August 2013, oh brother!

So before September's over, I'd better give you a heads-up of what happened in August.  We have had a very busy September, and October looks like it'll follow suit, so I better jump in while I can.

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 on rollercoasters, and had this candid pic taken at the peak of one coaster.

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!

April wrap-up

I knew it would happen.  The new academic year starts, and all the relaxation goes out the window.  This blog entry will be fairly brief, and will only cover April.  Our May has been crazy so far, there has been something on every single weekend.

Something exciting happened in April.  We had a visit from Jason's family!

As with all exciting things, there was some drama.  This time, it took the form of their plane being delayed, and then finally cancelled for the day we expected them to arrive.  They arrived the day after they had planned, which threw a spanner in the works of having some time to relax and get a feel for Tokyo.

We met them at the airport, caught the airport bus to their hotel and had room service with them, spesh.

Before we had had a chance to show them the ropes like how to buy a train ticket, or where the best place to get milk and juice was, they were up and about on a guided tour of Hakone and surrounding areas near Mount Fuji.  A full day's tour is a pretty intense way to start in Japan, but the next day we were able to catch up with them properly.

After a morning tour, we went out to dinner at an izakaya restaurant called Yama chan, pretty famous in Nagoya for their wings (see my Nagoya post for a pretty terrible photo of them).  We had a private room and were able to spread ourselves out.

Jason and I both took a Wednesday and Thursday off to spend time exploring different areas.  On Tuesday night we spent the night at their hotel in Shinjuku to make an early start out for the Tsukiji fish markets, and wow haven't times changed.  Jason and I visited the fish markets on one of our first trips to Tokyo in 2008.  Back then, we showed up on the first train, wandered through the wholesale market, found our way to the tuna auctions, no sweat.

This time, yeah, different story.  You now have to show up at about 4 am to get in line for the tuna auctions, and if you don't get into one of the two groups assigned for the day, you can't get access to the wholesale market until mid-morning.  The end result of this is, if you catch the first train that gets you in to Tsukiji at 5.30, you're out of luck for the wholesale market until then.  Nonetheless, we waited, looked at the outside markets, and had a sushi breakfast.

Gotta get that fish home in one piece.

The next day we headed to Asakusa, an area originally famous for its temple and shrines, and now probably more famous for its shops and crowds.  Luckily, Jeffrey and our niece Elizabeth found a rabbit to pat.

After battling the crowds and doing some souvenir shopping, we headed to Ueno park to have a picnic.  The ground was pretty wet from the previous day's rain, but we managed, and ate our lunches bought from the nearby convenience store.  Generally speaking, lunch wasn't as interesting as feeding the pigeons.

Or teaching me how to do push-ups.

We also made a trip out to Kamakura on the Saturday that Jason's folks were here to visit the giant Buddha (Daibutsu) and the temples in the area.  I haven't got many photos of this trip; my Golden Week post from last year has a few.  The area is beautiful, and it was a gorgeous day.

Jeffrey, me, Elizabeth and Sophia hanging out in the shade.

Jason's dad Keith at the entrance to Kotoku-in temple.

After the weekend, it was back to work for me, but Jason had one more day with his folks.  He headed to Shibuya with them, looked around Harajuku, and finished up in Yoyogi Park, where there was a lot of space to run through the flowers.

Lots of room to play ball with Jeffrey and Denise.

And conveniently, someone to help with blowing gigantic bubbles.

It was wonderful to catch up with Jason's family, and great to show them our little corner of the world over here.  After they finished up in Tokyo, I saw them off at the shinkansen station Shin-Yokohama before they headed to Osaka for another few days.  All in all I hope they had a great trip, we had a great time showing them around.

Next update will be our May wrap-up, and what a wrap-up it will be.

Til early June (I'm guessing!),

Bye!