Tanzawaoyama Quasi-National Park

We visited the Tanzawaoyama Quasi-National Park for another day of hiking (about 1.5 hours subway/train ride). We couldn't figure out why this was a "quasi" park, it certainly seemed like a regular, full blown national park to us. The park is located in a pretty area with a lot of small gardens and farms.

We had a good climb uphill, then down a steep, winding path with log steps to the bottom of a natural waterfall. Louis enjoyed checking out the waterfall (he slept through the climb) and then did some hiking back up from the waterfall. We are contemplating investing in some hiking boots for him! After a short rest, we returned to the park entrance down a different path past a few other waterfalls.

I know this bridge looks easy enough but walking on it was a little scary...it was bouncy and felt like you might take a plunge with each step.

Cool looking flowers - we also saw a lot of these at Mt. Takao.

Arisugawanomiya Memorial Park

Derek is off work for Golden Week (several national Japanese holidays in one week) so he joined Louis and I for playgroup Tuesday morning. After playgroup, we headed over to Arisugawanomiya Memorial Park, about 20 minutes walk from home. It's a wonderful park with both a nice playground and a natural area with mini-waterfalls, pond and plenty of stones for hopping across the little streams.

Mt. Takao

Derek planned a great day of hiking for us at Mt. Takao, about an hour's train ride from Tokyo. We started out with a picnic lunch by a stream, then Louis went into the backpack and we had a rugged hike up. Louis loved getting out at the top and running around for a while - though I think he enjoyed sitting and eating cashews better than the gorgeous view of Mt. Fuji! We took an easier route going down and stopped about halfway to admire a Temple, visit the monkey park, and then coast to the bottom in a cable car.

On the way up.


Stopping near the top.


View of Mt. Fuji from the top.

Tokyo sprawl.

Cool looking gate with angry guy statues (near the temple).


Louis naps on the way down...wish someone would carry me.

Science is Fun!

It was pouring rain outside so we decided on a trip to the Science Museum located a few subway stops away near the Imperial Palace. I was amazed at how many educational and fun hands-on exhibits they had! Louis loved the museum! He rode a bicycle and a motorcycle with dad, climbed through an optical illusion tunnel, built a bridge, operated a crane, interacted with a robot and much more!

Probably Louis' favorite was the air pressure exhibit.


Movie clip of Louis at the air pressure exhibit.


He was fascinated by the robot-dinosaur.

We thought the 'Methane Monument' was amusing.

A few random shots of Derek's day

I've been meaning to do this for a few weeks, but finally got around to it. Here are a few pictures of what the daily grind looks like in Tokyo.

This is the sign at the subway stop where my office is located. If you've lived somewhere with good public transportation, the subway in Tokyo probably isn't that interesting. But to me, it's still novel that I don't have to check a schedule before trying to ride somewhere - there's always a subway within the next 6 minutes.

My floor. This is, from what I've been told, typical for Japanese companies. Besides saving space, it is thought to foster togetherness and communication to have everyone in the same room and able to quickly talk to one another. I've found that it also makes it difficult to have a TC because of the background noise. Luckily for me, the time-zone difference with the US/UK means that I have most of my TCs at night from my apartment anyway.


The director on our floor is the only one who has his own desk. He is centrally located so that he can be consulted easily, which helps him stay informed of what is going on. The Japanese style of management is very hands-on and not as removed from the front-lines as in the US.


After a relaxing day at the office, a nice quiet ride home. My subway is actually busier at night than in the morning, because our apartment is located in the "nightlife district". Often in the morning I can see across the tracks to the subway going the other direction, and it's PACKED. I'll get some pictures of that as soon as I can.

Let me know if there are any requests for pictures of anything here and I'll try to get them taken and posted!

Louis in the Spring

Sakura season is behind us, now it's back to regular old spring days of beautiful weather.

Here are some pictures of us from this weekend out and about, near our apartment.

In a toystore near the apartment, Louis picked out a watering can that he just couldn't live without. He immediately went to work putting it to good use in the park.

Someone has to water these flowers!

Kelli and Louis near a statue in Yoyogi Koen, not too far from where Derek's work is located.

Louis shares some bubbles with all of you!

Sakura Season

The sakura season lasts for about 10 days in Tokyo (from when the flowers really start to boom until they start snowing down from the trees). This means that when the flowers are in season, everyone gets together outside for ohanami as often as possible. During the season in Tokyo, we enjoyed as much of them as we could.

We spent an afternoon with our friends Harry and Naoko Schlemmer and many of Harry's friends from when he first came to Japan as part of the German student exchange program. I think every German speaking person in Tokyo was there with us.


It was windy and sandy at our picnick location, but we managed to smile for a picture anyway!



Pictures of some of the trees at Shinjuku Goen, where we met some of Derek's friends from work.

Japan IT Ohanami Party

In Japan, 桜 ("sakura", cherry blossoms) are a big deal. Since the day we arrived, we were told about how beautiful they are and how much we will love seeing them.

Japan ITI had their annual お花見 ("ohanami", cherry blossom viewing party) during the first week of April...
on a party boat...
at night.

When I received the invitation I began to think that the whole "sakura" thing had very little to do with flowers and was really just an annual excuse to go out with your co-workers for a big bash. But I was assured by my co-workers that this was, really, about viewing the flowers.

The ship held about 50 guests, of which our team only made up ~25, so there were plenty of other people on the boat with us. Everyone sat in groups of 8-10 on the tatami mat floor. Shoes off at the door!


The food on the cruise is do-it-yourself and everyone took turns preparing a dish. There was not a strict order of dishes, and at the table you could decide which dish you wanted to make next - then the staff would bring you the required ingredients. There was a potato/egg/something dish that was delicious, I'll try to update with the name. When it was my turn, I made fried rice (easy mode = on).


There were actually lot of beautiful flowering cherry trees along the banks of the river that we cruised, and they were lit up nicely with lights so that they could be seen from the boats. There were also a lot of boats. At one point I looked out the window and counted over 30. I wonder what these boats do for the other 51 weeks of the year?

Hats

Louis was supposed to be in bed almost two hours ago.

He left his room, tiptoed up to me while I was working on my laptop at the table, and tapped my arm. He smiled and held up my cap, "daddy hat", and when I picked him up he put it on my head.

He was already wearing my other one.

Magnum's Ultrasound

We have a couple ultrasound movie files from our visit to the doctor - however - we had to convert them using a freebie converter online, so we only get a little bit of each one. Here's what we have from a visit on 2.19.09 and 4.3.09. Enjoy!

2.19.2009 - Includes heartbeat

4.3.2009 - Mostly head shots as doc was measuring (everything checks out fine!)