The first few times I came to Japan I went to Hakone hoping to see Mt. Fuji. We never got a clear day and I never saw the mountain.  Who knew that I would ever live in an apartment with a view of the mountain?

View from apartment towards Fuji as the sun sets

I keep getting asked about the new apartment but for some reason I haven’t felt like blogging lately.  Our new apartment is beautiful.  I love having a brand new kitchen to cook in though I wish it had an oven.  Marty is in love with the tatami room and he hides in there late at night with his computers.

There are still many things to do before it looks the way I want it to but that would mean shopping for furniture and I haven’t felt like doing that lately either!

We do have an amazing view across Tokyo.  Early this morning it was possible to Fuji in the distance though usually it’s much too hazy to see as far as the mountains.  Living in Jiyugaoka didn’t really give me a sense of the size of the city but looking out the window now there is no doubting that I live in one of the biggest cities in the world.

View looking towards Kita-senju

At the minute there are three woman in my apartment helping out with the packing.  They seem overly concerned about the number of coins scattered about the place and have started to create a pile of these on the dining table.  I really don’t like small coins and even though I try to get rid of them when I am shopping I always seem to end up with far too many weighing down my purse.  The worst culprit is the Japanese 1 Yen coin (worth about a half pence in sterling).  So far they have found 101 of these in the living room.  They have also found eight 5 Yen coins, forty-one 10 Yen coins, nine 50 Yen coins, three 100 Yen coins and one 500 Yen coin.  It’s going to get much worse when they get to my bedroom.

I also have coins for many other countries.  But I wasn’t expecting to find coins from countries I have never been to.  Seems that it isn’t only me who doesn’t like these cluttering up their pockets!

Marty and I are moving this week.  We have been told that it’s easy to move apartments in Japan but we are still finding it stressful.  First there is the expense.  We need to pay the agent, key money, and a deposit.  This comes to five months rent!  The key money is the bit I find strangest.  We have to pay the value of two months rent to the building owners as some sort of gift before we move in.

Then we need to pay the moving company.  We knew that this would be expensive and I started to investigate a variety of different companies.  But it turned out that there was no point in researching it.  The building we are moving into only allows us to use one moving company.  They told us that we are getting a discount by using them because we don’t need to rent “panels”.  I have no clue what the panels are for.

Actually “no clue” is starting to sum up the whole experience.  I have no clue what anyone has said to me on the phone when they have rang about the move.  I have no clue how to sort out the utility bills and services.  And I have no clue how I am going to understand the three woman who are coming to pack tomorrow morning.  At times living in Japan does leave me feeling clueless.

Yesterday, Marty and I went to Tokyo Disneyland.  There is a national holiday on Monday but we had expected the park to be quite quiet yesterday.  We were wrong.  Yesterday was the first day of their Hallowe’en celebration.  When we entered the park we noticed that there were a lot of people dressed in Disney costumes.  At first we thought these were Disney crew members but there seemed to be far too many of them.  In Tokyo Disneyland it isn’t strange to see adults wearing Mickey Mouse ears or Tigger Tails as the Japanese really do enjoy getting into the spirit of things.  But even the Japanese adults don’t usually go dressed as Cruella de Vil or Belle from Beauty and the Beast.

We picked up an entertainment guide and discovered that for a limited number of days they were allowing adults to enter the park dressed as their favourite Disney character.  I really wish I had taken a camera as there were so many great costumes.  I particularly liked some of the interpretations of the Cheshire Cat.  No-one wore a face mask and reading the Disney site today it seems that these aren’t allowed.  But there was a whole variety of wigs and make-up that made the costumes fascinating.

The park was really full but somehow managed to maintain a fun, lively, party atmosphere without being claustrophobic.   In the evening we decided to queue for more than an hour to get in Disney’s Haunted Mansion.  Normally we wouldn’t do this - we have been in there many times before - but it was refurbished and re-opened yesterday.  It has been themed on “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and I thought the changes were much better than the attempt they made to change the Pirates of the Carribean ride to reflect the films.

We have had a lot of visitors over the past year.  Now, when people come, we try to find at least one place to go that we have not been to before.  On Sunday we went to Karuizawa.  We were a bit concerned about this trip as we went via the Shinkansen which made it more expensive than our usual journeys (11,000 円, 58 GBP).

When we arrived it was raining.  Raining so hard that we couldn’t actually see into the main street from the train station.  Thankfully this heavy rain only lasted for around 15 minutes and we were then able to venture out.  The first thing I noticed was the lack of humidity.  I knew it was in the mountains and that it would be cooler than Tokyo but it was so good to be able to walk around and not feel sticky and uncomfortable.

The area was really beautiful and I would like to go back on a clear day so that we could take the cable car up the mountain.  I love that Japan is as green as Ireland.  Though walking through Karuizawa I was reminded more of the towns in Canada that are in the Rockies.

I wonder how much it would cost to rent a house in Karuizawa next summer?

Forest in Karuizawa

Today I went to Kamakura with my Dad and Step-mum.  I really do love going to see the Daibutsu.  It was very hot today which nearly stopped me from taking any pictures as I find it hard to hold a parasol and focus the camera at the same time.

Daibutsu at Kamakura

Last night we went to Roy’s Bar & Grill in the Mori Tower, Roppongi Hills, to celebrate my Dad’s birthday.  It was the first time I had been there and I would definitely go back.  It’s more expensive than the restaurants we normally eat in but the food and service were excellent.  And they worked really hard to make the experience memorable for my Dad.

Table Setting at Restaurant

Today, for the first time since I got back from Copenhagen, the sun decided to shine.  My house guests suggested that we take a walk round the Imperial Palace before it started to rain again.  It was really hot and humid outside but the beauty of the gardens helped me cope with the weather.  Part of the gardens appear to be a sanctury for all sorts of insects so I will probably complain about the bites on my arms for the next day or two.

Imperial Palace East Garden

Ninomaru Garden, Imperial Palace

I spent the day wandering around Kamakura with my current house guests.  As they had a guide book I ended up seeing places I had never been to before.  One of these, the Kaikōzan Hase-dera, is certainly worth visiting - even in the rain.

Gardens at Hase-dera

Flowers in Rain

Japanese Garden at Hase-dera