Continuing this week’s theme of “random rail silliness”, here’s an NPR ditty on the Tunes of the JR in Tokyo.
If you’ve been to Tokyo and miss the place, this is for you!
Neato!
To compensate for the lack of new pix since I’ve not been traveling lately, I bring you….
100 Secrets of the Yamanote!
Wah!
Everything you’ve wanted to know about the long green train to amaze your friends…
I’m waiting for a list of secrets about the Chuo Line. That’s the big orange train.
Union Station, Los Angeles
Famous for movies, TV shows and oh yeah, Amtrak and the Metroliner stop here too.
I’ve been away
The traffic has really gotten bad in LA. Almost as bad as San Francisco, except on a larger scale. How you ask? Well…
The traffic crawls or just doesn’t move on major east/west arteries. Ever try to drive on Geary during the PM commute? It’s like the 10 except the 10 is much bigger.
The commute begins earlier in the day for both morning and evening (again, why do they call it “rush” hour?). People trying to leave earlier to beat the rush, along with everyone else.
From 1997-2001, I made regular trips to LA to stay with friends and to hang out. I did a LOT of driving. It wasn’t THIS bad back then.
Did all of this congestion increase just in the past three years?
On the other hand, my friend in South Pasadena lives three blocks from a Gold Line stop. Very convenient if you destination is also near a Metro station.
Mission Station, South Pasadena on the Gold line
I wanted to take a blurry late night pic like I did with the Yamanote when I was in Japan, but they don’t go that fast when they pull in.
Gold Line light rail
They go walking speed. The cars were nice and shiny and clean though.
For homesick Trojans…
All hail to Alma Mater,
To thy glory we sing;
All hail to Southern California,
Loud let thy praises ring;
Where Western sky meets Western seas
Our college stands in majesty
Sing our love to Alma Mater,
Hail, all hail to thee!!
OAK in the AM
I’m in South Pasadena right now, blogging away at a Starbucks. Their only redeeming trait (besides mocha malt frappaccinos) is that they have wi-fi hotspots. So that’s why I’m at a Starbucks, in case you care…
I flew SWA outta OAK this AM. It took far too long. It was 20 minutes from the Outer Richmond to 6th and Market. Then it took 25 minutes to get on the bridge.
Yes you read that right. 25 minutes sitting in traffic calming, I mean gridlock.
Then it took another 20 minutes to get to the parking lot I park at near OAK.
Out of these three times, which one looks to be the most unreasonable? I’ll give you a clue: it’s not getting across town or going to the parking lot.
Thank goodness I left the house 30 minutes early.
Also thank goodness I packed shorts. It’s fricking hot here. It’s Singapore-like at USC and it’s dry heat in South Pas. Sheesh.
Imported Posts
Sooo if you’ve noticed, I’ve been able to import the travel entries from Blogspot. Next comes my previous blogs and hopefully some sort of gallery/thumbnailing program for the pix.
I have all the entries sorted by airport (type in NRT in the search box to find all the Tokyo entries for example) for easy reading.
Easy in a chronological way…until I get the categories indexed on the index page.
Hola!
Hah! I finally figured this out!
I installed Movable Type all by my lonesome! All it took was 2 months (on and off), a 12 pack of Diet Coke and gallons of tea. Over 2 months of course.
Now, I’ve gotta make this look pretty and try to import the Blogger entries from walkingixus.blogspot.com.
Muuhuuahhaaa!
Thirsting for Wanderlust
I found this useful map that points out where you can get something cool and replenishing to drink.
Mmmmm. Sweat! There’s even a handbook! And if you must absolutely have it in english, click this. It’s not quite as interesting looking tho.
Yep, I’m over the deep end a bit because it’s 22 degrees out site and I’m not:
A: in LAX
B: in HKG
C: in SIN
D: in NRT
or any other place that’s supposed to be hot. Makes me think of traveling.
Ever feel the need to bowl?
Bowling is an international sport.
Though I’d question the word of “sport” since people who sit at a table shoving cards and chips at each other is also considered a “sport”.
In HKG, you can go to an old airport and bowl in the terminal.
In Tokyo, all you need to do is look for one of these. Or it could just be a piece of moderne retro design…
Usually they’re out front like this one but sometimes they’re huge on the rooftops making a very weird statement on the skyline.