Origato: Greetings From Japan

Well, I guess it has been a while since I posted. We obviously put Japan back on the menu and we flew this morning to Osaka and took a train to Kyoto. We will be in Japan for one week and fly back to Shanghai next Saturday (the 9th) and head down on the 10th toward Hong Kong and our flight home leaving on the night of the 14th of June. We will touch down in Ottawa on June 15th for anyone who cares.

Jacob recovered somewhat by the next day and we managed to spend the afternoon at the Forbidden City. He was not 100% and it was still hot, so we took it a bit slow. Thank goodness lots is closed for renovation (more olympic prep I am sure--China HAS to win the prize for biggest countrywide effort toward impressing olympic visitors) or we would never had made it round. As it was we didn't go to everything that was open. I don't know how long it would actually take to get through the whole thing if it was all up and running.

The last day in Beijing was spent going to the Great Wall. We went to a section that was about 73 km out of the city (2 1/2 hours each way in that part of China). The pollution finally kicked in and I developed bronchitis and asthma the day before. My lungs were not treating me very well although the air was much better at the actual wall. There was no VISIBLE industry that you could see from that section of the wall. It was the first time in days we had been for that long in a car without going through a heavily industrialized section.

In deference to the condition of my lungs and the children's thrill seeking natures, we decided to take the cableway up, toboggan ride down option. The "cableway" was a sort of rickety chair lift but the toboggan ride was 1570 meters of German engineered stainless steel runway snaking back down the hill. They are quick to mention the bona fides of any European technologies to appease the tourist angst I think. The chair lift was a bit much for poor Alan who hasn't had the skiing experience of the rest of us, coupled with a hefty fear of heights. You could hear him yelping as it started up. He was not happy till he reached terra firma at the top. The children and I, on the other hand, were so enamored with the toboggan run that we took a second crack at it. In the morning, the woman had insisted that there was no children's tickets for the package (even though there was a children's price on her window. When we returned for our second trip, all of a sudden there were children's prices so it only cost $16 for the second trip. It would have been closer to $25 if she had stuck to her full price guns. I think she may have been hoping to squeeze a third out of me.

I was really glad we took the second trip because you have virtually total control of the speed of your sled on the way down. Unfortunately this meant the little old lady in front of me could go down at a - you guessed it -little old lady pace. I caught up to her and had to follow her down. On our second trip there were not very many people, and none ahead of us for quite a while. I let Heather go first since she has the most daredevil nature. She was giving it the whole way down and barely touched the brake. Jacob went next and chose a much faster pace than his first run too. I went as fast as I wanted and could feel the wind the whole way down. If we hadn't run out of time, I may have actually considered the third run.

I realize that I haven't actually mentioned the wall itself --oops. The wall was really impressive. They have restored about a 2 km section and it rolls up and down hills. It is as picturesque as all get out. It is just like all the pictures. I think they were mostly taken in this section. There is an unrestored bit at the end that has trees growing out of the top, so it is nice to see the contrast between how it had all probably become and the restored part. The kids were suitably impressed and Heather even bought the t-shirt (at least she got her parents to). She is getting really good at bargaining with the vendors. She has to get the most out of her tourist dollar since they only get $10 a week and she seems to have an insatiable appetite for gee gaws. She really beats them down a lot. I am not sure many adults would do any better. She bargained the lady down to $3 and came back saying that was it. I figured what the heck and only gave her $2 and told her to tell the lady THAT was it, so she got it for $2. I am sure at that price it won't last long in the washing machine.

The same evening we took an overnight train to Shanghai. We couldn't get a hard sleeper. It was my worst trip to the train station yet. It took me lining up at 6 different places before I at least got a train that was at a decent time. The ones they tried to put me on I knew from the internet got in at about 6 in the morning. The kids really don't like arriving on an overnight train before about 8 o'clock when they would be waking up normally. We took the soft sleeper option. Swish. The four of us had our own compartment with a door. We also had our own light switch which was great. In the hard sleepers you have to wait for 10 o'clock when they turn off all the lights. Another thing they had was our own electrical outlet so we could plug in things for charging overnight. The last (the piece de resistance in my opinion) thing was that one of the toilets in our car was a western toilet. Unfortunately it was locked by the morning but at least it was there. Did I mention that I think they have to clean the washrooms before their shift ends so they do it when they feel like it and lock them for the rest of the journey. Sometimes by the end of the trip it is difficult to find any that are not locked up for cars and cars.

In Shanghai we booked the tickets to come to Japan on our first day then wandered around and had dinner at Pizza Hut. We went for a walk on the main shopping pedestrian mall and ogled the fancy neon. I am pretty sure no one does neon any better than the Chinese at their best. The second day it was pouring rain so we just joined the rest of the tourists at the Shanghai Museum. Very good collection. Jacob said "I love museums" soon after we got there. I asked for it in writing....