The magic of Tokyo.

Continuing with our tradition of staying with friends on the road and being incredibly spoiled by them, we spent a week in Tokyo with Julia’s best friend’s family. Julia and this friend went to grade school and high school together. About 2 years ago her friend’s family moved to Tokyo. Her father manages a Naval hotel in Tokyo. The typical guest at the hotel is either retired military, or sponsored by a current military personal to stay there. It is considered an active military base, so Julia and I had to be “approved” to stay there.

We made it to Japan right at the end of the cherry blossom season. Impeccable timing on our part!

cherry blossoms — Spring was in full bloom!

What a treat it was to stay with this family! After being on the road for months it was so nice to have comforts from home and being that this place is considered “US soil” it afforded us all the things we longed for! This family was just too good to us.

The family dog Toby. I loved him a lot. He didn’t love me quite so much. He loved his mom and cheese.

This was the look he would always give me. It was the suspicious side glance.

They showed us around the city, took us to their favorite restaurants, and just made us feel right at home. It was really perfect. I feel so blessed to have had so many people “taking care” of us on the road. It’s amazing.

During our visit we saw the beauty of cherry blossom season, drank tea as part of a traditional tea ceremony, visited temples and saw the hustle and bustle of downtown Tokyo.

TEA — Matcha green tea. The tea is quite bitter so it served with wagashi a tiny, super sweet pastry.

Shibuya Crossing. Aka the Time Square of Tokyo.

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Shibuya in the daylight.

We went to Meiji Shrine on the weekend and stumbled upon a couple of weddings ceremonies.

Before the ceremony the bride and groom process into the temple.

Restaurants in Japan always have these shellacked food displays in the store front windows. It actually makes sense. Who needs a menu. Just point to what you want!

Street food in Tokyo: Takoyaki or deep-fried octopus.

It was interesting. . . .and actually quite good.

On one of our first nights in Japan, our friends took us for sushi. It was like I had waiting my whole life for that moment-real, authentic, Japanese sushi. We went to a small, little place near our friend’s house in Tokyo. The menu was only in Japanese, but it didn’t matter because we ate whatever was freshly prepared for us by the owner (restaurant owner, chef and local community leader.) Honestly, I couldn’t even say what most of the food was but it was all delicious and unlike anything I had ever had before. When I asked him how long he had been creating sushi delicacies he told us “75 years.” He is 79.

When eating this dish, Julia turned to me and asked “What type of noodles do you think these are?” I responded “Those aren’t noodles sista.” It was julienned squid with a quail egg.

We also met up with another friend in Tokyo. This story is a true 6-degrees of separation. Long story short: two years ago, my parents were in Disney World in Florida. They were at the Japanese restaurant in Epcot. Somehow Frank and Maggie started talking to the waitress there and telling her about their hometown in Pennsylvania. My parents told her if she ever wanted to visit the east coast, she is welcomed to visit them. Being the adventurous person that she is, she and her friend planned a trip for the following week! She only spent a couple of days at my parents place, but apparently she saw all the sites of our small town. She lives in Tokyo, so Julia and I ended up spending time with her. It was a full circle moment!