Friday 31 October 2008
Photos!
I haven't quite finished - no captions yet on the second Hakone trip and the Nikko trip - but mostly done. Photos from Japan 2008!
Thursday 30 October 2008
Sunday 26 October 2008
But...
On the train to Kanayama to change to the Meitetsu line out to the airport, if I can do it in seven minutes. Overcast and drizzling, so the UK won't be too much of a shock.
That was never three weeks.;_;
Friday 24 October 2008
手ぬぐい
Rain again today. Dad has gone to see a Vermeer exhibit while I figure out what to do with the rest of my shopping list, case space and money.
Wednesday 22 October 2008
Electric City
In Akihabara, getting maps for visiting my new clients tomorrow. Got some of my comics second hand, but not many. Also got an RPG for the DS and some Asian Kung Fu Generation CDs! Must get back, wake Dad up and get us some food.
Tuesday 21 October 2008
We're on the Old Tokkaido Road!
Turned back, now having lunch before sailing across Lake Ashi. Third time I've done Hakone, first time I've done it clockwise!
Monday 20 October 2008
Sunday 19 October 2008
We're on the way to Nikko!
Friday 17 October 2008
This will hurt later
Safely on board the unreserved part of the Hikari Superexpress 400 departing Nagoya at 6:20 after being told last night there were no reserved seats left - smoking or non-smoking - until 8:30. I need to be in Narita as early as possible, which from Nagoya on the first shinkansen of the day is 10:00, to meet Dad. At least I now have plenty of time to change at Shinagawa.
Thursday 16 October 2008
Wednesday 15 October 2008
Tuesday 14 October 2008
Monday 13 October 2008
Sunday 12 October 2008
Saturday 11 October 2008
Friday 10 October 2008
Thursday 9 October 2008
Wednesday 8 October 2008
いくらとイクラ
昨日とてもおいしいレストランを偶然に見つけて楽しい夕食ができました。
はいてすぐウエータがちいさなおさらをテーブルにおき、「イクラ食べれますか」と聞きました。
私はえっ？と思って、いくら食べられるってどういう意味ですかと聞きました。もしもうすぐラストオーダーですか？
ウエータはしばらく困ったまま立ち止まりました。「あのう、魚のタマゴ。。。」
小さなおさらにイクラがありました。
日本語はまだまだですね。
On the rails again
We've ended our three days in Kanazawa - it's a lovely, compact town with loads to offer and really nice people. Now on the Hakutaka Limited Express to Naoetsu where we change for Nagano, then on to Obuse where we're staying tonight. It's a beautiful day, and I'm going to stare out the window...
Tuesday 7 October 2008
Monday 6 October 2008
Best laid plans
I don`t know what went wrong between me talking to the Finnair customer service rep and checking in at Heathrow, but clearly something did.
We decided to be a little paranoid and leave early, up at 6:00 and out at 6:50, leaving Takeshi at the station to continue on and take photos of Mapledurham before continuing on his tour of places associated with English writers. We got into Terminal 3 in good time. Only to find there was no flight to Helsinki listed. Or any Finnair flight, for that matter. Check the e-ticket again. Definitely says T3. Very apologetic man at the information desk says the flight is in fact from T1 and we`re the 40th people this morning to ask. Off to T1 we go.
We come out of the connecting tunnel at check-in area A, Finnair are in area R. Which turns out to be out of the other side of the main hall and halfway to T2. When we finally check in with BA, they have no record of us sitting together on the flight to Helsinki. The best they can do is sitting behind each other. And as for the Helsinki-Nagoya flight... 28J and 51G. We got through security with no problems and had a nice cooked breakfast, followed by himself setting his out-of-office at the internet cafe. The flight to Helsinki was fine, with a rather canteen-style pasta shells bolognaise for me, and couscous for himself - thankfully his meals had been registered. Wandered around a small section of Helsinki Airport for 2 hours and got a most amusing box of Moomin-themed sweets for Bill.
We boarded to find a mother with a young child had taken my seat and that of a young French guy, he had let her child stay in his seat so she was still in mine. He was in the same situation as us - trying to sit beside his girlfriend. I swapped with her, which meant I lost my aisle seat and neither myself nor himself could get anyone to swop. Watched Kung-Fu Panda and Iron Man and several episodes of Bones - prefer CSI, I know the main character for bones is meant to be a bit reserved, but I couldn`t get to like her at all.
Arrived in Nagoya and picked up the phone with no problems, got on a train and programmed in numbers as we went into the city center. I tried to call Narita to get a announcement put out to tell Bill which post office in Narita to go to, but it went like some horrible comedy routine. She kept offering to give them my number, I kept explaining I needed to tell them where to get their phone first. She continued to offer to give them my number. We had something to eat and found the last large locker in the station for our cases, then headed out to Nagoya Castle. It was incredibly hot, and we even got a bit burnt.
Bill and Austa arrived with no problems, and although they had never heard the announcement they had got the phone. We grabbed a quick bowl of noodles and got the Shirasagi express train out to Kanazawa, arriving in the beautiful station with its traditional gate theme at close to 10:00 and staggering across the road to the hotel, Dormy Inn. Himself made use of the sauna and onsen, which I have yet to do.
Anyway - day 2 in Kanazawa is starting, so I will report on Day 1 later!
We decided to be a little paranoid and leave early, up at 6:00 and out at 6:50, leaving Takeshi at the station to continue on and take photos of Mapledurham before continuing on his tour of places associated with English writers. We got into Terminal 3 in good time. Only to find there was no flight to Helsinki listed. Or any Finnair flight, for that matter. Check the e-ticket again. Definitely says T3. Very apologetic man at the information desk says the flight is in fact from T1 and we`re the 40th people this morning to ask. Off to T1 we go.
We come out of the connecting tunnel at check-in area A, Finnair are in area R. Which turns out to be out of the other side of the main hall and halfway to T2. When we finally check in with BA, they have no record of us sitting together on the flight to Helsinki. The best they can do is sitting behind each other. And as for the Helsinki-Nagoya flight... 28J and 51G. We got through security with no problems and had a nice cooked breakfast, followed by himself setting his out-of-office at the internet cafe. The flight to Helsinki was fine, with a rather canteen-style pasta shells bolognaise for me, and couscous for himself - thankfully his meals had been registered. Wandered around a small section of Helsinki Airport for 2 hours and got a most amusing box of Moomin-themed sweets for Bill.
We boarded to find a mother with a young child had taken my seat and that of a young French guy, he had let her child stay in his seat so she was still in mine. He was in the same situation as us - trying to sit beside his girlfriend. I swapped with her, which meant I lost my aisle seat and neither myself nor himself could get anyone to swop. Watched Kung-Fu Panda and Iron Man and several episodes of Bones - prefer CSI, I know the main character for bones is meant to be a bit reserved, but I couldn`t get to like her at all.
Arrived in Nagoya and picked up the phone with no problems, got on a train and programmed in numbers as we went into the city center. I tried to call Narita to get a announcement put out to tell Bill which post office in Narita to go to, but it went like some horrible comedy routine. She kept offering to give them my number, I kept explaining I needed to tell them where to get their phone first. She continued to offer to give them my number. We had something to eat and found the last large locker in the station for our cases, then headed out to Nagoya Castle. It was incredibly hot, and we even got a bit burnt.
Bill and Austa arrived with no problems, and although they had never heard the announcement they had got the phone. We grabbed a quick bowl of noodles and got the Shirasagi express train out to Kanazawa, arriving in the beautiful station with its traditional gate theme at close to 10:00 and staggering across the road to the hotel, Dormy Inn. Himself made use of the sauna and onsen, which I have yet to do.
Anyway - day 2 in Kanazawa is starting, so I will report on Day 1 later!
Sunday 5 October 2008
Thursday 2 October 2008
Enjoy the silence?
Well, here I am - I feel like I've successfully jumped off one ledge only to find myself preparing to jump off another. Germany was successfully left - minus not closing my bank account and leaving half my books there, but I have a trip freshly booked to go back in November and close and collect as appropriate. Exams are done with - I didn't have the energy to study during the last few weeks, preferring to spend any spare time decompressing and attempting to sleep, but the exams themselves went okay with no blanking or freezing. I'm sure I could have done better if I'd studied more, but that would be an alternate universe.
Monday and Tuesday were spent frantically tidying up as I had a guest arrive on Tuesday evening, the other half of a friend I always stay with in Tokyo. The front room looks great and the bathroom like some minimalist artwork - until you open either of the cabinets, anyway. The cluttered truth is sitting in our bedroom and the computer room until such time as we get around to doing something with it. Probably involving throwing half of it out.
Next on the list was getting some new trousers, since I managed to destroy two pairs in Frankfurt, and I had to face the unhappy fact that I am my usual size only if I get the more expensive M&S trousers whose definition of 'stretch' is a bit more flexible than the cheap ones. I was also ready for a sit down after just walking into town, walking around and coming back, which does not bode well for Japan, where I usually spend all day every day walking. All my own fault, of course (nothing made me choose a packet of pain au chocolat and a coffee over a tray of fresh pineapple and water in the supermarket in the mornings) but still bodes painfully.
Still feeling very unprepared for Japan, but we have the essentials - passport, tickets, money, hotel reservations. Will pick up the phones at the airport and can then do my mobile blogging with pics as I did last year. Looking forward to seeing Kanazawa, which I haven't been to before. Cleared off the camera's memory stick in anticipation. Time to make a dent in that hosting I've paid for...
One final night out tonight, taking my guest and meeting some friends in Sweeney's pie shop, and then it's into bed and up early tomorrow to get to the airport. Have been reading some pretty mixed reviews of Finnair so hope they're all right. Their customer services certainly weren't as bad as I'd heard - ended up calling them yesterday to book himself's vegetarian meal after realising he hadn't done so, and try to get us seated together.
(This was after calling my calling card people, finding out the reason I couldn't make a call was they'd switched me to a new account but then suspended it as I hadn't used it for 6 months... I was trying to use it in Germany, but as they hadn't given me the new account number, I wasn't able to. Usual fun going around and around with this with their customer services.)
Item falling off the to-do list this time is doing my tax return but if I do it online, as I usually do, I can still do it after I come back. There isn't much left to assemble it all, it just takes time and I'd rather not start it now. That will slot into November, along with writing my last essay (on the status of women in interwar Japan and Korea and how it led to their vulnerability to the 'comfort women' system) and trying to come up with a thesis or annotated translation topic. And trying for the nth time to find a tiler for the flat. And catching up with a lot of friends.
Monday and Tuesday were spent frantically tidying up as I had a guest arrive on Tuesday evening, the other half of a friend I always stay with in Tokyo. The front room looks great and the bathroom like some minimalist artwork - until you open either of the cabinets, anyway. The cluttered truth is sitting in our bedroom and the computer room until such time as we get around to doing something with it. Probably involving throwing half of it out.
Next on the list was getting some new trousers, since I managed to destroy two pairs in Frankfurt, and I had to face the unhappy fact that I am my usual size only if I get the more expensive M&S trousers whose definition of 'stretch' is a bit more flexible than the cheap ones. I was also ready for a sit down after just walking into town, walking around and coming back, which does not bode well for Japan, where I usually spend all day every day walking. All my own fault, of course (nothing made me choose a packet of pain au chocolat and a coffee over a tray of fresh pineapple and water in the supermarket in the mornings) but still bodes painfully.
Still feeling very unprepared for Japan, but we have the essentials - passport, tickets, money, hotel reservations. Will pick up the phones at the airport and can then do my mobile blogging with pics as I did last year. Looking forward to seeing Kanazawa, which I haven't been to before. Cleared off the camera's memory stick in anticipation. Time to make a dent in that hosting I've paid for...
One final night out tonight, taking my guest and meeting some friends in Sweeney's pie shop, and then it's into bed and up early tomorrow to get to the airport. Have been reading some pretty mixed reviews of Finnair so hope they're all right. Their customer services certainly weren't as bad as I'd heard - ended up calling them yesterday to book himself's vegetarian meal after realising he hadn't done so, and try to get us seated together.
(This was after calling my calling card people, finding out the reason I couldn't make a call was they'd switched me to a new account but then suspended it as I hadn't used it for 6 months... I was trying to use it in Germany, but as they hadn't given me the new account number, I wasn't able to. Usual fun going around and around with this with their customer services.)
Item falling off the to-do list this time is doing my tax return but if I do it online, as I usually do, I can still do it after I come back. There isn't much left to assemble it all, it just takes time and I'd rather not start it now. That will slot into November, along with writing my last essay (on the status of women in interwar Japan and Korea and how it led to their vulnerability to the 'comfort women' system) and trying to come up with a thesis or annotated translation topic. And trying for the nth time to find a tiler for the flat. And catching up with a lot of friends.
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