readsalot

I heard from filkerdave that Greg McMullan died in a house fire last night. I didn't know Greg very well, but some of you may have, so I'm spreading the news. There are some details in this post, and Dave will post more when more is known.

All spoilers, all the time. You've been warned.

( spoilers don't affect continuity )

I'm in the internet cafe in the Shinagawa Prince hotel now. I get a computer for as long as I want, apparently, for buying one drink. It was 500 yen for the drink, which is a lot even for here, though, so I'm going to stick around for a while tonight.

So, from the beginning:

(This computer won't let me switch to using an English keyboard, so I'm going to just touch-type and try to remember to replace all the weird punctuation after I finish writing. Just a warning, in case the punctuation looks strange--it's things like hitting the apostrophe key and getting a colon.)

( The flight was uneventful, but long )

( It's really hot in Japan )

( There was a Worldcon )

( In which my hotel is really stupid )

( Tokyo at last )

Ok, that's it for tonight.

I'm going to have most of one day in Tokyo to myself after the tour ends. I'm trying to figure out what I should do. Possibilities:

Tokyo Tower. The Lonely Planet guide book says that it's a tourist trap these days. On the other hand, it's appeared in so many anime that I may have to go. Also, I just checked out their website, so I see that there are a bunch of little shops and restaurants (including the Tokyo Curry Lab, which babelfish insists on translating as Tokyo Calais Lab), and then there's Statistics Plaza: "This space is provided to acquaint more people with statistics by introducing the history of statistics and statistical data." I may not be able to resist.

Tokyo Tower is in the Roppongi district, so I could go there and then to the Mori Art Museum, which looks very cool, and which includes admission to Tokyo City View, from which I can look down on Tokyo Tower.

Or, I could go to the Ikebukuro area, and visit the Japan Traditional Craft Center (some nice displays, but more of a working resource than a museum), and Sunshine City (contains Sunshine 60, another really tall building which was featured prominently in the manga/anime X/1999, as well as the Ikebukuro Gyoza Stadium, which is apparently a food court devoted entirely to gyoza).

Vaguely near Sumida, there's the Edo-Tokyo Museum (history of Tokyo) and the Fukagawa Edo Museum (recreates a 17th century Edo neighborhood).

In the Odaiba area, there's the Miraikan (National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, which is apparently going to be closed on all the days when I'm in Tokyo, so never mind), a giant ferris wheel, the Japan Folk Crafts Museum, a hot springs theme park, and a couple of giant shopping malls.

Other suggestions are welcome.

Readercon next weekend! We're starting early this year--there will be a single track of programming on Thursday night, open to the public, but no convention services until Friday morning.

See you there!

Tonight was thai-ish chicken (garlic, fish sauce, lime juice, and lots of basil, cilantro, and mint) which was easy once I finished chopping all of the herbs. Also, the herbs and the lime juice really make the dish special--without them, it's not that great. To go with it there was a nice francese from Iggy's, and zucchini mush with garlic, mint, and lemon juice. I think next time I need to measure the lemon juice instead of just using the juice of one lemon, but other than that, it was excellent.

I've been meaning to start making notes about cooking, so I can remember which recipes I've tried and what I thought about them. I do my major cooking on weekends, and make enough to have leftovers for at least one more meal, so that I can just reheat things during the week.

( skip this if you're not interested in cooking )

So far I'm doing pretty well on quizzes (though I haven't yet seen the results of Tuesday's vocabulary test). The current chapter has, among other things, rules for and examples of transitive and intransitive verbs, which in Japanese are often separate words. That use the same kanji. Just to confuse you. For example, 起きる(okiru, to sleep, intransitive) and 起こす (okosu, to sleep, transitive). That was a relatively easy pair, because okiru was one of the first verbs I learned, more than a year ago. Then there's 集まる(atsumaru, to gather, intransitive) and　集める (atsumeru, to gather, transitive); both new in this chapter. Anyway, all of this meant that the new vocabulary for this chapter, instead of being mostly nouns, was mostly verbs. However, I think that I knew all of the ones on the quiz, so that was good.

Homework log: 1 hour last night, 3 hours tonight. Less than I thought it was going to be--that was three sections of homework (though I cheated and did part of the first section over the weekend) and 5 sheets of kanji practice (for the thirty new kanji in this chapter). Kanji quiz on Tuesday. But that shouldn't be too hard--for the first time, kanji quizzes involve reading but no writing. That makes it a lot easier, especially when the quiz puts the kanji in a sentence.

It took about 2 hours to finish the homework that's due this coming Tuesday. That's in contrast to the 6 hours I spent on the homework due last Tuesday, and the 5 hours for the homework due last Thursday. It's not that it's getting easier--it's that the first two sets of homework for this chapter were in the workbook, which emphasizes writing, and the second two sets are in the lab manual, which emphasizes listening. I'm going to try to get an early start (like, tomorrow) on some of the homework that's due Thursday, just because I was really wiped out this week by all of the homework. And I still have to study for Tuesday's kanji test, and practice answering questions out loud so I can do that in class.

However, the studying is paying off: I aced the vocabulary quiz last Tuesday. Oh, and they finally posted grades from last term, and I got an A-! I'm happy with that--I got a bit behind in the middle of the term, and was expecting a B.

The teapot that I use at work (pretty dark-green ceramic with a mesh infuser basket, holds enough for two mugs of tea, at least 8 years old) has just gotten chipped. I've been irritated by it for a while, because if I make a pot of tea and then leave the lid closed overnight, the lid tends to stick to the pot. This morning, when I tried to get the lid open, the little tab on the lid snapped off. I could glue it back together, but I think this is a sign that I need a new pot.

Any suggestions? twe, I've been looking at the IngenuiTEA brewer, which looks very cute, but does it hold more than one mug's worth? Can you only pour one cup at a time into your mug? Does it keep the rest warm?