2nd earthquake

Morning, sunny day, my first time on a bike to the lab, which in fact is not that easy in Tokyo! Belive me or... try by yourself to understand ^^


I got busy at the lab and then... aaa.... 7,2 earthquake just hit... Luckily the epicenter was far enough that nothing happened in Tokyo, but it was strong enough to make me dizzy for few minutes! I felt like on the boat with 6 in Beaufort scale... ;) uuu... uuu...

However, in the evening, with friends from my residence, we went out in Shinjuku to discover Shinjuku night life and CHEAP beer in bars! :D

Recommendation: Wednesday is not the best day for Shinjuku, not like Roppongi ;)

Pink Ladies, T-Birds... Just 1950s American high school in... Tokyo!!!

Every Sunday in a Harajuku Gate to Yoyogi Park a crazy lovers of 1950s are meeting dressed up in the 'grease era' style. They dance, sing, and just listen to the 1950s music...

The weather this Sunday was just great, so together with my new neighbors we went to Yoyogi Park to check it out ;) We got to see not only crazy rockers, but also a park is just amazing and first sakura this year!

Additionally... I bought a bike on a way back home! Silver with a BROWN seat! The seat was the most important to one on my neighbor, so... here I have it!!!

According to Japanese you cannot find a second hand bike in Japan, but according to my experience from this Sunday... it is possible to buy a second hand bike in Tokyo!!! You just have to ask international people, not locals! They have no idea about life in Tokyo ;) ;P

Fussa, a crazy R'n'B place

Fussa, it is like 1,5h by train from Tokyo, but it is so much worth it to go. If you like R'n'B you will not regret this decision!

It was a birthday party of a friend of mine and it was as good as a good birthday party should be!

so... again, Happy Birthday M!!!

Roppongi night!

After a brain storming during a conference and a great food, is time for... party :)

With some friends visiting me we went to Roppongi! It is like a place to be at night! Clubs, Vibrations and Gaspanic, are already checked as places worth to spend a night!

And the sunrise at the top of Roppongi Hills with a view to Mt. Fuji... Yes... Nothing better then going strait to the lab after this great night and a cup of sakura coffee from Starbuck's!!!

Kamakura's big Buddha

Time for... Science... I went for a international conference to Hayama, a small town somewhere in between of nowhere, but at least not far from Kamakura.

 

Kamarura is a town where the second biggest Buddha in Japan has his place. They say that Kamakura's Buddha is more important then the one in Nara (the biggest one), because Buddha in Nara was many times reconstructed and in Kamakura is the original. I dont want to take a part in this argue and I am planning to see both, started from Kamakura...

 

In Kamakura there is also a nice temple and a lot of sakura trees, but for that one we still have to wait a bit ;)

Roppongi and Tokyo Tower

For lunch I met very nice friends of other friend... haha... that's how you meet new people ;) haha...

 

Since one of them was Japanese she took us for a nice Japanese food, okonomiyaki, which you can prepare by yourself on the grill which plate you have on your own table.

Since the day was "still young", we walked from Shibuya to Roppongi which is a famous quarter for clubs and exclusive restaurants. We reached Roppongi hills for sunset. I highly recommend to see it when it is dark!

On the way home to save money, we walked to JR Yamonote line (JR is cheaper then metro!!!), however it started to rain and as on the way was Tokyo Tower we spontaneously decided to go up!!! :D

Tokyo Tower is 333 meters high and it used to be the tallest structure in Japan. With its shape it remind of Eiffel Tower in Paris, however is 13 meters taller and weight 3,300 tons less than the Eiffel Tower. Even if other towers on the world have surpassed Tokyo Tower's height, the structure is still the tallest self-supporting steel structure on the world!

 

In general, we didn't save money that way, but we got a great view of Tokyo by night and didn't get sick because of heavy rain ;) I think it was a good deal as well!

Thank you for a nice day! :)

Meiji Shrine and Yoyogi Park

As a nice welcome sign on my way to Meiji Shrine from Harajuku station, I got to see a big Torii on the entrance to Yoyogi Park. Torii is a traditional Japanese gate at the entrance to a shrine, where it symbolically marks the transition from the profane to the sacred. The presence of a torii at the entrance is an easy way to identify shrines. However, they are a common also for a Japanese Buddhist temples, but then they stand at the entrance of the temple's own shrine, called chinjusha and usually are way smaller.

  

As a second... I got to see big barrels of sake or nihonshu. For those which still do not know, sake is a rice-based Japanese alcohol. Those who refer it to rice-wine are very wrong because, unlike true wine, sake is made through a brewing process more like a beer. But the brewing process for sake differs from beer brewing as well. What simply means that sake is sake, and that is all!!!

This traditional Japanese alcohol, produced by the multiple parallel fermentation of rice, in the past was brewing by temples and shrines, and they were the main centers of its production, like wine in monasteries in Europe.

Enough of a Japanese cultural lessons, come back to the facts...

Before the shrine I got to see the prayers left by visitors from around the word! The Meiji Shrine itself was very nice, however of course I was not allowed to take pictures, so you have to see it by yourself :P

 

After the Shrine I went for a small walk to the north of the Park where I got to see a great view of Shinjuku skyscrapers. I felt a bit like in NYC with a view of tall buildings around the Central Park ;) but here with an amazing cultural soul surrounding me...

  

Weather is getting better, so I hope to have more possibilities to visit this amazing city!