Our First Visitors

Sarah's folks came to visit us last week, and just left a few minutes ago. We all had a very good time. They arrived on Thursday, and took the "limousine bus" in from the airport to the Miyako Hotel Tokyo, conveniently located across the street from our apartment.

On Friday, Sarah gave them a walking tour of the district where we live, and on Saturday, we hopped the Shinkansen to Kyoto. We rode the 700 "Nozomi" series. We stayed at a Ryokan -- a traditional Japanese-style hotel -- in a room with tatami mat flooring. Breakfast and dinner were included in the cost of the room, and were served to us in our room. The experience was perfect, and very Japanese... Here are a few pictures:

First, dinner:



Then, a good night's sleep:



Our attendants/housekeepers came in and cleared away the remnants of dinner before laying out our beds. The beds were composed of two fouton mattresses stacked on one another, with a sheet tucked around them. Drape a down comforter over the top, and call it complete. Completely comfortable, anyhow.

Don't mock the ukata until you've tried the yukata... it makes great lounge wear after a hard day's walk through Kyoto's many shrines and temples:



We stayed 2 nights in Kyoto. I do not have a picture of our first morning's meal, but my understanding is that it was a very traditional Japanese breakfast: fish, eggs, rice, and some salad. Our second morning's breakfast however, was more Western-style, while still retaining an essential Japanese-ness:



Thanks to Sarah's dad, Earl, for these pictures. Now that we've got the description of our room sewed up tight, let's move on to what we saw while we were out and about. These are just a couple of highlights, but never fear, there are more on flickr:

Mt. Fuji from the Shinkansen window:


The outer gardens of Nijo Castle:


Some sort of flower arrangement in the garden behind a shrine. This may a form of Ikebana, but I don't think so. Oh, who am I kidding, I know less than nothing about arranging flowers -- it's what's in front of the bouquet that counts.


Kiyomizu-dera, the "clear water" temple:


Kinkakuji, the "golden pagoda":


Other than the trip to Kyoto, we stuck around Tokyo and I worked Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Thursday was a national holiday in honor of the Vernal Equinox. We had planned to take a day trip to Kamakura, but we woke up to persistent rain, so we decided to stick closer to home and visit Akihabara, "electronics town", instead.

Sarah and I had a great time visiting with her folks, but I don't think anyone enjoyed themselves more than Robert. He had a great time playing with his grandparents. Robert isn't quite able to muster the words "Grandma and Grandpa" yet, but he's making some valiant efforts. Robert is starting to say a few other things though, his repertoire currently includes: ball, moon, meow, baa, daddy, mama, moo, wow, and my personal favorites: uh-oh, and juish (juice).


If we happen to mention the "J" word in his presence, he immediately responds with a chorus of rather insistent cries of Juish! Juish! Juish! We try to give him juice no more than once a day, so we are learning to be careful not to mention it other than when we intend to come through with the goods.