Ocean's Reach Condominiums Yokohama

... seen each other since before India. Asia flew by since we only had two days at sea between each port! Grace is going to teach in New Orleans is graduating this semester and headed to teach in New Orleans for two years with Teach for America. She wants to be a motivational speaker and took a year off from school after high school to raise $100,000 to donate to Habitat for Humanity. She raised the money by ...

... sorted. Whilst inputting the train station details to work how how long it would take to get from our hotel in Tokyo to Disneyland, which is where we will be spending 3 of our 4 days in Tokyo, we discovered a very interesting thing. From Yokohama station, which is 2 minutes walk from the Hotel I am sitting in now, Disneyland is a 40 minute train ride, with a single change of trains at Tokyo station ...

... me in english. I felt very flattered and tried to keep from looking tired and sick, although I was both. Church ended. All the people went down to potluck and and the potluck, as always in Japan, was complete with some of the most delicious morsels of sushi and rice. We'll have to talk with PJ about including some sushi in the potluck when we get back. Well, I'm still sick, very tired and starting to fade. I have to finish packing for our trip to Seto at 5:30 Tomorrow ...

... world! So I guess that made up for being back in the big smoke! Sunday was spent at the national museum, which is set in park grounds and has a really interesting and well curated collection. Had a decent lunch when I arrived and spent a good few hours perusing the exhibits; some of the examples of ceramic work were simply outstanding. Also spent quite a while in the nearby market, which reminded me somewhat of ...

... of the neighbourhood, Nakazato. But I recall the story behind the name. The original Shinyoshida primary school was busting to its seams with students. Another school was needed to cater to a growing school going population in the Shinyoshida town and its expanding residential zones. The local education board hoped that the name No. 2 would bode well for further expansion as it would make it easier for newer ...

... like a good idea considering the language barrier and the mob of hungry co-eaters awaiting. A complimentary miso soup with tiny (Manila?) clams the size of dimes appeared before us. Excellent. Our first piece was tuna, not white or fatty, just regular tuna which I normally don't order due to its lack of flavor. It was easily one of the best pieces of sushi I've ever eaten. It had a velvety texture and a flavor associated to no tuna I've had ...

... we weren't the only people talking on the train. However, Japanese tend to ignore Japanese breaking the social rules. It's all due to their belief that they are the master race and all foreigners are uncivilised barbarians. You may think I'm joking. I'm not! Of course it all depends how you measure civilised. Slamming doors in peoples faces, ramming into people in train stations without an apology and grabbing woman's ...

... dry your clothes (every one does this in Asia it seems). We are saving a significant amount by sharing this place as most of our classmates pay almost as much for an apartment alone or have to live in a guest house where you share bathrooms and kitchens. We do have to pay utilities and internet but they are reasonable. The area around the apartment is great, it has lots of convenient stores, a large supermarket on the corner, a few restaurants and bars, and a full ...

... passport and visa to Phil's house the next week. Reluctantly, we handed over our passports and hoped that a photocopy would due for a week. Packed up our things and headed to the train station to catch a Shinkansen (bullet train) to Niigata, where Phil lives and teaches. Wow, do those trains move! We also went thru some amazingly long tunnels (cruising on the train at about 200 mph, we were in a tunnel for over 15 minutes. You do the math). Peace, Anders

... building we decided to have lunch so we were adventurous and ate in the workers cafeteria on the 32nd floor. Now I am used to not having much English to read in restaurants and going by the pictures but this place had NO ENGLISH AT ALL. And the pictures of the meals weren't that helpful, 'yes I can see it has noodles and broth but what is that brown meat???' type thing. I decided that I would go for what I thought was vegetarian noodle soup, it was a bit bland but at ...