Last week I was visiting the Vancouver city and it is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen in my life! It is surrounded by huge mountains, the sea and beaches along the bay with wide roads. Vancouver is also very clean and people are so polite and friendly. I really admired their lifestyle since everyone seem to enjoy their life after their work by relaxing on the beach, dining out in bistros or playing beach volleyball. Most of their housing faces the ocean and the big blue sky was above us everyday. Vancouver is definitely one of the highly recommended travel destination on my list!!

We have just discovered a local pub in our neighbourhood. It is across from our house at such a convenient location. The staff are so friendly where we get free ice cream everytime we visit them for a beer or two. It’s nice to have nice local pubs near where we live so we can also meet the local people around us. Ueno is getting more interesting everyday and it is so nice living here!

As I walk through the streets of Tokyo as if I have just taken another shower feels like the heat is melting my shoes and slowly I’m getting even shorter. I walk into work in full sweat and wonder if I should’ve brought extra set of clothes with me?? Maybe it’s time to cover my arms with long white gloves and hold a black umbrella as the Japanese ladies do…or buy a portable fan…have they come up with that yet?

One of the best things about living in a guesthouse is that you have a chance to meet people from all around the world. I recently met a Taiwanese student who lives in our guesthouse and after talking to her couple of times I learned a lot about Taiwan from her. It is so interesting and I think she is such a nice person! I’m glad to meet so many different people at my guesthouse. Especially having a busy work schedule makes it even more difficult to meet other foreigners who live in Japan. Living in a guesthouse makes it easier and more fun:)

Surely there are homeless people everywhere in the world but I have never seen so many of them concentrated in one location for a long period of time as in Ueno. Everyday they seem to be increasing too!! I wonder if the local municipalities have any kind of strategies to handle such social problems? It is quite sad to see them sleeping in their cardboard boxes everyday.

Lately my roommate and I have been taking long walks in Ueno park after work. It’s so refreshing! We always think it’s nice living near a big park. During the day it is too hot and crows make it almost insufforable for us to enjoy Ueno park. However in the evenings it is quite cool and less noisy. Even sitting under a tree to have some peace is nice too.

It is extremely convenient to live near a park in Ueno in the amids of living in the concrete jungle like Tokyo.  During the cool evenings after a schorching day it is so nice to sit among green trees and have couple of cold drinks to relax. Tokyo definitely needs more green areas and some of us feel really lucky to live near a big park in Tokyo.

Last season we went to watch a sumo match in Ryugoku. It was so much FUN!!! We had a great time and althought we weren’ts suppose to throw our pillows we did anyway. It is so amazing how fast sumo wrestlers can move and throw eachother to the ground. They are very skillfull!! I really like sumo and we have decided to go to every tournament from now on.

Last week I was confronted by my japanese roommate who thought wearing house slippers wasn’t appropriate and not a ‘japanese’ custom. I was very shocked that she had complained to me about this as I had seen many japanese wear house slippers in their house. I wonder if she simply doesn’t like foreigners and wants to intimidate me??

As we went for our regular evening walk, we passed through an old street with little traditional japanese houses and flowers in Ueno.  This place has so much character and history that we felt like as if we have stepped into another time zone. We also saw beautiful bonzai trees in Ueno Park that are on display this week.