Continuation of my adventures with family (0)

11:04 PM by Ren , under , , ,

Being so exhausted from my week working the Opening Series event I ended up just crashing at my mom and sister's hotel with them because we were going to hang out together the next day anyway.

We met up with Miho in Shibuya and planned to go to a lunch buffet that I have blogged about before, but it was closed. We ended up going to a nice little curry restaurant. After that we walked the streets and allowed our guests from California to experience all the unique sights.






We walked to the Harajuku district and went to the famous Meiji Shrine. Getting there requires around a half mile walk on gravel through pretty trees, and over a creek.



Those are sake barrels




We then walked to Harajuku in search of a place to get dessert. It was quite crowded, which is typical of Harajuku, and all the dessert places were take-out only.

The Harajuku fashion and boutiques are always fun to check out and attract lots of interesting people.

Takeshita Street ;)








From there we went to a part of the city where we were to meet Ryan and Tomoe. We were early so we found a place to finally get dessert. My mom got a five dollar coffee (the dollar was at its weakest then) and we got a couple sundaes.


We finished up there are went to a bus station where Ryan and Tomoe were waiting for us. We then took a bus to a museum of the famous animator "Miyazaki." In the USA he is known for his Academy Award winning film "Spirited Away" from earlier this decade, but here he is loved for his library of many great movies. The museum is so popular that you have to get your tickets a week in advanced because it is always sold out. It was very cool and had many great demonstrations on how animation works.

Outside the museum






If hitting your head was truly deadly I would have been history a long time ago



The bus back to the station



My mom, Rhea, and I went back to my apartment to get ready to leave town for the weekend with our friends. I made them some fried rice, and soon after that Ryan and Tomoe arrived and we all took off. It was a long haul getting to the harbor with all of our bags. We had to switch trains twice and we were already tired from a huge day. To top it off we were running late. We got there around five minutes before our ship took off at 10PM. We were off to Shikinejima, which is one of the Izu Islands southeast of Tokyo.

Our seats weren't very comfortable, and were were aboard the ship until 9AM so it was a little rough. Luckily nobody got sick!

Picking up our tickets late!




In a ferry terminal



Our ship



Home for the night



During the couple of hours I was asleep



I almost forgot to post the beer vending machines



One of the islands we passed



We finally arrive



We arrived at Shikinejima and were picked up by the staff of the guest-house we had reservations at. After bringing our things to our room, we set off for a walk to get some food. It was a very quiet, little island where there were absolutely no other foreigners. In fact, it seemed to be filled with kids on field trips doing nature excursions. Sometimes we would pass a group of them and they would all say "hello" to us in English. It was really cute and fun to interact with them.

Our room




The entrance to the guest-house



Putting on slippers before enterning



Rhea relaxing outside before our first walk



The local grocery store
(What's with the Budweiser?)










Our lunch stop



This island is known for its hot springs so after eating we went out searching for them. To our surprise they were all free and very beautiful. Some of them were far too hot to enter, but some had enough sea water circulating through them to be a nice, tolerable temperature. At one point there was a crab in the hot spring with us.





You can see burn marks on my body after getting out of the hot water



The Coast Guard was searching for a missing man



After spending the majority of the day in the hot springs getting sunburned and burned by the water, we went back to our guest-house, then took off for a scenic walk. We ran into more kids and saw lots of beautiful sights. We didn't exactly get to the point we wanted to get to before it got too late and we had to return to the guest-house to have our dinner.






To our surprise, the dining room was filled with girls around 10 years old who were literally the only other guests except for us. We were served lots of food which was very delicious.




The next day, after another nice walk, we got back on the boat and went back to Tokyo. On the ferry going back I met a 60 year old woman who had just run a marathon on one of the other islands we stopped at. She was extremely talkative and energetic and even offered me some food. A 40 year old surfer also joined our conversation for around an hour in the dining area of the ferry.

I took this picture of Yokohama on the way back to Tokyo




Allow me to jump to present time for a moment. I have felt five earthquakes in the last month! What's going on?




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