tangentbot

Blogger is pretty much garbage...

2008-09-06T01:28:00.000-07:00

So this blog is on Blogger. Actually, only the comments, labels and archives are managed by Blogger, then everything is FTP'd to my server. I have two major issues with Blogger. Being a Google-acquired "asset", as they certainly have no love for the product, I expected the same quality as the myriad Google products out there. I soon found this to be untrue, but at the time it affected me little.

My first issue is with the time it takes to post or update code.

This is highly irritating, as it will sometimes take several tries to publish a minor change to the template code. Lots of F5 pressing and re-starting of browsers. It is only minor, and if it were Blogger's only fault I could easily overlook it. However:

THIS kills me. A few of those are errors that I know about; oversights that I can go back and clean up later. The majority, as I have complained about before, are unescaped ampersands in the XML code that stores the comments. It is simply due to poor coding, and despite kind requests to the team in charge of Blogger, has gone unchanged for quite some time.

It's either I a) Deal with it; b) Disable the comments feature; or c) Switch platforms. Ideally, I would like to just build my own comments section, but I would need to invest time in learning PHP stuff. Switching to a valid platform, like Wordpress, is an option, and one I might take seriously if it weren't so daunting (again, time-consuming). I like having strict, valid code and strong design, and I really really want Google to provide a platform for that. I like their company and their products, and I want to be able to use them in everything I do. Alas.

more Google Chrome... sorry...

2008-09-04T22:17:00.001-07:00

I was really going to bitch about the whole We Own You TOS with the Chrome browser, but it seems Google has come to their senses a bit and redeemed themselves. All I really have to talk about now is Chrome being more of a systems hog than IE8 or Vista. This has something to do with why it's so damn fast. Chrome opens several instances of itself; one for each tab. This helps speed up everything web-related, so those of you out there (like me) who use all the Google office stuff will be happy. Even in my limited experience of running it along open instances of IE7, MS Office, Photoshop CS3, some bloated CMS and versioning tools and whatever Big Brother software comes loaded on my work laptop, Chrome still performs at a decent clip. Like I said before, as soon as they implement all the add-on goodies that Firefox currently has, I'm switching.

Unrelated stuff - Did you ever want to stop being such a freaking linguistically-challenged moron for once? Check out Josiah's How-To Language blog and learn to speak something other than English. Like a language. PROTIP: We came out of the same mom. I copied Jason's post pretty much, but his was funnier.

Also, scientists agree that dogs have gotten way better over the past couple months.

a bit about Google Chrome

2008-09-03T23:37:00.000-07:00

I admit that despite some unforgivable nastiness on Google's part, I am still a bit of a fanboy. Maybe it's because I want to see Google succeed. I've been excited about the whole Android thing for awhile, but I wanted to actually talk about Google Chrome.

Chrome is fast, very slick looking and easy to use. My sentiments seem to match the rest of the reviewers out there on the interwebz though; no add-ons == no switch. Firefox kicks ass for it's amazing add-ons. I want Firebug, Smart Bookmarks Bar, NoScript, AdBlock, Foxmarks... I have gotten used to these things being right there in my browser, and I use them every day. As soon as Google can replicate or import these (or better), I can see myself switching immediately. I will be keeping an eye on Chrome; it really does seem like it could be a great browser (esp. on mobile devices...). I can totally see it living on my Android-powered phone in the near future.

Twitler...

2008-08-31T13:42:00.000-07:00

Props to CrunchGear.com.

Labor Day Weekend Update

2008-08-30T18:06:00.000-07:00

This is Labor Day weekend. I am tangentbot. I haven't posted anything on my blog for awhile, so here goes stuff!

As I Tweeted (Twat? Twote?) about yesternight, I picked up some hella rude vinyl at my favorite Seattle record store 2nd Time Around last night. I happened to find Skinny Puppy - Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse, which is perhaps my favorite SP album. Also, Skinny Puppy - Tin Omen-Twelve Inch Remix, Die Warzau - Disco Rigido, Orson Welles - The Count of Monte Cristo and The Trunk, and finally, W.C. Fields - Temperance Lecture (which is, of course, a comedy record). Anytime I can find old Industrial music on vinyl I grab it. The five albums cost me about 25 bucks.

My esteemed colleague, Jason, hooked me up with a copy of the new Ballzack album, titled "Yeah Indeed", which I must say is fantastic stuff. His sound is tighter and cleaner then on his previous endeavors, and while it seems to be packed with more local New Orleans/West Bank references it also manages to be more accessible. I seriously cannot stop listening to it (help!).

What else can I talk about? Oh, yeah, I've got like four or five songs in the process of being completed, an audio project (or two?) I've been putting off for basically a million years, and this ice cream I got at the Cap Hill farmers market is freakin' good.

If you guys want to get me some stuff, you know, just because, here's what I am looking for, currently;

some decent, small computer speakers
a Sony Vaio laptop for dedicated audio production
the new Android equipped phone from T-Mobile, due out in October '08
a list of great slice-of-life manga that I am somehow overlooking (inb4 Azumanga Dioah, Ichigo Marshmallow, Sunshine Sketch, Genshiken, Marmalade Boy and Yotsuba&)
a (Bluetooth?) media streaming "solution" to send music from my computer to my stereo, wirelessly
an 8-port USB hub

That is it! Everybody remember to floss, okay?

website changes

2008-08-14T09:27:00.000-07:00

Barely perceptible yet massive code update. Such a relief.

Simple Milk Party

2008-08-10T19:53:00.000-07:00

Let it be known; I have been mildly busy the last couple of weeks. Okay! There are a few things I have learned, and I'm now going to share said knowledge with you, The World:

1 - The Dark Knight (a.k.a. Batman 2) is pretty much an okay movie! It's like, "What if Batman was in the Real World!?" Not MTV's "The Real World", of course, but like, oh I don't know, Chicago? WHAT IF. Also (spoiler!), Batman's Spider-Man.

2 - If I marinate salmon in miso for two days, and I accidentally BURN the freaking hell out of it, it basically turns into the best salmon I've ever eaten.

3 - Achewood is so incredibly funny, I lol out loud every time I read it. How have I missed this webcomic? How is babby formed? Read it from the beginning if you dare.

4 - I'm not interested in traveling; I'm really only interested in Japan. I've talked to several people about travel, done research on traveling in East Asian countries - it really isn't my thing. I care absolutely nothing about Europe, South America, anywhere else in Asia... I know, I know, I sound like some uneducated moron. I would like to go to New York... for an afternoon, maybe? I would also like to go into space. It isn't that I *hate* those exotic locales I've never seen. I simply feel like any time I spend in England/France/Greece/Russia/Mexico, I could have spent in Japan. Now, if someone is willing to pay my way, however, I'll go just about anywhere. Not Florida. Not Las Vegas or Mexico, either.

5 - The GIMP is much better than it used to be, but can still be damn frustrating if you are used to using Photoshop CS3 all day.

Japanese shopping in America

2008-07-20T18:26:00.000-07:00

When I was in Japan last time, I got iced coffee everywhere I went. I love iced coffee. I love green tea, but a close second is iced coffee. I'm not talking about the "iced mocha" at Popular Coffee Shops or Starbucks "doubleshot" canned coffee, either (For the record, I actually *like* the doubleshot, but I prefer Boss canned coffee if I have a choice).

In Japan, if you order iced coffee in a restaurant, I noticed in a lot of places they use a pre-made product called "Blendy". Some of it comes pre-sweetened, and you just add milk or drink as-is. It's pretty good, and it beats having to make coffee, sweeten it, and wait for it to chill in the fridge, especially on a hot, busy day. As DIY as I am when it comes to food, cutting out this process would free up a good amount of time for me. I already make a tonne of iced green tea and barley tea. I had never heard of buying iced coffee in a container, off the shelf, in America, but I also never even thought to check if Uwajimaya carried Blendy. Much to my surprise and enjoyment, they do! It's on sale for $2.49 each, in 30.4 oz containers! Mix it with a teeny bit of milk and it smooths it out, and makes it last longer. Yums!

New Song

2008-07-17T22:40:00.000-07:00

kodomo no mono

bump me!

2008-07-10T21:40:00.000-07:00

A friend at work told me about this rad site, thesixtyone, and so I uploaded some songs. It only let me upload three songs, until I get "bumped" and earn "points"... I really don't understand it yet, but it looks cool and fun, so maybe you and your sexy friend should check it out.

a work in progress

2008-07-03T00:42:00.000-07:00

The homepage mostly works... mostly. The rest of this site is borked right now, until I port over the new, cleaned-up code structure I put together. If anybody knows how to auto-fix "unescaped ampersands" in XML documents, I would greatly appreciate having that information.

Quickly...

2008-06-28T16:18:00.000-07:00

I'm going to be moving stuff around on this site... shifting priority. I don't have time to go into details, I just want to get back into a routine. Oh yeah, also, I miss being in Japan. I could tolerate this heat a bit more if it came with maid cafes, iced coffee vending machines and the JR line.

Japan Edition: May 26th and 27th

2008-06-18T22:11:00.000-07:00

Monday, May 26th, 2008 - Tokyo, Japan

Our goal for Monday was to go to Ueno, Okachimachi, and just sort of hang out and buy toys and stuff. We ate a yummy breakfast at Jonathan's - an American chain family-style restaurant (with a wide variety of delicious Japanese foods.) Lots of kids hang out at these places and it is really relaxed.

My Breakfast

Sandy's Breakfast

Ueno is about a 15-20 minute walk from Akiba. There's a huge park, a zoo, tons of museums, a shrine... it's pretty rad. There is a big lake in the center of the park, and last time the water was hardly visible due to the forest of 'fuki', or butterbur plants growing up out of the water. A lot of the plants were dried out and dead this time - I think they are more of a late-summer/autumn thing. Like some other parks we've seen, Ueno park is home to many of Tokyo's homeless.

We climbed up some steep stairs to the shrine that sits at the top of the hill, next to the park. There were kitties everywhere, just hanging out, walking around. There were lots of people there too, enjoying the weather, eating their bentos, or just walking around. We aimlessly wandered around, and there was this huge mural advertising a manga convention, so we got a picture of it.

Shrine in Ueno

More Shrine in Ueno

Manga Expo Art

We eventually made our way to a sort of "commons" area, and there was a massive bonsai show going on!. There were several rows of stalls full of bonsai of all types - mostly flowering. We took a bunch of pictures, but I'm going to only put a few up here... We actually skipped seeing one of the rows... we just missed it... and we were sooo tiny-tree'd out by that time. But here's a bunch of pics! If you hate tiny trees, you'll hate the next 17 images...

Apparently, bonsai aren't cool enough for people under 60 here, as we were half the age of everyone else there... ev's. So what, I like little trees! Anyway, we headed across this pedestrian walkway that was actually the roof of the train station, and made our way across the street to one of my favorite toy stores in the world; Yamashiroya. Seven floors of awesome. Dragonquest, Ultraman, Godzilla, Ghibli - FTW. Purchases were made. Hunger struck. Luckily, there are a ton of conveyor belt sushi (kaiten-zushi) places all around here. Luckily, we were armed with this data ahead of time - so, kaiten-zushi it is! (A lot of Westerners think Japanese food is all about sushi... this was the only sushi place we ate at. I like to show more of what the average urban Japanese eats.)

Kaiten-zushi in Okachimachi

It was okay. The fatty tuna and the kohada were excellent. Afterwards, it was time to walk through the Okachimach marketplace in search of katsuobushi and katsuobushi kezuriki. I found a little shop selling vacuum-sealed katsuobushi, which I thought had a better chance of getting through customs. I immediately found the katsuobushi shop that I remembered from last time, and so I purchased a shaver from them. They were very friendly, and the guy tested it for me on some katsuo to show me it was a sharp blade. Then an Annoying Foreigner Thing happened. Remind me to write about it later - it's too much for this post.

Newly won katsuobushi and shaver in hand, I was good to go. I had my knives, my pots, and my katsuobushi and katsuobushi kezuriki. Time to head back to Akiba and drop this stuff off!

Toy store time. Manga store time. We saw so many little shops - I don't see how they all stay in business. We went into a store that sold maid uniforms, "clothing", "toys"... it's right next to Akihabara station, across from that Curry House restaurant place. It's weird to walk through a store, looking at all the awesome anime stuff, turn a corner and slowly realize "Oh...umm, I guess this is the dildo section of the toy store... hmm...". We did manage to find this place that sells tons of old school transformers and other toys, crammed to the ceiling with awesome stuff. Money was spent, but I really forget what was bought where. You could spend a week just going to toy stores in Akiba and not see the same one twice. Of course, after all that walking and shopping it was maid cafe time. The cafe on the menu tonight is called "MaiDreamin". Here are some pics I found online of the interior.. Sandy took the cute coasters they made for us.

MaiDreamin!

MaiDreamin coasters are adorable!

Then it was arcade time! I played two crane games and won cute stuff! Sandy won stuff too. I typically do not feed money into crane machines, but for some reason I was inspired, and I wons a prize on the first try on each of them. We mad our way back to the hotel, swinging by Family Mart to pick up snacks, and watched Back to the Future in English with Japanese subs. We also saw a crazy food show where they put jam, eggs, milk and rice in a rice cooker and made a yummy, custardy dessert! I totally want to do this!

Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 - Tokyo, Japan

Breakfast at Denny's.

My Breakfast

Sandy's Breakfast

Last time we were in Japan, we found this little town called Adachi... well, we thought it was called Kita-Senju, but it turns out that is just the name of the train station in Adachi. There's really nothing too special about it... just markets lining the roads, cute winding neighborhoods, nothing touristy. Okay, so it's population is larger then Seattle's, but it seems like a little town. Anyway, a common practice in Japan is to paint murals on the doors of shops that are closed, and Adachi had a lot of cool ones. They had cool decorated tiles embedded in the sidewalk too.

We walked up and down the market streets, through winding alleys (which are actually neighborhoods) and to a small shrine.

Adachi neighborhood streets

A row of statues in a shrine

We were kind of thirsty and a tiny bit hungry, so we stopped in as little smoky cafe and ate yummy cake and iced coffee. Afterwards, we saw two shops worth a mention. I wish I would have gotten pics of the first one, which was a kids clothing store, but I never know if it's okay to take pictures in a store, and there were too many watchful eyes at the time... but OMGOOSES - Best Shirts Ever. The only one I recall said "Beans Club" on it, but seriously... if they made these in grownup sizes, I would have bought tons. We also found a little shop where Sandy bought a handmade ceramic Totoro from three adorable obaasans. When we walked in, they began nervously panicking over how little English they knew - I got that much - and they were giggling the whole time over it.

Making our way back to the station, we found out that the nearby mall had a Tokyu Hands store in it - one of my favorite Japanese stores. I was pretty much stocked up on bento boxes by this time, but Sandy wanted to buy some crafty stuff there. The top floor of the mall had a ton of restaurants in it - mostly of the European variety. You have to remember, though, this is Japanese "European". We decided on a place named "Rakeru" which had yummy, yeasty breads and omelets. Sandy loved the bread so much that we bought an extra loaf for later!

Yummy bread and omelets at Rakeru

Rakeru bread is delicious!

We shop a bit more, and Sandy finds a place that sells really nice sets of hiragana stamps... so she bought a set. Loaded up with stuff we get on the train and head back to Akiba to drop it all off at the hotel and roam the arcades. More prizes were won from crane machines, which can work up an appetite... so ramen it was. I've had ramen quite a few times around Tokyo, but we keep coming back to this place in Akiba. It's just so good.

Special Ramen is my favorite

Cheese and black pepper ramen

Japan Edition: May 24th and 25th

2008-06-08T19:53:00.000-07:00

Saturday, May 24th, 2008 - Tokyo, Japan

EDIT: This is the first in the series of our last week in Japan. Sorry for taking my sweet time to post everything; it's kinda been a crazy couple of weeks.

We got up early Saturday morning and went to Coco's for breakfast. Now, Coco's is an American chain, but the Japanese version offers very little in the way of American fare. We went here a few times on our last trip to Japan, simply because it is cheap and good and really close to our hotel. I had tonkatsu, miso, rice and pickled vegetables. Sandy had tuna don and miso.

Tonkatsu Set

Tuna Don

After breakfast, we hopped on the Yamanote and went to Harajuku. Harajuku is a ward of Tokyo, as well as a famous shopping district, and the way people dress here is awesome. Lots of custom clothes, shoes and bags, if one is willing to pay the very high prices. The store layouts and architecture are really cool as well, and you stumble onto quirky, expensive places hidden down back alleys and in basements. As for the offering of clothes; Sandy found quite a few things, some of which I had to talk her into getting. On the other hand, I found nothing I liked that would fit me. I found plenty of stuff I liked, as well as stuff that would fit - but not both at the same time. Oh well.

It began to rain. My tiny umbrella was not enough for the plum rains, and we were starting to get hungry anyway, so we ducked down a stairwell and into a traditional-looking Japanese restaurant. We sat on tiny stools at tiny tables and ordered food and took some candid photos of the place.

Tatami mat area

Slicing Tofu

I had the Sanma Set Lunch and Sandy ordered the Ginger Pork Set Lunch. Very delicious.

Sanma and Ginger Pork

The rain and the delicious meal and the shopping and walking made us sleepy, so we got on the train and headed back across Tokyo to Akiba, to drop off our purchases at the hotel. Our goal this evening was to find a maid cafe. We headed out, after resting a bit (and watching a few sumo matches on TV), into Akihabara in full Saturday night mode. Now, if this had been Shibuya, or Roppongi Hills, we would have been greeted by drunken foreigners, drunken club girls, and a string of bars and nightclubs... luckily it wasn't. Instead, crowded arcades, packed manga stores, lines outside of electronics stores, geeks huddled outside in the rain, watching a video game trailer on a huge flatpanel, girls in maid outfits handing out fliers and tissue packets and maps to their cafes of origin, kids lined up outside of Don Quixote's eating freshly made takoyaki and crepes... this is Akiba on a Saturday night.

We went into a manga/anime store and looked around for a bit. I haven't really been keeping up with the new anime releases, except for Spice and Wolf, so I wasn't familiar with a lot of what was offered. Next door was a maid cafe that we saw last time we were here, but never got to go into. It was called Cafe with Cat (or is it Cafe Witch Cat?). Okay, so not a typical "maid" cafe; more of a catgirl/witch/maid cafe. Since photos are strictly forbidden, no food pics ensued. I had this really good, not-too-sweet strawberry shortcake and neither of us can remember what Sandy had... probably a parfait or something.

Despite the food, walking through countless electronics and manga stores, feeding 100 yen coins into crane machines and walking around made us work up an appetite. By this time, it was late, and the only thing open was a kebab stand! We saw kebab stores all over the place last time, but never tried any of them. The dudes working spoke both Japanese and English, which was easy, and we ordered food. Sandy got a gyro and I got the "kebab don"; kebab on rice. It was all so greasy and delicious, and the cooks were yelling in some Middle Eastern dialect and everyone was super nice... rad city. Here's what I ate:

Kebab Don with Yogurt

As is our routine, we stopped by Family Mart, a "combini", to look for weird food. I found "Milk Curry" and whisky in a can! I didn't know if it was actually whisky, or some carbonated whisky-flavored alchoholic beverage... it was whisky and water. It was pretty good too! (I will eat the Milk Curry later)

Milk Curry Time!

Canned Whisky... in a can..

We watched a bit of crazy TV and then it was bedtime.

Sunday, May 25th, 2008 - Tokyo, Japan

On Sunday, we wanted to go to that curry place that we frequented last time we were in Japan, called "Homemade Curry", right next to the Akiba JR station. This is one of those ticket-based places. You put your money into a vending machine, push the buttons of the food you want, and it spits out tickets. You hand the tickets to the person behind the counter and they hand them to the cook, who makes the food happen. I like that nobody has to handle money AND food in these places.

We took a train to Shinjuku just because! Maybe it was because this was a Sunday, or maybe we took the wrong exit from the station... or maybe it was just too early in the morning; Shinjuku was empty. The mall next to the station was closed. We saw maybe 10 people outside. Shinjuku also has some awesome architecture.

Shinjuku Architecture

more...

even more...

even even more...

We followed signs to Shinjuku-Chuo park, which has a very cool waterfall at the entrance, across a large courtyard. The park also has a tiny "tent city"; the homeless of Japan seem to all live in these little cubes, which are essentially a light wood/metal frame with a blue tarp covering it. They are very tidy and clean inside; like little houses. I peeked into one last time we were here and saw a small propane grill with a tea kettle on it, laundry hanging on a line... just so much different then America.

Shinjuku-Chuo park waterfall

Shinjuku-Chuo park

Blue tarp tent city

We found a little shopping district on the other side of the park, and it was kind of like a mini-Akiba. Eventually we made it back to the station, where there was a department store that was open. We found one of those little "American/European" style cafes called Orange Cafe, and ate lunch. I was the only dude in there.

Orange Cafe

They had cute individually-wrapped sugar cubes too...

Sugar packets at Orange Cafe

We went up a few floors to the kitchen stuff - I love looking through the kitchen stuff at any store, but in Japan it is even better. I ended up buying some really cool bentos and two Japanese-style cooking pots. We also looked at the toy section of the store, where Sandy bought some cute presents and I exercised restraint.

Once again, loaded down with stuff, we made our way back to Akiba.

On the search for food again, and preferably a maid cafe, we headed out. There were some loud, pulsing noises coming from a few blocks away, that we had been hearing for awhile but only just noticed. We decided to investigate. Turns out, there was a taiko drum festival in the middle of the street. The sidewalks were lined with people, clapping and cheering, and the taiko drum dudes were dancing around and yelling and beating huge drums. I've seen live taiko drumming before (which is really the only way experience it), but never this energetic and cool. They didn't block the whole street off - cops were directing traffic around them!

Taiko dudes going crazynuts

Shrine... thing

Taiko dudes going even MORE crazynuts

After that bit of cultural win, we walked around a bit and found a maid cafe called "Maid Cafe Pinafore". There were three or four maid cafes in this building, and we went to "MaiFoot" on accident the first time - MaiFoot serves foot massages and foot baths; which neither of us really wanted. So it was up to Pinafore, where we proceeded to wait in line. This is fairly common at maid cafes, as they are pretty popular hang-outs. An adorable, very outspoken maid girl approached us and YELLED; "NICE TO MEET YOU!". Sandy managed a meek "Umm, nice to meet you.. too?". After some confusing exchanges and a bit more waiting, they sat us at a table downstairs. Adorable maids, good atmosphere, good food - this was Sandy's favorite place. (I still love Cafe Chocolatte, our first ever Maid Cafe experience) There was a bit of confusion as to the ordering of food, and I only got an iced coffee - Sandy got curry. I was kind of curried-out, and I wasn't very hungry, so it was fine. She got a photo card for ordering that particular meal, of a girl in costume who was sort of Rei Ayanami-esque. There was also a crane machine outside, where you could get tiny photos of the girls in costume - which we did!

Outside of Pinafore

We went toy store hopping. It's tough to remember which ones we had already been in, and everything connecting maze-like does not help. We eventually found a multi-story toy store that had everything. Vinyl toys, gundams, figures, manga, anime, cards... everything. Also, since there was a line at the elevator, we took the stairs - and got some awesome dusk-pictures of Akiba all lit up.

Akiba at Dusk 1

Akiba at Dusk 2

Akiba at Dusk 3

I bought some Azumanga Dioah figures and Sandy bought some manga, and it took us about an hour to work our way up through all the floors. What to do now but - go to another maid cafe!

We had been to JAM Akihabara on our first trip, and some getting lost in the back alleys caused us to find it again. JAM is another fairly popular place, but tonight there was hardly anyone there. Maybe it was too late (8:30 PM)? Anyway, Sandy wanted to buy maid toys and more socks, and this place had both. They also had a cute tiny bathroom. They also had not-too-expensive food.

Okay, so we were on our way out of JAM, and we stopped to feed our money into more gashapon machine, when this lanky Japanese super-otaku in school uniform approached us. He had the biggest smile on his face, but he wasn't drunk or anything - just a super geek ecstatic to be in the mecca of super geeks! He wanted to take a picture with one of us! He was all "Take picture? Take picture?" I thought he just wanted one of us to take his picture, but he handed me his camera and pointed to the button. I said "Here Sandy, you are better at the photo stuff then I am" and handed it to her. She aimed the camera and he said "No no no, with you! With You!" pointing at me! So I stood next to him, mimicking his raised hands, and somewhere, in Japan, some Japanese picture has this random gaijin on his camera. Later, it occurred to me that he wanted his picture with Sandy, not me (since he handed me the camera), but he really showed no preference at all. Who's to know? Weird.

Whew! This incredibly full day came to an end, sadly, and it was now sleepy-times.

Stay tuned to the exciting continuation of TANGENTBOT: JAPAN EDITION! Will our heroes make it back to America alive? Will Mathias ever try Milk Curry? Will they talk a beautiful Japanese girl into coming back to America to live with them? *Who's to ever know?! (*Answer: You, dear reader!) See you later!

I guess we are back in Seattle...

2008-05-31T19:58:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update; I have a week's worth of posts and images to upload, and I will still be uploading them. Don't lose hope! We saw some crazy and awesome, some would say "crazy awesome", things, and I want to share them with everyone! Also, I've been awake for nearly 30 hours! I got my katsuobushi and katsuobushi shaver! I got two excellent knives! I'm going to try and sleep now but ultimately fail!

I told a lot of brave souls that Sandy and I would be attending Fool's Play, but alas... I feel sleepy. I feel... asleep.

Akiba, Sugamo, Canned Ramen

2008-05-28T07:26:00.001-07:00

Friday

Sandy and I spent the morning waiting in our hotel room for a non-smoking room to be cleaned, and what better way to pass the time then watch sumo matches on TV! Seriously, I actually, officially, like a sport. Sumo is unlike anything I've ever seen. There's a cool shinto quality to the whole thing, and the matches themselves get pretty vicious. I'd like to see a match in person.

We finally moved into our new room, on the tenth floor, and headed out on the town. If Sandy had her wish, we would eat curry for every meal, so we went to this newish looking place near the train station called "Curry Kitchen Spice" but forgot to take pictures of our meals. It wasn't excellent, it was just food. We then hopped on the Yamanote train line to Sugamo, one of our favorite little wards of Tokyo.

Curry Kitchen Spice in Akiba

Sugamo is all old people. All the stores are old people stores, but everything is so cute and non-touristy. We saw only one gaijin there, on the train platform, and he looked lost. We bought a bunch of treasures at this little place crowded with old Japanese women, and they were all so sweet and nice to us. I bought a jinbei, but with long pants instead of the shorts shown in the picture. It is soooo comfortable, for serious, and since I bought it in Sugamo, it was only about 15 bucks! We also found a place with black sesame ice cream. Freaking delicious.

Kurogome ice cream in Sugamo

Since Sugamo is the only place (besides Osaka) that we have seen taiyaki in Japan, and since taiyaki are Sandy's most absolute favorite dessert thing, we had to hunt down the little taiyaki stand we found last time we were here... and we did. We didn't take any pictures because we were too busy eating them.

Oops! A sign in Sugamo!

So we ate taiyaki on these little chairs and walked around a bit afterwards, eventually boarding the train with a million kids just out of class and heading back to Akiba. It was very warm that day, and we wanted a Cooling Beverage, so we went to Excelsior Cafe for iced coffee drinks. Excelsior Cafe is sort of like the Starbucks of Japan... even though there are Starbucks stores all over Japan. It was overpriced but okay.

Excelsior Cafe in Akiba

After a short nap in the hotel, we set out once again, this time eating ten don (tempura don, not tendon) for dinner. Mine had oysters, octopus, chicken, shrimp and vegetables! Yummers! Somehow though, we only got a picture of Sandy's meal.

Tempura don in Akiba

I bought a manga, which are half the price over here then in the U.S. I figure that translating it will help me read Japanese quicker, as it takes me a bit to decipher stuff. I try to read everything we pass, and I'm recognizing a few kanji as well (I just need to know how to pronounce them). I have also tried speaking to everyone, which is frustrating at times, but it really helps me.

Wait - vending machine dining time. There are vending machines everywhere. In Akiba, they are more than everywhere. I didn't see it as much last time, but recently they have started offering quite a few hot, canned meals in vending machines. Oden, udon, ramen... so I was intrigued. I got the ramen, which had a piggy on the can, because ramen broth is made of piggies.

This was HOT!

It was hot, ready to eat, and came with a little fold-out plastic fork. For some reason I totally trust beverages from vending machines, but food from them makes me a bit uneasy.

Noodle, broth and piggy slab

The noodles were a cross between wheat and rice, kinda rubbery, like shirataki noodles. The broth was salty and oily, and the slab of fatty piggy slice looked boiled and tasted just fine. It was okay. I would eat this crap if I were homeless and they wouldn't let me into stores and restaurants, but I'm pretty sure if you ate this for a week you would get all oily and just die. I want to try some of the other stuff now.

Well, it is off to bed for me now.

Back in Tokyo

2008-05-27T02:42:00.000-07:00

Thursday

So, we checked out of our hotel early and opted to take a taxi to the Shin-Osaka station. Given that we had accumulated an extra bag of stuff, and the price and hassle of the subway while laden with said stuff was something we did not want to deal with, we were glad with the decision. It was about 25 bucks and took us 15 minutes or so. The subway would have been 10 bucks and taken 30 minutes, including a transfer, plus walking up and down stairs with luggage, plus dragging our crap onto already overcrowded trains... totally worth it.

We got bentos at the Shin-Osaka station, and ate them on the 3 hour trip to Tokyo aboard the Shinkansen. I got a picture of the inside, with the train official stamping tickets in the background.

My Osaka Bento

Sandy's Osaka Bento

Inside the Shinkansen "bullet train"

We arrived in Tokyo, took a quick train to Akihabara, and checked into our room. Somehow, something got mixed up and they put us in a 'smoking' room - and the A/C blew cigarette smoke air. We requested a non-smoking room, which they told us we could move into the next morning, as the hotel was currently booked.

It was only 3pm, so we headed out into Akihabara, or Akiba, as the locals call it. Akiba is a ward of Tokyo, and the mecca of otaku worldwide. Girls in maid outfits hand out tissue-packets to passers-by, loudspeakers blast videogame soundtrack music, multi-story video arcades are on every corner, and shops catering to every hobby imaginable proliferate. Salarymen crowd the manga stores in their suits next to kids in their school uniforms. If you want cake and coffee served to you by girls in maid outfits (or get a foot massage, or play video games with them...), maid cafes are everywhere. If you want to buy a particular school uniform costume that appeared in some manga or anime episode, they have a store for that. If you build model trains, collect replica firearms, mod out action figures or eat, sleep and breathe video games, this is the place for you. It is simply one of the most awesome places I've ever been.

Here's a picture of Freshness Burger.

Freshness Burger makes me laugh every time

We walked around a bit, paid a visit to Don Quixote, and bought some little toys and stuff. I bought a gundam shirt and a tachikoma shirt, and we fed our 100 yen coins into tons of gashapon machines. We came to the conclusion that shipping stuff would cost a lot, so we are just going to buy one big piece of luggage and check it in on the plane. After awhile we got hungry, and there was no argument over where to eat; our most favorite ramen place was right around the corner, and it was as awesome as ever.

I got the negi charsiu ramen

Sandy got the ramen/curry set

There were two tables of Chinese people in there and they were LOUD! They were right next to each other YELLING IN MANDARIN. Every other time we've been here in the past the place has been nearly void of conversation, even when packed with people; just the sound of slurping noodles and low murmuring. I have a problem with people disregarding local custom, and I do believe in the whole "you are an ambassador for your country" when traveling abroad. (Based on my experiences, I NEVER want to visit Europe... okay, maybe the U.K. and Scandanavia, but that's about it. The Americans and British we've encountered here are sort of oblivious and culture-shocked, but still nice; the Europeans have been outright arrogant, disrespectful and embarrassingly rude) /rant

We headed back to our smoky hotel room to retire after this slightly exhausting awesome day.

Last full day in Osaka

2008-05-25T07:46:00.000-07:00

Wednesday

Our day starts early, and we had a quick breakfast in our room before leaving. First, we checked out a few shipping options via the helpful folks at the Osaka Tourist Info Center. Next, it had to be ramen for lunch. We found this place nearby and the ramen was a bit odd, but still really good. I had the miso ramen, and the noodles were thicker and softer then I have had before. They put sesame seeds in there as well, and huge slices of broiled pork. Very yummy. Sandy's ramen was not as spicy as mine, but still had a subtle deliciousness to it.

Pretty good ramen in Osaka

All full up of ramen, we set out to spend money. I bought two knives from an old dude in Namba, for less than I had anticipated. They are really good knives, however; I got a vegetable knife and a sashimi knife, both single edged. Now I have to learn to sharpen them without messing up the blade(or better yet, find someone locally who can do it for me).

This awesome lady made us yummy okonomiyaki-esque things for only 120 yen each! We sat on little chairs along the main shopping arcade and ate them.

These things were yums

There is a store in Japan called Tokyu Hands, and I swear, if I lived here, they would have my money. They have everything, all high quality, from kitchen to craft to toys to science stuff. It's just a department store, but how many department stores have a guy that stands outside and fixes your bicycle for free? So many Osakans rely on bicycles on transportation, and Tokyu Hands provides this as a public service; you don't even need to walk into the store. I bought some bento toys and a banana holster.

I keep forgetting to photograph street art. Sorry.

Great stencil in Osaka

After much walking, we returned to our neighborhood. We happened to wander into another local curry house, and it was absolutely amazing. The dude spoke no English, as is the norm, but was totally rocking American country music on the stereo. Like, the 'not good' kind. The curry was unlike anything I had ever tasted, and the cabbage/cardemum pickles served with it was also incredible. Sandy had naan and curry, and I had katsu curry. So freaking good, for serious.

This curry was pure win

We returned 'home' to clean, pack, and get to bed early for our final day in Osaka. Tomorrow, we go back to Tokyo for the remainder of our trip, and we are kind of sad to leave Osaka, as it has really grown on us.

Tuesday in Kyoto and Osaka

2008-05-24T17:43:00.000-07:00

Tuesday

Tuesday became our Kyoto day, as Monday did not turn out exactly as we wanted it too. We left our hotel a little late, found a quick train to Kyoto, and ended up in some underground supermarket. Supermarkets in America cannot compare with Japan, so it's unfair to even apply the same term; but that's essentially what it was. They were selling this really great sencha that we had to buy. Seriously though, they totally grok the idea of 'service industry' in a way that I really believe America never will.

Making dango in Kyoto

The Nishiki market in Kyoto

We rode the subway down to the Nishiki market and went on an extended search for food. We eventually got some food at this weird little place that was out of plain rice(!) but had rice-dishes all cooked with the ingredients in them. Very strange, but good. We made our way through the market, looking at all the pickled vegetables(tsukemono), candies, vegetables, fish, baked goods and tea. I stopped by the little knife shop that I wanted to buy knives at last time and looked around. Their knives looked to be of equal quality with the knives I found in Osaka, but at twice the price! I left the shop, and we eventually grew weary of seeing white people everywhere, so we bid farewell to Kyoto. I grew up in a tourist town, I know how the residents of Kyoto feel, and it makes me feel the same way. It was back to Osaka for us...

Osakan whales are angry over nothing

Restaurant ship is a restaurant

...for more shopping! We found even more underground shopping malls, a sprawling network of commerce meets mass transit. Everything was nearing closing time, and we were hungry, so we found this strange little place that serves curry udon. OMGOOSES. It was so delicious;

Curry Udon is win

...and Sandy grabbed something she thought was a napkin, as it was really messy, but it was actually a big paper baby bib! And she wore it! See?

baby bib (blurry for EMPHASIS!)

The Minami waterfront in old Osaka

Okay, so we crashed after that day, and we planned for Wednesday to be our Big Osaka Shopping Day, and we needed to research shipping costs and stuff... so it was early to bed for us.

Can it be 2 days 1 post teim plox?

2008-05-23T01:34:00.000-07:00

Sunday

The shopping districts in Osaka are, in a word, overwhelming. I have never, in my entire life, seen as many stores and restaurants sprawled out over such a large area. I really don't even know where to begin, except to say; if you like shopping even a little, there is something for you here. If you hate shopping but you like food, even a little, this is the place to be. Curry, katsu, don, ramen, udon, oden, soba... Italian, Thai, Indian - they are not messing around when it comes to food choices. One row is entirely Korean food. There are bakeries, sweet shops, and cafes, and as ethnically diverse the selection is, the food offered remains unique in its Japanese interpretation.

We didn't eat at any of those places though. We had Mos Burger for breakfast! Ok, so we left our hotel before any cool restaurants were open, and we were hungry... but Mos Burger is still pretty good.

Mos Burger

Upon arriving at the same place we left off the day before, we pretty much immediately lost ourselves in the labyrinth of shops. The first street was entirely devoted to shops that provide restaurants with equipment and utensils. There was every level of quality you could imagine. They had handmade, one-of-a-kind dishes, knives and bento boxes. Thousands of trditional Japanese cooking tools, gas ranges, little fridges, chopstick rests, rice cookers... I was in heaven. I bought a bento box at one of the shops, and I think I'm going to buy some knives at another, as I will definately be going back.

Sandy also lucked out, as there were about a bajillion stores with clothes, purses, shoes and jewelry. We stood in line at a takoyaki stand and had authentic, Osakan takoyaki. We are going to have to try okonomiyaki next, another Osakan invention. So, here are the dudes making the takoyaki, and some pics of the store. It's nestled between a ramen shop and a place that features whale meat dishes. Rad.

Takoyaki Shop

Takoyaki Dudes

Ichiban Takoyaki!

Ther is so much to see here, we just took a ton of pictures. There are a lot more; these are just the most interesting. There's a Don Quixote with a ferris wheel! Cool!

Ad for some cheeto thing

Maneki Neko embossed into a wall

Even little ferris wheels freak me out

Shopping arcade in Osaka

Osaka markets go on forever

An octopus eating a takoyaki ball. hmm...

Hooray for huge Tanukis!

How metal is a skull kimono?

We got home late, rested a bit, and went out to look for food. I swear, when nobody else is open, Indian restaurants are. It was either that or combini, and we wanted to actually sit at a table and have food brought to us. I don't know if it is just me, but Indian food in Japan has so far been awesome. It's kind of strange to hear Japanese spoken with an Indian accent.

Oh yeah, I forgot; we didn't take pictures. Here's the thing; if Sandy and I are in a serious/quiet/grown-up place, like a restaurant, and we are the only people in there, we get the giggles. Long story short, I made Sandy spit chai all over the table by reciting the first three words of a poem I just happened to make up on the spot. Just sayin'. So... no pics.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Monday

Monday was our Kyoto day. The first mistake we made was not eating anything before our adventure. The second mistake was to not research our day trip. Our third was to opt out of using the subway to get around. It was a lot of wandering around, bored, looking for the Nishiki Market. It was not fun, like, hours of not fun. It was warm, I had blisters, and we were both pretty hungry, although still determined to find this freaking marketplace. Was it near the station? Did we take a subway to our hotel last time? Maybe? Walking around a bit more, we decided to take a subway to a part of Kyoto which we thought looked right. We eventually found a market, not THE market, but it had food. We ate at a don place, which is basically rice with toppings. We didn't take pictures, because by that time we were so hungry, we didn't even think about it. It was still really good food. They put a layer of shoyu-swoaked nori in between the rice and fish, and I am totally going to start doing that now.

We bought some really good tea from a little tea shop run by an adorable couple. More wandering ensued, through a covered marketplace, kind of like a mall, but more like a street with a roof over it and no cars. There must have been some fieldtrip to the market, because there were hundreds of kids, from elementary to junior high, everywhere, along with a few chaparones. The little kids had these yellow rain hats on and it was super cute. Slowly, things started to look familiar. We finally found the Nishiki Market, but unfortunately everything was closed.

Upon returning to Osaka, via a fast limited express, we ate dinner at this little curry place called "Indy Curry House". It was amazing and very different from anything else I have tasted. There was one dude, running everything, and he was making all the curry dishes from scratch to-order.

Magical Curry Dude

Sandy had this

I had this

With some solid planning on our side, and a sort-of wasted day (how could you call a day spent in Japan wasted?), we retired to our hotel for Japanese doramas(dramas) and sleep.

Playing Catch-up

2008-05-22T08:16:00.000-07:00

If you will find it in your heart of hearts to forgive me for not posting for awhile... where did we leave off? Oh yeah;

Saturday

I've heard for awhile that Osaka and its denizens are considered to be kind of crazy by Tokyo standards. Let me just say, Aomori seemed more like Tokyo than Osaka does. The people are just more laid back here, a lot like Americans. In fact, Osaka really could be a city in America. People just walk accross the street, regardless of the traffic light (people in Tokyo patiently wait at every light). They stand on the right side of the escalator (the rest of Japan stands on the left). They talk on the trains, constantly, which are usually dead silent. I've been panhandled by a bum already, the city is filthy with litter, and we've seen tons of foreigners. I even walked into the first public bathroom in Japan that was too gross to use! Seriously, this place seems so much like home that it freaks me out.

So today, we woke up early and it was already warm. Gross. I keep the AC running in the hotel all the time. It's supposed to be in the 70s/80s. We set out, looking for this fabulous shopping and food reputation that Osaka has. Walking, walking... we found some restaurants, mostly udon, but next to zero bustle. The only stores we saw were kimono and fabric shops and a bunch of crappy 100 yen shops. We were hungry and tired, having walked for an hour and a half and finding nothing. We saw a tiny Indian restaurant, that had a fairly inexpensive lunch set, so we went for it. Indian food in Japan. It was some of the best I'd ever had (it was no Gateway to India, but it was also kind of in it's own class). The naan was huge and delicious, and they had this really spicy tamarind curry sauce that was amazing. If you get naan, the meal doesn't come with rice, which makes sense, but this is the first time I encountered it.

Indian Restaurant in Osaka

Curry Set B

Curry Set C

Huge naan!

We returned to the hotel, full and ready to research this crazy town. We didn't even know where were we were relative to anything else, so I Google Mapped it. Two subway stops later put us in Namba. Tons and tons of shops, arcades, places to eat... it was overwhelming at best, and I'm not a huge fan of malls in the first place, but they still had a lot of cool stuff. There was an awesome electronics store, a Toys r Us "Select", and some amazing restaurants, so we will absolutely be back. We ate lunch at an udon place; I had kitsune udon, and Sandy had tempura udon. We had coffee at a cute little cafe themed like American Old West.

Kitsune udon FTW

Tempura Udon at a place in Namba

Expensive coffee is expensive

Finally, a trip on the subway that was quick and painless, a stop by 7-11 to pick up some water and tea, and it was back to the hotel for us. We spent the evening planning our trip to Kyoto and our return to Namba, as well as a bit more sightseeing throughout Osaka. After all, there's Osaka castle close by, and a few shrines, so we are not lacking stuff to do. There's also an aquarium that has whale sharks, so we will probably do that too. We still need to find a way to ship stuff home, as it will be a pain to carry all our stuff back. Next trip, we are only bringing backpacks, fer serious.

New contraction

Train, train, train...

2008-05-18T03:45:00.000-07:00

NOTE: I'm going to have to put a hold on video uploads for awhile, at least the ones in consecutive order... but I *will* post them as soon as I can, I promise. The uploading is taking forever, and it keeps timing out for whatever reason, so I'm done with it holding me up.

Friday. I'm not sure how many miles we traveled, but if we hadn't luckily grabbed an early limited express out of Aomori, we would have had to hunt down a hotel in Osaka on Friday night. The limited express got us from Aomori to Hachinohe in an hour, whereas the local express made the same trip in two and a half hours. In Hachinohe we almost missed our transfer on the Shinkansen, being noobz and all. We asked an officer and he motioned to us to wait where we were and full-on sprinted across the station to grab transfers for us so we wouldn't miss the train that was leaving in 3 minutes. Hectic and awesome. Again, JR people are the best. I think we spent a total of eight hours on trains that day. Here's some Shinkansen!

Shinkansen lined up

I got a bento from Tokyo station while we waited for the train to Osaka.

Tokyo bento

I got some cool train videos, too. I freaking love trains.

Shinkansen leaving Tokyo station

Trains are just rad

After a long, pleasant trip on the Shinkansen, we found ourselves in the Shin-Osaka station. We made our way to the subway lines, taking many wrong turns but eventually getting on the right trains. Note to visitors in Osaka; your JR pass is only useful on the outskirts of Osaka. If you plan on traveling around downtown, the subway is your best bet, but unfortunately is not owned by JR. That means every trip starts at about 200 yen each way. Anyway, we took the right trains and the wrong exit gate, so we ended up walking all over the place, looking for any landmarks that made sense. Streets in japan do not make any sense, and Osaka is especially crazy, which I'll talk about later, so we asked a cop. He broke out a stack of maps, explained to us in Japanese where our hotel was, and showed us how to get there. It totally made sense, so we thanked him and started off... and he insisted to escort us there! He spoke zero English, but talked to me the entire way, and some of what he said I actually understood. He jokingly heckled some kids who were standing around, which was pretty funny; one of the dudes kinda freaked out and his friends laughed at him - good times. Anyway, police escort to our hotel... what else... oh yeah! The place we are staying at is AWESOME! You can even watch a video of it.. later! I've tried to upload this freaking video file about five times already, so if and when I get everything uploaded, I will post it. Yay!

So the video in question JUST finished uploading, of course, after I complained. I guess sometimes you do carry an umbrella to prevent it from raining. Enjoy!

Osaka Weekly Mansion at Otamae

Of Akita and trains...

2008-05-16T03:51:00.000-07:00

So Thursday was our trip to Akita. Let me preface this just by saying we were warned by a friend, "You don't want to go to Akita; Akita is downtown Kent." Akita is also the birthplace and hometown of the author of my favorite Japanese cookbook, Gaku Homma. Akita also hosts the National Fermented Foods Summit, in which I am very interested. That was enough to make me at least want to see for myself if it is "downtown Kent". We got to the train station about 2 hours before the Limited Express leaves, so we had a quick breakfast first and hung out in the train station for awhile. The train ride was long, but very smooth. It took us just over two hours. I'm not really going to talk about Akita that much, other than to say that the mall is where it's at - and that's not saying much.

We took five pictures. Three of them were food. Here they are.

Flowers around a lake in Akita

Oni

Tempura and miso

Tempura, miso and don

Don up close (oishii!)

That place we ate lunch at was f expensive, for serious. It was good, and the waiter was really funny as he tried out his English skills on us, but we paid twice as much for food as anywhere else we've been. Sandy got a crepe for dessert and we walked over to check train schedules for the trip back to Aomori... we had less than 5 minutes before the last train left! We friggin booked it, making it onboard at the last minute. The express train we took to Akita was a one-time thing, it turned out. We now had to look forward to a 2 hour ride to Odate, waiting for 40 minutes for a transfer train, and another 2 hours back to Aomori. Ugh.

We ate dinner at a place we saw earlier that week and it was very delicious. You aren't tired of looking at awesome food, are you?

Oyakodon!

Pork and vegetable nabe

I had oyakodon (chicken and egg over rice), pickled vegetables and miso, and Sandy had braised pork and vegetables on rice. We went to bed, disappointed in Akita but looking forward to Friday, when we will travel from Aomori to Osaka via regular train, two Shinkansen, and two subway trains... but more on that later. I leave you with a video of rice paddies - again - on our nearly five hour train ride back to Aomori.

Farmland between Akita and Aomori