Where Globe-Trotting meets Beach-Combing
The outer wall of the East Garden used to be a lookout point for Mount Fuji. It’s blocked by buildings now, but that’s not a bad view of Tokyo Tower (left, under the willow branches). These fish adorn the edges of homes and pagodas to protect the structures from fire, which finds shoji screens of…
The best French food outside of France is in Japan. Everybody knows this. In the ¥100 stores (like a dollar store) bad French translations appear on bags and zip pouches right alongside their English counterparts: “High Sense Creation. We would like to hand our goods to you. You must be satisfied with it!” (on a…
So I’m walking along and I pass by this Japanese graveyard. Most Japanese prefer cremation, so I’ve been surprised at the number of graveyards dotting the area. I went in for a look. Rectangular tombstones are pretty standard, even with angels and saints switched out for Buddhas. All these ginkgo leaves had piled up around…
Hooray!! We have internet in our new house finally!!Chris is really good at paperwork and bureaucracy, but I took over the hoop-jumping for the Japanese parking permit. I had to get stuff approved from the on-base housing office, then take it and car paperwork to the police station where they told me the landlord needed…
Chris is pretty high up there! Chris and I had a fun date the night before Thanksgiving. We took the train over to Yokohama, a 25-minute ride from the station near base, and took the second-fastest elevator in the world to the observatory at the top of Landmark Tower, the tallest building in Japan. You…
Pounce spies on the neighbors. At least our bed is set up. This is our downstairs tatami room. Out through the soji screens is my bike and the parking slot. Here’s the parking slot full of our belongings on this cold, rainy day. Moving Day! We have a house! But we’re without internet. What people…
Come on over to our house! Well not yet. We move in Friday. Chris practiced backing into the parking slot and I was delighted to find our house even lovelier than I remembered. It was cloudy when we looked at it, and it was the first place we’d seen. Now I saw anew the fun…
