Kyoto

Tuesday we took the Shinkansen (bullet train) for the 2 hour 15 minute ride to Kyoto to see some of the ancient temples and shrines. We visited three temples including Kinkakuji, the Golden Temple below.


Most impressive was Sanjūsangendō Temple. A Buddhist temple built in 1266. It contains 1,001 life size statues of the Thousand Armed Kannon which took over 100 years to carve. (There’s no photography allowed inside the temple. The photo below is one somebody scanned from a postcard and posted on the Web.)

Not So Lost

(I had posted this earlier but for some reason it disappered from the blog.)

Soba Noodles for Lunch

We had lunch at Kanda Yabusoba in the Awajicho neighborhood. They’ve been dishing up homemade, buckwheat soba noodles on this site since 1880. The original building was destroyed in the great 1923 earthquake and the current one built shortly after (and survived WWII bombings.) We sat on tatami mats on the floor, which was a little easier for Riley than myself. It was very good!

I just found that the NPR website has a story on the restaurant.

Pike Place Market is Amatuer Hour

...compared to the Tsukiji Fish Market. We went very early this morning. It is amazing! We didn't even see it all - it goes on forever. All sorts of of seafood, huge tuna being cut up with band saws, live eals, crazy motorized carts whipping around. A guy rode by on a bike with a a huge tuna head strapped on the front and another on the back. They even have whale meat! (I agree, not a good thing.)





We even had sushi for breakfast while we were there. Well, I did. Riley had cucumber roll.

Statue of Hachikō

(From Wikipedia) In 1924, Hachikō was brought to Tokyo by his owner, Hidesamurō Ueno (上野英三郎), a professor in the agriculture department at the University of Tokyo. During his owner's life, Hachikō saw him off from the front door and greeted him at the end of the day at the nearby Shibuya Station. Even after Ueno's death in May 1925, Hachikō returned every day to the station to wait for him. Hachikō's devotion to his lost master moved those around him, who nicknamed him "faithful dog". Others at the station initially thought he was waiting for something else or roaming around, but later realized he was waiting for his dead owner. This continued for 10 years, with Hachikō appearing only in the evening time, precisely when the train was due at the station.

Meiji Shrine

Today we braved the rain and visited the Meiji Shrine here in Tokyo. A traditional wedding was taking place while we were there.

Famous Crispy Doughnut

There is usually a line at the Krispy Kreme that's right outside the hotel door. As you see at the lower right of this picture the line is 45 minutes long. In the rain. We took a box of Krispy Kremes Tuesday to give to the people in the office of the woman we were studying. According to our translator whenever a coworker came in she would offer them a "famous crispy doughnut."

Takeshi Grillin' Dinner in the Table

Video: Takeshi Grillin

Shinjuku

Shinjuku is the district my hotel is located in. This is is few blocks away.

Sushi

With Takeshi left and Nanjo right. The sushi chef behind is the same one from "Lost in Translation" who Bill Murray asks "Why the long face?"

Shibuya Crossing

They say this is the busiest street crossing in the world. And this isn't after a ballgame or some other event. It's always like this, mainly because of a major subway station.


Video: Shibuya Crossing

Some fellow subway passengers

Shabu Shabu in Shibuya

We had shabu shabu for dinner last night in the Shibuya neighborhood. Shabu shabu is like fondue. You dip you vegetables, octopus (Clayton would like it!) and, in the picture below, beef, into a boiling mixture of water and fish broth to cook. It was very good!

In the Tokyo Chofu office

We met with our Tokyo colleagues Monday. I gave a talk about our team to their team below.



The candy Denise picked to bring as a gift was a big hit.

An American Breakfast over Tokyo

Hotel in Shinjuku

I think I drew the worst side of the building for a view, but still not bad.

Subways

I'm amazed how beautiful the subways are. Everyone is different and full of statues, mosaics and reliefs all done during the Soviet era.

Inside the Kremlin

I always thought the Kremlin was a single building like the White House. It's actually a walled fortress with beautiful grounds with several churches and chapels going back to the 14th century. The tallest tower you see is the Ivan the Great Bell Tower built in the 16th century.

Red Wings Win!

At least that's what I think it says.

Boris the Translator

It's been a real luxury to have a translator accompany us about town as we do business. Boris (not to be confused with Boris the train rocker below) has been great at translating, guiding us about Moscow and being a general Russian ambassador.

"Boris rock the train!"

We visited a location shoot for a low budget television series. The scene they were shooting takes place on a train. We had noticed a log stuck in the springs of the train wheel and wondered why it was there. Later I was in the train with our translator when the director yelled "BORIS ROCK THE TRAIN!" into a walkie talkie (in Russian of course, the translator translated) and the train started bouncing. So that's what the log was for!

Below is video of Boris and a comrade in action.


Video: rockthetrain

The Stalin Skyscrapers

In the early 1950's Joseph Stalin had seven of these "skyscrapers" built around Moscow. Some are apartment buildings, one is a goverment building, one on the campus of Moscow State University. It seems that no matter which direction you're pointed, you're looking at one of these buildings.

Navigating in Cyrillic

The signs in the subways are all in Cyrillic which seeems like somebody wrote the the station names in code. You sort of look for the first five or six letters of where you need to go. "We need to go to 4, C, B, backward N."

St. Basil's Cathedral

St. Basil's, built in 1588 was commissioned by Russian Tsar Ivan IV, also know as "Ivan the Terrible." Legend has it that once the cathedral was complete Ivan had the architect blinded so he would never build anything as beautiful again. Some graditude.

Red Square

We visited Red Square Sunday. Among the site was a visit to Lenin's Tomb to view his body which has been on public display since 1924. Sorry. No cameras allowed.


Video: Red Square

The Hotel

Though the rooms are very nice we've come to realize that it's not a very good location. It's in sort of an ugly area without anything worthwile within walking distance.

Suite!

Because of a snafu the first night I was here I was upgraded to a suite for tonight.





That statue in the square is Isaac Newton who lived a few blocks away.

Piccadilly at Night

Video: Piccadilly at Night

Train Travails

Our train trips to and from Canterbury could have gone smoother. On Wednesday Schelley and I were a little too lackadaisical getting off the train in Canterbury and the door closed on us before we got off. We had to ride up to Birmingham and back, but that only took about a half-hour.

Returning to London today we left Canterbury only to make an unscheduled stop at Rugby where they announced there was a switch problem on the track and we would have to get off, board (more like cram into) another train and go BACK to Canterbury. Back in Canterbury we waited while they announced several different ways to get to London. First it was a train to Redding where passengers would have to switch to another train into London Marleybone (we were trying to get to London Euston), then it was train to Royal Leamington Spa with a change to another train to London Paddington.

The Leamington Spa train showed up and it was a mad scene as people literally crammed themselves into the train. Pushing, shoving, yelling with the train station people blowing whistles trying to control the scene. Schelley, Tracy and I just could not squeeze on with our bags and we were left behind.

We decided to punt and take a taxi back to London. I went out to the taxi stand and got a flat price of £200 (around $400 U.S.) Tracy and Schelley didn't come out and when I went in to get them they were coming out of the customer service office. The rail folks had just released the next express train to London in 15 minutes. Apparently the switch problem was fixed. The station manager also told Tracy they had also opened the last car of first class to coach passengers but they were not going to announce it.

So in the end we rode in a first class car on an express train for the 1 1/2 hour trip to London, while the people that crammed themselves into the earlier train ahead of us had to ride standing up, smashed together, make a train change and then stop in every town along the way. It was a great thing that we missed that train!

All-in-all we got into London two hours late. Euston Station was also just packed full of people and as we fought our way through the station they announced the the Tube station serving the train station had just been closed due to over-crowding. We went out to the street to catch taxis before they went into the taxi queue. Schelley and Tracy off to their hotel in Knightsbridge, me to Leicester Square. When I walked into the lobby the desk clerk gave me a hearty "Welcome back Sir!"

That felt pretty good.


Video: Train Ride

Covent Garden Market

Video: Covent Garden Market

A London Taxi Ride

Video: London Taxi

Leonardo

My hotel is almost directly behind the National Gallery so it was easy to quickly pop in there (it’s also free) to see one of the few DaVinci paintings in existence. It’s named Virgin of the Rocks and was painted about 1491-1508.

Camden Town

Sunday I took the Tube to Camden Town where there's all sorts of markets selling all sorts of stuff, but mostly obscene t-shirts, incense, hemp notebooks and such. A great scene for people watching. It was a zoo with occasional downpours. I can't imagine what it would be like on a nice day.



There were also a lot of big things on buildings.

World Premier

Last night there they held the world premier of "Flashback of a Fool" across the square from our hotel. They blocked off the street and the stars cars would pull to the end of the red carpet and they'd get out to the hysterical shouts of fans. Here's Damien Lewis the star of NBC's Life arriving.

I didn't get his autograph.


Video: Premier

Trafalager Square

Video: Trafalager Square

Ben Says It's 11

(Though I didn't record all eleven gongs)


Video: Big Ben

Guard's Toy Soldier Centre

London Marathon

I went out for a walk this morning and ended up watching the London Marathon for a few hours. It ended on the Mall in front of Buckingham Palace. While the marathon was running they had a series of three mile-or-so races for 11-17 year olds from all over the Commonwealth. They would finish in different waves with each age group wearing different color shirts. It was a great event! The announcer was very fun to listen to. I walked the course backwards and caught the wheelchair leaders at about 25 miles near Parliament and Big Ben, the womens leaders (I accidently deleted the video of the women from the camera), then the mens leaders at about the 23-24 mile mark.

It was one of the fastest marathons in history with three men under 2 hours, 6 minutes -- which is amazing!



Video: London Marathon


Here's a link to the BBC video which is a little better than mine. It also includes the wheelchair crash at the finish.

The Queen's Not In

There are only two guards in front of Buckingham Palace and the Queen's flag isn't flying, so that means she's not in residence.

Piccadilly Circus

Video: Piccadilly

My Hotel

In Leicester Square. My room isn't ready so I'm hanging out in the hotel bar having a complementary beer. It's pouring rain outside so perhaps I'll go to a museum this afternoon. There's the big Annie Lebowitz exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery a few blocks away.

The Rig

My first ride on a 777.