July 29, 2014 Holy Thursday #throwbacktuesday

Last week I took a break from exploring, the hanami hunting tired me out! Also, we had a heat wave last week with every day being in the 90 degrees with almost 100 percent humidity! Too hot for this menopausal woman! One evening we had one of the loudest craziest lightening storms I've seen yet! I did find it neat to stand on our balcony and watch the rain pour down and the very close lightening amidst all the tall buildings!

Back in the day when we had all of our children at home and were pastoring in Panama we were so busy with church events that the children and I instituted holy Thursday. (That's a perk about homeschooling, you can work school around your own schedule.) Holy Thursday was set aside as family day, no school and no church event could be regularly scheduled on that day, though the occasional revival was excepted of course!  On holy Thursday we would do something fun, whether going to a park, or a mall or a beach.  The good thing about Panama is that bus fare was only 25 cents and there were plenty of malls with cheap arcades!  Also, clothing there is so inexpensive that it was a great place to raise teenage daughters where with just a few dollars they could get some new clothing or shoes. So on Thursdays, we'd get up and head out the door to somewhere! Some days we'd go to a mall to go blading and take pictures with the local wildlife!
                                                                             
                                                                     

There's a wheel in the heel of those shoes and my kids were FAST !

Or, we'd go hiking up Cerro Ancon to see the monkeys, toucans and other wildlife. Of course there was also the great view of Panama City from the top!

Every couple of months we'd head to the ocean! If we wanted to do some body surfing we'd head to the Pacific side that had waves, or if we wanted something more relaxing we'd go to the Caribbean and enjoy the tranquil water and do some snorkeling!

Our favorite was Isla Grande, we had to take a water taxi to the island!

                                                                 
                                                                      Finding Nemo.

Playa Langosta

                                                                            Isla Grande

                                                                        Isla Grande

On the way there we might stop along the way and explore the old Spanish fort in Portobelo!

Rumor has it that Sir Francis Drake is buried in those waters.

                                                 Yup, they're sitting on a 500 year old cannon.

(I love my daughter Katie's photobomb pose!)

Anyway, all that to say that even now that we are empty nesters I still try to adhere to holy Thursday, though I'm less strict about it and it can easily become what ever day of the week that opens up. And sometimes, I'm too tired to explore and just stay home and relax now like I did this last week! Lol! 

There is always some work to do but having been a missionary in 3 different countries I've learned that taking a day off during the week to do something fun does wonders for a person's outlook on the rest of the week and work! 

ON TO FOOD!!!!

I found this new flavor of Doritos this week, do you all have these where you're at?  It's pepper and salt flavored. I'm not sure what exactly Andes salt is...

                                                            The chip is a dark black.

Gary did the taste test for me and said that he liked it! (Truth be told, I had brushed my teeth and was headed to bed and he wanted to eat the chips so I told him he'd have to do the taste test for me! lol! )  The pepper had a bit of a kick to it but the simple combination of just pepper and salt was good!

July 21, 2014 Hanami (fireworks) Hunting

So, on Saturday I decide to trek all the way to Gotanna station and try to watch the big local fireworks display! I packed an Onigiri, a bottle of water and my foldable umbrella and headed out. It was still quite early, about 3:30pm  but I figured I wanted to arrive early and this station was quite far away. In fact, I had to ride a bus, a train and transfer to two different train lines!  The second train transfer was a bit tricky but I ran into a nice Korean lady who was headed in the same direction and we finally found the right train platform! When I disembarked I wasn't sure where to go but I saw a bunch of folks wearing traditional yukatas so I decided to just follow them and see where I'd end up!
                                                                       

We walked several blocks and finally arrived alongside of the river and took a seat, and then..it started raining!

I wasn't feeling the whole sit on the wet ground thing so I took refuge under the nearby bridge!

Sitting on the concrete blocks was bit uncomfortable and I confess to feeling like a Hobo under the bridge but I was dry and there was a good view for the fireworks!

It didn't take long for my hobo lifestyle to catch on!

Many tour boats arrived to anchor in the river and await the festivities...maybe next year I should try that instead!

 
                                                       and the rain would come and go...

By the time evening arrived, both sides of the river were covered with thousands of people despite the rainy conditions. It was good I arrived early as the river sides filled up quickly!

The fireworks had barely started when the batteries on my camera died..sorry! (Cameras never do fireworks justice anyway!)

I enjoyed the fireworks and headed back home, I even managed to find a more direct route home on my way back! 

So far on my world tour of fireworks displays I have to give First place to Mexico City. The display we saw there in 1994 was without a doubt the most spectacular I've ever witnessed. We were so close it was like the fireworks were headed right at you!

Second place goes to Panama for shear insanity! Everyone and their dog light fireworks on Christmas/News Year night and you can buy any type of  firework you can imagine! The big professional, to the small firecrackers and bottle rockets. The whole city becomes covered in a smoky haze and the night explodes in a wild cacophony of lights and booms!!!  It's terrifying and extremely dangerous, but amazing to watch and participate in!!! (No mention of the time a firework went wild and almost blew up a car...)

Third place goes to Japan. Japan's fireworks were very beautiful! Some of the explosions were just breath taking in beauty and it was all very organized as most things Japanese are.  Also, they should get listed as having the MOST fireworks. I think something like 12,000 fireworks were shot off and often times the whole sky was filled with colors!  I guess I should really list Panama and Japan as tying for second place because they were both equally fun but for totally different reasons!

Well there you have my Hanami  experience! I returned home tired and a bit sore but it was definitely worth the effort!

July 14. 2014 All Roads Lead to Tokyo

All roads lead to Tokyo, or around or through , well for me anyway! I've spent a couple afternoons in the last week or so doing some exploring. The temperatures have been hot and HUMID but sometimes these rambling legs of mine just need to get out and walk and walk and walk...
When we lived in Colorado I'd grab the kids and we'd head to the mountains and hike. I'd put the little ones (or as I called them hors d'oeuvres )in the middle, with my oldest with a big stick at one end of the line and myself at the other and off we'd go! At least I'm not worried about mountain lions or bears here!
One afternoon I headed to Shinjuku, I've been there before but I wanted to stop at my favorite bookstore first and then go exploring. This bookstore takes up at least 6 floors and one whole floor is dedicated to foreign language books so I can usually find something that catches my interest! I passed by the famous DoCoMo clock tower!
                                                                               

 and the Times Square shopping center...the bookstore is to the left of this building.

 After the bookstore, I started wandering. I liked this little pathway, it smelled good in the heat. I think the boards were cedar maybe.

    I walked and walked and walked. I was looking for the Shinjuku Gyoen park entrance...but I kept just finding the outside wall and couldn't get inside! After ALOT of walking I found the entrance, but the park had closed already so I'll have to go back to visit on another day. I saw a different train station in the distance which I hoped would save me having to walk all the way back to the Shinjuku station. When I arrived at the station I saw the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium and some kids playing soccer.

I was fortunate in that the train station I found was a line that went directly to my home train stop!

Day 2

So this day, I hopped the train and headed to Tachikawa. I got out and started walking in a direction I hadn't gone before and I found an Ikea...can you believe I've never been to one before?! I went inside and found they had a hot dog and soda for Y150!  I took a break and ate a pretty good hotdog! I wasn't very impressed with the store though so I left shortly after that. You can see the monorail overhead and the Ikea store in the distance too.

When I left the IKEA, I saw this cool window washer hanging on the side of the building! I kept wondering what it'd be like to be hanging there in an earthquake!

I've wanted to ride the monorail forever so I hopped on this one and went winding through the top of the city to who knows where!

I rode it to the end of the line, passing through the city and headed out to parts more residential.

                                        
                                               note the bicycle parking lot down below

                                      
                                            if there is an open space there is a garden

                                                       
                                                 headed towards the foot hills

Finally, we arrive at the end of the line and I get out to explore Tama Center.

Turns out I found Hello Kitty Town!

                                                
                                    Complete with Disney style theme park!

Tama center also has a very pretty walk way and Central Park!

                                                   
                                                        This is called the Parthenon.

             
                  View from the top of the Parthenon.

                                                                                  
                                               
                                                                Pretty walk way.

Central Park

                        
                               Peaceful Paths

                               

















                                           Bamboo, one of my all time favorite plants!

                                                              
                                                                        little path

                                                              
                                                       behind the Parthenon

                                                         
                                                            The big grassy area.

                                                            
                                                                        More stairs, my legs were getting tired!

                                          

Now I was tired! I decided to head home and thought instead of the monorail which was quite nice but slow, that I'd try the train station instead for a faster more direct route home! After studying the train chart for a bit I was able to figure out a route home with only one train transfer! It left me in Kichijoji and I picked up some Bratwursts from the import store and headed home for a quick and tasty bratwurst with sauerkraut, cheese and mustard!  Standard Wisconsin food!!! Yummy!