Day 2/3

So it's Wednesday lunch. Things are starting to ramp up a bit. Traffic still isn't above the normal variation... yet. Although the signs are there that it's going to be worse. I'm starting to see a lot more folks wandering off towards the side streets and the Detour signs are starting to appear.

Starting tomorrow I'll be biking in part way to avoid the worst of the expected build ups. So far I have to say "Good Job" the the traffic planners. We'll see how well they did in the next 2 days :)

US Open Day 0 and Day 1

Since I work in Torrey Pines I thought it might be a fun (or at least amusing to me) idea to chronicle how the US Open affects my daily commute. What I did was to walk around last Friday and take pictures around the outside of the Golf course at 6pm. Then each day I'll take pictures of my commute and post the interesting ones with commentary about the drive.

Day 0 (Friday)



The first thing I noticed was all of the myriad signs that have appeared in the last few days. Everything from Extreme delay warnings and No Parking to Shuttle direction signs.

For some reason traffic was extremely light Friday.



Day 1 (Monday)

Monday was pretty light. I managed to get to work with no problems. I didn't even see any buses.



And the evening commute was light as well...or at least no worse than normal :)



This morning I didn't take any photos. The Commute and traffic were pretty normal. The only difference was the half dozen or so large buses on I-52.

Now for the bad news.

The tourists are here. On my way out to lunch I saw 4 near accidents and at least 10 major traffic violations before I got to UCSD. And to think I want to ride my bike in with this traffic....

What I'm planning

I really didn't set out to run a permanent Blog. But I decided that I'll use this as a pace to show off my photography and special events. I'm guessing that anyone who's read this realizes that I'm also Koryu Bugeisha.

For those who don't understand the term. Koryu Bugeisha roughly translates as Traditional warfare practitioner. More simply, trainee Samurai.

So expect to see posts on events for the Jikishin Kai. (I'd also expect posts on other subjects as well)

And I haven't forgotten the lessons learned post :)

Hotel Review

At long last we get to our promised review of our accommodation's. These notes are taken from the complaints input of my fellow travelers. But they are filtered through me. So on to the data.

Fujita Hotel
city: Kyoto

Good:

Location. Right next to the river. Short walk from several major sites.
Great staff.
Best breakfast of any of the hotels we were at.
Nice rooms. Even with 3 shoehorned in.

Bad:

No internet in the rooms (I know...engineers. Still, everyone likes to check email) Computers are in the lobby - 2 - at 1000 yen for 10 minutes.
2 outlets in the room. And 1 was for the TV.
1000 yen TV cards
1 KEY per room (that's right, no cards)

Emus Business Hotel
Shin-Fuji

Good:

Price! about $50 a night. Cash only though.
Free wireless
Rooms were good for the price. Think Motel 6.
Roof access (view of Mt Fuji)

Bad:

Long walk from the station (not my complaint) and signs were in katakana.
1 Room smelled smoky (cigarettes)
Owner spoke no english (not a problem for us but...)

Takayama Best Western
Takayama

Good:

Great location
Good staff
Good Breakfast

Bad:

Spendy . Well over $100 each a night.
No exchange service (but post office nearby)
Staff spoke little/no english (Yes, I know this is Japan. Still, this is a tourist area)

Comfort Inn Hotel
Toyama

Good:

Location. Close to station.
Clean.
Staff (remembered us and our room numbers right away)

Bad:

1 card per room. With room number on it. (I mean it wasn't a disposable card)
Small rooms.
Pillows were horrible. Weird things about an inch thick...with instructions on how to use them. Still, for some unknown reason Mark liked them.
No exchange service. (in a business hotel? Come on...)

Manten Kanzawa
Kanazawa

Good:

Ummmm.....the Japanese bath on the second floor.
Good staff.

Bad:

Tiny rooms.
No exchange
Expensive breakfast...and POWDERED EGGS for gods sake.
Bit of a walk from the station

Rihga Royal
Kyoto

Good:

Best rooms. Especially at the price :)
Great Staff
Shuttle bus
Biggest tubs
Great location for travelers. (right next to the station)
Really good restaurant (Top of Kyoto) according to Jo. But expensive.

Bad:

1000 yen fee for most services (internet, pool, hot tub, etc...) I think they keep the room cost low but they do it by nickel and dimeing you for services.

So the verdicts are:

Best hotel - Rihga Royal
Best for price - Emus (really)
Stay away from - Manten

Could be better still - Fujita. And all it needs is a bit of moderizing. Like more outlets, wireless access, and keycard doorlocks. Other than that it was great.

So there you have it. That's the quick rundown on the hotels. We all liked the Rihga best. And I'd surely stay there again. If I wanted to be closer to the center of the city I'd probably use the Fujita again. But since I like to take day trips out of the station I prefer the Rihga.

Next post will be lessons learned - 2008 edition.

Home

Just a quick post to let you all know that we're home safely. I'll get the remainder up tomorrow.

Final day...almost

It's our last full day here. Today we decided to split up and go see whatever we wanted. Becky went to Himeji Ko-koen. Mark to the Philosophers walk. Jo went shopping. And I went to Arashiyama again.



I decided that I wanted to take the scenic "Romantic Train" of the Sagano Sight-seeing Tram. Why? Because it looked fun and it runs through the Hozu River gorge. So I bought a ticket and wandered around Arashiyama until train time.



So I got on the train. The seats were wood and not very comfortable. And what is it with ticketing? Half the car was empty and the other half was full. So we spread out and enjoyed the trip.



The gorge is a lot smaller that the one I'm used to. The Columbia is a bit bigger than the Hozu :)



And there are a lot fewer rapids on the Columbia as well.



So it was pretty cool to see the River boats shooting the rapids.



After that was a bit of shopping and then we all met at the station for dinner after Becky got back from Himeji.

So that will pretty much wrap up our trip. Tomorrow is mostly check out, final shopping, travel to the airport and fly home. Once we're back and have had a bit to recover I'll wrap up the trip with the Hotel review (I haven't forgotten) and a set of guidelines for those who might be traveling here in the near future.

See you all in the States :)

Bob

Final days

We're down to our final day and a half. Thank God! We're road weary, sore and are ready to come home :)

We decided to go easy today. The only places we went were to the Imperial Palace and to the Handicraft center. The Imperial Palace is a huge park that includes the Kyoto residence of the Emperor. Think of it as an upscale central park with Royalty. It was very nice and soothing.





From there we decided to get lunch. Yes we got a very late start today. The place we found is some kind of new chain. Kinda neat. Best food prices in town so far. And as an added bonus it was pretty good.



From there we decided to hit the Kyoto Handicraft center and do some last minute shopping.

Along the way we crossed over the Kano river. Guess what? The raptors are still there. I think we spent an hour watching them play along the river from the bridge.



A brief word about the Kyoto Handicraft center. They have some excellent items...and some real crap. (don't buy swords here, go across the street to Meirin or Tozando) The stuff is also a bit overpriced. Still, it's an easy way to pick up items at the last minute, and some of the stuff is pretty good. After a couple of hours there we split. Jo went to the hotel. I followed shortly thereafter. Becky and Mark went to see the Maiko dance at Shimogamo shrine. And ended up seeing part of the upcoming festival.

Funny thing was, they didn't get to see Maiko. But I did. There was one performing in the lobby when I got here. Now if my Iai was half as smooth as she was....

So here are the plans for the last days. Tomorrow we all go separate ways to see things we want to. Wednesday we get until noon before we head for the airport. Then it's homeward bound for us. I'll post tomorrow night and again sometime after we get back. And I recover enough to think :)

And before I forget. Jason, I'll get you directions to the shop that I picked up a Bizen-yaki Muzusashi for a hundred bucks when I get back ;)