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Nothing like 60 degree weather, blue skies and a civilized three-foot personal space bubble to make you feel like you're back home.

We got up at Noon on Monday (Seattle time) and got in at 9 am Tuesday. That's a long freakin' day, my friends, even with dozing off on the flight. We're trying to stay awake until this evening to do a brute force body clock reset. Angie's already fading, partially because she's one step away from being narcoleptic normally but also because she came down with a nasty head cold before we left. I keep telling her it's the SARS. She's not amused.

The unpacking went pretty quick. The cats are still under the bed. Lola has been retrieved from Puppy Heaven over at her Godmothers' house. Life is almost back to normal, or will be once we both crash and sleep for a day or two.

Before you go, there will be one more post-trip entry with some final impressions/observations of Beijing and our list of Won't Miss/Will Miss things about our trip. Oh, and I have a ton of photos to go through and post to Flickr. Stay tuned for just a little bit longer.

Beijing Day 10 - Summer Palace

As Scott previously mentioned, we ditched our official tour guide and decided to do the Summer Palace and Temple of Heaven on our own. Neither one of us wanted to spend another day with Shall's lecturing (we believe she was reading the signs back to us). So today, we headed off to the Summer Palace. Once there, we were very glad we didn't try to do the Summer Palace and the Temple of Heaven in one day. Both are massive. We spent 4 hours walking around the Palace, got lost a few times and still managed to cover only about a quarter of the structures. We purchased this awesomely illustrated map that was less than helpful in finding out where you were and how to get to the next location. We were again thanking our trainer for all the squats and lunges that we having been doing. We'd have never made it up and down all the hills and stairs without them. Even so, there were a couple of places I thought I was going to die before we reached the top of the hill. Steep, steep, steep and stairs that are about half as deep as modern steps and twice as high.



The architecture is pretty much what we saw at the Forbidden City which I thought was weird. If you want a summer retreat, wouldn't you like new or different walls to look at? Scott guessed that it was to impress upon people that whoever was in the Summer Palace had the same power and authority as those residing in the Forbidden City. Scott has pictures to post and they tell most of the story. There were easily 50 different buildings, several galleries of artifacts where the newest items was more than 100 years old and lots and lost of opportunities to buy souvenir crap, including at least 6 Official Olympic shops.

Scott made the comment this park and the buildings had been here for hundreds of years, that you'd think that every Chinese person alive would have already seen then and wouldn't need to visit them again. I think he was just frustrated at the crowds. It was more crowded than the Temple of Heaven and all the areas where you could get away from the crowds, you had to be a billy goat to get to.



After walking around for about 3 hours, we took a short boat ride across the lake. The Summer Palace is more than 20 hectares in area (don't ask me what that is in acres) and more than three-quarters of that area is lake. We rode across to a little island and then walked across a bridge with 17 arches and then kept walking until we reached the gate where we came in, taking detours and meanders whenever we saw something interesting.



At the gate, we went to go catch a taxi. There were about 6 of them lined up. We showed them our hotel card and one guy that wasn't dressed in a taxi driver uniform grabbed the card and said he'd take us. He started leading us towards his car which was black and didn't have a taxi sign on it. We hesitated and asked if was a taxi. We'd heard of scams where drivers wouldn't have a meter and they take you to your destination and demand an outrageous amount of money. If you called the police, you'd always lose and end up paying and apologizing to the driver. He claimed he had a meter and when we took back the card and tried to show it to another real taxi driver, he said something to them and they handed it back to us without a word. Against our better judgment, seeing that he did have a meter, we got in the car. He kept talking about what a nice car he had and how it was so much better than a normal taxi. Right. When we go to the hotel, he charged us 4 times what a normal taxi would and insisted that he had a nice car. In reality, we are only talking $20 USD difference in fare, but it's aggravating being taken advantage of. Again, we wish we would have been able to learn more Chinese so we could have told him to bug off.

The rest of the day was spent showering and pre-packing. We just had dinner at one of the hotel restaurants (they have three) so that we were eating "safe" food. It was really good Chinese food, but cost about as much as it would in the U.S. Neither one of us was willing to take a chance with intestinal distress right before such a long travel day.

We'll be up again at 3:00 am local time to finish packing and catch the shuttle to the airport. That'll be noon on Monday Seattle time. Barring any delays, we should arrive in Seattle at 9:30 am on Tuesday, one hour after leaving Beijing based on local time. We are going to time travel again.

Beijing Day 7

Today was an open day. We had nothing planned and no Olympic events. So first thing we did was sleep in some. After getting up at 6 am or earlier every day, regardless of having been up until midnight or later the day before, we slept in until 8 am. We then had a leisurely morning getting up and going and finally left the hotel by about 10:30 am.

Our plan for today was to re-visit some of the areas we had visited on tours but hadn't been able to spend an adequate amount of time at. So our first stop was the Luilichang Commercial District and some hutongs. We grabbed a taxi in front of the hotel and headed off. This was by far our worst taxi ride yet. We've become used to the crazy close calls while driving so it wasn't that. This taxi driver kept sharply braking for no reason. We'd be going down an open stretch of road and he'd just brake hard for a second or two and then keep going. It was a very jerky ride and very annoying. We couldn't decide if he was doing it because he was a crappy driver or just didn't like foreigners. Anyway, no tip for him.

We arrived at Luilichang and began our stroll. This area is full of interesting shops full of handicrafts and arts and we were both interested in taking a look around. Unfortunately, the Chinese have no concept of window shopping or browsing. If they notice you even slowing down in front of their windows to look, a sales person will rush out and push the hard sell. No peaceful browsing for us. We didn't even go into any of the stores because of the hard sell. Too bad for them. Neither one of us are very big shoppers, but without the added annoyance of the hard sell, we would have bought stuff if we could have looked around in peace. I'm actually looking forward to getting back to the U.S. where you can wander a store (like Home Depot) for hours without being bothered or helped for that matter.

When the Luilichang portion of the street ran out, it dumped us into a hutong. We wandered around. Scott took lots of pictures. We were as much of a tourist attraction to the locals as their homes were to us. There were food stalls which were scary. Normal type food, but no refrigeration. Fresh eggs and meat sitting out in the sun in 80+ degree weather. We saw several pet dogs but due to warnings from the health nurse, we didn't try to pet them. Scott, of course, took pictures.

Scott had one older man sitting out selling shoe parts and repairing shoes indicate that Scott should take his picture. Then he wanted money. Nice. We also had a little boy, about 3 or 4 years old, playing in the street ham it up for Scott and then come running over each time he took a picture to look at the back of the camera. Apparently, not a new thing for him. He didn't ask for money though. His grandmother was watching us closely, but with a smile.

After about an hour, we'd reached a major road and decided we'd had enough. We were just across the street from Tianammen Square, so we decided to head over. We had to go down through a pedestrian underpass and go through a security check. They kept closing off the underpass to slow down traffic coming through the x-ray machine at the security check and left us all standing out in the hot sun. Scott mentioned after we got through that if they'd just let us go with the flow, like other security checks, we'd all have made it through in about the same amount of time, without all the fuss. Go figure.

Once in the Square, we just wandered around taking pictures. Scott offered to take pictures of at least a couple of families with their cameras. We then ended up being in photos like we were an attraction. Weird. Mao's tomb was closed that day and at the south gate, they were setting up some fireworks. Maybe for the Closing Ceremonies? The funny thing was that they had put up police tape or do not cross tape surrounding the fireworks. Because it was in a shady area, people were crawling over and under the tape to go sit in the shade. Right in front of the police that were supposed to be keeping order. You'd get tazered for that kind of behavior in the U.S. these days, so you have to ask, who's really living in a police state?

Next, we wandered over to the Forbidden City via another underground pedestrian underpass. Again, Scott starts taking pictures. It's much more crowded over here, but we are getting used to the pushing and close quarters. We enter the outer courtyard of the City and are immediately approached about going on a tour to the Great Wall, asked if we want a tour guide for the City and told there is a student art showing if we just had 5 minutes (this one is a scam that is so prevalent, it's listed in the tour books). Then, of course, there are at least a dozen "souvenir" shops before you reach the inner gate. Yikes. I did manage to find some postcards that I will get out when we return to our hotel.

We pretty much spent the next four hours wandering around the City at the speed we would have liked to conduct our tour during our first visit. We ate at a "fast food" restaurant. The dish we ordered was "Two meats with vegetables and rice." It appeared to be beef cubes and pork meatballs. Rather tasty. I grabbed chopsticks thinking we'd have no real choice in utensils before we headed outside to eat. One of the bus boys came out a minute or so later and brought us spoons. I'm not sure if they see us having difficulties or if they just assume Westerner can't use chopsticks. We aren't ever going to get any better if we don't practice. We were sitting on the ground, eating with our spoons and noticed that every single Chinese person passing us was looking at us and laughing. We weren't sure if this was beause we were sitting on the ground instead of squatting like they do or because we were using spoons to eat. Apparently, it was the spoons. Scott made a comment that he was tired of being stared at like a sideshow freak just because they used sticks to eat with instead of civilized eating utensils. I snorted some rice laughing. We had set down our trays, mine still had a significant amount of food on it, and some woman came passed and threw her trash right into my plate. She didn't even look to see if I was done eating. I made a comment about how rude and apparently, she noticed my tone and gestured an apology to Scott. What's with these people? We were standing less than 5 feet from a garbage can.

We then continued on our tour and tried to stay off the main meridian of the City an check out some of the side buildings. We came across a display (air conditioned, yay!) of the elaborate clothing the Emporer and the Emporess wore. Very beautiful stuff. No photos because they were prohibited. We next stumbled upon a display of anciet calligraphy writings. Nice but we couldn't read it. There was a beautiful display of a room screen that was made of wood and had the characters carved in jade and embedded in the wood. It was amazing just contemplating the artistry and skill that would have been required to achieve that.

Scott was having troubles getting photos in places due to the number of photographers trying to get similiar shots. Most would take their shots and move on allowing the next person to get a shot. However, there was more than one that just stood there taking shot after shot for like 5 minutes. Annoying, especially in this heat. We did see this one guy who had a special camera that would allow him to stand in one spot and take a panoramic 360 degree photo. It only used film, but was pretty cool. We watched him use it from a distance a couple of times.

Overall, my impression of the Forbidden City is one of granduer that has seen better days. They seem to be having troubles with the upkeep and this national treasure is crumbling with age and use around their ears. I think they would have been better off spending the money they spent on the Olympics on restoring the Great Wall and the Forbidden City.

We left the north entrance of the City across from Jingshan Park. Now we began our search for a taxi. We ended up walking east and then north for about 20 minutes trying to find an open taxi. Every one that drove passed was full. We eventually spotted one that was dropping off someone almost right in front of the bike tour company's offices. We nearly got hit crossing the street to snag the taxi. However, we weren't the only ones. We've noticed that with the Chinese, it doesn't matter how long you've been waiting for a taxi, if you are the first one at the taxi, it's yours. There are no lines, no taxi stands. It's chaos and first come, first serve. Aggressiveness is rewarded. But, they don't fight over them. If you miss out on one, you just move on to finding another one.

With this in mind, we started getting into the cab while the other guy was still at the front fender of the car. This guy, another American, was really pissed. He said he had been waiting 5 minutes for a taxi and this was his. We explained that we'd been walking and waiting for nearly 20 minutes and we were taking it. Scott told me to get in the taxi. As I started to do so, the guy grabbed the door and pushed it closed on me. I'm going to have another bruise on my arm. He then took a swipe at Scott and knocked his glasses on the ground all the while cursing at us. That got Scott going and he started cursing back in spectacular fashion and telling the guy that after a week of being in Beijing, he had the distinction of being the rudest, most obnoxious person we had met and wouldn't you know it, he was an American. Despite all the drama, viewed very curiously by the Chinese I might add, we got in the taxi and left. That guy needs to chill out or he is going to have a very, very frustrating trip, especially if he thinks we were rude. I personally think he was just frustrated in general and we were the only ones that spoke English that he could take it out on. And honestly, the Chinese don't care if you are frustrated or pissed if you can't speak Chinese.

Back at the hotel, Scott finished up yesterday's blog and started working on his photos (they should be posted for your viewing pleasure). We had dinner at the restaurant on the second floor of the hotel. It was very good, more expensive than you would pay outside the hotel by about 3 times, which always pisses me off until I realize that it the equivalent of what you'd pay in the U.S. for a similar meal. We've tried to avoid eating in the hotel due to the prices, but it was 7:30 pm and we were hoping to watch the men's basketball semis which started at 8:00 pm.

So that's what we did, watched basketball, and worked on catching up on photos and blogging.

Tomorrow, we have women's indoor volleyball semi-finals and the bronze and gold medal match for women's basketball. We will also be having another scalper adventure.

Beijing – Day 3 continued

Back from football. USA v. Japan, Women's semi-finals and ...
USA WINS! 4 to 2.

The Workers Stadium is huge. It hold 60,000 and I believe it was full to near capacity. We had meant to pick up something to eat before heading in, but by the time we reached the arena, it was 7:30 and the match started at 9:00 pm. While the security and ticket takers have been amazingly efficient so far, we had concerns so we skipped dinner and decided to have arena food (hoping they'd have different arena food) instead. That was a mistake. Not only was it the same arena food, but they didn't have anything available that was substantial. I don't think bread, popcorn and a Snickers bar constitutes a well rounded meal. The other bummer was that they were pouring all the drinks into cup without lid. Apparently, they had concerns that we'd all throw our plastic bottles at each other and on the field.

We had relatively good seats. 3 rows up behind the USA bench. The shelters for the teams were blocking part of our view of the opposite end of the field, but they were showing the game up on big screens at either end, so we just watched up there when we were blocked.

It was looking pretty grim at the beginning. Japan drew first blood and USA just wasn't getting past their defense. I don't know if you all are aware of this, but every time I leave my seat during a Storm game, the Storm go on a run. Sometimes a little run, sometimes a big run. Apparently, this works in soccer too. USA was down 1-0 and I decided to go to the bathroom with a few minutes left in the half. Before I made it up to the stairs, USA scored. With 5 minutes, they scored again. Our seatmates were prepared to send me back to the bathroom if Japan scored and tied up the game. Fortunately, USA scored again twice in rapid succession in the second half. During the extra 3 minutes (for stoppage), Japan scored one more time, but it wasn't enough.



After the game, Scott and I tried to walk about the Stadium to a McDonalds, but miscalculated the distance and got turned around. We ended up catching a cab back to the hotel instead. We had fun riding the subways, but have learned that it's a minimum of an hour to get to anywhere and you can ride in a taxi for about $5.00 US clear across town. When we are in a hurry or it's late, it just makes more sense to take a taxi. None of the drivers speak English, so we try to have someone at the hotel write out the name of our destinations for the day before we leave and of course we always take something with the name and address of the hotel with us.

A couple of additional notes. We were surrounded by Americans again. A couple from San Francisco doing their 6th Olympics, a couple from Chicago, and a family from Sammamish. Scott had someone take a picture of all of us and I'm sure he'll post it soon. The couple from San Francisco had plenty of good insights on how to afford going to the Olympics without it costing so much. Ann and Mack, we need to talk. There were several large American flags and we ended up on the big screen more than once. That seems to be becoming a trend.

The bathroom was not fun. There were western style toilets, but they were icky and muddy for some reason. There was no toilet paper (for which I was prepared), but there also were no towels for drying your hands and there weren't even the hand blowers. I don't think they thought that one through!

It is also interesting to note that the crowd at the Stadium definitely seemed to be favoring USA. While they would cheer regardless of who scored, they continually started chants of USA and there was some booing of the Japanese team in spots. We also had several Chinese people come up and want their pictures taken with us, even more so when the other Americans showed up with the flags. They seem to love having their pictures taken with foreigners.

Lastly, we say a building marked Beijing Lawyers Association. I mention this because the acronym would be BLA and I think that's funny.

Tomorrow we have diving and more basketball.

Beijing – Day 3

Since we didn't get back to the hotel until 12:30 am this morning, we decided to take it easy this morning. The only things on the agenda were a hutong bike tour and a soccer match tonight.

We woke up and showered about 6:30 am and then hit the buffet. Then we just hung around the hotel taking care of stuff. Scott worked on downloading the photos and I went back to sleep.

Around 11:30 we went out and got some food. The Beijing Olympic Committee printed up several restaurant guides and a shopping guide. We selected a restaurant that wasn't too far from our hotel. It was really nice. The server offered to help us pick out food and we took her up on her offer. Scott got Kung Pao chicken. I got a Spicy Chicken dish which was more or less chicken skin deep fried with lots of sesame seeds. Doesn't sound that appetizing, but it was actually pretty good. The server also added a tofu dish and some vegetables. It turned out to be way more than we could eat, but we did our best to eat enough to show we enjoyed the food.

The funniest part was after watching us eat for a few minutes, the server offered to bring us forks. We thought we were doing pretty good with the chopsticks but apparently no so much. We toughed it out for a while longer, but then Scott accepted a fork. They also brought us a purple ice cream for dessert. I have no idea what flavor it was, but it was tasty enough.

Then with very fully stomachs, we headed over for our bike tour. Our group turned out to be fairly large, 18 people, I think. There were people from Germany (but now living in Belgium and Shanghai), an American family that was currently living in Tokyo, a family from Holland and a couple from Hawaii. It was set to be a 3 hour tour through the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, through several hutongs, past the canal and the Bell and Drum Towers and then back to Jingshan Park where we started.



First off, it's freakin' crazy trying to ride a bike here. Yes, there are bike lanes, but they are used by bikes, motor scooters, pedestrians and occassionally cars and in the hutongs, the streets are so narrow that sometimes it is hard to pass two abreast. There is no clear right of way except on really busy streets and everyone just goes when they want and tries not to hit anyone. There is no 3 foot rule like it Seattle. It was a bit nerve-wracking. I was nearly creamed several times and I just missed hitting pedestrians and other bikes multiple times. You really couldn't sightsee while riding too much or you'd hit someone. Because the group was so large, it was often hard to hear the tour guide sometimes.

The hutongs are fascinating looks into the old way of life for the Chinese. Many of the houses don't have bathrooms, so they share a public restroom. Lots of shops and people hanging out in the street. We were closely watched, but many people said hello or waved. There were even so dogs. Mostly small pug like dogs. One thought about chasing the bikes but was called back by its owner.

We had to stop in one of the hutongs because Scott ended up with a flat tire. Our guide took us to a road side shop where the man replaced the tube and tire in about 10 minutes and then we were back on our way.

There was at least one fascinating area we will probably go back and visit on our own. It was called Antiques Street and was full of shops selling handcrafted items, paper products, art supplies and I suppose some antiques but I wouldn't bank on it. It looked like an interesting place to do some shopping.

We also biked on a street next to a canal that runs through the city. It was very pleasant, but very busy. It was interesting to note that it mostly had cafes and restaurants alone the street with couches and tables for sitting out and enjoying the evening. Since it was the afternoon, they were mostly empty. One of our fellow tourist said that up until about 3 years ago it had been a "bar" street that people loved to come to and sit out in the evening. Now, it's been turned into mostly an overpiced tourist trap. Go figure.

At the end of our tour, we caught a taxi back to the hotel so we could freshen up and pick up Wendy before heading to the soccer game. More later.

WE'RE IN CHINA!

We woke up early this morning to be sure we could pack and catch the shuttle bus to the airport. We had set the alarm for 4:30 am, but we both woke up earlier than that.

With the help of our travel agent’s representative, the ride to the airport went off without a hitch. We got a little confused figuring out where to go after checking in, but managed to make it though Security and Immigration without difficulty and without having to remove our shoes. Our flight was on time and while most of the announcements were in Japanese, there were enough in English that we managed. The flight wasn't full so even though we started out with three people in our row, the flight attendant moved the third person to another row so we could all be more comfortable.

The snacks were traditional Japanese type snacks. I have no idea what it's called but it was good. For the meal, I had a pork curry which was tasty. Scott was laughing at me because I wouldn't try anything until he tried it first and told me what it tasted like.

Trip was shorter than posted because we must have had a tailwind. We arrived more than 15 minutes ahead of schedule. The terminal we landed at was beautiful. Apparently, it is newly constructed. It's huge and has lots of glass so it's very bright. We made it through Immigration and Customs with no problems. One thing that was different is that they re-X-Ray'd our carry-ons before we were allowed to go pick up our bags. Our guide was waiting for us after we had claimed our bags.

It was a fairly short ride to the hotel. Of note is that there are Olympic banners and other swag everywhere on the way into town. We even saw a whole building wrapped in a gigantic banner. The freeway had flower boxes on both sides nearly all the way into town and there is a special lane on the freeway for cars with Olympic credentials so they can bypass traffic. Riding in a car around here is a bit scary. No directionals are used and people switch lanes in less than a car length. Rather nerve wracking. I'd be too afraid to drive.

Despite all the reports about the bad air in Beijing, it appears at least as clear as Tokyo was. The sky is a pale blue with some streaky clouds. We haven't been out breathing the air much yet, but can see pretty far into the rest of the city. I'm not sure what all the fuss was about.

Our hotel room isn't quite as nice as the one in Tokyo, but it is much roomier and has a huge bathroom. I think it will do just fine for our stay. We have finished unpacking and now it's time to go explore!

Tokyo Day 2

Led once again by Aiko along with her daughter, Sally, we headed out on a train for Kamakura, one of the ancient capitals of Japan and home to several important temples and shrines. Kamakura is about an hour or so south of Tokyo near the west coast. Aiko had thought about having us go down to the beach after visiting the temples, but we discovered that there was an all-day music festival going on down there so we decided to avoid the crowds.

With Aiko's help, getting on the train was no problem. However, even though we are reasonably intelligent creatures, I'm not sure we could have done it on our own. Our utter failure the night before wasn't feeling so bad after Aiko led us through a maze of people, gates, stairs and finally onto the train platform. Doing all of this is so natural for the people who live here, but with never having any real experience with such an extensive public transit system (I'm looking at you Seattle, with your one freakin' stretch of not-yet-finished light rail) it was a little overwhelming. The funny thing is that once we got on the train, the next stop was Shibuya — the place we were trying to reach last night. This wasn't even the train line that we thought went to Shibuya. When the stop was announced, Aiko gave us a little smile and eye-roll to tease us.



The train itself was fairly comfortable and we were able to chat and watch the city fade away to more open places (a few anyway), lots of industrial areas and finally the suburbs. There was a little kid sitting across from us for a while who was concerned about us. I tried to smile, but probably only scared him.

Once we got to Kamakura, we decided to have lunch before heading to our first stop, the Great Buddha. We were going to find a ramen place, but the one Aiko found didn't have their favorite type so we went instead of tonkatsu fried pork cutlets. It was very good. I rocked the chopsticks and made it through the whole meal without fumbling around or needing a fork. As I was warned by some co-workers, people started lighting up cigarettes around us. To make things worse, the air conditioning in the restaurant wasn't working very well. We had our hand fans going on high.

After lunch, we headed back to the train platform and Aiko found us a taxi driver who could drive us around (everything was in decent walking distance, but all of our calves were hurting from yesterday's climb down the Tokyo Tower) and act as a guide. He was great and if the city of Kamakura isn't paying him to be a tour guide, they should be. He knew just about everything about the city, its history and all the temples we visited.

One thing he told us about the city that neither of us knew was that during World War II a group of people from Kamakura and the three other sites that had been the capital of Japan in the past petitioned the American government not to bomb these areas in order to preseve the temples and culture. The Americans eventually agreed and all the ancient capitals of Japan were spared.



This guy was great and talked the whole time with Aiko translating. It did get a little white-knuckly because he was also driving the whole time as well. The streets in Kamakura are very narrow and wind around like crazy. Every intersection was an adventure. I don't know what visual cues drivers use around here, but when they decide to go ahead and turn through an intersection, everyone else pauses and lets them go even though it seems like right of way is wrong. We decided to try to not watch the other cars too much and save our anxiety levels.

Our first stop was the Kotokuin Temple, home of the Great Buddha. Before entering the main part of the temple, there was a small cistern with large metal cups where everyone was rinsing their hands. Aiko explained that it is customary to wash your hands before entering the presence of the Great Buddha (these same kinds of cisterns were at every temple, so we repeated this each time). It was actually very refreshing to pour the cool water over our hands. It also made entering the temple area feel somehow cooler than the outside.



Once inside, the path turned around some trees and we got our first good look at the Great Buddha. It's huge, maybe 30-40 feet tall. Our driver explained that it was built and cast in bronze in place. It was originally gold plated. That would have really been a sight to see. Like at the Asakusa shrine, there was a spot at the foot of the statue where people could toss a coin and make a prayer for good luck. Most of the tourists, including us, went up and made a ham-fisted attempt to do the ritual. You could tell when a local person went up to do it and do it with some belief behind it. There was a little boy who was trying really hard to do it right, but was mostly looking pretty comical. Even his family was laughing at him.



We strolled around a bit and went into the garden area behind the Great Buddha. Even on another hot and humid day, the garden area was relatively comfortable. We browsed a gift shop and found a couple neat souvenirs. We had a little trouble communicating to the shop keeper that we wanted something out of a display case, but with some pointing we got the transaction made.

Our next stop was the Kencho-Ji Zen temple. It is a complex of gates and buildings and is the oldest Zen training monastary in Japan. It really was very beautiful and peaceful. Our guide pointed out the tall wooden beam that we had to step over to enter the grounds and explained that it was a border between the human world and the pure, sacred world. Anger, desire and other evils of the human world are kept out and you leave that all behind when you pass over the wooden beam.



The buildings are beautiful dark wood with little in the way of colorful decoration, on the outside at least. Inside, they are decorated lavishly with lots of color and touches of gold. The most impressive temple, to me, was Hatto, the Dharma Hall. It is dedicated to Senju, who is featured with a staute in front of the Buddha. The Senju statue is carved in his likeness after he had fasted and refused water in order to purify himself (I think I'm getting this correct), so the statue appears to be emaciated. Besides the striking statues of the Buddha and Senju, the other breathtaking feature of this building is the giant dragon painted on the ceiling. The picture doesn't do it justice by any measure.



This location was not mobbed by so many people, so we were able to slowly stroll around and take in the scenery. There were a row of three massive juniper trees, one of which is 750 years old. Next to that is a row of boulders, each one different from the others and all of them full of folds, color and details. Aiko pointed out one that looks like a giant clump of gravel and expalined that it is a famous rock and is featured in the Japanese national anthem. She said that it is the only one that was native to this spot and was found as it was, extruding from the ground.



Of the places we visited during this short trip, this temple was my favorite. Unlike the other shrines and temples we saw, this one didn’t feel as much like a tourist spot. There weren’t any shops or signs or mobs of people. It was peaceful, ordered and felt like a temple and not so much like a chance to sell food or memorabilia.

Our last stop was at the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine. We came in a side entrance and again washed our hands at a cistern. Unlike the Kencho-Ji temple, this shrine is brightly decorated inside and out. Bright reds, yellows and white on every surface. Once we got to the main area, it was packed with people. As we were walking around, an elderly Japanese man came up to us and started talking to us. As he explained, he started learning English after he retired, he is 68 now, because it is used all over the world. He asked us a lot of questions about where we were from and what we thought of Japan. He asked a couple of times if we knew how much larger the US is than Japan. He of course had the answer when we didn’t — 25 times larger. He followed us down the stairs that lead up from the shrine’s main entrance, talking the whole way. I veered off to take some pictures and heard him start to sing the American national anthem to Angie. When he finished, he lifted his hat and said, “Play ball.” After that, he thanked us for talking to him in English and left.

This shrine had a couple vendor stalls along the pathway leading to the to main building. They were mostly selling drinks or treats, except one that was selling masks of cartoon characters. Very odd.



Our driver/guide took us back to the train station and we headed back to Tokyo. The train was more crowded going back, so we had to stand much of the way. Once we got back to Shinjuku station, Aiko led us down to the subway to ride back to our hotel — only one stop away and well within walking distance, but she wanted to make sure we got the entire Tokyo transportation experience.

She and Sally came up to our hotel room to see our Olympic tickets, which Aiko attempted to steal.

After we said our goodbyes and thanked her and her husband for their generosity during our stay, we intended to head back out and again try to make it to Shibuya. Well, two days of walking and walking and walking along with the hot weather had us both falling asleep in our chairs, so we decided to stay in and get everything ready for our flight to Beijing the next morning. We are leaving fairly early and we didn’t want to rush. Besides, we’ve both decided that this trip has only given us a small taste of Japan and that we need to come back for a much longer stay soon. We can hit Shibuya then.

More of Tokyo Day 1

It's pretty amazing how every sliver of space is put to use in this city. We were walking around in the Akihabara district and I notice a line of shops was built into and under an overpass and bridge. The bridge supports formed the main walls of the buildings. Also, every alley way, no matter how narrow or winding, had shops and signs just like the main streets. The taxi driver that Aiko hired for us took a couple short cuts through some of these back alleys as he drove us around the city. I'm sure he did it to avoid heavy traffic on the main streets, but both Angie and I were glad he did so we could see a little more of what city life is like here in Tokyo.



I posted earlier that while it was hot and humid, it wasn't oppressively so. Wrong. It was crazy hot yesterday and felt like a sauna at times. Everyone had small hand towels or handkerchiefs to keep the sweat at bay. Hopefully today will be a little more comfortable. On the other hand, we know Beijing is going to be hotter and more humid. I don't see that we could ever get used to this kind of weather. I don't think the Japanese are all that used to it either. Every shop, car and indoor space had the air conditioning on high and cold.

One of the things Angie and I both noticed about being surrounded by so many people but not being able to understand what they are saying is that it is very easy to allow the din to become almost white noise and ignore it. It was interesting when we'd be walking around and all the sudden hear a snippet of English conversation. Even if it was quiet and from a distance, it would grab our attention.

A couple other things:

The taxi doors are automated and controlled by the driver. I kept opening and closing them out of habit and the driver seemed to be getting a little irritated with me. It took 3 or 4 times before I started to remember to let the door alone.

The crows sound different. They look the same, but aren't as harsh sounding.

While we were walking around Shinjuku last night, there were people standing out in the walkways handing out flyers and menus trying to get people into their shops. We weren't the target market apparently because we didn't get handed anything.

There was a 3-person jazz group performing outside one of the entrances to Shinjuku station. They were actually pretty good. It was a little odd to be hearing soft jazz in a crowd of people with construction going on and heavy traffic on the street.



Today, we're heading out into the suburbs on the train. Hopefully it will be a little cooler.

First Day in Tokyo

Well, we had a good night's sleep, but still were up at 3:30-4:00 am. We tried to go back to sleep, but ended up getting up and going to the Fitness Room at 5:00 am ish. It's a small, not very well ventilated room, but it has a great view, a water vending machine and we managed to get in a good workout on a combination of stair stepping machines and treadmills.

We had no idea what to do for breakfast, so we wimped out and ordered room service.

We had made arrangements to meet up with Scott's friend from high school, Aiko, at 10:00 am. She surprised us and showed up with a hired car for the day. Air-conditioned, thankfully. Her husband works for a large company and often entertains foreigners and insisted that she do so. It was wonderful! It's so hot and humid here that it was nice to drive around, see stuff, get out and walk around but have the nice air-conditioned car to come back to. Plus the driver was extremely knowledgeable and was able to help Aiko out with our questions.

First, we drove around a district famous for being full of tech shops. We got out and walked through a couple of shops. One was for toys and was awesome. I love the way shops are here in Tokyo. They seem to focus on one single item and line both major roads and alleyways. They are also bright, colorful and crowded with merchandise. It's fun to go in and browse. The shopkeepers don't seem to need to know English if you are holding merchandise in one hand and yen in another. They get what you want!

Next we drove over to Akakusa Kannon Temple and Nakamise Shopping Arcade. Scott has some nice pictures. The Temple gate has a huge lantern and is protected by the gods of Wind and Thunder. Once you pass the gates, you enter the shopping arcade. It's a little like Pike Place Market on steroids. Plenty of stuff to buy, snacks to try. Aiko bought us some fresh made rice crackers and some sort of sweet that had batter on the outside and some sort of sweet bean paste on the inside. Yes, I tried both. I liked the rice crackers best.



Past the market, we entered the actual Temple. It is a working Buddhist Temple. They had a "wishing well" sort of area where you could toss in coins and make a wish. We wished to get our hands of some Closing Ceremony tickets! Scott also had his fortune told. You shake a container of sticks with numbers on them and then pull one out. Scott's literally flew out of the container and hit him in the face. He received a good fortune that said his wish would be granted. Yay!

Next, because Scott had expressed an interest, we stopped by an arena where small sumo competitions are held. They don't have any matches going on now and all the matches in September are completely sold out. Scott has a great picture of him as a sumo. We went inside to a small sumo museum and Scott got an autograph handprint of the grand champion sumo.



Next we went to the Toyko Central Train Station. It's being a bit remodeled, but it was built based on a train station Amsterdam according to Aiko. Very traditional European design. Speaking of architecture, Tokyo has some very eclectic architecture and some very amazing buildings. It's interesting to see a cutting edge building right next to one that's been around for hundreds of years. More European designed stuff than I would have expected.

Next we had lunch. We had tempura and it was good. I managed to use chopsticks for the whole lunch. Scott had to switch to a fork. Scott ate raw tuna and I, da-da-da, ate shrimp. It was very nice. I've noticed that a lot of the restaurant seem to serve a single type of food and are very small - maybe seating 20-30 - and then there will be like 15 different restaurants in one place. They also have you sit on chairs outside the restaurant if they don't have a table available.

After lunch we walked around the Imperial Palace. They don't let you go very far into the grounds because the Imperial family lives on the grounds. The ground are extremely well maintained. There are a series of gates, walls and moat-like ponds throughout the grounds.



Lastly, we headed over to the Toyko Tower. It looks like the Eiffel Tower just painted bright orange and white. We rode the elevator to the first observation area and Scott took pictures. The line to go up to the top observation was way too long. After looking around, we went to go ride the elevators down. However, the line was very long so we decided to walk down the stairs. Not our brightest idea given the heat, but we made it to the bottom. My legs were shaking and weak when we made it down.



Aiko then dropped us off at the hotel. She needed to get home for something. We arranged to meet up again the next day. Her daughter, Sally, may be joining us tomorrow. We are going to take the train to the old Capital (we think).

We both were in need of a shower. So we went to our room, showered and fell asleep. I think maybe the remains of jet lag.

We got up about 6:00 pm determined not to utilize room service and went out to forage for food. We had hoped to catch the subway and head to Shibuya, where a famous intersection is. It is the neon crazy intersection you always see on T.V. We did pretty good in that we eventually found the station for the subway, however, we were unable to determine how to buy a ticket or where to go to actually get on the subway. There were no English ticket vending machines to help us out and everyone looked too busy to help us. Being still kind of tired, we elected to pass on Shibuya and headed to a local shopping mall, Times Square. It's like 14 floors of stores, booths, and food. Kind of overwhelming and all the salespeople are extremely deferential and it made us a bit uncomfortable.



We tried to find food, but it was very difficult to find a menu in English and I'm way too picky and timid about food. We ended up making our way back to the hotel and eating at one of the restaurants in the basement of the hotel. It was a buffet style restaurant and I ended up eating a lovely white curry that was extremely tasty. I tried some other things but didn't find anything else I liked. I even passed on the desserts (I know!). I tried a couple, but they weren't very sweet and tasted a bit funky to me.

It was then off to bed so we could rest up for tomorrow.

Whew, I can breathe a sigh of relief

I've been very worried about our kitties because the pet sitter wasn't sure if she still had keys to our house. Last I talked to her, she was going look for them and get back to me. I didn't hear from her before we left. I've been worrying off and on that she couldn't get into the house, didn't get my email with Jenny number for backup keys, etc. I sent two emails with no response and then in desperation this morning, because my cell phone isn't working, I called directly to her and left a message.

About an hour later, I had a flash of insight. I could log in to the web management for our alarm system and see if she had used her code. I logged in and she was there to check on them at 11:00 Seattle time. Whew. It means they missed dinner last night, but at least they should be good from here on out. I can relax now.

Angie's Turn

Well, as Scott said, it was a long flight, made longer by sitting at the airport for 5 hours before getting on the plane. My fault, I should have checked our flight status before we left the house. We breezed through Seattle traffic and security at the airport and ended up waiting around for our troubles.

The flight wasn't bad, but I had to resort to earplugs to drown out the schoolgirls. They were still going strong with the laughter and giggling until we landed. I'm sure they were happy to be heading home. I'm also very glad we were able to upgrade to Economy Plus seats. The extra leg room came in very handy. Service and food was remarkably good on the plane and there was a neat in-seat video monitor that tracked the speed, altitude and progress that was interesting to watch.

Clearing customs and immigration in Narita was nice and easy even though I don't think my Immigration guy spoke English, we managed. As Scott said, it was very nice and reassuring that the travel company had figured out our delay and was waiting for us. We were both very concerned about getting to the hotel on our own. One thing that seemed very wrong, was on our way to the hotel, we passed a AM/PM, a 7-11 and a Sizzler. In Tokyo! It just seems wrong.

The hotel is VERY nice and huge! I has two towers, on is 39 floors and the other is 34 floors. The staff mostly speaks English and are very helpful. We have a bidet.

Possibly because of our long day yesterday, we went to bed at 10:00 pm Tokyo time and managed to sleep until about 4:30 am before getting up to work out. Yes, we worked out. The fitness room had very little ventilation and it was very stifling, but we managed to do cardio for an hour. They had some weird machines that looked kind of like tiny mechanical bulls. We managed to get one going but couldn't for the life of us figure out what muscles it was supposed to be working. Limited weights so we will probably forego our weight/resistance training until we see the facilities in Beijing.

We are now getting ready to spend the day with Scott's friend, Aiko, visiting the touristy sites in Tokyo. I hope to have some form of noodles for lunch.