My life in Tokyo area

Jiyugaoka

2008-11-03T21:31:00.013+09:00

Now, I will introduce you to Jiyugaoka.

Jiyugaoka is a good residential district which
is famous for its fancy shops and cafes.
For this reason, Jiyugaoka is in the top 3 districts where people would most likely want to live in Tokyo.

It takes 30 minutes to go to Jiyugaoka by train from the Tokyo station.

I sometimes go to Jiyugaoka to eat lunch or buy cakes.

In this picture, there is a row of cherry blossom trees, and people are being comfortable on the wooden benches.

In early April, the cherry trees are almost in full bloom. It is very beautiful during that time.

Many roads in Jiyugaoka are very narrow.
There are a lot of small shops along the road.

The shops are very unique so there are many original goods.

This is the entrance to the Sweets Forest, which is the theme park of sweet foods.
There are about 10 shops and cafes in the building.

This photo was taken inside the Sweets Forest.

The pink decoration is an artificial cherry tree.
The women are buying the cakes.

I bought the ice cream which is mixed with pie, strawberry and custard.

It was very delicious.

Tokyo Dome

2008-09-20T10:33:00.034+09:00

I will now introduce you to the Tokyo Dome.

Tokyo Dome is a baseball stadium.
The Yomiuri Giants which is the most popular Japanese professional baseball team uses Tokyo Dome as the home-stand.

Tokyo Dome was opened on 1988 as the first dome stadium in Japan.
If it is raining, the baseball games cannot be held inside a roofless stadium but in the Tokyo dome the game can be played even if it rains.

Tokyo dome is used not only for baseball but also for various events such as concerts and exhibitions.

I took this picture in November 2006.
On this day, the game was played between selected major baseball league players and selected Japanese professional players.
From the major league, top players earning over 10 million dollars joined this game.
The people lined up for three hours before the playball to watch the game.

This was taken inside the Tokyo Dome.
The green part is the turf.
The height from the ground to the roof is about 62 meters.

The pictures of musicians who have played in the Tokyo Dome are displayed in the hall.

Not only Japanese pop musicians but also international musicians such as Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney performed at Tokyo Dome.

This is the map showing the whole Tokyo Dome.
There are a lot of facilities such as an amusement park,a hotel, a shopping center, restaurants and a bowling center.

I took the picture of the merry-go-round from the shopping center.

This is the shopping center. This picture was taken in November so perhaps the decorations were for Christmas.

This is the roller coaster.
The max height is 80 meters and the max speed is 130km/h.
The fare is 1000 yen (about 10 dollars).

The coaster goes through the building.

This is the Tokyo Dome Hotel. It takes only a few minutes to walk from Tokyo Dome to this hotel.
The height of this hotel is 155 meters.

This is a night view of Tokyo Dome.

The tree is decorated by lights.

okonomiyaki

2008-09-07T23:34:00.026+09:00

I will introduce you to the japanese food "okonomiyaki". It is one of my most favorite food.

Okonomiyaki is the Japanese-style pancake containing cabbages and other foodstuff.
Okonomi means "as you like" ,so you can include anything in the okonomiyaki.
In general, We use pork or seafood as ingredients in cooking okonomiyaki.

Okonomiyaki is a very popular food in Japan, especially in the Western part of Japan.

Today I will cook okonomiyaki, so I will tell you how to prepare it.

These are the foodstuff.
On the lower left is pork back ribs.
On the center you can see eggs.
And on the lower right lower is yam.

On the upper left is fish sausages.
Next to the fish sausages is fry dregs.
Next to the fry dregs is flour.
Next to the flour is cabbages.

I mixed the flour with water , eggs, and grated yam.

I cut the cabbage into strips and put it into the bowl.
Then I mixed it.

I cut the fish sausages into strips and put them into the bowl.
Then I mixed it.

I put mixed flour roundly into the frying pan .
Then I sprinkled fry dregs on it.

I put pork back ribs on the mixed flour.

After 5 minutes, I flipped the mixture upside down. Flipping over is my special skill. Please see this video.

Within five minutes , The Okonomiyaki is ready to be served.

I placed the Okonomiyaki in a serving dish.

These are the condiments.
The far left is mayonnaise.
Next to mayonnaise is dried bonito fish.
And then beside it is green laver.
The far right is the sauce for okonomiyaki.

I put the sauce and mayonnaise on the okonomiyaki.

I put dried bonito fish and green laver.
Okonomiyaki is ready.

I ate whole okonomiyaki. Of course it was very delicious.

Roppongi Hills

2008-08-31T22:56:00.010+09:00

Roppongi Hills is a famous place in Japan which has complex facilities such as office spaces, shopping stores,restaurants, movie theaters, apartments, museums and a TV studio.

The concept of this place is that people can do all sorts of activities such as working, living, playing, shopping, and dining in this area (It is about 109,000 m²).

It has been 5 years since Roppongi Hills opened. Many internet companies such as Yahoo Japan and Livedoor use the center tower as their office. Also famous people live in these apartments.

So mass media often report Roppongi Hills as the symbol of a new age. Therefore I think almost all the Japanese know the Roppongi Hills.

I go to the Roppongi Hills to have my hair cut. The hair salon is expensive for me. But my favorite barber works there and the salon is very comfortable. So I still go to the hair salon.

Sorry, I did not take pictures of the salon.

This object is called MAMAN which is a giant spider.
The height is abount 10 meters high.

This is the entrance to the movie theater.
If you go upstairs, you can see the movie theater.

This is the movie theater.
There are 7 screens in this theater.

This building is a TV broadcasting center. The nationwide broadcasting company TV Asahi uses this building.

The left side green is grass and pond which is called Mohri garden.
Mohri is the name of the person who once lived in this place.

This object is Doraemon which is the major anime character in Japan and is being used as a decolation in the broadcasting center.
Doraemon is broadcasted by this TV company.

The barreled style building is the entrance to the museum.

The high brown building is the apartments which are called Residence.
Famous chief executives and actors live in this building.

I want to live in the Residence but it is said that the house rent of the upper floors are more than $10000 a month.
It is too expensive.....

Watch in the larger map