Day one Rome

It is interesting that word press and the iPad are not allowing me to upload a photo. But regardless it was not much of a photo. The flight here was rough, turbulence, however, it should be noted that I slept through it, yes I slept on a flight- odd! I did arrive in time for my demo. As a guy who has worked for so long in quality assurance, noting experience, I think I have come up with a defect tracking system that I would use.

After my demo I felt like some exercise so I walked around Rome for four hours. And now For some wine and a evening walk around Vatican city. Tomorrow I head to Naples and Pompeii of course.

Ciao,
Rob

London Day Two – Museums and Runs

Woke up at 6am and did my morning run in London. It was a little under a 3 mile run which I completed in 23 minutes. The run was tied in with a 20 minute walk. The walk was 10 minutes each way and the run was to Buckingham palace and around the parks. The walking was by the national gallery and up the strand. It was both a cold and brisk run. Best parts of the run were the kings of Leon on my ipod and the brave ducks/other assorted birds that did not move for me during the run.

Today I will go to a few cool places:e
– The National Gallery
– The British museum
– The Royal Academy of art
– Westminster Abbey
– And more

I love the British museum and the national gallery the best. I love the exercise of the four plus hours of walking more! So, time to get off the iPad and to start my day.

Ciao,
Rob

Philadelphia Museum of Art ~ Some thoughts

This weekend I caught a flight to Philadelphia to see the Opera Company of Philadelphia’s performance of Otello. I had waited to long to book the flight, so I had three hours of free time on Sunday morning before the Opera started. I took advantage of this extra time to visit the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Given the size of the Museum and my three extra hours I figured I could get a great preview of the collection and I could use the time to plan my next visit and go back in November when I am back in town for the Dave Mathews Band Concert.

It is common knowledge that I love art museums so at this point everyone must be saying; “yeah, Rob is happy he had three hours to spend in a museum”, and while this was visit was different and at times fun, it was anything but typical. My first stop was the Yokohama Prints. What a great exhibit and the time spent was fun, but I was totally unprepared for what happened next. The museum employees became part of the exhibit; discussions of weight, diet, lunch breaks and more, all in loud tones which the museum acoustics helped carry throughout the exhibits. I shrugged my shoulders and decided to join into the conversation. I figured they had just opened and I was the first visitor of the day and it should be noted that the staff was extremely pleasant and asked me if I needed any assistance.

The next exhibit I visited had a employee sleeping lightly on a bench, must have been a good Saturday night, and man I need a government job! By now the museum was teaming with activity as more and more visitors started filling the galleries. This is when it got odd, the employees started prancing. The more that there was an audience of visitors the louder the staff got, from discussions of breaks, lunch, the crowd or what happened on Saturday night. I mention this because it was so odd and it was a great distraction. When looking at European art the one thing you are usually not prepared to consider is how to tune out the staff or do as I did, join in on the conversation! I joined the museum so I will be going back, this time I will consider packing earplugs! There are many good works to see in the museum, you might want to bring earplugs or the willingness to join into the staff conversation.

Cheers,

Rob

Last Day in Bangkok

Well ~ The last day has turned out to be a bit of fun. To start with I did a little private tour to an open air museum that is designed and shaped to be a historical depiction of houses, boats, temples and other architecture through time. In addition animals were around from each reason including snakes. To get around you used a golf cart. It was pretty cool and I had a knowledgeable tour guide with a sense of humor.  When this was over it was back to the hotel to Pack before heading back out. When I went back out I went to a couple of temples and markets that were not on the map. I find it is good to see a city alone or in a small group, so you are not threatening, and can randomly observe. It was a great walk and I met some very unique characters. I use the word unique because this is the word that every Thia person I met used to describe the Thia people. The people always seemed grateful for anything you did for them, a small tip brought immediate gratitude. I posted some photos from this day and walk around the temples.

• Open Air Park: http://yonaitis.shutterfly.com/10785
• Temple Near Hotel: http://yonaitis.shutterfly.com/10767

Long flight home, Sleep and then code, This was a very short vacation in Thailand, two days, but it was good. As a person of European Descent I find it comfortable to go to Europe but Asia is something very different so I think the next time I get some days off I will go to Thailand, Hong Kong, China, and India. Last minute packing time, the car is coming in 20 minutes to take me to the airport.

Ciao

Maeklong,Kwai Noi,and Kwai Yai rivers & The Burma (Myanmar) Border

Hello Sports Fans, as I write this post Kolb is in for the Philadelphia Eagles and that is all I can figure out from watching NFL dot Com.

Yesterday was very interesting and to all my English as a second language friends that I suggest to not use the word interesting, “I know how to use it sparingly!”

OK, onto the post: I questioned my sense of my decision of scheduling a on a tour at 630am after getting into Bangkok at midnight but the end result proved it to be the correct choice. The day started with a drive through Bangkok on a big bus but that was the end of the boring. The day started with a visit to the War Museum at the Thailand-Burma railway center and then a ride on a long tail boat on the rivers Maeklong, Kwia Noi, and Kwia Yai. Now the ride was short, maybe 30 minutes but it was fun. I was on a boat with an English couple and their daughter. Side note, they arrived to Bangkok but British Airways did not see fit to deliver their luggage – I hope their luggage was waiting for them at the hotel later that evening.

The river had beautiful mansions along it and very poor and broken down/occupied houses. I find most of Bangkok to be a trip into contrasts and as our tour director said; “If something bad happens in Bangkok just forget it,” and then she broke into song, “Que Sera, Sera, whatever will be will be,” yes Doris Day is International!

The scenic view up the river and on the bridge was amazing, however, the train ride on the “death railway train” was the big part of this tour. But before this tour there was a dog story. The tour group stopped at the Pakseng Pier for lunch – Lunch was uneventful except for the dog. Tripod, I will call the dog and not because she had three legs like the dog in Disney’s movie “The Kid” but because she had only three good legs. She followed me and sat at my feet under the table. I took an extremely small helping of chicken and eggs and some rice and veggies. Tripod got my chicken and eggs and when everyone else was done eating (it was like they were going to eat every last drop!) I gave more to tripod. As soon as they cleared the table tripod left me to find someone else to fed her after she licked the hand that fed her!

The train ride that followed along the Burma border and the river was great, from the rainstorms to the old Japanese caves, CIRCA WWII. It was like being transported to a different world. Well more later, I did post some photos of the scenery on facebook and my public photo share http://yonaitis.shutterfly.com/10702.

The important thing to remember if you have lunch at the Pakseng Pier and there is a small tan dog with only three good legs, feed her!

Time to find some temples… As my tour guide said; “we have had a busy day, Yeeaaaahhhhhh, but Bye Bye”

Rob

Kamakura Walking Tour

The morning was overcast, and I thought it would rain. By the time I got to see this Buddha Statue, the sun was out and I was feeling overdressed.  As a note: there are many choices of what to see as far as tours go and I decided to take the tour that gave me both the freedom to hop on a train and go see whatever I most wanted to most see and to also be guided by a knowledgeable guide to suggest what i should look at. This tour fit the mold. The different temples were really interesting and the tour guide was both knowledgeable with a bonus of being both a Buddhist and a a practitioner  of Shintu (the way of the gods.)

This, the previous statement of both practicing and respecting different religions itself is very interesting especially at a time when the courts in India are ruling on a Mosque and a Hindu shrine and who owns it that I got to hear of this religious practice that says let them all live together! Perhaps the judges had visited the Kamakura Temple that has both Buddhist and Shintu Shrines when the decided to have the shite be shared as important to both Islam and Hinduism (is that a word?) – It should be said that it remains to be seen if the supreme court will uphold the lower courts decision in India.

One of the pleasures of the tour was the Kotokuin Temple and the photo on this page is the great buddha. Stands over 40 feet tall and you can walk inside of it if you want.

After this we ended up having a good lunch and a Ice Cold Refreshing Asahi beer. Both the beer and the food hit the spot and it prepared us to go to the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine. This shrine was Founded in 1063 and it is said that this is Kamakura’s most important shrine (the guide book said it was dedicated to Hachiman, the patron god of the samurai) – So as we walked to the shrine it was told that this path that I was walking on was only used by the most devoted samurai. It was a grand walk and entrance into the shrine and I learned about something Interesting. I noticed standing up many bulletin board like structures. On the structures were white pieces of paper tied to the strings. It immediately  made me think of the western wall in Jerusalem. So I asked the tour guide about the papers.

So the Background: At the western wall you can write a prayer and leave it in the cracks in the wall. It is a way to leave a prayer to god (Call it a direct call versus a long distance call.)

So I asked; “were the Shintu worshipers leaving a prayer for the gods?”

Tour Guide Answer: No. The answer was interesting. The pilgrams (if that term fits) will go buy a fortune. If it is a good fortune they pocket it and take it home and if it is not they leave it there on the strings! So it is not a good thing, but it is a hope, It was not explained fully so I will guess it was tied there to ask the gods to protect them from the bad fortune or left as a returned item, who knows. What I can tell you is that the tolerance of the religious people I met was so high that they would have laughed at that joke or miss statement.

The rush hour train ride back to SHINJUKU station was fun and interesting — the people and/or culture observance was cool and next to a Friday night in Reykjavik Iceland it may have been one of the interesting cultural experiences that I have had in a while.

I am happy to say that the day was a success and now to rate the tour. I liked it because it gave me the freedom after the pickup to come and go as i want, there are many things to do in Tokyo and the surrounding area, I cannot tell you what may be better but I can tell you this was OK for me ad the event was made special by the tour guide and the people in the tour.

Off to Thialand tonight, another blog post tomorrow after breakfast (Saturday – here in Tokyo) the weekend begins.

Sayounara,

Rob

I put some photos of the shrines on my public photo share site: http://yonaitis.shutterfly.com/