Monday, September 24, 2007
Rebecca Blood (we've met a while back) posted on a social networking site about some issues she had with some knitting projects she'd done. I wrote that I'd seen photos of her work and it looked fine to me! She said about me, that she was sure I was the sweetest person alive (avec smiley). Aww! What a nice thing to say! I must say, since raising my grandson the past few years, I can no longer consider myself always calm and good-natured. Very humbling, raising a kid and flying off the handle when one thought that almost never happened to one!
(tags: Rebecca+Blood, Weblogs, Blogging, Social+Networks)
Posted by Anita @ 12:59 PM PST [Link] [Add a Comment]
Thursday, September 20, 2007
I've posted the last pictures I took in Japan: some images from Oakwood Apartments in Shinjuku, where we stayed the last three days of our trip, added to "Other Japan." Also some new pictures in "Seattle Weblog Meetup," from the meetup we had the other night.
(tags: SeattleMeetup, Oakwood, Shinjuku, WeblogMeetup)
Posted by Anita @ 09:37 PM PST [Link] [Add a Comment]
Monday, September 17, 2007
I'm puzzled by the popularity of this photo, which I took in Kyoto when Jack and I were walking from the Kyoto Handicraft Center to the old-style neighborhood of Gion. "Digital Perm"? Lots of visits, but no comments and I haven't found any links to the page. Maybe this is a permanent wave technique that is used in Asia but not in the USA. I've never had a perm, so no surprise that I haven't heard of it before.
(tags: DigitalPerm, Kyoto, Flickr)
Posted by Anita @ 04:34 AM PST [Link] [Add a Comment]
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Yesterday, because I was left for about an hour in the exam room (with apologies from the doc because it wasn't one of the rooms he normally uses so I was overlooked) I had the time to page through an entire issue of Allure magazine with Spears on the cover (not one of my regular reads). Their website has extra outtakes. Apparently stripping to the waist was her own idea.
I wouldn't have guessed she was using a wig -- they gave her ten to pick from! And one of the few beauty tips was "you don't have to use a cowboy hat to keep a wig on your head onstage; try a hairband!" (The stylist told Spears this and the article said she later did wear a hairband on stage.)
I did enjoy the article by Judith Newman who was supposed to interview her but kept getting put off for day after day, but I couldn't find that online. There was a video about it.
(tags: BritneySpears, Allure, AllureMagazine)
Posted by Anita @ 03:55 AM PST [Link] [2 comments]
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Wednesday, September 19, it's the Seattle Weblog Meetup! Start time is 7 pm, location is Ralph's Grocery and Deli, 2035 4th Ave, in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood, diagonally across from the Cinerama (map and directions). Free WiFi, food and drink available (you can buy anything in the store and consume it in the deli area, so that includes wine and beer if you want). Local and visiting webloggers talk about blog topics and lots else. Topic for the evening:??? (Do you have a suggestion?). I hope to see you there! Parking can be tight in the neighborhood but I usually find a space on Sixth or pay to park in the Warwick Hotel garage across the street for six bucks.
(tags: blogs, weblogs, SeattleMeetup, Meetup.com, WeblogMeetup)
Posted by Anita @ 04:21 AM PST [Link] [Add a Comment]
Monday, September 10, 2007
We are flying home today and will arrive today due to the miracle of the international date line. It's been a great trip!
Yesterday we went to Nikko, north of Tokyo. Jack has pictures here, and I've got some here. I think we've done well at keeping up with the photos without letting it take over everything.
Posted by Anita @ 02:32 PM PST [Link] [Add a Comment]
Sunday, September 9, 2007
We went to a bunch of places today! Instead of just staying on the Yamanote line as we've done before, we switched trains and train companies multiple times throughout the day. Jack wanted to see the cosplayers at Harajuku so we were over there bright and early. Too early, in fact! The cosplayers were still sleeping from the night before. We walked around the nearby commercial district where hip young Tokyo teens get the latest fashion trends, ate lunch, then off to Akihabara again. I just stayed in one place while Jack went to the electronic stores (to prevent boredom). Then we visited Ryogoku (the sumo district), Jimbocho (the booksellers), Shibuya, then back to Harajuku. Whew, it was hot! A big gyoza dinner, a visit to the sento (hot soaking bath) in our building, then to bed. Tomorrow is a day trip to Nikko, up in the mountains. My pictures of the day are in Tokyo Siteseeing, Jack's are in 2007-09-09 Tokyo. Plus, a bonus! I added pictures to the "Other Japan" set.
Posted by Anita @ 04:41 AM PST [Link] [2 comments]
Friday, September 7, 2007
I bought Old Kyoto by Diane Durston at the University Book Store before we left on our trip. This guide book is about the rich history of the merchants, crafts people and artisans that made Kyoto the cool place that it was and still is. Most of the book is a directory to stores, restaurants and inns that are traditional. Very fascinating! I decided to look up any likely stores that were near places we'd be going anyway.
Yesterday, after our bus tour of some of the main sites, we ended up at the Kyoto Handicraft Center (a seven-floor building with lots of crafts, textiles, books, two restaurants, etc). Jack and I decided that rather than take a shuttle bus back to the train station, we'd walk the relatively short distance to Gion, the old-style entertainment quarter of Kyoto. I knew that there was a store listed in Old Kyoto that would be easy to find and have things that I could afford to buy: Kagoshin, which sells everything related to bamboo and has been open since 1862. Beautiful baskets! I ended up with two small tops for our grandsons and Morita-san (I think it was him) threw in some toothpicks for good measure.
When Jack and I stopped for some coffee nearby we actually did see some women in kimono. Were they geisha or maiko? Hard to say, but we did speak to one when she warned us out of a tiny alley that was actually a dead-end path.
We've also sampled old Kyoto in the neighborhood of our inn, Ikoi-no-Ie. It's a modern building but the streets all around have many traditional Kyoto-style houses, and we are one block away from Higashi Hongan-ji, a very large Buddhist temple complex.
Posted by Anita @ 02:20 PM PST [Link]
Thursday, September 6, 2007
I've got two new sets posted on Flickr. Tokyo Tour has good titles, tags and descriptions (this was the bus tour that was part of our travel package); Kyoto Siteseeing has titles and mostly accurate tags, but few descriptions yet. I also have random pictures that will be placed in a more general trip-stuff set.
Jack posted a lot of photos last night. He also posted the night before, but he tried to catch up with his photography backlog (including his first trip to Japan a year and a half ago!) instead of doing it LIFO.
He's still not caught up but there are a lot of photos to look at! Our plans for today include a half-day bus tour of Kyoto sights. I'm sure this will go better than the Tokyo tour; less traffic, for one thing.
Posted by Anita @ 01:30 PM PST [Link]
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
We were up and packed plenty early this morning, then ate breakfast at the "Lobby Lounge" buffet of the Sunshine City Prince Hotel. Jack had said, "We may need a good breakfast today!" Checked out (the money we paid for the internet service was so worth it to us, especially because the Airport Express Jack bought recently meant that we could both be online at once) and took a taxi to the nearby "subway" station -- a small flat rate and not to schlep our bags? yeah!
We took the same Loop line we'd been on after our bus tour yesterday (maybe not the quickest way to Tokyo station but the simplest for us). When we'd activated our rail passes and got tickets for the bullet train to Kyoto the night before, Jack had asked if we needed a different ticket for the loop line and had been assured that we didn't. But our tickets *didn't* work! They just beeped. We went back to the ticket office (good thing we were plenty early) and asked again -- the clerk explained more clearly that we should just show our actual rail passes to the gate attendant. Ahh! Jack was pissed but we got on the loop line with no further aggravation except trying to get me down the stairs with a rolling bag. A guard came and took my bag for me before Jack could make it back up to help me. Elevators were hard to find in the confusing stations all day, a continuing theme that caused Jack tons of stress.
There had been accidents on the line but not where they would affect us. The station we got on at was the most crowded place! But soon we were at Tokyo station (billed as the busiest, most confusing in the world) and found the Shinkensen line. We just waited, standing on the platform, until our train arrived, and observed the monsoon-like downpours (related to a typhoon expected any minute, I think).
When our train pulled in, we still couldn't board until a crew of six or seven women, super-speedy cleaners, swept, changed the anti-macassars, picked up any trash, even cleaned some of the windows. A little sign on an elastic cord, with a picture of an apologetic cleaner, blocked the door.
The trip took about three hours all told. I dozed a bit but mostly was looking at the countryside. Across the aisle, four young women (college age?) were laughing and carrying on for the entire trip -- they never let up! Jack said this was typical for Japanese girls but I'm not sure how many he has met. The most difficult part of the trip was after we arrived in Kyoto, trying to follow the directions on the web page for our ryokan by taking the Kyoto subway. Where were the elevators? Again Jack was enraged, and the heat and humidity weren't helping.
More about our inn and what we did our first evening in Kyoto in my next entry.
Posted by Anita @ 03:26 AM PST [Link]
Monday, September 3, 2007
Jack is current with journal entries up to yesterday (Monday Japan time) and swears he'll post pictures tonight. I've got pictures on Flickr from the convention, a day trip to Kamakura, food, our hotel room, and a lego collection that was provided in the con suite by a benevolent fan.
Posted by Anita @ 01:59 PM PST [Link]
Sunday, September 2, 2007
I've posted a bunch of trip and con pictures to flickr. So far there are four sets, so I've got my first collection! They aren't all fixed up with good titles, tags and descriptions yet, but I'm working on it.
Posted by Anita @ 05:35 AM PST [Link]
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Wow! Jack and I had such a busy day (a day trip to Kamakura, a nearby beach town with many shrines) that I asked him on the train back to our hotel, "There's no one we know who's nominated for a Hugo that will actually win, is there?" I decided not to go to the ceremony, but to rest in our room instead. Then Jack burst through the door after the awards: "Do you have a phone number for Randy Byers?" Wha?? I didn't have it with me. But he won as editor (along with Geri Sullivan and Lee Hoffman) for Best Fanzine: 'Science-Fiction Five-Yearly' ! I don't think he thought that he'd win since there wasn't a designated acceptor for him or Geri -- oops, Ben was a designated acceptor, says Geri. Lee Hoffman had a friend who spoke about what Lee would have said (she died not long ago), and Ben Yalow accepted for Randy and Geri. More winners here.
