Yokohama & Kawasaki (the cities, not the companies)

On Friday and Saturday, I visited Yokohama and Kawasaki. Some of my former students from Portland are home for summer break, and decided to have a get together. On Friday, as soon as my last class before summer break finished, I went to the train station with Tota, one of my former students from here at the church. The trip to Yokohama took about two hours on the regular train. (Because of the route, the shinkansen was only about 30 minutes faster, and twice the cost, so we decided to save money.) YouJung, Jun, Shiori and Lina met us at the station. We rode a shuttle/tour bus around parts of the city, and stopped in Chinatown. We had some delicious snacks, walked around while making dinner plans for our return later that evening, and then headed to CosmoWorld.
CosmoWorld is an amusement park packed right in the middle of the urban area, partly on artificial islands. First we went on the tallest ferris wheel in the world (depending on which amusement park's report you believe, but it's definitely in the top three) and I took some pictures of the area. After that we went on the two roller coasters in the park: the not-so-creatively-named “Spinning Coaster” (I'm sure you can guess what the cars do as they go down the track!) and “Vanish! The Diving Coaster” whose main drop appears to go into the water (into a tunnel surrounded by a pool). The first one was pretty decent, but all the spinning (and hysterical laughing and shouting!) gave me a little bit of a headache. The second coaster wasn't nearly as scary as it looked-almost a little bit TOO smooth, but very cool.
After CosmoWorld, we went back to Chinatown for a buffet dinner, which was very delicious. Then, after dark, we walked through a beautiful park along the ocean which leads back to CosmoWorld. In the park, there is a statue which is based on a famous Japanese song about a girl with red shoes; I took a picture with Cosmoworld in the background-the nighttime cityscape was beautiful. Lina and Shiori went home, and the rest of us got on the train for the short trip to Kawasaki. The father of Jun and YouJung (brother and sister) pastors a church there, where they graciously let us spend the night (thank you again for your hospitality!).
We slept in the next morning, and then walked around the neighborhood in Kawasaki, stopping at the ENORMOUS mall next to the train station. After we returned to the church, YouJung and Jun's parents took us to a delicious Italian restaurant for lunch where we had pizza, pasta and some great salad. We talked, relaxed, took pictures, and enjoyed the air conditioning! After lunch, they dropped Tota and I off at the train station, and we headed back to Yokohama. We got off the train there for about an hour, looked around, and bought a snack (well, I did—Tota: “Rob, how can you eat so much?!”). The train ride home was crowded, but uneventful. Thanks everybody for a great trip-I had a fantastic time! In the pictures you can see Chinatown, CosmoWorld, the surrounding area, and our lunch the next day.

Volcanoes, Olympics, John Lennon and Emperor Akihito

How's that for a strange mix? How could they all possibly be related, you might ask? Well, let me tell you!

Two weeks ago, one of my tutoring students and her husband took me to Karuizawa (Kimura san tachi, domo arigatou gozaimashita! Hontoni tanoshkatta!) It's a beautiful resort town in the mountains close to the town Nagano, where the 1998 winter Olympics were held. Karuizawa hosted the curling events. When the Olympics were held in Tokyo in 1964, Karuizawa hosted equestrian events, which makes it the only city in the world to host summer and winter Olympic events.

Ten kilometers from the town, there is a semi-active volcano called Mount Asama. We visited an amazing nature park near the mountain that reminded me of McKenzie Pass and the Dee Wright observatory in Oregon, except that Mount Asama has considerably more vegetation. In the park there is a Shinto shrine near the highest elevation at the site.

The resort town of Karuizawa is a popular spot for rich (and not so rich) people to go during the hot summer season. The Japanese royal family frequently visited there previously, and the current emperor met his wife there in 1957 while playing tennis. Yoko Ono's family also had a summer home there where she and John Lennon occasionally visited. Not that I'm that big of a John Lennon fan (wasn't he in some band?), but it was interesting to see pictures for sale in the local photography shop of him walking down the famous shopping street with his son. There were also pictures of the Emperor and Empress walking off the tennis court where they met. I bought the picture of the Emperor and Empress.

In the woods near the famous shopping street there is a beautiful church built by a Canadian missionary who popularized Karuizawa as a retreat in the late 1800s.

It was a wonderful trip; thanks again, Yoshihito and Mayumi!

Hopefully the pictures don't need any further explanation.

Also, here are links to two videos; the first is walking on the path through the park near Mount Asama and the second is a waterfall a little further down the mountain:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mytG_GrIR4Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKKZXPwkL4E

Minemachi Church Gospel Choir

A couple of weeks ago, the church here had a choir concert in the train station. Here are the video links and a couple of pictures (sorry, one picture is kind of blurry).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Biq7h6Hn7OQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3YBhMqKx3E

Umi No Hi

Happy Umi No Hi! *All non-Japanese readers scratch their heads and think 'huh?'* If you're scratching your head and saying "huh?" allow me to explain Umi No Hi to you! Here is a quote from an explanation I found on the Internet:

The "day of the sea", Umi no Hi, has been a national holiday since 1996. The purpose of this holiday is to heighten the Japanese citizens' awareness of the importance of the sea for the Japanese nation. On that day, the national aquariums organize special events, all economic and cultural activities related to the sea are highlighted and competitions and water sports shows take place.

Historically, the 20th of July corresponds to the anniversary date of the Meiji emperor's arrival in the Yokohama port, back from a voyage in the north of Japan in 1876.

Due to a new rule instituted about three years ago, most one day holidays that were traditionally celebrated on a fixed date are moved to a close Monday to create a three-day weekend. We had a day off from school, which so far I've spent just relaxing and catching up on miscellaneous work around the house. (and going grocery shopping in about ten minutes!) Since I could sleep in this morning, I went with some people from church to a very large indoor sports/entertainment/video arcade complex and stayed until rather late. It was really interesting to see some subtle (and not so subtle) cultural differences in the entertainment, and it was also just plain fun. I played a couple of rhythm video games, and either watched or played video games that I don't think you'll ever see in the US: in one you're a bus driver traveling through Tokyo trying to maneuver the streets, and in another you stand on a treadmill holding a "leash" while looking at an oversized display screen. You see images of a dog that you are "walking" and at times you have to walk on the treadmill and pull the leash to direct his movement, or even sprint on the treadmill so you and your pet can escape angry birds that attack! Later in the evening we raced miniature electric motorcycles on an indoor track-very fun!

Here are the long-overdue videos of the virtual tour of my house:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auEGCx4_wec
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sIIC5IVHWY

More later...

Happy Belated Independence Day

This week while looking at the calendar, I had the feeling that I was forgetting something. While typing an e-mail, I suddenly thought, "Oh! It's the Fourth of July!" Obviously no fireworks or Stars & Stripes flying here to remind me!

This week Eriya helped me buy a dishwasher from a Japanese auction site (kind of like Ebay). It's being shipped directly here and should arrive early next week. I decided that's one convenience appliance that I'm going to splurge on (ok, call me a lazy American if you must, but I HATE washing dishes!). Dishwashers here are almost always countertop style, which obviously makes them smaller than the ones in the US, but the product description said it was large enough to hold all the dishes dirtied by a family of four at dinner time, so it should be plenty big! (It will also make it easier to keep things clean when my groups of international guests start arriving-hurray, coming soon! Hmm, that kind of sounded like I'm being invaded by foreigners-I REALLY AM excited for my guests to arrive!)

This afternoon there was a HUGE rain storm. It was a little bit hot this morning/early afternoon. Later in the afternoon, suddenly it got darker and shortly after that it looked like someone was pouring buckets out of the sky. And what was strange for someone used to Oregon weather: it was still warm while it was raining.

Tomorrow, one of my students from church and her husband are taking me to Karuizawa. All the locals here say that it's a beautiful place, so it should be a great trip. It's a resort town many people visit during the summer to get away from the city (Tokyo specifically, but probably other cities too). Besides the usual natural landscape of the mountains here, it also has an active volcano, although I'm not exactly sure HOW active. I think currently it just has some occasional smoke and steam plumes, so I'm not expecting lava shooting into the sky, but of course I'll have my camera with me in case there's anything more spectacular.