Victoria's World Travels

Tokyo September 2008

2009-09-04T03:03:00.003+02:00

A bit late, but here's a video I made using the new version of Windows Live Movie Maker. It shows some of the places I visited on my last trip to Tokyo.

Wangfujing and Tasty Eats

2008-03-15T16:09:00.003+01:00

After Forbidden City, we opted for something a little more modern. We went a few blocks away to Wangfujing street, a pedestrian shopping area with a foreign book store, toy store, Olympics souvenirs, and many clothing stores. We looked around, but didn't go into too many of the shops. We walked to Oriental Plaza, a huge mall, which had many European and American stores. The prices were pretty high since even the stuff that was made in China had to be exported and then reimported.

We had lunch at Made In China in the Grand Hyatt. The Peking Duck was delicious! After that, we wandered down a side street off Wangfujing known as the Night Market (although we were there in the afternoon.) The Night Market is the kind of place you take someone that you want to dare to do something...

How about some tasting seahorses? cicadas? crickets? starfish? Fresh on a stick and grilled to tasty goodness to your liking. The scariest were the scorpions on a stick...still alive...still wiggling...EEK!

And no, I didn't try any. :)

Enough of the Forbidden City!

2008-03-15T15:53:00.003+01:00

After several hours, we decided we'd had enough of the Forbidden City. It was beautiful, but got monotonous after a while. At least the Western end had some lovely enclosed gardens to see before leaving the area.

Pretty Details

2008-03-15T02:42:00.006+01:00

Here are some pics of the details around the Forbidden City.

Lair of the Concubines

2008-03-15T02:21:00.003+01:00

OK, it's not actually called lair of the concubines, it's just the part of the palace that the many concubines stayed in. This was the only part we saw that included furniture and decorations.

Inside the Forbidden City

2008-03-11T09:09:00.008+01:00

The Forbidden City was built in the 1400's and served as China's imperial palace. It is a huge complex of preserved wooden buildings and includes the largest wooden building in China. (As opposed to the Daibutsuden, or Great Buddha Hall in Nara that you may remember from my travels 3 years ago, which is supposedly the largest wooden structure in the world.)

We got there early, so it was crowded, but not crazy-crowded.

All of the stone details were beautiful and some of the paint had been restored. You can see in the pic below an restored section next to a repainted section.

We spent several hours wandering around the Forbidden City. The buildings were beautiful and we had a good time.

Entering the Forbidden City

2008-03-09T15:24:00.006+01:00

Separating the Forbidden City from Tiananmen Square is the Tiananmen Gate. It is famous for the huge picture of Mao.

There were huge crowds, even early on a Sunday morning, and the police didn't want folks stopping for long amounts of time. "No photo, move on", yells the police officer.

This lovely garden was just beside the Tiananmen Gate and may have been considered a moat.

Tiananmen Square

2008-03-09T15:16:00.004+01:00

Tiananmen Square is huge. According to Peggy, our tour guide, it's the largest public square in the world. Today it was closed off because the People's Congress is meeting at the People's Hall, which is the building with all of the flags below. There were tons of police all over the area also.

Back in Beijing

2008-03-09T15:03:00.003+01:00

I'm back in Beijing again, this time for a whole week. I arrived last night along with two of my coworkers, Brett and Joe. Brett is a user researcher and Joe is an interaction designer. While we're looking forward to working, we're also looking forward to seeing some of Beijing. This is their first time to Beijing (and my second time.)

Big

2008-01-31T03:04:00.001+01:00

Beijing is big. The streets are big, the buildings are big, and the city area is big.

Beijing is also very beautiful at night, especially close to Tiananmen Square. Neon, bright lights, and light strands are used in great quantity. Some parts of Beijing almost felt like the Las Vegas Strip except without the smut on the street corners and a heck of a lot colder.

The only cultural tourist attraction I had a chance to see was Tiananmen Square, which we drove through on our way to dinner one night. How would I describe it? Big.

Welcome to China

2008-01-26T03:51:00.000+01:00

My first impression is that Beijing looks more like Bellevue than Tokyo, especially if you compare style and spacing of buildings. Of course, Beijing is huge - it's like downtown Bellevue for miles and miles. Modern 30-story office buildings sit next to ratty, old five-story apartment buildings. There are also smoke stacks, which are apparently for heating. The picture above is the view from my hotel room.

I only saw the new Olympic stadium from a distance (from the taxi on my way to work), but it does resemble a giant bird nest (below).

Time to go...

2008-01-26T03:44:00.000+01:00

And now I'm on my way to China. It was snowing on my last day in Tokyo, but that didn't deter the huge line in front of Krispy Kreme. The line was much shorter than the 45 minute wait that you usually see in the early evening. At least it was sunny during the rest of my trip to Tokyo.

I'm all bundled up for China. It's about 27 degrees F in the middle of the day and dips below 20 at night, but at least it's sunny.

Meiji-jingu

2008-01-26T03:34:00.001+01:00

Since it was Tony's first trip to Japan, we stopped by the Meiji Shrine near Harajuku. It's only two subway stops south of Shinjuku. The Meiji Shrine is a Shinto shrine (as opposed to Sensoji, which was a Buddhist temple). There are a lot of similarities such as they both have fountains for cleansing your hands and mouth and they both sell fortunes and charms. Meiji Shrine looks a lot more natural with lots of wood and parkland around. Sensoji is more Chinese in style and much more ornate.

Even Meiji Shrine had a few ornate elements. The face below shows the original roof decoration.

Harajuku

2008-01-26T03:24:00.000+01:00

Sunday mornings are always a great time to see Harajuku. All the goth-punk and goth-loli types come out in their fancy outfits and hang out or shop. It's great for people-watching, though it does get pretty crowded.

There's also some great stores on Omote-sando including the Oriental Bazaar and Kiddy Land. After all that shopping, Tony and I were hungry so we had lunch at an okonomiyaki restaurant.

Shopping!

2008-01-26T03:08:00.000+01:00

Right across from my hotel is Takashimaya Times Square. It's a mall with a department store, three floors of restaurants, Tokyu Hands (similar to Target), a music store, and many more. The department store even has food items and bento on the bottom floor. In the evenings, I often stopped by Takashimaya to do a little shopping or to get dinner.

Shinjuku is very pretty at night. Because of the holidays, they had many lights up on the terrace leading to my hotel.

There's also a nice view from my hotel room.

Akihabara

2008-01-22T09:48:00.000+01:00

I walked alone through Geek Heaven - also known as Akihabara. I spent a couple hours in just one store. In fact, I only got to three of the seven grocery store-sized floors in Yodabashi Camera. Imagine an entire grocery aisle with only computer mice! Imagine having several hundred keyboards, mousepads, USB hubs, or headphones to choose from! The MP3s and cellphones took up the size of the average produce section. It was overwhelming!

Besides gadget geeks, Akihabara is also a haven for otaku (anime geeks). I visited several anime stores and even walked past a maid cafe. The clientele waiting in line outside was not the most reputable-looking bunch, so I decided not to go in.

Next to Akihabara station, some wanna-be idol singers were entertaining the crowds. Each one had a small amp, a microphone, and a sign (usually with their URL). I'm guessing that some of the songs were anime theme songs, because the men standing around with video cameras were similar to those by the maid cafe, though there were also salarymen and a woman or two listening. Some of the men must not get out much - they got WAY too excited about the lackluster singing.

Edo-Tokyo Museum

2008-01-20T06:23:00.000+01:00

Tony and I spent several hours at the Edo-Tokyo Museum. For a musuem focusing on Tokyo history from the Edo Period, it sure has a modern exterior. Inside, the top floors are very open - large enough for models and facades of various buildings. We were lucky and were able to get an English-speaking guide to walk us through the museum.

We started with the feudal era, when warlords were powerful and the government was controlled by a shogun. I got to sit in a warlord's palanquin.

We also saw many small models including a Kabuki theater, daimyo's mansion, a tiny apartment, and a shop selling woodblock prints. Apparently, woodblock prints were considered art for commoners - or rather, the samurai didn't consider it art at all. It's interesting to me that in the late 1800s, they started binding them together in books with text written on the pages - a precursor to comic books!

The museum covered up to the 1960's. There were exhibits on damage done by the Great Kanto Earthquake and on World War II. Did you know that the Japanese bombed the Western United States many times during the war? (And I don't mean Hawaii.) They launched giant, unmanned balloons. The balloons would take about four days to cross the ocean and would then drop all of their bombs. Many of the bombs fell in Washington State. I think they grossly overestimated the population density of the Western United States at the time though. Very little damage was reported, so I suspect most of the bombs knocked down a tree or two or landed in the Cascades or Rockies.

The museum also had a small stage for performances and we caught the tail-end of a lion dance and some other dance of a more recent style (below.)

Sensoji Temple

2008-01-19T14:55:00.000+01:00

Sensoji Temple is in the middle of the Asakusa area and was supposedly built there after two fishermen pulled up a small golden kannon buddha from the nearby Sumida River. Since the public is never allowed to see the statue, it sounds a little fishy to me. :)

Other than the famously large gate with its huge red lantern, there wasn't anything unusual to see. We walked around for a while and then walked along the Sumida River to the sumo hall. The January tournament happens to be going on right now, so we decided to stop by and see if we could get some of the general admission tickets that are available in the morning. Unfortunately, they were already sold out. We did see some sumo wrestlers walking around in their cotton kimonos, but none of them looked particularly impressive. Most of the wrestlers that would be around that early in the morning are the newbie wrestlers. Apparently, the famous ones don't show up until the afternoon bouts.

Back in Japan!

2008-01-19T14:33:00.000+01:00

It's Tokyo Time again! I'm happy to be back in Japan.

Even despite a two hour delay, I had a great flight from Seattle and settled into to the Hotel Century Southern Tower in Shinjuku. It's the same hotel I stayed at last time.

Saturday morning, Tony (an interaction designer on Surface who's also in Tokyo at this time) and I decided to start the day in Asakusa. Due to starvation, we stopped in the first shop we could find that was selling breakfast-type food.

OK, so it's not exactly a Japanese establishment. :) But I did order the green tea donut and the green tea latte. (For future reference...too much green tea - especially the dense green donut.)

We also began our quest for an ATM that takes Plus...

Relaxation

2007-08-29T19:42:00.001+02:00

On the last few days of our trip, we decided to focus on relaxation. Our resort had big, cushy beds under palapa roofs scattered around the pool area, so we rented one on Friday and again on Saturday. We sipped pina coladas, read books, worked on Sky's laptop, and went for quick dips in the pool when it got too hot. We could see the ocean from the palapa, and there was a slight breeze, so the 90+ degree weather wasn't too bad.

On Friday night, we went to Tramonto again for their lobster special night and had some great food and wine. Saturday, after packing up and checking out, we went for a parasail ride out in front of our resort. The view as amazing and we had a fun but short jet-ski ride out to the parasail boat. It was a great way to end our trip!

The crickets hid from us on Saturday, so I guess they decided to leave us alone.

Coming home on Saturday wasn't exactly smooth sailing. Our flight had a scheduled stop in LA where we were supposed to deplane, go through customs, and then get back on again for the continuing flight to Seattle. However, all the customs computers at LAX went down, so they rerouted us to San Diego to do customs. We were the only ones there, so it went relatively quickly (i.e. an hour total) before we were back on board. We then had to continue on to LA since that was the final destination for most of the passengers. When we arrived in LA, they first told those of us going on to Seattle to stay on the plane since we'd already been through customs. However, after the rest of the passengers got off, they told us we had to get off after all because Alaska had decided to use a different plane for the second leg of the journey. So we all got off and walked to the next gate over....to discover that the flight had just pulled away from the jetway. :P So, we all got rebooked on later flights that evening. All told, we got home about four hours later than originally scheduled, which stank, but since some poor souls were stuck in their planes waiting to go through customs for 5-6 hours at LAX, we weren't that bad off.

Snorkeling

2007-08-10T18:57:00.001+02:00

On Tuesday, we ventured forth early in the morning. Our tour bus took us to Xel-ha where we rode bikes, inner-tubed down a lazy stream past mangroves, and watched iguanas and large fish stare down the tourists. We then got back on the bus and spent some time at Tulum. Tulum has an amazing setting - Mayan ruins on a cliff above the turquoise Caribbean. We were lucky with the weather - sort of. Bright sun meant the view was beautiful, but we both got a tad bit sunburnt despite our layers of sunscreen.That evening, we went to the fancy Italian restaurant at our resort and lucked out, since it was Prime Rib Special night. The prime rib was great and we had some great wine.

Wednesday was our snorkeling day. We went out to Puerto Morelos (a small town just north of our resort) and snorkeled in two different spots. We saw tons of colorful fish and some interesting coral. Fan coral and brain coral were in abundance. We also saw a few sea cucumbers, a brittle star, a few squid, several barracuda, a huge parrotfish, and a stingray. My favorite was the tiny, nearly translucent squid - it was delicate and colorful. Sky's favorite was a particularly large squid. The brittle star's favorite was Sky's bright blue swim trunks, which it clung too after it wriggled out of Sky's hand. (The guide had handed it to me first and then I gave it to Sky.) We eventually disentangled it and then traumatized it further by handing it to the other snorkelers.

Speaking of traumatizing, did I mention the cricket conspiracy yet? The other day, Sky and I were walking down our 3rd floor hallway to the stairs when Sky accidentally kicked what he thought was a leaf on the ground. He figured out his error when the leaf buzzed up into the air, right at him. We hurried to the stairs as it buzzed angrily in our direction and then landed at the top of stairs, as if it were about to launch itself after us. It was a cricket bigger than my index finger! In flight, it resembled a hummingbird in size and movement. We left quickly while it glared at us from the top of the stairs. Early the next day, as we waited for our tour departure, we noticed another huge cricket on a pillar holding up the bus stop roof. As soon as it realized we'd seen it, it quickly crawled to the other side of the pillar, but probably not before making a
report to its superiors. We saw several more crickets that day, including one trying to blend in to the wall of the restaurant we were leaving. They were watching us. If they weren't 3-4 inches long, I wouldn't be concerned...but I know they're planning something. I haven't yet figured out if the bees and sand fleas are in on it, but they've upped their efforts to distract us too. I must remain vigilant...

Playa Del Carmen, August 2007

2007-08-07T05:31:00.000+02:00

Sky and I are off on our fabulous Mexican adventure! Well, maybe not an "adventure" - that implies that we're doing something other than sipping mai tais by the pool. :)

We arrived Saturday evening and check in was smooth. The timeshare sharks smelled bigger prey so we managed to sneak past them. Our room is a standard hotel room with a view of a bit of the golf course, some buildings, and an area that's under construction.

Our first night was quiet. We walked around the resort, went for a quick swim in the huge, meandering pool, and ate at Havana Moon. Although the food wasn't amazing, the atmosphere was. The restaurant is right on the beach with big open doors facing the sand and the small pier. As we ate, we watched a storm roll in. The lightning flashed back and forth, lighting up all the nearby clouds.

On Sunday, we went to the spa and then ate at Havana Moon again. After siesta, we went into Playa Del Carmen, walked, shopped, and had dinner.

Today, we slept in, relaxed by the pool, and went into Cancun for a romantic dinner cruise on the Nichupte Lagoon. So far, we're having a terrific time! Tomorrow we go to see the Mayan ruins at Tulum and the snorkeling park, Xel-ha.

Halloween 2005

2005-10-30T10:02:00.000+01:00

Sky and I had a great time at Darryl and Stacy's Halloween Bash! Their decorations were awesome - they had dancing in their ghoulish graveyard garage, the kitchen and breakfast nook looked like a luau attacked by pirates, and downstairs was some demon's devilish domain (for karaoke and poker).

Sky and I dressed up as Gomez and Morticia Addams from the Addams Family. Ashley and Brian were dressed as two punk goths. We sang karaoke, with me belting out my favorite songs from Grease. Much to his chagrin, we discovered that Sky's voice is best-suited for country western, so don't expect him to be singing anytime soon. :)

You can view Darryl and Stacy's pictures here:
http://groups.msn.com/halloweenbash05/shoebox.msnw

Pine Isle Resort

2005-09-09T14:48:00.000+02:00

After Dragoncon, Sky and I drove up to Pine Isle Resort on Lake Lanier. It was only a 45 minute drive north of downtown Atlanta.

The resort and lake are very pretty - lots of forested islands and very few buildings around. I guess we picked the slow time of year because the resort only seemed to have a dozen guests at most. It was relaxing and very quiet. We swam in the pool, took several walks, and mostly just took it easy.

On Thursday evening, we drove west to meet up with Dave, Kristen, PJ, and friends. We had a yummy dinner at a Chinese restaurant.

Dragoncon 2005

2005-09-07T14:21:00.000+02:00

Sky and I attended Dragoncon in downtown Atlanta, Georgia from September 1-5. Dave, Kristen, and PJ also attended as did several of Dave's friends from Georgia.
Some cool costumes that we saw...

We shopped in the dealer's room, watched people walk by in a variety of sci-fi, fantasy, and purely made-up costumes, watched a parade through the streets of Atlanta, and played two live action games - one based on X-files and one based on Babylon 5 (a sci-fi tv show). No, I didn't wear a costume myself - at least not this year. :)

We had a great time and enjoyed looking at all of the costumes. I guess we spent too much time in the dealer's room since we had to go buy an extra suitcase to get all our stuff home. :>
Leia phone home
Barf and Chewie consult on chow
If Sky is 6'3", how big is this guy???
Tori poses with Batman
How many Leia's do you need in one parade?

We also saw a Crüxshadows concert. They're a goth punk band that Sky and I really like. I also got to have my picture taken with Rogue, the lead singer.

Dave's Pictures:
http://www.deviledman.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core:ShowItem&g2_itemId=7348

We're Back!

2005-08-14T20:36:00.000+02:00

Neither of our flights were cancelled, so we were able to return home without too much trouble. We had a 4 1/2 hour layover at Heathrow so we did a lot of shopping while we were there. (Though we didn't buy much.) Since there would be no food served on our 10 hour flight home, we took the food coupons they gave us and used it to buy lots of chocolates. Wait, I mean we used it to buy fish and chips at the only restaurant in the terminal...(Uh yeah, that's it.) :) We also bought sandwiches to bring onto the plane.

As we arrived at our gate, a table had been set up with tons of prepackaged snack foods and bottled water. They said to take what we wanted so we grabbed several handfuls of food and hopped on the plane. We ended up with more than enough food and it was actually quite fun because it felt like a picnic.

I watched Monster-In-Law, Hitch, and The Interpreter. They were all entertaining movies, but none were particularly great. Before long, we were back in Seattle.

It was sure great to be home! I've included a few of Emily's photos of me below, including my paparazzi-in-action shot. :)

Stay tuned for my next blog entries starting around 9/1 - Sky and I are off to Atlanta, Georgia for DragonCon!

Chef of the Century, Joel Robuchon

2005-08-14T08:12:00.000+02:00

After some speedy walking and a brief subway ride, we arrived at our dinner reservation with not a minute to spare.

We were seated immediately at a long U-shaped counter, almost like a sushi counter. Waiters hustled and bustled in the center of the U-shaped counter and took our orders.

Most of the food was fairly pricy. The tasting menu, which had about 9 courses, was around 90 euros (about $105). We limited ourselves to one or two courses plus dessert (of course!) to keep the price down.

But before I get too far into the menu, let me tell you about Joel Robuchon. OK, actually I don't know much about it him, but I HAD heard of him. When we had walked by the restaurant the previous day, I was surprised to see a restaurant where I actually recognized the chef's name. :)

I'm a big fan of Iron Chef. He was frequently mentioned as a great influencer for Iron Chef French, Sakai-san, and was occasionally mentioned as a chef under whom various challengers had trained under. (I also discovered that there's a book about his cooking on Amazon.com)

The restaurant is called L'Atelier of Joel Robuchon. We didn't actually get to meet The Man. He's no doubt off busy promoting his new restaurant at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. :)

We had a great time and the food was really good too. I had lobsters with mushrooms and asparagus and Emily had a breaded fish (which looked kinda creepy since it still had its head.)

Our desserts were also delicious. After dessert, we struck up a conversation with the two American couples to our left and helped one fellow figure out how to use his new digital camera. We did a good job promoting good will towards Microsoft. :) They weren't surprised when we told them where we worked.

After our great dinner, we wandered (a little more slowly) past the Paris Opera house, the Galeries Lafayette, and the Napoleon temple before returning to our hotel to pack for our flight home.

Moon over the Seine (not so romantic, actually)

2005-08-14T07:39:00.000+02:00

After our long hike back down the stairs, we walked along the Seine looking for a boat. The day before we'd seen an open-topped boat pass by that had canned tour commentary playing over the loudspeakers, alternating languages. That may not sound too exciting, but we decided we wanted to ride that boat.

We walked down a bridge or two, passing other boats which weren't quite the one we'd seen, to the Pont del Alma (or something like that) and found Bateaux Mouches (no, not Bateaux Mooses.) They had the boats we were looking for and one was about to leave for its hour-long tour of the river so we bought tickets and hopped on board.

The commentary played in about five different languages, so it didn't end up being that helpful. It did occasionally tell us what some of the pretty buildings were called and what they were used for. For some reason the English always seemed to play just as we went under a bridge, making in nearly unintelligible because of the echoes. Coincidence? Hmm...

We passed various parliament buildings and old Parisian townhouses and made our way around the island that Notre Dame is on. As we got to the far side of the island, we saw a group of youths dressed in black playing music on a landing by the river. They started yelling (in French) at the boat and one of them dropped his trousers showing us a view of his pasty white rear end. OK, bit of fashion advice folks, if you're going to drop trou - please wear light colors. Black just doesn't suit pale skin unless you're a vampire.

I didn't dignify the event with a photo as some things aren't worth remembering too clearly. We were highly amused by their antics, and enjoyed the rest of the cruise in high spirits. (Well, we were mostly happy because we were about to go to the fancy Parisian restaurant we'd made reservations for the day before.)

In addition to bored teens, the boat also passed the Musee d'Orsay (did I mention it's a refurbished train station?), the Eiffel Tower, and mini Liberty.

Lots of stairs

2005-08-14T07:14:00.000+02:00

Mean Emily made me walk up the stairs of the Eiffel Tower!

Well, OK, she didn't really make me, she just pointed out the size of the elevator line vs. the stairs line and we agreed that the shorter stairs line looked much more tempting. :)

The Eiffel Tower has three levels. The lowest level is fairly wide and has a cafe and sometime back in the 60's even had an ice rink that was visited by a skating bear from the Moscow Circus...

It's a lot of stairs and every few landings there was a poster describing some historical event or weird fact about the Eiffel Tower (hence my bear knowledge.) It was about 330 stairs to the first level and then another 3 or 400 to the middle level. From there, you had to wait in a LONG line to take the elevator to the top (no stairs option). Since the middle level is already pretty high up, we were content to walk around taking photos from there. My photos below show the Seine River, the Louvre, and the gardens next to the Eiffel Tower.

Walk to the Eiffel Tower

2005-08-13T23:42:00.000+02:00

We passed all sorts of beautiful buildings on our way to the Eiffel Tower. We saw Gothic style churches, Les Invalides (a palace that now houses Napoleon's tomb and a military museum), the Elite Cavalry School (for spoiled royals who became military officers but couldn't tie their own shoelaces.)

Musee d'Orsay

2005-08-13T23:29:00.000+02:00

First thing on Saturday morning (after picking up pastries, of course) we walked to the Musee d'Orsay across the Seine River. We arrived about ten minutes before opening and a short line had already formed. We ate our pastries in line and then went in when it opened. I love museums when they're still fairly empty and it was nice to wander around and have some of the rooms to ourselves.

Both Emily and I had been to the museum before, but we both liked it so much on previous visits, we wanted to return. My favorites were the Degas, Renoir, Tissot, de Nuncques, Levy-Dhurmer, and Monet paintings and the huge cutaway model of the Paris Opera House. I also really liked the Art Nouveau furniture and vase section, though I felt that they could've included more there.

After spending most of the morning walking through the Museum, we left around lunch time and ate at the small Mucha Cafe nearby. (Mucha as in Alphonse Mucha, the famous art nouveau artist.) The food was delicious (especially the shrimp and avocado appetizer! YUM!) and we were energized for further walking.

Friday evening

2005-08-12T23:01:00.000+02:00

Friday evening we returned from working (in the suburbs) and strolled around Paris. Actually, it was probably more like a hike because we were out there walking for hours.

We found one great restaurant, L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, (Mr. Robuchon is a world famous French chef), but had to make reservations for Saturday night. Eventually, after walking past Notre Dame, various lovely churches, Parisian townhouses, parliament buildings, the Louvre, and others, we made it back to the vicinity of our hotel. We stopped at the pastry shop and had quiches and pastries for dinner. Yum! :)

Burgundy Hotel

2005-08-12T08:32:00.000+02:00

In Paris, we stayed at the Burgundy Hotel and I again lucked out with the better room. My room was on the top floor with a tiny balcony and a view of an old church and the top of the Eiffel Tower (which is lit up at night). Emily faced an inner courtyard and didn't have a balcony.

Also down the block from our hotel was an Acropolis-like temple built by Napoleon. We were fairly close to the Paris Opera house and the not too far from the Louvre either. There was also a great pastry shop right around the corner. ;)

If only we hadn't picked British Airways...

2005-08-12T08:15:00.000+02:00

Except for our flight to Copenhagen and back, all our flights were through British Airways. Their planes and staff were excellent and everything went fine...until...

We had decided to fly from Munich to Paris via London, because the price was about 1/3 as much as a direct flight on Air France.

As we waited for our flight from Munich to London, we were told that the caterers were on strike and so we'd have to carry on snack packs that they provided at the gate. This didn't seem like too much of an imposition and the snacks were good. Things didn't really start to go wrong until our flight landed in London and we had to wait in the airplane for about 40 minutes because there was some kind of 'baggage problem' and none of the planes could clear their gates. Eventually the plane at our gate did leave and we were able to leave the plane. Inside Heathrow it was total chaos - many flights were listed as cancelled and some that were supposed to take off hadn't even been assigned gates yet. We waited for an hour or so for our flight to arrive and its departure time came and went with no gate being assigned. The news was now telling us that various ground crew (including baggage handlers and bus drivers) had walked out. We then went to the gate for the Paris flight that had been supposed to leave an hour before ours.

After an hour or two, they finally told us that all the BA flights to Europe were cancelled and if we rushed down to the connections desk, we could beat everyone else since the general announcement hadn't been made yet. So, we did. But the line at the connections desk was at least an hour long already. We asked the BA dude directing people traffic if there was any hope at all of getting a flight to Paris that evening. At first he told us we'd have to wait in line and could ask at the desk. Then Emily said "we have no baggage", which turned out to be the magic words because he took our boarding passes to the counter and returned to tell us that there was no hope that we'd get a flight to Paris that day.

So, we sped through customs and out of the terminal. After asking several folks the best way to get to Waterloo Station, we ended up taking a bus and two Underground lines and arrived at Waterloo just after 7pm. We rushed over to the Eurostar counters and managed to buy tickets and get through security with barely enough time to buy sandwiches and board the train before the last train left for Paris at 7:43 (fortunately, with us on it.) :) Very few other passengers could've made it in time because they waited so long to announce that all the BA flights had been cancelled. So, about 6 hours late, we arrived in Paris and checked into our hotel.

They really do sting!

2005-08-11T08:59:00.000+02:00

Wow, people weren't kidding when they named this obnoxious plant the 'stinging nettle'. I've touched the variety of nettles we have in Washington and they mostly just itch a bit. But when the back of my hand lightly brushed one of these European varieties as Emily and I walked to the Munich office, it felt like I'd dragged my hand across sharp barbed wire! It felt like the darn thing bit me!

The stinging lasted about ten minutes and then it looked and itched like poison ivy for another half hour and was fine after that.

Beware the stinging nettles!

Munich

2005-08-11T08:09:00.000+02:00

We only had one evening in Munich, so we spent it downtown looking at all the lovely buildings and shopping and eating (and of course, drinking beer).

We were both impressed with the shops and we could've easily spent the entire evening shopping for clothes (well, at least until the shops closed at 7 or 8). The had a huge variety of department stores, designer boutiques like Prada, Burberry, etc. and also less expensive stores. There weren't any electronics stores though.

Munich had many lion statues everywhere with strange decorations. Lions are Munich's symbol.

We really liked Marienplatz, the main square with its lovely Gothic Rathaus building. We also saw lots of other buildings that were beautiful, but I won't list them all here (just take a peek at the pictures). We also really liked the gardens next to the Royal Residence especially because some musicians were playing traditional German music in a dome in the center of the gardens.

We also stopped by what is "possibly the most famous pub in the world" according to our free tourist map. :) This is, of course, the Hofbrauhaus. It was incredibly noisy inside with lots of accordion music and loud singing. It was also packed with tourists. It reminded me a lot of Epcot center's Germany with its Hofbrau dining area. After taking a few pictures of the chaos, we left and found a nice, quite Bavarian restaurant where we had goulash and strudel and various other things I can't spell. Oh, and lots of beer.

Germany

2005-08-10T07:30:00.000+02:00

Monday and Tuesday we kept busy with work, but now we're moving on - next stop - Munich!
The weather in Munich is just like the weather in London, though a tad bit chillier. It's sunny with puffy white clouds and a slight breeze. Temperatures in the 60s.

Our hotel is really close to Microsoft, which isn't too far from the train station, which is pretty convenient.

Parliament, Big Ben, my new paparazzi career

2005-08-07T23:34:00.000+02:00

Next, we walked through Trafalgar Square down to the Westminster area where we saw Big Ben, the Parliament buildings, the Prime Minister's home, Westminster Abbey, and the London Eye (huge ferris wheel). The Parliament building is amazing because of the details of the decoration and Big Ben is very impressive. We then took the tube back up the hill to Leicester Square.

Oddly, we came upon quite a crowd in Leicester Square. We discovered that the new movie, The Island, was premiering that night so they had the red carpet out and a slough of paparazzi. A wall blocked the view of the red carpet, and holding our cameras over our heads just got us pictures of the photographers on the other side of the wall, so I sat on Emily's shoulders (did I mention she's really strong?) and snapped shots just like all the rabid fans around us. I got a few good shots of Scarlett Johanssen and Sean Bean, but Ewan McGregor was blocked by the photographer in the green shirt. It was definitely fun and pretty silly. :)

We spent the rest of the evening walking around various areas of the city including SoHo, Piccadilly Circus, Notting Hill, and Portobello Road.

The National Gallery

2005-08-07T23:12:00.000+02:00

Next we walked through the 1500-1900's sections of the National Gallery and saw beautiful paintings by Rousseau, Gauguin, van Gogh, Monet, el Greco, Titian, and many others. We also saw a couple of paintings by Da Vinci including the Madonna and the Rocks, which was mentioned in the book, The Da Vinci Code.

Buckingham Palace

2005-08-07T22:35:00.000+02:00

Emily's guidebook informed us that Buckingham Palace held daily tours of the state rooms but only during the months of August and September, so we headed there first. We got to see Queen Elizabeth's throne room, dining room, ball room, and various portrait galleries. They had many of the insignia such as the garter for the Order of the Garter laid out for us to see as well as the sword that Queen Elizabeth uses to knight people. Everything was beautiful. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, so you'll have to use your imagination - everything was incredibly ornate. For some reason, her bedroom, bathroom, exercise room, TV room, and swimming pool were off limits. :)

London

2005-08-07T22:21:00.000+02:00

Our trip to London was more difficult than it needed to be. Our plane was briefly delayed due to a computer problem in the cockpit, but we ended up landing 15 minutes early anyway. Then we discovered that the Heathrow connection to the Underground was closed, so we had to take the Heathrow Express train instead, plus two different Underground lines to get to our hotel (the underground from the airport would've gone straight there!) :P And, the Circle Line (which seemed to go everywhere we wanted to go) was shut down for the weekend, so we ended up having to take 2-3 different Underground lines to go somewhere that normally would've taken 1 line.

Other than that, we got real lucky with the weather. Even though August is supposed to be a rainy month, it was really sunny today and maybe 70 degrees.

I want fireworks!!!

2005-08-07T08:09:00.000+02:00

We went to Tivoli yesterday evening, having heard the fireworks the previous night (our hotel was fairly close). It is a small amusement park right in the middle of Copenhagen. Tivoli is like Six Flags meets Disneyland, but in a 5x5 block area and without any particular cartoon characters associated with it. Tivoli consists of several small rollercoasters, a variety of other thrilling rides, and many childrens rides. It also has tons of restaurants and boardwalk-style games (i.e. throw darts at balloons to win a prize.) The main thing it has going for it, is that it's open til midnight (or 1am summer weekends.) Since almost everything else in Denmark closes at 2pm or 4pm on Saturdays, it's nice that there's something to do!

Unfortunately, they had an "Eventyr" planned that evening, which turned out to be a Hans Christian Andersen parade with only a few measly fireworks and not their usual big fireworks show. :( Oh well, at least we got to see some fireworks, even if they were dinky.

Moose Sightings

2005-08-07T08:00:00.000+02:00

Who knew? Apparently mooses are quite popular in Scandinavia. I thought at first that the ads and shop signs were of reindeer, but when we got to Malmö, it was clear that it was no moosunderstanding. We didn't actually meet any mooses, but found ample evidence of moose popularity - especially in Swedish souvenir shops.

Google facts: The Swedish moose is the same genus and species as the North American moose, although the European often call them elk (what we call an elk is actually a 'red deer' to the Europeans.)

Sweden, ja!

2005-08-07T07:26:00.000+02:00

It was early afternoon and we'd already seen the major sights in Copenhagen, so we said "What the heck!" and hopped on a train to Sweden. Thanks to the 7km Øresund bridge, it's only about a 35 minute train ride from Copenhagen to Malmö, Sweden.

We were very happy that we decided to visit Sweden. I loved all the old buildings and churches in Malmö. The castle was worth skipping (and also closed because of a wedding), but the St Petri Kyrka (Church) was quite pretty. We walked in just as a bunch of dudes in kilts were finishing up Amazing Grace on their bagpipes. (Yes, it was strange.) There were quite a few men in tuxedos around. They wore blue ribbons with a triangular pendant around their necks. Emily chatted with one as I was photographing the Scotsmen. It turns out that every eight years, the 300 or so druids in Scandinavia get together, do a lot of singing, and have a big party. I'm not sure if he meant druids, like the ancient human-sacrificing Celtic sorcerors or maybe something more like the Freemasons. :) Anyway, we had a great dinner in Malmö and then returned to Denmark for a night on the town.

Roskilde, Viking Town

2005-08-07T07:15:00.000+02:00

Back in the old days (aka around 800-1000 AD), Roskilde was a major Viking town because of its protected harbor. From Roskilde, the Vikings would sail in the summer to coastal towns off the North Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, or major rivers like the Rhine. After a summer full of raiding these towns, they'd return to Roskilde with their loot and slaves.

We arrived early in the morning and set off on foot through town. The streets of Roskilde were small and many were blocked off for pedestians, so it was a pleasant town to walk through. We were disappointed that we couldn't go inside Roskilde Domkirke (big church) because weddings were going on that day. Instead, we walked down to the harbor to the Viking Ship Museum.

Back in the 60's, someone found several sunken Viking ships at the entrance to the Roskilde Fjord, so they dredged them up and put them on display. The ships were likely scuttled to block the port from an attack that never came. In addition to telling us about Viking ships, the museum also described the looting and pillaging that the Vikings were fond of. The Ship Museum was next to the harbor and also had lots of children's activities and some real ships that they'd built modeled after the ruined ships that they'd dug up.

We also stopped at the Roskilde Museum for a little taste of town history. Our last stop in Roskilde was a cafe where I had tomato soup and Emily had another open-faced shrimp sandwich.

The sky was blue with many puffy white clouds, which occasionally dumped rain around us, but usually did it while we were indoors, so we didn't mind.

What is a fjord anyway?

2005-08-07T07:07:00.000+02:00

Saturday morning, we struck off for Roskilde, a small viking town on the edge of the Roskilde Fjord. Looking at the Fjord, we couldn't understand why it wasn't just called a bay or a sound. Emily did some googling and we discovered that a fjord is a glacially cut valley that has filled with water - basically a bay with steep sides. However, the Roskilde Fjord didn't seem very steep to me. I guess the best fjords are in Sweden and Norway.

Strøget

2005-08-06T09:15:00.000+02:00

Strøget is the major shopping area in Copenhagen. Several streets are blocked off for pedestrian traffic and there are lots of small restaurants, cafes, and pubs along the street. We looked in a few shops, but didn't end up buying anything. We stopped at Cafe Norden and had open-faced shrimp sandwiches, Carlsberg beer, and some delicious rasberry tarts. Yum!!!

After all this, we were exhausted, so we returned to our hotel room and fell asleep immediately.

zzzzzzz

Rosenborg Slot

2005-08-06T09:11:00.000+02:00

This lovely little castle was situated in a large park and Emily and I agreed that if we were queen, we'd rather live here than Amalienborg Palace.

The castle was fairly small and essentially housed a museum with a variety of royal heirlooms and the crown jewels down in the basement. The heirlooms and artwork were interesting. My favorite pieces were a helmet with a lion wearing a crown too big for its head and a room filled with glassware - even on tiny little shelves up by the ceiling.

The crown jewels were impressive and we both agreed on which crown we liked best and which of the royal necklaces we'd want to wear to a ball. :)

When we left the basement with the crown jewels, we discovered that it had started raining. We scurried to the museum shop, looked around, and then pulled out our hat/umbrella and continued on.

Kastellet & The Little Mermaid

2005-08-06T09:04:00.000+02:00

We continued our walking tour of Copenhagen and headed north to Kastellet, a large park on the site of a 17th-century citadel that no longer exists. It is also the location of St. Albans Church and the Little Mermaid statue. The statue was cute, but not very big or impressive. Again, it was a good chance to watch tourists jockey for position to get a good shot.

Amalienborg Slot

2005-08-06T08:44:00.000+02:00

This palace is rather odd because it consists of four buildings around a large central square. There are no gardens or grounds really, as other building surround it. The queen lives here and we arrived in time to see the changing of the guard. The changing of the guard was hilarious, more because of the antics of the tourists trying to get a good shot than anything else. The guards just lined up and then seemed to be in a staring contest for a good twenty minutes, because they just stood there, doing nothing. We gave up after two minutes and walked on to Marmorkirken. This church has a lovely dome that reminded me of St. Paul's in London. The church was actually very small, really only consisting of the single dome and not much else.

Nyhavn

2005-08-06T08:39:00.000+02:00

Next, we walked on to Nyhavn, a street along a canal. The street is famous for the colorful houses lining it. We looked at some of the shops along the street and I bought a shave-ice (tutti-fruiti flavored) and we continued on...

Slotsholmen

2005-08-06T08:21:00.000+02:00

Our first stop on Thursday morning was Slotsholmen, the government section of Copenhagen. We walked around Christiansborg Slot (castle) and saw Børsen (Renaissance building housing the Chamber of Commerce - has a lovely spire with four dragon's tails twined about), Christiansborg Ruins (ruins of the original castles under the current castle), and Det Kongelige Bibliotex (Royal Library).

Hurray! I made it to Copenhagen!

2005-08-06T08:15:00.000+02:00

After 8 and half hours at Heathrow Airport, I finally made it onto the last flight out to Copenhagen and arrived at our hotel, Comfort Hotel Europa, around 11:30pm on Wednesday night. Emily was nearly asleep but glad to see me (she arrived on Tuesday afternoon and wasn't sure if I'd join her in Denmark or meet her in London on Sunday.)

The hotel room is small, the beds are small, but the bathroom is larger than anything I saw in Japan. There's a wonderful pastry shop right around the corner and we're really close to the train station and Tivoli Gardens, so the location is great.
(our hotel room and view)

The weather seems to be mixed sun, clouds, and rain and the temperatures are in the low 70's, upper 60's.

I'm off to Europe

2005-08-05T08:13:00.000+02:00

Thanks to everyone who enjoyed my Japan blog!

Now I'm off to Europe - I'll be posting into the same blog - so stay tuned to http://victoriainjapan.blogspot.com/!

-Victoria

Nara

2005-07-16T15:14:00.000+02:00

Nara is a small town about 45 minutes from Kyoto. Not only was it the capital of Japan long long ago, but it was also the home of a powerful lord who was related to the Shogun. Because of this, it has a ton of temples and shrines, all within a huge park. Deer are sacred in the park, so they're allowed to run free. Tourists buy deer crackers to feed the deer - but watch out! The deer can sniff out those crackers and they'll mob any tourist who buys one. (We mostly saw parents forcing their children to feed the deer for photo ops - children who are now deeply traumatized by the experience and will forever fear anything with antlers.)

The main attraction in Nara park is the Big Buddha Hall. This wooden structure is the largest wooden structure in the world (or so their pamphlets claim.) The buddha inside is also huge and it's hard to get an idea of just how big from my picture. The lotus petals at his base are probably eight feet tall. The amazing thing is that the hall is even smaller than the original buddha hall which had to be replaced.

There were also several other shrines and temples in Nara park, including one that's famous for its many stone lanterns. By then we were a little templed-out, and we returned to Kyoto after a nice walk through the forested park (avoiding deer!)

Kyoto at Night

2005-07-15T15:58:00.000+02:00

After our busy day of tours, we decided to relax and so we stopped at a beer garden on the roof of a hotel overlooking the Kamo River. We could see the crowds from the Gion festival and several people setting off small fireworks. The bluish thing in the right-hand picture is a cloth sculpture with some kind of fan and light under it to keep it blowing upwards. It's shaped like a man, but it's hard to tell from this angle. The light changed color frequently, so it was neat to look at.

Later, we walked through Gion, tried some Takoyaki (fried octopus dumplings) and even chased down a geisha so we could get a picture. (They can really hustle in those tall wooden shoes!)

Kyoto Afternoon Tour

2005-07-15T15:45:00.000+02:00

Our morning tour ended at the Kyoto Handicraft Center where we got a buffet lunch and an hour or two for some souvenir shopping. We then got on our bus for the Kyoto Afternoon Tour.

The first stop in the afternoon was Heian Shrine. This huge Shinto shrine was painted red and green and was built when Chinese style was very popular. The shrine itself was very beautiful, but I especially liked the garden in back, which I had missed on my previous trip to Kyoto in 2000.

The second stop was Sanjuusangendo Hall (or the Hall of 33 Spaces). This long building houses about 1000 life-size statues of Kannon, the buddha of mercy. Kannon supposedly has 1000 arms (but each statue really has about 33 sets of arms) and each hand holds different items such as a lotus blossom or feather. We weren't allowed to take pictures of the statues, so you'll just have to use your imagination as to what 1000 gold-leaf covered life-size statues look like. They're on platforms almost like bleachers so that you can clearly see the faces of each row and there were about six or eight rows of them. There were also several other statues of buddhas of war and buddhas of healing.

The third, and final stop of the day was Kiyumizudera, or Clear Water Temple. This buddhist temple is famous for a gigantic wooden deck that hangs out over the trees and for three springs of clear running water. Since the temple is fairly high up the side of the hill, it also has a very nice view of Kyoto.

Kyoto Morning Tour

2005-07-15T15:26:00.000+02:00

On Friday morning, we hopped on a tour bus for our JTB Sunrise Tours Kyoto Morning Tour. The buses left from our hotel, which was very convenient. Our tour guide for the morning was a stodgy old fellow with a wonderful accent. We were also signed up for buffet lunch and the Kyoto Afternoon Tour immediately following the Morning Tour.

First stop for the morning was Nijo Castle. From the 17th to 19th centuries, Japan was ruled by a Shogun, or warlord. Although an emperor still existed, he was largely a figurehead since the Shogun controlled the military. The Shogun lived in Edo (now Tokyo) and the emperor lived in Kyoto. The Shogun would occasionally visit Kyoto to pay his respects to the emperor, though the gesture didn't mean much and not all of the men who were Shogun bothered to do it. While in Kyoto, the Shogun stayed at Nijo Castle. Although it's called a castle, it looked more like a stronghold to me - huge walls, quite a few buildings, but no tall donjon or keep. My two favorite features of Nijo Castle were the beautiful paintings on the interior walls (which we weren't allowed to photograph) and the nightengale floors. A nightengale floor is a floor designed to squeak loudly when someone walks across it. That way they can detect intruders quite easily. The castle's garden was also very nice and featured a pond with large stones and trees around it. Nijo Castle was my favorite part of the morning tour.

The second stop, which was a bit outside of town, was Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavilion. Kinkakuji is actually just one building on the grounds of Rokuonji, a zen buddhist temple. Rokuonji was originally the estate of a powerful relative of the Shogun, but he became a monk and turned his estate into a monastery. The golden pavilion was used as a tea house and although it was destroyed several times in the 14 and 1500's, it managed to survive unscathed until 1950, when it was burnt down by a young monk for reasons that will never be known. It was rebuilt five years later.

Our third stop was the Kyoto Imperial Villa, which is where the emperor used to live. It is now mostly used to store certain ceremonial objects such as the imperial throne used for the enthronement ceremony for a new emperor. Part of it is still closed off in case someone from the imperial household does decide to visit, so security is pretty tight. Each tour group has a security guard assigned to them to watch for anyone straying away from the group. The buildings were pretty, but we didn't get to see any of the interiors, so it wasn't as interesting as Nijo Castle. The Villa's garden was very similar to Nijo Castle's garden.

Gion Matsuri, Kyoto Summer Festival

2005-07-14T16:44:00.000+02:00

Gion Matsuri is one of Kyoto's most famous festivals. It culminates in a parade of huge floats on the 17th of July. We enjoyed all of the festivities leading up to the parade, but weren't able to see the parade itself since we flew home on the 17th.

Gion Matsuri is several hundred years old. It originated as a way to appease the gods who were bringing famine and plague to Kyoto. The main parade on the 17th involves 32 Yama and Hoko floats. The Hoko floats are two stories and usually have a bunch of boys playing traditional instruments on the second story. Although they have wheels (as tall as me!), it still takes about 80 men to push and pull the Hoko floats around the parade and turning the floats is a major feat of engineering. Each float is sponsored by a particular neighborhood or merchant organization.

The three days leading up to the parade are called the yoi-yoi-yoi-yama, yoi-yoi-yama, and yoi-yama (which roughly translates to "the eve of the eve of the eve before the parade" and so on.) The streets of the central shopping area of Kyoto are closed to vehicles during this time and the whole area becomes a huge street festival. The total area was about five by ten blocks (big blocks). The side streets contained kids games, food stalls, drink stands, and souvenir merchants. The main focus of the "yoi-yama" is the display of the floats that will be paraded around on the 17th. Although we missed the parade, we still got to see quite a few of the floats just by walking around the street festival.

The huge hoko floats had 15th century Turkish and Dutch tapestries hanging off of them and lots of paper lanterns. Many of them had a tall pole or tree stuck on top such that they ended up looking like small towers.

My favorite part of the festival was that about 1/3 of the young women (and a few men and children also) wore yukata, light cotton kimono worn in the summer. The yukata were very colorful and definitely added to the festive atmosphere.

We greatly enjoyed seeing this traditional aspect of Japanese culture, but by the third day, the "yoi-yama", it was so crowded that we didn't stay too long. The police had to designate certain side streets as one-way (for foot traffic!) because it was so packed.

New Miyako Hotel

2005-07-14T16:43:00.000+02:00

We returned to Kyoto and checked in to our hotel. It was right next to the train station and had a view of the tracks. Our room was nice and the hotel staff was very helpful, but it wasn't anything special.

Fushimi Inari Shrine

2005-07-14T16:36:00.000+02:00

Upon arriving in Kyoto, it was too early to check into our hotel, so we dropped off our luggage and hopped on the JR Nara line. We got off at Inari Station and walked a block to the Fushimi Inari Shrine. It was painted red and had lanterns up all over. A ceremony of some kind was going on, so we walked quietly around the shrine grounds.

Several trails lined with red torii gates led up the hill behind the shrine so we started up the hill. It was a very long walk and took several hours to get to the top of the hill and back down again. Along the way were several small tea houses with soda machines, a couple of small lakes, and more mini shrines and fox statues. It was very beautiful and with the ravens cawing, wind blowing through the trees, cats yowling in the distance, and other assorted birds and nature sounds, it felt very mystical too.

Shinkansen (Bullet Train)

2005-07-14T15:37:00.000+02:00

We rode the Hikari bullet train south from Tokyo. Our plan was to stop in Nagoya for the day and go to the Aichi Expo (world fair) just outside of Nagoya and then on to Kyoto in the evening. The ride was about two hours and relatively uneventful. I bought a bento at the Tokyo train station before we left. (A bento is a Japanese-style flat lunch box - kind of like a tv dinner but with fresh foods meant to be eaten cold).

Five minutes before we arrived in Nagoya, Lisa suggested that we skip Nagoya and head straight on to Kyoto since there was so much to see and do there. I agreed, hopped up, and ran through about five train cars to find the conductor and explain in mixed English and Japanese that we wanted to stay on the train through to Kyoto and was that OK. They said yes, and I walked back to our seats, dodging people getting their luggage out for the Nagoya stop.

It was another 45 minutes or so to Kyoto and we arrived in Kyoto before noon.

Odaiba & Tokyo Big Sight

2005-07-13T16:05:00.000+02:00

On Wednesday, we went to a healthcare conference with our colleagues. The conference was held at Tokyo Big Sight, a huge convention center in Odaiba. The conference center was very large, though we only saw one building of it. I think there was more than one convention going on at the time.

Weird sculpture at Tokyo Big Sight

Keiichi Iijima-san gave a 15 minute presentation on how great the Tablet PC is for doctors and nurses. Notice the girl in white dress which says Microsoft on the side of it? She's a booth babe! Who knew Microsoft had booth babes... Many of the booths had them (one was even dressed in a somewhat skimpy nurse outfit!) Most were dressed similar to ours in a variety of uniforms.

Odaiba is relatively famous for being reclaimed land (landfill built into Tokyo Bay). There was a lot of new construction going on and the buildings tended to be fairly large and fancy because the land cost is reasonable (though I'd hate to see their earthquake insurance bills!) The pictures below are taken from inside the Yurikamome train back to Tokyo, which feels a bit like a monorail because it's a couple stories off the ground. The train actually crosses the huge bridge you see below.

Microsoft's Shinjuku Office

2005-07-13T15:30:00.000+02:00

Since we spent four working days here, I figured a few folks would like to see what the Shinjuku office looks like. The office is in the same tall building as our hotel, though we needed to go down to the second floor and into a different elevator to get to the Microsoft offices on the 6-19th? floors. (The hotel is floors 20+, our rooms were on floor 29.)

You might notice the orchids and other flower arrangements in the lobby picture above. The orchids are a traditional gift from one family or corporation to another. In this case, they're for the newly appointed head of our Msft Japan group. We saw some for sale at a store - they're $250!

Instead of offices, each employee has a cubicle, which aren't very large or private. Also, every last of inch of space gets used for storage.

Each floor, aside from the receptionist floor (which is all fancy conference rooms), seems to have a guest area (the wide white tables - which is where we worked), an informal conference area (the room with partitions), drink machines (the coffee drinks on the left are free, the rest are about half subsidized), and a confusing array of trash bins.

Cuteness Sells (continued)

2005-07-12T15:21:00.000+02:00

Here are more pictures of cute toons used for advertising...

Akihabara

2005-07-12T15:08:00.000+02:00

Tuesday night we went with Ikeda-san and Kondo-san (two of our Japanese coworkers) to Akihabara to look at PC displays in electronics stores and to see students using Tablet PCs at a graphic design school.

Space is definitely a premium in Akihabara - store shelves, buildings, ads, etc. all contain as much as possible in the space they have.

And check out their cell phone selection - why can't we get that many to choose from???

Here's a Tablet PC on display and Lisa browsing through the educational software in a shop.

Roppongi Hills

2005-07-11T00:46:00.000+02:00

After a long day of work, Lisa and I went to Roppongi Hills for dinner. Roppongi Hills is a fancy complex of restaurants, shops, and a cineplex just west of Roppongi in Tokyo. Lisa suggested we skip the highrises and instead investigate some of the smaller streets, which all had more character.

We stopped at a nice little restaurant called Roppongi Momiji-ya, which was an izakaya. An izakaya is a kind of bar that serves food family-style (in the middle of the table so everyone shares.) We had some great sake and a great variety of dishes, which were all very good.

Afterward, we headed back to Roppongi Hills to get a few pictures.

Movie List with lots of American movies shown and a view of Tokyo Tower

Weird Spider Sculpture Thing at Roppongi Hills

Harajuku

2005-07-11T00:36:00.000+02:00

Harajuku is a shopping area not too far from Shinjuku. It includes the Meiji Shrine and Yoyogi Park. On Sundays, Harajuku is famous for having all sorts of dressed-up delinquents parade around and do their shopping. Harajuku has several famous streets - Takeshita-dori is a very narrow street which is popular with the teens and has many odd stores, include some costume shops. Omotesando and Meiji-dori are wide avenues with more upscale shops as well as Kiddy Land (another one of the dangerous places for my wallet to go to) and the Oriental Bazaar (a great place for souvenir shopping.)

Cruising Omotesando in a purple Crown Royal? Seems more like an American activity.

Most of the, um, interestingly dressed people were on Takeshita-dori, along with a few shops that Liberace would've loved. We saw lots of teens, some in school uniforms, many in punk outfits. Others showed their sense of style in other ways. The "Gothic Lolita" look is apparently big right now for rebellious teens - at least rebellious teens showing up in this area. Oddly though, while it may look like they're being fairly individual, they're still all conforming to standards for that particular style. I've also heard that dressing up in costumes, usually from Japanese animation, is also popular, but we didn't see any.

Engrish

2005-07-10T16:56:00.000+02:00

If you're not familiar with Engrish, I recommend you stop by Engrish.com for a few good laughs. Lisa and I saw many poorly or strangely worded signs, t-shirts, and labels when we were in Japan. My favorite was a t-shirt which said something like "You compument me and I am strong and not haidscaries." I'm not sure what it meant, but I doubt they did either. :) I also liked the "Rubim's Coffee Dinky Coffee Shop" (it didn't look that small to me!) Some lengthier examples are included below from a plastic bag and a restaurant window. Click on them to get the bigger, readable version. Swear words or insults were especially popular, but I didn't take any pictures of those.

Ueno Park

2005-07-10T16:45:00.000+02:00

After the museum, we wandered around Ueno Park a bit, looking at Toshogu Shrine and the Temple of Benten in the middle of Shinobazu Pond. The pond is filled with lotus plants and also has a section with boats. Some of the boats are shaped like ducks and look pretty silly. We mostly saw parents with small children using the duck-shaped boats. There weren't too many students around the park, which I think is unusual but is likely due to the fact that most schools were in the middle of final exams for the quarter.

We had some ice cream and then headed off to the infamous shopping district of Harajuku.

Toshogu Shrine:

Shinobazu Pond and Temple of Benten:

Tokyo National Museum in Ueno Park

2005-07-10T16:23:00.000+02:00

Sunday morning we visited the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno Park. We saw Jomon (pre-3rd century BC) sculptures, armor and swords from the warring states periods, kimono from the Edo period, and even a few works of art from the 18 and 19 hundreds. It was quiet since we arrived when it opened, though it started getting busy when we left. It didn't take us very long to get through the main hall and the archealogical hall. After the museum, we headed out into Ueno Park.

Ginza

2005-07-10T00:25:00.000+02:00

After Tsukiji fish market we walked over to Ginza, passing the Kabuki theater on the way.
We arrived in Ginza just as the department stores were opening (around 10am). We walked quite a ways around Ginza and visited many locations, including the Apple store, the Sony building, Mitsukoshi department store, and Haruhinkan Toy Park. We skipped the Prada, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and other fancy clothes shops. :)

Around noon, the main street was closed off so that it became a huge pedestrian thoroughfare and a few benches and umbrellas were set out.

The Apple store didn't look very different from the one in Bell Square.

The Sony building was very impressive. It showed off the latest gadgets from Sony, including MP3 players, laptops, robots, big screen TVs, and more. Although most of it was just a display, there was a small store on one floor and I bought a pair of pink headphones. The screen quality on their e-book reader, the Libretto, was very much like paper.

Let's just say I spent a lot of money at the toy store and leave it at that. :P

Cuteness Sells

2005-07-10T00:12:00.000+02:00

One thing that is very evident is that cuteness sells, especially cute cartoon characters. Banks, towns, electronic stores, bars, department stores, and all sorts of other groups may use cartoon character mascots in their advertising. A Hello Kitty sticker on subway doors warns kiddies not to get their fingers munched in the door. Toshiba uses a floating white seal to tell customers about their Tablet PC. Well, you can see from the pics below that toons are pretty popular.

Tsukiji Fish Market

2005-07-09T15:54:00.000+02:00

Saturday morning we went to the Tsukiji Fish Market which is on the Sumida River in Tokyo. Tsukiji is where most of Tokyo's fresh seafood arrives and is distributed. Restaurateurs arrive bright and early at 5am to select the freshest tuna and other foods. We arrived closer to 7am, but the place was still bustling with activity. Never in my life have I been in danger of being run over by so many different vehicles! We had to avoid bicycles, handcarts, motorized carts, small vans, scooters, motorcycles, and trucks. (Alright, there wasn't anyone on horseback, but it was still crazy!) The inner market is where most of the major seafood distribution occurs.

The most impressive fish for sale are the huge frozen tuna carcasses (usually missing the tail) that are lined up in various areas. They are auctioned off first thing in the morning and a big number painted on the side of each one so they know who owns it. Most of them appeared to weigh almost as much as me!

The other fun part of the market is to see the sheer variety of fish available. In a way, it was a little disturbing because the fish all had a rather desperate look as if they're saying "Help me! Help me!" Of course, for most of them it was already too late anyway, but we did see some live ones in tanks. Here are some of the more interesting specimens, including pickled octopus arms and an ouroboros (almost).

"Save me!"

After hitting the inner market we wandered around the external market where ordinary folks like us can buy fish and other goods. Fresh fruit isn't exactly cheap at the seafood market. The watermelons are about $20 and the small box of cherries is $28.

We stopped at a little sushi joint and had some of the freshest sushi either of us had ever tasted. Pictures below...

Label It!

2005-07-08T23:00:00.000+02:00

Despite the fact that space is at a premium and despite the fact that the Japanese language is very subtle and implicit and despite the fact that street names and addresses are entirely useless for finding a location, everything in Japan appears to be very well labeled. Numerous signs describe what's for sale, where things are, what things are, or how to use things. Many busy street corners have detailed area maps, buildings have pictorial billboards showing all the stores and restaurants they contain, signs on the side of buildings (see the pic to the left) show what is on each floor, fire hydrants have descriptive signs, everything, even the toilet, has instructions, many restaurants have picture menus or fake food displays in front, books have slim paper wrappers that describe the contents, etc. Even the prevalence of uniforms is part of the labeling. Travel agent counters, many stores, and all sorts of civil servants wear detailed uniforms. (The last picture below shows Lisa filming with a uniformed man in the background.)

My hotel room

2005-07-08T15:25:00.000+02:00

Wow, I've never had a hotel room with so many automatic features! Lisa and I are in different rooms, which is nice since we get some privacy (and the rooms are fairly small, so my stuff takes up most of the counter and table space anyway.) It has a double bed, a tv, a Sega Saturn (game system), data connection for my computer, phone in the bathroom, and a refrigerator. Those are the relatively normal features. :)

It also has several rather unusual features that you're unlikely to see in an American hotel. When you first walk in the door, you put your room key in a little slot, which then activates the lights and air conditioning system. Without putting your key in the slot, you can't turn on the lights. When you leave the room and take your key with you, all the lights and air conditioning turn off again, saving energy. Other fancy features include several water spritzing features on the toilet (though not the heated seat like the bathrooms in the Microsoft offices have), TV sound is played in the bathroom (so you don't miss a moment of your favorite baseball game), the big mirror in the bathroom has a section above the sink that doesn't fog up when you take a shower, and almost all of the lights in the room are controlled from the alarm clock next to the bed. Now, that may sound cool, but it took me (and Lisa, I later found out) a good ten minutes at least to find it. In fact, I finally gave up trying to turn the lights off when I went to bed and then happened to see the button when I set the alarm clock.

Lastly, my hotel room has an amazing view of Shinjuku. To the left I can see the corner of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building and to the right I can see Shinjuku train station.

Victoria & Lisa arrive in Japan

2005-07-07T23:00:00.000+02:00

We're here! We've arrived in Tokyo last night and are pretty jet lagged. This morning we both woke up around 5am. Definitely earlier than my usual waking time! The flight was great. Even though we flew coach (and less than a day after our arrival, Microsoft changed its travel policy so that we would have flown business class!), the flight was good because we had our own tv screens and movies on demand. I watched Ice Princess, Sahara, and Miss Congeniality 2 - all very cheesy but entertaining.