Travis and Scarlet went back to Tokyo super, super early! I think they chose the 6am train because Scarlet wanted to do some of the Tokyo things that we did earlier. We stuck around a bit more. The hotel breakfast was delicious and staying for that was totally worth it. And then we took the 4.5hr train ride back to Tokyo.
We had a lot of luggage, but it was workable - everyone had a backpack and a carry-on sized suitcase. I had an additional blue backpack that fit well on the carry-on handles to carry some of our extra souvenirs.
The train ride was...fine. At one point Joshua told me he wasn't feeling well and that's always scary in public places, but he rested a bit and started to feel better. For a snack we had these triangle things that were all over the place; Ben said they were a dallop of flavored red bean paste in a square of dough folded over into a triangle. The red bean paste was good, but it was a lot of dough that didn't have a yummy part with it. Mount Fuji was clear again!
Getting to our hotel was a bit of an adventure; we were definitely out of the main area. We needed to carry our luggage up and down steps at the train station and the hotel room was small with three beds. This is what I was expecting most of the hotel rooms to be like. There wasn't really even enough room to lay out our suitcases and walk around. However, we didn't really need it to be much bigger either, so it worked well.
There didn't seem to be a ton of restaurant options nearby, so we went to a 7-11. This is a normal thing to do, so it is definitely a cultural experience. Everyone was a bit hangry by this time, but we survived. There were a bunch of microwaves so that Ben and I could heat up our food; Isaac and Joshua got food from the food warmer. It was good. It wasn't great, but it filled us up and we were happy again.
We went over to the other teamLab installation next. Our taxi driver dropped us off in a fine spot, but it was in the basement off a shopping plaza and we had a bit of a hard time finding it. The picture below only works on a phone. When you're just walking through the hallway the words are stretched out and 3D. This one, as a whole, as a lot more artsy and less focused on movement. I think I liked the other one a bit better, but this one still had some really cool moments.
We started off with a ball run where the balls and surrounding lights all changed color over time.
All of the walls were interactive and regularly changed. This added to the feeling of not really knowing where you are and if you've hit all the mini installations...borderless. It was nice and not so nice at the same time. Below there were groups of butterflies that if you touched them they fell to the ground.
We made our own ocean creatures. Scarlet's escaped a half hour later and we saw it in a different hallway.
I made the green, blue, and orange fish, all filled with circles.
Joshua made a smiley-face jellyfish.
Isaac made a submarine shark. It was a cool idea, but the shark outline still showed up and he was disappointed about that.
Ben made the stripped shark in the middle.
This was a peaceful room. A place to sit. Water when we were there, but it changed over time.
This is the same room as above, but the cool part is that we had a color version and the outside hallway had the black and white version.
On our way out of this we walked by a wall. EXCEPT THERE WAS A HOLE! Ben took a video of it and it was just clever projection, although it doesn't show up well in the video. We were all amazed at how much it messed with our minds.
We were at the Tea Room, which was billed as a must-do experience. However, everything was Macha flavored and I'm the only person in the family who enjoys tea and Macha. (Honestly though, Macha is a weird flavor. I put it in my mouth and don't like it, but then a second later I decide that I do like it. Every time.) I enjoyed two servings of macha ice cream and my tea while everyone else enjoyed the cool things that happened to the food.
When you set down your ice cream, a branch grows from it. When you set down your tea, a flower grows in it and then when you move your tea the petals all come off.
They had the same light rope installation as the previous teamLab. This was a really, really cool installation, but a bit disappointing to see it again. However, Scarlet found the app that controlled the lights and so we were able to add some "trees" and "light fields" and "fires" to the lights.
There was a really cool room with globes of lights. The lights changed color slightly, but not enough to change the overall white look
This is in front of a one-way mirror. As we were entering the exhibit it was funny to watch the people near the wall pose very un-self-consciously. They had forgotten there were people behind the mirror.
There were a few other smaller rooms - one included people displayed on walls of 'smoke'. So you could walk right through them! The people were traditional Japanese images, which was interesting but I didn't understand any of the history.
Then a lilypad field. I guess not lily pads, but white plates on sticks and the projection changed as you walked through the field.
We were getting towards the end when we ran into a large room. It had blue lines on the floor and I won't tell you how long it took me to figure them out. They followed movement patterns of the people walking around. So Joshua made a really tight circle, and then Isaac and Scarlet joined to make a few other patterns.
It wasn't the most interesting day today. Ben had to work a lot, so in many ways it was like a normal weekday instead.
Joshua and I walked to the local thrift store to get a digital clock. It ended up projecting the time on a wall/ceiling and he was super excited about it.
Horizon wasn't all that cute, but he likes to sit in our dark bedroom with his eye open. It's cute in a scary way.
Joshua and I started organizing our Mario Legos. We had just put them in the box because they're best to play with if already put together. However, they're all coming apart so they're not usable. One of the summer activities is to get them usable again.
The kids played on the beach for about two hours. Joshua ended up with a volcano.
Isaac made a large wall with a castle inside. He also made some little houses and a road to get in and out.
On our way back from the castle we found a sign for our event! We had only been given the time we needed to be present, so knowing where to go was helpful.
We all got changed and went down to lunch. We had brought a small gift - Joshua and Ben made some Lego models of Holland landmarks, we added some text to it, and put it in a nice box.
We mingled a little bit, but since we didn't know many people we went to our table pretty quickly. We were seated at a table of honor...I understand that Travis and Larry should be there, but I felt a little bit out of place since we were just tag-a-longs. It did give us a great view of the stage though! This was the menu. I originally thought it would be a 'select one option from each', but instead it was 'we're having all of these'! Joshua didn't eat a ton, but enough. I started out strong, but near the end I started slowing down too. Except for the sushi- I ate my plate and Joshua's plate.
There was an introduction dance to ...I might get the word a bit wrong...bless our time together.
There was a nice video with the history of the company. I'm not sure if Google Translate was working well at that point or if there were enough visual cues, but I understood a lot of what was happening. Mr. Kitahara then went up to give a speech. This one was a bit harder to understand. Google translate was trying its best, but when English is Subject-Verb-Object and Japanese is Subject-Object-Verb, complex sentences are difficult. There were a few translations that were obviously wrong, such as the one below.
We were talking with someone later on, and they thought about it for a while. You could almost see the lightbulb turn on. There are three attributes...such as integrity, perseverance, and discipline, although those aren't it...and if you take the first syllable in each word and put them together (i.e., inpedi), you get the Japanese word for spinach.
Larry was called up to talk for a bit; he in turn had Ben and Travis introduce all of us. Again, we felt a bit out of place but that's fine. Ben didn't talk for too long.
Then the food started! Along with a dance...it was quite perfect. Enough to be entertaining but not enough to distract too much from eating. There was a warrior who needed to fight the dragon, so he got the dragon drunk which made it possible to kill. It's a bit sad; I liked the dragon. There were also some drums with this, so I figured Isaac could use this as his music thing if needed.
(The TV was there for other things that we couldn't see as well at a different time. It just happens to look weird in the picture.)
The next entertainment act was a physical comedy duo. Basically magicians that don't talk. They were hilarious. After their act they kept walking around so we saw them a few more times and they were a delight each time. Since we were at the table of honor, both kids got to go up on stage.
Then one of the magicians kept popping a ball out of his mouth. This is a normal trick, but it hit Isaac right in the funny bone and he was shaking with laughter. The magician even saw it and mimicked it for a second. It's not a great video, but you can see the ball come out once and the magician shake for a moment.
Joshua got to go up too! They pretended there was a trampoline on the floor. They also had an umbrella that went so high after it went on the trampoline. I'm not sure if it was actually slight of hand or if the umbrella had some spring in it.
There were some game show like things that also happened on stage and we caught none of it. We could tell it was a game show, but there were two hosts and google translate doesn't even pretend to know what's going on. There was an actual magic show too - it was entertaining but had several normal tricks.
The comedians came back through. One waggled his glasses at Joshua, who waggled his glasses back. It also turns out that we didn't get a family picture, so this is the best one I have of Ben and me
A few of the people that I worked with stopped by. I remembered most of them, but felt bad for the one or two I didn't remember. The guy below (along with another guy) worked with me in the afternoons - we went over instruction manuals. Really though, it was a time to practice English. I remember his English being very understandable but rough; a few years later by the time Travis met him is was much better.
The meal wrapped up around 3:30/4pm and we were free to go. At this point, Isaac tells me his leg is itchy. I take a look and there is a bright red rash about 1.5" in diameter. (But not a circle. It was not a defined shape.) Well, bother. I hadn't brought any anti-itch cream. A few people were going shopping in the shopping plaza under the hotel, so they went on a hunt. Travis said that the normal stuff that we would use is illegal in Japan, but he would try to find something. And he did: an anti-bite, anti-histamine, anti-inflammatory something or other. It helped. Isaac called it anti-hysterical medicine - he did need that once in a while too. I'll also be honest; I kept the box in case it didn't help enough and we needed to tell the doctor what we used.
Around 5pm we were brought to dinner! Oh, we all felt full but there's always room for good food. We were transported in a giraffe taxi, which was a lot of fun.
This dinner was really good. I had cow's tongue; it was fine. A bit chewy. Joshua was sitting next to one of the adult Japanese children and he kept asking Joshua if he wanted more meat and Joshua kept saying yes! I was a bit surprised, but Joshua hadn't eaten all that much during lunch. The meat was thin and not too chewy, which is how the kids like it. (And, it was good quality meat.) Apple and peach ice cream was ordered for dessert and they came in apple and peach bowls! Peach was much better than apple, although apple was nice too. This might have been one of my favorite meals; Americans and Japanese were well mixed at the table so there were some interesting conversations.
Larry asked on the first day that we saw him, if we had any ducks for him. Surprisingly, the answer was yes! The boat place had given both of the kids a rubber duck. (And that has nothing to do with the picture below. We were just waiting around in the lobby trying to figure out tomorrow's plans.)
In the morning we went for a walk with Cheryl. We saw a bunch of turtles and frogs in the pond. It was funny because, as always, at first glance the pond looks empty. They as you look longer and longer you see more and more creatures.
Joshua did his laundry for the first time.
We had an Easter egg hunt. I was feeling overwhelmed on Easter and so pushed this fun thing back...several times. We still need to make empty tomb rolls, but we have all summer for that. I loved doing it today. I expanded the hunt into the basement and because we weren't on any type of time crunch hid the eggs harder than normal. I think Isaac still has a large handful to find, although I'm not sure where they are.
I attempted to make pork katsu for dinner. Here's the example picture:
Let's go through it:
Curry: I have no idea how this recipe was supposed to work. There was a tiny amount of curry to a huge amount of chicken broth. The end result was a runny gravy. Still edible, but not at all what I wanted.
Pork: I overcooked the pork, but it was otherwise good.
Sticky Rice: This turned out the best, no thanks to the directions on the box. The directions told me how much water to add, but not how much rice to add.
Number of dishes used: way too many
End result:
While I'm sure that if I made it again it would turn out better, Ben said the new sushi place in town had pork katsu. I think getting it from there might be a better option.
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