Tag: Beautiful Things

Narita

On By rrainefioreIn TravelLeave a comment

The travel day from Takayama to Narita was a long day.  It was a rainy day so I had to walk to the train station in the rain.  I’m glad I brought an umbrella so I was dry, but my suitcase and backpack were not.  If it’s going to rain, I’d rather it be on a travel day.

The first train took me through stunning mountain forests.  It was hard to believe, but the train ride was more beautiful than the bus ride five days before.  I felt much safer than I did on that bus ride also.  The train was a hybrid train.  When the message board wasn’t telling us what the next stop was, it was telling us if the battery or engine was being used.

Then it was back to the bustle of city life.  The train station was busy.  It was a bit jarring to my system and I felt lost in the mix for a while even though I wasn’t lost.

The next train was another shinkensen.  I looked it up on maps while I was on the train.  By car, it would have been a 4.5 hour ride.  By train it was 1.5 hours.  The train would go somewhere between 127 and 186 miles per hour at its fastest.

Then I’m back in Tokyo and I needed to find my way to my hotel near the airport.  I didn’t have a dedicated ticket for this train so I went back to my prepaid city card.  I was wondering when it would run out.  It had run out.  I wasn’t sure how much to add to it so I found a ticket booth with a person instead of a machine hoping I could load it with just enough, but not too much. 

I got to the platform where I thought the train would be.  There was a train there that wasn’t marked and mine wasn’t due to leave yet so I made the decision that it probably wasn’t a good idea to get on that train.  Two more came that had destinations on them that I didn’t recognize so I decided to not get on them either.  A fourth train showed up, also unmarked.  I asked someone “Narita?” and they nodded.  So I got on that train.  I sat down and happened to sit in someone’s ticketed seat.  I moved to another car and once again chose a ticketed seat.  After changing several times I suspected I might have gotten on an express train and not the local.  I probably needed to pay more for the ticket.  So I stood in the area between cars hoping no one official busted me.  I mapped a few things and paid attention to the variable message signs about upcoming stops.  Oh crap, I was on an express train going to the Narita Airport with no stops in the town of Narita.  There was one stop before the airport so I scooted off there and started my navigation over.  This time it was more obvious that I was headed to the town of Narita.  Whew – possible crisis averted!

Walking to my hotel I rejoiced in the fact that I was almost done with walking all over Japan on uneven sidewalks with my suitcase.  I was bummed that shipping my suitcase never worked once when I was hoping it would work each time

After checking into my last tiny hotel, I headed out for dinner.  I found one close by that looked good – they were full and not serving anyone new.  This happened three more times before I found a place that would feed me.  This is a country with restaurants EVERYWHERE.  How do I find so many that won’t serve me?  Do I look menacing?  Are they really that full?  Nothing like having trouble finding food to make you want to go home.

I walked around the shopping street that I had read was a must-see if in Narita.  Most things were closed, but my flight wasn’t until early evening the next day so I knew I’d come back.

After breakfast (last breakfast miso soup), I checked out of the hotel and had them hold my suitcase.  I was too early for the shops, but there was a temple that was supposed to have beautiful gardens so I headed there. 

I passed several restaurants with very long lines outside.  Also outside was an assembly line of cooks, cutting something, skinning it, grilling it and then serving it to-go to the next hungry person in line.  I think this might be eel breakfast for business men?  Like the Japanese version of a breakfast burrito stand.  How do you eat eel on the go?  Later I searched online and found out that Narita is the place to go for grilled eel. 

I spent the rest of the morning wandering around the gardens at the temple, trying not to die from humidity poisoning.  Ok, so that’s not a real thing, but it felt like it was.  The temple and gardens were great.  The shopping street was fun when shops opened.  I bought some souvenirs.  I avoided eating eel, but later thought maybe I should have tried it.  For a girl that doesn’t like fish, there was a 90% chance I would not like it, but I could have been wrong……

Overall, a great trip to Japan, but always happy to go home.  I must still live in the right place!

Icebergs

On By rrainefioreIn Beautiful Things, Travel1 Comment

Today, I was supposed to go to Columbia glacier to kayak around the icebergs. It was a 10 hour tour, but there was also the chance of seeing whales, sea lions, and seals. After the Aurora tour when I felt so exhausted, I called the company I was kayaking with and asked if I could change to the shorter kayak tour that went to a nearby lake and kayaked around the icebergs in the lake.

It would have been nice to see Columbia glacier, but it was also nice to have a shorter day.  There were no whales in the lake.  Although the lake is 600+/- feet deep.  There were only 5 of us plus the guide.  That was a nice sized group.  We paddled around the lake.  Made a shore stop for lunch and then paddled some more. 

The clouds finally lifted.  It’s nothing but steep mountains everywhere.  It’s impossible to tell that this is a port town as every finger of land has mountains on it.  It looks like you are in a mountain-locked bowl.  The mountains rise straight up from sea level – nothing gradual here.  It really is so stunning.

Our tour guide raved about some of the food trucks in town, so I had some ginger chicken from the Thai food truck after we got back.  Later, I went for a walk around the neighborhood with Hannah and Colin and the dogs.  Saw a mamma and baby moose in their backyard. 

I am so in love with ice.  I’m completely drawn in by it.  I’ve seen glaciers and ice before, and it still feels like my first encounter with it.  I love the shades of blue, black, white, and clear.  It has so many textures.  Some ice is smooth, clear, and glistening, like ice cubes in your glass.  Some of the clear ice has beautiful patterns of cracks and bubbles trapped below the smooth surface.  Other ice is dimpled, opaque, and looks fuzzy like a stuffed animal from afar.  There are black streaks where the glacier wore down rocke into a fine black dust.  Some icebergs still have rocks in them, or the ice above the rocks melted, leaving a roof of black rocks.  These icebergs look like the shoreline, but they aren’t.  There are holes, caverns, ice bridges, and mini waterfalls.  We kayaked through open water and mini canyons of ice. 

Alaska

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Days 11 and 12 of my roadtrip were mostly driving. I left Whitehorse and got to drive past Kluane National Park again. It was just as beautiful. The road was quite bad most of the way. There were giant potholes and undulations in the pavement that almost threw you into the air, or maybe they did. So there was quite a bit of speeding up, cussing and slowing down.

I got to the Alaska US border. The border guy was way less enjoyable than the guy when I entered Canada. He started off with an accusatory tone like how dare I try to come into the US and just kept going.

Border Dude: “Where are you going”?

Me: “Valdez”.

BD: “Why”?

Me: “To visit my friends that just moved there and bring them their truck”. [In my head: To see Alaska, duh]

BD: “Why are you driving it”?

Me: “Because they just moved there”. [As I just told you]

BD: “Why didn’t they drive it”?

Me: “Because 2 people can’t drive 3 vehicles. [in my head: haven’t you ever moved?]

BD: “What are their names”?

Me: “Hannah and Colin” [You know them?]

BD: “How are you getting home”?

Me: “Flying” [This is not the job for you].

He did let me through, but I still don’t understand why he had such a chip on his shoulder. The rest of the drive to Tok was beautiful as was the next day to Valdez. The leaves were even more yellow than the Yukon. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see much of the mountains in Valdez because it was cloudy and raining. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. The clouds were stunning. They engulfed everything around them or they outlined other things. It was a quiet, heavy, and beautiful. Also so fun to see Hannah and Colin’s new home!

ATV Tour

On By rrainefioreIn Beautiful Things, Travel1 Comment

I wanted to a helicopter or plane flight over the glaciers.  I called a ton of companies before I left home to see if I could join an existing tour.  None of them had existing tours.  I didn’t want to pay for the whole plane/helicopter.  So I booked an atv tour with a different company.   I won’t get to see glaciers, but it should still be fun.

I woke up feeling miserable.   I felt like I had a hangover even though I didn’t drink the night before.  I didn’t get back from the Aurora tour until 4am.  Some people on the Aurora tour bought packages of more than one night.  They are doing this every night.  That might kill me.  The tour was great, but mother nature didn’t cooperate.  They take you about 45 minutes outside of town to the “Aurora Center”.  They have a cabin, several huge yurts, and some tepees.  They had games, books, snacks and a wood stove in the cabin.  They set a fire in one of the tepees.  You could hang out outside or in while you waited. 

The tour was 15 people, but the center could handle 50+.  I mostly hung out with the three ladies from Australia.   The rest of the people were from Asia, Japan mostly.  It was cloudy and the clouds never lifted.  If you took a picture with a camera, you could see green and pink clouds.  Some cell phones took ok pictures.   Mine got nothing but a grey sky or just all black.  The lights were happening, just not for us.

I almost canceled the atv tour.  I almost called to see if I could do the half day instead of the full day.  Instead, I sucked it up and went.   I didn’t read the driving directions until I was on my way.  After reading the directions: “turn into the driveway of the blue house, drive past the blue house and we’ll be the next cabin.”, I thought this might be some dude’s house, not an ATV facility.

I got to the cabin.  It was a tiny cabin where Fabian, his wife Raphaelle and their young daughter live.  Two ATVs sat out front.  A sled dog greeted me.  It was definately a private tour.  I’m so glad I didn’t cancel.  He outfitted me with a helmet and gave me an overview of what the day would be like.

We rode to a couple different lakes.  We rode through the river.  The fresh air was exactly what I needed to feel better.  We could go as fast or slow as I wanted.  We went up to the top of one of the hills with great views over the whole area and stunning views of the mountains all around.  The hills appeared to be lit from the inside with reds, oranges, and every hue of yellow.  At the top, we had lunch, which Raphaelle had made – an omelet sandwich with cheese and kale from their garden.  There was also tea made from plants in the area.   This was the best part – the attention to detail and the personal touch.

We went back down to another lake. We accessed it from the property of a friend of his. It was another cabin. This was a whole neighborhood of small spaced out cabins. All of them were pretty simple. All of them had outhouses. I find it funny that I can’t get the idea of living with an outhouse out of my mind. If I had to go out into the Yukon cold several times a night…… brrrr…. Maybe an outhouse is easier than plumbing, I don’t know. Maybe it’s a factor of what you are used to.

As we sat by the lake, I learned more about Fabian and Raphaelle. They came out from France for dog sledding (they had 12 dogs then) and loved it so they stayed. He works as ski patrol in the winter and bike patrol in the summer. He also leads people on tours – atv, BC ski, dog sled (he has 5 dogs now), and snowmobile. He is hoping to make a good business of this so he doesn’t have to do patrol anymore. I love this and hope he does. As we sat, he pulled out berry muffins made from berries they picked. I’m very glad I found this company and didn’t cancel.

On my way back to the hotel, I stopped at Miles Canyon in Whitehorse for a couple of pictures.

 

Kluane

On By rrainefioreIn Beautiful Things, Travel1 Comment

Today, I did a day tour of Kluane National Park. The tour description mentioned going to the visitor’s center, a lake, and a small park. How can that take 8 hours?

There were only 5 of us on the tour. We went to the visitor’s center, two lakes, two hikes to overlooks, an old bridge, and multiple roadway overlooks. We saw dall sheep, although you needed binoculars to know they were sheep.The mountains are stunning, rugged, snow-capped, and wild. There are no roads into the park. The only way in is to hike or fly. The whole area is a UNESCO world heritage site and contains Kluane National Park, Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park, Glacier Bay National Park, and Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.

I’m glad the hikes were short. My ankle did real well for only having surgery a month ago.

We learned a little about the history of the area, the First Nation’s tribes, the gold rush and the construction of the Alaska Highway.

It was a 10 hour day. I went straight to dinner after we got back. I iced my ankle after dinner and fought hard to stay awake. Now it’s 11:30pm and I’m back on the tour bus heading out of town in hopes of seeing Aurora Boreals. There’s 15 people on this tour. We get back around 4:00am. I may have bitten off more than I can chew.

Runners

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Another “short” drive – only 4.5 hours.  I checked out the sign post forest on the way out of town.  It was far more impressive than pictures online showed.  I stopped in another town for breakfast.  No animal sightings today.  It was a pretty drive, but not spectacular.  The leaves started changing to brilliant yellow and orange.

On my way into Whitehorse, I saw a race.  There were people running along the highway with race bibs on.  People and motor homes lined the highway, cheering them on.  It was not as unique as chatting with a bear, but it was interesting.  

After I checked into my hotel, I did laundry. The dryer worked and dried things in one go. That’s a new experience in travel for me. Laundry made my day!

I had dinner at a packed restaurant downtown.  There were hardly any cars in town, but all restaurants seemed packed.

I had an 8:00pm reservation for Eclipse hot springs, which was about a half hour outside town.  Again, hardly and cars, but packed with people.  They have at least 4 warm pools, maybe more.  And there is a cold pool nearby each warm pool.  They have steam rooms and saunas also.  It was a bit of a process:  take shoes off, check in and get your locker key, get a blue bin, take a shower using your blue bin as a shower door lock and way to hold your stuff, put everything in locker, choose a hot pool and sit and relax, then get in a cool pool, repeat pools.  The first warm pool I chose was covered in people. As I sat, they all seemed to know each other.  Was this the party place of Whitehorse?  It was adults only – fan of that!  With some time, I realized it was many large groups of people.  They were the racers I’d seen earlier.  It was a relay race or team race.  I tried the cold pool.  I remember trying it in Norway and thinking it was ok.  Now, it was not ok.  It stung my feet and legs.  I gave up after 30 seconds and went back eavesdropping  on the race.  Every other pool I tried was also filled with runners.    I only counted 4 other people who didn’t seem to be racers.  It was a beautiful place.  It would have been awesome if it had only been 5 of us.

I looked it up online later.  I think it was the Klondike Road Relay Race, which is a 175-kilometer race from Skagway Alaska to Whitehorse Yukon.  Running over mountain passes is not on my bucket list,  but I can appreciate the skill, coordination,  and training that goes into this.

Invisible Moose

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I was awake at 6:30 this morning.  For anyone that knows me, that is “roll over and go back to sleep” time.  I am not a morning person.  But, I had the thought that if I wanted to see animals, this might be a good time to get out of bed.  I peered out the window and instantly saw 4 moose on the other side of the lake.  They were standing in chest deep water just munching on water plants. 

One of the smaller moose started running (swimming fast?) creating a small white v of water around it as it picked up speed.  The moose behind him suddenly perked it’s head up and watched this with great interest.  I assumed this was the mother, thinking “Oh dear god, why is he running, where is he going now?”  He just kept going so soon the mother was running after him to close the gap between them.  They created ripples on the lake.  It wasn’t so much a wave or a change in the lake’s surface.  I was more like a subtle color change just below the lake’s surface.  The color change radiated out from them and swept across the lake toward me in the low morning light.

After they got closer to the other two moose, they slowed down.  But, wait, now I only see 3 moose.  Where did the fourth one go?  The trees come right down to the edge of the lake.  There doesn’t appear to be a shore.  The trees appear to be growing in the water and then continue up the hillside densely packed in.  It doesn’t look like anyone could walk in between the trees especially something as large as a moose.  But, he was gone.  I watched as one of the other moose walked closer to the trees.  In front of my eyes, his front legs and head went invisible.  Then the rest of him flickered out as well.  I strained to see if what I thought was a tree was indeed a moose leg.  No, just trees. 

I was so enthralled watching the moose disappear that I never saw the third moose go invisible, but he was now gone.  Only one moose remained.  Right on cue, he flickered and disappeared as well. 

What a show!  I went back in my room for coffee.  After pouring a cup of coffee, I looked out the window and saw something else thrashing about in the water.  Ooooohhhh, maybe this was a bear swimming in the water?  I rushed outside again.  It was hard to tell what it was.  I used my phone zoom to help me see, but that wasn’t helpful either.  The zoom just made it closer, but blurrier.  I know bear eat fish out of rivers.  Do they catch fish in lakes?  It looked like a bear with a fish in it’s mouth.  Does it count as having seen a bear if you can’t actually identify it as a bear?  Then I think, if that looked like a fish when I can’t tell if it’s being held by a bear, then that would be the largest lake fish known to man.  My mind is playing tricks on me.  After watching it some more, I think it was a moose swimming in deeper water.  As it swam closer to the invisibility trees, it of course, disappeared.

I went in and out of the room several times to warm up.  Each time I would look at the lake, the moose would be in a different location.  Sometimes there was just one, other times two.  Sometime it would look like a log, other times a moose.  The two white swans were still on the lake, but very calm this morning – nothing to honk about this morning.  Quite a few other water birds were floating about. 

Yes, the pictures are blurry. I have just my phone with me. The moose were way over there. That is often the case with moose. They are usually way over there. This is both good and not. It is good because way over there is safer for me. But, that means you get blurry pictures.

Banff and Yoho Lakes

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This was the 4th day on my Alaska road trip. Today I did a bus tour of some lakes in Banff and Yoho National Parks. I decided to join a tour because I didn’t feel like driving by myself and dealing with parking. One of the lakes we went to can only be visited by commercial tours so I wouldn’t have been able to drive there anyway. Also, being 3 weeks post ankle surgery, I wasn’t doing any hiking or more active sightseeing than what the tour would offer.

It was a 9.5 hour tour. I’m so glad I didn’t drive. All I had to do was ride and look out the window at the beauty. My tour had 25 people. Each stop we went to had a ton of people so what is 25? Our tour guide was also the bus driver. He was funny and full of great information on history of the area and geology of the area.

This was my first time in the Canadian Rockies and the views were amazing. I’d definately love to come back another time and stay at some of the lodges or campgrounds. We went to Lake Louise, Moraine Lake, Emerald Lake and a place on the Kicking Horse river called Natural Bridge. The lakes were various shades of bright blue from the minerals in the water. The river was a milky white. I had seen the blue alpine rivers in the past, but never milky white. It was mesmerizing.

The people on the tour were interesting. I met a lady as we were waiting for the bus. She was from Mexico and was there with her family. As we talked, she often apologized for her English. Of course, her English was great and we had no problem understanding each other. If I had to have the conversation in Spanish, it would have been a joke and she would have no idea what I was saying. And I would have no idea what I was saying either. I wish I knew more than one language. Within one minute of starting the tour, the guy sitting up front monopolized the conversation with the guide. He was a loud talker too so we could hear everything he was saying. The guide did a good job of steering the conversation to the history and geology he wanted to tell the group about even though the loud talker from Ottawa knew a little about everything and had no problem letting everyone know. I still wonder why Americans get such a bad rap for being loud and talking too much. Most travel I’ve done, it’s not the Americans that are loud and overly friendly. This guy was the epitome of the loud American, only he was Canadian. I sat next to a man that was there with his family. They were all there from the Philippines and had come to Calgary for the funeral of his sister and nephew who had died in an accident recently. On one hand, it was so sad. On the other hand, going to the lake (Lake Louise) that his sister had visited last seemed like a good way to grieve with your family. I also met a young woman from Korea that was in school for English and was traveling because she wanted to practice her English more before going back to school. Her English was perfect. I know no Korean at all. There were a couple of people from the US, a guy from Germany and some people from another Asian country.

I love traveling. I love to see different places, different scenery and to catch a small glimpse into what other people’s lives might be like. Sometimes in the differences, you can see a little about how we are the same.

A Day to Rest

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Yesterday, I took a day to rest. I stayed in Calgary, got a facial and a manicure. In the afternoon I walked to Prince’s Island Park, a great park on an island in the middle of the Bow River. I only enjoyed the park for about an hour. Everywhere I went I was followed by bees. I wonder if they liked the lotion used in the facial as they kept buzzing around my neck. They followed me as I walked along the River Walk to the park, at the park and as I walked back along the River Walk. One even stung me on the hand. He was not a Jolliebee and I wasn’t too jolly after either. The sting wasn’t too much of a problem, more annoying than anything.

It was warm and humid and I saw some people eating ice cream in the park. I asked them where they got it and they said they brought it from home. Huh? Who brings ice cream to the park from home? That did not help me locate ice cream. I did find a place in Chinatown that served Thai rolled ice cream. I never saw rolled ice cream when I lived in Thailand. It was delicious as I could get one of my favorite flavors – Taro!

The walk back from the park was very different than my walk the other evening. Most of the restaurants on the walking street were closed and empty. A night before everything had been so lively. There were still people walking around, but it felt a bit deserted in comparison.

One Girl, One Truck, 3118 Miles

On By rrainefioreIn Travel4 Comments

I haven’t written in a long time! But, this might be interesting to write about.

My friend moved to Alaska. A couple of weeks before she had to leave, the company that they were going to ship their truck through canceled on them. She posted on Facebook, “Does anyone want to drive our truck to Alaska”? Um…. yea…. I do. Several of my friends had the same thought, but I guess I had the thought sooner. As luck would have it, I happened to retire from my engineering career yesterday so I have some time on my hands. I leave tomorrow on a sure to be delightful road trip, just me, the mountains and the road. I have some fun excursions planned for the trip. This seems like a wonderful way to celebrate the end of a career and the beginning of a new life unknown. Goodbye to the old me and hello to whatever is to come, whatever is already here that I haven’t discovered yet.