Japan

My oldest woke up at 4am, my daughter 5am, baby at 6am, he walked to our bed even earlier.  We played puppet show,

they love the pelican and the flamingo, my son's pelican was saying "go to pbskids.org" he hears it all the time on TV

In yesterday's blog I wrote about all the places I travelled, and I realized last night I forgot to mention Japan.  The main reason is because all the travels I wrote about were long ago in my high school, college, and my cruise ship years.  Japan was more recent, and a fun story, I love to travel and one day hope to see Australia, Africa, South America, and I would love to go to India.  I also was so excited to go to Asia and I got a chance right before I got married.  One of my girlfriends had already planned a trip, and me and two other friends had airlines miles, so the four of us went together to Japan.

We were mostly in Tokyo, and it was perfect to have the four of us, somehow we managed to see everything we wanted to see by pairing off.  Sometimes two of us wanted one thing, and then another two of us would want something else.  I was most excited to be there in January for the Sumo Wrestling tournament, it was so cool.  We got to sit really close to see the amateurs, then came a bit later to a full stadium to see the heavy hitters, and one of them was not even Asian, amazing strength, focus and control.  There was a cafeteria where you could eat what they eat, and it ended up being like a healthy chicken and vegetable soup.

We went to Kyoto by train for a couple of days, that is where the Geisha quarter it, it was more like being in the country as opposed to the big city feel of Tokyo.  What amazed me most is that in America we know Japan not only for the sushi but for their technology, and I assumed I could get by with my English, and maybe Russian and a bit of Spanish, NOPE!  All the signs were only in Japanese, I do not even know how we caught the train to Kyoto, by sheer luck.  We were headed to a restaurant and pointed to a tour book so the taxi driver would know where to go, it was closed.  He mumbled something in Japanese, I sat in the front, the other three girls in the back, I had no idea what he said, but with a straight face I told the girls that he said it burned down, they were shocked I understood him.  We ended up going to another place that was serving RAW HORSE and RAW CHICKEN, no thanks, I had the rice.  I remember I saw a food cart with Turkish kabobs in a pita, and it made me so happy.

Out of All my travels as a country I absolutely loved Italy, it just has so much oomph!  In their manner of speaking, their food and gelato, and their beauty.  We lived there for a month when we emigrated from Russia, I was seven and don't remember, but my mom said I was reading the Italian signs like I had lived there in another life.  My favorite place that I have traveled to is Santorini, Greece, the whole town is at the top of the mountain.  We came by ship, so the only way to go up was to walk, cable car, or donkey, of course I took the donkey.

I have been to Israel a number of times, once in a high school semester program, another time on the cruise ship I worked.  We were supposed to go to Egypt too, but there was a kidnapping of Americans, so we stayed overnight in Israel, and I got to spend time with my family.  I went with my parents a year before I got married in 2006 for my aunt's 70th birthday, it was a blast to see the whole country, took a bus by myself to Eilat to join relatives there.  Then I went with my husband when my daughter was two months to meet his family, and so he could meet mine.  We were so lucky that they didn't have the car we ordered and got a minivan instead.  God Willing we will go back again soon.

Such great memories,
Such great adventures,
I hope to do more once my kids are older,
I really want to see Hawaii,
Hopefully that is next on the list,
Coach Yulia