Yokohama Alpha

These pictures were all taken about a month ago, before the last set of Yokohama pictures. One day before, to be exact. On this trip, I went with my co-worker, Carl, and his family, Grace (wife) and Nathanael (son).
















Here's Carl's family, posing for a photo in the teacher's room at school.

















A cool looking shrine in Yokohama Chinatown.

















The same shrine, just past the gate.

















One of the many, many street stalls in Chinatown.

















I kind of like this picture, of Nathanael and myself. We're all serious looking.

















Now we're happy!

















Posing again!

















I don't really know why I needed to put up another picture of the Yokohama skyline.


















I thought this was neat. The highway is above the canal. It's like a magician cast a spell, and the highway magically rose up from the concrete ground.

Kawasaki Eliminator 250V

Now this is one sweet bike. All I need is a Japanese 250 or under bike licence, and I'm good to go (NOT the easiest thing to get in the world). I would love something like this!

Don't worry, I'll get back to my regularly scheduled posting soon enough. I've just been super-busy with school lately!

Yokohama

I went to Yokohama two days in a row. On the first trip, I went with my co-worker, Carl, and his wife and young son. During that trip, I forgot my backpack on the train. After getting a hold of the lost and found office, I was told I could pick it up. So, I went back to Yokohama. Here's some pictures!

















This is from one of the train stations. It wasn't going to post this picture, but I thought it was funny that these three boys were watching me.

















This picture gives a good sense of the size of the place.

















A pretty cool looking bus.






















Here's the landmark tower. It has the highest observatory in Japan, on the 69th flood. Apparently the elevator is the fastest in the world, going 750 metres/minute.

















A few of the water front promenade, going from the skyline area to Yamashita Park. Yokohama has one of the coolest looking skylines that I've ever seen. The suspention bridges in the background look awesome.

















Another view, in a different direction. Drink Coca-Cola Classic!

















A cool looking boat.

















Another view of the skyline.

















I really couldn't stop taking pictures.

















I does look good though.

















A neat fountain, in front of the enterance to Chinatown.

















Towards Chinatown.

















The Chinatown gate.

















Pretty lights.

















A store, with some Chinese stuff.

















There were a ton of street vendors selling thinks like Chinese dumplings and roasted chestnuts.

















These streets make me imagine that I'm in Kowloon, in Hong Kong.

















There's a large neon dragon on that building!

My Apartment

Here's some pictures that I took to give everyone an idea of where I'm sleeping now. It's really a very nice place.

















Here's a picture of the building. I'll put up more pictures of it at a later date. That's Tom and Debi, whom I am replacing (along with my new co-worker, Carl). I stole their house. :)





















Here's looking to the entryway. That's a cane that I've been using; given to me by a shop owner from down the road. The door on the right is my second bedreem/office/computer room.
















Here's my computer room. The entire left side here is boxes from Tom and Debi. I'll have them for a few weeks, until they leave Japan. They're going to tour around a bit before going back to America.
















Here's looking into the place from the entry. My W.C. is on the right, that's my bedroom behind the door. The rest is easy to figure out.

















Here's my chicken, as my Korean students used to call it. They had a lot of fun saying chicken instead of kitchen, to see if I would catch it.

















Another shot of it.
















I have a cool cupboard. Tom and Debi graciously filled half of it for me. On top of it, is a pipe. I thought it was cool, so I bought a pipe. Now I can be like my Grandpa in Quebec! Don't worry mum, it's just for show.

















Here's my entertainment centre. TV, satillite (or digital cable, I don't really know), VCR, media center X-Box (DVD, MP3, etc.), and surround sound stereo. Weeeeee!

















So far, I can relax on my conforable pillows, and sit in saiza (on my knees; traditional Buddhist sitting position). Well actually, I can't. My leg isn't quite flexable enough yet! It almost is at least.

















I bought these cool light from a used furniture store nearby. Aren't they awesome?

















This is looking back into my chicken.

















I have some closets! That's something I was missing in Korea. I even bought a few cool ties. I hope my students like pink!

















Here's my bedroom. There's a sliding door that seperates my living room from my bedroom. When they're open, it's almost like one large room.

















Where's the bed?

















There it is! It's in the closet! I sleep on a couple of thin futon mats. It's very comfortable.


















My W.C. has three rooms. This is the laundry room, with wash basin, washing machine and drying machine.

















The bathroom.

















This thing is really cool. In the tub, there's a water jet. This panel controls the water temperature. I just push a button, and it fills the tup to the level of water that I want at the temperature that I want, and it can retain the temperature for as long as I want as well. In a tub like this, I can take a shower outside of the tub (the floor is also a shower floor, much like my W.C. floor in Korea). When I'm clean, I soak in the tub. I can leave the water in, and put the cover on. Then, maybe the next day, I just push a button so that the water heats up, and I have another bath. I save water this way. It's very efficiant.

















The toilet room.






















The toilet is even really cool! There's a little sink on top here. After I flush, the water that fills the basin comes first out of the tap, so I can rinse my hands in it. Again, my W.C. is very water efficiant!

















My balcony. I have flowers! Don't worry, I still bat for the home team. The only AC/DC I know is the hard rock band from Australia. I only swing on swings in the playground.

















I put a chair out here so I can look into the garden in the back and smoke on my pipe, as opposed to someone elses.

Okay, I'll stop now.