Posts Tagged ‘travel’

02.22.2010
quiet-time

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Quiet time~

Nu even niet! So it seems the quiet has somewhat returned. Goooood. Gives me the peace of mind to actually be productive in the evenings. For how long it’s going to be quiet, I don’t know. My guess is: not for very long. My maaneeja~ is leaving. Three weeks from now he’ll be gone. CIO-san should give me someone new to annoy. I’d hate it if I have to “report” to someone that I can’t annoy because they’re never there. *rests in the uselessness of existence* They say chaos is hitting the islanders hard. I didn’t notice. Guess I’m true native island folk: don’t need anyone to get stuff done. The last is very important, because in my FOF joint it won’t work.

I went out to dinner with my friends last weekend! <3 It was fun, and I gained a kilogram. haha. It was the first time I could actually eat that much it was that delicious. This year asof the 10th of October (Bochan nominated) the three of us will know each other for TEN YEARS. TEN. Can you imagine being stuck with me for 10 years of your life?

:smile:

As for my travels~! I’m getting more and more excited! Currently waiting for some sites to update (incl. Hyperdia) to look some trains up. It’s been hard work preparing and still have lots to do. It’s odd really, I only do it when I go to Japan. I might not speak French and to be quite frank the French can be a lil bit snotty to tourists, but I have no problem going there with only minor preparations. A fairly large part of that can be contributed to the rather large gap between you and other people you feel when in Japan… Hmm, can’t quite put my finger on it. People often ask me “what the hell is it you have with Japan?“. Um, I studied information sciences. Check your stats among those, Japan is a disease.

Seriously? I think it’s because when I’m in that country; for once I can feel different and I don’t have to feel bad about it. I quite pride my uniqueness over here, but it’s like … even though there’s many many assholes in Japan too, I don’t feel like I need to be in *superattack testies mode*. Which is the definition of a vacation for me, going somewhere where I can be me without feeling so pressured to fit into a little cubicle. As a complete outsider, “no pressure” if you can tolerate the staring in some places and the school kids of course. I quite like being a zoo animal lol. It’s going to be less since I’ll be in the big cities this time, but even there…

:confused:

Any other (western) country I’ve been to doesn’t quite make me feel the same. This is all in my mind of course. Kind of. I guess it’s so different it makes me feel normal. lol.

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01.24.2010
new-topic-of-focus-food

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New topic of focus: food

Last year I made sure I finished my schedule and everything that’s on my “sightseeing list”, so now it was time to shift focus to the good noms!

When I went to Japan in 2007, I didn’t have a clue where and what I was eating. Basically what we did was just walk around, select one by our noses and then having no clue what so ever if the restaurant had some type of specialty or something. It will remain a challenge for me to actually know what I’m ordering (a) if the menu’s do not contain pictures, (b) are not available in English and (c) if the staff looks at me sheepishly when it comes to using English. Thanks god I’m not a picky eater. So, to prevent this and to get the maximum out of the experience of eating in Japan, a little research is required. I’ll end up with a list of about 30 restaurants, somewhat scheduled to my day plans where I actually know what I’m going to be eating!! Sometimes however, it is better not to know. LOL. It’s good to know that you’ll be going into a restaurant that serves Okinawan specialties, or Hokkaido specialties or whatever. You seriously can’t tell if you can’t read and/or know little about what dishes come from where.

I downloaded an enormous heap of VVV6 to kind of assist me on that, in a fun way. Any restaurant that has been on that show for the past year has a small chance I’m dropping by to have the same dishes as V6. I got all the restaurants I could decipher and find on maps in a separate document, and this I’m now starting to map to my “Guide to good noms in Japan“, I mean, The Tokyo Restaurant Guide for dummies gaijin! Thanks to that show I know a hell of a lot more about Japanese food.

:confused:

XD! YamaGoldfish just wrote about nabe! I actually put one in the guide specifically. I know it’s more of a winter dish, but they’ll just have to serve me that one in spring.

I also seem to have found a crab restaurant. I believe they call it “ka~ni”. In dutch that sounds more like (kannie, or “can’t do”). I love crab <3.

In any case, that’ll be the last step in “what to see, do and eat”. A lot of hours went in there, hope they were worth it.

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01.04.2010
luckyjal-saved

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Lucky~JAL saved

Check out this JapanAirlines story. I have a ticket with them in April XD. No secret the airlines have been struggling for a couple of years, though I don’t really feel like phone calls and nagging and generally being a cranky customer because JAL would file for bankruptcy before I can go and return. They were already in a little trouble when I went with them in 2007, that it has become this serious was a total shocker though. Will have to keep my eyes open.

About two years ago the Dutch government put some more tax on fuel for Schiphol which was also disastrous. Since you have Brussels and Dusseldorf close that wasn’t the brightest idea in history. KLM is no longer Royal Dutch Airlines (even though it is) because it’s merged with Air France. From the looks of the article, so will JAL merge with an American airline or transfer it’s international routes to All Nippon Airways. I’m thinking the CEO’s refusal of giving up the international routes is possibly just a matter of time. I’m so used to political bluffs that after 6 years it’s the first thing I think about.

Edit: aha. (…) Everyone just nodded their heads? :confused:

And another more elaborate article.

Which reminds me:

11,5 grueling hours in a plane. :puking:

You know what that feels like? This:

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12.31.2009
another-travel-update

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Another travel update

I really did a sh$tload of work in two months. The first month (November) I did some research and basically booked the flight, hotel, arranged travel insurance etc. Now in December I started to make “day plans” as I call them. It’s not like anywhere else where you can actually speak and understand the language, so if merely for that fact there’s a lot of research required just trying to know how to get someplace and what to combine with what. I’m guessing those pages amount to 70 or 80 something and they’re done. Double sided it should be doable to carry. Somewhere in March/Early April I’ll need to input time tables where necessary to complete them.

The coming months I’m going to use to learn more about foods! What to pack, what to not forget or go buy, etc. Not to mention at some point I’ll have to get my foreign currency :D I’ve been watching the Yen/Eur ever since I booked. Basically it was pretty stable at around 133-134 for quite a while, and then when the Dubai disaster came out it dropped back down to 129-ish. After that came a message about Japan pumping billions into the economy which didn’t seem to affect it immediately. It slowly rose again and is now at 132,5. I’m hoping it goes up til 136 (or more). Nothing depends on it, but I just love looking at it and cheering it on. Hey, look, if it stays that way I save 50 euro’s on this trip. lol. I will react to it if there’s a market crash. Go watch Yahoo Finance for a 2 year history to see what I mean… You don’t want that to happen. Forecasts are good though;)

Lesson learned: if you’re going to go solo, don’t ever underestimate the amount of work that comes with organizing your trip! I even underestimated it, for a second time too.

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