Adventures in Japan… (Part II)

Our accomodations in Japan were always nice and clean. We stayed for a few nights in a Youth Hostel, a few nights with good friends who used to teach here but now teach in Japan, and a few nights in a Capsule Hotel. Originally designed for business men who missed the last train home – due to overwork, or overindulgence in the surrounding entertainment districts – these hotels offer everything you need for an “oops, I didn’t plan to stay the night” night. While most capsule hotels cater only to men, a few cater exclusively to women, or, like the ones we stayed in, provide a ‘women’s only ‘ floor. In the picture on the bottom, you can see Jen’s excitement over our unique-to-Japan (I think) sleeping arrangements and an overview of what the establishment looks like, while the picture on the top shows a closer view of what the inside of the capsule looks like. It’s big enough to sit up in, and has a TV, a shelf, a light, a radio and an alarm clock. Although there are no doors on the capsules, there is a macrame curtain you can pull down and hook from the inside. The hotel provides clean sheets, pillow cases and pajamas. In the morning you can take a shower or bath in the bath house, where towels, toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner and body wash are provided. If you’re really in a pinch, you can also buy a clean dress shirt, socks, and boxers at the counter downstairs. All in all, it’s a clean, cheap place to spend the night. (Earplugs are suggested though – just in case.)

Adventures in Japan… (Part I)

My friend Jen and I arrived home last night after a 10-day adventure in Japan. Since I still have a week of vacation left with nothing planned, my next few posts will be re-capping my trip. Right off the top, let me say that I had a fantastic time and very much enjoyed the break. However, there are a few things I hope I will never ever do again…

1) Never start a vacation in a typhoon with a pair of canvas running shoes and a broken umbrella. Before we even reached the ferry terminal we were drenched and cold. By the time we arrived at the terminal, all the clothes I’d packed in my backpack were soggy, and we were dripping all over the floor.

2) When you board a ferry 2 hours after a typhoon has passed by and soaked you, don’t think “Hey, a nice hot bath would be great right now.” We were in the Japanese-style bath house onboard when we left the shelter of the harbour and hit open water. With a single heave, 1/2 the water in the tub splashed out onto the floor. Clinging to the side of the tub, we were tumbled and tossed and rocked and sloshed until we were queasy. I spent the rest of the night in my bunk willing my stomach to ride out the storm. By morning, the sea had calmed and we pulled into Fukuoka harbour around 8am, ready to catch the train to Kyoto.

3) After a night on a stormy sea, and a morning on a bullet train, don’t expect your lunch menu to stay still when you finally sit down on something that doesn’t pitch, toss, rock, sway or bump. By that time, my stomach was hunky-dory, but trying to convince the rest of my body that it was stationary was a bit tricky.

Adventures in Cognitive Leaping…

I couldn’t sleep the other night, thanks to too much coffee, too much heat and too many neurons performing their synaptical dance. Instead of thinking of things to sooth, calm and lull myself, I ended up thinking about things that fascinate me. Not regular things like belly buttons and dryer lint, but things that really really fascinate me.

1) Cuneiform. Yes, that ancient stepping stone between expressing oneself through pictorgraphs, and expressing oneself through phonetic symbols. Imagine the cognitive leap between “I want to preserve information about a horse, so I’ll draw a [stylized] representation of a horse” and “I want to preserve information about a horse, so I’ll use a few arbitrary lines to represent it”. In itself that’s a pretty big leap…but then you’ve got to get all your educated buddies to recognize and conform to what your doing. Then, from that, comes the realization that by agreeing on arbitrary symbols, you can represent things other than nouns. All of a sudden you can start recording concepts like love, faith, adoration, and pride, for posterity. It’s really amazing when you think about it.

2) Historical Fashion. In particular, the 18th and 19th Centuries can keep me occupied for hours. It’s fun to make connections and see how changes in the political or social events of the time affect changes in fashion. Also, what moron invented the cinched corset, and why did women agree to wear it? And to think that the hoop skirt was actually considered a practical solution. Interesting.

3) Why on earth didn’t I go into Museum Studies at university?