April Adventures Across Japan; Phase 1 in Tokyo: Fish, Animation and Japanese Pancakes.

Tokyo, Day 4.

Sadly, the day started off pretty rainy and blah... I went out for a walk when I woke up in the hopes that it would clear up... Ah well. While preparing for this trip, I had created a fairly easy going itinerary, mostly to make sure that I had accomodations all figured out (which was good because I almost forgot to book myself a place to stay April 1st haha), and bought some tickets ahead of time for a couple of attractions that we wanted to partake in. The first of such things was the Ghibli museum. However, it being Ashely's first day in Japan and the time difference being so great from Canada, that wasn't until the afternoon. So I started my day with a leisurely breakfast at the hostel and went out to grab a coffee and give Ashley time to wake up and stuff.

April Adventures Across Japan; Phase 1 in Tokyo: Ashley's Arrival

Tokyo Day 3

Super-secret entryway to the Hostel

It was a cloudy day in Tokyo, so I spent the morning exploring the Asakusa subway station and the shops in the Ekimise. You can get a view of the Tokyo Skytree from there... when it's not cloudy and raining... so I didn't get a very good look. Haha.

April Adventures Across Japan; Phase 1 in Tokyo: Asakusa, LPs and Beer!

Tokyo Day 2

Cozy capsule life

April Adventures Across Japan; Phase 1 in Tokyo: Punkspring, Breakfast & a giant spider!

The Departure Point.

Oot and aboot this little town in Northern Japan

The first thing I bought when I got to Tokyo (well, other than food, of course, but that's *long* gone) was a camera. Now that the weather is changing for the warmer and I can work on shaking this cabin fever, when the weather is favorable, I make an effort to explore the town I live in.

Welcome to Shichinohe Machi (七戸町）

View Shichinohe-machi, Aomori-ken, Japan in a larger map 七 = shichino= seventh 戸= he (pron 'hey') = door/gate 町= machi = town
For further explanation of the name, check out the history of Gonohe's name on Wikipedia. I presume they are all part of the same history and subsequent naming. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I can't find much information myself... There are two National Highways (国道= kokudou "country" +  "road", blue triangle signs) that go through town, the #4 and the #394. The #22 and #118 are Prefectural Roads (県道= kendou "prefecture" + "road", blue octagons . The streets have no other names and I'm still trying to figure out how folks find their way around without Google maps or other GPS capabilities. If you click on the different blocks on Google maps, it will highlight them for you and you can see that they are just arbitrarily shaped. Hopefully one day it will be explained to me, but until such a time, it's just weird. You have no idea how excited I was when I finally figured out where my home was and how to walk to the grocery store without getting horribly lost. I think the set up has to do with the fact that it's an old samurai town and if you don't live there, you're not supposed to be able to find your way around. As you can see from the map above, there is no set pattern, no grid, no main road that goes right through... it was very strange and disorienting for me when I first arrived. Whenever it's a nice, sunny day, I get the urge to explore...   Points of Interest:
Castle Ruins, Tenno Shrine(s), Temple(s), Art Gallery (featuring lots of lamps... apparently)

Amenities: Post office, grocery store, drug store, supermarket, shinkansen station, banks, gas stations, schools, hospital, public bath and a library. There's a 'shopping district', about a dozen hair salons (!? seriously, they're like... weeds!).
There should be a bunch of pegs and explanations of locations on the map, if there isn't, lemmie know and I'll fix it. :)

Recipe Requests

I know spring is trying to come to Aomori, I see it in the hours of bright & sunny the cut through those of blowing snow. Even the sun has started to get up as freakishly early as I do...*shakes fist at the weather* In an effort to keep warm while really wanting to be able to open my windows to let some fresh air in, I made up some pretty nifty soup and some tasty chicken.

Finished curry product all boxed up for lunch!

給食 "School lunch"

A post devoted to the sometimes delicious, sometimes mysterious kyuushoku.

As a kid going to public school in Winnipeg, I always brown bagged it. Well, for a while, in elementary school it was a really sweet Empire Strikes Back tin lunch box with matching thermos but I digress. My Dad always packed me a lunch. Now that I'm a grown up, I like to pack my own lunch. However, if you want to spend time with the kids, you must eat like everyone else and take part in school lunches.