I must say, it’s been many years since I left my footprints in the snowy ground. I do often travel to Japan every March but somehow always got caught in either chilly breeze or heavy rain. So there you go, since we decided to drop by and say konichiwa again this January, it would be a blast to be out and about in the snow!
After making a trip back from visiting mum’s friend in Kanazawa, we were back at Tokyo, there we met up with my brother, my sister and my brother in law for Aomori.
Day:1
If you are talking about traveling towards the north of Japan, I bet you’d think of Hokkaido first on the list. How about spending sometimes escaping crowds of people, enjoying and spending a good quality time with your family? Let me tell you, Aomori is the place to go. There we were, staring out through Shinkansen windows waiting impatiently, already started to plan what to do when we reach Rockwood Hotel and Spa (accompanied by this pocket wifi @japanwirelesstokyo of course) .
Aomori station, -12 C. You couldn’t even tell what time of day it was..
Snow there was pretty different from Kanaza, it was super duper powdery and fluffy woo!
Before checking in at Rockwood Hotel, we were all feeling a bit peckish so we decided to make a brief stop at Aomori city, and took a stroll around the snow covered wonderland to digest our heavy meal.
I cherished every moment when I was alone, with no chitter chatters around. The moment when you can only hear your breathing and looking back at your ‘only’ footsteps on the snowy ground.
Believe me, I wasn’t afraid of the cold weather but, the blizzard was getting a bit far too strong. Mum started to stop walking and dad was turning blue, yep it’s time to check - in for a warm onsen..
Rockwood Hotel and Spa under Aomori Spring Resort Group. This lovely hotel situated along the foot of Mount Iwaki at Nishitsuguru district, about 55 minutes drive from Aomori station, however in the summer the traveling time is a little faster. The hotel has 188 rooms and built in the 70s, yet, had been undergone partial renovation in 2015, leaving scents of 70s decors fused in with contemporary interior design.
Perhaps if you decided to pay a visit at Rockwood Hotel during winter season, never miss out snowboarding and skiing. For summer, some putting and hitting at the golf course would be great before relaxing at the spa.
I ended my first day with….hot onsen definitely :)
Day: 2
Ohaiyogozaimasu! Suite room on the 8th floor amazed me with superb view through every windows. I was totally awake by 7am, ready for buffet feast and aha snowboarding private class.
In this suite room you could onsen all day long..
What’s for breakfast? Whoa! So many things lined up rows after rows! Apple curry rice, toasts with fresh strawberry jam, all kind of soups, salad, Japanese breakfast, Chinese breakfast, International breakfast you name it!
And my most favourite out of all…fresh homemade yogurt with strawberry jam and apple juice! Never miss apple juice here by the way cus’ it’s impossible to miss hahaha :D
Beautiful view from the breakfast hall enormous window!
Oh dear, the snow blizzard just before our snowboarding lessons…
Let me get ready and put on many more layers. 1st layer with bodysuit from Paul and Joe Paris which I got from www.shopcosabella.com and snow boots from www.sorel.com
Wee hee!! I’m ready folks!!
These were best photos I could take with my Iphone 6s before dropping it into the thick snowy ground ahh!!!!
Who says snowboarding is hard? Lol ya I fell like hundred times :”D So did my brothers and sister :P
It’s a shame I couldn’t take my camera with me while snowboarding, but never mind I had a lot of fun, leaving me some bruces behind and the worse thing was my entire body was in pain, seriously!
We got back safe and (with a lot of moaning sound lol). I decided to quickly snap our dinning area view before the sunset. This is an a - la - carte zone for dinner only. If you’d prefer something different from buffet, you could make a reservation here for all kinds of dishes, Japanese to steak! Yums!!
A little too much eh? Hey! I had a long long day!
Day:3
Surprisingly we woke up with lesser soreness from our snowboarding class, hence, we were determined to go for another round. However, due to heavy snow storm in the morning we decided to hibernate for some tea time in mum’s and dad’s room.
The room was super cosy, I didn’t have to put on my cardi, just one layer of Paul and Joe from www.shopcosabella.com would do me well this morning.
My parent’s room was slightly different, they got one of the corner rooms which have been renovated a year ago with touches of modernism in grey. What a cool room with mountain view!
What about lunch? Though Rockwood Hotel doesn’t offer lunch but no worries just a second drive from the hotel you could enjoy hot broth ramen menus while watching others skiing and snowboarding outside.
This place really reminded me of a scene from Detective Conan!
We didn’t make it to another snowboarding class that day but instead we took a drive back in town to grab some souvenirs at A - Factory. I bought a few things for family and friends, and this for myself ‘Wonder Apple’ :D
Let’s just grab a few drinks before saying goodbye to this homey Rockwood Hotel and Spa. A few days there were just too short. I’m coming back!!
Thank you so much Rockwood Hotel & Spa and team for your warm welcome and great hospitality. I will come back again not just for winter but summer as well!
A place you must come!
Arigatougozaimazu!
Nalina
Credit:
Aomori spring resort Instagram: @aomorispringresort
Watched a great talk today about web/technology accessibility, and the speaker pointed out that yes, accessibility is important for people with permanent disabilities, and we should definitely care about that. But also accessibility helps EVERYBODY, because everybody will, at some point in their lives, find themselves in situations that accessible technology can help with. Here are permanent, temporary, and situational disabilities that accessible technology can help with:
Remember that whether something is disabling or not depends on the situation, the environment, the technology, etc. We’re ALL disabled at some point. It is important to support permanently disabled people, but it is also important to remember that accessibility helps us all!
I’ll just mention the irony quickly and do this:
[ID: A table of types of disability. Columns are labeled Permanent, Temporary, and Situational, in that order. Each example has an abstract human figure to represent the disability.
Touch: One Arm, Arm Injury, New Parent (holding a child in their arm)
See: Blind, Cataracts, Distracted Driver
Hear: Deaf, Ear Infection, Bartender (surrounded by noise)
Speak: Non-verbal, Laryngitis, Heavy Accent (wielding a sword, shield, and viking helmet)
this shit is locked behind a $100 - $500 paywall, and it’s patented so no one can make an open-source version
torpedoread should be available as a free, bionic reading chrome extension soon, and beeline reader uses a different gradient technique thats free on iOS and only costs $2 a month on other platforms
please use those instead, don’t support paywalled accessibility
Watched a great talk today about web/technology accessibility, and the speaker pointed out that yes, accessibility is important for people with permanent disabilities, and we should definitely care about that. But also accessibility helps EVERYBODY, because everybody will, at some point in their lives, find themselves in situations that accessible technology can help with. Here are permanent, temporary, and situational disabilities that accessible technology can help with:
Remember that whether something is disabling or not depends on the situation, the environment, the technology, etc. We’re ALL disabled at some point. It is important to support permanently disabled people, but it is also important to remember that accessibility helps us all!
I’ll just mention the irony quickly and do this:
[ID: A table of types of disability. Columns are labeled Permanent, Temporary, and Situational, in that order. Each example has an abstract human figure to represent the disability.
Touch: One Arm, Arm Injury, New Parent (holding a child in their arm)
See: Blind, Cataracts, Distracted Driver
Hear: Deaf, Ear Infection, Bartender (surrounded by noise)
Speak: Non-verbal, Laryngitis, Heavy Accent (wielding a sword, shield, and viking helmet)
Hostels are basically cheap hotels where you rent a bed rather than a whole room. They’re also the nerve centers of the backpacking community, and if you do any traveling in Europe you’re eventually going to be spending a few nights in one. Two useful sites are HostelworldandHostelbookers.
When you’re searching for a hostel, read the reviews. In particular, look for two things. The first thing is reviews written by travelers like you: ‘solo female backpacker’, ‘mixed group of college students’, etc.
The second thing to look for in reviews is the word ‘bedbugs’. If you see that, fuck right off.
The ideal hostel has a kitchen, and is located within walking distance of the city center. A location near a bus/metro stop or other transportation center is fine too, but make sure you know when transportation shuts down for the night and starts up in the morning.
Hostels are usually pretty cheap. They’re always cheaper than a hotel, and usually cheaper than Airbnb. The typical price range for a bed in a dorm is €10-20 a night (although this changes depending on whether it’s high or low season, a weekend or weekday, a big room or a small one, etc.)
The guests tends to be largely college-aged and friendly. It’s not uncommon for groups of strangers to spontaneously go see attractions together, or go out drinking. This is a great way to see nightlife if you don’t want to go alone! Just make sure you’re reasonably comfortable with the people you’re with, and that you know your way back, or at least have the hostel address written down.
Hostels are good if you’re traveling alone and want to socialize; stay in the kitchen or common room. But they’re also good if you’re traveling solo and just want to be left alone, goddammit. If you’re on your bunk in the dorm, most of the time no one will bother you.
I’ve never personally had a bad experience in a hostel, barring the one time I ended up accidentally watching The Ring in Budapest with forty Russian girls (and this was bad less because of the situation and more because I cannot handle horror - I was diagnosed with insomnia when I was a teenager because I was too embarrassed to tell the doctor that the PG13 Scary Movie 3 was the reason I pretty much hadn’t slept for three months). Just keep your expectations low. It’s not a hotel, it’s a roof over your head and a clean bed and a safe place to store your bags. Sometimes they can be genuinely luxurious, but don’t expect anything special.
Rooms are sorted by number of beds (usually 4 to 16), mixed or female-only, public or en suite bathroom, and public or private room. Don’t book private rooms; it’s not worth the money. I usually stay in the largest mixed dorms, and although I realize this isn’t for everyone, as a single female traveler I have never had a bad experience. Regardless, many hostels have female-only dorms, which I know makes some people feel much more comfortable.
The workers at a hostel are often travelers themselves! They’re great resources if you want advice on what to do in the city, where to get a really good meal, and things to see off the beaten track.
Who you’re sharing a room with is a grab bag. They might snore, or leave/arrive early in the morning, or have their stuff spread around half the room, or start fucking on the bunk above you. On the other hand they could be silent, sweet, and polite.
If you’re a light sleeper, bring earplugs. Even if your roommates are quite, hostels in the city center can have a lot of ambient city noise.
Because you’re sharing a room with strangers, security is a concern. I’ve never had anything stolen, but it’s always worth being paranoid. Many hotels provide lockers; if you have a small padlock you can lock up anything worth stealing overnight. If there’s no locker, put your valuables in your purse and use it like a pillow.
Some cities have a guest tax (Rome charges €3 a night) that won’t be included on the booking service, and has to be paid on arrival.
Dear Public School: an open letter from an autistic student in the graduating class of 2020
Let me preface this by saying that in many ways, I suspect that my experience with public school was no different than many autistic students’ experiences in private schools, charter schools, and so on. That’s because ableism is pervasive in global society, and it affects every aspect of our lives. But here I have written my own experiences in public high school.
I can’t count the number of times I heard students use slurs such as r*tarded, the n-word, f*g, d*ke, etc. By far the most common slur used was r*tarded, which was often used within earshot of teachers who usually said nothing. Sometimes people would even use the words “sped” and “autistic” as insults, as if my educational accommodations and neurology were something to be weaponized to make others feel terrible about themselves. This common cocktail of slurs made me feel extremely unsafe.
Sometimes I spoke up about it, but most of the time I stayed quiet, because I just wanted to get through my day without having to argue with people about my humanity. Even students who were generally pretty socially aware and vocally supported LGBT people and people of color, often used the r-slur. And it hurt way more when I saw that type of behavior from those people, who I thought I could trust.
In my experience, ableism against autistic and other developmentally disabled people is probably the most prevalent form of dehumanization in the school system. It’s so ubiquitous that some people don’t even know what you’re talking about when you refer to the word r*tarded as “the r-word.” It’s so unquestioned that entire classes of people would laugh and crack jokes about autistic students who were having meltdowns that you could hear down the hallway.
I know, because I’ve been in those classes, and tried not to cry as everyone around me started laughing at another autistic person’s pain. It’s really hard to describe how humiliating that was. Because I’ve had meltdowns just like the ones other students were having, which means that my classmates might as well have been laughing and cracking jokes about me, in my most vulnerable moments.
One day at lunch, I overheard another autistic student talking to his aide about how his gym clothes had been thrown into the locker room toilet, and he had been shoved and choked by other boys as he tried to get his clothes out. His aide was aghast, and asked if this had been brought up to the administration. The student told her that he had talked to the office about these same students many times before, but it never seemed to change anything.
But these types of overt verbal and physical violence were not the only things autistic students had to face. We also had to deal with extreme levels of sensory overload, caused by events that were not planned without our needs in mind. Even if prom hadn’t been canceled this year due to coronavirus, I still wouldn’t have been able to go. The music would have been too loud and overwhelming, even with earplugs. I nearly cried at way too many pep rallies to count, from the bone-shattering vibrations of speakers blaring “upbeat” music, combined with hundreds of shrieking, shouting students. It’s absolutely horrible to have to endure severe physical pain just to be socially included. I spent most of my time at pep rallies plugging my ears with my hands.
My public school did a pretty terrible job at educating students about autism and other disabilities. Autism was only brought up once in a blue moon, and when it did get brought up, it was framed as if it’s some sort of disease that requires “awareness” and a “cure.” The problem was that barely anyone really understood what autism is, teachers included. On the very rare occasions that it was brought up, I was usually the only autistic person in a class full of people talking about it, and I had to correct both students and teachers on certain fundamental facts.
Despite the creation of an “Autism Awareness Week” my freshman year, which was obviously organized by non-autistic people (as evidenced by the plastering of puzzle pieces all over people’s lockers, and the “facts” from Autism Speaks that were read over the loudspeaker), the bullying and abuse didn’t stop. Many of the same people who purchased the blue “autism awareness” ribbons the school sold that week and stuck them on their backpacks, also frequently said the r-slur and made fun of autistic students for having meltdowns or acting in unconventional ways. That’s because “awareness” without acceptance accomplishes absolutely nothing.
If public schools really want to do right by autistic students, they can start by getting information from the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, not Autism Speaks. Then, districts can teach students about how autistic people perceive the world, and encourage autistic students to give talks and educate their classmates about their experiences. Humanizing those who are different, and inviting students to explore radically different ways of perceiving the world, is honestly what education should be about.
Schools need to commit themselves to active inclusion, which means taking down barriers to access like excessively loud music at events. Autistic students shouldn’t have to ask our schools to accommodate our sensory needs. That should be something that is granted with no questions asked.I assure you that no neurotypical student actually needs the music at school events to be so loud that it will damage their eardrums. Yet, for some strange reason, neurotypical preferences tend to override autistic needs. That has to change.
No person should have to go through the routine, systematic humiliation and exclusion that I did as a student. And my experience in high school wasn’t nearly as bad as many other autistic people’s. Other autistic students got severely bullied, even physically assaulted. There is only one word to describe all of this:
Hi Everyone! I’m looking for short term accommodation in NYC from June 29th to July 9th (private room, apartment etc). Preferably Manhattan, or Broadway area, or somewhere close to the subway. Please inbox if you have space or know someone who does
