Sigoi!!! - What a way to end the trip!!!

It’s a good job that I did save the bit about Kyoto until last, because the three shrines that we saw today were amazing – All of them were on the slopes of the Higashiyama or 東山, the mountain to the east of Kyoto (see what they did there), so the other one thought that he was getting legs like a super model from climbing all those steps. Not if he eats so many Okonomiyaki, say I….

Anyway, the hotel was perfectly placed for seeing two of the three shrines we saw today. Firstly, we went to see Chion-in which is now the home of the Buddhist monks – there was a fine garden (with raked stones – very Japanese), and some amazing architecture. One of the things that it shared with Nijo-jo (which we saw yesterday) was a Nightingale floor. Keeps those pesky Ninjas out.

Following a brief stop for lunch, we whizzed across town to the Golden Temple, or Kinkaju-ji which was quite simply breath-taking – the entire top two levels of the temple were covered in gold leaf and there was a Chinese phoenix ontop – this coupled with the autumn leaves was quite spectacular. Apparently, one of the monks got so obsessed with the building that he burnt it down – bit extreme really…

Finally, on the way back to the hotel, we went to Eikan-do which is the biggest of the shrines that we saw today. The halls, gardens and statues speak for themselves and the amount of gold throughout the place was quite incredible. You can see things better on the website than I can ever hope to describe them.

A couple of things struck me about Kyoto:

· November (maybe a week later than we went) is an AWESOME time to go and see the city; the colour of the leaves is unlike anything else that I have seen anywhere – the red is so deep that they should Pantone this stuff….

· Also, Kyoto is cut out for Japanese tourists more than it is foreigners – There are plenty of signs in Japanese, but very few in English (unless they are telling you to NOT to do something – smoking / entering / walking on the grass / taking photos…) so unless you want to learn Japanese or fork out for an audio guide, then you might want to read up ahead of time to make sure you know what you are looking at. And it’s worth it – trust me

· Pick your temples and don’t try and cover off everything – it’s like Rome like that – you can easily get blase about what you are seeing. If you are trying to pull 6 sights a day, you aren’t going to do it justice – and barring any mad monks, it should be there for the next time as well!

So now, I am blogging / snoozing on the way back to Tokyo on the Shinkansen again, and it has been a great trip, but I think it is time to get back to Sweden and reality again. The other one has become addicted to Starbucks (because there are thousands around Tokyo alone), so it is time to replace the ’benti no hotto no ratte’ (Venti hot latte) with en macchiato!!!

Ja mata, Nihon!!!

The old Capital of Japan

The holiday has begun and we got the chance to get off to Kyoto, which is the old capital of Japan before everything moved up towards Tokyo. I am not going to write a great deal about Kyoto right now, because I want to go and see a couple of things and then I will write something when I am headed back to Tokyo on the Shinkansen.

So, talking of the Shinkansen or 新幹線, it is a miracle of modern Japanese technology wizzing through Japan at high speed. Tokyo is 400 km from Kyoto via some pretty mountainous territory, but we did it in about 2 hours fifteen minutes. Really comfortable and really clean - there were an army of woman cleaning the train before we were allowed on board - I say army, because there was a definite hierarchy and the boss lady decided when we were allowed on board - oh, the power :-)

A couple more things that I have noticed about Japan:

• There seems to be a uniform for everything - the cleaners had uniforms, the woman trying to sell me a DoCoMo subscription had a rather fetching cerise uniform. It's great, I think we should do more of the same - rather than just giving out Telenor t-shirts. Not sure the workforce of Telenor would agree with me now
• Fruit - There are special shops where they sell fruit which has been cared for in special way. Either they have been grown in such a way as they are square - like melons, or have music played to them to aid their growing process. Either way, anybody who can get away with charging 7000 Yen (580 SEK, £53) for a melon and it selling is on to a winner :-)
• Honesty - the other one is a complete and utter klutz, and has managed to drop 5000 yen, leave his guide book behind and also managed to forget his mobile on the train. Every time, the Japanese have come running up behind him and given back what he has dropped (he'd lose his head) :-) and that is one of the things that makes Japan great!

So, can't believe that the trip is almost over! Check in tomorrow morning for the BA flight home :-( I am going to post some pictures of some of the best sites I have seen for a while and this is the right season to watch the turning leaves (as you get everything from Green to red on the trees :-)

Mata ashita / until tomorrow.

Weekend in Tokyo

The work week is finally over and so the other one gets to go on vacation now. About time - getting a little bored of looking at the Tokyo Tower out of the window of the hotel, so we finally got to go there! From the top of the Tower one can see the whole of Tokyo - and realise what an enormous city it actually is - there are like 12.2 million people in the metropolitan area - and most of them seem to want to be in the Metro at the same time as me :-) Kept getting my paws trodden on! Anyway, the Tower has two little mascots called the Noppon Brothers (which is rather unfortunate if you are Swedish, especially if take their appearance into consideration...

We also went to get some special Korean food that I have never seen before Sundubu, and it was awesome. It is a really spicy tofu based stew with a whole bunch of vegetables and the like - I had mine ベリーホト　which is 'beri hoto' or very hot, (was glad that I didn't try the urtra hoto)

Also, the other one fancies himself as a bit of a Ninja, and so we ended up in a hardware store called Tokyu Hands to buy something called 'Tabi' or たび which are shoes with a separate toe part. They are used by construction workers in Japan, but I doubt they would be allowed in Sweden (too cold and too flimsy), but apparently they are going to complement any outfit - pffff...

Also, because he has been doing a Japanese course he raided Kunikuniya to buy a whole bunch of books and Kanji posters to make sure he can learn everything.

And then in the evenings, we did a bit of Yakiniku (awesome beef grill) and went to Shinjuku Nichome for a bit of the nightlife - where the other one apparently met a man dressed as a butterfly - or something... anyway apparently it was entertaining.

Kyoto tomorrow - and I can't wait; it will be nice to get out into another part of Japan with the Shinkansen and see Mount Fuji too :-)

The Great Wall of China

The second day of this weekend took us to the Great Wall of China and we passed by the Olympic installation in the East of the City, which was really cool. Not only was the Aquatic Cube enormous, but the Bird's Nest was a really impressive structure, and looked even more cool in real life than on television :-)

After 1.5 hours of travel we finally made it to the Mu-tian-yu section of the Great Wall of China which was absolutely spectactular. The Wall took over 200 years to build and was put in place to keep the marauding Manchurians (I love that word, Manchurians) and the Mongols from the Chinese territory during various dynasties such as the Qin, Ming and Qian dynasties. For some reason, Mao gets a look in and there is an inscription to his longevity in the hillside... Anyway, here is the other one on the wall as well!

The other one had loads of people staring at him, and it was quite entertaining to him that somebody wanted to have their photograph taken with him. The guide mentioned something about him looking really Western in comparison to the other people in the party. He was also quite proud when somebody in the Chinese office mentioned that he looked like Jason Statham. Silly fool - he should be so lucky!!!

Before heading to the airport in Beijing, we stopped off at the School house in Mutianyu, which is a Western style restaurant and development project which was pretty cool to watch - the food was great. If you get to the wall, it is definitely worth a visit!

Beijing

So, it was a little difficult to post irreverent comments about the People's Republic when actually still in it, so I thought that I would wait until I was back in Tokyo (which is where I am now...) Beijing is an awe-inspiring place:

The place is huge - and the monuments are really quite spectacular - nothing really prepares you for the size of Tiananmen Square and the picture of Mao at the end of it...

The smog is simply overpowering - you can't see anything further than a couple of 100 metres for the haze and the grime that is covering the city

Driving licenses seem to be optional - people have transferred their obstacle avoidance skills for the cycle onto a car, and sometimes there are mishaps. Some of the things that we saw beggared belief - anyway, we are here in Japan, so that is all that matters :-)

On Saturday, we went to the Temple of Heaven where we saw the population of Beijing undertake their morning exercise. One elderly gentleman (who died his hair a la Berlusconi) came up to us and told us that he had lost 15 kilos, just by coming to the Temple of Heaven and practicing something that looked like a cross between beach tennis and the Egg and Spoon race - anyway, he was a spritely fellow so we all had a go as well. There were also people trying to sell us feathered hackysacks as well, but we resisted :-)

The guide (we decided that this was a wise plan for such a HUGE city) then took us through the temples which you can see here in the picture to show where the Emporer prayed to the Gods - it was quite a huge location and one that showed just how important the emperor was! After that, we drove to Tian'anmen Square, and expected the guide to completely blank the details of 1989, but she did bring them up - a great location and one that takes your breath away (that and the smog) - the famous picture of Mao with the inscription on the wall got much photography, as did the MASSIVE Chinese flag in the middle of the square...

Mao's Mausoleum is huge and very lavish (unlike the man himself) and having rushed through that at high speed needed a picture to remind us of the instigator of the Cultural revolution, it was time to take in lunch... We went to an amazing restaurant, not only for the food, but also for the decoration that was the original American embassy in Beijing. The design features were quite incredible, and the burger stuffed with Foie Gras was also great...

After lunch a trip through the Forbidden City or as it has been known since 1925 the Palace Museum. It's not so forbidden any more, so that's why they had to change the names... There were some incredible architecture erected by the emperors during the ages and pictures do not do it justice - GO, and experience it!

Finally a spot of shopping for China's finest - I am bringing presents home, so I can't say what they are, but it was great quality!

Catching up with old friends

Sunday last week was a lazy time and we caught up with some old friends of the other one's, namely Criena and Cam, Elana and Pete which was great - we had Chinese food, which might have set of the chain reaction for the rest of the week :-) Then we went to a hotel (Australian for pub) to have a couple of drinks - it was nice to see everybody again but it was a little sad that the other one was a bit under the weather - could have gone all night. ;-)

With apologies...

I am sorry that I have not been my usual diligent self this week - partly I was nursing the other one back to health with the help of Eddy, my trusted friend - he had got a whole bunch of viruses which meant that he was in bed almost the whole week... Nasty business. The other thing is that I were in the People's Republic, which means that Blogger is not really allowed... So even when I have been out on adventures, it hasn't been easy for me to post stuff. So I am going to now...