People say Japan is expensive, but if you know the tricks, it can be remarkably affordable. O-Nigiris are our favorite quickie lunch or snack. The ‘O’ in the front of the name connotes reverence or respect, and as it should be. We learned to carry wasabi and soy sauce with us at all times, and then you can pick up these little beauties at convenience or grocery stores. They’re rice shaped into triangles and wrapped in nori, with a little medallion of salmon, seaweed, veggies, or other treats in the middle. It’s essentially the poor man’s sushi, and is freaki [View Full Entry]

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Ponyo on a Cliff by the Sea,the latest movie by Hiyao Miyazaki, is the newest sensation with the 1-5 set here in Tokyo. The animation is very simple and seems to revolve around a little boy finding and befriending a mutant saltwater tadpole boy he meets near the sea. Everyone seems to ostracize poor Ponyo (the boy? the tadpole?) but yet, they’re off on a grand marine adventure all the same. At the Ghibli Museum, Miyazaki’s tribute to animation, childhood and the imagination, a narrow, dimmed corridor is dedicated to coming attractions. Here, a trio of miniature girls who hardly l [View Full Entry]

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Welcome to MotoAzabu Hills, a concrete building that wants to be a mushroom. It’s our home here in Tokyo, and its shroomy nature is actually extra padding against constant earthquakes. We like that it is so tall because it is so easy to find our way home by looking up. It presides over the cozy ex-pat area of MotoAzabu, the older section of Azabu-juban, our hamlet within Tokyo proper. It’s the only area in Tokyo so far (other than major tourist sites) where we have seen many Westerners walking around. There are a few requisite French patisseries, Italian trattorias, and one [View Full Entry]

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After sailing through customs, triumphantly still in possession of our wild mushrooms for our hosts, we were greeted by the trusty Mr. Suzuki, our guide through the wilds of the Japanese freeway system. We waited on the curb, still slightly dazed at how fast we had arrived (We're really in Japan?!), while Mr. Suzuki scrambled to retrieve his swanky, black beast. He zoomed up and we abandoned our luggage and our independent traveler responsibilities. We allowed ourselves to be swallowed up into the lace netherworld that is a Japanese taxi's interior. The entire upholstery is sheathed in white, [View Full Entry]

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Our ten hour flight on Japan Airlines was one of the easiest flights I’ve ever had. We got to sit on the second floor (who knew??)and we were lavished from the start. Japanese airplane bathrooms provide the passengers with high-class lotions and aftershave, so you can amuse yourself for awhile playing with products and moisturizing thoroughly. Like British Air, each seat is equipped with its own personal television screen with lots of fun options, including the real time GPS map of our location, temperature, time in every imaginable time zone, etc. , and there is a supplemental bin near [View Full Entry]

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Vancouver wins for my favorite airport in this lifetime so far! Everything is open and clean and green and graceful, and on top of that they have European Cadbury. Very nice. Geoff Dyer, a propos, on airports: By their airports shall ye know them! Because airports are on the fringes of non-space, their design is broadly similar the world over. Of all the forms of architecture, the international airport is probably least susceptible to regional variation. For this reason, the tiniest details are disproportionately revealing about the country in which they are situated. Seasoned traveler [View Full Entry]

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The ride from Portland to Vancouver on a clear day is magnificent. Due to the short distance, the plane doesn’t ascend very high, and Wednesday was almost cloudless. Alaska Airline served high quality black tea, the sun was shining, and Mount Hood, Rainier and the Cascades chaperoned our whole journey. Even Alaska Airline’s crew’s tired schtick (“Although there are fifty ways to leave your lover, there are only two to get out of here, folks!”) seemed innocuous and sugary in the midst of all that beauty. We munched and drank and hummed and kicked our feet, like To [View Full Entry]

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Petra and Huck and friends took us hunting for chanterelles on the slopes of Mt. Hood. After uncovering serious sylvan booty, the promise of more lured us deep into the woods. We set out solo, maintaining contact with each other intermittently, cooing and cooing back. Unfortunately, our nomadic harmonic orbit didn't track of the path, and thus began our six hour epic adventure in the Mount Hood National Wilderness area. Castaways amidst the ferny goliaths, we wuz lost!!!!! We tried to climb some trees to sight the road (in vain), tried to track the car with compasses (in vain), tried to [View Full Entry]

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It begins! [View Full Entry]

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Originally initiated in Brattleboro, Vermont in the summer of 2008, the PDX Paleontology Project marks the continuation of dissemination of petroleum-based life forms throughout the greater Oregonian ecosystem. [View Full Entry]

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