| back from the dead |
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| 05:43pm 26/01/2007 |
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mood:  stressed music: yami ga hirogaru
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Wow amazing isn't it? It been what half a year since I posted? I never really thought I'd be the type to write when I'm not off on some great adventure, but a) I've been hearing "why don't you ever blog anymore?" from friends and b) I'm feeling the need to talk.
I think I have an imp of adversity riding about on my shoulder. First my purse gets stolen before Christmas and my camera, cell phone and memory key stolen out of it. On the lucky side it was dumped and someone else turned it in with my ID, electronic dictionary and greyhound tickets still inside. However I'm just now receiving a replacement cell phone.
Over Christmas I start receiving letters from some cancer screening board telling me to get my butt to the doctor for my YEARLY pap. *cringes* And here I had been told after the last I only needed it every two years. Ouch.
Fast forward to the start of the new semester. Tuesday: first day of all my new classes and I'm plagued by this horribe one sided headache, nausea, and sensitivity to light. Took some tylenol and had a nap after Canadian Foreign POlicy, thought it was gone when I got up for Japanese at noon, but it came back by the time class started. Struggled to get anything out of Japanese or Japanese ling then pretty much felt my way back home and and didn't move from a dark bed the rest of the day. So much for starting my Pol Phil paper. Suffered another one and lost pretty much all of Sunday, which was paper writing day. Damn. Scary thing is, I've never really suffered from headaches or anything of that nature before in my life, so I was pretty worried.
Went to the health centre on Tuesday for the migraines and was informed that physicals were walk in so I should do everything together. *winces* I walk out with a prescription for sumatriptan (for migraines @ about $10/pill)the dreaded pap done for another year, a referral to the gyno and a strongly worded recommendation that I am a person who absolutely needs to have that new HPV vaccine, if my insurance will cover it and should really consider it even if they don't. Besides the fact that altogether it costs $450, I'm sure you can all guess the only possible way of administering it. yeah panic attacks!
If this isn't bad enough, I get another migraine Thursday evening, so I pull on my PJ's pop a pill and lay down till it takes effect. Until my mouth and face start to get this prickly sensation, my body seems to have 50 pounds extra strapped to my head and limb, and I feel dizzy and horribly nauseous, but worst of all I can't seem to breathe very well past this huge lump in my throat. Then I pull my aching, I think I need to puke body out of bed to hang over the toilet and read the pamphlet in the box. So I went to Andrea's room to ask if she'd keep an eye on me just in case, and read the pamplet. She takes one look at me, asks my symptoms reads the thing and says we're going to the hospital. I convince her to call poison control first, they confirm we need to go to the hospital and I am not under any circumstances to walk the two blocks it takes to get there, even if we call an ambulance.
So we get dressed, Andrea goes to find our RA, no luck then to find David, who has a car, who drives us to emergency and waits with us. I didn't get in till 2:30 since the breathing got easier after a little bit and when i wasn't lying down. So I'm definitely allergic to sumatriptan and things related to it.
The only blessing to my new prescription is that it's cheap, but that's because apparently it's not as affective as the ones I'm allergic to. It's not even stocked at the U of A pharmacy. So when I finally got ahold of some (suffered another migraine before I got it, too) the pharamacist tells me the side effects: drowsiness (which what I was trying to avoid) and HEADACHES, believe it or not. *headdesk*
So what with all this, my paper is running quite late and my readings have been neglected, but the paper's in and has been handed back, and I'm slowly catching up on all my reading (I'm very reading heavy this term.)ANd I'm trying to get my clock back to decent hours. Though considering the time right now, I'm not terribly successful.
On a positive note, I made my naginata bag finally, plus I bought my hakama and keigogi, so I look spiffy when I go to practice. This weekend Kenzie's coming home from her shift up north so I get to see her, and I'm going on an interesting "field trip" on SUnday with friends. |
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Read 4 - Post |
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| Last night in Japan! |
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| 08:32pm 09/08/2006 |
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mood:  thoughtful
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Saturday August 5
The landlady at our minshuku told us all about this promotion that's currently running in Nagasaki where you can get a free pass that's good for the trams and a special tourist area bus plus admission to Dejima (the old dutch trading island), Glover garden and the Nagasaki Museum of History and Culture for a reduced price so after breakfast at Royal Host, we headed off to the museum to start our (admittedly late starting) day of touring areas related to the European/Japanese historical ties. The museum covered all international ties, so we got a bit of info on the chinese settlements as well. We got one of the audio tour machines which was really worth it since they provided much more information about the things we looked at than even the Japanese descriptions.There was also a recreation of the magistrate's office, since the museum was built where the old magistrate's office used to stand. It was pretty cool. Then it was off to Glover Gardens, one of my favorite places in Nagasaki. They've restored all these old merchants homes -very expensive homes might I add- and kept up the landscaping to create this beautiful hillside park that has amazing views over Nagasaki harbour and all the shipyards that are associated with Thomas Glover (now the Mitsubishi Shipyards, which were the intended target of the A bomb but couldn't be sighted through the cloud cover) it starts at the top at the Mitsubishi No 2 house where crews used to stay when they came into harbour. At one of the houses, they have period costumes that you can rent and have your picture taken in while you wander around the garden. Surprisingly, it's only $5 for ½ hour...really cheap when you consider what the old fashion photo parlours charge! So I convinced mom to join me in period costume for a stroll around the garden. And it was pretty thourough costumes too, considering. They put us into crinolines and bustles (I wasn't sure if I would really need one...) before putting on the dress and a matching hat. They were lined with polyester lining though, and mine was made of velvet and mom's of brockade, so we were pretty hot and feeling very sorry for the women in those days who were even laced into those dresses. *winces* But before mom demanded we go back before she died of heatstroke, we did manage to get some good pictures I think.
Also in this garden is Alt House, which always amazes me...it's this grand house, that Mr. Alt and his wife (who was only *17* when she arrived to Japan and be mistress of this house) only lived in for 4 years before moving north. There was also displays about a famous Japanese opera singer from that period on display in one of the houses.
When we finaly finished in the gardens we walked down the path to the main street lined with shops (we had come up the back way via the skyway-an elevator that slides diagonally up the hill) we stopped at a couple of cool places, like the picture book museum (a very awesome fairytale like building houses it) and a shop that sells music boxes! So I finally found a music box that plays “Sakura Sakura” and isn't a jewelry box! Hurray! Then it's back to the tram and onto Dejima.
When I visited Nagasaki in March and went to Dejima I was disappointed since most of it wasn't open due to renovations and I didn't have much hope that they would be done, but luckily I was proved wrong! With all the buildings open, I got my wish to come back when it was fully operational. It was crazy, sitting in the sun room and looking out the window at what had been the harbour but now has all been reclaimed and is a bustling area of the city, complete with tram line. Overall the exhibits were quite interesting, especially the historical ones, but I found the exhibits about the restoration work a bit boring. But if you're into that kind of thing, they've done an excellent job explaining the restoration as well as putting in glass floors in some spots so you can see the excavation and old foundations etc.
After we left Dejima, we headed over to the Mt. Inasa ropeway (gondola), -picking up dinner from a japanese take out restaurant- since our passes seemingly also included a ride on the ropeway. It was not so. I never did get an explination that I clearly understood as to why the ropeway was included in the booklet but not part of the deal. Perhaps it's such a tourist trap at the top that they also charge you for the view as well, since that's all I could make of their explination. Since we were pretty tired and not willing to pay $12 a pop to go up a mountain we decided to eat and then head back to the hotel with some coolers. LOL. I stuggled manfully through half a can of pineapple cooler before putting the rest in the fridge for the next day and going to bed.
Sunday, August 6
2am: Awoken by a bunch of cats outside that were involved in feline WWIII or some such thing. Man were they ever “cat-erwailing!” Our poor eardrums and broken REM sleep!
Today was the atomic bomb history day. We started at the peace park with our breakfast via the local lawson's convienience store. They were preparing for the Aug 9 anniversary and were erecting these huge tents and sort of walls decorated with two big cranes around the peace statue(and obscuring both the side shrines except for the golden cranes on the top) We finished our stroll through the be-statued and prision ruins-ed grounds and headed over to the hypocentre park. They've kept a display of ground level at the time of the blast which is quite sobering. Together with the statue in the park and part of the ruins of urakami cathedral together with the tall black column that marks the hypocentre, this is a much more sobering place. Mom needed a minute before we headed over to the museum. I'm not sure I can say which museum is the better one. Nagasaki's is smaller, certainly, but I think it has a better layout, with excellent impact throughout, rather than mostly packed into the end like at Hiroshima. Though Hiroshima's museum had quite a balanced view on the lead up to the war- Mom says she felt like there was a real feeling of appology for Japan's actions in the war that helped lead up the conflict and the loss of so many forced laboures from Asia (especially korea) etc. It's my opinion that Hiroshima has more effect on the emotions -mobilized students, the tricyle etc whereas Nagasaki elicted a more visceral, gut reaction- the hand entombed in glass bottles, the helmet with bits of a victims skull melted onto it. Also, in Nagasaki, the survivors' testimonials were incorporated right into the exhibit, which I really liked -and some which even tied into some things we'd seen earlier on display. There was a really disturbing photograph of a teenage boy being treated for intense burns on his back, that we later heard the horrifying testimonial of. It truly amazes me that he was able to survive, especially after hearing about his “recovery” period. We then stopped by the memorial for the A-bomb victims before heading back to the main street in search of tram passes, of which we'd already had a few aborted attempts at obtaining. Finally with tram passes in hand we were off to the station to enquire after a bus to Kagoshima since the Beppu-Nagasaki leg had worked so well. No luck. Only the train. After we bought the train tickets we went up to see the memorial for the 26 martyrs and Mom taught me the origin of the word gaudy -since the church/museum that was part of the memorial looked like it was directly influenced by the Gaudy Cathedral in Spain, from which the word arrived. Since we hadn't had time for the dutch slopes the day before, we spent the remainder of the afternoon wandering around that area, checking out the mini museums in the restored houses. I even parted with 100 yen to enter three houses that hosted the historical picture museum, of which the guidebook said there was a rare photograph of Meiji hero Sakamoto Ryoma, but turned out to only be the original of the photo which we had seen copies of everywhere else. Oh well. We then caught the tram back to the hotel, started our landry and had a bath before heading out to the bookstore and after that for dinner. Mom finally tried omeraisu (omelette filled with tomato sauced rice) -I'm quite fond of it. Then it was back to the hotel and to sleep so as to make it for an 8:30am train.
Monday August 7
Up at 7 and checked out by 7:30 in an attempt to make it to the station with time enough for breakfast. Didn't arrive till 8 so it was a bakery-bought breakfast on the train, and despite me buying corn bread especially for Mom, she apparently didn't hear me say it was corn bread and so didn't eat it... *sniffs* We arrived in Kagoshima at 12:30 and immediately were able to check in to our hotel. Upon discovering that the cut rate carrier we were going to try and fly with had gone out of business we were left with no choice than to go for a regular airline. But aside from the usual hassle that sometimes comes from using a foreign credit card (and despite any and all offers you may get to sign up for a credit card here in Japan, it's illegal for foreigners to apply for Japanese credit cards) we got the seats on the flight we wanted at the price we were quoted in Beppu. Then we headed off to the beach for the rest of the afternoon which was just what the doctor ordered. Stunning views of Sakurajima from the beach as well, though she wasn't smoking today. The water was so warm.Even if it was just for two hours, it was really nice to get away from the constant sightseeing and just relax in the sun. After a shower at the hotel we went for Satsuma style cuisine at a local restaurant. I had read about the pork ribs done in miso and black sugar and trust me they're even more delicious than it sounds. Yum! Mom and I also checked off a few more things off of the to eat list besides that...onigiri, which I'm really glad we got there instead of at the convienience store since it was hot and delicious. We also sampled some oden...specifically potato oden. Oden is sort of a hot pot dish that's made with fish broth and various foods are cooked in it. I've been meaning to get mom to try some and now we have. After dinner we did some browsing for gifts for Lyle and Craig. All in all, a somewhat lazy day I suppose.
Tuesday Aug 8
Up and off for the 9am bus tour of Sakurajima! The scenery was pretty amazing. Very different from Mt. St. Helens though. Granted when I saw it (and it's mostly Mom's recollections here since I think I was 6 or 7 when we went and only remember the trees) it was 10 years after the last eruption rather than 60 years as at Sakurajima. The main lava flow area was still totally bare but futher down a few plants and trees were making a comeback among the tumbled rock and hardened lava. Quite a few interesting shapes too. There's one that's supposedly shaped like a tanuki (racoon dog) but I swear is more like a fox to my eyes.
Sakurajima is the volcano in Japan with the most explosive force and one of the most active as everyday it smokes and sends down ash on Kagoshima.Certainly no one is allowed to climb it, only look at it from specific observation spots and old lava flow areas. Though at first signs of an imminent eruption they would have to be abandoned I think...there are a couple of torii (the gates that lead into shinto shrines usually red painted wood or stone) that are completely buried up to the crossbars that are all that's left of several buried villages from the 1914 eruption, which is credited as being one of the most powerful in recent history, sending ash 8000 metres into the air. That was the explosion that make Sakurajima no longer a -jima (an island) but connected it to the mainland on the Miyazaki-ken side, creating a peninsula.Though for a volcano that blew properly rather than sideways like Mt. St. Helens thats quite a bit of damage as well. I'm thinking I should find out which was considered the larger/more devestating eruption since i'm far from an expert! After we returned to Kagoshima and ran a couple of errands, we went over to the Reimeikan (Kagoshima Prefectural Museum of Culture) to check out the history of Kagoshima and the folklore of the area. Kagoshima is the old Satsuma domain, which together with the old Choshu domain was instumental in forcing the regime change of the Meiji Restoration. It was from this area that the first exchange students were sent to England and the rest of Europe to gain the knowledge Japan needed to modernize...without the Shogun's knowledge or approval. In anycase, it was very interesting if somewhat hard to understand since only the theme of the area had english translations. Oh well. After there it was more shopping dinner and more shopping but yeah! gift finished pretty much. Then back to the hotel to catch some sleep before our flight to Tokyo.
Wendesday Aug 9.
Got to the airport with plety of time for breakfast...though our eggs benidict certainly wasn`t eggs benedict as we know and love. Three guesses as to what replaced the hollandaise sauce... well if any of your guesses was mayo then "pin pon pin pon!" (the you`re right! sound) Other than that it was pretty good. HAHAHAHA anyone remember tamagotchi? Guess what decorated our plane? including the head rests... One of my life`S goals has now been acheived with this plane trip. Other than that, our day was mostly filled with rearanging of bags, sending of one last box home and generally bothering pretty much every service desk in the hotel for a couple hours before we went out for books, a bit more shopping (Lolita socks are now mine after a false start, but I now own some!) and dinner at Yoshinoya a japanese fast food place that serves donburi and is exessivly cheap before coming here to update.
Thanks everyone for putting up with these massive updates and I promise that the next update will not only be froｍ Canadian soil but will be much shorter! See you all soon, I hope! Though it feels really odd to be leaving Japan... |
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Read 2 - Post |
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| Another Massive Update |
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| 09:10pm 04/08/2006 |
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mood:  rushed music: my rumbling tummy
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Separated by day for your viewing pleasure...most of this one was written by me this time, rather than Mom, for those of you who were confused. And to Colin, and everyone else, I've just dumped another 208 photos onto the online gallery for your viewing pleasure. I'm sure you all know the link now, and if not, go down one post and it's there, very visible. And now onto Sunday where we last left you.
Sunday we set off for Himeji castle, footsore and lugging our bags with us, not knowing whether or not there'd be a place to store them at the station. Trying to get out to the proper exit for Himeji castle, we found to our utter dismay neither elevator or escalator to get up over the tracks and back down again. Luckily I decided to leave Mom with the bags and go find a station attendant, who led us directly to the escalator-ed Shinkansen area where there were several sizes of locker including a couple big enough for our snazzy new japanese suitcase. Down $10 in locker charges, but considerably lighter in load we set off for Himeji castle under another scorching summer sky. Himeji is justifiably famous as Japan's oldest surviving and best kept castle, it's current form built in 1580, and enlarged when it switched hands 30 years later. Most interesting, we thought, was the period of restoration from 1956-64, when they completely dismantled the castle, replaced rotting wood and rebuilt it exactly as it had been using only the same building techniques as were availible at the time of the original contruction. We visited the prefectural history museum, which was unfortunatly (and really oddly) completely closed in terms of their exhibits -they were all being changed/updated at the same time and for the time being it only has some of their models and such on display in the foyer. Also there was a movie about the reconstuction -albeit only the Japanese version was availible at that time as well. Since it was quite technical language I had a difficult time understanding it and mom didn't get any of it but the pictures and filming of the restoration were utterly amazing and worth every minute. We actually tried to find a book on the restoration, but no luck.
Anyways, back to the castle. It was quite high up on the hill and was quite a pretty white with black roofs. Although from outside it only looks 5 stories, it's actually 7- there are two stories in the rock foundation mostly used for storage. the top three floors were a lot smaller than the others, and I'm pretty sure they were used by the lord of the castle. On the top floor there was a guestbook that we signed, gold nail coverings rather than black, and a shrine that had orginally been relocated when the castle was built but was installed in the top floor after the so-called "nature's curse" seemed to demand repatriation of the shrine. The castle was also ingeniously designed for defense -little trap doors in which people could throw stones or hot water down on enemies; windows which were large on the inside and small on the outside to allow people to shoot out but not in; and platforms to shoot off of and hidden rooms that samurai could hide in to spring surprise attacks on enemies that had breached the walls. But the smart little tricks weren't just limited to defense -there were little drainage tubes in the windows to drain out the rain that would have inevitably collected in them as well. Besides the castle itself, there was an outer building that was where all the serving ladies/ladies in waiting lived, which was very long and very narrow. At one end was what is known as the "vanity tower" which was built for the Princess Sen, wife of the lord's son, to live in with her husband and prepare to go worship at a nearby shrine everyday. Also there is an area that is known as the "harakiri-maru", or suicide quarter, which seemed to have the double purpose of not only protecting the rear gate but the place for ritual suicide, including a well for the washing of sword and recently-liberated head. Nearby this is the site of a famous ghost story "Banshu Sara-Yashiki" in which a serving maid, Okiku, overheard a plot against the lord's life and saves the lord from the plotted treachery. When the retainer who was plotting the dasradly deed found out it was she who warned the lord, he had his revenge by stealing a prize dish which she was held responsible for and tortured to death over. The retainer threw her body into the well that now holds her name as her ghost was heard counting the prize dishes and always coming up one short until she was deified there -one guesses she was later found to be innocent of the dish incident in order for the deification to take place.
Coming out of the castle, especially having climbed all the stairs, we decided to give skip to the mountain temple that about 10 minutes or so of footage in "the last samurai" was filmed at. Instead we went to a noodle shop and order the local specialty -soumen- a thin wheat noodle that was served on ice with some fruit and fishcakes and we dipped in sauce just like zaru-soba. From there, we did the aforementioned museum visiting and book shopping, neither of which was particularily prodctive, before heading on to Okayama for the night.
Of course, in Okayama there was only escalators and elevators availible on the shinkansen lines, which we had, perhaps stupidly, eschewed in favour of a longer, cheaper train ride on local lines. Stupidly since our one transfer turned into two transfers, the unexpected one making us wait outside in the heat of the day for about 15 minutes with all our baggage only to get on a train and go two more stops before changing again. At least at the unexpected stop, there was a break from all the cicadas and we actally heard birdsong clearly for the first time on the trip. So in anycase, we lugged our luggage up and down the stairs and luckily it was a short walk to our hotel where we collapsed for a little while before venturing out in search of food and a laudromat. The laundromat was easy; we asked the front desk and were given a map that showed one around the corner and about a block down on our way to the area that our lonely planet showed as having a very nice yakitori (japanese chicken skewers) place. However, we could not find the place that they listed and the other close one listed in the book had already closed so we decided to give the "freshness burger" a try. Two New Zealand chocolate shakes and two teriyaki chiken burgers made up our meal, though mom hasn't quite caught on to using the wrapper they give you to keep everything in your burger, IN your burger. Now we need to go to Mos burger so Mom can try the rice burger, where the "bun" is made of rice.
Monday.
Nice surprise. Complementary breakfast free at the hotel. Although it wasn't much, toast, hardboiled eggs and juice, my mind went back to the hotel in Kyoto were the "continental breakfast" was pretty much the same thing, minus the egg, but with more breads and patries to choose from -although that cost $17 a head. Then on to Kurashiki, a neigbouring town with a very pretty old fashioned japanese warehouse district that has been remade into various museums and souvenier shops. The one drawback to me doing all the trip planning but mom having the guidebook is that we hit Kurashiki on a Monday, when most of the museums and such take a holiday. We did manage to visit the toy museum which was really something and picked up a few gifts here and there before wandering over the the ivy square area since I had seen a place listed as "music box muse" on my tourist map and wanted to check it out since I collect music boxes. Turns out it was a museum of music boxes, only it was closed till 1pm (about quarter to 12 at this point and we have to be getting back to Okayama soon) so I wasn't able to see it. *cries* We did get to go into the museum shop though where mom bought a kalliedescope and some pins and I was thwarted again...the only music box left in the store that played "sakura sakura" was a jewelry box quite similar in design to one I already have -and cost $48. So that was a no go.
Back in Okayama, we headed over to korakuen garden, said to be one of the top three gardens in Japan. We caught the tram to that area, but still had quite a walk as we had to head down over towards the bridge, then walk over to the island where the garden was. It wasn't quite what we had expected. There were large open grassy areas, a large areas of cherry trees, tea plantation, lillies (which were already finished blooming, water lillies, and other collections of trees. ONe side of it was just all large shade trees with walking paths. The area in the middle was more the traditional garden. There was a wooden building (more a shelter with open ends) that had a stream running through it. Beside it was a hill that had a path up with rocks and trees. From the top, you could look down on all the gardens. The garden was started in 1687 by a Japanese feudal lord and completed in 1700 with just minor changes made over the years. Back to the train station, but the train we wanted was full, so we had an extra hour to kill. Decided we should get food. Mom was a very bad influence - decided I wasn't hungry for food, rather cool things, so ordered shaved ice and an apple custard cake (which was delicious. Tara had shaved ice and a soda float. Made our way by fast train to our next stop, Hiroshima. We met a very nice man from Canada while checking in. He is from Montreal. He was born there but moved back to Haiti with his parents when he was yong. He lived there for 9 years until finished high school, when he moved back to Montreal to become an architect. Anyways - the Ryokan had the steepest, skinniest, most curved set of stairs. Good thing the lady helped me carry the blue suitcase up by helping me from behind, otherwise, I am not sure I could have made it. Our room had the mats on the floor, a small tv, and hooks on the wall to hang things. The bathroom was out in the hall (shared) and the sink was a shared one just outside the washroom. Invited Arsenaeu (sp?) to come fond supper with us. Interesting guy. He has been learning Japanese from a friend of his for the past two years as he has been very interested in Japan. We finally found the place we were looking for. It is a 7 story building that is totally filled with restaurants that serve the same type of food - Hiroshima style Okonomiyaki. That is the dish with the cabbage in it. This is made quite differently. They put the egg mixture on first in a crepe type affair and when that has cooked a bit, they add the cabbage, bacon, corn (for Tara's). As that cooked, they took some soba noodles and fried them up. They than got added to the top, bean sprouts on top of that and tempura. Tara's cheese was added on and the sauce and lots of green onions. Was it thick - and tasty!!!! Fortunately, they cut it into 9 pieces to help you out. I also tried a new beer - Suntory malt, that was quite tasty. Had an excellent evening of eating and talking. When we got back, I took dibs on the bath first (only one bath for all the rooms, as I would be fastest. 15 minutes later, it was Tara's turn. Half an hour later, Tara was done and she was going to tell Arseneau it was his turn, but there was someone waiting so he had to wait even longer. Poor guy.
Tuesday, August 1
(Mom)We were out the door by 8:30 this AM and breakfast at the station (admission - we ate at McD's - set of egg McMuffin, hash browns and OJ for $3.80). Caught the 9:30 train to Miyajima-Guchi Station. From there we caught the JR ferry for the 15 minute crossing Mijajima. We took the shuttle bus to the Gondola so we could take it up $10) but decided we would walk down. Beautiful view from the Gondola. About a third of the way up the first stretch, I noticed you could no longer hear those darn cicadas. You could hear birds chirping!!!! We then caught the second gondola for the last stretch.(/Mom) As promised, the top cable car station was the favorite haunt of the wild monekys that live on mt. misen. After several pictures of the very cute monkeys, though being careful not to look them in the eye, we started our hike in the blistering heat. Man we felt like out of shape city slickers. Eventually we got to the top and had some pokari sweat and some shaved ice (not quite sure how they get all the supplies up to the summit...) They really have a thing for putting their religious places up high...even more so than christians! Then back down the other route in order to see this cool rock that has water in it that changes according to the tide. Instead of taking the gondola down, we walked as stated before. Although it was gorgeous and really refreshing, in hindsight perhaps we ought to have taken it more easy since the foot that had been bothering me started to bleed from the pressure of going downhill, though I didn't really notice it at the time. We made it back down in time for high tide, so as to get the best views, and thus pictures, of the floating torii. We entered the shrine proper and had a look around and took several pictures and were able to see a shinto ceremony being performed, which was very cool. I'm not sure what exactly it was for but I'm pretty sure it had something to do with purification since the preist swished the paper pop-pom on a stick thing (religious item) over the two women after chanting and then chanted for a long time infront of the alcove where the god resides and finally getting the gold paper thing from inside the alcove (most sacred spot, I believe) and swishing that over them as well. After that we headed back to the ferry terminal to go back to the mainland and catch a train for Hiroshima. With some time to spare, we decided to head over to the Atomic Bomb museum until it closed, so as to make sure we could properly appreciate it.
Words can't describe the museums in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. In fact, spoken words don't really play a part of the museums until you get to the tapes of survivours testemonies. You can hear the music from the introductory video almost all the way through the museum since everyone is just alone with their thoughts and doesn't really speak. Though the museums are quite different in layout and over-riding theme. Hiroshima's is of course, world peace. The museum goes into the history leading up to the war and the militarization of hiroshima, into some of the technical areas of the bombing and straight into the peace movement versus the nuclear age. Since I had seen Nagasaki's museum first I was surprised at the "cleanliness" of what I had seen. Since we haven't seen Nagasaki's museum together yet, I won't go into detail since Mom has yet to make her impressions. We got to the gift shop and I was of the impression that Hiroshima had the kid friendly museum and then we walked into the west hall. THIS was where they showed the effect on humans, and it was remarkably well done. This was the area where it really hit home- especially when i came to understand what the mobilized students really meant. Jr High kids, all between the ages of 12-16 were mobilized to tear down houses for firelanes and were totally exposed when the bomb was dropped in their vincinity. 6,300 students, all about Craig's age were killed horribly, though for many, not instantly. And in this museum is their clothing or their lunchboxes complete with carbonized food, which was the only way for very few of their parents to identify them -other parents never found anything. And in one corner, there is a display case with an old rusted out tricycle that just brought me to tears when I read the attached story. We bought the book of this tricycle, and I invite you to come read it for yourselves. We were almost finished when the museum closed so we went back the next day to finish.Coming out of the museum, at the cenotaph of all atomic victims there was a buddhist ceremony going on which we joined, and were given incense to offer with everyone else in memorial of the dead. It was really fitting after coming out of that museum.
For dinner, I finally took mom to a tonkatsu place, although it was a higher class place, being in Sogo dept. store than I normally go to, it was both delicious and filling. My foot was begining to really throb by this time so we went back to the minshuku, declined an invitation to go out and headed straight for the baths and bed.
Wendesday, Aug. 2
Mom got lost! In an effort to make for less walking on my bad foot, she went alone to the train station to buy day passes on the tram, but neglected to take a map, or my cellphone number or even the phrasebook I gave her for emergencies like this. So I waited in the room, wondering what was taking her so long, before finally I had to check us out of the hotel. So I lugged all the suitcases down, arranged to leave them at the hotel till 3, and explained to the landlady that I was really worried that mom was lost since she'd been out for about 1.5 hours already and the station is about 10 minutes each way on foot. So I gave her my cell phone number in case mom came back while I was searching, then while trying to find mom while retracing what I hoped were her steps to the station, called Dad so he'd have my number handy incase mom called him, and started asking around if anyone had seen her. After no luck at the tourist information desk, from a page within the station, I left my number with the info desk and headed out to question tram employees...no luck there...she hadn't been seen. I was starting to retrace our steps when we accidently crossed the wrong bridge the day before on our way to the station when finally mom called after getting my number when she managed to get back to the station to try and get the tourist info desk to look up our hotel. Good thing too, since I was about ready to approach the police to ask them to keep a lookout for her! That might have been pretty embarrasing for Mom to be hauled back to me like she was the lost child and I was the fretting mother. (or perhaps more age appropriately, I the worried adult daughter who's senile mother has wandered away from the nursing home...)
Crisis averted, and Dad reassured that Mom was found, we headed back to the museum after stopping to take pictures of the various memorials we didn't visit the day before. We also recieved a flyer about an exhibit nearby put on by survivours and hiroshima citizens that we decided to make time for following the museum. We finished the last little bit that we hadn't seen, before heading down to the theare for the showing of "a mother's prayer" that I wanted to see. If any of you come to Japan, Hiroshima or nagasaki must be on your must see list and I reccomend you to leave time for the films and the testimonials. We then went over to the other exhibit, based off of the poetry of a survivour. I wouldn't say that the museums glossed over the horrific injuries, since there were highly shocking pictures and displays but the power of language really brings depth, even in translation, to the reality of the situation that grainy black and white photographs can't always portray as well. The translations may not be models of literary art, but the richness of description and detail is preserved. I wish that one of those poems had been in my grade 11 war poetry unit.
After that we rushed back to the hotel and over to the station to buy the tickets to Beppu. Although the shinkansen we planned to take had seats, the connection to Beppu was full, so we ended up having to take the next one, leaving us with a 45 minute layover in kokura, where we grabbed dinner while we waited around. I don't know if it was because the train we wanted was full or a mistake on the ticket agents part, but for no extra cost, we were upgraded to a "green car" (ie first class) with leather seats and wood parquet floors despite mom's pass not being a green car pass. pretty swanky! This is also where Mom saw how the double seats can swivel to face each other, though that's a feature of most trains where you reserve seats, which amazed her. Arriving in Beppu, we grabbed a bus up to the area where our ryokan was and checked in before checking out the bath. Nice and hot, though nothing compared to the onsen planned for the next two days!
Thursday, Aug 3
Up at 8 for breakfast, that we weren't quite sure if it was coming to us or if we needed to come to it. After waiting for another 10 minutes after the breakfast call, and peering at the all-kanji hotel map (that had nothing listed as dining hall) we were re-called and were led down to a room on the first floor that served as the midweek breakfast area. I have no idea what the chickens in Kyushu eat, but man, the egg yolks were bright orange! We're talking tropical flower hues here. After a very traditional japanese breakfast, we went out and got a day pass for the bus and headed off for the first of beppu's "hells" which are hot springs of the viewing variety rather than the bathing variety, mostly becasue they're too hot. Otherwise I'm sure we would have been bathing in them even if they do look like pools of blood, as this first one did, creativly named "Blood Pool Hell." They diluted some of the hotspring water with cold water enough to make a foot bath that had the same reddish shade. Then it was through the gift shop, which we mananged to get through with only one $5 souvenier added to our baggage. Then it was back on a bus and up to the onsen (hot spring of the Bathing variety) that had me squirming with anticipation of all the lovely mudbaths described in the lonely planet. A dollar discount from the admission price for each ticket thanks to the bus pass we'd purchased and we were inside. Right beside the change room was the first bath, a nice milky colour that we relaxed in after washing off while we tried to figure out which way the mudbaths were that didn't lead through a mixed bathing area. No such luck. Though we were incredibly lucky to meet a chatty Japanese woman on holiday at that particular onsen who was keen to talk to the various foreigners she met and was more than happy to lead her new Canadian friends through the hazzards of open and quasi mixed mudbaths. It was a very good thing that we brought our beach towels as well as the hand towels so we could walk through the mixed areas safely covered from armpits to thighs, rather than having to make the difficult choice of whether to flash bum or boobs since the hand towel won't cover everything. The first bath we went past was an indoor bath that we came back to at the end since it was all women and at the time we weren't sure if our friendly guide intended to stay with us or not. Then it was down a seperated hallway that about halfway down entered the first mudbath we went in. It's deep enough by the time the doors open on to oposite sides that you can comforatbly be up to your shoulders in mud and leave your towel behind in the privacy of the ladies corridor. once you're out, it's a mixed pool, though the shy people can stay on the side that is sheilded by the corridor walls and the brave can venture out into the open area. The mud in this bath was a bit rougher and thicker and deeper and we sank into it and pulled up handfuls to cover our arms and backs and chatted in english. Then we pulled our legs out of the mud and tried to rinse most of it off before donning our beach towels for the walk over to the next mudbath. In this one, the mud was much finer so we stayed behind the wall and rubbed it into our faces and skin and let it dry a bit and chattered more. when we tired of this bath we showered, put our towels back on and quickly walked over the hot tiles to the third mudbath which we only put our feet in for a moment since it was pretty hot before dancing over hot tiles to the steam room. And when I say steam room, I'm not talking about the type of steamroom that's at your local pool, this is real steam that's coming up out of the hotspring vents and man was I glad there was a cool pool outside! I think we spent more time in the cool pool than actaully in the steam room, even though it felt fantastic, except that I had gotten a bit of mud in my eyes and the steam was aggravating it at first. Then it was back inside to the first mud bath that was on the ladies only side which we soaked in for 20 of the prescribed 20-30 minutes. Unlike the other mud baths where the mud was naturally occuring in that spot, the mud in this pool had been brought from another area. While we waited we corrected the grammar on the english signs and our Japanese friend had great fun trying to remember how to properly say it- lots of missing "the"s. We finished up with a shower, a quick dip in the white bath and a quick rinse before attempting to get dry. Mom was feeling pretty overheated so we laid out on the tatami mats in the main room and listened to a program highlighting this band that plays chinese music -it was utterly beautiful to listen to. Though we stayed a bit too long it seems, since when we went out to catch a bus down the mountain again we had to wait for half an hour, but we sort of wore our towels to get them to dry and waited. When the bus finally came it was packed with students from the international university at the top of the hill coming down for a special assignment for the english study camp that is hosted for japanese students right now.
Down in Beppu proper, we checked out highway bus scheules and fare (I'm writing this on the bus at this moment actaully) then stopped for lunch at a cafe. Now I'm the first to admit that my Japanese isn't fluent, but man if "fuwa fuwa" doesn't mean "fluffy" like I always thought, then how on earth did the sales clerks at the supermarket manage to direct me to the fabric softener when I said I wanted to make my clothes "fuwa fuwa" rather than look at me like I was crazy and direct me down to the food floor. Because obviously "fuwa fuwa" doesn't mean "fluffy" but really means "chock full o' shrimp" -because what else in the item "グリルチケンとふわふわ卵イタリアンサンド” (grilled chicken and "fuwa fuwa" egg italian sandwich) would explain the mayo and shrimp mixture with the eggs that I stupidly took three bites of before realizing the stuff oozing out the sides was not tomato or red pepper at all but some sort of meat and that I wasn't feeling so hot. Up to the counter where I pointed to the mystery meat and asking what it was, praying it was crab, heard the dreaded word...shrimp. After letting that awful prognosis run around my mind for a moment, I quietly explained I was allergic to shrimp and gave the sandwich back. I did get a refund and the hovering staff member who wrung his hands while I discussed with mom what might be best appologised profusely and listened to my mini lecture about the dangers of not writing on menus if there is shellfish in a dish with much appologising but little in the way of indicating that anything would be done to correct such things in the future. Oh well. I'm just praying the next person with a shellfish allergy that walks in isn't one who's throat swells up. THough perhaps such an incident would get it through to them that things need to be properly labelled.
Two tums later we decided to postpone the second onsen trip to later in the day and hightailed it back to the hotel for a siesta. I'm really grateful to the tums since I think between them and the small amount of shrimp I actaully ingested prevented me from actuallly tossing my cookies. Yeah! We decided at about 7 we were fit to go out again and went back to town for the postponed sandbaths at one of Beppu's oldest onsen, dating from the Meiji Era(1600-1868). Now our lonely planet is not the newest edition but the 2003 edition, which accounts a few of the surprises we got. (Though to be fair, even the most current edition led me astray once.) The prices were a bit higher, but oh well. The major change however was the change from sex segregated sand bathing to mixed and all that entailed. The lonely planet said this was one of the few places where you sand bathe sans yukata (ie totally nude) but since they opened up the bathing area yukata are now a must. So first mom and I don't see the procedure for bathing and start washing off like you do in any normal onsen...whoops. we were called out and we wrapped the yukata around us and hurried out and got our next surprise when we saw a guy already in the sand....a bit shyly I faced away and started to take off the yukata like it said in the guide but was quickly disabused of that notion and retied like a child by the attendant. Finally we get into the trench, properly in our yukata, and are buried. it would have been most excellent if not for two things. First, just like when I wear a kimono and have to pad my lower back for the obi to sit properly, it is apparent lying in this flat trench that the space between my lower back and the floor when I lie down is much larger than the average japanese, and suddenly I have about 30 pounds of wet sand pushing down on me and renforcing this fact. Second, really large and still painful (2 weeks later) bruises and hot rough wet sand do not mix. My consolation is that when we go do sand baths again in Ibutsuki, my bruise should be gone and I will know to shift some sand under me before they start pouring it on.
After we finish lying there for 10-15 minutes and getting all sweaty and hot from the heated sand, we head back to the change room to rinse off all the sand and to wash it out of our hair before sitting in the hot bath. Then we went over to royal host for some late supper since we were both feeling better for some salad, side dishes and desserts. Mom also added Kirin brand beer to her list of Japanese beers she's tried, and now only has one major brand to go. If she wanted to emulate dad's Scandanavia trip for choice (and expense!) she really should have chose to try various types of sake though. Then we caught a bus back up to our ryokan and went to bed since it was already 11...and we've been like grannies on this trip...
Friday, Aug 4
Breakfast was even earlier today; they knocked on the door at about 7:40. Neither of us had much appitite. I had been feeling ill at one point in the night, but luckily no cookie tossing for me, but still the thought of day glow eggs and fish with bones cooked in didn't hold much appeal. After breakfast we decided to head to the baths but were caught on our way to the ladies baths by a staffer -they were being cleaned but we were welcome to go to the outdoor baths, and not to worry since there was no male customers then. So we showered in a corner with a very low pressure showerhead and had a quick bath so they could continue getting ready for the upcoming weekend. Then it was off to the other two hells in our area before heading back into town early to try and get tickets on an earlier bus since mom didn't feel up to another onsen, especially a steam bath which was what we had planned to go to. There are several hells -9 I believe in the beppu area but we only visited 3 in total, on the reccomendation of the lonely planet. At two of the hells, animals are kept in hellish conditions, if you'll pardon the pun, and I want no part of supporting such cruelty. The other two in the area wern't supposed to be as pretty, and were kind of kitschy. But the two we did see were pretty cool, especially the Sea Hell. First we went to the White pond Hell, where milky blue water burbled up, and had a mini aquarium on the grounds, featuring !pirhanas...though I'm not all that into fish. Then we went up to the Sea Hell which had a wonderful display of tropical waterliles and a greenhouse that grew them. The main hotspring was an amazing shade of blue that you usually don't see outside of pamphlets for caribbean vacations. There was also eggs cooked in the hotspring water that normally I wanted to try, but the smell of the steam was getting to our already delicate stomachs, which is a real pity. Maybe I'll have a chance in Ibusuki. Then it was back for the bags and onto a bus for the station and down to the bus terminal to get tickets for the 12:20 to Nagasaki which took pretty much the same amount of time as the train but was direct and tickets for both Mom and I plus lunch were less than my train tickets would have been. The seats were just as nice with more footroom and a TV and bathroom onboard as well. We're gonna look into the bus again when we head down to Kagoshima. Now we're ensconced in our cozy little ground floor room with a smoking TV and a fridge the same size as the one in my apartment and our own toilet, since Nagasaki is so busy since a famous idol is having her very last leaving concert here this weekend and they minshuku had to open up this room. Not complaining! Now that this is pre-typed and ready to go, we're off to the internet cafe to post this and email my resume into the university, since there's a job open at the study abroad office that I'm gonna throw my hat in for! Wish me luck! |
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Read 2 - Post |
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| Shoko's OK.. and many days worth of journal |
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| 09:11pm 29/07/2006 |
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mood: rushed
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only a sprained ankle...thank god. I hope it heals quickly!
NEWS WE FORGOT TO PUT IN OUR LAST UPDATE RE: TARA'S MOM, PEGGY ------ On Thursday, July 20, when we got back from the party with Tara's class, we discovered a message from Calgary that said the Calgary Board of Education was trying to reach me (I'm the author this time) to offer me a contract. Seeing as it was just about 11:30 (8:30 AM Calgary time), we waited and phoned. We reached an answering machine and told it yes but we would phone back in 15 minutes. So, in 15, I reached the lady that I had talked to the day before I left (I was worried that the 110 jobs just announced in the paper would be decided while I was away). It is an early probationary contract, that isn't for a specific school yet. So they are mailing it out and I will sign it when I get home and mail it back. A JOB for the fall!!!!!
Now onto Mom's journal of our travels:
Monday, July 24
Overcast and raining today. We went early to buy our tickets (joy, joy - neither of our charge cards would work so more cash bites the dust. When we phoned to find out why, Tara's seemed in order and my system was down, but when it came up, he was going to put on a note saying that I was travelling in Japan. Never thought of doing that before I left.) Then back to say goodbye to "Grandma" and pick up our luggage. We took them out to lunch at a family restaurant. It was rather odd for me, but Tara says that it is typical of family restaurants in Japan. My chicken was dark meat that must have been taken off the bone and pressed together in a nice rectangle. Very odd. We stopped at a department store and I ended up buying a yukata (cotton Kimono) set. According to my three experts, married ladies are supposed to wear dark colours (of course, I loved the bright colours.) I ended up having to get a red one, as we wanted to make sure that it would be long enough, so we were rather limited as to what colours I could get. The sandals look just a little small, but that's the story when you have size 8.5 - 9 feet. Then we dashed for the station. I have to admit that I got pretty teary eyed saying goodbye to Shoko and Jinko. I do have a specail place in my heart for my "other daughter". We caught the Super Hitachi (rapid limited express) in to Tokyo. We then had to catch a train over to another station where we got on a bullet train. One thing about riding in one of those - when two meet, they seem to get sucked together. Every time we met one, I would jump. It is so sudden and the tracks are so close. When we arrived, we decided to play it safe and take a cab. Discovered the next day that the hotel is just down 1/2 a block from the subway station. We did NOT want a repeat of the NIkko arrival. Nice hotel - Westin Miyako Kyoto. Our room is on the 8th floor and overlooks a very nice courtyard park with a stream. When we go out our door, there is glass and we look out over the city. It is built on a hill.
Tuesday, July 25 Overcast in the morning, them sunny
We decided to stop by the Kyoto INternational Community House to check out the aafternoon tea ceremony. Signed up for it as thought we could be back by 2. They gave us directions on how to catch the bus to head to the Golden Palace (Kinkakuji). We bought day tickets for about $5 (fares were 2.20 anyway). Found the Golden Palace OK. The top two floors of the pagoda have gold on them. It all relfects in the reflecting pool. There are beautiful shrubs and rocks in and around the pool. It was very pretty and peaceful. The gardens were wonderful to wander in. Then we headed to the Market. It was on the grounds of one of the temples (happens every Tuesday). At first we thought it was a so- so little market until a fellow took us further in to help us find what we were loking for. we ended up getting lost when trying to get out again. Southwoods people - I now am the proud owner of the prayer bowl bells, like Bob had. When you move a stick around the outside of the top, it starts to make a highpitched hum. Then we searched for an Obi for Tara's Kimono. (there were TONS of used Kimono and Obi's there. There were TONS of dishes, dolls and on and on.) We were also looking for silk for my friend Sharon. No luck in that department, but Tara did have an interesting idea for what to do with Obi'sw, so we bought a couple. Tara found doorway curtains that she had promised her friend McKenzie. So - after we got ourselves unlost, we ran to catch a bus as we were getting late. After we got off the bus, you should have seen us hightailing it on the 10 minute walk to the tea ceremony. We arrived right at 2 (we were supposed to be early as they had to give instructions, but we did phone to say we were going to be late.) Quite a few of the people there have been taking a course on doing the tea ceremony. The come once a week to get lessons and practice. The one lady had been coming for 3 months. Half of the people helping were foreigners. Boy could they speak Japanese though - they must have lived here for quite a few years. There is certainly a lot of bowing. There is a set way to accept dishes, handle the dishes, eat, drink, etc. But it really does become something beautiful in the slow, artful way that everything is done. I was amazed at the size of the bowls for the tea (cereal size). The tea was frothy. Later, they took us to the back room and let us try to whip the tea. It was hard work. You really had to go fast to get it frothy enough. After this was over, we headed back to the hotel as I was fighting another heat headache. ONce I had laid down for a while , we caught the hotel shuttle back to the station as we wanted to arrange an interpreter for visiting the one espionage house where everything is in Japanese, and hadn't been able to do it by phone. We were looking for the Japan INternational Tourist Office and could not seem to find it where the Lonely Planet said it was. Finally we asked a lady in a shop and found out that it had moved to the 9th floor of the station tower. Each floor of this station can be reached by escalator (one progressively long one with platforms floor or so to get off. Each floor was for something different (ladies clothing, toys, etc.)) We finally found the office, only to find that they don't arrange that there. We were able to get a city map and bus map there. So, we were sent to the other side of the station (you go to the second level, where you can walk over ALL the railway paths, then go down again. That office sent us back over the tracks to another office. It got rather humorous as each time we were sent someplace else, we had to cross over on level 2 again. FINALLY found the place, but it closed at 4 and you had to come in personally to arrange it. So, we were hot, tired, so went up to level 11 for supper. There were different ethnic restaurants, so Tara decided she felt like Italian. I decided to go with ceasar salad and share an order of pizza chips, while Tara had pizza. Well, the ceasar salad was NOT the traditional one. It was made with Iceburg lettuce, had some cucs and red pepper in it, red cabbage and just ordinary dressing. They did grate Parm. chees on it though, so maybe that is what made it ceasar. They were out of pizza chips, so I ordered Bruchetta instead. I got three tiny pieces of bread with a bout three hunks of tomato on it. OKAY - 0/2 for yum factor. Tara's pizza was a very thin crusted one - she folded each piece to make a sandwhich so it was thick enough to hold. I had an Italian beer too. The bill came to $27. Food is not cheep in Japan. We had just missed the 6 shuttle, so decided to explore for a few minutes. I had seen an interesting building with a large ball on it from up in the restaurant. Wondered to go find it. It was a gambling joint. We then walked by a couple of Karaoke joints, so Tara decided we should go in and see what kind of Eng. selection they had. They had a pretty good one, so we decided to rent a room (yes, here you rent a small room, with a machine in it and a couple of loveseat type size sitting areas. You got the control and book and made your selections. There were two mikes and you could sing your heart out in privacy). It was $5,60 each for the hour. You could get a 3 hour package with either unlimited juice or unlimited drinks for either $20 or $30. One hour seemed quite enough for me. Then we used our full day bus passes to return to the hotel. We headed down for a swim to cool down. Met a lady down there from Florida who had been with a guide that day who was fabulous. She will get us his number. Early night as we are tired puppies (TP should maybe be the short form for this as I seem to need to aply it every day).
Wednesday, July 26
Splurged and had the Continental Breakfast. ONly included breads, cereals, tea, and fruit juice but we thought we needed a big breakfast for lots of walking. We decided to follow the advise of my friend Sara and our Lonely Planet book and do the walking tour with Johnny Hillwalker. It was worth the $20/person. It started at 10:15 and we finished at 3:30. But my, was it hot. He took us through a Buddhist Temple. He explained that most temples are Chinese Buddhist and for the tourists. Japanese aren't open to the public, except this one as it was the headquarters. The one building he said was the largest Buddhist building in the world and they were right now putting on new tiles as the old ones were too heavy. He said their 'Bible' was written in India, then translated into Chinese and the Japanese just imported the Chinese version, so no one understands it when they do the 10 minute reading from it. (He has quite the sense of humour and a great deal of honesty.) My understanding of the standing Buddha is that it doesn't pay any attention to you unless you are dead, then it will take you to paradise. He said that only the Japanese have this version of Buddha. The Chinese and Indians sitting Buddhas all are for wanting money from Buddha (wealth) but Japanese depend on Shinto for money or happiness. People don't tend to go to the temple except for funerals. Instead, the priests come to your house on the anniversary of a loved ones death to say prayers. This is done for 33 years. Each time, they collect a donation. That is how the temples are supported. There was a large meeting hall built 10 years ago that looks really neat. It has a huge screen. If there is nobody on the stage entertaining, then they show films of Buddha on the screen. We continued our tour through old Kyoto. We were told that all the pryer beads are made in Kyoto. It is a family tradition. The one fellow we saw making them is 17th generation doing it. Then we went in a fan making shop. It is mostly a home based industry that is once again a family tradition. Different parts are done by different people. The shop we were in took the folded papes, blew gently in them, so they could insert the bamboo part. It is then pressed overnight between two heavy stones. We made a couple of purchases there. One was a small fan for me to help hold off heat prostration. Johnny then aid for us to go into a garden to wander around. It is hidden away amoung all these houses but is quite large. We didn't realize our group was leaving as we were busy admiring the plants and layout. Oops. We had to trot along quickly and follow the map he gave us to catch up. Next we went to a Shinto Shrine. We can just see the outside part of the shrine as you have to be VERY pure to go in the inside. Priests have to eat a cleansing diet and not have relations with their wife so I believe they can then go in. Japanese like to start the New Year pure so they go to a Shinto Shrine. Over 2 Mil go to the ?Innai? Shrine (there are 1.5 mil in Kyoto). Shinto jobs: 1 mo lod babies are blessed, marriages, plus people go there to pray to their gods for whatever they need. INteresting note - Kyoto is the headquarters for most shrines and temples.
Another home industry is making the sacred decorations. Making Tatami mats (mats that go in the temples, in specail parts of homes, etc) is also a family business. [I was amazed at how thick they are - about 2" thick. NOTE: a new tatami mat costs $200 but to have the top replaced only costs $70, so that is a big business too. These mats are about 1m x 2m] All these family industries are having a problem as the children no longer want to carry on the family business. Many people are moving away, so the old part of Kyoto doesn't have many children and many of the schools have been closed. Older Buddhist temples tend to have more decorations. We went into the yard of a small one. It also had a Shinto Shrine in the corner of the courtyard. We went around the back to see the graveyard. Think tiny. Each family plot is MAYBE 1mx1m. but I think it might be smaller. There are four small type corner earns and then a main one. IT opens up and ashes of family members are added to the big box area. They have a service at the cemetary on specail anniversaries (7, 13, 17, 24, and 33)
Kyoto is the main city for Guishas. Each area where there are Guishas in the city will have its own headquarters. It has 3 floors - 1st has offices and administration, 2nd has the theatre they use, and 3rd has the guisha school. [Kyoto is the only place that still trains Guishas so girls come from al over Japan to try their luck. Geisha's have been on the decline since 1867 when Shoguns lost power. Gishas are for entertaining specail families who have been associated with the headquarters can be customers. The city of Kyoto now helps pay for the Geisha training. The rest is paid by the headquarters. After that, we saw the building where Nintendo started out making a special card game called Hana Fuda. Now we start on the food. Johnny bought us each a suchi that is rice with sesame wrapped in fried tofu. I had eaten it with Tara before. It was yummy. Then we went to a tea shop (air conditioned!!!!!) where we had cold green tea and a pastry that was rice with bean paste. We got to watch them making their sweets. We then toured the part of town that used to do bell casting, but now they do pottery. We watched one family painting their pottery bowls. Very pretty. After the tour was finished, we walked uphill (yes again!) to see the Kiyoizu Temple. Our clothes were drenched with sweat. This temple is built on the side of the mountain and really is a spectacular setting. I swear that old Buddhists must not be able to go to these temples. The hills! The stairs!!! The good thing is that when you are leaving, it is downhill. I am amazed at the young ladies who come to these temples wearing 2 inch heels. They must be destroying their feet. After we were done, we made an errror. We thought we weren't too far a walk from Kyoto station, to catch the shuttle back to the hotel. WHY DIDN"T WE CHECK THE MAP!??? We would have been better off to go the other way, catch a bus and be back at our hotel WAY sooner. I've got the "too soon older" part down - where is the wiser part? By the time we got back to the hotel, I had another weather headache, so I took pills, hit the pool and got cooled down. Then we thought we'd walk down the hill and get supper. I must have taken 2 doz. steps out in the heat and I had to turn around and we ate in the hotel that night. We then gave each other well deserved foot rubs and to bed as we were T.P.
Thursday, July 27
Murphy was alive and well today. We caught the 8:15 shuttle - that went well. We found the place to buy tickets. We can't use the charge card, debit card, or travellers cheque to buy them. Tara had been told charge cards could be used to buy rail tickets - just not this rail line I guess. They are special tickets that include gate admissions also. My rail pass doesn't work on this rail line. So - we go up and over the tracks and across the street to the International Bank Card Machine. Problem - it doesn't open (Yes the area with the machine - bank card machines are not 24 hour here) until 10 and close at 9pm). We asked at Kyoto Tower Hotel and they only cash Travellers Cheques for guests. Change of plans. We will go to Nara today instead. My rail pass will work and we have enough cash for that. It is about a 45 min. train ride there. When we stepped off the air conditioned train, it felt like we had stepped into an oven. The lady at the tourist info was very helpful so we planned to hop on the train for 2 more stops to go to Horyuji Temple. It has the world's oldest surviving wooden structures (6-8 century). It was Japan's first WOrld Heritage site. Prince Shotoku was responsible for starting it. When he was 2, he was praying and he had Buddhist relics fall from his hands. This site has 2,300 important cultural and historical structures and articles. In the Gallery of Temple Treasures, they have many items in glass display cases. There are many wooden statues that are from 6-8 c. There is one called the Tamamushi Shrine that used to be covered with irredescent colours of the tamamushi beetle (blues and greens - think peacock feathers). They had a sample - beautiful. I can just begin to imagine what it was like when it was first done. We then walked back to the station --oo those poor feet ---oo the heat! We went back to Nara and caught the bus up to the area where all the shrines and holy deer are. The park area is huge and wonderful to walk through. The one shrine has 3,000 stone lanterns along the long path (uphill of course) leading up to it. The closer you get to the temple, the closer together the lanterns are. Finally, the lanterns are 2 or 3 rows deep right up by the temple. It is pretty awesome. Stopped and had some lunch. I tried the cold buckwheat noodles (Zarusoba). Delicious and nice on a hot day. We then headed down and over towards the largest bronze Buddha (not sure if Japan or World). The Daibutsu (Great Buddha) is an image of the Dainichi Buddha (cosmic one that proceded all the worlds. The courtyard of the building is huge and the building that houses this Buddha is massive. Very regal looking. The Buddha looks way down on you (16 m tall) and has 430 tons of bronze and 130 kg. of gold. One of the huge supporting pillars of the building has a hole that is supposed to be the size of Buddha's nostril. Tara managed to squeeze through with her arms above her head and a great deal of wiggling and trouble. Then we headed back to the station and faced all those holy deer - they're everywhere, they're everywhere! Managed to find Tara's bank in town and get some more money out so we weren't broke. She even found an English book to buy as, heaven forbid, she did not have anything to read anymore! Once again my feet are very sore and I am a soggy mess. We were also caryying extra weight as we thought we would have 4 hrs. of the train so brought the laptop to work on blog, newspapers, and my heavy book. After a cool swim in the pool, we set off to do the Philosopher's Walk. It is a long (1 KM? path that runs between two temples along a canal. It is quite peaceful. I guess in the day time it is pretty crowded. I pity the people who houses run RIGHT beside (the wall of the house is the edge of the path).
Here's where the pre-written journal entries run out and we've 15 minutes left in our bought internet time
Friday we got a guide from the university to show us around. I wasn't confident enough in my Japanese skills to tackle the Nijo Jinja -a japanese only tour of a private home that was once a hotel for the daimyo (feudal lords) when they came to Kyoto, chock full of various anti-espionage devices from secret rooms and staircases to sound proof floors and jingles on the doors that move and make noises whenever a door is opened even a bit. Then it was onto Nijo Castle, where the Shogun lived and presided whenever he visited Kyoto, complete with the famous nightengale floor, that sort of chirps with every step. The wall and ceiling paintings were incredible too, aloing with all the gardens. From there, we stopped for lunch at a noodle place and then went on to a couple of other shrines and temples with gorgeous gardens: Ginkakuji and the Heian shrine. And no, unlike the Kinkakuji, which is actually golden, Ginkakuji isn't silver and was never intended to be silver. It got it's name through comparison to kinkakuji. Heian Shrine is a really modern shrine comparitively, only a mere 112 years old, seems sort of odd to us Alberta folk who just celebreated our centennial...In the evening we were rained out of Geisha spotting but we did manage to catch the transporting of the portable shrine back to Yasaka shrine, though we were soaked in the process. It was certainly a once in a lifetime chance! Check out our pictures at my gallery since we've got them all up (if not all properly rotated!)http://afreak.ca/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=Japan-with-Mom-2006
Saturday we had a "lazy day" which wasn't as lazy as one may think! We spent the morning chatting with Dad and the boys on MSN and then went first to this out of the way embroidery exhibit/museum which was mind blowingly spectacular. I only wish we were allowed to take photos. Though we did buy an embroidered picture of a maiko in the gift shop that is beautiful if not as ornate as the displayed ones! Then we went to the main shopping area in search of a suitcase. while browsing the luggage shops we also managed to check out some clothing sales (VERY nice prices at Zara) and pick up some things! Now were rushing to get faxes sent and pictures uploaded and blogs finished before our 24 hours are up so I better leave you here so as to make sure this gets published! |
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Read 1 - Post |
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| First few days |
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| 06:07pm 23/07/2006 |
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mood:  cheerful music: cicadas?
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So it`s been a hectic few days! Mom got in on Wednesday, (guess who just missed her train and was a couple minutes late?) and we went out for proper ramen before coming back to my place and mom falling asleep while I frantically finished my paper. >.<
Thursday was more frantic paper finishing while waiting for the internet company to come and shut me down at noon. They showed up half an hour early, just as I found my last source and quoted it. What a close call!
paper finished and saved in a printable format, we went off to the bank and were nearly turned away again in regard to our travellers cheques (and the deposit of said money into my bank account for ease of use in Japan)...odd I guess they don`t normally do exchange after lunch. Then it was off to the international office to part with 31 000yen of it for last month expenses, and get the last part of my paper edited for grammar and word usage. paper printed (though my carefully constructed genkouyoushi didn`t survive the format change between .swf and .doc ；－；) then it was off to class...that was gonna start an hour later than normal. So mom and I took off for Akihabara(famous electronics and anime district 10 minute walk from my school -explination for all the non-japanophiles out there)for about an hour before I headed back for class and Mom found a quiet place to read. Then we were off for a nomikai (lit: drinking party-set dinner and all you can drink) with all my classmates. Mom had quite a few firsts, and the jet lag pills must`ve worked since we didn`t get home till nearly midnight. And my classmates were so nice, saying how fun it`s been with me there and my friends gave me a few very thoughtful gifts. (and a cake though they didn`t tell me till we were leaving! so I couldn`t share it with everyone...)
Friday was a day that pretty much everything that could go wrong, did. We got up and finished packing, ended up having to send off two boxes by sea mail (and had to carry them through the rain, no less) and couldn`t find anyone to help us finish the cake or help bring the bags to our hotel, which was keeping the big ones while we`re travelling. so we struggled to get all the bags and such into the elevator and luckily we ran into my friend and classmate for my japanese class, who both provided a good home for the rest of the cake and helped us with the bags. Which turned out to be the only bright point in the whole day since it took soooo much longer than it should have to get all the bags to Shinagawa, including at the worst point having to carry each 20 to70-ish pound bag up a LONG flight of stairs to the Yamanote line platform. Finally having dropped off the bags with the hotel, it was just under 1\2 hour till the train we needed to take left from Tokyo station (12 minutes away) and I hadn`t bought my tickets yet OR more importantly, taken the 20 minute train ride over to my university to return my key and student card. Once again, kou-san came to the rescue and promised to drop off my key and card when she next went to the university. (of course I didn`t realize till much later that I didn`t give her the present for the school as well)
So we bought the tickets, went over to Tokyo and got on our train (that used the Shinkansen[bullet train] line even!) with about 5 minutes to spare. Which, in hindsight, wouldn`t have mattered. At the station before the one we were to transfer at we seemed to be waiting an inordinatly long time. So finally after maybe 20 minutes or more I got up and went in search of a conductor. At the station we were to tranfer at there had been a `jinshin jiko` or a human-involved accident, and all the trains were stopped while the police investigated. The exchange students had always jokingly refered to train related suicides before, saying things like the chuo line was powered by the suicides since it rattled so much etc but actually being involved, even by having our train stopped by it, was a sobering experience. I hope it will remain my first and last jinshin jiko. And yes, we learned later that it really was a suicide (though there wasn`t much doubt really-it happens far to often these days to the point where the family of the deceased is charged for the clean up to try and deter jumpers. Tokyo`s Yamanote line is sometimes refered to by the nickname the suicide line.) So we callled the ryokan we were booked into and told them we were going to be late and if it was possible for us to still get our dinner even though we didn`t have any hope of checking in before six. (thank god we could) So we finally switch trains and get to Nikko, only to find that the directions provided to english speaking guests were rather misleading -10 minutes refered to the drive rather than the *25 minute UPHILL WALK* that we were faced with...nor was the romaji that was all we could see on any of the forms on any sign so we ended up walking past the hotel before back tracking and getting some more directions. Mom was pretty wilted by then, as was I since the taking of the very heavy suitcases to the hotel killed our arms. As I type, my arms are still aching. Luckily once we checked in, we got to eat within 15 minutes (a very nice Japanese dinner- more food firsts for mom, including sashimi, that was beautifully arranged and cooked) and visited the baths right after dinner for mom`s first public bathing experience, though luckily the public was constituted of only me that night. I think we were in bed by 9.
Saturday was much, much better. Up for japanese style breakfast, and then out to all the shrines and temples that make up Nikko`s world heritage site, and the discovering of cicadas, a VERY NOISY insect that chirps all through the summer before dying. The shrines and temples sure were something. Very ornate- the Shogun brought out 15 000 artisans to decorate the shrine complex, which include the famous `see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil` monkey carvings. Hopefully next update I can do from my computer so I can upload some of my pictures for you all to see. For now, there are some older pictures of Nikko availible in my online gallery. (http://afreak.ca/gallery/albums.php) After we finished slogging up and down stairs to the various temples, the last stop of the day before heading to Shoko`s house in Hitachi was up to the Lake Chuzenji area, specifically to see the 97 metre Kegon falls. But of course the rain threatening down below meant inpenetrable mist up at Chuzenji, so we couldn`t see Keigon at all but we did eat dango (a japanese sweet made of glutonous rice balls on a stick dipped in a sweet glaze) and bought some souveniers. We then took the bus back to the hotel and then back to the station with plenty of time to spare. The trip to Hitachi was made with no glitches and included a very sweet young girl with what must have been her grandparents, who were making origami butterflies. They then proceeded to give some of the butterflies and other fish made from the plastic cord stuff you use to seal boxes to the other foreigners on the train.
Hitachi has been quite nice and quiet, well until about 4pm. We had a huge breakfast, went on a long walk and then went for Kaiseki cuisine (which is highly traditional, beautiful and EXTREMELY expensive...we`re talking at starting at 5000yen per person!)After our very long, course by small, artfully arranged course, we went for a walk in the park across the street. It`s really quite something; it`s all built atop of a water treatment facility, and even uses some of the clean water to run though the park in a man made stream. There was a gym, 4 soccer fields surrounded by a track, the park with the water features, tennis courts and cricket courts all integrated into this facility. Afterwards we went up the main mountain in Hitachi to see the shrine and go to the observation tower at the top for dioramic views of hitachi and the coast on one side and the `mountains` on the other. However, when we were coming down from the observation deck Shoko slipped and fell, injuring her ankle. At first we thought it was only twisted, but by the time we got home it had swelled to twice it`s normal size. >.< Being Sunday, all we could do was phone the doctor for advice so tommorows schedule will include a trip to the hospital. Hopefully, it won`t be anything serious, since Shoko returns to Australia Aug 4.
Well, we`re off to Kyoto tommorow at about 3pm, and it will be so hard to say good bye to Shoko again. Catch you later everyone! |
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Read 3 - Post |
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| Miss 外人 cooties |
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| 12:18am 19/07/2006 |
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mood:  offended, hurt, pissy
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What's wrong with this picture?
If you can't tell right away try looking again from this angle. ( Read more... )
Also this is a bit late but I have been working on papers for the last while. But the weekend of the 7-9 my childhood friends, Alaina and Jill stopped by Tokyo on their way to Thailand for a month. (lucky ducks) The 7th, tanabata we marked by going to a festival near Asakusa, where I wore my yukata and was asked for a picture by other girls wearing yukata. Although we weren't the only foreigners there by any means, I think I was the only one in yukata.
Saturday marked the akihabara trip and a trip to the honjo bosaikan, or the place where you learn about what to do in disasters. So we learned how to use fire extinguishers properly, went into the typoon simulator, practised finding the emergency exits in smoke filled buildings and practised in the earthquake simulator. (though apparently we did something wrong in the earthquake simulation - we followed exactly what they demo-ed to us, so we think maybe we took too long or something.)
And then we were off to Hakone, minus a false start of missing our train and pleading at the tourist information desk to change our tickets to a later train. (NOTE: we were INCREDIBLY LUCKY to have that done since it's against the rules if the train has already left) I suppose it helped that I added a small little white lie to the truth -namely that it wasn't me who was "the friend in Tokyo" who spoke Japanese and helped buy our tickets that morning. Safely onto a later train, we went off to Hakone for some onsen fun and hopefully some mount fuji viewing.
When we arrived, finding our hotel took a bit of time but we did get onto the right road up the hill behind the station and then onto a whackload of stairs up to the hotel. (it was really atmospheric, almost like a shrine, but with lanterns along the way) After a meal of zaru-soba in town we braved the onsen. remember, japanese onsen(hot springs) are nude! Actually this one was a rotenburo, or outdoor hotspring.
it was really hot! I'm guessing it was probably 45-47 degrees. I'm the only one who made it fully into the bath. It's sort of a pity since that was Alaina and Jill's first and last experience with onsen, well at least this trip to japan. then it was down to sleep in our futon, later than planned since watching the sunrise was impossible from where we were, let alone watching it over Fuji (my bad...I neglected to take into consideration that we would have to be on the west side of fuji in order to watch the sun rise over it... >.<)
since Sunday was misty and rainy, there was no chance to see fuji at all so we went up to the Fujiya hotel via the "ajisai densha" or hydrangea train, so named because it gives beautiful views of all the wild hydrangea in june and july.
The Fujiya hotel is really famous in Japan, and has hosted many celebraties including John Lennon. It was really pretty to look around and had so many different types of buildings, including a chapel that really reminded me of american plantation houses, where many people get married.
coming back to hakone-yumoto, we just missed the train and had to wait, and of course we had given ourselves so much time to get our train this time...or not. I guess it took longer to go down than up and we arrived *1 minute* before our train back to Tokyo left. ...Of course our bags were still at the hotel. Alaina and Jill rushed for the train while I rushed for the ticket counter to exchange my tickets before the train left. Thank god. I got the next train and was able to pick up our bags and we met at the platform back in Tokyo. What a mess! I'm going to give lots of extra time for connections when mom and I go travelling! We finished off our day with the sights at Harajuku (golthic lolitas and window shopping)and Shibuya (purikura ie sticker photos)
After we got back to my place we planned with military precision exactly which trains we had to be on to catch the appropriate narita express and I went off to buy the tickets for the narita express. Good thing I did since the one they had planned to take was completely full, as was the one before it and after it. Ended up with tickets on the 6:07am from Shinjuku. Back to my place for new military precision planning of train schedule. But despite the early hour, this last train ride was connected perfectly. Third time's the charm I guess.
Anyway, I have to get back to my last paper. Half is done and edited, half to go, now that I realize that genkouyoushi paper has 400 characters a page rather than 200. And I thought I would have had a much longer paper than was nessesary! Oh well. Mom arrives in T minus 15 hours 30 minutes, so it will be done and my room ready (and hopefully some sleep as well!) in T minus 14 hours. Wish me luck! |
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Read 2 - Post |
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| Onsen -ho |
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| 10:32pm 02/07/2006 |
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mood:  refreshed music: Kokia- 歌がチカラ CD
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So today was the long awaited trip to Oedo Onsen Monogatari with the girls from my zemi! we decided we had to go back when the american students were visiting, and this weekend was the first weekend they had free from extra classes on weekends so off we went.
yuriko-chan, kayoko-chan and I met up in odaiba, where the onsen was... I was late! >.< I have no clue what happened since there was SUPPOSED TO be a train at 12:50, yet 12:50 came and went with no train, which is SUPER rare. Anyways, off we went. Included in the entrance fee (expensive) is yukata and towel rental, and man is the yukata selection good.
Miki-chan joined us later at 3, so we did the foot baths first and got a free trial of this exfoliating hand scrub and some sort of moisture mask for your hands. (to give "velvety skin" was the dictionary's explanation...all I know is that it looked exactly like the type of glaze you pour over a coffee cake...) In the foot bath (which has all those painful pressure point paths inside the foot bath) you also had the option for some extras...sand bath etc. but the really weird one was this:
which in reality looks like this:
yes, paying 1500 yen to sit there for 10 minutes and allow little fish to eat off all your dead skin from your feet and if you so choose, your hands. talk about "十人十色" (10 people, 10 colours)! And no, they aren't tadpoles. (since I didn't know the word for tadpole in japanese, I was like "do they become frogs?")
I should probably explain this onsen a bit more, and where the monogatari (tale) part comes in. this onsen is made like an Edo period style onsen and as such, you can wander around and buy food or play games or whatnot (which is directly debited to your locker key, which you pay off afterwards) at this representation of a street during a festival in the edo period.
Then we went to the baths. Sorry, no photos allowed here! In the change room, we got two towels, one for the bath (preserving modesty, wiping sweat etc) and one to dry off. we put all our stuff into yet another locker (this makes three including the shoe locker)and headed into the bathing area. First you rinse off with a bucket and some hot water...it looks really similar to the mouth and hand washing area at the shrines. we then washed off before entering the first tub, which was really hot and was an interesting colour. after that we did the steam room and I had my first cold water rinse. then we went to the outdoor part and sat in the hottest outdoor pool until some of the old fashioned furo opened up (circular wooden bath tubs), where we proceeded to act like a bunch of kids, splashing and squirting each other. You wouldn't believe the amount of water that pours onto the tatami. Back to the hot pool for a little while longer before heading in and I took my second wade into the cold pool. then we went to a warm one and chatted for a bit before trying the asian jacuzzi/hot tub. you lay back and jets hit you from all over and you rest your head on a cold water pipe, which feels really good compared to the hot water. after a couple of minutes, I went back to the cold water pool and sat in it up to my neck this time...it felt sooo refreshing! I switched back between the warm pool and the cold pool a couple more times before we sat in another weird colour pool
it was so nice, since the new water poured over this rock behind a lattice and was lit up...I can't describe how pretty it looked. Plus sitting right next to it was cool with all the water swirling around from the two water inputs. after that, it was one last dip in the cold pool before getting out and taking a quick shower. Actually, all of the "proper onsen bathing" guidelines say not to shower after getting out of the onsen to let the minerals and such sink in properly, but yuriko-chan says most japanese shower after getting out cause they feel too sweaty...go figure.
oh, and we (mostly miki) helped this little girl who was lost get reunited with her mom, she couldn't have been more than 2 years old and was sooo cute (and cried so loudly, I'm honestly surprised her mom didn't hear her from the changing room -where we found her) it was odd, the kids. I mean I did get some looks and all but the most amusing one was not in the bath at all but out on the main "street" where I had this toddler unabashedly stare at me like I was the the most interesting thing he'd ever seen. it was pretty cute (and so was he...)but compared with entering the baths at the hotel on my ski trip with all the elementary students, I've come to the conclusion that Tokyo kids are pretty well versed in the "I've seen someone who isn't Japanese (or asian)" experience, while in the country... well yeah.
Anyways, here's some more pictures of us in yukata!
Kayoko-chan at the foot baths.
Yuriko-chan and me soaking our feet in the foot baths. (walking to that spot was tough!)
After dinner. l->r: Yuriko, Kayoko, Miki
And finally one last weird thing and my weird vending machine winning photo...
Wasabi...ramune?!?!?!?! WTF?!?! You can be sure I didn't have the balls to try it... (no pom poms on yukata...;)lol)
And for my winning photo, the sighting of the long speculated...
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PANTY VENDING MACHINE!! I WIN!!! *cue maniacal laughter* |
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Read 4 - Post |
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| I'm "it", plus a long neglected update |
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| 06:46pm 26/06/2006 |
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mood: stressed music: I'm about to listen to Ouran high school host club's opening
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Karen tagged me and Rhonda with this little game thing, so you've probably seen this already.
The RULE: Once you are tagged you MUST write an entry about 6 weird habits/things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose the next six people to be tagged and list their names.
1) I shave my legs with shampoo rather than shaving foam (since they feel smoother afterward).
2) I'm an incredibly messy person but once in a blue moon I get this crazy compulsion to clean, and it's like someone else takes over my body.
3) I can't clean unless there is loud music playing.
4) Despite being no good at retelling funny jokes etc from the net, I'm constantly being amused by them in public, and thus forced to try and explain them... >.<
5) I am very susceptible to getting the hiccups and earworms (as in getting songs stuck in my head, not some crazy parasite or whathaveyou)
6) Did you know that after Bleach on Tuesday nights, there's a talk show called "Okusama wa GAIKOKUJIN!!" (My wife is a FOREIGNER!!) which refers to the foreign wives as "mary poppins"
I suppose I can get away with tagging people if I haven't looked at who Rhonda tagged... *innocent smile* Ok ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) paleshadow, afreak2600, skyemyst, grey_eminence, iatros & lord_breetai I did try hard to choose people she hopefully didn't choose...
For another weird thing, while we're on the subject (and I've found my camera cord) check out the interesting new "fabrix" I saw advertised on the train today.
Now, call me crazy but somehow my mental image of a sasquach fabric involves lots of matted fur that most likely gives off a weird odour... and honestly, if we can't even get a decent sighting to confirm his existance, doesn't that make for an argument of endagered species? We should protest this! ;)
While we're on the quasi-sunject of engrish, I'd like to introduce my favourite brand of yakisoba bread to you...along with it's lovely slogan?!
"We will deliver delicious of a fresh combustion setting up" ... I'm begining to wonder if its wise to continue to eat this stuff.
And although it's been a week already since the end, I did promise my blue hair pictures. Also, I grabbed a picture of the fans crowded into the tiny Maple Leaf sports bar from 8:30 am to noon last Tuesday morning, for game 7.
Well, I'm back to the grindstone of getting everything wrapped up for my time here in Japan. There's final papers to write -*10* effing *PAGES* in *JAPANESE* for my zemi on "civil liberties/human rights versus national security: a comparitive look at Japan and the United States" and more luckily, 3 pages on the iron triangle ,in english (god bless dairokuno-sensei), for comparitive politics. Plus today I began the mammoth task of starting to contact NHK, my internet provider, the national health insurance desk -which last week sent me a years worth of bills for health insurance, at quadruple the price I paid last year. And don't forget a lovely little guidebook that said I should have never have been forced to apply for this bloody insurance in the first place. of course, now they won't let me cancel it until I leave, but at least they lowered the premiums for the last couple of months to my previous level... tommorow I have to re phone my internet provider and start figuring out how to pay my last phone bill with my cell phone service...I'm not looking forward to that conversation. yes, charge my last bill to my visa and then send me a statement in Canada. That's not gonna go over well, I'm thinking, but it's either that or I walk out on the bill like everyone else intends to do. |
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| Pictures!! |
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| 12:57am 25/05/2006 |
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mood:  accomplished music: Tears in Heaven
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I"m sorry for the late, late update. To get you up to speed, my ribs have now healed (thank god), Golden week was much fun and included a day trip to Kamakura, a picnic with several of the exchange students and the group of Japanese friends I went skiing with over Christmas and shopping.
The shopping continued when my childhood friend, Carmen, came to Tokyo to see me for 3 days during her trip to Japan. Seeing as her friend asked her to bring something back of the elusive and highly popular brand "a bathing ape" we went on an ape hunt in Harajuku, only to find the store was closed. ALthough this seems easy enough, please remember that an address alone is not sufficent to find the location of any building in Japan. The closest it can get you is to the neighbourhood, where you then have to wander around looking for the building number, which rather than being in any sequencial order is determined by when that particular building was built in relation to the others in the neighbourhood. But it was fun nonetheless.
Back up to speed, I'd like to thank Colin, who just bought a new domain and generously is allowing me to host my pictures there. I spent a whackload of time today uploading pictures and flipping them upright etc when I should have been working on my letter to the editor or the animethon guidebook comic translations, but they're mostly all there now. Probably this weekend I'll add in some of the other Tokyo/everyday life based pictures but all the big things, namely my trips are up for your viewing pleasure! Tada!http://afreak.ca/gallery/albums.php |
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| Alana cosplay requirements checklist. |
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| 07:57pm 25/04/2006 |
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mood:  sore
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Red Hair: check
Purple eyes: no, but contacts can solve that.
Chest bound to resemble a boy's: Check. For the next MONTH.
Yeah, so I'm currently wearing a "stabilizer" AKA the weird girdle thingy around my chest, wearing medicated cooling patches on my ribs beneath the stabilizer and for the next two weeks, popping painkillers with every meal (with more available after that should I still be in pain.)
Though I haven't technically broken my ribs (thank god) but rather fractured the cartilage between my ribs, if I understood the doctor correctly. And get this, he thinks that the cold I had in Seoul (that's still half -lingering) caused by the yellow dust that blows in from China's deserts, is the cause of my fractured cartilage. Damn you, Seoul, and your nasty dust storms. Though I'm still happy I got to see Matt and Hye-Jin's wedding. THough if they could kick a pile of dust for me the next time one rolls in, that may help me feel slightly avenged... ;)
In any case, I'm now off to do a spot of research on what to do or eat or whatever to best help me heal. The idea of wearing this girdle thing to near the end of May together with baggy t-shirts to hide the weird bulging whenever it shifts is not a pleasant one. If anyone has suggestions I'm more than happy to hear them!
In other news, we had a thunderstorm at lunchtime today, and the clouds turned the sky the oddest shade of brownish-yellow. It was quite... oppressive, I guess would be the best word for it. It was rather pretty in a creepy way. I'm kicking myself now for not taking a picture before going into the bank, because it had cleared by the time I got out. |
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| Off to the hospital again... |
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| 07:38am 25/04/2006 |
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mood: sore music: rush hour traffic outside my window
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Yeah, leaving in 10 minutes to go to the hospital to have my ribs X-rayed. They are in much pain...the doctor yesterday said one may be fractured. In any case, I'll update when I get home.
Oh and Kenzie, if you're reading this, send me your Mom's address ASAP! |
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| God I love coming home (/sarcasm) |
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| 08:47pm 17/04/2006 |
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mood:  groggy music: Kokia- yume ga chikara
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I'm back! Today was such a long and stressful day. It's about 8:30pm here and I woke up at 4:30am this morning and couldn't fall back asleep. We checked out of our "hotel" at 8am and walked over to the airport bus stop and I didn't stop traveling till 5pm when I got home after all the travel rigmarole...first I felt ill on the airport bus, then the flight was only so-so with a rough landing, and then coming into Tokyo at the beginning of rush hour is just nasty nasty, despite the fairly nice ride on the skyliner from narita to Tokyo.
Then when i get home I find my mail boxes filled with either junk or letters from the electricity company saying they will cut off my power on the 13th (ie 5 days ago) if I don't pay up. PLus I've got a phone bill in the mail and a parcel pickup notice to deal with as well. So I flick on the lights- no light -then quickly turn it off again and work out that when the uni screwed up and had me paying for other rooms as well, that was what happened. They sent me the disputed bill with a notice that roughly translates as :"you payed lasted months portion (jan) please verify this" or something to that extent since the kanji is just scrawled and nearly illegible. I was like "I just paid my electricity last week so yeah, it's paid" and left it at that. So today I went to my bank and took out lots of money that I can't afford to not have in order to pay for all my new bills and to get my train pass tomorrow. Paid bills and went off to the post office to pick up my parcel.
At this point my day starts to get much much better (though little did I know it at the time: In hindsight, I'm sure fate started going my way when I avoided stepping in the puddle of vomit on the sidewalk.) PArcel turns out to be a chocolate Easter egg with Fuzzy Peaches inside from Colin (THANK YOU!!!) and I get a giggle and WAFF inside from it. Stop at McDs for some food seeing as stove and microwave and rice cooker and kettle are all electricity-dependent devices and plug in the totally dead cell phone down in the lobby in order to call customer service and plead in broken Japanese for the power to be turned on. Bring up the food and package to room while phone begins charging and faced with darkness, automatically reach for the light near the door WHICH TURNS ON! *moment of overwhelming joy* I then went over to the other light and switch it on... one-mississippi, two-mississippi, three- and there was light. Maybe they knew right away that I had paid and returned my electricity? Actually, after opening my still-cold fridge, I realized that it had never been shut off in the first place, I was just too sleep deprived and panicky to wait for the light to kick in ealier! So now I've eaten my McChicken with no mayo but with my own ranch dressing instead (total yum), uploaded my korea pictures, and got my feelings off my chest.
I'll just say here that the wedding was gorgeous, and I was lucky enough to see (and photograph!) the more private traditional korean part of the ceremony. Both were absolutely wonderful and the reception was a blast for all it was shut down at 10pm. (receptions are not really done in korea) Hye-Jin's twin sister/maid of honour made the most beautiful speech that had us all in tears- my napkin had black mascara stains over it by the time she was finished. Before I leave you with a couple of the pictures though, I just have to say that Hye-jin and her family are such wonderful additions to our family -such genuinely warm and generous and caring people the I've invited them all to come visit us in Calgary when they come to Canada. Hye-jin and Matt are such an amazing couple-they have so much love for each other that it just radiates off of them -it's like you can physically see it. I'm totally inspired.
In this picture, Hye-jin is holding one of the chestnuts from the ceremony between her teeth and Matt is biting off part of it. Cool huh?
And just beacuse someone asked what I wore to the DMZ tour, here's this picture for fun. (We didn't visit the Joint-Security Area, so we didn't have to abide by the dress code -which is extensive.) I'll get the group photo of us all in hard hats from Holly when she gets home.
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| I have a dirty, dirty mind |
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| 03:25pm 14/04/2006 |
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mood: cheerful music: I think I heard some Donald Duck a few minutes ago..
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So yeah, we went to the De-Militarized Zone yesterday, which was pretty damn cool. Specifically, we went near Seoul, where the third tunnel was discovered in the 70's, which is a mere 52km away from Seoul and was built by North Korea for a surprise attack. So we get our hard hats on and sit in a roller coaster car looking "elevator" for the decent down to the tunnel proper. I'm sitting with my cuz Matty and several of his friends, who are making comments about the "rubbing action" (of their helmets against the walls) and the "dampness" and it's really narrow and such and my mind totally went into the gutter. I'm beginning to wonder if the north koreans deliberately built it that way as some sort of propaganda imagery thing: North korea penetrates into South korea and thus gives birth to a unified korea?
In any case, we walked to the end of south korea, where the tunnel is now blocked between the countries with like a machine gun hole as the only place that's not blocked. After that we went up to Dora Observatory and looked through binoculars to north korea and then to the train station that's totally empty now but waits in preparation for when a train can run between the two koreas. I got some stamps in my passport there.
So, I should get some more touristy things done now, since there has been much drinking and family time happening but not as much visiting the palaces or what not happening. Though when combined together we get things like Matty doing a headstand for 10 minutes in jonggak on a massive piano keyboard as part of his bachelor party dares... And tommorow is strictly wedding day, so I'd like to at least visit the cherry blossom festival place before then. be back on monday with wedding tales and photos! |
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| Shoutout from Korea |
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| 05:59pm 09/04/2006 |
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mood:  sympathetic music: various game BGM
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So I'm writing from an internet cafe in Seoul while Tom, the game adict, plays some sort of cute bobbly thing racing game next to me. We've been checking out the markets today and doing some omiage shopping. I'm feeling broke already. But given the amount of alcohol I poured down my throat last night, I'm really surprised that I'm totally ok today.
Last night, my cousin Matt and two of his friends, (Chris)Mitchell and Michael, came to pick Tom and I up from the airport. After wandering around the city hall area for a while, we found a cheap hole-in-the-wall type motel that's 3000 wan a night. (like $35CND) After we got our ags and crap dropped off, all five of us went out for a drink. Seeing a big thunerstorm hit while we were in the bar (smoke free, yeah!) we ended up staying longer than maybe was good for Tom and I. Six screwdrivers later, I was totally plastered. I really should have been cut off at 4 or 5, but apparantly they don't do that in Korea. So I have now passed another drinking milestone; I tossed my cookies. But still, no hangover. Guess all the water they poured down my throat really helped.
Not much more to say yet except I'm really looking forward to the visit to the demilitarized zone with everyone on Wendesday. I just have to check my clothes to put together an outfit that will pass the super-strict dress code! Nothing casual or form fitting or miliary-esque or sporty. I'm half afraid that I'll be forced to walk around for 7 hours in the high heels I brought to wear at the wedding, since I only have them and my sneakers!
And finally, a sympathy shoutout to Colin, who just lost his Grandather. *hugs* |
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| 花見！ |
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| 04:26am 04/04/2006 |
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mood:  cynical music: The reving of the motercycles outside my window
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I know, I know, I should have updated long before now. But as always, the thought of trying to catch up with my Kyushu trip leaves my knees a knocking. For now, I'll say aside from getting sick and such, it was awesome. If I had to choose a city to live in for the rest of my life, I might just choose Nagasaki. There was much history, many cool museums, pretty scenery, rather good weather for the most part and the weirdest vending machine in Japan in my love hotel room. (hahaha! Darth Vader... hahahaha!)
When I finish going through my photos and uploading them I'll start describing it in more detail. But for now, I have experienced hanami.
What is hanami? Literally it refers to flower-watching (specifically cherry blossoms.) Culturally, it refers to sitting underneath the cherry trees with friends and drinking copious amounts of alcohol, whilst appreciating the blossoms. Sometimes, if you're part of a well organized and well connected group, there may even be a karaoke machine involved. (the second stalwart presence of a Japanese party...first beer then karaoke) My group however was more spur of the moment so it only involved convinience store booze (for me a tipsy ride home) and ramen after being caught in a downpour.
As a final thought, I saw this today, and I'm calling troll. If not, this is a prefect example of why there are such things as mad cow disease running rampant through our world. Don't make horses eat cows! |
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| Kyuushuu ho! |
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| 09:16am 18/03/2006 |
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mood:  naughty music: Planetarium
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So before I head off to Kyuushuu, and slightly less likely internet access than Thailand, I think I've decided how to deal with creepy oyagi guy. I think I will write back to him as the teenage son of a middle aged woman who "owns" my account. I'll try and get it written and sent off today before I leave: C.O.G. has now taken to wasting internet space rather than just his own time -the latest email was a link to a compilation of his favorite songs for me..all love songs circa about 1992 mind you. I'm totally grossed out.
So Tom and I decided to do a day trip on Thursday. I found a webpage that gives maps and directions for several self guided tours in and around the Tokyo area, so we went out to Hino and did a shinsengumi tour! we got a bit lost at first, since there are several sites left over in the Hino area from the Bakufu. We turned the wrong way at first, since we saw a shinsengumi flag and followed it to a small museum that wasn't on my original plan (but it was closed for lunch) got directions from the mail carrier, when back to the main street, got more directions from the konbini clerk, stopped at the place we were looking for, read the kanji wrong and continued down the street looking for it. we finally get to a hospital and ask directions yet again, find out we've passed it, get told to go to the opposite side of the street. Walking back on the opposite side we find the library that we've been told is nearby and discover that yes, the "culture centre" is really what we were looking for. Luckily they had a discount ticket for that site and the museum that was next on our list and a very good map that led us there.
Tom and I got to dress up and Shinsengumi! Don't you think I'll have no problems passing as a boy in Nagasaki if need be? After we finished at that museum, where there was a very informative and patient guide to show us around and help us dress up, in the interests of finding food (and plain forgetting) we ended up walking to the next place rather than catch the bus we were supposed to. I'm actaully quite proud of my returning map-making and direction finding skills since we not only took a shortcut, but I chose the right street to turn on! At the bus stop we were supposed to get off at originally, we asked the very befuddled 7-11 staff which direction we needed to walk two minutes in. They eventually decided we wanted to go to the temple. They drew a very nice map on a paper towel and sent us on our way...though we found the place we were looking for on the way to the temple. No wonder they didn't know what we were talking about; the site had been turned into a youth centre!
We decided to have a peek at the temple, while we were there. I hould explain that all day Tom and I had been joking about stealing the "flags" that people use to advertise here. In the temple's graveyard I saw an unattended temple flag that I was this close from snagging. But you know, it's a graveyard you know...I'm not really keen on footless spirits haunting my walls. *laughs*
Since we had been walking so far and it hadn't been that bad, we decided to keep walking. The last stop was a big temple complex with a shinsengumi statue. When we were wandering near the fox-spirit shrine, I found a set of steps that were roped off. Since my Tara-devil had been thwarted earlier in flag snagging, I decided to ameliorate some of the tension by going up those same said steps while Tom found another way up. About halfway up I realized that there was a good reason why they were blocked: the steps were crumbling and cracking up pretty badly. But I made it unscathed to the top, with a smidgon of my naughtiness relieved.
Poor Jason...I may have to get rid of more in Kyuushuu. That and he has to beat my awesome manhole cover find! Beat this one Jason!
In Korea news, Tom and I have bought our tickets: April 8-17 for about $350 CND or so roundtrip. Guess who's excited? Now depending on the temp, I have to choose between the summerweight nice dress I brought, or my kimono if it'll be too cool yet for a backless, knee length dress. I've been practicing my shoddy obi-tying skills just in case...I'd better improve and soon!
Well, I'd better get into the shower and finish my packing and get my garbage taken out etc. I'll still be reachable on my cell while I'm gone if anything comes up. Until the 28th (or whenever I next get internet access!) |
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| Happy White Day! |
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| 11:01am 14/03/2006 |
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mood: cynical music: Prozzak -Hot Show
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So, do any of you remember way back in Novemeber when I wrote about the creepy 35-ish Austrian guy who started hitting on me after I gave him my email? The one who just couldn't take a hint? Well he's still not taking the hint, and has taken to sending me emails practically every week. So for your viewing enjoyment, I give you his pathetic "let's get together for white day -I'll (as good as) pay you!" attempt.
"Hello,
How are you!?
Happy coming White Day 14th!!
Lets celebrate it together!?
Lets met on 14th or on the week around the White Day!
I wish it to be wonderfull,fantastic and romantic for you!
I think its the only one special day for you a year!
I will give you a present what you like best, flowers, a cake or a music CD!
Lets meet for example in Shinjuku at Takashimaya on the 1st floor in front of
flower shop or HMV, have dinner, White Day party!?
Let me know what day and time you are free to meet!!
Looking forward celebration the White Day with you!
Have good days!
Kind regards,
Daniel"
This bears striking resemblance to the Valentines email I got, the Christmas email I got, ad nauseum. If I was a mean person, I could really take him to the cleaners, for the price of a little pawing. But honestly, I'm wondering if he'll ever stop -I've never given him any indication that I'm even getting these emails! I'm begining to consider actaully emailing him and telling him off (and thus giving vent to my temper) or even emailing him as a totally different person and telling him that he's been suckered. Though I'm not sure which option is the crueler one... So what do you guys think? Keep ignoring him; tell him off as myself; or "let him down" via a made up persona? Any other suggestions?
In other news I'm trying to get all my Korea trip plans roughed out and the tickets bought before I leave on Saturday. (awesome deals from ANA on flights booked 21 days or more in advance) So after I'm finished here, I'm off to a JAL office and an HIS office to see if they can beat the airfare I found online for ANA.
And finally, another Canada Post update. I was talking with Lyle yesterday to fins out the package still hadn't arrived. Tracking it online saw it on it's way back to me because of an "incomplete address" ?!?! WTF!? Has Canada suddenly introduced as secondary postal code system or something? So Lyle called Purolator this morning and they're going to try to track down the package and re-deliver it. We'll see how that works out... |
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| Coming soon to a dollar store AND a gas station near you... |
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| 04:12am 10/03/2006 |
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mood:  grumpy music: Instruments of Classical Music- The Violin CD
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Introducing: Vanillin! Straight from a Japanese lab, this is the newest artificial vanilla scent extract! Coming soon to vanilla scented candles and shampoo near you! Now what has that to do with gas stations you might ask? Japanese researchers in a different lab were experimenting with the same substance that Vanillin comes from and managed to extract a "gasoline-like liquid fuel...that [can hopefully] be used commercially within five years." But what is this miracle substance?
In other Japan-related news, the Japanese Cabinet has just approved a bill that, if passed, would require all visitors to Japan to be fingerprinted upon entry. Luckily, this nasty piece of privacy-invading xenophobia is being opposed by Japanese Bar Associations, so hopefully it won't pass. Forgive my sarcasm, but wasn't the Sarin Gas Attack in the subway *home-grown* terrorism? Oh well, I suppose Canada's not that much better in some regards.
In those regards, Canada Post is the most anal thing since Adam's own a**. The other day I sent a package home with a few small gifts from Thailand, nothing terribly expensive or endangered or anything. However, I did send home a cooking kit with some Thai spices for my Dad: an airport duty-free shop, wrapped in celophane, perfectly legit touristy gift. So I go to the post office, get everything packed just right and tape up my package for mailing. I get to the counter and do the normal "what's in the package routine?" with the postal clerk. However the moment I mention spices, Oh! that's a whole new set of questions "Is it seeds? Or how about beans? Or even *gasp* powder? Are you sure? Or heaven forbid it should be wheat!" Of course, all I remember is that chilis and lemongrass are two of the 5.
Once that is past us, it's time to fill out the goods type shipping form. *headdesk x 10* "Ok, you have to put each item on a seperate line! Don't forget to include the letter! Now that you've done that, your already-tightly-sealed-package weighs 737 grams, please break down the weight of the individual contents and mark them down. Now, please cross out the general value of the package in Canadian dollars that you stupidly put in because you've always done that even on previous packages coming into Canada, because you can't do that. Instead, please mark down the individual price, in yen (regardless of the fact you paid in baht), of each item in said package, including the price of the piece of stationary you used to write your letter on. *tears out clumps of hair in frustration* "Now that we've finished making perfect blacked out boxes around your mistakes, are you completely certain that addressing mail to 'Jorgensen Family' is allowed? You're totally sure that's normal? OK." *stamps and takes money* That's 45 minutes of our lives neither the postal clerk or I will ever have back. I think Canada Post needs to have "Please lie to us, we *do* so enjoy it!" stamped across their collective foreheads.
Oh and guess who's fighting with beartracks again to try and put together next year's schedule? *headesk* |
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| Well that was quite the change in plans... |
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| 10:07pm 28/02/2006 |
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mood: groggy
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 The pool and beach at Cha-am. Ah, thank you for my tan lines and new freckles!
In my last update I didn't have time to mention I'd been feeling queasy that afternoon, but since I was up most of Friday night being violently ill, plans on Saturday were curtailed. Let it be known that I will never willingly eat Thai food again unless it's at some diplomatic function, since it burns twice as bad coming back up.
We cancelled the boats but managed to go to the weekend market. It really was a pity that I was feeling so tired and sick, because the market was really quite awesome. I was however shocked at the animal area of the market. There were a couple realy crowded cages but on the whole that wasn't the problem. The puppies all looked so tiny. Of course I'm not an expert on dogs by any stretch of the means, but I've seen the average size of puppies in the pet stores and these dogs looked far too young to be away from their mothers yet. It broke my heart thinking about it.
While I'm ranting, I might as well get my toilet rant out of the way. Of course, I've whined about Japanese squat toilets before, but I suddenly find myself appreciating them after being exposed to Thai "toilets", which are basically an upraised trench. so not only do you bear the risk of losing your balance while squating and falling off, but there's no hood so your aim needs to be nearly as good as a guy's. Try that when you're trying not to breathe through your nose- above and beyond spillage, all the toilet paper is to be thrown in the garbage since there's no flush on the toilet. Yes, you did read that right. There is no flush on the toilet. Instead there is a trough of water and a bucket next to the "toilet" which you use to dump water into the toilet until your waste is all sucked down. of course, splashing water everywhere leads not only to slippery floors but to dirty ones as well. It makes me wonder how many fastidious foreigners are treated for urea poisoning after a visit to Thailand! All in all, given the number of germs you can pick up just from the bathrooms alone if you're not careful, it's no surprise that we had to give our info to the quarantine office when we got home!
Sunday was a lazy day. Shoko's flight to Australia was at 5:30, so they dropped me at my hotel on the way to the airport and made me promise not to go out after dark. I swam in the hotel pool, ate near my hotel and shopped a bit in the market next to my hotel...cheap sandals that I had to cram into my already overflowing luggage. but they were too cute and cheap to pass up. Then I curled up with a book.
Monday was both horrid and excellent at the same time. Shoko warned me about the taxis so I decided to take the train instead to go to my spa appointment. I left my hotel and hour before my appointment, but due to misleading maps and directions, it took a full hour to get there, sweaty and out of breath...and I was supposed to be 15 min early. But, oh was it worth it. There's definately something to be said for a posh spa- the whole atmosphere is relaxing and decadent and calm. I even got a choice of which incense I wanted burning! It was such a delicious experience that I'm not sure I can give it up! I mean, I always knew I was something of a hedonist- fluffy pillows and a soft warm bed, a book and hot chocolate etc. One more reason to be an uber-successful diplomat! Balance the two sides of my personality!
Excellent parts of monday continued after my spa treatment on my way to the (closer!) BTS station, where there was another little market. I don't know how I do it, but it seems that I always buy my patriotic socks in Asian countries that begin with the letter T. Although my new pairs don't have the flag on them, they do say Canada on them and are quite cute in a sporty way. Baskin Robbins icecream also featured in the the excellent side of Monday. The last excellent part of monday directly led to the horrid side of monday. When I picked up my luggage and went to wait for the airport bus infront of the neighbouring hotel, the porter told me that at that hour it could take up to an hour for the bus to get to us through rush hour...not to mention the about an hour it takes to get to the airport. Although I has planned a decent amount of time I thought that maybe I would be running late since I seemed to be cursed in doing that all day despite how generously I alloted travel time. Luckily, the Indra hotel has a hotel car that was a set 500baht charge to go to the airport. After hearing Shoko's horror story about her friend who asked a cabbie to take her to the airport but proceeded to go the opposite direction and charge her 5 times what a fare to the airport would normally be, I jumped at the chance to go staight to the airport in a car with a/c. Of course, due to the time I saved by going directly in the car and I think a mistake converting out of the 24h clock, I arrived 2 hours before my flight's check in counter even opened! Ie: 5 hours before my flight left! Thank god I had visited a used bookstore the day before! But being first in line to check in meant I had time to browse all the duty free shops for a gift for Dad! And have time to eat a bit. (There was a young couple at the next table that had an adorable little baby who smiled almost exactly the same way Sam smiles...I got so homesick!)
The flight was an overnighter, which was nasty, since I can't sleep on planes. I shudder to think how bad it would have been if I hadn't been at the spa earlier... I managed to get my best -fitful dozing- without too much pain and stiffness afterward. Oh man was it nice to crawl into my warm bed when I finally got back to my apt!
Well, despite sleeping for a couple of hours this morning/afternoon, I'm ready for bed again! Good night! |
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ecstatic
