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

Bangkok - Day trip to Ayutthaya (the former capital of Thailand)

As you may have read, yesterday we planned on taking it easy, seeing as we were still tired from the week of no sleep at the WFFT, but it didn't really work out the way we planned and we ended up being on our feet about 5 extra hours.

So today Rony wisely changed our plans and decided we should take a day trip to Ayutthaya instead since it involved a 1.5 hour train ride in each direction and would allow us to sight-see and rest simultaneously. Being the dutiful girlfriend that I am, I followed.

Also, I really can only find our hotel.

Ones of the rare whole Buddhas remaining in Ayutthaya ruins

Ayutthaya used to be the capital city of Thailand, and at one point was the largest city in the world when it boasted 1 million citizens. Most of the historical areas of the city are actually ruins, having been destroyed and left to burn back in 1767 by the Burmese army.

End of history lesson.

Let me start with this: Historic Ayutthaya is really nice. The town itself is kinda grungy, but that's OK.

Don't worry, they have 7-Elevens, so they're cool.

Anyway, most of what you'll see there is ruins, and it's a nice breath of fresh air (when you're not on the main road) - literally and a change from Bangkok.

Getting there is really easy. We took the Metro (MTR, not the Sky Train) to the end of the line, which is Hua Lamphong, and from there we took a Thai train. What I mean by Thai train is that everyone on it, except us and a few others, is Thai. It also means that the cost of the train's 1 hour and 45 min ride to Ayutthaya is - wait for it - $0.47. The touristy train comes less often and costs about 10 times as more, which still isn't a lot of money, but you can buy a lot in Thailand for that amount. And since we'll be backpacking for 4 months, we figure we should be as frugal as possible.

The train isn't air conditioned, but it's an open train, so there's lots of air, no bad smell, and people are walking up and down the aisles selling food and drinks all the time (and the locals buy it).

As everywhere else in Thailand, the people at the train station and everyone in Ayatthuya was incredibly friendly, none more than the very old and very drunk man on the train who "God bless you"'d us more than once and told me I was beautiful.

Now before you think the comment was because he was under the influence, please note that I was told 4 (four) times today that I am beautiful, none by people I know. Well, once I told Rony that, he said it too, of course, so that's 5, but the first 4 lead me to believe that either 1) Everyone in Thailand is drunk or 2) I am a goddess.

I'm going with #2.

We arrived in Ayatthuya, where the locals drive as marvelously as the people of Bangkok, and then took a 2-minute ferry to cross the river that cost a whopping 12 cents per person (per direction, 25 cents round trip, if you will) and then started walking.

So here's the thing. We didn't have a map and didnt' really know where we were going. But we never ended up in Harlem, Ayatthuya, so we were fine. As usual, everyone was very friendly, but most spoke even worse English than in Bangkok, so we took to asking the few tourists we could find where we could get a map.

The head of the sandstone Buddha image in Wat Mahathat

Eventually, after walking through another typical market, we arrived at our first location: Wat Mahathat. Like basically all of historic Ayatthuya, Wat Mahathat is mostly ruins of a Temple. The place was burned down, and even though much of it has survived, it is mostly black, and almost all of the Buddhas have had their heads chopped off. It's very sad, in our opinion, that someone would disrespect someone's beliefs that way, but most of the Buddhas are like that now there.

Once we finished walking around that area and the one by it, we sat down at the cutest coffee shop/guest house. Their mocha was great, and even though we didn't eat there, we loved that all of their food was offered in two different sized portions: Big and very big. The owner was incredible sweet and so very helpful. Since we didn't really know what we wanted to see (the change of plans was literally this morning), we asked her what the best places to go were, and she told us - and she was right.

One Love - the coffee shop/guesthouse/tuk tuk negotiator where we asked for directions

The best part was that she actually negotiated a tuk tuk price for us. Generally the rates there go for about 250-300 Baht ($7-9) per hour, but she got it down to 150 Baht ($4.70) for us by saying that we are her guests. The place is called Coffee One Love, and it's a bit more expensive than most places in Thailand that we've seen so far, but still very low budget, and we were so tired from updating the blog until 2 am, that we really needed the coffee pick-me-up (which was delicious).

The place we went next used to be a temple, also destroyed by the Burmese, named Wat Chaiwatthanaram. It was so far from everywhere else, that the only way to get there is by tuk tuk or cab. Another popular option is to rent a bike or a motorcycle, but we didn't want to die.

Wat Chaiwatthanaram

This temple is magnificent. At first we couldn't really understand why she recommended it, but when we saw the last side of the temple - wow. See for yourself in the Facebook pics, it's just gorgeous!

At this point, we had another hour that we could have been walking around for, but we were exhausted, so we went back to the guest house where we were picked up and walked the 30-minute walk back to the river and just waited for the train.

All in all, we had a really great time, and the (relative) rest today was really needed. Rony is lucky, he can sleep whenever he decides he wants to, but me? Not so much. So I'm updating the blog. It's only 12:20 am, though, but I will go to sleep soon becuase we have a long day tomorrow including temples in Bangkok and a flight to Chiang Mai.

Talk to y'all soon!

P.S. More pictures in our album on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=567114&id=906005363&l=0f03363831 (We added today's pics to the Bangkok album)