After a quick train ride from the airport we arrived at our hotel, the Yokohama Royal Park Hotel which is located in the upper levels the the Landmark Tower, the tallest building in Yokohama. Of the 70 floors our room was located on the 54th with a view of downtown Yokohama and part of the port.
View from our room
Our hotel.
Our hotel room provided us with nightclothes, which Mark wore one night. He voluntarily posed for this picture, even though he knew it was going to be posted.
Also, interesting was our room key. It was a little large and heavy, but unique. Needless to say there was only one key per room. It reminds me of Alice in Wonderland for some reason.
While Mark enjoyed some learning at the conference I took part in the accompaning persons' program. My first day they had a day trip set up for us to Kamakura. First stop was the Tsurogaoka Hachiman-gu Shrine.
The entrance to the Shrine.
Just beyond the entrance.
Ceremony at the Shrine. We were all taught the proper way to pray at the Shrine, which included some bowing and clapping.
At the Shrine you could buy a fortune, if the fortune was good you are to keep it forever, if it is bad you tie it to this post to rid yourself of bad fortune.
Saki containers at the Shrine.
After the Shrine we went to have a traditional Japanese lunch. I wish I knew what I was eating, but then again maybe I am better off not knowing. Most of it was pretty tasty, some was kind of slimy, and some was just plain weird. Then we were off to see the Kotokuin Temple where there is an 11-meter tall statue of Buddha. This was probably my favorite site while in Japan. I mostlyjust took pictures, but also got to go inside the Buddha. Not much to see inside the Buddha, but I thought I should take a look. Here are some pictures of the huge Buddha.
It doesn't show well in the picture, but the tea is bright green. You were supposed to enjoy the Japanese candy first (in front of the tea) and then enjoy the very bitter tea. I did not enjoy either but fought my way through it.
This is a picture of the tea house where we had tea.
On our way back to the hotel I got to see Mt. Fuji, but I don't have a picture. Unfortunately, it is difficult to see and frequently not seen in the summertime. No snow-capped mountaintop, just a very large mound, but I felt fortunate to see it anyway. We had a great tour guide and I even learned to count to 10 in Japanese!
Later on that evening we had our formal dinner. Unfortunately, they did not have a lot of food, which seemed to be the case at a lot of the functions put on by the conference. We have learned that when they say it is time to eat you really got to fight your way to the front of the line or else you leave hungry. That was pretty sad considering the formal dinner cost ~$150 per person and it was a buffet! But they had Geishas.
The following day was interesting for me. Mark enjoyed another day at the conference and I again took part in the accompanying persons' program. I got to learn origami and Shodo(calligraphy)! I like to do artistic things so I thought I would really enjoy this. The origami ended up being me and four 70-something year old Japanese speaking men and women. So I made my crane and was off to find something to do on my own until it was time for calligraphy. Again, the calligraphy teachers spoke very little English, but they were cute. They got quite excited when I got it right though. They were very proud teachers.
My beautiful crane and kimono girl they gave me for joining them.
I learned one character that means friend. I practiced about 30 times before putting it on this nice paper to take home. Project complete with authentic stamping in the bottom left corner.
After the conference was complete Mark and I and two other friends from the conference got to go explore Tokyo. Thankfully, Jimmy can read and speak some Japanese. Jimmy is the previous fellow and currently works with Mark. Jimmy has been to Tokyo before and helped us navigate the train systems.
Train Map
Subway Map
Our first venture was to the Shinjuku Gardens just outside Tokyo. It was sweltering hot and filled with mosquitos. I think I left with 20 mosquito bites and somehow Mark left with maybe 4. It was not the prettiest time of year as not much was in bloom, but it is still a very peaceful place in the middle of the hustle and bustle of a very busy city and we had fun.
While at the garden, I required a pit stop in the public restroom. I wish someone was videotaping my ordeal. First, there are about 8 stalls in the restroom, 7 of which were traditional Japanese style toilets. For those of you who don't know what a traditional Japanese style toilet is, they are at ground level and somehow you are supposed to hover over them. I did not want to try this so I went in to the one regular stall. In the process of undoing my belt I saw the largest spider I have ever seen in my life (somewhere between 3 and 4 inches) hanging in the window at eye level. Naturally, I freak out, can't get my belt back on and struggle to get out of the 1-ft by 1-ft stall fast enough. Needless to say, I did not use the restroom.
Here are a few pics of the garden.
After the gardens we attempted to go to a cat cafe. Mark and I met some guy in the Sydney airport on our way to Tokyo who was from Sydney and working in Tokyo. He gave us tons of ideas for things to do in Tokyo, including some bizarre things to do. He told us about cat and rabbit cafes where you go and basically rent a cat or rabbit and get to play with them and dress them up. The four of us were curious so we decided to check it out. It turned out to be a bunch of teenagers who were just playing with kittens. We decided not to shell out our yen for that, but it was funny to see them playing.
The cat cafe, which interestingly has a dog on its sign???
After that bizarre venture we went to check out Shibuyu crossing, an extremely busy intersection in Tokyo. All cars stop to allow all pedestrians to cross, which is refered to as the Shibuyu scramble.
We then were off to see a large temple in Tokyo and some other interesting sights.
Outside the temple.
Incense burning outside the temple.
Interesting buildings in Tokyo. The one on the left is supposed to look like a glass of beer with foam on top and the one on the right is supposed to resemble a bowl with a traditional Japanese snack cracker often served at bars in Japan.
These were rickshaws I saw in a couple places in Japan. The poor guys take these people around and are literally running through the streets of Japan. Talk about a workout!
Later that day, Mark and I went back to Yokohama to ride the huge ferris wheel, which was a must do as we were told. It took about 20 minutes to make it all the way around, but a great way to see the city despite the not so nice weather.
On the ferris wheel.
Then off to check out the red brick warehouse. It houses shops and restaurants. Surprisingly it was also the first building in Japan to have and elevator, which I thought was crazy since it was only 3 stories. It was a unique, expensive open mall.
The tall building in the background is our hotel.
All in all, it was a good trip to Japan. We ate some interesting things, learned about Japanese culture, and got to see some amazing things. We also, experienced a minor earthquake while in our hotel room, the threat of a typhoon, and the train in front of us on our way to the airport crashed. We are home safe. Thank goodness Mom was not aware of our adventures or she would have had a heart attack, especially since she had no way to communicate with us. She is very relieved we are home safe and sound and are not planning to get on another airplane until we come back to Augusta for Christmas. Now time to plan for Mom and Dad's vist to Australia!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment