TOKYO!!!!

I interrupt this long radio silence to announce that I'm in Tokyo, Japan for a couple of weeks decompressing from life and visiting Far East traveler and fellow blogger Mikka. I've been here since Wednesday and apart from vicious jet lag and the disorientation that comes from being more or less illiterate things have been pretty awesome.

Top 5 Things I Love About Japan

1. This is the land of cute. Seriously, this place is adorable; from the cherubic like toys to the legions of happy schoolchildren in navy uniforms to the desserts.

2. It's scrupulously clean. For a city larger than New York that's shocking. Even the public restrooms at the train stations are shiny.

3. FOOD. We've had sushi with fish so alarmingly fresh looking we've been afraid to try it. I'm in love with real ramen, and there are some great Hawaiian restaurants here too. Tomorrow I'm getting up crazy early to go to the Tsukiji Fish Market to see some of the freshest fish in the world

4. The hi-tech toilets. Heated seat? Bidet? A little music maybe?

5. Karaoke in Shinjuku. Need I say more?

Top 5 3 Things I Don't Love About Japan

1. The subway crush. You haven't been on a crowded subway until you've been on the Keio line headed towards Shinjuku station at rush hour. And they're not shy about pushing. The weirdest thing is that it's all silent. Nobody gets mad. No-one shouts. In fact cell phone use is prohibited and you are likely to get shushed for talking loudly.

2. $$$ or should I say ¥¥¥. While some things like conveyer belt sushi are very inexpensive, other things like going to bars ($5 table charge BEFORE you drink), taking taxis ($7 flag-down charge), and getting to the maritime museum from Kichijoji ($7 each way) are ridiculous.

3. The smoking. Smoking is still a big part of bar and restaurant culture here and there are very few places were smoking is banned.

Considering I couldn't think of 5 things I don't love I think I'm ahead. Yesterday I ventured out of the city to Hakone which is near Mount Fuji. It was very beautiful but cold and foggy, and despite the fact that I was right there I didn't actually see the mountain up close. So I, like your, have to console myself with this stock image:

Oh well. But there will be original pictures later and hopefully video of my further adventures. We are headed to Kyoto this weekend to get a taste of old Japan via overnight bus. In the meantime I have to figure out how to get to Tokyo Bay and learn about the history of the shipping industry in Japan.

More later!

Memorial Day etc

Back from a very long weekend in Phoenix, AZ visiting Mary and nursing a sprained/twisted knee while I upload photos and avoid thinking about work. Given my usual knack for injury the knee should come as no surprise although to be fair I didn't fall myself. Rather I was knocked down by a very exuberant Weimaraner. See the culprit, Reilly, here with her very patient owner Max.




Despite this, and two nights with a bit too much sangria, it was a great trip. We hiked in Flagstaff on Saturday (the scene of said accident) which was a nice change of pace given that I usually only experience the desert side of AZ. Flagstaff feels more like Colorado than anything else, cool and evergreen.


Monday we went to the Chihuly exhibit at the Desert Botanical Garden. Chihuly is a glass sculptor and this exhibit was particularly gorgeous when paired with the desert flora and fauna and seen in the late afternoon sun. I took too many pics to post here but these are some of my favorites.







Now I'm back, icing my knee, swallowing painkillers, wondering if I absolutely need to go to campus today, and trying not to miss space and sky so much. I never really thought about space until I moved here and now it seems like all of my problems really come down to lack of space. Since making the decision to leave New York, I've been thinking a lot about my ideal living space and coming up empty. I like urban spaces because of the proximity to culture, good food, a variety of people etcetera. At the same time I've overdosed on crowds, dirt, and concrete. Flagstaff seems an attractive area to teach in a lot of ways. Yet I remember how small Ann Arbor felt at the end of my four years there. Chicago too seems crowded and unbearable sometimes until compared with New York in August. Then it seems very livable.

Given the nature of my work, I have to be prepared to end up anywhere and deal with it like a grown up. So for me the real quesetion isn't "What's my ideal space?" but rather "How do I cope once I'm there?"

Hanoi Lenora Pt. 1

Hello all! Here I am in Hanoi crashing with world traveler and former fellow budget-foodie Mikka.

This trip is a series of firsts for me, first time in Asia, first time on the back of a motorbike, first communist country. The flight was long and slightly surreal. Crossing the International Dateline means that I lost an entire day, last Thursday to be exact so I spent the first 2 days feeling pretty disoriented. Conversely when I go back I will leave at 11:20 pm on Sunday, and arrive in L.A. at 9:20 pm, also on Sunday. I learned about this way back in elementary school, but I still feel that this should violate some kind of law of physics.

When I arrived I was immediately accosted by a group of teenagers who wanted to take a picture with me. Somewhere in this city a bunch of fresh-faced Vietnamese kids are laughing at the panicked sweaty frizzy-haired American clutching at her bags. Mikka informs me that this is pretty common as foreigners still attract a lot of attention. This is also why they stare a lot. Once you get accustomed to it, it's fairly easy to ignore it.

The first thing that struck me about Hanoi was how completely moterbikes outnumber cars as the primary form of transportation. I could probably devote a lot of blog space to motorbike culture here since it's so much a part of getting used to the rhythm of the city. They've even replaced cyclos, which are now mostly a tourist attraction'

The second thing that struck me is how young people are. Walking or riding around it seems that most of the people out and about are between the ages 0f 17 and 25 zipping along on vespas and bikes, managing cafes, out in front of shops, eating bowls of pha. It gives the city a kind of bouncy high energy feel. The guidebook says that this is sort of a commercial renaissance period for Vietnam and also the longest sustained period of peace since the 80's. That may be oversimplifying things a bit, but the atmosphere is definitely upbeat. There's a lot of commercial activity and a lot of construction.

It's pretty hot and humid but no worse than Chicago or New York in the summers. After it rains the air is fresh and cool for several hours which is wonderful after a long day of picking your way through narrow streets looking at silk and silver and baskets of dragonfruit.

We spent Friday and Saturday exploring the Old Quarter before heading out to Halong Bay on Sunday. More about this later when I can post pictures and video.

TBC...

"It's simply beyond words. It's incalculable."

I am coming off a hellish few weeks in which I experienced the multiple joys of paper grading , mid-term grading, and having a professor evaluate one of my sections. I had a whole spiel about how teaching the classics makes me feel a bit like Michael Scott at times, but I fear my Google-savvy freshmen.


"I am an adult. I don’t have to think…or…do anything!"


This blog has suffered greatly for two reasons. One: I spent the summer mentally convalescing in Chicago, which was great for me, but not so great for blogging. I had a ball reading Hawthorne and going to the farmers' market, but that kind of fun doesn't always translate . Two: Since coming back to New York, time that isn't spent reading for exams, prepping for teaching, and teaching is spent actively avoiding anything that involves rigorous thought. Yes, this blog is dinky, and shouldn't require much. But that's how far gone I am. This post took three weeks to write. Previous posts were starting to veer off into that scary place where grad students go which is rife with words like "epistemology" and "othering." Yeah. Gross.

Anyway, visitors offer good excuses to play hooky and be out and about so here goes.

The parents were in town a couple of weeks ago, which is always fun especially when it includes dinner at Lupa and Pastis.

I love my parents but I love them more when they feed me.

At Pastis we ended up getting into this long involved conversation with two sisters about politics because my mom was wearing this:

Apparently these shirts are designed to smoke out Republicans even in French restaurants in the meatpacking district. The details of the conversation are hazy but we did hit several points including the Iraq War, Israel-Palestine, Ayn Rand, abortion, and the decision of one of the sisters' daughter's to become a sex therapist. It ended with them wanting to have dinner with us the next time they're in Chicago. Who says there's no hope for bi-partisan civility?

BFF Mimor* was in town this weekend, and I got to see Harlem up close and personal for the first time.



Fun trip, Indian food, shopping, and one valuable lesson learned: there is no such thing as an unmonitored subway platform.

TBC...

*I kinda hate myself for trotting out the oh-so-mature BFF, but it's late and the 2 of you that have been bugging me about my lack of posting should be grateful I can find the mouse. So, suck on it, and good night.

Dream Beneath A Desert Sky

It's really all about the simple pleasures when you get right down to it. Good friends, direct sunlight, drinking eighty cent vodka cocktails while dancing to Depeche Mode, wine and cheese after shopping and salon time, the bad politics of John Hughes movies, Cubs versus White Sox at Spring training, homemade salsa, a St. Patrick's DAY U2 marathon, a good pool game, a bad movie, and maybe a few doctors to flirt with.

Yep, I'd say it was a damn good Spring Break all the way around