Hotel Cosmo Yokohama

We returned to the Imperial Palace gardens, which were open this time. We wandered around. They were leafy and peaceful but there wasn't much there. We continued on to a large shrine complex with the highest gate in Japan before taking the train to Yokohama, which took 30 minutes. There we headed straight to the manic Chinatown, the largest Chinatown in Japan. It was full of Japanese people trying the 'exotic' food and buying ...

... display out the front of the shop, and as I looked inside I noticed the tank of large live lobsters. Veronica asked me why I hadn't noticed that before. WHY DIDN'T WE EAT THERE??? Back to the room for an early night, as we are all in need of a rest, and Hakone tomorrow is likely to be a fairly big day if we decide to do look around Hakone, ride the Hakone ropeway and do the Lake Ashi cruise all in one day, which is very likely, depending on the weather.

... fact that the shopping plaza next door has a Tiffany's and a ladies Wednesday - especially when it meant ...

... closes around 12am and I didn't want to get caught out. Tokyo Metro System This is strange but you need to really think about which line and ticket to buy. The average tourist will buy a one day ticket but this comes in two varieties... the Y740 or the Y1100 version. I asked a train guard to tell me about the differences between the two, so when I pointed to the Y740 one on the ticket machine, he pointed to the whole metro map. Fair enough, when ...

... stressing the word "latest". Mr S. was bouncing around. We headed off towards hills - the opposite direction from the river. We went through a temple and then up a hill. Wind was picking up. Clad only in a tee shirt and a pair of thin nylon trackpants, I was beginning to freeze. His light footsteps were taking me to places I had never been even though this was the neighbourhood that I grew up ...

... which boasted a large market area along it's main street. Tsukishima is famous throughout Japan for Monja, which is a fried dish that diners cook to their taste at their table. Along the main street there were countless monja-ya ("ya" means "shop") and several shops of other varieties. Book stores, clothing and shoe stores, and two pachinko parlors. At the end of the street I crossed another canal and turned right on Harumi Dori, crossing the Sumida river once more. Across the ...

... with my getting a PhD. On the night I arrived in Japan they asked me what a sheet of brown paper stated. They had worked out that 'Doctor' was not necessarily a medical doctor. But they were confused by the word 'Pbilosoby'. The dictionary they used did not list this word and tried different combinations to no avail. The font makes the letter h look like the letter b, making it quite confusing to people like my parents with little English. I ...

... we finally asked in another restaurant where it was. When we finally got there we were seated next to a window with a gorgeous view of the while city which seems to go on forever. We ordered a la carte some meat on sticks and Thai fried rice and a sushi roll. This turned out to be cheap and yummy as promised at less than $15 each for the whole meal (remember these prices include all taxes and tips which makes a big difference). From here we headed home to do some ...

... into "our" place last Tuesday and our air shipment arrived the same day. The sea shipment, we've been told, should be here shortly, so hopefully we'll have all our things by the end of the week. I'm looking forward to it, not only because I want my stuff, but because it'll help make this place feel more like home; it's odd to be suddenly using all this furniture that's not ours (though it's very nice furniture, to be sure!) with only a fraction of our ...

Japan - what can we say....its amazing. here are just some of the things we have been up to, Train journey to see Mount Fuji - and an active volcano, where you can eat black eggs specially cooked in the sulphur from the volcano..to be honest they tasted the same as any boiled egg just you kept getting wiffs of the sulphur around you (which ...