Monthly Archives: March 2009

Issue 25 of Shape of a Box is Up and Kyoto Footage!

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Issue 25 is up with two short stories!

Lise Erdrich lives in Wahpeton, ND where she works at the Circle of Nations School, an inter-tribal off-reservation Indian boarding school. The Kansas City Star just released their round-up of the years best books and Night Train made the Top 10 short fiction list. You can check it out here: http://www.kansascity.com/entertainment/story/901141-p4.html and an Author interview at Coffee House Press website: http://www.coffeehousepress.org/index.asp

Also on my personal account I have uploaded my little cameras footage from the week :) Maybe when Ken and I get a chance to work with his camera we will also be able to pull his HD footage which is much better.

Footage here

Back Home Recuperating from Vacation

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We are back in the States!

Our last night in Kyoto, we made our final visit to the 7-11 to have dinner. No seriously, their freshly made but microwavable meals were surprisingly good!!

On our Saturday we got up and tried to stay in the room as long as possible but, ya know how it is when you are waiting, we still ended up leaving by a little after 10 (had to be out by 11) to trek to the airport.

The trek involved a walk to the subway. Switching to a train, then taking the express train directly to the airport.   It didn’t take us long to get through security and all so we were settled into the airport by about 12, note our flight was to leave at 6pm *sigh* and we had to try and find lunch. We really just wanted some generic food but with limited choices for anything non-Japanese we ended up at McDonald’s. Bleh.

The Kansai airport, however, is really nice.  We wandered around to some of the stores before settling in to use the free internet at our gate and not just free internet but free computers to use!

The time went by fairly quickly and we were on our 9-10 hour flight back. I was having a hard time for the last hour or so and when we got off the plane I was extremely dizzy and feeling nauseous, even with taking a bunch of Dramamine.  But we still made it there in time to see if we could get some earlier flights back home.  Alas, no.

It was less fun being in the San Francisco airport and there was no way to get particularly comfortable but still Ken and I both managed to pass out in some of the chairs for 30 minutes or so at a time. We finally, grogilly, ate something around 2pm San Fran time (5 pm Saturday hours). I know food in airports is more expensive but San Fran really takes the cake!! (And if I had bought cake it probably would have been about $7).

We were in the San Fran airport for about 6 hours, but my memory is getting hazy as I was in and out of it.  Then we had a short flight to Vegas where we had about an hour layover and then a 4 hour flight back to Charlotte where my sister Edna was good enough to pick us up at the crack of 6:20 am!

Back home I was feeling really UGH but I started some laundry and took a shower, trying to wake myself up.  But it wasn’t happening. Ken and I both fell back to sleep at 9 in the morning and slept for 10 hours.  We got up at about 7 and ordered a pizza and stayed up till about 10.  We both ended up finally getting out of bed at about 5 this morning, not really sure if we slept or not.  Ah the perils of jet lag.

Hopefully I’ll start feeling better today as I straighten up all the clothes and go through all the mail, basically get back on a regular schedule!!!

It was still a great trip, I just need to recover from it!

Oh, and typical me, I hardly ate and walked 5-10 miles a day and I lost no weight while on the trip. Seriously. What does a girl have to do? (Says the same girl who actually gained a pound while having the stomach flu…)

Day 6 – Winding Down

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We were having the hardest time deciding what to eat last night, so I ended up walking down to the ramen shop and through broken Japanese and gestures I was able to order rice, fried chicken (really like chicken fingers but better) and gyoza (that turned out to be veggie dumplings but that is ok) which is what we had for dinner.

Ken got some good footage of this Gong show type program that was on last night.  It was hysterical.

We slept in this morning and decided to do some final shopping before trying to relax tonight so we can prepare for the long Saturday or traveling and flying.  So the next time I blog, it will be from the states. Our Saturday will end up being like 28 hours, I think, and we should get in about 7am on Sunday unless I can get an earlier flight out of San Francisco where we currently have an 8 hour layover.  We’ll also be spending a lot of time in Kansai airport cause our flight doesn’t leave until 6pm but we are out of our room at 11. Might be buying a book in the airport!

img_1739 We went back to Kyoto Station (where we catch the train for the airport tomorrow too) to base our shopping day.  It is really hard to describe just how big this station is.  I tried to take a picture to give you a rough idea but just think of a major train terminal with multiple subway lines, a bus hub, a hotel and an 11 story department store.  Can you?

We pick up some gifts in the department store but my goal of trying to find a cool shirt was just not to be.  Couldn’t find anything I really liked.  We did find another Mister Donut so we could get a 2nd donuty fix for our trip even though we went through several other pastry shops without buying things.  What is it about Mister Donut?

In one of the pastry shops in the Department store (yes there were pastries on more than one floor) I snapped a quick shot of some of the items. img_1738

Oink, Oink, pastry! We also walked back down the street to Bic camera where Ken picked up a few items before we headed over to Avanti, which was — per the guide book — a department store geared more towards young people.  And it was.  I should have taken some photos in there, but think Spencers with maybe a 5-7-9 store thrown in or Hot Topic.  And then make that like 5 or 6 different floors as well as a food court, electronics section (of course) and bookstore (alas still didn’t find any books to pick up).

We grabbed some McDonald’s for lunch cause it was already 2pm and well, we are getting back to being American right! before the long walk just to get back through Kyoto station for our train then bus back to the room.  It is just after 4 now and we are trying to relax some before, hopefully, being able to check into our flight at 6pm and then figuring out what to do for dinner.  I’m so tired of trying to decide between something on noodles or something on rice, not that there aren’t other choices if you want to walk further, catch a taxi or something else but I’ve had a Japanese food overload!

I took a LOT of pictures on my digital SLR (which is a great camera for anyone who might want it! ) but just not professional enough to be a professional (like in PHOTOGRAPHING WEDDINGS! cause of digital low light limitations unless you spend over a grand) and not small enough to be me friendly.  Think I know what I want for my next camera though, will be released soon! But I’m working on a Facebook photo album that I can share with everyone.

The only things we didn’t get to on our list of possibles were both in the same area of the Northwest of Kyoto.  For me it was the bamboo gardens and for Ken the monkey park.  They both would have required a great deal of walking and/or climbing and at least an hour travel time by bus.  By this point in the week, we just weren’t feeling it!

Album One

Album Two

Day 5 – Power Rangers and Stairs

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This morning we headed over to the Uzama railway stop so we could visit Kyoto Studio Park.  If the weather had looked clearer, or we hadn’t been so tired from a week of travel, we might have instead gone to the monkey park and/or bamboo gardens that were just North of this area, but that’s why we do the things we want to do most first on vacation!

I think Ken put it best when he said the Kyoto Studio Park was 50% cool and 50% cheesy.  There was a room full of costumes for the Power Rangers over the yearsimg_1713

which was pretty funny.  On the weekends and during the regular season (think summer amusement parks) there are “real” Power Rangers who come out and put on a show.  This park also had some neat sets from different time periods where supposedly some actually filming goes on from time to time.  We saw some of the “shows” which were quite entertaining even if you don’t know the language and we got to go through a haunted houes which was SOO much fun.  I hadn’t been in a haunted house in like forever! It was a long journey to get there but we had a nice Chinese meal in the park (reasonably priced and tons! of food that neither of us finished) before I came up with the bright idea of wandering through the Northern area of our neighborhood that we didn’t get to on the first day and then using it as a way to wander back to our room.

Whew.  We made it but boy are we tired!  We only got to one temple in the afternoon because most of them close at 4 or 5 pm but the one we saw, Chion-in, was one we had been trying to get to on Monday but did not find.img_1720

I was so beat by the time we got here that it looked completely daunting, for some reason my feeling so good from yesterday turned into not so good today.  I don’t know if you can tell in the picture but that first flight of stairs is not the only flight. up between the center pillars was a large flight of stairs with at least 50 steep steps.  Smart Ken found a side route that took us through this really great park and still got us up into the temple area where there were actual Buddhist monks chanting and such and people praying.  It was a beautiful spot but we could not take pictures inside.

Since we really didn’t have time for more temples we wound our way through the streets of the Giion area which I didn’t end up taking pictures of because it was very crowded and there were off and on showers.  We did pick up a couple of souvenirs before the long trek back to the room which we did without getting lost.  Navigating by walking is SOO much easier for me then the whole narly bus system.

Ken is watching some sumo on TV and I guess soon we should decide what to have for dinner. I’ve tried to decide what to do tomorrow but there isn’t much left on my list and quite a few of the things are spread out so hmmm…..A decision for the morning and the status of the weather and our levels of tiredness.

I’ll leave you with one of the many cherry blossom photos I have taken, because hey, it is that time of the year.

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Day 4 – Shopping and the Golden Pavillion

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Yum! The ice-cream we picked up last night was great.  Thank heavens for the 7-Eleven within walking distance.

I’m waiting on my term in the super hot bath so I thought I’d go ahead and get my blog on. (Oh I sound so retarded, but I’m feeling pretty good today!)

We left at about 9;30 because all my travel stuff said the downtown area shopping opened at 10 or 10;30, note, most of the stores open at 11 so I’d plan accordingly.  Luckily the subway closest to us actually went to a stop near downtown so we were able to take it without any transfers.

As we were walking to the covered shopping arcades that we wanted to spend some time with, we saw an old friend that we discovered in Tokyoimg_1634:

Mr. Donut!  Yum! Super light donuts, and in this case, with a dark chocolate coating.  I had some kind of green fanta drink that I think was maybe some kind of melon flavor?  It tasted a bit like a jolly rancher.

What a great way to start the day, especially when we kept ourselves to no refills (which I would not know how to ask for anyway!) and one donut.  Yay for not eating large American style!

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Back from my break, super hot bath, it is more awesome then you realize, dear brother Richard who was telling me it is just a tub with a thermostat :P

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After our breakfast we wandered into the covered arcades which included a wide variety of shops and a separate area for the Nishiki food marketimg_1635.  (Sorry the picture is a little dark this place was crowded with cars, people and people on scooters and bikes..and well, you get the idea so I didn’t have time to set up a bunch of shots).

I picked up some fresh small radishes that I haven’t tried yet and Ken had some chicken fingers from a vendor there which were super tasty even not heated.

After we finished up with the shopping area we were debating going into one of the super huge department stores but since the weather was looking better (it had been sprinkly and overcast when we left so we were trying to stay indoors) so we decided to go to Kinkaku-ji, aka The Golden Pavillion, which involved *sigh* buses. I swear it takes forever to get anywhere by bus in Kyoto, but there are many sites that are only available by bus.  Maybe this is what bus riding is like everywhere but it seemed really, really slow.

It was worth the ride, however, because the site was just beautiful, even with all the crowds jockeying for a spot to take pictures. I managed to squeeze in to get a few shots.

img_16371There were also gardens to wander through and by the time we were done we decided we would get a snack before heading to another site I had heard about that had additional gardens as well as a rock garden.  But first we stopped for some ice cream.  I had Sakura flavored, which is cherry blossom, I can’t really describe the flavor but it reminded me of an unsweet strawberry but was SOOO good.

The rock garden was ok.  The actual gardens around it were a bit more interesting.  It might have been hampered a bit by some construction going on but still worth a visit.

img_1683By the time we finished the rock garden it was already about 3pm.  With most temples and all closing around 4 or 5 and knowing how long the buses take we knew we were going to head back to the room.  We had some issues with the buses but not too bad but seriously we did not get back to our subway line until about 5pm.  We decided to get a bite to eat before heading back to the room so we could just hang out tonight.  I have been wanting to try one of the local specialties “okonomiyaki”.  We didn’t make our own but it was fantastic! Ken had stir fried pork noodles and I had the aforementioned delicacy with pork. img_1696

I, surprisingly, devised an easy way to eat this with chopsticks.  What a great day! And, for once, my feet aren’t absolutely killing me which is also surprising because they were really bothering me earlier today.

Well, I need to finish up so Ken can use the computer.  We are hoping the weather is actual clear tomorrow so we can do some more out doors type things because we only have 2 more days of sightseeing and then the forever of waiting for planes and actual flying that will take place on Saturday.

Day 3 – A Visit to Nara

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I’m fresh from a second day of using the Hot Bath feature on the tub in our room. Thank goodness for that feature cause we got close to overdoing it again!

We managed to stay in till the late hour of 8:30 today before heading over to the train station so we could visit the city of Nara which is about an hour away.  I was looking forward to this part of the trip but it was even better than I thought it would be.

We picked up a map from the visitors center (English help there!) and started about a half a mile or so walk to the entrance to the park wher ethe majority of the sites aer located.  img_1573

Our first stop in the park was to purchase crackers to feed to the Nara deer who are very tame and wander throughout the area.  We have some good video of what happens when you have crackers around tame deer. Yikes! I’ll have that as part of the video I put together after the trip.

Then we went into the park where there were way more local musems, shrines, temples etc then we could see so we selected two that we did not want to miss and started our trek.

The first item on our list was the Todai-ji temple complex.  My pictures really can’t do justice to just how big this place was, although Ken tries to give you an idea of scale.  What is really crazy is that this is not the first building that was here.  This one is only 2/3rds of the original and is still ancient.img_16151

I tried to take pictures of the huge entry guards and the Great Buddha (just think of a bronze buddha that is like 50 feet tall…Seriously) but it was dark in there and they didn’t want you to use tripods so my pictures just fail to cover it.  Hoping to steal some of Ken’s video footage for a later update.

The next item on our list was the Kasuga Taisha Shrine which, whew, was further up the mountain.  Luckily there were not too many stairs and luckily I hadn’t had too much to drink because, well, I did it last time I was in Japan but I’m not a fan of the female Japanese toilet.  Let’s just say–it is a squat toilet.  More urban areas have Western toilets along with the traditional.img_1619

These are just a few of the lanterns at the shrine.  There were lanterns on the walk way up and all over the shrine.  We didn’t pay to go inside this location but the views from outside were great and we then had to make it down the mountain, which is always a bit easier.

Along the way we never got around to eating lunch.  We had ended up having McDonald’s for breakfast in the train station, but I don’t feel as bad about eating McDonald’s in Japan because the portions are so much smaller and shoot in this case it fueled us until 5:30.

Yep. We didn’t end up eating until 5;30 after we finally made it back to Kyoto from our day of hanging out in Nara.  We went to another vending machine resturant.  It is just so convienent and good!  img_1630

Sorry this is kind of blurry but I didn’t want to use my flash in the resturant, although, since I was already so obvious as a tourist who would have really cared?

Since we didn’t have lunch, we picked up some ice cream from 7-11 on our way back and we are going to have a bit of a treat tonight.  Or well, maybe our new little friend is.  Till Tomorrow!

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Day 2 of Official Sight Seeing

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And boy, did we overdo it!

I’m nursing some EXTREMELY sore feet and Ken and I both have sore backs.

But to recap since we last chatted…

We did go back out last night (well our last night) after doing some online searching for a good resturant that had English menus.  We had a chance to have yakitori which meant we split some grilled beef and chicken which came with rice and some pickled vegetables on the side.  It was a great meal and we walked back instead of taking the subway, which was long but interesting to just see how quiet the neighborhoods are at night.

img_15111I managed to sleep better last night so we didn’t end up sitting around for hours before we could go do anything.  Instead we headed out after 7:30 because we were going to the Fushimiinari shrine which, for once was very easy to get to.  It is difficult, even with pictures, to really express how beautiful this place was.  With thousands of Tori gates, some of which we didn’t even climb up to see, you are just amazed by the work needed to build them and maintain them!

We spent a good two hours on the site and that probably should have been enough to bring on a break. But, uh no, we decided – wait, I think I even suggested – that we do more.  I was feeling confident after how well our Sunday went so we proceeded to plot out getting to another site on our list. Nijo Castle. With a little help from a worker at the rail station we got there without a headache :)

img_1540It was, however, a very long walk just to get into the castle grounds and there were two palaces (one that was open for walking through but no pictures alas!) and several gardens to wander through and I don’t even think we made it to all that was there before we were feeling all the climbing we had done.

We finished up there with lunchtime approaching and a plan to travel to the neighboring city of Osaka for the afternoon and evening.  We were having trouble, however, finding somewhere to get some lunch.  We finally ended up at this fun little restaurant where you picked out what you wanted off a vending machine and then took them to your table.  Only confusion was dumb me hit the button for coffee when I was trying to find a soda or tea. Oops!  I had shrimp tempura and Ken had tonkatsu (fired pork cutlet). Great meal.

img_1556Nice and full we made our way to the correct station (a journey in itself) so we could go to Osaka because we wanted to see Den Den Town which is a nerd’s heaven (or as they call them in Japan–otaku/otakus). This was probably one of the more frustrating bits of our adventure.  Just getting to Osaka took a half an hour but once there actually getting to Den Den Town was confusing and we ended up walking a really long way in already tired bodies.  We did pick up a couple of anime items (sorry Edna, haven’t found anything for you yet!) but also had problems with our visa/debit cards. ARGH! Oh well.

We did spot a Yoshinoya, a Japanese chain (although I think there are some in California) of resturants that serve simple beef bowls and such so we picked up take-out so we wouldn’t have to go back out tonight.

We were both exhausted as we made our way back to the subway and train stations we needed to get us back to Kyoto.  Part of our walk was through an underground mall in the subway/train station area, that was pretty neat, and I probably would have appreciated it more if I had been so TIRED!

Once we finally made it back to Kyoto we trekked through the enormous Kyoto Station before giving in to the call of a taxi cab ride back to our room.  Which is where we sit, watching more Japanese TV while we decide what to do tomorrow.  What will it be?….