I did it!

I got behind the wheel of our van. Then I turned it on and actually drove out of the driveway. Followed my neighbor (because we were going to the church.) Picked up my friend Memri on the way and actually got there without causing any physical harm. Memri was my co-pilot, telling me when I was too close the the "wrong" side of the road, etc... Her dad taught driver's ed so that means "genetically speaking" that I had an official driving instructor. wink wink

Talk about nerve racking. I found myself leaning over to the left (those of you who have seen me play video games know I get into it.) It took a lot of concentration but whew -- the first time is over. Now if only Ryan would just hit a curb or a pole before I do.

Tonki's

A new favorite restaurant. Tongkatsu is a pork cutlet breaded and deep fried. What's not to like? The experience is half the fun though. This restaurant is a family business. Grandpa does the deep frying and his sons (who look to be in their 50's/60's and the Japanese age well so that could mean they are 80) keep the place running. You walk in and are seated around the main area. There is no number system. They just remember the order that you came in. We sat for about a half an hour watching the whole thing. You can order the pork cutlet with or without lots of fat. Without please. It is served with a pile of cabbage and maybe lettuce some "blow smoke out your ears" hot mustard and a sauce. On the side: rice bowl, cucumbers and miso. Amazingly everybody ate it. I was a little worried about Ben because you just have to mention the word fat and he shies away.

The place was hoppin'. Pretty reasonable for Tokyo too.
***** rating in the Young guide to fine dining.

Just made me laugh...

People are paying some big bucks for good old American JUNK!

Where every teenager wants to go . . .

Our soccer player

I mentioned that Nathan was playing soccer two days a week. He stays after on Mondays and Wednesdays. He gets home around 5:30. He loves it! (Notice the excitement in his face! -- he really does love it.) Here he is in all his gear.

Fish on a stick . . .

These were some of the tasty morsels that were available at the Hachiman shrine. See Ryan's blog post for better pictures and a little more information.
The bananas on a stick actually didn't look too bad. They would have been much better had they been frozen. There were all kinds of stalls with interesting food, crafts for kids and crazy things. My favorite was this one. . .
Ignore the guy in the lower right corner. I saw a group of girls with these mylar things. They also had long straws. I thought it was some new fangled juice bags that were HUGE. I stood and watched them for a few minutes and pretty soon the girls all had their straws in. They all inhaled and started talking like Donald Duck. They were selling Helium. It was hilarious!!

Costco. . .

Since we now have our driver's licenses and a rental van we decided to head out to Costco. It is "supposed" to be about an hour away. Two hours later we arrived. Did I mention that we were also testing out our Japanese Navigation system. It's all in Japanese. Ryan had one lesson so he thought he could input the data. Luckily we don't have to input addresses. Just zip codes or phone numbers. Apparently it is high tech enough that it can find your destination from that info. It did work but I think it was in "cheapest" route mode. You can pick fastest route, cheapest, etc. The freeways all have tolls, thus the cheapest route option. We paid only about 7.00 because then we were instructed to take frontage roads. 

Our quick trip turned into a 6.5 hour adventure. Ryan claims he is never doing that again. Hope that navi remembers so it can get me there!! They did sell the exact same stuff at the food court though so that was fun. Sometimes you just can't beat pepperoni pizza from Costco. Sad, I know. 

 

I was a little bored during the ride so I took a picture from the "passenger" side. Notice the wheel on the right. I have yet to test out my abilities. Wish me luck!