Today Zachary Anthony turned 4 years old! We had a birthday bash at our house yesterday afternoon with a bounce house for him and his friends to enjoy. Plus Auntie Jan and Uncle Mike came up for the festivities. I returned from Tokyo Friday morning so I was able to enjoy the whole weekend with him. All in all the birthday party was a blast and today he opened up gifts and played outside a lot (we also went to Matthew’s birthday party who shares the same birth date).
Steph climbing in the bounce house. Zach spent about 4 hours in this thing. Nate took a while to warm up to it, but once he got in he loved it.
Zach on his cool new bike.
Nate gets a hand-me-down…Zach’s old bike and helmet.
Zach hanging out at the park.
Zach throwing rocks in the water.
Today was goergous at the park…about 75 degrees, and not much of a breeze.
Big smiles from Nate.
As I mentioned, I had just returned from Tokyo. I had to fly out for work. I flew out last Saturday on the Northwest flight and arrived late Sunday afternoon (remember, you cross the dateline). And then the fun begins. Japan is absolutely paranoid about the swine flu, and only from flights from North America. So we pull into the gate but we cannot leave our seats. We had to close our shades and wait while a bunch of people dressed in hazmat suites boarded the plane and took our temperature with a thermal imager. If you had a fever – you are screwed. Not only that, but if that person has the swine flu, they will hunt down the individuals seated in the vicinity and quarantine them as well. The quarantine is for 10 days (later I heard this was dropped to 7 days). This whole process took about 45 minutes. I also had to fill out a questionairre about my health, where I was staying, and what seat I was on during the flight.
I landed at Narita Airport which is about a 90 minute bus ride from the hotel. I was staying, with other coworkers, at the Cerulean Tower Hotel – which is pretty fancy, western style hotel. They had an awesome (but very expensive) 40th floor bar overlooking Tokyo. Monday was a mellow day at our office which was only about a 10 minute walk from the hotel. Monday and Tuesday were very humid and extremely smoggy – enough to make the eyes burn.
We were staying next to Shibuya Square (the equivalent of Times Square), so we had dinner in that area both Sunday and Monday evenings. Tuesday morning (and subsequently Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday morning), I got up at 5:30am and went running. I cruised up to Yoyogi Park each morning and ran there. There were not many people on the street but the park was full of runners and walkers.
Tuesday was a busy work day. Tuesday we had dinner at a very cool restaurant where I had Japanese Sours (alcohol is Schochu…yummy) and Shabu Shabu (thin cuts of poultry cooked in a boiling broth). Cool place with good food.
I worked Wednesday morning but took off during the afternoon and went to SensoJi Temple and Harajuku. Wednesday, one of our customers took us to dinner to a members only club. Excellent beer, wine, and food – all topped off with a cigar. Thursday was a full work day plus a little shopping for Steph and Takashimaya (high end Japan store). My flight left Tokyo on Friday at 3:50pm and I got home at 9am on Friday (gotta love the international dateline).
Anyway, I really appreciated the experience. Some observations…
- Very crowded, yet no one bumps into you.
- Excellent subway system.
- Everyone is very friendly.
- People obey lines, especially while waiting for a subway train.
- No one jaywalks. I stood at intersection that was 20 feet wide with 100 people on one side and 100 people on the other side…no cars going…everyone waited for the walk sign. Amazing.
- The internet connection in my room didn’t work. After 2 hours of troubleshooting, they still would not believe that their network link was broken. It wasn’t thinkable that there was a problem with something in the hotel.
- Prices are not expensive (unless you were in our 40th floor hotel bar) – everything seemed comparably priced to here.
Some photos…
Some lights in Shibuya Square.
Cool lit up bottles.
Just go…no one will bump into you.
Flea market outside of SensoJi Temple.
Crowded subway train.
View from room on the 22nd floor.
The smog cleared enough on my last day so I could see Mt Fuji.
