More Tokyo adventures
Such a whirlwind of activity here. Hard to not get caught up in all the energy. And, even harder to find a moment to write about everything we are doing! Trying to remember everything but days are jammed packed with sensory overload (for me). It is giving me an entirely new level of empathy for Zach and his SPD. Interestingly enough he seems to be doing ok with all the stimulation (except on the trains).
Today we spent the morning doing a little research project for my dad. It was sort of like a scavenger hunt all over Tokyo so an interesting adventure for sure. Starving, after wandering the city, Mel wanted ramen. She was outvoted for this meal once Zach and I saw an Italian restaurant. Yes, I know, but I’m a vegetarian (pork, oyster sauce or shrimp seems to be in everything) and Zach, while adventurous at times, needed a good meal that we knew he would eat. After the sea snail he was a bit reluctant to jump in. Italian it was and it was delicious. The kids went to explore the toy vending machines while Bill and I had coffee. One rule, stay together. While they did, we couldn’t find them. Problem is those toy vending machines are everywhere. Clearly we needed to be more specific. We eventually found them and Zach and I headed back to the hotel to rest for a bit while Bill and Mel went to meet up with Bill’s longtime friend, Frank, who lives in Tokyo.
Bill and Mel spent the afternoon with Frank in Nakano, a more local version of where we were staying with a big music scene. Frank took them to some local favorites and they tried a bunch of different foods—-matcha soft serve, sushi from a stand up sushi bar (raw scallops & shrimp) , sweet potato pancakes and more. Back on the other side of town, Zach and I skipped dinner and ate a bag of cashews while we explored the neighborhood : ) We are not as adventurous of eaters and since everything is written in Japanese we are flying blind in the grocery. Zach got ramen one night and it had shrimp so that was a no go. We got a bag of what we thought were plain chips and turns out they were soy sauce/butter flavor. Mel is in heaven, she loves all this stuff. She is loving the strawberry and matcha kit kats too. Bill is loving the shrimp chips which I am sure are not part to his gluten free diet.
