Just saying the name of one of the hotels where my wife and I will be staying in Russia this September makes me smile. Obviously I do not want to rush the summer, but knowing that a new country will be waiting for me later this year has got me excited. I love going to see new places and experiencing foreign cultures. Plus I seem to watching anything vaguely Russian related on television. For example, last night I watched an episode of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations on the Travel Channel, because he was going to be in Russia. To be fair, I usually watch him anyway, but to see him in a place that I will be seeing this fall added something extra to the episode.
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The latest episodes of the anime series Bleach have started a new story arc complete with new foes and I have no idea what to expect next. What I do know is that I will not be making a forty five minute drive to a movie theater that I have never visited just to see the Bleach movie that will be shown there tonight and tomorrow night only. I think that purchasing the DVD is probably less expensive and less stressful than making the drive.
Yesterday my wife and I booked our flight and hotels for Russia this fall. Finally, it feels like something positive is happening in my life again. Yes, we will not be going there until September, but at least I have the trip to lighten my mood. We decided to go with a package tour to alleviate some of the language barrier problems and some other travel logistics. Plus I am hoping that the quality of the hotels will be a little better since they have to cater to more Western travelers. I could be wrong in that thinking, but I won't have an answer until I get there.
]]>Work welcomed me back last night with a quiet night and I used my down time to work on some personal projects. My primary goal was to do some serious research and planning on a trip to Russia. At this time I know that I want to see both Moscow and St. Petersburg and will probably due so with some kind of tour package, but any other details have yet to be determined.
From my casual reading, I have learned a few things that should make my journey a success. Foremost is that Russia is not nearly as dangerous as it is portrayed in the media. Yes, they have organized crime, but the Russian mafia will not be something that I have to fear when I am there. Most guides that I have read say that the average tourist will have no contact with said people and overall Russia is just as safe as most European countries.
Another detail that jumped out at me is the fact that I should not drink the water in Russia and once again I am comfortable with that statement. Purchasing and drinking bottled water is something that I do quite often when I am abroad. This is nothing out of the ordinary for me. As an ancillary, I have mentally prepared myself that the hotel accommodations might not be up to Western standards. This is something that I expected.
Finally, I am hoping to bring back some unique souvenirs from Russia. I want something that is distinctly Russian, be it an article of clothing or something written in Russian. For example, I am proud to own as many volumes of manga that I do that were purchased while I was there.
Speaking of things Japanese, I was able to watch the final two episodes of the anime series Full Metal Panic and I have to say that I liked it. I probably won't start watching the sequel, because I want to devote all of my viewing time to Bleach. With eight seasons, there is plenty of story for me to enjoy and I would rather not cloud the waters, but watching something else at the same time. To further my cause, I purchased about ten episode on eBay for my viewing pleasure. Even though all of the episodes can be streamed online, there are time when I prefer to see something in a larger format and at my leisure. I also enjoy the special features that come with the packaged discs.
]]>Earlier this week, I resumed an old habit of mine that I had missed; I went to the library for the first time this year. Where I used to live the local library was in easy walking distance of my place and I took great advantage of that quick access. Sadly that is no longer the case where I currently live, but on my two quick visits to this new library, it also seems to be a worthwhile place to spend some time. I am not sure if I will resume my weekly habit of reading the current issue of Astronomy magazine or maybe an issue of Popular Photography, but I enjoyed knowing that it was there for me if I wanted it. Plus I was able to get some guidebooks on Romania, Russia and Ukraine.
Despite the warning that diarrhea is a guarantee when one visits Ukraine, I think that that country is my first choice for my sojourn this year. Russia certainly has an allure, but sometimes the sheer expanse of the country seems to overwhelm me even though I know that I would probably restrict myself to just Moscow and St. Petersburg. Then there is Romania who cannot decide whether or not to love or hate its Dracula heritage.
I can’t say how much trust I put in what I read in travel guidebooks, because what I see when I get to these places seldom matches what I was told in the books. Oh, the famous attractions might be the same, but my personal experience is usually quite different from the helpful tips and anecdotes found in the books. For example, nothing that I read in a guidebook fully prepared me for the experience of dragging my luggage through the JR station in Kyoto. I knew full well that my hotel was located just a couple of floors above the tracks, but that foreknowledge does not suggest a sweaty journey of weaving through crowds with kilos worth of luggage looking for a sign with my hotel name on it. Once I had been there a day or two, the layout of the building started to make more sense to me, but that initial exposure was quite confusing if not frustrating. For a moment, I began to doubt that I would ever find where I needed to go. Nor could I ever have predicted the quaint and touching limited English exchanges that I had in various JR stations when I needed to book various passages on trains. To this day, I am grateful for the patience of the Japanese staff that I met in the JR stations who were more than willing to help the American man who spoke no Japanese except for a handful of words gained from pop culture. All that I could say was thank you once the transaction had finally been completed.
Perhaps I sound somewhat angry about what happened, but that is not my intent. I learned so much about the Japanese people and myself from these experiences. Until the day I die I will never forget the young attractive Japanese woman in the hotel restaurant in the city of Hakata who literally carried the poster board size menu from the front of the restaurant over to my table so that I could point out what I wanted to order. It might have been slightly embarrassing at the time, but it solved our limited communication problem and I did not walk away hungry.
]]>When the infamous Rob Liefeld made his debut on the comic book scene, I was rapidly moving away from mainstream books and to a degree the industry as a whole. So in what I can only describe as an impulse purchase, I bid and won an auction for a lot of about two dozen X-Force books that showcase his early work for Marvel. Having read just a few of the issues, I can say that I am not impressed with his style. Everything feels rushed, incomplete, too aggressive and not very strong in terms of storytelling. About the only redeeming factor is seeing the first appearance of Cable as a character in the mutant mythology of Marvel.
Travel has been on mind and I have yet to decide on a final destination for this year’s trip. The three frontrunners are Romania, Russia and the Ukraine. Roughly speaking all three countries are in the same part of the world and each of them would give me a different view of Europe than what I have seen in the past. What I mean to say is that I want to see some place that has a long history and is not overly modern. Once again any of those places would meet that requirement. Yes, I know that that might be a slight to Russia and the Ukraine, but I suspect that in many cases it is true. Plus as far as I know none of them use the Euro as currency so my weak American dollar would go farther than the rest of Europe.