the 4 of us on the train in tokyo taking a mid-morning nap on our way to ninja school

Aside from snoozing.Â

It's been 4 years since we last visited Che-Wei's parents in Tokyo. We're here for a few weeks and jazzed to be roaming old stomping grounds. Filling up our "garbage pockets" with snack wrappers until we happen upon a trash can, and humoring our kid's stamina by unintentionally averaging 10 miles a day wandering.

A quote from Tree (our 5yr old) at the end our first day while potato sacked over CW's shoulder pleadingly - "mama are we going to do this every day for like 10 weeks???".

I asked the kids about some differences they noticed between Tokyo and NYC. "There's more people here." "The trains are so clean and quiet." I remember on my first visit noticing how the train turnstiles default to open instead of closed. It's a nice design detail that yes, encourages people flow, but also defaults to an air of invitation rather than opposition. On our first ride Tree's booming for a 5 year old voice echoed through the dead quiet train car and we had to shush him.

Yesterday Che-Wei's Dad arranged for the kids to attend 2 hours of Ninja school in Asakusa. The kids donned ninja costumes, learned how to sheath and draw a katana, throw ninja stars, surprise sneak attack enemies, camouflage as a rock, or flower garden and so much more all in the style of japanese-style slapstick comedy. Ninja school ended with a neighborhood mission to find the "bad guy" and a bunch of kids mob-style attacking said "bad guy" on a crowded street with plastic swords. I was pleased our kids stood back for that part, but that was likely the result of a language barrier. They were dazzled. The spectacle concluded with the ninja teacher belaying himself down the side of the ninja school building to deliver loot bags that, fortunate for our sanity, did not contain weapons.

Our favorite thing to do here is wander around and browse shops. A few visits ago we made an IG account called @tokyocheckout. It's essentially a record of interesting stuff we see and wish we could, but can't, take home. @tokyocheckout has been revived, so check it out if you feel like it.

@tokyocheckout

The next few updates are going to be some journaling about our Tokyo trip. Nothing styled or fancy (except for some of our friends below). Â Just day to day happenings and snaps between snacks.

we took a walk to hang by the river in futako tamagawa. the riverbank was undergoing some big landscaping renovation, which was a bummer. but then we saw this gem of a creature. that is a meerkat! you read right, a meerkat. and yes it is dressed as a christmas tree.

images taken from the perspective of me sampling that same bean bag. i wish i shot a video because the horse really does snuggle up. i'm certain this is the best ad campaign ever.

styled to perfection esp. that purple plastic bag.

Pau had to try this konbini snack. we finally got him one and it was not all he thought it would be.

years ago i saw mini-velos here for the first time. this was the first one i saw. it's a pretty common one and i fell in <3.

louvered curtain wall.

they built this new massive shopping complex with rooftop walkways and parks in shibuya. it's cool to check out the tower records building from this perspective. link to read about the metabolism architecture movement.

that's the "bad guy" and he is about to get pummeled by a swarm of ninjas in training.