Red, White, and Green

Obviously, the 4th of July is not the kind of holiday that is widely observed in Japan, even among expats. Because it falls right smack dab in the middle of the rainy season, it's usually raining, like it was the last time we were in Japan for the 4th.

This 4th of July was actually very pleasant, and since it was Saturday, Jonathan and I decided to explore Tokyo before going to a small party at a friend's house.

Jonathan made us an amazing breakfast. Isn't he adorable with a spatula in his hand?

Here is our 4th of July Breakfast. Red, White, and Green. In Japan, green and blue are often confused. The green traffic light is actually called a blue light, and a pine tree is blue, not green. No matter what its color, this breakfast was delicious. It was an egg and toast omelet with a chunky salsa of tomatoes and avacado, and a side salad of cucumbers and red peppers.

First stop, the bonsai shop. Jonathan has gotten really into bonsai during the last year. We have four bonsai trees, well, three now that our favorite has died. Jonathan's mom got him a Japanese maple bonsai for his birthday. Jonathan loved this tree. Sometimes he would wake up in the middle of the night just to check to make sure it was ok. So imagine Jonathan's devastation when we went out one morning to find its leaves hanging sadly withered. We immediately jumped in the car, even though Jonathan should have been studying for finals, and drove his tree to the Bonsai Doctor (an hour away), who snobbishly informed us that we had over-watered the little bugger and it only had a 50% chance of making it. (The same guy told us that trees can't be overwatered. Ha.) He treated us like bad parents who had ruined our children's lives. We felt like dismal failures. Sadly, the Japanese maple passed on the next day, despite Jonathan's best efforts to bring him back to life. So, this bonsai shop reopened a few nearly healed wounds for Jonathan, especially when he happened upon this little guy (click the pics to see more detail)...

Here Jonathan is gazing down on what is a shadow of what his deceased Japanese maple once was. This is the smallest Japanese maple that we have ever seen. This is a shohin- or mame-bonsai.

Here is the little Japanese maple close up.

These are a few other tiny bonsai that I liked. The one in the square yellow dish has a tiny strawberry growing in it.

As we were walking through some neighborhoods on our way to Yoyogi Park we found a grocery that was selling a small container of cherries for 400yen ($4, a great price). So we got some to eat in the park.

We used the pits to flick at crows. Crows are like pigeons here. They are everywhere in Tokyo. See:

Here are some scenes from the park:

After the park, we stopped for some Swiss Chocolates. You know, because we deserved them. These were both filled with different kinds of caramel.

yuuuuhhhhmmmm..... (note, I put Jonathan's picture here, not my own)
This building, Roppongi Hills always strikes me as ginormous. Although we are several miles away, it still dominates the sky line.

And FINALLY, we made it to the 4th of July party, which was really a bunch of people from our church getting together for BBQ. We brought ribeye steaks and a pineapple to grill, and cookies-and-cream cheesecake to share for dessert (courtesy of a gourmet grocery near the church). We were some of the last people to leave, and I didn't take a lot of pics until the end of the night. But at the party we made some really good friends who we now hang out with almost every day here in Tokyo.

These are some of our new friends.

You know...some Mormon Dudes making $millions in Tokyo and rocking out in their own band for fun in one of their houses on the 4th of July. Why not?