The hotels change, but the scene stays pretty much the same. Breakfast. Gentle music plays over the speakers, barely audible. Japanese, with their heads down, quietly eating their salads, their soft-boiled eggs in miso. It's quiet. Awfully quiet.

And then, from the back of room - it's hard to ignore. A cacophony of voices, each struggling to be heard over the other. Booming noises in an expanse of silence.

Now transfer this to any of a number of settings. The bus. The metro.

Breaking the silence. It's us. We are Americans - and we are loud.

link to this | comments (3) | File:  Japan 

I thought it would be hard to wake up at 4 am to go to the fish market. I hadn't accounted for the wonders of jet lag. I opened my eyes at 2:30 am Monday morning. I tried to get them to close again for another half-hour and then decided I might as well get up. I took a shower, did some stretches and, since we were checking out later that morning, packed my bag. Still had time to spare for our 4:30 am departure. We took a cab to to an intersection near the fish market in Tokyo and walked a half-mile or so to where the auctions took place. Still dark, the various vendors setting up their stores, the workers zipping around on their motorized flat-bed carts - I understood that this was another world. A microcosm where everybody seemed to have a function, performed with fluid precision, and we were the strange foreign bits that bumped and bumbled our way through its arteries.

We were one of the first of the bystanders to show up at the auction area. There were large frozen tunas spread out on the floor of a warehouse and men were numbering them and cutting their tales open so the meat could be analyzed. The scene was pretty barbaric - nightmarish, even - if you happened to be a tuna. After a half-hour or so, the auctions began. A man stood on a stool and clanged a bell loudly in the air. The clanging got louder and more frantic until it stopped suddenly as the bell was clapped decisively on the ground. Then the man bowed and began chanting and doing a kind of strange auction dance. I shot some video, because it's something you just have to see and hear for yourself.

Still very early, we rode an eerily silent metro back to the hotel and ate breakfast. We checked out around nine and went on our way to Hakone with Ian's friend Endo-san. There, we stayed at a traditional ryokan and ate elaborate traditional Japanese meals and took dips in the communal hot spring baths, or onsen. Maybe it was just the fact that we'd been to the fish auction earlier that morning, but it seemed like the entire ryokan smelled like fish. Also, I was continually made aware that my height was . . . above average. For instance, when I stood at the mirror in the dressing room, my head was chopped off. The sink came to just above my knee. I had to bend through doorways. And there was not one pair of slippers I put on in which my heal did not rest flatly on the ground. I felt like a giant. Despite the fishy smell, and the fact that I felt like a guest in the home of Bilbo Baggins, the ryokan was an incredible, and truly authentic, experience. Many thanks to Endo-san for making it possible.

While in Hakone, we visited the Open Air Art Museum, which has been my personal highlight of the trip, so far. The museum features an incredible sculpture garden that puts the Hirshhorn's to shame, as well as a great collection of lesser-known Picasso's, including several interesting clay plate-ware pieces he had done in the 50's. I snapped several pics including this and this.

My fear of heights was tested as we rode the Hakone Ropeway, the longest gondola ride in Japan (33 minutes), across the Owakundani Gorge (Great Boiling Valley), where our little cable car was engulfed by sulfuric fumes.

Monday night at the ryokan, we all retired early to our gender-segregated rooms where our floor mats had been set out and made for us. I'll say this: vacationing with C's family is an athletic experience which requires strength and conditioning. You rise early, play hard, and struggle to stay awake through dinner. Then you get up the next day and do it all over again. It's great fun.

link to this | comments (0) | File:  Japan 

First of all, not only did we not feel any earthquake yesterday, we had no idea there even was one until this morning. We're a bit in our own world, I guess. Earthquake aside, here are some highlights from Day 2 in Japan. In the morning, we took a mini-tour of the city which included: a trip to the top of Tokyo Tower (Tokyo's version of the Eiffel), a wet walk through the Meiji-jingu Shinto shrine, which was beautiful, despite the pouring rains; a stroll through the Imperial Palace gardens; and finally shopping and people watching in Ginza, Japan's equivalent of Times Square. We ate yakitori at Torigin Honten restaurant, where all of us gaijin were put in our room away from the others. We ended the evening eating Shabu Shabu with Ian's friend Endo-san and his wife. We all got a little drunk on Sake, which in Japan is an excuse to say inappropriate things. We went to bed early so we could rise at 3:30 am for a trip to the fish market. More on that later . . .

Some observations: I love how everything is so automated and organized in Japan. The construction sites are clean. They have a little thing you can press at the hotel elevator which is specifically for ridding yourself of static electricity. The soap dispensers are automated. High end toilets have all these sophisticated buttons, which you need a manual to operate. But if you know what you're doing you can give yourself a little wash and blow dry after your through with business. We didn't get that far, but we did enjoy the heated seats.

Keep an eye on the photo blog for ongoing photos.

link to this | comments (1) | File:  Japan 

When you get an hour of sleep, it's really not sleep. It's really not even a 'having gone to bed' in the proper sense. When you get one hour of sleep it's more like a 'having drifted off.' It's something you do maybe while watching TV on Wednesday night. Oops, I drifted off. But last night - Last night? Surely more time has gone by. What do I call it now that I've crossed the International Date Line? 'Night before last?' How about 'the last time it was night.' That works. - The last time it was night, I went through the motions of 'going to bed.' At 1:45 am, I brushed my teeth. I urinated. - Upstairs. In Doug's vacant place. Because we're still without an operating toilet. - I crawled into bed and set the alarm for three. That's A.M. When you do something like that, when you set an alarm for a time that is only an hour away, it seems like an okay idea at the time. It seems like that one hour of sleep is going to be great and you'll wake up refreshed and get on with getting to the airport. Because you're heading to Japan, after all, and that will be exciting, won't it? But then 3 am hits like a rear end collision, out of nowhere, and you find yourself struggling to acknowledge the situation. You squint at familiar things and wonder if they're real. You wonder how something could be so cruel as the sound of news coming from a clock radio at three in the morning.

Yesterday, which was Thursday, but which is now - as I type this - actually 'two days ago,' we had our tub glazed. It turns out that tub glazing is a pretty messy and foul-smelling thing to have happen in your apartment. Particularly the night before you're going to catch a 6 am flight from Dulles Airport to Japan by way of DFW. Much of the apartment smelled like a nail salon, one that had been inexplicably built on top of a chemical processing plant. The lingering fumes made your eyes water. I was mildly horrified. There was also a white film over everything in the kitchen, a by-product of the whole glazing process, apparently. The film was some kind of dust. I'm still not sure if it was toxic dust or not. I'm hoping not.

After opening every window in our apartment and vacating for a while, I came back and began the arduous task of wiping the dust off of every square inch of the kitchen. I have a thing, see. I can't leave on vacation with the kitchen dirty. It's a small thing, but a thing nonetheless. With the windows wide open, our neighbors over on 10th street had a great view of me standing at the sink with just my boxers on and a white safety mask covering my face. Around 9 pm, I settled down to a wholesome frozen pizza in the living room. AC fan running. Windows wide open.

And that was the situation as I remember it: nine in the evening. Heading to Japan in a few hours. Hair-curling fumes sifting through the cracks in the door. Not one item of clothing in a suitcase. You'd think I'd be a little nervous. But I've gotten used to the chaos. I've gotten used to working indian-style at a coffee table while men pound at my bathroom walls. I've gotten used to living out of a duffel bag. I've gotten used to walking eight blocks to the gym when the smell of myself becomes unbearable and I need a shower. I've gotten used to riding the waves. Going with the flow. And I knew the packing could wait a little longer.

C got home around ten. We started packing around 10:30, and as I've already indicated, we wrapped up around 1:45.

Which brings us to now. The present. If that's what this is. According to my Mac, it's 9:34 pm in DC now. So in that sense, it's still yesterday. However, in another sense it's 10:34 in the morning in Japan. And my mind and body are somewhere in between, in the last hours of a 13-hour flight from Dallas. It's dark inside the plane, but brightness leaks through the cracks beneath the shades. Babies are crying. There is a restless energy everywhere. People are reaching their breaking point. Including me. I'm somewhere over the Pacific. But that doesn't really matter. The present feels malleable. I barely remember the flight from Dulles to DFW now. I sort of remember eating breakfast burritos at the airport in Dallas. Then, some 11 hours ago we got on this plane, where I've been alternating between painful sitting and painful standing ever since. One Celebrex and one Aleve down, a second round standing by on my tray table, waiting for water to wash them down. The AS is really flaring up. When I get up from my seat, I walk like a bow-legged cowboy.

I know Japan is going to be amazing. I know it's going to be fun and exciting. A complete sensory overload. But so far, the first 18 hours of the journey have been more like . . . oh what's the word . . . hell. Yes, if Dante had lived today, he might have made The Inferno one long plane ride.

When I post this, C and I will have already landed in Tokyo, taken a train from the airport, negotiated a taxi ride from Shinagawa Station to the hotel. The line between sleeping and waking will have been a fine one. I hope I can remember the journey. I'll have to rely on the pictures.

Tomorrow will be an actual tomorrow, not a half day that becomes a premature tomorrow. Let the fun begin.


link to this | comments (4) | File:  Japan 

Man. This election is going to be ugly. I'd link to the ad, but I think the tactic is a little cowardly. You can find it pretty easily, though.

link to this | comments (0) | File:  Politics 

Re-reading my last post, I realized it sounded a bit negative there at the end. So I'm here to report that, after the last several days of panels and evening activities, I feel back in the full spirit of SXSW. I've seen some really great panels, and despite my initial torpor, I had fun at the various evening activities. The Austin Fray Cafe was definitely a highlight. Great stories, set to pouring rain. Monday night was a little 20x2 at the Parish followed by two-for-one veggie burgers with Alan, Chris, and Patrick, followed by beer at Lovejoy's and a pretty fun party at Iron Cactus, at which I met the only person who got fired from Google for blogging about work. I also met two more people from Toronto. So, including Patrick and Michele, that makes four at the conference in all. I seem to have a strange gravitational pull toward people from Canada.

Home to DC - and a near-complete bathroom - tomorrow.

link to this | comments (4) | File:  sxsw 

I took the 5A bus to Dulles to catch my flight to Austin. The 5A is probably the best way to get to IAD from downtown. I think I might even like it better than driving myself. It's on time. The ride is comfortable. You can zone out. Relax. I highly recommend it. It was cold in DC when I left. In the 30s. Sweater, coat, scarf, gloves. You needed it all. Things were a little different in Austin. Fifty degrees different, actually. It's in the 80s here. It's pleasant in the mornings and evenings. But in the high afternoon it's a little on the hot side. So, for me, walking involve sweat. Because I do. I sweat.

I'm renting a PT Cruiser. I've never had an urge to drive a PT Cruiser. I got it because Enterprise had run out of 'economy' cars, which is what I had reserved. So they bumped me up to the Cruiser. The P-T. I told them I wasn't really keen on the PT Cruiser. I told them it really wasn't my cup of tea. But the next model up was a Grand Am, which wasn't any better. And I would have had to pay a bit more for it. So I took the Cruiser. The problem is I sit rather high in the car, and the top of the windshield is in my line of sight, which is annoying. I know you don't need to see the sky when you drive, but I like it like that. It makes me feel more comfortable. In Hoshi, you can sit low. You can see the sky.

There are more people at SXSWi this year than last year. Apparently, a couple thousand more. This thing just grows and grows. And I guess I feel a little jaded this year. When you're here, you're supposed to get out and meet people. That's the cool thing to do. And last year I was feeling that vibe. This year feels different. I'm here, and that's all good. And I'm excited about seeing people I know who live in town, like Bill, Jay and Yancy, JP and Liz, Alan, and Chris. And also people I met at last year's conference, like Patrick. But going to the parties just doesn't interest me. I gave it a try last night, and there just seems to be a lot of 'hero worship' going on. It's about seeing and being seen. It's like Hollywood for Geeks.

Here's a recap of the SXSW Interactive panels I attended on Saturday:

Emerging Social and Technology Trends
Interesting remarks on negotiating the public and private self, and having a sense of 'place.'

After the Brief: A Field Guide to Design Inspiration
Good quotation: "Inspiration is the sum total of your experiences reacting to new stimuli." While I'm not a graphic designer, there were some good gems in here to apply to other arts.

Kathy Sierra Opening Remarks
Her presentation was basically on how application FAQs pages are usually completely ineffective and unhelpful. It came with plenty of cute puppy photos. We don't need FAQs. We need 'WTF?' buttons.

From Blog to Book
A good discussion on non-traditional publishing routes.

Ruining the User Experience: When JavaScript and Ajax Go Bad
This one seemed promising, but was a little disappointing.

From Tags to Riches: Life After Code
DC-area's Cyndi Li was a panelist on this one. Good discussion on career tracks for Web Developers, or lack thereof.

link to this | comments (1) | File:  sxsw 

We live out of duffel bags. The trunk of our car. Sometimes we spend the night at home. Sometimes with friends. Sometimes with family. Thank God for them. Because it gets old leaving your apartment to use the bathroom. It gets old closing the doors tight behind you and pushing a towel up against the crack underneath to try and contain the dust - keep it from spreading.

For the past couple of weeks, we have been nomads.

And this existence will continue through next week and beyond. There is still work to be done on the bathroom. Pipes to install. Tile to lay. So for C, it's have duffel will travel. To Olney. To Baltimore. To anywhere that'll take in a girl in need of a little running water.

As for me, I'm escaping for a bit. To do my nomadic car dance in another land. I'm heading to Austin on Friday for SXSWi. I will drive a rental car and carry bags of stuff around with me. I will rest my head for brief intervals at JP and Liz's place. Will wake early and attend workshops by day. Will see friends and go to parties by night. At the parties, the booze will be mostly free because they will be sponsored by some fancy Austin web design shop with marketing money to burn. It's going to be rough. I just hope I'm up to the task. Web celebrities will be seen. Ideas will be spread. Friends will be made. And I will come home tired but energized. Full of new thoughts. Ready to do good.

And I plan to blog while I'm there. More than I have been. I plan to post. But we shall see. Some people apologize when they have not posted for a while. I don't. I think it's self-aggrandizing to presume people give a shit. Sometimes I post. Sometimes I don't. That is all. The way I see it, there's plenty else to read out there. Just ask my Google Reader - it's constantly backlogged with over 300 posts from various blogs. And frankly, I appreciate it when people don't post every day. It means they realize that there's a thing called reader burnout. It means they take time with their words.

But back to the nomadic quality of life these days - there's really no end in site. After Austin, after the bathroom, we will carry our nomadic existence to Japan. We will take trains to different cities for over a week before landing at Mitch's place for a few nights. Japan will be crazy and new, like childhood. We will eat lots of raw fish and there will be no shortage of running water. The posts I make from Japan will be written in English because, despite my good intentions, I haven't learned a lick of Japanese. But C has. She'd done a little studying up. And so has JP. And Mitch, well he's a Japanese-language master. So I feel good. And who knows, maybe we'll see cherry blossoms while we're there. If not, we can probably catch them when we get back to DC.

And then it will be April. And a move will be in order. We're not sure exactly where or when it's going to take place. But it's coming. Another move is coming.

link to this | comments (5) | File:  sxsw  Bathroom_Remodel