Not a weed!

It's a good thing I have a lawn service.  Most of the things that end up blooming in my back yard, I would have pulled out as weeds when they first started coming up.  I've made a pact with myself not to pull up anything the lawn service people leave alone.  Occasionally I see something very weed-looking and I wonder about keeping that pact, but once again it's proved to be a wise way to go.   I have a huge sunflower beginning to bloom along the edge of my patio.  You can see here the stage of blooming where it is currently.   The plant is about chest-high on me right now.

I'm pretty sure this wasn't an intentionally planted sunflower.  I'm guessing it came from the birdseed I put out there.  I periodically hose off the patio, and probably hosed a sunflower seed into the garden at the patio edge.  Still, it's going to be pretty when it blooms fully and probably will attract more birds when it goes to seed.  

I also have two plants that look like corn plants that are not quite knee high on the opposite side of the patio, which I figure came from the same source as the sunflower.  The people who used to own this house and worked so hard to have a beautifully landscaped place would probably be horrified by sunflowers and corn plants, but I like to let things grow.  Although I do have to occasionally pull up a bunch of the mint so that it doesn't take over the world.  It seems to be flowering at the tips right now.  

The cat children are not feeling too well.  We went to the vet yesterday for their annual physicals and vaccinations.  I also had blood work done on both since Addy needs her kidney function monitored and Zoe's old enough to have some baseline labs done.  Addy's recovered from the experience just fine although she's being a very clingy, Momma's girl.  Zoe's off her food.  She obviously doesn't feel well.  But since she is eating, just not as much as usual, I'll just keep an eye on her.   She went outside as soon as I opened the door this morning, and has been laying out there for the last three hours.  I imagine she'll come in when the day starts to heat up.  It's in the mid-70's out there this morning, so pretty nice still.  

We got rain here yesterday afternoon.  They were calling for a 20% chance of spotty afternoon showers and storms so I didn't expect anything, and was lucky enough to be in the right spot.  It probably rained less than an hour, but was a pretty decent rain while it lasted.  And the clouds kept the temps in the low 90's.

Next Saturday I'm going to a convention of one of national organizations.  I'm running for President-elect of this one this year, even though I'm already pres-elect of my other organizations.  It'll work.  If I win this election I'll be Pres-elect of this one the year I'm Pres of the other one.  Anyway, I've been working on sprucing up my wardrobe to do a bunch of schmoozing at the convention.  It's been kind of nice because I've lost weight and am buying dresses 2 to 3 sizes smaller than the last dresses I bought.  The bad new about the loss of weight is that most of my current wardrobe is baggy on me.  I have to work on a lot of my wardrobe - which is good for my shopping alter-ego, bad for my credit cards. 

The weight loss started during the Japan trip.  When I got back my cholesterol was so much lower than it usually runs and I had dropped some weight and the only things I did were to eat better foods, eat smaller portion sizes and get exercise.  So I'm motivated to keep on and continue dropping the weight.  Even if I do have to make the sacrifice of shopping for new clothes.  lol.

You know, if someone would invent a sarcasm font and an irony font, they'd make a fortune.

That's all for today.

Japan Trip 5

I should be able to finish talking about the trip to Japan in this post, although I'm still pushing it to get in all the pictures that I want to post.  Nonetheless, I'm going to try to finish up. 

This day was going to be our only full day in Miyajima and we had decided to spend it climbing Mt. Misen.  This little picture is our room.  We got up and went and had breakfast in the ryokan first.  The breakfast was another awesome Japanese breakfast, which I unfortunately didn't take any pictures of.  The second morning we were there, they fed us an "American" breakfast, although it wasn't what I normally eat for breakfast. There was yogurt and fruit and salad.  Hmmmmm.  I don't recall what else, but I recall wishing we could have had the Japanese breakfast both days.    

Then we walked through the shopping district, most of which was still closed up since it was early.  On the way we came across the little guy and his Mom in the first picture of this post.  We figured he wasn't more than a few hours old and was probably born there in the shopping district.  

When we got to the O-torii it was low tide, so of course we had to walk out to it and be typical tourists.  Without seeing it I never would have believed that torii would be on dry land at low tide.

Then we walked through town to the start of the Daisho-in path and started up it.  Up.  Again I forgot exactly how "up" up is in Japan.  That path is 2.5 kilometers from the start to the top of Mt. Misen.  That's about 1.6 miles.  Or 3.2 miles round trip.  3.2 miles, for two people who routinely hike 6 to 10 miles on a day hike, and I've been known to hike 18 miles on a day hike.  That Mt. Misen hike kicked our collective asses.  My friend was at a bad time of month, and I had that cold, so maybe those things had some effect.  Or maybe we were still jet lagged and recovering.  And I know we had been going pretty non-stop for the whole trip.  And neither of us was used to the amount of humidity that was constantly in the air.  Whatever excuse you want to use, or not use, we just barely had enough energy to make the top.  Then we walked over to the ropeway and took the tram back down.  Probably covered 2 miles total.  Two very vertical miles.    

The hike itself was cool and you'd come to openings in the forest that gave you awesome views like this one looking down at the O-torii and the ferries.  The hike is mostly stone steps (going continuously upward), and it's very pretty.  On the hike up we came across a fair amount of wildlife, including lots of salamanders and lizards.  We also came across the scary looking centipede in the picture below.  This fellow was huge, about 6 inches long.  We also came up on this snake in the picture below that.  This is a mamushi, a viper in the same pit viper family that holds rattlesnakes.  Mamushi are also probably more poisonous than rattlesnakes.  I can tell you they are very aggressive.  My friend tried to convince this one to leave with the end of a very long stick, and he instead attacked the stick and came toward us.  We backed down the trail a bit and waited for him to leave on his own.

After riding the ropeway back down, we found another place to eat.  I had kitsune soba.   My cold didn't really bother me on the hike, but I remember I was dragging this afternoon.  We then spent what was left of the afternoon shopping.  

The next morning after breakfast we took the ferry back to Miyajimaguchi, then caught the Sanyo line back to Hiroshima.  We then caught the Shinkansens in reverse headed back north, Sakura to Shin-Osaka and then Kodama to Shinagawa.  From the Shinagawa Station we walked over to the Shinagawa Prince Hotel, where we stayed our last two nights in Japan.   What I remember of this trip back toward Tokyo is that I was exhausted and I had managed to pull my back out heaving my suitcase.  I slept part of the train trip.  I think the cold caught up to me the worst on this day. 

On the train ride I was about to dump my guardian deities because they failed me fairly badly on this trip, between blisters and the cold.   Usually they look out for me considerably better than that, and I was feeling pretty sorry for myself.  At any rate the last time I was in Japan I missed seeing Mt. Fuji, although I passed it three times.  This trip we missed it on the way south also, so I thought to myself that if I saw Mt. Fuji, I'd give my deities another chance and wouldn't dump them.  We saw it!   Proof is in the final picture.  Guess they're still with me.

We ate curry in one of the hotel restaurants and then spent the evening deciding on our plan of attack on anime stores for the next two days.  

The next morning we got up and took the Yamanote rail line to Akihabara.   The Shinagawa Prince Hotel is right by the train station, so it was essentially convenient to everywhere.  We found the Animate store and did some shopping there.  We also walked around and found another anime store but weren’t that impressed with it.  I think we were both a little overwhelmed by  Akihabara. 

We decided to take the rail over to Nakano Broadway.  We were both starved by then since we'd skipped breakfast.  We stopped and had shabu shabu for lunch, which was fun and excellent.  They put a pot of boiling water in the center of the table and then load you up with thin strips of raw meat and vegetables and multiple sauces and spices.  You drop the meat and vegetables into the boiling pot and then fish them out when they're done, dip them in the sauces and spices and eat them.  Yum.  This is definitely a meal you want to use chopsticks for.  Of course we used them the whole time we were there, but shabu shabu kind of requires it.  We felt re-invigorated after eating and shopped a bunch at Nakano Broadway.  Both my cold and my feet were feeling pretty good this day. 

After shopping we returned to the hotel, stopping for food and beer at Kinokuniya in Shinigawa Station. 

The following morning we again took the Yamanote line, but this time in the opposite direction to Ikebukuro to find largest Animate store in Tokyo (or maybe the world).  It had moved from the location that Google had for it, so we did a bit of walking to get to it.   This puppy is one really big anime store.  We did major shopping there for multiple hours.

We then returned to the hotel and had lunch (shrimp tempura bowl) at the hotel restaurant.  I went back to the room to take a bath and rest, since I was again dragging somewhat.  My friend went back out, this time to a Shibuya Animate store, and came back with more loot and supper snacks for both of us.  Afterward we both packed for the trip home.  I had bought a small, carry-on sized piece of luggage at Nakano Broadway, knowing that we both were going overboard with our shopping and were going to need something to get it all back to the States in.    

The last morning of the trip, we gathered everything, checked out and then took the hotel shuttle bus to Narita. We arrived there about 8:30 am and caught the flight to DFW around 11:00 am.  We arrived at DFW at 8:30 am, essentially the same time and same day we were arriving at Narita.  Pretty cool, although it messes with your head a bit.

And that's the trip.  When I remember it, I don't remember the blisters and cold.  I remember the sights and smells and tastes.  I remember the shopping.  I remember the wonderful places we stayed and the nice people all the way throughout the trip.  It was an awesome trip, and I'm ready to do it again  

Japan Trip 4

Our fourth day in Japan we got up and ate breakfast again at Shimizu.  Then we took everything and checked out.  We walked back to Kyoto Station and caught the Kodama Shinkansen to Shin-Osaka.  Then we switched trains to the Sakura Shinkansen to go to Hiroshima.  In all our JR Rail travel that had trains with green cars we had reserved seats in the green cars because we had Green rail passes.  The green cars are nice.  On the Shinkansens we always had reserved seats. 

In Hiroshima we changed trains to a local JR line, the Sanyo, to go from Hiroshima to Miyajimaguchi.  This train didn’t have green cars, but it was still a nice train ride.  I was feeling my cold somewhat, which caused me to be a little draggy, but was still enjoying myself a lot.

Once we arrived in Miyajimaguchi, we took the Miyajima Ferry from Miyajimaguchi to Miyajima Island.  The first picture in this post was taken from the ferry.  You can see the O-torii with Itsukashima Shrine in the background.   The big O-torii in the bay is the structure that Miyajima Island is most famous for, and actually, this big torii gate can be seen on a lot of advertisements for Japan.  It’s massively huge.  The second picture is taken from the Itsukashima shrine looking back at the O-torii and the mainland behind it.

When the ferry docked we got off and walked to the Kuroyada Iroha Ryokan, which was right on the main shopping street on Miyajima Island.   Again we had a little trouble finding it.  My friend left me with the luggage and went looking while I rested.  Standing there waiting I spotted the landmark they told us to look for, so the ryokan wasn’t that hard to find.  We just forgot to look for the landmark.  We were early for check in so we left our luggage there and went for some lunch.   I had a pork cutlet set at a really nice little local place, sitting in a room with a view of a gorgeous small garden and koi pond

  

After lunch we did some sightseeing.  We walked over to Itsukashima shrine and walked around the area around it, taking pictures of the shrine and pagoda.  We also took lots of picture of the O-Torii from different angles.    We also took pictures of wildlife, including the Miyajima deer.  These little guys almost don't qualify as wildlife.  They are totally unafraid of people and beg handouts from people.  Full grown they come up about mid-thigh on me so they’re not big.  Keeping their population in check is a major problem for Miyajima Island.

 

We also took pictures of crabs as the tide was going out and this little snowy egret.  He was pretty.

We then began checking out some of the souvenir shopping.  I had bought cough drops the day before because Vicks Cough Drops are recognizable everywhere, but I couldn’t  figure out cold capsules, being unable to read Japanese, so I dealt with the cold with just cough drops and Kleenex.

While we were shopping we bought some local fish cakes and ate them.  Mine was a maple-leaf shaped, cheese-flavored fish cake.  Interesting texture but not a bad flavor.  There was also beer in a vending machine!  I didn’t believe it but my friend had seen it and showed me.  We also saw it in vending machines in Tokyo later.  They also have coffee in vending machines.  This time of year they didn’t have much in the way of hot drinks, but usually you can get hot drinks from vending machines here too.

We then returned to Kurayada Iroha and checked in.   The room was really awesome, although we were a little freaked out at first because we thought it didn’t have a private bath.  It did.  We stayed in the Yo Room. It was good sized and gorgeous, and they welcomed us with tea and a small sweet.

 

I don’t remember what we ate for supper.  I imagine snacks from one of the little shops again.  We had gotten maps of the island from the ryokan, so we poured over those and decided on the best route to take to climb Mt. Misen the next day.  There are three possible routes, and we decided on the shortest one the Daisho-in route.   I remember my friend wanted to go out and see the O-torii at low tide (roughly 7:00 pm) when you can walk out to it, but she didn’t.  That worked out as it was low tide the next morning, and we walked out to it then.  This last picture shows the stairs you walk down at low tide to walk out to it.

I wore the new Reebok tennis shoes this day and my feet felt wonderful!  No issues with blisters or with falling off the shoes or having trouble walking or balancing in them.  It was such a relief not to have my feet hurting, but I was dragging somewhat from the effects of the cold.