Happy Thanksgiving!

The bullet train-so cool and sleek-best mode of transportation!

Tim and Trevor on the bullet train

We made it to the station in Osaka!!

Subway that took us to Universal-cute!

Entrance to Universal

Snoopy in the parade at night

Katie at the Hilton

Boat Ride along river

Osaka Castle

This year was our first away from extended family for Thanksgiving so we had to put atwist on it! The kids had half day on Wednesday so we decided to fix our feast Wednesday for dinner. I bought an 8 lb turkey, made dressing, yams from a can, corn bake, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, turkey gravy and canned cranberries. Finished off the meal with pumpkin pie with whipped cream! YUM. We were stuffed and really enjoyed the American feasting. Tim took off Thursday and Friday as they are not holidays for him-obviously. We boarded the bullet train at 9am to Osaka. We had purchased two day tickets to the Universal Studios there. We stayed at the Hilton Osaka which was very nice and all decked out for Christmas. They had an amazing breakfast buffet that the kids gorged themselves on each morning. Omelets, bread and tea with honey were some of the favorites. Oh, and nutella which they have now discovered! Of course we enjoyed the rides at Universal but the shows were all in Japanese which frustrated the kids and gave us a headache at the end of the day! On Saturday we went to Osaka Castle and enjoyed a 40 minute boat ride along the river. A few nuances of the trip included the kids' dinners at the park. There were quail eggs included with their meals which they did not enjoy. The kids meal was hamburger steak with gravy, rice and quail eggs. They were not impressed. Ours was ribs and rice which was just ok. Friday night we went back early and I took the boys to the Hilton pool for a swim except when we got there they wanted to charge me $10/kid for them to swim!! I was outraged and we left and went back and played cards in the room. The kids handled it really well. Sometimes it's those little things that really get to you. ON Saturday we were schedule to leave at 3pm so we were trying to find something to eat in the station before we left. Everything to eat was Japanese and we were struggling to find something the kids would like and that would be "easy" to wolf down before we had to get on the train back. We finally settled on some gyoza which everyone enjoyed. We were so happy to be back home and enjoyed dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant, La Jolla! WE are counting down the days to get home and stuff our suitcases full of goodies. And now we can say we left Tokyo if even for a few days!