christian's 6mo trip to Tokyo - part 1

Tokyo was an impulsive decision. Eric and I were dying for a vacation. Singapore's fine and dandy in many respects but the weather, man, I tell you... without a change of seasons, it can feel very groundhog-day-esque and we just needed a change of scenery.

So, Tokyo it is (as Eric was reluctant to travel to any English-speaking continent, go ahead and ask him why.) I was especially excited since this is the first time we are taking Christian out of the country and we get to leave on his 6-month birthday! Sept 19, we flew out of Singapore into the Land of the Rising Sun.

{Morn (or dawn) of Sept 19 - Christian's pretty chirpy}

Christian was surprisingly very good on the flight to Tokyo. Although we got up at 4 am, we managed to reach our hotel only at around 6 pm, it was a day of travelling and we were exhausted. So was Christian, but he remained quite chirpy and we were cautiously happy he was excited (praying that there won't be a meltdown). You could see how much this kid was absorbing everything that was around him. If you listened closely, you could hear his brain buzzing. quite amazing.

At Takashimaya Nihombashi, an obaasan (grandma) came up to us and remarked how kawaii (cute) and ooki (big) Christian was. Christian returned the compliments with a large toothless grin. In fact, a lot of octogenarians came up to us and said how cute Christian was. There were, however, countless giggling girls who would whisper to each other how kawaii Christian was. Babies seemed to be a rare commodity in Japan, and if there's one word we learned - that's kawaii (!)

{Christian having fun at the Imperial Palace with a monkey from Florida Grandma}

{Eric wanted to go to a baseball game in Yokohama so we spent time in the largest Chinatown in Asia. Don't ask me why coming from Singapore, I would visit Chinatown in Japan...I don't have an answer.}

{At the Tsukiji fish market where Hotate (scallops) are fresh and sweet and sushi is cheap and good. It took us a while to find Sushizanmai but it was totally worth it.}

{At Tsukiji fish market - Christian's a little squirmy}