Mick West

Firstly some photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mickword/JapanDay3

So anyway, I knew we had to get tickets to go to Kyoto from Tokyo on the train. I had no idea how to do this. Today our plan was to go up north a very short distance to Nippori, where we were planning to explore some graveyards and shrines. This meant we were to depart from Tokyo station, which seemed an ideal opportunity to buy those tickets.

In preparation, I wrote down all the words I though I would need, since I had no idea how much English the ticket guy would speak. We wanted to go on the Nozomi train (the fastest), in “green” class (First Class), with reserved seats in non smoking. This extravagance was why we did not get a JR pass, since I though you could not go in green class. However it turns out that you can get a green-class JR pass, which is valid for all trains except for the Nozomi. Drat!

So, I wrote the following on a piece of paper:

Ofuku (round trip)
Futatsu Kippu (two tickets, although I’m not sure if I’m using the right counting words)
Tokyo -> Kyoto (luckily the names are the same in Japanese :)
Shinkansen, Nozomi, (The bullet train, the fast one)
Gurinsha (green class = first class, about 50% extra)
Kinensha (non-smoking, very important)
Shiteiseki (reserved seats - although I suspected gurinsha was reserved anyway).
I then wrote the dates of travel, 3/28 and our hoped for time of departure 08:30
Suiyobi (Wednesday)
I then added the day and time for the return trip.
Kinyobi (Friday)

With this piece of paper in had we strode to the Tokyo station, a short walk from our hotel. There we spotted the “Ticket office”, and entered. When our turn arrived I approached and said “do you speak english?”, and the ticket guy said what I assumed was the Japanese for “No, but let’s see what we can do here”.

So, plan A (speak english) failed, and plan B (speak Japanese) swung into action. I pulled out my piece of paper and basically just said all the words above in order, pointing at the date and time. This worked slowly, but quite well. There was some initial difficulty as he indicated something to do with the time was a problem. This turned out to be that the train departed three minutes later than I asked, at 8:33. So I okayed that. Then he asked if I also wanted the the return trip gurinsha, and I said “hai“. Actually I said a lot of “hai”.

So, it seems arranged. I whip out my credit card and say “credito carto?”. He says “Oh! Credito carto!”, and punches a few buttons, swipes my card, and apparently it does not work. I get out another card, that does not work either. He says something about a “travelo office” an gesticulates elsewhere. But after ten minutes of building up to this point I was not about to go elsewhere, so Holly and I pool our cash and pay for our tickets the old fashioned way, leaving us with very little money. But we have the tickets!!! Nice ticket guy point out the date and our car and seat numbers. We say “hai” a lot. The tickets are entirely in Japanese except for numbers, which is basically the date, the train car and the seat numbers. I stick the tickets in my wallet, and we are off to try to get to Nippori.

Advice for fellow travellers: don’t expect any English speakers at the station, not even slightly. Figure out exactly what you want before you enter the ticket office. If possible figure out the train times. Take cash - I’ve no idea why my credit card was not acceptable, I used it at the hotel later to buy some drinks. Write everything down before you go. If possible get someone to write it down in Japanese. Do it in advance of your trip, or you may miss your train while buying the tickets. And really you should have a JR pass if you are doing a trip like we did. It’s a lot cheaper, and only limits your train choices slightly.

Here’s what happens when you actually come to ride the train.

Holly blogged, so I don’t have to!

http://hollywest.typepad.com/blog/2007/03/this_little_fis.html

Holly posted the good photos, and there’s some more here.

http://picasaweb.google.com/mickword/JapanPhotos

The tempura place was intersting as they spoke NO english (at least our waitress didn’t), so I actually had to use japanese to ask for some water. I’d remembered “mizu kudasai”, but my phrase book had “o-mizu o onegai shimas”, which made me break out in a cold sweat as I muttered it to myself. When she finally arrived I sumimasened her, and actually said it quite well. Water duly arrived. This was the most Japanese I had used so far. Mostly just “sumimasen” and “arigato gozimas”. “Two” seems to be well understood everywhere. I was actually ready to ask for the bill “o-kanjo o kudasai”, but we already had it, and just had to pay up front.

Shinjuku is crazy busy. We did manage to find an ATM, which is good as the cash flow rate is quite high so far. Food is quite expensive, as are taxis. The trains are very cheap.

[Update] I’ve noticed some traffic coming to this Vista upgrade log as the result of people seeking answers to similar problem I had. To help you out, I’ll extract the various problems/solutions to the top:

First note this is an upgrade from Windows XP Pro, SP2, to Windows Vista Ultimate on a Dell XPS 600, Dual Core Pentium Extreme Edition 3.2GHz, Overclocked to 3.6GHz, with 2GB of memory and an NVidia GeForce 7800 GTX with dual monitors. Your mileage may vary depending on your system configuration.

Problem: Expanding files hangs at 21%
Solution: Wait. it took 26 minutes on my 3.6Ghz dual core computer, on a slower computer I can see it taking an hour.

Problem: Stuck on “Completing Upgrade”
Solution: Wait. The total time spent staring at the screen with not a lot going on was about three hours. It pauses at various points.

Problem: Stuck on a black screen (or a blank screen) with a mouse cursor
Solution: If your hard drive is whirring away, then you might as well wait until it calms down. If it’s just flickering occasionally then you might have problems. Firstly you want to shut it down. With a black screen you can’t see the menus, but you could try pressing the Windows Key, then Right, Right, Right, then Enter. If after a minute this does not shut down the computer then you could try pressing the power button once, if that does not work, then hold down the power button for six seconds, if that does not work then just lank the power cord. Then unplug your second monitor and restart. If you don’t have a second monitor, then see the next problem

Problem: Won’t boot! Stuck on green bar!
Solution: (maybe), boot using F8 (tap F8 while booting until a menu comes up). Then select “Enable low resolution video”. If that does not work, then try F8 booting again and boot in “Safe Mode”.

And here’s my log:

10:05 Set off for Best Buy, stop on the way at Staples, they have boxes, but no software. Get lost, arrive Culver City Best Buy, find someone to unlock cage, get software (Vista Ultimate Upgrade). Home
11:00 Begin to open the box. Atrivial. Added stickers require scissors. Instructions in pictographs on the first sticker. Box eventually swings open.
11:05 Insert Vista DVD, click “Install Now”
11:06 Get the latest from the internet
11:09 Enter CD Key
11:10 Accept some user agreement, click on “Upgrade”
11:11 Checking compatibility……
11:14 Informed that several things might not work. Not that we can do anything about it, but oh, well.
11:15 Upgrading Windows ……. Your upgrade may take several hours to complete.Copying Window Files
11:20 Gathering files. (What? Gathering? Like, er, what is this “Gathering”)
11:22 Still Gathering, let’s see if I can walk the dogs before it asks me anything. Several hours? What is “several”?
11:42 Still Gathering. 80% complete (of the “gathering”). HDD light flickers intermittently, what is it doing? Downloading off the internet? That seems likely.
11:43 Sudden jump from 80% to 100% and now it’s Expanding Files, which is going much quicker
11:44 It sticks on expanding files 22%, then restarts my computer. Woot.
11:46 Ooo, nice green status bar as Vista boots up, kinda, as it’s now “Upgrading Windows”. Carries on “Expanding files”, but still at 21% Little dots … animate, telling me something is happening, or something is waiting for something. HDD Whirrs, still 21%
12:00 Still at 21%. Obviously it is doing something as my HDD light is flashing like a flashy thing. Much data is being shuffled. But why are we at 21%? I’m anticipating a big jump any second……..
12:12 Suddenly starts ticking up 25% 30% Whaa happened?
12:20 Missed some stuff, now it’s all “Please wait a moment while windows prepares to start for the first time ….”
12:25 “……………………………………..” (How long is “a moment”?)
12:27 “……………………………………..” (More dots, each new dot fills me with a mixture of hope and dissapointment)
12:32 “…………………………………”
12:34 Bam! Somehow we are now “Completing upgrade…”, just three animating dots now… The end feels near!
12:37 Both screens go black for a few seconds, then just the main one comes back, nothing has changed.
12:42 Now it’s scanning my external drive. Drat, I knew I should have switched that off. 300GB of scanning to go…
12:55 Now suddenly at 25%, and seemingly stuck there.
13:00 34% Stuck there now. Nearly two hours of installing now. Not that I had to stay and watch, which is good.
13:05 36% Seems do be doing some solid disk activity. The status bar at the bottom seems to indicate about 80% overall.
14:05 Had a nap. When I came back the screen was black. But it’s whirring away, presumably doing something.
14:17 Still churning away with a black screen. But then I moved the mouse, and I get a cursor. There seems to be some invisible space off to the right of the screen. Best to let it finish what it is “doing”.
14:23 It’s rebooting! Is this finally it?………. Screen is dusty.
14:25 It seemed to reboot to the same black screen with a lonely mouse cursor. I press enter a couple of times, and it seemed to start doing something. What fun! Now it’s churning away again. Endless churning.
14:32 Fan blowing, indicating the computer is thinking very hard about something. Hmm, I wonder if the new Aero desktop will require so much GPU fiddling that it will make my computer noisy.
14:33 Vista logo appears, plays tune, ping, ping, piing, pung, and vanishes. Whaa happened? More churning.
14:35 My desktop is back. In low resolution. It still seems to be doing something. The screen darkens, No menu bar yet. More churning.
14:44 Seem to be churning less. I right click on the desktop and choose “Personalize”, looking for some resolution settings. Gah! Somehow things seem to be off to the right.
14:49 I try rebooting. At least I think I do, I can’t quite tell. I tried ctrl-alt-delete and tab and enter, but the computer starts talking quietly to me in a robotic voice I can’t quite make out, am I going mad?. I press the power button, and it looks like it shuts down nicely. I’ve unplugged one monitor for now, to see if I can at least see what is going on. It’s safe mode for you after this boyo!
[Interlude - I pity any non-technical consumer who decides to buy this upgrade. I'm very technical, and have a lot of time to spare, but I'm really wondering if it's all worth it. Mmmm shiner icons! My advice: unless you can clearly articulate the benefits you will get from upgrading, just don't do it. Wait until you need a new computer]
14:56 Of course, now it just hangs when rebooting. Little green bar animating, nothing happening.
14:58 F8 - Enable low resolution video (not that it even got there, but worth a shot).
15:00 Welcome! Welcome? ping, pin ping. Yay, a taskbar. Right click, personalize, Okay, we seem to have arrived.
15:08 It keeps asking me questions. Hardware, software, all kinds of confusion. But it seems to be working. Now, what do I get for my money. Film at 11. (Oh, and that was about four hours)

Update: was it worth it? No, unless you’ve got lots of spare time, and are simply curious about the next stage of home computing (I’m specifically interesting in the entertainment aspects, but also game development in general). Wait until you upgrade your hardware.

And yes, my computer now makes more noise, since it’s doing more work. And it seems a lot slower, but more on that later.

Now I’m not normally one to complain, but I’m really baffled by the poor quality of the ordering process for Windows Vista. I’m was not even entirely sure if I wanted to upgrade, and then I thought - hey they must have an online download process. I can upgrade to Vista without leaving my chair! Since I’m all for transparent UI and all, I zip over to microsoft.com, where, sure enough, a few clicks takes me to the “Add to Cart” button, which I duly click, then enter my billing information, and, hey magic, “order complete!”. Two emails arrive in my inbox within seconds, one congratulating me, and the other thanking me and noting “When your purchase is complete, we will notify you by e-mail”.

So, I think, maybe another thirty seconds? They must have to process my credit card, then I can download the software. I wait a couple of minutes, then check my mail again. Nothing. Hmm. What could they be doing that takes so long? The second email has a link to my “digital locker”, I click on that and it tells me “You have one purchase pending”. I click on that and it takes me to my “Purchase history”, which tells me nothing I don’t already know.

Now what?

I wait.

Several hours later I spend some time digging through everything trying to find who to contact. The problem is everything is spread out. I started out at microsoft.com. I then go to windowsmarketplace.com to actually place the order, but the order is placed “with” Circuit City. What exactly is the need for Circuit City to be involved here? But anyway, I somehow email the “support team”, and go to bed.

In the morning, a promising email awaits. They direct me to a new site: findmyorder.com, and instruct me to enter my order number and password. I do this and get:

Which I click on, just for yucks, and get:

Clearly something is wrong. I go back, and try to look up my order using my email address and credit card. Bingo, this time I get to a page that says “Order Complete”, and give me a nice long serial number. Yes, this looks exactly like I’ve bought the software, but ….. there is no link to download it. Grrrr!!!!

My clicking options here are limited. I click on “view invoice”, and it gives me a page with slightly less information than on the previous page. I click on “Request a Return”, and I get a similar page, but this time I can ask for my money back. And now they can sense they might lose their money, so they add a “Contact Customer Service” link at the bottom. I click on it, it takes me to an email form, but there’s a phone number at the bottom. I call it.

An automated system answers, and give me a long list of options but apparently for all these options I must stay on the line. Suddenly a real human answers the phone and asks me if I have an order number. Super, I feel like it will all be taken care of in a few minutes. I tell her I can’t download the software since it was stuck on “pending”.

She says, “sometimes orders can take 24-48 hours to process”.

Aaaaaaargh! Brain explodes! What? Why? Stupid! WTF! You’ve charged my credit card, you’ve given me an unlock serial number, I just want to download the software! Clam down, calm down. I try to explain. It’s fruitless. I tell her my order is complete, and I have a serial number. She repeats 24-48 hours. I tell here about the errors, maybe something is wrong with my order? Can someone look at it? 24-48 hours. What is it doing? Well sir, the order is taking 24-48 hours, if you have a problem after that, you can call back. I sigh, and hang up.

What is going on here? I buy something, and pay money for it, I want to have it, or have a good reason why. I have bought physical software on Amazon that has arrived in less time. There is no excuse. Microsoft and Digital River and Circuit City have messed up. Something is wrong with their system. I’m going to cancel my order, and pop over to Best Buy. It galls me that Microsoft still gets the money, but I actually want to install Vista.

Coda: I have grown weary of buying Microsoft Office over and over again. Henceforth I will use Open Office, and pay no more. It dulls the pain somewhat.

Holly started running long before I did, and she got very good at it. I’d tried to run with her before, but my knees flared up and so I stopped. I always had problems with my knees. If I walk down a mountain they turn into balls of fiery pain (no problem going up). So I’ve always assumed I had bum knees, and hence assumed I would never run more that a few yards

The thing that began to turn this belief around, rather oddly, was grippers. Yup, those hand exercise things that you squeeze to make your grip stronger. I got a set of them from Iron Mind, and they come in various strengths, 1,2,3 & 4, with 1 being the weakest. They also have an even weaker “T” (for “Trainer”) gripper. So I started on that. First attempt I could not even close that.

But closing grippers is a nice simple exercise, one you can do sitting at your desk, which is what I did. The goal with these grippers is to squeeze them closed. After a few weeks I could close the #1, but thought that the #2 was basically immovable. #3 and #4 were for the gods. But I kept squeezing away, and eventually I got the #2 closed.

I also noticed something odd. My hands hurt less than they used to.

I type a lot, and I move a mouse a lot. This used to cause me some occasional pain. But since I’d got much stronger hands, they really don’t hurt at all (except for when I over-train, but that’s another story).

So this got me a-thinking, what if my knees were not “bad”, they were simply weak. I just needed to ease into the running gradually, perhaps with some other low impact leg exercises to build up the strength in the surrounding muscles, and I could move my knees from weak to strong, and run again.

So I did. I started out doing a run to Old Muscle Beach, Santa Monica. A distance of 1.1 miles. I started doing this sometime last August (2006). My first attempt I only managed to run half way there before having to stop. I walked all the way back. But over time I improved, first being able to run all the way there. Then there and back. Then the time started dropping. I probably started around 13 minutes. By October I was doing it in 10:34, then just three weeks later I did 9:28, then the times continued to steadily drop.

There were setbacks. My knees (particularly my left knee), are not yet strong. If they get pushed too hard, they push back with pain. Sometimes I’ve had to stop because the knees hurt. Sometimes I’ve been almost unable to walk the day after because of the pain. But I just give them rest, (and, more recently, ice,) and they come back. My time has dropped and dropped, and I’ve now done it in 8:09. That’s 1.1 miles mind, so that’s actually one mile in 7:25, or if you believe the Garmin’s tracking, I’ve run a mile in 7:16. Not bad for a guy with bum knees.

The grippers taught me just how straightforward it is to build up strength in one part of your body, just with gradual exercise. It’s simple, and it’s obvious. The gripper training also comes in handy at the turning around point of my run, Old Muscle Beach, where I stop for thirty minutes and do various exercises on the bars and the traveling rings. I’m gradually strengthening up those other muscles that though they were in for an easy life.

Drat! The Japan trip is now a week away and I’m not really progressed a significant amount.

I have learned that the most important work is word 5, “Sumimasen”, which means the equivalent of “excuse me” and “I am sorry”, and can be used in the sense “Sumimasen, can you tell me where the train station is?”, or “Sumimasen, I’m so clumsy”.

I think I will probably learn far more on the plane, and during the trip, than I have done up to this point.