Another good dish

This was my lunch the other day. Shrimp wontons with noodles in soup. This honking huge bowl cost $7!! Wish I could get it in the US.

BEST MEAL EVER!!!!!!!

We just got done eating at this really fancy restaurant where no one spoke any English whatsoever except for one customer that was very helpful in explaining some things to us. I was fretting but we all got great dishes. It was very expensive but my dish was definitely worth it! I got a beef bowl with these fancy beef slices and rice. It was sooo small though! It came with some broth and soy sauce so I could mix it all together. The beef melted in my mouth!!! Drrrrooooollllll, so good. But it was $28 for my little dish. Then mom's was funny because it was $32 for this little tiny "steak."

Kamakura

Sigh, today we ventured forth to Kamakura which is famous for temples. We spent a majority of the day as we spend most of our family days, wandering lost and frustrated. We had 3 targets to find, we found one and then decided it was time to go home. However, the one we found was the most important! We went to a temple that kind of sounded like Topo-Gigio to us, we was a laugh. It had a bamboo forest!!!! It was so beautiful with all these thick bamboo plants. When the wind blew, they knocked together, very peaceful. My camera decided to take lots of blurry pics because the battery was low but I still got some good ones! We then went to Yokohama Station and tried an authentic Japanese restaurant where we got tempura. However, no one spoke a word of english, so they laughed at us a lot and there was a lot of confusion but we got some food. It was odd because you got a pot of rice, some tempura shrimp and veggies, some garnish type radishes and cabbage, a dessert of something like almond pudding and strawberry, and a pot of tea which you pour into a bowl of rice and tempura. I could not eat this with chopsticks, thank goodness they give you spoons. It was actually really good!! I was quite proud, I ate the whole thing except the pickled radishes... I do have one judgment to make on my experience in Japan. NEVER TRUST A JAPANESE MAP!! A combination of misspellings, scale issues, and omitted streets promise you that you will get lost!

Adventures

Yesterday was quite the day. I keep getting braver since I know I'm leaving soon. The skies were clear yesterday so Mom and I paid the $10 to go to the top of the tallest building in Japan (69 floors) which is plenty tall when you don't like heights. We could see Mount Fuji on one side, our apartment building on another side, Yokohama station on another. The expanses of dense buildings were just astounding. Then I was determined to try a "steamed bun" which they sell everywhere in Chinatown but we got them at a more regular restaurant for fear of getting sick. We got a veggie one and a meat one (we still don't know what kind of meat it was). Because they're steamed, the dough is kind of sticky, but I kind of liked it while I was eating it. However, I felt like I was going to throw up for about an hour or so afterward, so I won't be doing that again but at least I can say I tried them!

Skating

How would you like ice skating here? It's this huge solid crowd of people that moves around really slowly. Don't fall down! In this same area there are other options of getting around. I feel bad for these guys but I think it's funny, they are bike taxis! Not too speedy but ecosafe I guess. I still can't bring myself to ride in one. hahaha

A friend

I finally got a photo of this funny thing that we pass every time we walk to the video store. I think it's so funny and creative!

Snowy Weather

Yesterday it snowed for the first time! Unfortunately it also rained at the same time, and was frigid. Not so fun to walk in. We had to go to Shibuya to apply for dad's Chinese visa and we learned that the Chinese Embassy has no security while getting into the American Embassy is like getting to your gate at an airport. Kind of funny. Mom and I were going to go hunting for another Mandarake Anime store on the other side of Shibuya station. Unfortunately, the "short walk" from the embassy to the station turned out to be a miserable 30 minute hike in the rain and sludge. Then Dad went back to work while Mom and I looked for the store and the Bic Camera store for a battery for my computer but we failed to find it. So, we ride back to yokohama station which is a few stops from the apartment area and go to that Bic where the guy there tells us we need to go to the apple store which is, you guessed it, in Shibuya! ARGH! So today we went back to Shibuya which was like playing musical trains because we kept getting on the wrong ones, but we found the apple store and then the anime store. I was glad to go back actually because everything there is soooo big and there are so many people so I got to take some pics this time! I also got a pic when the snow was falling yesterday of a temple. Very pretty.

Weird Statue

I've meant to put up this post for a while. Anyone care to guess what it's for? We don't know. It's in front of the mall and as far as I can tell, it looks like someone threw a sheet over a bird in midflight, which makes me giggle every time I see it.

Kawasaki

On Saturday, the three of us took the train to Kawasaki which has lots of museums and such but we went there to visit Nihon Minkaen. Basically, it's like the Ohio Village but for Japan and more authentic. They have taken lots of historically significant buildings from all over Japan and brought them to this one place, forming 3 different little villages. They've restored the buildings and set them up as functioning buildings. Each one has a story of the family that lived in them and what the building functioned as before it was moved. You could walk through most of the buildings, they all seemed very primitive but functional at the same time. I loved the openness of all of them with the walls that slide and such. Some of them even have people that u se the old cooking hearth and tell stories, but we couldn't understand those people. There were about 25 buildings in all and it cost us $5 to get in, but it was worth it. It was really interesting and beautiful to see the different types of architecture.

Jaunt about Japan

Winter seems to have arrived in Japan, which means we get a lot of cloudy brisk days. I wish I had my winter coat. Yesterday we braved the cold and took dad to the zoo. Needless to say the animals were not as lively as they were earlier in the fall, but I still loved seeing all the little tortoises (I'm totally getting one when I have a place of my own). On our way to the zoo, we walked along the backroads where restaurants put out their empty bottles. Mom collects unique saki bottles and found 2 she liked, so I suggested she put them in my backpack. Unfortunately, they were not completely empty and got old saki all over my bag, notebook, and novel. Smelled awful and I was really pissed off. But we got it clean, cut off the cover of the book, and got a new notebook. Today we went train hopping to Nakano where a mall there has one of the largest collection of manga stores in Japan. I really wish I could speak and read Japanese. It was like a collectibles store on steroids times 100, CRAZY! However, I still managed to find some fun figurines from an anime I like but I was sad I couldn't find Fruits Basket characters anywhere. Then it was off for sushi where I am the source of everyone's entertainment, this includes customers, my parents, and the sushi chefs because I don't like raw fish. Basically, I eat cucumber rolls without wasabi, as plain as you can get in sushi and then today I got some rice with sesame and seaweed but everyone thinks I'm a big baby. Not too fun. However, it was the day for seeing odd people on the trains. This girl all in pink came stumbling onto the platform apparently drunk as a skunk (it made her look a bit mentally challenged). She even had pink bows on her cell phone! They call it a gothic style here I guess, but basically it makes the girls look like little Bo Peep!

Pedestrian Xing

I had to get a pic of this, it's from the pedestrian crossing areas all over the city. I think it just looks like dead body outlines which is morbid but hilarious....

Hobbits

Mom and I finally sat down and watched some of Fellowship of the Ring and figured out precisely where we needed to be on Mt. Victoria, so we went back there the day before heading back to Japan. So here's me standing right where the hobbits all fell in a bit pile when running from the angry farmer, mwahahaha! The rest of the shots are the area around it that are simply beautiful.

The views

I just wanted to put in a few pics from Mt. Victoria and other random places that I haven't added yet for New Zealand.

Adventure Day

Cost of 2 kayaks, $35. Cost of seaworthy clothes, $20. Watching my Dad try to climb into an open sea kayak, priceless.
I know, I'm evil but it was hilarious. Woke up early and decided it was the day for sea kayaking. So dad and I ventured forth and rented the kayaks and since I at least had an idea of how this stuff works I got the more experienced closed one while dad got an open kayak. Dad almost bounced out of his kayak when he stumbled into it, dropped his paddle and it was simply the definition of graceless but it was funny as hell. Dad did not enjoy himself in the least because his kayak hurt his back. I had fun but I was terrified of tipping over because the water is so bloody cold! I'm putting a pic from the other day of me standing in the water, it is frigid!!!! But I went out around the bay and faced the waves but it was a little dull alone. I had some issues with getting around the marina wall and got banged up against it a few times. I even earned a blister on my thumb from paddling. It was quite an experience.
Then we went to the zoo which cost $45 to get us all in. I'm sad we still didn't see a kiwi! Apparently they are nocturnal and the "twilight room" they keep them in is so dark you can't find anything in it. Overall the zoo was ok, they had a baby chimpanzee that was cute and a very perverse baboon that felt a need to hold onto a certain body part of his while taking a nap. The best part was the pair of otters at the beginning because they would squeak and run right up to people because they do shows where people throw fish or something at them so they expect that all the time. They were so cute, I just love otters!!!

Hair

I got my hair cut, but it's just trimmed up a bit, nothing dramatic. Lauren, I was going to get my eyebrows done, but they couldn't squeeze me in! Sorry! But mom got her hair frosted, dad got his hair cut, and I got mine and it cost us $400!!!!!!! This isn't a great pic of me but Mom really liked how she styled my hair so I had to put this up.

Drinking Wine

Today was a trip to Wairarapa in the town of Martinborough which is the heart of wine country in the Northern Island. We took a tour with a bus so we could all drink and be merry. We started at 10:15 am and did 2 wineries, then a light lunch and then 2 more wineries and then afternoon tea before going back home. I drank more wine than ever before and couldn't take any more! Tried Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, Reisling, Sauvignon Blanc, and Chardonnays. There are sooo many small wineries out there and it's all very beautiful. However, it did remind me of all the backbreaking labor that goes into making a bottle of wine. I had to compare everything to what I had done. I was shocked that none of them hedged the tops of the vines with machete knives like I did (which was the best part of growing the grapes), they ruin it by using stupid machines!! We met some nice people on the tour with us. There was an older Scottish couple, a German woman who is traveling everywhere around the world, 2 young women who had both lived in Ohio for a year and one is now living in Japan (small world, eh?), and a couple who kept to themselves. We had to take the train to Featherston and at the railway station, they had a Platform 9 and 3/4, how fantastic is that?!??!?

Lord of the Rings journey

On New Years day, the three of us ventured off to Mt. Victoria, which is in Wellington and the site for the hobbits fleeing the Nazgul on the edge of the Shire. While we found a sign, locating the exact spot was somewhat tricky, but I still took lots of pics. Later that day, we sat on the beach a bit and managed to sunburn the crap out of my shoulders just like I always do. I never learn. Yesterday, we created a list of things to hunt down and drove to Upper Hut which is just north or Wellington. First stop, the Hut River which was a site for the River Anduin. They filmed along a large part, so we stopped at one place and took a bunch of pics and I definitely felt like that was a prominent area for Lord of the Rings. However, the whole river is only perhaps a foot deep if that so.......I'm wondering how they managed to get boats to float in it. We met a nice fellow there with a french bulldog and a rotweiler pup that were fun to play around with for a bit. Then it was off to Harcourt Park, which is a local normal park where they filmed lawn and garden areas for Isengard and where the Orcs cut down that massive tree in Isengard. I took pics of an area without realizing I was in the heart of it because it really doesn't look like anything but upon reflection I figured out where the hell I had been. Ha!! Then we went to Kaitoke Regional Park which is deep in the hills of the bush and so lush, here is Rivendell. They had signs all over for it which was funny. The area where they were said to film was beautiful but you couldn't get the right point of view because what they did was build a set of the room Frodo and Bilbo confronted each other in up high above a river so we were in the area that you would see outside their window basically although I photographed where the set had been above the river from a bridge as well. It was so cool!! Nothing like having a stranger walk up to you and ask if Rivendell is nearby and then being able to give directions, hehehhehheehe!! We even drove past where they did Helm's Deep but it's a private quarry so we couldn't go in and it was on the highway so we couldn't really stop. But the vibes were all there...

Happy New Year!!

While the folks and I may not have made it to midnight due to a quiet night, many New Zealanders proved to have a bit too much fun. I have a pic to add to this that makes it perfect....