Team dinner

We went out to dinner with the design team last night. Vada crashed out on the seat between us and I enjoyed some nice Kobe beef sashimi. I don’t know that I would eat the beef from our grocery store raw, but this was pretty tasty. 

Fish market

We went to the Tokyo fish market this morning. I had wanted to go when I’ve been over here in the past, but never had the chance. It was quite an experience. Very, very hectic — and huge. It took a few videos to try to capture the chaos, but they are just too chaotic to really make out what is going on anywhere. There are guys racing around on these little motorized carts, basically just a pallet with a steering wheel and motor. The isles are tiny and crowded and the carts come from every direction. We finally weaved our way through the carts and trucks and made it into the actual market itself. You could pretty much get anything you would ever want either still alive or recently dead. That’s all assuming that anything you would ever want comes from the sea.

Seeing all of that fish really worked up an appetite. So we got breakfast at the market: fresh sushi! The sea eel was the best I’ve ever had. It was a fun morning and Vada did great through the rain, cold, smells, running, and eating.

Cherry Blossoms

We arrived in Tokyo at the tail end of the cherry blossoms. This is a street near the studio where Carmen is working this week.

Tokyo from the 36th floor

Out too late

I think I kept the girls out too late last night. I’m not sure who looks more tired.

Scratching post

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Vada has finally found a use for my beard on this trip. There is usually an hour of this interspersed with screaming everyday around 11 am.

Vada’s first “meal,” top 3 all time for me

At the end of the meal we had sliced apples for desert. Trust me, they were fantastic and I’m not a huge apple guy. The chef took an apple slice and diced it crazy fine and then gave it to Vada. She isn’t exactly eating solid foods yet, but it’s tough to pass that up as a first meal. It took a while to get the hang of it, especially compared to the watery thin rice pudding that she’s had all of twice, but by the end she was lunging for the spoon. This is why we like to travel — especially internationally. I can assure you we would not have had this experience at Applebees. 

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Carmen and I are in Tokyo this week so that Carmen can work out of the Tokyo studio. Vada’s days are a bit rough as she isn’t quite dealing with the time change (16 hr) seamlessly, but the trip over was pretty smooth. Delta has a bassinet that hooks into the bulk head so Vada got to sleep on her back and stretch out which was really nice for her. Below you can see some photos of her hanging out with her favorite toy — Sophie the Giraffe.

After 10 hours on the plane Vada was ready to conquer her first train.

It was raining on Monday in Tokyo so she got to test out the plastic cover on our collapsable stroller. Pretty much works just like the plastic cover on our big stroller in Portland. Vada approved.

Trial run.

Toban is on his own this week during the day with Vada. That includes lunch time. Here he is practicing a tricky over the baby’s head eating technique while wearing baby in a baby bjorn. Notice the toy also strapped to the baby carrier.

Sent from my iPhone

Waitin’ for the flight

Vada relaxing at PDX waiting to board our flight to Tokyo.