JAPAN 

JANUARY 2005

Jan 2 - On the airplane to Japan.  Business class sure beats cattle class!  We had our own TV set with on demand movies, games etc.

Well, here we are arriving at Tokyo's Narita airport.  Well over our luggage limit, but we got away with it!

OUR APARTMENT

We live in an inner Tokyo suburb called Roppongi.  We are on the top floor (8th) of a small apartment building located up an alleyway off the main street of Roppongi.  No, that's not the company Ferrari parked out front, mine's Red (like Schumacher's)!  The apartment building is up the alley past the witches hats on the right.

Our place is very small (66 sq. metres), the lounge chair is up against the window.  Aidan's bedroom is a loft style bedroom with spiral stairs access (he hasn't fallen down these yet, plenty of time to do it though...).  The heating works great though and we have settled in very well.  The bathroom is different, the whole room is a wet room, the shower is the area to the left of the bath!

This is the view from our lounge window in the evening.  Tokyo Tower is actually 13 metres taller than the Eiffel tower.

Jan 3 - First day in Tokyo and there was still snow leftover from a snowfall a couple of days previously.  It only snows very occasionally here.  We thought we had better go out and purchase some warmer clothes.  Here is Aidan with his new gear!

Jan 6 - We managed to find a park, well not actually a park.  I gave directions to Nicole and she actually thought she was in somebody's side yard it was so small.  Anyway, Aidan still had fun.

Jan 8 - We went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Children's Hall which is a free, multi story building full of activities for the kids, including a music room.  Aidan had a great time.  The rollerblading is up on the roof.  Within 5 minutes he was able to go solo.

Japan is just packed with people and the evenings on the weekends are just amazing in the shopping areas of the city.  This is at a place called Shibuya, where multiple department stores are.  The intersection in the far background is supposedly the world's busiest pedestrian crossing, and this wasn't taken when it was at its most busiest.

Dinner out at a tiny Japanese restaurant called Ichioku.  Only consists of 8 tables.  Aidan managed to do pretty well with chopsticks.

Jan 9 - We went on a bit of a walking tour today.  Started at the Meiji Jingu Shrine, dedicated to Emperor and Empress Meiji.  This opened in 1920, so is not that old.

Dinner for Mark tonight was Sushi, raw fish with rice.  Was very nice and only cost 580 yen from the local supermarket (about $7.25).

Jan 10 - Public holiday today.  We went to see where Aidan's dancing school was.  Obviously we knew it would be closed.  It was on the 2nd floor of a small building, not very impressive looking!

Jan 15 - Cold and wet today.  Caught the subway to the Transportation Museum for Aidan to have a fun day indoors, the bigger kid enjoyed it probably more.  Lots of interactive activities, could drive the trains with a large video screen showing the view out the front.  Mark proudly displaying his new Holden Racing Team jacket. 

Transportation Museum is in a part of Tokyo called Akihabara.  This is the electronics capital of the world, over 600 stores selling everything you can imagine.  Not really that cheap though, better bargains in Oz I reckon.  10% of electronic sales in all of Japan are done in this suburb!  The streets were the scene of many umbrella accidents as the masses tried to move around in the rain.

Jan 16 - Went and looked at the other dancing school option for Aidan, called the International Dance Academy, just near the Gakagei-daikagu station, up a very narrow street.

Doh....In Japan, scone mix does not really mean scone mix, but biscuit mix!!

Jan 18 - Nic took Aidan to the American Embassy compound about 15 minutes walk away, where the embassy folk live, for a tennis lesson and there was an excellent playground there as well.

Jan 22 - Went to the National Children's Castle.  This is a building full of kids activities, similar to the Metroploitan Children's House (refer Jan 8).  On the roof is an excellent climbing maze for the kids and bikes and other contraptions to ride, but geez it was cold up there!  View of Shinjuku, where most of the Tokyo Skyscrapers are. 

Inside they had a music room with this weird pipe organ thing where you wind the punched music sheets through and it plays.  They also had these private viewing booths.  You tell the counter what you want to watch, they give you a booth number and a code, and next thing you're watching the video.  We watched a bit of Walt Disney's Tarzan in Japanese.

Another climbing fort inside, as well as this great painting wall in the art and craft area.  Every couple of hours they turn the taps on and water runs down the wall so that they can clean it.

Best find of all though, in the basement they had kids soccer matches.  Aidan wasn't sure about this bowing thing, but he got a bit of a runaround.  His team lost 3-1 and he got a bit sad that he didn't kick a goal.

Dinner was at a small Japanese Yakkatori restaurant (most places are pretty small), but it was good fun.  Yakkatori is skewered and grilled, very nice.  Mark had chicken, beef, pork, scallops, quail eggs, gingko nuts, chicken balls and cuttle fish.  Nic had green pepper, onions, mushrooms, eggplant.  Aidan liked the chicken and beef.

Jan 23rd - Off to dancing for Aidan.  Whilst waiting at Starbucks next door to dancing, he stuck up a conversation with a girl who was there.  The place is packed with students studying, it's probably warmer that their houses. He is always making friends!

Guess what, today it also snowed.  Aidan was so excited!  (Yes it is snowing in the photo, lightly)

Jan 29th - Back to Akihabara to buy a new camcorder.  Our old video camera needs a PAL VCR to tape it off and as Japan is NTSC format, it was buy a new video camera or buy a VCR for about 1/4 the price but then throw it away when we leave.  So a new DVD camcorder it was.  Nic had fun bargaining to get the price down!  In Tokyo, handing out packets of tissues with adverts on them is everywhere.  Today we decided to see how many packets we could get if we took all that were offered to us.  We came home with 26 packets!

We keep telling Aidan that you can't pick your nose in Japan.  See, even their train stations say you can't!! he he

Dinner tonight was Indian so that Nic could get a good feed of vegetarian.  Aidan got given a hand wipe folded into a duck.

Jan 30th - We went to Shinjuku part of Tokyo.  Up the top of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building there is a free lookout.  3rd picture is taken towards Mt.Fuji which can be seen on a clearer day.