Niijima part II

Here's our tent at the campsite, and our rental bikes. The campsite was full of surfers, and surprisingly multicultural. There were Brazilians, Japanese, British, and Americans. Our bikes were rusty and hard to pedal up the many hills, but that seemed to be the case for every rental bike on the island. 

We biked around to the other side of the island, and found Maehama beach. The water here was just as turquoise and clear. Maehama doesn't get the big waves that Habushiura does, so this beach had more families relaxing on the white sand and playing in the water. Still nowhere near crowded, though!

This was about as crowded as it got. A refreshing change from Tokyo!

We took a stroll along this path running parallel to the beach. It was pretty but really, really hot. 

We found this secluded cove, and while it was nice and shady, getting there was a nightmare because the beach changed from soft white sand to little sharp rocks and pebbles. Plus it was burning hot, so we had to walk in the surf at a sloping angle. 

After that crazy walk, we went to relax in the free open air hot springs. It was mixed baths so you had to keep your bathing suit on, but it was really nice and relaxing. There were about 5 baths of varying temperatures, from scalding hot to lukewarm. The whole place had a great view of the coast.

That one up the staircase had the best view! It was designed to look like a Greek ruin, for some reason.

Niijima part 1

This is the view of Tokyo Bay as we departed on the overnight ferry!

And here's the sunrise from the ferry! That island in the distance is Oshima.

The first view of Niijima after getting off the ferry. Look at that blue water!

Niijima is full of these stone statues, called moyai in Japanese but actually spelled moai. Niijima gifted one of these to Tokyo, it's at Shibuya station.

This is the lifeguard station on Habushiura beach. Looks so Mediterranean, doesn't it?

Habushiura beach! This beach is famous for surfing, but when we were there the waves were small so we could swim. 

It wasn't crowded at all, either. The water was clear and beautiful and there were maybe three or four other people around. This was early morning though, in the afternoon a few more showed up.

Yukata cruise

My friend's combination birthday and farewell party was held on a cruise around Tokyo Bay. Everyone dressed up in yukatas, and it was all you can drink. It was super fun!

The Rainbow Bridge was spectacular in person as we went under it!

We tried so many times to get a nice shot with the sign, but this candid one was the best.

There was a dance show too! It wasn't traditional dancing though, it was hip hop. We were amazed that the dancers could move so well, a yukata isn't the easiest thing to dance in. Traditional dances are all about arm movements!

Aquarium

This is from last year, but I finally got around to editing it and making some background music to put in. Here's the big Pacific tank at the Osaka Kaiyukan aquarium, complete with whale shark!

A trip to Ginza and picnic

I went to Ginza recently to see a student's art show at a small gallery there. It was a pretty small show, but some of the art was pretty cool. I think this student is going to show in Paris soon as well. After the show, we walked around Ginza a little bit. Ginza is the super upscale district of Tokyo. Everywhere you turn there are luxury brand stores, and even regular stores have a Ginza makeover.

These pictures are from Uniqlo in Ginza. Uniqlo is like the Gap or Old Navy; inexpensive, basic clothes for everyone. Normally their store designs aren't anything special, but they had a really fancy store in Ginza. Electronic displays, spinning mannequins, super-modern store design. It was pretty awesome actually, but I don't need to take a trip to Ginza to buy Uniqlo clothes. There's a Uniqlo right in Shimokitazawa! 3 stories of totally plain store, but the clothes are the same.

That weekend we also went to Mogusaen for a picnic. This is the entranceway to Mogusaen park on the Keio line. It took a while to find it, since the stop is super local and there's no handy signposts leading the way. Then, when we finally got there, a park worker kindly informed us that the park was closed!! So we went to a bus stop across the street and ate our picnic lunch there.

We packed this awesome little homemade lunchbox. Fish, asparagus, and shumai (Chinese dumplings)! Delicious!

My outfit for the day. It wasn't too cold during the day, although it was really windy and at night I wished I had dressed a bit warmer. Notice my awesome new shoes!

The entrance to Mogusaen. I want to go back to this park sometime, it looked super cool from the little we saw of it at the entrance.

Birthday shenanigans

I went to a Mexican place in Shimokitazawa for my birthday with my coworkers. I'd never even seen it before even though I bike past the building every day on my way to and from work! It's on the 3rd floor, a teeny tiny place that apparently sometimes has live music as well. We ordered nachos, enchiladas, tacos, and paella (even though paella is Spanish). The enchiladas and tacos were super good, but the nachos didn't hold a candle to the homemade nachos I made with my friend recently. Then my coworkers sang me happy birthday, and the owner brought over a burrito with a candle in it, lol! She did it on her own, we didn't even order it. We were all actually really full at that point and could barely eat it. I got a margarita too, and it was good although it was tiny and there was a LOT of salt around the rim. The owner made it herself and strained it into my glass right at the table.

Catching up

The plum blossoms are coming out!

There's a park about a fifteen minute walk from my place, so I headed there the other day since the sun was shining and the temperature wasn't super cold. Hanegi park is known for its plum blossoms, and some were already starting to bloom! They're not in full bloom yet but there are some nice blossoms already.

Plum blossoms in Hanegi park

We missed the Setsubun festival, so we had to make our own. Here's a box of soybeans that a student gave Nick. You're supposed to throw some either out the door or at someone wearing a demon mask, and shout "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" which means "Out demons! In luck!" Then you eat as many soybeans as your age, so I ate 27. That's a lot of soybeans.

Soybeans for luck

Nick served as the oni, wearing the little guy who came with our box of soybeans. He went outside in the hallway and we threw soybeans out the door at him while shouting. I don't know what my neighbors thought, lol.

What a cute demon mask

I also went with some friends to this great place in Kanda that serves Chicago style deep dish pizza and craft beers. It's run by Americans so it's authentic! It was really delicious. The beer was great too. I'm not a huge beer drinker but these were good.

Deep dish pizza and craft beer

Nick and I went for a one-day trip to go snowboarding at Naeba. It was really fun! The conditions were perfect, lots of snow on the ground but clear skies and sunshine! I'm slowly getting better at snowboarding, haha. I can make it down the mountain without falling at least, but I still have some trouble switching edges to carve properly. We're going again this weekend, to Shiga Kogen which held some of the Olympic events back when Nagano hosted! We're doing an overnight trip this time, so I'll have plenty of time to practice and then afterward we can soak in a hot spring rather than getting straight back on the bus, lol.

Naeba

Naeba

On January first we did hatsumode, which just means the first shrine visit of the year. We went to this famous shrine in Fuchu, about twenty minutes from my place by train. It was super crowded, but not as crowded as Meiji shrine was last year! I bought a little charm to protect health. It seems to be working, I've had some minor colds but nothing that lasted longer than a couple days, haha.

Okunidama shrine, where we did hatsumode

We got some crazy snow in Tokyo, too! It was a crazy snowstorm, the trains were all delayed and a bunch of JR trains actually stopped in the afternoon. My friend's girlfriend had to get a taxi home because her train line stopped. I was lucky, my train was about 20 minutes late but at least it was still running! It was the most snow Tokyo has seen in years. I thought about taking my snowboard out and snowboarding down the streets, lol. Unfortunately it only lasted the one day, so I still had to go to work on Tuesday!

It snowed in Tokyo, a lot!

Okunidama shrine again