Underground Seattle, manga, and lots of sugar...

This morning we went on a guided tour of Seattle's underground (the true ground-level city dating from the 19th century, before all the streets and sidewalks were raised by 15 to 35 feet to solve flooding and sewage problems). The history of how the tunnels came about is fascinating, but is too complicated for me to recount; go look it up somewhere. Most of the early buildings in Seattle actually have a floor or more underground, and many of the tunnel-like sidewalks are still passable, with original glass-block skylights set into the "top" sidewalk to let light into the tunnels below. (On my previous trip, I noticed all the glass block set into the pavement, but I thought it was just Seattle being artsy...)

I don't normally care much for guided group tours, but this one was very entertaining and informative! I just wish we could have had more time to examine all the junk, artifacts and pieces of history that are strewn about the tunnels.

After the tour, we had lunch at the Grand Central Bakery and visited a horse-themed store in the same building. Mom and Dad headed for Elliot Bay (she wanted to pick up the new book on Dan Patch) and Mark and I walked six or eight blocks to the International District to visit Uwajimaya.

Just as a note, it's really dangerous to turn me loose in Uwajimaya. It contains a big Asian grocery, which by nature sells things like Ramune (which I bought) and Pocky (which I bought in greater quantity). It also has a Kinokuniya bookstore on the premises (where Mark and I spent several hours browsing and listening to new J-pop singles in the music section).

I couldn't find any Matantei Loki or Weiss Side B in any language I could read (Loki was available in Chinese, but not Japanese or English), but I did discover something called Kuroshitsuji, which translates to Dark (or Black) Butler. I hadn't heard of it -- it's apparently fairly recent, since volume 4 was on the New Releases table -- but it looked interesting (and I'm a pushover for anything about butlers!), so I bought the first volume. I have a feeling it will challenge my Japanese translation skills. ^_^

[At right: The cover of Kuroshitsuji volume 1.]

Mark bought an Angela CD single and the latest volume of Flame of Recca, and then we split a sweet red bean roll (down, Laura!). Afterward, we browsed briefly at Pink Godzilla and another import shop a block or two away, then came back to the hotel.

For dinner, the four of us went across the street to an Italian restaurant called Mitchelli's, which was WORLDS better than the Italian dinner we'd had the night before (a place two doors down from our hotel, which cost about $30 per person, had mediocre food and was pretty lousy all around). Then -- because we still had our wristbands from the Underground tour, which promised us a 10% discount -- we went up the block to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, where I bought the world's largest chocolate-covered strawberry, a mint truffle, and a brick of chocolate-and-nut-encrusted English toffee.

Mmmmmmmmm.

Then we came back to the hotel, where my stash of Pocky and the chocolate and cherries we bought at Pike Place are currently located, and found mints on all our pillows. If there's one thing that is NOT in short supply on this trip, it's sugar!

Browsing in Seattle

Two days condensed into one post, for your convenience (and mine).

Yesterday, Mark and I got up early to drive back to Seattle (our rental car was due back at the agency by mid-morning), took the Kingston-Edmonds ferry back across the sound. We dropped the luggage at our hotel (the Pioneer Square Best Western, the same hotel in which I stayed on my visit three years ago) and then spent a few harried minutes going in circles around city blocks because the road we needed to take was closed for construction. We managed to find the Budget office eventually, then walked back to the Pioneer Square area.

Since it was still morning and our hotel room wouldn't be ready for a while, we detoured to a nearby antique mall and killed several hours browsing everything from antique camera equipment to vintage comic books. Mark ended up buying a 1984 Hulk comic book, in which... well... Hulk goes crazy and just starts destroying stuff. I bought an overpriced issue of NOW Comics' mediocre Speed Racer -- a volume I didn't have, in which Speed drives the GRX -- and a 1944 training and nutrition manual published by Purina called Dog Etiquette. (As it turns out, my mother had a paperback copy of the same book in the 1960s.) The training and dietary information is horribly out of date, of course, but it's interesting to read and see the prevailing attitudes of the day. The book has some cute artwork, too. My favorite picture in the book is a line drawing of an expressive Doberman being choked while his owner commands, "Heel!" The look on the dog's face illustrates perfectly why we don't train that way any more...

After the antique mall, we grabbed some pizza and garlic bread at a local eatery, then checked into the hotel and spent a few minutes arranging the room and planning the rest of the day. We decided to do a little shopping, since Mom and Dad weren't due in until evening. Our first stop was Simo Silk, where I bought a couple of nice Chinese silk outfits last time I was here. Then we headed to the Elliot Bay Book Company -- my favorite bookstore in the world -- and spent several hours book-browsing. Since my luggage space is very limited, I bought only one book: The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, by Lauren Willig. I picked it up because of the Scarlet Pimpernel tie-in (as pretty much everyone reading this knows, I am an avid collector of Scarlet Pimpernel books, merchandise and memorabilia). I hope it's good. I'll review it on Goodreads after I've read it.

One thing I like about Elliot Bay (beside the facts that it's in an awesome historic building, is four stories tall, takes up half a city block, and is crammed full of all kinds of BOOKS) is that they have book reviews written by their staff members posted all around the store. While walking through the fantasy section, we found a stack of Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind with a review card stuck under it. And, of course, I took a photo [at right]. I seem to be taking a LOT of NOTW photos lately... ^_^

Today, we walked to Pike Place market and spent the day wandering, sampling fresh produce, browsing and occasionally supporting the local economy. By mid-afternoon Mom headed back to the hotel and Dad, Mark and I killed another three hours in a comic book store, browsing comics, flipping through anthologies and giggling at weird merchandise.

The store had cute Speed Racer keychains and magnets, but they were all overpriced. :P Where's all the cheap kitsch?!