Mutsuko, Reiko, Me, Tomoko Kaori, Filip (and Kat and Reiko#2 not pictured) all went to the 80's bar in Nakano my last night in Japan.
GOODBYE MY FRIENDS! I miss you guys so much! I can't wait to come back to Japan for good!
Tomoko and I went to Yokohama on my last Sunday in Tokyo. This is my favorite picture of Japan! Well, at least one of my top ten favorites!
I LOVE YOU ALL AND MISS YOU!
We had so much fun!
I went to DOMINUS in Ogikubo. It was such a great restaurant! Here, the owner picked out the most perfect wine each time!
This was one of the coolest shrines in Japan. It was a Chinese buddhist shrine. Fabulous!
My friends bought me all of these great going away presents.
Reiko bought me this most beautiful fan! It's scented so when you fan yourself, it smells like perfume! It's great!
Hard Rock cafe in Yokohama. This was my 3rd Hard Rock cafe I had the chance to visit while in Japan.
Reiko and Filip on the train ride home. It's important to try to take any train BUT the last train home. The last train home is very hot and crowded and shall we say: "close quarters"?
This picture is very funny. My boyfriend Jared thought that I was kissing Kaori in this picture! Then I told him that Kaori and I were getting married in Hawaii. Half-way between the States and Japan, so all of our friends and family can come. Oh! And in Hawaii it's legal!
Akemi, Kayoko, Akiko and I went to this restaurant to "thaw out" after the ICE BAR...(see below)
On my last Tuesday, Mutsuko and I hit Ginza after my going away lunch with NikkoCitigroup, but before dinner at Tapas Molecular Bar at the Mandarine Oriental Hotel (see earlier post).
The Sunday in Yokohama ended with a fabulous night at a really cool bar overlooking the bay. We played pool, too. It was so much fun. Too much fun, actually. When we left, we realized that it was really really late, and a Sunday night at that! We still had an hour's hourney to get back to Shinjuku station to catch our train home from there. 11:15 in Yokohama, however, was not the time to be realizing that! We made it back, however, and just in the nick of time!
On the way to the bar, I saw a really cool roller coaster! I said: TOMOKO! LET'S GO RIDE THE COASTER! and Tomoko looked at me and said: "RACHEL! REALLY? NOW? ARE YOU CRAZY??" Well, she knows me better than that, so by the time it took to walk there, we were in queue to ride the coaster. It was so great! It went into a hole in the ground, as part of the effect. Very cool! The coaster's name?
VANISH
At the Hard Rock Cafe, we sat at a table just underneath this poster. This really random poster from PENSACOLA FLORIDA. It was advertising a concert being held at the Pensacola Bayfront Auditorium on Wednesday March 12th. By the way, I'm from Pensacola and it's a small town. Hence the reason why this poster is "random" in Tokyo...Curious fact now, however, the Pensacola Bayfront Auditorium is no longer in existence. It was completely washed away by Hurrican Ivan 2 years ago. This poster is probably worth some money!
I thought this baby crawling up the stairs was SO CUTE!
The colors of this temple were so gorgeous!
We found these chinese doll-statues and had to take pictures with them. They were so cool!
Choose your heart attack! More calories per square foot than any other building in town!
Okay, so Japanese people like to make fun of me when I eat noodles by wrapping them around my chopstix instead of slurping them. Tomoko thought it was hysterical and just had to take a picture of it!
On the ferry to Chinatown!
This was a special sculpture made for a fair in the park earlier this year. Who knew trailers/ containers/ had so many uses?
Here are two of my best friends! Ken and Marcus! They both live in Ogikubo. We went to Dominus! Ken likes to fly hot air balloons. Very cool! Marcus was one of my Temple Professors, but also practices immigration law (among other things) www.usvisa.jp
Reiko was a great student!
We had another "fool's pool" tourney in Shibuya.
Kat's trying to pick a good song at the 80's bar. He is a musician/singer, too!
Night out at an Irish pub in Shinjuku. I got totally lost on the way, though and literally walked for 3 or more miles that night IN HEELS! ARGH! Now Japanese women may be used to that, but I'm not! I'm sure if I buy some Jimmy Chu's, I could do it just like the kawaii's.
THESE ARE PICTURES OF MY FRIEND HIROKO! She dives! She gave me these 4 photos of her and her friends diving, so I just had to post them! Hiroko also worked at NikkoCitigroup with me and went to the fishing restaurant (previous post).
In Orlando, we spent 3 days and 4 nights at Disney theme parks! On New Year's Eve, we hit MGM and then went back for an afternoon nap before party-time! When we got up, around 6pm, we were ready to go. The hotel concierge, told us we were crazy to think we could get into Epcot for New Year's Eve festivities, because Epcot had reached "maximum capacity" by 11am that day! Disappointed, we decided to go to Pleasure Island instead. Then, we discovered that it would cost $88 at the door just to get into the adult-bar-theme-park.
