Japan - AX Tokyo 2004

Copy all the blog stuff here, also link to pictures.

January 2, 2004

Whoa. I'm going to Japan.

Well, I finally got my tickets and final info from NTA. (By FedEx no less!)

It's a weird thing tho...

Ever since I first heard about this back at AX'03, I was of the "Wow. Japan. Too bad I can't go." mindset. Knowing that I could never possibly afford such a venture, yet with that .00001% ethereal glimmer of hope that maybe, some miracle could happen that would allow me to go. Then, a couple months later, the miracle happened: some much needed work. Money started pouring in and before I knew it, I had the $250 for the down payment. Depression turned to elation as I FAXed the signup form to NTA with my credit card number on it. But even after I received confirmation of my deposit payment I still could hardly believe I was going... almost like it was still kind of a dream and not real. Even after I paid the full amount on the November due date (I *barely* made it!) I could still hardly believe it... surely I must be dreaming or something. It almost seemed unreal.

Today I receive the envelope from FedEx, and with trembling fingers I tear the thing open and uncover the goodies contained within. I gaze at the plane tickets and the luggage tags and the final itineraries and all within. And suddenly a relalization hits me. I am holding the plane tickets. They exist. They are real. (believe me, I must have pinched myself 1,000 times just to make sure I wasn't dreaming) My mouth opens and I utter "I'm going to Japan. Whoa." (said in Keanu Reeves "Matrix"-like manner) And that's exactly the feeling that came over me.

Of course now I"m so excite that I can't even sleep. :P

January 6, 2004

A Fistful of Yen

Yeah, I know, it doesn't quite have the same ring to it as the Sergio Leone spaghetti western. Oh well...

Trip preparations continue in earnest here at Chez Borg. Today I went down to the friendly neighborhood Wells Fargo, plunked down $1,250, and walked away with ¥127,000. Fortunately, since I hold a Wells Fargo bank account, there was no fee involved. I decided to do this right now because (a) I'd get the best rate, (b) It's already done and I don't have to worry about it any more. I also converted Pam's money for her -- might as well, since I was there. Again, one less thing to worry about.

Meanwhile, the prep work continues. Many thanks must go to the folks at NTA and the AX Tokyo message board for answering our many questions about traveling to Japan. Without them, and the excellent guide book they recommended, we would be totally lost! Of course, we may end up being totally lost anyway, but at least this way we have at least the illusion of being prepared. :-)

I did something totally stupid the other day. I accidentally dropped my passport down the back of my bookcase. :P I had to empty out most of it and move the sucker to get it back. Took about 6 hours including the clean-up. Unfortunately things didn't go back in quite the way they started out as, so now the bookcase protrudes slightly, and gets in the way of my mouse arm. :P One of these days I have to go through the whole thing and clean it out - there's a lot of crap in there.

I posted in the Iron Fans Online board, asking about the possibility of visiting Iron Chef restaurants while in Japan. (We're also big IC fans) Anyway, one of the posters contact me privately, and we have arranged to have lunch with him and his wife at Ristorante Massa (Kobe's restaurant)!! All of us are really looking forward to this.

Anyway, so much to do... I better get back to it all. We leave in just over a week!! WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!

January 13, 2004

I Hate Packing! :P

Yes, it's true. I hate packing. And with under 24 hours before we depart, I'm STILL not fully packed yet! :P Plus, it turns out I need to do some laundry too??!??

Fortunately, I'm roughly 85% packed, so there's not much left to do.

It's weird. Even though we have the plane tickets, even though we've typed up and sent out our itineraries, even though we're furiously packing, the reality of "we are going to Japan!" STILL hasn't fully sunk in. I don't think it will fully sink in u ntil we are on the plane, or maybe not even until we step off the plane in a foreign airport. It's a weird thing, really.

The computers are just about ready to go. I've encoded several anime series (that way I don't have to lug the DVD's with me, possibly lose/damage them, etc.) so that we'll have something to watch on the excruciatingly long plane flight. I also got, thanks to Mom, a second laptop battery. I can't get a straight answer out of anyone as to whether the airplane has power plugs or not, so I'm bringing fully-charged batteries just in case. And I intend to introduce Pam to the wonderful world of anime!! I figure I'll start her on something dramatic, with no ecchi or other weird stuff... Haibane Renmei sounds as good as any. Plus it doesn't have any high squeaky voices that she dislikes. :) I also might show her Chobits or maybe Noir, another excellent dramatic series. I also brought, for good measure, Spirited Away and Nausicaa, since we will be visiting the Ghibli Museum and it would be nice for her to see some of Miyazaki's films beforehand.

I also re-discovered my GBA!!! I found it, oddly enough, sitting behind the stereo receiver on the A/V shelf. How it got there I have no idea. Unfortunately I managed to lose the charger/power plug for it; fortunately, Software Etc. had an aftermarket one for $10. Works just fine, and it even takes 100v voltage, so it will work in Japan. I also picked up a Mad Catz hard case and headphone adapter (lets me plug my own headphones into the GBA). And I picked up some games too -- Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and Sword of Mana (thanks to the excellent folks on the AX Game Room forum for these recommendations). I also picked up Advance Wars 2. This should be more than enough to keep me occupied on the plane. :)

Here's the odd thing about the GBA: I hadn't used it for MONTHS AND MONTHS. So I figured, surely the battery on the thing would be DEAD, DEAD, DEAD. But it WASN'T!!! I played Advance Wars on the thing for 3 days after finding it, and only then did the red warning light come on. Weird. I thought rechargable batteries gradually lost their charge over a month or three.

Anyway, time to get back to packing and laundry... :P Gotta go to bed SUPER EARLY tonight; since we have to be at the airport at least 2 hours before departure time, and we depart 11:35, we should really be there around 9. And it takes us 3 hours to get to the airport (allowing for traffic). Uggg...

"Dodge THIS!"

We narrowly dodged a bullet tonight...

About 2 months ago we went luggage shopping, because the bags we had were totally inadequate to the task of taking us and our schtuff to Japan and back. So, after some looking around, we found a great luggage deal at Costco, of all places. A 29" pullman with really nice wheels and stuff for $80. Nice, roomy, big enough for the thick winter clothes that we'll be needing (and the inevitable collection of souvenirs we know we would be acquiring).

When NTA sent us our final trip documents, I read the baggage allowances. Rather, I MISread them. You're only allowed a certain size of baggage for both checked-in and carry-on. The dimensions (length + width + height) have to be under 62 inches, for checked, and 45 inches for carry-on. Weight has to be below 70 lbs (for checked) and 10 lbs (for carry-on). Well, we both felt that we were fine in the weight department; however we weren't so sure about the dimensions. So I whipped out the handy dandy tape measure and measured our new bags. Depending on whether we included the wheels and handle in our measurements, I got either 61 inches or 68 inches. But here's the catch. I mis-read the allowances as *82* inches rather than *62* inches, so I thought everything was fine.

Well tonight Pam wanted to double-check (it's a good thing that she did!) and so we re-measured it, and this time she correctly read the 62 inches figure. Oops!! And considering that the fee for oversized luggage is $200 (OUCH!) we did NOT want to take any chances. But here we were, 7 PM at night on the night before we leave, and we need new luggage.

Thankfully, both our Moms came to the rescue; they had baggage that they lent us that fit within the necessary parameters. We had to empty our current bags and re-pack into smaller bags, but at least now we won't be penalized.

Oy. What a moron I am. As Ruri might say, "dburr no Baka!"

January 14, 2006

Can't sleep...

...too excited!

Yep, it's 1 AM on the morning when we leave. In order to beat the morning traffic and get in to the airport with time to spare, we really need to leave here by 5 AM. But neither of us can sleep. :P This being our first international trip, and our first trip to Japan and all. We've been looking forward to this for soooooo long. And even now, there's still a voice in our heads saying "No way... this isn't happening... etc."

Itinerary is up!

Pam typed up a pretty concise and to-the-point itinerary of our travels in Japan. It's available for your viewing pleasure at:

http://www.borg-cube.com/japan2004/itinerary.html

I'll be adding to it as we know more details (i.e. what places we'll be seeing, etc.) so please keep reloading often!

Ok Don We Get Up In THREE HOURS (Beep)

Now how do I get him away from the computer again for lights out? :)

He will snore in the car on the way, of course, but I have to drive!!!!

I think I'll hit the circuit breaker ;)

Five AM Trip Day (Beep)

Well, we're awake :) Don't know how. Just wanted people reading this to know we didn't sleep thru our alarm!

January 15, 2004

We have Arrived!!

So here I am, sitting at the Ikebukuro Mamboo (the one on 2F of the Sunshine 60 bldg), sipping a Calpis and munching on some curry...

The NTA flight out of LAX was smooth and uneventful, aside from a hour-long block of turbulence about 4 hours into the flight. (It was shaky but not too bad. And the food was GREAT!!!!) Wheels-up at about 12+15 PM local time, and touchdown occurred at 4:30 on the next day, local time. Customs couldn:t have been easier - they basically looked over my passport and stamped me, no questions asked. (and here we were obsessing about And check-in couldn:t have been easier - kudos to the NTA guys for streamlining the check-in procedure; all we had to do was show our passport and they handed us a packet with our keys, AX badges, and program guides. I must especially thank Yozo Kawazoe who went above and beyond the call of duty to assist me in getting Ghibli Museum tickets at the last moment as well as securing reservations at the Iron Chef restaurants!!

So, our first night in Tokyo. Wow. Driving into the city was an amazing thing. Slowly we saw the buildings getting higher and higher and more and more clustered together... then came the lights. But the full impact didn:t hit until after we had checked into the hotel and started exploring. Lights everywhere. Think Las Vegas multiplied thousandfold and you:ll begin to get the idea of what I'm talking about. Tons of people, mostly the young set, milling about and having fun. And every storefront lit up brightly and many of them loudly hawking their wares. Excitement was definitely in the air!

Tonight's mission was in search of two things: food and Internet access. Both were found in the same place, an "Internet manga cafe" called Manboo. Thanks to Kat for pointing this place out in the Places to GO near AX thread on the message board. After a bit of a shaky start we found it, and here we are.

Gonna go to bed soon, as we're both wiped. But thought I'd pop in and give a little heads up. So far we're having a blast. Tomorrow... AX Tokyo starts!!!! And dinner at La Rochelle to boot. Yomigaearu Iron Chef!!!

Beep's Follies (Beep)

This will be the part of this web log which I will get teased about, I am sure! But I've only been on the Japan trip one day and already I have a nice list of silly things I have done.

I could NOT sleep the night before the trip. So I was exhausted even before the long flight when at the LA Airport. I was looking for a store that sold paper so I could make some notes on the flight. Of course I found no paper, even after walking to several stores. Plenty of melatonin, but no paper. So I was really tired when walking back to the gate where Donald was waiting with our WAY TOO MANY bags.

I had to use the bathroom, so I went in. There were these strange things on the walls but there had been so much in the international terminal that was geared toward the Japanese that I wondered if they were some weird kind of Japanese toilets. I was so tired that it took a while to dawn on me that they were urinals and that I was in the men's room! Just as I was starting to get a clue a man walked in. I said "sorry I'm in the wrong place" and he just laughed and laughed...

So then we got on the plane. As the flight went on I starting sweating, more and more. The stewardess thought I had a fever. I think she was scared of SARS! But the girl who sat next to me who was also going to the anime expo asked me if I didn't have anything cooler to wear. I was decked out in a heavy sweatshirt and sweatpants, and carrying a heavy coat. No wonder I was HOT. She then asked me if I didn't get the trip information that the Japanese heat rooms up to 80 degrees. Of course I missed that memo! I brought only warm clothing! She thought I should buy a t-shirt while I am here. Well that's going to be interesting, with the Japanese generally smaller and me at my post-steriod weight. Doubt they know about "plus sizes". Maybe I can find a store for sumo wrestlers.

Later tonight, when we were at the hotel, I was using my phrase book to ask for extra pillows from the hotel staff. My eyes were blurry cos I have been up for about two days, and I read the entry next to "pillow" in the dictionary by mistake. It turns out that, in a good Japanese accent, I was asking for two birth control pills. No wonder the poor girl had a blank look. Glad I finally caught that mistake...

It's going to be an interesting trip!

January 16

Well, I've only got an hour at the internet cafe tonight. It seems to be more expensive to be here on weekend nights or something. And I used most of the hour finding the booth I was assigned to!

One reason I am here is supposedly to help Don get around Japan. I don't mind the idea of it. His payment of money he owed me from years ago is what enabled me to come on this wonderful trip. And he did most of the research and preparation for the trip, too. The least I can do is help him find stuff.

Unfortunately I suck at it.

One reason we stayed at the hotel we did is that it is very close to where the anime expo is. You don't even have to go outside. It seems that for most people, the folks at the tour desk held up four fingers and they were all able to go out of the hotel and find the escalators and go up to the fourth floor.

I don't know where I took us. We probably walked to Korea. Or at least through all of the huge Sunshine City mall complex. It also occured to me, as I was trying to follow signs, that I don't read Japanese. I don't know why I never thought of that before.

It all worked out well, though. By delaying us for God only knows how long, we arrived at the anime expo just in time for Don to be recognized by someone he knew from Santa Barbara City College. I am always teasing him that he gets recognized by people from there everywhere we go, but I honestly didn't expect that to happen our first day in Tokyo! Go thousands of miles; doesn't matter. You can't escape Santa Barbara.

This man, Kier, has lived in Japan now for six years and speaks Japanese. So naturally we stuck to him like rubber cement. Poor guy probably came to Tokyo in the hopes of meeting gorgeous women, and now he can't shake us.

Well Marina asked about the toilets. The one in the hotel is very interesting. It is Western style but with a ton of extra buttons you can push and have things done to you. I'm not sure what things. I'm afraid to find out.

The ladies' bathroom at the anime expo, color coded in pink so even I couldn't mess it up, has a view of Tokyo and a potted tree inside. I'm just glad we don't have to use the tree as a toilet facility. There are western style toilets and I was pretty happy to see them. However, ominously, there were also these toilets that looked like urinals on the ground. I guess the idea is to squat. Very clean, but the logistics worry me. I am no squatter. That's not something fat people with arthritis do. Also, what do I do, take off most of my clothing before going to the bathroom? I am wearing pants for God's sake! I now see why most of the women here seem to be wearing skirts.

I'm convinced the reason for these toilets from hell is that the Japanese want to go to the bathroom without touching any possible germy surfaces. Japan is my mother's ideal country. The TV character *Monk" would be right at home here. Surgical-looking face masks are seen everywhere, as are white gloves. Even on the flight over here, hot towels were brought to us to clean our hands before each meal. Naturally these were untouched by staff, carefully handled with tongs. I want to learn the Japanese word for "germs" just so I can have the fun of screaming it at the top of my lungs one day and clearing the room. What can I say? It's a fantasy. The problem is, I'm going　to go back to the US and find it absolutely filthy. Just thinking about my dirty apartment makes me queasy.

It also turns out that one of the rudest things you can do here is blow your nose in public. Naturally, I now have a cold. It is not a bad cold but it is the kind where you either blow your nose regularly or periodically sneeze so hard that you make a mess of yourself. So I am opting to blow my nose. I hope I don't get thrown out of the country. The dirty looks are piercing.

I didn't realize Americans were so loud. We are the loudest people in every store we go into. And I'm Italian-American which I supposed makes it worse! Tonight in a book store we were stared at as much as if we were green men from Mars. I wish my phrase book　had an entry for "I'm from Mars". That would be fun to go around saying.

January 16, 2004

I want to live here dammit!!!

NOTE: Yes I know this entry is late. I didn't complete it until Saturday night. You'll see why later on in this message.

I'm ready to pack the rest of my stuff and give my landlord his 30 days. I want to move here so bad that it hurts.

We have now completed our first day in Tokyo, and so far we have had an absolute blast.

We finally got up around 10. Actually I was up as early as 9 (all times henceforth will be in local time, btw) but Pam didn:t fully wake until 10. We weren't ready to leave until around 11:15. Fortunately we had gotten drinks and breakfast-type items at a handy dandy convenience store last night, so we had stuff to take our pills and wake up with. Green tea service in the room as well, which was great.

Speaking of convenience stores... it seems like here, there are about 10 convenience stores per capita. Seriously. Within, oh, say, 2 city blocks, I swear there are like 10 convenience stores. And you regularly find rival convenience stores right next door or across the street from each other. You gotta wonder what these guys' business plans look like. "Competiton: 5 of em right next door to us..." Family Mart and Lawson's seem to be the two top brands (at least in this area), but we also saw several others, including one which we were hardly expecting, AM/PM. (But no, we did NOT see any AM11/PM7's. Rats. And I wanted a Special Cosmic Bath too!)

We finally got to the convention center around noon, which is when the opening ceremony started. Oddly enough, I ran into someone I used to go to school with (at SBCC)!! I swear, everywhere I go, I seem to run into someone I know, or someone from Santa Barbara. I call it The Cult of Santa Barbara. Are YOU a member???

The show opened with the wonderful Anison singer MIQ (The Artist Formerly Known As MIO) who sang a few anime themes. She is GOOD. Even Pam was grooving to it. Then there was the usual intro stuff, and each GoH (guest of honor) was introduce and he gave a brief speech. It was a good opener, lasted about an hour, so it wasn't too long and boring.

After the opening ceremony, we went to lunch with Keir. We stopped at a really nice restaurant that specializes in Hokkaido cuisine, which is in the mall that connects the hotel to the convention center. Now THAT is what I call a MALL. Those of you who know me in SB probably know that I call the Pacific Vew Mall in Ventura the "Mall of Doom". Well, this mall is even doomier. At least four stories of wall-to-wall stores and restaurants. Anyway the food was excellent, and we got to sit at a traditional low table on the wood floor where you have to remove your shoes and you sit cross-legged on mats. All three of us had the same thing: rice in a rectangular bento-style wood box topped with various toppings; salmon and salmon roe and something else which I forget. It included miso and green tea, and it was wonderful.

After lunch we strolled around a bit and eventually wandered back to the expo where we watched a 2-hour presentation on the history of OAV. It was fascinating, and I got to see clips of various OAVs spanning the 20 year history of the medium. I saw some series that I recognized, but many that I didn't. In any case it was very interesting to see the different artistic styles, character designs, etc. and to see how OAV has evolved as a medium. Even Pam was getting into it and learned a bit too.

After that we attended a panel by Fred Gallagher, aka Piro from MegaTokyo. I didn't get to hear most of it unfortunately, as our seat was in back and the acoustics weren't that good, but what I did hear I found fascinating. Fred is a neat guy and I would have loved the opportunity to talk to him one-on-one and even get his autograph. Alas, I had nothing suitable for autographing (feh! I wantee to get a MT book before leaving for Japan, but there wasn't enough time!), and I missed the autograph session because I wanted to sleep in.

After the MT panel, we kicked around for a bit and then attended... the UNDER17 concert!!! They are an anime/Jpop band and I hadn't heard of them until AXT. On a whim I decided to go on WinMX and do a search and I found three songs; I liked them a lot, and os I decideed to go. Besides it was included with the con admission. I have to th ank Keir and Pam for putting up with my whim; the concert was loud and it probably wasn't their cup of tea. So, guys, if you are readintg this, thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Anyway the concert ROCKED and I had a good time. It was very high energy, with tons of fans waving around their light sticks, jumping up and down to the beat, and shouting out the lyrics. It was great!!! Most of the songs I did not recognize, but for the two that I did (these being the ones I found on WinMX) I got into the wh ole jumping around and moving the body thang. It was great.

After that, we decided to go drinking in the Shinjuku district. Shinjuku is basically "party central" in Japan, with all sorts of entertainments (yes, even *that* kind of entertainment). The place is also lit up like Las Vegas times a thousand: TONS of neon, billboards, etc. So bright that even in the dark of night, it still looks like it's full daylight.

But the area of Shinjuku we went to was not like this. This "old quarter" is reminiscent of old Japan: narrow, cobblestone streets, lots of small hole in the wall businesses, etc. And when I say "hole in the wall"< I MEAN *hole in the wall*. Most of these places are smaller even than the closet in my apartment. Stretch your arms out at both sides and you will be touching wall. Pam will describe the place more in her entry, but it was, in a word, cool. Small hole in the wall with a couple barstools and a counter, and we had to scrunch up just to fit in it. The owner was a real character, boisterous and ribbing us constantly (but in a friendly manner). And the barmaid was a perfect foil for him, always putting him back in his place. There was much drinking and carousing, and singing too! Yes, they had a karaoke machine, and yes, we did karaoke! I sang "Every Breath You Take" by the Police, which I actually sort of know the lyrics to (although I needed some help in a few sections). There was this one guy there who spoke almost no English, and sang badly to boot, but he put so much *soul* into his songs that you just had to give him mad props. And he was very good-natured about it; nice guy.

We didn:t get back to the hotel until 3 AM. In Japan, trains stop running at midnight, and so we took a cab back to the hotel. Cabs are an interesting experience in Japan; when they pull up to the curb, the rear door automatically opens. You are NOT supposed to touch the door! When it opens, you get in, and it closes automatically too; then you tell the driver where to go (which is rather difficult, as almost NO Japanese cabbies speak English), he drives, you get there, and the back door automatically opens. THen you pay the fare and get out, and you get a receipt. We were out like a light, and didn't get up until 10:30 Saturday morning.

Saturday's entries will come sometime tomorrow (Sunday). Aside from the usual trip report, I'll be posting a trip follies feature similar to Pam's, as I've built up a few follies of my own by now. Anyway it's almost midnight local time, we're getting tired, and I'm way over my Internet usage time, so I will sign off. Good night, and GOd bless.

January 17, 2004

Beep's Follies Jan 17 (Beep)

For January 16, see the bottom part of what I wrote in the original Beep's Follies entry. Don told me not to just append any more but instead to do a new entry each time so I will do that from now on.

You wouldn't want to miss the exciting things I wrote about Japanese toilets, so be sure to check it out!

Speaking of toilets, I got to use one of the ones with the heated seats today. I have arthritis in all my joints and the heat is a good thing. Of course you can't sit on the toilet forever, unless it is in your house. Maybe I will bring a heated toilet seat back. Other people are buying electronic equipment but why should I follow the crowd? Also that would give US customs something really interesting to examine. Liven up their lives a little bit.

(The heated toilet seat was at Iron Chef Kobe's restaurant (the Italian chef) by the way. Boy was that nice. Amazing food, lovely atmosphere. Don took me to lunch! Also he arranged the whole trip with a guy named Mitch whom he met on the Iron Chef web board. Mitch was great to us; he has been to Japan and Iron Chef restaurants many times. We got to meet Kobe, take pictures, get autographs...a wonderful experience).

Someone walked in on me at the toilet at the Internet cafe tonight. Fortunately it was a very apologetic young girl, and I had my back to her and was almost dressed so she didn't see much. This is the kind of thing that if it has to happen, better to have it happen thousands of miles away from home where you will never see the person again.

I may have a few enemies. Got an evil look from an older man on the train today, when I saved a seat for Don that he seemed to want for himself. There was no way for me to explain that Don is legally blind and I have arthritis and we were having trouble standing on the moving train. So he'll just have to hate me, forever. He looked like he remembered WWII or something, anyway. I should have blown my nose at him. Incidentally, if you are lucky enough to get an actual seat on the train, the seats are complete with butt warmers.

I am indebted to Don for bringing generic Claritin. I am allergic to cigarette smoke and a lot of Japanese people smoke. Also I seem to have a cold. It is not a bad cold as colds go, but it is one where you have to blow your nose periodically or you sneeze all over yourself. So naturally, blowing your nose in public in Japan is considered the height of rudeness. I wonder if having snot all over your face is considered polite. Or maybe Americans have more snot problems than Japanese do. Anyway, it's not like I can fit in. I am twice the size of most Japanese, wearing different clothes, talking loudly in a different language. I can't "pass". So I may as well blow my nose to complete the effect.

Tonight I am taking good care of myself, drinking a gel preparation called "vitamin lemon" which is full of vitamin C and other things, and planning to get to bed at a reasonable time. Last night we weren't so health-oriented. We went out drinking with Kier. He took us to the most interesting area, an old section full of tiny drinking establishments. We could not take pictures because it is not permitted. The bar that is Kier's hangout has an owner who is quite a character, and a barmaid who puts him in his place. The bar is a very small room with a few chairs at a counter. Don and especially I had to suck in our guts just to get to a chair to sit down. The bar owner was gesturing toward us and making a hand gesture like he was talking about a pregnant woman. The international symbol for "fat", I suppose. He asked Kier in Japanese if Don and I were a couple, and if so, how we had sex with us both having big stomachs! I made Kier tell me what he said. So I told Kier to say back to him that fat people "do it" better. The bar owner, not skinny himself, seemed to like this. Broke the ice I guess, lol.

So we had the best time there. The bar owner insisted we do karaoke songs. Don did "Every breath you take" and I did "You're So Vain". Keir did several songs; he has a good voice. For some reason the bar owner kept telling me I looked like Cindy Lauper. Also that I was beautiful. So finally when the bar owner said "pretty hair" in Japanese, Kier was going to tell him to stop hitting on me. But it turns out that this comment was directed toward Don! I guess gentlemen really do prefer blondes. I think all of us at home should tell Don he has pretty hair periodically. I'll bet he would love　that.

Turns out I like a Japanese drink that Kier introduced me to. It is some kind of barley liquor with green tea as a mixer. I've always said I'll drink anything with green tea in it. I also mentioned I wanted to try sake, so the owner gave me some as we were leaving. I thought it was good but the owner insisted it was a terrible brand. Wonder what a good brand tastes like.

I also loved the potato salad we were served at the bar. It had apples in it. I love apples. No one gives me potato salad at bars at home. Maybe that's why I never go.

Well I just ordered some fried rice. I tried to ask for no egg. Think I got extra egg. Fortunately, Don loves fried rice. He'll have to eat it. I saw some nice cheap things on the menu that I thought were some kind of rice ball. Almost ordered them. I was trying to ask what they were and I heard a murmured "taco" while they were trying to find the English word. I remembered that Kaoru had taught me, when she came to stay with me in the US, that "taco"is octopus. Dodged that bullet.

There is a drink I really like which is a kind of milk soda called by the ridiculous name of "calpis". Sounds almost like cow piss. I've had it before in the US but only when our friend Charles has taken us to the Japanese market he goes to in Silicon Valley. Since I am not going to drive six hours for Calpis, I am drinking as much as I can here. It is actually one of the free drinks at this Internet cafe. Think I'll go have another six glasses to save money. Cheers!

Don's Follies

Well, I've do9ne some really stupid thyings myself, so it's probably time I started posting them.

On our first day of the con, we got lost finding it. The hotel and the convention center are connected by a huge mall, which is nice in that you don't have to walk outside in the bitter cold, but it means that you have to walk through a very large and confusing mall. So naturally we got lost. We eventually found our way into some sort of convention... yup, you guessed it, THE WRONG CONVENTION. Fortunately we quickly discovered this and beat a hasty retreat, but there were some rather bemused stares pointed our way.

So we went back to the mall. As we were gazing around trying to find the right way to go, we spotted... something that looked like an information kiosk! Well, we asked, and in spite of the language barrier, we somehow made our intentions clear. Or maybe it was the convention badges hanging from our chests. Anyway they pointed us in the right direction. But just as we were about to leave, I spotted something I wanted to take a picture of. So without thinking I whipped out the camcorder... and promptly whacked the poor informnation kiosk girl in the head with it. Owww. And I was so flabbergasted by my mistake that my brain instantly locked up, and I couldn't for the life of me remember how to say "I'm so sorry!" in Japanese. So we sort of slunk out of there as discreetly as we could.

Later that day, at the con, I needed to go to the bathroom. Finding the bathroom proved to be a challenge, but fortunately once we found where they were, it was easy to tell boys from girls: not only are they labeled with the international symbols for men and women, but the rooms and doors were colored blue for boys and pink for girls. How thoughtful. So I went into the boys room, and crawled into a stall, only to find that it had one of those weird squatting toilets. I was too tired to deal with this, so I was looking around in confusion when I saw things on the walls that vaguely looked l9ike urinals. And they WERE urinals!! After relieving myself I went to wash my hands. Well, I couldn't for the life of jme figure out how to turn the water on!!! There was no knob or switch, and I tried waving my hand under it to see if it was an automatic faucet, but it didn't work for some reason. After doing this for several minutes some guy took pity on this poor hapless gaijin and went to the adjoining faucet and waved his hand under it. Water came out!! I sighed and walked over to that faucet and, surely enough, it worked. So either my faucet was dead or I wasn't doing it properly. Then drying my hands was another challenge. In Japan, almost no bathrooms have paper, they instead have those electric hand dryers. Except these were like no hand dryer I'd ever seen before. There was no visible button, and no pipe-like spout where the hot air comes out. Instead it looked kind of like a paper towel dispenser with a big horizontal slit cut in the front of it. I scratched my head trying to figure out what to do. I was about to stick my hand in the sloot but was afraid that I might get electrocuted, so I decided not to risk it. Instead I wiped my hand on my jacket, which drew quite a few reproachful stares. Turns out that sticking my hand in it was the right thing to do after all. Oh well. Now I know.

Well, that's about it for now. Until next time...

A Keitei To Call My Own

Just thought I'd drop a quick note to let you all know that I now have a keitei, or cell phone, in Japan. I got this Friday evening actually, and it has already saved our butts on several occasions. Plus it's great for hooking up with friends and stuff. I'll write more about the actual phonhe later.

My phone number, if you are within Japan, is 090 3816 3050. If you(re calling from the US, use 011 81 90 3816 3050. (If you're calling from a diffrent country, then sorry, I can't help you; you're SOL.) If you can spare the bucks for a quick call to Japan, please feel free to give me a call. I promise I won't tie up your phone lines for hours. Note that, from the west coast of the US, Japan is 17 hours ahead of us. So 8PM PST would be 1PM JST the next day. I am just curious to see if this thing can receive calls from overseas. I don(t think that I can make calls to overseas from it, however.

Call me!

Yomigaeru Iron Chef!!!

Yesterday, we had a lovely lunch at Ristorante Massa, Iron Chef Italian Masahiko Kobe's establishment. It was the experience of a lifetime, and the food was absolutely out of this world. We even got to meet The Man Himself, and took a photo with him! The staff was very friendly and bent over backwards to see to our needs and comfort. I'll post more later (I'm running late for an convention event) and hopefully I'll be able to post pictures as well!

We're gone and the place falls apart (Beep)

Well we came to our Internet cafe hangout for lunch in the hopes of being able to catch some people on chat... but the place is deserted. Not sure if we'll be back here later tonight, but of course home folks will be fast asleep by then. I would like to come back cos it is our last day in this area and I want to take advantage of cheap net access while I have it, but we do have to pack tonight as we start a five-day tour tomorrow. But Don may actually want to see some of Japan tonight instead of staring at a computer. He also wants to leave here soon to see some of the anime expo we supposedly came here for. Is he unreasonable, or what? ;)

Kudos to Chad for emailing me and telling me there is a place to get Calpis in LA. I now feel like I don't have to come back to the US with a bunch of heavy bottles of it in my suitcase!

Might also want some of this Royal Milk tea, too. I got some from a vending machine and out popped a hot little can! I'm pretty impressed with vending machines that can do both hot and cold.

I'm going to have a really tough time getting Don on the plane home. He's going native. He seems to have learned some Japanese from watching all that anime at home and he pops out with all kinds of phrases. Today he told the maid who wanted to clean our room to come back in a few minutes. I was like, how the hell did you do that???

I seem to remember reading that there is a foreign language center in the brain that is separate from where the native language resides. This would make sense to me, as now that we are surrounded with a foreign language, we are both finding it hard to keep other languages out of our heads. Don keeps muttering long-forgotten Korean words at me. I have French and Spanish popping into my head constantly. Also, I keep wanting to say "arigato gamsahamnida" (thank you in Japan plus thank you in Korean) instead of "arigato gozaimas" (proper thank you in Japan). I really hope I don't say what's in my head by accident one day. People are confused enough around me.

January 18, 2004

Beep's Follies Jan 18 (Beep)

I am so tired today. I am not sure why. Painful joints too. It is a good thing Don wanted to see some of the anime shown at the expo. All I had to do was sit in the dark. I'm good at that; it's a skill I have. I need to get a job doing it.

Actually I liked some of the anime. It was nice on a big screen. Also, for some reason, there weren't all those high-pitched voices that I don't like (shades of excel saga). I just can't stand anything screeching at me...

I am eating my first non-Japanese food since I got here. Don ordered some french fries here at the internet cafe and I am stealing some. I really crave sushi; we haven't had that yet! I am so looking forward to it. But they don't have it here at our hangout.

We have to get up early tomorrow cos we start our five-day tour. I'm dreading packing when we get back to the hotel. I hate packing anyway, and this will be a challenging packing job. We are going to have to pack overnight bags for Hakone and have our main bags shipped to Kyoto. That's how people seem to travel here. They take trains and subways and things and ship their bags to their hotels. I guess the bags wait there for your arrival. Couldn't do that at home; someone would undoubtedly steal your bags, or lose them. I was told I can ship some stuff now to wait for me for when we come back to Tokyo in five days! Amazing system.

It is already 8 pm and I haven't eaten, showered, packed, etc. And have to walk back to the hotel. But Don is busy using a rented printer and isn't leaving yet, and it is very comfortable here in this soft chair...hope I don't fall asleep, though, as there is an hourly charge for sitting here. I think I did fall asleep for a bit while watching the anime. It is no reflection on the anime; I really was interested in the story. I'm just having one of my tired days. Wish I could postpone them all till I'm at home. I could just sleep for days on end there, and not miss anything really exciting. Of course I have some really thrilling stuff to do about a medical bill in collection and grievance letters to write. Somehow that is not much to look forward to. Maybe I will just stay here.

I miss family and friends,　of course. But not the service you get in Santa Barbara. At home I have had to get up and go get water from the kitchen in restaurants, after waiting hours to be noticed by the waiter/waitress who is busy flirting with some attractive member of the opposite sex. And many times there just aren't any waiters or salespeople or anyone you need; I think everything goes for rent and there is no money left over for employees. As for food, forget it. I think it is the incredible prejudice against overweight at home. People assume I don't need food and should not order any. Once I was in Robinson's looking for a nice coat for my mom. I asked the snotty salesperson to unlock one of the leather coats so I could look at it. You should have heard the derision in her voice when she absolutely refused to do so, saying "We don't carry anything in YOUR size".

I don't make friends easily at home either. I do everywhere else I go. I think this problem is one reason I left the Santa Barbara area at age 17. If I hadn't gotten sick, I wouldn't have come back. I think the place is beautiful but I don't seem to hit it off with most of the people. Whenever I am travelling I am able to make friends instantly, but I have few home friends after being a Santa Barbarian since 1975. Don't know why that is, but may have something to do with the culture being athletic and out-in-the-sun. Even when I was skinny I was a klutz. It's not a good place to be poor, either.

Anyway, Japan is quite different. All you have to do is put an expression on your face like you might need or want something and twenty people rush over to you to see what they can do for you in stores and restaurants. I'm getting so spoiled that I might not be able to eat out when I get back.

As I write this, I am chatting with Laura and Diskiller. Laura is up at 5 am after a party; she is in Minnesota! Only I would go all the way to Tokyo just to use AIM. This computer addiction is pretty serious. I should go cold turkey but don't want to have dangerous withdrawal symptoms while so far from home! And Don said he just sent me an email, and he's sitting right next to me. That is scary. Just like our talking on chat when we are at home about fifteen feet from each other on our respective computers.

Well it was exciting getting a phone call from Chad today. Too bad Don would not let me speak to him! The call came while we were in an anime screening and Don didn't want us making noise and causing an international incident. It seems Don can't make overseas calls but can receive them on his rented cell phone.

A phone call just came now. Wish Don had answered it. I would have liked to have talked to whoever it was, I am sure. But he was in terror of offending the people here at the internet cafe by talking on the phone and disturbing them. Like I said before, he is going native...he will be fully Japanese soon. The way he is eating these french fries, like they are an interesting foreign dish...

I hope he remembers some of his English when we go back. I'll have to get him a phrase book for it.

January 19, 2004

Beep's Follies, Jan. 19: The Naked Truth (Beep)

(Written in Hakone; posted at an internet cafe in Kyoto) Tonight we are staying in Hakone, a resort near Mt. Fuji. The hotel is called Kowaki-en and is gorgeous. We feel very lucky to be able to see such contrasting views of Japan. Tokyo was exciting with bright lights and stores and street hawkers. Hakone is peaceful with lakes and streams and cedar, pine, and cherry trees, mountains and snow.

On the way here from Tokyo we had a comfortable bus ride (very nice for us as only 8 people plus our professional tour guide ended up taking this tour). After lunch we also had a ferry-type boat ride across a spectacular lake and took a ride up a mountainside on a thing that looked like a Disneyland ride, a car suspended on cables.

Our tour guide had told us on the way that Mt. Fuji is only visible an average of 60 days per year, and it looked like we weren't going to see it. Even when we were at the base of it, at the beautiful place where we had lunch, it was surrounded in mist and invisible. She told us there is a legend that if you see Mt. Fuji on your first trip to Japan, you are very lucky and will be coming back to Japan.

Guess we are coming back! We had gorgeous views of Mt. Fuji the rest of the day! Ha!

They are selling black eggs everywhere; these have been boiled in the hot springs and the minerals turn them black. Our tour guide also told us that the legend is that every one of these eggs you eat grants you an extra seven years of life. Wish I could bring myself to eat even one, but I have hated eggs since I was old enough to spit out food.

Tonight we all went to an Italian restaurant the tour guide took us to, as it was much less expensive than the restaurants in the hotel. I had pizza! The crust is quite different from home. Also I had a nice Japanese citrus drink made from some special fruit.

On the bus ride I had been telling one of our fellow passengers that I lived on the east coast for a time but when I got arthritis I had trouble keeping my balance on icy sidewalks. You would think that would have been enough information, but I had to demonstrate this on the way back from the restaurant. Despite walking more slowly than anyone else and trying to be careful, I slipped and fell on my behind. Broke nothing; very little bruising; injured dignity.

One of the people on the tour said if I had to fall I picked a good time. Because our hotel has hot springs! I have always wanted to try a hot spring. This is something Don had his heart set on to do when we were in Japan, as Japan is famous for them. We did not know we would have this for free here at the hotel.

The way this hotel has you partake of the hot springs is via communal baths. Yes, that is being naked in front of strangers. I keep using what is becoming my trip mantra, "oh well I will never see these people again". Men and women are separate at this one which was some help.

The hotel gives you a special Japanese garment and sterilized (they are even labeled as sterilized!) slippers to wear down to the baths. Naturally I did not fit my garment. I almost did, but the upper part of my anatomy would not stay IN it. (Japanese women seem to be much smaller in that department. I even mistook one for a man at the baths; fortunately I didn't say anything to her). It turns out you can ask for different sizes but I did not know this.

So there I was in the undressing room, in my black pants and sweatshirt with the huge American flag on it, while everyone else is wearing this beautiful Japanese robe. Guess there was no mystery about where I was from.

The custom is that you must wash yourself thoroughly before entering the baths, which I did. I had trouble turning the washing water off but someone helped me. Then I went into the indoor bath. It was hot and felt so good on my aching muscles and the sore spot where I had fallen on the ice. I got brave and tried the outdoor bath too. It is very cold outside but you are only out there for a second. Before the trip, I had whined to Don that doing hot springs would be impossible if they were outside, as it is so cold in January. But I ended up liking the outside ones better. There is something nice about breathing the cool air and sitting in the hot steaming water. And you don't smell the sulphur when you are in the water; I don't know why not.

Some Japanese people gave me dirty looks, mostly older women. Perhaps they think Americans are unclean, or it is that World War II thing again. But some of the younger ones seemed interested in talking with me. I wished I had had my phrase book.

When I got out of the bath I showered and then wanted to wash my hair. There were tons of bottles of things but I didn't know which was shampoo. So I picked a likely-looking bottle and got a Japanese woman's attention and pointed to my hair. She said "hai" for "yes" so I washed with that.

In the locker room area (except they have baskets instead of lockers) I got more help from someone else as to which bottles were what. Two of the bottles were for face lotion, one to be used before the other. Then the third bottle was hair conditioner. The woman I was talking to told me that foreigners can't read the bottles, so she thinks the hotel saves money as only the Japanese use the products. We both laughed.

I noticed a slight lupus rash on my face but thought it was just from the heat of the hot springs. Turns out they sterilize the things with UV light. I am so sensitive to UV that I have gotten sick from the lights in Long's Drugs. So for me to go hang out under UV is probably a beep's folly! I think I got out in time, though. The hot springs are really HOT; you don't sit there for hours. Unless you want to become a wrinkled prune. (update: I am feeling ok today Jan 20)

Special to Mr. Doobie: through lunch today, all the people we ate meals with in Japan had their sun trine my sun! All pleasant conversations.

Special to mom: it was wonderful to hear from you today. Please call again. I cut it short because I was worried about using all of Don's cell phone minutes, but it turns out we do not get charged for receiving calls. So call again and we will tell you more about Japan! In fact, everyone call us! I am the one who told Don not to spend money on this cell phone so naturally I am the one who loves using it :) I love getting phone calls! Just dial 011 81 90 3816 3050.

Beep's Email (Beep)

I am trying to check my email every time I get to the net. Use beep@west.net or xbeepx@yahoo.com.

Beep chat (Beep)

I am not always able to get on borgchat irc chat. Since my computer is not here I am dependent on the java interface which is not always working.

So when I am online I am going to AIM and using the name "borgbeep".

It's Onsen Time!!

This will be a time-delayed blog entry. The hotel we're at (the Hakone Hotel Kowaki-en) does not have any form of Internet access; this is more of a resort/vacation hotel than a business hotel, so there isn't the ubiquitous business service center or anything. Plus there's no Manboo around either. Drat!

First, a recap on our last two days in Tokyo. On Saturday, as I mentioned earlier, we ate at Iron Chef Italian Masahiko Kobe's restaurant, Ristorante Massa. What an exquisite experience! Ristorante Massa is a gorgeous restaurant, with wood-paneled floors, elegant tables and chairs, and a beautiful view of the Ebisu area. It was also very small and intimate - I'd estimate the seating capacity at 30 people (assuming all tables are stuffed to the gills). At 12:30 when we went, there were only about 15 people there; by the time we finished at 2:00, we were the last ones in. The service was, of course, top rate. The wait staff and maitre d' were all very friendly and accomodating, and helped us with the menu (it was written in both Japanese and Italian, so Pam, being part Italian, could understand some of it, but we still needed some help). They also took pictures with us. We even got to meet Kobe himself! He came out of the kitchen after he was done cooking, and talked brieflu with us, signed autographs, and took a picture with us. He's very shy, especially since he has celebrity status with us IC fans - in Japan, to average Japanese, he's just an average restauranteur.

We ate lunch with a friend I met on the Iron Fans message board. I had posted asking about information on Iron Chef venues, and he sent me a private message. When he found out that I would be traveling to Japan, we discovered that our trips coincided and he suggested meeting for lunch. We exchanged cell phone numbers and agreed to meet at 12:15 at Ebisu Station. Well, it turns out that we got lost finding the meeting place, so my prepaid cell phone came to the rescue! We were able to call him up and describe our whereabouts to him, and he came in and found us.

The food was out of this world. The first course (appetizers) consisted of several cold meat items, two pasta courses (one of them being a sweet potato gnocchi in a sort of cream sauce), a main course (for me, it was wild venison with vegetables), and a dessert consisting of gelato and a cake of some sort. It was all exquisitely delicious. I felt like one of the Iron Chef judges, and had to restrain myself from breaking out in my Rosanjin scholar imitation.

After lunch we headed back to the hotel and took a bit of a nap. We woke up at 7:00 PM - and I had wanted to attend several events during the afternoon! Oh well. I also wanted to go to the Masquerade which started at 7, but we didn't get there until about 7:20. We caught (literally) the tail end of the masquerade - 2 short acts. Then MIQ came on stage and gave another wonderful performance. She has such an incredible voice. I understand she sings the themes for Aura Battler Dunbine, and I am seriously considering getting that series, not only because i have heard good things about it, but because she does the song.

Yes, apparently the masquerade started promptly at 7, and there was NO seating rush. This is so unlike American cons, where you have to wait in line hours for a ticket, then wait again for hours for a seat... only to find that they ran out of seats, so now you have to wait yet again for a space in the overflow room. And if those run out... well, it ain't a pretty picture. This is why I actually liked AX Tokyo, even though many people said it sucked because it was so small. Hey, I betcha the first ever AX-USA sucked too because it was small. These things take time to build momentum, people!

After the Masquerade we just wandered around Ikebukuro and of course stopped in at Manboo and got our Internet fix, then went back to the hotel and slept.

Sunday morning we got up at 11, and rushed over to Manboo to eat brunch and check to see if anyone was on chat, since 11 AM Japan time is about 6 PM Pacific time. Unfortunately no one was there :P Where were you guys??!?!? We paid our bill and headed back to the con, in time to catch some screenings in the video room. We saw Gadguard, which seems to be some sort of space/giant robot anime (we're not entirely sure because we missed part of the first episode, and it was in Japanese with no subtitles). But I liked it, and I think I'll try and pick up a fansub or something once I get back to the States. Next we saw the tail end of GITS-SAC, which was great because it was an English dub. And not a bad one either. After that we saw .Hack/Liminality, which I hadn't seen before. Now I'm really starting to get into the .hack story, which of course means that I'll need to buy all the games, finish up .Hack/Sign and get whatever else is out there in the .hack universe. Oh well, I didn't really need all that money anyway. The .Hack/Liminality showing was an English dub (again, not a bad one either) so I am looking forward to getting my hands on this. I understand that a Liminality DVD comes with one of the .hack PS2 games??? I gotta find out about that...

Thus ended AX-Tokyo for us. Pam really liked it, especially the video rooms. I liked it because it was small, and therefore not too overwhelming. Our last night in Ikebukuro was spent wandering around looking in stores. We went into a HUGE (8 stories!) anime store called ANIMATE. Unfortunately we didn't stay long because we needed to get up early the next morning, when the Post-Convention Tour departs. After our usual Manboo dinner/net fix, we promptly came back to the hotel, packed our bags, and crashed.

Monday morning we departed Tokyo at 9:00. Part of me was sad because we were leaving Ikebukuro, a really cool place that I wanted to explore some more. But part of me was glad to move on the tour and see more and different parts of Japan; besides, we'd be coming back to Tokyo on Saturday. Our bus got stuck in bad traffic, mostly because it was snowing!!! People had to stop and put chains on, etc. The snow was absoulutely beautiful. Being a California boy, I have never seen it before, and it was amazing!! Driving through beautiful white-covered countryside was very surreal and beautiful.

At 12:30 we arrived at the Highland Resort Hotel, for lunch. And what a feast it was! It was a multi-course meal. The first course included several cold appetizers, including something that looked and tasted like Italian ham (prosciutto), some sort of chicken, some sort of fish, and something else. Next came the soup course, consisting of the most wonderfully creamy and sweet pumpkin soup I've ever had. Then came the main course... a beautifully prepared, and thoroughly yummy steak. I don't think it was Kobe beef, but whatever it was, it was wonderful!! Finally we ended with a sorbet of some sort atop a chocolate cake like thing. All the food was absolutely delicious. I felt like an Iron Chef taster even though we weren't in an Iron Chef venue. And the restaurant itself was in a round builiding with windows all around, offering a lovely view of the snow-covered countryside. What an experience!

After lunch we hopped back on the bus and drove to Lake Ashi, whereupon we hopped on a ferry boat and took a cruise on the lake. The boat was a dual-hull (catamaran) design, and was super stable... even more so than the Catalina ferry, which I thought was pretty darn stable at the time. The lake was beautiful, and we got to see many little towns and temple-like buildings along the shoreline.

After the cruise, we disembarked at a ropeway (aerial cable car) station and proceeded up Mount Whatsitsname (Yes, I forget the name of the mountain we cabled up. They gave us a souvenir ticket, so when I find it buried in my luggae somewhere I'll update this blog entry with the mountain's correct name!). The aerial cableway offered a breathtaking view of the snow-covered countryside... as well as of Mount Fuji! There is a saying in Japan that, if you see Mt. Fuji on your first visit to Japan, you are an extremely lucky person and will be visiting Japan again soon. Well, we saw Mt. Fuji three times during this day: twice while driving on the bus, and also on the ropeway. Woot! That means (in Ah-nold voice) "Well be baaaack!!" At the snow-covered summit, we got out of the ropeway car and had a few minutes to frolic in the snow. I threw my first snowball at Pam!! (and even got it on videotape!) There wasn't enough time for her to launch a retaliatory strike at me... hahahahaha!!!!!!!

After we cabled back down the mountain, we hopped back on the bus and drove to our final destination of the day, Hakone. Hakone is a lovely little resort town world renowned for its many natural hot springs. And you can smell it in the air -- sulphur and other minerals. The smell wasn't super strong tho, in fact it was rather pleasant.

We stayed in the Hakone Kawaki-en Resort Hotel. As the name implies, this is more of a resort hotel than a business traveler hotel, so there was no Internet access or business center to speak of. The rooms, however, were beautiful: much larger than those of the Sunshine Prince hotel where we stayed previously. The beds were a bit larger and softer as well. And it had a toilet of doom too!! One with the butt-warmer and the thing that sprays your butt with nice warm water!!

We proceeded out to find a place for dinner; the tour guide knew of a good Italian place in the mall just across the street. Unfortunately it was not as easy to GET across the street... the snow had turned into ice and was super slippery. I totally ate it once that night (fortunately I didn't injure myself severely, but I did get it on tape!) and Pam lost it once on the way back from dinner (again no major injuries, thank the gods).

The mall was pretty cool. It wasn't really a "mall" by Western standards; rather, it was all one BIG store, but it had many sections full of different stuffs... foods, drinks, souvenir type things, arts/crafts, etc. There were all sorts of cool things there. I found a great tea that is made with red peppers!! So it gives you a nice warm kick as it goes down. They were giving out free samples, and after tasting it, I bought a box. I should have bought two or three, it was so good. I'm hoping that either Mom or Michelle or someone can find it when they go down to LA's oriental towns. I'll keep the box so that they know what to look for.

The Italian meal itself was pretty yummy, and reasonably priced. I had a New York steak flavored/marinated with garlic and a cup of the most creamy delicious corn soup I've ever had. All for about 20 bucks (including the consumption tax), which is about what I'd spend at home (Santa Barbara, CA) for a similar meal. But the quality was much better. I don't think it was Kobe beef either that I had that night, but it was yummy nonetheless.

The real treat of the day, however, came upon our return to the hotel. As I said before, the town we were staying in, Hakone, is known for its natural hot springs. And it just so happened that our hotel had one right in it!! And it was free to guests!! So naturally we couldn't pass this opportunity up.

The hot spring was presented in "onsen" fashion. Onsen is a traditional Japanese type bath house. In Japan, bath houses don't have the same gay/AIDS/etc. connotations as they do in the States, especially in San Francisco. It's same sex bathing: all males in one room, all females in another. Here's how it goes: You walk into the bathhouse wearing a Japanese robe (Yukata) and slippers (I forget the Japanese name of these). These are provided by the hotel. You remove your slippers at the threshold where the floor ends and the straw matting (tatami) begins. You walk barefoot from there on. You then go into a dressing room/locker room, tho instead of lockers, you have little cubbies in the wall, with a wicker basket in each one. You remove your clothes (ALL of your clothes - yes, you go in buck naked) and put them in your numbered basket. You then proceed into a shower/rinsing room. You DO NOT use soap and water in the bath itself; instead, you use soap and wash and (THOROUGHLY) rinse your body in an adjoining room before you go into the bath proper. This room had a traditional Japanese washing apparatus (a pool of water with a long handled cup; you dip the cup in the water, and pour water over yourself). This particular room also had shower heads on handles that you could use to rinse your body. I lathered up with body shampoo, did my hair with hair shampoo and conditioner, then turbo-washed myself with the shower head. I say "turbo-washed" becuase it felt just like that: I made the jet SUPER STRONG because I wanted to get every trace of soap off. Then you step into the actual bath, only in this case, it was a bath using the hot spring water. And when I say hot, I mean HOT!! You had to go in slowly (they had steps leading into it just like a swimming pool), and slowly adjust to the heat. Once you were fully immersed tho, it felt GOOOOOOOD. I felt my trip-weary body melt into almost nothingness, and with it melted away all of my cares and troubles... they just floated away on the steam-filled breeze. This bath had both an indoor bath and an outdoor bath; the outdoor bath, though it sounds bad (you have to be out in the cold! aiee!), actually wasn't bad. There was a brief initial shock of cold, but once you re-immersed yourself in the water, it felt soooo good. I must have soaked for a good hour, and the only reason I left is because I started feeling my heart beat funny. Upon returning to the room, I dropped into a lovely restful sleep.

I remember thinking about all the anime that I had watched with bath scenes in it -- Niea_under 7, Chobits, that episode of Evangelion with the final Angel, Mahoromatic, etc. No, there weren't cherry blossoms floating delicately in the air like in Love Hina, but it was still a very beautiful and magical and wonderful xperience. I remember being quite self-conscious at first... I mean, here I am, buck naked with a bunch of other naked guys (well, not a bunch, there were only maybe 4 other guys). Sometimes I can be a real prude. But once I got into it, it was not so bad. I mean, they weren't all pointing at me and laughing at my, er, inadequacies or anything like that. Everyone was basically minding their own business and enjoying their bath, so I did the same.

This morning we got up and had a lovely buffet breakfast, for free! (It was included in the tour) There was a mixture of Western style (bacon-like substance, sausage, eggs, toast, etc.) and Japanese (fish, miso soup, etc.) foods. I had a lovely cross-continental breakfast. We then proceeded to Odawara Station by bus. At the station we caught the Shinkansen, or bullet train, to Kyoto. There are three types of bullet trains: the Nozomi, the Hikari, and one other train whose name I forget. The Nozomi train is the fastest, but unfortunately did not stop at Odawara. We took the Hikari. But at 180 mph, the Hikari's no slouch. We were amazed as the countryside, buildings, other trains, etc. whizzed by us at dizzying speeds, while we sat in absolute comfort and stability. And the trains run *on time*, no questions asked. It was freakin' awesome. Upon arrival in Kyoto, we checked into the New Miyako Hotel, right across the street from the station!! Ultra convenient, and we had all the food venues in the station to choose from for quick and cheap meals. Our room at the Miyako is nice, perhaps even nicer and bigger than the room at Hakone. And it has a Toilet of Doom too!! We stay in Kyoto for two nights, leaving for Kurashiki on Thursday morning.

Well, that's about it for now. This Internet cafe is a bit pricier than Manboo, our favorite Ikebukuro hangout, so the bill is adding up. Time to run!

Beep's Follies - Jan 20 (Beep)

I am typing this from an Internet cafe in Kyoto. The first thing we did when we got to the hotel was ask about Internet access! This one is not as cheap as our favorite one in Tokyo, but it is not bad.

We had a great trip here on the famous "bullet" train. We were not on the fastest train, as the fastest train does not stop at the station where we got on. This train "only" travelled at 170 mph. And it was so smooth; puts trains at home to shame. This train is electric but they are working on building an even faster magnetic one.

We are missing a trip to a beautiful temple right now. This was not scheduled in the tour but our tour guide offered it. Don and I are having a bit of trouble keeping up with the tour group when we walk places. He needs to go slowly to look for steps and my body just doesn't handle fast walking no matter how much I will it to. This is something I often have trouble with at home. People just don't want to walk slowly with me, so if I don't know where we are going, I risk getting separated from the group and also lost. It's a problem.

We decided to let them go to the temple and we may join them for dinner. Besides, we needed our Internet fix! I wanted a phone number for a friend of mine who lives near here and that was stored in my email. And I STILL haven't had sushi and I am hoping to get some across the street at the train station now. The food at train stations is very good here.

There is a prepaid tour of Kyoto we are to go on in the morning. I hope we will be able to keep up...cos I want to go on that one. Guess we will find out! I am going to look up the Japanese word for "wait!"

January 20, 2004

Sorry for the downtime

Well, it seems my server decided to go on vacation itself. Maybe it was reading our trip blog and was getting jealous. Halfway through our trip it decided to suddenly up and quit working. Fortunately there was NO data loss, and the hardware is fine. My guess is that our apartment took a power hit or something, and the thing didn't boot back up properly. I really need to get a UPS for this thing.

Anyway, I'll be moving all the entries we've been posting on the temporary blog back to here, plus we'll be posting a few entries we wrote on the flight back. Sorry for the lack of posts: between the downed server and our extremely busy trip schedule, we just haven't had any opportunities to blog!

January 22, 2004

Beep's Follies - Jan. 23 (Beep)

Well, I don't know where to start, as we have not had time to do internet stuff for days. In fact this is being written on the bullet train from Kurashiki to Hiroshima on Don's computer. We hope to upload what we are writing now onto the blog when we are back in Kyoto. (update: this didn't happen as Don's server at home went down).

Well, Tuesday night in Kyoto we finally got our sushi. There was a great place at the train station that our tour guide, Iko-san, told us about. The sushi was so fresh and in some way lighter than that in the US, much much tastier. Also much cheaper; about $1.20 per plate of two pieces. Don ate 12 plates!

I think I provided the entertainment at the counter while trying to figure out how to make the complimentary green tea. There is an interesting little hot water spout at your seat that I had to figure out how to use. You push a black button with the side of your cup after taking a tea bag from a nice little box (with tongs naturally). Hot water comes out.

Of course Don is not used to chopsticks so that was entertaining too. I'll let him tell you about that!

When I had my favorite sushi, unagi (eel), I noticed the sauce was missing. But I was going to eat it anyway. A man next to me saw I was eating it without sauce and immediately grabbed the small bottle and put some unceremoniously on my sushi plate. That was cute. They do look out for you here. Or maybe they want to be sure you are doing things the proper Japanese way.

After sushi, we went back to the hotel to get the cable for my camera so we could upload pictures onto the computer and maybe even the net for you all to see. I was out of memory space and could not take more pictures. But, guess what, the cable is missing. It is probably on the floor at home! So then I panicked. How would I take more pictures??? I desperately wanted pictures for this trip of a lifetime...

Don said I might be able to buy something called a card reader. So we asked the very nice English-speaking Japanese girl at the concierge desk to help us find a camera store that was open. We knew the tour would leave too early the next day for me to get anything in time in the morning. So she found a camera store that was located downtown that was open for about twenty more minutes. Ack! Taxi please!

We got to the store just in time, but of course they did not have a card reader for my camera. What they did have was a memory card so I would have room to store more pictures, then I can just upload them when I get home. Set me back $100. Out came the credit card. I'll be paying this off for months. But I did not want to miss my chance of having pictures from Japan.

Near the camera store we met up with some of the people from our tour, just by coincidence. We ate together at a ramen place. I was still full from sushi so I had pot stickers! Very good.

The next day we "lost face". We did not get our wakeup call! When we woke up we had about one minute to get ready. We threw on our clothes and shoved stuff in our bags. No time for brushing teeth or even taking medication. I brought my medication bag with me so I could take my pills on the bus. Means I had to drag the thing around with me all day.

Anyway, we got a phone call as we were leaving the room. The whole tour was waiting for us! And this was not just the small 8-person tour; this was our large morning tour with a full bus of people. I was mortified as we got on the bus.

I had been worried about keeping up with the tour walking-wise, but this tour was not too bad as since there were a lot of people there were some who were slow like I am. I am really glad we went on this tour because I enjoyed what we saw very much. I just wish we had more time at each place! The first place we went to was Nijo Castle. We learned how the shoguns lived. The most interesting part to me was the "nightingale floor", a floor that made squeaking sounds as you walked on it. It turns out there were devices placed under the floorboards to make noise as a warning in case enemies entered the castle.

The second place we went to I really loved. It is called the "Golden Pavillion" and has a temple covered with gold leaf. The gardens there were really beautiful, lots of water and greenery. There was a small shrine there and I said prayers for my friends and family, including those who requested prayers (you know who you are). You put coins in a box that has wooden slats on the top as an offering.

We then went to the Kyoto Imperial Palace. As many of you know, Kyoto was the capital of Japan until the mid 19th century or so (I will have to look up the year). Partially to show the power of the shoguns was at an end, the Emperor moved to Tokyo and that became the capital. The palace was big and carefully organized. We had to line up four abreast before entering so they could count us. I guess no one is allowed to sneak in! We also had to be there on time for our appointment to enter. We walked around outside and looked at the buildings. There was one huge gate that looked especially interesting. It turns out that was the gate that only the emperor could enter. Not even the other members of the royal family could use it. Now it is opened when heads of state from other countries visit.

We then went to the Kyoto Handicraft Center. They really market this place and encourage us to spend money! They give a more favorable exchange rate than is available in other parts of the country and will ship anywhere in the world. It is full of products of crafts like cloisonne and lacquerware, doll-making, etc. You can see some of the crafts being performed at demonstration stations. It was pretty cool. We got some stuff to take home and also had the buffet lunch there. As we were leaving, we played a little lottery they have for visitors. Most people win things like postcards. There is a grand prize of 10,000 yen (about 100 dollars) in shopping coupons that is rarely won. Guess who won! Hint: it wasn't me. (I got a post card...) Many of the Japanese staff came out to congratulate the winner when that little red ball came out.

We then caught a shuttle to where our tour guide had made an appointment for those of us who wanted to attend a tea ceremony. What a beautiful thing that was. It was not a long ceremony, which is good as sitting down for it is not easy for westerners. I had to cheat and do rude things like stretch my legs out all over the floor, my leg cramps were incredible. You are supposed to sit with your legs tucked under you. I can't even sit cross-legged as some of us did as a substitute for the proper position!

Anyway, I loved the sound of running water and the beautiful Japanese girl in the kimono telling us what to say at each point in the ceremony. We first had a Japanese sweet which is very high in sugar to balance the bitter taste of the tea. Then we had the tea, where we observed rituals like saying ceremonial words to the person next to us and turning the bowl twice from the wrist so that the decoration on the bowl faces outward. Afterward our guide showed us how to whisk the tea and we got to do that.

One thing she was telling us is that not too many of the younger people are learning traditions like the tea ceremony. That is too bad, as I hope the art does not die out. This fits in with something our guide was telling us yesterday on the bus about geishas. It seems the job of geisha is not considered very respectable and is also poorly paid. So there are not many young women learning how to become geishas. I wish we could see a geisha but it seems they are quite expensive to hire. Geishas, by the way, are not prostitutes, although they often become mistresses as this is something they do for economic survival. Our tour guide said they look for a "sugar daddy".

I was really tired by the end of the tea ceremony. But I had to keep going, because we needed to go back to the handicraft center for Don to spend his winnings! (Didn't you guess it was he who won the big prize?). I will let him tell you what he bought :)

We had dinner again at the sushi place. Delicious. Then we had to go to bed early because we were incredibly tired and knew there would be a lot of walking the next day...

To encourage sleep, we got a tiny bottle of sake from the "honor bar" refrigerator in our hotel. Don wore the yukata provided by the hotel and warmed the sake, then served it. He looked great. We also had some special cookies that I had bought which are a specialty of Kyoto. These are soft triangle cookies with something sweet like sweet potato or bean paste inside. I also bought two boxes of the traditional rolled cinnamon ones (they are kind of like ginger snaps with a different shape) to give to my friends who are flying in to Tokyo from Sapporo to meet us when we get there.

For the next day we really wanted to get up on time, so we set a wake-up call AND dug out my little travel alarm as a backup! We had another comfortable bus to take us from Kyoto to Kurashiki. On the way, we stopped at Himeji Castle. I will never forget this castle. Not only is it an incredibly beautiful fairy-tale white building, but it has about a million steps up to the top! We had to exchange our shoes for slippers again and this made for a slippery walk. The stairs are very steep and quite narrow in places. I honestly did not think Don and I could make it. I want a t-shirt that proclaims we made it to the top floor. There was a shrine on the top floor and I put more coins in the box and said more prayers. Thank God for our tour guide, Iko-san, who helped me get Donald up and down the stairs. I had so much trouble just getting myself up and down, literally dragging myself with my arms whenever a railing was available, that I needed help with Don. I wanted to take off my slippers as it was hard to get a good footing with them on, but the floor was so cold that my feet started cramping up. So the slippers went back on.

There were many interesting parts of the castle. Even though it was cold it was definitely worth the trip. One part that really touched me was a well where a girl had been thrown in many years ago. She had been sent to spy on a faction and was detected. The excuse used for throwing her in was that she had supposedly broken a plate, actually broken by the person who wanted her killed. So the legend is that after she was thrown in she could be heard counting plate pieces.

Our tour guide pointed out a dark area where it is rumored that someone committed suicide due to the gloomy atmosphere. She told us, however, that this was a myth only, and that this did not actually happen.

I was very proud of myself for not falling in the castle. Naturally, therefore, I fell in the bus. My legs were wobbly from the stairs and I did not see a tiny step up in the back of the bus. So that was fall number two. They say bad things come in threes so I am wondering where the next one will be. I keep telling myself Christ fell three times on the stations of the cross and stayed focused so maybe I can, too. Anyway, broke no bones. Just bruised my knees and my elbows.

We ate lunch at a Japanese service area on the expressway. This was a very full-service facility, not like our rest areas at all. It even had western toilets! I still have not used a squatting toilet yet. I'm worried my day will come.

Getting lunch was very interesting. We ordered food using a machine that dispensed tickets. We then took the tickets to a counter which were exchanged for our order. I had a shrimp tempura with delicious udon noodles. It was very good and inexpensive.

We then went to Korakuen Garden in Okayama, a very famous garden considered one of the most beautiful in Japan. There is a black castle that you can see from the garden which seemed to be the reverse of the white castle we saw earlier today. We were told this garden is of a type that is designed to mirror what is found in the environment surrounding it, so there must be something in the garden that represents the black castle. I wonder what it is. Anyway, the garden was very beautiful even on such a cold day (we were travelling on what has been the coldest day of the winter so far, with temperatures just about freezing) and must be spectacular in the spring and fall. Because it was so cold, I was very happy to have my warm coat that my mom bought me for the trip. My warm hood was envied. But I envied Don's long underwear as my legs were quite chilled through my pants. It did snow lightly as we walked around. We were happy to get to the warmth of a greenhouse located at the gardens. I do not mind travelling here in winter, though. It is not as crowded as it would be in other seasons, and we are staying at nice hotels because the winter rates are much more affordable.

Here I am again grateful to our tour guide for helping Don, as our travels through the garden involved crossing some interesting bridges and stepping stones. My legs were shaking and it was not easy to negotiate narrow walkways over water! I did not want this place to be the scene of my third fall. So Iko-san helped Don over the challenges.

At the garden my fears of not keeping up were realized. Don and I were slowly making our way toward the exit, going as fast as we could which wasn't very fast, and lost sight of the group. Eventually we came to a 3-way fork in the road. I did not know which way to go. I tried a little bit on each way but did not see the exit. We had to wait for Iko to come back for us, which she did. I am so glad she counts heads before the bus takes off!

We got back on the bus and went to Kurashiki. When we arrived there we left our bags for the front desk at the hotel to watch (they were very accomodating) so we could see a museum that was about to close. This was the Ohara museum of art. Although not a large museum (unless a lot of it was closed due to the early hour places close in the off season) the collection was very good. Saw some Monet and Renoir among others.

We had dinner with the group at a sushi place at the train station. Here we had some delicious miso soup which had clams in it, still in their shell. It was fun, and not very difficult, getting the clams out with chopsticks.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at, of all places, a 7 - 11. Here I was finally able to get some hand and body lotion. It is not provided in the hotels and many of the convenience stores don't seem to carry it. I had brought some with me on the trip but due to the cold dry air was going through it rapidly, and I have chapped areas on my hands and legs which really need it. I think I will pay for my next trip to Japan by bringing over large bottles of lotion and selling them on the streetcorners for much less than I had to pay in the 7 - 11.

I also found one bottle of baby oil for purchase. I grabbed it. I could not wait to take a hot bath with baby oil for my dry, sore skin. This dream was realized once we got back to the hotel. Normally I have trouble taking baths. The bathtubs are either too small, not clean enough for me, or I can't get out of them. I have been stuck in bathtubs before and needed help getting out. Quite embarrassing. This bathtub was huge, deep, and sterile-looking. And had a huge handrail to help me get out! I wish I could bring it home with me.

We had also bought a tiny bottle of plum wine at the 7 - 11. This was a baby version of the plum wine we sometimes get at the Japanese market at home, that our friend Charles introduced us to when we were up the the Bay Area. The baby version does not have the real plums at the bottom like the big bottle does, but still tasted good. We also had the last of the Kyoto soft cookies.

I think we fell asleep about 8:30 pm...after a long day with a lot of walking, we really crashed. Don's mom called at 11:30 and I think I only just barely registered it. It was more like a dream than something which actually happened. That is how tired we were! We had the morning alarm set for 7:30 but were not able to get our sore bodies downstairs until 8:30. Then we had to check out and eat the fastest breakfast in the world. It was included with the hotel and was a buffet so we could serve ourselves in a hurry.

We then went to what was a small handicrafts museum, with crafts from all over the world--the Kurashiki Folkcrafts Museum. Then we had free time. Iko-san helped me pick out a gift for Kaoru, my friend in Japan that I hope to see for a brief time tonight in Kyoto. Kurashiki is famous for leather so I got her a rose leather change purse with a lovely flower on it. I wished I could have shopped for everyone, including myself, but our time was limited and we wanted to go to "The Bag Store" so Don could get a bag for the airplane flight tomorrow from Osaka to Tokyo. He was carrying stuff around in a shopping bag that looked like it was just about to break. So he got a duffel-type bag at The Bag Store.

We then took a bus to the train station where we got to take another shinkansen, or "bullet train". "Shinkansen" actually means "new track line". We took a "slow" one this time, 130 mph, to Hiroshima. I guess I was not the only one who wanted to see the Peace Memorial Park and Museum because they added it to the tour at no additional cost to us. This was why we went to Hiroshima instead of going right back to Kyoto.

In Hiroshima, we had another good train station meal. This was a specialty of Hiroshima called "okonomiyaki". Iko-san got them to make me a special one without egg. It was delicious and only approximately five dollars. We then took a cable car to the Peace Memorial Park and Museum.

It was very strange to be an American at the atomic bomb memorials. Iko-san had told us not to feel bad and that Japanese of the post-war generation do not hate America, and happily wear jeans and eat KFC. She said also that the bomb was dropped to end the war. But it was still very sad. There are over 60 monuments at the peace memorial park. I got a book in English called the "Hiroshima Peace reader" that explains them all. One of these, the Children's Peace Monument, is also known as "the tower of a thousand cranes". The origin is from a girl who was in the hospital with leukemia from the A-bomb. She had been making origami cranes because they are symbols in Japan of longevity. There is a saying that "a thousand cranes will bring good luck". But she did not survive and this greatly affected the children of Japan. On Children's Day, May 5, the monument was unveiled. Iko-san gave us each origami cranes to add to the cranes which are there. The cranes are now protected by glass because of a disaffected Japanese student having set fire to them a few years ago in frustration over not getting a job. The cranes are all colors and are a beautiful sight.

We did not get to see all the monuments or all the displays in the museum as we only had about two hours. This is a very special place where one could really spend a lot of time. I am so glad we got to see what we did see. It was terribly sad, however. At one monument there is a coffin which is opened in August to write the names of the new atomic bomb victims for that year. People are still dying from bomb-related diseases even after all these years. It makes me pray for peace.

One image that stays with me is a piece of wall in the museum which shows streaks from the black rain which fell after the detonation. It rained in Hiroshima and the dirt in the sky turned the rain black. The rain was strongly radioactive and those who were exposed suffered.

The black rain looked like tears against the background of the white wall.

When it was time to go we took taxis to the train station. I am writing this now on the shinkansen to Kyoto. This is the fastest train at 188 mph. I am borrowing the computer so I can make a blog entry and Don is having a Coke :)

January 23, 2004

Beep's Follies - Jan. 24 (Beep)

Well, last night was our final night in Kyoto, and was really nice. When we got off the train in Kyoto, my friend Kaoru was waiting for us at our hotel. I have not seen her in many years. Kaoru and I had hoped for her to come to Tokyo to spend our free time with us, but she found out she is pregnant for the first time in ten years of marriage and is having quite a hard time with morning sickness. So we arranged to have about 40 minutes together in Kyoto between the time we arrived in Kyoto and the time I had to leave for the special dinner provided by our travel agency.

I did of course invite Kaoru to the dinner, but she was not feeling well enough to go. She drove two hours to see me! It was wonderful to see her again. I hope she is able to visit me in the US next year with the baby! I had brought a small monkey with a California t-shirt for the baby, as the child will be born in the year of the monkey. Kaoru said I was the first one to buy the baby a gift! Kaoru gave Don and I beautiful scarves and a wonderful book that has pictures and explanations of Japanese foods.

Don and I then went to the special dinner provided for our tour group. It was at a beautiful restaurant in Kyoto. There was a duck pond and gorgeous wooden floors (we were required to remove our shoes). We sat at a low table which had heat underneath for our feet. I am going to have to get the name of it somehow. We had an elegant sukiyaki dinner. For sukiyaki, we dip meat and vegetables that have been cooked at the table into raw egg, then eat. I skipped the raw egg part of course, hating eggs so much. Even though I cheated, the sukiyaki was delicious. At the restaurant, there were kimonos for us to try on over our clothes and be photographed in, and a helmet for the men to wear. There were two Japanese waitresses. One was really sweet and seemed to enjoy practicing her English. She told me I looked beautiful in the kimono! But the other one seemed to specialize in some really blunt phrases now and then. I got my dose of this when she was helping me to adjust the kimono and it would not go completely around me. She told me to "dieto". Don had told me a lot of Japanese words are formed from English words with an "o" on the end so I could figure out what this means. Both the waitress and I laughed.

After the dinner we went to the train station, where Iko-san took everyone to an area where there were a million stairs and escalators going up to the top of the building for a view. We reached a point where the escalators were not working, however, and I waited for the rest of them to go up the stairs and down. It was cold and my feet were giving me a lot of trouble. I get frustrated by this at home, too, as my legs never get a good workout -- my feet always conk out first. There was a great view from where I was, however. A spectacular night view of the city.

Then some of us decided to go to a karaoke place. I first wanted to stop at the internet cafe to clean out my email box, as it fills up with spam every few days. I also wanted to see if my mom emailed me as I didn't want her worrying and it had been days since we checked email. So I went there first and Don went with the group. When I rejoined the group, Don was singing a song he dedicated to me! It was really fun to be there with the people we had met on the tour, having sake and songs. I wished I could have stayed for the whole time they were there, but I had to leave early as my body was saying SLEEP NOW. Sometimes lupus is a real pain in the rear. So I went back to the hotel. There was only one hotel room key between Don and me (this seems to be common in Japan) and so I stuck a hangar in the door for Don to get in, in case I conked out before he got back. This is something I would never do in the US; I would be too afraid of some psycho coming in. Crime is much lower here. Anyway, it turned out to be a good thing I did this, as Don needed help in remembering which was our room! We have been moving around so much that memorizing room numbers is getting tricky.

I did have a hot shower before bed. I am really enjoying using the shampoos and conditioner provided by the hotels. They actually work on my hair! So it is not giving me the trouble it does at home. At home I am allergic to all the hotel shampoos, but not here. Maybe the Japanese have limp hair too and their shampoos are made for me!

Today we were provided with a limousine bus to the airport in Osaka. It was sad saying goodbye to the rest of the group and to our tour guide here. They were all going to fly to Narita airport and then back to the US. We felt so lucky we have extra days! We took a domestic flight to Haneda airport in Tokyo. Our tour guide helped us figure out how to get from the airport to our hotel, as our hotel only has limousene bus service to/from Narita. She had us take a bus to Tokyo station and a taxi from there.

Ayako and Ayuko met us at the airport, and then we told them what our tour guide had said. We had a ton of bags with us and could not take the train, so we ended up taking our tour guide's good advice. Ayuko and Ayako were so wonderful to help us with all our bags. We made jokes that we had purchased pretty much all of Japan.

It is wonderful to see them again. They look great and are as nice as ever. We are so lucky to have them as friends. Mom will be happy to hear that they really liked the Victoria's secret nightgowns and panties she had picked out for them! I also gave them the cookies from Kyoto. It turns out they are Ayako's favorite. They gave us some nice gifts and also I got a gift of a doll from Ayako's mother! I must remember to send her a thank you note.

We went out to dinner at a yakitori restaurant. The food was wonderful there. We had drinks also to celebrate Ayako's 30th birthday which was yesterday. I took everyone out for this celebration. Don put his cell phone to good use and so one of his friends, Luke, joined us at the restaurant. Luke is a friend of Dave's from back in Santa Barbara and Don had been in touch with him on line and asked questions about Japan.

After dinner, Don wanted to look for a bookstore. We went to one but it was closing. While we stood outside it, though, Luke ran into a Japanese guy who was one of his former roommates! It turns out he wants to practice his English so he hung out with us. We invited him to come to the Ghibli museum with us tomorrow as we have extra tickets. We had thought Kaoru was coming with us so Don and I got five tickets. What we did not know is that Ayako also got five tickets! So we have ten tickets for four people!

Since my feet are really starting to make my life miserable and there will be a lot of walking tomorrow, I went back to the hotel room with Ayako and Ayuko. Don went shopping with the guys. Our hotel in Tokyo is incredibly elegant. It is a luxury hotel, and even provided us with two room keys :)

January 24, 2004

Beep's Follies - January 25 (Beep)

We are writing these blogs on our last night in Japan, at the expensive business center in our hotel. So have to type fast! I am just afraid that I will forget things if I don't do some of it now. I have a little book to make entries in by hand but my handwriting is terrible and I get writer's cramp after about two minutes. I'm really used to the computer now.

Anyway, on this day, Ayako and Ayuko came to pick us up at our hotel. We had breakfast at a place across the street which seems to be a chain of some kind in Japan. All I can tell you right now is that it is easy to spot with orange signs, and serves things like beef bowls. I need to get the name on the way out tomorrow. We had a traditional Japanese breakfast here. Mine was a piece of salmon (must have been fresh, had bones!) miso soup, rice, and green tea. There was a nice older woman sitting across from us who talked a bit to me. She has a daughter in Washington, DC. She was wearing one of the masks that Japanese wear when they have a cold and she allowed me to take her picture with it when I told her my mother would be interested. She was very motherly herself and told me to watch out for bad Japanese men.

We then went to the Edo museum. We spent hours there and only got through half of it! I bought a book to take home to see the rest! There were fascinating models and screens and other exhibits depicting the pre-Tokyo Edo period, which is actually most of this area's history. Due to fires, much of the splendor of those days is no longer with us, and it was so interesting to see the models of the beautiful homes of the elite of those times. There was an incredible big model of a bridge of that period that we walked on. Another interesting thing were the palanquins for princesses and other nobles. People must have been tiny in those days. They didn't look big enough for a child.

We saw an interesting display that depicted a ghost story. It is a famous ghost story in Japan. A beautiful girl falls in love with a samurai who returns her love. But then she becomes ill and her face becomes ugly and he does not love her any more, and marries another beautiful girl. He does not want the ugly face of the first girl around him and he kills her. But her ghost comes back to haunt him and this ghost kills the samurai. I was glad he bit the big one, personally. He sounds like a prize jerk!

Unfortunately, my feet chose today to completely rebel. I was standing on the outer sides of my feet when I could to try and relieve the pain. At one point I even took off my shoes and wandered around in socks. Anything to keep going...there were wheelchairs available and I really should have got one. Next time I know better.

After the museum, we had lunch at a soba noodle place. Delicious. Ayako and Ayuko are really good at finding all the excellent Japanese food for us to try!

We then went to the Asakusa, kind of a Japanese Olivera Street with tons of small souvenir shops lining Nakamise-dori Street at the approach to the oldest temple in Tokyo. The temple is named Sensoji Temple and is quite beautiful. It was very crowded there and so we did not see at first the place where you are supposed to ladle water out of a well to wash yourself before entering the temple! Guess we entered unclean...we all said prayers anyway.

For dinner we were treated by Ayako, whose boss had given her some money to enjoy herself in Tokyo with her American friends! I need to ask her what type of food this was. It was a place where you could order many different types of things, all wonderful. I also had the most interesting cocktails. They contained blue curacao so they were a lovely color, and also had calpis! Naturally I liked them!

Don had some people join us at the restaurant. We had his friend Luke as well as Luke's former roomate, and also Kier. So it was quite a party, and a lot of fun.

At the restaurant, Luke's former roommate kept us entertained by demonstrating some of the interesting words and phrases in English that Luke had taught him. I have got to stop calling him Luke's former roommate, but I can't spell his name. For now I will call him X. Hope he likes that if he sees this blog. Anyway, X was sharing his colorful lanugage acquisitions with us and Ayuko was repeating them. It was absolutely hilarious. Or maybe I should say, f***ing hilarious. We were careful to tell Ayako and Ayuko that these are NOT words for use around my mother.

In the same vein, X told me to be careful when I talk about Calpis. I was told it is only one letter off from the word for the male member. This caused me some concern, as I am given to saying "I like calpis". I'm glad it is renamed Calpico back in the states.

We invited Kier, Luke, and X to go to the Ghibli museum with us the next day, as we have ten tickets for four people. I can't remember if I wrote somewhere that we had originally planned for Kaoru to come with us, so we got five tickets for her, Ayako, Ayuko, Don, and me. Unbeknownst to us, Ayako also got five tickets!

Kier and Luke could not make it. Poor Luke had a final exam! But X said he would meet us at our hotel the next morning and would bring a friend if that was ok with us. Ayako and Ayuko also said they would meet us at our hotel and would bring us breakfast.

January 25, 2004

Beep's Follies, January 26 (Beep)

Well our breakfast was delicious. We had rice balls, aka onigiri. These are triangular-shaped, covered with nori (seaweed) with something inside the rice at the center. I think mine had salmon inside.

We took the train to the Ghibli Museum. We loved the trains and subways on this trip. Don in particular appreciated the public transportation. I am very grateful I did not try to rent a car here. You don't need one at all as the trains and subways cover everything. Also, cars are expensive to rent and the gas prices are quite high. I think I saw approximately 1 dollar a liter. So work that out. And most of the roads are expensive toll roads! There seems to be no parking, and to top it all off they drive on the left side of the road which I really didn't feel like trying to get used to in a hurry. And traffic looked like the stuff of nightmares. Made driving in LA look safe and enjoyable by comparison. So we were happily carless.

The ride to the Ghibli museum was over 30 minutes, so it was not near our hotel. It was in the district called Mikata. The museum itself was great. For me it was my first introduction to Ghibli's characters and work. It will be interesting when I tell anime fans back home that I was first exposed to Ghibli in Japan at the famous museum! The characters are adorable. I am actually looking forward to seeing some of the anime. Don had brought "Nauscica" and "Spirited Away" on his computer to show me but we haven't had time.

I did try to sit down in the museum everywhere I could to spare the Problem Feet, which were really acting up. At one point I sat down in the gift shop and a Japanese attendant came by to tell me not to sit there. She used this little symbol for "no" they have here, a little "x" made with the two index fingers. We saw that a lot at the anime expo when they were telling us not to take photographs.

By the way, I am convinced I know why Japanese people take so many pictures when they come to the US. It is because here there are so many places where you cannot take pictures in Japan. I wonder why they sell so many cameras...

There was this little black fuzz ball I wanted at the museum store, but it was $10 and I didn't feel it was in my budget. Now I wish I had it. I could have bought two and sold one on ebay and paid for the first one, probably! Anyway, it's a very cute character, and I look forward to finding out what it does in a story.

After the museum we all got on a shuttle bus to the train station: Ayako, Ayuko, X, X's friend (I can't spell her name either), Don, and I. We had taken taxis from the train station to the museum because we were pressed for time. Our tickets were for 10 am and you have to be on time or they don't let you in.

We had lunch at a tonkatsu restaurant. Tonkatsu is delicious. I had fried pork with the famous tonkatsu sauce, which tastes a bit as though it had worchestire sauce in it. Don was familiar with it and said his mother used to make it.

We had hoped to get to go to the Imperial Palace as we didn't make it there yesterday, but it came down to a choice between that and Tokyo tower and we chose Tokyo tower. It was cold and the garden of the Imperial Palace might not have been all that pleasant. I had a rough time walking up the hill to Tokyo Tower but everyone was patient with me. It was worth the walk; the view from the observation deck was incredible. There were signs telling us we were 150 meters up in the air. We could have paid a second amount to go up even higher, but there was so much to see from where we were that we stayed there. They give you brochures, available in several languages including English, which point out the landmarks in all directions. So I got to see the Imperial Palace after all :)

There was an interesting place on the floor with a sign next to it saying "look down". There is plexiglass or something there where you can see right below you. Ayuko and I had trouble getting ourselves to fully stand on it. It is kind of scary looking straight down like that!

We had to rush back to the hotel because Don and I had a reservation for the special dinner at Iron Chef Sakai's French restaurant, La Rochelle. X found us a great taxi to the train station that would hold all of us! It was huge!

Ayako and Ayuko had to go to the airport as it was time for them to go back to Hokkaido. It was hard saying goodbye to them; we will miss them greatly. They hope to come to the US and stay with my mom again. We also promised to visit them in Hokkaido. They were concerned about how we were going to find Sakai's restaurant, but X and his friend kindly offered to guide us there.

So Don and I went to get changed and everyone waited for us in the lobby so we could all walk to the train station together. This was the only time Don and I dressed up on the trip! I wore velvet pants and the black-and-red camisole and jacket set that mom got me for Christmas. I also wore faux diamond earrings, and my flat shoes with flower print. Don wore his striped dark suit. Everyone said we looked nice :) I even bothered to put makeup on. My only problem was that my feet had swelled to huge proportions that day. Even though these shoes are loose-fitting, I just barely squashed my feet into them. I had to tell X and his friend that I could not walk too far or too fast with the thin soles and the shoes cutting my feet. I don't think I could have gotten back into my walking shoes, though, even if I had wanted to.

With the help of our guides we took the train and then walked to the restaurant. I complained to poor Don every time I had to limp up any stairs. There are a ton of stairs in Japan, especially for these things that you use to cross major streets and highways while walking. They are bridges that go over the road; you climb about a million stairs up and another million stairs down...

But the restaurant turned out to be a wonderful experience. It was a very expensive dinner by our standards, even though we ordered the lower-price menu option. I'm not going to put how much it cost here because I'm not sure I want to remember that part in years to come :) But the food was incredible. A first course to "amuse", cold appetizer, hot appetizer, main dish, cheese, and dessert. We were there over three hours. We had a glass of champagne each with dinner. The view was spectacular as this restaurant was at the top of a building.

We had help reading the menu, which was written only in French and Japanese. I had forgotten to bring my French dictionary with me. Some things I recognized, but a lot of the food is a fusion of French and Japanese and I would not have been able to understand that. For example, the potato soup was green! From added vegetables.

But we had an Iranian waiter who spoke good English, and he helped us with everything. I used my one Farsi phrase on him (do you speak Farsi, in Farsi) and we became fast friends. He told us that Sakai told a joke with someone about the soup, asking them if they have not heard of green potatoes before and that they are all the rage. He had many interesting stories. One thing he told us about Sakai is that he had been invited to Okinawa to cook a meal for some high-ranking officers. Sakai invited servicemen to have a free meal at his restaurant if they came to Tokyo. The Iranian waiter also said he had trouble being approved to enter the American base because of his nationality but that Sakai insisted as he was the only staff member who could speak English.

I am trying to remember everything I had to eat. There were some interesting tiny pickles to have with cocktails. The "amuse" course had a sample of a crab flan, an oyster specially prepared, and something else I am going to have to ask Don about. Fortunately we took pictures of the whole meal. Also, we got a menu signed by Sakai that is in my suitcase. I had Sakai's famous foie gras for my cold appetizer. My hot appetizer was the potato soup, and my main dish was halibut. None of these looked like anything I had ever seen before. All were beautifully presented, with tiny vegetables and contrasting sauces.

Dessert was really special as we were allowed to try as many items from the tray as we wished. We got perfectly-sized small portions of everything we asked for. I had rose water ice cream, a lemon cheescake, an orange cake, chocolate something, a lychee, a taste of a Japanese melon, and a really lovely gel in a small shot-sized glass made with white wine and fruit. Of course the whole meal was accompanied by fantastic French bread, and a cup of tea with dessert. I really can't do it all justice with this hastily typed description. An experience I will never forget.

When I asked our waiter how to get back to the train station, he asked a girl who was passing by to guide us there! So we got there incredibly quickly as this girl knew a short cut. She was really sweet and said I was cute in Japanese :) We tried to talk to each other on the train, as we were going to the same station, but she did not speak English and, as is now obvious to readers of this blog, I do not speak Japanese. I wish I could have got out the phrase book but it was too hard while standing up on the train.

January 26, 2004

Beep's Follies, January 27 (Beep)

Today we slept in, although not as late as Don said we did in his blog, lol. I only wish he had let me sleep till 2! It was the only day on the whole trip that we did not have to get up to make some deadline. But it was the day I had promised him we would go to Ginza and the Apple Store, so naturally he got me up. He had been waiting for that Apple Store for the entire trip. I kept teasing him that only he would drag me thousands of miles just to go to an Apple store, and that I would far rather go to the Imperial Palace!

But I ended up enjoying the Apple Store as much as he did. It was really worth going to see the Ginza area, which is like Tokyo's Fifth Avenue. All beautiful stores. We took a cab from the train station to the Apple Store as I was not too certain of where it was and did not want to be wandering around looking for it in vain when he wanted to see it so badly. It's a lovely store with, I think, five floors. My favorite part was the elevators, which are very reminiscent of the clear, shiny style of Apple products. The elevators are see-through and totally silent, moving very smoothly up and down.

I did have to ask where the bathrooms were. They are hidden on the third floor by an unmarked door that looks like the entrance to a refrigerator locker!

While Don shopped and looked around, I took advantage of the free Internet access. I seem to have been hit with some virus at home so instead of my usual 100 spams per day to clear out, I had 200 per day. A lot of work getting rid of them. I hate spam so much. Anyway, after paying for net access all the time on the trip, having it free was pretty wonderful. I loved using their computers, too. Don will know which computer it was. I wanted to take one home.

We then went to look around Ginza. I found a place that served tea and coffee and desserts but at nine dollars for a cup of tea we decided against sitting down. That is the problem with Ginza. Reminiscent of the movie "Breakfast at Tiffany's", I took Don into Tiffany's. I did pick out a ring, not anywhere near the most expensive there, which was a relative bargain at approximately $35,600. Really nice quality diamond. I don't know why no one will buy me one. We also each sprayed ourselves with expensive perfume for me and men's cologne for Don. So at least we smelled nice.

We then decided to take the train to Ikebukuro, to see the observation tower there which we had missed when we were staying at the Sunshine City Prince Hotel when we first came to Japan for the anime expo. We took a cab to the hotel from the train station and found the observatory. We decided to have a drink and a chicken snack there. The view was worth the trip, and I enjoyed my "gin fizz" with lemon. But we were hit by some "table charge" when it came time to pay. It seems that since we were no longer staying at the Prince Hotel, we had to pay this.

We had planned to go to Manboo, our cheap internet cafe where we could get food, and also I wanted to go to the drug store where they sold the gel Vitamin Lemon I had been missing (since being in Ikebukro I've only been able to find it as a fizzy drink in bottles). But then Don got in touch with Kier and he invited us to come eat with him where he lives in Kawasaki. So we took the train there.

I whined and complained about going there because my feet were being their usual throbbing selves. It was especially hard on the leg of the trip from Shinagawa to Kawasaki, where we had our first experience with a very crowded train and the professional "pushers" that are hired to shove people into the train to squeeze in as many as possible. As the wave of the crowd hit my back, I was pressed hard into a pole near the door of the train. I've got a nice sore spot on my left boob to remind me of the experience. But I had heard of this practice and I think it was good to have it happen at least once for an accurate picture of crowding in Tokyo!

When Kier met us at the station, I was just about ready to pass out. We were climbing some stairs in the train station and I started crying from the pain. I had to stop and catch my breath. I also told Kier there are too many stairs in Japan, and that I think the ones in the train station, which go up only to come right back down again, over and over, are simply cruel! For some reason my hips, knees, and feet could not take any more stairs. Rebellion of the inflamed joints. But upon reflection I think the cab companies install all those stairs on purpose so people will give up and take cabs!

Anyway, he and Don were really understanding instead of calling me a bitch or something. And the travail turned out to be really worth it. It was great to see Kier again. He has been so nice to us and I really hope we keep in touch via email. He took us to a new mall that was done in Italian style; it looked beautiful. There was a tower with lights that kept changing colors. Blue and purple and pink and red and green, etc. I was mesmerized.

He then guided us to a Chinese restaurant. Best Chinese food I have ever had. I am really going to miss the food in Japan. It seems to be less greasy or something, and more flavorful.

We had to go straight back to the train station so we would not miss the last train at 12:30 am. On the way we passed by a "love hotel". Our tour guide the previous week, Iko-san, had told us about those! I can't remember if I wrote about them already as I don't have net access as I write this now. Basically, many young people in Japan live with their parents, and have nowhere to go for, um, romantic privacy. So you can go to these hotels and rent rooms for short periods of time. The one we passed had separate prices for "resting" and "staying", with "staying" being overnight.

Kier also explained to us that a lot of the men who were standing around in the streets were looking either for cute girls to talk into working for their clubs, or for gentlemen customers. I was not approached and I don't know whether to be sorry or glad!

January 27, 2004

Last night in Japan

Our trip has at last come to an end. It's sad. I've gotten so used to things here in Japan -- even fell in love with them -- that it will be hard and indeed weird to return to the states.

Yes, I know that there have been no journal updates. This is partly because my server decided to take a dump, but also because I've just been too darn busy to write them. I'll write some on the plane on the way home and post them retroactively when I get home (also, hopefully I will be able to resurrect the real web server; if I do, I will move all of these postings back to the home site.) I just thought I'd write about our last two days right now, partly to show that we're still alive, and partly so that I can get my thoughts down while they're still fresh in my mind.

Yesterday (that's Tuesday the 27th if you're confused) we slept in. Finally, a day with no commitments, no early wake-up calls, no people to see at the early hours, etc. It felt glorious. We were so lazy, in fact, that we didn't fully get up until about 2 PM. Yeah, I know, that's valuable sightseeing time wasted, but our bodies were at the point of breaking down, and we needed a rest day. It really helped.

After eating a small in-room breakfast of onigiri purchased from the convenience store the night before, we headed out. Onigiri, in case you don't know, is a Japanese concoction consisting of a triangle of rice (or a ball, or some other shape) with "stuff" inside it, wrapped in a seaweed (nori) wrapper. The ones we ate had (cooked) salmon at the center; I gather there are other flavors as well. They are pretty yummy, and VERY cheap (about 80 yen a pop, so under a buck) and fill you up for quite a while.

Anyway, once we left the hotel, we headed to Shinagawa Station, which, fortunately, is very near the hotel, practically right across the street from it. We then negotiatied the rail and subway system ending up at Yuichiro(?) Station. A short cab ride later, and we were smack dab in the middle of the world famous Ginza district.

Ginza is japan's equivalent to New York's Fifth Avenue: tons of sky's-the-limit department and speciality stores displaying beautiful things that you cannot possibly afford. Pam saw one piece of jewelry she really liked (a diamond ring) and we nearly died when we saw the price tag: ¥3,560,000, or roughly $35,600!!! They nearly had to call the paramedics with the defibrilator paddles for me. Everything is expensive in the Ginza; even a humble cup of coffee, which is already expensive in Japan (about ¥300 a cup in most places) was going for well over &yen1,200! Needless to say, we held our hunger and thirst in check until after we left the Ginza!!!

It was an odd mix of fun and frustration as we went through the fancy shops looking at things we could never possibly afford, and pretended to be all hoity-toity and knew what we were doing. Fun in that we love to window shop and pretend to be rich and famous, frustrating in that we were constantly being reminded of how dirt poor we are in comparison.

Just as we were getting frustrated beyond belief, there we saw it, like a beacon in the wilderness: a bright white shining Apple logo. Yes, we had finally found the now-famous Apple Store in Ginza!! Actually this was our target all along; we just window-shopped in the fancy stores because we happened to be in the area.

The Apple Store in Ginza opened at the end of November to worldwide interest and long (i mean LONG) lines. Apple is a very popular company and product in Japan because of the high coolness and/or cuteness factor of their products. You could tell by the large crowds thronging the Apple Store. Which, by the wya, is hands-down the damn coolest Apple Store on the planet. First of all is the size of the building: FIVE, count 'em, FIVE floors of yummy delicious Mac goodness. First floor features Apple hardware, in both "home" (iBook, iMac) and "pro" (PowerBook, G4, and G5) varieties. The second floor features tvarious accessory products for your Mac, including printers, hard drives, scanners, and more. It also houses the Genius Bar, a common features of all Apple Stores: at the Genius Bar, Apple experts are there to answer whatever questions you might have about Macs or related topics. The third floor features a 84-seat theatre with beautiful large projection screen, where many interesting and informative demonstrations, talks, and films are showed. The fourth floor features more accessories, including iPods,, iSights, digital camera accessories, and more; as well as a round table filled with eMacs showing childrens' titles. And let's not forget the Internet Bar, with some 20 iMacs set up for you to check your e-mail, surf the web, and chat (even iSight cameras are provided at each station for video chatting!). The fifth floor (usually inaccessible to most people) is where paid training classes are held.

Naturally, with m ultiple floors, you need some sort of device to get from floor to floor. The SoHo (new York) Apple Store features an incredible all-glass staircase. Which, I thought, was the coolest thing ever. Until now. Naturally Japan had to one-up the US. The Apple Store Ginza features a lovely all-glass elevator!! At each floor the elevator shaft has a glowing white Apple logo, so you can see it through the al-glass elevattor doors and cage. The thing rides smooth as... well, glass. No bumps or jolts on this express ride. And wow, what a view.

Anyway, I did a bit of price comparison, and prices of Apple gear in Japan are indeed somewhat higher than the same gear in the States. This probably has something to do with duty and importing and stuff, though I'm not sure of course. I took photos of the prices of the key Apple products (computers, iPods, etc.) and once I get back home I'll update you with price comparisons.

I naturally couldn't walk into an Apple Store without buying something. And it just so happened that they have iLife '04, the new suite of iApps that Steve announced at this year's MacWorld Expo. I have been lusting after this thing ever since he announced it, mostly for GarageBand, the new ultra-cool music creation software. And when I saw it at the Apple Store, I couldn't resist. The software itself is the same, no matter whether you buy it in the States, England, Japan, or even Krzykhstan. That's the beauty of OS X native applications: they support internationalization out of the box, so one application has dialogs, strings, messages, etc. in many different languages. Sure enough, when I popped in the iLife'04 CD an English installer came up, and once it finished installing, all programs came up in English. But the box and leaflets inside it are Japanese, which is fine with me. In fact I think it's cool. It makes a great souvenir from the Apple Store in Ginza, Japan.

After the Ginza, we headed out to, of all places, Ikebukuro. Why Ikebukuro, you might ask. Well, we had wanted to see the observatory at the top of the Sunshine 60 building (60 floors up), but we never got a chance to do that during the con. So we figured now would be a good time to do it. After hailing a cab at the Ikebukuro train station and telling him in broken English mixed with a bit of Japanese for good measure, we wound up at the front door of the Sunshine Prince Hotel. Now that was a weird experience. It's only been, what, a little under a week and a half since we were last there. Yet, as we walked through the hotel and the mall to get to the Sunshine 60 building, I kept thinking how it all seemed like a lifetime ago.

Finally we made it to the observation lounge. What a view!! Unfortunately it cost us dearly. Drinks at ¥1,200 a pop, and we shared an appetizer for around ¥1,500. But wow, what a view! We could see everything, even more than we saw at Tokyo Tower the afternoon before. And since it was nighttime, we saw all the city lights. It was very pretty. Oh well, we thought, we had a nice view for about ¥4,000. Then we got the bill, which ended up being about ¥5,200. Ouch! Turns out they tacked on a "table fee", some other "service charge", and the standard 5% consumption tax. Oww oww owwwwwwwww!!! Pam chipped in half, thankfully. Oh well, we are tourists, I suppose we had to get ripped off sooner or later.

Then my friend Kier called, and invited us to see his home town of Kawasaki, a short 15-minute train ride away from our home base of Shinagawa. Well, what an interesting ride that was. Yes, you guessed it: Japanese Subway Rush Hour. It is said that, in order to cram as many people onto the trains as possible during rush hour, the stations hire professional "pushers" whose sole job it is to literally shove people onto the trains. And when I say shove, I mean SHOVE. There we were, packed in a train car literally like sardines. Wall to wall people. It was so thick that I was having trouble breathing. The ride to Kawasaki Station seemed like an eternity. The one and only good thing about it was that, when the train swayed, all of the people in the train swayed in unison, but it was kind of a delayed reaction, sort of like waves rippling through a pond. So the swaying was kind of diminished by this, and also I had the press of many other bodies to cushion me, so I didn't strike any sharp objects or something. Also, none of the things that happen often in Tokyo subways happened to us. Things such as groping, fondling, etc. Well, I suppose a trip to Japan wouldn't be complete without a train ride in rush hour. Anyway we finally made it to Kawasaki, and met Kier at the station. He showed us around a part of town near the station, and we had an absolutely delicious Chinese dinner at a little place he frequents. Yummy!

Today (Wednesday) we again slept in, though not as badly as yesterday. We finally got out of bed around noon. Kier offered to take us through the famous Akihabara (Electronic Town) area today, but he wasn't sure when he'd get ouf of work. So we hung around the hotel for a bit and I watched some Japanese TV. Japanese TV is different from Western TV. Especially the commercials. It's hard to explain how they are different/weird; they just are. I am hoping I can videotape some Japanese TV (including commercials) before we leave tomorrow afternoon, so I can show you folks back home what I'm talking about.

We finally got a call from Kier at 1:30 or so, so we headed down to Shinagawa station. Kier met us around 2 PM at the station, where we proceeded to take the train to Akihabara.

Akihabara. Wow, what an experience. The area got its start during World War II where it was a hotbed of illegal sales of radio and other electronic components during the war. It started out as a handful of small stalls selling black market components. The place has just grown since then. Now it fills up an entire district. There are of course your huge name-brand stores selling the big stuff, but in the seedy underbelly and dark alleys of Akihabara you can still find alot of that old World War II feel, in rows upon rows of tiny shacks selling everything from components to full electronics, all tightly packed together. Think Radio Shack, Marvac, and a large computer show (say, on the Pomona scale). Except magnify this by 10,000. Then you have a rough sampling of what Akihabara is like. I've been told that Akihabara has been on a downfall lately. I'd hate to see what it was like before its downfall. No, I take that back. I'd LOVE to see what it was like before the supposed downfall. Still, even in its "reduced" form, Akihbara was tres cool. We found and shopped for various things, including cell phone straps (very popular cell phone accessory in Japan), and I found a "little" something special for myself. I'll leave it at that for now; I'll show you what I'm talking about when I return home.

We spent a good 4 hours wandering around Akihabara. Although food and drink places are supposedly very scarce in Akihabara, we still managed to find a place that had kaiten zushi (belt sushi) and great drinks all under one roof. The price was amazingly good: ¥120 per plate, which seems to be the standard kaiten zushi price all over Japan. I finally broke my trip record by eating 13 plates of sushi; total bill was about ¥1600, still significantly cheaper than what the same would cost back home. And the quality was a LOT better. The fish was VERY fresh and tasty!

Then it was back to Shinagawa. Our thoughts turned somber and we began to get depressed since this is our last night in Japan. Sigh.

We made a stop in the hotel's business center, which is the closest form of Internet around here. After this we'll head up to the hotel observatory bar and have a drink for our last night in Japan. As incentive to help save the environment, the hotel offers ¥2,000 in coupons if you choose to go without housekeeping for two days straight. We jumped on this and now we have some coupons, which we will use in the sky lounge.

Oh well. enough of this for now. Tomorrow will be spent packing, taking the Airport Limousine Bus to the airport, checking in, dealing with customs, waiting for our flight, and flying home. It'll be a long day. Hopefully I'll have some time to retroactively complete some blog entries while waiting for the plane and also while on the plane. Either way, the next post I make will likely come when I am back in the States.

Sayonara, Japan. You will be missed. Until next time...

Beep's Follies, January 28 (Beep)

Today we had a lot of mixed feelings, as we wanted to have a good day but it was our last day in Japan. I am writing this now at the airport as we wait to board our flight to go home...

We got up and Don did some packing (I had done some of mine the night before) while I did some post cards. When Kier called us, we arranged to meet him at our train station across the street, as he had kindly volunteered to be our guide to Akiabara, "electric town", or the electronics district. Don has wanted to go here for YEARS and the poor thing had to wait for our last day in Japan for it. I told him we should skip it and go to the Imperial Palace and he hissed at me! Nothing was going to keep Don from Akhiabara!

Kier was a wonderful guide as always. He showed us where all the main stores were, the back streets with bargains, the comic and anime stores, etc. It was like the biggest computer show in the world, stretching for blocks and blocks. Don found his spiritual home. He may appear to be walking around, alive and present, in the US, but his soul is in Akhiabara.

Naturally Don had to get a souvenir gadget from Japan. He wouldn't be a techie if he didn't. He ended up falling in love with a tiny digital camera. This thing is incredibly thin, and takes wonderful pictures. It is also a nice bright red color to help him keep track of it.

He was also looking for an electronic English-Japanese dictionary, as he really liked the ones Kier and Ayuko had. But that would have been another $300 and the store where he found the brand he wanted was out of stock. I think he still wants one, though!

We also went in "Animate", the big anime store where he got a souvenir DVD to take home. This seems to be a chain of stores for anime fans, and it is big with seven floors. But no seats anywhere. I tried sitting down on a counter to wait but got the Japanese "no" sign. I had finally got the bright idea of taking pain medication for the day's excursion (why I didn't do that for the whole trip, I don't know! I don't take it much at home cos I don't want to build up a tolerance, but I usually do take it on trips! Which is why I do better on trips than I do at home, and people question me thinking I am "faking" at home when it is really the miracle of narcotics on the trips...but I digress). I had forgotten to put the bottle in my purse, like an idiot, and the medicine was wearing off.

So I saw a stepping stool in a corner and went to sit on that while waiting for Don to shop. Eventually a Japanese man came along and literally shouted at me "THIS IS NOT CHAIR!". I think if he hadn't been so rude I would have resignedly got up, but I didn't like being yelled at. So I just sat there until Don was done. Hope I got him in trouble somehow.

We then decided to have our favorite cheap "conveyor-belt" sushi for our last dinner in Japan, and we found a place for this near the train station for Akhiabara. I got a nice green melon soft drink that I wish we had in the US. It was quite a BRIGHT green! I hope the picture comes out. The place where I got my melon drink and Don got a Coke was right next to the sushi place, and when i asked, they let us bring our glasses over so we could have our drinks with our meal. I brought the glasses b back when we were finished. And the sushi chef let us take his picture.

When we returned to the Shinagawa area and our hotel, we decided to check out what the hotel had to offer as it was our last night there. Also, we were pretty tired, and didn't really want to go wandering around outside. Most places near us closed at 8 pm anyway, which was different from Ikebukuro where everything was open late. It turned out the hotel's business center was open till 10. So I rented a computer and Don sat next to me, finding and using an insecure wireless connection for his computer! I cleaned out a million spams from my email box again. Looks like I've got a problem there to sort out when I get home. I also did a blog entry and so did Don. We want to type these as fast as possible, while we still remember what we did!

We also checked out the hotel's Japanese garden. Until tonight we didn't know the hotel had one! But there it was, complete with waterfall. It was so beautiful at night.

We decided to visit the lounge on the top floor to enjoy the view and to use our coupons that we got for not having our room cleaned for two days. We felt we made the sacrifice (we had trashcans overflowing by the time the two days were over) and now deserved the reward! So we redeemed the coupons for two cocktails in the lounge. Drinks in Japan are expensive; cocktails seem to be about ten dollars. And thought Santa Barbara was bad. Anyway, we each had a gorgeous blue drink named "Blue Pacific" after the hotel, which is the Le Meridien Pacific Hotel. I think the drink had grapefruit juice in it. It was good.

From one of the windows there was a wonderful view of Tokyo Tower, lit up in gold at night. Before we left the lounge we looked out another window where we saw a gorgeous half-moon over the Tokyo horizon.

We also had an incredible view from our room, and decided to sleep that night with the curtains open to enjoy it. We were on the 19th floor. While back in our room, I had my last bath with the expensive Johnson's baby oil I had purchased on the tour (almost nine dollars for a little bottle! I'm going to start a black market) and Don watched Japanese tv, something he had been wanting to do.

By the way, the bathroom in our hotel had a big mirror. Seeing myself in it was the first time I caught a sight of my backside since that fall I took on the ice in Hakone. Oh My God. Huge dramatic red-purple bruises. I found myself wondering very much what the other women at the onsen (hot springs) thought when they saw them. I don't think I want to know.

January 28, 2004

Beep's Follies -- January 29 (Beep)

Well, the dreaded day is here. No more vacation; back to reality. We got up and shoved the remaining stuff into our suitcases. It was a tight squeeze and so we didn't get downstairs until it was almost time to catch the limousine bus (kind of like a bigger Santa Barbara Airbus). We left our bags with the bell captain and rushed to a quick breakfast. There was no time for us to go out for our usual good cheap food. We went to the hotel coffee shop and asked what were the quickest things on the menu. Don had shrimp curry and a Coke; I had toast and tea. Total bill: $35.00! That's why we didn't eat in our hotel until now. But the service was great; we told them we only had ten minutes for breakfast and we got our food instantly. At home the ten minutes would have been used up just waiting to be acknowledged by a server.

We got our last look at Tokyo on the bus. A lot of the highway signs were in both Japanese and English. I noticed the one for the airport said "Have a nice trip". That was sweet. Unfortunately the first English conversations I had heard in awhile were quite depressing...a bunch of corporate types talking about the value of their houses. The only interesting thing I overheard was a Japanese woman explaining how many people who have affairs in Japan go to the "love hotels".

People helped us with all our bags without our even asking when we got off the bus. And they were nice when I couldn't find our baggage claim tickets. I also couldn't find the one for our bags when we had left them at the bell desk to go have breakfast at the hotel. Two sets of baggage claim tickets lost in one afternoon. I wonder just where I am putting them. I have put the ones for our bags for when we arrive in LA in my black wallet; I am recording this here so I know where they are when I get there!

We were again helped with our bags when we checked in with our airline. Help without even asking for it; people available right there to help you; no tipping! LAX is going to be a rude shock (I am writing this now on the plane home).

We did have a problem checking in. We were told the flight was full and we could not get seats together. We were 3 1/2 hours early for our flight; it seemed incredible that everyone had checked in already.

At our gate, we got Don a Coke and me a cold coffee latte. Don wrote his last post card. I worked on the previous entries for this blog.

The security is pretty thorough. There was a passport check on the bus on the way in to the airport. Then we had to show the passports again at the check in, again at passport control, again with a disembarkation card at "immigration", again to get on the plane.

I got picked for a random search (at least I think it was random; maybe I am a highly suspicious character with my bright purple carry on bag). Purse and carryon searched, body search with a wand, shoes off...

When we got on the plane I told a stewardess that we were supposed to sit together but that someone had made a mistake! So they tried to find us seats together, but no luck at first. They had us sit in our assigned seats, across the plane from each other, while they asked passengers near us if they would switch. The person with the window seat next to me said ok. So Don got that seat and we are together for this flight.

We have had a nice meal, complete with the hot towels beforehand served with tongs. i am going to miss this hand cleaning ritual. In restaurants there are wet towels in packages that you open and use before you eat; I can't remember if I mentioned that before on a blog entry that is inacessible to me right now on Don's server.

The cocktails are free and I tried to get to sleep with their aid. It is 3:20 am Pacific time and it would be good for me to get some rest. But the plane is still on Japan time I guess (8:20 pm) and the bright lights are all still on. I wish they would turn them off as we are getting in at 9:45 am Pacific time. I don't like these flights that get you in in the morning, as I am always tired after travel and would prefer to arrive in time to go to bed! But I know some people love them; they prefer to sleep on the plane and then have a full day ahead.

They just passed out the customs forms. That scares me a little as I am unfamiliar with what to do. Hope that goes smoothly. I kept all my receipts of things I purchased to take home.

I had worried about our luggage being oveweight, but no one said anything when we checked in...I hope for the best on that one, too.

Well, it's about time I gave Don his computer back. We are just crossing the International Date Line now, getting back the day we lost when we came to Japan.

Later: I can't sleep, so I took the computer back while it still has some battery life. I wanted to proofread the blog, but can't. I just know this blog is full of changes in tenses and other mistakes. I've been writing it on the run, when tired, and just want to get all the memories written down quickly so I won't forget them. I'll just remember not to show it to an English teacher. I've also had to write under strange conditions. For example, right now on the plane I can only have the computer partially open, as the person in the seat in front of me is reclining WAY back and there is no room. Should I kick her?

I haven't slept yet and it is now 5:30 am Pacific time. Ugh. I think I'm going to need a nap when I get home. Hopefully Don won't feel like blasting anime in celebration of the return to his DVD player and all his other gadgets :)

We are watching the progress of our flight on the trip monitor available on our in-seat screens. Los Angeles is now on the map. Guess we really are going back. Already I am going through withdrawal because I could get neither Calpis or Royal Milk Tea near our gate in the airport or on the plane. Wonder if those are available at a Japanese market, maybe in LA. Worth a try.

I just realized I got through all of our Japan trip without using one of those toilets you have to squat for. Sometimes it was difficult to wait until we were someplace with a western toilet, but I managed somehow. I count this as a kind of victory!

January 29, 2004

Home Sweet Home (Beep)

Well, I really want to crash. It's 3:26 pm here on Jan 29th but my body thinks it is on Japan time which is now 8:26 am on Jan 30th ... so it's like a morning after being up all night.

But I can't sleep until I let people reading this blog know we made it safely through the turbulence on the plane, through US customs, through getting our bags, and home.

We did have a little incident at the airport. When my bro-in-law, Bill, was coming to pick us up, a rabid security type harassed him for parking near the taxi stand and made him drive a ways down where we had to then walk to join him with an overweight luggage cart in tow. Don was livid, and freaked out. He is too used to Japan where someone would have probably stopped all traffic so Bill could park and then hand-carried our luggage to his car for us...I exaggerate a bit but you get the point! Anyway, I thought we were going to get arrested, with Don shouting things and ready to take on the cop! But we escaped without problems.

I was glad to see trees and flowers again, as Tokyo is mostly paved and built up...and I was especially happy to see the ocean and wide open spaces. We seem to have a beautiful sunny day for our first day back home.

For some reason, I can't go to sleep until I jot these notes down that are flying around in my head from our trip; bits and pieces of jet-lagged thought fragments.

The Imperial Palace in Kyoto used a lot of the color orange, and I did not find out its significance. This is bothering me.

Our hotel in Hakone had a beautiful light wood everywhere. I wonder what wood it was.

Japanese TV can be hilarious. We saw one program during one of our first nights in Tokyo, where it seemed that men were having to say tongue twisters in Japanese and, when they made a mistake, were hit in the balls by a bizarre-looking contraption that was like a mechanical hand punch. Ouch!

On our last night in Japan we saw a program that was teaching English to the Japanese, and another one that was teaching American football. It was so funny to hear a lot of Japanese accompanying the clips of a football game, followed by a diagram that read something like "First Down and 10" complete with arrows to show this happening. Another diagram had an arrow pointing to "Quarterback".

We did see some Sumo wrestlers walking around when we went to the Edo museum, as they train near there. Unfortunately I don't think we got any pictures of them. I would have liked one. I wanted to walk up to one and ask where they shopped for their clothing but I felt it would be rude.

I miss the automatic sliding glass doors that seem to be everywhere in Japan. I had to actually open a door for myself today and was appalled at the exertion necessary ;)

I LOVED having pumpkin soup when we ate at the restaurant on the way to Hakone, at the base of Mt. Fugi. I had heard about this from Tanya, who lives in Australia where they cook a lot with pumpkin, and I always wanted to try it.

I also loved the gnocchi at Iron Chef Kobe's restaurant. I can't remember what my main dish was there though! I should have written it down! Maybe Don or Mitch can remember. (update: it was fish; I saw the pictures!)

I will probably add other bits and pieces here as I think of them, but right now thinking is not my strong suit! Time for a shower and a nap :)

January 30, 2004

Go see the pictures! (Beep)

Don's aren't up yet; he has a lot more to go through than I did with my camera. But mine are ready for viewing at

http://www.borg-cube.com/pix/japan2004-pam/

Click on a picture to make it bigger so you can see it.

Hugs, Pam

February 2, 2004

Still jetlagged...

It's now, umm, 4 days (I think...) since our return from Japan, and we're still jetlagged as all get out. Sleeping odd hours, getting up at odd times, etc. Today, I don't quite know how, I managed to get up at 7 AM. I'm really trying to fight to stay awake, but those little sleep demons are starting to pull and tug at me... I might need a nap... arrrgh.

Yes, I know I've been slow on updates. I still have about a week's worth of blogs to post. I actually have a rough outline of the blogs, plus ltos of trip notes I took; it's just a matter of integrating these and fleshing them out into a reasonably coherent posting. I'm also still working on my pictures. I know, I know... I'm going through them as fast as I can, attaching reasonably coherent descriptions to them, fixing the ones that need touch-up work, and deleting the bad/duplicate ones. I hope to have this completed later tonight, at which point I'll post 'em and stick a nice big "MY PICTURES ARE POSTED!" announcement here.

Anyway, stay tuned!

February 4, 2004

Two articles regarding AXT

Well, the press has started to chime in about AXT. The following two articles may be of interest to you. First, there's this article by Kat Avila (aka "bc" on the AX message boards) about the convention itself. Then, there's this piece from the Anime News Network which reports attendance figures from AXT. Not bad for a first effort, IMHO.

Yes, I know, I still haven't posted my pictures yet. I got hit by a sudden flurry of work, which is good for the pocketbook, but bad for my level of free time. I should have a fairly free day Friday however, so hopefully I'll be able to finish sorting and posting those at that time. Stay tuned!

P.S.: Mom just called. My swords arrived today! Woohoo!!!

February 5, 2004

Music to my Ears

It's now a week since the end of our lovely Japan trip, and I am soooo depressed. :( To help take my mind away from this, I have of course been watching a lot of anime! :) Chobits volume 6 came out just before leaving for AXT, and I picked up my copy the other day. Wow, what an incredible end to a great series. Also looking forward to Haibane Renmei #4, last disk in an incredible series. Also Angelic Layer volume 3 is out now, and 4 is due next week. This prequel of sorts to Chobits is looking pretty good. And on a friend's advice, I rented Card Captor Sakura from Netflix. Amazing series, and proof that it's the story that counts. Although CCS was made as a young girls' anime, its story is deep enough that it really transcends that audience.

I've also been listening to a lot of Jpop/Anime music. There's nothing quite like happy bouncy Jpop/anime tunes to get you out of that sour mood. One of the things I wanted to do on the trip was pick up some CD's of my favorite artists. Sadly, there was neither enough time nor money. :\

But I did find an excellent streaming radio station that plays Jpop/anime goodness 24/7. Check it out.

http://www.japanaradio.com/

There's also Armitage's Dimension, at http://armitage.crinkle.net/tunes/, another excellent station (when it's actually up and running :P) which is biased more towards Anime tunes than Jpop. And this station has a nifty automated user request system, so you can request your favorite songs be played.

February 9, 2004

My Pictures are Up! Finally!

At long last, my pictures are up! Sorry for the delay, but, as you can see, there were A LOT of pictures to sort through.

View them at:

http://www.borg-cube.com/pix/japan2004/

Even MORE Photos!!!

As if our photos weren't enough, the LLNN report of AXT (including, yes PICTURES!) is now up. Woot!!!

February 16, 2004

A Slightly Different Japan Trip Experience

For a, uhh, slightly different take on the whole AXT and Japan experience, check this out:

http://pub130.ezboard.com/fanimeexpofrm61.showMessage?topicID=7.topic

February 24, 2004

Daniel and Amy's Pictures

What? Can't get enough of those Japan pics? Well, here we are with another installment! Daniel and Amy's pics are now up!!!

April 25, 2004

Closing this Blog

I just thought of it the other day, and realized that it's now been a little over 3 months since the Japan Trip of Doom. Wow. Oddly enough, it feels, at the same time, just like yesterday, and like it was five billion years ago. I want to go back, sooooo bacdly...

Anyway, all the pictures are up, and I've just about finished editing together the trip video. Unfortunately I can't post that, as I don't have a manly enough Internet connection to serve it. So, it is time to bid farewell to the Japan Trip Blog.

Is there life after the Japan trip? Find out by reading my personal blog at http://blogs.borg-cube.com/.