A visit from the Parents: Part 2

Day Five:

Today was supposed to be the only nice day, so I had already planned a trip to Landmark Tower in Yokohama.  Of course, I didn't take any pictures this day so I don't have any of those to post.  I will say that, for some reason, Mount Fuji refuses to show itself every single time we go to the Tower.  It's getting a bit frustrating.

Day Six:

Today was the last day that Tim had to work, so the rest of us decided to go to the end of the Miura peninsula (this is where we live) and explore the coastal area.  I had no idea what was out there or where we were going, but Tim and Patti were totally up to the challenge.

The plan was to ride the train to the very last stop, find a map at our ending local and either walk or ride the bus to the coast.  The maps we found were...less than helpful.  While one has all of the bus lines, the other has all the landmarks.  Plus, do you notice how they DON'T LOOK THE SAME?!

 

After being offered a ride to wherever we wanted by a nice Japanese man (and opting out), we got on the very next bus to pull into the station.  Luckily, this area is small, so the buses all take the same route into the city and then split off at another major station.  By this time, we'd figured out which bus we needed to get on.  On our ride, we got our first taste of the agriculture business of Japan.  We passed rice paddies and vegetable gardens.  

This area is famous for its Tuna fishing/processing, so there were boats everywhere!  99% of the boats were just pulled up on to the side like this one:

We were getting hungry, so we started walking around to find a restaurant.  Unfortunately for us, this was a small fishing village, whose restaurants believed in serving things real "fresh." I have a strong aversion to eating things that are staring at me...I thought I was going to starve.  Thankfully, at the last restaurant we looked at, this older gentleman popped his head out of the door and, in ENGLISH, told us they had a bigger menu inside! I was sold! Turns out this man had studied at the University of Michigan for 2 years and was forced to come home to take care of his mom.  He gave us a picture menu and told us to come to him if we had any questions.  Well, without knowing what all the meat was in the picture, Tim took him the menu and asked him to explain it.  His explanation: "tuna, tuna, tuna, prawns, tuna that tastes like pork, tuna with onions."  We got tuna.  It was amazing.   

After eating, he gave us a few maps, explained the area, gave us a bus schedule and sent us on our way! We ended up on a trail along the beach and then back through a bamboo-lined trail.  We got to see an old lighthouse and some sweet rock formations.  Enjoy:

Lots of uneven steps...watch yourself!

After getting back to the road, we found a bus stop and headed back to Yokosuka to meet Tim for dinner.  We ended the evening at an Italian buffet at the Officer's Club on base.  Yummy!

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A visit from the Parents: Part 1

Wow, so I kind of neglected the blog for a while...sorry.  :-)

This past week was a whirlwind of activity for us, because Tim's parents paid us a visit! Unfortunately Tim had to work for 4 days, but I was more than happy to show them around our area.  Our week included trips to the beach, a traditional Japanese garden, some shrines and temples, Tokyo and a visit to DisneySea.  We took hundreds of pictures, so I'm going to try and break this into a few posts.  Stay tuned...

Day 1:

The Wells finally arrived in Tokyo after a long delay.  Their plane was grounded, with everyone on board, for two hours while repairs were done.  What was broken???  A jump seat.  Yep.  Two Hours.  For a jump seat. ::sigh::  Thankfully, the flight was manageable and they made it through customs in record time.

Day Two:

We woke up to sirens wailing outside and the news that an earthquake had hit Chile.  We were in a Tsunami warning lockdown.  Thankfully, our warning was lifted a few hours later and the weather was cold, but not rainy.  Tim didn't have to work, so we showed them around Yokosuka and then took them to Kannonzaki Park.  They LOVED the roller slide!! We ended up each going 3 times before it got too dark and we had to head home.

Day Three: 

Tim was on day shift, so I took our guests to Kamakura for the day.  We had been anticipating rain all week, but the day was gorgeous!  I had a much more enjoyable time than our last visit. 

We decided to explore more of Kamakura, which is littered with shrines and temples.  Sometimes the easiest way to figure out an area is to take a picture of the maps in an area and just start walking.  We ended up walking over 5 miles!

All of the pictures are shrines and temples located in Kamakura.

We ended up finding the Zeniarai-Benten located in this mountainside.  We didn't realize what a hike it would be to get to it!  Luckily, it was gorgeous!  It featured a lot of waterfalls, caves, and it is a popular place for worshippers, because on certain days they can wash their money in the spring water and it is believed that it will eventually double.  

We ended our visit by visiting Komachi-Dori street, or the main shopping avenue by Kamakura station.  Patti ended up purchasing a beautiful "Kamakura-bori" wooden platter, an art form specific to the region.  

We ended our day by meeting Tim at the base and heading to my favorite restaurant, Pepper Lunch, for dinner.  They really liked it! In case I haven't explained this place before, you have to order from a vending machine at the entrance.  

Once you've given the waitress your ticket, you sit down at the bar and wait for a very hot plate of food to arrive in front of you, where you cook it yourself!  The rest of the group ended up with a plate of rice and beef, but I ALWAYS get the garlic steak!  YUMMY! :-)

Day Four:

Again, we were expecting rain, and again, nothing came! We were elated! Patti had requested some garden viewings, so we headed into Yokohama and the Sankeien Garden.  This is a traditional Japanese garden, which opened in 1906 to the public, was completely destroyed during WWII and reopened to the public in 1957.  It is also famous for the number of reconstructed/restored buildings on the property.  I could explain each one, but that would take up an entire page, so if you'd like to know more, email me! You can also visit the garden's website (www.sankeien.co.jp), but it is in Japanese, so you'll have to deal with a translation program.  

Here's a spattering of pictures:

The initial view from the main entrance

Buildings located in the Inner Garden, an area originally reserved for the Hara Family.

Kakushokaku - The former residence of the Hara family, who owned Sankeien until 1953.

By this point, we decided to stop at the Sankei Memorial, which also serves as a visitor's center.  We were walking through the building and stumbled on a traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony.  Of course, we had to participate and the tea masters, dressed in traditional kimonos, were trying so hard to explain everything to us in english.  The ceremony started with some delicious sugar-coated, fig-type cookies made specifically for Sankeien garden.  It is required to eat both of the cookies before the tea is served.  This should have been our first warning.  We finished off our cookies and then we waited for our green tea.  It was presented to us and, as we followed all of the appropriate rules of decorum, we took our first sips.  I can't even put into words how bad this tea was.  Wanting to be respectful, we tried to finish it and Tim even managed to down it in one big gulp, but I couldn't do it.  I tried.  My body was physically rejecting this tea.  It didn't move in the cup and it was thick and frothy.  The tea masters were probably laughing for the rest of the day from the expressions on the three of our faces!  Thankfully, the tea master who spoke the most english let me leave the rest of the tea in the cup and we presented the bowls back to them and departed.  What came of this experience?  A new code word for "I can't do this" or "This is disgusting": Green Tea! 

We finished our tour of the gardens by climbing the hill to the Pagoda and exploring more of the outer garden, an area that has been open to the public since the garden was originally built.  

These are NOT evenly spaced steps...watch yourself!

The oldest pagoda in the Kanto Region, it was built in 1457.

We made it!

Loved this garden! 

Again, we were able to meet Tim after work and he even gave his parents a tour of the base following dinner.  It was a busy day!

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A Quick Update...

First -
CONGRATS to Katharine for winning the game!

She scored an amazing 21 points, out of a possible 30ish.  I'll have an AWESOME Japanese prize in the mail in the next week...look forward to sweets, bling, and more awesomeness!

I'll post a list of what each picture was in a few days.

Second-

The Chile earthquake and subsequent tsunami warnings didn't really affect us here in Yokosuka.  We did hear quite a few warnings, but they were called off after a few hours.

Third-

Tim's parents are here visiting us and one of these days I'll actually sit down and write a real post, but right now we're eating Mister Donut and watching Top Gear on DVD (they've just discovered both and LOVE all of it)!

Stay tuned for more in the days to come...

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A little game...

I've been toying with this idea of doing a little contest on here.  Eventually, I'm going to have it be Japan-centered, but this first one is just a practice round.  Don't worry though, there is a prize!

So what's the contest??

Where in the World are Ari & Tim??

You may have noticed our current blog header is made up of 10 pictures.  They are from some of our wanderings, both together and separately.  Your goal is to tell me "Where in World" we were in the picture! 

Here's a grid showing the number of the picture for your reference:

This will be a "points based" game.  You'll get more points based on how specific you are with your answer.  For example, take this picture...

You'd get:

1 point for Yokohama, Japan & 1 point for Landmark Tower Observatory

If you could tell me what direction we were facing or what floor we were on, you'd get more points for that, and my eternal respect for paying that much attention! :-)

Of course, reading the blog does give you somewhat of an advantage, these are somewhat recycled pictures...

Leave your guesses in the Comments or shoot me an email by Monday, March 1st at 10:00pm JST. 

Bonus point if you tell me what time that is where you are located!  

If this works out, there will definitely be another game and MORE PRIZES! 

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Tokyo - Take II

The weather had decided to be our friend again.  So, with a sunny day and an invitation from Adam and his friend R. visiting from Korea, we ventured back to Tokyo for a day trip.

**This is picture heavy! Click on the picture to enlarge it if it's too small.**

Stop #1: The East Imperial Gardens

Of course I made the guys pose before we entered the gardens.  This is actually on a bridge that is suspended over the Palace moat.  

We ended going through, what seemed like, the main entrance. 

The doors were pretty large...makes Tim seem small in comparison.

There were three guardhouses on our way to the main pathway.  The largest of these stations housed about 100 samurai! This was the first one we encountered.

Once we got past all the samurai, we found a map.  They put maps everywhere here!  **If you'd like to know more about the addresses and finding places in Japan, it's at the bottom of the post**

Tim wanted to show off his ticket...it was free! We also had to return it...  :-(

As we made our way around the gardens, we came across the music building and the remains of the Edo Castle tower that was destroyed in the 19th century. 

The construction of the rock base is exactly like the rock walls that surround the gardens.  We thought the corners were the best part...see how they're angled?

Next we found ourselves in the midst of a orchard of Plum trees, which were all blossoming!

Our last stop was the traditional Japanese garden called Ninomaru.  We took many pictures here, but I'll post just a few...

 

After spending the whole morning at the Imperial Palace, we decided to head to our next destination.

Stop #2: Akihabara

We, obviously, had to show Adam and his friend Electric City.  How could we not share it?!  Of course, we didn't take any pictures...again.  Bummer.

Stop #3: Roppongi 

The area is known for its nightclubs and being the home of several museums.  There are also two large shopping complexes.  We spent the evening at Roppongi Hills.  

 

It had a FABULOUS view of the city...

In fact, it drove Tim a little crazy!

Overall, we had a great time, got to try some new foods, and explore some parts of Tokyo that we missed last weekend!

**More about addresses in Japan:

I found out what the deal was with all the maps.  Evidently, the addresses in Japan don't make any sense.  Literally.  To illustrate, an address is Japan would most like look like this: 

10-10-3 Ginza, Chuo-Ku

Tokyo, 170-3293

Doesn't make much sense, does it?  Well, it makes even less sense when I explain it.  Obviously this address is located in the prefecture of Tokyo, next it's in the city/ward/village of Chuo-Ku, in the sub-area of Ginza.  The first number tells us this is in the further sub-area 10, on block 10, in building number 3.  BUT, the buildings are numbered by order in which they were constructed, NOT by where they're located.  I've heard that most Japanese residents don't even think it makes much sense and if you get lost and ask directions, most people will be very vague because they don't know!  Also, I've heard that it's best to just stop at the area's police station and ask directions there, since the officers need to know their area well. 

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