Life in Tokyo Japan

Japan Tourism - Kusatsu

2010-09-27T14:57:00.000+09:00

Japan Tourism - Kusatsu - Natural hot springs, magnificent red leaves and awesome skiing and snowboarding..

Climbing Mt Fuji

2010-09-21T15:46:00.000+09:00

Climbing Mt Fuji - For many months whilst I was living in Tokyo I could see Mt Fuji and always thought it would be a great adventure and achievement to climb Mt Fuji. Finally I did so and here are my tips for anyone else wiching to to so.

Trips From Tokyo - Hakuba - Nagano

2010-09-20T21:04:00.000+09:00

Trips From Tokyo - Hakuba - Nagano - Outdoor adventures in the mountains of Japan - snowboarding, skiing and lot of summer activities

Okinawa Day Trips

2010-09-20T21:02:00.000+09:00

Okinawa Day Trips - relaxing day trips around the lslands of Okinawa

Tokyo Day Trips - Visit Okutama

2010-09-18T12:09:00.000+09:00

Tokyo Day Trips - Visit Okutama

Tokyo Day Trips

2010-09-18T08:24:00.004+09:00

Since being in Tokyo, we have started writing about our amazing day trips from Tokyo.
Over the 3 years of our time in Japan we have had many unique and truely Japanese exeperiences traveling from Tokyo.
In particular we have written about about scenic Okutama. Full of hiking trails, rivers and waterfalls Okutama shows off some of the best of the Japanese mountains and alps and is only 90 mins from Tokyo.
Tokyo Day Trips Okutama - http://hubpages.com/hub/Enjoy-and-Travel-Japan

Also find out about our adventures in the skiing and snowboarding capital, Hakuba in Nagano.
Tokyo Days Trips Hakuba - http://hubpages.com/hub/Trips-From-Tokyo-Hakuba-Nagano

As a long trip from Tokyo you will find our page on the sub tropical islands of Japan - Okinawa.
Day Trips in Okinawa - http://hubpages.com/hub/Okinawa-Day-Trips

Enjoy Japan!

Finally a new post

2006-11-11T13:30:00.001+09:00

Sorry for not updated our blog for along time.
here some pics and a quick update of what we have done over the last 3 months

26/8 - We finally found the beach in Japan. Sorry Japan, as you can see, it just doesnt cut it!

2/9 - We visited Kamakura and the Big Bhudda

14/10 - Okutama hiking trip - for day trip info - http://hubpages.com/hub/Enjoy-and-Travel-Japan

One of the many mountain streams in Okutama

Lake Okutama

28/10 - Ikumi and Carlos's wedding

Mt Fuji Climb 2006

2006-08-03T21:25:00.000+09:00

Last week, me, anna and our church friends climbed 3750 meters to the top of Mt Fuji (highest peak in Japan). This was an amazing experience which took 6 hours to climb and 2 hours to walk(slide) back down. We started at 1030pm to see to the sun rise at 430am. check out our pics - click here

The saying in Japan is that "you are crazy not to climb Fuji once and crazy to climb it again". I agree.. 5 degrees, no sleep, a 6 hr hike and thin air is not a great combo, but we were blessed with unbelievable weather and no rain. The last slide of the pics is a video of our church group singing priase and worship at the top of Mt Fuji.

Jesus Life House Ball

2006-06-26T21:44:00.000+09:00

Last Saturday night we had our first JLH fund raising ball. As you can see everyone dressed up and had a fun night.

Anna, Yukiko and Kumi

Me & James

Steph, Anna and Belinda

Trip to Kyoto

2006-05-18T22:51:00.000+09:00

Last week, my parents visited from Australia. We went to kyoto on the bullet train and stayed there for 3 days. Kyoto is an amazing part of Japan and is full of 15th century temples and castles. Kyoto was the one the few places spared from US bombing in WWII.
Check out our pics at http://www.annascookbook.com/kyoto/

China Town

2006-05-06T14:04:00.000+09:00

Yesterday we checked out Japan's china town. This place is about 10 blocks of chinese clothing shops and restaurant's. Wasnt always sure what the food was.. but there was a lot of weird looking peices of meat hangin up.

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3201.html - china town

Thought I could alllllmmmmost see the great wall itself from a window..... ;)
turned out to be a poster on the opposite building :(

Mt Fuji

2006-05-06T13:40:00.000+09:00

On Thursday we drove to the surrounding areas of Mt Fuji (Fuji-san). Fuji is 3776m high and is the highest point in Japan. We hope to climb Mt fuji in July, but seeing this mountain for real made this idea seem a whole lot different. Mt. Fuji can only be climbed in July and August due to the extreme temperatures at the top (unless you are an experienced climber).

http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/img_fuji.html

Fuji is supposely the most photographed mt. in the world. This statistic may just be based on the number of cameras owned and keen photographers in japan :)

Skirmish Day with Work Mates in Tokyo

2006-04-01T21:03:00.000+09:00

Today I played skirmish (known as Airsoft in Japan) with a few guys from my work (ING Life - Japan). As always with skirmish, we had a great time inflicting pain on one another (with plastic bb's) and hanging out.

Me and Mike...

Tokyo Cherry Blossoms

2006-04-01T20:58:00.000+09:00

Last Monday, the cherry blossoms came out across Tokyo, and hopefully saying good bye to winter and cold weather.

Jesus Life House Youth Camp

2006-04-01T20:51:00.000+09:00

Our spring Jesus Life House youth camp (J walk) where we met lots of new people

Dinner with Friends

2006-04-01T20:42:00.000+09:00

Simmone and I with friends we met at a train station having dinner after church last Sunday night.

House Party

2006-03-18T14:48:00.000+09:00

This week we had a party at out friends house.. here are the pics.

Dan and Tri playing.... "Good cop Bad cop"

Air Soft and BB Guns

2006-03-18T14:33:00.000+09:00

Last week I went and purchased myself a M4 bb gun. Guys from work are going out once a month to fields around Tokyo to play skirmish. This peice can let off 800 rounds/min. not bad!

Snowboarding outreach trip

2006-02-22T19:36:00.000+09:00

Went snowboarding last saturday, with people from church, had heaps of fun.

One of the Japanese guys from church gave he's testimony. We had heaps of new people, they were all touched by what he said. There was about 60 people total!

Maja, Me and Daniel, on the slops!!

For more info on snowboarding in Japan, check this link out...
http://www.snowboarding.com/resorts/japan/index.html

baptisms

2006-02-06T19:01:00.000+09:00

Last night we watched the baptisms of 7 young people from our church and on saturday night we went to youth alive held by Hope church in Nishifunabashi where we watched 15 people make decisions for God.

I got a Job!

2006-01-31T19:40:00.000+09:00

Tomorrow I start work on a new contract with ING Life (or known in Australia as ING Direct). Both Anna and I have now been blessed with awsome Jobs. Thanks to God for sending us to Japan!

ITS SNOWING !!!!

2006-01-21T15:03:00.000+09:00

Just a quick entry to say... Today it is snowing in Tokyo!!!

Support for Russell and Anna

2006-01-21T14:38:00.000+09:00

If you would like to help support us in Tokyo please check out... Anna's cookbook for gourmet recipes and also Rank Articles for article browsing, article voting and article submission

Jesus Life House Christmas Party

2006-01-02T19:37:00.000+09:00

We had our church christmas party on the 45th floor of the Metropolitan Government Building. Here is the view we experienced that night...

Simmone and I sharing a joke!!

Some more of our friends posing for the camera!!

The entrance to the party, we had about 200 people there. A great night, we had heaps of fun!!

This is Izu... Another city outside of Tokyo, on the coast. It was heaps good seeing the ocean again!!

We stayed at hotel Ohnoya, a Japanese style hotel, we had lots o fun trying to communicate!
Here we are experiencing a traditional Japanese dinner, in our hotel room.

Hmm.... not sure what we were eating, some was nice, some well not so nice! Raw fish just isn't my thing!!

The next morning we were bought a Japanese breakfast. We were served dried fish, some other fish, miso soup with crab, and more fish stuff!!Yeah i'm really not that keen on smelling like fish all day long...

Not sure what the health inspectors think of this!!

Auhh something that isn't fish! A Japanese temple on the top of a mountain.

Tuesday 13th Dec - Our day trip to Asakusa - Odaiba

2005-12-15T11:24:00.000+09:00

On Tuesday we went for a day trip to Asakusa (old tokyo) where we saw the sensoji temple, one of the biggest still standing in Tokyo.

From Asakusa we caught a river boat to some gardens in the heart of tokyo. Who says there is no trees in Tokyo?

From the gardens we captured a cool pic of the rainbow bridge.

From the gardens we moved on to Odaiba where we found a european style shopping centre - Venus Fort. This place even has its own virtual sky that changes from day to night.

and only 5 mins from Venus fort was our first stop at an onsen (Hot spring). Here is a pic of us just about to take a dip. Of course, its men in one section and girls in the other. Not a bad experience only that 45 degrees is reallly hot.

more info on odaiba

Christmas party

2005-12-15T11:20:00.000+09:00

Hagashi Kurume christmas party, 2 of the girls on team maja and rachel.

Our first sunday

2005-12-04T21:19:00.000+09:00

Today we attended our first church service at Jesus life house church !!!!

What an awsome experience, with around 300 people attending, we sang praise and worship in both english and japanese (in the same song). It is actually quite effective in worship.

Here are some pics of our new home church.

Here is a fuzzy pic of our new worship team.

A snap shot of downtown tokyo! can u see something wrong in this pic (100% OFF :p )

Tomorrow Anna will be attending a job interview for english teaching. We are confident that she will do well with it. Well thats it for now. Will post again soon....

Our cozy home

2005-12-01T21:58:00.000+09:00

My little kitchen with no oven a tiny grill and taps that are all back to front.But we have quite a spacious living area with a lovely view from the balcony.

Our Bedroom....... Yes we are sleeping on the floor, well to be correct a futon. Very comfy, i recomend giving it a go!!!!

Below are 2 shots from our balcony.

Ikebukuro- Our first stop

2005-12-01T20:54:00.000+09:00

One of the smaller cities in Tokyo, but still people everywhere!