July 5: Tokyo on our own

We did not have a tour guide today.  The kids slept in a little, then we walked to the Tokyo Sky Tree, the highest sky tower in the world (for now). The Sky tree sits in the middle of  Sky Tree Plaza.  It is surrounded by a 6 story mall.  Unfortunately, it was raining and blowing like crazy, so we could not go up in the tower.  We did go to the top of an adjacent office building (31 floors), and got a good view of Tokyo from above.  It sounds crazy, but we spent yet another day in a Tokyo mall.  The number and variety of stores is unbelievable.  One of the more interesting stores carried "Nano Blocks", which are like really small Legos. Half of two floors are taken up by a giant "food court", which sells just about anything you want:  Fish on a stick, meat on a stick, chicken on a stick, dumplings, sushi, dried fish, vegetables, sweets, bread, pizza, chocolate-dipped waffles, ice cream, and more.

Also, one floor is dedicated to Japanese souvenirs. One would think that the tower would be a big tourist attraction, but we saw less than a dozen foreigners all day. Chris had a devil of a time trying to mail a package back home.  We've already bought more than we can carry home.

I'm getting used to the toilets over here, although every time I go to the bathroom I feel like  I'm on the Starship Enterprise and someone just told me "Lieutenant Schmidt, you have the conn."  I'm still worried I'll press the wrong button and get "beamed up".

Lily and I took the afternoon off, while Chris and the other three kids took a cab to the post office - thank God for GPS and SMART Phones !  They also did some more shopping.

This evening we met back up at the Sky Tree and had dinner in a fabulous restaurant. Shortly after we sat down, the owner of the restaurant, along with a woman who was singing at the restaurant later that night, came over to welcome us and offer menu suggestions.  The kids are all becoming more adventurous eaters.  They are also mastering chopsticks.  Miriam had tempura, Quincy had rice and vegetables served in a hot bowl, with an egg on top.  The idea was to stir it all together, and the pot would cook the egg.  It must have been good because he didn't share, and there was none left at the end of the meal.  We also had french fries seasoned with seaweed (DELICIOUS) tempura shrimp that were served whole (Baxter ate several - tails, eyes and all.), and a really good stew that they cooked in front of us.

Tonight we're all preparing to leave tomorrow morning for Korea.

Beef stew #1

Add vegetables to broth.

Add the Beef, and enjoy!

Baxter suggested we do "Add a Picture" while we waited for our food.

Q

M

Q and  L

At the Nano Blocks store.

Anything you want - on a stick.

Dumplings!

Sky Tree at night

Sky Tree by day

The "Conn"