Vending Machines

In a high-tech place like japan, naturally there will be a lot of vending machines.
Vending machines to sell food coupons in restaurants:
Ice Cream vending machine:

Here are the more unique ones:
Selling cup-noodles:
Cigarettes!!!!
(no wonder u see so many underaged kids around smoking...)

At certain bowling alleys, they even use vending machine to dispense the rented bowling shoes:At some temples:

Incense papers: 1 packet for Y1000, 5 packets for Y5000, or a Large-size packet for Y2000

Jossticks: Y500 for 1-person pack, or Y1000 for 2-pple packet
LOL

BBQ at Futako River

Bright sunny weekend, and everyone's out to play.
Went to a BBQ at Futako River to celebrate Kim's and Ernesto's birthday!!
12 Noon:
the area is already crowded with BBQ-ers

So many people there already...
Here's our BBQ pit.
2pm:
Took a stroll along the river
Its nice to BBQ by the river... its open, windy, crowded, free-of-charge, and if u feel hot, you can just go take a dip in the river..
See, the river water is not that deep...
4pm:
Here's the cake. cookies and cream.... yum yum... It was literally a Gaigin(外人 Foreigners') Party. Most of the pple there were non-Japanese foreign students from the uni. States, South America, Scandinavia, France, Middle East, Russia, China, HongKong, SE Asia... you name it, there'll someone from there present at the party!
Here are some random photos taken:

Group Photo:

5pm:

Another group of pple near us set up a stereo system to blast music.

Thanks for creating the atmosphere!!!

7pm:

Sky turned dark. Played with fireworks before leaving...

Yokohama

A big city beside Tokyo. It is the home to Japan's biggest Chinatown. Chinese food, groceries, shops, restaurants aside, this place doesnt really give the feel of chinatown, cos its too clean and orderly. haha

Average price for a 2 hour buffet lunch (食べ放題) here cost abt 2300yen. Not too bad.. its a good place to go if u miss chinese food.

Yamashita Park & Yokohama Bay:

Weird-looking structure found a the park. This park stretches along the coast of the bayThe bildings in the background is Minato Mirai. Can be seen clearly from the park.
A big ship berthed at the bay:
Take a closer look at the metal chain- there's a row of birds (seagulls, i think) resting on it!

But when i went back again a few weeks later in late spring, the birds are gone - guess they are just migratory birds taking a pit-stop here :)
Nice view of Minato Mirai. Picture taken from the roof of the Harbour's Building

Nearby, this ancient-looking building houses 2 floors of shops selling cakes, desserts and pastries. Yum yum...There is a big flower display in the open area... this is what it looks like from the top view. Its actually a world map!
Africa is on the left, America is on the right. The centre is the pacific ocean. Can you see it?

10 mins walk later, i hit upon the themepark and shopping centre of Minato Mirai. This ferris wheel, called CosmoClock 21, is japan's 4th largest ferris wheel.
Views from the top of the ferris wheel.
The bay area can be seen. But due to the clouds, i cant see Mt Fuji

Bowling

Went bowling abt 3 times since i came. Bowling alleys here are pretty much the same in Singapore, just that its more orderly and cleaner, not to mention more expensive!

Highest score so far in Tokyo(first row)... not really a good bowler.

This particular bowling alley has a special event every nite. Out of nowhere, they dim the lights and light up the lanes for a speical 5 min event: If the next ball in that lane gives a Strike, the lane members win a prize.

This particular bowling alley has this tic-tac-toe game. In any game, if you achieve the requried scores in your scoreboard that matches the printed scores horizontally/vertically/diagonally, you win a prize.

After some time, none of us were aiming to score high. Rather, we were trying to finish the tic-tac-toe game. Indeed, its not easy to achieve scores such as 61, 26, 72 etc etc...

LOL

Btw, this was the prize for completing the tic-tac-toe game: a key chain :)

Random Stuff

Here is a blog of some random videos i've taken:

Dancing puppets at a toy store:

Mechanic "construction worker" flashing a red danger warning signal:

High-rise Parking Lot:

Part 1: Finding the car

Part 2: Owner drives off