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As you can no doubt tell from my proper use of punctuation, I'm back at home typing on a standard English keyboard. My plane was a tad late, but not too bad. I have a lot of pictures -- we're talking something like 5 burned CDs in my luggage. I'll sort and upload the good ones to somewhere, but I'm not yet sure where.
I like the tagging feature of flickr, but not the upload limit or the maximum of three 'sets' (albums) for non-paying users. Also, I've never found it to have the most intuitive interface, which is an important consideration for albums one might want to send to, say, Grandma. Picasaweb doesn't do tagging, and neither does Picasa...and I don't need photo editing, just storage organization. Anyone tried photobucket? Lightbox? Smugmug?
I should be writing about the actual trip, but it's still distilling, so here's the briefest of rundowns:
I arrived in Fukuoka late on the 8th and left early the next morning for Ube, where I stayed two nights at Evan's apartment and rode a 'mama-chari' around the town. On Tuesday I took the train to Osaka, where I stayed two nights in an overly sterile, regimented hostel that fell somewhere between elementary school and jail in tone. In Osaka I wandered around parks and gardens, large shopping areas, old museums, and went to the aquarium. Then off to Kyoto to stay in a Ryokan (Japanese inn) with, thank goodness, a private bath, see some temples and shrines and souvenirs, do utterly foolish things on a bicycle, and wander around the amazing train station.
On the 15 I went up to Kawasaki, just south of Tokyo, and met Kiyoko, who I miss already/again. At that point it started really feeling like vacation - the girls (Kiyoko, Rina, and Yuriko) and their families all had more restful schedules for me than I made for myself, while seeing, really, the same amount of stuff. I think I need a keeper, sometimes. Kiyoko and I went temple-seeing in Kamakura, lounged around a cafe playing Othelo/reversi whatever (She kicked my ass), and spent the evening wandering through China town in Yokohama. The next day we went to the mall to get me some new, cheap shorts, as Japan was a whole lot hotter and more humid than I imagined (When I saw '85-90', I just stupidly assumed that those were highs and it cooled off in th evenings. It doesn't). She took me up to Tokyo and handed me off to Rina (The girls organised my Tokyo stay between themselves, right over my head, which was odd-feeling but really nice). I was a little nervous about seeing Rina, since it's been almost three years, but I'd forgotten that the real reason I kept involved with AUAP was that Rina and I had such a good relationship - she was my first AUAP room-mate.
I'd apparently never talked about my surgery history with Rina, btw, though she knew my leg issues were congenital. There's some kind of fascination there for her that I'd never encountered before - not clinical, not macabre - and even though I don't understand it, I appreciate it, because it meant lots of kind of idle foot/leg rubs, something only mom or![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
emony42 have ever done. I'm really not getting enough human contact, recently.
Speaking of which, Japan is not a very 'touchy' culture - Rina made her parents hug me goodbye because that's what we white people do (insert chuckle), but they were clearly uncomfortable. I think that Rina and Kiyo both like that part of US culture (I know it's not homogenous). I know Kiyo likes it, because we talked about ways of interacting with kids, and how much children are hugged in the US. Between that, the fact we lived together, and the different Japanese standards of young-female-friend interaction, there was lots of hand-holding as we walked around, which was really quite charming.
But I digress...
Spent a few days with Rina's parents (She doesn't live there anymore, but has a room). They were really kind, very fun and comfortable-homey in a very brand new house. We went to an art museum and went caving at Nippara limestone cave, which has far fewer safety precautions than similar attractions in Suit-happy US. Rina's mom taught me how to properly tie an obi. I spent a day and night with Yuriko, then my handlers swapped me back again to Rina. Kiyoko's family picked me up at Rina's to go to Mt Fuji, which situation I'm afraid I made rather awkward by being in the middle of making scones when they arrived, so that they ended up being invited in for breakfast - a perfectly normal happening at my folks' house, but not too standard for Japan! Went with Kiyoko and her folks' to Mt Fuji and an Onsen (hot springs/spa/baths), then to their house in Chiba for the last night.
Now, after 29 hours awake and 12 asleep, here I am!
I like the tagging feature of flickr, but not the upload limit or the maximum of three 'sets' (albums) for non-paying users. Also, I've never found it to have the most intuitive interface, which is an important consideration for albums one might want to send to, say, Grandma. Picasaweb doesn't do tagging, and neither does Picasa...and I don't need photo editing, just storage organization. Anyone tried photobucket? Lightbox? Smugmug?
I should be writing about the actual trip, but it's still distilling, so here's the briefest of rundowns:
I arrived in Fukuoka late on the 8th and left early the next morning for Ube, where I stayed two nights at Evan's apartment and rode a 'mama-chari' around the town. On Tuesday I took the train to Osaka, where I stayed two nights in an overly sterile, regimented hostel that fell somewhere between elementary school and jail in tone. In Osaka I wandered around parks and gardens, large shopping areas, old museums, and went to the aquarium. Then off to Kyoto to stay in a Ryokan (Japanese inn) with, thank goodness, a private bath, see some temples and shrines and souvenirs, do utterly foolish things on a bicycle, and wander around the amazing train station.
On the 15 I went up to Kawasaki, just south of Tokyo, and met Kiyoko, who I miss already/again. At that point it started really feeling like vacation - the girls (Kiyoko, Rina, and Yuriko) and their families all had more restful schedules for me than I made for myself, while seeing, really, the same amount of stuff. I think I need a keeper, sometimes. Kiyoko and I went temple-seeing in Kamakura, lounged around a cafe playing Othelo/reversi whatever (She kicked my ass), and spent the evening wandering through China town in Yokohama. The next day we went to the mall to get me some new, cheap shorts, as Japan was a whole lot hotter and more humid than I imagined (When I saw '85-90', I just stupidly assumed that those were highs and it cooled off in th evenings. It doesn't). She took me up to Tokyo and handed me off to Rina (The girls organised my Tokyo stay between themselves, right over my head, which was odd-feeling but really nice). I was a little nervous about seeing Rina, since it's been almost three years, but I'd forgotten that the real reason I kept involved with AUAP was that Rina and I had such a good relationship - she was my first AUAP room-mate.
I'd apparently never talked about my surgery history with Rina, btw, though she knew my leg issues were congenital. There's some kind of fascination there for her that I'd never encountered before - not clinical, not macabre - and even though I don't understand it, I appreciate it, because it meant lots of kind of idle foot/leg rubs, something only mom or
emony42 have ever done. I'm really not getting enough human contact, recently.Speaking of which, Japan is not a very 'touchy' culture - Rina made her parents hug me goodbye because that's what we white people do (insert chuckle), but they were clearly uncomfortable. I think that Rina and Kiyo both like that part of US culture (I know it's not homogenous). I know Kiyo likes it, because we talked about ways of interacting with kids, and how much children are hugged in the US. Between that, the fact we lived together, and the different Japanese standards of young-female-friend interaction, there was lots of hand-holding as we walked around, which was really quite charming.
But I digress...
Spent a few days with Rina's parents (She doesn't live there anymore, but has a room). They were really kind, very fun and comfortable-homey in a very brand new house. We went to an art museum and went caving at Nippara limestone cave, which has far fewer safety precautions than similar attractions in Suit-happy US. Rina's mom taught me how to properly tie an obi. I spent a day and night with Yuriko, then my handlers swapped me back again to Rina. Kiyoko's family picked me up at Rina's to go to Mt Fuji, which situation I'm afraid I made rather awkward by being in the middle of making scones when they arrived, so that they ended up being invited in for breakfast - a perfectly normal happening at my folks' house, but not too standard for Japan! Went with Kiyoko and her folks' to Mt Fuji and an Onsen (hot springs/spa/baths), then to their house in Chiba for the last night.
Now, after 29 hours awake and 12 asleep, here I am!
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no subject
Date: 2007-09-23 11:23 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2007-09-24 08:18 am (UTC)From:I sympathize with the whole being awake forever in flying long hauls. Both times I've arrived in the UK, I've been awake for what feels like zillions of hours by the time I get where I'm headed.
I can't wait to see lots of pictures. I'm afraid I know nothing about photo hosts though. :: shrug ::