Jake and Noah, Mom is heading home tomorrow. We have had a lot of fun over here experiencing all the fun things that Japan has to offer. Above is some chunky tuna, raw. It tasted really good, with Wasabi and soy sauce.
This is the fun Shuboya square...there are lots of people here and they don't slow down! It is a big shopping district with lots of places to eat and shop.
Your mom wore me out with boot shopping...
And it rained a little while we were out. But your Mommy is lovely in whatever scenario she is in...I didn't mind the boot shopping that much!
We found a cool little cafe...it is made completely out of ice. It was 23 degrees in there and all the tables and chairs were made out of ice. The cups were made out of ice as well, and they gave us coats and gloves to keep us somewhat warm. They make the ice in Europe and ship it over here to make this place. It was pretty cool, pun intended.
And of course, we enjoyed the hot coffee of starbucks as well...we enjoyed all our time together. Your mother and I had a blast together on this vacation, but we missed you boys a lot. Pray that Mom has a safe trip back to America and you will see her soon. I love and miss you, I will be home in a couple of months...take good care of Mom until I get back. Love ya, Dad and Mom
Alright Me boy's: Today, we went to the Imperial Palace in downtown Tokyo. The Prince and Princess of Japan live here, but you can't go inside or see them cause it is their private residence/house. It is a rather large house that they live in and it is surrounded by lots of tree's and gardens. They even have their own moat!
This is a statue of a Samurai on a horse, if you zoom in really close just behind his right hand, you can see a helicopter!
This is their moat, pretty cool, eh! They even have their own swans, coy and other birds. It was unique to see so many creatures in the middle of downtown. 
Of course, no palace would be complete without high walls and bridges. On the right side of this picture you can see one of their house's peeking out behind the tree's.
More pictures of the wild-life...these might be wood ducks...or they might just be ducks! I am not sure. They were friendly cause they thought we had food.
They had a water-fountain park which was pretty cool. You couldn't get in the water and play around, but the views were really nice and the water cooled the air there to make it nice and comfortable. The tree's are turning fall colors and the leaves are falling, made Mom happy to see it like this. She really enjoys the fall.
We went to a toy store and bought you some toy's. I won't tell you what we got you but boy are you going to like it when you get them...cause Mom will be home to give them to you! They had this cool car track at the top of the toy store and were letting people race the cars while we were there. It looked like lots of fun...but no, we didn't buy this for you cause Mom wouldn't be able to carry it in her purse! We love and miss you! Mom will be home in 3 day's; be good for Auntie Lisa and get better. Remember, no having fun while we are gone. Love you. Dad and Mom
PS. This is Dad; I saw a lot of cool motorcycles like this one in the picture. You have to help me convince Mom that I need a motorcycle just like this for Christmas. Can you remind her of this when she gets home? Thanks.
Boys: We traveled again today, this time back to Tokyo. We took the fast "bullet train" again and had a nice quiet discussion about what toy's we were going to bring back for you while we were cruising across the Japanese landscape. When we got to Tokyo, we went to the Tokyo Tower (11m taller than the Eiffel Tower) and took a look around the city.
These three pictures are of Tokyo at night. There are a lot of lights and lots of people here. It gets dark around 5:30 at night so there is a lot of things to left to do after the sun goes down. They like to play soccer and baseball here, just like you do back in America. Wouldn't that be fun to play soccer beneath big lights like that in the middle of the city?
This morning when we got into our taxi cab, our driver told us he loved American movies and sang us two songs from some of the movies that he has watched. He said that he has watched "White Christmas" over 200 times...that is actually more times than you boys have watched "Cars". Impressive, eh? We love and miss you both. Mom will be home in 4 more day's so keep checking off your calendars. Love, Dad and Mom.
WE LOVE YOU!!!
Boy's: here we are again at a Japanese "garden" thinking of you. Hope all is well back in South Carolina and that you are checking off your day's till Mom comes home. She is being good about checking off her day's as well while she has been here. Today, we ate at McDonalds for breakfast and had pizza for dinner, not bad for being in Japan!
Today we went to the top of a mountain just outside Kyoto and went for a little hike. Since we have been here, we have traveled on an airplane, a subway, a train, a taxi, a cable-car and and a Gondola. We traveled in the Cable car (picture above), the Gondola (picture below) and the taxi today.
These are the Japanese mountains that we saw at the top of the hill.
They have big trees in their forests, somewhat like Yosemite. We didn't see any animals while we were out in the forest, we were kinda bummed about that.
This is one of their many gardens. They have many little places to sit and look at the landscape. My favorite was the seat carved out of a tree stump. Love and miss you! Dad and Mom.
Boy's: The Japanese culture here is pretty unique. They like lot's of tree's and vegetation in their cities and castle's. The picture above is cool because that is one big tree, but it seems that there is some sort of different plant growing in the first set of branches. Also, your mom is beautiful. The picture below shows some of the large branches being propped up by sticks so the tree's won't sag as much.
Today, we went to a temple and two castle's. This little guy is one of four holding up a water fountain. He doesn't look all that happy, does he? Poor statue.
Here is the inside of a temple...lots of gold and stuff.
This is one of the gardens in the Imperial Castle. They put a lot of work into keeping these tree's looking nice and the grounds looking clean. Does our back-yard look like this? We might have to get a rake and start working at it, eh! Maybe you can surprise mom when she comes home!
This is one of the gates to get into the Imperial Castle. 
Here is mom and I in one of the gardens at the castle thinking of you boy's again. Hope you are enjoying your time with Auntie Lisa, we saw the fun pictures of you all at the beach. Keep up the good work of helping around the house.
We love and miss you boy's. Mom will be home soon with lots of presents!
Jake and Noah, it is our first day in Japan together. We found a little "garden" on top of the roof of a mall and sat down and thought of you guys. How has Aunt Lisa been doing? I am glad to hear that you are doing a good job of helping her around the house while mom is gone.
We rode the "Shin" train today. I think you boy's would like to ride it as it goes really fast through tunnels and cities. Check out the video at the bottom of the post.
When we got to Kyoto, we met crane. He didn't know where Po or Monkey were...he said we might find them later on if we look hard enough. 
We also went and saw a Japanese castle in Kyoto. It was really big and was made entirely of wood. They don't let you take pictures of the inside or wear shoes while you go in there, but it is a nice building.
I took your mother to "sushi-go-round" for the first time. Above is a picture of raw squid that I ate and below is your mom trying the feast. The little conveyor belt brings the sushi around to all the tables and lets you pick which one you want to eat...a rather unique way of serving the food. I was glad that mom was willing to try it; the squid is extra squishy/gooey, but it was some of the better squid that I have had.
And finally, here is your mom being crazy again. Monkey would be proud! Love you boy's and thanks for the monk e-mails. Hopefully we can call you sometime soon! Love, Mom and Dad.