Business Hotel Yado Yokohama

... we woke up and toured around Tokyo. We saw the Imperial Palace from the outside and had sushi for lunch which was really good. Towards the end of the day we headed back to Yokohama (about 45 minute bus ride away). We had to be on the ship for a day between the ports which sucked a little because most people were traveling independently between Yokohama and Kobe, and we didn ...

Today we decided to try and see Mt. Fuji, Japan's most famous peak, from a nearby town called Hakone. We knew that it would be busy as it was a holiday weekend, but as the weather was so nice, we went for it... We travelled to Hakone successfully, which sits on the south side of Fuji and thought we'd be able to find somewhere to get a view of Fuji from. It turned out that everyone else had the same idea, but was taking the ...

... I was going in the right direction according to my text msg and map so that was cool. I ended up at Yamashita park. It was a nice narrow walkway with some japanese garden displays and such. I then was wandering and came across a Yokohama Bay cruise and decided to take it. It was really hard to know if I was taking the right one as the English was nil. But I thought what the hey and went for it. As i walked on I was directed to the dining room. (was my food ...

... I saw the food like Osenbei(meaning rice crackers) and the Kibidango(Skewered kibi-balls covered with soybean powder). Ouch! first time spending my money in the Shopping Center. My sweet treats were about a hundred yen. To top off the day I went to see the Asakusa shrine. This shrine survived the air raids in 1945, but that wasn't the reason it is very popular to visit. Later on I just walked back to the hotel for some rest, what a day!

... a hobby he was on his bike at odd hours. My childish imagination ran wild until a sense of futility and banality outweigh the pleasure of guessing someone else's life, someone who has no direct impact in my life. But the question of his identity had been a nagging question. Back in 2004, out of the blue, my brother showed me a book of photos. He, Mr Shirokawa (not his real name), was a professional ...

... spent some time analysing several maps in order to find our first port of call, a club called Muse. We headed off in what we thought was the right direction, stopped to ask in a couple of restaurants, stopped for a wee, stopped to buy more travelers, stopped for me to rest my feet (bloody high heels!), and reached Muse about forty minutes later (taking thirty five minutes longer than what we actually could have). The place was virtually empty and as we sat and drank our ...

... touching down Narita airport I joined my parents and brother to attend the 1st anniversary memorial of my paternal grand-father. We went to Niigata , 300km north of Tokyo . It was a convivial occasion, contrary to my initial suspicion. The monk was quite relaxed and informal. The reading of the scripture, which we had to sit on floor and listen patiently, was surprisingly short - only 45 minutes. The reading sounded like sleep-inducing classical music ...

... such a confined space, and while it`s interesting to see them up close, I`ll get more satisfaction if/when I see them in the wild (hopefully when I go to Canada next year...). The stars of the show were once again, the monkeys, but it was a different set of monkeys that got me excited later in the day - the Arctic Monkeys. Their debut album is the best album of the last 10 years, and they are up there with Oasis and Teenage Fanclub in my top 3 ...

I LOVE Japan. I can definitely see myself living here one day. My first impression of the country was that there are VERY FEW westerners. I really felt like we stood out, yet none of the Japanese people gave us a second glance. The language barrier was also harder than I had expected, however I was pleasantly surprised by how helpful the Japanese were. There were numerous occasions when we got lost and someone walked us all the way to our destination. I guess it's ...

... and then it is gone. I am so glad there were hardly any people there at the time. It slid like Michael Jackson, at great speeds down to the bottom, and across the floor, and almost hit some lady in the back of the legs as she was already running away from it. I was really quite pleased, as that was the faster way down,(had I known, I would have tried to catch a lift,) but I can't do it again because it's far too dangerous and now Ihave scratches on my luggage. I started laughing ...