Back to Tokyo
This morning Riley amazingly slept in again till 8am. Breakfast was served at 7:30, and was just as delicious as dinner last night. On our trays was an egg that for some reason we were convinced was raw… so we tried to slyly spy on the Japanese couple also staying at the house to see what they did with the egg. Turned out to be hard-boiled. All that drama for nothing. When we went back to our room, Riley was just stirring and gave us a big smile. Traveling in Japan seems to really be agreeing with her. In fact I’d even venture to say this past week has been the most fun our little family has had together yet.
Riley has made friends with Brad and George, so they watched her while we went down the street to the onsen. They fed her breakfast (rice, nori (seaweed), banana, milk, yum!), then kept her entertained playing with the picture cards. Riley also likes it when George draws her flowers. (more? more?)
The onsen was fantastic. Men and women are separated, and there was almost no one else there. There is an amazing smelling steam room and large indoor jacuzzi tub, but the best part is the outdoor hot bath which has a beautiful view of the river and waterfalls in the distance. It was a lovely, relaxing way to start the day.
Afterwards we quickly packed up and went to catch the bus. Today has been a big travel day… long bus ride followed by long train followed by another long train… and unfortunately Riley is feeling a bit out of sorts today. But she’s hanging in there.
Dinner at the hotel in Tokyo…
In other cuteness news, Riley has learned to say nose, eye, mouth, teeth and ear… although her favorite by far is nose. Out of the blue she’ll reach up and touch your nose and say “noooo,” then act very proud of herself. Pretty cute. She’s also gotten good at saying car, bus, airplane and train. It’s pretty cute when she signs car (you move your hands like they’re on a steering wheel). Sometimes when we’re walking on the street she goes crazy trying to point out every bus and car, it’s pretty funny. She pretty much demands to stop and look at every flower we pass , (“wower!” she can’t really make the “fl” sound yet), and can differentiate the purple and yellow ones (“purpa,” not sure how to describe how she says yellow). When she wants to walk, she’ll ask nicely to be let down (“wah? wah? dow?” dow? ) then start wriggling her way out of your arms. Luckily, she’s a pretty quick walker, although she does get distracted pretty easily. Even though she can walk on her own, she still prefers to hold one of our hands, which is probably better anyway. When she really wants to walk, but we need to get somewhere in a hurry, we do 1-2-3-upsula! which is a game my parents always did with me and my brothers. We each take a hand, then count, then swing her in the air and run forward. She loves it, and we cover a lot of ground that way too. We taught her to give kisses, which are pretty messy (since her face is usually covered with drool/snot) but it’s sweet nonetheless. I think her cutest word is “uh ohhh.”
Oh! And it turns out the delicious strawberries we’ve been buying for Riley are special! We’d been remarking how they stay fresh for so long, and have a perfect texture and delicious taste… then George saw this headline in the newspaper: “Hybrid super strawberries getting ready to conquer the world” (I swear that’s exactly what it says, check out the link!) Apparently these berries are “crossbred to be less squishy and super delicious.” They come from Sagahonoka and are being exported to Taiwan and Hong Kong, with plans to eventually include other overseas markets… so keep your eye out for them! They really do live up to the hype!
More pictures from today here.