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When I got to Japan, I realized I'd forgotten to pack a hat (I usually take two, a pub cap and a Tilley). So my first order of business in Kyoto was to check into my hotel, buy a hat, and grab some supper.

The hotel room was wee, but perfectly serviceable, though it did take some finding since Google couldn't figure out the address. Using the hotel's name did the trick after I circled the block twice. Basically I had a double bed, a desk, TV, and a bathroom with a shower. Not the smallest place I've ever stayed (that would be in London), but close.

Then it was off to the closest shopping mall. Asia has these multi-story malls that I'm not used to (tallest in Calgary is four stories. Most are one or two). I walk in and start browsing. The goal was to get a hat that fit my massive noggin, that didn't look too touristy. But really, anything that kept the sun off would be OK.

I found an I ♥ Kyoto hat. Big logo, wrong colour, barely fit. But it was a hat. Since I was in the cheap tourist goods part of the store, I figured I could find a better hat somewhere else in the store. Two stories up, I found better hats. I got a nice, plain black hat that fit well and was in cadet style, which I prefer. Perfect. I put the other hat down and went to pay for it.

As I was leaving that floor, I realized that the whole building wasn't one store, it was multiple stores per level. I had accidentally shop lifted the hat from a store on one floor to a store on another.

Whoops.

I slinked out of there pretty fast after that. That hat (the one I bought legitimately) served me well, and lives in my biking backpack, for those times the bike is locked up and I don't want to wear my helmet.

After my brief criminal career, I went to Kyoto station (I discovered it's a legit tourist spot in its own right, and not just a transport hub). I found a place selling okonomiyaki and settled in at their bar, ordered, and waited.

A few minutes later, I noticed that a server was hovering right behind me on his phone. I was getting a little weirded out when he tapped me on the shoulder and showed me his phone. In Google Translate this was written: “Apologies, we accidentally added cheese to your order. Do you still want it?”

I gave a thumbs up and a nod. My cheese-enhanced okonomiyaki was delivered and it was delicious. On the way out I had written into my own translation device, “White people never say no to extra cheese”.

The next day was my first full day at a single location in Japan, and I was going to explore. I was up early because of the continued jet lag, so I took advantage of it to get somewhere that normally has a hojillion tourists, and avoid them. First thing on my agenda was to see cherry blossoms (it was sakura season in Japan, which to my limited experience is probably the best time to come). One of the recommended places for this was Tetsugaku No Michi, the Philosopher's Path. By coincidence, this was the exact time I'd normally be having my weekly “philosophy” meetings with friends (Wednesday morning in Japan being Tuesday evening in Cowtown).

On the train/bus to the start of the path, I realized I was the tallest person in the crowded train car. I decided that I was going to keep a running tab of my “am I tallest on this vehicle” score. Spoilers: I didn't get 100%, but I got damn close.

[The Philosopher's Path, During Cherry Blossom Season. Gorgeous]

The Philosopher's Path is a paved trail, going several kilometres alongside a canal. The canal is lined with cherry trees, and abuts a forest at several points. It is, otherwise, just a path through a very pretty residential neighbourhood. After the path, I headed to Gion, where all the geisha hang out. No pictures of that because taking pictures on (some) of the streets in Gion is forbidden. And I want to be a considerate tourist.
assassinations are A-OK apparently

[You'll note this sign is not in Mandarin, or Korean, or Spanish]

While I was doing that, my fellow travellers, the farmers, decided to also tour Kyoto. Their host, Hideyo, offered guided tours, and rides from/to their space in Keihoku for a flat rate that was pretty reasonable. We decided to meet at Kodai-ji temple where I would join them for the rest of the day.

When I got there, I touched base with them to find they'd left without me and gone on to their next stop. I was pretty salty about that for the rest of the day, but after grabbing a cab, I got to the next stop, Nijo-jo Castle. To make up for ditching me, they bought my ticket to get inside the castle.

The castle is surrounded by a significant moat filled with very greedy fish, as well as high walls. Great place to hole up in a zombie apocalypse.

Dive in and let the fish nibble

[One corner of the outer moat]

Not covered in shit

[Nijo castle inner grounds]

It is good to be the shogun

[The inner palace]

After a pleasant 90 minutes checking out Kyoto's main castle, we found a hole-in-the-wall Ramen shop where Hideyo knew the owner, and helped us order.

Post lunch we went to Ryonan-ji temple. We were all pretty bagged by this point, and the temple was on the side of a mountain (note, this describes most of Kyoto as the center is the flat spot between a bunch of mountains, and they've had a thousand years to build out).

The temple is known for two main things, both well worth seeing. 1) It's rock garden, 2) the 40 panels depicting the life of a dragon inside.

After walking 15 Km, these hit harder than they look

After walking 15 Km, these hit harder than they look

[The stairs to Ryoanji Temple]

We will, we will, rock you

[Zen Garden]

Dragon, meet Great Wave. Great Wave, meet dragon

[One of many depictions of a dragon]

The temple also has a very beautiful (non-rock) exterior garden.

After this, Hideyo went above and beyond and dropped me off at my hotel before taking everyone back to Keihoku. For reference, this was equivalent to driving from UofC campus to downtown Calgary during rush hour, then turning around and going to Cremona. This was especially a sacrifice for T, who ended up in the very back so they could give me the shotgun seat.

That night, I wandered around Kyoto station, looking for a place to eat, finding a revolving sushi experience with a lot of weird-ass kinds of sushi I'd never had before. Flounder? Pretty good. Mackeral? I can get it here, but never got around to trying it. I dig it. Raw horse meat? Took about ten minutes of chewing to get it down. Not going to repeat that.

Current Location: Kyoto, Japan
Current Music: I Love Rock 'n' Roll - Joan Jett and the Blackhearts

jamesq

The thing about Calgary is, it's Westjet's hub. So couple #1 (S & G) had to travel from Vancouver to Calgary to catch the flight to Japan, and couple #2 (Y & T) had to travel from Edmonton. We were all on the same flight. Though that almost didn't happen because S didn't book the flight they thought they had (it was for the next day – they were tipped off by the over 24 hour layover in Calgary). An hour on the phone with Westjet managed to fix it.
We were all in the Premium Economy section. Couple #2 and I both just booked those seats. Couple #1 managed to upgrade at the last minute.

Boarding was easy, but there was a tiny amount of drama when a family of four (parents, two young kids) came on and had not chosen their seats, so they were spread throughout the cabin. I was asked to move to... a seat beside couple #1.

“I'm not sure I want to be seated next to these obvious ruffians.”
“Pbbt”

My seat has otherwise the same topography so I was fine with it. The flight was uneventful and comfortable. But good deeds do not go unpunished – Across the aisle from me was a guy who spent the whole flight unmasked and coughing his lungs out. I hoped he was just a chronic smoker. Nope – three days later I was coughing my lungs out. I suspect he gave me Covid, but lacking a positive test it could have been some other lung crud. Out of our party, T also caught it. I even spent the majority of the flight masked.

We landed in Japan and immediately went through the bureaucracy. The whole arrivals area was lines and brutalist architecture. We spent a fair amount of time waiting for luggage, and also took the opportunity to get transit cards, though I suspect if we'd gone for regular Suica cards, instead of Welcome Suica cards it would have taken a lot less time. But we did get them, so everyone's transit was taken care of. We also dealt with our phone's SIM cards. The Apple phones all just worked, but the Androids did not (reading the instructions helped with that the next day. I just needed to tell the Android phones to look for Japanese access points and after that everything worked for the rest of the trip).

Finally we transferred to a local hotel. We were all pretty bagged and our internal clocks were wrecked.

Now the plan was for us to spend the night in Narita, then catch a Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto, where we'd then take a bus into the middle of nowhere for the farm that Y had booked. I'd spend two nights there and then come back to Kyoto.

“Hey Y, thanks for letting our host know about having a fifth ~~wheel~~ person. What do I owe you for my share?” “What?”

Yeah, turns out that never happened, and I wasn't sure where I was going to be spending the next two nights. I ended up, in my delerious, sleep-deprived state, booking a room for two nights in Kyoto. This was a different hotel from the next four nights in Kyoto.

The next day, I wasn't sure if I'd dreamt all that. Thankfully the confirmation email was in my inbox.

The Narita hotel room was western style (i.e. huge, two queen beds, full bath) and only differed in that Japan has no concept of water conservation. Every flush of the toilet used about half a swimming pool's worth of water. This would contrast sharply with the other rooms I'd have for the trip.

That morning, we enjoyed the hotel's buffet. It was a mix of western and asian dishes. I tried natto, just to say I did. It wasn't as revolting as I'd been led to believe, but did have a bitter taste I wasn't fond of.

I really wanted to steal one of these for Rosie.

I really wanted to steal one of these for Rosie.

[Plush lobsters at the front of our restaurant]

After supper I threw myself onto the concierge's merci to have my luggage shipped to the hotel I'd be staying in Kyoto in two days. This service is available all through Japan's hotels, and I ended up using it twice. It meant navigating busy train stations with only a moderately sized backpack with my electronics and a change of clothing. Highly recommended, but you do need a clear idea of where to send it, and a native Japanese speaker to fill out the forms for you.

It's a mama cat carrying a kitten!

[Yamato Transport's awesome logo]

We made our way back to the airport and took the Narita Express into central Tokyo. There we boarded our Shinkansen and had a pleasant ride into Kyoto. I was in a different car from the others, so I mostly just grooved on the passing scenery. Note, when reserving tickets, you can request to be on the side of the train facing Mount Fuji.

The one and only Mount Fuji

[Mount Fuji, from the Shinkansen]

Side note: We used an online service to book our train tickets. If you're travelling outside of rush hour, this is probably unnecessary, the ticket kiosks are pretty easy to use. Also, reserve seats only cost a few bucks more so it's often worth it. If you're worried about missing your train, your tickets will still be good for the next train (they just stop being reserve tickets and you have to use an unreserved seat). Apparently they're good the whole day, in case you have major delays.

We arrived in Kyoto station and I hung out with the farmers while they waited for their 90 minute bus trip out to Keihoku. Then I wandered off to find my hotel on the south side of Kyoto station.

I was now in Kyoto for the next six days.

Current Music: Solsbury Hill - Peter Gabriel

jamesq

I went to Japan this year. It was a trip a long time coming.

Originally, me and three friends were going to go in May of 2020. Well, you can guess how that went. It then got put on the back burner. Time passed, I lost my job, and decided to roll that into retirement. But I still had the money set aside. What was stopping me was not wanting to go by myself. So I bided my time, waiting for at least some of these friends to decide to go again. I tried not to push it myself, because when I do that, everyone clams up. Better to just wait.

Finally, one friend got invited to go to the annual Star Wars expo (which moves around, and was in Tokyo this year). A few months before, they pulled the trigger on going, and I bought my own tickets.

We ended up setting up a group chat and a google doc for things to do and helpful hints when travelling. It came in handy.

Myself? I let my anxiety get on top of me and didn't book my hotels or train tickets until about two weeks prior to our flight. But I did do it.

Sadly, the downside was that someone I didn't know (who shared that common friend with me) was doing all the planning. And they had very different priorities from me. The biggest is that they really wanted to spend a relaxing time in the countryside, and I'm a city boy at heart, who was really looking forward to exploring some of the great cities.

Remember I said I didn't want to go by myself? Of the two weeks I was in Japan, six-ish days were spent with my friends, and three of those days were travel days. While it wasn't ideal, I can say that being alone in Japan no longer fills me with panic-inducing anxiety. Now it's just the normal amount of anxiety if I ever go again. I'd like to go again.

Anyway, this is going to be the first of my Tokyo travelogue posts. I've finally gotten around to organizing my photos, and bullet points of what I did. Now to turn it into a narrative. I hope you enjoy it.

hrj

With the acknowledgement that I have often gone for two weeks or more without posting here, I'll just note that I won't be posting (or reading) for the next two weeks because tomorrow evening I'm heading off to New Zealand for my official "celebrating retirement" with my BFF. I will probably try to do some sort of trip report when I get back, but it might be little more than "had a fabulous time."

hrj

This morning's inspection was by the solar company's QA guy, checking on whether the installation folks had done the job properly. He was my favorite type of engineer: someone who loves explaining what he's doing and why. He found a couple things that needed improvement (mostly tightening connections) and one item they overlooked that needs installing (a more obviously robust grounding set-up -- he said it's quite possible that I already have a sufficiently robust set-up somewhere under the foundation, but it's required to be somewhere that an inspector can actually see and confirm it, so they'll install one).

Still no word from my electrician about retrospectively pulling a permit for the panel work, so I need to ping him. But nothing else is going to move forward until I get back from New Zealand in any case.

Despite all the chaos around the various inspections, I'm being favorably impressed by the attention to detail and layers of checks that are part of the installation process. Also impressed that the solar company's attitude is "Since we touched the system last, it's our responsibility to make sure everything will pass code."

hrj

With the preface that none of this is in any way time-critical or a problem, I'm amused at the slow progress of getting my solar installation inspected and approved.

While I was off at Worldcon, I got a call (actually, I always get simultaneous text/call/email for every communication) about scheduling the solar company's QA inspection. They wanted to schedule it for this past Monday (when I wasn't home yet) so I convinced them to reschedule. They said they'd get back to me with a new date. A couple days ago, I get notification of an inspection this coming Monday. I assume this is the company QA inspection and confirm by text.

The other pending inspection is the return of the city inspector to follow up with the to-do items. It turns out (which I hadn't been aware of before) that in addition to getting permits pulled retrospectively for my new water heater and the electrical panel re-build, they had neglected to include the solar storage battery in the scope-of-work for their side of the inspection items. (I discovered this when reviewing permits associated with my address.)

I'd been in contact with my electrician about the panel permit before Worldcon but we were both busy that week, so I pinged him and set about learning the online permit process. The interface is straightforward and very well documented with instructions and examples, so I got the water heater permit set up on my own. Once again pinged the electrician and explained that he didn't have to handle the inspection side, just the permit. He said he'd take care of that yesterday evening. (Spoiler: the permit wasn't in the system this morning, but it's not really a big deal, as further events will show.)

This morning, in the middle of my bike ride, I get another call from the solar company scheduler. She explains that since we don't have everything lined up for the city inspection, that they've cancelled the Monday appointment. Oh, I said, I thought that was the other one -- the solar company QA inspection. No, it was the city inspection. Ok, I said, I have the one permit pulled and my electrician will have the other in a day or so and I'll provide the information. But they can't schedule the city inspection until we have all the ducks in a row. She's just about to start lobbing dates at me when I point out that I'm about to be out of town for two weeks. Oh, she says, well then we'll make sure to work around that once we have the permit information. I heave a quiet sigh of relief because at this point I'd rather not be trying to cram all the inspection activities in before my trip. I repeat everything back to her "to make sure I understand correctly" and delete the Monday appointment from my calendar. I am left with the impression that I was confused about there being two pending inspections, because I asked about it several times.

This afternoon, I get a text/email/call to schedule the solar company QA inspection for Monday. Head:desk. By the way, the solar company scheduler is always the same person, though I suppose I can forgive her for not keeping track of all the accounts individually. (Though that's what notes in the file are for. She should have been aware of the pending QA inspection when we talked earlier today.)

So at this point the permit # for the water heater has been sent to my contact, I'll give the electrician some grace before poking him again because honestly as long as I get the permit # for the panel before I leave the country and can pass it along, it's all good. The QA inspection will presumably be taken care of on Monday. And then I'll get the city inspection ideally the week after I get back.

But one more thing...remember how I had a jury duty summons that I had to reschedule because of my trip? That is also now scheduled for the week after I get back. I provided that information to the scheduler: "Jury duty summons for Thursday." She noted, "OK, so we won't schedule it for Thursday." Um...that's not always how jury duty works? But at that point I figured it will work out somehow.