A train in the Hara Model Railway Museum.

The Hara Model Railway Museum is located in Yokohama, just a short walk away from Yokohama Station. It has a huge number of model trains made by Nobutaro Hara. Some are behind glass for observing, and others are running on one of the largest model train set rooms we’ve ever seen. The room is huge and has not just model trains, but buildings, tiny people, daytime/nighttime effects (including lights on trains and buildings), and remote-control trains that you can drive around.

A little bit into our time at the museum, a lady walked up to Michael and said that someone had canceled. Michael didn’t really understand what was canceled, but when she explained that he could drive a train around the track if he wanted, he grabbed the opportunity! Both Michael and Caitlyn got to drive a train around the tracks once. It was fun!

#japan #modeltrain #trainmuseum

A moment to sit in the Floating Flower Room of teamLab Planets.

A worker from Cambodia, where Michael worked from 2018-2019, came to visit us in Japan a while back. One of the places we went with her was teamLab Planets, an immersive art facility/museum in Tokyo. The entire museum is experienced barefoot. Some rooms are also literally immersive — one of them has you wading up to your calves in water!

It’s hard to describe the rooms without being there yourself. The room you see in this picture has many different types of flowers hanging from above you, and you sit below the flowers while they move around. The floor and walls are covered with mirrors, which adds to the effect of being surrounded in a proverbial flower forest.

#japan #teamlabplanets #floatingflowerroom

The 44 foot, 121 ton giant Buddha Statue in Kamakura, Japan.

We recently took a trip to Kamakura, Japan, which was the old capital of Japan many centuries ago. The small city is located near the beach and is quite a beautiful town. It also features many religious locations, such as the giant Buddha Statue and Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, a Shinto shrine.

Fun fact: You can actually walk inside this Buddha statue for a small fee.

#japan #kamakura #giantbuddhastatue

A manhole cover near Lake Kawaguchiko near Mt. Fuji.

One of the neat, artistic things you’ll find all over Japan are the manhole covers. Something that is most often plain and boring in the USA are often bright, cheery, and creative in Japan. They will feature different designs in different cities, and sometimes even ones in the same town will be different. This one features Mt. Fuji, Lake Kawaguchiko, and some flowers.

#japan #artofjapan

Two multi-layered bento boxes with a bowl of Miso soup.

Caitlyn and I recently took a long-awaited weekend vacation to a lake just north of Mt. Fuji. On our way to our lodging, we stopped at a small town restaurant and café that sells vegan bento lunches along with miso soup. A bento is basically a boxed lunch, usually with a variety of different foods inside.

The vegan meal was absolutely delicious. We savored and enjoyed every bite, and the variety of tastes was wonderful. Some of the foods included: flavored rice, vegan tempura, tofu, vegetables, spaghetti, edamame, an orange slice, and more.

We also saw this cute little pig sculpture thing. Not sure what it was for, but it deserved a picture.

#japan #bento #vegan #japanvegan

A train on the Sotetsu Line with the line’s mascot on the front: Sounyan!

Here is a train parked and ready to take on more passengers in Yokohama Station. We ride the Sotetsu Train Line every time we go to and from Yokohama for language school. Sounyan is the train line’s mascot.

On the top of the train screen, you can see a couple of pieces of information at a glance. This is a “rapid” (快速) train, which means it doesn’t stop at every station, but it does stop at more stations than an Express train or a Limited Express train. We either ride a rapid train all the way to Mitsukyo Station, or we ride an express train to a station close to Mitsukyo Station, then transfer to a Local train, the latter of which stops at every station on the train line. You can also see that it’s a rapid train by the color blue behind the word “Rapid”.

The train also tells you that it is bound for Ebina Station. This is important to know, as it will tell you that this train isn’t going to Shonandai (an entirely different location and direction) or some other station. Ebina Station is past Mitsukyo Station, so we don’t go all the way to Ebina, but we do need to know that we are at least headed in the right direction!

The train scheduling system was a challenge to figure out at first, but after a year of riding the public transit system in Japan, it almost feels like second nature.

#japan #japantrains #sotetsuline #sotetsusen #sounyan

The final first day of intensive Japanese language school.

We have been in intensive Japanese language courses since mid-November 2023, and we’re attending a school in downtown Yokohama City. Each course is four weeks long, and it aims to rapidly increase your level of Japanese in all areas: speaking, reading, writing, and listening. We started at the Beginner 1 level speaking and reading simple sentences such as「私は学生です。」(I am a student.). In just eleven months, we are in our final intensive course, Intermediate 5. We are writing speeches, having long conversations, sharing stories, reading stories, and saying things like 「私は日本語を一年間勉強しているのに、小さい子供のように話せるんです。」(I’ve been studying Japanese for a year, but I can only speak like a little child.). OK, so that last part is an exaggeration, but you get the idea.

This picture was taken outside of our home on our way to our final first day of class. After this class ends on October 25, we will, of course, have more language learning to do, but one important foundation for our time in Japan, at least in terms of language, will finally be complete. We are thankful to God and the prayers of many people for endurance and for the opportunity and ability to learn a large chunk of a complex language in a short amount of time.

#japan #learnjapanese #languagelearning #finalfirstday

Sunflowers at a park in eastern Yokohama.

We’ve noted this many times to one another while here in Japan, but flowers are abundant here in Japan. It seems like something is always blooming, and it brightens our days to see a variety of flowers. In August, it was sunflowers! Here is a small pack of them located in a park in the Minato Mirai area of eastern Yokohama.

#japan #sunflowers #flowersofjapan

Looking out the bay in Yokosuka, Japan.

During our Beginner 3 Japanese language class, we had the opportunity to get to know our fellow classmate from Italy. He was a fun person, into computers and programming, and genuinely enjoyable to be around. During that class, he invited us to come visit him and his wife in Yokosuka, Japan, but for a variety of reasons, we didn’t have the opportunity to go and see him until almost six months after Beginner 3!

We had a delightful time with him and his wife, with a short walk outside and an extremely delicious meal at his home. (Did we mention he was training to be a chef before?) Knowing we are vegetarians, he cooked us a wonderful meal of risotto (an Italian rice dish cooked with broth until it reaches a creamy consistency) along with mushrooms, a fried focaccia-like bread, and a chocolate peanut-butter cake. It was extremely delicious. We spent several hours talking with him and his wife and also touring his neighborhood on a walk with their dog.

#japan #yokosuka #italiandishes #italiancuisine

Fireworks as seen from a Minato Mirai Park on August 5, 2024.

One thing that Japan is known for in summertime is fireworks. Fireworks shows happen for a large variety of reasons, but sometimes, it’s just because fireworks are great to see and enjoy! One of our language school teachers let us know about this show, and we took the opportunity to go and see it during our second week of Intermediate 3 class.

We went out with a friend from our language school to view the fireworks from a park on the eastern side of Yokohama. We didn’t have the best seats in the house, but we really enjoyed watching the 25-minute show. There were fireworks of many different colors, shapes, and sizes.

Suffice it to say that the commute back was quite crowded, but we made it back home by a reasonable hour.

#japan #fireworks #minatomirai #summer