It appears that I flew nearly three thousand miles in order to take a hike in the woods...
Mind you, it was a nice hike in the woods! Before I left Seattle I had searched for 'festivals' near Tokyo and came up with Momiji Matsuri (Maple Leaf Festival) on Mount Takao (Takao-san to the Japanese). The last day of Momiji Matsuri (which was to include some traditional dancing) co-incided with my first full day in Japan and was not a work day besides, so I decided to make an effort. In the end, I didn't see any dancing but I sure put in a lot of effort.
It turns out that Mount Takao (Wikipedia Link) is pretty much the only wilderness area in all of Tokyo Prefecture. (Note: Tokyo isn't actually a city! It is a Prefecture, like a State in the USA, where all of the cities in the Prefecture have grown together into a single gigantic urban mass.) Mount Takao is located about an hour from downtown Tokyo, near the city of Hachiōji.
I can wholly recommend Mount Takao for anyone who wants to make a day trip from Tokyo and enjoys the outdoors. It is a bit crowded on weekends, so you might go on a weekday if you can. There is plenty to see and do and you can even enjoy a beer in a restaurant on the top of the mountain, a nice reward for making it to the summit. (I will add a link to my pictures once I get them up on Flikr.)
Once you are on Mount Takao, you have a network of trails available to you that cover the entire mountain and branch off to other wilderness areas further north, east, and south. If you get up there during Momiji Matsuri you will find yourself hiking through trees arrayed in their best autumn colors, from alders in gold and orange to flame maples in a variety of bright reds and yellows.
There are several vantage points from which you can see Tokyo and, allegedly, Mount Fujii. (I say 'allegedly' because, as with every other time I have found myself anywhere near Fujii-san, clouds masked the great mountain from view.)
The hiking trails aren't the only attractions on Mount Takao. At the cable car stations, on the summit, and at various points along trail one are small shops and restaurants catering to the climbers. Just past the cable car station on the mountain there is a Monkey Park and wild plant garden, fun for young and old alike.
Just past half-way to the summit on trail one is Takaosan Yakuōin Yūkiji temple. Be sure to visit all of the temple levels along the ridge, as each was built at a different time and it shows in the architecture and sculptures.
Hiking Mount Takao is pretty much an all-day trip if you include travel-time to and from downtown Tokyo. The climb itself requires a bit of stamina and is not recommended for anyone with physical difficulties. I found myself quite tired and footsore by the end of the day.
I found it a bit cold on Mount Takao, enough that I was wishing I hadn't left my jacket on the airplane when I arrived. So warm clothing is advised. Although there are plenty of shops and vending machines near the cable car stations and at the summit, you might want to bring a lunch and something to drink. Expect to get a bit muddy, especially if you go off the main trails (as I did), so wear appropriate shoes and clothing.
Most importantly? Do not forget your camera!
In Tokyo, go to Shinjuku eki (train station) and locate the Keiō Takao Line. You can buy your tickets separately, but I can recommend purchasing a round-trip ticket to Takaosanguchi that includes the cable car fare as well. To do this, go to the window located in the middle of the ticket vending machines and push the button. Someone will come out and sell you the ticket, which is specially printed as a souvenir and which you show to the gate guards instead of putting it through the machine.
Try to catch one of the express or special express trains. If, as I did, you accidentally find yourself on one of the trains that runs to Keiō-hachioji, just change trains for Takaosanguchi at Kitano eki.
In Takaosanguchi just follow the crowds uphill from the train station; past the souvenir shops to the cable car station (there is also a chair lift, if you prefer and if it is operating). Even long lines mean short waits as they can cram quite a lot of people into that cable car. The cable car lets you off in a little spot full of shops and a nice vantage point for seeing all of Tokyo laid out before you. From there you can select any of several trails to the summit.
For the hike up to the summit, I suggest taking trail one, which snakes up the middle and through Takaosan Yakuōin Yūkiji temple. For the hike back down you have many choices; I picked trail four, which includes a suspension bridge and leads to trail two, where you can choose a quick and easy way back to the cable car station or a side trail that is less used and ends up in the same place.
Mind you, it was a nice hike in the woods! Before I left Seattle I had searched for 'festivals' near Tokyo and came up with Momiji Matsuri (Maple Leaf Festival) on Mount Takao (Takao-san to the Japanese). The last day of Momiji Matsuri (which was to include some traditional dancing) co-incided with my first full day in Japan and was not a work day besides, so I decided to make an effort. In the end, I didn't see any dancing but I sure put in a lot of effort.
It turns out that Mount Takao (Wikipedia Link) is pretty much the only wilderness area in all of Tokyo Prefecture. (Note: Tokyo isn't actually a city! It is a Prefecture, like a State in the USA, where all of the cities in the Prefecture have grown together into a single gigantic urban mass.) Mount Takao is located about an hour from downtown Tokyo, near the city of Hachiōji.
I can wholly recommend Mount Takao for anyone who wants to make a day trip from Tokyo and enjoys the outdoors. It is a bit crowded on weekends, so you might go on a weekday if you can. There is plenty to see and do and you can even enjoy a beer in a restaurant on the top of the mountain, a nice reward for making it to the summit. (I will add a link to my pictures once I get them up on Flikr.)
Natural beauty
Once you are on Mount Takao, you have a network of trails available to you that cover the entire mountain and branch off to other wilderness areas further north, east, and south. If you get up there during Momiji Matsuri you will find yourself hiking through trees arrayed in their best autumn colors, from alders in gold and orange to flame maples in a variety of bright reds and yellows.
There are several vantage points from which you can see Tokyo and, allegedly, Mount Fujii. (I say 'allegedly' because, as with every other time I have found myself anywhere near Fujii-san, clouds masked the great mountain from view.)
Monkeys and shops and temples, oh my
The hiking trails aren't the only attractions on Mount Takao. At the cable car stations, on the summit, and at various points along trail one are small shops and restaurants catering to the climbers. Just past the cable car station on the mountain there is a Monkey Park and wild plant garden, fun for young and old alike.
Just past half-way to the summit on trail one is Takaosan Yakuōin Yūkiji temple. Be sure to visit all of the temple levels along the ridge, as each was built at a different time and it shows in the architecture and sculptures.
Allow for
Hiking Mount Takao is pretty much an all-day trip if you include travel-time to and from downtown Tokyo. The climb itself requires a bit of stamina and is not recommended for anyone with physical difficulties. I found myself quite tired and footsore by the end of the day.
What to bring
I found it a bit cold on Mount Takao, enough that I was wishing I hadn't left my jacket on the airplane when I arrived. So warm clothing is advised. Although there are plenty of shops and vending machines near the cable car stations and at the summit, you might want to bring a lunch and something to drink. Expect to get a bit muddy, especially if you go off the main trails (as I did), so wear appropriate shoes and clothing.
Most importantly? Do not forget your camera!
Getting there
In Tokyo, go to Shinjuku eki (train station) and locate the Keiō Takao Line. You can buy your tickets separately, but I can recommend purchasing a round-trip ticket to Takaosanguchi that includes the cable car fare as well. To do this, go to the window located in the middle of the ticket vending machines and push the button. Someone will come out and sell you the ticket, which is specially printed as a souvenir and which you show to the gate guards instead of putting it through the machine.
Try to catch one of the express or special express trains. If, as I did, you accidentally find yourself on one of the trains that runs to Keiō-hachioji, just change trains for Takaosanguchi at Kitano eki.
In Takaosanguchi just follow the crowds uphill from the train station; past the souvenir shops to the cable car station (there is also a chair lift, if you prefer and if it is operating). Even long lines mean short waits as they can cram quite a lot of people into that cable car. The cable car lets you off in a little spot full of shops and a nice vantage point for seeing all of Tokyo laid out before you. From there you can select any of several trails to the summit.
For the hike up to the summit, I suggest taking trail one, which snakes up the middle and through Takaosan Yakuōin Yūkiji temple. For the hike back down you have many choices; I picked trail four, which includes a suspension bridge and leads to trail two, where you can choose a quick and easy way back to the cable car station or a side trail that is less used and ends up in the same place.
Well, I'm about to leave my hotel in Shanghai for the Pudong airport. It has been an interesting experience, but after three weeks in the Orient I am ready to go home.
Some more impressions of Shanghai:
Locals call Shanghai the 'New York' of China. I think it fits. Those who grew up here seem to have completely different attitudes than those who moved here.
Much of the downtown area consists of buildings less than twenty years old. If you go into the older portions of the city (for example, the old European quarter) you will find newer buildings as well, but built to the same architectural styles as the original buildings.
The traffic here is crazy. People go the wrong way on one-way streets, drive in the wrong lane to get around backups, and generally act like everyone will get out of their way. The weird part is that people do: I haven't seen a single accident (although I have seen a few crunched cars). I haven't even seen one of the bicyclists or one of the people on the little scooters (not wearing helmets) get creamed. It all seems like a complicated dance. I am beginning to wonder if this is why Asian drivers in Seattle are so bad: They don't know any of our dance steps and keep getting out of time.
The mix of old and new here is dizzying. You have people on three-wheel bicycle carts hauling goods along side brand new cars. Street sellers in front of modern chain stores. Dairy Queens in 200 year old buildings.
The people can be very polite. They can also be total assholes if they think you don't know what they are saying. They will come up to me at random and pat my belly and make comments as well, although I don't know from where that comes at all. (Yes, I am a fat and smelly Gwai Lo.) And the guys who bother you on the street trying to sell you crap are the worst.
After a week, I still notice the smell...
Some more impressions of Shanghai:
Locals call Shanghai the 'New York' of China. I think it fits. Those who grew up here seem to have completely different attitudes than those who moved here.
Much of the downtown area consists of buildings less than twenty years old. If you go into the older portions of the city (for example, the old European quarter) you will find newer buildings as well, but built to the same architectural styles as the original buildings.
The traffic here is crazy. People go the wrong way on one-way streets, drive in the wrong lane to get around backups, and generally act like everyone will get out of their way. The weird part is that people do: I haven't seen a single accident (although I have seen a few crunched cars). I haven't even seen one of the bicyclists or one of the people on the little scooters (not wearing helmets) get creamed. It all seems like a complicated dance. I am beginning to wonder if this is why Asian drivers in Seattle are so bad: They don't know any of our dance steps and keep getting out of time.
The mix of old and new here is dizzying. You have people on three-wheel bicycle carts hauling goods along side brand new cars. Street sellers in front of modern chain stores. Dairy Queens in 200 year old buildings.
The people can be very polite. They can also be total assholes if they think you don't know what they are saying. They will come up to me at random and pat my belly and make comments as well, although I don't know from where that comes at all. (Yes, I am a fat and smelly Gwai Lo.) And the guys who bother you on the street trying to sell you crap are the worst.
After a week, I still notice the smell...
Tonight I am sitting in my hotel room eating take-out from Burger King and generally hiding out from the barely controlled chaos that is Shanghai. I need some alone time badly. Not just from the crowds, but from my cow-orkers and everyone else I've had to interact with recently.
I told my boss that I needed a night off from socializing because I am really an introvert and he claimed that I am fooling myself. That my ability to act like an extrovert in social and biz situations rules out any possible introversion. I disagreed, but cannot deny that I was the first to take the mike when our Japanese partners wanted to do Karaoke. I guess I see all of that as a performance, and one I am reasonably good at, but not the real me. It occurs to me that, if you know me solely from social situations, you may have the same impression of me: and that is OK. But I think of the gregarious person you know as, simply, a side of my personality which I use as a mask or facade. One modeled on (of all people) my father, who is an enormous extrovert.
This doesn't mean I'm not also that person, in a way. But I am other things as well and I like to think of those things as being more defining: I am a guy who can go into the woods by himself for days at a time and find it a wonderful, transcendental, experience. I am a guy who brings a guitar to social situations, not because he wants to perform but because he wants something to hide behind from time to time. The fact others think I am performing is a side benefit. (Side note: I play guitar almost exactly the same way whether I am around others or by myself. The only difference is that I am much more likely to also sing when alone.) I am a guy who likes computers because I can always get them to do what I want if I try hard enough and because they don't care if I yell at them for being obstreperous.
Thus, why it feels so good to be alone for a little while.
Now, to atone for my going all emo on you there, some more random impressions of Shanghai...
Our first night here we inadvertently taught our taxi driver the phrase "Holy Shit!" He then repeated it with glee whenever he made a near collision with another vehicle, person, or inanimate object. In other words, over and over.
I spent much of today doing a kind of 'market research' for my company. This involved pretending to be interested in products, gathering marketing materials for them, and trying to get salesmen to tell us what was more popular; what the take rate was for this option or that option. In the process I learned that the Shanghai economy is incredibly rich (something I guess I already knew), but that the Shanghai consumer lags ten to twenty years behind Japan and the USA in sophistication. Here every high-end product, from coffee machines to cars to computers, is marketed by style and a perceived affiliation with a better social class. The marketing materials barely mention features or functionality and the salesmen have little knowledge about the bones of the product.
Houses and apartments near the city core are incredibly expensive here; better ones running two to ten million dollars and cheaper ones running a half-million or more. This means that only the rich and the white collar workers can afford to live in the city, while the tens of millions who do the scut work have to commute two to three hours a day. This is probably true in every major city, But, like everything else here, the immense scale of Shanghai distorts things in strange ways. For example, many businesses buy apartments to house their workers and get a side benefit from the rising property values. This means there are companies that have done better at real-estate speculation than they have in their core competency.
Tonight I was measured for a tailored suit and three bespoke shirts. The total cost? A little under two hundred USA dollars. The tailor, who operated in a former black-market stall located under a parking structure (former in the sense that it is gray-market today) took only cash. Combine this with the large numbers of street sellers and the food stalls that set up impromptu kitchens on street corners at night and you get the impression that a good portion of the local economy is run off the books. It seems like there are two Shanghais here: one of Starbucks and Prada and Buick and one operating like a kind of underground river, flowing goods and services in ways you cannot see or measure.
This is a truly international city, to the point that there is a 'European Town', similar to (but more upscale than) the China Towns of Seattle and San Francisco and Yokohama and New York. Interestingly, it is located near the grounds of Expo 2010, the world's fair to be held here next year. We drove by the Expo site and through the construction walls could see an area larger than downtown Seattle swarming with people and machinery. If you add in the advertising you see all over town here, it is clear that the Expo is a really big deal to the people of Shanghai.
Well, that's it for now. More later, I guess.
I told my boss that I needed a night off from socializing because I am really an introvert and he claimed that I am fooling myself. That my ability to act like an extrovert in social and biz situations rules out any possible introversion. I disagreed, but cannot deny that I was the first to take the mike when our Japanese partners wanted to do Karaoke. I guess I see all of that as a performance, and one I am reasonably good at, but not the real me. It occurs to me that, if you know me solely from social situations, you may have the same impression of me: and that is OK. But I think of the gregarious person you know as, simply, a side of my personality which I use as a mask or facade. One modeled on (of all people) my father, who is an enormous extrovert.
This doesn't mean I'm not also that person, in a way. But I am other things as well and I like to think of those things as being more defining: I am a guy who can go into the woods by himself for days at a time and find it a wonderful, transcendental, experience. I am a guy who brings a guitar to social situations, not because he wants to perform but because he wants something to hide behind from time to time. The fact others think I am performing is a side benefit. (Side note: I play guitar almost exactly the same way whether I am around others or by myself. The only difference is that I am much more likely to also sing when alone.) I am a guy who likes computers because I can always get them to do what I want if I try hard enough and because they don't care if I yell at them for being obstreperous.
Thus, why it feels so good to be alone for a little while.
Now, to atone for my going all emo on you there, some more random impressions of Shanghai...
Our first night here we inadvertently taught our taxi driver the phrase "Holy Shit!" He then repeated it with glee whenever he made a near collision with another vehicle, person, or inanimate object. In other words, over and over.
I spent much of today doing a kind of 'market research' for my company. This involved pretending to be interested in products, gathering marketing materials for them, and trying to get salesmen to tell us what was more popular; what the take rate was for this option or that option. In the process I learned that the Shanghai economy is incredibly rich (something I guess I already knew), but that the Shanghai consumer lags ten to twenty years behind Japan and the USA in sophistication. Here every high-end product, from coffee machines to cars to computers, is marketed by style and a perceived affiliation with a better social class. The marketing materials barely mention features or functionality and the salesmen have little knowledge about the bones of the product.
Houses and apartments near the city core are incredibly expensive here; better ones running two to ten million dollars and cheaper ones running a half-million or more. This means that only the rich and the white collar workers can afford to live in the city, while the tens of millions who do the scut work have to commute two to three hours a day. This is probably true in every major city, But, like everything else here, the immense scale of Shanghai distorts things in strange ways. For example, many businesses buy apartments to house their workers and get a side benefit from the rising property values. This means there are companies that have done better at real-estate speculation than they have in their core competency.
Tonight I was measured for a tailored suit and three bespoke shirts. The total cost? A little under two hundred USA dollars. The tailor, who operated in a former black-market stall located under a parking structure (former in the sense that it is gray-market today) took only cash. Combine this with the large numbers of street sellers and the food stalls that set up impromptu kitchens on street corners at night and you get the impression that a good portion of the local economy is run off the books. It seems like there are two Shanghais here: one of Starbucks and Prada and Buick and one operating like a kind of underground river, flowing goods and services in ways you cannot see or measure.
This is a truly international city, to the point that there is a 'European Town', similar to (but more upscale than) the China Towns of Seattle and San Francisco and Yokohama and New York. Interestingly, it is located near the grounds of Expo 2010, the world's fair to be held here next year. We drove by the Expo site and through the construction walls could see an area larger than downtown Seattle swarming with people and machinery. If you add in the advertising you see all over town here, it is clear that the Expo is a really big deal to the people of Shanghai.
Well, that's it for now. More later, I guess.
I've been here a couple of days now. If Twitter was accessible from behind the iron firewall, I would have been tweeting tons of crap about what I was doing. However, since Twitter is politically unacceptable, I will try to describe my main impressions here and you will miss out on the blow-by-blow. Sorry...
First off, this sure as hell aint no Japan. I'm certain there are places here in Shanghai that do not have people on the streets coming up to you trying to sell everything from roses, to trick hand lasers, to watches, to any kind of sex you could possibly want; but if there is I haven't found it. Telling them 'no' doesn't work. Shouting "NO!" Well, that works, but it feels like you are being rude. This is despite the fact they started the rude. (Maybe because it is their country?)
Second, this city is HUGE! Ghue help me, but it deserves the capital letters. Today we went to the 87th floor of the Shanghai world finance center, so we could see the city from a coffee shop there. Yeesh! I am still trying to get my head around a place that is visibly bigger than Tokyo (which is already too big for my head).
I ended up drinking a Macallan 12 year as I looked out the windows, instead of a coffee, because the single malt was only a buck more expensive than a double espresso. I guess you could say the altitude wasn't the only lofty thing there...
Afterwards we went to Yuyuan Garden a rather amazing place that is embedded in an enormous shopping mall. Only all of the architecture is either hundreds of years old or, at least, looks like it is. The shopping part of it was amazingly crowded. One part of it includes a footbridge zig-zagging across an large pond and there we saw boys trying to catch turtles with hooks and lines. Apparently this isn't exactly legal and, when one of my colleagues discovered this, he went and found a security guard who chased some of the boys down and roundly boxed their ears.
This is another thing different from both the USA and Japan, I think. But everything is so crowded and with people living in each other's pockets so much, well perhaps it isn't surprising?
In any case, I also went to the birthplace of the Chinese Communist Party last night. There I made another impression of Shanghai: Everything here is about making money.
You might think that a spot with a plaque marking the place Mao Zedong first formed the Shanghai Clique (I would have links here, but all the relevant Wikipedia pages are blocked) wouldn't be a perfect example of capitalism and consumer culture, but it is. Let's start with the fact that the plaque is affixed to the wall of a brand new building. Yes, it (and the entire district) have been built to look like the original buildings there. But they are new. Secondly, these old/new buildings are filled with shops and chain restaurants from all over the world and are populated with a mix of well-off asians and Europeans looking for a good time. We were there because it was the kind of place our hosts liked to go to: Modern and trendy and fashionable and expensive and, frankly, everything the Communist Party of China formed there so many years ago was so not about.
Related to the above was something we did tonight, after touristing around a bit: We went to get a 'foot massage'. This wasn't exactly a 'foot massage', but you can dump all your prurient thoughts about 'happy endings' right now: It was really a two hour process that included a full body massage (while clothed), stretching, and (yes) a foot massage. Total cost? About $20. And this is the reality of Shanghai today! The value propositions are reversed from the USA, because consumer goods are expensive and personal services are cheap. I'm sure there is a point here, but I am still processing.
In any case I am going to end with my first impressions. (Where, in my mind, first impressions belong.) Shanghai is loud and smelly!
Loud because of traffic (taxi drivers use their horns more often than their brakes). Loud because of construction. Loud because of music and commerce and millions of people crammed together.
Smelly? Well, a large river runs through the city and it isn't overly clean. Add heat, a sewage system that can barely keep up, and 30 million people? The result is a funk that ranges from tolerable to overwhelming. There are alleys here that make your eyes water to walk past.
And that's enough for now. I need to get some sleep and I need to think about this amazing place some more. More later!
First off, this sure as hell aint no Japan. I'm certain there are places here in Shanghai that do not have people on the streets coming up to you trying to sell everything from roses, to trick hand lasers, to watches, to any kind of sex you could possibly want; but if there is I haven't found it. Telling them 'no' doesn't work. Shouting "NO!" Well, that works, but it feels like you are being rude. This is despite the fact they started the rude. (Maybe because it is their country?)
Second, this city is HUGE! Ghue help me, but it deserves the capital letters. Today we went to the 87th floor of the Shanghai world finance center, so we could see the city from a coffee shop there. Yeesh! I am still trying to get my head around a place that is visibly bigger than Tokyo (which is already too big for my head).
I ended up drinking a Macallan 12 year as I looked out the windows, instead of a coffee, because the single malt was only a buck more expensive than a double espresso. I guess you could say the altitude wasn't the only lofty thing there...
Afterwards we went to Yuyuan Garden a rather amazing place that is embedded in an enormous shopping mall. Only all of the architecture is either hundreds of years old or, at least, looks like it is. The shopping part of it was amazingly crowded. One part of it includes a footbridge zig-zagging across an large pond and there we saw boys trying to catch turtles with hooks and lines. Apparently this isn't exactly legal and, when one of my colleagues discovered this, he went and found a security guard who chased some of the boys down and roundly boxed their ears.
This is another thing different from both the USA and Japan, I think. But everything is so crowded and with people living in each other's pockets so much, well perhaps it isn't surprising?
In any case, I also went to the birthplace of the Chinese Communist Party last night. There I made another impression of Shanghai: Everything here is about making money.
You might think that a spot with a plaque marking the place Mao Zedong first formed the Shanghai Clique (I would have links here, but all the relevant Wikipedia pages are blocked) wouldn't be a perfect example of capitalism and consumer culture, but it is. Let's start with the fact that the plaque is affixed to the wall of a brand new building. Yes, it (and the entire district) have been built to look like the original buildings there. But they are new. Secondly, these old/new buildings are filled with shops and chain restaurants from all over the world and are populated with a mix of well-off asians and Europeans looking for a good time. We were there because it was the kind of place our hosts liked to go to: Modern and trendy and fashionable and expensive and, frankly, everything the Communist Party of China formed there so many years ago was so not about.
Related to the above was something we did tonight, after touristing around a bit: We went to get a 'foot massage'. This wasn't exactly a 'foot massage', but you can dump all your prurient thoughts about 'happy endings' right now: It was really a two hour process that included a full body massage (while clothed), stretching, and (yes) a foot massage. Total cost? About $20. And this is the reality of Shanghai today! The value propositions are reversed from the USA, because consumer goods are expensive and personal services are cheap. I'm sure there is a point here, but I am still processing.
In any case I am going to end with my first impressions. (Where, in my mind, first impressions belong.) Shanghai is loud and smelly!
Loud because of traffic (taxi drivers use their horns more often than their brakes). Loud because of construction. Loud because of music and commerce and millions of people crammed together.
Smelly? Well, a large river runs through the city and it isn't overly clean. Add heat, a sewage system that can barely keep up, and 30 million people? The result is a funk that ranges from tolerable to overwhelming. There are alleys here that make your eyes water to walk past.
And that's enough for now. I need to get some sleep and I need to think about this amazing place some more. More later!
I would be tweeting this stuff instead of, you know, actually posting this here; but it looks like Twitter is either down or, possibly, blocked here in China. I'm guessing the latter, but Twitter's recent history doesn't make that a lock.
In any case, I am in China! So far I have: ridden in a maglev train, checked into an interesting hotel (very nice, but why is there a bathtub next to my bed?), and drank beer at a German brauhaus next to the river.
Tomorrow? Work all day. Then, maybe, see some more of this amazing city.
In the meantime, I am waiting to hear from![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
scarlettina to see if she made it home from Japan OK and my friends are having a good time in Bellingham. I actually wish I was there...
Oh, and the maglev train? Yes, it was cool. But they only run it up to 430 kmh twice a day. The rest of the trips (such as my ride from the airport) it stays at a more sedate 300 kmh. Nonetheless, I have ridden a maglev train and, chances are, you haven't! Neener, neener!
In any case, I am in China! So far I have: ridden in a maglev train, checked into an interesting hotel (very nice, but why is there a bathtub next to my bed?), and drank beer at a German brauhaus next to the river.
Tomorrow? Work all day. Then, maybe, see some more of this amazing city.
In the meantime, I am waiting to hear from
scarlettina to see if she made it home from Japan OK and my friends are having a good time in Bellingham. I actually wish I was there... Oh, and the maglev train? Yes, it was cool. But they only run it up to 430 kmh twice a day. The rest of the trips (such as my ride from the airport) it stays at a more sedate 300 kmh. Nonetheless, I have ridden a maglev train and, chances are, you haven't! Neener, neener!
I'm sitting beside the pool at our hotel, waiting for my breakfast. We've had a busy couple of days at CTIA. In fact I have seen little to nothing of the local nightlife (I went to bed last night before eleven).
However I did go to the local House of Blues to listen to some live music Tuesday night. I left there around midnight intending to go straight to bed, but on the way I passed an elevator with a door guard and a line. Above the elevator was a sign reading 'House of Blues Foundation Club'. Curious I asked the door guard (who had just turned away two groups of people) what that was about and he explained that it was a private club. You can only get in if you are a member or a guest of that hotel.
I asked if being a guest of a different hotel that was part of the same building worked. It did! In fact, my hotel was actually a better choice because it had guests who were less likely to be riff-raff or some such.
So I was ushered past the unwashed masses and rode the elevator up to the roof of the building; where I found myself one of the most over-decorated bars I have ever seen. There I got myself a thirty dollar glass of scotch (MacCallan 18) and went out to the balcony to smoke a cigar and enjoy an amazing view...
However I did go to the local House of Blues to listen to some live music Tuesday night. I left there around midnight intending to go straight to bed, but on the way I passed an elevator with a door guard and a line. Above the elevator was a sign reading 'House of Blues Foundation Club'. Curious I asked the door guard (who had just turned away two groups of people) what that was about and he explained that it was a private club. You can only get in if you are a member or a guest of that hotel.
I asked if being a guest of a different hotel that was part of the same building worked. It did! In fact, my hotel was actually a better choice because it had guests who were less likely to be riff-raff or some such.
So I was ushered past the unwashed masses and rode the elevator up to the roof of the building; where I found myself one of the most over-decorated bars I have ever seen. There I got myself a thirty dollar glass of scotch (MacCallan 18) and went out to the balcony to smoke a cigar and enjoy an amazing view...
Going to the Worldcon?
I have reserved a room at the Denver Hyatt (one of the convention hotels) for five nights from August 5th to 10th. It is relatively expensive with tax and all, so I am looking to share. Currently we have myself (I sleep in a chair, so I don't use a bed) and my nephew in a double-bed room. It should be easy to add one or two more.
If you don't have a room yet, and have suddenly realized you actually do want to sleep during Denvention, please respond with a comment here!
I have reserved a room at the Denver Hyatt (one of the convention hotels) for five nights from August 5th to 10th. It is relatively expensive with tax and all, so I am looking to share. Currently we have myself (I sleep in a chair, so I don't use a bed) and my nephew in a double-bed room. It should be easy to add one or two more.
If you don't have a room yet, and have suddenly realized you actually do want to sleep during Denvention, please respond with a comment here!
Yeah, on my way to Austria again; leaving tomorrow afternoon. Long story that ends with a short notice business trip for ten days. This is my third working visit there, including a trip with Anita for two weeks in England and Austria (with me working five days of it).
Like most business trips this will be less fun than it sounds like. You don't want to waste your time on-site when your company (or even your customer -- as in this case) is paying for it, so there's little time for sight-seeing. Of course there is good beer and pretty damn fine food and the girls are pretty. But you can say the same thing about Seattle. Plus we have better coffee, even if Vienna is the place where the ghod's brew first became a part of western culture.
Still I have come to like Austria and its people. If I was more inclined to work on my sucky German I suppose I would enjoy it even more. Maybe I'm not quite ready to invest in a pair of leather shorts and learn to yodel, but I do want to see more of the country someday. And I would be looking forward to this trip if there had been more time to prepare.
If only I didn't have to spend so much time trapped in an aluminum can full of people in order to get there and back...
Like most business trips this will be less fun than it sounds like. You don't want to waste your time on-site when your company (or even your customer -- as in this case) is paying for it, so there's little time for sight-seeing. Of course there is good beer and pretty damn fine food and the girls are pretty. But you can say the same thing about Seattle. Plus we have better coffee, even if Vienna is the place where the ghod's brew first became a part of western culture.
Still I have come to like Austria and its people. If I was more inclined to work on my sucky German I suppose I would enjoy it even more. Maybe I'm not quite ready to invest in a pair of leather shorts and learn to yodel, but I do want to see more of the country someday. And I would be looking forward to this trip if there had been more time to prepare.
If only I didn't have to spend so much time trapped in an aluminum can full of people in order to get there and back...
Well, all good things must come to an end and this one will soon end with me returning to Detroit metro airport to catch a flight home. Penguicon was fun! But I will be glad to sleep in my own recliner tonight...
I didn't attend a great deal of programming, but what I saw was mostly pretty good. (The exception was a panel on intelligence enhancement which included Vernor Vinge, but consisted almost entirely of two guys I didn't know arguing. On the other hand I played some computer games, met up with old and new friends, attended some good parties, saw some good anime, and ate several bowls of liquid nitrogen ice cream.
The highlights of the con were the giant singing tesla coils and talking to Vernor Vinge for an hour or so over scotch in the Confusion party. Plus I liked the Pirate Party, which consisted of a fake boat they would push up to other parties and use to 'board' them. (An idea I would love to steal for Vikingcon/Valhallacon, except we would 'invade and pillage'.) All told I am glad I came and hope to do so again.
I didn't attend a great deal of programming, but what I saw was mostly pretty good. (The exception was a panel on intelligence enhancement which included Vernor Vinge, but consisted almost entirely of two guys I didn't know arguing. On the other hand I played some computer games, met up with old and new friends, attended some good parties, saw some good anime, and ate several bowls of liquid nitrogen ice cream.
The highlights of the con were the giant singing tesla coils and talking to Vernor Vinge for an hour or so over scotch in the Confusion party. Plus I liked the Pirate Party, which consisted of a fake boat they would push up to other parties and use to 'board' them. (An idea I would love to steal for Vikingcon/Valhallacon, except we would 'invade and pillage'.) All told I am glad I came and hope to do so again.
I am at Seatac airport right now, waiting for my flight. Doing some work stuff near Detroit, then Penguicon for the weekend.
ETA: I am at my hotel in Troy MI now, tired as hell and cringing at the thought of getting up in less than five hours (seven o'clock local time). Tomorrow work at a client site. Friday morning? Maybe some more work, but there is a chance I won't have anything I need to do; in which case I will maybe head over to the Henry Ford Museum, a place Anita and I visited for a quick look-around when she came out here back in 2003.
ETA: I am at my hotel in Troy MI now, tired as hell and cringing at the thought of getting up in less than five hours (seven o'clock local time). Tomorrow work at a client site. Friday morning? Maybe some more work, but there is a chance I won't have anything I need to do; in which case I will maybe head over to the Henry Ford Museum, a place Anita and I visited for a quick look-around when she came out here back in 2003.
We made it. All checked in and even have enough energy for a little exploring!
Time for a late dinner at Queen's Square. An excellent Thai place called Keawjal.
Time for a late dinner at Queen's Square. An excellent Thai place called Keawjal.
Typing this at the Internet Kiosk at Narita airport. Local time is around 5:50 PM.
Bus to Yokohama soon.
Bus to Yokohama soon.
Here is my gadget bag, with only the things I am taking on the Japan trip (so this represents a subset of the usual gadget load).
Top row: Quality paper notebook, miniature 100v power inverter with car and airplane connectors, USB adapter set, noise canceling headphones, portable speakers, cheap notebook.
Middle row: Memory card holder, wifi finder, 4gb USB drive, more USB adapters, Airport Express, iPhone accessories.
Bottom row: Memory card reader, bluetooth headset and charger, iPhone.
Still in bag: Small MP3 player, extra headphones, pens, reading glasses, laser pointer.
(For a larger view, click on the picture. Click again for even bigger.)
Top row: Quality paper notebook, miniature 100v power inverter with car and airplane connectors, USB adapter set, noise canceling headphones, portable speakers, cheap notebook.
Middle row: Memory card holder, wifi finder, 4gb USB drive, more USB adapters, Airport Express, iPhone accessories.
Bottom row: Memory card reader, bluetooth headset and charger, iPhone.
Still in bag: Small MP3 player, extra headphones, pens, reading glasses, laser pointer.
(For a larger view, click on the picture. Click again for even bigger.)
About 10 hours from my writing this Anita and I will be leaving these shores for Japan. We are going for the World SF Convention in Yokohama (first time for Japan) and a week of general tourism after.
Our itinerary:
In Kyoto we will stay in a Minshuku Ryokan; not quite the full traditional Ryokan experience, but certainly not a Western hotel. In Tokyo on the return leg we will stay in a hotel modeled after modern Japanese apartments, with a kitchen and even a Washer/Dryer. During our tourism days we plan on mixing one or two morning guided tours with a lot of self-guided wandering around, hopefully including a few sights not on the usual tourist itinerary. For example, if possible on the second Sunday there I want to go to the bridge at Harajuku where Cosplayers hang out to have their pictures taken.
While in Japan we plan on updating our blogs and uploading tons of images to our Flickr streams. (Mine, Anita's.) So you can follow along from home if you want to.
We have also rented a cell phone in Japan which has a local USA number. Japan number is 090-3696-6909. USA number is 213-412-3978.
See you on the flip side!
Our itinerary:
- Tue Aug 28: Depart Seattle
- Wed Aug 29: Arrive and check into the InterContinental Grand Yokohama hotel
- Thu Aug 30 to Mon Sep 3: World SF Convention with some Yokohama tourism and a possible day trip to Kamakura
- Tue Sep 4: Explore Tokyo
- Wed Sep 5: Travel to Kyoto
- Thu Sep 6 to Fri Sep 7: Explore Kyoto
- Sat Sep 8: Travel back to Tokyo
- Sun Sep 9 to Mon Sep 10: Day trips from Tokyo (Nikko) and more Tokyo tourism
- Tue Sep 11: Travel back to Seattle, arriving before we leave thanks to the magic of the International date line
In Kyoto we will stay in a Minshuku Ryokan; not quite the full traditional Ryokan experience, but certainly not a Western hotel. In Tokyo on the return leg we will stay in a hotel modeled after modern Japanese apartments, with a kitchen and even a Washer/Dryer. During our tourism days we plan on mixing one or two morning guided tours with a lot of self-guided wandering around, hopefully including a few sights not on the usual tourist itinerary. For example, if possible on the second Sunday there I want to go to the bridge at Harajuku where Cosplayers hang out to have their pictures taken.
While in Japan we plan on updating our blogs and uploading tons of images to our Flickr streams. (Mine, Anita's.) So you can follow along from home if you want to.
We have also rented a cell phone in Japan which has a local USA number. Japan number is 090-3696-6909. USA number is 213-412-3978.
See you on the flip side!
(Meta: Yeah yeah, I haven't posted anything in a while. Usual thing; I've been busy. Working. Seattle Mindcamp (where I lead three sessions). Orycon (where I was on programming). Life in general. You name it. What can I say? This is basically an unpaid writing gig for me, albeit one I've chosen for myself, and sometimes it drops to the bottom of the list for short, and long, periods of time...)
I remember when I first got a cellphone; it was more than 12 years ago. One of the first calls I made was from the supermarket, as I was walking along looking for something. I don't know what I was calling about, what I said, or what I was looking for. But I clearly remember the strange feeling I had as I made a mundane phone call from in front of the dairy section in a mundane grocery store; two experiences I had never placed together in my mind until right that moment.
That moment was special, because it was a step into the future. And I could distinctly feel exactly how special it was. We all have these experiences, a kind of reverse deja-vu. Call it nueva-vu: The sudden knowledge that you are somewhere doing something you have never done before, but that you will continue to do until it becomes an everyday experience and you stop noticing. Even though it will change you, or your life, in some significant fashion.
Do you remember the first time you used a computer to do something interesting? The first time you saw a web browser? The first time you watched a DVD? If you are older you might remember the first time you saw color television or a manned space launch. Unless you are particularly insensitive each of those experiences would have been accompanied by that particular frisson of which I speak. The awareness that you have moved from the past into the future in some small way. Just think, only a few hundred years ago people might get this feeling once, maybe twice, in a lifetime. Yet for us nueva-vu is something we might experience monthly, or even weekly. As new technologies come into our lives more and more rapidly even nueva-vu will become mundane and unremarkable. But until then it remains a bit of a thrill.
I'm having a nueva-vu experience right now. I am writing this in the cabin of an airplane, on my way back to Seattle from a business trip to Austria. In just a moment I am going to press the "Post Entry" button and it will appear on the Internet for you to read. Why? Because this aircraft has Wireless Internet service. In my bag is a PDA, which is also a cell phone. I use it to make phone calls, and also to check my email. To check the traffic across the floating bridges of Lake Washington, and also to Google information about a subject my dinner group is discussing in a restaurant. This PDA/Cell works as well in Europe as it works at home in Seattle.
But it doesn't work on an airplane at 35,000 feet over the Atlantic. Yet I am still connected. Welcome to the future: Now you can be connected anywhere, at anytime. Let me assure you, knowing this intellectually is nothing like the gut feeling of doing it the first time...
I remember when I first got a cellphone; it was more than 12 years ago. One of the first calls I made was from the supermarket, as I was walking along looking for something. I don't know what I was calling about, what I said, or what I was looking for. But I clearly remember the strange feeling I had as I made a mundane phone call from in front of the dairy section in a mundane grocery store; two experiences I had never placed together in my mind until right that moment.
That moment was special, because it was a step into the future. And I could distinctly feel exactly how special it was. We all have these experiences, a kind of reverse deja-vu. Call it nueva-vu: The sudden knowledge that you are somewhere doing something you have never done before, but that you will continue to do until it becomes an everyday experience and you stop noticing. Even though it will change you, or your life, in some significant fashion.
Do you remember the first time you used a computer to do something interesting? The first time you saw a web browser? The first time you watched a DVD? If you are older you might remember the first time you saw color television or a manned space launch. Unless you are particularly insensitive each of those experiences would have been accompanied by that particular frisson of which I speak. The awareness that you have moved from the past into the future in some small way. Just think, only a few hundred years ago people might get this feeling once, maybe twice, in a lifetime. Yet for us nueva-vu is something we might experience monthly, or even weekly. As new technologies come into our lives more and more rapidly even nueva-vu will become mundane and unremarkable. But until then it remains a bit of a thrill.
I'm having a nueva-vu experience right now. I am writing this in the cabin of an airplane, on my way back to Seattle from a business trip to Austria. In just a moment I am going to press the "Post Entry" button and it will appear on the Internet for you to read. Why? Because this aircraft has Wireless Internet service. In my bag is a PDA, which is also a cell phone. I use it to make phone calls, and also to check my email. To check the traffic across the floating bridges of Lake Washington, and also to Google information about a subject my dinner group is discussing in a restaurant. This PDA/Cell works as well in Europe as it works at home in Seattle.
But it doesn't work on an airplane at 35,000 feet over the Atlantic. Yet I am still connected. Welcome to the future: Now you can be connected anywhere, at anytime. Let me assure you, knowing this intellectually is nothing like the gut feeling of doing it the first time...
