Live from Japan!

The other weekend while walking though the streets of Nagoya, we suddenly could hear loud music wafting our way from a nearby park. Looking over, what should we see, but four men clad in leather, dancing in a circle Rockabilly style! Occasionally, one of the group would move the the center and show of their stuff. A couple had some good moves, but you could tell a couple were just starting out, their moves limited to rhythmically hopping. Thoroughly amused we moved on, only to discover that on the other side of a fountain, was the advanced group. Simillarly clad, but with more refined moves, and hairstyles.

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. . . pay for plane tickets.

I must say that this is the very first time in my life that I have bought two airline tickets at a convenience store.

First I booked the flight online and once I had booked the flight it gave me a confirmation number and instructions to go to a Lawsons (convenience store chain) within three days to pay in full. If I didn’t show up at Lawsons within the allotted time my flight would be canceled.

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Just a little bit of randomness that I found in our iPhoto album. These pictures were snapped during our biking trip around Lake Biwa. When I saw this building I was actually quite curious about what goes on in the Young People’s village. Aside from them climbing up the sides of tall buildings and whatnot.

This last weekend Danielle and I, and a troupe of others (including some of the usual suspects), went to osaka for the Great Japan Beer Festival. Over a hundred beers, REAL BEERS, that we devoted an afternoon to tasting, and enjoying.

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Last weekend the beautiful, and charming, Ella planned a hike for all of us. We got up early in the morning and headed to Kyoto to enjoy Japan’s beautiful natures (her words, not mine).

The trailhead was about a 45 minute bus ride from Kyoto station. Thanks to Ella’s careful planning, we got there easily and we were all ready to start hiking.

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Being the Apple junkies that we are, we tend to find Apple stores wherever we go. And when we find them, we can’t help but go in and oogle over the fancy electronic gadgets. Even though there isn’t much left for us to oogle over (since we own or have owned most products in the Apple line), we still can’t help ourselves.

This latest stop was in Osaka. We were just walking around when we saw the shiny happy Apple logo. Our stop in Osaka means that we have now visited three out of the seven Apple stores in Japan. Perhaps we should make it our goal to see all 7 before we leave….

Another stop on our travels in Tokyo, which I haven’t yet told you about, was a trip up to the top of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. There are many tall buildings in Tokyo where you can go up to the top and get a view of the city beyond, the Government Building, however, is one of only a few where you can go up at night, for free!

The night we went wasn’t a very clear night. It was pretty hazy and foggy, though I suspect that truly clear days (with all the pollution and smog) are pretty hard to come by. Even though it was pretty hazy, it was still a fun time. It was cool to see the city all lit up and continuing as far as the eye could see.

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So, another one of the places we went on this trip to Tokyo, was Akihabara. Akihabara, for those of you that don’t know, is Tokyo’s “Electric Town” if it runs on electricity, chances are you can buy it there. Need a washing machine, no problem. A chip for your circa 1975 computer, sure! Vacuum tubes? You have at least two stores catering just to you. However, Akihabara is also the center of the worlds “otaku” culture. You can get anything you want connected to anime, manga, figurines, models (the plastic kind, not the people kind… who might also be plastic), etc. As a long time fan of manga and anime it has been something of a sacred pilgrimage.

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Another stop on our weekend tour of Tokyo was the Imperial Palace, home to the emperor of Japan. Getting a tour of the actual palace takes quite a bit of doing, so we settled for touring the gardens. A big bonus about visiting the East Gardens, it is free! And free things to do in Tokyo are a bit hard to come by.

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While in Tokyo we did any number of silly things, but this perhaps was the silliest.

We rented a swan-shaped paddle boat and coasted around the pond in Ueno park. It was fun though, and good people watching too!

Of course we splurged, paying the higher price for the swan than for the regular paddle boat or the oar boat. I mean, this may be our only chance to ride in a swan, it would have been so sad to pass it up.

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