Category: Travel
Japan Earthquake/Tsunami 40 Days Later in Tohoku
Tokyo Hooters
Some buddies and I heard that they recently opened a Hooters restaurant in Tokyo, so we decided to go check it out. Here was some of the waitresses. The food was good and decently priced, but the weird thing was that the waitresses started dancing and you couldn’t film it or take photos of it as they were dancing. This is weird because being in the land of Asian’s who take photos of literally everything this must be some kind of illegal dance or something.
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Maruya Ramen
Here is a ramen shop that I enjoyed frequenting. There is nothing better than getting a nice warm bowl of ramen and a cool autumn or a cold winter day. This ramen shop has some original bowls or ramen with lots of vegetables inside. It was very good. Here is one of my photos of chyashu ramen (Pork Ramen). If you’re in the area or interested in eating here, you can find more information at the link below:
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Thai Food
Today I went to a Thai restaurant in Japan. My favorite Thai food dish is called “Neung Kapow.” It is made with beef and it has chili peppers, basil, fish sauce, and oyster sauce and it is usually served over rice. This restaurant calls the dish “Khaw Kra Pow + Khai Dow” and they serve it with an egg. Here is a picture of what it looks like on this menu.
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Tomei-ya Ramen Atsugi, Japan
In the Kanagawa prefecture of Japan, this is one of my favorite ramen shops. They have a great pork based soup with a big bowl of ramen and some delicious chyashu (pork slices) put in the soup. If you’re ever in the area, I strongly recommend stopping by and giving it a try. Here is the address so you can put it into your navigation or smartphone. Here is a photo of my favorite bowl of ramen.
よこはまらあめん東名家
1 Chome-13-2 Hayashi
Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture 243-0816
Japan
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Great Buddha (Daibutsu)
Rode the train to the Kamakura station to get a first hand look at the Great Buddha or Daibutsu in Japanese. This buddha was made out of bronze and you can go inside of it which is a pretty neat experience. Once inside if you touch the bronze that the sun is beating down on it is hot to the touch, but if you touch the side that is away from the sun it is cold to the touch. This buddha was created in 1252 and stands approximately 13.35 meters tall.
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Ueno Zoo
Went over to the Ueno zoo in Tokyo today. Here are some of the photos I took as I was walking around and checking out the different animals.
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SlamFest
I got a ticket to go to the SlamFest that is being held on Camp Zama, Japan. This is like the Japanese WWE wrestling. It was a cool event that was put on for the United States and Japanese military and their families. It was a lot of fun and had some (quite literally) big stars. After the event they were signing autographs and shaking hands. It was definitely a really cool event and here are my photos of this experience.
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Metallica Concert at the Saitama Super Arena, Japan
Took a 90 minute train ride to go to the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan to watch a Metallica concert. This concert was awesome, however getting tickets for the event wasn’t exactly easy. Here is a part of my experience.
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Denny’s Pub in Germany
For Those Who Don’t Like Heights
Formerly — the Sears Tower
Not content with having the tallest building in America , the owners of Willis Tower in Chicago have installed four glass box viewing platforms which stick out of the building 103 floors up.
The balconies are suspended 1,353 feet in the air and jut out four feet from the building’s Skydeck. They are 4x10x10, made of solid glass, floor included…
Visitors get their first view from The Ledge — four glass balconies suspended from the Tower.
Designers say the platforms – collectively dubbed The Ledge – have been purposely created to make visitors feel as they are floating above the city. The reward is unobstructed views of Chicago from the building’s west side and a heart-stopping (well, duh!) vista of the street and Chicago River below – for those brave enough to look straight down. It’s like walking on ice.
John Huston, one of the owners of the Willis Tower, even admitted to getting ‘a little queasy’ when he ventured out on to the balcony. However, after 30 or 40 trips, he seems to have gotten used to it.
Long way up: Even the floor of the platforms are glass – few are brave enough to look straight down. Although some adults felt dizzy after experiencing The Ledge, children seemed to take it in their stride.
Fearless: Five-year-old Anna Kane spreads out on the floor of the 10ft square box which is 1,353 ft up.
Thrill seekers: The boxes jut out four feet from the building and were specifically designed to attract visitors. The Willis Tower has always been about superlatives – tallest, largest, most iconic.
The Ledge is the world’s most awesome view, the world’s most precipitous view, the view with the most wow in the world. The balconies are 10ft high and 10ft wide, can hold five tons, and have glass which is 1.5 inch thick.
Inspiration came from the hundreds of forehead prints visitors left behind on The Skydeck windows every week. Now, staff have a new glass surface to clean: floors!
Architect Ross Wimer said: ‘We did studies that showed a 4′ X 4′ deep enclosure makes you feel like you’re detached from the building particularly since there’s only room for one row of people.’
The Ledge is accessible from The Skydeck which attracts 25,000 visitors on clear days. They each pay $15 to take an elevator ride up to the 103rd floor of the 110-story office building that opened in 1973.
After seeing this I think I will sit in my sturdy, favorite chair.
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Nippon Maru Maritime Training Ship
Took the train over to the Sakura-gicho train station in Yokohama today to wander around and see what sights were to be seen. While there I boarded the Nippon Maru maritime training ship that is permanently docked in Yokohama and now used as a museum.
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Fuji Television Building
Passed by the Fuji Television building today in Odaiba, which is a part of, Tokyo, Japan. This is a landmark building because of it’s unique design. You can spot this building from all around Tokyo.
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Driving by Tokyo Tower
Drove through Tokyo today and snapped these photos of Tokyo Tower. It’s so weird seeing a big tower that looks like the Eiffel Tower in the middle of one of the most populated cities in the world.
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Sakura-gicho, Yokohama, Japan
Banyan Town Restaurant
Today I went and ate at the Banyan tree restaurant in the city of Naha in Okinawa prefecture of Japan. It was a nice novelty restaurant to eat at because the whole setting is like you up in a big treehouse. It’s pretty neat and it gives you some interesting views of the city. Here are some of the photos I took.
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Enoshima Aquarium
Even though it is March and the weather is still cold I got tired of being stuck in doors from the winter and decided to take the train to the east coast of Japan to visit Enoshima and check out their aquarium.
While there I watched the dolphin and sea lion show. The show really reminded me that this is Japan’s version of Sea World. It was an entertaining show and I had a lot of fun watching it. You can also see there were wind surfers out playing in the waves.
While walking through the aquarium I got to see some crabs, jellyfish, stingrays and other assortments of fish.
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Tokyo Disneyland
Tokyo Disneyland is was quite an experience. This time of year they are ready for Halloween and have all the necessary Disney decorations up. The park is big enough that it will take some time to get through, but overall it is a really fun experience. It truly is a magical place and great way to soak in all of the Disney magic.
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Tokyo DisneySea
Today I went to Tokyo DisneySea. It was pretty cool to go there and seeing this ginormous spinning globe when you first get there. Then once you go inside there is what looks like some European street with boat rides in the water in the middle. On the far side of the water is a pirate attraction that is being overlooked by a volcano that erupts every hour on the hour. It is a pretty cool setting with some really neat attractions like Journey to the center of the earth, Indiana Jones, 20,000 leagues under the sea, and so on.
I would have to say the design of the park definitely can use some improvements. The biggest improvements that I think the park needs is the restaurants. There are so few restaurants that there are long lines for every one. I waited an hour and a half for a bad lunch that ended up costing me 4,000 yen or about $44.52 US dollars. Also, you better know what you want to eat prior to going to a specific restaurant because each one has something different and if you don’t like what they have then will need to walk around the park to find one that you like. Another major improvement the park needs is more drinking stands. I walked around the park all day looking for something to drink and it seemed that the only drinks that were available were from the restaurants. If you are looking for a bottle of water to carry around with you, I say you better have brought it with you because you probably won’t have any good luck finding it in the park. Finally, the last thing that you better have already known about before you get to the park is that there are these things called quick passes. I’m not exactly sure how it works, but when the park opens you have 1 hour to go register for a quick pass. Once you get a quick pass then get to go to all the attractions in this fast line that is only about a 15 minute wait. Of course I was not aware of the quick pass so I was stuck waiting an hour and a half for every ride that I wanted to go on. There were some rides like Journey to the Center of the Earth and Indiana Jones that I did not go on because those both had four hour lines. That’s crazy to be standing there 4 hours for one ride with nothing to drink. If that park wanted to make some real money, the would put drink stands in each of the attraction lines because people would buy that right up. Anyway, it was neat to go see and experience once, but I’m not sure how soon I’ll be going back.