mikoshi everywhere!

the portable shrine

usually mikoshi are carried around in festivals on the shoulders of men shouting 'washoi washoi' but this particular shrine adorns the post office box of the Ochanomizu post office. It was pretty funny to see a mini-mikoshi on the post office box. Usually there is nothing on top of the post office boxes but I guess for some reason they decided to adorn this one with a portable shrine.

Pool with a view

pool with a view

Played poker today for 5 hours at the Tokyo American Club, it was pretty sweet since they have a backroom with a poker table for 8 which is blocked off and where you can just gamble away, hahaha!! It was my first time playing with this group but it was a good time and I came out well ahead so no complaints there. One of the guys we played with lives in the Atago Hills which is quite a posh building owned/built by the Mori building group. The original founder, Mr Mori was at the height of the Japanese bubble and before the rise of Microsoft, the richest man in the world and has many many large scale real estate projects in the heart of downtown Tokyo. One of his company's (family now) premier projects/developments is the Atago hills, two 40 some odd story towers, one residential and one office with the lower floors also having some shops/restaurants.

So the one guy lives on the 35th floor and we were treated to dinner on the 42nd floor private restaurant. The guy came out with the biggest winnings of the night and was feeling quite generous. After dinner he showed us around the workout/gym facilities which were also located on the 42nd floor. All I have to say is amazing... The picture is from the pool area, I think it is a 25 meter pool, 3 lanes but the coolest thing is the views which you have while working out or relaxing. Even the shower/bathing areas have some windows where you can see the Tokyo scene. As you can see the pool is looking over to the Tokyo tower and if you go out to the window you can literally see all of Tokyo laid out before you. ahhh, the luxury...

Tokyo snow

Tokyo snow...

It is supposed to be relatively mild and temperate in Tokyo but it does snow every once in a while, rarely does the snow stay on the ground though. On Thursday evening though, it rained up a storm and as it progressed into the night I guess it must have snowed. It is highly unusual for their to be any snow on the ground though and so I was surprised to see it there in the morning. OK, may not be the most interesting post for those who are in colder countries but a little bit rare in Tokyo... The picture is of the small park right near my house which has some kind of Japanese garden like bushes and trees. Nothing exciting I guess but some greenery or should I say shrubs in the city.

the bank of the future...

futuristic bank

Japan's bank machines are something else. They talk to you, the lady on the screen bows and they are quite advanced. Oh, other than the fact that many still only operate during business hours... what the heck is that? Why shut down bank machines? Either way, this is a picture of one of the after hours open Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi ATM corners in Shibuya. It is one of the largest banks of ATM's I have ever seen, they line both sides of the room and I think there must be a total of over 20ATM's. They recently renovated the entire area so the picture doesn't capture it all that well but it looks quite futuristic and spacey in a monotone white sort of way.

Landmark tower

landmark

on the way home from Ito, dropped by Yokohama to do some sightseeing and just check out the latest and the greatest. The landmark tower is the tallest tower in Japan at about 60 floors I think. This was taken on the backside (bayside) coming out from one of the various malls which surround the landmark tower. You can climb the landmark tower as well (for a fee of course!) and there is also a multistory mall inside. I am still not sure what the abstract piece of art is in the picture. It almost looks like a roller coaster and a part of the Matrix or from Alien. I guess it is exactly that though: abstract art.

More fish!

more fish!

Here is another picture which shows the gutted and drying out fish. The ones on the very left are aji? I think and the ones in the middle bottom are squid and the ones on the right are tai (not sure the English names for the fish...) As you can guess, there is a distinctly 'fishy' smell in the air....

the sashimi is also delicious and the dinner which we got served in our room at the ryokan was also full of fish and other seafood delicacies!

Fish!

fish!

Just one of the sights in Atami. Atami and the entire Izu peninsula is very famous for their onsen and also their fish. One of the local things is to gut the fish, cut them in half and then dry them out. You then cook it over the fire and eat it. These particular fish (smelt I think...) were being dried out (literally...) on hooks.

shinkansen!

shinkansen!

up and at em on Saturday morning we moseyed on over to Tokyo station to catch the 'Super Odoriko 109' or something like that which would take us straight to Ito where we decided to go for a one night two day onsen getaway. Unfortunately the Odoriko's were all full so we had to take the shinkansen from Tokyo to Atami which is super fast and takes the whole 45 minutes I think. We transferred onto the normal train from Atami and took that down to Ito but it was a leisurely day and in no hurry. It was nice that there were multiple ways of getting to Ito from Tokyo. The only downside to the shinkansen was having to transfer and also if you oversleep your stop you end up completely overshooting your station into the next prefecture...

bar six

six

last night consisted of what my friend called a 'social outing' followed by a visit to bar six in Nakameguro. It is an interesting place, one of those places in Tokyo which you would probably never know exists unless someone takes you there. It is on the top floor of a building a minute away from the train station but there is no real sign or indication as you climb the stairs that it is even there. Maybe 10-12 seats and a single lone counter with what looks like a strippers pole at the end. It was a good night hanging out and just shooting the breeze.

funny neighbours

oops

Some crazy things happening first thing Friday... actually from Thursday evening. I come home late and see the following signs posted all over the neighbour's door on the second floor. A little bit of history but back in January the light in his room was on 24-7 and he had newspapers piled up. At first I thought he was away on vacation but then the light never went off and the newspapers never went away. At a friend's house party the story was told and this neighbour was then christened 'the dead neighbour'

I talked to my landlord, with whom I have a hard time communicating with even though we speak the same language, and she said that he is 'studying hard' or something like that. I have seen this neighbour a couple of times and he is about twice as old as any student I have seen but I let it slide.

Anyhow, to get to Thursday night, I come home late at night and find these posters on his door... translated it says 'Mr Shimizu, please contact us. We will do you no harm. the landlord' hmmm.... tres strange...Friday morning was quite an ordeal as well. Apparently some water mains burst in the apartment complex and my neighbour is frantically running up and down the stairs. I had to scoot to work but it looked like the watermain on the 4th floor burst and it was leaking into the 3rd floor apartment.

Moral of this post: maybe it is time to start looking into a new apartment.

sweet belgian chocolates!

sweet belgian chocolates!

these are the belgian chocolates I got from my sweet valentine! ahhh... my favourite dark chocolates! I also got some more from some female coworkers which were also delicious! but of course these were the best since who they came from .

Valentines sushi!

Valentines dinner

typical? sushi for Valentines... it was such a fresh plate as well! Valentines in Japan often means receiving chocolates from the ladies instead of the other way around. However, come one month later on March 14th, it's the guys turn to reciprocate to the ladies with white chocolates on white day. Strange strange...

Giant Pylons!

Giant pylon!

Walking around the middle of Shibuya and boom! a bunch of regular size pylons and a monster pylon. Had to get a pic of this one as I am not quite sure why it was there, surrounded by the other pylons. It almost looks like a 'king' pylon, surrounded by the other pylons. It must have been at least agood 5 feet high. Not sure if you can see the black sticker on the pylon near the top but it says 'Left Alone' hmm... very interesting. Maybe the pylons are there so that people don't bump into the big pylon? Maybe it is there so that people like me just wonder 'what the heck are all these pylons there for?'

Shibuya dance crew

dancing dancing dancing

Came out of Shibuya station to the meeting spot and there was a small crowd gathered with some music blaring. Went a little closer since it was right in front of where we were meeting up and there was a group of hooded figures. Figuring the KKK was a long way from home and these were black not white hoods, I ventured a little closer just in time to see them remove the black cloaks and reveal their white outfits.

I think they were some high school students who had the whole kit going; self generator, amps, cd players and even their own fan club front row center! They were pretty good and an entertaining watch for the few minutes I was watching. There seems to be more and more street performers recently in Tokyo which is pretty interesting. So many large open areas near the stations where they can perform which is pretty cool.

Blog to replace the POTD

OK, was previously sending out the POTD (Picture of the Day) but decided to try the hand at the Blogging experience. Will try to post as often as possible but no guarantees to all those who I am sure look forward to my daily post :)

The main thing is just sharing some of the funny day to day scenes in my Tokyo life.