2011-10-30 21:11:00
Finally! After missing five weeks of kendo practice, or any other sport, I'm back!
I really need to start running again, but putting that aside: yesterday was kendo class! And I was glad to be back! ^_^ As can be expected after more than a month without exercise it was tough going. My endurance was down, as is my muscle power and lung capacity. And as always my timing is off and I still suck at making the small strikes.
My absence however has allowed me to become aware of something new, a flaw I hadn't noticed before. When moving forwards to make a strike I do not keep my upper body straight. I correctly move forward by pushing from my hips, but instead of keeping my shoulders above my point of gravity, I actually hollow my back. This messes up my form, my strike and my timing. I've always wondered why I suck so much at making good fumikomi: now I know.
Having recently returned from Japan I presented two of our trainers with the omiyage I bought them. On day 6 of our trip we'd visited the Hakozaki shrine to the kami Hachiman, protector of warriors and farmers. Hachiman is one of Shinto's most popular deities, covering both war and harvest. At the shrine I bought omamori (charms) for victory in sports and būdo, which is what I gave to my teachers as a token of gratitude.
I've also ordered a frame for kendo glasses. These, from e-Bogu.com. As I've mentioned before I cannot wear my own glasses inside my men and it's a pipedream to think that I will ever be able to wear contacts. I recently spent 45 minutes failing to even touch my eyeball, so putting a contact on there is completely out the window. Anyway. The frame needs to come in from the US, so it'll take a while to get here. Then I still need to get my prescription lenses made for them, which is going to cost a pretty penny. Then, after that I can -finally- put on a helmet and get hit in the head :D
kilala.nl tags: kendo, sports,
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2011-10-30 20:54:00
Recently there was a thread on Reddit, mentioning that Civilization Revolution for iPad was on sale; down from $12.99 to $1.99. Having played the original Civilization back in 1991 I jumped at the offer and got the game. It really is quite good and addictive, as is witnessed by the fact that Marli had to pry the iPad from my hands after midnight (on a work night). ^_^
This 2008 game has all the same elements to the game, though things are more polished and there is less micro-management. I've never played any of the in between versions, so I'm literally skipping 20 years of game development here. I'm actually happy that there's less fidgeting with upkeep of buildings and of resources in each city.
Getting nostalgic I decided to download the original Civ1, which is abandonware these days. It plays very well in DOSBox on Mac OS X. It's great to see and hear that familiar game, including the stupid grinning faces of Stalin, Shaka Zulu and their advisors. But my word, compared to Rev, Civ1 really is harder :)
kilala.nl tags: games,
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2011-10-26 00:00:00
Recently we upgraded our BoKS master and replica servers. Out went the aged Sun V210 with Solaris 8 and BoKS 6.0.3 and in came shiny new hardware+OS+BoKS. Lovely! Everything was purring along! We did start getting complaints that newly created users couldn't log in to all of their servers, which seemed odd. One of our Unix admins spotted that all these users had their shells set to bash, while ksh is the default shell we should be using.
How come the user default shell had changed all of a sudden? We traced the cause back to the BoKS web interface, but couldn't find out where the new shell setting had come from.
So! Back to grepping through the TCL source code of the web interface! A last ditch attempt, searching for every instance of the word "shell" (excluding the help files of course). In between oodles of lines of code I stumble upon this nugget:
# Get first shell from /etc/shells if it exists,
proc boks_uadm_get_default_shell {} {
if { [catch {set fp [open /etc/shells r]}] == 0 } {
So there you have it! The BoKS v6.5 web interface simply grabs the first line of /etc/shells (if the file exists) and uses that for default value in the "shell" field when creating new user accounts. After changing the first line back to /bin/ksh things were back to normal.
An RFC has been submitted to make the user' default shell a configurable option.
kilala.nl tags: boks, sysadmin,
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2011-10-23 21:37:00
So... A week after returning home from Japan things are mostly back to normal.
Also... Yeah, I'm a brony =_= I thought I'd give the new My Little Pony show a download, for Dana's enjoyment. I'd seen a few 4Chan jokes left and right and was curious. The artwork's nice and apparently it's written/adapted by someone who was also involved with Powerpuff Girls and Foster's Home for imaginary friends, so it can't be all bad. Right? Turns out it's quite tolerable, or actually fun. Dana was hooked within five minutes. When I turned off the YouTube preview of the show she loudly exclaimed: "No! Watch horsies!" ^_^
As can be expected with anything that attracts the attention of 4Chan and other Internet geeks, MLP-FIM has its share of memes and jokes. Prime examples are PONIES - The Anthology (which is similar to the classic AMV HELL videos) and the PONIES Kanye West crossover shown below. As is pointed out in the top YouTube comment for that clip: "Even if you HATE ponies with all your soul, you gotta admit that the editting skills here are superb".
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2011-10-18 16:37:00
In other words: loot!
In the picture's most of the stuff we brought home from Japan, excluding our headphones, the pluche Pokemon we bought for our neighbor and a few small gifts for my sister. It also doesn't show the two Hanshin Tigers t-shirts that we bought for Marli. In the boxes labeled A through H you'll see:
Aaaaand, that's about it :)
kilala.nl tags: japan, travel,
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2011-10-18 13:43:00
BOOM! All of a sudden all blog posts from Japan are visible :)
I was keeping them hidden because obviously I'm not going to announce to the whole world that our house is empty and that it's ripe for the picking for three whole weeks. But now they're visible. The photo galleries will go up over the next few days.
If you want to read everything, start reading the September 2011 archives. The Japan-related posts start about half way.
Also, the photo galleries will be uploaded during the night and can be found here. Each day's blog post now also contains a direct link to the relevant gallery page.
kilala.nl tags: japan, travel,
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2011-10-18 11:28:00
So! That was it. The holiday's over and we're back home. Let's do a recap of stuff that's not covered by the day-by-day reports (all of which I'll be publishing over the next few days).
Was it a good holiday? Yes, definitely. We enjoyed ourselves, despite some of the personal stuff that went on. However, I'm not as bouncing-up-and-down enthousiastic as last time. This probably has something to do with the fact that it was no longer a new experience for me, as I'd been to Japan before. Also, because I brought my family, this trip was very light on the nerd/geek aspects: no long days, exploring cities and forests, no stomping around Akiba or DenDen Town for hours, no unlimited snooping around manga and toy stores.
What about Dana? Dana has been perfect! Really. She's been absolutely helpful and wonderful. She was patient on the plane and on the trains. She enjoyed walking around the cities and being pushed around in her stroller. She never put up a fight and, from what we're told, never annoyed our room mates to such a degree that they'd wished her gone. She listened well to all of us and, despite taking a little while to get used to it, she even ate pretty well. The iPad we bought right before the trip proved to be a perfect companion, because it provided Dana with plenty of games and puzzles.
What about the money? See my other post about this :)
What will we miss about Japan?
What are we happy to come home to?
Lessons learned? We can definitely do with less clothing than we brought. The "one suitcase trip to Japan" is not a pipedream! Marli definitely needed all her shirts, but could've done with much less jeans. Also, less socks and a smaller set of clothing for Dana would've worked fine.
Any false expectations? Marli noted that the Japanese are not nearly as polite as everyone (us and our friends) made them out to be. Sure, everyone in the service industry will bend over backwards for you, but that's because they have to. But the general populace, while more polite and restrained than the dutch, can sure be assholes. Especially cyclists can be a hazard and yes, there's plenty of shoving in line for a train, despite the fact that many people do wait in line.
Any regrets? Not really. A week in Tokyo instead of Fukuoka might've been more suited to us. Don't get me wrong, as a city I love Fukuoka and I also enjoyed visiting Kyushu's sights and cities. But Tokyo also offers a lot of things I would've loved to show Marli and Dana. Aside from this one minor regret I really do regret not visiting the one or two kendo dojo I'd been intending to. Our plans changed a few times and I never took the time to go to Osaka castle in the morning.
kilala.nl tags: japan, travel,
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2011-10-18 06:31:00
People often ask me whether Japan really is that an expensive country to visit. While it's not all bad, let's run the numbers. Everything below is based on two adults and one child.
So that's 5300 6000 euros in order to get us into Japan, have us traveling the country and for having a safe and clean roof over our head. Not bad at all. Taking out Dana from the calculation that means it's 5300 / (3*2) = ~885 1000 per adult, per week.
Now, during our stay we obviously needed to eat, visit attractions and buy bunches of souvenirs. We didn't keep real track of these things, so the easiest thing to go by are the cash withdrawals we made (since Japan is a cash-based economy mostly). In total we made five cash withdrawals of Y50.000, which is roughly 500 euros each time. That makes it a rough 2500 euros, ~1500 of which was spent on food and drinks meaning that we spent ~1000 on "fun".
Gross total: roughly 8500 euros, which is neatly within the budget we'd set for ourselves.
Could this have been cheaper? Sure, by eating more frugally and by not buying any "fun" stuff :) The total could've been around 7000 easily, but we decided to splurge a little bit since this was Marli's first holiday in at least five years. And besides, how often do you get to visit Japan anyway? :)
EDIT:
I forgot to include the upgrade to Economy Comfort which we arranged a day before departure. That's another 700 euros, which we thought was worth it. We'd have gone nuts without the extra legroom.
kilala.nl tags: travel, japan,
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2011-10-18 06:06:00
Photo galleries for day 19 and day 20.
There really isn't much to say :)
On Sunday we used the morning to pack up all of our suitcases and to make sure everything could make its way home. Having bought a second suitcase we now had two cases, one trolley, two backpacks and Dana's stroller. It's like a regular caravan, for just three people on the move! o_O By spreading weight around we could prevent having to pay extra again, like on the way here. The big case was 21 kilos, the new one was 13 and the trolley well under 10. Good job and we didn't even have to mail any books back home! They all made it into the cases just fine.
Sunday afternoon we finally got to visit the famous Umeda Sky Building (wikipedia). With an observation deck at 170 meters the tower provides a lovely view of Osaka, allowing you to see most of the city in one glance. I say "most" because with a diameter of roughly 40 kilometers it's hard to see all of Osaka. Dinner was again had at Tengu and sadly another bit of infighting ensued. I guess that's what happens when living in such close quarters with four adults and a kid. =_=
Monday morning we woke at five to pack up the last bits and pieces. Bits of laundry, cabin luggage, Dana's airbed, that kind of stuff. At 0600 Kaj and Michel left the apartment to catch the Haruka from Tennoji station, to Osaka KIX. Having quite a bit more luggage, as well as a kid, we chose to retain our sanity by paying Y13.000 (roughly 130 euros) for a cab directly from Weekly Mansion Osaka to KIX. It really was worth it between the comfort of the taxi, the door-to-door delivery in forty minutes and the lifting services of the driver.
Checkin and such were uneventful. Everything got dealt with smoothly, after which we had some breakfast and did some last-minute shopping. Some omiyage for friends, family and colleagues and a little bit of tax free juwelry for Marli ^_^
The flight? What can I say, 11.5 hours in an airplane suck ass. I hate it. Especially because our IFE (in-fligth entertainment) was broken and because all of us were ill. Marli had a splitting headache all the way, while Dana and I have a head cold. The flight itself was perfectly smooth, with very friendly attendants and Dana even got a two-hour nap! (Which meant I had to spend two hours walking around the 777, or sitting in the pantry, because Dana was sleeping on both her and my seats)
We landed right on schedule at 1510 and were out pretty damn quickly! We took the train home at 1609 where we were picked up by our lovely neighbor Manuela. -So- great not having to lug all those cases and Dana across the streets towards home. After some quick unpacking (laundry and such) I crashed on the couch with Dana at around 1745, only to be woken up at 1830 by the pizza delivery. Both Dana and I were in horribe shape, so we both went to bed without real dinner at 1900. Between our head colds both of us woke up a few times in the middle of the night. Around 0400 I couldn't get back to sleep anymore, so I gave Dana some of her medicine and went downstairs for some more unpacking, archival work (mail) and for sorting out the photograps. I'll put those up pretty quickly.
We're home :)
kilala.nl tags: japan, travel,
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2011-10-16 02:02:00
It's interesting to note that over half of our photographs were taken during the first week of our trip. After that it petered down pretty quickly, with the last week having days of 0-10 photos.
kilala.nl tags: japan, travel,
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2011-10-15 14:48:00
Another quiet day, since we're winding things down now that we're reaching the close of our holiday. The morning was spent at "home", after which we visited the Nanba area again. This time we walked around the various shoutengai in the neighborhood, since they provide cover from the rain, while also housing a great variety of shops.
At Bic Camera we, against our better judgement, visited the toy department. There's dozens of things we'd love to buy, but there's no reason at all to do so. There's bunches of toys that the little boy inside me would love to get his hands on, but they aren't actually that good, nor would they warrant bringing them home to the Netherlands.
We also dawdled for a while at the rack of randoseru (those lovely backpacks, remember?) as Bic Camera actually had one for 98 euros! Again we couldn't justify the purchase and we had our doubts about such a backpack for Dana. Would she be teased because of it? would other kids steal or damage it, because it's so different? Is it too big to take home? Etc...
We had dinner at Tengu (テング), which was great and better than Wara Wara in many respects. I also had a small and short panic attack, caused by a sudden and urgent need for a lavatory. Funnily enough the panic attack followed ten minutes after the problem had been solved.
Today saw the airing of NHK's new period drama (not period as in "menstruation", but period as in "set in older times") Carnation. I wish I could see the whole show one day, cause it seems like something I'd really enjoy.
EDIT:
Recently there was another one of those cool specials on TV Osaka, the kind where some semi-famous people play tourist in their own country. This time it was two dudes going through the Japanese Alps in a show called Iitabi Yumeikibun (いい旅・夢気分, roughly "A dream journey"). Apparently there's more episodes to the series, but this one focused on autumn in the Shinhotaka and Hida area. Here's the trailer. The onsen and mountain visited during the show look great, so that's something for another holiday.
They also visited a -great- attraction, called Gattan Go!, aka Railway Mountainbike. The concept:
Personally I think it's a great idea!
kilala.nl tags: japan, travel, anxiety,
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2011-10-15 01:21:00
The picture says it all, right? Friday and Saturday have torrential rains for most of the country, up to the point that the news gave of warnings for landslides and for flooding tunnels.
We didn't have much planned for the day, except for maybe shopping in Umeda or Nanba, so I took Dana to the playground again. Since it was a schoolday the place was deserted, save for a one year old boy with his grandmother. Soon, around 1030, the rain set in heavily so we went back again. Mostly, the morning was spent watching TV and doing whatever. Around 1300 we set off for lunch at Oude Kaas, but I quickly gave up and took Dana and Marli back home again. Five minutes in the rain had soaked us through and through and taught me that my brand new raincoat wasn't so weather proof :(
Being stuck inside, or more likely "by tricking myself to think we need to stay inside", my mood soured and I just tried to take a nap under a comforter lying on the tatami floor. By dinner time I felt better again and we went to grab some grub at Yayoiken. Hearty, hot and filling :)
kilala.nl tags: japan, travel,
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2011-10-13 15:40:00
Today we visited Kobe, which is right around the corner from Osaka if you take the bullet train.
We started off with a visit to the Kobe herb gardens, which are on top of the mountain side upon which Kobe is built. The ropeway trip to the top takes about five minutes and, despite my vertigo, was awesome. It provides a lovely view of the city and of the forests and of the dams which are there to hold rain water overflows. The gardens themselves were a bit bare, what with it being October and all, but still provided a nice hour's walk. We also spent at least fifteen minutes soaking our feet at the "hot spring" which provides a panoramic view of the forest, of Kobe and its harbor and of the ocean. The view would've been better without the rain, but hey :)
After the gardens we took a small walk to the Ijinkan, aka the "barbarian houses" which are early 20th century reproductions of European and (South) American houses. Oddly, WikiTravel lists the Ijinkan as one of Kobe's biggest attractions, but I really didn't dig'm that much. Of course taking Dana along the streets was hilarious, what with the squeeling high school girls.
Then it was back to Osaka for more relaxation, sleep and dinner at Wara Wara (again).
kilala.nl tags: japan, travel,
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2011-10-13 15:37:00
Of course, now that I'm not within reach of our NAS with the full iTunes library on it, I decided to still update my iPhone to iOS 5. And of course I ran into a few problems. And of course iTunes decided to overwrite tonight's original backup with a useless backup without any real data. And of course I'm now SOL until I get home and actually have access to the full library again. *grr*
Remember kids: only do OS upgrades at those times that you can actually afford to lose functionality on your computer / phone. Don't do it on the road, or a day before going on a trip... I feel stupid :)
EDIT:
Well, thank fsck for luck, because somehow, I have no clue how, iTunes managed to pull all my stuff together again. Don't know where it pulled it from, don't particularly care. I'm happy that I have my apps back and that Dana can be amused using her regular games. I even got most of my music back, despite my NAS being back home. And thank $DEITY that all of my photos are still there! Even my Evernote stuff is back! L.U.C.K.Y.!
EDIT 2:
I never learn, do I? After having iPhoto updates bork on me not once, not twice, but three times, I still go ahead and do an upgrade during a time when I need iPhoto the most. So yes, iPhoto 9.0.2 borked things again, though this time things got fixed pretty quickly. I think there was something with the new Photo Stream features that was screwing things up.
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2011-10-13 02:02:00
Yesterday (today is thursday, day 17) we visited the Osaka Science Museum (wiki page), which seemed like a fun thing to do with Dana. She doesn't get to do too many fun things during a holiday like this. Luckily, the OSM -was- fun! It's quite unlike the Miraikan in Tokyo, which I visited in January of 2008. Where the Miraikan is modern, spiffy and awesome to look at, the Osaka Science Museum is older, more hands-on and definitely, -definitely- for kids.
The OSM, opened in 1989, has four floors of exhibits, two of which have plenty of things for the kids to touch, experiment and play with. So Dana got to play with scales, magnets, pulleys, pendulums and models representing Keplerian motion. Good stuff. Because it's a kids-friendly place there were at least seven elementary school classes in there as well, so "busy" doesn't begin to describe it.
Afterwards we went back to the Umeda area to find a second suitcase. On the one hand to spread the weight of all of our luggage, on the other to make space for our souvenirs and toys. After a frustrating visit to Daimaru and to the Hanshin dept. stores, where Samsonite cases cost 150% of what they cost in the Netherlands, we went back to our apartment. On the way there we had a lucky break and stumbled upon a small bags+cases shop which had a nice and big case for Y8900. Score!
Back at the apartment I took Dana to the playground again, which was even more crowded than last time. Around six there were twenty to thirty kids running around there, aged 3-12. Dana had fun playing with two Japanese girls, aged around 8. Dinner was had at Yayoiken, which offers good value for money on decent Japanese meals.
kilala.nl tags: japan, travel,
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2011-10-11 15:04:00
Unlike yesterday, today we -did- go to Kyoto.
Leaving around 1000, we stopped by the conbini on the way to Shin-Osaka where we grabbed the kodama which took us to Kyoto in fifteen minutes. Sure beats the local rapid, which would've taken thirtyfive ^_^ Onwards we went to Tofukuji station where we quickly decided to forego a vist to YATC (yet another temple complex), so we could visit Gion instead. You see, Gion is an area of the city famous for old architecture, high class dining and for geisha. After walking in the wrong direction for a little while we quickly made our way to Hanami-Koji, which really is a very pretty place. Then, walking through the Kenninji temple grounds we made our way back to the station, to return to Osaka.
Back in Osaka we paid a visit to Yodobashi Camera in Umeda. The toy department is awesome and I could browse it for an hour easily. But we rushed out there because it was just too much :) Instead we went down to the third floor, to check out headsets. Marli'd been wanting a new pair and I was looking to replace my old Shure E2G. My E2Gs still provide awesome audio, but the leads are completely worn through after five years. This means that, sadly, I need to replace them because they can't be fixed. Which is where the new SE215s come in: they're the new entry-level model, with -replacable- wiring. Good stuff.
Closing the day dinner was okay, nothing awesome. So afterwards, me and the boys went out again for some udon noodles at Toku Toku, around the corner.
kilala.nl tags: japan, travel,
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2011-10-11 14:38:00
Today went a bit different than we originally expected. From the moment I got out of bed I was in a very foul mood, snarling and snipping and generally being agitated. I was tired, I was feeling bad about my lack of preparation for the day's journey and I dunno... it was an off day, I guess. We tried pushing forward, but at Tani-yon station Marli smartly decided that it'd be better to stay in Osaka instead. So we did.
We got out of the subway again and instead visited Osaka castle, which is right around the corner. We love that the castle grounds are open for use by the general public, for sports and recreation. Since today was a national holiday, there were plenty of families making good use of the gardens and the sunny weather. I didn't go in today, but I also saw that the castle dojo was being used for naginata practice.
After walking for an hour or two we visited the Osaka museum of history. A nice, clean and friendly museum on the 7th through 10th floors of the NHK Osaka building. The 10th floor gives a grand overview of Osaka castle, its walls and its surroundings. I just with we'd brought the polarizing filter for Marli's camera, so the windows wouldn't have been blocked. Anyway, the museum's nice and it's easy to breeze through it. The replicas of ancient Osaka (then called Naniwa) are very nicely built!
Lots of walking, so afterwards we were beat. I took Dana to the local playground, to wear her out before bath and bed. Since Dana doesn't know much discomfort around others yet she quickly started playing with the Japanese kids, aged 2-8. They really had no idea what the others were saying, but they had fun nonetheless.
kilala.nl tags: travel, japan,
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2011-10-09 15:38:00
Today was a day of walking.
As you can read over here, Kaj and I visited Comic City Osaka 86. While we spent two hours geeking it out over fan-made manga, Michel and Marli took Dana for another aquarium trip, this time to the Kaiyukan in Osaka. Initially I thought all the people on the metro were headed to CC86, but I was wrong: most of them got off at the Osaka harbor station. As Marli's pictures will clearly show, the aquarium was swamped! Hundreds if not thousands of people took advantage of the bright and sunny Sunday morning, to take their kids to the aquarium.
We all met up around 1400 to visit the Nanba station area. I wanted to look for some manga at one of the Book Off second-hand stores and I wanted to show Marli the Doguyasuji shopping street. This set of alleys has shops that catter to restaurant owners, meaning that you'll find everything there to furnish an eatery. From cuttlery to furniture, from uniforms to knives, from pots and kettles to ornaments. It's quite a sight!
We had lunch at another izakaya and afterwards Michel, Marli and Dana went "home". Kaj and I went to Denden town, to shop for some more manga and doujin. Unfortunately I couldn't get my hands on the specific books I was looking for (still trying to buy them from the author directly, through Pixiv), but I did get some other nice stuff.
Shopping in Japan is alway an interesting experience, quite unlike from anything we have in the west. But honestly? Shopping for *cough*adult reading materials*cough* is -really- different over here. In the west, shops are quiet, dim, small and people keep to themselves. In Japan, shops like Melon Books are the complete opposite of this: big and crowded, everything out in the open, seas of bright white light and loud music everywhere. Here's a blogpost by someone who was quite surprised by the experience.
Dinner was fast food at Mos Burger, which wasn't bad but not spectacular either.
kilala.nl tags: japan, travel,
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2011-10-09 14:12:00
This deserves a post of its own, just to go over the loot I brought back from CC86.
So. Comic City Osaka #86. People in Europe might have heard about Comiket ("Comic Market") in Tokyo, which is a semi-annual three day event which draws 550.000 visitors and is focused on doujinshi activities. People who make their own manga and video games mostly. ComiCity is similar, but smaller with roughly 7000 visitors and ~1000 exhibitors. Sadly the catalogue is pretty frustrating to navigate for me, so I can't match up some of the more interesting people with websites or names. :(
First impression? "A lot of women!"
And by "a lot" I mean that >90% of the visitors were female. The CC86 website had warned that "some lavatories for men would be converted for women" but I wasn't prepared for this huge amount ^_^ It also meant that many of the manga on offer was by women, for women. As Kaj SMSed me within fifteen minutes after entering "That's a looooooot of yaoi!". Of course it was more shounen-ai than yaoi, but the point was made: lot's of stories about boys loving boys. It also meant that I got quite a few giggles from girls around me. While leafing through various booklets, the ladies were probably wondering whether that gaijin knew that he was about to see guys kissing or doing the nasty (ONOZ!).
Either way. I really enjoyed Comic City! Aside from doujin manga and novels, there were also many other crafts, such as:
I'd set a Y5000 budget for myself, which I'd spent within the two hours we were in there. Loot includes the following:
What a great day :) So many talented artists in one building.
kilala.nl tags: japan, travel, geeky, manga,
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2011-10-08 15:00:00
You may remember that, while in Fukuoka, I went to the PokeCenter to buy a few PokeDolls for our neighbors' kid. Today they sent me a funny email ^_^
"Our boy's sat in front of the cabinet in the living room... In said cabinet is a TV, but that's not what he's looking at... It's what's ON the cabinet... A box, which the kind mailman had requested that we take delivery of in the absence of the folks at #65. See what's coming?
Words as 'toys' and 'no batteries' on the label only worsen the anticipation. And of course the stamps make it obvious that the box came here from Japan!
Have fun in japan and just remember that there's someone looking forward to your return very, very much."
kilala.nl tags: awesome, japan,
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2011-10-08 13:36:00
Meh... Today was a lost day. =_=
Due to the aforementioned ruckus (which has not been resolved) we were all feeling crappy, so quite literally didn't do anything today. Wake up, have breakfast, I took a bath with Dana and then we looked around the Umeda shopping area for a short while.
We visited the Hanshin department store (which is much less spiffy than the ones we visited before) to drop by the Hanshin Tigers fan store. We picked up a jersey for Dana and a nice gift set for our new-born nephew Mike. We also bought Dana a nice doll, called Popo-chan. It's not much different from the nice looking dolls in the Netherlands, but for some reason the time seemed ripe. Besides, we also bought a nice Japanese elementary school uniform to go with the doll. You won't see that back home. ^_^ For old time's sake I bought Marli a Sylvanian Families set: a beautiful picnic car and a small family of raccoons. I remember watching the TV show as a kid and I'm pretty sure I loved it back then.
Ah yes! The proverbial, Japanese "WTF?!" moment. I love the design of the traditional elementary school backpack, the randoseru. Built like a house and meant to last the full six years of elementary school (and beyond, as keepsake). I knew those things were expensive, but at last I got to see them in person. They really are pretty, but a price tag which lies between Y34000 and Y70000 really is waaaay too much. For those keeping track, that's between 340 and 700 euros for a kid's backpack! o_O On TV I've seen sales for E199 models, but I've also found a spectacular E1150 randoseru. Holy crap, does it come with its own valet service?
Other cool stuff we've seen today.
kilala.nl tags: travel, japan, meh,
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2011-10-07 10:28:00
Today our stay in Kansai starts in earnest! But let's start with two downers.
So, on to the good stuff: Nara. Once, roughly 1200 years ago, the capitol of Japan and now a minor city in Kansai.
After breakfast and aforementioned scuffle we left around 1000 to grab the JR Yamatoji line to Nara station. Now that I'm writing this post I notice that I made a mistake reading the map yesterday. Initially I read the map to say that there was roughly one kilometer between Nara station and Nara Park. Well, turns out it's slightly more than double. And here I was thinking why the heck it was taking so long and I was wondering whether we were simply very tired from yesterday's illness and such.
Our goal was to visit the buddhist Todai-ji temple, to return Kaj's old charm and to buy new omamori. On the way there we were accosted no less than four times by small groups of children, doing schoolwork (some accompanied by their teachers). And invariably the dialogue went:
And every time we answered that we were from the Netherlands the kids had this "holy shit!" look on their faces and started writing happily.
As I said, by the time we got to the temple we were run down completely, so it was a matter of in-and-out. Buy entrance tickets, cleanse my hands and mouth, turn in the old charm, buy new ones and get out. I didn't even take the time to take a look at the big Buddha, I was in that much of a hurry. Shame, but that'll leave something for next time. :)
And that was about it. The way back was alright, except for Marli's horrible nausea. Let's see if we can't make tomorrow a better day again ^_^
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2011-10-06 14:03:00
So Marli was a bit ill today, which means that the quiet day I'd planned turned out to be a very quiet day :)
Instead of walking around the neighborhoud and going to Umeda, Marli was in bed all day, while Dana and I did a few shopping trips and played around a little. With a few trips to the local Lawson's Y100 shop I stocked up our kitchen to allow us to have proper breakfasts: some bread and fruit for Dana, milk and cereals for Marli and rice and miso soup for myself. That ought to save us a pretty penny, instead of spending five euros or more for each breakfast. Then, while Dana did some colouring and played a few games on my iPhone, I shopped on Amazon.co.jp for a few manga I'd been wanting to buy and for hanafuda (wikipedia) cards.
For dinner we decided against going out into town. Marli hadn't eaten anything real all day, so we doubted that she'd make it further than a kilometer. So instead, while Michel played a little with Dana, we quickly went around the corner to HokkaHokkaTei (ほっかほっか亭) for some Japanese take-out. For roughly twelve euros that was about the most decent take-out I've had in years ^_^ Udon with meat'n'veg, rice, some fries and a "mixed grill" of a sausage, a hamburger and a tempura fried shrimp and chicken. Even Dana ate her fill!
So. Bed time! The rice cooker's filled and the timer's set for tomorrow 0630, which means I'll wake up to a nice steaming bowl of rice around 0730. Nice! Then it's off to Nara for a day of sight seeing.
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2011-10-05 14:30:00
Our digs in Osaka are luckily a lot bigger than our room in Fukuoka. Then again, we will be sharing this ~60 square meters apartment with four adults and a kid, instead of just our small family.
We're renting a "three bedroom Grand Unit" at Weekly Mansion Osaka, which is exactly that: an apartment with three bedrooms, an LDK (living room, dining room, kitchen), a toilet and a bathroom. Our room is #805, which might very well be the exact same one I stayed in during my last trip to Japan. Then again, that might've been #605, but either way the layout is exactly the same.
One of these bedrooms is a so-called tatami room, which means that it's a traditional Japanese room. The flooring consists of reed mats and one sleeps on a futon instead of a bed. I slept in this room in 2007 and I loved it, but with Marli's back we were going to need normal beds this time around. After a bit of a ruckus regarding who gets which room (we honestly did put off this discussion for much too long, eg "we'll cross that bridge when we get there") Michel got the tatami room, Kaj got the bed room near the front door and Marli, Dana and I took the middle bedroom.
Once again we were glad that we bought Dana her small airbed, because again it was a perfect fit for the room. After pushing together our beds we had enough space for Dana's bed and we still had a little space to walk around. The cabinet in our room was big enough to fit all of our stuff, including our loot, except for dirty laundry. Unlike Fukuoka however, the beds weren't high enough to fit the suitcases underneath, so those went into Michel's futon storage.
It's great having a real kitchen, because the big fridge provided enough storage space for all of our food. The microwave and rice cooker also got frequent use for breakfast :)
I have to admit, the apartment was starting to show its age. It was a little dirtied and some of the fittings and outlets had been fixed with duct tape. But aside from that, it still provides great value for money at what we paid for it. Officially it's listed as 200 euros per night on the english language website, but on the Japanese site it's actually listed as 90 euros, which is close to what we paid. I guess it pays to browse around before making an official booking ^_^
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2011-10-05 14:26:00
What a day! We didn't see much at all, but we're dead tired!
After hurriedly packing our trolley with the last of our stuff and after having a quick breakfast we say our goodbyes to the staff at Toyoko Inn Gion. The rooms might be small, but the hotel offered us great value for money. And despite being a tight space, we were able to fit Dana's airbed in there just fine. The breakfast they serve was excelent: good onigiri with a few nice side dishes. It was a fine home for seven days.
We caught the Hikari at 0930 to Hiroshima, for a little sightseeing along the way. Sadly the weather didn't permit that as rain came pouring down, so we got back on the train again after a short breather. Funny detail, after having waited on the platform for about five minutes, Michel subtly pointed our attention towards three gentlemen next to us. The gents in question were perfectly lined up and had been standing like statues ever since we got there. Two guys in suits with briefcases and in between them a fellow with ill-fitting clothes and a bit of a scruffy look. Turns out that the middle fellow had a rope around his middle and was tied to the man behind him. He also had a sweater in his hands, to cover up his handcufs. Yes, the Japanese transport some prisoners on the shinkansen apparently.
At Shin-Osaka we grabbed lunch at one of the many restaurants, with us three sharing a Y1600 set of tempura, soba noodles and lacquered unagi (eel) on rice. That stuff was GOOD! After that, onwards to Osaka station, where we got to see the new South Gate water monument in person. That's some nice engineering right there!
We also strolled around the Lucua department store a little. There's eight floors of fashion, with at least six of them dedicated to ladies' fashion. I have to say, the Japanese have an interesting fashion sense and I adore the way they present wares in shops. Each little shop inside Lucua looks completely unique and all the clothes and jewelry are displayed in a special way. Much less boring or bland than the showcases in the Netherlands. I could've browsed for an hour, but Kaj and Michel eventually had an overdose of girly stuff. Besides, we were all tired and it was time to go home.
Finally, finally we got to go to our new digs for the next two weeks: Weekly Mansion Osaka at Otemae.
Buuuuttt... Not before we make it through pouring rain without real coats (in the suitcase), nor without umbrellas (left at the other hotel). =_= After another little kerfuffle we all settled in and unpacked.
To end the day on a positive note we had another great yakiniku dinner (or 'korean barbecue' might be more appropriate) at the local restaurant しお家 (shioya, which I guess translates as 'house of salt'). Their food and service are great and unlike the last barbecue place we visited it was not dark and noisy, but bright and clean. The whole restaurant had a very nice atmosphere and they played some great jazz in the background! Kaj pointed out that one of the waitresses even played some jazz on her own, on the electric piano in the back. I would -really- like to visit that place again before leaving Japan. Such a great find!
So here I am, at 2201 with everyone in their bed and me typing at the table in the kitchen. I'll go check on the laundry downstairs and maybe grab a little more to eat at FamiMa around the corner. It's pretty interesting what a huge appetite I have over here in Japan!
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2011-10-04 14:33:00
On our last day in Fukuoka we didn't do much at all really. We mostly to our time to really relax and rest up for tomorrow's long journey (1.5h by train, 3-4h in Hiroshima, 1.5h by train finished off by 45m of local travel to the apartment).
After breakfast I took Dana for a walk to the post office to grab a Y140 box to send home some stuff. Sadly a small packet SAL parcel can only weigh up to 2kg, so I had to take out some stuff. Meh. All in all, sending a 2kg box set us back roughly E25 which is funny because the overnight shipping for our 25kg suitcase from Hakata to Osaka is E14 ^_^
I'll be sending a big bunch of books from Osaka and list them as "printed materials", which should save a little money especially if I choose surface mail instead of SAL. I'm looking to get a few series of manga and I'll be shopping at Osaka Comic City as well. All stuff that I don't need home very quickly, but which I'd like to get there in one piece. Shipping seven kilos of books home will cost about 50 euros over surface (1-3 months) or 90 euros for SAL (1-2 weeks). It's a big difference in price, but that's money I could be spending on books :)
So, as I said Kaj arranged for Kuroneko to pick up our suitcases and move them overnight to Osaka. That way we'll travel a lot lighter on tomorrow's shinkansen ride, even allowing us to stop over at Hiroshima for a visit to the peace park. Dana will also definitely be needing a breater after an hour and a half in the train, so all in all it's a good thing. And personally I'd never balk at paying Y1600 to have someone else lug my 25kg across 500km!
We took a short trip to Canal City to have a look around and have lunch. I have to admit I wasn't impressed at all, though it was certainly fun to visit the NHK chara and Ghibli stores. After another short nap (while Dana did puzzles on my iPhone) we had dinner with the guys at Fugetsu. Hooray for okonomiyaki! /o/
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2011-10-03 15:21:00
Let's start off with today's least good part: dinner. After a long day Marli and I skipped into town to have dinner together. Having heard many stories about how awesome shabu-shabu is supposed to be, we went to a local restaurant in the JR Hakata City building. Since it's a department store building and since there are many "normal" eateries in there we didn't expect it to be a big deal, but nice nonetheless. Well, it turns out that Ningyocho Imahan is very much a big deal. Or more properly: a Big Deal (tm). With a history dating back to 1895 and a rather high-end clientele we weren't really in the right place.
You know the cliché story about a couply that unknowingly walks into a posh joint, has no clue how to act, keeps getting ogled by the staff and who actually don't really like the food altogether that much either? Yeah, that was us. Including moments where we were stifling our giggles and where I kept an eye out for the waiter, while Marli tried to fish out "lost" food we dropped into the pot. ^_^
The bill was damn steep too, but we knew that going in, so it's not all bad. "It was an experience", is what we thought to ourselves.
So, putting that aside, today was bloody awesome! /o/
Earlier this week I'd searched for a few local things to do together with Dana, should Marli need a few hours of rest. Yesterday's trip to the zoo was one of them. Today's trip to Umi no nakamichi ("road in the ocean", called that way because it's a strip of land connecting an island to Kyushu's mainland) was another one. Today we went there with the whole group: Michel, Kaj, Dana, Marli and myself. We were all looking for something fun to do in the lovely indian summer weather. It's not often that you encounter 30+ degrees and bright sunshine in October ^_^
Umi no nakamichi is a huge park and I do mean "huge", which serves as a get-away spot for people from the city. Gardens, biking lanes, attractions, picknick spots, restaurants, play grounds, they have it all! Here's a map, which is divided into sub-maps. I don't think we even left section D, despite being there for three hours. Dana had a wonderful time, as did all of us. I find it hard to describe how much I enjoyed myself, suffice to say that I felt like a big kid ^_^
The rest of our day was filled with a visit to the Marine World aquarium across the road. The entrance fee was higher than I'd hoped, at Y2100 a head, but the aquarium's quite nice! Like at the zoo, Dana was usually more interested in signs and blinking lights than in the huge rays and sharks passing in front of her, but hey. The big tank was impressive, the seals were funny and the dolphin show was cool too. Once Marli pulled Dana into it (cheering, clapping, cooing and such) Dana got really into it and loved the show. Lunch was good too, with my first curry of this trip. Surprisingly (and very good!) the curry actually wasn't a normal curry sauce, but more like a beef stew. Bonus!
By the time we got back to the hotel Dana was dead-tired and asleep. After we'd packed our suitcase (it'll be shipped to Osaka tomorrow) we rolled her into bed, without dinner. That has me worried a little bit, but I hope she'll do nothing but wake up with a tremendous appetite.
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2011-10-02 14:31:00
Today was supposed to be a resting day for Marli, allowing her to catch a few hours of sleep during the day while I took Dana for a few short trips. Turns out that Marli joined us anyway and we all had quite the exercise!
The day was started with a thirty minute busride from our hotel to the Fukuoka Municipal Zoo, which is in a very hilly part of the city. It's still rather close to the central areas, but that part of the city is built on a slops and hills. The zoo itself is rather nicely designed, but due to the location a trek from beginning to end takes you up an elevation of at least fifty meters. Dana enjoyed the trip, though her three-year-old's attention span meant that she usually had more interest for a bench, a shiny object or a step ladder, than for the mountain cat or giraffe staring at her. Oh well ^_^
Around midday we took the bus back to Hakata JR for lunch at a grilled chicken restaurant: Umaya. Sharing a bento set between the three of us meant that all three had our fill, while only paying about a tenner. The grilled chicken was supremely tasty and the ground chicken on rice was a happy surprise. We might go back there before leaving Fukuoka.
After lunch and before meeting Kaj for our afternoon's trip we waltzed onto the eigth floor of JR City, which is home to the Fukuoka Pokemon Center. You guessed it: a store selling nothing Pokemon merch. This store having newly reopened was chockfull of parents and even more kids and staff, with loud contests going on in the shop's main area. Why go to the PC? Because our neighbor's boy had asked us to pick up three dolls for him, which he'd pay us back for. Having ascertained where the store is we decided against searching for the toys that instant because we were running late and because, quite frankly, the noise was getting to us.
So, off with Kaj we went on the local JR line to Hakozaki station (which we initially missed because we took a Rapid instead of a Local train). Why go to this suburb of Fukuoka? Because it is home to the Hakozaki Shrine (wikipedia), one of Japan's four most important shrines dedicated to the god of war and harvest Hachiman. I'd been wanting to visit a Hachiman shrine to get omamori (a charm or blessing) for my studies as kendo-ka. So I now have one for my kendo bag, and two extras to gift to my teachers as omiyage. The visit was well worth it because, while the shrine is relatively small, it's very nice looking (not very gaudy) and there was a shinto wedding taking place.
After that, back to the hotel for a little breather. I also went back to the PokeCen to fetch the dolls our neighbor wanted and luckily the store had quieted down a little. There were still roughly fifty kids in there (most parents were sitting outside on benches) and twenty-odd employees milling about the store. I grabbed the first attendant I found (a very cute young girl of roughly sixteen) and upon reading the Pokemon names I showed her she'd found all the dolls within a minute. There was no thinking for her, just *BOOM**grab**grab**grab* and there's a basket of three dolls. I guess they have all employees memorize all the names of those little buggers. Poor kids :)
We finished the day with more yakiniku and ramen, at Uma Uma which is right around the corner from our hotel. The place don't look like much, but the food was -excellent-! Same style of ramen as yesterday, but everything about it was so much better. A simple and clean bowl, with plenty of taste!
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2011-10-01 14:54:00
Today was our first "real" tourist trap attraction: the famed Huis ten Bosch, aka "Nagasaki Holland Village" (wiki page). That's right, near Nagasaki there's a theme park dedicated to reproducing the Netherlands. Opened in 1992 and having filed for bankrupcy in 2003 the park remains open after a big capital injection.
I'd reserved tickets for us the day before, so after a hurried breakfast we got on the 0932 Limited Express bound for Huis ten Bosch station. Having bought ourselves some snacks (I got myself a chicken and egged-rice ekibento) we took a 140 minute train ride through Kyushu's agricultural and rocky landscapes. Ranging from wide vistas of rice fields, through industrial buildings, small cities and rundown housing, to mountain valleys and landscapes it's quite a sight to see. And then we arrive at the terminus of this special train: a tiny station in the middle of nowhere, somewhere on the trainline between Hakata and Nagasaki.
It's quite startling. You get off the train and see a wide river and a mountaneous highway. Then you turn left and see a huge replica of a dutch palace-like building and off in the distance, against the mountains, is the Dom Tower. o_O
Or at least something that looks like it. Which is exactly what could be used to describe the whole theme park: everything looks distinctly dutch, often perplexingly accurate, but it's always off. The Dom looks great! But then the top is concrete and has windows. And the gargoyles have steel hooks in their heads, from when they were installed by crane. Then there's the Koornbrug from Leiden, which actually looks prettier and more ornate than the real thing. And the same thing goes for the city hall of Gouda and the Delft city gates (which reminded me of the Amerfoort one, instead of the Delft one). Everything looks prettier and cleaner and much, much newer than the original. The basic premises of the park: take a bunch of famous and great-looking parts of the Netherlands and then tie them together into a bigger whole using generic dutch houses, buildings, canals and bridges. It's a highly sanitized and über-compressed version of the Netherlands. But instead without a foreigner in sight and habitated by >95% Japanese.
Because the park's leaking money like a boxer's broken nose leaks blood they've thrown in a huge amount of tie-ins to try and get people to visit. There's a teddy bear expo, there's a 3D theater and then there's the biggest eye sore to me: everywhere you look are adverts and promos for One Piece.
After the long trip back we did a quick Skype call home, followed by dinner. It tooks us longer to get there than expected, but we eventually had dinner at one of the yatai on the Canal City bank of the Naka river. I enjoyed the experience of the hustle and bustle and of eating outside, sharing a table with strangers, but the bill was steep. At Y8000 (aka E20 a head) it was too much for my taste and we won't be doing that one again. Especially considering that the food wasn't stellar (it was good though!). Michel and I had ramen (a bowl which was very hard to describe because there was absolutely nothing particular about it) and between the four of us we also had a bunch of skewered meats.
What'll tomorrow bring? Who knows?! I'll go have a look at my list of ideas :)
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2011-10-01 14:39:00
Yep, another slow day to ease into things.
After sleeping in a little I did the laundry and had breakfast with Dana. Then, while Marli slept a little bit more, we took the long way around to the local post office to get more cash. A trip into Tokyu Hands department store and a few looks around and it was time to go back and get Marli. By the time we were almost ready to go shopping in the Tenjin district we received a friendly phone call from the front desk to chase us out for the cleaning crew.
Only in Japan do I leave my hotel room door unlocked and open, with our laptop and iPad lying in plain sight.
Tenjin is Fukuoka's seminal shopping district with many department stores and big name shops. We waltzed around Parco and ogled all the ritzy shops. It's funny how many department stores in Japan are actually huge buildings used to put together dozens or hundreds of tiny little shops. In Parco's case one floor will house some twenty-odd shops with trendy clothing, while another floor has a few eateries and interior deco stuff. I especially love Loft, with its floors full of stationary and other crafts supplies. All kinds of paper, pens, paints, stickers, books and stamps! Lovely stuff and I could've shopped for at least an hour! And yes, we had a stop at another western eatery: Starbucks. Unlike McDonalds, the Starbucks over here is exactly the same: overpriced and 'okay'.
After three hours of walking Marli was pretty much spent, so while she went to take another short nap I took Dana for another walk. Back to Hakata JR, to reserve seats on tomorrow's Limited Express to Huis ten Bosch. We also looked around Tokyu Hands a little more and had a drink at one of the many conbini along the way. It might be crap coffee, but I really love the sweet, milky coffee you get in cans and cartons. I wish we had stuff like this in the Netherlands.
Around seven we headed back to Hakata JR (again), this time to meet Kaj and Michel for dinner at Yodobashi's food court. Marli's appetite had been whetted by Michel's story of barbecue restaurants, so we found us a nice and rowdy yakiniku joint. While Dana didn't eat anything at all (I'd prepared for that) we shared a four persons' set of beef, pork and chicken, including some vegetables and an awesome salad. Like yesterday we sat at low tables on the floor, but this time there was a pit to put our legs in, so at least our backs weren't going to get busted. All in all the food was -great-! The bill, a whopping Y11.000, but it was worth it!
Back at 21:45 Dana fell fast asleep a five minutes before we reached the hotel. She was sleeping like the proverbial baby when I put her to bed. No worries. So here I am again, typing up today's post in the hotel lobby, having drinks with my loved ones and chowing down on another Jumbo Choco Monaka ^_^
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