Smile at the rising sun

We were all up by 5:30 a.m. feeling refreshed and ready to go. LOL!  Even though we felt great we knew that a speedy start could result in an early crash and burn.  The morning views from the balcony were great.  As my in-laws got ready for work and daycare Zane and Dude had a blast with their 2 year old cousin and I tried different Japanese breakfast foods.  Aloe yogurt was by far my favorite, but the bread, mayo, corn kernel snack and octopus bread balls were also good.  By 7 a.m. my bro-in-law was off to work and about a half hour later I joined my sister-in-law (who we will call Cuñada-chan) in dropping off my nephew to the neighborhood day care.  Cuñada-chan took me to the closest grocery store (here they are 7-11s with healthy Japanese food) then she gave me great instructions on how to catch the bus to the train station, so we can meet her at her job for lunch.  

I left her at her bus stop and headed back home to my guys.  We laid around for a few hours, got dressed, then headed out to find my sister in law.  

Once again (just like in Germany ) buying train tickets was... let's say a challenge.  One of the keys to happy travels, and to life in general, is knowing how to laugh at yourself, and metro travel abroad puts thebphilosophy into full affect.  So after a 5 minute attempt at buying a train ticket I gave up and decided to ask for help.  I found the friendliest looking person in uniform around and asked for helping in English.  Our convo went like this:

Me: "Ohio gozaimasu (that means hello 1 of the 4 words I know) how do I buy train ticket?" 

Transit employee guy: Nods his head as if he understands me (good sign) he then points at the machine I just left.

Me: Hai (that means yes #2 of 4 words I know) but I don't read Japanese!

Him: you must press English button (he then gives me the universal DUH you're a dumb-ass look)! 

Ha!  Feeling like a humbled idiot I returned to the machine pressed the big-ass English button that I previously didn't see and continued to buy the tickets.  I bought the ticket but still am not sure if I bought the correct ticket or the concept of ticket buying in Japan. 

We finally made it to my sister-in-law's job at the Yokohama Landmark tower and ate lunch at the top.  The view was beyond impressive and the guys went crazy over the amount of helicopters and helipads that were on top of the surrounding buildings.  The dish of the day was meat loaf with rice and salad. Dude murdered that meat loaf.  I mean he ate the whole block of meat like a caveman.  I've never seen him eat so much during our travels.   

After lunch at about 3pmI was ready to walk around more, but the guys were sleepy and insisted in going back home.  AlphaPoppa kept saying I'm ok I just don't have the energy to walk around I'm not going to sleep.  But let me tell you, as soon as we got in the apartment he ran for the couch and was out like a light,  the boys and I were able to stay awake a couple of hours, but out next was Dude.  I let him sleep 40 minutes then tried to wake him to go to the park.  He stayed awake for about an hour but was painfully cranky and fell asleep the first chance he got.  Zane was doing great, but I 

knew something was up when I disappeared around 7 pm.  He too was in bed in a comatose slumber.  I'm currently fighting this sleep like a pro.  You are what's keeping me up right now. Thank god Cuñada chan and my nephew are home to help me stay awake for just a while longer.