6/17
Slept in until about two and then nursed a hangover that left me feeling tired and weak. I walked around
the city for quite a while, walking through a hutong with a small, but interesting market. There were so many things I wanted to buy for other people but didn't for the moment. I think I'm going to send another package full of souvenirs home after returning to Beijing from Mongolia.
I walked over to Tiananmen Square, which was huge, but somehow not quite big enough for me. I think I must be at the "impossible to impress" point as it is the largest public square in the world. It was interesting to see the Monument to the People's Heroes and Mao's mausoleum from the outside (as I explained to my Mom, it's only open from 8 a.m.-12 p.m. so it was unlikely I'd ever get inside). My pictures have been boring me a bit as of late, so I decided I should try to focus more on the subject and actually finding meaning in the photo, so I snapped a few of the People statues next to the often-present CCTV security cameras and guards. I headed home through this pretty little park I'd walked through before and got dumplings for dinner.
On my way to Tiananmen Square, I'd met Alex on the street and he reminded me of our plans to go to a club that night. I'm not a big clubber, but it had been a while since I felt like I'd properly, really danced, and THE DANCE FLOOR MOVED. If you've read more than one or two of my entries, you probably know by now that I'm a bit obsessed with obscure/oversized/bizarre/new things and this was no exception. I'd never heard of such a thing and there was no way I was going to miss it, so even though my liver was screaming at me not to, I agreed to meet him at their hostel bar at 11.
I didn't get back until after 7 p.m. so by the time I'd eaten, run a few errands, taken a shower, dressed and messed around online for a while, it was time to go. We had two beers at their hostel and then Alex, Eva and I headed to this club in a taxi (it came out to 15 RMB total, 5 (under $1 USD) each). Terry had left for somewhere on some train already today, but had been kind enough to leave us an extra beer he had, which we split on the way there. Eva and I were practically threatening Alex with bodily harm if the club wasn't as good as promised, but fortunately for him, it was. The moving dance floor was strange- it felt like you were dancing on a speaker as it moved in tune with the music, but by itself, not just as vibrations from the overplayed techno.
So we all drank and had fun. A singer at one point came on a hydrolic stage that lifted out of the dance floor, but I didn't think she was very good, though I was impressed by the dancers who came later. The club was called Banana, which, the three of us agreed, sounded very gay, and might have been. Two Chinese girls came up to me and started hitting on me pretty hard so I danced with them for a while. The bar was decent too (which was only fair after a 30 yuan cover charge for women) and I got an excellent mojito. They had a stripper pole, which I decided to try for the first time ever. It was fun and I think I did quite well, and I felt like finally, all of my third grade dreams and ambitions were coming true.*
We were just getting ready to leave when a group of Chinese guys invited the three of us to join them. They had more of that horrible jaeger-red bull (maybe) mix, but it was free so we stayed for a while. Actually, the guys were quite nice, but it was difficult to talk to them since none of us spoke Mandarin and none of them spoke English very well. Eva and I stayed for a while before getting a cab back, but Alex stayed with them until God knows when. It was only 3:30 a.m. when we got back, which I was very happy with, since I'd thought it was much later, though I still crashed into bed loudly.
*Explanation: In third grade, during a normal show and tell type session, we were supposed to say what we wanted to be when we grew up. I was disturbingly desperate for attention at that age, and so even though I didn't know exactly what it was or entailed, I, with my dresses and Shirley Temple permed hair, told my entire class that I wanted to be a stripper, just for the shock value of it.
Showing posts with label Park. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Park. Show all posts
Friday, July 16, 2010
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Swinging Shanghai
6/6 - 6/8
Didn't do a whole lot for these days. Rested, read, chilled out. I also spent a fair amount of time walking along the Bund, a historical art deco waterfront area. Along the river, I saw my first Mao sculpture, which was pretty cool. The art deco architecture was awesome and it was particularly interesting to see what, to my eyes at least, was the truly Chinese art deco style.
I also walked all around Nanjing Road, a huge shopping area (with a Sephora, which is always a treat for me) that was quite lovely and over to People's Square, which was a really nice park with several museums in it.
I got a haircut (which included a lovely head, arm and shoulder massage) for about $15 USD including tips, in a really nice salon, and when I left, I was very happy with it. Within about fifteen minutes however, I realized that it was too short, the guy had screwed up my bangs and it made my face look fat. It was a good haircut and the guy was very good, but it just didn't work for me so pictures of me will likely be limited until it grows a bit.
Didn't do a whole lot for these days. Rested, read, chilled out. I also spent a fair amount of time walking along the Bund, a historical art deco waterfront area. Along the river, I saw my first Mao sculpture, which was pretty cool. The art deco architecture was awesome and it was particularly interesting to see what, to my eyes at least, was the truly Chinese art deco style.
I also walked all around Nanjing Road, a huge shopping area (with a Sephora, which is always a treat for me) that was quite lovely and over to People's Square, which was a really nice park with several museums in it.
I got a haircut (which included a lovely head, arm and shoulder massage) for about $15 USD including tips, in a really nice salon, and when I left, I was very happy with it. Within about fifteen minutes however, I realized that it was too short, the guy had screwed up my bangs and it made my face look fat. It was a good haircut and the guy was very good, but it just didn't work for me so pictures of me will likely be limited until it grows a bit.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Annoying Alliterative Appetite
5/2-
The idea of doing anything seriously touristy or requiring much effort never even entered my mind today, so I looked at a map and saw that the East Imperial Palace Garden was nearby. My guidebook confirmed that I wouldn't have to do much besides walk around and told me that it was free, so I set off. They were very nice and it was a lovely bit of green. I planned on reading The Shadow of the Wind , which I'd brought with me, but after reading the prologue- or was it actually the first chapter? Who knows? Oh well- I realized that this was going to be a really good book that should be savored and that I didn't really feel like reading right then anyway. I'd save it for the flight to Taipei.
I walked over to Marunouchi Brick Square, the food area Saveur had recommended, and immediately was pulled into the La Boutique de Joel Robuchon. I bought a gorgeous "Religeuse Chocolat" a large cream puff topped with a profiterole with a very thick chocolate cream/pudding inside the cream puffs, covered in a dark chocolate ganache, topped with two discs of carmelized chopped nuts I couldn't quite identify; walnuts or pecans, and a sprinkling of gold leaf. It was a wonderful treat and quite reasonable for how good it was- around $5. I wandered around the corner and saw a long line outside one store, Echire. The plaza had a very strong Parisian influence so the name didn't surprise me, but the product did: butter.
Completely random sidenote- the square also had a strong Boston influence in the form of its fauna and masses of red brick/ architectural type. I thought this was quite strange as the Japanese have an obvious (and one sided) love affair with French culture, but nowhere else did I see a strong, particular American region/city influence.
But I'd better get back to the bountiful bevy of brunettes bartering for butter. Sorry, that was a bit much, but I couldn't stop myself. Alliteration: I am an absolute addict. There really were quite a few people waiting to go into the roped off butter store, and since I'm in Japan, they did all have dark hair. Like in Singapore when I waited because I had the time and wanted to know if it was really worth waiting for, I got in line here.
Besides selling butter, they also had a small bakery inside. Unfortunately they were all out of croissants for the day, so I got a rectangular Madeleine and a large pat (30 grams) of demi-sel butter. You may be wondering why I bought butter and what the fresh hell I thought I was going to do with it, but here's the thing: I really like butter. I don't know as much about it as I'd really like to, but I do like tasting it, using it in unholy amounts, and I've even made my own (which was good, better than the regular kind you'd get at the grocery store, but not as good as I'd expected).
So I bought it just to taste it, basically, with bread. But now I want to start alliterating again and you don't deserve that. I didn't know where I'd get the bread, but I knew I wanted good bread, not packaged white crap. And I was still sitting right next to the Robuchon cafe which had just put out a bunch more bread products, so I bought a croissant to eat my butter with. Croissants, of course, already have a devilish amount of butter layered into their soft sheets, but I always like it better with butter (stop me! It's a disease!) especially when cut open lengthwise, toasted and then with butter on top, which somehow never seems too buttery, but just buttery enough.
This croissant however, was already too buttery to put anymore on, so I just had to eat it plain. It was great, but this meant that I was just randomly carrying around a bunch of butter since I was now full, and had to bread (to butter it on, upside down or right side up).
Butter in bag, bag in hand, croissant in mouth, I got on the loop line which circles Tokyo. My guide book had suggested it as a good way to get a feel of the city as it was cheap and mostly above-ground. Part of it was quite interesting, but much of it just snaked past gray buildings. However, it also went to the station I'd decided I had the energy to go to; Harajuku, to go to Baird Brewing Co., the microbrewery bar Food & Wind recommended, as today was obviously a fine food and drink day. To see the whole city, I ended up doing a 1.5 loop around the city which took about 1.5 hours but again, why not, I had the time.
Wandering through this part of Harajuku was a bit more interesting, but still uninspiring, as most of it was the fleetingly trendy childish, typical "Japan-Harajuku" look, with lots of cartoon/ manga images. I found the bar easily, thanks to their websites excellent directions, and entered.
They didn't have a sampler (which I LOVE for drink tasting) but you could buy their beer in very small (I think less than half-pint) glasses so I could try several different beers without getting sloshed. They also had overpriced, overthought and underwhelming bar snacks, one of which I ordered (chicken and blue cheese deep friend egg rolls) since I hadn't had a proper dinner, just good food previously. They also had great T-shirts, one of which I almost bought for my Stepdad, but they were expensive for what they were, so I refrained.
I wish I could describe the beer as well as I would like to, or even tell you the names of all the different ones I tried, but I can't remember them. In anticipation of this, I had cleverly taken a photograph of the menu with all the beer descriptions. Stupidly, I hadn't written this or downloaded those pictures before I lost my camera.
What I do remember is that the beers were all excellently made and more bitter than I really like (as many well-crafted beers are). I also tried one beer that was memorably called Black Sails. While drinking, I remembered how just how much I enjoy beer and that I really do love beer tasting and microbreweries. I'd really like to learn more about them. To this goal, I flipped through a book they had at the bar, showing and describing the World's Greatest Beers. Neither Oranjeboom, one of my favorite mass produced beers, nor McMenamins Raspberry Ruby, my favorite microbrew, were listed, but I did write down the names of a few other raspberry beers that I wanted to try in the future (as much as I like beer, I like it in a very girly way, preferring very light, slightly sweet beers with fruit flavors). They also had a free magazine aptly called The Japan Beer Times, the first edition, which was all about beer, especially microbreweries, though they don't seem to like to use that term, in Japan. Obviously there's a microbrewery revolution in the U.S. but I had no idea they were also having a quiet one in Japan, so it was very interesting to read.
Slurring my way back to the hostel, I got out my netbook and started writing, as I seem most inclined to write when drunk (I also think that the readable bits are some of the most interesting and creative writings I do). I sat on the Cafe porch and started talking to the group of three French guys at another table. This turned into a very long conversation in French and I didn't do as badly as I might've expected, given my distaste for Frenchness and how long it has been since I last spoke it. One of the guys told me he wished his English was as good as my French, which I thought was quite a nice compliment.
I was working on a Cherry Blossom Suntory beer I'd bought at 7-11 (I'd bought some special pack of two beers for cheap, and very oddly, they'd given me a free orange juice with it,) when Marybeth came back. I asked her if she wanted to go out and she said no but that we should just hang out at the hostel. So we went and bought a flask of vodka and a Coke Light and just chatted with each other and two other English guys she'd met previously. It was nothing special, but a relaxing, enjoyable evening.
For the past two nights, I'd stayed at the Sakura Hotel in Jimbocho, which was were I was drinking. It was a decent place in a good area so I'd wanted to stay longer but they hadn't had any beds available that night, so I'd made up my mind to sleep in either a capsule hotel, a love motel or an internet cafe. Each of those options were very "Japanese" experiences I wanted to try and both the love motel and an internet cafe would be cheaper if I checked in after 11 at night which was why I was hanging out at the Cafe at the hostel. Marybeth went to bed at around 1 a.m. I stayed up for another hour writing and then decided that it would be dangerous and bothersome to walk around somewhere trying to find an internet cafe/love motel/capsule hotel that would take women (the large majority, like 95%+ don't).
At some point, I went downstairs where the dorm rooms and bathroom were. I had my purse and my backpack, everything I own (well, that I have on me) with me. I don't remember making this decision, but I decided to sleep in the shower. It locked from the inside and was a bit larger than a bathtub, split down the middle- half of it for the shower itself and half for a changing part outside it, separated by an accordian glass door. I locked myself inside with my belongings and slept for about seven hours. I think my body is just adapting to insane and horrible sleeping conditions because it didn't seem that bad, and, it was free.
The idea of doing anything seriously touristy or requiring much effort never even entered my mind today, so I looked at a map and saw that the East Imperial Palace Garden was nearby. My guidebook confirmed that I wouldn't have to do much besides walk around and told me that it was free, so I set off. They were very nice and it was a lovely bit of green. I planned on reading The Shadow of the Wind , which I'd brought with me, but after reading the prologue- or was it actually the first chapter? Who knows? Oh well- I realized that this was going to be a really good book that should be savored and that I didn't really feel like reading right then anyway. I'd save it for the flight to Taipei.
I walked over to Marunouchi Brick Square, the food area Saveur had recommended, and immediately was pulled into the La Boutique de Joel Robuchon. I bought a gorgeous "Religeuse Chocolat" a large cream puff topped with a profiterole with a very thick chocolate cream/pudding inside the cream puffs, covered in a dark chocolate ganache, topped with two discs of carmelized chopped nuts I couldn't quite identify; walnuts or pecans, and a sprinkling of gold leaf. It was a wonderful treat and quite reasonable for how good it was- around $5. I wandered around the corner and saw a long line outside one store, Echire. The plaza had a very strong Parisian influence so the name didn't surprise me, but the product did: butter.
Completely random sidenote- the square also had a strong Boston influence in the form of its fauna and masses of red brick/ architectural type. I thought this was quite strange as the Japanese have an obvious (and one sided) love affair with French culture, but nowhere else did I see a strong, particular American region/city influence.
But I'd better get back to the bountiful bevy of brunettes bartering for butter. Sorry, that was a bit much, but I couldn't stop myself. Alliteration: I am an absolute addict. There really were quite a few people waiting to go into the roped off butter store, and since I'm in Japan, they did all have dark hair. Like in Singapore when I waited because I had the time and wanted to know if it was really worth waiting for, I got in line here.
Besides selling butter, they also had a small bakery inside. Unfortunately they were all out of croissants for the day, so I got a rectangular Madeleine and a large pat (30 grams) of demi-sel butter. You may be wondering why I bought butter and what the fresh hell I thought I was going to do with it, but here's the thing: I really like butter. I don't know as much about it as I'd really like to, but I do like tasting it, using it in unholy amounts, and I've even made my own (which was good, better than the regular kind you'd get at the grocery store, but not as good as I'd expected).
So I bought it just to taste it, basically, with bread. But now I want to start alliterating again and you don't deserve that. I didn't know where I'd get the bread, but I knew I wanted good bread, not packaged white crap. And I was still sitting right next to the Robuchon cafe which had just put out a bunch more bread products, so I bought a croissant to eat my butter with. Croissants, of course, already have a devilish amount of butter layered into their soft sheets, but I always like it better with butter (stop me! It's a disease!) especially when cut open lengthwise, toasted and then with butter on top, which somehow never seems too buttery, but just buttery enough.
This croissant however, was already too buttery to put anymore on, so I just had to eat it plain. It was great, but this meant that I was just randomly carrying around a bunch of butter since I was now full, and had to bread (to butter it on, upside down or right side up).
Butter in bag, bag in hand, croissant in mouth, I got on the loop line which circles Tokyo. My guide book had suggested it as a good way to get a feel of the city as it was cheap and mostly above-ground. Part of it was quite interesting, but much of it just snaked past gray buildings. However, it also went to the station I'd decided I had the energy to go to; Harajuku, to go to Baird Brewing Co., the microbrewery bar Food & Wind recommended, as today was obviously a fine food and drink day. To see the whole city, I ended up doing a 1.5 loop around the city which took about 1.5 hours but again, why not, I had the time.
Wandering through this part of Harajuku was a bit more interesting, but still uninspiring, as most of it was the fleetingly trendy childish, typical "Japan-Harajuku" look, with lots of cartoon/ manga images. I found the bar easily, thanks to their websites excellent directions, and entered.
They didn't have a sampler (which I LOVE for drink tasting) but you could buy their beer in very small (I think less than half-pint) glasses so I could try several different beers without getting sloshed. They also had overpriced, overthought and underwhelming bar snacks, one of which I ordered (chicken and blue cheese deep friend egg rolls) since I hadn't had a proper dinner, just good food previously. They also had great T-shirts, one of which I almost bought for my Stepdad, but they were expensive for what they were, so I refrained.
I wish I could describe the beer as well as I would like to, or even tell you the names of all the different ones I tried, but I can't remember them. In anticipation of this, I had cleverly taken a photograph of the menu with all the beer descriptions. Stupidly, I hadn't written this or downloaded those pictures before I lost my camera.
What I do remember is that the beers were all excellently made and more bitter than I really like (as many well-crafted beers are). I also tried one beer that was memorably called Black Sails. While drinking, I remembered how just how much I enjoy beer and that I really do love beer tasting and microbreweries. I'd really like to learn more about them. To this goal, I flipped through a book they had at the bar, showing and describing the World's Greatest Beers. Neither Oranjeboom, one of my favorite mass produced beers, nor McMenamins Raspberry Ruby, my favorite microbrew, were listed, but I did write down the names of a few other raspberry beers that I wanted to try in the future (as much as I like beer, I like it in a very girly way, preferring very light, slightly sweet beers with fruit flavors). They also had a free magazine aptly called The Japan Beer Times, the first edition, which was all about beer, especially microbreweries, though they don't seem to like to use that term, in Japan. Obviously there's a microbrewery revolution in the U.S. but I had no idea they were also having a quiet one in Japan, so it was very interesting to read.
Slurring my way back to the hostel, I got out my netbook and started writing, as I seem most inclined to write when drunk (I also think that the readable bits are some of the most interesting and creative writings I do). I sat on the Cafe porch and started talking to the group of three French guys at another table. This turned into a very long conversation in French and I didn't do as badly as I might've expected, given my distaste for Frenchness and how long it has been since I last spoke it. One of the guys told me he wished his English was as good as my French, which I thought was quite a nice compliment.
I was working on a Cherry Blossom Suntory beer I'd bought at 7-11 (I'd bought some special pack of two beers for cheap, and very oddly, they'd given me a free orange juice with it,) when Marybeth came back. I asked her if she wanted to go out and she said no but that we should just hang out at the hostel. So we went and bought a flask of vodka and a Coke Light and just chatted with each other and two other English guys she'd met previously. It was nothing special, but a relaxing, enjoyable evening.
For the past two nights, I'd stayed at the Sakura Hotel in Jimbocho, which was were I was drinking. It was a decent place in a good area so I'd wanted to stay longer but they hadn't had any beds available that night, so I'd made up my mind to sleep in either a capsule hotel, a love motel or an internet cafe. Each of those options were very "Japanese" experiences I wanted to try and both the love motel and an internet cafe would be cheaper if I checked in after 11 at night which was why I was hanging out at the Cafe at the hostel. Marybeth went to bed at around 1 a.m. I stayed up for another hour writing and then decided that it would be dangerous and bothersome to walk around somewhere trying to find an internet cafe/love motel/capsule hotel that would take women (the large majority, like 95%+ don't).
At some point, I went downstairs where the dorm rooms and bathroom were. I had my purse and my backpack, everything I own (well, that I have on me) with me. I don't remember making this decision, but I decided to sleep in the shower. It locked from the inside and was a bit larger than a bathtub, split down the middle- half of it for the shower itself and half for a changing part outside it, separated by an accordian glass door. I locked myself inside with my belongings and slept for about seven hours. I think my body is just adapting to insane and horrible sleeping conditions because it didn't seem that bad, and, it was free.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Temples, Rock Gardens and Castles, Oh My!
4/24
As it would be my last in Kyoto, and I'd seen little of the important temples and exciting sights, today was a very busy, hardcore sightseeing day.
I started at about 10 a.m. and got a bus to Kinkaku-ji (Temple), which means Temple of the Golden Pavilion.
*Quick note here: -ji and -jo mean temple and castle, respectively, so saying Kinkaku-ji Temple is redundant and so from this point on, I won't write Temple after the name, but you'll be able to differentiate it from anything else because of the -ji ending.
From there, I walked over to Ryoan-ji, which is known for its famous Zen Rock Garden. It's supposed to inspire meditation but I just didn't get it.
Part of the gardens nearby however had some lovely cherry blossom trees though is a nice, quiet setting, though the petals were already snowing. I didn't know it at the time, but this was as close as I would come to my vision of cherry blossoms in Japan. Had the woman I'd asked at the hostel told me about it a few days earlier, I could've gone when it was perfect.
I left Ryoan-ji, bought an ice cream cone, as it was slightly warmer (maybe in the late-50s?) and caught a bus to the Kyoto Imperial Palace and Park. You can't go inside the palace itself, but you can walk around the park and see it from there, which is just what I did.
It was about two o'clock by this time and my ice cream had not been a very filling lunch, so on my way walking over to Nijo-jo, I stopped in at another Japanese fast food/diner place for a cheap meal. I was initially reluctant to go to Nijo-jo because of time constraints and the price but I'm so glad I did. The best part was inside, where you weren't allowed to take pictures, but many of the rooms had moveable panels of gorgeous, though simple, paintings of nature or animals floating in a gilded sky.
It also had lovely gardens and a foot thick iron/bronze? gate:
Inside the castle there was a wedding procession that was also interesting to see.
I took a bus to train station, where I took a picture, though I'd been there several times already, from which point I jumped on a train to Fushimi Inari Shrine, which was really impressive and different from anything I'd seen so far, and, after about half an hour, really repetitive.
I hiked up the mountain the shrine was embedded in and was quite happy to see the Japanese tourists were struggling and more out of shape than I was, even if that seems a bit mean, before coming to a clearing with a nice view of the city that looked terrible when I tried to photograph it.
I got a bit confused and was unsure if I was basically at the top or not, but decided I'd been going for long enough so headed downhill. I got lost in a maze of orange wood and pine trees. Apparently there were several different paths of shrines to traverse and I went the wrong way so somehow, I ended up lost in the woods in the middle of a fairly large city. I kept going down and checked my direction against the sun as I knew I had to go west to get back to the train station, but because of the paths available, I hiked much farther north than I'd intended. Eventually I found myself on some small residential roads and wandered west from them but still got nowhere. I saw a temple which I hoped was the base temple area of Fushimi Inari but I was on the wrong side so I just hopped a gate and walked toward the center, passing some monks on the way. I found the center of the temple, though by that time I'd realized it was not the right one, and walked out through the entrance. The English signs told me I'd been walking through Tofukuji, another of Kyoto's 200-plus. This was actually one of the famous ones I'd considered seeing and had now managed to do so without paying the entry fee! I was too tired to actually explore it, so I just snapped a few pictures and walked by to my hostel, which by this point was close enough, as I'd gone so far North.
I rested there for a long while, but had a bit more energy than expected so I went out to get some dinner, buy some supplies for the train ride the next day and see Toji, yet another temple I'd wanted to see (this one famous because it was the tallest pagoda in Japan). I couldn't go in the complex of course, as it was closed, but it happened to be quite lovely lit up at night as it was and I was very happy with my decisions for the day and the way it had turned out.
As it would be my last in Kyoto, and I'd seen little of the important temples and exciting sights, today was a very busy, hardcore sightseeing day.
I started at about 10 a.m. and got a bus to Kinkaku-ji (Temple), which means Temple of the Golden Pavilion.
*Quick note here: -ji and -jo mean temple and castle, respectively, so saying Kinkaku-ji Temple is redundant and so from this point on, I won't write Temple after the name, but you'll be able to differentiate it from anything else because of the -ji ending.
From there, I walked over to Ryoan-ji, which is known for its famous Zen Rock Garden. It's supposed to inspire meditation but I just didn't get it.
Part of the gardens nearby however had some lovely cherry blossom trees though is a nice, quiet setting, though the petals were already snowing. I didn't know it at the time, but this was as close as I would come to my vision of cherry blossoms in Japan. Had the woman I'd asked at the hostel told me about it a few days earlier, I could've gone when it was perfect.
I left Ryoan-ji, bought an ice cream cone, as it was slightly warmer (maybe in the late-50s?) and caught a bus to the Kyoto Imperial Palace and Park. You can't go inside the palace itself, but you can walk around the park and see it from there, which is just what I did.
It was about two o'clock by this time and my ice cream had not been a very filling lunch, so on my way walking over to Nijo-jo, I stopped in at another Japanese fast food/diner place for a cheap meal. I was initially reluctant to go to Nijo-jo because of time constraints and the price but I'm so glad I did. The best part was inside, where you weren't allowed to take pictures, but many of the rooms had moveable panels of gorgeous, though simple, paintings of nature or animals floating in a gilded sky.
It also had lovely gardens and a foot thick iron/bronze? gate:
Inside the castle there was a wedding procession that was also interesting to see.
I took a bus to train station, where I took a picture, though I'd been there several times already, from which point I jumped on a train to Fushimi Inari Shrine, which was really impressive and different from anything I'd seen so far, and, after about half an hour, really repetitive.
I hiked up the mountain the shrine was embedded in and was quite happy to see the Japanese tourists were struggling and more out of shape than I was, even if that seems a bit mean, before coming to a clearing with a nice view of the city that looked terrible when I tried to photograph it.
I got a bit confused and was unsure if I was basically at the top or not, but decided I'd been going for long enough so headed downhill. I got lost in a maze of orange wood and pine trees. Apparently there were several different paths of shrines to traverse and I went the wrong way so somehow, I ended up lost in the woods in the middle of a fairly large city. I kept going down and checked my direction against the sun as I knew I had to go west to get back to the train station, but because of the paths available, I hiked much farther north than I'd intended. Eventually I found myself on some small residential roads and wandered west from them but still got nowhere. I saw a temple which I hoped was the base temple area of Fushimi Inari but I was on the wrong side so I just hopped a gate and walked toward the center, passing some monks on the way. I found the center of the temple, though by that time I'd realized it was not the right one, and walked out through the entrance. The English signs told me I'd been walking through Tofukuji, another of Kyoto's 200-plus. This was actually one of the famous ones I'd considered seeing and had now managed to do so without paying the entry fee! I was too tired to actually explore it, so I just snapped a few pictures and walked by to my hostel, which by this point was close enough, as I'd gone so far North.
I rested there for a long while, but had a bit more energy than expected so I went out to get some dinner, buy some supplies for the train ride the next day and see Toji, yet another temple I'd wanted to see (this one famous because it was the tallest pagoda in Japan). I couldn't go in the complex of course, as it was closed, but it happened to be quite lovely lit up at night as it was and I was very happy with my decisions for the day and the way it had turned out.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Peace and Sadness in Hiroshima
4/17
I've only been in Japan for an hour and a half and already I've seen: a Japanese dwarf (which I think just seems particularly funny because I imagine they should be doing acrobatics or something stupid like that- I know, I suck), a woman dressed in a full kimono complete with socks and sandals, and a girl/young woman all Harajuku'd out in red with bows, frills and lace.
Once again, I have to try to keep these entries shorter, because I just get backlogged and then I start to feel overwhelmed and almost start to dread it when I actually really enjoy writing them.
So today, I got in by ferry to Shimonoseki, going through the lovely straits of Japan. The train station was a short walk away so I went over, remembered that I had no idea or plan as to where I was going and just walked onto a train. Once on the train, I looked at a map and decided that from there I'd go to Hiroshima for the night and since the train was still at the station while I was making up my mind, I just got up and walked off. I had to go South to get a train to go North to Hiroshima, but I got there. Since I didn't have a hostel booked and didn't have a guidebook, I needed to get online to look one up. This sounds simpler than it was.
Internet (cable or wifi) is not just available here in coffee shops or public places. They have it, of course, but you have to go to a specific Internet Cafe. These are usually quite nice; comfortable, fast internet speeds, free soda/coffee/tea, and a manga library, but it is inconvenient as I'm used to being able to pretty much pop in anywhere to get internet (even if I have to pay for it or buy something).
Still, I found one, looked up a hostel that looked decent and made it over to J-Hoppers, a hostel group in four cities here. I got a dorm room with internet access and just hung out there for a while resting.
In the late afternoon, I had to get out and do something, especially if I wanted to leave Hiroshima the next day. Plus, I was starving. I caught a train into the city center, go off at a main shopping area and found a ramen place, then walked over to the Peace Park which included several different types of memorials, burial shrines, trees still alive and marked from the blast, and a building of some importance left as skeletal as it was after the bomb was dropped.
Hiroshima was fantastically done. It really was; the Peace Park was non-judgemental, simply factual, and calming, and great.
Yet somehow, it was still terribly, horribly depressing. I started to think about it though and it's really my own fault; I'm the one who was stupid enough to go from one country known for civil war/genocide/land mines to a country known for civil war/foreign interference to a place where the worlds first atomic bomb was dropped- really what could I expect?
I've only been in Japan for an hour and a half and already I've seen: a Japanese dwarf (which I think just seems particularly funny because I imagine they should be doing acrobatics or something stupid like that- I know, I suck), a woman dressed in a full kimono complete with socks and sandals, and a girl/young woman all Harajuku'd out in red with bows, frills and lace.
Once again, I have to try to keep these entries shorter, because I just get backlogged and then I start to feel overwhelmed and almost start to dread it when I actually really enjoy writing them.
So today, I got in by ferry to Shimonoseki, going through the lovely straits of Japan. The train station was a short walk away so I went over, remembered that I had no idea or plan as to where I was going and just walked onto a train. Once on the train, I looked at a map and decided that from there I'd go to Hiroshima for the night and since the train was still at the station while I was making up my mind, I just got up and walked off. I had to go South to get a train to go North to Hiroshima, but I got there. Since I didn't have a hostel booked and didn't have a guidebook, I needed to get online to look one up. This sounds simpler than it was.
Internet (cable or wifi) is not just available here in coffee shops or public places. They have it, of course, but you have to go to a specific Internet Cafe. These are usually quite nice; comfortable, fast internet speeds, free soda/coffee/tea, and a manga library, but it is inconvenient as I'm used to being able to pretty much pop in anywhere to get internet (even if I have to pay for it or buy something).
Still, I found one, looked up a hostel that looked decent and made it over to J-Hoppers, a hostel group in four cities here. I got a dorm room with internet access and just hung out there for a while resting.
In the late afternoon, I had to get out and do something, especially if I wanted to leave Hiroshima the next day. Plus, I was starving. I caught a train into the city center, go off at a main shopping area and found a ramen place, then walked over to the Peace Park which included several different types of memorials, burial shrines, trees still alive and marked from the blast, and a building of some importance left as skeletal as it was after the bomb was dropped.
Epicenter of the bomb, though higher up in the sky
Hiroshima was fantastically done. It really was; the Peace Park was non-judgemental, simply factual, and calming, and great.
Thousand Paper Cranes Memorial
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Secret Gardens of Cherry Blossoms
4/13
One of the very few touristy things I'd decided I wanted to do in South Korea was to see Changdeok Palace, which is a UNESCO World Hertiage site (though at the rate they designate those, I think my pinky fingernail is next, so that doesn't mean much). It was really pretty and especially since it was the first Northern Asian palace I'd seen, it felt like it was really exotic.
There was a secret garden in the back that was very nice, but I thought it was a bit overrated. I did really enjoy the cherry blossom trees though- I hadn't thought to think that there might be any in Korea, and they were lovely as they were just in bloom.
At night, I organized a bunch of stuff and solidified some plans, did my laundry and wrote at a cafe with a giant mug of hot chocolate. The cold really started to suck though, particularly on the walk back to my hostel; it was "only" 43*F but the wind was incredibly strong so the forecast said it felt like 34*F. Inside my hostel was freezing- I thought I was going to die from hypothermia and had to use two comforters and was still cold before the heater finally kicked in. It was terrible and made me remember why I want to stay in the sun always.
One of the very few touristy things I'd decided I wanted to do in South Korea was to see Changdeok Palace, which is a UNESCO World Hertiage site (though at the rate they designate those, I think my pinky fingernail is next, so that doesn't mean much). It was really pretty and especially since it was the first Northern Asian palace I'd seen, it felt like it was really exotic.
There was a secret garden in the back that was very nice, but I thought it was a bit overrated. I did really enjoy the cherry blossom trees though- I hadn't thought to think that there might be any in Korea, and they were lovely as they were just in bloom.
At night, I organized a bunch of stuff and solidified some plans, did my laundry and wrote at a cafe with a giant mug of hot chocolate. The cold really started to suck though, particularly on the walk back to my hostel; it was "only" 43*F but the wind was incredibly strong so the forecast said it felt like 34*F. Inside my hostel was freezing- I thought I was going to die from hypothermia and had to use two comforters and was still cold before the heater finally kicked in. It was terrible and made me remember why I want to stay in the sun always.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Mugged by the Evil Monkey
3/13/2010
I woke up slightly early today to take the subway/monorail to get a ticket to go up the Petronas towers. The subway was quite fast and while not especially clean, it wasn't dirty- certainly better than New York's subway. I got a ticket for 6:15 that evening in the hopes that I'd be able to see the city by sunset. From there, I took the subway out to Gombak, the last stop on the line, to reduce the cost of a taxi to the Batu caves. Outside the complex were pop-up stalls selling Hindu wreaths of flowers meant as offerings for the shrines inside, but the bright yellow and red and purple flowers and jasmine buds looked so enticing, I bought one just to wear around my neck so I could enjoy the smell, and it was only RM2.
The caves were reached by walking past a huge golden Hindu deity and up nearly 300 stairs. At the entrance, hawkers offered pythons, including an albino, for tourists to pay to take pictures with them wrapped around the contours of their waists, hips or necks. The jagged halls of limestone were inlaid with various tableaux of gods and stories I didn't know. It was a bit cooler inside the caves, but not the refreshing dampness I'd anticipated. Near the next set of stairs, probably just three flights, I saw my first monkey, posing for pictures patiently. Looking up, several criss-crossed another set of stairs I had to walk up. I was at the top level, leaning down slightly to take pictures of the monkeys on the rocks when I felt a hard tug at my neck. A monkey was mugging me, trying to steal my flower necklace. I yelped and backed away, but he kept coming at me.
"I'm backing attacked!" I yelled, looking around to see that while no one was making the slightest effort to help me in any way, a tourist was videotaping me and nearly everyone else was watching in amusement.
He kept grabbing at me, so I had to do my best to quickly tear the necklace off over my ridiculously large sun hat. I handed it over, and he ran away. I composed myself then went to get a picture of the jerk.
After that, I left the cave, taking a taxi and then the subway again, down to see the train station and National Mosque. Neither was particularly fascinating, and I couldn't go inside the mosque since it was closed to tourists at that time, so I went up to the Islamic Arts Museum. It was quite a nice museum, and they had a photography exhibit by the guy who took the famous National Geographic photo of the woman in red with the stunning green eyes. After an hour there, I left the lovely and air conditioned building to walk up in the blazing wet heat to the Orchid and Hibiscus Garden. The Hibiscus is Malaysia's national flower. It wasn't nearly as impressive as Singapore's but it was calm and there was a quiet area with beautiful hanging white flowers. Walking back, I tried to see the Hindu temple but it was under construction, so I couldn't really see the carved tower as it was covered in scaffolding.
I took the subway again to go up to the Petronas skybridge, but before my group was allowed up, we were led into a room to watch a fifteen minute advertisement for Petronas (a petrol company). It would have been terribly boring, but it was in 3-D which always makes me happy, even when I'm not lucky enough to have pickaxes thrown and blood splattered at me.
Since I'd skipped it in Singapore, I was determined to get some night walk pictures in KL. I just took a short walk (yes, along well-lit, main roads, Mom) over to Merdeka Square, and while the buildings weren't lit up as well as I would've liked, it was still interesting to see what was, and to see the large groups of families and friends congregating, playing soccer and watching a soccer game on a huge screen in the park.
Batu Caves
I woke up slightly early today to take the subway/monorail to get a ticket to go up the Petronas towers. The subway was quite fast and while not especially clean, it wasn't dirty- certainly better than New York's subway. I got a ticket for 6:15 that evening in the hopes that I'd be able to see the city by sunset. From there, I took the subway out to Gombak, the last stop on the line, to reduce the cost of a taxi to the Batu caves. Outside the complex were pop-up stalls selling Hindu wreaths of flowers meant as offerings for the shrines inside, but the bright yellow and red and purple flowers and jasmine buds looked so enticing, I bought one just to wear around my neck so I could enjoy the smell, and it was only RM2.
The caves were reached by walking past a huge golden Hindu deity and up nearly 300 stairs. At the entrance, hawkers offered pythons, including an albino, for tourists to pay to take pictures with them wrapped around the contours of their waists, hips or necks. The jagged halls of limestone were inlaid with various tableaux of gods and stories I didn't know. It was a bit cooler inside the caves, but not the refreshing dampness I'd anticipated. Near the next set of stairs, probably just three flights, I saw my first monkey, posing for pictures patiently. Looking up, several criss-crossed another set of stairs I had to walk up. I was at the top level, leaning down slightly to take pictures of the monkeys on the rocks when I felt a hard tug at my neck. A monkey was mugging me, trying to steal my flower necklace. I yelped and backed away, but he kept coming at me.
"I'm backing attacked!" I yelled, looking around to see that while no one was making the slightest effort to help me in any way, a tourist was videotaping me and nearly everyone else was watching in amusement.
He kept grabbing at me, so I had to do my best to quickly tear the necklace off over my ridiculously large sun hat. I handed it over, and he ran away. I composed myself then went to get a picture of the jerk.
Monkey Mugger
After that, I left the cave, taking a taxi and then the subway again, down to see the train station and National Mosque. Neither was particularly fascinating, and I couldn't go inside the mosque since it was closed to tourists at that time, so I went up to the Islamic Arts Museum. It was quite a nice museum, and they had a photography exhibit by the guy who took the famous National Geographic photo of the woman in red with the stunning green eyes. After an hour there, I left the lovely and air conditioned building to walk up in the blazing wet heat to the Orchid and Hibiscus Garden. The Hibiscus is Malaysia's national flower. It wasn't nearly as impressive as Singapore's but it was calm and there was a quiet area with beautiful hanging white flowers. Walking back, I tried to see the Hindu temple but it was under construction, so I couldn't really see the carved tower as it was covered in scaffolding.
Orchid and Hibiscus Garden
I took the subway again to go up to the Petronas skybridge, but before my group was allowed up, we were led into a room to watch a fifteen minute advertisement for Petronas (a petrol company). It would have been terribly boring, but it was in 3-D which always makes me happy, even when I'm not lucky enough to have pickaxes thrown and blood splattered at me.
View from the Skybridge
Since I'd skipped it in Singapore, I was determined to get some night walk pictures in KL. I just took a short walk (yes, along well-lit, main roads, Mom) over to Merdeka Square, and while the buildings weren't lit up as well as I would've liked, it was still interesting to see what was, and to see the large groups of families and friends congregating, playing soccer and watching a soccer game on a huge screen in the park.
Lit-up Mosque
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