Yokohama and the Black Ships

I went to Yokohama, just outside of Tokyo, for the 150th anniversary of the arrival of Commodore Perry's "Black Ships" which lead to Japan's opening to foreign trade with the U.S. Perry arrived just south of Yokohama with a fleet of American warships, demanding that Japan open several ports for commerce, and the Tokugawa shogunate agreed by treaty.

Yokohama became the base of foreign trade in Japan, and in 1861 sprouted Japan's first English language newspaper. Foreigners occupied a moat-surrounded district.

It seems strange to me that Yokohama residents now celebrate the 150th anniversary of the arrival of foreign warships making demands upon Japan, but they do.

At the celebration I saw a chalk painting by American artist Kurt Wenner. Wenner's art is known for its 3D effect which causes it to appear to float. Due to the heavy rain the picture was covered with plastic, but it still was amazing. When viewed from this side, it appears 3D but from the other side it looks very distorted.

Unrelatedly, my boss gave me a box of sweets from Japan's city called Obama, which is capitalizing on the fame of the American president. Obama is really a small city, but is trying to make a name for itself!

Parasols

Japan is the only place I've ever been where women use parasols! On a recent sunny day, I saw many women using them. Here, in contrast to in the U.S., people like to keep their skin white, and many women use "whitening cream" on their face.
In addition to parasols, people also use gloves, etc., for UV protection. Such contrast to our current attitude toward the sun in the U.S., although we too used parasols not so long ago. Nonetheless, I still love being in the sun!

Odaiba

Itsumi works in the Odaiba region of Tokyo. Odaiba is a series of human-made islands that have been re-claimed from the ocean. Now, the area is futuristic and high-tech, reached by a driverless monorail. We spent an afternoon and evening playing there.
First, we took a ride on the ferris wheel, in a completely transparent gondola which gave us a great view of the area.

This is a parking lot on top of a shopping mall.

An airplane comes in for landing, over freight ships on Odaiba.

On the left is a wide pedestrian bridge, and on the right are bridges for the highway and monorail.

This is the most rectangular island I have ever seen!

Next, we stopped by the Toyota showroom to play some virtual reality games for free.

This is a reflex game. We weren't very good at it!

We saw some cool cars.

And drove go-karts.

These go-karts are hybrid, to demonstrate how a hybrid car works. The go-kart is powered by a combination of foot pedaling and electricity. The foot pedaling worked great on the down hill and even portions of the track, but we had to use the electric power on the hills.

I liked the uniforms.

I got to "drive" this little electric car. Actually, I sat behind the steering wheel (on the right side) and pushed the start button, and the car did everything else. Having my hand on the steering wheel is just for looks.The car navigates its own way around the course. Below, the car is driving but nobody is in it. I'm not sure how it does this.
We saw some more cool cars.

And some futuristic vehicles.

All this was free. Then, we ate dinner at a Russian restaurant.

Stew covered with a "lid" made of bread.

And we pretended to be in Rome (but we really were in a shopping mall).

This sign is in Japanese, Chinese, Korean and English, and the sign below offers tourist information officers speaking all of those languages. I am amazed at how many different writing systems there are in the world.

As we left by monorail, we had a beautiful night view of the ferris wheel.

Odaiba was built as a set of six island fortresses in 1852, to defend against the U.S. Navy's "Black Ships." The area was dramatically expanded during the late 20th century as a seaport district, and has developed since the 1990s as a major commercial, residential and leisure area.

Walmart in Japan

Eeeew, Walmart is somehow affiliated with my local grocery store.

Walmart-brand disposable chopsticks.

Inubo-zaki

Itsumi and I took an overnight trip to Inubo-zaki, the eastern-most point on Japan's main islands. To get there we took several trains, ending on this tiny one-car train, a one-man operation. Some of the stations where this train stopped did not even have a ticket taker, and instead the driver took the fare.

We got off at Inubo-zaki, a small and rustic-looking station that would look more appropriate in South America rather than in Japan.

We checked into our ryokan, or traditional hotel, and penguins greeted us at the door! I think they are part of a cooperative project with the marine park next door.

Our hotel was right above the lighthouse, on the eastern-most point of Inubo-zaki. From here, you can see 330 degrees of ocean, and only 30 degrees of land.

We took an evening walk on the beach before soaking in the hotel's hot springs.

On the beach we found a washed-up tire, covered with living baby shellfish! I don't think they survived though, because they had washed up in the tide.

The sand made beautiful patterns on the beach.

We got up at 4:30 a.m. to watch the sunrise over this eastern-most point. After New Zealand and Australia, it is one of the first sunrises in the world. It was beautiful! I took these pictures from the terrace of our hotel.

Inubo-zaki seemed to be a bit warmer than Tokyo, with palm trees and these cacti, which remind me of the prickly pear cactus from the American Southwest and Mexico.

Below are carp-shaped flags in honor of Children's Day, celebrated on May 5 in Japan.

From our hotel, we took a hike to Inubo-zaki's observation tower, passing the tiny train as it trundled past vegetable fields.

We saw some farmland from the observation tower, but mostly we saw 330 degrees of Pacific Ocean!

And a wind farm

And ocean

From here it is possible to see a mountain in the Phillippines, using a telescope. We couldn't see it, but in the photo you can read the katakana word for Phillippines, which is pronounced hu-i-li-pi-n. (I can read this now!)

Japan has vending machines everywhere, even ice cream vending machines!

An old-fashioned wheelbarrow

Inubo-zaki has the largest and most delicious sushi I've ever seen! Usually sushi is eaten in one bite, but it would be impossible to do that here!

On the way back to Tokyo, we stopped at the Kameido Tenjin Shrine, which is famous for its wisteria blossoms.

Wisteria blossoms

There are many beautiful places just a short trip from Tokyo!