Kyoto, Japan

     Kyoto is a city burgeoning with culture and class. From hundreds of temples to just as many fashion malls, this area of Japan truly blends the 21st century with ancient history.
     Our first days were spent getting to know the different people from the local congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses where we observed the annual Memorial of Jesus Christ. It was great getting to attend this annual event in Japan as we knew this was being held earth wide even back in our hometown at the same time. What a faith strengthening experience that we were able to enjoy!
     The next few days were used to observe the local surroundings. We found ourselves immersed in a world famous bamboo forest where, once again, a scene from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was filmed. It was amazing how the bamboo climbed clear over our heads obscuring the sky and leaving only a beautiful light green behind. We also viewed dozens of cherry blossom trees that only your own eyes can truly appreciate.
     I have been dying to talk about the advance intricacies of the toilets in this country. Japan is very much number 1 when it comes to going number 2. There is nothing ordinary about their toilets as they feel more inclined to the cockpit of a space shuttle than a regular old porcelain throne. This is first realized when sitting down as the seat is heated between 86 and 104 degrees Fahrenheit, depending upon your liking. Next you have two options of water spray that can be manually adjusted forward or aft. These sprays also have varying degrees of temperature and pressure which can additionally be mixed in with soap and pulsating or vibrating water to help sooth constipation or hemorrhoids. If that doesn't work, have your favorite classical music play to help release tension in stereo surround sound. Don't want to use toilet paper? There is an optional blow dryer to sooth your backside with warm air. These is also an added ozone deodorizer with every flush and a foaming soapy disinfectant cleanser that swirls the bowl clean. Did I forget to mention that most of these are remote control operated? Future toilets in development are even going as far as calculating your blood sugar level based upon your urine output and measuring your blood pressure and body fat via the toilet seat. To top it off, if you're hooked up to wifi, this may all be transmitted to your local doctor to keep an updated tab on your health. Oh yeah, and to make sure your wife stays happy, be sure and give the appropriate voice activated command to close the lid.
     Next stop is the Japanese Alps and Tokyo.    

Kimonos everywhere!

Notice the control panel on the side of the toilet: practically can launch a spaceship

Erica with our new friends in Japan

Our new friend Kumi

I'm not even that tall and I can barely fit through the doors here :)

Geishas! Which one is Erica?

I think she's turning Japanese, I think she's turning Japanese, I really think so

Never knew how different someone could look with a little makeup and a wig

Hot stuff!

Blending in nicely!

Erica's long lost cousin :)

Cherry Blossoms

We just showed this guy how to do his first Sake Bomb!

These are the entrance markers to all the temples in all of Japan

This tunnel of orange stretched on for days it seemed

On the downside of every wood beam, there were Japanese inscriptions

Thousands of orange wood beams

Sushi lunch is served!

Cherry blossom trees made everything beautiful

Fresh is a complete understatement

A beautiful castle section protected by cherry blossoms

Apparently there is no 'scribbling' in certain areas (?????)

 Only thing that is more than beautiful than cherry blossoms is my wife!

 

 The bamboo forest was so fantastic

Seemingly endless amounts of bamboo clambering for the sky

 All types of Sake on sale everywhere

 This guy was completely authentic, had been serving Sushi for over 40 years

 Peek-a-boo!

 The backs of Kimonos are so ornate

 Even the little ones wore kimonos

 The Shinkansen bullet trains are crazy fast and so futuristic looking

 Loved photographing the trains

 Cherry blossoms beautified everything in Japan

Hiroshima, Japan - Tragic History & Excellent Food

     Heated toilet seats and a dairy air water cleanser that rivals the Bellagio fountains in Vegas? Check. A selfless culture with polite manners and a cutting edge love of fashion? Check. Automatic draft-beer dispensing machine? Check. Bullet trains that can exceed 340/mph? Check. Self opening car doors on taxis? Check. Freshest and most affordable sushi ever tasted? Double check. I love Japan!
     Our first stop was in a very sobering Hiroshima. At first glance the city is bustling with people and restaurants. However, underneath this fresh new exterior is a deep scar that has transformed, not only Hiroshima but, Japan as a whole. For those of you who recognize the city's name but can't quite remember where you've heard it from, it was where the first atomic bomb was dropped in aggression by The United States of America during WWII. Out of all the buildings in a 2km radius, only one survived in a highly damaged and crippled state. The city has taken tremendous effort for it to be preserved for eternity and, every year on August 6th, the day the bomb was dropped, the current mayor of Hiroshima writes a personal letter to every nuclear weaponized nation pleading with them to dispose of their nuclear arms and to call to mind the horrible effects that not only nuclear bombs can have on people but war itself. This fact was gleaned from the local museum detailing everything you wanted and didn't want to know about nuclear bombs and their catastrophic capabilities. The museum was very open, honest, and completely unbiased which surprised Erica and I. It's candor stated things such as how the Japanese political policies at the time were foolish and had displays that even begged the question "When will war ever end?" Over 280,000 people have died from that one horrific decision and are actually still dying today due to cancer relates issues. But how do you humanize that many people without it just becoming a statistic? They did so with moving personal stories and gruesome pictures that etched into your mind how disgusting and demonic man can be to one another. One such story talked about atomic rays shining through a woman's kimono transferring the same kimono pattern to her skin with third degree burns. Another was how a man, for the rest of his sickly radiated life, had dark black finger nails that mutated with his skin to produce living fingernails: the color of the nails was caused by actual blood capillaries that flowed through the nail along with nerves making every nail clipping torturous as if cutting off an appendage. It was so miserable that he stopped cutting them all together choosing to let them grow nearly a foot long. With swollen, puffy eyes we made our way like this to each and every exhibit thinking that the next couldn't be as bad as the last; we couldn't have been more wrong. As strong as the content was, this museum will forever be on my highly recommended list to show people how truly horrible this world can be.
     The next day Erica and I retreated to more relaxing activities which included strolls through the local parks and shopping. The shopping was a stress reliever for Erica and I wasn't about to argue after a heartbreaking day previously. We also got the best sushi I've ever had from the strangest of places: the mall. Apparently this is not rare in Japan. We estimated the equivalent meal in the U.S. would have set us back $120. It tallied up to a whopping $11. We were so astonished at our bill and the superior quality over anything like it we've had previously.
     Two days under our belts in Japan and we were already feeling right at home. Next stop: Kyoto.

 Metro train in Hiroshima

 The A-Bomb Dome: the only building left after the blast

 The hypocenter of the blast was around 600 meters directly above this building

 I love Japanese kids! They are so adorable! It was sickening to me to think after going to the A-Bomb museum that innocent children like these were killed by the thousands

This time piece stopped exactly at 8:15am when the bomb detonated  

 This is a picture of a photograph taken 3 months after the bomb showing the complete destruction

 These are skin and fingernails that dropped off victims as if they had leprosy

 If this photograph was enlarged, you would see that the mural in the background is made up of 280,000 mosaic tiles representing all of those who have lost their lives from this horrible incident

 Another view of the A-Bomb Dome

 Erica trying to blend in like a local

Our first sushi experience and it was fantastic!

This was the softest fish I've ever had bursting with flavor

Everywhere in Japan (practically every 200 meters) there is a vending machine with hot and cold drinks, even alcohol!

Beautiful scenery along the river that flows through Hiroshima

China: Shanghai & Beijing

     Shanghai: the city of lights, fashion, and high rises. We fell in love with the city nearly instantly. It was a modern cosmopolitan city with a thin layer of communism but a deep seeded love of capitalism and the good life.
     We stayed in a great hotel along the river for our first night. It was the first hotel built in Shanghai and once housed famous people such as scientist Albert Einstein, former U.S. President Grant, and silent movie star Charlie Chaplin.
     After getting our bearings, we contacted Natalie, a friend of a friend, who so graciously offered for us to bunk up with her and her three flat mates. She even went as far as to give up her bed to Erica and I for 4 nights! All of the girls were absolutely hilarious and really made us feel at home and, if you gals ever read this, thank you again so very much!
     One evening we went to the Ritz Hotel to see the view, one on the inside and one on the outside. The inside view has a 30 story perch at the 84th floor that looks down at the piano bar on the 54th. Compliment that with the 180 degree view outside on the 87th floor with a perfect manhattan in hand and you have one heck of a place to relax (or get vertigo).
     From Shanghai we took the Maglev train to Beijing which literally floated above the rails at an extremely comfortable 190/mph  Once there we checked into a great little hostel tucked away in a real life labyrinth of alleyways chock full of authentic hutong residents.Our first few minutes there and we had already begun to realize how saturated Beijing was with rich history.
     That first day out we ventured into and around our hostel to get a feeling for the area. Several miles away we ended up on a authentic alley street that was very popular among not only foreign tourists but locals as well. The crowds were very tightly packed and movement was very constrictive. As such, I didn't notice that someone had stealthily unlocked the lens from my camera and made off with $2500 worth of gear. We were devastated as, it not only wasted a whole day filing a police report and picking up a mandatory replacement lens, we came to find out that we never opted in for the international insurance making this theft not covered. ARRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!
     Anyways, after realizing that bad things happen to everyone and to not get too bummed out we pressed on to see the Great Wall. Opting to see the most authentic parts of the wall, we took a three hour bus ride each way to hike the crumbling ruins of the Great Wall. It was as great as everyone had said and then some. To make it even more majestic, it had started to lightly snow making a path of white stone begging to be climbed and explored. Climb is an understatement as we sometimes had to scale incredibly steep steps and walkways that your brain could only begin to fathom how much effort was spent on such a unique and truly fascinating piece of history.
     Our next big sight to see was The Forbidden City. It was captivating to learn that for 500 years the city was off limits to anyone but royalty and that no other males were allowed inside the city unless they were castrated. The penalty for uninvited guests was instant execution. The structures with their huge red columns and roof corners that flared toward the sun greatly brought about the immensity of such delicate and incomparable architecture. To top it all off, the night before we went, 10 inches of snow blanketed everything in a beautiful white powder raising the uniqueness of this once elusive place to new levels.
     As we completed our last city in China we reflected on all of the fun and interesting sites we had seen as well as the one-of-a-kind people. We were truly grateful for unsolicited kindnesses we had received throughout China and sad to leave a country that, after having know nothing about, had come to appreciate and enjoy. However, it was time to move on to the last country on our route: Japan.

Erica looking "red" hot under the the bridge that constantly is changing colors in Shanghai

Another color of the bridge

View of the Financial District of Shanghai

Self portrait under the night lights of Shanghai

A giant flaming fish-bowl of alcohol that was so dizzyingly good

Old financial district of Shanghai

Underwater railway that has a Space Mountain feel

Shanghai's TV Tower Tripod

Poor little dinner snack

The buildings are so ornately designed

Old town shopping plaza in Shanghai

Very old bridge in a remote village outside of Shanghai, old meaning hundreds of years

Village canals outside of Shanghai

Keeper of the village :)

 

The canals in this village were so scenic and beautiful

?????? The signs here are so hard to understand ??????

Another example of poorly written signage

Does this need a caption?

Lovely gardens we stumbled upon in the village outside of Shanghai

This very infamous insignia is heavily used to denote temples, even still today, and, for anybody who doesn't know, the symbol originally dates back to 3300 BCE

Part of the village outside of Shanghai

If zoomed in, you can see a woman washing her pots in the river

Erica looking beautiful as usual

Notice the pictograph on the right; it says spitting in the subway is prohibited. I figured that was just common sense :)

The Shanghai kids

Every time Jessica (a flatmate of Natalie) would laugh, she would cover her face like a little school girl. Notice also how short Erica looks next to her! (How's the weather up there Jess? lol j/k)

The view from the 84th floor looking down on the 54th floor piano bar at the Ritz in Shanghai

The 53rd floor of the Ritz where the piano bar is

This sign was a complete understatement for going into the sewers in China; should have been used for actually inside the restrooms

Loved all the Chinese lanterns hanging everywhere

Erica with a giant cotton candy

 

The king's summer palace in Beijing

Beijing summer palace scenic area

The roofs of even the least important structures in the Summer Palace were ornately designed

Two beautiful bridges at the Summer Palace

Summer Palace guest house :)

Portion of the Cherry Blossom tree path at the Summer Palace, unfortunately not blooming

Entrance to our hostel in Beijing

Notice the wood slats on the tires used to prevent dogs from peeing on the rims

Erica looking great on the great wall

Wall for days

It was snowing on our walk along the Great Wall where we climbed the highest sections

The steep terrain made for some very steep steps

Picture #1,456,893 of the Great Wall :)

We chose to visit the most authentic parts of the wall where they are crumbling in front of our eyes

Notice how far the wall travels in the background

Framed

Curves ahead

The wall of the wall on the left had completely crumbled

Great Wall picture # 989,323,923,323

Climbing was completely steep, with no uniformed steps, and all of them were made by hand

Poser

Tienanmen Square in Beijing

No snow one day, and a foot the next

Entrance to the Forbidden City, notice Chairman Mao

A river runs through it

"Heavenly Gateway" to the Forbidden city

It was absolutely freezing, good thing I had my audio tour keeping my ear warm

Panorama of the center of the Forbidden City

Erica having a blast in the snow; only her fourth time in her life being in the snow

Erica so hot she's melting the snow (yeah, that was cheesy)

Forbidden City Panorama

Couldn't go through that door

Erica doesn't stick out at all in this country

Can't really understand the need for the airport to make a sign for "No Grenades" allowed; isn't that common knowledge along with no nuclear products and guns? lol