Ha! Found it! Park in Taura.

The sign above sits on a hilltop high above the Yokosuka-Yokohama Expressway. It is in a park in Taura.

There is a brand new little playground for kids here too. It is not open yet. I am not sure when the playground will actually open because I saw the sign way down there after I had walked all the way back up.

I'm not sure if these are Sakura (cherry blossoms) or plum blossoms. The trees here were just starting to bloom, so I think they may be the first Sakura flowers. This hill looks to be a great place to view Japan's unofficial national flower.

I don't know of a good way to get up to this park because I came and left via trail.

Tokyo Tower

We were in Roppongi yesterday and saw the Tokyo Tower at the end of the road. We decided to go up. The Tokyo Tower is 13 meters taller than the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

That's the Rainbow Bridge and the Odaiba area across the way. The building with the golden sphere over there is the Fuji Television building. You can walk across the Rainbow Bridge. I'm told it takes about 30 minutes. We like to take the monorail-like train over it.

I can't remember which direction this view is, but I know the photo was taken from the Main Observatory level at 150 meters.

This is called a Look Down window. You can stand on it too. It's from the lower part of the 150 meter Main Observatory deck. I saw one mother refusing to let her young child on it.

This view is from the Special Observatory at 250 meters. It cost 820￥to get to the Main Observatory and another 600￥to get up to the Special Observatory. There were long lines to get in, for the elevator up to the 150 meter level, to buy tickets for the next elevator, for the elevator up to the 250 meter level, and long lines to get back down as well. Plan accordingly.

Roppongi, Roppongi, let down your wig!

We went to Roppongi today with the sole purpose of looking for Exotic Tokyo Kit Kats at the 6-floor Don Quijote store and taking a picture of the Gas Panic bar. What we found was soooo much more!
We made an impromptu side trip to the Tokyo Tower. I'll post those photos later, but here is one from inside the tower. This man and/or woman was visiting as well. He/she invited the attention and wanted photos taken. Who am I to refuse? Here he/she is atop the Look Down window in the Main Observatory level at 150 meters.

Here is the Gas Panic club in Roppongi. It is just down from Chickenman.

We found these Hello Kitty nose hair clippers in the Don Quijote, but no Exotic Kit Kats. We did find enormous packages of Kit Kats. With my photography skills, I managed to make them look like average size bars... hence the lack of a photo.

I can't remember if I posted about these before... I think I did. They are edamame key chains that you can pop the beans in and out.

Saru chie! That's a monkey's idea.

The Kamakura Museum is located just off to the side of the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine. No photographs are allowed inside the museum, so here is a link that has one interior photo. There are impressive statues inside dating back to the 13th century. One of them had intense eyes that seem to follow you as you walk by. That statue is grouped together with other demon statues from hell.

The other half of the museum is a doll museum. Hina Matsuri is a doll festival. Those dolls are set up everywhere this time of year. There are some really old ones on display in this museum.
The entrance into the museum.

Yes, I did mean to take this photo. There were a bunch of high school boys sitting all around me on the train and all of their shoes and pants looked the same. They look so nice from a distance.

There are throngs of Japanese high schoolers all over the place because they are taking their final trip. They are required to take a trip to someplace in Japan and learn something. The tour guide I was with asked some of the boys where they had come from and what they had learned. They came from Omiya to Kamakura, but they could not tell him anything they had learned.

Another thing I learned to day was a Japanese expression. Saru chie. It means "monkey's idea" and it is used to describe something that seemed good at the time, but ends up being bad for a lot of people.

Miniature Erasers

I had to buy tiny gifts to stuff in some plastic eggs, so I bought these erasers. You can buy them everywhere, but I love that many of these are replicas of popular Japanese dishes.

See if you can find the Unagi Donburi in the picture.

Tokamachi Snow Festival

This is the Tokamachi Snow Festival. It is not the same as the Sapporo Snow Festival.

The in the foreground of this photo are as close as the general public could get to the snow castle. The people up at the castle must have been part of a show later on. They had lights shining on the snow to turn it different colors. Later that that night, they shot off fireworks from the top of the castle.

A giant snow dragon.

They had several igloos set up. Some of them had little shrines in them. This one seemed to be set up just for kids to play in.
This is a tea ceremony. A very cold tea ceremony.

Toshiba Science Museum

Welcome to the Toshiba Science Museum in Kawasaki!

This corporate run museum is a fun, and free, way to spend a few hours. Stop off at the reception desk when you first enter the museum and arrange for a free tour in English. Your tour guide will take you on a 30 - 45 minute tour of the exhibits that require an operator. There is also plenty to do on your own after the tour.

Your tour guide will take you to the Van de Graaf Generator where your hair will stand on end.

This room is the History of Lighting room. Come for the gigantic light bulb and stay for the show. Your tour guide will start the light show in this room. Watch out for the shark!

That little boy is part of a video game. This particular exhibit wasn't on our tour, but our tour guide explained it to us. The boy and the audience are watching his actions as a character in a video game. This is called the Markerless Motion exhibit.

This is a corporate museum, so take a tour of Toshiba through the years. It may make you feel old when you see how long ago some of the products were out that you had in your family room as a child.

The above photo is in the chroma key room... it's the same thing the tv weathermen use in America. Wherever you are wearing blue, including blue jeans, that part will be invisible. A boy who was in there with us was wearing blue jeans and a blue hooded sweatshirt. It looked like he had only a face and hands. He thought it was hilarious!

To get to the Toshiba Science Museum:

Take a train to JR Kawasaki or Keikyu Kawasaki Station. They are right next to each other. Make your way to the JR Kawasaki West Exit and board Tokyu bus No.82 and get off at Toshiba Kagakukan-Mae bus stop(10 minutes ride).

You can walk to the museum too. It took us about 30 minutes to walk. We took a bus back. The return bus leaves from the Book Off across the street. Catch the bus bound for Kawasaki Station. I believe it was 200-yen for the return bus.

Here is the Toshiba Science Museum web site.