Japan – Tokyo, Day one – Kyle

do you need more than three hours of sleep? not me! and definitely not the two year old or baby.

we set out for a really ambitious day. we figured we should push ourselves right away to find the kid’s limits. we wanted to visit Sengaku-ji Temple which derek’s wanted to see since he was a teenager…something about the 47 ronin. where they’re burried? my sleep addled brain is forgetting the details. we knew we’d have to eat and do something kid related so we planned to walk the 7km to the temple, grab lunch, then walk to some parks before heading back.

after breakfast we met up with an expat who’s a brother of our travel agent. bill was going to hang with us and try to help us acclimate a bit.

the walk there should’ve taken us about 90 min, with a stop along the way. it did not. thing-one was a complete disaster. (did i mention he doesn’t need sleep?) we were stopping to address meltdowns every couple of minutes. mcqueen/elsa would only let me push his stroller; thing-two was strapped to me, asleep/nursing; and it was approximately 80 bajillion degrees with 400% humidity. i was living the dream.

the water we brought with us was quickly depleted and we were very grateful for the ubiquitous vending machines. turns out your train pass also serves as a vending machine debit card. things we wouldn’t have known without bill. thanks, bill.

the temple was beautiful. there was a shrine with a water feature that made music when you poured the water correctly. it was a perfect activity for miss fritter/the bulldozer.

after derek got his 47 ronin fill we found a park for the kids to play. thing-two ate all the gravel while thing-one whined about, well, everything. the lovely afternoon culminated in the camera being dropped and the lens shattering.

we admitted defeat and caught a train back to the hotel. bill was really helpful and it was sad to say goodbye to him.

while thing-two took a much needed and much too short nap i took a solo adventure to a camera store. japanese taxi drivers are fancy as fuck. white gloves and all.

although we couldn’t really understand each other the man at the camera store managed to make it clear that i’m an idiot and had only shattered my filter. i had completely forgotten the lens had one. i was giddy. i bowed much too emphatically and made everyone uncomfortable. i was my true self.

after i got back we tried to be adventurous and get some food,

but everything we found was closed until 5 (does nobody eat dinner at 430, like civilized people?) and both kids were so bleary-eyed/tantrumtastic we did room service again and tucked them in.

the day defeated us.

on the plus side: we discovered that thing-one loves to pee in squat toilets and he’s SUPER into japanese bidet toilets. “i wash my butt, mama!”