Susan Valot

Back to driving on the right side of the road. I only turned on my windshield wipers (instead of turn signal) twice on my way to work. A lot less than the last transition from left to right!

Made it back home to rainy LAX. Time to try to adjust to the time zone.

Random Tokyo stuff. We rode the women’s car, but because it was a weekend, it was just a regular car. Random bench on a corner. Funny store name.

Last of fall leaves before heading home.

One last afternoon in Tokyo. Surprisingly warm out.

My friend wanted to just pick a place to eat as we walked by, so we had a mediocre last-night-in-Tokyo dinner and then as we were leaving, saw a roach on the wall. Blech!!! So I followed that up with shiatsu by my favorite Tokyo shiatsu guy, who remembered me from last year. Then the onsen! :)

So many Christmas things in Japan. Didn’t expect that.

Hello, Tokyo (Ueno).

So long, Sendai. After a ticket snafu that made us miss our intended bullet train, we’re on our way back to Tokyo. No luck with getting stuck in Japan. Trip was too short. :(

I can do ice skates, but I’d break my neck with these.

In Matsushima, they have the evacuation route markers lit up at night. Super interesting.

And this was the pond at the night illumination.

Long day in Matsushima (near Sendai). So many pretty leaves and scenery, even at night.

Current view on the coast near Sendai. We missed the tea house service, but we walked around the main island. Feet. Are. Tired. I’m also a little peopled out.

We’ve seen a lot of EV cars, but never a charging station until more than a week into the trip and in a very random, kind of out-of-the-way location.

So we book-ended sitting with tears in our eyes in the 2011 tsunami school museum with a walk through Sendai and a rare beer for me. (A sour blueberry beer from the city where the museum was. And my first mapo tofu and Sendai miso gyoza.) You can dress up for Christmas or dress up your dog!

The second pic is a blackboard with metal backing that was ripped off the wall. It looks strangely like modern art. The last pic is the main museum at sunset, amid where all of the houses used to be.

All the buildings were swept away. Entire neighborhoods, gone. So many parallels to California’s fires this year.

Probably the most powerful & emotional museum I’ve been to in Japan, in the only building left standing (damaged) from the 2011 tsunami, a school where the kids evacuated uphill and survived. It’s mind boggling to imagine the scope of damage and heartbreak that happened here. (Tree resprouted.)

Bookending happy things around a sad thing today. Whisky tasting (still not a whisky fan, but bring on the umeshu!) at a distillery this morning and then on to the 2011 Tsunami Memorial & Museum.

The Japan word of the day is “bear.” Bear bells, lots of bear signs, even on the road. But the coolest thing was seeing snow monkeys on the side of the road. (No pic because I was driving.)

More pics.

Long day. Hiked the Goshikinuba Ponds. (My friend was scared of bears, so she stayed back.) saw some snow monkeys in the wild. Conquered 1,000 steps to the temple complex in Yamadera. Google Maps took us on a single-lane road in the mountains. More comfortable driving now!

Greetings from Yamagata, Japan, in the mountains west of Sendai.

Also, this pic is from 4:30pm. The sun goes down so early!

Top floor room! Beautiful view over Yamagata, which is a much bigger city than I expected. Now to go find dinner. This trip is going by so fast!!

The History of Exploding Whales Is the History of the Internet Itself My first whale video came in the form of a VHS tape mailed to me by a stranger from the internet.

50 years ago, today, a whale exploded on an Oregon beach. 20 years later, before social media or video sharing sights or smartphones, it would become the first viral Internet video.

We sent it to each other in the mail.

The History of Exploding Whales Is the History of the Internet Itself