This? Looks like so much fun:
EDIT ADD: Danny chimed in to add these clips of grownups doing kid games:
Also, Mike P discovered that the folks at Google Maps (Double True!) have a sense of humor: here.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
I can see clearly now the tube is gone
After a few years of staring at one of these:
I am now gladly looking at one of these:
The old axiom that "you don't know what you're missing until you get a taste" (paraphrased) holds true here. I never realized how much eyestrain I was experiencing on the old CRT until I got this thing and realized how much sharper every letter seemed. Now I've gotta see what I can do to get the song that inspired this post's title out of my head...
Here's a mishmash of other thoughts since I haven't written in a while:
- One of my resolutions for this year was to post at least 2x a week. Well, that one went out the window, but I'm still trying to spend time in contemplation of God, life, the church, and the world... and I think He's been teaching me quite a bit. I will endeavor to eventually share some of these thoughts with all three of my readers.
- Speaking of viewing enhancements... our living room is now being graced by an HDTV, just in time for the NBA playoffs. We now have 3 TVs, but only the HDTV has a cable signal coming in - the other two are basically gaming/DVD TVs. Daniel also stashed his XBox360 at our place, so the past two Tuesdays have seen a bunch of guys gleefully chainsawing each other to bits in 2x2 Gears of War.
- This past Sunday playing ball, I couldn't hit a jumper to save my life, but got into a defensive groove of sorts. In the final game I think I blocked 5-6 shots. Reminded me of this good article on shot-blocking from SI.com that I read a few months ago - I suspect Richard would get a kick out of it.
- Recently, Shally and I have begun playing through the first Lego Star Wars game. I'd already played through the sequel with Chris, so we figured we'd start fresh on the first game and figure out the puzzles together. Anyway, all the lightsaber swinging reminded me of two links:
Critique on fighting with lightsabers - written by a sword expert stating some subtle improvements moviemakers could make to sword scenes to make them realistic as well as flashy.
Swordfighting essays - in Japan, we were discussing stuff like a katana user going up against a broadsword or against a rapier. Well, you can check out analyses of those scenarios here and here, respectively.
- Click here to find a good article on the Passion movement, which is now a little over 10 years old. It touches not just on the popularity of the music and of "modern worship" in general, but also gives a good insight into Louie Giglio's vision setting and sticking to it when it would have been tempting to go in other directions. A few excerpts:
I am now gladly looking at one of these:
The old axiom that "you don't know what you're missing until you get a taste" (paraphrased) holds true here. I never realized how much eyestrain I was experiencing on the old CRT until I got this thing and realized how much sharper every letter seemed. Now I've gotta see what I can do to get the song that inspired this post's title out of my head...
Here's a mishmash of other thoughts since I haven't written in a while:
- One of my resolutions for this year was to post at least 2x a week. Well, that one went out the window, but I'm still trying to spend time in contemplation of God, life, the church, and the world... and I think He's been teaching me quite a bit. I will endeavor to eventually share some of these thoughts with all three of my readers.
- Speaking of viewing enhancements... our living room is now being graced by an HDTV, just in time for the NBA playoffs. We now have 3 TVs, but only the HDTV has a cable signal coming in - the other two are basically gaming/DVD TVs. Daniel also stashed his XBox360 at our place, so the past two Tuesdays have seen a bunch of guys gleefully chainsawing each other to bits in 2x2 Gears of War.
- This past Sunday playing ball, I couldn't hit a jumper to save my life, but got into a defensive groove of sorts. In the final game I think I blocked 5-6 shots. Reminded me of this good article on shot-blocking from SI.com that I read a few months ago - I suspect Richard would get a kick out of it.
- Recently, Shally and I have begun playing through the first Lego Star Wars game. I'd already played through the sequel with Chris, so we figured we'd start fresh on the first game and figure out the puzzles together. Anyway, all the lightsaber swinging reminded me of two links:
Critique on fighting with lightsabers - written by a sword expert stating some subtle improvements moviemakers could make to sword scenes to make them realistic as well as flashy.
Swordfighting essays - in Japan, we were discussing stuff like a katana user going up against a broadsword or against a rapier. Well, you can check out analyses of those scenarios here and here, respectively.
- Click here to find a good article on the Passion movement, which is now a little over 10 years old. It touches not just on the popularity of the music and of "modern worship" in general, but also gives a good insight into Louie Giglio's vision setting and sticking to it when it would have been tempting to go in other directions. A few excerpts:
"In some ways, Passion has put the words that people are going to say to God into the mouths of an entire generation."
...
Passion's link between worship and missions harks back to evangelical movements like the Moravian Pietists, the continental Europeans from the 18th century who so impressed John Wesley with their fervent prayers and singing. They called for spiritual renewal and promoted worldwide evangelism. When I asked what historical movements inspire him, Giglio mentioned the 19th-century students who organized the Haystack Prayer Meeting and spawned global missions in America.
...
"God may love a well for a village in Africa way more than hearing us sing 'Holy Is the Lord' one more time. That puts meaning behind the $3,000 well," Giglio said. "It's the redeemed making God happy, because we're doing the thing he wants most."
...
"Too long we have preferred theology to passion or passion to theology," Piper said as we talked after his breakout session. "I like Passion and Louie Giglio and have been here 11 years because I believe in the potential to get it together. Most of these students have never heard anyone plead with them to think hard, go deep, get a theology, and jump up and down with David Crowder."
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Friday, March 09, 2007
Third time through...
20He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming soon."
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
Finished the Bible for the third time yesterday - I used a chronological reading schedule for this go-round. Something I observed: yes, it's God's Word, full of wisdom and life-changing truth... but something I discovered this time through is that a lot of it is just darn good reading. There were times that I would think "Eh, just one more chapter" because I wanted to find out what would happen next... even though I ended up being a little late to work in the morning.
Not yet settled on what I'm going to do next (start another go-through, go through a devotional, etc.) but this morning I pulled a book off my shelf that has gotten kind of dusty from disuse these last 6 years and began reading some sections from it. That book? Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem. I think I might spend some time reading through the sections on Prayer, the Gospel, grace, and sanctification.
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
21The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people. Amen.
Finished the Bible for the third time yesterday - I used a chronological reading schedule for this go-round. Something I observed: yes, it's God's Word, full of wisdom and life-changing truth... but something I discovered this time through is that a lot of it is just darn good reading. There were times that I would think "Eh, just one more chapter" because I wanted to find out what would happen next... even though I ended up being a little late to work in the morning.
Not yet settled on what I'm going to do next (start another go-through, go through a devotional, etc.) but this morning I pulled a book off my shelf that has gotten kind of dusty from disuse these last 6 years and began reading some sections from it. That book? Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem. I think I might spend some time reading through the sections on Prayer, the Gospel, grace, and sanctification.
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Tokyo 2007 recap part 5b: Gochiso sama deshita! (meaning: Thank you for our meal!)
Aaaaand we're back!
We visited McDonald's there... they have chocolate pie in addition to apple pie!
They also have a ginger chicken sandwich that wasn't bad.
We visited a department store that had a huge grocery mart/cafe. Andy remarked that if there were one of these in California, he'd probably go every day for lunch. Tons of fresh teriyaki, tempura, udon, and other lunch boxes.
Ice cream museum:
Ice cream with flan on top:
Corn chocolate! Probably twice as healthy because you get all the fiber and the antioxidants from the chocolate:
Wasabi chocolate! Probably twice as healthy because you get the sanitary effects of the wasabi as well as the antioxidants from the chocolate:
Chocolate cream puff - the "hair" on top is actually dark chocolate.
Kaiseki dinner
The last night we were there, Andy's host family treated us to a very nice 9-course meal of cooked and raw seafood, beautifully presented (the chef is also a flower arranger and the meal was designed to complement the central flower arrangement).
Appetizer - daikon salad, grilled rice ball, and something that I can't quite remember with salmon roe:
Crab soup:
Tempura sushi
A "rose" made from pink-colored squid sashimi wrapped around rice:
The weirdest item of the night is the upper left corner - all we knew is that it was some kind of "fish organ". I tried it and it was similar to uni - not bad. Mike theorized that it was fish ovary. Other stuff includes fish cake, pumpkin cake, and a stuffed tomato.
Pan-fried tilapia:
Tuna nigiri mix:
Unagi and hamachi:
Dessert - red bean pudding, raspberry pudding cake, and some sort of apricot jello:
And finally, some proof that I finished an entire glass of sake (wasn't that strong, though):
And that's that. Tokyo 2007 is in the books.
We visited McDonald's there... they have chocolate pie in addition to apple pie!
They also have a ginger chicken sandwich that wasn't bad.
We visited a department store that had a huge grocery mart/cafe. Andy remarked that if there were one of these in California, he'd probably go every day for lunch. Tons of fresh teriyaki, tempura, udon, and other lunch boxes.
Ice cream museum:
Ice cream with flan on top:
Corn chocolate! Probably twice as healthy because you get all the fiber and the antioxidants from the chocolate:
Wasabi chocolate! Probably twice as healthy because you get the sanitary effects of the wasabi as well as the antioxidants from the chocolate:
Chocolate cream puff - the "hair" on top is actually dark chocolate.
Kaiseki dinner
The last night we were there, Andy's host family treated us to a very nice 9-course meal of cooked and raw seafood, beautifully presented (the chef is also a flower arranger and the meal was designed to complement the central flower arrangement).
Appetizer - daikon salad, grilled rice ball, and something that I can't quite remember with salmon roe:
Crab soup:
Tempura sushi
A "rose" made from pink-colored squid sashimi wrapped around rice:
The weirdest item of the night is the upper left corner - all we knew is that it was some kind of "fish organ". I tried it and it was similar to uni - not bad. Mike theorized that it was fish ovary. Other stuff includes fish cake, pumpkin cake, and a stuffed tomato.
Pan-fried tilapia:
Tuna nigiri mix:
Unagi and hamachi:
Dessert - red bean pudding, raspberry pudding cake, and some sort of apricot jello:
And finally, some proof that I finished an entire glass of sake (wasn't that strong, though):
And that's that. Tokyo 2007 is in the books.
Tokyo 2007 recap part 5a: Itedakimase! (meaning: Bon appetit!)
I'm guessing quite a few people skipped over my last few posts in the hope of seeing this one. So, here's the food we ate!
On the whole we attempted to avoid sushi and sashimi because you can actually get quite decent stuff here in the States. Here's what we had, in roughly chronlogical order (gonna have to break this up into 2 posts)...
Tonkatsu sandwich - fried pork inside Japanese-bakery-style white bread, cut into thirds and then packaged in a to-go box.
Ramen - frankly, Ryowa or Maru Ichi in Mountain View is just as good or maybe even better to these American taste buds.
Pumpkin pastry with red bean - sweets in Japan tend to be quite light and low on sugar, more natural sweeteners like red bean and fruit.
Soba - I had herring as the topping, other folks had stuff like mochi. With soup noodles, I still prefer ramen.
Bar - we went to a sake bar (think Chili's) and got to order a bunch of small appetizer-type items off the computer display right on the table. Food included stuff like daikon salad, beef tongue, a couple of pork/chicken skewers, Japanese spaghetti (cooked in a cast iron skillet with some special sauce), poke, edamame, and a few other items.
Katsu curry and katsu-don - the katsu-don I had was much better than anything you could find here. The egg was still runny, the fried pork moist, and lots of little grated onions and ginger for added flavor. Great stuff.
Tsukiji Fish Market - imagine a couple acres of warehouse of people like the guy below chopping up all manner of seafood. We got up early (6 am) to go to the largest fish market in the world. It made me wonder if there was any seafood left in the ocean...
We had a pricey but memorable sushi breakfast at the market, where I had tuna toro and uni (sea urchin) for the first time. So that's the hubbub about toro... good stuff, required very little chewing and pretty much melted in my mouth. The uni was actually pretty good, but that may have been due to the extreme freshness... I've heard bad things about that stuff too.
Mos Burger - we spent a long time looking for this fast food joint. Ended up kinda disappointed... the burgers were pretty basic, and the rice bun-marinated pork sandwich (pictured below) was different and tasty but not great.
A dish that I had never heard of prior to going to Tokyo this time around is called "okonomiyaki", kind of like a Japanese pizza. Quite tasty. The traditional ("Kansai" style) is a mix of batter, various meats, and a heap of cabbage, all grilled and then layered with sauce. We were given bowls of raw batter and ingredients, mixed them together ourselves, and spread them out to grill.
Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki is layered rather than grilled.
We also had nabe, which is basically hot pot. This was in the section of the city famous for producing sumo wrestlers, and the restaurant we went to was founded by sumo for sumo (I guess they would eat the pot all by themselves).
Overpriced gyoza:
To be continued...
On the whole we attempted to avoid sushi and sashimi because you can actually get quite decent stuff here in the States. Here's what we had, in roughly chronlogical order (gonna have to break this up into 2 posts)...
Tonkatsu sandwich - fried pork inside Japanese-bakery-style white bread, cut into thirds and then packaged in a to-go box.
Ramen - frankly, Ryowa or Maru Ichi in Mountain View is just as good or maybe even better to these American taste buds.
Pumpkin pastry with red bean - sweets in Japan tend to be quite light and low on sugar, more natural sweeteners like red bean and fruit.
Soba - I had herring as the topping, other folks had stuff like mochi. With soup noodles, I still prefer ramen.
Bar - we went to a sake bar (think Chili's) and got to order a bunch of small appetizer-type items off the computer display right on the table. Food included stuff like daikon salad, beef tongue, a couple of pork/chicken skewers, Japanese spaghetti (cooked in a cast iron skillet with some special sauce), poke, edamame, and a few other items.
Katsu curry and katsu-don - the katsu-don I had was much better than anything you could find here. The egg was still runny, the fried pork moist, and lots of little grated onions and ginger for added flavor. Great stuff.
Tsukiji Fish Market - imagine a couple acres of warehouse of people like the guy below chopping up all manner of seafood. We got up early (6 am) to go to the largest fish market in the world. It made me wonder if there was any seafood left in the ocean...
We had a pricey but memorable sushi breakfast at the market, where I had tuna toro and uni (sea urchin) for the first time. So that's the hubbub about toro... good stuff, required very little chewing and pretty much melted in my mouth. The uni was actually pretty good, but that may have been due to the extreme freshness... I've heard bad things about that stuff too.
Mos Burger - we spent a long time looking for this fast food joint. Ended up kinda disappointed... the burgers were pretty basic, and the rice bun-marinated pork sandwich (pictured below) was different and tasty but not great.
A dish that I had never heard of prior to going to Tokyo this time around is called "okonomiyaki", kind of like a Japanese pizza. Quite tasty. The traditional ("Kansai" style) is a mix of batter, various meats, and a heap of cabbage, all grilled and then layered with sauce. We were given bowls of raw batter and ingredients, mixed them together ourselves, and spread them out to grill.
Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki is layered rather than grilled.
We also had nabe, which is basically hot pot. This was in the section of the city famous for producing sumo wrestlers, and the restaurant we went to was founded by sumo for sumo (I guess they would eat the pot all by themselves).
Overpriced gyoza:
To be continued...
Tokyo 2007 recap part 4b - Modern Japan
Things that Japan has that the USA should adopt:
- money tray
When making a purchase or other money transaction, the cashier hands you a small tray that you put your money in. He takes the money, puts the change in the tray, and hands it back to you. Very simple, but surprisingly helpful in preventing annoyances like dropping coins.
- prices rounded to the nearest yen
Almost every price was something like 350 yen, 400 yen, 390 yen, etc. You'd rarely have something cost like 392 yen and get 1 yen pieces back (the few 1 yen pieces we got were highly annoying). In other words, sales tax was already included in every price, which made it easy to figure out whether you had enough money to get something.
- no tipping
Service is included in the price. According to the culture, they would chase you down if you attempted to tip, and so it would be nice to have the option of rewarding exceptional service - but it was nice not to be obligated to give a tip for mediocre or poor service.
- heated seats - on the toilet, in the subway
It was kinda chilly when we were there, and so it was quite comfy and almost sleep-inducing to sit on a heated throne. Although, you'd have to poke yourself not to fall asleep on the toilet.
- environmental emphasis
Japan is one of the most environmentally-conscious nations in the world, and so there were plenty of recycle bins and little energy-saving gadgets and practices. Interestingly enough, the streets were also spic-and-span clean... and yet there were almost no public trash cans around.
- anti-fogging mirrors
In our bathroom, they applied some sort of non-fogging material to the mirror so that after a shower, there was a portion that was not fogged up:
- ordering food from a) plastic models and b) vending machines
Plastic models made it easy to survive food-wise without reading or speaking any Japanese. As for the latter item, we went to one restaurant that had no cashiers and 2 cooks in the back room. The cashier was a vending machine with pictures of the various menu items, like katsu-don, katsu-curry, etc. You'd select your item, pay your money into the machine, and it would give you your change and a receipt. The cook would get the order and bring it out to you. Very efficient. (pic by Mike)
- rickshaws
I think this will become Esther's preferred method of transportation:
Things that the US has that Japan should adopt
Not much here... but two items that I found I took for granted in the States:
- no smoking indoors (at least in California) - although most of the Tokyo citizens seemed pretty fit due to the amount of walking one does in an urban environment, the omnipresent cigarettes probably cancelled out the health benefits of all the walking
- no 100/500 coins
The 100 and 500 yen coins (~$1 and $5 respectively) were annoying because they had significant buying power, but were more difficult to carry around. I like the US $1 and $5 bill.
A few other random Japan pics that I didn't get into my last post:
We walked into a home department store with "home displays" (a la Ikea), and noted this display for a "Solo/Solo" setup - the ideal home for the couple "that needs space from each other." Wha? Apparently the husband and wife have separate beds in separate rooms, with the common area being the bathroom. This is the "dream house" setup for the urban couple where the husband gets back late from work and doesn't want to wake up his wife.
Vending machines - we attempted to find some with stuff like self-heating bowls of noodles that would start cooking once you opened them, but alas, we could just find machines with items like corn soup (pic by Mike):
Staircase (pic by Mike):
Meiji Shrine panoramic (pic by Andy)
- money tray
When making a purchase or other money transaction, the cashier hands you a small tray that you put your money in. He takes the money, puts the change in the tray, and hands it back to you. Very simple, but surprisingly helpful in preventing annoyances like dropping coins.
- prices rounded to the nearest yen
Almost every price was something like 350 yen, 400 yen, 390 yen, etc. You'd rarely have something cost like 392 yen and get 1 yen pieces back (the few 1 yen pieces we got were highly annoying). In other words, sales tax was already included in every price, which made it easy to figure out whether you had enough money to get something.
- no tipping
Service is included in the price. According to the culture, they would chase you down if you attempted to tip, and so it would be nice to have the option of rewarding exceptional service - but it was nice not to be obligated to give a tip for mediocre or poor service.
- heated seats - on the toilet, in the subway
It was kinda chilly when we were there, and so it was quite comfy and almost sleep-inducing to sit on a heated throne. Although, you'd have to poke yourself not to fall asleep on the toilet.
- environmental emphasis
Japan is one of the most environmentally-conscious nations in the world, and so there were plenty of recycle bins and little energy-saving gadgets and practices. Interestingly enough, the streets were also spic-and-span clean... and yet there were almost no public trash cans around.
- anti-fogging mirrors
In our bathroom, they applied some sort of non-fogging material to the mirror so that after a shower, there was a portion that was not fogged up:
- ordering food from a) plastic models and b) vending machines
Plastic models made it easy to survive food-wise without reading or speaking any Japanese. As for the latter item, we went to one restaurant that had no cashiers and 2 cooks in the back room. The cashier was a vending machine with pictures of the various menu items, like katsu-don, katsu-curry, etc. You'd select your item, pay your money into the machine, and it would give you your change and a receipt. The cook would get the order and bring it out to you. Very efficient. (pic by Mike)
- rickshaws
I think this will become Esther's preferred method of transportation:
Things that the US has that Japan should adopt
Not much here... but two items that I found I took for granted in the States:
- no smoking indoors (at least in California) - although most of the Tokyo citizens seemed pretty fit due to the amount of walking one does in an urban environment, the omnipresent cigarettes probably cancelled out the health benefits of all the walking
- no 100/500 coins
The 100 and 500 yen coins (~$1 and $5 respectively) were annoying because they had significant buying power, but were more difficult to carry around. I like the US $1 and $5 bill.
A few other random Japan pics that I didn't get into my last post:
We walked into a home department store with "home displays" (a la Ikea), and noted this display for a "Solo/Solo" setup - the ideal home for the couple "that needs space from each other." Wha? Apparently the husband and wife have separate beds in separate rooms, with the common area being the bathroom. This is the "dream house" setup for the urban couple where the husband gets back late from work and doesn't want to wake up his wife.
Vending machines - we attempted to find some with stuff like self-heating bowls of noodles that would start cooking once you opened them, but alas, we could just find machines with items like corn soup (pic by Mike):
Staircase (pic by Mike):
Meiji Shrine panoramic (pic by Andy)
Monday, March 05, 2007
Tokyo 2007 recap part 4a - Modern Japan
WARNING: LONG picture post ahead!
Modern Japan is an interesting mix of the old and the new. Traditional values like conforming to corporate thinking live alongside a fascination with many things Western and seemingly all things technological. In no particular order...
Since there are so many people living in such a small area, the Japanese have had to be come very judicious and clever with their use of space.
Observation:
a) advertising is predominantly focused on "cuteness" rather than sex appeal, (the latter of which is probably the driving force of American marketing). In fact, the general impression I got from Tokyo is that youth culture is very much the driving influence in popular culture... which makes some sense since we didn't spend that much time in the suburbs where all the families were. Most of the people we passed by in Tokyo were probably under 40.
b) advertising is everywhere - building fronts are covered in gaudy colors and big signs:
Shinjuku (aka youth culture central)
Engrish:
Urban Tokyo
One of the hotels we stayed at (built in Odaiba, which is basically a man-made land mass made from landfill - they don't have enough room so they have to make room!):
Rainbow Bridge:
The subways in Tokyo are very clean and comfortable, with luxurious heated seats. One of the weirdest things is that riding on the subway is almost a completely silent experience - no one talking on cell phones, talking with friends, etc - just people taking naps both seated and standing, or listening to iPods (perhaps the one American tech gadget we'd see there). We rode the train once during rush hour... it is just about as you may have heard - people shove their way onto the train. We were riding with our luggage, and I got knocked over into a guy next to me. Weird thing is... no one said anything or cried out in pain or indignation.
Unlike downtown Tokyo, the suburbs outside the city are smaller, homier, and have much less space. We spent a day at Dr. Andy's host family's place (he lived in Tokyo for a year, 15 years ago) in Kanegawa, about half an hour outside Tokyo. The neighborhood had extremely narrow one-way streets, and every car had to be snub-nosed with no trunk in order to be able to do any parking. One of my favorite parts of the trip was just sitting and talking to Andy's host family and old friends, finding out about life in Japan. For example: workers usually stay at the office from 9 am till 10 pm, like startup hours here; bars play an important social role for people to be able to unwind after work, they love their baseball, and they're trying to find Wiis to buy. Some things are the same around the world, I guess.
Oh no, Godzilla is going to wreak havoc on the city yet again!
... or is he? (picture by Mike)
I got a kick out of this - the ice cubes in our hotel were perfect cubes! Those Japanese, so precise.
Their technology is light years ahead of us!
They can teleport!
They have lightsabers! (picture of a poster for an art exhibit)
They have toilets that shoot up streams of water to clean your butt! (I tried this... never again)
To be continued...
Modern Japan is an interesting mix of the old and the new. Traditional values like conforming to corporate thinking live alongside a fascination with many things Western and seemingly all things technological. In no particular order...
Since there are so many people living in such a small area, the Japanese have had to be come very judicious and clever with their use of space.
Observation:
a) advertising is predominantly focused on "cuteness" rather than sex appeal, (the latter of which is probably the driving force of American marketing). In fact, the general impression I got from Tokyo is that youth culture is very much the driving influence in popular culture... which makes some sense since we didn't spend that much time in the suburbs where all the families were. Most of the people we passed by in Tokyo were probably under 40.
b) advertising is everywhere - building fronts are covered in gaudy colors and big signs:
Shinjuku (aka youth culture central)
Engrish:
Urban Tokyo
One of the hotels we stayed at (built in Odaiba, which is basically a man-made land mass made from landfill - they don't have enough room so they have to make room!):
Rainbow Bridge:
The subways in Tokyo are very clean and comfortable, with luxurious heated seats. One of the weirdest things is that riding on the subway is almost a completely silent experience - no one talking on cell phones, talking with friends, etc - just people taking naps both seated and standing, or listening to iPods (perhaps the one American tech gadget we'd see there). We rode the train once during rush hour... it is just about as you may have heard - people shove their way onto the train. We were riding with our luggage, and I got knocked over into a guy next to me. Weird thing is... no one said anything or cried out in pain or indignation.
Unlike downtown Tokyo, the suburbs outside the city are smaller, homier, and have much less space. We spent a day at Dr. Andy's host family's place (he lived in Tokyo for a year, 15 years ago) in Kanegawa, about half an hour outside Tokyo. The neighborhood had extremely narrow one-way streets, and every car had to be snub-nosed with no trunk in order to be able to do any parking. One of my favorite parts of the trip was just sitting and talking to Andy's host family and old friends, finding out about life in Japan. For example: workers usually stay at the office from 9 am till 10 pm, like startup hours here; bars play an important social role for people to be able to unwind after work, they love their baseball, and they're trying to find Wiis to buy. Some things are the same around the world, I guess.
Oh no, Godzilla is going to wreak havoc on the city yet again!
... or is he? (picture by Mike)
I got a kick out of this - the ice cubes in our hotel were perfect cubes! Those Japanese, so precise.
Their technology is light years ahead of us!
They can teleport!
They have lightsabers! (picture of a poster for an art exhibit)
They have toilets that shoot up streams of water to clean your butt! (I tried this... never again)
To be continued...
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