Prior to moving to Japan, I had traveled to the motherland twice - both times with my dad.
The last time we were here together was 10+ years ago with my Yonsei basketball team...so being back here with him is a dream come true. He flew in on a Friday night and I was so thankful to see him after 7 months!
Besides missing my mother's cooking...the main thing I miss from home are POPTARTS. how random right?? When I am in the states I don't even eat poptarts much, but for some reason whenever I am in another country (same thing happened in Uganda) I craved poptarts. lol. so dad did not disappoint with the goodies!! Poptarts PLUS my favorite snacks from Trader joes...homemade cookies from Carol Allen...and crafts from the kiddos!
The first thing I wanted to show my dad was one of my favorite places in all of Japan...Lake Teganuma aka my front yard! It is literally a 2 minute walk from my front door and we went on a nice walk his first morning here and ate at my favorite bakery. (That is a strawberry cream filled bagel!)
After breakfast his first day, we headed into Tokyo to check out the Skytree. I wanted to take him up to the viewing deck, but it was way too cloudy when we got there so we opted for shopping around the mall below.
We ate a cream filled pastry (usually filled with red-bean but we were in tourist territory so they create things foreigners will like, aka cream filled instead of redbean!)
We went to Sumita aquarium and then by the time we walked out....the sky was clear and we got a good shot with the skytree...
Thank you self-timer.
We meandered around Tokyo a bit and went to Zojoji temple which offers an awesome view of the Tokyo tower.
After roaming Tokyo...we met up with my Dad's old friend Yo and his family. The last time I saw them was 10+ years ago when we (my dad, stac, and I) visited them at their apartment in Tokyo and their son was only a few years old. I remember them being so so nice and friendly...and not much has changed - except the kids are so big now! Yo is incredibly generous and took us to the most AMAZING restaurant in Tokyo called Salvatore. It was on the 42nd floor of the fanciest building and offered us a CRAZY CRAZY view of Tokyo Tower, Odaiba, Rainbow bridge...etc. WOW.
The food was amazing. The company was even better.
How fun to spend time with such a great family!
My dad and I waved goodbye to Yo and his family...and headed back to Kashiwa with full stomachs and full spirits knowing that God had blessed us with an incredible first day together.
This is such a special trip with my dad and I am forever grateful for him!
more...much more...to come...