Robin, Dan, and Hannah 2
Well, our guests left yesterday. It was great to have them; they were wonderful guests. Very helpful around the house, laid back. We did some exploring and lots of just hanging out, catching up on Seattle stuff. A very family-like visit.
Saturday ended up being a really nice day, so we took advantage of our new car and headed to Enoshima, which is a sea-side town off of Fujisawa city, and near Kamakura. Jeff's barber told him about it. It took us longer to get there than anticipated due to traffic, etc., and we got a late start, so we didn't get to see the tourist features (shrines, caves, and stuff you can read about here, if you want), but it turned into just a nice day at the beach. The waves were big and close to shore, so there were many windsurfers and regular surfers to watch, and the kids had a great time playing.
I think this sign was just meant to keep visitors aware of their trash, because it wasn't a nasty beach or anything. I thought it was really funny.
We stuck around the beach til the sun started to go down, and then walked across the bridge to the islet itself. There is an amazing view of Fuji-san on a clear day (which it was), which made Enoshima popular with ukiyo-e artists like Hosuge and Hokusai. I took about 60 pictures of it, but here are 2:
In the little town, there was a street lined with seafood restaurants and beachy-trinket shops filled with dried pufferfish and beer mugs made out of dried squid. Odd. We decided on a restaurant, where my dinner included a local specialty turbo shell, or sazae, which I had been wanting to try ever since I saw the TBM boys do it on the some-day-released DVD of their last Japan tour). Mostly, it was a chewy cross between a snail and a clam, until I got to the Prussian-blue end pieces, which tasted like nothing I'd ever tasted before, and hope never to taste again (we made Dan try it, too, and there is a great sequence of pictures documenting this on flickr). Thankfully, I finally got rid of the taste with some lovely sakura-flavored soft cream at the bottom of the street.
The last full day of the visit, Jeff wanted to show off his beloved Yokohama. There was a whole list of possible things to do, but we decided on Nogeyama Zoo, which is free! The highlights for me were the condors, the red panda (which looks like someone sewed together at least three different stuffed animals, really cute), the very photogenic peacocks (including a white one!), and of course, the amazing petting zoo. It wasn't like any petting zoo I've ever experienced. Usually it's a few sheep and goats wandering around in their own feces, but this was really cool. Hordes of children freely playing with mice, chicks, roosters, and guinea pigs. They provided little quilted pads you could put on your lap. Almost totally unsupervised. D bonded with a rooster. I decided we need to get some mice.
After, we went back to Yokohama station and took the Sea Bass to Yamashita Park, where we had a after-dark picnic with stuff we picked up on the Sogo food floor (where our guests were a little overwhelmed by the choices and the crowds). The boat ride was really nice, a good way to relax and see the Yokohama skyline from a different perspective. We ate across the street from the Hotel New Grand, which Jeff explained was where MacArthur lived during the American Occupation, as it was one of the few places we hadn't leveled with the thousands of bombs we dropped on the city.
After dinner, Jeff took the kids to dessert at a place that had humongous parfaits (he also learned of this from his barber), and I took Dan and Robin our for a quiet drink. I wanted to go to the bar on top of the Sheraton, but they had live music and a large cover. We tried the regular, less-cool bar downstairs, but they were full and we were rather rudely turned away. I'm not so happy with the Sheraton. That was our home for the first 10 days we lived here, and now that we aren't staying there, I felt very unwelcome. Anyway, we went over to the CIAL building and found a place to have a couple beers.
All in all, a great visit with good friends. See more pictures of Enoshima and the zoo here.
This coming weekend should be fun (especially for Jeff, who is working late hours this week). There is a Jug Band Festival in Yokohama on Saturday, and an International Children's Festival at the kids' school on Sunday. M tells me he has been practicing a Turkish song and dance this week. The flier for the festival asked that we wear clothing representing our countries. What do you suppose that clothing would be for us? It's funny how Americans don't have a native costume. It's not like we can dress up in buckskins and feathers. Maybe some combination of gangsta and cowboy?
Saturday ended up being a really nice day, so we took advantage of our new car and headed to Enoshima, which is a sea-side town off of Fujisawa city, and near Kamakura. Jeff's barber told him about it. It took us longer to get there than anticipated due to traffic, etc., and we got a late start, so we didn't get to see the tourist features (shrines, caves, and stuff you can read about here, if you want), but it turned into just a nice day at the beach. The waves were big and close to shore, so there were many windsurfers and regular surfers to watch, and the kids had a great time playing.
I think this sign was just meant to keep visitors aware of their trash, because it wasn't a nasty beach or anything. I thought it was really funny.
We stuck around the beach til the sun started to go down, and then walked across the bridge to the islet itself. There is an amazing view of Fuji-san on a clear day (which it was), which made Enoshima popular with ukiyo-e artists like Hosuge and Hokusai. I took about 60 pictures of it, but here are 2:
In the little town, there was a street lined with seafood restaurants and beachy-trinket shops filled with dried pufferfish and beer mugs made out of dried squid. Odd. We decided on a restaurant, where my dinner included a local specialty turbo shell, or sazae, which I had been wanting to try ever since I saw the TBM boys do it on the some-day-released DVD of their last Japan tour). Mostly, it was a chewy cross between a snail and a clam, until I got to the Prussian-blue end pieces, which tasted like nothing I'd ever tasted before, and hope never to taste again (we made Dan try it, too, and there is a great sequence of pictures documenting this on flickr). Thankfully, I finally got rid of the taste with some lovely sakura-flavored soft cream at the bottom of the street.
The last full day of the visit, Jeff wanted to show off his beloved Yokohama. There was a whole list of possible things to do, but we decided on Nogeyama Zoo, which is free! The highlights for me were the condors, the red panda (which looks like someone sewed together at least three different stuffed animals, really cute), the very photogenic peacocks (including a white one!), and of course, the amazing petting zoo. It wasn't like any petting zoo I've ever experienced. Usually it's a few sheep and goats wandering around in their own feces, but this was really cool. Hordes of children freely playing with mice, chicks, roosters, and guinea pigs. They provided little quilted pads you could put on your lap. Almost totally unsupervised. D bonded with a rooster. I decided we need to get some mice.
After, we went back to Yokohama station and took the Sea Bass to Yamashita Park, where we had a after-dark picnic with stuff we picked up on the Sogo food floor (where our guests were a little overwhelmed by the choices and the crowds). The boat ride was really nice, a good way to relax and see the Yokohama skyline from a different perspective. We ate across the street from the Hotel New Grand, which Jeff explained was where MacArthur lived during the American Occupation, as it was one of the few places we hadn't leveled with the thousands of bombs we dropped on the city.
After dinner, Jeff took the kids to dessert at a place that had humongous parfaits (he also learned of this from his barber), and I took Dan and Robin our for a quiet drink. I wanted to go to the bar on top of the Sheraton, but they had live music and a large cover. We tried the regular, less-cool bar downstairs, but they were full and we were rather rudely turned away. I'm not so happy with the Sheraton. That was our home for the first 10 days we lived here, and now that we aren't staying there, I felt very unwelcome. Anyway, we went over to the CIAL building and found a place to have a couple beers.
All in all, a great visit with good friends. See more pictures of Enoshima and the zoo here.
This coming weekend should be fun (especially for Jeff, who is working late hours this week). There is a Jug Band Festival in Yokohama on Saturday, and an International Children's Festival at the kids' school on Sunday. M tells me he has been practicing a Turkish song and dance this week. The flier for the festival asked that we wear clothing representing our countries. What do you suppose that clothing would be for us? It's funny how Americans don't have a native costume. It's not like we can dress up in buckskins and feathers. Maybe some combination of gangsta and cowboy?
posted by Sandi at 8:27 AM
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