Rainy day

Today was kind of a lazy rainy day.  In the morning we went out walking, and came across a little playground we haven't seen before, so we stopped and played.  We also found a really neat trail that led towards a neat area with museums, and had a place where you could rent boats (including paddle boats!) on the moat around the imperial palace!  We figured that isn't good for us this trip, but maybe next time we're in Tokyo :)  We didn't spend a lot of time in that area, but we hope to go back sometime soon.  We then stopped off at the other playground likes a lot to play for awhile, and then went back home.  We had some cozy nap/family time for awhile after we cobbled together some random lunch items.  Here's a picture of Chris hugging his two children :) 

During nap time it was raining really hard--but it didn't last terribly long.  Here's Fox and Chris out on the balcony watching the rain.

While the kids slept, Chris and I watched Dungeons and Dragons (the movie) in Japanese, which was entertaining.
Oh, I keep forgetting to mention--apparently there is a standard style of clothing for newborns to wear in Japan.  It is an interesting two piece outfit.  She was wearing one when we first met her, and we were given a couple more sets at that time.  I love them, because they seem so Japanese!  Here is a little photo tutorial of how to put them on.  First you put on the little undershirt--it has cute little ties on it.

 Then you put on the larger over-coat piece. 

 It has a series of snaps.

 The end result is basically a sleep sack, with an opening around the belly area so you could change her without lifting it up (although I usually just lift the whole thing up, since it's just like a long dress).  Pretty cute!

 After it stopped raining, we decided to try to go to the Shojin Ryori restaurant again (the place that was closed when we tried to go at lunchtime earlier).  It was open this time, but we were told (in an entertaining combination of the lady's limited English, our limited Japanese, and a series of hand movements) that dinner is by reservation only (although there wasn't a single person in the room at the time).  She said that lunch is walk-in, so we'll just try lunchtime again sometime next week.  Argh!  So we tried to find our second choice--a tempura restaurant that has an English menu in the same area.  We couldn't find it, and spent a fair bit of time looking for it.  So we decided to just find someplace with SOMETHING we could eat, and found an italian restaurant called Miami Gardens (?).  We had a tasty caprese salad, a margherita pizza, and a gorgonzola cream pasta.  That sounds like a lot, but it wasn't enough for 2 adults and a 2 year old to split.  We're used to over-sized American portions!  It was quite tasty though.  Here is Chris trying to eat while holding Willow.

So on the way home we stopped at a Family Mart and bought a couple of pastries, a natto sushi roll (I'd been wanting to try one--it wasn't as vile as the natto I'd had before, but I still only took 2 bites and was done), and a Kirin beer and peach Chu-Hi for when we got home :)