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.