Tag Archives: hotel

Downtown + West End Vancouver and Stanley Park / #BCInvasion flashback, part 2

Moving north across the Fraser river to downtown/West End, Vancouver, settling into a kitchenette hotel for several days, enjoying tea ceremonies, hotel picnics, coffee times and pleasant times with friends, plus our initial foray into Stanley Park.

#BCInvasion, part 2 / Downtown Vancouver & Stanley Park

Part 2 of this mixed-media montage series includes:

* Construction site across the street from “1234 hotel”

* Friendly Maple Leaf deli reunion and picnic stash

* Crow attacks and rainstorms on 4/20 at Stanley Park

* Excursion to Kafka coffee shop for pal hang-out, hugs & tasty snacks

* Several waves of tea ceremonies at hotel with generational bowls & significant rattle

* Special thanks to book and record “mule” from OlyWa + waffles

* Rooftop tea at coliseum-inspired library ceremony with books

* Parallel-life experience with a fella with a vintage Volkswagen bus, selling Japanese inspired stickers and patches by Vancouver Art Gallery

* Coffee catch-up with punk rawk radio/photog/cat enthusiast

* Staring down dramatic demons at St Paul’s (and marking how far I’ve come)

* Scenes of life, building, trees, gardens and sidewalks strolling and observing

* Plus hotel picnics, Cherry Garcia ice cream, Whitewood Cider, bits of dispatches, flashes of hockey games with hidden messages, silk robe lobby lounging, Mae Maes on teevee

Special greetings to all who tracked us down – including, in this wave:

* Roland (by bicycle, by bicycle)
* Lance from OlyWa (with books & vinyl)
* Wayne (in midst of a move)
* James (with real talk)
* Monique (let’s enjoy tea!)
* Danielle and beautiful daughter
* Mark, community wrangler
* Chris, sundancer & deadhead
* Eric Flexyourhead (rawk, etc)
* Kemp (popping in here and there)

thanks for alllll your planning / logistical help and friendship Monique

Music:

“Blood’s Too Rich” by Luke Doucet (Whitehorse, Veal, White Falcon etc) https://sixshooterrecords.com/artists/luke-doucet/

“Change of Scene” by The Matinée https://thematineemusic.com + new album: https://the-matinee.bandcamp.com/album/change-of-scene

Continue reading Downtown + West End Vancouver and Stanley Park / #BCInvasion flashback, part 2

Diary: New Year Dragons with foods, gardens, bevvies, and themes #calm

what follows is a post-dated diary of various activities in and around New Years day copied from various notebooks, memos, and small dispatches covering foods, outings to parks and graves, bevvies, postcards, dreams, schemes, and themes of calm and endeavours

Dec. 31: We ate soba (buckwheat noodles) as per tradition with parents on new years eve. Most folks watch TeeVee (many famous “wide ” variety shows, singing contests). They leave it off for my sensory overload benefit so i retired early – as i my way – so they could watch if desired.

So tired, heading to bath and bed. {all the tabs will not be closed, many emails unreplied, various messages and conversations left dangling, flip the page, carry-on}

So we go on… gn & gy

i made a video: Good night & good year / Reiwa 6 Ahoy

Jan. 1: GM, HNY – We ate mochi (glutinous rice paste) with other tasty items with parents in the morn as is tradition.

Then, off to Korakuen (one of the “three great traditional garden” of Japan, frequently visited by us).

Early start by my standards – we packed several thermoses and flasks of coffee and tea for the journey…

Off onto the Road: Of course, all manner of beverages are readily available from ubiquitous vending machines yet I prefer our house-made treats. Also, provided opportunity to break out a teabag which was included in the card sent by some friends from Canada.

So off we went, waiting at Tsuchida stop for our first bus ride of the new year…

As is our usual routine, we sit in the very back row (like the *bad kids*) because there are big windows and a little bit more room to stash our gear. Ichi-Stan, of course being a frequent traveler, utilizes the hooks for hanging up his rucksack and travelling cap {usually here I would note that the bus features complimentary high-quality wi-fi and power outlets but you know that by now}.

Note: the *usual* tradition is a shrine visit on New Year Day (bet ya there is a posted in this archive (or maybe still.in draft but… anyhow) this year though we took the with a chance to meet up with Ichi’s best pal and roll around the stellar garden – importantly including the first time in years in which the public could be present for the “flying of the cranes” so… off we went. Plus its a “free admission day!”

Flying of Cranes: The garden was packed but crowd well managed by diligently dudes wrangling pedestrians and keeping on the pathways with optimized view points for the flying of the cranes (a symbol of longevity).

The whole crane flying thing was quite amusing (the wranglers entice them to fly) and yeah cool but i couldn’t help but laugh at the crew of ojisans with their massive telephoto lens, standing on top of camera boxes (no fun for you kids!) and rapid firing like artillery weapon kinda killing the buzz but so it goes, hobbies and all that. {Of course, this is coming from the guy who’s over documenting everything including everything but a picture of the cranes.}

Continue reading Diary: New Year Dragons with foods, gardens, bevvies, and themes #calm

OKJ to YVR + South Fraser / #BCInvasion flashback, part 1

Starting from our adorable local “Momotaro” airport in Okayama Japan, me (Dave) and my darlings Ryoko and Ichiro head to my former hometown of Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia, Canada aboard ANA (we’re shareholders but no big deal :)).

come on along with part 1 of our #BCInvasion

Part 1 mixed-media montage includes:

* first night in Richmond hotel with giant coffees and croissants

* off to “south of Fraser” for family times in Langley

* spontaneous barbecue with pals in Cloverdale and other variety of foods, more food and setting up a Japanese food corner

* making special packets of commemorative postcards with nieces and nephews

* White Rock beach for fish and chips and sunset

* Amtrak Cascades train chooglin’ through

* Surrey Eagles playoff hockey game with Zamboni

* mission to Mission for sight of Kamel Gill’s last stand with his brother Charlie (in which many mysteries are revealed)

* more food, presents, relaxing times with Grammy & brother/cousins/etc.

* plants, trees, nurseries, landscaping equipment, & spaces to run around

* stop for donairs while heading onto next “checkpoint” which is downtown Vancouver/West End for Stanley Park etc.

* finally, arriving at hotel with the sight of a construction site across the street to Ichiro’s amusement

Next chapter: exploring Vancouver downtown scenes and lots of meet up with friends – and variety of weather – in Stanley Park and spontaneous tea ceremony at hotel 

Continue reading OKJ to YVR + South Fraser / #BCInvasion flashback, part 1

Diary: unexpected Ushimado hotel outing

Oh my goodness, what a topsy-turvy start to day… really going on for a few days since Typhoon(s)… While we didn’t get hit hard but dealing with some unpreventable & unsuspected problems so currently preparing for a fumigation and heading out to an unintended “hotel vacation”.

ships on stilts and the gentle glow of Family Mart in the distance

A busy post holiday week in August meant most everything was booked, and, in general, you have your choice of elegant/full-service, traditional ryokan or “highly efficient, but spartan and charmless” business hotels… Darling wife found us a groovy, kind of faded glory resort-y kind of place, seaside in commercial port harbour village about 40 minutes away.

[Update] Impromptu hotel night included:

  • outdoor inland-sea-side pool swim
  • a quirky cafe w/ cool boss (Hiroshi Kobayashi at Tereya Cafe)
  • tiny picka-picka shrine
  • hotel onsen
  • sharp pyjamas

Some evidence follows:

& now cuddled up with travelling correspondence kit

Summary: Making mango-ade outta fumigation downer

Bonus: after the hotel which included to swim in the pool, and I soak in the very hot seaview onsen, we went to our “usual” beach Nishiwaki for a dip in the ocean, a lousy ukulele song, and a bit of a meal and a snooze in the groovy little café.

Snaps & Paint / Postcard: 4 views of Olympia, Greece (beverages and so on), 2017

These photos surfaced when I mailed a postcard to a friend of a painting of a postbox – juxtaposed by a café table – in Olympia, Greece 2017.

postcard of café and postbox in Olympia, Greece (cropped) – delivered to Massachusetts

Sent a postcard to a pal in the Berkshires. He asked me “what’s the story here?“

#

Olympia, Greece… Home (obviously) of the ancient Olympic games and all the various ruins, tracks, museums, artifacts etc.… but i got off the bus quickly early when we passed a “just right“ café with a couple of tiny tables out front, in the back were old men playing backgammon and drinking Ouzo at 10 AM / The thick armed boss brought me a wonderful little variety plate along with sturdy espresso.

Fortified, I scribbled & mailed postcards, watched people hurriedly walk by, saw the throngs leave by buses from the Olympic site, sauntered up there and looked around by myself – On the way, I looked at some rental listings to think about just staying indefinitely… that’s sort of “just right“ size town that I enjoy – instead paid too much for a taxi back (sat in the front seat) to catch the ship in time >> met a pal named Nikos playing a Tzouras, I sent him postcards just to complete the circle.

There’s a cat in this empty road as well… (Or was there?)

The original painting was sketched in situ in Greece and then combined with a postbox and painted with acrylics on Nusa Ceningan, Indonesia along with my darling wife.

Painting juxtaposing a post box with a café table and snack plate in Olympia, Greece

As such, found the inspiration shots and then found the geo-location and Google Earth screenshot where you can see someone sitting in the chair where I sat making the painting. It’s all very recursive.

Πραξιτέλη Κονδύλη 32, Archea Olimpia 270 65, Greece (next droo/ downstairs of Hotel Appolon, at which sometime, i will stay for a forthnight, perhaps)

[Update: found screenshots from Ggle Streetview showing cafe´and table + clothing store next door where i bought a dress – not for me. ]

you can see the table to the right of the dresses, maybe the proprietor sitting there?
next door is a similar cafe which is also entrance to Apollon Hotel
also, the awning across the street isn’t striped – but looks better striped and all yellow and red – maybe

As it goes, this café is the exact measured point for the “Olympia, Greece“ (not Olympia, Washington) direction on my sign post.

See: Portals, 4 More Views of Olympia for more context

Envelopes of Ephemera (while looking for a home)

Do you keep boarding passes, maps, itineraries, ticket stubs, brochures, cards, coasters and whatnot? do you make *something* from it all? if so, can i see?

Envelopes of ephemera: Rome, Greece, Arabia, Turkey, Malaysia – i was looking for a home (and trying be lost).

Will eventually be collaged scrapbooks (but need to make some scrapbooks to be the scrapbooks these items go into…)

Also: Nepal, items, various (maps – many, aerogramme, hotel coasters and manifests)

Letter: from “Mr. DF” / London, 2007

Artifact: Letter from “Mr. DF” / London, 2007
Note: this note started a few days of hi-jinks with Dopefiend and me and Max Freakout including a barrage of podcasts 

See also: Uncleweed on the Dopecast #80 in London – Dopefiend podcast (2007) + Joints on Brighton Beach with Dopefiend and Freakout – Choogle On! #38