Back from vacation

[petronia]

Um, that was probably obvious. XD Family matters aside, hung out with Rietta in Tokyo (finally!), Aki and Yin in Shanghai, and Ced in Hong Kong. Some adventures** and a lot of much-needed relaxation. I even got to swim in the ocean, which I wasn't expecting. I think I will write proper day-by-day reports, though, because I'm back to work with a vengeance and memories are all that's left me. XD

Yesterday the first box I mailed to myself (from Tokyo) arrived! It contains a Moomintroll coffee maker, a fishmonger apron from Tsukiji Market, some tea (IIRC??), and a dress I bought in a vintage shop in Harajuku which is sort of... difficult to describe? No, I lie, it's not difficult to describe. It's a stars-and-stripes-patterned dirndl. I can't think of an occasion where I could legitimately wear this (Fourth of July embassy party skit? Lolita Avengers cosplay group?), but it fits perfectly and looks great.



** When the nice NHK weather people indicate with diagrams that the wind will be typhoon-level and to be "home by 3PM to take in your potted plants and laundry lines," they mean 3PM, not 5PM, and certainly not "be caught in the street with a massive non-waterproof paper sack of books at 5PM." I mean, I watched the news, I can't even plead ignorance.

Comments

[labingi]

It sounds like an amazing vacation!

[petronia]

It certainly was!

[charmian]

Ooh, what books did you get?

[petronia]

Mostly manga. Like, mostly Ono Natsume. XD; I didn't have big luggage so I was mailing it to myself anyway, it wasn't cheaper than buying them online. I sent T a packet of Tiger & Bunny doujinshi, though, and the latest Viewfinder which for my sins I'm still reading.

Oh, and Araki Hirohiko's entry in this Shueisha series of expert essays. "A pilot of wisdom" LOL. Araki talks his 100 favourite horror movies. Now that is worth reading. I thought of getting the most recent JoJo novel but it's a massive hardcover.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Typhoon level winds in April? Something distinctly wrong here.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Well, we had a week of temperatures in the twenties around Saint Patrick's Day in Montreal, and the week after that it snowed. *shrugs* The typhoon level wind and rain lasted for most of the afternoon and early evening, and by early the next morning it was like it had never happened - the ground wasn't even damp.

[tsutanai.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough it's not anywhere near unprecedented (and oddly enough, my research allows me to answer that question XD). Rare, yes, I'll give you that. XD

Given the history of wind records in Japan, the supreme confidence of pre-war meteorologists who could comment on poems or tales of really strong wind outside of August-October as "well, clearly it wasn't that strong, because it couldn't have been a typhoon!" is really more the boggling thing.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

It seemed rather to me as if the NHK's approach to this one was "it's not typhoon season, ergo it can't be a typhoon."

[tsutanai.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, but they said "typhoon-strength," right? Which is something quite different.

Typhoons have very specific definitions (actually, all weather terms have frightfully specific definitions--I was tickled to hear about 激しい雨 that might turn into 大雨 in the forecast for this past Friday. Check into the technical distinction between 霧 and 霞 sometime!). That storm wasn't formed tropically, so it wasn't a typhoon, per definition.

It didn't mean that the winds weren't significant, however. XD (And that's where these pre-war meteorologists were being shortsighted. "Not!Typhoon" does not mean "Not!Strong Winds." XD)

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Undamaged, not so much as an ink smear. XD;; Thank goodness for the Japanese mania for packaging. I mean, I literally had to pick everything up from the middle of the street and flee in dudgeon to the post office, soaking wet, to get a cardboard shipping box to carry them back to the hotel in (in a taxi). I did lose a notebook and a pair of knit gloves somewhere in the panic and shuffle, but nothing that was expensive or couldn't be replaced (as opposed to the Shanghai adventure, when I left my fully-stuffed, newly-acquired Penguindrum tote bag on the bus from the airport, and somehow managed to get it back within the hour).

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Also, in my defense, I only went out again because that morning I'd legit stood in line outdoors for THREE HOURS for sushi, and if I'd just stayed at the hotel I would have accomplished nothing with my day.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

That sushi had better have been 'I just spoke to God' quality.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

It was excellent, but I think not worth three hours (my sushi connoisseurship is not advanced enough anyway; I probably could have gotten the best sushi of my life in a bazillion places around Tokyo). After an hour and a half one feels obliged to stick it out, though...

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

After an hour and a half one feels obliged to stick it out, though...

This is the sentence that does not compute. 'That's 90 minutes of my life I'll never get back', is what I think. Was this a super-famous sushiya or something?

(In fact, it's the standing for 90 minutes that I can't take. Things start to hurt if I don't get to sit down.)

[petronia.livejournal.com]

It was, at least among the Tripadvisor crowd. There were white backpacker kids in line, but also Asian tourists, Japanese from out of town, and one overseas Japanese family. I suspect fewer ppl usually stick it out, but the fact that the weather was nice that morning worked against one!

[tsutanai.livejournal.com]

Was this the 爆弾低圧気, then?

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Probably! It swept in and across and over from the Sea of Japan, if I remember the visualization correctly.