We slept in one more time at Casa Vishnu, and then spent most of the morning packing and drinking coffee. It was a very slow paced morning, which I think we appreciated. Once our bags were packed we went out for lunch at the beer pub, and although we were all not so hungry I managed to eat a panini sandwich to go along with a mug of cold beer. It was our last chance to talk with Vishnu, because he had to work in the afternoon. He arranged a driver to take us to the airport, however. Back home we gathered our stuff, took some last minute pictures, and said goodbye to Vishnu and his family. They really did a lot for us on this trip, and we kept telling them that we’d definitely pay back their hospitality if they make it out to Japan in the future.

Then it was off to the airport. The driver that Vishnu had arranged was very good, and we had almost 45 minutes of driving time to the airport outside of town. It gave us plenty of time to try to drink in all the scenery one last time. Bangalore is not really like Delhi, but outside of town it reminded me a little more of the capital – the cows, the people standing around on the side of the streets, the stands and shops and half-built homes.

At the airport it was a breeze to catch a flight to Delhi, and then at the Delhi airport we killed a couple of hours shopping one last time for some last minute souvenirs and also enjoying a cocktail before boarding our plane. The cocktail was the key to a fitful sleep on the way back. Our plane left Delhi at 11;50 pm local time, and we would be arriving in Osaka around noon Japan time, so I was hoping to get some sleep on the way. Luckily, the flight was smooth and nobody sat behind me, so I didn’t have to feel guilty about reclining my seat. I slept 4-5 hours out of eight hours of total flying time, and even woke up in time for breakfast.

On the bus ride back from Osaka airport to Kobe we talked about the trip – it was really one of our better ones. A little different style of trip than what we are used to, but the amount of stuff we accomplished in a week and the amount of relaxation (not to mention the amount of food) is something I was proud of.

We’ve got just a few more months until we’re traveling again – December will be Thailand and Cambodia, another (hopefully) relaxing trip ahead of us.

We woke up the next morning with instructions from Vishnu and his wife to just sleep in, relax, and let the cook know when we wake up so she could make us coffee and breakfast. Vishnu and his wife were both off for some yoga in the morning, but we didn’t feel quite up to it and instead took our time waking up. It is vacation, after all.

It was a little strange to order coffee from the cook, but she brought out a freshly brewed cup of coffee and a bowl of sugar, and she watched how much I put in, and the rest of our stay she put in the same amount before she delivered it. Sharp lady. After a while Vishnu came home, and we piled into his car for a tour of town and to get some shopping out of the way. We needed to buy some omiyage, and thought we should do it sooner rather than later.

We went to a downtown shopping street which used to be the main street in Bangalore, but the incredible growth of the city had kind of left it behind. It was still busy with traffic like every other street in town, and just turning on to the street had us waiting at the turn for about five minutes before we could cut somebody off and get in.

Our first stop was a large grocery store, where we spent way too much time and only a little bit of money buying spices, souvenirs, snacks and other rare items that I hadn’t seen anywhere else. Ground curry leaves – yes. Mustard seeds – yes. Coriander powder – yes. In addition we got some ready made food packets to try later on, and also some hot sauces to pump up our curries at home. It was a big success.

It wouldn’t be a trip abroad if I didn’t come back with a couple pair of shoes in my size, and this trip was no exception. I scored some shoes for work, and a new pair of flip-flops. Great prices. We also stopped at a book store where I picked up the game Taboo – a great way to study English for my students.

It was close to lunch time but Vishnu wanted to take us to a new brewpub in town. Called the Biere Club, it served a couple of different kinds of beer, but the only one that was any good was the wheat beer. The staff seemed a little confused, but it was a good place to sit and chat, and we found ourselves there the next couple days as well.

From there it was back to Vishnu’s house for lunch of mutton curry, butter rice and flatbread. As usual, their cook did a great job and we could try some traditional southern Indian food. We took a short nap after lunch, and then it was right back out on the shopping trail.

This time Vishnu went off to do some work and his wife took us out. Her driver took care of the stressful driving, and dropped us off and picked us up at various locations. We started at an arts and crafts exposition that was selling traditional Indian goods, and Kuniko scored some hand painted bookmarks for her students. The guy selling them wanted to show just about every item at his booth, and it became pretty hard to escape.

Then we hit the backstreets of Bangalore, with Vishnu’s wife taking us to places we never would have thought to visit. At her favorite sweet shop we drank almond milk, we negotiated with a street vendor over the price over bangles, bought fresh roasted peanuts twisted up into a page of a magazine, and tried all kinds of foods that she recommended. Her mantra was, “This is very unusual – you have to try it”. With bellies still full from bowls of mutton curry and rice it was pretty hard work, but she was right – everything was great.

At one point we ventured into a very Islamic neighborhood, and stood outside a shop while she went inside to buy some supplies for her business. All around us were people wearing traditional Islamic garb, even women covered hear to toe in black. Everyone watched us as we tried to act casual outside the shop – I don’t think I’ve ever felt more conspicuous. There was a mosque down the street, and afternoon prayers began with someone singing over an intercom, and I think it was that moment when I realized that this was about as close to the middle east as I’m ever likely to get.

On the drive home while facing the usual traffic and potholes our driver slightly bumped a motorcycle that cut us off, and I was expecting everyone to stop and bust out the insurance cards, but other than an exchange of dirty looks nothing happened. Did I mention that traffic was unbelievable? I just couldn’t get over it.

We had a late night planned – so Vishnu urged us to take another nap to gather our energy. We took him up on it and dozed for an hour or two, and woke to evening prayers from a mosque a few doors down from Vishnu’s house. Apparently they were breaking their fast of Ramadan, and so there was a lot of people outside the mosque getting ready for a feast. It felt exceedingly foreign to wake up like that, with the street noise outside and being comfortable indoors. Those are the moments I love during a visit to another country.

Since Vishnu expected some heavy drinking that night he hired a driver to take us all downtown and back. We piled into the car and he took us back to the UB building in the center of town where we had lunch the previous day. On the main plaza we entered a nightclub called “City Bar” that was filled with singles and small groups talking and listening to loud music. We ordered some drinks but it was a little bit hard to keep a conversation going with the noise, so instead we kind of leaned back and drank it all in.

By chance we bumped into some friends and relatives of Vishnu’s, and so we decided to go upstairs to another club called “Sky Bar”, which was on the roof of the building. With an illuminated floor and a beautiful view of the city it was a pretty cool place to hang out. We drank and stood and listened to the techno music pumping through huge speakers. If we were on the ground floor I’m sure people would complain, but we were on top of the tallest building in town, and so there was no problem at all with noise, I guess. It kind of reminded me of a video game that I had played recently.

After several rounds of drinks we went back to down to the basement, and the driver took us to Vishnu’s cousin’s house, who was celebrating her birthday that night. The point of the party was to stay up until midnight and sing her happy birthday, so everyone was standing around talking, eating and drinking beer. The food was really good (with some dishes that we hadn’t had a chance to try yet) and it was interesting to find that there they had two Nepalese cooks working – they knew how to cook pretty well, too. After all this food both of us were at absolutely 100% stomach capacity, however. I had maybe one bite of birthday cake, and I felt like I was going to explode. It was a great chance to see someone else’s home and also to experience a home party in India. Everyone was really friendly to us, and they asked us questions about Japan and its culture, so we got to meet a lot of new people as well. Great stuff we’d normally never get a chance to do.

It was well after midnight before we got the driver to take us home, and then we kind of flopped on the bed and crashed out. I remember swearing that I’d skip breakfast and lunch the next day, but you can probably guess how that turned out.

This day was our check-out day at the hotel, but we wanted to take advantage of that phenomenal breakfast buffet one last time before we left. Again, lots of great food and surprisingly good coffee. I even had some cucumber juice with my toast – there’s something you don’t drink every day.

We checked out and got a taxi to the airport, and then caught a domestic flight on Indigo airlines to Bangalore. Bangalore is in the southern part of India, and is known recently for booming growth on the back of IT technology. There were certainly a lot of high tech types on our plane checking email and talking on their cellphones. It felt a little like I was back in Palo Alto. One cool feature of Indigo airlines was that their planes exuded a cooling mist inside the cabin while waiting for takeoff. There were little vents in the walls above the windows and also above the overhead bins, and while we were boarding, and mist blew in making it sort of a surreal scene.

When we arrived at Bangalore airport it was easy to recognize Vishnu – I hadn’t seen him in twenty years, but he looked exactly the same. He drove us the long distance from the airport to his apartment, and we had plenty of time to catch up and talk about old times at Fresno State University. He took us to the UB building in the center of downtown, and we could enjoy some pan-asian food at a place called Tasty Tangles. There we had some beer and some spicy Asian food, and Vishnu caught us up on what he’s been up to. He’s out of the alcohol business and in the real estate business. I guess that is a good business to be in considering the pace of the growth of Bangalore. He even answered some business phone calls during the lunch, so he must have been doing well.

Next he took us to his home in a fairly quiet neighborhood of Bangalore, about ten minutes from the center of town. We were a little unprepared to not only meet his wife and kids but also his cook and maid. There was a security guard at the front of his apartment building, and overall the place was really nice. The cook (Sheila) made a huge traditional Indian dinner for us, and we ate in the traditional way, using only our hands. In the dining room there was a small wash basin that could be used afterwards to clean up, too. Eating with our hands was pretty tricky, especially once the rice got some sauce on it, but I think we managed OK. It was really fun to talk to Vishnu’s wife Ashka, a very friendly and intelligent lady who was happy to introduce each dish and talk about the dish’s background.

Vish and I stayed up late talking, but we finally decided to call it a night and get ready to look about town the next day.

We kicked off the first full day in Delhi by hitting the breakfast buffet downstairs. They really laid out a spread at this hotel, and it took a while to discover that besides all the western breakfast standards they had some Indian food in the corner – chickpea curry, flatbread, and some steamed veggies and rice porridge. They also had masala lassi – spicy and sweet and full of diced cilantro. Yum. The service was great – serving us hot coffee with hot milk, and waiting on us hand and foot.

After breakfast we got our act together and went out front of the hotel to catch a cab. The big Punjabi doorman called a regular taxi for us, and the driver ushered us into the back and then took off. We asked him to drop us off at the Red Fort in Old Delhi, and he happily sped off in that direction, honking at everything in the way.

We enjoyed the drive there, and especially interesting was the point when we crossed from New Delhi to Old, crossing a bridge that dropped us into a completely different neighborhood. While New Delhi was a planned city with wide streets and trees everywhere, Old Delhi looked like a war zone. So many people, so much trash on the streets, cars haphazardly parked and the streets crowded with pedestrians taking their goods somewhere.

Once we arrived at the Red Fort, the driver drove us past it, explaining that since the next day was Independence Day in India, the whole thing was closed. The best we could do was take pictures from the outside, so he offered to let us out for a picture. We asked to be let off here, and he was pretty reluctant. These guys can smell money, and he seemed to be hoping to stay with us throughout the day. I hated to have the guy waiting around while we did sightseeing, so finally we paid him off and he left. He still offered to stay in the neighborhood if we needed him, but finally he drove away slowly.

We went on foot around the Red Fort taking pictures and watching the preparations for the festivities the next day. The fort was interesting, but not something we were dying to see, so we went on foot through the Chandni Chowk market to find Jama Masjid – an ancient mosque quite near the Red Fort in the eastern part of Old Delhi.

We walked through a metal detector to get into the mosque, and when I walked through it went off. The guy working there just waved us through – I guess it is more for show than anything. We parked our shoes outside, and then paid for two tickets for taking pictures (I’m guessing this is just a way for some guy to make money). Kuniko had to wear a fabric garment that covered her neck to feet – I guess women are not allowed to bare skin inside. Apparently it was fine for me to go in with short sleeves, though – weird.

After we went in the guy that sold us the tickets asked where we were from, and then started in on explaining some of the major points of the mosque in broken Japanese. This was a pretty common scam throughout Delhi. You are looking at something famous and some guy just comes up and starts explaining, and then holds out his hand at the end of it citing some huge number. Luckily we got out of it for 500 rupees – not breaking the bank but just enough to sting. It helped keep us on our guard the rest of the trip, and made for a funny story the rest of the day.

The rest of the morning we walked in and around the markets, peering into shops and stepping around dogs on the street while we drank in the sights and smells of Old Delhi. We rode tuk-tuks around town and tried to keep moving. Anytime we showed any hesitation walking around there suddenly appeared strangers with offers to help, as well as 2-3 taxis, tuk-tuks or bike rickshaws asking if they could take us somewhere. We definitely stood out, and it was a little uncomfortable. After walking around for several hours, we caught a ride back to our hotel, and went up to our room to refresh and clean ourselves off. Then we went down to the bar to look through the guidebook and make some plans without being bothered by strangers on the street. This turned out to be a good move, as it started raining heavily outside. We stayed dry inside, and went through quite a few beers before the weather let up and we were ready to go.

Next stop was to the south to visit Humayun’s Tomb, an UNESCO World Heritage site. We walked through the grounds quite quickly and took some pictures before heading on to the next stop – Connaught Place – a shopping circle at the center of New Delhi that was popular for sightseeing. We spent time in a park, and walking through underground bazaars before finally heading to the restaurant that we wanted to try – Veda.

Veda was kind of a modern Indian restaurant decorated with lots of lights and mirrors. Interesting ambiance, and we decided on a taster’s menu to try various dishes. The dishes were… interesting… but I guess we were hoping for more traditional Indian foods. Still, overall it wasn’t bad and one of my dishes included the largest prawn I’ve ever eaten which was cooked tandoori style and really delicious.

Finally, we filled up at dinner and caught a taxi ride home to the hotel, and made a beeline for bed. It was a full day of sightseeing, and we wanted to get some rest before the early morning trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal the following day.

Today we’re going to wrap up the week, go to our new favorite Chinese restaurant for dinner, and then come home and pack.

Tomorrow it’s off to the airport, and then on to Hong Kong and India for a week or so.

Yesterday we decided to go ahead and book travel for the end of this year. We’ll be taking a short trip to Cambodia and Thailand after Christmas.

I’ll enjoy the blogging vacation for a week, but I’ll try to wrap up as much as possible when we get back on the 21st. See you then!

Today is the day where we try to kill pretty much anything in our fridge that’ll go bad within the week that we’re gone. That makes for some truly strange meal options. There’s not much left in there, and Friday night we’ll go out so that we don’t leave any trash behind. This will truly be a creative night for dinner.

The last few days have been the hottest this year, topping out at around 36 degrees and nearly 90% humidity. I’m watering my plants outside every day and they drink that up quickly. This holiday we asked the Yamaji’s to water our plants while we’re gone, and they were nice enough to say yes. Last night we dropped off a bottle of wine to say thank you. We also have a BBQ plan with them when we get back. I’m afraid they’ll be subjected to lots of vacation pictures, however.

OK, time to go out and face the heat…

Last night I broke a long-standing rule – don’t eat gyoza on a school night. See how wild and crazy I can get.

The obvious choice for take out pot stickers around here is 京都王将の餃子 (Osho) but the amount of garlic they pack into each little dumpling is pretty impressive. Usually we only get them on a Friday or Saturday night, so as not to subject our students to garlic breath the next day.

But they sure sounded good last night. I stopped by the local store on the way home and got just a small pack with some shrimp and crab fried rice and 焼きビーフン (yakibifun – fried chinese? noodles). Everything was great, but the gyoza were spectacular. So I took some internal breath mints to see if I could prevent the garlicopalypse this morning, and I’m happy to report there is no apparent sign of contamination. My students will be glad of that.

Kuniko got some good work-related news, so we’re reacting to that this month. We should know more by the end of the month or beginning of next if it is merely good news or great news. Mysterious, I know, but who knows who is reading this…

At work my students seem to be relatively energetic, but a lot of them have some business trips up to and including next week’s obon holidays. Bad luck for them – some are traveling to America where there are no obon holidays, so there’s not much they can do about it. Hopefully they can catch up on those holidays some other time.

I am not one to miss a holiday, however, and we continue to prepare for our trip bit by bit at home. We picked up a few goodies for Vishnu and his family (including coffee flavored chewing gum) – hopefully they’ll get a kick out of them. The trick will be to make sure they survive the trip until we get to Bangalore.

Tonight after her seminar Kuniko is meeting with some of the other people involved with their next international student to have a quick meeting and a party. That means I’m on my own for dinner tonight. I’m not sure what I’m doing, but leftover salad doesn’t look so good to me right now…

It was another entertaining weekend – party on Saturday and recovery on Sunday. The party on Saturday turned out to be one of the more wild ones in our history, thanks to tequila. All of the members had been here before except for one new person, so I think most people knew what to expect. I grilled up some shish kebabs which turned out OK, except the beef was a little tough. It was a little hard to time it with three different kinds of meat and lots of veggies on there, too. Overall, dinner was good, though. And everybody again brought dessert – I don’t know what we’re going to do with all the sweets and ice cream in our fridge. We’ve got to kill it somehow this week, though.

Sunday we slept in to recover, and finally got ourselves out of bed and out to Sannomiya to pick up some supplies for our trip. There won’t be much time to prepare as our flight leaves next Saturday morning, so we got most of it done Sunday.

For now, it is back to work. The last week of work before a vacation can be brutally slow. Hopefully my students have some motivation to study this week.

Last night after work I met up with the two inspectors at the tachinomi (“the Tach”) north of Hyogo station. It was fun to chat with these guys, curse the Tigers for losing on the TV, and drink beer and wine. There were some new members there as well, so I met some new people who seemed pretty friendly. Next to the inspectors, my intermediate level Japanese sounds like translator level – so I was showered with compliments the whole time I was there. I guess they are not used to foreigners in there that can speak Japanese.

After that I headed on to the station to go home. When I caught the train there was an attractive young woman laying on the floor in front of the opposite side door reading her cell phone. Laying on the floor of the train is definitely unusual behavior for Japan, so I was interested to watch other reactions as people got on the train. Eventually she stood up when the door on her side slid open, but once people got on board she laid back down again. Weird behavior, indeed.

It is Friday, and we’ve got a couple of events planned this weekend. Kuniko has invited a bunch of coworkers over for BBQ, and so I’ll make shish-kebabs and grill sausages for dinner for them. Also on Sunday we’ll go out to Sannomiya to buy some rupees for our trip. Should be fun to get our hands on some more foreign currency!

One of the interesting tips I found while researching our trip this month was that you should start cultivating helpful bacteria in your intestinal tract in order to have a better dining experience on the streets of Delhi. That sounded great to me, so today I’ll be looking for some happy bacteria to introduce to my neighborhood. I’ll let them get comfortable, enjoy some nice easy food like veggies and rice, and then in two weeks they’ll hopefully fight for my cause in an epic battle against things like this.

After work today I’ll probably stop in at the tachinomi to chat with the inspectors from the factory. It sounds like they may be wrapping up their current project, and I’m not sure what is next for them. I guess it is possible that they could stick around, but probably they will move on to something else. These guys have worked and lived all over the world – just going back to the USA now and then between jobs. Interesting – it might be a fun lifestyle for a while, but it would get tough for me after ten or twenty years I think.

OK, I’m out to hunt down some bacteria…

The other day at the party one of the members mentioned that they bumped into another “Bryan” around Okubo. What? This town isn’t big enough for two of us. Turns out the other Bryan is black, and apparently also from California. So in order to differentiate between Bryans in conversation, he is called “Black Bryan”. What they didn’t say, but seemed logical to me, is that by default I’m “White Bryan”.

So I’ve got a new nickname.

I’ve picked up a lot of nicknames since coming to Japan – for example, among another group of drinking buddies I’m called Bura-chan. But “White Bryan” is probably my favorite. Now I have to try to bump into “Black Bryan” and find out what my evil twin is up to in Okubo.