Yokohama City, Japan

Landmark Tower, tallest building in Japan

Cosmo World Ferris Wheel

Roller Coaster Display between Land Mark Tower and Queen's Square Mall

Snoopy Town

Pokemon Center

Disney Store

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Yokohama is the second largest city of Japan. It's about 40 minute trip from New Sanno Hotel (where we stayed during our trip in Tokyo) by train plus walk is almost an hour trip then ;-)

We had a short time walking around Landmark Tower and Queens Square and didn't have the chance to go to observation deck and other nice places nearby. My daughter had enjoyed the mall when we found out that they have sanrio, pokemon center, disney store and snoopy town. IAnd we didn't even go to the ferris wheel since we already tried the Odaiba one ;-P

By the way, the Cosmo World Clock (which can be seen on the ferris wheel itself) is the world's largest clock (wow!).

When Cosmo World first opened in 1989, it was the world's tallest Ferris wheel.

The current record holder of the largest ferris wheel is the 165-meter (541 ft) Singapore Flyer, which opened to the public in March 2008, which by the way I saw that too last year when we went to Singapore.

Odaiba, Tokyo

Palette Town

Daikanransha Ferris Wheel (115m ~ 317ft tall)

Another shot

Taken from the ferris wheel

Another view from the ferris wheel

Sumida Boat Cruise- we sat at the top deck of this boat

Sumida River overlooking Rainbow Bridge

From the boat's deck, over looking Fuji Television building and the pier

Asahi Beer Building

cute car

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Odaiba, Tokyo

Our second day trip in Tokyo- originally our itinerary was to go to Asakusa where we could see the huge Senso-ji Temple (and to shop at Nakamise shopping arcade hehehe) but I left my brochure at the hotel and we can't find the map to get to the temple. When we got off from the subway train I saw the Asahi Beer Building right across the subway train (so I took pictures hehehe) and saw the Sumida River Boat cruise...... At first we were standing at one corner and trying to figure out how to get a map but then we decided to go and check how much was the fare at the boat cruise and where the boat was leading to (since we don't know where to go now)..... but then the old man was telling us that the boat was leaving in couple of minutes. To make the story short, we didn't get to explore the Asakusa place and ended up taking the boat cruise going to Odaiba since we took the one way trip hehehe. It took us about an hour to get to Odaiba. But we had fun there!

These are the places we went in Odaiba:

- Decks shopping mall (this is where we ate lunch and my son played at the arcade); the Sega Joypolis is there too but we didn't try to get inside (each ride has fee)

- Palette Town - where we rode the Daikanransha Ferris Wheel, there is the Toyota Mega City too

**Note: It takes 16 minutes to take the ferris wheel ride.


Odaiba (お台場) is a large artificial island in Tokyo Bay, Japan, across the Rainbow Bridge from central Tokyo. It was initially built for defensive purposes in the 1850s, dramatically expanded during the late 20th century as a seaport district, and has developed since the 1990s as a major commercial, residential and leisure area. Odaiba, along with Minato Mirai 21 in Yokohama, are two of the only places in the Greater Tokyo Metropolitan area where the seashore is accessible, and not blocked by industry and harbor areas. - Wikipedia

Tokyo Disneyland

Mickey Mouse Flower Arrangement at the main entrance

The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh

Toon Town

At Splash Mountain ride with cute Japanese girls

It's a Small World

Cute Japanese girls wearing the minnie mouse headbands at Critter Country

Cinderella's Castle

Toon Town

Toon Town

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TOKYO DISNEYLAND

Sorry for not updating my posts for the past few weeks, I was so busy lately I took vacation and we went to Tokyo 2 weeks ago.

I'm sharing my first batch of pictures in Tokyo Disneyland although this was my fourth day in Tokyo, I'm more excited to post these pictures here than any other places we've been to, well what can I say, it's the happiest place on earth! hehehe.

When we got there it was almost 1:30pm (because we re so tired walking around Asakusa and Odaiba before that day)and it was raining so hard. At first we were thinking of getting back to our hotel because of the heavy rain but then we decided to still try our luck. We even bought 4 umbrellas at the Maihama train station otherwise we would all be wet. Hmmm the price wasn't that expensive, 500 yen for each umbrella (~$5).

We first went to Tomorrow land, although it was raining hard, a lot of people were still waiting in line, it was a long line in every show and ride we saw. No more "fast pass" available.... that means we really have to fall in line. The first ride we went to was the Buzz Light year ride since I have a 9 year old son who loves Toy Story, we waited for an hour. I wasn't able to take some pictures in Tomorrwland because my camera will get wet and besides I'm carrying my umbrella and my handbag too hehehe. It was nice to see Japanese people wearing mickey/minnie mouse raincoats and mickey/minnie mouse headbands.

Around 4pm, the sun cooperated, it dried up the roads and we're enjoying the sun! I was able to take pictures after that hehehe.

We didn't try to go to any shows since we won't be able to understand them, they're in Japanese anyways hehehe. There was an electrical parade but they canceled the fireworks because of the weather, it was too cloudy though it didn't rain.

Enough of that pictures, I will post more, don't worry it won't take that long.

Chuson-ji Temple

Konjikido (Golden Hall)

Torii

Hondo (Main Hall)

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Chuson-ji Temple

Chuson-ji Temple is located in Hiraizumi. Iwate Prefecture, 2 hour and a half drive from Misawa. We went to this trip the same day when we went to Geibi Gorge (from my previous post).

At first, I thought Chuson-ji temple was just a one huge temple, but I was wrong the temple itself consists of halls, museums and other buildings which you can see on my above pictures.

The Golden Hall or Konjikido is the only remaining example of a building from the Fujiwara era which can be found in Chuson-ji Temple. The mummified remains of four generations of Fujiwara lords rest inside the daises.

The Main Hall (Hondo) is the center for services and rituals. Most of Buddhist services take place in the Main Hall.

Note: No cameras allowed inside the Main Hall and Golden Hall but you can check their website to see what's inside the hall, here it is:

http://www.chusonji.or.jp/guide/precincts/konjikido.html

Geibi Gorge

The cliff

Our boat

The bridge

Carps

The "wishing wall"

Geibi Gorge

I was so excited to post these pictures from the trip we had yesterday so I uploaded them and posted here now. It's really indeed amazing scenic views!!!

We went to Geibi Gorge or Geibikei in Iwate prefecture, it's about 4 hour-drive from Misawa. The trip was long but it's really worth to see these beautiful sceneries.

I enjoyed the boat ride, our boatman even sang the "song of Geibi" it's a folk song of Japan. Though I haven't understood any of the lyrics I enjoyed it hehehe. Our boatman is very friendly and accommodating he even let us paddle the boat with the long bamboo pole. My daughter and I tried it just for a pose on our camera hehehe. We even had a free foot spa, along the side of the falls. So hot but it's so relaxing.

The Geibi gorge is approximately 2 kilometers long with 100-meter precipitous cliffs.

Excerpt from the brochure:

"Geibi Gorge, where fantastically-shaped rock formations tower high above, and the lush greenery celebrates the glory of the seasons. Numbered one of the most picturesque spots in Japan, this beautiful gorge was carved from strata of limestone by the Satetsu River."

Kitkat Flavors in Japan

You can't leave Japan until you tasted their different flavors of kitkat!!

I didn't know about this kitkat's different flavors (exclusively in Japan) until I learned this from my Japanese co-worker. She let me tasted the green soy bean flavor or the edamame and it tasted so good. And the second time I tasted them when my boss came back from Tokyo and brought us some different flavors like Shoyu (soy sauce), wasabi, custard pie, orange and strawberry but unfortunately I didn't have the chance to take pictures of them ;-) The soy sauce and wasabi tasted weird though (yucky and eewwww!!! hehehe).

And the pictures above are all "my kitkats" hehehe, I asked my co-worker to buy me some online since we rarely see them from the grocery stores.

From the pictures above, I ordered, custard pie, maple, banana, framboise and strawberry banana.

Grab some kitkats!!

Hirosaki Cherry Blossom Festival (Part 2)

Hirosaki Castle with the cute Japanese Ladies posing on the side ;-)

Hanami (Flower Viewing), picnic under the trees

The Inner South Gate

The big clock at Hirosaki Arboretum

Mt Iwaki View

People at Firing Squad hehehe actually they're posing for the Mt Iwaki view

Here's the another view of Mt Iwaki and to see why the people were standing along the fence

The Bridge

The Food Booths

Another food booths

Grilled Mochi

Grilled Mochi (sweet rice)

Shrimp costs 600 yen (~$6.50) a piece (!!!!)

Chicken karaaga

Tako yaki (octopus ball)

Toy Store

Choco Banana

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This is the continuation of my post on Hirosaki Cherry Blossom Festival. Since we didn't get to see the full bloom of the cherry blossom we just enjoyed our trip by eating a lot of food from the food booths. Do I have to say only "cherry tress" now? hehehe since no blossom at all?

Some people were eating under the cherry blossom trees which they called "hanami" I feel so envy with them, they're so very happy eating food, drinking beers and playing some card games. And while Japanese people are enjoying their "hanami", my children and I just sat on the grass along the side of the road and found some plastic bags to sit on and ate our barbecue, grilled corn, choco banana, yaki soba while viewing the people who pass by our front :-) hmmm what do you think should I call that?? I don't think that's hanami hehehe since there were not eating under the trees ;-). I wish my husband was there that day so he could bring/carry some folding chairs for us LOL.

Oh well...I hope you enjoy my pictures, I know it took so long for my part 2 but I was so busy at home (doing facebook LOL).

By the way, we may be moving out soon from Japan and go back to US sometime this year (our tour was cut short from our 3 year tour). So I will be taking more pictures of Japan while we're still here and share the best pictures here on my blog ;-) so don't miss my posts, my few months in Japan ;-)