The past week has been awesome for retaining energy and getting rid of stress. I’ve been focusing on getting things sorted out and getting back into hobbies that were neglected.
Today was my first day of my part-time job. It’s only for two weeks, but it pays pretty well and might be a stepping stone to something else.
I feel better than I have in ages.
For all the exploring I did, I think it’s a little funny that I didn’t set foot in the museum. I was pretty tired, so I rested a few minutes, sent off a few texts, and decided that I spent enough time ignoring the mess in my apartment.
So, I rode the elevator down to the basement to catch the first of two trains home. But first I needed to top off my energy, so I partook of an apple smoothie from a small shop at the train station. It was meh.
Then I jumped on the Meijo bound for Kanayama. After that it was the JR Tokaidou Line back to Anjo.
While exploring the building, I must have looked quite silly, if no a little crazy.
At the same time, I was spamming pictures to my friend in New York. In Japan, all cameras are required to make a shutter sound, so imagine an endless string of katcha sounds.
Luckly, most people opted to take the elevator up, so I wasn’t bothering too many people. The security guard was more amused by my stares of awe than anything else.
This made it so I could document each floor in peace, which I took full advantage of.
While looking for something to do in the Sakae area, I stumbled upon the underground entrance to the Aichi Arts Center. This building houses the Aichi Prefecture Museum of Art, a theature, and several other arts related facilities.
The building is quite stunning, so I decided to take the escalators up all 11 floors as to see everything. On the way down, I took the glass elevator, snapping pics all the while, much to the amusement of the two grannies forced to share a car with me.
Since I took so many pictures, I will have to divide them over a few posts.
So, I arrived in Tachikawa yesterday and today was the first day I had some time to explore. Yesterday was super hot and muggy so I spent most of the day indoors, sitting under the air conditioner.
Today, I spent some time with my friends from New York, at the biggest ear of corn I’ve ever seen, and talked about my plans concerbing the future.
Tomorrow I will be seeing a few other friends before heading back to Tokyo proper for some sightseeing. I’ve been West of the Yamanote line a few times before, so I’m going to check out the Eastern bits. Around 11:30 pm, I’ll catch a bus back to Nagoya.
It’s Obonyasumi, so I’m traveling to Tachikawa to see my friends again.
I decided to take an early morning highway bus to Shinjuku station, from where I will take a train to Tachikawa. The train ride is about an hour.
The bus ride is about six hours. We left at eight twenty and didn’t arrive until after two. There were two short stop offs at reststops to use the bathrooms and grab snacks. I couldn’t really find anything I wanted so I snacked on mochi and grapes.
I will be in Tachikawa for three days before I go back to Nagoya and Anjo.
I recently had some free time, so I hopped on a train to Gifu. Since coming to Japan, I have never been to Gifu City, though I have worked in several schools in the prefecture. I thought it was time to remedy that.
The train ride was pretty short, since I took a rapid train. It was the afternoon rush hour (weekday), so I had to stand the entire trip, but the ride was only about fifteen minutes.
The station is pretty impressive, with a large plaza for meeting people and a long wooden boardwalk.
Nearby is Tower 43, a shopping mall, condominium, and observation area all in one. The observation area is completely free, which is nice. It is rather small however.
You can see a lot from the large windows and a one- sided-glass elevator connecting the first four floors and the forty third.
I ended up staying only about ten minutes, since there isn’t that much to see or do. The observation area is attached to a fancy restaurant, but when I was there it wasn’t open yet and really out my price range.
I would like to come back at night some time, to see the city lit up. I have a feeling it would be beautiful.
