20May2010
Posted by Roland under: Travel.
With me and Tom now settled in a business hotel in Hiroshima, while we shared a cramped room to ourselves, at the very least we had our own comfy beds. However, we did not account for the fact that someone else had decided to set the alarm in our room for 6:30AM so we would fumble around to figure out the setup to turn off the alarm. While Tom would be able to go back to sleep, I was unable to do so, setting up another early wake up day for me.
I would head down for the free hotel breakfast, only to redo it a few minutes later when Tom was ready to head out for the day. Free food in our systems, now our plans were to head for Miyajima, actually much earlier than we had first planned. Since the weather forecast said there would be morning showers we would delay our trip to Miyajima. But the weather looked dry enough so we pushed out for the station and took the ferry out to Miyajima relatively early.
A cloudy day would be found at Miyajima unfortunately, so while it kept the temperatures cool, it meant that there wouldn’t be any sun to make our pictures that much better. While we had briefly thought about heading up to Mount Misen, the highest point in Miyajima, the fact that it wasn’t that clear pretty much eliminated that idea. When we got to the shrine with the floating gate, we discovered that high tide would not be until 2PM and it was only around 10AM when we got there. Eager to get a picture of the floating gate when it wasn’t obviously drenched in the mud, we would decide to wander around the island to distract ourselves with some other sites until high tide.
In the end we would pretty much wander all around the lower part of the island, from the residental areas, to temple complexes higher up in the hills. There were definitely interesting sites to be seen and it was still interesting for me since we were actually seeing new parts of the island I hadn’t seen before in my two previous visits. Unfortunately, the aquarium and the “panda dolphins” that Tom really wanted to see happened to be undergoing a rebuild and was closed until next year. Just no luck for Tom this time! What bad timing.
Tired from miles of walking, we settled in for a meal featuring oysters, a speciality of Miyajima. Tom would have oyster udon while I, of course, would have oyster ramen. That would continue my streak of having ramen everyday, something I was confident I would be able to continue tomorrow in Fukuoka with Hakata Ramen being their speciality.
After tasty oysters, we would have momiji manju (maple leaf shaped cakes filled with usually red bean) as a snack, sampling another local speciality. By this time high tide was almost in at the shrine so we entered the shrine proper, although we were a little disappointed to see that high tide did not mean it was at the maximum height possible, Tom surmised it had something to do with seasons, that high tide in May may be different from high tide later in the year. So we took the best of the pictures we could as well as seeing a bit of a wedding ceremony going on at the shrine (I had seen one at the last visit with Ajay too…quite a few going on!). Must be quite the couple if they were having a wedding at one of the most popular shrines in Japan. Might be a bit weird though when you have loads of tourists and elementary school tours going through your ceremony though.
Back in Hiroshima we would rest up before, for lack of anything else to do, wandered an electronics department store in Hiroshima before going back to the same okonomiyaki place we went to last night (again for lack of anything else to do). The owner was jovial just as before and me and Tom mixed it up with some fancier orders to our okonomiyaki. Still delicious as usual and I handed off a momiji manju that I bought for the owner as thanks for him giving me the Hiroshima Carp cheer sticks the night before.
To finish off our lack of anything else to do night, me and Tom would blow some more money on pachinko (I’m about to give up on the damn thing) and then wander the shady streets of Hiroshima (lots of aggressive bar peoples) before we just decided to drink some chu-hi at the hotel to call it a night.
With me and Tom now settled in a business hotel in Hiroshima, while we shared a cramped room to ourselves, at the very least we had our own comfy beds. However, we did not
account for the fact that someone else had decided to set the alarm in our room for 6:30AM so we would fumble around to figure out the setup to turn off the alarm. While Tom
would be able to go back to sleep, I was unable to do so, setting up another early wake up day for me.
I would head down for the free hotel breakfast, only to redo it a few minutes later when Tom was ready to head out for the day. Free food in our systems, now our plans were to
head for Miyajima, actually much earlier than we had first planned. Since the weather forecast said there would be morning showers we would delay our trip to Miyajima. But the
weather looked dry enough so we pushed out for the station and took the ferry out to Miyajima relatively early.
A cloudy day would be found at Miyajima unfortunately, so while it kept the temperatures cool, it meant that there wouldn’t be any sun to make our pictures that much better.
While we had briefly thought about heading up to Mount Misen, the highest point in Miyajima, the fact that it wasn’t that clear pretty much eliminated that idea. When we got to
the shrine with the floating gate, we discovered that high tide would not be until 2PM and it was only around 10AM when we got there. Eager to get a picture of the floating gate
when it wasn’t obviously drenched in the mud, we would decide to wander around the island to distract ourselves with some other sites until high tide.
In the end we would pretty much wander all around the lower part of the island, from the residental areas, to temple complexes higher up in the hills. There were definitely
interesting sites to be seen and it was still interesting for me since we were actually seeing new parts of the island I hadn’t seen before in my two previous visits.
Unfortunately, the aquarium and the “panda dolphins” that Tom really wanted to see happened to be undergoing a rebuild and was closed until next year. Just no luck for Tom this
time! What bad timing.
Tired from miles of walking, we settled in for a meal featuring oysters, a speciality of Miyajima. Tom would have oyster udon while I, of course, would have oyster ramen. That
would continue my streak of having ramen everyday, something I was confident I would be able to continue tomorrow in Fukuoka with Hakata Ramen being their speciality.
After tasty oysters, we would have momiji manju (maple leaf shaped cakes filled with usually red bean) as a snack, sampling another local speciality. By this time high tide was
almost in at the shrine so we entered the shrine proper, although we were a little disappointed to see that high tide did not mean it was at the maximum height possible, Tom
surmised it had something to do with seasons, that high tide in May may be different from high tide later in the year. So we took the best of the pictures we could as well as
seeing a bit of a wedding ceremony going on at the shrine (I had seen one at the last visit with Ajay too…quite a few going on!). Must be quite the couple if they were having
a wedding at one of the most popular shrines in Japan. Might be a bit weird though when you have loads of tourists and elementary school tours going through your ceremony
though.
Back in Hiroshima we would rest up before, for lack of anything else to do, wandered an electronics department store in Hiroshima before going back to the same okonomiyaki place we went to last night (again for lack of anything else to do). The owner was jovial just as before and me and Tom mixed it up with some fancier orders to our okonomiyaki. Still delicious as usual and I handed off a momiji manju that I bought for the owner as thanks for him giving me the Hiroshima Carp cheer sticks the night before.
To finish off our lack of anything else to do night, me and Tom would blow some more money on pachinko (I’m about to give up on the damn thing) and then wander the shady streets of Hiroshima (lots of aggressive bar peoples) before we just decided to drink some chu-hi at the hotel to call it a night.With me and Tom now settled in a business hotel in Hiroshima, while we shared a cramped room to ourselves, at the very least we had our own comfy beds. However, we did not account for the fact that someone else had decided to set the alarm in our room for 6:30AM so we would fumble around to figure out the setup to turn off the alarm. While Tom would be able to go back to sleep, I was unable to do so, setting up another early wake up day for me.
I would head down for the free hotel breakfast, only to redo it a few minutes later when Tom was ready to head out for the day. Free food in our systems, now our plans were to head for Miyajima, actually much earlier than we had first planned. Since the weather forecast said there would be morning showers we would delay our trip to Miyajima. But the weather looked dry enough so we pushed out for the station and took the ferry out to Miyajima relatively early.
A cloudy day would be found at Miyajima unfortunately, so while it kept the temperatures cool, it meant that there wouldn’t be any sun to make our pictures that much better. While we had briefly thought about heading up to Mount Misen, the highest point in Miyajima, the fact that it wasn’t that clear pretty much eliminated that idea. When we got to the shrine with the floating gate, we discovered that high tide would not be until 2PM and it was only around 10AM when we got there. Eager to get a picture of the floating gate when it wasn’t obviously drenched in the mud, we would decide to wander around the island to distract ourselves with some other sites until high tide.
In the end we would pretty much wander all around the lower part of the island, from the residental areas, to temple complexes higher up in the hills. There were definitely interesting sites to be seen and it was still interesting for me since we were actually seeing new parts of the island I hadn’t seen before in my two previous visits. Unfortunately, the aquarium and the “panda dolphins” that Tom really wanted to see happened to be undergoing a rebuild and was closed until next year. Just no luck for Tom this time! What bad timing.
Tired from miles of walking, we settled in for a meal featuring oysters, a speciality of Miyajima. Tom would have oyster udon while I, of course, would have oyster ramen. That would continue my streak of having ramen everyday, something I was confident I would be able to continue tomorrow in Fukuoka with Hakata Ramen being their speciality.
After tasty oysters, we would have momiji manju (maple leaf shaped cakes filled with usually red bean) as a snack, sampling another local speciality. By this time high tide was almost in at the shrine so we entered the shrine proper, although we were a little disappointed to see that high tide did not mean it was at the maximum height possible, Tom surmised it had something to do with seasons, that high tide in May may be different from high tide later in the year. So we took the best of the pictures we could as well as seeing a bit of a wedding ceremony going on at the shrine (I had seen one at the last visit with Ajay too…quite a few going on!). Must be quite the couple if they were having a wedding at one of the most popular shrines in Japan. Might be a bit weird though when you have loads of tourists and elementary school tours going through your ceremony though.
Back in Hiroshima we would rest up before, for lack of anything else to do, wandered an electronics department store in Hiroshima before going back to the same okonomiyaki place we went to last night (again for lack of anything else to do). The owner was jovial just as before and me and Tom mixed it up with some fancier orders to our okonomiyaki. Still delicious as usual and I handed off a momiji manju that I bought for the owner as thanks for him giving me the Hiroshima Carp cheer sticks the night before.
To finish off our lack of anything else to do night, me and Tom would blow some more money on pachinko (I’m about to give up on the damn thing) and then wander the shady streets of Hiroshima (lots of aggressive bar peoples) before we just decided to drink some chu-hi at the hotel to call it a night.
Tags: hiroshima·japan·miyajima
19May2010
Posted by Roland under: Travel.
Big accomplishment! I was able to get a full 7 hours of sleep uninterrupted. The quality of my sleep would be noted by Tom, who told me that I snored throughout the night. A little payback for the night before when he did the same to me.
Today was our day to leave Kyoto so we packed up our bags and left them at the hostel. The original plan was to do a little Kyoto morning touring and then visit Himeji Castle (the best castle in Japan) on the way to Hiroshima, but based on the unfortunate news that Himeji was just starting a 5 year renovation, we cut Himeji out of our plans to do a bit more touring of Kyoto. There was no chance we would see all of Kyoto (I haven’t yet either and I’ve been there 3 times now) but hopefully Tom could get a good taste of what Kyoto had to offer.
We went to a Japanese chain for breakfast and Tom finally got the Japanese breakfast he had wanted (despite my attempts to go to McDonalds). This meant soup, natto (smelly beans), some beef bowl, a piece of salmon and an egg to break over your rice. It would be quite a hearty breakfast, giving us the energy to deal with the rest of the day.
Getting a bus pass to let us bounce around Kyoto as we wanted to and the first stop on our trip would be Kiyomizu-dera (clear water shrine). But as we found out at the bus stop and confirmed as we walked up to Kiyomizu, there were a lot of school tour groups crowding Kyoto. We would compete with school crowds to get around the area but eventually we did make it into the temple complex. Kiyomizu is probably my favorite place in Kyoto for its views of the city which, while a little gloomy, still were great. Tom also did the traditional walk between the rocks of love (at a nearby shrine from Kiyomizu) with his eyes closed (and a little help by me to clear the way). I guess this means that I’ll have to help him fulfill his wishes for love?
At Kiyomizu we did something that I still haven’t done throughout my many visits to Japan, which is to drink the actual clear water of Kiyomizu. Supposedly it gives you intelligence, luck in love, all that good stuff. While we had to wait behind a long line of elementary school students, I got my sip of the clear water, let’s see if it pays off.
After Kiyomizu, me and Tom would wander around Gion and Maruyama Park to take in a few sites. Not much to see however with the rainy weather, we headed out to Heian Shrine to take in the obscenely large shrine gate. That would be the last Kyoto sight we could fit in so then we headed back to the station to get ready for the trip back to Hiroshima.
Awesomely, Kyoto station had a floor just dedicated to ramen, 7 restaurants all in the same spot. We did a quick tour of the area before settling on some Hakata ramen, which would be the ramen that we were going to Fukuoka exclusively for. Nothing wrong with a little preview though.
Upon my first sip of the broth, I knew I had finally arrived in Japan because the taste was amazing! Almost to the point where I wanted to tear up a bit the tonkotsu broth was so good. Add that in with the thin noodles that Hakata ramen is famous for and I was in bliss. I could only hope that the ramen in Fukuoka would be just as awesome (it has to be, it’s the hometown, right?)
We said our goodbyes to the great new landlady at Chita Guest Inn and got on the bullet train to Hiroshima. For the most part it was just one long nap for me, a longer one for Tom. The rain would be falling a bit harder in Hiroshima but luckily our hotel was near the station so we took one of the Hiroshima streetcars only a few minutes out of the station.
For dinner we had to have the okonomiyaki that Hiroshima is famous for. I found a place on wikitravel that listed the owner as an anime/manga fan who also loved Gundam, something that Tom recently revealed to me that he was a big fan of. So we walked over to the restaurant and was treated to a nice little intimate setting. The owner was hard at work behind the grill on some food but gave us a warm welcome. On the walls, besides just anime and manga stuff, were also posters of several cute girls and Hiroshima Carp gear. There would be a Carp game on the TV as well, so I know I was in the right place.
The owner was a joy to talk to, as he inquired about me and Tom as he worked on our food. Where we were from, how the trip was going, where we were going, etc. He would even pull out a picture that he had at a maid cafe (let’s get real, he’s an otaku but a great one) when the topic of Tokyo and Akihabara was brought up. He would be even so nice that he gave me his Carp noisemaker, when he found out we were going to Fukuoka to watch a Carp game. They had been obviously used very often but to give it to someone you just made was quite the thing. The Japanese are almost too nice. The food was amazing too, it had been too long since I had some Hiroshima okonomiyaki.
With some gracious hosting and great food in our system me and Tom would head to a nearby pachinko parlor. Tom would have a fair amount of luck, actually getting a few jackpots during his night but I would continue my streak of funding illegality with little to show for it. I’m almost ready to give up on pachinko at this rate.
Our lack of continued success at pachinko would lead us to call it a night in Hiroshima and rest up for the (probably) rainy day in Miyajima.
Tags: hiroshima·japan·kyoto
18May2010
Posted by Roland under: Travel.
I got more rest the first night in Kyoto, although that statement has to be prefaced by the fact that I got almost no rest in Tokyo so any rest would be a good amount. I would end up waking up around 5:30 AM and with little to do I would wander the hostel a bit, treating myself to a very early morning shower and eventually finally a free ethernet plug that I hooked up my computer onto. I would finally enjoy some reasonable internet speeds (fast enough that I could engage people for Japan early morning/California afternoon chats). The hostel would slowly wake up around me while I tried to kill time on the laptop.
Today’s plan was to meet up with one of my Japanese blog friends and tour a few spots around Kyoto. Only with the Japanese would you be able to meet someone online, meet for the first time and expect that you would be treated to having them plan a tour of Kyoto for you. What a country!
Me and Tom would head out to the station for some Mister Donut and did our best to kill time around the station, although we would eventually give up and just wait at the taxi office where I was supposed to meet my friend for the first time. Did I also mention I didn’t know what she looked like? Although she had a fair idea of what I did, as I lack the sensibility to censor my image online (if the internet wants more Roland, it gets more Roland!)
However, the taxi office was empty enough that when she did so up, Sally (her nickname) would easily recognize me and Tom. Apparently she had gone to the trouble of booking a taxi service that would also act as a tour guide for us. Fanciness aside, I was definitely happy with the effort she put it into this…by the way did I mention again we just met for the first time?
So we would bounce around random sites in Kyoto. She was a self-described “Buddha otaku” (otaku being one way to describe a super fan of a certain thing) so the sites we did visit were Buddha heavy. But they were very enjoyable sites, especially Sanjusangen-do, which housed 1001 Buddha statues in a very long hallway. I wish I could post pictures but they forbid it so look it up online if you are so inclined. The three of us even took a little excursion to an arts and crafts center in Kyoto where you can engage in various hands-on activities, so me and Tom now left with little incense bags to remember our Kyoto stay by.
Sally was a great guide for us. Although the driver/guide she hired (a Japanese version of the “Transporter” as Tom described him, the driver was a complete professional indeed) did give a bit of a tour of the various sites we visited, it was all in Japanese. She did her best to point out the things she could with her English. And she was very gracious in giving her time to both me and Tom, genuinely interested in getting to know the both of us better.
What may be the best part was that Sally had read my blog enough to know that I enjoy ramen. So much so that a ramen stop over for lunch was built into the tour. 3 days in Japan, 3 ramen meals! We’re going strong.
Unfortunately, Sally would have to leave back home early so we said our goodbyes at around 2. With time left me and Tom headed out to the Golden Pavilion, which even though I saw two years ago, was still fantastic, although this time jam packed with tour groups. But while nice, it didn’t really have too much to see so we were in and out and back on the road towards the hotel quickly. After a brief rest just hanging out at the hotel, we would grab sushi dinner at the station (for lack of anything else to do…the conveyor belt sushi place I went to with Ajay two years ago had turned into a shabu shabu place, another sign that not everything was like it was two years ago).
Post dinner Tom had pressured me to take him to pachinko, for lack of anything else to do tonight (if one didn’t want to party party like Tom had in Tokyo). Pachinko parlors, being a loud place, made it hard for me to teach Tom the finer points of pachinko in great detail, it’s more something one has to do to actually learn. While I didn’t hit any jackpots (nor did I find any Koda Kumi machines open to play), Tom was lucky enough to get a few, although neither of us left with any money, so my lesson of teaching Tom how to turn pachinko parlor tokens into real money would have to for a time when the fates were kinder.
Tags: japan·kyoto
17May2010
Posted by Roland under: Travel.
I spent most of the last night debating whether I really wanted to wake up early for another attempt at sushi breakfast in Tsukiji. My idea when I went to bed on Sunday night was that I wanted to just sleep in, but my body would betray me and force me awake at 4AM. With nothing better to do I did go back to Tsukiji for one more attempt at sushi breakfast, this time at the really busy sushi place that I was not able to get into last time because the people I met in line forced me to go to another sushi place nearby.
I guess they had no patience.
Luckily I was able to get in line early enough to avoid being relegated to the much more depressing “second line” (you just feel like food is that much more out of reach at that point), but I would still have to wait an hour before I was treated to probably some of the best sushi I’ve had in my life. Again, maybe it was the lack of sleep/jet lag playing with my sense of taste, but I can honestly say I have had not uni (sea urchin) that good in my life and I was able to get not just one, but two pieces while I was there! While I shelled out around 4000 yen for the treat, it was well worth it. The sushi chef, used to dealing with foreigners, engaged me in lively conversation the whole time which I appreciated.
After Tsukiji, I headed to Tokyo to get my rail pass and found myself with some time to kill before lunch with Taki-chan. Again, I had done Tokyo so many times that there was nothing I really had to see, so I just wandered around Tokyo station, Harujuku and a bit of Shinjuku before I headed to Shin-ochanomizu and met up with Taki-chan. I haven’t seen her since she left Davis to go back to Japan but she was just the same as ever. It was great to catch up with her in person and felt just like old times. Unfortunately my visit would only be an hour with her but with the hope that I would see her again on the 30th, I wasn’t saying goodbye for a long amount of time.
By this time I decided to take my bullet train ride to Kyoto, which I promptly attempted to sleep through most of. Unfortunately my body thought it was getting real sleep (it was late at night in California) so when I did wake up before Kyoto I was very groggy. Nonetheless, Kyoto was familiar to me, having visited two years ago and staying at the same place me and Ajay stayed at (on my recommendation). When I got there, I was greeted by a new face at the front desk, apparently the old land lady from before had retired and passed on the reins to someone else, who was younger, but also could speak English. The inn itself was the same and as if it was meant to be, I was in the same room with Tom that I was with Ajay. Basically the same trip all over again.
Tom would show up a little bit later where he would regale me with the wild and crazy stories of his time in Tokyo by himself. He made hostel friends, they headed to Shibuya late at night and well, fun ensued. He can tell the stories better than I ever could. I would attempt to take him to A’s Bar, the same bar that me and Ajay went to when we visited Kyoto (can you see a pattern here) but my attempts to figure out if we were going the right direction east or west would be depressingly revealed to us that I was actually going north and south. Tom, already hungry and quite tired, would just suggest we take a taxi, which we did at this point.
A’s Bar was also the same as usual, where Tom and me drank some beer and ate some great food. It was mostly ourselves (and other random foreigners at other tables) for the night although the moment after Tom and me got up to pay our bill, three girls would come in and sit at the same table that we were at. Not sure if they would have sat there had we still been there, but I was a little sad that I couldn’t see Tom’s skills with the ladies in action that night. Fatigue was setting in for the both of us though and Tom said he was all late night partied out, which I appreciated. So we went back to the hotel and called it a night.
I spent most of the last night debating whether I really wanted to wake up early for another attempt at sushi breakfast in Tsukiji. My idea when I went to bed on Sunday night
was that I wanted to just sleep in, but my body would betray me and force me awake at 4AM. With nothing better to do I did go back to Tsukiji for one more attempt at sushi
breakfast, this time at the really busy sushi place that I was not able to get into last time because the people I met in line forced me to go to another sushi place nearby.
I guess they had no patience.
Luckily I was able to get in line early enough to avoid being relegated to the much more depressing “second line” (you just feel like food is that much more out of reach at that
point), but I would still have to wait an hour before I was treated to probably some of the best sushi I’ve had in my life. Again, maybe it was the lack of sleep/jet lag playing
with my sense of taste, but I can honestly say I have had not uni (sea urchin) that good in my life and I was able to get not just one, but two pieces while I was there! While I
shelled out around 4000 yen for the treat, it was well worth it. The sushi chef, used to dealing with foreigners, engaged me in lively conversation the whole time which I
appreciated.
After Tsukiji, I headed to Tokyo to get my rail pass and found myself with some time to kill before lunch with Taki-chan. Again, I had done Tokyo so many times that there was
nothing I really had to see, so I just wandered around Tokyo station, Harujuku and a bit of Shinjuku before I headed to Shin-ochanomizu and met up with Taki-chan. I haven’t seen
her since she left Davis to go back to Japan but she was just the same as ever. It was great to catch up with her in person and felt just like old times. Unfortunately my visit
would only be an hour with her but with the hope that I would see her again on the 30th, I wasn’t saying goodbye for a long amount of time.
By this time I decided to take my bullet train ride to Kyoto, which I promptly attempted to sleep through most of. Unfortunately my body thought it was getting real sleep (it
was late at night in California) so when I did wake up before Kyoto I was very groggy. Nonetheless, Kyoto was familiar to me, having visited two years ago and staying at the
same place me and Ajay stayed at (on my recommendation). When I got there, I was greeted by a new face at the front desk, apparently the old land lady from before had retired
and passed on the reins to someone else, who was younger, but also could speak English. The inn itself was the same and as if it was meant to be, I was in the same room with Tom
that I was with Ajay. Basically the same trip all over again.
Tom would show up a little bit later where he would regale me with the wild and crazy stories of his time in Tokyo by himself. He made hostel friends, they headed to Shibuya
late at night and well, fun ensued. He can tell the stories better than I ever could. I would attempt to take him to A’s Bar, the same bar that me and Ajay went to when we
visited Kyoto (can you see a pattern here) but my attempts to figure out if we were going the right direction east or west would be depressingly revealed to us that I was
actually going north and south. Tom, already hungry and quite tired, would just suggest we take a taxi, which we did at this point.
A’s Bar was also the same as usual, where Tom and me drank some beer and ate some great food. It was mostly ourselves (and other random foreigners at other tables) for the night
although the moment after Tom and me got up to pay our bill, three girls would come in and sit at the same table that we were at. Not sure if they would have sat there had we
still been there, but I was a little sad that I couldn’t see Tom’s skills with the ladies in action that night. Fatigue was setting in for the both of us though and Tom said he
was all late night partied out, which I appreciated. So we went back to the hotel and called it a night.
Tags: japan·kyoto·tokyo
16May2010
Posted by Roland under: Travel.
So it was finally time to get my act together and leave SF (and a horrible week) behind and get out to Japan. My worry for the safety of Tom aside, I had to make sure I could get to the airport first. Thankfully, Greg was nice (or bored?) enough to give me a ride to the airport from my new place in the Richmond, which got me to the airport earlier than I expected. Add that with the fact that my gold status on Delta (thanks Deloitte) let me skip the check in and security lines, I was through the security and at the gate with far too much time to spare.
The flight itself was uneventful. I got very little sleep, spending most of the time watching Invictus, a random Japanese movie and breezing through a how to learn Japanese book I borrowed from SFPL before I left (you can never be too safe). Possibly the only interesting thing was that a couple seated next to me spent most of the flight in apparently agony after having drank glass after glass of free wine at the beginning of the flight. I would hate to have a hangover on a tiny plane where you can’t move anywhere.
Oh and also because the flight crew thought the flight was an hour longer than they thought, we didn’t get the second meal we were promised. Airline food, no worries that I missed it.
Previous experience told me that I should hustle off the plane and right to immigration because I didn’t want to get caught in a huge line of passengers trying to get through customs. I got off the plane pretty quickly and got myself through customs in the shortest time ever. I was operating about an hour ahead of schedule, even after I had side excursions to rent my cellphone and get a ticket into Tokyo.
I decided to stay at the same hotel I stayed at last time in Asakusa so everything was pretty much familiar. Nothing much had changed since last year. And the weather was so pleasant that I decided to walk from Asakusa to Akihabara in search of good ramen. I found great tonkotsu ramen, although just like Ramen Jiro last time, the broth, while great, was a bit too much to try and finish all of if I wanted to keep my stomach intact. I walked off the ramen by trying to find a good pachinko place to play for the night. Unfortunately, luck was not with me (I should’ve known, I went to the same place in Asakusa that stole my money last year) and I decided to call it a quick night (as of writing this, I’ve slept for only about 2 hours since I woke up in SF) despite the fact that all of Asakusa was pretty lively with the remnants of a big festival they had earlier in the day.
Tags: japan
19April2010
Posted by Roland under: Personal.
Somehow this year, I managed to go to all 3 of the days the Cherry Festival was on. (The first Sunday was canceled due to rain and wind…smart move probably)
Of course the content doesn’t change from day to day for the most part, the same food stalls are open each day, but the cultural events do rotate a bit. The big deal is on the last Sunday though, for the parade (more on that later).
On the second Saturday when I arrived at the festival early (so early that nothing was open and people were still setting up) I randomly came across a Japanese culture Meetup group that I had signed up by chance while looking for things to get involved in San Francisco (while I used to live in San Francisco I guess). And I mean relatively random. I had remembered seeing a random email from my group saying that they were going to meet up at Peace Plaza and while I was wandering around looking for something to occupy my time, I thought I recognized someone from the group sitting talking to someone.
Turns out that my assumption was correct although the Meetup turned out to be only three people! Nonetheless, it was a pretty fun meetup, if only just for a little bit! The group organizer, Kyoko, was kind enough to introduce me to another friend of hers who had a booth at the festival, Tomoko, who works as an artist in San Francisco and has some really cute works representing San Francisco. (When I get back to my apartment in SF, I’ll post up a few pictures from one of my favorites).
Tomoko would come in very handy the next day on Sunday since I was coming to the festival to carry the portable shrine (also known as “mikoshi” in Japanese) in the parade. To do so was nothing fancy, you just showed up at the local church early enough, grab some clothing and you’re set! Decked out in traditional temple carrier gear, I wandered around the festival, luckily not out of place (there were many others in costume, mostly anime) trying to kill time before the actual parade. Tomoko, despite having met her just the day before, was kind enough to let me keep my things at her booth while I waited for the parade to start.
The actual temple carry was pretty unorganized, but then again, that’s part of the fun. There were people much bigger and probably much more appropriate for the task, but anyone who had the right clothing to get in the mix. Most of the setup time was spent drinking sake…and then you would also drink sake on the path back (many people were carrying ladles with sake in them if one needed some, refreshment, along the parade route). I wouldn’t say I carried it too much as people much taller nearby put the temple out of reach, but I tried my best to stay in the mix, sometimes getting pushed out from the temple due to the crush of people wanting to get their hands on it.
Would I carry the temple again? Most definitely!
I think I would like to get more people in the group next time.
Unfortunately, no one else I knew was able to make it out, so I guess there are no pictures to be had of me in action carrying the temple…there is one of me wearing my outfit which I will also post up later!
Tags: cherry blossom festival·japantown·mikoshi·parade·san francisco
8April2010
Posted by Roland under: Personal.
I am really tired of trying to schedule time with someone.
Admittedly, it’s very difficult when you’re only in SF for a weekend at a time and the other side’s weekend schedule rivals that of the most popular restaurants (i.e. you’re not getting a table without a reservation). I’ve tried everything. Asking, not asking, making myself available, seemingly making myself unavailable (oh but I was so available), trying to see if day-of spots were open, maybe asking a few days in advance, even asking almost a month in advance.
Nothing works. I give up.
Case in point, I throw out 4 (that’s right, 4) possible invites to hang out this month. Of course I have no expectations to getting all 4 but come on, one of them has to work out, right? Since they said they were a fan of Google Calendar I decide to dust off that particular piece of software (I am a late adopter when it comes to things) and use it to set up the 4 invites.
Friday, April 9.
Saturday, April 10.
Friday, April 30.
Saturday, May 1.
Okay, let’s see what happens. The immediate response, 3 tentatives and a confirmed yes for April 30? Very nice! Maybe we’ll actually be able to pull off a miracle and have 2 hang outs? I’m liking what I hear.
A few days later, the April 9 and 10 hang outs would be canceled formally. A little disappointed, but then again, there was never a true confirmation, so what can one expect?
And then I go online to Google Calendar just for kicks (i.e. bored at work) and I look at the April 30 invite…
Canceled.
What the hell?
My initial reactions:
1. Anger. Why wasn’t I informed about this cancellation? Okay sure, it was for something weeks in advance but I then again expect to hear from someone if they back out on an agreement. My Calendar isn’t set up to notify me when schedules change so I did not enjoy the impersonality of this rejection (having to find out from the website rather than from the person themselves). If you’ve got bad news, bring it to my face at least.
2. Disappointment. I hate when people go back on their word. HATE. I had penciled in April 30 as a nice hang out, but now all of a sudden they’ve withdrawn their acceptance? You had plenty of time to stay “tentative” and not commit. But I feel once you’ve committed to something, what the hell, you’re locked in. Maybe they didn’t take Google Calendar confirmations seriously? But then, this is a one on one invite, I’m not asking you to join my college group’s fundraiser through a spam invite on Facebook. I expect a little bit more…maybe too much? Okay, maybe you backed out of the dinner for a good reason then?
3. Depression. Turns out I was being replaced in favor of a birthday party. For someone that I know. But I guess not know enough to be invited to. Sighing then began.
So basically, I went from a long awaited (I had to book it weeks in advance) dinner to now being alone while my dinner partner goes off and has a fun time to a party for someone I know but wasn’t invited to. That’s quite a swing.
What bothers me the most? Probably #2…like I said, I don’t like when people go back on their word. Maybe I just overestimated how important Google Calendar is? My mistake. I guess you won’t know until you actually see them, sitting across from you at the table.
Not saying that I’m so deprived of friendship that I couldn’t fill up my schedule with things. But when I commit to meeting someone, I would expect they return me the same respect.
May 1 is still listed as “tentative”. You’ll have to forgive me if I don’t hold my breath.
me: well no pressure of course haha
i mean, eventually at some point
i need to try and fill my own calendar too
them: go ahead!
haha
me: gosh!
them: you should just do that
me: when you say it like that
i am
i’m trying to fill it with you ;p
Tags: schedule
4April2010
Posted by Roland under: Personal.
Word to the wise, don’t hang out at Twin Peaks late at night.
Anyway, I started this post while I was at Twin Peaks late last night but I quickly realized, my Droid, while amazing, was not set up to handle the way WordPress does things. No worries.
Why would I be up there at 1 AM anyway? As I told Greg, Think of it as the result of many personal embarrassments. Lessons learned!
I only had one real poignant thought yesterday (you may think otherwise).
I was waiting for the BART at Downtown Berkeley and a random female student comes by and sits on the other end of the same bench. I give her a glance, she’s of average cuteness. Honestly, just another one of the mess of Asian girls that seem to populate the student body. Nothing amazing in either end of the spectrum.
I also then realize she’s carrying a pair of boots. Like, in her hands. She’s already wearing sneakers but she has boots also for whatever reason. I’m wondering if she’s bringing them back to the city or something to return them?
Then all of a sudden she starts to take off her sneakers and put on the boots.
And then I figured it out.
She suddenly becomes so much more attractive in my eyes.
But all she did was put on a pair of boots, right?
Of course, I do enjoy boots on girls, but I guess I had never seen one switch from sneakers to boots like that.
How can a girl of relatively low interest suddenly become that much more attractive? I mean, I’m aware that makeup and fashion exist for a reason, but I had never been there for the actual transformation.
It was a little mind blowing to say the least. I had always thought I was better than that. But I guess, this brought me back to reality. I was just affected by all these games as everyone else had been. Was it really that simple for someone to become that much more attractive, if only physically? It was a little scary also.
Nothing else changed about her, but now because she was wearing boots all of a sudden I was interested. That’s all it took? Yikes.
I guess now I’m asking, can I trust myself? Not really sure anymore.
Tags: berkeley·boots·twin peaks
27March2010
Posted by Roland under: Personal.
No no, I haven’t abandoned the writing site! But it takes a lot of time to get something pushed out =/ I have a lot of stuff in drafts but nothing completed. At least until today!
I might still tinker with this story, but I think I have something worthwhile enough to be published. Enjoy!
http://www.rolandcarlos.net/writing/?p=13
Comments appreciated as always.
Tags: short story·writing
27March2010
Posted by Roland under: Personal.
So I was borrowing Clive’s car last weekend (as I do most weekends now, since Clive is mired in busy season and works ridiculous hours) and last Sunday before I left I parked his car on the street (as we have no garage parking). I forgot to mention to Clive where exactly I parked the car before I left but I figured he would know that he had to move the car regardless (since throughout the week all the streets around our apartment are cleaned on various days, so no matter where you park you have to move your car at some point).
My worry kept growing that he might get a citation from the city for not moving the car for street cleaning. However, I dismissed this as worry, Clive was very good about moving the car before so I figured it wouldn’t come up again.
As the week went on in Sacramento there was no note from Clive about getting a citation so I figured all was well. In addition, when I came back yesterday he had moved the car to another spot and said nothing. No citation!
Unfortunately, as I drove out a block away from the apartment last night, I noticed something under the windshield wiper.
It was a city citation.
Another premonition is fulfilled! How upsetting.
Tags: citation·premonitions