TravelStream™ news feed for member gadelle on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/gadelle en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 08 Nov 2009 09:37:10 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gadelle/japan_2006/1257678652/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gadelle/japan_2006/1257678652/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gadelle/japan_2006/1257678652/tpod.html Sun, 08 Nov 2009 09:37:10 -0500 Moving halfway around the world -- A Canadian's adventures in Tokyo

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Tokyo, Japan

Has it really been this long since I updated? Yes, yes it has.

To try to get back into the swing of things, and because I have some pictures to share, let me tell you about what I did yesterday, a lovely Saturday spent on a side of town I usually don't have any reason to visit.

A few days ago, my friend Jamie invited me to volunteer at a soup kitchen with her. Yesterday morning, we headed for Akihabara, better known for its electronics stores, where we helped the people at Second Harvest get food ready to distribute to homeless people in Ueno Park. We started out by opening packages of frozen meat buns, and then Jamie was put on bread-counting duty and I was sent to the kitchen to help prepare banana sorbet. This meant emptying bags of frozen banana slices and lulo pulp into huge pots. I'd never heard of lulo before, but an internet search informed me that it's a fruit from South America, and is also called naranjilla; indeed, it does smell much like oranges, though it's not actually a citrus fruit.

After that, we met a couple of Jamie's friends for lunch at an Italian restaurant. Though portions in Japan are usually quite reasonable, we were glad we split the lunch special, because how could one person possibly eat a whole pizza and a whole plate of pasta? But who are we to argue with what amounted to lunch for under 500 yen per person?

We had time to kill because we had dinner reservations for 6:30, so we shopped around in Akihabara for a while before walking to Ginza. I wasn't really keeping track of time, so I'm not sure how long it took us to get there. It's about 5 subway stops away, but we took our time, stopping to photograph whatever struck our fancy.

Once in Ginza, we were joined by William. We still had an hour or so before dinner, and Jamie wanted to show us a place called Berry Café, which she claimed had incredible desserts. We found the place, and couldn't resist trying some of those mouth-watering creations, which I maintain can in all fairness be called dessert porn. I chose the "Kabocha Mont Blanc" (kabocha is Japanese pumpkin, green of skin and orange of flesh) and it was every bit as good as it looked!

Dessert taken care of, we found Eda and headed for the Vampire Café. Tokyo has many themed restaurants, and we couldn't resist trying this one. It didn't disappoint! The decor was all dim lighting, deep red curtains, red candles and plush chairs (there was even a coffin!); employees were in costume, either as vampires, butlers, or maids, and the menu was full of suitably vampirical offerings. To summon a waiter, we had only to ring a little golden bell.

The food was surprisingly good! I didn't expect much from it, to be honest, because one doesn't generally go to themed restaurants for the quality of the dishes, but rather the presentation. I only regret I didn't have more of an appetite, because I would definitely have ordered more!

The only unpleasant part of the evening was the smokers who surrounded us. We were seated in the very middle of the room, however, so I think it wouldn't have been so bad had we been in one of the curtained alcoves. If I go back, I'll ask to be seated in one of those!

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gadelle/9/1218450960/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gadelle/9/1218450960/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gadelle/9/1218450960/tpod.html Mon, 29 Dec 2008 22:51:58 -0500 Taiwan 2008

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Taipei, Taiwan

For those of you who weren't aware of my travel plans for this summer, I'm in Taiwan with M-P for 9 days! We've been here 3 days already and so far the weather has been a bit rainier than we'd have liked, but what we've seen of Taiwan so far is lovely, the people are great and the food is incredibly delicious. I'm getting the chance to flex my atrophied Mandarin muscles; while the results are less than impressive, the people I've chatted with seem to appreciate my efforts, and I've managed to communicate without too much difficulty thus far.

When I get back to Tokyo I'll post some backdated entries with plenty of photos, including pictures of our culinary adventures, which include candied tomatoes, scallion pancakes and The Richest Beef Broth Ever.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gadelle/pariszurich2007/1177766160/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gadelle/pariszurich2007/1177766160/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gadelle/pariszurich2007/1177766160/tpod.html Tue, 22 Apr 2008 09:32:11 -0400 Ten days in Europe: Paris and Zurich in springtime!

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Chartres, France

For some reason, I was under the impression that Chartres wasn't as close to Paris as it actually is. In the past, of course, it would have been, but nowadays it's an hour's train ride away and a great day-trip.

We went to see the Gothic goodness of the cathedral, of course, but there are plenty of other old buildings to admire as well. The day was warm and sunny, the town was blessedly tourist-free (save us and a few others) and we had a lovely time.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gadelle/pariszurich2007/1177217760/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gadelle/pariszurich2007/1177217760/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gadelle/pariszurich2007/1177217760/tpod.html Tue, 22 Apr 2008 09:26:55 -0400 Ten days in Europe: Paris and Zurich in springtime!

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Paris, Île-de-France, France

I've been back home for almost two weeks - I have a partial excuse for not posting earlier, which is that I was sick and spent four days doing a whole lot of lying in bed, not eating and feeling sorry for myself. After that, it was just the usual laziness. I think I'll just post an entry for Paris, one for Chartres and one for Switzerland and lots of photos. Prepare to be photo-dumped-upon.

General notes: I flew with Korean Air, which I heartily recommend. Good service, good food (and we all know that's the most important thing!), no delays. My flights were Narita to Seoul (2 hours) then Seoul to Paris (12 hours) and the return was Zurich to Seoul (11 hours) and another 2 hours back to Narita. I arrived in Paris on the 29th of March and the rest of my family arrived the next morning. We stayed at the Hôtel de Roubaix, in the 3e arrondissement, within easy walking distance of the Louvre, l'Ile de la Cité and most of the stuff tourists want to see. As for the weather, it cleared up after two days of chilly drizzle and we had sunshine for the rest of our stay.

So, Paris. Paris in the spring, no less. When I went to Paris five years ago, I was there in mid-May for a few days and then again for a few days in mid-June. It was my first time in Europe and my first solo trip and I was utterly enchanted. It was hard not to be; it's Paris, after all. It's in all the books, the songs, the poems, I felt I knew it
already. And I did, in a way. Growing up in a francophone culture, but not French, Paris was IT, the centre of it all, where it all began, in a way. So my first time there was spent seeing all the things I'd read about and seen pictures of, so I could take my own pictures and tell everyone else all about it.

This time was quite a different experience. Obviously, you don't go to Paris for the warm and welcoming people, but when I was there in 2002, I found people generally kind and the atmosphere pleasant. This time, though the city itself was as lovely as ever, the atmosphere was much less pleasant. Everyone seemed worried and drab, hurrying along. I felt rather conspicuous in my pink coat, much more than I do in Tokyo, surprisingly; you'd think that Tokyo would be grey and Paris colourful, but it's the other way around, at least these days. The social problems they're having really seem to be wearing the city down.

We stayed in Paris a total of six days, days during which we "did" the typical things: the Louvre (twice for me and my father: we went back to see the special Praxiteles exhibition), Notre-Dame, St-Germain-des-Prés, Montmartre, the Cluny Museum, the Sainte Chapelle, shopping at Printemps, the Catacombs, the Champs-Élysés. Not all five of us saw all those things, since we split up in various configurations, but I think we all got to see what we wanted to. Also, we ate lots of cheese. And drank lots of wine.

And now, I'll let the photos speak for themselves.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gadelle/japan_2006/1208771940/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gadelle/japan_2006/1208771940/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gadelle/japan_2006/1208771940/tpod.html Mon, 21 Apr 2008 07:23:01 -0400 Moving halfway around the world -- A Canadian's adventures in Tokyo

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Tokyo, Japan

Unlike New York, Tokyo isn't really a city of interesting architecture. That said, I find it endlessly fascinating to explore its streets, to see it at different times of day. While a few buildings stand out, everything is mostly shades of grey, blocky and dull; what interests me is the small things, the proportions and the arrangements that are just different enough from what I was used to back home to make me look twice.

Also, unlike in Manhattan, there is no really distinctive skyline in Tokyo, mainly because the city sprawls so much that it has no true centre. The closest to what we might call a downtown is Shinjuku's business district, which probably has the highest concentration of skyscrapers in the city. It is also the seat of the municipal government, from where you can view the city from the 45th floor's observatory. You can do the same from Tokyo Tower (Tokyo's answer to Paris's famous landmark) but you have to pay.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gadelle/japan_2006/1206442080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gadelle/japan_2006/1206442080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gadelle/japan_2006/1206442080/tpod.html Wed, 16 Apr 2008 06:27:23 -0400 Moving halfway around the world -- A Canadian's adventures in Tokyo

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Naha, Japan

Late again, I know, but this week I blame not technology, but my being sick. In fact, I was feeling so dizzy yesterday that when the building started shaking in the middle of a class, I assumed it was just me until a student exclaimed that we were having an earthquake.

Today I'm doing much better, thanks for asking, so in order to cheer up those of you still buried beneath copious quantities of snow, I'll tell you all about my little jaunt to Okinawa with A-L.

We went in late November, when Tokyo was already starting to get chilly, but Naha (the capital city of Okinawa) was a balmy 24 degrees. Since we were only there for two days, we didn't leave the city, but we got to sample a bit: we saw History (in the form of the reconstructed Shuri Castle), viewed Nature (a glass-bottomed boat tour and a walk along the municipal beach) and sampled local Food and Drink (goya, sea grapes and fire water, oh my!).

Naha had a surprising feel, to my mind, an odd blend of Japan and the tropics. The city looks like a smaller, less-crowded Tokyo (like most Japanese cities, I imagine), yet most of the buildings are white or cream-coloured instead of grey, and the vegetation and the air are tropical. The resulting atmosphere is both relaxed and orderly. There are no subways or trains, but a monorail runs from the airport, on the western side of the city, to Shuri Castle, which is on the eastern side.

Shuri Castle was once the home of the royal family, because Okinawa has only been part of Japan for a relatively short time. Before that, it was the centre of the Ryuukyuu Kingdom, which owed its wealth to trade. The palace looks to me like a cross between Japanese and Chinese influences -- there's plenty of red and gold and dragons, but it's generally restrained.

Of course, we had to try Okinawan food, so we made sure to eat as much as possible, including sweet potato bubble tea and taco rice, though not at the same time. On our second night there, we randomly chose a restaurant that seemed to serve small portions, so that we could sample many, and lucked out -- they were having a special 50% discount night! We had, among other things, sashimi, delicious tofu tempura, goya (bitter melon), and tasty stir-fried rice with tomatoes. I also ordered awamori, the local firewater, though I drank it mixed with water.

While the weather was warm, it was a bit rainy. The boat tour we went on warned us that visibility in the water was 4 on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being the clearest), but we were pleased to find that we could still see a great deal, given that the reef wasn't that deep where we were taken. While we couldn't distinguish their colours very well, we saw lots of fish, coral and anemones, so we left satisfied.

Perhaps the highlight of our trip, apart from me getting A-L to sing at karaoke with me, was the return flight. When we'd left Tokyo, we'd seen one of the Poképlanes on the runway, and at Naha Airport, we spotted another one. Imagine our delight when we learned that it was our plane back! The flight attendants were not dressed as Pikachu, I'm sorry to say, though they did have Pikachu-themed aprons, and the headrest covers also featured that lovable little yellow creature. We didn't get to see the pilot, but I wonder if his tie fit the theme...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gadelle/japan_2006/1208256360/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gadelle/japan_2006/1208256360/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gadelle/japan_2006/1208256360/tpod.html Tue, 15 Apr 2008 07:46:30 -0400 Moving halfway around the world -- A Canadian's adventures in Tokyo

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Tokyo, Japan

Well.

Would you believe that last week I completely forgot about posting because my new schedule, which has me coming home before 5 o'clock on Mondays (when it used to be closer to 7:30), had me completely forgetting what day it was? You'd think an extra couple of hours of free time would have meant an earlier post, but there you are.

My new job is turning out to be quite a delight. I co-teach a class of ten children aged 3 to 5 and for the most part, they're good-natured, easy-going kids. Of course there is some whining and not-listening and refusing to share toys (and it really is worse on grey, rainy days!), but on the whole, they're sinfully adorable. Moreover, they seem to appreciate my sense of style: most days, I get at least one comment along the lines of, "Miss Adèle! Your necklace is blue/funny/pink/so cute/looks like jelly!"

That's not what I wanted to write about today, though.

I'm not a person who spends all that much time looking at the ground while I walk, but some things just catch my eye. When I first arrived in Japan, for example, I was mightily impressed by the pretty manhole covers around Tokyo. Each ward seems to have slightly different ones.

In subway and train stations, and along many of the larger boulevards, you see raised yellow lines leading along one side of the sidewalk, which change to raised dots at corners or the edge of the train platform. These are so the visually impaired can navigate using a cane. For the rest of us, they add an extra hazard to walking in high heels or riding a bicycle.

Another thing that struck me was that instead of a big red STOP sign, many intersections have "TOMARE" written on the pavement itself. On bigger streets with several lanes, you get directions and speed limits on the asphalt. Also, since cyclists use the sidewalks, here, stop signs for bicycles, painted on the ground, are a common sight at street corners.

Japan is very much a smoking country, but I understand that a few years ago, there was a nation-wide (or at least Kantou-wide) campaign to get people to stop smoking on the streets. As a result, many sidewalks boast "No Smoking" signs with helpful graphics.

In some neighbourhoods, the sidewalks were apparently deemed too dull, so they were decorated. Along the main drag of Akihabara's electronics district, for instance, there are images of various electric devices, sort of like the Appliance Walk of Fame. And on a street not too far from where I live, the sidewalk features water-dwelling creatures.

Please excuse the angle of some of these photos -- taking pictures of the ground isn't as easy as I thought it was!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gadelle/japan_2006/1206962040/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gadelle/japan_2006/1206962040/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gadelle/japan_2006/1206962040/tpod.html Mon, 31 Mar 2008 11:00:59 -0400 Moving halfway around the world -- A Canadian's adventures in Tokyo

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Tokyo, Japan

Last year, I missed the height of the cherry blossom season because I was in Europe. This year, I've been diligently taking pictures, though nowhere near as many as I took of the plum blossoms. For one thing, cherry blossoms bloom in great bunches, so once you've taken one close-up, there's no need for more; unlike plum blossom, which bloom sparsely on bare branches, cherry blossoms are at their most dramatic when the tree is viewed as a whole, draped in lace. Blossom viewing being something of a national sport, any park with more than a couple of flowering trees is bound to be full of revelers around this time of year.

The weekend before last, I walked around Ueno Park and even though the sakura were only starting to open up, the crowd was a constant flow. The upside to this was that the food vendors were out in force, so I had some tasty grilled meat.

On Friday, I went with friends to Naka-meguro, a neighbourhood I'd never been to before. Though the weather was overcast, we still enjoyed the sakura-lined canal, watching petals fall to the water like snow. On Saturday, I stuck closer to home and mingled with the crowds ambling along the Sumida river. Unfortunately, the sun and sky were partially obscured by what I think must have been the yellow sand winds from China. Indeed, both my throat and the inside of my nose were raw by that evening, and it was neither allergies nor a cold.

As I type this, I'm watching a game show on television in which the members of Arashi (a boy band) are playing air hockey with (and losing to!) a couple of guys dressed as thunder gods. For no reason that I can understand, one of the hosts is carrying a stuffed Mickey Mouse around.

I've promised myself that I'll write an entry about Japanese television, because it's like nothing you've ever seen, but I think I'll have to find a way to hook up my television to the computer so I can get good images of the insanity. Otherwise, you might not believe me.

Now the boy band has caught up and it's match point.

I also wanted to mention that today's entry is the 34th in this travelogue, which now means I've at least caught up with my Eastern Europe travelogue for number of entries. After all, I spent five whole weeks in Eastern Europe, and I've only been in Japan for 19 months.

The boy band won.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gadelle/japan_2006/1205751600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gadelle/japan_2006/1205751600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gadelle/japan_2006/1205751600/tpod.html Mon, 17 Mar 2008 07:39:12 -0400 Moving halfway around the world -- A Canadian's adventures in Tokyo

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Tokyo, Japan

Even though there is no snow for the sun to melt, it's comforting to feel that mildness in the air that tells us spring has arrived. Yesterday was a gorgeous day, and it seemed everyone was outside, walking and bicycling along the Sumida river.

I don't have much else to say for today, I just wanted to share some more photos of... wait for it... plum blossoms! My only regret is that I can't post the scent of them.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gadelle/japan_2006/1205242500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gadelle/japan_2006/1205242500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gadelle/japan_2006/1205242500/tpod.html Tue, 11 Mar 2008 10:23:34 -0400 Moving halfway around the world -- A Canadian's adventures in Tokyo

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Tokyo, Japan

Reading fashion magazines has never been among my favourite activities, but I couldn't resist picking one up a few weeks ago, if only to be able to show you all how those here differ from those at home.

For one thing, the Japanese are voracious readers, and the number of magazines published here is incredible. Any subject you can think of has at least one magazine devoted to it, full of gorgeous, glossy pictures and how-to explanations. On top of that, there are the weekly, bi-weekly and monthly manga publications, often as thick as phone books, usually with a very specific target audience: are you a 9-year-old girl who likes stories about cute animals? A 14-year-old boy who likes sports? A housewife who likes sexy yet tasteful science-fiction? Then there's a manga digest for you! Every convenience store has a generous rack of magazines, mostly on fashion, celebrities, sports and manga, but bookstores have that and more, and the bigger ones sometimes seem to have as many magazines as books.

I cheated a bit and chose a magazine aimed at the 18-year-old crowd, so I'm Too Old for some of these clothes, but who cares? It's a bit hard to think of a North American equivalent, because this is indeed a fashion magazine, in that of its 340 pages, at least 90% are devoted to clothes, accessories and make-up, instead of the mix of articles and features we're used to in Canada. I like this, though, because I've always found magazines such as Vogue kind of a waste of paper -- for all that they claim to be about fashion, 50% of their bulk seems to be ads, pictures of celebrities or articles about restaurants, clubs and spas. At least with JJ, I got what I paid for, namely lots of pictures of cute outfits.

Another difference is that there is a bit focus on the "how to". The Japanese love to learn the proper method to do something (shikata), so there are two-page spreads on how to apply make-up, or pages on how to combine different colours to change the look of a dress.

If you're surprised at how short some of the shorts and dresses are, I assure you that girls do wear them that short. My father was shocked at how many girls were dressed like strumpets (his exact words!), but I countered that while some show as much leg as possible, their necklines are positively demure. Japanese women are not curvy, as a rule, and the fashion these days is to layer tops in order to have two or three different necklines visible, so that doesn't leave much room for exposing the chest. In fact, when I went back to Canada last summer, I was shocked at how much cleavage was on display.

I forgot to take a picture of the horoscope page, but all you need to know is that Hello Kitty represented all twelve zodiac signs.

A final note: Japanese reads top to bottom, right to left, except when it doesn't, in which case it's left to right. Either way, you always start on the right page.
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