Golden Week - part 2

Monday, May 1st was a big adventure for us and the Frijas'. We traveled an hour and a half by train(s) to Sea Paradise in Yokohama Hakkeijima (Yo-koh-hah-mah Hah-Keh-e-gee-mah). It was great fun. Markus and Addy got to take their first merry-go-round rides. And then we went to their large aquarium where we saw many, many species of ocean life.


Markus and Addison want to know if we're there yet.



First rides on a merry-go-round!!

Addy looks at the giant crabs with Poppa.

Watching the sting rays glide overhead.


Heading home from a fun day!

Tuesday, May 2nd was another big adventure. Ian's coworker, Yoshida, offered to take us to Mt. Fuji. Yoshida and three other coworkers made the almost two-hour trip there with us. We went by car, which was kinda weird after not having been in a car for three weeks. Fuji was awesome for the few minutes that we got to see it. The fog rolled in and made it difficult to see. But, I know we'll go back another time when the weather hopefully cooperates more. For lunch we stopped at a Korean BBQ. I'm in love with their spicy sauce that you deep your grilled meat and vegetables in.



A view of Mt. Fuji as we approached and the marker where we stopped at 2,000 meters, about half-way up.

Yoshida is missing from this picture because he was our photographer! Here we are with Kawaguchi, Katakura, and Sota.

Here we are with Mt. Fuji behind us. The top was obscured by the fog. It was cold and windy there on the mountain.


And, if I ever figure it out, I'm going to post some short video of Addison "climbing" Mt. Fuji.

Wednesday we didn't do much. We did find out that the bank was closing for the holidays. This might not seem like a big deal to U.S. residents who access their bank accounts through 24-hour ATMs. But in Japan, if the bank is closed, so is the ATM. This has been our biggest inconvenience to learn to work around.

Thursday we took an hour train ride to IKEA, which just opened at the end of April. The line to get in was like the lines for a ride at an amusement park. It snaked around and around. We waited about 15 - 20 minutes just to get inside this massive building. We made some purchases and had them shipped to our house. In-town shipping is big business in Japan as most people travel by public transportation and can't take large or heavy items with them.

By Friday we were out of money (see Wednesday!) so we stayed home. The banks reopened on Saturday, but we still stayed close to home.