Cats, Tokyo-style

On Friday, Noah and I were on our own since Mark had to work the whole day. After piddling around the apartment for a good portion of the morning, we finally left after lunch to head out to Ikebukuro and visit the cat house, Nekobukuro. Many apartments in Tokyo don’t allow pets and in a city where buying a new cat can cost over US$1200, these cat houses or cat cafes — where visitors pay to hang out and pet cats — have sprung up all over Tokyo. Nekobukuro was the only one listed in my guidebook and despite the fact that I dislike Ikebukuro (nothing personal against the area, it’s due to a previous bad commuting experience back in April), I promised Noah cats so off we went.

After a short train ride, some bad navigation and getting a little turned around outside the train station, we finally arrived at Nekobukuro, which was located on the 8th floor of the Tokyu Hands store. I paid the admission fee and in we went. I know it sounds a little crazy to pay US$8 to go somewhere just to pet a bunch of cats — after all, in parts of China they’re considered food — but it seemed like a cute thing you could only do in Japan. Plus Jae’s crazy hairless space rats cats were leaving just a little to be desired in the animal-petting area.

There were actually quite a few people in the cat house when we got there. The cat house was a space consisting of three connected rooms — each complete with enclosed spaces for sleeping cats — and roaming freely were about eight beautiful, well-groomed short- and long-haired cats.

Christmas With Friends

After spending a full day Nevanless, Noah was a bit of a pain in the butt with his constant “Are we going to see Nevan now?” and “I want to see Nevan!” So I was determined that we would meet up with Jae & Co. at some point during the day. Mark had to work for part of the day so it was already mid-afternoon by the time we got to do a little window shopping along Omotesando street. After that, we headed over to Tokyo Midtown where we had planned on meeting up with Jae, Dave and Nevan and check out their Christmas lights display.

Nevan had a little present for Noah when we finally saw them that evening. In Jae’s infinite wisdom, she had bought the same toy for both Nevan and Noah so (in theory, at least) they wouldn’t fight over who got to play with which toy. After their little reunion, we headed outside to check out the Christmas lights:

A Very Merry Sumo Christmas To You!

Tuesday was the day that Jae, Dave and Nevan moved out of the Oakwood serviced apartments and into their real Tokyo apartment so it was up to me and Mark to keep a Nevanless Noah entertained for an entire day. We had originally planned on heading over to the Imperial Palace that day because it was the Emperor’s Birthday — a national holiday — and one of only two days of the year that they open the palace itself to the public. However one of Mark’s clients invited us to his home for a Christmas party that afternoon and we decided that sounded like more fun (and so much warmer) than standing outside in the cold in a long line with half of Tokyo to see someone’s big ol’ house. So after a leisurely morning back at the creperie, we hopped into a car and made our way to the party in Setagaya.

The chairman threw one of these parties every year. And every year, they spent a good part of the time pounding rice and then forming it into mochi (or rice cakes) in a traditional Japanese ceremony called mochitsuki. The cool thing about the chairman’s mochitsuki though was that he got a few sumo wrestlers to come over from their stable and do all the pounding. (And for those of you with really good memories, the chairman is the same one who invited us to the dinner back in April when I had a sumo wrestler for an eating partner.)

It was very cool getting the chance to watch the ceremony. The sumo guys would take turns pounding the rice with wooden mallets and later on, one of them would turn the rice with his hands in between poundings to a steady rhythm of pound — turn — pound — turn — pound — turn. There were a few moments where I was sure someone was going to lose a hand but they managed to keep pretty good time, occasionally breaking out into song to keep the rhythm.

The Nevan and Noah Show

As you probably already know, Mark, Noah and I are in Tokyo for Christmas this week. What you may not know is that by some freak chance, Mark booked us a room at the same serviced apartment that Jae, Dave and Nevan were staying at before moving into their real apartment. So for about three days it was all about the Nevan and Noah show.

On Saturday, we met up in the morning so we could let the boys wreak havoc on the unsuspecting patrons at the Starbucks down the street. Noah was pretty shy when he first saw Nevan and spent the first five minutes hiding between my legs, but he warmed up soon enough and he and Nevan picked up where they left off in Sydney back in August — with a lot of screaming, invitations to each other’s houses, and mischief in general.

Apartments and Holidays and Phases, Oh My!

Apartments

When Obama won the election in November, Mark and I resolved to head to Washington DC in January to see the inauguration.  But as the expected number of attendees started to climb part the 2 million mark, we resolved instead to go to the East Coast and visit his brothers in DC and Pennsylvania instead (plus a few of my friends in Virginia).  Well, all that’s gone to hell now.  It turns out that our lease is up and we need to be out of our apartment by January 31st so we’re having to scrap an East Coast trip for the time being.

After a couple of weekends of searching, we finally found an apartment that we liked and put an offer on.  Now looking for an apartment in Hong Kong is vastly different from trying to rent an apartment in the U.S.  For one thing, everything’s negotiable.  Including the price.  After some negotiating, we got 15% knocked off the original rental price.  Mark — never the type satisfied that he’s getting a good deal — also managed to secure an additional US$520 credit from the landlord to go towards putting up curtains and light fixtures.  Yay!

So now we’ve got a new place.  We decided to be lame and we’re moving to an apartment down the block from where we currently live.  What can I say?  I like our area.  Look — you can even see it from our current apartment:

One thing I noticed when Mark and I were still looking at apartments was the type of things you take for granted when you live in the U.S.  We were completely awed when we walked into one place that had a real walk-in closet.  A walk-in closet!  I haven’t seen one of those in over two years!  While our real estate agent tried to point out some of the “finer” aspects of the apartments (a tv in the bathroom, marble flooring and counters, an island kitchen, multiple en-suites in one unit, etc.) Mark and I were drooling over things like double sinks (!!!), a medicine cabinet (wow!) or actual rooms that wouldn’t be mistaken for a closet (double wow!!).  I’m sure she must’ve thought we were uncivilized morons.  We ultimately didn’t end up choosing the apartment with the walk-in closet or the island kitchen, but I’m happy to report that we will have the double sinks that Mark and I have been wanting (getting a fourth bedroom was merely a bonus).  Oh yeah, we’re moving on up.

Holidays

Initially, Mark and I were determined to spend the holidays here in Hong Kong.  We’ve been traveling for Christmas to visit family every year for the last seven years so we thought we could use a break.  However, with the prospect of our January East Coast trip out the window, I think we both started feeling a bit of cabin fever.  On top of that, Mark spent a week in Tokyo on business in early December and came back raving about how Tokyo was cold and beautiful and lit up for the holidays while Hong Kong was…well…Hong Kong — warm and commercial.  So at the last minute we decided that we would spend the week of Christmas in Tokyo.  Mark has some work to do in Tokyo that week anyway (the Japanese get December 23 off — the Emperor’s Birthday — but not Christmas) so it all worked out.  To top it off, my friend Jae and her family just moved to Tokyo so Noah and I will have someone to torture hang out with when Mark’s busy.

Phases, Oh My!

Speaking of Jae and her family…when we told Noah that we would be spending Christmas in Tokyo with Nevan, he freaked out.  But in a totally good way (sort of).  Ever since then, his Nevan-obsession has come back.  Not a day has gone by when he doesn’t talk about Nevan and regale us with stories of the silly things that Nevan did back in Sydney.  Every now and then he also cries when he realizes that we are not going to see Nevan righthisverysecond.  His Nevan phase comes at kind of a bad time for us since it coincides with another phase that Noah’s recently entered — the Why? phase.  Imagine the following conversation (and repeat it almost daily…just for kicks):

Noah: Mommy, what is the Grinch doing?
Me: He’s taking all the presents.
Noah: Why?
Me: Because he doesn’t like Christmas.
Noah: Why?
Me: Because he’s not very nice.
Noah: Why?
Me: Because his heart is too small.
Noah: Why?
Me: Noah, just watch the movie.

And combine it something like…having to explain to a three-year-old why you can’t buy certain things for the friend he’s obsessed with.  It gets ugly sometimes:

Noah: Mommy, I like my black jacket.
Me: Me too.  You know who got it for you?
Noah: Who?
Me: Aunty Jae.
Noah: Why?
Me: It was a gift.
Noah: Oh.  Mommy, we need to buy one for Nevan.
Me: Nevan already has one like it.
Noah: Why?
Me: Because Aunty Jae bought one for Nevan a long time ago.
Noah: Why?
Me: Because Aunty Jae is Nevan’s mommy and she buys him stuff.
Noah: Why?
Me: Because she loves him and…well she just buys him stuff.
Noah: Oh.  Later we need to buy Nevan a suitcase just like mine.
Me: I’m sure Nevan already has a suitcase.
Noah: Why?
Me: Because Aunty Jae probably bought him one.
Noah: Why?
Me: Because she’s his mommy.
Noah: And Uncle Dave is his daddy?
Me: Yes.
Noah: (thinks for a minute, and then) Why?
Me: Because Aunty Jae and Uncle Dave love each other. Just like mommy and daddy.
Noah: Why?
Me: Oh hey look over there! (pointing at the sky) A helicopter!
Noah: Later we need to buy a helicopter for Nevan just like Noah’s.
Me: (just shaking my head and rolling my eyes)

Ugly, I tell ya.  For my sanity’s sake, I’m hoping one of these phases is going to end soon.

A Word on Emas and Papparazzi (another photo heavy post)

I am just a little bit obsessed with emas. What are emas you ask? Well, they’re small wooden plaques that Shinto worshipers write their prayers or wishes on. (And for anyone checking, yes, I did copy that definition almost word for word from wikipedia.) The ema are then offered up to the deities at the morning ceremony by the priests.

The Meiji Shrine has a huge tree hung with ema and everytime I go there, I always take some time to walk around it and read the ema. They range from silly to serious, hopeful to heartbreakingly sad, but for the most part are all sincere. As Jae so eloquently noted, “Funny how there are so many people in the world and we all want exactly the same thing – health and happiness.” Here are some of my favorite emas:

A Jae-filled Post

Jae got in this morning. She had taken a red-eye flight from Sydney Tuesday night and arrived Wednesday morning bearing gifts. There was a purse for me (yay!) and for Noah she brought toys and the cutest hoodie with a skull and crossbones design and little devil horns on the hood. Noah isn’t into hoods but I may have to bribe him with ice cream or something just so I can snap a picture of him with the horns on.

We went to the Mandarin Oriental for breakfast/lunch. The Mandarin has an awesome view of Tokyo from their restaurant on the 38th floor. Once we got seated though, I realized that I had taken Jae to a place with no Japanese food on the menu for her first meal in Japan. Oops. But hey, a chicken sandwich is a good way to start off any trip…ok, maybe not, but the view was awesome in any case. See? Jae agrees:

We headed over to the Imperial Palace after lunch and lasted a mere 30 minutes. We got over the moat, through the gate, took a short much-needed A/C break by ducking into a small museum near the entrance and walked around a corner when Jae asked me, “Is the rest of it pretty much the same as this?” Poor Jae was almost literally melting in the heat. And while watching someone continually wiping off her sweat mustache is totally entertaining, there are only so many jokes you can squeeze out of it before she wants to hit you. So we headed back to the hotel to rest up before dinner.

I nagged Mark into taking us to Seryna (which I wrote about here) for an ishiyaki dinner. Because the meat is cooked tableside, they provided bibs to cover up and help keep the smoke off. When our geisha tied mine on me, Jae joked that it would make a great picture. Fortunately for me she didn’t bring her camera to dinner. Unfortunately for her, I did:

We walked around Roppongi afterwards to try to walk off that huge dinner. Here are Jae and Mark at Roppongi crossing:

Thank goodness they get along or else visiting her in Sydney next month would’ve been kinda awkward. Hopefully she likes Noah too because Mark and I are planning on getting her to babysit him for us (shhh!). Mark left us shortly to go back to work (yes, at 11:30 pm). After a stop at a pet store to fawn over puppies and kittens (and monkeys…which was actually kind of sad) and some coffees at Starbucks, we went back to our hotel. Once we both got back to our rooms we hopped online and ended up IMing each other for a little while (geeks!).

Of course, what would a trip to Japan be without an earthquake? We got hit with a looong 6.8 earthquake a little later. Naturally I hopped online and IMed Jae again. Her response? “Woo hoo. I haven’t had an earthquake in ages.” hehe. She’s a hardened Californian too.

Back in Tokyo

Mark and I are in Tokyo right now.  I left early this morning, leaving the boy behind with Clarita.  I left before 6 am which meant I was actually awake before Noah for a change.  I’m always surprised at the extent that I miss the boy whenever I leave him behind.  I usually look forward to copious amounts of adult time and as cute as the boy is, man does he know how to push my buttons sometimes.  But still, I do find it hard to say goodbye, especially since I’ll be away from him for six days.  I must’ve given him “one last hug and a kiss” about 10 times this morning.

When Mark got his travel agent to book my flight earlier this month, I pulled a bit of diva on him and pouted a bit when I realized I would be flying Northwest Airlines.  No offense to NWA but they kinda suck.  But tickets on Northwest were half as much as they were on the other airlines so I sucked it up and got ready to be miserable for the first day of my trip.  When I checked in this morning, it turns out that they had overbooked the coach seats for the flight and since I hadn’t gotten a seat assigned to me earlier, I ended up getting bumped up to business class.  Total score.

I can’t even begin to tell you how great it feels to be back in Tokyo.  Poor Mark is probably tired of hearing me say this since I’ve been chanting “I love Tokyo” all night long but it’s so true.  It’s been about three months since I was last here and except for our new digs (a hotel vs. the corporate apartment in April) everything is just as I remember it.  The weather is great, the city is beautiful, the people are awesome.  Despite missing Noah and worrying a little that he’ll be upset that I’m not around, I feel at peace here.  The language barrier is always a big issue with me, but it feels more like a challenge rather than an obstacle, I feel comfortable here, at home.  Mark took me to an incredible sushi restaurant for dinner tonight.  We were the only ones there (it turns out most of their patrons don’t arrive until midnight) and we sat at the bar where the chef/owner prepared us a menu of his choosing (omakase).  When we weren’t marveling over the food, we were plotting ways to justify a move to Tokyo — where we would live, how we would decorate, what we would do.  Of course it’s all wishful thinking for now but it’s still nice to imagine that life for us.

A Glimpse into Mark’s World

One of Mark’s clients invited both Mark and I out to dinner tonight. Mark has dinner with them regularly but this was my first formal dinner with one of his Japanese clients so I was a little bit nervous — because of both the language barrier and all the Japanese customs that I was unfamiliar with.

The company’s driver picked me up at the front of my apartment and then drove me, Mark and another colleague to the restaurant — Yuugentei, a Korean BBQ restaurant in the Akasaka district. A geisha led us through the restaurant which was decorated (rather realistically) to resemble an old stone paved Japanese street to a private dining room. The sunken table was set for 10 people and had four grills evenly spaced across the top. The best part for me was the diversity of the other guests at dinner:

-Mark and I
-The chairman of our host company
-The chairman’s son
-The company’s second in command
-A famous Japanese comedian and emcee (and tv personality in Singapore)
-A former member of the Japanese parliament
-A sumo wrestler
-The sumo wrestler’s stable master*
-And two professional women’s golfers joined us late into the meal.

*Sumo wrestlers train at “stables” which are run by their trainers, or stable masters.

At the Kite Museum

On our last full day here, I wanted to take Noah back to the Children’s Castle that Mark had taken him to over the weekend but they were closed on Mondays. Plan B involved taking him back to Sunshine Aquarium, but they were also closed on Mondays. Plan C was to go to the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum, but surprise surprise, they too were closed on Mondays. I finally found one child-friendly site that was open on a Monday so it was off to the Kite Museum for us.

Noah, for some reason, is obsessed with dragon kites right now, so it seemed like a good outing for him. It was a tiny museum located on the fifth floor but was interesting nevertheless. They majority of their collection consisted of Japanese kites, but they had such a variety of them — postage stamp-sized kites, kites shaped like boats and planes, kites with woodblock designs painted on them. Japanese kites are made of an incredibly beautiful and sturdy handmade paper called washi and framed with bamboo. Here are some of the kites that we saw…