Here are some random photos from the trip.
We had some meetings out near the west side of Tokyo, so for three days I stayed in a hotel in Hachioji, which is a bit over an hour west of Yumiko's mom's house, and about as far west in Tokyo as you can get before you get out into the country. Here is what it looked like from my hotel room, looking south.
Not nearly as crowded and built up as it is in the center of Tokyo. This is the end of the Musashino plain, and the start of a mountainous region. Most of Japan is actually covered with rugged mountains -- only something like 1/7 of the country is flat enough to build on.
Here's what it looked like at night.
And, from my hotel room I could just barely see through the surrounding buildings the tip of one of my all-time favorite mountains.
Unfortunately I didn't realize it until my last day, but the top floor of the hotel was high enough to get above the obstructions and see the whole thing. I took some photos then, but the last day I was there was pretty hazy, so it didn't show up so well. I could have gotten some better shots if I'd tried the top floor earlier into the stay.
When I worked for Yokogawa Electric in 1989, we lived in Hachioji for a month and a half. The apartment I lived in was fairly close, so for fun I walked over and took some pictures.
We called it "the great and spacious building." It was even on the other side of a river, with a rod of iron and a straight and narrow path. We never found the tree of life, though.
Other than that, I didn't find many places that I recognized. I did, however, come across the shop where I bought my guitar.
Being rather crowded, construction and utility work is difficult. I think I'm glad I don't have this guy's job.
Another shot from the hotel, this time on the north side.
One night we went out to dinner at an interesting fish place. It had kind of a "fusion" feel to it -- traditional fish cuisine, but waitresses in modern spins on kimonos, the menu all in fancy traditional calligraphy, but an eclectic mix of Western hard rock and rap playing as background music.
The food was really good. Here are the appetizers. The shrimp was fresh -- it was cooked at a brazier on the table, and the shrimp were still alive when the cooking started. In fact, the shrimp jumped off the grill several times. It doesn't get much fresher than tha
The other stuff I would have been happier if they hadn't explained what it was.
Here's the "before" photo of the main course. This place is famous for their fresh fish -- they bring it in directly from where it's caught, rather than going through a fish market, so these fish were still swimming around in the ocean earlier that day. The waitress is asking how we'd like them prepared.
Here's the "after" photo of the main course. Yum! This is actually only about half of the main course -- we got about half raw, sliced as sashimi, and the other half cooked.
And, some as sushi for the final course.
Continuing with the food theme, here's lunch my last day in the hotel. The restaurant was on the top floor of the hotel, so I got to eat while looking out the window at Mt. Fuji. It was very cool. And very delicious. I didn't get to order the really good beef, though, because it was about twice as expensive, and my boss (and the accounting department) probably would have given me grief. But this was plenty good.
Friday night Yumiko's mom and I went and ate at a local kaitenzushi. It was really good.
We ate quite a bit. :)
Over the weekend, I went down to Yaizu.
On the way, I got a pretty good look at Fuji-san. Here it is almost directly from the east.
And a few minutes later, more from the south.
It was a fun weekend. I got to visit with lots of people that I met 25 (!) years ago, and a lot of newer church members. It was really nice. After church Sunday they had a pot-luck lunch, kind of a New-Years party. They've got a pretty good-sized building now (still rented), the fourth building the branch has met in since I first went there. Attendance is up around 50-70 now, and they're hoping that in another year or two they'll be able to build a building.
I got to see cool people like Bro. Watanabe...
...the Shirasagis...
...Kondo-san and Shimizu-shimai...
...and the Oishi family.
Plus a bunch more cool people that I didn't get photos of. It would have been nice if I'd had another day or two to spend visiting people and catching up, but Sunday night I headed back to Tokyo.
Here are a couple of pictures of the Sky Tree, which continues to grow. I think it's about 2/3 of its final height now.
I should have ridden over to take a closer look -- it's only maybe 10 minutes by bicycle from Yumiko's mom's house.
Another food shot -- here is some ramen and gyoza that Yumiko's mom fixed.
The Doll Festival / Girl's Day holiday is coming up, so stores were selling the fancy doll sets that people like to display. This is a pretty small set.
I am continually amazed at how people drive and park cars in Tokyo. This guy parks very close to the wall of his carport.
This space isn't quite as tight, but I'm not sure how they get out of the car once it's parked. Maybe the sunroof?
Here's a narrow building under construction. I have no idea how they build in such close quarters. How do they attach the walls? How do they caulk and paint?
Here are some more skinny buildings. It seems like it would have to be more efficient to build one larger building rather than three skinny ones in the same footprint -- if nothing else, it would save the redundancy of three staircases and three elevators -- but that's not how they do it.
More food! Yumiko's mom's neighbor took us out do dinner in trade for some IT work getting her computer Internet set up for her. Mmm, katsu!
Yumiko's mom enjoyed it, too.
They're painting the condos near Yumiko's mom's house. Those are some seriously big chunks of netting they're using to wrap the building to do the work. There seems to be plenty of construction going on -- everywhere I went there were buildings being painted, buildings been torn down, buildings being built. Tokyo is constantly renewing itself.
One more food-related photo. McDonalds is currently featuring the "Idaho burger." It was pretty good. :)
The morning before I left Rieko and Koudai came to visit.
And finally, one last look at Japan from the airplane window. Sayonara...
Here's the "before" photo of the main course. This place is famous for their fresh fish -- they bring it in directly from where it's caught, rather than going through a fish market, so these fish were still swimming around in the ocean earlier that day. The waitress is asking how we'd like them prepared.
Here's the "after" photo of the main course. Yum! This is actually only about half of the main course -- we got about half raw, sliced as sashimi, and the other half cooked.
And, some as sushi for the final course.
Continuing with the food theme, here's lunch my last day in the hotel. The restaurant was on the top floor of the hotel, so I got to eat while looking out the window at Mt. Fuji. It was very cool. And very delicious. I didn't get to order the really good beef, though, because it was about twice as expensive, and my boss (and the accounting department) probably would have given me grief. But this was plenty good.
Friday night Yumiko's mom and I went and ate at a local kaitenzushi. It was really good.
We ate quite a bit. :)
Over the weekend, I went down to Yaizu.
On the way, I got a pretty good look at Fuji-san. Here it is almost directly from the east.
And a few minutes later, more from the south.
It was a fun weekend. I got to visit with lots of people that I met 25 (!) years ago, and a lot of newer church members. It was really nice. After church Sunday they had a pot-luck lunch, kind of a New-Years party. They've got a pretty good-sized building now (still rented), the fourth building the branch has met in since I first went there. Attendance is up around 50-70 now, and they're hoping that in another year or two they'll be able to build a building.
I got to see cool people like Bro. Watanabe...
...the Shirasagis...
...Kondo-san and Shimizu-shimai...
...and the Oishi family.
Plus a bunch more cool people that I didn't get photos of. It would have been nice if I'd had another day or two to spend visiting people and catching up, but Sunday night I headed back to Tokyo.
Here are a couple of pictures of the Sky Tree, which continues to grow. I think it's about 2/3 of its final height now.
I should have ridden over to take a closer look -- it's only maybe 10 minutes by bicycle from Yumiko's mom's house.
Another food shot -- here is some ramen and gyoza that Yumiko's mom fixed.
The Doll Festival / Girl's Day holiday is coming up, so stores were selling the fancy doll sets that people like to display. This is a pretty small set.
I am continually amazed at how people drive and park cars in Tokyo. This guy parks very close to the wall of his carport.
This space isn't quite as tight, but I'm not sure how they get out of the car once it's parked. Maybe the sunroof?
Here's a narrow building under construction. I have no idea how they build in such close quarters. How do they attach the walls? How do they caulk and paint?
Here are some more skinny buildings. It seems like it would have to be more efficient to build one larger building rather than three skinny ones in the same footprint -- if nothing else, it would save the redundancy of three staircases and three elevators -- but that's not how they do it.
More food! Yumiko's mom's neighbor took us out do dinner in trade for some IT work getting her computer Internet set up for her. Mmm, katsu!
Yumiko's mom enjoyed it, too.
They're painting the condos near Yumiko's mom's house. Those are some seriously big chunks of netting they're using to wrap the building to do the work. There seems to be plenty of construction going on -- everywhere I went there were buildings being painted, buildings been torn down, buildings being built. Tokyo is constantly renewing itself.
One more food-related photo. McDonalds is currently featuring the "Idaho burger." It was pretty good. :)
The morning before I left Rieko and Koudai came to visit.
And finally, one last look at Japan from the airplane window. Sayonara...
1 comment:
wave, you are making me seriously hungry. that all looked so good - except for that plate of stuff with the squid..... and i loved the pictures of mt fuji. awesome. i want to go back again!
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