Our big trip to Tokyo, Japan: Uedo Park

We braved Tokyo today! At first we were just going to relax and hang around base but then remembered that we had only limited days here. We walked blindly to the train station, about 15 minutes with the gaggle of little legs we have. I was thinking we could ask the the ticket counter when we got there to tell us what train to get on but there were only automated computers to get tickets! This is when we realized that EVERYTHING in Japan has some kind of computer or technology associated with it. Thankfully two AF wives saw us and helped us with buying tickets. One of the wives had been here for 2 years and was quite the expert with the train system. The other had been here for 6 months and it was her first time off base! I felt sad for her and she though we were crazy to actually want to come to Japan!

We decided to start out in Uedo, a district with a huge city park and many old buildings an shrines. The minute we stepped off the train we saw nothing but a sea of people everywhere. We got our bearings and started our walk in the big and beautiful Uedo Park. Our first stop was the National Tokyo Museum. It contained beautiful art and artifacts from all around Asia.

Next we saw ancient temples and shrines. I wished there was English translation on all of the signs so I could have known what they were. The temples are still in use today and we watched many people go through the ritual of sending their prayers.

A big highlight of our day was feeding the pigeons. Go figure, we fly on a 14 hour flight and the thing that made us smile was feeding birds! Ha! Brandon also loved watching the huge carp longer than my arm swim in the pond at the park.

As we were leaving we passed a huge marketplace and decided to check it out. I have never seem so many lights, people or stores with stuff ever! This market had everything you could think of. Mia ended up picking out a Hello Kitty playset as one her souvenir gifts. We ate supper at a great restaurant- it was great because they had pictures on the menu and just ordered food by how it looked :)

Our train ride home wad a bit nerve wracking on our own but we made it. I have found that if you stare at a map for too long someone who speaks English will usually step up to help out. We return the favor by a small bow and a thank you in Japanese and they look surprised but happy. We tend to get quite a few looks everywhere we go- the little schoolgirls just love the kids and SQUEAL when our kids say hello to them. The schoolboys say hi to Josh and look at him with big eyes- they must think he is superman :)