Bus rides, Big buddhas, brutal massages

Bus rides
So, we're finally getting the hang of this travelling around China thing. True, it's tough as we can't read anything and not alot of people can speak English but the trick seems to be to arm yourselves with the following:

1. the scribbled down name of the place you are going, in Chinese - usually written by your host at the hostel/hotel
2. fingers - to indicate how many tickets you want
   
3. a guide book with simple Chinese translations for words such as Tuesday, today etc. or mobile phone calendar.
   

Then you walk boldly up to an available window and first say the name of the place you want to go to. If you get a blank look, then pass them the piece of paper with the name on it. They will then start to talk to you in Chinese. Don't even try to understand what they are saying (unless they are pointing at the next counter or shaking their heads vigorously - both of which are self explanatory). Hold up two fingers and then point to when you want to travel using the guide book or mobile phone. They will then scribble a number on a piece of paper, you pay that and hey presto, the tickets are printed/stamped and thrust at you.

At this point, refuse the Western urge to assume that everything is ok and walk off because you are conscious of holding up the queue - check your ticket, ensure it says the correct date, time and place (which is usually also printed in English) as well as your change. Only when you are satisfied that everything is actually ok do you walk off.

Having said all that, we successfully managed to negotiate 4 buses today! All to reach the location of China's biggest Buddha.

Big Buddha
They weren't kidding when they said that he's a big buddha, he is huge! As you will no doubt see from our pictures, I can't even reach his feet. It was great though, it's a full scale park inside complete with fish ponds and other random (smaller) buddha's dotted around. The main attraction is the main man himself who is 71 meters high and was carved out of the side of a mountain. He's looking a bit worse for the wear right now as he is usually repaired every decade so he must be due one soon, still, he's a force to be reckoned with.

Note to travellers, if you're planning to see the Big Buddha, unless you have some serious reason why you can't walk up and down all those steps (yes, there are lots of steps) then go to the park and see him that way, don't bother with the boat ride which costs almost as much as the entrance ticket to the Buddha park, but you only get to glimpse him from a boat for a few minutes.

Brutal massages
In anticipation of our trek up Mt. Emei tomorrow (we will be offline for about two days), and after the many steps at the Big Buddha today, and also because we wanted to, we got ourselves a massage each this evening. Ouch! Those girls sure have a masters degree in pounding, slapping, thumping, kneading, poking every which muscle in your body!!! Still, it was kinda nice and at the end my aching muscles are suddenly all better. I don't know if they have been scared into submission or if they are genuinely better, tomorrow will tell.

It's been a good day, now the mozzies are sending me to my room and we need a good nights sleep so catch you in a couple of days.

Terracotta Warriors

Before we came here, the general opinon we'd heard about Xi'an was that apart from the Terracotta warriors there wasn't that much to see and in general its not that nice a place (the word 'dump'did feature quite often). After one day here, we can say that the city does look like a construction site and is, as Beijing, quite dusty and smoggy bu tthat doesn't mean it hasn't got its own charms. One thing that noone seem to mention is the perfectly preserved city wall, which is to say the least, quite impressive. You can go on it, and even rent a bicycle and cycle around it. IT does feel quite good that even though its a national heritage monument they let people use it. But hey, it is a wall after all, designed to withstand war, what harm can tourists on bikes do?? It kept the mongols out for a good while, I'm sure it can handle rubber tires as well. But more on that once we've actually done that...

Today was all about what everyone else does as well, see the terracotta army on site. We caught it whe it was on display in London (British museum) so we knew a little about it already.Thus we decided to make our way over there ourselves, to the horror of the tour operators, english speaking guides and people trying to flog guidebooks. Getting there is not as tricky as the tour operators would like you to think. There are several buses from the railway station and they are all very cheap. We took #306 for 7 RMB, but we were overtaken by #419 as well which seemed to be quicker (or maybe thats just down to individuial drivers, I am convinced timetables do not exist). And it seems to take about as long, judging by teh fact the the tour group from our hostel turned up at the same time as us, and they left the hostel before us.

Once there, as lone tourists you are immediatly attacked by vendors of programmes and tourguides, but if you know the basics, theres not really a lot more they can tell you. Basivcally the complex was all built by the emperor Qin Shi Huangdi over 200 years ago, and it is a vast complex () with over 20 pits filled with infantry, chariots, horses and military officers which would be the emperors army in the next life. But there is also a non-military section, full of aninals, artists, entertainers and regular people, though as these pits are quite far, we did not visit them here, but elements from them were on display in London and were equally impressive.

Coming here was one of the reasons we started talking about a longer trip and it did not disappoint at all, and the experience is about on par with being on the great wall in my book.

That was about what we had time to do today, so we still haven't got a real verdict on whether the only thing worth seing here is the army or not Even though we saw the drum and bell towers yesterday and they were quite impressive, there are just som many of those in other cities as well. Xi'an needs to provide a little more to beat the tough competition it has. Thats tomorrows mission ..

PS,

We've now created an album containing some of the more interesting pictures from Japan, and it can be found here, we'll add one for China soon.

Thoughts on China

Noisy, crowded, dusty, smoggy
I've been mainly posting the things that we've done but not given you any indications of our first impressions of China.  Please note that these have been formed mainly from the capital city of Beijing and with a country the size of China, it's impossible to make generalisations of the whole country based on a couple of cities. 

Beijing though, I can say without reservation is big.  Huge.  And noisy, crowded, dusty and very smoggy.  The post in wikipedia on smog shows pictures of Beijing just before and after it rains as an example of the smog.  During our entire stay there we didn't see the sky once, which must be bad for our lungs.  Xi'an isn't much better, though watching the traffic on the big roundabout around the Bell Tower in Xi'an can easily distract you from the smog.  Today we stood on the top of the Bell Tower and watched in amusement as a couple tried, unsuccessfully, to cross the road at the roundabout in the traffic.  Don't feel too sorry for them, there are several strategically placed pedestrian subways that they could have used to safely and easily cross the road.

Incomprehensible
It won't come as a surprise to most that Chinese is a very difficult language to pick up.  We have been here for 5 days now and I can just about say hello and thanks in Chinese.  I think that I now know the symbols for China (though Johan isn't so sure I'm right) and exit.  Thankfully, everyone seems to understand numbers so it is possible to provide the right amount for your bill and understand telephone numbers but that's about it. 

In hind sight, it was an excellent idea to go to Japan first.  I'm sure that we will suffer from culture shock soon, but for the time being, we have got over the fact that it will take us twice as long to do simple tasks like buying a train ticket or ordering food.  Japan was a good intermediary, as many more people could speak a little English and were always very willing to help. 

Now, don't get us wrong, we are enjoying it, and although some things (like the Great Wall) do stand out as particularly special, sometimes even the small things, like finding a reasonably priced, delicious hotpot restaurant in a random shopping mall yesterday, are making our journey memorable.

Sometimes Surprising
When we went to the famous Beijing duck restaurant, we discovered 5 minutes before our reservation time, that the map in the guidebook was completely wrong (again).  So we jumped into a taxi and phoned the restaurant for them to give the taxi driver directions.  Who knows what they said but the place that he pointed to was definitely not Da Dong.  So we were 5 minutes late for our reservation, the hostess from the restaurant was asking us what time we would arrive and we had no idea where we were!  We went into a nearby hotel/restaurant and said Da Dong? and the hostess there started to explain, in perfect Chinese, how to get there.  When she realised that we were quite clueless, she walked with us for several minutes before pointing out he restaurant to us.  

Modern, ancient
I was reading the China Post on the plane on the way here to Xi'an and there was an article written by a foreigner who meets up with a Chinese friend every week to practice English/Chinese.  While they were talking the Chinese friend started to speak about how he felt about foreigners who came to China and only wanted to see and speak about the historical sites and were not the least bit interested in the modern, new China that has been emerging and which the Chinese people are so proud of. 

It was an interesting article because I, like the author of the piece, must admit that I am very interested in the history and ancient culture of the Chinese and that it was a large part of the reason why I am here.  I know that China will be a very different place in 10-15 years time when it crosses the boundary from developing to developed country but I don't want to see yet another developed, modern country!  I want to see somewhere that is different from what I know.  I hope that the Chinese people truly appreciate what they have in their rich history and in the mad rush to modernise, they keep the reminders of where they have come from.

National Holiday
My final observation (for now) concerns the preparations for the National Holiday on October 1st .  While we were in Beijing, it was evident every where that we went that the entire city was getting ready for a great day.  In fact, the 60th anniversary of anything is special, this is the 60th anniversary of the formation of the Peoples Republic of China and an event which I'm sure the government is keen for the people to enjoy. There are flowers and flower arrangements being put up everywhere as well as big screens in many public places.  Repairs are being made to roads and I read in the newspaper that the people taking part in the parades on the day have already been practicing for 2 months!

I guess that when the eyes of the world were on China for the Olympics that the lengths that they went to were special, but now I see that this is just the way that they do things in China.  Everything is big, everything is practiced and practiced and nothing is left to chance.  There have even been notices given to people who live on the route that they cannot watch the parades from their windows as a security breach, no one is allowed to fly kites until the celebrations are over and even the nations pigeons have been rounded up and locked up for the duration.

Personally I'm glad that we will be celebrating the holidays on the Yangtze River (I hope) and then spending the rest of the holidays in Shanghai, a city known for it's affinity with foreigners! 

Beijing: Today

Just finished writing yesterday's post, I didn't want to mix them up because today was such a fantastic day that it deserved it's own post. I'm so sorry that we can't post any pictures here in China as there were some cracking ones!

Today we went to the Great Wall!!
What an awesome place! Yes, I know that it has been reconstructed recently as it was a crumbling ruins before and yes I know that it is a big tourist attraction but what an attraction!! When you stand on the wall and look in either direction and see it snaking over the hills/mountains and know that that bit, at least, has been there for thousands of years... wow.

If you ever get the chance to go to Beijing, go to see the Great Wall at Mutianyu which has very dramatic scenery and most importantly, not many hawkers or other tourists. Perhaps it gets more busy in the summer but today, it was a beautiful, warm, sunny day and there were not that many other people there. Just enough to swap photo taking opportunities with or encourage on when they are going in the opposite direction as you. Even the hawkers were mostly friendly though I heard one ask an older woman her age, much to her dismay! I think he was just trying to be friendly as in this culture, age brings respect, but I'm afraid that she didn't take it that way :)

Two things you need to be aware of when you go to see the Great Wall at Mutianyu. One is how you get up the mountainside to the wall, and the other is, of course, how you get down. To get up, you take a chair lift, very much like the kind of lift that you would take in a ski resort but with no soft snow below you, only trees. A scary enough proposition and you can, if you would like to, take the chair lift back down the mountain. Or you could do what we did and descend on a toboggan. Yes, a toboggan! A piece of kit, again meant for snow and ice, but this time it's down the side of a forested mountainside. Are they mad? Perhaps, but even I had to admit that it was really good fun and though I didn't go as quickly as some, Johan, I surprisingly enjoyed it very much.

The verdict, a must do if you come to China.

Detours
We went to the Great Wall with a tour company and so saw some other stuff like a Jade carving factory, the Ming tombs, and left the group as they were herding us into a silk making place. All good, but nothing can compare with the Great Wall.

Beijing Duck
Our second great of the day was our visit to Da Dong (thanks again Kevin) for their famous Beijing duck. We dined on a whole duck between us and ate our fill. We had our personal chef carve the duck in front of us and the kind waitress showed us how to make duck pancakes (umm... oh well, she seemed bent on it so we hadn't the heart to tell her we already knew). The meal was followed with a delicious fruit platter and some unidentifiable, but lovely, sorbet. All for the princely sum of £31, between us. And that was with beer and an additional vegetable dish. If we ever go back to Beijing, please come with us, there were a few other dishes on the menu that we saw other diners having that we would have loved to try as well!

Tomorrow
The grand plan is to fly to Xi'an tomorrow however try using an international credit card in China! It is proving next to impossible at the moment as they require copies of our passport, the credit card and a signed additional authorisation from us before they are allowed to take money over the Internet... hmmm not sure they understand this Internet thing.... good job we can use Paypal instead. But oops! Paypal they have detected "suspicious" activity on the card and frozen the funds so we can't seem to be able to pay for our tickets. Finally we have asked them to send the tickets to the airport and we will go there in person and pay by card, or if that won't work then by cash. Watch this space!

Beijing: Yesterday

Yesterday was a full day in Beijing, we went to church (!), the Forbidden Palace, and a whole bunch of gardens. A good, full day.

BCIF
The church we went to was an international church with services in different languages including English. The service we went to was at 9:30 in the morning and though the preacher was good (he spoke on 1 John 4 which we had read at our wedding) and the singing was good, there was nothing that would single out the service as happening in China... except... when we entered the building, we had to show our passports! Apparantly only foreign nationals and holders of foreign passports were allowed to attend the service!!

Forbidden Palace
After church we headed for the Forbidden Palace for a wander around. Maybe we would have learnt a whole lot more about the FP if we had taken a tour instead of going it alone however I really enjoyed the freedom that we had to wander off to any part of the Palace that we choose and spend as long as we want there. The place is huge! With beautiful golden roofs and lots and lots of dragons. It did show some evidence of the millions of tourists that go through the place every year, but the scale and magnificence of it all cannot be easily worn away.

Gardens
After the palace Johan spotted a pagoda at the top of a hill opposite the FP and simply had to climb it to take in some views of the FP. By now, "stairs are my friend" so we paid our 2RMB and wandered in. After climbing to the top and taking some pictures (there really is a wonderful view from there) we started to head down a different direction. We could hear singing, lots of chinese voices singing songs with gusto. Hmm... we thought, is this some religious, or political thing? We found a bunch of regular looking people in a pagoda singing and sat and listened for a bit. We wandered on and soon came upon another, smaller group of people playing music on strange looking instruments. Then another group playing and dancing, and another singing... Everywhere in this beautiful park, people were gathering and singing and dancing and enjoying themselves. We still don't know why but if this is a regular Sunday afternoon occurance then we would highly recommend it! The park was called Jing Shang park.

We then wandered through Bei Hai park which they were decorating in preperation for the national holiday next Thursday (Oct 1). Beautiful floweres, chinese lanterns and huge screens are being put up everywhere in Beijing in preparation for this day. We're making tracks soon so we will avoid the celebrations as it's supposed to be mental!

Wangfujing St Food Market
Hungry now, we headed for a food market off Wangfujing St. As a tourist, I'd probably give this one a miss unless you are keen to try fried insects (I wasn't) or any type of meat on a skewer, though at 1RMB each = 9p, I'm a little suspect. Though I have to say that neither of us have come down with anything yet (touch wood) so maybe it's not so bad.

Goodbye Japan, Hello China

I'm sure you are now aware that we are in China and unfortunately, with the iron ring firmly in place, we are unable to update our blog while we are here. At least, not in the traditional way - this post is being written via e-mail so I have no idea how it will be formatted but hey, I'll fix it when we reach Singapore in 5 weeks time.

Goodbye Japan
On our final full day in Japan we joined a trip and went to see a sumo wrestling tournament day. We were very lucky to be in Japan in September as wrestling matches only occur 3-4 times a year for 15 days at a time. We saw day 5. We are planning to upload some photos to picasa (if we can) so look out for our next post which will provide the link to see the pictures. The sumo was a great experience, the must surprising thing was that so many of the sumo wrestlers now do not come from Japan. The current reigning grand champion is a Bulgarian man! I have to admit though that in the getup, he looked very Japanese from our seats :)

After the match we hung out with a couple of people we met on the tour and had a great dinner, a lovely time for our last night in Japan.

Next day, off to China!!

China
We were very excited and a little nervous about entering China, it's weird, although we have done nothing wrong, don't have swine flu and have the correct visa, you still feel like they may throw you out at the last minute! Of course nothing of the sort happened and the official at the boarder was very lovely and even allowed us to rejoin the queue at the front after we filled out a form that we'd missed.

Finding our hotel was a bit of an adventure as the instructions from the hotel stopped at the metro station and as we didn't have the name of the place in chinese, the taxi driver didn't really have a clue. Finally, a kind Chinese girl who knew some English stopped by and spoke with the taxi driver for us and called the hotel who gave the driver instructions. Thank you, whoever you are!!

My first thoughts of Beijing are as expected. It is a large, developing city with a curious, but not unpleasant, mix of the old Beijing and the new Beijing. Our hotel is situated in an old-style courtyard in a hutong which was converted so it still preserves some old world charm but with modern western style toilets! The smog is something to be seen however, and that did come as a surprise. I do hope that they do something about it soon or else there will be a generation of Chinese people with breathing problems very soon.

Temple of Heaven
Today we spent most of the day at the Temple of Heaven. This was where the Emperor used to make annual sacrifices and prayers to the gods for good harvests around the winter solstice (end of January). Several ancient structures stood in large and beautiful gardens which we were free to wander around.

Top tip: enter from the south gate rather than the north. You don't have to, however that is the normal tourist route so things in the automatic guide will make a little more sense.

Of course Johan managed to bump into a group of four Swedes who were doing a six month exchange at Beijing university who were out doing the tourist thing there. Those Swedes get everywhere!!

Tiananmen Square
We also found ourselves in this famous square at sunset and were wondering what so many people there were doing taking pictures and waving their mini-Chinese flags. Turns out there is a flag lowering ceremony every day at sunset which is a must-see occasion.

The square itself is... well, a big square. Probably as impressive as Stonehenge, not a lot to see there but you really shouldn't miss it. In two weeks time they celebrate Beijing day so the square was closed this morning due to the practice sessions they were having there. There were also big screens up and lots of beautiful flowers everywhere to mark the occasion. It's a shame we won't be there for the day (Oct 1) as I'm sure it will be a great celebration.

Ding Ding Xiang (or Hot Pot Paradise)
Dinner tonight was at the Ding Ding Xiang (thanks for the tip Kevin) which serverd a speciality hot pot. For those of you (like us) who think that hot pot is made in Lanchashire by a chief called Nigel should think again. This was an individual bowl of soup placed in front of you with a variety of meats and vegetables which you cook yourself in the soup. Kinda like steamboat, if you know what I mean, but each person has their own steaming bowl. Very, very good food.

Well, off to bed now. Will try to find a church tomorrow (hmm... we are in China) then check out the Forbidden Place. Or maybe we'll find ourselves somewhere completely different...

Re: Landed in China

And as we had been told, blogger is not available from here, and neither is facebook or viewing images in picasaweb, so in the future please lower expectations of our communications accordingly. However, we seem to be able to upload images so sll is not lost..

We'll fill you in on the exciting Sumo-wrestling tournament we watched yesterday as soon as we've headed out into the beijing evening to hunt for food...

Brb...

Last night in Japan

Turned out to be a great one! Until we tried to find our hotel... Anyway, long story, very tired, will try to post tomorrow about the amazing sumo wrestling!!

Off to China tomorrow... we've heard rumours that blogger isn't allowed there... we'll let you know tomorrow. Either way, we know how to e-mail a post so hopefully those will get through, they may not be so pretty (with photos) but we should keep you posted on our activities.

Spirit of Osaka

Today is more my area I suppose...

Yesterday, before finding our octopus feast, we did attempt to make our way to the award winning Japanese whisky distillery in Yamazaki, but since the last tour is at 15.00 (quite an early curfew for whisky, I must add) we did not make it but we set out this morning to remedy that, and I must say it was quite rewarding.




We rocked up just before 12.00 and got kitted with audio equipment that played an English soundtrack to the tour, which was all in Japanese. Despite of that it was interesting and having some subtle differences from distilleries I've visited before. For one, I dont recall any of the distilleries I visited in Scotland using different kinds of vats, but apparently that makes it quite different. Another was the very intense smell of apple in the fermentation room, but I am sure that is as it should be. They have been doing what they do there since 1923 after all..

One thing that was the same though was the samples at the end.. Yamzaki and Hakushu 12yr, well worth the trip there, and I would say the tour fee, but that was free which makes it even better. I also managed to get a little of the 18yr, but I had to pay for that, unfortunately. There was also, naturally, a gift shop, so what we did not spend on fees or samples, I spent there. Completely rational. I wonder how much it will cost to ship the loot home :) ?


But now, after a little rest in the hostel, we're off ot paint the town red on our last chance in Japan.

Leaving Nara

We finaly figured out how to recieve the coffee on offer at our lovely hostel - it's all a matter of who you ask - and after enjoying a cup, ventured out in the rain on our last day in Nara.

I was quite keen to visit the Nara Photography museum, fabled to have some lesser known views of Nara which were photographed by the famous (if you're Japanese) late Taikichi Irie. After half an hour of mostly uphill walking, we arrived at the museum which was thankfully, open. A word of warning, this is not the place to go if you have had your fill of temples! Most of the photos are pictures of temples in and around Nara. Good if you don't actually want to go to the temples but at least want to appreciate. Of note though was an exhibition that they held of photos of the night sky by various up and coming photographers. Some were really amaizing and have given us some ideas for when we get somewhere that it is possible to see the night sky - maybe when we get to Australia...

Next stop - Osaka
We decided to include Osaka in our itinerary following advice from some friends that Osaka has the best food in Japan. When we got there and eventually found our hostel, we dropped off our bags and went out to find out what the buzz was all about. On the advice of another one of the friendly tourist guides, we ended up in the "Pizza Ball House" in the basement of a very nice hotel. Apparently octopus balls is what the famous Takoyaki is when translated into English. Call me picky, but takoyaki sounds much better.

It was a do it yourself restaurant which was great fun. We ordered two of the greats - takoyaki and okonomiyaki, or Japanese pancake (both shown in the picture). They were both cooked at you table with you helping it along a bit and I think that it was actually one of the best meals that we have had so far in Japan!

It was a long day and we both have been feeling the strain a bit of this relentless travelling. We sat for a while during the afternoon taking a good look at our plans for China and really tried to figure out what would be a workable (read less taxing) schedule.

Onwards.

See the deer at Nara, they said

What they didn't clarify is that the deer at Nara are a different breed from all other deer known to man and that what they should have said was "Watch out for the deer!". This picture really doesn't really do justice to the many hundreds of deer that roam the parks and pedestrianised streets as if they own the place. Rather than being remotely cautious of humans, they have come to recognise them as providers of the infamous "deer biscuits" that anyone can pick up for 150 yen.

A warning to anyone getting excited now, the deer aren't stupid. They have come to recognise when someone is in possession of the deer biscuits and make a beeline for you and can be quite persistent in their demand of your biscuits. If you stay away from the biscuits however, you will find that they are quite calm and even gentle.

That wasn't all there was to see in Nara, the home of a UNESCO listed World Heritage site. In fact, there are more temples and more shrines, including the impressive Giant Bhudda which was, well, pretty big.















By this point, I was starting to get a bit templed out. I recognise that this is a long trip and that there will be many, many more temples and shrines of various religions to visit so it's probably best not to OD on them in the first week.

The afternoon therefore was spent at the local Sega World where Johan impressed me with his considerable driving skills by beating me not once but twice at Super Mario's go-kart racing. He then proceeded to also beat me at a bizarre game (only in Japan) where two people played together as a hulking male zombie and a petit green female zombie who fall in love and try to excape from a complex where they were held.

Dinner was at a Japanese-style burger joint which had remarkably tiny but tasty burgers, followed by a take-away sushi tray which we ate back at the hostel followed by some tasty (bean-flavoured?) snacks that we bought earlier.

I'm very tired now, all the walking is surely good for me but man I'm beat. Today has been quite a quiet day so hopefully tomorrow I will have a little more energy!

Starting week 2...

So, before I let the wife completely take over this column, I thought I'd add a little summary of the first week on the road and look a little ahead as well..

Tokyo was the perfect start to the trip, its just like a big city anywhere in the world. But its just that little more difficult to communicate and understand what is going on, since the ability to read is slightly impeded. We had three really great days in Tokyo though with the highlight coming on the first day, the fishmarket and wandering through an almost deserted downtown Tokyo in the early morning.

As for Kyoto and Nara, it seems they are more tourist intense (though that might be an illusion due to Tokyo's size) and as soon as you step off the train you are attacked by tourist information officials showing you all you have to do. Don't get me wrong, that's a good thing, since it is more difficult getting around (read no underground) and you rely more on the information they feed you.

So the rest of this week we'll be spending in Nara and Osaka, before we return to Tokyo for a night of Sumo wrestling (watching!!) and the flight to Beijing, which hopefully will ease us into China just like Tokyo eased us into Japan.

And as a final note, I'd like to start a hopefully regular occurance of... lets say interesting observations.. The first week has brought three really interesting signs.


The first one in downtown Tokyo, obviously a training area for pedestrians, as there is no other explanation for it. There are a lot of pavements in Japan, but I haven't seen any other warning signs anywhere.


The second sign was at the station in Kyoto, and it kind of speaks for itself..


And the final one, is another loo-related story I am afraid, after the interesting expereince with the features of Japanese toilets I have been staying well clear of any experiments. After all it is quite warm here anyway, so I don't need a heated toiletseat thank you very much. And sometimes they provide enough entertainment just the way they are, yesterday I spend about 5 minutes looking for the button that did the 'flush' operation, only to realise it was a lever on the side, what will they come up with next I wonder?? But I digress, the picture Vaniah located was in a more 'basic' model..

Laters!!

Climbing a mountain

The day started innocently enough, breakfast at the hostel, sitting there and chatting with a lovely couple from Barcelona sitting beside us. They had spent 4 days in Kyoto and were leaving that day so naturally we asked them what the highlight of their visit has been. They suggested the Fushimi Inari-taisha shrine as a must-see place so with our JR pass in hand and a few hours to spare we headed to Inari station.

The shrine complex was deceptively ordinary as we entered and observed the now-usual rituals of washing, ringing a bell and clapping before each of the shrines. We followed the throngs of tourists and local Japanese people alike through the path through the many torii (orange gates) towards the next shrine. We were surprised to find that after that shrine, the gates continued, each set getting a little steeper and moving further up the mountain and into the forest and away from the civilization below.

After a short while, what started as a desire to see what came next, became a compulsion to reach the top of this (now clear) mountain. Needless to say, after an hour and a bit Johan bounded up the last set of stairs and claimed victory.

I didn't mind, reaching the top really only meant that we could then head downhill for a bit :)

Back to Kyoto and lunch at the food market (beautiful but overpriced) we headed back to the hostel to pick up our bags and headed back to the train station. We passed a street celebration along the way, complete with flags and children drumming. It seemed to be everywhere and quite friendly. Reminded me that the Japanese were a very community minded people which was lovely.

Our last day in Kyoto has come to an end so we head to our next destination - Nara. Our first sights of Nara where very lovely - it is much smaller than Tokyo and Kyoto so life is much slower. The food looked better and cheaper, and to top it off there was a beautiful pond overlooked by a beautiful temple right near where our hotel was supposed to be.

Of course the preverbal fly appeared in the form of our hotel room. It's always interesting to learn something new about yourself and what better way to do so than when you're travelling. Needless to say we will be providing a less than spectalular review of the hotel and we moved into a mixed dorm in a local hostel instead. Contingency funds well spent I think.

Anyway, the hostel owners are looking at me funny now, I think they want us to go to bed so I shall oblige them :) Until next time... g'night.

Rainy days

We woke up this morning to an overcast and grey Tokyo view and are going to bed to the sound of raindrops on the roof of our Japanese-style hostel in Kyoto and we're still happy! That is because today was a travel day therefore the best day possible for it to rain.

First stop, Shinagawa station to pick up our Japan Rail pass and reserve a seat on the bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto. I have yet to decide if this is actually a cheap alternative to getting individual tickets or the Japanese reaction to the millions of questions that stupid tourists ask them, in English, about getting trains on this mildly confusing rail system. Better to make rail travel easy on almost all trains to the tourists for a price that won't make the locals jealous. Consider me cynical, but that does seem to be the rational response :)

Either way, for the next 7 days, we can easily jump on almost any Japan Rail (JR) train and travel anywhere in Japan quickly and very easily. Works for me!!

After going on to a hostel booking website last night and picking a place within our budget range that seemed to be reasonably central, we were pleasantly surprised to find, down a little backstreet of Kyoto, a lovely little Japanese-style hostel complete with matresses on the ground and bamboo mats. The very friendly staff were quick to explain the ropes and when we inquired about a tea ceremony, made the reservations for us quickly and easily. The hostel even included high speed, wireless internet access in our room which was included in the price. Sweet!

The tea ceremony was private (just Johan and myself with our lovely hostess) and we both got the chance to give it a go - I have to confess that Johan got more "excellents" than me though I'm not sure if it's because he did a better job, or if our host just fancied him. Either way, it was an interesting insight into the Japanese culture which has persisted throughout the ages, and a perfect indoor activity when it's pouring with rain outside!

Temple day

Friday turned out to be a temple day in Tokyo. To be fair, there aren't that many temples that we could find in Tokyo, I think there are a few there, but not like some other places that I've been where you cannot sneeze for another temple...

Our first stop was Asakusa, which we had been told was a top place to visit if you only have a short amount of time in Tokyo. Can I hear "tourist trap"??? We followed a walking tour guide in a book that we had picked up at the Times Destinations show in London last year which unlike Nakamise Shopping Arcade is worth a visit.

However, at the end of the shopping street, the dedicated tourist is rewarded with the sight of the Asakusa Karinon Temple complex which is made up of a huge temple (currently being refurbished so we have no idea what it really looks like), a major shrine and a complex of other temple-like buildings with multiple Buddha and small-god shrines. As with all such buildings, I was struck by their beauty and a little jealous that these people had such an uplifting environment where they go to make their prayers known to their gods. Don't get me wrong here, I appreciate the freedom and flexibility of Christianity which allows us to pray to God in all situations and in any place, but sometimes if I'm praying to God on a bus or in a crowded canteen, I can't help wondering if I'm being irreverent...

The rest of the walk was a bit of a write-off as well so with a little trepidation we headed for Roppongi. I liked Roppongi, though not enough to take any pictures (sorry), it was a beautiful, modern construction complete with everything the dedicated ex-pat would want. After a coffee, it was off to Takeshita Dori street which was allegedly the favoured hangout of the teenage fashionistas and goth princesses. Clearly 1:30 pm was a little too early for them so it was off to the second religious place of the day - Meiji.

Now we were really lucky with the Meiji shrine. It was a beautiful but warm day which made the walk in the woods to reach the shrine particularly pleasant.

Along the way, there were several "gates" that the visitor had to pass through. To give you a idea of the size of some of these gates, here is one which shows me standing at the base of one of them. This one was made from "Japanese cedars" which were apparently donated by a pious Japanese person.

The shrine itself is not a religious place as perhaps you or I would consider. There was no god that was being worshiped in its complex, rather it commemorates one of the Emperors of Japan who ruled during the Meiji period from 1868 to 1912. Not so long ago!

The word Meiji means "enlightened rule" and this is how the Emperor saw himself. He ended the previously held feudalistic rule and ushered in a way whereby Japan started its move towards a democratic way of government where people of all classes could be involved in the governance of the country. Many of the policies and institutions that he set up are believed to be the springboard for much of Japans swift growth and modernisation, a feature of Tokyo which we have certainly observed.

At the shrine itself we were again very lucky. Friday it seems, is a very good day to get married as we saw not one, but two weddings taking place. At least we assumed that they were weddings... They were very beautiful though when we saw the help that the bride needed to get up stairs in her costume, we did wonder a bit about the practicality of those garments :) At least you don't have to wear them everyday anymore...!

This beautiful guest (right) is taking a photo while wearing a kimono and is a great example of your modorn Meiji Japanese person who embraces modernatity jet still hold on to the traditions of the Japanese people.

The rest of the shrine complex was also beautiful. We visited the gardens which were supposed to be awash with the colours of lilies and azaleas however September really isn't the month for gardens... Perhaps a few weeks earlier we would have caught some late summer flowers and in a few weeks time we would catch the autumnal bursts of colour but right now, everything was green. We had to be satisfied with these colourful fish...

Picture of the day

Says it all really... worth a thousand words :)

A Fish and tai-chi dawn

What do you do when the jet-lag gets you up at 4am in Tokyo??

The short answer is : you find a fish market, then hang out at the imperial gardens (then head back to the hotel for a lunchtime nap). But that does not mean it was an uneventful day and the long story of it goes something like this...

Since we both failed to stay awake past 6pm last night, which is about when we expected to pass out, we woke up before the crack of dawn, after a solid 10 hour sleep. Being wide awake at 4 am in Tokyo has its advantagtes though as thats when the fishmarkets open! So of course we took advantage of the situation and made tracks for that. After some searching we found it, and on the way acquired a handful of other travellers who were also lost and looking for it. And it was quite interesting...

From Tokyo fishmarket and palace

It was heaving, both with tourists and employees, and watching all the fishmongers was fascinating - they were all quite specialised at their tasks. You had the furrier boys who only pulled carts laden with the produce, the gutters who only gutted fish, so naturally you missed it if you blinked. Then there were the price-taggers who semed to only be restocking and pricing fish and of course the purhasers who inspect and buy fish at the auction. This was the piece-de-resistence (pardon my french) and watching the auctioneer shout prices like a machine-gun and hearing the bells indicating the imminent end of the auction was quite catching. Since this is the event most tourists come for, apparently we have become a nuicanse, so we are not allowed to roam freely anymore but instead we are put in a tiny area near the back overlooking the least interesting bit, the frozen tuna sales. Take a picture of the auctions outside of the 'tourist-pen' and you are quickly ushered inside by a man with a multi-lingual sign. This applies even if you have escaped the pen, as we quickly found out, but we did manage to escape it in the end and went hunting for the breakfast sushi stalls. But only after deciding that this little fellow we found earlier was indeed the ugliest fish around. Can anyone supply us with a name for it? We'd like to know.

After shadowing a group of Japanese looking tourists (revealed by their lack of wellingtons) we did find a little hole-in-the-wall that served sushi, and it was indeed straight from the market and very yummy. The only thing we lacked was a little elbow-room, but who can complain about that really, and of course coffee, which no breakfast is complete without, but Starbucks on the way to the Imperial palace, which was the next stop, fixed that.

It was about an hour or so of a walk to get to the Palace Imperial gardens, including the coffee break, through a virtually empty Tokyo, remember, after all these adventures it is still only 7 a.m!! Which we only realised by the fact that we were customers #2 and 3 at Starbucks this morning a full 5 minutes after they opened :). But even getting there at almost 8 the path to the Palace gardens was virtually empty, and strolling around them as the morning sun started to rise above the skyrises.

>>>Vaniah<< Johan has nodded off so I'm taking over. As he mentioned, the journey to the Imperial gardens was possibly better than the gardens themselves and very beautiful in the cloudless Tokyo morning sunshine. When we got to the entrance of the gardens, we were disappointed to find that they were closed, and only after a brief discussion amongst ourselved realised that it didn't open until 9am and it was indeed only 8:30! So we wandered off to amuse ourselves for half an hour but instead were previleged to find this guy enjoying the peace of the morning. I can assure you that we kept a respectful distance.

The gardens themselves were quite beautiful, I think though that they were designed to be enjoyed in the springtime when all the cherry and plum trees are in full bloom and the gardens become a sea of colour. On our visit however the predominant colour was green and without a guide to tell us the story behind the gardens, it was only a peaceful and lovely place.

The final big adventure of the day was lunch. By 11:30 we were both ravenous so determined not to spend more than we should we looked for a local lunchtime place and found this outside a place full of local Japanese businessmen...

The idea seemed to be that you order and pay for you food using the machine, then go inside where it's been prepared for you and pick it up. Of course, it's all in Japanese however some of the buttons have helpful pictures on them. After randomly pressing a few buttons a note was printed. Afraid that we had mistakenly ordered half the menu, we went inside and signaled panic to the chef. He then came outside and helpfully showed us how it worked. Phew! Btw, if you'd like to know the secret, e-mail us and we will be happy to reveal all :)

After a final random meeting with a very pleasant Englishman who gave us some suggestions of places in Tokyo to visit, we headed back to the hotel to have a nap before meeting up with some friends tonight. And here we are...