The area around Mount Fuji and Lake Kawaguchiko was very chilly the night that we were there. After standing outside for 5 minutes we were looking for hot drinks and hot food to thaw us out. The local tourist information office recommended that we visit a restaurant serving Hoto, a dish from the Yamanashi Prefecture. I am so happy they did!!
Hoto is served in a huge cast iron bowl piping hot, and it is a soup made of miso broth and filled with lots of vegetables, hand pulled noodles, and aburaage tofu (twice fried). I especially liked the pieces of kabocha, a japanese pumpkin variety with a green, not orange skin, and a darker colored inside than a sugar pumpkin. I think I may need to find a recipe to make hoto at home later, since it is super filling, has lots of veggies, and is exactly what I crave on a dark winter day.
While waiting on a railway platform in Narita, Japan, I spotted this poster. Wanted Dead or Alive: Fugitive Pigeon. My mind flooded with ideas as to what terrible crimes this bird must have committed to earn himself a spot on this post. What did it steal? Who did it murder? Whose car did it poop on? This pigeon was bad news. I searched high and low those 5 minutes on the platform to no avail. Sure there were pigeons, but no trace of the criminal mastermind. He had escaped. Will he reform? Or continue to travel down the dark path he set out on?
The actual translation is something along the lines of “watch out for pigeon droppings. Be careful where you put your garbage.” There is no pigeon criminal out there. Is there?
We departed Los Angeles on Singapore Airlines headed for Tokyo on December 3rd. The staff was exceptionally kind and friendly. The female flight attendants wore dresses with beautiful patterns on them and the men wore suits. The seats were spacious for being 10 across in the economy class. Each had their own footrest and TV screen. The international selection of shows, music, and movies was vast and recent. We each watched 4 movies. The meals served were large and delicious. I have never eaten so much on a plane in my life. We ate two meals and numerous drinks and snacks were offered. I really enjoyed flying with Singapore Airlines and would highly recommend using them next time you plan on traveling to any of the countries they visit.
I think this review will have to be updated after I get way more use out of my gear, but so far, I really appreciate these compression bags. They pack like packing cubes, which works pretty tidily if you roll your clothes, but you can also get a decent amount of compression out of them with the integrated zipper. I have been able to fit all my clothes into a larger one and compress it a significant amount, and use the medium size one for socks, underwear, etc. The inside of my backpack is now super segmented, and nothing gets disarrayed if all I want to do is change into my sandals. I have been using a ziplock inside the packing cube for dirty or damp items, which has been working so far.
Note: we also have a set of non-compression cubes in three sizes. We are using one for shoes, one for prescription medicines, and one for a miscellaneous bag. While these are acceptably functional, I would recommend buying the compression style instead. Even if you have all noncompressible items in the bag on one trip, if you don’t need the full space of the compartment, the compression feature allows you to use the same packing cube in a range of thicknesses.
I am in love with one of the items I’ve packed for our long trip – it’s the drylite XL towel, and it feels like a luxury! Since we are flying carry-on only for most of our trips, space is crucial. This towel packs down super small, is even lighter than Matt’s travel towel, and is big enough to be modest or to use as a beach towel. The tradeoff is the texture- it feels like a chamois. I’m ok with the texture, especially because it comes with superabsorbent powers. I could use it to dry off after a shower and then be able to pull the moisture out of some sink washed laundry with absorbency to spare. I have been using it for a couple weeks now and am starting to think it may be my full time towel even when I’m not traveling….
the mint tea drinkers society 