Japan Day 14: Tokyo

Brenna‘s superpower is being able to find great bakeries and today was no exception. The teeny bakery had a long line, but it was well worth the wait.

We ate our pastries in the park.

We explored the Daizawa neighborhood today. Matt loves Japan so much, and it’s been fun to see his enthusiasm. It’s also been wonderful to take in the different areas of Tokyo—like any big city (LA, San Francisco, Mexico City), each part has its own atmosphere. The Japan Folk Art Museum here supports local artists—potters, weavers, textile artists—by exhibiting and selling their beautiful crafts.

We took a fancy taxi to our next stop—complete with reclining seats and footrests! Lydia and Michael had never been in a real taxi before, and the kids thought it was a treat. It didn’t cost much more than six subway fares and helped us avoid a 40 minute walk.

Our surprise treat was a small roadside hut selling pizzas. The owner had a real pizza oven, and his pies were delicious. He and his wife are opera singers, and he lived in Milan for six years. He and I were both delighted to speak Italian together—it was a better way to communicate than either English or Japanese. He told me he hopes to open a real Italian restaurant someday. Sometimes, when you’re willing to take a small risk and reach out, you make a real connection with a stranger, and it feels like such a gift.

In Hakanagura—yet another area—we explored bookstores and cute paper stores.

Matt was living his best life at dinner—conveyor belt sushi. It was such a fun place, and the food was great. The kids loved ordering on an iPad and then watching their dishes zoom in on the conveyor belt—or grabbing things as they passed by. We polished off 40 small plates of sushi, and I’m pretty sure Matt ate at least 25 of them himself.