Reports of my disappearance have been greatly exaggerated. I've had a busy past few days.
On Sunday I went to Yokohama and hung out with one of my Japanese friends. We saw a street performer, then went to the top of Yokohama Landmark Tower where I had the best view yet of the cityscape of the greater Tokyo area.





After that, we went to China town and had some really good Chinese snack foods. I'm really grateful to have made good friends in Japan・ It's really an interesting experience to be guided around town by a local person.


You are made aware of a lot of the little streets and paths that you might otherwise not notice or choose to take.
The next 3 days I also spent away from Tokyo in the town of Oota - which is a city about the size of Windsor. It was so weird to be in such a quiet place after living in busy Tokyo for a while.
Anyways, these little trips are the reason I haven't posted in a while.
Tonight I met with Akemi san in Ginza. It was so much fun. First of all, I arrived in Ginza almost 2 hours early, so in need of some way to kill time before meeting Akemi-san, I decided I'd take a subway over to Ebisu - a place I've reallllly wanted to go to but have not made it to until today. Ebisu is about 6 stops away from Ginza station on the Hibiya line. Now, any of you who've seen the Japanese drama Hana Yori Dango (Mom, Shaye) will recognize Ebisu garden place as the special meeting place where Tsukushi and Tsukasa meet (or otherwise wait hopelessly for each other). The scenes from this Japanese show were filmed on location near a prominent concrete sculpture in Ebisu Garden Place. The only problem is, unknown to me at the time, Ebisu Garden Place is a good ways from Ebisu station. So, like usual, I asked someone for directions. This time I asked a middle aged Japanese woman with a nice smile. She was so kind, used very simple Japanese and even walked with me part way until we got to this overpass with an automatic sidewalk (like the moving sidewalks you find in airports. Japan has them in many other places as this country is obsessed with being convenient (usually). Anyways, the woman told me to go to the very end and out the doors and I should be right there.
So, I followed her directions which took me to a small intersection. Upon arriving here, I instantly felt this place was familiar - and looking ahead of me, I spotted a small set of steps leading up to a concrete tarmac・.



You know what, just look at the pictures! This place is maybe meaningless to anyone who hasn't seen Hana Yori Dango, but to us HYD fans, having the opportunity to be there and touch the sculpture and stand right there fulfilled a little dream.





After wandering around this place in awe and trying to re-create various camera-angles from the show, I returned to Ginza where I met Akemi in front of Mistukoshi departo.
Ginza is a bustling shopping district (how many of these Tokyo has is beginning to become uncountable, but they are always exciting and lively.). Akemi was so generous and great to hang out with tonight. We started our excursion by visiting Tokyo tower. Tokyo Tower is basically a smaller replica of the Eiffel Tower. We took a tour up to the observatory of this Tower and I caught some magnificent views of Tokyo's skyline at night.
After that, Akemi treated me to an amazing and classy Japanese restaurant in Ginzawhere we had a great assortment of delicious food. Not everything in Japan tastes like the ocean (but a lot of it does), but the food was great and we ate so much of it too! Oh, and we took a taxi on the way there - the first taxi I've taken in Japan - and it reminded me of the opening shots of Lost in Translation so I captured some video..






Anyways, after all of that, I came back to the hostel and packed up all of my stuff as Tommorow I知 flying to Fukuoka. It will be interesting as I don't know where I'm staying for the first 2 days in Fukuoka before my homestay begins so I guess I'll have to figure out a hotel or something once I arrive.
Well, enough rambling for one day, enjoy the pictures and video.
- Tim