TravelBio

Back in early May I took a day trip to Atami, a town in Shizuoka prefecture along the northeastern shores of the Izu Peninsula. From my apartment in Yoyogiuehara it took me about two hours and twenty minutes by train, with one stop at Fujisawa Station. I could have transferred to the Shinkansen (bullet train) and cut the time down to an hour and twenty, but that would have turned a $15 train ride into over $40 one way. So in the interest of cost I stuck with the local lines. Atami lies along the bullet train line running from Tokyo to Shizuoka and on to Nagoya and Osaka, further west In late May some attractions reopened and people began to return to their offices, but when I went to Atami many businesses were still shut due to Covid-19. Japan never had a strict lockdown, so trains were still running, albeit with a fraction of the normal crowds. That was one unexpected benefit of the pandemic--spacious public transport and peaceful streets in the normally hectic center o

In late April I took another day trip on the weekend, this time to a town called Tsuchiura, in Ibaraki prefecture. Tsuchiura is about 60 kilometres northeast of Tokyo, along the shores of Lake Kasumigaura. From my apartment it took me two hours by rail, transferring once in Kita-Senju. Taking the JR part way would have cut down the time by 20-30 minutes but add an extra 1,000 yen each way, so I decided to go the (slightly) slower route. Not sure why this says 49 minutes from Tokyo but then around 60 minutes to Tokyo Station. Anyway, I took local trains After I transferred to the Joban Line, the train made its way out of the city itself, through the still densely populated suburbs and eventually past open fields with the occasional rice paddy. Even as we approached Tsuchiura, the areas around the train stations had shops and apartment complexes--this wasn't exactly the middle of nowhere countryside of Japan. After reaching Tsuchiura Station, I walked to Kawaguchiu

  In April a buddy and I rented a car and dove to the five lakes region, which is just north of Mt. Fuji. My friend also got his masters at UC San Diego, in the same program, and came to Japan on a one year contract. Luckily he has an international driver's permit, since it is required for foreigners to rent a car (unless they have a local license). I should have gotten one before I came here; it's an easy process in the US--the permit is essentially just verifying your US license and translated into a bunch of other languages--but I haven't found any way to get it here in Japan. I was happy to take the passenger seat and let my friend do the driving. He wanted to drive too, since he had a car back in San Diego and missed being behind the wheel. This was the second time we'd done a day trip rental (we also went to the Chiba peninsula), so he was more comfortable driving on the left side. He said one of the hardest things to get used to was the blinker--aka ind

One of the benefits of Covid-19 (on my way to Sayama and Tama Lake) Back in the early spring I visited Kinuta Park, which is southwest of my neighborhood, between central Setagaya City and the Tama River. Kinuta Park is about 100 acres and is famous for cherry blossoms. Although there weren't yet in bloom when I was there, the park was still a great way to get some peace of mind and take in the spring flowers. I'm generally a city person and love the convenience of Tokyo, but I try to take advantage of the nearby parks and get out of the urban landscape every week or two. I only took a few pictures, so decided to combine my visit at Kinuta with another area west of central Tokyo--the Sayama and Tama lakes. Sayama and Tama Lakes are actually reservoirs, capturing water from the nearby mountains to the west of the city. These man made lakes are a large source of Tokyo's water, and unfortunately most of the coastline is fenced off. There are several lookout points an