The past week I have been concentrating on getting through the dreaded “after holiday work week” that was especially challenging this time.  Kuniko caught a bug at the tail end of our trip to Russia, and we were both a little out of sorts last week.  Luckily we had a two day weekend to recover fully, and by the end of it we were back to eating kimchee tacos and grilling ribs on the barbecue outside, so I guess all is well.

From yesterday I started riding the exercise bike again, and I think that all that walking around in Moscow really paid off.  My legs feel as strong as ever, and I fell right asleep after the workout and a shower.  

Here at work we are coming up on the last month of the term.  My students have been busy with various projects, not the least of which involves a bunch of American customers visiting the factory from tomorrow, and several presentations.  Hopefully my students will be ready for them, but luckily they have good news for the customers, and good news however it is delivered is easy to take.

I’ve posted pictures from our recent trip to Moscow at the usual place.  I’ll try to keep the journal updates coming.  They’ll arrive in order from oldest to newest, so be sure to scroll down to see the older posts.

Our flight out of Moscow wasn’t until 7:15 pm that day, but since it was on Aeroflot airlines, we didn’t want to take any chances. Whenever we take a trip we check prices on different airlines, and Aeroflot is always the absolute cheapest, so I was a little leery of using them. We had originally booked the flight on Cathay Pacific, but since they abruptly stopped service to Russia, they rebooked us on the Aeroflot flight to get us to Hong Kong.
Kuniko was still feeling like crap in the morning, so we decided to stay in bed as long as possible. Check out wasn’t until noon and while Kuniko rested I did the packing and got all our travel goodies charged up and ready to go. We had arranged for a taxi to pick us up at the hotel and drive us to the airport at around 2 pm, so we had two hours to kill after checkout. We decided to go have some lunch at a cafe right on Red Square, and take one last look at St. Basil’s Cathedral before we left. 

The cafe was pretty nice, pretty touristy, and pretty expensive. They did have a menu that included “traditional Russian foods”, but most of what they served was quesadillas, pasta and salads. Kuniko went with the borscht, and I had chicken Kiev. The food was much better than we expected, though, and I washed everything down with a beer. It was nice to spend one last meal here before we faced the trays of airplane food later on.

Our taxi driver arrived a little bit late – just enough to give us a scare – but we said goodbye to the hotel staff and then settled into the cab. The driver didn’t speak any English, but since I had already arranged everything (including payment) online, it was a quiet ride. There was considerably more traffic on the way to the airport than when we had arrived, and I was happy that we had allowed plenty of time to make our flight. The driver hadn’t discovered the wonders of deodorant, however, so that was a bit unpleasant.

At the airport we had some time to kill. There were some interesting vending machines there – one sold orange juice, and another sold Putin T-shirts and cellphone cases. I think the main target was tourists, but everything was written in Russian so who knows? 

There really wasn’t any place to sit at the airport while we waited to check-in. There were a lot of people waiting and they had already taken all the seats. We wanted to rest up though, so we grabbed a table at TGI Friday’s – I never expected to find one at a Moscow airport. I had a beer and Kuniko had some hot chocolate to settle her stomach, and after people watching for the better part of an hour we were able to head to the check-in counter.

From there everything went pretty smoothly. When I asked if our luggage could be checked through to Osaka so we wouldn’t have to deal with it in Hong Kong, our ticketing agent responded with “maybe”. I laughed out loud and she smiled a little – maybe the first smile from a Russian service worker during our trip. Luckily the suitcase was able to be checked through, and it made it safely to Osaka when we did.

The Aeroflot flight was very smooth, and the service was quite good. Kuniko had heard that the food was really good on Aeroflot, but unfortunately we found that at least for us, it sucked pretty badly. There were plenty of good movies on the entertainment system, though and I managed to finish a book and even get a little bit of sleep.

In Hong Kong we had a tight connection that we were worried about – only an hour and a half to change from Aeroflot to Cathay Pacific. As it turned out, we needn’t have worried. There was a big thunderstorm in the area, and the whole airport was running behind schedule. Our flight out initially was assigned a gate, but later they decided to delay our flight three hours, so we had lots of time to kill. Since we were in Hong Kong we went to the restaurants in the airport and try some Chinese food. The competition for empty tables was brutal – we weren’t the only flight delayed – but Kuniko managed to get a couple of seats and we ate some dumpling soup with noodles, and spare ribs wrapping in rice cake with soy sauce that was really tasty.  

Finally we got the call to the gate, and our Cathay Pacific flight took off smoothly. It was just three and a half hours to Osaka, and it was good to be back. We took the ferry back to Kobe, and I even saw one of my current students returning from a trip to Hokkaido. We were pretty tired after we got home, but we eventually went to bed at around midnight. Luckily we set aside Sunday as a recovery day, and as it turned out later – we would need it.

On our last full day in Moscow we did a longer than usual sleep in, and then went across the street to “Coffee Mania” for breakfast. The place was in an old building with an art-deco style, and the service was good although a little proactive. Sometimes it felt like they were taking our dishes out of our hands as soon as we finished with them. Kuniko had a nice eggs benedict, and I had a simple omelet with my coffee. As for price, it was a little more expensive than other breakfasts we had during the trip, but not outrageous.

Since today was the opening of the big jam festival we decided to walk around and see what it was like. We were still a little early, though, so we sat in the shade of the Kremlin and did some people watching for a while. I bought a small homemade soda – the syrup was delivered from giant glass cones with valves on the bottom – quite interesting.  The jam festival had lots of jam, of course, but we noticed that most of it was available in supermarkets in the area, and there were very few unique products for sale. Some food was prepared to be eaten immediately, but most of the jams and preserves were commercial products. A little anticlimactic.

After walking through the jam festival we decided to go do the bulk of our souvenir shopping at a nearby grocery store. We were able to get everything we wanted to get except for an interesting bottle of vodka. It was interesting that the most upscale and expensive vodkas were made for export, and as such were covered with English writing. I was looking for something a little more, well, Russian, so we continued our vodka search in several big department stores in the area.  

One department store near our hotel was decorated with LED lights that made up the shape of some animated characters at night, and so when we went inside we found almost an entire floor dedicated to toy stores. The place also was decorated heavily with Russian flags, and there was a big Disney toy store inside also. There was a live show going on with a guy in a wizard suit entertaining kids and their families, and the whole thing was oddly surreal.

As we continued our vodka hunt we went through the basements of several nice department stores. Like in Japan, the basements had upscale supermarkets with higher than normal prices. As we walked through it was almost eerie how few customers there were. In fact, often times we were the only people there. The economy is tough in Russia right now, so I guess this is to be expected.
I also noticed that in almost every big store in Russia there were young men in suits with permanent frowns that watched the floor of the shop. I expect that they were security, and they always gave customers icy, suspicious looks, which doesn’t exactly make you feel welcome in the stores. I smiled and nodded at a few, but they just scowled and turned away. It was a weird vibe. 

Tired out and empty handed from our vodka hunt, we decided to solve our problems with a cold beer and a light lunch. For the last time we went to our little beer restaurant and sat outside while Russian kids rollerbladed to patriotic music nearby. For lunch we just split a salmon salad, and after our beers we headed to the GUM department store where we finally found a bottle of vodka to take home. We bought a box to help with packing, and then we went back to our hotel to hit the pool and hot tub.  

In the afternoon we decided to take a nap, and when we woke up Kuniko was feeling a little sick – something wrong with her stomach. We decided to stay in bed as long as possible, and then we got up and headed to the restaurant. After leaving the hotel Kuniko realized that a spicy Georgian dinner was probably the last thing she should be eating tonight, so we walked back to our hotel room and I tucked her into bed to get some rest. I just snacked on stuff in our room and did some writing and reading, and then I went to bed soon afterwards. It wasn’t the gastronomical extravaganza that I had envisioned for our last night in Moscow, but since we were traveling the next day I think it was best to rest up and get ready for the long plane flight back home.

We got up this morning with a sense of real determination.  The idea that somewhere, out there, a really delicious restaurant was managed to elude us become some sort of challenge.  I know we can’t speak the language and I know we can’t read anything in Russia, but surely two people with smartphones in 2015 could figure this out, right?

Our big idea was to take a morning stroll before the day heated up, and see if we could find the restaurant location ourselves.  According to their website there were three restaurants in the mini-chain, and we could already eliminate one of them since we tried to visit it the previous evening.  So we picked the next closest restaurant, which wasn’t all that far, actually.  It was roughly a 30 minute walk north from our hotel, actually near Cafe Pushkin – a restaurant that we had already visited and enjoyed.

As it turned out, we were able to confirm the location of the restaurant.  Multiple signs, menu on the door, and so we were confident we could call later and get some reservations.  Since we were already out and about and looking for coffee and breakfast we decided to go ahead and go back to Cafe Pushkin since they are open 24 hours.  Breakfast was very nice – Kuniko had a fried quail eggs and cheese on toast, and I experimented with homemade curds with cream.  It was my first time to try curds (other than cottage cream) and it was a little bland for my taste.  Maybe I should have gotten some jam or jelly for the top?  Also worth mentioning was the interesting toilet area underneath Cafe Pushkin.  The whole building is quite historic, so when we walked down the marble staircase to the basement we could also see the historic bathroom.  There was a coat area, with an old lady manning the reception, and the dark bathroom had toilets and sinks painted with designs – it was really unusual (for a toilet).

After breakfast we had cappucinos that came with two pieces of chocolate and a good dash of cinnamon, and then we walked back to the hotel.  We had left the “Do Not Disturb” indicator on our room, so we just walked back to flip it to “Clean Up”, and we left to go see the Novodevichy Convent, a Russian Orthodox church.  It was a six-station metro ride, and then we emerged in a more rural area of Moscow.

The whole reason I wanted to see this place was way back in Amazing Race season 9, when the teams stopped by while getting a clue. I remember being so impressed with the interior, and wanting to see it for myself some day.  Because of all the road construction, it was not immediately clear where the entrance to the Convent was.  We accidentally entered a huge cemetery adjacent to the Convent, and spent quite a few minutes looking for some kind of passageway between the two.  We never found the passageway, but we did find lots of interesting and elaborate headstones there.

Finally we left the cemetery completely and found the entrance on the other side.  We paid at the door, and then went inside the Convent and made our way to the Smolensk cathedral.  We arrived just at 10 am, and apparently it was break time for the workers that were restoring the outer walls of the Convent complex.  Hundreds of workers streamed past us to go outside and rest for a bit, and so by the time we made it to the Cathedral it was very quiet inside.

As I expected, the interior was more beautiful than what I saw on the TV show.  There were only a few people inside, and we sat and enjoyed the beauty of the building in peace and quiet.  It was interesting to think that just by watching an episode of a TV show had led me to this place and time.  Thanks, Amazing Race!

We spent a little time walking through some of the other buildings in the complex – one was more like a regular church, and it was clear that they actually conduct most of their ceremonies here.  They even had a small underground gift shop with lots of goods that were apparently blessed for a profit.  Nice!

Back at the metro station we bought some tickets for our next destination.  While buying them a homeless-looking guy tried to get us to buy his old ticket.  He assured us (in Russian) that it still had three rides left on it, but I had some doubts and we went with the machine tickets.  He just shook his head and walked away.

Our next activity was to hit some of the more interesting stations of the Moscow Metro.  I had heard that the architecture and design of the metro was something to see, and so I had done some research on which stations might be worth visiting.  You can ride the metro anywhere you like on one ticket as long as you don’t leave the station, so this was a cheap and easy way to see a lot of different stuff, all underground.

We stopped at six or seven different stations.  Since we couldn’t read the station names, I had an application on my phone that did the translating, and we were able to find them all.  Most were on kind of a big loop line running in the center of Moscow, so they were almost in sequence.  Also helpful was that the trains ran every 3-4 minutes, so even if we screwed up and got off at the wrong station we could wait a few minutes and try again.

According to the websites that I read, the stations of the Moscow metro were grand in scale and design because it was thought that should it be necessary, they would be used to house Russian citizens in a time of crisis.  These stations were made as symbols of the “government of the people” taking care of the people themselves.  This meant that most stations had very classical architecture – tilework, stained glass, marble and bronze statues.  They weren’t ostentatious, and they were a big contrast to the purely functional stations of Japan.

After stopping and photographing five or six stations we were starting to get a little tired out, so we ended our Metro journey at Red Square, and popped out of the station right next to the outdoor beer restaurant that we tried on our first evening.  Unfortunately they were closed even after the posted opening time of noon, so we switched to a back street near our hotel, and walked into a very stylish restaurant that we had seen earlier.  It turned out to be a Georgian restaurant (which was the same kind of restaurant as Khachapuri, where we were planning to go for dinner), but since we couldn’t read anything how would we know? We had a couple glasses of Georgian white wine (meh), a some light snacks: cheesy flatbread, and a cold creamy (walnut-based) satsivi with chunks of chicken inside.  Both were really good, and we switched to prosecco after the wine to celebrate the good food.

On our way back to our hotel room we asked our hotel concierge to call and make reservations at Khachapuri, and we confirmed the correct phone number and location with him before he called.  He made the call, made the reservations, and we were set!  The rest of the afternoon was spent in the sauna and pool splashing around.

Finally dinner time rolled around, and since we knew exactly where we were going it was an easy trip to the restaurant.  They had our reservations, they sat us down at our table, and the menu was the right menu.  Hooray!  I liked the atmosphere of the place – casual but lively, and halfway through our dinner a guy came up and started playing piano.

I had never had Georgian food, but it is an interesting combination of Turkish and eastern European food – with lots of spices and fruits, and pretty good wine, too.  That night we had a fried cheese pastry just oozing with Georgian cheese, a coriander and onion khachapuri flatbread, young duck in cherry sauce, fried mushrooms and herbs, and an appetizer of grilled eggplant wrapped around a nut/cheese paste with chili peppers on top.  Holy crap it was good!  This is one of these times in life when the wait was worth it.  Kuniko drank Georgian beer but I was drinking lots of Georgian wine.  The two different reds that I had were much better than I expected.  We weren’t really impressed with the Turkish wines that we had during our visit to Istanbul, but these were much more drinkable and reasonably priced.

Our server wasn’t really good at using English, but he was patient with us and kept smiling.  Since the next night was our last night in Moscow, we were hoping to eat at a place that we really liked.  We decided then and there to go ahead and make reservations to come back the next night, too.  The server took our reservations and then we checked out of there.  Wow, what a great meal!

On the return trip to the hotel we stopped at a convenience store for some ice cream to eat while we walked.  I managed to go through the whole transaction speaking only Russian, and I don’t think the staff even noticed (or cared) that I wasn’t from around there.  That was a good feeling – we’re starting to get used to things.

Near Red Square preparations were almost complete for a jam festival.  All week during our stay we saw the preparations underway, but according to the internet this big jam and preserves festival was scheduled to begin the next day.  They had giant animals made entirely with fruit on display, and they had built a temporary skating rink (for rollerblades) as well for live performances.  We looked around at all the stuff they were building, walked through a two story underground shopping mall that we had completely missed every time we walked by during our stay so far, and then finally we sat on a bench in the cool night air and did some people-watching.

After the great dinner we went back to our room, polished off the vodka and hit the sack.

Tuesday we started off by getting out of bed and heading across the street to try out “Coffee Mania”, which was billed as the most expensive coffee chain in Moscow.  We didn’t want to try it because it was expensive, just because it was right across the street from our hotel.  As it turned out, they were still closed at 7 am, so we left it for another day.

Instead we walked a few blocks to a small bakery/cafe chain restaurant.  When we arrived they were just opening, and as we approached one of the waitresses tripped on a microwave oven that they had used to prop open the door, and she narrowly recovered before hitting the pavement.  She was laughing the whole time about it.  We ordered some large coffees and they were indeed very large.  Really just large bowls full of coffee, with no handles.  Good stuff, though, and it served to wake us up.  We also had some breakfast, but the dishes we had were a little challenging to eat.  The waitress was determined not to smile – she was having a rough day and she wasn’t even the one that tripped on the microwave oven.  Service was slow as usual, but that is just part of getting used to European time –  we have this kind of mini-culture shock every time we visit Europe.

Our morning walk was all the way to Arbat street to do some souvenir shopping.  They seemed to have the right combination of cheese and quality, so we set off.  The first time we went to Arbat we took the Metro, so it took a few wrong turns before we figured out how to get there on foot.  The streets of Moscow are pretty wide, with as many as 6 lanes in either direction, so sometimes you had to find alternative paths to get where you wanted to go.  Also they had a fleet of big tanker trucks that just drove around the city spraying water over the streets, so you had to watch where you walked.  

Once we got to our destination we did a bit of shopping.  I found a Putin shirt I liked, and then we found a supermarket with a deli in the basement, so we bought some goodies to try.  We had a piroshki, and also what I think was called a knish(?)… a kind of fried pancake layered with mild creamy cheese, dill and cilantro. Yum!

From there we walked a ways north along the wide streets to reach Patriarch Pond, a very nice pond in the center of a square park.  The was a boat house on one end with a restaurant and it looked like a nice way to spend an afternoon.  Around the pond there were a lot of people lounging on park benches reading books or using their smartphones, and I saw some people doing stretching exercises down by the water.  It was a peaceful part of the city, and it was nice to take a break there.  

We circled back to familiar territory by cutting through an upscale restaurant district, with lots of apartment buildings interspersed with trees.  It felt a lot like Paris, and I thought that it would be the only place in Moscow where I would consider living.  We found our way back to Cafe Pushkin, and then from there to “theater street”, and then from there to an Irish Pub to rest our feet and cool off with a beer.  The staff were all dressed like Catholic schoolgirls, which was something you don’t see every day. 

In the afternoon we made our way back to St. Basil’s Cathedral to go inside and look around at the interior.  The line was surprisingly short, and the interior was quite nice.  Once again no photos were allowed, but we spent about half an hour looking at frescoes, climbing staircases, and trying to find the correct exit (there were actually four of them).  I liked the feeling of the interior, but to me clearly the best view of St. Basil’s is from the outside.

Since we couldn’t get into the restaurant that we wanted to try yesterday, we figured we’d give it another go.  This time we left early and tried to show up right at 5 pm, which is damn early by European standards.  We walked right in, got a table and a menu, and we started to look through the menu and decide what to have for dinner.

I was a little surprised to find that some of the signature dishes of the restaurant weren’t on the menu, and then upon looking at the cover of the menu the name of the restaurant was completely different. Just across from us was the flag that had the correct restaurant name, but the menu was different.  Kuniko and I realized that we were in the wrong place.  As far as we could tell, either the restaurant that we wanted to visit had moved, or the restaurant we were in actually changed names between the afternoon and the evening.  Either way, we weren’t going to have a chance to eat what we wanted to eat.  Foiled again!

We decided to stay and eat anyway, and we had some really good food there.  We had a beet salad with chopped greens, black bread croutons, mushrooms and blue cheese.  Also we ordered some cheese dumplings and some fried chatarelle mushrooms cooked in a cream sauce.  Everything was great, but we vowed to find the real Khachapuri restaurant the next day.  It was becoming a challenge!

Once we went back to the hotel we tried to visit the rooftop bar, but we couldn’t find it.  I think maybe it only opened by request.  We tried to visit the stylish bar across the street from our hotel (The Mandarin) but they weren’t open until much later.  So we ended up going to a convenience store nearby, buying some snacks that we wanted to try, and then washing them down with two big glasses of vodka in our room.  Thanks to the vodka our night ended somewhat prematurely – I think we were asleep by 7 pm!

Once again we slept in a little longer than usual and then caught the Moscow Metro to Arbat street.  This was our first time to use the Metro, and I had heard a lot about it.  The stations were supposed to be beautifully designed – ready to house the people of Moscow in the case of a war above ground.  The stations we visited today were not over the top, but they were very elegant, and functional as well.

Which is more than I can say about the actual trains that we rode.  I guess we’re spoiled in Japan – clean, quiet and fast train are the norm.  The Metro trains that we rode were ancient, angular old beasts that stopped and started with a lurch.  There was no AC so they just opened the windows, which can be a little wild while running underground through tunnels.  It was an interesting ride, though – I enjoyed it.

Kuniko was impressed (and a little scared) because of the steepness of the escalators. Hold on to that handrail!  We emerged close to Arbat street, and then walked down the touristy street looking in shops with one eye out for breakfast.

One fashion trend that we observed in Moscow was that many women wore a transparent top that showed the world her brassiere.  Surprisingly this fashion was popular among old, young, large, and slender women, and none of them seemed to really care that their bra was clearly on display.  It wasn’t like these were special bras, either.  Just your standard workhorse bras.  There were exceptions – sometimes I saw a six-foot-tall slender model type walk by and I was happy to look.  Kuniko was mystified by the fashion trend, and we chalked it up to cultural differences.

Along Arbat street we found some shops with the usual cheesy souvenirs.  Nesting dolls, fur hats, you name it.  Some T-shirts on sale depicted Putin in various hero poses – one had him bitch-slapping Obama, for example.  We weren’t really looking to buy anything that day – just getting ideas for what to bring back later.

We stopped for breakfast at a small cafe that had an English menu, and had some crepes.  My crepe was stuffed with ground beef and topped with sour cream.  Kuniko had a ham and cheese stuffed crepe.  Both were excellent.  I like crepes as an alternative wrap to a tortilla.  The texture is soft enough that it absorbs some of the flavor of the filling, but it doesn’t completely fall apart.  Breakfast was cheap, too – just like everything else.  We found Moscow very affordable, which probably just goes to show how expensive Japan prices can be.

At the end of Arbat street we turned left and made a beeline for Gorky Park.  Although it looked close enough on the map it was actually a solid 30 minute walk in the sun, and it was pretty hot.  We walked by the towering foreign affairs government building, and then over a bridge that crossed the Moscow river.

I noticed on the sidewalk through Moscow we would come across a stenciled advertisement.  There were many variations, but I think they were for nightclubs or other youth events.  People likely spray painted them at night using stencils, and then enjoy the free advertising.  Interesting system!

Gorky Park was a bit of a let-down.  It was a nice enough park, and quite big, but there really wasn’t a whole lot to do.  We ate ice cream on a bench in the shade of the trees, and just rested our legs for a while.  There were some nice fountains in the park, and also a pond with ducks that was surprisingly bad smelling.

After resting for a while at the park we walked back towards the center of town along the river.  On the side of the river we found a giant black monument to Peter the Great, perched on a ship and dominating the skyline.  It was kind of strange – artistic but gaudy and cheap at the same time.  It was placed near a small break in the river, and on the break there were many nightclubs that were shut down at the time.  I’m sure at night the little peninsula really livens up.  We took an overpass, and then walked straight ahead to the colossal Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.

Once again the scale of the structure was way larger than I expected, and it really reminded me of the Taj Mahal in India.  The day was perfect and we could walk around the outside taking pictures and enjoying the large amount of shadow that was cast.  It was all closed up – maybe only open on Sundays?  We didn’t really mind – we’ve seen the interior of one or two cathedrals in our day, and we moved on to our next priority – cold beer and some seats in the shade.

We found a place right near the cathedral, with outdoor seating and a view of the tourists coming in on buses.  Unfortunately they didn’t have any Russian beer on tap, so Kuniko had a Stella and I had Hoegaarden – a big 500 ml glass of it.  When it arrived there was a lot of condensation on our beers, and so we used our napkins to clean up the drips and drink deeply from the glass.  We had been walking in the sun for a long time, and cold beer is just the right thing for that situation.

As we continued drinking the condensation kept dripping from my glass, and the waiter even stopped by to help wipe it up.  Even with the hot day, I thought it was a little weird.  Then, as I lifted the big monster Hoegaarden glass and took a big gulp, the glass suddenly separately neatly in half – with the bottom half with the big heavy glass base falling suddenly to the table, the top half remaining obligingly in my hand, and about 250 ml of beer dropping neatly in my lap.

I was kind of shocked by the sudden cooldown of my crotch area, as it happened in a most unexpected way.  The waiter rushed over with towels and showed us to an adjacent table, and we examined the glass in more detail.  It was a clean break – almost like it had been made with a glass cutter.  I looked around for the camera crews in case we were on a reality show or something, but the only thing that appeared was a fresh, full beer in a stronger glass.

I’m a glass-half-full kind of guy, so I happily accepted the free beer and didn’t mind walking around in beer-soaked shorts.  Later I washed them in our hotel sink, and they dried out nicely, so no worries.  It was a weird event, though, and something we’re not likely to forget about the trip.

After that episode we walked on past the Kremlin back to “theater street”.  It was a pretty long walk, and we were thinking about having a light lunch.  We ended up at what was perhaps an Iranian/Russian restaurant.  The waiter spoke a little English and they had an English menu, so we got by.  We ordered some bread stuffed with cheese and tomatoes, and also “Khinkali”, which were a lot like jumbo shorompo that you get in Taiwan, but with a lot more dough.  We also got some other dumplings, and I got the sense that maybe finally I was overdoing it with the dumplings.  They went down well with some more cold beer in glasses that managed to stay intact.  We really liked the music that they were playing there – despite their target audience being younger people they attracted us.

Next we went back to the hotel for pool and jacuzzi time.  Afterwards we went up to our room for a little nap that turned out to last for five hours.  Around 8 pm we headed out to get some dinner at the restaurant that I had heard all about, Khachapuri.  It actually wasn’t far from our hotel, and as we approached it had a really nice atmosphere.  Outdoor dining, nice lighting and the tables were all full.  Somehow we communicated with the staff and she managed to explain to us that there wouldn’t be a table for 50 minutes.  Rather than wait, we decided to try our luck somewhere else.

The neighborhood around the area was under construction, and it was not just walking down the street – you always had to watch out where you were walking, and avoid the sandtraps and granite flagstones just laying around everywhere.

We finally settled on a little cafe not far from Khachapuri, called Cafe Fillial.  The interior was a little dark but it was filled with younger people and they had an English menu and the staff weren’t afraid to use English with us.  It wasn’t exactly a Russian restaurant, but we had some really good food (and beer) there.  Kuniko had a salad with braised duck, pomegranate seeds, cheese, carrots, and some kind of radish.  I had a quiche with chicken, and both were really good.  I really liked the atmosphere, especially as it was a restaurant that was off the beaten path.

After dinner we stopped at the supermarket to buy some souvenirs, vodka, and beers for our hotel fridge.  Finally it was back to the hotel, where we ordered some ice for the vodka.  There was some kind of mix up that delayed the delivery, and I think some other person probably was wondering why ice was delivered to their room.  The vodka was good, as you would expect in Moscow, and then it was off to bed.  Another long day of walking, eating and drinking!

We made sure to sleep in and enjoy the big comfortable bed in our hotel room.  The room was a little more luxurious than usual for us.  We figured since the Russian economy was in worse shape than the Japanese one, we might as well splurge a little.

The started off with a little exploration around the hotel.  About a five minute walk from the hotel was the outer gates of the Kremlin complex.  We observed the guards of the tomb of the unknown soldier, who took their job very seriously.   Following the outer wall of the Kremlin to the west we could walk through a nice park, with plenty of shade.  It was starting to get hot in the sun, so our job during most of the trip was to try to find the shadiest pathway.  

As we walked around we discovered some Japanese vending machines.  It turns out that we didn’t see many vending machines in Russia, but the ones we did see were all Japanese.  The products inside were Japanese, and the descriptions and lettering of the packaging were all in Japanese too.  In fact, the first time we walked by them they were totally invisible to me because I walk by nearly a hundred of them every day during my commute.  They were expensive, though – nearly double the prices in Japan.  We did see some Russian people buying drinks, though.  It was kind of gamble for them since they didn’t know exactly what they were buying.  It was almost like some sort of roulette.  In Russia.  With drinks instead of bullets.

Near the vending machines was a small supermarket, and we spent more time than you would think checking out all the products.  Already we had to start thinking about what products might make good souvenirs to take back to Japan – we are like typical Japanese tourists in that respect.  It was fun to look through the vodka section, and I couldn’t believe how many different kinds of cheeses were available.  Since we were just starting our explorati0n we didn’t buy anything at the time.  Just taking notes.

We left and wandered some more streets, and found ourselves a little north of Red Square on a street that had small theaters and playhouses on one side, and on the other side cafes and restaurants.  It seemed like as good a place as any for breakfast, so we had a light breakfast and some coffee.  The cafes were serious about their coffee in Moscow.  I didn’t have a bad cup of coffee the whole time we were there.  The staff was very friendly, and since there weren’t many other customers she put up with our bad Russian expressions.  

After breakfast we continued on our random walking tour and saw the Bulshoi theater, and found a big supermarket that was very close to our hotel.  This place had everything, and it turned into our shopping home base throughout the trip.  It was big but overstaffed, and the workers inside were struggling with consciousness.  At least they had jobs, but it didn’t look like a very fulfilling career.  We stocked up on beer and snacks to try later on, and then took our loot underground to cross over to the street with our hotel.  Underground the pathways were lined with tiny red shops, some open and some closed.  They were very shallow, so you could barely fit inside, but the shopkeepers stood at the door and they would reach into the store if you found something that you liked.  Some places sold food like piroshkis and breads, others sold cheesy souvenirs and clothes.  Plenty of Putin memorabilia, too. 

Once we got back to our hotel and properly refrigerated our beers and juice we went back on the street to go check out the inside of the Kremlin.  The ticket system was easy to understand, and we got through security fairly quickly.  Inside there was almost no access to government buildings, but plenty of chances to walk through some very old cathedrals.  The architecture of the buildings was very impressive, and there was almost no signs of heavy security.  Being at the center of a fortress has some benefits, I guess.  There were police officers whose job was to keep the tourists out of the roads, which was a busy job.  The scale of the buildings and towers was so huge that everyone was backing up to take a picture and try to get everything in the shot.  Everybody wants to take a picture of the world’s largest bell, but it is a little tricky to get it all in the frame!

Most of the cathedrals in the Kremlin were strictly no photo zones, so we just tried to file away the beautiful interiors into our memory banks.  We spent a while going through the rest of the grounds and then finally left.

By the time we left the Kremlin the tourists were really out and about.  We saw lots of Asian tour groups – mostly Chinese.  This city seems to be a major tourist draw, which must be very helpful to the economy.  I’ve never seen so many selfie sticks in my life.

We stopped for lunch at a small cafe stuck between the Russian chain restaurant MyMy and a McDonald’s.  I think we made the right choice.  They brewed their own beer there (and it was quite good and reasonably priced), and we could do some people watching while we drank and ate.  We ordered a “Russian Assortment” which was huge.  Veal tongue, pickled tomatoes, pancetta, bread with fish and onions, potatoes, all kinds of little goodies.  We did our best, but it was a lot of food.

After our beer break we headed back to the hotel to try out the pool.  On the way back we walked through the GUM shopping center, which was located right on Red Square.  It was pretty upscale, but they had some interesting items that we were considering for souvenirs.  It was worth a look, but not the kind of place you’d shop every day.

Since we were walking around in the sun most of the morning, a swim sounded refreshing.  Back at the hotel we took the elevator to the basement level, and we signed in to use the pool.  It was a beautiful pool.  We were the only ones there the first day, and it was a rare case to see any other guests during our week’s stay at the hotel.  The pool room was actually two floors, with the upper floor containing the gym, spa, and exercise equipment, and the pool, sauna, Turkish bath and jacuzzi on the bottom floor.  The pool was heated to about 28 degrees, so very comfortable and easy to get in.  We spent a lot of time at that pool during our stay.

Once we finished with the pool we went back to room for some more beer and snacks, and then we took a long nap.  This is what vacations are all about!

For dinner we walked a ways north to Cafe Pushkin.  It was written up by the NY Times as one of the few restaurants in Moscow that understands what true service is, and since they are open 24 hours we thought we’d easily be able to get a table.  We were right – they showed us to a window seat and we had a very nice dinner of beef stroganoff (Kuniko) and mushroom pelmeni (Bryan) and we shared some fried pancakes for an appetizer.  Everything was delicious, and the NY Times was right – the service was impeccable. 

Since we had eaten a big lunch and had snacks after swimming we stuck with the light dinner, but after walking back to the hotel we found ourselves drawn again to the outdoor terrace of the beer restaurant for a final drink and some more pelmeni – I couldn’t get enough.  This time we had bear and elk pelmeni – so delicious!  

Every time we go to Europe we love to sit at cafes and watch the world go by, and Moscow was no exception.  We would sit at a cafe for an hour or more just sipping our coffees or beers and enjoying conversation, or just people watching.  It is one of the things that is a little hard to do in Japan, especially in summer with the hot, wet weather.  Luckily this trip we could get lots of cafe time in.

Finally we decided to head on back to the hotel and get some sleep.  No effects from jetlag so far – that is good news.

We’ve gone through all the preparation of visas, the planning, the Russian language study, and finally we’re ready for the big trip.  

Friday night I had a drinking party that I somehow survived without too much damage, and so we got up at the crack of dawn on Saturday and loaded our suitcase into the car. 

It was an easy drive to Kobe airport, an easy ride across the bay on the ferry, and we had no problems catching our departing flight to Seoul on time. 

We flew on Korean airlines the first two legs of the trip, so it was natural to spend some time at the airport at Incheon.  It is a big airport, but it does tend to repeat with the same pattern of duty-free stores and restaurants, terminal after terminal.  We had some good food for lunch – I had braised kimchee with a fried pork cutlet in a fish soup, and Kuniko went with the old favorite – Bibimbap.  The kimchee was free for the taking on the table, sitting at room temperature – that was a little surprising.  We had a couple of beers, and then went down to the gate and boarded our plane for Moscow. 

The plane had an extra 40 minutes waiting time before pulling away from the gate.  The announcement said that there was heavy congestion over China, but I don’t know what that really means.  

Once we actually left it was a very smooth nine hour flight to Moscow.  The entertainment system was quite good, and with plenty of movies and music to keep us occupied we didn’t need to even open a book.  

Once we arrived at Sheremetyevo Airport, one of the three international airports surrounding Moscow, we lined up in a very slow immigration line.  It might be the longest we’ve ever waited for immigration. The other passengers were starting to get impatient.  Once we finally got our turn, the immigration agent gave Kuniko lots of extra questions.  I was starting to get worried, but they finally let her pass in.  I went through without even one question.  Weird.

I had arranged with a taxi company to pick us up, but when we got into the arrival terminal there was nobody waiting for us at all.  We waited for a few minutes, but figured that they went ahead and took someone else – between the long wait for departure and the long immigration line we must have been more than an hour late.  Luckily it was no problem to get another taxi from the official taxi stand.  The prices were marked and I got a receipt in advance so no problems with negotiation and shady drivers.  It was about double the price of the taxi that I had arranged, but I guess you get what you pay for.

It was only about a 30 minute drive to our hotel since there was no traffic at all.  The hotel was located a short walk from Red Square, called the St. Regis Hotel.  It turned out to be a great location, and it was a really nice hotel.  Kuniko hit a home run with this place. 

After checking in and dropping off our bags we took a short stroll to Red Square.  The temperature was perfect – a little cool and very dry.  It was a big difference from the hot wet summer we left behind in Japan.  

In Red Square we got our first look at St. Basil’s Cathedral.  This was the main attraction for Kuniko and we took lots of pictures of it.  It was just as beautiful and impressive as the guidebook photos.   Red Square itself was quite large, and we could easily see Lenin’s Tomb, several other churches, the walls of the Kremlin, and a big shopping center.  Later we’d have time to explore in more detail, but for now we were happy to enjoy the experience of being in the center of Red Square.

Because it was so far north it stayed light out for a long time, so we could explore the area around our hotel.  Everything in Moscow was on such a big scale – the roads, the buildings, everything.  The main road surrounding central Moscow had 5 lanes going each direction, which made crosswalks impractical.  Instead we found that you need to find underground crossings and travel on foot that way.  

At this time of night there were a lot of young people out and about, and you could feel the kind of nightclub culture that some big cities have.  We found a “beer restaurant” that had a huge patio area with outdoor dining, and so we sat down and luckily got handed an English/Russian menu.  

With our Russian beers we had some pelmeni (dumplings stuffed with meat) and also some fish cakes that did a good job absorbing all the beer.  Since we had spent a very long day traveling it was good to slow down and soak in the city.  We tried some Russian phrases with the staff, but they looked too busy to tell us what we were doing wrong, so we gave up and just used English.  Later we had more success with Russian.

After our beer and snacks we suddenly felt super sleepy.  Maybe the adrenaline and excitement of arrival in a new city wore off, so we made our way back to our hotel to crash.  Thanks to the long flight and the time difference we ended up having a very long Saturday.

The last week before a vacation is the absolute worst time to catch a cold.  I catch a cold on average just once or twice a year, so the odds are pretty slim.  Still, I try to do everything I can to avoid it in the weeks leading up to departure.  

From last week a lot of my students started to catch colds as the weather turned from rainy season to hot summer.  Last weekend I started to get the little dryness in the back of my throat that usually means a cold is coming.  From then I started gargling more, washing my hands twice as often, and I stopped riding the exercise bike every night to give my body a chance to concentrate on fighting the cold.

Luckily my efforts have seemed to pay off.

We are on target for a flight out early on Saturday morning.  Yesterday, today and tomorrow have been filled with little odd jobs to get done before we leave.  Friday I have one last drinking party with some coworkers, and then we’re off. 

The drinking party will be held at a restaurant called Sake Yashiro which literally translates to “The Shrine of Sake”.  I’ll have to be careful not to anger the gods of booze on Friday.

Today at work I had a couple of cancellations from two students back to back, and so I find myself with a little free time at lunch.  Why not do a little catch up blogging?

Here in Japan summer is really setting in.  We’re talking about the hot, wet and sticky that I had almost forgotten from last year.  We are struggling to find the best settings on our bedroom air conditioner to cool us down and keep us both comfortable while we sleep.  Usually we set a timer so that the AC kicks off a few hours after we go to sleep, but inevitably I wake up a little sweaty now and then.  I shower and go to work, but 30 minutes into my commute I’m all sweaty again.  Luckily I’m the only one in my office so I can completely control the air conditioner.  Power!

Last week I had the whole week off, and I spent most of that time staying inside, playing video games, riding the exercise bike, and doing preparation for our upcoming trip.  Kuniko and I went out for dinner a couple of times, we watched some movies together,  and really got to spend a lot of quality time together.  We had a great Korean dinner with friends in Osaka on the eve of the Tenjin matsuri, which was quite good timing.  We also had an anniversary dinner at Chiro in Akashi to celebrate our tenth year together (on paper).  The real celebration will actually be in November, but this was a nice way to remember that fateful day when we walked into the city office and filled out some forms.

So now we’re working through the heat, with just two weeks of work between the two summer holidays it is hard to stay focused on the job and not think too much about upcoming vacations.  

This weekend on Saturday we are planning to take Kuniko’s folks with us out to Okayama to visit Kuniko’s sister and our new nephew.  This’ll be our first time to see the little squirt – I hope he’s up for a visit from the wild relatives…

It is just about the middle of July, and finally it has started to get hot, rainy and humid.  Usually all the rain happens in June, and by July it is just hot and humid, but for some reason this year we’re getting the tail end of the rainy season combined with the stickiness of summer.  

Boo-yah.

I’m wrapping up a pretty busy week, and getting ready for a relaxing weekend.  We don’t have any plans other than catching a movie on Saturday evening.  I’m looking forward to the free time, but because of the weather it will mostly be spent inside.  Actually, most of my weekends for the next two months will be inside, come to think of it.

Next week is my last week of work before nine days off!  We’ve got some anniversary events planned, and also I may escape to Fuji Q Highlands if I can get away for a day or so.  For some reason July is full of social events for us, so I’ll have to start training up my liver to deal with it!

Usually we don’t get into Osaka very much.  Despite being the third largest city in Japan, and being just a 45 minute train ride from our home, we don’t have much need for it since Kobe pretty much has everything we want and it is only 20 minutes from our place.

But sometimes there are things that only Osaka can provide.  

Monday night after work I met Kuniko in Osaka station.  When I came out of sakurabashi gate in the station, she was there waiting and it was once again one of the moments when she catches me off guard and I do a double take, because I can’t believe the beautiful woman waving at me is actually my wife.  

We walked through the underground walkways that make up the catacombs of the Osaka Umeda area, which is nice because even on rainy days you can walk through the city without getting wet.  Kuniko led me up and out on the street to a little restaurant that she had researched for tonight.  It was kind of a Spanish/Italian tapas bar with an emphasis on vegetables, and it was very good. The atmosphere was nice, too – good music and a dark restaurant on a busy street.  They got the European feel just about right, too.  The place was empty on a Monday night, so the service was prompt.

After catching up on our day over tapas and Cava we hit the road and went to our next stop, the Ritz Carlton hotel.  Kuniko’s friend and former co-worker does some jazz singing at the hotel lobby lounge, and so we went in and grabbed a table with a good view of the piano and stage.  Her name is Eppi Esperanza, and she’s got a single on iTunes if you want to check out her music.  She introduced her pianist, a Japanese guy who did his best to play some of Kuniko’s requests.  Eppi’s voice was quite nice, and she started out with a husky-voiced rendition of Etta James’ “At Last”.  Her voice reminded me a lot of Norah Jones, but she also had a song in Spanish that I really liked. Her performance and stage presence were worthy of the Ritz Carlton, that was for sure.

  
While we watched we split a cheeseburger and we each had a glass of red wine with our (second) dinner. We wanted to spend a little money there to let the management know that Eppi’s friends were bringing in business.  Between songs Eppi chatted with us, and after the set she came over to take some pictures with us and talk some more.  

After that we decided that we had stayed out quite late enough for a school night, and so we made our way back to the train station.  We passed big tents and temporary restaurants that had been erected for the summer beer garden season.  There is big money in summer beer drinking in Japan, and it is really on display in downtown Osaka.

Kuniko bought me Tuesday’s lunch at the Ritz Carlton gourmet shop, so I’m looking forward to a nice quiche today at lunchtime, with a macaroon or two for dessert.  It’s nice to live the good life once in a while!

I thought I should pop in here and post a quick update.  The last month has been pretty busy with work, but I think I’ve started settling into a more comfortable routine.  The real ordeal last month was a toothache that was getting worse and worse.  I went into the dentist three times before he found what was wrong – underneath one of my old fillings was some decay that had gotten bad enough to cause the pain and headaches.  He did a root canal, but two more visits later and I was still in remarkable pain.  I was taking about 12 ibuprofen a day, combined with a slug of whiskey before bed to help me sleep – seriously bad news.

I finally ended up taking a day off of work to have the dentist take one last shot before I fired him and moved on to a specialist.  Luckily on that day he found a completely different cavity on a different tooth, and after giving me another root canal on the other tooth the pain completely disappeared.  For the first time in what seems like years I can drink a glass of cold liquid without having any pain.  My ibuprofen count went back down to zero and things are getting back to normal.  I still need to get crowns for the two teeth, and before that I have to let some temporary medicine sit inside the empty teeth to completely disinfect the teeth before sealing them up.  That means chewing on only one side of my mouth, but I am getting used to it.  Hopefully I’ll have the crowns in place before our trip in August.

Today after work I’ll join a farewell party for Mr. Watanabe in the human resources department.  He was one of the first contacts I had with the company, and it’ll be sad to see him go.  He is leaving Kawasaki and moving to Tokyo to work for another company – which is a rare career move in Japan.  I hope he’ll be happier in Tokyo but we’ll miss him around here. He is a very good worker.

Kuniko has a party tomorrow night, and she’ll be working on Saturday, but we are planning to go to the Osaka Ritz Carlton on Monday night to see one of her ex-coworkers singing jazz in their bar.  I’m hoping they sound something like Sausalito from “Lost in Translation”.

These days I am teaching a couple of new kinds of classes.  One is actually not a class, but really more of an opportunity for people to come in and chat with me and other students in English.  It is called “English Cafe”, and we even have some coffee, tea and snacks to make the name more or less true to the experience.

This week I’ve done two sessions – both of which I consider a qualified success.  Tomorrow I have the last one of this week.  I like the free coffee, but I realized this event will really increase my calorie count every week.  Maybe I can do sit ups while I talk with the students?

The other class I started was an email writing class.  The students came in, and I think they got more than what they were expecting.  One of the HR people gave a short speech in English explaining that the company expects them to do all communication in the class using English.  That means all the writing, and all the speaking during class time.  I could see a look of shock on some faces – it was the last thing that they were expecting.  Some of the students have been in my class before and were ready for it.  Some of the newbies I will have to watch closely in the future for signs of surrender.  

This weekend Kuniko is working on Saturday, but we’re hoping to go out to dinner somewhere Saturday night after she gets off of work.  The sky is really the limit since our restaurant zone has expanded to Osaka.  We’ll just have to see what we’re craving on Saturday and go with the flow…