if it's crazy, it's still a good story.