Oh No!

Well, it was bound to happen. Over the last week, I've missed a few meal photos. I know, I know, I've let you, my loyal reader, down. Some of it was the nature of my meals on the cruise (mostly buffet), and some of it was just plain forgetfulness.

But, here's a quick list, some with pics, some without, of past meals.

5/26
Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner -- Buffet

5/27

Breakfast and Lunch -- Buffet

Dinner -- Captain's Farewell Banquet (see menu)

5/28

Breakfast -- Buffet

Lunch -- Spicy Eggplant, Pork Dish (no pics)

Abort! Abort! Abort!

I woke up Tuesday morning, and it was still raining in Lijiang, as it had been for the past 48 hours. So I made an executive decision (after all, I am the CEO of My Life, Inc.). I decided that I wasn't going to do the two-day Tiger Leaping Gorge trek, after all.

Everything I had read said that the trek was pretty dangerous in and after heavy rains. And, more importantly, I decided that I didn't want to spend two days trekking through the cold and the wet. And, well, I was just feeling kind of lazy.

But I still wanted to see the sites, so after eating an early breakfast, I headed out to Qiatou, the town outside of the Gorge. (Part of me thought there was some chance of me doing the trek, but I didn't bring a change of clothes, so I guess the rest of me knew it wasn't going to happen).

At the end of the 2-hour bus ride, I hit the Gorged Tiger Cafe, to find out what I could about the trek, and how much I could do in a day. At the suggestion of one of the people at the cafe, I got a mini-bus (like a local taxi) to take me to the far end of the trek, where there are a few guesthouses to eat lunch at. From there, I would take a mini-hike of about an hour, then head back, stopping at a popular scenic point along the way.

Boy am I glad I made the trip! The scenery was truly breathtaking. As luck would have it, it wasn't raining when I got there, although it had been raining the night before, and was still cloudy. But the clouds were high enough that the road I was on afforded amazing views of the gorge, as the road was actually cut through the side of the mountain itself, and we drove parallel to the Yangtze River.

The gorge and the river were very different here from where I had taken my river cruise. For one thing, the gorge seemed even higher (supposedly it's the highest/deepest in the world). For another, the river is much narrower. I think it might resemble what the Three Gorges area was like BEFORE they started building the dam, and increasing the water level.

While the guesthouse I had lunch at was nothing special, the view from there was incredible. I wanted to walk downhill to the river's edge, but because of the rain, I was told it was too dangerous. So instead, I walked about 30 minutes uphill to a small village above the guesthouse. Very cool. Very slow pace of life there -- if you ignored the telephone and electricity wires that dotted the landscape (and the basketball goal at the local school), it really felt like you were sometime hundreds of years in the past.

On the way back, I had the mini-bus stop at this one spot that is apparently THE place to stop at the Gorge, if you're a Chinese tourist (I guess most Chinese just come here, while most foreigners don't, opting for the trek, which goes through higher ground, instead). What I didn't realize is that you can go all the way down to the river from that point, and it's safer than at the guesthouse, because it's all stairs. Over 570 of them!!!!!! (I counted on the way back up) But I'm definitely glad I made it down to the bottom, because the activity of the river there was amazing. I'm not sure if it was because of all of the rain, or if that spot is always like that, but the fierceness and speed of the water flow at that point was unbelievable. Plus, on the oppposite side of the river they had built a cool little bridge, which overall made for a great view point.

In the end, while I'm sure it would have been great to do the trek, and I'm sure I would have liked having the sense of accomplishment that would have accompanied it, I'm glad I did it my way. In the short hour or so that I had hiked, I was more tired than I would have expected. Also, I narrowly missed slipping on the mud and slick rock 3 or 4 times. By the time I left, it had started raining a little bit at the bottom, so there's no telling how much it was raining up top. And, I later found out from some people who did the trek that up on the trek route it was so cloudy, they couldn't really see much of the Gorge, anyway. And finally, I got to spend an extra day in Lijiang.

The one regret I have from the day is, I lost my hat. Again. At least this time it was only a 6 yuan (75 cents) hat that I bought at the Walmart Supercenter in Chongqing....

Better and Better

If Sunday was one of my worst days in China, Monday was one of my best. Lijiang is an amazing town. It's pretty well touristed, which means that parts of it are really touristy. But if you get away from the stalls and shops and loud bars, the old town of Lijiang really has a lot of charm.

Lijiang is home to a lot of the Naxi minority population of China. They have a language and culture that is distinct from the "Han" majority. And that means that they have their own version of everything from food to dress to the way they build their houses. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naxi

The town is really a great place to wander around and get lost in. Although, in truth, you can never really get lost, as they've posted signs all over the place, that have maps and directions to major places, in both Chinese and English. Really helpful (although, that doesn't necessarily make it easy to find your hotel at night, just easier).

So I pretty much spent all day Monday wandering around town, checking out a few stalls, eating at different places, and taking as many interesting pictures as I could. Since I wanted to get out of my hotel from the previous night, I also looked for a new place to stay, in Old Town. I had found a place on the internet that seemed reasonably nice, but on the way there, I got lost (naturally), and stumbled upon this great little place that turned out to be even nicer than the place I was actually searching for.

Called "Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles", other than one guy that's sometimes hanging around, the people here don't speak a lick of English. And that guy's English was limited, but he had this great program on his computer that translates typed Chinese into English, and vice versa. Loads of fun.

It's more of a bed and breakfast-type place, than a hotel, with only 8 or so rooms. I really liked the atmosphere and the overall look and feel of the place, and when I checked out the room, I noticed that the bathroom was brand new and spotless (although, I would later find out that the shower alternated between hot and cold water, and the water leaked through the bottom of the shower wall into the rest of the bathroom...).

Later in the day, I met a group of Chinese people in the hotel, one of whom spoke really good English. He was here visiting his "Shifu", or teacher, who is a Tibetan Buddhist monk (there were 4 or 5 monks hanging out with him). We chatted for a while, and it was really interesting being able to talk to some "real" people, instead of just those in the tourist trade.

All in all, a really fun day, despite the rain.

Today was my worst day in China

Which actually says a lot for how much fun I've been having, considering today wasn't THAT bad. Things started off well. For lunch, I made it to the place I had missed last night. It's apparently a really famous place in Wuhan (all the cabbies know it), and has been around since the 1920s. http://219.140.194.38:88/CMS/webback/Publish/2005-10-10/2005-09-0510338.html (Btw, the crab ovaries part is news to me...) There, I had

Baotze (tangbao)
Some dish with egg, sticky rice and bits of pork

I had to wait around 20 minutes for my food to come out, but both things were amazing. And it was really interesting watching them make the egg/sticky rice dish (although I wish I hadn't seen the somewhat questionable sanitary practices....) Anyway, well worth the wait.

Unfortunately, the day went downhill from there. First, I had the taxi cab ride from hell -- he got me to the airport in record time, but only because he was doing 80 on the freeway, weaving in and out of cars and using the shoulder when he wanted to.

There are a limited number of flights going to Lijiang, and most of them require a stopover in Kunming. So I first flew the hour+ flight to Kunming, where I was supposed to have a 2 hour layover. But it started pouring down rain, and my two-hour layover became over 3. And when I finally arrived in Lijiang, I had to take a 30-minute bus, meaning I got dropped off in the rain, at 10pm, 20 minutes away from the Old Town (where I wanted to stay), without a hotel, and no taxis to take me there (inside Old Town is pedestrian only).

I decided to just find a hotel in the area, instead of trekking down to Old Town (where some of the inn-type places might even close their doors early). The first place I stopped in was a super-cheap 10 bucks, but it was really musty, and the bathroom was pretty bad, so I passed. The next place was really nice, but over $70, so I kept moving. Finally, I found a decent place for around $35, and was lucky enough to find a few restaurants nearby that were still open.

But, the good news is Lijiang seems like a really neat town, and it looks like Yunnan Province has a lot to offer. http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/lijiang.htm
Tomorrow, I'll explore the Old Town (and probably change hotels). Hopefully the rain will stop, and if not, hopefully it will at least stop in time for my Tuesday morning trek departure.

Ever heard of Wuhan?

Probably not. After all, it's just a small little city in China, with a population of 6 million people.

I spent the night there last night. It was a nice enough place. The woman at the desk in my hotel recommended a restaurant for dinner, but unfortunately by the time I got in a taxi and made it over there, they were closing up.

The area I had been dropped off in seemed to be a big hotspot for the youth of Wuhan, as there were lots of shops and a few malls nearby. One of the malls in particular seemed to have a lot of different little restaurants, so I decided to try my luck there.

First stop was a little stall, serving

Spicy Lotus Root

Delish! Much better than the lotus root Ben and I had in Xi'an.

Then I went to a cafeteria-style place, where I had

Hot/Dry noodles (a specialty of Wuhan, and supposedly one of China's 5 famous noodle dishes)
What I thought was sausage, but had bone in the middle of it

I was a little taken aback by the noodles being served in what seemed like an instant noodle cup. But it was pretty good, so I didn't mind.

I finished the evening off with a peanut ice dessert.

By that time, all of the surrounding shops had closed, so I made my way back to my hotel for a good night's sleep (I woke up at 6:30 on Saturday morning to go see the Dam, so I was pretty beat by this point).

There's a reason they call it HOTpot

Chongqing, where I stayed before my Yangtze River cruise, is it's own municipality, but it used to belong to Szechuan province. As you probably know from American Chinese food, Szechuan is famous for their spicy food. For lunch my first day in Chongqing, I had two of my favorite Szechuan dishes that I ate in Japan

Mabo Tofu (see previous post)
Tantan men (spicy noodles with ground meat and kind of a nutty sauce)

But what Chongqing is really famous for is their hotpot (which is where you cook different foods in boiling water at your table).

Which, of course, meant I HAD to try it.

As usual, the place I went to didn't have an English menu. But I knew the characters for Lamb (their specialty), as well as for tofu and for a few different vegetables, so I managed to order a few different things. I also (as usual) ended up ordering waaaay too much food...

Sliced Lamb (rolled)
Skewered Lamb
Tofu
Cabbage
Some green leafy vegetable

It was without a doubt the HOTTEST MEAL I'VE EVER EATEN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE!!!!!!!!! I can't stress this enough -- it was really really really damn hot. And not just spicy, but temperature-wise, as well. By the end of the meal, my mouth was on fire, my tongue was raw, I had the sniffles big-time, and I was sweating like a mad-man. And all of this was DESPITE the fact that they had given me the "mild" version, in which half is spicy and half is not. Of course, I loved it!

The lamb was really tender and tasty. And the tofu came out frozen, which was strange, but obviously it melted REALLY quickly. They had flavored the tofu with something, and it was delicious. AND REALLY SPICY!!

The next day at lunch (after my visit to the zoo), I had

Home-style Tofu
Spicy dried beef

The Tofu was especially good (and spicy!), as was the beef, which was great over rice. And I ended up eating more rice in Chongqing than I had in other cities, to keep my mouth from bursting into flames!

I LOVE spicy food. Growing up in Louisiana, I feel I was practically weaned on Tabasco. But after only three meals in Chongqing, it was time to give my mouth (and the lining in my stomach) a rest.

If it seems too good to be true....

It's too good to be true.

I thought I was getting a great deal on my cruise. I had heard that Victoria Cruise Lines cruises were usually $625/person, and I only paid a little over $300. Wednesday night, I headed to Chongqing's pier, and after searching for 20 minutes, asking several different people and ignoring the offers of locales to take me (for only 20 yuan! no thanks...), I managed to find pier #8, which is where the travel agent had told me to go.

Docked at Pier #8 was the Victoria Queen. Which I had foolishly thought was the same as Victoria #5. Oops. Victoria #5 was a DIFFERENT boat, docked at pier #3. Victoria Queen is the 5-star luxury cruise ship run by Victoria Cruise Lines, out of New York. Victoria 5 is the 4-star cruise ship, run by Victoria Cruises, out of China. Confused yet? Apparently the Victoria 1-5 ships used to be run by the US Victoria company, but then were sold to a Chinese company.

Tired, sweaty and more than a little frustrated, I wandered around another 10 minutes, until I finally found my way down to pier #3 (getting around the dock is not as easy as it might sound). Sure enough, the Victoria 5 was waiting there.

While I was certainly disappointed, all in all the Victoria 5 was okay. It was showing it's age, with a little wear and tear (the shower head on my shower broke off after 2 minutes), but things definitely could have been much much worse (despite the shower head issue, the shower was nice and hot, with great water pressure). I was glad that I had spent the extra bucks over the Chinese passenger ships. I ended up having a cabin to myself, and the ship was relatively empty, with only around 65 people, compared to the 3 or 400 people on the regular passenger ships (which, incidentally, are NO star ships, compared to 4-star). Plus, while the English level of most of the staff was minimal (more than zero but less than fluent), the various guides they had for us (on-ship and off-), all spoke English, which was quite a relief.

All the food on the trip was included, as were the 3 off-boat excursions we took. They did a pretty good job of scheduling things while we were on the boat, too, like movies, talks about the river, narration about specific points and even a cabaret show last night, with professional entertainers picked up during the morning. And the people I met on-board were really nice. Most people were in groups, although I did meet a couple of Americans that had signed up on the boat separately, like me (including a few people younger than me, which was a little refreshing given the average age of the tour groupers was probably well over 50) So looking back over my 3-day adventure, I was really happy with the cruise.

This was especially true because the Three Gorges were amazing. The scale really has to be seen to be believed, but if you're going to see it, go soon. The water levels have already risen dramatically over the past several years, to the point where it's hard to imagine how much more incredible it must have been then. This October, the water is rising another 25 meters, with the final water level reaching 175 meters in 2009, over 40 meters higher than the present level. So a lot of those majestic peaks will be tiny little hills, and a lot of the smaller places will be completely underwater. Kinda sad, but I guess that's progress....

And what progress it is! This morning, before arriving at our final destination, we stopped for a tour of the Three Gorges Dam, which, while not the largest dam in the world is still a pretty amazing feat of engineering. And when finalized in 2009, it will create more energy than any other dam in the world, 18,200 megawatts worth, supplying up to 3% of China's energy needs.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Gorges_Dam

Now, I'm in Yichang, just checking my mail, updating my blog and grabbing some lunch, before I head over to Wuhan, a four-hour bus ride away. Tomorrow, I fly from Wuhan to Lijiang, in Yunnan province, with a layover in Kunming. Unfortunately, both Yichang and Lijian are relatively small airports, so there are no direct routes, forcing me to lose a day in traveling. But, from what I can tell, it should be worth it, as Lijiang is supposed to be an old town with a lot of character, and from there I'm taking the two-day Tiger's Leap Gorge trek. Then, it's on to Guilin and Yangshao, before I head back to Shanghai to fly out to Thailand for a week.

In the mean time, I'm going to try to put as many pictures up (and meal logs) as I can before I have to grab lunch and hop on my bus. Otherwise, I should hopefully have time tomorrow in Wuhan.

Chongqing

First thing upon arriving in Chongqing, I hopped in a taxi and made for the Liberation Monument, which is kind of the center of town. My book had a travel agency listed around there, and I needed to buy a boat cruise ticket.

The taxi took me just outside the monument, but then when it came time to pay, I ran into a bit of a language problem. I had gotten a sheet of paper from the airport with set costs on it, depending on the destination and the type of car. It seemed to me that he didn't want to accept that amount, and was asking for more. I, of course, was having none of that, and tried to make that clear. After a few minutes of arguing, I heard from behind me "what seems to be the problem here?" It turns out we had pulled in front of a hotel (the World Traders that I stayed at last night), and there was an Australian guy, who spoke fluent Mandarin, working there. Eventually, I got the taxi fare straightened out (I had gotten the type of car, and thus the fare wrong, but he had still tried to charge me too much).

The hotel wasn't much help in the ticket department, but they recommended I head to the port, as there are travel agencies down there (my book had said the same thing). So I made my way to the port where several guys started to follow me around, trying to get me into different agencies (where they would clearly get a cut). I ignored them, and finding one in the book, got ready to decide on a boat.

Only to be told that all of the "Luxury boats" (meant more for foreigners) were sold out, and that only one Chinese boat was available that night, with the same situation for the next day, as well. Additionally, I was told that recently the schedules had changed, so that what I thought was a 3-day trip, was now a 4-day trip, throwing my whole schedule for the next two weeks in disarray.

Feeling there was nothig I could do, I bought a ticket for the boat later that night, and headed back to the city center, to buy some things for the cruise, as well as find an internet cafe and buy my airline ticket for right after the cruise ends.

I never did find the first travel agency I had been looking for, but did stumble into a pretty big agency that was full of young people. They were extremely helpful (two of them spoke sufficient English), and not only got me my airplaine ticket, but when I asked them on a whim about "luxury boat" tickets, they managed to get me on one leaving tonight, at a price that was signficantly less than what I had seen online. It meant I had to lose some of the money for the first ticket, as cancellation fee (around 35 bucks), but the luxury boat looks MUCH more comfortable, and much more geared towards foreigners, with lots of English speakers and tour guides.

I'm sure tonight's boat will be filled with tour groups, but the fact that it's smaller (only 100+ people, instead of 400+) and more comfortable hopefully should make it worth the extra cost. Plus, I'm thinking with fewer people, I won't have to jostle for space on deck to view the gorges. And they even have internet access!! (although it's probably ridiculously expensive...)

Anyway, the other added benefit of leaving today is I got to explore Chongqing a bit. It's supposedly the largest city in China, since it's a special administrative district with over 33 million people! The city does seem to go on forever, with lots of tall apartment buildings, but it doesn't seem ridiculously overcrowded (at least where I've been). Although, the idea of keeping a city that big in order (cleaning, police, etc) is pretty amazing.

My meal last night (which I'll save for another post) was great, and I spent a few hours today at the local zoo, where they have 6 Pandas!! I took a bunch of pictures for Panda chan (there's a reason I've given her that nickname here, remember), and it was nice getting out of the city for a bit. Plus, I got to see the Walmart Super Center across the street (crazy! Kinda like walmart at home, only kinda not...). When I was leaving, I saw some old foreigners on there way in -- probably after hitting the zoo in a tour group.

That's it for Chongqing. Maybe I'll be able to update over the next few days, but if not, expect something this weekend.

Hotels

So far, I've been reasonably impressed with the hotels I've been staying in (aside from the hard bed thing). They're cleaner than I had imagined, and the three places I've stayed have all been really modern in their facilities and even interior design (a far cry from the places I stayed at in India, aside from a few luxury resorts).

The highlight of the hotels so far would have to be the entry system in our hotel in Xi'an. It looked like a regular card key, but instead of inserting it into a slot, you wave it in front of the door handle for a few seconds, and it automatically registered, unlocking the door for you. Hi-tech, baby!

The hotel I stayed in last night, World Traders Chongqing, was really nice -- especially for the price. I paid around $35 (US), and got a modern, spacious room, a reasonably comfortable bed, great service and a pretty good breakfast buffet. Amazing!

100!! (and one)

Cool! I just noticed my last post was my 100th! Congratultions to me!

I gotta admit, when I thought about doing a blog, I didn't really think I'd be able to keep it up. And while I haven't exactly been regular about my updates (especially when I was back in the States), at least it's still around!

Now for my next goal -- 100 comments! (I think I have MAYBE 4...)

Change in Plans

I'm heading out to dinner now, so I'll go into detail later, but I had to change my schedule around a bit.

Leaving for the Yangtze river cruise tomorrow night.
Then heading to Lijiang and Tiger's Leap Gorge.
Then going on to Guilin and Yangshao
Before ending my China trip in Shanghai on the 6th.

More later.

(PS -- I'm adding new pics to Flickr as fast as I take them, or at least as fast as I can, so be sure to check back!)

Dinner and Tea

Our second night in Xi'an was an amazing experience. In our search for dinner, we wandered around some of the backstreets near the city wall and stumbled upon a pretty interesting looking place. It turned out to be a traditional tea house, but they also served food, so we decided to give it a try.

The English menu was limited to drinks, but there was one waitress who spoke quite a bit of English and who was extremely helpful, so with her assistance and my limited knowledge of chinese characters, we managed to order

Hot and Spicy Beef
Dried Tofu
Fried Rice

The beef was delicious (and spicy!). The fried rice had something that gave it a really unique flavor (in a good way) -- sweet peppers, maybe? And the tofu reminded me of a dish I had in Beijing 4 years ago, which I've tried to find ever since. Spectacular. We also ordered glasses of green tea, although I'm not sure which specific variety we got.

But the night didn't end there. The waitress offered to give us a tour of the place, at which point we found out how big it was (5 floors), how cool it was (very!) and the fact that it's pretty old and very famous (2nd most famous teahouse in China, after one in Beijing). Overall, she really spent a lot of time with us, as did one of her coworkers, who made us cup after cup of Puer tea (all free). They kept saying it's good for your health and your digestion, and we kept drinking, but both Ben and I had trouble sleeping later.... (oh well!).

In the picture, the woman on the right is "Cathy", who helped us out, while the woman on the left is the one that made us tea.

In the end, all of their attention paid off, because both Ben and I bought something from their shop. Ben got this really cool cake of tea that was pressed to look like an ancient Chinese coin, and I got an awesome teapot that's shaped like a bamboo chair. I'd put a picture up, but I sent it on to Bangkok with Ben...

Anway, it was definitely a highlight of my first week in China.

Lamb Delight

Seeing as how Xi'an has a large Muslim population, a lot of their food reflects this Islamic influence. Especially on this one street in the Muslim quarter, which leads up to the Drum Tower. Ben and I picked one of the more popular-looking restaurants, and had a go at the all-Chinese menu. We ended up with


Lamb Skewers (4 each, at only 12.5 cents per skewer!)
Mutton soup, with tiny bits of the local bread (I forgot the name of the dish and don't have that section of my guide book with me).

The skewers were amazing, and all of the meat was surprisingly tender. Plus it was just a fun place to eat, watching everybody else, and trying to interact with the really young waitstaff, who spoke NO English...

The Trifecta

Our first meal in Xi'an was at Den Fa Chang, home of the "Dumpling Feast" (or so claimed our tourist map). And we certainly feasted on dumplings, completing what I like to think of as the Trifecta of Dumplings -- Boiled, fried and steamed.

Steamed Pork and Shrimp dumplings
Boiled Pork and Shrimp dumplings
Pork fried dumplings (gyoza)
Sweet Lotus Root
Spinach

Ben and I left feeling like all of the dough had settled to the bottom of our stomachs. But our dumpling crave was finally satiated (temporarily).

In search of Starbucks

Let me come right out and say it. After two and a half days of searching, we didn't find a Starbucks in Xi'an. Because there is no Starbucks in Xi'an. Which is actually a little surprising, considering the size of the population (6 million people!), the number of foreign tourists and the amount of wealth that seems to be present in the city.

But despite this one failing, Xi'an has a lot to offer. The impressive Drum and Bell Towers dominate the city center. The ancient city walls that surround the inner city are still standing, and at 10 meters high really add to the "ancient" vibe of the city, as do the old-town areas, which had a very different feel from Shanghai. But there's a modern side, too, with a bustling shopping district, tons of restaurants and the obligatory (in modern China) upscale shopping mall. And the large muslim population, with the muslim quarter and Great Mosque, give the city an exotic feel, and set it apart from other major cities in China.

And then, there are the Terra Cotta Warriors. After spending all-day Sunday wandering around the city, we booked a day tour to the site of the Warriors (about an hour away from the city center), wisely choosing a weekday to avoid the crush of weekend tourists.

While the facilities seemed a little dated, the statues themselves were extremely impressive. The scale of the undertaking is hard to believe, especially given the fact that they are over 2000 years old. In fact, Ben and I were joking that maybe it's all sham, and they only found a few, making the rest up just so the warriors could become the "eighth wonder of the world". Well, okay, probably not. Anyway, it was a worthwhile trip out there, although we could have done without the "Geology Museum" on the way back, as it was just a shop with a few rocks in the entry hall (I was none too pleased with our guide, because I had said at the beginning "No shops!" when he tried to take us to the "Ceramic Factory". Puhlease!)

All in all, we had a great time in Xi'an, with some wonderful experiences (one of which I'm going to dedicate a separate post to later). But it would have been nice to have found that Starbucks. And we kept putting off climbing on top of the Wall, only to get there the last night and find out they had closed earlier than the posted hours. Oh well, I guess you gotta leave something for the next visit.

Xi'an report forthcoming

Hopefully tomorrow. Suffice it to say, I loved the city, and had a really good time.

But I have an early flight tomorrow morning (8:20, gotta get up at 6, but not as bad as Ben, who's leaving at 7:30 am to Bangkok), so I'm turning in early tonight. I'm flying to Chongqing, where I plan on boarding a Yangtze River cruise. Hopefully I'll be able to update tomorrow, before I board the ship (for 3 days or so). But if not, check back in a few.

Sneaking In

Take a step back in time with me. In reporting on our Hanzhou adventure, I inadvertantly skipped one of our major activities in Shanghai -- a Chinese acrobat show. When I left off the report of our rainy day, we were sprinting out the door to try to make the show on time.

Well, seeing as how it was pouring down rain, it took us 20 minutes to get a cab. And then it took us another 30 minutes to get to the theater, by which time it was 8:00, 30 minutes after the show had started. But I thought we could maybe get in during intermission, so we headed upstairs to the show area, anyway.

To my surprise, there was nobody selling tickets outside the theater, nor was there a booth for ticket sales. Even more surprising, there was nobody checking tickets at the door. So Ben and I just walked right in.

And sat down in two empty seats in the back. The theater was dark and the show was in progress, and nobody said a word (some people actually entered the theater even later than us). I'd never before snuck into a theater without paying, but somehow ended up doing just that.

Ironically enough, I was glad that we hadn't paid (the tickets were I think around $20). The show was okay, but not nearly as good as I was expecting or hoping. It had kind of an unnecessary modern touch (some boy band music and a few performances with funky costumes), and I was shocked at the number of times that the performers messed up on some of the key things (juggling, jumping through hoops, etc.) It wasn't nearly as good as I remember the troupe I saw 11 years ago in Beijing being. But, I guess I can't really complain, 'cause it was free....

Good news!

In addition to the meal pics I've started adding, I've managed to put pics up on my Flikr site! Check 'em out! (I've linked directly to my "China" section, but make sure you click on individual photos for my comments and descriptions)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/68195876@N00/tags/china/

Unfortunately, I'm beat, and we have an early start tomorrow, so the rest of my updates will have to wait. But enjoy what I've put up, and feel free to write comments!

Hangzhou

"In Heaven there's Paradise, on Earth, there's Suzhoun and Hangzhou."
-- An ancient Chinese saying

Both Suzhou and Hangzhou are pretty easy day trips from Shanghai, but we decided to hit Hangzhou, which is about a 2-hour train ride away. Hangzhou is famous for the West Lake, which has inspired countless Chinese poets and Artists.

The train was surprisingly comfortable, although the interior seemed a little "Communist Era" to me. The ride was uneventful, but punctuated by sales talks from the various railroad workers, who were hawking everything from food to toys to jewelry!

Our arrival in Hangzhou, at around 1pm, was not quite what I expected, in that we got off smack dab in the middle of a city with 6-million people. Not quite the rural setting I had imagined. A 20-minute taxi ride later, and we were at our lunch destination, a noodle shop that has been around since 1876! It was delicious!

Since they don't have an English menu, I'm not really sure what we ate, but I think mine was spicy chicken with bamboo (maybe? some sort of vegetable).

From there, we headed to the West Lake. At first, I was a little disappointed, as it was pretty crowded and it seemed a bit touristy. But the more time we spent there, the more I grew to like it. First we walked around the shore line a bit, taking in the scenery and enjoying the fountain show -- a set of fountains in the lake that shot water up and around, in time with music that was playing on land-based speakers.

The lake area really is pretty, surrounded by verdant mountains, with several small islands that each had different little chinese-style buildings on them. We took a touristy boat to several of the islands, then had it drop us off at the park of the Willows, this really peaceful and pretty park along the lake. All in all, we spent a relaxing day at the lake, taking in the scenery and the people (most of whom were Chinese tourists, although we ran into a few other foreigners, as well).

As it was getting dark, and we wanted to get back to Shanghai, we hopped in a cab and went to the train station to get our tickets back home. Only to be told that there were no trains back until the following day. Panic began to sink in, but after a little more prying, we got a ticket leaving from a nearby station, two hours later.

The delay, while upsetting at the time, turned out to be rather fortuitous, as we stumbled upon an AMAZING Szechuan restaurant around the corner from the station.


Mabo Tofu (spicy tofu with ground pork)
Boiled Gyoza (dumplings)
Spciy Rice noodle dish
Crawfish

Yes, crawfish. I was a little surprised to see them on the menu, and just had to order them, even though we already had MORE than enough food. I actually prefer Cajun-style to Szechuan-style (although Ben was chowing down), but the cool thing was they had these thin plastic gloves to keep your hands from getting dirty.

The Mabo Tofu, however, which is probably my favorite dish to order at Chinese restaurants in Japan, was without a doubt the BEST Mabo Tofu I've EVER had. Delicious!

Finishing dinner, we made it to the other station with plenty of time for our train back. We got back to Shanghai around 11pm, and unfortunately it seemed the subway was closed. Even worse, the line for taxis was ridiculously long. We had no choice but to wait.

And while in line, I realized I had forgotten my hat on the train from Hangzhou. My new UCBerkeley hat. The one I had won in a raffle at Days at Haas. Bummer. I was pretty pissed, but there was nothing I could do. We finally made it home, and tired, went to bed.

Impressions

So far, China has been very different from what I imagined. Obviously, I knew that Shanghai would be a modern city, but it was even more so than I expected. And the amount of money there was truly unbelievable. I really think the number of luxury goods shops quite possibly rivals Tokyo (especially if you consider the high concentration of them in one area!)

A lot of the city reminded me of other Asian cities. I'm not really sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but it's a far cry from "Communist" imagery. This vision of Chinese cities has held up to some degree outside of Shanghai, as well. Our visit to Hangzhou (next post) also showed another bustling, modern city. Xi'an, where we are now, while not quite as modern as Shanghai, and with a lot more of "old China" remaining, nonetheless has a young, vibrant modern side to it, that's evident pretty much wherever you look.

11 years ago, when I went to Beijing for a week on vacation from Kyoto, I met two American students who were studying at the university in Xi'an. They told me and my friend horror stories about how they weren't allowed to leave the confines of the university unaccompanied, and how "relations", of any sort, with locals were frowned upon. The Xi'an of today is extremely different, with lots of foreigners wandering around the city; not just tourists, but people living, studying and working here, as well. And we've found a surprising number of people that speak English here -- not necessarily fluently, but enough to make our travel easier.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I still have more on Shanghai and Hangzhou to report, as well as several meals. It's getting late, but I'll try to do what I can in this update before heading back to my hotel.

Meals from Day 2 (5/17)

Lunch
Roast Duck
Beef with pepper sauce
Spinach

Dinner
Shanghai Noodles
Hot and Sour Soup
Tomato and Pork Tofu

(It's gonna take a while to make these things look pretty...)

First Food pic

Here's our first meal in Shanghai.

A litte taste of home... only it tasted a little different

Wow. I can't believe I never posted this. I thought for sure I had, especially since it was one of the more surprising meals I had in China....
----------------------------
In Hangzhou with an hour to kill before our train, we stumbled upon a delicious Szechuan cuisine restaurant. Spicy!

Rice noodles with spicy sauce
Boiled gyoza (with two sauces -- soy and spicy)
Mabo Dofu
Szechuan-style Crawfish

Yes, that's right. Crawfish. Ben liked them a lot, but I actually prefer the Cajun kind. Of course, the novelty of eating crawfish more than made up for it. And they had one cool idea -- thin plastic gloves, to keep your hands from getting dirty!

By the way, the mabo dofu (which is tofu with ground pork, in a spicy sauce, and is one of my favorite chinese dishes), waswithout a doubt, the BEST mabo dofu I've EVER had. Period.

Food + Weblog = Fweblog? Fooblog? Flog?

When I was in India, I had a lot of delicious meals. You wouldn't believe the variety of curry (and other dishes) there! For my trip in China (as with any trip I take, really), the food has already proven to be a big highlight. So I decided to document what I'm eating, providing lists of what we/I ordered, and when possible, even including a picture of the dishes (this will depend on whether or not I can plug my camera into the computers I'm using).

So far, Ben and I have pretty much stuffed ourselves silly with delicious food every day and every night. The meals just keep getting better! And in between meals, we've had all kinds of tasty snacks, like dumplings, buns and other Chinese treats. I love me some dumplings! In fact, we just arrived a short while ago in Xi'an, and are going for a "Dumpling Feast" at a local restaurant tonight!

But I digress. I'll start off my fooblog section with the first night's dinner. We ate at a vegetarian restaurant called Vegetarian Lifestyle (it was listed in both Zagat's and Lonely Planet).

Apple/Watermelon appetizer (on the house)
Mushrooms with pine nuts
Shredded "Pork"
Spinach gyoza (dumplings)

I'll give the picture thing a shot later tonight, but for now, it's Dumplings Ho!!!!

Typhoon

So, it turns out that little bit of rain was Typhoon Pearl, the largest typhoon ever to hit mainland China during the month of May. No wonder the winds seemed rather strong....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060520/ap_on_re_as/asia_typhoon;_ylt=AigNPe4s.4N2By9f3FzvMJis0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--

Off to Xi'an in a few hours. Hopefully the internet access in our hotel there will be a little better. More reports to come, including a special new addition to Travels and Beyond.....

Rain rain rain

It's been pouring down raining all day today. I foolishly didn't bring an umbrella with me, figuring I could pick a better one up really cheaply in Shanghai, if I needed it. Well, I needed it, and while I was able to pick up a really cheap umbrella, it was a piece of crap. Both mine and Ben's umbrellas started to break after a couple of hours, so we splurged ($2.50!! So expensive!) and got better ones. Although, mine already has a hole from where it tore....

Spent the day wandering around again, stopping for lunch, snacks, coffee, etc, and checking out the Shanghai Museum, which wasn't nearly as good as the guide book said. We're off now to try and catch an acrobatics show, although we had to wait in our room for 2 hours for our plane tickets to Xian to be delivered (they were 2 hours late...), so we might not make it in time.

To be continued...

First Day

Ben and I spent the day wandering around Shanghai. After a morning stop at Starbucks (you wouldn't believe how many of them there are around the city), we headed to the Bund, the famous strip of land along the river, where most foreign companies were based in the early 1900s.

We strolled up and down for a little bit, checking out some of the old buildings still left, as well as the view of Pudong, the recent business development area across the river. Then we took a trip through the Pudong Sightseeing Tunnel, which is this tram-like thing that crosses under the river to the other side.

Lonely Planet describes the tunnel as Psychedelic, and it was, with this really bizarre light show, strange narration (in English and Chinese) and these freaky inflated dolls that smacked into the car at one point. Got some funky pictures that I'll post to Flickr as soon as I can.

Pudong was pretty impressive, from a futuristic buildings point-of-view, but Ben and I both agreed that it's way too sterile, and we're glad our hotel is on the other side. Unfortunately, the bar on the 88th floor of the Grand Hyatt was closed, so we had a little refreshment break on the 54th floor instead (although, in reality, it probably wouldn't have made that much of a difference, because the weather is really overcast).

We then headed back to the Bund, and after ambling about a bit more, headed back to the hotel, so I could grab my jacket and Ben could change. Now we're about to head out again, for a little more exploration, some dinner, and maybe a brief taste of Shanghai's nightlife.

Firm

You know how when you sit down on most beds, you sink into them a little bit? How the cushioning reacts to your weight? And, how, having slept on beds your whole life (or even futons, for that matter), you get used to that cushioning?

Well, not in China. Or at least, not in my hotel. I swear it's like somebody put some sheets on top of a desk and said "Voila! Here's your bed for the night!"

And according to Ben's friend, who spent a few months in Shanghai, most beds in China are "a little on the firm side". Yeah, more like "a little on the hard as a rock side..."

Shanghai!

It took a ridiculously long time (almost 10 hours door to door) considering the short distance, but I finally arrived at my hotel, where my cousin Ben was waiting. First impression of Shanghai -- the people seem more "modern" than expected, at least those that I saw on the subway and walking around People's Park. Second impression -- WOW! What a skyline!

Off to dinner now. We have a full day ahead of us tomorrow. I'll try to keep the reports coming, internet connection willing.

I'm off!!

In a few minutes, I'm heading to the airport to fly to Shanghai, for my 3-week China adventure (followed by a week in Thailand). I'll be spending a few days in Shanghai with my cousin, then we're off to see the Terra Cotta warriors in Xi'an.

From there, I'm probably going to take a cruise on the Yangtze River, then fly over to Guilin and Yangshao, ending my trip in Yunnan, where I'll go to Lijiang and take a trek through Tiger's Leap Gorge.

Hopefully, I won't have any problem accessing this website, or my gmail account. But you never know. Wish me luck!

Stupidity is international

I just came from the Citibank in Ginza, where I was purchasing traveler's checks in preparation for my big China trip (I take off tomorrow!)

While I was waiting, a woman in line in front of me was also trying to buy traveler's checks. They asked for a picture id, but she didn't have ANYTHING, no passport or driver's license. So she said "What about my cell phone?" Um, that's not identification. Then, she said "What about my train pass?". Um, nope. THEN she took out the stamp card for some massage place. HELLO?????

Finally, the bank teller said as long as she had two "official" things with her name on it, like a bank card and a credit card, it would be okay. So the stupid woman spent another 2 minutes trying to find something, and tried to give the employee her cell phone e-mail address!! ONLY SHE DIDN'T KNOW THE ADDRESS!! OR HER PHONE NUMBER!! Then she tried to give her the train pass AGAIN!!!!! She must have pulled out 7 or 8 different cards from her purse before finally coming up with something the teller would take.

I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry, or to run away screaming in agony...

Speechless

Above Sendai's main train station, they have a little row of restaurants that they call "Gyu-tan dori" (Beef tongue street) and "Sushi dori" (Sushi street). We arrived at Sendai station on our way to Matsushima around lunch time, and after asking several locals about a good place to eat, they all referred us to the restaurants above the station, as most of them are outposts of locally-famous restaurants. Figuring we'd have a lot of fish at dinner in Matsushima (which we did), we had lunch at one of the Gyu-tan places. For around 1500 yen (13 bucks or so), we each got 8 or 9 slices of grilled beef tongue, accompanied by rice, pickles and a bowl of ox-tail soup. It was delicious!

On the way back from Matsushima, we had skipped lunch, and arrived at Sendai station around 4, starving and unable to wait for dinner. So we decided to stop at Sushi Street this time, and sample some of Sendai's sushi delicacies. Of the 5 or 6 places, the most interesting looking was a tachigui style sushi counter, which literally means to eat while standing (ie, no chairs at the counter). It was a really small place, with a counter maybe big enough for 10 people, and 3 guys making the sushi behind it. Aside from the unusual atmosphere, what made it really appealing was the combination of some really interesting fish and a really cheap price (1 piece started at a mere 70 yen).

They had a lot of the regular sushi items you find at most sushi places (tuna, egg, kohada, etc.), and most things I tried were really good. Especially noteworthy were the grilled salmon, the fresh uni (sea urchin) and the tuna. But they also had a lot of things I'd never seen before. I wasn't about to try the octopus eggs (one of the more disgusting-looking things they had), and after the chef gave us a tiny taste of the "bakurai" (I think it's the guts of a hoya, which is apparently called a sea-squirt, although I have no idea what that is), I was glad I didn't order that, either.

Panda chan was feeling a little adventurous, and at the strong recommendation of the sushi chef decided to try what I thought was something from the inside of a shark. She tore off a little piece and let me have a bite. Strangely enough, it looked like some of the raw beef tongue we had grilled the day before, and didn't really have a strong taste, much less the bad taste you would expect from shark innards...

So, the other day, I was chatting with Panda chan about the meal, and it turns out it wasn't shark guts, after all. It was

RAW SHARK HEART!!!!!!!!

I didn't know how to respond to that revelation.

The road trip continues

The drive from Atlanta to DC was a bit longer than BR to Atlanta, so I decided to break it up into two days. I probably could have finished it in one, had I left early enough, but I didn't really see any reason to rush, and I quickly realized that a 10+ hour drive just wouldn't be fun. I stayed with my friend Tosh, just outside of DC. He's just finishing up his MBA at Georgetown, and lives in his parent's house in Virginia. One kind of strange factoid was that it was the first time I'd ever hung out with him in the US, despite knowing him for nearly 5 years, as we met in Tokyo. Other than a brief stop to pick up a rental car with my brother last year (we had taken the train down from NY and were driving into Virginia), It was my first time in DC in over 10 years. I had spent the summer there before going to Kyoto, and as it was my first time living in a "big city", I had really enjoyed it. So while I had done all of the typical touristy things (monuments, museums, etc.), I decided to hit a few highlights, and spent the better part of a day walking around different monuments and the Mall, and also spent some time in the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. The next day, Tosh and I went to the Air and Space Museum, where they now have Spaceship One, the first privately-funded spacecraft to bring a person into space, on display. Even though I'd been to both museums before, jet planes, rockets and dinosaur bones never get old, even if I do. Leaving my Mom's car parked at Tosh's place, I took the train up to New York to hang out with my brother and his girlfriend. They have a really nice place in Tribeca, with an extra bedroom that they let me crash in. We had a lot of great food while I was there, the highlights being sushi at my brother's favorite place (Jewel Bako http://cityguide.aol.com/newyork/entertainment/venue.adp?sbid=114471561 ) and a place about 45 minutes outside of the city, called Blue HIll at Stone Barns (http://nymag.com/nymetro/food/reviews/restaurant/9477/index.html), which grows a good portion of the food that they serve. Other than that, I decided to do a little more exploring on my own than I usually do. In the past, most of my trips to NY have been with my parents, and usually revolved around shopping and eating. I covered the shopping and eating this trip, too, but also decided to hit a few museums. The MOMA, recently refurbished, was impressive as a building, and had some cool things in it (especially the product design section). But, to be blunt, a lot of the modern "art" was crap. I mean, come on, a black canvas is "revolutionary"?? What the hell? And in the room next door, a blank canvas is equally "invigorating"? Whatever... The Metropolitan Museum of Art, however, was a different story altogether. I wish I had been able to devote more time to it. As it was, I had just under 3 hours, and felt like I barely scratched the surface. The Egyptian antiquities section was truly impressive, with an entire temple moved from Egypt and rebuilt within one huge room in the museum, complete with a little stream flowing around it (I have mixed feelings about taking huge buildings apart to reassemble them back in the US, but realistically speaking, they were in pretty bad shape as it is, so probably wouldn't have survived had they stayed in Egypt). The Museum is definitely high on my list of places to visit next time I'm in Manhattan. Finished with NY, I hightailed it back to BR, stopping for 1 night in DC, a night in North Carolina, then a stormy night in Atlanta (see my previous post on the worst drive EVER for details of the drive...). After a week in BR (and more delicious Cajun food), I was back in Japan (not even two months had passed since I left Tokyo, but it seemed like a lot more...)

A quick recap

So, I'm slolwly getting caught up. India's done (for the most part -- nothing really exciting happened after the caves. Just some typical beach relaxation and a couple of crazy days shopping in Mumbai and Delhi). And I already wrote about my last two weeks in Japan after India, at least in terms of interviews. Other than that, I just hung out with Panda chan and said my last goodbyes to friends (well, not last, really, since I'm back in town, already). From Japan, I returned to the States, with two PACKED suitcases in tow. In retrospect, I'm not really sure why I decided to bring so much clothing with me, instead of sending it with the rest of my stuff from my apartment. I guess I wanted to plan for different seasons (end of winter, spring, summer), but I overlooked the fact that because I'm traveling so much, at any given moment I only have a limited amount of that clothing with me. Resulting in me not wearing a lot of the stuff I schlepped 5000 miles back to Baton Rouge. But I digress. My first stop was LA, for the UCLA admitted students weekend. Went well (beter than expected, even), but obviously not well enough, as I ended up choosing Berkeley. :) But it did serve to get me really excited about B-School. Other than that, I spent my week in LA visiting friends. I got to catch up with my friend Kate, who's down in Irvine in grad school, my friend Dave and his girlfriend (now fiancee! Congrats!) Monica, in Long Beach, and Peter and his wife Bonnie. And I got to see a bunch of friends in LA, as well (thanks to Robb for letting me crash!). From LA I went to San Francisco, to hang out with my friend Josh (loyal reader of this here blog) as well as pay a first visit to Berkeley's campus. We had a good time hanging out in the city, and one night we ended up in a bar that was directly under the apartment I used to live in 8 years ago. Talk about coming full circle! Next stop was for, as they say here in Japan, "Family Service", which basically means meeting familial obligations by spending time with your family (Just kidding about the obligation part, Mom!). After a week in Baton Rouge, catching up on sleep, TV and 6 years worth of my Mom's Cajun cooking, it was time to take off again, this time for Atlanta. I had decided to use this trip as time to help get readjusted to life in the US, and what better way than to drive. So, hopping in my Mom's car, I took off early Friday morning, with the top down, enjoying the breeze and the open road. Two hours later, I realized that as the sun was getting stronger, I was slowly starting to get sunburned, having forgotten to pack suntan lotion. Doh! Atlanta was a blast. I spent a week in total there, with a short break in between to head to Berkeley again, for Haas' admitted students weekend, where I was lucky enough to win a UCBerkeley baseball hat, perfect for protecting my head in the rest of my driving. I spent my time in Atlanta just hanging out with my friends from high school who are living there now. We didn't do that much, just relived the exciting (?) days of our youth. But it was great -- BBQ, improv comedy, great friends and enough geek talk and card playing to make you go blind. Next stop, our nation's capital.

Blogger mastery is for losers

The Caves post was supposed to appear before the Starbucks post. Which is why I said in my first post of the day that the next would be about India. But I started Starbucks first, so even though I finished it last, it showed up first. Confused yet?

Just goes to show that real bloggers post out of order. And have no idea what the hell they're doing....

Caves Aplenty

When I left off the recounting of my India travels, Panda chan was about to arrive in Mumbai. Over the next two weeks, my trip was to change dramatically, for the better. Not only did I start staying in MUCH nicer hotels, but having Panda chan there meant not only was I no longer facing the solitude of traveling alone, but the trip became a lot more fun (still difficult, and still tiring, but more fun).

Additionally, three themes emerged out of all that we did together. The first I'll cover is caves, as in cave temples; the second is beach, as in Goa (which I think I touched on briefly during a break while we were there); and the third is shopping (I won't go into too much detail, but I'm sure you can use your imagination...)

When Panda chan arrived in Mumbai, I figured instead of diving right into the chaos that is India, we'd take a litle bit of a side trip outside of the city. Her flight arrived at night, so the next morning we headed out to India Gate and caught a ferry out to the famous Elephant Island. An hour or so outside of the city, it's worlds away from the hustle and bustle of Mumbai, as well as the pollution, the crowds, the poverty, the noise (you get the idea).

There's a lot of greenery on the island, as well as several mountains. To get to the main area, you have to hike up maybe 20 minutes or so of steps/path. The main sightseeing area was made up of 3 or 4 caves, each of which held temples built over a thousand years ago. The most impressive of them had MASSIVE carvings on the side of the cave walls, of religious figures and gods. And I mean massive, as in probably close to 10 feet tall. Very impressive.

But, in the end, they were just a drop in the bucket compared to what we found a few days later in the cave temple complexes at Ejanta and Allora. While all three complexes are UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Ejanta and Allora are definitely worth the extra travel outside of Mumbai. They are each about an hour or two away from the city of Aurangabad (in opposite directions), which is itself 6 or 7 hours away from Mumbai. We stayed in the Taj hotel in Aurangabad, and ended up hiring a car and driver for the two days of exploring.

What to say about these two amazing displays of human ingenuity, from nearly 2000 years ago? Unfortunately, as I'm traveling right now and don't have access to all of the pictures I took, I can't upload anything just yet (I'll try soon, though), but you can check out http://www.travel-pictures-gallery.net/india/ajanta-ellora/ajanta-ellora-main-1.html for just a taste (my pictures are more numerous, and better, if I do say so myself, although at least theirs are actually uploaded...).

Both sites were incredible -- Ajanta, for it's Buddhist paintings, that are still visible on cave walls 1500 years later. And Ellora for the sheer scale and number of the caves (over 30), built by Jain, Buddhist and Hindu monks throughout the centuries.

Without a doubt, though, the singlemost impressive cave was at Ellora. One of the caves (I forget which number -- 17?), is really known as the main attraction, and with good reason. This particular cave wasn't built IN by the monks from the outside, it was built DOWN from the TOP of the mountain. Furthermore, both the size and the exquisite detail are breathtaking. It really felt like something out of a movie or a video game, as if computer graphics of some forgotten ruin were brought to life.

All in all, despite being sick for much of the two days (well, much of the whole 5 weeks, really), Ajanta and Ellora were major highlights of the entire trip. Definitely highly recommended (should one happen to find oneself traveling in India).

Japanese Starbucks and my BBB campaign

In just over a week here, I've spent a fair amount of time in a couple of different Starbucks. Not only do I like/need the caffeine rush, but it's generally a convenient place to wait for someone, as I can kill any amount of time necessary and not have to worry too much about the other person being late (not having a cell phone sucks....).

Unfortunately, I haven't overheard any juicy tidbits like my Starbucks forays in the US. But I have two words for you, that more than make up for it:

Banana. Frappucino.

I just about peed my pants when I saw it. Even more exciting than the macha (green tea) frappucinos, which are soooo yesterday's news, now that they've made it from Japan to the States, and all. But Banana! Damn!

I've been a banana flavor freak since I was a kid. For some reason, this doesn't really extend to eating bananas as much as eating banana-flavored things. Ever try Banana Nestle Quick? My parents mocked me when I was younger, but mmmmmmmm, good! And as for that Frappucino? Wow.

Now if only Haagen-Dazs will re-release their seasonally-limited banana ice cream. I only ate it once, but ever since, everytime I see Haagen-Dazs in a store in Japan, I have to check if they have it. Just in case.

HD execs, if you're reading this (which I'm sure you're not), hear my plea!! Bring Back Banana!!!

Chronological order is for losers

That's why my next post will be about India. Even though I'm in Kyoto (watching the Japanese national soccer team on tv, as they struggle against Bulgaria, who aren't even in the next World Cup....)

Ikea

Two weeks ago, Ikea opened their first store in Japan. Ads were everywhere, and they had a cool outdoor exhibit titled "4.5 museum", 4.5 jo (about 7 square meters) being the size of a "typical" Japanese room. The exhibit consisted of 10 or 15 boxes of that size, set up along a sidewalk, with all of the different things you could do with Ikea furniture in a room that size. Pretty cool.

Anyway, yesterday Panda chan and I took a little trip to Ikea. It's only about 30 minutes from her place (which is pretty close, actually, as it's located outside of Tokyo, in Chiba prefecture), and she was interested in picking up a few things.

As we pulled into the station, the HUGE blue building came into sight. As did the line to get in. Masses of people were milling about the entrance, in a snaking queue vaguely reminiscent of nearby Disneyland.

But having nothing better to do, we got in line and waited. And waited. And 45 minutes later, we were in (the Ikea employee at the end of the line had said to expect an hour wait, so we were ahead of the game).

It was my first time going to an Ikea, so I'm not really sure how to compare it to stores in other countries, but it was gigantic. Especially for Japan. We spent an hour and a half just wandering around one floor (there are two). In the end, Panda chan only got some curtains, but what impressed me the most was how truly cheap everything was, ESPECIALLY for Japan. Oh, and the hot dogs, which they were selling for 100 yen (just under a buck), were pretty damn tasty, too. Not really sure why a Swedish store would sell hot dogs, though.....

Hello from Sendai

I'm writing this from the Apple Store in Sendai. We first came in just to kill time before dinner, and had noticed there was a live DJ set up playing music. Turns out, it's a DJ from a now-defunct Japanese band called Supercar that I happen to like quite a lot, and which was just recently brought back into my attention by a collection of their bizarre-yet-cool music videos (http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/51111)

Anyway, the music is really loud, but really cool. And it's pretty damn cool that they're playing in the middle of this rather tiny Apple Store in a rather random city in Japan (although, from what I can tell all signs point to Sendai being on the up-and-up in terms of future cities in Japan...)

I'll post a full report on Matsushima and Sendai soon, but we're having a lot of fun, and enjoying some great food (earlier today we had a huge Japanese breakfast at our inn in Matsushima and a great and cheap standing sushi place at Sendai station, and in a little bit we're heading for Korean barbecue Sendai style, topped off by a few rounds of locally-produced sake in a pub or bar somewhere).

Rock on, Sendai, rock on!