by Yuji Ozawa (Japanese site)
You are the th guest of my site. (since99/02/10)
Mt. Takao (Tokyo)
Mt. Takao is a small mountain which is in western Tokyo. When I was young, I climbed this mountain at least 2 times. I have visited this mountain on October 17th 2008. From Takao JR station, I took bus. The target of this bus is Kobotoke. Kobotoke is a name of mountain path. Ancient Koushu Kaido is on this path.
On the edge line of mountain, there are some cha-ya (Mountain Coffee Shop). Peolple enjoy colorful leaves.
Below photo is Yakuouin Shrine. Shrine is not a temple. It is based on Shito religion.
Recently many foreign people visit Mr. Takao. The reason is French guidebook Michelin selected Mt. Takao rank as three stars.
Takao-sanguchi station (Keio-line) is about one hour from Shinjuku station. Many hiker starts to climb from this station.
New Grand Hotel (Yokohama)
Yamashita Park is a famous Park in Yokohama city. Behind this Park, one historical Hotel is here. Below photo, high building is new annex of New Grand Hotel.
Now 80th anniversary is held. Below photo is entrance of main building. You know in 1945, after World War 2 Macarthur stayed this hotel for a while.
The Cafe is a restaurant of this hotel. The Cafe is famous because they created the Neapolitan spaghetti. This spaghetti is with a tomato-based sauce, onion, button mushrooms, green peppers, sausage, and bacon. This style of spaghetti is now very popular in Japan.
One minute walk from New Grand Hotel, we find big gate of Yokohama China Town. The name of this gate is Chouyou-mon. Chouyou means morning sun.
More than 2 hundred china food restaurants are in this China town. Many people including foreign travelers enjoy delicious Chinese food.
Shinjuku (Tokyo)
Shinjuku is a downtown area of Tokyo, many people gathers on street. The center of Shinjuku is Shinjuku station. Omoide yoko-cho is located at one minute north-west of Shinjuku Station. There are many small public houses on both side of this street.
Chochin (Japanese paper lantern = Red object of below photo) is very beautiful. On this chochin liqueur name or appetizer name is written. Motsu-yaki is a kind of Yaki-tori (grilled chicken).
Rakugo (Japanese style comic story telling) is one of Japanese traditional culture. Suehiro-tei (Below photo) which is ten minutes walk east from Shijuku station is a public hall for Rakugo. The name boards of Rakugo story tellers are displayed in front of Suehiro-tei.
Golden-gai is near Hanazono shrine. There're many small bars or Japanese style pubs. This area is ten minutes walk from Shinjuku Station. I think this area is popular among elderly people, and young people loves Kabuki-cho which area is east of Golden-gai.
Shizuka (Restaurant at Kamiooka)
Shizuka is a steak restaurant at Kamiooka. Its location is underground of Kamiooka station, Wing Building B1F.
We can enjoy several kinds of beer or wines. This day I selected Guinness draft beer. It tasted very good.
Appetizer is octopus, sermon, duck and so on. Japanese peoples loves octopus very much.
Main dish is beefsteak, but Japanese steak is very small. I know the volume of American steak is very large, but I think Japanese beefsteak is more delicious than that of USA.
If you have a chance to come to Japan, let's taste Japanese beefsteak.
NOVA went bankrupt last year, and New NOVA has already open more than 300 schools now. Kamiooka NOVA school re-opened this July, but the location has changed.
Upper photo is the building of old NOVA. Now The signboard of NOVA was removed, and new tenant seems to be a clinic office. The building of New NOVA is one minutes north from Kamiooka station. The first floor is SoftBank Mobile office and the half of third floor is New NOVA school.
In comparison with old Kamiooka NOVA, New Kamiooka NOVA is very small. Only five leeson places are on the floor.
I hear that the number of Kamiooka NOVA Japanese stuff is only one, and they has very few English teachers now.
And it seems no former old kamiooka NOVA English teacher is here. I wonder where the teachers of old NOVA has gone?
I am a Japanese Engineer born in Tokyo. Now I'm living in Yokohama which is near city from Tokyo. I love mountains, classical music, personal computer, novels, movies, trip and so on. Let's enjoy my web site. Thank you.
My site opened in 1997, and I wrote only in Japanese since then. Now I have many foreign friends, co-worker. Then I decided to start English page today (02/24/2008).
[ Special thanks to Amanda (USA), Tanya (Canada), Gustavo (Venezuela) ]