This CNN graphic tracks American gasoline prices, adjusted for inflation, since the end of World War II. As you may expect, gas is as expensive today as it's ever been. And, if the Energy Secretary is to be believed, motorists aren't going to see any relief for several years.
This is when I am thankful that a) I don't live or work in the distant suburbs, and b) I don't own an SUV.
Sunday, April 30, 2006
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Analyzing your daily commute
Via Planetizen: I found this sort of interesting: a guy who lives and works on the northwest side of Houston performed a statistical analysis of his daily commute to work to see what variables affect his daily commute and how, if at all, he can minimize the time he spends in his car on his way to and from work everyday.
He discovers that two of the most relevant variables in his daily travel time are the day of the week - Friday's commutes are the quickest - and the area school district's calendar. Both of these observations make perfect sense; the popular 9/80 work week results in fewer people traveling to work on Fridays, and when school is in session there is more traffic due to the presence of faculty, staff, buses and carpool moms all commuting to and from school. He also discerns that the time in which he commutes is a factor; if he delays his trip to and from work by just 30 minutes, he could save up to 30 hours a year sitting in traffic.
I thought it was an interesting read. Most of us don't put this much thought and analysis into our daily commutes.
He discovers that two of the most relevant variables in his daily travel time are the day of the week - Friday's commutes are the quickest - and the area school district's calendar. Both of these observations make perfect sense; the popular 9/80 work week results in fewer people traveling to work on Fridays, and when school is in session there is more traffic due to the presence of faculty, staff, buses and carpool moms all commuting to and from school. He also discerns that the time in which he commutes is a factor; if he delays his trip to and from work by just 30 minutes, he could save up to 30 hours a year sitting in traffic.
I thought it was an interesting read. Most of us don't put this much thought and analysis into our daily commutes.
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Astros: panic time yet?
The Houston Astros are sitting atop the NL Central with a 13-6 record, which is tied for the best record in the majors. However, after last night's game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Minute Maid Park, there seems to be a hint of panic in the air.
For those of you who missed it: with a 2-1 lead in the top of the ninth inning, the 'Stros ace reliever, Brad Lidge, took the mound to try to earn the save. Instead, he loaded up the bases and then offered up a gopher ball to Nomar Garciaparra, who (grand) slammed it to left center field. The Dodgers ended up winning, 6-2. It was Lidge's first blown save of the season.
A disappointing way to lose, perhaps, every closer blows a save now and then, and Lidge still has seven saves under his belt - the most of any reliever in the majors - this season. So it's not really cause for concern, right?
Or is it?
As John Lopez writes in today's Chronicle, Brad Lidge is simply not the same intimidating pitcher he was just a year or so ago. His pitches don't have the same location, batters are getting to him with increasing frequency, and his ERA at this point in the season is 6.75, considerably worse than what it was at the end of last season (2.29) or in 2004 (1.90).
So what's going on? A popular hypothesis is that Lidge is still feeling the psychological reverberations of last October, when he gave up that mammoth three-run blast to Albert Pujols in game five of the NLCS, when the Astros were one out away from the World Series. Even though the Astros went on to beat the Cardinals in game six and advance to the World Series, having something like that happen to any closer in that situation has to be demoralizing. "The Pujols question will continue to hover over Lidge, at least in the near term. Amateur psychologists will wonder to what degree that seemingly devastating blown save affected Lidge," Lopez writes.
I don't really consider myself a psychologist, amateur or otherwise (although I do have a psych minor). In my years of watching sports, however, it's become obvious to me that two positions on which psychology has a huge effect are the place kicker in football and the closing pitcher in baseball. Perhaps it's due to the highly specialized nature of these jobs, and the fact that, so often, the outcome of the game is riding on the kicker's or the closer's shoulders. Get that last strike out, and you're the game-saving hero. Miss that last-second field goal attempt, and you're the game-blowing goat. In pressure-filled situations like this, maintaining a tough mental edge can't exactly be an easy thing to do. Why else would opposing coaches play psychological games like "icing" a field goal kicker by calling a time out right before the kick?
Is the mental aspect of his job getting to Lidge, as it has to other closers (the meltdown by once-dominant closer Mark Wohlers quickly comes to mind)? Lopez isn't the only Chronicle sportswriter who is expressing concern; Richard Justice is all over Lidge's problems (and how, perhaps, to fix them) in his blog.
I certainly don't know what the deal with Lidge is or how to fix it. Nor do I really know if there is cause for alarm yet. But I do know that Brad Lidge is key to the Astros' success. He was a big reason the Astros did as well as they did last year, and he's just as crucial a piece this year. The 'Stros just aren't going to get it done without him.
UPDATE: now it's two blown save opportunities in two nights for Brad Lidge. Ouch.
For those of you who missed it: with a 2-1 lead in the top of the ninth inning, the 'Stros ace reliever, Brad Lidge, took the mound to try to earn the save. Instead, he loaded up the bases and then offered up a gopher ball to Nomar Garciaparra, who (grand) slammed it to left center field. The Dodgers ended up winning, 6-2. It was Lidge's first blown save of the season.
A disappointing way to lose, perhaps, every closer blows a save now and then, and Lidge still has seven saves under his belt - the most of any reliever in the majors - this season. So it's not really cause for concern, right?
Or is it?
As John Lopez writes in today's Chronicle, Brad Lidge is simply not the same intimidating pitcher he was just a year or so ago. His pitches don't have the same location, batters are getting to him with increasing frequency, and his ERA at this point in the season is 6.75, considerably worse than what it was at the end of last season (2.29) or in 2004 (1.90).
So what's going on? A popular hypothesis is that Lidge is still feeling the psychological reverberations of last October, when he gave up that mammoth three-run blast to Albert Pujols in game five of the NLCS, when the Astros were one out away from the World Series. Even though the Astros went on to beat the Cardinals in game six and advance to the World Series, having something like that happen to any closer in that situation has to be demoralizing. "The Pujols question will continue to hover over Lidge, at least in the near term. Amateur psychologists will wonder to what degree that seemingly devastating blown save affected Lidge," Lopez writes.
I don't really consider myself a psychologist, amateur or otherwise (although I do have a psych minor). In my years of watching sports, however, it's become obvious to me that two positions on which psychology has a huge effect are the place kicker in football and the closing pitcher in baseball. Perhaps it's due to the highly specialized nature of these jobs, and the fact that, so often, the outcome of the game is riding on the kicker's or the closer's shoulders. Get that last strike out, and you're the game-saving hero. Miss that last-second field goal attempt, and you're the game-blowing goat. In pressure-filled situations like this, maintaining a tough mental edge can't exactly be an easy thing to do. Why else would opposing coaches play psychological games like "icing" a field goal kicker by calling a time out right before the kick?
Is the mental aspect of his job getting to Lidge, as it has to other closers (the meltdown by once-dominant closer Mark Wohlers quickly comes to mind)? Lopez isn't the only Chronicle sportswriter who is expressing concern; Richard Justice is all over Lidge's problems (and how, perhaps, to fix them) in his blog.
I certainly don't know what the deal with Lidge is or how to fix it. Nor do I really know if there is cause for alarm yet. But I do know that Brad Lidge is key to the Astros' success. He was a big reason the Astros did as well as they did last year, and he's just as crucial a piece this year. The 'Stros just aren't going to get it done without him.
UPDATE: now it's two blown save opportunities in two nights for Brad Lidge. Ouch.
Friday, April 21, 2006
I'm, like, all over the internet and stuff...
I've finally penned the latest episode of my semi-regular series about the University of Houston Cougars and their Faithful Supporters with Internet Connections. Check out episode five of As The World (Wide Web) Turns - Cougar Edition over on CoogFun. Previous issues are there as well, but you have to scroll back several pages to find them.
And, check out the maps of the Dubai and Kyoto rail networks that I've recently drawn for urbanrail.net.
And, check out the maps of the Dubai and Kyoto rail networks that I've recently drawn for urbanrail.net.
Thursday, April 20, 2006
The college rankings game
I've always been critical of US News and World Report's annual college and graduate school rankings; in fact, I denounced them in a Daily Cougar column almost a decade ago. And I'm not the only one who feels like these rankings are controversial, flawed, biased and, ultimately, useless.
These rankings are generated not by any peer-reviewed academic or education journal but rather by a mass-circulation newsweekly (whose circulation lags well behind that of Time or Newsweek). Aside from the fact that the entire idea of ranking elite (and expensive) private universities like Harvard or Yale with urban public schools like the University of Houston is absurd, because the two schools serve completely different types of students, they are based on an arbitrary (and constantly-changing) methodology that relies heavily on a completely subjective reputation score.
Speaking of the University of Houston, US News's most recent law school rankings have generated controversy there; Law School dean Nancy Rapoport has tendered her resignation, apparently at least in part to student and faculty concern over the school's ongoing decline in the US News rankings. But, as Chronicle columnist Rick Casey explains, not everybody agrees with those rankings. University of Texas law professor Brian Leiter, who does his own law school rankings, believes the annual US News rankings are a are a "fraud upon the public." Leiter says that the University of Houston's law program is the second best in the state (behind his own school, of course!), not the fourth-best program in the state as the US News rankings claim.
The problem, Casey notes, is that 15 percent of the US News rankings are based on reputation scores given by hundreds of lawyers and judges nationwide. The University of Houston does not do well in these polls, which Leiter thinks are biased towards the east and west coasts. "I think many lawyers may simply not know the school, but have an image of Houston that does not project an excellent law school," Casey suggests.
So there you have it: a mass-market newsweekly, generating bogus college rankings, based largely on a subjective reputation score from a bunch of unaccountable non-academics. Surely, there are better and more honest ways to sell magazines, right?
These rankings are generated not by any peer-reviewed academic or education journal but rather by a mass-circulation newsweekly (whose circulation lags well behind that of Time or Newsweek). Aside from the fact that the entire idea of ranking elite (and expensive) private universities like Harvard or Yale with urban public schools like the University of Houston is absurd, because the two schools serve completely different types of students, they are based on an arbitrary (and constantly-changing) methodology that relies heavily on a completely subjective reputation score.
Speaking of the University of Houston, US News's most recent law school rankings have generated controversy there; Law School dean Nancy Rapoport has tendered her resignation, apparently at least in part to student and faculty concern over the school's ongoing decline in the US News rankings. But, as Chronicle columnist Rick Casey explains, not everybody agrees with those rankings. University of Texas law professor Brian Leiter, who does his own law school rankings, believes the annual US News rankings are a are a "fraud upon the public." Leiter says that the University of Houston's law program is the second best in the state (behind his own school, of course!), not the fourth-best program in the state as the US News rankings claim.
The problem, Casey notes, is that 15 percent of the US News rankings are based on reputation scores given by hundreds of lawyers and judges nationwide. The University of Houston does not do well in these polls, which Leiter thinks are biased towards the east and west coasts. "I think many lawyers may simply not know the school, but have an image of Houston that does not project an excellent law school," Casey suggests.
So there you have it: a mass-market newsweekly, generating bogus college rankings, based largely on a subjective reputation score from a bunch of unaccountable non-academics. Surely, there are better and more honest ways to sell magazines, right?
The Houston Bowl gets flushed?
The six-year-old Houston Bowl's odds of survival are very slim. Unless a title sponsor rides in at the last minute to save the day, which isn't likely, the cash-strapped college football game will go the way of the Bluebonnet Bowl before it and shut down.
On one hand, it's unfortunate. Reliant Stadium is a great venue for a post-season bowl and Houston should be large enough to support one. I went to a couple of games and had a good time.
On the other hand, the game was another lower-tier bowl in an environment already cluttered with postseason bowl games. It didn't help that the bowl was usually played in the afternoon during the work week, which made it difficult for people to show up and, with the exception of a couple of games that attracted crowds of over 50 thousand, attendance was poor. The bowl was close to the bottom of the pecking order as far as its conference tie-ins were concerned; in fact, for the three years the game was affiliated with the Southeastern Conference, the bowl had to look elsewhere for teams to invite because the SEC never had enough bowl-eligible teams to fill its Houston Bowl slot.
In fact, the bowl's low tie-in position with the Big 12 Conference is probably what doomed it. A person who is close to the Houston Bowl situation reports the following on this CoogFans thread:
Indeed, it's really difficult for a sponsor - or fans, for that matter - to get excited about an afternoon midweek bowl game which would likely feature a couple of mediocre teams. As long as the Big 12 tie-in is somebody with a lot of local support like Texas A&M or Texas Tech, that might not be a problem. But considering that the bowl's other tie-in is now with the Big East or Conference USA, could you imagine some of the other possible matchups?
6-6 Missouri against 7-5 Syracuse
7-5 Colorado against 6-6 Alabama-Birmingham
6-6 Kansas against 8-4 Rutgers
7-5 Iowa State against 7-5 Marshall
Etc...
You get the point: these are games few Houstonians, if any, would want to take an afternoon off of work to go see. Nor are they games that will generate big ratings for ESPN.
The NCAA will be recertifying bowl games for the 2006 postseason next week. Right now, things aren't looking good for the Houston Bowl.
On one hand, it's unfortunate. Reliant Stadium is a great venue for a post-season bowl and Houston should be large enough to support one. I went to a couple of games and had a good time.
On the other hand, the game was another lower-tier bowl in an environment already cluttered with postseason bowl games. It didn't help that the bowl was usually played in the afternoon during the work week, which made it difficult for people to show up and, with the exception of a couple of games that attracted crowds of over 50 thousand, attendance was poor. The bowl was close to the bottom of the pecking order as far as its conference tie-ins were concerned; in fact, for the three years the game was affiliated with the Southeastern Conference, the bowl had to look elsewhere for teams to invite because the SEC never had enough bowl-eligible teams to fill its Houston Bowl slot.
In fact, the bowl's low tie-in position with the Big 12 Conference is probably what doomed it. A person who is close to the Houston Bowl situation reports the following on this CoogFans thread:
Here are the facts,
The Bowl went into negotiations to move up in the Big 12 picture. They put a proposal that would have had them jump the Alamo Bowl. Big 12 #4 was the goal.
The Bowl folks were led to believe that they would have a very good shot at moving up. Then, from nowhere, the Big 12 jumped in and took the Sun Bowl and Gator Bowl combo and told the Houston Bowl could have Ft Worth's slot. Ft Worth would get the Champps spot.
At that point, the sponsor wasn't much interested waiting 3 years to try again. The bowl folks have been trying to find a major title sponsor with little success.
Indeed, it's really difficult for a sponsor - or fans, for that matter - to get excited about an afternoon midweek bowl game which would likely feature a couple of mediocre teams. As long as the Big 12 tie-in is somebody with a lot of local support like Texas A&M or Texas Tech, that might not be a problem. But considering that the bowl's other tie-in is now with the Big East or Conference USA, could you imagine some of the other possible matchups?
6-6 Missouri against 7-5 Syracuse
7-5 Colorado against 6-6 Alabama-Birmingham
6-6 Kansas against 8-4 Rutgers
7-5 Iowa State against 7-5 Marshall
Etc...
You get the point: these are games few Houstonians, if any, would want to take an afternoon off of work to go see. Nor are they games that will generate big ratings for ESPN.
The NCAA will be recertifying bowl games for the 2006 postseason next week. Right now, things aren't looking good for the Houston Bowl.
The Rockets' season comes to a merciful end
Last night, the Houston Rockets ended their miserable season with an 87-89 loss to the San Antonio Spurs at the Toyota Center. The injury-plagued Rockets finish the season with a 34-48 record - a big step backwards from their 51-win campaign of a year ago. Their home record of 15-26 is tied for worst in the NBA.
So what to the Rockets do now? Well, they'll obviously see what kind of talent they can get out of the NBA draft and hope that Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady get healthy over the offseason. But, as Chronicle columnist John Lopez notes, there are also some problems in the front office that the Rockets would do well to address. "A lack of vision has turned the organization into a wannabe and a distant — and fading — third option in the local sports market," he writes.
Indeed, the Rockets have become something of an afterthought on the local sports scene. Of course, it's hard for an injury-riddled team to generate much buzz as they limp through a disappointing season. And it doesn't help the Rockets have to compete for attention with other local teams, notably the Astros, that are doing so well at the moment. Nevertheless, a lot of people just don't seem to care about the Rockets that much anymore, and that includes myself. In fact, I can't say I've even watched any of their games on TV this past season for more than a few minutes at a time (and there's no way I could ever afford to see them in person even if I wanted to).
But why the apathy towards the Rockets? It's not just because they're losing, although that's undoubtedly part of the story. Even last season, when Yao and T-Mac were healthy and the Rockets were on their way to their second consecutive post-season appearance, they didn't seem to be generating a great deal of enthusiasm.
Perhaps it's hard for people to pay attention to a team that really hasn't done much since their title runs in 1994 and 1995. A few days ago, I came across my old Sports Illustrated magazine which commemorated the Rockets' second-straight NBA Championship in 1995. I flipped through the pages, looking at the pictures of Hakeem and Clyde and Rudy T and remembering just how much fun that was - eleven years ago. The Rockets were the talk of the town back then, but as their fortunes on the court declined their local cache evaporated as well. Gimmcky and desperate moves aimed at securing a third NBA title, such as adding aging stars like Scotty Pippen and loudmouth Charles Barkley, did little to reverse the downslide. The face of the franchise - Hakeem Olajuwon - was finally traded. By the beginning of the new milennium the Rockets were an NBA afterthought and failed to make the playoffs for four straight years between 2000 and 2003. Sure, the Rockets reappeared in the playoffs in 2004 and 2005, but both times they lost in the first round and that's just not going to do a lot for local fans who remember the glorious runs of the mid-90s.
Then there's the front office. Leslie Alexander is a carpetbagger from New York who is not popular locally. The front office staff has made a slew of dubious personnel decisions: bad trades, poor draft picks, large contracts for marginal players. Jeff Van Gundy was a poor hire as head coach. He is a constant complainer who does not instill confidence in his players or the fan base. And, as Lopez notes in his column, there's no sense of direction coming from management.
Hopefully the Rockets will fix some problems and get healthy over the offseason and be a markedly improved team with the 2006-2007 campaign begins in the fall. But it's going to take a lot more than that for the Rockets to become relevant again.
So what to the Rockets do now? Well, they'll obviously see what kind of talent they can get out of the NBA draft and hope that Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady get healthy over the offseason. But, as Chronicle columnist John Lopez notes, there are also some problems in the front office that the Rockets would do well to address. "A lack of vision has turned the organization into a wannabe and a distant — and fading — third option in the local sports market," he writes.
Indeed, the Rockets have become something of an afterthought on the local sports scene. Of course, it's hard for an injury-riddled team to generate much buzz as they limp through a disappointing season. And it doesn't help the Rockets have to compete for attention with other local teams, notably the Astros, that are doing so well at the moment. Nevertheless, a lot of people just don't seem to care about the Rockets that much anymore, and that includes myself. In fact, I can't say I've even watched any of their games on TV this past season for more than a few minutes at a time (and there's no way I could ever afford to see them in person even if I wanted to).
But why the apathy towards the Rockets? It's not just because they're losing, although that's undoubtedly part of the story. Even last season, when Yao and T-Mac were healthy and the Rockets were on their way to their second consecutive post-season appearance, they didn't seem to be generating a great deal of enthusiasm.
Perhaps it's hard for people to pay attention to a team that really hasn't done much since their title runs in 1994 and 1995. A few days ago, I came across my old Sports Illustrated magazine which commemorated the Rockets' second-straight NBA Championship in 1995. I flipped through the pages, looking at the pictures of Hakeem and Clyde and Rudy T and remembering just how much fun that was - eleven years ago. The Rockets were the talk of the town back then, but as their fortunes on the court declined their local cache evaporated as well. Gimmcky and desperate moves aimed at securing a third NBA title, such as adding aging stars like Scotty Pippen and loudmouth Charles Barkley, did little to reverse the downslide. The face of the franchise - Hakeem Olajuwon - was finally traded. By the beginning of the new milennium the Rockets were an NBA afterthought and failed to make the playoffs for four straight years between 2000 and 2003. Sure, the Rockets reappeared in the playoffs in 2004 and 2005, but both times they lost in the first round and that's just not going to do a lot for local fans who remember the glorious runs of the mid-90s.
Then there's the front office. Leslie Alexander is a carpetbagger from New York who is not popular locally. The front office staff has made a slew of dubious personnel decisions: bad trades, poor draft picks, large contracts for marginal players. Jeff Van Gundy was a poor hire as head coach. He is a constant complainer who does not instill confidence in his players or the fan base. And, as Lopez notes in his column, there's no sense of direction coming from management.
Hopefully the Rockets will fix some problems and get healthy over the offseason and be a markedly improved team with the 2006-2007 campaign begins in the fall. But it's going to take a lot more than that for the Rockets to become relevant again.
Okay, time to get this things started
It's been a while since I've done anything with this site, but that is going to change in the coming weeks as I finally begin to shift all my rantings, writings and updates off my current "blog" and onto this site. In the meantime, I will be posting the same comments on both sites.
Over the coming weeks, I'll also be tweaking this page's layout, adding links, and the like. Check back often as the new and improved Mean Green Cougar Red takes shape.
Over the coming weeks, I'll also be tweaking this page's layout, adding links, and the like. Check back often as the new and improved Mean Green Cougar Red takes shape.
Sunday, February 19, 2006
My Trip to Dubai, January 2006
Dubai is one of the seven city-states that comprise the United Arab Emirates. It is located on the northern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, fronting the Persian Gulf.
My January 2006 trip to Dubai was unexpected in that I never really imagined myself ever traveling to the Middle East until I got a call from one of my company's regional administrators about a week before Christmas, asking me if I'd travel to Dubai in January to assist with some bus transit planning efforts. I agreed and, in early January, off I went to the sands of Arabia.
Although, the sand there is quickly being replaced with skyscrapers, highways, shopping malls and golf courses. As a recent article in The Guardian reports, Dubai is the fastest-growing city in the world. The amount of development currently underway there is, in fact, nothing short of mind-boggling. Literally hundreds of high-rise buildings are currently under construction, including the Burj Dubai, which will be the tallest building in the world once it is completed. It is said that sixteen percent of the world's supply of high-rise construction cranes is currently located in Dubai. Such a claim is hard to verify, but the Dubai skyline is nevertheless dotted with cranes. Office buildings as well as residential towers are being built at a feverish pace, with much of the construction occurring in specific developments with names like "Healthcare City," "Knowledge Village" or "Festival City." Then there's the stuff being built right off the coast: the three man-made palm-shaped islands currently under construction, or the artificial archipelago being made in the form of the world. It all really has to be seen first-hand in order to be believed.
Why the frenetic construction boom? Dubai's prime location in the oil-wealthy Middle East, with America and Europe to the west and India, China and the Pacific Rim to the east, as well as its lack of corporate taxes, is expected to attract scores of businesses over the coming years, while its sunny climate is expected to attract tens of thousands of wealthy families from all parts of the world looking for vacation condos. Dubai real estate is obviously a hot commodity and housing prices are already so high that a sizable chunk of the city's workforce resides in Sharjah, the neighboring emirate to the north, where housing costs are somewhat cheaper. Nevertheless, there is something vaguely unsettling about the surreal scale of construction currently underway in Dubai. Is this incredible frenzy of construction really justified? Can all this office, residential, hotel and retail space now under construction really be absorbed?
It’s a bit unfortunate that I didn’t get to see as much of Dubai as I would have liked; my company's office over there is extremely busy and I worked six days a week while I was there. I did, however, do most of the “must dos” in Dubai, such as take an Abra (water taxi) ride along the Dubai Creek, visit the glimmering Gold Souk in Dubai’s old city of Deira, and see the massive Ski Dubai indoor ski slope at the gleaming new Mall of the Emirates. I didn’t get to ski, though. Maybe next time.
Generally speaking, Dubai is a safe, clean and prosperous city. Most people speak English and virtually all the signs are bilingual (Arabic and English) so getting around is not a problem. The traffic, however, is a different story. It made me long for Houston freeways during rush hour. No wonder they needed me to help them tinker with their public transportation system! Dubai is building a two-line metro system, set to open early next decade.
Dubai is also very cosmopolitan. About eighty percent of Dubai's population are expatriates from all over the globe; this creates a fascinating mix of peoples, cultures and cuisines. Indian, Thai, Pakistani, Filipino, Chinese and European restaurants are everywhere, as are stables of American culture such as Starbucks, Chili's, Hard Rock Cafe, McDonalds or Burger King. I especially developed a taste for Arabian food while I was there; in fact, I think I ate more hummous and tabbouli during my two weeks in Dubai than I've eaten in my entire life!
The United Arab Emirates is officially Islamic. However, it is more liberal than other Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia. Other religions are freely allowed to practice and worship there. There are no religious police running around telling you what you can or can't wear. Women can drive. Alcohol is readily available at hotels (the UAE is one of two Gulf countries that allow alcohol consumption; Bahrain is the other). Bikinis are the rule along Dubai beaches. Western movies are shown in theaters along with the latest Bollywood productions; American programming such as CNN and ESPN is readily available. However, the local press is careful to avoid any criticism of the government, and the state-owned telecommunications monopoly, Etisalat, actively censors the internet and blocks a lot of sites as being "inconsistent with the religious, cultural, political, and moral values of the United Arab Emirates." The UAE is an absolute monarchy; there is no democracy and political freedoms are severely limited.
But maybe the strict control is what makes Dubai the safe, prosperous hyper-boomtown that it is today. The aforementioned Guardian article suggests that this is the "trade-off on which Dubai is relying. A booming market, with a consciously courteous social culture and a tight police system ... deliver a better wage than would be available at home - all this in return for surrendering anything resembling a political right."
The only real gripe I have about Dubai is the airport. It is a new facility that serves as the hub for rapidly-growing Emirates Airlines as well as several other airlines (including KLM, which I flew from Houston to Dubai via Amsterdam). However, the airport has one design flaw: after leaving the check-in counters at the front of the airport, one walks to passport control where immigration officers “stamp you out” of the Emirates. However, the 20 or so passport control lanes quickly crowd down into only six security screening lanes, and when the airport is busy (as it was when I was leaving), the going is very, very slow. At one point, in fact, I really thought I was going to miss my flight. My advice for those traveling to Dubai is to arrive a good three hours before your flight leaves and, if you encounter this bottleneck during a particularly crowded time, try to move towards one of the middle security lanes rather than the outside ones because they seem to move more quickly. Hopefully the Dubai airport will improve this situation as the airport continues to expand.
All in all, it was an interesting experience and I would definitely return to Dubai. If you’ve ever wanted to visit the Middle East, this is the place to start.
(Retroblogged on August 23, 2015. This would turn out to be the first of many business-related trips to Dubai I would take in 2006, 2008 and 2012, all of which are chronicled by posts tagged "Dubai.")
My January 2006 trip to Dubai was unexpected in that I never really imagined myself ever traveling to the Middle East until I got a call from one of my company's regional administrators about a week before Christmas, asking me if I'd travel to Dubai in January to assist with some bus transit planning efforts. I agreed and, in early January, off I went to the sands of Arabia.
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| The iconic Burj Al Arab bills itself as the only "seven-star" hotel in the world. That's probably a bit of hyperbole on the hotel's part; most hotel rating systems only go as high as five stars. However, there's no denying that the hotel is one of the most luxurious in the world. Every room has its own butler! If I ever have an extra $2,000 to blow, I might spend the night there just to see what it's like. |
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| The "skyscraper canyon" along Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai's main freeway, is truly a sight to behold. |
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| High-rises line the edge of the Dubai Creek. The creek is a lengthy tidal inlet that divides the old cities of Diera and Bur Dubai; it served as Dubai's main harbor for much of the city's history and still handles a lot of maritime traffic. I took this picture from one of the Abras, or water taxis, that ferry people across the creek. |
Why the frenetic construction boom? Dubai's prime location in the oil-wealthy Middle East, with America and Europe to the west and India, China and the Pacific Rim to the east, as well as its lack of corporate taxes, is expected to attract scores of businesses over the coming years, while its sunny climate is expected to attract tens of thousands of wealthy families from all parts of the world looking for vacation condos. Dubai real estate is obviously a hot commodity and housing prices are already so high that a sizable chunk of the city's workforce resides in Sharjah, the neighboring emirate to the north, where housing costs are somewhat cheaper. Nevertheless, there is something vaguely unsettling about the surreal scale of construction currently underway in Dubai. Is this incredible frenzy of construction really justified? Can all this office, residential, hotel and retail space now under construction really be absorbed?
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| Another view from Sheikh Zayed Road. In the distance are dozens of high-rises under construction in and around Dubai Marina. This represents merely a fraction of the construction currently taking place in Dubai. |
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| Another view of a cluster of high-rises under construction at Dubai Marina. Once completed, these towers will house luxury condominiums and hotels. |
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| The Burj Dubai under construction. This will reportedly be the tallest building in the world when it is completed in 2008. |
It’s a bit unfortunate that I didn’t get to see as much of Dubai as I would have liked; my company's office over there is extremely busy and I worked six days a week while I was there. I did, however, do most of the “must dos” in Dubai, such as take an Abra (water taxi) ride along the Dubai Creek, visit the glimmering Gold Souk in Dubai’s old city of Deira, and see the massive Ski Dubai indoor ski slope at the gleaming new Mall of the Emirates. I didn’t get to ski, though. Maybe next time.
Generally speaking, Dubai is a safe, clean and prosperous city. Most people speak English and virtually all the signs are bilingual (Arabic and English) so getting around is not a problem. The traffic, however, is a different story. It made me long for Houston freeways during rush hour. No wonder they needed me to help them tinker with their public transportation system! Dubai is building a two-line metro system, set to open early next decade.
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| Not everything in Dubai is new. This is a view of the city's historic Deira district from the Dubai Creek. Note the jumble of old buildings, the dhows along the waterfront, and the towering minaret. The Deira district contains many souks, or traditional Arab markets, including the famous Gold Souk. |
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| This is a view of the Gold Souk. Jewelry stores line either side of the street, which is covered by a canopy. Dubai is known for its gold trade. |
Dubai is also very cosmopolitan. About eighty percent of Dubai's population are expatriates from all over the globe; this creates a fascinating mix of peoples, cultures and cuisines. Indian, Thai, Pakistani, Filipino, Chinese and European restaurants are everywhere, as are stables of American culture such as Starbucks, Chili's, Hard Rock Cafe, McDonalds or Burger King. I especially developed a taste for Arabian food while I was there; in fact, I think I ate more hummous and tabbouli during my two weeks in Dubai than I've eaten in my entire life!
The United Arab Emirates is officially Islamic. However, it is more liberal than other Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia. Other religions are freely allowed to practice and worship there. There are no religious police running around telling you what you can or can't wear. Women can drive. Alcohol is readily available at hotels (the UAE is one of two Gulf countries that allow alcohol consumption; Bahrain is the other). Bikinis are the rule along Dubai beaches. Western movies are shown in theaters along with the latest Bollywood productions; American programming such as CNN and ESPN is readily available. However, the local press is careful to avoid any criticism of the government, and the state-owned telecommunications monopoly, Etisalat, actively censors the internet and blocks a lot of sites as being "inconsistent with the religious, cultural, political, and moral values of the United Arab Emirates." The UAE is an absolute monarchy; there is no democracy and political freedoms are severely limited.
But maybe the strict control is what makes Dubai the safe, prosperous hyper-boomtown that it is today. The aforementioned Guardian article suggests that this is the "trade-off on which Dubai is relying. A booming market, with a consciously courteous social culture and a tight police system ... deliver a better wage than would be available at home - all this in return for surrendering anything resembling a political right."
The only real gripe I have about Dubai is the airport. It is a new facility that serves as the hub for rapidly-growing Emirates Airlines as well as several other airlines (including KLM, which I flew from Houston to Dubai via Amsterdam). However, the airport has one design flaw: after leaving the check-in counters at the front of the airport, one walks to passport control where immigration officers “stamp you out” of the Emirates. However, the 20 or so passport control lanes quickly crowd down into only six security screening lanes, and when the airport is busy (as it was when I was leaving), the going is very, very slow. At one point, in fact, I really thought I was going to miss my flight. My advice for those traveling to Dubai is to arrive a good three hours before your flight leaves and, if you encounter this bottleneck during a particularly crowded time, try to move towards one of the middle security lanes rather than the outside ones because they seem to move more quickly. Hopefully the Dubai airport will improve this situation as the airport continues to expand.
All in all, it was an interesting experience and I would definitely return to Dubai. If you’ve ever wanted to visit the Middle East, this is the place to start.
(Retroblogged on August 23, 2015. This would turn out to be the first of many business-related trips to Dubai I would take in 2006, 2008 and 2012, all of which are chronicled by posts tagged "Dubai.")
Saturday, December 10, 2005
My trip to Japan, October 2005
My brother had been living and working in Japan as an English teacher since April of 2004. In October of 2005, I was finally able to visit him. Here is a recap of my trip, with some pictures. (Good thing I went when I did; he returned to Houston in December.)
Getting there and back was possible because I had accumulated enough Continental OnePass miles (although it took me a dozen years to do so, since I don’t fly nearly as frequently as I would like) to fly for free; all I needed to pay out-of-pocket were about $60 in various fees and taxes. Most of the flights were on Continental’s codeshare partner, Northwest. This meant that, in order to get to and from Osaka’s Kansai International Airport (which sits on a man-made island out in the bay), I had to fly through Northwest’s hub in Detroit. I left Houston the morning of Thursday October 21st and, after transferring in Detroit and crossing the international date line, arrived in Japan the following evening.
I thought that flying on a 747 for the first time would be a fun experience. It was not. The plane was cramped and I was stuck in a middle seat between two other people for fourteen hours straight. I could not get any sleep because it was simply too uncomfortable to do so, given the cramped conditions and intermittent turbulence. None of the channels on the plane’s audio system worked, either, making the headphones they passed out to everyone essentially useless unless we wanted to watch the crappy in-flight movies they were showing.
Eventually, the flight landed and I wearily made my way through Kansai International Airport. The woman at passport control got upset with me because I didn’t fill in the line on the immigration document stating what my address and telephone number in Japan were going to be. None of the books or websites I read about traveling to Japan said that this information was required, so I didn’t bother to get David’s address or telephone before I left. I was about to tell her to go outside and ask him where he lived, because he was out in the terminal lobby waiting for me, but she finally let me through. I collected my suitcase, passed through customs, met my brother and we took a bus back to his apartment in Nishinomiya.
Nishinomiya is a municipality located roughly halfway between Osaka and Kobe on the north side of Osaka Bay. To be sure, the north and west sides of Osaka Bay essentially constitute one large urban area, and there isn't any physical distinction between individual municipalities. However, Nishinomiya's relatively central location did make for easy day trips to other cities in the Kansai region, such as Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe and Nara. This made it easy for David to plan out an extensive itinerary for me.
Thus, the next several days were a whirlwind of traveling, sightseeing, eating and drinking. The first full day I was there, Saturday October 22, David, his girlfriend and I went to the ancient capital of Kyoto, about an hour and a half from Nishinomiya. Once we reached Kyoto we made our way to the imperial palace grounds so we could watch the Jidai Matsuri (Festival of the Ages) parade. It was an interesting parade which depicted different eras and personalities in Japan’s history with ornate costumes, musicians, horses and palanquins (portable shrines). Afterwards we made our way across the river to eastern Kyoto where most of the famous shrines and temples are located. We visited the Kyomizu temple, which is famous for its hillside view overlooking Kyoto, and afterwards strolled through the streets of the nearby Gion district, walking through parks, looking at other temples and shrines, and stopping for ridiculously overpriced coffee. We then made our way back across the river and dined at a restaurant along Kyoto’s waterfront. (David has more detail about this particular excursion on his blog).
On Sunday the three of us went to Osaka. We toured the Osaka Castle and Museum, went to a crab sushi restaurant in the central Namba district, and then went to the Floating Garden observatory atop the Umeda Sky Tower to see an amazing nighttime view of the city. That evening, David's girlfriend drove us over the mountains to the town of Sanda, where we ate dinner at a friends' house. Japanese homes are a mix of the modern and the traditional, with fully-automated kitchens just steps away from traditional washitsu with tatami mats.
On Monday, we took a trip to Kobe, the port city that had to be largely rebuilt after a devastating 1995 earthquake. There we rode the ropeway up a mountain overlooking the city and later went on a boat cruise of the busy Kobe harbor, which allowed us a great view of the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge, which is the longest suspension bridge in the world.
On Tuesday October 25th, my brother and I embarked on the "big" excursion, a two-day journey to Tokyo and the highlands around Mt. Fuji. David was looking forward to the trip as much as I was because, in spite of being in Japan for a year and a half, he had never ridden the Shinkansen (bullet train) or visited Tokyo. Neither failed to impress either of us.
Once we arrived in Tokyo, we took a bus tour of the city's main sites including the Tokyo Tower, the grounds in front of the Imperial Palace, and the Asakusa Temple. We later checked into our hotel in the Shinagawa district, and dined at a yakitori restaurant in the city's upscale Roppongi district. In the process of traveling around town, we familiarized ourselves with Tokyo's impressive subway system.
The following day, David and I took a leisurely walking tour of some of central Tokyo's major districts, including Nihonbashi, with its famous zero-milestone bridge, the upscale Ginza district, and the riverfront Tsukiji district. We then took the subway to across town to see the Meiji Shrine and the trendy Harajuku district. Finally, we made our way to Shinjuku station and boarded a highway bus which took us out of Tokyo and into the highlands. We spent the night in a ryokan on the shores of Lake Kawaguchi.
On Thursday the 27th, David and I spent time in around Lake Kawaguchi, hoping to catch a glimpse of Mt. Fuji. Unfortunately, we had no such luck; clouds obscured our view of the majestic mountain all day long. Dejected, we took a bus from Kawaguchi to Mishima early that afternoon so that we could catch the bullet train back to Osaka (and, from there, a local train to Nishinomiya). However, the ride was slow and circuitous and my eventual need to find a restroom caused the two of us to get off the bus at Subashiri, a village outside the town of Gotenba. There we found the necessary sanitary facilities as well as a delightful shine which led to an overlook that, on an clear day, would have afforded a great view of Mt. Fuji.
Since we had time to kill until the next bus to Mishima arrived, David and I went to a small cafe near the overlook for a cup of tea. While we were there, David explained to the cafe's owner that we had come to see Mt. Fuji, but were frustrated by the clouds and therefore were on our way back to Nishinomiya.
We had finished our tea, paid our bill and started walking back towards the bus stop when the cafe's owner ran behind us, calling for us. Had we forgotten something? No. She had felt so bad about the fact that we were unable to see Mt. Fuji that she wanted us to have two snapshots - from her own, personal, photo album - of the mountain.
Although the woman need not have given us her own pictures of the mountain, David and I gratefully accepted the photos; it would have been rude, in the Japanese cultural context, to do otherwise. Besides, it was a wonderful gesture on the cafe owner's part and it is a unique little memory of Japan that my brother and I will always have. In retrospect, I'm glad that my need to use the restroom caused us to stop at that village!
We caught the next bus to Mishima, grabbed a bite to eat once we arrived there, and then took the next Shinkansen back to Osaka.
Friday October 28th David and I returned to Kyoto, this time to see the Ginka-kuji (Silver Pavilion) temple and its beautiful and serene Japanese gardens. We also took a stroll down the “Philosopher’s Path." The following day, we took a day trip to Nara, one of Japan's oldest cities, to see more temples and shrines as well as the deer that roam freely about the city.
On October 30th, I took the Skinkansen to Hiroshima. David was unable to make the trip with me, so I was "on my own" for the day. Despite not speaking any Japanese, I was able to find my way from the main train station to Hiroshima's Peace Park and back without trouble. Hiroshima is a vibrant, bustling city. Other than the serene Peace Park, there really is no visible indication that the city was obliterated by an atomic bomb in August 1945.
I returned home on Halloween Day, Monday October 31st. The return trip was slightly better. This time, I had an aisle seat, so I had a bit more room to stretch out. The flight was also a bit quicker because the eastbound plane was flying with the jet stream instead of against it. One audio channel was working, which meant that I could at least listen to the same songs over and over again. However, I couldn’t get the audio for any of the in-flight movies they were showing (and they were actually showing something I wanted to see on the flight back!), and the overhead reading light didn’t work, either. Northwest Airlines, having declared bankruptcy, is clearly deferring nonessential maintenance of their aircraft.
My original itinerary back to Houston required me to land in Detroit, go through customs, languish at the Detroit airport for a couple of hours, take a short flight across Lake Erie to Cleveland, languish at the Cleveland airport for a couple more hours, and then fly to Houston. However, I was able to avoid the extra layover by convincing a very nice Northwest gate agent to put me on a direct flight from Detroit to Houston. My bags were already checked through Cleveland, however, and so even after I arrived in Houston my father and I had to languish in the baggage claim area for a couple of hours, waiting for the plane from Cleveland to arrive so I could collect my luggage. Oh, well. At least I made it home safely, in spite of all the languishing.
If I ever fly to Japan again, I think I’m going to go with Continental’s non-stop service from Houston to Toyko and then take the Shinkansen to my final destination. Having to transfer to and from long international flights is no fun; I prefer getting through customs and going home. Besides, the spacious, comfortable environment of the Shinkansen is a welcome relief from the cramped quarters of the plane, and with a 7-day Japan Rail Pass currently costing about $250, it pays for itself even if you only ride the Shinkansen a couple of times.
Being in the transportation planning profession, I obviously found Japan’s extensive network of trains fascinating. From the sleek Shinkansen to the rickety streetcars of Hiroshima, from the extensive JR (Japan Railways) system to the various private railways (including the Hankyu system, which David and I used the most), from the relatively young and small subway system in Kobe to the bewilderingly extensive subway in Tokyo, Japan is a veritable rail nation. With an overall population density that is an order of magnitude higher than that of the United States, high-capacity transportation is not an option. As a result, the entire country is crisscrossed by every conceivable type of rail system. Most of it is electrically-powered, but I did see at least one diesel multiple unit (DMU) consist at JR’s Osaka Station. Japan’s main railway stations double as shopping centers; in many cases, in order to connect from one line to another you have to literally walk through underground malls.
My brother made sure that I got to experience many different types of Japanese food while I was there. The evening I arrived, for example, I managed to shake off my exhaustion long enough to go out with him and his girlfriend to eat okonomiaki, which could be described as a combination of a pancake, an omelet and a pizza. It was actually pretty good. I also liked the yakitori (grilled skewers), chabu chabu (which could best be described as a Japanese fondue), and izakaya, which is similar to Spanish tapas in that you generally order a variety of small dishes and share them. We also went to a conveyor belt sushi restaurant:
I think my favorite dining experience was the kushikatsu restaurant in Kobe, however. This type of dining featured a deep-fryer in the middle of the table and a nearby buffet stocked with meats, shrimp and vegetables on skewers. We chose what we wanted to eat, brought the skewers back to the table, dipped them into a batter provided at the table, stuck them in the deep fryer and then ate them. The buffet also featured a salad bar and a self-service udon soup bar, just in case anyone got tired of deep-fried skewers. It was very good, and it was all you could eat - and drink - as well… but only for two hours. After our two hours were up, the waiter came to our table and politely told us to get lost.
The food and drink weren’t cheap, however. As I quickly discovered, everything one hears about Japan being an expensive place to visit are true. Although most of the lunches we ate were reasonable, oftentimes the dinner tab for the three of us (myself, David and his girlfriend) would approach $100 US. One night the three of us managed to run up an $80 bar tab after only a couple of drinks apiece.
I brought back several items, ranging from exquisite lacquered wooden bowls from Kyoto to tea and sake from the supermarket near David's apartment. One of my purchases was a battery-operated Fortune Cat with a moving left paw. Lori says I got the wrong type of Fortune Cat; we need one with a raised right paw, which attracts money. A Fortune Cat with a raised left paw only attracts visitors...
I wish I could have stayed a few days longer, but considering all that I got to do and see while I was there I think ten days were sufficient. I came, I had a good time, I saw a lot of interesting stuff and ate a lot of interesting food, I took lots of pictures and video, and, most importantly, got to finally travel to a country I’ve always wanted to visit.
(Retroblogged on August 23, 2015.)
Getting there and back was possible because I had accumulated enough Continental OnePass miles (although it took me a dozen years to do so, since I don’t fly nearly as frequently as I would like) to fly for free; all I needed to pay out-of-pocket were about $60 in various fees and taxes. Most of the flights were on Continental’s codeshare partner, Northwest. This meant that, in order to get to and from Osaka’s Kansai International Airport (which sits on a man-made island out in the bay), I had to fly through Northwest’s hub in Detroit. I left Houston the morning of Thursday October 21st and, after transferring in Detroit and crossing the international date line, arrived in Japan the following evening.
I thought that flying on a 747 for the first time would be a fun experience. It was not. The plane was cramped and I was stuck in a middle seat between two other people for fourteen hours straight. I could not get any sleep because it was simply too uncomfortable to do so, given the cramped conditions and intermittent turbulence. None of the channels on the plane’s audio system worked, either, making the headphones they passed out to everyone essentially useless unless we wanted to watch the crappy in-flight movies they were showing.
Eventually, the flight landed and I wearily made my way through Kansai International Airport. The woman at passport control got upset with me because I didn’t fill in the line on the immigration document stating what my address and telephone number in Japan were going to be. None of the books or websites I read about traveling to Japan said that this information was required, so I didn’t bother to get David’s address or telephone before I left. I was about to tell her to go outside and ask him where he lived, because he was out in the terminal lobby waiting for me, but she finally let me through. I collected my suitcase, passed through customs, met my brother and we took a bus back to his apartment in Nishinomiya.
Nishinomiya is a municipality located roughly halfway between Osaka and Kobe on the north side of Osaka Bay. To be sure, the north and west sides of Osaka Bay essentially constitute one large urban area, and there isn't any physical distinction between individual municipalities. However, Nishinomiya's relatively central location did make for easy day trips to other cities in the Kansai region, such as Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe and Nara. This made it easy for David to plan out an extensive itinerary for me.
Thus, the next several days were a whirlwind of traveling, sightseeing, eating and drinking. The first full day I was there, Saturday October 22, David, his girlfriend and I went to the ancient capital of Kyoto, about an hour and a half from Nishinomiya. Once we reached Kyoto we made our way to the imperial palace grounds so we could watch the Jidai Matsuri (Festival of the Ages) parade. It was an interesting parade which depicted different eras and personalities in Japan’s history with ornate costumes, musicians, horses and palanquins (portable shrines). Afterwards we made our way across the river to eastern Kyoto where most of the famous shrines and temples are located. We visited the Kyomizu temple, which is famous for its hillside view overlooking Kyoto, and afterwards strolled through the streets of the nearby Gion district, walking through parks, looking at other temples and shrines, and stopping for ridiculously overpriced coffee. We then made our way back across the river and dined at a restaurant along Kyoto’s waterfront. (David has more detail about this particular excursion on his blog).
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| Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto is one of many historic temples and shrines located along the city's eastern hillsides. |
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| A view of Kyoto from the Terrace at Kiyomizu Temple. Kyoto was the capital of Japan until 1868, and remains and remains one of the country's most historically-significant cities. |
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| A busy pedestrian mall in the Dotonbori district of Osaka. Osaka is the main city of the Kansai region and is Japan's second-largest city. |
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| A view of Osaka at night from the observatory atop the Umeda Sky Building. The city stretches for miles, ending only when it meets the mountains. The scale and density of Japanese cities is amazing and is unlike anything I've seen anywhere else. |
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| The busy port city of Kobe is located to the west of Osaka. It suffered a devastating earthquake in 1995. |
Once we arrived in Tokyo, we took a bus tour of the city's main sites including the Tokyo Tower, the grounds in front of the Imperial Palace, and the Asakusa Temple. We later checked into our hotel in the Shinagawa district, and dined at a yakitori restaurant in the city's upscale Roppongi district. In the process of traveling around town, we familiarized ourselves with Tokyo's impressive subway system.
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| A view of Tokyo from the observation deck of the Tokyo Tower, looking westward. The cluster of buildings in the distance is Shinjuku-ju, a major commercial, shopping, administrative and entertainment district. Like most Japanese cities, Tokyo is multi-nodal; it lacks a single, clearly-defined "downtown" and is comprised of multiple major commercial and office centers. |
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| Tokyo at night. This view is looking northward from our hotel. To the left is the brightly-lit Tokyo Tower, where the previous picture was taken. |
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| The Meiji Shrine in Tokyo. It was constructed in 1920 (and rebuilt after World War II) to commemorate Emperor Meiji, who became the first emperor of "modern" Japan in 1868. It is located adjacent to Yoyogi Park on the city's near west side and is close to Tokyo's trendy Harajuku district. Unfortunately, the rain kept all the teenagers in outlandish fashions - the "Harajuku Girls" - from coming out that day. |
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| Here I am standing at the Tenjo Ropeway overlooking Lake Kawaguchi. We came to the scenic highlands surrounding Mt. Fuji hoping to see the great mountain itself. However, clouds spoiled our view. |
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| Well, they say it rolls downhill! This sign, which we found at the Tenjo Ropeway, is an excellent example of "Engrish." As an English teacher in Japan, David quickly discovered that he had his work cut out for him. |
Since we had time to kill until the next bus to Mishima arrived, David and I went to a small cafe near the overlook for a cup of tea. While we were there, David explained to the cafe's owner that we had come to see Mt. Fuji, but were frustrated by the clouds and therefore were on our way back to Nishinomiya.
We had finished our tea, paid our bill and started walking back towards the bus stop when the cafe's owner ran behind us, calling for us. Had we forgotten something? No. She had felt so bad about the fact that we were unable to see Mt. Fuji that she wanted us to have two snapshots - from her own, personal, photo album - of the mountain.
Although the woman need not have given us her own pictures of the mountain, David and I gratefully accepted the photos; it would have been rude, in the Japanese cultural context, to do otherwise. Besides, it was a wonderful gesture on the cafe owner's part and it is a unique little memory of Japan that my brother and I will always have. In retrospect, I'm glad that my need to use the restroom caused us to stop at that village!
We caught the next bus to Mishima, grabbed a bite to eat once we arrived there, and then took the next Shinkansen back to Osaka.
Friday October 28th David and I returned to Kyoto, this time to see the Ginka-kuji (Silver Pavilion) temple and its beautiful and serene Japanese gardens. We also took a stroll down the “Philosopher’s Path." The following day, we took a day trip to Nara, one of Japan's oldest cities, to see more temples and shrines as well as the deer that roam freely about the city.
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| We returned to Kyoto to see another famous temple, the Ginkakuji. This Zen Buddhist temple features a beautiful and serene garden. One could spend days upon days in Kyoto and still not see everything. |
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| Deer roam freely about the ancient city of Nara. They are said to be messengers of the gods and are considered sacred. They are not afraid of humans; in fact, they come up to people expecting to be fed. |
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| One of Japan's most famous temples is the Todaiji in Nara. This massive wooden structure, built at the end of the 1600s, is actually smaller than the structure which preceded it. |
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| Inside the Todaiji is a gigantic Buddha. It is six stories tall; pictures just can't do it justice. Many Japanese are syncretic in regards to religion: they might practice both Shinto as well as Buddhist rituals. It's common to find a Buddhist temple and a Shinto shrine on the same property. |
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| The Memorial Centotaph for Atomic Bomb Victims in Hiroshima commemorates the estimated 80,000 people who died as a result of Little Boy, the atomic bomb dropped on the city on August 6, 1945 from the Enola Gay. In the distance is the Atomic Bomb Dome, which was the prefecture's industrial exhibition hall before World War II. It is the only surviving ruin of the atomic bombing and is a symbol of the destructiveness of atomic warfare. |
My original itinerary back to Houston required me to land in Detroit, go through customs, languish at the Detroit airport for a couple of hours, take a short flight across Lake Erie to Cleveland, languish at the Cleveland airport for a couple more hours, and then fly to Houston. However, I was able to avoid the extra layover by convincing a very nice Northwest gate agent to put me on a direct flight from Detroit to Houston. My bags were already checked through Cleveland, however, and so even after I arrived in Houston my father and I had to languish in the baggage claim area for a couple of hours, waiting for the plane from Cleveland to arrive so I could collect my luggage. Oh, well. At least I made it home safely, in spite of all the languishing.
If I ever fly to Japan again, I think I’m going to go with Continental’s non-stop service from Houston to Toyko and then take the Shinkansen to my final destination. Having to transfer to and from long international flights is no fun; I prefer getting through customs and going home. Besides, the spacious, comfortable environment of the Shinkansen is a welcome relief from the cramped quarters of the plane, and with a 7-day Japan Rail Pass currently costing about $250, it pays for itself even if you only ride the Shinkansen a couple of times.
Being in the transportation planning profession, I obviously found Japan’s extensive network of trains fascinating. From the sleek Shinkansen to the rickety streetcars of Hiroshima, from the extensive JR (Japan Railways) system to the various private railways (including the Hankyu system, which David and I used the most), from the relatively young and small subway system in Kobe to the bewilderingly extensive subway in Tokyo, Japan is a veritable rail nation. With an overall population density that is an order of magnitude higher than that of the United States, high-capacity transportation is not an option. As a result, the entire country is crisscrossed by every conceivable type of rail system. Most of it is electrically-powered, but I did see at least one diesel multiple unit (DMU) consist at JR’s Osaka Station. Japan’s main railway stations double as shopping centers; in many cases, in order to connect from one line to another you have to literally walk through underground malls.
My brother made sure that I got to experience many different types of Japanese food while I was there. The evening I arrived, for example, I managed to shake off my exhaustion long enough to go out with him and his girlfriend to eat okonomiaki, which could be described as a combination of a pancake, an omelet and a pizza. It was actually pretty good. I also liked the yakitori (grilled skewers), chabu chabu (which could best be described as a Japanese fondue), and izakaya, which is similar to Spanish tapas in that you generally order a variety of small dishes and share them. We also went to a conveyor belt sushi restaurant:
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| Here's my brother David at a kaiten-zushi, or conveyor belt sushi restaurant, in Nishinomiya. Just sit at a table and grab what you want to eat as it comes by. A sensor counts the number of plates consumed and totals your bill. This is actually one of the less-expensive dining options in Japan, and it's very family-oriented. |
The food and drink weren’t cheap, however. As I quickly discovered, everything one hears about Japan being an expensive place to visit are true. Although most of the lunches we ate were reasonable, oftentimes the dinner tab for the three of us (myself, David and his girlfriend) would approach $100 US. One night the three of us managed to run up an $80 bar tab after only a couple of drinks apiece.
I brought back several items, ranging from exquisite lacquered wooden bowls from Kyoto to tea and sake from the supermarket near David's apartment. One of my purchases was a battery-operated Fortune Cat with a moving left paw. Lori says I got the wrong type of Fortune Cat; we need one with a raised right paw, which attracts money. A Fortune Cat with a raised left paw only attracts visitors...
I wish I could have stayed a few days longer, but considering all that I got to do and see while I was there I think ten days were sufficient. I came, I had a good time, I saw a lot of interesting stuff and ate a lot of interesting food, I took lots of pictures and video, and, most importantly, got to finally travel to a country I’ve always wanted to visit.
(Retroblogged on August 23, 2015.)
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