Halloween Excitement

Halloween is coming up. It's my favorite holiday. It as always been my favorite holiday. Only recently has it gained a ritualistic significant. Starting last year I set out food for the ancestors as it's the time of year to honor them. I leave it out all night then bury it in the morning. I also do a rune reading for the coming year as this holiday marks the anniversary of me becoming pagan. 

I'm also thinking of doing a ritual to bring prosperity to my family too, but I have no idea where to start with any of it. 

I'll be at my parent's house for the next 2 weeks to house sit. The problem is I'll have my Great Aunt and my little brother around the house. Although my little brother knows I'm not Christian, I don't think my Aunt Doris would take too kindly to the fact so I have to do all my rituals on the sly. 

I'm also going to the Zoo's Halloween trick-or-treating thing with a friend and her little girl. I'm going as Wednesday Adams. I have a wig, the dress, and the makeup all ready!

Then November 4th I head up to Boston to visit a friend for his birthday. He's being super generous and flying me up. I'm really looking forward to drinking with him all day Saturday and then having him take me somewhere historical on that Sunday.

Again to Halloween, it's too bad I have no relatives buried near me. I would set out offerings on their tombstone a'la Day of the Dead (really all cultures have a day honoring the dead by giving offerings. Modern day offerings are just flowers and not food. Pre-Christian Europe honored the dead with offerings of food and stuff as well so it's not really cultural appropriation, or so I tell myself.)

Prepping for the journey is proving to be more challenging than I thought. I have a huge backlog of laundry. Packing is going to be difficult as I only have a duffel bag to pack my ritual gear and my clothes. 

I suppose that I will have a lot of time to blog in coming weeks. With luck I'll actually follow through.

12 Day Japan Trip

As a sample of what I've been doing lately, I introduce to you a sample trip I have planned. A 12 day Japanese Holiday during Sakura Matsuri (Cherry Blossom Festival). This holiday knocks out several bucket list items including kiss under Tokyo Tower and See the Cherry Blossoms in Japan. The total for this trip is surprisingly inexpensive, or rather less expensive than I thought it would be. The Total for a 12 day trip touring my favorite places in Japan is only $7500 for 2 people. It's about the same price as a 3 day in Rome. For the sake of the itenerary I'm going to assume that Joe is the person who goes with me. (Non of these pictures are mine. I post a website where I got them)

So we fly into Tokyo late on Saturday night and crash in a Coffin Hotel. This is mainly for convenience. Also, It's kind of cool.

https://shikibook.wordpress.com/travel/hotels/

In the morning we get up and hit a convenience store for breakfast. We'll say Onigiri because it is delicious! Also Convenience stores in Japan have quality food from all the blogs I've read.

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2010/03/japanese-rice-balls-have-them-your-way/37447/

Then we head to Harajuku bridge. On Sunday all the fashionistas and cosplayers hang out on that bridge. So Joe and I would wander around taking pictures of crazy Japanese fashions.

After that we head to Tokyo Tower. This is one of my "Must Do" stops. It is featured in a lot of animes that I love. Plus I hear it's good luck to kiss under Tokyo tower. Whats more it provides a fantastic view of Mt. Fuji. So Joe and I get a picture together of us kissing under the tower, and get a couple picture with Mt. Fuji.

By No machine-readable author provided. Fg2 assumed (based on copyright claims). - No machine-readable source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims)., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1684317

After a few hours at Tokyo Tower we head to Shibuya Crossing and start our shopping experience. Eventually we'll head to Akihabara street. That's where all the Anime stuff is. I will also need a photo booth picture. Purikura photo booths are The Snapchat of photo booths. The amount of filters and stickers you can use to decorate the pictures are incredible. We'll eat lunch at a Maid Cafe in Akihabara. Thats a place where the waitresses are dressed as the most adorable maids. It kinda sets off my feminist buttons, but damnit I want an adorable maid to serve me an esspresso!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photo_booth#/media/File:Purikura_Booth_2.JPG

Then for dinner we head in for the night life in Shinjuku. We play some pachinko, eat at a street vendor, and go for drinks, and if we meet some interesting locals we'll go out for karaoke. After a night of drinking and gambling we head towards our Air BNB to crash.


airbnb.com

After we wake up and grab some convenience store food for both breakfast and lunch, we head to rent a Kimono and a Yukata, traditional Japanese garb. It's a bit pricey, but I want the full Cherry Blossom viewing experience. Speaking of which, after we rent our outfits we head down to Shinjuku Gyoen. One of the better parks to view cherry blossoms.


We eat lunch there and mill around looking at cherry blossoms. Then we return our outfits and head to a sushi restaurant for dinner. Why? Because Shushi is delicious and getting it straight from Japan is a keen thing to do!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sushi#/media/File:Norwegia_Roll_Salmon_Sushi.jpg

Then we head to our Air BNB for some quiet time and uploading of pictures/blogging.

Day 3 in Japan and we hit two museums: National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation and the Studio Gibli Museum. I have no idea what's in either of them, but I have a feeling they will be interesting. Breakfast and Lunch are street food, and dinner is at a sit down restaurant.

The next morning we get on the train and head to Kyoto. It's only a few hours so Well have plenty of time to walk the Arashiyama Bamboo grove.

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/a/japan/kyoto/arashiyama-bamboo-grove/pois/sights/1364517/places/1323332

Then we head over to our hotel at Togetsutei Onsen/Ryokan. Onsen means hotspring and Ryokan is a traditional guesthouse that has a traditional breakfast and dinner included. It's not an outdoor hotspring, but I imagine it'll be relaxing anyway.

https://japaneseguesthouses.com/ryokan-single/?ryokan=Togetsutei

On Thursday, day 5, we have a tea ceremony at Koto Tea Garden and those take an hour or so. After the tea ceremony we head over to the Kinkaku-ji, or Golden Pavilion. This is an ancient Buddhist temple with lots of architectural interest. There is also a garden surrounding it. After we are done viewing we pop on back to our hotel for dinner and blogging time.


By Jaycangel - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33554210

The next day we head over to an outdoor onsen at Kurama Onsen. There we experiance outdoor hot springs, eat lunch there, then explore the city. Then we'll eat dinner downtown. After dinner we head out and explore the city proper some more. When we are good and tired we'll head to our Air BnB (Ryokans are silly expensive.)

After we wake up on the 7th day, we will bemoan the fact the trip is more than half over. Then we'll head to the Fushimi Inari Shrine to explore the beauty and perhaps leave an offering.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Torii_gates%E2%80%94Fushimi_Inari_Shrine_(9977683204).jpg

Then we head to Nijo-jo castle which, like the Golden Pavilion is a castle with a beutiful garden. This one was supposed to be silver, but it never was painted.


After all that we hop on a train heading to Nara, My most anticipated place. We'll check into our hotel at Shojoshin-in which is an active Buddhist monastery. Like a Ryokan, it serves breakfast and dinner. However, since they are Buddhist the meals are all vegetarian.

Thje next day we'll visit Nara park where lots of wild deer roam free. We'll pet deer, take pictures of deer, and hold hands commenting on how cute the deer are. Then we visit Todaiji Temple. This is an incredible Buddhist temple that has many works of art and a deep history. After we go to Wakakusayama. It is a park on a mountain. It'll take a bit of climbing, but I hear the view is fabulous.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q8BvqvxD08

We'll head back to the temple for dinner. The next day,we'll pop by Horyoji Temple which is the world's oldest wooden building. It's another temple that is historically relevant. After we visit the temple we take the train to Hiroshima. We'll sign into our Air BnB and rest as well as blog.

The next morning we'll visit the Hiroshima Peace Park and Hiroshima castle.

http://aichaobang.blogspot.com/2012/01/hiroshima-price-of-peace.html

After we're done we'll hop on a train to Tokyo and fly home.

WTF iOS

So I've been using Blogger for a while now, and most of the time I use it from my phone. However, I went through a long period where my phone was broken. I thought I could manage to not post for a little while. But when I finally get a new phone, and the iOS doesn't have the Blogger app anymore! I can't post from my phone anymore. That means I can't just run around and type from my bed, from the workshop, from the kitchen table. I actually have to stay still and type from my computer. This post took me two days.

As an update:

I finally got a job. I am officially a substitute teacher. Unfortunately, there have been no jobs available since I was hired. So I'm stuck not working. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing as I have to take frequent naps throughout the day. I'm not really sure I'm ready to work yet just because I have this exhaustion factor running rampant in my life. Still, I am going to fight for my income. As much as it makes since to just let disability carry me till I get myself 100%, I really just want to be normal again. That means a normal big girl job. Also, there's a part of me that can't respect myself as a person unless I have a job.

It is frigid in my house. I've shut of the AC and heat and opened the windows. Currently it's 61 degrees in my house. This may not be the smartest moves. But I'm super into saving money at the moment. Having my house heated takes oil (Which I currently can't afford) and AC costs money too. So I wear hats and gloves to bed.

The reason I've been so into saving money this year is I want to go on a cruise next year or the year after. That means I need to save up $2000. This will be difficult considering how much I'm paid, and my total expenses. But I really want to go on a cruise.

Speaking of trips, I've taken to planning lavish vacations lately. I enjoy it. It's similar to planning weddings which I used to do a lot of, but this time it doesn't creep anyone out. I mean, Joe said we'd get married one day. I don't need to pressure him. I just need to relax and trust he knows what's best for the both of us. Plus, when I have my wedding, I want the one I'm getting married to helping me plan it.

So anyway, So far I've planned a couple cruises, a 7 day trip to Rome and a 10 day to Japan (Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, and Hiroshima). Well, I'm still not done with the Japan trip. I still have to research some of the excursion expenses. After that I'll probably do a 2 week US road trip or a solo trip to New Mexico or maybe plan an all inclusive Bahama or Mexico journey. I don't know, but I find this type of thing super fun.