Yawn!

Today was definitely a lazy day. Both Kathy and I got in very early and we couldn't check in until nearly noon.  I was totally sleep deprived and crashed on a couch for several hours. That didn't keep me from sleepwalking through the day! The altitude didn't help -- Bogota is at 8500 feet.  Our hotel is pretty nice.  We're on the seventh floor and have a good view of a cathedral. Here's a pic.

We had lunch at a little hole in the wall. It was very authentic. We had chicken tamales and eggs. Then we went into the Independence Museum, escaping a rainstorm. It's like Florida in that respect -- short but intense rain. The museum was okay. Most of it was in Spanish and wasn't especially descriptive.

After a necessary siesta at the hotel, we went across town a nice restaurant in the fancy area.  We had some wonderful steaks and red wine.  I think this will be a meat-heavy trip...  We also noticed that most people eat in the Spanish style, from 8 to 10.

Overall, a pretty dull day... more excitement forthcoming.  Pictures will come in on a future post.

En route to Bogota

One of the perils of traveling off to the corners of the world is having to spend time to get there.  For this trip, all of this Friday is silent en route...

The first stop was Dallas. I was shocked at how cold it was -- a high of 37F!  That's about 25 degrees cooler than the Bay Area.  I only had a few hours there so I didn't leave the airport lounge. Today was the fiftieth anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination right there in Dallas. I was told that as why things were so busy.  There's been a lot of media coverage of that anniversary here in the US in the week leading up to today.

I'm now on the Bogota leg.  This is a brand-new airplane, an Airbus A319.  It's nice to have such a new plane for one. And I'm flying business class, too. For some reason the adder wasn't too much so I took it...

I'm watching Before Midnight, as you can see from this picture.   It feels like a play that happens to be a movie.

Okay. Enough killing time. Dinner is about to be served.  I'll be getting in to Bogota at 1am. I'm going to be sleep deprived for my first few days of this vacation!

En route to Bogota

One of the perils of traveling off to the corners of the world is having to spend time to get there.  For this trip, all of this Friday is silent en route...

The first stop was Dallas. I was shocked at how cold it was -- a high of 37F!  That's about 25 degrees cooler than the Bay Area.  I only had a few hours there so I didn't leave the airport lounge. Today was the fiftieth anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination right there in Dallas. I was told that as why things were so busy.  There's been a lot of media coverage of that anniversary here in the US in the week leading up to today.

I'm now on the Bogota leg.  This is a brand-new airplane, an Airbus A319.  It's nice to have such a new plane for one. And I'm flying business class, too. For some reason the adder wasn't too much so I took it...

I'm watching Before Midnight, as you can see from this picture.   It feels like a play that happens to be a movie.

Okay. Enough killing time. Dinner is about to be served.  I'll be getting in to Bogota at 1am. I'm going to be sleep deprived for my first few days of this vacation!

Off to Colombia

Tomorrow, I'm heading off on this year's foreign trip with Kathy.  The destination of the year is Colombia.  I'll resurrect the blog with the usual spate of pictures and entries, posted with the availability of Wi-Fi.  Hopefully, people are still reading blogs!   Comment and drop me an email if you have time.

Here's an overview of the trip.  I experimented with the Google Earth Tour Builder.  I imagine there are ways to embed that here, but I didn't want to spend the time.

Anyway, hope you'll enjoy the blog!

Movie Review: Wanderlust

The first movie of the flight started half-an-hour before we took off -- the advantage of VOD (Video On Demand) and a business class seat.  Anyway, with a title the same as my blog I had to watch it! Of course, that wasn't the best criterion for choosing a movie.

Thus movie featured Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston but I never heard of it in the theater... with reason.  The story is a typical one. New Yorkers struggle to have a life in the City. They're forced out to try to make ends meet.  They see an unsavory alternative and settle on a supposed Shangrila -- hippies enjoying a good life and battling corporate types that want to build an evil casino.  Man gets in a fight with woman who flees into the arms if the resident alpha male.  Man leaves camp only to realize he made a mistake weeks later.  He returns to conquer the alpha make, oh, who was conniving to sell the commune to the evil casino.  All is well in the end with the commune being saved.  And there's a brilliant novelist in the commune who is discovered by the couple. Thus let's then to return to New York for a successfully, perfect life. Happily Ever After.

The movie didn't have enough meat for the lead actor and actress, who definitely deserved better. The movie had a small role for Alan Alda, who did well, but want enough by far to save this movie.  Everything was predictable but the dialogue wasn't witty with to get past this.  Definitely one for the TV.. or better yet just pass on it completely.

Rating: 3/10

Sayanora Tokyo!

July 16 -- I'm on my way out of Tokyo now, taking the bus to Narita Airport. (It's about an hour and half ride. A taxi would be ridiculously expensive.)  I was contemplating a 6am trek to the fish market to see the tuna auctions, but I was told that it was closed. Today is a national holiday. I'm not quite sure what holiday it is as I've been told different things by different people. Some say it's an old emperor's birthday, but the beat answer is that it's a new, contrived holiday to have one amidst several months without any.  In any case I'm on an earlier bus in car there is holiday traffic.

Yesterday, we slowly made our way back to Tokyo via a local train. I visited Ema's place for dinner. It's a two bedroom that might be small by American standards for a family of four, but it seemed perfect for them. We had homemade sushi that you made yourself. Earlier, we went to a supermarket to buy stuff. Things seem about 30-40 percent more expensive. Oh, check out the cubical watermelon, specially grown that way. It's normally $125, but really just for display.

It's a nice sunny day today and I'll soon go look out the window. Generally, it's been hot (80-90F) but with very high humidity.  I think I would have wilted and hid in the air-conditioned comfort of the hotel room if I was on my own...

See you stateside!

The Hot Springs at Atami

July 14 -- Today, I met up with Ema and her family-- Shin (husband), Yu (six-year old daughter), and Rin (four-year old daughter).  The kids only know basic English, so it was quite a challenge to interact with them. But soon enough they were somewhat friendly, although perhaps still reserved, especially Yu.

We met at the subway station to take the bullet train to Atami. It's a seaside resort about 50 miles southwest of Tokyo. We started in a hotel that Ema characterized as being built in the sixties.  There was a nice, shallow pool for the kids and then we went to Roman baths with water supplied by underground hot springs. It's supposedly medicinal, but it was definitely relaxing.  The sauna was a cool 78 degrees... Celsius!

Dinner was an all-you-can-eat buffet. It was a mad rush to get food. There was a lot of seafood which I ate, but didn't know what it was!  Decent food but the average American probably wouldn't try much of it.

There was an arcade that the girls loved. They especially liked a taiko (Japanese drums) game where you had to beat according to the song. Kinda like Dance Dance Revolution but with drums.

It was a very nice, relaxing weekend jaunt.  The hotel had a feel of an old resort in the Poconos. But it was still fun. I saw one non-Asian while I was there. Almost everything was written in Japanese only, so it would have been hard to navigate on my own..

Oh, my injury was fine. It never even bothered me... It's amazing that not a single Japanese person has asked me about what happened, even if it's quite obvious and they're talking right to me. Let's see how it is in America when I get back, for comparison. (One Aussie did ask, but that was it.)