Fuji-San

Hello everyone! This week we have been exploring Japan a bit more. We ventured t0 Fuji Go Ko, to a place called Kawaguchiko. Beautiful lakes and views of Mount Fuji. We're planning on going back soon to climb it! Watch this space. In the photos below you can see Mount Fuji in the background, but covered in cloud. In the bottom photo young Kieran has discovered a baseball batting cage, he keeps saying it was the highlight of the two day trip. I have a feeling we'll be going back there just so Kieran can hit a few more balls! Next week we will be enjoying a bit of Karaoke, and many beers, we'll let you know how we get on....

The picture above is my favourite, Ding Dong!

This deserves more comment. Imagine a driving range but for baseball with an auto pitcher machine. You can choose a cage with different speeds from 80km/h up to about 115km/h and the balls come hurtling toward you. Great fun and only about 80p for about 20 balls. I'm hooked!

Mitake-San

We made our first journey outside Tokyo to Mount Mitake, affectionately known as Mr Mitake, apparently all the mountains are called Mister. A Cable car and short hike brought us to a beautiful mountain top temple which we pretty much had to ourselves.

Our local shop

Congratulations to Andy, our first caller! He's even posted the correct dialling code (see the previous post comments). As a prize here's a photo just for him.....

and here's Julie shoppping for a pet at the animal capsule hotel

and here we are right now, updating the blog in the flat (we're actually looking at Sam dressed as a pirate)

Connected

Hello folks, we have succesfully got connected to the internet! Very exciting! We didn't manage to get cable TV but we're being entertained by Radio 2. We have a phone too. The number is 0423163447, not sure what you have to put before it but if you find out, please leave a comment. So we will be emailing, blogging and calling so much more than we have been. If you haven't had a call from us in the past eight months, we don't have your number so email us your number and we will give you a bell right away!

Things are going great still, and we will give a proper blog entry soon. In the meantime here's a picture of the local pet shop. I think it's great.

Settling in to Japanese Life

Sorry for not posting in ages, we`ve been busy settling in. Getting through to-do lists takes so much longer here due to the language barrier but we`re getting there. We have mobiles sorted, mine is 08034647078 and Julie`s is 09091550278. Tried to text Tony and it didn`t work but you should be able to text or call if you need to but no idea how much it might cost. We will have a landline and broadband in a couple of weeks.



Tokyo by night is beautiful, it reminds me of Christmas shopping. At around 6:30 it`s like you`re waiting for them to turn the Christmas lights on. We have been doing a fair bit of shopping. Tons of department stores everywhere selling everything.
The apartment block straight ahead is where we live, on the third floor. The address is below , a few postings earlier (Tokyo Calling). This is the walk home from work and although very urbanized, there is the odd patch of allotment with a little tractor or the odd woman digging potatoes. They sell the produce in a little vending machine. Very well organised. The apartment is lovely, we`ll post some photos soon. It took us a few days to work out all the gadgets and remote controls but we`re settled in now.
Speaking of vending machines, they are everywhere. Pocari Sweat is Julie`s current favourite funny name. The best thing is they sell beer in them too! It`s about 60p for a 330ml 5% Asahi or Kirin beer which goes down well.
This is a shot from Yoyogi Park in central Tokyo. It takes us about 45 minutes to get into the main bits of town from the flat and costs about three pound fifty return so we`ve been popping in on our days off. Lots of Kimonos and singing going on here.