I'm back home, which, unsurprisingly, hasn't really changed much. Although mum has seen fit to rearrange my room =P
This isn't going to be a very final post. Just a summary of what I've been doing - I'll leave pictures and other comments to come over the next couple of days/weeks.
So, my last post was from Kamakura, which was a fairly nice place. I stayed in the New Kamakura Hotel btw, and I'd definitely recommend it for anyone who happens to be in Kamakura looking for accommodation which is relatively cheap.
So Kamakura is a fairly nice place, but I took a train back to Tokyo on Friday. Dropped my stuff off at the Capsule Hotel I was staying and, and then made a trip to the Sumo Stadium to have a look at the tri-annual (or whatever three times a year is) sumo tournament. I expected it to be sold out, but there were still a fair few seats left, so I bought mine for $36 (ouch) and got a seat three rows from the back. Wasn't that great a seat, but it was good enough for me to check out the sumos.
It was pretty cool. Lots of tradition involved, and yet you could tell that they were seasoned professionals. It's weird, in these tournaments, each wrestler gets one match a day (the tournaments last 15 days), and that's it. The matches are often over in 10-20 seconds. There's a lot of psyching out going on - usually far longer than the match itself. There's lots of salt-throwing (it 'purifies' the ring), which some of the wrestlers do aggressively - something the crowd definitely appreciates.
But yeah, definitely a good experience.
Friday night I stayed in a capsule hotel. I've got to say, that I was a little disappointed. I stayed in the Capsule Inn Akihabara (I think that's what it was called), and although I did get a capsule, it wasn't nearly as techy as I'd imagined. Private tv and radio - but both pretty old. It was ok, but nothing spectacular - I think there were better ones out there (but were more expensive).
The capsule was more expensive than the hostel, but I wanted to stay in one, so it was worth it. And it's a good experience, although if anyone is wanting to stay at this particular one (I'm not sure if its the same for other ones), I suggest you take a shower at night unless walking naked into a room full of naked men is your thing (there were far more people there in the morning).
Saturday I went to Disneyland, which was kinda cool. Got there at 7:15 (the park opened at 8:30) to meet Kaori and line up for a while. We went on most of the rides, and stayed there until an hour or so before closing time. It was Disneyland *shrugs* I was more impressed by the Hong Kong one, because they had a few more extra 'details' (the bins were more themed, etc) but it is newer, so I guess that's to be expected.
The fireworks were a bit of a disappointment though - I think it was a shortened version because it was too windy. As was not knowing what they were saying in half the rides. It's weird that they choose to do maybe 75% Japanese and 25% English on all the stuff.
It seems to be a thing in Japan. There's a fair bit of English around places, but (of course) a lot more Japanese. One weird things is a lot of the signs have English headings, and Japanese bodies. So I know that the sign was "Information," but had no idea what it actually said. It makes you wonder who that actually benefits...
Anyways, Sunday I went to Harajuku, and looked at a bunch of cosplay people on a bridge. Lonely Planet made it out to be a fair bit bigger than it actually was, but it was still kinda cool, and very Japanese. Lots of girls in particular dressing up, a kinda weird man that just wanted attention I guess, and a little 'magic' puppet thing that you could buy which "magically" responded to your commands such as "Jump" or "Lie Down." I walked through a garden and a temple (it was definitely the wrong season for garden-going), and browsed around a fair bit.
Speaking of the Lonely Planet Guide - it was probably the best purchase I made all trip. I didn't but the big "Japan" one, only a small one called "Tokyo Encounter" which had heaps of things to do in and around Tokyo. It didn't include accommodation, and the restaurants were all a bit of out of my league, but it was great for finding things to do in the area.
Anyways, the other cool thing which happens on Sundays was in a park right next door. Yoyogi-Koen is a massive park, where people gather to do things. What kind of things? Well, a lot of punk-rock garage kinda bands. A LOT of them. They set up on a footpath, or just off it, next to the road. They bring full drum kits, speaker sets, microphones, and a generator to power it all, and just perform there on the sidewalk. They've got people walking infront of them, and cars driving behind them. They're not busking or asking for money (some had merchandise and CDs for sale, but that's it), and they just performed.
It was really cool. There were also other things inside the park, martial arts people, people in a circle dancing and singing, conga drums, tap dancers, jugglers and other circus acts, as well as the normal things in a park, lots of dogs, ball games and stuff. It was really cool. Definitely a must-do while you're in Japan on a Sunday.
And then I walked down to some shops, which were kinda cool, but just shops in the end (Jean's gonna kill me) and not really that much else.
Monday I planned to go to the Edo-Tokyo Museum, and then to the Toyota Amlux thing, but both were closed. As was the Imperial Palace East Gardens (the only part open to the public at all). So I ended up walking up and down Ginza (spiffy shopping mall) and Akihabara - which is the electronics centre.
It's a really Japanese (or what I perceive to be Japanese) kinda place. Lots and lots and lots of manga around. Lots of girls outside dressed as maids inviting you to cafes which have waitresses dressed as maids (at least I think that's what they were... from reading Lonely Planet). It was disturbing the amount of Hentai which was so openly displayed though. They have hentai absolutely everywhere. They have, of course, the books and the movies, then they've got models/figurines which can be divided up into softcore and hardcore varieties.
The strangest thing I thought though, was the trading cards. Who would trade them? Do you think 20-40 year old men get together once a week in a basement somewhere and trade the cards? What use are they? They were everywhere though. Kinda disturbing.
There's also a heap of electronics places around. Lots of cameras, laptops, phones for sale. Heaps and heaps of stuff. The prices were reasonable, but not heaps better than other places - stuff in the US was actually cheaper.
I bought a cool webcam which I've just set up. It follows your faces around on its little stand. It's really cool but completely unnecessary. =P
Tuesday I woke up at 5am to get to the Fish Markets. There was a lot of dead fish, and it was pretty cool - absolutely huge, I spent over an hour just looking at all the fish and stuff. I also had a $21 sushi breakfast near the markets, which was 7 pieces of sushi and 2 small rolls. It was good though - although I wasn't really full afterwards. It was, however, the cheapest sushi breakfast in the area.
I also did the things I planned to do on Monday. Edo-Tokyo was pretty good - learnt a lot about stuff. The displays had plenty of English on them - although there were a lot of spelling mistakes and typos, as well as bad grammar and stuff everywhere. The Toyota thing was just a showroom really, with a couple of virtual reality things thrown in - nothing special.
And Wednesday was the day I left. Visited the Imperial Palace East Gardens in the morning - which were quite impressive but again, just gardens. Then I went shopping again - along Ginza and to Akihabara (where I bought that webcam). Then I did my trek back to the hostel to pick up my baggage, and then to the airport. Spent a while at the airport, etc. The flights were pretty good, even though I missed my flight out of Sydney due to a change of schedule and a stupidly long customs line.
And that's the end of my trip. It was definitely most awesome. I shall post more about it later though =)
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Friday, January 25, 2008
Japaaaan
So Justin is no longer in Canada. Nor will he be back there in the near future. However, for the purposes of continuity, this blog will remain "Justin in Canada" until its close (which, incidentally, will be relatively soon).
So I left Vancouver the morning after that last post. I went around to the houses and said bye to everyone, went for a drink with Robin and Edwina (alcohol still doesn't agree with me too much), and yeah, generally tidied everything up.
I decided to bus it to the airport (as I was too stingy to part with the $40 cab fare) which turned out ok. Except for my camera falling out of the pouch while I was pushing the suitcase and sliding across the ground - it now has a bunch of scratches on one side. It isn't too bad though. I'll live.
But yeah, a lot of pushing and shoving but I eventually made it to the airport, and then waited around for 3 hours. Had Tim Horton's as my last meal in Canada (it's like a Canadian Starbucks rival, except it actually has a little bit of real food), before a 10 hour plane flight in which I slept, and watched Rush Hour 3 and Bourne Supremacy, both of which were fairly decent.
Got to Tokyo, got through customs easily enough, and then made my way to the hostel. Took a rather long time to get there, but made it there in the end, with the help of a couple of strangers.
The people here in Japan are as helpful as you've heard btw. They'll stop and ask if you need help if you look confused with a map in your hand (I've tested this thoroughly). Today I was walking down the street, crossed it to cross-reference a map with the one on a sign, and a lady who had passed me and was 15 metres down the road saw me, and came back to ask if I needed any help.
I've also decided that they're really friendly to people who can't speak Japanese - very willing to help. Also a good thing for me.
Got to the hostel after someone who was staying there saw me with the printout and asked if I was going there. Also handy.
Checked in fine and spent the night trying to figure out what to do. It turned out that during the flight I never made it to the night, so I had quite a long day that day.
Today I've come to Kamakura, which was the capital of Japan in about 1100-1300 AD. It's got lots of temples and a big bronze Buddha. I'm staying in a hotel at the moment - private room with a bed, lounge chair, tv, fridge and air conditioner. The bathrooms are shared, but really, really nice, and the toilet has a heated seat (which I haven't sat on =().
And that's about it. Going back to Tokyo tomorrow - probably try to stay in a capsule hotel thingo (even though its more expensive than a normal hostel). Disneyland on Saturday, going to walk around a bit on Sunday and see some cosplay (yay for Japanese-ness) and I'm not sure what else I'm doing.
I'll ask my little guide thingo =P Shall talk to you all soon. Back in a week!
Byes
So I left Vancouver the morning after that last post. I went around to the houses and said bye to everyone, went for a drink with Robin and Edwina (alcohol still doesn't agree with me too much), and yeah, generally tidied everything up.
I decided to bus it to the airport (as I was too stingy to part with the $40 cab fare) which turned out ok. Except for my camera falling out of the pouch while I was pushing the suitcase and sliding across the ground - it now has a bunch of scratches on one side. It isn't too bad though. I'll live.
But yeah, a lot of pushing and shoving but I eventually made it to the airport, and then waited around for 3 hours. Had Tim Horton's as my last meal in Canada (it's like a Canadian Starbucks rival, except it actually has a little bit of real food), before a 10 hour plane flight in which I slept, and watched Rush Hour 3 and Bourne Supremacy, both of which were fairly decent.
Got to Tokyo, got through customs easily enough, and then made my way to the hostel. Took a rather long time to get there, but made it there in the end, with the help of a couple of strangers.
The people here in Japan are as helpful as you've heard btw. They'll stop and ask if you need help if you look confused with a map in your hand (I've tested this thoroughly). Today I was walking down the street, crossed it to cross-reference a map with the one on a sign, and a lady who had passed me and was 15 metres down the road saw me, and came back to ask if I needed any help.
I've also decided that they're really friendly to people who can't speak Japanese - very willing to help. Also a good thing for me.
Got to the hostel after someone who was staying there saw me with the printout and asked if I was going there. Also handy.
Checked in fine and spent the night trying to figure out what to do. It turned out that during the flight I never made it to the night, so I had quite a long day that day.
Today I've come to Kamakura, which was the capital of Japan in about 1100-1300 AD. It's got lots of temples and a big bronze Buddha. I'm staying in a hotel at the moment - private room with a bed, lounge chair, tv, fridge and air conditioner. The bathrooms are shared, but really, really nice, and the toilet has a heated seat (which I haven't sat on =().
And that's about it. Going back to Tokyo tomorrow - probably try to stay in a capsule hotel thingo (even though its more expensive than a normal hostel). Disneyland on Saturday, going to walk around a bit on Sunday and see some cosplay (yay for Japanese-ness) and I'm not sure what else I'm doing.
I'll ask my little guide thingo =P Shall talk to you all soon. Back in a week!
Byes
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
My Home Away From Home
Ok, so I've been back in Vancouver for a little while now, but haven't had time (or just haven't done it) to post. Sorry about that. Anyways, photos are now mostly going to have to wait until I get back home, and then finish up the blog.
I will, however, elaborate on what I've been doing since I left.
The Vegas Strip which I visited on the 9th (wow, so long ago) was pretty impressive. There are so many hotels, and each of them has their own little theme. I'm still in awe at how many rooms there were though - I still think that there's no way in hell that they could fill all of them. Apparently one of the hotels has just built another building with another 5000 rooms in it. I don't think there's 5000 hotel rooms in all of Adelaide. Also, 3 of the biggest hotels are being pulled down in the next 6 months for rebuilding.
It's a crazy, crazy place. The Venetian is pretty nice (tries to capture the essence of Venice =P) and there's Treasure Island, which has a bunch of ships and stuff; the Stratosphere, which has a big tower out the front; Excalibur, which is castle-like (almost looks like a Disney castle); New York which has a statue of Liberty and a bunch of building like that of New York (no World Trade Centre though); Paris, which has an Effiel Tower and an Arc.... something that I can't remember the name of; and there's heaps of others too.
Yeah, kinda overwhelming.
Anyways the 10th I went to the Grand Canyon. Woke up at 5 am for a 5:45 am pickup down the road. It was scary that I walked past casinos which had people still gambling at that time. So I sat down where I was meant to be picked up and waited... until 6am and noone had shown up. So I rang the company. I was told that I was "rescheduled" and that my tour was now tomorrow.
... what? They rescheduled me, didn't tell me, and asked if it was ok that I went tomorrow, when I'd been there at 5:45am. I couldn't make it the next day, and told the guy so, so he said he'd "See what he could do for me" and sure enough, 5 seconds later, told me that there was another bus, just down the road (a block away). I went there, and it wasnt there. Rang him again and he said he'd been mistaken, and that it'd be there in 5 minutes. 15 minutes later I ring him again, and he said it'd be there in 2 minutes. Almost 10 minutes later they call me, and say the bus is there, and that I was at the wrong spot. In fact, the right spot was where I'd been waiting in the first place.
So I eventually got on the bus. The tour was awesome. The guide we had was really good, so much so that I didn't mind her not-so-subtle hints for tips because the "Tipping culture" is different in Vegas. She was the first woman bus driver in New York before moving to Vegas to do tours. I visited the South Rim, and it was awesome (almost made up for the stupidness of the morning).
It was funny when she almost left someone behind at one of the stops. She counted and everything, and had started driving away before someone stopped her and told her there was one missing.
Anyhow, the Grand Canyon was spectacular and amazing. My photos really don't do it justice, but one day I'll go back with a better camera and take better photos. No idea how I can describe it other than that =P
The next day (Friday) I bussed out of Vegas, to LA again for 6 hours before an overnight bus to San Francisco. Turns out that shopping centres close at 8 on a Friday night, and there's nothing to do. So I ended up spending 4 hours in the LA Union Station reading.
Bus to San Francisco was overnight, but ok. This bus driver actually did leave someone behind at our stop.... at 3am at a Burger King. It was pretty dodgy, some old lady tried to get on the bus when she wasn't a passenger (apparently she was on one of the other buses). The bus driver left, and about 10 minutes later, stopped, and turned on the lights. Started walked back on through the bus before saying "There was someone sitting there wasn't there? A big black guy."
...whoops. So he turns around and goes back. It would've sucked for the guy that was left behind. Stuck at 3 am in the middle of nowhere. Bus driver got a little defensive when he let the guy back on the bus, but the guy took it well enough I guess. This bus driver counted too, so apparently bus drivers can't count =P
Got to San Francisco at 6:30 am, and tried to find my hostel. I had the name and address, and a general idea of where it was, so I figured I would have no problem finding it, just pick up a map from the bus terminal and find it.
Unfortunately the bus terminal was closed, but I still kinda knew where to go, so I started off in that direction, and managed to pick up a tourist map on the way. Unfortunately once more the street wasn't on the map - turns out it was a little side alley which was too small to fit the name on it (Isadora Duncan Lane). So I walked around a while before trying each of the unnamed lanes on the map in the area - luckily I found it fairly quickly after that, but not after walking for half an hour more than I needed to.
The hostel was really nice (called the Adelaide Hostel if anyone is planning on going to SF). They checked me in at 7:30, and even gave me the bed right away - which I gratefully took and fell asleep on immediately.
Later in the day I met up with Anna and Yu Heng, and we went to Alcatrez. The audio tour was apparently award-winning, and it was actually pretty good. The prison was kinda cool, and there was a little boy who was kinda cute, asking questions and stuff. The gift shop had a couple of amusing items though. You could buy a rock, which was formerly a part of the prison, which was a little stupid (it really was just a rock in a box). They also sold "Extreme Dark Chocolate" which I kinda regret not buying. Extreme Dark Chocolate sounds cool =P
We then went to Fisherman's wharf, tried the chocolate place that I forget the name of (it's Ghiradhelli or something?) and was the uber curvy street thingo. Also got my Zune that night (after 11 pm). I'm using it at the moment, and I'm enjoying it, pretty much what I expected it to be =P
Sunday I biked over the Golden Gate Bridge, which was good. Hard work, but good. Got to a touristy town which was touristy, and that's about it.
Monday I went to Berkeley, which was not quite as impressive as Yale, but still pretty good. Saw Yu Heng and Anna again (for the last time), and got a hair cut.
Tuesday I walked around SF, went to Chinatown which was really big, took photos, went to the Asian Art Museum, and yeah, not much. Took the train to Seattle that night.
The train was a little interesting. Got on and had a seat next to a couple of red-necked. Both probably around 30-40, and had been on the train for a little while already. The woman had a magazine, at which point the guy started to go on and on and on about how much he liked the butt of one of the models. Who did he think cared? =P Then at some point the conversation got on to bridges, at which the woman proclaimed "I once had sex under the London Bridge." Huh?
Anyways, the train took a little while. Had to stop for 2 hours because the track was broken. But we went through hills and snow again, so it was pretty and such. It was a 24 train ride in the end, which wasn't too bad, but I got into Seattle at about 10:30-11pm.
Checked into the hostel (The Green Tortoise Hostel - another rather good hostel), for that night.
The next day I wandered around Seattle trying to buy stuff. Didn't find much really, but I did end up getting bored and going to the Seattle Art Museum (SAM). It was one of the better ones I'd been to, a few really interesting and cool pieces, so I quite enjoyed it.
The night I didn't do much, got on a computer at the hostel and chatted for a while. It was comedy night, which meant there were a bunch of local stand-up comedians around.
... they were awful. Half of their jokes were greeted by silence, and it was rather pitiful. Saddened me immensely.
Friday I walked around a bit more, and got on the bus to Vancouver. This wasn't as eventful as my other bus trips, got across the border without hassle this time and yeah, got back to UBC.
Good to see everyone again and such. Bummed around residence on Saturday, and went to see a movie at night (Juno - which was quite good for the type of movie it was, and I kinda enjoyed it, although it wasn't really my type of movie).
Sunday I went to church, went to the city for a little while, and had my little farewell dinner at a place called the Eatery. Dinner was nice, the company and the food was awesome. It's a Japanese place which isn't entirely Japanese. Kinda a 'hip' place, and yeah, the food was good.
I had a Deep Fried Mars Bar (so I'm officially going to live a couple years less than I was formerly), which was actually surprisingly good, and edible. Definitely needed the ice-cream that came with it though. But yeah, definitely wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.
That brings me to today. I didn't really do much. Packed for most of forever, closed my bank account, and walked around UBC for the last time. I'm going to go around, have a chat to a few people in a little while, before I leave for Japan tomorrow. Have to leave here in the morning for a 2pm flight.
So yeah... that's the end. Should tidy this up and go now...
Hopefully will post a little bit from Japan. Talk to you all soon (and see most of you soon too).
Justin =)
I will, however, elaborate on what I've been doing since I left.
The Vegas Strip which I visited on the 9th (wow, so long ago) was pretty impressive. There are so many hotels, and each of them has their own little theme. I'm still in awe at how many rooms there were though - I still think that there's no way in hell that they could fill all of them. Apparently one of the hotels has just built another building with another 5000 rooms in it. I don't think there's 5000 hotel rooms in all of Adelaide. Also, 3 of the biggest hotels are being pulled down in the next 6 months for rebuilding.
It's a crazy, crazy place. The Venetian is pretty nice (tries to capture the essence of Venice =P) and there's Treasure Island, which has a bunch of ships and stuff; the Stratosphere, which has a big tower out the front; Excalibur, which is castle-like (almost looks like a Disney castle); New York which has a statue of Liberty and a bunch of building like that of New York (no World Trade Centre though); Paris, which has an Effiel Tower and an Arc.... something that I can't remember the name of; and there's heaps of others too.
Yeah, kinda overwhelming.
Anyways the 10th I went to the Grand Canyon. Woke up at 5 am for a 5:45 am pickup down the road. It was scary that I walked past casinos which had people still gambling at that time. So I sat down where I was meant to be picked up and waited... until 6am and noone had shown up. So I rang the company. I was told that I was "rescheduled" and that my tour was now tomorrow.
... what? They rescheduled me, didn't tell me, and asked if it was ok that I went tomorrow, when I'd been there at 5:45am. I couldn't make it the next day, and told the guy so, so he said he'd "See what he could do for me" and sure enough, 5 seconds later, told me that there was another bus, just down the road (a block away). I went there, and it wasnt there. Rang him again and he said he'd been mistaken, and that it'd be there in 5 minutes. 15 minutes later I ring him again, and he said it'd be there in 2 minutes. Almost 10 minutes later they call me, and say the bus is there, and that I was at the wrong spot. In fact, the right spot was where I'd been waiting in the first place.
So I eventually got on the bus. The tour was awesome. The guide we had was really good, so much so that I didn't mind her not-so-subtle hints for tips because the "Tipping culture" is different in Vegas. She was the first woman bus driver in New York before moving to Vegas to do tours. I visited the South Rim, and it was awesome (almost made up for the stupidness of the morning).
It was funny when she almost left someone behind at one of the stops. She counted and everything, and had started driving away before someone stopped her and told her there was one missing.
Anyhow, the Grand Canyon was spectacular and amazing. My photos really don't do it justice, but one day I'll go back with a better camera and take better photos. No idea how I can describe it other than that =P
The next day (Friday) I bussed out of Vegas, to LA again for 6 hours before an overnight bus to San Francisco. Turns out that shopping centres close at 8 on a Friday night, and there's nothing to do. So I ended up spending 4 hours in the LA Union Station reading.
Bus to San Francisco was overnight, but ok. This bus driver actually did leave someone behind at our stop.... at 3am at a Burger King. It was pretty dodgy, some old lady tried to get on the bus when she wasn't a passenger (apparently she was on one of the other buses). The bus driver left, and about 10 minutes later, stopped, and turned on the lights. Started walked back on through the bus before saying "There was someone sitting there wasn't there? A big black guy."
...whoops. So he turns around and goes back. It would've sucked for the guy that was left behind. Stuck at 3 am in the middle of nowhere. Bus driver got a little defensive when he let the guy back on the bus, but the guy took it well enough I guess. This bus driver counted too, so apparently bus drivers can't count =P
Got to San Francisco at 6:30 am, and tried to find my hostel. I had the name and address, and a general idea of where it was, so I figured I would have no problem finding it, just pick up a map from the bus terminal and find it.
Unfortunately the bus terminal was closed, but I still kinda knew where to go, so I started off in that direction, and managed to pick up a tourist map on the way. Unfortunately once more the street wasn't on the map - turns out it was a little side alley which was too small to fit the name on it (Isadora Duncan Lane). So I walked around a while before trying each of the unnamed lanes on the map in the area - luckily I found it fairly quickly after that, but not after walking for half an hour more than I needed to.
The hostel was really nice (called the Adelaide Hostel if anyone is planning on going to SF). They checked me in at 7:30, and even gave me the bed right away - which I gratefully took and fell asleep on immediately.
Later in the day I met up with Anna and Yu Heng, and we went to Alcatrez. The audio tour was apparently award-winning, and it was actually pretty good. The prison was kinda cool, and there was a little boy who was kinda cute, asking questions and stuff. The gift shop had a couple of amusing items though. You could buy a rock, which was formerly a part of the prison, which was a little stupid (it really was just a rock in a box). They also sold "Extreme Dark Chocolate" which I kinda regret not buying. Extreme Dark Chocolate sounds cool =P
We then went to Fisherman's wharf, tried the chocolate place that I forget the name of (it's Ghiradhelli or something?) and was the uber curvy street thingo. Also got my Zune that night (after 11 pm). I'm using it at the moment, and I'm enjoying it, pretty much what I expected it to be =P
Sunday I biked over the Golden Gate Bridge, which was good. Hard work, but good. Got to a touristy town which was touristy, and that's about it.
Monday I went to Berkeley, which was not quite as impressive as Yale, but still pretty good. Saw Yu Heng and Anna again (for the last time), and got a hair cut.
Tuesday I walked around SF, went to Chinatown which was really big, took photos, went to the Asian Art Museum, and yeah, not much. Took the train to Seattle that night.
The train was a little interesting. Got on and had a seat next to a couple of red-necked. Both probably around 30-40, and had been on the train for a little while already. The woman had a magazine, at which point the guy started to go on and on and on about how much he liked the butt of one of the models. Who did he think cared? =P Then at some point the conversation got on to bridges, at which the woman proclaimed "I once had sex under the London Bridge." Huh?
Anyways, the train took a little while. Had to stop for 2 hours because the track was broken. But we went through hills and snow again, so it was pretty and such. It was a 24 train ride in the end, which wasn't too bad, but I got into Seattle at about 10:30-11pm.
Checked into the hostel (The Green Tortoise Hostel - another rather good hostel), for that night.
The next day I wandered around Seattle trying to buy stuff. Didn't find much really, but I did end up getting bored and going to the Seattle Art Museum (SAM). It was one of the better ones I'd been to, a few really interesting and cool pieces, so I quite enjoyed it.
The night I didn't do much, got on a computer at the hostel and chatted for a while. It was comedy night, which meant there were a bunch of local stand-up comedians around.
... they were awful. Half of their jokes were greeted by silence, and it was rather pitiful. Saddened me immensely.
Friday I walked around a bit more, and got on the bus to Vancouver. This wasn't as eventful as my other bus trips, got across the border without hassle this time and yeah, got back to UBC.
Good to see everyone again and such. Bummed around residence on Saturday, and went to see a movie at night (Juno - which was quite good for the type of movie it was, and I kinda enjoyed it, although it wasn't really my type of movie).
Sunday I went to church, went to the city for a little while, and had my little farewell dinner at a place called the Eatery. Dinner was nice, the company and the food was awesome. It's a Japanese place which isn't entirely Japanese. Kinda a 'hip' place, and yeah, the food was good.
I had a Deep Fried Mars Bar (so I'm officially going to live a couple years less than I was formerly), which was actually surprisingly good, and edible. Definitely needed the ice-cream that came with it though. But yeah, definitely wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.
That brings me to today. I didn't really do much. Packed for most of forever, closed my bank account, and walked around UBC for the last time. I'm going to go around, have a chat to a few people in a little while, before I leave for Japan tomorrow. Have to leave here in the morning for a 2pm flight.
So yeah... that's the end. Should tidy this up and go now...
Hopefully will post a little bit from Japan. Talk to you all soon (and see most of you soon too).
Justin =)
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Almost Back to Square One
Hi everyone,
I'm too tired to make a proper post, so this is just a quick note to say hi. Since my last post I've walked up and down the Veags Strip, visited the Grand Canyon, waited 4 hours in a LA train station, went to Alcatrez, biked over the Golden Gate Bridge, visited Berkeley, and taken another 24 hour train ride.
I'm in Seattle now for a day, then I'm heading back to Vancouver, where I will probably write a very muchly detailed post expanding on most of the above.
Shall talk to you all later, two weeks one day until I get home (=
I'm too tired to make a proper post, so this is just a quick note to say hi. Since my last post I've walked up and down the Veags Strip, visited the Grand Canyon, waited 4 hours in a LA train station, went to Alcatrez, biked over the Golden Gate Bridge, visited Berkeley, and taken another 24 hour train ride.
I'm in Seattle now for a day, then I'm heading back to Vancouver, where I will probably write a very muchly detailed post expanding on most of the above.
Shall talk to you all later, two weeks one day until I get home (=
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Hollywood and Stuff
Greetings from Vegas. Las Vegas, where there are a lot of bright lights and stuff.
I actually seem to be in a place which seems a little dodgy, so I probably won't be going out at night much, but oh well. Lets see, been ages since my last post, apologies for that - decent internet time has been hard to find.
So I went to New York, the Animal Museum that I went to was the Museum of Natural History... so I was almost kinda half sorta right (ie, not at all).
The 2nd (I'm not quite sure what day of the week that was) was rather interesting. Trained back to New York in the morning, and got there at about 11. The first thing I needed to do was book my flight to LA. I'd tried online the night before, got a really good flight at $170, but couldn't buy it because I didn't have a US credit card (or a credit card with a US shipping address).
So I went to try to find the STA travel. Ying looked up an address in the morning, gave it to me, and I tried to find it. Got out of Grand Central Station and walked the wrong way for about half an hour, so I took the subway back to Grand Central. Then I walked the right way, for another half an hour, before realising that it was much further than I'd remembered when I'd looked it up the previous night.
Found an internet cafe, and found the address of the STA that I'd seen before - a block away from Grand Central. So I took the Subway back to Grand Central again, and found this place in about 5 minutes. Unfortunately, it was closed down, but there were 2 other STAs - one of them being the one I'd walked towards for so long, the other on the way to the Cloisters, which is where I was intending to go.
So eventually I took a couple of subways and made it to this STA, waited for 20 minutes before being served, only to find out that the flight wasnt there anymore, and that the cheapest one was $270. So I lost $100 and wasted an hour and a half that day =(
The Cloisters made me feel better though, really awesome stuff from Europe - some rich guy bought a bunch of artifacts and stuff, and also bits of old castles and things, and they've been put together in a nice little setup in castle in a park. Lots of really cool stuff there.
The next day I went to the Statue of Liberty, spent a fair bit of time at Ellis Island (an immigraton museum at the site of the port of entry during the early 1900s), which was kinda interesting.
Met up with Yu Heng and Anna for dinner that night (they'd gone to the Niagara Falls), and yeah, stuff.
The day after I spent flying to LA. I visited Ground Zero and the little memorial-like place before getting to the airport really early, having the flight delayed, having Yu Heng and Anna's flight delayed (so I waited at LA airport for ages), and then finally getting to the LA hostel past midnight.
In LA we went to Hollywood (I bought a 4 gig SD card from a complete bastard, but it was fairly cheap, so meh), went to a beach, bought a pink Barbie kite, and went to Universal Studios, which were all kinda cool. The weather was really nice to us, considering the forecast was for rain on all four of the days.
Today we went to a market near our hostel, and Yu Heng and Anna went back to Berkely (San Franscisco) while I bussed to Vegas.
And that's about it. The buses we used were megabus, which are really cheap (if you book more than 6 weeks in advance you can get a ticket for $1 - a couple on the bus got return tickets for both of them for a total of $13). There were only 5 people and a dog on the bus too (including the driver).
Anyways, that's it. I'll probably spend a little bit more time here. Going to wander around Vegas tomorrow, tour the Grand Canyon the next day, and then go back to LA and on to San Francisco the day after that.
Hopefully post again sometime soon. Take Care =)
I actually seem to be in a place which seems a little dodgy, so I probably won't be going out at night much, but oh well. Lets see, been ages since my last post, apologies for that - decent internet time has been hard to find.
So I went to New York, the Animal Museum that I went to was the Museum of Natural History... so I was almost kinda half sorta right (ie, not at all).
The 2nd (I'm not quite sure what day of the week that was) was rather interesting. Trained back to New York in the morning, and got there at about 11. The first thing I needed to do was book my flight to LA. I'd tried online the night before, got a really good flight at $170, but couldn't buy it because I didn't have a US credit card (or a credit card with a US shipping address).
So I went to try to find the STA travel. Ying looked up an address in the morning, gave it to me, and I tried to find it. Got out of Grand Central Station and walked the wrong way for about half an hour, so I took the subway back to Grand Central. Then I walked the right way, for another half an hour, before realising that it was much further than I'd remembered when I'd looked it up the previous night.
Found an internet cafe, and found the address of the STA that I'd seen before - a block away from Grand Central. So I took the Subway back to Grand Central again, and found this place in about 5 minutes. Unfortunately, it was closed down, but there were 2 other STAs - one of them being the one I'd walked towards for so long, the other on the way to the Cloisters, which is where I was intending to go.
So eventually I took a couple of subways and made it to this STA, waited for 20 minutes before being served, only to find out that the flight wasnt there anymore, and that the cheapest one was $270. So I lost $100 and wasted an hour and a half that day =(
The Cloisters made me feel better though, really awesome stuff from Europe - some rich guy bought a bunch of artifacts and stuff, and also bits of old castles and things, and they've been put together in a nice little setup in castle in a park. Lots of really cool stuff there.
The next day I went to the Statue of Liberty, spent a fair bit of time at Ellis Island (an immigraton museum at the site of the port of entry during the early 1900s), which was kinda interesting.
Met up with Yu Heng and Anna for dinner that night (they'd gone to the Niagara Falls), and yeah, stuff.
The day after I spent flying to LA. I visited Ground Zero and the little memorial-like place before getting to the airport really early, having the flight delayed, having Yu Heng and Anna's flight delayed (so I waited at LA airport for ages), and then finally getting to the LA hostel past midnight.
In LA we went to Hollywood (I bought a 4 gig SD card from a complete bastard, but it was fairly cheap, so meh), went to a beach, bought a pink Barbie kite, and went to Universal Studios, which were all kinda cool. The weather was really nice to us, considering the forecast was for rain on all four of the days.
Today we went to a market near our hostel, and Yu Heng and Anna went back to Berkely (San Franscisco) while I bussed to Vegas.
And that's about it. The buses we used were megabus, which are really cheap (if you book more than 6 weeks in advance you can get a ticket for $1 - a couple on the bus got return tickets for both of them for a total of $13). There were only 5 people and a dog on the bus too (including the driver).
Anyways, that's it. I'll probably spend a little bit more time here. Going to wander around Vegas tomorrow, tour the Grand Canyon the next day, and then go back to LA and on to San Francisco the day after that.
Hopefully post again sometime soon. Take Care =)
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Happy New Year
Hi all. Another quick post - I'm guessing all of them will be like this at least until I get back to Vancouver.
I made it to New York for New Years, but unfortunately Times Square was absolutely packed, we tried to go at about 8, maybe 8:30, and there was absolutely no way we were going to be able to see anything, so we gave up.
We then couldn't find anything else to do except for try to watch fireworks which we were not sure were on, so we didn't, and I bussed back to New Haven.
I managed to see the Museum of Modern Art, Ground Zero, Wall St and Museum of... agriculture or something (something to do with animals anyways) during the day though.
Came to New Haven (where Yale is), and spend the day looking around Yale (although it was raining), and watching football.
It's really impressive. The buildings look really old, but no doubt really rich. I'll post pictures probably when I get back to Vancouver.
Anyways, back to New York today before leaving for LA on the 4th. See you all later sometime.
I made it to New York for New Years, but unfortunately Times Square was absolutely packed, we tried to go at about 8, maybe 8:30, and there was absolutely no way we were going to be able to see anything, so we gave up.
We then couldn't find anything else to do except for try to watch fireworks which we were not sure were on, so we didn't, and I bussed back to New Haven.
I managed to see the Museum of Modern Art, Ground Zero, Wall St and Museum of... agriculture or something (something to do with animals anyways) during the day though.
Came to New Haven (where Yale is), and spend the day looking around Yale (although it was raining), and watching football.
It's really impressive. The buildings look really old, but no doubt really rich. I'll post pictures probably when I get back to Vancouver.
Anyways, back to New York today before leaving for LA on the 4th. See you all later sometime.
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