Some pictures of our time so far...

Christmas Continues...

Well, it's the day after Christmas and we are settling into our evening routine... family movie accompanied by a few snores from Papa. Denny is on the computer and probably truly wishing that she could be watching HGTV instead of Mall Cop... but the kids won.

We had a wonderful Christmas - Santa was very good to all of us. Lots of goodies - Sydney got a princess doll house, Chris got a kindle, Nicholas is loving his electricity set, Papa got a new wallet, Denny got a photo book full of pictures of her grandbabies, and Mommy got a new strand of black pearls. Don't think it could get much better!

On Christmas Eve, I took mom to Shibuya, a major shopping area where literally a million people pass each day. For those of you who watched the last season of the Amazing Race - this was the intersection they walked through. Her eyes were huge as we walked along... we went through a typical Tokyo department store and through the Disney store. I even treated her to McDonalds (I know - I'm the big spender...). Next we went to Omotesando, another shopping area to meet everyone else so we could go to Christmas Eve services at the Tokyo Union Church (www2.gol.com/users/tuc/) and see the lights in stores like Louis Vuitton and Chanel. After church we toured the famous Japanese toy store, KiddyLand, to continue our path of sensory overload!! This store is huge and packed on 6 different floors...

Christmas was a great day - staying at home, watching the kids play with all of their goodies, and eating a yummy turkey with all the "fixins" for dinner. Today we did some more touring - went to Tokyo Tower and ZoJo Ji Temple, finishing the day off with dinner at one of our favorite restaurants - Panic Cafe!

We are now stuffed and ready for bed - Guess, though, we'll wait until Mall Cop is over!

Day 2... Better than Day 1!

So yesterday was not the best for my parents... Let's just say jetlag is not their friend! They were slow moving in the morning but we finally got out of the house around noon. Took Dad to the money exchange and then off to lunch.. where he became a bit confused with the new denominations. When they brought the menu, he took one look at the prices and said "can we afford to eat here??" Quick lesson on Japanese yen... 1000 yen is roughly 10 dollars (but Daddy didn't know this little bit of information) - so when he saw that the chicken salad was 1300 yen... he became a bit concerned! We then had to have a brief money lesson...

We went to the top of Mori Tower (up on the 52nd floor!) - it was very clear and we could see for miles and miles and even see Mt. Fuki in the distance. The kids had a great time showing them the places they knew. I next took them to the 100 yen (i.e. the dollar!) store - a favorite store of mine! And we meandered our way home... By late afternoon, Mom and Dad were pretty much "done." Mom was worse - she wasn't really making coherent statements which provided much humor for the rest of us. :) She, however, perservered and made it all the way to 8:30 P.M. before she crashed.

This morning they were a bit more refreshed and we headed out for the next adventure... the subway train! The one we needed was, of course, one of the deepest trains in Tokyo and we just kept going down escalator after escalator - made Mom happy! They followed directions well and after a train switch, we arrived at Asakusa Kannon Temple and grounds - a very Japanese experience. They seemed to enjoy it - we saw ladies in kimono, a wedding, and a special Buddist ceremony with monks chanting. There is also a huge section with all the Japanese souvenier shopping you can imagine.

We're now home and are watching Santa Clause 3 - Daddy is having a hard time staying awake...

I'll post some pictures of our day in a bit...

They're here!!!

Mom and Dad arrived in one piece! They are, needless to say, quite tired but are doing pretty good. They reported that the flight wasn't very bumpy and they actually slept... some. They made it through immigration and customs with not too many issues... Mom wasn't sure how to do the finger print machine - she tried five times before it worked. Dad told her to wipe the sweat from her hands and then try... then it worked. All of their bags arrived safely, as well.

The funny part was watching mom's face as they came out of the baggage claim area - she didn't see Sydney and I until she was almost on top of us! Many hugs later we were ready to go. We were making our way out of the lobby when we were stopped by the Japanese police who asked us for our passports. Apparently it was a routine random (i.e. pick out the American in the crowd) passport check . Daddy had gone to the bathroom at this time. Mom handed them Dad's passport at first - the cop's face was priceless as he knew that passport didn't belong to my mother. Mom then proceeded to tell him that that was her husband and he was in the bathroom. I kept telling mom "less is more" as I giggled to myself. Fortunately, we made it through the check right about the time Dad walked out of the bathroom... at which time, both policeman looked at him and said, "ahhhh!" Then they pointed to his passport - clearly the mystery was solved!

We made it safely back to our aparment although it took us about twice as long to drive home because the traffic was so bad. Dad took a nap, but mom was attentive and interested in the sights. It's 9:45 PM now and after some dinner and dessert - Mom has given it up and gone to bed. Dad is still hanging in there, but his eyes are pretty tired. It's 6:45 AM their time... we'll see how this goes.

We are looking forward to a fun day tomorrow - and hoping and praying that it doesn't start at 4:00 AM!!

They're on the way!!

Very excited to report that Denny and Papa are somewhere over the Pacific now on their 13 hour flight to Tokyo! They've already gotten some special treatment... they called and said that they were met at the gate from their flight from Nashville and escorted onto the plane in Detroit. This was quite nice considering their flight was late leaving Nashville and they were pressed for time. Mom called (it was 2:00 AM here!) and said that as they boarded, they were calling "final boarding call!" Oh well, never a dull moment and they are on the way and will be here soon!

The best part is that they think that there is a car picking them up and bringing them to our house - the truth is that Sydney and I are going to pick them up in the "hoop" - that's our name for our car... it's short for "hoopty van" (that's definitely a post for another day!) and will see them once they've been officially "admitted" into the country! Can't wait to see them!!!

I will keep you posted - with pictures - as we continue with "Denny and Papa's Adventures in Tokyo!"