Return to Kokusai Street

Cliff came home early from Korea! Woohoo! He was supposed to be gone for a month, but returned a week earlier than planned, as they needed to start getting people home on available planes. How often does THAT happen? ("Sir, we have to fill up this plane with available bodies. We know it's leaving a week earlier than you planned on returning...but we need you to sacrifice and take one for the team...") With so many people we know being there at the same time, it was fun to see all the spouses' Facebook updates like...."I'm so happy right now, but I can't tell you why till tomorrow." (We're not allowed to share when and where they are coming and going...until it's old news.)

Anyway, Cliff was eager to go do something with the family. My walk on Kokusai Street a few days ago was still fresh in my mind, and Cliff thought it sounded great.



Here we are, waiting to cross the street to the indoor market. We decided to hit that first as we didn't know when it closed. It was a good thing we did, because a lot of shops started closing up as we browsed.

On our way, I told the kids they each had to pose with at least one character. There are MANY to choose from. We took them through the night, but I'll post them all right here for easier viewing. Cliff and I started things out:



And yes, Lisa...this is the only photo taken of me the whole night.
(I'm the photographer!)



Troy



Patrick



Patrick...again.



Coreena Jellybeena



Jake the shake snake



Here's the entrance to the indoor market.



The first alley we looked down, we saw TONS of cats. They looked pretty healthy, too (unlike the mutant herd of cats which surrounded me on the water front {that are still giving me flashbacks}).



And yes, I mentally inventoried the contents of my purse to make sure it included hand sanitizer (two kinds....CHECK!) before I let them near these guys.




Lots of pig heads....fake AND real!



And this drunk badger with pot-belly and man-boobs. Not sure what his purpose is, but he seems popular. We keep running into him everywhere. Anyone know what he represents?



We walked all the way to the end of one row (which was very long). Here we are trying to decide whether to head back the same direction, or try another route. We opt to go back, but try some of the alleys.



Some of the goods for sale...



Lots of fish, too.



These boys were darling with their newspaper creations. This was some sort of instrument. Or a cross-bow. It was hard to tell.



Which way now?



This cracked me up! This guy was using a lint roller to pick up stuff off of his front mat. It did make it look nicer, though.



By now we were starving and looking for someplace to eat.

(Trivia: Something I've noticed here, when restaurants include pictures in their menus and in advertisements, the pictures are generally very bad. Not like American food advertisements where you can see the water beads glistening on the side of the fresh tomato. You can usually barely tell what is in the photo, and it doesn't look very appetizing. But wax food, on the other hand...usually looks very true to life and very appetizing.)



This was a riot! This is supposed to be the lucky cat. (You know, the one that waves?) It licks its paw constantly. I wonder what the owner/trainer puts on it? Anyway, we threw a couple of bucks in his jar and got a pic with the cat...AND a bonus plastic flower.



Loved this beautiful stained glass...but not sure what it is.



Thought this was cool, too. I wonder if the view costs extra to get your hair done overlooking Kokusai Street?



We couldn't decide where to eat, so finally ended up at Charlie's Tacos.

(Yes, there's one on Kokusai Street, too!)



Most of us got some variation of this.



With the exception of Patrick.



Just a few more shots of the nightlife...



I thought this one was a little artsy.



We packed up Lopez and headed home...




And got some video footage of our exit.



Then we headed North on the 58 to home...



And got some more pics on the drive.



Pachinko is HUGE in Japan. I used to think that it was like casinos in Vegas or on Indian reservations. It's not. The gaming is similar (except you are trying to get tiny, metal balls into various holes) but you don't play for big jackpots of money. You still PAY money to play like Vegas, but you are playing to win prizes...like cans of SPAM or Pringles or stuffed animals. But it's for adults. I'm dead serious.

(Trivia: We had a Pachinko game in our house when I was a kid. It was lots of fun. I don't know where we got it, and I didn't really get the point of it, but I loved those little steel balls rattling down the pins as they fell...and the plinking sound the lever made when you pressed it.)



These places are everywhere.

Goodnight, Kokusai Street! Can't wait till someone else needs a ride to the airport and I can walk you again!