Japan Day Five: Out and About in Tokyo

This was my last full day in Japan, so I took a train at 10am to Tokyo to do some sightseeing. First I went to a big temple I visited two years ago in a town called Asakusa. I saw this sign in the subway and found it amusing:

Then I went the opposite direction to the "skyscraper district" called Shinjuku. Microsoft has a big office there and I was able to find it with some help from a nearby hotel concierge. This was the sign in front:

These girls put Sumer in the Denver office to shame with their matching uniforms. This is the entrance to the Executive Briefing Center floor. The worker-bees inhabit two floors above this one and they dress pretty much like Microsofties everywhere: business casual or less.

If you've every visited a Microsoft office in the US you are probably aware that sodas are free. I was surprised to find that this vending machine cost 50 yen (about 45 cents) a can, but what a selection. I bought a couple cans of Mountain Dew just because of the Japanese language. I'm bringing them home for display in my cubical.

Then I found the "free" drink machine. You have to insert a paper cup and then you get your soda. But no Mountain Dew :( .

Across from Microsoft's office was this new Krispy Kreme shop that seems to be pretty popular given the line outside. I decided not to wait in line....

This is the DOCOMO tower as seen from outside the Microsoft building. They call the area it is in "Times Square".

This evening was the student project presentations followed by the "graduation party". Here are some of the students in the group along with Dan Manson and me.

Japan Trip: Day Four

Tuesday and Wednesday night was the "Obone" festival combined with the end of summer festival, which you might remember from Karate Kid II. For the Obone festival celebrates the return of the spirits of deceased ancestors to the the homes they had in mortal life. It was a long parade with lots of drums and flutes, and these parade floats that are pushed or pulled by kids from the local temple, and some ride inside playing drums and flutes.

Everyone in town turned out to watch, including these two little girls in their Sunday best.

Today and tomorrow I have off, so I took a short train ride to Yokahama to get Seth a shirt from the Hard Rock Cafe there (I got him one from Tokyo last year). The HRC is located in a building right next to the Yokohama Landmark Tower, which is the tallest building in Japan. It is 67 stories high, and I might have paid the $10 to go up to the top if it hadn't been raining.

I thought this was an interesting approach to controlling smoking during times when it is crowded on the train platform:

This afternoon I went to Enoshima Island because I found out there were some shrines in caves on the back side. Enoshima is about a 15 minute bike ride from our teaching venue. As I was approaching the walkway to the caves I saw this warning. Sounds like a good idea to me... (enlarge to read)

This is the causeway that leads to the caves. Cool view. I took video with a camcorder but don't have the firewire cable needed to download so I'll upload on my last entry for this trip.

Japan Day Two and Three: The Retreat

August is monsoon season in Japan and its rained on and off every day. Monday it rained almost the entire day, and I went jogging in the morning with an umbrella, which doesn't work very well on busy streets full of people. There weren't any formal classes on Monday, but we met some dignitaries and I worked at my computer during down time.

Today (Tuesday) I was the lead-off instructor with a class starting at 9am for an hour and a half and then again at 2:30pm. After dinner we have a 90 minute open question panel, so we don't get back to the hotel until about 10pm.

After my afternoon class, I went for a little stroll just to stretch my legs and I visited a temple just down the street from where we were. Here are some pictures:

This is the view from the balcony. You can see the temple roof up against the hillside on the left. Off in the distance is Enoshima Island with its lighthouse.



I took this picture on the temple grounds. It was a very calm and soothing place.


On the way back I saw this very cool ultra-mini Volkswagen bus. This vehicle is much smaller than the microbus that was common in the US, but definitely cool. How about this one Seth?


This is what I had for dinner tonight. Pork with some kind of sauce on the salad, and then sweet and sour shrimp on rice noodles. Egg/seaweed soup (pretty good). But no dessert...

Japan Day One: I Hit the Jackpot

After arriving home from Toronto, Canada about 9pm on Friday night, Jane dropped me off at the airport Saturday morning for my flight to Japan. I first had to fly to Seattle, then change planes for the 9 1/2 hour flight to Narita airport near Tokyo. I had a good Isaac Azimov book along with the Book of Mormon, so the flight was tolerable. I arrived in Narita about 3pm on Sunday (I crossed the International Date Line). This is my third time in Japan and each time they give us a little less coddling, so this time I had to make it to our hotel in Ohfuna (about two hours by train from Narita) myself, including a train change in Yokohama. The first hurdle was that in order to use a credit card to buy my train ticket, I needed "Pin" number. Heck, I don't HAVE a pin number for most of my cards (or at least one I knew), so I ended up having to use an ATM to get cash. Fortunately they had an English-speaking assistant in the ticket office who was able to tell me how much my ticket was going to cost. When I got to the ATM I couldn't remember whether she said 5000 or 50,000, so I got 50,000 yen, which at the current exchange rate is about $50 dollars. It sure seems like a lot of money when you see all those zeros. Turned out I only needed 5,000...


The trip to Yokohama on the train was uneventful and took about about 90 minutes. Then it got hairy. I couldn't find a sign at the Yokohama station that said "Ohfuna" which is where my hotel was. Even though I already had the ticket, I couldn't tell what platform to go to. I finally found a ticket office, but the girl spoke only a little English, so I wasn't sure she understood me. When the train came I confirmed with a guy in line that the train when to Ohfuna, then still sweated whether I'd gotten on the right train until they called my stop (in English thank-you very much!). Checking in at the hotel went well, and then I went to the supermarket to get something to eat. I am more tired than hungry, but I plan on sleeping about twelve hours since I only got four hours of sleep Friday night and didn't sleep on the plane. I ended up getting a Japanese hot dog (cold) a twisty glazed donut, and a carton of milk. The entire meal cost 450 yen (about $4.50). Pricey, but much cheaper and faster than eating out. When I bought the milk I was really worried that it might be soy milk or something nasty like that, but it ended up being cows milk (I think). It had a funny taste but not too much, and it was cold.


Well I'm off to bed. I post again tomorrow!

Toronto, Canada

Last Wednesday I flew to Toronto, Canada for a conference. Microsoft is a major sponsor, and it is a great opportunity to reach a lot of faculty. One of Toronto's most recognizable landmarks is its "Space Needle". This picture was taken from in front of my hotel.

This one was taken from the nearby waterfront using a camera on a tripod so the picture wouldn't be blurry.

We stayed at the Fairmont Royal York. Its an older but nice hotel right in the financial district.

The hotel had a very upscale tobacco shop, and this late 1800's lead toy soldier set was in the window. If you enlarge the picture you'll see that the British soldiers are fighting African natives. The figures are fairly realistic, as are the some of the poses of killed fighters on both sides.

TP'd

We got up this morning to find out that we had been toilet papered. Before Jarom and Melissa moved into the front bedroom, Seth would always keep his window open and was able to successfully thwart previous attempts to tp the house. Jarom and Melissa had the window shut and ignored the voices in the front yard. This is the result. We're not sure who the perpetrators are, but we suspect a couple of girls that Seth is friends with.

Family Camping: Grandparents Perspective

Friday and Satuday we resurrected an old favorite summer past time and tried family camping. Despite way too many years scouting, we were definitely rusty, and Colorado camping isn't quite like California camping ie: you must always expect rain. We actually did alright with Jarom's canopy and all of our big tents, but none of us had good outdoor clothing. I guess its something you accumulate over time.

We loved our campsite, here we were in a National Park (think Yosemite) at the height of the season and we weren't near anyone. We had our own outhouse; full unfortunately, but at least we weren't sharing it with anyone else. We just left the door open all the time, and only the girls shut the door.

What worked:

• Jarom brought a water proof canopy that we put over the table that kept the occasional rain shower off of the cooking area. It was a huge pain to put together, but we were glad to have it.
• Jame's & Allie's monster tent with a hinged door and gigantic rain flys. I'm sure it cost some bucks but definitely worth it.
• Air beds from home. Kiss the thermarest and insulites good bye. Yeah, they take about 20 minutes to inflate a queen size by hand, but I was actually warm and confortable and Jane slept all night at 8,000 ft elevation in a sleeping bag.
• Pillows from home. Jane and I brought ours we slept great. Jarom and Melissa brought "camping" pillows and slept poorly.
• Extra Blanket. Jane and I draped an extra blanket over our sleeping bags which allowed me to sleep with my arms out of the bag but still covered, so I had freedom of movement and stayed warm.
• Wet wipes: We used them for everything from hands, faces, bathroom breaks, wiping out pans, etc. Next time we bring the giant pack from Costco. You can't have too many.
• Citronella Candles: We bought these little bucket candles with Citronella mosquito repellant, and it really helped. Maybe a couple of more next time?

Jarom and I had some conversations about what we would do different next time (and yes Allie, there will be a next time). Here is our list of some of our lessons learned:

• Easier Meals. The dutch oven food was good, but was it really worth taking two hours or longer to prepare meals? Next time its cold cereal for breakfast, hot dogs & Easy Mac for lunch and foil dinners (made in advance).
• Longer Stay. It is so much work setting up camp, that its a shame to have to take down the next morning. The second day would have been so relaxing had we just had to eat and hang around.
• More Water: We were about 1/4 mile from the nearest water faucet, and we only had a total of a gallon and a half storage capacity. Next time we'll bring some larger water containers.
• Bigger Wagon: It took seven half-mile trips to the car to bring all the gear in; and THANK GOODNESS Allie had a wagon that we could pile up. Maybe two wagons...

Now for the pictures...

We had to get a permit for the campground. Interestingly there are no per-night fees. $20 per car ($35 annual pass; we'll get that next year) and $20 for the campsite for two nights. This is the office where we had to fill out the paper work.

The campsite where we stayed is "accessable" and made for a handicapped person (tables had no benches on one side to accomodate wheel chairs. This is the trail to our campsite with our disabled camper. I have to tell you that having our own bathroom 30 feet away was the only way our colitis sufferer could have endured.

It started raining as we were setting up camp, and Allie and Jarom had to put up the canopy in the rain. It stopped just as they got it up because Melissa, Grandma Jane and the Thornbrue kids said a prayer as they were huddled in one of the tents. Here I am drying out the canopy instructions so we could put them away for the next time.

Here is our sweet campsite. Notice the table in the foreground doesn't have a bench on one side. The big blue tent is ours. Jarom and Melissa have the yellow tent, and Allie and Jame's tent is the green monster.

The Thornbrue kids had the time of their life. Grandma Jane is an essential camping accessory.


While there was lots of downed wood, we didn't have any way of chopping it up, so we had to gather pieces that were small enough to break (over a rock) but large enough to last more than a second or two. Here James is returning with a triumphal arm load. Notice the neoprene waders.


Here James is setting up their tent. You are seeing about 1/2 the tent. I'm telling you, its HUGE (and I'm jealous!).

Allie prepared this amazing caramel apple crisp, which we cooked. It just needed some ice cream or milk. Maybe next time...


We had a doe wander into camp apparently unconcerned about the people. Melissa and Marie and Tessa were gathering wood and she (the deer) walk to within about 15 feet of them (they are just off the left side of this picture).


As we were packing up Ben wanted to get in the duffle bag.


Tessa and Ben wanted to help so they grabbed the ice chests and started down the trail to the cars. They looked so cute; like they were running away from home or something.


This is Sprague Lake from the south end. Our campsite was at the far end and in about a 100 yards off towards the right.


As we were leaving we saw one of the resident elk herds. There were about 200 elk total. I got out of the car and took a picture. They are quite used to people and you can get very close. I chose not to because they smell.

Antique Night Shirt

Last week I got a package from Grandma Judy with a couple old textbooks on Math and included was a little night shirt that she says I (Randy) wore when I was a little baby. It nice not having to wonder what to do with keepsakes like that because Melissa took it and that night she brought Bryson in wearing it. Looks like we got it just in time; he's growing so fast that he is now out of newborn sizes.

Baby Driver

The time has now come to test just how good my relationship with Seth really is. Seth obtained his permit. Notice in Colorado you actually get a real license, so now Seth has real government-issued identification.

Last Sunday I took Seth out for an hour and a half in a nearby empty parking lot and we drove around very slowly but at least he got a feel for driving. The next day, he got the first of three behind-the-wheel lessons (two hours each). I thought it interesting that he second time out (on Wednesday) they drove on the freeway and in the mountains. I guess that is an essential Colorado driving skill. This is Seth leaving on his first lesson. I'm sure he appreciated the paparazzi.