Flat Stanley visits Japan!

Flat Stanley paid the Parkers a visit here in Japan!  Tommy's cousin, Andrew and his wife Monica sent him to us.  He is a class project for the daughter of one of Monica's friends.  Each child in the class had to send Flat Stanley somewhere and Stanley is to bring back a memento from his travels.

Since Stanley is our very first visitor to this lovely island, we thought we should take him out for a typical Japanese-style dinner.  Here we are at Yoshi Hachi's, one of our favorite sushi restaurants.  The owner, Yoshi-san, spent many years in the U.S. and from the golf pictures covering the walls, I believe he was a caddy for Tiger Woods and the like back in Tiger's early days.

The Japanese ALWAYS take their shoes off when entering a home/business and they often sit on the floor in tatami rooms with mats and a small raised table to eat dinner.  We are sitting on tatami mats on the floor here, although you aren't really able to tell from the picture.  Wyatt is eating a typical Japanese kids "set" (everything is a 'set' here...sort of like the American version of "combo meal" I guess).  They always pile on a variety of food, from teriyaki chicken, dumplings, rice, fried potatoes, and fried shrimp to custard or jello-ey dessert and, of course, an orange drink.  Because no meal would be complete without orange drink here!  And it is usually served in some funky dish or plate... in this case a big boat and a French flag.  We took that out for the picture because we didn't want to confuse people!!

Then here I am with Stanley and some of our sushi.  Yummy! We were going to mail Flat Stanley back home today, but Wyatt is very sad about this... he specially requested that he come to the Post Office to see Stanley off after preschool. :)  So instead, I think I will let him stay with us another week and he can go to Hong Kong with us.  Maybe Stanley would enjoy Hong Kong Disney?  We will see!