Ballast
I arrive in Kyoto with too much
baggage.
I managed to wake up early, pack, and still catch
the EUV session on the last morning of the conference today. My hotel in
Senri-Chuo is really well located and I'm glad that I didn't get in to the
conference hotel--the Expo park seems like a dull area, save for the roller
coaster and giant (kyodai) ferris wheel. There's actually a monorail (!) that
goes all over the place and happens to connect my hotel to the conference
center. It's a train, way up in the air, on a thick cement beam. How crazy.
Subways, monorails, bullet trains, busses--this place has it
all.
Getting to my hotel in Kyoto only took about 2 hours total--subway, Shinkansen, subway, transfer, subway and I made it in one piece. I'm really starting to feel every ounce of the load I'm dragging, and carrying around. The computer, I keep; but I'm wondering what else might be expendable at this point. I'm actually OK except for one thing--my left leg is still so weak, and my right gets very fatigued from overcompensating. Japanese like up escalators, but there are 10 of those for each down escalator I've seen. So taking the trains and subways always means picking up the bags and walking down three flights of stairs several times, knees trembling. Going slow or taking breaks doesn't seem to make much difference since I still have to make a controlled descent and not fall down the stairs while managing two bags and a backpack.
Fortunately, I don't have any pain on the stairs, and my knee's not locking up or feeling odd. It's just weak!
My Kyoto plans are odd. I almost couldn't get a hotel room on Saturday night, so I booked one of the most expensive places in town, just for that night. Tonight and Sunday night I'm at the Hotel Fujita Kyoto. Tomorrow, I'll be at the Hotel Nikko Princess Kyoto.
Photos from the Hotel Fujita. That's basically my whole room, save for the sink alcove and bathroom.
Cube-bathroom.
This is what the desk looked like before I took it over. Note the origami crane!
Window screen.
I'm more than half-way done with the only English book I brought. Maybe I'll set out to see if there's an English bookstore. There's gotta be one . . . .
Getting to my hotel in Kyoto only took about 2 hours total--subway, Shinkansen, subway, transfer, subway and I made it in one piece. I'm really starting to feel every ounce of the load I'm dragging, and carrying around. The computer, I keep; but I'm wondering what else might be expendable at this point. I'm actually OK except for one thing--my left leg is still so weak, and my right gets very fatigued from overcompensating. Japanese like up escalators, but there are 10 of those for each down escalator I've seen. So taking the trains and subways always means picking up the bags and walking down three flights of stairs several times, knees trembling. Going slow or taking breaks doesn't seem to make much difference since I still have to make a controlled descent and not fall down the stairs while managing two bags and a backpack.
Fortunately, I don't have any pain on the stairs, and my knee's not locking up or feeling odd. It's just weak!
My Kyoto plans are odd. I almost couldn't get a hotel room on Saturday night, so I booked one of the most expensive places in town, just for that night. Tonight and Sunday night I'm at the Hotel Fujita Kyoto. Tomorrow, I'll be at the Hotel Nikko Princess Kyoto.
Photos from the Hotel Fujita. That's basically my whole room, save for the sink alcove and bathroom.
Cube-bathroom.
This is what the desk looked like before I took it over. Note the origami crane!
Window screen.
I'm more than half-way done with the only English book I brought. Maybe I'll set out to see if there's an English bookstore. There's gotta be one . . . .
Posted: Fri - October 29, 2004 at 03:18 PM
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Published On: Oct 31, 2004 10:13 AM
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Published On: Oct 31, 2004 10:13 AM