Slippery when Snowy - January 31st

One thing that I had forgotten to mention yesterday was the it was snowing up in Tokyo. The commute this morning was a little later than I would have preferred, but for one day it isn't that bad. It was interesting to see a bunch of people on a train platform that passed the which one is not like the others test.

When I got off the train and headed in I realized that it had snowed down in Yokosuka as well. Needless to say it was amazingly cold.

After work I was able to meet up with Art again at the New Starbucks by the mall. It is really impressive, two story building and has a great view. Easily the best Starbucks this side of Kamakura. For dinner we met up with my coworker and his wife for Nirvana's. Always a good choice.

I headed back to Yokohama and was in the right car to get off and transfer to the JR line and would have made it to next train if it weren't for a gaggle of people coming down the stairs. No worries though because there is always another train. A nice evening stroll and I was back at my hotel. It is really mellow here, which I enjoy quite a bit.

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Slippery when snowy

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Another Mini Tokyo Tour - January 30th

It is always difficult to adjust to the time change when traveling multiple time zones. Japan also operates on a different time scheme all together. Such as, normally if one were up before 6 you would be able to find somewhere to eat in a Major City. Not so in Japan, the earliest Starbucks to open was 700. So I got a little more bit walking in this morning.

Another nice things about being in Yokohama is that you are much closer to Tokyo. I met up with a couple of coworkers and headed up to Tokyo. I just hopped on the train and 20 minutes later we were at Shinagawa.

The first stop was the Tsukiji Fish Market. As it was the weekend there wasn't much happening, but it was interesting to see where the highest percentage of fish in the world is sold. Using the cached map feature and the PDF map for the Tokyo Metro Subway, I was able to get to the next place the shortest route possible. It was over to Korean Town which is right near Shinjuku. Bryans big mission was to find a whole chicken in a bag. I think this might catch on if Costco ever gets wind of it. All you do is boil the bag for 5 minutes and BAM chicken. We then ate lunch at a Korean restaurant. All of us had the hot stone bowl thing.

The next stop was over to Ikebukiro to go to Namjatown. I had heard of this before, it basically is a theme park for food. Bryan was looking to go the this Ice Cream Musuem. They literally have hundereds of flavors from the mondan to Viper or Salt. Between the three of us we got: Viper, Creme Cheese, Garlic and Mint, Pistachio, and Custard. Surprisingly the Pistachio was on par with the Viper we how terrible it was. Basically it was like just taking the whole nut and shell and grinding it up.

We then headed back to Yokohama and had Idaho Burgers from McDonalds. It has a hash brown, bacon, and a mustard sauce. It was alright. I was beat at this point and took a nap. I walked around the area by the hotel after I woke up. The amount of lights around this area are really amazing.

Japan Soft Drink Challenge


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Another Mini Tokyo Tour

Mini Tokyo Tour - January 29th

I got a solid four hours of sleep last night before waking up at 230. I chatted with my eldest sister for a while and then got an hour nap, before heading into work. Using Hyperdia to chart my route I had picked the cheapest train combination to get from here to there. For 480 Yen and around an hour it really isn't that bad. The start time for the journey is rather early to accommodate arriving at a decent time. This morning I took the 507 train, I may pick an earlier one to get into work around 600 on Monday.

While sitting at the train station a set of fuel cars rolled by, sound like they were empty but hard to tell. There are multiple exits for every large station, depending on which car you hop onto will determine which is the closest exit. This morning turned out to be a good dry run through the real deal. I choose the wrong exit and ended up walking for an extra three minutes for it. I know it is a very minor time, but things add up. I like to seek efficiency in all things that I do, and I assume most other people like to do as well. Also they have numbers for each station. This makes it even easier to travel. Yokohama is stop KK37, and Shinagawa is KK1.

After work I went to the Starbucks and found that they have all of the mugs that I want to get during this trip. This includes refreshed versions of Kobe and Kyoto and the Japan 2011 set. I picked up the Tall travel mug, I will wait until later to pick up the others. The only other one that I want to pick up will be the Sapporo one.

A coworker and his wife joined me and headed up to Tokyo. The train was a standing room only to Shinagawa. The first stop was Akihabara so the Yamanote line was the way to get there. After the required Doughnut Plant stop we looked around the Yodabashi store for a while. They did have the 3DS availble to play, but it was Nintendogs & Cats so I passed. It is going to be released for purchase in Japan in one month. From what I have seen they are advertising it almost everywhere. When we got back into the train station I noticed a touch screen vending machine. It shows pictures of the items that you can purchase. As you put more money in it tells you how much you need for each item. You select the item you want and it pops out. Very cool.

At Shibuya we stopped by the bronze of the dog that was faithful to his master. The real story is that a Japanese man had a dog and would walk the dog to the train station and when he got back from work the dog would be waiting for him. Eventually the man died, but the dog continued to wait at the train station for his master for several years. There has been a Japanese and American film adaptation of the story.

Harajiku was just a quick walk around to show them some of the stores, then it was off to Kawasaki for lunch. California Pizza Kitchen had a Chicken pizza that was pretty good. I went from there to get a quick nap.

There is an annoying trend of Metallic Puffy Jackets in Japan. So I thought if you can beat them join them. What I got from Mont Bell did not have a fake fur coller but it does pack well and has a windstopping layer. It weighs 12.8 oz and is like a sleeping bag. It feels like you don't have a jacket on except for the heat.



For dinner we ate at the World Porters mall at a restaurant named La Salsa. Pretty good.

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Mini Tokyo Tour

Yokohama City by the Bay - January 28th

Flying from SEATAC to Narita on a Thursday makes for a light passenger load. In business class there must have been over half of the seats empty. I sat next to a doctor who works for the Navy. Interesting conversation to say the least. When the plane arrived I used my usual speed to pass everyone on our flight and another flight that had deplaned in front of us. I was out of Customs and Immigration in under 10 minutes. Very fast. There were a few folks waiting to pick up the group and get them down to the Yoko towns. A short bus had been procured to guide our way. Instead we tried something different.

We took a Y-Cat bus from the terminal directly to the hotel it was nice. From the time we arrived in Japan until the time I was in my hotel headed out for dinner was 3 hours, fastest time yet. Being in Yokohama has a lot to do with that, but still.

The hotel is very nice I have two full beds, and the floor space is actually larger than the previous rooms I have been in. This was the same hotel used during the G8 summit back in the fall, so it is fairly nice. The best feature of all .... WiFi. I can use my phone to make calls through Google Voice which is great.

Had dinner at this little American place that was alright. Then hit up the Starbucks by Landmark and picked up a Hojicha latte. Excellent as I remembered them. Off to bed then up early and another adventure.

Additionally is great developments is Google Map Caching. Worked great, all I had to do was look at the Tokyo Bay area before flying, turn on the GPS. The map was stored and ready to use when we were riding the bus down.

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Yokohama, city by the bay

Fly Away - January 27th

It has come time again for another trip to Japan. This should be a good one. I will be staying in Yokohama right by my favorite building (Landmark Tower). This does make a longer commute, but the extra walking will be good. It is around 2 miles each way, by taking the earliest train I should be able to get close to my usual schedule.

I used miles to upgrade to Business class for the flight, they have dropped the amount to 12,500. I am interested to see what the route will be from the airport to the hotel. The train is always an option. They do run a service from Narita to Yokohama station with buses.

Work in the morning and then up to Akihabara to see the sites. Out of all the things I am looking forward to at the top of the list is the food. I have been unable to find decent curry around home. The speed and quality of the food always amazes me.

After the week of work I will be heading to the Sapporo snow festival. It was interesting to pack for it being similar weather wise to home and for a place that has a high of around 0 C. Then I will spend a few days going around the Tokyo bay area picking up a few of the places that I have missed in the past.