Jessica Wandering

Photos and thoughts on my travels

  • Shinkansen! And Hiroshima

    Bullet Train! Up to 185 mph. Driving from Tokyo to Hiroshima is 10 hours and Bullet train is just under five!
    Completely humane leg room and overhead space. No seatbelts because the ride is so smooth.
    Fuji makes its own clouds too!
    We got there in time for a sunset walk. The park was chosen because it has lots of cats. But neither of the two we saw wanted any pets.
    We had a stroll by the river at night too. I really like this city. Big enough to have the variety of places and options, but small enough for people to talk a little on the busses and trains. It is pretty eerie to be on a packed subway in Tokyo and NO one is talking.
    The next day we took a ferry to Miyajima.
    The famous floating gate
    The temple
    Very tame deer. They are really little and likely tame because they are fed, though I’m I din’t see anybody feed them.
    Team ride up the mountain. We only had enough cash for one way.
    I don’t know what kind of tree this is but it is just starting to leaf or bloom and is quite striking.
    The view from the top reminds me of Mt Constitution
    Neat ferns. Not quite like ours.
    Even after the two trams. It’s a hike down and then up to get to the top.
    With shrines along the way. This one has a flame that has been lit for 1200 years.
    And a bunch of tiny Buddha statues
    And other small sacred articles along the way
    Near the top you climb through some fallen granite.
    And then at the top is another deer. I like how shaggy his beard is.
    And the Buddhas start wearing hats.
    Then down the stairs begins. They are sturdy but most are tall risers and the trail is mostly stairs.
    Occasional flat section where you can listen to the birds
    More hats!
    Little shrines along the way.
    So so many stairs. Again, probably the best maintained trail I can imagine. Not a loose or broken one all the way down. Did I mention Zarah sprained her ankle 2 days before we left? Or that my knee is acting up? 1500 feet of descent is a lot in 2 miles.
    Tons of tiny Buddhas with red hats at the bottom temple.
    And a peace marker just like the one by the Quaker Meeting House on the NW corner entering the U-Bridge at home.
    Entrance to the last big temple, but we didn’t have the legs to explore anymore.

    It was a lovely day. So nice to be out of a city after the bustle of Tokyo. The hike was completely wonderful, such beautiful birdsong and enclosed in trees. It was really grounding and good.

  • Imperial palace gardens/Ueno Park/Koishikawa Korakua Garden.

    Neither of us felt great this day
    Samurai guard hall. Form the 1600’s
    Lotus shaped concert hall built in the 1960’s for the emporers consort
    Moat and guard wall. Imagine living in the 16th or 17th century and trying to attack the palace!

    We couldn’t see the palace grounds themselves because you need a reservation.

    We saw the central train station which was pretty cool. But it is very modernized inside, no grand rooms with tall ceilings we could find.
    We’ve been pretty impressed with ourselves navigating the subways. It’s a lot and seems what the normal people do. There are also trains, but the pass was 5x more expensive per day. There are so many actual human workers to help you and to keep them SOooooo clean!
    The next day we felt better and went to cool neighborhoods
    The number of shrines and temples here is just astounding. I love the happy Buddha with the crane and buildings behind him.
    It’s like that. You are in this modern city and you just come upon these very beautiful and old buildings and sacred items.
    Have I mentioned how amazing Google Translate is? Zarah called it “the ultimate enabler” and it’s true. This is a screenshot of the overwriting of the Japanese characters on the sign describing this monument.
    Ueno Park
    A totem pole?!
    Burning bamboo and rope and other revolving accoutrements of a shrine
    And swan paddle boats for summer. It is quite a park.
    Very cute food truck where we got veggie curry. Japanese curry is so good.
    Then a giant roller coaster by the baseball stadium
    I’m really sad it wasn’t running.
    Then Koishikawa Korakuen Garden. See the baseball dome in the background, but this park was originally the grounds of a lords estate in the 1600’s and it has been preserved as a serene and gorgeous oasis in the city.
    This was one of the first places we went that wasn’t totally flat. The hills made it more cozy and protected feeling
    There were 6-8 perfectly placed stepping stones across the creek. Not one of them wiggled even a bit as you stepped.

    I also like how we accidentally caught our shadows on the leaves.

    It is so perfectly sculpted and maintained
    This tree is related to trees in another state (prefecture) that the lord brought there.
    Everything just so.
    The island is shaped as a turtle with trees going on its back
    These pictures aren’t doing it justice. It is one of the best parks I’ve ever had been to.

    A great last day in Tokyo

  • Team lab Planets – a digital art experience I’ll never forget

    You take off your shoes and wade through some water to enter and are greeted by a waterfall
    I wish the “live” feature on my iPhone worked for the blog the lights are giving a sense of motion in an infinity room (mirrors everywhere including the ceiling)
    And changing colors
    Then there’s a room where the water is up to your knees and the fish and flowers react to the movement of the people in the room.
    And of course this all inspires some of us to move and dance.
    And then the fish can swim on your shirt
    It was my favorite room… maybe

    They also had a hallway and a room with bumps and lumps and different densities and textures. They talked about how flat and hard and square a world we live in. We did some somersaults and falls in the big soft room but forgot pictures there. Then…

    The giant balls that react to pressure against each other and play sounds too were also cool
    And inspiring
    So fun
    We spent some time in here too
    It was great you could really lean on them
    And then…
    I could have spent all night here.
    No photo can really do it justice
    Sometimes butterflies and far away flowers
    Then specific flowers like dahlias are falling toward you and feel like they might brush right by your body
    Then sunflowers and other summer types
    Losing their petals all over you
    They were smart to make the floor a little cold or I really might have stayed there for hours. It was soothing and exciting at the same time. Totally mesmerizing.
    Then there was this room where actual bundles of flowers surround and come toward you
    They wanted you to stare and meditate on the flowers until you become one with them. I zoomed in to see just the shear number of flowers they are tending for this months-long exhibit.
    I just found everything after the falling universe of flowers less engaging. But it was cool that they took you outside for some of it too.

    We loved this art group and plan to go to their installations in any place we can. Osaka and Singapore are definitely getting a look. I love that they wanted to get you into your body and immersed with nature, but can use technology to do that. I didn’t expect it.

  • All the weird cool things we fit into one day.

    NOT a breakfast of champions. Way too sweet, even for me.
    So I was kinda obsessed with the weird boat, so we took it!
    All the way down to the south end of the river.
    To the Museum of Emerging Science and Technology.
    On the wall of the spiral, they have photos of all the astronauts annually from Yuri Gagarin through today. With lots of space to keep adding more.
    Robots that interact
    Zarah really needs a new dog.
    Musical sculpture I think depicting that a butterfly flapping its wings changes the environment.
    And an exhibit with things changing into other things.
    And a very cool exhibit about aging and the upcoming technologies that will help. It had you go shopping with a list you could memorize, then it interrupts with a call to add more things and see if you can still get it right.
    3-D movie about how the universe began and we are all stardust. It had a pause to contemplate that was at least 20 seconds. I haven’t seen that in film since forever. Our attention spans can’t handle it.
    Toilet instructions
    Also an option
    Transformers!
    People riding in go carts dressed up as pokeman characters! Zarah has really wanted to do this. It was the reason that spurred us to get our international driver’s license. I am very pleased to report that watching them go down the road felt satisfying and I don’t have to do it.
    And the evening thing gets its own post

    This was such a neat and action packed day.

  • Tokyo is really really big

    Scramble crossing
    Sky tree from below
    Fuji Television building and rainbow bridge
    And it is on the Sumida River

    We have spent most of our days outside, it is blissfully sunny most of the time even though it is cold.

    Senso-ji is very near our lodging.
    And pretty impressive
    Then we saw a really weird boat
    And went to Shinjuku Gyoen National garden
    Inside of previous building
    It’s all so beautifully sculpted and maintained
    Even though it’s right in the city.
    I haven’t spent much time in Central Park , but it reminds me of it.
    There’s an amazing botanical garden,
    And they have a water fall. 🙂
    They actually had enough airflow to not smell musty despite being warm and humid.
    And flowers in winter
    Then more walking in Yoyogi Park. I can’t get over the yellow crunchy Ginko leaves.
    He said he had 17 dogs that day!
    Then back into the big city.

    A beautiful couple days overall.

  • Pandemic Plan A finally begins!

    In 2020, when we had a lot of time on our hands, and were stuck in our house confined, we started dreaming. We were dreaming of an open, expansive life where we could explore. Where we could create a period of time where we could really sink in to being away from work and engaging with new parts of the world. We dreamed of taking time to travel slowly and really learn about places and people and cultures and who we are in relation. And we saved and budgeted and waited for travel to open again.

    But, we had an elder cat so even when it opened we couldn’t really go far with her. So last winter we traveled the southwest and Noodles kept rallying and she even made it home and past her 21st birthday. And we worked and saved more and now we can go!!!

    Zarah and I got on a plane to Redmond OR to start our journey

    We had a bit of a scare the last day. We had been ahead of schedule packing up our personals in the garage and getting the house ready to rent and that is good. We woke up the day before our flight to San Francisco to find it canceled and had to scramble to find an alternative to get down there. The email said they had tried to rebook us but nothing was available for a few days. Just before we were looking for a car to rent and drive 14 hours down there, we got a call back from the nice people at Alaska to get us a weird way to fly there. Phew.

    And we toasted our journey, played Star Realms and ate snacks

    Our first view of Japan after 11 hours of no land in sight.

    We got on the plane at noon and flew for 11 hours where the sun never went down. despite our exhaustion we managed to get a train and get to our tiny hotel room and fall blissfully asleep by 7:30pm.

    So Denny’s is really not the same here: Rice porridge with chicken and shrimp, eggplant and spinach and a coffee bar.

    We found that coffee shops seem to mostly open at 10-11am. I’m not sure why and we just didn’t know how to get breakfast until we saw Denny’s. It was a good start to the day and we felt better about being lured into an American restaurant once we saw the menu.

  • Albuquerque

    The sky is still blue almost all the time. Despite Seattle having better than average sun for this time of year, I am amazed by how “partly cloudy” looks in the southwest.
    Our first ride we went to 7000 feet and even NM has big trees when you’re up that high.
    And this ride is about 35 minutes from our house in the middle of town. Smaller cities definitely have the advantage of proximity to nature.
    We got a visit from Mary on the second day we got here and she helped us explore.
    How many petroglyphs can you find?

    Mary was a great guest and up for anything and we went to Ojo Caliente, Santa Fe, hiking, biking, shopping, dining. It was awesome and is what I wanted because…… I have to go back to work on Monday!!!!!!

  • Goodbye Northern Arizona

    Snow from the library near one of the FIVE fireplaces.
    Riding in Prescott a last day. It was cold and we used our warm gloves which are not padded and bruised Zarah’s hand causing weird nerve cramps that have kept her off the bike a lot lately
    After the ride (so my hair is terrible) Last dinner with Mary Ann. There was this amazing band from Bisbee there too.
    Last visit to the Grand Canyon
    Finally made it to Desert View Watchtower, but it was closed to going up the tower 😦
    I also love the bleached wood with the view.
    The idea that a “Common Raven“ just lives here and can fly right off those cliffs and explore…
    The tenacity of life in the desert. Sideways out over the precipice, catching the sun and the rain and the wind. Winding it’s roots deep into the cracks to hold on.
    Last golden hour in Sedona
    With sunset
    Sunset that makes you pull off the road to take pictures
    And more pictures
    The rocks with the sky is so amazing there.
    Last fancy coffee at Fire Creek – the Dark sky has a shaved pillow mint in it and the s’mores is served with the marshmallow on fire. Pretty fun. And a good way to fuel up for the drive to Albuquerque.

  • Astronomy and Glen Canyon

    Science and history geek alert. The Lowell observatory was about 3/4 mile from our condo in Flagstaff. But we only made it there toward the end and I’m sad about that. They set the telescopes on different things every night. Here’s the moon from a 100+ year old telescope.
    It is mounted in a wooden building with manual pulleys to open and close the doors or turn the opening in the roof. I love that there are just tires that it spins on.
    Great displays of the discoveries and astronomers. But hard to take pictures. This is where they discovered Pluto. I love Pluto… goddamnit it’s a planet!!!!!
    There is a ride around the mesa the town of Page is built on. Overlooking Wahweep from a few miles away. It makes you think about water.
    We had to build this damn an store water and make power to support people moving west and growing food in California for us.
    As anyone who’s read The Monkey Wrench Gang knows, We flooded a deep canyon leading into the Grand Canyon and destroyed ancient Pueblo ruins, and ecosystems. But you can see how low the water is now with the white where is was usually full.
    Navajo Mountain and painted desert formations.
    A good ride , but a weird, stark one.
    Full of the impositions of white folks on the land. a golf course overlooking the damn….
    I keep saying someday I’ll take the time to get farther out into this amazing place. It gets pretty remote, but you need a boat.

  • Sunset Crater and Wupatki

    Frozen magma
    I wish this picture was better. You can see the “wave” of rock that was pushed up between parts of a crack.
    And people lived really nearby when it all happened.
    I’m not sure why Wupatki isn’t w that well known. There are Sooooo many neat sites from approximately 900 years ago.
    Using the natural rock formations to find good places to build.
    Whole little towns long walking distance from each other.
    I love how they mortared around the rock as it was.
    I love that a person is allowed to walk through the homes. Thinking how cool and protected in the hot summer sun, but how cold and drafty it would be in winter.