Japan in the Spring

We finally made it to Japan during the cherry blossom season. We are home now but we recently returned from our fifth and most memorable trip yet to Japan to visit Nick and family. Now, with the grandkids in school (5th and 3rd grade), we need to plan our trips during their school breaks. And this year, it was during the peak of the cherry blossoms.

We had fun taking photos with the cherry blossoms during the whole trip that spanned 16 days.

We have cherry blossoms where we live but you need to go to specific areas to see them. In Japan, they are EVERYWHERE. Most the trees are large, too. The blossoms are smaller and lighter pink, very delicate looking. Occasionally, you will see a darker pink or white ones, too, but mostly they are the lighter pink blossoms.

There are so many cherry blossoms everywhere that they sort of make you feel giddy with delight.  And the Japanese people really celebrate them.  They will bring blankets and picnics to get comfortable spending time underneath them.  You can tell that they have waited all year for the cherry blossoms.  We've heard from people not to visit Japan during the cherry blossoms because the crowds are crazy but we did not find that true at all.  There are plenty of places to enjoy them and often times there were not that many people around.  It really made our visit very special.  And don't get me started on the all the mechandise celebrating the cherry blossoms...it was endless and I loved shopping all of it!  Pink was the color of this visit.  Anybody want a macaron?

I did buy some cherry blossom Starbucks and a cherry blossom coffee cup. 

And Bruce bought himself some cherry blossoms golf balls.

I love shopping so will never tire of looking for more cherry blossom souvenirs.  This definitely made our visit unique from our other visits to Japan.  But visiting with the grandkids was our main objective and they have grown up so much and are such a joy to be with.  Nick and Sachiyo planned our visit perfectly, like they always do.  We spent the first couple of days in Tokyo upon arrival so we could get over some of the jet lag before we headed down to their house (one hour south).  We stayed in a hotel within walking distance to his new office right next to Toyko Station.  This is where we did all our shopping.  I LOVE Tokyo - the shopping is top notch.  And we were able to see Nick's new office and meet some co-workers which was our main objective during this part of the trip.  We also spent some time at the Imperial Palace sightseeing, of course. 

Here is a typical traffic jam in downtown Tokyo...

This is the Ginza district, one of the main shopping areas of Tokyo and no traffic!  It really blows our mind everytime we come to Japan.  Most people take trains, very few cars and even though I wanted to cross the street here before it turned green, Nick pulled me back and "No, this isn't Seattle.  People follow the rules here."  We're not in America anymore...

This is the former Headquarters of the Imperial Guards across from the Imperial Palace (now owned by the National Museum of Modern Art). Notice again, no trafffic. Tokyo Station has the same beautiful architecture, although a lot of Tokyo Station is underground. Tokyo Station has the most trains coming and going of any other station in Japan, over 4,000 trains daily.  Here we are in the front of the station on our last day as we are heading to the airport. 

Needless to say, we still cannot navigate Tokyo Station on our own without Nick's help.  He told us that it took him a couple of months to learn it since this is the station where he gets off to go to his office.  But we ate there a few times.  Nick goes out for lunch daily and he says he could go out daily for years and never eat at the same place.  So, you see how it will take us awhile to learn our way around here. Here we are eating "fast food" in Tokyo station.  Fast food is actually healthy in Japan, it's just served very quickly.

More food we ate in Tokyo Station: 

Ramen - our favorite

Salt-cured fish, a very popular Japanese dish served with rice, miso soup, veggies.

Nick ordered tongue steaks at this meal (I didn't take a photo of it) but it's also very popular in Japan.  Here is a photo of tongue steaks when we had street food in Kamakura one day for lunch while touring one of the shrines there:

and there was a line for the tongue steaks!

I love street food (except tongue which I've never had...) so when we visited Tsurugaoka Hachimangu which is a Shinto shrine in Kamakura, we took in all the street food there. Our grandson likes squid-on-a-stick.

 

We had regular fish-on-a-stick and fish cake and then for dessert we had our absolute favorite Japanese ice cream called Cremia which is a soft-serve type that is ultra rich (it tastes like it's made with sweetened condensed milk) with a buttery, crisp cookie cone.  Here are some scenes of sightseeing at the shrine:

There was a traditional Japanese wedding going on at the shrine while we were there.  Here is the bride and groom. 

The pigeons and koi are rather aggressive here from all the tourists feeding them…including us!

                                

  

The majority of our trip was spent in Kamakura where we rented a beach house during the kids' spring break.  It was a perfect spot and we spent a lot of time on the beach, a big surfer haven with California vibs.  We even found a couple of burger joints that could totally pass for America.  Are we really in Japan?

We would occasionally take the train into town and we had a few good meals here, too. 

    Gotta love a noodle dish.

                                          

                                         

I cooked several dinners per requested like my skillet lasagna, taco rice, chicken satay which is called yakatori in Japan and many desserts like the grandkids' favorite apple hand pies, chocolate cake and chocolate covered strawberries.  In Japan, the strawberries are spectacular.  They are grown in highly controlled greenhouses and are super sweet.  We kept strawberries in the fridge at all times.

                      

                      

They were thrilled Grandma was back for more food projects! And they still remembered how to make apple hand pies and frost/decorate a cake (with more strawberries, of course). We also had an outing to a Japanese professional baseball game, the Yokohama Baystars, which is more like a minor league team in America.  But they are always fun to go to in Japan. They are more like a college football game with opposing team doing chants, their bands playing, etc.  And the 7th inning stretch is always a big balloon launch, a unique Japanese baseball experience. 

                                           

Since we were in Yokohama, we headed to the Chinatown after the game to have dinner since Yokahama has one of the largest Chinatowns in the world.  

                               

Bruce and Nick even played in a golf tournament that was organized by Nick's work so Bruce met more of Nick's co-workers. Like I said before, Nick and Sachiyo did another great job with our itinerary including a wide variety of activities and full array of cuisine choices like they always do. 

Bruce and I are definitely feeling more confident in getting around in Japan and have learned a lot about the ins and outs of Japanese culture.  We are still relieved to have Nick and Sachiyo at our side most of the time, however, and even the grandkids are very helpful.  But utimately, our visits are about being grandma and grandpa to our grandkids and having fun and making more memories with them. 

We will be back.