OK, I love Kyoto. Still working on the Japan bit - I haven't decided on that one yet. I like Japan, but I don't think I love it yet, not on the whole, at least. That will develop, I am sure.
Anyway, I digress. I am excited since I am sitting here in the funkiest Internet cafe in the entire world (it has a sunken Zen garden partway up that you have to walk over on clear, clear glass, and plays music that Sigur Ros should have composed), and not only is it the funkiest Internet cafe in the world, it is the same Internet cafe that I came to a number of times two years ago when I was in Japan. I searched it out because I am in Kyoto, and it is almost as cool as the beautiful temples in Kyoto, and I wanted Randal to see it. Needless to say, he was duly impressed and I shall keep him around for a while longer...
So, we are in Kyoto. We decided yesterday to take today off and come to Kyoto for the weekend. No train tickets booked (easily rectified, but for some mysterious reason, the local train was not running, so we had to shell out for the more pricey shinkansen, no hotel reserved (it took us about 1 1/2 hours to find one that wasn't full) - the perfect way to travel. We are staying in the Pension Station Kyoto which is sparse but quaint - we took a tatami mat Japanese-style room (because we don't get enough of that at home with Randal's tatami bedroom and futons (I have a futon at my place but no tatami, sadly)) - and will probably have to stay smelly all weekend because there are just shared baths and the bathtime is only from 5:00 p.m. onwards (usually until 10:00 or maybe 11:00, so we may not make it home in time).
This afternoon, after settling in, we headed to Nijo Castle, where of course I have been but was sooooo happy to return to. (I'm too lazy to link over - go to my Flickr site and look under Japan for pics from my previous trip.) Not many pictures, unfortunately; Randal's camera was running low on batteries and mine was almost out of film - I know: film! how quaint! But never fear, this problem shall not repeat itself. We found out at an electronics shop this evening that Randal did not need a fancy-shmancy transformer in order to recharge his battery here in Japan (we thought he did), and we were so excited to hear this news that we up and bought ME a digital camera.* I'm so excited. I don't know all my fancy specs yet, but it's a Pentax 6 megapixel, digital/optical zoom and other fancy stuff. It's nice and I like it.
Time running out here so I should go. I can't promise fun pics on my blog yet as I still don't have Internet at home (I don't even have a phone yet, and it's getting to be way too long). I may upload some at school, transfer them to my email and then upload at a cafe in the meantime, but no promises!
* OK, anyone who knows me will know that when I make it sound like such a quick, easy decision, it was actually preceded by over an hour of hemming and hawing, much to the chagrin of the store clerk who was roped into helping us because he was the only one who spoke good enough English...
Friday, August 18, 2006
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
I just blogged...
to say I love you?
Very quick note to say I am alive. I have found an internet cafe and spent the first hour of my time here (90 minutes for the price of a drink) trying to get the keyboard to switch to English (I now know the trick) and emailing my mother (a worthy cause, methinks).
In a nutshell, Gifu is good. But I have been sick, Randal has been having apartment woes, and Rion has been having problems in Vancouver. No one in this family gets off scot-free these days! Anyway, looks like things in Van are going to be resolved soon (involving, possibly, a move to Winnipeg) and I am almost better, and hopefully Randal's lodging straightens itself out.
I have two long(ish) posts from my first and second weeks here that I will post in the next little while. Unfortunately, I do not have Internet at home yet, and Blogspot is blocked at school. So no luck there. And I wasn't planning on hitting the cafe today so didn't bring the files with me. You will just have to wait!
Very quick note to say I am alive. I have found an internet cafe and spent the first hour of my time here (90 minutes for the price of a drink) trying to get the keyboard to switch to English (I now know the trick) and emailing my mother (a worthy cause, methinks).
In a nutshell, Gifu is good. But I have been sick, Randal has been having apartment woes, and Rion has been having problems in Vancouver. No one in this family gets off scot-free these days! Anyway, looks like things in Van are going to be resolved soon (involving, possibly, a move to Winnipeg) and I am almost better, and hopefully Randal's lodging straightens itself out.
I have two long(ish) posts from my first and second weeks here that I will post in the next little while. Unfortunately, I do not have Internet at home yet, and Blogspot is blocked at school. So no luck there. And I wasn't planning on hitting the cafe today so didn't bring the files with me. You will just have to wait!
Monday, July 31, 2006
Ohayo gozaimasu!
The hotel in Tokyo, Keio Plaza, is apparently where they filmed Lost in Translation. Some of it certainly seems slightly familiar. And it is, indeed, tres tres swank. Not that we've had much time to explore - too tired!
It's 1:30 a.m. here (Monday morning), so not much of a post here. Suffice it to say, it's been a long week. Moving on Thursday was nutso. Cleaning the apartment and then packing for Japan took all of Friday afternoon and night. We barely had a chance to enjoy our nice Novotel in Ottawa (how long ago that seems!). Our flight to Detroit on Saturday afternoon was delayed because of mechanical problems. At first we were going to stay an extra night in Ottawa (how anticlimactic that would have been), and then they told us we were going to Detroit and hopefully would catch our connecting flight, and if not, we would be put up in a hotel in Detroit for the night. Not ideal, as you can imagine. Finally somebody said, "Get on the plane now! They're waiting for you in Detroit!" Tiny tiny 40-seater plane - I'm still amazed we made it to Detroit alive - but that's another story for another day. The 33 Ottawa JETs caused some 2 or 300 other people to have their flight to Tokyo delayed by an hour and a half - whee! the power!
Long flight but I slept lots. Upon arrival, some of our bags were missing (including one of mine); apparently still in Detroit but now on their way to the Far East. There were screwups at customs, and never-ending lineups. We landed in Tokyo around 5:45 p.m. local time but did not make it to the hotel till 11:00. We have since eaten some yummy sushi and noodles (finding a little restaurant that is open till 3:00 a.m. every night), and now, dear reader, your Beloved Narrator shall lay her head down on the nice pillow on the comfy-looking queen-sized bed in her room, and she won't awake again until, uh, 7:00 or 7:30. (Breakfast is only till 8:45.) I can hear Randal having fallen asleep already, and I'm quite anxious, as you can probably imagine, to join him.
It's 1:30 a.m. here (Monday morning), so not much of a post here. Suffice it to say, it's been a long week. Moving on Thursday was nutso. Cleaning the apartment and then packing for Japan took all of Friday afternoon and night. We barely had a chance to enjoy our nice Novotel in Ottawa (how long ago that seems!). Our flight to Detroit on Saturday afternoon was delayed because of mechanical problems. At first we were going to stay an extra night in Ottawa (how anticlimactic that would have been), and then they told us we were going to Detroit and hopefully would catch our connecting flight, and if not, we would be put up in a hotel in Detroit for the night. Not ideal, as you can imagine. Finally somebody said, "Get on the plane now! They're waiting for you in Detroit!" Tiny tiny 40-seater plane - I'm still amazed we made it to Detroit alive - but that's another story for another day. The 33 Ottawa JETs caused some 2 or 300 other people to have their flight to Tokyo delayed by an hour and a half - whee! the power!
Long flight but I slept lots. Upon arrival, some of our bags were missing (including one of mine); apparently still in Detroit but now on their way to the Far East. There were screwups at customs, and never-ending lineups. We landed in Tokyo around 5:45 p.m. local time but did not make it to the hotel till 11:00. We have since eaten some yummy sushi and noodles (finding a little restaurant that is open till 3:00 a.m. every night), and now, dear reader, your Beloved Narrator shall lay her head down on the nice pillow on the comfy-looking queen-sized bed in her room, and she won't awake again until, uh, 7:00 or 7:30. (Breakfast is only till 8:45.) I can hear Randal having fallen asleep already, and I'm quite anxious, as you can probably imagine, to join him.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
7.5 hours...
We just got back from visiting our swanky hotel room at the Novotel in the Market. We had a nasty run-in with a nasty taxi cab driver who wanted to charge us $10 for one extra bag (according to their regulations, they can charge up to $10 for any bags over 4, and we had 5 - the key term here being "up to"), then a much nicer cabbie (after I sent the first one away) who put the extra bag in his front passenger seat without us even having to ask. The Novotel is SWANK - did I mention? Because of our late check-in (10:00 p.m.), we were upgraded - for our entire 3-night stay - to a fancier room with a king-sized bed (we had booked just a standard king-sized room). We took quick showers then met our friend Rob who lives near there for a quick drink and bite to eat in the hotel lounge.
The bathroom door is like a double french door with frosted panes. It's gorgeous.
If only we were there instead of here. We're confident this won't be an all-nighter (we have about 2 hours' work left), but favour has, sadly, not been on our side the past few days.
I hear the hotel in Tokyo, where we spend 2 or 3 nights, is also tres chic. If only one could afford to live like this all the time :)
The bathroom door is like a double french door with frosted panes. It's gorgeous.
If only we were there instead of here. We're confident this won't be an all-nighter (we have about 2 hours' work left), but favour has, sadly, not been on our side the past few days.
I hear the hotel in Tokyo, where we spend 2 or 3 nights, is also tres chic. If only one could afford to live like this all the time :)
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
And now, for something completely different...
2 days!* Yikes!
* Technically, it is 2 days 23 hours plus 20-some minutes, but that doesn't have the same ring of impending doom to it.
* Technically, it is 2 days 23 hours plus 20-some minutes, but that doesn't have the same ring of impending doom to it.
One more night, gimme just one more night...
Soooo, it's T-plus-3h50. Basically, after a full afternoon's and night's packing and more packing and then packing again, we gave up at 7:45 this morning and called our mover to reschedule to tomorrow. We're just waiting to hear back if he is coming in the morning (our preference) or the afternoon (he had another job in the a.m. but was going to see if he could round up a second "crew" - a.k.a. two strong men).
Anyway, upon rescheduling, we took about 4 hours shut-eye and now we are getting back into it. The sunroom is virtually packed up in its entirety, so the plan is to flip the spare mattress (upon which we slept this morning, since, again, the other bed is not useable at the mo') and then stack as many of the boxes as we can in there, in order to make room elsewhere in the apartment.
And there's a bright light at the end of this (long, dark, horrid tunnel): checking in to our hotel tonight, having nice warm showers or oooh, even perhaps a bath, and then heading for drinks with a few friends. Good incentive to finish.
The low point last night should have been the moment when I tore a 4-cm gash across my upper thigh (filing cabinets have super-pointy corners!) and then found that band-aids just aren't made long enough to cover such injuries. Or perhaps it was when we discovered the colony of silverfish living in an old plant pot. Then again, maybe it was when both Randal and I took some Tylenol in a (failed) attempt to ease the dull pain we both had in our feet from standing for so long.
But none of those make the cut. Yes, the highlight of the night can only be the moment just after 11:00 p.m. (remember my comment about unforeseen items?) when I opened the bottom cupboard door in the kitchen, which is rather deep and has "back country" that we haven't explored in a while, started pulling items out, and discovered a minefield of little black droppings. So it turns out our dog was not crazy after all. There are pipes that run from the floor to the sink in that cupboard, and between where the pipe comes out and the back of the cupboard, it is completely open to whatever is below! The mouse had helped itself to generous helpings from our bag of skim milk powder (which we haven't used in a few months). Anyway, in addition to the food, we threw out all the plastic dishes (containers, etc.) in that cupboard, washed all the pots and pans thoroughly, and cleaned out the cupboard. I just checked now and there are no signs of life - Randal had fashioned a sort of cover over the hole using sandwich container covers, and they look undisturbed. Blech.
On that note, back to packing!
Anyway, upon rescheduling, we took about 4 hours shut-eye and now we are getting back into it. The sunroom is virtually packed up in its entirety, so the plan is to flip the spare mattress (upon which we slept this morning, since, again, the other bed is not useable at the mo') and then stack as many of the boxes as we can in there, in order to make room elsewhere in the apartment.
And there's a bright light at the end of this (long, dark, horrid tunnel): checking in to our hotel tonight, having nice warm showers or oooh, even perhaps a bath, and then heading for drinks with a few friends. Good incentive to finish.
The low point last night should have been the moment when I tore a 4-cm gash across my upper thigh (filing cabinets have super-pointy corners!) and then found that band-aids just aren't made long enough to cover such injuries. Or perhaps it was when we discovered the colony of silverfish living in an old plant pot. Then again, maybe it was when both Randal and I took some Tylenol in a (failed) attempt to ease the dull pain we both had in our feet from standing for so long.
But none of those make the cut. Yes, the highlight of the night can only be the moment just after 11:00 p.m. (remember my comment about unforeseen items?) when I opened the bottom cupboard door in the kitchen, which is rather deep and has "back country" that we haven't explored in a while, started pulling items out, and discovered a minefield of little black droppings. So it turns out our dog was not crazy after all. There are pipes that run from the floor to the sink in that cupboard, and between where the pipe comes out and the back of the cupboard, it is completely open to whatever is below! The mouse had helped itself to generous helpings from our bag of skim milk powder (which we haven't used in a few months). Anyway, in addition to the food, we threw out all the plastic dishes (containers, etc.) in that cupboard, washed all the pots and pans thoroughly, and cleaned out the cupboard. I just checked now and there are no signs of life - Randal had fashioned a sort of cover over the hole using sandwich container covers, and they look undisturbed. Blech.
On that note, back to packing!
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
12 hours...
...and oh, still so much to pack.
Who knew one little apartment could hold so much STUFF???
Still, I count my blessings (whatever they may be), as we're still probably better off than our friend Elliott, also Japan-bound on Saturday, who called earlier this evening to tell us all about the emergency dental surgery he has to undergo on Thursday morning. Nothing like some good painkillers to make an 18-hour flight go faster, I guess...
Who knew one little apartment could hold so much STUFF???
Still, I count my blessings (whatever they may be), as we're still probably better off than our friend Elliott, also Japan-bound on Saturday, who called earlier this evening to tell us all about the emergency dental surgery he has to undergo on Thursday morning. Nothing like some good painkillers to make an 18-hour flight go faster, I guess...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)