Day in the Life of an Idiot

 
Image: Senso-ji and Tokyo Skytree through the plum blossoms

Believe it or not, I actually broke out of my Japan obsession to try out a few other locations this last week. I briefly stopped into a tour in Reykjavik, Iceland. My favorite part of that tour was actually the tour guide who was doing is introductory patter and said something about how he'd been away from tours for awhile, but decided to come back. Like that famous saying, he said, you know the one, "I went away, but I missed you, so here I am."  I was like, ? Until I thought, oh, right, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder." 

Honestly, I liked his version better.

I did not get a lot of "postcards" on that tour, because most of it was indoors in a museum and I am less interested in those kinds of tours as livestream? Like, if I were in Reykjavik, I probably would have enjoyed it? But, shaky cam always hits me harder when the tour is indoors for some reason.


Image: Reykjavik winter lights festival

Once again, feeling random, I checked out a tour happening in Yellowstone National Park. The tour guide was hoping to catch Old Faithful, but the geyser was not being especially timely. She actually picked a spot at one of the other acid lake spots to view it from and so I got a nice picture of those horrible, stinky hell pits that people are forever throwing themselves into and melting.


Image: Yellowstone Death Pit

Also, for Shawn, we once again followed Ian in the Cotswolds around his town, Burford. He walked us around town, showing off a lot of really interesting old buildings, including the longest running pharmacy/apothecary in the Britain, and the Norman era Church of St. John the Baptist. You can see the traditional view of it on the Wikipedia article, I've linked, but here's a cool look at one of the doors.


Image: Norman era door of a church in Buford, Cotswolds, St. John the Baptist.

I did do another one of the Japan ones, a tour of the exterior of Osaka Castle, which was... fairly awful. The tour guide was very anxious about making sure we had all the information and, thus, gave us a bit too much, including pictures and diagrams, which she held up to her camera. I mean, I get the impulse? There but for the grace of god? But it all goes into the file of what I would and would not do as a guide if I ever decided to do something like this.


Image: An amazing view of a woman taking her doggo for a stroll in an honest to god stroller. Also pictured, Osaka Castle.

There is also apparently a high school nearby, as we saw a whole troupe of Japanese high school boys doing their physical education on the grounds of the castle.


Image: Sit-ups in gym class are awful no matter what country you are in.

I mean, we also saw the castle grounds? But, I was far more interested in the random bits of life we saw around the monument. 

Those are the livestreams I watched this last week. I did spend a weird amount of time imagining characters from Bleach as HeyGo tour guides, especially after we had a no show at the canals of Tokyo. I kept thinking, "Oh, obviously this is Ichigo's part time job, and he's had to run off to save Karakura Town from Hollows again." I have another friend who has been taking a lot of these tours and I spent hours writing one sentence ficlets with her about who would do what kind of tour. It's the most fannish I've been in a while.

Anyway, I hope you all are safe and healthy out there. My thoughts are especially with my Canadian friends.