A Day in the Life of the Internet
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Another week goes by
I seldom get sick. This week has been atypical; I took off my second sick day in over 6 years. It was a horrible day to be sick .. sunny and 10 degrees Celsius. Around 2:00 pm, I declared myself well enough to succumb to the lure of the sun. My headache had ceased and I could actually detect smells.
It was a beautiful day for a walk, birds chirping and the sun warming my face as I walked. Blissful enough that I didn’t mind the fact that my headache came back. After all, I could just go home and get back into bed. It’s just a cold and it’ll clear up soon enough I’m sure. Back to work on Monday.
A long way and a relaxing holiday
It’s been hard carrying this secret for months; I told my family and friends that I was going to Thailand for the holidays. I couldn’t suppress my excitement on the long trip from Nagoya to Detroit. I was exhausted by the time I reached Detroit, around the same time of the same day that I left Nagoya. And I still had to contend with a 10 hours layover.
I’ve heard so many bad things about Detroit that I worried for weeks as to whether I should leave the airport to explore the city. I finally decided that if I could live in Sudan and travel in Yemen, I could find some areas of Detroit where I could feel safe in the daytime. But I refused to pay close to $50 to get there.
I got on the Smartbus at the airport, having decided to sit beside the driver. I almost lost my nerve when I got on the airport and found the driver calmly having a smoke in his seat. I hoped that this lawless behavior was not a bad omen. I kept my wits about me, observe everything closely as we drove through Detroit, going past many boarded, graffitied and deserted buildings. I kept watch for a safe place to get off. I decided to do so in the downtown area beside a Subway restaurant.
I walked around and grabbed coffee at the Au Bon Pain. There was a Hard Rock Cafe and mall nearby and a skating rink where many families seemed to be enjoying the beautiful winter day. I walked around the area before grabbing a taxi to take me to Livernois avenue to a hairdresser that I’d previously found.
I still had 4 hours to kill by the time I was finished at the hair dresser and had walked around the area looking for a nail bar that was open, to no avail. I called a taxi (as I’d had enough adventure for the day.)
I stayed overnight in Miami, just enough time to deal with all my Amazon.com orders. Between the packing, the time difference and my internet addiction, I only got three hours of sleep before heading to the airport.
As I sat at the airport waiting for my flight to board, I called my aunt to find out if the family would be home that day. As they called the flight, I started to wonder if it was such a good idea to surprise my grandmother. I called my aunt and told her that I was coming and that she shouldn’t tell anyone, knowing that she’d tell my grandmother if she thought it best. Four hours later, I was in St. Lucia. The immediate family all knew that I was coming.
I spent a little over two weeks in St. Lucia, visiting family and friends. It was a relaxing time in the heat, surrounded by familiarity and heat that make Japan seem a very long way away.
Takayama Visit
I had a long weekend a few weeks back. I thought of going to Shirawaka-go but figured it would be too cold there. I don’t particularly miss snow. I enjoyed walking around Takayama and seeing the sites. There are lots of cultural/historical sites, something that I miss living in Nagoya.
Pumpkin Muffins
I’ve been wanting to bake pumpkin muffins since a friend on facebook mentioned making them. I had pumpkin in the fridge, just needed to find a good recipe. I came across this recipe tonight that looked promising, but had to modify it to make it a bit more wholesome. Here are the ingredients and the results:
4 eggs
1.5 cups sugar
2 cups roasted pumpkin puree
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup apple puree
1.5 cups whole wheat flour
1.5 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
pinch ginger
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 teaspoon salt
This recipe made 17 muffins. For some reason, the first batch took 20 mins but the second took 15 mins. My oven is a little bit strange so the temperature may have been too low the first batch. They taste delicious. The whole wheat flour makes the taste more wholesome, just the way I like. Next time I make this recipe, I’ll reduce the oil by half. I don’t think there will be any adverse effects because I’ve added lots of apple puree.
A Week in Bali
I walked along the beach last night and listened to the play of waves. This was my moment to say goodbye to Bali.
The dolphins were the highlight of my week in Bali. We took a morning dolphin “tour” in Lovina, hoping to see the dolphins up close. We were not disappointed. There were hundreds of dolphins all over, playing, doing air flips and belly flops. I even saw them under the water. I couldn’t stop smiling watching them. The experience was surely worth the early morning wake-up.
During my week in Bali, I spent two nights in Ubud, one night in Kintamani, two nights in Lovina and one night in Kuta. I watched legong dancing in Ubud, climbed Mount Batur around Kintamani, saw dolphins and felt the mist of waterfalls around Lovina, relaxed in Kuta, and did spa treatments several times. I did not enjoying having to bargain for every purchase, even fruit, but I did make some good purchases of Balinese batiks, silver, Balinese puppet dolls and the obligatory tshirt gifts. The week was wonderful. It seems surreal to be back in Nagoya on a cool cloudy day…
Pictures from Oct 2009 in Nagoya
Nagoya Festival, October 3, 2009
Osu Kannon October 10, 2009
Atsuta Shrine, October 11, 2009
Downtown Nagoya
Day Trips from Nagoya
Saturdays seem to have become the unofficial day for exploring nearby regions. I finally got my credit card and ETC card last week so we can go traveling and get better rates on the toll roads. My car doesn’t have an ETC reader but my friends’ do so we use their car. So far we’ve been to Inuyama and Tahara. This weekend was my birthday weekend so I got to choose what we did.
My birthday was on Saturday but the celebration started on Friday evening. A friend cooked a fabulous dinner. On Saturday morning, we had breakfast together while we planned our trip to Toba and Ise in the Mie Prefecture. Our first stop was Ise. We went to Sushi Train for lunch. I think I’m going to miss those two little tortoise characters when I leave Japan. As we headed to Sadahama Port for the boat to Dolphin Island, we came across a home made ice cream shop. I had chestnut ice cream while my friends had Pearl and blueberry. Mikimoto Pearls originated from the Toba region so I assume that pearl ice cream is a local specialty. We didn’t visit the Pearl Island but took a boat cruise to Dolphin Island.
The boat was clearly designed for an amusement park with bright colors and a myriad of life size adornments. Dolphin Island is quite small. The dolphin show was disappointing but the beach was beautiful. We walked along the beach with our feet in the water before climbing to the observatory for a panaromic view of the area.
From Toba, we headed to Ise to visit the Jingu Geku shrine. We were too late to go to the Naiku. The entrance and viewable areas of the shrine are relatively simple. It’s a Shinto shrine that has not been influenced by Chinese or Buddhist traditions. The walk through the grounds is very peaceful with majestic trees and small ponds.
The Jingu Naiku is 6 km from Jingu Geku so we did not go to the inner shrine. It was already dusk. Instead, we went to see the wedded rocks. There is a boulevard along the water. It was relaxing to stop for a moment and enjoy the sound of the waves and the trickling of water from the nearby temple. We didn’t get to see Mt. Fuji in the background but perhaps another day.
We found a nice little restaurant on the way home. It served “dry curry” which is apparently quite healthy. Unfortunately, all the descriptions were in Japanese so I don’t know what dry curry is (although I think I ate it) but it is apparently healthy. The restaurant is called Caravan and has lots of character with old records hung all over the walls. There were posters of the Beatles and John Lennon with the Statue of Liberty. The man and woman who I assume ran the place or maybe own it were very gracious. We wanted hot tea (which they said that they did not have) but the lady later brought us hot tea with a note written in English saying “Japanese hot tea is free”. We got home quite late but my travel companions came over and had birthday cake with me. Thanks ladies for a great birthday weekend.
Exploring Sakae (Nagoya)
Nagoya castle and environs
Green spaces with gifts from Nagoya’s sister cites
Thanks to Charlotte and Tanya for most of the photos since my camera battery died within the first 5 minutes and I forgot my extra set at home.