Yokohama China town, Fujisawa, Yugawara, and Odawara all in one weekend

I am going to start out by saying this was one of my least favroite "trips" lol these were some of the highly recommended locations and they were all sort of a bust (in my opinion). Just outside of Yokohama China town there is the Yokohama baseball stadium, and a wonderful park that had tons and tons of tulips.  Yokohama china town had a cute little festival going on which was fun. They had a bunch of mascot type characters walking around and a band playing music. It was 70 degrees with a nice breeze which was lovely. We found a place with the fish that eat your dead skin off your feet, and decided to try it out. It was quite hilarious, and tickled like crazy. The best description of how it felt was if someone put electrodes on your feet. They were swarming Roberts feet (he must have had lots of dead skin) and he was giggling like a school girl. After we walked around and found a random restaurant to try out, and I will just say it was absolutely horrible. One of the worst places I have eaten at in my life. It was ridiculous expensive which made for an even worse time. After dinner we both had a bit of an upset stomach so we ended up walking around a bit more and heading home.

Fujisawa, we went to just for the Old Navy. It is a lovely little town there with nice shops and a fun little shopping center which we really enjoyed. The original plan was to head to Odawara Castle after but we took a little too long and decided to find a last minute airbnb. This ended up taking us to Yugawara. Yugawara is a tiny little mountainous town that has lots of hot springs. It is near some of the towns we have visited before during Valentines weekend. We figured it would be a nice place and online the airbnb looked nice, however things got a little complicated with the host. When we finally made it, it was atop a huge hill and over looked the little town and the ocean. When we got inside it was dark, dingy, old and not as nice we expected. We made the best of it and had some much needed quiet time, there was no wifi, no tv, and no reception on my phone. We made curry and talked; although the place was a bit of an ew, I would say the experience was fun. The next morning we wandered our way to the station and took the train to Odawara; where we planned to see the castle.

When arriving in Odawara we headed towards the castle. While we were walking we found an archaeological dig site just outside the castle. It was closed off to the public but there were some leaflets that explained what they had found there, it was pretty interesting. We kept walking and found a precarious sign that was in Japanese, the gist I got from it was that the castle was closed for earthquake preparedness construction...we decided to keep walking and check it out for sure. When we got up there it sadly was closed; we were able to walk around the outside, take some fun pictures and check out the monkeys (they them in a cage outside the castle). We saw a castle in Atami during Valentines weekend which in my opinion was much more impressive. Although this one was still 'nice' I would suggest taking the extra time to go see Atami's Ocean view castle which is quite amazing.

Disney Sea-Tokyo

We decided to take another trip out to Disneyland Tokyo; this time we went to the other park, Disney Sea. It was absolutely magical and definitely my favorite Disney park (in terms of atmosphere). I wish we could have spent more time there! I loved seeing how different of an experience Kora had in comparison to our trip 4 months ago. She was so excited about everything, and enjoyed every mintute of it. We were able to meet a lot of the Disney characters which was fun. I was a bit surprised but Kora actually loved them, she would wave and yell hello and bye bye. She would try to kiss them or pat their faces. The rides at Disney Sea are very low key and quite short (which is nice if you have small children), we weren't as impressed by the food at Disney Sea however they still did have some great treats, the shows were amazing and overall the park was super cool. I would definitely love to go back again!

We got another airbnb close to the park, and spent two nights there. It was a Micky themed apartment, it was cute and cozy. We had stayed at an apartment nearby before so we were familiar with the area which made travel much easier.

Snarky post alert!

I was asked a surprising question the other day. I say surprising not because it is an abnormal question but because it came from a fellow mom, a new mom no less...

She said "So what do you do all day?"

It took a lot of energy to not fire back with a "are you freaking kidding me?!?!" or a "well what the hell do you do all day? Don't you take care of your new baby?!?" Having a new baby is exhausting and you are constantly busy so why was she asking me this? Well two things stopped me, the first being maybe she was wondering how every day life is in Japan (though coming from this person that is not likely) and the other being because since the day she came home from the hospital she has had constant help from both of the baby's grandparents. So maybe she was just confused because she has a lot of free time and figured she I must have the same? Either way I was still taken a back by the question. So for some of you out there wondering what I do all day (and for your various reasons for asking this question) I figured I would go over my typical day. I am currently writing this while my baby is talking to herself in her bed (she should be napping but decided she currently does not want to)....

We wake up around 7am, I usually pick up Kora from her bed and talk to her about things for a bit (yes I know she is a baby but she loves chatting with me). So I ask her about her sleep, ask her what she thinks we should do today, and then ask her if she is hungry...She usually responds to the "Beanie girl are you sooooo hungry right now?" with a lip smacking sound (my indication of yes she is definitely hungry). I put her in her play area and make her breakfast. I prepare both of our breakfasts at the same time and after about 20ish minutes of me cooking and talking to her while I prepare the food I get her in her little high chair and we start eating, usually while we watch a show on tv. We eat for about an hour so by then its nearly 9am. When she is done I get her all cleaned up and we play in her play area for about 45 min until she is sleepy again. She goes down for her first nap just before 10am and this is when I get a little of my "free time". I lay her down and start the silent clean up. Start a load of laundry, hang up laundry, fold laundry, do the dishes, pick up toys clean up around the house, make sure the bills are all paid, and then if I am lucky I will have extra time to watch some TV, work on a drawing, or listen to podcasts. She wakes up just before noon, I talk to her again and ask her if shes hungry sing a few songs, take her to the bathroom to poop or change her wet diapers then I put her in her play area again and make lunch. Takes about 20 min and the whole eating process happens again.. we finish eating around 1:00 or 1:20 and we play for another 20-60 min.Usually during this time I dress her for the day. Her playing is very active, shes walking along while holding the wall, climbing up and down things, crawling all over the house playing with her stackable cups, or her pacifiers or her babies, etc...I am usually chasing her around, singing songs with her, and attempting to teach her things.... She gets out all of her energy and is ready for another nap around 2:00ish she usually sleeps for an hr or so, and usually by this time the other laundry has dried and is ready to fold or I have a little more time to draw, exercise, or rest. Shes up around 3:15ish and from here we either go shop for groceries or play until Robert comes home. Grocery shopping here is done every 2 days or so because the refrigerators are small and you constantly have to pick up food. If we go shopping we either have to ride the 2 miles to the cheaper store (which is way better and has everything), walk to the close one that is more expensive, or take the stroller to the semi far away one and go to 4 different shops to pick up everything. Usually shopping takes around 2 hours if not 3 to get it all done...in the middle of this we have snack time, melt downs, occasional feedings, potty runs or diaper changes. We come home and Robert is usually on his way or just walking in. I hand Kora off after his few minutes of rest and I start cooking the dinner. On a typical night, I am cooking at least 3 different meals.  The meal for us for the night (if we can all eat it) and the breakfast for Robert, and usually his lunch for the next day. If we aren't all able to eat it, (like if I am cooking Robert a steak or some pork) then I may be cooking 4 meals. About the time I am finishing up the meal prep we turn the bath on (which takes about 25 min to fill up and heat up properly) Robert is occasionally chatting with me from the other room while he plays with Kora. I finish up the cooking and set up Kora's food and give Rob his food...I plate my food and wash up the dishes before I finally get to sit down and eat my food. By this time Kora is nearly done eating and Robert is usually helping her finish her food. I stuff my face as fast as I can and help wash off Kora so she can take a bath, we jump in the shower/bath clean Kora off take turns bathing ourselves and whoever finishes first takes Kora out to get her dressed for bed. By then its 7:30pm sometimes later if shopping was late or if things took me longer to prepare. After a little more quiet play time I put Kora to bed and we finally have the rest of the night to relax. Then it all starts over again lol.

All of this is obviously met with random schedule changes, occasional random shopping days, face timing with the grandparents or aunties, potty breaks, random snack times, baby tantrums, photo adventures, vacuuming, taking the trash out, bike rides, adventure planning, walks, picking up the house...etc...etc...  When we have time off in the evening we do all sorts of things...Friday nights we try to go out to eat for our "family date night", we watch the walking dead on Monday nights. Robert and I watch our current releases of anime on Friday nights, we play our own video games, or check social media or talk about our days. All sorts of things happen just like any normal day but I guess my thoughts just keep coming back to "I do a lot of stuff and mainly its making sure my child is safe and happy"....Don't you do the same?

If I were a daycare worker or an office assistant would you ask me what I did all day? I manage my household, I clean, I cook, I teach, I nurture and I care for my family. No I don't sit around all day...but thanks for asking. :D
---side note--
sorry not sorry for the snarky post ;P

Kora giving me the "come on mom..." face

Waiting for her lunch with her crazy wild hair

Candid shot of me cooking in my pajamas (photo credit to Robert for secretly snapping this)

Family date night at a Japanese pizza and pasta place

poopy potty break while pointing at things on her map 

Tokyo Disney, Tokyo Sea Life, and Odaiba

This weekend I planned a surprise last minute trip to Disney Land, Tokyo Sea Life, and Odaiba. Robert came home Friday afternoon and I said "Your not working tomorrow right? I planned a big adventure this weekend I need your help to hurry and pack." I clicked accept on our airbnb and we started packing. As we packed I explained what I had planned for us and showed Robert where we were going to stay. We ended up leaving a little after 6pm from our place in Yokosuka caught 2 trains and then a bus. We finally arrived at our place in Edogawa where our airbnb was around 8:30pm. It has been quite cold in Japan lately, so adventuring out with a baby, with all of our gear in 2 backpacks, on public transportation can be a bit of a challenge. Managing public transportation as a foreigner in Japan in general is a little difficult...some signs are only in Japanese (which makes reading them near impossible), if you happen to have the Japanese writing for the location you can try to match them up, if you are lucky you can find the Japanese name which is spelled out in plain characters. When both get a little too confusing I tend to ask a random person, usually something like "Sumimasen, (point at name of location and attempt to pronounce it properly) Edogawa? (followed by me pointing at a train or a specific bus I think we are supposed to get on)" Usually they start speaking Japanese and I tend to get the basic idea of what they are saying. A lot of the time we hop on a train/bus we think is correct and hope for the best.

The bus stop by the Airbnb

Our airbnb

Our airbnb

Disney Land was tons of fun, Kora got to ride on a bunch of rides. She kept yelling "WAAAWW" and would point her tiny little finger at all sorts of things. There food was very impressive, it not only looked amazing but it also tasted really good. When it warms up a bit more we are planning to go to Tokyo Disney Sea which is the adjacent Disney park. All of the voices for the rides and all of the songs were in Japanese. There were some signs in English, Japanese, and Korean. A lot of the workers knew some English which helped a little.

Tokyo Sea Life was incredible. There were tons of fish, a tank with stingrays and a bunch of different sharks. They had sea turtles, octopus, penguins, different birds, and a whole bunch of other sea creatures. There was also a special area outside where you could pet the stingrays and a few sharks. I have to admit I was a bit sad by how small their cages were....Oh and ironically you go to their food court and all of the food is seafood...which sort of made Robert and I a bit sick to our stomachs...

Odaiba we didn't get to spend as much time at as I wanted (because we had spent most of this day at Tokyo sea life). We saw the Gundam monument and walked around a huge mall. There were all sorts of cute little shops and cafes. We plan to go back to Odaiba during the anime convention in march. Hopefully we will get to explore a lot more then.