A visit from the family

The parents

Last month, my parents flew out for a quick visit. My mom has been here a couple of times already, but my dad hadn't been to Japan since we moved here. We haven't seen them since Kimber and I came back in August and I know they've missed her a lot! They were only here for a few days, but we got to show them a few fun places and had a really great time.

On Thursday, we took them into Yokohama to show them the Queen's Square Mall, one of our favorite places to just go and walk around. It's a really pretty area where the Japanese have done their best to blend the history of the city and its harbor with modern day life. Queen's Square is a pretty big mall that has several familiar stores like Gap, Banana Republic, H&M, and even a Tiffany's. Of course there's a Starbucks, but even more exciting was the Krispy Kreme that we absolutely had to stop at. Outside is the Minato Mirai harbor and the Nippon Maru, an old Japanese sailing ship. Next door to the mall is the Landmark Tower, the current tallest building in Japan. Even though it was already dark, we went up to the observatory at the top and had a look around at the lights of Japan's second largest city. While things looked familiar to my husband who flies over the city all the time, I had a hard time recognizing landmarks, especially in the dark. I would definitely like to go back up some afternoon so I can see things again in the daylight.

Yay doughnuts!

The Nippon Maru

Landmark Tower

That day we had a mini-parenting crisis. We packed up the baby's food bag for the day with a few bottles, snacks, and some baby food before heading out to Yokohama. At the train station, I asked my husband to grab the bag from the car and put it in the stroller, but he never heard me. A couple of hours later she started fussing and I realized that we had left her bag back in the car, about 45 minutes away. I got really upset because I knew that if we were back in the States, I'd know exactly what to do. I would have just gone straight to the nearest Wal-Mart or grocery store, grabbed some formula and baby food, and we would have been good to go. Instead, we were an hour from home, and even though there was a grocery store in the mall, I couldn't read any of the labels and didn't know what to do. While it wasn't really a huge deal, it's a good example of what can be really frustrating about living over here. Day to day life is just more complicated. It takes a lot longer to get anywhere and being essentially illiterate makes things that much more difficult. We ended up simply buying her a bag of rolls and a bottle of water. She learned how to drink from a straw pretty quickly that day which made me really proud even though I felt like a terrible mom.

The next day, we stuck around near base because I had an English class later that afternoon. I took them to Oak City Mall where they stocked up on Japanese snacks and koala bear cookies to take back home. I laughed when they got to the checkout because I knew the cashier had to be appalled at the amount of junk food in our basket. Afterwards, we went fancy for lunch and I took them to 7 Eleven where we got a bunch of gyoza and onigiri (basically little triangles of rice and tuna that are pretty delicious). I think they were a little surprised when I said we were going to 7 Eleven for lunch, but I'm pretty sure they really enjoyed it.

Sunday, we all packed up (this time with the baby food!) and went up to see the Takao Trick Art Museum. It took a couple of missed trains, but an hour and a half later, we made it. Though we were really only about 20 miles away, being up near the mountains made it quite a bit colder and there was even a little snow on the ground.

We could see the museum from the train station with its Egyptian modeled exterior and what appeared to be a statue of a pharaoh. However, like everything else we were about to see, it was simply an illusion.

Kimber was not so excited about being fed to a gorilla.   

The Trick Art Museum is different from most museums in that here, taking pictures and touching the artwork is actually encouraged! Everything in it is an optical illusion! From the fake stairway you nearly run into, to the money on the ground you try to pick up, but can't. I could try to describe it all, but I think it would be better if I just posted the pictures. My words would never be able to do it justice. It's a pretty long trip up there, but we had a great time and I think it was definitely worth it!

Sadly they had to go back the next day, but it was great to see them and hopefully they'll come visit again soon. Someone's first birthday is coming up, so I have a feeling that's something her Mimi won't want to miss! :)

Petting the llama

We had issues with the flash here. 

I'm a Vampire!