Here is a video of a couple bullet trains (shinkansen) passing by, while we waited in the station for our train:
This past week was Silver Week (シルバーウィーク) here in Japan. I visited the southern island of Shikoku (四国). While there, I made a trip to the city of Takamatsu (高松市), and a famous park within the city, called Ritsurin Park (栗林公園).
Yokohama is a large port city about 40km (25 miles) south of downtown Tokyo. It is celebrating it’s 150th anniversary this year. For 150 days (late April until late September), there are a bunch of different events and attractions. The highlight for me was the Giant Golden Robot-Spider – sure to give you nightmares if you saw it walking around your neighborhood.
Also known as the Sumidagawa Fireworks, or Sumidagawa Hanabi Taikai (隅田川花火大会) is a yearly fireworks celebration held on the Sumida river on the last Saturday of July. It attracts close to a million people. Interestingly, the firework display is put on by more than one ‘rival’ group. These ‘rival groups’ each have a set amount of time to perform their firework display, and then the next group follows. This turns the event into a kind of competition where people shout the names of their favorite group.
There are not one but two locations along the river where the fireworks are shot off (the following video briefly shows this). Therefore, the ideal seat is situated about half way between the two locations. It is a very cool phenomenon, and if you can get a perfect seat (which I didn’t have), gives you the feeling of being immersed in fireworks.
Recently I’ve begun searching for apartments in Tokyo for a tentative move. In Japan, the tatami mat is widely used as the unit of measurement for apartments and other living quarters. From a Western perspective, it can be a little hard to grasp exactly what “15 tatami mats” is. Below is a little converter application that I wrote, to aid me in my search for real estate 
* Tatami mat sizes vary slightly by region. Edoma (江戸間), in the Tokyo region, are around 176 x 88cm. Kyoma (京間), in the Kyoto region, are around 191 x 95.5cm. For more information, see Wikipedia.
You can download the properly formatted source code here.
Namiko and I visited Japan for about two weeks. We went to her hometown in Hirosaki, Aomori. We drove around the northern edge of Aomori along the coast, and stayed in a ryokan (Furo-fushi (不老不死温泉) – literally: No Aging, No Death) right next to the ocean, with a natural onsen (hot spring), containing a high iron concentration. The water was brownish-red. We also made a stop in Tokyo to visit my host family, and to check out the Ice Cream Town at the Sunshine City in Ikebukuro.
A lot of people dislike natto. I personally think it is delicious, and eat it frequently. I’ve mixed it with many things. One of my favorite combinations is: natto + white rice + kimchi + squid.
I also like sweet foods. I’ve had natto flavored icecream before, but I can’t find that in America… So I decided to make my own by mixing natto with ice cream. I tried vanilla ice cream and cinnamon ice cream. The cinnamon is my personal favorite.
Interestingly, the consistency of the ice cream changes, and it turns into a marshmallow-fluff-like substance.
Sakura blossom (March and April) around Tokyo and the Imperial Palace.
A sumo tournament at the Yasukuni Shrine. It’s a yearly event held in April. It’s free, and all the top sumos are there.
The giant Buddha statue in Ushiku, Japan (Ibaraki prefecture). This trip was taken on the Coming of Age Day, which is on the 2nd Monday of January.
