Grand House Chang Tee Hotel Tokyo

... br><br>We had a good night sleep, in our 6 hour needing to be cleaned room, that was actually our smallest room ever and with a bunk bed!! So fine..!! ( Khao San Tokyo way of " private double"..? ) ( we actually did a lot of reading in this hostel ) On almost every wall or door in there was a " note " Khao San style.... " 10.000 yen FINE for talking loud" 10.000 yen FINE for not talking" 10.000 yen FINE for coming late" or they would give you a " 10.000 ...

... shrine called Toshogu - the most lavishly decorated shrine in Japan. Decorated with real gold and every color imaginable. It made the haunting hike up to the shrine worth it. But what takes the cake was our day trip to Hakone; a mountain lakeside town that has amazing views of Mount Fuji. We woke up that morn to clear blue skies, and thought that it would be a perfect day to view that famous landmark. After a 900 Yen bus ride into a mountain and down to Lake Ashi, we discovered ...

... theme is based around Luck; represented by water. It was like a spiritual sideshow alley, little shrines built everywhere with different tasks you had to complete in order to gain good luck. The most famous of which being the 'love stone''; two ancient stones sticking out of the ground facing each other about seven meters apart. Its said that if you can safely and successfully walk directly between the two stones with your eyes closed you will have good luck in love for many years to ...

... could truly do justice to all the intricacies of the gigantic snow sculptures towering above you. I want to keep things as short as possible because the computer is needed by others, but suffice to say, the Snow Festival was one of the single greatest experiences of my life. I don't know that I can go without snow again.<br><br>As for now, we currently reside back in Tokyo. Ready to hit every major district in town as our little voyage draws ever nearer to its inevitable demise ...

... almost exclusively to a very lively crowd of Japanese folk. The kind of place where everyone knows your name. Think of it like Cheers, only with Japanese people and no Ted Danson. As you can imagine, ordering food was suitably awkward, articularly with everyone watching after being greeted by the staff with a hearty 'Gaijin-san'. Essentially meaning 'tourist' or 'foreigner'.<br><br>Anyhow, I should wrap things up on account of angry Hostel-goers. Getting hold of the internet is a ...

... to win and I know my Hiragana but she had the home court advantage. I want a rematch. My friend always joked that they have a room especially for me. They built the house two years ago and it includes a room on the third floor which is supposed to be a "attic" for building code reason but they use it as a home theater and office. The room is very nice and airy with a sky light. I went to sleep listening to the rain on the roof just over my head.

... on Sunday afternoon) Sumiyo was kind enough to make us a farewell breakfast before I headed off to the airport early monday morning for my flight to Beijing--I cant believe that this freakin blog is still only up to Beijing...I know I have said this numerous times but I really have to get better about writing more regularly or else I will never be able to catch up to the present. Anyway, as always, I hope all is well and I look forward to hearing from you soon. -Jonathan

... 10 years ago. It was cool seeing him after all these years. We spent most of the evening catching up. Chris entertained us with stories of the things he has seen as a nurse and on his trips to Tijuana. I was pleasantly surprised with Pasadena. It was the first time I have hung out there and I was impressed by how active it was and by the variety of places to go. To end the night, I dragged E.J. and Minh around to ...

... woman wear a Yukata and the men either wear a jimbe or a yukata also. So, Kazuno and I wore Yukatas. It took us a few times to get the Yukata to look right though. We took pictures of ourselves with our keitais to send to Kazuno's mom to ask if we looked ok. But, we did that a few times before we looked right. It is difficult though to put on a Yukata. We also met Karina at the station on the ...

Well, we made it! A gruelling flight in a smelly old musty ANA plane. No wonder half the Japanese ladies had face masks on... M-L and I, being small, just about squeezed ourselves into our micro-seats, and wiled away the hours watching Batman Begins, Herbie (Fully Loaded) and In Good Company. I watched most of Madagascar ...