You are currently browsing the monthly archive for April 2009.
I assure you, rumors of our disappearance from the planet earth are vastly overstated.
There are just quite a few things going on at the moment. Good things, exciting things, scary things, things to ponder…things we’re not quite ready to jinx by sharing in a public forum (no, mother, there are no storks bearing gifts or babies involved).
Alas, things are a bit complicated at the moment and thus, given my inability to keep from blurting out every thought that crosses my mind I’ve been keeping a low profile. No seriously, I can’t keep my mouth shut.
That said, we should have resolution soon and thus, I’ll be able to speak more freely without my husband wandering around throwing salt over his shoulder and at me.
Otherwise, not a whole lot going on. You know, besides the thingimnotallowed to share.
We’re off on another adventure next week. This time we’ll be heading to China to see the terracotta warriors of Xi’an and to see Shanghai, a city we’ve talked about seeing for a few years but haven’t had the chance to yet. We’re actually quite excited about the trip as T has long wanted to see the historical sites of Xi’an and thus far, we’ve had a great time during every visit we’ve made to China. So we shall see what happens I guess. Stay tuned as it shouldn’t be too long before I can overshare again.
I always enjoy watching from about the 1:45 mark…
We’ve been in Tokyo for a little over two years now and somehow hadn’t managed to make the short trip south.
To be honest, if you listened to the guidebooks you would think there was nothing at all to do in Yokohama. Seriously, it received less than a full page. You basically get a few paragraphs mentioning it being the 2nd largest city in Japan, having a Chinatown, and a ferris wheel, but no major shrines, temples, monuments, or futuristic whatnot.
So perhaps you could understand why it took awhile for us to make the short trek.
Even at lunch time on Saturday we still weren’t sure if we were going there or some place else. Finally after a moment’s debate on the train we decided we’d check out Chinatown as the lure of chinese food was too hard to pass up.
Heading down we took the bullet train and within ten minutes arrived at Shin-Yokohama station. From there we took a local train another 20 minutes to Chinatown. What we found when we arrived was kind of surprising.
Tokyo as we may have stated once or twice is congested, loud, hectic and often leaves you to wonder why you ever stepped outside.
Yokohama turned out to be open, calm, reserved, and pleasant (for this afternoon at least). It also didn’t hurt to find a grocery store with root beer minutes after getting off the train either!
So with drinks in hand we wandered into Chinatown and took in the sites.
Overall there were just a handful of cultural sites, but plenty of restaurants. There were almost too many options to choose from, but eventually we settled on a small food-stall selling various candies and buns stuffed with things like sesame, peaches and others with pork, chicken, etc. After making our purchases we settled into a nearby park for our snacks to take it all in.
After a few hours of wandering, we found ourselves outside the baseball stadium and surrounded by some beautifully blooming Tulips. The warm, sunny afternoon it seemed like the perfect time for M to take a quick break from wandering and snap some photos.
All in all, I would highly recommend Yokohama and hope to get to a baseball game out there shortly.
Sorry about that, one minute we’re venturing through Nepal, the next I’m babbling about baseball.
It’s kind of like that every day with me, which makes me wonder how M possibly follows along.
At any rate I think we owe it to you to finish up our Nepalese adventure.
Following our flight through the Himalayas M and I joined our guide on a tour through the Kathmandu Valley featuring the Temple ofChangu Narayan and the ancient cities of Bhaktapur & Patan.
Perched high in the hills, roughly 25 minutes drive from Kathmandu the Temple of Changu Narayan is an impressive monument to the Hindu faith, but perhaps more stunning were the views of the valley below as we watched mountain goats and children bound up and down the hillside with relative ease.
After another 25 minutes in the car, we arrived at Bhaktapur. To this point we had seen quite a bit and after awhile the scenery even to the most open minded of souls begins to look a bit familiar; nevertheless Bhaktapur lived up to its billing as the sentimental favorite site of locals and tourists alike.
The city’s Durbar Square is filled with temples, shops, restaurants, woven though a series of busy streets, but no where near as hectic as Kathmandu’s Durbar Square so you can move at your own pace and not feel overwhelmed by your surroundings. Coupled together it becomes clear why this is considered the favorite of all visitors to Kathmandu.
Following lunch we finished up and headed to Patan. Perhaps it’s unfair to compare, but Patan didn’t really have much chance of impressing us after our previous stops; meanwhile the day itself began to catch up to the both of us as we’d been up and running since 5:30. Upon arrival, M and I walked for about fifteen minutes down the plaza amidst the crowds, snapped a few pictures, and made our way back to the car.
In total though we managed to accomplish quite a bit in one day which turned out to hold true for the whole trip. We’ve seen a lot of places and done a lot of crazy things, but this trip kept us moving from start to finish. We didn’t know what to expect when we flew out from Tokyo, but by the time we left we realized we’d had quite an adventure.
Is Nepal the kind of place I’d recommend to everyone?
No, not really, but the more we journey through Asia the more we’ve come to realize that the truly special places are the most unassuming. While most people couldn’t find Nepal on a map without a bit of a search, I have to say I now consider it a small gem hidden in the mountains.
C’mon, where else can you do the following?
- Fly around the tallest mountains in the world
- Get chased by wild animals
- Take a bath with an elephant
- Be encouraged to start forest fires
- Not be mocked for being a vegetarian
- Get your head shaved and massaged for only a few rupees
- Find yourself constantly bumping into stoned hippie backpackers day after day
- Haggle with shop keepers for mystical keepsakes that their cousin made in the garage two days earlier
- Deal with power outages throughout the night and all through daylight hours
- Offered hashish at any hour of the day
If anyone has any suggestions, we’re all ears.
Opening Day, it’s here…
Forgive me if I’m one of those people that waxes poetic about baseball, but I do love the game. It’s a part of me, has always been will always be. One of the few things I like about Japan is that they have baseball here. M can feel free to argue the quality of the game, but I don’t care, it’s all good to me.
Ok, so where am I going with this?
Well it’s possible that while one former Mariner superstar Alex Rodriguez finds himself in hot water, another has decided to come home after a long journey with one last chance to redeem himself, a franchise, a game, and a city in need of some good news.
Ken Griffey Jr. to me was the epitome of what a baseball player should be as I reached the critical age between kindergarten and girls. The age when you didn’t so much read the box score, but digested every tidbit your brain could cram inside it. Eventhough I grew up on the East Coast, I watched Griffey with a keen eye while I collected all of his cards, tacked his poster to my wall, and wore my hat backwards any chance I could. When he left Seattle nearly a decade later, it made sense to me in him wanting to go home for I had just returned home following four years away at college. Being a Mets fan I also figured I could see him play a few more times at Shea, but in time the romance of this idea faded for both of us. Ironically Junior left Seattle to “go home” to Cincinnati, but ultimately learned the hard way that his home was really in the Pacific Northwest.
So when Junior and the M’s decided to kiss and make up, my heart which had grown cold over the years warmed at the nostalgic potential of Junior returning.
Yes, we as fans are guaranteed very little given Junior’s recent struggles staying healthy. But for a moment it might just be nice for everyone including Junior, the Mariners, Major League Baseball, and the city of Seattle to get something back that should never have been lost.
Fingers crossed for a great season!
