Friday 27 July 2012

Olympic Games 2012

I enjoyed the opening ceremony, the poms did a fantastic job!! When the kiwis entered the stadium I was so proud  to be a kiwi!! Even my wife cheered for the kiwis :) To all the organisers of the ceremony you got the thumbs up from me!!

Thursday 26 July 2012

Skytree Visit No. 2


Hi All,

If you have been following my blog you will remember in winter we went to visit Skytree, they were still building it. Skytree is now open and apart from being the new TV transmission tower it is a mall full of shops and restaurants. Here are my snaps I took, in order as I took them some double ups but you will get the idea of what this place looks like!

We didn't go up the tower, becasue it is a new attraction and the Japanese love to que for hours we just walked around the shops, had lunch and ice cream :)

See You









Huge screens outside




This blew out ice cool air, was nice but got very wet quickly



Japans Olympic uniforms

Promotion for Japan at the games





Nano blocks, like tiny lego blocks
















People taking in the view of the tower

Tokyo Summer toooo hot!!!!

WOW!! its hot, thats all I can say, I don't remember it being this hot when I was here in 2006, its actually to much! My weather montior measures the temperature where I live at 37c and humidity around 60-70%. We are currently getting into the mid to high 30s every day, the lows over night are around 27-28c that is a hot day in NZ summer yet alone to be having that at night!!

We are seeing news like this from www.japantoday.com

4 dead, more than 900 hospitalized for heatstroke

TOKYO —
Four people died and 916 were hospitalized for heatstroke as a searing heatwave took its toll across Japan on Thursday, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency reported.
The Japan Meteorological Agency said that the temperature topped 30 degrees in 682 locations nationwide, and surpassed 35 degrees in 111 locations. Thursday’s highest temperature was 38 degrees in Tajimi, Gifu Prefecture. The mercury rose to 37.8 in Mie Prefecture, 37.5 in Shizuoka and 35.4 in Tokyo.
The four deaths were reported in Hyogo (1), Saitama (1) and Yamaguchi (2) prefectures, Sankei Shimbun reported.
The Meteorological Agency said the heatwave is expected to continue through next week and forecast higher temperatures than average for August and September.
The Fire and Disaster Management Agency is urging people to drink plenty of water, increase their intake of salt, make sure their rooms are well ventilated and use air conditioning.

Record high 5,467 people taken to hospital for heatstroke July 16-22

TOKYO —
The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said Tuesday that 5,467 people were taken to hospital nationwide to be treated for heatstroke in the week from July 16 to July 22.
It was a record high number of heatstroke victims for one week and more than doubled the figure of 2,622 for the previous week as temperatures soared across the nation for five days in a row, the agency said.
The highest number occurred on July 17 when 1,323 people were treated for heatstroke, the agency said.
Seventeen deaths in 11 prefectures had been attributed to heatstroke, NHK reported. The most number of heatstroke cases were reported in Tokyo, Saitama, Aichi and Osaka.
Japan Today

Saturday 21 July 2012

Henada Airport

Hello All,

Tokyo has 2 airports, well really only one airport called Henada, but the main airport used is called Narita, it is in Chiba the next province over some 50km away from Tokyo. Henada has recently undergone changes and now can handle international flights, the terminal is not huge but still a good sized airport. It was raining so I could not get outside to take many plane photos.

Travel to Henada is by Mono rail which is another interesting train system.

At the airport they have a big Scaletric car racing game, for 200yen you could race for 5minutes. Leo had a go and I watched.

Henada is a nice airport, lots of food choices but be prepared to pay airport prices, looks real smart, not big but if airports are your thing check it out!


Enterance





Interesting ceiling

Shops



Scaletric


Tried to get full shot of track

Choose your car to race

Cars you could buy


Leo is the blue blur just exiting the bend


You can see some planes in the background




Mono rail and the track or rail what ever you want to call it


Looking ouside of the airport

Mono rail approaching the platform