Vacation

I haven't posted in a little while and that's because I've been on vacation.  IN JAPAN!!!!! (yes, it does warrant all those exclamation marks)  I and my friend Christina had been wanting to go visit our other friend, Noriko, who lives in Tokyo for a couple years now and things finally worked out both time-off-wise and financially.  So, off we went the week of Thanksgiving.  It wasn't a very long trip; we left on Monday and came back the following Monday, giving us 5 whole days in Japan.  It was, however, a very fun trip and I very much intend to go back as soon as I can.

I did realize something about myself from this trip, however.  I mean, I'd always know it was true, but with this trip it really hit home: I suck when it comes to taking pictures.  Not that my pictures turned out bad.  Some of them actually look pretty good.  But the whole time I was there, I only took 73 pictures, some of which are duplicate shots when the first one didn't come out very well.  I partially blame my camera.  It's very fussy about trying to focus and can take forever to do so (which is why I didn't ask anyone to take pictures of the three of us) and it eats batteries like crazy.  I'd like to think I'd do better with a newer and better camera, but honestly, I'd probably still be awful about picture taking.  Luckily for me, Christina doesn't share this problem, so when she sends me her pictures, I'll post some of hers here, too.

I have no idea what this is, but it's sooo good!

Big damn roll (half gone)

The first night we were there, Noriko took us to this restaurant whose name I can't remember and we got tasty food, the name of which I also can't remember, but here's a picture of it!  It's pork and bean sprouts.  Reeeeeeally tasty.  We also got one of these that had chicken as well as the biggest damn dragon sushi roll I've ever seen.  Unfortunately, Christina started feeling rather poorly, so she didn't have anything.  More for me!  Though, that sushi roll didn't get finished.  Noriko and I made a valiant effort, but it was just too much.

The next day involved much sleeping on my part (I woke up pretty early, then took a "nap" and didn't get up again until 2:30), which was ok, since Noriko had other things she needed to do that day.  When she got back and everyone was conscious, we went to wander around the Imperial Palace.  The palace buildings and inner gardens aren't open to the public, but the outside grounds are quite lovely. 

 

I'm not really sure what that thing is up above this sentence (some kind of lamp maybe?) but I thought it was pretty neat looking.  Nor do I know what that little building off to the left is, but I thought the old-style architecture in front of the modern city buildings was kind of neat.

Fancy!

Then it was time to head to Asakusa and do some shopping!  But first, a quick trip to a mall for a bathroom break.  While there, I saw these on display.  Again, not sure really what they're for, but they sure are fancy!

Kaminarimon

 One of the most notable features here (and a very popular place to take pictures) is the Kaminarimon.  Once you go through this gate, there are about a million and a half shops lining the street to the temple at the end (Sensō-ji, I think).  Since this was the first day we really went out and did much, and I'm definitely not a big-city girl who's used to large crowds and lots of hustle and bustle, I was pretty overwhelmed here.  That didn't keep me from buying lots of things, though!  Once we got down the street, we got to the big temple, which was pretty cool.  I also got a pretty good view of the Tokyo Sky Tree, which is the tallest tower in the world (though not the tallest structure.

Sensō-ji

Sky Tree

On our trip, we also got to go visit Kamakura, which is about 30 miles or so outside of Tokyo.  While there, we visited one of the temples (Hase-dera, I think) and saw the Daibutsu, a great big bronze Buddha.  It was around here that I started getting super bad about taking pictures, but here are a few that I did manage to get:

 

 



















Later that same day we went to Yokohama's Chinatown where we got dinner, but like I said, I kind of stopped taking many pictures by this point.

Another thing we got to do was go to Sunshine City's 60-story skyscraper (Sunshine 60) and get a panoramic view of Tokyo.  Here are the pictures I took there:

 Tokyo sure is big.

The last two pictures I took were at Meiji Shrine:

Of course, we did a whole lot more than what I've got pictured.  With any luck, Christina will be able to send me some of her pictures soon and I'll be able to post more!  As for now, I've been at this post for about an hour and a half and dinner is just about ready, so I'll talk more about my trip later.

Apple Crisp

This stuff, right here.

It's still fall!  And that means: MORE APPLE GOODNESS!!!!  This time I'll be going over another one of my favorite apple recipes: apple crisp.  You will need: apples (just like with the crow's nest recipe, I recommend macintosh apples), flour, light brown sugar, quick-cooking oats, cinnamon, ginger, and butter.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and get out a 9 x 13" baking pan.

It should look rather like this.

In a large bowl, mix together 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of brown sugar, and 1 cup of oats.  Then cut up 1 stick (1/2 cup) of cold butter into little cubes and mix it into the flour mixture with a pastry blender.  If you aren't fancy enough to have a pastry blender (note: a pastry blender is NOT the same as a regular blender; I don't recommend doing anything with this recipe with a regular blender), then you can mix in the butter with your hands.  Get the butter mixed in really well and set the bowl aside. 

IMPOSSIBLE!!!

Now it's time to start peeling, coring, and slicing apples!  You can just put your apples right into your baking dish as you get them sliced to make sure you end up with the right amount (you should have a nice layer about, oh, I don't know, an inch thick or so).  Or, you can be like me and say "I have ten apples and, dammit, I am going to use ten apples!  It's impossible to have too many apples!  IMPOSSIBLE!"  

All ready for the oven! I'm sure this will end well.

So, once you have your desired amount of apples, dump them into a bowl.  Or two bowls, if you just happen to have that many apples.  Mix your apples with 1/4 cup of flour, 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, and 1/4 teaspoon of ginger (if you ended up with two bowls of apples, put that amount of stuff in each bowl).  Once you've gotten it all mixed well and your apples are coated nicely, dump them back into your baking dish.  Then spread your reserved flour and oats mixture on top.  Pop it in your preheated oven for about 45 minutes, or until the topping is nice and browned.  This is a nice, big recipe and will serve a small army, group of friends that you're watching Dr. Who with, or just yourself for about a month.  Enjoy!

See?  It did end well.

30 Days of Night

I finally managed to drag myself away from The Sims Medieval long enough to read something.  In case it wasn't obvious enough from the title of this post, or the rather creepy picture over there to the left, that something is Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith's comic, 30 Days of Night. 

30 Days of Night takes place in the extremely-northern town of Barrow, Alaska (a town which actually exists) during the month-long period of complete darkness in the winter.  A group of vampires see the great potential in weeks without the sun and go about terrorizing and murdering the town.  It's up to Sheriff Eben Olemaun to try and save himself, his wife, Stella, and the remaining survivors.

I really liked this book, more than I thought I would.  I'm not generally one for bloody, messy horror, but this story worked for me, with its straightforward storytelling and compelling artwork.  There's nothing really new about this story; the monsters are your typical (non-sparkly) vampires with fewer weaknesses than in most portrayals (it seems pretty much only sunlight or decapitation will kill them), but it's told very well.  My only real complaint about the story is that the characters aren't fleshed out very well.  About the only things we really get to know about Eben and Stella are that he's the sheriff and they're happily married.  And we learn even less about most of the other residents of Barrow.  I think this is a story that should have been longer (it's only 83 pages long).  There are also a few plot threads that are left dangling at the end of the story.  However, this is the first volume of what has ended up being a much longer series, so presumably these unresolved issues get addressed later on.

What I like best about 30 Days of Night is Ben Templesmith's artwork.  He uses color very sparingly, portraying the darkened Barrow in pretty much nothing but shades of grey, the only colors generally being red (blood), orange (fire), and some green (Eben and Stella's coats).  Templesmith's art isn't going to appeal to everyone (check out his website if you want to see more of what he's done).  His art tends more toward the abstract rather than realism, which given how violent this story is, and how I have trouble with watching realistic portrayals of violence, is something I very much appreciate.  And if you do like his art, I highly recommend checking out Singularity 7 and Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse, both of which Templesmith also wrote.

So, if you like your vampires monstrous, your gore plentiful, though not too detailed, and your stories rather short, give 30 Days of Night a look.  And I think I'll probably go about trying to check out the rest of the series.