Plastic Ice Cream....mmm!

I'm leaving for China in a day. I know, you're all probably wondering if I actually stay home. Well, this should be the last trip for the next two months (though who knows with my impulse control).

Anyway, I'll be gone for about 2 weeks, but before I leave you all, I'll share a funny story I had today.

An American friend of mine and me went to a Sushi restaurant for dinner tonight. We've been here before, so we weren't too concerned about what to do. Course, last time we had gone was over two months ago and apparently the workers haven't seen a gaijin (foreigner) in between since we were singled out immediately.

Twas so funny. You have to sign your name on the list and then they'll call your name (this Sushi restaurant is really good, so there is always a wait, especially on a Saturday night) and you can always tell that they've come to your name. The worker will look at the list, pause with a funny look, call another worker over to verify that what they read was true (I apparently have really lousy Japanese writing since this always happen to me), and then the two of them will look up and immediately focus on the only gaijin (us) in the room. They then come up to us (they never call out our names; don't know why - they scared we won't understand them? But it's our own names!), verify we are, indeed, the owners of the lousy Japanese writing, and then they take us to our seats.

Now, at this restuarant, you're seated (most often) at a counter (though booths are available). A conveyor belt is moving a hands reach before you (as you can see in the first pic above), displaying a variety of tasty, strange, or downright odd (hamburger sushi, anyone?) types of sushi. They're on different colorful plates and the idea is that each color represents a certain price. You pick off the plates you like, eat to your heart's content, and then tally up the plates. As you can see from this pic, we were rather hungry ^_^ But for such good sushi and that many plates, it really didn't cost that much. Maybe a leg, but not the arm! ;)

Anyway, I digress from the funny part. See, on this conveyor belt, there is an ice cream cone ready for the taking as well. We had eyed it last time, but had decided against it. This time around, we decided to go for it mainly because I had accidentally drunk hot, hot water. I had two cups of water - a nice cool one, and a very hot one for tea. I never used the latter one and stuck with the first. However, I must have lost my mind, since for some reason, I grabbed the very hot water and took a good gulp from it before realizing what I had done. So, with tastebuds frying, I reached for the ice cream cone that happened to be moving past us, looking forward to the blessed release of something very cold.

As I was about to take a good bite from it, in rushes a panicked worker, sputtering apologies before whisking the ice cream cone from me. She then taps the deliciously looking ice cream...and effectively demonstrates that I was about to take a good bite of my first plastic ice cream cone.

The irony is that we never even thought they would be plastic. You'd think we'd have figured it out after watching those cones go around and around on the conveyor belt without ever showing the least sign of melting...

And the poor workers. They kept a sharper eye on us after that, afraid we'd do something else entirely stupid. Luckily, we were about done and decided to make a hasty retreat, though laughing the whole time. I'm sure the next time we come (and we will go back. The sushi is soooo good there - and cheap!), the workers are all going to moan in terror and then hover around us, making sure we don't make a fool of ourselves again, like thinking the pretty plates are edible too.

;)

Ah, the joys of being a gaijin and being completely illiterate. ^_^

Kinkaku-ji: the famous 'Golden Pavilion' - Part One

Current status: It's raining outside. A typhoon is brewing out in the sea and we're getting some of its effects. It shouldn't hit us, but just rage out on the sea, but at least it's cooling things down here. :)

Because it's such a great shot, here is this pic, up front and center ^_^

I took this btw (can you tell I'm proud of it?).

Anyway, Kinkaku-ji literally translates to "the golden temple". I don't know where the 'pavilion' part of the English title came in. Either way, the Kinkaku-ji is famous for its stunning, gold-plated walls and the charming lake that reflects it.

At least this is what I was told before I went to Kinkaku-ji. They're right on the stunning gold-plated walls. They're no where near correct on the charming lake. The lake isn't just charming. It's georgeous! And it's huge!

Here's another shot from a different angle:
I just love the random islands of trees and rocks. Such a beautiful display of simple harmony. And the way the golden temple reflects off of the lake: just beautiful.

Kinkaku-ji was built in 1397 by the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. He intended (and used) the place as a retirement villa. Later on, it was converted to a temple (by his son, I believe).

The temple you see now is not the original one from 1397. That one (like most other old buildings in Japan) burnt down a long time ago. Actually, it seems this temple was burnt down a lot, either by accidental or on purpose fire. The one we now see dates from 1955.

The grounds of this temple, though, are a lot more interesting than the temple (in my opinion). I'll give more pics of it (as well as some close up shots of the temple) in my next post.

Nippon 2007 Update

Back and running again. :)

The WorldCon was very interesting. This WorldCon was the first world convention being held in Japan, so there were a lot of firsts and interesting mess ups. And there were a TON of Japanese, more than English-speaking people, so that was an interesting twist since everything had to be translated, into either English or Japanese, depending on the speaker. Everyone tried their hardest though, and it was so funny to hear a non-Japanese person try to speak the few words they knew in Japanese (and often with the worst accent, but it worked.)

I loved meeting all the Japanese people and meeting science fiction/fantasy fans in Japan as well. That was cool ^_^ Us geeks pervade the world!

And seeing them react to their 'famous' writers was a treat as well. I had no idea who these people were, but I'd be talking with some Japanese fans and they'd suddenly freak and rush to this normal looking person and (very formally) ask for his/her signature. Much bowing and apologies ensued, the signature given, and then they rushed back to me trying to tell me how awesome it was to meet this author. Unfortunately, I could never catch the names of the author (Japanese names are so hard to remember for some reason).

Sadly, the authors that I knew weren't able to come to this WorldCon, so there was no random ecstasy for me. Some non-Japanese authors were famous in Japan though, and it was entertaining to see the Japanese try to talk to these authors that knew no Japanese (or at best, limited Japanese). And I loved watching the non-Japanese try to figure out how to do the bowing. ^_^ I know I do the same, but it was still funny watching it happen in such abundance.

Unfortunately, the writing track (meaning the panels focused on writers and that aspect of creating stories) was missing in this WorldCon. From what I learned from others, this WorldCon didn't have a lot of the usual things that WorldCons have, so either the Japanese didn't understand it, or it was dropped due to some reason that I never discovered. However, I enjoyed going to the panels and hearing about the latest technology and the interesting twists we could use them in stories. I gleaned several new ideas for my own stories as well ^_^

So all in all, despite it not being as I expected, I enjoyed attending it and witnessing this new attempt to hold a WorldCon in Japan. And I loved being up in the Tokyo area. Such a HUGE city!!

But that's for another post. :) Gotta go!