It was a short but fun trip to Manhattan – meeting up with my parents and my sister’s family in NJ. Here are just a few quick sketches.

more sketches on my flicker at Urban sketches set

Most of my trips to NY is to see family.  But I manage to squeeze in my interests as well.  This time, I focused on -

1 – the High Line

2 – Red Hook Brooklyn

3 – NJ rail terminals

4 – riding the Brooklyn El

some more photos at my flicker NY set

sketching around Waikiki

view from Dole Plantation

north shore and windward side of Oahu

view from the hotel at 6am

USS Missouri

Moana Surfrider Hotel

Kahana beach

Apart from the cemetaries and architectures, here are some of the things I really liked -

– the street cars – especially the St Charles Street car is so awesome.  You can just ride it and enjoy the Garden District “hood” that it drives through.

– our favorite coffee house is Croissant D’or located at the edge of the Quarter.

– the street musicians are all really talented and a step above any you see in other cities.

last but not least, this is my favorite building in French Quarter -

During my stay, I took the Katrina tour where a bus driver who is a survivor took us all over the city effected by the hurricane.  He told us stories about individual accounts, what happened that day and what people had to go through.  We dove by Lake Pontchartrain, Gentilly, New Orleans East, and the 9th ward.  The proceeds from the tour will be donated  for rebuilding the city.

You can’t go wrong with food out here.  Where ever you go, the dishes were all incredible.  But if you are not a big meat eater, or if you can’t live without brown rice (like myself) it can be a little harsh.

on my last night, we went to eat at the gumbo shop, and went to the Preservation hall to listen to their Jazz band.  It felt like we time traveled back their days.

love these houses!

we went to both St Louis Cemetery #1 and Lafayette Cemetery in the Garden District.

Parades, beads, parades, beads.. Parades been going on everyday.  A lot of them ended on the street by our hotel.  And every night, the city does a great job cleaning the streets.  We later found out that Mardi Gras is a lot deeper than partying on Bourbon St and collecting beads.  At the Louisiana State Museum, they have a very comprehensive exhibit on history of Mardi Gras and krewes.  On Fat Tuesday, I headed to the Boubon Street awards to see the people in awesome, some outrageous costumes.  I also saw the Rex parade which is the oldest krewes that’s been around since 1872.

I was really looking forwards to seeing the bayou.  But the day we went out to the swamp, it was in the 40s and even colder out on the water and I didn’t get to go.

Duncan is holding the tour guide’s pet gator.  She was very soft.  We learned a lot about alligators on the boat.

I think what makes a scene so southern is their trees and the combination of it with the architecture.

Spanish moss on wicked oak trees.  so cool

Duncan’s been out in New Orleans working on Green Lantern, so I went to visit him.

I start with the typical airport sketch -

First night at New Orleans, we went to see B 52′s at the house of Blues.  They were awesome!  I’ve only seen them on MTV back in the 90s so it was really something to see them live.

It was rainy and REALLY cold the first several days.   But the whole city was building up to Mardi Gras and people and cops were literally everywhere!

panoramas from our day trip to Trona.

– early flight from the brand new Terminal 5 at JFK

– we are on mars..

New York changed a lot since back in the days we lived there.  Ave. A, B, C used to be a place you’d never come back alive if you wandered in by mistake.  Now it’s such a sought after area where the studios costs a million.  The meat packing area on the lower West is also the hippest place to be. You see a lot of fancy mom’ pushing baby carts in shadey areas.  In the morning, it’s not just commuters in business suits, but also kids going to school that crowds the streets.  I used to rush through smelly Penn station but now it’s like a happy indoor mall.  Grand Central Station has a market place on top of the dining concourse.  I remember Zaro’s bakery being the only cool stop where you can get things like chocolate covered crossants on your way home.

I miss living in the east coast.  and especially the seasons. That includes snow and below 0 degrees weather.  I had 3 layers of clothing,  and 2 layers of winter jackets on at all times.  But that’s part of the experience.  I won’t complain being back in the 80F weather in LA.

South Street Seaport

– view from Brooklyn Industrial Area

– central park

snow “storm” hits the east coast.

Staten Island – wanted to spend more time here and get closer, but I dare not step in to the marsh to find dead bodies, nor become one..

Abandoned farm colony in Staten Island

coney island during off season. I like the desolate surreal feal to it.

Main purpose of this trip was to see the new addition to the family -

and attend Matthew’s birthday

Some scenes from northern NJ

ringwood manor

woods from the backyard

this was around Iowa. looks cold

flying into JFK in golden hour

we escaped to Death Valley for our Christmas holiday this year.
The feeling you experience being at such a grand and magnificent landscape can not be described in words, nor photos.  Here are just a few until I upload them to flickr or something.

Before entering the park, we stopped by several ghost towns.  First one is Pearsonville.  I saw it on the roadside during our previous road trip to Lone Pine.  kinda scary if you were alone, but another family was stopping by to check out the diner  that they used to stop by on the way to mammoth.

stepped inside where the tables and counters were covered in tumble weeds.

Keeler still has some people living there with smoke coming from the chimney of a house.  It is a small town just on the edge of Owen Lake (dried).  What do people do here for a living?

We entered Death Valley from the west on 190. We drove over several 4000+ft peaks and flat valleys to get to Stovepipe Wells and the sand dune area.

At Bad water, -282 ft sea level.

Don’t have to go to New Zealand to see the landscapes from Lord of the Rings.

Other stops include Natural Bridge, Devil’s golf course, Golden Canyon, and Artist Pallet.  Some roads were closed due to the snow.  We will have to make another trip to go to the places we had to skip this time around.

We drove over another 4000ft peak and over to Nevada to visit another ghost town called Rhyolite.  This place was very surreal.  Not only the remains of the town, but with the Grapevine mountains and the Funeral mountains, felt like the “back” side of the world.

We drove home through the panamint valley and through Trona which is a town I would like to revisit.

Check out Duncan’s post for more photos

Duncan and I decided to visit Japan. We took Singapore air and they rule!
My parents live in a place outside Kamakura called Katase Enoshima – it’s takes a while to get home from the airport.  Narita Express and several local trains got us to the little beach-side town.

Before I go through our trip, here are some general observation and comments :
Their train system is amazing.  It’s like the veins in your body.  I am Japanese and can read signs, but without my Dad’s detail instructions on where to get on which train and transfer at what station with destination names and express or local, it probably would’ve taken us a lot longer to get to places.  The pay system is even more amazing.  You get a prepaid card called “suica” or “pasmo” and you tap away – the machines does all the calculations of your fares.   Masses of people move rapidly like ocean waves in all directions without bumping in to each other.  You would never dare to stop and look at signs in the middle of the stream.

People follow rules and has common courtesy even when no one is looking.
In trains and public spaces, they don’t talk on the phone.  They have this thing called ” manner mode” (ie silent mode) and if you hear a ring or if someone were to talk on the phone, all eyes are upon you.  People get in line to get on the next train.  No one cuts in or disturbs order.

there are no trash and they are WAY ahead in the recycling game

we did a lot of walking and climbing stairs.  A lot of people ride their bicycles as well.  No wonder they are a non obese bunch even with tempura and fried food.
I’ve noticed several renovations and developments around town and the public spaces has gotten alot friendlier for physically impaired people.  I see a lot more escalators and elevators.  However most people don’t use them because it is faster to run up the stairs, and every second counts when you are trying to make your connecting train in rush hour.

There is a fun thing called the stamp rally.  A lot of the tourist spots will have commemorative stamps.  you can also get stamp books if you want to document your trip.  Here are some from various tourist spots:

So anyways, it’s been 8 years since Duncan’s been to Japan.  I’ve visited my parents on several occasions, but everytime I visit, there is something new.  Here is our trip this time.

this is the view from my parents condo roof.

road side 395

By the Owens lake

at Alabama hills

Instead of driving back the way we came, we decided to drive across the northern highway.   Along the way, we passed towns that consists of only 4 homes.  As much as it was picturesque, we also got the creeps.  This is the kind of town you see in movies where you stop for directions, and you never get to see the light of day again.

Being in Skye is what you call “escaping reality”.  it’s preserved from the rest of the world.  Crofting is still prominent,  practically no stores/shops, just the grand scenery and the simple way of life.  The weather changed every 10 minute – from sunny to rain, hale sleet , snow, wind and sun again.  The way the clouds broke and god rays casted on the landscape was beyond words or pictures.  More sheeps, lambs, rams and cows roam freely on the roads, and they have the right of way.

skye east =

http://www.flickr.com/photos/akiko11/sets/72157604528001293/

skye west -

http://www.flickr.com/photos/akiko11/sets/72157604528203989/

I am going to wrap up my trip sketches with this post.  I hope to realize some of my doodle sketches that wasn’t posted into a painting some day.

After leaving Glasgow, the roads narrowed and as we near Glen Coe, the scenery became majestic. This area is known for the historical massacre of the clan MacDonalds.  There’s rock walls all over the hills.

We hiked the Signal Rock area in the morning. The forest kinda reminded me of the Princes mononoke scenes.

We drove along the Great Glen way towards Loch Ness.   Several Lochs are connected by the Caledonian Canal. We stayed at a working farm at Drumnadrochit ( which we practiced pronoucing several times)

We were very intrigued by the Highland Cows.  They are adorable.

And here is the view of Lochness and Urquhart castle.

Our hotel in Edinburgh was to the west of the city center and right by Dean Village – a nice area by the Dean river.

out in the suburbs of Edinburgh is one of the most amazing places we stopped by – Rosslyn chapel. Built in 1400′s, you can feel the history in the moss covered stones. Every inch of the interior is covered with carved stonework of ornaments and pagen symbols such as the green man.

We dreamed about staying at a castle. Most castles converted to hotels are turned into resorts and spas. That’s not what we wanted. We wanted a “real” old stone wall castle, and Dalhousie came close with a dinner in the Dungeon. We hung out at their awesome library afterwards.

We walked the grounds where you can experience falconry. The trees out here are old too. It has that unkept wild looks to it. very enchanting.

Off to Glasgow.

Glasgow is a bigger city than Edinburgh. We went to see the Tenement museum and the hight light of the stay was the Charles R Macintosh museum where they have moved his house into the Huntarian Gallery.

to be continued…

 I shall start with the typical airport sketches -

since we had an evening flight, we had golden hour in the airport.

Heathrow is a huge airport.. “Terminal 5″ would become the nightmare phrase in the UK for the next 2 weeks. Every evening news will headline the T5 fiasco. They had over 15,000 luggage piled up. Ours being 2 of the 15,000.

This is what happened at the new terminal the day we landed.

Our flight to Edinburgh was delayed and the Pilot himself didn’t know what was going on. Nevertheless, we were cleared to take off, and sounds like we were the last to leave T5 that day.
We rented a car and drove on the other side of the road in the dark. Duncan on the wheel, me with the map, and dodging the round-abouts, we managed to reach or hotel.

We spent the first several days walking around Edinburgh. Since most tourist hot spots can be found online and also in our photos, I will like to focus my entries to what attracted me.

theses are some views from our hotel window. The buildings here are old. And it goes so well with the gloomy sky.

The cobblestone streets excited me too. It’s just a parking lot ( car port they call it) but what a quaint one..

we walked up and down the Royal Mile, checking out the alleys which are called “close”. Lots of rain from day 1, but during the breaks, we saw lots of rainbows.

more to come..

We had a very early flight. The snow had stopped, but the plows were not out yet at 4:30am. Our flight was delayed 2 hours – 1 for crew rest, (they must of had a crazy day yesterday) and another for de-icing the plane.

Our connection was at Dallas Fort Worth, which is a frick’n city in itself. We must have sprinted like mad men for about 10 min. just to get from gate D7 to C2. We made our flight within minutes of shutting the door, but our luggage did not.

We went from 27F snow, to AC in the shuttle bus at Burbank airport. We got home okay, and found our kitty in the corner where we thought was unaccessible. This time, we had our friend come take care of him instead of boarding at a cat hotel.

To our dismay, the tree by our window was chopped ( you call that trimming??!) and the mail was not held despite our hold request. Our luggage did not arrive on the next flight, and we start the waiting game.