jinian

Wim's dad and stepmom were in Kyoto, and it doesn't cost that much to take the shinkansen to Kyoto from Nagoya. I got to take them to what turns out to be one of my favorite places, the Kyoto Museum of Traditional Crafts. There are exhibits for EVERYTHING, with some working crafters, and visitors can do surigata-yuzen dyeing, which uses a brush and stencils to make shaded designs. Here are the dragonflies I did on a handkerchief.



They later got some maples and acorns on there to keep them company. This technique is not hard, and a person could laser-cut the stencils. It does require nice, thin, impermeable paper, which reminded me of vellum. (Wim thinks mulberry paper, but I think that's more tissue-like.)

We had lunch at the building's cafe and then went to a temple. I wish I knew which one; this is what happens when you let other people plan. [Edit: Definitely Nanzen-ji; I found the ticket from going up inside the Sanmon.] Absolutely stunning leaves, even in the pouring rain.





You could climb that big gate in the background, and here's the view from above.

We got in a bit late after a turbulent flight yesterday, then went to brunch with my parents and M-pig. All is substantially well in the home place, modulo clutter and dirt, so after a small cleaning freakout I went to bed for the afternoon with cats on me as planned. Woke up for more cleaning and cooking (BAKING in my OVEN), then back to bed around midnight for fourteen hours with additional cats-on-me time. Currently on the couch, mind operating about one-quarter speed. I had visions of a Yuletide treat but I am thinking no.

Very glad to be home. I think all the sleeping is more about MY BED and the completion of a very stressful experience than it is about jet lag. Also cats are highly soothing when not hissing at each other, and Hex is an axolotl.

Oh, hey, I kinda disappeared, sorry. I did not get eaten by the zoo animals at this time. I did see bikers on Big Wheels (motor-tricycles anyway), and I did go the wrong way:



I still don't know how it happened, but I went behind that tennis center and got nowhere and turned, and then there was a whole lot of nothing. There was a guy walking down the other side of the street at one point who looked like a fifty-year-old from a rock band, and he had a dog who was clearly some mutt, not a canonical Japanese dog (usually a little Shiba Inu, sometimes dachshunds, always tidy). I liked them both immediately.

I didn't think I would ever see this in Japan:



But there was wildlife!

( Grasshoppers and butterflies, anyhow. )

I walked over a very large hill on that unmaintained sidewalk and wound up in Kitaotsubo, which I had not heard of before. Oops. To do: get a map of the entire city, not just part of it. I turned left and walked some more, and got to Uedayama, which I had also not heard of. There was an option to go left again, back over the mountain, but I went forward some more in my dead-reckoning way, and triumphed -- eventually I hit a T-junction, but with the chance to walk through a forested bit, and after that I saw a parking sign for Higashiyama something and started hearing loudspeaker announcements.

Lots of people with kids were around, always a good sign of a zoo, and I even got valuable information from one of the kids. He went up to a shrub and picked some inconspicuous flowers, then smelled them as he carried them off. I sniffed carefully and found that they were the source of the mysterious, wonderful tropical-fruit smell that I keep detecting in random places around the city. Once I knew what the bush looked like, I found out they're usually white, but these were orange:



Now I just have to figure out what their name is.

When I arrived I was very puzzled that I didn't have to pay -- this happened several times during the day, and later I found out that everything was free due to the Nagoya City Festival. Score. I walked into this:



It is, unfortunately, an old-school zoo. None of the animals really had enough space to be happy, and some of them were clearly messed up and pacing freakily. The babies, the birds, and the herps were all just fine, though. There was a lot to enjoy.

( Cut for many smallish photos )

What is it with me and late-season typhoons? Well, I'll get to Nagoya when I get there. My flight is still scheduled at 1, and Wim and M-pig are driving me to the airport plenty early.

(I am, of course, already unnecessarily awake. Of all the traits I could've inherited from a dad I'm not genetically related to, I didn't want this one.)

Komarr is the exact right thing to read, right down to the "lovesick mania for volunteerism."

He would not, could not, work through it all in an hour, or a day, or even a year; each day must have the challenge and response appropriate to it. One damn thing after another, Vorkosigan had said. But not, thank heavens, all things simultaneously.

And last night I did something that was the exact right thing to do: Journey to the End of the Night Seattle. Wim told me about it in the afternoon, so I wasn't really prepared for a footrace, but I got him to bring me better shoes and ditched my backpack at the lab and we went. I was so very tired, but getting chased through the city was Not Remotely Like Work and I took a chance on it (assuming I could ditch at any time and go home).

( This got pretty long, but it was great. )

Thursday afternoon: Very good comic store, where I got a minicomic about Caroline Herschel (yay!) and the Keiko-Takemiya-drawn Andromeda Stories v1. The latter is not at all recommended for anyone who dislikes insects or especially spiders; it creeped me out and I'm generally fine with them. Otherwise it's quite interesting: during a peaceful royal succession and marriage, it transpires (to some) that their planet is being attacked by subtle enemies, and there are more undercover agents of other galactic powers around than one might have thought. A secret prince in the wilderness also features.

Wandered down the street and through a slightly magical plant nursery. Ate paneer mint curry, which was delicious but turned out to have a few tomatoes here and there. Went to a community sing-along, which was both fun and poorly organized enough that I only managed to tolerate it for about an hour -- there was an accordionist as well as the guitarists, and I got to explore inside the (often locked) community garden, so overall a win. Cats were bad in demanding their food until their people got home.

Friday: Cats were sweet in sleeping on me and wanting pets. Had to pick up the car from downtown, went to the Christian Science Mapparium on the way. The Christian Science grounds are soothing and beautiful, and the Eddy library has a light fixture with etched air vehicles as well as lovely mosaic work with mother-of-pearl tiles. The Mapparium is amazing: obviously dated, as globes get, but very skilled glasswork and a good educational tool. The glass colors were surface-applied or intrinsic depending on color, which led to the land seeming to rise out of the ocean, but only in places. The lighting could be changed for dramatic effect, including one level where the land all seemed dark and water glowed, which was somehow really touching. Plus, you can whisper to other people from the ends of it, or to yourself in the middle.

Subway stations suck when it's hot. Ice cream became necessary: raspberry sorbet and saffron orange kulfi is a strange combination (mainly due to cardamom), but good.

Today: Cats were scratching around all night and keeping me awake; next time I will know this likely signals a mess on the floor and will have the option of taking care of it sooner. Moody but still pleased to be here. Napped some already and might do it again later, because VACATION.

Reading: Um. The Death of Speedy, Instead of Three Wishes, Wild Robert, The Little White Horse. Catching up on science blogs, which among other things reminded me that HIV is scary as fuck -- yes I know we have antiretrovirals now, but it mutates far faster than I thought possible, which means resistance evolution. At least I found this out in the context of advances in reactivating latently infected cells so that it could possibly be cured someday. (ETA: Good summary of current AIDS work.)

Off to Boston, whee! This meant lots and LOTS of work for the last week or three, and I'll have to work on my science stuff some while I'm away since we're trying to submit a paper on September 1, but VACATION YAY.

Also I appear to be able to digest things right now, which is a major win. Still being very very careful.

The girl ahead of me in line was playing Phoenix Wright. I have Professor Layton on my 3DS for later. I felt like we should smash our handheld games together in an advertisement for the crossover.

Determining actual dates for this fall's Japan trip is surprisingly stressful! It doesn't look like I need a visa (less than 90 days, not being paid for work), but they're telling me that room reservations are hard to get and then asking me for specific days I want them. I want to be flexible so we can get something! I said flexible, suggested days, and said flexible again, which I think should both get the point across and allow them a starting point.

And my head hurts, I have a bunch to do today, and there's a postdoc candidate visiting. But having PI back in town helped kick me into a more motivated mode yesterday. We're going to rush to publication on the (latest) project that wouldn't die, which is both a stressor and a relief.

Teaching helped too; I'd been putting it off, because argh dealing with humans, but the undergrad is a good and clever one and I like teaching. It went great.