Off to Japan: An Assortment of Updates

Sorry in advance for the long post. We have been lucky to experience quite a few things since my last post, so this one is long.

Brooke's first weeks of school

Brooke started school on October 17th. We had visited a closed down school a few times prior to her first day, so we were talking to her a lot about what school was even before her first day. She had been asking to go for several weeks, so we decided to have her start twice a week for now. She was very excited to start!

After her first day, she didn't want school anymore, LOL. We were lucky as Graham was working the later shift on her first day, so we were all able to walk to school together. We let Brooke ride her bike, which she really enjoyed. The first day was overwhelming for her. She really didn't want us to go, but of course we had to. As we were walking outside, we could hear her crying (she was in the 2nd floor classroom). When we got back to pick her up, the teacher told us she cried for a good 5-10 minutes, but was then fine. The next school day, Brooke kept saying "I don't want to go to school, I want to stay home." This was upsetting for me too, as she was so excited about school previously, but we continued on. This time she cried again, but when I picked her up, she didn't want to go home, yeah!! After the first two days she was just fine. Now she pushes me out the door :) The other day she even asked if she could stay longer, as she wanted to nap with the other kids, awww! She goes from 9-12 so she doesn't nap at school yet. We may try to extend her hours in the new year.

She has a few friends there. Maxon is one of them, he also lives at the Canadian Embassy with his parents and older brother. There is another girl, whose name I don't know how to spell, but Brooke says it's Wishwin (she is Japanese). Brooke also talks about her Sensei whose name is pronounced Meyou. They do a lot of activities with the kids, puzzles, music, painting, exercising and much more. She is loving it, and I am loving having 3 hours to myself to explore :)

Ninja Restaurant and Cigar Bar

Graham and I had a date night out to Ninja Restaurant. It was a great experience, lots of fun and GREAT food. When you arrive, the door outside is a bit hidden, so you have to look closely. Part of the fun is finding the door :) When you arrive, they clap their hands, and a Ninja arrives, to take you to your table. You have to walk through a really dark, low roofed obstacle type maze to make it to your table. Your server seats you in your own private booth. By private, I mean there is a door they close, and you can't see or hear anyone around you, which is kind of nice. We have been to a few restaurants like this so far, I like it.

The food was fantastic, some of the best I have ever had. We paid $50.00 each and had an 8 course meal. The pictures really don't do this place justice, as it's so dark it's hard to get a good shot. The menu is a Ninja scroll that you open up and view.

This is what our dinner course was made up of:

1.	Shuriken star-blades grissini (This is in one of the pictures I took. It is a throwing star shaped cracker with a spread. Basic, however the spread was so amazing)!

2.	Mont Blanc of vegetables (A pastry type ball with veggies)

3.	Fiery chicken wings and cashew nuts (MMMM one of my favorites. The wings were not spicy to us, but the taste was so good. I would recommend a recipe with chicken and cashews anytime, they go so well together).

4.	Special stone-boiled soup (This one was my FAVORITE. I know that it's a bit odd picking the soup as a favorite, but it was just so delicious. The lady made it at our table, by putting a rock heated to 300 degrees in a bowl of broth. She then added spices and veggies. It was one of Graham's favorites also).

5.	Capellini with Japanese tomato flavor (A thin pasta in a sun-dried tomato, again very tasty. Graham said this was his favorite).

6.	Meat specialty or seafood specialty of the day (We chose the meat, which was a blackened pork. Very good! It had something wrapped around it, I think it was bamboo).

7.	Sushi of the season & ｔoday's Sushi Roll

8.	Today's dessert (This one was a tad disappointing, it was a mango yogurt. Still good though)

In the middle of our dinner a Ninja came to do a magic show. It was very well done, and Graham and I had no clue how he did the tricks he did. It was a pleasant surprise and very entertaining to watch.

At the end, we were walked out the door, and then the hostess lady ran up to us. At first I thought we left something behind, but instead sh opened a scroll that said please come again :)) Haha, nice touch at the end.

After the restaurant, we went to a Cigar bar. Graham bought a cigar and he enjoyed it in the bar. I think Graham was in heaven here!! Graham ordered a few nice glasses of scotch and I had a couple caramel Martini's. When Graham has friends/family visit, I am sure he will want to take you here.

Remembrance Day

For remembrance day the Canadian Embassy provided transportation to a graveyard that was roughly an hour away. There was a ceremony being put on by one of the other nations. It was a great turn out, with people from many different Embassies. During our time before and after the ceremony, we walked around the sites a bit. It is a very beautiful graveyard, with different areas for different countries and graves of those who dies in the war. We visited the Canadian one of course. Graham and the other military members took a few wreaths to the Canadian gravestones.

Overall it was a very nice ceremony, that lasted just under an hour, which was a nice amount of time. Afterward Brooke even said "That was a nice Ceremony".

Graham mentioned, when he looked at the graves, he noticed the date of death on many of them was after the war had ended. So he mentioned that it was sad to say that many who made it through the war, actually lost their lives because of the poor conditions after the war, not the war itself, very sad.

I don't have any pictures to post now, as they are on our camera (not my phone) and have not been uploaded as of yet. I will post them to photobucket at a later time.

DisneyLand

We visited Disneyland a few days ago, and it was a blast. Brooke was so fascinated by all the people and scenery around her. We spent most of the day in Toontown, where we got to meet Mickey Mouse. It was an hour line up to get to see him, but it was well worth the wait, and Brooke did well in the line up. Part of the hour line up is actually inside Mickey's house. As soon as we arrived to Mickey, Brooke wanted to give him a big hug, but was held back a bit, as there was still a few people in front of us. When it was our turn, she got lots of hugs, kisses and high fives. She was super stoked.

Brooke's favorite was the Disneyland parade, which was Christmas themed. During the parade we got to see all the characters, plus Santa. We just happened to be leaving ToonTown as it started, so we were lucky to catch it. I didn't realize just how much Brooke was excited about Christmas until this year, she is always talking about it, and pointing out things. There are a ton of Christmas lights going up around Tokyo already, and we have viewed a few already. Over the next month there are tons of shows all around Tokyo that we will for sure check out. Here is a link to some of the shows/events/areas we will try to check out, if your interested, take a look.

http://www.tokyo-kids.com/index.php/en/what-s-on

One of Brooke's other favorites at Disneyland was being able to drive a car. She liked getting up on the pretend Goofy and Mickey cars in toontown, and we then found a ride that toddlers could do, an it was to drive a car. Graham and Brooke went on that one together, and Graham said she was yelling "Look Dad I'm driving", the entire time. She also really liked the it's a small world ride, which we got to ride a boat on.. Very fun! Even though we went on a weekday it was still VERY busy and crowded, but oh well, it was still a blast.