Collin Condray’s Blog

So I’m doing some training in St. Paul, MN and I’m getting ready to turn to get to my hotel and what do I see on the lawn in front of it? A FREAKIN’ BEAR! (free registration or go to bugmenot.com to get a shared login).

(I know I said I wouldn’t do any personal stuff, but you don’t see a FREAKIN’ BEAR wandering through the city every day.)

Daily Galleries Parent’s Farm

Here are some pictures from my parent’s farm.

Daily Galleries Chicago 2004

Since I enjoyed travel blogging in Japan so much, I’ve decided to revive it again for my recent trip to Chicago. Kathleen was attending a conference there, and she used some of her frequent flyer miles to wrangle me a cheap ticket to Chicago for my birthday weekend. While she was enjoying her conference, I was obligated to endure the drudgery of sight seeing, eating the local delicacies, and shopping for cool stuff.

We got to Chicago on Thursday with about half the day gone, so we weren’t too ambitious. We spent a little time scoping out the area around our hotel which included finding the location of Kathleen’s conference which was a few blocks away. At that point, we were starving since our flight was during the lunch hour and our snack on the flight was a little bag of Fisher’s Cheddar Snack Mix. We went to Corner Bakery, a chain sandwich shop around 3:30 PM for a quick snack and had an awesome Chicken Pomodori panini sandwich. After that, our plan was to look around a little bit more and then go to a restaurant recommended by Fodor’s. The local restaurants it recommended were either way too expensive or we just weren’t in the mood for them, so, we went back to Corner Bakery and had another delicious club panini. Yup, they were that good.

Thursday night I attended the only event of Kathleen’s conference. It was a German show at the Adler Planetarium called Sonne, Mond, Stern & Co. (Sun, Moon, Star & Co.) Run screaming.

Friday morning I slept in late while Kathleen went to her conference. I stopped in at a local comic book shop called Graham Crackers Comics. The store was well stocked. I’m not a comic coinsurer but it seemed like they had a lot of comics I usually don’t see in local stores. I saw a lot of recent stuff but not as many graphic novels as in local stores. One thing that I did finally see was a PVP collection.

While I was there I asked if they knew of any other places to go for geeky fun. They pointed me to one or two book stores on the Magnificent Mile and a variety of bookstores on Clark Street which is in the northern part of Chicago.

For lunch Kathleen and I met up with an old friend from college, Jen, for lunch. We walked up Michigan and went to a neat Thai food stand called Wow Bao. Their culinary claim to fame are their bao, or Asian dumplings which were very tasty. The dumplings are filled with a variety of meats. I had Kung Pao chicken and BBQ pork and both were quite delicious.

For dessert, we headed to the Ghirardelli Soda Fountain & Chocolate Shop. Kathleen was in heaven but Jen and I were a little worried. We both remembered the time Kathleen had a chocolate OD and didn’t want it to happen again. Fortunately, the shakes, sodas, and sundaes that we had hit the spot. We only overate a little.

After lunch Kathleen headed back to her conference and spent the rest of the afternoon walking up the rest of the Magnificent Mile. I spent most of my day in bookstores with side visits to Comp USA and Niketown.

The book stores were hit or miss. The dedicated gamers shop, Gamers Paradise, was pretty well stocked. They had a ton of board games with a smaller selection of RPGs (no GURPS though). The Borders was great. I found a lot of graphic novels I hadn’t seen before and read through them. I found a nice seat on the second floor that let me look out over Michigan so I could watch the crowds.

The Virgin Megastore was a disappointment. Since I had last visited it, it had gotten rid of a big hunk of its books and replaced them with music and DVDs which didn’t do much for me.
www.virginmega.com

Later I caught up with Kathleen and we went to Buddy Guy’s BBQ. I got a rack of ribs there and it was quite good. The BBQ was different from southern BBQ. It was vinegar based and not as sweet as I used to. However, I still managed to overeat there. Fortunately, I gotten lots of exercise by walking everywhere. I easily racked up 5 or so miles worth of walking everyday, so I didn’t feel too guilty about eating too much.

On Friday, I trooped up to North Chicago and walked down Clark Street, another shopping area. To get there, I took the elevated train or “El” train. Although I have taken a lot of different kinds of public transport, the El was a new experience for me. Since you’re a couple of stories above the ground, it is a great deal for a tourist since you can see much more of the city than you can on a bus. I recommend it.

As I mentioned before, Clark Street is a long strip of small stores with a smattering of department stores. I also think that there must be a college nearby since I saw lot of students with laptops and piles of papers. I didn’t find anything too special. There were a couple of comic book shops that were well stocked but I didn’t find any good gaming shopss

There was a wide selection of restaurants in this area including Mongolian BBQ, Spanish tapas, and African, Ethiopian, Moroccan cuisine. Fodor’s suggested a sushi restarant called Matsuya’s. It had a very traditional look to it and was the first real sushi I had had since I was in Japan. I ordered a combo sushi plate which surprisingly, cost about the same as a similar meal in Japan. The quality was not as good though. The sushi didn’t have a very good texture, it was kind of soft for my palate. I think Japan has ruined me on sushi. The waitstaff also had kind of an attitude as well. Not all was lost, I did get my green tea ice cream fix.

One last word of advice if you plan on visiting Clark Street, make sure you pee before you walk down Clark Street since public restrooms are few and far between. At one point, I had to buy a donut at Dunkin’ Donuts to get access to a bathroom.

Later that afternoon, I hopped a bus back to the hotel. This was not such a pleasant experience as riding the El since there was a parade going on downtown and the bus made horrible time. It took the bus about an hour to cover the same distance as the El did in only half the time.

I did make it back in time to meet Kathleen and one of her fellow conference attendees for dinner. We went to an American restaurant called the Grillroom. It was very good and not too pricy, about $20/person. As their name indicates they do grill steak but all of us opted for other fare. I had a great spinach fettuccini plate that I couldn’t finish.

After we ate dinner, we went to a play at the Storefront Theater called Shakespeare Kung Fu. The idea behind the play was to take lines for Shakespeare’s body of work, come up with a new play, and add a dash of Bruce Lee. Unfortunately, it was not so good. The title and the concept implied that the presentation would be light hearted and have a type of quirkiness about it. Instead, they played almost the entire play as a straight Shakespearean tragedy of a king betrayed by his power hungry queen and her lover. It just didn’t live up to the strangeness that it should have been. I wish we were going to be there next month when Monty Python Spamalot reopened down the street.

Sunday morning it was time to go back home. I had decided to take the subway back to O’Hare since the trip length was supposed to be the same as the airport shuttle and cost $20 less. I also wanted to see what the Chicago shuttle was like. I was a little worried about how safe taking the subway so early in the morning would be. Chicago is a pretty friendly place for a big town, so I didn’t worry too much about it. All went smoothly and I made it to my plane and back to XNA with no problems. All in all, it was a good trip. Chicago is a great place to visit and I recommend a trip.

One last bit of advice, bring a coat one step heavier than you think. They don’t call Chicago the “Windy City” for nothing.

It’s the day after JSAP 2004 and I am in somewhat of a sad mood even after being greeted by loved ones who I have deeply missed. I have had a terrific time with all of you on our trip to Japan. This was such an incredible opportunity to visit a country in such unique terms. In one month we’ve packed in a huge amount of activity. We’ve done a lot of work for this trip but we’ve had a lot of fun times and I will remember them with great fondness.

Although our trip is over it is not the end of this blog. Hopefully, we can leave some good travel tips for the people who are going on JSAP next year. I would also like to add journal entries from other JSAPers besides myself. Please let me know if you are interested in doing so.

The majority of us will meet at Dr. Stapp’s house for one last hurrah. I will also see a few of you next year as school starts up again. However, many of you will be leaving the area and it might be a while before I see you again. To those of us who are leaving I say, take care, write often, and know that if you need help, just call.

Good luck and God bless.

Tomorrow, The Real World.

We had to get to the station for our 1:10 PM train so we had a little time in Kameoka before we left. We finally kept our appointment with E-chan to pick up some Japanese food and spices for the trip home and to use in our own cooking experiences. After packing our last minute purchases, we headed up for our last meal at the yakimeshi restaurant and I think that I finally got full on eating ramen, an unusual event.

Around noon we started moving our now gift laden luggage to the train station. Normally, it takes us only about 10 minutes or so to make it from our hotel to the train to Kyoto but this time it took much longer. We had to haul all of our carry-ons and check-ins up a big flight of stairs and over the railway to the track leading to Kyoto.

At the Kyoto station our group broke up in to those who were staying in Japan and the six who were returning to America. Unfortunately, there were only a few minutes before we had to catch our train for good-byes. There were a few tears shed but promises of a swift reunion on their return to the States.

The rest of us hopped on the train to Kansai International Airport. On the way there, we had a good time playing metaphysical poker. In metaphysical poker you bet things that you don’t own. Some of the things we bet were Virtually all the places we’ve been in Japan (Seiyu, Nijo castle, Daiwa steel, Pony Hotel, etc.) Food (All the yakitori in Japan, sashimi, yakimeshi, etc.) Some of the things we saw (the Nara deer, the Seto Inland Sea boatride) Kodo Flute Boy (he was dreamy, but none of the girls have seen Legolas yet) Nhan’s swords (which I won, yes they are mine!)

Kodo Flute Boy was a very contested chip in our game. I’d say after all this time he left a great impression.

Customs and check-in were no problem but I took a picture in a secure place and was told not to do it anymore. Dr. Stapp and E-chan waited for us even after we passed security and waved us all the way to the terminal. It was very sweet.

The flight back was a long one especially since I couldn’t sleep even though I only got about 3 hours of sleep the night before. The flight was only 70% full so we could move about an breathe a little more this time. I was again seated by Kelli who konked out as only she could.

When we arrived in Los Angeles we had our share of follies. Sergio didn’t get his customs form stamped and had to go back in line when he heard PSA to people lining up around luggage carousels. Tim had his ticket on his luggage pulled off by one of the workers so he had to recheck-in. I forgot to hand out the class evaluations. But we made it back home in spite of this.

At XNA everybody rushed off before we could snap one last group picture. We’ll definitely have to take one at Dr. Stapp’s house.

Then I went home.

Tomorrow, home.

Today started off a little late with a visit to the Internet cafe to send a few emails home and let everyone know when we’d be getting home. After that we headed to our favorite yakimeshi place up the road to enjoy lunch. The lady who runs the restaurant had finally come to recognize us and said that after we were finished eating we had a yakimeshi smile. With her cooking, you better believe I did!

Since all of us were down a few gifts we went to Kyoto for some last minute shopping after lunch. Tran had told us of a covered mall called Nishiki-Koji in the eastern part of Kyoto which sounded appealing since it was supposed to rain that day. We finally got the hang of Japanese subways and made it to our destination without thinking too much about it.

The first part of the shopping center was very interesting consisting mostly of seafood and other food stores with the odd clothing store thrown in. Then, it became similar to many of the other shopping areas we’ve seen in Japan with clothing, electronics, music, and other stores. My shopping karma was still working from yesterday. I was looking for my last two presents in Nishiki-Koji and found them 30% off. Score!

We were supposed to meet with E-chan to do a little food shopping but we got our signals crossed and missed our meeting with her (We’re sorry E-chan!)

Yakitori was again on the agenda for dinner at Saga Arishiyama. Dinner was great and we also got to do a little shopping afterwards. Dr. Stapp gave out the last of the JSAP awards which we accepted graciously. After it got dark, we went down by the river to shoot off some fireworks, a fairly common activity in Japan. We had a lot of fun but at some points it was very dangerous. At one point E-chan waved her Roman candle around like a sparkler and shot a couple of blasts over our head instead of over the river. Just about everyone got to shoot off one piece of explosive before the night was over though and it was a lot of fun.

After fireworks, I tried to take pictures of the beautiful scenery at Saga Arishiyama but I could never do it justice. As we were leaving to return to the hotel, my walk was again slowed to a crawl by the enormous beauty of Japan. In the sky above us there was a group of about a half a dozen loosely clustered stars with an exceptionally bright star in the middle. A wreath of grey clouds still illuminated by the long set sun distinguished the stars off from the rolling outline the dark green mountains below them. At the foot of the mountains was a lake lit up by the soft brightness of the lights from the road. It was an incredibly beautiful sight that I think I will keep with me as a treasured memento of my trip to Japan.

Since it was our last night, we decided to stay up late at the Food Spread. We played a little poker and Shannon just killed us. She got three freakin’ straights in a row. Totally unbelievable. At about 3 AM I decided to call it quits and head home. I needed a little sleep before the long day tomorrow.

Tomorrow, still more last minute gifts and the trip home.

Today we return from Tokyo back to our home base in Kameoka for a party at E-chan’s house later that evening. During the train I finally got around to sending out the postcards that I had picked up so long ago. I know these will be sent out very late but I have cool cards and stamps that I wanted to get to people. The rest of the 3 hour trip was taken up with journal writing and napping.

When we returned to the Kyoto station, we split up to find some gifts for Dr. Stapp and E-chan. Shannon and I headed out the Kyoto Budo Center for Dr. Stapp’s present, a suburito, a wooden practice sword. The trip would also take us to the Kyoto Handicraft Center where I’d hoped to pick up a few gifts that I had eyeballed when I was there before.

Unfortunately, we got lost when we got off the bus. We took a wrong turn and had to take a taxi for a 3 block, ¥640 cab ride. I think that a taxi from the Kyoto station is the best way to get here both in time and money since it was easy to get lost with the maps we had.

In addition to the suburito, I also picked up a nice iaido hakama at the martial arts stores near the Budo Center but I forgot to get knee pads for iaido. I guess I’ll have to order some over the Internet.

Next I joined Shannon over at the Kyoto Handicraft Center where she was looking for a lacquer painting of Fuji in vain. I got several good gifts for friends and family at reasonable prices. I still couldn’t find a few gifts so that means I’ll have to scramble tomorrow.

We returned to Kameoka to meet up with everyone to put the finishing touches on the presents we wanted to present tonight. One group got Ei-chan a very nice watch. We all signed Dr. Stapp’s suburito in English on one side and Japanese on the other.

E-Chan’s house is about 10 minutes away from the train station so it was a nice little walk to make us a little hungrier for dinner. E-chan’s daughter and son-in-law were there and visited with them for a while until dinner was ready. Dinner was, as you would expect, delicious. There was sushi along with yakitori and great bakery goods. We of course overate.

Afterwards, we made a JSAP name plaque for the 2004 class. Since no one was good a drawing we had to decide on something simple. We finally ended up with a design of a couple of hands reaching out to each other. The hands were created by using one finger from everyone in the group. Since we only had a few colored pen and pencils we needed something to make the Japanese rising sun in the middle. The secret ingredient, lip stick.

Tomorrow, our last full day in Japan.