We had a bookclub meeting in the week between the Japan trip and the Hawaii trip. This was a discussion of the book Thinking: Fast and Slow, which was a big one that was also very dense. The book was great for me, since it was mainly about biases and heuristics. Not only that but it had a lot about how to deal with them and avoid falling into many of those traps. It also talked about how to drive people towards or away from those biases. We had a smaller group, Tina, Amy, Nina, Stepanie, and Myself. The talk was great, and since the book was so dense we ran out of time long before we ran out of things to talk about. We chose to go for a shorter and lighter book for the next one, Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson.
Steph and I got into Osaka from Chuuk without incident. We got a wifi hotspot that connected to the phone networks. We stopped by the JR ticket counter and they got us tickets to Kyoto, which we then found the train for. It was the express train, but not the high speed train. We got in a little before we could check in, but the hotel held our bags and took them up to the room when the room was ready. We went out and got a tasty meal of Ramen, at one of the best places on trip advisor, that our tour guide the next day recommended. We looked around and decided to walk around the shopping district that night, and found that it was really just a tourist market, and not where the real Kyoto was.
Day 2 we got up early and had a tasty breakfast, and coffee. We then met up with our guide, who showed us how to get around the city, and how to pay for things, like the busses. It was very different from the way to pay for things in the US so this was a great thing for the first full day in Kyoto. We went up into the hills and saw some amazing little temples with Buddha statues. There were also tiny inns and buildings in traditional Japanese styles. The area was so picturesque even if most of the buildings were pretty new. They kept the old styles and made it feel like old Japan. We then walked through a former Imperial palace that was converted to a Zen temple. It is also one of the places that has one of the most attractive bamboo forests. There was a cute road with bamboo made fences on either side of the road going straight through the forest. We grabbed lunch after that at a cute place that had some cooled noodles with a dipping sauce, I don’t remember the name of them, but they were tasty. We went to the Golden Pagoda after that, and it was very pretty. Unfortunately it wasn’t the original, which was burned down by one of the monks in the 1950’s. He was a little out of his mind, and his mother and him both eventually committed suicide over the shame of burning down a 600+ old Kyoto landmark. We headed to a little shop Stephanie had looked up that specializes in Bento boxes. She got one there, and it happened to be in the touristy market we had been to the other day, and had even been within a block of that shop. We said goodbye to the guide, and went to the hotel for a bit before dinner. The guide had set up an amazing dinner for us at a Kaiseki place. This is much like a farm to table multi course restaurant that one would find in San Francisco, but with a very Japanese style.
On day 3 we met up with Jeremy after a nice breakfast. We went to the Imperial Palace which was amazing. They had so much open space, it was somewhat odd. They didn’t do furniture, just lots of sitting on the floor. We went to a few temples, like the Silver Pagoda (not actually silver, just made by the grandson of the guy who made the golden pavilion). It was much more zen, and had an amazing moss garden. We then took the Philosopher’s walk, which is a path that goes along a canal near many other temples. We made it between a third and halfway through the walk before deciding to find a bus to the Gion district. We walked around there and looked for some Geisha. We didn’t see any, but we did find the best shaved ice in Kyoto (the shop is actually very hidden, and I was amazed that we found it). We had a great time there, and went to the little restaurant street across the river afterwards. We then said our goodbyes to Jeremy, and went back to the hotel for a bit. We decided on shabu for dinner. The place we went to was very nice, but I have decided that I prefer American style shabu, with the sesame sauce, and much more spice in the broth. The food there was still pretty tasty.
Day 4 started with a quick coffee and breakfast, then we went to a temple to get some udon curry, which was a mix of udon noodles and Japanese curry. The food was great, and we walked up to the temple it was just outside. That temple was neat, but not that unique. The really amazing shrine was the next one we went to, Inari shrine. We walked up the road to the shrine, which was clogged with people and full of little shops selling touristy trinkets. The shrine itself was the side of a mountain, and made of a path covered by thousands of Shinto gates. these gates led up the entire mountain, and we only missed walking through one section of them. The walk took over 2 hours at a good pace, and the gates covered nearly the entire path. This is by far the most unique and amazing thing I’ve seen in Japan. We then went back toward the train station, and decided to stop by the kitty cafe we saw on the way in. The cats there were very nice, even if not loving like our kitties. We then took the train back to the city center.
Day 5 we slept in a lot, then headed to Osaka. Stephanie wanted to take the high speed train, and eventually we found out how to buy the tickets. The train was easily 3 times faster than the train we took to Kyoto. We then had to make our way through the Osaka subway to our hotel. We made it there, and the room was ready for us. I was sooooo tired from carrying the scuba gear, but we needed to go find one of the great restaurants that Stephanie had looked up, and it was very much worth it. We went to the main food district, and found some amazing okonomiaki, which is all sorts of tasty things fried together and covered in sauces. It was so delicious, and filling that I wasn’t sure I wanted to eat at dinner. We found a great place for dinner, despite being pretty full, which was a ramen place. The ramen place had you buy a ticket at the front, so that you could focus on the ramen, which you fill out a form to say exactly how you’d like it, and then you eat it in a cubicle that locks away all other interactions, so that the meal is only about the ramen. I can’t say if that really matters, but they did make the best ramen I’ve ever had, by a good bit. We then went to the aquarium, and saw a lot of great creatures and biomes. They had a huge tank, which the path through the aquarium wound around, with lots of side tanks to display other biomes, one of which was Monterrey. We got back to the hotel, then got some really nice sleep.
The next day we went through the Osaka Castle, and it was a great tour. This is the third building on the site, and made wholly as a replica of the second building. The inside of it is a museum telling about the history of Osaka, focussing on the castle. The viewing deck from the top was also very nice. I liked walking the grounds of the castle, and seeing the outside of it more than I did being in the museum.
We then grabbed lunch before grabbing our bags, and got a lunch of Japanese curry, which was delicious. We then had an uneventful flight back, and Stephanie’s parents were nice enough to pick us up from the airport, despite us getting in early.
Stephanie and I took a long vacation, and the first week of that we went scuba diving in Chuuk, Micronesia. This was an amazing trip, and we had a wonderful time. The island was tiny, and there wasn’t much anything to do on land but the diving was amazing. Chuuk lagoon was the site of Operation Hailstone where the US bombed many Japanese ships in WWII. The diving there was amazing, and we penetrated many wrecks, as well as going as deep as 165 ft. Below is a video that is cut and sped up from the original 9 hours of video. You can see all the video at normal speed on my youtube, but this is the highlights.
We went to Rong’s place on Sunday to watch the most recent game of thrones. It is getting really amazing, and I’m really looking forward to how things are changing. I like the way it is changing from the books, and it will be really nice to see things evolve that I’m not ready for.
Steph had a great surprise for me this past weekend. She did another great birthday surprise like she did last year with the great trip to the cave. This year she took me to the American River and we did a rafting trip to the South Fork. We had a great time, and I was surprised when we got there. My best guess was sea kayaking, and the whitewater rafting was so much better than that. We got there early since there was not traffic, and stopped by McDonalds for breakfast. We got in a raft with another couple and had the fewest people in the raft. We also had the coolest guide. I decided to jump into the first rapids that were swimmable, and it was really really cold. Since it was pretty early in the season this was really early snow melt, at about 50 degrees. I’ve been in water that temp many times before, but it usually involves a wetsuit. We were able to make it through all the rapids with no issues, and the area around there was absolutely gorgeous. We were both really tired at the end of the day. We got back home pretty late and we decided to makes some misir wot and go to sleep.
We got some tasty waffles at beachhead, and it was a great time. I liked talking with everyone, and we played a game of Dungeon Lords while Steph was at the ballet. I got some bacon, and we had some veggies, but mostly had waffles. Tina made some amazingly well spiced ones.
We played a good round of Poker at Andrew’s on Saturday night with Lindsay, Adam, Kevin, and Debby. Steph joined us for dinner, but didn’t want to hang around after that. The food was decent, but not great. The ma po tofu was the most disappointing part of the dinner. We had a great time, and I won a lot. I was making some really bold moves, and got some amazing hands. Adam was nice enough to take me home.
The next day I joined Andrew and Adam for brunch. It was pretty tasty and very filling. We then went back to Andrew’s place and met up with Lindsay and Kevin there. We played a bit of magic (dragons), where I did ok, but not great. I had a few amazing plays, but not enough that I could win. Kevin had a really fast deck, and he ended up winning the day. We decided to do dinner at Tasty Indian Pizza, and it was pretty tasty. We were hoping for something like tikka masala sauce on pizza, but it was a bit less Indian than that. We then went over to a place nearby for watching Game of Thrones, and boy was it a good episode.
I had a nice long bike ride over to Andrew’s place for a brunch, which was delicious. The ride over was about an hour and a half. The whole way there and back was sunny and the perfect temp. I wore my new helmet and got a compliment on it from another cyclist. It was interesting meeting Andrew and Haru’s mother, and I could see how a bit of their personality developed. The food was amazing, with some delicious pastries as the part I liked the most. Debby brought some she got from Alexander’s and Andrew’s mother made some herb biscuits that were phenomenal. I left when they started the fist episode of the new Naked and Afraid season.
I got a cat tree for the kitties at the new place and they are loving it. They also have been loving to play with a red rain jacket I have hanging by the front door. I decided to give up on the jacket and hang it on the cat tree as a kind of tent.
They also like going on walks, and since we are at the back of the complex it is pretty safe to let them wander a bit on their own. Lana is especially safe since she runs back inside if anyone comes near. They have been looking out the windows a lot and carrying their toys around the apartment. They’ve also been surprisingly social when we have people over; sitting close to everyone and letting the guest pet them. I’m really happy that they are adjusting well.
It's an Exciting World 