Tokyo's Sensoji Temple

We arrived in Tokyo at around 7:30 pm. We nearly missed the flight from Bejing because I was wandering around the airport loss track of time. We got on the plane with just a few minutes to spare before takeoff. Thankfully the staff held the plane for us. It was close. (Okay, Scott is underestimating here. Actually, I had been having him paged for 45 minutes. We're lucky the ground staff was nice enough to hold the flight for us! -Anna)

We took a train for about an hour and a half to reach our hotel in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo. It is a good location, with lots of shopping, restaurants and access to Shinjuku station, one of the major train stations in Tokyo.
Our hotel occupied floors 19-35 of Century Southern tower. The rest of the building was offices for Microsoft and Verozon. The view from our room was spectacular. The city is a forest of skyscrapers, and you can see city lights all the way to the horizon.



The following morning, I wasn't feeling well (China's airplane food got a parting shot at me) so we had an easy day and just did some shopping at the local shopping mall, of which there are plenty.



The following morning, I was feeling better and we stuck out and took the train to the Asakusa district to see the Sensoji temple (above). The pedestrian street leading up to the temple is lined by small shops and eateries. It was a great spot to look for souvenirs. There were alot of Japanese people there and very few western tourists. In fact, we were quite surprised in that we didn't really see any other white people our entire stay in Tokyo. We like to distance ourselves from the typical tourist, so this was just fine by us.


We were slightly confused when a crowd gathered around one small shop and people started snapping pictures. Then we could see a man and an older woman standing at a food shop with a guy with a large video camera following them. We figured it must have been some kind of celebrity. The school kids there were all giggling and trying to get into the camera's view. At one point we were standing behind the couple, and I think we may have ended up on Japanese TV.



We shopped around to a bit, and then visited the temple. It is very well preserved and the interior was very ornate. There was an incense stand out front where you could buy a stick of incense and place it in a ash pile to burn infront of the temple. People would also walk up to the temple, toss a few coins in a box and pray to the golden Buddha.

After visiting the temple and shopping around some more, we had a traditional lunch at a local Tempura restarant. It was very good. The restaurant had tatami rice mats as flooring, and we had to take our shoes off before entering. It was an interesting and fun experience. After lunch we took the train back. For it's size, Tokyo is a very easy city to get around in. There are train stations all over, and if you get lost, all you need to do is ask any person on the street and they will help you find your way. The people here are very nice, and seem to believe in the concept of "pay it forward", luckily for us. -Scott.

Update

7-5-09
We are now caught up through China, so for those of you who waited to read until we were done coallating can begin at Edinburgh. Sorry for the mess, I hope were didn't confuse anyone with moving so many things around. Enjoy Scotland and China. -Anna


7-1-09
Hello everyone! Sorry for the massive delay. We were censored in China and were unable to read, post, or edit the blog. Some of you may have seen Scott`s Facebook note. We have tons of pictures and new things to post, but the wireless in Japan is not friends with Scott`s Ipod, so we are having still more issues getting the pictures posted. Within a few days though, we should be all caught up. The words may appear first, but we will get all the pictures where they need to go eventually. Thanks for being patient. -Anna

Tang Dynasty Show

These pictures are all from the Tang Dynasty Show. This show was designed to imitate as closely as possible an actual show enjoyed by the emperor of that time period. There is a mix of warrior dances, singing, instrumentals, and interpetative dance.

The dancing included fabric banners, elaborate costumes, and a large cast.

The crowd favorite was a gentleman who played a pan flute-type instrument which was designed to imitate the song of an oriole. (below)

The food was excellent, and the music was very good. If you go to Xian, I highly recommend this show, which was also seen on Samantha Brown's tv show. It is always wonderful to see period productions, because it helps you to envision life in ancient times. -Anna

Chinese "Cup" Therapy

Scott really wanted to try acupuncture while were were in China. Unfortunately, the specialist he went to see said he didn't need it and insisted on performing cup therapy instead to help his shoulder and neck. Cup therapy involved heating a glass cup with a blowtorch, then setting them ontop your skin where they form giant hickeys. This was the result, and let me tell you, they look much worse in person.

Terracotta Warriors of Xian

This is a spatial representation of emperor Qin's tomb. Emperor Qin buried 8,000 terracotta warriors, all of which have unique faces, in order to take them into the afterlife. The warriors were buried a half mile away from the main part of the tomb, and other satellite timbs were found which contained acrobats, entertainers, and other characters. The soldiers were not found until the 70's, when a farmer's donkey accidentally stepped through the roof while walking to a well. The farmer is now 80 years old and still signs autographs for the souvenir shop.

Behind us you can see pit 1, where most of the army was found. Each pit was designated for specific types of soldier. The cavalry was in pit 2, and the generals in pit 3. The rest are found in pit 1.

Here you can see the reconstructed soldiers in the front, and parts of the pit that are as yet unreconstructed in the back. EmperorQin was not popular after he died, and this tomb was robbed of weapons. Fires were set, and the soldiers were broken. Also the roof collapsed over time and fused with the clay of the soldiers. The reconstruction is slow going and there is still a lot to do. Unfortunately, much of the reconstruction has stopped because when the soldiers are exposed to the air, the beautiful colors painted in the clay rapidly degrade. New methods are being researched to allow the reconstruction to continue.

Above are some reconstructed horses.

This is pit 3. Most of the heads are missing because these were separate, and thus were easily stolen.

One of each soldier type has been encased in plastic in the visitor area to allow people to see the faces up close. This is a kneeling archer.

An infantry soldier.

A 5 star general.

Cavalry.

Standing archer.

Two elaborate bronze chariots were also found buried in the pits. They are very detailed and still have functioning umbrellas.

A half mile away, this is the tomb of emperor Qin. This entire hill was constructed to cover the timb, so all that is at the top is a good view. There are accounts of the treasures which were buried with him, and also it is said that rivers of mercury were built into the tomb. Since very high levels of mercury have in fact been found in the soil, it is believed that these accounts are true. Fortuntely, mercury surveys indicate that the soil has not been disrupted, so it is believed that the tomb was never robbed. Archeologists have not yet found a way to deal with the mercury contamination of the site, so for now Qin's treasures remain a mystery. It is very interesting that the ancient Chinese beliefs are so similar to those of the ancient Egyptians. They both believed that anything buried would be taken along into the afterlife, and the hill tomb of emperor Qin is not so different from the pyramids. -Anna

The view from the tomb.

Chinese Food

We do our best to step outside the comfort zone in most countries. Food in China was definitely an uncomfortable experience for us, since I am an incredibly picky eater. Fortunately, we did manage to learn how to eat the "set meal" which is what the meal is called if they bring many plates out at once. We even found some things that I liked. Above is a dish of sweet rice layered over duck and then deep fried. They should put this on a stick and sell it at the state fair; it was pretty good.



Above is the meal we ate at the Tang Dynasty Show. The cup contains fried chicken, there is a fried Gyoza (dumpling), and some veggies.

Notice that the beer is being contained by the glass only by the powers of surface tension. Now that's a well poured beer!

One thing that I really wanted to do was try a dumpling feast. We had 14 different types, plus appetizers. Most were really tasty and included flavors such as pork, beef, ham, walnut, red bean paste, egg, and spinach. The fish and squid were not the best ones.

There is such a thing as dumpling soup, and they prepare this at your table by igniting a colorful flame under the pot. All in all, we did some of our most adventurous eating in China. Surprisingly, there was almost no fried rice available, and we never saw any of the foods you would normally associate with Chinese cuisine, such as eggrolls, wontons, etc. I don't know whether Americans invented those and just call them Chinese, or if we just weren't in the right geographical area of China to experience them, but we were sad not to find them. -Anna

The Great Wall

On our second full day in Bejing we visited the Great Wall of China. The wall is about an hour drive outside downtown Bejing. Our guide, whose name we only got as Zleven, was very bubbly and nice. She gave us a little history on the way. We got along so well that she has a standing offer to contact us if she ever comes to the States so we can guide her.

The wall stretches over three thousand miles across China, and was built to keep the Mongolians from invading China.
Much of the wall was built over extremely rugged terrain, often up the very steep slopes of mountains, as you can see in some of the pictures. The reason for this is quite obvious; nearly any army would be discouraged after climbing a steep, and unstable rocky slope to meet a brick wall with men shooting arrows and dumping hot tar down on top of them.
We got to experience some of what it would be like to patrol the wall by climbing up six different staircases to reach the top of the mountain that this section of wall was built on. It is a very steep climb, and our guide stopped after the first set of stairs and said she would wait for us there.

The climb up is a bit difficult, if only because the stair are very steep in places, and no two steps are the same height. It is like staggering up stairs that have been worn down through the centuries by countless feet. One of the wonders of the Great Wall is the way the bricks were laid when building it. The bricks run paralell to the ground, some of them nearly standing vertical. Because of this, the Wall should have slid off the mountain years ago. However, something in the way that the Chinese built it has allowed the Wall to stand for centuries with very little restoration needed. Most of the stones and bricks in the wall today are original. It's quite amazing.

As you climb it, the Wall can be deceiving because of how the mountain ridges lay. As you climb toward the third gaurdhouse, it looks like you are reaching the top, bit behind that stretches another ridge that gradually slopes up to the real top. After the third section, Anna stopped and said she'd wait for me. Being so close to the top, I just couldn't let it go. I'm like my Dad and my brother, if there's a mountain to climb, we'll go up it. Call it a pride thing.

The higher you climb, the less people you see. Most climb the first section and call it good. Near the top i only saw some kids and a couple of adults. It is nice to be able to enjoy the wall without the crowds.

Once I got to the top, I could see what kind of strategic advantage this would have given the Chinese. You can see for miles! I could look all the back down the valley we had driven up and see the beginning of Bejing. I would be willing to bet that, without the smog and haze, I would have been able to see the entire city.
I stood there for a moment, caught my breath and enjoyed the view, then began the long walk back down, meeting Anna on her way up to find me.

The walk back down is nearly more difficult than the climb. By that point your legs are pretty wobbly. Combined with the unevenness of the steps, you begin to feel like you might fall the rest of the way any moment. Eventually we made it, collected our guide and reached the bottom. At the bottom there is a large stone slab with Chinese writing on it. According to our guide, it says "If you come to China and do not climb the Great Wall, you are not a real man.". Apparently, Anna and I can now be called real men! :-). - Scott

I will comment on the shopping. Since the Great Wall is so far from the city, it is common to stop at various craft stores along the way. We first visited a cloisonne "factory" and got to see how each piece was first cast in copper or bronze, then covered with scrollwork, which was then filled with powdered mineral. The object is then heated and when the color is of sufficient depth to fill the scrollwork design, it is polished and sanded until all the colors are even and the scrollwork shows through. Below is the first step of covering the object with designs.

Below an artist is filling the design with powdered mineral.

We also visited the jade factory, which had amazing 12 foot by 12 foot carvings and statues costing millions of Yuan. We couldn't even think of affording those, but of course I couldn't pass up buying the traditional jade bangle bracelet. - Anna

Ming Tombs

Nearby to the Great Wall is the tomb of one of the emporers of the famous Ming Dynasty. There is a museum there as well that houses some of the artifacts of the Dynasty and describes much of the naval power of ancient China. One of the artifacts is a collosal bronze statue of the emporer in the middle of the room.

Behind the museum, you can climb a ramp to go see the actual tomb, which consists of a large slab of stone over a man-made hill which houses the actual tomb. Unlike the Egyptians, the Chinese do not often open the tombs of their old rulers to let tourists and guides walk through.
Since it was a very hot day (the temp was near 38 degrees C, over 100 degrees F), and we had just climbed the wall, we didn't spend much time there and were soon on our way back to Bejing. The next day we were to leave for Xian. - Scott

Bejing

Boy, do we have some catching up to do. We arrived in Bejing after a flight of just over nine hours on Tuesday the 23rd early around 9:30 am. It is a strange feeling that at that moment it as 9:30 pm on the east coast of the States the night before.
As we landed the pilot said that everyone should stay seated as that was how they needed to "deal" with the Chinese quarrntine officials. You could almost hear the resigned sigh in his voice.
Anna and I were slightly nervous having heard about random quarentines by the Chinese government of tourists. I'm not sure of that is true, but it was enough to make us not want to sneeze or clear our throats too loudly in front of a quarrntine official.
As we've travelled on this trip we have run into several spots where officials were nervous around people with a fever. We had our temperature checked in the airport in Egypt as we walked, but the Chinese put the rest to shame. They won't even let you leave the plane if they think your temperature is too high.
When we got to the gate, two people wearing dust masks (which Anna says are useless becase the filters on those masks are not small enough to stop the flu virus from passing through) came on board and began taking everyone's temperature with a gun-like device they point at your forehead. They passed us without event, but stopped at a man sitting down the row from us. Apparently he was putting off too much heat and they checked and rechecked his temp. Eventually they used an oral mercury thermometer. After standing there for about ten minutes they cleared him and everyone was let off the plan. Perhaps the man just ate too much spicy food?
After we disembarked, we went through several checkpoints (one of which was a thermal camera, just to be sure), got our luggage and went to find a taxi. Aside from, or perhaps despite, the number of checkpoints, we were pleasantly surprised at the efficiency and speed with which we got out of the airport. I guess structured paranoia is still structured. We will be very happy when the flu hysteria is over, all over the world.
We took a taxi to our hotel and attempted to go to lunch. Here is where it gets interesting. We were already tired after having been up all night on the flight, and were a bit overwhelmed by being in such a completely foreign place. So when we went into one of the adjoining towers to find a restaurant, we didn't really have a basis for making a choice. There was a sign showing the different restaurants that was difficult to read, and a couple of hotel employees came over to try to help. I noticed that some numbers and symbols on one side stated the floor and section the restaurant was at. When I pointed this out to Anna, the hotel person thought I was pointing at that particular restaurant and rushed us up to it and sat us at a table. It turned out to be a seafood restaurant specializing in sea cucumber, shark fin, and abalone. (Okay, I think that is gross, immoral, and rubbery, respectively. -Anna, who will finish the blog.) Needless to say we had a hard time finding something to order. Eventually, I said "rice?" and that was apparently a cue to initiate a large set menu involving at least 20 separate food items. Most were unidentifiable, and very vinegar-y. We were closely observed by the staff, who hovered while we ate. This made it hard to avoid trying everything, and we were given forks after fumbling several items. We are really not that bad with chopsticks; you try picking up wet whole cherry tomatoes with wet laquered chopsticks and see how it goes.



It was an exhausting meal, but we eventually made it out. The next day we saw the Forbidden City, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, and did some shopping at the pearl factory and silk factory. A factory isn`t really the same as in America, it just where people make things. In fact all the crafts we saw were hand-made in part or whole.

Above is a picture of the Forbidden City. The city was originally built for the emperor and attendants and the occasional delegate. It is an expansive compound across the street from Tiannamen (sp?) Square.



Rumor has it that rubbing bronze gives good luck. There's a lot of beliefs in China about how to get good luck, prosperity, long life, etc. We were taught that by setting a statue of cabbage facing out the window, the leaves will grab other people's money for you as they walk by. They also believe strongly in the pricipals of Feng Shui. Most on the emperor's tombs were organized according to the feng shui of the nearby mountains and rivers.

This is the Temple of Heaven. It contains ornate buildings similar to the Forbidden City.

A close up of the amazing woodwork and interior of the temple. All the ancient buildings that we saw were covered in images and symbols that represent power, longevity, and good luck. For example, the number 9 is representative of the emperor, red is for luck, and dragons mean power.

Above is the view from the Summer Palace.

This is the famous marble boat that was built at great expense. If I remember correctly, the extravagant spending that this boat symbolized led to political unrest among the people, who were very poor. These famous buildings and city monuments are still being regularly refurbished today, and look much as they would have originally. There have been so many famous dynasties in China, it is amazing to see the buildings and superstitions of history first hand. - Scott and Anna

God?

No, just London Heathrow airport. Notice the escalator is going down, and we're at the bottom.

Stirling castle

After visitng the Island of Skye, we stopped back in Fort William and spent the night at a very nice B & B called The Grange. It is run by a cheerful and motherly woman named Joan, who won an award for being the nicest B & B owner in Scotland. In the morning we drove south and stopped at Stirling castle. Stirling castle was one of the most famous and strategically important strongholds in the centuries long fighting between Scotland and England.

The castle sits on top of a hill that overlooks major trade routes running north-south and east-west into Scotland. It was the key pass for getting onto norrthern Scotland. Two of it's most famous rulers of Scotland associated with Stirling castle were Robert the Bruce and Mary, Queen of Scots. Robert the Bruce is, of course, famous for his involvement in the 14th century Scottish rebelion involving William Wallace. Outside the castle stands a large statue of Robert and across the valley you can see the Willam Wallace monument. Robert the Bruce actually burned down the first castle so that the English could not use it to their advantage when he was forced to retreat. Years later, his bloodline, the Stuarts rebuilt the castle. The Stewarts, which included Mary, Queen of Scots and Bonnie Prince Charles, ruled in Scotland for I believe fourteen generations.



The new castle included a palace, a giagantic chapel that was built for the baptism of Prince Charles, and the Grand Hall. Stirling is also the site where the famous "Hunt for the Unicorn" series of tapestries were woven, and hung. Some of you might recognize the "Unicorn in Captivity" tapestry. We have a small recreation hanging in our house.

These tapestries are all part of a series which tells the story of a hunt for the unicorn. This is a religious allegory according to historians, and each tapestry is being faithfully reproduced by the guild of weavers in Scotland. The orginals are very fragile and the last one only contains tattered remnants. The reproductions are pictured here, the four of seven which have been completed. Each one takes 2 years to weave, and all the dying and weaving is done by hand in the same manner as the original.

After touring the grounds for a while we made our way down to Edinburgh for the night, and the next morning, we departed for China! - Scott

Housekeeping

Hey everyone! We finally found some internet here in Scotland, the B & B's usually didn't have access. We're in the middle of a lot of posts but will finish them in a day or so. Sorry to anyone who's comment I had to delete; I couldn't figure out how to move the comments when I shuffle the pictures around. Nothing personal.

Island of Skye

The island of skye is located off the northwestern shore of Scotland, and takes just a half day to tour by car. We drove around the eastern half, which provided us with plenty of stunning sea views. The island is home to a large portion of Scotland's Gaelic speaking population, and I read that some other traditional languages were or still are spoken. Scots has been recently decreed a separate language, but is considered by many to be a dialect of English. The Viking language of Norn is no longer spoken, but some words were adopted regionally. Overall, there is a strong sense of independence and pride among all the northern islands. The Island of Skye is reached three ways, by bridge via car (what we did), by ferry, or by the Hogwart's Express. Not kidding, the West Highland Railroad was made famous by the Harry Potter films, which show the dramatic rail bridge to the Island of Skye.

We drove a scenic loop that led between two mountain ranges, the Red and Black Cuillins. I don't know if you will be able to appreciate the colors over the internet, but you can see that the scree on top of each range is red or black. The views were incredible, since the road switches back fairly high into the mountains. It was a white knuckle journey for me, what with people constantly passing in the middle of the road and pulling over for pictures, but fortunately Scott is very good with mountain roads.

We also saw some rock formations and a few local castles, which were mostly ruins except for the one above, which was featured in the movie "Made of Honor."

About halfway around the eastern penninsula, the coastal road downgrades to a one lane driveway with occasional areas for passing. This was very nervewracking for me because no one slows down. Cars drive straight at each other until someone suddenly pulls into a small passing culdesac at the last second. And for some unkown reason, tour buses thought that this was a great place to drive; I have no idea how they made it around some of the turns. Maybe they called for help at this phone booth, located exactly 100 miles from civilization in any direction.

After 3 hours of sightseeing, we got some excellent local beer and fish and chips. The next time any of you travel, promise me you'll try the local beers. We almost always are pleasantly surprised by how unique they are. We also spent some time shopping at local craft and art stores. The island of Skye was a nice county day trip, and the next morning we moved on to Stirling. - Anna