19 weeks: Shuri Castle

Almost 1/2 way there, crazy! I am feeling baby move more and more each day. Craving hamburgers and watermelon all day, everyday. My belly is feeling much more round and itchy these days. I'm getting out of breath much, much easier (even though I'm trying to work out everyday!). Prenatal yoga and spin classes have been my go-tos as of lately. I don't feel guilty taking my daily afternoon nap knowing that I got a little working out done in the morning. 

Next week we have our 20 week ultrasound and find out what kind of human we are having! Excited doesn't even begin to describe it! Any guesses as to what gender our babe is?

 

(Brian and I pre-baby on our first trip to the gorgeous Shuri Castle)

Tokyo Day Three: Tsukiji, Sensoji, SUMO!

Our last full day in Tokyo started early, early in the morning as we headed to check out the Tsukiji Wholesale Fish Market. It was truly incredible to watch fishermen bring fish up from the sea, to the market, and then to the table where we sat to eat nigiri for breakfast. Freshest of fresh. Just how we were created to eat!

We watched as restaurant owners and chefs came to pick up their catch of the day. And as women came to purchase fish to feed their families for the day. THIS is why the Japanese are so healthy! Fresh food people. We need it in our bodies. 

Oh, here we are just being tourists. 

Sushi for breakfast! A novel idea. We were eating this at about 9 AM. We can now say that we will literally eat sushi anytime, anywhere. 

After our sushi brekky, we headed to the Senso-ji Shrine temple. Similar to the Meiji Shrine, but much more commercialized and busy. 

And then, my friends, we ended our Tokyo trip with a bang. We spent the rest of our day at a heavyweight sumo tournament. The icing on the cake of a great trip. Sumo is so hilariously interesting to watch. These guys are massive. Like remember how I was talking about Japanese eating fresh and being so healthy? Not these guys. Large and in charge. And they put on a great show.

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Thanks for reading some long, long Tokyo posts! One day, I'll be thankful that I told these stories.

Tokyo Day Two: Skytree, Imperial Palace, Tokyo Station

Our Day 1 in Tokyo actually ended with us in a metro station remembering that we didn't have anywhere to sleep that night. So we pulled out our trusty iphones, got on priceline, and booked us a hotel. Then hopped on the metro, got as close as we could to the area our hotel was in, and started walking. Luckily we stumbled upon our hotel pretty quickly and it was a beautiful place right in the heart of Tokyo. 

Of course, we booked the cheapest room which came with two full beds. However, "full" beds in Japan are actually twin beds that are much shorter than my husbands body. So yeah. But we made it work. And yes, we slept in one bed. 

The next morning we head back to the Skytree so we could go up to the top and see a panoramic daytime view of Tokyo. Seeing Tokyo from that high up gave us a much better perspective of how huge the city truly is. Plus, we had a killer view of Mt. Fuji.

From there we headed to the Imperial Palace to walk around the gardens and see where the Imperial family resides. The gardens we beautiful, and I think would be even more beautiful during sakura (cherry blossom) season. But these gardens, again, were such a peaceful, serene haven in the midst of such a crazy, busy city. It was a welcome break from noise and traffic. 

Our friends who were in Tokyo the weekend before us sent us a message saying they had left us a note somewhere near imperial palace and gave us rough directions on where we could find it. It was like a geocache of sorts, and fun to go on a little treasure hunt. And we found it!

We stopped by to see Tokyo Station, which is like Tokyo's version of Grand Central Station. The architecture of the building is beautiful, and Brian and I were just so intrigued by how all the Metro/Subway/Railways all work together. 

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Just one more day to recap! Such a fun trip. 

Love you people.

Tokyo Day One: Shibuya, Harajuku, Asakusa

Our Tokyo trip was amazing. The sights were incredible, the Japanese people so polite, and the food was to die for. But honestly our favorite part of the trip? Catching up at the end of each day over a glass of wine at the hotel. Just being together. Just the two of us. Simultaneously dreaming about the future, while talking about how we can be more effective right where the Lord has us. With no distractions or things that needed to get done. 

Since moving to Okinawa, we have been in a much different season of life than we have ever experienced. Work has been busy and overwhelming, and time together has been little. Being that we are both lovers of quality time, we CRAVE time away to reconnect and talk and laugh and make memories. This long weekend was just that.  

My sweet husband is by FAR the easiest and most fun person to travel with. He is so go-with-the-flow and patient and kind and carries my bag for me when I complain about my feet and my back hurting. It was nice to not really have much of an agenda, but just travel through Tokyo organically, stopping when we wanted to, and continue to move through when we wanted to. I felt like we did a good job of seeing a lot, but also making it a vacation. We wanted it to be adventurous, yet restful.

Japanese airport food beats American airport food, no competition.

mmmm. Pancakes, coffee, donuts. Breakfast food, sugar, and carbs speak to us. 

Guys! Don't worry about the smeary window, or my iphone reflection. This is Shibuya Crosing: the time square of Tokyo. The busiest intersection I've ever seen. At the peak times of the day over 1000 people cross here every time the light turns green. That's craziness. 

After Shibuya, we took off walking and made our way to Yoyogi Park. We were totally amazed by how peaceful and serene this park in the smackdab middle of Tokyo was, despite how crazy busy the world right outside the gates of the park were. It was a sweet little sanctuary in the middle of chaos.

SNOW! Snow is a big deal considering we will see very little of it over the next three years. I am a lover of cold weather clothes- boots, scarves, sweaters, jackets, everything- so I was loving this cold weather. 

We stopped at Meiji Shrine which was set back in a dense wooded area with beautiful trees and several wooden torii (Japanese gates) leading up to the shrine temple. Brian and I watched the Japanese people for a long while as they came up to the shrine to make an offering by tossing a 5 yen coin in the large box in front of the shrine, bow their heads, clap twice, and bow again. 

We got to witness a beautiful wedding processional while at Meiji. I love that in the heart of one of the worlds largest and most modern cities, the tradition of the Japanese people is not lost. The bride and groom dressed in tradition Japanese dress and their guests all wrapped in silk kimonos. 

As we walked through the streets of Harajuku, the crepes were calling Brian's name. Crepes are street food of the district of Harajuku, and man did they deliver. Homemade warm crepe filled with whipped cream, bananas, and chocolate fudge. Delicious.

We ended our night in Asakusa, at the base of the tallest free standing tower in the world- the Tokyo Sky Tree. The construction was just finished in March of 2012 and it is breathtaking. The civil engineer  degree side of my husband came out as we spent the rest of the night googling and youtubing videos of the construction of the Sky Tree. It is pretty amazing. 

Day one, done! And I have so many more pictures to share.