New Blog

I have figured out how to set up a separate blog for my time in Korea.  THIS blog will still remain for future travels, but the updates from Korea can be viewed at…

http://justinkorea.wordpress.com/

Thanks!!!

Next!

Wow, I didn’t update after my last trip?!  I’m very sorry.  Well what is there to say?  It was definitely fun.  On the way West, we stopped at Cheyenne, Wyoming and The Great Salt Lake and Lake Tahoe.  Then we arrived, got Beth moved in, went to San Fran the next day (cold!), then I flew out to Portland the day after that.  Portland was hot and not exciting but I met and hung with some cool people from New YorK, and saw some gorgeous waterfalls.  Oh, and I met some of my grandpa’s family (aka, MY family)!  That was very nice.  Then it was off to Seattle which I enjoyed very much.  I met some great people there as well.  Then I was off for home again.

However, about a week later I flew down to Fort Lauderdale to visit my grandparents.  Then just a week ago now I flew to Raleigh, NC to visit some good friends.  Busy Busy Busy!

But now, on to other things.  Next year I will be taking a position as an English teacher in South Korea.  I am very excited about this!  I was going to set up a separate blog for this but it only lets you have one blog per email address, and I’m not one of those people who has nine million email addresses!  That’s way too untidy for me.  So it looks like I will continue on with this blog, which is perfectly fine with me.

Check back for updates on this new adventure!!! …or don’t,  Whatever.

ROAD TRIP!

Departure time is less than 24 hours away!  We are heading out at like 6am….  Not excited about that.  But SUPER excited for a road trip!  I haven’t gone on a certifiable road trip in, uhhhh, like 6 years.  I love long distance driving!  ….errr, at least I DID like it 6 years ago.  My body is slightly older now and might not be so agreeable to the idea anymore.

Regardless, here’s a picture of Beth and me from Navy Pier….

We went to Brookfield Zoo (she had never been in all her time in IL!!!) then went down to Navy Pier to watch Batman in IMAX…. Alas, it was the second weekend since it had been released but they were sold out until the following TUESDAY!!!!  So instead we walked around the Pier, went on the Ferris Wheel, and ate at that one place…  uhhh, you know the Saturday Night Live skecth where they say “Cheeseborger, Cheeseborger; Pepsi no Coke; cheeps no fries”?  That place.  Delicious.

Orbitz.com

I purchased my plane tickets last night (San Fran > Portland and Seattle > Chicago).  WOOOHOOOOO!!!!!!  Once the plans are that officially locked in, everything becomes more real.  I found myself in bed last night thinking, “Wow, Se-ATTLE!!!” and then got giddy with excitement. 

Much Chagrin …and Excitement!

My life has been all over the place lately.  I had very seriously and legitimately considered and planned on moving to Sweden.  I had been thinking and planning and thinking and wishing  ….but in the end I decided I was much too broke for something like that [Sweden is EXPENSIVE!!!].  To appease my wanderlust, I then decided to take a 5 week grand whirlwind tour of Finland, Estonia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, England, Scotland, and Ireland.  I looked at travel sites, mapped out a route, checked prices on flights, checked prices on trains, and then ….spoke to my boss about a leave of absence.  The answer (though she was very kind and thought about it for almost two weeks) was eventually NO.  So then my option was to QUIT and hope there was an opening when I came back.  Again, my finances came in to play and I decided to NOT quit and NOT go on that trip.  Things had really started going well at work anyways; I was suddenly the most senior member in my department and my boss was trusting me with new supervisorial responsibilities!

So (this is the “much chagrin” part) all overseas travels for this year have been canceled.  It was honestly quite distressing!  I really was sad.  Like REALLY.  These are serious life choices I was weighing in the balance.  But oh well!

And anyways, a new very exciting opportunity opened up for me!  My very very good friend Beth Kline has chosen to abandon the land of good and plenty in exchange for warmer climes, specifically San Jose, CA.  Seeing as I am a really good guy (really good; all gentlemanly and shit) I decided to ride out there with her so she won’t have to make the trip alone.  This proves to be very exciting for me because, though I’ve been to California before *yawn*, I’ve always wanted to go to Portland and Seattle!!!

So, after arriving in San Jose, we will spend a few days in the Bay Area before I fly up to Portland, rent a car, see the sites (downtown,  Pacific Coast, Mt Hood, Hood River Gorge, [no Crater Lake, unfortunately]), then drive to Seattle, stopping at Mt Ranier on the way!

Totally Sweet!!!!!!

I was considering taking the train back [Seattle > Chicago; 45+ hours].  It goes through Glacier Nat’l Park in Wyoming and then through ND and MN.  It would have been interesting and taking a train through the Northwest is another dream of mine   ….but in the end, the 45 hour duration became too much of a deterrent; two more days in Seattle vs. two days of boredom on a train, hmmmmm…..

We head out on July 31st, 6am.  EXCITED.

Torture…?

I’m between travels right now but I found out something interesting about the word travel. When planning for my last trip I had a conversation with Beth Kline about how I knew things were going to go wrong. Not that I was being negative, but simply that …well, things sometimes don’t go as planned while traveling; you know, unforeseen circumstances and whatnot. So I was doing some random internet searching and found the definition for travel to be something of interest…

trav·el
1. to go from one place to another, as by car, train, plane, or ship; take a trip; journey: to travel for pleasure.
2. to move or go from one place or point to another.
3. … [etc.]

You know, the standard blah blah blah. But then it gets to the etymology. Observe…

[Origin: 1325-75; ME (north and Scots), orig. the same word as travail (by shift "to toil, labor" > "to make a laborious journey")]

See? “The same word as travail“!!! “To toil, labor“!!! “Laborious journey”!!!  So I guess it makes sense then, even etymologically speaking, that it’s not always happy-fun-time while traveling.  Interesting, right?

But then the plot thickens! It turns out that both travel and travail have their roots in the word tripalium.

Tripalium
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
“A tripalium is a three-staked instrument of torture. The subject of the torture would be tied to the tripalium and burnt with fire. The words “travail” and “travel” have their roots in this word, as do the cognate Spanish verb trabajar (to work), Portuguese verb trabalhar and French verb travailler (to work).”

Hahahahaha, how funny is that? I love to travel…

…hahahahaha!

Annnnnnnd Home!

I’m home now. My last day in Japan was a serious whirlwind! I came back from a day trip to Hiroshima and walked up to Dan’s apartment at the exact moment which he was walking down the steps to go get some Mos Burger (the exact food I was craving at that moment; go God!). We stayed up until 4:30am and then I packed for the next half hour before “going to sleep” and awaiting my 5:30am alarm….

I walked to the train station and hopped on a 2-hour train ride to Shin-Osaka, followed by a 3-hour train ride to Tokyo, followed by a one hour train ride to the airport. I then proceeded to, uh, miss my flight….. hahaha. My plan had been flawless: I was going to try to go back up to Tokyo on Friday but those plans fell through so I needed to take the earliest train which should have gotten me to the airport with an hour to spare. And it would have worked except for the final train from the Tokyo train station to the airport only runs once an hour!!!! Pssssh! Like, why?!? So that kinda screwed me up.

But I went on standby for the next flight and ended up getting on it. Plus, by staying down by Dan another day I was able to go to Hiroshima and to a small island off of Hiroshima called Miyajima, and I seriously would have missed the next ten flights in order to get to go to Miyajima! Check out this pic:

So anyways. I made it on a flight (even though every airport person I dealt with used words like “might” and “you have a chance”, and said it with a scrunched up doubtful face) and, a quick 11 hours later, I was back in Chicago! It’s a little surreal almost…. Like yesterday I was in Japan!

So I guess this is the point where I wrap it up??? Ok, here goes.  Don’t expect anything profound.

I would highly recommend Japan for anyone who would like to see how completely the Adversary can trick out and deceive a people. I saw temples and shrines and temples and shrines EVERYWHERE!!!! But, just the same, it was a beautiful country filled with very nice and wonderful people and I had a really really really great time.

I liked that the businessmen all still wore white shirts with ties and rode on the subway in large numbers even as late as 11:30 at night. I liked that people bow to you as they say hello and goodbye and sorry and excuse me and here’s your change. And I really liked eating with chopsticks at most meals and being offered no other options! I liked that there were mountains everywhere; lush, green mountains. And I enjoyed riding on the train so much!!!! (I really like trains.)

What else is there to say?! It was just a fantastic trip! I met great people, saw amazing things, had great times, took a bunch of pictures! Praise God!

the End

(Well, maybe one more pic for the road…..)

Seriously winding down….

This has been a fantastic trip!  What to say? what to say?  Hmmmm…

Well, over the weekend I went to Kyoto which is famous for its shrines and altars…. and understandaby so.  I had about five of them on my itinerary of things to see (including one covered entirely in gold leaf!) but I passed about 300 other ones on my way to those.  I walked all over the place on that day (Sunday) and got, cumulatively, six blisters on my feet, including one blister on top of another one.  haha  It was a really great day though.

Then two days ago, Dan and I went to Fukuoka and ended up staying at a capsule hotel where your “room” is not so different in size from a coffin!  It felt slightly prison like: we all wore the same green pajamas, had orange bracelets which were our locker keys, took community showers (though technically they were ‘Japanese style’), and the afforementioned coffin-sized (cell-like) “rooms”.  Fun again though.  There was a free breakfast which had rice and fish, mmmmm…uhhhhh.  Oh and a hard-boiled egg…. or so I thought.  I crakced it open and a completely raw egg exploded all over my hands!  I watched another dude and he mixed it with soy sauce and they poured it over his rice; again, mmmmmm…uhhhhh?

The next day we saw Japan’s largest seated wooden Buddha….  which was cool until the stipulations clicked:  So there are larger seated ones that aren’t wood?? and larger wooden ones which are doing something other than sitting??  Regardless, it was an impressive sight; the thing was like two stories tall!  I would say something along the lines of ‘I’m really impressed by how spiritual these people are’ but no…..

Now, some funny things that Japanese people do:

The women wear high heels….. ALL of them…. even while riding bikes!

They get really excited about anything.  For instance, Dan and I went bowling and it was about the loudest friggin’ bowling I’ve ever experienced!  The entire group would shout regardless of how well the friend bowled: “You got a strike! AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!” or “You knocked down one pin! AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!” And this leads me to the last one that I can think of….

Japanese people have no bowling etiquette.  Dan or I would be starting our stride and, in the States, other people in the lane next to you would wait.  Nope!  They continued on as if you weren’t even there.  AND! they slid like three feet down the lane!  Have they never heard that you’re not supposed to go over the line?!  One dude consistently slid three feet down the lane and then stood in the gutter while watching the result of his bowl!!!!!! Geez!

Oh, and one girl was wearing high heels while bowling!  Yes, while bowling.  I was speechless.

Chateau Train Station: Fun for the whole family!

A typhoon pulled into Tokyo the last day Dan and I were there (Friday).  Hold on tight; this is the story I’ve always dreamed of telling.  Since it was already raining first thing in the morning, I felt no great urgency to get up early.  Sure it was my last day in Tokyo but it had already been miserably hot and humid every day I’d been there; did I really want to add rain to the equation?  No.  The girl we were staying with woke and said she was leaving for a short bit to get groceries because the typhoon was going to make every store shut down.  This was at approximately 7:30am.  I slept a while longer and then got up and showered and watched tv (in this case, “House”, though here they call it “Dr. House” and pronounce it “e-doc-tora housa”).  Dan got up a while later and did the same.  We wanted to leave but there was still no sign of ”girl we were staying with” (a.k.a. Rachel).  She eventually called Dan’s cell and informed us that she had gotten in a CAR ACCIDENT!  Not because she’s a bad driver but because Japanese people go crazy when a storm is coming! (Sorry if that offends anyone; that is simply how it was conveyed to me.) She was in the hospital (!!!!!) so we had no choice but to leave without saying goodbye.  An hour later we were waiting in line at Tokyo Station for my ticket to Kokura (where Dan lives).  Dan already had his ticket and we soon found out that he was on a train line that my rail pass didn’t cover.  So we had to split up.

My train was leaving in just 10 minutes so our big plans to walk around Tokyo a bit more, get some food, leizurely reassemble the unicycle (it had been quite wisely stashed in a locker at that station) were all called off.  We had to quickly make plans for how we were to meet up and then I was off to catch my train before it pulled away without me.  I got on.  We pulled away.  Forty five minutes later we stopped.  Stopped big time!  There were announcements but I don’t speak Japanese so ….haha, it was “Greek” to me?  Fortunately, the guy next to me spoke some English–a fact I discovered when he told me, “you’re in my seat.”  I asked him what was going on:  the typhoon.  Typhoon?  More like a light drizzle!  Seriously!  This wasn’t even a severe thunderstorm!  It wasn’t ANY kind of thunderstomr; these people need to check out Illinois some time.

So we sat.  And sat. …………and sat.   And sat. 

Periodically we pulled forward, tricking us all into thinking we were ready to go…… but no.  We pulled forward maybe a mile …err, kilometer, and then stopped again.  My only theory on this is that train toilets, in my experience, flush directly on to the tracks as opposed to in to some kind of storage container; perhaps they were trying to get away from the stench of hundreds of passengers’ ….uh, BMs. 

Then came another announcement and, suddenly, scores of people started filing past me.  This, I could only guess, was them trying to go back to Tokyo.  There were plenty of people in my car staying put so I surmised that I had unwittingly been given the option to go back to Toyko or stay and wait out the storm.  Seeing as I had nothing waiting for me back in Tokyo, I decided to wait.

Six hours.

Yes, six hours, we sat.  SIX hours.

We finally (FINALLY) started to move and continued on to Osaka which is where I needed to hop on a connecting train to Kokura.  We pulled in at some point past midnight and I went to see if there were more trains going to Koukra that night.  “Eeee-uhhhh, 6am,” was the response.  I went to call Dan.

“I’m still in Tokyo.”  Dan’s train, I later found out, never even LEFT Tokyo station!  He was somehow able to find a stranger who works for the same company as him (…something like that) that was willing to house him and one unicycle for the night. 

Save your “Ohhhhh, poor Justin”’s for later; this epic battle is just beginning!!!!  I went back to the information counter and asked where I could find a hotel.  They replied that there were no hotels …anywhere.  This seemed slightly odd to me and my suspicians were confirmed when I stepped out of the station and could SEE three hotels…. haha.

I ditched most of my stuff in a locker and headed out.  Most hotels cost more than I was willing to spend (like 90-100 bucks).  I found one with a reasonable rate but they also advertised HOURLY rates so I decided it was maybe not the best choice…..

I considered sleeping in a park but eventually decided to go back to the train station and sleep in the air conditioned waiting room (have I mentioned that it’s very hot here??!?).  On my way back I was accosted by several ….prostitutes (?) who offered me a massage, or as they said it, “massa-je”, and whose cajoling was not deterred by my No…. No! ….NO!’s.  I was on a main street at the time so I decided to cut back to one of the side streets where there were no such affronts on my pocketbook/dignity.

When I got back to the station and found the waiting room, I chose a suitable couch and laid down for a few hours sleep.  I knew it was going to be bad news when some dude every 5-10 minutes announced something ….VERY …LOUDLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! over the public address system.  But I brought earplugs for just that reason and his announcements eventually ceased anyways. 

I awoke at approximately 5:30 am to a group of non-sleeping, showered, ready for the work-day Japanese people (I should mention that there were probably ten or so other people also sleeping in the train station waiting room through the night).  I got up and brushed my teeth, put on deodorant and a baseball cap, got some breakfast (the equivalent of an Egg McMuffin value meal from some place called Latteria), found some maps, traded some stuff out of/in to my locker (an extra 300 Yen but well worth it), and then headed out to see Osaka. 

This turned out to be awesome!!!!!  I was surprisingly well rested and the early start allowed me to see all of Osaka Castle, including the museum (which was disappointing).  I was very blessed honestly because Osaka was not even on my itinerary but it was TOTALLY SWEET, like, for sure.  See below…..

p9060520.jpg

I was pretty sweet. 

Then I saw more of Osaka which was very similar to Chicago’s Loop except for the :

1. Lack of people on the sidewalks (they were all in the underground subway walkways which covered the whole city), 2. Three level highways, and 3. People driving on the wrong side of the road.

Then I headed back to my train to ride for a few hours and met Dan with little-to-no trouble and I am now at Dan’s place. 

I’m tired but the trip continues to be a great time!!!!!!!!!

Tokyo

Lots of people!!!!!  LOTS of people!!!  Like, seriously, lots.  Like I can’t believe how many people are here!  Yesterday we were at the Tokyo equivalent of Time Square.  The cross walks are super funny, especially there.  The individual cross walks are like 25 ft. wide (!!!) and there are like 5 roads that all intersect there.  You know how normally you wait for the light to change and then the people can go in the same direction.  Like when the traffic is going north, people can cross the road going north.  Not here.  ALL traffic stops and the intersection becomes a giant…. mass….. of people….  Like there’s a main cross walk crossing each of the roads and then some going diagonally….  but people don’t follow that!  It’s just a free-for-all!  People walk anywhere they want in any direction across the intersection, and other people coming from further down the road and go straight through the middle.  It’s basically ridiculous.

Then I’m also shocked by the sheer number of people on the subways.  And business men!  And at like 10:00 at night!  Why are there still so many businessmen on the subway at 10pm!?  Crazy.

 Then you can be in a crazy congested part of Tokyo, go get on the subway (packed with businessmen), ride for 45 minutes, get off, and it’s still all crazy and congested!  It’s not like a main town and then suburbs; it’s just people people people people people.  ….And neon lights.

Even where we’re staying now, which is outside of Tokyo and “quiet” and “more relaxed”, still has people piled on top of each other!

But I like it!

Oh and it’s hot!  …or, humid rather.  I basically start sweating the second I get out of the shower and don’t stop until the sun goes down….  actually, come to think of it, I have still been sweating after the sun goes down.  It’s hot.

But I’m having a great time!  Great!