This weekend we took a little day trip to Yokohama. There is a park next to Yokohama Stadium with beautiful tulip fields. Very enjoyable, even in the rain!
After we visited the park we walked to Chinatown and had lunch. The streets were just a sea of umbrellas!
Scallops in House sauce, Mapo tofu, and pork fried noodles - delish!!
One of the main reasons we applied to extend our stay in Japan until December, is so that we could enjoy one more autumn season. We had heard that Kenrokuen Garden (one of the Top 3 gardens in Japan) was beautiful in the fall so we decided to make Kanazawa one of our last trips. Kanazawa is known as the "little Kyoto", but we were surprised to find it is not "little" at all. It's quite a big city. It has a feeling of both modern and old all wrapped in one. We took the Shinkansen from Tokyo (our favorite way to travel in Japan). The Kanazawa train station has some very unique architecture. At the station we were able to get on a Loop Bus that made stops at many of the sites in the city. Our first stop was Higashi Chaya, a very nicely preserved Edo period district. It is also an area where there are many tea rooms and Geisha working there. We saw a women dressed in Geisha clothing running down one of the side streets - she must have been late to something. (Si...
Back in December of 2020 we went on a trip with MWR where we hiked Mt. Kasturagi. It was a hard hike for several reasons - it was long, it was steep, and it was raining. When we finally got to the top, we were disappointed because the fabulous view of Mt Fuji we were hoping to see was covered in clouds. I always vowed I would go back someday to see that view. We finally made it on our second to last weekend in Japan. We looked at the weather forecast ahead of time and thought it would be a good day to go, but when we arrive in Numazu the clouds had rolled in and Fuji was no where to be seen. Hoping for better luck later in the day, we stopped to see a unique feat of engineering, the Numazu Port Water Gate. It was built in the early 2000s to help prevent flooding from tsunamis and typhoons. The gate can be dropped and, in conjunction with a seawall, it will stop the water from flowing inland to flood the low lying areas. Both sides of the gate are open for people to go ...
We are starting to realize our opportunities to see things in Japan are almost over. One thing we really wanted to try was to go to one of the Disaster Prevention Centers. (There are at least 3 that I have heard of in the Greater Tokyo area) These centers are free to the public and are offered as a way to help residents of the area be aware of and prepare for a number of disasters that could strike at any time. The language barrier makes it a bit tough for me to understand everything, but I believe the centers are sponsored by the Tokyo Fire Department. The first part of the experience is a movie all about the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 which not only destroyed many buildings but caused a "Fire Tornado". After the movie, the group is divided into 4 smaller groups to visit 4 experience corners - Earthquake, Fire, Flood, Cyclone. No photography is allowed during the program, but I lucked out and found a video online that shows a group doing the experience just like we did....
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