A Rockin' Sunday

Tim finally had a day off this week, yesterday, so we were planning on meeting Adam for an early lunch before doing some shopping/exploring in downtown Yokosuka.

We had wanted to try a noodle place in town called...wait for it...RAMEN (super creative, I know). The guys tried their most popular noodle dish, which I don't remember the name of, but basically consisted of noodles in a milk/butter broth with some veggies and ham.  They enjoyed it quite a bit!

After lunch, we started our walk towards the Deiei Mall when I had a sudden urging to go on an adventure!  So I asked the guys if they were up for a little spontaneity, to which they both agreed, and we changed our direction towards the train station.  Where were we going you ask?  Yokohama and the Landmark Tower!

Adam hadn't yet gone to Yokohama, plus the weather was fairly nice, so a little jaunt into the city seemed like a good idea.  I got us there without a hitch, of course, but Tim was a little nervous because we didn't have any sort of train map and I couldn't quite remember what station we needed to get off at.  I wasn't worried.  :-) 

Landmark Tower is the tallest building in Japan and has an observatory on the 69th floor.  Obviously, this is the highest observatory in Japan.  Plus, they have the fastest elevator in the Japan.  It travels at 750 meters/second (approx. 2,460 feet/second) and the ride to the top takes about 40 seconds.  

Tim's head is 275 meters above ground.  :-)

We had a great time walking around the 360 degree viewing area.  Unfortunately, it was hazy/smoggy/foggy and we couldn't see Mt. Fuji, but we did enjoy viewing the Yokohama area and the bay.  

We had a good time watching this amusement park from the sky.

After coming back down in the elevator, we shopped around a bit in the mall inside the Tower.  

I enjoy comparing the American company shops to their Japanese counterparts.  Here is Build-a-Bear: Japan...

We stopped in a small store called "Octopus Army" because the name was intriguing and we managed to find some pretty amazing sunglasses. 

We were getting pretty hungry, so we headed to the Yokohama Hard Rock Cafe for dinner.  (Add it to the list Mom and Dad, I've eaten there!)  

Without knowing any of my feelings about *NSYNC, Adam pointed out that one of Joey Fatone's (OMG! JOEY FATONE!) shirts was hanging over a table next to us!  I just about died and then I asked the patrons sitting at the table to move so I could take a picture. They totally laughed and then willingly obliged.  

We ended the night posing in front of the classic Hard Rock guitar and then caught the train back to Yokosuka.  

I hope everyone else had a great weekend, I can't wait to hear all about them! ::hint, hint::

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Tokyo DisneySea

Because I'm a NINJA now, I can travel back in time and tell you about our adventures in Tokyo DisneySea.

Our hotel was fabulous, but after a communication break-down the evening before with the waitress at their restaurant, we decided to head out for breakfast.  It was a Monday morning, 9:00am.  You would think there would be no problem getting breakfast near the park.  Alas, we were wrong.  The only food place open outside of the hotels was a Starbucks.  Gotta love the Starbucks!

After finding food, we headed to the entrance to the park to wait for the gates to open.  It was pretty crowded, but we got into the park and were greeted with this giant globe fountain.

The best comparison to this area would be like walking through Mainstreet USA in Disneyland.  I had been raving about the Tower of Terror the entire trip, so of course that was our first stop!

Remember how I said we couldn't understand what was being said on the rides in Disneyland.  Well, same goes here.  The story is completely different from the U.S. parks.  That story involves a the twilight zone, a bolt of lightning, and a curse based on jealousy.  This ride has nothing to do with the Twilight Zone, so instead of watching a show on a TV monitor before the ride, we walk into a library and watch the tale unfold on a "stained glass window."  The gist was that an explorer, who collected many artifacts, brought back a cursed statue.  The statue came to life and somehow cursed the old explorer down an elevator shaft.  Then the little statue comes to life in front of the riders (us) and curses us.  Honestly, we had no idea what was going on, but the ride was still fun!  **Note to the Wells: The ride has shoulder straps, there's no loose seatbelt here!**

We're in the back row on the right

After that ride, we decided to get fastpasses for later and started exploring the park.  Like the name implies, the majority of the park is water.  There are canals, lakes, a few ports, fishing villages, etc.

In the center of the park is Mysterious Island.  This is where 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Journey to the Center of the Earth are located.  I think Journey... ended up being everyone's favorite from this park.  We went on it a 3 or 4 times as the wait diminished to nothing after noon.  That ended up being true for most of the park, it was nearly cleared out by the time we left.  Literally the only wait was for Tower of Terror and that was 40 minutes at most.  We picked a GOOD time to go!

Walking through the park was fun too, with all of the new areas to explore.  Here is a picture from the American Waterfront, a replica of New York Harbor circa early 1900s.  It's funny because they're all engineers.  :-)

 

We also made our way over to the Arabian Coast, where Tim and Matt tried Sesame Churros and I played a little ditty with Sinbad.

 

This park also has Mermaid Lagoon, the Mediterranean Harbor (this is "Mainstreet"), the Lost River Delta (Indiana Jones lives here, but alas, he was gone for the winter), and Port Discovery.

We had a fabulous time just exploring the park and if we had only one day to do the parks again, I would pick this one.

Of course, we had to get a final group picture in the park, but we couldn't decide where to do it with the sun setting and getting in the way.  We ended up with this:

After getting our stuff from the hotel, we headed to the train station for our other BIG adventure.  Riding Japanese trains during rush hour.  This is a video I found on YouTube that best describes the situation we found ourselves in:

Totally accurate.  Will try to never do that again.  Ever.  ::shudder::

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Kannonzaki Ninja Training

Many moons ago (1/24/10), three ninjas-in-training set out to find the sacred ninja training ground of Kannonzaki.

They ventured through many train stations and spoke to strangers in foreign tongues to find this ancient place.  Eventually, their dedication paid off and they were rewarded with a map.

But this map was no ordinary map.  The old and wise ninjas had coded this map, which made it almost unreadable.  Luckily, these three ninjas-in-training followed their instincts and headed deep into the forest.

The three ninjas-in-training quickly realized this was not for the faint of heart.  They would face many dangers on their path, including snakes, exhaustion, and for one of the ninjas-in-training, incessant teasing.

But these were small sacrifices for the ninjas-in-training.  They knew that they would be rewarded at the end of their long journey.  For at the end of the path, they would find the fastest roller slide in Japan!  And find it they did.  The ninjas-in-training reveled in their new discovery.

After three runs down the butt-burning decline, the ninjas-in-training were faced with a decision.  Should they climb the hill via the stairs? Or should they partake in the ninja training obstacles?  The decision was easy: they were destined to become Ninjas!

Their first task required balance and a focused mind.

Adam-san doubled the difficulty by carrying the rear-end protectors of the other ninjas-in-training.

Their next task focused on the ninjas-in-training's ability to traverse over land without the benefit of stable footholds.

Arianna-san showed the other ninjas-in-training how it was done.

The third task required extreme focus and quick feet.

Tim-san and Adam-san had the advantage with long legs, but Arianna-san was quick and nimble, and finished the obstacle with determination.

Their fourth task was the most entertaining for the ninjas-in-training.  They performed the task many times in hope of perfecting their technique.

The next-to-last task for the ninjas-in-training looked daunting.  Tim-san and Adam-san sent Arianna-san into the maze first to make sure it could be completed.

Eventually, all of the ninjas-in-training made it through the tunnel.  The trio made their way to the final obstacle.  If they could complete this, they would become NINJAS!

Their training had paid off, the ninjas-in-training became NINJAS.  The trio made their way back to the hustle of everyday life, but reveled in the knowledge that they had conquered the Kannonzaki Ninja Training Course.

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Yokohama Silk Museum

Tim had to work today.  Not Cool.  

With a Saturday to myself, I decided I didn't want to just sit around and do nothing. Really, we only have so many days in the country and there are many, many things to see before we go.  So I decided to challenge myself.  I rode the trains to Yokohama, the subways through the city and found the Silk Museum and all by myself!  Yay me!

I got to Yokohama without any problems and found my way to correct subway station.  

Once I got out on the street, they had these nice signs to point my way.  Too bad none of them actually had the silk museum on them, but I found a map and figured out where to go.

Here's the map.  See, isn't it obvious?!  I thought so. :-)

I literally stumbled onto the building, because it looks like a giant box.  From the outside, it is definitely not the kind of museum you would see in a place like New York.  A hidden treasure, perhaps?

I quickly realized that no one at the museum spoke any english, but I didn't let that stop me from trying to learn a few extra things.  One of the docents was weaving a Obijime, a thin rope that ties around the Obi.  This rope obviously has many threads to it, the one I got to weave had only 8 pieces.

Here's a reference picture of a kimono that was on display in the museum.  The obijime is the red rope around the center of the obi.  Obviously, this is hanging, so the obi is the folded cloth hanging from the neck.  Oh, and the white egg shaped things at the foot of the kimono...that's 9,000 silkworm cocoons, the amount it takes to make a single kimono.

Following this, I was instructed in the art of loom weaving, but opted out of trying it.  I also didn't take any more pictures.  The museum had a lot of conflicting signs about picture taking, so to avoid getting kicked out, I decided to stop.  While I was leaving, the receptionist at the entrance to the museum handed me a silk worm cocoon!  She kept pointing to the woman in the cocoon area and wouldn't let me give it back, so I'm thinking it was a gift?  The language barrier is difficult.

Overall, it was a fascinating museum.  They had several different kimonos on display, a silk dress from France worn in the 1700s, and some really interesting displays on the manufacturing of silkworms and their cocoons.  I even got to see live silkworms and thread being spun from cocoons.  From an educational stand point, it was really interesting and I'm sure Tim is super glad I didn't drag him there! :-)

After I left the museum, I had some time to kill before I needed to head back to Yokosuka, so I wandered towards the bay.  I happened to come to a ferry/cruise terminal! 

And a map of the area...

The area shaped like an elephant's trunk is where I was, the ferry was off the map on the left-hand side.  At the end of the trunk was an amazing view of downtown Yokohama, the same area where we went out first weekend.

The other direction is where a lot of government buildings are and the largest chinatown outside of China.  :-)  We're going to head there sometime in the future.  The Yokohama BayStars baseball stadium is also in this area.  

I had a really good day in Yokohama and I'm super proud to say that I got there all by myself!  I have to confess though that I did take the wrong train home and ended up adding about 30 minutes to my commute.  Whoops!  I got stuck in, what I like to think of as, "Jumanji."

  

But don't worry, I had some company...

ICHI-RO! ICHI-RO! 

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How to Make Japanese Pancakes: Wells Style

As you probably already know, especially if you read this post, Tim and I are quite the cookers/bakers.  So we decided to try our hand at Japanese pancakes...

Step 1: Decipher how much of the Japanese Pancake mix is required and convert that measurement to non-metric to match American measuring cups.

Step 2: Conveniently realize, after minutes of pondering packaging, that the mixture is already portioned out!

Step 3:  Mix together all ingredients, hoping that it's the same as American Bisquick, and ladle it carefully in to the sole frying pan.

Step 4:  Admire the Japanese maple syrup that took you a good 10 minutes to find in the Japanese market

Step 5: Flip the pancakes

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Step 6: Realize that you should have switched steps 4 and 5

Step 7: Repeat step 3, on a lower heat

Step 8: Inadvertently drop perfect pancake in soapy sink and decide to toss 'em all and try again another night.  

May you enjoy your breakfast for dinner more than we did! :-)

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