WTF

This past weekend, Jen and I went to the beach. While there, we visited Brookgreen Gardens. It's essentially an outdoor sculpture museum with plenty of stone and bronze boobs.

There's also what's billed as a Low Country Zoo (as in the Low Country of SC). Part of that exhibit contains something out of a nightmare. No, 1000's of things out of a nightmare. Imagine if you will a 10 ft by 10 ft barn stall completely filled with cob webs. Why so many cob webs? BECAUSE OF ALL THE FUCKING SPIDERS. The spider below was one of thousands, each one about the size of your fist. Just waiting, waiting for the perfect chance to jump in your hair and get tangled there. Fortunately, this did not happen to us, but I feel that it very well could have. It freaked me the hell out.

I balled up a piece of leaf and tossed it in one of the webs. The legged thing bolted over and grab the leaf and started nomming on it, it's little fangs twitching. Eventually it decided that the leaf wasn't food and let it fall to the ground. These things are killing machines!

Nara

We rented bicycles in Nara and had a blast. The eastern part of town has a park referred to as "Deer parK" I'm assuming due to the abundance of 'wild' deer that roam around. There are vendors that sell crackers solely for the deer. If a herd of deer spot you with some, they'll rush you as a herd.

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Beware of Bird Poop

I thought this sign was interesting. It says something to the effect of "Be careful of the bird poop." There were a lot of small birds, likely sparrows, flitting about. I'm assuming they were the perpetrators.



Himeji is one of the more famous castle towns in Japan. I believe it was spared any damage during WWII and is still in great condition. Himeji is about 30 minutes by Shinkansen from Kyoto. It's a really nice stop. There's not much to see there other than the castle, so we only spent a couple of hours there before we were on to our next destination.

Tsukiji

Tsukiji is the largest fish market in the world. It's located right off of Tokyo bay, pretty close to the Ginza shopping district and the National Kabuki theater. There are hundreds of retail and wholesale sellers with a huge variety of offerings, the least of which is fish.

Needless to say, we had some of the best sushi I've ever tasted here. That's going to be our first stop the next time we visit Japan.

See Tsukiji on Google Maps

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She runs

This past weekend I took Claire to a friend's house with a fenced in back yard. She went nuts. She reminded me of that dog from Funny Farm that took off at the beginning of the movie and only showed back up sporadically running across the fields in the distance. I think she'd run all day if she could. This animal deserves a fenced in yard. A big one.

Daniel Stowe

We went to Daniel Stowe Botanical gardens again the other weekend. That's the same place we took the first and only photo that Jen's sold, so it's quite special.

Here's a link to more photos from Daniel Stowe

Hospitality

Allow me to generalize. Japanese know how to do hospitality right. Never have I been anywhere that folks go to such extremes to please the customer. We could learn a lot from Japan's customer service.
Almost everywhere we went, our experiences were enhanced by exceptional customer service. The post office, hotels, cell phone rentals, buying train tickets, street vendors - everyone was friendly
and efficient and really eager to please. That kind of attention makes you feel good about spending money.

As an aside, some of the most lackluster service we saw was in convenience stores. They seemed to have the same kind of "I'm ready to go home" attitude that we have in the US. After a while we became accustomed to being treated well. Coming home it was quite a culture shock when we met our surly immigration officials in Chicago. I could only think about how much more effort it would take to be pleasant to people. Not that much.

That's a big part of what I love about Japan. It seems second nature of people to want to be helpful. Everywhere you go, you're a guest, and folks treat you like one. On one occasion I asked a young
couple for directions to a temple. They weren't sure of the way, so they insisted on accompanying me along the 15 minute walk to where I was going. This kind of behavior isn't uncommon.

A guide to squat toilets

Here's a typical squat toilet in Japan. It's not uncommon when a westerner is faced with one of these for the first time that they wonder "What the hell am I supposed to do with this?" Well good news for us, we actually found some instructions for using them. To unlock this mystery of Eastern culture, click on the jump.




The ever useful instructions:



The arrows in the left graphic represent the force of gravity on poop. When using one of these toilets, you can assured that gravity is in fact still in effect.

Claire

Claire, originally uploaded by Geekly.

Here's our girl. She's a lot bigger than this now, but this is the best puppy pic that we have.

Tonkii

I ordered some Japanese Readers from White Rabbit Press a few weeks ago. They're a really good way to study Japanese. The stories are simple and often based on traditional (or contemporary) stories from Japan. They're like children's books with illustrations and simplified language.

One of the stories in the Level 2 set is about an elephant in the Ueno zoo around the time of WWII. His name is Tonkii. It was heartbreaking. I'm surprised that a story written in such "simple" language could be so moving.

I'd recommend these books to anyone that's had trouble finding reading material on their level. It was a great find.

Japanese Graded Reader

There's also mention of the elephants on the Wiki page for Ueno Zoo

Hello World!

I started this blog a while ago to kind of keep track of things that
interest me. Looking back, it's a pretty scattered collection of
thoughts. What this medium is going to evolve into, I don't know
exactly. I think I'm going to start posting here again.

My life these days revolves around my wife (Jen) and my dog (Claire).
My primary obsession these days is still studying Japanese and
spending time in Japan. The former I can realize, the latter is more
day dreaming than anything. Photography is still a big interest,
although we haven't taken many shots lately. We still play World of
Warcraft pretty regularly, but I feel more and more like it's a drain
on our energy and that I'm left with nothing to show for it.

So, I'll try fill up this space with things that interest me on the
off chance that it might interest someone else.

Hotel Nikko

Hotel Nikko
Originally uploaded by Geekly.

What a horrible picture... Anyway, this is the hotel we stayed at in 2001. My friend Mark was going for a conference and asked me if I wanted to go with him. For a free flight and hotel in Tokyo, I decided I could put up with his snoring and farting for a few days.

The hotel is in Odaiba, which is a man-made island in Tokyo Bay. Access was pretty convenient via mono-rail. Next door was big shopping complex called Aqua City.

Business Class Lunch

Business Class Lunch
Originally uploaded by Geekly.

The JAL food in business class was pretty good. Even on the plane, it was a several course meal. I had beer and water. There's some sushi, salad, gyoza.... I could go for some of that right now. Check out the little table cloth, mini soy sauce container, and yellow chopstick rest. Nice touches.

Geeks on a plane

Geeks on a plane
Originally uploaded by Geekly.

It was five years ago this month that I went to Japan with my friend Mark. Here's us in business class aboard JAL. I'm still in glasses and braces, practicing the one-handed shot that I've perfected to date. Based on how greasy I look, I would say that we're almost to Narita. I need a shower.

Another Sunset

Originally uploaded by Geekly.

I know, I know... another sunset. But seriously, this is one of my favorite shots from the weekend. I'm actually surprised it came out of my camera. Hmm... now that I notice... when did I switch from Nikon to Canon?

Bear Island

Bear Island
Originally uploaded by Geekly.

Our site was the fifth nugget to the right. Not too close and not too far from the shelter. We had two competing goals: having privacy and being lazy. It would have been a mile walk if we'd chosen the choicest of sites, site #10.

The three sites to the left of the shelter (otherwise known as red dot) are for group camping (otherwise known as obnoxious boy scouts).

It doesn't look very far on the map, but it felt 10 miles with 40lbs of trail mix strapped to my back. Maybe next time we'll venture farther, maybe as far as site #6.

Sand in my ass

Originally uploaded by Geekly.

This is why I had sand in my ass the whole weekend we went camping on Bear island. The only showers were these outdoor ones. Now, I would have gladly made use of the showers discretely at night, but there's also a "No Public Nudity" restriction in the state park. So, you can wash off your body, but your butt crack gets neglected.

Stay off sand dunes

Stay off sand dunes
Originally uploaded by Geekly.

Warning: Self-righteous post ahead

Seriously. No, I mean really. Stay off the dunes. The dunes are a protected resource and they serve an important purpose to the preservation of the barrier islands. They're not your personal hiking wilderness. Sure, you can see farther and maybe get better cell phone coverage from the top, but regardless, in case you missed it, stay the FUCK off of the dunes. Thanks.

I'm normally disinclined to care about what other people are up to, but I actually called the rangers on some people that were dune hiking when we went camping. I doubt they were caught, but it was the principle of the thing.

Stay off the dunes.

Serenity

Serenity
Originally uploaded by Geekly.

Jen and I went camping on Bear Island, part of the Hammocks Beach State Park near Swansboro, NC. Here's a shot of the sunset on our second night there.

Camping on the beach was an experience like no other. A sandy dune makes for a nice bed, conforming itself to our bony (and not so bony) parts. It was private too, for the most part. We had to walk about 3/4 of a mile to get water and there weren't any showers, but let's be honest, I smelled like a rose all weekend.

Keeping sand out of the tent was a problem. Each time we entered, we had to perform the ritual of pulling off socks, wiping our feet one at a time, and then shuffling our asses back inside once we were purified. I suspect that Jen failed to follow this ritual appropriately during the wee hours when the pee fairy called. I suspect this because in spite of our efforts (while I was awake) we still ended up with enough sand inside to build a castle, complete with drawbridge and jousting knights.

I hope we can go back in the spring.

Tokyo for Under $1,000 a Week, Including Airfare

This guy did a cheap week in Tokyo. Pretty sweet.

World Hum | Travel | Tokyo for Under $1,000 a Week, Including Airfare