Warning: Gross Stuff Ahead!

I tend to be an optimist. Sometimes I get criticized for it, and I know that I have been overly optimistic in the past which can sometimes lead to disappointment or an unfortunate surprise. However, generally being an optimistic person has helped me far more often than it has hurt me, so I’ll continue this trend while describing our first day in Budapest. There were some serendipitous moments in this story that really made us realize how lucky we are.

So in the middle of the night I woke up a few times to use the restroom. I was feeling a little nauseous, and over the course of a couple of hours I went to toilet three or four times with diarrhea. I kept expecting to throw up, but I never did. I wondered what the reason was – I ate the same things as Kuniko yesterday, and she didn’t have any problems. Anyway, I went back to sleep and woke up with the alarm around 6 am. Kuniko took a shower first, and I lay in bed, still feeling a little nauseous but apparently there was nothing left in my stomach to get rid of. But we were in Budapest, and I didn’t want to sit around the hotel when there was so much sightseeing to do – I wanted to go explore!

After Kuniko got out of the shower I went into the bathroom to get ready, but the steamy room had a weird effect on me and I started to feel a little light-headed. I left the bathroom and went back into the bedroom, but had to lean against the wall next to the bathroom door for support. Kuniko asked me if I was OK, and I think I said something about needing to lie down, and the next thing I knew I was opening my eyes and hearing Kuniko kind of freaking out and saying my name. I didn’t feel any pain but I was laying on the floor, so I pulled myself off the ground and moved to the bed. Kuniko said I had passed out, and that there was blood on my head – and sure enough she was right! I used a hand towel from the bathroom and it came away far bloodier than I expected. What happened?

Kuniko explained to me later that I fainted and fell backwards, with my head rapping against the sharp wooden corner of the doorframe. Apparently I was out for around five seconds, and she said there was a lot of blood on the floor, but I felt like I shouldn’t get up to take a look. I was feeling much better, and the more I breathed the better I felt. Kuniko asked if we should call a doctor, but initially I said that I would be OK and we should just give me some time to drink some water and recover a bit. We ordered some juice and water from room service, and the juice really hit the spot. The room service staff came in to deliver, and asked if I was OK. Kuniko pointed out the blood and apparently there was some damage to the door frame, and he asked if it was OK to bring a cleaning crew up to take care of it. He asked if I was sure a doctor wasn’t needed, and so I figured we should go ahead and at least have the hotel doctor take a look.

While I laid on the bed with the bloody towel pressed to the back of my head, Kuniko handled everything like a champ. She talked to the front desk, answered questions about my health and what happened, and did it all with no outward signs of stress. I was glad she was there to help out since I was concentrating on staying awake – didn’t they say that if you sleep after a head injury you might die? Or was that just in the movies?

About thirty minutes later a lady came to our door and said that she was the doctor. I guess she is kind of on-call with lots of the big hotels in the area. She spoke just a little English and had trouble with a lot of the medical words, but I was glad that a professional was there to give me an honest opinion. At first she asked about what happened, then took my temperature and blood pressure. She spent a lot of time with the preliminaries before she finally asked to see the wound. And the first words out of her mouth when she saw it were, “Jesus Christ!”

As soon as I heard those words I knew that I wasn’t going sightseeing today.

So she explained that she’d like us to go to a hospital, and that there was a nearby hospital with a head trauma unit, and they could sew up the big gash in the back of my head. I didn’t look at it (Kuniko offered to take pictures of it for me but I declined), but apparently it was about the length of my little finger and it was quite a wide cut. That explained the blood, anyway. I still couldn’t feel any pain, though, so there was that.

Kuniko and I went through all the decisions with the doctor – which hospital to go to (the one she had recommended at first wasn’t available), how to get there (ambulance), how much we would be expected to pay (at least a thousand dollars and more if I had to stay for a while in the hospital), and how we would be able to pay (credit card or cash, our choice). As these decisions were made the doctor called various people and had long conversations in Hungarian. I liked the way she spoke in English – she used the word “OK” like a comma in her sentences.. “OK, OK, now I want to look at the wound, OK, and turn your head, OK. OK!”

Kuniko and the doctor went downstairs to take care of the ambulance when it arrived, so I just lay there on the bed afraid to fall asleep. Budapest is a big city, so every time I heard a siren in the distance I thought, “Oh, this must be my ride…” It actually took a long time because it wasn’t exactly a huge emergency – I just needed to be checked and patched up. My life wasn’t in danger. Finally the ambulance arrived and the staff came in the room and asked me some questions. The hotel manager also came in and gave me and the room a stern examination. No smiles on that guy – I imagine he was evaluating whether or not the hotel had some liability risks. Don’t worry dude, I’m not going to sue. This is my own damn fault.

The paramedic asked if he could see the wound, and when he looked at it he said it wasn’t so bad, so I felt a little better. They asked me if I could walk out to the ambulance, and I tried standing up and did OK. We walked down with one paramedic holding my arm just in case, and I did the perp walk through the hotel lobby. I’m in Budapest – I don’t know anyone here, so who cares? I was a little excited to be riding in an ambulance. Kuniko was there to support me and to document the experience with photographs, too.

The ride to the hospital was about 20 minutes, and I sat upright in the back of the ambulance and talked with the paramedic who had much better English than the doctor. We talked about music, and he had recently visited Japan to see some girls (!) and sightsee around Kyoto and Kobe. He was a really nice guy, and I think he wanted to make sure I kept talking and to see if I was fading out or not.

Once we arrived at the hospital we met a very nice lady who worked as the doctor’s assistant. Her job was to get us through the paperwork of the Hungarian medical system, translate between us and the medical staff as necessary, and generally be my local contact to answer any questions. She gave her name when we first met but I’m sorry to say that I completely forgot it. She was invaluable to us – she was always going up to the desk to hassle the staff and speed up things for us, and I noticed that thanks to her we were seen more quickly than other people waiting around the hospital. We were kind of like medical VIPs.

The hospital itself looked a bit old, and a little darker and dimmer than hospitals in Japan. The staff were very professional, however, and very thorough. I had x-rays of my head taken, blood tests, and I saw three different doctors who evaluated my condition. I was completely satisfied with the job that they did.

The lead doctor was a young guy that looked like he just finished medical school. He already had that air of a doctor – and he asked me a huge battery of questions. I realized that he was typing in my answers into a database, and using the database of results to find possible problems and risks. It was interesting for me to see and I was glad they were using the power of technology to help me out.

A surgeon brought me in to a room, had me lean over and then they shaved part of my hair to make some clean stitches in my head. I got four stitches, and thanks to a lidocaine injection I didn’t feel any pain at all. They applied a bandage and a net cap to hold the bandage in place, and said I should wear the bandage for at least five days. That meant no washing my hair – ick! I fell down in the hotel room before I could take a shower that morning, so they gave me tetanus shot too, just in case.

Next they brought in a neurologist who was this young woman in her 30’s who was a total knockout. She did all kinds of tests by touching various parts of my body and testing my responses. I wondered vaguely if this was a reality TV program or something – does the foreign guy realize that his doctor is actually a stripper? After about twenty minutes of examinations and questions she pronounced me good to go.

The lead doctor said we’d have to wait for the x-ray and blood results for an hour or so, and he told me to go have some lunch in the cafeteria. He specifically told me to drink Coca Cola – no juice or yogurt. He said the fizz and the sugar would help my dehydration and energy level. Eastern Europe is a very different place!

I dutifully drank Cherry Coke with Kuniko upstairs in the cafeteria, and ate the bread of a sandwich to test my stomach which was still weak. Everything stayed down OK, which was good news. After lunch we had the final interview with the doctor, and he said that I should get some rest, drink a lot of liquids (like cola), and eat carbohydrates to get my energy back. He thought that the fainting was probably due to exhaustion, dehydration, or some combination of the two. There was no bone damage to my noggin, and my neurological functions were normal. We thanked him for the help, and then went with the hotel doctor’s assistant to the back room where we handled the payment. The hotel doctor’s assistant had her own computer there in an office and a credit card machine ready to go, so this must be a regular kind of thing. It seemed on the up and up, but a little weird that we paid the doctor’s assistant and not the hospital directly. Still, I was tired and happy to be stitched up so I wasn’t going to make a big deal. Kuniko handed over her credit card, and they printed out an invoice (which we would submit to our insurance company for reimbursement later on).

Finally the assistant was nice enough to call a taxi for us, and we got a (dangerously fast) ride back to the hotel. Kuniko took me upstairs to our room and the pile of bloody towels next to the bed was a gross reminder of what I had gone though. It was early afternoon, and I had the shivers a little bit, so I snuggled deep into our bed. Kuniko turned on the heater and I was out just like that. I slept from the early afternoon pretty much until the next morning. Kuniko kept me hydrated with water, soda and bread now and then. My stomach was holding down solid food and my appetite was back. I just slept and slept and slept, turning over now and then to adjust with the big bandage on my head making it hard to get comfortable. Kuniko must have been bored stuck in the hotel taking care of me with a mysterious and interesting city outside, but she did go out to buy snacks for herself and a bottle of red wine (another Kekfrankos) to sip while watching K-pop videos on the hotel internet connection while I was in la-la land.

So I was back on the mend, and we were really lucky because it could have been much worse. A long time back we had actually booked a different hotel in Budapest – a small, artsy kind of hotel that was also actually an apartment. That place kept contacting us by email and trying to find out exactly when we’d arrive (because they needed to check us in) and since we were driving we had no solid idea. It became such a hassle that we canceled the reservation and changed to the Marriott hotel. If this accident had happened at the apartment, we wouldn’t have had a hotel doctor to arrange everything. No assistant to handle to emergency room staff and paperwork, everything would be up to us – finding the hospital, communicating the problems and dealing with the red tape. So we were really lucky we had decided to change hotels. During our two week holiday we stayed in only one upscale hotel – and it happened to be the one where the accident happened. The Marriott staff were so professional and helpful, and the only charge for the bloody hotel room was a $3 (!) cleaning fee.

The other lucky thing was that just before the trip I checked in with Kuniko and asked her about buying travel insurance. We usually buy travel insurance for destinations in Southeast Asia where the medical system might not be so good, and usually for long trips as well. In all our trips we’ve never actually used the insurance, and Kuniko was leaning towards skipping it this time because we were staying in big, famous cities and we’d likely be safe. I thought it was a better idea to go ahead and get the insurance, and in the end we decided to get it. That turned out to be a very good decision in light of the hospital bill we got. Our insurance covered everything from the hotel doctor’s first visit to the taxi ride back to hotel after the hospital, and even my doctor’s bill back in Japan to remove the stitches.

So a bloody accident could have been a far more stressful and financially painful event for us, and it ended up being really just an inconvenience. I don’t know how it is that we’re so lucky in these things, but I’ll have to be more careful in the future to avoid testing the limits of that luck.

We slept pretty well and woke up around 7 am to go next door to the Cacao cafe to have some coffee and cake. When we opened the door to leave the hotel we found that it was actually raining outside. In the cafe we had some coffees and I tried a chocolate orange cake that was pretty good and not too sweet. I made the mistake of ordering coffee with cream, and ended up with a coffee with a big gob of solid cream on the top – wow! I wouldn’t make that mistake again – too rich for me.

While we were there watching the rainy day outside (and hoping the storm would pass) we checked out of our hotel, and also left our suitcase behind for them to watch. After our coffees and cake we headed out to look around a bit more (with our umbrella). As we walked around the storm seemed to be gathering strength rather than fading, and we ended up ducking into a dark old cafe that looked interesting just to get out of the rain. We ended up liking the place enough that we decided to stay for lunch. I had some smoked sausages, Kuniko had some Slovenian goulash (that was really hearty) and we sipped on red wine and enjoyed the atmosphere. It almost felt like an English pub, with lots of old dark wood and antiques around everywhere. We both really liked the place and it was a good way to kill some time out of the weather. It was a good thing we did most of our sightseeing on the previous day!

After a while we moved on, and ended up at a dessert cafe to have some strudel and a Slovenian traditional dessert called prekmurska gibanica. It was kind of a layered cake including fruits and nuts and was really delicious. It was a lot of food, however, and my second piece of cake before noon if you have been paying attention. We finally wrapped things up and moved on, a little more than stuffed.

Mainly our purpose today was to catch a ride with a driver that we hired to take us on to Budapest. We met him near our hotel, and in the middle of the torrential downpour he loaded our suitcase inside his minivan, and we were on the road. For some reason, the connections between Ljubljana and Budapest are not so convenient. I had looked at flights but there was no direct connections – we would have had to layover in Germany. I looked at trains but the travel time was almost 10 hours with no high speed service. That left driving, and eventually we found a service that offered just what we needed – a private transfer door to door. It was not cheap, but in this case our time was worth more than money and we felt like it would be nice to not have to worry about transport for at least one leg. As it turned out with the rainy weather it was one of the best decisions we made on this trip. Also it was good to be dry inside a car during the rainstorm – not dragging our suitcase to and from a train station in the rain.

Our driver Victor was very professional and spoke pretty good English. He was quiet and concentrated on driving, and we were left to relax in the minivan, drink our bottled water, look at the (wet) scenery, and take it easy. It was about a four hour drive to Budapest, so we had lots of time to rest our legs. We drove past lots more corn fields, and at a certain point he also saw lots of hops fields. I’ve heard Slovenian hops are getting more popular for beer makers, so it was cool to see the origin.

Just before leaving Slovenia we stopped for a mid point pit stop at a gas station. Kuniko stayed in the car, and I followed Victor inside to look around. He said he was going to use the toilet, and so I walked around the convenience store looking at the unusual products. After a while I left through the back door, passing an actual bar in the back of the gas station. They have bars inside of gas stations in Slovenia? Seems like a bad idea to me, but I’m not Slovenian so what do I know?

As I went outside I was happy to see the minivan was still there and Kuniko wasn’t TAKEN by any thugs or slavery rings. I didn’t want to be like Liam Neeson running around killing everyone to get her back.

From there we continued into Hungary. At one point I noticed that a lot of cars had one taillight that was brighter than the other one, and I asked our driver about it. He tried to explain it as a “froggy light” but only later did I realize he meant “fog light”. Because visibility was bad with the heavy rain, each car made themselves more visible by using rear fog lights. Good idea!

When we finally arrived inside the city limits of Budapest we ran into some heavy traffic, so the last part of the trip we could see our hotel but we could only creep towards it at a snail’s pace. At last we made it to the hotel, and Victor was paid and tipped and seemed very happy with the arrangement. I wanted to pay off a little bad karma that I had from our Philippines trip, so our driver was the beneficiary and maybe I’m even now.

We checked into our hotel, The Marriott Budapest, and then promptly went out to look for some authentic Hungarian food. Luckily the rain had stopped, and there were just some clouds and cool temperatures. I looked into my recommendations that I had compiled and we found a nearby place called Cafe Gerbeaud located in a touristy area. Although it was in a touristy spot the atmosphere was really nice, and the food turned out to be some of the best we had in Hungary. We had three dishes – chicken paprika, goulash, and palacsinta. We also discovered a new wine varietal for us, called Kekfrankos. We had a couple of glasses of the Hungarian red with our dinner, and then walked slowly back to our hotel and head to bed. We’ll be in Budapest for three nights, so plenty of time to look around tomorrow.

This was a big travel day for us, so we got up super early. I’m used to getting up at 4 am for work, so it wasn’t so bad to do it this time, too. We got packed and left our apartment, went downstairs and waited outside for our pickup that we arranged to go to the airport. We had set a time for 5:00 am, but we were there at 5:00 am and there was no driver in sight. It’s important not to panic in those situations, but we were already thinking about contingency plans if the driver didn’t show. Who could we contact at 5 am? Is it even possible to find a taxi in this sleepy town at this hour? Would we miss our flight at 6:30 am?

Luckily the driver pulled up just a few minutes late and we could breathe a sigh of relief. It was a pretty quick trip to the airport, and we were able to check in soon. Somehow we were assigned business class, and it was my first time to use business class in my life. Unfortunately it was hard to get excited about it since the flight time was only 40 minutes on a propeller driven aircraft. During check in we noticed behind us a weird guy breathing heavily from his mouth, smelling extremely ripe, and slightly deranged. Good news – he didn’t sit near us. Our business class seats meant cherry juice, croissants and fig jam and butter during the flight, which was nice.

I enjoyed looking out the window during the flight, too. From the air you could see the unique islands, mountains and terrain of Croatia. I was surprised to see so much variation in terrain in one country – they really have it good for agriculture and tourism. It is no wonder the wines have been doing well lately.

Back in Zagreb airport we did pretty much the exact same thing that we did when we first arrived in Croatia a few days ago – caught a bus into town. Same route, same bus, different driver. From the bus station we walked to the train station (which we had scouted out previously in Zagreb) and bought two train tickets to Ljubljana (only 9 euros per ticket – cheap!). Our train didn’t leave until 12:30, so we had three hours to kill in town. We put our suitcase into a luggage locker and went into town to walk around and maybe see about lunch. Since we had covered Zagreb pretty well previously it was easy to find some places to shop, and we ended up buying supplies for a picnic in the park that we had seen previously with the gazebo in the middle. Our lunch was red salami, some sharp cheese, some fish cake shrimp in oil, several cold beers and some sweet chilli TUC crackers (which were a big discovery for us – yum!). We spent most of our time lounging and watching people walk by in the beautiful weather on park benches shaded by tall trees.

We caught the train right on time, and then we were on our way out of the country. At first we accidentally sat in first class, and so we had to move but to be honest I couldn’t tell the difference between first and second class. Once we set up in our own compartment there was nothing to do but lean back and enjoy the two hour ride. Our first stop was Dobova, in Slovenia. Here they did a rather strict immigration check. We handed over our passports, the officers looked under the seats for any stowaways, and they asked us a few questions. It felt like the cold war movies traveling between eastern bloc countries. We were happy for more stamps in our passports, so we didn’t mind at all.

From there we traveled alongside a river most of the rest of the way to Ljubljana, and the scenery got better and better. With our window open and the breeze flowing through the car it was nice to kick off our shoes and enjoy the view. Hills became mountains and soon I was leaning out the window to stare up at the cliffs high above. In the next car a group of young college students who were backpacking around Europe kept talking about goofy things and had both of us eye-rolling most of the way.

Soon enough we arrived, pretty well rested, and we lugged the suitcase off the train and started walking towards the center of town where our hotel was. It seemed like a nice town, a little smaller than Zagreb but maybe a little bigger than Zadar, and my first impression was that they had a lot of bicyclists. The town had integrated bike lanes everywhere, and I was cursed by a passing cyclist because my suitcase was overlapping the bike lane as I walked. I don’t know what he said but it wasn’t “Welcome to Slovenia!”

The hotel was called Cacao Rooms, which meant that it was a group of rooms attached to a cafe called Cacao. Later we saw that Cacao had other cafes in other cities, but they specialized in desserts and the hotel thing was just a side business. The location was great, on a terrace overlooking the moat with Ljubljana castle looming overhead. The castle dominated the entire town, so being in a central location was very nice. We were able to check in immediately, and we liked the room – stylish and comfortable (although partially underground).

Since our time was limited in this town we went out for some sightseeing immediately (and this turned out to be a great decision as you’ll see later). We saw the dragon bridge (dragons were a big part of the town’s history and culture) and then rode a funicular up the hill into the castle itself. The interior of the castle had been reworked into a modern style, and it was a pretty interesting way to present history in a new way. Apparently it was a popular spot for weddings – we saw lots of offices and salons catering to couples getting married. There were several cafes in the castle courtyard as well. There was a little trick where they let you climb about 75% up the castle’s tallest tower, but just before you get to the top terrace they have a desk and they sell tickets to continue. Probably a lot of people pay up, but we felt it was a little underhanded so we didn’t continue out of spite. Instead we went back down and found some barricades that were quite high up and afforded a pleasant view of the city.

Besides the castle there were other things to see, including an interesting triple bridge near our hotel that was quite a feat of engineering. There were tourists in town but it wasn’t overrun and it was easy to make our way around and snap photos and take everything in. The moat and terrace was an absolute perfect place to put a bunch of outdoor tables and chairs, and cafes were taking advantage of the ambiance to sell drinks. We took them up on it and tried two Slovenian beers. Of the two we tried I lived “Union” beer the best – the logo featured the aforementioned dragon and the taste was quite nice.

For dinner we went to a place in town called Spajza. It was recommended on one website or another and it looked like it would be a good experience. The restaurant building was well designed and felt a bit historic, and true to our creed we were once again able to eat outside on a garden terrace behind the restaurant.

Our waiter was really active and at first his helpfulness and recommendations were much appreciated. He helped by recommending some Slovenian wines by the glass. I wasn’t too impressed with the whites we had, but the red (a merlot and cab franc blend) was really quite impressive. We selected some dishes from the menu – Kuniko had fried rabbit with stuffed mushrooms and a green pea puree that was really delicious and unusual, and I had deer medallions with a spiced blueberry sauce and tarragon dumplings. Great dinner – just the right amount of unusual for us.

The waiter went from assertive to pushy and then straight on to asshole when it came to paying our bill. Since we were using our credit card he said that he would have to meet us at the front of the restaurant because that was where the machine was. It was odd because everywhere else in Europe they have these little portable credit card terminals that they bring to your table. Once there the guy put a little pressure on Kuniko to enter the tip, and also hurried through the rest of the process choosing local currency (even though we wanted to select Japanese currency). It was kind of a dick move, and it was a good example of a waiter’s behavior interfering with an otherwise great meal.

We didn’t want to end the evening on that note, so we went to another place for a little cheese and wine to wrap up the evening. The cafe was called “Lockal” and was right near the “Lock Bridge” that was covered with little love locks from visitors. The waitress was much more friendly and we were served a big plate of cheese and some wine as well. The only strange thing was the entire cheese plate was drizzled with honey. I like honey on some cheese (for example, blue) but it was strange that they put honey on everything. Maybe it was the Slovenian style of eating cheese, I don’t know.

We finally decided to turn in – I was really, really tired. Once again a busy day with lots of travel, and we had more travel ahead of us the next day.

After the chaos of the busy old town last night, we thought we’d get up a little early and do some exploring (and take some pictures) without all the people around. We got up around 6 am, and took the short walk across the pedestrian bridge into town. Our apartment location was very close – just a five minute walk from the old city center. In the morning people were cleaning the streets here and there, but we mostly had the city to ourselves. With the sun rising it made for some nice pictures, and it was much more interesting to look around without all the hustle/bustle.

Zadar has an interesting attraction, what they call a “sea organ”. The side of the cement wall surrounding the city has openings that fill with waves based on the rhythm of the tide, and the openings connect to another opening at the top making kind of a giant sea harmonica that plays music constantly. The tones are quiet and haunting, and make for a peaceful background noise to watch the sea. From the west side of the city you can see some islands not far away, but mostly just blue clear water. Beautiful.

We stopped for some morning coffee at a cafe in town that was open, and enjoyed lingering for a while spacing out and relaxing. The European style of sitting outside a cafe is one of the habits I enjoyed picking up while traveling in Europe. We always try to eat and/or drink outside, especially with the comfortable weather.

On our way back to our apartment we stopped in at a restaurant to try to make a reservation, but unfortunately the only staff working there were cleaning staff at that time, they said “No English”, but they pantomimed that we should come back later. We did some shopping at a local supermarket, and then finally went back to the apartment to relax the rest of the morning. I sat at the desk with a view of the harbor and worked on this journal for a while, taking frequent pauses to look out the window and admire the ocean view. I sure wish I could do this full time!

Around noon we decided to walk to the nearest beach, and it turned out that it was not so far. We went to Kolavar beach, which was just south of old town. The beach was a bit rocky, but the water temperature was comfortable and it was the same clear blue color that we have come to expect in Croatia. Lots of folks were out at the beach enjoying the great weather, even on Monday at lunchtime. While enjoying the scenery of the beach I suddenly noticed that there were a few topless women swimming, wading in the water, or playing with their kids. We stumbled on a beach in Barcelona with some topless ladies, but they were all over 80 years old. These women were much younger and enjoying the attention, I think. This is definitely not a beach in Japan. There was a bar right on the beach with umbrellas and comfortable chairs, so we thought we should take the opportunity to enjoy some cocktails while taking in the view. Drink cocktails on the beach while watching topless girls playing in the water? OK, fine. Who knew we’d be drinking Pina Coladas and Zombies on the beach during this trip?

Back in town we had lunch at a “traditional” seafood restaurant, and had some really good grilled seafood. Kuniko had grilled scampi (big ones, too) and I had grilled squid, stuffed with cheese and also prosciutto. Coupled with two giant cold beers and it became a perfect summer vacation lunch. It was just a short walk back to our apartment and we had another cold beer on our patio overlooking the sea. I opened up all our windows and blinds on both sides of the apartment and the cool ocean breeze flowed through the place nicely. It was the perfect situation for a nap – and we took advantage of it. I slept for a couple of hours but Kuniko really slept deeply – I didn’t see her awake until almost six pm. We had been walking around quite a bit and it felt good to have a slow paced snooze. I think we deserved it – what are vacations for, anyway?

For dinner we walked back into town, and after enjoying the sunset with others on the western side of the city we went to our restaurant, Pet Banura. We had ended up reserving online, and we got a great table in front of the restaurant outside. It was a really popular restaurant, and from our seat we could see the staff turning away people without reservations all night. We started with an appetizer of local goat cheese sprinkled with truffles, and then for a main course I had Croatian beef with gnocchi (which was really good) and Kuniko had almond crusted turkey stuffed with fig sauce. For wine we had a bottle that I was really hoping to try, Crljenak Kastelanski, which was recently identified by DNA matching to be the genetic predecessor of both Zinfandel in California and Primitivo in Italy. You could really taste the similarities, although the wine wasn’t made in a big, fruity, aggressive style. It went well with the food we ordered, and it turned out that we bought their last bottle.

Our last stop in Zadar was on the northwestern point of the city, right on the water. It is called “Greeting to the Sun” and it is a huge solar panel embedded in the cement wharf that absorbs the sunlight during the day and then lights up multicolored LED lights at night in various patterns at night. People really seemed to be attracted to it, and it made for some beautiful contrasts and colors. Kuniko and I kicked off our flip flops and sat on the side of the harbor with our feet dangling over the black water, and watched the moon over the islands to the west. It was a nice relaxing moment – I was just about as content as I have ever been right there.

On our way back to the apartment we had a little Nutella gelato, and there was a band playing rock music on the pedestrian bridge. At night the temperature was cool but not cold, and it was perfect for walking around in beach wear. Nice place! We went to bed pretty soon after, since we had to get up early for a flight back to Zagreb the next morning.

We got ourselves out of bed very early on Sunday and checked out of our hotel to take the bus to the Plitvice Lakes National Park in central Croatia. We took a free apple from the front desk and then dragged our occasionally noisy suitcase back out to the bus station. Luckily we came in by bus, so it was easy to find again. Once there, we scouted around until we found a worker who told us which bus would take us where we wanted to go. There were a lot of buses in the station, but we had tickets on a particular bus, and so we waited there for a few minutes until it showed up. We snacked on the apple and the cheese leftover from last night’s second restaurant.

Soon, the bus pulled up, we showed the printouts of our tickets that we had bought online, stashed our suitcase underneath, and got on the bus. Simple, easy. As the bus left the station we noticed that they had free wifi on board, which made things easy for us later on. We were traveling without any kind of data plan or SIM cards, so anytime we could get wifi it made the trip easier.

The bus ride lasted more than two hours, so we settled in to watch the scenery, sleep, and listen to our fellow passengers talking. Next to us was a couple of women who had met for the first time. Apparently one of the women was backpacking around Europe from Singapore, and somebody she knew connected her with the other woman, and American who lives in Germany, to guide her around Plitvice Lakes. They spoke in English, and so naturally we overheard everything they talked about for two hours. Unfortunately, the American lady didn’t seem to like silence so kept a constant monologue going for the whole trip. At one point she started preaching the benefits of an Indian doctor who made some kind of special tea to fight cancer, and the poor Singaporean lady (and us as well) had to sit through a sales pitch on this magical tea. Sometimes it is nicer to travel where nobody speaks your language.

Out the windows of the bus the countryside passed quickly. At first on the plains outside Zagreb there was just corn and green fields, but as we got farther away the scenery turned to grass, groves of trees and rivers. I was struck by the similarities to Northern Sonoma County – it seemed like we were heading to Healdsburg or Guerneville. The bus stopped at some seemingly random spots to pick people up. One guy got off the bus at a pit stop and we waited a few extra minutes for him to come back, but apparently he just left. The bus driver shrugged, and then we continued on.

Around 8:30 in the morning we arrived at the first entrance of the Plitvice Lakes National Park. We were able to lock our suitcase in a special cabin they keep for just that purpose, and then we got in a line to enter the park. The wait was only about 20 minutes, and then we got inside.

Plitvice Lakes was Kuniko’s request, and the seed for entire trip plan to Eastern Europe – everything started with this. We were both really excited to be here, and the weather was partly cloudy but mostly blue skies and cool temperatures, which was perfect for hiking around. The park is huge, with the shortest course in the park lasting 2-3 hours. We chose the 3-4 hour course, but you could spend several days in the park easily. We crested the first hill of the entrance, and we were treated to a dramatic view of the tall waterfalls above one of the first lakes.

The waterfalls were beautiful, and the first thing you noticed was the emerald green color of the pools underneath. Once we got closer we realized just how clear the water was. You could easily see the bottom of the pools, and even the deeper lakes were clear enough to see deeply into the water. The park was designed to minimize human contact with the lakes, but also get everyone as close as possible. That meant wooden platforms everywhere that held visitors, but the platforms usually had no handrails, so you had to be careful to watch your step and be sure the people around you knew what they were doing and where they were going. At first I thought it was a little dangerous, but oddly the absence of handrails made everyone more careful and alert and probably minimized accidents. It sounds backwards, but I guess it works.

At the beginning of the trail we looked into the water and saw some fish swimming around. I made a big effort to take some pictures of these fish, but after walking a bit we both realized that there were fish everywhere. These lakes were like fish heaven – no fishermen around, clean water, and the current of the ubiquitous waterfalls was always bringing food by for the fish to eat. The fish schooled and swam against the current, just waiting for the food to come to them. Nice life!

The lakes were kind of terraced, so we started at the lower lakes, and the next lake was just a little higher, giving rise to plenty of waterfalls as each lake naturally spilled over into the next one. We walked along the platforms at our own pace, taking pictures here and there and breathing in the clean air. As the day warmed up a bit I found myself tempted to jump into the clear water. Maybe people would think it was an accident, right? I could flail a bit and pretend that I tripped? However, we behaved, and everyone else did, too.

We were glad to have arrived on the early side, as the park was big enough to absorb a lot of visitors spread out (over more than a hundred square miles). However as the day went on the visitors increased, and the size of the platforms and paths meant there were some natural bottlenecks, especially when there was a dramatic photo spot. Around 11 am we found a mid-point pit stop, and decided to take a break for restrooms and lunch. The pit stop was a boat pier, and visitors could catch the park boats to take you to other points within the park. There was already a pretty good line of people waiting for the boats, but we went over to a picnic area, and set up a little lunch. We got a couple glasses of wine, opened our cheese, and also bought a grilled pork burger from the park cafe. Life is good!

One interesting point to me was that during the trip, the price of wine was often listed by the liter. So, for example some white wine, it would say 40 Kuna per liter. Initially I thought that meant that you had to buy the whole liter – so I ordered one liter of white wine. The staff was surprised and handed over a whole bottle, and then I realized that in fact you could order a standard glass, and they would pour like 150 mL of wine in it, and you would pay that portion of the liter price. What a relief – if we drank the liter of wine we would have never made it to the end of the hike.

After a leisurely lunch we got in line and then took the boat across the biggest lake to another station and continued our waterfall tour. The waterfalls in this area were much wider, and it made for some more dramatic pictures. I couldn’t get over how refreshing the water looked – can you imagine a time when water all over the world looked like that? It was nice to know that at least here the water was untouched by industry and pollution.

We reached the farthest point for our course, so we decided to head back. We were hiking through a beautiful park, but we were still hiking, and we had a long trip ahead of us so we wanted to save some energy for future sightseeing. We looped back towards the entrance that we started with, and faced lots of people coming into the park for the first time. It sometimes became hard to walk. We had come through already and had seen everything (and photographed the sights already), so we could move quickly back towards the exit. At the end of the route we turned back and enjoyed the sights one last time, and then left the park.

The good news was that we had tickets for a bus ride to our next city, but the bad news was that we had almost three hours to kill before the bus came. Kuniko had the very logical idea to ask if we could change our bus tickets to an earlier bus, and after a quick check of the schedule, the staff at the bus stop did that for us. We got our suitcase and left just a few minutes later. Smooth!

Since we had free wifi on the bus we contacted our next hotel to let them know we were coming in earlier than planned. We had arranged a pick up at the bus station, but since we were coming earlier we let them know that it wasn’t necessary and we’d head to the hotel directly. We didn’t hear back from them during the subsequent three hour bus ride, however.

The bus ride from the National Park to Zadar was completely different from the previous ride. Here the terrain went from forests and green to high rocky plateaus. The bus took us over some very high rocky mountains with long views of open desert, then back down along a narrow green river that ran through quaint little towns. Some of the towns were built around bridges, and there were remains of fortresses that once guarded the area against enemies. War in this country is a memory but not a faint memory – you could sometimes see bullet holes in old cement walls as we passed by. The bus driver kept up with his social life by talking on his mobile phone with lots of different people the whole drive, and he played American oldies on the radio for background music.

At last we arrived at the bus station of Zadar. The town of Zadar was my request for this trip. The tourist towns of Dubrovnik and Split were popular destinations in many guidebooks, but I chose Zadar because it is a bit off the main tourist path, but still with lots of interesting things to see and do. It has a long history and the walled city right on the ocean seemed like a good way to experience the Adriatic Coast.

We got a taxi ride from the bus station, and he brought us in close to the hotel, which was actually an apartment that we were renting for a couple of nights. The taxi dropped us off, and I used my GPS to get as close as possible until we found the apartment. It was then that we realized that there was no check-in desk here, and our host was expecting us to come in on a later bus and maybe they didn’t check their email that often. Uh-oh.

Without phone service we were in a little trouble. We figured the best thing to do would be to find a public phone and call from there, but unsurprisingly there weren’t many phone booths around. Instead I went into a little pizza shop nearby and begged the staff to call for me. A very nice waitress offered to help (in English), and she made a series of calls while he boss looked on with a little frown of disapproval. Finally she made contact with the hotel staff, who said they’d send someone over to let us in the apartment. I thanked the waitress (and the boss) and we soon met up with staff. She rode up on a bicycle, and apologized for the mis-communication (she said she got our email but she didn’t say why there was no response). We followed her up four flights of stairs (no elevator, sorry) and got set up in our little apartment for the next two days.

At first we were a little ambivalent about the apartment, but later after opening up all the windows and blinds, and enjoying the ocean view and cool breeze we felt a lot better about it. The outside of the apartment looked a little dingy, but the interior was quite clean and nice.

After dropping off our luggage and a quick refresh we went outside to explore Zadar a little bit. Our first stop was the pizza place where we made our phone calls. We wanted to have a beer there to cool down and patronize the place that helped us out. The same waitress brought us some cold beers and seemed happy to know that we were able to finally get into our apartment OK.

After a short stay there, we crossed the main pedestrian footbridge onto the peninsula that held the old walled city of Zadar. The weather was perfect – cool but hot in the sunlight, the sun was going down over the Adriatic Sea to the west, and we walked around in flip flops and shorts taking in the sights. It was Sunday, and the old town was filled with tourists enjoying themselves with shopping and sightseeing. Apparently Zadar is not yet on the American or Japanese tourist destination lists yet, but certainly it is on the Croatian and Italian ones. We saw lots of locals walking around, and the walled city was pretty packed with people. After the crowds at the exit of Plitvice Lakes we were once again surrounded by people here. It was a little overwhelming, but we still walked around taking pictures for a while, and then stopped for dinner at a restaurant that we chose at random.

We had a little Croatian white wine with our dinner. I had Jack Dory with a creamy truffle sauce (very nice) and Kuniko had some kind of grilled whitefish. Both were good but not exceptional – so far nothing so different of mind-blowing. Still, after the busy day we could sit outside on a busy alleyway and watch the world go by. The atmosphere felt remarkably like Venice, with the old narrow streets and maze-like structure of the city. In actuality we weren’t so far from Venice – it was just a ferry ride away, and I think a lot of the tourists in the city were from that area.

After dinner we walked down the cobblestone streets back towards our apartment, and finally settled in for the night. It was another long day, but it sure felt like we accomplished a lot. Tomorrow we’d have the whole day to look around Zadar and do some relaxation, and we were both looking forward to that.

I wrapped up all my classes on Friday, changed into some traveling clothes in my classroom, and then dashed out the door heading to Sannomiya to meet Kuniko and our suitcase for the bus ride to the airport. As starts of trips go, this went really smoothly. Years ago we left right on Friday night and an earthquake hit, screwing up all the trains and making it a close call at the airport. This time, not a bump at all.

We had time to buy a couple of cold beers and some jagarico at the local convenience store before getting on the bus. It was a pleasurable ride to the airport, and I even got in a little sleep. At check-in, we talked with the counter staff about upgrading to business class, but apparently only Kuniko had enough miles to do it. We decided to wait for the return trip, and hopefully we would have enough miles for both of us to upgrade on the way back (as it turned out we couldn’t both do it, but more on that later). By chance we bumped into the vice principal of Kuniko’s school, and he seemed like a nice guy. Thanks for letting us take a long holiday, VP! We stuck with our ritual of a celebratory cocktail before departure – it is a great feeling to relax at the airport bar and switch your mind from the work mind-set to the vacation mind-set.

The flight to Istanbul left on time. It was an eleven hour flight, and our seats were a little tight. I’m willing to put up with a lot for a two week vacation in Europe, so the tight seats don’t bother me too much. It’s just mind over matter.

In Istanbul we had about three and a half hours to kill, so we explored the airport a bit. We had coffee at a sports bar served by two grouchy Turkish ladies. Maybe they were not happy to be working at a sports bar at 6 am local time. There was a huge group of older people wearing the same or similar outfits – light beige. They were all middle Eastern, all quite rotund, and they broke into a group song (or prayer?) before boarding their flight. While waiting for Kuniko to use the restroom I sat in a massage chair that was awaiting customers, and after about 20 seconds it started making loud noises and a voice in Turkish presumably told me to put some coins in if I’m going to sit in the chair. The other people waiting around the terminal looked over at me as I sprung out of the chair in record time – so the message was effective regardless of language.

I bought a Turkish cheese wrap from a friendly vendor (he winked at me) and then we went over to await our flight. Near our gate an argument broke out between some family members that ended in a lot of screaming and some running. I get it, travel can be stressful. Luckily we’ve never been that stressed in the airport. Not yet, anyway.

So, Istanbul airport can be interesting, even at 6 am, but we were happy to board our two hour flight to Zagreb, the capital city of Croatia. For a capital city, the airport was quite small. No problem – I like small airports for arrivals. Our suitcase came out in record time, and we changed some money into Croatian Kuna, and then walked outside and promptly found the bus that takes people into the center of the city. There was only one bus, and it was waiting for passengers – I guess they time the bus with the planes that come in, so it was very convenient (and cheap).

It was about a twenty minute ride to the city center, and we enjoyed the scenery as we approached town. There was a lot of corn growing, and during this whole trip we saw corn growing just about everywhere. As we arrived in the city, we saw a big colorful office building that served as a landmark for the bus station. Once we got off the bus, we walked about twenty more minutes to our hotel, rolling the suitcase along behind us. Unfortunately, after about ten minutes of rolling the suitcase wheels started to squeal. This was going to be a long trip if we had a squealing suitcase behind us everywhere, but the squealing noise came and went and ended up not being a big deal. Phew!

We left the suitcase at our hotel because we were there way before check in time, and decided to walk around and explore town a bit. Zagreb felt like an old European town. Lots of beautiful architecture, very clean, and an overall safe feeling. Maybe because it was a smaller town, but everywhere we went we felt like everything was going to be OK. We both liked it a lot.

We stumbled upon a farmer’s market and I had to buy some blackberries – Kuniko had never tried them and I hadn’t eaten them in a long time. The ones we got were a little sour, but every now and then we’d hit a really sweet berry – yum. Good memories of picking wild blackberries near our old house in Glen Ellen on Railroad avenue.

Nearby we walked into an underground butcher area, and each butcher had their own little shop to sell meats to people directly. It looked like heaven to me – so many aged and cured meats ready for sale. We didn’t know it at the time, but this trip was going to become meat-centric. It is all about salt and meat in the parts of Eastern Europe that we visited. There was a seafood area of the market also, but we didn’t spend much time there since we just arrived from Japan.

Around the corner from the butcher was a room filled with old ladies making and selling cheese. The cheese looked like mainly a soft, fresh cheese, but there were some aged and white rind cheeses also. I wished I could buy some, but you had to buy the whole cheese, and there was no way it was going to fit in our suitcase. There was access to fresh fruit, meat, and cheese, so Zagreb was looking good!

Everybody we met as we walked around Zagreb (and other parts of Croatia) was very friendly, and spoke great English. Maybe they have some kind of government initiative in Croatia to promote friendliness to tourists. Whatever it is – it is working. Sometimes people can be a little cold to tourists, but we never felt that at all in Croatia. Nice work, locals!

There are some sightseeing spots in Zagreb, too. We walked through the old upper town to get to St. Mark’s Cathedral, with a beautiful tiled roof bearing the country and city seals. At the edge of the main square was a very tall cathedral, with one tower under wraps for restoration. The interior was not as colorful as most, but still very striking.

We stopped somewhere for lunch, and had our first Croatian wines. We were very pleased with the wines we tried – both whites and reds were quite good. I especially was impressed with the white Malvasia grape – it made some distinctive and interesting whites. Croatia shares the same latitude as Italy and so there are some prime growing areas in the west of the country. Lunch itself wasn’t as good as the wines, however. We went to a regular cafe so we didn’t have much in the way of traditional Croatian food – just some grilled chicken and salmon, and a pretty standard red bean salad that was pretty much just red beans and red onions.

By now we had been without a shower or sleep for more than 24 hours, so we headed back to the hotel for some R&R. On the way back we stopped at a small market to buy some cheese and crackers for our morning bus ride the next day. The clerk smiled and helped us with everything, and again we could really feel the friendliness.

After a long nap and a shower, we went back into town to look around some more and have some Croatian beer. The beer was not so special to me, but it served its purpose. The weather had improved quite a bit, and we enjoyed the blue skies and cool weather – almost 10 degrees Celsius cooler here than back in Japan. Nice!

While walking around we came across a giant Hare Krishna parade going through town. The Krishnas sang their mantra and danced around, and made a lot of noise. Later I read that they have made a lot of inroads in recruiting in Eastern Europe. It was a big parade – maybe more than a hundred members singing and dancing.

For dinner we went to a more traditional Croatian restaurant, and it was definitely about the meat. Almost all the dishes on the menu were roasts of different cuts of meat – of course pork and beef, but also others like deer and horse were on the menu as well. We started with a very salty beef soup that was delicious and rich with meat broth, and then moved onto our main courses. Big portions, with loads of meat, beans, and potatoes. I had some homemade sausages liberally stuffed with garlic, and everything went well with the wine by the glass we were enjoying.

After dinner we walked to burn off a little of the meal, and found a wine and cheese bar that looked a little upscale. Since we had all the meat, I think we wanted to balance a little so we stopped for a plate of cheese and a glass of wine each. The staff recommended the wine and gave us a huge plate stacked with many different kinds of Croatian cheeses. I really liked the cheese (especially the truffle one – truffles are big in Croatia). Despite our best efforts we couldn’t eat the whole thing, but the staff was happy to give us a box to carry the leftovers home – our bus ride the next day was going to be like a feast with all the goodies we’ve got to eat.

Finally, on the way back to the hotel we walked through a city park. We had passed through the park earlier in the day, and I was struck by how much it reminded me of an American city center. The park had fountains in two corners, and a big gazebo in the middle. The pathways were lined with benches, and people just sat and watched the world go by. When we passed through in the evening there was a concert going on in the gazebo, and it was nice to stroll past and enjoy the music.

For our first city of the trip Zagreb made a great impression on us. Our stay is short – just one night, but what a nice little stop to get back into the European lifestyle.

It is getting to be the end of the first week in August. My students are looking ahead to the end of the week and the start of the summer vacation. Currently there is a big project going on at work, and the workers on that project may need to work through their summer holidays to keep up with the project schedule. That means any plans, plane tickets, or hotel reservations will need to be canceled. “The customer is god” here in Japan and they are really serious about it.

Luckily my schedule and holidays were set nearly six months ago, and my work is not dependent on the production schedule of the company. One of the advantages that confers is the ability to take a longer holiday when I like.

This year’s summer trip is back to Europe – Eastern Europe. We’ll be starting in Croatia, then moving on to Slovenia, Hungary, Austria, and finally ending in the Czech Republic before flying back home to Japan. It’ll be interesting to see if the transportation systems are as smooth as western European countries. I doubt it, but we’re keeping an open mind (and flexible schedule). Mainly we are hoping to enjoy some classic architecture, delicious food and drink, and take in some natural sights as well.

Tomorrow after work we’ll catch an overnight flight on Turkish Airlines from Kansai airport to Istanbul (IST) and then a connecting flight to Zagreb, Croatia. We’ll be posting on Facebook now and then during our trip, and of course I’ll work hard to blog the whole thing once we return on August 21st.

More when we get back!

Now is the time between holidays – a two week period of regular classes before we take off on our summer vacation. It is hard not to look past the classes I’m teaching for the next few weeks. My students are of a similar mind, it seems. This week we are recapping our previous holiday week, and a surprising number of students spent a few days in Okinawa to hit the beach. I guess it was pretty hot there, but nice and refreshing for a family trip inside Japan. Most of my students are planning to spend time with family during the August holidays – it is the obon season here.

Lately I have been seeing a lot of Pokemon Go players walking around during my commute and also during the weekend. There are apparently a few places near our house (a park, a city office) and players seem to gather there. It is an interesting phenomenon, and I was curious enough to install the application and try it myself. I like the aspect of walking around searching for things in the real world (kind of like geocaching), however my generation was a little too early for the Pokemon craze, and it isn’t so interesting to me. Still, the technology shows promise, and anything that gets all those Japanese nerds out of the house and visiting parks should be encouraged, I believe.

I’m enjoying an extended holiday this week, thanks to my company’s “power saving holiday”.  The company gives us Monday through Wednesday off, and I went ahead and took Thursday and Friday off to enjoy a little relaxation time.

Previously I had been working on the same routine – same students and same schedule for the past ten weeks, so it is nice to shake things up a bit and have a lot more freedom for a couple of days.

We started off with a nice party with the Yamaji family.  All three of them came over for a Mexican dinner – and I served a welcome cocktail: margarita on the rocks.  It may have been a little overpowered however, because by the end of the night it was a wild dance party.  Once again we went a little overboard with the Yamaji’s, so we’ll have to be more careful next time.  I don’t want to end up in the Japanese equivalent of the Betty Ford clinic!

During the weekdays I’ve been spending time making plans for our European trip, and choosing things to do and where to eat, city by city.  I’m thinking that this trip will be pretty architecturally centered, so I’m glad I’ve got a decent camera to bring along with me.  Also, thanks to the recent shenanigans in the UK, the Japanese yen is pretty strong and it is a good time to head overseas financially.

I spent a day at the beach yesterday, but it was so hot I ended feeling a little dehydrated at the end of the day.  I had a beer at the local brewery on the way home, but even after drinking three glasses of water and a glass of juice, I still felt a little dizzy later on.  It is seriously hot around here, and I’ve should be a little more careful.

Tomorrow is Friday, and it is our “Akashi anniversary”, eleven years since we handed in our official marriage paperwork to the city office in Akashi.  Once again we are celebrating with dinner at Chiro in Akashi.  Unfortunately Kuniko has to work on Saturday (and take a test on Sunday!) but we’ll still manage to have a good time!

This past weekend was a nice one. Saturday I was staying home to relax and read, watch a movie recommended by a student (Death on the Nile, 1978), and then walk down the street to buy a ton of gyoza for dinner at Kuniko’s request.

Sunday morning we made an early run to Costco and stocked up the house for the summer. They had just about everything we were hoping to buy. We even bought a rotisserie chicken for dinner – I took it home and stuck it in the slow cooker to stay warm until dinner time. For dinner we had the chicken with some roasted garlic heads, and a brilliant salad that Kuniko made, with a lemon garlic cream dressing that knocked my socks off. With dinner I brought out a little indulgence – a 14 year old white Rioja. I had bought it as a present to myself when I recently got a summer bonus, and having no experience with aged white Rioja it was interesting to crack it open with dinner. I liked it – rich and intense with a nice apple and spice streak going through it. I don’t know if it was worth what I paid for it, but sometimes it is fun to experience new things.

The weekends are for us to eat what we like to eat, and really enjoy the dinner table. During the week we pretty much just eat healthy food – kimchi, tofu, cabbage salad, and other cold foods to battle the heat of the summer. So far the pattern has worked out pretty well for us – we’ll be keeping it up!

I was walking by an apartment building on the way to work and suddenly a loud crack sounded behind me and to my right. It sounded like a rock splitting, or maybe plastic snapping loudly. I turned to look, and sitting on the pavement perfectly aligned with the front door of the apartment building was a raw (slightly flattened) chicken breast. It could have been the thigh, however – I’m not exactly sure. Some other people walking to work glanced over, but I think we all had a similar expression on our face: what a weird fucking neighborhood this is.

The area around Hyogo station doesn’t have a great reputation for high class. Hyogo station is north of quite a few big factories (one of which currently employs me). Many of the people walking around dress as if they are on their way to a blue collar job – wearing towels on their head and flared bell bottom trousers that are in style for carpenters and builders. On my daily commute I often see weird stuff – once I saw a luxury sedan stop and drop off two women wearing elegant cocktail dresses. They got out of the car and walked to their apartment at 5:30 am. Another time I bumped into a group of high school kids smoking and drinking beer (also at 5:30 am). It is a strange part of Kobe, and therefore makes it a great place to walk through every morning.

So about this falling chicken, during the rest of my walk to work I had something to ponder. First, was I the target? Naturally if I am on the top of the building trying to throw a chicken breast at a pedestrian target then a Caucasian with lighter hair is a natural draw to the eye. Based on the timing of the drop I’d say it was possible, but they missed by quite a bit – it hit the pavement more than six meters away from me. The apartment building I passed was quite tall – more than twenty stories high – and combined with the loudness of the impact I’d say that it was dropped from a very high elevation. That would make it hard to be accurate. So why was a chicken falling? Somebody was too lazy to dispose of it upstairs? Was somebody throwing it around the apartment and they forgot that the window was open?

Plenty of questions for the rest of my walk to work. What a weird part of town.

We’re back at work after spending a weekend in Korea, eating food, walking around (to make space for more food), and generally changing up our routine a bit.

The weather in Seoul was just about perfect for us – sunny both days, a little hotter on Sunday, but no rain like we were experiencing back in Japan’s rainy season. The temperature was comfortable and really got us in the mood for cold beer.

Unfortunately, Seoul didn’t seem to be the kind of town where beer is flowing easily. Often we’d walk to restaurants and try to order beer and small snacks, but many restaurants simply didn’t carry beer, or else they said we had to order a full meal if we wanted to drink beer. It kind of put a dent in our strategy of eating only a small amount at many places instead of a big amount at just of few.

Despite that small issue, we had a great time eating our way through town. We stayed in the Myeon-Dong area, which was a first for me. Long ago I stayed in Korea for a long weekend on my own, and walked around town. Kuniko also had been there before a few times with friends, and it became apparent after a while that the Korea that I knew was different from the Korea she knew. Probably I found my way around Korea using the Lonely Planet guide, and so the places that I went to almost 10 years ago were more on the grungy side – cheap and local places, sprinkled with the major sightseeing attractions. In Myeon-Dong I felt like a tourist for certain, with lots of shops specifically targeting tourists, especially Japanese. There were plenty of restaurants there, and most people spoke both English and Japanese, so it made ordering food very smooth.

We started our eating with two bowls of noodles and gyoza at Myeong-Dong Gyoza, a Korean take on Chinese food. It was a popular restaurant with several shops in the area, and the menu had only four items so ordering was simple. The gyoza were pretty good (steamed, like I prefer) but the real star was the cold Korean noodles bathed in a spicy jan sauce with strips of zucchini interwoven in the noodles.

After walking around the area for a while we were hoping for a couple of cold beers, so we stopped at a pub advertising beer and chicken. We saw signs and ads for fried chicken just about everywhere we went – it is a big deal in Seoul. We pulled up a seat on a balcony overlooking the busy street, and ordered up some beers. The staff insisted that we’d need to order some chicken, so I ordered what I thought was a small plate of fried chicken. The result was a just about a KFC bucket worth of chicken, topped with a sweet sauce and slivers of green onions. Very delicious, but we were still full from the noodles to make much of a dent.

After all the food we decided to check into our hotel, and found it easily enough just to the south of the shopping district and at the base of the park surrounding Seoul Tower. Kuniko did a great job picking out the hotel – far enough from the noise of the shopping area but close enough to get there easily. Our room was really big, too. The curtains were a little transparent, though – we had to be careful wearing clothes while we were walking around late at night!

For dinner we decided that we’d go check out Gwangjang Market in a different part of town. For fun we decided to walk there rather than take the subway, and that proved to be a good choice since we could make some more stomach space as we went. On the way to the market we could start to feel some of the non-touristy Seoul… the streets and shops a little dirtier, the pedestrians a little older and more weathered. We walked along a street that was just lighting shops – blocks and blocks of shops selling basically the same lights and light fixtures. The sidewalk was very uneven here and some of the alleyways looked a little spooky. This is what I remembered from my previous trip to Seoul.

When we arrived at the market we went inside, and it was much bigger than I expected. It seemed like several city blocks had been covered with a roof and lined with shops. The shops were divided by goods, so that one area was all clothes, another was all medicine, and so on. Even the food areas were divided like this. One street was all meats and sausages (with boiled hog heads for decoration), another dedicated to Kimpa, still others to chijimi and other fried goods. Each food stall had a seating area in front of it, so that you could step over the stool, sit down, and the staff would provide you with plenty of food. Our first stop was for some Kimpa (Korean rolled sushi) and beer, and while we sat watching the lady roll up the sushi behind us hundreds of people pushed past looking for their dinner. The atmosphere was lively and active, and I really enjoyed the feeling of eating right there on the street. As long as you don’t mind a bump or an elbow now and then it was very comfortable.

After the sushi we walked up and down the stalls, passing up the chijimi being fried in a lake of oil, until we settled on a place selling kimchi dumplings. These turned out to be the big surprise of the trip. Not only filled with kimchi, the larger than average dumplings were also laced with some kind of cheese with the consistency of ricotta. I really liked the flavor combination, but it was a really big plate of dumplings. The portion size in Seoul was uniformly large – maybe an American influence?

While eating dumplings we were able to witness a dispute between the operator of our stand and an adjacent stand over some customers. My best guess is that our operator stole some customers from the other stand, and so they had it out in big voices in the middle of the market. From body language and facial expressions I guessed that the operator of our stand was in the wrong, and the customer that had just sat down at our stand got up and went to the other one. Exciting!

Also during this trip to the market I was able to solve one of the mysteries that had haunted me since my last trip to Korea more than ten years ago. At that time, I had bought a big bundle of cookies to bring back to Japan, and when I got home to Japan and opened them up I remembered them being really, really delicious. At that time I had seen the cookies everywhere, so I figured they were famous, but having eaten all the evidence it was pretty hard to figure out what they where and if it was possible to get more. Luckily I found them again at this market, and we were able to buy some single cookies to try them out. They were just what I remembered, although really unhealthy. Kind of like deep fried donuts in cookie form. It turns out these are traditional Korean cookies and we can even buy them in Japan online, so the problem is resolved. The trouble is, they are so oily that I probably should limit my intake to a couple of cookies every ten years.

After the market we had filled our stomachs again, so it was off to a completely different market across town – stretching our legs and trying to make some space for more delicious food. On the streets we were able to buy an egg snack that I really liked – an egg baked into a slightly sweet biscuit and grilled – yum! It was cooked until the egg was just firmed up enough to eat without getting yolk everywhere. I liked it a lot, actually. Our final stop for the evening was a shop serving cold bibimba noodles. The shop was filled with mirrors, and it made for some interesting pictures. The noodles weren’t so spicy – we were hoping for more heat – but it was refreshing after walking all over town.

On our way back to the hotel room for the night we stopped at a convenience store and had fun exploring all the interesting goodies they had for sale. We bought some beers, banana milk, a can a makkori (16% alcohol!) and some juice and water for breakfast the next day. We enjoyed the beer and makkori while resting up in our hotel room and they were a perfect accompaniment for the antacid that I preemptively took before bed.

Hard to believe we started the day at home in Okubo!

We slept in a bit on the second day, and then got organized and went out to buy some aspirin for a slight headache I had. I’m not sure if it was the new hotel pillow, or just exceeding my maximum calorie count, but the aspirin knocked it out and I was ready to get back into the eating groove.

We checked out of our hotel, and then went off to get a coffee at one of the many coffee houses around Seoul. Besides a wealth of chicken restaurants, we saw so many coffee shops lining almost every street. We went to a Starbucks knock-off called Tom & Tom’s coffee, and enjoyed a slow start to our morning.

Our first dining experience for Sunday was a BBQ place. We could order small sizes of everything (but the beers were big) and we started with bulgogi pork. They served us the pork on the hot grill in front of us, and out of habit I started to cook it. The server told us not to touch anything, so we went back to just drinking beers. Every so often the server would come and stir around the meat and sauce until she was satisfied with the progress. When it was finally ready we put the meat on a lettuce leaf, with some sauces and vegetables, and the stuffed it in our mouths. Excellent! They did some kind of treatment to the meat so that it firmed up nicely and didn’t fall apart. I was really impressed.

For dessert we walked to a dessert cafe, and ordered a shaved ice covered completely in kinako (roasted soybean powder) that was a nice refreshing change. By now it was really starting to warm up outside, and so we stuck around the air conditioned cafe for a while to cool down.

Eventually we made our way back to Seoul station, stopping along at some food stands along the way to eat items from our “to eat” list. We looked long and hard for a place to get some cold beer around Seoul station, but we came up empty. The best we could figure was that it was a national holiday of some sort, as one of the biggest supermarkets was also closed for the day (on a Sunday!), so maybe it was just bad timing.

We ended up having lunch (our second of the day, if you’ve been paying attention) at a restaurant inside Seoul station that had been recommended online – Bulgogi Brothers. We just came from eating bulgogi somewhere else, so we had some seafood (clam?) bibimba, served cold, spicy and delicious with two big beers. Every time we ordered something it always came with lots of kimchi, vegetables, salad and soup on the side, so we just ordered one thing at most places and split everything that came. It worked out well, although sometimes the staff would make a face like we were costing them a sale or something. Sorry guys, but that’s just how we roll…

Since we were at the station we decided to go ahead and travel to Incheon airport early, and kill time there. We caught the express train and slept pretty much the entire way – thanks to the power of a full stomach and beer. In Incheon airport we explored quite a bit. Usually we are transferring through the airport so we don’t get to see what is on the other side of security, and we were pleasantly surprised to find a lot of eating options. The airport is huge – so we had lots of steps to get from one side to the other, but that just made us hungry again.

Our last meal in Korea was at the airport – pretty standard Korean pork belly with soup and kimchi, and I had what ended up being a Turkish fried wrap that was OK although a little greasy. Fortunately we were able to find some other small snacks along the way – a green bean milk, a delicious honey milk tea, and various snacks and souvenirs to share with our neighbors when we get back.

While waiting for our plane to board we went to a cafe to buy some coffee, and the scene was just on the edge of chaos. We got in our order OK, but all around people pushed and shoved trying to buy bread and snacks. The cashier looked really stressed as she tried to manage the crowds, and she was so busy keeping them in line she forgot to make our coffees. We were watching everything from the sidelines, and finally another staff member noticed the tickets in the machine and started making the coffees. It was easy to see every emotion on the poor cashier’s face – I think she was having a really rough day. The coffee was good, though!

In the end our plane was about ten minutes late in boarding, but they made up the time in the air, and we were able to get back home by midnight. It really was a great culinary adventure, and a good way to break up our weekend routine. Next trip, Eastern Europe!waiti

Here at work I’m in the middle of a long slog without holidays. One of the nice things about working for Kawasaki Rolling Stock Company is that they do have a lot of holidays, and they are really flexible about taking your own holidays, too. This goes against the grain of a lot of big manufacturing companies in Japan that seem to work their staff really hard with no opportunities for rest. However, even with the wealth of holidays there are some parts of the year that are a little dry. Now I’m working through the sixth week of ten weeks without any extra holidays. Of course I get two days every weekend, but sometimes five days a week every week gets a little boring.

The good news is that in anticipation of this feeling, we scheduled a quick weekend trip to Seoul, South Korea to do some serious eating. I’ve been to Seoul several times before, and so has Kuniko, but this will be the first time for us to stay there together. We’ve been watching youtube videos of street food in Korea, brushing up on our Korean phrases, and we’re starting to make some space in our stomachs. I really can’t wait.

After we get back I’ll have three weeks of regular work before the power-savings holidays start in July. That is a whole week off for me, with nothing on the schedule. It would be a great time to travel except for the fact that my wife is working a regular schedule, and also that the temperature in late July is excruciatingly hot. Previous years I have considered going to a theme park somewhere because I have a holiday when most other workers don’t, but school is out and you could probably die waiting in line for a ride. From next week I’ll start to put my thinking cap on and make a list of projects to do around the house (that are close to an air conditioner).

Watch this space for a recap (and hopefully some pictures) from Korea next week!

It seems like it has been forever since I’ve had a chance to blog. Recently I’ve been doing a lot more reading and a lot more thinking, and I’ve been protecting the free time that I have before I start work every morning.

The reading has been interesting despite being somewhat remedial. I’ve spent time reading more about France’s wine regions, and also studying more about Food Science.

Back when I was studying winemaking in university, I had the bad habit of discarding information not directly related to California, on the premise that I just wanted to concentrate on the information that directly would affect me as a California winemaker.

This turned out to be a very short-sighted strategy. While I’m sure I was able to free up more time to study (or more likely, party) I was missing out on some of the more interesting places in the world to make wine. If I think back to that time I kind of took for granted a place in the California winemaking world, and the study of other regions didn’t seem like a priority.

So with some of the free time that I’ve carved out these days, I’m going back to round out my learning. I’ve been reading “The Wine Bible” by Karen MacNeil, and “The World Atlas of Wine” by Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson. These two hefty tomes are filled with more than enough information to fill a wine course. It is far more interesting to read about these wine regions when I have some kind of tangible connection to them. Recently we’ve had a chance to spend some time in Europe on holiday and through those experiences in Spain, Portugal, France and Italy it is easier to conceptualize these wine growing regions beyond the written word.

Somewhat related is my study of Food Science. I’ve been reading Harold McGee’s “On Food and Cooking”, as well as “The Making of a Chef” by Michael Ruhlman. I know absolutely that I would never be interested in cooking professionally, but I am always interested in cooking for ourselves. My winemaking degree is actually a Food Science degree, and although I took many courses in sanitation, biochemistry, and food chemistry, I have since forgotten much of it. Luckily there are a lot of materials out there for foodies to study up on exactly why things are (or aren’t) delicious. The science of food is treated with much more respect these days in America it seems. Although I haven’t picked up much practical knowledge, I have enjoyed learning how cheese is made (at the molecular level) and how meat flavor changes under different kinds of cooking methods.

So a lot of selfish topics have kept me away from blogging, but I’ll try to remedy that in the future and spend a few more minutes every now and then to jot down my thoughts and news.

Over the past couple of weeks we had my folks come out to visit us in Japan. They had originally planned to come out last year, but for various reasons they had to reschedule, and finally we figured that the Golden Week holiday would be the best time to pull it off.

This was the third (or fourth?) time that they had been to Japan, and since they were visiting during Golden Week it made a lot more sense to stay away from the sightseeing spots. My folks were far more interested in meeting up with the people that they’ve met in the past, and to spend time with them. It was our job to make that happen for them. Although we had a busy schedule with plenty of visits, I think they had enough time to spend with everyone.

We met up with the Yamaji’s, the Fukumi family, the Okamoto’s, the Kageyama’s, and Kuniko’s sister’s family came over as well. We had Chinese food in Kobe with the Ono family, and we did a little sightseeing in Osaka and Kobe as well. Most of that was just in the first week. Kuniko and I both had to work the second week, but my folks were able to relax at home.

I noticed two things that surprised me during this trip.

First, I was struck by how often I would be in a room with other people busy on their phones or computers. My parents spent a lot of time concentrating on Facebook, playing games, or looking at pictures. Perhaps it was because everyone was feeling a little out of place in the small house, but maybe the little screen is a good way to escape. Social media is a big part of my parent’s life – they are very social people – and during their visit I could really see how important these connections are to them.

The second thing that surprised me was just how physical it is to walk around Japan. My mom had some trouble getting around from the beginning, but gradually it got worse as we walked just about everywhere. For a long time I have been taking for granted the ability to walk to the station, walk to the supermarket, or walk to the beach. When we were faced with walking from one train station to another in Osaka it really hit home how tough that can be for physically challenged people. I’m not sure train stations and pedestrian thoroughfares here were designed with special needs in mind. With elevators a long distance from ticket gates it seemed like people who couldn’t climb stairs had to walk much farther than other people. Counter-intuitive, isn’t it?

Now my parents are spending the rest of the holiday on Maui, and they’ll be able to rest up and drive around more, so that should be a big help. Kuniko and I have been grazing through the fridge trying to kill off leftovers that remain, but mainly eating just kimchi and tofu. Time to lose those kilograms I put on during the visit!