Darren Holloway

Remember to handle every stressful situation like a dog: If you can’t eat it or hump it, pee on it and walk away.

About a year-and-a-half ago, I wrote this very short entry, which said (in its entirety):

My car is one year and ten days old today, and I just rolled over to 10,000 km. That’s 6000 miles for the metric-impaired. I think I’ll buy her a drink. She looks thirsty.

Today I found the following comment in the moderation queue:

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Now let’s see…

1. The comment is longer than the entry itself.
2. It did not contain any links to questionable web sites.

Either someone is being sarcastic, or I have been hit by the world’s worst comment spammer.

Comment: Mark as Spam. Click. Done.

Today is my birthday. I decided to treat myself to a frozen pizza.

I went over to Safeway and got a pizza. All I had was a $100 bill. All she had for change were $1 bills. So I got 94 one dollar bills and a pizza.

She said “Go over to customer service; they can trade it up.” But there was nobody there. After five minutes of waiting, a cashier decided to call on the intercom for customer service. After 10 minutes, they called again. After 15, I gave up.

Frankly, it annoys me that Retail stores assume their customers’ time is worthless. By making us wait longer, they save money by not having to pay one more employee.

Photos from my November 2009 trip to Japan to photograph the fall colours are now up on Flickr.

I am too lazy to make 110 individual links.

Googlefood only…

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Tomorrow I fly home. Which means today, I took the train from Kyoto to Tokyo, dumped my bag in a locker at Tokyo Station, then headed over to Akihabara to buy stuff and visit the cat cafe.

Yes, the cat cafe – A place where you can have a coffee and play with cats.

After 3 days of trying, I finally found Eikan-do!

Fall colours at Eikan-do, Kyoto, Japan.

I’m in Kyoto and my feet are sore. I’ve been looking for a certain temple for two days now and haven’t been able to find it. Fortunately, I’m finding lots of other nice stuff.

Fall Maple Tree Leaves in Kyoto, Japan

I’m in Nara right now, despite the amazing fact that I somehow missed my train stop when it was the last stop on the line. Yes, when the train starts going the other way, you know you’re doing something wrong.

I woke up this morning at the photographer-friendly time of 5:30 a.m. and walked over to Nara Park. It’s huge. And full of really tame deer.

Deer and Japanese Schoolgirl in Nara Park.

Being there so early in the morning gave me a chance to catch the good morning light, and catch the monks in the act of… well, whatever the heck he was doing.

Sunrise at a temple in Nara, where a monk is throwing water around.

Around 4:00 p.m. I was getting pretty sore and tired – I’m not used to spending 8+ hours on my feet, so I spent the rest of the day studying Japanese.

There’s nothing like climbing a mountain to teach you how out of shape you are.

Yesterday, I went to Mount Takao, which involved taking the subway 14 stops to Shibuya station, realizing that I meant to go to Shinjuku station instead, three stops on the JR line to Shinjuku, then taking the commuter railway for 50 minutes to Takaosanguchi. Then, a simple 4 km walk up 600 metres of vertical to the temple at the top of the mountain.

Oddly, there were a few maple trees at the station that were in glorious fall colours, but higher up on the mountain, most of the trees had yet to start turning.

About 3/4 of the way up, there was a reasonably good view of part of Tokyo, which stretches as far as the eye can see, yet it’s still beyond comprehension that 35 million people live here.

Tokyo from Mt. Takao

Since the days are short, I took a ski-lift chair down from about 2/3 of the way up the mountain. It was very Japanese; you stand on a conveyor belt and the chair sneaks up on you; at the end, you step off onto another conveyor belt. The whole way down, it was either 3 metres off the ground, or three metres above a raised platform with net so you wouldn’t hurt yourself (much) if you fell, yet there was no bar to keep you in the chair.

It’s just started drizzling here in Tokyo; today I head off for Nara, where it’s cloudy and expected to be sunny tomorrow.

Here in Tokyo, it is (a) cool and (b) raining. It started getting dark around 4:00.

But at least I found my first maple tree in Koishikawa Koraku Park…

I’ve got all the bookings done for my second trip to Japan; I went in the spring to photography Cherry Blossoms, now I’m going back to photograph Fall Colours.

This is my Itenerary:

And here it is on a map, along with my trip earlier this year.

Things/Places to see/go:

Tokyo

Takao san Mount Takao, Temple, Hiking, Foliage.
8:00 am to 5:00 pm. Keio Railways offer the cheapest and fastest connections to Takaosan. Direct semi-limited express trains, which take about 50 minutes and 370 yen, leave the underground Keio Shinjuku station every 20 minutes. Takaosanguchi Station, the train’s terminal station, is located at the foot of the mountain.The JR alternative is by Chuo Line from Shinjuku to Takao Station (540 yen, about 50 minutes), where you transfer to the Keio Line and ride one more station to Takaosanguchi Station (120 yen, 2 minutes).

Rikugi-en Gardens
9 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is a short walk from Komagome Station on the JR Yamanote line and the Tokyo Metro Namboku Line.

Koishikawa Koen Gardens with good fall colours.
9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Koishikawa Korakuen is a 5-10 minute walk from Iidabashi Station (various JR and subway lines) or a 10 minute walk from Korakuen Station on the Marunouchi and Nanboku Subway Line.

Kyoto:

Tofuku-ji Said to be the best place for fall in Kyoto.
9:00 to 4:00. Tofukuji is a 10-15 minute walk from Tofukuji Station on the Keihan Main Line and JR Nara Line. By JR, Tofukuji Station it is just one station from Kyoto Station (2 minutes, 140 Yen by local train).

Fushimi Inari-taisha The ten thousand tori.
24 hours! The shrine is a three-minute walk from JR Nara Line Inari Station, 10 minutes from Kyoto Station. It is a five-minute walk from Keihan Electric RailwayMain Line Fushimi-Inari station.

Kiyomizudera Temple The “balcony” temple.
Hours 6:00 am to 6:00 pm. Kiyomizudera can be reached from Kyoto Station in about 15 minutes by bus. Take bus number 100 or 206 and get off at Kiyomizu-michi or Gojo-zaka, from where it is a 10-15 minute uphill walk to the temple.

Eikando Temple The “Maple Leaf” Temple. Lit up at night!
Evening hours are 5:30 to 9:00. Due north of Nanzenji Temple. From Kyoto Station, take city bus #5, and get off at “Nanzen-ji Eikando-michi.”

Gots to Sleeps Some!

MTWR 16-19 Jimbocho Sakura Hotel, Tokyo.
2-21-4 Kanda-Jimbocho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-0051
Jimbocho Station, exit A6 (Been there before; don’t need directions ;) )

RFSU 19-22 Nara Ugaya, Nara
4-1 Okukomoricho, Nara City, Japan
From JR Nara station (5min): After coming out the station, go past a Lawson (a convenience store you can see on your right) and cross the street. Keep walking straight and you will find UGAYA guest house on your right just before the end of the street.

UMTWRF 22-27 Guest House Yahata, Kyoto
544 Yahata-cho, Gojo-agaru, Nishinotoin, Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto-shi 600-8455
Take Kyoto city bus and alight at Gojo Nishinotoin．1 minute walk from any bus stops on Gojo Nishinotoin.

FS 27-28 Jimbocho Sakura Hotel, Tokyo

Logistics

Narita -> 東京 Tokyo 1000 円
1. Take the Keisei express train.
2. At Oshiage station, change to the Hanzomon subway line.
3. Get off at Jinbocho Station Z07.

東京 -> 奈良 Nara 14050 円
1. Tokyo Station
2. JR Nara Station

奈良 -> 京都 Kyoto 610 円
1. JR Nara Station
2. Kyoto Station

京都 -> 東京 13520 円
Should be obvious ;)

At the end of November, I’m heading back to Japan for two weeks to photograph the fall foliage.

Links:

• Google Maps-like Fall Foliage Meter.
• General Fall Forecast

Anurag, Rika, and I went to Hakone gardens in Saratoga today for an afternoon of Japanese Tea Ceremonies.

I got tea, sore knees, and a good photo. Overall, this is better than yesterday when I broke a golf club.

In real life, this is about a square centimeter…

Ants actually farm aphids, like cows, for the 'honeydew' they produce; in reality, the honeydew is nothing more than high-sugar aphid poop.

Warning: Boring google food article.

Your problem:

Your Matroshka files played fine in Mac OS/X 10.5, but then you updated to Snow Leopard, and now you get tons of error messages, and they may (or may not) play.

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I like California. We have nice vegetables. This will be part of my dinner tonight.

Pepper Family Portrait

Update! Pepper family missing and presumed eaten!

Last known photo of pepper family.

The little red pepper and the light yellow Hungarian pepper next to it were so sweet, they would have been overpowered in the stir fry, so I made tsukemono (Japanese quick pickles) out of them. That’s what’s on the plate to the right.

I had booked a flight from San Jose to Lewiston, Idaho to visit my Dad & Stepmother on their vacation.

The flight cost $450.00

Then I decided to change the booking so I had 2 more days.

It would have cost me an additional $800 to change the flight; total $800+450 = $1,250.00

Instead, I canceled the flights and booked a new set of flights for $399.00

$399 + $450 Credit – $150 cancellation fee = $700.00 net.

The camera built into the IPhone is pretty crappy. But then again, sometimes the best camera is the one you have with you at the time…

Demonstrating the highest level of commitment to workplace safety.

When I was in Japan and would eat at a restraunt, this is typical of the meal. 800 yen ~ $8

People learn that certain things are a certain way, like the brake is on the left. Eventually, they develop subconscious affordances such as brake instead of push left foot.
The gas station nearest to me obviously understands the affordance of cheapest button is on the left.

When people don't eat enough shrimp, they grow into these monsters. I think I saw one of them fighting Godzilla.

This is apparently how brussel sprouts grows in the wild - In the form of a club for striking people.

Aphids at work. No, they’re not working; I took this at my office.