Blogs from Tachikawa, Tokyo, Japan, Asia

Today was to be our long bike ride into the mountains that ring the Kanda Plain and Tokyo. The day began with some clouds, but a promise of sun. It was in the 70's.... We started out around 10:00 am and rode about 45 minutes through the city of Fussa (part of Tokyo) and into the hills. We stopped at a 7-11 for snacks and some lunch items to bring with us up the mountain. As we left the more urban streets and started to gain elevation, congestion turned to sawmills, small farms and forests. The road was was a 12% grade for the first steep part of the ride, and I ended up walking near the end of this section, and also walked the 15% grade that followed. It then flattened out a bit and ... read more

We arrived here yesterday around 3:30pm, after a long flight (10.75 hours...) and some sleep, movies, drinks and meals. Matt met us at the airport and kindly drove us back through Tokyo rush hour traffic (3 hours of freeway driving...one way!) to his new apartment. We spent some time talking with Justin (Matt's 13 year old son) who had run a 10 mile race that afternoon and is now shockingly almost taller than me. We then attempted to unpack, wandered dazed around the apartment a bit, and collasped into bed around 9:00pm...only to awake around 4:00am this morning. After delicious homemade breakfast burritos (thank you, Matt), we walked to the airforce base, got our day passes, and went to the outdoor activities building where Matt works repairing bikes and managing the rental store. After trying one ... read more

My friend took me to Tachikawa, her perferred place to shop and hang out. To my surprise we took the monorail there ( I thought those things only existed at theme parks, like Disney Land or something). On our way there we were hit by spats of rain brought on by the typhoon in Shikoku. We picked up a few postcards and check out the department store near the Tachikawa staton. We had try number two, with tech store. Same outcome, but funnier worker. While he looked up the information of my computer, he tried to speak english. (Which was pretty good, except for one sentence, 'I'm fine. It's very wetty outside.' I can't say much, I was too nervous to speak Japanese. haha) Later that night, my friend took me Tama Center (Hello Kitty's Hometown) ... read more