Techno Tower Hotel Yokohama

... so many wonderful experiences. I met up with Liz and Patricia to study some for my Islam quiz after the talent show. We went through our notes and then I ended up talking with Andrea, who is also in my class afterwards. She is also 23 and is done with college when the voyage ends. She lives in Orange County in California and is a great soccer player. She is thinking about going to school for physical therapy since she wants to continue to be involved with sports.

Do druheho najvacsieho mesta v Japonsku, asi pol hodiny vlakom juzne od Tokya (pricom sa v podstate jedna o jedno megamesto) sme dnes sli hlavne kvoli ohnostroju. Nez sme sa k nemu vsak dopracovali, pochodili sme aj kus mesta. Ale vsetko pekne poporiadku. Tou najvyssou je myslena The Landmark Tower, s 295.8m najvyssia budova v Japonsku. Nachadza sa v modernej stvrti Minato Mirai 21 (akoze 21. storocie), hned na pobrezi. Je to prvy ...

... in going to church, but is that what our religion is about ? Is that what God is about? So what happens when you continue to explore. Well for me, I kept running and found some amazing things. Things that I would not have imagined being there. I started in the comfortable city area with stores, freeways, schools and as I kept going, found myself in a forrest. It's like a hiking trail. I found a forrest of sakura trees. Sakura season has not quite started yet but right here ...

... stations. So if you are not careful you will catch the wrong train and have to pay another fare (lines are colour coded so watch the train colours) 3. Even if you are on the right train it may not stop at your stop because there are Rapid Express 1, Rapid Express 2, Commuter Express and Limited Express trains on top of the Local one (which stops at every stop). Again the carriages are colour coded. There are maps that encode the mysteries of the various trains, they may even have ...

... the capsule. There was no MC to forge camaraderie. There was no countdown for the opening to orchestrate the firing of the crackers and the opening of the lid. Nor were there any sound effects, drum beat or music coming out of the PA system. Nor was there any press invited for this occasion. The school did not even hire a photographer or a video-recorder. My possession of a point-and-shoot digital camera made me ...

... I did get through there were no English speaking operators available. I contacted American Express' Platinum Travel Service and asked if they could book the room for me, but they had no more luck than I did. Finally, after 3 day's effort, I finally got through to an operator and booked a superior room with a Venice view. The room was priced at 37,000 yen per night (or approximately $310). It was the last room available on the Venice side of the hotel, even though I had ...

... floats, lollipops, and more and features many lavishly dressed transgendered people. It raises money for AIDS awareness and seemed very strange and entertaining to me. Chris of course wasn't as crazy about the idea, and since the main part of the festival was tomorrow and only the kickoff ceremony was today we went to the R amen Museum instead. The Ramen Museum is what it sounds like, a museum dedicated to the various types of ...

... and prawns on a stick that still had their shells and heads on. I didn't eat much but it was a great experience. (Jen declared it was the best meal she has had since being abroad. Apparently the fish is really fresh here). Before sitting down we had to take our shoes off and then sat on little mats around a table that sat ten and stood only about two feet off the floor. At dinner Jen and I made some new friends ...

Japan Day Four August 9, 2006 My last day on land for a while, It is hard to believe I the trip is over so soon. I will be home sooner then I know. Well today I decided to take it easy and just enjoy these last few hours on land. We went over to Osaka and started with some shopping. Maggie and I then caught lunch right next to the tallest ...

... the same time, everyone could do just what they needed in the space provided. When we were walking through the ages and got to the Tokyo period our guide told us that a very rich family were going to demolish their old house to build a new one but decided that they would donate their entire old house to the museum so what we were seeing was an actual house used in real life. You could tell the family would have been rich because it was quite a generous sized house ...