There are several places of interest that i went to in Odaiba. The first is a replica Statue of Liberty. I don’t quite know the history behind it, but it’s basically a mini version of the one in New York.

Another interesting place was the Fuji TV Building. Other than looking like it is some weird transformer, it was an interesting place to tour. I only wish i had a TV so that i could have related to, or understood, a majority of the things there.

Lastly was the Giant Gundam. This was interesting to see, however the area where it is reeked of manure. Im not quite sure why that is, and it didnt seem like anyone else noticed.

It’s taken me a while to get this post done, so without further a due, here are the pictures.

We proceeded to go see some of the shrines/temples (don’t know what the proper term for them is). It was all very interesting and fun to see. Then we went to Yumi’s favorite one that was about 30 minutes walk from where we were. The more we walked the less and less people we saw. The closer to the shrine we got, the more the vegetation seemed to surround us. At several points but outside the shrine and inside, i had a very nostalgic feeling. I think it reminded me of back when i was a kid in boy scouts going out on camping trips and seeing all this new vegetation for the first time.

It was very interesting feeling nostalgic in such a historically important and, not to mention, foreign place. After viewing this shrine, we headed back toward Kamakura station, and at this point it was swarming with people. While the walk to the first shrine took us less than 5 minutes when we got there, the walk back took a good 20 minutes. That’s how many people were there.

All in all it was a great trip and a part of Japan that can only really be viewed with native Japanese with you.

We went to a nearby park on the bay. This is on the opposite side of the bay of Yokohama. We walked down past the stadium where the Chiba Lotte Marines play. Then we ventured to the beach. The beach, like the rest of the park, was rather run down, almost forgotten. When we went back to the park we found that it was an old rundown amusement park of some sorts.

It was very interesting to see what time can do to a place if it is left unattended. I have no doubts in my mind that this was once a flourishing amusement park. Now all that was left were a few attractions that hadn’t completely broken down yet.

After venturing the amusement park we followed a path to a Japanese garden. It was only $2 to get in, but we saw enough from the outside, plus at that time our feet were getting sore (neither of us had walking shoes on).

We finally went back to Carrefours which is when I spotted a Big Boys and a Bad Ass coffee, which up until now i didn’t know existed outside of the USA. We went back to Carrefours and got the rest of what we wanted, which was some baguettes and bree cheese.

After i got home i devoured the bread and cheese and was left with some cereal (cocoa crispies and frosted flakes) and some Bombay Sapphire gin which i got for ~$15. All in all this was a great experience and a very interesting place.

Hibiya-Koen is very near where i work, though i have never been there. I transfer at Kasumigaseki every time i come or go to work, yet i had never exited there till Saturday. It was a very nice, beautiful, and spacious park. I dont know how often they hold festivals, but if they had another one there you could count me in!

Not much else to say, there was great music, dancing, beer, food… i mean what more could one ask for?!

Below are some pictures of the experiance.

We got there around 8pm (8:05 to be exact), and we were seated very shortly. The place was packed with japanese enjoying themselves. From the moment we sat down we were given 2 hours (that’s how i knew it was 8:05 that we came in).

I must say that we started out strong, ordering 3-5 plates every 5-10 minutes, but the pace didnt last. In hindsight, the fact that i ordered gohan (rice) to accompany the yakiniku took it’s told, and i was unable to eat anymore towards the end.

Overall it was a blast and a very reasonable price. It ended up being ~$41 which may seem expensive, but you have to remember that you could order any cut of meat you wanted, and also any drink you wanted. It was well worth the money and the fun i had there with my friends was priceless.

Below are a few pictures (my camera was dying so there are not as many as i would have liked).

I left for shibuya ~11 and got there ~11:20. I was surprised at the lack of people. I read that new years eve is treated as Christmas eve in the states. This makes sense why koji went with his parents to an onsen. On the other hand i saw several videos of shibuya in years past and it didnt seem as empty.

Well ~11:35 people started showing up in swarms. I got many pictures and a video as it turned new years. However, i have no means to transfer to them to my computer. Expect them up in 1-3 days.

I will leave you with this however, a picture of a hot chocolate drink from a vending maching. I had gotten this before and it was chilled, but this time the drink came out and i was quite surprised when it started warming my hands.

Again happy new years to all!

Food – the food here has been amazing. While I am not positive I have been eating the healthiest, every meal I have had has been delicious. Some of the things I have had that I remember are grilled- chicken, cow intestines, cow tongue, another cow organ, tempura, udon noodles, lots of rice, ramen, fish, chicken heart and liver, and more. I have not encountered very many spicy dishes. Most of them are either a little sweet or a little salty, but never too much. There are also many more restaurants here than in America. Also each restaurant has a display of their best dishes (plastic I believe) in front of their stores so people can see what their meal will look like before ordering. Food comes out very quickly and you are never expected to tip your server.

Onsen – I had the opportunity to visit and onsen with Kevin and his family. An onsen is a natural hot springs. The place we went to was about and hour and a half drive from Tokyo. The inn was very beautiful as well as traditional. We all stayed in one room that had just a table in the middle. The onsen experience was something quite new to me. You start by talking off all clothes (in private) except for your underwear and putting on a robe called a yukata. Then once you have entered the springs (there is usually one for men and one for women) you can either clean off or just go right in. All you have is a small towel which you are supposed to use to conceal your private parts in a nonchalant type way. The water was great, and we stayed in for about an hour. Then once you are finished you wash off and then back into the room. We stayed in our yukatas all night. We had dinner and breakfast there as well which were both wonderful. In all it was quite a unique experience that i was glad to have tried and would love to again!

I will have one more post detailing my final thoughts within the next few days.

Upon Arrival – Once I arrived I was a mixture of relieved as well as nervous. I was relieved that I had finally made it and would be able to move away from the small quarters in which I was confined the last 14 hours and also nervous about immigration and customs. This all went by very uneventfully. The first step is a quarantine which you are supposed to go to if you are sick, I wasn’t. Then you get to immigration. There are two forms which were handed out on the plane that you had to fill out. The first was a customs form for declaring items (none of which I had) and the second was an embarkment/disembarkment form. After immigrations was customs where I talked to the lady for about 2 minutes trying to explain that I did not have the address of where I was staying, but only a home phone number.

My first breakfast – I had arrived uneventfully at my host family’s house and gone to bed around 9pm. I awoke around 8am and went to eat breakfast. I guess it was a traditional Japanese breakfast of yogurt with fruit, homemade juice (I don’t know what kind but it was very good). I also had two pieces of toast (which were much better than regular toast in the US). This was somehow very satisfying for being much less than I am used to.

My first walk – I then went on a walk with Kevin to his work. On the way we would pass Shibuya station where I would do much of my traveling from. The walk was a very good glimpse into the Japanese lifestyle. We walked for about 20 minutes to get there and I saw many things along the way. The first thing out of the ordinary and not something most visitors are likely to experience is the sight of the current prime ministers house. This house was less than one minute from my host family’s house which helped explain why there were policemen everywhere.
The streets are all very narrow and many people walk or ride bikes. There are vending machines for drinks everywhere. When we got toward Shibuya station the noteworthy image of a huge intersection with big screens everywhere and multitudes of people crossing the street came alive. This is an area in which I could spend hours just looking around and never get bored. Kevin eventually arrived at his place of work and I went back to Shibuya station and called my friend, Koji.

My first experience with the public transportation system – Koji wanted me to come over to where he lived in Meguro. To do this I would have to take the train at Shibuya station. It took me 20 minutes and 2 phone calls to figure out where to buy the tickets. I finally got my ticket and boarded the train. I got off in Meguro and Koji was able to find me no problem. After this initial run in with the public transportation system I was never confused by them again (as of now at least).

My first meal – Koji and I decided to go eat somewhere. He decided on a restaurant by looking at food on a poster from outside. We went inside and there was a vending machine. He found the meals we wanted on it from pictures. Then we inserted the money and received tickets. We sat at a counter and gave the waitress our tickets. In several minutes the food appeared in front of us. I had gotten salmon, some sort of beef in a bowl, sticky rice, and miso soup. Everything was delicious. I am not a fan of salmon, but even the salmon was great! The miso soup was better than any miso I had back in the US. And the beef was probably my favorite. The price was very reasonable at around 450 yen.

Maids – This was something that I am still trying to understand. When we went to the electronic district (akihabura?) I saw young Japanese ladies dresses in maid outfits. When I asked Koji about this I was told that this is a big thing here. The nerds are obsessed with the maid outfits and there are maid casinos, maid cafés, and more. A majority of the maid were quite good looking so there was a lot of eye candy for me.

Television – Japanese television is the same, if not wackier, than America portrays it to be. They had comedians doing the evening news, odd game shows, odder programs that I couldn’t understand, and more. I would have to say the most unusual thing was the way they cut to commercials. Unlike in the US where you can pretty much tell when a commercial is coming, they would randomly cut to commercials in the middle of anything. When the programming started again they would sometime rewind a bit so you know you didn’t miss anything, other times it would seem as though you missed a small portion of the programming. Everything was very interesting to watch though, even if I couldn’t understand it.

Smoking – So I know I shouldn’t be smoking, but I’ll be the first to admit that I am addicted. I bought a pack of cigarettes once off the plane and smoked one outside not thinking. The next day on my walk with Kevin I noticed designated smoking sections. Apparently in some parts of the city they have these. They are not hard to locate and are usually populated by a good amount of people.

Computers – I first experienced a computer in Japan when I used Koji’s. It didn’t help that it was 8 years old and ran Windows ME. Everything was in Japanese on it, which didn’t seem to be much of a problem since I could navigate windows even if it was in some alien language. The biggest surprise was the keyboard. At first glance, it’s a regular QWERTY keyboard just with Japanese characters listed as alternates for some of the keys. Then I tried to log into my email. Kylemcauliffe” huh? I tried again, but shift+2 was “. I spent about a minute searching the keyboard and found the @ was right next to ‘p’ and you didn’t have to press shift. There were many differences other than this, though the only ones I can think of at the moment are that the backspace key was extremely small, and that the enter key was narrow and tall.

Drinks – With all the vending machines I am obsessed with the drinks here. I have had nearly 12 different ones so far, and am looking forward to many more. The oddest of these so far is one by Fanta. It is in a small 6-8oz can which you shake hard once you obtain it. The beverage comes in apple, grape, and orange (at least this is all the flavors I have seen so far). It is like a soda, but there is a jello like substance in it. So while you are drinking what seems like a carbonated beverage, you are also chewing it. It was quite an interesting experience! Koji has told me that there are a lot of jello like beverages here.