the unofficial website of Jody McIntyre
Posts tagged trips
An American (restaurant) in Tokyo
21411 days
by scjody
in Uncategorized
I’ve been in Tokyo since last Sunday. 2 nights ago I passed by an Anna Miller’s – I was hungry so I figured this was a good cultural experience: an American restaurant, as imagined by the Japanese. Maybe this is how Chinese people feel about the cheap “Chinese” restaurants that populate any North American city.
I was greeted at the door by a waitress wearing the Anna Miller’s uniform, which is hard to describe but doesn’t resemble anything I’ve ever seen in America. Apparently the waitresses are a major selling factor for the restaurant. To each his or her own, I suppose. I was shown to a table and presented with a menu in both English and Kanji. I decided on the steak special, which came with my choice of turmeric rice or bread – fries or potato weren’t listed as options. I wasn’t asked how the steak should be cooked, either. I also ordered a beer. The waitress entered my order into her little computer, disappeared briefly, then dropped off some western cutlery, a moist finger napkin of the type usually offered by Japanese restaurants, and a glass of water.
After about 15 minutes, she reappeared with a glass of local beer, a plate of yellow rice, and a large plate containing steak, fries, a slice of lemon, and an unidentifiable herb as a garnish. I was also invited to choose my desert from a menu: lemon pie, or lime pie. The steak was rare, but should have been at least medium given the quality of the meat. The lemon pie showed up as I was finishing the steak. As advertised, it was just lemon, no meringue.
So all in all, a deeply weird experience, like Japan itself. Unlike Japan; however, it left me with no particular desire to visit again.
Asia; postcards
61424 days
by scjody
in Uncategorized
Sat Jul 5 9:45: UA 7541, YUL-IAD, arr 11:38
Sat Jul 5 12:48: UA 803, IAD-NRT, arr 15:35 Jul 6
Sat Jul 12 10:30: JL 717, NRT-BKK, arr 15:05
Sat Jul 19 23:25: JL 704, BKK-NRT, arr 7:30 Jul 20
Sun Jul 20 11:10: NH ????, NRT-IAD, arr 10:40
Sun Jul 20 12:24: UA 7542, IAD-YUL, arr 14:05
Also, this is the postcard thread. Comments are screened so let me know your address if you want a postcard from one or both places :)
Ich bin ein Berliner
01504 days
by scjody
in Uncategorized
First things first: dcoombs asked for my thoughts on LX (Swiss Air), which I flew for the first time on the way here. I slept through the night flight over to ZRH, so I can’t really say what that was like, except the seat was quite good (the only time I’ve seen proper lumbar support in economy) and had a personal video thingy. The short flight from ZRH-TXL was quite good, they fed us and there was free booze available on a 1.5h flight. My only complaint is that their carryon restrictions are smaller than everyone else’s. I don’t know why – they have the same aircraft with the same overhead compartments, but a flight attendant told me my bag was too big. She let me get away with it because it had an AC elite tag on it (I knew those were good for something) but in future, I can’t count on that. So if I fly LX again I need to check bags, which adds to the travel time on arrival (and adds to the risk of my stuff being lost) and may make me avoid them.
Anyway, arrived in Berlin on Saturday and didn’t do anything too exciting. I mostly wandered around trying to remember where the interesting stuff was – but most of what I found was block after block of Neubauten and all I was thinking was “wow, it would be great to play manhunt here.” On Sunday I headed to the zoo, saw Knut, and wandered around some more, this time finding mostly interesting things (but everything is closed on Sundays, even some restaurants.) I also met up for dinner with my friend Kirsty from high school.
On Monday I went to work – there is a Hornbach on my way to work, which I find endlessly amusing. I had to work fairly late so I didn’t have time for much else. Today, I went downtown straight after work, had food, explored a bit more, and made it to Absinth Depot, which is excellent. Sadly, there isn’t a real AbsinthKitteh. It’s just a logo.
Anyway, time for bed – this timezone disagrees with me, or something. I hope you’re all doing well!
Ottawa this weekend :)
11559 days
by scjody
in Uncategorized
Fri Feb 15, 15:00: Via 35 , Montréal-Ottawa, arr 16:56
Mon Feb 18, 13:00: Via 635, Ottawa-Montréal, arr 14:49
Let me know if you want to do something – I haven’t done too much planning so far :(
0
1635 days
by scjody
in Uncategorized
Oh yeah, I’m going to Ottawa this weekend – showing up at noonish on Saturday and leaving Monday morning. Let me know if you want to do something and we don’t already have plans.
0
1655 days
by scjody
in Uncategorized
Alright! I’ve escaped Reno for the weekend! As soon as I was done teaching the course on Friday, I ran back to my hotel room, threw some stuff in a bag, got in the car, and headed west.
Reno is interesting.. a cultural experience, I suppose. It’s all very tacky – gaudy in a run-down way. You can tell it was once trying to be a gambling destination like Las Vegas, but it’s long ago given up its dreams of grandeur and settled for mediocrity.
I’m staying at a place called Circus Circus. It comes complete with a skytrain that runs slower than a walk, a wedding chapel, free circus acts on the hour, and of course lots of gambling. Mostly this means slot machines populated by retirees. They all have loyalty cards that plug into the machines, which I assume give them back a small percentage of their gambling losses in lousy buffet meals. These are typically attached to their belt or wrist via a plastic chain, giving them the appearance of being truly tethered to the machine.
So I had to get out of there for a bit. Right now, I’m at a Motel 6 near jbailey and auzure_skies. Despite the name, it’s not actually a motel, but the rooms are better than I’d expect given the price. Last night I visited them, Leif (big), and Sandy (who’s also visiting them this weekend.) We stayed up too late and played Guitar Hero. Not really an eventful evening but I had fun and we’re heading into San Francisco today!
I biked home from J&A’s last night. I can’t think when the last time I rode a bike was. More than a week ago – too long for sure. I’m riding a fairly good Specialized, well setup for city riding, that belongs to Google. I find that last fact more amusing than it should be.
Anyway, time to start this day.
SC 07
31659 days
by scjody
in Uncategorized
Nov 6, 8:25: AC 761, YUL-SFO, arr 11:40
Nov 6, 13:32: UA 6558, SFO-RNO, arr 14:23
Nov 16, 6:15: UA 1608, RNO-DEN, arr 9:20
Nov 16, 11:10: AC 1072, DEN-YUL, arr 16:43
DO NOT WANT
(though I’m planning on taking a couple days off and driving to San Francisco – it will be good to see jbailey and auzure_skies again!)
0
1693 days
by scjody
in Uncategorized
More photos coming soon, including Arbraska (sorry, I’ve been busy.)
11
1698 days
by scjody
in Uncategorized
Quick update from Amsterdam (yeah, you read that correctly):
- Oktoberfest is fun – everything I expected. I found friendly Australians and Germans to drink with, etc.
- I drank far too much on Tuesday. I lost count, but my best guess is 7-8 litres of beer. I didn’t think that was even possible for me. On my way to a nightclub with some locals, I got sick, left the train, then eventually took a different train home. In the rain.
- On Wednesday, I woke up with the worst hangover of my life. In a slightly leaky tent, in the rain.
- Sigh. Rain.
- Eventually dragged self to downtown Munich in the rain, bought food and an umbrella, read book in a cafe.
- Thursday: still not 100%. Wandered around Munich, bought a train ticket, took a few photos, went to Oktoberfest for a few hours. Night train to Amsterdam, because it’s not raining here and beds on trains are dry.
So there you go :) More interesting entry to follow when I don’t have a city to explore and coffee shops to evaluate.