More Irises and landscape from the park. 

We met with Naoko, a friend of ours that we got to know on our first trip to Japan. We went to a park near her place for the afternoon and then to her house for dinner. It happened to be her birthday so we took her some flowers. 

There is very little soil anywhere here in Tokyo so people grow everything in pots including trees. 

The hydrangeas are beautiful here and are in abundant supply everywhere. 

It's $10 for a 2 second ride to the bottom. 

Taro had to go on the "Drop of Doom" but he couldn't talk anyone else into joining him. 

We stopped by the waterfront for an ice-cream break. We had a very relaxing day away from the usual hectic pace of Tokyo. 

In the distance you can see a hugh roller coaster ride and a rotating observation deck that goes up the high tower. 

View from a higher level. This aquarium was 4 or 5 stories in height. 

Just another view from the aquarium. 

I don't know if remember Nao but she spent a couple of days at our home last summer. She and her friend, Taro, took us to the aquarium and also bought us lunch and ice cream. We has soba noodles for lunch which are made from buckwheat which is imported from Canada. 

On Saturday, July 17th, we went to Yokohama to the Sea Paradise Aquarium. It was an excellent aquarium and has 100,000 varities of fish in it. It also has other animals like Polar Bears, walruses, seals, otters, and other water animals. It has an escalator that goes under the water and you can observe the fish on you way to the next floor. 

A typical change of trains at the Matsudo station at our university. This was after class at the end of the day about 7:00 pm. Even though they are often crowded, this is a great means of getting around Tokyo. Sometimes the trains are completely full and people are still pushing their way onto the train. When you are riding those trains you pray that everyone has had a shower. 

This is the cafeteria we usually have lunch in and today we are having spaghetti, salad and mizo soup, all for under $7. The food is very good here and because it was so reasonable we stopped carrying lunch to school each day. 

Miki and Yuka and of course the peace sign. These two are a lot of fun to have in class and even though their English level is very low we have a great time trying to communicate. 

Asami and Akiko, two very enjoyable students to have in class. Asami also comes to the extra English Challenge classes that I have. 

These are some of Jim's students working on an assignment. My room isn't very big, it holds about 14 student desks and a whiteboard but it does have air conditioning and that is something the other teachers' rooms don't have yet. If we are lucky, they may turn it on July 1st, all because of this crazy Kyoto accord. 

This is Josh, Tomomi and Erin. We were visiting with them at their apartment. Josh, an American, taught with us the first time we were in Japan at the university we are at now. He is now teaching English in the public school system and really seems to be enjoying his job. Erin is 8 months old and the 3 of them are flying to America in July to visit his family. 

There are restaurants that are similiar also but usually only in apperance as the food is often quite different. This is one restaurant we haven't been to yet. 

The 100-Yen shops are like our Dollar stores in Canada but the big difference is they actually have some useful products in their shop. You can buy an umbrella for 1oo Yen ( $1 ) or a can of peaches, soap, plastic containers, belts, snacks, and an array of other products. We furnished our appartment with containers that give us more storage space. You can also buy paper and other office supplies and these stores are a favorite for foreign teachers. 

Not everything in Japan is unfamiliar. Their 7-11's are similiar to ours and operate the same hours. 

This is the main gate to our university. The building directly ahead has a small cafeteria with quiet, classical music and even a salad bar(Japanese style)....shredded cabbage, mandarin orange sections, chunk canned tuna, kernal corn, a type of seaweed, and of course...eggs. Japanese love their eggs....raw and cooked. In fact we saw a picture at Wendy's today of their feature hamburger....2 patties topped with an egg!!
The salad is all you can get into a dessert size bowl for the equiv. of $1.50. I(Colleen) feel like I shouldn't be greedy for that price and then I see what the students are heaping into their bowls and wonder why I am concerned. Of course we can always get miso soup...only 30 cents. I have come to really like it. 

Welcome to the 'sculptor's museum/house!!! I wonder if he perched this man over his doorway while he was living in the house. I wonder how his neighbor's felt about his decorative choices? 

Last weekend we went to this house/museum....where a famous Japanese sculptor lived. The house was certainly more interesting than his scultures, which began with a man on the roof (see picture) followed by many naked people and then replicas of each of his 15 cats preserved forever!!!But the house was amazing...he must have done very well financially. This is the rooftop garden...the house was built in the early 1920's I believe . Note the little square raised gardens. We often see rooftop gardens from the trains as we are usually at least 30 feet from the street level....but those consist of container plantings. 

This is inside the main gate at our university. The building you see in the background is the one where we teach our English lessons. This building is slated for demolition in the summer of 06 so the fall term would be taught in some other building but noone knows for sure at this stage.