Thanksgiving, 2013

This year we shook things up a little. Instead of having everyone over for a big Thanksgiving dinner, Ryan and I skipped off to New York and my mom and dad stayed at our house, and had everyone over for a big Thanksgiving dinner. I felt a little guilty leaving Ella and Anna, but they had a blast with Grandma and Grandpa and cousins and aunts and uncles, and Ryan and I had a great time with Jamie and Taylor.

We started off our trip with another save from Grandma Sue. Bad weather in New York combined with day-before-Thanksgiving crowds made us a little nervous about our mid-day flight. So like it was nothing, my mom drove to our house at 9:00 pm, and spent the night so we could catch the 8:00 am flight. And of course, no flights were cancelled, but better safe than sorry.

We started off by eating at Ipudo, the sister restaurant to the one we loved in Tokyo.  It wasn't as good as the original, but still tasty.

This was a cucumber sesame dish. It was better than it looks in this picture

Part of the draw of Thanksgiving in NYC (besides seeing Jamie and Taylor) was that Duke was playing in the pre-season NIT tournament at Madison Square Garden. When we first thought of going, I used Ryan's fancy American Express Concierge service to see if they could get us better seats for the game. They didn't have anything great, but were very nice. Then the day before we left I got a call from a random number. I almost didn't pick up. Glad I did. "Mrs. Packer? This is so and so from American Express Concierge service. We are sorry that we couldn't help you with seats for the final game of the NIT conference. But if you would like, we have complimentary seats in our box for the semi-finals tomorrow night. Would you be interested? How many would you like?" Jaw. dropped. Even better because we didn't have a seat for Jamie, and now we had a free one. So we put our tickets on stub hub, sold them, and went to the game for free, in their floor level box. I have to say, I could get used to this. The seats were fantastic, and the attached box had food and drinks and even Magnolia cupcakes. This picture isn't great, but it's what I snuck as I was walking down the stairs from the short hallway connecting our seats to the box.

View from our seats. It wasn't a great game, but it was really really fun. (Despite the completely obnoxious New Yorker who sat behind us. I suppose he made the experience more authentic.)

The next day was Thanksgiving, and instead of slaving all day in Jamie's little kitchen we let the people at Whole Foods do the dirty work. All we had to do was heat and serve. I have to say, it tasted really really good, and only took us an hour start to finish. Whole Foods doesn't do cranberry fluff, though. That we had to do on our own.

We kept tradition and made M&M turkeys. Thank you Duane Reed loofah. 

Thursday night we drove up to Connecticut and spent the night with Chris and Thayer. It was great to see them and catch up. Thayer and I went on a gorgeous run Friday morning, and Chris graciously let Ryan use his trainer and bike so he could get a ride in.

We left CT and drove back to NY. We ate lunch at Eataly. We had some time to kill before that night's Duke game, so we went in search of a cronut. We knew we were too late in the day to get the original, but we thought an imitation would at least give us an idea of what we were missing. After hitting three stores we decided it wasn't meant to be. But I did have a chocolate carmel cake that was delicious. Really really good.

The second game wasn't quite as fun as the first. Our seats were good, but they were no floor-level suite. The game before ours was really close. I felt bad for the players, because everyone just wanted to move on to the Championship game, so when they made the bucket to tie and go to triple overtime there was a collective groan from the crowd. In the Championship game Arizona came up with the win. It's always fun to watch Duke play, but less fun when they lose. 

On Saturday we went with Jamie to look at the Christmas windows. It's so fun (for me--Ryan may not agree) to see what magic they've come up with. We liked the Bergdorf's the best.

yum.

Ryan and I finished off our adventure with dinner and a play. We saw Billy Crystal's 700 Sundays. It is his autobiographical one man show. It was really really good. We laughed. We cried. We loved it. 

We got dinner after the play and headed back to Jamie and Taylor's. We got up at 5 the next morning and headed home. Such a fun trip--thanks Grandma Sue and Grandpa Paul for watching the girls, and Jamie and Taylor for being such great hosts. 

Japan, 2013: Saturday (Kamakura)

On Saturday Ryan and I braved the rain to see the big Buddha in Kamakura. Pretty amazing, considering that it is 13 meters tall, and constructed in 1243. We visited a few other shrines, as well. Even rainy it was fun.

So friendly. My favorites.

These are in honor of miscarried, stillborn or aborted infants. 

Sometimes they dress them up.

Creepy or sweet?

We came back to Tokyo and had the most delicious Ramen I've ever had. The fact that the only competition costs 19 cents and can be cooked in the microwave should not lessen its deliciousness. It was amazing. And perfect on a rainy day.

We finished off the trip with a long nap in our hotel room before leaving for our 12:30 am flight. We tried to get a jump start on the jet lag. By the time we reached LAX 10 hours later, I was ready for bed. And the next morning I was excited to see my cute girls who welcomed us home with this.

It's good to be home. And it will be even better when I'm 100% back on Utah time :)

Japan, 2013: Friday (Fish Market)

Friday morning we made the early morning trek to the Fish Market with all of the Adobe folks. Near the entrance to the fish market there are 10 or 15 little (and I mean little) sushi restaurants. They open in the morning, and the lines only get longer as the day goes on, so sushi for breakfast it is. 

Waiting in line. You can't tell, but this line snakes around three times. There was a Japanese man ensuring that people moved in the right direction.

Outside, looking in. Waiting our turn.

The fish just kept coming. And I kept eating. I've never been a huge fan of Nigiri, but it was amazing.

Our sushi master

After we could eat no more, we walked across the street to the fish market. This thing's legit. No dressing it up for the tourists. In fact, they don't allow tourists until after 9:00, when the hustle and bustle is over. We got kicked out when we tried to go into the fish auction warehouse. The place is bustling. There are hundreds of motorized carts whizzing around. Ryan's only instructions to me were to not get hit. 

We got done with the fish market around 8:00. We had planned on taking the day together to sightsee, but things came up for Ryan and he went into the office. And I had a fantastic day at the Weston. A read a book (an entire book). I went to the gym. I drank my favorite tea (real mint +  hot water--I don't understand how it is so good but it is). I watched most of season 3 of Downton Abby. Ryan and I caught up for dinner at a great Italian place near the hotel. All in all, a pretty good day. Well, for one of us :)

Japan, 2013: Thursday (Tokyo)

There were two typhoons swirling around Tokyo on Thursday, and while they never got close enough to cause any damage it did make for quite the drizzle. A perfect day for indoor activities.

The Tokyo temple is within walking distance of the hotel where Ryan always stays, which is crazy given how big Tokyo is. Luckily for me there was an English session on Thursday at 11:00. I was surprised how few English speakers there were. Many of the people were Japanese and had headsets translating for them. I was one of 3 non-Asians in the session.

All bundled up

From there I went to the Tokyo National Museum. Well, from there I tried to go to the Imperial Gardens and Palace, but it was raining, and I wasn't sure if I was going the right way, and I decided I didn't really care if I saw it. So National Museum it was.

I loved this. Thankfully, I'd left my heels at home. 

I like some images of Buddha more than others. The angry ones don't appeal to me, but I dig the peaceful ones.

Every item is graded--not important (no label), Important, or National Treasure. At first I loved it because it ensured I would know which swords were worth looking at and which ones to walk on by. But by the end it stressed me out because I was afraid I might miss a National Treasure if I didn't scan every item for the red box.

I think Steve Jobs stole the design for the iPod from a thousand year old Chinese box. 

Cool building

I was a little scared to try sushi from one of the many stores in the subway. Turns out it is better than anything I've had outside of Japan. For $3. 

I didn't stand out at all with my pink sweater, green skirt and pink shoes.

Japan, 2013: Wednesday (Hakone)

On Wednesday Ryan had to work, so I planned to go to a few museums. One was in Kawasaki, about 15 minutes outside of Tokyo. I am not great at directions, but with google maps and the uber organized Tokyo subway system I thought I'd be fine. I was...almost. I made my way to my train, checked that it was going in the right direction, and settled in. I did think it a little strange that you had to buy a separate ticket for this train, and that it sold food and drink, but I figured it must be a Japan thing. Google maps told me that my stop was the 5th stop and would come 20 minutes into the trip. 15 minutes later we hadn't stopped once, and I started to wonder. 20 minutes in, still going strong. I did a quick google search and realized that while I was headed in the right direction, my train was an express train and wasn't stopping until it reached the end of the line, 2 hours out of Tokyo. Luckily for me, I had my trusty guidebook and figured out that the end of the line was a sight worth seeing: Hakone.

Hakone is a little town within one of Japan's national parks. They make it easy on you and have your day pretty much outlined. First you take a little train up the mountain. Every time you come to a switchback the conductor gets out, manually does something with the tracks, and then the back of the train becomes the front of the train and you zig zag your way up the mountain.

not my picture--there were no Hydrangeas in October

Then you come to the cable car. Instead of zigging or zagging you just go straight up. 

Now the real fun begins. You take the Hakone Ropeway (a tram) over the mountains and onto the volcano. The leaves were starting to turn, and a few weeks from now it is going to be amazing. 

The volcano is active. There are little blowholes of sulfur smoke all over the place. It is really cool looking.  I almost missed the fact that you could hike up the volcano. But lucky for me the woman I sat next to on the train happened to be in my same gondola and let me in on the secret.

The thing to do once you've hiked the Hakone Volcano, is to buy hard-boiled eggs that have been boiled in water from a volcanic spring. The sulfur turns them black. But they tasted great--totally normal.

After hiking around the volcano, you take the Ropeway down the mountain to the lake. From there you take a large boat across the lake, and from there a bus back to where you started. 

If you had plan to go to Hakone buy the Hakone Free Pass--one pass for all the different things. If you fortuitously got on the wrong train, you didn't know about the pass and at every stop had to figure out where you were going and what ticket to buy. Thank heavens for my guidebook to help me keep it all straight. 

10 hours after I left I finally made it home. This time, my poor sense of direction was a blessing not a curse! 

Japan, 2013: Tuesday (Tokyo)

We got in late Monday night and had all day Tuesday to sightsee together before Ryan started working. We started with an overview of the city from one of the government buildings. Tokyo is not small. And it is dense. But so well organized that it never feels out of control.

We went shopping at my favorite store, Toku Hands. It is 10 stories of Home Depot + Hobby Lobby + Wal-Mart + a dozen other boutique shops. They've got everything, and while most of it is fairly familiar it all has a Japanese feel. Like the Hello Kitty Zip-Lock bags we brought home for Ella. Let me tell you, they were a hit.

We ate lunch at a great Tonkatsu place. Ryan loves tonkatsu, which is a panko crusted deep fried pork. I didn't really think I would be a fan, but I was. It is moist and light and delicious. And it's served with a cabbage salad that is really just super finely shreeded cabbage and dressing, but it's so good.

With food on the brain, we decided to try and find the hole in the wall sushi restaurant that has 3 Michelin stars. If you haven't seen Jiro Dreams of Sushi, you should. A good flick. Our search had a few wrong turns and included a maze through the Tokyo underground, but eventually we found it. Well, Ryan found it. I had very little to do with the navigation.

We were there around 4:00 and saw people working in the kitchen. We also saw someone taking a nap in the tiny restaurant. If you look at the picture closely, to the right of my shoulder are Jiro's legs propped up on a chair. At least we assumed it was him :)

  

Japan, 2013

Ryan had meetings in Tokyo this month, and I decided to take advantage of frequent flier miles and a free hotel and join him. A big shout out to Kimmy who made this possible by watching the girls for us. We were there for 1 week, from Sunday to Sunday. But because Japan is halfway around the world, and it takes a little while to get there, we only had 5 days in Japan. I spent 2.5 of them flying solo, and 2.5 with Ryan. It was really fun, despite having so so weather. Instead of doing one looong post, I think I'll break it down by days/events.