Terry's Weekly Email Newsletter; 26 Jul 09

Hi all,

Next day in Tokyo, Monday, 29 June, Mike was back in classes and

Jenn, Joe, and I toured around West Shinjuku where most of Tokyo's

skyscraper office blocks are clustered. We went to the observatory

in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Offices complex, where on a

clear day you can get a view of Mount Fuji (this way not a clear day,

nor were any of the days we were there clear - it wasn't raining

though!) (first picture).

We stopped at a 7-11 and got some "ice cream balls" - ice cream balls were highly recommended by Jenn's

roommate at school, Saori - we're not sure these were the ones she

recommended, but they were good (second picture)! We also went to

the NS Building and saw the 95-ft high water-powered clock (third

picture). While we were there, we stopped at The Rose and Crown, a

British-style pub, for a beer and fries.

That night the four of us went out to dinner at the New York Grill in the Park Hyatt Tokyo.

The New York Bar in the Park Hyatt Tokyo - in the same location as

the restaurant - was made famous in the movie "Lost in Translation".

The New York Grill is beautiful and expensive, and we had a good time

(it also had English on the menu as well as Japanese, so we knew what

we were getting!). The Park Hyatt Tokyo is one of the two places in

Tokyo that are listed in the "1,000 Places To See Before You Die"

book - the other being the Tsukiji Fish Market.

During our entire stay we didn't leave Tokyo. We had planned to take some day trips

out of the city, but we pretty much fell in love with Tokyo, and

wanted to see as much of it as we could.

Nothing much new here this week. Jenn's been working at Target, and

is starting to actually save some money for her trip to Spain. Mike

has one more week left in Tokyo, then it's back to Santa Clara for

him. Things are pretty much the same for Joe and me. It rained most

of the week, but this weekend has been warmer and not quite as

rainy. Joe's mom fell and hurt her knee, so she had to go into the

hospital to get it checked out. She is OK, but a little weak - they

are going to keep her in to try to build her strength up before she

goes back home.

That's it here. Hope everyone is well!

Kind regards,

Terry