Saitama

I live in Saitama City, Saitama Prefecture. It borders Northwest Tokyo, and might as well be the same city (similar to other places like Yokohama, Chiba, etc). They really are just one super large city. The train system fully and conveniently covers all of these areas. Around a million people live specifically in Saitama City, and are part of the 33 million included in the population of metro Tokyo. That's more people then there are living in Canada.

Saitama City is an amalgamation of three cities, called Omiya, Yono and Urawa. I live in what was is still referred to as Omiya, while I work in Urawa. It takes me a 30-40 minute to get to school from my home. It takes me about 20-30 minutes to get to Akihabara Station on the train, about 40 minutes to get to Tokyo Station, and about an hour to get to Yokohama Station from Omiya Station. So, I'm not too far from some major centres.

Saitama is home to not one, but two professional football (soccer) teams! They are called the Urawa Reds and the Omiya Ardija. The Reds are the much more popular than the Ardija. Luckly for me, the head trainer for the Reds goes to my church. Well, his wife does anyway, as he is usually busy with football. That means cheap (meaning free) tickets! Yeah!

















Here's a nice view of the Saitama skyline that I took a picture of one evening.

















A closer view of the same thing.

















Here's another view of the skyline, in the daytime.

















Here's a neat view. This road takes me nearly all the way from my school to my apartment.
















This is, as you can read, the Saitama Super Arena. A lot of concerts are held here. I don't think that football is played here though. There are other stadiums for that.

















It is also home to the John Lennon Museum. Mr. Nerino, if you ever come and visit, you'll have to check this place out!

















This is from downtown Omiya.

















It's a Shell staion!

















Downtown Omiya. These banners are all for the Ardija football club.

















Just some cool houses.

















Who says Japanese people are all work and no sleep?

















Here's the giant banner on one of the infamous 'love hotels'. It's all 'for you!'.