I'm not a big Halloween person, really. I wanted to call out sick today but I already pulled that last year so I really felt I needed to contribute this year. In a meeting I wasn't at because I was traveling, our department decided on a circus theme. It felt a little blah, but I think we ended up pulling together a lot of great ideas! I signed up to be a tightrope walker, which translated to essentially a ballerina costume with a small parasol.
We were actually all really excited thinking we might win... until Student Services's grand entrance!!
I know this kinda thing has been done before, but man they did it really well!
This video was taken while waiting for lunch...
...what you didn't see what after I "fell off" the rope I said "SPLAT. DEAD."
Looking forward to Hocus Pocus and handing out candy tonight... Happy Halloween friends!
Boy, I have a lot of thoughts in my head as residue from serving jury duty.
First of all, I served on my first jury! Why do people dread jury duty? I guess I know why - it's a lot of red tape, it's a lot of waiting around, and then statistically your likelihood of being picked is pretty low, so in the end, it amounts to a wasted day in a courthouse.
That's how I felt initially when I reported for duty on Monday, October 28 - bored, annoyed, inconvenienced. As a matter of fact, a pre-paid business trip is grounds for being unqualified, so I really did assume that I would just report, show my upcoming plane tickets and skidaddle. But I got assigned to a random case in a courtroom.
I, along with about 50 others, report. We get assigned numbers. Then, the clerk calls 18 of the numbers to sit in the jury box along with a row of 6 alternates. The rest of us sit in the audience. It's my first time in recent memory being in a "real", active courtroom. Bailiff, clerk, defendant, lawyers. We stand on the judge's arrival and come to order. The trial is only expected to last until Wednesday, Thursday at the latest. So my business trip wouldn't excuse me regardless.
A very long, tedious process of juror questioning begins. After everyone is questioned, prosecution and defense take turns thanking and excusing jurors, at which time alternates go into the box, and more numbers are called to fill the alternate's spots. I believe I was the third one from the audience called into the row of alternates. There were some cute moments. For instance, during questioning, one potential juror was so thrilled to be there, he went on about how he's been looking forward to this since he became a citizen of this country and it's just like the movies. Everyone was laughing - jurors, audience, lawyers and judge. But, he got dismissed (wonder why??) haha.
Long story short, I was put in the chair as juror #8, accepted, and sworn in. I saw it as a good omen - lucky #8! I was kinda shocked - but excited! As a matter of fact, it started to occur to me just how statistically difficult it is to end up serving on a jury, so I felt pretty lucky.
The formality of it, and just how much it is like the movies and whatnot, it was fascinating! It helped that our judge was awesome with us and guiding us. We had witnesses, video evidence, transcriptions, the works. I really was enjoying it, and often was swayed one way or another.
I was disappointed when the defense rested. It was only Tuesday morning! We heard closing arguments and even started deliberating before lunch.
That was my favorite part - deliberating. Here we were, 12 completely random citizens - varying in ages, genders, occupations, races, ethnicity, the works. But we were all American citizens in this county over age 18, who would never be together in a room otherwise. And we got to discuss the law of the land and come to a consensus (which I recognize was not a given - hung juries happen all the time!).
But... it sucked. This case, although criminal assault in definition, was petty, in my honest opinion. As people, we thought it was stupid, we understood the defendant and saw gray area... but to the letter of the law, which was all we were tasked with doing... we had to acquiesce. It bothers me that the law doesn't seem to leave room for common sense at times. It sucked. We found him guilty, and we had to be present for the verdict in front of him and it just ugh... didn't leave a good feeling. I called Pam afterwards to debrief and try to understand this more. She even thought the case sounded wildly ridiculous to waste time in court for, and assumed there was more to this than we had seen... for instance that the prosecution had more behind the scenes but this was all they could ultimately "get" the guy for. We'll never know. I adored being part of the judicial process, but hate that I didn't have a more overwhelming feeling that justice was served.
Well, anyway, I absolutely loved it, and when the bailiff gave us our form acknowledging our time, and told us our country thanked us, I was swooning LOL. It's not a perfect system, but the fact that it's one that allows us laypeople to be involved, it's kinda awesome.
Well I'm home and pretty well settled at this point I suppose (no lingering jetlag, just back to always being tired as usual). With how fast life has been going, and how on-the-go I've been recently, just a few days in one place seems to be enough to revive me and feel rested before I need to leave again (and I don't for another full 2 weeks!) But I do love to relive my travels with the photos, so here I go with Japan and Korea...
My very first hours in Japan airspace were not good. We were arriving a good two days before the incoming Typhoon #19, and I have no idea if it was a cause of that or not, but the turbulence on the plane was so bad, like up and down waves. I ended up getting so motionsick, it was reallyyyyyy hard to take the landing. And then of course we land and are taxiing to the gate and I think the worst is over and all I need to do is just take deep breaths and practice mind over matter but nope... ended up puking so much I filled up half the barf bag. I hate throwing up! But then I felt so amazing afterwards, I was actually thankful it had happened.
I just love Japan. I'd be happy to return there any time. And I remembered why as soon as I landed in the airport and was waiting for my luggage... this is an official government form explaining how to fill out their customs declarations and the whole process... look how cute it is!
...and look how fun their TV shows are! All that writing and the reaction cams!
From my hotel breakfast table, saw this cute little puppers on a walk. I'm surprised he's not a Shiba Inu... those things are legit everywhere!
And you know, their love for Shohei and therefore the Angels.
This is at the ATM while waiting for my money to come out... the people bow to you! #sopolite
With my first work meeting in Shinjuku, I just happened to pass by a Megastore for the World Rugby Cup, which Japan was in the midst of hosting. I wandered in. It was fun, and I saw whatever their weird trophy is called, and I almost bought a little Japanese New Zealand amulet, but everything was just so overpriced.
It was nice already having been in Japan because I didn't feel insanely pressured to run around and see things. So I got to do that second-level stuff. Like visit the restaurant that was the inspiration for Kill Bill Vol. 1's House of Blue Leaves, also called Gonpachi.
After that I went back to the hotel to wait out the storm, as I already reported on. Below are some fun visuals and videos from when I went out to play in it!
And one of the really fun parts of this trip was having a few hours to play around at Disney Sea! It's the second land in Tokyo, almost like their California Adventure, although Disney Sea is ranked the best out of all the parks! I haven't been to all of the parks so I hesitate to make that claim, but it was beautiful!
It was a little awkward being there by myself, although I got on quick for some single rider lines and used to saying "Ichi!" when they looked at me and I assumed asked me how many in my party.
First entrance structure
An exploratory fort in the "Mediterranean Coast" land
Mediterranean Coast
Exploring the fort
Mediterranean Coast from the top of the fort
Kinda cool little planetary thing ha
I thought these were bumper boats til I saw they were on their own track that spun around. No thanks!
Indiana Jones! Theirs was a Mayan theme. (Probably cause they're closer to India and get more Indian visitors?) It was very similar to ours although their snake wasn't a cobra
My photo! LOL. Didn't know they did a picture. And the previews have those rocks flying all over to prevent people from just taking a picture of it on their phones like I did. But it took more than one try. See below.
I LOVED ARABIAN COAST!! SOOOO BEAUTIFUL!
I had a map of the land and was excited when one was described as "Fly on a magic carpet over Jasmine's garden". I was envisioning it more like our Peter Pan. But it was this. Like our Dumbo LOL. It was really weird/scary to not know anything about the type of ride that I was getting on and going in blind!
Mermaid Lagoon! It was an entire indoor play area definitely aimed for little kids but it was still so stunningly beautiful!
Entering Mermaid Lagoon
Inside Mermaid Lagoon
This section of the land was pretty sweet. Unfortunately Journey to the Center of the Earth was closed for renovations, but I did go on 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, and I did take the boat ride around the park through here. And Mount Prometheus would "erupt" every now and then which was fun
Mount Prometheus erupting!
I reallyyyyy wanted to do Toy Story Mania but by the time I got there it was a 90 minute wait and I was completely spent
The American harbor area features a lot of East Coast sites. Take for instance... Cape Cod!
Boat ride around the park, passing Mermaid Lagoon at night
Tower of Terror. Not for me!
Look at all the chopsticks being sold!
Fantasmic! Cinderella is at the top LOL
It definitely would have been fun to be there with someone but as it was it was still really cool (and beautiful!) to see and do.
Next day saw me in the Ebisu neighborhood for an info session, after which I decided to go to Shibuya and Harajuku (I don't know why). The just-enough-rain was annoying and the street was useless, see:below
This building is designed so cool! And named Scramble
Kathleen tipped me off to Drunkard's Alley in Shibuya but as I learned, it appears to be more of a nighttime destination...
Since the Harajuku was packed, I looked on my map to see what was around and noticed there was a temple in the forest immediately behind me, so I went to investigate and was not disappointed! The forest surrounding it is also considered very sacred...
The Senso-ji temple was probably more impressive, but I enjoyed visiting this forested one too.
If you remember, Japan was hosting the Rugby World Cup! Downtown Tokyo had some fun displays of it around, and even caught a live showing of Japan and Ireland happening. They were all so quiet and polite, you would have had no idea their team was playing, let alone winning!
Tokyo Station
A countdown clock to Olympics 2020!
Could you tell this said RUGBY WORLD CUP?
My last meal there was a sushi restaurant I found... and what a treat! You order on an iPad and then a little toy Shinkansen bullet train takes it to you!! I was living for it.
I was very sad to leave Japan, but I was looking forward to discovering Korea. I was also pleasantly surprised to see a fun little TV show on the plane about unlikely animal friendships. Here is a dog and a dolphin haha!
Unbeknowst to me, Seoul (and apparently the Korean peninsula as a whole) is very mountainous! I think I was told they have like 70% mountain terrain or something like that. My hotel was on one of the big hills which made for an insanely beautiful view... but made it hard to go explore much - the steep hills were that bad!
Can you see how MASSIVE Seoul is??? Seriously - it's huge! A crazy expanse of huge metropolis. Iris told me that you can fit 3-4 Paris's inside of it!
The hill down from my hotel. Nice sunset though, with buildings in the background
Seoul Tower
I had a breakfast meeting the first day and after that, went to explore the city and all the neighborhoods. Saw some drummers practicing!
"Lotte World" was an amusement park with an "enchanted island" in the middle of a lake
Interrupting normally scheduled programming to show you the carbonated milk drink I had
Look at those mountains in the distance! That must be at least on or near the North Korean border...
Beautiful piece in the National Korean Museum
Gangnam Neighborhood
Bukchon Hanok is a village of housing dating back 600 years - and people still live in it!
Neat image with the metropolis in the background
UNESCO World Heritage Site!
Beautiful Changdeonggunk Palace! Fun fact: You can get into a lot of historical sites for free if you wear traditional clothes. So, there are tons of hanbok rental stores all over and everyone dresses up! I was itching too but I was also exhausted. And, you know, a loner LOL
Very official police station in Myeongdong, the shopping area
So I had a noon flight out of Seoul, with a layover back in Tokyo. I was texting my friend Jessica as I headed to the airport. Fun fact: left Seoul at 12:00 noon on Friday, October 18 and then landed at LAX at 9:40am on Friday, October 18!
With a layover in Tokyo, I had a little time to spare. I was SO HOT, I couldn't get over it. I don't know what it was but I couldn't stop sweating, so in addition to some ridiculous impulse purchases I made in the airport, I also bought this cute handheld fan! It was working wonders but I probably would've bought it anyway. Look at that pattern!
If you think that trip was crazy... I land LAX, take a cab back home, see Nannerz and Khaleesi (who has been very cuddly ever since I came back!) took a few hours nap, then AJ woke me up, we packed and headed up to the Central Coast for the annual glamping party for Pam's birthday! Each year is a little different (which is fun!) and this time it was a tropical fiesta theme that revolved around our dogs - haha!
Nannerz in a tropical fiesta mood
And of course, nothing is ever complete without a wine tasting in wine country!
It made for a hard time recovering from jet lag (especially considering we were all up until 4am the first night!) but it was a good time. Hadn't been with those friends in way too long.
