Well, it’s Christmas, here at over a decade into the next millennium. A lot of stuff happened this year, good and bad, but for now we can have a brief time to think about the good things we’ve received, the good things we can give, and be with friends and family. For those of us who are Christians, it is a time to think about the gift God gave us, and even though the exact day isn’t recorded, it’s as good a time as any. Granted we should be thinking about it always, but at least at this time of year we really don’t have any excuse not to!
Those who have family, take this time to be with them, because the time with them may be shorter than you think. If you have lost loved ones, take time to remember them, remember the love you shared, and the good times, give their memory the gift of not being sad. Easier said than done, especially if the pain is fresh.
If you have a chance, give something to help those who need it, in whatever way they may need, in whatever way you can. Think about doing the same thing a few weeks from now, when few others are thinking of it. Give the world a gift by making your little bit of it better.
The Banco Sabadell arranged this performance of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” as a flashmob event to celebrate the anniversary of their founding. Â I really like how the music just builds and builds, and how the little girl who first puts money in the cellist’s hat stays there almost the whole time. Â Seeing the little kids enjoy the music as well as the adults is beautiful, too!
Okay, so, I’ve been home now for two weeks, but I’ve still got a lot of stories to tell and pictures to show from the trip, so I’m going to still call them “Nerdtour 2012”. Just so you don’t get confused and think I’m still over there (even though I kind of wish I was…) I’m also going to split some of these up, to keep down the boredom of endless scrolling through text, looking for the pictures! ^_^ Continue reading “Nerdtour 2012: Asakusa matsuri, pt. 1”
Well, that’s it for the trip, back home in Alexandria, in my newly remodeled apartment. Feeling major post-trip letdown, dealing with a new sore throat and my body telling me it’s 12 hours later than it is, and trying to figure out where to put stuff in my apartment that won’t fit anymore. I did manage to find where they put my car keys, and made it to the grocery store at 3:00 AM, plus retrieved all my mail (including the “Vote for Me!” flyers, heh).
I’ll have other posts from the Nerdtour, but chronologically these were the last few pictures I took on the trip. More to come as I work through the other 12,000 pictures!
The last day in Japan was spent wasting time riding the rails, since there was about 7 hours between checkout time at the hotel and check-in time at the airport. I suggested to John we take a quick trip down to Chiba city, which is about half-way between Tokyo and Narita, so we could use up a day on the 4 day JR East Pass we each had, and maybe see some last sights.
[one_half]Such perfect weather to brighten one’s spirits. Narita station in the rain…[/one_half][one_half_last]Narita station platform number 1[/one_half_last]
Naturally, it was rainy and cold, but the train ride was uneventful, and we pulled into Chiba proper, at the JR station downtown. Chiba, like Tokyo has a monorail system, but unlike Tokyo this one is suspended from the rail, and goes much further. It took a bit to find the actual station, but when I did, I was impressed by its beauty and functionality, as well as its little quirks!
[one_half]The main plaza outside the Chiba station.[/one_half][one_half_last]There are maps to local places all over Tokyo and other cities, mainly because they don’t name or number the majority of streets, so you need to know where the local landmarks are. I noticed there are a lot of places in stations where you can go to donate blood, as noted here at the top of the photo.[/one_half_last]
[one_half]Yes, it was this gloomy under the station looking out at Chiba city…[/one_half][one_half_last][/one_half_last]
[one_half]At the station, you have your choice of stairs or escalator, but look closely at the stairs…[/one_half][one_half_last]… you can find out just how many calories you can burn by taking the steps! They even have helpful, supportive cartoon characters to urge you on![/one_half_last]
The monorail itself only runs two cars at a time, suspended from tracks about 50 feet in the air. The stations are also up in the air, naturally, and are located at many important and popular places in town, such as City Hall and the Sports Center. On the way to Chiba, I noted that one of the stops on the JR line also had a monorail stop, in the town called Tsuga. So, I figured if we took the monorail to one end, in Chiba-minato, we could take it back out to Tsuga and catch the JR train back to Narita, while seeing a lot of Chiba in the process.
[one_half]There goes the monorail…[/one_half][one_half_last]… out over the city …[/one_half_last]
[one_half]… with no visible means of support! ^__^[/one_half][one_half_last]Downtown Chiba in the rain, with railroad tracks…[/one_half_last]
[one_half]Even in the rain, a bit of fall color…[/one_half][one_half_last]Aw, puppy! An ad painted on the sides of the monorail cars in Chiba….[/one_half_last]
I figured Chiba-minato, down by the docks and near the port, would be somewhat picturesque, despite the weather. What I didn’t know until we got there was that the annual Chiba Ekiden was going on, which ran on the street directly below the Chiba-minato station! In Japan an Ekiden is basically a relay race combined with a marathon, where teams of runners take turns following a 46 kilometer marathon, broken up into segments. The course has certain segments for women as well as men, so that you enter as a co-ed team to race. We were at about the half-way mark of the second mens’ segment, where it looked like there were only a handful of teams, since I only saw about a dozen men running under the station. I managed to exercise my Japanese to find out what was going on, by asking one of the staff who had blocked off the side streets. Communication!
[one_half]Japan is a big bicycle culture, as well as a train culture, and all stations have a large area to park bikes…[/one_half][one_half_last]Monorail and JR lines. Technically I could have ridden the JR line all the way back to Etchujima, near Monzennakacho![/one_half_last]
[one_half]Chiba-minato station…[/one_half][one_half_last]“Hey, I’m a bird, I have to be out in this mess, what’s your excuse, human?”[/one_half_last]
[one_half]Waiting for the Ekiden runners…[/one_half][one_half_last]The Chiba Ekiden passes by[/one_half_last]
[one_half]Ekiden race participant[/one_half][one_half_last][/one_half_last]
Once the race had passed by, they quickly and efficiently re-opened the street to traffic, and I figured I’d wander around the station area for a bit, looking for quirky and interesting things. Didn’t really have much chance, since time was passing, but I did manage to catch some local “wildlife” as well as a neat shuttle bus!
[one_half]Pretty interesting design, kind of 30’s style. For no other reason than they can, and it makes it stand out![/one_half][one_half_last]O Japan, that has such quirkiness in it! I really like the style they added to this plain shuttle bus design![/one_half_last]
[one_half]Wasn’t sure if this was an actual church or not, but it’s possible.[/one_half][one_half_last]Sure, you could have a plain information map, but why not touch it up with a bit of class, throw on a golden sculpture of birds taking off![/one_half_last]
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Once we finished taking the few photos, it was time to catch the monorail out to Tsuga. We managed to ride the cars that had won the “Good Design Award” for 2012. They were definitely stylish, and apparently could be run automated, but we had a driver on this one. The trip back to Tsuga was fairly quick, even given all the stops, and we caught the train in Tsuga back to Narita.
[one_half]Winner, 2012 “Good Design Award”. It shows…[/one_half][one_half_last]There are definite advantages to building a suspended (or otherwise elevated) train, since the only real footprint of ground use is the area taken up by the pillars.[/one_half_last]
[one_half]Rainy Chiba, from the monorail, a view out the cockpit up front…[/one_half][one_half_last][/one_half_last]
[one_half]Coming in to a monorail station can be a bit unnerving, but also kind of exciting, in a “sci-fi movie” kind of way…[/one_half][one_half_last]Wonderful downtown Tsuga, in the rain…[/one_half_last]
[one_half]The Monorail station at Tsuga[/one_half][one_half_last]They put up little shrines just about everywhere, for various local gods…[/one_half_last]
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Getting back to the hotel in Narita to pick up our luggage, I started getting a bit concerned about how long it would take to get back to the airport. Finding out that we had just missed the airport shuttle from the hotel, John and I used our 21st Century technology to find out the next train from Narita to the airport. It turned out we had about 8 minutes to get to the station, fortunately the hotel was only a 4 minute walk away! We made it to the platform with minutes to spare, got to the airport about 3 hours before the plane was scheduled to leave, and spent that last time wandering the airport.
The flight back from Japan was… eventful. But I’ll have more on that in another post.
Friday in Narita dawned cold, foggy, and raining. Perfect for setting the mood for leaving my second-favorite country. I got to do a lot of what I wanted, but not nearly as much as I planned. Catching the Cold From Hell didn’t help matters, as it sucked the energy and life out of me for close to two weeks of the trip. In a way it’s good that there is still a whole lot of Japan left to explore, but bad in that I’m not likely to ever do any more of it. But, at least I got to do as much as I did, and I have memories that can hold me over from here on. And, if I ever do get lucky enough to come back, I know exactly what I want to do.
At any rate, the flight leaves in about 10 hours, so John and I are going to roam around Narita and possibly Chiba, and maybe take some photos if it’s not raining too hard. Next stop: Reagan National and my apartment in Alexandria.
