Best Ramen?
Located just a short walk from home is this Ramen restaurant. I walk past this building a couple of times a week and there is always a queue out the front. One day I’m going to have to get there early and try it out.

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Tokyo National Museum
On a wonderful spring day (well the last days of winter) we visited the Tokyo National Museum. Located in Ueno park the museum houses a number of different collections in several building including the Japanese gallery, the Asian gallery and the gallery of treasures.



 After having a coffee in the sun and soaking up the warmth we visited the Japanese gallery. The gallery includes displays of pottery, lacquer ware and samurai artefacts.

Samurai saddle and stirrups

Samurai armour

Lacquer ware writing tray

   Plum blossums



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2011 Tokyo snow fall
It has snowed in Tokyo on a couple of days over the last week. Snow fell for most of last Friday though it was too warm for the snow to sit on the ground but then on Monday night it started to snow around 10 pm and snowed for most of the night. Tuesday morning revealed a couple of inches of snow on the ground to go and play in.

I know that some of the people from North America who read this blog will comment on the fact that the snow that fell in Tokyo this year is nothing. In fact a Canadian I know has commented that he’s always amazed by how Australia’s react to a little bit of snow). Give us a break, for us this is something unique and special.




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Odaiba monkey business
What makes a good busker? I don’t know if this answers that question but on a recent trip to a shopping centre we walked out the back door into a little walkway and came across this woman and her performing monkey. The monkey managed to keep the kids amused for 20 minutes jumping from step to step, walking and jumping on stilts and acrobatics.


Though at the end of the performance the monkey wasn’t too keen on having its photo taken though the “trainer” managed to convince it that it was a good idea (the monkey looks happy about it, doesn't it?).


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Is there any better restaurant?
While out walking the other day I came across a sight to warm the heart of even the most weary quasi salary man, a beer restaurant. Sensational, now to work through the menu…


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Kidzania
I was going to say "only in Japan" but have learnt that the Kidzania (http://www.kidzania.jp) concept came to Japan from Mexico and has been opened in a number of other countries around the world. We visited the franchise at la la port Tokyo bay.


The basic concept is that you pay to get in like an amusement park and then the children are expected to take jobs, like illustrating manga comics, working in a fast food outlet, as a beautician, etc. There are some great jobs like fire fighters that get to ride around the streets in a fire engine putting out fires and rescuers that get to climb buildings and rescue people. There are also some interesting jobs like stock brokers and travel agents.

Once the children have had a number of jobs they can spend the money they received as salary renting mobile phones, on food, exercise classes and almost anything else.


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Kanazawa zoo
Located in the hills behind Yokohama is the Kanazawa zoo. The zoo is surrounded by parkland, has some interesting art work and wonderful views over Yokohama. On the day that we visited it was clear and cold with no humidity (dry) like all of the days this winter in Tokyo.



While trying to get to the zoo we had our first GPS mishap with the machine (its always the machines fault) taking us up a small road between vegetable plots to a space at the back of the zoo. It was nice to see something a little different.


The zoo separates the animals four distinct regional grouping and mainly houses herbivores. To enter the zoo you have to move through a tunnel that is lined with stylised scenes of animals. The zoo is not that large only taking a couple of hours to view all the animals including monkeys and an albino kangaroo.


  

In front of the elephant enclosure there is a box containing an example of elephants poos and information on how much an elephant produces. There was no shortage of people waiting to examine and touch the poo – some things I just don’t understand (or want to understand).

  
But there were plenty of signs directing you to places where you could have a little bit of time out and enjoy reclining in the sun.


The zoo also has a number of installations of art including sculpture and a totem pole.
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Sunset
We saw this amazing sunset while returning from Australia to Japan - to good not to take a photo.

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Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary
We visited the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary on the Gold Coast for a chance to get up close and personal with some Australian native animals. Apparently the sanctuary is renowned for its feeding of huge flocks of free-flying wild rainbow lorikeets and on other visits we had seen this spectacle but we missed feeding time this visit. The sanctuary provides help to injured animals from around the area and also now houses one of the largest collections of Australian native species in the world.

There are any number of attractions including getting up close with koalas and kangaroos including young joeys.




We did not get anywhere near this guy for obvious reasons.


 
There were also a number of water lizards around the whole park that didn't seem all that worried about having people around.


The most memorable part of the day was the bird show that included wedged tailed eagles flying over the top of the crowd at head height.

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Finally some sun
Just out the front of the house we are renting there is a great beach and now that the weather has lifted its a great way to end a day just lazing on the beach and watching the world pass you by.
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Wet and hot christmas
We returned to Australia to enjoy Christmas with family and friends. Escaping Tokyo's cold weather for sunshine did not work out on Christmas day with rain and floods taking care of the day.



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New Christmas camera
It was time for a new camera and the christmas sales made it to difficult to not aquire the waterproof and shockproof Panasonic lumix FT2. This camera takes great pictures and has some amazing automatic features that makes taking photos and videos very easy.

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