Tokyo Trip Summer 2009

On our way to visit the USA for the summer, we stopped off in Tokyo for a few days (I got to enjoy some very fun meetings while the kids and Dad toured around :-). Below are shots from one of my favorite areas of Tokyo - Asakusa. It is in the northern part of Tokyo, at the end of the Ginza line (on the Tok-y-oh, Met-er-oh!). It is an older area and has taken care to preserve some lovely areas.


Jessica above enjoying being in town...

Christina has always been a big big fan of plastic food (above). Actually, I hear that this has become quite an art form. The plastic food has become so realistic that often you cannot tell it apart. For a complete storefront or original sushi artwork, it can cost many thousands of US dollars.

Just a view of the nice temple grounds. Beautifully manicured...


Here's a fun thing to do - go to the fortune telling area of the temples. Shake this metal hexagonal jar - and eventually out will wiggle a stick with a number on it. Look for a drawer with the same number on it (old-fashioned card-catalog style shown behind them), then draw your fortune from the envelope! We didn't get anything too earth-shattering - - mostly "regular fortune" (not as cool as "good fortune," but luckily not "bad fortune"). The characters in the Japanese numbers system are similar to those in the Chinese system, so the big surprise I got was that J and C could actually read the numbers. (I'm so lame!).

Just a nice looking shop.

Beer, coke, or coffee. They have it all in TYO! $5 says you can't guess what's in Mark's hand...


Although we probably would all have chosen coffee had we read the sign more closely.

Here's a little friend we picked up in TYO - a little fuzzy fox. Very cute! You know, wherever we go, it seems we can find something cute to spend our money on in the tourist areas! How thoughtful the planners are.

OK now this may not seem like much to you - but pictured above are 2 US girls drinking DR. PEPPER!!! It had been MONTHS since we'd seen a DR. PEPPER. YUMMMMY!


On another day we went to Odaiba which is a nice waterside area. It has a lovely boardwalk area where we walked along and discovered a amusement park - Sega. The JP technology puts the US to shame! We had a ball, although we didn't get any photos inside.

These guys along the boardwalk remind us to be conservative with the earth.

Never know what you can find in TYO - even the statue of liberty!!!

Sims Family Visit - May 2009

The blog is a bit overdue, but the Sims family came to visit last May! Their visit was right during the height of the Swine Flu Scares - Janis and family were met with the usual precautions on the planes...luckily this has subsided.


But it is always OK to wear a mask when traveling. Particularly if you are not accustomed to the airplane cooties.


Mark, Jessica, Christina and the Sims family had a few days together while I was in the USA. Then I got to join up after I returned. Below are a few nice shots from The Peak - best view of Hong Kong there is - Victoria Harbor below is lovely, if you can convince the weather to cooperate.


One day Mark and Janis went to explore the terra cotta warriers in Xian, so we had a fun time just Me, Mark J and the kids. Unfortunately the weather really did act up a bit - we had monsoon rains!! We did make it to Repulse Bay to see some of the fun statues of sea gods/goddesses and learn a bit of the history of the sea from the native Hong Kong point of view!


Emily is fond of dragons - this is a nice one.
Rain can't stop us!
Another dragon and the soggy kids.
Peek a boo!

We miss you guys! Come see us again, soon! Love, Junginger family.