Blogs from Tokyo, Japan, Asia - page 263

To tell you the truth, I can’t remember what I did during the daytime this day.  But according to the pictures, I spent the night partying away in Shibuya with Yoshi and Ryan, which clues me in to the last part of the day!  : ) A lazy day of sitting around the Guest House, and walking around Azabujuban.  I called Yoshi up from the now trusty pay phone at the Mini Mart, and arranged to meet him at the same statue in Shibuya as I’d met him at the first time.  Meeting time, roughly 5:30pm, so I left with plenty of time to spare to allow for some getting lost time.  Little did I expect to find it right off the bat this time, having stopped for a few minutes in the station to overlook ... read more

Sunday just didn’t start off how I anticipated.  I expected to sleep in till 8 or 9 since I’d been awake for so long, but ended waking up at about 4am.  There wasn’t a chance of getting back to sleep either, so after an hour of trying, I went up to the lounge to play around on the Internet.  Of course, at 5am everyone was still asleep, Andrew, the Aussie from the station was asleep on the couch, he hadn’t made a reservation, so there was no room for him to sleep except on the couch.  I thought I’d start getting ready for the day, take a shower and all, and noticed I’d forgotten my toothpaste.  I don’t think I forgot it though, I just can’t find where the hell I packed it.  So, a trip ... read more

Just a quick note to say that I have arrived safely to Japan. WOW! I have not yet had a good look around as I arrived last night in the dark. I am staying with a lovely Japanese couple whose daughter I know from Cairns. Their names are Hiroshi and Yukiko. Their home is very traditional and we have set times for meals etc. Breaky at 7.30, lunch at 12.00 and dinner at 6.00. The food so far is amazing, this morning we had miso, rice, pickled vegetables, radish and these tiny little fish that I thought were baby straw mushrooms with eyes or little sperm! There also was this traditional stuff that had beans in it and was sooo sticky, it smelt a bit too. The toilet I am yet to figure out, I have ... read more

Hey everyone. I know it’s been a while but things have been quiet in Tamagawa-town. The endless winter, marked not by snow but interminable rain seems finally to be drawing to a cease and the season of cherry blossoms and rice field plantings about to begin. When the weather warms, I plan to ride my bike to even my most distant schools, seven miles away. Meanwhile, time continues to move slowly, yet inexorably, and I find myself with less than five months to go before I pack my bags and head back home to adventures mostly domestic in nature, and lacking the thrill of new discovery and experience. My last few months will be marked by contradictory impulses to save money while seeing as much as I can of this fascinating country. The long goodbye has ... read more

Our last big foreign trip was Japan in September of 2000. We went to Tokyo, Kamakura, Nara, Kyoto, and a side trip to little known Shiga prefecture. A friend is from there and we stayed with her family. I'm uploading some photos from that trip to go along with this post. It was a wonderful trip and we saw a lot there. Kyoto is particularly nice for its cultural history. My wife loved Tokyo for shopping.... read more