5 posts tagged “travel”
I now have a place in Pittsburgh in the Highland Park area ( about a mile from the park itself ), best described by Urban Dictionary:
"As the least dirty area of Pittsburgh, Highland Park stands as an
example of pure middle class living. With plenty of hot bitches and
scary people to keep the neighborhood exciting, Highland Park
represents Pittsburgh well, combining a welcoming atmosphere with a
dangerous nightlife."
Not bad. It's a large place with central heat and air with laundry in the building for 635/mo. My only complaint is that the stove is electric, but this is only an annoyance. It's about 3.5 miles from School, which is about the distance from my current place to Central Sq.
As for the rest of trip... it was as ill conceived as any other trip I've personally planned. Three of the four flights were delayed. My rental was a Chevy HHR, a concern because the Pittsburgh infrastructure involves merging five times a minute, scaling mountains every other block, and very tight roads. The perfect environment for an underpowered, overbuilt American(?) car. The HRR is a sack of gahbage from any perspective and I took that personally.
Speaking of American cars, my trip involved a stop over in Detroit. Two comments from someone who has never been: clearly, and appropriately designed for cars. Second: the signs at the airport all had Japanese translations, which goes to show just how American our American cars are. The Northwest terminal had an EKUSUPARESU TORAMU to help navigate the 80 or so gates. Or perhaps it's nothing more sinister than Northwest routing all of it's Japan routes through one of its major hubs.
The flight home was delayed by a monster storm, the type that conjures images of sculpted men with beards committing fratr/patri/matricide and then topping it off with some incest. Impressive from a high vantage point and a safe distance.
I was supposed to drive to NYC today for a concert tomorrow but my left eye isn't really working. This happens time to time.
Pictures are available on my Flickr or my facebook if you're interested. I have a lot more coming once I get ahold of Dan and Sarah
The final cost of this madness was about 2,750 - 3000. The two largest single expenses were 1,200 (900 + tax) for the plane ticket, and 380 for the 2 week rail pass. The rest was mostly food, followed by temple visits. It could certainly be done for cheaper; many people in my Japanese class talk about plane tickets for 600-700. Many people in my Japanese class are full of shit. I probably could've shaved some money on food, but I doubt it would amount to much because its not like I had a place to cook or even store food. I could've taken the bus instead of the Shinkansen, but vacation time is far more precious than money for me so it was well worth the expense. I'm not even sure I would have saved money If I had taken the bus over the pass because I was on the Shinkasen like every other day. And finally, Dan and Sarah are fucking awesome for letting me crash at their places, my total lodging cost was like 10,200 Yen ( roughly $81)
Was it Worth it? Hell yeah! I'll be honest, the weather maybe me really fucking grumpy, as poor weather often does. Looking back though, even just one day later, it wasn't that big of a deal. It does make we want to invest in some waterproof shoes though. In Hiroshima, and again in Nikko my shoes got soaked through when I was hiking.
Anyway, I'm not even sure what I'd do if I went back. I saw a LOT of stuff, I'm not quite sure what I missed. Mt Fuji? It was cloudy and I didn't have appropriate cold weather gear anyway. I missed Cherry Blossom Color Season by a long shot, and I'll just need to visit D.C. this spring to fill that void in my life. OK so obviously theres a ton of stuff not in the 4 or 5 major areas I visited, but I saw a very nice cross section of the country and I could live with this as my only trip over there.
I'm not sure I could live over there like Daniel and Sarah. The cities are just too big, and I'm just too not Japanese. I don't think I'd be happy working an english teaching job so I would need to find something in an Engineering, which probably means 12 hour days if the stereotype is to be believed. I'll keep my American wages for half the work thank you very much.
Today is my last full day in Japanland. Ive seen all there is to see and done all there is to do. Yesterday I went to Nikko, which was amazing but the weather sucked. Im honestly looking forward to coming home, I miss the sun and my stuff. All that remains is a day and 16 hours of travel, oh boy!
Helped Dan clean his place up and got a late start in the morning. We went straight to the Nerd stalls in Akihabara. That place is truly amazing, and it makes me so sad that there nothing like there me. Its a rats nest of tiny alleyways lined with people selling analog components and assorted gadgetry. It wasn't very crowded due to it being a monday morning I suppose which is fortunate considering that there was barely enough room to move as it was. There may not even be that sort of thing any place in the US because people just buy all the parts wholesale. Sux. We made a stop at Yodabashi(?) which is an enormous BestBuy++ store selling anything that runs on electricity, office supplies etc. Imagine all the Electronics & Office superstores in the US voltron-ing into one store. They had some of those crazy Nippo watches that I linked a while back, but they were more expensive that I thought so I didn't get one...yet. Also: $100+ ties.
Spent today debugging our software on site. Managed to get things working despite co-contractors typical slipshod design. Why define interfaces if you're not going to ever follow them :confused: . Got a tour of a hawkeye. I am dead tired.
