Ah, Fair Land of Yamato

(by Suzanne)

So, we are in Japan now. As much as I loved China, and was sorry to be leaving, it is really nice to be in a country where you can drink the water and breathe the air, and which is so very very clean. And it’s nice to not be in a police state anymore. We were surprised to find that China now blocks blogspot, the site that we posted from every day on our adoption trip. So, we’ve been writing, and saving our posts as Word documents, to be uploaded soon in the order they were written. So, if you want to read them in chronological order, you should go back to October 23.

Lillia is really loving Japan. My sister Janet, her husband Ken, and their daughter Molly are here, visiting my nephew Jacob, his wife Minako, and their adorable baby Hanae, who live here in Tokyo. So Lillia has lots of people to interact with, and she’s in love with the baby (as we all are).

Hanae

The day after we arrived, we visited the Studio Ghibli Museum, which was absolutely wonderful. Lillia had lots of fun climbing in and out of the giant plush catbus. (N.B. If anyone reading this is wondering what the hell I’m talking about, you must immediately put My Neighbor Totoro at the top of your Netflix queue. No excuses.) Here is Totoro himself at a ticket window:

There was a short film (a sequel of sorts to My Neighbor Totoro) called Mei and the Kittenbus (Mei to koneko basu), which can only be seen at the museum. It was a scream. Unfortunately, no photography is allowed inside the museum, so I can’t show you the catbus or any of the other exhibits. The gift shop was packed like the Tokyo subway at rush hour. I wanted everything I saw, but the prices were hair-raising (actually, all the prices in Japan are hair-raising). We did buy a couple of little pins. Here’s mine:

The next day, we all went to a chrysanthemum festival at a nearby temple. There were lots of kids there for Shichi-Go-San (Seven-Five-Three), when girls aged three and seven, and boys aged five are blessed at their neighborhood temple.

Lillia and my sister Janet with Chrysanthemum Man.

Lillia with chrysanthemums bigger than her head.

Children elaborately gift-wrapped for Shichi-Go-San.

A few days ago, Lillia said to me, “I want to buy everything I bump into!” I told her I understood that completely. Japan is so full of cute toys and exquisite hand-crafted objects. Moreover, I want to eat everything I bump into. Obviously, I am obsessed with food in general, but I’m realizing anew that Japanese food is my absolute favorite. I will do a whole post about food later.