Friday, July 10, 2009
Getting Ready to Leave
Right now we are getting ready to leave for home. I'll be posting the rest of trip when we get back home. So you'll just have to wait to hear about the rest of our trip. :p
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Kyoto!
If you're wondering why we've been silent, we have been in Kyoto for the past couple days and haven't had internet access. We've got a busy day today also so this will be a quick post and I'll have more later.
We got on the shinkansen (bullet train) around noon and went flying to Kyoto. The whole trip only took about 2 hours.
Our tickets for the shinkansen.
We arrived in Kyoto and went to find Caviglia's incense shop, which was apparently super cool. i don't know so I'll let her talk about that.
We walked around a bit and then went to our ryokan (japanese stlye inn) which was luckily in the same area.
We found the place and got to our room, it was really cool there the attendants were all wearing kimono and it was all Japanesey.
We hung out in the room a bit and discovered that the yukata they had provided us was perfect for Caviglia and way too small for me. So we decided to try and see if they had bigger ones, they did, and.... it was still way too small. Oh well. I decided then that I didn't want to bother with the public bath so we just waited for supper to be brought to our room. I was a little worried about this since we would be able to select the food we got. All in all it wasn't bad some fish but enough other stuff that I was able to eat enough.
Well that's all for now. I'll try and get some more up later today.
We got on the shinkansen (bullet train) around noon and went flying to Kyoto. The whole trip only took about 2 hours.
Our tickets for the shinkansen.
We arrived in Kyoto and went to find Caviglia's incense shop, which was apparently super cool. i don't know so I'll let her talk about that.
We walked around a bit and then went to our ryokan (japanese stlye inn) which was luckily in the same area.
We found the place and got to our room, it was really cool there the attendants were all wearing kimono and it was all Japanesey.
We hung out in the room a bit and discovered that the yukata they had provided us was perfect for Caviglia and way too small for me. So we decided to try and see if they had bigger ones, they did, and.... it was still way too small. Oh well. I decided then that I didn't want to bother with the public bath so we just waited for supper to be brought to our room. I was a little worried about this since we would be able to select the food we got. All in all it wasn't bad some fish but enough other stuff that I was able to eat enough.
Well that's all for now. I'll try and get some more up later today.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Asakusa and Akiba
We're pretty tired, so I'll give bullet points of what happened today, perhaps to be filled in by Boben later:
- ate breakfast next to family who kept staring at me, and with strange headphoned, sunglassed spiky hair guy across the room as well
- met Wynette (Boben's cousin) at the Asakusa Station
- visited the Sensoji Temple and the faboo temple market (bookmarked for a return visit)
- ate at a tendon restaurant (tempura and a bowl of rice with toppings) (I got cold noodles, Boben got rice bowl and noodles)
- visited Kappa-Bashi street (the restaurant supplies street)
- found a Buddhist altar supplies store for incense (bookmarked for return)
- went across town to Akihabara (the electronics and anime, etc. district)
- went to Gamers for a bit, and found cool stuff that I can't remember (bookmarked?)
- found Gashapon Alley (gashapon = little toys and trinkets that come in plastic bubbles in a vending machine) - which had dolls, cosplay stuff, and character items on various floors (bookmarked!)
- stopped at a cafe to rest
- walked around for a while to find a restaurant
- ate yakiniku at a restaurant on the 8th floor of a building (where about 10 other restaurants were) (yakiniku = beef cooked on a metal grid over an open flame, in the center of the table)
- said Bye to Wynette at Akihabara Station, and came back!
We're both super tired, and I've got some terrible blisters from some little blisters I got from bad shoes at the conference on Saturday. So tomorrow we're staying in Shinjuku.
I am enjoying a Yebisu beer from the vending machine down the hall. (Chosen based on my M.O. this trip, trying stuff that I see on TV commercials)
Pictures from today:
- ate breakfast next to family who kept staring at me, and with strange headphoned, sunglassed spiky hair guy across the room as well
- met Wynette (Boben's cousin) at the Asakusa Station
- visited the Sensoji Temple and the faboo temple market (bookmarked for a return visit)
- ate at a tendon restaurant (tempura and a bowl of rice with toppings) (I got cold noodles, Boben got rice bowl and noodles)
- visited Kappa-Bashi street (the restaurant supplies street)
- found a Buddhist altar supplies store for incense (bookmarked for return)
- went across town to Akihabara (the electronics and anime, etc. district)
- went to Gamers for a bit, and found cool stuff that I can't remember (bookmarked?)
- found Gashapon Alley (gashapon = little toys and trinkets that come in plastic bubbles in a vending machine) - which had dolls, cosplay stuff, and character items on various floors (bookmarked!)
- stopped at a cafe to rest
- walked around for a while to find a restaurant
- ate yakiniku at a restaurant on the 8th floor of a building (where about 10 other restaurants were) (yakiniku = beef cooked on a metal grid over an open flame, in the center of the table)
- said Bye to Wynette at Akihabara Station, and came back!
We're both super tired, and I've got some terrible blisters from some little blisters I got from bad shoes at the conference on Saturday. So tomorrow we're staying in Shinjuku.
I am enjoying a Yebisu beer from the vending machine down the hall. (Chosen based on my M.O. this trip, trying stuff that I see on TV commercials)
Pictures from today:
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Conference is Over! Whee!
Hi everyone! The conference ended today and overall was very productive for everyone in the group I came with.
Yesterday I went out to the conference, which was being held at Tokyo University for Foreign Studies. The nearest station is Tama. A friend advised me to take the Chuo Rapid train line out to the terminus of the suburban railway line that Tama's on.
So, long story shorter, I got on the Chuo Rapid, the ORANGE train, not the BLUE train or the train that says "Special Rapid" on the sign and found out that the train I was on skipped the stop I needed, while people helping me over the phone advised me to keep going (even though I was waay too far west). So I found a Chuo Rapid train that went the opposite way, and this one stopped at Musashi-Sakai, where I could transfer to the Seibu suburban line that would take me to Tama.
Don't worry, I don't need more advice on this, since I made it there today with no problem. Even though, once again, I would've skipped my stop if I hadn't learned from yesterday. (About to skip the stop today, I got off at the last stop it would stop at before mine, and got on the next train behind it, checking the monitors on the train). And really, I need no more advice, since everyone I've talked to has tried to give me advice, and has been boggled by the fact that SOME of the Chuo Rapids skip stops that others don't. I even helped out a woman on the train this morning who needed to stop at Musashi-Sakai and was about to skip her stop like me.
Anyway. Don't want to talk or read about that anymore. Anyway.
The university's located in a residential suburb with a police academy and the Sanrio theme park. And a cemetery, which isn't too weird, but we passed some funeral homes selling flowers and tombstones. Including Doraemon and Ultraman tombstones.
Wait, this post is supposed to be about the conference, ne?
So.
I finally got there, after making my friends wait for me for an hour at the station.
The conference's subject was Asian Cultural Studies, so the panels there were focusing on different ways of studying Asian culture. There were a lot focusing on the spread of different Asian countries' pop culture around the world--so there were papers on a Korean pop star's first album in the US, French-Japanese cartoons that aired in the US, Australia, and the UK, and how fans of Japanese boy bands create an underground economy by buying and selling concert tickets. Stuff like that. For whatever reason, it's not common to see relevant papers at the major academic conferences in the US--maybe we've just all had bad luck, but all four of us having bad luck??
So yesterday I met a super-famous guy who wrote a book that's important for my dissertation--he was nice. Also met a couple of guys from Australia who were doing similar topics to me, and they were SUPER excited about our whole panel. It turns out that we were like the ONLY Americans presenting at the conference, so we were THE representatives for the States. But everyone we talked to was really impressed, apparently, by our panel, and the work that our department is turning out right now. So, awesome! Exchanged a LOT of business cards with people, who are excited to keep in touch with us and our projects.
And lunch at the university cafeteria was awesome. ^_^ I mean, 500 yen for "Tuna Tartar Rice Bowl" with soup?? So, miso soup on the side of a good size bowl of rice topped with shredded sushi seaweed, shredded scrambled egg, and a good-sized portion of ground tuna sashimi garnished with green onions. Mmmmmmm, yum yum yum yum! I stand by my prediction that Ben and I will be the exceptions to the rule that you lose weight when you visit Japan as a tourist. ^_^
I'm sure I'll feel like writing more later, so I'll leave it to that for now.
In the meantime, I will give a teaser of a store we've scoped out, and will return to. Mwahahahahaha! Manga manga manga manga manga manga manga manga manga manga manga manga manga manga manga manga hahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!
Yesterday I went out to the conference, which was being held at Tokyo University for Foreign Studies. The nearest station is Tama. A friend advised me to take the Chuo Rapid train line out to the terminus of the suburban railway line that Tama's on.
So, long story shorter, I got on the Chuo Rapid, the ORANGE train, not the BLUE train or the train that says "Special Rapid" on the sign and found out that the train I was on skipped the stop I needed, while people helping me over the phone advised me to keep going (even though I was waay too far west). So I found a Chuo Rapid train that went the opposite way, and this one stopped at Musashi-Sakai, where I could transfer to the Seibu suburban line that would take me to Tama.
Don't worry, I don't need more advice on this, since I made it there today with no problem. Even though, once again, I would've skipped my stop if I hadn't learned from yesterday. (About to skip the stop today, I got off at the last stop it would stop at before mine, and got on the next train behind it, checking the monitors on the train). And really, I need no more advice, since everyone I've talked to has tried to give me advice, and has been boggled by the fact that SOME of the Chuo Rapids skip stops that others don't. I even helped out a woman on the train this morning who needed to stop at Musashi-Sakai and was about to skip her stop like me.
Anyway. Don't want to talk or read about that anymore. Anyway.
The university's located in a residential suburb with a police academy and the Sanrio theme park. And a cemetery, which isn't too weird, but we passed some funeral homes selling flowers and tombstones. Including Doraemon and Ultraman tombstones.
Wait, this post is supposed to be about the conference, ne?
So.
I finally got there, after making my friends wait for me for an hour at the station.
The conference's subject was Asian Cultural Studies, so the panels there were focusing on different ways of studying Asian culture. There were a lot focusing on the spread of different Asian countries' pop culture around the world--so there were papers on a Korean pop star's first album in the US, French-Japanese cartoons that aired in the US, Australia, and the UK, and how fans of Japanese boy bands create an underground economy by buying and selling concert tickets. Stuff like that. For whatever reason, it's not common to see relevant papers at the major academic conferences in the US--maybe we've just all had bad luck, but all four of us having bad luck??
So yesterday I met a super-famous guy who wrote a book that's important for my dissertation--he was nice. Also met a couple of guys from Australia who were doing similar topics to me, and they were SUPER excited about our whole panel. It turns out that we were like the ONLY Americans presenting at the conference, so we were THE representatives for the States. But everyone we talked to was really impressed, apparently, by our panel, and the work that our department is turning out right now. So, awesome! Exchanged a LOT of business cards with people, who are excited to keep in touch with us and our projects.
And lunch at the university cafeteria was awesome. ^_^ I mean, 500 yen for "Tuna Tartar Rice Bowl" with soup?? So, miso soup on the side of a good size bowl of rice topped with shredded sushi seaweed, shredded scrambled egg, and a good-sized portion of ground tuna sashimi garnished with green onions. Mmmmmmm, yum yum yum yum! I stand by my prediction that Ben and I will be the exceptions to the rule that you lose weight when you visit Japan as a tourist. ^_^
I'm sure I'll feel like writing more later, so I'll leave it to that for now.
In the meantime, I will give a teaser of a store we've scoped out, and will return to. Mwahahahahaha! Manga manga manga manga manga manga manga manga manga manga manga manga manga manga manga manga hahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Not much today
I took it kind of easy today after I wore myself out yesterday. I finally found Taito Station and it was pretty cool. They had 2 Rock Band style games that I tried one for guitar and one for drums. I rocked at the guitar one but sucked pretty bad at the drumming one. Also got in a bit of Super Taiko which is awesome. Plus I tried my hand at a DJ game. You had a turn table and a number of buttons to hit and match the beat. Seemed kinda fun but I didn't play it very much. I finally found the Book Off and it was awesome!!! The books there are incredibly cheap about 250 yen for a book and 105 yen for a more used copy. I'll definitely be going there again. After that I grabbed a bento at the conbini near our hotel and I will rest here until Caviglia gets done.
That's all for now.
That's all for now.
My day in Japan
We started off with the awesome breakfast again and I walked Caviglia to the station to see her off. I'll see if I can't get her to post her experiences some time.
I went back to the hotel and figured out what to do. I wanted to try some pachinko and find an arcade. We had seen some pachinko parlors near the station and I had read about a giant arcade near Shibuya station so I set out.
First I did pachinko, not all that exciting actually. I wasted a bunch of money for not much gain. I'm not a fan of slot machines in general and this was actually a bit more boring than that. I'm not sure if I was doing it right, but it seemed like you just sit there and watch the balls fly around, yeah.
I kept a few of the balls as souvenirs.
I then set out to find Taito Station, the giant arcade. I got on the Yamanote line and heading to Shibuya. I didn't find the station but Shibuya was exciting, I think it's the giant shopping district. I spent my time just walking and looking around it was pretty cool. I also found the statue of Hachiko, a famous dog statue (I don't know why it's famous I should probably find out sometime) and it's a famous meeting place.
I went back home to rest, shower(again) and change. Did I mention it is really freakin' hot here?
I went walking around Shinjuku station again and found a cool little music store and bought a couple of cds of my 2 favorite groups from Japan, Beat Crusaders and Yui. WOOO!!!
Then I went to the hotel room to cool down and wait for Caviglia.
Today I saw her off for the second day of the conference and I am going to find Taito Station for sure this time and also the Book Off. I will report again tonight!!
Ja Mata!
I went back to the hotel and figured out what to do. I wanted to try some pachinko and find an arcade. We had seen some pachinko parlors near the station and I had read about a giant arcade near Shibuya station so I set out.
First I did pachinko, not all that exciting actually. I wasted a bunch of money for not much gain. I'm not a fan of slot machines in general and this was actually a bit more boring than that. I'm not sure if I was doing it right, but it seemed like you just sit there and watch the balls fly around, yeah.
I kept a few of the balls as souvenirs.
I then set out to find Taito Station, the giant arcade. I got on the Yamanote line and heading to Shibuya. I didn't find the station but Shibuya was exciting, I think it's the giant shopping district. I spent my time just walking and looking around it was pretty cool. I also found the statue of Hachiko, a famous dog statue (I don't know why it's famous I should probably find out sometime) and it's a famous meeting place.
I went back home to rest, shower(again) and change. Did I mention it is really freakin' hot here?
I went walking around Shinjuku station again and found a cool little music store and bought a couple of cds of my 2 favorite groups from Japan, Beat Crusaders and Yui. WOOO!!!
Then I went to the hotel room to cool down and wait for Caviglia.
Today I saw her off for the second day of the conference and I am going to find Taito Station for sure this time and also the Book Off. I will report again tonight!!
Ja Mata!
Our first day in Japan
So we woke up around 5 am on our first day, we hadn't quite gotten used to the time difference. We tried to sleep a bit more to get used to it and finally gave up and went to breakfast. Holy Cow!!! The breakfast at the hotel is amazing!!!! Buffet style with both Japanese style and "Western" style. I put it in quotes cause it's not quite western style like you and I would be used to, it's hard to explain with out seeing it so I will try and get some pictures up tomorrow for it.
We decided to just walk around our area and see what we could find. We walked around Shinjuku and found some department stores which are eerily similar to malls in America only they are vertical instead of horizontal. We then found a book store to pick up a set of novels for a friend of ours and spent a lot of time looking through that store. Waaaaaaa so much manga!!!!!!!!!! We'll definitely be going back there. (My wife has the camera so I don't have pictures yet but will tonight).
We were told we had to check out a conbini (convenience store) to get lunch. It was amazing and cheap!!! (again pictures later).
We did some more walking around looking for a Book Off (used book store) but couldn't find it. I'm gonna go looking some more today though. After that we decided to head back home a rest, stopping at another conbini for supper (these are so great!!!)
So that was our first day, next Caviglia is at her conference and I spend my time wandering around Shibuya.
We decided to just walk around our area and see what we could find. We walked around Shinjuku and found some department stores which are eerily similar to malls in America only they are vertical instead of horizontal. We then found a book store to pick up a set of novels for a friend of ours and spent a lot of time looking through that store. Waaaaaaa so much manga!!!!!!!!!! We'll definitely be going back there. (My wife has the camera so I don't have pictures yet but will tonight).
We were told we had to check out a conbini (convenience store) to get lunch. It was amazing and cheap!!! (again pictures later).
We did some more walking around looking for a Book Off (used book store) but couldn't find it. I'm gonna go looking some more today though. After that we decided to head back home a rest, stopping at another conbini for supper (these are so great!!!)
So that was our first day, next Caviglia is at her conference and I spend my time wandering around Shibuya.
Pictures working?
Well I think I got the picture thing to work. So here is a barrage for you. I'll catch up later today.
At the airport:
The train ride from Narita:
View from our hotel:
And the room itself:
At the airport:
The train ride from Narita:
View from our hotel:
And the room itself:
Friday, July 3, 2009
Last time in the blogosphere....
So with the service announcement out of the way I'll pick up my story where we left off.
We got off the plane and went into the airport. Apparently everyone on our flight was taking an international connecting flight so there weren't many people around when we went through Immigration. This went a lot smoother than I expected. We had our forms all filled out on the plane and went and handed them to the official, got our fingerprints scanned, and our photo taken. Some of us had a bit more trouble with the finger scan than others. : )
Once through there we got our bags and went through customs, which was even less of a hassle.
Now we just had to figure out how to get to out hotel near Shinjuku Station, quite a ways away. Luckily there is an express train that takes you there from the airport with only 2 other stops. We bought our tickets and went to get on the train when I realized I didn't have my ticket. I was panicking and looking around dreading having to buy another ticket. Then I noticed the cashier lady from whom I had purchased the tickets looking around with a ticket in her hand. She had come to find me with my ticket that I had dropped on the ground! I was relieved to say the least.
We got on the train with relief, we just sat back and enjoyed the ride. It was a little surreal cause it hadn't quite sunk in that we were in Japan. Riding on the train through the country side it was a bit like Iowa, just replace cornfields with rice paddies.
As we got closer to Tokyo it started hitting more, just looking at all the buildings and seeing flashes of settings from manga. It was just cool.
We got to Shinjuku Station and after climbing up 3 levels or so got to the main floor and smack dab into the middle of a crowd. It was pretty crazy after not been around a large group of people for so long. (the train was mostly empty, and all the levels below the main one had very few people). We just stood there and took it in for a little bit. We weren't sure how to get out of the station as all the pass gates seemed to work in both directions and were open until you tried to walk through them (yes we tried this, not knowing you had to put your ticket through again when leaving the station). With that out of the way we had a leisurely walk to our hotel. We noticed on our way that there is a Krispy Kreme just outside of our hotel. HA take that Iowa City and surrounding areas we gots ourselves a Krispy Kreme. I'll have to report on how it compares in a later post.
Well we got checked in and into our rooms by about 8 pm local time and were pretty beat. We wanted to stay up and get our bodies used to the new time so we watched tv for a bit and went to bed. As Caviglia noted it is weird and strangely entertaining to watch tv in a different language. I think the most entertaining part are the ads, they are so different from what we have at home.
I'll leave it here for now, Caviglia is at her conference tomorrow so I will do some more posts about our first day in Japan and about my day. Hopefully that will get us all caught up and I can do posts as they happen.
We got off the plane and went into the airport. Apparently everyone on our flight was taking an international connecting flight so there weren't many people around when we went through Immigration. This went a lot smoother than I expected. We had our forms all filled out on the plane and went and handed them to the official, got our fingerprints scanned, and our photo taken. Some of us had a bit more trouble with the finger scan than others. : )
Once through there we got our bags and went through customs, which was even less of a hassle.
Now we just had to figure out how to get to out hotel near Shinjuku Station, quite a ways away. Luckily there is an express train that takes you there from the airport with only 2 other stops. We bought our tickets and went to get on the train when I realized I didn't have my ticket. I was panicking and looking around dreading having to buy another ticket. Then I noticed the cashier lady from whom I had purchased the tickets looking around with a ticket in her hand. She had come to find me with my ticket that I had dropped on the ground! I was relieved to say the least.
We got on the train with relief, we just sat back and enjoyed the ride. It was a little surreal cause it hadn't quite sunk in that we were in Japan. Riding on the train through the country side it was a bit like Iowa, just replace cornfields with rice paddies.
As we got closer to Tokyo it started hitting more, just looking at all the buildings and seeing flashes of settings from manga. It was just cool.
We got to Shinjuku Station and after climbing up 3 levels or so got to the main floor and smack dab into the middle of a crowd. It was pretty crazy after not been around a large group of people for so long. (the train was mostly empty, and all the levels below the main one had very few people). We just stood there and took it in for a little bit. We weren't sure how to get out of the station as all the pass gates seemed to work in both directions and were open until you tried to walk through them (yes we tried this, not knowing you had to put your ticket through again when leaving the station). With that out of the way we had a leisurely walk to our hotel. We noticed on our way that there is a Krispy Kreme just outside of our hotel. HA take that Iowa City and surrounding areas we gots ourselves a Krispy Kreme. I'll have to report on how it compares in a later post.
Well we got checked in and into our rooms by about 8 pm local time and were pretty beat. We wanted to stay up and get our bodies used to the new time so we watched tv for a bit and went to bed. As Caviglia noted it is weird and strangely entertaining to watch tv in a different language. I think the most entertaining part are the ads, they are so different from what we have at home.
I'll leave it here for now, Caviglia is at her conference tomorrow so I will do some more posts about our first day in Japan and about my day. Hopefully that will get us all caught up and I can do posts as they happen.
Stupid Computer is being stupid
So I'm not sure if the connection is bad or what but I can't seem to upload any photos. So we will continue taking them and may have to update the blog when we get home with a giant photo post or something. I'll continue working on it but it doesn't look promising.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Ok so we're here (This time with pictures) (or not)
So it looks like I'm having a bit of trouble uploading images and I don't feel like dealing with it right now. So these will come later.
Yeah we're in Japan and I'm not tired!! The room here is pretty small compared to hotel rooms I'm used to but it's not too bad at all. We'll have more about the room later, first the tale of our plane trip.
Yeah boarding passes!!!
Mom and Dad dropped us off at the airport in Cedar Rapids and we got our bags checked and sat and waited for our flight. After Dad and grabbed a cinnamon roll with an un-godly amount of frosting we decided to go through security and wait for the plane there.
Luckily my metal plate did not set off the security sensor, but un-luckily the phone I had left in my pocket did, bah!! Once that was straghtened out we got on the plane. It was super tiny but I was in the aisle so I could stretch out a bit.
One thing of note, sitting 2 rows in front of us was none other than U of I's Offensive Coordinator Ken O'Keefe! I didn't want to bother him since he was with his wife but still kinda cool.
We landed in Detroit and ate a Chili's before getting on our ginormous 747 for the grueling 13hr or so flight to Japan. It started out ok cause it was much bigger than the other plane we had taken, but after a few hours of sitting in once it got a bit uncomfortable. We had supper on the plane and then I tried sleeping for a bit. When that didn't work I watched one of the inflight movies. The selection wasn't great but I got to see the wonderfully craptacular Dragon Ball Evolution movie again! It was just as wonderfully horrible as the last time, Chow Yun Fat makes a great Master Roshi.
This is getting a bit long so I will end it here, we're getting ready to walk around our hotel for a bit.
I'll continue with more info about the airport and getting to our hotel later. In the meantime here are the rest of the pics we took before getting on the plane.
Hellooooo
Soo tired. We are watching TV, where various things we can't understand have been happening, including some celebrity panel where they were talking about some guy in Hokkaido who makes octopus Japanese curry for his family. Now we're watching a game show where contestants have to make a panel of people laugh with an improv sketch.
I will now go lie down and pass out. ^_^
Oyasumi~
I will now go lie down and pass out. ^_^
Oyasumi~
We're Here!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well we finally made it. I'm feeling lazy tonight so I won't post much right now. I'll do a nice long one about our trip over here tomorrow, with pictures. So stay tuned.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)