Yasukuni Shrine

On a hot Sunday in July, Mrs. Bag-O and I took the train into Tokyo to go to the Mitama Matsuri festival at Yasukuni Shrine.  The best thing about this shrine, is that it is located just blocks away from the apartment my grandparents lived in when they were in Tokyo in the early 1990's.  We planned to visit their apartment and then head to the festival.   

We had to change our plans though, when we arrived at Ichigaya Station and found that it was POURING rain.  It was so bad, that even the Japanese people (prepared with umbrellas) were waiting it out.  We decided to go back to Shinjuku and find somewhere to have dinner. 

It turned out to be a great side trip because we found that there are TONS of places to eat in Shinjuku without even having to leave the train station AND we discovered that my favorite Thai restaurant from Bangkok has a branch in Tokyo!

After we had stuffed ourselves full of Thai, we decided to try again.  Thankfully, when we reached the entrance to Ichigaya, the rain had stopped.  We made our way to Yasukuni and were not disappointed.  This festival is one of Tokyo's biggest Obon Festivals and is known for the 30,000 lanterns that light the path to the shrine.

Lanterns inside the shrine grounds

The main shrine building

The entrance leading out to the lantern lined path

Standing on the steps of the shrine's entrance, looking out at the lantern lined path

Looking back at the main entrance to the shrine

It was a gorgeous sight!  

I am so glad that the rain let up so we could attend this festival!  Afterwards, we made our way over to 20 Ichiban-cho to see my grandparents old stomping grounds.  It was dark, so I didn't get any good pictures but it was exciting to see that it was still there!  I plan to go back during the day before we leave Japan!

The business card, that opens into a map, for my grandparents

InstaPic!

October - December, 2011

Thanks for all the lovely comments on my previous post :)

So I realize I have sucked at blogging over the past few months.  And I am definitely trying to do better :)  And I hate to drag you all back to October 2011, but the last recap I did was of my trip to Yakima which was the very first weekend of October.  And I am Type A and can't feel good about moving on to 2012 until I finish writing about 2011.  So bear with me.

In October ...

R., M.C. and I watched the UW v. Colorado game at Duchess Tavern.  It was lots of fun, but we felt OLD.  Yikes.  Apparently we can't hang with the college kids anymore.  And we were rooting for Colorado (R.'s alma mater) so we were slightly out of place. 

I had dinner with an old friend from law school at my favorite restaurant, Phoenecia, in West Seattle.  If I lived closer to this place, I would be fat and my bank account would be empty.  It's a must go in my opinion!

I visited my mom and sister in Chicago.

My sister and our friend Joe took me out to one of their favorite restaurants, Sunda.

I met my sister for lunch and got some yummy cupcakes from Crumbs:

We went for dinner at Quartino ... another delicious restaurant!

I had brunch with Face at The Breakfast Club:

Went shopping for an afternoon and enjoyed the beautiful weather and scenery:

And watched my grandfather play the cello in the Evanston Symphony!

Isn't he adorable in his bowtie?

After Chicago, we celebrated Halloween at R.'s:

as the trio from Alice and Wonderland!

In November ... 

I had a spa afternoon at The Chyrsalis in Bellingham, compliments of J.  It was awesome and if I ever strike it rich, I am definitely going to be treating myself to spa afternoons more often!

I got my first speeding ticket in 10 years.  Thank you Island County.

The squadron Wives Club started preparing for the homecoming. 

And I spent a week in Houston for Thanksgiving! 

In December ... 

I saw The Nutcracker at the Pacific Northwest Ballet ...

J. came home from his four month deployment:

Mr. K13 met baby Noah for the first time and the whole hangar was teary eyed.  Meg and Aaron from Evantide Photography captured the moment beautifully.

We got engaged ... which you can read all about here.

And then we went home for two weeks!

It was a great way to end 2011.  

Thanks for sticking with me through my blogging rut ... I hope you all have a wonderful MLK weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving Friends! 

I hope you had a wonderful day and were able to spend it with your loved ones!  

I could write out a list of things I'm thankful for, but that would take all night and I know I'd forget a few things.  So, I'll sum it up with this ...

for the opportunity to spend time with my family, for the warm weather, for the sunshine and for the fact that today brings me one day closer to the end of this deployment!

The Mother Visits the Pacific Northwest 2011 - Visiting Victoria, Part II

So remember that one time that I went to Victoria?  

I guess it's about time that I finish blogging about it.  Especially since I have about one million other things to tell you about that have happened since then and we don't want to go out of order now, do we?  

So, in case you don't remember ... you can read about our first day in Victoria here. 

We started our second day in Victoria bright and early ... we had a lot to accomplish before catching the evening ferry out of Sidney, B.C.

We wandered a few blocks away to Chef Suzi in the Square for breakfast.  It was the cutest little cafe and nice on our pocketbook after our slightly expensive first day in Victoria.  

Photo from Chez Suzi website

After breakfast, we wandered around the square - there was some kind of Sunday market going on with lots of cute little jewelry vendors.  Then we headed back to the Fairmont and got the car so we could head out on our adventures for the day. 

First up on our list was Mile 0 ... I've been to Mile 0 in Key West and now Mile 0 in Victoria.  Probably couldn't get any more far apart huh?

Mile 0 - US 1 

Key West, FL

Mile 0 - Trans-Canada Highway (or Highway 1)

Victoria, B.C.

Coincidentally, they are both popular tourist photo ops :) 

Mile 0 is also conveniently located next to Beacon Hill Park which had great views of the Olympics across the Strait of Juan De Fuca.  At Beacon Hill, we were directly north of Port Angeles, WA on the Olympic Peninsula.

View from Beacon Hill Park:

We hopped back into the car and headed towards Mount Tolmie, which had great views of the city and also Mount Baker. 

Loved the compass pointing you in the right direction:

Can you see Mount Baker in the pictures below?

And then we headed out of Victoria, towards Buchart Gardens which were conveniently located between Victoria and Sidney (where we needed to catch the ferry!)

Butchart Gardens were amazing.  I didn't think it would be THAT cool, because how cool can a garden really be?  But they were amazing.  So amazing that I took a billion pictures and my camera battery died.  And then I seriously considered running out to the car to re-charge it so I could finish taking pictures.  Seriously.  CRAZY.  They were also so amazing that I'd like to go back because the gardens are different each season.  

Double headed Begonias.  Love.

The Sunken Garden

Lilypad

Ross Fountain

Take 2

Totem Poles

Dahlias.  I LOVE DAHLIAS.  Love them.

Dahlia Row.  LOVE.

Cherry Parfait Rose

More roses

Sturgeon Fountain

Japanese Lantern

Pacific Northwest Style = covered in moss.

Butchart Cove

Because no estate is complete without a cove, right?

AJ in the Japanese Garden

A little stone bridge

Lily pad!

Me in the Japanese Garden

Let's pretend that stripes don't make one wider :)

Italian Garden 

.... and then my camera died :( 

Map of the Gardens. 

After Butchart, we headed to Sidney.  We walked around the shops a bit and had an adult beverage and snack at Beacon's Landing Bar & Grill.  They had amazing bruschetta and fun cocktails.  Perfect for an afternoon pick me up :)

And then we hopped on the ferry (and I charged my camera battery so I could take MORE pictures). 

Mt. Baker

Good-bye Sidney!

Mt. Baker

The sun setting on Mount Baker ... love the colors in this one!

And that was our trip to Victoria ...