Japan

日本国

Japan

It is our last day in Japan. Matt and I are sitting in our hotel room just outside of Kansai Airport across the bay; we purchased some wine and a beer from the Family Mart downstairs as well as snacks and Cokes for the kids as a treat. Sam, Roan and Ani just ran to their room to play. It is getting dark outside and from our hotel room on the 15^th floor we look down and see the subway and trains racing by, weaving along the tracks laid out in front of them. It makes us wonder if California or the US will ever have a system like this. It has been overcast since we made it to Japan and this afternoon the sun broke through for a while making my eyes fill with happiness and warmth. Japan is not as cold as when we were in China (-4 degrees centigrade) but still chilly enough to warrant a scarf and jacket. We traveled most the day from Kyoto to this stop and are trying to relax before we leave for Thailand tomorrow. The boys were able to get their Internet fix and Ani cuddled up on the bed to watch the movie “Bolt” on Matt’s iphone. We started our time here in Tokyo, where the neon lights shine brightly at night. Gaming places like Pachinko and Taito are everywhere where both adults and kids can play till their money runs out. We visited Asakusa to see where they sold fake foods used in the window displays at the restaurants and the Sensoji Temple as well as Akihabara, a part of Tokyo where a lot of technology is sold. We tried to mail home some plastic food Matt purchased in Asakusa along with a souvenir Sam bought, the woman said we couldn’t send food through Fed Ex… at least we purchased some good fake food! We all laughed when she finally realized it was fake. After Tokyo we traveled via Shinkasen bullet train to Kyoto. In Kyoto the mix between the traditional and contemporary blends well, modern malls mix with temples where people are actively worshipping and praying. All of the temples are beautiful and it is surreal to walk through the lobby of a 25 story hotel, through the doors of a Starbucks outside and step onto the grounds of a 16^th or 17^th century Buddhist temple or shrine, complete with burning incense, stone figurines with hand-knitted caps and capes to keep them warm in the cold, prayers tied to the trees etc. It is an incredible blend of the ultra-modern and ancient ritual. One of the highlights was a visit to the Heian Shrine in Kyoto. The gardens and ponds that surround the shrine were breathtaking especially right now with all of the leaves on the trees changing colors, vibrant oranges, reds and yellows. Sam’s favorite part of Japan is the food; sushi, tempura, udon and duck we ate at the Chinese restaurant for Thanksgiving. One word about toilets too; we have seen a lot of them in our travels. They range from the most basic, a hole in the ground, to the fantastic, here in Japan. I have to say, that having a toilet with an arm rests full of more controls than your standard TV remote is quite an adventure. I am sure some of the things the toilet can do would be illegal in many US states.

Next stop, Thailand.

China

China

Arriving in China was different than we anticipated. After being in India where there is a bit more chaos, the diligence and professionalism of the Chinese was appreciated. The difference in climate threw us off, going from India where it was maybe 80 degrees Fahrenheit to China, which was below freezing. We broke out our thick jackets that we had packed the entire trip and ended up purchasing some gloves and caps. We rented an apartment in Wangjing near the Olympic Park area and where many ex-pats from Korea live. We enjoyed a variety of foods from Korean to Japanese as well as Chinese, mmmmmm Peking duck! Our time in China was short compared to how much time we could spend there but it was made even more special with our visit with the Koh Family, friends of Sam and Roan’s from their school back home. We were lucky enough to visit with the Koh’s and spend time at the zoo, seeing the pandas and variety of animals as well as going to the Great Wall with them. The boys had a sleepover with their friends and seemed to all slip back into old times together. The hardest part, of course, was saying goodbye to their good friends and for us saying goodbye to Romi and Nam. Their generosity was also greatly appreciated and I hope that we can see them again soon. We found a great local guide, Connie, who helped us throw together some sort of itinerary. We didn’t want any official tours, but we found that we had absolutely no skills at understanding Chinese. So Connie was our lifeline for helping us send a package home, visiting the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square as well as helping us find the most delicious noodle house in Beijing. One our favorite adventure was to the Insect market where we saw all kinds of animals, but especially the crickets. Our driver kept several with him at all times, and we could here them chirping in most of the local noodle houses and restaurants we visited. These crickets are very special and very large. A great amount of care is spent on them, including lavish cages and habitats. Kites were also a very special thing. There were many kinds of kite stores and more spools or reels than I could comprehend. Very cool. China is such an interesting mixture of “old” China and a contemporary China where the politics are just a matter of fact. China, like the Middle East, is not the same as my pre-conceived notions led me to believe. It is a complex place that seems to be re-inventing itself. One of the things that struck me as funny was when our translator asked us if we knew the meaning behind the National Chinese Flag, while we were standing in Tiananmen Square looking at it flying above a portrait of Mao. She said that the background color of red stood for luck, blood, and victory, the large gold star was for the communist party, the first small gold star was for the peasants, the second gold star was for the workers, the third gold star was for the small city capitalists, and the fourth small gold star was for the large international capitalist corporations. All that kept going through my head at that point was the “Fight, Fight, Fight, for Washington State!” scene from the old John Candy movie “Volunteers”; anyway, China is a fascinating country, and one that I would defiantly visit again. There is more going on there than meets the eye.

Two last thoughts about the internet in China:

Social networking is the contemporary opiate of the people as well as blogging, both were conspicuously filtered although I could purchase a SIM chip for my cell phone without having to show any form of ID.

भारत गणराज्य India

Lego my ego

India is a country of contrast, rich and poor; earth tones and vibrant colors; beautiful architecture and mud huts as well as a contrast of modernity and history. In no other place that we have visited so far are these contrasts so apparent. We have visited so many archeological and ancient Greek, Roman and Egyptian temple sites during our travels where all that remain are the traces and historical best guesses of what actually transpired. In India there are temples that are just as ancient but are “living”, where the ceremonies are on-going and the deities are actively worshipped either in the Hindu, Jain, Buddhist faiths.

The melding of culture and religion and everyday life in the second most populous country in the world is awesome. Walking and driving down the street overwhelms the senses, even in Mumbai the streets are shared with trucks, buses, moto-rickshaws, motorcycles, scooters, bicycles, hand carts, ox carts, camel carts, horse carts, pedestrians, brahma bulls, dogs, cats, monkeys etc. all going different directions.

Some of the highlights of our trip to India started in Mumbai where we saw a Jain temple, the house Gandhi lived in for some years, the botanic garden where the Parsi’s have their sky burial and fire temple then on to Aurangabad where we took the train through the Maharashta province and visited several sites. We went to the Daulatabad fort where we were led by torch light through a darkened passageway covered with bats crawling the ceilings; to the Ellora and Ajanta cave temples where early Hindu, Jain and Buddhist carvings exist dating back to around 200-600 BC. We went searching for Bengal tigers with no luck, instead we saw a Sambur and spotted deer as well as massive spiders the likes of nightmare making. We flew to Jaipur and visited the City Palace and an elephant ride up to the Fatepuhr Palace built by Akbar the Great during the Moghul Empire. Then on to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and Red Fort. Next stop, Delhi.