On riding the trains

Tokyo has one of the most efficient train and subway transit systems in the world. The transit map is a spider's web of criss-crossing lines, but it is carefully laid out with colour-codes for the different through-fares. The trains are frequent and clean, and like everything else in Tokyo, filled with advertisements. There is no escape from the intense bombardment of posters and commercials.


The trains are clean, and English signs in the station and English announcements of the stops are provided. The travel by train is easy, but the stations are huge and sometimes maze-like. You go up an escalator to come back down another escalator, all the while looking to just exit the station from the correct side because they are huge to walk around.

I've mainly stayed on the Yamanote line, which cleverly and conveniently travels a loop around Tokyo with stops at all the major districts. The fare process allows you to pay a single fee (130 yen) and then pay any adjustment in fare once you arrive to your destination - the total fare being based on the distance that you've traveled.

On speaking Japanese

I don't speak Japanese, but I have become really good at looking very confused when someone speaks to me in Japanese and expects me to understand and respond. It's pretty amazing how far you can get with pointing and some keywords, though it doesn't make you feel very smart.

Is this trip sparking my interest and desire to learn the language? Definitely.

Does a new desire to learn the language help me out for the next day in Tokyo and a week in Sendai? Not at all.

Day One, Part One: Shinjuku

Shinjuku is the new core of Tokyo. I started my day at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government towers. I was early for the 9:30 am opening time for the Tourist Information Centre and the observatory towers, so hung out and watched the hordes of business people in their business suits coming to work. Then I got a bird's eye view of the city from the 45th floor observatory. It wasn't a clear morning, but I got an idea of the sprall of the metropolis - this place is huge!




Then I was off to see what this city had at ground level. First Takashimaya Times Square, a huge shopping building. Bottom floor - all food, conveniently prepackaged for take-out. I couldn't find any seated eating areas, so instead took my tray of sushi outside for lunch.



The eastside of Shinjuku is a big shopping district including major department stores, hotels, restaurants, and crowds and crowds of people. The north side is Kabukicho, with more restaurants and entertainment businesses (bars, arcades, etc). Every store seems to have an employee outside to call you in. Every building appears to be covered in signs showing what's on ground, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th floor, and upwards. It's a sensory fill merely walking one street block. However, amongst this craziness are pockets of calm. A small walkway lined with lanterns leads you off the main street to Hanazono Shrine.




A little further south in the Nichome district, Tosio-ji Temple is nestled into a small streetway.


It was hot and humid, and it was only midday. To find a little shade and a little bit of calm, I checked out Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, one of the city's largest parks.



Next in Part Two: Shibuya - high fashion Tokyo

Arrival to Tokyo, Japan

I arrived into Narita Airport on Thursday evening, just before 3 pm - 26 hours after take-off from YVR (10 hours of flight and 16 hours in time zone difference). The time passed by surprisingly quickly with a few winks sleep and a few movies (Harry Potter, Die Hard, and Ocean's 13) on the personal entertainment unit - screen and a wand to command whether you wanted movies in Japanese, English, or French; music; video games; or most cool, a view from the nose-mounted or bottom-mounted cameras.

Here's the view from 37,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean:





An airport limo ride (a bus) brought me to Shinjuku Station and it was easy to see why this has been dubbed the honour of busiest transit station in the world - people everywhere! Looking up and around, it is difficult to grab your bearings, but easy to be thrown into awe at the size and brightness and loudness of everything around.



Contrast this with the smallness and compactness of the business hotel room I am staying in.



Dinner tonight was just fast-fare found close to the hotel. An efficient ordering system where you view the menu on the wall, then buy a ticket which corresponds by number from the ticketing machine and take it to the seated counter. Cold green tea is brought immediately and the hot food chases quickly after. The dinner reminded me of a favourite childhood meal for my sister - raw egg with hot rice. Here, topped with shredded beef.

What I Learned: Selling a vehicle

1. Consult the Black Book as a starting spot for pricing.

2. Check out used vehicle listings to see what comparable vehicles are available and what they are selling for.

3. Know what you are selling. Get the specs sheets and have them handy when you are taking calls from prospective buyers.

4. Having a declaration of repair on your vehicle is like a kiss of death for your selling price. Dealers have an immediate standard deduction off what they will offer if there is a dec, and it's large.

5. Getting a dealer offer is sobering news. They will tell you that their dealer worked extremely hard to bring the offer up to what you would like to receive, but it will still be low.

6. Be ready for a lot of enquiries, but don't expect many of them to translate into true opportunities to sell.

For Sale by owner: 1999 Sonoma 2WD, 4.3 L Vortec V6. 5-speed manual transmission. Extended cab (3rd door). Sportside body, sport suspension. Black with grey interior. Single owner. 65,000 km mileage. (Update: SOLD on September 22.)

My Fast cost me $113

Volkswagon promotes the GTI as a car that likes to go fast. It ships with a toy, named the Fast, which reminds its driver to treat it with high speeds and lots of road time. The marketing that they've come up with is hilarious.


The police promote safe defenisve driving and let me know that it is not alright to be driving 85 kph in a 50 zone. An officer hit me last weekend with my first speeding ticket ever in this province! It took me 10 years of driving in the city, but only two trips driving the GTI, before my first traffic offense.

After delivering my ticket and while walking back to his radar hiding spot behind a parked truck, the officer commented that the GTI has huge brakes for a small car. "All the better to stop fast with," I replied. He chuckled, but I wasn't sure if he correctly heard what I said.

Happy long weekend

This is what the UBC bus loop looked like at the end of the day today:


Nearly empty. No crowds of undergrads talking about a poor test mark as if it may be the worst thing since that big-ass zit showed up on their forehead. No volume-so-loud-that-I-can-hear-your-crap music iPods. No queues of people waiting to push their way onto an already too-full bus. No "will this bus board through one door or all doors" confusion.

Unfortunately, today is the last day for a long while that I can expect to see the bus loop like this. After this long weekend, they (the undergrads) will all be back. This long weekend I will prepare myself to be passed by buses that won't stop because they are full, to not get a seat on the bus that I do get aboard, and to be surrounded by lots of noise and big crowds.

My Go Bag

Seeing the myriad of stuff that others carry in their go bags inspired me to take inventory of what I pack around on a daily basis. Here's what my field bag looks like and what it contains for the day-to-day battles of my week.


Top to bottom, left to right:

1. Commuter book - just finished, Possession by AS Byatt.

2. Research articles.

3. Compy with AC adaptor and second skin carrier.

4. Moleskine day timer.

5. Pens and highlighter.

6. Business cards and UPass bus pass.

7. Lunch containers including banana protector.

8. Custard in camo skin with earbuds.

9. 80 GB external hard drive plus USB connector cable.

10. 256 MB USB key.

11. Cell phone.

12. Cash and cards in money clip and personal key ring including gym membership tag.

13. Various building and lab keys and pass cards.

14. Nalgene water canteen.

15. The bag - MEC's messenger bag, replaced once because the metal clasps wore through from excessive weight and use.

The weekend or evening bag looks different and, for the most part, carries different gear, but that's for another post.

New wheels and Olympic plates!

This car has got spunk! And it (yet to be named) is all dressed up in pretty Olympic plates!

Revelstoke

I was back to visit my hometown, Revelstoke, this weekend. My parents are moving out of the town and have now sold their home -- the home that I grew up in -- so, this trip to Revelstoke may be the last one for a while.

Some snaps from Revelstoke, home and downtown, that I grabbed this weekend:

Love thy neighbour

I don't know who it is in Artworks that did the kind deed, but thank you!

I lost my gym tag a few weeks ago. It was a key-chain tag, so considering the way that I fling around my keys and cards, it isn't surprising that it would leave me for a happier home. (If you need proof of how much abuse they take in my daily grind, you can check out my rubbed-blank UPass or my top-layer-is-peeling-off driver's license.)

This evening, I was posting a couple of notices in the building asking to rent a secure parking spot and there on the board, stuck with a pin, was my gym pass. Someone took the time to pick it up from wherever it fell, brought it to the common area, and pinned it there for its owner. It saved me a few bucks and the hassle of getting a replacement card, and made me realize that there are great people in my building to meet.

Falling gas prices

Gas was selling for 99.9 cents per litre (plus 3.5 cents per litre taken off at the pump) on Friday night. Honest! I have a photograph to prove it.

(See! 99.9! There'd be way more glowing white light if it was in the triple-digit prices.)

A weekend without plans

My weekend was full. Full of good times with good friends.

Out with the school kids on Friday. Last minute planning to get out for am evening patio drink and dessert nosh is a good thing.

Out and about Vancouver on Saturday for some shopping. Hair by Taylor, jeans by Mavi, shoes by the Running Room. (Looks like a caption for a style mag snap.) Getting fit, both myself and Trisha, for proper running shoes to correct personal imbalances was eye-opening. I ended up with this pair of shoes and holy crap, they honestly feel weightless. Fantastic advice from the girls at the Denman store, and at the same time, they were entertained me with their teases about the one girl's "date."

Out to crash MA's girls' night with Andy. Pavlova is a sweetened baked meringue topped with whipped cream and fresh berries and was good gawd good. Yummy! I also tasted this New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and I'll be looking to buy a bottle of it. Tasty! My neighbourhood has some incredibly interesting people living in it. It was great to meet some of them.

Out for reunion-of-sorts brunch. I met great friends at my first lab job in Vancouver. We've all scattered now in our ventures after that employer and it is fantastic to find out that everyone is looking and doing great.

Another round-up

There's been another huge gap in my blog entries.

What I've Been Watching

The Simpsons Movie. What this show does well on the small screen, it does well on the big screen. It just has more room to do it (allowing a lot of little things to happen in the background) and more time to do it.

And my guilty summer pleasure... So You Think You Can Dance? It's down to the final 6 in the competition (though I have been watching it for a bit longer than just the past week). The dances that are choreographed for the dancers are incredible. A few of the dances made me follow up with a internet search of Mia Michaels, to discover a video of her Park Bench dance from last season's SYTYCD and videos that include her work for Madonna's world tour concert.

What I've Been Listening To

The Knife - Silent Shout. It follows perfectly in the electro-rock vein of Justice, with more rhythm, jerky dance beat, sound. Heard about the album a while ago and checked some of the dark videos for the early singles. Finally, bought the album and am enjoying it.

Commuter books

When I get a seat on the bus and when I don't fall asleep (which nearly made me miss my stop yesterday afternoon), I sometimes use the time to do some pleasure reading. I don't take the time at home to do much reading, so the ~30 minutes per trip on the bus has recently been a great time for me to get to some books that have rested on my shelf for quite long.

The tightest criteria I have for commuter book is that it must be portable - my messenger bag is already heavy with my laptop plus accessories, papers, day timer, and lunch. So, the hardcover books that are in my "to be read" pile remain on the pile, and a paperback that sits on the shelf will be what I will pass the commute time with.

Dave Eggers' What Is the What is based on the life story of Valentino Achak Deng, a refugee from Sudan that makes his way to the USA. The novel bounces back and forth Achak's present life, where the challenges of finding work, getting into college, and making efforts to help those in his home country are told against a backdrop of a home invasion, and his past life, where he was forced to flee his home, becoming one of the Lost Boys in refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya. An amazing story of survival. My one problem is that the novel "sounds" like Dave Eggers. The natural language that you hear from the author reminded me a lot of A Heartbreaking Work..., where it was Eggers telling his story. Hearing the same voice telling me Achak's story as its own "sounded" a bit off.

Possession is my current read. This book has been sitting on my shelf for a few years now. It came to me free, being picked out of a box of discarded books that was by the side of Main St one day when I was walking to work. I got teased at work for picking things with unknown origins up off the street. As for the novel, I am hooked. I'm only a quarter of the way through, but I look forward to busrides where I can get back into the story. A trip in and out translates to about a 40-50 page bite, which is almost perfect chapter for my tastes. It's marked as a romance, which made me hesitate briefly before starting it, but so far, I have been excited by the stories of discovery, theft, and academic politics.