Month: March 2016

Nerdtour 2016: Naritasan!

_MG_7989Okay, this is going to be a short one, although today was eventful and productive, I’m about out of energy for the day, and the bed in my new hotel room in Tsukiji is inviting.

I checked out of the hotel in Narita early this morning, and after a very small breakfast at Mr Donut down the road, I set off to find the Naritasan Temple complex and “Peace Park”. When I got there I was disappointed to find that my camera had gotten damaged sometime earlier, not sure where during the trip. Somehow a couple of camera batteries had slipped down beneath the camera, and the live-view screen got cracked when the camera bag was set down or banged around on one of the flights. Fortunately the camera still works fine, the part that cracked was a protective screen to help keep the body of the camera waterproof. It will still need to be fixed though.

At any rate, I managed to get quite a few nice pictures of the temple, including a few of the first cherry trees blooming in Narita. The season just started, and they won’t be in full bloom in Narita until I’m ready to leave. I will be staying the night at Narita before I leave, so I might just get a chance.

After I saw the temple and park grounds, I grabbed lunch at a small shop that was serving barbecued eel, unagi. I had never had it before, but it was good, especially since I was hungry!

Finally I got my suitcase from the hotel and set off by train to the hotel in Tsukiji, not far from the famous fish market. The room is the smallest I’ve had of all the hotels I’ve stayed at, it’s so small I have to step outside to change my mind!

At any rate, here are a few pictures from Narita. Enjoy!

Nerdtour 2016: Arrival, Japan!

Well I’m here, after a long flight with very little sleep, it’s currently 10:45 PM on Monday night, 9:45 AM Monday morning to you all in Eastern Daylight Time, and I’m in Narita, Japan.  Specifically, I’m in a hotel room just down the road (and a short train ride) from Narita Airport, taking advantage of their Internet to post this and a short video I made earlier.  I was just conscious enough to get a JR East Rail Pass to use this trip, and I got a new Suica card to use on the train and the subway, and the vending machines, and a lot of other places!

The funniest and kind of neatest thing so far is, I was interviewed for a Japanese entertainment program called “Why Did You Come To Japan?”, which I’ve seen a few times on YouTube.  They asked me a lot of questions, the main guy spoke only Japanese, very fast, but with the help of a translator I was able to hold my own, and came back with Japanese responses as well!  I’m sure that editing will make it funny, which is okay, because being completely jet-lagged and exhausted I was pretty loopy!

On the train from the airport to Narita proper, I didn’t see anything blooming at all, so I don’t think there will be any cherry blossom pictures from here on this trip, unless they come out just before I leave.  I’ll make a pass by the shrine complex at Naritasan, and at least get some pictures of the area.

I also posted this video just after I checked in, and despite what I said in the video, I did lay down and sleep for about 3 hours, which is why I’m able to type this blog post!

More tomorrow!

Nerdtour 2016: Counting down the hours to launch…

dc_sakura-001Getting close now, and I’m trying to get everything set up before I leave.  Laundry, packing, re-packing due to forgetting something, re-re-packing due to everything I want to take not fitting, etc.  At least I finished my taxes, and managed to get some pictures of this year’s cherry blossoms downtown.  Checking the weather at Chicago where I lay over for a couple of hours, and the long-range forecast for Tokyo and vicinity for next week.

Two things I plan to do to make this trip a bit easier than the ones before, one of them I’d been planning for some time, and one came out of the blue since I had no idea they even had them.  One, a service that nearly all hotels provide or at least cooperate with shipping companies to provide, is called “takkyubin”, which is a baggage-forwarding service.  If you’re hotel-hopping like I plan to, it’s great because you can turn in your suitcase at the hotel or nearby convenience store or delivery office, and for a small fee they’ll send it off to your next destination, usually delivered by the next day.  This saves having to lug the whole mess around, trying to find space on the train or subway car.  They can send it to the airport as well, which sounds horrible to us paranoid Americans, but in Japan it’s completely safe.  In fact, the main delivery company Yamamoto, has as their logo a mother cat carrying a kitten!

The other nice surprise I found is that there are at least a half-dozen companies in Japan that will rent 4G LTE wi-fi hotspots to tourists!  I was worried about trying not to use too much of the hotels’ bandwith, or trying to find a public wi-fi spot that wasn’t crowded.  This is exactly what I’m renting from T-Mobile to use here, I’ve been able to get great speeds with wide access, and according to the Japanese sites, their companies provide hi-speed hot-spots that work all over the country!  The rates are reasonable, too, the one place I’m looking at will rent the box for about $90 total for the two weeks, which even though it’s twice what I’m paying here, it’s JAPAN!

At any rate, blogging will be sparse between now and when I land in Narita, but I’ll try to keep this blog up-to-date!

Nerdtour Japan 2016: Once More With Sakura!

Sakura by moonlightSo, once again I prepare to depart for the Land of the Rising Sun, where the cherry blossoms (sakura) are in bloom!  This will be a relatively short trip, only two weeks, but the goal is to take as many pictures of cherry trees in bloom in as many iconic Japanese places as possible, given the short time they bloom.  Plus since the Tidal Basin here in DC is full of cherry trees from Japan that are now also in bloom, I hope to take pictures of them before go, too!

Blogging may be spotty, but I’ll try to at least post something each day.

The Nerdtour 2016 starts Sunday, March 27!