Garlic Jo's

Yesterday was an American holiday (Martin Luther King Jr. Day). After spending the whole morning and part of the afternoon trying to get out of the house we finally did. We made it a fairly short trip to Queens Tower in Yokohama. Mike was able to enjoy this place with light traffic instead of the herds of people that usually roam the floors of this shopping mall. It was a nice slow day. I was able to find another very nice "baby care" area while we were there. I may have stated this before but I'll go ahead and state it again. Japan's malls are extremely convenient in that they usually have clean, spacious facilities to change and feed baby. The location in Queens Tower is located on 4F Queens East in the Lego store. For anyone out there questioning whether or not to travel to Japan with a family, I'd say it's great for young children. Especially when it comes to cleanliness & safety. Even in an urban setting visitors are apt to find a small playground or play area of some sort and there are many "museums" that are more indoor playgrounds. The Japanese people in general pride themselves on their tolerance for young children. Yesterday, while Samuel was fussy, I was offered seating on our return trip home which rarely EVER happens to me. (It was in the middle of rush hour on a limited express).

Our goal was the make it to a restaurant called Garlic Jo's. It came highly recommended by a friend and neighbor of mine so, I thought we should try it out. After reading some reviews online, I found out there weren't too many kind words to be said about this place but I thought we'd go anyway. We aren't necessarily snobby restaurateurs. Especially when it comes to traveling with a 5 year old who prefers McDonald's (Happy Seto!)or Kaiten Sushi over filet mignon. The end result was positive and another place we can go back to when we have visiting family and friends overwhelmed and dazed by the array of signs showing Omurice, Soba, Sushi, Katsudon, Kare and Ramen and we are met with the common statement, "It just all looks the same and nothing looks good!" Garlic Jo's had what seemed to be Japanese/Italian type food with an overwhelming amount of garlic (hence the name). It's nothing fancy but the price is right (1000 per meal set before 5:00PM. Includes small salad, main dish, drink and dessert.). Mike and I had the garlic pizza and Joshua had the mozzarella and fresh basil pasta. We love garlic so we liked the restaurant a lot. This location is the only one in Japan and the rest are in California. The restaurant itself was decorated with posters from the Gilroy Garlic Festival which reminded me of my Northern California home.

All and all it was a nice short trip to get away from Yokosuka for a few hours. Joshua always likes taking the train too.

Baby's crying so, have to go. Each highlighted area has a link if at all interested. Enjoy!

New Years & Anpanman

As many of our readers may know, I am a sucker for Japanese pop culture. I said a few years back that it's not really the shrines, temples, geisha, kimonos, kokeshi dolls, etc., that really interest me. It's popular views, technology, popular foods, and kawaii paraphernalia. Anyway, I have fulfilled one of my goals this holiday season. Taking the train with my girlfriend, her son, Joshua & Samuel to the Anpanman museum in Yokohama. Anpanman is probably a close runner up to Hello Kitty in this country. Young children go wild for this super hero who, for the most part, is a non-violent superhero. It is very "Japanese" in the sense that the villain in this anime cartoon is Baikinman, which translates to "Germ Man". Baikinman's ultimate goal is to take over the planet and make it into a germ world. Anpanman, our superhero is, as I stated, a non-violent super hero who tries to solve problems instead by sacrificing himself; a very "Japanese" and valuable lesson. To read more about the plot, click on Anpanman and it will lead you to the Wikipedia link. The museum itself is like many children's museums throughout Japan in that there aren't too many displays. Instead, it's more like indoor play areas. It's located very close to the Toy's R Us at Shin-Takashima train stop on the Minato Mira line. I really appreciate the Minato Mira line. It's very modern, clean and stroller/child friendly. Joshua is 5 and his friend is 4. They were a little too old for this museum. It's perfect for the 2.5-3 year range. We went during the New Year holiday which we should have known was going to be a nightmare, but it really was OK. They have a very cute Uncle Jam pastry shop (Uncle Jam or, Jam Ojisan was the original creator of Anpanman and he also repairs Anpanman now and again as needed) along with a Mega Block area, Anpanman ball area and small toddler play areas. The museum is great for taking babies as there are two very large nurseries located on the first and second floor of the museum.

New Years came and went. We have now officially entered the old person world. Maybe just because we are parents of young children, we value our sleep way too much to stay up late just to wish each other a Happy New Year. I woke up at around 2:00AM to feed Sam and I nudged Mike to wish him a Happy New Year.

The best part of the holiday was that our friends from Gunma came to visit. Their family has grown as well, and we were lucky enough to see their latest 3-week old addition. She is adorable. We love it when they visit. They are English teachers in Gunma Prefecture. Both American, but their children have been born here and speak more Japanese than English. We always learn something new about Japan when we have them here and they are able to give us a lot more information on general things as they can read and speak the language fairly well themselves. They enjoy visiting us of course because they can get a little taste of home. Their children also have an opportunity to play with English speaking children here on base. We were saving a turkey in the freezer for them so that we could deep fry it when they were finally up for a visit. We enjoyed a turkey dinner all over again and had a full house and a great time. Next time it will be our turn to visit. It still amazes me that they live (give or take) 100 miles from us and yet it takes 3 hours to drive there (Something that would take about an hour and a half in the States). Most road warriors of Japan will tell you that "all roads lead to Tokyo" and around here, that's pretty much the case.

I'm going to try and get some pictures up of Anpanman. Hope our readers enjoyed this segment. I know many folks were waiting on a non-family entry. Don't worry, we are slowly making our way back out into the wilds of Japan... with baby in tow.

Three Month Old

Hard to believe, but Sam has reached the 3 month point entering New Year 2009. On a side note, Mr. T called the other day and asked for his mohawk back. I pity the fool.