Getting To The Airport

 As promised, this is the last post about Hannah and my trip to Tokyo.

When we were going to Skytree, I noticed a sign saying that there was a direct line to Haneda Airport. We went back to that station to find out where to get the train to Haneda Airport without lots of changes. We were both tired and hot, and didn't have the energy for messing around!

The area we were in was Asakusa; from the bit I saw, I think it might be a nice place to stay if I ever go to Tokyo again.

Notice board about the area

Koban, small police station

One of the entrances to the station

There was also this.

I've been wondering about this, so I asked AI.

It's on top of Asahi Beer Hall; it's the Asahi Flame or Golden Flame, it susposed to be a stylised flame; locals have dubbed it the Golden Poop! The golden building next to it is the Asahi Super Dry Hall. Hannah and I kept calling it the Golden Poop!

This was on the gate of the subway.

One of the warning signs says to stay off the tracks. Isn't that obvious?

We didn't have to wait long, and we managed to get a seat. It took about 40 minutes to get to the airport, not too bad.

Of course, we had to encounter some stupid foreigners.

At one station, the doors on the train were closing when this foreign lady put her arm in, forcing them open again so that she and her partner could get on. The train driver admonished them in Japanese, but I don't think they understood, and of course one old guy sat muttering about bakka gaigin, stupid foreigners. There was then an announcement played in Japanese and English saying that trying to stop the doors from closing can be very dangerous; I thought it was a bit too late for that announcement.

We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare, so had a look round for a bit. We found a bookstore, and I found a very interesting book on Japanese history. I like history and have been studying Japanese history on and off for years. But sometimes it can be a bit confusing with all the names and different clans that influenced the Emperor. I guess that is the same for people studying European history: different dynasties, kings and queens.

This is the book I got.

Even though it says manga, it isn't all manga; there are a lot of charts that help a lot.

Difficult to see, but very interesting charts and information

Hannah got a book on the history of education in Japan.

We bought some souvenirs, and Hannah found the cat toy that she is collecting; there are different ones for each prefecture. She now has five; she is wondering if she can go to each prefecture and get each cat!

Cute

We got some tacos to eat. They were very nice, not something we can get easily here.

There were three tacos, just enough to share.

The flight back was nice and felt a lot faster than the trip there!

Hannah got a window seat!

She took a lot of photos as well!

Final approach to Saga Airport.

The flight landed with just a few minutes to spare to get the bus back to the bus station.

Hannah and I were exhausted, happy but exhausted.

I had a lovely trip. I surprised myself by being able to go out in the heat and by walking a lot every day. According to the app I have on my phone, I did over 10,000 steps each day we were away. That is a lot of steps.

But I really didn't learn my lesson from our trip to Mojiko. I determined to be healthier for the trip to Tokyo, but I haven't been sticking to any kind of diet; my exercise has been hit and miss. I would love to travel more, but ending each day in pain because I'm too heavy to walk a lot is not nice. So I have to decide: do I want to be able to enjoy more trips, or is stuffing my face more important?

I would love to go to Tokyo again, not in the summer though. Also, I would like to have a bigger budget, so that I don't have to always take the cheapest options. I either have to win the lottery or sell a lot of T-shirts on Etsy!

And finally, a shout-out to friends and people who have helped me out over the past half a year or so. Thank you for your kindness. Even though Hannah paid for almost everything, I did try to pay for a few things, I saved as much as possible. The help I got meant that I could do that!

Next adventure, I don't know yet.  For now, however, I'm going to concentrate on building my Etsy shop and think about what else I can do to make some money!!!

A lot is happening here, with the house and land to write up, the cats of course and thinking about new businesses. 

Since the earthquake on Tuesday, we've had a few small aftershocks, nothing big but still worrying! How I'm coping and how I'm doing now compared to 2016 is another post for another day!

Earthquake

 I was going to finish writing about my trip to Tokyo, but we had an earthquake yesterday.

The earthquake was along the same fault as the 2016 earthquake. At the epicentre, it was an M7.1. That's big! Where we were, it was an M5; that is big as well.

Mikey had just started teaching two brothers, ages 5 and 3; they are really lovely boys, and I enjoy watching them! I was chatting with their father, talking about the weather. A city, just 44 minutes east of here by car, recorded a temperature of 40℃. We were talking about how crazy the weather had gotten over the past few years and joking that 32℃ now feels cool!

Suddenly the alarm on my phone started to sound. At first I was confused, as the alarms recently have been because of heavy rain, warning of landslides or flooding, but it wasn't raining. Then the alarm started to say, "Earthquake, Earthquake". After that, both Mikey's and the father's phones started to alert.

The whole building started to move. It's such a surreal experience! The building we were in is a modern structure; it feels solid, it feels as if nothing could move it, but there it was dancing back and forth!

The poor kids were really upset. Mikey held the younger one; he wanted to go to his dad, but during the strongest shaking, it's better not to move. The older boy held Mikey's hand. As soon as the shaking slowed down, the boys ran to their dad. He was very calm but looked worried. The kids recovered quickly; Mikey had them giggling and enjoying the lesson. My default reaction is panic, but I realised that it wouldn't help the kids and it doesn't change the situation.

The student's father checked his phone and found that the epicentre was in Kumamoto. He called his family, as his parents and sister live in that area.

I called Hannah. I was really worried about her. She was already stressed and fatigued; she has exams coming up. Stress and fatigue are what trigger her seizures. She was alright; she said that the alarm was scary, and it is! She hit her elbow as she got under her desk. I offered to go and pick her up if she was too worried, but she said she was alright. She said that if she doesn't do well on her exams, she can blame the stress from the earthquake!

David slept through it! Typical!

Christopher was at work. He said only a few things fell off the shelf. He had to check on customers to make sure everyone was okay.

There was an aftershock that sounded the alarm. There have been a lot of aftershocks, but we haven't felt them.

The situation in Kumamoto is bad. One large shopping mall, Aeon Mall, exploded. There is video showing the front of the building being blown out. The latest I heard is that at least 13 people died; I don't know if that is just at the mall or altogether. The news was in Japanese!

The next couple of weeks will be nerve-racking. I'm going on my experience from 10 years ago, but there seemed to be several large aftershocks for at least 2 weeks. 

We are all fine; our friends are all fine. Shaken and worried, but life goes on. My heart goes out to those in the area around the epicentre. According to the news, a lot of places lost power. In this extreme heat, that is going to be very hard! Also, I've seen videos of trains being toppled over- not one that was running; I think it was in a railway yard. Roads have buckled; some bridges have collapsed. The wall from Kumamoto Castle collapsed. The castle was severely damaged 10 years ago; now it's been hit again.

Even though I'm worried about more earthquakes, I'm a lot calmer this time round than 10 years ago. I watch the Japanese people, even my own kids and see how even though they are worried or upset, they just keep calm. There's a video showing people leaving the mall after the earthquake; they are clearly upset and stressed, but the evacuation is orderly, not running or pushing, just walking calmly and quickly to the exit. I need to learn how to do this!

If nothing else happens, I'll write about getting to the airport tomorrow!

Last Day In Tokyo, Visiting Skytree

 After the heat of the day before, we weren't in a rush to leave the air-conditioned hotel room.

I was watching a news report about the heat in Tokyo. I had told Hannah that I felt the heat coming from the pavement. On the news report, they had a thermal camera that showed the pavement was 43℃; it wasn't my imagination then!

We thought about going straight to the airport, but our flight wasn't until 4:30 in the afternoon. We checked a few places to visit and decided that the best option was Skytree. It stands 634 meters (2,080 feet) tall. This makes it the tallest tower in Japan and the second-tallest structure in the world after the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

As it was the last day, we treated ourselves to breakfast at the hotel. 

My breakfast

Hannah's breakfast

I liked that they had salad and miso soup. It was buffet style; I went back for the soup a few times as it was very good. Also, I was craving the salty taste.

After checking out and sending our luggage back by a door-to-door luggage service, we headed off for our last adventure of the trip.

This was the artwork at one of the stations.

All along the wall on the platform were different artworks, but I didn't get a chance to take photos.

This was the first sighting of Skytree.

Just a glimpse as we got out of the station.

There are stores and restaurants at the base of Skytree.

I knew that Skytree was tall, but I never realised how big the base was. I guess it has to be big to support the weight and offer stability to the tower.

We didn't go to the very top, but even at the lower observation deck the views were incredible. Because of the heat, there was a haze over the city, but still a very good view.

During the March 11th, 2011 earthquake, Tokyo was hit badly. I remember one news report showing Skytree, which was still being built at that time. The video showed two cranes on top of Skytree; the report said that the workers in the cranes were probably traumatised for life. Even though it was very high, I felt protected because of the structure; the workers, however, didn't have that protection; it must have been very scary for them.

Hannah said it was like looking at a miniature model.

Selfie, but I look awful, just too hot!

Wind chimes

We got a professional photo. You can buy one copy and download another one.

Nice photo

We went down to the next level where there was a glass floor. Why I thought it would be a good idea to look down through it, I don't know! I have a problem with heights; if I look out, I'm okay, but if I look down, I feel dizzy!

On the glass floor

We took a lot of photos.

I can't remember the order or where we took them, so I'll just put them on here.

An elementary school.

The Skytree character

We spent ages on the observation deck but finally went down to get some lunch. Of course we got lost, but we got a lot of good photos! Sometimes getting lost is good!

Outside event space, there was a beer festival going on.

Looking up at the tower

The event space that we saw from above.

Lunch: sushi bowl that we shared

We had a lovely morning at Skytree, but it was time to head to the airport.

Getting to the airport was another adventure, but I'll have to write about that tomorrow as I have to get ready to go and teach now!

The Edo Tokyo Museum

 To continue the third day in Tokyo.

After wandering around Jinboucho for most of the day, we decided that we needed to be inside for a while.

I was getting very hot and needed to spend time in the air conditioning.

We found the station and the right line to take us to the museum.

The few times I've used the trains or subway near where I live, I've always been impressed by how clean and quiet they are. I thought that Tokyo would be different. It's a massive city with a large population and a lot of tourists, and a lot of people use the train and subway system every day.

The stations and platforms that we used were clean and well kept. Some of the older stations were showing signs of use, but were not dirty or covered in graffiti. A lot of places were having construction done!

Nice, clean platform.

The ride to the museum wasn't very long, just enough time to cool down.

We followed the signs to get to the museum; it was next door to the station, which really helped!

Hannah was starting to look tired!

Even though the building was next to the station, we had to walk around it to get to the entrance.

We arrived at about 3:30, so we only had time to see the special exhibition. If I ever visit Tokyo again, I would like to spend a day at this museum to see the permanent exhibition.

We hadn't eaten since breakfast; neither of us had any appetite. We stopped at the restaurant, but there wasn't much choice. We shared a scone together.

A little snack

The special exhibition was about the development of Western architecture in Meiji Japan (1868 to 1912).

Western architecture was first copied by Japanese builders until an American architect came and started to teach Japanese students about Western architecture.

We were allowed to take photos of some of the pictures, unfortunaltly I don't remember what photos I took. But a lot of the pictures were of proposals for different buildings.

Lovely chandelier.

There was furniture from noble houses. Some very beautiful pieces.

Once we finished there, it was time to head back to the hotel.

On the way back to the station, we found this interesting building that had a sumo ring in it.

The sumo ring

Outside the building with the sumo ring

We decided to get a taxi back to the hotel; it was quicker and cooler than getting the subway.

I saw this car on the way back to the hotel.

Interesting car.

We picked up dinner from the convenience store, then went back to the hotel to recover.

As much as I enjoyed the day, it was very tiring. I think, for me, going to Tokyo would be better in the cooler seasons! The only reason we went at this time was to see the musical!

The last day we spent the morning at Tokyo Skytree, then got the train to the airport.

But that will be tomorrow's post!