September 24th 2014 Mariachis and Mountains!

It's been a busy couple of weeks, but I still managed to get out to explore a couple of times! On the 15th I went out in search of Mexicans! I had read in a Tokyo Timeout magazine several months ago that the Mexican Embassy was going to host a Fiesta celebrating Mexican independence day and I determined to do my best to check it out. The first thing I had to do was map my route out to Odaiba which is right on Tokyo Bay. It's a bit far from where we live so there ended up being buses, trains and monorails involved but I made the journey without a hitch! (I'm getting pretty good at this!)
Odaiba is one of the neatest areas in Tokyo, there is a beach on the bay, tourist boats for cruising and lots of neat shopping! At the Mexican fiesta I enjoyed listening to the mariachi bands, watched some traditional dancing and even enjoyed watching a lucha libre where two Japanese guys tried out the fighting while the Mexican referee "El Jalapeno", looked on! Here's some of the pictures I took from my afternoon there.

                        Girls joining the Mexican festivities  'Japanese style'. I love the parasol touch!

                                                 Lady Liberty overlooking Tokyo Bay

                                                                               

                                                    Rainbow Bridge and Tokyo Bay

                                                                Tokyo Bay beach

                                    Decks department store...built to look like a ship's decks

 
                                                               The takoyaki boat!

                                                                 
                                                            Darth Samurai! (So much cooler!)

                                                        Mariachi 'Los Agaves'

                                                           Japanese luchador y El Jalapeno!

                                                                                

                                                         Some views of the city.

 
                                                                  Shinbashi train station

              On Sunday morning after church service we celebrated the folks with birthdays in September. The cake was delicious and we all had a good time!
                                                                           

Yesterday, was a national holiday so Aya had off of work. We decided to go climb Mt. Takao and afterwards to go to the Burger King to try their new Black Burger.

On the way we passed through Chofu and found these folks practicing for a festival.

When we arrived we were able to take a chairlift about half way up the mountain...yay!!!! It was fun!

      Even from half way up the view was gorgeous! You can see Tokyo in the distance!

Then the walking began, we walked and walked and climbed hundreds of stairs on our way to the top!

                               We passed by shrines and statues of 'gods' with nose problems.

                                          This one had more of a beak than a nose.

Apparently taking your picture with a large fan and posing was the popular thing to do.

                                          The architecture was very old and intricate!

                 I thought these little statues staring at us from the mountain side a bit creepy!

                                               
                                                                                 

                                                             Finally, we arrived at the top!      

We took a break to eat the onigiri Aya had made with her mother's homemade umebushi (pickled plum). They were delicious!

                                              The view really was worth all the walking!

Mt. Fuji is back there somewhere but it wasn't quite clear enough out to see it.

  Then we bought an icecream cone and happily went downhill on our way back to the chair lift!

Afterwards we headed to Burger King to try the new Black Burgers they have been advertising!

We got one of each.

                                        Taking a BIG bite! (I'm such an attractive woman!lol)

                                                         The verdict is in! Delicious!

And that brings us to the end of this super long blog post! See ya next time!