Our long awaited trip to meet up with the Benhams in Tokyo finally arrived! We have been so excited to share our Japanese experience with family, and we were just dying to see Kaye, Brady, and Beth. We decided to rent a van from the base because it gave us more room and also covers all our toll costs for the whole trip.
The trip started early Sunday morning when we left Misawa for Tokyo. Having two little kids we were forced to make a couple stops pushing our 7 hour trip to 9 hours. When we finally pulled up to our hotel, The Newsanno, in Tokyo I just about cried tears of joy. The long car ride was over, or so I thought. Little did I realize we would be doing a lot more driving and I would be in a lot less comfy seat for it.
Monday morning we all dressed up in our Disney best, and together as a family of 4 boarded the trains for Tokyo Disneyland. It was the first time we have taken the kids to Disney and I don't know who was more excited, me or them!
Now, I thought Disneyland back in the states was crazy, but the Japanese just take it to a whole new level. Everyone was dressed up with hats, shirts, costumes, head pieces, you name it. It was like they were Disney experts and would start setting up camp for the parade two hours before it even started. We learned very quickly to not ask questions as to "why are they doing that?" But to start following their lead!
We spend the whole day bouncing back and forth between fantasy land and toon town since Abby and Connor could only go on those rides. They absolutely loved it... And then Dumbo happened. We had been waiting in line to ride the Dumbo ride for 20 minutes, meanwhile scouting out the pink elephant Abby loved and was determined to ride. When our time came up we were not allowed to pick our elephant and were ushered into the green dumbo for the ride. That was the straw that broke Abby's back. She lost it and screamed the entire ride. I actually felt bad for the little thing cause for 20 minutes she was soooooo excited to ride the pink elephant, then her whole world came crashing down. Oh the life of a two year old.
We learned a couple things that day. 1) Abby loves roller coasters and went on the toon town coaster 5 different times with her hands in the air Everytime 2) warning: when the Japanese workers come up to you with a sign saying the ride might be too scary for your children... Heed the warning! Abby is forever scared from the Snow White ride. 3) after a long day of walking around don't be adventurous with food. Just find the best looking American type comfort food to hit the spot. It will never be as good as you secretly hope and wish it could be, but at least it will fill you up. 4) nothing phases Connor, he is a daredevil!
The next day we needed to pick up the Benhams. So to kill time before their flight arrived we went to the Tokyo LDS temple (and stopped for ice cream at Baskin Robbins of course) and went exploring in downtown Tokyo. We saw the oldest Temple in Tokyo, Sensoji, which also happens to be the symbol of Tokyo. It was a nice break from the day prior, in which the kids could actually relax and get their daily naps in. We sure love Tokyo, there is always something new to see in the biggest city in the world!
Our first day adventure with the Benhams was our Mt Fuji tour. We were so excited for this and had read great reviews about this tour... They seemed to leave out that the tour was 90% on a bus and 10% out actually exploring Mt Fuji. So with our kids screaming, me getting car sick on all the switchbacks up and down the mountain, it unfortunately was NOT my favorite day like I was hoping it would be. Even though we were disappointed in how the tour turned out, everyone was a good sport and we did enjoy seeing the mountain for the 30 mins we were allotted all day :)
Then it was off to Horoshima. Kyle and I were very excited to see this historical site since we had just visited Pearl Harbor a couple months ago. It was like seeing the beginning and ending to WWII. Again, the only draw back was we had to drive 8 hours to get there. It was the vacation of being stuck in a car/bus I guess. Luckily for our sakes, Hiroshima was definitely worth it. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and the museum was very well done. I learned a lot that day including how they were aiming to drop the bomb on the T-bridge about 100 feet from the A-dome in which the bomb actually did strike. It was very peaceful, and thanks to the wonderful museum and preserved building I could picture the devastation that occurred on the tragic day.
Making our way back to Tokyo, we of course had to stop in Kyoto. This is my all time favorite city in Japan. There are so many temples, castles, and shrines to see that the big history nerd inside me starts drooling. We were able to see a couple highlights because we were only there for a day. We biked around the city like we did last year, which is always a fun and unique way to see the city and culture life. We stayed the night in Osaka and got to explore part of their shopping district as well.
By this point the kids had completely warmed up to grandma, grandpa, and Aunt "Beppy" that every morning as soon as they would wake up they wanted to go in their room to see them. They were completely spoiled and would receive a little present/toy each morning from them. My kids quickly learned to forget about mom and dad and go be with grandma and grandpa :)
We arrived back into Tokyo late due to traffic and were not able to got exploring as much as we wanted to in the city, but we did take Beth to Shibuya. The kids stayed back with grandma and grandpa and Kyle, myself, and Beth got to go grab something to eat in downtown Tokyo. We saw the busiest crossing, and Beth tried her first (and probably last) sushi. It was a fun late night outting.
The last day we had to end at Tokyo DisneySea of course! It was a fun amusement park that was based around water and different "ports" to visit. I think we enjoyed the little mermaid port/lagoon the best. You could enter King Tritons castle in which there were lots of rides and fun area for kids to run and explore. We were able to sneak in one big roller coaster before the lines got too long, and enjoyed flying on a magic carpet ride. Abby loved the water show, and one of the highlights for me was getting to sit and eat a somewhat decent burger and fries.
Saying goodbye was hard since we don't know when we will get to see them again (hopefully this summer). It was time to go back to reality... Back to work, back to responsibilities, and make that dreaded 9 hour drive back to Misawa. Of course we hit traffic AGAIN to slow down the trip, but a stop in Sendai for IKEA helped lift my spirits. It was a fun trip, and we were so happy to see family. Being over here can be very isolating.
We probably won't make it down to Tokyo again till Labor Day weekend. Till then, take care my beloved city.
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