Monday.

The wind is really blowing right now and I bet the storm they’ve been promising is on its way. Earlier it felt like it was in the 60’s and you could tell something was coming. So far there have just been a few gusts and no downpour. It’ll probably come in the middle of the night when my jet lag is keeping me from sleeping well (like last night). But there’s always the chance that the workout at the gym is going to keep me in a fairly immobile. Being away for two weeks coupled with my cold made things especially enjoyable tonight. We’ll see.

I have to figure out what to do with the man purse I got in Japan. When I’m there I usually carry around 2 cell phones, a digital camera, my passport, and my rail pass. One cell phone is a rental with a Japanese number so my friends can call me without making an international call, and the other is my iPhone for getting demanding text messages from my sister. In the past this meant stuffing crap in my jacket and carrying my jacket around even when it wasn’t cold out. Now I have a nice man purse that even fits my Kindle as well as the rest of my crap. It also smells nice.

Photo on 2009-11-16 at 22.36

Not real sure if I’ll have much use for it here, though.

Well, time to see if I can get some more sleep.

Taking it easy.

I still have my cough and I figured that taking it easy would be the best, so I didn’t do all that much today. Mudding is an annoyingly boring task that requires a lot of waiting for the sheet rock compound to dry, recycling a pile of old magazines just takes opening up the proper bin in Portland, looking for the closet rod just took rummaging around in the attic space, and dinner was whatever was in the freezer. All so I can get better and go to work tomorrow. Hooray.

Hooray, I’m back!

I seem to have come down with Dr. Kawasaki’s cold. I figured I would, since Mrs. Kawasaki had it as well and we were in a car with her for days. I started coughing on Wednesday and I sort of thought it was because I was hanging out with my buddy who smokes, but that was sheer optimism on my part. So far my biggest symptom is my cough but things are starting to ache. My sister is sick too, but she’s completely down and sleeping all day long, so I guess I have it a lot better.

I got up at 7:30AM today, but I just decided to go back to bed around 9:30. I didn’t get up until just before 1PM, but I did get a bunch of things crossed off my to-do list. Online bill paying, trips to the hardware store to fix some doors and closets, and even getting someone to help me move some furniture. The last thing on the to-do list for today is to go to bed by 10PM, but I’ve blown that already. I’m jet lagged and I’m still only getting 6 1/2 hours of sleep a night. Thursday I got up at the equivalent of 2PM Wednesday afternoon, and I still went out to dinner with friends. Breakfast #2 on Thursday was fried chicken and waffles at the Blue Pig!

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Friday I went out to Ringside with Il because he wanted me to meet his new girlfriend and stayed up late.

I really should try to get some sleep. Otherwise I miss things and weird things happen. Who put my picture on the women’s underwear bin?

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I suppose that’s as close as I get to women’s underwear anyway.

Back in Portland!

I’ve been up since 2PM on Wednesday (looking at local time) and it’s 11:30PM now. I better get to sleep soon. I started out the day in Tokyo, did some shopping, headed over and now here I am. Breakfast at Tully’s in Tokyo, lunch from an airport convenience store, dinner on the plane, breakfast on the plane, breakfast at Blue Cow, and dinner at Castanga Cafe.

I better hit the hay before I keel over.

Last full day in Japan, and it’s a travel day.

I got up this morning in time to cram a bunch of stuff into my sister’s little orange suitcase. She bought it because it’s quite cute, and I’m sure she was fearful when she lent it to my mother. My guess is that she was especially afraid that I would end up with it somehow, alone and in need of a bathroom. I’d have to roll her cute suitcase into a nasty, smelly train station men’s room, where it would be soiled for all of eternity. I guess I won’t tell her anything.

Anyway, I had breakfast with my mom and my aunt who were being silly as always, and we parted ways at Shin-Osaka station. They went off to the west, and I headed east to Tokyo. My aunt bought me a traditional bento to eat on the train, which I picked out. It turned out to be full of mushrooms, which I don’t particularly like. I’ll eat them, but I figure they’re wasted on a guy with tastes like mine.

bento

In fact I didn’t like much of it, but I ate the whole thing. I got to Tokyo and it was pouring, and I needed to use the bathroom but that’s probably enough of that story. I made it to my hotel, which took longer than I thought, and was soaked with sweat. I knew I had to get to Akihabara so I dumped my crap and headed out. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring a map so I had to rely on memory to get there, which wasn’t so bad because it’s not had to find from Shinjuku. (Express Chuo-line to Ochanomizu, then the Sobu line one stop.) While I did forget to buy more Mac crap for myself, I did get the last item on my sister’s list: a plastic iPhone case with a hole for a Japanese strap. I even got her a dangly thing, I think, at the Glico store. Or at the Hankyu Tigers store. I can’t remember.

I rushed back to the hotel make sure my online reservations were done, and I got a call from Hiron who wanted to meet me in Akihabara. He’s an illustrator and friend of Chico’s who I end up talking for hours to about American TV shows. Chico went to high school with my sister. Anyway, I did end up meeting up with Hiron and Chico and they took me to an area of Shinjuku where they were a little afraid to go, to an Okinawan restaurant.

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We had some interesting things to eat, including “sea grapes.”

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On the way back I convinced them to go to Mos Burger for dessert, where Hiron had a kinpira rice burger (braised burdock root on a bun made of grilled rice formed into a round patty) and I had a Mos Burger because I love the things and I hadn’t had a chance to eat one on the trip.

mosburger

So that’s about it for my last full day here. Tomorrow I head home!

Photo on 2009-11-11 at 23.15

I should not be the one with the camera.

I’m not sure how the morning got away from us this morning. We ended up just walking around for the heck of it. We were just waiting for noon, when my mom, my aunt, my uncle (their older brother), and their cousin from Tokyo were all going to get together for the first time in 20 years. I was there holding a seat down at the same restaurant we went to yesterday and I FORGOT TO TAKE ANY PICTURES. Sheesh. I had to listen to a lot more stories about the old days that I have no idea about.

I also helped my uncle get all the stuff we brought him back to his house. More family chit-chat, but I did see my cousin’s first grandchild who is about 13 months old now. What a cutie. Here’s a picture of great grandpa (my uncle), grandma (his daughter-in-law) and So-chan.

so-chan

After I got home, it was off to see an old friend from my Mitsubishi days and we ate fried things on sticks and talked nonsense for a few hours.

It’s a nice way to pass the day, but I still have to get one last item on my sister’s wishlist. Sheesh. It’s off to Tokyo tomorrow and then back to the states the day after that. Two days of travel!

Back in Osaka.

I lived in Osaka after I graduated from MIT for about five years and I liked it here. At the time I thought it was time to move back home, and it probably was, but I miss it too. I do remember always being broke when I lived here but somehow I managed to save about $12,000US which I immediately blew on trying to get into medical school. That was a bit of a mistake. I should have had more fun while I was here and I shouldn’t have wasted my timeAnyway, we’re staying at the “Hearton Hotel” which is a reputable hotel with a questionable name. This is not to be confused with the “Heart-In” which is a chain of convenience stores that are usually located in JR train stations.

One thing I’m going to miss when I get back is all the salad for breakfast. We pre-bought a bunch of breakfast tickets where I get all-I-can-eat breakfast buffet for ¥1000. Too bad I haven’t been that hungry in the morning for the past few days.

breakfast

My aunt (my mom’s older sister) is out from Yamaguchi Prefecture and we were also joined by Mrs. Takanaka, my sort-of-aunt, (my aunt’s late husband’s younger sister) and we had a traditional Japanese lunch at the 16th floor of the Daimaru department store. Here’s the plastic display outside of the restaurant.

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And here’s my lunch.

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And here’s my mom’s lunch.

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We went to Yodobashi Camera again to do some shopping for my mom and everyone else (not for my sister this time) and I thought I’d get a picture of the sign in one of the elevators:

elevator

Oh, and before I forget, my mom and I decided to kill some time by having a cup of coffee. A tiny cup of coffee. A tiny $7 cup of coffee.

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I spent the rest of the afternoon getting to Maeda Cycle, where I spent a few hours talking with Kozou Maeda who runs the shop. It doesn’t sound like the financial situation in Japan is all that much better than it is in the states. I got back and had dinner with my mom and my aunt and there’s my 12th day here.
Photo on 2009-11-09 at 22.39

Travel day.

One of the reasons we were at the Kawasaki’s so long was to see their daughter Sho, but Sho’s daughter Kei caught the H1N1 influenza and Dr. Kawasaki forbade the rest of their family from coming just in case they were still in the contagious incubation period. Dr. Kawasaki is a bit paranoid and makes everyone coming to his house use an alcohol hand cleaner and gargle with some awful tasting stuff. It didn’t seem to help him much, because he has a cold now that he can’t seem to shake.

Sho and her daughter Yuu were going to stay overnight, but since that was nixed by Dr. Kawasaki Sho, her husband, and her daughter Yuu got in their car for a quick visit at the mall. Dr. Kawasaki was even against this idea but no one was showing any signs of the ‘flu and we all figured that just being out in public exposed us to all sorts of people who have come in contact with the ‘flu. They made a 3+ hour drive down to see us and we ate at the incredible sushi-on-a-track restaurant in the mall. On the plus side of all this nonsense, I hadn’t seen Sho’s husband since he came to visit us in Oregon sixteen years ago and I got to see him again because of this crazy car trip.

Here’s a picture of all of us with the facemasks that Dr. Kawasaki insisted we wear.

masks

We got back to the Kawasaki’s house and I crammed all my crap into my suitcase, which required kneeling on the bag. My sister requested one of two Uniqlo puffy jackets, and they got her both of them and boy do those take up a lot of space. We rushed off to catch an earlier train than we were initially planning to take and had no troubles getting to Osaka a little early.

We wandered around looking for dinner and went to the restaurant floor of Yodobashi Camera where there were long lines for a lot of the restaurants, including the omuraisu restaurant we were looking for. Omuraisu is fried rice wrapped in egg like an omelette, and both my mom and I hadn’t had one in years. Plus this was the first chance we had in ten days to eat a meal that didn’t include a pile of sashimi. My mom had an “SS” (super small 2-egg) omuraisu with mentaiko. I had an “S” (small 3-egg) omuraisu with a pork cutlet on top and hayashi rice sauce. Hayashi rice, or hashed beef, is an interesting flavor I haven’t tasted since I was working in Japan that is kind of like burned or carmelized ketchup. Anyway, it was pretty good.

omurice

After dinner we bought the usual silly t-shirts from my favorite Japanese t-shirt shop and I got a few for myself and a couple for my sister.

I just realized I haven’t gotten anything for my brother-in-law. I wonder what he wants.

I’ve lost -5 pounds since I’ve been in Japan.

It was another beautiful fall day here and maybe even a bit too warm. Most everyone is wearing long sleeves and fall clothing even though it was in the 20’s today. I’d say it was probably in the low 70’s if we’re talking about degrees Fahrenheit and the weather report said it was 75°F. It was another rest day though we did go shopping a couple of times. The mall near the Kawasaki’s house has most everything I would want to buy, though that’s not going to stop me from going shopping for other weird crap in Osaka and Tokyo. I have to make my pilgrimage to Akihabara after all, to the gadget stores under the train tracks.

I’m not sure of how much I really weigh because I’m usually using rickety old bathroom scales, but I do know that the expensive-looking scale at the hot spring that I went to on my third day here said I weighed 75kg in the morning (just over 165lbs). The bathroom scale at the Kawasaki’s says I weigh 76kg or so but the bathroom scale at home said I weighed 163lbs the last time I checked. That was when I was going out for cheeseburgers with Sean quite regularly, so I’m not sure what it all means other than that it’s increasing my mistrust of bathroom scales.

Of course, I have been sitting around a whole lot and spending most of my non-sitting time eating. Plus I’ve been drinking more than I usually do.

fourbeers

The only disaster of the day is only one in my mind. I’m expecting that my trustworthy contractor left the windows open since before the recent rain/windstorm and my even more trustworthy sister hasn’t gone to check on the house yet. When I left on a Wednesday, she said she’d check on the house on Sunday. I knew that didn’t mean four days in the future, but whatever Sunday was just before my return home. Apparently the contractors left the outside light on for some reason as well and I’m not sure what else they’ve done. I’m hoping they refinished the stairs, because that’s what they were supposed to do while I’m gone. I’m not going to worry about it now, because there isn’t anything I can do about it until I get back anyway. If it’s really bad I can just sell the Uniqlo jackets I’m bringing back for her on ebay or something. That’ll pay for some light bulbs, anyway.

Another rest day.

Not much happened today. We went shopping a couple, but mostly for food. I ended up buying a new Kurutoga pencil (one my sister already has) and looked for something she asked for: a multi-pencil with several different leads, 0.3mm, 0.5mm, and 0.7mm. I got her one last year, I think, but she wanted me to see if there are any better ones. I bought the pencil and the notebook to start thinking about how to redo the downstairs bathroom.

The main problem here is that Dr. Kawasaki has a cold and so does Mrs. Kawasaki. There’s a good chance we’re all going to come down with the same cold in the next few days. All the mask wearing, hand disinfecting, and gargling didn’t stop them from catching a cold and I doubt it will help us either. The other weird thing is that no one coughs into their arm here. They all cough straight into their hands and don’t think much about it.

The H1N1 influenza, or the “shingata virus” (new-type virus) is spreading here as well. We were expecting the Kawasaki’s daughter Sho to come to visit with their granddaughter Yuu, but their other granddaughter Kei caught the ‘flu and Dr. Kawasaki has told them all not to come even though she’s been better for several days. You’d think his specialty was communicable diseases and not otolaryngology. From what I understand, Mieko’s husband Dr. Kobayashi (an endocrinologist) is much less worried about the H1N1 virus.

In any case, I doubt we’re going to do all that much tomorrow, either, but Sunday we’re off to Osaka for three nights and then I’m off to Tokyo for a night before I head home.

Yet another sightseeing trip to Kanazawa.

No matter what my sister says, no matter how much she threatens me in email, I know that she’s all about the shopping. Sure she’ll go sightseeing, but only if it’s on the way to the store.

We went to Kanazawa today, which is only about 45 minutes from Toyama where we’re staying with the Kawasakis. Kanazawa (or a suburb) is where Hideki Matsui of the New York Yankees is from, and also has the famous Kenrokuen Garden that is one of the three most beautiful gardens of Japan (they like making lists here). It was part of the castle there and has been open to the public since 1875. I didn’t take all that many pictures of the trees or plants. That’s my dad’s life, not mine. I’m more likely to take pictures of the little old ladies picking the leaves out of the garden to make the garden more picturesque.

lolsweeping

I did take a couple of pictures of them preparing the trees for winter. It snows pretty heavily on this side of Japan and the tree limbs are tied to a central post to keep them from breaking under the weight.

snowprep

They’re just tying up the trees now both at the garden and in Toyama.

snowprep2

The gardens were part of the castle but were outside of the gate. The gate and castle walls are all that remain, but they’re pretty impressive and are undergoing a renovation right now.

castlegate

After an expensive tourist-trap lunch, we went to a Ninja Temple, which really had nothing to do with the Ninja but had lots of hiding spaces and trickery. We also went to a shopping street which wasn’t that great, but are rapidly disappearing in Japan. The smaller stores in the central parts of town are going out of business unless they relocate to the large shopping malls that are becoming the norm.

market

So we did do some shopping, so the day wasn’t a complete loss in my sister’s measure of things. I ended up in a couple of goofy shops looking at traditional Japanese candies and foods that I found a bit dull, but I’m sure it was better than dragging my mom and her friends to another electronics store.

Up into the mountains.

My mom complains that traveling with my sister is a big shopping spree. I’ve found this to be pretty true. She’d rather go shopping than go sightseeing. I like both and today we went up into the mountains to see the old villages of Gokayama and Shirakawa-gou which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

It’s a wonder that people can make a living up there and that’s probably why they charge you every time you turn around. Park in the middle of nowhere? 500 yen. Look inside the house? 1000 yen. There was a walking tunnel several thousand yards long that led to a four story elevator that got you from the parking lot down to the tiny village and someone had to pay for that, too. I know, it was taxes and the public works machine of the Liberal Democratic Party. I’m actually a big fan of public works, so I might as well enjoy them while I can, right?

Here’s a view of the village from above.

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It was set in a pretty valley and I had to take some touristy pictures that may end up as my desktop.

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Or is this one better?

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You had to walk a ways to get down to the village.

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And the houses were quite unique with thickly thatched roofs.

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The houses are built for the snow, and I think the scaffolding is for snow barriers.

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In case you were wondering if the houses looked flammable:

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The way there was pretty uninteresting, unless you really like tunnels and the longest one we went through was 11km long (around 7 miles). We also were on the highest point in the Japanese expressway system. It was a lot nicer taking the surface roads that wound around the valleys to access all the dams they built as other parts of the public works projects.

mountains

We were able to stop on the narrow road because there was a parking lot for a pay phone.

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After that we headed to Takayama in Gifu Prefecture. The old part of town was only about as long as two 100m city blocks (the long blocks in downtown Portland) and were full of tourists. The stores sold a combination of traditional crafts and usual touristy trinkets and I only bought what I could eat. I had several types of rice dumplings, which is probably what I’m going to look like before I get back. We also had some really bad coffee but I figure that’s what you get for drinking coffee in a tourist trap.

There were lots of foreign tourists in Takayama as well, though I couldn’t hear any American accents in the mix. I did hear Italian, German, and – I think – British. I’m wondering if the foreign contingent isn’t there because of the headquarters of Mahikari-kyo, one of the “new” Japanese religions.

We hit the tunnels on the way back as well, but I ended up falling asleep until we got out. As you can see, the mountains were still a little cold, though it is in the 20’s (in Celsius) in town.

mountains2

The picture is a little funky, but that’s what you get when you take two pictures from a moving car and try to stitch them together.

Some people don't believe my luck.