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Ghost of LL

Burnt Ends
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Everything posted by Ghost of LL

  1. I've just gotten to the point where I pay the $10/day to AT&T for their international plan. Yeah, it's expensive for a week-long trip. But it's just so fucking easy.
  2. Sadly, I had to come back. But by way of wrap-up, I have a few practical tips for anyone who wants to go to Japan. Pre-clearance Forms: All of the Customs, Immigration, and Covid forms are available online on the Visit Japan website. Fill those out on your phone, and they'll give you a QR code. You should take a screenshot of those QR codes, because the cell service at NRT isn't the best. But if you have those QR codes, immigration and customs are an absolute breeze. But if you haven't registered ahead of time, the formalities can take a little bit of time. Get an IC Card: There are a number of "IC Cards" available, and you should get one. It's essentially a pre-paid debit card. You can download it to your wallet on your iPhone and connect it to your credit card to fill it up. Suica is the one that is run by one of the Tokyo subway companies; Pasmo is run by the Osaka subway company. But it doesn't matter which you get; they all work throughout Japan. The IC Card is like a digital Metrocard in New York or an Oyster card in London. It enables you to just tap your phone at the entry/exit gates at the subway station, and it automatically debits your account. But unlike the Metrocard or Oyster card, you can use it at a whole lot of other places. Vending machines accept IC cards. Taxies, convenience stores, and some restaurants are going to accept your IC Card. Speaking of taxis: Taxis are ubiquitous and really pretty cheap. But you ought to know that drivers generally don't speak a lot of (or any) English. The hotels we stayed at had a pre-printed card with the name and address of the hotel in Japanese to hand to a cab driver, and you should make use of that. For other destinations, it's handy to pull your destination up on Google Maps, which will show the address in Japanese, to show the driver. Dinner in Kyoto: You need reservations. You just do. Trust me. Dinner in Tokyo: You can get reservations at some Michelin-starred restaurant if you want. But our best meals were in the places in Shimbashi or Shibuya that we just happened into.
  3. What the everliving fuck is up with Princeton? They look like they’re the best team in the tournament.
  4. Christ almighty—I’m sitting here at LAX waiting for my connection to Austin, and I now have to tip the bartender and wipe my ass with paper when I shit. This country fucking sucks.
  5. It's springtime in Paris. April is nicer than March. But there's a reason people wax poetic about springtime in Paris. If you go the second week in April, you miss the Americans who are visiting over Spring Break. And you also miss a lot of European tourists who have an extended Easter break and then another break over May 1.
  6. I think this is generally right on. To point out a couple things in particular, I think the tour of Parliament was one of the most interesting things we did on our last trip to London. It's helpful to register ahead of time, as it reserves your spot and cuts down on the security clearance time. I would also echo the Buckingham Palace tour. They open it every summer--or at least they did while the late Queen was in Scotland for the summer. It was really shockingly cool. And while I broadly will agree with Spanky on his dislike of tours, I would absolutely get a private tour if you want to do Versailles. We did that when we went in 2019, and it was great. The tour guide allowed us to bypass all the lines, and moved us quickly through the palace. The absolutely best part was him physically and aggressively shoving through the masses of Chinese tourists. At first, I thought it was intensely rude. Fifteen minutes, I concluded it was necessary and entirely appropriate. To add a few sights that I think are worthwhile: London: Churchill War Rooms, the Royal Mews (i.e., where they keep the royal carriages and horses) Paris: Catacombs, Sainte Chappelle All of these things should be booked ahead of time, to the extent possible. I'm glad @PenelopeWitherspoon was able to help with some of the particulars. There are a number of people on this thread (myself included) that can plan a pretty step-by-step and day-by-day itinerary for you. Feel free to DM people here and we're happy to help out. But I'm also going to tell you that probably the happiest day in Paris was the day on which we had nothing planned and did nothing in particular. We went to the local grocery store near our hotel and grabbed a bottle of wine, some soft drinks for the kids, a baguette, some cheese, and some cold cuts. We then went over to the Tulleries Garden and had a picnic. My daughter took a nap while my son fed the pigeons. Then we got some scooters and rode down to Ile de la Cite and walked around shopping for souvenirs and art and street crepes. And by the end of the day we were in some bistro eating duck and drinking more wine. So while I think we can plan every day if you want, I'd encourage you to leave some time to just let the game come to you.
  7. So we decided to skip Hiroshima—there’s just too much shit to do here in Kyoto. Chief among them eating street food outside the Fushima Iniri shrine. It’s seriously like a Japanese state fair—there’s every food imaginable on a stick. From chicken to Kobe beef to sparrow to oysters. It’s a great place for a standing lunch And while you’re eating there, you can check out the girls in their kimonos. It’s apparently a thing for women’s to re t a kimono just to do the tourist thing. It looks uncomfortable, but looks cool. There are a lot of temples here. And some shrines. I wish we could spend another month here.
  8. Disu is just taking this shit over right now, and it's great to see.
  9. The Outer Market is still open at Tsujiki. They moved the wholesale auction house out to Toyosa, which is a few miles to the east. I checked out going over there, and you can still visit. But it all looks very sterile and boring. Last night we ran around Gion spotting the geishas and then had some wagyu for supper. Now we are off temple hopping.
  10. Just the ones that Mrs.LL likes.
  11. Went over to the Tsujiki Outer Market this morning for breakfast, and was not at all prepared for what as there. In fact, I'm not even sure I can describe it. There were plenty of little sushi places. But more than that, there were little storefronts all over the place with display cases with fish, oysters, crabs, lobsters, scallops, etc. So you can just point out what you want, you get it on a little plate, and go over to one of the handful of standing tables nearby. There's a squeeze bottle of soy and/or ponzu sauce on the table and a squeeze bottle of lemon juice. Slurp down your oysters or whatever, and head to the next place. The seafood was incredible. I swear, these oysters were bigger than my hand. You needed about three bites for each one. And the crabs in that tank are at least five feet from claw to claw. We had a Shinkansen train this afternoon for Kyoto. Along the way, we had bento boxes and nice views of Fuji. Not a bad way to start the day. More from Kyoto later.
  12. Oh, and don’t wear those bathroom shoes back to your table. That’s gross and wrong.
  13. So as I said, we're staying over in Shiodome. Last night, we walked our jet-lagged asses over to Shimbashi and wandered around. We found a couple of izakayas and ate some things that I don't precisely know what they were, but they were tasty for the most part. Today, we met up with a guide that we booked. He took us over to the Art Fair Tokyo. There was a lot of cool shit. We saw Ambassador Rahm Emmanuel. I can't believe we appointed Rahm Fucking Emmanuel ambassador. I can’t possibly think of someone less inclined to diplomacy. It’d be like making @Brisketexan an ambassador if you added 30% more vulgarity. Of course, he was like the only guy in the joint running around without a mask. But whatevs. Anyway—we bought a piece. Mrs.LL is very happy. I preferred a different piece, but Mrs.LL said she wasn’t going to have it in the house. The subway system is absolutely incomprehensible, owing to the fact that it's done by several different companies. There's no unified transit authority that does all the subway lines. But basically, you get an IC card on your phone and then flash your phone at the entry gates. It's pretty easy once you figure it out, but figuring it out takes some time. Google Maps is an absolute lifesaver--it maps out all your transit. I'm thirsty. Time to hit up a bar.
  14. Yeah, it is. But everybody’s happy tonight.
  15. I'm just looking at this from my own myopic perspective, but this is going to kill the league. I've been a pretty casual fan, but I got pretty engaged with Austin last year. But now, I can't see their games. And even if I could, I wouldn't think of searching them out. I've only got so much leisure time. And that means that I only have so much sports bandwidth. With MLS right now, it's just completely out of sight, out of mind. So far as my sports-fan universe goes, it might as well not exist at all. I suspect I'm far from alone in this experience.
  16. You know that's coming. And then all the Elon fanbois will celebrate what a genius Elon is for coming up with this completely original idea that nobody had ever thought of.
  17. Ooooo--a company town where you're beholden to your employer for your rent and utilities. How original.
  18. See, Houston trees--that's how you fucking do it. If you want to kill some douchebag motherfucker, then you fall on the dude and pin him down until he's dead. You don't just knock him down and paralyze him. Jeez--you'd think this shit would be obvious.
  19. I've seen this picture dozens of times on this thread, but I only just now noticed that the alleged Nazi flag is, in fact, a fucking t-shirt. I mean, that raises its own questions. Like--I honestly think it'd be easier to find a Nazi flag than a t-shirt that is just a big swastika. But you know--whatever works in a pinch.
  20. We spend a couple weeks there during the pandemic and let the kids do zoom school from the beach. It was a great experience all the way around, but you're right that you feel pretty good getting in an Escalade at the airport while everyone else is getting into a shitty tour bus.
  21. That's my era, too. And we'd go down to Nuevo Laredo and Acuna all the time. But Matamoros was always off-limits after Mark Kilroy got killed.
  22. Well, my life experiences haven't prepared me to be a college basketball coach, either. I mean, I didn't play basketball past middle school and I've never coached anything beyond my son's t-ball team. And I suspect those are kind of important qualifications. Another qualification is being able to talk to 18- to 22-year old men who are often Black. And if your life experiences don't prepare you to do that, then you probably also aren't qualified to be a college basketball coach.
  23. Two pretty nice wins over two of the worst teams in the league. There’s no tone there—we needed those points.
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