We're settled at The New Sanno Hotel so, while I'm waiting for hubby to get out of the shower I thought I would blog about our trip to Kyoto.
On Friday AM we hopped on the bus from Yokota to The New Sanno, stored 2 bags and then took a cab to the train station where we got on the Nozomi Express Shinkansen to Kyoto. We stayed at the Hearton Hotel Kyoto. The hotel was a good location for subway travel but we figured out that the bus system was the best way to see the city and it was not convenient for bus travel but we made it work. After we checked into our hotel we ventured out for dinner. We were all grumpy, cold, wet and tired. It was freezing and raining. The restaurant we went to first didn't open for another 30 minutes so we ended up at a Japanese restaurant. It was very cool but they spoke no english and had a limited english menu with not many "American Japanese" dishes like we find in Okinawa. We made it work eating noodles, rice, salad and veggie pizza. We stopped in a Lawson's where we puchased 4 umbrellas for about $15 and we were going to see Kyoto, dammit. No one was happy.
We took the subway to the Gion District and stumbled upon the Yasaka shrine. It was cool to see at night because it was all lit up. We walked around and eventualy went back to the hotel. Everyone cheered up after we saw some people walking around in kimonos and some of "old Japan."
Saturday, it was still raining in the morning but everyone was in a better mood after a big breakfast at the hotel. We bundled up, grabbed the umbrellas and headed out into the rain once again. The boy was miserable. We decided he is "Joey" from Friends.... all he wanted to do was go home. We would be on the subway and he would get a longing look on his face and we'd ask, "What's wrong?" and he'd say, "I wanna go see my Sully dog...." or "when are we going back to the hotel?" He was only happy on the bus or in the hotel. We all know public transportation is exciting and apparently it's just the thing to cheer up a 4 year old boy. We cruised around the city figuring out the bus system. This might not seem difficult but, you have to remember, we are in Japan and very few people speak English. We went to Toji Temple and saw the 5 story pagoda, the largest in Japan. It was beautiful. The cherry blossoms are just starting to bloom so in a few weeks it will be spectacular. After that we walked around Gion and after almost coming to blows, we ate lunch at a little cafe. We all get grumpy when we go too long without food. After we walked around a market and then headed back to the hotel to regroup before dinner. It stopped raining when we were at Toji and the sun came out so that was really good.
On Sunday, we got up and packed up the room, ate breakfast and then headed to Kinkakuji Temple. This is the landmark that GeoChallenge on Facebook uses for Kyoto
We walked around and the boy was disappointed that he didn't get to go into the golden temple. We threw some coins into a pot, rang the bell at the Temple and paid 100 yen for our fortunes, all of which were good, very good or excellent. We headed to catch the bus and hopped off at a stop adjacent from McDonald's. We got the kids to eat some protein (all they'll eat at Japanese restaurants is plain white rice) and we were off to Nijo Castle. This was Daddy's favorite site because it is all about power. The girl is at an age where she can appreciate some of the art and the structures. The boy is all about the walking surfaces and the different sounds he can make on them. I'll post the video clips later. After the castle, we made our way back to the hotel, picked up our bags and went to get the bullet train back to Tokyo. We were not able to get window seats together so we sat three in a row with an aisle in the middle and strangers flanking us. Here we are, on the bullet train for the only time in our entire life and we have a lady reading to the left with her shade pulled down and a guy to my right with his coat hanging and his hood with the faux fur rim is blocking most of the window. If you are going to read a book, why book a window seat? We caught a glimpse of Mt. Fuji out the window, despite the faux fur hood. We grabbed a cab from Shinagawa station to The New Sanno hotel and WE LOVE THIS PLACE! More on that later - right now we're heading to Disney Sea.

So, Wednesday morning I woke up and got ready to head to Tokyo for the Rod Stewart concert. I have been looking forward to this for awhile. My friend Brenda was brave enough to go with me. Other friends said, "I don't know any Rod Stewart songs" and wouldn't believe me that they should just come for the experience... knowing they would know ALL the songs he sang. I speak from experience because that was what I said before I saw him for the first time in 1988 in Houston but I had faith in my friend Cherie Clark and here I am, over 20 years later still loving Rod. Anyway - Brenda picked me up, we swung by Starbucks and headed to Naha. The boy didn't want me to go, which really surprised me. We arrived at Haneda around 1 PM when I explained to Brenda that we had to take the Monorail to the train to the subway to the New Sanno hotel. That's when I found out "Brenda doesn't do public transportation"... well, underground transportation. After the train, we caught a cab, got settled in our room, grabbed a bite and inquired at the concierge desk about the best way to get to the Buddokahn.
Concierge, "What time do the doors open?"
"1800"
"Ah.... I would arrive at 1745 because Japanese people like to arrive early to find their seat."
"Do you know if they serve food at the Buddokahn?"
Concierge, "Ah.... well, this arena is usually for martial arts and sumo so I do not think there is food or drink there. You should finish all your food before you arrive."
hhhhmmmmmm...... Japan has vending machines EVERYWHERE so we figured there would be at least vending machines so we bought a few of the "airplane size" bottles of rum and tossed them in Brenda's purse. We got to the concert, got 2 cokes from the vending machine, dumped in our rum and went through "security" of which there was NONE.... no camera check (you'll see when I post my pictures), not even a lookie in the ginorous purses we brought.e They tore our tickets and we were in.
When I purchased the tickets there were 4 price tiers.... $70, $100, $130 or a higher one.
The $100 was sold out so, with the guidance of the clerk at the family mart, I choose the $130 which is why, when we found our seats from the second to last row I was very disappointed. The guy in front of us was drinking a beer and he told us where he got it so we were off to find some beverages for later since there was still about 20 minutes before the show started. We found the food and beverage stand and purchased 6 beers to take back to our seats. We found some better seats in the front row of our section and planted it there. We were going to use the "stupid American" card if we had to because no one there spoke any English and we were the only Americans (I'm convinced) in the whole Buddokahn. We never had to play that card because no one ever came for the seats! We were in a row of 8 empty seats about 22 rows closer than our "W" seats and it was glorious!
Promptly at 7 PM the intro video of The Rodinator rolled and out walks the little guy and he starts singing....
IT WAS AWESOME! He puts on such a great show - still! HE sang all his hits.... infatuation, some guys have all the luck, tonight's the night, you wear it well, the first cut is the deepest, Maggie Mae....
I'm not sure he ever sang Forever Young though - I don't remember (nothing to do with the last 4 beers Brenda brought back from her trip to the restroom.... they were closing and she didn't want to run out.)
The Japanese are really funny. There were lots of older men there by themselves to watch the show. They were reading books quietly in their seats before it started, because everyone was so early. Everyone knew a lot of the words to the more popular songs but I'm convinced they had NO IDEA what they were saying. Few people danced and about 5 people got up (really.)
There was a tent set up across the street where they were selling shirts, etc but we never made it in because they said after the show started they closed it and it was about 5 minutes until the show that we figured out where it was. Oh well....
The next day we walked around the Roponggi Hills, had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe (I figure it's o.k. to have a good American meal in Tokyo since we don't live in America) and Brenda got in a cab to head to the airport when I got on a a bus for a 1.5 hour ride to Yokota Air Base where I met Joey and the kids.
They hopped up on the Patriot Express. We ate dinner at the Yokota bowling alley (there's a really good Thai restaurant there) and bowled with the kids. We caught the shuttle to the New Sanno on Fri AM, stored 2 bags there and then caught the Bullet train to Kyoto where we are now. It's really cold and I"m tired.... Just wanted to post about the concert while I had a few minutes. I'll catch up on Kyoto tomorrow when we get to the New Sanno where we will be until Thursday.