Tokyo will touch your heart.

So, this one time I went to Japan to meet my grandmother and man, was it the trip of a lifetime!
My little Japanese mother decided that it was high time we five (my siblings and I) experienced some of her culture and arranged for three trips out to Japan. My brother went first late last year, two sisters went in the spring, and earlier this month it was me and Steph's turn! I cannot believe all the stuff we got to see and experience. It was amazing.

Here you have a random assortment of pictures from equally random events throughout the trip.

This was the very first picture we took upon landing in Tokyo. Isn't everything so cute in Japan? A pink welcome sign with pictures arranged in a heart? Awww.

First meal in Japan! An okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake) place my mom used to go to with her friends in high school. It was super yummy but it was also at like 2am Austin time so it sort of weirded my body out.

This was some artwork in an alleyway in Tokyo. Look at all the bikes!

Me and Steph with our grandma. Isn't she so cute? It makes me feel good about becoming an old person one day because I've got some of her genes in me. 

Me and Steph in front of the Dogo Onsen (bathhouse). Steph recognized it and did some research to figure out that this is the one in Spirited Away! Everything is so similar, right down to the senior citizen stampede to get into the baths first. Poor Steph almost didn't get in for all the cute old Japanese people elbowing her out of the way.

I slurped noodles with the best of them in a tiny alleyway shop in Tokyo. Actually, I was super slow. Three people came and went in that seat next to me before I was done. Those darn chopsticks! I'll figure them out one day.

Here I am, looking like the nerdy tourist that I was. This giant sandal was at the Thunder Gate at Senso-ji (an ancient Buddhist temple) in Tokyo.

Even the manhole covers are cuter in Japan.

Steph was muttering something about symmetry when we took this picture.

We visited the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden...

and tried to recreate Seurat's Sunday Afternoon. We did a pretty good job, right?

This is me next to a couple of tuna at the Tsukiji fish market, which also happens to be the largest fish market IN THE WORLD. Yeah, no big deal. Steph's vegan so I wasn't sure how she would handle it, but I'm pretty sure she mentioned a couple of times that working in that fish market would be an awesome job.

We spent a night in a ryokan (a very traditional Japanese inn), and that was really one of my favorite things that we did. The hotel staff goes through every night and sets up these foutons for all the guests, but during the day it's just a very sparsely furnished room with tatami mats and a low table and chairs. Plus that little shelf/stage thing for flowers and decorations that Steph thought was for entertainment and tried to dance on like a Geisha... Mum was pretty appalled. I about died laughing.

I think I'll post more about Japan - I hate how disorganized this was. But I really don't want this blog to become like one of those slideshows that one of your relatives makes you watch of all their travels. This trip was really so much fun and so different from anything here that I'm going to be thinking about it for a long time.

Little things

I feel so overwhelmed with things to post today that I am going to take it easy.
Here is about all that I can handle right now:

First: Yesterday morning was our first morning home after a long trip. Joseph left for work, I put Elinor and Jacob in the bathtub, and two minutes later Caleb fell and split his head open. Again. Remember this picture from when Caleb was almost two?

Yeah... the new cut is about an inch above the old one. (Awww. Baby Caleb is so cute!) I was so lucky that my awesome friend Reianna was out on the playground and willing to come in and patch him up with a few steri-strips.

Next. This morning I really wanted to go walking with said awesome friend Reianna.  I went to pull out the double stroller, only to find a mud wasp nest on it! I was so creeped out and Joseph was already at school. I ran inside to research whether or not there were live adult wasps inside, and then took a hammer and smashed that thing right off the stroller. Guess how gross wasps are: they lay their eggs inside the nest, add a few paralyzed insects for the larvae to snack on, and seal it off. So Emily and I got to examine some super gross fat white grubs and a bunch of slowly wiggling spiders this morning. Excuse me while I go puke.

And also. Yesterday I pulled out some shorts I had just gotten for Caleb. He saw the pockets and instantly proclaimed them adventure shorts. I asked if he could still wear them so I could see if they fit and he said, "Yeah, I guess we can go on an adventure today." So we did.

It was awesome. I kept feeling like we were on an expotition to the East Pole.
Love those kids.

And one more thing. A while ago, like back in May sometime, Emily came to me with this picture:

I know! I didn't even know I was such an awesome mother that my kids would know about van Gogh and his Starry Night, but here's proof! (okay, so maybe kindergarten had something to do with it, but still.) This one got the frame treatment. Emily was so proud.

And just one last thing. Joseph's current official title is "Robot Handler" on the set of a movie being filmed here in Austin! It has been highly stressful and uncomfortable for him (no ac in a giant barn in Austin in the middle of June? No thanks.), but that's kind of a cool title to have on your resume, right? Kind of like a lion tamer but more techy.

Alright. More to come, but that's it for now. Adventures every day for us!