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!

Anniversary in Kobe, Fuji Q Highland and Enoshima

Here's a new post, with new stuff!

In February it was our seven year wedding anniversary, so we decided to go to Kobe for a long weekend to celebrate.  We also spent some time in Arima Onsen, a town known for its hot springs not far from Kobe.

Downtown Kobe with the mountains in the background.

Most of the time was spent relaxing and sightseeing.  We visited the Kobe earthquake museum, which was a sobering experience, but very informative.  A guide explained some of the phenomena around earthquakes and tsunamis including liquefaction.  We got given a booklet of "must do" earthquake things and shook our heads at how little we had done/were doing from the booklet.  

On another topic, here's something you may or may not know - Kobe is home to an enormous Gigantor statue, so we had to go check him out.

Kobe is a pretty chilled-out city, and is pretty international, with a long history of people migrating from  other countries there.  It's a bit past Osaka, so it takes a little longer to get to on the Shinkansen, but it made for a nice change from the hustle and bustle.

On the day of our anniversary we made the short trip out to Arima Onsen, with nothing on the agenda apart from sightseeing and soaking in the onsen at the hotel we were staying at.  

Arima Onsen can be reached by train or by cable car.  We decided to keep our sanity by taking the train there, but managed to fit in a trip on the cable car after we'd arrived.

At the top was a castle and legit snow, which we may have made into snowballs and thrown at each other.

It was a great weekend, and our morning soak in the onsen at the hotel set us up for the day of sightseeing out in the cold.  More photos from Kobe and Arima Onsen are here.

This month we went to Fuji Q Highland amusement park, with Japan's biggest and fastest rollercoasters.  Fuji Q Highland, as the name suggests, is located near the foothills of Mount Fuji, which makes for a great view from the ferris wheel and gives the whole place a dramatic backdrop.

As is par for the course with amusement parks on the weekend, the lines were massive for the popular attractions, so I managed to go on one rollercoaster and a few rides.  If I had been happy to wait for an hour per rollercoaster, I would have been able to go on more, but them's the breaks.  More photos of the THEME PARK.

Last thing for this update is our most recent weekend visit to Enoshima.  We only live about 45 minutes by train to Enoshima, which is great, because it is beautiful!

Enoshima island is a small island in Kanagawa, and is really popular in summertime.  Stalls are set up along the beach and people go to eat dinner and drink beer.  Given that summer's coming up and we're not far away, it's definitely something to keep in mind for us.  Apart from its beaches, Enoshima also has extensive shrine grounds, a lover's bell, a garden featuring international flowers, trees and plants, as well as caves that can be explored.  So, without further ado, here are some photos!

Walking over the bridge to the island

More photos of Enoshima are HERE.  I took a whole stack of photos.

Being that it's springtime here, it's sakura season, and we were in the thick of it during its peak.  To finish up, here's a few shots of what we get treated to for a week or so before it disappears again for another year.

And of course, there's more, here they are!

Until next time, take care of yourselves....and each other.