Japan - Day 3 - 6

DAY 3 - Saturday: Taiko Drum Festival

We went to the Taiko Drum festival out in Narita. They had several stages, 8 to be exact, all up and down a street where there were different acts performing and the local stores and restaurants were open. The main stage was actually a temple...beautiful! Beside the temple was a 3 tiered pagoda with brilliant colors. (pictures to come)

We spent the entire day taking in different acts and walking in the local stores and sites. At night, the stores and restaurantes, put out candles to light the path and I think it had to do with the Taiko Drum Festival. Some spelled things out in Japanese characters and other did designs. (pictures to come).

We were in what Reiko would say is "country" and I enjoyed myself. I felt like I got to take in a part of traditional culture. We, our tour bus, were the only tourists, meaning non-japanese, there, 95% of the other people at the festival were Japanese.

DAY 4 - Sunday: Tokyo

Reiko, pronounced Lay-co, another friend of Auntie Christine's, took us to Tokyo. She's lived in Japan her whole life and went to school and works at the university in Tokyo, so she I'm glad she was there to show us around. We ventured through Harajuku St, went to Shibuya 109, and mall filled with all girls clothes...I did some major damage here...and then we shopped around Shibuya. Then we traveled by the Harajuku train station to see the Harajuku people in action. Being that it was Sunday morning there weren't too many out there. But there were different kinds..the first group of people we seen were goth like and a little scary. The one I did take a picture with was more on the sweeter side, but didn't have as elaborate a get up as others I've seen from pictures or TV. I'm told the Harajuku are usually out on Wednesday mornings.

After our day of shopping, Auntie Christine and I decided to have a low key dinner. We ate at the Chilli's on base across from her place. We laughed over dinner and dinner and drinks and called it a night.

DAY 5 -Monday: Rain

After all the food I've been eating I decided I would run while Auntie Christine was at work. So I ate some breakfast and watched some tv. Got dressed, stretched and even went out the front door only to see that it was RAINING! wth! There goes that idea...so I went back upstairs and did some laundry instead. I watched more tv, read a little, and took a nap on the couch. When Auntie Christine came home we went on a hunt for the kitkats. Everyone at home asked me for green tea and other flavored kitkats. And we went to every grocery store and every place that we could think of. We had no luck. But, I'm still on the hunt so don't worry folks.

DAY 6 - Tuesday: Yokohama

I woke up and it was sunny again! The weather here is totally like San Francisco...bi-polar. So, I ate some breakfast, watched some tv and went for my run. I was hoping to run 7 miles, but the sun was beating down and I was out of gatorade, so I decided to cut my run short. I didn't want to get dehydrated, I was already feeling some of the effects. But I ran hard and had a good run, I could feel the tightness as I stretched.

When Auntie Christine came home we took the train to Yokohama. We went to the new mall there, I don't recall the name, but it's a really nice mall. And it smelled good too. Each floor had a different scent. We were wondering if it had some type of timed release. And on the bottom floor we found a spot that made differnt types of mochi. OMG these mochi balls are sooooooooo good fresh. These mochi were in little balls of bread. We tried the sakura, custard, purple yam (ube) and she had the chocolate. HOLY MOLY those were the best mochi I've ever had. And then we also bought one green tea, this has the normal powder on the outside that we are used to. But the custard was the besttt!

Then we went went to the Landmark Tower and Queens Court malls. I also did some damage at these malls. But...this was mostly for gifts, not myself. I'm not that selfish! lol