DAY 8: Adachi, Tokyo
Mother’s Day in Japan! 🙂 My dad and I rode bikes to look for a florist using Google Maps. This failed us 5 times. Each place we stopped, the shop didn’t exist and was replaced by apartment buildings or was under construction. After nearly an hour of riding, we finally found one and bought a few bouquets for every mother in the family. I got to Skype my sisters and my mom and it was so sweet to receive texts from my friends Larry and Raymarc. ❤
We chilled the whole day and Brandon and I went out on a little biking date while Bruce played with the kids.
DAY 9: Adachi, Tokyo
During our visit, Bruce would sneak into my Uncle and Aunt’s house every morning. (I didn’t know this until a few days in. Haha!) My Uncle would be eating his breakfast with a cup of coffee topped with a scoop of ice cream and my Aunt would be watching the morning news with him. He would slide the door open, take off his shoes, and show my Aunt his latest gift he’d received the day before. He’d then spot the ice cream floating in my Uncle’s coffee and some how communicate (language barrier) that he wants a scoop too. So yes, Bruce got a scoop of vanilla ice cream every morning and ate it next to my Uncle. Haha! I guess that formed a little bond between them and he’d let Bruce feed the koi whenever we were there during feeding time. ❤
Side note: I learned that my Uncle’s koi’s are nationally known and they’ve been on top koi magazines, won prizes, and even donated to national gardens like the Kyu Shiba Rikyu Garden that we visited on Day 5. Pretty neat!
We ate, talked, and even found some old photo albums from back in the day.
Me and my curly hair. 😉
DAY 10: Last Day
Our flight wasn’t until midnight so we had one last day to go out with a bang. Ha! My cousin, Shinji, and his family took us to this arcade place that had so many random but cool things. We ended up in a small kid’s play area with a bar swing. Bruce asked if I could push him and I told him he needs to push himself since he knows his height limit. A few minutes later, he asked Brandon and of course, Brandon pushes him so high that Bruce gets scared at the highest point, lets go of the bar, flies off, and lands right on his elbow. 
He screams. I scream. His arm is completely limp. But because he’d popped his elbow out many times before, we thought it was just that. Brandon popped it back in but he didn’t stop crying like he usually does. We ended up going to a hospital a few hours before we had to leave for the airport. Luckily, our doctor went to school at UCLA and spoke fluent English. What were the chances? 🙂 Found out he fractured his arm so we had to get a cast. Poor baby. But he really was a trooper. And for those who are wondering how much it was, it was pennies compared to what we had to pay for every follow up visit here in the states. We didn’t have international insurance, we got x-rays and a cast and the whole thing was under $250. Crazy.
We came home from the hospital and took a pic with my cousin, Nobue’s daughter who had broken her wrist a couple days before. Oh, what were the chances. Haha! We had one last big family dinner and said our goodbyes. We’re so thankful for everything that every single person had done for us. Family is so important and I want to keep them very close. Hoping we can return the favor when they all come to visit us. 🙂 We miss them all so much!
This was the only photo from our trip where we got all but one baby. ❤
And to end our Japan trip recap, here’s most of what we ate. 😉 The food! The food was so good, my stomach grumbles every time I look through these pix:
So hungry now!
Lots of smiles,
Akiyo
MyDearDarling 