Climbing Mt. Fuji
Fuji-san from 5th Station.
Mt. Fuji (Fuji-san) would be a great addition to Matt's small peak-bag and it would be a unique way to start mine and Reagan's. Fuji-san is a volcano that stands at 3,776m (12,388ft) and is listed as the 35th most prominent peak in the world. Because of this we have been planning to go to Fuji-san ever since Matt got the internship in Japan. Somehow though it never seemed like the perfect time. Finally, we realized our time frame before the top is covered in snow and closed off was quickly approaching. We planned for the first weekend of September but of course a couple days out we realize there is a tropical storm coming in and it wouldn’t be a good idea to go. I should mention September is apparently typhoon season. So we started the waiting game, just checking the weather every day until we thought there was a large enough window to get to the top and back down without getting poured on or blow off the mountain. Finally the stars aligned and there was a two day break in between the rain storms. We called the bus for the 5th station, the most popular trailhead for Fuji-san, and “YES!” they had spots on the bus we wanted. So now it was time. Friday morning, September 10th, the Haines’s were going to set out to conquer Fuji-san.

Above the Clouds at the Trailhead
Thursday night, Matt and I started getting everything packed to go. Seems like before we knew it packs were pretty heavy and we still needed to add the biggest piece, REAGAN JO. So we decided we had enough and headed to bed. There was a train leaving Tsukuba the next morning at 7:56 am. Being the Haines’s we decide “Ok, so get up by 7 and on the bikes by 7:45.” Well if you have been keeping up with our blogs in pure Haines style we were still trying to put finishing touches to all of our stuff at . . . 7:50. Great this is the perfect start, and yes we missed the train by about 2 minutes. So we caught the very next train at 8:15, and it put us in at 9:08. We ran to the next train to take us to Shinjuku, where the bus was leaving from, but it turned out to be a 30 minute ride. About that time we put all the numbers together and realized “Hmm, guess we missed that too.” Well we lost this battle against public transportation. So we get to the station and decide to go on and find the bus and see what our other options were. It ended up taking at least another 20 minutes to find the bus, so even if we would have caught the first train out of Tsukuba we still would have missed the bus. We completely underestimated this battle but we won't loose the war. So Matt goes in and checks everything out and comes out with good news. We had seats on the 10:45 bus. Here is the catch, this one wasn’t a direct bus. We would have to take another bus to get to the 5th station. So it took us about two hours longer and about $12 extra. Not too bad considering we missed a train and a bus. Not sure what the running count is but for today, Public Transit 1; Haines's 1.

Chelsae and Reagan
Finally we were at Fuji-san’s doorsteps. We had brought lunch so we could eat before heading off and to hopefully help adjust us to the altitude a little. See we live at sea level now so being the 5th station was at 2,305m (7,562ft) it was already a good jump in altitude for us. After some lunch and just a little more adjusting and perfecting the packs we decided it was now or never. For some reason, I can’t remember now, i told Matt I wanted to help out and carry the pack with Reagan for at least the first leg of the trip. I carried her from the 5th station to the top of the 7th station (400m 1,300ft vertical) for a total of two hard hours of hiking and with Mr. Hiking himself. I was dieing within the first hour. But Mr. Hiking said “No breaks until 45 minutes, I have a timer going” Well isn’t that nice of him . . . he has a TIMER. So I was never so thankful for that 45 minutes to pass and I finally got to sit down for bit.



The timer makes you have short-term goals and without it you end up stopping too much and wasting a lot of time. ~Matt

Here is some funny things that happened in that 45 minutes. First is about 20 minutes in Matt gets a rock in his shoe. He says “Hey I have a rock in my shoe, I need to stop and get it out” My thoughts were “YES, a small break.” Ha! I was mistaken, this is when Matt says “You keep going, I’ll catch up.” Oh . . . okay. So I kept going. A little further up I see two guys ahead. One of the guy was struggling and falling behind. The guy in front says “Hey dude if you need a break just say it. Whatever we can take a break” About this time is when I am passing, all by myself, with a two year old on my back. As I pass the guy tells his friend “See, that is a trooper, she has a kid.” Now that was a little motivation to keep going and it was really funny. The best part is that Matt was still behind me fixing his shoe so it appeared I was this crazy girl carrying her kid to the top by herself. One more funny thing in that 45 minutes is that I kept seeing people sitting on the side and I pointed them out to Matt saying “These people get a break.” His response was, “OH they are probably on their way down.” Hmm, okay. But then when we were headed down there were still people sitting and you can only guess what his response to that was, “OH they are probably on their way up.” Nice babe, since at the time I was the one carrying the kid. Oh well, it gives me bragging rights. I helped! After two hours, my back and legs were dying and so I decided for the safety of the kid and the sake of my body it was Matt’s turn.

Sunset at the 7th Station
We were now on the leg in between the 7th and 8th station. It was a very long leg. We were very excited to get to the 8th station until we realized how far our hut actually was. Matt had gone in the first hut to put some layers on Reagan and ask where the Tomoe Hut was and they said oh it is two more away. This is when Matt and I look up and realize, “That light way up there is our hut.” Fantastic! To top it off, the sun was setting. I did get some good pictures while Matt was inside dressing Reagan. At least Reagan was bundled up and warm and finally crashed. The last hour up to the hut I don’t really remember much of. I think I turned on auto pilot and told my body to just follow the guy ahead with the kid. At last we made it. It was so nice to walk into the warm hut and be greeted with smiles and people helping us get the layers off and get Reagan out of the backpack.

Our Room
The most popular way to climb Fuji-san is to hike to an 8th station hut sleep for a few hours and wake around 2:00am to reach the summit to watch the sunrise. The mountain huts are mainly bunk houses used to get a few hours of sleep and some warm food. The hut that we were staying at has a capacity of 250 people but is relatively small. So this means that you are usually laying right next to some one in a large room. We were lucky because they gave us pretty much our own "room." The area could sleep five people but they let us have it to ourselves. It was still just a bedded area for sleeping but it had a curtain to block out the small hall; we considered it luxury. After a little while they called us downstairs for dinner. For dinner we had rice, curry, and a teriyaki hamburger steak. Probably because I was really hungry but it seemed to be the best curry I've ever had. After dinner we headed upstairs to relax and get ready for bed. We were all very tired and I didn't think Reagan would sleep very well. I knew that people would be getting ready around 2:00am so the sooner we go to bed the better. Since the air temperature would be very low with sun down, around 4C (39F) plus a wind chill, Matt decided that it would best for us to go the summit when the sun is up.  We turned the light off at 8:30pm and hoped for the best.

Sunrise from Tomoe Hut at 3,400m (11,155ft)

Well we couldn't have asked for a better night with Reagan. She sleep through all the noise at 2:00am, talking, dropping things, and pots banging around. We finally had to wake her up at 7:00am so we could summit and head down to catch the 1:00pm bus. Matt woke up at 4:45am to go watch the sunrise and capture it on film/media-card.

After watching the sunrise I relaxed with a cup of coffee and had a PB&J sandwich for breakfast. I don't know what it is, but coffee while camping is the best. After watching the sunrise I'm really glad we didn't wake up early and head up. I think it was just as good minus the frigid air. ~Matt

7:00am at the 8th Station
Top of Fuji-san
 After waking up, eating some food, and repacking the bags we where headed to the summit. It is estimated to take 1.5 hours to reach the summit and 4 hours to hike down to the 5th station. So leaving at 7:30am means that we would really have to push to make it down in time for our bus at 1:00pm. But don't worry that is why we have Mr. Hiking to push us with his TIMER. About 30 steps from our hut I yelled up to Matt, "I'm dieing, my heart hurts and I don't think we can make it in time." He stopped and waited for me to catch up. We rested for a minute and then pushed on. The last part of the hike was very challenging because the terrain was much steeper and the air is much thinner than I'm used to. After 50 minutes of difficult climbing we made it to the rim of the volcanic crater.  Technically we didn't go to the "summit" of Fuji-san because that would require another hour of hiking around the crater to the highest point but it's just a technicality, and only a difference of a few vertical meters. We took our packs off to relax and let Reagan play for a little while. We couldn't stay up top for too long because we still had a 4 hour hike down.

Looking Down from Fuji-san
 At this point Matt says well we did it.  I am thinking lets get down to the bus and MAKE the bus and then we'll say we DID it!  So down we went.  Everyone had told us that going down was just as hard or harder than coming up.  It is a different trail and is a very steep  trail covered in loose small volcanic rocks.  At first I was just so excited to be able to breathe again and overwhelmed we had made it and just had to get down.  So the first 30 minutes I felt really good.  But as my knees started to give out, Reagan started getting REALLY mad about being in her backpack, and each of us falling a few times I was NOT impressed anymore.  I just wanted to get down.  I really just wanted to run down anything just to be done but Mr. Hiking informed me "that is when people get hurt."  Well you know I was hurting just walking down so it didn't seem like that bad of an idea, but I listened and just kept slowly creeping down the path.  After about 3.5 hours we really had DONE IT!!  We were at the bottom.  We had endured the long, hard hike with our fussy two year old.  We rewarded ourselves with a 2 liter bottle of water, some good lunch, and ice cream.  Well Reagan and I had ice cream.  Matt just wanted a coke.  About 30 minutes later we were on our bus.  Yes we made a bus.  Finally!  A couple hours later we were pouring ourselves into the apartment.  Ever so ready to just shower and go to bed.  I have to say I haven't been that sore in a really long time.  I am pretty sure even three days later Matt and I were still stretching our legs.

"I'M THE QUEEN OF THE WORLD"
"WE DID IT!"
5:22 AM | Category: | 1 comments

Reagan's 2nd Birthday

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So our little Reagan Jo is turning two. Where did time go? We were very excited to do something for her. We thought about having some of the families up from the Ninomiya house but decided to just do a little something just us and the Walkers. So Monday before her birthday we put together a little party with balloons, presents, and cake. The Walkers took her for an hour before and let Matt and I set up the house and finish dinner. Her face was priceless when she walked in and her house had been transformed into Reagan's Party Land. We had dinner and cake and then opened gifts. You wouldn’t have known from the amount of gifts that we were thousands of miles from the family. Everyone was so sweet and sent so much. Thank you very much, it made her day. The party was small and wonderful, but we were all really excited for her real birthday! We were going to DISNEYLAND.

So Wednesday we all headed out for Tokyo Disneyland. You see it was extra special because not only was this Reagan’s birthday and her first time to Disneyland it was also Seth's and mine as well. From the minutes you walk in the door of Disneyland you feel like you are in a fairytale. Such a perfect place for our birthday Princess. We started out by walking around like a lost child in a candy store. Not quite sure where to go or where to stop because everything seems so good. Eventually we slowed down and looked at the map and made a game plan. We started with the USA Apollo rocket ride that had a somewhat short wait time (45 minutes). Seth and Katie held the spots in line while Matt and I took Reagan to Toontown for a little while. Toontown has a bunch of interactive buildings that Reagan was able to run in and out of and push buttons. When we got back to the ride, Seth and Katie were waiting at the start of the line letting people go in front of them. It turned out that the "approximate" time was a little over estimated. Either way it worked out and we went our first ride at Disneyland Tokyo. Next, we headed back to Toontown because there were still other building for Reagan to play in and there was also the Roger Rabbit ride. I was a little worried about Reagan because the ride had strange characters, it was dark with strobe lights, and loud but she loved it. Sweaty and hot we then went to the best show of the day, the water show at high noon. Nothing like being sprayed down when it is 90 degrees and 90% humidity. 
Reagan on the Rodger Rabbit ride
Next ride on the agenda was Splash Mountain. We couldn't take Reagan on this one so we used our Falkerpass (Walker Fastpass) again. They waited in the 110 minute line while we took Reagan to ride Alice's tea cups and see It's A Small World (please never again). We meet the Walkers after they splashed down and they took Reagan off our hands so we could ride it. Being that we planned ahead and are parents (with great friends) we were escorted to the front of the line through a backdoor. While we were riding a log and watching the story of a scared rabbit, Reagan was watching the Disney parade with the Walkers.
Reagan enjoying ice cream with Uncle Seth and Aunt Katie
Being awesome parents, Matt and I had thought ahead and decided that it would be a really good idea to get a hotel for that night. That way when Reagan started to wear down we could take her to the room for a nap. So we booked the Disney Hilton hotel just outside the park and when our little birthday Princess started to wear down we headed over to let her rest a bit. So after the parade we headed to the hotel so she could nap. While she was resting, Matt and I took a quick walk outside to see the view and sunset. It was beautiful. After a good nap, we headed back to Disneyland for a few more rides, the famous Electric Parade and the fireworks.
Electric Parade
 After the parade we had enough time for one more ride so we chose the Buzz Lightyear. While standing in line, Reagan found this static display of the aliens from Toy Story used to take pictures with. The alien by himself is the "photographer" and has a "camera" in his hands. Reagan noticed this so she thought he was taking pictures and she proceeded to pose with them for the "camera." It was really funny and so cute.
Reagan posing with the aliens
We had been super excited to see the, also famous, fireworks that go off every night at the end of the day behind the castle. Problem was the wind had started up and they ended up canceling them. We were disappointed but overall a perfect first trip to Disneyland. So at this point we told the Walkers good night and headed back to our hotel. 

It was the absolute best way to end Reagan’s birthday. We all got in our PJs and enjoyed some family fun. We did capture the moment for you guys to enjoy as well. And to answer my mom’s question, “Yes, we are kids raising a kid!” And we have loved every moment of the last two years and can only imagine what our lives will hold with these crazy, beautiful, loving, spunky little girl we have been blessed with.
Celebrating good times


Extended video of Reagan's birthday.

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5:59 AM | Category: | 0 comments

Long Ride to the Lakeside Pool
Lakeside Pool
We have the nice little outdoor pool about a block away from the apartments but we were wanting something a little more this weekend. Matt and I were looking for something with a lazy river and slides. He talk to the office staff at the Ninomiya House and found the two closest to us. The first place was the coolest, the downfall was it was a 30 minute train to another 30 minute train then to a bus and was going to cost us about $60 just in transportation. The other one wasn’t as cool but still had a lazy river and two slides. Its downfall was it was a 13 mile bike ride away. We decided to go for the free bike ride since it was just us and we didn’t know if Reagan would be allowed to ride the slides.
Our bike ride. (A) Ninomiya House, (B) Lakeside Pool
Oh how i love riding 26 miles in one day. It ended up being a beautiful bike ride along the river in a valley of rice fields. Just about the time we were getting absolutely done with it we turned a corner and there was the place. It was a pool/small waterpark that was part of a hotel but open to the public as well. We arrived right in time for lunch so we decided we would eat something before we got in the water. So I saw I sign that said no food or drinks allowed when we were checking in and assume there was NO food or drinks inside. I saw people walking toward a building on the left outside the pool area so I assumed it was a food court area and pointed Matt that way. Well it wasn’t a food court area it was a restaurant. Also, it turn out it wasn’t the only place to get food, there was a snack bar inside the pool area. They just didn’t want outside food to come into the pool area. I should have known better I have been to plenty of water parks and it is always like that.
Rice fields and more rice fields
The waterpark was a lot of fun and Reagan really loved it. She went down the slides numerous times, floated around the lazy river for a while and played in the pool until she couldn't hardly stand up. After having a couple of American Dogs, aka corn dogs, we mounted our bikes for our trek home. Of course Reagan fell asleep on the bike but we knew she would. About half way home we stopped at McDonald's for some A/C and a milkshake. Some what rejuvenated we loaded back up and made it back to the Ninomiya House. 
Reagan and Matt on the slide
"Hold me tight Daddy!"
Reagan getting her feet wet
Reagan asleep on the way home

11:42 PM | Category: | 0 comments

Marine Day
So this weekend was a long weekend. Matt had Monday off since it was Marine Day, a national holiday. We had considered going camping but since this is the weekend to kick off summer the camp sites filled up really quickly so we decided a weekend in Tsukuba would be fun. Katie and I started our weekend off with swimming on Friday morning. There is a outdoor pool close to the house so we thought we would check it out. Reagan of course loved it and they have a great kiddy pool. The strange thing is that every 30 minutes everyone has to get out and rest for 5 minutes, for safety I guess. This "safety" break completely contradicts how the life guards conducted themselves. Most of the time they were nodding off, if not already asleep. So maybe this "safety break" was more for the life guards to do a quick check to make sure no one was on the bottom of the pool then back to relaxing. Either way not a big deal since Reagan is always swims right next to us.

Friday night we met some of Matt’s classmates from his Japanese Course for dinner at Takarajima. It is a place where you have a grill in front of you and you order different meats and cook them on the grill yourself. They are pretty cool restaurants. We had been to one in Hiroshima so we knew the drill. This restaurant had a set called “the viking“. It was all you can eat for 90 minutes then you get cutoff. We decided this was a good deal and tried it. By the way we ate for the whole 90 minutes. We had steak, chicken, corn, edaname, pork, potato salad, and I finished up with four different desserts. I wanted to try them all and so I did. Reagan did help me with them. It was a great start to the weekend.

The next day we had a lazy morning and then went to the pool. Reagan loves the pool and we love getting to lounge around in the water. Good family event. After the pool we came home and Reagan took a two and a half hour nap. Matt let me go shopping with Katie and he relaxed. It was pretty interesting and it's pretty fun shopping here. They definitely have different styles but it's still entertaining. Half the fun was just getting to have some girl time. After Reagan’s nap I talked Matt into taking me to dinner. I didn’t feel like cooking. We went to our favorite restaurant which in conveniently located right down from our apartment. We can actually see it from the balcony, I could throw a rock into the parking lot if we wanted to. They have great pad tai and even better naan and even better curry, well everything is great. Dinner was wonderful and after we went to a friend's house and played games. We got home late and since Reagan didn’t go to bed until after midnight we got to sleep in the next day which was really nice.

Sunday we didn’t have too much planned just check out some of the local festivities. We rode our bikes around Sunday afternoon, brought Reagan home for a nap while we watched a movie. Then that evening went to a Arts in the Park thing and it was a lot of fun. The music was good and so was the food.
Live music at the festival
Balloon turtles that Uncle Seth bought
Japanese Power Rangers
Monday was Marine Day and the lake that is pretty close was a having a big festival. I got this great idea that we should ride our bikes even though Matt advised it was a pretty long ride. Well, yes, it was a very long ride. It took us about an hour each way. Matt has an odometer on his bike and the round-trip ended up being 22 miles. Nice ride in 90 degree weather with 90% humidity. I think I almost passed out a few times. Anyways, once arriving at the park and sitting in some shade to regain my composure I felt ready for some food. At first it ways a little confusing because none of the venders actually accepted any money. You first had to go buy some tickets then exchange the tickets for whatever you wanted. The festival was pretty overwhelming with all of the people, the loud Power Ranger skits, and the extreme heat/humidity. Yes I said Power Rangers, ok maybe they weren't exactly Power Rangers but it was something close. Of course the skits were way over the top with loud crackled/clipped sound coming out of the PA system. We  quickly moved out of the speaker woofer and down to the water front area. It was a small little cove, no not that cove, where kids could get in the water a play. As soon as Reagan spotted it she started taking her clothes off like they were on fire. We managed to get a swim suite on her before she jumped in. After playing in the murky water and watching a kid play with a dead fish we decided to go play inland.
Swimming Cove
Kid playing with a dead fish
Made our way to the large park to play on the Zeppelin. This large structure is perfect to let your kid's imagination go wild. It is a spaceship that you take to fight man-lizards, or a super-sonic aircraft that shoots down the enemy, or a submarine, or a fortress, well you see the list can go on for days. But for me, now, it's just a place for your kid to win a ticket to the ER and liquidate your disposable funds. That aside, I went and played on my spaceship and made sure I could be Reagan's parachute if need be. 
The Zeppelin
Climbing into the spaceship
After circling the universe a few times we headed back home. Dehydrated and tired I made it back somehow and passed out for a nap.
7:13 PM | Category: | 0 comments

4th of July
Blueberry picking
Hiking BBQ
4th of July BBQ
Few fireworks for Reagan

Of course more than ever, we really missed back home the 4th of July weekend. We both love the 4th of July: celebrating our independence, the fireworks, the BBQs, the fun in the sun, the time with friend and family. And to top off our home sickness it is Seth and Katie’s wedding anniversary so they ditched us for a little weekend getaway. Lame.

We started our weekend out with a lazy Saturday morning and then after Reagan’s nap decided we should check out the blueberry picking right behind the apartment. There is a little farm right next to us and we had read that you could go in and pick blueberries. We knew Reagan would love this. It was like $5 a person to go in and you could eat all you wanted. Since Reagan is only 1 she was free. They didn’t know she would out eat both of us. She just loved it. She would just pick handfuls and shove it all in her mouth.The next thing I knew she wasn’t even picking them she was just putting her face in the bush and eating them right off     the 
bush. After about an hour straight of blueberry picking and eating we were all basically blueberries ourselves and decided we would head back to the house. That night was a friend of Matt’s birthday so we went upstairs and enjoyed a little time with people our age. Of course as always Reagan was a hit and everyone just loved her. The awesome thing was we met some new Americans that were just here for a summer internship, and they were having a BBQ the next evening and invited us to join. At least we had some other Americans to celebrate with.

The next day, July 4th, we also had a BBQ with the hiking club Matt joined. So we headed down with some guacamole and some chips. Everyone loves our guacamole here. They think it is fantastic and every once in awhile you look up and someone is eating it with a fork. The downfall is it is gone so fast and avocados aren’t cheap. Oh well at least they like it. After some great burgers and a little bit of everything else people had brought, we headed up for a little bit of R&R and to get the stuff ready for the next BBQ. It was really awesome to enjoy the evening with a bunch of Americans. And they were even our age. After some more good food and good conversation we headed out to a dirt lot by the apartments and set off some fireworks. Reagan absolutely loved them.

It sure wasn’t anything like home but it was an excellent substitute. We're enjoying our time here, but we miss the good ole US of A and can’t wait to be back in the country we love.


"And I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free.
And I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me."         ~Lee Greenwood
8:00 PM | Category: | 0 comments

The Girls Explore Tokyo
So Katie and I had to face Tokyo alone today. We needed to complete the final step to our visas being long-term. This time the boys had to work so we were going to have to put on our big girl pants and do this one just the girls. We hit the 10:00 train out of Tsukuba and began our first trip to Tokyo without the boys. Since we got to the train early we got good seats. Reagan enjoyed having her own seat to bounce around in but also thought she should bounce around in ours as well.


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The girls on the train (I kind of got cut out)


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Reagan and I on the train


After arriving in Tokyo, we continued our trek, helping each other remember which way to go and which train/bus to hit next to get to the Immigration Office. We had made the trip twice with the boys but this time we had to remember all the stops ourselves. It was easy enough and within an hour we had finished the business we had come to do. We were officially long-term visa holders and now it was time to do some exploring. We didn’t really have anything planned so we looked at one of the tour maps Matt sent with me and decided on Shimbashi. It was not far from Akihabara where we take the Tsukuba Express home and we hadn’t been there yet so it seemed like a good place to stop and explore. So we get off at the train station and the confusion begins. Umm, which way to go. We had an idea of an area we wanted to head toward. We were trying to head toward the bay to find some good seafood and then check out some gardens that were near by. We started looking up since there was sky scrapers everywhere trying to read something that would be on the map. Finally we found a building we knew wasn’t in the way we were trying to go and just went the other direction.


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Like an hour later and at least 7 different flights of stairs (oh and we have the stroller so we are carrying the stroller with Reagan in it up and down all of these stairways), we finally get across a major intersection feel we were going the right direction. That feeling last about 5 minutes when we realized again we had no idea where we were. Luckily we happened to be standing right in front of a tourism office with this confused look and a very helpful (English speaking I might add) lady came out and ask us if she could help. She gave us a map and pointed us in the right direction. Before we left we ask for a restaurant suggestion. She got us another map and told us about a sushi place a couple blocks away. Perfect! We love sushi and we were looking for seafood plus at this point we were starving and would have settle with about anything. The sushi was great and Reagan enjoyed her PB&J I brought her. We felt much better and headed off to the gardens we were looking for. Right as we got to the gate we realize how late it is and how tired Reagan look and decided we should head home. Of course like a block into our walk back to the train station she was out. Being optimistic I decided well good she can nap the trip home.


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So sweet when she is sleeping


HAHA! Wait what kid actually does that for their mom. She napped just long enough for us to take the JR train back to Akihabara and for us to get on the Tsukuba Express to head back. She woke up minutes after we got on the 50 minute train ride home. Oh well she played nicely and we got back to town around 4:00. It was nice to have not spent all day there this time. It is very draining when we do that. Pretty good trip to Tokyo and Katie and I pulled it off with all by ourselves.
7:01 AM | Category: | 0 comments

Tokyo for Reagan
Wednesday night Matt came in and informed me we were headed to Tokyo the next day. We need to go to the Immigration Office and start the process on changing our visas from 90 day to long term. We hit the 10:00 am train to Tokyo and went straight to the Immigration Office to get that out of the way. Matt’s experience with the Immigration Office is it can make for a very long day. We must have picked a good day because we were in and out in less than an hour. So we headed out for lunch. We decided on a quick, cheap lunch so we could get going and then have a nice dinner. We went to a little fast food restaurant by the station and got gyudon (thinly sliced beef on top of rice in a bowl).

Reagan Petting the Guinea Pigs
We had decided the night before to have a Reagan friendly day so after lunch we headed to the Ueno Zoo. It was a pretty big zoo but we found our favorite spot only five minutes in. They had spider monkeys! I now know what my favorite zoo animal is. Seth went as far as to ask Katie if he could take one home. They swing around like crazy and use their tails like another limb. Even though we could have spent the whole day just watching them, we managed to pull ourselves away and check out the rest of Ueno Zoo. I have to admit though we did come back before we left to stare in awe of them for a few more minutes. It took us over four hours to see the whole zoo. Reagan loved it but it was really hot and naptime so she did get a little fussy about half way through. She crashed out for a bit but didn’t sleep long . . . too much going on around us. I think her favorite part was either the monkeys or the petting zoo. They had a section with rabbits, baby chickens, mice, and guinea pigs that you could hold and play with.
"Pleeease can I have it?"
Uncle Seth, Aunt Katie, and Regan

After the Zoo we went to a little amusement park for kids right across from the Zoo. Reagan rode a few ride and we got some ice cream. We went to the park to eat our ice cream and let her play for a bit. Pretty much a perfect day for an almost two year old: Zoo, rides, ice cream, and a playground.


We did try to sneak a few pictures as a family into the day but Reagan was way more interested in playing.
Our Family in Ueno
After the park we were all getting hungry so we decided to head back towards the train station and just find something close. We found a great curry restaurant on top of this huge electronic store. It was really good. I am falling in love with this thing called Naan. It is right up there with tortillas and the cheese naan is a pretty good replacement for a good ‘ole quesadilla. We caught the 8:00 pm train home and called it a night. The trips to Tokyo really wear us out.
7:35 AM | Category: | 0 comments

Tokyo for Some Sightseeing
So to finish off a very long week, we wanted to take Matt’s friend to see Tokyo before he left plus we had only been to one small part of Tokyo so it was a good time for Matt to get to show me more. We decided to let the Walkers and Justin go ahead of us since all we had done was run for four days straight and Reagan was really starting to get worn out. We had a slow morning and got to the trains about 10:00. The first thing on the list that day was to get a part of the Immigration office stuff started. Katie, Reagan, and I needed to change our visas from 90 days to long term. We got to the immigration office about 11:30 to find out Katie and Seth had accidentally left one of the papers at home. So we decided that would just have to wait for another day. Since we were all hungry next thing on our list was to find food. Matt and Seth had been to Ebisu Gardens and wanted to take Justin there so that is where we started. We had lunch out on the promenade area. It was beautiful. We even got a great picture of Reagan taking it all in.After lunch we headed to the Yebisu Beer Museum. It was pretty interesting and we finished the tour with a nice cold drink.
Next on the agenda was to see the busiest intersection in the world. Oh course Reagan crashed on the way over so we got to have some fun picture taking with her passed out and tons of people walking past.
She was oblivious to the fact she was in a very popular intersection. Matt and I also took a picture together in the middle of the chaos. Loving each other when the rest of the world was whizzing past.
After that we decided to head to Ueno. Seth, Katie and Justin wanted to see the shrine over the lake but I was just about Shrined out so my vote was for just walking around the park. We first headed out to find the Ueno Zoo but when we found it we realized one it was about to close and it was more of an all day thing not an one hour thing. We did end up going to the Zoo a couple weeks later and you can read about that soon. So since the Zoo was closing we settled on a play area and just let Reagan run around for a bit. She didn’t want to leave the park and we snapped this photo of her standing pouting. She looks so small.
One the way to the train station we were letting Reagan just walk next to us and play and we happen to notice two people covertly trying to take pictures of her. We just laughed and told them it was fine. All the sudden our little baby girl turned on the charm. She was posing for them and when they quit taking pictures she fussed until they took some more. I was somewhere in between embarrassed and quite amused.
Next on the list for the day was to go to the Tokyo Tower. We hit the next train and got to the Tokyo Tower about 6:30. Almost perfect timing for seeing the sunset but I guess other people had this idea as well because there was an hour wait to get to the top. We decided we had made Reagan wait enough that week and decided dinner was a better idea. On our way back to the train station we walked past an English pub and decided that was just fine. It was really good and we even got to have some chicken wings. It was cool to see Tokyo but unreal how little we actually saw. We couldn’t see all of it if we went every weekend but we are up to the challenge to see as much as possible. Keep checking on the blog, there will be plenty more Tokyo adventures.
7:46 AM | Category: | 0 comments