Monthly Archives: January 2025

January 4, 2024

Aubrey and I allowed ourselves the luxury of setting our alarm for 9 am because we were up past 2 ensuring everyone was packed and ready for the trip home. We didn’t have to check out until 11 am, and there wouldn’t be much time for activities before we had to head to the airport. 

By some miracle, we managed to get out on time, even with 6 out of 8 of us showering. This trip I learned never to underestimate how much time it can take for 8 people to get out the door in the morning when there is only one toilet and only one shower/bath. 

I was looking forward to a stress-free travel day (Aubrey calls that on oxymoron), but then we got an email from Air Canada notifying us that the Tokyo-Vancouver leg of the flight for the BC contingent was delayed by two and a half hours “due to mechanical problems” on the incoming flight. Sound familiar? This was going to be a big problem, as Noam’s comfortable two and a half hour cushion to catch his flight to Kelowna would disappear. I immediately started trouble shooting. I repeatedly tried to call Air North, to try and switch Noam’s flight to a later time, but couldn’t get my Canadian SIM card to work to call Canada. I also tried to contact the virtual assistant from Expedia, got disconnected three or four times, and then when I finally “spoke” to someone, they told me I had to speak directly to the airline because it was within 24 hours. Not fun. I decided to leave it until later as I was trying to navigate the logistics of our last couple of hours in Tokyo (all of this troubleshooting was being done while I was waiting for a bus, riding a bus, and finally while running an errand).

Before heading into the station, Noam saw a Smiskis display in the window of one of those multi-floor stores, so headed instead of heading to The Loft which had been closed the day before. Everyone else followed so there were some more last minute souvenir purchases. They were some really crazy items – these made me laugh out loud.

We headed to Ueno to find lockers for our luggage, shop a bit, eat and then head to the airport. Unfortunately we did not learn the lesson of our first day in Tokyo, and our trip ended the same way it began: spending too much time looking for available lockers for our luggage, giving up, and eating at the same good GOO Food Hall where we ate that first afternoon we arrived. We had to sit at two separate tables, but it all worked out. We also got another email saying that their flight was no longer delayed, so I would not have to reschedule Noam’s flight. Food was good, it came quickly, and we got out of there in time to catch our train.

The “Skyliner Airport Express” train we were trying to catch was a reserved seat train and there was much chaos at the ticket office as we were trying to use up the money on our Suica cards (kind of like a pre-paid cash card used for transit but also for other purchases). Five of us had it loaded in our digital wallet on our phones, a couple had physical cards, and Erez had his loaded on his apple watch. We didn’t realize how difficult it was going to be. The woman in the ticket was not cooperative, didn’t speak English, and my Japanese wasn’t cutting it through the plexiglass barrier in the noisy train station. We did the best we could and headed to the train. Right as we were going to go through the turnstile, Erez’s watch (which had the Suica card loaded onto it) spontaneously shut off, so he couldn’t come through the gate. All of us were already on the other side. He had to wait for his watch to reboot and turn back on so he could tap in. In the meantime, our train was arriving within minutes. Some of us went ahead, I got them set up in the line for their train car and anxiously watched the escalator for our second group of four to arrive so I could check which car they were on. It turned out they took a different escalator, and I managed to catch up with them and get on the train in time. Thank goodness for cellphones. We were split into two different cars, and were also split up within those cars.

We arrived at the airport right on schedule. Another notification from Air Canada: their flight was now going to leave a half hour EARLY. WHAAAT???

As we arrived at Narita we had to go our separate ways, as the BC contingent was leaving from the South Wing of the Terminal and the Ontario contingent was leaving from the North Wing. I suddenly got very emotional as I said goodbye to Erez, Noam and Kerrie. It just snuck up on me and I couldn’t hold the tears in. 

After some long hugs, we headed to security and immigration. We got through efficiently and had quite bit of time to use up the last of our non-refundable Suica cards on snacks. Once through security we got an update from Noam that their flight was now delayed again, for ninety minutes this time. We are not sure what will happen once he gets to Vancouver. He has to go through customs, get his checked bag and catch his flight, all with only an hour and a bit inbetween arrival and departure. Worst case scenario (aside from missing his connection) he will go through customs and sprint to his plane, Erez and Kerrie will pick up his bag (both of them had things inside it), and figure out some way for him to get his bag back. I eagerly await the news of how things end up in Vancouver.

As for the Ontario contingent, we got on our plane on time, and the flight was uneventful, except for the fact that we had to go through security again in Calgary for some reason and they confiscated my sesame salad dressing. Our original flight that we had to cancel was direct, non-stop, and this replacement flight we have a 5 hour layover in Calgary. Well, it is what it is. We will be getting home very late after another extremely long day.

Update from the BC Contingent: It was a team effort, and there was a lot of sprinting through the airport involved (by both Noam and Erez), but Noam got through customs, and re-checked his bag – we are not certain that it will get there at the same time as him though. He made it onto the plane to Kelowna. Yay!

I am writing this from the Calgary airport where we will be staying for 5 hours total. Hopefully there won’t be much noteworthy to write about today. I do have at least two more posts in me, and will post in the next two days or so…

Sayonara for now…

January 3rd, 2024

We left the fish market to resume Erez’s quest to replace the Ditto Pokémon stuffy he left in Winnipeg by accident. We tried in Kyoto but they were sold out. We went to two different Pokémon Centres over the past two days in Tokyo only to find them closed for New Year’s Holidays on both Jan 1st and 2nd. We returned to the one in Nihonbashi as it is apparently the biggest one in Japan. Even though they were also sold out, the kids still managed to spend a lot of time inside. Aubrey and I spent a long time sitting on the floor by the elevators, until a security guard ushered us to stand up. One pet peeve about Japan: except in a park or sometimes inside a subway station, or the rare train waiting area, or most of the time in a restaurant, there are no benches and you are never allowed to sit down. Still, Aubrey read his book and I caught up on the blog. The store was PACKED and we had no desire to be in there.

When the boys finally emerged from the Pokémon Centre, Erez decided he needed to go to yet another Pokémon Centre to look for a Ditto plushy, just in case it was not sold out there as well. Kerrie decided to go with him. And, of course, they were also sold out.

The rest of us headed to Ueno so Noam could go to a store called “The Loft” to pick up some figurines for his friend. Unfortunately, the store and the entire building that housed the store was also closed for the New Year’s holiday period. We then headed to Akihabara – Electric Town.

When I lived here in 1995/96, it was the place to get electronics of all kinds; I personally went there to buy a fax machine. Yes, you read that right: a fax machine. I am that old. Nowadays, you can still get electronics, but it is THE place for all things having to do with Anime and video games and Pokémon.

The boys walked into one of the first buildings we saw, Radio Kaikan, and then they didn’t emerge for a couple of hours. They were slowly making their way through the 10 floors. In the meantime, Aubrey and I walked around and scoped out some dinner options.

Teva and Mae had enough of Radio Kaikan and met up with us, while Erez and Kerrie joined Noam and Teva in the store. Eventually we met up for a two stage dinner.

First course was at a place called Shogun Burger, which was meant to be the appetizer. People shared the wagyu burgers which won first place at the National Burger Competition in Japan in 2022 and also in the top 10 at an international burger competition. It was a hit with our group!

Next was a sushi restaurant called Aburi. Aburi is the term for “torched” sushi, but you can order any type of sushi. There were iPads and it was delivered to our table 4 plates at a time. It used to be a conveyor belt sushi place before the pandemic.

We all enjoyed our meal immensely. I have to say that having the burger appetizer did not slow the boys down one bit. They ate the same amount of sushi as always.

The name Aburi also happens to be how you would pronounce Aubrey’s name in Japanese, so I of course had to take a photo of him with the sign.

Our server was very amused by our family for several reasons: 1) we insisted on all of us squishing into one booth instead of splitting up; 2) I think they were impressed at how much we ate; 3) She was interested in the fact that we were such a big family. She remarked that Aubrey was very handsome. I was impressed that I was able to understand when I overheard her talking to some of the other staff as well as have a small conversation with her only in Japanese.

We thought we were heading home from there, but we stopped in another 10 story building called Game Panic to see the claw machines. The first machine we walked up to had a machine with “Ditto” stuffies! Not exactly like the ones Erez was looking for, but it was a reasonable replacement. He only spent around 700 yen and he got it! We all cheered!

We then made our way through the rest of the building. There were 4 small floors of these claw machines, then 3 floors of “music” video games. We played Dance Dance Revolution 20th Anniversary edition. I did reasonably well on the first two beginner levels. Noam and Erez did better on the higher levels.

After DDR, Zev tried his luck getting a late figurine from another claw machines. We spent about $20 for Zev and he didn’t end up getting it. It did keep us all entertained for a long time though, figuring out strategies. He had watched another couple spend ALOT of money and not get it, so he continued where they left off. When he gave up, the other couple came back – it turned out they went to an ATM to get more money. In the end, the staff took pity on them, opened the machine and repositioned the box. Unfortunately he didn’t reposition it properly and it still didn’t work. The staff repositioned it one more time and they got the prize. Everyone cheered.

Our theory is that he had already spent way more than it was worth, and they didn’t want him leaving so unhappy that he wouldn’t come back.

We headed back to our house quite late and then it was time to pack. We didn’t get to sleep until after 2 am once again.

I can’t believe that we leave tomorrow…

January 3rd, 2024

I have such amazing memories of being here two other times. In the past, we got up at 4 am, came for the tuna auction, witnessed the hustle and bustle of the market, and were constantly in everyone’s way. We also went to a hole in the wall 8 seat restaurant and had probably the best sushi of our lives.

Tsukiji market moved to the new Toyosu market complex in 2018. We went to the old Tsukiji market and sampled sashimi plates from a vendor while standing up outside – no ambience, but good tuna and salmon. Not great prices, but the experience was still fun.

So at the end of the day, we probably should have gone to the Toyosu market which would have been slightly less touristy and sat at a restaurant rather than where we went, but we still had a great time and an interesting experience.

Next stop in our day is in the next post…

January 3rd, 2024

Originally I had set this day aside for a day trip out of the city, but there was so much to see here in Tokyo on the checklist for the boys that we decided to pivot again.

We started the day with a trip to an “animal cafe.” Full disclosure: philosophically, I have trouble with the concept of an animal cafe, which is essentially a tiny zoo (and smells like it, too!) We went because the kids really wanted to go. My opinion has not changed, and I will not go again. It was a neat experience being able to interact with the animals up close, but I also feel that as humans, we don’t really have the right to keep them in such a small area for our entertainment. They did seem well fed and taken care of by the staff though.

They had 17 otters, 8 hedgehogs (2 different types) , 1 prairie dog and one free range meerkat who was wearing a harness and wandering around the cafe. There were also two types of owls and 4 staff members visibly on site.

We were there an hour – 30 minutes would have been plenty for me. We bought 3 snack packs to feed the animals (different types for different animals). We saw other people pay extra to go into the an adult otter pen to play with them directly in closer proximity. There were opportunities to interact up close with each animal individually, including holding the hedgehogs with gloved hands, and a supervised petting of the otters as one of the staff constantly fed them treats. You could also pay extra to have the owl perch on your arm.

Next stop is in the next post.

January 2, 2025

We had to be in Shibuya at 9:30 at the latest for Aubrey, Erez, Zev and Noam to prepare for their Street Karts driving experience. We made it in time because I gave everyone a purposely early departure time.

While the boys were driving around Tokyo, Mae and Teva went to a cat cafe, and Kerrie and I went shopping. Shibuya was actually pretty quiet, as it was early in the day and many things were still closed for the New Year’s Holiday. We also visited Don Quijote again – this time it was a bit quieter, but still overwhelming as always.

After the drive, we met up at a store called GU that Kerrie was checking out. We ended up shopping in there a little bit too long and we missed our window to go to the fish market. We weren’t too worried because we still have one more day in Tokyo. On the upside, Aubrey got 4 pairs of pants for work, and Noam and Erez and Kerrie all got some great clothes they needed. On the downside, they had to carry said clothes around for the rest of the day.

Because we weren’t going to Tsukiji Outer market for lunch anymore, we had to feed the boys. We found a Kebab stand and a Ramen shop next to each other. A worthy substitute for our postponed dream lunch.

We then headed to the Tokyo Bay Area to look around a bit before our tickets for TeamLab Planets started.

From the teamLab website:

“Together with Others, Immerse your Entire Body, Perceive with your Body, and Become One with the World

teamLab Planets is a museum where you walk through water, and a garden where you become one with the flowers. It comprises 4 large-scale artwork spaces and 2 gardens created by art collective teamLab.

People go barefoot and immerse their entire bodies in the vast artworks together with others. The artworks change under the presence of people, blurring the perception of boundaries between the self and the works. Other people also create change in the artworks, blurring the boundaries between themselves and the works, and creating a continuity between the self, the art, and others.”

It was pretty spectacular – unlike anything I have ever seen. I loved it. Below is the website if you are interested in learning more; they have other locations in the world as well. If you ever find yourself having an opportunity to join this experience, I would suggest you do it.

https://www.teamlab.art/e/planets

From Wikipedia:

“TeamLab houses multiple permanent collections that are located in the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; Asia Society Museum, New York; Borusan Contemporary Art Collection, Istanbul; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; and Amos Rex, Helsinki.^[17]

Singapore has the most TeamLab permanent exhibitions outside of Japan. These include places such as the National Museum of Singapore, Jewel Changi Airport, Marina Bay Sands, Gardens by the Bay and the CapitaSpring.^[18][19][20]

In late 2020, TeamLab premiered “Resonating Life in the Acorn Forest,” a permanent art installation at the Kadokawa Culture Museum at Tokorozawa Sakura Town in Tokorozawa, Japan. Situated in the Musashino forest^[21] it consists of color-changing ovoid shapes in the woods which respond to touch and wind.^[22] During the day the silver ovoid shapes reflect their forest surround but at night the trees in the part of the woods where the instillation is placed are individually flooded with colored light as are the sculptured interactive shapes.^[23]“

Here are a couple shots, but not too many as I wouldn’t want to ruin it for anyone else. If you want more photos, just ask me. 🙂

We finished off the day back at the house, and finally ate the curry I made, plus a smorgasbord of things we bought at the convenience stores. We had our logistics meeting, We FaceTimed Maxine and Redd, whose birthdays are both January 2nd, and then crashed. Another fantastic day. I can’t believe that tomorrow is our last full day!

January 1, 2025

We got a slow start this morning after last night’s late festivities. I got up earlier than most and cooked a tofu and veggie Japanese curry ahead of time for dinner. I also made a really nice mushroom and cheese omelette for Aubrey and Teva for breakfast. We had a lot of food left over from last night, so people worked their way through the leftovers. I did some reconnaissance to see what food stores were open and found a small grocery store nearby. I bought a few potatoes, some onions and some oil to make latkes to go with our curry for dinner. We finally had the facilities to make them, a store to buy the ingredients and time to actually eat them. This morning was really a catch up morning – laundry, rest and of course most people wanted to shower. We didn’t leave the house until almost 1:30.

We understood that pretty much everything is closed on New Year’s Day, so we decided to do what most people do on New Year’s: visit Meiji-jingu shrine. We knew it would be busy, but we were not expecting the sea of humanity that awaited us. As we were being herded through the shrine complex like cattle, we looked up the stats. We were shocked to find out that between Dec 31 at midnight and Jan 3, well over 3 million people will visit this shrine. Wow. There was a complex system to move all of the people through efficiently, involving signs and barriers and police officers. Absolutely mind-boggling.

The shrine was originally built in 1920 to immortalize the memory of Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken. The building of the shrine was a public effort with much of the labour and materials having been donated. Grounds were opened to the public in 1926. Unfortunately the original building was destroyed in the Tokyo air raids of World War II. It was then rebuilt with public fundraising efforts in 1958.

When we finally got close to the shrine we saw an enormous drum being stuck with a single strike by various people who were being supervised by one member of the staff. It seems you could pay for the privilege of being able to start the new year executing this ritual.

People basically lined up to bring offerings, buy souvenirs and charms and toss change into the shrine area itself and make a small prayer. We also saw many people leaving the shrine with ornamental arrows. I was curious as to why. Here is what I found on the Tsukublog.

“Besides its importance as a weapon, the bow and arrow has been extremely important for RITUAL PURPOSES in Japan. If you have visited a shrine at the beginning of the new year, you have probably noticed all the people buying HAMAYA ( LUCKY ARROWS- with knobby tips), which are taken home in the belief that they will bring one year of good luck…both arrows AND bows have played an important role in driving away impurities, misfortune, and evil spirits. It was in fact THE SOUNDS THEY MAKE – the twang of the bow, and the whizz of the arrow shooting through the air, that they were believed to be effective.

The Azusa Yumi (catalpa wood bow) was an essential tool in Japanese Shamanism for exorcising evil, and shooting ritual arrows was an important part of the imperial court’s New Year’s Eve purification rituals during the Heian Period- The TSUINA (which was introduced from China).”

The shrine was surrounded by a forested area with a canopy of beautiful trees, I really enjoyed walking along the paths, and even though there were throngs of people, somehow it felt less frantic because of the trees.

From the shrine, we headed for a stroll in Yoyogi park – a large park right next to the shrine. It was busy with families out for a walk, joggers, and dogs being walked in strollers. Even in these Tokyo winter conditions, many of the rose bushes in the rose garden were still blooming and fragrant in close proximity.

From the park, we went to Shibuya to try and find a grater to grate the potatoes for the latkes. What I had forgotten was that there are not really many cheese graters in Japan. I went to several stores and couldn’t find one. I settled on a peeler that had a tiny grater on the other side. It was very difficult to use, but we persevered – more on that later.

While in Shibuya we decided to pivot. Instead of going home for my homemade curry we went to a really fun conveyor belt sushi restaurant. Each person sits at a bar with an iPad. You order from the iPad and then within minutes a plate arrives at your place on one of two tracks. There was a great selection of tasty options, it came quickly, and it was very reasonably priced. Overall a great dinner choice; we will eat the curry tomorrow instead.

After dinner we went to an 8 floor Karaoke establishment. We got a small room, with unlimited hot and cold non-alcoholic drinks. We stayed for two hours and sang our hearts out whether or not we had a microphone in our hand. We all had a lot of fun.

We got back home around 10:30, had a logistics meeting and then made latkes together, while Aubrey repaired Noam’s sweatpants and three of our packs. The conditions were less than optimal: we had only a teeny tiny grater, no mixing bowls (I used the bowl from inside the rice cooker), and no baking powder or flour as a binder but we managed.

They turned out pretty well. You could say it was a Chanukah miracle that for the last night we had fresh hot latkes after we lit the candles.

We have a really early morning tomorrow and we are all going to bed too late, so I will sign off here.

In honour of Chanukah and the New Year, I will remember that it only takes a small candle to light up the dark and we should always strive to be the light.

December 31st continued…

The first thing we have to mention is that it was 28 years ago tonight that I met Aubrey, certainly a monumental anniversary. I also have to mention that we are not with Harriet and Shelly this year, and are thinking of them. They are the ones responsible for us meeting in the first place that fated night on New Year’s Eve 1997. We try to be together New Year’s whenever we are both in town, and this year, neither of us are in town.

We were excited to be in Tokyo for New Year’s Eve. I tasked the kids with figuring out where they wanted to be. After significant internet research we discovered that all of the large public New Year’s gatherings and countdown were cancelled. The government was encouraging people to stay home with their families. This may have been partly due to the cancellation of large gathering since COVID, and partly due to the problems such events cause from public drinking and rowdy crowds that can get out of control. There was even a stampede that happened in Korea in 2022 during Halloween where 159 people died and 196 others were wounded.

We were going to go back to Asakusa where there were going to be food stalls open and people visiting the Senso-Ji temple to give their New Years offerings, but Erez read on Reddit that the lines for food were over 2 hours long and the whole area was jam packed. We opted to check a restaurant close to home that was still open and looked promising. However, when we got there it was only open for reservations. After wandering the streets a little bit longer, we gave up and decided to go to several convenience stores and stock up on food and hang out at the house.

In the end, sitting around, chatting and eating and just hanging out with my family was the best option I could have asked for. We stayed up until 2am, and Noam and Teva made a TikTok dance video (hope the audio isn’t muted due to copyright). This evening I have been reflecting and counting my blessings, which are too numerous to list. I would also like to offer thanks to whomever has decided to follow us on the amazing journey.

Happy New Year Everyone! May 2025 be infinitely better than the dumpster fire of 2024.

December 31st, 2024

This was one of the day I was most looking forward to: Spending time with my Japanese Family, and introducing my kids to them.

We got there mostly without incident, although there was some running involved to catch the first train. We left a little bit late, so we arrived a little bit late – not really a problem.

Norie came and met us at the station. It was so great to see her again only a few days after we saw her in Kyoto. We walked to the shrine, and Mr. Mori came and met us. The first hug is always the best!! Once we arrived, we got to meet Mitsuka’s two daughters Tomoka and Hiroka (ages 20 and 23). They are both lovely young ladies.

The family had prepared a traditional New Years feast of Toshikoshi Soba noodles and tempura and Oden.

An explanation of the tradition of eating Soba on New Year’s from the By Food website:

“The tradition of eating soba noodles on New Year’s Eve started as early as the 13th or 14th century in Japan. However, it was not until the Edo Period—when the common class developed customary religious and superstitious rituals—that the tradition of eating toshikoshi soba become established for the Japanese people.

With the hope of good fortune in each bowl, it’s easy to imagine the custom being adopted quickly from family to family, slurping in the symbolism of soba noodles:   

• To enjoy a fulfilling, peaceful life with every slurp of the long noodles.
• To break free from the past.
• To gather strength and resilience like the tough buckwheat crop.
• To grow your fortune just as buckwheat flour was once used by goldsmiths to gather leftover gold dust.

Superstitious or not, eating toshikoshi soba on New Year’s Eve has become one of the most enduring traditions observed by the Japanese people.” The soba are served cold on a basket, and then you take a bit at a time, dip them in a small hot bowl of broth and slurp them up.”

We were so busy being in the moment, devouring the soba that I forgot to take a photo of them. Here is a photo from the internet so you have na idea of what I am talking about.

The tempura was really great, as always. I love the Moris’ tempura. The tempura choices were yam, lotus root, maitake mushrooms and chrysanthemum leaves. Delicious!!

Oden is basically an assortment of fishcakes, whole eggs, tofu, kelp, konjac cakes and daikon (Japanese radish) and sometimes other vegetables boiled in a delicious broth. It is served in a clay hot pot which retains its heat the whole time it is on the table.

We ate SO much, but Teva ate the most – we think he ate at least 9 bowls of soba noodles. The Moris got a kick out how much the kids ate.

After lunch, there were rousing games of Jenga and dominoes for the younger folks, while I was able to catch up with the Moris. They have such a warm, lovely energy, and being with them was good for my soul.

Hiromi-San’s health is much better now. She is slowly improving every day. Her smile and laugh were infectious as always. Yasuhide-San is as active as ever, still volunteering gardening and drumming and keeping himself very busy.

Basking in their warmth makes me happy. They are truly the embodiment of kindness and hospitality. The fact that they welcomed me back into their home with my large family was just amazing. I am so grateful to have them in my life.

It was with mixed feelings we headed back to Tokyo. I was so happy to see them, but am not sure when I will see them again. We will just have to make sure we keep in touch.