Hong Kong Phoolery

[Video added.]

As you know, an important part of our trip around the world is getting to understand local cultures and traditions.

So naturally today we went to Disneyland.

The best thing about Hong Kong Disneyland is its little animation museum, which has a 3D zoetrope by Pixar, explicitly inspired by the one at Ghibli. It's not quite as good but this one doesn't prohibit cameras. So, as soon as I get chance, a little video (or a link to one) will appear below and hopefully you'll get a glimpse of how cool this is.

 

This is what it looks like when it's not moving:

Admin

Hi folks,

Sorry for the interruption in service, caused by China's interpretation of which websites you should be able to access. We are now in Hong Kong and once again able to corrupt your western minds.

Unfortunately we are very behind on photos. I'll rectify this as soon as possible and let you know when there are images to ease the pain of my words.

Peking out from under our woolly hats

Beijing is not a stunning city, but it has some really world-class sights. If you came here to visit the Forbidden City, Great Wall and the Summer Palace, your trip would be well worth while. But... come at a warmer time of year!

When we were planning this trip, Martin said to me, "You do realise how cold it's going to be in Beijing?"
Um... not really, no. A bit above zero, right? Sadly Martin did not go on to point out that we might be "lucky" enough to get clear, sunny days with accompanying very cold evenings, or that the wind can cut through you like a cliche. We don't have winter coats with us so we are relying on layers - I'm wearing 5 most days. This works well for the bits covered by layers, but less well for hands (one layer) and face (zero layers).

Unfortunately this has probably coloured my view of Beijing a bit because it's just too cold to wander round finding the nice bits. I bet it's a great place to come in spring. There are lots of attractive parks and outdoor activities, although the city itself feels very grey - partly because it's a mix of traditional buildings (which are predominantly grey) and 70s blocks (mostly grey), broken up by the odd ultra-modern glass number.

Anyway, we started off with Tiananmen Square - it's very big, there's quite strict security for locals but apparently less so for Westerners as we are repeatedly waved through while locals are patted down. It's very big but the positioning of the buildings stops you getting a sense of one huge square. We also pop in to visit Mao, who is looking very orange under the lights and, though we are rushed through, much less impressive than Ho Chi Minh. Although I think Ho had just had his annual spruce-up whereas Mao is due for his next month. I wouldn't like it if you compared me, spruced up and ready to go at 9am, with me looking dishevelled shortly before bedtime after a long day lying down.

 We spent most of the first full day - over 5 hours, somehow, though it didn't feel it - in the Forbidden City. Which is amazing. And huge - over 1 million sq meters, 800 buildings, 9000 rooms. And packed with stuff. Just when you think you might be in danger of getting a bit bored of "same same"*, you turn the corner and find, say, a really cool 3-storey theatre with lots of ropes, trapdoors etc.

* Did I ever mention this phrase? It gets used all the time in Cambodia and Vietnam. We first encountered it when we saw T-shirts that say "Same same but different". You can buy these ironically identical T-shirts everywhere in Cambodia and Vietnam.

Up the middle are big courtyards and major buildings, such as The Hall of Supreme Harmony, whose harmony is spoiled a bit by all the people jostling to see into it.

Along either side are smaller buildings and gardens. Some are now museums - there's a gallery dedicated to fantastically ornate clocks from China and elsewhere - time your visit for 11 or 2 to see some of the ones with clever mechanisms being demonstrated in action.

 And you can also see all manner of imperial Chinese artefacts in a range of types and styles. Really good stuff for the most part.

 At the far (north) end is an impressive rock garden, augmented by piles of frozen snow. And when we exited, we nipped up a hill to a pagoda overlooking the Forbidden City - excellent view (below).

The next day we headed for the Great Wall. There are various sections - we opted for the most-visited part, at Badaling.* This is known for being over-crowded and full of pesky hawkers, but I'm pleased to report that neither was an issue in January - very few people are stupid enough to go then. Because it's cold. Icy, bitter cold. And the wind is evil. If I took my glove off for 10 seconds, in a windy stretch, I started to lose feeling in my hand. The wind can propel you up steep slopes. At one point it blew my hat off - I managed a brilliant catch behind my head.

 But it's worth it. We had clear blue skies and great visibility. I hadn't realised quite how much the wall undulates, very steeply in places, with little to no flat as it maintains the same height above the mountainous ground; or how much it twists back on itself into sharp S-shapes as it follows ridges.

* Another hot issue is whether you want to see restored, touristified wall, or more "authentic" wall. I think I'm happy to see wall that manages a reasonable approximation of how it would have looked in its prime. And if it's a little easier to walk on, in this weather, that's no bad thing. I have nothing to compare it to but really enjoyed Badaling.

The other issue about the wall is how to get there. Go on a cheap tour and you may find yourself being led on a succession of public buses. Even worse, you may be taken on a tour of lots of shops, and a hospital, before eventually getting to the wall. This happened to our German friend from Shanghai - apparently they diagnose various conditions and try to sell you Chinese medicines! I'm sure they would have had a field day diagnosing our many past health problems so glad we avoided that.

On the way back we stopped off at the Ming Tombs, where 13 emperors are buried. This is not a must see - the most ornate, Chang Ling, is in the style of the Forbidden City and has little of novelty (though it would be impressive enough if you hadn't already been spoiled by the FC).

Ding Ling is the only one that has been excavated, and is impressive in a rather foreboding way - you walk down many sets of modern stairs, and find yourself in a massive marble-lined corridor. There's not that much to see, and it's not ornate, but the sheer scale of the marble vaults is impressive. They feel more 20th century than, um, maybe 17th (I forget). Ideal setting for a creepy Doctor Who story.

On Saturday we headed for the Olympic Green. I must say, the Bird's Nest is much less impressive up close - a mess of grey metal strips with infrastructure showing through. The Water Cube fares a bit better.

Amusing to see the accompanying exhibit which bigs up everything as much as possible, e.g. More Olympic medals were presented in the Bird's Nest than in any other stadium in Olympic history, they used more environmentally-friendly light bulbs, etc... Still, I must admit that they did put up a lot of imaginative, well-designed stadia, so I won't begrudge them too much. (The Bird's Nest is now a big white elephant that doesn't provide much income - I think it's been used twice for sporting events since the Games - and they're using it as some kind of ski slope for the winter. Take note, London.)

We also took in two of the major temples. I think we've been a bit spoilt by the Forbidden City, because all the temples are in the same style. But I have to give props to the Lama Temple - just when I thought it wasn't going to impress me, it pulled out the tallest Buddha I have ever seen. Four big storeys. Norris McWhirter testifies that it is 18m tall and carved from a single block of sandalwood. Really neck-craningly impressive - it looks much taller than the building did from the outside. (Sadly no photos allowed, but in a novel twist, you get a free little disc of photos with your ticket - I must dig this out.)

The Dongyue Temple sounded great from the guidebook - it's dedicated to a Taoist Hades with rooms such as the Department for Wandering Ghosts or the Department for Implementing 15 Kinds of Violent Death - but in practice it's a lot of rooms of very lame statues with borderline illegible descriptions, and the temple buildings are fairly same-same.

We finished the day with drinks and dinner in Sanlitun, which used to be a famous bar area but was demolished and rebuilt for the Olympics. One side of the street is now expensive Western shops, and the other is identikit-looking neon bars - a Communist-approved area of perfect capitalism. Fortunately we avoided this street for a drink in the third incarnation of The Tree, and had dinner in Bookworm surrounded by books - both places had a bit of personality.

For our last day we went to the [new] Summer Palace, NW of the city, which is normally a park around an enormous lake. At the moment it's a park around an enormous frozen lake.

Like the Forbidden City, this is a huge place with beautiful buildings and some great treasures from imperial history, and again just when you think you've seen the whole range something new pops up (this time, a bronze pagoda).

The Buddhist Fragrance Pavilion is lovely and gives a great view over the whole grounds, and the Long Corridor is also a highlight, with over 1,000 painted scenes on its ceiling.

I spotted one from Monkey, as in Journey To The West for Damon Albarn/Jamie Hewlett fans (some are better preserved/restored than others, but the place is so huge that a restoration cycles must take years if not decades):

Just for my own reference, the mythical beast inside the gates is a Kylun. This info will be useful at some point to caption a photo.

 A Kylun

Once again, we spent most of the day here, and time flew by.

We tried to make it to the Temple of Heaven but got there too late so could only see it above the walls. It looked very good - we should perhaps have prioritised it above the Lama and Dongyue Temples. While there we were also attacked by pollution - big gusts of wind blew up a smog storm around us. This was the only time we really noticed pollution (you can see the odd chimney puffing out white smoke in the city centre) - air quality was otherwise ok.

Getting around is cheap - a flat fare of 20 pence on the newly expanded subway system (it can be a bit crowded and some of the interchanges take ages, so some journeys are slow. In practice we frequently had to change 2 or 3 times. But with traffic being bad you can see why it's popular, and it's modern and clean). Taxis are cheap but a touch confusing - some bright spark has decided to add 1 Yuan to all fares while petrol prices are high, but rather than include it on the meter you have to guess what's going on when the driver wants more money.

Some Chinese customs are less welcome. Jostling and pushing are traditional alternatives to queuing, and spitting is performance art. Generally the people we've dealt with have been more sullen and less polite or professional than their Japanese counterparts. Don't take this as a big criticism, though, it just reminds me of London...

My favourite site for jostling is on the underground - everyone dives for the doors as soon as the train leaves the stop before theirs, and there can be decent rucks for seats. At one stop a woman with a 4-year-old girl stood up to get off at the next stop but her girl stood up then lingered by the seat. Another woman who wanted the seat pushed her away!

In fact there's plenty of bad behaviour and little sign of a fearsome communist regime. The locals ignore No Photography signs and climb over barriers to be photographed on top of old statues. We haven't seen any signs of crime though, or the counterfeit notes that are apparently rife, and it feels pretty safe (though it's too cold to be out late!).

The food has also been a bit disappointing. Flavours can be nice, but as a general guide - if you like sucking tiny bits of meat off bone, order chicken; if you like bacon fat, order pork; and if you like oil, order vegetables. (If you like complaining, write a blog...)  Dishes arrive in an apparently random order but the rice is always last - confusing for those of us used to mixing rice with main courses. There are also some hilarious English menus - babelfish has a lot to answer for. Unfortunately I didn't get to write any dishes down as the waiting staff tend to hover while you read the menu, but my favourite dish involved cigarettes. (I assume it was a smoked meat, but who knows?)

Edit: I've tried to keep this entry pretty much as I wrote it at the time, but looking back, I think we didn't give Beijing as much credit as it deserved.  It's not quite full-on-tourist-ready but the top three attractions are world-class, as good as anything we saw anywhere, and I'm really glad we went.  At the right time of year (spring or autumn), it would be an amazing to spend, say, 5 days, and we're told that Shanghai is good too. 

I also forgot to mention the really cool courtyard hotel we stayed in, which was full of Chinese opulence in microcosm:

Sumo

We've come to the big January sumo tournament or 'basho' - I think there are four a year - at a purpose-built bodokan in Tokyo. There are frequent gaps between bouts so I've decided to fill them by blogging... Hope this doesn't end up too long-winded (as usual).

It's a big, square building, and feels high and airy. We're pretty much at the top of the second, highest tier, but we have a clear view of the ring.

The ring itself is square, with a roped-off circle that constitutes the actual wrestling area - you lose if you hit the ground or cross the rope. The ring is covered in sand or sawdust, occasionally topped up with a 'watering can'. The nicest touch is a 'roof' suspended several yards above the ring, as if it were a traditional bout many years ago in a small outdoor ring with a roof to keep the elements out.

Getting tickets is fun - as with Ghibli, we used a convenience store machine, but this time we got our hotel to write down instructions so an employee could help us! It's still a bit of an adventure as you turn up hoping that your random tickets will be accepted. You get a full day if you want it, from 830 to 1800, with amateurs in the morning and the two professional divisions in the afternoon - we turned up at 2pm and the hall was fairly empty. The lower tier is very expensive and has mats (for flexible locals to sit cross-legged) rather than seats. Not too dear where we are, and on-the-day tickets are even cheaper, but there aren't many of them (though I don't think those rows were full).

It's also the least-policed sporting event I've ever been to - not even a cursory search going in, tickets checked only at the entrance, and there doesn't seem to be anyone checking what seat or even what area of the arena you sit in, unless the rightful owner of a seat challenges you. We could and probably should have moved at least near to the front of the top section, which was never more than half full.

Bouts can be fast and furious. They're full of ritual and playing to the crowd. Each division is preceded by a little parade by all the wrestlers in it, who are divided into two "sides". As far as I can tell, over the course of the basho, each contestant on one side will take on each contestant on the other side once, one bout per day. The guy with the best record wins (the Emperor's Trophy, at stake here, is huge, rivalling the Stanley Cup for sheer size), and there are also prizes for technical merit etc.

Each bout has the same build-up. The two contestants enter the ring, face the crowd and lift one leg at a time. Then to their corners. They throw salt into the ring. They squat, facing each other. Back for more salt (I think this is also used for grip, much like chalk). Face each other, limbering up. Squat, looking ready to go. But no, back to the corners briefly. Then squatting in the centre again. Will they go? No, corners again. (For the big bouts, they use this time to really fire up the crowd.) Finally they seem ready. Maybe a false start or two if one goes too soon.

Then they're off! Charging at each other from a couple of yards apart. Sometimes it's over in a flash - the biggest, fattest contestant we saw set off, carried on going and was out of the ring in a couple of seconds. But generally, the higher the level, the longer the bout. A few are epic struggles, seeming to last much longer than they actually do. Sometimes one sumo will end up with his heels against the boundary straight away, but escape through strength, balance and the occasional dancing feet. Sometimes they launch into a series of slaps and attempted neck holds. Sometimes they will lock together in the centre of the ring, waiting each other out, trying to get the push without losing their balance. They could be pushed back or tripped forwards. It's a delicate 'balance'.

There are a few crowd favourites. Mostly it's hard to tell, or the crowd is agnostic.

There's occasional controversy as both go to ground or outside the ring. The referee makes a decision, but then 5 judges and the referee confer in the ring, while in our ears the commentator is watching a replay and thinks the signalled winner's elbow may have touched down first. No third umpire here though, and the decision stands.

It's a strange, unforgiving day for these wrestlers. They wait for their bout and that bout could be over in 2 seconds. One misjudgment, one slip, and 24 hours to wait for their next chance. We've come on the ninth day, and by now most have a fair idea what they are playing for. A few contenders are 7-1 or 6-2 and are looking to win the tournament, albeit with a way to go. Some are struggling. Others have a fairly even record. I don't know the stakes here - some kind of promotion and relegation operate, I think - but you can imagine that towards the tournament end some don't have much to play for. (There's a good chapter in Freakonomics on massive amounts of cheating in sumo.)

Bout of the day features an Estonian, Balto - both he and his opponent are 7-1 and need a win to keep a share of the lead. I took a few photos of this one, as both go out of the ring with Balto the clear winner.
There's a clear step up in quality from amateur to pro to top level, and the bouts tend to be longer. I guess that aggression and power are everywhere but the top guys are better defensively. (Some of them are a few years older than me!) There are some real mismatches even at the top level, according to the commentator, who says it would be the "upset of the year" if a particular sumo wins the last bout of the day. He duly loses in about 4 seconds.

It's good fun, but probably suffers a bit to the casual observer because there's no real sense of story to it. In isolation, some bouts are very entertaining (though others are anti-climaxes after a relatively long build-up). There are 20 bouts at the top level alone, but the real interest is in how each wrestler is doing in the competition, his past record against his opponent, etc. You get a bit of this from commentary if you hire a cheap radio, but the commentary is for TV and misses out the most basic step, ie which wrestler is which!
Still, an interesting afternoon out, a cool stadium, and about the highest level of sumo you can see, so well worth the effort.

Japanorama

We've been in Japan long enough to warrant a round-up, and in many ways this is a recommendation to come and visit...

Sights - Tokyo has an amazing number of museums, many of which are private collections with rotating exhibitions, so you're never sure what's on where. If you have a particular interest it's worth asking a tourist info place - I found my favourite ukiyo-e exhibition this way, a temporary show in a shopping mall in the docklands. Most take a less-is-more approach - eg the National Museum has very few items on display, giving them all a lot of room, but they are of very high quality. I would give top marks to this and the Matsui, which had a small collection of mainly lacquerwork.

 Statue in the National Museum - Japan is generally very good at telling you which items you are allowed to photograph

Views - there are plenty of high-rises with good view, and some are free. I'd recommend Shinjuku for the view from Tokyo Metropolitan Govt Building* at sunset - good view of Mt Fuji on a clear day (the one cloud in the sky obscured it on my visit) and the city in the other direction. But there are plenty of others.
* Tip - there are twin towers, south has a cafe but north is open later. Both are free.

 

People - are almost unfailingly polite and as helpful as they can be, from convenience store staff to JAL staff on the day they find out that their airline is planning massive redundancies. Nobody hassles you. A few words of Japanese are much appreciated. (We went to a great restaurant in Shinjuku where they give you a gaijin's guide to ordering food, which says "the first drink is always a beer", which got me on board right away, and tells you how to say "same again" and even how to thank the cooks and waiters - "Gochi sousama". I think this one phrase got me more respect than any other, but sadly only from bars and restaurants I was leaving and would never return to. What I really need is a good entrance line...)

Clean and well-looked-after - from old buildings to new, they are well cared for, the streets and facilities are clean, and generally everywhere we went was as you would hope.

Subway staff will even help you pick up your litter..

Transport - Japanese trains are as efficient as you hear - I literally did set my watch by them - I think one of ours got in 2 minutes late on a very snowy day. They're also big, comfortable and fast, and all the platforms are clearly marked so you know where to wait for your reserved carriage seats. Genius. The metro in Tokyo is also pretty good, although some of the interchanges seem as far as the gap between stops (c.500 metres, and others take you above ground). Can be expensive though, with a mix of public and private lines, monorail and railway. (Worst is getting to and from Tokyo airport, so far away it could be a Ryanair "Tokyo". We worked out that a taxi would cost more than 100 pounds!) Their equivalents of Oyster cards make life very easy, and for train travel the Japan Rail Pass, which you must buy before you visit Japan, is a must.  Buses are a bit more intimidating in Tokyo, but a great way to get around Kyoto.

On the downside, navigating on foot is incredibly difficult - there are almost no roadsigns. And where there are maps, they like to have a random direction as 'up', rather than north, which doesn't help. (Contrast Vietnam, where almost every shop etc has its full address posted outside and navigation is very easy.)
 
Crossing the road requires patience - every stage of traffic light signals, including the green man*, lasts for geological ages. But the Japanese almost invariably will not jaywalk, even across the smallest, quietest side-roads - unless we do it first. Then they tend to do likewise. On the bright side, they have the safest drivers we have seen on our travels. Although they do cycle on the pavement, even when there's a perfectly good cycle lane. Somehow this feels a little out of place.
* If you look closely, most of the pedestrian crossing symbols are little men with hats on, which is a funny throwback.

Food - as predicted by many, I didn't really get on with the local food. If you don't like seafood and you don't like noodles, you'd better like your food greasy and deep-fried.* And hopefully anyone with with you likes that too, because your chances of finding somewhere that does rice dishes AND noodle dishes, or seafood AND meat, are pretty slim. There's not much fruit around and what there is is expensive (I guess it is winter).
* Even in a Vietnamese restaurant the chicken was resolutely Japanese-style - 60% skin and fat. It's fun removing that with chopsticks. And a tasty curry in an Indian restaurant contained large chunks of chicken on the bone, with skin on.

Then there's the fun of ordering - outside major tourist centres finding an English menu can be tough. Sometimes the English menu bears no resemblance to the Japanese (so we've been offered delights such as cartilege, skin and neck). And sometimes the apparent mistranslations are accurate - yes, that really did turn out to be a hamburger in a stew. If you're lucky there may be a picture menu - we've been to at least one authentically local restaurant where everyone orders by pointing to a photo - and by squinting you may be able to work out the fundamentals of a dish. Or there may be models of food in the window, so you can see what the dishes would look like if they were converted to shiny plastic, which is not appetising, and you can drag the waitress outside to point to a model that you think may represent something tasty.

Even the beer sometimes has plastic models in case you're not sure what beer looks like

Toilets - if I actually had done a running feature on toilets, this is where it would have got slightly less boring, with traditional "squat" style holes, regular boring toilets, and fancy models with heated sets and customisable, directable jets of water. One simple model is quite smart - when you flush, you also get running water from a little tap above the tank to wash your hands. This then flows into the tank to refill it. But the strangest thing is that some toilets have nowhere to dry your hands - it's traditional to take your own small towel. Lilly bought one after 5 such toilets in a row (the cold weather was not conducive to drip-dry), and then hit an extra-ordinary run of fully-equipped facilities. She refused to use her new towel until she found a bathroom where she needed one - in fact I'm not sure she ever did! (Nice towel, though.)

Curse you, tiny Asian people - I don't feel like Gulliver in Lilliput here, but my feet seem to be - I have been trying to buy a particular pair of trainers but despite many attempts, I can't find them bigger than a UK 9 - a tantalising half size too small. (Lilly had a similar problem finding jeans in Vietnam, which are almost exclusively available for the Asian bodytype.) This problem also manifests in the many historic buildings that require you to swap your shoes for one-size-"fits"-all slip-ons, with my heels dangling over the back. (A few places have a small stock of "large" size, which are too big for me and tend to slip off. Can't win!)

Safe - everywhere feels very safe and I had no worries about leaving valuables in hotel rooms or bags in reception. If you do fancy a career grabbing cash out of people's hands, I can highly recommend Japan, where people seem to routinely wave around large wads of notes as they cross the street. (As a sidebar, Japan has the most pristine banknotes I have ever seen - I don't think I had a single one of any denomination that didn't look as if it had just been printed.)

3 things Japan could learn from elsewhere: gift shops, straws and cleaning hotel rooms.
(1) When you've just seen a beautiful old building, lovingly preserved/restored, you expect the on-site gift shop to be full of stylish souvenirs. But they are invariably just tat. Even inside the imperial palace at Tokyo or Himeji castle. Disappointing. (Ghibli is the honorable exception. And yes, I would expect tat anywhere else, it was just disappointing here.)

Oh well, you can always buy things that aren't supposed to be souvenirs, like these prayer offerings

(2) If you buy a little drink carton it normally comes with a straw stuck on to the diagonal of the box, so it's long enough to reach the bottom corner. In Japan, you get a vertical straw - but it's extendable - there's another straw inside the first that slides out! Surely this must be more expensive. Surely some juice executive must have gone abroad, noticed the diagonal straw and thought, hey, there's a saving to be had here. (This bugged me for some reason. I know.)

(3) Hotels have early check-outs, late check-ins, and discourage residents from being in their rooms in between. As far as I can work out, they want to clean all the rooms in a fixed order - they don't seem to grasp the flexibility that would let guests use their rooms for more time. Hotels are expensive and rooms are small, and wifi is very rare, which makes Japan an anomoly on our trip.

Weather - we were lucky again, one day of rain in Kyoto, a couple of cold days, but mainly cool and sunny. Few crowds, since we're distinctly off-season. However, I think the best time of year to come must be April for the cherry blossoms - you see so many images of them here and they do seem to make for stunning scenery (NB not the end of April during Golden Week when all of Japan goes on holiday). Autumn leaves would be a second choice. There are some lovely gardens here, and trees are a big part of many historic sights. The bare trees we saw were nice but there's often a sense of a bit of colour missing.

Japan is expensive, but otherwise hard to fault as a destination. We spent 8 or 9 days in Tokyo alone (pushed back our flight a couple of days to see more of it). Highly recommended.

Lilly's Highlights & Recommendations # 13 (Beijing, China)

Beijing is not a picturesque city. The vast majority of the city, old
and new, is built in the national style of grey brick and tiles which
creates a very communist drab landscape (even against of backdrop of
beautiful clear blue skies). It is also a city in transition as the
old (communist) ways struggle against the ultra modern
(capitalist) ways which are taking over the city. It is an enormous
place though so I think it will take a while before Beijing is the new
Tokyo. (Annoyingly for the tourist the ferocious pace of construction
often means what you are looking for may have been knocked down - get
a current guide book!)

Having said all of that I don't mean to do Beijing down. After 4 days
here there is plenty of competition for a place in my Top 5 (and the
first three on the list are truly world class). As a result there will
be a few added extras at the bottom as usual.

1. Great Wall - despite the below freezing temperatures and the winds
which threatened to blow us off the wall, this is a truly incredible
site. We went to the Badaling section (about 1hr from Beijing), which
has been heavily restored to make it tourist friendly. But as is often
the case the popular tourist areas are popular for a reason and the
scenery here is awesome. It is not really about being on the wall but
what you can see from it - the way it snakes through the moutains
seemingly without end and the way it undulates with every mountain
contour are breathtaking (so is the walk - bits of it are very steep!)
Tip: don't buy anything here though - a coke costs RMB20 instead of
the usual 5!)

2. Forbidden City - the most surprising thing about this complex is
the scale. 1million square meters of walled off city some of which is
700 years old right in the centre of Beijing! Once you are inside the
unpreposessing fortress walls, it is an amazing collection of very
colourful (made a nice change!) temples, ritual buildings, residential
and leisure buildings. I am aware that this sounds very similar to my
description of the Imperial City at Hue but it really is in a
different league, both in terms of the quantity of buildings still
standing and their quality. A lot of the buildings are also being
used as museums, the best example of which is the Hall of Clocks which
contained some very exotic creations. The biggest difficulty in the
City is making sure you don't miss anything as some of the most
beautiful things are hidden down little side alleys - it really is
like a city in that way.

3. Summer Palace - in a similar vein to the Forbidden City. This is
the summer residence of the imperial family and therefore as you would
expect is slightly more fun and elegant, so rather than being the same
as the City it is able to surprise again and again with some stunning
buildings. My favourite thing about it though was the setting. It is
all set around a lake which was completely frozen to the point at
which you could (and we did) walk on it. It really was so beautiful to
see a large mass of water frozen like that and made coming to Beijing
in the cold weather completely worthwhile. Frozen water is rather a
feature of Beijng at this time of year. The moat outside the Forbidden
City was frozen and there is a lake you can skate on surrounded by
cafes. Beautiful!

A word of warning - you need two days to do the Forbidden City and
Summer Palace properly. Time flies by!

A souvenir tip - contrary to what I would usually expect the souvenir
shops within the City and Palace grounds are actually good value.
Better prices than I saw elsewhere in Beijing (which is a cheap city
incidentally. Not quite Vietnam levels, but a massive improvement on
Japan!)

4. Olympic Village - both the 'Bird's Nest' and the Water Cube are
really great examples of modern architecture. The landscaping around
them feels a little empty (as it would I guess - it needs 100,000+
people to be full) and they are the best buildings in the village
complex by far but the Bird's Nest has made superstructure sexy and
the water cube is a great watery concept elegantly executed.

5. Lama temple - the temple buildings here are a bit same same once
you have seen the Forbidden City but the selling point of this temple
is that it is one of the largest Tibetan Buddhism monuments outside
Tibet and therefore has a very different collection of deity statues
to worship/visit the best of which is an 18m high Buddha in the
rearmost temple.

It is also worth mentioning the two hotels we stayed in, both of which
I would recommend. The Jade Garden is a 4-star hotel near the
Forbidden City and is everything you would expect from a 4-star for
about £50 a night (slack season prices). Clean, modern, warm, bathroom
with bath, free internet through TV and a great location.

The second hotel (Spring Garden) was quite different and very special.
It is what is known as a courtyard hotel and is located in one of
Beijing's historic hutongs. Hutongs are the old winding streets with
one level buildings, which form mini villages between the main roads.
The residential parts were traditionally formed of 4 houses around a
courtyard. The Spring Garden is a converted set of residential
buildings. This is unusual in itself but the decoration of the rooms
(in the Imperial style - very colourful) was really beautiful and it
was a pleasure to be in the room.

Paul has already mentioned our visit to see Mao, who doesn't deserve a
place in the Top 5 not only because of some shoddy embalming (rigor
mortis visible in the jaw?), bad views (he's miles away) and not least
the fact that history will remember him as a psychotic tyrant. Not
that the Chinese seem to have worked this out - there is still a
strong market for Mao tat.

Something that Paul didn't mention was the flag lowering ceremony we
watched on the first evening in Tiannamen Sq (absolutely vast - a
perfect example of architecture/landscaping as power). Come rain or
shine the army raise and lower the Chinese flag in the square at
sunrise and sunset in front of the gathered crowds and an enormous
picture of Mao. The gathered crowd was pretty small when we were there
(it was below freezing - again!) and seemed mostly to be tourists and
Chinese 'students' looking to scam Westerners. Not much evidence of
comradely solidarity here, but interesting as a tourist.

Am in agreement with Paul on the Ming Tombs and Dongyue temple.
Missable and same same.

Nothing great to report on the food front either. Generally fatty and
greasy. Like your local takeaway but worse! Best meal was in Bookworm
but this was because of the venue which was a bookshop/library/bar/
restuarant!

On a flight to Hong Kong now (Dragonair - no 'on demand' TV. Gasp!)
Hopefully will be able to post this in HK - no Facebook or blogger
allowed in China!

Holiday Hazards! (1)

You've read the highlights now here are some of the hazards of
travelling in Asia. Some people may say 'cultural differences' but I
still say 'yuk/aargh!'

Most of these hazards don't apply to Japan (unless otherwise stated),
which is the least Asian and most Western of the Asian cities we have
visited. So this blog mostly covers: India, Thailand, Cambodia,
Vietnam and China, all of which were brilliant places in their own
right and so as a disclaimer I will acknowledge that a lot of the
hazards are down to different economic circumstances and I apologise
in advance for the massive generalisations I am about to make, but I
need to vent....

1. Seatbelts - only drivers deign to wear a seatbelt in Asia. As a
passenger you are lucky if there is even a seatbelt installed. This is
especially galling considering how terrible the driving is (see 6).
This may also be true in Japan although cabs are too expensive to find
out! Indian cabs deserve a special mention - they really are tin cans
on wheels. I half expected to have to put my feet out of the bottom to
get it moving.

2. Spitting - although spitting is common throughout Asia the Chinese
are the undisputed champions of this. The spit is long, loud and
productive. You will have to step around it all over the pavement.
They have the right idea in Singapore where it is illegal.

3. Pushing - as a well brought up English girl I know how to queue.
The Asians don't. Not only that but they like a good shove too, which
can turn an innocent activity like picking up something from a
cloakroom into a traumatic experience. The Indians and the Chinese are
best at this with a special mention to the Japanese on the subway.

4. Squat toilets - why??????? Unhygenic, filthy, uncomfortable and
everywhere. Like something out of the stone ages.

5. Don't flush the toliet paper - ok so maybe some countries don't
have drainage which can cope with toilet paper down the drain but is
an open bin next to the toilet really the answer? The things people
put in there are beyond belief. Disgusting!!

6. No hand towels - this one is limited to Japan, where very few
toilets have any way of drying your hands. I think this is to bolster
the market in novelty towels which you can buy everywhere (I have an
Astro Boy one now). Hygenic but inconvenient.

6. Traffic - another cliche but it is true to say that driving or
being driven in Asia is quite an experience. Even in the places with
traffic lights and lane markings these are pretty much ignored. At
least in Vietnam and Cambodia it is only mopeds heading for you, in
China you have to avoid the cars!

7. Taxi drivers - this one includes Japan. Taxi drivers in Asia never
know where to find your destination. At the very least having the
address written down is imperative and sometimes a map or even the
phone number of your destination (so the driver can get directions) is
necessary. I have a new found respect for London black cabbies.

8. Pestering shop owners/hawkers - a famous cliche about Asia and it
is not as bad as the guidebooks make out. You just get used to it
after a while and master the art of a firm no and head shake. The kids
are actually the worst and the most persistent - not had their spirits
broken by years of tourists saying no yet?

9. Service - limited to China which is not a country which delivers
service with a smile (not universally of course -the hotel staff were
pretty good). You could put it down to the lack of tips, but this
isn't a problem in Japan and there is often a 10% service charge added
to your bill in China so I don't know why service is so lacklustre (it
is better in London - really!)

A worrying number of these appear to be toilet related. Not quite sure
what that means.

Yours in grumpiness,

Lilly Gallafent
Islington, N1

Lilly's Highlights & Recommendations # 12 (Tokyo [2], Japan)

Second stay in Tokyo, new Top 5!

1. Kabuki - this is a traditional form of Japanese theatre. There are various shows of various lengths during the day at the Kabuki-za theatre in Ginza. We took in a very short dance show and a longer dramatic (kind of!) piece. The costumes and make-up are superb, which just about makes up for the fact that there was a lot of Japanese dialogue in the dramatic piece and not too much action. Although we had an English synopsis I would recommend getting the audio translation if you want to follow what's being said. For this reason I found the piece that was more dance and music based more fun, but overall it was a good opportunity to see a cultural tradition that it is not easy to see elsewhere. They are also intending to demolish and rebuild the Kabuki-za theatre in April 2010, so it was nice to see a performance during the 'Sayonara' season. Note: if you are going to queue for one show tickets you need to get there at least half an hour before they go on sale - it is very popular.

2. Sumo - we were lucky to coincide our visit with one of the major annual Sumo tournaments. After some faffing to get tickets (similar to the Ghibli Museum it is another event where you have to use a Japanese only machine in the Family Mart convenience stores) we ended up with some seats pretty far back but with a decent clear view and I loved it. Although the bouts are normally pretty short, there is a lot of fun ceremony associated with it all. Also the bouts can be exciting and it is not difficult to see that there is some skill involved besides being extremely fat (in actual fact there is a big discrepancy in sizes). I was also interested to find out that it is an international sport and despite most of the contestants being Japanese the favourite for the tournament was actually a giant from Georgia. 

The other fun thing about the day was the Sumo stew I had for lunch which is basically a mixture of vegetables, meat and tofu in broth to which you add a side helping of fat to make sure you turn into a good sized sumo. It was delicious and with the ice cream and beer I had over the course of the rest of the day I am surely in training for the amateur leagues!

3. 300 Bar - the USP of this bar is that all the food and drinks are ¥300 (£2). In extremely expensive Tokyo and in the luxury shopping area of Ginza this is a bit of a god send. Although you may lose out a bit on size (beer in particular) spirits are good value and the Lemon Sour (Shochu, lemon liquer and soda) was delicious. The bar itself is standing only with a drink ticket system (both very common in Japan) and the decor is nice in a cosy basement kind of way. We also met 3 old guys from Yokohama who were in town for the Kabuki (all a very youthful 70+!) They were very taken with us despite having very little English and kept on buying us Highballs and food despite us not asking for it. Final result of this meeting was that after one too many highballs Paul and I moved onto the next item on this list....

4. Karaoke - is everywhere in Japan. We tried our hand at the enormous Big Echo in Ginza. Big Echo is an enormous chain and I think this one had 7 floors of karaoke space! It is not dissimilar to karaoke at home - you hire a room, buzz for drinks etc. but it is different because of its omnipresence and popularity. Anyway, I love karaoke so this is all good to me and we left after 60mins £20 poorer but buzzing following some fabulous renditions of such classics as Total Eclipse of the Heart, Ghostbusters and Wuthering Heights. Lolz!

5. Harajuku girls - Sunday afternoons in Harajuku is the time to spot Harajuku girls dressed up and posing for photographs on the bridge near the station. The costumes range from bride zombie to punk to samurai and are really creative. I can't really explain it - will upload some photos soon. It is a recognised fashion phenomenon and the bridge has as many tourists (and dodgy old men - most of the girls are 15ish) taking photos as it does girls. A strange way to get through adolescence although I guess it is not that different to Goths in Camden Lock.  

I am also going to do some quick honourable mentions which didn't quite make it into the top 5: 

- Ukiyo-e Tokyo: the best exhibition of Japanese art (specifically woodcuts) we saw in Japan. Bizarrely, it was held in a small gallery in a shopping mall called Urban Dock Lalaport. Reasonably large selection and a great set of themes including Samurai, kabuki actors and mythical characters
- Tokyo Sea World: slightly tired aquarium but still had the ability to impress (and we have been to a *lot* of aquariums). I particularly liked the penguins, rockhoppers and the touching zone where I got to feel a stingray (slimy) and a shark (not slimy, fleshy).
- Western Art Museum: a decent collection of western 'masterpieces'. Rodin and Monet well represented.
- Odaiba Beach: Japan's man made beach complete with a replica of the Statue of Liberty (??) Good city views. Nearby Palette Town also has an outlet mall decorated in a Venetian theme. Overall a very weak Las Vegas effort but still pretty fun.

I also really wanted to put heated toilet seats in the Top 5, but resisted. They are everywhere including public toilets and although it is disconcerting at first it is very welcome in the cold weather!!

Drafting this on a delayed and turbulent flight to Beijing. Bah!

Very top amazing Japan Tour - part 4

Our final stop before heading back to Tokyo is a night in Matsumoto, the gateway to the Japanese Alps. We decided to go here because (a) it has one of Japan's Top 3 castles*; (b) it has the national ukiyo-e** museum; and (c) we have a rail pass so we can go anywhere for free.
* Apparently Japan loves to draw up various Top 3s. Himeji is clearly the #1 castle and there's a bit of debate about the others but Matsumoto is the most likely contender for #2.
** Ukiyo-e is woodblock printing, an art which developed in Japan - line art plus a range of colours, drawn by an artist, carved into a set of woodblocks (one for each colour) and sold as limited edition prints. If this sounds crude, the results can be amazing. The best-known example is Hokusai's iconic wave -

There's a very pleasing small-town feel about the place, especially in winter. Not far from the station are some charming little streets of black and white houses. You get the impression that not too many Westerners pass through here - it's a bit off the normal tourist routes - as we discovered when we tried to find an English or picture menu for dinner.

Matsumoto-jo, the castle, is I think the oldest surviving jo in Japan (the Japanese seem to have a hard time hanging onto old buildings, for any number of reasons - wars, earthquakes, fires including arson - but are very good at rebuilding them with great care and attention, as well as restoring the ones that have made it in one piece. As a result they have lots of lovely-looking old buildings in great condition. If you're a real stickler for history I guess you'll want to see the ones that are original buildings). It features a lot more black than most jos and is known as the Crow Castle for that reason.

As with Himeji, you can climb right up to the top, passing through various exhibits (here it's mainly a firearms exhibit) and historical tidbits

such as the hidden floor where warriors would hang out if they didn't want it known that they were in residence, on the way to a good local view from the top.

 Nice castle.  Especially while Himeji is closed, it's a good choice for a visit.

The Ukoyi-e Museum is a little way from town, and in a sense disappointing - it would be nice to think that there's a really good permanent exhibit of prints somewhere. This is an extremely large private collection with only about 40-60 prints on show, and they don't have a permanent collection because they fade too easily and the building is too small.

The good news is that the current exhibit is Kuneyoshi (the artist we first discovered in San Francisco on our honeymoon), who we really like. The bad news (for me) is that it's focussed on his use of clothing, so Lilly enjoys it a bit more than I do. Still good though - it's amazing what they could do with printing in Japan 150 years ago, miles ahead of the rest of the world apparently. They also have a few classics by the likes of Hiroshige. The good thing about ukiyo-e is that there are no "originals" but in most cases there are a lot of original prints, so there is no one Wave - you can see it in a few places and if this place has a few copies they can rotate them.

As Lilly mentioned, the museum is freezing. But we enjoyed it a lot and because it's out of the way we had it to ourselves (including a slide-show recorded for the exhibition recorded by a guy who sounds a lot like Kermit T Frog).

On the way back to Tokyo we got a great view of the snow-covered Japan Alps. A good little trip all round. We could have done one of the more traditional tourist destinations but this worked out well.

Lilly's Highlights & Recommendations # 11 (Kyoto/Matsumoto, Japan)

Kyoto Top 5:

1. Temples - Kyoto is the historic capital of Japan (Emperor decamped to Tokyo in 1869) and as a result has an enormous wealth of temples. In fact there are so many, and often in unexpected places (wedged next to a McDonald's on the main shopping street!), that I am only going to describe my top 5 of the many that we saw. So here goes the sub-list!

(a) Ginkaku-ji (Silver Pavillion): although the temple isn't silver it is still very beautiful and surrounded by the most luscious and magical gardens. Like something from Narnia!
(b) Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavillion): similar to the Silver Pavillion and this time actually gold. The gold leaf is well maintained and it is pretty big so it is quite a sight to behold. Very bling!
(c) Kiyomizu-dera: a big complex of temples built at the top of a valley which makes for nice views and some good structural features of the buildings. The most tourist orientated temple in Kyoto especially the area around the Love Stones (touch one stone, shut your eyes and walk successfully to the other stone and you will be lucky in love!) This manifests itself in a lot of colourful religious offerings and souvenir stalls and tea houses which makes the complex lively and fun.
(d) Sanjusangen-ji: this temple contains 1,000 (lifesize-ish) sculptures of Kannon (goddess of mercy). They are all neatly lined up and seen together are a very impressive sight indeed. No pictures allowed - very strict the Japanese! They also make you take your shoes off before you go inside anywhere which is a pain especially in near freezing temperatures!!! They normally offer you slippers but they are giant and always fall off, which is weird considering the Japanese have such small feet!
(e) Higashi-Hongen-ji - impressive mostly in terms of scale. Two enormous halls next to each other, lovingly restored (ongoing in parts - very organised site; no Health & Safety hazards here!) Bhuddism must be very popular in Kyoto if they can actually fill this place!

2. Palaces - the Imperial Palace tour in Kyoto is both much easier to get onto and much better than the one in Tokyo. This is probably explained by the fact that the Emperor no longer resides at the Kyoto one and it is much more historic. The one hour tour (during which it started snowing which was picturesque especially in the surrounding park) was interesting and the buildings are much more impressive.

Having said that it wasn't my favourite palace in Kyoto. This title goes to the palace within the grounds of Nijo castle. The castle itself is not that impressive but the palace is impressively large and has an amazing collection of screen wall paintings. The best we have seen in any temple so far. It also has a cool feature called a nightingale floor which was purposely designed to squeak as you walk on it so intruders could be heard.

3. Old Kyoto - although it is probably easiest to get around Kyoto on the bus (and there is a good value bus pass) it is also a good walking city. Especially around the temples but also in the old residential and mercantile areas. There are some lovely examples of traditional buildings (and good souvenir shops!) on the cobbled streets around Sannen-zaka and Ninen-zaka. We also had a very pleasant walk along the Philosopher's Path next to the canal up to the Silver Pavillion.

4. Kyoto Station - an enormous modern station, with some fun architectural features (skyway with a good view of Kyoto tower, 11 storey atrium etc.) It is the sort of place that you will either love or hate and some people think it is not in keeping with the historic nature of the city, but considering how awful most stations are as an introduction to a city (Kings Cross???) I thought it was pretty cool.

5. Zen - we saw some lovely gardens in Kyoto including Shosei-en and Konchi-in but my favourite were the elegant zen gardens, identifiable through the raked pebble gardens. There were some excellent examples at the Daitoku temple complex (we also enjoyed a little tea ceremony there with green tea and cinnamon cakes - warming!)

If you aren't feeling very Zen then the entertainment district around Gion and Pontocho is good for shopping, eating and drinking. The street which traditionally houses Geishas is very picturesque at night when it is all lit up with lanterns. We didn't see any Geishas though so no room for this in my Top 5!

We also did a one night stay in Matsumoto. We were there for less than 24 hours but it has four things worth doing (all easily walkable apart from the JUM).

1. Onsen - an onsen is an outdoor bath heated by a hot spring. There was one in our hotel on the roof. It was a lovely experience to soak in the bath while watching the stars feeling absolutely warm while it was 4 degrees and thinking of snow! This was reason enough to stay in our hotel on its own (Hotel Dormy Inn), but I would also recommend it for the clean, modern rooms, great shower and free laundry.

2. Matsumoto castle - in a similar vein to Himeji. Not quite so impressive from the outside but some unusual internal rooms. I liked the moon viewing room.

3. Black and white houses on Nakamachi street - unusual architectural style. Pretty to look at. Nice short walk.

4. Japan Ukiyo-e Museum (JUM) - Japan's largest collection (over 100,000) of woodprints (private collection surprisingly). A pain to get too (we took an expensive taxi but it was freezing!!) but worth it. As usual only a small part of the collection is on display but we saw an excellent Kunyoshi special exhibition as well as some reproductions of the famous Hokusai masterpieces. Best Japanese art museum yet.

Now back to Tokyo for a couple of days....

Number #1 Winner Japan Tour part 3 - Kyoto

We spent 3 days in Kyoto, the former capital. The station is space-age, some stretches of the city are non-descript, but overall it's a lovely place with historic buildings around every corner. It's a fairly big city, as our feet will testify*, but feels very different from Tokyo or Hiroshima. Really a must-visit in Japan. Oh, and we stayed in a hotel from the Super Hotel chain. I love the idea that all over Japan you can find hotels called "Super Hotel [X]".
* Not too hard to get around - unlike Tokyo the buses are all marked in English and there is a great bus map available with cute pictures of the main attractions.

On our first day we walked up the entire east side of the city (our guidebook suggested this was feasible in a day, which was a touch ambitious, and the descriptions and maps could have done with more detail to help us find everything), which was very enjoyable despite some rain. On the second day we picked up a bus pass and hit some highlights of the north-west, which are a little further apart.

We then took a tour of the Imperial Palace - supposed to have done this the previous day, oops, but fortunately in the off-season it was simple to turn up half an hour before the tour and book it. Unlike its counterpart in Tokyo, which is by turns powerful (the old bits) and functional (the new bits), the Kyoto palace is elegant and well worth seeing - plus the tour is in English rather than Japanese-with-an-audioguide.
And on the third day we visited the medieval castle, Nijo-jo, the manga museum, and a few other bits we'd missed. I still had a list of things to see - maybe another time...

This is a bit of a list of what we visited - but I've now added photos, which will hopefully make it much more interesting.  It would take a long time to describe all of the wonderful sights of Kyoto - a really top destination, we were advised to spend at least 3 days here and that's a good call.

Sanjusangen-do - 1000 statues of thousand-armed Kannon (actually they each have 21 pairs of arms, each arm representing 25 worlds plus a pair to pray with). These are about 5 feet tall and all slightly different (most by different sculptors), so it's an impressive sight - 42,000 golden arms and not one of them has made it into a cricket career...  (No photos allowed, unfortunately.)

We accidentally wandered through a huge graveyard. This photo is only about 10% of it...

Kiyomizu-dera perches above a valley, apparently a beautiful view in spring and autumn.

Sannen-zaka and Ninen-zaka, old lanes of traditional machiya houses, now reasonably classy (i.e. non-identikit) shops for tourists but still an atmospheric stroll.

Kodai-ji gardens and its small temple.

Small temple in Maruyama-koen park that felt like a tropical forest (I forget its name, we visited it by accident while looking for a bigger temple that we never found and were so hungry that we gave up searching).

Yasaka-jinja, a jolt of red at the end of the park.

After lunch, we went north through a huge red torii - Lilly shown for scale in the photo below -

- to Heian-jingu, an attractive temple.

Konchi-in had a nice garden.

Up the Philosopher's Path to Ginkaku-ji, which had the best garden of the lot, though the "Silver Pavilion" has no silver (nice little Phoenix on top though). We had rushed here to beat closing time but a stroll around the garden had us feeling better in no time. They do good gardens, the Japanese.

Day 2: Kinkaku-ji does have a gilded pavilion (and another little Phoenix), though it was destroyed in 1950 and rebuilt in 1957. The little garden around it was a good start to our day.

Daitoku-ji is a big complex of temples but we only went to Ryogen-in and Daisen-in, both with nice Zen gardens (the latter had an interesting written interpretation of the rocks and gravel, and we had green tea and a local biscuit whose name escapes me).

 Gorgeous painted screen from interior

 This is the type of detailing you get all over the place here

Then we did the Imperial Palace tour and wandered in gusty snow through its large but undistinguished park.

Day 3:
Nijo-jo was a good, solid castle but not outstandingly beautiful on the outside. Every inch of the inside is decorated with paintings or carvings, and there's a bit of important history there (the Shogunate was dissolved there, shortly before the Emperor moved the capital to Tokyo).

The International Manga Museum is mainly a library - the basement offers a short but interesting history of manga. The special exhibition was a travelling exhibit from the US about women in American comics, which wasn't particularly interesting and had nothing added to it to indicate the position of women in Japanese manga. Bit of a disappointment. Considering how mad they are for manga over here*, you'd hope for a bit more in terms of both historical context and original artwork. But if you want to read manga (or their small collection of foreign language reprints) it would be great.
* It's sold everywhere, everyone reads it (the middle-aged woman I was sat next to on our first Shinkansen was reading manga), several of our hotels have had little manga collections for guests to read, and we stuck our heads in a dedicated manga library in Hiroshima which was heaving with people on a Sunday afternoon).

 Osamu Tezuka's Phoenix

Finally, two near our hotel which we'd been saving for if we had time: Kikoku-tei (aka Shosei-en) garden, which belongs to Higashi-Hongen-ji, a huge wooden temple, newly restored (with more work still ongoing). These were both great, especially as we had the former pretty much to ourselves - very peaceful.