Spare Change?

For some, the change of the seasons has the winter clothes heading for boxes or up to the top shelf and the heavy coats give way to the lighter. Of course, if you live west of Twin Peaks the heavy coats are never too far away. A new season brings new pieces to the wardrobe. Local tomatoes will be showing up anytime I'm told.

Things that never seem to change? Fog for 4th of July. Incredible weather for Pride weekend. No State budget on the first day of the fiscal year.

We all talk about change, the need to "change it up," "change of pace," "change reporting." Traveling is a change. I don't know if that is what people like about it. I know I do. It's different food, different shelter, and hopefully fun clothes. When you travel, you are somebody a little different because nobody knows you. You're just passing through and wanting to take it in.




When I'm home and I feel the need for a different perspective, I start moving the furniture around. This is best done with a very large cup of coffee and little bit of time ahead of you. For me it's remolding the space. You're walking a different path and doing different things like staring out the window more and freaking out your neighbors.


Maybe I'll want to have a few more gatherings now that the space is not as TVcentric. I also discovered that all my favorite sitting spots were left leaning the way I had it set up before, and now I've made all the good watching, lounging, and snoozing spots right leaning. I'm wondering if my sore left neck/shoulder was caused by this lean. Or maybe it's caused by just spending way too much time on the couch in generally, only time will tell.


I do wish sometimes I could clear my head and get that feeling of change by going to the gym or going for a run instead of pushing the furniture around and centering the carpet. Maybe I should get heavier furniture.

Picking up Lose Ends

The end of a trip has a funny way of getting away from you. The next thing you know you're home and what was April is now July and you're thinking about refilling your propane tank. When you're a few days away from coming home, you tend to give up on packing gracefully and start looking for another suitcase or cardboard box or cheap plastic sacks with wheels intended to last the distance between baggage claim and the curb. Our last few days were in Hong Kong where oddly the internet access was no so great. The goal at this point was to get everything home and pick up any special request and see some family and friends.






But good shopping makes up for lost time in front of a keyboard any day. And I don't even like to shop. Hong Kong is one of those great sport shopping cities.

And of course interesting food.







But life is lived in the present and sooner or later it's time to go home until the next trip. Thanks D for a great time. You all have a fun time in Egypt later this year.



BTW, heaven is the JAL Sakura lounge in Tokyo























One of the few times I was not in a rush to get off the plane.

Yodobashi

I was getting this post ready, but then the final stop, Hong Kong, didn't have very reliable internet. Before traveling to Osaka we met a friend and I asked her what she thought was good in Osaka and what was there to do. She said, "people there speak different than from Tokyo, it's Kansai area." I wondered if there were different dialects of Japanese, but before I could ask she said, "They speak too loud. They talk more ... they talk too much."

Ideas for what to do with my VW bus.

I found Osaka to be a friendly town. After awhile I realized that I was the most dangerous looking person on the subway. I needed to establish my public role, everyone seems to have a distinct public role. Every day I saw Salaryman, School Girl, Retirees, hipsters, and shoppers (shopper is definately a role) on subway. All I had to do was whip out my English subway map and review my last pictures on my camera and every body was at ease, ah ...tourist, most likely American tourist.
Interesting thing about Osaka, it's kind of like Bladerunner, only nice and friendly. It's very layered, subways, walkovers, whole shopping malls built under elevated train tracks. And here you see the power of the all mighty corporations and where all the Salarymen work. We rode in on a Hankyu train from Kyoto which came into their own train station, next to the Hankyu department store, next to the Hankyu hotel, the Hankyu business highrise, and ground level shopping mall all sitting right next to the main public subway system. Not to be out done, their friendly rival Hanshin had the same set up basically right across the street with a train station, hotel, office building, department store and shopping mall and to do one better, they had their own baseball team, the Hanshin Tigers, the pride of Osaka. Yes in Japan, the corporate name goes on the team, not the ballpark. I think it's the same with salarymen, once you put on that white shirt and dark navy suit, you ain't changing teams. (Now that I think of it, I never saw a colored shirt other than white under a suit, and 90% of all ties were stripped)


Happy White Day! I had to look this up in Wikipedia. Apparently creating Valentines Day was not enough and so White Day was created for 30 days after Valentines Day.

On Valentines Day, the women give choc. and sweets to all the men in their lives. Boyfriends and husbands get the good stuff, while office acquaintances get "courtesy" choc. 30 days later, the man responses with actual gifts of a white nature, for example, if boy friend, white lingerie. According to Wikipedia, the return gift should to be three times the value of the chocolate gift given.

Very civilized. Soft close lid, heated seat, heated spray water, self cleaning, I think this one had a motion sensor.

Right in between the Hankyu and Hanshin monopoly mega plex was a Yodobashi Camera store. Camera should really be put in quotes, they may have started out with cameras but now sell everything you can think of that you can plug in. Ten floors of electronics and appliances and media and parts are on sale including the toilet seat of your dreams.

I couldn't get an actual picture of this rice cooker because they had someone stationed right next to it, so I settled for its brochure. The mere fact that a rice cooker has a glossy brochure required a second look. The picture I was trying to get was of the price tag. This little baby goes for 79,900 yen. That's approximately $880.00. For a rice cooker. That better be some damn good rice.

Cheap Eats and Lowbrow Snacks

Osaka is a working mens/womens town. People always need good cheap lunch food for those days you didn't have your bento box prepared the night before. 400 yen is about $4.40 US. That's like truck food price levels. However, I don't know how many days in a row I could eat takoyaki balls. I think two days is my limit. Good forms of dietary fiber are a bit hard to come by in the city.

Under all that onion and soft boiled egg and other toppings are Osaka's famous tako (octopus) yaki (pan fried?) balls. Actually a cleaver way of cooking, in ball form. I bought a takoyaki pan, eventhough it breaks the first rule of travel and packing, Don't buy items made of cast iron.


For all you waffle fans, this place has it going on. Fresh cooked waffles with either a choc, vanilla or strawberry cream filling.


This just seemed wrong. Some kind of cream or custard filling, and canned corn in a hotdog bun.




A fruit and cream sandwich, on white bread with the crust cut off. All the packaged sandwiches had the crusts cut off. How civilized.

A Vegan in Kyoto

I was told by Nao that there are not many Vegans in Japan and I was talking to just about the only one in Kyoto. She was running a shop selling tea ceremony ceramics and things. The owner was nice enough to let her put up some of her own work in the window. It was pretty random, I just started walking north and came across her store. btw, a compass is a very handy thing especially when coming out of the subway and you want to know which way to start heading.




Nice stuff in general and then I saw this. It's used to stir and mix the powdered green tea.



Of course, I'm going to make a lamp of some sorts out of it. It's a stunning piece of craft and will make an equally stunning light.


Dinner was completely in the opposite vein but equally as stunning. A long time friend of the clan had arranged this dinner. If they would have let me, I would have brought a sleeping bag and a snuggy.



It's hard to beat your own private room and your own attendant.
This place first opened about 120 years ago and was one of the first to start serving beef in Japan.





P.S. Did I tell you how much I hate Blogger? Blogger keeps cutting out and I lose changes and adds. This might be it for awhile if it doesn't calm down.

At the End of a Long Day

Traveling is just that, traveling from here to there. Figuring out how to get from here to there, and then mostlikely walking from here to there. If I lived in Japan, I could consider not having a car. Let me rephrase that. If I lived in Tokyo or Osaka I could consider not having a car, but I'd still have the coolest scooter on earth. Or if I had this thing to take me around, this would be ok.






Pink Tentacle

Something for Everyone

The rice on a sizzling plater diner is a great business model. The meat comes out raw and you cook it to your liking by the heat of the plater. Some canned corn and a rice cooker and you're in business. The ticket on the wooden plate was bought out of a vending machine by the front door. This place had the U shaped counter and the Japanese equivalent of Flo shouting back the order. The food was up in under 3 minutes. Thank Pearl Cream for the tip on this place.



These turned out to be like cookies with veg bits and flavors in them. Very good.



Again, something for everyone.



All eel, all time. This small dinner served only eel three different ways. Small, Medium and Large.



I guess this guy just didn't want to sell. I can understand, it's hard leaving Tokyo. It's racy fast pace sexy. Kinky and silly at the same time and seems to honor the old and celebrate the new (on weekends only). Of course those salary-men didn't look too supper super happy now. I guess I'll always be a bit more fond of a fun city I don't have to work in.

Local Shout Outs

Hey Starbuck, mission accomplished. One pair of Star Wars light sabre chopsticks. We were having dinner with friends and, oh yeah 5th floor kiddo playlando, Harijuku Station. It's good to know people.

Do they really sell enough of these to need two versions? And what does Speed Alice refer to?
btw the two baby doll outfits were sold at the Loft, kind of like a Z gallery.



















I guess Japanese Emo kids have a lot to disposable income. These were not cheap and very well made.










This remains a mystery. I can confirm that it was glazed, and there was a line out the door for them, and the cut away showed many thin layers of a kind of cake.





Hey Starbuck, the business cat is alive and well and riding the Tokyo subway.
















Just starting to get the glossy food shots out.
I'm a few days behind. We pulled into Kyoto today via bullet train. In Japan, it all about the train or subway station, which at times blur into shopping centers, hang out, cultural stage. Not very many car parks, but many bicycle parking lots. It's a bicyclist heaven here with marked off lane and paths etc. Of course they actually stop at stop sign and lights even if no one is coming.

The Japanese cook fish too.

Scallops with parm cheese on a red sauce.

Kobe beef. Yes it's that good, and they swear they were happy cows.

No Particular Reason

Royal costume balls, the Rocky Horror Picture Show, a week out at the Black Rock desert, Cosplay (costume play, the Japanese love to shorten everything), did you ever really need a real reason to break out the blue wig? Found this clip of Kirsten Dunst doing cosplay in Akihabara. It's just a few stops up the line, I guess I could go check out, you know being that the museum are closed Sunday.

So if you just gotta see the video, you can go to the Tate Muesum, London, or if you're pressed for time, here.

What a difference a few blocks make

The Ginza, where we are staying and the most expensive retail district in Tokyo, is a short walk away for the Tsukiji fish market. The largest fish market in the world. All the guide books say don't wear nice shoes if you visit. D and I took a stroll down in search of breakfest. I was less interested in the fish and more interested in us not getting run over by a truck or cart. They don't let tourist into the tuna auction any more; the paper said something about too much tourist traffic in and out taxing the refrigeration and tourist touching the tuna. Later I am going to do a google image search and see if there are many pictures of people squat down cuddling up to a $20,000 tuna. I was just happy to get something to eat and have all of my toes. Understandable if Vegans and Vegetarians wanted to skip this one.

It was about time for D and I to part ways for today, my next stop was the Ghibli Studio museum in Mitaka via an unknown number of subway changes.

Just so we are all on the same page, this is a graphic representation of the Tokyo subway system. I'm currently somewhere in the lower right-hand corner and I need to go somewhere off the map on the far left. I'm told even people who live here get lost.













I've been happy so far with getting from point A to B. I don't bother figuring out how much fare to put on a ticket, I just buy the lowest fare and when I get there I use the add fare machine or hand the ticket to the nice station agent man and look pitiful. I think they are used to it. It works really well, I'm sure one time he just let me slide on a fare since I had come half way across town.



Ghibli Studios

The House that Totoro built. PF told me about this museum and I'm glad they still had tickets available. I'm told they sell out weeks/months ahead. Widely considered as Japan's premire animation studio, Ghibli was founded by Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata in 1985. Simply put, Ghibli and Pixar studios are animation 2.0. I don't want to get into it with any Disney fans, you could argue that the Japanese love Mickey Mouse more that Totoro, just check out some of their trailers. The official web site for the museum convey his vision and you know he's walking the walk when the gift shop is only accessible by ticket holders and not the general public. Money? Didn't even make it into the top ten.




These little fellas now seemed reasonably priced. Even more so when I found out they are not widely circulated in any other stores.

The Sound of Crows in the Morning

Crows were the first thing I heard on the first morning in Tokyo. They do sound different then our crows, I don't know if that's from living in Japan, or if living in Japan makes you smarter. I will say figuring out the subway system is way more challenging than sudoku. I wonder if American crows can do this?

Travel Day

It’s that long day ahead of you spent checking your pockets and juggling your jacket, carry-on, ticket, and passport. That assembly line event through security where you throw it all up into two grey plastic bins with your shoes, watch, cell phone, wallet, belt, jacket, jewelry, money all needing reassembling just a few feet down the belt. It is a momentary separation of you from all of your carefully placed belongs testing your grace and awareness in a flash of a green light or a red light followed by an ominous tone. The disappointment is palpable. If this were an Olympic event, setting off the metal detector would be equivalent to not sticking the landing on the vault. It all happens in the blink of an eye and D’ohhh … forgot about the 18k gold necklace with the jade double happiness pendant … oh, and the earrings … oh and the extra camera battery. 2.5, 3.0, 2.5, 2.5, 2.0.

 

 However, the event that took me out of medal contention today was the Lock Up and Go. Things were shaping up well for departure. Dishes left in sink: zero. Food that will spoil in the fridge: zero (although you get that score when you get home) Heater off, bed made, neighbors alerted. The big deduction was running out the clock before folding the clean laundry that didn’t get packed, which then seemed like it explode in the living room.

 

 

Your Life in a Bag

Not much you can say about packing. Fold, stuff, repeat. Hope you don't run out of room. I washed every piece of clothing I own in hopes the orphaned socks would find each other. Japan is an A-list socks only destination. The general goal of packing for travel is not to be naked in a different city far from your closet and stay warm if it is cool, and cool if it is hot. Half way through you give up on any fashion statement after you just stuffed your neatly pressed suit into a soft sided rectangle. One does have a few options, you can A: Bring 14 pair of underwear and socks for a 14 day trip accepting as time progresses you're basically toting a dirty laundry hamper with no net gain in space. B: Bring 7 pair of underwear and socks knowing there will be washing sometime in the near future and you may in fact pay more to wash your clothes than they are worth. Or C: bring 7 pairs and 7 pairs you're willing to throw out on the trip, thus, no wash and room to buy more clothes, which you'll need when you get home. To help with C, hotels could leave bags in your room to put your old clothes in for donation to local charities, and you could drop the bags off at the front desk for 10% off coupons at the neighborhood Versace or Armani store around the corner. Yeah, that's good. Somebody have John D. get that idea to Gavin, I know they're close ;)

Cucumbers and Small Children

I'm sure it's been said many time how Japanese culture blends the old or traditional with the new and fresh and in this cases, splashed with a little reggae. The Kappa is a mythical creature fond of eating cucumbers and small children.



(Friends tell friends about their misspelled words and run on sentences)

I really should be packing

Checking out Japanese music videos doesn't seem like a logical step towards leaving on a trip to Japan and Hong Kong, but internet "research" is funny that way. Clean clothes should be more important than learning how to embed video in a blog for the first time, but the Pink Tentacle blog was greatly entertaining, which is where I found this.

Ok let's put a load in the washer just to be on the safe side.