Alex Heaton

Nikko Japan Part 2: Lake Chuzenji to Yumoto Onsen

2009-07-02T23:18:00.001-07:00

On day 2 in Nikko I took a bus up a mountain to the Lake Chuzenji area. My plan was to hike from the lake on the left hand side of the map, to the hot spring on the top right. My guide book said it should take about 3 hours, but it in the snow it took me 5. In that time I only saw 3 other people on the trail, I it was –10 degrees C, and I didn’t have a map until I found the sign above a few hours into the hike and took a picture of it.

But I felt relatively safe because most of the trail was on these elevated boards and I just had to follow the footprints.

This part of the hike is the Senjogahara Plateau Nature Trail. Most of the year this park is crowded with people, but it was very peaceful to be all alone in the woods.

This panorama was stitched together using Windows Live Photo Gallery.

Then I went over the river and through the woods.

After 5 hours I finally made it to Yumoto Spa. To call this a “Spa” is a bit misleading. All I could find at this time of year were shuttered buildings, igloos, and a stinky pump house.

I found one place that was open for business. The Okunikko Konishi Hotel and Hot Spring. For about $10 you can use their hot spring baths even if you are not staying at the hotel.

After warming up in the hot spring for a while I got a bus back to Nikko station, took a train to Tokyo, and was back home before 22:00.

Nikko Japan Part 1: Tobu Premium

2009-04-25T10:57:00.000-07:00

My guidebook said the best way to get from Tokyo to Nikko is the Tobu Free Pass. When I got to the station they were advertising the Premium Pass, which had to be even better.

Inquiring about the premium pass I asked the lady at the counter:

Me: “Excuse me. What is the Premium Pass?”
Lady: “Do you want the Premium Pass?”
Me: “What is it? What makes it premium?”
Lady: “Premium pass is veery special? Do you want Premium Pass?”
Me: “How much does it cost?”
Lady: <After thinking hard for about a minute> “Excuse me.”

Then she went to back and whispered with her colleagues for a while and pointed at me and finally the manager came out.

Manager: “Do you want Premium Pass?”
Me: “Yes.” <I think this is right answer.>
Manager: “I’m sorry. We don’t have Premium Pass!”

So I was on my way with the normal pass

Nikko is one of the most popular tourist sites in Japan because of the shrines, waterfalls, and nature. When you get off the train, it is about a mile walk up to where the shrines are.

A few blocks up the hill on the left hand side you can help yourself to delicious Nikko water. And there is a visitors center near here.

Near the top of the hill on the right hand side, you should definitely checkout Nazuna Antiques & Zakka shop. It lots of old Japanese stuff and local crafts that make great souvenirs—I have never seen a shop like it.

At the top of the hill there is a famous bridge. But if you actually want to walk across it you have to pay 300 Yen ($3), so just stay on the street.

Across the river is where all of the shrines are. On the way to the shrines are food stalls with Japanese snacks. These white balls (Dango) looked safe enough, but then they were slathered them with some disgusting black sauce.

Toshogo shrine is where the original see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil monkeys are from. Besides the temples, there are lots of walking trails and other sites around Nikko. Like these statues along the river, which are said to be uncountable (Narabi-jizo).

I spent the night in the Turtle Inn Hotori-An, which is kind of like a hostel but has nice private tatami rooms and a nice hot springs bath.

Homestyle Japanese Food from Masae’s Kitchen

2009-01-18T20:13:00.001-08:00

This is some of the awesome food my mother in law made when I visited them in Japan.

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Homemade Pickles

Kimpura Lotus Root

Oden (Japanese Stew)

Mendaiko Onigiro (Rice Balls filled with Spicy Cod Roe)

Homemade Red Kabu Pickles (Red Turnip)

Breakfast: Toast, Cheese, Salad, Fruit, Coffee

Cabbage Nimono (Simmered Cabbage)

Seafood Agemono (Breaded deep-fried squid, prawns, oysters)

Seattle ThunderSnow 2008: Snow Day!!!

2008-12-19T23:19:00.000-08:00

One thing I don’t miss about Iowa is the freezing cold and ice. But a snow day can be nice every once in a while.

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This was the view outside my window.

I took a walk down to REI to buy some cozy socks. (Save 10% if you buy any 3 pairs!)

My friend Akemi built an awesome snow cat.

Note: This is an American style snow cat. Japanese snowcats/men have only 2 balls (snicker snicker) and no nose. They look more like him More Japanese snowmen >

And then I ended the day checking out a new restaurant on Capitol Hill, Oddfellows Cafe + Bar that just opened today.

The inside looks pretty cool too, it’s kind of like an old school house. It feels like a cross between a coffee shop and pub.

The menu looks pretty good too. But I didn’t end up trying anything because my wife made me come home :(

Seattle ThunderSnow 2008: A Nightmare on Ice

2008-12-19T22:58:00.001-08:00

Today downtown Seattle should have been declared a federal disaster zone. Unfortunately I had to go out and run some errands and got to witness the carnage firsthand.

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Things started ominously in the middle of the night when I was woken up by the sonic boom of the ThunderSnow. I thought a fuel tanker or something crashed and exploded outside my building. You can here it here http://www.king5.com/video/index.html?nvid=314479.

On Friday the roads were even worse than Thursday and some tour buses almost slid themselves off a wall onto I5 trying navigate all of the closed and blocked off streets.

They apparently thought it would be a good idea to try and drive their buses down the one hill that was not blocked off by the police. (No one was severely hurt.)

A lot of people made the clever mistake of trying to take a “shortcut” down some road that was free of traffic, only to end of crashed at the bottom. At one intersection I saw at least 5 different cars try and go down the same icy hill and end up slamming into the curb at the bottom of the hill. I warned this guy and not to go down the hill but he didn’t listen to me.

As you can see, the road is totally iced over.

I learned my lesson about driving in the Seattle snow about 2 years ago. I was at a party at the Red Hook Brewery in Redmond and then it started snowing. It took me about 6 hours to get home and along the way I crashed my car into a parked truck because there was just no traction.

The Seattle Times also has some good footage of the buses and other mishaps through out the area. Check it out before they go out of business.

Keirin: A day at the Japanese bike races

2008-07-30T20:46:00.001-07:00

The last time I visited Japan I went out to see a bike race--a track event called 'keirin'. Keirin was in the world headlines this week because the BBC claims that Japanese lobbyists paid bribes to get Keirin included in the Olympics.

These Japanese bike races are not the wholesome events that would expect. The atmosphere is nothing like the Marymoor Park Velodrome, for example. The whole atmosphere is really weird.

It's more like a dog track race, where the audience place bets on their favorite riders. Most of the audience are their 50s-60s, milling around and smoking. And the entire track is surrounded by a rusty chain link fence, which ruins the view and makes the place kind of Mad Max. I was there for about 20 minutes before I saw any bikes.

And then the pageantry begins. Triumphant music plays over the speakers, 2 girls run out and wave flags, and the riders ride through an arch in their superhero uniforms up to the starting blocks, bow, and they're off.

The gamblers are not all that interested in bike racing really, and there is not much to do in between races so they have some entertainment in between the races to keep them around.

The best part of a day at the Keirin is probably the food. They have a dozen or so vendors selling really cheap and pretty healthy japanese food. Like a whole pickled cucumber on a stick, a grilled sweet potato, and rice porridge (okayu).

This place has 10 kinds of onigiri (rice balls), others had tempura, udon or sushi.

All in all, keirin is no tour de france (which I saw once too) and if you find yourself in Japan their are much more interesting things you can do with your time than this. But if you are in the neighborhood and a race is on, its a good place to get a snack.

Oh yeah, if you want to see an actual keirin race, check this out...

Cuil. The worst search engine in the western world

2008-07-28T18:32:00.001-07:00

I found the worst search engine in the world, and it’s not what you think it is. It's cuil.com (pronounced 'cool'). Founded by some ex-google execs, it sounded like it had some potential and got a lot of press when it launched today. But I couldn't agree more with PCMag when they say, "The New Cuil Search Engine Sucks."

Just how bad is it? Let me demostrate...

The home page does look kind of cuil, and it has a nice word prediction feature as you type your query. But that's where the cuilness ends.

First of all, it fails the ultimate test. If I type in "Alex Heaton" it doesn't even have this site, alexheaton.com. Just a bunch of imposter sites.

And that's if your lucky and the site actually works at all. Most of the time you get a 404 or some such error message.

In the 1 in 1,617,892,992 chance that the site actually works, my favorite feature is the "Explore by Category" links on the right side. According to their features page, "By looking at these suggestions, you may discover search data, concepts, or related areas of interest that you hadn’t expected." I'll say... Search for 'wonderbra' and for a category it suggest "mormonism"?

I feel most sorry for Cuil's investors, which include Seattle's Madrona Capital Partners. Some guys from Madrona taught a class when I was going to UW. I bet they thought this was their chance to get in on the next Google.

I'm sure that Cuil has gone down in flames so badly on day 1 that they won't recover. They won't go public, they won't be acquired by anyone, game over.

Their biggest mistake was not calling it beta. If the thing is not ready, then call it a beta. Then if it sucks you can just say, hey its just a beta. Look at gmail, it works just fine but they still call it a beta years later. Look at MobileMe from Apple--they didn't call it a beta and look what happened.

Vegetarian Ramen in Tokyo (Kagetsu Nana Ramen)

2008-07-04T09:17:00.001-07:00

Ever since I saw the movie Tampopo I've wanted eat some real Japanese ramen. Now I've been to Japan several times and have lots of Udon and Soba, I'd still never had Ramen since the secret recipe is usually closely guarded combination of pork, chicken, and beef bone stock. Even innocent sounding Miso, Salt, or Soy Ramen are made with meat stock.

I want to Tokyo in March and this sign outside the Kagetsu Ramen Chain caught my eye. "No Pork. No Chicken. No Fish. Only Vegetable." It's totally vegan ramen.

I came back a few days later to try it out. Even though its a real restaurant with waitresses, you have to place your order from one of these vending machines (which have always intimidated me) and then give your ticket to the cook.

And then they bring you the soup.

So how is it? I give it two thumbs up. I really like all of the vegetables they put in it--broccoli, daikon, carrot, baby corn. Often vegan/vegetable broth taste really bland, but this broth tastes really good (at least to me). I would eat it again for sure if I had the chance.

And my in-laws seemed to like it too!

Unfortunately, this is only on the menu for limited time. But I read that they might bring it back next spring. So keep your open if you are in Japan. The place is called Ramen Kagetsu Arashi, they have 200+ branches in Japan including one in Narita airport.

That's not me!

2008-05-10T09:59:00.000-07:00

For all of you who have been asking if that's me on that video, "Bethani King & Alex Heaton accompanied by Sierra King." The answer is No! Its just another unfortunate case of mistaken internet identity. I know the video is a little grainy, but seriously. First of all, I don't play flute or clarinet nearly that well. Secondly, the video is dated February 24th, 2006. Well Sherlock, On February 24th I had to work late and there is no way I would have been able to make it all the way from Redmond to Chehalis and get all dressed up in time for the concert. And thirdly, none of these girls even look like me. *Make sure your speakers are on*

It's Bruxism

2008-03-23T11:55:00.000-07:00

The xray's on the wall confirmed the diagnosis, it's bruxism. Which means my body is literally eating itself alive. I got fitted for the prosthetic which should be here in a few days, great.

I've never been a quitter so I've been looking online to see what I can do. But if wikipedia is any even half right when it say, "There is no accepted cure for bruxism." I'm not feeling too optimistic.

I wanted to prepare my friends and family for what some of the long term effects are going to be. The image below describes the degenerative effects of the disease--please don't make fun of me when it happens.

But I haven't totally given up hope, in my research I've come across U.S. Patent #5,078,153 filed Jan. 7, 1992 which uses electromyography for the treatment of temporomandibular disorders. It looks promising.

Unfortunately this was on a Web page called "Unrecommended Bruxism Treatments", but it may be my only shot.

If there are any other "bruxers" out there who want to chat drop me a line.

Thanks for reading. This is probably going to be last post for a while.

aheaton.com is live!

2007-10-12T22:06:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Alex Heaton for launching aheaton.com! Alex sent me a mail to let me that his new site is live.

If there are any doctors reading this in the Hudson Valley area that need a new PC or server setup, then Alex is your man!

The King of Kong, the way I see it

2007-09-16T11:01:00.000-07:00

The King of Kong (http://www.billyvssteve.com/) is an awesome documentary about a guy from Redmond’s (Steve Wiebe) struggle to achieve the world record high score in Donkey Kong. It may sound like a silly movie, but it has spun up a storm of intrigue about Donkey Kong cheats, hacked Donkey Kong processors, and the governing board of video game competition’s (Twin Galaxies) apparent bias towards long-time Donkey Kong champion and gaming ambassador Billy Mitchell—against outsider gamer Steve Wiebe and their refusal to accept his high scores and provide a level playing field. It is a classic tale of an underdog trying to get to the top, despite the efforts of the powers that be. (Think Karate Kid with middle-aged guys playing video games, minus Mr. Miyage.)

After seeing the movie I some searching to find out what happened after the movie, and came across the below picture of the original Donkey Kong artwork that went on the side of the side of the arcade machine. I thought that captured the essence of the King of Kong perfectly, and asked Seattle cartoonist Kyle Bolton to draw me the picture at the top of the page.
Steve Weibe plays the role of Mario, trying to make it to the top, where Billy Mitchell is. The Twin Galaxies referees are Donkey Kong throwing barrels down on Steve, trying to block his every move—and protecting Billy Mitchell who can’t or won’t protect himself. (Are you reading Billy?)

Coincidentally, the head of Twin Galaxies, Walter Day, portrayed by the Donkey Kong referee in the cartoon above, is a friend of my family and I remember him as a nice guy. In the movie they go to his home in Fairfield, IA which is where I grew up and where my parents live.
I’ve heard they are considering making a sequel to the documentary or even a remaking it a live action movie with professional actors. (I vote for Bill Pullman playing Steve Weibe and Tom Cruise for Billy Mitchell.)

If you haven’t seen King of Kong already, check it out!

MS 150 Bike Tour

2007-09-16T07:34:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I participated in the MS 150 Bike Tour around La Conner, Washington. When I first started working at Microsoft I used to see a bunch of posters in the hallways for the “MS 150.” I used to think that “MS” stood for Microsoft and that Microsoft sponsored the event. The MS actually stands for Multiple Sclerosis and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society organizes a series of over 100 bike tours around the country to raise money to fight the disease. Since the event came to Washington in 1994, the Microsoft team has had the most riders and raised the most money. Until this year! This year Team Microsoft is in second place for fundraising, with a total of $106,922.51 raised, behind an investment services company Merriman Berkman Next, which has raised $108,706.29. Even though the ride is over, we have until October 17th to complete the fundraising. If you want to make a donation to this valuable clause you can do it at my online rider page. All donations are tax deductible, eligible for Microsoft matching funds, and will go towards Microsoft’s team total.

The MS Bike Tour is not only for a great cause, it’s a great ride. I did a few bike rides this summer, including the Seattle to Portland (STP) ride, and I think this is the best one. It has the best scenery and the best rider support. Since its for a good cause, they are able to attract a lot of volunteers to put up signs and direct traffic so you know where you are going and feel safe.

But it’s really the scenery that made this ride the best, with many miles along the coast. 25 miles into the first ride we came to Deception Pass a bridge that takes you to Whidbey Island. I’ve never heard of Deception Pass before, but it’s actually the most visited park in Washington State. Some photos of the pass:

The other highlight of the trip was ride along Chuckanut Drive, along the coast just south of Bellingham. Chuckanut drive is a winding, rolling road with views like this:

Mexican Indian Food

2007-08-16T20:45:00.001-07:00

This month I read Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors, a surprisingly interesting book about the history of Indian food and how it influenced and was influence by other cultures. Did you know that chai is not a traditional Indian drink? In fact, tea did not even grow in India until it was brought by the British in the 1800’s, and it was not widely drunk by Indian’s until the 1900’s.

Since reading the book I’ve been eating Indian food at least once a week at the cafeteria at work, which has a station serving pretty good vegetarian south Indian food. But I fear I’ll never get to eat the food I really want to try—“Mexican Indian Food”.

According to the book, in the early 1900’s there was a community of “Mexican Hindus” that lived in California and developed their own “Mexican Hindu” cuisine. Around that time, Indian’s working on steamships often jumped ship once they reached America. They were able to find work in the agricultural fields of California and often married Mexican women, which gave them rights to stay in the country and even own land. It was these mixed Mexican-Indian household’s that gave birth to “Mexican Hindu” cuisine, describe in this passage.

“Mexicans and Punjabi’s share a preference for fresh food,
flavored with freshly ground spices. The fried chicken or lamb of
the Mexican women was not dissimilar to the chicken curries of
the Punjabi men. The chili’s that the latter used in India were
easily interchangeable with Mexican jalapeño peppers. Punjabi
lemon pickle went equally well with corn-based tortilla’s as it did
with wheat flour rotis.”

California is also where the first Indian food was sold in American restaurants.

“Chicken currey probably first appeared on an American
restaurant menu at either the El Ranchero in Yuba City or at
Panchero’s in Selma where curry and roti’s were served alongside Mexican enchilada’s.”

Man, after reading that I really wanted to try a curry burrito of some papadam’s and guacamole, but sadly I’m sure that both El Ranchero and Panchero’s are long gone and I’d never get to have Mexican Hindu food, unless I made it myself.

Or so I thought!

On a recent road trip to Vancouver Island, British Columbia I came across actual Mexican Indian food, at a gas station of all places.

That’s right, Dorito’s Tandoori Sizzler! Nacho cheese + tandoori = Mexican Indian. Unfortunately they don’t taste much different than regular Dorito’s with curry powder sprinkled on top. But my quest is over and it goes to show how Indian food is still evolving and spreading.

I believe that these are only available in Canada, and Frito-Lay made them to cater to the large Canadian East Population. They even made a TV ad, check it out.

If anyone knows some restaurants where I can find real Mexican Indian food, let me know.

Welcome to the Official Alex Heaton Blog

2007-08-16T09:51:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the official Alex Heaton blog. This is your place to get the latest news on me and other Alex Heaton’s throughout the world. There are alot of Alex Heaton Web site's out there, but this is only authorized one (by me). But, this is just not about me but for all of the other Alex Heaton's in the world. If you are an Alex Heaton (or someother international variation like Alexi Heatonovitch) and want me to link to your blog or share some news, then let me know.

Who are the other Alex Heatons? That's a good question because I've never met one myself, but according to Google rankings these are the top 5.

Alex Heaton (http://www.alexheaton.co.uk/)
This guys seems to be some kind of UK pumpkin head with a cutting edge circa 1998 Web site. I wonder what he's been up to for the last decade? Com'n Alex, my readers want to know.

Alexander Heaton (http://www.artshole.co.uk/alexanderheaton.htm)
Another UK art geek, who, according his artist statement, has tapped into the soothing power of alien imagery. "Alien structures counteract this fear [the fear of the fear of being exposed to the vastness of nature] by opposing the natural order and remind the viewer of distantly unreal spatial realms."

(Why are other Alex Heaton's such freaks?)

Alex Heaton (www.alexheatonracing.com)
By far the most bad ass Alex Heaton. This guy, also a brit, is a professional motorcycle racer, with his own coat of arms!

Alex Heaton (Your Truly)
Work related blog post http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2007/06/03/teched-2007-day-one-microsoft-desktop-optimization-pack-update.aspx

Alex Heaton (http://house.louisiana.gov/H_Reps/members.asp?ID=95)
The only Alex Heaton so far that wears a tie, also happens to be the most sleazy. This Alex Heaton is a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives, representing New Orleans. Alex's claim to fame seems to be that he is faithful represenative for Big Alcohol and Big Tobacco, which I'm sure are the to most important issues facing the citizens of New Orleans. Poor Alex just had his bill to re-allow smoking in New Orleans's bars rejected http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4200/is_20070504/ai_n19064439. I remember a few years ago when I went to alexheaton.com it was a Web site bashing this guy for supporting Big Alcohol.

There you have it folks, the top 5 Alex Heaton's of August 2007, unless of course you use Live.com, which you should, in which case, I am numero uno!