Kimonos and Samurai- Japan

Samurai, kimonos, sightseeing, fish eating, picture taking this is what great vacations are made from. I happily acclimated to the food, the climate and the crowds.  If you have a guide, host or old college room mate to show you around Japan all the better.  It is my good fortune that I had all three in one person! Thanks!!

The obi is so tight.

We dressed up in kimono.

They indulged us with some photos

Samurai Contemplation

Samurai actors filming outdoors

We found some samurai

The wooden peg locks the locker.

A place to store your shoes while you eat.

Big green obi.

Black and pink obi

Offerings at the Shinto wedding ceremony.

Busy day at the temple.

Mother and daughter dressed in kimono.

The Great Buddha in Kamakura.

First night in Japan. My friends made delicious tempura.

South Korea in Fall

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While I am at home watching the rain it has occurred to me that I haven’t posted pictures of South Korea.  While the fall weather can range from beautiful to dismal, it was really delightful and gave me a new appreciation for the season and crunching on fallen leaves.

Forbidden City

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To get to the Forbidden City one must first walk through Tiananmen Square.  Not that this is generally a problem.  As a side note, all of the stolen wallet/backpack stories I have heard about China, happened in Tiananmen Square.  It may just be a coincidence.  One thing I did notice was that there was an […]

Great Wall on a Gray Day

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The Great Wall is so great that even the sun is sometimes intimidated.  I don’t know if that is true but there wasn’t any sun when I visited the Great Wall, at Badaling, just an 80 minute bus ride outside of Beijing.  It was still great and the people seemed excited to be there except […]

People Mountain People Sea

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There is a phrase in Chinese, that roughly translates to, people from the mountain to the sea.  It means a really huge crowd. I had the opportunity to travel with the Chinese people who had the week off for Golden Week.  While I don’t think this was a rare experience, it maybe unique for a […]

A Brief Intermission/ Small Obsessions

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A brief intermission on a few of my small obsessions.  One is Chinese acrobats I probably haven’t mentioned this before, but I love them.  Another is taking pictures out the window of the airplane.  I have been doing this since my first window seat with my own personal camera. There is something really thrilling about […]

Helpful People

How many Koreans does it take to help me find my guesthouse?  Sounds like the beginning of a joke, right?  At least 5 is the correct answer.  The man who worked at the airport that made sure I got on the correct bus. The woman sitting in front of me, on the bus, that somehow knew what my stop was and informed me that it was time to get off the bus.  This was very helpful because although I thought I was paying close attention I really had no idea it was time to get off the bus.  The bus driver who pointed me toward the correct street once I got off the bus.  The shop owner who saw me studying my directions and somehow knew I had passed my destination was able to find me my 5^th helpful person a girl who knew the area, spoke English and took the time to walk me to my destination, which wasn’t too far away as it turns out.  That was 5 helpful people in under 1.5 hours which I found amazing.

Why all the difficulty you might ask?  Well, addresses aren’t used in the Western sense.  There are neighborhoods and in each neighborhood the buildings are numbered but they are numbered in the order they were built so building number 30 could be between building numbers 9 and 302.  Are you confused yet?  So, everyone gives directions based on what is nearby.  Easy enough except Seoul is a big city that is very beautiful and visually stimulating.  There are many distractions which makes turning left at the 7-11 harder than you might think because there is also a Starbucks, 4 restaurants, a bakery, and a delivery truck parked out front.

Once you come to terms with this system and write down your directions very carefully, give yourself some extra time to get where you are going and enjoy the adventure.

 

Real vs. Fake

There comes a time in a person’s life when they will have to determine what is real from what is fake.  Here are a few examples.

Real pearls, when crushed and ground will become a fine white powder regardless of the color on the outside.  This is because, while other minerals give pearls their color, they are still primarily made up of calcium.

Real silk will smell like burning hair when you light it on fire.  And like real hair, real silk should be washed with shampoo.  I have tried this and it is true, but I don’t recommend setting all your silk clothes, or anyone elses, on fire.  If you are going to try this at home do so in a safe location.

Lastly, real taxis have to be found.  They can be found by employing one or more of the following methods; waving, shouting, jumping, standing in the street or standing in a line at the airport.  Real taxi drivers will not get out of their car to come find you.  If someone approaches you claiming to be a taxi driver consider your options carefully before you get into a car with them.  Additionally, in China real taxi license plates start with the letter B.

No Tickets Necessary

I am in this hotel in Beijing, good price, great location, and not far from a central subway line. Behind the hotel is a field, not just an open field but a highly active sports field. At 7:30 in the morning, after my neighbor’s cacophony of “suffering” and heaving from the previous night’s baijiu fueled adventures finally stops, the games begin. Music, dancing, marching and cheering it’s like there is some sort of junior Olympics preliminaries. One day there was some sort of opening ceremony, which involved lots of music and something to the tune of the Super Mario Brothers theme song. On the second day there was a shorter ceremony and a track meet. The announcer was literally maybe 50 feet away from the front door of my room and by 11:30 in the morning it was all over and the field was empty.

In the afternoon there is often soccer and sometimes flag football. When selecting this hotel I had no idea that a prime view for watching sports was complimentary.

Small Victories

It is important to count the small victories when traveling. Some days have more of them than others.

I had the opportunity to take the Maglev (which stands for magnetic levitation) train to the airport, it is the only one of its type, in the world, and it is located in Shanghai. It travels about 300km/hr and can get you to the PuDong airport in about 7 minutes.

Allow me to take a moment to stress the importance of going to the correct airport to catch ones flight. Having found myself at the wrong airport in Shanghai the practical option was to go to the correct airport and try to get a different flight. At this point I was very grateful to have someone who spoke Chinese with me to navigate this situation. Without it I am sure there would have been a lot of panic and a crying episode in the middle of the airport, which, from what I have seen, doesn’t seem to be uncommon while at the airport. Everything worked out nicely though, as I was easily booked for a flight later that morning. My slightly overweight (depending upon whose scale you use) luggage was checked with no problem and to top it all off I the airline served a full meal on a 2 hour flight and it was decent. This is unheard of and I was pleasantly surprised.

Having made it to the correct city, finding the correct train, and taking the correct subway to the right stop to go to my hotel I only had a very minor meltdown when I temporarily couldn’t find my hotel right away.

With this all behind me my favorite small victory of the day was ordering my dinner entirely in Chinese (without any help) and getting exactly what I wanted. So a toast, to small victories!