Ocean Day

Monday was "Ocean Day" is Japan.  The purpose of the holiday is to give thanks to the ocean's bounty and to consider the importance of the ocean to Japan as an island nation. Many people take advantage of the holiday and summer weather to take a beach trip. Other ocean-related festivities are observed as well.

It's a relatively new holiday so not very many traditions have been set yet.  We had a hard time deciding what we wanted to do, but after checking the weather we settled in Odaiba Island.  Summer has officially started in Japan and brought along with it some smoking hot and humid weather. :(  Odaiba is a man-made island full of air-conditioned shopping malls, tv studios, a huge ferris wheel, life size Gundam statue, the Statue of Liberty, etc.

We mainly opted for the air-conditioned shopping malls. :)  First we had lunch at Kua Aina- our favorite Hawaiian hamburger place.  It's SOOO good.  I always order a turkey and avocado sandwich, but the burgers also look super tasty.  The cool thing about this Kua Aina is that we had a table overlooking the Tokyo Bay and Rainbow Bridge.  I bet it's super pretty at night.

After lunch we hit up ToysRUs, bought Logan some official soccer shoes since he seems to be enjoying himself, bought Kelsie her yukata to wear to the festivals this summer, and shopped at the first Old Navy ever to open outside the US.  Old Navy was SUPER crowded, but I was able to find a couple things for me (they only carry sizes up to a womens size Large) and a couple things for Avri.  It's the first store that I've found that actually sells 0-3 month size clothing (except Carters at Costco). I think since most Japanese women don't leave their homes for the first few months the babies just wear the kimono style onesies.

 While I was shopping Kurt took the kids to see Gundam.  They thought it was awesome.

Overall it was a well spent Ocean Day - thank you Japanese government for coming up with random holidays to get us out of the apartment.