Zach Margolis

Back to Regularly Scheduled Programming

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 10:00:00 -0700

I got back to the US yesterday, which basically signals the end of the summer for me. My normal, more sparsely populated blog at zachmargolis.com will continue, and hopefully I’ll be able to update it soon.

Nagoya Design Museum Yesterday’s excursion was to Nagoya. I had...

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 17:10:53 -0700

Nagoya Design Museum

Yesterday’s excursion was to Nagoya. I had intended to check out the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology and the Nagoya Aquarium, but it turns out they are closed Mondays. By the time we found this out, it was too late to change our train reservations, and we were a little short on days remaining in Japan as well.

Hence, the Nagoya Design Museum as a consolation. It took forever to find the building, and we passed it at least once, since from that side it was not obviously labeled. We were going to try to check out a temple, but accidentally picked a train in the wrong direction. That ended up getting us too far, and we lost too much time to be able to make it back in time for our Shinkansen reservation. I attribute the error to fatigue—this long, nonstop week is definitely catching up with me.

Harajuku One of the most fashionable districts in all of Tokyo,...

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 17:01:11 -0700

Harajuku

One of the most fashionable districts in all of Tokyo, which is saying something. We wandered the area about two days ago, but I’ve been a little behind on posting.

Harajuku also has a lot of vintage clothing, and I heard once that Americans can make a huge killing by selling American vintage apparel here.

Inari I don’t remember what the word is for these square...

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 06:45:34 -0700

Inari

I don’t remember what the word is for these square arches, but I walked through at least a couple hundred of them today in Inari, near Kyoto. They covered many yards of footpaths, and were all kind of the same after a while. My feet got tired, too.

Crowded Bus We were packed in like sardines on this Kyoto bus....

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 06:44:27 -0700

Crowded Bus

We were packed in like sardines on this Kyoto bus. I like riding the train more than riding the bus, because even though the trains can get more dense, the fact that a train is on a track means it won’t make any crazy sharp turns that throw you against your neighbors.

Kyoto This is a street on the way to Ginkakujin, the silver...

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 06:43:30 -0700

Kyoto

This is a street on the way to Ginkakujin, the silver temple, in Kyoto. Kyoto has a much less urban vibe to it than Tokyo. That’s not to say every street in Kyoto looks like this, but to me, this kind of scene is generally what Kyoto felt like.

Shinkansen Today, I rode both my first and second Shinkansens,...

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 06:41:54 -0700

Shinkansen

Today, I rode both my first and second Shinkansens, known in English as Bullet Trains. Definitely a pretty comfortable ride, and of course, super fast, very reliable, on-time, all that good stuff. Makes me super glad that California is going ahead with our high-speed rail plans.

Youth Hostel We have been staying at Tokyo Sumidagaya Youth...

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 05:55:28 -0700

Youth Hostel

We have been staying at Tokyo Sumidagaya Youth Hostel since last night. Totally forgot to post this: bunk beds! I have top bunk! Definitely better than sleeping on a traditional Japanese futon (as I have been for the last 10 weeks).

Himalaya Curry See the Comic Sans on the sign? If I had seen...

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 05:52:37 -0700

Himalaya Curry

See the Comic Sans on the sign? If I had seen that before I had eaten at this place, I probably would have snubbed it. That would have been a bad call because this place was great. I had super spicy curry and delicious garlic nan.

Mos Burger I want to say that Mos Burger is the In-N-Out Burger...

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 04:07:00 -0700

Mos Burger

I want to say that Mos Burger is the In-N-Out Burger of Japan, but that may be a stretch. It’s pretty good, and the locals like it, but it’s not even close to giving In-N-Out a run for it’s money.

I had a chicken burger today, and it was pretty good.

Akihabara at Night I love the crazy bustle ambiance, in small...

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 06:01:49 -0700

Akihabara at Night

I love the crazy bustle ambiance, in small doces. For those of you at home, go check out “Lost in Translation” to get a sense of Tokyo nighttime urban scenery. I think it’s available for streaming on Hulu.

Rice Field: Harvested That same rice field that sprouted was...

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:00:17 -0700

Rice Field: Harvested

That same rice field that sprouted was harvested within the last day or so. Sort of fitting, since today is my last day at the home.

Sunset Behind the home I’m at, just before dinner. Spectacular.

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 03:31:08 -0700

Sunset

Behind the home I’m at, just before dinner. Spectacular.

Shamisen Performance Went to a festival this weekend to see one...

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:45:12 -0700

Shamisen Performance

Went to a festival this weekend to see one of the workers at the home play the shamisen, that kind of plucky sounding traditional Japanesr guitar shaped instrument. She’s the one on the right in the brown.

I can’t say I’m totally in love with this kind of music, but variety is always good.

Guy Sleeping on a Train On my way to the temple at Nikko last...

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 05:05:11 -0700

Guy Sleeping on a Train

On my way to the temple at Nikko last week, I snapped this picture of a guy passed out on the train. Notice that he even took his shoes off. In the US, the newspaper blanket would immediately flag this guy as a bum, but his dress reveals that he is probably just another member of the overworked Japanese labor force.

The Three Wise Monkeys Everybody knows “See no evil, hear no...

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 04:15:00 -0700

The Three Wise Monkeys

Everybody knows “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” right? Well today in Nikko, Japan, I visited a famous temple with this carving of said monkeys. If you look closely, you can see, in fact, that there are the three monkeys.

According to the Wikipedia, this carving (17th century) helped to popularize the image/folktale of the three wise monkeys.

Rice Fields: Follow-up I noticed about two days ago that all...

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 06:03:22 -0700

Rice Fields: Follow-up

I noticed about two days ago that all the nearby rice fields started growing stuff. Sprouting grains? Flowering? Plant terminology is definitely not my forté, but I do know that starting in September/October, the locals start to harvest the rice.

Checklist

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 18:42:00 -0700

So I’ve been in Japan for slightly more than 7 weeks now, and I realize that Japan is not so different from Davis, CA. To prove this point, here’s a checklist:

Bicycles
In Japan, bicycles are the kids’ main method of transportation. In Davis, we use bikes as well.
Spazzy Weather
Common Japanese weather pattern: sun, rain, sun, clouds, humidity (sometimes earthquakes too). Davis can be the same, except the humidity and the earthquakes.
Asian People
Japan: this is an Asian country, duh.
Davis: it’s a UC, duh. In the UC system, Asians are practically the majority.
Farmland
At least where I’m staying in Japan, there is plenty of farmland in the form of rice fields. In Davis, the city is surrounded by farmland, and I think that the I-80 causeway goes over rice fields too.

So I guess it’s only four points, but I just wanted to show that basically Davis and Japan have some things in common.

Fireworks Fireworks are cheap, legal, and easy to find in...

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:00:00 -0700

Fireworks

Fireworks are cheap, legal, and easy to find in Japan. And the kiddies love ‘em.

John Lennon Museum Yesterday I took a trip to the John Lennon...

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 21:02:53 -0700

John Lennon Museum

Yesterday I took a trip to the John Lennon Museum in Saitama Shin-toshin. They had some cool stuff, costumes, clothes, original notes for a few songs (including a hotel napkin with the lyrics to Imagine). Since the museum was founded with with permission from Yoko Ono, there are plenty of mentions of her in various captions as well.