It's been a long time since I actually made an entry. Sorry about that. With my new kindergarten classes that started up again in May, I have had little time to update everyone with news and photos. But, at long last, I have a free moment, and here's what went on with us during Golden Week.

Golden Week, the week from April 29 to May 5, is a popular time for Japanese people to get away from work and enjoy themselves for a little while. While many choose to take trips overseas, we stayed in country, enjoying the mild weather of Nagano and taking a trip to Yokohama for some shopping. The first day of Golden Week, Tomomi had a hula lesson, so Anri, Sara and I hiked up a nearby mountain with Tomomi's cousin Megumi and her husband Hayato, to the ancient Mori Shogunzuka tomb. Sara was in the baby carrier and Anri hiked up all by herself! We had a small picnic on the grassy lawn there before heading down.

The next day, we took a trip to a local zoo to let Anri see the kangaroos there. After a picnic by the river, Anri saw the three kangaroos at the small, old zoo in Suzaka, just north of Nagano City. The roos were sleeping, of course. It was the middle of the afternoon. So we went to a nearby park with a pond where I took Anri on a rowboat for half an hour. Anri insisted on rowing the oars with me, so we made a little game out of it. She can row, but only if we sing "Row Row Row Your Boat" as we do it. And, Anri could not stand up in the boat. That was most important, of course. Tomomi watched from shore, taking video as we passed by.

On the 1st, we got in the car and drove to Yokohama, the more fun and much more popular neighboring city of Tokyo. The drive down to the Tokyo/Yokohama area went without incident, except for the last stretch into Yokohama itself, where we missed an exit and ended up taking a circuitous route to the Yamashita Park area. Sara cried when she was hungry, but otherwise slept the whole way. Anri was quite entertaining, asking us every few miles, "Is this Yokohama?" Hearing this question every minute or so was pretty funny, in restrospect, but I told Anri, "If you see any mountains, then we aren't there yet."

We arrived at the New Grand Hotel at around 3pm. After checking in, I took a restless Anri around the old lobby and parlors of this historic hotel. MacArther once stayed here, I read somewhere, and the old wing of the hotel is charming in a style you never see anymore -- certainly not in Japan, anyway.

Anri was running around uncontrollably in the parlors and it only got worse later on when we went to Motomachi, the big shopping area here. As we went from store to store, Anri was not at all content to stay nearby. Just as she is always off visiting other classes at kindergarten, Anri repeatedly broke loose from our hands and took off around the store, picking up and playing with things as she went. Going from store to store in Motomachi, Anri seemed to think that we were not in Yokohama, and kept asking, "Daddy, are we going to Yokohama?""

Anri, we are IN Yokohama. This IS Yokohama." Five minutes later, "Daddy, are we going to Yokohama?" Sigh.

Anri's Antics amused the store clerks, especially the ones in Baby Gap, where Anri was playing shopper with fervor. The whole time she was taking items off racks, holding them up against her body and asking, "Look at this. This is pretty, isn't it?"

After a tantrum thrown in the Motomachi Starbuck's, we knew that dinner at a restaurant later on would be a bad idea, so we headed back to the hotel, dropping by a convenience store along the way. It was here that Anri decided to run laps around the store while Tomomi chased her. On return to the hotel, we were thoroughly wiped out, but we got a new Kitamura wallet for Tomomi, and the evening view from our room was beautiful.

The next day we woke early and got out by 9am. The weather was nice, so we got a cup of coffee in Yamashita Park,, a harborside park across the street from our hotel. Anri saw the boats in the harbor, one being an old luxury liner. We then took the Sea Bass boat, a kind of touristy water bus, to the old red brick warehouses -- in the Minato Mirai area -- now serving as a shopping center. On the way, we passed by a pair of Japan Coast Guard ships, something I had never seen before. From the dock, we walked to our first destination: the big ferris wheel in Minato Marai. The largest ferris wheel in the world, we figured this was Anri's treat for the day. Tomomi was scared. Anri was thrilled. Sara was sleeping the whole time.