After the Seventeen Cafe we took the train to Shinjuku, where I found more idols! NCT Dream were plastered all over the station shopping mall to promote their tour. We stepped outside and saw the adorable cat billboard. It was just as cute in person! I didn’t know it made noises, somewhere between meows and baby-talk.

Just across the street we entered the real life streets of Ben’s beloved Yakuza game series. He seriously knew his way around the whole neighborhood because of those games!

My main objective was a proper, icy diet soda. I navigated us to a McDonald’s for Coke Zero drinks (they don’t have diet coke in Japan). It was cold and sort of coke-like, neither as sharp as a Diet Coke nor as rich as the US Coke Zero. Their “L” is slightly smaller than our US medium. Good think I ordered two! It satisfied well enough and bought us time in an air conditioned dining room. My “be prepared” motto paid off when they served me terrible, thick paper straws – ha Ha! I had a plastic straw from home! Yeah, I love diet coke, and I have strong preferences for how I imbibe. Those first few sips are the best part of every day. I missed it in Japan.

A little beyond Kabukicho is the neighborhood Shin-okobu, aka Korea-town. You could tell right away when the writing all switched to Hangul and we heard k-pop pouring out of every store. I could have spent a lot longer browsing the shops here, but it had been a LONG day by this time.

We took the train back to the hotel to rest and refresh. We decided to split up a little. I wanted to check out the mega flagship store of Uniqlo. Ben wanted to see a shrine on top of the nearby department store/mall. After admiring the stranger walking his cat through Ginza, we split.

Uniqlo was crazy crowded. I got slightly lost when I crossed over a suspended pedestrian bridge for a Uniqlo extension that blended into the designer shop Dover Street Market. I got sorted out and met Ben for dinner at a nearby noodle shop filled with salarymen. We walked by the Kabuki theater, beautifully lit for the evening, and went to another konbini for a sweet finish. Remarkably, Ben knew of a park bench where I could SIT and enjoy my shaved ice at my leisure.

Ben got an early start each day while I took longer to wake up. He usually walked around our neighborhood and ate a local-style breakfast. Here’s some photos he sent me from this morning:

I had a 10am cafe reservation in Harajuku. We had a couple hours to kill before then so we went o Shibuya before the crowds arrived. When we arrived at the famous scramble I was sure we were in the wrong place. It was so small! Ben found the Hachiko dog memorial and confirmed that indeed this was the famous Shibuya scramble. Not so impressive without crowds!

We popped into a konbini for drinks and curry bun before looking for nearby shrines.

Next stop was Harajuku.

It was too early for shops, so we walked and looked. We took some truly cursed photos at the Purikura booth shop where the noisiness was on another level!

More peaceful wandering:

The time has come . . . for the pop-up Seventeen Cafe!! Yes, I got to attend a real k-pop collab cafe for my FAVORITE group!

The cafe was running from May to July this year. It was very difficult to purchase tickets. The websites were all in Japanese and required a Japan-specific web account from hubsynch, which required a Japanese phone and address entered in a specific way that was hard for us to figure out (our local pal Koichi got on video chat to help spot errors!).

After all of that I was nearly turned away at the door when I couldn’t login to load my reservation live on the site! Luckily the cafe worker kindly took my email confirmation and my passport and compared it to their list. It really looked like I was going to be denied at first and I was panicking so hard. But we got in!!!

The cafe soon filled up – mostly middle-aged women. It was so surreal to see them comparing their card pulls, talking about the group, seeing the group members as their phone lock screens. I saw some show off merch they bought at the recent dome tour in Japan (that’s why the pop-up shop occurred). I tried to make small talk, comments to invite conversation, but was brushed off. So I was surprised to see my neighbor pose for the selfie! I laughed and got her permission to keep the photo.

After eating, if you still had time in your reservation allotment, you could browse and purchase merchandise. I spent too much money – I blame their blind pack system! I wanted to be sure I got a couple favorites and I DID, so it was worth it 😉

Day 2 will be continued in a later post. We did so much and it was barely 11 am!

After years of dreaming and months of planning, Ben and I travelled to Japan! Overall, it was an amazing trip and ended too soon. We feel like there is so much more we would have liked to see and do and eat. Ben is already thinking about a return visit!

We had a direct flight from Denver to Narita. The fancy seats definitely made our long journey more restful. Immigration at Narita was a total mess – hot, unorganized, confusing, and packed with sweaty, over-tired tourists. After we got through immigration and customs we had to wait in a super long line for Pasmo train cards. I used my yen for to first time to get a cold drink from the vending machine, something I would do over and over the rest of the trip!

After a long train ride to Tokyo, we arrived in Ginza! The hotel was beautiful and comfortable the best shower I have ever experienced. I immediately fell in love with Japanese toilets too.

Refreshed, we struck out on the town to see our neighborhood. I could have spent a lot longer browsing a stationary store called Itoya. I got a cute limited edition fountain pen and some pens for the kids too.

Prior to the trip I had wanted to eat at the Vampire Cafe if we had time. We realized it was now or never (our itinerary was packed!) so even though I had little appetite, we dived into the quirky theme restaurant.

Jack joined a school sponsored EF Tour in June. It sounds like they had an amazing, if at times harried, trip! The whirlwind tour included London, Paris/Versailles, and Rome/Vatican City in just one week!

He says he and his friend are working on photos/video logs. I hope to eventually see those! For now, here’s a picture dump of images I swiped from the group chat. I don’t know why these are mostly out of order – sorry!

So many things have been happening this spring!

We finished the Seussical musical. The kids did great! I feel the whole show season went very well! I’m happy with most of the dances I created. Like most years, I wish I had had more time to rehearse the dances with the kids. It’s so fun to teach them. But they did great with the time we had. Amanda secured mirrors for the theater department and oh my gosh, they were so great! I really think that’s part of the reason they did so well with the choreo this year.

Sam graduated from fifth grade with a ceremony. We are officially done with elementary school after nine years! I think he’s going to have a great time in middle school. He’s gotten really close to his pals this year and they are all going to the same school.

Jack graduated 8th grade! I had to work the night of their ceremony, so Ben took these photos.

I had the pleasure of picking up Jack on his final day. Very unceremonious 🙂

The Waterhouses came for a quick weekend visit. It’s always nice to spend time together! Mom and I did some serious plant shopping.

Jack had a party here with friends for his 14th birthday! Can you believe it? These kids are growing up so fast. They successfully played an escape room, then came back to our house for pizza and cake. The next day, on his actual birthday, he made the most ridiculous plussed-up sandwich ever.

And here’s an adorable photo Ben took of their music picnic while I was away at work. My boys!

You would think they would be better behaved for photos by now 😜 Ah, my beautiful boys!

The boys took part in the music school’s spring recital this weekend. They both played beautifully! They have come so far in their musical skills. We are very proud of the effort and progress they have made, and it was a treat to hear them play outside of the house.

I’m a nurse again!! I got a job at a local hospital on their Orthopedic/Surgical/Trauma floor. I’m working PRN, so that should give me a lot of schedule flexibility after orientation is complete. I think it will be the best fit for our family. So far I’m feeling very positive about it. Applying, waiting, negotiating, and waiting for the job to start earlier this month was very stressful. Now that things are settled and I’m easing in, I’m very excited!

Last week was my first time on the clock. Monday was corporate orientation. T-Th was hospital-specific orientation and a LOT of computer training (I’m not even done! But I have a long time to get all the modules completed). Everyone I’ve met on my unit has been very nice and welcoming. The floor seems chill – a good fit for me these days. I’m looking forward to getting some solid med/surg experience. I spent a few hours following the PT, taking patients down the gym and talking about how nurses can coordinate and support their PT work. Late next week I’ll start my actual shift orientation with a preceptor. I’m looking forward to it!

Sam had the final orchestra concert of the year. It’s all the elementary classes, orchestra and band, combined into one giant concert. His assigned seating didn’t give me the best view – I chose high up on the opposite side so I could see him facing me. Closer down he would have been hidden by others, and the other side would be behind him. So in these videos I tried to point him out each time. That explains the giant blurry finger that pops in and out.

He did so well!! He’s excited to join the middle school orchestra and continue studying the cello.

Jack has finished the spring musical Guys and Dolls. Once again he was a part of the build crew – constructing the sets. He also got on the running crew – doing the set changes and acting as usher before the show.

It was a busy busy two weeks leading up the show. The last few days he didn’t even have time for dinner between school and show, so I met him in the parking lot to say hi and get food.

The show was great! The sets were beautiful and the scene changes smooth.

Here are some of his photos from friends after the show.