Uncanny Valley

A park centered around a church designed by the creator of the Precious Moments characters can be found in the Ozarks. The grounds are filled with statues and paintings of the doe-eyed cartoons. The chapel even has carved doors, stained glass, and a large ceiling mural. The whole place is cute but somthing seems not quite to fit somewhere. Like how the park is fairly well developed, yet it is in the middle of nowhere down a one-lane dirt road. Or how there’s a grand serious church with cartoon angels all over. It ptobably didn’t help that I didn’t know that Precious Moments was a religious thing before I got there.

In any event, I really thought this place was neat and memorable. There was a lot of work and craftpersonship put in and I appreciate that. Definitely a unique experience and a great break when driving cross-country.

In addition to the chapel and grounds, there is a Wedding Island, and a Musical Fountain. The fountain was not on when I visited, and my S.O. couldn’t trick me to go to the Wedding Island. There is also a gift shop, but it was mainly figurines.

This restaurant, and it’s sister, create empathy for the blind by serving completely in the dark. The name means “Blind Cow” in German. There is one in Zürich and one in Basel. All the waitrons and dining room staff are blind, so are not really inhibited by the darkness.

Apparently you pay first, get a table number, and then are escorted behind a heavy curtain to your table. There is no smoking in here for obvious reasons. If you need to get up, you can call your server, and when you make snapping you fingers and occasionally saying “achtung” will warn others of your presence.

The Basel branch just opened in February 2005 in apparent response to the huge popularity of the Zürich restaurant.

This restaurant, and it’s sister, create empathy for the blind by serving completely in the dark. The name means “Blind Cow” in German. There is one in Zürich and one in Basel. All the waitrons and dining room staff are blind, so are not really inhibited by the darkness.

Apparently you pay first, get a table number, and then are escorted behind a heavy curtain to your table. There is no smoking in here for obvious reasons. If you need to get up, you can call your server, and when you make snapping you fingers and occasionally saying “achtung” will warn others of your presence.

For those who want to try things gradually, there is a bar in addition to the restaurant. But if you have a hard time stuporing about in the light you might not do so well at a lightless bar.

In January 2001, steel monoliths evocative of a certain film/book appeared in Seattle. I have no idea if they are still there or not. I know we all had thought of doing this, but noone did except in Seattle. Shame on you, loafers!

The city liked the monoliths so much when they first appeared, they decided to move them (back) to a more prominent area and stabilize the structure a it for safety’s sake. The monolith appeared initially on Kite hill, wandered to Duck Island in Green Lake, and then was officially installed back on kite hill, atleast until kite season (March 2001). After that, you tell me. I hear it is now against a fence in an alley behind the North Seattle home of Microsoft programmer Chris Lodwig, wherever that is.

Note that there is a permanent public art sculpture across the road that is composed of several black metal airplane fins. Do not be fooled by these non-oliths

The whimsical museum for the studio of the best animator alive or dead, Hayao Miyazaki. In Japan Miyazaki always tops the box office. Princess Mononoke grossed the most for any film there ever, until Titanic was released the following year. I hear Spirited Away did even better. So basically you all should be renting these movies instead of reading this. Trust me, they’re good.

Anyhow, while Miyazaki is compared too often with Walt Disney with regards to their films, their theme parks could be no different. No hyperconsumerist hustle here, no rides overcrowded with misbehaving children. You could wander around Mitaka all day and almost miss it. The museum is set in a city park and has the serenity and wonder of many of the films. Part of the calmness stems from the fact that one must make reservations for the Museum, which sounded odd at first but seems to work out well.

Inside there are many exhibits on the animation process, and a few on how Miyazaki got inspiration for certain films. When I visited there was also a Pixar exhibit, and I suppose this section would rotate. There are many random staircases and doors all over that bring you down secreted passageways, but the Museum is small and it is hard to get lost. Probably is a good idea to keep an eye on your kids though.

The gift shop was good, and there were a few things there that were not at the omnipresent character shops across Japan. My favorite part though is the roof, which has an almost-overgrown garden and one of the petrified robots from Laputa Castle in the Sky. Admission also includes screening of a special Ghibli short film exclusive to the museum. It was about a kitty.

At the dawn of the lunar New Year in San Francisco is a puzzle-solving adventure that will show you many under-explored sites and sights of the city. First one forms a team, picks a punny name, and then shows up on the day of the hunt. Then teams receive a packet of clues along with a street map. Teams must then figure out the clues and walk/run to various locations and answer a question to prove that they went to the spot. There are three levels of difficulty, each of which has different locations.

I’ve done this twice and had a lot of fun each time, and each time I learn something new. It usually is scheduled for just after the rainy season, but this does not always work out for the driest.

Image courtesy of Daza

The hunt for 2006 is on Saturday 11 February.

This former amusement park is now a garden park with statuary depicting a graphic afterlife. In Chinese it is written as 虎豹别墅. In between the carp ponds are scenes from Chinese mythology, including the Ten Courts of Hell. Apparently used to have rides but not anymore. The mood is serene and creepy at the same time. Definitely a unique place, it was built in 1937 by two brothers who got their fortune from selling Tiger Balm.

Recently the park has been addded to. There is now a display of jade as well as a replica of one ofthe brother’s ‘tiger cars.’

The museum has a strange and macabre collection of medical anomalies from the past several decades. If you ever wondered what conjoined twins really look like on the inside, or what sort of things can go wrong with any variety of organs, here is the place where you can see for yourself. If you’re thinking of having children soon, maybe you should skip the wall of malformed fetuses.

The museum is in a college building, and the inside have the hushed tones and stained-wood look of a old library. It is not a large place, but there is a huge amount of strange specimens without being crowded. There is usually a rotating exhibit featured in the museum: When I went it was on medical practice on the Lewis and Clark expedition and it made me thankful for antibiotics (and wary of their impending downfall).

This is one of the most interesting places I’ve been. I was a bit disappointed in the gift shop though, as I was expecting more than just your average science-shop wares.

Just outside Kyoto is a park full of cavorting wild macaques. The park is a short walk over the historic Togetsukyo bridge across the Oi/Katsura river from the town of Arashiyama.

After paying admission you must walk up a steep hill to get to the top where there is a cabin. There are no fences, the monkeys can come and go, but they do like the apples and peanuts. For those of you who may think zoos are basically animal jails, I can see no ethical misgivings with visiting this park. The animals here are wild (not domesticated) but are used to humans. I saw a troop on the path up, and they seemed unconcerned by my presence, even leaving the babies near me.

The cabin in the top is where you can purchase food for the critters. To feed them, you stay inside the cabin and feed the macaques who are outside. There is a ranger here armed with a slingshot and a broom in case of any monkey shines (had to do it). There is also a great view of Kyoto from here, so if you have any memory left on your camera from all the monkey pictures be sure and get some shots of the city.

On the way down there is a small playground for human children. I thought it was fun too.

A cross between a food court, a gift shop, and an ocean liner, all in celebration of a certain blend of spices. The museum is on the top two floors of a high-rise in a shopping district near the baseball stadium. There is a restaurant branch for each of the best curry chefs in Japan, of various styles of curry. The decor is that of a ocean-going ship, in particular one that would be carrying spice back to the largest port in Japan, not a few kilometers off. The shop sells many curry-related items, including curry chocolate, which was pretty decent. I wish there were places like this in the states, they seem like a good place to go again and again. I hear that this and the Ramen Museum are prime places to bring dates because of food and the novelty.