One of the cool places that mom and I went was Ueno park/zoo. This zoo wasn't near as bad as the Himeji zoo. Apparently, until recently the zoo had a panda, but the panda died. This was a giant tragedy to the zoo and the zoo has a strong panda theme--but no panda, which was strange. My mom kept bemoaning the fact that she didn't get to see the panda, particularly strange because I could never remember her talking about pandas (in any context) before that point.
I had a better picture of this on my camera but one of the first exhibits had prairie dogs, a bison, some wild pigs, and a turkey together in a cage. It took me a minute to come up with the theme--but I finally did. It was an America exhibit! I thought that was a particularly funny mixture of animals to represent the US. I'm not sure what I would have put in there (I'll give you the bison, I probably would have picked that too) but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have been that combination. Anyone have any better ideas?
At the edge of the zoo was a giant pond full of enormous flowered water plants. I thought they were REALLY cool but a little creepy--almost like something out of a sci-fi movie. Enormous lotus blossoms.
There was just an enormous amount of these huge flowers. And they were STRONG smelling.
Mom and I went to Asakusa and wandered around. Asakusa is a touristy area but is pretty cool.
I took all of my guests to the Meiji shrine because it's one of my favorite places in Tokyo. I think it's really cool to see the weddings. Mom wanted her picture taken in front of this giant door for some reason. It is a cool door.
Some of you know that I was on a wild hunt for Mexican food. I started ccrrraaavvviiinnnggg it, so when mom and I were in Harajuku and I spotted a Mexican restaurant, I knew I HAD to have it. The restaurant was in a cute little spot on the second floor of a building.
So how was it?
It was good, but too high-end. I was craving the cheap, low-end La Mexicana, local Mexican dive type Mexican food. And that wasn't it. But I want you to know--you can get excellent Mexican and Italian food in Japan. The Italian place by my house was deliciously good!
While mom and I were shopping we came across my shop again! So, I posed with it again :)
I was sad to see mom go--we had a really great time (even though mom insisted on getting up at five am every day). My mother also managed not to eat a single Japanese meal while we were there due to her fear of chopsticks. After mom left, I only had two more days in Japan! I took lots of pictures, but of course, they were on the missing camera, so I have no picture evidence :(
After the spectacularly long ride home (with delay after delay and my poor father picking me up at eleven even though he was leaving for South Africa first thing the next day) I finally made it back to Iowa!
The dogs were happy to see me again! I missed the silly little ladies :)
Mom and I also bought both Gracie and Duchess kimonos! Who doesn't love a dog wearing a kimono? SO CUTE!
Duchie actually has two kimonos...and a sushi toy...so cute...
Your dogs must really love you to let you dress them up like that! :)
ReplyDeleteYour mom is attractive-thanks for the picture.
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