Japan 6

Our second to last day we went to the Asakusa temple. It was packed! Outside of the temple there was a market. It was just opening and wasn't as crowded yet so we were able to get a kimono for Elinor and a couple of gifts for our family. 

 we walked a little bit away from the temple to take a family picture. Then I realized behind us there was a wedding party taking pictures too.

 Then next to that there was a monkey show. We woke Elinor up for it. We felt torn about watching this. We felt sad and sorry for the monkey but his relationship with the woman seemed sweet. 

 a little girl from the wedding was walking around and we asked to take their picture. How adorable is she??

Our last day we did more shopping and looking at shops. Our trip was so much fun and traveling that far with Ellie was way easier than I thought it would be. The only thing that was awful was the jetlag she had! Coming home it was even worse. She is just now starting to get back into her normal sleep schedule. 

Japan is so amazing. Everyone is so nice and happy. Everything is so clean. When our flight got to LA for our layover, I was immediately sad how rude people here are. There is more respect there for babies and elders. There are special seats on the trains for pregnant woman, people with babies, injured people and elders. No one ever gave us dirty looks on the train if Ellie yelled out. Here I get death stares just by walking on the train in the mornings. 

After a couple days of being there and feeding Ellie (covered) in public I started to realize no one else was nursing in public. I got nervous that I shouldn't be doing it so I googled it. I read a couple places that it is fine to do but many people don't. There are feeding rooms in every place we went. At Disney, the museum, at the mall, the airport... Everyplace had dressing room type rooms. Some were small with a curtain between each seat. Some were huge with cribs, changing tables, comfy seats for moms and soft music playing. It was kind of nice especially for a nosey baby like Elinor. She could eat and not be distracted. 

I would love to go back again sometime and go to the country. I can't wait for more vacations and adventures with this little family of mine!

Japan 5

We wanted to go to a museum while we were there to see some Japanese history and culture. I didn't know how it would go bringing a 10 month old but she did good. I let her crawl around a lot and try to walk which kept her entertained. 

 watching a sword tricks

model of Tokyo in the Edo period

Samurai armor and reading to Elinor 

Model of an upper class estate from the Edo period

 portable shrine used in parades

Model of an Edo period bridge into Tokyo

Life-sized recreation of a Kabuki show

 She met a new friend. Elinor is used to being around kids so she went right up to the little girl and grabbed at her. The little girl cried. 

Only one more day of Japan pictures after this! Sorry it is taking so long. It has been easier to go through all of our pictures day by day. 

Japan 3

It was supposed to rain all day again. We headed towards the zoo hoping it wouldn't be too bad. If it got worse we were going to head to a nearby museum. The zoo wasn't far from our hotel and the rain ended up not being so bad. We missed some of it while we were in the reptile house and again when we were eating a snack under a big umbrella. We put the camera away for half of our visit though so it wouldn't get wet.

 When you order soymilk in your drink at starbucks they give you a card that says soy on it. You hand it to them at the end of the line and they give you your drink with a soymilk sticker on it. So many times I've been nervous they didn't hear me when I say soy. I like this system better!

 In the Ueno park

 At the zoo in the reptile house

 passed out baby

 She finally woke up when we went back outside

 This guy on the right we thought was fake. He was huge! He was 4-5 ft and standing so still. We were looking in the cage to see what else was in there and Dave noticed it move and open its mouth. I forget what they were but I've never seen anything like it before. 

 We didn't bring the stroller because of the rain but regretted it quickly. We ended up renting a stroller from the zoo. 

 Sophie!

 Always my favorite the hippos

 kangaroo with her joey

 This family stopped to take pictures with Elinor

 petting zoo

On the walk back it started pouring. We walked to another place Dave found on HappyCow but it wasn't open for another 30min. We had saw a starbucks so went there to get a warm drink and wait. While we were waiting, Elinor was sleeping and we were each posting pictures from the day on instagram. At the same time we realized what day it was and that is was our 5 year anniversary. We laughed a lot, hugged and kissed our baby.