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favorite things shopping technogeeky travel

Tokyo with Gate 1

Zojoji Temple and Tokyo Tower!

Short on time? Guided tours are a great way to see as much as humanly possible, as quickly as humanly possible, and Gate 1 Travel is a pro at it. I can’t compare them to other tour companies, as they are the only ones we have ever used. One thing I LOVE is that all of their tour guides are local. Seeing Italy? Your Roman tour guide will be accommodating but slightly aloof. England? A tweed jacket every day, seat assignments on the bus, meal stops are quick and comprised of recommendations for pre-made sandwiches. Scotland? Northface jacket and hiking boots, a lot of trust that since the tour group is comprised of adults, people can take care of themselves. Ireland? So much cynicism and distrust of the government.

And in Japan: our Japanese tour guide was very possibly the politest person we have ever met. But also, passive-aggressive and a little rude if you actually knew what she meant. It was hilariously awesome.

But I digress! Our first day with the tour group was a full day of seeing all the things in Tokyo. ALL THE THINGS.

First stop was right next door to the hotel, Zojoji temple. One of the beautiful things on the grounds were the Jizo statues: each statue represents a child who has died. These statues are often adorned with red hats and bibs, and they are protectors of the children who have passed.

Next stop was the imperial palace! Which you can’t get close to at all … so it makes for an odd choice for a tourist stop. Beautiful park and grounds, though. Complete with an ice cream shop! Very reminiscent of the DC mall, now that I think about it. (But no eating while walking in Japan! Also, no ice cream on the bus.)

Then it was back to the bus to head to Asakusa, with the Sensoji temple and Nakamise street. This stop was way worth it! So much so, we made sure the in-laws checked it out later in our trip. The temple was beautiful, and there was a lot of great tourist-shopping on Nakamise street. We only had an hour, so we went with a Conbini lunch.

Next stop, Meiji Shrine!! This one is a serious shrine, massive and beautiful grounds. It was a little bit of a walk from the parking lot to the actual shrine. This one is also well worth it, and a great example of a Shinto shrine (vs. the Buddhist temples we had seen previously.)

In Japan, people follow Buddhist AND Shinto traditions. Our tour guide, Katy, explained that the traditions are so blended, in fact, that the average Japanese person often doesn’t know where one begins and the other ends. She only really learned about the differences in her tour guide training. But quick summary: you get married in a Shinto shrine. Funerals are at Buddhist temples.

Our last stop of the day’s touring took us to another one of Japan’s sacred traditions: shopping! In stark contrast to Nakamise street, Ginza district is very up-scale shopping. We ducked into the Nissan concept store, and also the Sony concept store. Where we saw a $3000 robot dog. A seriously awesome $3000 robot dog. And people were coming in, with their $3000 robot dogs, for $3000 robot dog play dates. Japan, man. Something for everyone.

For dinner, we stopped at a very. fancy. Lawson. And bought pretty much the same stuff we had been buying. Plus, an Olympics 2020 pin! Which … I guess now isn’t going to be a thing … does that make it worth more?

And then it was back to the hotel! Where the husband promptly crashed from exhaustion. Into his twin bed. At 7 pm.

Oh. you. guys. Our twin beds! So our first room at the hotel, I booked through hotels.com. It had a queen or king-sized bed, appropriate for two people. But while we were out and about in Akihabara, they moved our bags to our new room. With two twin beds. Because in Japan: it is more normal for traveling couples to have separate beds. So most hotels are set up that way! We had requested a double bed for all of our accommodations on our tour, but … they are only able to do that when there are rooms available. Which there were not at the Prince Tokyo Hotel.

And so … twin beds. (We had this happen to us before on a guided tour on our 10th anniversary and … it was the best sleep we got that trip. So … separate beds? Not the worst thing …)

So I probably wandered around the hotel, stocked up on snacks at Lawson, and played emoji blitz till I was ready to call it a day.

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favorite things food knitting nerdly shopping technogeeky travel

Tokyo on Our Own

Prince Hotel PJs

The hotels in Japan all seem to come with Pajamas! Yukata, I suppose, but these are like extra long, button-up sleep shirts with 3/4 length sleeves. (Maybe they are full-length sleeves on a non-monkey armed person? Unsure.)

I of course had to try them out! And also there are slippers! They fit size 8 lady feet! They do not fit size 13 man feet.

Also: bidets. I had to work up the courage to try it, but, you guys? I think they are really on to something. They don’t understand how to sell a ticket online because they have been perfecting the bathroom experience.

Also: the hair dryer was incredibly underwhelming. I thought I had come to the land of my hair people (I have twice as much hair as your average human … and each strand is twice as thick … drying my hair is exhausting …) and so I was super excited about the hair dryer sitch. Alas, hotel hair dryers in Japan leave just as much to be desired as the ones in the US.

Breakfast at the Tokyo Prince Hotel? Awesome spread. Western food! Eastern food! Something for everyone at the buffet. So I did what any Asianish-American lady would do: served myself up a bowl of piping hot steamed rice, snagged some butter from the Western toast station, and added some sugar (meant for coffee, I’m sure) from our table. Breakfast butter-sugar rice! (Ok, so probably that has an actual name? I just know it as ‘how I like to eat rice at breakfast.’) Also I loaded up on bacon and fresh fruit. (Tip: fruit is really expensive in Japan. If you have a hotel breakfast buffet, take advantage!)

Y’all, I ate butter-sugar rice every morning we had a breakfast buffet. So good. Also a complete abomination? But so good.

Probably we stopped in the hotel basement Lawson (I LOVED that the hotel had its own Lawson!!) for some bottled water and snacks.

Before we headed out, we swapped out the husband’s sim card for a Japanese one. We had ordered it beforehand and had it shipped to us, just to make things easier. So we had internet and maps and access to google translate everywhere we went! Pretty awesome! And a world of difference from our 5th anniversary trip to Italy where we rented a blackberry so we’d have access to email. EMAIL. No internet. JUST OUR EMAIL. 10 years ago. The world is such a different place, in just 10 years!

Our hotel was a bit of a walk (15 minutes?) to the Hamamatsucho train station, but we had our maps, the weather was perfect, so off we went!

At the station, we struggled with the ticket machine for a bit. From his research, the husband knew we wanted Suica cards, and that we’d start out with $20 on them and add more as we needed it. The menus weren’t super intuitive, but we eventually figured it out and got our cards. (We later learned from another couple on our trip that you can order Suica cards ahead of time and have them shipped to you in the US. Probably for a nice up-charge, but, no fighting with machines!)

So we found the right train, hopped on board, and a few stops later we were in Akihabara. Nerd capital of the world, so, yeah, of course that’s where we started.

First stop was the Mandarake Complex, 8 floors of anime collectibles. Each floor was small, but crowded with … so much. Some of it I recognized, some of it I didn’t. Totoro, that fried egg with a butt, vintage video games, comics, just all completely unnecessary but oh-so-fun stuff! We stopped at a wall of capsule vending machines and found the perfect souvenir. Seriously, this little guy still goes with me everywhere I go.

Next up was Yodobashi Camera. So spacious! Floors and floors of department store goods, not just cameras. Also books, stationery, beauty products, refrigerators, phones, watches … if you want it, they have it.

Lunch at McDonald’s, nothing to write home about there …

And an owl cafe! Not sure why it’s called a ‘cafe’ (they do have a vending machine for drinks?) but they delivered on the owl front!

We rounded out Akihabara with a stop at Don Quijote. If Yodobashi Camera is spacious and classy, Don Quijote is … brash and cluttered? But you have to stop in, it’s like nothing else. The aisles are mazes, the store is floor after floor stacked on top of each other, you never know what you’ll find. It is claustrophobic, but also amazing! Snacks, toiletries, clothes, halloween costumes, toys, they got it!

We snagged some adorable toothbrush covers, they are open-mouthed cats that eat your toothbrush head when it’s packed away in your bag. But also, they eat the bottom of your toothbrush and stand it straight up on the hotel bathroom counter to dry. They are adorable and genius.

My fitbit history tells me that took us over 10 thousand steps, so we likely called it a day and headed back to the hotel to meet our tour group and for our Gate 1 welcome dinner!

We tried everything! Even liked some of it!
Categories
favorite things technogeeky

Fact: the average person only brushes their teeth for 20 seconds

Ok, so I have no idea if that’s really true or not. My hygienist presented it as fact at my cleaning today. But I do know that it’s certainly true of me! Which means my dental visits are the worst and I’m always finding out I need root canals!

Enter the Quip toothbrush. It was all over my Facebook for like 2 weeks. Which means I bought one, duh.

And I just had the best dental visit of my life. Even though it’s been 7 months since my last visit, and my dentist has me on a 4-month schedule because I do not take very good care of my teeth.

So what’s the trick? How did this magical toothbrush change my dental world in 20 seconds a day?

It didn’t. The trick is, it convinced me to spend 2 minutes brushing my teeth every day. 30 seconds per quarter. It buzzes every 30 seconds to let you know to switch quadrants, and then shuts off altogether after 2 minutes. Which is a frickin’ eternity, yo! If, you know, you’ve only been brushing for 20 seconds.

Also, in all fairness, I’ve been flossing … more. I won’t say daily, but I’ll say more. I had another root canal last November, and I’m motivated to avoid going back. Because root canals suck, but also because, as it turns out, the oral surgeon my dentist uses goes to my church. And sits in the pew in front of me. Awwwwkward. I guess I can feel good about the fact that I’m helping to put his kids through college?

Anyway, reviews on it say that it is better than a regular toothbrush, but worse than a Sonicare. So, uh, don’t replace your Sonicare with a Quip. But if you’re a 20-second brusher who wants a snazzy, travel friendly toothbrush, then give it a shot. You may just impress your dentist. And never have to meet an oral surgeon in his office.

Categories
knitting technogeeky

my ravelry machine

This iPad thing is pretty nice, I have to admit. The only reason I ever turn my laptop on now is when I need microsoft office. Or to print something. But the printing thing will someday turn into a thing of the past, when the husband lets me buy an iPad-friendly-color-network-laser printer. 🙂

But the thing I love the mostest about my iPad? It takes me to ravelry! Which is the best social networking site to be found on the innerwebz.

Now I can take (poor quality) pictures of yarn and projects with ease from my iPad and upload them to ravelry! And when I want to upload better pictures, I can take real pictures and plop the sd card into the handy-dandy card reader I bought.

I know laptops are portable, but the iPad is super duper portable. I don’t even think twice before taking it to my yarn room for a stash-recording session. Or to the neighborhood stitch night so I have access to my patterns. Or to the basement to organize my queue while we watch tv.

There are a few features that can’t be handled on the iPad, so I’m crossing my fingers for an iPad app. None of the drag and drop works, and scrolling in a pop-up window is cumbersome, to say the least. (Keep my thumb in contact with the screen and perfectly still while scrolling with my index finger … Once my thumb moves, I’m zooming in and out on the whole screen …)

So, just for ravelry, the iPad has totally been worth it. :-). Who needs Facebook when there’s so much fun to be had on ravelry?

Categories
nerdly shopping technogeeky travel

procrastination: it pays off!

The husband and I have been planning a trip to Phoenix for months. We’ve carefully planned out our itinerary: a Star Trek Convention, an Easter Pageant, some theater (Nine), a Cowboy show, the Grand Canyon, the Phoenix Zoo,  the Arizona Science Center, and the Pueblo Grande Museum.  Do we know how to party or what?

We purchased the Star Trek tickets ages ago (priorities!), but I hadn’t booked the theater tickets or the cowboy dinner.  It was on the to-do list, but I just kept putting it off.

I signed up for the Phoenix Groupon and Living Social emails when I knew we were going to be in the area, as that strategy paid off for our trip to Vegas last year.  (Half-price Gameworks day passes and Atomic Museum tickets!)

So, what should appear in my email inbox but a Groupon for the Cowboy show!  Followed shortly by a Nine deal.  I’m still holding out for Grand Canyon, Zoo and Science center deals.  Here’s hoping I get lucky!

Categories
life technogeeky

don’t even try to out-nerd me …

I’m blogging from my doctor’s office!

Thanks to the marvel that is iPad, I can take my computing just about anywhere! Unlike the husband, I didn’t opt for the 3G version, so I assume the blog won’t update until I get back home to the safety of my wifi network. But because I’ve got the handy-dandy wordpress iPad app, it doesn’t matter that I can’t reach the internet.

My hope is that my new iPad will replace the aging laptop. So far, there’s been one ie-only website, drag-and-drop website functionality, and office docs that I’m missing out on. But that’s what the work computer is for, right?

My 15 minutes is up, I haven’t died from my allergy shot. Time to go!

Categories
technogeeky tv/movies

firefly murder mystery success!

The husband’s birthday was this last weekend, and so that meant it was time for our Firefly party! There were some great costumes. Kaylee was my favorite, but Mal, Simon, Saffron, River and Shepherd did excellent jobs of capturing the essence of their characters.

Check out pics in my new firefly gallery!

I’ll post further details of my party when it’s not Cheroes night …

Categories
life nerdly technogeeky

51 visitors!

I got 51 visitors on Friday!  I am so on my way to becoming internet famous.

Categories
nerdly technogeeky

serenity stranded

The husband is turning 30 next month, which means he gets to have the best. party. ever.  And I’m in charge!  <gulp>

He has requested a firefly-themed murder mystery, and so that means I have my work cut out for me.  <double gulp>

In preparation for the event, I knitted a couple of Jayne hats.  One for the birthday boy, and one for a party prize.  They really are quite cunning, someone is going to leave the party in style!

So now that THAT’S out of the way, time to get down to the story-writing.  And character assignment.  And invitations.  And menu-planning.  (Moldy-protein-chocolate-cake, anyone?)

I have decided on the title of this year’s story, and that’s ‘Serenity Stranded.’  As can be guessed from the title, Serenity is stuck … somewhere (still working on that part) … and it is up to the party-goers to figure out who’s the culprit!  I just couldn’t bear offing someone in the firefly ‘verse, (even though Joss doesn’t mind it) so this year’s murder mystery will be short on murder.  But hopefully not mystery!

Now to get busy writing …

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nerdly technogeeky

a new winner!

It is official:  the number-one keyword search that brought people to my site over the last 30 days was ‘cowgirl pants.’  With 3 hits, it has overcome the previous champion, ‘akaemi.’  Which, um, if you can spell akaemi right to google it, how hard is it to just put akaemi.com in the url bar?

Just sayin’.