Konnichiwa and Arigato...

When in doubt, use whichever comes to mind. That's what Pete did when he and Ami visited us.

They've since gone home, but Sydney still asks me, "Where's Crazy Pete?!"

We had a great visit with Pete and Ami. (I went to high school with Pete in Trumbull, CT, and Brian went to college with Pete at Bates in Maine. Then Pete introduced us and the rest is his fault, I mean, history!)

Before their trip to visit us in Japan, of course we warned our friends that traveling around with two small children might brand their trip "once-in-a-lifetime" for other (negative) reasons. But they were willing to take the good (our arranging for them to see 6 Japanese cities in 13 days and the chance to try more than 20 different Japanese foods), with the bad (them hauling extra weight occasionally and stopping for diaper changes and temper tantrums).

As soon as Pete and Ami arrived, we hit the ground running. After one quick night in Yokosuka (city #1) at our house, we whisked them away to Tokyo (city #2) and stayed two nights at the military New Sanno Hotel.

We ventured out first to the Harajuku neighborhood of Tokyo on a Sunday afternoon, which is a real hangout for young fashion enthusiasts, particularly those sporting "Little Bo Peep" attire. (I have no idea why.) And also men wishing they were Elvis reincarnated.

Near this area, (and not far from Takeshita Street, which generated a few chuckles), is Tokyo's most famous shrine, Meiji Jinga Shrine. It was here that we first suspected Pete and Ami might have different agendas in Japan, particularly Kyoto--which is known for its many shrines and temples. Pete said, after a mere minute of looking at the shrine, "Okay, it's a shrine," and was ready to move on...

So, move on we did. To a temple! After a quick whiz through the Tsukiji fish market and Ginza, we visited Asakusa Kannon Temple. I convinced Pete it was worth stopping for some "holy smoke" to cure his aching knees and feet, since it seems to have worked for me. Of course, maybe it's because I've had three prior doses of holy smoke in nearly two years.




There was plenty of eating and shopping along the way. We learned early on if we incorporated enough snacks ("waffle bites," octopus balls, green tea or yuzu ice cream, sweet bean paste filled mochi, to name a few), shopping, and even playgrounds in between sights, everyone was happy. We all have an inner two year old.

From Tokyo, we drove to Nikko (city #3), which is about 3 hours northwest of Yokosuka. We stayed two nights at the Japanese-style Annex Turtle Inn (a ryokan) in this mountain town, which is famous for several historical shrines and temples (uh oh!) as well as beautiful scenery. We spent the first part of our trip climbing up the hill of shrines within walking distance of our hotel. We saw the Sacred Bridge (Shinkyo), the Toshogu shrine, the Futarasan-jinja shrine and the Rinnoji temple.

Hey, hey, we're the monkeys! Not those monkeys. In the Shinkyusha (sacred stable), for the horses serving god, there is a series of 8 carved boards on which the life of a monkey is illustrated, from birth to pregnancy, caricaturing human life. One of the sculptures, the "Three Monkeys", is famous throughout the world for the "see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil" poses. The carved monkeys covering their eyes, ears and mouth, respectively, were inspired by the Buddhist teaching that if we do not hear, see or speak evil, we ourselves shall be spared from evil, and the theme was chosen here in the belief that the monkeys would protect the horses from disease.

We spent the afternoon in the Chuzenji Lake area. To get there, we took a 40-minute bus ride up a mountain on a winding one-way road. We explored the lake area and enjoyed visiting Kegon Falls, which required taking an elevator through bedrock to reach the observation deck for viewing this famous waterfall. Then, running low on energy and time, we unloaded both kids on Pete and Ami and returned back to Nikko to have dinner, drink sake, and try out the onsen (natural hot springs bath) at the ryokan.

Our last morning in Nikko we took a very scenic walk along the river right outside our ryokan. Then we packed up and set out by car to find a glass blowing studio on our way out of town. It was a miracle we found it, thanks to Pete's free-spirited, wishful thinking and Brian's expert ability to drive and "read" Japanese signs at the same time. Good thing, because now we have a mismatched set of two very expensive sake glasses that we haven't used yet; they're sitting right next to the Kiyomizuyaki sake set we haven't used from our trip to Kyoto a year and a half ago.

Once back home in Yokosuka, we didn't stay long before heading by 20-minute train ride to Kamakura (city #4), despite the rain. We saw the Great Buddha, of course. (We even saw two cute bumble bees buzzing around in the rain! See photo.) Then we barely visited Hachimangu Shrine, so Ami and I stayed longer to shop while the guys took the kids home and cooked dinner--our consolation prize for not seeing any other shrines in Kamakura. No problem, I've already seen them and you can never have too much yuzu honey and yuzu chu, which we stocked up on. We also visited Reiko's new store, where Ami bought two adorable little purses made from vintage kimonos and obis. I would've bought one if any of them would have held my cell phone, two diapers and a pack of wipes.

After a week with us in training, we then sent Pete and Ami on their own to visit Kyoto (city #5) and Hiroshima (city #6) for two nights each. They were armed with Pasmo cards, maps and information. But the only Japanese words they had acquired in a week were "konnichiwa" (hello) and "arigato" (thank you), which seriously Pete often used interchangably. We all got a couple of good laughs when he said "hello" as he exited the bus one day, and "thank you" after bumping into a pretty woman in a restaurant another day. So, we were nervous about sending them both out into Japan alone with only a week of orientation and no cell phone for emergencies. But they actually came back and taught us a thing or two about Japan! Lest we forget, we are all gaijin here.

See the photo gallery for more pictures of Pete and Ami in Tokyo and Nikko!