Yesterday, once we’d made our way to our apartment and dropped the luggage off, we wandered our neighborhood in the dream state of arrival, ambled to the Ixelles Pond hangout, wandered into the venues for the Belgian Short Film festival, bypassed the French fry shack, loitered in a graphic novel book shop (Grubb can amuse…
Author: Ella
Gridlock on the tarmac
It was like the 405 at rush hour. The taxiways at Chicago’s Ohare airport. We’d been delayed leaving Albuquerque, eating into our tight connection time in Chicago. Still, things were looking good until touch down at Ohare. As we barreled down onto the runway I noticed long lines of planes lining the taxiways. As soon…
Land of waffles and french fries
It’s been a year since we’ve traveled out of the country. Last year, Japan. Shinto, Buddhism, beauty, politeness. This time, Belgium. Population: Close to 12 million people, densely packed. Home of the famous waffle. Birthplace of French fries (yep, according to Belgians, it wasn’t France), headquarters of the European Union and NATO (Brussels), a constitutional…
What a journey
Many, many years ago (oh say 50 or so years), I traveled through Southeast Asia including some time Japan. So this was not my first foray into Asian territory. Ah, it was a different world back then. No internet for one thing. How did I do it without Google Maps? Starting our journey in rural…
Japanese-style Korean (or Korean-style Japanese?)
Dinner had us stumped. There wasn’t much out in the Odaiba area which was our last destination. We opted to start the journey back home. We had to take a train to Shiodome and then transfer to the Oeida subway. At Shiodome station, we decided to ask Google what was in the area for food….
Unicorn Gundam
After a visit to the Sumida Hakusai museum, we wanted to explore an area we hadn’t seen yet. Being Tokyo, there were hundreds of neighborhoods as yet unvisited so really, it could be anywhere. Grubb wanted to head to Odaiba, an area by the bay. We had no inkling that on a fine Sunday afternoon,…
Map of the Day, last day in Japan
Hotel -> Sumida Hokusai Museum -> Unicorn Gundam -> Shiodome -> Hotel Stay tuned. More details to follow on how we spent today, sadly our last day in Japan. Tomorrow (Monday the 5th), we leave Tokyo’s Haneda Airport at 17:00 (5:00 pm) and land at LAX on Monday the 5th at 11:00am. Isn’t that clever?…
Tokyo from ground level
Tokyo, from the upper floors of towers and high rises, looks impossibly huge, all gleaming steel and glass, all business. Buildings for miles into the distance. On the ground, it’s just people. Each neighborhood its own village. The corner market, local dry cleaners, tucked away flower shops, side of the street niches with ever-protective jizus,…
Water goblins
Following nearly two hours of watching big sweaty men body slam each other, we headed up to the Kappabashi area via subway. Sōgenji Temple, aka Kappa-dera, home to the water goblins (kappa) of Japanese folklore. Founded as a Sōtō Zen temple in 1588, it moved locations several times (who wants water goblins in their backyard?)…
Map of the Day, Sumo Saturday
Hotel -> Sumo stable -> Sōgenji Temple -> Ginza (and conveyer belt sushi in a camera store) -> hotel Yeah, we saw these guys up close and personal.
Morning with sumo
As we rounded a corner heading to the Sumo stable, we caught sight of the wrestlers on the street getting some air. As we walked into the practice area, we could understand why. The smell of sweat was pungent. These guys had already been going at it. A stable, by the way, is a group…
A few museum favorites
From the contemporary art museum, these caught my eye because how could they not? The artist is Shinohara Ushio (1932-). The sculpture is called Motorcycle. The painting is called Motorcycle and Geisha. Photos below. From the Tokyo National Museum, the ancient carved from wood statues. Photo below. From the plaque: “Kichijöten, Goddess of Good Fortune Heian period, 10th century…
The beauty of Japanese words
Ikigai生きがい The short translation: “The purpose of living.” More nuance: What gets you out of bed in the morning. What you are good at that you love and is needed by the world. Embedded in the word is the belief that everyone has an ikigai. You just need to find it. Ichi go ichi e一期一会…
Rainy day Tokyo
Yesterday I checked the weather for today. 100% chance of rain. Radar showed a huge mass moving in and sitting right on top of us. No stinkin’ rain would keep us from enjoying the day. But obviously we didn’t want outdoor expeditions. After breakfast we headed to the front desk to inquire about umbrellas. The…
Map of the day
Grubb has mentioned how phenomenal public transportation is in Tokyo. Before we realized the ease with which we’d be able to zip around, we started mapping all the places we thought we’d like to go and organize our day around places that were relatively close to each other. Threw that idea out the window. Here…