April 6th

Today Mom and I decided to go to Sakae a neighborhood located about 5 blocks from my parents apartment.

The first stop was at a stamp shop to order a traditional stamp used in Japan that has your name on it in Kanji or Katikana. The stamp is used like a signature and is commonly uses on bills and banking. This task proved to be the hardest and even with my trusty book I was unable to explain my self to the shop owner what I wanted. In the end we had to call Mina san a young lady that works for Boeing and has helped translate and label my parents apartment.

In Sakae the biggest attraction is the high end shopping. One of the most popular is Mitsukoshi. It reminded me a lot of Harrods in London with a full service grocery store. But the gem is the pastry shop that has every kind of sweet and savory, buttery and sugary thing you may need. YUMMY!!!

Located in the very back of the grocery was Harrods Tea room, Coincidence? Mom and I decided it would be fun to do a traditional English tea, and had a very nice time with sandwiches and salads, and some of the best English tea I have ever had.

We then went to Tokyo Hans which is a store kind of like Michael's and Ace hardware all in one? I t is pretty hard to describe. The store it self is broken into 9 floors and all of them have something completely different. Beads and scrap booking. School supplies and hardware. Toiletries and sundries. sporting goods and men's furnishings. Women's apparel and household. A strange but neat place.

Located in the middle of Sakae is Central Park, it has gorgeous view s of the Sakura along with a creek that runs down the center of it. It is a relaxing place to view the trees and watch people.

WE stopped in to the Boeing office to say thank you to Mina and to check out the central office of Boeing.

Our last stop was Oasis 21 a large mall that has a cool flat glass roof with a art installation on the top that holds water. We did some shopping and I found some of the souvenirs I was looking to bring back.

Mom and I got dinner ready and I found myself walking to the corner store to buy vinegar for salad dressing and ended up with what we believed to be rice wine vinegar and another bottle of cooking wine. Not bad for going of the viscosity and not having any idea of what the labels say!