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Published: October 30th 2007
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Kyu-Shiba-Rikyu Gardens
Yoko, Daisuke, Michelle, Travis, Viktor We were thrilled to get an email from our friend Yoko - the one we met at Sapporo brewery when we were in Hokkaido - suggesting an outing to Tokyo's artificial island
Odaiba. Sounds like a nice little Saturday! We met at the train station and met Yoko, her husband Daisuke, and their friend Viktor who is from Sweden but speaks both Japanese and English quite well. He was very handy to have around as he translated for all of us!
First we visited the Kyu-Shiba-Rikyu gardens, one of the many beautiful gardens that are scattered throughout Tokyo. It is kind of strange to see it in the middle of skyscrapers. Next we walked down to the waterfront and took a boat over to Odaiba. What a beautiful day and the boat ride was a great way to see the skyline.Arriving in Odaiba, we headed over to the Panasonic building which showcased many new Nintendo products. You can play several games, and test out some of Panasonic's new products, including their 100+ inch television in FullHD (which is apparently superior to HD). It was crazy! It looked more like a movie screen than a television!
We toured the Fuji
Kyu-Shiba-Rikyu Gardens
One of Tokyo's many tranquil metropolitan gardens. We could not have asked for a better day weather wise. TV building which had a lot of pictures, souveneirs and exhibits about their famous tv shows - of course we didn't know any of them...but most of them were cute animated characters so we still enjoyed looking at everything! We walked over to the waterfront area and out of nowhere we saw the Statue of Liberty! What?!?! Why is it there? No one could answer...oh well. We had a nice view of the sunset from there and saw all of the city lights on the Tokyo skyline. It was very different from other places we've seen in Tokyo. Next, we decided to go to Muscle Park - we were not sure what to expect, but it ended up being really crazy and cool! They had all kinds of weird obstacle courses and challenges. Michelle, Yoko and Daisuke tried one of the challenges with three events - first a balance test (Yoko won each time!), next a speed test (Daisuke was a machine at this one) and lastly a co-ordination test. Michelle and Yoko were so terrible that their scores put them in the age range of 61-64...terrible!!! But lots of fun. We'll probably go back again and try some more
Odaiba
Taking a boat over to Tokyo's artificial island: Odaiba. Yoko, Daisuke, Viktor, and Travis events.
We left the island and went into central Tokyo for a Shabu Shabu dinner. All you can eat meat, veggies, miso soup, rice, noodles, drinks and ice cream! So much food, but it was really good. At this type of restaurant you (again) cook your own food, but not on a BBQ, in a pot of boiling water. It's called shabu shabu because that translates (loosely) to "swish, swish" - the sound the meat makes when you move it through the water to cook it. It was a great day!
Our Sunday ended up not being a day of rest - instead we climbed a mountain!
Mount Takao is just a little one, but still very nice. We went with Simone and Kerry and enjoyed another beautiful day (both days were sunny and about 22 degrees C). The climb was really nice. It went through a beautiful forest and had some neat things to look at along the way - mini buddahs and temples. The view from the top was great, unfortunately not clear enough to see Mt. Fuji though. We had a little picnic, although you don't need to bring your own food because there are noodle
Odaiba
Nice architecture huts and vending machines on the top of the mountain!?!??! It was really nice to get some fresh air and have a day outside in nature. It's funny - it's only about 30 min. outside Tokyo but you feel like you're somewhere totally different.
Travis had a few days off the following week and weekend because of his University Festival. The students put in so much effort to prepare for the festival. There was lots of food, concerts, performances and exhibits to enjoy. We arrived Saturday at 9 am to watch one of Travis' students in a cheerleading performance. Unfortunately the performance was cancelled due to an incoming Typhoon. In the morning the weather was rainy and windy, but as the day progressed the weather worsened until you found yourself bent over walking into the wind, and dodging flying umbrellas! A crazy storm. Still the festival was good fun. We felt terrible for the students who worked so hard to set up their booths and were shivering against the cold wind and rain, trying to sell their goods to support their clubs. We managed to see about 9 of Travis' students which was great and we think it meant
Odaiba - Panasonic Building
It wasn't even T's idea to go here! Sweet! a lot to them. The students were all very excited to meet Michelle! Several of them said "oh, very beautiful!". By the time the two of us returned to the apartment we were absolutely drenched, except for our rain jackets! Hooray for the jackets, they kept us dry all day in a typhoon.
On the way home we stopped at a 5-floor 100 yen shop (like a dollar store) and bought all of the materials for Travis' halloween costume. He has decided to go as a well known Japanese character (Shokupanman - his head is made of bread!!!). Travis also used the box that his mom sent him a package in for a piece of the costume. When he put it on for the trial showing to Michelle, she laughed so hard that she had tears streaming down her face. Hopefully the students will like it as much as she did! Both of us are having a halloween party on the 31st for our students. We will post the pictures in the following blog!
The next day (Sunday) was sunny and gorgeous and so we decided to head to the festival again. On the train on the way
Odaiba - Panasonic Building
Somebody call Ultraman! There's a hideously ugly monster on the loose and he's about to attack the city! to the festival we spotted Mt. Fuji - it was so clear and our first time seeing it!!! It was amazing and beautiful...we went up to the top of one of the buildings at Nihon and took many pictures!
Unurprisingly everyone was in better spirits and the festival was a lot busier. We watched one of Travis' students - Aoi - try to catch fish with her bare hands! It was hilarious. We also saw some more of Travis's students and watched 3 of them play in a mandolin concert. They were fantastic! Simone and Kerry met us at the festival (Simone was a teacher at Nihon in the preceding term) and we toured for a while before the four of us headed to Chiba to enjoy
Tokyo Disney Sea.
We had a blast at Tokyo Disney Sea! Next time we will check out the other park - Tokyo Disneyland. We went on the Caravan Carousel, Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Crystal Skull, Tower of Terror, Raging Spirits, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Ariel's Playground, and our favourite: Journey to the Center of the Earth! Some of the lineups were long, but the rides are worth it! So
Odaiba
View from the bridge on a gorgeous day many laughs and good times! This week Travis has Monday and Tuesday off, and Michelle has Friday off due their respective University Festivals. Michelle's University Festival is next weekend (Nov. 2-4). Many of her students are very excited to meet Travis, since they've heard quite a bit about him!!!
Hope everyone is well, and thanks for reading!
Michelle and Travis
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Kelly
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Pictures
Your pictures have been so fun to look at. So cool. Jake has promised me that I take him one day so he can meet the Ninja's. Let me know if you guys run into any!