Again, out of chronological order. This was on Wednesday, which is after the next entry.
Tuesday had been so crazy, so I decided I needed a break. After answering e-mails, I borrowed my father-in-law's bicycle and rode over to the junk/antique shop near downtown Kitami. It was jam-packed with interesting things. Some stuff was over-stock types of items, others were one-of-a-kind. I ended up buying a neck pillow for 105 yen, some Hello Kitty earwarmers for Dave Abbott and four small glasses (two Asahi and two Sapporo branded). Perhaps fortunately, I forgot my wallet, so I was limited to what I had in my coin purse.
As I was taking some pictures of the outside of the shop, I got a call from Masae asking if I wanted to go to the sea on a day trip. Akemi had asked if we wanted to do it the day before, but it was too wild. So I said yes. By the time we left, it would be late PDT, so I figured I could address anything later. I cycled home. When I was checking my e-mail, my brother-in-law, Doug called from Oaxaca Mexico using Skype (computer to computer). We talked for about ten minutes, and then I took a shower. The delay annoyed Akemi, and I should have told Doug, I had to go.
So, then we went to the ocean. Actually, the Sea of Okhotsk. I love that name. This is my second trip there. It is not far from Kitami. It only took an hour or so to get there. We stopped in Abashiri, a sea-side town and had lunch. Akemi took us to a Nepalese restaurant there. It was very good. We ate too much. Masae ordered a second Nan, which was the coup-de-grace.
The waitress had been in Japan only six months or so. Her Japanese seemed good, but she tried to ask me a some things in English, which wasn't so good. So we tried to talk in Japanese and English and communicated somewhat. It was the only time that mentioning the Mariners and Ichiro was met with a blank stare.
We asked them about driving around a kind of peninusula, and she got the cook, who said it was not a long drive. While he was out front, his cell phone rang and the ring tone was the bleating of a sheep. That was very funny.
Then we drove out to a beach. We stopped near a hotel that we stayed at on a previous trip. Then we continued on around the peninsula. After driving a while, we got to a lighthouse and stopped there. I took some pictures. When I got back to the car, Masae and Akemi wanted to go back the way we came because it was not clear how much more distance there was to make the loop. When I got back to Kitami, I check the map on-line and found out we had gone about half-way, but there was no way of knowing because the map we had did not appear to be to scale.
We stopped at a native garbage mound, where there was a little museum about the excavations and what they had found. There were skeletons, in addition to the broken pottery, fish shells, etc. that told how the natives had lived. The also had a more recent earthen house preserved.
It was getting late, and Masae and Akemi wanted to go the the Abashiri Prison museum. So we went there. It looked interesting, but it was kind of expensive, so we decided to go the Northern Peoples Museum, which was down the road. We only had about a half-hour or 45 minutes before closing time when we go there, but they held the museum open a bit later for us.
It was a really nice museum. There were artifacts from all over the north, Ainu (native sto Hokkaido), Russia and including the Pacific Northwest - Kwakiutl, Eskimo and others.
So that's about it. We were going to stop for some ice cream, but were saved the calories as the shop had closed for the day.
It was a nice contrast to Tuesday.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Monday, July 16, 2007
Last week in Japan for me
Continuing in my backward progression on out Japan trip, somewhat out of order, as this will appear before the Akan trip, when it followed the trip.
We came back on Sunday, June 24 from Akan and went directly to visit Masae's favorite aunt and uncle. The rest of the family continued home and left us there. The plan was to take a cab home, or something.
Their house is more modern than the others I'd been in. Light colored walls, wood floor, it is more open and airy. They have a separate room that has a nice shrine with pictures of ancestors. There is also an alcove that has a banner or scroll of calligraphy done by their daughter when she was in school. It was very nice. It seemed traditional, reminding me of some rooms seen while touring Kyoto. In other houses, the shrines varied from small bread-box sized things, usually on a top shelf to less permanent structures.
We spent the afternoon there, drinking too many beers and eating a meal that was completely handmade, and perhaps grown by their son-in-law and daughter. I think they made the pasta, but did not grow the wheat. Everything else was from the garden.
There was a bit of a flavor of camping out, because there was a problem with the municipal water supply. When we got home, we had bottled water there too. The water was running there, but was kind of brownish. It was supposedly not unhealthy, but they were suggesting not to drink it, anyway.
Sam had been coughing for a while. He said that when he was at school, he didn't cough, so we were wondering if it was because the room was dusty at home. On Monday, school was cancelled due to the water problems.
On Tuesday, Sam woke up around 20 to 6 and was coughing. He was coughing up phlegm, which had never happened before, at least, not as bad. This was freaking him out. He was coughing and crying. At one point he said he was having trouble breathing. He came back upstairs and was crying and running around, so I grabbed him and sat him down, holding him. His heart was pounding. I asked him to calm down. He kind of looked up at me and asked if he was going to die. I said 'you have a cold, Sam ... people don't usually die of colds, especially young healthy people like you.' Your heart has to go out to the kid.
Masae and her family was worried, so they decided to call the ambulance and take Sam to the hospital. Particularly since he had complained of shortness of breath, I did not protest, although I figured it was just a cold. We could hear the siren coming, and I told Sam that was for him, and this would make a good entry into his journal. He had pretty much calmed down by then.
I remember two EMTs with the ambulance, one in a helmet. They got Sam in, along with Masae and Akemi, her sister. The ambulance stayed there for a while, I assume as they checked him over. As we waited, several neighbors came over. It was the first time I had seen the next-door neighbors. I remembered him from the wedding, as he is tall and has a goatee, which is somewhat unusual. Everyone was in their pajamas or hastily thrown on clothes. He said to me "Nihon no byouin wa daijoubu [desu]," which I was uncharacteristically able to understand completely and immediately as 'Japanese hospitals are ok or good.' He may have said something else reassuring, although I don't remember.
I stayed home because it was the first day of the quarter at CBC and I would have been next to useless at the hospital, anyway. Between this, phone calls from the insurance adjuster and the backlog of stuff that had happened already back in the US (it being around 2:30 p.m. PDT Monday), the beginning of a truely insane day was shaping up.
On top of all this, there was a problem with student authentication to Tegrity. I quickly put together a work-around tutorial for the instructors using it and started working with Tegrity to troubleshoot the problem. I spent hours investigating on my own, talking to Tegrity support, culminating in an online chat with a Tegrity tech in Tel-Aviv, Israel, and another in California. He was able to pin-point where the problem was and indicated it was a WebCT problem. I submitted a BlackBoard support request.
This was all in addition to whatever regular first-day crazyness there was.
We came back on Sunday, June 24 from Akan and went directly to visit Masae's favorite aunt and uncle. The rest of the family continued home and left us there. The plan was to take a cab home, or something.
Their house is more modern than the others I'd been in. Light colored walls, wood floor, it is more open and airy. They have a separate room that has a nice shrine with pictures of ancestors. There is also an alcove that has a banner or scroll of calligraphy done by their daughter when she was in school. It was very nice. It seemed traditional, reminding me of some rooms seen while touring Kyoto. In other houses, the shrines varied from small bread-box sized things, usually on a top shelf to less permanent structures.
We spent the afternoon there, drinking too many beers and eating a meal that was completely handmade, and perhaps grown by their son-in-law and daughter. I think they made the pasta, but did not grow the wheat. Everything else was from the garden.
There was a bit of a flavor of camping out, because there was a problem with the municipal water supply. When we got home, we had bottled water there too. The water was running there, but was kind of brownish. It was supposedly not unhealthy, but they were suggesting not to drink it, anyway.
Sam had been coughing for a while. He said that when he was at school, he didn't cough, so we were wondering if it was because the room was dusty at home. On Monday, school was cancelled due to the water problems.
On Tuesday, Sam woke up around 20 to 6 and was coughing. He was coughing up phlegm, which had never happened before, at least, not as bad. This was freaking him out. He was coughing and crying. At one point he said he was having trouble breathing. He came back upstairs and was crying and running around, so I grabbed him and sat him down, holding him. His heart was pounding. I asked him to calm down. He kind of looked up at me and asked if he was going to die. I said 'you have a cold, Sam ... people don't usually die of colds, especially young healthy people like you.' Your heart has to go out to the kid.
Masae and her family was worried, so they decided to call the ambulance and take Sam to the hospital. Particularly since he had complained of shortness of breath, I did not protest, although I figured it was just a cold. We could hear the siren coming, and I told Sam that was for him, and this would make a good entry into his journal. He had pretty much calmed down by then.
I remember two EMTs with the ambulance, one in a helmet. They got Sam in, along with Masae and Akemi, her sister. The ambulance stayed there for a while, I assume as they checked him over. As we waited, several neighbors came over. It was the first time I had seen the next-door neighbors. I remembered him from the wedding, as he is tall and has a goatee, which is somewhat unusual. Everyone was in their pajamas or hastily thrown on clothes. He said to me "Nihon no byouin wa daijoubu [desu]," which I was uncharacteristically able to understand completely and immediately as 'Japanese hospitals are ok or good.' He may have said something else reassuring, although I don't remember.
I stayed home because it was the first day of the quarter at CBC and I would have been next to useless at the hospital, anyway. Between this, phone calls from the insurance adjuster and the backlog of stuff that had happened already back in the US (it being around 2:30 p.m. PDT Monday), the beginning of a truely insane day was shaping up.
On top of all this, there was a problem with student authentication to Tegrity. I quickly put together a work-around tutorial for the instructors using it and started working with Tegrity to troubleshoot the problem. I spent hours investigating on my own, talking to Tegrity support, culminating in an online chat with a Tegrity tech in Tel-Aviv, Israel, and another in California. He was able to pin-point where the problem was and indicated it was a WebCT problem. I submitted a BlackBoard support request.
This was all in addition to whatever regular first-day crazyness there was.
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Akan onsen (hot-springs) resort
The last week in Japan was more eventful than some of the preceeding weeks. In fact, I'll start it a bit before the last week.
On Saturday, June 23, we went to an onsen, or hot-springs resort at Lake Akan-ko, which is not too far from Kitami. Maybe an hour and a half drive.
We went there when we visited in December, 2000, also, and stayed in the same hotel. It was pretty then, with snow all over. I would have appreciated it more if I had not been sick as a dog. Hokkaido is like Minnesota in the winter.
I think it was the New Akan Hotel, or something like that. It's a nice hotel, looking out over Lake Akan.
We arrived in the afternoon, and after getting situated in the rooms, we went directly to the baths. The baths in this hotel are on the top floor.
If you're not familiar with Japanese onsen, there's a dressing (undressing) room with bamboo baskets to put your clothes, towel, etc. in. Then on the way to the bath, there's a bunch of washing stations. Each has a little plastic stool to sit on, facing a half-height wall which has the shower, soap and spigot. There's a shallow plastic bucket, or pan at each station. Here you soap up and clean up before you get in the baths.
Then, this onsen has a rectangular pool that runs the length of the room against a window that runs the width of the room from the pool to the ceiling. This provides a nice view out, and perhaps in too? It is deep enough that if I sit on the bottom, my head is out of the water.
I am not sure if there are different zones in the pool, or if it is uniformly hot through out. At the end of the pool away from the entrance, there are two streams of water with stands so that you can stand on them and have the water pelt down on your head. Next to that is several contoured shallow areas where you can lie down and your head is propped out of the water.
Directly across from that area is the cold pool. It was my goal to completely submerge at least once per session. Next to that was the sauna. Continuing back, there is a shallow warm pool. Sam liked that because it wasn't too hot.
Between the warm and cold pools, there is a circular staircase that goes to the roof pools. There is a Jacuzzi hot-tub style pool and another hot pool with rock surrounds at the top. From there, you can through a little hall to get to a large swimming pool on the roof. The swimming pool is co-ed, so you need to put on a suit when you go there.
Anyway, after we had the bath, we met in one of the rooms and relaxed while waiting for the dinner buffet to open. Before going to the bath, everyone dressed in yukatas (light, cotton kimonos), and we (and many others) continue to wear them down to the buffet. The food was plentiful, tasty and in total, caloric, if not always identifiable. I had the better part of two large draft beers too. Life is good.
My only complaint is I don't think they have such a thing as a non-smoking room. They don't allow smoking in the dining area, which I think may be a change since the last time I was there. The rooms didn't smell so bad, but the bedding reeked. A word about the bedding. It's a typical Japanese arrangement. The main area of the room has tatami mats and during the day, a low table in the middle. When you go down for dinner, they come up and pull the futons out of the cabinet and set them up there.
Fortunately, I have a CPAP for apnea (or hypopnea, in my case). It was drawing air from outside the bedding area and consequently, I didn't smell the smoke when I was using it.
Sunday morning, I woke up early, so I took my computer to a mini-lobby on the third floor and did a bit of work. In retrospect, I would have been happier had I taken an early morning bath. By the time I got back to the room, Masae and Sam were up and getting ready to go to breakfast. The rest of Masae's family had gotten up early and gone to the baths.
After breakfast, we went to the baths. Sunday morning must be kind of a lull, because the sauna was closed and they started cleaning up the baths while we were there, getting them ready to switch over. I think the baths are mirror images and they swap the Men's and Women's on a weekly basis. When we were there in 2000, they were switched opposite to this visit.
We set a time to meet at the swimming pool, so we could soak in the hot baths first. When we were getting ready to go up, Sam started putting on his Spiderman swimming trunks, and ... They were too small! That makes sense. I'm not sure when he last used them, as he has pretty much refused to get in a pool in recent memory. Fortunately, the hotel has loaner suits just outside the entry to the baths.
So we met at the pool and everyone had a fun time. It was the most enthusiastic I've seen Sam about going in a pool. He had a ring to swim with. Sarah had a great time, too. It was a nice setting. I took a bunch of pictures of the surroundings and us in the pool (to be posted later).
Masae arranged for late checkout, but her family was champing to go, so we were out of there by 11 (checkout is 10 a.m.) .
Aside from the smoke, it was a very enjoyable and relaxing trip. As it was at the end of the week before the quarter started, it was fairly quiet on that end too. Only a few problems.
On Saturday, June 23, we went to an onsen, or hot-springs resort at Lake Akan-ko, which is not too far from Kitami. Maybe an hour and a half drive.
We went there when we visited in December, 2000, also, and stayed in the same hotel. It was pretty then, with snow all over. I would have appreciated it more if I had not been sick as a dog. Hokkaido is like Minnesota in the winter.
I think it was the New Akan Hotel, or something like that. It's a nice hotel, looking out over Lake Akan.
We arrived in the afternoon, and after getting situated in the rooms, we went directly to the baths. The baths in this hotel are on the top floor.
If you're not familiar with Japanese onsen, there's a dressing (undressing) room with bamboo baskets to put your clothes, towel, etc. in. Then on the way to the bath, there's a bunch of washing stations. Each has a little plastic stool to sit on, facing a half-height wall which has the shower, soap and spigot. There's a shallow plastic bucket, or pan at each station. Here you soap up and clean up before you get in the baths.
Then, this onsen has a rectangular pool that runs the length of the room against a window that runs the width of the room from the pool to the ceiling. This provides a nice view out, and perhaps in too? It is deep enough that if I sit on the bottom, my head is out of the water.
I am not sure if there are different zones in the pool, or if it is uniformly hot through out. At the end of the pool away from the entrance, there are two streams of water with stands so that you can stand on them and have the water pelt down on your head. Next to that is several contoured shallow areas where you can lie down and your head is propped out of the water.
Directly across from that area is the cold pool. It was my goal to completely submerge at least once per session. Next to that was the sauna. Continuing back, there is a shallow warm pool. Sam liked that because it wasn't too hot.
Between the warm and cold pools, there is a circular staircase that goes to the roof pools. There is a Jacuzzi hot-tub style pool and another hot pool with rock surrounds at the top. From there, you can through a little hall to get to a large swimming pool on the roof. The swimming pool is co-ed, so you need to put on a suit when you go there.
Anyway, after we had the bath, we met in one of the rooms and relaxed while waiting for the dinner buffet to open. Before going to the bath, everyone dressed in yukatas (light, cotton kimonos), and we (and many others) continue to wear them down to the buffet. The food was plentiful, tasty and in total, caloric, if not always identifiable. I had the better part of two large draft beers too. Life is good.
My only complaint is I don't think they have such a thing as a non-smoking room. They don't allow smoking in the dining area, which I think may be a change since the last time I was there. The rooms didn't smell so bad, but the bedding reeked. A word about the bedding. It's a typical Japanese arrangement. The main area of the room has tatami mats and during the day, a low table in the middle. When you go down for dinner, they come up and pull the futons out of the cabinet and set them up there.
Fortunately, I have a CPAP for apnea (or hypopnea, in my case). It was drawing air from outside the bedding area and consequently, I didn't smell the smoke when I was using it.
Sunday morning, I woke up early, so I took my computer to a mini-lobby on the third floor and did a bit of work. In retrospect, I would have been happier had I taken an early morning bath. By the time I got back to the room, Masae and Sam were up and getting ready to go to breakfast. The rest of Masae's family had gotten up early and gone to the baths.
After breakfast, we went to the baths. Sunday morning must be kind of a lull, because the sauna was closed and they started cleaning up the baths while we were there, getting them ready to switch over. I think the baths are mirror images and they swap the Men's and Women's on a weekly basis. When we were there in 2000, they were switched opposite to this visit.
We set a time to meet at the swimming pool, so we could soak in the hot baths first. When we were getting ready to go up, Sam started putting on his Spiderman swimming trunks, and ... They were too small! That makes sense. I'm not sure when he last used them, as he has pretty much refused to get in a pool in recent memory. Fortunately, the hotel has loaner suits just outside the entry to the baths.
So we met at the pool and everyone had a fun time. It was the most enthusiastic I've seen Sam about going in a pool. He had a ring to swim with. Sarah had a great time, too. It was a nice setting. I took a bunch of pictures of the surroundings and us in the pool (to be posted later).
Masae arranged for late checkout, but her family was champing to go, so we were out of there by 11 (checkout is 10 a.m.) .
Aside from the smoke, it was a very enjoyable and relaxing trip. As it was at the end of the week before the quarter started, it was fairly quiet on that end too. Only a few problems.
Now and then
So, I'm in Boston now for the BBWorld Users Conference. BlackBoard bought out WebCT a bit over a year ago. This may be the 9th of these I've been to (was WebCT Users Conference until last year). Anyway, it's 12:52 a.m. PDT and 3:52 a.m. EDT, where I am. Tonight is a replay of the night before last when I couldn't fall asleep, no matter what, and by the time that was obvious, it was too late to take an Ambien. So I write.
The story of today would be interesting to tell in a blog, however, this is the Japan trip blog, so I'll write some stuff about the last week of my stay there.
The story of today would be interesting to tell in a blog, however, this is the Japan trip blog, so I'll write some stuff about the last week of my stay there.
Friday, July 6, 2007
Uhh, it's a blog
Oh, so never mind. Posting from the end to the beginning will result in the trip being in chronological order in the blog. Huhn.
Jet lag
Did you see the time on that last one? No, I'm not publishing from Japan. I'm either jet lagged, or just being my normal insomniac self. Tonight I will have been back a week and I am still not in the groove. And I head to Boston tomorrow for the BBWorld users conference. (What did I say about head examination?)
Our trip to Japan
I have been describing parts of this trip to different people and figure it's more efficient to blog it. Ideally, I would have done this from the beginning, but didn't have time at first, and then didn't have time later, either. Actually, if I had not worked some of the time, maybe I would have had time to blog.
It was a long trip, 37 days for me (Masae and the kids are still there, as of this writing), so I really had to do some work. Being somewhat obsessive, I did more than just some, but it went mainly according to plan.
We started the trip by staying in Tokyo for a few days when we arrived, two and a half, not counting the arrival day.
Then we travelled to Masae's hometown, Kitami and spent about five days. Then, Masae and I went to Kyoto for a week, leaving the kids with the grandparents and auntie. Yes, a whole week.
Then back to Kitami for the duration. This was good timing for me, because the first part of the trip was towards the end of the quarter, which is usually quieter for me. Except for the two classes I was taking (did someone say something about having one's head examined?). I had to finish my final project in Kyoto for one class. Anyway, being in Kitami, there was more time to do some work.
So, I am not planning on being chronological, or I'll never get to the end. This way I'll start at the end and never get to the beginning. Or the middle. Or whatever.
It was a long trip, 37 days for me (Masae and the kids are still there, as of this writing), so I really had to do some work. Being somewhat obsessive, I did more than just some, but it went mainly according to plan.
We started the trip by staying in Tokyo for a few days when we arrived, two and a half, not counting the arrival day.
Then we travelled to Masae's hometown, Kitami and spent about five days. Then, Masae and I went to Kyoto for a week, leaving the kids with the grandparents and auntie. Yes, a whole week.
Then back to Kitami for the duration. This was good timing for me, because the first part of the trip was towards the end of the quarter, which is usually quieter for me. Except for the two classes I was taking (did someone say something about having one's head examined?). I had to finish my final project in Kyoto for one class. Anyway, being in Kitami, there was more time to do some work.
So, I am not planning on being chronological, or I'll never get to the end. This way I'll start at the end and never get to the beginning. Or the middle. Or whatever.
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