Tokyo and Yokohama

During the Golden Week Holidays (first week of May where there are several consecutive national holidays), I went up to Tokyo again for meetings. I only had a day of meetings, so the other two days, I kinda kicked it with my nephews or was out and about trying to find my way to one place or another.

Tokyo, boy oh boy, every time I go up there, I think that I could never survive there. TOO MANY PEOPLE.

I don't remember if this picture with a bunch of people crossing the crosswalk was in Shibuya or Shinjiku...I just remember it started with a "Shi". I think it's a famous place, because I often see it on TV.

I met up with a friend in Yokohama and we went to this placed called "Yumeland" or something like that...there was something about a "dream" in the name of the place, but I don't remember what exactly it was called. He explained that the Tower Skyscraper was the highest in Japan. I don't know how many floors it had, but it was definitely high! I don't think I'd feel comfortable working in such a high-rise.

After stopping by the bookstore where they had lots of English books (hurray!), we went over too Chinatown since it was famous. This Chinatown was definitely different from the one in S.F. or L.A. Just about every single store was FOOD FOOD FOOD. In the States, the Chinatowns aren't all filled with Chinese food, but here, that seemed to be the main thing.

I thought Chinese food would be the same everywhere, but NO. Chinese food in Japan was not what I was accustomed to in the States. The food here seemed very exotic(i.e. I couldn't eat the stuff!). I was imagining fried rice, fried eggplant, egg-drop soup, etc....

Chinese food in the States is usually pretty cheap, but here, it's quite expensive. The price, in combination with me not being able find anything that seemed edible, didn't work out, so we went back to the city and ended up eating at El Toritos! It was good!

I've got more pictures to post from my trip up to Tokyo, but I'll post those next time.

Spontaneous Exploration: Takedao

One day I was on the train returning from a meeting that ended earlier than I had expected, so I had a free afternoon. I suddenly had the urge to get off at a train station that I had been wanting to explore since I'd often seen hikers get off at that station. I got off on impulse and started to walk around. I didn't know what was at this place, so I asked a security guard where a good place for a walk would be....but the lady didn't know. So I just kept walking about.

I started finding some pretty flowers and kept walking, with no idea where I was headed. There weren't many people around either since it was a weekday. At one point, I seemed to be going in the wrong direction since I only saw homes, so I turned around and found my way back to what I thought must be the hiking trail.










Sure enough, I found a trail and started walking down it. The scenery was breathtaking and I felt like I was walking into a different world.

Time felt like it just stopped and I could hear the sound of the river, birds singing, the leaves rustling, and it was so peaceful.

I had picked up a few things at the convenience store for lunch, so when I found a nice flat rock I could sit on to eat, I gazed out at the mountain and the river flowing and had my lunch. Wow, it was really good!

Once on the trail, I was amazed that someone would go through so much trouble just to make such a nice hiking trail....there were rows of wood buried into the ground that made up an even trail. As I was walking along it, I didn't realize they were railroad tracks until I passed through two tunnels.

At this point, I began to think "Now why would anyone even go through the trouble of building a huge tunnel JUST for hikers?!" As I walked through the tunnels, I kept thinking to myself, "this almost feels like a railroad."

Then by the time I hit the 3rd tunnel, it suddenly hit me...DUH! It WAS a railroad track! Of course, trains were no longer running on it, but I couldn't believe it took me so long to figure it out. On the other hand, I guess if it took a train for me to figure out that it was a railroad track, I'd be plastered onto the tunnel wall by now, huh?

I walked through the first two tunnels because I could see the light at the other end, but the 3rd tunnel, I saw absolutely NO light and there was a cold, damp breeze coming out of the tunnel and it spooked me, so I turned around and started heading back.

I got really sleepy walking back since it was so nice and warm, so when I found another flat rock, I layed down on it and took a nap for about 30 minutes I think. Probably that wouldn't be the best thing to do when you're alone, but I figured it's Japan, it's safe, the occasional people I came across on the trail seemed friendly enough, so I went ahead and took a nap. IT FELT GREAT!

That was my day. I felt totally refreshed. I should go there again, but this time with a flashlight so that I can go explore what's beyond the 3rd tunnel!

Pouring cement down the side of a mountain....

I often see mountainsides cemented in by the road, which I find odd. It's fairly common to find mountainsides covered by concrete. The purpose seems to be to prevent mudslides and falling rocks, but it seems like such a drastic measure.

Japanese Restaurants

This picture is back from March when my family had a special treat to get together with a family friend from the States. They came to attend their daughter's graduation and took time to spend an evening with us.

I've known this family since I was 5 years old when our family first moved to the States. Our friendship has lasted all throughout these years and I'm still really close to them. They've got two daughters that I basically grew up with so we're like sisters. But all three of us have COMPLETELY different personalities, but strangely enough, we enjoy each other's company and like to joke around non-stop.

This restaurant we went to was in Kobe, called "Ume-no-Hana" which means "Plum tree flowers" (I think). It's on the high-end of restaurants, but the level of service and extreme details to presentation is well worth it.

All the food came in millions of tiny dishes and the waiter wearing a kimono kept bringing more and more food! All the food had such an artistic touch to it, that I almost felt bad eating it.

If you ever come to Japan, I'd recommend going into one of these traditional Japanese food restaurants, although it's a bit pricey, the process of having your dishes served and the overall presentation of the food makes it seem like it's an artistic performance.

Sound Effects in the bathroom?!

As strange as this may sound, they have little machines in public bathrooms that makes a flushing sound for you when you're using the bathroom. I just find this so funny because as much as I'd rather not have people hear me going to the bathroom, that's what bathrooms are for, so why these machines that help you hide the fact that you actually ARE going to the bathroom?? These sound machines don't sound like the toilet is flushing, it sounds like a waterfall or a gorge overflowing. They're pretty loud, so in case you're REALLY concerned that people are going to hear you pee in the bathroom, don't worry, these machines will definitely drone out the sound for you!