They actually arrived later Thursday night with my uncle and step-aunt. Friday morning started out interestingly with a phone call at 7am telling me that they're at the train station (Kudanshita, in Tokyo) ready to come over. "What?!?" was my reply haha....... but all was well time-wise as it took then a while to actually take the train to my place.
After touring my house (room......) and the dojo as well as meeting all the people associated, Arakawa sensei took us to Tokyo Tower where the 4 of us went to the upper observation deck almost 250m up. Great view of the city although some bits were obscured by the constant haze that's out there. Hong Kong and San Francisco have similar problems.
Unfortunately, time ran short and after lunch, I had to leave to go to work while my parents went back to the hotel to rest. But I headed back into Tokyo after work with Richard sensei to have dinner in a street side restaurant near Ginza.
Having stayed the night at the hotel, Saturday was a big tour day with the 5 of us (parents, uncle, step-aunt, and me) all over Tokyo. We saw the Nippon Budokan (check my WadoKai National Championship post) as well as the near by emporer's palace. From there we headed to Ginza to walk the street and I got to sit in a new Nissan GT-R!! Then it was off to Hinode to ride the boat up the Sumida river towards Asakusa temple. The picture above shows a building with a funky........... well........... let's say comet shaped thing =-P. That's the Asahi Beer headquarter at the end of the Sumida boat ride. The afternoon was capped off with a short look around Akihabara.
Sunday morning we went to the Meiji-jingu shrine for some amazing scenery and a short walk through Takeshita street in Harajuku. Feel free to misread the street's name as it's a big joke for foreigners =-).
Unfortunately, Sunday was when their visit stopped because, really, this was only added onto their original vacation plans after they found out I was coming to Japan so now they're off to India for 3 weeks. But a little is better than none and I'm really grateful both to my family for visiting and to everyone here to who welcomed them so openly, albeit for a short time.
6 comments:
The "comet" shape thing is actually a malt barley, which is fermented in order to produce beer. I think I passed by there when I visited Japan a lot time ago.
i meant a long time ago...
How come we can't click on a picture and have it supersized? I can't see anything in the background.
he shoulda just taken a picture of the background.... we all know what lawrence looks like... we all know what his parents look like... we need something new!
maybe your parents will run into Laura. that'd be weird. omg, i bumped in Teresa Wang yesterday. it was the freakiest thing. she hasn't changed ONE BIT. she still talks a million words a minute without taking a breath.
Jeanne- Is it?? I had no idea haha..... the ship's announcer just called it the "odd shaped thing" so I had to make do haha.....
Steve- I dunno. Sometimes you can, sometimes you can't it seems. If you want the pic, lemme know and I can email it you =-).
Gars- Wow Teresa haha...... I ran into her a year or two ago at UBC and it was sorta the same deal haha.... "Look, I really wanna keep listening, but I REALLY have to go" haha...... interesting gal hah.....
Namestake, hello from India, we really appreciate the warm hospitality of your friends and sensai. We have a good experience in Tokyo. It is the first time we get to travel around on our own. This gives us the feel of the real Japan, more intimately than a tour.
Post a Comment