Old and New Friends in Japan: Tokyo

Continuing on with the amazing time we had with our old friends, Danielle and Matt, along with our new friends, Kouichi and his brother, Shinji, we were able to stay at a hotel in Yokohama, a HUGE city right next to Tokyo, and use the train to get into Tokyo. (Can I just say: some of those You Tube videos depicting the crowds for public transportation in Japan are ACCURATE. Yeesh!) Thankfully, Kouichi and Shinji, were amazing navigators and got us everywhere we needed to go!

A little blurry, but the view from our hotel in Yokohama. The harbor was really beautiful!

Stepping out of the subway into our first Tokyo intersection!

This is how we saw Kouichi the whole time, LOL. He took some great video footage though and sent an edited version to us in the mail! How thoughtful and absolutely priceless that video is!

We walked through a street market and had to take a picture of what the wasabi root looks like - hard to believe that's where that spicy green goo comes from, LOL.

We visited the famous Tsukiji Fish Market and got to see them preparing the giant tuna head!

People were zipping around in those funny little carts. Kouichi warned us not to stop to take pictures. You had to keep moving and let the folks go about their daily routine without being disruptive. We were there around 10:00am which was near the end of the day for most of the shops, but the level of hustle and bustle there was intense.

Fish prep utensils 

After walking through the fish market, we had the BEST, FRESHEST sashimi we've ever had!!

Brothers, Shinji and Kouichi

Oh my goodness, SO yummy!!!

My mouth is literally watering looking at these photos again, LOL

Next we visited the grounds of the Imperial Palace. Beautiful but seemingly out of place in such a  huge, bustling city.

Changing of the guard. One side to the other.

There's a large sumo training facility and museum in Tokyo so we definitely had to check it out! Here are two wannabe's...

There were a couple of sumo wrestlers walking down the street so they were nice enough to let us get a photo with them. They were only 14, 15, and 16 years old, isn't that incredible? They sacrifice typical schooling to go train to be sumo's full time.

We HAD to stop at McDonald's so Matt could get their featured "Mega Potato". You can kinda see it in the picture behind the boys... it was indeed mega. It made for a good snack for all of us!

This is the Sensoji Temple (Asakusa Kannon Temple)

Ummmm....

After taking a super cool water taxi, we went to a hibachi style restaurant for dinner. It was AMAZING! This is just a cardboard cutout of the chef who prepared a lot of our food, but the technique was the same. 

Getting ready to enjoy a feast!

Finally we made it to Shubuya Square. What you see here is one of the busiest intersections in the world! We took pictures of it from the station. It was insane how quickly the sidewalks would fill up for each light change.

It was a wonderful first day in Tokyo - we had a blast!!!

It's been two years, WHAT?!?!

Today is the two year anniversary of the day we left the United States bound for our new adventure in Japan. So we decided to take a mini-hiatus from posting about our adventures to reflect on the past two years we've spent here in Japan. We are going to show you the good, the fat, and the ugly. LOL.  We mention fat because since arriving to Japan, Kirk has lost 30 lbs. and I have lost 40! We are not meaning to toot our own horns, but we're proud of the weight loss we've accomplished. We have really put our health first (obviously we still enjoy food) but exercise has become a regular routine. Also, since the beginning of August we have been caffeine free. It has been tough, but we know it is for the best. We try to eat less meat and dairy and are really enjoying our fresh veggies and fish. Oh yeah, and anything that we put in the Vitamix (the best investment in a blender)!

Remember this?  Our good-bye cookout in Ohio! Ick!

Kirk gave me permission to post this picture, only because she says that flab is no longer accurate.

Painful to look back on.

Ditto.

Do you know how much 40 lbs is? The equivalent of a 5 gallon bottle of water or a human leg! 30 lbs is more than an average two year old!

Ick!

Of course, about to gorge ourselves!

 

No caption needed...

I think you get the picture. We were flabby. Now on to what two years of positive, healthy changes can do:

We get out and hike!

We have more energy to walk EVERYWHERE!

We fit into wet suits.

We compete in physical challenges.

We look better dressed up!

Scaling fences is now an option!

So to conclude our reminiscing, besides our weight loss, as we look back on the past two years we are so very grateful for the friends we have made and the experiences we have had. We also look forward to the next year and to see what God has in store for us. We have been truly blessed by the people we have met here in Iwakuni, the friends and family that have been able to visit us, and this lifestyle and culture we have been able to enjoy. It has been very difficult at times to be away from family, friends, and our dog, Bruce. But we absolutely feel confident that this is where God intended us to be. And hey, we're a lot healthier and skinnier for it!