2012 Picture of the Week (49/52) – Beautiful

I never get tired of this view.  One of the best things about living in Kanagawa is that Mt. Fuji can be seen from almost anywhere, as long as your view isn’t obstructed.  If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you may recognise this view.  On the left is Mt. Fuji covered with snow and some clouds, while the mountains in the foreground are the Tanzawa Mountains.  I’ve climbed two mountains in this photo, Mt. Fuji and Mt. Oyama (it’s the peak on the left in the Tanzawa Mountains).  No matter how many times I see this view, I am amazed.  It is beautiful.

Mt. Fuji and the Tanzawa Mountains on a very clear day.

2012 Picture of the Week (48/52) – Convenient

Japan is well known for its efficient and convenient train system.  Anywhere you are, you’re likely to be able to take a train.  In Metropolitan Tokyo, there are 882 train stations, 121 lines, and 40 million passengers per day.  Shinjuku Station is the world’s busiest station with 3.64 million passengers per day.  It’s amazing how well it works, though it is expected that there can be delays from time to time.  This picture is the ticket gates of Futamatagawa Station in Yokohama on the Sotetsu Line.  It has around 81,000 passengers per day.

Futamatagawa Station. Many stations are so convenient, they have a convenience store in the station.

Trees of Tsujido Seaside Park

Near the beach in Fujisawa is a very large park called Tsujido Kaihin Koen (or Tsujido Seaside Park).  It’s used for many things, including sports, festivals, relaxing, and there’s even a small amusement park.  These pictures mostly show the trees of the park, including a pond area.  Enjoy!

Palm trees are everywhere in this park. It seems so tropical.

Parks in Japan typically include a pond.

The Japanese black pine is a popular tree for bonsai, but you can find them everywhere along the coast in Japan.

This grove of Japanese black pines shows how twisted their trunks are.

The trees tend to bend in one direction, the way the wind blows.

The pond contains numerous turtles, including this one.

Looking back toward the pond through some Japanese black pine trees.

This is only a small area of the park, and I have taken pictures of elsewhere before.  I will post them in the future.

After leaving the park, we went down to the beach.  My next set of photos will be of the beach!  There were some great waves.

Here’s a view of the park from above.  We were in the central part.

Okome Matsuri, the Rice Festival

The Okome Matsuri, or Rice Festival, is being held at Yokohama’s Aka Renga Soko this weekend.  My family and I went to it yesterday afternoon and enjoyed the sunny weather and plenty of food.

Aka Renga Soko is often used as the site of many events.  Oktoberfest is also there.  At the festival, there were several tents set up for food vendors, which were selling a large variety of interesting foods.  I’d like to talk about what I ate, since everyone was there for the food.

The festival grounds with the Red Brick Warehouses in the background.

Ebi kushiten (Shrimp tempura on a stick) was pretty good. I love shrimp tempura, and the sauce was very good.

Maguro gyoza (tuna gyoza) was an interesting food. Usually, gyoza has pork and vegetables in it, this had tuna. It was quite good.

This was some of the food, including mabodofu (at top), maguro gyoza, pork, ebi kushiten, and some tomato dish which I didn’t eat. At the bottom was nori.

Grilled chicken with onion sauce was delicious. I love grilled chicken!

Tenkara, which is karaage (fried chicken), was very good. It seemed to have a bit of a garlic flavour.

In addition to the above food, we also had 6 kinds of rice.  There were 12 types of rice available, but we chose 6.  Honestly, I didn’t find much of a difference between them.

Other people enjoying the festival.

Some of the vendors.

One last picture. The sign says “Okome Matsuri.”

There was a lot of good food, and I enjoyed trying it.  I filled up on rice and plenty of meats.  It’s running until tomorrow (November 18), so if you want to check it out, I definitely recommend it.

2012 Picture of the Week (47/52) – Tall

If you haven’t noticed by now, this and the previous two Pictures of the Week have been titled using a single adjective.  I’m using these to show what you can find in Japan.  There’s modern, traditional, and now tall.  I took this picture today while out at Minato Mirai in Yokohama.  We went to the Okome Matsuri (Rice Festival) at Aka Renga Soko, which I’ll post about in the next few days.  This picture is of a tall building, which is the tallest building in Japan, but not for long (one in Osaka will be slightly taller).  Landmark Tower has been the tallest building in Japan for 20 years.  I have posted about it before, but this was just such a beautiful day and wonderful conditions for this photo.  The building’s 69th floor has an observatory which costs 1,000 yen to reach, but it gives some amazing views. I love tall buildings, and I hope to go to Tokyo Sky Tree next year.

The tall Landmark Tower with some autumn foliage.

Akibadai Cultural and Athletics Centre

On October 12, we visited Akibadai Cultural and Athletics Centre, which is located west of Shonandai Station in Fujisawa.  This facility has a couple of gymnasiums and a couple of pools, as well as a park, a soccer field, and cultural centre.  The main building has very interesting architecture which I thought I’d share.

The side of the main gymnasium.

The north end of the main gymnasium.

The north end from a different angle.

Swimming pool entrance.

West side of the building, including the main hall area.

This is the south gymnasium.

The east side of the south gymnasium.

From the southeast corner of the building, the main gymnasium dominates in this picture.

This is the main park area.

Steps up to the second floor near the main entrance.

More park!

The south gymnasium from the main steps.

This isn’t the building, but this shows a walking route from Akibadai to Keio University and back. I want to walk this route.

This is the main hall from the second floor. Notice the rock climbing wall?

The inside of the main gymnasium.

Stadium lighting at the soccer field.

I’ve been quite surprised by the architecture at the cultural centres around Shonandai.  The Shonandai Cultural Centre with the children’s science museum is also quite interesting, which I will eventually post about.

Comments are always welcome!

Ayase manhole cover

On Friday, my wife and I took our daughter for a several hour long walk from our home near Shonandai all the way north, following the Hikijigawa River, to Ayase City. It was the first time I’ve been to Ayase, and surprisingly not very far from here. The interesting thing about Ayase is that it’s the only city in Kanagawa without a train station. It also hosts the Naval Air Facility Atsugi, which is the largest American Navy air base in the Pacific. It’s also the source of all of the planes we hear daily. Anyway, I took a picture of one of Ayase’s manhole covers. There’s another cover, but I couldn’t get it, as they were all out in the middle of the street! But this one is the sewer manhole cover, and it features Ayase’s city flower, the rose.

This rose probably doesn’t make the sewer smell better.