Some more discoveries

We went to Masa's favorite Ramen place "Tsukumo" ... oishi!

The weekend before last we went to the former French Embassy in Hiroo. The whole Embassy was transformed by artists in an exhibit called No Man's Land: http://www.ambafrance-jp.org/spip.php?article3720

This weekend we went to Yokohama we discovered a LLBean store GO MAINE, went to the Ramen Museum and a Sumo tournament on Sunday.

I am enjoying my Basic 1 Japanese lessons. The other students in my class come from a wide range of backgrounds: 2 Italians, a 17 year old from LA, 2 approximately 19 year old soccer players from Nairobi, a woman from Hong Kong who lived in LA for 9 year, a female monk from Taiwan, a Canadian English teacher and an Australian woman who is a world champion light weight power lifter and blind. Very mixed and interesting group.There is a cute little used English books store close to our apartment: http://www.gooddaybooks.com. Thank you Brita, for sending me this wonderful show on Japan, I think it may interest some of you: http://www.studio360.org/episodes/2010/01/08 Masa introduced me to Metropolis, an English magazine with events in and outside of Tokyo: http://metropolis.co.jp/

Meguro-ku neighborhood

Earlier this week I discovered the Meguro-ku Citizen's Center and river, which is a beautiful place to run. That is, it promises to be very beautiful in the spring during cherry blossom season because the river is lined with cherry trees.


Every kids dream, an octopus slide and a whole neighborhood named after the park. Unfortunately I think I would get stuck on the slide. Maybe I will take Masa's little cousin there.




For my OSP friends: This week I also explored a community vegetable garden close to the river. The pea plants and pictures of carrots gave away the garden :) There is also a nice Citizen's Center near the river with a gym, including yoga classes, an indoor and outdoor pool and lots of other things to explore. Here's the start of a list of free things to do in Tokyo: lots of free public bathrooms, the Central Library in Hiroo. The Japan Times Community section has a good listing of events: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/community_listings.html Every afternoon the bus that talks goes by our apartment, sort of like an ice cream truck, except that it talks instead of playing music. Enjoy the video:

Good night Fuji-san

One morning in Tokyo

I woke up to a beautiful crystal clear blue sky ...

Oishi, oishi, oishi. The New Years brunch was fantastic. The food was exquisitely prepared. We had sea urchin, herring(nichin), octapus (tako) and all sorts of other goodies as you can see on the pictures.