I've been telling everyone that I need a vacation from my vacations. When Brian showed up in Japan, I got to act the tour guide. And when Michi and I went to Michigan, I got to do basically the same.
In any case, for Bri, we went to several different restaurants which served Japanese and Chinese food while in Japan, and went to a couple bars and clubs. Such as Dr. Jikel and Mr. Hyde, a movie-themed bar that had the guns from Pulp Fiction, the sword and shield from 300, the frozen Han Solo from Empire Strikes Back, etc, or PoPoPuRe, a maid-cafe in Akihabara that lived up to our expectations more than the place John and I went to last year. And last of all, we hit Nyoibow Club, a Dragon Ball-themed hostess club. My favorite of the 3 is definitely Dr. Jikel and Mr. Hyde.
But for the most part we spent a bunch of time in Kyoto. We were able to hit up Ryoan-ji, the Arashiyama area, and I got to see the Golden Pavilion at dusk, which was worth it by itself. Our second day in Kyoto was used up seeing Fushimi Inari Taisha, Tou-ji, Nijou Castle, and the Silver Pavilion (which is not silver, by the way). The third day was kinda wasted because we just came straight back to my place and spent the rest of the day inside playing video games. Bri looked like he was coming down with a cold, and his popped blisters had already formed more blisters underneath from all the walking. Don't ask me why a pro tennis instructor got blisters underneath blisters...
After that, it was kinda downhill: we checked out Akihabara, met with Michi for dinner after walking around the entire exterior of the Edo Imperial grounds (something like 4 or 5 kilometers), and then packed our bags.
Michigan was cold. I was a little disappointed in Michi's listening ability, but wasn't too surprised about how she fared communication-wise: as long as people were willing and had time to sit and listen, and make sure they understood her or she understood them, she did really well, but that just isn't possible in most stores and restaurants. The first real day in Michigan was mostly driving around MSU's campus, showing her one of the buildings where I used to have most of my classes, getting tickets for our Amtrak ride back to Chicago for the flight to Japan, and shopping at Moosejaw and at a crappy Kroger. As always, I was really impressed by the Moosejaw people. They know their stuff, they really like to help, and they have some of the best gear, even if their selection is a little small. We made our parents some ginger pork which was pretty good, but a little too strong on the ginger.
The second day we drastically overslept, and didn't get to the rock climbing gym in Ann Arbor until about 2:30 or 3:00. We had a short day of climbing, and then bought a butt-ton of gear. It was just so cheap I had to resist buying more.
The third day was more sports/outdoor wear shopping at an outlet, and then showing everyone my presentation, seeing my bro for the first time since our fight almost 2 years ago, and doing what must have been the 4 part of Christmas presents exchange. There was a bit of drama about that, but that's all I'll say here.
The fourth day was January 1st, 2011. We woke up early, and drove to Lake Lansing to watch the sunrise over the frozen lake. Alas, it was cloudy and all we saw was a brightening, and not a dawn. After heading back to the family house, we did a bunch of cleaning, but still had time to go for a walk around part of the private lake, and to watch some Mythbusters and part of The Last of the Mohicans. And then we headed over to Jackson to catch a ride on Amtrak. I hate to rag on this poor dying mode of transportation in the US, but it was really kinda deplorable. The station building closes at 3PM, so for any trains after that you have to wait out in the cold or heat, depending on the season. There are no bathrooms, because the building is closed. You just walk around it and wait by the tracks. There is no information about the train or its status to be seen anywhere; if you need to, you have to look it up on the internet using a smartphone, should you be rich or lucky enough to be carrying one.
The train was 23 minutes late, but we got on and from there it was smooth sailing to Union Station. From there we got a taxi to the hotel, checked-in, passed out, and got up to make our flight back to Japan on January 2nd. You all already know the only interesting things about our flight back.
I'm glad today was not a full day of work. As William Gibson writes:
She knows, now, absolutely, hearing the white noise that is London, that Damien's theory of jet lag is correct: that her mortal soul is leagues behind her, being reeled in on some ghostly umbilical down the vanished wake of the plane that brought her here, hundreds of thousands of feet above the Atlantic. Souls can't move that quickly, and are left behind, and must be awaited, upon arrival, like lost luggage.
I woke up this morning feeling exactly like this, like my consciousness hadn't quite caught up to my body yet. I went in to work, organized the room, did some recording for the boss, and then took off. I was able to get some grocery shopping done, clean up my room a little bit, and even await my repaired climbing shoes. I'm actually not too happy about that: only some of the spots that needed repair were actually repaired, so I'd like to send them back, but I think they might try to charge me again, which is BS. We'll see.
Cheers,
