Arriving in Vancouver (Jan. 30, 2019)

Today was the longest day ever. I left Tokyo at 10:00 pm and arrived in Vancouver at 1:50 pm the same day. Great flight, but pretty tired now. It was great to see Jan upon getting here. She came over from Gibsons to pick me up and we caught the ferry back, without a lot of traffic or wait time. It is always nice to be in her gorgeous home in such a lovely part of the world. Of course it always reminds me so much of my dad, and Jan keeps her place so nicely, it's always welcoming. We chatted all the way home, changed into our PJ's, had a glass of wine and chatted some more.

Jan surprised me with a retirement gift that was a ceramic piece, an inuit person, which dated far back from Nana and Poppa's house. It looks similar to what I remember, but Jan had it restored as it was glued together by Nana from all the times she knocked it over and broke pieces off of it. There were brown glue marks and chunks missing, that have now been beautifully restored. The person did such a great job, that if you didn't know it had looked like that, you would never be the wiser. It was an incredibly thoughtful gift that brought back a rush of memories of growing up in Nana and Poppa's house as a child, and all the visits there that I had. I just love it, and will enjoy having that in my home.

Here are some pics from along the way. I'm going to sleep now as I don't even know how long I've been up now......lol. More tomorrow after a good rest.

Proof I returned my portable wifi router

View from car on way to airport

Keron's car

Yokohama on way to airport

Sunset from ferry in Gibsons

Yokohama from highway

My beautiful retirement gift

Enoshima Island and the Last Supper (Jan. 30, 2019)

Well, today is my last day in Japan. I sure have had a rich, wonderful experience here. I couldn't have asked for a better host, or a better time. It was all I had hoped and more. What a great country and a safe, easy travel aside from the language barrier at times.

This morning Keron suggested that I go to see Enoshima Island, which I did. It was a lovely place with a temple dedicated to a Buddhist Goddess. I thought that would be a perfect end to my trip, so I took off and went there today. It was surrounded by water and I walked up a lot of stairs to get to the top where I went even further up, in the Sea Candle. They have an observation deck at the top that you can see for miles around the island. It was beautiful, with lots of shrines and temples on the way up, as well as a gorgeous flower garden of tulips, at the top. Sheila, I thought of you as I know you love tulips and defintely won't be seeing any in Toronto right now.....lol. Anyway, here are the pics of my day at Enoshima plus some street shots along the way.

When I came home I was pleasantly surprised that Keron was off early and home. It was a great last day gift. He cooked us our last supper which was absolutely delicious. He made baked macaroni and cheese from scratch with grated carrots and lots of cheese. It was crispy on the top and amazing to the taste. In addition, he made some jerk chicken for us, that was super delicious. It was spicy but very flavourful. I was really touched by his efforts on my last day. It was nice to spend some time with him before leaving. I'm going to miss his company as well as the beauty of Japan. I'm so lucky to have been able to come here to visit Keron! Here's the lovely food he cooked, plus some champagne that he opened to share with me on my last day.



After packing and dinner, Keron left to get his car so he could drive me to the airport. Again, such a kind effort to make it easy for me with the suitcase. I'm so appreciative of his kindness, that's for sure.
So, in a nutshell, that's it for Japan. I'm just waiting for him to return with the car, then we'll take off for the airport. Next stop will be Vancouver, where Jan will meet my plane and we'll take off to Gibsons. I'm really happy to be able to see her as it's been a while since we've connected and I'll be happy to catch up.

Thanks to everyone for reading my blog. I'm so happy to have taken you along with me. I think I'll still blog in BC, so stay tuned. We always do cool things together, and it's beautiful there. It's so weird, as I leave at 10 pm on Jan. 30th, and arrive in Vancouver at 1:50 pm on Jan. 30th. I gain a day and a half due to the time change. Looking forward to my next adventure.

Teamlab Planets and Onsen in Yokosuka (Jan. 29, 2019)

Today I got up slowly, FT'd family and friends, then took off to go and see the Epson Digital light museum, Teamlab Planets. It was incredible and I loved going to it. The venue was close to where I went yesterday, the fish market, so I was a little more apt at getting there...lol. I didn't miss my bus stop, though it was a different bus today. Here are the pics of Teamlab Planet. There were several places where you walked through knee deep water and in one place, digital koi roamed around you in the water. It was really cool. Check it out.















This show was incredible. I loved the last room the most. It was the one with the bursting, floating flowers in it, where you laid down to observe. I think I spent the most time in that room, floating and feeling like I was flying. It was awesome.

Then I went to a local onsen in Yokosuka that was really nice. I thought I might as well, because it's really my last night in Japan. I leave tomorrow night. So, I enjoyed this local onsen. I arrived without issue, but didn't realize when I got there, that I entered in the neds section. The guy who was running it let me know soon enough and I exited and entered from the womens side. Oops, I don't speak Japanese and didn't realize there were two entrances. It was really quite funny, after all.
When I was done at the onen, I was lucky to find a grocery store at the bottom of the station. I bought a few things, shrimp again, being one of them, to cook up when I got home. I also found some veggies and raw noodles that I could cook. Here are the pics of the street shots by the onsen, as well as dinner. Keron and I just chilled out, FT'd family and then had dinner and went to bed. Here are the pics.

Tonights dinner that I made

Street shot by onsen

Same

School girls on train