The temperature in my apartment is so cold that my olive oil is nearly solid, and there is no discernible difference between the inside of my refrigerator and out.
However, beneath my kotatsu it's nice and toasty.
Such is life in Japan.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Friday, January 18, 2008
A fabulous quote for today:
Look to this day:
For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course
Lie all the verities and realities of your existence.
The bliss of growth,
The glory of action,
The splendour of achievement
Are but experiences of time.
For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision;
And today well-lived makes
Yesterday a dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well therefore to this day;
Such is the salutation to the ever-new dawn!
-Kalidasa
For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course
Lie all the verities and realities of your existence.
The bliss of growth,
The glory of action,
The splendour of achievement
Are but experiences of time.
For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision;
And today well-lived makes
Yesterday a dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well therefore to this day;
Such is the salutation to the ever-new dawn!
-Kalidasa
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Gomen ne?
Sorry for the lack of updates. I primarily blame karei naru ichizoku (The Grand Family) for eating my spare time at home...
It rocks. Kimura Takua is a close second to Nagase Tomoya for my ichiban daisuki (favorite) Japanese actor... in fact I might go so far as to say they are equals in my fangirlieness ^_^
*ahem*
I am still planning to write about Kobe and Kyoto, and possibly my trip back to Denver. But now I must get ready for sleep as tomorrow is skiing day at KJH! And I'm not kidding when I say skiing day, they really mean it. I am not allowed to snowboard.
...it's been 10 years since I switched from skis to the snowboard. And tomorrow will be my first time back to separated feet sliding downhill. In front of my students.
Wish me luck!
It rocks. Kimura Takua is a close second to Nagase Tomoya for my ichiban daisuki (favorite) Japanese actor... in fact I might go so far as to say they are equals in my fangirlieness ^_^
*ahem*
I am still planning to write about Kobe and Kyoto, and possibly my trip back to Denver. But now I must get ready for sleep as tomorrow is skiing day at KJH! And I'm not kidding when I say skiing day, they really mean it. I am not allowed to snowboard.
...it's been 10 years since I switched from skis to the snowboard. And tomorrow will be my first time back to separated feet sliding downhill. In front of my students.
Wish me luck!
Sunday, January 6, 2008
From Kyoto to Denver, in 24 hours
Being that I've lived in Japan for the past 5 months, I tend to fall a little behind on the news back home. That's why I had no idea there were monstrous thunderstorms terrorizing the west coast of the US, and wreaking havoc on travel, even in places half way around the world. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
We began our journey home around 1pm in Kyoto, Japan. We'd been there for 3 days, seeing the sights, eating the food, and fighting our way through the hoards of Japanese who also thought it would be a fabulous time to visit the city. I'll leave the rest of the Kyoto trip for another post, but suffice it to say it was beautiful and fun and very, VERY crowded.
Before our trip home we just had to stop for coffee at this place
Imagine our surprise when, beyond it's simple sign, you find yourself not in a granola-themed enclave full of overstuffed couches and smelling of patchouli but a rather elegant shop that could rival swanky European coffeehouses. Definitely NOT what we had envisioned when we saw the sign, ha ha
The day before, we went all-out and purchased shinkansen (bullet train) tickets, which happen to run between Kyoto and Nagoya about every 10 minutes. A little expensive, maybe, but so convenient and quick! And also quite crowded. In fact, ours was crowded enough that we stood the entire 45 minute journey in the door hatch with about 7 or 8 other people. Our train departed Kyoto station at 1:35pm, which is when I began counting the hours it took for us to get home.
Since our plan to eat kaiten-zushi (the conveyor belt sushi) failed miserably when we ran out of time in Kyoto, we ended up with a nutritious meal of coke zero and snickers bars on the train ^_^ But at least we were on time for the flight, right?
When we arrived at Japan Central International Airport (centrair for short, the Japanese just LOVE contracting every possible word they can) we were greeted with a sign that said "due to equipment arriving late the 5:10pm flight to San Francisco has been delayed until 8:15pm". Apparently, there was a weather delay.
...this meant that we would be arriving 3 hours later into San Francisco than previously planned, just late enough that we would miss our connecting flight to Denver. So, they offered to put us on one at 3:20pm that would arrive in Denver about 6:50. Seeing as there was nothing we could do about it, we agreed. Also, for the first time in my adult, full-fare-paying, life I was offered a free upgrade to business class. Unfortunately, only I was offered this upgrade (they only had one seat left), and being the kind soul that I am, I declined the offer in order to sit with Dave. So instead, they upgraded the two of us to economy plus.
Since we now had an extra two hours or so at the airport, we decided to wander around. It's actually got a fairly nice layout for wandering in the main terminal.
Takayama? Gion district in Kyoto?
Nope! Just the shopping area of the airport ^_-
They also have this fantastic sky walk where you can go outside and look out at the harbor, the runways, the gates, and watch the planes taking off.
The international terminal also has a business center where you can get online for free, which is where we spent a fair chunk of our time waiting for the plane to arrive.
The plane ride between Nagoya and San Francisco was rather uneventful. We ate curry, we watched movies, we went back in time...
I didn't manage to sleep at all as every time I was about to nod off we'd hit turbulence and I'd wake up. For the most part our journey was a clean, boring arc between Japan and the US. Until we were almost finally to California and we made this interesting squiggle.
The reason for our delay in Nagoya became quite apparent on our decent into San Francsico, which was marked by turbulance, the plane being struck by lightning, and the flight attendant announcing over the intercom (as part of his "put your tray tables and your seatbacks up speech) "and remember if we have to evacuate the plane be sure to leave all your carry-on items behind"
...always confidence inspiring, that one >.<
We cleared customs without any hassle, got some pizza (my first American meal in 5 months!) and found to our horror that the flight delays weren't over quite yet.
No free internet in the San Francisco airport. Didn't get offered any kind of upgrades. And our 3:30pm flight didn't end up leaving until after 5:30. Ah, America. At least the plane was only about a third full, which meant everybody got their own row.
In the end, it all worked out to:
Total travel time: 23.5 hours
Distance traveled: 6050 miles
Hours slept: 1.5
All to come here
Here's to being home for a week!
We began our journey home around 1pm in Kyoto, Japan. We'd been there for 3 days, seeing the sights, eating the food, and fighting our way through the hoards of Japanese who also thought it would be a fabulous time to visit the city. I'll leave the rest of the Kyoto trip for another post, but suffice it to say it was beautiful and fun and very, VERY crowded.
Before our trip home we just had to stop for coffee at this place
Imagine our surprise when, beyond it's simple sign, you find yourself not in a granola-themed enclave full of overstuffed couches and smelling of patchouli but a rather elegant shop that could rival swanky European coffeehouses. Definitely NOT what we had envisioned when we saw the sign, ha ha
The day before, we went all-out and purchased shinkansen (bullet train) tickets, which happen to run between Kyoto and Nagoya about every 10 minutes. A little expensive, maybe, but so convenient and quick! And also quite crowded. In fact, ours was crowded enough that we stood the entire 45 minute journey in the door hatch with about 7 or 8 other people. Our train departed Kyoto station at 1:35pm, which is when I began counting the hours it took for us to get home.
Since our plan to eat kaiten-zushi (the conveyor belt sushi) failed miserably when we ran out of time in Kyoto, we ended up with a nutritious meal of coke zero and snickers bars on the train ^_^ But at least we were on time for the flight, right?
When we arrived at Japan Central International Airport (centrair for short, the Japanese just LOVE contracting every possible word they can) we were greeted with a sign that said "due to equipment arriving late the 5:10pm flight to San Francisco has been delayed until 8:15pm". Apparently, there was a weather delay.
...this meant that we would be arriving 3 hours later into San Francisco than previously planned, just late enough that we would miss our connecting flight to Denver. So, they offered to put us on one at 3:20pm that would arrive in Denver about 6:50. Seeing as there was nothing we could do about it, we agreed. Also, for the first time in my adult, full-fare-paying, life I was offered a free upgrade to business class. Unfortunately, only I was offered this upgrade (they only had one seat left), and being the kind soul that I am, I declined the offer in order to sit with Dave. So instead, they upgraded the two of us to economy plus.
Since we now had an extra two hours or so at the airport, we decided to wander around. It's actually got a fairly nice layout for wandering in the main terminal.
Takayama? Gion district in Kyoto?
Nope! Just the shopping area of the airport ^_-
They also have this fantastic sky walk where you can go outside and look out at the harbor, the runways, the gates, and watch the planes taking off.
The international terminal also has a business center where you can get online for free, which is where we spent a fair chunk of our time waiting for the plane to arrive.
The plane ride between Nagoya and San Francisco was rather uneventful. We ate curry, we watched movies, we went back in time...
I didn't manage to sleep at all as every time I was about to nod off we'd hit turbulence and I'd wake up. For the most part our journey was a clean, boring arc between Japan and the US. Until we were almost finally to California and we made this interesting squiggle.
The reason for our delay in Nagoya became quite apparent on our decent into San Francsico, which was marked by turbulance, the plane being struck by lightning, and the flight attendant announcing over the intercom (as part of his "put your tray tables and your seatbacks up speech) "and remember if we have to evacuate the plane be sure to leave all your carry-on items behind"
...always confidence inspiring, that one >.<
We cleared customs without any hassle, got some pizza (my first American meal in 5 months!) and found to our horror that the flight delays weren't over quite yet.
No free internet in the San Francisco airport. Didn't get offered any kind of upgrades. And our 3:30pm flight didn't end up leaving until after 5:30. Ah, America. At least the plane was only about a third full, which meant everybody got their own row.
In the end, it all worked out to:
Total travel time: 23.5 hours
Distance traveled: 6050 miles
Hours slept: 1.5
All to come here
Here's to being home for a week!
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu! (Happy New Year!)
Well it's only New Year's Eve morning back in Colorado as I write this, but here in Miya it's after 1am on January 1, 2008 ^_^
New Year's is a big deal in Japan, it's probably the most important holiday of the entire year. Most people spend New Year's Eve cleaning the entire home so that the new year can be welcomed fresh and clean. Around midnight, local Buddhist temples will ring their bells 108 times to represent leaving behind the worldly concerns of the old year. Many people visit their local shrines just after midnight and all though New Year's Day to pray for good fortune in the new year.
We had planned to visit a nearby village called Shirakawa on the last day of 2007, but Mother Nature had other plans and decided to dump a crap-ton of snow on Takayama. So instead, we ran errands in town, taking advantage of the car my friend let me borrow in exchange for letting him keep it in my parking lot while he rings in the new year in Thailand.
Anyway, some pictures for you of the snow at the red bridge in Takayama, where we hopped out of the nice heated car just long enough to snap some scenery
Just before midnight we headed over to the shrine in my village, the Minashi Shrine, which is the largest and most respected Shinto Shrine in the entire Hida region of Gifu prefecture. The reason my village is called Hida Ichinomiya is because of the shrine - the name means "first shrine of the Hida region". There was already an impressive line forming before we hopped in, I can't imagine what it's going to be like trying to go there tomorrow. But lucky for us we got our coin-tossing and ritual blessing done before 1am ^_^
I saw some of my student's there too, but most of them had a hard time recognizing me all bundled up. Without my blond hair I guess I'm just another random person. I had no idea I could blend in so well! heh heh
They also had festival stalls set up near the entrance to the shrine, around the first Torii (gate). We bought some tasty little snacks and then called it quits. We wandered over to the Buddhist temple to see what was going on (people were ringing the bell) and then called it a night. Definetly different from the usual way we ring in the new year!
And with that I'm headed to bed. I wish everyone at home a safe and Happy New Year!!!
New Year's is a big deal in Japan, it's probably the most important holiday of the entire year. Most people spend New Year's Eve cleaning the entire home so that the new year can be welcomed fresh and clean. Around midnight, local Buddhist temples will ring their bells 108 times to represent leaving behind the worldly concerns of the old year. Many people visit their local shrines just after midnight and all though New Year's Day to pray for good fortune in the new year.
We had planned to visit a nearby village called Shirakawa on the last day of 2007, but Mother Nature had other plans and decided to dump a crap-ton of snow on Takayama. So instead, we ran errands in town, taking advantage of the car my friend let me borrow in exchange for letting him keep it in my parking lot while he rings in the new year in Thailand.
Anyway, some pictures for you of the snow at the red bridge in Takayama, where we hopped out of the nice heated car just long enough to snap some scenery
Just before midnight we headed over to the shrine in my village, the Minashi Shrine, which is the largest and most respected Shinto Shrine in the entire Hida region of Gifu prefecture. The reason my village is called Hida Ichinomiya is because of the shrine - the name means "first shrine of the Hida region". There was already an impressive line forming before we hopped in, I can't imagine what it's going to be like trying to go there tomorrow. But lucky for us we got our coin-tossing and ritual blessing done before 1am ^_^
I saw some of my student's there too, but most of them had a hard time recognizing me all bundled up. Without my blond hair I guess I'm just another random person. I had no idea I could blend in so well! heh heh
They also had festival stalls set up near the entrance to the shrine, around the first Torii (gate). We bought some tasty little snacks and then called it quits. We wandered over to the Buddhist temple to see what was going on (people were ringing the bell) and then called it a night. Definetly different from the usual way we ring in the new year!
And with that I'm headed to bed. I wish everyone at home a safe and Happy New Year!!!
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