Mighty blue Centrair dragon

NGO Centrair mascots

Xmas Chicken Box

When in Rome, eat chicken for Christmas like the Romans do!

Ready for New Years

The entry gates at the shrines have been decorated in advance of the
New Years festivities.

Snakes!

Probably a real risk! The area outside this local shrine is densely
wooded and likely harbors piles of snakes, at least when it's warmer
out.

Autumn trip to Shirakawa-go

I've been working my way through putting the backlog of photos online, and this batch was at the top of the list to share. When my parents were visiting last month, we took a road trip north to Gifu prefecture to visit the 'traditional' village of Shirakawa. The site was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site due to its unique three story thatched roof homes, but the quotes come in because the village is in danger of losing the designation because it has become less traditional and more of a tourist trap. Tourist trap or open-air museum, it's sure scenic in the fall!

View from the hill overlooking the village

The fall colors were amazing. It seemed like the majority of the trees had changed, but had all agreed not to drop any of their leaves. The sides of the valley were solid walls of color which fairly exploded when the sun broke through the clouds.

We ate some tasty food for the day, including fried potato cakes particular to the valley, and a savory rice bowl made with beef from the region. The residents of the village who were maintaining their more traditional occupations were primarily in agriculture, and even in November their gardens were in full swing.

Feel free to check out other photos of the afternoon over at G+:
https://plus.google.com/photos/111012416162387816811/albums/5816880940347624273

Take a step back

Nobody walks that close to Mr. Danger.

Only four words

Draft. Beer. Vending. Machine.

Mt. Fuji

Out the window of the Shinkansen. We're lucky it's such a clear day!

Kiyomizu-dera

From our recent weekend in Kyoto.

Potty humor

Please pay attention, this is very important.

Nagoya Castle

4th floor, going duwn

View from the top of Inuyama Castle

Weekend trip to Nara

So. Many. Bikes.

Chilean Wine

Nectar of the small dog.

Chili Season

 

It's mid October and the weather is finally cooling down enough to make cheese covered chili an acceptable dinner.

The trip to Seoul

I mentioned a while back A and I were headed off on a tip to Seoul, then never followed up with the aftermath. 'Pictures or it didn't happen', as the saying goes. I assure you it happened. Not only did it happen, it was really enjoyable!

The flight from Nagoya to Seoul was only about 2 hours, but Korean Air still served a small meal during that span. Very classy. Incheon International Airport (which services Seoul) is 30-40 minutes outside the city, so we secured a ride on a 'limousine bus' and headed into town. If you're undertaking this journey yourself, it's a good way to get into the city; I would argue much better than the train. There's a counter near the exit to the buses where you'll be able to get route help, and purchase your ticket. (if you don't have exact change to purchase on the bus). From there, just go hang out by the sign outside bearing the number of your bus!

That tiny dog lives at the cafe / B&B and begs for your breakfast scraps.

The bed and breakfast we stayed at was located about a block from the wall of Gyeongbok Palace, the big world heritage site in the old part of the city. It was also in the same neighborhood as the Blue House, the Korean version of the White House, where the President lives in Seoul. That unexpectedly meant roving swarms of police, which made our part of the city feel extremely safe.

I'll admit to having sort of a love/hate relationship with our little B&B. We were staying in what was, when it was unoccupied, a storage room and office. Clean, acceptable, except that mosquitos got in our room and drove me crazy at night. The breakfasts were good though, and on our final night they were hosting a wedding party we got to crash. It was also right in the middle of things, surrounded both by tourist attractions and tons of cute cafes and restaurants. Pluses and minuses, although I'd say a mosquito bite on your eyelid is a pretty big minus.

The palace was full of great sights. The original was razed during a Japanese invasion, so what currently stands is a recreation. Even so, very impressive. Its footprint in the city is enormous, and we spent about half a day exploring all the back areas.

Exploring the city on foot was reasonably practical, with all of the attractions we'd planned to visit being within a few miles of each other. Even traveling between destinations offered lots of sights. There was no shortage of interesting things to keep us busy.

I'd absolutely go back given the opportunity. We didn't have enough time to make the trip up to the DMZ or see some of the further parts of the city (Gangnam) but as it was the trip was a good length. Too much longer and all the kimchi we were eating might have crossed from novelty to annoyance. We'll just have to keep an eye on those ticket prices and see if they drop again.

I took piles more photos, and I encourage you to check them out. They include a lot more of our ranging about the city, as well as our visit to the Korean War Memorial.

My lunch

Bears are the deadliest animals in Japan. You need to take this ramen seriously!

KAL Parking

KAL 'Prestige' Lounge

If you have to wait for a plane, this isn't a bad way to do it. Free Budweiser!

Relaxing at the coffee shop

After a long day of hiking around Seoul, A and I are finally chilling.
Mmm, delicious green tea latte.

Creepy mascot

This is the 'cute' character used to promote the Korean War Memorial.
Because apparently that's something that needs a mascot.

Sunset in Seoul

A brief note to fellow expats

If you value your ability to look up directions routed on public
transit on your iPhone, do not allow your phone to upgrade itself to
iOS 6! Apple ditched Google Maps in the Map app for their own
substandard mapping solution, and it doesn't include train and bus
routes. Kind of important info outside the US...

Keep an eye out for a new map app direct from Google. At that point
you can upgrade without fear of lost utility.

Pictures or it didn't happen

Exploring Seoul

At the palace...

Korean drama shoot

It looked like one of those 'Korean Dramas' I've heard so much about
was being filmed right around the corner from our hotel. I even think
they were using the second floor of the cafe we ate dinner in as sort
of a trailer area for the actors.

It's a trap!

I went to the grocery store to buy lunch today, and a container of
freshly fried onion rings caught my eye. I got them home, opened them
up, and took my first delicious crispy bite... of a squid ring. Ahh! Even
with my absurdly limited vocabulary and practically non-existent
reading skills I know イカ (ika) is squid. It was right there on the deli
label as part of a longer description.

The moral of this story is always read labels, even when what you're
buying comes in a clear plastic container and you think you know
exactly what you're getting. Surprise squid strikes when you least
expect it.

(Note: While not onion rings, the squid was delicious.)

Trip preparations

Our ongoing Adventures are taking A and I to South Korea later this week. In preparation, I'm studying hard to make sure I have a full picture of the complex socio-political climate on the Korean Peninsula.

Here are some resources so you can make sure you're up to speed too:
North Korea

South Korea

Setomono Matsuri

Alice and I attended the 'Festival of Seto Things' recently. Seto is known for their ceramics, so celebrating Seto things meant to an enormous pottery sale street fair. Of course, no street fair would be complete without food on a stick! In this particular booth, it was squid.

You can see the rest of the photos from the visit here.

 

The Posh Garage

It's been mentioned a few times before, so after requests for imagery I remembered I took a panorama of the garage as we were in the process of moving in. You'll probably need to click on it to enlarge it, this mini photo on the page won't do it justice.

I took this photo with my back to the door. Left to right: Stairs going up to the second floor living area, shoe closet, intercom (between floors, and to a video/audio unit on the mailbox out front), electrical utility closet, bathroom, mini kitchen (sink, one induction burner), sliding doors to additional living area and the back deck, wall of cedar paneling. Many little track spotlights on the ceiling. The 'outdoor' portion is textured concrete, the 'indoor' portion is tile. Don't forget to take your shoes off at the step between!

Hope you enjoyed the tour. Post cards are available in the gift shop.

Rotary sushi

I have been fed via a conveyor belt. Our special orders were delivered
from the kitchen on a little robotic express train. THE FUTURE HAS
ARRIVED, and it is enclosed in a plastic UFO for your protection.

Expo Mascots

Marble statues of the 2005 Aichi Expo mascots. They make about as much
sense as the Olympic mascots, which is to say none at all. All
depictions of them I've seen make them look like a pair of sentient
shrubs.

AHHH REPEL THE INVADERS! ...nevermind

First, a bit of apartment-geography. Our place has a large, posh, garage which has become my office/studio. I only open the garage door when I'm taking my bike out for a spin, otherwise egress is always through the human-sized door. With that in mind...

I was just getting ready to head to the grocery store and was pawing through my messenger bag to grab some useful coins WHEN THE GARAGE DOOR STARTS TO OPEN?!! Oh no! Make it stop! ONE OF MY WALLS IS BEING TORN OFF! Then I was staring at an empty driveway, no invaders to be found. Turns out I'd accidentally bumped the door opener remote I keep in my messenger bag while shuffling for change. Oops.

Outside the City

Additional photos from today's bike ride. It doesn't take long before this:

Turns into this:

Which is rapidly followed by this:

The whole process would then play out again in reverse if you went far enough, only there'd be a different city name on the sign.

It's getting very close to harvest time for the rice. Lots of people are out working, but a saw a pair of guys actually going about the harvesting. They had a machine that looked like a swamp zamboni, or maybe a swamp floor waxer? It drove through the stalks heavy with rice leaving only a bristle above the water line in its wake.

Exploring via bicycle

The shrine (located up the hill behind me in this photo) is a bit south of Yakusa station, up a road you would never think to turn down unless you lived on it.

Bike search

Can you spot the bike belonging to the foreigner? Hint: Mine is the
one with the seat twice as high as the others.

More critters

Alice mentioned this mantis beastie was hanging around our front door
when she got home last night, and her report of its enormous size was
not an exaggeration. It was still hanging around this morning when I
took the trash out: the body is easily five inches, with the legs
spreading out considerably further.

Summer Vacation Report

 Departing from Nagoya, the airport has a deck where you can hangout before departure.

 Arriving in Honolulu, my first sightseeing stop was the Arizona memorial.

The view from Diamond Head.  

I cant wait until the weather here turns cooler, even the temperatures in Hawaii felt great in comparison to the heat and humidity we have here.