Hey everyone, Sorry for the delay in travelblogs, but this is gonna be a long one...our 3-day trip to Kyoto, which is the former capital of Japan. Since Kyoto is quite a ways from Tokyo, we took the "Shinkansen" (or "Bullet Train") to get there. The Shinkansen has this nickname because of its very fast speed - about 200 km/hr!! By Shinkansen, the trip is only about 2 and a half hours, but VERY expensive. It ended up costing us over 50,000 JPY (or over $500.00) for both of us to get roundtrip tickets. Once we arrived in Kyoto, we decided [View Full Entry]

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On this particular day, Larry and I decided to go to Ueno Park to see the beautiful cherry blossoms that have recently blossomed here in Japan. The cherry blossoms are a VERY big deal here and everyone goes NUTS over them because they signify "new beginnings". Not only does cherry blossom season show that spring is here, but it also is the start of the new school year for children. We learned that once they bloom, they only last about a week or so, and so perhaps that is why everyone celebrates at such an extreme level...but either way, it all [View Full Entry]

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We had heard that Odaiba was a very fun place to visit with lots of things to do, and so one day we decided to venture out and see for ourselves what this area had to offer us. The first place we decided to go see was "Tokyo Big Sight," which from reading my Japan travel books sounded like a large outdoor art exhibit with many oversized pop art sculptures...we have included the 'Big Saw' in our pictures. However, once there, we were disappointed to see that "Tokyo Big Sight" was just a cool name for a convention center here in [View Full Entry]

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Again, like Harajuku, we have already been to Shinjuku more than once... The first was not too eventful, but fun nonetheless. On this first trip to Shinjuku, Larry had to drop off some paperwork for his job, so we headed out later in the afternoon by train. After about an hour ride, and taking care of Larry's work business, we were able to start wandering the streets. We did a little shopping here and then browsed through a couple of electronics stores as well. We also found my favorite bear character walking along the streets and stopped him for a few [View Full Entry]

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Our Two trips to Harajuku. After a long train trip, about an hour, we finally made it to the very trendy Harajuku. My first trip to Harajuku was made with my friend, Larissa, from my cast. Larry couldn't go because he had to work and I was itching to get out before my show opening! We also wanted to check out this part of Tokyo on a Sunday, particularly because of all the freaks, errr, I mean people who get all dressed up to show off their outfits on this day. Apparently, they only do this on Sundays, and most will [View Full Entry]

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Because today was such a nice day, we decided to go to Disney Sea. The park is beautiful as you can see from the pictures and every time you walk through a different part of the park, it feels as if you were transported to that part of the world. We saw Venice, New York, The Temples of Indiana Jones, the Arabian dwellings of Sinbad, and of course, Ariel's Mermaid Lagoon. We spent most of the day just walking around the park and watching the wonderful shows. We saw a show in "New York" that was reminiscent of Broadway and a [View Full Entry]

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Greetings all! As some of you may already know, Larry and I celebrated our 1-year anniversary on February 16th…which turned out to be quite a day to remember forever. That morning, we headed out to the Ginza area of Tokyo, where we had plans to walk through the Imperial Palace Gardens - a very historical and famous place here in Japan. Although these gardens were extremely beautiful, I didn’t want to stay very long. The weather was horrible and rainy, and with every step, we were getting colder and wetter….so naturally, I wanted to leave and find the nearest shoppin [View Full Entry]

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Hey Everyone, Today we decided to go to Asakusa, Japan which is in the heart of old Tokyo and has the most visited temple complex. We decided to be tourists and visit the Asakusa Kannon Temple and the many shops that are located around this area. When we first arrived at Kaminarimon Gate we decided to take a Rickshaw ride from Taka. It was a little weird have a man pull us around the streets like a horse, but we just relaxed and tried to stay warm. He showed us many interesting streets, shops, restaurants and history that we attempted to [View Full Entry]

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TRAVELBLOG ENTRY #3 January 23-February 7, 2006 Hey everyone (from Larry), I had my orientation and first week of OJT-'On The Job Training'. I had to venture into Shinjuku for my Nova orientation at the corporate office. Shinjuku is called the 'Times Square' of Tokyo, and their train station is one of the busiest in the world. I finally navigated my way to the corporate office 'what a beautiful building' and I was able to see Mt. Fuji from the floor we were on. Orientation was pretty boring, but I was able to meet a few other instructors and hopefully we'll [View Full Entry]

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Hello from Japan, We finally had a day off together and decided to go into central Tokyo to a city called Roppongi. It's basically “America-town” in Japan where all the top designers are located. Within the city of Roppongi there is a place called 'Roppongi Hills' which is where we spent most of the day. Roppongi Hills is a 40-acre site with over 200 shops and an array of cafes and restaurants with many interconnecting walkways…it’s essentially a mega-mall, but the architecture and layout made it very different from malls we have in the U.S. After we were a littl [View Full Entry]

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