Monday, December 26, 2005

Boxing Day.

Not that you'd ever know it, living in Japan.

Emily and I headed to Hiroshima today, woohoo! I love Hiroshima. I think it was one of my favourite places here in Japan. We took the Shinkansen at 9:40am to Hiroshima, riding a Kodama train. This is the slowest of the Skinkansen, as it stops at all stops. (However, this worked for us, as I live in an itty bitty city.)

The Nozomi train came screaming, literally, by us a few times while we were waiting at NishiAkashi shinkansensen platform number 11. It was quite startling to see this thing go hurtling past in a blur of white and grey. To all family and friends, the train crash on December 26th occurred in NORTHERN Japan, and as such, did not affect me, so no worries. Anyone wishing to see what I'm talking about can go here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4559308.stm


Arrived in Hiroshima just after 12 noon, and got ourselves a quick lunch, before taking the Hiroshima Sanyo line down to Miyajimaguchi. (about 30 minutes) We then took the ferry over to Miyajima, which has a beautiful shrine and red tori gate.











This is a building with the characteristic maple leaves of Miyajima all over it, located in lovely Miyajima.





















An odd little laughing/screaming cat sculpture in Miyajima. (Some things in Japan just leave me wondering, "why?")





















The lovely Otori in Miyajima. This the gate you see on all posters for Miyajima, usually ones bearing the word "invitation," for some odd reason. I try not to question things like that TOO much, because reallym there doesn't need to be a reason. It was a really nice day out there, and the tide was just starting to come back in, so the gate looked a fair shade different than it did when mom and I visited.




















Emily and the famous Otori gate.






















A shrine lantern blowing in the wind at Miyajima.






















This is the five storied red pagoda, also famous in Miyajima.






















After leaving Miyajima, we returned to Hiroshima proper. (Via a nice little streetcar.) We got off right in front the bridge leading to the A Bomb Dome. So we took a few pictures.

Hiroshima right before sunset.






















This is the A Bomb Dome. Emily and I spent a good half an hour shooting pictures all over the place here. It was a beautiful time of day, very peaceful. Very few people were around.


















This is Emily getting a picture from behind the security fence.


















A Bomb Dome as the sun sets on Hiroshima.
















After that, we had dinner at Subway and wandered around a little bit, before deciding to check out Hiroshima Castle by night.



















The actual castle by night. It was a pain in the *** to shoot these, however, I think they all turned out more or less passable. This one I particularly liked.

















This is a shot I call Octopus Tree. I think it's very Christmas-sy and pretty. I miss Canada looking at things like this.
















This is the end of our trip, Emily asleep on the shinkansen.


Happy Boxing Day!!

Sunday, December 25, 2005

After missing out on USJ, thanks the the infallible Engrish and poor train maps on the Osaka Loop Line, Emily and I decided to go to an Izaka-ya on Christmas Day for dinner. We sampled various foods, thinking that the drink bill would be small, given the 880yen "all you can drink" plastered across the front of the menu. We got ourselves quite well done, only to realize at the cash, that this menu applied only to those ordering these huge course meals. Haha. Oh well. You only live once.

During the day, we travelled around Kyoto a bit. The Imperial Palace seemed to be on lockdown, so we walked to the Kyoto Handicraft Centre, and found some neat gifts and souvenirs. Emily got a cool fabric piece with the traditional Japanese wave on it. We took the shuttle bus to the station. It was an awful ride; it took almost an hour! Plus, the people sitting behind us were a trio of obnoxious, "more money than brains" Australians who would not shut up. I wonder if people think that about me sometimes?

Took the train to Osaka, which only took about 30 minutes, and rushed over to the Indian restaurant we wanted to eat at. (What is it called? Indura? Andura? Meh, who knows...) It was still, by the grace of god, open so Emily and I got to have some delicious food. We headed back to JR, but bought some shoes on the way. Eventually arrived at JR to try and get ourselves a locker. The locker system at JR is stupid. It says you can use it for 6 hours for 2100 yen, (all in 100 yen coins, no less, morons) but the system will not actually let you do this.

We eventually boarded a loop line train bound for USJ, we thought, but the damn thing never arrived and damned if the sign said anything to the effect of "transfer trains here to reach USJ." Anyways, that was our Christmas Day.

Saturday, December 24, 2005

Ah, Christmas Eve. Such a festive time at home, such a capitalist time in Japan.

Today, Emily, Keiko and I went to Kyoto. We met Keiko at Nishishimmachi Station at 9:00am, and arrived in Kyoto at approximately 11:00am. We had some *sketchy* breakfast. (Toast and salad were good, the eggs were pureed or something.) We decided to cab it to Kiyozumi, a beautiful temple where Emily and Keiko (and I!) took tons and tons of photos. The shops were also great in the area, with narrow streets winding up the hill toward the mountain. Lit some incense, took a look around. EVERYTHING in this country is about couples. There was a whole area dedicated to this love stone gimic. Two grey stone, about knee-height, with chains on them, and you were supposed to walk between them with your eyes closed. If you came to no harm, then you'd have luck in love. (This might be easy on a quiet day, but it was a Saturday, and Christmas in Japan is couples' day anyways, so the place was literally teeming with sickenly cute Japanese couples, so walking between two rocks would be damn near impossible!)

Had some odd little delicious tofu doughnuts before hopping a cab to our next destination: lunch. We ended up eating at a small French restaurant that the cabbie recommended. Cabs here are quite nifty. The drivers are uber professional, sporting caps and white gloves, and you never have to touch the doors. Wicked. Food was good at the French spot.

We then went to the Golden shrine thing. Hmmm the name escapes me at the moment; I will have to update this later. It was beautiful, but it was pretty cold up there. I was under the *misguided* impression that the temperature in this region doesn't drop below zero. The sad truth is that I've come to Japan in a year when all sorts of records are being broken for the lowest temperatures ever. (No global warming? Think again, Bush. Someone needs to give you a good swift kick upside the head, or have you pay a few visits to the remnants of New Orleans.)

We decided to go to our hotel next, to drop off my bags, as I was exhausted. Palace Side Hotel was, of course, next to the Imperial Palace. Pretty decent hotel, given I had low expectations. Sleeping in a bed felt SO good. I missed it so much. Anyways, we decided to go to the Daimaru main shopping area and found a small Nepalese restaurant, and had some excellent curry on Christmas Eve.

Keiko had to leave at that point, but Emily walked around and shopped until about 8ish, when vendors starting closing up shop for the night. Then we cabbed it back to the hotel and went to sleep. Merry Christmas.

Friday, December 23, 2005

Quick entry before I *FINALLY* go to sleep! I got up at 7:30am, and Em at 8:00am, and we were in Osaka by 9:40pm. Emily and I went to Osaka, Sky Building, and Nara, Todaji Temple, and some other spots today. We had a great time at the skye building; Em took photos... I took photos of her taking photos for you and the show. We had Excelsior Cafe sandwiches before leaving for Nara. First, we quickly ran into Yodobashi and I bought her a new 1gig memory card, because hers flaked out for some reason. (FYI, her camera and memory card were from Henry's...)

Em slept on the train. Nara was wonderful. A deer bit my ass, though. That was rough. Todaji Temple was quite pretty and both Emily and I took a ton of photos. We saw the kitty near a restaurant again. Very nice kitten. We bought tons of stuff, which was quite nice.

We headed back to Osaka, and we headed to Big Man to meet Chris and Ray. We had Indian cuisine for dinner. Em and I had naan, and coconut chicken curry, and mixed vegetable curry. It was absolutely delicious.

After that, we went to Yodobashi Camera again and did some Christmas shopping. We settled on a nice set (2 pairs!) of sweet white headphones that match our iPods.

Anyways, we are headed to Kyoto tomorrow morning. We are meeting Keiko at 9am at Nishishimmachi. I invited her along, because she wanted to meet Emily and she is always very fun to spend time with.

Time for some much needed shut-eye. Goodnight world.

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

I'm not dead.

Seriously, adfter reading the response to my comments about awful Fenchie on GG, I was saddened. I really think his accent is digusting and overdone. I suppose that shows my general dislike for French men. Give me any other accent, any other day.

So, lately, and I'm sure this will be filled with typos. So sue me. Didn't finish that sentence, and yes I'm aware of the fact. Anyways, I wonder why the Japanese have everything. They have vending machines filled with hot drinks: coffee, espresso, cafe au lait, milk tea, lemon tea, green tea, chiese tea, hot chocolate, hot vitamin C, hot corn POTAGE for God's sake! Canada's WAY colder than this country and where are OUR hot vending machines, I say?! WHERE. *sigh* Also, you know the little bit shake-em-til-they're-hot heating pads? We have 24 hour ones in Japan for SUPER cheap. Basically it's about $2.50 for 10 of the little heavenly suckers. God bless Japan.

We had our Hallowe'en party the other night. Lovely affair with food, and a nice Paddington Bear for me to take home. Complete with marmalade and bread! SWEET. Went to Karaoke afterward, which was nice. I hate karaoke unless I drink, but this place proved to be fun, and I sang a few songs with some other Eigo senseis. (English teachers)

Alas, I truly only wrote because Chris mentioned I'm horrific with keeping up on the blog. And I am. But life's busy these days. And Sima and Jon and Emily are slow, too!!!

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Hmmm, so it is now 11:19am, and my stupid player won't make Gilmore Girls work. I didn't even used to watch that show, but it turns out not be so boring in the later years. I could still seriously wring that stupid faux-Frenchman's neck, but hey, c'est la vie, non? I am enjoying it, even though I'm watching it rather out of sequence. I didn't think Rory was all that interesting when she was younger, but she's quirky enough now to warrant some attention.

Yesterday morning, I went to Osaka for work. I met a student on the train, but I fell asleep en route to Osaka, so we didn't speak very much. Sometimes I just don't have the enery to stay awake on the train. I went to Yodobashi Camera, and exchanged the two laptop cases for larger ones that might actually FIT the Apple 14" iBook. Woohoo. AND I got brand new beige, blue and orange Pumas, which in my opinion, are quite cute. Also, got two turtle neck wool sweaters from UniQlo. (It was $30 for two, so why not?)

Anyways, it's cold and I need to get my self sorted out for work, so I'll write more soon...

Check out the new and improved links section....

Sunday, December 11, 2005

I had an exciting day yesterday. On Friday night, after work, a few of us headed to Kinsale, a French restaurant located above the Irish pub. I had the Australian beef, and damn, was it ever good! I love steak. I tend to get in this mind set when I'm not consuming a great deal of meat, but I'm eating a healthy portion, mainly because I'm going out to Yoshinoya a lot. Mom and I ate at Yakiniku the other day, this Korean-style grill-your-own beef place. It was delicious. I can't wait to go back.

Anyways, yesterday, I thought I was going to have to wait ALL day for my new kotatsu to arrive. Check out the phenomena here: http://www.jlifeinternational.com/furnishings/kotatsu/kotatsu_e.html Apparently, my new kotatsu is "kawaii" (cute), but I've been too frightened about putting the sucker together to open it. I have no tools at my disposal! A nice Japanese woman called, and the call didn't go down well. I don't speak Japanese. A few minutes later, my doorbell rang, and there was the kotatsu! So, I brought in this square box, about 4 inches thick, and paid her. This was only 11:00am. I was pretty pleased that I wouldn't be chained to the apartment all day, so I read for a bit and then took a shower. Also did some reading. I left the house at 3:45pm, and went to Aspia, managed to do all my grocery shopping. Carrying 8 litres of juice and water on my back, and various other groceries in a bag, I did not want to stop anywhere else, so I made a beeline for the train station, and was super impressed when I got home by 5:00pm.

However, upon arriving at my door and digging out my key, it appeared to have been bent slightly from the weight of the water bootles. Damn. SO I trucked it over to the local locksmiths in the hopes the tiny shop would still be open. As luck would have it, it was. Armed with only "sumimasen" (sorry) and some hand gestures, I managed to get a new key cut, and all for under 500yen. I walk back to my apartment, now exhausted and hungry, and try my key in the door, almost praying, "if there's a god, this key will work, otherwise, I'm not calling the school, I'm sleeping on my front door step." It did work, albeit a little less smoothly than the original, but cutting from a bent one's got to be a bit difficult.

So, it all worked out. I'm a bit bummed to not have any real plans today. However, I should really get caught up on the blog, I wanna record what occurred during mom's visit, before I forget dates!

Saturday, December 10, 2005



So that's me, on this evening of Friday, December 9, 2005. Actually, it's now December 10th, but *meh* not a truly big difference. Not to me, anyway. I don't work tomorrow, but I must wait at my apartment for my new kotatsu to be delivered. Apparently, word is that it's EXTRA cute. Potentially pink. You all know how I feel about pink. *sigh*

Sitting down to watch some Clone High, care of my mom's visit. I adore Clone High. Why is it that the best TV series always get cancelled! Life's not fair. So funny. Time for some Gandhi, Cleopatra, Aberham Lincoln, Joan of Arc, and JFK... and a few other historical figures mixed in.

Perhaps sleep time now. TP Boys was funnnny.

Monday, December 05, 2005

So, this is a short entry, to keep people from thinking I've fallen off the face of the earth!
Mom and I went to Hiroshima, via Shinkansen today (PRICEY!!!) and I thought I'd put up a few photos.

Miyajima...
Amazingly, utterly beautiful. This is a section of the coastline. We arrived to rain, then the sun came out, and...


Miyajima Otori...
Most shrines have these red gateways... this one happens to be floating! Actually, it isn't, but it's wooden base is submerged when the tide is in. When the tide is out, you can stand against the posts. Coller like this, in my opinion.


Finally, we took the streetcar into Hiroshima, and went to the site of the atomic bomb detonation; the A-Bomb Dome, it's reffered to as here... Very strange experience to visit it. A monument dedicated to the future; one without war and devastation... Instead of being solely dedicated to those who were claimed by the tragedy. Sickens me to see those things; evidence of a time (even though we still live in one) where humans feel the need to inflict such horror on fellow human beings. Felt the same way at Dachau concentration camp in Germany...


More to follow, avid readers. I promise!