from Nanjing

Sorry for the extended period of silence - no internet in the land of the Red. Which may be a good thing since I had been thinking that I wouldnt be able to say much anyway for fear of censorship or...

In any case, I am living in Nanjing, or more accurately in the suburbs of Nanjing, it's a nice newly constructed apartment and they thought to put heating in the bedrooms but the rest of the apartment is as cold as outdoors, about 40F. I even had to go out and buy long underwear, ewww.

I went visiting places with a tour group on Tuesday and yesterday went to this huge outdoor marketplace to buy little trinkets. I spent all day shopping and bought tons of stuff but still didnt spend more than $100, sigh, going to a department store today, will try to spend more :)

Happy new year to all!!

See you soon and I'll post pictures more write more when get back to the US - SAturday.

last entry from japan

i believe japan is called the land of the rising sun but i think it would also be fitting to call it the land of 1000 bridges. japan must have the best bridge tchnology. there are rivers everywhere! and of course they have the longest suspension bridge and who knows what else.

speaking of water, their bathroom tchnology is great! of course you know of their special toilets but some even play flushing sound and spray deoderizor. plus their seat covers fit better. and many bathrooms are outfitted with the water extracting hand dryers - the likes of which i have only seen in the time warner center at columbus circle. of course many bathrooms are lacking in paper or any form of hand drying. plus their soap dispensers dispense a watery version of soap. i guess they can't be perfect.

off to shanghai now

Last day in Tokyo and Japan

My feet are done with Japan, and being upright. I'm actually looking forward to my planeride and train ride from Japan to China. Way too much walking on the uneven gravelly roads around the touristy places.

Something I forgot to share yesterday:

Only the cutest dog ever - Hatchida - apparently, he belonged to some guy who took the train to work everyday from the Shibuya station everyday and everyday he would go wait for his master to come home at the train station. One day, the guy died at work but the dog continued going to the station to wait for him until his own eventual death 10 years later. How adorable!!

Oh, and a preview of me in a ceremonial kimono. I don't have the high quality pix because my dad has them on his camera so I had to take a picture of the LCD display on his camera.

Today we went to the fish market and saw a ridiculous number of fish. And huge ones!!

They use jigsaws to cut the fish into pieces. Crazy. Then we had sushi there, and yes it was super fresh, but apparently the meal made my dad feel ick so I guess he's sworn off sushi forever.

We spent a day looking at technology. We went to the Sony building to play with all their computers and cameras and stuff. Then we went to a robotics store and I got to play with a Pleo - I've always wanted to see what they were like. And they're every bit as wonderful as I imagined. I'm totally going to get one - they're on sale on Amazon for less than $200!!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9175994945643611212

(sorry, I can't read the Japanese to get the html script so this runs on the page)

Can't wait!!

Not sure what's for dinner yet but obviously not sushi though I wouldn't mind another run at the sushi boats.

Oh, in anime city - also where the electronic stores are - girls dressed like anime characters. Apparently, there's even cafes where you get served by anime girls too. Weirdos.

Christmas in Japan

Merry Christmas!! I don:t think the Japanese celebrate Christmas really but in any case they seem to celebrate American Christmas - as in the commercialization of Christmas. There are holiday displays everywhere - very festive:

- and Christmas themed displays and posters in all the stores. They were even selling a cake on Christmas eve - looked like a regular birthday cake to me.

Today we started the day off by looking for the Japanese sword museum. We did eventually find it but it took forever and I had to ask for directions 4 times - if you know me, you know that means I was mega-lost. We finally found it after a nice lady walked us all the way there, to find that...it was CLOSED. But there were still some explanations we got to look at before we went along on our merry way.

Then we went to the top of the Tokyo Met. Gov. building again to see the skyline during the day. Not nearly as cool I think.

We spent the afternoon visiting a shrine and walking around Harajuku and checking out the Harajuku girls. Apparently, legs is the currency in flesh here. Today was a bit warmer than usual and there are short shorts and short skirts everywhere. Sorry, no pix.

Fish market tomorrow.

Food Diary Updated

Kyoto-->Tokyo

So we spent the morning in Kyoto - our last moments in "old" Japan - and took the train to Tokyo - the place of new stuff. BTW, about the train - they call it the bullet train, I guess it's true. In addition to the bullet like pointiness of the ends of the train, it goes pretty fast, in fact, you won't be seeing any of my usual pictures from the train ride since the bullet train is much too fast for pictures along the way. I will probably post this crazy blurry picture I took of the longest suspension bridge in the world though. Oh, here it is:

If you look really hard, You can make out the outlines of the bridge, extra bonus points to the first person who does.

Today we visited the Imperial Palace in Kyoto - the home of the emperor for 1075 years until the late 1800s. We didnt get to go into any buildings though. So all the buildings are made of wood which is pretty crazy since Japanese history is plagued by the burning down of the palace and other places, so why rebuild in wood? In addition, they couldnt heat the place because they were so afraid of fires. They even had to outlaw fireworks after some fireworks burnt down the palace.

We had lunch at this cute little Japanese place, super authentic. Good thing the Lonely planet told me what to order because people definitely ddint speak English there. Of course my dad made tons of faux pas's there. Very ashamed indeed. WE had the niju bento and it was a 2 layered bento box, very cute. I like the cute little boxes everything goes in. Pictures of food will be posted soon.

In case you haven't noticed, I'm writing more today - free internet!! Whoohoo, welcome to the millenium!! Too bad I didnt't end up bringing my laptop or it'd be truly unlimited since I wouldnt have to sit in the guest lounge on the 2nd floor while people are sitting next to me wondering why I'm not done yet. Well, at least I'm typing, my dad's probably reading Chinese webpages about nothingness.

We got to Tokyo this afternoon and arrived at our hotel right next to Shijuku station. It's a beautiful hotel and we have an awesome view of the Shinjuku skyscrapers from our room:

Plus, as soon as we walk out of our hotel we're in the center of everything - stores, restaurants, building with awesome view of the city.

I tried to find a new memory stick for my camera so I dont't have to always worry about uploading to not run out of space. But it turns out my camera is so antique that they dont make this type of memory anymore :(

SmartMedia - if you have some you no longer need, let me know.

We went to the observation tower of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building and I took some great night scenes of the city. Really beautiful and overwhelming - definitely bigger than NYC. And Tokyo must use more electricity powering all of their neon signs than NYC too. Every little street around this are is lit up all night like Times Sq.

We went to a sushi boat restaurant where the sushi pass by on a conveyor belt - totally awesome!! I ate soooooo much, and for so little money!! My dad had a tiny bit and then ate the rest of his dinner by buying meat buns at the convience store afterwards. Also, the sake I had there was also excellent. Squillo - the thing I've also see on the posters in sushi restaurants in the US but they never have - is awesome!!

Ah, sooo full!! Yum. I told my dad that tomorrow will be a sushi free day and he rejoiced. But the day after we're going to the fish market and I'm going to eat myself silly with fish there too. Harajuku girls tomorrow ;)

Oh and I can see why Japanese men are pedophiles - the schoolgirls wear ridiculously short skirts with knee-high tights - just like in the anime. Ok, maybe not, but some of the girls I've seen...

On the other hand, props to Japanese girls' footwear - awesome boots!! I'm totally jealous.

There's a surprising amount of decoration here for Christmas here. Very pretty - trees all lit up and stuff. But maybe it's because I've been spending so much time in touristy spots.

Ok, more tomorrow...Sayonara.

Himeji

Today we took the train to Himeji to see the Himeji castle - White Heron. I loved it, great diversion from endless temples, blah. Plus, the coolest thing of all, I got to wear a ceremonial Kimono that people in Court used to wear 1000 years ago. It had 12 layers and took them over 30 min to put on properly - don't worry, we took lots of pictures and I'll post them when I get the chance.

For dinner, I had sushi for the first time here in Japan. We went to this place with sushi sets and Kaisei (I think that's what you call them). I got this fancy thing that had this little armoir that had drawers of food. Interesting. The ambiance was super nice though, with a tatami room and a cute little garden outside. The sushi was good, but not excellent, I'm waiting for better - hopefully when I go to the fish market in Tokyo. But still, it was an awesome dinner experience. I think my dad didn't hate it.

A number of people here in Japan wear little face masks - white ones that go over your mouth and nose. I wonder if it's for the same reason as in China which is to protect themselves from germs. I think it's a great way of dealing with halitosis, however, getting the people who need them to actually wear them would be difficult.

I love drink vending machines. I have a newfound love for getting little bottles of hot milky tea at the train station. They keep me warm while I'm waiting for the train and make me happy because they're yummy.

Oh and onigri triangles - they sell them everywhere - convenience stores, newspaper stands... they are my new breakfast - two 100yen rice triangles wrapped in seaweed- one right away and one on the train and all is well. Even my dad had one and didn't it. To be fair, I don't think he's hated anything other than that dim sum-esque experience with the funny sweat potatoes.

Ok, off to a hot bath now - in the big bath in the ryokan that had floating fruit - some fragrant yellow fruit. They taste sour (I had it in a restaurant, not out of my bath) and smell a bit like pomelo but are shaped like oranges. They're very sweet and flowery smelling.

Morning in Kyoto tomorrow and then back to Tokyo. Hopefully, I'll be able to continue blogging from Tokyo.

Day 2 in Japan

Today I saw way too many temples. It:s just one blurry onslaught of Japanese temples. Supposedly, there:re different too, like Shinto vs Buddhist, but I dont know anymore. Plus, a ridulous amount of walking. But that:s probably my own fault since I kept insisting on walking up the steep steps to all the little temples in the hills.

I went to the Gion district in Kyoto today, but didn:t see any real Geishas, I think. But that would be hard of course since there are less than 100 of them or something like that. I did see some women dressed up in Kimonos and some made up too. I guess that:s good enough.

I went to dinner at this Japanese restaurant with hot pots. It turned out that our chef dude was Chinese which made ordering vastly easier.

It makes my dad really happy that he can read all the signs in Kanji and he likes to read them to me and insist on the Chinese pronounciation of everything which of course doesn:t help me since I:m reading the Japanese names in Latin letters...

Himeji tomorrow...

First 1.5 days in Japan

Wow, the plane trip was never ending. Not only was the plane ride itself really long but it was made additionally long by the extra 5 hours we had to wait for the plane crew to get to the airport (about 3 hours) and the de-icing of the plane (another 2 hours). Did you know that they spray funny green stuff on the plane to de-ice it?
So instead of spending half a day in Narita to get oriented and de-jetlagged, we headed straight from the airport to the hotel to wake up the next morning - or wake up 300 times until the next morning - to travel to Kyoto. I never knew that you can have butt pain from sitting for too long but apparently it really can be a pain in the ass.
Today we arrived in Kyoto. It was super beautiful in Tokyo but as we headed West, became cloudier and cloudier until we reached our destination in Kyoto. More to come later...
Brief preview - yummy awesome noodles for lunch, even though we ordered from a picture, saw a temple, bamboo groves, a fancy garden, and the lantern festival which conveniently lasted until today, had dinner at a little Japanese pub with yummy things like chicken heart but my dad hated everything there and refused to eat anything after his experience with a raw quail egg and some funny consistency potato.