Forward to Hamamatsu!

Today was the relocation to my branch area.  Nikola and I got up early enough to catch breakfast before it got crowded, then went back up to our room to pack.  I didn't get a picture of the hotel room, but I wanted to get a picture of this nifty feature to make sure no one left lights or the TV on when they left the room!  The room key goes in a thingy on the wall by the door.  This is basically a switched outlet for the room.  If the key is in there, there's power (lights, etc).  If the key isn't in there, everything shuts off!

Key thingy.

So, we packed up and got on the bus.  Getting everyone's luggage on was a squeeze, even though we didn't fill the bus, so we stacked some suitcases in seats!  On the trip, we passed a lot of stuff!

Tokyo Disney!  This picture of the castle was zoomed in as far as I could go, then cropped.  XD  It was pretty far away, but the huge resort hotel was right by the highway.

We went past Tokyo Tower, but we were too close to get a decent picture. 

The Rainbow Bridge.  We went over this to get to... the other side?  I'm not sure if this is important, but it was pretty complicated and had a fun name, so here's a picture.

This is my best picture of Mt. Fuji!  Mt. Fuji is in Shizuoka Prefecture (where I'll be living) and we saw it several times during out trip, from various distances.  We got pretty close once!  Although it's really famous, it's not even really that big.  It takes about 7 hours to hike to the top.  Usually people go up during the night so they can see the sunrise... then spend 5 hours going back down!

We made a few stops at highway rest stops.  They have really nice toilets even there (unlike at home!), so here's a picture of the stall in one (with a western-style toilet).  See all the buttons?  That for things like a bidet and bum-rinse, and things like that.  The seats have a warmer, so they're never cold.

Rest-stop potty.

The silver button on the wall flushes the toilet.  The dispenser is a sanitizer so you can wipe off the seat.  Not sure what the white thing is... and you can't see it, but off to the right, there's a child seat to park your baby in.  XD

After about 7 hours on the road, we got to Hamamatsu, which is where our branch is headquartered.  We checked into our hotel and a bunch of us went exploring for dinner options.  We found an okonomiyaki place.

Okonomiyaki is a savory omlette/pancake...thing made with egg, cabbage, etc.  This one is a cheese flavor, so there's lots of cheese and some onion and the pink stuff is pickled ginger.  The one in the bowl is onion, so all that green is onion)  The grill is in the middle of the table.

Finished Okonomiyaki.  The dark one (it's dark because of the sweet BBQ-esque sauce you put on it) is the one cooking above, and the one on the right was the one in the bowl)

The lady at the restaurant helped us with the okonomiyaki and the yakisoba because none of us knew how to do it!

Finished yakisoba (fried soba noodles and veggies)

Group picture at the yakisoba place.  I'm still working on remembering people's names!  D:

We went to a game center as we started to head back toward the hotel.  It was fun~  I didn't play any games, but I LOVED the one where you flip a table and you get points based on how hard you flip it, then more points for the 'damage' caused by it - the more property damage, the higher your score!  XD

Then we split up and about half of us came back to the hotel while about half stayed out to find a bar or something.

I know this entry was pretty picture-heavy, but I'm tired, and I hope you all find the pictures interesting.  I still have to take a shower.  D:

We have to be dressed in our business attire, ready to get crackin' by 8:45 tomorrow, so I'm gonna go for the night.  :>  I enjoy reading the comments in here, Facebook, and in my e-mail!  Thanks for reading~ <3