Sunday, March 11, 2007
I’m a-keepin’ busy.
Most of my time over the past few days, other than the usual distractions, has been taking up by preparing my trip to japan. I’ve solidified the schedule, so I know what cities I’ll be in on what days, more or less, and I’ve managed to get us sleeping arrangements for pretty much every night. What fun!
Most of the time, we’ll be staying at Hostels. We’re doing this specifically because, well, the Hotel, for us, will mostly just be a place where we sleep. We don’t need amenities, we don’t need a lot of space, and we don’t need a maitre d’. We need a bed and a place to put our backpacks. It’s especially nice because youth hostels tend to cater to the foreign traveler, and the most common language, despite the wide swath of humanity, is English. Lucky me!
Another thing I like, you can book hostels online. Check out www.hostelworld.com or www.hostels.com . They’re great! Search a city, compare locations and prices, check availability, and book. All from the comfort of your English-speaking computer. Great!
I’ve been brushing up on bits and pieces of Japanese, here and there. I’ve managed to refresh my reading of two of the alphabets in Japanese, which will get me through, perhaps, 50% of the characters I’m likely to encounter. It’s a start, though. If I can get that, some basic question structures, and numbers/times/dates down, I think I’ll be able to get by. But, that’s what I’ve got the phrasebook for.
Other than that, it’s been mostly lazy times. J(5) and I went out to uWink, though. That was interesting.
uWink place was founded by the former CEO of both Atari and Chuck E. Cheese. It’s really neat. You get seated at a table with a touch screen computer and are given a card that you use to authorize your purchases. Everything is done through the computer. You put in your order, track your charges, and (here it comes)…play games! Simple games, mostly, but there is a lot of fun to be had there. J(5) and I took a lot of time playing trivia games, but there was some definite variety to be had there. They were all simple, straightforward, games, though. Nothing overly complex or taxing. Just simple, good fun.
Ordering through the computer is brilliant. The fact that at any time you want, you can just push some buttons and request food was a fantastic experience. Not to mention the fact that it was really easy to customize your entire meal. Want a water? Select bottled, sparkling, or tap, and then from a submenu, you can select lemon slice, lime slice, ice/no ice, anything you want. Pretty much every single menu item had a pretty interesting little submenu on it. Put that dressing on the side, and add avacado and subtract carrots! I imagine it makes the kitchen a little bit hectic, but from our perspective, it was just seamless.
It was definitely designed for more of an adult clientele, but there were plenty of kids’ games, too. And you wouldn’t have to worry about your children ordering anything, because you held the card, and you need to scan it to authorize any charges. Very, very cool place to eat.
Everyone wish happy birthday to J(5)! Her birthday is tomorrow, and I’d tell y’all what I’m getting her…except I know she reads this and I don’t want to spoil the surprise. A bunch of us are getting together for a birthday dinner, though, and that will be fun.
I’ve had hummus before, but I guess I’ve never really owned any of my own. That stuff is really good, let me tell you. We picked up some at the local farmers market. Artichoke heart hummus is fantastic, and tomato and basil is great. I’ve seen recipes for this stuff before, I must start making my own. (It goes really good with homemade bread.)
Oh, man. I forgot to make the bread for the week. I’ll do it tomorrow, it’s late.
Swimming on Saturday, running on Sunday. I’m bushed.
That’s all for now, folks. We’ll talk to y’all later.
Oh, and don’t forget to reset your clocks!
-N
Most of my time over the past few days, other than the usual distractions, has been taking up by preparing my trip to japan. I’ve solidified the schedule, so I know what cities I’ll be in on what days, more or less, and I’ve managed to get us sleeping arrangements for pretty much every night. What fun!
Most of the time, we’ll be staying at Hostels. We’re doing this specifically because, well, the Hotel, for us, will mostly just be a place where we sleep. We don’t need amenities, we don’t need a lot of space, and we don’t need a maitre d’. We need a bed and a place to put our backpacks. It’s especially nice because youth hostels tend to cater to the foreign traveler, and the most common language, despite the wide swath of humanity, is English. Lucky me!
Another thing I like, you can book hostels online. Check out www.hostelworld.com or www.hostels.com . They’re great! Search a city, compare locations and prices, check availability, and book. All from the comfort of your English-speaking computer. Great!
I’ve been brushing up on bits and pieces of Japanese, here and there. I’ve managed to refresh my reading of two of the alphabets in Japanese, which will get me through, perhaps, 50% of the characters I’m likely to encounter. It’s a start, though. If I can get that, some basic question structures, and numbers/times/dates down, I think I’ll be able to get by. But, that’s what I’ve got the phrasebook for.
Other than that, it’s been mostly lazy times. J(5) and I went out to uWink, though. That was interesting.
uWink place was founded by the former CEO of both Atari and Chuck E. Cheese. It’s really neat. You get seated at a table with a touch screen computer and are given a card that you use to authorize your purchases. Everything is done through the computer. You put in your order, track your charges, and (here it comes)…play games! Simple games, mostly, but there is a lot of fun to be had there. J(5) and I took a lot of time playing trivia games, but there was some definite variety to be had there. They were all simple, straightforward, games, though. Nothing overly complex or taxing. Just simple, good fun.
Ordering through the computer is brilliant. The fact that at any time you want, you can just push some buttons and request food was a fantastic experience. Not to mention the fact that it was really easy to customize your entire meal. Want a water? Select bottled, sparkling, or tap, and then from a submenu, you can select lemon slice, lime slice, ice/no ice, anything you want. Pretty much every single menu item had a pretty interesting little submenu on it. Put that dressing on the side, and add avacado and subtract carrots! I imagine it makes the kitchen a little bit hectic, but from our perspective, it was just seamless.
It was definitely designed for more of an adult clientele, but there were plenty of kids’ games, too. And you wouldn’t have to worry about your children ordering anything, because you held the card, and you need to scan it to authorize any charges. Very, very cool place to eat.
Everyone wish happy birthday to J(5)! Her birthday is tomorrow, and I’d tell y’all what I’m getting her…except I know she reads this and I don’t want to spoil the surprise. A bunch of us are getting together for a birthday dinner, though, and that will be fun.
I’ve had hummus before, but I guess I’ve never really owned any of my own. That stuff is really good, let me tell you. We picked up some at the local farmers market. Artichoke heart hummus is fantastic, and tomato and basil is great. I’ve seen recipes for this stuff before, I must start making my own. (It goes really good with homemade bread.)
Oh, man. I forgot to make the bread for the week. I’ll do it tomorrow, it’s late.
Swimming on Saturday, running on Sunday. I’m bushed.
That’s all for now, folks. We’ll talk to y’all later.
Oh, and don’t forget to reset your clocks!
-N
