Tuesday evening, an earthquake occurred off the coast of the Kamchatka region of Russia. It caused tsunami floods in that region, as well as Japan and Hawaii.
The waves hitting Russia were up to 12 feet high. Many Russian ships and nuclear powered submarines were damaged, in a nearby port.
Warnings were spread across the US west coast on Wednesday morning, but fortunately, the wave hit southern California at a low tide, so damage was minimal.
There are hundreds of boats in the San Diego marinas, I’m sure the owners were crapping their pants when they heard.
Strange that if I had stayed a couple days later, I could have been affected.
For my second ticket, I wanted to go and hit as many panels as I could. I browsed over the schedule, but there wasn’t a lot of good panels on Sunday. All the really good ones were on Friday and Saturday, the 2 days I was not able to go. 🙁
I headed out rather early, at the bus stop before 8, when the convention doors wouldn’t open until 9:30. I just wanted to get a good spot in line.
Surprisingly, they had the doors open early, there were long lines inside for many of the panels. I don’t know which, all the 10:00 panels sounded boring, but I don’t know all the different artists, so maybe there was some really good comic or manga person I never heard of.
I headed straight to room 7A, which had no line, because the first panel was “Pop Culture and the Christian Church”. No, I hadn’t converted, I was there for the second panel, which was going to be about the plans for Star Trek in the next couple years. I just wanted to make sure I had a good seat.
I was actually the 4th person in the room, including the sound tech.
I chose a seat and started playing solitaire on my tablet, just to kill time. I didn’t even finish the game when a couple in the row behind me asked if I wanted to play Uno. Well, why not, it’s better than draining my battery.
They were local, but the lady had attended UCF and had some family in Tampa area.
We played Uno Flip, which I had not played before, but I did manage to pick up the variant rules and got a couple wins.
It was hard playing on the rows of chairs, I was kneeling on mine, while having to reach over the seatback to get or place cards.
After a few minutes, a group of young ladies sat in the following row and joined us. The time flew by, it didn’t seem like an hour.
The panel really wasn’t that bad. Each artist talked about there own recent project and how it came to be, with just a bit of preachiness. The last man didn’t even have a book to push, he talked about the latest Superman movie and how it was comparable to real life. I haven’t watched it yet, but wasn’t spoiled by anything he said either.
One man was named Robert Fuller, which is the same as an actor that was on “Wagontrain” which dad watches a lot, so it made me laugh when I realized that.
Apparently, halfway through, the AC kicked into high gear, it got cold, fast. I was thinking of going out to the hallway, but then I would loose my seat.
I enjoyed the Star Trek panel, but was shivering throughout, so I ended up going out near the end. The exit door was right next to a balcony. I figured the best way to warm up is to get into the sun.
The balcony was on the backside of the center, facing the bay, so there was a cool breeze blowing. Not what I wanted.
Wednesday I had walked back there and knew there were a bunch of television promotion events, Abbot Elementary, King of the Hill, and Adult Swim. I don’t care about the first, and the second had a 2 hour line, so I went to the Adult Swim promo. I haven’t watched Cartoon Network in several years, but I recognized most of the activities.
Unfortunately, several of the items had broken in the previous days, so there was only a giant inflated slide. It wasn’t too long of a wait and it was fun, but I had hoped for more. I didn’t even know what show it was supposed to be from.
Down around the corner, there was an Alien: Earth promo, but it also had a long wait. It is a show in the Alien movie universe.
Since it wasn’t any warmer down there, I went back up, heading to room 9. They had an all day panel, swapping out local film makers occasionally. It was called a “children’s film festival,” so I thought it was going to be a screening of kids movies, nope, it did have a few shorts shown, but it was mostly about talking with university students who make films for kids (as a school project).
I did get to quickly meet the star of one of the shorts, prior to coming in. It was called “Super Human Anxiety” and was about a girl who has super strength that gets stuck in an elevator and has a panic attack. Pretty much a PSA for mental health advocacy.
The actress was Alexis Jacquelyn Smith, who actually is in the IMDB, with a few roles in shorts, but also shows and movies.
I left after that, roaming around checking out the costumes.
By 1, my stomach was making noise, so I bit the bullet and decided to get an $17 burrito. As I approached the counter, I see Tim Russ, who played Vulcan Tuvok on ST: Voyager. I offered to let him cut in, but he just waved me off and said no. The talent doesn’t stand in line.
There were tables in a large area, but you couldn’t sit to eat as too many people were “resting” there, holding seats with there bags. I found a spot without anyone there, but also no chair, so I knelt down and ate.
Looking at the schedule again, I didn’t see anything worthwhile, so I went down to the exhibit hall. I had already seen nearly everything, but why not check it out more.
I spent a few hours until nearly closing, then went out towards the buses. On the way, I see the sign for the Marriott. They have events going on there also, so might as well go.
They didn’t have any signs or maps to know where to go, and I ended up in the game room. There was about a hundred people at consoles playing some game I didn’t recognize. I’m not even sure if they were all playing together or not.
Among the more interesting costumes I saw, the flower maiden from Midsommer, a seven year old Wednesday Adams, Galinda and Elphaba from Wicked, and the shrunken head man from Beetlejuice.
Walking count: Today, not much, maybe only 3 miles, but I am about to go to Denny’s, so that will double. Total: well over 30.
Even though I have flown over the Pacific Ocean several times, I’ve never actually seen it. (I prefer aisle seats, so can’t see out the window.)
The coast is only 3 miles away, but I have already walked way more than anyone should ever do, so I Ubered over to the edge of a park.
There were cliffs here, maybe 60 feet high. Certainly higher than you’d want to fall. Luckily, there was a set of stairs leading down to the “beach”.
At the bottom, there was a small area of sand, but mostly rock shelves and just stones about head size. You could walk around, but it was precarious. I was convinced I would end up either with soggy shoes, busted head, or salt-ruined phone. You will have to read to the end to find out which…
It is called the “pacific” but it is no calmer than what I have seen on the Atlantic or Gulf, so bad name?
My free tourist map had stated there were caves. Nope, they are just deeper indentations into the cliff wall. If I can touch the back with one hand and the other is still outside, it isn’t a cave, IMO.
The rock shelves had small pools in them, small crabs and sea anemones flourished within. But it did mean you’d have to constantly watch where you step.
After checking everything out, it wasn’t a large area, I headed back up the stairs and walked southward along the ridge, looking for another way to get down to another beach area.
I mentioned before how San Diego feels so foreign, this was no different. The top of the cliff area felt like a desert, dry and dusty, with brown prickly grasses and bushes.
I did see an actual sandy beach area, with a couple of women and their dogs, but I saw absolutely no possible route down. Well, actually going down would be easy, but you’d not like the landing nor would you ever get back out.
I never rains in southern Cali, but when it does, man it pours.
There were many washout areas, causing even more chances to slip and end up at the bottom. I managed to find a spot where people had carved out a few stepping holes, so I didn’t fall and die. I know, you are so relieved.
Once at the bottom, I would walk along exploring the area, trying to dodge the waves from washing over my shoes as I slipped around an outcropping.
A couple of men with 2 young girls were down on the same beach. One was digging in one of the “caves” and was trying to uncover something partially buried. I had climbed up shortly after them and noticed they had all left their shoes at the top of the cliff, I should have thought of that.
I went down the coast for a bit longer, but I was looking at a map on a information sign and realized I was basically at the end of the park. So I headed inland, hiking through the desert, climbing higher and higher. I zigzagged through the bushes, finding dead ends and loops back, not going forward.
Eventually, I did find a path to a parking lot and was able to get to where I could get a ride back to the hotel.
Climbing that far left me quite sweaty. I should have gone to the room and rested or cooled down, but I still wanted to go to the Chinese History Museum, so I was dropped off at the bus stop and rode to the convention center.
I had thought the museum would be local history, but it was more general Chinese history. It was good and not much admission.
Without anything else planed, I just went back over to the crowd to costume watch.
There were 4 ladies in “princess” outfits standing together. A little girl walked up and was awed, she had princess-overload.
I have seen quite a few Fantastic 4 outfits, but I just realized that many of the t-shirts are just the ones given out by the blood bank for donations.
I went to eat then went back to the room for a nap, nearly 3 hours.
Tomorrow will be another busy day, so I should rest up.
Walking count: Hard to measure a zig zag path, but probably about 3 miles on the cliffs and 3 downtown, so total to date is 25 miles.
Ok, I will tell you now, a wave did wash over my shoe once, but it is leather so my feet stayed dry. Although, time will tell if salt spray will ruin my phone or not.
Since I had nothing better planned, I headed off to Tijuana, Mexico, this morning.
OK, it was closer to noon before I actually got out of bed, but it was technically still morning.
There is a train that goes right to the border. I cheated a bit as I took the convention shuttle downtown first. The ticket was only $2.50, each way. I didn’t know what time I would return, so I just got a one-way.
When I had renewed my passport, I decided to spend a bit extra to get the passport card. It is only good for land crossings of Mexico and Canada, no cruise or flights. I don’t know why I did, at the time, I had no plans to drive over 1200 miles to the border. I did think that if I had lost my passport, the card would be useful in proving who I was to the consulate to get a new passport. At least now I can say I actually used it, even if I still had my passport in my bag.
There are over a dozen stops on the way, almost all are literally just a platform with ticket machines, sitting out in the middle of nowhere.
The ride took about 45 minutes, dropping us within 100 feet of the border control, which was surprisingly simple, just about 2 minutes to pass through, including getting a visa and bag scan.
We had to then walk down a pathway, with fences on both sides, maybe 200-250 feet long, then pass through a one-way carousel, before being in Mexico proper. There is no way to re-enter, so I wonder how there are so many vendors inside the pathway.
There were a hundred or so taxis lined up, ready to take your money, but jokes on them, I don’t have any. 😛
I had no real destination, just wandered down street after street.
There was nothing note worthy that I passed, except a couple of pit bulls that were “knotted”. If you don’t know what that means, I’m not going to tell you.
I saw a few statues on concrete pedestals, in the medians of the roadway, but I saw no signs stating who they were supposed to be, maybe generic Mexicans and Aztecs.
I spotted a restaurant, it didn’t look great, but it smelled wonderful.
My original plan was to just use my card. I know, I know, I was going to do the same exact thing I avoided yesterday. But this was different, yesterday I had US cash in a US town. Today, I had no pesos and didn’t want to have to exchange more than I needed.
Unfortunately, they did not appear like the place that had “technology”. I went to an exchanger next door and swapped $40 for 721 pesos. Over kill, I was certain.
I went in and just pointed to the menu on the counter, for a 4-piece meal, 159 pesos or about $8.50. After a minute, the guy gives me this reasonably large bag of food. WTF did I order?
The tables were occupied, so I decided I would walk a bit more, looking for a park or a shady bench. No such luck, they don’t believe in benches.
I did find a small window ledge on a building, with shade, so I sat and took a look at what I had.
The first container was a ~10 oz polystyrene cup w/lid, filled with frijoles marrones (brown beans), they were awesome. I shouldn’t be eating them, because farts, but I downed the whole container, including the broth.
The second was a pinkish rice. It tasted good, but had been squished into the cup too much and was hard to scoop, and a bit cooled off.
The next was a vegetable soup, pass.
I then decided I better eat the chicken before I got full. Fuck, this was the best chicken I have ever had. Seriously, it was magnificent. Slightly salty, smokey, and spicy, in just the right amounts. Also tender as heck.
This place was called “Rey de Pollo” (King of chicken). I think it might have been a chain restaurant, but they certainly are the kings.
The only downsides were that the 2 legs were a bit skinny, compared to American drumsticks, but I’ll take a scrawny delicious one over a fat, tasteless one. The other pieces were, i think, a back and a thigh.
Also included were a bag of chips and small baggie of salsa(?), or maybe it was just smashed up tomato. What am I supposed to do with a bag of sauce? It had some small soft tortillas, but I didn’t know what they were for, there wasn’t anything to put in them, unless I was supposed to pick the meat off and have small tacos.
Before I got on the train, I had to pee, but there was nowhere at the train station. The wasn’t any toilet on the train either, it was only 4 cars long. And as I stated above, the other stations were just open platforms, so I couldn’t even jump off to do my business, and catch the next train.
Sitting there eating, certainly didn’t help the situation.
I finished up and started walking in the same direction I had been beforehand. I went up an inclined road, going over the Rio Tijuana.
Sears is still alive in Mexico, apparently.
If you remember the movie Grease, there is a scene of a car race in the LA river. River being a loose term for a completely concrete ditch, with a trickle running down the center. In times of great rain, it will fill substantially, but normally, just a trickle.
This river was very similar.
On the other side, I spot a small shopping center, an open air mall. I head in and am rewarded with a sign for the “sanitarios“. I know the term baño, for toilet or bathroom, but I guess in a poor place like Tijuana, you might want to specify that it is clean, or at least it flushes.
I wandered around, never really passing anything worth while, for a few hours. Lots of construction, but even more destruction, neglect, graffiti, and trash.
Not much to see, plus I didn’t really want to use my iPad to show off my iWealth™.
Everywhere I went had huge amounts of traffic and dust. I doesn’t rain often, so the dust doesn’t get washed away.
Eventually I got too tired of walking, and I was getting a little redder each day, so I started to find my way back.
It did seem to take longer to get back than the entire time I had already been there, but I am sure that was just my skewed perception.
Entrance to Mexico
I pass a long double lane of stopped cars, they are going to go through the border crossing. Glad I ain’t one of them.
Under an bridge, a man is selling drinks and fruit. Well he had them for sale, he wasn’t really doing much “selling” himself. I see on his menu an orange drink I had seen before, a type of fizzy orange soda, with juice, much like Orangina. It is a bit tart, not very sweet, just like most Mexican oranges.
He looked in his cooler, but didn’t have one, so he zipped down to another vendor to get one. They didn’t have any either, must be popular, but he went further up the road to a second vendor to check. It was 40 pesos, and I dug out that amount in coins while he was gone.
While standing in the shade was better than walking in the sun, I didn’t want to wait around, so I started walking back up the road, meeting him on the way. He was successful, and I paid him.
I then find out why 2 lanes were stopped for so long, while the third was moving, the right lane was for local traffic, that exited left, while the left 2 were held up for the border. Police had barricades to prevent blockage. It seems to me, that it would have been better to have the 2 right lanes be border lanes, and the let all flow naturally, but I seem to make sense whereas the police don’t.
Finally, I get back to the area I had come through the carousel, but didn’t know how to go back in. I was also being accosted by even more taxi drivers.
Following the map directions, I go along, passing a line line of people. After the convention, I didn’t even notice the line, too used to it already.
This line was long enough, that I had to notice at some point. It was over a half mile long, no joke. This was the line of people trying to cross into the US, and that’s the line I was going to have to get into. Crap!
I checked the border control website for more info, maybe I could go into another line as a citizen. Nope, nothing about that, just that there was 2½ times the normal Friday foot traffic. Perhaps they were also going to Comic-Con, either as guests or just to spectate.
I am walking back down the sidewalk, checking the slow Mexican internet for possible faster routes, when a man asks me if I want to take the bus across. Well, no I don’t, but I also don’t want to stand in line for hours.
He says the price is $10 or 200 pesos. I still have 500, so I go that option.
He takes my passport card and enters it into his machine and issues me a ticket. I board and a few minutes later we drive off.
We don’t drive very far, maybe 150-200 feet before everyone exits the bus to go through the checkpoint. Inside there is even a special “bus passenger only” lane.
Just the usual, take your photo, look at your passport, ask the question of “Are you carrying anything illegal?”, and we’re through.
I exit right next to the train, just on the other side as when arriving, also closer.
I go to the machine to get my ticket, but they only take credit. It is only $2.50, WTF? Same machines as when I got on, but no cash option.
Since no one had ever checked my ticket on the way down, I decided to chance it. I didn’t buy a ticket. I just got on with the intention of saying, “I thought I had selected the round trip, oh I’m so sorry.” But never needed to. Take that San Diego Transit!
I exit near the convention center, not where I originally got on, as I wanted to go to the Chinese History Museum.
On the walk there, I found a street that was closed off to traffic, because it was filled with gobs of conventioneers, many in costumes posing for photos. So I hung for a bit.
But I didn’t know the hours of the museum, so I high tailed it over there. When I arrive, I see closing time on Fridays is 4, and it is shortly before that, but it is already completely closed. I notice another sign specifying that they are temporarily closed on every Friday. Dangit. Maybe I can swing by tomorrow.
I go back to the party street, spotting Deadpool driving a sports car. That has to be illegal, but I’m not going to tell someone that can’t be killed, that he can’t do that.
Walking count: At least another 5 miles (mostly in Tijuana), total so far 19.
I went to the desk this morning, to ask about the convention center shuttle. The clerk didn’t know, as the hotel had not “partnered” with Comic-Con this year.
I had info that it was on a nearby street, but arriving there and walking down a block, I saw no signs indicating where. Also, no one else was standing anywhere, so no one to ask.
I still had time, and I was hungry, so I walked up to a Von grocery store, that I had seen the night before and bought a couple of bananas, that were eaten before I got back to the pick up street.
Again, I see no one around. I pull out my iPad and start a search, to verify. As I am doing this, a man comes up asking me about the bus, but also has knowledge of where a stop is.
It isn’t too far, about a mile, at another hotel. He even offers to give me a ride, since he is going anyway. Super!
We find the right spot and the bus comes in few moments.
This is the first pickup area, so we have to go through the rest of the route before passing right by the pickup again. Better than being the last to be picked up, only to have a full bus, I guess.
The bus drops us off rather far from the convention center, as the road in front is completely closed. I don’t know why the buses can’t go through. I guess I got more walking to do.
It is just after 9 and they open at 9:30, so I pick a doorway, with less of a crowd, and wait for the doors to be opened.
Even though I see attendees inside, they are not opening the doors, not until almost 10.
I was systematic, I went straight to the back and then to one end of the hall, then went front to back down each aisle. I stopped occasionally to browse the wares and to try to cross the river of people.
It took over 3 hours to make my way through to the far end of the hall, just once!
Spiderman costumes were popular, as well as various Harley Quinns, Fantastic 4, princesses, and Star Fleet uniforms. Some people just had store-bought masks (lame), while others had elaborate hand-made costumes and colored skin.
With the sheer number of people, it was impossible to even think about photographs.
It was now definitely time for lunch, so I went to the back aisle of the hall, where the food sellers were.
Well shit, every one of them had signs specifying they were cashless. I don’t want to pay interest on food, so I skipped them. Maybe something outside the hall would be ok.
I went upstairs, to where the panel rooms were. Everyone had a line. But I did see a large open area and there was food being sold.
I found a nacho/taco place that didn’t have the cashless sign, so I got in line. I ordered some nachos, as the tacos had onions already mixed in and I didn’t want to fart.
As I get to the end, I got to hand over my money, but the clerk stated they could not accept cash. I lied and said I was from Europe and my credit card wouldn’t work here. Surprisingly, he let me have it, even refusing my money. Wow, I thought I was screwed, but got free food.
Unfortunately, all the dining tables were full of attendees just resting, so I ended up just sitting on the floor against the wall and ate. It was quite good, but now I can’t go back. 🙁
I then headed over to the panel rooms, each had a schedule near the door, but nothing seemed interesting. Mostly a bunch of comic artists I had never heard of.
Getting tired and sore from walking, I went back to the hotel and crashed out for a couple of hours.
Upon returning, I went back up to the panel room, as there was one I wanted to check out, the Worst Cartoons. The room was full, so I got in line, hoping someone might leave. Maybe 5 minutes later, I was led into a very dark room where a large screen was showing some crap cartoon from the 60’s.
People laughed at the cartoons, just out of sheer idiocy of the story and dialog.
Others shown were a Popeye episode with Olive was a beatnik, and a truly low budget short, that didn’t even get “inked”, just the original pencil sketches.
There was another panel after this, in the same room, so many of us stayed in there. Which I think is one of the problems with getting into the panels, too many people are “squatting”.
The panel was called “Klingon Lifestyle Presentation”, which I thought was going to be about theoretical societal norms in the Klingon homes. Instead, it was a skit play on a fan-based storyline involving Klingons, Ferengi, Orions, and Star Fleet officers.
It started out as a video, onboard a couple of ships, but then it went “live” when the crews went to the planets surface.
It was rather funny, even if the acting was hammy, but then again, so was the original Trek.
Once it was over, the convention was basically over for the day, so I headed out and went back to my room.
As I reach it, I remembered I wanted to go back to the market to get more stuff, but it would have been a tight race to get there before closing. Never mind that, I had found a Denny’s on the map nearby, so I went there.
Unfortunately, I was near the shuttle stop, so I then had to back track. I saw there was a Ralph’s market across the street and someone I asked said they were open until 1am. Awesome.
I went to the Denny’s first, I was hungry, after all, but I went to the market after, to get a half gallon of milk and juice and some more bananas.
There is a mini fridge, but no microwave, so I can keep it cold, but can’t heat anything up.
Walking count: Hard to say really, but at least another 8 miles (mostly inside), total so far 14.
I arrived in San Diego and it felt odd to not have to immediately pull out my passport. Every trip I have made, in many years has been international, in destination.
I headed towards the exit, but I had a thought while on the plane, maybe the hotel has a shuttle. So I asked at the info desk, “How do I get to the hotel shuttles?” He asked which hotel and I told him and he replied they had no shuttle.
Fine I will just Uber then. Holy crap, a mile and a half ride was going to be nearly $45. Forget that, I will just take the city bus.
It was not easy following the Google Maps directions, as there were so many different levels of “roadway”, but I managed to fine the bus stop and sat to wait.
Checking the directions again, I noticed it was 28 minute estimate for the next bus. It was only an 18 minute walk, so screw it, I’m walking. I had nothing but time anyway.
It wasn’t a hard walk. I found the hotel and check in was swift and easy. I dumped my stuff in the room and headed out to find food, as all I had so far was a tiny bag of chips on the plane.
I headed out with the intention of going to a Mexican restaurant I found in the map, 3/4 mile away. Unfortunately, I couldn’t go that way, as there is a fence surrounding the property. Trying to find my way around, I spot a Subway sandwich shop. It isn’t what I want, but I am hungry and I’m still in the hotel parking area still.
I am surprised, they actually have whole wheat bread, without oats and nuts on top. I can’t find that at home for several years now.
He makes my sandwich and then rings it up, $15.51!!! WTF, this same sandwich in Florida, or anywhere else, would only be $6+tax. But since it was already made, I couldn’t just say no.
I don’t know if it because it is close to the hotel or because everything in CA is high priced, but I went back up to my room to eat. Partly because I didn’t want to find out how much the drinks were.
After turning on the TV, which had a message welcoming me, by name, I flipped through a few channels, finding that the on-screen descriptions did not match any of the shows on any channel.
I decided to bring my Amazon Fire Stick, so I checked the back of the TV (which had a decent swivel base) and inserted it and switched the input to the second HDMI port.
It booted just fine, but when I went into the network settings to connect the WiFi, it had a problem. On my other devices, they would auto-load a webpage, then I would have to click a link to bring up another page to enter room number and last name (the password). Unfortunately, this device didn’t like doing that and froze on the network page, forcing me to cut the power just to get back to the home.
Oh, well, I guess I don’t need to watch TV anyway.
I do have a few episodes download on my iPad, and I can watch streaming on it as well, but so much easier to see it on the larger screen.
It is only 7pm, but it is ten back home. I am exhausted, so I just go to bed.
I am woken at 4:45am by several texts. I had a problem with my RV a week ago, so I had dropped it at a service center.
The CSR had put the wrong info into the work order, so several days were wasted. I had gone in on Friday to clear it up and got the work order fixed.
As it was later in the day and their estimator would not be in until Monday, I expected a call then. After landing, on Tuesday, I had a text from them, but I needed to get to the hotel, and then forgot about them.
Even getting a text at 7:45am would be too damn early, as I am a night owl. Besides they don’t even open until 9am.
I tried going back to sleep, but I was already awake, so I got up and showered. I had to wait a bit for the breakfast to be open, 6:30.
I wandered around the first floor a bit just looking around and found a tourist info stand and got a free San Diego map.
As I walked through the dining area, I glanced at the menu. $18 for just eggs!!! All the prices were high. Never mind, I’m going out on the town anyway, I’ll get something somewhere else.
I took a seat in the “business center” and browsed the map. I decided on going to Balboa Park, which I had seen at home also, so I took an Uber there.
The ride was pleasant enough and was reasonably priced. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until I was getting out, I forgot to go to get food. And also, it was only 7am, nothing here would open until 10. I wandered about a little in the park, then walked to a nearby place to get a breakfast burrito. It was just a hole in the wall place, so I walked back to the park to find a bench to sit and eat.
I sat right in a puddle on the bench. Well, it will dry. The burrito was good, as chorizo is always good.
I wandered a bit more, finding a cactus with a tall flowering stalk. There were dozens of humming birds fluttering around, drinking its nectar.
There were also thousands of bees flying around, hitting every possible type of flower. None bothered me, so I didn’t bother them.
After so many trips to foreign countries, this was the most “alien” place I have been. Nothing felt “normal”, which I suppose is good, as what’s the point of traveling if everything is the same as home.
In Florida, most trees don’t have a lot of flowers, at least not for long. Here, every type of tree seems be blooming. There are pines and oaks, of course, but they are different species than Florida. There are so many different trees that I don’t even think I have seen before. I was looking at one tree and noticed a spiky plant in its branches, but as I look I realize, it isn’t in the tree, it was the tree. The base had long ago lost its spikes and appeared more like bark.
I spotted a baobab tree, with its tendrils hanging down, ready to become new trunks to support the tree. The sidewalk went under a huge magnolia tree, perhaps 75 feet across, with a trunk bigger than I could get my arms around even halfway. Our magnolias just go straight up, not out.
I see the twisted, gnarled trunks of perhaps mesquite bushes. There is a pine/fir tree that has a huge knotty base maybe 8 feet across, I would love to have that as it would have some fantastic grain pattern.
On the east coast, so many of our “ornamental” plants came from Europe and Asia, it is nice to see a variety of native plants.
Finally, it is 10 o’clock and the places are opening. I selected an art museum, as it was free. It wasn’t very large, but it had some nice stuff.
I walked past a replica of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, but obviously, no plays at this time of day.
Then I went to the “Museum of Us”. It was a general history museum of humanity. They had some ancient relics but also some modern items. They had a room of secret confessions, people would confess something on a postcard and mail it in, anonymously. They were tame confessions, nothing criminal, like “I hate my mom’s boyfriend, I’ll never eat with him” or “I can’t tell grandma that I’m gay, because she’ll leave me out of her will.” Stupid stuff like that, but interesting somehow.
There was a room that explored our desire and disgust of eating different animals. My personal theory is that we eat ugly animals (cows, pigs, fowl), but not attractive (rabbits, cats, guinea pigs) or extremely ugly animals (camels, worms, insects) unless we have no other choice.
It also included a cannibalism exhibit. Starting off, they show posters of many movies that had a cannibalistic theme or content, like Silence of the Lambs, Robinson Caruso, or Apocalypse Now, before moving on to tribal ceremonies involving human sacrifice and famous cases of forced cannibalism such as the Donner party and the Andean plane crash.
Afterwards, I wandered about town, looking for lunch. I went far, walking through neighborhoods, just seeing the different house styles. Almost went up the ramp to Interstate 5, but caught myself.
I walked quite far, going through “Little Italy”, but I didn’t want overpriced Italian food. I did ask someone as I passed, where to find good, inexpensive food in that area, but he didn’t know, as he was a newcomer.
After walking many miles and hours, without finding a restaurant that wasn’t outrageous, I decided to head back to the room, to rest. I called for an Uber, but after several minutes, it still hadn’t found me a driver. I walked up to the next corner, for shade, and saw a Chinese takeout place, and it was reasonably priced. I canceled my ride search.
As I wait for the previous person to order, I notice, there is no bathroom, so I get my rice with orange chicken to go, and call another Uber, this time it was only 1 minute away.
I asked the driver where he was from, he just said “west Africa.” So I guessed Somaliland, and was not only right, but impressed him as well. Most of the world sees the entire area as “Somalia”, but Somaliland is a self-governing area that is fighting for independence. Further more, they are a “safe” area, unlike Somalia, which has a very high murder rate and pirates that attack ships in the Gulf of Aden.
I watched an English man on YouTube who travels a lot. He made a trip to Somaliland and at one point there is a money-changer sitting on the edge of the street, surrounded by piles of different currencies, in cash. He had never been robbed. That is something that even someone in the US could not do.
I ate my food, then crashed for a couple of hours.
I checked, there were people in the pool, so I got on my swim trunks and went in for a while.
While in there, I realized that I haven’t swam in many years. Probably the last time was when Sherri had rented that house for the weekend, that had a pool. There is nowhere local that is worth going to anymore and the good springs are too far away, so I haven’t gone into the water for a while.
The water was warm enough, but the wind started picking up and was chilling my head too much, so I had to get out.
This morning I went to Expo Park, no, not that one again. This was Expo ’70.
The park is now just the remnants of the expo, the buildings have long been removed, just engraved stones tell what pavilion used to be there, for such a short time.
Now, there are large open expanses where kids can run and play. There are some more recent additions, such as “the Beast”, a rope suspension obstacle course. Unfortunately, it was closed when I was there, but there was an outing of young kids, running and screaming and just having fun. They look cute wearing their matching colored caps. White caps were at the field next to the Beast. I also saw red, lavender, and green in other areas. I don’t know if this was a special day or just a semi-regular occurrence.
As I walked around the park, I saw many trees and plants that we also have in Florida, azaleas are rampant here. I suspect that many of the ornamental plants we have originally came from Japan and east Asia. There was a hill that was sectioned off, which I presume is allotted to different individuals to plant whatever flowers they wanted. Perhaps it was some sort of flower gardening club.
Next to the path, I spotted a snake, just sunning itself. I had to do a search and yes, Japan has poisonous snakes. Luckily, this didn’t look like one, but I kept my distance anyway.
I saw a strange mesa with a circle of rocks, the only thing I found to explain it was a small engraved stone that said “Hawaii”. This still makes no sense, as Hawaii is not circular, nor was it a country in 1970. It wasn’t even near the USA pavilion site.
I found a monument showing where the East Germany pavilion was located. Strange to find something for a country that doesn’t exist anymore. There are many stone plaques on the ground showing where each county’s pavilion was, but who cares? They are gone now.
A group of school kids heading out to the park
I found an observation tower, so I decided to go up, just to see the area a bit better. At the top, I couldn’t really see much, as the trees have had 5 decades of growth. There was a walkway extending off into the trees, so I followed it. It lead to other towers and more walkways, until a much taller tower at the end.
Apparently, this was a one-way trek and I happened to pick the correct place to start. Had I started at the other end, a “do not enter” sign would have stopped me and I would have presumed it was unsafe to proceed. It was indeed looking a bit rundown, having only the bare maintenance in its long life. In the middle, I had to cross a very wobbly rope suspension that was definitely past its prime. It had several signs from COVID times, so regular maintenance probably is not high priority.
One of the other few items that still remain is the “Tower of the Sun”, a tall statue of the Expo’s mascot. I really do not understand why this is something they wanted to keep, much less build in the first part, it is rather ugly, in my opinion.
To get to the park, I got onto the brown Sakaisuji line, indicated by “K”. WTF does that stand for?
My first train, I realize is going to the wrong branch of the line, there are 4 terminal stations. So I get off and wait for the right one. I was to exit at Yamada station, which is one of the few places I could read and understand the meaning of. Yamada (山田) comes from “yama” meaning mountain (which you’ll hear sometimes when referring to Mount Fuji, as Fuji-yama.) and “da” meaning field. So Yamada means “mountain field”, also a very common family name. “Mr. Ninja Warrior” is named Yamada.
I made the choice to get the metro day pass, so I could get on and off wherever all on one ticket. But on exiting, I got an error and the arms closed in front of me. An attendant directed me to the “fare adjustment” machine, where I had to pay an extra 240 yen.
The stations north of one of a river are marked as HK for Hanku line, so maybe that is where the K came from. I guess Hankyu line is not part of Osaka Metro, even though it is the same train cars.
I exited through a different gate than where I entered the park, this one leading to the Osaka monorail. I quickly held up my metro card and asked about monorail access. Nope, can’t use it. So I walked back to Yamada station. A long walk, as I was nearly on the other side of the park.
After spending a day at the Expo 2025 and another at Osaka castle, I seem to have gotten a sunburn on my head. I guess cutting all my hair off wasn’t the best idea. As I exited Yamada station, there was a shopping center attached. I found a clothes shop and found a cheap hat. It wouldn’t help the burn I have, but will stop additional damage.
After finding the station, I headed back to the room. All this walking is really causing a lot of pain in my shoulder, for some reason.
I saw signs at the park about Expo ’70, but I started to wonder, was this a generic expo, or was it a World’s Fair expo? Wikipedia to the rescue!
Yes, it was the location of the 1970 World’s Fair, but wasn’t the only other in Osaka. There was another in 1990, only this was a “horticultural” expo, one of the in-betweener fairs. This location was nearby my room, maybe 3/4 mile away, but I’m tired and sore, so I took the metro. After all, I do have a day pass, so I might as well use it.
As I understand it, and I’m no expert here, the horticultural expos have fewer pavilions and more gardens. In a sort of “who can have the best looking yard in the neighborhood” competition.
Many of the garden spaces remain, but very likely not the same plants as 35 years ago.
This park is very popular with dog walkers. I even found a small hill where a bunch of tiny dogs were running around loose, play fighting. A small black dog started walking towards me, so I knelt down and it then ran to me for a bit of petting. This instigated a chain reaction, causing more to come over.
All the dogs here had on “outfits” which I wonder if this is a cultural thing or just a way to easily spot your dog vs other similar ones.
There were all sorts of dogs being walked through the many pathways. I saw many “shiba inu”, being one of the few native dogs to Japan.
Today I went to Osaka Castle, a medieval fortress built pre-1600 and served as a base for the Shogun.
The castle sits on top of 20m or about 60 feet of compacted soil, raising the grounds to be higher than the surrounding area, for better defense. The fact they did this over 400 years ago, manually, is very impressive.
The area is surrounded by a wide moat and high stone walls. Although this seems to me not very difficult to climb, as there are large gaps between the stones that you could place a hand or foot. This is likely not how it was originally, being more tight fit, but I have no way of knowing.
The interior of the castle has undergone much change, turning it into a museum. There are 2 central stairways, one up, one down, leading to each of the eight (yes, eight) floors to reach the top balcony area. The balcony would have been a safe place to be in an attack, you could easily stand there firing your arrows at the enemy on the other side of the moat, while being out of reach of theirs.
It was much smaller than expected. The balcony area was only 20-25 feet square, most being interior space. One could feel claustrophobic even standing outside.
For some reason, they don’t allow photos on certain floors. Perhaps the documents can be damaged by flashes, but then why not allow for passive cameras. It was not difficult to wait for the guy to come around and tut-tut at someone taking pictures, then wait for him to pass by and get a photo anyway.
The grounds have lost their smaller buildings, now just a courtyard for tourists, but have many trees for much needed shade. They are quite picturesque, and I enjoyed sitting and just looking at the scenery. (Of course, this could be that I am too tired to do anything but sit.)
There is also another museum on the grounds, being for miniatures. Items range from small cars and trains to cartoon and anime characters. I could not find out if these were actually used in any TV or movies.
A token was include with entry to use on one of their many toy dispensers (which are ubiquitous across Japan). They dispense a ball about 4 inches across, with some trinket inside, but you don’t even get to keep the ball, there is a basket to “recycle” them. I saw nothing I was interested in more than keeping the coin, so I did.
There is a faucet that fills the tub and a shower head, but it is handheld. It has a wall mount, but it wouldn’t be pointing in the right direction. So I sat in the tub and lathered up. There is shampoo, conditioner, and liquid soap here, so I didn’t have to buy any.
After a few minutes, I decided to put in the drain plug. The tub filled quite fast, although the tub was small, it was tall, so I was able to submerge.
The water was nearly perfect in temperature, from faucet and shower head, which is a hard thing to accomplish.
I had sent a message to the host asking about the WiFi. Apparently there was supposed to be directions on a paper on the kitchen table, but there wasn’t
I did a quick search for restaurants, but decided just to walk around until I found one. I went into a small restaurant and closed my eyes and pointed to the menu. If you don’t know what to order, then random is just as good and any.
I got a bowl of rice topped with cabbage and a very thin cut of meat (bacon???) and a side of miso soup and some sort of greens.
The greens didn’t taste good, but the rest did, and I got full before finishing.
I wandered a bit, aimlessly, until I found a small park. I sat in the shade and watched the kids play.
There were the usual items; swings, slide, monkey bars, etc.. But they also had a sort of moon-shaped hill, that had wall-climbing handholds and the inside part was a large slide.
There are a lot of parks around and I just roam from one to another. In one, I sat under an arboretum and watched the huge bumble bees flit around the flowers.
Before heading back, I remembered to find a shop to get a fanny pack. As I walked, I found a Makita store.
It smelled of machine oil, it was wonderful. But I did manage to not buy anything. How would I get it home anyway?
After a few more misses, I got the idea to search for a purse store. Luckily one was nearby.
It was a general purpose clothing store, but did have a large assortment of purses, and I found a fanny pack that was simple and cheap enough. More important, I could put my iPad in there and stop carrying it.
I also realized something, while I can count out the change I need, it can be a pain if I don’t know if I have enough to start with. The smallest bill is ¥1000, so it is easy to end up with a lot of change. I realized that since most stores have a machine for you to pay with coin, cash, or credit card, you don’t hand the money to the clerk, I can just insert the change I have, then insert cash, and the register will just spit out the minimum change.
Cheating, yes, but I don’t care.
The problem being, the metro machines don’t accept ¥1 and ¥5 coins, so I have to try to rid myself of them at regular stores.
I woke up around 3am. I browsed around the room a bit, took my first dump since Georgia. The toilet has a heated seat, and fortunately, there was toilet paper.
I understand the need in many places to use bidets as the plumbing is not good enough to move paper through, but I don’t want to have to sit there while air is blown on my backside to dry.
Morning view of Osaka and Yodo River
I don’t think I will use it, but I did bring my Amazon Fire, so I could watch some TV or movies if I wanted, but there is no TV. I thought there was supposed to be, so I will check the listing.
There is nothing anywhere I can see that says what the WiFi is, and there are a dozen signals I am detecting, so I have to use my precious mobile data.
The listing doesn’t say there is a TV, so I must have imagined it.
I also notice, that I had searched for places with 2 beds and 2 bedrooms, but I only have 1 bed. Apparently, since I am only paying for one person, I shouldn’t need the other bed, so that room is locked off.
Even if I didn’t need the bed, I still would want it so I can lay out my suitcase, instead of having it on the floor.
Being bored and hungry, I start looking for an all night market. The closest I can find is an hour’s walk away. Oh, what the hell, I got nothing else to do.
It is cool inside the room so I put on my jacket, but it doesn’t take me very long to remove it. Great, now I have to carry it as well as my iPad. I suddenly realized as I was pulling into Atlanta airport, that I hadn’t brought my fanny pack.
Fanny packs are ridiculous looking, but they are super convenient.
I had to cross over the Yodo river, the bridge being really high above the water. They must have ships coming through. Maybe though, it is just because the river banks are so far apart.
As expected, very few people were out at that time of night. Other than a road crew repainting one of the roads near my room, I might not have seen anyone for 40 minutes.
Following the directions, I made it to the store, and it was open. I would have been really angry otherwise.
It wasn’t very large, barely larger than many convenience stores back home.
I ended up selecting a bunch (4) of bananas, a box of grapes, and some sort of apple drink. I can’t read it, but the label has too many ingredients to just be juice.
One thing I had forgotten, Japanese stores don’t give out bags, normally. So I used my jacket to wrap up my purchases, tying the arms together.
I made another mistake, I had opened the apple drink and drank some, so as I walk, it splashes back and forth. Although I would have been more upset had I waited until getting back and then finding out I had carried it all that way for something that tasted bad.
The Japanese brag about how much they recycle, but they also waste a lot. The bananas were wrapped in a cellophane bag, despite not needing one.
The grapes also were wrapped, but that makes more sense, as grapes don’t have an outer coating that we remove before eating. You wouldn’t want random people touching your grapes before you eat them.
Along the way, my wrist was beginning to hurt from the awkward carrying of the stuff. I had the idea to call an Uber, but after waiting for 15 minutes, I still had not been connected with one, so I canceled and kept on walking.
In China, there are lots of Lawson stores, which are branded just like 7-11 stores are. In Osaka, I see Lawson’s, but they are more blue and greenish-blue logos. There are also 7-11 stores here too, maybe that’s why there is a difference.
The also have some restaurant chain called MacuDonarudo’s. It looks familiar, but can’t place why.
As I was arriving, dawn was breaking, so a good time to go back to bed. 🙂
