Out of Beijing...

We spent a couple of days in Beijing, a place I can't really say should be high on a priority list of things to do... The first night started off great. We had a great hot pot dinner at a local fast food place called Xiabu Xiabu. Amazingly to me, most places in Beijing have an English menu as compared to Tokyo where English menus were few and far between. The weather was nice, and we walked around the town a little at night before turning in.

After that, things didn't go quite as smoothly... When we had planned our trip, I insisted that we come to Beijing for at least a few days. The first day, we made our way to the Forbidden City in the center of town. Unfortunately for me, the halls were all closed for fixing-up pre-Olympics. So, I could walk around the plazas but not even get any worthwhile pictures since they were surrounded by a huge, ugly fence and covered in scaffolding... Certainly didn't get the feeling of awe that I was expecting. To top it off, the memorial museum where you can view Mao Zedong's body was closed. Tian'anmen Square was quite impressive at least.

The next day, we headed for the Great Wall of China, parts of which are fairly close to Beijing. The further we got from Beijing, the worse the weather. It was already cold to begin with, and as we drove further out, it began to rain quite heavily. When we got to the chair lift site that takes you up to the top, it was raining, bitterly cold, and some snow was mixed in. Emilie understandably hung back at the base to have some tea while I headed to the lift. As I got higher up, the fog settled in until I couldn't see more than 10 feet. At the top, the wall itself was covered in about 1 inch of new snow. I made the best of it trying to get some foggy, disturbing pictures, but you can imagine it wasn't very impressive... That's what I get I guess!

We left for Hong Kong the next day. If it can be believed it was actually colder that morning. As we landed, they announced that it was 80 degrees outside. Even with the 100% humidity, we were more than happy to sweat and be warm for the first time in days.

So... Beijing was not the best stop on our trip as of yet. It did seem to be full of excitement though as nearly everything was either being built, just finished (roads, etc.) or being torn down. It wasn't possible to walk 1 block without seeing construction on a massive scale. Terminal 3 at the airport is just insanely huge. The ceiling is so high that you feel as if you are outside to a degree.

One last thing... An awkward point was going to travel agents to talk about going to Tibet, them having huge calendars portraying Lhasa as a great destination to visit, asking about getting in and getting a very frank "No." So much for that part of the trip.

Here are our pictures from Beijing.

Last Stop in Japan: Hiroshima

Emilie's out jogging this morning, so I took the opportunity to sneak over to the manga / internet cafe. They're great, and I'm lazy! You get your own little cubicle with a PC, free drinks, and sometimes free ice cream. If you happen to be in Hiroshima, don't bother with Media Cafe Popeye, its all about Chai Garden. If you're really a budget traveler, you can sleep here as well (there are showers).

Anyways, the city has been interesting. We were able to meet up with Joe and Netsue our first night, and they were very gracious hosts. Netsue was kind enough to do all the ordering at dinner. The second night, Sunday, we tried okonomiyaki for dinner, Hiroshima style. According to Netsue, and I'm probably forgetting some details, okonomiyaki roughly translates to "all of your favorites cooked together." The dinner itself was good, you can even get mochi embedded in yours, but I spent the next day somewhat sick. I guess that gives a somewhat negative outlook for how my stomach will handle India...

Sunday afternoon was a rainy day which was fitting as we visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, located right where the atomic bomb was dropped. It was a very difficult place to visit. The Atomic Bomb Dome, Children's Peace Monument, and the Cenotaph were all moving experiences. The Peace Flame may have been the most saddening. We went back briefly on Monday to enjoy the sunshine. It was nice to see lots of children enjoying the park and just having fun compared to the dreariness of a rainy day. The museum was interesting as well especially as it pointed out how little we learn in American schools about what actually happened leading up to the bombing, good and bad.

I think I will miss Hiroshima. It's got all the good qualities of the big Japan cities with a little less hustle and bustle. Regardless, we're off to Beijing this afternoon!

Pictures from Hiroshima.

Nara Rocks

We spent a half-day today in Nara, and I had a blast. There are deer everywhere just wandering around. Cakes to feed them are 150 Yen, and the deer basically attack you right after you buy a packet. The temples were cool as well, but kind of a different thing than playing with 1200 deer... It was finally a nice day here which made it all the better.

We spent the morning at a flea market at the To-ji temple in Kyoto. Its a thing that happens once a month, and we were lucky to be here. You could really get some interesting things there like Japanese antiques, clothes, etc. All I bought was mochi though.

Pictures of the day.

Off to find more great food... Looking like donburi on the cheap.

Mochi, mochi, mochi

Mochi here in Japan is the greatest thing ever... My personal favorite so far are the big balls rather than the folded over whatnots. I have personally consumed at least 5 pounds of the stuff, and we stop for free samples as much as possible!

Against the Rain, Kind of...

It rained pretty heavily here in Kyoto all day yesterday. Although we brought good clothes for the weather, we were stubborn and didn't take enough out with us (something we remedied today). Our plan was to head over to Higashiyama, the main sight seeing area in Kyoto, and check out the temples / views of the city. We made it all the way to the first temple on the tour with about 5 stops for tea and warming along the way. Luckily, we made the short side trip into Tainai-meguri at the entrance. Hard to describe, and I'll leave it to you to make the trip to Kyoto to check it out. We more or less gave up due to weather after that and headed back to our favorite spot: Nishiki Market.

Other than that, the highlight of the day was our hunt for a good dinner place in downtown. According to Lonely Planet, there was a 300 year old soba noodle place near our Ryokan. Unfortunately, as we've strangely experienced with a bunch of eateries in the book so far, we weren't able to find it (nor the one we looked for next). Our best guess is that it used to be where they were doing construction on a parking lot.

It all turned out OK though, we settled on a small yakitori restaurant in the neighborhood. They had basically zero vegetarian options, but the chef was kind enough to whip up something custom for Emilie. It was a truly great experience, the place was very small and packed with Japanese business people either celebrating a going-away or a birthday or something else entirely... Anyways, the food ended up being amazing with a great sauce on the dishes. Amazingly there were only two guys running the entire thing!

Today, well bundled up, we bussed it out to Sagano to tour the bamboo grove and Tenryu-ji. We actually had just as much fun there as in the little town around the Arashiyama district. I'm sure it is probably like Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco for the Japanese, but we are tourists after all... Back in the city now after a great yudofu lunch and catching up on our internet addiction.

See the latest pictures at the end of this set.

Ryokan it in Kyoto

We made it down to Kyoto yesterday afternoon on the Shinkansen from Tokyo. I'm not sure, but I think we briefly saw Mt. Fuji in the background through a hazy sky. We have the good fortune to stay in a nice Ryokan in downtown Kyoto. The host is a very nice woman, and she even gave us a present upon arrival (nail clippers that double as an ad for her inn).

We didn't do much last night other than try to arrange accommodation for Hiroshima and plan our day today. We happened upon the Nishiki Market in downtown and spent some time wandering around there before it closed. Today the plan is to head to Higashimaya.

I'm constantly impressed by the cleanliness of everything here and the market was no exception. The side streets are definitely the place to find the best of everything. The main roads seem to only have chain stores and don't seem drastically different than Tokyo, perhaps a little less crowded (but not much).

Initial pictures in the Kyoto set.

Few Days in Tokyo

We managed to meet up with Jan yesterday, a friend I met in Austria who lives here in Tokyo, and he was kind enough to take us around town. That was after we found an internet cafe in the Shibuya district and figured out how to call him on a pay phone. We saw a good amount of the city: lunch in the Tsukiji fish market, dropped by for a walk through a park near the edge of town, to a temple, went back to Shibuya and to Harajuku for dinner at Fujimama's. The final stop of the night was the Park Hyatt in the Shinjuku district.

Even though the drink we had at the hotel was a little pricey with the cover charge, it was well worth it. The views of the city from the bar (apparently from the movie Lost in Translation) were amazing. It seems that Tokyo goes on and on in all directions... There must have been a million red blinking lights on top of the skyscrapers.

Our hotel is nice, and relatively cheap I think. We're shooting to stay at a more traditional Ryokan when we get to Kyoto on the Shinkansen bullet train tomorrow. Any where that is cheap and clean will work though I think.

Oh... And the highlight of today, for me at least, was the Yodobashi Camera (click for Japanese) store in Shinjuku today. They have every piece of camera gear that you could ever want... Unfortunately, I only wanted to buy a bag but could have spent hours just poking around. Lunch at a small noddle stand in an alley was a really great experience too. I later found out that it made me a little sick, ha.

Pictures if you're interested...

Check the pictures of Emilie being bald too if you haven't seen them.