Japan Rider: The Blog

I just started reading the book, Stuff White People Like by Christian Lander, based on the blog of the same name, and am thoroughly enjoying it!

It is a list-style book, and oh so accurate. hahaha.

I woke up this morning a little after 7 a.m. Sadly, these days, I tend to wake up as late as 8:30 or even 9:00; gone are the days when I was up and active at 5:00! Hopefully that will change when summer comes here to this arctic land. But anyway – as I was saying – I was up a little after 7, enjoyed two hot cups of tea before taking Dexter for a run.

Now, due to his having had pneumonia when I first adopted him, and then the holidays, and then the surgery, and then the snow and cold, Dexter has never been for a real jog before. He loves to run, of course, but has only ever run for a few minutes at a time. This morning the temperature is above freezing for the first time in ages, so I wanted to get out and figured to take Dex with me. However, it was raining. I’d forgotten, but Dexter absolutely hates the rain. So, the run became more of an enforced walk, before I dropped him off at home and then set off again on my own. I then ran just under 5km in the rain which alternated between rain and snow.

It was my first outdoor run in months. I realize now that the treadmill and gym workouts just do not free the mind and spirit as much as real outdoor exercise.

I have been back from New York and New Jersey since Monday night, and have recuperated well from the 13.5 hour return train journey. Yes, 13.5 hours! The train was stuck at the Canadian border at Rousse’s Point for more than three hours, I’d say.

Thankfully, having not had any solitude in the past five months, and having my new-model Kindle fully stocked with tons of trashy reading, I took advantage of the cozy seats, listened to some Sara Brightman, and read a good mystery novel, all in relative solitude. Oh, sure, there were hundreds of people on the train, and the car was packed, but still, I’d rediscovered some mindfulness techniques, and was, in essence, alone.

Blogging from my iPod touch isn’t easy! But it’s convenient…



Anyway, I’m spending my final night in New York snuggled up with a good book and cable TV in my luxurious hotel room!

My excuse? Tired from New Jersey shopping, and it IS Sunday, after all!!

Here’s my hotel room:

Cheryl and I spent a lovely day in some quaint areas on New Jersey, and she even brought me to her stylist in Little Silver called First Impressions http://www.firstimpressionstudio.com/

We then enjoyed a late lunch at an Irish pub a few miles away.

Today we are shopping, then I’m heading back to New York city.


Tonight I decided to splurge and have booked a room at the Wingate Hotel, just a couple of blocks from Penn Station, from where I’ll be departing on the 8:15 Amtrak on Monday morning!

I did not mention it here, but I have actually left Montreal for a few days, both as a need to escape the claustrophobia that is winter and to simply have variety again. In Japan, Brian and I have never spent consecutive weekends at home-we always went somewhere or did something. So when Cheryl invited me to go see her in New York, I jumped at the chance!

Actually, even better, I’m staying with her in New Jersey, a place I’ve never been before. Today she took me to the lovely Lilligard hotel for a very civilized afternoon tea.

BTW -I came to NYC by Amtrak and spent the 1st night at The New York Loft Hostel. It’s fun and an adventure to travel on a shoestring

Brian and I often find ourselves reminiscing. We always did remember fun, interesting, bizarre, or other events or places, but the memories, now that I have left my home of more than twelve years, have a poignancy that was not there before. But still, remembering fondly the day we tried to walk to the video store in a very rare snowfall, or how we got lost the first time we drove to a place we eventually became so familiar with that we could drive there in our sleep, gives me a warm and happy feeling of nostalgia.

On the hand, while my memories remain powerful, I find that my memory itself is fading. What I mean is, I find myself now searching my mind for place names; like the other night, I had a dream that we were on our motorbikes, resting at a pass in Izu. I could not remember the name of the pass, although we’d been there so many times… several days later, I remember it was Kameishi, at the entrance of the Izu Skyline.

There are other gaps too – I couldn’t remember the beautiful temple village we visited just in my last week in Japan (Koyasan), and I still can’t remember the name of another pass in Izu that we often took scenic drives over, although for some reason I think it has something to do with cows.

This loss of simple memory saddens me, but the more important memories are intact, and that matters more to me anyway!

Many people, who are actually from this area, surprise me by their having never climbed Mt. Fuji, despite its obvious, daily presence. Well, I am similarly guilty of having largely ignored Hakone, which is geographically closer and has so much to offer!

Last October my family visited, and before setting of on a few days’ tour of Izu we took a quick helicopter ride above Hakone for an aerial perspective. The ride was a few minutes long, and I wish I had recorded the whole trip. Here are the few seconds I caught with my iPhone, including Mt. Fuji, the Hakone range and crater, and the valley in between:

Last weekend my company had a ‘retreat’ of sorts, and the venue was the famous Fujiya Hotel in Hakone. This was the first western-style hotel in Japan, and while its 140-year history is long, Hakone is home to traditional inns, some having operated for more than 500 years! This hotel offers an experience unlike any other, though, with its blend of architectural styles and amenities. It consists of a large complex of 5 main buildings, all interconnected by paths and breezeways, and all constructed between 1890 and 1960. Here is my pic of the Flower Palace (花御殿) built in 1936:

Besides that building and others in the complex being National Cultural Heritage Assets, the hotel houses the register for the ‘Moustache Club’:

Overnighting here is normally out of reach for common people, and for real luxury there are many other more affordable nearby options, so I’m grateful to have had the chance to stay!

This weekend I again went to Hakone, this time with the intention of circling the entire crater by motorcycle. I set out yesterday hoping the recent sun and warm days would have cleared the route of ice and snow. The pass I needed to take became slick with ice and snow above 930m elevation, so I changed my plan and circled the lake by roads that were clean and dry! Here is a section of the Odawara Skyline warning of monkeys:

And my route (thanks to Runkeeper app on my phone)! I went counter-clockwise, and elevation ranges from 130m to 930m, and speed 0 to 100Km/H:

I could and should file this under “annoyances”. Well, it is an annoyance in Canada, especially after I have become accustomed to such excellent service in Japan. Seriously – not only is Japan Post super excellent (I have dropped a letter into the letter box in the morning and had it arrive the same day in Tokyo!), but the Takkyubin companies (express delivery companies) are very affordable and very, very fast, and they pick up and deliver anywhere. When I was travelling by train from Susono to Osaka, I simply had the takkyubin company pick up my suitcases and deliver them to my new address. This service cost me 2,500 yen. Peanuts!

Also, they deliver at very specific times, as determined by you, the customer. So, for example, if I tell them to deliver between 4p.m. and 6 p.m. on Wednesday night, that is when they deliver. If, for some reason, I miss the delivery, they leave a fuzaitodoke (不在届け）notice, with the driver’s phone number. I simply call that number, tell the driver who I am, and he swings back by to drop off my package.

Not at all the case here in Canada. Yesterday I missed a UPS delivery. They left a fuzai, with a little box ticked that said “1st attempt”. I am allowed up to three “attempts”. Huh. So then I looked for a phone number to call, and I finally finally found it deeply buried in really fine print on the back of the card.

I visited the website and had options to pick up my package myself, or change the delivery address!

In Brian’s last post, he mentions that the mornings in Susono are about 2 degrees Celsius these days, so running is a bit tough. I remember the days of 2 degrees, and would stay snuggled in my futon, and then linger over tea.

The temperatures in Montreal, needless to say, drop much (much!) below 2. Yesterday we saw a low of -27.9°C; today we had a high of -13.4°C, which was, oddly, pleasant!