Japan pics 1

So much to catch up on! Here are some pictures of Japan; pics of the new apartment (and also a couple of older ones of Sam at his Uncle D and Aunt S's wedding in May) to come shortly.

Sam and I traveled to Japan in June with his Omi and Opa, and visited my Obaachan (grandmother) and aunt. We traveled to Sapporo to attend my brother M's wedding. Sapporo is a beautiful city, laid out in a much more Western (i.e., grid-like) fashion than most large Japanese cities and thus much easier for me, at least, to navigate. Traveling there from Obaachan's house in Chiba took a whole day, of walking to the train station near her house (in pouring rain, with lots of bags), taking two trains to Haneda airport in Tokyo, flying from Haneda to Sapporo, taking another train into the city, and then walking (in more pouring rain) from the train station in Sapporo to our hotel. We had a very nice dinner at Aunt R's father's apartment, which Sam slept through in the shinkansen (cartoon character based on the bullet train) sleeping bag that R's mom bought as a gift for Sam. The next day was clear, and we spent the morning at the Botanical Gardens enjoying not being inside a vehicle of any kind:



Sam was so pleased to be running around amongst all the green that he had to do a little dance, and a few other visitors to the garden were charmed enough to take pics:



That afternoon, Opa went to get his sister (my Tante G.) and her husband (my Onkel S.) from the airport, Omi practiced violin for her performance at the reception, and Sam and I took a walk through Omori park, which runs through the middle of Sapporo. There were a couple of really cool play sculptures designed by the famous Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi-- aesthetically pleasing, large-scale slides, essentially. Sam and I shared an ear of roasted corn (a lot of corn is grown on Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido, where Sapporo is located, and vendors roasting ears of it line the park). Sam ran around the broad walkways, pausing to munch on corn, smiling at everyone he passed. Here he is looking serious (J. thinks this looks like an album cover):




The following day was the wedding, in a Shinto shrine on the grounds of a park where Aunt R. spent a lot of time walking her dogs while she was growing up. The shrine was beautiful, and the ceremony was a lovely pageant. Here's a picture of Aunt R entering the shrine in her spectacular wedding kimono, flanked by her mom and by Uncle M.



Sam fell asleep in his stroller, but woke up halfway through the ceremony at the sounds of loud drums being struck, and while my Tante G. rushed him out (so I could stay), I could hear him crying in the shrine grounds outside, so I left and went out to soothe him. Not long after, the ceremony was over. We all posed for photos, then went to a fancy wedding reception site. Sam enjoyed playing in the fountain. Here he is in the pants and vest Omi made for him, and the red bowtie she found:



More soon to come...