Distractions, reflections

I barely need an excuse to view neighbourhoods where I haven’t been, before. Since Jennifer and Marianne were interested in seeing “Textile Town“, we got maps that oriented us to the train station at Nippori. As is usual in Tokyo, the exit at the subway is rather well marked.

The train platform is elevated, so we took the stairs down. Looking over my shoulder, there’s a gate with Japanese characters leading to the platform.

The streets aren’t rectilinear around Nippori. Walking out a little from the station and looking east, there’s a commercial area … but not textile stores.

Looking south, there were also storefronts, but the rag trade is a little farther on.

We headed south in the direction we thought correct. Apartment towers reveal the area to be mixed commercial and residential. Read the rest of this entry →

Since I have strong preferences in food — some choices due to allergies, others from ethnic background — Satomi asked me for guidance on restaurant selection. I find Japanese food to not have the vegetarian content that Chinese food offers, so she had some time to think about that.

After a day of meetings at the university, we took the train out to Jiyugaoka station.

Maps were consulted to figure out directions.

Up the side street, many of the storefronts in this district were closed. I noticed the bicyclist choosing the safety of sidewalk, while pedestrians casually strolled the streets.

The sidewalks were sometimes non-existent, so we had to be on alert for oncoming cars.

Around the curve, the directions led us uphill.

We found our destination, Aen, with a modest front door.

Shiomi and Satomi had a lengthy consultation with the server about a good selection of alternative dishes. The menu is complete vegetarian, but I complicate matters by trying to avoid dairy products. Read the rest of this entry →

Since Tamachi station and Mita station are north and east of the hotel where we normally stay, the  morning commutes to the university are a regular walk that way.  I decided to take a roundabout route east and south to look around, on the way to Tamachi station.

The area is called Shinshiba. Looking west, the towers — it’s hard to judge whether they’re offices or apartments — are built up to the edge of the canal.

To these southwest, the pedestrian bridge is painted pink.

I followed the main road to walk south over a bridge.  On subsequent walks, I discovered a Hanamasa supermarket further down this road.  Beyond that, there’s more highrises.

Following the main road, I turned east at the pedestrian crosswalk at the traffic lights.

Ot the souteast corner of the next major intersection, the old location of the Shibaura Institute of Technology has been vacated and not yet replaced with a new tenant. Read the rest of this entry →

On my third visit to Tokyo, I’ve become comfortable with navigating from Narita International Airport to my hotel near Tamachi station.  Arrving around 5 p.m. in the evening, here’s what the trip looks like into Terminal 1 (for the Star Alliance carriers).

As with most huge airports, passengers debark from the aircraft to face a long walk to the terminal.

Speedwalks in the terminal make the walk easier.  I passed by thermal monitors on the lookout for fevers, right before the lineups at immigration and luggage carousels.

Exiting the baggage area, my first stop takes me on a turn right.  Since my mobile phone from Canada hasn’t worked in Japan, I order a local mobile phone via ANA Skyweb for pickup, a week before the scheduled flight.

At the end of the terminal, the Ana sky porter had a mobile phone with my name on a list.

Turning around to come back through the centre of the terminal, I passed by the main escalator down to the trains.

There’s another wing of the terminal farther along, but my destination was the ATMs just to the left. Read the rest of this entry →

Our family has a pattern — not yet a tradition — of skiing at Blue Mountain on December 24.  On the day before Christmas, the slopes are relatively quiet … and the people working the lodge and lifts aren’t yet stressed out by the holiday crowds that will arrive in the following days.  We haven’t been consistent on this event, because it’s only worth going if snow conditions are good, and pre-Christmas weather is variable.  In 2008, conditions were favorable,and we were on the road as the sun rose.  Since we ski irregularly, we rent equipment at the lodge for the day.  We’re not very practiced in getting dressed in the gear.

As oldsters, Diana and I prefer the tradition of Alpine skiing.  Adam and Noah have been on snowboards in prior years.  Ryan decided to stick with skis, and followed his parents for the first few runs.

Taking the ski lift up is more straightforward for skiiers than snowboarders, who have to release the binding for one foot.  After riding the lift to the top of the hill, Adam and Noah demonstrated the procedure of reattaching snowboard bindings while seated.

Unlike prior trips sunny enough for sunglasses, this day was overcast and cold both in the morning and afternoon.  From a north facing ridge, the clouds were low on the views of Georgian Bay and Collingwood. Read the rest of this entry →

Continuing the tour of my relatives in the Bay Area, our group struck out on the Friday afternoon over the bridge to Berkeley, connecting with my niece Nicole as the local tour guide.  A late and leisurely ramen lunch didn’t leave us much time to see the campus.  Without a specific destination, we just wandered.  In comparison to the sprawling campus at Stanford, the Berkeley site seems more compact.  The lush eucalyptus grove indicates a climate cooler and wetter than the south bay.

Although Berkeley has a long history of scholarship into Asia, the Chinese and Japanese collections were  consolidated into the C. V. Starr East Asian Library as a new building only in 2008.

Since Nancy was an east asian studies major some years ago, and then a library studies graduate student, this building was a natural for a peek.

The atrium down the middle of the building provides a feeling of greater openness inside the modern structure. Read the rest of this entry →