Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto.

That's about the extent of Japanese that I knew going into my trip... and it's about the extent of the Japanese I know now. And I'm sad to say that we didn't see any robots or Godzillas last week. Despite those letdowns, it was a spectacular week.

 We got lots of time together and were able to travel to several different cities around the area. Our first train experience was on the way to Kamakura, where we met up with some friends who had just moved to Japan, sampled some Japanese street food and saw a three story tall Buddha built in the 14th century.

In Yokohama Chinatown, we munched some roasted chestnuts, spent time debating over which pottery to buy (apparently, I like "wrapping paper designs" while Chris is more of a traditionalist), and did not sample the roasted ducks and shark fin soup. 

We took another train ride to Roppongi and walked down to Tokyo Tower where we rode the elevator up and watched the sunset over the city of Tokyo. As we left the observation deck, we went to get off the elevator at what we thought was the right floor, and I was shocked as the elevator doors quickly closed between my husband and myself! It took me several tries to get back to the right floor and by the time I finally found my husband (not on the floor I left him!), I was a bit agitated. I'm sure you will be glad to know that even after months apart, we can still act like a normal couple and get annoyed at each other. :) I assure you we didn't stay annoyed for long though. 

We spent two nights at the New Sanno hotel in Tokyo where we had an exciting Teppanyaki (Japanese steakhouse) dinner celebration for my birthday and were shocked to discover an entire shop devoted to chopsticks (and some that were over $5,000!!).

And on our last night together, we hopped over to Shibuya, the busiest intersection in the world, known to some as the "Timesquare of Japan". 

Besides all the fun day trips and the adventure of hopping on trains without knowing if they were actually going where we wanted, we also had lots of sweet down time together and I was reminded yet again of the amazing best friend I have in my husband. What a blessing to have conversations face to face and to share little moments in the day that we miss when we are apart. Even the mundane moments were sweet because we were together (ok, you have permission to gag now). Overall, it was a fantastic visit and I'm so thankful that God orchestrated all the details of this trip.