and all a body can do is pretend they speak it.
yep, a few well placed bonjours and a oui oui, oh non non, and you can get along.
good thing, too.
got in this morning really early and went to the hotel.
checked in, ended up switching rooms to one with a view of something besides a wall.
which is nice.
chilled for a little bit whilst the lady slept, then me, Lisa and R went out for a little petit dejeuner.
it was pretty much exactly what I wanted - coffee, croissants and jam. Just lovely.
Paris is cool so far, though I haven't really seen much. I love the architecture, the way the streets are laid out, and I'm excited to see more.
Going out for dinner soon, and then meeting up with Lisa (who was here for a semester last year). Her french skills are quite impressive, I must say.
In the am, it's off to Notre Dame (Go Irish!), St. Chapel and some other stuff.
Ok, Miriam, you can use the internet.
Monday, December 25, 2006
Sunday, December 24, 2006
from brooklyn to paris
that's what I'm saying.
we're going all out, leaving it all behind, not caring about who we hurt along the way.
sitting here in the President's Lounge at Newark Airport. Personally, I'm disappointed that the president isn't here, but I guess he's got lots of airports to cover. It's cool in here, with free drinks, free toilets, carpet everywhere, and obnoxious people wondering who the hell I killed in order to be let in.
I'm excited to get to Paris for a number of reasons - it's Paris, it's not New York, it's a vacation, croissants.
That's four reasons, and that's todays number.
Four.
There will be videos most days and I plan on rocking the blog from here 'till next week.
we're going all out, leaving it all behind, not caring about who we hurt along the way.
sitting here in the President's Lounge at Newark Airport. Personally, I'm disappointed that the president isn't here, but I guess he's got lots of airports to cover. It's cool in here, with free drinks, free toilets, carpet everywhere, and obnoxious people wondering who the hell I killed in order to be let in.
I'm excited to get to Paris for a number of reasons - it's Paris, it's not New York, it's a vacation, croissants.
That's four reasons, and that's todays number.
Four.
There will be videos most days and I plan on rocking the blog from here 'till next week.
Sunday, December 17, 2006
a great joke
so this computer guy is walking down the street, he turns the corner and feels a drop on his head. He reaches up, figuring it to be a drop of water, and runs his hand through his hair.
Feeling something warm, he looks at his hand.
It is covered in bird shit.
Oh yeah, it's not a very funny joke. In fact, it sucks.
Almost as much as it sucked to have my head and hand covered in bird shit.
Feeling something warm, he looks at his hand.
It is covered in bird shit.
Oh yeah, it's not a very funny joke. In fact, it sucks.
Almost as much as it sucked to have my head and hand covered in bird shit.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
here's a pretty awesome interview.
I love this guy!
He's great!
!
It's from Salon. Is this breaking their copyright? Hm.
I guess that if you see this ,Salon, and you want me to take it down, I will.
I love you, and I don't want you think that I'm trying to hurt you.
Now go to sleep.
Shh.
Former Air Force officer Mikey Weinstein says evangelicals are trying to turn his beloved military into a "frickin' faith-based initiative."
By Alex Koppelman
Dec. 13, 2006 | When a Christian group shot a video inside the Pentagon that featured uniformed senior military officers talking about their evangelical faith, Mikey Weinstein went on the attack. Himself a former Air Force lawyer and Air Force Academy grad, Weinstein, who is Jewish, is the founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. He founded the MRFF earlier this year to oppose the spread of religious intimidation in a military increasingly dominated by evangelical Christians.
On Monday, Weinstein held a press conference in Washington, D.C., to announce that he was asking the Department of Defense's inspector general to look into the video, and determine whether the people who appeared in it -- Air Force Maj. Gen. Jack J. Catton Jr.; Army Brig. Gen. Vince Brooks, the former public affairs director of the Army; and Undersecretary of the Army Pete Geren -- had violated military regulations. He also filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the government to find out who, if anyone, had approved the video shoot.
Bob Varney, the executive director of Christian Embassy, the group that made the video, tells Salon he believes no regulations were violated, and he says Weinstein's allegations about increased evangelical influence within the military are wrong.
"I don't understand how one could come to that kind of conclusion," Varney says. "The military believes in religious freedom, it offers religious freedom, it therefore offers people of different religions to express them, and we're one among a number of different religions that are working in the Armed Services."
Weinstein spoke with Salon Tuesday afternoon.
The Christian Embassy is now saying it had permission to film this inside the Pentagon. Were you surprised to hear that?
Not at all. They're damned if they do, they're damned if they don't. If they said they didn't have permission, they would have been blown away. Having permission, to me, just shows the complicity. We have a systemic problem. You sound like you're too young to remember Robert Redford in "Three Days of the Condor," but the premise of that movie was that there was a CIA within the CIA. We have a virulently dominionist, fundamentalist evangelical Christian element within the Pentagon. They would prefer this to be the "Pentecostalgon," not the Pentagon. That's what they would prefer. They're trying to turn the Pentagon into a frickin' faith-based initiative, and that is not what our military is about.
These are the people who, when I talk to senior members of the military at the flag-level rank -- I don't know if you're familiar with what that means, that means admiral or general -- that have looked at me and said, "Come on, Mikey, what's your problem? We have the cure to cancer. If you had the cure to cancer, wouldn't you want to spread the word?" They don't realize when they say it, they don't have the mental wherewithal to understand that to a person who isn't an evangelical Christian, you're calling our faith a cancer.
What's wrong with this video?
I'm trying to think where to start. It is absolutely violative of a mountain of Department of Defense internal regulations, guidelines, core values, instructions, making it very clear that members of the military can not endorse any one particular political position, partisan religious view, they can't hold up a tube of toothpaste like Colgate and push it. Irrespective of that, it's also blatantly violative of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights, and at least as important it's violative of Clause 3, Article 6 of the Constitution -- you don't even have to get into the Bill of Rights -- which states that we will never have a religion test for any position in the federal government, which was brilliantly prescient of our Founding Fathers.
This, to me, constitutes as much of a national security threat to this country as al-Qaida. In fact, the video itself, to me, would be the No. 1 recruiting tool that I would expect bin Laden, the followers of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, although he's dead, Ayman al Zawahiri, Hezbollah with Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, Hamas, the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, to get angry young Islamic men and women in Iran, Syria and Lebanon to join the insurrection and jihadi terrorist activities. This would be a perfect accelerant to create even further conflagration.
Now, I was a JAG [judge advocate general, the lawyers who act as prosecutors and defense attorneys within the military] in the Air Force. I spent three and a half years as a lawyer for President Ronald Reagan in the West Wing, I've been Ross Perot's general counsel. I know the religious right would love to vilify me as a tree-hugging Northern California Sierra Club membership chardonnay-sipping liberal -- not that there'd be anything wrong with that, to wax Seinfeldian -- but I'm not. I'm a Republican. And my family has a very, very long and distinguished military history. We have three consecutive generations of military academy graduates, and my youngest son, who's at the Air Force Academy now, he's a senior, what's called a first classman, is the sixth member of my family to attend the academy. We have 115 years of combined active-duty military service to this country in my immediate family from every combat engagement from World War I to the current one, and this is a pernicious torturing of what our military is supposed to be about.
Of course, I realize people have religious rights. We only have about 2,200 chaplains in each of the military branches; every base has multiple chapels, and these people can pray all they want to themselves, like kids in school can pray to themselves, but when you're in the military, and you're coming in like that one person, Catton, whom I knew when I was a kid at the [Air Force] Academy, and he goes, "I share my faith, that's who I am, and let me tell you right now, the hierarchy as an old-fashioned American is that your first duty is to the Lord, second to your family and your third is to your country." That is the exact opposite of what is taught, and for anyone who understands anything about the military, it is always the country first. When you're told, "Troopers, we're going to go take that hill," you can't stop, fall to your knees and see what your particular version of Moses, Vishnu, Satan, Jesus, Mohammed, Allah, whatever they're going to say, and then quickly make a cellphone call to your family. So it is beyond-the-pale egregious, it is a national security threat every bit as bad as al-Qaida, and these people should be court-martialed.
Forty percent of active-duty military personnel consider themselves evangelical Christians. Is your position popular in the military?
We have 702 U.S. military installations scattered in 132 countries around the world, and I get calls 24/7 from the soldiers, Marines and airmen. Unlike cops, they don't have a union, they have my foundation, that's it. They're being tormented. And 96 percent of those who come flooding in, on fire with torment, are Christians, three-fourths of whom would be traditional Protestants: Lutherans, Methodists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians. The other one-fourth are Roman Catholics. These are Christians being preyed upon by evangelical Christians -- pray and prey -- and being told that you're not Christian enough, therefore you're going to burn in a hell of fire.
Many [evangelical Christians] tell me, "Mikey, OK, Anne Frank, Dr. Seuss, Jack Benny, Gandhi, they're all burning eternally in the fires of hell." And here's the distinction they just don't fucking get, these cocksuckers do not get this: I would give my last drop of blood and my last breath, and I would commend my three children in the Air Force -- one of whom's going to be heading to Iraq in a few months -- to give their last drop of blood and their last breath to support the rights of these people to believe that Anne Frank is burning eternally in hell … If they want to believe that their version of Jesus has her burning eternally in hell, I'd give my life for that. But I will not do that if my government tells me who are the children of the greater God and who are the children of the lesser God or no God at all. And that's what these monsters are doing.
Is there pressure on the non-evangelicals in the military to convert or keep quiet because some of their superiors have these views and are talking about these views?
Oh, absolutely. Like I said, in the military, many of your constitutional rights are gone, because it's necessary. Look, let's make sure your readers understand something, OK, put it in perspective: The U.S. military, which I consider a noble and honorable institution, is technologically the most lethal organization ever created by Homo sapiens. When you have the leadership believing that to be a good soldier, good Marine, good airman or sailor you have to be not just a Christian but the right type of Christian, we're no better than al-Qaida. And it's hideous, beyond belief. My kids were called "fucking Jews" and accused of total complicity, they and their people, in the execution of Jesus Christ, by superiors up and down the chain of command at the Air Force Academy.
But like I've said before, most of the people who've come to me are Christians. That's been the big sea change here. Look, Sinclair Lewis said it best, in [the 1930s]. He came back from Germany, he was observing it for a number of months ... and he [said] that he had now seen fascism up close and personal, and he knew that when it came to America it would be wrapped in the American flag, carrying a cross. And you know what? He's right.
It's one thing to be pushing evangelical Christianity on prisoners in a penitentiary and to be pushing intelligent design in public schools. That's bad enough, but that's not our fight. My foundation focuses, with laserlike precision, on the Marine Corps, Army, Navy and Air Force, because if we lose them, we lose everything.
Your youngest son is at the Air Force Academy, which has been the focus of a lot of the allegations about evangelical proselytizing. With you being so out-front on this, has he been the target of any reprisals?
No. I think that they realize if they touch a hair on his head, I will open up the skies and bring down a hammer and tongs like they've never seen before. There have been some snide remarks, but in the main it's steady cruising.
Now, my older son and his wife have had a few things. They're both first lieutenants. In the military, you wear a name tag, and their name is Weinstein. My daughter-in-law has had senior officers walk up to her and say, "I know who you are, and I know what you're family is all about." She's a junior officer, so she just looks at them. In the main, it's been fairly calm, because they're not that stupid to think that my kids wouldn't make a phone call, and then I'm going to do what I have to do.
But I can tell you that I get -- I don't think I'm in double digits, but it started at about 10 o'clock last night; after the press conference in the morning, I've had nine death threats since about 10 o'clock last night. I usually get about two or three a week. They're very grotesque, everything from wanting to gas all the Jews in America and send the corpses back to Israel to threatening to blow me up, threatening my house will be blown up, raping my wife, blowing up my house. We've had our tires slashed, we've had feces and beer bottles thrown at the house, we've had dead animals placed on the front door of the house.
I was in Topeka, on a book tour, and the local Episcopal priest came out to support me and five hours later his church was burned down. And the local synagogue in Topeka, where I was to speak that night, was desecrated with spray paint saying, "Fuck you, Jews" and "KKK," all that stuff.
So if this is a nice, Christian response, my response is take a number, pack a picnic lunch and stand in line, because we're not going to stop, we're not going to ever stop, we're going to lay down a withering field of fire and leave sucking chest wounds on these people that are trying to destroy our Constitution. This is not a Christian-Jewish issue, and it's also not a political spectrum, left or right issue, it's a Constitutional right and wrong issue. These officers, and what's happening in that video, simply by appearing in a video that is blatantly and vociferously sectarian, by simply doing three things in that video, they should be court-martialed. That would be circulating blood, reflecting light and breathing. That's all they had to do and that alone would have been enough. You're not Jewish, are you?
I am, actually.
You understand the word "dayenu"? Well, it's dayenu -- the dayenu factor is simply by letting the light reflect off you, circulating blood and breathing in that video. Everything else beyond that is extra. Dayenu's my favorite song at Passover, that's why I use it.
My response is I've given the new secretary of defense 20 days to answer the Freedom of Information Act request, which the law gives him, and at the end we intend to get as much information as we can, fashion it into a dagger and then stab at the heart of this unconstitutional, wretched, vile, darkness at the Pentagon. This unconstitutional darkness, we will stab at it with our dagger until we kill it.
-- By Alex Koppelman
Salon Media Group, Inc
101 Spear Street, Suite 203
San Francisco, CA 94105
Telephone 415 645-9200
Fax 415 645-9204
He's great!
!
It's from Salon. Is this breaking their copyright? Hm.
I guess that if you see this ,Salon, and you want me to take it down, I will.
I love you, and I don't want you think that I'm trying to hurt you.
Now go to sleep.
Shh.
Former Air Force officer Mikey Weinstein says evangelicals are trying to turn his beloved military into a "frickin' faith-based initiative."
By Alex Koppelman
Dec. 13, 2006 | When a Christian group shot a video inside the Pentagon that featured uniformed senior military officers talking about their evangelical faith, Mikey Weinstein went on the attack. Himself a former Air Force lawyer and Air Force Academy grad, Weinstein, who is Jewish, is the founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. He founded the MRFF earlier this year to oppose the spread of religious intimidation in a military increasingly dominated by evangelical Christians.
On Monday, Weinstein held a press conference in Washington, D.C., to announce that he was asking the Department of Defense's inspector general to look into the video, and determine whether the people who appeared in it -- Air Force Maj. Gen. Jack J. Catton Jr.; Army Brig. Gen. Vince Brooks, the former public affairs director of the Army; and Undersecretary of the Army Pete Geren -- had violated military regulations. He also filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the government to find out who, if anyone, had approved the video shoot.
Bob Varney, the executive director of Christian Embassy, the group that made the video, tells Salon he believes no regulations were violated, and he says Weinstein's allegations about increased evangelical influence within the military are wrong.
"I don't understand how one could come to that kind of conclusion," Varney says. "The military believes in religious freedom, it offers religious freedom, it therefore offers people of different religions to express them, and we're one among a number of different religions that are working in the Armed Services."
Weinstein spoke with Salon Tuesday afternoon.
The Christian Embassy is now saying it had permission to film this inside the Pentagon. Were you surprised to hear that?
Not at all. They're damned if they do, they're damned if they don't. If they said they didn't have permission, they would have been blown away. Having permission, to me, just shows the complicity. We have a systemic problem. You sound like you're too young to remember Robert Redford in "Three Days of the Condor," but the premise of that movie was that there was a CIA within the CIA. We have a virulently dominionist, fundamentalist evangelical Christian element within the Pentagon. They would prefer this to be the "Pentecostalgon," not the Pentagon. That's what they would prefer. They're trying to turn the Pentagon into a frickin' faith-based initiative, and that is not what our military is about.
These are the people who, when I talk to senior members of the military at the flag-level rank -- I don't know if you're familiar with what that means, that means admiral or general -- that have looked at me and said, "Come on, Mikey, what's your problem? We have the cure to cancer. If you had the cure to cancer, wouldn't you want to spread the word?" They don't realize when they say it, they don't have the mental wherewithal to understand that to a person who isn't an evangelical Christian, you're calling our faith a cancer.
What's wrong with this video?
I'm trying to think where to start. It is absolutely violative of a mountain of Department of Defense internal regulations, guidelines, core values, instructions, making it very clear that members of the military can not endorse any one particular political position, partisan religious view, they can't hold up a tube of toothpaste like Colgate and push it. Irrespective of that, it's also blatantly violative of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights, and at least as important it's violative of Clause 3, Article 6 of the Constitution -- you don't even have to get into the Bill of Rights -- which states that we will never have a religion test for any position in the federal government, which was brilliantly prescient of our Founding Fathers.
This, to me, constitutes as much of a national security threat to this country as al-Qaida. In fact, the video itself, to me, would be the No. 1 recruiting tool that I would expect bin Laden, the followers of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, although he's dead, Ayman al Zawahiri, Hezbollah with Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, Hamas, the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, to get angry young Islamic men and women in Iran, Syria and Lebanon to join the insurrection and jihadi terrorist activities. This would be a perfect accelerant to create even further conflagration.
Now, I was a JAG [judge advocate general, the lawyers who act as prosecutors and defense attorneys within the military] in the Air Force. I spent three and a half years as a lawyer for President Ronald Reagan in the West Wing, I've been Ross Perot's general counsel. I know the religious right would love to vilify me as a tree-hugging Northern California Sierra Club membership chardonnay-sipping liberal -- not that there'd be anything wrong with that, to wax Seinfeldian -- but I'm not. I'm a Republican. And my family has a very, very long and distinguished military history. We have three consecutive generations of military academy graduates, and my youngest son, who's at the Air Force Academy now, he's a senior, what's called a first classman, is the sixth member of my family to attend the academy. We have 115 years of combined active-duty military service to this country in my immediate family from every combat engagement from World War I to the current one, and this is a pernicious torturing of what our military is supposed to be about.
Of course, I realize people have religious rights. We only have about 2,200 chaplains in each of the military branches; every base has multiple chapels, and these people can pray all they want to themselves, like kids in school can pray to themselves, but when you're in the military, and you're coming in like that one person, Catton, whom I knew when I was a kid at the [Air Force] Academy, and he goes, "I share my faith, that's who I am, and let me tell you right now, the hierarchy as an old-fashioned American is that your first duty is to the Lord, second to your family and your third is to your country." That is the exact opposite of what is taught, and for anyone who understands anything about the military, it is always the country first. When you're told, "Troopers, we're going to go take that hill," you can't stop, fall to your knees and see what your particular version of Moses, Vishnu, Satan, Jesus, Mohammed, Allah, whatever they're going to say, and then quickly make a cellphone call to your family. So it is beyond-the-pale egregious, it is a national security threat every bit as bad as al-Qaida, and these people should be court-martialed.
Forty percent of active-duty military personnel consider themselves evangelical Christians. Is your position popular in the military?
We have 702 U.S. military installations scattered in 132 countries around the world, and I get calls 24/7 from the soldiers, Marines and airmen. Unlike cops, they don't have a union, they have my foundation, that's it. They're being tormented. And 96 percent of those who come flooding in, on fire with torment, are Christians, three-fourths of whom would be traditional Protestants: Lutherans, Methodists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians. The other one-fourth are Roman Catholics. These are Christians being preyed upon by evangelical Christians -- pray and prey -- and being told that you're not Christian enough, therefore you're going to burn in a hell of fire.
Many [evangelical Christians] tell me, "Mikey, OK, Anne Frank, Dr. Seuss, Jack Benny, Gandhi, they're all burning eternally in the fires of hell." And here's the distinction they just don't fucking get, these cocksuckers do not get this: I would give my last drop of blood and my last breath, and I would commend my three children in the Air Force -- one of whom's going to be heading to Iraq in a few months -- to give their last drop of blood and their last breath to support the rights of these people to believe that Anne Frank is burning eternally in hell … If they want to believe that their version of Jesus has her burning eternally in hell, I'd give my life for that. But I will not do that if my government tells me who are the children of the greater God and who are the children of the lesser God or no God at all. And that's what these monsters are doing.
Is there pressure on the non-evangelicals in the military to convert or keep quiet because some of their superiors have these views and are talking about these views?
Oh, absolutely. Like I said, in the military, many of your constitutional rights are gone, because it's necessary. Look, let's make sure your readers understand something, OK, put it in perspective: The U.S. military, which I consider a noble and honorable institution, is technologically the most lethal organization ever created by Homo sapiens. When you have the leadership believing that to be a good soldier, good Marine, good airman or sailor you have to be not just a Christian but the right type of Christian, we're no better than al-Qaida. And it's hideous, beyond belief. My kids were called "fucking Jews" and accused of total complicity, they and their people, in the execution of Jesus Christ, by superiors up and down the chain of command at the Air Force Academy.
But like I've said before, most of the people who've come to me are Christians. That's been the big sea change here. Look, Sinclair Lewis said it best, in [the 1930s]. He came back from Germany, he was observing it for a number of months ... and he [said] that he had now seen fascism up close and personal, and he knew that when it came to America it would be wrapped in the American flag, carrying a cross. And you know what? He's right.
It's one thing to be pushing evangelical Christianity on prisoners in a penitentiary and to be pushing intelligent design in public schools. That's bad enough, but that's not our fight. My foundation focuses, with laserlike precision, on the Marine Corps, Army, Navy and Air Force, because if we lose them, we lose everything.
Your youngest son is at the Air Force Academy, which has been the focus of a lot of the allegations about evangelical proselytizing. With you being so out-front on this, has he been the target of any reprisals?
No. I think that they realize if they touch a hair on his head, I will open up the skies and bring down a hammer and tongs like they've never seen before. There have been some snide remarks, but in the main it's steady cruising.
Now, my older son and his wife have had a few things. They're both first lieutenants. In the military, you wear a name tag, and their name is Weinstein. My daughter-in-law has had senior officers walk up to her and say, "I know who you are, and I know what you're family is all about." She's a junior officer, so she just looks at them. In the main, it's been fairly calm, because they're not that stupid to think that my kids wouldn't make a phone call, and then I'm going to do what I have to do.
But I can tell you that I get -- I don't think I'm in double digits, but it started at about 10 o'clock last night; after the press conference in the morning, I've had nine death threats since about 10 o'clock last night. I usually get about two or three a week. They're very grotesque, everything from wanting to gas all the Jews in America and send the corpses back to Israel to threatening to blow me up, threatening my house will be blown up, raping my wife, blowing up my house. We've had our tires slashed, we've had feces and beer bottles thrown at the house, we've had dead animals placed on the front door of the house.
I was in Topeka, on a book tour, and the local Episcopal priest came out to support me and five hours later his church was burned down. And the local synagogue in Topeka, where I was to speak that night, was desecrated with spray paint saying, "Fuck you, Jews" and "KKK," all that stuff.
So if this is a nice, Christian response, my response is take a number, pack a picnic lunch and stand in line, because we're not going to stop, we're not going to ever stop, we're going to lay down a withering field of fire and leave sucking chest wounds on these people that are trying to destroy our Constitution. This is not a Christian-Jewish issue, and it's also not a political spectrum, left or right issue, it's a Constitutional right and wrong issue. These officers, and what's happening in that video, simply by appearing in a video that is blatantly and vociferously sectarian, by simply doing three things in that video, they should be court-martialed. That would be circulating blood, reflecting light and breathing. That's all they had to do and that alone would have been enough. You're not Jewish, are you?
I am, actually.
You understand the word "dayenu"? Well, it's dayenu -- the dayenu factor is simply by letting the light reflect off you, circulating blood and breathing in that video. Everything else beyond that is extra. Dayenu's my favorite song at Passover, that's why I use it.
My response is I've given the new secretary of defense 20 days to answer the Freedom of Information Act request, which the law gives him, and at the end we intend to get as much information as we can, fashion it into a dagger and then stab at the heart of this unconstitutional, wretched, vile, darkness at the Pentagon. This unconstitutional darkness, we will stab at it with our dagger until we kill it.
-- By Alex Koppelman
Salon Media Group, Inc
101 Spear Street, Suite 203
San Francisco, CA 94105
Telephone 415 645-9200
Fax 415 645-9204
Saturday, December 02, 2006
and the whole thing smelled like smoke..
we were on our way to philly on the train, when all of a sudden, the train jolted to a stop. the lights went out, the ac went off and the smell of smoke filled the air.
shit, i thought. this can't be good.
turns out we hit something, though they never told us what.
thinking quickly, i ran to the food car to get some supplies. who knew how long it would be?
i picked up a couple of beers and some m&ms. perfect.
on the way back to our seats, they announced that we hit something and they have to make sure that the train is ok. "we will be stopped indefinitely."
i got back to the seats and told j to rush back to the food cart and get more alcohol.
this could turn into a huge party, and i didn't want to be under-supplied.
she came back with a couple more bottles of beer, some whiskey and some pretzels.
along with the ipod video, we were set for hours.
between beer one and two, the train started again...i'll admit i was somewhat disappointed.
we chugged the beer and whiskey, finishing as we pulled into 30th street station, about two hours late.
that'll teach you.
shit, i thought. this can't be good.
turns out we hit something, though they never told us what.
thinking quickly, i ran to the food car to get some supplies. who knew how long it would be?
i picked up a couple of beers and some m&ms. perfect.
on the way back to our seats, they announced that we hit something and they have to make sure that the train is ok. "we will be stopped indefinitely."
i got back to the seats and told j to rush back to the food cart and get more alcohol.
this could turn into a huge party, and i didn't want to be under-supplied.
she came back with a couple more bottles of beer, some whiskey and some pretzels.
along with the ipod video, we were set for hours.
between beer one and two, the train started again...i'll admit i was somewhat disappointed.
we chugged the beer and whiskey, finishing as we pulled into 30th street station, about two hours late.
that'll teach you.
Sunday, November 26, 2006
So here's a freakin' cool story
My dad was in synagogue this past shabbat, and there was a new person, obviously a visitor. As my dad does, he went over to the guy and introduced himself, welcome to providence - I'm Mark R.
Answers the guy, I'm Tsvi R.
(Assume that R. is the same name)
So where are you from, Tsvi-with-the-same-last-name?
Mexico City, he answers.
Hm, dad says - I have relatives there!
After some discussion and looking at our family tree (that cousin sarah awesomely did a while back), it turns out that my father and Tsvi share a great-great grandfather.
A while back my dad had visited some of the family down there, and my aunt has also.
this branch lives in Boston now, though there are still lots in Mexico still.
They even compared their thumbs - the R. thumb, as it turns out, and my dad and he both have it.
wild.
Answers the guy, I'm Tsvi R.
(Assume that R. is the same name)
So where are you from, Tsvi-with-the-same-last-name?
Mexico City, he answers.
Hm, dad says - I have relatives there!
After some discussion and looking at our family tree (that cousin sarah awesomely did a while back), it turns out that my father and Tsvi share a great-great grandfather.
A while back my dad had visited some of the family down there, and my aunt has also.
this branch lives in Boston now, though there are still lots in Mexico still.
They even compared their thumbs - the R. thumb, as it turns out, and my dad and he both have it.
wild.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
?
what do you mean, where am I? obviously i'm sitting in the bathrom of an office building, typing away. so far today, i've been to a famous theatre person's house. that's a neat thing about this job, is all the interesting people I meet. good stuff.
also, yesterday I was on the subway and hs guys shpiel was that he has no bowel control, and therefore needs money. huh. was I a hostage to stinkypants?
nope. I got off at the next stop.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
starting a new job, and jobbing a new start
i said that just because i wanted to, but i couldn't think of anything clever that would work both ways.
so i started a new job as a Technical Consultant. I go to houses, apartments and small businesses all over the world (theoretically, at least) and fix computers. it's cool in some ways, not so cool in others.
feel free to ask me about that.
otherwise, all is good - the wife is working literally full-time; like 24 hours full-time, and the apartment is great.
is that it?
so i started a new job as a Technical Consultant. I go to houses, apartments and small businesses all over the world (theoretically, at least) and fix computers. it's cool in some ways, not so cool in others.
feel free to ask me about that.
otherwise, all is good - the wife is working literally full-time; like 24 hours full-time, and the apartment is great.
is that it?
Sunday, October 29, 2006
it's sunday and it's dark
what a day, today.
just relaxed the entire day, sat around and relaxed.
that's all we did.
ordered in food, sat around, read, webbed, chilled.
an entirely comfortable day, it is so far.
m is napping, i'm watching pirates of the caribbean, part two.
we're planning on going out to dinner in a bit, so i hope that works out.
we had a great time last night, and by we, i mean the royal we.
went out to a bunch of parties, did a bunch of stuff and had a good time till pretty late.
it was good to have hair, if just for an evening.
just relaxed the entire day, sat around and relaxed.
that's all we did.
ordered in food, sat around, read, webbed, chilled.
an entirely comfortable day, it is so far.
m is napping, i'm watching pirates of the caribbean, part two.
we're planning on going out to dinner in a bit, so i hope that works out.
we had a great time last night, and by we, i mean the royal we.
went out to a bunch of parties, did a bunch of stuff and had a good time till pretty late.
it was good to have hair, if just for an evening.
Friday, October 27, 2006
livin large
yep.
just sitting around hanging out. baking bread. sweeping. mopping. washing dishes. organizing. doing laundry. straightening up. doing stuff.
hanging out. that's what I've been doing for a while, and it's all going to come to an end now.
there's a job i'm most likely taking, and for sure it's a good job. it's just been a long time since i worked. long for me at least - definitely the longest break since i ever started working full time, about eight (8) years ago.
the parentheses are there in case the word isn't clear enough, and you mistake eight (8) for a different number and end up going some other number of miles rather than eight (8) miles and run right off a cliff because that other number is what you entered in to your GPS thing.
huh. pretty crappy to blame it on the GPS thing, if you ask me. It's pretty common among some people, i'm sure, to blame their own personal failings on the technology that is around them and that they use every day, because they're just dumb.
or don't know english, in which case i'm being terribly mean.
so anyway, like i was saying, i will happy to be back at work, but not looking forward to working.
just sitting around hanging out. baking bread. sweeping. mopping. washing dishes. organizing. doing laundry. straightening up. doing stuff.
hanging out. that's what I've been doing for a while, and it's all going to come to an end now.
there's a job i'm most likely taking, and for sure it's a good job. it's just been a long time since i worked. long for me at least - definitely the longest break since i ever started working full time, about eight (8) years ago.
the parentheses are there in case the word isn't clear enough, and you mistake eight (8) for a different number and end up going some other number of miles rather than eight (8) miles and run right off a cliff because that other number is what you entered in to your GPS thing.
huh. pretty crappy to blame it on the GPS thing, if you ask me. It's pretty common among some people, i'm sure, to blame their own personal failings on the technology that is around them and that they use every day, because they're just dumb.
or don't know english, in which case i'm being terribly mean.
so anyway, like i was saying, i will happy to be back at work, but not looking forward to working.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Monday, October 16, 2006
moving forward
just to let you know what's up:
We're settled in, more or less.
We have a sofa coming on Thursday. Sofa's are much more expensive than you would think. Unless you already know what they cost.
The lawyer started her job, and that's wild. I don't want to go into it, but it's going to take some time to get used to that. Even once I start working. I'm just more used to coming home to her; now it's the other way around.
I'm looking for jobs (i do computer fixing, macs and windows, if you hear of something or need some work done), meeting with random people, headhunters, hr people and the like. I put on my sharp-looking suit and tie and march off. Feels weird walking around the neighbourhood, I have to say.
Our place looks cool, also. It's really big, the outdoors space (terrace), the full kitchen, raccoon, doorbell, and closet space are all good. Please visit.
I guess I'm getting used to living back in NY, but I don't like not riding my bike as much, and I think it's too crowded everywhere.
And those damn handholding things on the bus? I walked into one today and have a massive bump on my forehead. Hurts, too.
We're settled in, more or less.
We have a sofa coming on Thursday. Sofa's are much more expensive than you would think. Unless you already know what they cost.
The lawyer started her job, and that's wild. I don't want to go into it, but it's going to take some time to get used to that. Even once I start working. I'm just more used to coming home to her; now it's the other way around.
I'm looking for jobs (i do computer fixing, macs and windows, if you hear of something or need some work done), meeting with random people, headhunters, hr people and the like. I put on my sharp-looking suit and tie and march off. Feels weird walking around the neighbourhood, I have to say.
Our place looks cool, also. It's really big, the outdoors space (terrace), the full kitchen, raccoon, doorbell, and closet space are all good. Please visit.
I guess I'm getting used to living back in NY, but I don't like not riding my bike as much, and I think it's too crowded everywhere.
And those damn handholding things on the bus? I walked into one today and have a massive bump on my forehead. Hurts, too.
Monday, September 25, 2006
Annnnnndddd we're back.
And in so many ways, are we back.
We're back in NY from Philly.
Back in NY from the honeymoon.
Back in...well, ok, I thought that was going somewhere, but it isn't.
We got back from Hawaii last Friday, but honestly, I just haven't had the energy to talk to you people. The last week was spent setting up our kickass apartment, dealing with all the wedding gifts we got, decompressing from the last many months and so on.
Let me just say some things about Kauai before I get into the present.
I know I've said it before, but it truly is the most beautiful place ever. This is coming from a guy who has been literally everywhere there is to go, so trust me.
The people are extremely chill. At least the people we met, which only included white folk - haoles, as they call them. Some are "local haoles" - born in Hawaii, but white, but mostly haoles - whites who moved there at some point. But they like to think they are locals. Imperialism at it's best, according to most Miriams.
It seems like most people drive around in pickup trucks, and everyone hauls around a surf board with them.
Oh yeah - we went to Poipou, this town on the south shore and went boogie boarding. Huge freaking waves, for real. It was pretty scary at times, but definitely awesome. The whole timing thing is very interesting - unless you get up on the wave at just the right second, you miss it. When you catch it, though, then it's an awesome ride. Getting caught up in a wave and getting sucked under and slammed isn't fun. Frightening to feel totally out of control, trying to hold limbs close to my body, thinking about hitting rocks and turtles (seriously - they get swept up in the big waves and you can see them as the wave crests.) Anyway, I totally could see living a life of surfing as much as possible. Good stuff.
We're back in NY from Philly.
Back in NY from the honeymoon.
Back in...well, ok, I thought that was going somewhere, but it isn't.
We got back from Hawaii last Friday, but honestly, I just haven't had the energy to talk to you people. The last week was spent setting up our kickass apartment, dealing with all the wedding gifts we got, decompressing from the last many months and so on.
Let me just say some things about Kauai before I get into the present.
I know I've said it before, but it truly is the most beautiful place ever. This is coming from a guy who has been literally everywhere there is to go, so trust me.
The people are extremely chill. At least the people we met, which only included white folk - haoles, as they call them. Some are "local haoles" - born in Hawaii, but white, but mostly haoles - whites who moved there at some point. But they like to think they are locals. Imperialism at it's best, according to most Miriams.
It seems like most people drive around in pickup trucks, and everyone hauls around a surf board with them.
Oh yeah - we went to Poipou, this town on the south shore and went boogie boarding. Huge freaking waves, for real. It was pretty scary at times, but definitely awesome. The whole timing thing is very interesting - unless you get up on the wave at just the right second, you miss it. When you catch it, though, then it's an awesome ride. Getting caught up in a wave and getting sucked under and slammed isn't fun. Frightening to feel totally out of control, trying to hold limbs close to my body, thinking about hitting rocks and turtles (seriously - they get swept up in the big waves and you can see them as the wave crests.) Anyway, I totally could see living a life of surfing as much as possible. Good stuff.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
boy is it nice here
seriously.
not that these pics enable you to see anything, but please be assured that we are having the best time in the most beautiful place on earth.
Some Enchanted Evening
Yesterday was our groundhog day.
We left Kyoto through the shrine gates and landed on an Island that's closer to Paradise than anything we've ever seen. And it was earlier than it was when we had left! So we had two Sundays. To the rest of the world, one day had passed. But to us (and everyone on our flight), 2 days had passed. Thus, we embodied the twin paradox and discovered Einstein was right. It first occurred to us that maybe we could live in this Sunday limbo forever, going back and forth across the dateline. And we considered how much we would pay to pause time eternally. But then we realized that it would all be ruined once we crossed the dateline backwards - we would be going forward in time. One twin only looks younger to the twin who stays.
But it was our groundhog day in more ways than one. Yesterday in Kyoto we saw rock gardens and lotus blossoms. We took off our shoes to enter temples. Yesterday in Kauai we saw a rock garden at the airport. A sign in a coffee shop in Kapa'a bore the Kanji letter for "peace." Our B&B required us to remove our shoes upon entering. We passed a restaurant called the "Blossoming Lotus" (which we ate at tonight--Monday, really, but Tuesday for us. . . not bad, although slightly too filling).
We had our second chance. Did we blow it?
The looking glass:
Us on our way through the looking glass:
Yesterday was our groundhog day.
We left Kyoto through the shrine gates and landed on an Island that's closer to Paradise than anything we've ever seen. And it was earlier than when we had left! So we had two Sundays. To the rest of the world, one day had passed. But to us (and everyone on our flight), 2 days had passed. Thus, we embodied the twin paradox and discovered Einstein was right. It first occurred to us that maybe we could live in this Sunday limbo forever, going back and forth across the dateline. And we considered how much we would pay to pause time eternally. But then we realized that it would all be ruined once we crossed the dateline backwards - we would be going forward in time. One twin only looks younger to the twin who stays.
But it was our groundhog day in more ways than one. Yesterday in Kyoto we saw rock gardens and lotus blossoms. We took off our shoes to enter temples. Yesterday in Kauai we saw a rock garden at the airport. A sign in a coffee shop in Kapa'a bore the Kanji letter for "peace." Our B&B required us to remove our shoes upon entering. We passed a restaurant called the "Blossoming Lotus" (which we ate at tonight--Monday, really, but Tuesday for us. . . not bad, although slightly too filling).
We had our second chance. Did we blow it?
We left Kyoto through the shrine gates and landed on an Island that's closer to Paradise than anything we've ever seen. And it was earlier than it was when we had left! So we had two Sundays. To the rest of the world, one day had passed. But to us (and everyone on our flight), 2 days had passed. Thus, we embodied the twin paradox and discovered Einstein was right. It first occurred to us that maybe we could live in this Sunday limbo forever, going back and forth across the dateline. And we considered how much we would pay to pause time eternally. But then we realized that it would all be ruined once we crossed the dateline backwards - we would be going forward in time. One twin only looks younger to the twin who stays.
But it was our groundhog day in more ways than one. Yesterday in Kyoto we saw rock gardens and lotus blossoms. We took off our shoes to enter temples. Yesterday in Kauai we saw a rock garden at the airport. A sign in a coffee shop in Kapa'a bore the Kanji letter for "peace." Our B&B required us to remove our shoes upon entering. We passed a restaurant called the "Blossoming Lotus" (which we ate at tonight--Monday, really, but Tuesday for us. . . not bad, although slightly too filling).
We had our second chance. Did we blow it?
The looking glass:
Us on our way through the looking glass:
Yesterday was our groundhog day.
We left Kyoto through the shrine gates and landed on an Island that's closer to Paradise than anything we've ever seen. And it was earlier than when we had left! So we had two Sundays. To the rest of the world, one day had passed. But to us (and everyone on our flight), 2 days had passed. Thus, we embodied the twin paradox and discovered Einstein was right. It first occurred to us that maybe we could live in this Sunday limbo forever, going back and forth across the dateline. And we considered how much we would pay to pause time eternally. But then we realized that it would all be ruined once we crossed the dateline backwards - we would be going forward in time. One twin only looks younger to the twin who stays.
But it was our groundhog day in more ways than one. Yesterday in Kyoto we saw rock gardens and lotus blossoms. We took off our shoes to enter temples. Yesterday in Kauai we saw a rock garden at the airport. A sign in a coffee shop in Kapa'a bore the Kanji letter for "peace." Our B&B required us to remove our shoes upon entering. We passed a restaurant called the "Blossoming Lotus" (which we ate at tonight--Monday, really, but Tuesday for us. . . not bad, although slightly too filling).
We had our second chance. Did we blow it?
Sunday, September 10, 2006
On an island, somewhere off of Osaka
This morning, we woke up early, packed the last few things and went down for a breakfast set. We were going to be picked up by a tour guide for a 5 hour tour of some stuff in Kyoto. Thanks Danny and Natasha!
Us and The Nakamura:
Mr.Nakamura picked us up in a very posh car, wearing white gloves and a unifrom cap, all very fancy-like. He was extremely nice, and great guide. We went to a bunch of places that we had wanted to see, and were very glad we did so. The large zen rock garden was especially great. Really really great. After each stop. he would give us a frozen wet cloth to cool off with, and ice cold water. Along the way he would also draw us different diagrams of things, and was full of awesome information that we never would have known otherwise. We finally got to see some really incredible gardens, even nicer than ones we had seen before. It was really a great gift.
The last place we saw, and it was in a hurry so we could make our train, was a place called Fushimi-Inari Something Temple . It was full of thousands of orange gates, all in a row together that had paths between them. It was very reminiscent of the Christo gates in Central Park last year. The Japanese clearly aren't very original, and must have stolen the idea from him. It was strange that they didn't give him any credit.
One of many pics that The Nakamura insisted on taking of us:
Then it was off to Kyoto Station and on the train. And here we are.
Miriam is doing the crossword puzzle, while I tap away.
Sayonara, Japan and Aloha, Hawaii!
Us and The Nakamura:
Mr.Nakamura picked us up in a very posh car, wearing white gloves and a unifrom cap, all very fancy-like. He was extremely nice, and great guide. We went to a bunch of places that we had wanted to see, and were very glad we did so. The large zen rock garden was especially great. Really really great. After each stop. he would give us a frozen wet cloth to cool off with, and ice cold water. Along the way he would also draw us different diagrams of things, and was full of awesome information that we never would have known otherwise. We finally got to see some really incredible gardens, even nicer than ones we had seen before. It was really a great gift.
The last place we saw, and it was in a hurry so we could make our train, was a place called Fushimi-Inari Something Temple . It was full of thousands of orange gates, all in a row together that had paths between them. It was very reminiscent of the Christo gates in Central Park last year. The Japanese clearly aren't very original, and must have stolen the idea from him. It was strange that they didn't give him any credit.
One of many pics that The Nakamura insisted on taking of us:
Then it was off to Kyoto Station and on the train. And here we are.
Miriam is doing the crossword puzzle, while I tap away.
Sayonara, Japan and Aloha, Hawaii!
My gezaimas are killing me!
This will be the last post from Japan, though it will likely end up on the 'net when we get to Hawaii, sometime last week. EDIT: we have free wireless at the airport. yay.
Yesterday we had a really great day. We took a short train on a short train ride to Kurama, a very small village in the mountains outside of Kyoto, where there are some very beautiful, you guessed it, shrines and temples. I'm almost craving Disney World, in a Taco Bell kind of way.
Small town:
We got off the train, with little idea of where exactly to go, and not a bit of english in sight. We had the Lonely Planet guide, which had a vague map, and that helped somewhat. We made our way to the gate of the shrine, which is also near the bottom of the mountain. Upon paying, we got an even more vague cartoonish map. To my not-very-surprise, it was better than the Lonely Planet guides map.
Shriners palace:
We hiked up the top the mountain, seeing various small shrines along the way. It was extremely hot and sweaty, and we drank a lot of water to counter the heat. Good on us. Close to the top of the mountain, after about 45 minutes or so, we got to the main temple building, or honden. The view was incredible.
The view, being incredible:
Getting back to roots:
Rain was coming down periodically, and it was very cool. You know how in Japanese art, the rain is depicted as lines, as opposed to drops? It's because that's how it really looks. You can actually see the lines of the rain coming down, and it is pretty neat looking.
A common thing to do is to hike over the top of the mountain and go down the other side, and end up in another town call Kibune, so that's what we did. It was a really nice hike. It was weird to see many many people walking the trail wearing short skirts, open-back sandals, tight jeans, warm clothing, etc. Maybe they didn't know it would be insanely hot. Um.
When you come off the trail in Kibune, there is a very narrow road lined with ryokan and restaurants, with a river running alongside. In the summer, a lot of the places build platforms spanning the river (only about 20 feet wide at most) and customers can happily eat nourishing eating food there. We tried to find some places that weren't all just fish, but you know how that goes.
Restaurants:
We ended up walking about 30 minutes back down the road to the train station, and caught a train right away back to Kyoto. A late lunch at some pizza place, and then back to the hotel for naps and laundry-doing, both sorely needed.
When we woke up, we spent some time packing to leave, and then took a final bike ride along what is known as the Path of the Philosopher (soon to be a major motion picture starring the Gowanus Canal, I'm sure.) It is a very beautiful path that winds it's way along a small canal in the southeastern part of Kyoto. The path runs through a very nice neighbourhood full of large houses with high garden walls that are sure to hide immaculate gardens. We scaled one wall and were immediately set upon by attack dogs, clearly put there to keep away intruders like us. We barely managed to escape with only minor bites and scrapes.
That didn't happen.
The ride was very nice, and the path was lovely. It was a great way to round out our solo Kyoto experience. We went back home, finished packing, wrote many postcards and hit the futon.
Me being sweaty:
Sorry Ansel:
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Imperial, shmimperial, I'm the freakin' Shogun!
And away we went, riding our trusty (or is that rusty?) steeds towards the palace to rescue the Princess Fiona. But first we stopped alongside the lovely river that runs through Kyoto to call Mikey for his 24th birthday. Whoohooo!
The river:
On the phone with Mikey:
and another pic by the river that's just cool. click on it for a full size, if you didn't know that...
We rode on, hoping to be able to get "permission" to go on a free tour of the Imperial Palace Grounds. You have to apply, which means filling out a form. We had tried online, but it said it was completely full. Figuring we had a chance anyway, we went to the Imperial Household Agency and gave it our best shot. After much cajoling, bribery, and finally just filling out the form, we were given permission for the 2 o'clock tour. This gave us enough time to go to the tofuya, or tofu shop that the owner of the restaurant had told us to stop into.
Sweet.
Or neutral, as tofu tends to be. We rode over there, and found it pretty easily, not something that seems to happen a lot, especially when using the Lonely Planet guide. Have I mentioned that their maps are really bad? And that the addresses they give tend not to be right? Well, it deserves mentioning again.
We managed to make ourselves understood to the tofu makers, and they were pretty impressed with the fact that I was willing to part with Miriam for so few soybeans. After a few more tries, they understood that I was actually telling them that my father used to make tofu and had learned from a book. This impressed them even more.
Here's a vat of fresh tofu:
Mmmmm...so creamy and delicious. This is my creamy and delicious face.
After this nutritious breakfast (the original breakfast of champions - ask any yokozuna), we figured we had enough time to ride out to the Kinkakuji Temple, or Golden Pavilion. We didn't and figured that out about 20 really hot minutes into the ride. You may not know this, but it is really really really hot here in Kyoto, with basically 100% humidity. This means that it's very hot, and it rains for minutes at a time - sometimes very hard, sometimes just sprinkle, but all day, on and off. Very different. The moisture in the air is very much so.
So we rode back to the Imperial Palace, parked the bikes and took a cab to the Golden Pavilion. It's a famous place, not only for being gold (plated - cheap bastards), but because in 1950 it was burned to the ground by a young apprentice monk, for reasons that are unclear. He may have been overcome with some emotion. Or he tossed a cigarette butt in the wrong place. Which is why the warnings on cigarette packs here speak about how they are hazardous to your temple. They rebuilt the temple, and you would never know that just 50-some years ago, the place was an insurance-monks dream.
Here's the temple - it reflects too:
I forgot to say this earlier, but we had a plan to meet up with a friend of a college friend of Miriams, a tour guide named Michiko. She was coming with us to the Imperial Palace, and on to Nijo Palace afterwards.
We left the Golden Pavilion, and realized we had plum run out of cash. I say "plum", because the Japanese use plum paste in various ways, mostly pickled. They call it umeboshi. We had some travelers cheques and managed to find a bank to cash them. They took their time approving us, and we just made it to the Imperial Palace on time.
We met up with Michiko and joined the tour, which was pretty neat.
Here's us with Michiko:
And here's Miriam - I'm a big fan.
The palace is full of very cool buildings, none of which we could go in, but we heard about how they look on the inside. I'm sure you can just picture it.
In fact, picture this:
And this:
And here's a garden from inside:
And here we are, keeping cool:
Overall one of the best palaces I've been to.
After the Imperial Palace, we headed over to the Nijo Palace with Michiko, where she gave us a great tour of the place. By the way, the Japanese should really watch more Disney movies before they start calling these places "palaces". I mean, come on.
They did have these very cool floors called "nightingales" that were designed to make little chirping sounds as you walked on them so that the Shogun would be warned when someone was coming.
Here's what they look like from the bottom:
The shogun, by the way, was the military leader of Japan, under the Emperor. At some point, he took total control and made the emperor the titular head. The Meiji Restoration changed all that.
Here's a nice garden from the Nijo Palace, and another building from in the palace:
After the Nijo Palace, we went back to our hotel and passed out for a while. We wanted to go check out this hour-long performance of different Japanese artforms, such as flower arranging, Geisha-dancing, comedy, and English-translating. The show turned out to be pretty weak, but we both convinced ourselves it was "worth seeing." After the show, we took part in a tea ceremony, which was actually pretty cool. I can't imagine having to go through that every time I wanted tea, however. I think the Japanese don't want to either, which is why it's now just a ceremony.
A little dinner, a few drinks and off to bed.
So that was that. Another nice day in Japanland.
Oh yeah, this was a shrine we passed in the street. There were statues of pigs all over the place.
The river:
On the phone with Mikey:
and another pic by the river that's just cool. click on it for a full size, if you didn't know that...
We rode on, hoping to be able to get "permission" to go on a free tour of the Imperial Palace Grounds. You have to apply, which means filling out a form. We had tried online, but it said it was completely full. Figuring we had a chance anyway, we went to the Imperial Household Agency and gave it our best shot. After much cajoling, bribery, and finally just filling out the form, we were given permission for the 2 o'clock tour. This gave us enough time to go to the tofuya, or tofu shop that the owner of the restaurant had told us to stop into.
Sweet.
Or neutral, as tofu tends to be. We rode over there, and found it pretty easily, not something that seems to happen a lot, especially when using the Lonely Planet guide. Have I mentioned that their maps are really bad? And that the addresses they give tend not to be right? Well, it deserves mentioning again.
We managed to make ourselves understood to the tofu makers, and they were pretty impressed with the fact that I was willing to part with Miriam for so few soybeans. After a few more tries, they understood that I was actually telling them that my father used to make tofu and had learned from a book. This impressed them even more.
Here's a vat of fresh tofu:
Mmmmm...so creamy and delicious. This is my creamy and delicious face.
After this nutritious breakfast (the original breakfast of champions - ask any yokozuna), we figured we had enough time to ride out to the Kinkakuji Temple, or Golden Pavilion. We didn't and figured that out about 20 really hot minutes into the ride. You may not know this, but it is really really really hot here in Kyoto, with basically 100% humidity. This means that it's very hot, and it rains for minutes at a time - sometimes very hard, sometimes just sprinkle, but all day, on and off. Very different. The moisture in the air is very much so.So we rode back to the Imperial Palace, parked the bikes and took a cab to the Golden Pavilion. It's a famous place, not only for being gold (plated - cheap bastards), but because in 1950 it was burned to the ground by a young apprentice monk, for reasons that are unclear. He may have been overcome with some emotion. Or he tossed a cigarette butt in the wrong place. Which is why the warnings on cigarette packs here speak about how they are hazardous to your temple. They rebuilt the temple, and you would never know that just 50-some years ago, the place was an insurance-monks dream.
Here's the temple - it reflects too:
I forgot to say this earlier, but we had a plan to meet up with a friend of a college friend of Miriams, a tour guide named Michiko. She was coming with us to the Imperial Palace, and on to Nijo Palace afterwards.
We left the Golden Pavilion, and realized we had plum run out of cash. I say "plum", because the Japanese use plum paste in various ways, mostly pickled. They call it umeboshi. We had some travelers cheques and managed to find a bank to cash them. They took their time approving us, and we just made it to the Imperial Palace on time.
We met up with Michiko and joined the tour, which was pretty neat.
Here's us with Michiko:
And here's Miriam - I'm a big fan.
The palace is full of very cool buildings, none of which we could go in, but we heard about how they look on the inside. I'm sure you can just picture it.
In fact, picture this:
And this:
And here's a garden from inside:
And here we are, keeping cool:
Overall one of the best palaces I've been to.
After the Imperial Palace, we headed over to the Nijo Palace with Michiko, where she gave us a great tour of the place. By the way, the Japanese should really watch more Disney movies before they start calling these places "palaces". I mean, come on.
They did have these very cool floors called "nightingales" that were designed to make little chirping sounds as you walked on them so that the Shogun would be warned when someone was coming.
Here's what they look like from the bottom:
The shogun, by the way, was the military leader of Japan, under the Emperor. At some point, he took total control and made the emperor the titular head. The Meiji Restoration changed all that.
Here's a nice garden from the Nijo Palace, and another building from in the palace:
After the Nijo Palace, we went back to our hotel and passed out for a while. We wanted to go check out this hour-long performance of different Japanese artforms, such as flower arranging, Geisha-dancing, comedy, and English-translating. The show turned out to be pretty weak, but we both convinced ourselves it was "worth seeing." After the show, we took part in a tea ceremony, which was actually pretty cool. I can't imagine having to go through that every time I wanted tea, however. I think the Japanese don't want to either, which is why it's now just a ceremony.
A little dinner, a few drinks and off to bed.
So that was that. Another nice day in Japanland.
Oh yeah, this was a shrine we passed in the street. There were statues of pigs all over the place.
Friday, September 08, 2006
Here's some random videos
A Pachinko Parlor. They sit and watch balls fall around, while going deaf and insane. And pay lots of money in order to do so.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Commodore Perry very merry
Kyoto is beautiful. Pretty, picturesque, and calm. Yesterday we rode our bikes (yes, we have bikes here too! The hotel where we are staying, which, incidentally, has a pay TV in the room, gave them to us for free!) down this willow tree lined narrow street that is cut in half by a river and there is no railing from the street to the river. At night you can barely see where street ends and water begins. In America, this would be grounds for a thousand lawsuits.
The view from our window:
We were searching for this vegetarian restaurant, but unfortunately, I was looking at the wrong "fork" icon on our Lonely Planet map, and led us in the wrong direction. Fortunately, this led us to stumble on a tofu restaurant where we ate cold tofu, hot tofu, tofu skimmings, and tofu skewers. Zack was in heaven. I thought it was pretty good, too. As we left, Zack told the owner of the restaurant--who spoke pretty good English -- about how his dad used to make tofu in the '70's in Canada, and the owner freaked out and told us we must, must, must go visit the little shop where he buys his tofu. He gave us his card, and told us to be sure to tell the shopkeeper about Zack's dad. We plan to do this today.
Here's the wonderful tofu meal:
But first - the Imperial Palace. My father was right and we should have planned this trip earlier and got tickets online for the Imperial Palace and made a million phone calls to confirm it and not relaxed until after we had seen it. But alas, we did not. So we are going to head over there now and beg to be let in. Apparently, they only let you in with appointment. This is better than the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, which doesn't let you in at all. The guidebook doesn't seem to think it will be a problem to get tickets for the same day. We'll see.
Last night we walked through the Floating World, where we looked into the windows of wooden houses and saw women entertaining men. Are those geishas? We wondered. They looked like regular people, no face paint, nothing. But then we found out the answer when we saw a cab carrying two women with faces painted white, one of them adjusting her hair, the other on her cell phone. Geishas! Then we saw another geisha walking down the street and into the subway. They exist.
We stopped into an Irish pub, where the bartender was this guy from Liverpool who had moved here 25 years ago and spoke a pretty good Japanese. We were impressed to see this white guy chat it up with the locals. I asked him, "What's the deal with the geishas?" The deal, it turns out, is that there are two kinds - maikas and geishas - both have white faces. A maika aspires to have a man--usually married--sponsor her so that she can open her own geisha bar, and in return she must give the man "special favors." This is how the maika becomes a geisha. Maikas who are not yet geishas are simply entertainers--versed in art, poetry, music, and it is perfectly acceptable to marry a maika because they are not sexually obligated to their customers. But if some young salaryman does take a liking to a maika, she will of course have to leave the geisha world to marry the guy.
I also read about some lawsuit against the geisha world, and I'd be interested in reading more about that.
Now, off to the Imperial Palace.
The view from our window:
We were searching for this vegetarian restaurant, but unfortunately, I was looking at the wrong "fork" icon on our Lonely Planet map, and led us in the wrong direction. Fortunately, this led us to stumble on a tofu restaurant where we ate cold tofu, hot tofu, tofu skimmings, and tofu skewers. Zack was in heaven. I thought it was pretty good, too. As we left, Zack told the owner of the restaurant--who spoke pretty good English -- about how his dad used to make tofu in the '70's in Canada, and the owner freaked out and told us we must, must, must go visit the little shop where he buys his tofu. He gave us his card, and told us to be sure to tell the shopkeeper about Zack's dad. We plan to do this today.
Here's the wonderful tofu meal:
But first - the Imperial Palace. My father was right and we should have planned this trip earlier and got tickets online for the Imperial Palace and made a million phone calls to confirm it and not relaxed until after we had seen it. But alas, we did not. So we are going to head over there now and beg to be let in. Apparently, they only let you in with appointment. This is better than the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, which doesn't let you in at all. The guidebook doesn't seem to think it will be a problem to get tickets for the same day. We'll see.
Last night we walked through the Floating World, where we looked into the windows of wooden houses and saw women entertaining men. Are those geishas? We wondered. They looked like regular people, no face paint, nothing. But then we found out the answer when we saw a cab carrying two women with faces painted white, one of them adjusting her hair, the other on her cell phone. Geishas! Then we saw another geisha walking down the street and into the subway. They exist.
We stopped into an Irish pub, where the bartender was this guy from Liverpool who had moved here 25 years ago and spoke a pretty good Japanese. We were impressed to see this white guy chat it up with the locals. I asked him, "What's the deal with the geishas?" The deal, it turns out, is that there are two kinds - maikas and geishas - both have white faces. A maika aspires to have a man--usually married--sponsor her so that she can open her own geisha bar, and in return she must give the man "special favors." This is how the maika becomes a geisha. Maikas who are not yet geishas are simply entertainers--versed in art, poetry, music, and it is perfectly acceptable to marry a maika because they are not sexually obligated to their customers. But if some young salaryman does take a liking to a maika, she will of course have to leave the geisha world to marry the guy.
I also read about some lawsuit against the geisha world, and I'd be interested in reading more about that.
Now, off to the Imperial Palace.
now with video!!
yep, we figured out how to add some video.
so, keep an eye out for the google video thing, like the one of the sushi chefs.
We won't put them throughout, and make you re-read everything, though you should anyway, because the deepest insights only come after many re-re-readings.
R-e-a-d-i-n-g, find out what it means to me.
Hit the play button, and join us on a journey through time and space.
Or just some short, spastic clips of Tokyo.
so, keep an eye out for the google video thing, like the one of the sushi chefs.
We won't put them throughout, and make you re-read everything, though you should anyway, because the deepest insights only come after many re-re-readings.
R-e-a-d-i-n-g, find out what it means to me.
Hit the play button, and join us on a journey through time and space.
Or just some short, spastic clips of Tokyo.
Last train from Tokyo
We're on the Shinkansen now, the bullet train, on our way from Tokyo to Kyoto (same letters...coincidence? I don't think so.) It moves pretty fast.
We are definitely ready to leave Tokyo. It is a really busy place, with way too many shops and lights, and lots of people. Lots and lots of everything, really. We both had the thought that out of all the places we've been, some of us more places than others, Tokyo is one place that we wouldn't want to live.
I just don't feel like I would like it very much.
The place we stayed was really nice, in a cool little neighbourhood, and that was a good thing. I'm sure we could have stayed places that were in much more hectic areas.
I have to say that I'm pretty ready for some good ol' American food - whatever the hell that is. Seeing as how I don't eat fish (though Miriam does) or meat, there's not a heck of a lot to eat. Yes, yes, there is tofu in all it's glorious forms, but most places for the most part are fish and meat. Even this morning at Tokyo Station while waiting for the train, I wanted to get some pizza, and it all had meat.
So - what did we do yesterday...hm.
We woke up earlyish, as we've been doing, me a bit earlier than Miriam, and rode our bikes (big up to Miriam, because I didn't want to rent them but she pushed for it-best idea ever) to the Imperial Palace, hoping to ride through them. It was drizzling on and off, but it really didn't bother us at all. We finally found the palace and discovered that riding bikes in the gardens is not allowed, so we parked them and walked in. Again, after a pretty short time, I felt done there - it just didn't impress me in the ways that I had hoped. It seems that every thing we saw had been destroyed...if that makes any sense.
Here's a pic Miriam taking a picture of a Japanese couple:
And the Palace Moat:
After the Imperial Palace, we parked our bikes - not locking them to anything, just leaving them on the sidewalk with no fear of them being stolen, which is very very cool - at Otomachi Station and took a couple trains down to Akasaka, in search of a highly recommended sushi place. We're pretty sure we found it, and Miriam definitely loved the sushi. The chefs were very cool, greeting everyone who walked in the door with a loud "irassimase!!"
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
the velvet train seats and Nikko
the second train we rode on for the final leg to Nikko had velvet seats. I mention this in order to make the pun in the title.
Thank you very much.
So we get into Nikko, a beautiful mountain town, and get our bearings and information from the tourist information booth. The bus takes us up to where the shrines and temples are, and we decline the awesome opportunity to pay a lot of money to walk over a bridge that's about 30 feet long. A missed opportunity, but one we'll get over. Hopefully.
As we're walking up these steps towards the shrine area, a short little man jumps out of nowhere, thrusting a map in our faces. His english is perfect, and we end up buying a map from him, because it has some great details on it. Or maybe he is just a good salesman.
We get up to the shrine area and see lots of different shrine buildings and rooms and stuff. I have to say that shrines and temples all seem relatively the same to me. Sacriligious maybe, but I have to say it. They are cool though, and pagodas are neat looking. Ok, I take it back, these places are cool. The various reliefs, paintings, gold statues, etc are pretty neat.
One cool thing at this shrine is that the famous "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" monkeys come from here.
Here's a couple pics of buildings on the temple grounds.
And this guy!
After we hit all the buildings, we managed to find this little Buddhist restaurant on the grounds of a nearby temple and proceeded to have the best meal yet. It was totally traditional, with lots of tofu prepared in different ways, small courses (about 8 of them) and green tea galore. All served by kimono wearing women who kneeled as they served us.
That could have been because they recognized us as foreign conquerors.
We ate at low tables, looking out at a gorgeous little garden.
very nice.
After lunch, we walked down little windy roads till we got back to town. We popped in and out of different little shops, walked off the main road a ways, and just looked around. We were very lucky to go into that guys shop - the woodworker - who loved dressing us up in his clothing. Hot.
He was super nice, giving us a sake cup, and spending a while with us teaching us words for all kinds of Japanese clothing. Good stuff.
We saw a very cool cemetary (Japanese, obvi) and walked through that. In front of all the tombstones there were offerings of different things, like mickey mouse cups and iced coffee, along with incense.
More on all of this later, cause I got to get going.
Thank you very much.
So we get into Nikko, a beautiful mountain town, and get our bearings and information from the tourist information booth. The bus takes us up to where the shrines and temples are, and we decline the awesome opportunity to pay a lot of money to walk over a bridge that's about 30 feet long. A missed opportunity, but one we'll get over. Hopefully.
As we're walking up these steps towards the shrine area, a short little man jumps out of nowhere, thrusting a map in our faces. His english is perfect, and we end up buying a map from him, because it has some great details on it. Or maybe he is just a good salesman.
We get up to the shrine area and see lots of different shrine buildings and rooms and stuff. I have to say that shrines and temples all seem relatively the same to me. Sacriligious maybe, but I have to say it. They are cool though, and pagodas are neat looking. Ok, I take it back, these places are cool. The various reliefs, paintings, gold statues, etc are pretty neat.
One cool thing at this shrine is that the famous "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" monkeys come from here.
Here's a couple pics of buildings on the temple grounds.
And this guy!
After we hit all the buildings, we managed to find this little Buddhist restaurant on the grounds of a nearby temple and proceeded to have the best meal yet. It was totally traditional, with lots of tofu prepared in different ways, small courses (about 8 of them) and green tea galore. All served by kimono wearing women who kneeled as they served us.
That could have been because they recognized us as foreign conquerors.
We ate at low tables, looking out at a gorgeous little garden.
very nice.
After lunch, we walked down little windy roads till we got back to town. We popped in and out of different little shops, walked off the main road a ways, and just looked around. We were very lucky to go into that guys shop - the woodworker - who loved dressing us up in his clothing. Hot.
He was super nice, giving us a sake cup, and spending a while with us teaching us words for all kinds of Japanese clothing. Good stuff.
We saw a very cool cemetary (Japanese, obvi) and walked through that. In front of all the tombstones there were offerings of different things, like mickey mouse cups and iced coffee, along with incense.
More on all of this later, cause I got to get going.
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