CharlesAndSandra

Charles: Japan is fascinated by food. It's supposed to have the highest "restaurant-per-capita" ratio in the world. And it's not just "Japanese" food -- Japan has adopted Chinese food (both "real Chinese" and "Chinese fusion"), Korean food, American food (generically "fasto furudo", represented by McDonalds), Italian food, etc. There is also lots of regional cooking, including "Kyoto food" (largely vegetarian), "temple food" (vegetarian), and so on. We had two problems: . . . Our hotel rooms didn't have cooking facilities -- not even microwave ovens; . . . "Real restaurants" tended to be expensive. The "set menu" breakfast in our hotel restaurant (the Touganeya) was reasonably-priced, and delicious. A whole grilled fish, rice, miso soup, and an assortment of Japanese pickled veggies really set us up for a day of touring, for about $10. But dinner ... read more

Reactor Problems Charles: We have been following the news about the Fukushima reactors with growing concern. What _should_ have happened was that the plant crews covered the reactor cores with water, and cooled them down until the reactors could be "entombed". What _has_ happened is a succession of failures to accomplish that goal. The latest report is that one of the containment vessels has "probably" ruptured, and a pool holding "spent" fuel rods under water is running out of water. This suggests an escalating series of failures to contain the problem. It's nobody's "fault", except the people on the design team who didn't anticipate the effect of a Richter 9.0 earthquake and the resulting tsunami. The danger, of course, is that the reactor cores (and spent fuel) will continue to heat up, and eventually explode, ... read more

We chose today to take a daytrip to Nikko, a mountain town about 2 hours north of Tokyo. The ground shook a bit at around 2:30 PM, local time. Nothing serious. Our return train was cancelled. We have rented a hotel room, and we have plenty of money. Seeing the news about Tokyo, we might be staying here a few days. Don't worry, we're fine. Just dumb luck. Charles & Sandra ... read more

Senso-ji and Asakusa Charles: Yesterday, it was snowing and raining. We stayed home. Today, the weather was fine, and we went out to see the Senso-ji (the Senso Temple), one of Japan's prime Buddhist sites. Its history goes back to 628, when a gold statue of Kannon, the Buddhist goddess of mercy, was found in the nearby river. A temple was constructed on the present site in 645, and enlarged many times. It was destroyed by bombing (and firestorm?) in WWII, and rebuilt in 1950. The reconstruction used traditional materials and techniques. Everything is peaceful now, except for the throngs of tourists (mostly Japanese). Everyone takes everyone's picture – I was captured by three kids, and forced to pose with them. The relationship of the Japanese with religion is complex, and outside the scope of ... read more

Sandra My Japanese experience started the minute I got to the Japan Air ticket counter at Vancouver Airport. Japan Air is an airline dedicated to making your time with them as comfortable as possible. Lots of staff to answer questions and to move things along quickly. They are sensitive to the language difference. When they call out your row number when it's time to board, there is someone holding a sign with that number on it, just in case you don't understand what is being said. Shortly after take off an attendant put a piece of paper in front of me. It was a questionnaire. They want to know how they are doing. They asked me to rate them from 1 to 10 on such things as: . . . Did the flight attendants smile? ... read more