Visit from a few friends part2

Wednesday 24th September was visit Tokyo day.
We started by going to the Imperial Palace gardens in the centre of Tokyo. I've tried to visit here before but everything they have been closed so it was nice for me to see them.
Afterwards we grabed a sandwich from a sandwich restaurant on the corner across from the enterance and then went on to Harajuku. Here was looked at the Meiji temple and was disapointed not to see any strangely dressed Japanese teanagers!
Next we went to Shinbyu to get some pictures of the famous road crossing to is shown at least once in any western film that is shot in Japan (Fast and the furious Tokyo Drift, Lost in Translation etc). After this we raced to Yokohama to get to the top of the Landmark tower before the sun started to set. We got there about 10 minutes before and watched the sun setting over the mountains with Mt. Fuji just visable, very beautiful. I always used to wonder the facination with Mt.Fuji but have climbed it, driven past it and seen it from many view points including a sunset it does have a magical quality about it.
To finish off we headed into Yokohama China Town for some dinner and then headed home.
Thursday 25th Del headed off to visit his mistery woman friend in Australia and Colin and Jenny travelled to Kyoto and Nara to arrive back in Hon-Atsugi late Saturday.
Saturday Emi and I did a lot of window shopping although Emi did manage to find something to buy. However it was to prove an expensive trip for me as on the Sunday I bought a pair of trainers and a Digital SLR!
Monday was Colin and Jenny's last full day in Japan and we had planned to go to Tokyo Disney. As luck would have it it rained all day, even worse than Fuji-Q! The strange thing was the rain was heavy all day and it was a weekday so we expected it to be quite quiet but actually it was heaving. It has put me off ever going again, I can't imagine how bad it must be on a sunny weekend. We all had a good time although we were soaked through most of the day.
On the Tuesday I went to work as usual while Colin and Jenny went back to the UK.
It was really good to be able to show some of my friends a taste of Japan.
Living out here can feel very lonely at times without the company of your friends so you really appriciate it went you can spend time with some of them.
Sorry there are no pictures with this issue. I was planning to post a picture of sunset from Yokohama but my camera's memory stick has been corrupted for some reason :-(

Visit from a few friends part1

On Thursday 19th September 3 friends from the UK arrived in Japan: Del, Colin and Jenny. It wasn't a good start - Del missed his plane having only left East London 2 hours before his flight was due to take off and the Heathrow train was delayed for 30 minutes, Silly boy! Luckly for him BA have 2 flights to Japan per day so he got the next flight in 2 hours, all other carriers dirrect to Japan have only one flight per day, Luckly boy!
They all arrived safely albeit a little late and due to not following the detailed direction and map to my apartment. After a bit of a rest we went to the local Okanomiyaki restaurant.
Friday we headed off to Fuji-Q Highland. I've meanted this in previous report, it is a theme park at the base of Mt.Fuji and has beautiful views on a nice day. Unfortunately for us at about 1pm it started raining so they closed all the big rides, boo! We did manage to get in one big ride before the rain and kept ourselves amused on the other rides. We traveled by a rental Nissan Skyline 250GT and with exception for the very Japanese AT gearbox it was an awesome car, should give Merc and BMW a good run for their money when Nissan introduces Infinity to West Europe.
Saturday 20th was a highlight of their trip for me as we went to watch Sumo. We arrived at about 1:30pm and it wasn't so busy as early in the day it is the small fry. By late afternoon it was very busy and there was a really good atmosphere. There were many matches and some of them were a bit boring or over too quick. However some were really gripping and exciting, particularly when the crowd got excited. I am were glad I finally got to experience this - last time I was in Japan my first atempt I was ill so couldn't go and second time all the tickets had sold out.
Afterwards we walked to Asakusa, then got various metro trains to Shinjuku and ate in a restaurant on the 8th floor of Odakyu department store. Was a little expensive and portions were small but to taste was awesome - one of the best steaks I've had. After that is was back to Hon-Atsugi and onto a little karaoke. Planned to go for only a hour or 2 but ended up staying for 3 hours. The problem always is people are initially shy but as you get into it it is great fun and you don't want to leave!
Sunday we got up very late and headed into Machida, nothing particularly interesting.