Recent Ramblings - Pt. 2

OK, so here's the second part to last week's post. Last Sunday, we took a trip to a town in Yokohama called Kawasaki. Akemi was actually born there. First, we visited an area called Kawasaki-Daishi, site of a huge temple not unlike the one in Asakusa, Tokyo. Then, we walked around a massive shopping mall called Lazona, which had just about every brand-named store you can imagine, but was a complete 3-ring circus since the next day was yet another Japanese holiday. Geez, how many Japanese holidays are there? Way more than our piddly 10 little crappy federal holidays in the U.S., the nation that actually gives it's citizens the least number of vacation days compared to the rest of the world. Wake up Americans - we're being robbed of our precious time off! No wonder so many people call in "sick" on a regular basis. The holiday on 24 September was in celebration of the Vernal Equinox. Can you believe they actually get a day off from work in observance of the planetary start of autumn? What kind of bogusness is that? Anyway, I diverge. By that time, it was beer o'clock, so we quenched our thirst at The Tavern, a Japanese chain of British pubs, then headed to an izikaya called Amataro, located on the 29th floor of an office building near the train station. Akemi had worked there many years ago and was curious to see how it had changed. I was really impressed. We had a counter seat along the window, giving us a gorgeous view of the sunset over the city. And like all technological conveniences in Japan, this place featured a personal computer tablet from which you could place your order. No need to track down a waiter if you don't need to. God bless 'em!

Check out these pics, fool!