I began my month's summer holidays on August 1, and that happened to be the day that we organised for David to come over. He was here for a little under two weeks, and I think that we showed him a good time.
Did the urban Tokyo thing, hitting up Harajuku, Shibuya and Shinjuku. Also got around to Koenji, Kichijoji and Shimokitazawa.
The weather was treating us well, surprisingly. It was warm, pleasant, and completely unlike August last year. We took advantage of it, and went for a day trip to Enoshima.
We walked up through the Enoshima path, up the steps, towards the shrine.
The gardens were beautiful, and the ponds had koi and turtles.
We took a detour, saw the lover's bell and the boards of love prayers from young couples overlooking the bay.
Then we headed to the Enoshima caves and the rockpools to dip our feet in and cool off.
Lovely day, lovely weather, lovely company.
Other highlights of David's visit included:
Fuji Q Highland amusement park
We went to Ueno park and paddled around the lake.
Went to Hakone and made David ride the ropeway, the cable car, and the pirate ship. Also, he ate the eggs.
And we went to a manga/anime exhibtion, but there were very few places where photos were allowed, so here's some photos of all of us posing in front of the same replica building in the exhibtion.
David's last full day was in Hakone, and on that day there was a storm brewing. We got home before it hit, but Jason wasn't so lucky. Here's some footage of the train line we're on, at the next express station towards the city: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmD2CxOxHbY
It caused chaos on our trail line, and the only thing that made it anything less than unbearable was the fact that this happened during Obon week, a period when a lot of Japanese take leave to go and spend time in their home towns or with family. Even so, Jason's usual commute of an hour took three hours, and he got in the door at a bit after 10pm.
It was great to have him over here, and I was happy we got to show him the sights and sounds of Tokyo and the surrounds. More photos are HERE.
The rest of August, I did not much apart from recover, but during the last week of August, I did a hike. Here's some photos: HERE HERE HERE.
I'm not going to do a rundown of that this time around, me and Jason are doing the hike together next month and staying in the area. I guess the description can wait for the October update.
Until next update, thanks for reading!
