UA/UX 7681 IAD-DFW

View from seat 2A.

IAD Tower

Yep, back to IAD yet again.

Dulles access road

The Question Man in his car.

Westin redux

Dinner at the Westin - Teppanyaki

Some of the best food I've ever eaten from the Westin Tokyo's Teppanyaki restaurant.

Delicious food, and so fresh. How fresh? Still-moving fresh:

Sumo Shots

Fun at the Sumo match, Tokyo.

Sumo!

Went to the Sumo match in Tokyo last week. Exciting, and casual at the same time. I'm more used to Ice Hockey, where you have to pay attention continuously. Watching Sumo is similar to watching Baseball, with periods of relatively little activity followed by brief periods of intense action. The clip below came after at least 3-5 minutes of posturing, gesturing, and salt-throwing.

And then it's all over in seconds.

UA 804 NRT IAD

View from seat 1A

Pictures from Kagura

Pictures from Kagura.

Musings on the Japanese Language

So today at Kagura I got to ride a number of chairlifts, gondolas, and ropeways. Some notes:

1. The lift attendants are unfailingly polite. 'Hai dozo' they say (literally 'yes please' but here more like 'here is your seat and you may go') at the bottom, then again as you disembark. As I stood at the top of the lift arranging gloves, hat, and various other kit throughout the day, I could hear the top-station attendant saying 'dozo, dozo, dozo' as each person got off the lift. That's something I can't imagine happening anywhere else.

2. On one ride, I shared the quad chair with an older couple (perhaps in their 40s or 50s). Mostly, the woman was talking, and for the entire ride each of the man's responses was one of the following:
A. Ah, so desu (lit. 'Oh, ok')
B. 'Eeeee' (no translation - guttural sound of agreement)
C. 'Ohhhh' (see B, above).

Those three responses were the ONLY words he spoke for the 10-minute ride.

3. Thank God for sushi. I went to get some food for lunch. Downstairs was what appeared to be a curry / rice place. There was a machine near the entrance which may have offered three sizes or types of curry, but as there was no English text or pictures I was stymied. This is a fairly common setup - you buy a ticket from the machine for the dish you want, then give the ticket to the server in exchange for your food (or in this case, for a bowl - it was self-serve. I tried waiting to watch new patrons come in -- in hopes of ordering via mimicry -- but no one seemed to be ordering. I was a bit bummed because I love Japanese vegetable curry, and it looked (and smelled) great. So, still hungry I went to the upstairs restaurant, where once again the adage about a picture being worth a thousand words was confirmed. Several appealing choices were pictured on the wall, including a nice-looking bowl dish with rice, a curry-type sauce, and some shrimp tempura and an egg on top. Now, after eating sushi for years even I know that shrimp is 'ebi'. So in this instance I could have simply pointed to the picture on the wall, but I was saved that mute indignity by one of my beloved sushi words. 'Ebi', I said confidently to the cashier, and a few moments later she told the server, 'ebi desu'. A simple gesture to avoid the nearly-raw egg (also pictured) and I had a hot, tasty meal in hand.

I still think the curry would have been better, but at least I got something to eat.

MaxTOKI 334 to Tokyo

(Interim) mission accomplished - got on the 16:36 train, which appears to be a MAX (double-decker) shinkansen.




Train fare:

A fun day!

Very good skiing today at Naeba / Kagura. Plenty of snow and virtually no icy spots at all. I am probably spoiled from only skiing at huge resorts in the Austrian alps for the last five or six years, so the runs seemed pretty short, but there's definitely a good couple of days' worth of skiing here. It did get pretty cold in the afternoon, with high winds and fairly heavy blowing snow, but I must say I was pleasantly surprised by the absence of any lift lines. I think the longest I waited was for the Mitsumata Ropeway (the first lift from the 'Kagura Powder Station' where the bus stops up to the actual skiing), about 5 minutes. Otherwise I didn't wait more than a minute or two all day, and most lifts had no lines at all.

One more hurdle to go - changing my shinkansen ticket to an earlier train. I'm at the front of the bus so with luck I can get one sooner than 8pm (the train for which I have a ticket obtained from Mr. NoCash Surly-san yesterday.)

Mitsumata

Arrived. Now to rent.

The adventure continues.

Echigo Yuzawa Station

Ok, I'm here. Waiting in line for what I hope is the right bus. Everyone has a ski or board bag.

Hmm. There seem to be multiple buses.

En route

At the third stop the train basically filled up. We're out in the countryside, and there are some hazy mountains all around the large plain we're crossing (the Kanto?).

Hooray! Coffee cart! The canned stuff isn't bad, but a real cup is a 'nice to have, even for JPY 300.

TOKI 303 Superexpress

7am, 20-jan-08. Aboard the shinkansen bullet train to Echgo-Yuzawa.




I'm bound for Kagura, a ski area about an hour and a half north of Tokyo. I had originally planned to go to the Yuzawa-GALA area, where the lift actually rises directly from the shinkansen station, but after reading a few articles it seemed that Kagura, a 20-minute bus ride from Echigo-Yuzawa station, would be larger and relatively less packed with Tokyo day-trippers on a Sunday in January.

And we're off. The train is quiet, and unlike the regular trains I've been on in Japan has forward-facing seats. I'm in the 'green card' section, so there's plenty of leg room, though the seats are pretty narrow. I'm glad I opted for the extra room!

The train is not full, so I'm not sure why the surly ticket agent put me in a middle seat (he refused to take my gredit card despite the sign which listed the cards accepted, crossing his arms and repeating flatly, "only cash!"). Ah well, I've moved to the aisle and we're in a tunnel having left Ueno and the Tokyo metropolitan district.


So I've had my hot can of coffee ("Georgia kickoff") from the kiosk, and the delightful aroma of my seatmate's pungent fish/rice ball is filling the compartment.


This type is better than the 'Georgia Kickoff' brand.


Next stop, Echigo Yuzawa.

How to tell you're in Japan

The toilet has a remote control.

NH 956 PEK-NRT

View from Seat 3B.

Ordering Lunch

Hmm. Spicy bullfrog? Mater convolvulus? So many choices!

Snow in Beijing