It’s time to go back home. We enjoyed Japan but are happy to get back home to our rabbits and the comforts of home. And vegetables. See you on the other side (of the Earth).

Lisa and I have become addicted to the special Japan-only Azuki (red bean) frappucino.
They are very good, but probably pretty bad for you. Starbucks is everywhere in Japan and they often develop special Japan only flavors that eventually translate over to the US. For instance, the matcha (green tea) Frappucino originated in Japan… Anyway, we’ll miss these — its the only frappucino we really like.

… watermelons are pyramids.

Or at least they can be.

Sunday night, we went to Omiya Station to meet with my cousin Yoshiko and her family, since they live in Toda City, Saitama. We had learned from my aunt and uncle that Yoshiko and her family have a rabbit, so we talked about how great rabbits are (we usually try to keep it to a minimum since we know it can bore people, and yes we miss them so much!). Anyway, we learned that after our last visit 3 years ago when we inundated everyone with photographs of our rabbits, Yoshiko had been convinced to get a rabbit! So their little girl is because of our fuzzy buns. (= We saw a little movie of her on a cell phone (kawaii!)

We also talked a little bit about baseball, and how Shion is good at Shogi, and we looked at Karen’s DS games (we both had our white DS lites with us). Clearly, Yoshiko’s English was quite good!

Ok, a quick explanation from what I’ve read. Harajuku became a fashionable area in the 60’s due to being near to the Olympic gymnasium. Over time, it became a hot area for youth fashion. As recently as the 80’s or 90’s, Elvis impersonators used to gather and sing on a bridge between Harajuku and nearby Shrine. Eventually, music was banned and young people in middle school or high school took over, dressing up in strange costumes, Goth/Lolita or Anime cosplay (costume play for the uninitiated). Now, it’s a well known area where foreigners go to take pictures of these teens. They try pretty hard to look interesting and attract photos…

More on flickr.

They put a lot of effort into these costumes. They can be homemade or bought (expensively) in nearby stores. There were many more groups that we saw that were just getting ready, applying makeup etc.

There were also two lonely looking guys with a sign that said “Free hugs”. They didn’t have many takers.

We just got back to Tokyo today from Komoro, where Misa’s mother grew up. We visited Aunt Fumiko and Uncle Hideki there. We had a good time, ate a lot of food, climbed (partially) Mt. Asama and engaged in a jumping contest of sorts…

Check it out. We’re heading back to Tokyo now. More posts to come.

We are off to Mt. Fuji to do some climbing. We’ll be back in a couple of days and hopefully have net access sooner than that. Wish us luck, we have rain gear, flashlights, little sandwiches, Pocari Sweat (it’s got electrolytes) and lots of plastic bags to protect us.
We’ll be staying in a hut with hundreds of other people also trying to climb. The goal is to arrive at the peak just before sunrise. Of course we’ll have pictures and more.
See you later.

Sounds like a muse song.

Last night we came across this rabbit magazine. Articles include featured products for rabbits, nutrition information on vegetables for rabbits (including eggplant? do rabbits eat eggplant?), how to trim a fuzzy rabbit, an article about a hot male veterinarian who (I’m guessing) is a rabbit expert, and a special spread on Netherland Dwarves! And much more that I don’t understand because I cannot read Japanese! (Maybe I’ll be asking for someone to spend Thanksgiving translating a rabbit magazine…) Yesterday we went to a pet store to get a rabbit fix. It was a huge pet store in a shopping mall, full of puppies and 4 tiny cute rabbits and even some giant beetles. I had some mixed feelings about it, since I’ve been trained to think of American pet stores that sell animals as evil, and these were very expensive cute animals (a couple grand for the puppies, a few hundred for the rabbits). But we weren’t there to buy a rabbit, just see them.

It does seem as if rabbits are more of a common household pet in Tokyo; the rabbit products selection was pretty large and we bought somethings that our rabbits will hate. I wanted to buy some treats to compensate but I couldn’t read the packaging and be sure I was getting something that was actually good for them. (And I’ve been trained to distrust pet store treats…) I’ll get them treats in SF.

While I was pulling the Piyong! photo off the camera, we felt a small earthquake here. A 6.7 off the coast near Niigata, 246 km or 153 miles from Tokyo. Ben’s reaction: “Well I guess I should put my pants on.”

Oh yes, we’ve been waiting to have okonomiyaki again for quite awhile. Some people call it Japanese pancakes but I’m not sure that quite explains it. It has layers of noodles and cabbage and egg. It also is made from some sort of secret batter with flour, broth and powdered milk. They are a covered on top with a delicious sauce.
This first one is “Modern-style” okonomiyaki, which seems to have noodles.

This next one is Osaka-style.

They also have Hiroshima-style but that was pork only so we passed. I really wish this was available in the States. While in Amsterdam, we went to a place called the Japanese Pancake House where a guy was trying to popularize it in Europe. Anyway, you’ll have to try it someday.