Meiji Shrine

Meiji Shrine is an oasis in the middle of Tokyo. It is a Shinto dedicated to Emperor Meiji designed to commemorate his role in the Meiji Restoration. He enjoyed visiting an iris garden, which was chosen as the site of the shrine in 1912. It is one of my favorite places in Tokyo, and I was glad to go back. 

 Every year, new sake is given as an offering to the gods. Here I am with my friend Misako Suzuki. She was an excellent host and tour guide!

 Before entering shrines you are supposed to wash your hands.

 There was a bonsai exhibit going on. Some of these bonsai are 300 years old.

 This one is 200 years old.


 Chrysanthemums are the symbol of the emperor.

 These are prayer tags from visitors. Many of them ask for help on school exams.



 These symbolize rain and lightening- a prayer for farmers to have a good year.

Akihabara

We stayed in Akihabara, a district in Tokyo known for electronics and anime.

People queued to enter an anime cafe.

 Maid cafés are restaurants where you are served by women dressed like maids.

 Lots of Pachinko!

 The Rose and Crown! A favorite pub in Palo Alto.

 Some Robots.

In Akihabara several tall buildings house restaurants on many many floors. Here we are enjoying an evening drink after Ayabe-san picked us up from a day of travel.

Big in Japan

Our last day in Japan. Many (at least several) posts to come. First, here's a map of all the places we've been in Japan: Highlights:

Tokyo Region

Nagoya

Nagano

Tsukuba

Sapporo

Fukuoka

Hiroshima

Ehime

We've covered more ground in Japan than many Japanese do in their lifetime. It's been amazing to experience the cultural, environmental and gastronomical differences of this amazing country.

Bento Boxes

This post is about more than bento boxes. Japanese lunch (and sometimes dinner) is a lot of different food on one plate or tray. In Nagoya, I enjoyed flat noodles (in bowl on lefthand side) and pork miso (red miso, very strong, typical Nagoya style).

 In Nagoya, I also enjoyed a buffet for dinner - from a local, organic farm.

 In Keio (outside of Tokyo), we enjoyed a salmon tray - notice the seaweed, rice, daikon and other radishes.

Bento box from Nagano lunch!

 Bento box from Tochigi lunch!

Bento box from Tochigi dinner!

 Bento box from Tokai!

I may buy a bento box lunchcarrier so I can organize my food like this all the time!

Sushi

What else is there to say - Japanese sushi is better than American sushi, although most of the fish is imported. Here is the sashimi plate from our first night's welcome party.

Here is a sushi rice bowl I had for lunch one day.

Here is toro sashimi --it was absolutely delicious.

 A sushi platter from a restaurant near our hotel. Notice the toro (upper left), the crab (lower right) and the special roe (between shrimp and crab). It was good - and would be even better if I could remember the name.

 Here we have takana- the nigiri that looks like uni in the center - it is cod roe--saltier than either tobiko (flying fish roe) or ikura (salmon roe).

Japanese Breakfast

In Japan! The official tour blog is: japandebate.tumblr.com.  There you can see our official visits to schools. Here, I'm not going to provide as much narrative--because I know what our thousands of readers really want - pictures of Japanese food! So, in the next week, I'll give you what you've been waiting for, as well as some photos of our tourist excursions on our free days. Our first meal - Japanese breakfast. We have egg, fish, seaweed, tofu and of course rice. Our hotel has a buffet with both American and Japanese food. I've tried nearly everything on the Japanese buffet. I will take more breakfast pictures next week so you see some variety. Stay tuned!

2013 Ski Season

While snowfall didn't set any records this season, ski season 2013 was a great one. We went up to Lake Tahoe on seven weekends, spent time with friends and enjoyed the slopes.

We rented a ski house in South Lake Tahoe. Our passes applied to Heavenly, Kirkwood and Northstar. We never made it to Northstar this year (or for that matter, North Lake Tahoe at all). 

Heavenly is the largest ski resort in California with 4,800 acres of skiable terrain, a 10,067 foot summit, and a 3,500 vertical drop. It also straddles the California/Nevada state line!

*All pictures in this post were taken with my phone--alas the quality may not meet the standards to which readers of this blog are accustomed.*

The mountain offers many vantage points of Lake Tahoe. I never tire of the view! 

This is looking over Lake Tahoe on the California side.

This is the state line on the mountain: the sign points to ski runs in California and Nevada.

Looking over Nevada. You may notice a difference between the beauty of California and Nevada, but I couldn't possibly comment.

One day, it was whiteout conditions. 

It made for nice skiing. This is such a nice picture of Brian and me...

... until you zoom out and notice that I've basically skied into him.

Nate and Karen! (Karen's demonstrating awesome ski technique!)

Now begins the cloud sequence: the cloud movement is incredible.And the clouds move to reveal a sunny sky!

The sun on your face at the end of the day feels almost as good as sitting down!

Back at the ski house, Brian often amused himself by attacking the icicles.

The views from the road driving around the Sierras are stunning.

Sometimes the drive home is very exciting!

We typically skied Saturday and Sunday. Often on Sunday we would head to Kirkwood resort, about an hour away. Check out this map of Tahoe ski resorts for some perspective.

The early morning drive to Kirkwood was often serene.

For the last two summers, Brian (and our friends Nate and Karen, pictured earlier) biked some of these roads for the Tour of the California Alps.

Lake Tahoe is not visible from Kirkwood (30 miles with a few mountain passes separate Kirkwood from South Lake), but the views are still grand.

Here, Brian and Nate check out the way to the ski lift. Notice Brian's transformation yet? (Hint, it's not just his new green jacket.)

Brian's a skier! Yes, after several years of snowboarding, Brian got bored with his board and tried skiing. Of course he's a natural.

And he only broke his pole once.

Young Wallace came to visit for my birthday weekend and we went to Heavenly. It was... well, heavenly!

 A great birthday!

A week later, the annual ski trip! A tradition for four years now with Regina, Mike, Ivo, Erin, Beth and Geoff!

A respite before the last run of the day.

I wish I'd turned around to see that everyone else had taken off their goggles! At least Mike was also wearing his helmet.

One evening we visited Edgewood resort, which is right on the lake. The sunset was beautiful. 

There's more to Tahoe than snow, maybe we'll visit this summer, however, I'm already looking forward to next season!