Tokyo Chains at Rippongi

The Japanese are a fun and interesting bunch. There are several english translations that come across as very corny and I am sure that we have the same issue. This sign in particular is for the market called "Every Life, Every Fun". The quote below: " We hope that the goods and services will make your day a better and a brighter one."
How very nice.
The Rippongi Hills area was always a little seedy (as the guidebook describes it), but I didn't really see that when I was there on Friday night.
There is something that seems consistent with the culture when the lights of the neon are near the street like on this one.
The major skyscrapers don't have this same sort of feel. I haven't been in a car much so I am somewhat curious how the access to the skyscrapers is arranged, throughout the smaller collection of buildings and more human scale neighborhoods there are several parking structures that offer robotic parking that rotate your car and automate the parking process, taking the car into the structure and organizing based on how long you're going to be away.
The streets near Rippongi Hills have been remade and seem to be a very unique mix of pedestrian focused smaller streets that orient you towards the major skyscraper that is the center of this new district.
The other store that I enjoyed in addition to the classic high end stores that I walked by Tiffany, Armani, etc. was Double Standard Clothing. I am assuming they are suggesting that they have a higher standard, but that doesn't come across. My initial thought was these are clothes that are eco friendly but then are made of materials that are horrible for the environment and borne of sweatshops. 

Tsujiki Fish Market

Saturday morning I woke up early as usual and headed off to the Fish Market where family businesses have been bringing in all matter of things from the sea and selling them to the sushi vendors and restaurants throughout Tokyo and perhaps the world.
The building looks like a parking structure but operates like one large loading dock. This may be one of the craziest places I have been with motorcycles, motorbikes, bikes, scooters, fork lift like wheelbarrows, semitrucks, vans, and all sorts of pedestrians. I almost got hit several times, it was hard to take pictures in some cases because the folks working in these spaces knew that the visitors weren't contributing to their bottom line. The entire place was bustling with activity.
Most of the specimens were in sytrofoam containers and sea water like these fish. I saw things in this format that I had no idea what they were including what looked to be sea anemone and they were bright red. There were several fish that were frozen in their largest form and were next to the jigsaw so that they could be cut into more manageable pieces.

Tokyo Dance Trooper in Shibuya

I am a little disappointed I didn't get a chance to see this guy at the Shibuya crossing. This would have been way too cool.

Why I went to the Tokyo McDonalds and other thoughts on the value of a $

I won't step into McDonalds in the U.S. unless someone is dragging me, but I have to admit that I have been there twice on the trip so far. Last night it was for french fries. The service is very well structured and organized and there is an eerie consistency to the stores that I haven't noticed at other locations. The service is very specific and the attendants at the cash registers know just how to handle my kind. The first step is to flip over the menu to the English side. The menu is directly in front of you as you step up to them. They are so quick and efficient they don't give you a chance to struggle with your English. Just point and order.
So why did I go to Mickey D's. First, it was cheap. The yen is at a 15-year high against the greenback and that $4.50 cup of Starbucks hits the wallet pretty hard. Second, it was something I didn't have to guess at. I know what french fries are. Lastly, it was there. I have been walking a ton and it was nice to stop and get what I was going to get. With so much to see, it has been tough to clearly focus on eating and when you're alone, I tend to not want to sit by myself and take in the limited scenery of a restaurant.
All this being said, the pice of a small latte is $2.50, really terrible chicken strips (fatty, lots of breading, and greasy) are $1.25 a piece and french fries are also over $3. I haven't followed the Yen (I defintely remember the South African Rand was 11 to 1 when we were there, it traditionally is about 7), but it's one of the things that makes travelling interesting. Just like the stock market, there's no timing these things. The first trip to Europe was on the expensive side, the second was a little less difficult and perhaps this visit is just karma from the South African trip.

From City Hall to Tokyo

I am off tomorrow to Tokyo. I found myself in City Hall today talking to traffic engineers and policy makers from Houston, Seattle, Minneapolis, and Chicago about creating a bicycle infrastructure that attracts the next segment of population of cyclists. I found this old photo of me taken by Jonathon Maus of BikePortland.org standing outside City Hall contemplating the future of people on bicycles and my career in making our transportation system more sustainable. My carfree conference shirt was as close as I get to being a radical.
So today, City Hall, tomorrow Tokyo! It came as a shock as I was reviewing my ticket that my flight there is 11 hours, but I lose 16 and on the way back I leave on Tuesday at 3:30 PM and get back at 8:15 AM the same day! I had to go check the Delta website to verify. I consider myself pretty good at math, but that logic defied my brain at this stage of the night. I am really looking forward to the trip as a way to learn about Japanese culture and experience a City on the world's scale. Much like NYC, Mexico City, London, and Paris... Tokyo is one of those that I think you can consider yourself worldly if you've been to a few of these. More posts from the land of the rising sun.

2010 Family Portraits

In what's becoming a family tradition, we had portraits taken by John Lemkuhl. This year we went over to Washington Park to enjoy the scenes of the City. It was a beautiful Sunday evening and the weather was perfect for taking photos.
John does a great job and it's been nice to work with him the past few years. He takes the photos as a benefit for Llewellyn Elementary, so it is a great thing that we really appreciate. The photos have turned out great and we're glad that we can share them with friends and family. This will be the first year blogging about the photos, so there's a new thing.

BC example of Garbage

On a recent trip to Vancouver BC, I saw this ad on the Skytrain. The point is that you had a large share of garbage.... certainly makes you think about our contribution to landfills, etc. I can't believe I am anywhwere near this, but it is hard to visualize my contribution outside of our home. There are so many externalities that exist in personal waste. Yikes! Very effective.

Lexington Street Block Party

Why on earth didn't we do this the first year we were here! We finally got around to having a Block Party. We had a great time with our keg, the band, and games for the kids that we didn't play because they were too busy enjoying having full range of the street. It was such a great way to spend the Saturday.

Peter's First Century

Yes, 100 miles by bike. I was pretty excited for the challenge and didn't take my camera, but luckily this person did.

http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=775635&code=69503206a037f2de8a5d29c2e10a8c82

Koonces invade Moscow

 
No, not that Moscow, the one in Idaho. The Transportation Research Board Signal Systems Committee was meeting in Moscow, Idaho, home to the University of Idaho and Susan and I took the girls on the trip to the Palouse.
 
We had a wonderful time and the hospitality at the University was very good. The Sunday night tour was not of some technical signal system like is custom, but rather was of the aboretum just south of campus. They had all sorts of plants from across the globe and Abby enjoyed the walk and taking pictures with my camera.
 
We rode the Vandal Trolley from the evening events back to the hotel. The kids enjoyed the feel of the old time trolley and especially when the driver clanged the horn for them when they got off the vehicle.
 

Goodbye from the Pickathon

 
One more photo from Pickathon that caught my attention!

Abby's Career as a Circus Clown

 
Abby was definitely inspried at the Pickathon to take part. Here's she's trying out stilts and doing quite well with Susan's help. Whatever it was, she had a great attitude about the new activities which is great.

Pickathon 2010

 
A friend suggested we join their family in heading out to Pickathon, a folk music festival out in the "country", southeast of Portland. The festival was held on the 80 acre Pendarvis Farm, which was a nice venue for a concert.
 
The bands were undiscovered (not sure that's the right term, but for an old guy like me, I guess that will do) and mostly very good and the festival has grown because of the quality of the acts. It is also growing because it seems to distinguish itself in being very environmentally friendly. This year's innovation was using Stainless Steel pint glasses as opposed to plastic cups for beer and water. The festival claimed to eliminate all plastic cups and water bottles for the four day affair. Based on our three days, it seemed that they were successful and it also was a nice marketing piece for Kleen Kanteen, since folks were constantly reminded how they were the partner in bringing the festival to us.
 
One of the fun things of the camping was that we didn't cook. Instead of schlepping food in and cleaning (wasting valuable time where fun could be had), we ate at the food carts which were similarly envrionmentally friendly and very good food. The vendors included some local organic farms, which overed very tasty eats. Food carts are amazing and they continue to grow in popularity out in P town.
 
I had to chuckle several times at the hippy culture that surrounded the festival. It was definitely good for the kids to experience the music festival and we were surprised how many kid friendly events they had, which included everything from the Cardboard Songsters doing their take on Saturday morning cartoons to Cascadia Circus doing shows and teaching the kids skills. Great stuff!

Intersection Superhero for Sunday Parkways

 
We had a great day today, yet it started off somewhat ominously with Abby being sick shortly after 4 AM. We ended up downstairs just to make sure we could get through the night. It has been hot and we're not sure if that's caught up with her. She felt well enough to head to Sunday Parkways. I was there volunteering and had a great time at SE 21st & Taylor, which was a turn in the route and there was some human traffic barrier feats for me to provide. It was a good experience and I enjoyed helping out. The girls joined me later in the day and we biked up to Mia Birk's Book Launch Party. Abby wasn't feeling great at that point, so we headed back to the car. All in all, a great day punctuated by a fun volunteer stint for the City.

Cycling through Delft

  Delft was a beautiful town with a central square (Markt) that was really quaint and large for as small a city as it is. This particular shop is where we picked up a few pieces of Delftware for the grandparents as a thank you for watching the kids.
We had a nice day cycling through Delft with the Northeastern University class that was spending a month in the Netherlands completing a college course. I was speaking to the class about traffic signals in Portland and how we were learning from European practice.
The cycling through the countryside was fantastic. We were getting a lot of nice information from one of the local regional planners from the area as a part of the first classroom lecture.
 
This picture of Susan is not even behind the biggest landmarks in the square, but I enjoy it anyway because it provides perspective on the cafes, the shops, and the chruches in the background.
We came across this gentleman in the community just crusing through. I had a chuckle becuase we were in the man's way and the group stopped him on his everyday trip to the store.  
 

I loved all of the train station bike parking areas. The number of bicycles at these locations was beyond consideration and seemed like every possible rack was full to the point where it was futile to add more racks because additional bikes would be added. Amsterdam and The Hague have structures for bikes both three stories high, which is quite an expense for infrastructure.

Tour de France, Delft Sunset, World Cup... is this in the Top 10 days of all time?

 
On the ride back to the hotel (from Rotterdam) after the prologue, we had a nice ride back with the sunset greeting us as we entered the city. It was a lovely end to a great day. Finished off by watching the World Cup and seeing a great goal by David Villa of Spain to advance. This day might have cracked the top 10 days of all time, which got me thinking. So you have to have the wedding day, the birth of your kids, graduation from college (especially for Dad), probably an OSU Civil War victory in there (when we beat Joey Harrington at home), visit to South Africa has to be in there, and then there's this (what a great day). It would have been better with the kids and more friends & family to enjoy it with, no doubt.

at Tour de France

 
So much fun at the Prologue and looking forward to Stage 1 tomorrow. Got a nice photo of Chris Horner that seems worth sharing.

Susan and Peter at Tour Start

 
Well, this is where the prologue begins. The riders shoot out of the Festina launch pad (right on time of course)! Mr. Festina himself counts down with his fingers, which is kind of funny when you think about it.