Kyoto 3 or how to see more in less time.

Today we decided to split up into 2 groups: Rony and himself on one side, Talia and Shanainai on the second. Rony and himself accomplished a lot, despite talking nonstop with each other.
The reason for this is that each group wanted to see/do different things that the other group wasn't fond of. So without further ado, let's hear each group version of their day.

Rony: So I started early in the morning, at 9:00 with the closest temple to our hostel: Sanjusangendo.

That temple uniqueness is the 1001 Buddha statues it contains. Very impressive. I didn't have a camera but it didn't change anything: It was forbidden to take pictures in the temple.
The entrance fee is 600 Yen, but it contains a small museum of the place with its history and culture. Everything was in English, which was very cool.

Talia: That was our first stop as well, except we were there about an hour later. We started out in the common room trying to figure out the order of where we going and which buses we needed to get to each place. Since I am a bit less adventurous than Rony, I preferred to figure out which route we needed to get to each place before we were actually out in the freezing cold.

Like Rony said, the temple is gorgeous. We didn't take pictures inside, but we took a few outside. The temple is actually the longest hall in Japan - and when it's minus a million degrees outside, you feel each and every one of those meters, especially on your freezing toes since we had to remove our shoes.

sanjusangendo

Rony: After Sanjusangendo, I took the bus #100 and went to Kyiomizudera. Or at least I tried. I didn't really find the place, but I saw several Geisha (or models dressed as Geisha) photographed by what seemed like a professional photographer (he had an assistant who directed the lights) and all the tourists passing by were taking pictures too. That was the first time I really regretted not having a camera. I then strolled around Higashiyama, which has beautiful streets and shrines and every corner has a new beauty to reveal.

Talia: Once we were sufficiently frozen, we took a bus to the Nishikikoji Food Market. Rony's all marketed out, and we both love these things, so it was great. We found the place fairly easily (I was really proud of myself for navigating my way through a Japanese town on my own), and saw amazing food items, some familiar and others bizarre (e.g. an octopus ball on a stick). There were many free tastings at many of the booths, but of course my courage has its limits and I only tried the few "safe-looking" foods.

A quail egg is inside the octopus

We were supposed to go to the Nijojo Castle next, but we were having a great time, and since we hadn't seen each other in a really long time, we decided not to rush it and just enjoy hanging out together. We had lunch at a really nice restaurant that left us a bit hungry, but it was delicious, so at least that. :-)

The other side of the market is actually a souvenir-type market, though I didn't actually buy anything. I figure an extra dollar per gift if I purchase in Tokyo before we leave is preferable upon the extra weight that I'd carry for the next 3 weeks.




Rony: At 11:00 I got to the Path of Philosophy which is suppose to be a beautiful path/street. But after 500 meters, I left: maybe it's special when the trees are blooming, but during winter it has nothing special. But I saw some funny people there: One elderly guy came to me and asked me in English where I was from. When I answered, he laughed as if I told him a joke and left. I also saw a woman who was walking her dog and actually being "led" by her poodle and run when it was running. It was quite funny.

At 11:30 I got to Ginkakuji, the Silver Pavilion. It has a nice garden and a walking path. But I'll let Talia tell about it since she was more impressed than I was.

Talia: Our next stop after lunch was the Ginkakuji (we did the Path later). We were both very impressed with the garden, much more so than Rony. It was, in our opinion, absolutely gorgeous, even if it wasn't full of flowers just yet. We climbed to the top of part of it and it started to snow, which was totally awesome for both of us, even though it has been basically snowing almost every day for the past week.


We were also approached all the time by people (in general, Rony and I are randomly stopped on the street and subway and anywhere else there are people to be asked where we're from - it's really funny). We both say Texas and people's eyes light up - it's really funny. I usually also say I live in Israel, and then people get REALLY excited. Sometimes they don't understand immediately, so I have already learned how to pronounce Israel in Japanese, and how to say Hebrew in Japanese, so now people usually understand quickly.

The down side of traveling in the winter is the cold, but the up side is that there are very few tourists, so we both get a lot of attention (though a part of it is because of my strawberry hat), and the best part is that we usually get really great pictures because there is hardly anyone around. Most people's pictures are usually full of other people - ours aren't.

Anyway, Shanainai and I were very proud of ourselves for navigating our way through Kyoto and kept saying to each other (while still there) that we're awesome and great, and so cool - and where's the exit from the temple???


Rony: After a short lunch break, meaning buying something at 7-Eleven and eating on the street, I took bus #102 and went to see Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavilion. What a beautiful view! The gold there is so bright and the garden so nice. I was really impressed.

Talia: After finding our way out fo the temple, our next stop was the Path of Philosophy. We had the same impression as Rony, that there wasn't really much to it, and we also left the Path about 1/3 of the way through, after taking some philosophy-themed pictures. :-)

Talia on the Path of Philosophy

Rony: It was close to 14:00 now and I had one more sight to see before heading to the Manga Museum: Nijo Castle. I planed only an hour there, but the place is so big and beautiful that I took my time and enjoyed it. That was once again a place I regretted not having a camera. The inside is big and beautiful and the gardens and castle walls are impressive too. I recommend Nijo-jo warmly.

Talia: At this point, we were freezing - it was about 17:00 or 17:30 already. We decided to take advantage of our bus pass (a ride is 220 yen, the pass is 500 yen, so if you use it at least 3 times, you've more than paid for it), and caught a bus (unplanned bus! Go me!!) to our next stop: Kyoto Handicraft Center (for SURE Rony is jealous he wasn't with us here!)

We got off at the stop that seemed most correct for us (it was!) and started walking according to the map. We ended up walking through really cute streets - but none of them had the center we were looking for. Since Japan doesn't have names for each streets - only the main ones - it is very hard to be sure where you are. Anyway, we stopped a cute lady for directions, she started giggling when we talked to her in English, and basically pointed in the direction we needed. We started in that direction, understood what our mistake was, and then saw a European-looking woman, and she was able to explain to us exactly how to get there - we were actually just about 20 feet away.

So we saw the signs for the handicraft center that Shanainai had read about, and it was supposed to be a really cute place with lots of souvenirs and activities. So we went in, and the first floor has nice enough souvenirs, but the expensive kind, and nothing that really excited us. So we decided to go up to the 6th floor and walk our way down.

The 6th floor was pitch black, and the 5th an 4th were a restaurant, so we stopped at the 3rd floor. It was a bit boring, so we went down to the 2nd floor, which also had souvenirs, but crazy priced stuff. We were really disappointed, but at the same time content because we wanted to go there, found the building, and never got lost in town.

Rony: After seeing so much temples and beautiful places, I was ready for my highlight: The Manga Museum. I planned 2-3 hours for that.

But once there, I was disappointed: It's actually a huge library of manga, with little explanations about what manga is, where it comes from, what the symbolic meanings of some drawings in manga are.

I hoped that it would go deep in that culture, but instead it was quite superficial.

I guess I'll have to get my answers elsewhere...

Talia: We left the Kyoto Handicraft Center and turned right to catch the bus when we saw another sign for the Kyoto Handicraft Center. And then we walked into the correct building - the one we were in before was the wrong building. That was fun.

This building, the REAL Kyoto Handicraft Center, was actually everything we hoped it would be. It was fun to browse through so many different cultural artifacts and kimonos and souvenirs - I even bought some really cute gifts for my family (which I can't specify here because my Dad reads this on Saturdays and sometimes my sisters, too). We were happy!

Rony: On my way back to the hostel, I passed Kawaramachi street and noticed another beauty of Kyoto: Under each lantern, there was a display of old photos of random people in different situations. It was actually an exposition of photos by artists I guess, and it was displayed on the street. It was so unexpected and cool. So I made Talia come and see it later and take pictures of it.

The photos are displayed under each street light. See in the top right corner one example

One of the cute photos displayed

Talia: He made me, but I wanted to see it. When we got back to the hostel, about half an hour after Rony, he immediately told us about the amazing day he had. You should have seen his face - it lit up like you wouldn't believe. The best part of the day was listening to him recount his incredible day!

Rony: All in all, I had a great day, saw so many beautiful and special places. I had to rush a bit of course, but I think it was worth it.

Talia: Even though I got a bit sad that I had missed some of the sights that I wanted to see, Shanainai and I had our own perfect day as well. Besides, Rony and I just KNOW we will be back to Japan - we are both entirely too infatuated with the country not to come back - so whatever we miss now, we will see later. It's just a fact.

Tomorrow Hiroshima!

Pics from our last day in Kyoto:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=609678&id=906005363&l=58f908fbaf

Kyoto wonders

After a 2-hour and 40 minute ride on the Shinkansen (bullet train), we arrived in Kyoto. First of all, the train station is huge. It's like a train station and a mall combined, very special. It took us 10 minutes to exit the station and find ourselves in front of Kyoto Tower, a tower that seems like a radio transmission tower in orange and white.

Our backpackers hostel is 10 minutes from the station, but with our backpacks on, it felt like 30. We finally arrived to the hostel, K's Hostel. The people at the desk are very nice and there's also a cafe attached to it, so it's even cooler. But the surprise was that one of the (Japanese!) receptionists started to talk to us in Hebrew! Apparently he was there volunteering for 6 months and he really liked the place. He's even thinking of coming back to study for a year! He's the second Japanese person we met who has lived in Israel and liked it. Funny.

Anyway, it was already 16:00 and we hadn't eaten lunch so we were starving and looked for a place to go. This guy recommended us a Japanese restaurant not far from the hostel that serves udon (soup based noodle dish) and other stuff like that. The service was great (as usual here) and we were ready to visit the city and see the night life around Gion.

We were looking for Geishas and apparently it was the area to find them. The Gion area looks like what Kyoto was like 150 years ago. Small wooden houses, people dressed in traditional Japanese clothes, almost no cars.

Even if the area has mostly expensive restaurants that only business men go to and expensive shops, it's still a beautiful place to walk around and it definitely reminded us that we were not in Tokyo anymore.

Kyoto seemed quite like Tokyo when we exited the train station, but now we see the obvious difference.

We finished with the local "Red light district" where we saw a (drunk) geisha holding a business man on the way to find a taxi. To rest after all the drinking, apparently. She was in full make up and garb - i was very exciting for us.

The next day we started our Kyoto tour by seeing the 2 main highlights of the city (according to Rony): The Bamboo forest in Arashiyama and the Fushimi Inari Shrine with its thousands of orange tori.

First came the Bamboo forest. We took the train to Arashiyama, which cost us nothing since we have the JR Pass. After a 20-minute ride, we arrived at the Saga-Arashiyama station and started to walk toward the bamboo grove, about a 20-minute walk from there.

On the way, Rony decided he wanted to buy mandarines that were for sale on the street. They were just on a stand in front of a house and there was a small box for money deposit. Just like in New Caledonia. So he bought some. After tasting them, we understood why nobody was there: They were sour like lemon and not edible. So we just threw them away. Too bad.

Buying the sour mandarins

The town itself looks like a typical Japanese suburb/small town and we fell in love with it. We totally saw ourselves living in such a place, where everything seems so peaceful and pretty.

Then we arrived at the bamboo forest. What an amazing view! Bamboo trees all around us and above us. With all those trees, it felt like a giant green dome above us, protecting us.

Bamboo grove

In the bamboo forest. Rony still has his mandarins... for now

 On our way back to the train station, we passed by Kameyama Park and Hozu river, which both held beautiful scenery.

Hozu River

Sweet japanese baker

It was now time for Fushimi Inari Shrine, but for that we had to pass through the Kyoto train station. And since we were at the station and it was lunch time, then why not eat? So we passed by a Japanese fast food establishment that looked like this:

If you don't know what it is and wonder what the hell this slot machine is and how it's related to food, then we completely understand you :) This is actually the menu of the restaurant and the machine is a self ordering machine: You enter the amount your dish costs, you select the dish you want, and the machine gives you a ticket that you hand to the cook inside the restaurant. And 25 seconds later, your dish is on the counter ready to eat. Amazing, cool, awesome! Not to mention delicious!

 While we were wondering what we're going to eat, and trying to figure out the different dishes, a nice Japanese guy came out of the restaurant for help. He was very nice and helpful, and started to talk to Shanainai about Kyoto and other stuff while Rony and Talia went to eat. But after 30 minutes it started to be a bit long and Talia came to the rescue and Shanainai could finally eat.

In our defense, Talia went to check on Shanainai several times and see if she needed help, but the answer was always no. We're guessing that the guy just wanted to practice his English and found a perfect occasion to do so. Usually when Japanese people come to us to talk in English, it's just to ask where we're from. But this time it was different.

We finally got to Fushimi Inari Shrine and it met all our expectations - and even exceeded them: Everything was orange (Rony's favorite color) from the giant tori at the entrance to the temples, to the shops, fences, stalls.

And that was only the beginning: We started to climb the mountain behind the temple and pass through the infinite number of orange tori. It was exactly as we saw it in pictures:

Rony climbed and ran all around with a big smile on his face and Talia took an endless number of photos. Really a unique experience. It's a good thing we have an 8 GB memory card!

The Fushimi Inari Taisha (shrine) is dedicated to the god Inari and Inari is also the name of the mountain where the shrine is located. Inari is the shinto god of fertility, agriculture and rice and it is symbolized by a fox. So we saw many statues of foxes there.

By the time we left and got back to the hostel, it was 16:00 and all the other places we wanted to go were already closed. So we decided to do some shopping and to get rid of a few kilos off our backpacks and send them back home. They will probably arrive 2 months after we get home, but it's OK. 6.6 kilos less is quite significant if you don't carry them for a month. :)

This time we decided to eat at the hostel, and we had some salad we bought at the 7-Eleven and called it a day. We were still tired from the day before and we decided to rest.

Since we didn't see half of the places we wanted to, we decided that the next day Rony would go on his own, at his own pace and see the places he wanted to see the most, and Talia and Shanainai would go see their preferred places.

But that's for another post :)

Pics from Kyoto: 

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=608314&id=906005363&l=7dd6ec49d7

Last days (for now) in Tokyo - Shibuya, Omotesando, and the Tsukiji fish market

Since Shanainai had just arrived from the US, and we were all exhausted, we skipped the fish market that morning and slept in. By slept in we mean that we all woke up between 6:30 and 8:00 am, but at least we didn't use an alarm clock, and we did stay in bed (using the term loosely) and rest a bit until around 9:30.

After hanging out for a couple hours in the morning (after all, Talia and Shanainai have been friends for 19 years and needed some time to catch up), we headed out with our new friend from the hostel, Dave from New York City.

Our first stop was Shibuya Junction, which is basically a replica of Times Square in New York City. It's big and awesome, and a zillion people there cross the street, all at the same time, without bumping into each other. It's beautiful. After oohing and aaahing for a while, and taking some pictures, we had some lunch and started walking up and down the streets in the area.

Shibuya Junction - their version of Times Square

Our destination here was Meiji Jingo Shrine, which is in the middle of a large park. The pathway is beautiful, full of trees, and really fun to walk through. Before you reach the entrance, there are many barrels of wine (without wine), that were presented as gifts. (We think without wine, this has not been personally corroborated.)  This shrine, like most of the others, is gorgeous, and many people came to see it.

Meiji Jingu temple (lanterns)

Our next stop was the Meiji Jingo gardens, but we didn't really have the energy to go in and Shanainai went alone. Meanwhile, Talia studied the map to make sure we were able to find what we were looking for.

We then walked part of the way back and went to Omotesando street, which is compared to the Champs Elysees. We can see the comparison - it's a long and wide street, lined with trees and expensive stores. But it's not quite the same. For example, Talia is 97.7% sure that the Champs Elysees wouldn't have a store with this name:

On Omotesando street

Anyway, at this point, Talia and Shanainai were left along because this was a girly area, but they had no problem with it. :-) We stopped at a cute (albeit expensive) coffee shop and tried two of the local desserts. We have no idea what they were, but they were really delicious! After chatting for a long while (after all, we hadn't seen each other in over a year), we continued to walk down and check out the scenery.

Omotesando desserts

We turned onto one of the side streets and started randomly walking up and down the streets - they were all so beautiful and picturesque and lined with the coolest and oddest stores. We continued walking for a while, and then stopped at the Chanel store. Oh, wait, we stopped at the store after Chanel, which is called Oriental Bazaar, a store that was recommended as a good place with fairly-priced souvenirs.

At this point, we had about an hour before we had to get back to Shibuya Juntion to meet Rony and Dave and Shanainai's Japanese friend for dinner (we were planning on walking back, which was about half an hour). We started walking back and then remembered that earlier we saw some weird yelling and a big sign that said "Sale Bazaar" or something to that affect, so we wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

OH EM GEE, it was insane. It must have been stock day or something equivalent (where they try to get rid of all the merchandise) because the sales were all between 50% and 90% off. Salespeople were yelling with megaphones, customers were pushing each other to the racks of clothes, and all hell had broken loose.

We found it hilarious and had to take pictures.

After looking through a couple of stores on the first floor, we decided to go upstairs to take a picture of the insanity from above. What we didn't count on was:

1) Traffic
2) Really awesome sales

We noticed, as began walking (shoving) up the stairs, that there was a line of women all up the stairs. After about 2 minutes, Talia realized that they were waiting in line to get into the store. Upon closer inspection, we saw that the store was now 90% off, so the line was somewhat understood.  As we turned the corner of the first stairs, lo behold the line extended up another flight of stairs! It was insane.

The sale is just THAT good

We really only had time to find that open space where we could take  picture of the downstairs insanity when the sight of the most incredible shirt appeared before Talia and suddenly we found ourselves spending 10 minutes waiting in line to buy this incredible shirt. And then we took the pictures.

We went downstairs and since it was suddenly raining, decided to take the subway, even though it was only one stop away. This ended up being:

1) A good decision and
2) A bad decision.

A good decision, because the rain got REAL hard while we were in the subway, and bad because it took us over 10 minutes to figure out how to get out of the station, even though we arrived a couple minutes early (this is important for Talia to point out). It probably would have taken us less time to walk there, although we would have arrived with pneumonia.

We met up with Rony, Dave, and Shanainai's friend, Ken, who is a local, and he took us to this wonderful restaurant where you order all of your food on a touch screen and everything on the menu costs 270 Yen ($3 more or less) regardless of what you order. And omigosh did we eat!

AWESOME dinner - part of it, at least

The food was delicious! Ken started us out by ordering a bunch of local foods that would interest us, and as the evening progressed we ordered more and more food. Basically, each plate is like a tapa, a small amount of food that gives you a great taste of the dish. Anyway, we had an incredible dinner and Ken ordered some local alcohol (not sake) to sample (hey - we weren't driving the metro), and then we headed back to Shibuya Junction to see Hachiko, the famous dog statue, that we missed in the morning.

Shibuya Junction at night - it really DOES look like Times Square!

The story of this dog (portrayed in the film Hachiko with Richard Gere) is that every day, the dog would greet his owner at the end of the day at Shibuya Station. One day the owner died, and every day for the next nine years the dog waited for his owner to return, until the dog died. It's a very famous legend, and a bronze statue was erected in the square to commemorate this amazing story of loyalty.

We then returned to the hostel to go to sleep because the next morning we woke up at 4:15 am to go to the Tsukiji fish market. We weren't insane, we just really wanted sushi. We mean, going to the Tsukiji fish market before the break of dawn is an experience that is highly recommended - and we could see why.

We took the 5 am metro (the first) to the fish market, and spent the next 15 minutes looking for the office where you sign up to be an observer at the tuna auction. Eventually we found it and were able to make it, even though there's a limit of 70 people, probably because it is winter and off season and freezing.

We given orange vests to wear over our clothes, which marks us as observers, and were supposed to watch an instructional video, but we arrived in the middle of it and it was in Japanese and were far away and were all "dude, it's tuna, we get it" so we were cool. :-)

At 5:30 am - don't you wish your vest was hot like ours?

We walked into the tuna auction area and it was bustling with sellers and buyers. It was a really awesome experience! Each seller had a few tunas lined up together with notes on them listing how many kilos they each weigh (some were over 100 KG!) and buyers walked through the room, cutting off the edges to check out the quality and freshness of the fish before deciding to bid on them.

Checking the tuna for quality

In case you are wondering, this is how you can tell if the tuna is of high quality of freshness: Yeah, we have no idea.

Anyway, there were a few auctioneers walking through the room, ringing a bell not unlike the Salvation Army bell to inform people that an auction was coming up. The auctioneers were hilarious. Of course, we couldn't understand the words, but the sounds they were making were priceless.

When the auction was over, we had to return the chic vests and leave the premises until at least 9. This includes the market area itself, which is only open to businesspeople until 9 am. Of course, we got lost on our way back, too, and ended up walking through incredible stands of fresh fish and seafood, of which many were still alive (creepy).

We then went to have some sushi for breakfast (for real) at a really famous sushi restaurant that can only seat 13 people at a time. We got in line around 6:30 am or so, and got in very quickly - at 8:30. Yes, we actually stood in line for 2 hours for SUSHI. But it was worth it - it was soooo delicious! The best part was making friends with Canadians in the looooong line - we ended up exchanging email addresses and everything.

Mmmm... Breakfast!

And that was it for Tokyo. After breakfast, we returned to the hostel to pack our things and check out, and catch a bullet train (about 200 KPH) to Kyoto. We were finally able to start using our Japan Rail Pass. It cost us about $700 (57,700 Yen) to use for 21 days. While this sounds expensive (and it is - we haven't yet found a winning lottery ticket on the streets), take into consideration that a single, one-way train ride from Tokyo to Kyoto costs about $150. As such, the amount of traveling we will be doing over the next 3 weeks makes the pass definitely worth the price. Our pass will actually run out before the end of our trip, but we will find alternate ways to get back to Tokyo. Is hitchhiking OK? :-)

See you from Kyoto!

Previous album from Tokyo and Nikko (we hadn't published it with the first draft):

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=607350&id=906005363&l=f7ebb6de16

New album from Tokyo:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=607836&id=906005363&l=12ed0fadb0

Pics from Nikko and Tokyo

We have uploaded the pics from Nikko and the day of the sumo tournament in Tokyo, so we wanted to let you know you can see them at this link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=607350&id=906005363&l=f7ebb6de16

 

We'll update again soon!

Tokyo, Japan: Nikko, Sumo tournament, Mori Tower

Saturday we woke up early to go to Nikko as we planned. We also had to check out from our hostel and store our bags for the day. But as we got attached to the staff there, we took some time to say goodbye to everyone, and we missed the 8:00 train. But it wasn't that bad, since we caught the next one and finally got to Nikko.

The ride takes 2.5 hours, but it was not boring at all: The view from the train was great. We passed many small towns and villages and it was interesting to see what they all looked like. The houses look very nice and everything looks so clean. And when we got close to Nikko, we started to see snow on the houses, the fields, and everywhere around. It was so cool. We haven't seen snow for years!

We didn't have much time to be in Nikko because Talia's friend, Shanainai, was coming in the evening from the States to spend a week with us and visit Japan, so we could stay only till 15:00. We decided to focus on Nikko's main attractions, the temples. There are also a lake and waterfall that are supposed to be great, but maybe we will do them next time.

The temples are displayed all around downtown and it's like a walking trail to find them all. We bought a 5-temple-in-one pass which cost about 1000 Yen, and after a very tasteful pizza from a cafe in front of the train station, we started our tour.

We started with Rinno-ji which was under renovation when we were there. There were a lot of tourists there, Japanese and Russian, so it was very crowded and we couldn't understand the guides' explanations, but it was a nice start.

We then saw Tosho-gu with its famous 3 monkeys: "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil."

Seeing the temples in the snow was quite amazing. It had a sense of peace and beauty that we enjoyed as much as the temples themselves.

 

We don't want to start an extensive description of all temples we saw there, but it definitely was a great idea to come to Nikko and enjoy a walk outside the big city.

Shinkyo sacred bridge in Nikko

We went back to Tokyo in the evening to meet Shainai in our new hostel.

We decided to "celebrate" Shanainai's arrival and enjoyed a good dinner out.

The next day, the main attraction was the sumo tournament finals that started in the afternoon. We decided to go back to Senjo-ji for a short stroll and show this crowded and cheerful place to our friend. The place was even more crowded than when we were there a few days before. Of course - it was Sunday. Talia played the tour guide as though she had known the place for ages.

One of many funny signs you can see on the streets of Tokyo

We then went to the sumo tournament, which was 3 subway stations from there. This was a great experience that everyone should do at least once. The combat itself is not very long and the ceremony before the fight is longer than the fight itself, but there are dozens of them during the day and each is exciting and surprising. And as the day advances, the more important the fights become and the more cheerful the crowd is.

Sumo entering ceremony

Getting ready to fight

Fight!

At the end, the winner got lots of trophies. A lot! It didn't stop, so we decided that we should leave and go on to Roppongi Hills and view Tokyo from above.

The winner

We went to the 52nd floor of the Mori Tower and saw Tokyo at night. The ticket to get there was a bit expensive (1500 Yen - about $17) but it included an exposition by a Japanese artist at the museum there. Talia was a bit scared of the display there. The theme was ghosts, life and death and in between.

View from Mori tower

We finally got to our hostel exhausted. We planned on going to Tsukiji market at 5 AM in the morning, but we were too tired so we postponed it to the next day, before going to Kyoto.

You can go over to the videos page to watch a video from the Sumo tournament.

Pics from Nikko and Tokyo:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=607350&id=906005363&l=f7ebb6de16

Tokyo, Japan - AWESOME country, we're in love (with the country)

So now we're in Japan, and we have to say, we are in love. With Japan, that is. From the moment we landed, we have been greeted with nothing but an abundance of smiles and sweetness. Our first touch of Japan was at the airport, where we were delighted to discover that toilets come with remote controls - for real!

Remote control for the toilet

You can heat the seat, use the toilet as a bidet, have a loud or soft flushing sound, and probably a host of other features that we don't understand cause it was in Japanese. Even though Japan was Rony's dream, Talia got so excited that she couldn't shut up. Like for real couldn't shut up. Like it's a miracle she was able to survive without breathing for so long.

But we digress. We took the train and subway to our hostel, and to our delight, it was really close to the hostel. And our hostel, Khaosan Tokyo Samurai, was the best in the whole wide world. At least of the ones we've been to.

First of all, the people at reception are all adorable, each cuter than the next. There are tons of signs all over with directions (that you can take with you), the common area has a nice sized kitchen with everything you could possibly want, and free origami classes at night! Anyway, it was awesome, and we need to book a room for our last couple of nights in Japan, so we are going to do it once we are sure of how many nights.

Anyway, the hostel has a really cool area map that lists everything important in the area, including restaurants, and we went to eat at this incredible Japanese dish called okonomiyaki, which is kind of a mix between a pizza and a pancake. You get the raw ingredients and put it in a plastic bag where you mix it all up, and then there's a stove in the table between you and you put it on the stove and cook it.

The makings of an Okonomiyaki

Of course, we had no idea what to do, so the lady there kept coming to help us, and she was so adorable that Talia developed a ginormous crush on her that could only be satisfied by taking a picture with her, which she did. Rony did a really good job of speaking to her in basic Japanese, and even understood most of what she was saying!

The portions were huge, way too big, and since we had ordered one each, we were only able to eat half of each and we ended taking it back to the hostel and having it for lunch the next day. Even though we hadn't ordered dessert, the lady treated us to their crepes, which were really delicious (um, not as good as Rony's mom's crepes, of course), which we made ourselves too. All in all, our first (half) day in Japan was perfect.

The next day, we went to the Senjo-ji and the Five Stories Pagoda. Walking up towards the temple, we walked through the Kaminarimon (where this old guy lay on the ground to take a picture - it was awesome), which led to Nakamise Street, which is a long street full of vendors selling all kinds of items, mostly souvenirs and clothes. We didn't buy anything, but it was loads of fun, please we now have a basis with which to compare various items that we'll be purchasing later.


The experience of the temples in Japan is different than those we've seen before. First of all, at the entrance to each temple, there is a small fountain of water that is like a small waterfall with ladles, where people wash each hand and then drink and spit some of the water before they enter.

Also, the Senjo-ji temple had Omikuji, which is basically a sacred Japanese fortune lottery. People donate 100 Yen (about $1.20), shake a box, and pull out a stick that has a number on it. They then open the drawer with the corresponding number on it and pull out a piece of paper with a fortune on it that can be either good or bad. The English directions said you're supposed to take it home with you, but everyone folded it in a particular way and hung it on special ropes for it.

Senjo-ji Temple - Omikuji

After walking around the temple and the grounds for quite a long while, we started walking around the streets. We went to a certain store to try to buy Talia tickets for the Taylor Swift concert, but it was sold out. We had originally tried online months ago, but you can't buy the tickets online.

Senjo-ji Temple

We got back to hostel in the late evening, posted pics and the post about Beijing for you all to see ( :-) ), and Rony did some planning for Japan while Talia took a really fun (and free) origami class. Of course, Talia can't remember most of what she made, but it was tons of fun. She met some really nice people from Korea and Osaka, and we're going to try to meet up with the girl from Osaka while we're there.

Orginami class at the hostel

On our second full day in Tokyo, we were supposed to go to Nikko, a town about 2.5 hours away from Tokyo, but we got a bit of a late start so it wasn't really worth going to. Instead, we went to Akihabara, which is known for its electronics. Originally the plan was to get a converter for our electronic devices, but as it turns out, all of our stuff actually is OK with 100 watts, so we ended up scouting out computers.

We then went to the museum district in Ueno, a bit north of where we were. We first went to the Tokyo National Museum and spent a few interesting hours there. We then went to the Museum of Nature and Science, which was also very interesting. It was about everything from dinosaurs and other large animals, to bugs to marine life, and all kinds of stuff in between.

Museum of Nature and Science - One of the first calculators

The best part was probably the 360 Theater. It features two 5-minute films, which yesterday were about the creation of the universe and the dinosaurs. While these are two topics that most people generally know about, what was special was that you stand in the middle of the theater and hold on to a rail, and the movie screen is literally 360 degrees - that is, on top of you, on the bottom, in front, and behind.

The movies were made so well that not only did you feel like the dinosaurs were actually looking at you, but you could feel yourself moving fast and slow, up and down, and anything else they wanted us to feel. Talia even lost her balance twice! We didn't understand a word, of course, since it was a in Japanese, but it was pretty awesome.

And that was pretty much it. By the time we left the last museum, it was about 7:30 pm, so we headed back to hostel, not before stopping at the 7 Eleven to pick up some dinner (it's cheap and it's fresh and it tastes good, so why not?)

Pics from Tokyo (so far):

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=605732&id=906005363&l=d144cbc623

Shanghai and SuZhou, China

We have a friend in Shanghai, so when we added China and Japan to our trip, the first thing we did was let our friend know we're coming. Since we didn't really have many big things we wanted to see in Shanghai itself (it mostly feels like a rerun of the other stuff we've seen), we decided to go out of Shanghai to a neighboring town.

Our friend met us at the airport and we took a bullet train to a town called Suzhou (pronounced we-have-no-idea). By bullet we mean it went 300 kilometers per hour (186 mph) - which is very fast.

We arrived in Suzhou in the late afternoon, found a hotel (Talia's first time not knowing where she was going to stay when she arrived in a new town), and froze to death. We mean, we were given a room that was so cold that there was no way we were staying the night there. Fortunately, our friend speaks fluent Chinese (for real) and his room was way warmer, so he gave us his room and got a new one for himself. Also, we got extra blankets, just in case, which we totally used.

After really cold weather in Beijing, where the highest was about -2 Celsius (about 30 Fahrenheit) and the lowest -11 C (about 1 degree F), we were looking forward to the "warm" weather in Shanghai, which was supposed to be about 7 C (44F).

Not so in Suzhou where it was just as cold. We we depressed to the point of tears. Not to be ones to surrender to the cold weather, we went out to grab a bit to eat and sight see. Unfortunately, the only sight you can see when it's below zero outside is your body parts falling off.

After grabbing some post-lunch-pre-dinner food, we returned to the hotel. We went out again for dinner, close to the hotel, where we met up with a friend of our friend's as well, and then turned in for the night. We felt bad going to sleep at 9:30 pm, except we got up at 4:20, so we had a good excuse.

As part of our room rate, we got free breakfast with our reservation. Apparently it was cheaper for us to pay the cost of a membership card for the hotel than to just have the room without, so we both got a discount and free breakfast.

By 'free" they must have meant "free of the foods you are used to eating for breakfast." In Asia, breakfast is a regular meal. As such, you can find such breakfast foods as noodles with beef and soup. Even though we've been really good about trying local foods (and beers), we drew the line here, but had a really large portion of toast and jam to make sure we were getting our money's worth. :-)

Suzhou is famous for it's gorgeous Chinese gardens (they're a UNESCO world heritage site), so that's where we went. We went to the Humble Administrator's Gardens (we didn't make that up), which is also known as the Garden of the Unsuccessful Politician (we didn't make that up either), and it was beautiful, even though there weren't really many flowers because of the cold. These gardens are apparently around 700 years old, though parts of it were rebuilt in the last century.

Our next, and final, stop in Suzhou was an awesome restaurant where they had all you can eat meat for 39 RMB, which is just under $6, or 21 shekels. And it was delicious. The tables have a mini grill in the middle and you go to the buffet and take whatever meat (on sticks like kababs) you want and cook it yourself. There's also plenty of vegetables, fruits, and Unidentified Objects. We ate SO much, we were pretty sure that we wouldn't ever eat again. And to tell you the truth, we didn't really had a meal after that for over a day, just a bit here and there.

We had train tickets to get back to Shanghai at 5 pm, so we started trying to get a cab at 4 - the station was very close to our hotel, and we had already checked out, but we needed to pick up our bags. Unfortunately, hailing a cab in Suzhou is about as easy as getting a 3 year old to eat Brussels sprouts (which we just learned is capitalized and has an "S" at the end of Brussels - who knew!) So we missed our train by 20 minutes. We were able to switch our tickets for a later train, though.

We arrived at our friend's apartment in the suburbs of Shanghai, where he has a really awesome apartment. After settling in, we played some games on the X Box Kinect. Basically, it has a camera that can track your movements, and playing a game is actually a physical activity where you aren't touching anything. For example, one of the games is about navigation through water and collecting coins. You need to physically move to get in between hurdles and physically jump to collect coins or get over other hurdles. It is very fun and very tiring.

Even though we could have played for hours, it was time for dinner. We weren't really hungry, but our friend was, plus he wanted to show us this great restaurant by his apartment that has what's called "hot pot." The table has a pot in the middle that's divided into 2 sections, spicy and not spicy, and you order all kinds of meats and veggies of your choice that you drop into the pot to cook. It was really delicious, too, not to mention insanely cheap, though we couldn't really eat a lot cause we were still full from lunch). Originally our friend was going to take us to a karaoke bar after dinner, but we were really tired at this point so we found a great hotel in the center of Shanghai for $20 (including taxes) and went to sleep.

On our third day, we hung out with our friend for a while, and then we all went into the city (about an hour from our friend's place) and checked in to our totally-awesome-for-$20 hotel. The rooms are of course small, but clean and comfortable, which is all that matters, really. After resting a bit, we walked over to the People's Square, which is about a 5 minute walk from our hotel and one of the famous landmarks in Shanghai, and then through a few other areas until we got to Nanjing Road, which is a really awesome pedestrian mall full of great stores and people offering you such classy items such as watches, bags, whores, and drugs.

It was at one of the department stores that we were finally able to find a decent-priced thermos. After braving the incredibly cold weather of Beijing, we decided it would be best if we had a thermos of hot tea or water with us when we are outside to make sure we had an easy and quick way to warm up a bit.

In China, it is known that you should bargain in small shops and stands. However, we did not expect large department stores, sprawled over 7 floors and selling such items as Rolex watches, would also be part of this bargaining process. In the end, we were able to bargain down the price of our thermos from 218 Yuen ($33) to 160 Yuen ($24), which is big for a department store, in our opinion. Anyway, we are now guaranteed hot water for the rest of our trip. Woo hoo!

At the same department store, Talia also bought a pair of fake Ugg boots, that look totally real, for $43 (instead of around $150-200), and they are sooooo warm! Anyway, that should help her a bit in Japan as well.

From Nanjing, we walked all the way down to The Bund, which is probably the most famous area in Shanghai nowadays. On one side (ours) are many old-style European buildings, all lit up, and across the river is the new side of Shanghai, full of sky scrapers, also properly lit up. The are is definitely beautiful. The old architecture vs the new is definitely gorgeous, and our friend said that the entire side of the sky scrapers was built in the last 15 years or so - before that it was just fields, which is pretty amazing.

And that's it for China! Our next update will be about the INCREDIBLE time we've been having in Tokyo. Talk to you soon!

Pics from Shanghai:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=605341&id=906005363&l=5985e2d7f1

Beijing, China - Yonghe Lama Temple, Hutong, pandas, and the amazing 798 Art District

Our third day in Beijing was the shortest and probably least interesting day of our tour. We started at 9 am, which pretty much told us it would be a shorter day (as opposed to the first day when we were picked up at 7:30 am). It's important to note here that while the Metro is jam packed and crazy, traffic on the roads is even worse. It's insane. We can't compare it to ANYTHING. There are no hours, that we can tell, that aren't full of traffic jams. It's not just rush hour. It's so bad, that Talia won't even complain about Tel Aviv traffic when she gets back. The first 2 traffic jams, that is.

Our first stop was the largest Lama temple in Beijing, the Yonghe Temple, which had many visitors who came to worship, despite the early hour (we arrived at about 9:20 am, and the place opened at 9 am). Like other places of worship, people burned many incense, which smells nice, but when there's a LOT (you can see in the pictures that there is a lot of smoke), it gets into your lungs, and made Talia cough a lot, especially since she still had a cold.

Here we saw how the Tibetans practice their Buddhism, and we actually saw a many monks in prayer, which was probably the highlight of that visit. The Temple also boasts a very large Buddha status, which is gorgeous. You aren't supposed to take pictures inside, but our guide saw that the guy who is supposed to make sure no one takes pictures wasn't looking so she told Talia to take a picture quickly. So she did, you know to make sure she wasn't arrested or anything for not breaking the rules. :-)

Our next stop was a tour of a Hutong, a typical Beijing neighborhood. We were first taken to a porcelain factory where they tried to sell us Useless Crap. We mean, they showed us what we learned in ceramics class in third grade. We mean, they didn't make an effort to show us how things were made there. This time, they didn't even have actors, we mean workers, at the different stations, showing us how stuff was made. After our obligatory 2-minute walk around the store, we went back outside.

We were then placed on rickshaw bicycles, which was freezing, but they gave us a blanket to cover our knees, which didn't help, but it was a nice gesture. We felt really bad for the old guy who had to get us from one place to another, and tried to make ourselves lighter for him, but if we knew how to do that, we would probably do it all the time and be millionaires when we shared the secret with the world.

But we digress.

The hutong was kind of interesting, but the truth is that we didn't really see a lot. We learned that most of these houses are a few hundred years old and no one has bathrooms or showers in their homes. Instead, there are public showers in each area where people can go to take a shower and go to the bathroom, which costs money, of course.

One thing we DID learn is that in the older times, you could tell by looking at a house who lived in it, what they did, and what their status was. The best part of the tour was this guide's reaction when she asked us where we're from.

Before we continue, we need to explain this part. Since we are both mixes, that is, the two of us come from 3 different countries that are all disliked by people in various parts of the world, every time we reach a new country/area, we decide "what we are" - if we are French and American or Israeli, or all three. In this case, after weighing the pros and cons of "will they hate American Talia more than Israeli Talia" the decision was made that we would be completely Israeli, which of course lead to funny conversations:

Someone: Where are you from?
Us: Israel
Someone: Wow, you have really good English

So when the guide asked us where we're from, we said Israel. Her reaction? "Wow! You are really smart! Israelis are very very smart people!" Talia thought it was awesome. Rony less. He just dones't like stereotypes.

Anyway, after being driven around on the rickshaws for a while, we were taken into someone's home. At this point, we were told that the rickshaw drivers were going to be leaving us so we should give them a tip if we feel like it. There are two issues here:

1) They drove us for like 10 minutes up and down the same 3 streets
2) We have NO idea what is customary to tip.

We gave them a bit (we just kinda guessed), and went inside to eat, after commenting to each other on the absurdity of the situation.

The lady who lives in the house made us a homemade lunch, which was delicious. It had a lot of typical Chinese foods, the first of which are very similar to ours - meatballs and rice. We tried to compliment the woman several times, but apparently she was unable to see us as our skin apparently clashes with her white walls, which brings up two interesting points:

1) What happened to our hard-earned tans from Thailand, New Caledonia, and Oz?
2) If we weren't there, who was eating the food?

After taking a picture at the house, because our tour guide told us to, we walked back to the center of the Hutong to be picked up. On the way, we saw an ADORABLE dog who was wearing SHOES, who, of course, gravitated towards Rony.

At this point, we were once again told to give the guide from the Hutong a tip if we so deemed necessary, and again we asked what is customary and we were told whatever we think is appropriate, which of course we have no idea, especially since all she did was tell us about the bathrooms and the door to the houses.

Our next visit was a really fun one - we went to the Beijing Zoo to see the pandas! While we are both pretty much against zoos in general, we know that there are only several hundred pandas left in the WORLD, and the zoo is participating in breeding the pandas to hopefully get enough to reintroduce them into the wild.

The pandas are so cute! We wish we could get closer, but they apparently can be very mean if they have to be. Anyway, we saw large pandas and a few smaller pandas, all of which were adorable.

Our next and final stop was to a Chinese medicine doctor. To our surprise, we were once again taken to Olympic Park, which is where this clinic is located. In this case, however, it makes more sense: This location was used during the Olympics for the athletes.

While in general the topic is interesting to Talia (Rony would have preferred to pull out his toe nails), the people there really took it too far. We were offered free foot massages, which we both declined, but after the explanation about pressure points in the feet and hands that are supposed to help with various ailments such as insomnia, Talia gave in and had the foot massage. Which was EXCELLENT.

The masseuse came in with an older scary lady who kept looking at us the entire time like we were going to steal a chair or pee on the floor, and then a very dignified-looking man walked in with a translator. He is apparently the medical dude who can diagnose you and your health problems by looking at your hands.

He looked at Talia's hand and diagnosed that she has poor blood circulation (duh, her hands were cold) and menstrual pain (duh, she's female) and recommended a $120 a bottle treatment that will help her. When she politely said no, he left. For all we know, he was the janitor who was dressed up as a doctor and had to go clean the toilets. :-)

The people who were left in the room tried to convince us to purchase other stuff and we kept saying thank you, but no, we can't carry it with us, and we really felt like we were being attacked. When everyone but the masseuse was gone, and the door was closed, the masseuse looked at us and said, "Tip? Tip?" Which is apparently the only word in English she knows. Super annoying. Luckily, this was the last stop for the tour so we knew it would soon be over. But we have to say that all of these stops were just insane.

When we got back into the car, our guide said we're going back to the hotel, but we're all, the website said we get to take pics outside the olympic stadiums, the famous Birds Nest and Water Cube, and she was all, no, we can't go there, but luckily the driver knew a way to see go in without going in, and we took pics from outside, which is all we wanted. We wouldn't have done it on our own, but we WERE there and it WAS written on the tour explanation, and we ARE Israelis and want to get what we paid for. :-)

Our fourth day was much calmer and it was probably our favorite day in Beijing. A friend of Talia's said that we MUST go to the art district. She said she was only there 2 hours and completely regretted not having more time, and when we looked it up on Trip Advisor, other people said the same. So we decided to go, even though Talia was a bit worried since we had to take a bus and we don't speak Chinese.

Talia knew what subway line to take to what station, and what bus needed to be taken to the art district. Fortunately for us, Rony can read Chinese and was able to decipher what station we were at and which one we needed to get off the bus at - no small feat in a country where 99.99% of the population cannot understand a word you understand, other than, perhaps, the word "tip."

Talia and a random chinese girl posing

Superfoetus

OMG! Transformers do exist!

The 798 Art District is basically the Beijing version of SoHo, full of art galleries. Even though Talia is not an art person by any means, both of us had a marvelous time. We saw some incredible expositions (all free), and one in particular had us both mesmerized. We wanted to buy a picture of his (that's how much we LOVED his exposition), but there weren't any for sale. Fortunately for us, they had a really cool catalogue that has all of his paintings in it, so we have a next-best-thing and we may be able to find something online later on.

One of the picture we'd love to buy as poster

We left when we had no choice, and also it was minus a bazillion degrees outside, so we took the bus back to the subway station and went back to the hotel. We turned in fairly early because (we feel a recurring theme coming on), we had to get up at 4:20 am to catch the subway to the airport to catch our flight to Shanghai. Our next update will be about Shanghai. Talk to you then!

Pics from Beijing (same as yesterday):

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=604480&id=906005363&l=288aeb1539