7.0 Earthquake in Japan

usgs ^

[sushiman]

" The friends with whom we stayed live pretty far from Tokyo Bay "

I live in Japan , and have lived in the Tokyo area . Curious ...where do your friends live ? How'd you get on in Japan ? I've been here for 19 years !

[SuziQ]

Our friends live in Uehara, about 3/4 mile from the Yoyogi Uehara station and about 1/2 mile (in the other direction) from Higashi Kitazawa. It's pretty residential in their area, though there are a few apartment buildings, one right across the street. It's not too tall, though.

We had a wonderful time, though it was very hot and humid. I learned to NOT leave the house without a cloth for wiping the sweat off my face, and a fan to keep a breeze going. I went out once without my cloth, and bought a new one at the 100 Yen store. (The Dollar store) We went in several around the city in our ramblings. They were really interesting places!

We got the chance to get down to Hakone one day, and another day we went to Enoshima Island and up to Kamakura to see the Big Buddha.

We did so much walking and sweating that I lost 10 pounds during the two weeks we were there! It's just what I needed to jumpstart my diet! I may have to go back if the weight loss stalls again.;o)

My friend and I are trying to devise a plan by which their daughter and ours can spend their first semester (and maybe year)attending a college there doing an intensive Japanese language course. I'd feel much better with Clare in a foreign country knowing that someone I know is within a half hour of her.

We got along pretty well, mostly because Gina had been there for over a month, and had gotten to know the Metro quite well. She had downloaded the "Metro" program into her PDA, and it gave her info about the trains etc. She'd just enter her beginning station, and her destination, and the programs would suggest the trains on which we needed to travel. It was very handy. My daughter read the menus for us so we'd have some idea of what we were ordering.