@TBB: I was SOOO overwhelmed by the page. I couldn't seem to get past the "homeless businessman" part without expanding everything, and then it was chaos!
Curious which bits you found lovely (I like that word!). and is there anyway to send a link to a subthread for them?
My oldest son is autistic, and goes through seasons where he is hyper-focused on learning everything he can about a subject. He will talk non-stop about whatever his interest of that season is. For the last year and a half, his obsession has been Godzilla. And, at 1.5 years in, he is still going strong because there is SO MUCH TO LEARN!
This began with the current Legendary films, went into art sculptures and correcting/repainting toy figurines, slid into learning about the effect of the nuclear bombings on the culture, and he is currently watching and rewatching the original films to the point he can recognize Japanese phrases… and we aren’t done. Godzilla has opened a door to a side of the world he hadn’t known before, and my whole family is learning from it!
Godzilla has taught my son communication skills he has struggled with. He thinks he hates to read, but will read subtitles for entire movies. We have been able to have debates about characters’ strengths and weaknesses.
In my childhood Urdu (native language) book, there was an article about Japan. A lot of other pretty things, one quality of Japanese people, written in the article stuck in my mind. The context was, "Japanese wrap your purchases in such a beautiful paper that instead of the thing you bought, you want to keep that paper." So whenever I think about Japan, these lines pop up in my mind.
Something similar happened to me too. I was visiting my friend who was living there (and still is now) and I had gone to Harajuku by myself for the day whilst she had to work. At some point I wandered too far from the main area, lost my bearings and found myself in some sort of industrial park looking place staring hopelessly at a map trying to find my way back to the main part of Harajuku. One of the two Japanese business men walking by noticed me and walked over. He didn’t speak a lick of English but was willing to help. I just said “Harajuku” and pointed at the map. He then left his friend and walked with me for over a block and pointed me down a road, to which I could see the main part of Harajuku. I said thank you and bowed and he waved me off with his hand as if to say ‘No big deal’ and went on his way. I love Japan and have visited multiple times over the years so it’s a city I feel very safe in, but y’know there bad people everywhere so I was feeling a little uncomfortable in that industrial park. The fact that this man took time out of his schedule to help some hapless tourist get back to where they needed to be was amazing to me. I am very thankful for that man and will never forget the kindness he showed me.
Wonderful story! I had a similar experience in Japan.
I was in Kyoto with my now wife a long time ago, well before Google maps and smart phones. So when you got lost, you got lost.
Our hotel told us about a Buddhist moon ceremony just outside Kyoto, so we wrote down the directions (so we thought...) and headed out. Well, we got lost in Kyoto station, and we must have looked very lost because a woman walked over and asked us where we were going, and then walked us to the counter and tell them everything we needed. She helped us pay for the right tickets, then walked us over to the correct sub platform. I was so overwhelmed by her kindness. She took maybe 20 minutes out of her day to deliver a couple of dumb lost kids to the right train. Crazy!
The rest of that story, for the interested... the directions we had about which stop to get off on turned out to be incorrect as well. It was about 11 at night, and the train was full. When our “stop” came, no one got off. So we had to make a judgement call. Get off in a random Japanese neighborhood in the middle of the night (no phone, remember—pre Google and smart phones) or assume the train was full because everyone was going to the ceremony. We tossed the instructions and followed the crowd. We were right. And the ceremony was beautiful!
I don’t think we would have had the confidence to go with the crowd if the woman back at the station hadn’t showed us so much kindness. We felt safe and comfortable with the people. It felt ok to take a chance, you know?
Thanks, TBB! That was very Japanese of you ( helping this tourist "lost" in Reddit find his way!)
My little story was being at Nagoya Airport to begin my year there. I needed to call a friend, but had the wrong type of phone card (back then, there were three(?) diff types of payphones). A random Japanese person handed me his phone card. I called my friend, got directions, and while on the bus to the train station, saw the guy in the adjacent car. We had a goodbye wave...
Yes, agreed that the homeless businessman part was not quite as *lovely* and honestly, I am not a Reddit connoisseur, so usually, when I hit "load more comments," it displays the "top" (most upvoted) comments, but not necessarily the full threads. I'm not sure how to change what you see, but here are a couple that I enjoyed:
I lived in Japan for about 16 months shortly after graduating. I had tried my best to learn at least the basics of conversation but the written languages escaped me. I ventured out on my own one day and explored all over. It started getting late and I went to leave Shinjuku but I could not find the subway station. Which is one thing I had never learned to ask. After hopeless pantomimes with countless locals trying to be helpful, a group of Australians poured out of a nearby bar. I was standing in front of a map trying not to cry when a voice behind me says "Hey there neighbor, where ya from?". I was so excited to hear English that I burst into tears.
7 grown men suddenly realized I was a scared kid and gathered around me to comfort me, offer me water and smokes, and once I babbled my predicament they escorted me all the way to the station, paid for my ticket back to the station closest to my home, and explained to an employee that I had gotten a bit overwhelmed and lost.
A little old lady that had to tip her head back to make eye contact with me pushed her way into the group and offered me her hand. "My stop, too." So I said goodbye to my new friends and got on the train with this lady. She gave me a can of milk tea and some sweets and showed me the book she was reading. I showed her pictures I had taken on my day out and she could name every place. After a while she patted my knee and said "our stop".
We got off together and she walked me out and asked "You ok here?" And I nodded and pointed the way I needed to walk. I thanked her and tried to give her money for the treats but she refused and started her walk home.
When I think of Japan I think of the unyielding kindness I was shown. And how clean everything was. No litter anywhere like NONE.
No litter . . .and no trash cans either! Every day I'm a tourist in Japan, I get back to my hotel and have to empty out my backpack and pockets because everything is so overpackaged!
thanks! I've never really done Reddit. it looks overwhelming! There are thousands of comments. I'll have to dig in and figure out an efficient way of scrolling thru it!
In 1999, I took a trip to Myanmar. Myanmar was heading toward its decade under military rule and effectively shut off economically from the rest of the world. And the military stole everything the country had, so there was nothing left for the people. Like, no electricity, plumbing, or anything but dirt roads type of poor. I caught an overnight train from Yangon to Mandalay, because roads were nearly impassable because wagon-wheel ruts were so deep and there were no gas stations.
The locals were proud that they got old rolling stock from China. These weren't nice trains. These were beat-up post-war trains that even the Chinese didn't want anymore. Just benches on medical-green colored formica laid on rusting metal framing. As we approached our beat-up coach, we joked "what, are there going to be livestock under our seats and people setting fires on the train to stay warm?" and we laughed. Because God has a sense of humor, of course I had a rooster put under my seat - caged in a plastic over-sized mesh shopping basket. It would rustle, fuss, and occasionally crow that night. The track system was so under-maintained that trains could not go very fast on the tracks. Over the years and decades, the rails had developed a wobble - an oscillation from decades of rolling stock going over them. My wife called it "the washing machine". I remember there was a chain hanging between the car in front of us and our car. No door naturally. It was perhaps two feet long and an inch thick, so perhaps 15 pounds of metal. And it would sway and smack the roof in loud clangs. all. night. long. You couldn't put your head on the bench or the side of the car because it swayed so wildly that it would give you a concussion if you tried. Along the way, there was nothing. There was no light except the single bare bulb in our train car and the occasional candle or lantern outside in the distance. But candles and tallow were expensive, so they were infrequent. Just darkness. We had a couple of stops and the kids were desperate for anything of value. An empty plastic water bottle had massive value to them. There was no sleep that entire night.
We arrived in Mandalay the next day, exhausted, sore, and hungry. Our joke now is Circus Circus - the people behind Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas - had no idea that Mandalay is an absolute shithole, where one could see slaves hand-load sand into hand-made barges to sell on behalf of their masters.
I've taken those old green rolling stock trains - thankfully they're now only serving local routes, but back in 1998, in August when it was 95 degrees everywhere, we were on a 28 hour one from Guilin to Nanning. And my Walkman ran out of batteries 3 hours in. It was like slowly going mad - the heat, the lack of food, everything.
I've become increasingly interested in ridiculous train trips, which I haven't mentioned much in the broader family in the interests of avoiding ridicule for turning into my father, a lifelong rail enthusiast... although the odds of me watching youtube videos of freight cars being shunted in Swiss stations (not a euphemism) are zero.
The summer between high school and Cal, I went with 5 cousins and 1 uncle from Los Angeles to Tokyo to Hong Kong to Beijing - then by train from Beijing to Moscow to Berlin to Amsterdam to Paris to Zurich before flying back via London and then packing for Berkeley 3 days after landing.
We have discussed re-doing the trip - it'll be 30 years next year, we all have more money and a better idea of "how to travel" now too.
as far as I can tell, the longest you can go without having to switch to some other mode like a ferry is to start somewhere like Faro (Portugal) or Cadiz in Spain and describe kind of an arc that takes you to the border of PRC and Vietnam - I have no time and money for this, and I'm too much of a princess for the Trans SIberian express really, but I remain convinced that I could do something like this.
The Trans Siberian was super comfortable (even in 1992) - 4 bunks, locking door. They even put all the foreigners in one car - although the Polish group stuck to themselves and drank a case of vodka in 7 days.
I imagine now with ipads and wireless internet it's even easier - but I read Les Miserables and Riding the Iron Rooster and played approximately 1000 hands of a Chinese card game and ate awful Russian train food and really tasty Russian train platform food.
Chinese long distance trains are awesome - just short of Japan level comfort.
somewhat related, if anyone has any interest in a significant quantity of HO scale trains almost all of which are models representing Bavarian State Railways epochs 1 - 3, hit me up
On my first business trip to Germany a few years ago, our train from Frankfurt was suspended due to someone committing suicide on a track. We had reserved seats so we went to the office to get seats re-assigned on the next train, but they told us it was full, and to just sit in the same seat # as our original reservation. You see a problem? Train will be twice as full, how are we going to get seats? We were a large group of 15 people.
Someone said, let's try the dining car. We looked up where in the platform the dining car would stop, and it worked! We had beer and food for 3 hours while the rest of the train was full with people standing on aisles.
excellent approach. I was a little taken aback to find out, when we took the train from London to Edinburgh a few years back, that they happily sell more tickets than there are seats. We'd reserved seats so no worries for us, but it was Good Friday and a lot of people were on the move. It took me so long to get to the cafe car that when I was finished and we were pulling into a station, I took my chances & went back along the platform.
In Taiwan, the traditional railway sells assigned seats as well as standing-room tickets. High-speed rail typically does not sell standing-room tickets, but you can get assigned seats (slightly more expensive) or first-come first-served (but you should still be able to find a seat). The only time I encountered people standing on the high-speed rail train was after an earthquake took the southern half of Taiwan out of commission just before a long weekend. I think it was Tombsweeping Festival, so everyone had already made plans to go home to see their families. They canceled every other train, so you just got on whichever train you could take, and it was definitely standing room only. Surprisingly, everyone was really civil and considerate. I wouldn't have blamed anyone for getting frustrated at the tight conditions and being worried about whether they'd be able to see their families, but there was this collective sense of, "we're all just trying to get home, and if we need to squish a bit, we'll do it."
I've taken SRO seats from Hangzhou back to Shanghai after a long holiday weekend - you just end up buying a newspaper and sitting on the floor for the 90 minutes.
I commuted for a while on the Capital Corridor from Davis to Oakland. So much better than driving. It was also pretty reliable time wise. Everytime they added trains, the ridership went up. Turns out convenience works.
I like the width of Seoul's cars, but the speed and usability of Hong Kong may move it ahead for me. Shanghai now has the longest subway system in the world - and it's pretty good too.
there are various classes like 1st class w/ A/C, 1st class w/o AC, etc
traveling 2nd class from Kolkata to Varanasi was my best experience. it was an overnight journey, with open air windows. 3 levels of bunks folded down at night to sleep, but otherwise you would sit on the 1st level most of the time.
there were lots of vendors, and beggars and people sweeping the floors and then asking for money. a much more immersive experience than 1st class where they are pretty strict about only ticketed passengers getting on.
Second class in India is the same as Hard Sleeper in China. It is the most fun (no beggars though) but last time I took hard sleeper, it was a lot of card games and constant eating.
we stayed in Yokohama/Tokyo area for about 10 days in 2002. we were told to just get on/off trains at the scheduled times even if you could not read the Japanese signs at the smaller stops because there was NO CHANCE that it wasnt on time.
even on longer distance routes like Tokyo-Kyoto, it was always on time and the next train would be ready to go in 20 min.
the best view we got of Mt Fuji the entire trip was from the train ride from Tokyo to Hakone.
If you take the train on Yamanote Line, a local line that goes in circle around Tokyo, the next train comes just 3-5 minutes later so you never really have to look up schedule.
Back when one could take a single train from Hakata (Fukuoka) to Tokyo using a JR Pass – you're now forced to "transfer" at Shin-Osaka – I did the 6+ hour shinkansen ride and it got to Tokyo the minute it was supposed to. A modern miracle...
Took the shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto on the weekend while I was in Japan on a business trip. I was there with the CEO of an investee company who was working on a licensing deal for software we were trying to get NTT Docomo to adopt. Enjoyed tempura shrimp and some Kirin at the rooftop hotel as the sun set.
Took the train from Chicago to Oakland. Had some great views of the Rocky Mountains and later the Sierra Nevada. Took a couple of days I think. Also, took the trains extensively in India and also in Egypt - the Cairo to Alexandria run, and the Cairo to Aswan jaunt a couple of times in both directions. I tended to get off at most of the stops and walk around the towns and villages seeing the historical sites, sipping tea or coffee and enjoying a shisha pipe in the cafes.
After I disembarked at Nag Hammadi (the village known for the Nag Hammadi Codex), the police stopped me and put me back on the train after I had been there a few hours because Islamists had been active in the area and they were trying to avoid bad PR if I were shot, or something to that effect (they said in Arabic). Had the same thing happen at Assyut, where I was visiting the hometown of the philosopher Plotinus.
The town was known as Lycopolis in ancient times, also known for a temple to Anubis (no longer extant). Since I have read stuff on Neoplatonism I wanted to visit Plotinus' birthplace.
Notable sights include the famous Trollveggen (Troll wall), Europe's highest vertical mountain wall which is well known among climbers - and named after its supposed mystical inhabitants.
For our first anniversary, my wife and I took the Coast Starlight from San Jose to Seattle. The trip was scheduled to take 24 hours (from 8pm to 8pm), but we ended up being 8 hours late arriving in Seattle. Evidently, we were slowed down by freight traffic ahead of us and snow somewhere in Oregon. The train started running out of food in the dining car, so by the time we were ready to have dinner the second night, the only thing left was pre-packaged steamed Hebrew National hot dogs. We came to find out later that the Coast Starlight generally had a 22% on-time record. Not the best advertisement for American train travel.
As long as freight train get first priority, long distance rail travel times will always be... erratic. The question of fast isn't one that will ever come up, I suspect.
Heh, we took the Coast Starlight from Oakland (back when the 16th St. station was still open) to Portland and had a similar experience; stopped for an hour or so, to wait on freight trains. Takes quite a bit longer than driving, but there were parts were you see great views you don't get from Hwy 5. On time? Forgetaboutit.
OTOH, taking the Acela express from DC to NYC makes all the sense in the world; faster than driving or flying, we hopped on 3 minutes before the train left, no TSA lines, spacious seats etc...
In the US I've taken the train once, between LA Union Station and San Diego. I think they gave us a snack and the view was amazing.
When I was a teenager we did a family trip to Europe and got the Eurarail pass. Went from Paris to Venice, Rome, Florence, Pompeii, Barcelona. I remember having to wake up at the border crossings to show our passports, which I assume isn't required now with the EU.
Love the Pacific Surfliner, I've taken it north to Santa Barbara and south to San Diego. Aside from the jaunt through the valley it's a beautiful and efficient way to travel the Southern California coast.
Worked for Union Pacific for 7 years, IT Manager. Even for us geeks, they made sure we understood the "culture" of the railroad. Very Americanesque, in that rosy faux-nostalgic way. We rode trains, worked the yards and tracklines, and understood what it meant to work around trains on a daily basis. I managed camera/video systems at the Mexico border crossings, and appreciate the challenges those border locations face (from multiple angles).
Watched Mike Judge's "Tales from the Tour Bus" Rick James episode this weekend.
This is a fantastic animated documentary series on a snippet of American musicians. Season 1 is all country western, season 2 is all funk. Some of these guys were certifiably insane. The George Jones episodes were my fave.
Highly recommended to any fan of American music history or of Mike Judge. Not available streaming unfortunately if you dont have Cinemax.. I bought both seasons on youtube.
Michael Avenatti has just become his own lawyer in his wire fraud case, as of a few minutes ago. He has never tried a criminal case. Opening arguments are tomorrow. This should go well.
Watched parts of and recorded "16 Days of Glory" on TCM last night. It's a documentary about the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. I was 12 that year, lived in LA, and got my first job selling the LA Times at two of the Olympic venues. It brought back a flood of great memories. That Olympics is why I enjoy them so much now. It was narrated by David Perry, who narrated most of the other Olympic documentaries of the time. Really well-done look at many of the actual events and there were some great profiles of some of the athletes, both well-known and not-so-well known. It's streaming on TCM.com, along with similar documentaries of other Olympiads.
That was one of the run Olympics that I can recall. I was in Boston at the time, but even so, some of the preliminary events were held in Boston! So I saw some Olympic qualifying rounds of soccer in the Boston area. Also caught some of the Lake Placid Winter Olympics, which was highly disorganized but still wonderful.
My parents decided that the LA Olympics would be a nightmare of traffic and that tickets would be prohibitively expensive so they elected to schedule a family trip back to the UK while the games were happening
Excited to finally watch a NBA Finals game tonight, I've had to work every night for games 1-5 and will be unavailable for game 7, so as much as I was rooting for Phoenix I'm kind of hoping I get to see the Bucks win a title tonight.
Tadej Pogacar. I think I saw him this morning. I was running across the bridge into DC and a guy in a red polka dot jersey rode past me. Had to be him, right?
probably. how many people ride around in red polka dot jerseys anyways??
i used to have a World Champions jersey from the time i went to the Stephen Roche cycling camp in Mallorca. he was one of the few to win the unofficial "triple crown" of the Tour, the Giro and the World Championships in the same year.
I bought pies at Ikeda's in Auburn for DBD Rooftop on Sat (thanks Cugel and tbb). I was wearing a Cal shirt and the register girl asked if I went there and I said, yeah a long time ago. She said she was starting in the fall so I told her she'll have a great time. I gave and received a Go Bears! when we were done.
Vinegaroons. Like, wut?
https://www.facebook.com/BigBendNPS/posts/4432161480135470
Reminder: DBD HH this Thursday at 5:30 in Emeryville (Wondrous Brewing, free parking in the public garage across the street)
I might be late.
Polish swimmers sent home after just arriving in Japan because they were told they are not participants in the Olympics due to an admin error.
https://swimswam.com/poland-sends-six-swimmers-home-from-tokyo-olympic-games/
Tying in with Terence's topic: this Olympics has been a trainwreck
@MoriBear: some of these stories are quite lovely https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ongxe4/nonjapanese_on_reddit_what_comes_to_your_mind/
@TBB: I was SOOO overwhelmed by the page. I couldn't seem to get past the "homeless businessman" part without expanding everything, and then it was chaos!
Curious which bits you found lovely (I like that word!). and is there anyway to send a link to a subthread for them?
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ongxe4/nonjapanese_on_reddit_what_comes_to_your_mind/h5seqdv/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
thedodobirdy
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1d
My oldest son is autistic, and goes through seasons where he is hyper-focused on learning everything he can about a subject. He will talk non-stop about whatever his interest of that season is. For the last year and a half, his obsession has been Godzilla. And, at 1.5 years in, he is still going strong because there is SO MUCH TO LEARN!
This began with the current Legendary films, went into art sculptures and correcting/repainting toy figurines, slid into learning about the effect of the nuclear bombings on the culture, and he is currently watching and rewatching the original films to the point he can recognize Japanese phrases… and we aren’t done. Godzilla has opened a door to a side of the world he hadn’t known before, and my whole family is learning from it!
Godzilla has taught my son communication skills he has struggled with. He thinks he hates to read, but will read subtitles for entire movies. We have been able to have debates about characters’ strengths and weaknesses.
All that to say, heck yes GODZILLA!
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ongxe4/nonjapanese_on_reddit_what_comes_to_your_mind/h5rz1si/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
curlyfriessince96
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1d
In my childhood Urdu (native language) book, there was an article about Japan. A lot of other pretty things, one quality of Japanese people, written in the article stuck in my mind. The context was, "Japanese wrap your purchases in such a beautiful paper that instead of the thing you bought, you want to keep that paper." So whenever I think about Japan, these lines pop up in my mind.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ongxe4/nonjapanese_on_reddit_what_comes_to_your_mind/h5tooet/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
RooneyBagooney
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23h
Something similar happened to me too. I was visiting my friend who was living there (and still is now) and I had gone to Harajuku by myself for the day whilst she had to work. At some point I wandered too far from the main area, lost my bearings and found myself in some sort of industrial park looking place staring hopelessly at a map trying to find my way back to the main part of Harajuku. One of the two Japanese business men walking by noticed me and walked over. He didn’t speak a lick of English but was willing to help. I just said “Harajuku” and pointed at the map. He then left his friend and walked with me for over a block and pointed me down a road, to which I could see the main part of Harajuku. I said thank you and bowed and he waved me off with his hand as if to say ‘No big deal’ and went on his way. I love Japan and have visited multiple times over the years so it’s a city I feel very safe in, but y’know there bad people everywhere so I was feeling a little uncomfortable in that industrial park. The fact that this man took time out of his schedule to help some hapless tourist get back to where they needed to be was amazing to me. I am very thankful for that man and will never forget the kindness he showed me.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ongxe4/nonjapanese_on_reddit_what_comes_to_your_mind/h5th79l/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
pickaxeprogrammer
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1d
Wonderful story! I had a similar experience in Japan.
I was in Kyoto with my now wife a long time ago, well before Google maps and smart phones. So when you got lost, you got lost.
Our hotel told us about a Buddhist moon ceremony just outside Kyoto, so we wrote down the directions (so we thought...) and headed out. Well, we got lost in Kyoto station, and we must have looked very lost because a woman walked over and asked us where we were going, and then walked us to the counter and tell them everything we needed. She helped us pay for the right tickets, then walked us over to the correct sub platform. I was so overwhelmed by her kindness. She took maybe 20 minutes out of her day to deliver a couple of dumb lost kids to the right train. Crazy!
The rest of that story, for the interested... the directions we had about which stop to get off on turned out to be incorrect as well. It was about 11 at night, and the train was full. When our “stop” came, no one got off. So we had to make a judgement call. Get off in a random Japanese neighborhood in the middle of the night (no phone, remember—pre Google and smart phones) or assume the train was full because everyone was going to the ceremony. We tossed the instructions and followed the crowd. We were right. And the ceremony was beautiful!
I don’t think we would have had the confidence to go with the crowd if the woman back at the station hadn’t showed us so much kindness. We felt safe and comfortable with the people. It felt ok to take a chance, you know?
Best travel experience I’ve ever had.
Thanks, TBB! That was very Japanese of you ( helping this tourist "lost" in Reddit find his way!)
My little story was being at Nagoya Airport to begin my year there. I needed to call a friend, but had the wrong type of phone card (back then, there were three(?) diff types of payphones). A random Japanese person handed me his phone card. I called my friend, got directions, and while on the bus to the train station, saw the guy in the adjacent car. We had a goodbye wave...
Yes, agreed that the homeless businessman part was not quite as *lovely* and honestly, I am not a Reddit connoisseur, so usually, when I hit "load more comments," it displays the "top" (most upvoted) comments, but not necessarily the full threads. I'm not sure how to change what you see, but here are a couple that I enjoyed:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ongxe4/nonjapanese_on_reddit_what_comes_to_your_mind/h5sr7bz/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
clementineyeah
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1d
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I lived in Japan for about 16 months shortly after graduating. I had tried my best to learn at least the basics of conversation but the written languages escaped me. I ventured out on my own one day and explored all over. It started getting late and I went to leave Shinjuku but I could not find the subway station. Which is one thing I had never learned to ask. After hopeless pantomimes with countless locals trying to be helpful, a group of Australians poured out of a nearby bar. I was standing in front of a map trying not to cry when a voice behind me says "Hey there neighbor, where ya from?". I was so excited to hear English that I burst into tears.
7 grown men suddenly realized I was a scared kid and gathered around me to comfort me, offer me water and smokes, and once I babbled my predicament they escorted me all the way to the station, paid for my ticket back to the station closest to my home, and explained to an employee that I had gotten a bit overwhelmed and lost.
A little old lady that had to tip her head back to make eye contact with me pushed her way into the group and offered me her hand. "My stop, too." So I said goodbye to my new friends and got on the train with this lady. She gave me a can of milk tea and some sweets and showed me the book she was reading. I showed her pictures I had taken on my day out and she could name every place. After a while she patted my knee and said "our stop".
We got off together and she walked me out and asked "You ok here?" And I nodded and pointed the way I needed to walk. I thanked her and tried to give her money for the treats but she refused and started her walk home.
When I think of Japan I think of the unyielding kindness I was shown. And how clean everything was. No litter anywhere like NONE.
No litter . . .and no trash cans either! Every day I'm a tourist in Japan, I get back to my hotel and have to empty out my backpack and pockets because everything is so overpackaged!
thanks! I've never really done Reddit. it looks overwhelming! There are thousands of comments. I'll have to dig in and figure out an efficient way of scrolling thru it!
i got a little ways in then Hitomi Tanaka got mentioned and my afternoon got completely derailed
Trains
Shinkansen...mic drop!
In 1999, I took a trip to Myanmar. Myanmar was heading toward its decade under military rule and effectively shut off economically from the rest of the world. And the military stole everything the country had, so there was nothing left for the people. Like, no electricity, plumbing, or anything but dirt roads type of poor. I caught an overnight train from Yangon to Mandalay, because roads were nearly impassable because wagon-wheel ruts were so deep and there were no gas stations.
The locals were proud that they got old rolling stock from China. These weren't nice trains. These were beat-up post-war trains that even the Chinese didn't want anymore. Just benches on medical-green colored formica laid on rusting metal framing. As we approached our beat-up coach, we joked "what, are there going to be livestock under our seats and people setting fires on the train to stay warm?" and we laughed. Because God has a sense of humor, of course I had a rooster put under my seat - caged in a plastic over-sized mesh shopping basket. It would rustle, fuss, and occasionally crow that night. The track system was so under-maintained that trains could not go very fast on the tracks. Over the years and decades, the rails had developed a wobble - an oscillation from decades of rolling stock going over them. My wife called it "the washing machine". I remember there was a chain hanging between the car in front of us and our car. No door naturally. It was perhaps two feet long and an inch thick, so perhaps 15 pounds of metal. And it would sway and smack the roof in loud clangs. all. night. long. You couldn't put your head on the bench or the side of the car because it swayed so wildly that it would give you a concussion if you tried. Along the way, there was nothing. There was no light except the single bare bulb in our train car and the occasional candle or lantern outside in the distance. But candles and tallow were expensive, so they were infrequent. Just darkness. We had a couple of stops and the kids were desperate for anything of value. An empty plastic water bottle had massive value to them. There was no sleep that entire night.
We arrived in Mandalay the next day, exhausted, sore, and hungry. Our joke now is Circus Circus - the people behind Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas - had no idea that Mandalay is an absolute shithole, where one could see slaves hand-load sand into hand-made barges to sell on behalf of their masters.
I've taken those old green rolling stock trains - thankfully they're now only serving local routes, but back in 1998, in August when it was 95 degrees everywhere, we were on a 28 hour one from Guilin to Nanning. And my Walkman ran out of batteries 3 hours in. It was like slowly going mad - the heat, the lack of food, everything.
Heh "Mandalay" does have a romantic sound to it, but man what a trip. My wife would have divorced me if I had set up a vacation like this.
I've become increasingly interested in ridiculous train trips, which I haven't mentioned much in the broader family in the interests of avoiding ridicule for turning into my father, a lifelong rail enthusiast... although the odds of me watching youtube videos of freight cars being shunted in Swiss stations (not a euphemism) are zero.
The summer between high school and Cal, I went with 5 cousins and 1 uncle from Los Angeles to Tokyo to Hong Kong to Beijing - then by train from Beijing to Moscow to Berlin to Amsterdam to Paris to Zurich before flying back via London and then packing for Berkeley 3 days after landing.
We have discussed re-doing the trip - it'll be 30 years next year, we all have more money and a better idea of "how to travel" now too.
as far as I can tell, the longest you can go without having to switch to some other mode like a ferry is to start somewhere like Faro (Portugal) or Cadiz in Spain and describe kind of an arc that takes you to the border of PRC and Vietnam - I have no time and money for this, and I'm too much of a princess for the Trans SIberian express really, but I remain convinced that I could do something like this.
The Trans Siberian was super comfortable (even in 1992) - 4 bunks, locking door. They even put all the foreigners in one car - although the Polish group stuck to themselves and drank a case of vodka in 7 days.
I imagine now with ipads and wireless internet it's even easier - but I read Les Miserables and Riding the Iron Rooster and played approximately 1000 hands of a Chinese card game and ate awful Russian train food and really tasty Russian train platform food.
Chinese long distance trains are awesome - just short of Japan level comfort.
somewhat related, if anyone has any interest in a significant quantity of HO scale trains almost all of which are models representing Bavarian State Railways epochs 1 - 3, hit me up
On my first business trip to Germany a few years ago, our train from Frankfurt was suspended due to someone committing suicide on a track. We had reserved seats so we went to the office to get seats re-assigned on the next train, but they told us it was full, and to just sit in the same seat # as our original reservation. You see a problem? Train will be twice as full, how are we going to get seats? We were a large group of 15 people.
Someone said, let's try the dining car. We looked up where in the platform the dining car would stop, and it worked! We had beer and food for 3 hours while the rest of the train was full with people standing on aisles.
excellent approach. I was a little taken aback to find out, when we took the train from London to Edinburgh a few years back, that they happily sell more tickets than there are seats. We'd reserved seats so no worries for us, but it was Good Friday and a lot of people were on the move. It took me so long to get to the cafe car that when I was finished and we were pulling into a station, I took my chances & went back along the platform.
In Taiwan, the traditional railway sells assigned seats as well as standing-room tickets. High-speed rail typically does not sell standing-room tickets, but you can get assigned seats (slightly more expensive) or first-come first-served (but you should still be able to find a seat). The only time I encountered people standing on the high-speed rail train was after an earthquake took the southern half of Taiwan out of commission just before a long weekend. I think it was Tombsweeping Festival, so everyone had already made plans to go home to see their families. They canceled every other train, so you just got on whichever train you could take, and it was definitely standing room only. Surprisingly, everyone was really civil and considerate. I wouldn't have blamed anyone for getting frustrated at the tight conditions and being worried about whether they'd be able to see their families, but there was this collective sense of, "we're all just trying to get home, and if we need to squish a bit, we'll do it."
I've taken SRO seats from Hangzhou back to Shanghai after a long holiday weekend - you just end up buying a newspaper and sitting on the floor for the 90 minutes.
Did you get back to your seats in time?
I did! I mean I would have jumped back on the train anywhere if the warning had sounded, but I got all the way back to our carriage with no issues
That's good. I would do it if I were familiar with the place, but not try it in a foreign country.
I commuted for a while on the Capital Corridor from Davis to Oakland. So much better than driving. It was also pretty reliable time wise. Everytime they added trains, the ridership went up. Turns out convenience works.
Seoul's metro was by far the most impressive public metro system that I've ridden, super easy to get around on while knowing zero Korean.
I agree. It was really easy to use to get around.
I like the width of Seoul's cars, but the speed and usability of Hong Kong may move it ahead for me. Shanghai now has the longest subway system in the world - and it's pretty good too.
Dutch trains are comfy. The only downside is that it's hard not to doze off while riding through the countryside.
there is an astonishing quantity of rail travel videos on YouTube and I have been known to nod off while watching them because of the sound
in India trains are a microcosm of society.
there are various classes like 1st class w/ A/C, 1st class w/o AC, etc
traveling 2nd class from Kolkata to Varanasi was my best experience. it was an overnight journey, with open air windows. 3 levels of bunks folded down at night to sleep, but otherwise you would sit on the 1st level most of the time.
there were lots of vendors, and beggars and people sweeping the floors and then asking for money. a much more immersive experience than 1st class where they are pretty strict about only ticketed passengers getting on.
Second class in India is the same as Hard Sleeper in China. It is the most fun (no beggars though) but last time I took hard sleeper, it was a lot of card games and constant eating.
in Japan are rarely late.
we stayed in Yokohama/Tokyo area for about 10 days in 2002. we were told to just get on/off trains at the scheduled times even if you could not read the Japanese signs at the smaller stops because there was NO CHANCE that it wasnt on time.
even on longer distance routes like Tokyo-Kyoto, it was always on time and the next train would be ready to go in 20 min.
the best view we got of Mt Fuji the entire trip was from the train ride from Tokyo to Hakone.
If you take the train on Yamanote Line, a local line that goes in circle around Tokyo, the next train comes just 3-5 minutes later so you never really have to look up schedule.
just gotta make sure you're going the right direction! (altho, worst-case, you'll waste 59 minutes if you don't figure it out)
Back when one could take a single train from Hakata (Fukuoka) to Tokyo using a JR Pass – you're now forced to "transfer" at Shin-Osaka – I did the 6+ hour shinkansen ride and it got to Tokyo the minute it was supposed to. A modern miracle...
They announce an apology if the train is 30 seconds late.
If it's more than 10 minutes late, they'll issue apologies you can take to work.
Took the shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto on the weekend while I was in Japan on a business trip. I was there with the CEO of an investee company who was working on a licensing deal for software we were trying to get NTT Docomo to adopt. Enjoyed tempura shrimp and some Kirin at the rooftop hotel as the sun set.
Took the train from Chicago to Oakland. Had some great views of the Rocky Mountains and later the Sierra Nevada. Took a couple of days I think. Also, took the trains extensively in India and also in Egypt - the Cairo to Alexandria run, and the Cairo to Aswan jaunt a couple of times in both directions. I tended to get off at most of the stops and walk around the towns and villages seeing the historical sites, sipping tea or coffee and enjoying a shisha pipe in the cafes.
After I disembarked at Nag Hammadi (the village known for the Nag Hammadi Codex), the police stopped me and put me back on the train after I had been there a few hours because Islamists had been active in the area and they were trying to avoid bad PR if I were shot, or something to that effect (they said in Arabic). Had the same thing happen at Assyut, where I was visiting the hometown of the philosopher Plotinus.
did you go to Assyut specifically because of the connection to Plotinus? something else?
in either case, sounds amazing, the part about just getting on/off, sipping tea, etc ..
The town was known as Lycopolis in ancient times, also known for a temple to Anubis (no longer extant). Since I have read stuff on Neoplatonism I wanted to visit Plotinus' birthplace.
in Norway the trains are supremely optimized for families and children.
- you get essentially a free ticket for your kid or maybe 10% of the adult cost.
- a nice play area or place to read books
the Rauma Railway in the semi-north is particularly scenic
https://www.visitnorway.com/plan-your-trip/getting-around/by-train/rauma-line/
Notable sights include the famous Trollveggen (Troll wall), Europe's highest vertical mountain wall which is well known among climbers - and named after its supposed mystical inhabitants.
For our first anniversary, my wife and I took the Coast Starlight from San Jose to Seattle. The trip was scheduled to take 24 hours (from 8pm to 8pm), but we ended up being 8 hours late arriving in Seattle. Evidently, we were slowed down by freight traffic ahead of us and snow somewhere in Oregon. The train started running out of food in the dining car, so by the time we were ready to have dinner the second night, the only thing left was pre-packaged steamed Hebrew National hot dogs. We came to find out later that the Coast Starlight generally had a 22% on-time record. Not the best advertisement for American train travel.
As long as freight train get first priority, long distance rail travel times will always be... erratic. The question of fast isn't one that will ever come up, I suspect.
Heh, we took the Coast Starlight from Oakland (back when the 16th St. station was still open) to Portland and had a similar experience; stopped for an hour or so, to wait on freight trains. Takes quite a bit longer than driving, but there were parts were you see great views you don't get from Hwy 5. On time? Forgetaboutit.
OTOH, taking the Acela express from DC to NYC makes all the sense in the world; faster than driving or flying, we hopped on 3 minutes before the train left, no TSA lines, spacious seats etc...
In the US I've taken the train once, between LA Union Station and San Diego. I think they gave us a snack and the view was amazing.
When I was a teenager we did a family trip to Europe and got the Eurarail pass. Went from Paris to Venice, Rome, Florence, Pompeii, Barcelona. I remember having to wake up at the border crossings to show our passports, which I assume isn't required now with the EU.
Love the Pacific Surfliner, I've taken it north to Santa Barbara and south to San Diego. Aside from the jaunt through the valley it's a beautiful and efficient way to travel the Southern California coast.
there are no patrolled border crossings anymore. you just drive and it is like driving from one state to another.
there is not even a "welcome to Liechtenstein" sign!!
now that's just wrong. They should have all the 'welcome to signs!' that's the whole point of travel (ok, maybe not the whole point, but still).
Worked for Union Pacific for 7 years, IT Manager. Even for us geeks, they made sure we understood the "culture" of the railroad. Very Americanesque, in that rosy faux-nostalgic way. We rode trains, worked the yards and tracklines, and understood what it meant to work around trains on a daily basis. I managed camera/video systems at the Mexico border crossings, and appreciate the challenges those border locations face (from multiple angles).
Husbands
After nearly 30 years, I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of it.
i think i am better dad than a husband.
Rick James
Watched Mike Judge's "Tales from the Tour Bus" Rick James episode this weekend.
This is a fantastic animated documentary series on a snippet of American musicians. Season 1 is all country western, season 2 is all funk. Some of these guys were certifiably insane. The George Jones episodes were my fave.
Highly recommended to any fan of American music history or of Mike Judge. Not available streaming unfortunately if you dont have Cinemax.. I bought both seasons on youtube.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7212136/
I watched Season 2 a few years ago when it came out and I was blown away by how good it was.
James Brown episodes were great, combined with Bootsy
The Hulk
Wasn't Bill Bixby a yell leader at Cal?
Bear Insider seems to think he was.
Our Crumbling Democracy
Michael Avenatti has just become his own lawyer in his wire fraud case, as of a few minutes ago. He has never tried a criminal case. Opening arguments are tomorrow. This should go well.
Well at least he's committed to entertaining lawyer twitter, that's something
I wonder if Twist would ever be his own lawyer.
Tom Barrack - chairman of Trump 2017 Inauguration Fund - arrested today on federal charges related to foreign lobbying
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/20/thomas-barrack-chairman-of-trump-2017-inaugural-fund-arrested-on-federal-charge.html
I like his lawyer's argument - but we cooperated. I guess that doesn't absolve him of all guilt.
Today in Covid 19
They're wearing white coats, so they must be credible
https://gizmodo.com/pro-trump-group-files-motion-against-fda-to-stop-covid-1847325556
Anyone wearing a labcoat outside is just using it as a prop
that is awesome
Dr. Fauci has had enough of Rand Paul
https://twitter.com/RanttMedia/status/1417501853038915587
DBD AV Club
Watched parts of and recorded "16 Days of Glory" on TCM last night. It's a documentary about the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. I was 12 that year, lived in LA, and got my first job selling the LA Times at two of the Olympic venues. It brought back a flood of great memories. That Olympics is why I enjoy them so much now. It was narrated by David Perry, who narrated most of the other Olympic documentaries of the time. Really well-done look at many of the actual events and there were some great profiles of some of the athletes, both well-known and not-so-well known. It's streaming on TCM.com, along with similar documentaries of other Olympiads.
That was one of the run Olympics that I can recall. I was in Boston at the time, but even so, some of the preliminary events were held in Boston! So I saw some Olympic qualifying rounds of soccer in the Boston area. Also caught some of the Lake Placid Winter Olympics, which was highly disorganized but still wonderful.
My parents decided that the LA Olympics would be a nightmare of traffic and that tickets would be prohibitively expensive so they elected to schedule a family trip back to the UK while the games were happening
(in case it wasn't clear, the "SMDH" was implied)
Well, your family did help decrease the traffic, so thank you!
A guy I ran on a few relay teams with made the semis in the 5,000 meters there. I'll have to check it out.
DBD Test Kitchen
Pro
Tom Brady in the (White) House. https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2021/07/20/tampa-bay-buccaneers-white-house/
Excited to finally watch a NBA Finals game tonight, I've had to work every night for games 1-5 and will be unavailable for game 7, so as much as I was rooting for Phoenix I'm kind of hoping I get to see the Bucks win a title tonight.
Game 4 was one of the best basketball games I've seen i nthe last decade.
Game 5 was all kinds of awesome.
2021 NFL training camp: Aaron Rodgers, Melvin Gordon headline nine surprise summer trade candidates
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/2021-nfl-training-camp-aaron-rodgers-melvin-gordon-headline-nine-surprise-summer-trade-candidates/
Tadej Pogacar. I think I saw him this morning. I was running across the bridge into DC and a guy in a red polka dot jersey rode past me. Had to be him, right?
Forget the yellow, green, and white jerseys. My favorite is the polka dot and I would totally rock one on my morning rides.
probably. how many people ride around in red polka dot jerseys anyways??
i used to have a World Champions jersey from the time i went to the Stephen Roche cycling camp in Mallorca. he was one of the few to win the unofficial "triple crown" of the Tour, the Giro and the World Championships in the same year.
there are a lot of middle aged men hereabouts with money to spend on their cycling habit and delusions of grandeur to fulfill
I stopped wearing my team kit when it became obvious that people expected something of me.
Other College
Cal
I bought pies at Ikeda's in Auburn for DBD Rooftop on Sat (thanks Cugel and tbb). I was wearing a Cal shirt and the register girl asked if I went there and I said, yeah a long time ago. She said she was starting in the fall so I told her she'll have a great time. I gave and received a Go Bears! when we were done.
Marionberry cobbler at Ikeda's!
I got a peach and an apple. Both were very good.
Colin Morikawa to be interviewed on CNBC after the close today.
Think he mentions Cal?
He still uses a Cal yardage book - so even if he doesn't we're still part of how he identifies
Go Bears!!