Yamanakako 3 OR How TGS kept me too busy to do anything at all

outside of work, or even work.

But where did we leave off?



Oh yeah, the next morning. We went to the lake!





We actually did have an adventure in one of those little swan paddle boats, but first we hopped on the BIG MAMA:



It's Princess Oddete [sic]! That was a pretty nice time. Nice breeze on the lake, chillin'. I saw this great t-shirt:



I would totally wear that. I later found a bunch of cool ones on sale near Mandarake Nakano, but unfortunately they were all too big. Would've been sort of pointless.

Here are some pix I took of Toru feeding the fish AFTER our crazy paddle boat fiasco where we I was the source of locomotion for probably over a half hour during which we managed to beach ourselves and break the steering wheel. Well, to be fair, the steering may have already been busted and actually had a hand in our beaching. It was fun to hop out and push, anyways.





After that we finally had lunch. I was a little disappointed that we went to Denny's:



AT FIRST, but then I realized how completely not-Denny's it actually is. I got tendon with soba on the side.

Once that was finished it was pretty much time to get back on the bus to Tokyo. Little did we know we'd be on it for FOUR HOURS. There was some traffic:



Granted, this is the one of the more scenic traffic jams you'll see, but it was still a pain. They actually had to pull over once so Toru could go pee on a bush (although some other kid ran with him) but there was also a more general break at a real bathroom. Anyways, a bit of a haul.

We hit up a dept store on the way home for dinner where I had mabo tofu, since it's one of the most awesome things you can eat. I took a couple pictures when we got home:

of the kitchen


of my commandeering of the low table in the living room



of Toru and what eventually hatched out of that mysterious egg


I'm going to keep updating as I have (or steal) a moment here and there, so keep checking back...maybe...if you want.

Yamanakako 2

Yay, exciting conclusion to the trip. There are lots of pictures!!!

Our first stop the next morning was the Flower Park. It's in a very scenic location:





That's Shirai-san going after Toru, who is running away into the flowers. He proved to be very interested in poking any little streams or brooks or ponds that we found and it was really hard to keep him engaged in anything we were doing the entire day.

Upon entering the park, a lady made Toru a balloon sword, but he popped it pretty soon after on some foliage.

What's this?



Why an awesome Disney Cinderella rip-off bouncing palace, of course!





It was about two dollars (I think...I can't remember) to bounce for five minutes, but it didn't seem like the two fellows managing the cahs box were keeping track. Toru, for instance, took absolutely forever and refused to come out. It's not like you can go in after him...





Here is the view of the park from where we stood and waited for him to come back ;p



After that Shirai-san was pretty keen on getting some soft serve (sofuto kuriimu) so we were headed in that direction when...



Toru had to have a go at these little bumper cars. Pretty cute. Luckily when you put the money in they only run for a set time, so we didn't have to worry about him driving off into the sunset or anything.

Then we found a souvenir shop, so Toru got some bubbles:



If that looks funny, it's because he's blowing on a whistle. You attach the bubble making part to the end, dip it in a bottle of (Pokemon branded!!) the bubble fluid, and away you go. He was quite the trend setter, since at least one other kid was inspired to get the same set and start filling the park with bubbles.

During this time we sat on a bench and just hung out. It's weird, but in Japan everywhere you go has a soundtrack. I was thinking maybe it was sort of like in Disney World, since this place was essentially a flower shop theme park. There was soft sax music playing in the background here. But then at the hotel I noticed they often played classical music, and then at night when I got home on the train the other day they were playing music out of speakers on the main street. IS EVERYWHERE DISNEY WORLD IN TOKYO? I think this is something worth investigating.

That said, there is also a Disney World here, but I haven't gone. Shirai-san suggested it for Sunday, but I think we are going to Ikebukuro instead, which is probably better ;D

DIGRESSION ENDED!

We ate our ice cream! I had kyouhou (Japanese grape) and vanilla mix, which was really REALLY good.

--

This just reminded me, though-- since I was thinking of grapes and grape jelly-- about the breakfast rolls. They came with tiny little tubs of jelly and margarine connected. So instead of peeling off the top, you bend the twin tubs in half and a hole opens so you can squeeze it out! Super convenient :D

--

SECOND DIGRESSION ENDED!



Hey look, plants! No kidding! This is inside that hot house looking thing, but it wasn't really a hot house. They had a machine that would tell your fortune with flowers if you entered your birthday, but Toru was too obsessed with the touch screen to let us get a good reading.





Wow, two of me in a row! How boring! The second is in the Happy Tree. I should be happy now! Or something! :D Everyone was taking pictures inside it; that seemed to be the thing to do. Then we found a playground where we spent another thousand years!! I guess it's good for kids to play, but I wish I were a kid so I could play, too : /



Doesn't that look fun! All the kids were very good about taking turns.

After that we were pretty much done with the Flower park. There was this very short rocky cave, but it was pretty uninteresting. Toru liked it, though, because he loves to climb in dangerous places. Of course he wasn't allowed to, but on the playground he would always climb over the railings between platforms rather than just cross the bridge or something.

Unfortunately we went to Denny's for lunch. That said, about the only thing the same is the name. I had soba and tendon. WHICH, for the record, I totally though it was just soba and a little tempura, but then when they brought it it turned out to be a huge bowl of tempura with rice in the bottom plus soba. Go figure. Tasty, though.

In the afternoon we drove a bit to a touristy town called... ... Oshinohakkai, I think. Honestly, all we did there was feed some fish, get a drink, and have a really tasty hot (a new experience for me!) omanjuu filled with red bean paste. I do have this picture, though:



And the obligatory koi shot:



The best part of the day was definitely the ice cave!! It was very crowded. First, here is a map you see on your way in:



That big lake on the left is the one we could see from our hotel window. The mountain is obviously Fuji. Here's what we were in for:



Everyone is inching their way down...



Apparently, Shirai-san paraphrases, they used to drag blocks of ice to the shogun from this very spot. This prompted lots of speculation between the three of us on how it would be possible to get ice all the way from here to there without it melting, but I guess if they took a realllllly big block, maybe by the time they got it there it would be normal sized...



Ice caves are very cold and very damp!!

Low ceiling:



Lower ceiling:



Makes me wonder if there was a warning for claustrophobic people outside... Eventually it opened back up and there was ice!



That was pretty much the climax. There was a big climb out and by the time you got up to the top you were already hot again. We went souvenir shopping a bit at the gift store. This is where I got that held-out-for keychain :D



Tour got an egg, but you have to hatch it in water...



The ride home was a little while to begin with and then we got in a traffic jam because the whole world was on vacation over the three day weekend. I was pretty bored in the car, so I started taking pictures of everything (although some of these are from on the way...) First, though, here is our pit stop to take Fuji pix. Some of these might be from the car, too, actually, or elsewhere. You can see it from most of the areas, but I will just pick some interesting ones...







Toru's Fuji Photo Shoot







You can see the top!



Ok. So now some totally random stuff from the car in no particular order. There were some other signs I wanted to take pictures of like, "Jolly Pasta" and "Carrot Hotel" (with a little carrot logo XD) but since were moving it was tricky...

Foreshadowing:



Not sure what they're going for with this name. In Japanese it is "bii emu" so they really do just mean BM...



"momo" = peaches = yum!



One of my favorite pictures of Toru so far:



This picture was so hard to get, but "HARD OFF," seriously? I laughed a lot.



Rearview:



Fujikyu Highland (the website is kinda nifty) amusement park:



Cute stoplight:



Toru putzes with his phone:



Hee hee, for Dad:



Well, ok, I lied this isn't the end of the trip, but I'm sick of blogging and want to get out and have some fun while I still can! Well, not that work won't be fun, but it will be just making the long commute between the convention center and home and writing and looking at games, so I won't have time for, say Harajuku, which is where I want to go today. Maybe Tokyo Station if I have time. My blogs are getting all back ed up, but oh well. Too much to do to sit at home and upload pictures all day!!!