Follow Up

Two things I meant to mention in my previous post:

1) The elephant on the left hand side of the video really liked bananas, but not in the traditional "peel them and eat the fruit" sense.

When the elephant was given a banana, he would peel it using his tusk, then eat the peel and throw the banana on his head. Not wanting to let food go to waste, the elephant on the right would then generally pick the banana up off of the ground and eat it.

2) Robbie has his "yours" and "mine" confused at the moment. It's really cute when you're trying to take something from him and he runs away saying "No, it's yours. It's YOURS!" :-D

Bangkok

Your (ir)regularly scheduled "Kirkbrides in Tokyo" update comes to you this week from the Business Centre of the Royal Orchid Sheraton in Bangkok, where we are currently vacationing:



We have been thoroughly enjoying our time here, and taking things fairly easy. Our M.O. consists of eating a leisurely breakfast, hitting a point of interest or two in the morning, catching lunch on the road, then heading back to the hotel around mid-afternoon for a dip in the pool:



Then it's off to dinner. So far we've been eating mostly Thai (now there's a shocker!), but we've also taken time out for Chinese, and probably the best Indian food I've ever eaten. Here is Sarah at "Once Upon a Time" a touristy (but good) Thai food restaurant:



Cabs in Bangkok are ridiculously cheap. It costs only 2 or 3 dollars to get across town... we took a cab in from the airport, it was about a 35 kilometer trip, and I think it cost around 10 dollars. Just remember to hail the cab -- if the cabbie hails you, chances are he's off meter and will try to take you for 2 or 3 times what the metered fare would be. You can negotiate your way down to almost the same price as the meter, but that only works if you know what the fare should be!

Also, be sure to avoid Tuk-Tuks and Wily Strangers. Tuk-tuks are used by the locals to get home from the grocery store, but if you as a tourist end up in a tuk-tuk, expect to have hours of your time wasted as you sit in traffic, heading from one gem shop to another, never quite making it to your intended destination. We have managed to steer clear of the tuk-tuks, but while en route to the emerald Buddha, we did have a run-in with a wily stranger.

He was wearing a white shirt with a tie, standing near an armed guard at a service entrance to the palace grounds, and looking very official. Our stranger came out onto the sidewalk and regretted to inform us that the palace was not opening until 13:00 today (it was only 10:30). He then drew directions to some other sight-seeing locations on our tourist map and suggested we find a tuk-tuk to take us around to them to kill the time until the palace opened.

As he was doing this, the tuk-tuk driver he was in cahoots with slowly pulled up alongside us on the sidewalk. We eventually shrugged him off and continued our walk around the perimeter of the palace. Thanks Marika! if it wasn't for your warning, we might have been taken in.

We've spent the bulk of our "tourist time" checking out the local Wats



and markets, but we took time out on Tuesday to go to the zoo. Robert got to feed elephants, and i got it on video!



We also took Robert to his first proper movie in a theatre: Monsters Vs Aliens 3D, and he _loved_ it. It was great to watch him discover 3D as well... during the first few minutes he was trying to reach out and touch everything, and he kept exclaiming about every little thing that he saw on the screen until he finally settled down and enjoyed the film. Did I mention it was on IMAX? And it only cost around $20 for the 3 of us? Yeah Thailand! ;-)

April

It doesn't seem like it's been that long since I've updated the blog, but gosh, almost a month has slipped past. April has been nothing if not eventful. As I alluded to in my last post, the cherry blossoms hit full stride this month:





Robert and I went for a day hike in the woods to the West of Tokyo with a friend of mine from work and his daughter. This waterfall, and the scenic valley surrounding it were the highlights of the trip. We stopped here for lunch and Robert spent almost the entire time throwing rocks into the creek. He could hardly sit still long enough to take 2 bites of his sandwitch; I ended up saving it and feeding it to him on the way home.



Robert did exceptionally well on the hike. My colleague started out the day by ribbing me because I didn't have a toddler backpack, but he quieted down after 45 minutes of hiking w/ his daughter on his back while Robert spent most of his time running ahead of us on the trail and whacking each of the trees along the trail with a stick he'd picked up. In fact, Robert walked almost the whole way up the hill we were climbing, and really only asked to be be carried for a while on the way back down.

Now as you may know, flowering cherry trees are native to Japan, and during our hike we came across several of the trees in their native form, "yama-zakura" or "mountain cherry" blooming near the trail:



Just as the blossoms were beginning to wane in Tokyo, Sarah's brother Seth and his wife Abigail arrived for a visit. We took the opportunity to play tourist, and stayed at a Ryokan (traditional Japanese hot-spring hotel) in Hakone where the cherries were still in full force:



We also went to Kamakura and caught a parade down the town's main street. There were a number of marching bands; here was my favorite:



Robbie got into the act by pretending to play trumpet. I tried to explain to him that he should be pretending to play the trombone, but he just wouldn't listen. Kids! ;-)



Sarah, Seth, Abi, and Robbie also spent one day at Disney Sea while I worked. To protest the fact that I couldn't go, I am refusing to post any of the great pictures that Sarah took. I guess you'll have to look for them on Flickr.

At school this month, Robbie's class went to the Shirokanedai fire station:



Robert got to sit in the engine's driver seat. He had such a good time playing fireman that he did not want to get out of the engine when his turn was up -- there were tears.

And finally, last weekend we went down to Yokosuka to visit our friends Meredith, Eddie. The naval base has more of the look of a a college campus than a military complex; there are loads of cherry trees, abundant grass and flat open spaces, playgrounds, water parks, shopping, restaurants, and a deepwater port to boot! The aircraft carrier George Washington was in port, along with several destroyers, a cruiser, a couple of Japanese submarines:



and possibly the most inviting warning sign this side of "Wet Paint":



Must ... not ... touch ... pipe ... ... but is it actually hot right now? ... Nope. Whew.

And to close, Robert and I have been enjoying the pond in Himonya koen. Ducks, geese, turtles, and fish (not to mention a variety of insects) inhabit the pond; most of the time Robert is content to enjoy the scenery, but toward the end of our most recent trip, he wanted to try his hand at rowing:

Pictures

Here are some recent pictures from around the house and city. This is the only picture I managed to take of hanami up in Ueno -- the trees in this photo were only beginning to burst forth, but other trees were in more advanced states of bloom elsewhere in the park:



I finally reinstalled the software to pull pictures off of our phones, so here's a dump of some of our best phone photos. First stop, Ikea. In Japan, Ikea has carts for rolling your trays of food around, and glasses of wine to go with lunch!





Here's a picture of Robbie riding a pony at Himonya Koen:


$3 Strawberries... that's $3 each, $27 for the box:


A subway sign asking foreigners to refrain from annoying other passengers by talking on their mobile phones:


Mt Fuji as seen from my office window (it's that little white smudge on the horizon):


And to close, at some point Robert discovered that our couch and chair have removable cushions. Since then, at least once a day, they all get taken off of their respective pieces of furniture, thrown on the floor, and jumped on. He also discovered (with a bit of assistance) that cushions make excellent forts:

Hanami

It's high time for Hanami (flower viewing) in and around Tokyo, and we are enjoying the season.

Unfortunately though, the weather has turned a bit cold. On Thurday morning while heading out on our bicycles, I to work and Sarah and Robbie to his school, a few bits of white floated down from the sky. We had a few seconds of confusion when we weren't sure whether they were cherry blossoms or snowflakes, but after a moment it was clear that we were pedaling through a snow flurry.

Last year we went to Shinjuku Gyoen for hanami and had a really good time, but we wanted to try something new this year. We met up with a couple of friends from work in Ueno to experience rowdier (by Japanese standards) hanami.

As a bonus, the major avenue of cherry trees in Ueno is right next to the zoo, so we started the day there, then found a nice place to lay down our tarp under a cherry tree. Our spot was near some playground equipment too, so Robbie had a bit more to entertain him than just cherry blossoms.

While we ate, drank, and enjoyed the view, Robbie ran around and played with the random Japanese couples who were cavorting on the various pieces of playground equipment and had a very good time. So much so that when we decided to pack it up and head back to the train, he did not want to leave!

We brought easy-to-pack food such as cheese, bread, crackers, etc., but the group next to us were more experienced hanami enthusiasts; they were making curry on a well-worn portable propane stove. After a while, they brought over a small pot of curry and offered it to us. It was delicious!

By the end of the afternoon, my colleague Ian was being proposed to by one of the ladies from the curry tarp -- evidently she had been married twice to Japanese men, but it had never worked out. It didn't seem to matter to that she didn't speak any English, and Ian doesn't speak much Japanese, she was telling him to be in Yokohama on the 30th for the wedding. At least that's what we think she was telling him. Anyhow, Ian stayed away from Yokohama at the end of March.

A Departure From Your Regularly Scheduled Programming

While in Nagano a couple of weeks ago, we missed the bus from the monkey onsen back to town by seconds, and had to wait for an hour to catch the next one. Eddie and Meredith both have 32gb iPod touches, and Eddie helped me pass the time by showing me what I've been missing in popular music over the last few years... specifically this, my new anthem:

White and Nerdy.

as well as "Don't Download This Song" with a brilliant animated video by Bill Plympton:

Don't Download This Song.

And, since I don't have access to much in the way of American media I've found myself listening to a number of podcasts. Here are some of my favorites:

The best science podcast on the web, the CBC's Quirks and Quarks with Bob McDonald.

The best personal finance podcast: Marketplace Money.

Sparkletack is a podcast dedicated to informing listeners about the colorful history of San Francisco and the bay area. The format of this podcast has recently changed from an in-depth look at a particular person or topic, to a somewhat less interesting weekly overview of the upcoming week's notable historical happenings, but there is an extensive archive of stories that I am still working my way through.

Best humorous podcast, the venerable Car Talk.

I also look forward to new audio articles from The Economist each weekend.

Please use the comments section to tell me about your favorite podcasts or blogs I ought to be reading. Thanks!

Back to the present

In the middle of January we took another day-trip to Kamakura... this time we had our fortunes told for the new year at Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu Shrine using the Bokuzei (卜筮) method, the Japanese equivalent of Kau cim. I drew #50: Dai-Kichi, or "great blessing" and Sarah drew #19: Sue Kichi, or "minor blessing". Considering the available fortunes range from "great blessing" to "great curse", I think 2009 is going to be an excellent year. It certainly has been so far.



Toward the beginning of February we went to the Uneo zoo. Robbie got to pet an Owl:



And we waited for the penguins to start dancing, but to no avail:



Last weekend we took the Shinkansen up to Nagano. Nagano is nestled in a valley in the middle of the Japanese Alps. The mountains that you can see in this picture are the lower range; the higher range (where the '98 winter games alpine events were held) are behind me.



Nagano is a large apple growing region, thus the omiyage that I brought back to my colleagues at the office was in the form of individually wrapped small apple turnovers. Unless the shopkeeper is handing out samples, purchasing omiyage always involves a bit of uncertainty, but this time I chose wisely and the treats were delicious. Enough about omiyage though, let's talk about snow monkeys!

The monkey onsen is in Jidokudani (lit. "Hell Valley"), a national park about 45 minutes by bus from Nagano Station. The hike in was just short of 2 kilometers along a trail carved out of a steep hillside with a creek running at its bottom. One of the interesting things about the hike in was that there are a number of points where you can see steaming seeps of water entering the creek.

At a convenient point where we could get down to it, we stuck our fingers in and although the water was chilly, it was nowhere near as cold as glacial run-off should be.

After climbing a set of steep and uneven (but paved) stairs, we arrived at the entrance gate to the monkey onsen. While climbing the stairs, we got our first view of the monkeys. They were on the other side of the stream, chasing each other up and down the hill. We paid our 500 yen and entered, walked around a couple of corners, and there were monkeys everywhere.

While researching the trip, I read that sometimes, especially in the summer, the troop moves out of the low country near the onsen and up into the hills; in the winter though, they're generally around. They were definitely present on the day we visited. There were monkeys on fence posts, monkeys sitting in trees, monkeys walking in the snow along the path down to the onsen, monkeys frolicking on the rocks down by the creek, and others just monkeying around.

There is a strictly observed "no feeding the monkeys" policy, so unlike many other places in Asia, these monkeys do not beg. They basically pay no mind to people whatsoever and just go about their business.

I counted 21 monkeys in this picture, but I may have missed a couple:



There were not so many monkeys in the bath when we were there, but that's all right. Judging from the live cam the best time to see a bath full of monkeys is first thing in the morning. For 7 people, including 3 children under 3, we were just glad to be able to make the trip at all -- timing the trip for peak bath time was beyond us:



So the trip to the monkey onsen took up the majority of our Saturday, though we did have a nice traditional Japanese dinner on Saturday night. On Sunday we wandered around downtown Nagano and took some pictures, including this one of the medal presentation stand for the '98 Olympics:



We also went to check out Zenkouji, a Buddhist temple and the 2nd largest wooden structure in Japan. We were fairly tired and hungry at this point though, so we basically just walked around the temple and then began slowly meandering back toward the train station while looking for lunch. We found a great Chinese-style ramen shop, and then a park to let the kiddos do some running around. After the park we headed back to the station, and home.