I ate my way through Ottawa. These people sure do know how to eat. I had some great dinners here, and excellent baked goods. Highlights of the trip: all the cool people I met at the conference, the food, the creepy hostel which use to be a jail, and the museum of civilization. The museum had a show on all about the pre Incan people called the Sican in Peru. Great gold metalworkers! At the show, this guy comes up to me and starts speaking Spanish, thinking I was a student I guess. Once we used broken French and English, he [View Full Entry]

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The train trip to Toronto from Princeton began at 4 am. Meep! After I get to Princeton Junction, the barely moving, falling apart train appears far away and we have to clamor down the platform with bags to the train to Newark. Then I transferred to the train to New York. I saw none of either city because my connection to Toronto was at 9:30. Again, I met some great people, including Alison who was on her way to Toronto to see a family friend in hospice. While the trip was long, it was a great time to catch up on [View Full Entry]

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My first stop was at Princeton University, who had invited me for their Graduate Student conference in the history of biology. Princeton, NJ is a parochial town, where the university is the centre of everything…except the expensive shops that line the plaza. It’s an odd town because of all the well heeled students with Prada bags and ties that belie the university’s snobbery. The poor work in the back, and the full example of the USA’s class divisions are seen in the kitchens which are entirely staffed by blacks and Hispanics. Having said that, the conference itself was great! The organizers [View Full Entry]

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Back in Tokyo for a day before we fly out. [View Full Entry]

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Matsuo Basho is my favorite Haiku poet, so any monuments to him are always high on my list. He traveled all over Japan when it meant the same as walking it during the Edo period- around 1600s- and wrote travel diaries with the best poetry ever. Good thing he made a pit stop in Gifu and made some frinds. We headed to the town of Ogaki where Basho showed up in 1684 to take in the sights. He made a lot of friends, one being a guy named Bokuin who also wrote Haiku. The way the Japanese velebrate writers is to [View Full Entry]

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Gify City and surrounding areas are a pretty place nestled in hills and small mountains, and the Nobi plains, with lots of little towns. Dave and I have had the tourist expereince, now we're here not only to vist but to get into the modern culture a bit, less the temples and more the people. I am really done sightseeing to be honest, I am really temple-ed out. Wow, Gifu has grown a lot in 16 years! We are staying in the home of Mr and Mrs Fukutomi near the river. They have a traditional wooden house about 45 years old. [View Full Entry]

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We were running a bit early so we decided to stopover for an day in Nagoya. As I had done no real research on the area, I did not know what to expect. It's a sleep little city, with a lot going for it. The Atsuta Jingu is a part in the centre of town, sort of an oasis from the concrete that dominates the city. A park and shine combo, it boast holding the sacred sword Kusanagi-no-tsurugi, one of the imperial symbols of ancient Japan. We did not see the sword but a replica in the museum close by. That [View Full Entry]

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Mad place, mad world...Osaka is a party town with a hip young population as the dominant force. There were a lot of buskers here, mostly young guys with guitars but all had thier own sound systems. One band on the pedway from the main train station to the malls had a five piece set up: they rocked! That is the best thing about Osaka: it feels so vibrant. Tokyo felt like money, Kyoto felt like a kimono, and Osaka feels like a 2 am disco. The bad part: getting around was murder. Even the locals were looking at maps trying to [View Full Entry]

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Other than touring the sites, we also tried to practice our bad Japanese on the kind people that would help us, the temple cleaners, the attendants and the poor cab drivers. They had a lot of patience with us for being so clumsy! That is the main feeling I have here, that I am a bull in a china shop and I have to be extra careful everywhere as I am just so coarse and the Japanese are so cultured. hahaha...I am a barbarian after all. The two barbarians got into the Imperial Palace! It is the latest of the Imperial [View Full Entry]

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Man, we are sweating like mad here in Kyoto, the old capital of Japan until the Meiji Restoration where the Emperor moved camp to Edo which was the domain of the Shogun. The people of Kyoto are still pissed the Emperor left and want him to come back. Which is why the palace is still mostly closed off to visitors and they keep it at the ready for a visit. I guess you have to live for something. I am cooking bad in this town, so much for the fall being cool. We are staying at a really odd place near [View Full Entry]

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