Anne for hire!

Well, all good things must come to an end. We've received word a few weeks ago that my 12 month assignment is just about complete. WOW! I cannot believe how quickly time flew by, especially in Tokyo - it just seemed like we were doing something every minute of the day. I am going to miss Tokyo, it's just starting to warm up, the trees are green and the flowers are blooming. I will miss Shanghai too! It just seems so far away already.

But I'm also looking forward to coming back to the states. I love Minnesota summers and I'm not sure how it'll feel being back in my own home, my own bed and our creaky kitchen floors.

Right now, my return date to the US is scheduled for June 5th. This date may be moved up, depending on where I'll be working. For those of you that may not know, after my International rotation, I need to return to a position in the states. This position is usually not determined until we get closer to the return date. So... technically, I don't have a job lined up yet. But don't worry - I am working on this, along with lots of great people at Medtronic. However, for all you Medtronic blog readers, should you hear of a need for a talented HR professional - I'm here for your consideration!

Disney Sea

On Sunday 4/26/2009 Anne and I went to the second Disney theme park at the Tokyo Disney Resort. The theme park is called Disney Sea because of it’s increased use of water in its themes. There are seven uniquely themed areas called the Mediterranean Harbor, American Waterfront, Lost River Delta, Port Discovery, Mermaid Lagoon, Arabian Coast, and Mysterious Island. This awesome place is the most expensive theme park ever built with estimates of over 4 billion dollars - and it shows. This place is without a doubt one of the coolest looking theme parks we have ever been to. The detail and distinctness of each theme area is phenomenal.

Mediterranean Harbor consists of several shops and restaurants with an Italian feel. It is the place to watch most of the water shows including a nighttime spectacular that uses special barges, fountains, pyro effects, and fireworks called BraviSEAmo. They even have Venetian gondola rides.

American Waterfront resembles the northeastern seaboard of the United States in the early 20th century. It features two themed areas, an Old Cape Cod section, and a New York Harbor section. This land is dominated by the large passenger ship, "S.S. Columbia. The area also has the Tower of Terror ride, which is similar but better that the ones found at Universal Studios in the States.

Mysterious Island is a area within Mount Prometheus, the giant volcano that is the Park's centerpiece and most prominent feature. This area is the smallest theme section, but it holds two of the more popular attractions: Journey to the Center of the Earth and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Mermaid Lagoon is primarily the area built for the young guests. It has several fantasy land-like rides all focusing on the sea and the theme from The Little Mermaid movie.

Arabian Coast is based off the movie Aladdin. The area’s main attractions are the Sindbad's Storybook Voyage, Caravan Carousel, a double-decker carousel, and Magic Lamp Theater feature 3D interactive performances.

Lost River Delta is the area located at the back of the park. The dominant structure in this "port of call" is a huge, ruined South American Aztec pyramid. There theme spot is the home to our favorite ride, Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull. It's also home to a roller coaster called Raging Spirits.

Port Discovery is the last theme area. It is hailed as "the marina of the future". It is sometimes called the "Tomorrowland" of Tokyo DisneySea. Home to the fictional Center for Weather Control, Port Discovery has three attractions: StormRider, a large-scale simulator ride; Aquatopia, a trackless boat ride and the DisneySea Electric Railway (sorry no pictures of this section as it was the least visually appealing so enjoy this night picture of Mediterranean Harbor & American Waterfront instead).

We managed to spend 11 hours at the theme park before heading home. They also had flavored popcorn, but with different flavors consisting of black pepper, sea salt, strawberry, and chocolate. Churros were also popular here with both sesame and maple flavors. We really enjoyed our stay at both Disney Parks, but this one being more adult theme was our favorite. Unfortunately due to wind most of the water shows were cancelled but we were able to watch BraviSEAmo at the end of the night.

DISNEYLAND!!!

On Friday 4/24 Anne and I went to the Tokyo Disney Resort to enjoy a full day at Disneyland. It is located roughly 45 minutes by train from our apartment in the far northwest of Tokyo. Both Anne and I have been eyeing Disneyland for some time, anxiously waking for the weather to warm up. I was lucky enough as a child/early teen to see Disney World in Orlando several times growing up and Anne had the opportunity to see both Disney World in Orlando and Disneyland in Anaheim. Since neither of us has been to a Disney park in over 10 years we were excited to finally get a chance to go back to one. I am told that the Disneyland in Tokyo is the same as the Disneyland in California. Many of rides I remembered from Disney World were there. My favorite is the Pirates of the Caribbean (though it was weird to see that they now include the characters from the 3 movies of the same name). They had the Haunted Mansion, It’s a small world after all – Anne’s favorite (in Japanese), my mother’s favorite – the spinning tea cups, Space Mountain, and on, and on, and on. If you would like to see all of the attractions check it out at - www.tokyodisneyresort.co.jp/index_e.html.

We woke up at 7:00am to make it to the park when it opened at 9:00am. We arrived slightly before 9am to see about 1,000 people waiting for the gates to open. Fortunately for us most of these people had already purchased their tickets so the ticket lines were very short. We made a clockwise circle of the park and discovered some rides had 60-100 minute wait times. Fortunately many of the big/more popular rides have a fast pass feature, meaning that you can use your entrance ticket to get a pass that allows you to bypass the long lines on the ride (one time, with an hour window). As more people got the fast passes the later the hour window became. There were two rides that we were unable to ride on due to long waits. Pooh’s Honey House, average wait was over 100 minutes and the fast pass time was 8 hours out (so at noon you would have to wait until 8pm before you could use your fast pass) and the Monsters Hide and Seek which just opened on 4/15/09. One of the most popular food items in the park were souvenir tubs of flavored popcorn. The varieties were salted, honey, curry, and caramel. If you can ignore me being strange and just look at the cool Pooh tub we got you can see why they were so popular. They also had Churros which was a little weird, but also very popular and very good. Anne and I really enjoyed ourselves and saw just about everything including 2 parades (one during the day and one at night) and the fireworks show at the end of the night. At 9:30pm or so we got back on the train and headed back to our apartment. After a quick stop off at a sukiya (a restaurant chain) for some take out curry donburi (basically a curry rice bowl) we finally arrived home at around 10:45pm making for a really long day.

Mama Wu 3

Day 6. On Wednesday, the last full day that Jenny would be with us, we went to Ginza. This is the shopping Mecca of Tokyo and I might even add, the world. We strolled the streets and bought a BIG doughnut (okay we bought a really small section of it, for more than the cost of a dozen doughnuts in the States). Then we went to Mitsukoshi, the mother of all the previously mentioned food court / grocery store places. If you like food, this place rocks! We picked up some more Kobe beef and some other sides and headed home loaded with bags. We enjoyed watching Jenny try her first bite of Kobe beef. This is usually very entertaining because most people think, “I have eaten steak before, and I may have even eaten some really good US steaks in the past, what can be so great about this one”. This thought process is usually interrupted by the first bite and boiled down to “WOW” as half of your bite literally melts in your mouth. I also found an interesting vegetable that tasted much better the first time I sampled it. I have included a picture for your benefit, because I have never seen it before and I am beting unless you love looking for new vegetable you haven't see it either. It's call an Iceplant and tastes as weird as it looks (you might need to click on it to look closer but it is covered in clear solid, water-looking like bumps)

Day 7. Mama Wu’s last day with us was pretty short. She boarded the airport limousine (still talking about the bus not the car) at noon and started her long journey back to Mesa, Arizona. We on the other hand enjoyed a quiet day of rest in preparation for a very long weekend. A very long weekend that involved a little mouse with an affinity for saying "Oh Boy", a duck that no one can understanding and a host of their various friends.

Mama Wu 2

Day 3. On Sunday we ate brunch at Beacon near Shibuya. I highly recommend it if you are ever in the neighborhood. We then walked to Shibuya and Anne took a picture of her mother next to the famous statue of the dog located there. Why is there a famous statue of a dog? Well, I don’t know. I am sure I could find out online, but everyone is always taking pictures of it, both locals and tourists alike so that is good enough by me. The picture of Jenny and the dog is actually the second one Anne took. I found the first one far more entertaining, but since it was not a very flattering picture (basically Jenny making a face of why on earth are you taking a picture of me and this dog) I did not include it. We then went to Shibuya’s Foodshow. This is not actually a show on TV or a public performance, but it can be just as entertaining. It is a huge underground … well it’s a… okay so I haven’t yet found an English word or comparison that does it justice but the closest thing would be a really nice food court / grocery store. It’s not like the food courts in the US with a bunch of chain fast food joints. There are no chain restaurants, the food is all very high quality and well made, the vendors are so close to each other you feel like you are in a food maze, and everything, literally everything, looks very good with the terrible effect of every food item you see looks better than the one you were just looking at. We find that it usually becomes very difficult (or expensive) to decide what you want to eat after entering. Oh and yes, regarding the melons for $50.00 US and mango sets (of 2 mangos) for $100.00 US that Anne talked about in a previous entry, that was not a joke. Though most fruits are about $4 to $5 a fruit, melons are ridiculous and gift packed fruits like the mangos mentioned above are obscene.


Day 4. On Monday Mama Wu needed a break from all the walking so we hung out in the apartment all day.


Day 5. On Tuesday we went near Asakusa to Kappabashi. Kappabashi is basically four very long blocks of stores consisting of various cooking supplies. Much of it is for restaurants, but there is also a lot of household items too. One of the cutest things we saw there (outside of the big chef's head indicating that you have arrived) was a rice mold of Winnie the Pooh, and various other kid friendly molds. We then walked to Senso-ji Temple and made a brief stop at Sumida Park where another variety of cherry blossoms are blooming, the trees of the main variety now look indistinguishable from any other green leafy tree. After a long day of walking we let Anne’s mother rest her feet while we went to Roppongi to bring home some burgers from Sasebo and some flavored french fries from the First Kitchen

Mama Wu

As Anne mentioned, life has been busy lately and I have gotten a little behind on our blog (I have also fiendishly hidden our pictures folder to foil her blog posting prowess). But, in the words of Peter Griffin “I digest…” On 4/17 Anne’s mother came to visit us for a week. For those of you who can remember all the way back to October, she visited us in Shanghai too. Anne was nice enough to update you on the adventures we had with her mom, but due to her busy work schedule she has left the details to me.

Day 1 (more like evening 1). Jenny (aforementioned Mama Wu) arrived at the Narita airport around 5:00pm or so. Since Anne had to work, I met Jenny and we took the airport limousine to a hotel a few blocks from our apartment. The airport limousine is actually just a coach bus which is the preferred way to get to and from the airport, as it is pretty quick (1 ½ - 2hours each way) and one of the least expensive ($30.00 a person). Thirty dollars may not sound cheap to you, but trust me it is a lot better that paying the $300.00 (that’s US dollars) required to take the taxi from the airport to Tokyo. Anyways, we arrived home at 7:00pm and after briefly settling in we went across the block to enjoy Tonkatsu. As it turned out this was one of Mama Wu’s favorite meals (likely because it was delicious, but also one of the cheapest).

Day 2. On Saturday we showed Anne’s mother the Tokyo Tower, Atago Shrine, Seishoji Temple, and Zojo-ji Temple. Although it may sound like a lot, the farthest being the Tokyo Tower is only a 15 minute walk and the closest (either the Seishoji Temple or the Atago Shrine) is only a 2 minute walk. For dinner we went to a Sushi-go-round in Roppongi where among many other things, we enjoyed our new found favorite raw sea scallops.

Visitor in town

Greetings blog readers,
There's been a lack of blog updates lately - my Mom was in town this week! She arrived Friday night to a meal of Tonkatsu (of course!) Instead of getting the pork cutlet, she settled for shrimp, chicken and oysters. She also thought it was good.

The week consisted of visiting parts of Tokyo and two fun filled trips to the "food court" at the department stores. Trip one, Mom wanted some veggies and settled on the celery, surprised by the outrageous prices. I guess groceries are much less in Phoenix then Mpls, let alone Tokyo. When she grabbed the celery - she realized one difference, it was sold per celery stalk here. Funny. She also just about fainted at the prices of fruit. Bill and I are not big fruit people - I think I've had a few oranges here? Anyhoo, she looked at the melon $5,000 yen... wait a minute, even if I remove the last two digits to convert to US (1:100), it's still fifty dollars. WHAT? Who would pay 50 bucks for a small canteloupe. Right next to that were two mangos - $10,000 yen. It's funny how quickly we've gotten over the sticker shock.

My Mom also experience Kobe beef for the first time and said, "wow, this is some good beef". Other fun festivities included purchasing a really cute "magnifying glass" in Ginza. At first, I was told that Ginza catered to the 30-40's+ female shopper. I didn't really notice anything different - Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Apple, etc. But my Mom was quick to point out - who would sell magnifying glasses right by the front entrance of a major department store? My bad- I probably walked by this place a dozen times and not noticed it.

Well - Bill will be updating w/ the pictures... I wasn't able to find the correct folder for the pictures, since we have a million of them by now... :)

Cirque Du Soleil - ZED

On 4/12 we went to the Cirque du Soleil performance called ZED. The theatre is in Tokyo right next to The Disney Resort. According to Cirque du Soleil’s website the performance creates a show surrounded by the main character, drawn on the Tarot and its arcana that holds up a mirror to ourselves and the human condition through a variety of other characters as he unites the divisions between the people of the sky and Earth. I don’t know if I would use that description myself, but the show was very entertaining. We enjoyed the theme of this performance more than the ZAIA show we saw in Macau, but the ZED performers made more mistakes than the show in Macau, which was flawless. I would highly recommend seeing Cirque du Soleil performance if you ever get the chance.

American Idol with DJ Kaori

Greetings blog readers! It's Anne. I know, I know, long time no write, I thought Bill was just doing such a fantastic job. Anyhoo - for those of you that may not know, I love to watch TV. It's almost been a year since I've had the comforts of CABLE TELEVISION. Favorite shows back in the US - Hero's, anything on Food Network, What not to wear, This old house, lots of shows on TLC and a few reality shows.

In Shanghai - we had CNN, BBC, and AXN (reruns of old shows... some of them REALLY old). In Tokyo, we have History, Discovery, National Geographic, Movie Channel and AXN (a better version). Now, I've discovered my liking for Bones, Ugly Betty, 30 Rock, and Boston Legal. I'm sure I'll need to buy/ rent it when I return to the states to catch-up on the episodes. Although they are seasons and episodes behind, it's still new to me!

Lately, I've been getting home by 7 to catch the new season of American Idol. I love American Idol! We are quite a few episodes behind - just got to the Top 11. I was sad to see Jorge go :( In addition to Ryan Seacrest, we also have a Japanese sypnosis by DJ Kaori http://metropolis.co.jp/tokyo/472/music_beat.asp Bill always laughs when DJ Kaori comes on. Why? Becuase I go on a rant and rave about her. DJ Kaori is cute as a button and an average size 4? build. However, she must think she's too big for TV becuase she is constantly striking these "I'm thin poses" along w/ clothes that she can hardly breathe in. It just looks so uncomfortable! Seriously, you're probably 120 pounds soaking wet - some of us haven't seen that number since the 6th grade. Be happy w/ your looks DJ because you look great!

Ueno Park

The last park I will mention is the most famous for Cherry Blossom trees in Tokyo. It has the most trees, the biggest crowds, and the most vendors. It is located a few blocks from the Ueno subway station in the northeastern part of Tokyo. One of the biggest reasons why this park is so busy is because the trees drape over a long walking path giving the cherry blossoms the appearance of clouds just out of your reach, that, and it is free. If I had to wager a guess at how many people walked through it in a day (during the cherry blossom season) it would be in the 100,000s. It is packed all day, with tons of people picnicking and endless lines of people looking at the trees. Despite the huge crowds it is actually very clean and pretty quiet (depending on what time of day, the picnickers get increasingly drunk later in the day, but they still tend to be much more behaved than one would expect in the US). If you are looking to see lots of Cherry Blossom trees packed next to each other for optimal viewing this is your best destination choice.

Shinjuku Gyoen (Park)

Shinjuku Gyoen is a park near Shinjuku in the west side of Tokyo. It was originally completed in 1906, but later remodeled after being destroyed during WWII. The park has approximately 1,500 cherry blossom trees, but since the park is very large the cherry blossom trees do not seem to be so numerous. Admission is 200 yen (around $2) and it is open from 9am to 4:30pm. When I went there it was during the weekday at about 1pm and it was still pretty crowded with tourists and Japanese alike enjoying the blossoming trees. There were also tons of photographers. This park happens to be my favorite. It has a lot of cherry blossom trees, but this park will still be very pretty long after the cherry blossoms have gone.

Atago Shrine

The Atago Shine is roughly a 2 minute walk from our apartment. It is located on Atago Mountain, which must be an honorary title since the mountain is really just a large hill. The Shrine was originally built in 1603, but was later rebuilt in 1958. For those of you who might remember, I went to the bean scattering ceremony here back in February. Though there were not a lot of cherry blossom trees Anne and I are big fans of this Shrine, but that is likely because it is only a 2 minute walk away (including an elevator ride to avoid steps).

Sumida Park

Sumida Park is located just east of the Sensō-ji Temple in Asakusa (the northeastern part of Tokyo). The park is situated on both sides of the Sumida River that runs through the east side of Tokyo. According to my internet searches there are over a thousand cherry blossom trees in this park and being too lazy to count them I will take their word for it. The first weekend that we went to the park the blossoms where barely blooming, but the crowds were still out. The following weekend the trees were fully bloomed (and likely the next weekend half of the blooms will have fallen off). There were various food stands and we even saw a Hawaiian luau on a large stage, though we still haven’t figured out what a luau has to do with cherry blossoms.

My personal favorite picture at Sumida park was this one of Anne getting a "taco" ball without her knowing I was taking a picture. Tako in Japanese means octopus, which is what the sign looks like and what we have come to enjoy calling them, though technically the balls are made of ika, the Japanese word for squid. These squid balls are a favorite of Anne's as they likely remind her of Taipei (they sell them at the Taipei night markets).