Kyoto, Japan or One Last Hurrah!

So here's the deal. 

Cathay Pacific will let you fly until you are 36 weeks pregnant. 

Derrald had a conference in Japan last week, when I was 35 weeks pregnant.

So... even though I know I said I would be grounded in Hong Kong after my last long trip to the USA, at 35 weeks and 2 days pregnant, I flew to Japan!!

And can I just say, I LOVE JAPAN.

More specifically, Kyoto.

Perhaps it's the pregnancy hormones making me feel all extra emotiony. Perhaps it was all the Japanese food appealing to my pregnant appetite. Perhaps it was because I got to wear my coat (even if I couldn't button it up completely!) and sip hot chocolate from one of the five trillion Startbucks scattered across Kyoto pretending to bask in my pregnant glow (instead of facing the reality that is now simply swollen, pregnant pudge face).

I don't care.

I LOVE Japan.

I love all the colors on the trees this time of year.

Walking across the city in search of "the Philosopher's Walk"

A beautiful area on the North-east side of town

I love the Japanese hospitality and the way everyone was so polite ALL the time. Even this yogurt wanted to wish us well!  

I can't confirm whether or not this food does in fact bring one "a wonderful time" but I can't imagine why it wouldn't. Every other food we tried in Japan certainly lived up to that statement.

And can we please talk about the toilets?! 

Even before going to Japan I have dreamed of those mythical toilets. The ones that are supposed to have 70 different buttons and be able to talk to you.

Well!!!! Imagine my delight when I walked into our hotel bathroom and beheld this little beauty:

Let me tell you, when you have placed your tired bottom, cold from being out in the chilly winter air, onto a toilet seat that has been pre-WARMED for your comfort, bless those Japanese hearts, it's WONDERFUL!  

And check out these buttons! 

 Now, mind you don't give yourself an accidental enema using those bidet/spray functions. We don't know how they have done it but it's like the faucets have inbuilt radar. They know exactly where to spray.

 I love the comfy Kimono robes provided by our hotel that let us feel like we're taking part in the culture even when we are lounging around our hotel room. *sidenote: our hotel did not provide any english speaking TV channels either so there was even more opportunity "immersing" ourselves in the language/culture.

I love all the people riding bicycles, even if it meant risking my life every time I stepped out onto the sidewalk! 

Point in case: as I raised my camera that man on the bicycle wasn't there, and then suddenly he was..

There are so many things to do and see in Kyoto that we couldn't possibly fit everything in to the brief three days we had there, but a few of the highlights included:

Nishiki Food Market. 

An undercover market that sells all kinds of Japanese foods. Things like pickled vegetables and salty fish. I loved trying to work out what each thing was and marveling at how little I could recognize!

So many barrels of vegetables. So many colors. And the vendors were always very polite.

Pickled vegetables - look like they are covered in mud? We think it might be salt. We have NO IDEA.

 There was a little place serving up oysters and a place that does mini donuts made from soy milk. I had read about these babies on some blog and so insisted on trying them out for myself. The key is to make sure you go around the corner and get them nice and hot! They don't dip them in sugar or any silly thing like that. Just nice sweet, soy donuts. Delicious!!

Mmmm, donuts.

Daimaru Department Store.

Right by Nishiki Market and in the center of town is Daimaru department store. This turned out to be way more fun than your regular department store because, aside from being 8 levels, the basement is FULL of fun foods. I went while Derrald was at his conference and knew I needed to bring him back to see the amazing array of foods on offer. And now I will share some of our findings with you.

The dish on the bottom is made up of bean sprouts and we had something very similar on our first night, SO GOOD!

This salad bar lives in my dreams. They had some of the most delicious looking salads. The one I tried had crisp fresh romaine lettuce and arugula, thinly sliced white onion, thin slices of lemon and a cured ham like prosciutto. Tasty tasty tasty. There were pumpkin salads and seaweed salads and roast veggies salads and salads with seared tuna and avocado... oh why oh why don't we have one of these salad bars in HK (preferably on campus!) ?

Now, the Japanese really know how to fry things. The Scottish are known for deep frying EVERYTHING (um, hello fried Mars bars) but the Japanese, they seem to fry everything AND in different ways! It can be a fried curry dumpling, or it can be <insert food item here> in panko crumbs deep fried, or there is tempura, the fantastically light fry Japanese are typically known for. 

Derrald trying to decipher what might be in these particular fried goods. These seemed to be in some kind of croquette style.

Then there are "sticks" i.e. fried goods - on a stick. 

What these sticks are is anyones guess. One of them looks like shrimp, the rest = mystery meat.

Gion District.

Pronounced "ghee-on" with a hard "g", this is one of the more famous Geisha districts that still exists in Kyoto. It's filled with old style Japanese houses (machiya) and makes you feel like you are walking around in a movie set. Tourists go there with the hopes of catching a glimpse of an actual Geisha or Maiko (a geisha-in-training) as they emerge from one of the tea houses and go about their business. We were lucky and saw several!

Giving my best geisha look... 

We had some of the aforementioned "sticks" on our last night in Kyoto after wandering around the Gion district for too long and then failing to find a sushi restaurant to our liking (in close enough proximity for my pregnant body to get to). In desperation we ducked into what I can only describe as a Japanese dive bar.

Looks like he belongs doesn't he?

 It made us nervous at first but the staff were so friendly we soon relaxed and ordered "10 mystery sticks" to share. Our "sticks" included beef, salmon, onion, green pepper, octopus, mushroom, spicy sausage, shrimp, egg yolk, and camembert cheese. 

This place also rekindled our love for edamame...

While we are on the subject of food and things that are fried. How's this for a treat?

 "Deep fried, panko crusted cheese wrapped in chicken"! 

Look at that chicken wrapped cheesy smile. And the plate on the bottom left is a giant bowl of tofu.

With all the food and all our eating we had to balance it out with lots and lots of walking. We did so much walking I worried the baby thought I might be trying to induce labor... but she clung in there like a trooper and I collapsed into a nice deep Japanese bathtub at the end of each day to soothe my screaming hips. The walking was wonderful. There is always something to see in Kyoto.

I took this mid-walk, mid-crossing and it turned out awesome don't you think?

How adorable is this little girl?

We crossed this river several times...


Heading out...

And heading back again... I love when Derrald wears scarves. I had insisted we bring this one just in case it got a little chilly for the hot blooded man, and guess what, it did!

Philosopher's Walk.

We made our way to the Philosopher's Walk where we took many a thoughtful step in the direction of the Ginkaku-ji (Silver Pavilion).

The walk runs aside a little canal and you know you've found the right place because you'll finally see some tourists!

There are also a surprising number of houses and building lining the walk. This picture peaked my interest because it featured the gorgeous colored leaves as well as the bamboo. Love it.

Ginkaku-ji.

For those of you who won't read the wiki entry about the Ginkaku-ji, it's called the "Silver Pavilion" but you won't find any thing silver on it. It is all made out of wood and is nestled among some of the most beautiful gardens. It is a Zen temple... and boy was I ready for a little zen at this point.

 I must confess, it had been a long day up until now. We had walked all across the city and I was getting a little tired, a little hungry and a little grumpy... but just a little time spent in these gardens (even with the other tourists all filing through) and I truly felt my spirit calm. So, when Derrald asked me if I was "on my las wit" I was able to reply "I think I just regained them".

Wits regained and ready to smile.

These leaves were shaped like stars. I wish I had a collected a few to take home.

Okay, THIS is the only silver you will see on site at the Silver Pavilion... even just a simple coin pool and it looks so artistic and pretty. 

As you follow the path around the garden you climb to a peak where you can see out over the city of Kyoto. It was glorious.

 *see how I captured those falling leaves mid-fall? awesome.

Back to my leaf and tree color obsession, here are some of my favorites:

It was dusk by the time we reached the Imperial Park on our way home but even in the dark the colors were beautiful.

I told Derrald this photo wouldn't turn out... but it totally did. Look how pretty the leaves are even in darkness!

And just to re-enforce again how incredibly pregnant I was for this last hurrah adventure of ours, here's a picture of me in front of the Nijo Castle. We got rained out on our last day in Kyoto but our awesome hotel lent us some umbrellas and we headed out for some last minute sightseeing anyways. Sadly, we didn't have enough time to get inside the grounds of the castle but it will be on the list for next time. Oh, there WILL be a next time!

35weeks and 5 days pregnant.

Land of the Free

The month of August had us traveling out to the East Coast of the US for the annual American Accounting Association conference. This year it was held in Washington D.C and it was my first time attending.

Maybe it's because Derrald has been watching episodes of "The Sopranos" lately or maybe it's just my overactive imagination but when I join Derrald at conferences like this I can't help feeling like I'm part of some accounting-mob family. The name "Stice" is known across the accounting world. Accounting is the "family business". In fact, they have literally written a book on it. And the characters are all there - Jim (Uncle Jimmy), Kay (Papa), Derrald and Han (the brothers), Lorien (the sister), all infiltrating the accounting world. They've got the US covered and with D and I now living in HK, I think it's safe to say they've gone global. This conference was extra special, however, because we introduced some new characters, Amber, Seth and myself - The Spouses.

"The Spouses" Ha! That's what we ended up calling ourselves and it is with these lovely people I spent the majority of my weekend. It was always amusing when idly chatting with some nice stranger in the elevator because the conversation would always require some amount of identification - Stice? Ah, yes! And which Stice are you with? That's the brother? The son? The uncle? How are you all related? 

I particularly enjoyed the fact that while Derrald and the others were away" taking care of business" Seth, Amber and I (the spouses) got to hang out and watch endless amounts of Olympics on the TV and take walks on the promenade and entertain Sophie, my adorable little niece. Amber and I are both pregnant so we got to commiserate with each other over the terrors of morning sickness and support each other in our cravings for mentos or mexican or whatever the daily craving was. Seth was extraordinary in taking care of us and his daughter. He showed endless amounts of patience when it came to driving us to places like Target, where subsequently we looked like some kind of odd polygamist family with Seth escorting his two pregnant wives about. Haha. Poor, wonderful Seth.

So, speaking of polygamy...

After the conference ended we all drove up, caravan style, to Rochester, NY, where we would be gathering with the rest of Derrald's family for a reunion hosted by Derrald's Aunt Bernie. That is NOT the part that is related to polygamy. I'm getting there. On our way, we made a quick, overnight pitstop in Amish Country, Pennsylvania for some good ol' fried chicken, homemade bread, shoofly pie and a buggy ride! 

I think exposure to my Dad's horse, Tiny, has created some kind of affinity for horses in Derrald. He stood like this for a good 10-15 minutes. Just staring the horses down. 

Meanwhile the rest of us waited, and Kay made friends with a Korean family also awaiting the Amish experience.

Finally we got our ride...

And perhaps just a tad more than we'd bargained for in our driver...

Remember, when I said "speaking of polygamy..."

This is where Amber (remember she is also pregnant... oh, and married... and accompanied by her husband) found a potential suitor in our buggy driver (married with children) who couldn't stop eyeing her up and pointing out how well she would do as part of his family. 

*side note: I found it interesting that upon typing "amish polygamy" into my google search engine ALL three top hits addressed both Amish and Mormons in some kind of comparison. Neither the Amish nor the Mormons practice polygamy. (although it certainly seemed like this particular Amish man was open to the idea, especially if it included Amber, and sure, why not her husband too?)

Here we are pictured with our new found friend. Look closely, you might recognize him because, as he proudly mentioned on multiple occasions, he was also an actor! He'd taken part in filming some episodes for a Discovery channel program. His role? Why, Amish buggy driver of course! 

Don't worry. All members of our team made it safely to NY. No man left behind. 

Thus began some serious family vacation time. We toured up to the hill of Cumorah, where we seized the opportunity to snap some family pictures and I personally seized the opportunity to strut my pregnant stuff. That's right. 

Working it. 

Derrald and Kamila

Cousins, Sophie and Julian, with Dads, Seth and Stefan.

We all gathered for a family photo before the rain came in and washed us away.

Everyone (except for Lily Stice). Back row: Jay, Stefan, Ryan, Julian, Kay, Ramona, Sophie, Seth, Lorien, Han, Derrald Front Row: Kamila, Lily Kay, Taraz, Amber, Kylie, Hayley

We also toured the Sacred Grove and Palmyra, where we attempted more family photos, this time, with more sunshine!

The Stice originals. 

For some reason I love this photo. The sun blinding everyone, except Kay - who looked this way in every picture.

Note to Lily Stice: you will need to photoshop yourself into this one!

My nephew, Jay, is a boy after my own heart. On multiple occasions he had to be stopped from wandering off after the dragon flies or inspecting each and every stone we crossed. He would also often be found staring, dreamily into the flowers. But can we blame him? Look at these flowers!

We toured all Ramona's old stomping grounds, including the house she used to live in, thanks to some very accommodating New Yorkers who probably didn't realise just how many people they would be inviting into their home when they first agreed to letting us inside. We made a frozen custard stop up on the shores of Lake Ontario, where things got a little silly and trying to get a good photo = impossible.

And to end our trip we took a special tour out to Niagara Falls.

There was some confusion concerning passports and whether or not we could, should, or would, cross the border to see the glory of the water from a Canadian perspective, so we opted for staying in America and taking a ride on the Maid of the Mist.

Totally worth it.

It was perfect. There were sexy blue plastic ponchos. 

*Note you WILL get soaked. Plastic poncho or no. But it is oh so fun. Check out the smiles.

And our views of the cascading water were epic. I loved getting the different angles from up the top and then again from below on the boat. 

 I have never been to the Niagara Falls before and so was very excited to finally be sharing this romantic spot...

...with at least 16 other people ;)