Domestically Challenged

Hakone

Monday I got up early to try to meet my mom in Odawara. She wanted to go to Hakone and I was happy to accompany her. We met up without any difficulty in Odawara and travelled to Hakone-Yumato. It was scorching hot and I was happy that the trains were air conditioned. When we got to Hakone, it was too early to check into our room so we took the train to the open air museum. I'm not really big on museums (or history in general unless it has to do with something gross like parasites...but I digress) but the Open Air Museum was phenomenal. I had no idea what to expect (mostly because I hadn't asked) so when we walked onto the grounds and saw all of the sculptures, I was completely in awe.

I think that this was my favourite sculpture.

There are many more sculpture pictures in the Japan 2007 photo album, including an especially perverted one (or maybe its just me) by Henry Moore.

There was also a foot bath where my mom and I happily indulged our sore feet. I had a horrible headache though so we stopped for an iced coffee in the air conditioned cafe. I am in complete denial about my coffee addiction, but as soon as that delicious brown nectar passed over my tongue, the headache disappeared. We spent far too long chatting in the cafe and only had 5 minutes left to tour the indoor Picasso exhibit before the museum closed.

Back at the hotel,  we were shown to our room which was Japanese-style with tetami mats and a minimum of furniture. My mom was relieved that there was a Western-style toilet (the thought of "swatters" made her shudder). Shortly after we settled in, a woman arrived to set up our dinner. What a feast! the dishes just kept on coming and one was even on an open flame on the table (which made me nervous).

After dinner, someone cleared the table away and another person came in to set up the futons. Once we were confident there was somewhere for us to sleep, we put on our Yukatas and our slippers and headed to the hotel's onsen.

It was my first onsen experience and I really wish that I could have taken pictures. This would have been frowned upon by the many nude bathers. Because it was my first time, I was a little intimidated by going into the hot springs, naked, surrounded by naked strangers. But I had gone to the haman in Turkey and they touch you there! Before going into the different outdoor baths, you give yourself a very thorough soapy shower. There are many types of bath and we sampled them all. It was very nice after a long day of hauling suitcases. In a way, I was reminded of le nordique. After a while, the onsen made us feel sleepy so we returned so we returned to our room, determined to get up early to tour Hakone.

Ninpu

Sunday was a gorgeous day in Nagoya. Loull fed me a delicious Japanese pear and french toast with maple syrup (that my mom had sent her) for breakfast. Delicious! Then they let me do some much needed laundry before we headed downtown to see more dancing.

The dancing was amazing - not only the performance but the fact that they could perform in those costumes in that heat! It was so HOT in Nagoya and poor, pregnant Loull was just melting. We kept to the shade as much as possible and even ducked into the Gap to enjoy the air conditioning. Loull & Takao taught me a lot about Japanese culture. For instance, most Japanese men get perms. Not the tight, spiral perms we all had in our childhoods with the peacock bangs, but a perm to give their hair more body. Who knew? I also learned about subway etiquette. One should not talk on their cell phone, speak too loudly or fidget. There is also priority seating for eldery, diabled and pregnant passengers. Loull has a little decal on her purse identifying her as pregnant, not that the belly doesn't give it away. She thinks that they are mainly for tiny Japanese women who don't really show, even in their 9th month.

Then we did a bit of shopping and headed to "fibre town" in search of yarn, but being Sunday, it was a ghost town. We had a great supper that included french fries, onion rings, and pints of Yebizu. We then did a walk around Nagoya where poor pregnant Loull had to take a few breaks because she was so hot. That's when I asked the Japanese word for pregnant - ninpu. That immediately became my new pet name for Loull. Poor ninpu! We closed the evening with some ice cream which was just perfect to take the edge off the heat. Besides, the baby was craving it.

Free At Last!

Saturday was my last day at the conference. After intense 5 days, my brain was sure it could not handle a 6th. I barely made the tail end of the plenary lecture that morning. As the speaker was being honoured with an award, my friend E, who had joined us, leaned over and asked,

     "What does it mean to have a Young Scientist Award?"

I told her that I didn't know and she told me that my name was on a poster outside in a list of Young Scientist Award winners. As soon as she said this, they began setting up the stage to present the Young Scientist Awards.

Was I ever glad I hadn't started my Japanese Adventure early! I was one of 10 people recognized for their work. I was over the moon for the rest of the day.

By 1:00 pm, I was free and ran as quickly as I could to the nearest subway station. I was headed to Nagoya to visit with Loull and her husband Takao, but first, I had to trek across Tokyo to meet up with my parents who had presents for the newlyweds. Getting off at Harijuku station was the first time I really felt how hot it was in Tokyo. There were rivers of sweat pouring down the backs of my legs and pooling in my sandals. This was something I had never experienced before - not even in Hot yoga. My parents were enjoying the dance festival and I stayed to watch a few of the groups.

I even joined my parents for an impromptu picnic in the park consisting of Japanese stall food. Surprisingly, the offerings included street meat.

After lunch, I made my way back to Tokyo station where I took the bullet train to Nagoya. I wasn't able to call Loull's cell phone, which made me panic, but we met up at the train station proving that one doesn't necessarily need a cell phone.

We had some dinner at an Italian restaurant near Nagoya station. Was it ever nice to have pizza!!! I had forgotten how much I love cheese. We had a lot of fun with the English menu. "Mouse of Yogurt with Variety Fruits of Jerry" was my favourite although I wasn't brave enough to try it. The Soup of Peach was delicious though.

The Banquet

Friday was another day of conference. I had been up late making the "Japan 2007" photo album you can now find in the left sidebar, so I slept in until almost 7 am. Not much happened until the afternoon when I had my poster presentation. I wasn't that nervous about it either, probably because I have done a few poster presentations and knew what to expect. What I was really looking forward to was the banquet that night.

At 6 pm, we all piled into buses to go to Happo-en where a Japanese festival was set up in the garden surrounding the banquet hall.

By the light of paper lanterns there were men mixing spices and fashioning sculptures out of rice. A trumpet player would emerge from a booth and play your requests if you pushed some coins into the slot. It was also an excellent venue to watch the bats swoop over the lake and enjoy a Japanese draft beer (or two). The banquet food wasn't bad either and I may have squeezed into the sushi line on more than one occasion.

I spent most of the night talking to a man about my job prospects in the US and was embarrassed to find out that I had been calling him by the wrong name all evening when I introduced him to my boss. Maybe I had enjoyed too many drafts by the lake. Luckily, he forgave me.

When we got back on the bus to go back to the hotel, I couldn't believe that the conference, where I had had so much fun, was almost over. Luckily,  my  Japanese vacation was  only beginning. 

The Big Talk

Thursday, I woke up at the crack of dawn to go running with my boss. I was completely manic because I was speaking later that morning. I needed to run to calm down. We started down an intricate series of canals and the fear of getting lost made me forget about my fear of giving my talk. We saw so many amazing things on our route. The tent city and the old women participating in some kind of group exercise overlooking the Bay would not have been part of the regular tour package.

After we got back, everything I did before the talk was a blur. Suddenly I was being introduced and walking up to the stage. The banquet hall was huge and people were there in the audience to hear me speak. I was shaking a bit when I addressed the crowd and thanked the organizing committee for inviting me. But then the audience laughed at a joke I made, I relaxed and as quickly as it began, it was over. It actually went very smoothly - there weren't any technical difficulties, I didn't freeze up and forget what I was talking about and I may have even enjoyed myself a bit.

I decided to celebrate by meeting up with my parents, who have followed me here, and their hostess H for dinner. From my hotel, I traveled across Tokyo by metro to meet up with them at H's. H lives in a very cute part of the city right outside of Shibuya. The is the view from the train station.

What great digs! Even though they were staying in H's house, they had their own apartment on the top floor of the building with a separate entrance. They were having a ball. Here's my dad at the computer emailing all of his friends to brag about his wonderful trip and my mom, lying on her futon, telling me a funny story:

H came home just as I was finished programming the speed dials of my parents' rented cell phones. When I got in the car, I noticed that H was watching "Minority Report" on her console. In fact, she could watch any movie in addition to looking at her GPS map or the view behind the car that pops up when she is in reverse. Strangely, even though you can be distracted by any number of things on that screen, it is illegal to talk on your cell phone while in the car.

H had arranged for us to go to a restaurant in Shinjuku in a high rise overlooking the city. The view was phenomenal and the food was quite exquisite. It was so sort of fusion - possibly Japanese-Italian. It was the perfect way to celebrate a successful presentation.

Culture Shock

I have been in Japan for 3 days now, but because I am at the conference, every day has pretty much been the same. The morning usually starts when I wake up at some ungodly, jet lag-induced hour. Then I lay in bed for a while thinking that I should try to go back to sleep and failing miserably. After I get out of bed, I usually do some yoga, followed by email and a quick shower. Then, I do conference stuff all day, feel really tired at 5 pm and try to stay up until at least 8 pm. Not a lot of opportunity for culture shock.

So, yesterday, I tried something new. Instead of going to bed, I went out to  Shinjuku (by metro!) with two women I met at the conference. We intended on going to the sky bar from Lost in Translation but when we got there, we learned that it was closed for renovations. We didn't let that get us down though. Instead we wandered through the red light district and had some delicious sushi. I was amazed at all of the flashing lights and signs. People who live in Tokyo must be so bored when they visit other cities! Especially when there is (shocking) advertising like this:

Japan Day 1

We arrived in Japan yesterday around dinner time, completely out of our minds with jet lag. Luckily, I was able to knit for almost the entire 13 hour flight. I haven't been outside the hotel yet, but I hope to venture out tomorrow evening to have dinner with my parents who have followed me here. Although I haven't been here long, I am already enamoured with the toilet in my hotel room. The pink button has changed my life.

      

Impotent Coffee and a Nice Surprise

There comes a point in the life of every student when coffee is no longer effective. Even though I left the student life behind a few years ago, my job requires me to conduct research and produce publications with the same sort of pressure and deadlines I felt in school with a full science course load. I had gone off coffee briefly to lower my tolerance after I graduated, but today, in the face of a looming deadline, coffee stopped working. Well, to be fair, it stopped working yesterday but that was for the insipid office coffee. I thought I should test myself with real coffee but it too was powerless in the face of my burnout. I don’t think I’m ready to resort to the Red Bull, but these are desperate times. The marathon training isn't helping with the exhaustion either. My boss keeps telling me that I can sleep on the plane on the way to Tokyo.

There was a surprise waiting for me when I got home which completely made me forget about my powerpoint slides. My sockpal socks arrived! They are so pretty and perfect and knit using KPPPM (if you’ve been following for a while, you know that there was a point when I had never used anything other than KPPPM to knit socks). Seeing as there aren't any Bramptom specific postcards, she also made me one with some local colour. That is a picture of Grade 4 students participating in the Parade of Noises playing homemade instruments. Thank you, Aleta!!!! Your package really made my day.

(I tried to take some pictures of me wearing them but it was obvious I hadn't yet been to the waxer, so I'll spare you.)

Sockapalooza Socks are in the Mail!

Finally, after a whole week of "send sock pal socks" staring up at my from my many "to do" lists (and there are many), I put the socks in the mail. With normal ground shipping in Canada (yes, my sock pal is Canadian), it would have taken the package 6 business days to get there. So, if I had sent the socks out on time with this shipping method, they would have gotten there today (Aug 10) or Monday (Aug 13). To fool my sock pal into thinking I sent them on time, I sent them express post (only a dollar more) which should get them there Monday or Tuesday. Anyway, I hope you like them, sock pal!

I got a message from my other sock pal admitting she was also behind in sending out the socks she knit for me. Hopefully I'll get them before I go to Japan. If not, they'll be a great surprise when I get home.

Speaking of Japan, I'm still working on the back piece of the baby sweater. It is taking forever! If I finish it on my trip to Toronto tonight, I'm going to celebrate with a kir royale!

The Never Ending Back Piece

Seriously, I'm ready to start one of the fronts. A sleeve, even.