A Very Scrubby Pre-Christmas Post-Birthday Visit
As a very extravagant 28th birthday present to himself, my dear friend Chris Blackmon (aka Scrub) bought himself a ticket to come visit me. He stayed just under a week and we had a blast.
Since I was unable to take any time off of work for his visit, Scrub got the Super-Truncated Woudenberg Grande Tour of Kanto over the weekend. Saturday's itinerary included the Great Buddha of Kamakura, Hasedera Temple, Enoshima Island, a beautiful sunset viewing of Mt. Fuji, Yokohama's famous Chinatown, Yamashita Park, and the bay district of Yokohama.
At the grounds of Hasedera Temple in Kamakura.
Sunday we jetted up to Tokyo to check out the traditional shops and temples of Asakusa, the freaky fashions of Harajuku, and the insanity that is Shibuya, and came back to Yokohama to check out the Ramen Museum.
The pagoda of Sensou-ji in Asakusa
Although we got to see a lot of amazing sights, Scrub's true interest was in the cuisine. I was very happy for the excuse to spend a lot more money than usual on the delicious food Japan has to offer. We ate okomiyaki, sushi, oden, eel-filled grilled rice balls, grilled rice crackers, ramen, Japanese curry, udon, tonkatsu, and lots of incredible sweets and upscale izakaya foods at Tsuki no Shizuku. Basically every time I saw some food that I knew was good, I told Scrub to try it, and he did. He would look curious at first, give it a nibble, then make various noises as he judged the flavors, and inevitably declared, "It is good!"
Scrub sampling the local fare. (Yes, this too was good.)
I took many, many photos over the course of the week. You can check them all out at my flickr page.
It was amazing having my darling Scrub here with me. I absolutely love showing my friends around and being a hostess in general. It was also rather refreshing to have someone to eat dinner with each night and gossip with before bedtime. Living alone can be nice for someone as anal as me when it comes to cleaning and such things, but it sure is lonely.
The lessons of this trip are: Japanese food is yummy. There are lots of beautiful things to look at in Japan. There are lots of freaky things to look at, too. And, finally, friends with disposable incomes totally rule.
Since I was unable to take any time off of work for his visit, Scrub got the Super-Truncated Woudenberg Grande Tour of Kanto over the weekend. Saturday's itinerary included the Great Buddha of Kamakura, Hasedera Temple, Enoshima Island, a beautiful sunset viewing of Mt. Fuji, Yokohama's famous Chinatown, Yamashita Park, and the bay district of Yokohama.
At the grounds of Hasedera Temple in Kamakura.
Sunday we jetted up to Tokyo to check out the traditional shops and temples of Asakusa, the freaky fashions of Harajuku, and the insanity that is Shibuya, and came back to Yokohama to check out the Ramen Museum.
The pagoda of Sensou-ji in Asakusa
Although we got to see a lot of amazing sights, Scrub's true interest was in the cuisine. I was very happy for the excuse to spend a lot more money than usual on the delicious food Japan has to offer. We ate okomiyaki, sushi, oden, eel-filled grilled rice balls, grilled rice crackers, ramen, Japanese curry, udon, tonkatsu, and lots of incredible sweets and upscale izakaya foods at Tsuki no Shizuku. Basically every time I saw some food that I knew was good, I told Scrub to try it, and he did. He would look curious at first, give it a nibble, then make various noises as he judged the flavors, and inevitably declared, "It is good!"
Scrub sampling the local fare. (Yes, this too was good.)
I took many, many photos over the course of the week. You can check them all out at my flickr page.
It was amazing having my darling Scrub here with me. I absolutely love showing my friends around and being a hostess in general. It was also rather refreshing to have someone to eat dinner with each night and gossip with before bedtime. Living alone can be nice for someone as anal as me when it comes to cleaning and such things, but it sure is lonely.
The lessons of this trip are: Japanese food is yummy. There are lots of beautiful things to look at in Japan. There are lots of freaky things to look at, too. And, finally, friends with disposable incomes totally rule.