Yokohama and ice world

Wow, I really haven't written in a long time! With only one week to go I am resuming blogging.

I'll start from where I left off.

After Shizuoka we went to Yokohama, a really nice place just outside of Tokyo.
We actually went to Yokohama twice, the second time was when we experienced our first earthquake! Well, Jamie could've slept straight through it if I wasn't shouting his name out of fear (I was petrified it would be the big Tokyo earthquake that's been overdue for 15 years). Well if I knew it wasn't 'the big one' I would've sat back and enjoyed it instead of lay rigid in my bed for the next hour and a half, eyes wide open staring at the ceiling, wondering if I should get dressed just in case the big one does come and I don't want to be scrambling around trying to escape a crumbling building in just my pants. Not a dignified image.
Luckily this earthquake did not occur on the one night we stayed in the tallest building in Japan; the landmark tower (one of those buildings where your ears pop when you go up), if it did I probably would've been too frightened to even breathe.

We were in the top third of the building

view from the room (forgot to take a night one, oops)

There was a random amusement park in Yokohama scattered along the river. We went on a really fast rollercoaster and 'ice world'. Now we had NO idea what ice world was about, it was one of the most expensive attractions so coupled with that and my love of all things wintry and Christmassy we went in. Nothing prepared us for the wonders inside. It was basically a freezing cold room (apparantly minus 30?!) with cotton pastered on the walls, a polar bear, a tiny ice sculpture in the shape of a penguin behind a bar, and some fake christmas trees. It was simply amazing.

I think they spent all their money on the exterior. The building also looked deceivingly large.

sorry I couldn't rotate it

ice bar

us freezing our bottoms off (it was SO BLOODY COLD)

On our second visit we went to a big aquarium and we found this in the centre of it...

yes, year 2009 is dolphin Christmas.

Tokyo next...

Okinawa and Shizuoka

Sorry I haven't written in a while (I think it's been a week!).

I'll start where I left off. Here are some pictures of the beautiful 'beach' opposite our room in Okinawa.

Jamie enjoying the concrete blocks

I almost faint from the beauty of it all

a very big American (there were lots)

We did have a good time cycling around though. We went to 'America town' which was fun! (Like China town) It was really quite weird though and not really the kind of sightseeing we were planning on doing in Japan! We found some good Engrish though...

'sudden death' sauce. Number one cause of SADS.

There was also a 'shocking lady' toy which I took a video of (look on facebook).
Oh, and here is a typical American town...


So finally we left for Shizuoka on all hallows eve, (It couldn't have come sooner) and what do I see in the airport but the most awesome plane ever!! A Pokemon plane!! I was crossing my fingers that it would be our plane but I was not lucky this time.


Arriving in Shizuoka was like flying to Japan all over again with all the excitement! The area around the airport was beautiful and it was so quiet. It had become apparant very quickly that western tourists don't really visit Shizuoka very much, we got a lot of stares. Especially from little children. Some people also got quite excited and shouted 'Hello!' at us.
So our first dinner in Shizuoka was fun! We had our own barbeque thing and we tried cow tongue for the first time which is actually really tasty!

moo

Unfortunately we didn't get up to much in Shizuoka; it was raining quite hard most of the time, and we also took a disasterous trip to a park with a shrine in it (disasterous because the park was packed full of people there for a stunt festival which we were too hot, exhausted and hungry to see). We wanted to go to a boar theme park where they had boar shows and races and then a restaurant where you could sample boar!!! I don't think the Japanese have an issue with this kind of thing, I gathered this when one of my students back home said (about her trip to Wales) seeing all the sheep made her hungry!
Since we didn't do much, the last bunch of pictures will be food related. I should explain that because 99% of the population of Japan are Japanese people their attempts at western food are AWFUL, yet amusing. They also seem to have some kind of obsession with mayonaise. ERROR.

appetising plastic crepe display at the crepe stand. Note the crepes with slices of cheesecake in them. See next picture for real life version!!

crazy crazy pancake with a big chunk of banana, a slice of cheesecake, squirty cream and a pancake only cooked on one side. Regardless to say, the chef was not French.

It seems the only apples that exist in Japan are gigantic ones

The curry flavoured doughnuts :s

The local mini-mart. Apparantly dress shirts and ties are as essential as milk and bread!

upmarket packet soup called Gentry. Read the writing on them, it's hilarious. The one on the left is actually potato, and the one on the right is mushroom.

The famous and tasty 'beard papa' pastry with custard and chestnut filling. There's one in central London for people who would like to try.

'Creap' creamy powder!

We're in Yokohama now which I will write about tomorrow.
I'm now going to upload a crazy supermarket man video and a collection of videos from Shizuoka.
Now I'm going to sleep while Jamie goes out to a 'British pub' (the first we've heard of, and just around the corner). I'm too tired to join him but be assured I will join him tomorrow and take pictures for you. Goodnight!