Restaurants

Let's go out to eat!  We've been to a few restaurants so far.  Here's what it's like to eat out! 

At some of the restaurants you need to take your shoes off when you enter.  They have lockers by the door for your shoes.

You have a wooden key with your locker number on it so you can remember where your shoes are when it's time to go.  There are slippers located in the restrooms in the event you have to go to the bathroom.

One of the places we like to go is a Korean BBQ place, that is quite popular in Japan.  There is a hole in the center of the table for you to cook your own food on.

After you sit down and decide on what you want to eat, you push the button on the table.  The button is white on the left side of this picture.  When you push the button, the waitress/waiter will come by to take your order.  They do it all electronically, they have a little handheld device (reminds me of a calculator) and type in your order.  They give you a glass for your drink and you go fill it yourself.  If you need a refill you just get up and get some more to drink.  The kids love getting their own drinks!

If you need anything else during the meal, simply push the button and the waitress/waiter will come back.  They will only come by if you push the button.  It's really great, if you need something just push the button and there they are!  There's no trying to find the waitress and flag her down.  They need to bring this system to the States! 

We took the kids and my Mom here and they gave the kids balloons to play with when we sat down.  It was nice for the kids to have something to play with, but long balloons near an open flame?  Not the best idea in my opinion.  The kids had fun with them, but I didn't!

They have a few places to eat here that they have in the States, mostly fast food places ~ McDonald's (which according to an article I read, after the US, Japan has the most McDonald's), Burger King, Subway, and KFC.  It's a nice treat to be able to have McDonald's, especially since Killian can have the nuggets with his food allergies! 

They also have Big Boy here!  Jeff and I went there, knowing it would be different from home.  The menu was completely different!  As you can see in the picture above, the Big Boy is not holding the Big Boy burger.  The burger is not on the menu here, how is that possible?!?

Here is a picture of what I ordered.  My meal came with it's own little hot plate (upper left hand of the picture).  Why it came with it, I still don't know.  Look at how many fries it came with!  No wonder the Japanese are so tiny, they don't eat many carbs!  That's all the veggies that came with it too.  No, I didn't eat any of them before taking the picture.  I was still hungry when I left and have no desire to go there again.  Most of the menu had food like I ordered.  I ordered the steak, but there was chicken or seafood to choose from too.

Sushi Bar

When my Mom was still here, we went out to a Sushi Bar.  There is sushi going around on the conveyor belt next to Jeff and Katherine.  If you see something you like, take the plate off the belt and enjoy!  You can also order specific things on the computer screen at the table, which Jeff is doing in the picture above. 

After you place your order, a little train comes by above the conveyor belt with your order.  Katherine is taking the onion rings down that we ordered. 

We all had green tea to drink.  There is a hot water spigot at all the tables on the wall under the conveyor belt.  There is a little container with the green tea in it and you make it yourself.  The kids are not big fans of the green tea. 

The look on Chloe's face pretty much sums up how the sushi went over with everyone, except Jeff, who loves it!  I thought it was okay, just takes some getting used to.  I am proud of all the kids for trying it.  When we left, they were still hungry (and so was I to be honest!).

The night before my Mom left we went out to dinner at a different place.

We ordered some edamame to get us started.  It was really good!  I've had edamame before, but this tasted so much better, it was even a hit with the kids!

You have a little bowl to put the empty pods in.  Sometimes the soybean would slip out and end up on the floor.  Chloe is really focused on what she is doing!

Jeff ordered this fish for part of our dinner.  It was really tasty, even the kids liked it.

The fish came with the bones still in it, so Jeff is deboning the fish for us.  We also had chicken and shrimp.  Chloe was so hungry she ate the shrimp tail!  I told her not to and tried to get it away from her, but that girl would not part with it!  She's still alive and well, so no harm done!

Chloe loves ketchup too!  At the end, she picked up the ketchup dish and tried to drink the rest of it as you can see.

We also ordered pizza, and yes, Jeffery is eating his pizza with chopsticks!  You can see how thin the crust is and how tiny the pieces are.  It was good, but it's nothing like pizza back in the States.

Sometimes we sit on the ground at restaurants.  They do have booths too, but this time we sat on the floor.  There are little cushions to sit on and your feet fit under the table, just like in a booth.  Jeff's giving my Mom a hand to get up.

The last time we went to the Korean BBQ place, they gave Chloe a little chair to sit on.  It squeaked everytime she sat down, so that kept everyone entertained while Jeff was cooking the food. 

The same waitress also gave the kids bowls with a spoon and fork which was much easier for the kids at the BBQ joint.  Typically they give you a divided plate, like the one in front of Jeff with chopsticks.  Oh by the way, the kids were drinking green Fanta, which is tasty!  Fanta is pretty popular here in Japan.

The bill is put on the side of the table when they bring out your food.  When you are done eating, you are good to go.  You just take the bill up front by your shoes to pay.  Also, there is no tipping in Japan.  Once you pay the bill, you put your shoes back on and you are on your way! 

It's always an adventure eating out, especially with kids!  Until next time!

Kyoto Zoo

Yesterday Jeff took the day off.  He spent the morning drafting his Fantasy Football team.  While he was busy working, we heard the doorbell ring.  I checked the camera in the house, and it looked like one of our neighbors.  I went and answered the door and it turns out, it wasn't a neighbor after all!  There were two ladies there who seemed surprised to see me answer the door!  They started speaking Japanese, but after a minute, the one lady opened a book, found a page in English and handed it to me.  It turns out, they are Jehovah's Witness ladies!  The other lady spoke a bit of English and asked me some questions, how long we've been here, why are we here, etc.  She saw the picture of our wedding sitting on the little table and wanted to see it.  They were very interested in the American wedding. 

The kids were also at the door with me and were entertaining the ladies.  The ladies thought they were cute, but we must have been a sight!  It was still morning and I hadn't gotten Chloe dressed yet, so she's just running around in a diaper and Killian is wearing Katherine's old bedazzled orange tank top!  Katherine was presentable at least!  The ladies were really nice and didn't seem to mind, who knows what they must think of us crazy Americans!  When they left, they said they hoped to see us again!

We debated if we should take the train or drive to the zoo.  Since the zoo closes at 5, we would be leaving for home on the train along with the work crowd.  We were afraid the trains would be too crowded to take with three little ones and a stroller.  We decided to drive, since the zoo is only about an hour away by car or train. 

We loaded up the kids and hopped in the car.  We made a quick stop at McDonald's, I just ran in to get the food.  When I first moved over here, I thought there is no way I can order!  However, after watching Jeff a few times, I am able to do it on my own.  Thankfully they have a picture menu on the counter next to each register.  I've watched and all the locals look at that menu and point to what they want, so I do the same.  I just point to what I want and hold up my fingers to show how many.  I haven't had any issues yet!  How much I owe is on the register and the numbers are just like at home, so no problems there either! 

Since it's lunchtime and nap time, Chloe is already asleep by the time I get out to the car with the food.  She had a nice nap on the ride to the zoo, I am happy about that, we don't want a crabby Chloe!  On the car ride, I saw this sign on the expressway, watch out for monkeys crossing the street! 

When Chloe woke up, she had her nuggets waiting for her.  Here she is, just waking up and looking like she is pondering something!

We arrive at the zoo!  You need to purchase your ticket from a machine, then hand it to the person at the gate.

You are able to get nice and close to the animals! 

These cats are so big, you forget how large they are until you are standing next to one!  When Chloe saw the tiger, she said "Big Cat!".

There was a little pool area for the tigers.  The kids were standing on the side of the fence when the tiger was getting out.  The tiger shook some of the water off and splashed the kids! 

The Kyoto Zoo has a Japanese deer that was laying down until we came.  It got up and came over to see us, which was very nice.

This is the sign posted by the Brazilian Tapir, I made sure the kids and I didn't get too close!

I decided to stop for a picture with the flamingos!

It was a nice day, but hot!  We took a little rest before continuing on.  While we were resting, we were joined by a bunch of pigeons.

The kids had fun chasing the birds around, like they were herding them!

It looks to me like they are sizing each other up through the glass!  I think it was afraid Chloe was going to take it's food, she probably would have tried too!

Jeff and Katherine are showing Chloe how to walk like a penguin as we make our way over to the penguins.

It was nice watching the penguins outside, without having to be in a stinky penguin house!

Jeffrey and the giraffe!  Of course we had to stop and see them.

Killian did not take a nap on the car ride out, so he was tired.  Good thing he has his sisters to help him out!

There's a very tiny amusement park inside the zoo.  We stopped in after checking out all the animals. 

I rode a Ferris Wheel with Katherine and we took each other's pictures.  There's a shot of Jeff with Chloe and Killian down on the ground.

Katherine rode the Ferris Wheel and loved it! She says it's her favorite part of the zoo! 

Katherine and Killian went on the boat ride next.  During the ride, I think Katherine talked Killian into going on the Ferris Wheel because when the boat ride was over he asked Jeff to take him on.  Before the boat ride he didn't show any interest in riding it.  Katherine can be very persuasive!

There they are, father and son enjoying the ride!  How cute!

What a fun time Killian had on the ride!

The kids and I stopped for a picture before heading home.  We had a wonderful time at the zoo!

Our House

This is a picture of our house in Hikone, Japan.

Come on in and get a tour of our house!  You can see our mailbox is on the right side of the door, it's the rectangle on the bottom.  The kids love to check for the mail from the inside of the house.  Above that is our doorbell that also has a video camera attached.  When the doorbell rings, the video comes on and from a screen inside the house you can see who is at the door and talk to them.  Pretty cool!

You don't wear shoes in the house in Japan, they all stay on the gray floor or the closet (see below).  There is a small step which is nice for the kids to sit on to put their shoes on or off.  It's also nice to keep the dirt by the shoes so it doesn't get tracked into the house.

When you come in, there is a very large closet to the left.  There is no basement, but there are several spacious closets in the house to make up for that. 

Coming up the step you enter into a hallway of doors as I call it.  To the right is the one and only small bathroom in the house.

It can get pretty toasty in here!  There is no air conditioner in the room and it faces west so in the afternoon it gets hot!  On top of that, there is a heated seat on the toilet, which I just figured out how to kinda turn off.  If you leave the lid down like in the picture above, the heated seat feature isn't on.  However, after you lift the lid it starts to heat up.  I know I will love this feature in the winter!

The heated seat is just one of many features of the toilets over here!  This is the control for it, but I have no idea what it says!  There maybe a way to change the heated seat temperature, but I don't know how.  I haven't been brave enough yet to have a seat and start hitting buttons.  I may be pleasantly surprised or scarred for life!

There are also two buttons on the very top right hand side that flush the toilet.  I don't know if one button is specifically for number one and the other is for number two. They both work just fine and I haven't noticed a difference between the two.  Perhaps I will never know! 

Above the door in the bathroom there is another neat storage area.  After leaving the bathroom, there are stairs on the left to go up, a little further down on the left there is a sliding door to the computer room, straight ahead there is a sliding door to the toy/laundry drying room, and to the right there are two sliding doors to the dining room.

Let's continue on to the computer room.

Do you see the darker square lines in the floor above, we will come back to that when we get to the laundry area.  There is another storage shelf in the computer room that has a curtain over it, so you can hide what's up there.

This is where we will dry the laundry on rainy days or in the winter time.  It is also the kids play area.  The door walls over here can open from either side.  The screen door slides from side to side too, so you can move the screen along with the door and not worry about bugs coming in.  All of the windows and door walls here are textured.  It's not a clear smooth glass that you can see through, it's more like a shower door.  It lets the light in, but I can't see out.  It doesn't bother me too much now because we keep the curtains shut during the day to keep the house cooler.  It is also nice because the neighbors can't see in, but I miss being able to look outside.  I have no idea what the weather is out, unless I go outside or open up one of the windows.  

There is a large closet in the playroom for all of their toys. I love how deep the closets are, you can fit a ton of stuff in them!

Except for the bathroom and bedroom doors, all of the rest of the doors are sliding doors.  It's possible to change what room is open to another room just by sliding the doors.  It's hard to explain and show in pictures, but I will give it a try.

In this picture, I am standing in front of the door wall in the play room.  I slid the three doors mostly shut, so you can see a bit of the computer room.  I can slide all the doors to the right and this is what you see then...

The kids enjoy sliding the doors open and closed and we've only had a few fingers pinched when we first moved in.  They are pretty good about it now.  We keep the doors to the hallway closed usually.  Only certain rooms have an air conditioner/heater unit in them.  There isn't one in the hallway or the bathroom, so we keep the doors closed to keep the main rooms cooler.  Each bedroom has an air conditioner/heater, thank goodness!

To continue the tour, we will next go to the family room.

The sliding doors by the couch lead to the playroom.  Here's another view of the family room.

The family room is open to the dining room and the kitchen.

There is not much counter space for cooking, but we are getting by.  There is no oven, but we do have a gas cook top and a microwave oven/toaster.  We also have a rice cooker that plays "Twinkle twinkle little star" when you turn it on.  The top section of the refrigerator can open from either side.  The middle compartment is the freezer and the bottom is more refrigerator. 

There is also a side door in the kitchen which is nice for bringing in groceries, especially since the car is parked on that side of the house.  There are not many attached garages on the houses in Japan.  Most people just park on the side or in front of their house. 

Do you see the plastic bags hanging by the sink?  Those are for our garbage.  The Japanese are big on recycling and we have to separate our garbage before throwing it out.  The bag on the left is for metal, the bag on the right is for plastic and the regular garbage container is for combustible garbage.  There is a drop off location down the street.  We have a calendar with the schedule of what is picked up on what day.  For example, combustible garbage is collected on Tuesdays and Fridays and plastic is on Wednesdays.  We have to put the garbage in special bags when taking them out.

From the kitchen you can go to the laundry room.  That's our washing machine, not very big, but it does the job.  Also, there is only a cold water line, so everything is washed in cold water.  Do you remember the darker square line in the floor of the computer room?  It's actually a storage area in the floor.  There is one in the laundry room as well.  As you can see in the picture above, we keep our laundry soap in it.  It's a really nice feature, good storage without taking up any space!

Next to the washing machine is a sink with a medicine cabinet over it.  All three mirrors open and once again, another nice storage space.  The faucet on the sink can be pulled out and you can change the water flow.  You can have it on the spray mode or push a button and change it to a normal bathroom sink flow (the kitchen one can too).  You can see to the left of the sink is the bathing room.

 

Traditionally the Japanese will shower off in the white area of the bathroom, then once clean, they will soak in the bathtub.  There is a cover for the bathtub, so that the dirty water from your shower won't get into the bathtub.

There is a control panel on the right side over the tub.  You can change the water temperature and have the tub fill up by itself.  When soaking, you can push a button and it will fill the tub with warmer water too.  There is also an intercom system in the control panel to talk to people in the kitchen.  I am sure there are more things the buttons do, we just haven't figured it out yet.

That's everything downstairs, so let's head upstairs.

The stairs here are not as wide as they are in the US.  Perhaps the Japanese have smaller feet, or just different building codes.  It took some getting used to, going up and especially going down.  Thank goodness for that railing!

Upstairs there are two bedrooms, one for the kids and one for Jeff and I.  The kids all share one big room.  Their beds are on the floor, which is perfect for them, if they roll of the bed, they won't get hurt!

There are two doors to their room, a door wall to the balcony (you can see it in the first picture), and in the back corner a little storage area. 

Speaking of doors, there is a strip of a fuzzy fabric that's on the side trim of the door.  It's very quiet when you close the door, if you were to slam it, you wouldn't hear it.  It's nice but sometimes the kids can sneak up on you!  I am waiting for them to get up in the morning or up from their naps and surprise there they are!  I never heard them close the door, but they did.  We keep the bedroom doors closed because there are no air conditioners in the hallways and we want the rooms to stay cool.

 

Our bedroom is just across the hall. It too has a door wall to the balcony.



I absolutely love the view from the bedrooms! There is a rice field behind our house and you can see the mountains off in the distance. I don't think I will ever get tired of the view! It's so beautiful here! In the early evening you can see the bats come out and fly around the rice field. 

If you noticed, there wasn't a clothes dryer in the laundry room, it's because it's up here on the balcony!

Here's another picture of the master bedroom.

You can see Killian hiding in the closet.  The doors slide from side to side along the track which is pretty cool too.  The closets are very deep and have nice shelves for more storage.  There is storage over our dresser too!

That's the tour of the inside of our house. 

This is a picture of the street we live on.  There are no yards with grass, everything is gravel or cement.  There are just a few small trees in front of a few houses.  The houses don't have backyards either.  The house is on the lot and that's it. 

Across the street and one house down is the neighborhood play area.  There are two swings and a slide to play on.

The kids have a great time playing with all of the other kids!

That wraps up the tour of our house in Japan.  If you have any questions or comments, let me know!