Zachary got home from his first underway on Friday evening, so we decided to do something fun on Saturday. He has duty (24 hours aboard the ship) on Sunday then his week begins again, so it was our only full day together. So we decided to head to Zoorasia aka Yokohama Zoo. It was the final day of Golden Week, which is a week full of Japanese holidays and everything is closed. Most people go traveling on this week. Well, everyone was at the zoo! First I was schooled by a young Japanese woman on how the ticket machine worked. I was trying to press the buttons then feed in my yen, nope, give the machine your yen, then press what tickets you need. Now we know for next time. We were given an English map when we walked in. Whew! At least I could tell where we were at! We headed straight for the restrooms since it was a bit of a drive. We were very brave today, letting Luke wear big boy underwear. He's in his first week of "focused" potty training, so this was a huge step. He went into the kid's restroom and all was good. Then I went into the women's and walked into a stall. I forgot that they have both Japanese style and Western style (written on the doors in English) toilets. Since I'm such an experience world traveler, I have used a "squatter" before. In Thailand. About 7 years ago. And not completely sober. So needless to say, I had to pump myself up for this. It's basically a toilet bowl installed into the ground. You will be proud to know that I had no issues and everything came out fine :) Hehe. I was so proud and excited that I walked out of the stall with my arms raised Rocky-style. Oh yes, I was THAT girl! I think there might have been a "Woohoo!" thrown in there as well. I came out to meet my boys with a huge grin on my face. So there is my accomplishment of the week!
Next we headed for lunch. They had a "Freshness Burger", and yes, that's really the restaurant's name, so we ordered some burgers. You would think I'd be used to it by now, but we forgot that they are Japan-sized, not super sized! I ordered the Zoorasia burger, which included small burger patty, tomato, onion, what looked like raw bacon, but was really smoked and an over easy egg. I ordered it from the picture, no word description, and I have to say it was tasty. Small, but tasty. Zach chickened out and gave the boys the other Zoorasia burger and took the "Classic" cheeseburger. Oh, did I forget to mention that their company symbol was branded into the top of the bun? Yes it was. We've noticed that Japan just has an extra little something everywhere we look. Once we were done looking at some of the animals, we decided to call it a day. We only did half the place, but figured we'd be back. Next time we will be taking the train and bus. Traffic was that bad.
We are missing our dog something fierce. We hated that fact that she couldn't be shipped over here due to her snub nose. So we went to the pet store just to look and hold the puppies. Let me say this before I go any further...I will never own another puppy. I want a dog that is potty trained and out of the chewing stage. So we looked at the dogs. Zach didn't realize how expensive they can be. They were adorable, but I'm glad that they stayed there. Once we get settled down, we'll look at local shelters. There are still many dogs still in shelters from the Fukushima earthquake a year ago. But they were so stinkin' cute!
On our way home, we had to turn around and ended up on the local road to get home instead of the tollway. No big deal, we were in no hurry. Let's us get out and see some more of Japan. Heading on down, we saw they boys' mecca...Toys R Us. So we stopped because I'm on a mission for my Aunt Dean. I will find her an Asian baby doll. No questions, it WILL be done. I have looked at about 4-5 other places, but they don't look Japanese! Stinkin' Americans! I'm just kidding, but it's difficult to find when that's what you're looking for. We had a blast there looking at all their stuff. The boys each got to pick out a small toy and thought they were on top of the world. As we were pulling out, we got turned around from the entrance area and went the wrong way. Well, not wrong way, but a different way. We were trying to quiet the boys down so that Zach and I could talk, think and read all at the same time. So we asked them to be quiet because we're a little turned around and need to concentrate. Little Luke piped right up and said, "You know, we're in Japan." Thank you Luke for stating the obvious. We knew the general direction we were heading in, just wanted to catch the toll road. They have fabulous signs, but lots of info on each sign. So trying to read the whole sign, while driving is a bit difficult. We made it, so all is well. We didn't even have to turn around and go back the other way!
As I sit here typing, I'm snacking on some Crunky Balls. And no, that's not a typo. Sometimes they try to Americanize the names and it's hilarious! Just another small thing to amuse us. Things are going well, we're getting used to the area, driving and just living in a foreign country.
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