First Trip to Nagoya

First, a note about getting in touch with a Toyota wife that is here for a year with her hubby and 3 beautiful children. Her name is Dirsa (Deer-sa) Smith and her husband is Robert Smith. He works in Safety with Kara Yde. They have 2 girls, one is 12 and the other is 4 and are both in school here, and an 18 month old boy. We've only chatted via email and Facebook, but it's so nice knowing there's another wife out there that is looking to be friends with any other American around. (I'm not desperate or anything! Ha!) And such a small world because when I did a search for her on FB, I found that we share two mutual friends. They are two of my neighbors, one living right behind us, the Lozen family. I just think that's crazy! So, hopefully we'll be able to meet up soon. We plan to get together this weekend at their place. :)

Yesterday, Scott, Carter and I packed up and traveled to Nagoya by train. It was very hectic carting Carter around and all of his things, but an adventure none the less. We got a late start, so we didn't get to see all that we wanted to see, the Nagoya castle, more of the city, etc., but it was so much fun.

Nagoya is about the size of Chicago, so a pretty big city with alot of things to do. We went up in the TV Tower (like the Eiffel Tower at Kings Island, but maybe a smidge taller), so we could see all of the city and just how big it is. The tower is in a park, like that of Central Park in NYC. It's a beautiful place with lots of little cafes to eat at and fountains. A great place to take pictures!

After the TV Tower, we ate dinner at Outback Steakhouse, and yes, it was A-MA-ZING! I had the prime rib with mashed potatoes, green beans, a caesar salad, and THE BEST bottle of Coors Light I've ever had in my entire life. It was a $7 bottle of beer, but it was sooooo good. Carter and Scott both had burgers. The bill came to $62.00, so it def won't be an every weekend kind of place to eat, but it was nice to have a nice meal to kind of celebrate making it through our first week here. Hopefully we can go back and do it again right before we leave.

After dinner, we visited a store called Loft. Scott calls it a huge Bed Bath and Beyond and I call it an IKEA on crack. Either way, it's a pretty cool store and it's big! It's 8 or 9 stories and they sell a little bit of everything. I hear the store calling out name for some Christmas gifts.

When we left the store, it was about 6:30 and by the time we navigated to the right subway line and finally made it home it was a way too late 8pm. Carter had had enough and was overly tired. We had a rough night with him, being awake from 3am on. Scott and I were both up with him separately. Ugh! Hopefully tonight will be a bit better. (As I type this, both the boys are napping)