Tokyo sake & soba

The last part of our trip was visiting Tokyo. We managed to get from Kyoto to Tokyo on the highspeed train without too much incident, though I can't say it was stress free. Given the size of our group, we required taking two sperate vans to get to the train station. Not a big deal, until we arrived at two different areas of the enormous multi-level train station. Just trying to locate each other became a larger task than anticipated. In hindsight, saying things like, "...we are by the Starbucks" or "...we are next to the Shinkansen ticket booth" was not helpful. In the moment, it seemed like giving landmarks would be beneficial until I later realized there were numerous Starbucks and numerous Shinkansen ticket booths. For our Colorado friends, it would be the equivalent of me saying, "I'm at the dispensary on Broadway" thinking I would be easy to find. It also probably didn't help that I would have bet my first born that our group was on the ground floor (we were not). We finally reunited the groups and boarded the train on time. Once on the train, it was so quiet and peaceful. I could just watch the beautiful Japanese landscape rush by me at 200mph while I was alone in my thoughts. Sitting there in silence, I was able to replay the previous stressful 90 minutes in my head and recount the number of Starbucks I walked by after thinking there was only one and just try and laugh at myself.

We stayed in the Roppongi Hills neighborhood in Tokyo. Unknowingly it is an area of night clubs, entertainment, and previously known as the red light district. We went out for a walk the first night and there was a street with rows of high-end shops and a great view of the Tokyo Tower, the second highest structure in Japan. But the best view was literally down the middle of the street. So we just stood on the side of the road and watched as people would wait for the traffic light to turn red so they could run into the middle of the crosswalk and take selfies or have others take their pictures with the Tower behind them and all the trees lit up for the holidays lining the street. Really the best part was there was a police officer with a megaphone who had to stand there and what we were assuming is tell people not to stand in the middle of the road to take pictures and clear the area. His voice sounded so defeated and monotone, it was impossible not to come up with your own narrative for what he was saying in Japanese. "Please don't stand in the middle of the road. You are going to get run over by a car. I don't care if you are doing it for the -gram. I hate my job so much." --Trae

Kim found a sake bar that was highly recommended. Auntie Joni, Jeff, Jean, Kim and myself all went to this tiny bar that would hold 12 people at max capacity. We were out early (late for us) so we had the bar to ourselves. Takumi, the bar owner and bartender was amazing. He was such a nice guy, super knowledgeable and spoke great English which he claimed he learned solely by watching YouTube. He served us various types of sake along with bar snacks like truffle nuts and my first time eating homemade potato salad at a bar. He was very proud of it as he should be. It was delicious. Cousin Jeff's superpower is his curious mind, and every time he asked Takumi a question about a dry sake vs sweet or what's the difference between Korean soju and Japanese soju, Takumi's response was always given in his YouTube English and a pour of a drink to show us. It was all very interesting, but I was needing Jeff to stop asking questions so I wouldn't have to sleep on the floor of the bar.

--Trae

SO we went to this really cool interactive exhibit - TeamLab. How it works is you get there and you take your shoes and socks off and roll up your pants right above your knees, and then you go in the locker room and put all your stuff in it. After that we walk into this really cool hallway that has not that many lights in it (it was a little scary), but then there was this sound that was coming ahead - it was a huge waterfall!! All you do is go walk up it in the water. It's so cool. We got really wet! After that you would walk into this room that was pretty normal (it was just to dry your feet). Then there was a place to walk into, but it got dark again, so we couldn't see what was in front of us. Soon, I stepped in, and it was a really big room filled with foam that you walk in. So what happened two seconds later was that all of the cousins were jumping onto the foam and belly flopping onto it. After that was this deep, but not to deep, pool just so you get right below your knees and light shaped as fish swim around you and music played calmly. It was really fun and at the end there was this awesome flower room that had a lot of flowers hanging down on strings and if you walk into it, they would lift up, and when you get past some, they move back down.

--Poppy!

Seeking a slower pace from the busy Tokyo streets, Jean, Tia and I snuck off to the National Art Center. My favorite exhibit was Shinji Ohmaki's Interface of Being. Displayed in a immense space, he created two works that integrated light and movement in the most beautiful way. A giant vase filled with a rotating light that dimmed and brightened seemed to simultaneously give life and absorb it, and a massive room with rolling ripples of glistening fabric put me in a meditative state that I never wanted to leave. - Kim

Back out on the chilly streets of Tokyo, after walking and walking, we wanted a warm place to sit down. Jean and the kids and I found refuge in a karaoke bar. Although slightly damp and smoke scented, it was nice to rest and take a break. We also discovered the kids have a talent for Backstreet Boys' "I want it that way" - a timeless classic. - Kim

A highlight of Tokyo was getting to visit with friends and family. We had the opportunity to spend time with my grandma's cousin, Yasunobu. Yasunobu is such a nice man and took us to dinner our first night in Tokyo. He also took us out touring the city later in the week, all while apologizing he couldn't do more for us. In his 80's, Yasunobu is still working and shared with us that next year he will start fulfilling his lifelong dream of trying to do stand up comedy. I about fell on the floor when he told us this as he's always so proper and serious. --Trae

We were also able to meet up with Trae's friend and colleague Shin's family - his brother (Joe), sister-in-law, niece and Shin's mother. This was bittersweet as Shin's family hadn't been able to see him for a very long time while he has been in the US. They took us to lunch in a very fancy building in Ginza. When the elevator door opened we could immediately see we were underdressed. Shin's mom insisted the kids eat the Waygu burger which Grayson exclaimed was the best he ever had. At one point Trae leaned over and showed Shin's mom a message he had written and translated on his phone - something to the effect of how well her son, Shin, is doing in the US. How he works so hard and does such incredible work - that she should be very proud of him. I watched as she teared up bowing several times, then Trae teared up, then the rest of us. Then Shin's mom started talking very quickly thanking Trae for watching out for Shin, until Joe, who was translating for her, cut off his mom and said "I don't know how to translate that all. She is very thankful and will always have your back." At the end of the meal, Trae gave Shin's mother (perhaps the most regal and sophisticated woman I have ever seen) a Southmetro fire t-shirt and we called it a meal. --Kim

The night before leaving Tokyo, Atsushi, Joni's foreign exchange student from 40 years ago, and his wife took us to the most delicious meal I had in Japan, and it was probably the longest as well. The meal lasted about 4 hours and 10 courses with all of them being delicious. Probably 50% of the courses were fish, so it wasn't that ideal for Poppy, but everyone else had a blast. The first course consisted of a small portion of hand-made soba and a little brain looking thing that was actually some kind of fish eggs ( I didn't really like it but the soba was the best :) ).

After another 4 courses or so, the crane competition began between Kerai and Atsushi, and it was very serious! At first it was just simple, normal, and chill with a crane about 3 inches tall, and then they slowly started to shrink and shrink and shrink and shrink until Atsushi started using a toothpick and made a crane so small I could barely see it was a crane! After Kerai tried to top it but failed, he said something along the lines of "When I got to this dinner, I thought I was a really good crane builder, but now I don't feel that way."

Now back to the food. One of my favorite courses was this steak that was cooked to perfection. It was so tender and tasty, and I could have eaten so much of it. Skip forward to the end of our meal -we had a super good desert. There was this mystery flavor ice cream that mom says was one of the best she ever had, some handmade soba mochi, jello, and a delicious fig sauce.

Four hours was a long time for us kids to keep occupied. Mom taught us a game called "Kiss, Kill, Marry" which she said is a little inappropriate - she would list 3 people or characters and we had to choose which to kiss, kill or marry. Kerai said he would kiss Darth Vader because his mask would keep their lips from having to touch...but the break up would be tricky. Enzo said that he would marry Winnie the Poo because "Free honey, Bro!" -- Grayson!