Posts

The high temperature in Chicago reached 104°F (40°C) yesterday afternoon. In our living room, which is on west side of our top-floor apartment, it got up to 98°F (37°C). The rest of the apartment was a balmy 93°F (34°C). Even the wooden floors were hot, leading us to believe that our neighbor downstairs isn’t faring any better. We had air conditioners running in both bedrooms, and a friend who doesn’t have a/c came over to cool off. Exiting from the artificially cooled air into the convection oven that was the rest our apartment felt like a physical blow. ...

Everything you need to know you can learn on the Internet. Just yesterday I happened across an item on the death of James Stockdale, including a reference to a presentation by Stockdale on stoicism as exemplified by Epictetus. Remember that you are an actor in a drama of such sort as the Author chooses—if short, then in a short one; if long, then in a long one. If it be his pleasure that you should enact a poor man, or a cripple, or a ruler, or a private citizen, see that you act it well. For this is your business—to act well the given part, but to choose it belongs to another. ...

By the end of 10 days in Japan we felt thoroughly “shrined out”. However, looking back, we didn’t really see that many Shinto shrines and/or Buddhist temples—at least, not as many as we could have… It seems that shrines are always Shinto, and they always have a particular kind of tall open gate called a torii at the entrance. Temples always Buddhist, and seem to be the only ones whose names end with the suffixes ”-en” and ”-dera”. However, confusingly, there is often a Shinto shrine on the site of Buddhist temples. The way it was explained to us is that the Shinto shrine is honors the spirit that is helping to protect the temple from harm. Long live syncretism! ...

Three days and various temples and gardens later, we are back in Tokyo, where we will stay for the rest of our visit. Kyoto, the grandaddy of all temple towns, was the base for our operations, and where we spent the first and third days. Our second day was spent in Nara (home of the “pesky” tame deer) and Uji. We were accompanied by a very expert English-speaking guide named Doi-san. Doi-san did an excellent job of clarifying and explaining what we were seeing in a manner intelligible to gaijin. Descriptions of temples and such will come later (I don’t want to mix them up). We do have pictures on-line, but please note that they do not yet have descriptions nor thumbnails; they’re full-size and may take quite a while to load. ...

Sunday was still damned muggy and hot – in fact, I think even hotter than Saturday was – and the weather definitely affected how much we were able to pack in. My father-in-law was excited to go to the Nezu Institute of Fine Arts, as it’s well known for its displays of painted screens. However, what we found was an exhibit of chaire, small containers for holding tea. Sunday was the last day of the exhibit. The Japanese crept along the display cases, inspecting each small, fat earthenware bottle for minute differences; those differences were however lost on us gaijin. ...

We got into Tokyo at 4 pm on Friday afternoon, having been in the air 13 hours and having left Chicago at 1 pm Thursday afternoon! Such are the strange things that happen when one crosses the international date line. I imagine it will be similarly disorienting when we return to Chicago; we’ll leave Tokyo one day and find it’s 2 hours earlier on the same day when we arrive at O’Hare after flying for 12 hours! ...

We got about US$150 in Crate & Barrel gift cards for our wedding last year. Why people gave them to us is a bit of a mystery to me since we didn’t register there, nor do we ever shop there. However, cards like those are an easy gift, and eventually we did find things that we did want from C&B, like “bistro” wine glasses (the kind without stems) and a cookbook holder. ...

Search doesn’t quite work, but if you know where to zoom in to, it’s all there (at least in the more urban areas). For example, there’s Tubbermore Road.

A few weeks ago, C and I took the massive step of purchasing tickets to travel to Japan in June. As his father’s been reminding us, it’s our last chance to have free room and board and a semi-native guide in Tokyo, since C’s dad is retiring and returning to Ireland. It’ll be horrendously hot and humid, but I never, ever thought I’d ever go to Japan, so…

Hurray, hurray, the orthopod said I don’t have to wear a sling! I still have a broken radius – that hasn’t changed – but since it’s so small a fracture and I have full range of motion again, I just need to be careful to not lift heavy things with my left arm or otherwise strain it. It’s been a bit hard to remember to follow his instructions, since presently I’m travelling on business and juggling a laptop, a purse and a really heavy suitcase. But oh, what a relief, no more sling!