9/7/08
Ishida House, Matsudo

Got an early start, at least compared to yesterday. Today was the day I was supposed to go on a bus tour with the other interns, but somehow through several levels of miscommunication my schedule got changed. Instead, my host family took me around to see some of the sights ourselves.

First we went to *oh crap I don't remember the name atm oh well I'll look it up later*, a nice area on the waterfront. We had a wonderful view of the Rainbow Bridge (a big suspension bridge that looks sort of like the Bay Bridge in SF). There was a boat dock, a sightseeing/ferry service up the river to Asakusa. In the waiting room they had sort of a jet engine with mist nozzles, blasting across the room. Really, it would be futile to try and describe its presence with just words, but I got some pictures of it at least.

We caught a boat and took a nice leisurely cruise. There a lot of bridges across that river, we must have gone under a dozen of them in less than half an hour.

Asakusa was a lot more crowded than I remember it being two years ago, although that's probably just because today is a weekend. We did the whole song and dance, walking under the giant lantern, through the bazaar, and to the humungous temple. Off to the side, we found some people doing a show with trained monkeys. Then we had udon for lunch and headed home (I'd forgotten how good that stuff is cold).

We stopped at Kita-Kogane and picked up a cake for Mayuko. It's her fifth birthday tomorrow, but we're celebrating today. We had croquettes and a "sushi cake" for dinner, a cake that Mayu's mom made out of rice, eggs and vegetables. We sung happy birthday (accompanied by piano!) and Tomoko did a wonderful mock "interview" for the camcorder. I think Mayu had a good time, although everyone was pretty tired by the end of the day.

EDIT 11/24/08: Blogger ate some of the post. Restored now.

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