Japan: not so conducive to regular posts, even though it provides ample material
We have only a couple more days in Japan! The most basic overview since the last time I posted is: we went to Koyasan, we went to Ise, we met up with Shayla in Tokyo and spent about five days there with her, and we came back with her in order to attend a festival at one of her schools.
I probably can't say too much publicly about that last, since I don't want to put any identifying info about the school or students online, but wow. Shoujo manga does not exaggerate school festivals nearly as much as you might think. *_* We were deeply impressed by some of the stuff those kids pulled off for their various class activities.
All of the above have been amazing experiences, with the huge exception of our time at a hostel when we were going to Ise. The shrines at Ise: AMAZING. Hostel: fine. Location of hostel: REALLY BAD. I may later get around to writing about the desolate Anagawa Station and its crab, but the short version of that hostel experience was: "B+/B. Would not stay again". (Sadly, the Lonely Planet book was dead right about Iseshi itself being a rather drab city and Lillian was right about it being in the middle of nowhere. There is nothing about the area that makes me want to go back, which is unfortunate since I loved visiting the shrines, especially the Inner Shrine, and definitely DO want to go there again.)
Tomorrow the three of us go back to Tokyo for two more days, including
scruloose's birthday (tomorrow!), and Wednesday he and I fly out. Getting ready to travel home is already pretty stressful, but we seem to have successfully packed one heavyish bag and given it to Kuroneko to deliver to us at the airport. *fingers crossed* (I did about 75% of the bag packing and then left the dropping it off at a convenience store part to
scruloose and Shayla. My mantra for such things has been to quote Cinderella's stepmother from Into the Woods: "Some people are cut out to battle Giants, and others are not. I don't have the constitution. And as long as I can be of no help, I'm going to hide." [Not that that approach worked out so well for her in the end.])
A few completely random trip things, off the top of my head:
--I found a brand of knockoff Pringles (Chip Star) that has a consomme flavor! I'm not particularly fond of Pringles, but when we were in Hong Kong in 2000 I found the consomme flavor and really liked it. (The entertaining thing was when I got a friend who was teaching in Korea a year or so later to send some to me, and I took a good look at the package. The chips I'd originally found in Hong Kong and had mailed from Korea were labeled entirely in Japanese except for the part that said "Made in Dayton, Ohio". [I may have the city wrong.]) Having now found a reasonable facsimile, I'm taking some home with me. La?
--
scruloose and I bought an appliance as a souvenir yesterday! It was very exciting: one of those water heater/dispensers which seem to be fairly common here but not so much at home. Shayla has one, and it seems quite awesome. But then
ginny_t pointed out that it might not be approved for use in Canada (and while having my home insurance voided is probably not literally the last thing I want to have happen, it's pretty damn high on the list). So that was sad--except that it led to our discovering that they are available in Canada (Amazon has them!), albeit at a higher (but not too unreasonable) price. And thus our souvenir has been returned and we'll probably be ordering one online that is approved (and has an English manual, although its usefulness may not the best. The manual for Doughbot is a bit hit and miss).
--
scruloose and Shayla have been incredibly good to my geeky side and have humored me in trying to visit all of the X kekkai (barrier) sites in Tokyo. It's actually not a bad way to see Tokyo, since the kekkai sites are located in/around significant Tokyo landmarks. So far we've been to Nakano Sun Plaza, Sunshine 60, the Shinjuku highrises, Tokyo Station on the Yamanote line, Shibuya 109, Ebisu Garden Place, Ginza (the clocktower), Inokashira Park (conveniently, that's basically where the Ghibli Museum is), the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, and Tokyo Tower (which may or may not be a kekkai in the X manga, but certainly is in both anime versions). We've also been to the Keio Plaza Hotel (significant because I helped the X letterer ID it for touching up in the manga) and Tokyo Sky Tree, which is not related to X at all other than my assumption that if the manga were set now, it would certainly be a kekkai site.
We now have only two or three left: Rainbow Bridge and the National Diet Building for sure, and possibly Yasukuni Shrine, which may or may not count since four of the Dragons of Heaven are told to expect an attack there, but no attack actually happens. I don't think it's clear whether than means the shrine is in fact not a kekkai or whether it just wasn't the time when it would actually be attacked.
Originally posted at http://umadoshi.dreamwidth.org/394805.html. Comment here if you like, or comment there using OpenID. Comments at DW:
(Need a Dreamwidth invite? I can probably hook you up.)
I probably can't say too much publicly about that last, since I don't want to put any identifying info about the school or students online, but wow. Shoujo manga does not exaggerate school festivals nearly as much as you might think. *_* We were deeply impressed by some of the stuff those kids pulled off for their various class activities.
All of the above have been amazing experiences, with the huge exception of our time at a hostel when we were going to Ise. The shrines at Ise: AMAZING. Hostel: fine. Location of hostel: REALLY BAD. I may later get around to writing about the desolate Anagawa Station and its crab, but the short version of that hostel experience was: "B+/B. Would not stay again". (Sadly, the Lonely Planet book was dead right about Iseshi itself being a rather drab city and Lillian was right about it being in the middle of nowhere. There is nothing about the area that makes me want to go back, which is unfortunate since I loved visiting the shrines, especially the Inner Shrine, and definitely DO want to go there again.)
Tomorrow the three of us go back to Tokyo for two more days, including
scruloose's birthday (tomorrow!), and Wednesday he and I fly out. Getting ready to travel home is already pretty stressful, but we seem to have successfully packed one heavyish bag and given it to Kuroneko to deliver to us at the airport. *fingers crossed* (I did about 75% of the bag packing and then left the dropping it off at a convenience store part to
scruloose and Shayla. My mantra for such things has been to quote Cinderella's stepmother from Into the Woods: "Some people are cut out to battle Giants, and others are not. I don't have the constitution. And as long as I can be of no help, I'm going to hide." [Not that that approach worked out so well for her in the end.])
A few completely random trip things, off the top of my head:
--I found a brand of knockoff Pringles (Chip Star) that has a consomme flavor! I'm not particularly fond of Pringles, but when we were in Hong Kong in 2000 I found the consomme flavor and really liked it. (The entertaining thing was when I got a friend who was teaching in Korea a year or so later to send some to me, and I took a good look at the package. The chips I'd originally found in Hong Kong and had mailed from Korea were labeled entirely in Japanese except for the part that said "Made in Dayton, Ohio". [I may have the city wrong.]) Having now found a reasonable facsimile, I'm taking some home with me. La?
--
scruloose and I bought an appliance as a souvenir yesterday! It was very exciting: one of those water heater/dispensers which seem to be fairly common here but not so much at home. Shayla has one, and it seems quite awesome. But then
ginny_t pointed out that it might not be approved for use in Canada (and while having my home insurance voided is probably not literally the last thing I want to have happen, it's pretty damn high on the list). So that was sad--except that it led to our discovering that they are available in Canada (Amazon has them!), albeit at a higher (but not too unreasonable) price. And thus our souvenir has been returned and we'll probably be ordering one online that is approved (and has an English manual, although its usefulness may not the best. The manual for Doughbot is a bit hit and miss).
--
scruloose and Shayla have been incredibly good to my geeky side and have humored me in trying to visit all of the X kekkai (barrier) sites in Tokyo. It's actually not a bad way to see Tokyo, since the kekkai sites are located in/around significant Tokyo landmarks. So far we've been to Nakano Sun Plaza, Sunshine 60, the Shinjuku highrises, Tokyo Station on the Yamanote line, Shibuya 109, Ebisu Garden Place, Ginza (the clocktower), Inokashira Park (conveniently, that's basically where the Ghibli Museum is), the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, and Tokyo Tower (which may or may not be a kekkai in the X manga, but certainly is in both anime versions). We've also been to the Keio Plaza Hotel (significant because I helped the X letterer ID it for touching up in the manga) and Tokyo Sky Tree, which is not related to X at all other than my assumption that if the manga were set now, it would certainly be a kekkai site.
We now have only two or three left: Rainbow Bridge and the National Diet Building for sure, and possibly Yasukuni Shrine, which may or may not count since four of the Dragons of Heaven are told to expect an attack there, but no attack actually happens. I don't think it's clear whether than means the shrine is in fact not a kekkai or whether it just wasn't the time when it would actually be attacked.
Originally posted at http://umadoshi.dreamwidth.org/394805.html. Comment here if you like, or comment there using OpenID. Comments at DW:
(Need a Dreamwidth invite? I can probably hook you up.)