Yokohama

Momoko and I went to Yokohama this evening. Had dinner at Cafe Tosca in the Pan Pacific Hotel. Then we walked around the Landmark Tower and saw the Pokemon Store. After that we walked around more and went to china town where I had my fortune told by a palm reader. It was kinda fun and she did a good cold reading on me.

Earthquakes.......

Today instead of being woken by my alarm clock I was woken by an earthquake. Not the best way to wake up but I guess it's more effective than an alarm clock. My friend who also lives in Tokyo but a little north of me was woken by the earthquake and an alarm. He thought Japan was getting attacked at first.

Japan also upped the disaster level to 7 for the Fukushima plant 200 miles north of Tokyo putting the disaster on par with Chernobyl despite a much lower risk considering the plant didn't actually blow up and burn for weeks.

Throughout the day more small quakes hit in areas surrounding Tokyo.

Earthquake... again

Another big quake hit Fukushima today. While there was a lot less coverage on this one the safe zone around the nuclear plant there has been extended by the Japanese government. However the cooling systems they have in place there are still working which is a good thing. One of the positive effects of this quake is that almost all the tobacco in Japan was grown near the Nuclear plant so there is a cigarette shortage going on which should encourage more people to quit. Although I guess if you don't get cancer from smoking, you'll get it from drinking or showering in the radioactive water here. Radiation levels in Japanese water.

Sunday in Odaiba

Met up with Momoko in the afternoon and we headed to Odaiba to take advantage of the good weather we've been having. I think we went a little too late in the afternoon cause by the time we got there it was a little cooler than we had hoped. We got some food and then walked around the area. They Cherry Blossoms are blooming which was nice to see but due to the power saving that is happening in Tokyo a lot of things that look really cool when lit were not lit up again. On my way home I changed trains at Shibuya and took a picture of the crossing. It looks so weird when so many of the lights are off.

Out in Shinjuku

Met up with Momoko in Shinjuku and we went to a place called Sweets Paradise. It's an all-you-can-eat cake place. Inside is super colorful as you can see from the pictures and they have a ton of different cakes to choose from. I tried to eat one of each but I couldn't make it.

The food was pretty good and the variety of cakes was impressive. After I sat down and looked around a bit I noticed that many of the customers there were heavier than most Japanese. I don't think I'll go back here for another 4 months if I do return.

From there to walked to a park on the west side of Shinjuku to burn off all the cake calories that we just ate and took some pictures of the cherry blossoms there.