|
||||
|
||||
 |
June 4 - 9, 2013
|
|
My dad had a conference in Los Angeles to attend and my mom was going along to help (he's giving presentations and has a booth and stuff). Since I was visiting them in Colorado at the time, it made sense for me to go along, especially since LA is a good place to get flights to other areas...but more on that another time.
Since they had a lot of stuff to bring, they decided to drive, stopping in Las Vegas to spend the night on the way. We actually went to Vegas a lot when I was a kid, since my dad used to teach seminars there. But now it's probably been eleven years or more since the last time I went. First off, I have to say that the drive between Grand Junction and Vegas is really nice. At least if you like cool rock formations like the San Rafael Swell, a wall of slanted rock that stretches on for miles. I think it'd be fun to hike around there sometime.
Anyway, as soon as I knew we'd be in Vegas, I set about convincing my parents to see a Cirque du Soleil show. As a result, by the time we arrived, we didn't have all that much time to do stuff before the show, which was too bad. If you've never been to Vegas, aside from gambling and other less PG pastimes, it's known for its super fancy theme hotels. We stayed in New York New York, and there are many more like the Bellagio, with its elaborately synchronized fountain and music shows and pretty indoor garden, The Venetian with its indoor canal, and Paris, complete with mini Eifel Tower, just to name a few. We walked around for a little while, but before long it was time to get ready for the show.
There are quite a lot of permanent Cirque shows in Vegas, so picking one was pretty hard. We had eventually settled on Ka, which is at the MGM Grand. It's one of the more unique Cirque shows for a couple of reasons. First, it has the most coherent story of any of them. It follows the adventures of a pair of twins (a prince and princess) who are separated after the death of their parents. As such, it's not quite as abstract as other Cirque shows and a bit more serious (no clowns, though there were some humorous scenes). For plot reasons, there are also a number of battles, though many of them are hardly typical. Of course, there's plenty of amazing acrobatics as well. The other thing that sets Ka apart is the stage. Instead of a regular stage, it uses two moving panels suspended above a pit. The main panel is quite large (they must have at least 15 people on it at times) and can spin 360 degrees around and rotate at least 90 degrees up, creating a sheer wall. There's also a lot of platforms and walkways hanging from the ceiling as well. Like the other Cirque shows I've seen, the costumes and music were excellent and the acrobatics were utterly amazing. The ways they used the stage were especially creative. One scene involves a battles between numerous characters while the stage is at a 70 degree angle or so and spinning.
Like every Cirque show I've attended, Ka left me really glad I went and dying to see more. Maybe I can get in a slightly longer Vegas trip in the future...
That was pretty much it for the night, though I couldn't resist trying this Plants vs. Zombies themed slot machine. Unfortunately, my usual run of luck when it comes to games of chance was in full swing. PvZ the computer game cost me $10 and I spent over 100 hours playing it. PvZ the slot machine ate $15 in under ten minutes.
I've been to San Francisco a few times before but the first was when I was really young, so I don't remember much. And the others I was here for E3 and didn't really get away from the area near the convention center. Speaking of E3, it's next week. Had I known earlier in the year that I was going to be in LA at this time, I may have gotten a ticket and spent a few more days here. Oh well, it would have been pretty expensive...
Anyway, the hotel we're at is in downtown LA and I decided to limit myself to places I could easily walk. China Town seemed like a decent choice, so I headed off in that direction. On a general note, I'm not especially fond of LA. It's extremely smoggy and generally lacks the charm that permeates many parts of downtown San Francisco. The restaurant selection doesn't seem quite as good either. Though it also lacks San Francisco's hills, which makes walking around a lot easier, and I haven't run into as many crazy people or druggies.
China Town, though, was pretty nice. In fact, it's the cleanest and fanciest China Town I've seen anywhere in the US (and I've been to most of the major ones). The China Town in Yokohama still has it beat though. Anyway, it's mostly comprised of restaurants and souvenir type stores (you're not going to find the amount of produce you would in Honolulu's, for example), though there are some other things to see, like this fancy Buddhist temple.
After walking around China Town, decided to hit a couple other areas as I made my way back to the hotel. While I wasn't aiming for it, I ended up passing through the section with the city hall and other civil buildings. Which, other than the nice architecture, was only notable since I stumbled across a nice little farmers' market.
I eventually ended up in Little Tokyo. It's one of the only two Japan Towns in the US, the other being San Francisco's. (Honolulu certain has enough stores and restaurants for a Japan Town, but they're spread out rather than in one area). Normally, this is the type of place I'd go first but, seeing as I'll be in real Tokyo in just a few more days, it wasn't a big priority. Anyway, Little Tokyo has some rather dull regular streets, a nice outdoor pedestrian mall (where I took that photo), and another not quite as picturesque shopping center that sort of make up the area. Overall, I'd say it's a bit bigger than SF's Japan Town, though not as condensed. Naturally, there's lots of restaurants, clothing, souvenir, and grocery stores, and the like. It also has the most impressive anime/manga/merchandise store I've seen in the US and a Kinokunya book store (a good bit smaller than SF's, but with a better selection of a couple of items). The only thing that stopped me from doing some serious shopping is the knowledge that I'll have an even better selection with lower prices in Akihabara and Nakano Broadway. It's hard to say which I like better between LA's Little Tokyo and San Francisco's Japan Town. Both have their pluses and are worth visiting if you're in the area.
After that, I walked through the Toy District, which was mostly a big slum and not worth writing about, and cut through the Jewelry Distract (very nice if you like shopping for jewelry, but not all that interesting if you don't). I will say that downtown San Francisco seems to have a better restaurant selection, but I found a Peruvian place near the hotel which proved to be pretty interesting, if not exactly a favorite.
Since I hit most of the major downtown areas of LA yesterday, I decided to take the metro over to Hollywood and walk around there. The metro, by the way, is a subway and a pretty decent one at that. Anyway, I got off near the intersection of Hollywood Ave and Vine and stated off, following the Walk of Fame. You've probably heard about it, all the stars in the sidewalk and everything. Thing is, unless you're a really serious movie/TV/music buff, you'll get bored with that pretty quickly. I mean, after you've seen a few stars you've pretty much seen them all. But I continued down the road, snapping the occasional photo when I found a star belonging to one of my favorite celebrities.
Something I should mention about Hollywood Ave and the Walk of Fame is that the area you're walking through varies a good bit. The western end near the Chinese Theater is really fancy (if a bit touristy) and crowded with shops, theaters, guys hawking various tours, and other guys in costumes wanting a bunch of money for a picture with them. It's kinda fun to walk through. As you go further east though, you start getting out of the glitz and glamour and, while it never becomes a slum, it's really not worth walking too far that way unless you're determined to see the entire Walk of Fame.
The aforementioned Chinese Theater is probably the coolest attraction in the area, since it's where they have all the handprints of various stars. The theater was undergoing some renovations when I was there (probably due to that attack in Iron Man 3 :-P ), but they were still letting people into the courtyard. Other than that, you have some actual theaters, a couple wax museums, and those tours of the stars' homes and such. But unless you're really interested in that stuff, a trip to Hollywood probably won't last more than a couple hours.
So that was Friday (or part of it). Then on Saturday afternoon my mom and I went to Griffith Park, a large wooded mountain park right in the city, and hiked up one of the mountains. It was really more of a walk than a hike, but we got some really good views of both the city and the park itself from the top. Also got to see the Hollywood Sign, which I really didn't get a good look at while actually in Hollywood. Griffith Observatory is near there too. While it seems to be most popular for its planetarium shows, there's a few free museum exhibits inside as well.
And that's my time in LA. I'm still not very fond of the city, but it does have it's nice areas. If nothing else, I'd go back for a few days to hit all the nearby theme parks.
Sunday and Monday (Jun 9th and 10th): Off to Tokyo!
Ever since my last stay in Japan got cut short by the big earthquake and ensuing nuclear worries, I've been wanting to return for a while. It didn't work out last summer, but I was determined to try again this year. In the end, I was able to work out a five week trip for a reasonable price and there's no telling how long I'll have the time, freedom, and money to do these kind of things, so I decided to go for it. Incidentally, while this will be the shortest of my Japan trips so far, it's also the only one on which I don't have to work most of the week (I'm here on vacation, mostly, though keeping up with some online classes I'm teaching and my own projects as well), so I'll likely be doing quite a lot.
So, Sunday morning it was off to the LA airport. The whole trip went really smoothly. For some reason, it was cheaper to fly to Seattle then go to Tokyo from there, rather than taking one of the many direct flights from LA itself (airline ticket prices rarely seem to make sense). That added a couple hours to the trip, but we flew over Crater Lake on the way, which was pretty cool. The plane from Seattle to Tokyo was a nice one, with pretty impressive in-seat entertainment centers and quite a lot of food. It even had in-seat plug sockets, so I was able to play Virtue's Last Reward on my Vita pretty much the entire time.
Once the plane landed Monday afternoon (due to the massive time difference), I was able to get my suitcase and get through costumes without issue. My cellphone worked as well, which was good. Instead of renting a phone or SIM card like in the past, I decided to just try Verizon's global roaming this time around, since the pricing isn't that much different and I could potentially be getting some calls I don't want to miss. To make things even more convenient, I decided to spring for the international data plan, incase I needed to look up maps or other info while out and about. Also, to keep in touch via e-mail (which is free, data costs aside, unlike calls and texts). That worked really well...right up until I left the airport. While Verizon's data access map for Japan shows most of the country, I haven't been able to get a data connection anywhere outside of Narita Airport. I'm going to have to contact them and see what's up with that...
Anyway, I put some money on my SUICA card then hopped on a train to Shinjuku to get my apartment keys. Yes, I decided to rent an apartment again (from Sakura House, the same company I used last time). The main reason being that it's quite a lot cheaper than five weeks in a decent hotel. Plus I get a kitchen (well, as much of one as you get in these tiny Japanese apartments) and all that. And, without a daily commute to worry about, I was free to choose my location and ended up right in downtown Tokyo, only about a mile from Tokyo station. It's really convenient.
By the time I made it to my apartment, it was starting to get late in the evening, but I did have time to walk over to my friend Yehoshua's restaurant and catch up with him. Got a decent view of the Sky Tree tower on my way back too. Speaking of which, expect an entry on that Sky Tree itself sometime over the course of this trip.
I had originally been planning to update Pebble Version but then I ran into the only real snag of the entire trip. I forgot to bring a 3 - 2 prong plug converter for my laptop. That meant I was running off limited battery power and it was too late to go out shopping for one. Other than that though, the trip over went about as smoothly as can be.
