It's been a while. But I need to wax poetic.
Jon and I were lying in bed reading the other night, totally silent, when I spouted off my apparently very important beliefs on chapter titles. I HATE chapters that have titles. It drives me nuts! I read the title and think, "I have to remember this so that I can remember to find the connection while I'm reading the chapter." And then I'm distracted for the first few paragraphs. And then I just forget the title altogether. And then I get to the next chapter and think, "Shoot! I forgot to look for the connection! Maybe I should go back and find it . . . No, that's silly. Move on."
And I start all over.
If I ever write a book, I will number the chapters.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Japan Day 5
Day 5, December 25, Christmas Day
To Kyoto! We rolled out slowly and grabbed some coffee and pastries from the coffee shop downstairs before heading out on our journey to Kyoto. Before I get into the details of the trip, let me tell you that Kyoto is probably 50 miles from Osaka.
We had decided not to take the bullet train, but to take two different subway lines to get to the JR Rail line and take a commuter train into Kyoto. So we pack up our small rollers each and start heading down to the subway. About 30 seconds in and I am covered in sweat. I started stripping off my coat, my scarf, my fleece and mopping my face with a Kleenex as we shoved our way onto the first train. And yes, it was crowded because the Japanese were headed to work just like any other day.
We get off the first subway and pick up our suitcase, which, by the way, are at least twice as big as the average Japanese suitcase, and walk up and down and up and down and up some more to get to the next platform. No escalators. I thought I was going to cry. We finally made it to our train and slightly randomly picked one that seemed to be headed in the right direction. Many stops and about 2 hours later and we arrived in Kyoto!
Our hotel was fabulous. The Westin, which we got for free on points, and amazingly few at that. We walked in the front door and there was a Boyz II Men Dinner Show sign posted. Wait, what? Can we get tickets? We headed to the concierge and asked about the show. I thought, yeah, it's random, but what a fun thing to do on Christmas! The concierge says that we have to call another office to buy the tickets, but let's see what they cost. So he pulls out a poster and looks at it . . . and starts laughing. He points out the price - 40,000 to 70,000 yen. Each! That's about $400 to $700 per ticket! We both started laughing and said never mind!
We had a little while to kill before getting into our room and we were both hungry after our adventure, so we chose the Chinese restaurant for lunch. We had dim sum, an appropriately Jewish meal on Christmas Day. It was fabulous! The chef just made his specialties and sent them out. It was so much food, but truly amazing! The one really weird thing was the black dumpling stuff with shark fin. It was very fishy.
Then we headed out on the Philosopher's Walk. It's a "mile" long walk that a philosophy professor at the university used to take daily to think. I say "mile" because that's how it's advertised, but it's anything but. It was quite beautiful, though. There were traditional Japanese gardens along the way, the mountains rising next to us and a canal to walk along. We learned the difference between a temple and a shrine. A temple is Buddhist and a shrine in Shinto. Shinto was the local religion, similar to what we might think of as paganism, before Buddhism arrived. The people pray to gods of various things, mostly from nature, to protect them. Shrines appear all over the place and are usually small. Buddhism arrived in the 6th century and really took hold for a long time. It virtually disappeared when Japan closed itself off from the rest of the world and began to really take hold again after WWII. You can practice both at the same time and most people in Japan do. Some of the statues at shrines are bibbed in red. It looks kind of funny, but it's done by women who have lost children or babies or miscarried to protect the baby's soul.
So we walked and walked and looked at all kinds of shrines and temples. We walked for probably 2 hours before we decided to quit. And we had only made it about 1/8 of the way along the walk! I wanted to walk back to the hotel and check out the neighborhoods along the way, but Jon hailed a cab and hopped in before I could protest. And good thing because seconds later, thunder pealed and the sky opened.
We rested for a bit before heading to the Gion district where the geisha hang out. There is a huge, amazing shrine in the Gion district. We walked along the back alleys behind the shrine where the traditional Japanese tea houses are. It's so quiet and secluded - you can't see anything from the street. Then we headed down the main shopping strip. We saw 3 real geisha hobbling down the street! I took the picture of the back of one of them. I was very excited! Jon was embarrassed.
And then we started hunting for a restaurant. I had read in the guidebook that a lot of the restaurants in Gion won't even acknowledge you unless you have the proper introduction. We had to try 3 different restaurants before we found one that would take us. The first two said they didn't have any room, which they obviously did. The last was a little noodle place that was amazing.
We finished up our day in the hotel bar for a couple of drinks. Two Japanese women came out in evening gowns and one started playing piano while the other took up the mic . . . and started singing in English! It was funny. She probably didn't really know English, but had memorized the jazz songs. It was fun anyway!
To Kyoto! We rolled out slowly and grabbed some coffee and pastries from the coffee shop downstairs before heading out on our journey to Kyoto. Before I get into the details of the trip, let me tell you that Kyoto is probably 50 miles from Osaka.
We had decided not to take the bullet train, but to take two different subway lines to get to the JR Rail line and take a commuter train into Kyoto. So we pack up our small rollers each and start heading down to the subway. About 30 seconds in and I am covered in sweat. I started stripping off my coat, my scarf, my fleece and mopping my face with a Kleenex as we shoved our way onto the first train. And yes, it was crowded because the Japanese were headed to work just like any other day.
We get off the first subway and pick up our suitcase, which, by the way, are at least twice as big as the average Japanese suitcase, and walk up and down and up and down and up some more to get to the next platform. No escalators. I thought I was going to cry. We finally made it to our train and slightly randomly picked one that seemed to be headed in the right direction. Many stops and about 2 hours later and we arrived in Kyoto!
Our hotel was fabulous. The Westin, which we got for free on points, and amazingly few at that. We walked in the front door and there was a Boyz II Men Dinner Show sign posted. Wait, what? Can we get tickets? We headed to the concierge and asked about the show. I thought, yeah, it's random, but what a fun thing to do on Christmas! The concierge says that we have to call another office to buy the tickets, but let's see what they cost. So he pulls out a poster and looks at it . . . and starts laughing. He points out the price - 40,000 to 70,000 yen. Each! That's about $400 to $700 per ticket! We both started laughing and said never mind!
We had a little while to kill before getting into our room and we were both hungry after our adventure, so we chose the Chinese restaurant for lunch. We had dim sum, an appropriately Jewish meal on Christmas Day. It was fabulous! The chef just made his specialties and sent them out. It was so much food, but truly amazing! The one really weird thing was the black dumpling stuff with shark fin. It was very fishy.
Then we headed out on the Philosopher's Walk. It's a "mile" long walk that a philosophy professor at the university used to take daily to think. I say "mile" because that's how it's advertised, but it's anything but. It was quite beautiful, though. There were traditional Japanese gardens along the way, the mountains rising next to us and a canal to walk along. We learned the difference between a temple and a shrine. A temple is Buddhist and a shrine in Shinto. Shinto was the local religion, similar to what we might think of as paganism, before Buddhism arrived. The people pray to gods of various things, mostly from nature, to protect them. Shrines appear all over the place and are usually small. Buddhism arrived in the 6th century and really took hold for a long time. It virtually disappeared when Japan closed itself off from the rest of the world and began to really take hold again after WWII. You can practice both at the same time and most people in Japan do. Some of the statues at shrines are bibbed in red. It looks kind of funny, but it's done by women who have lost children or babies or miscarried to protect the baby's soul.
So we walked and walked and looked at all kinds of shrines and temples. We walked for probably 2 hours before we decided to quit. And we had only made it about 1/8 of the way along the walk! I wanted to walk back to the hotel and check out the neighborhoods along the way, but Jon hailed a cab and hopped in before I could protest. And good thing because seconds later, thunder pealed and the sky opened.
We rested for a bit before heading to the Gion district where the geisha hang out. There is a huge, amazing shrine in the Gion district. We walked along the back alleys behind the shrine where the traditional Japanese tea houses are. It's so quiet and secluded - you can't see anything from the street. Then we headed down the main shopping strip. We saw 3 real geisha hobbling down the street! I took the picture of the back of one of them. I was very excited! Jon was embarrassed.
And then we started hunting for a restaurant. I had read in the guidebook that a lot of the restaurants in Gion won't even acknowledge you unless you have the proper introduction. We had to try 3 different restaurants before we found one that would take us. The first two said they didn't have any room, which they obviously did. The last was a little noodle place that was amazing.
We finished up our day in the hotel bar for a couple of drinks. Two Japanese women came out in evening gowns and one started playing piano while the other took up the mic . . . and started singing in English! It was funny. She probably didn't really know English, but had memorized the jazz songs. It was fun anyway!
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Japan, Day 4
Wednesday, December 24 - Osaka
Can you believe I'm only on Day 4? Life has been busy since I took over the ED job for my boss!
4:30a - I am wide awake. So wide awake I almost got out of bed, put on clothes and went down to the lobby to read. But I flip flopped for about half an hour and finally fell back asleep.
We woke up on Christmas Eve at 8a in our separate twin-and-a-half beds and enjoyed our lazy time. We turned on CNN, one of two channels in English, and enjoyed our morning. The big story? Pandas! Yup. Taiwan had finally accepted China's gift of two pandas, 3 years after they had been offered. And then there was the track on Santa as he started around the globe. We flipped over to BBC and it was pandas. I read the paper - and there they were!
We finally got moving and headed downstairs to buy some vending machine coffee. It was my first taste and it was good. An aluminum can with cream and sugar and it was fantastic. I wish we had it here! We also picked up some prepackaged pastries in the AM/PM that was in the train station. Bought them from a tall Japanese boy in a reindeer hat. :) I ate half of my pastry and held onto the second half. Then we explored the trains. That was interesting. There are about 18 different lines. There's the plain old subway. And then there's the JR line, the commuter line. And those can be owned by any number of companies. And lastly there's the bullet train. We made our way to the ticket office and with lots of writing and signing, we made the girl understand that we wanted to go to Kyoto tomorrow, and then to Beppu two days after that. It was tricky, but she was determined. And we got our tickets. Whew!
Then we headed to the subway. We finally figured out which line we wanted and then found the ticket machines. Jon struggled to match the characters on the machine to those on the map until I pointed out the "English" button. Much easier. We hopped on the subway and grabbed some seats. I sat next to an old lady who tried out her limited English on me, pointing at the pastry and laughing, saying, me too! She asked where I was from. And before she got off, she pulled her half eaten package of cookies out of her purse and insisted I take them. Hmm . . .
We actually made it to the reclaimed landfill that was our destination. It was really nice! Silly sounding, I know. But they had built a shopping mall, Ferris wheel, aquarium and several museums in that area. We checked out the mall first and the first thing we found inside was . . . a petting zoo! Yeah, random. A goat right there in the opening to this store area. Across the way you could dress up as a samurai and get your picture taken. I was starving and after wandering through the food court with no idea how to order, I pointed out a corn dog in a case. Jon got a picture of that meal.
Then we ran into some penguins. They were chilling outside the aquarium. Apparently they were the marketing ploy. The staff had set up a pen complete with piles of snow. And then penguins were happily hanging out just feet from a lot of people.
We thought we'd check out the bird sanctuary that was mentioned in our guidebook. So we started walking. Along the water. Past a lot of docks. And walking. After about 2 miles, I was ready to turn back. But Jon insisted it was just right there. So we kept walking. And sure enough, the bird sanctuary. But man was it sketchy! It was empty. There were stairs going up to the right that were covered with dead leaves. Not a soul to be seen. Except the truckers driving in and out picking up shipping crates across the street. It was a mugging/murder waiting to happen. I refused to go in. Jon convinced me to at least walk to the top of the stairs. I made it there, then ran back down and headed out. Yikes!
Well that was a bust. So we hunted out the wine museum. We walked and walked and found the Mizuno headquarters. My fave running shoes. And we could not find the stupid museum! OK, back toward the aquarium. We found a little cafe and had a couple of beers, then headed back to the hotel.
The local specialty is tofu, so we decided to try it out. There was a restaurant in the basement of the hotel that specialized in tofu so we headed down. They had a couple of set meals and we decided to split one. Good thing, because it was a lot of food! They brought tiny dish after tiny dish of various preparations of tofu - fried, slimy, pickled . . . all kinds of weird things. I've never been a huge fan of tofu. This cemented it. It's weird. We also had two Cokes each. And when the bill came . . . it was $100! $100 for a meal of little bits of tofu!! OMG.
It was still early, so we walked into the department store adjoining our hotel. It was 12 floors of crazy! The typical make-up on the bottom floor, an entire floor of Christmas decorations, and then it got interesting. There were all kinds of interesting ties in the men's department. The kitchen floor had some funny and really cool gadgets. There was life-sized fake dogs and a restaurant on every floor. It was wild! By floor 8 I was exhausted. One floor was all traditional dress. You picked out your fabric and had a kimono made and then got your insanely expensive platform flip flops with socks. By the time we made it all the way back down, I was ready to collapse.
Can you believe I'm only on Day 4? Life has been busy since I took over the ED job for my boss!
4:30a - I am wide awake. So wide awake I almost got out of bed, put on clothes and went down to the lobby to read. But I flip flopped for about half an hour and finally fell back asleep.
We woke up on Christmas Eve at 8a in our separate twin-and-a-half beds and enjoyed our lazy time. We turned on CNN, one of two channels in English, and enjoyed our morning. The big story? Pandas! Yup. Taiwan had finally accepted China's gift of two pandas, 3 years after they had been offered. And then there was the track on Santa as he started around the globe. We flipped over to BBC and it was pandas. I read the paper - and there they were!
We finally got moving and headed downstairs to buy some vending machine coffee. It was my first taste and it was good. An aluminum can with cream and sugar and it was fantastic. I wish we had it here! We also picked up some prepackaged pastries in the AM/PM that was in the train station. Bought them from a tall Japanese boy in a reindeer hat. :) I ate half of my pastry and held onto the second half. Then we explored the trains. That was interesting. There are about 18 different lines. There's the plain old subway. And then there's the JR line, the commuter line. And those can be owned by any number of companies. And lastly there's the bullet train. We made our way to the ticket office and with lots of writing and signing, we made the girl understand that we wanted to go to Kyoto tomorrow, and then to Beppu two days after that. It was tricky, but she was determined. And we got our tickets. Whew!
Then we headed to the subway. We finally figured out which line we wanted and then found the ticket machines. Jon struggled to match the characters on the machine to those on the map until I pointed out the "English" button. Much easier. We hopped on the subway and grabbed some seats. I sat next to an old lady who tried out her limited English on me, pointing at the pastry and laughing, saying, me too! She asked where I was from. And before she got off, she pulled her half eaten package of cookies out of her purse and insisted I take them. Hmm . . .
We actually made it to the reclaimed landfill that was our destination. It was really nice! Silly sounding, I know. But they had built a shopping mall, Ferris wheel, aquarium and several museums in that area. We checked out the mall first and the first thing we found inside was . . . a petting zoo! Yeah, random. A goat right there in the opening to this store area. Across the way you could dress up as a samurai and get your picture taken. I was starving and after wandering through the food court with no idea how to order, I pointed out a corn dog in a case. Jon got a picture of that meal.
Then we ran into some penguins. They were chilling outside the aquarium. Apparently they were the marketing ploy. The staff had set up a pen complete with piles of snow. And then penguins were happily hanging out just feet from a lot of people.
We thought we'd check out the bird sanctuary that was mentioned in our guidebook. So we started walking. Along the water. Past a lot of docks. And walking. After about 2 miles, I was ready to turn back. But Jon insisted it was just right there. So we kept walking. And sure enough, the bird sanctuary. But man was it sketchy! It was empty. There were stairs going up to the right that were covered with dead leaves. Not a soul to be seen. Except the truckers driving in and out picking up shipping crates across the street. It was a mugging/murder waiting to happen. I refused to go in. Jon convinced me to at least walk to the top of the stairs. I made it there, then ran back down and headed out. Yikes!
Well that was a bust. So we hunted out the wine museum. We walked and walked and found the Mizuno headquarters. My fave running shoes. And we could not find the stupid museum! OK, back toward the aquarium. We found a little cafe and had a couple of beers, then headed back to the hotel.
The local specialty is tofu, so we decided to try it out. There was a restaurant in the basement of the hotel that specialized in tofu so we headed down. They had a couple of set meals and we decided to split one. Good thing, because it was a lot of food! They brought tiny dish after tiny dish of various preparations of tofu - fried, slimy, pickled . . . all kinds of weird things. I've never been a huge fan of tofu. This cemented it. It's weird. We also had two Cokes each. And when the bill came . . . it was $100! $100 for a meal of little bits of tofu!! OMG.
It was still early, so we walked into the department store adjoining our hotel. It was 12 floors of crazy! The typical make-up on the bottom floor, an entire floor of Christmas decorations, and then it got interesting. There were all kinds of interesting ties in the men's department. The kitchen floor had some funny and really cool gadgets. There was life-sized fake dogs and a restaurant on every floor. It was wild! By floor 8 I was exhausted. One floor was all traditional dress. You picked out your fabric and had a kimono made and then got your insanely expensive platform flip flops with socks. By the time we made it all the way back down, I was ready to collapse.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Japan Day 3
Tuesday, December 23
I arrived in Japan with 2 small wheelies - clothes for semi-warm weather and clothes for definitely cold weather. Plus workout gear, books, some dress up clothes, and toiletries. I emptied one of the suitcases, packed up in my other one for our trip to the mainland, and handed over suitcase #2 to Jon. OMG. I have never seen such a ridiculous packing job. (OK, it was pretty bad when we went on our mini honeymoon and he packed dress shirts, blazer, ties - and no underwear.) He had to extend the suitcase. I mean, come on! We're going for 6 days!
So we arrive at the airport - and they cannot find our reservation. We were barely able to communicate with the woman in the pretty neck scarf, but she was determined. We eventually got on our plane to Osaka.
So we get off on the other end a couple of hours later, gather our luggage and head out to the taxi stand. We hop in the cab and Jon hands over the address of the hotel. The cabbie (who is in a full suit with lace covers on the seats in an immaculate cab) looks at it, looks at it, opens a map and says, "Osaka?" Yes, we say. He looks at the map again. Finally turns around and says, "Is very far. Maybe 30 minutes. And toll rode. OK?" OK, we say. We head out and our cabbie is very talkative and we find out that we flew into Kobe. There are 3 Osaka airports - and Jon picked the one that's the farthest away. Thankfully, it was the Emperor's birthday and a national holiday, so there was no traffic - everything was closed. We flew to the hotel, made it in about 35 minutes - and had to pay about $130 US! Oops. That was an expensive mistake.
We arrived at our hotel, got all checked in and the bellboy was leading the way with our bags in tow. I whispered to Jon to get a tip ready. Of course, their bills are huge and their equivalent of $5 is in coins. So Jon counts some out on the elevator and as we get to our room, promptly throws it at the bellboy. We have to work on that hand off. :) The worst part was, the bellboy couldn't accept tips and had to pick up the money and hand it back.
So I'm already hungry and it's about 1:30p at this point. I want to eat at the hotel, but Jon wants to start walking to the Osaka Castle. I say, fine, but we have to stop and eat on the way. Well, Jon turns down my request for KFC. Yup, that's right. So we keep walking. It's probably 2-3 miles to the castle. It's a nice day, a bit chilly, and an easy walk. But it's a national holiday. Everything is closed! For the first time in our marriage, Jon found out what happens to me when I get hungry. 25 minutes into the walk he found a Japanese curry place, which was great. I popped into the bathroom on the way out - and discovered my first squat toilet. They are seriously impossible. It's like a porcelain trough in the floor and you have to figure out how to balance, not pee on your pants, and aim so that you don't get hit with the splash all at the same time. I'd rather pee in the woods.
So we headed back out on our walk toward the castle. It was pretty cool! It was originally built in the late 1500s and was destroyed in the Summer War in 1614. It was rebuilt around 1650 and then burned down. The current castle is a replica. There are two mote surrounding the castle, an inner mote and an outer. Oddly, one half of the inner mote is and always has been dry. No one has any idea why. The rest of the motes are filled with water. The outer gate at the castle is from the rebuilt in 1648. And inside the castle walls, right next to the actual castle building, is an ugly European building - huge, squat, heavy - uglying up the castle. It was the Japanese Army headquarters in WWII - someone thought it was a good idea to stick it right next the castle. Attractive. We headed up to the top of the castle and got the cold 360 degree view. Then we walked down the 7 floors and checked out the museum displays on each floor. There was some really cool stuff. Like a collapsible gold leaf tea room that could be packed up and moved. There was all kinds of crazy armor with helmets that had weird horns. One of the sets of armor was actually shot at to test its strength - and it held against the bullets. You could see the dents. They even decorated the jaw pieces with mustaches (which were super creepy).
We slowly walked back to the hotel, sucked up bowls of soba (buckwheat noodles in broth) in a restaurant in the hotel and then collapsed. I was literally asleep at 8p.
I arrived in Japan with 2 small wheelies - clothes for semi-warm weather and clothes for definitely cold weather. Plus workout gear, books, some dress up clothes, and toiletries. I emptied one of the suitcases, packed up in my other one for our trip to the mainland, and handed over suitcase #2 to Jon. OMG. I have never seen such a ridiculous packing job. (OK, it was pretty bad when we went on our mini honeymoon and he packed dress shirts, blazer, ties - and no underwear.) He had to extend the suitcase. I mean, come on! We're going for 6 days!
So we arrive at the airport - and they cannot find our reservation. We were barely able to communicate with the woman in the pretty neck scarf, but she was determined. We eventually got on our plane to Osaka.
So we get off on the other end a couple of hours later, gather our luggage and head out to the taxi stand. We hop in the cab and Jon hands over the address of the hotel. The cabbie (who is in a full suit with lace covers on the seats in an immaculate cab) looks at it, looks at it, opens a map and says, "Osaka?" Yes, we say. He looks at the map again. Finally turns around and says, "Is very far. Maybe 30 minutes. And toll rode. OK?" OK, we say. We head out and our cabbie is very talkative and we find out that we flew into Kobe. There are 3 Osaka airports - and Jon picked the one that's the farthest away. Thankfully, it was the Emperor's birthday and a national holiday, so there was no traffic - everything was closed. We flew to the hotel, made it in about 35 minutes - and had to pay about $130 US! Oops. That was an expensive mistake.
We arrived at our hotel, got all checked in and the bellboy was leading the way with our bags in tow. I whispered to Jon to get a tip ready. Of course, their bills are huge and their equivalent of $5 is in coins. So Jon counts some out on the elevator and as we get to our room, promptly throws it at the bellboy. We have to work on that hand off. :) The worst part was, the bellboy couldn't accept tips and had to pick up the money and hand it back.
So I'm already hungry and it's about 1:30p at this point. I want to eat at the hotel, but Jon wants to start walking to the Osaka Castle. I say, fine, but we have to stop and eat on the way. Well, Jon turns down my request for KFC. Yup, that's right. So we keep walking. It's probably 2-3 miles to the castle. It's a nice day, a bit chilly, and an easy walk. But it's a national holiday. Everything is closed! For the first time in our marriage, Jon found out what happens to me when I get hungry. 25 minutes into the walk he found a Japanese curry place, which was great. I popped into the bathroom on the way out - and discovered my first squat toilet. They are seriously impossible. It's like a porcelain trough in the floor and you have to figure out how to balance, not pee on your pants, and aim so that you don't get hit with the splash all at the same time. I'd rather pee in the woods.
So we headed back out on our walk toward the castle. It was pretty cool! It was originally built in the late 1500s and was destroyed in the Summer War in 1614. It was rebuilt around 1650 and then burned down. The current castle is a replica. There are two mote surrounding the castle, an inner mote and an outer. Oddly, one half of the inner mote is and always has been dry. No one has any idea why. The rest of the motes are filled with water. The outer gate at the castle is from the rebuilt in 1648. And inside the castle walls, right next to the actual castle building, is an ugly European building - huge, squat, heavy - uglying up the castle. It was the Japanese Army headquarters in WWII - someone thought it was a good idea to stick it right next the castle. Attractive. We headed up to the top of the castle and got the cold 360 degree view. Then we walked down the 7 floors and checked out the museum displays on each floor. There was some really cool stuff. Like a collapsible gold leaf tea room that could be packed up and moved. There was all kinds of crazy armor with helmets that had weird horns. One of the sets of armor was actually shot at to test its strength - and it held against the bullets. You could see the dents. They even decorated the jaw pieces with mustaches (which were super creepy).
We slowly walked back to the hotel, sucked up bowls of soba (buckwheat noodles in broth) in a restaurant in the hotel and then collapsed. I was literally asleep at 8p.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Japan - Day 2
OK, I've been negligent. It's been busy! Jon returned, the day after I slept through the night for the first time. Three days later I was on a plane to Chicago for a day of meetings. Then I flew to Detroit, met Jon and his dad in the airport and spent a weekend of crazy family Christmas time. It was fun, but exhausting! I flew back to Chicago on Wednesday morning and jumped right into my temp position as the executive director. It is a busy, busy job! And, I am SO not used to working 8 hours IN A ROW! Then on Friday I flew back to Detroit for a relatively quiet weekend with my parents and some item stealing. The 25 year old cotton sheets were not cutting it in the basement in Evanston. I came back with two suitcases, stuffed with flannel sheets and new sweaters.
So I'll get back to my Japan trip and fill in the rest of the 2 weeks.
Day 2. It was a fitful night of sleep, even with the Ambien. I insisted on keeping the window open and poor Jon froze his toes off, especially since I was apparently a blanket hog. I also kicked a lot (I hear) and took up most of the bed. Jon had opened one of his sleeping bags and tossed it on the bed as an extra blanket for me. I do remember this - it was slippery and wouldn't stay on. At one point, I sat up, yelled, "what the hell is this?" and threw it at Jon. Nice.
I think Jon deliberately left me alone in the morning and went to work because he was scared I was going to throw more things at him. I cleaned up, found some food and enjoyed my book in Jon's little apartment. We had a decent lunch at the Officer's Club and then got to work making plans. Which is funny, because we agreed we were going to wing the trip. So much for that! We don't do "winging" well. We scrapped our original plans to fly Space A (hop on a military flight when they have space) and bought plane tickets. We then made hotel reservations in Kyoto, Osaka and Beppu. We were getting ready to go!
I needed a couple of things from the store, so we went to Camp Foster, a nearby Army base that was huge and had some awesome shopping. The exchange had perfume galore! It was ridiculous. I was so tempted to buy some! There was also a little market where local vendors could open up shops. We picked up some cool souvenirs. Then we headed back to the room for a nap / reading break.
On our way out to dinner, we swung by the ATM on base. I took out my card, popped it in and thought, cool! It will dole out $100 worth of yen! Yeah, no. The ATM pumped out $100 - American. That's fine on base, but worthless in town. Oops. So I now had $160 American in my wallet. OK, one more time. This time I managed to get out 10,000 yen, the option on the other side of the screen.
We hit up an awesome sushi place for dinner. My first real sushi and it was amazing. I was still a little off and my stomach was a little upset, so I couldn't eat as much as I wanted. My salmon role was inside out, as virtually all roles are in Japan. The fish was fantastic. I was a convert. Sushi is amazing!
We headed back to base in our borrowed car and I saw the crushed car at the front gate. There was a huge grave stone that said RIP and a message about a marine driving wildly. It was hilarious! My other favorite sign at the front gate read, "Gate open during typhoons and 24 hours / day."
And then I fell over.
So I'll get back to my Japan trip and fill in the rest of the 2 weeks.
Day 2. It was a fitful night of sleep, even with the Ambien. I insisted on keeping the window open and poor Jon froze his toes off, especially since I was apparently a blanket hog. I also kicked a lot (I hear) and took up most of the bed. Jon had opened one of his sleeping bags and tossed it on the bed as an extra blanket for me. I do remember this - it was slippery and wouldn't stay on. At one point, I sat up, yelled, "what the hell is this?" and threw it at Jon. Nice.
I think Jon deliberately left me alone in the morning and went to work because he was scared I was going to throw more things at him. I cleaned up, found some food and enjoyed my book in Jon's little apartment. We had a decent lunch at the Officer's Club and then got to work making plans. Which is funny, because we agreed we were going to wing the trip. So much for that! We don't do "winging" well. We scrapped our original plans to fly Space A (hop on a military flight when they have space) and bought plane tickets. We then made hotel reservations in Kyoto, Osaka and Beppu. We were getting ready to go!
I needed a couple of things from the store, so we went to Camp Foster, a nearby Army base that was huge and had some awesome shopping. The exchange had perfume galore! It was ridiculous. I was so tempted to buy some! There was also a little market where local vendors could open up shops. We picked up some cool souvenirs. Then we headed back to the room for a nap / reading break.
On our way out to dinner, we swung by the ATM on base. I took out my card, popped it in and thought, cool! It will dole out $100 worth of yen! Yeah, no. The ATM pumped out $100 - American. That's fine on base, but worthless in town. Oops. So I now had $160 American in my wallet. OK, one more time. This time I managed to get out 10,000 yen, the option on the other side of the screen.
We hit up an awesome sushi place for dinner. My first real sushi and it was amazing. I was still a little off and my stomach was a little upset, so I couldn't eat as much as I wanted. My salmon role was inside out, as virtually all roles are in Japan. The fish was fantastic. I was a convert. Sushi is amazing!
We headed back to base in our borrowed car and I saw the crushed car at the front gate. There was a huge grave stone that said RIP and a message about a marine driving wildly. It was hilarious! My other favorite sign at the front gate read, "Gate open during typhoons and 24 hours / day."
And then I fell over.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Japan Day 1
Ugh. Up at 3:30 a. It was way too early for this. Jill and Julia showed up at about 4:15 and moments later our driver called to announce his presence in the parking lot. A few suitcase haulings and we're off!
We arrived at the airport at about 5:02a. The airport opened at 5a. The line for United check-in was out the door and to the next terminal. It was so freaking cold! The only thing keeping me awake while we waited in line was the cold.
We finally got checked in, Jill managed to beg us to the front of the security line and we were boarding. The woman in the San Diego airport at the United gate was standing next to the door and she . . . asked me to scan my ticket. I stopped, looked at her, and tried to hand her my ticket. Um, what? She said again, please scan your ticket. I looked at my ticket, looked at the scanner, vaguely waved it in the direction of the screen and instantly had my ticket grabbed away. I guess that's how you get service - stare blankly and act retarded. I mean, come on! Um, hello United. The airlines are going bankrupt, people are being laid-off, and your staff are getting "job security" by asking passengers to scan their own tickets. Huh.
OK, don't remember much of the next 2 hours. We arrived in San Fran, found breakfast and wandered toward the international terminal. We had 4 hours to kill. We looked at the map, asked how long the walk was, and learned that there was a bus to the international terminal. We hopped in line, which was oddly place in the middle of the hallway. We stood in line for 15 minutes waiting for, I guess, the magical school bus to pick us up, and watched two little boys in red run repeatedly the wrong way down those people movers. Their dad would dash madly after one, grab his arm, yell at him, and march him to a spot to stand still. While he was getting the other, the first would run off again. OMG. I would have murdered someone if they were mine.
Finally a United staffer showed up, asked to see my ticket and passport, and ushered our random line through a door, down some stairs, through some pipes and out onto the tarmac to load onto a bus. We packed up and road 5 minutes to the international terminal. We were allowed off about 7 at a time since that was all that could fit on the elevator up to the terminal. We were underneath the terminal with conveyors of suitcases running overhead. It was sketchy. But we arrived in the right place with a couple hours to spare.
And what did we find but a spa! Heaven! We were the only people there at 9:15a. We signed up for various massages and plopped in the amazing massage chairs. Jill promptly fell asleep and was flopping like a dead fish as the chair squished and squashed her muscles. Meanwhile, I was face first in a massage chair being shoved all over the place. I was good and sore after that massage, but it was a pleasure before our 11.5 hour flight!
The plane ride was uneventful. Slept a lot. Didn't crack a book. Ate about 15 times. Mama Mia was played twice. Ugh! I hated it the first time. I slept through it times 2 and 3. Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 started and ran for a good 45 minutes - and stopped! Mama Mia was popped in for time #2. STP2 was started again . . . and froze at the exact same spot. A third time, it was started over. And STP2 froze for a third time in the exact same spot. Come on! I didn't care - I was sleeping. But Julia was pissed!
We finally, finally!, arrived in Osaka. We made it through customs after getting fingerprinted and photographed. We went upstairs to All Nippon Airways with our luggage to check in for our flight to Okinawa. The women at the desk at ANA were so cute! They all had matching scarves tied elaborately around their necks with pretty flowers and bows formed. They were so kind and gave us detailed directions to our gate 100 feet away. We stopped in a random lounge on the way. I was gross and desperate for a shower. Some broken English later and we were in for 30 minutes. An extra charge and I was given 15 minutes in a shower. It was heaven. The most amazing shower ever! The 3 feet by 1 foot towel was a little odd, but it worked. I dug out my extra clothes and was happy as a clam. The lounge was odd. It had an entire comic book library and seats you could have only if you paid. I found my companions in the bathroom lounge washing up. And we headed out, clean, to our next destination.
Once again, we were heading to a plane. We got through security without taking our shoes off. I got a receipt for getting through security. Then we boarded, scanned our own tickets, and got another receipt for getting through the gate. I now had 3 pieces of paper for one flight. We sat down and buckled up, and noticed the screen. The video screens had live footage of outside. We could see the little men scurrying around and the lights waving. And then we saw the runway rushing by as we took off. It was a little disconcerting.
Two hours later and we were there! The jetway and airport windows were lined with real orchids. It was so pretty! We gathered up our luggage and actually had to turn in our bag claims. And there was Jon! We headed home and I was asleep about 10 minutes later! So nice to be able to lay down . . .
We arrived at the airport at about 5:02a. The airport opened at 5a. The line for United check-in was out the door and to the next terminal. It was so freaking cold! The only thing keeping me awake while we waited in line was the cold.
We finally got checked in, Jill managed to beg us to the front of the security line and we were boarding. The woman in the San Diego airport at the United gate was standing next to the door and she . . . asked me to scan my ticket. I stopped, looked at her, and tried to hand her my ticket. Um, what? She said again, please scan your ticket. I looked at my ticket, looked at the scanner, vaguely waved it in the direction of the screen and instantly had my ticket grabbed away. I guess that's how you get service - stare blankly and act retarded. I mean, come on! Um, hello United. The airlines are going bankrupt, people are being laid-off, and your staff are getting "job security" by asking passengers to scan their own tickets. Huh.
OK, don't remember much of the next 2 hours. We arrived in San Fran, found breakfast and wandered toward the international terminal. We had 4 hours to kill. We looked at the map, asked how long the walk was, and learned that there was a bus to the international terminal. We hopped in line, which was oddly place in the middle of the hallway. We stood in line for 15 minutes waiting for, I guess, the magical school bus to pick us up, and watched two little boys in red run repeatedly the wrong way down those people movers. Their dad would dash madly after one, grab his arm, yell at him, and march him to a spot to stand still. While he was getting the other, the first would run off again. OMG. I would have murdered someone if they were mine.
Finally a United staffer showed up, asked to see my ticket and passport, and ushered our random line through a door, down some stairs, through some pipes and out onto the tarmac to load onto a bus. We packed up and road 5 minutes to the international terminal. We were allowed off about 7 at a time since that was all that could fit on the elevator up to the terminal. We were underneath the terminal with conveyors of suitcases running overhead. It was sketchy. But we arrived in the right place with a couple hours to spare.
And what did we find but a spa! Heaven! We were the only people there at 9:15a. We signed up for various massages and plopped in the amazing massage chairs. Jill promptly fell asleep and was flopping like a dead fish as the chair squished and squashed her muscles. Meanwhile, I was face first in a massage chair being shoved all over the place. I was good and sore after that massage, but it was a pleasure before our 11.5 hour flight!
The plane ride was uneventful. Slept a lot. Didn't crack a book. Ate about 15 times. Mama Mia was played twice. Ugh! I hated it the first time. I slept through it times 2 and 3. Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 started and ran for a good 45 minutes - and stopped! Mama Mia was popped in for time #2. STP2 was started again . . . and froze at the exact same spot. A third time, it was started over. And STP2 froze for a third time in the exact same spot. Come on! I didn't care - I was sleeping. But Julia was pissed!
We finally, finally!, arrived in Osaka. We made it through customs after getting fingerprinted and photographed. We went upstairs to All Nippon Airways with our luggage to check in for our flight to Okinawa. The women at the desk at ANA were so cute! They all had matching scarves tied elaborately around their necks with pretty flowers and bows formed. They were so kind and gave us detailed directions to our gate 100 feet away. We stopped in a random lounge on the way. I was gross and desperate for a shower. Some broken English later and we were in for 30 minutes. An extra charge and I was given 15 minutes in a shower. It was heaven. The most amazing shower ever! The 3 feet by 1 foot towel was a little odd, but it worked. I dug out my extra clothes and was happy as a clam. The lounge was odd. It had an entire comic book library and seats you could have only if you paid. I found my companions in the bathroom lounge washing up. And we headed out, clean, to our next destination.
Once again, we were heading to a plane. We got through security without taking our shoes off. I got a receipt for getting through security. Then we boarded, scanned our own tickets, and got another receipt for getting through the gate. I now had 3 pieces of paper for one flight. We sat down and buckled up, and noticed the screen. The video screens had live footage of outside. We could see the little men scurrying around and the lights waving. And then we saw the runway rushing by as we took off. It was a little disconcerting.
Two hours later and we were there! The jetway and airport windows were lined with real orchids. It was so pretty! We gathered up our luggage and actually had to turn in our bag claims. And there was Jon! We headed home and I was asleep about 10 minutes later! So nice to be able to lay down . . .
Sunday, January 4, 2009
The End of Japan
I kept a journal and will blog about the crazy 2 weeks in Japan. But first, I'll start with the end, my birthday.
I woke up early on January 3rd to catch my plane back to the US. Jon and I had a fun 2 weeks together, but it was high time to head home. Sleeping in the barracks was getting old. After checking in for my flight and heading through security, where they headed me a receipt for getting through A-OK, I caught up with Jill and Julia, my travel companions, and waited for our flight. The All Nippon Airways (ANA) flights show you live footage of your flight. So we watched our plane backing out of its spot and taking off. It's slightly unnerving.
We landed OK in Osaka and had 7 hours to kill before our flight to San Fran. So we found a locker (not before finding an airport Subway and Golden Spoon Frozen Yogurt) and stashed some of our stuff. And we hit the train. Two trains later, and an escort to the cheap seats (oops) we ended up in downtown Osaka at a gigantic shopping mall. There was an underwear store in the train station that looked promising. It was insanely hot, though, so I couldn't get more than a foot in the door. We looked at all of the crazy stores and pushed our way up 6 flights to the restaurant level. We found a fabulous Japanese restaurant and after much picture-pointing, we had a fabulous lunch. At which point I remembered it was my birthday!
The restaurant had the craziest toilets I'd seen to date. Complete with volume setting on the fake-flushing sounds and a button labeled "Powerful Deodorizer".
We did a little shopping and found all kinds of cool and crazy things. Too bad we couldn't get it all back! I was loving the heavy wool capes. We fought our way back to the train station, pooled our final yen and managed to buy 3 reserved seats for the way back.
After getting our stuff out of the lockers, that had a big signed noting what we couldn't store in them - item #2 was "Dead Bodies" - we headed to our next call. We made it through security, where Jill was searched at least three times because of her suspect PowerBar. We picked up 3 cans of bubbly lemon liquor that was delish and got good and tipsy before boarding. We moved people to all sorts of seats to ensure that we could sit together and settled in. A mini-bottle of wine and 3/4 of an ambien later, and I was waking up to my second breakfast of January 3rd!
I got a "Happy Birthday, ma'am" from the customs agent and made it through with no problems. Back to sadly normal toilets. Soup in a bread bowl was lunch number 2. And then I hardcore passed out waiting for the plane. Twitching and everything in the boarding area seats. I was supposed to be watching Jill and Julia's stuff. It didn't move as far as I know.
The last flight was uneventful, except for being moved by my seatmates so they could quit talking me my dead body. (Don't worry - it wasn't in a locker.) Our driver Sven picked us up and managed to fit all of our luggage in the trunk before quietly shuttling us up north. I hardly remember the ride home, but managed to stay away long enough to turn in rent, empty the mailboxes, shower and find some food. I popped one more Ambien for the road and passed out at 9p. I slept for an amazing 14 hours, thus ending the longest birthday ever!!!
I woke up early on January 3rd to catch my plane back to the US. Jon and I had a fun 2 weeks together, but it was high time to head home. Sleeping in the barracks was getting old. After checking in for my flight and heading through security, where they headed me a receipt for getting through A-OK, I caught up with Jill and Julia, my travel companions, and waited for our flight. The All Nippon Airways (ANA) flights show you live footage of your flight. So we watched our plane backing out of its spot and taking off. It's slightly unnerving.
We landed OK in Osaka and had 7 hours to kill before our flight to San Fran. So we found a locker (not before finding an airport Subway and Golden Spoon Frozen Yogurt) and stashed some of our stuff. And we hit the train. Two trains later, and an escort to the cheap seats (oops) we ended up in downtown Osaka at a gigantic shopping mall. There was an underwear store in the train station that looked promising. It was insanely hot, though, so I couldn't get more than a foot in the door. We looked at all of the crazy stores and pushed our way up 6 flights to the restaurant level. We found a fabulous Japanese restaurant and after much picture-pointing, we had a fabulous lunch. At which point I remembered it was my birthday!
The restaurant had the craziest toilets I'd seen to date. Complete with volume setting on the fake-flushing sounds and a button labeled "Powerful Deodorizer".
We did a little shopping and found all kinds of cool and crazy things. Too bad we couldn't get it all back! I was loving the heavy wool capes. We fought our way back to the train station, pooled our final yen and managed to buy 3 reserved seats for the way back.
After getting our stuff out of the lockers, that had a big signed noting what we couldn't store in them - item #2 was "Dead Bodies" - we headed to our next call. We made it through security, where Jill was searched at least three times because of her suspect PowerBar. We picked up 3 cans of bubbly lemon liquor that was delish and got good and tipsy before boarding. We moved people to all sorts of seats to ensure that we could sit together and settled in. A mini-bottle of wine and 3/4 of an ambien later, and I was waking up to my second breakfast of January 3rd!
I got a "Happy Birthday, ma'am" from the customs agent and made it through with no problems. Back to sadly normal toilets. Soup in a bread bowl was lunch number 2. And then I hardcore passed out waiting for the plane. Twitching and everything in the boarding area seats. I was supposed to be watching Jill and Julia's stuff. It didn't move as far as I know.
The last flight was uneventful, except for being moved by my seatmates so they could quit talking me my dead body. (Don't worry - it wasn't in a locker.) Our driver Sven picked us up and managed to fit all of our luggage in the trunk before quietly shuttling us up north. I hardly remember the ride home, but managed to stay away long enough to turn in rent, empty the mailboxes, shower and find some food. I popped one more Ambien for the road and passed out at 9p. I slept for an amazing 14 hours, thus ending the longest birthday ever!!!
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