Asiafication

Ok,
So today I'm out shopping with my awesome friend Leti.
I've been in the market for a phone charm for awhile.
I live in Asia, and frankly they are really useful for finding your phone in your bag.
So I mention this and we decide to go to this accessory shopping area next week. We are browsing our local book shop and there is a toy section. We are looking through it and discover a ton of Studio Ghibli merchandise. I was in HEAVEN.
I found TWO phone charms! one of Totoro and one of Ponyo! HAAAAM!! Ship SHAPE!


I also bought a Totoro backpack...which is AWESOME!!

which compliments my already rad Pokemon folder that I bought in Tokyo:

The pies de resistance however...is this AMAZINGLY ridiculous phone charm that Leti found and after finding told me, "if you use this backpack everyday and this phone charm I will pay you!"

you own up to THOSE words Leti!!
Because this phone charm is Kick-A!!
It has count them 8, that's right 8 photos of Choi SiWon on it!! That's right, I have laminate cards of Choi SiWon the K-Pop star extraordinaire. I can look at the Super Junior hottie whenever I use my phone!
My phone ring is also the K-Pop megahit Lucifer by SHINee.
What am I missing besides an Asian boyfriend?

Coming Home

So last night my plane arrived in Hong Kong.
I was supposed to stay the night at the airport Marriott, but my Mom accidentally made the reservation at the Novotel, and I didn't have anyway of contacting her, or knowing that so I rushed to get the last coach to the HuangGang port border.
I started coughing as my lungs inhaled the polluted south China air.
As I entered China I had to haul my Christmas present laden luggage across a pedestrian bridge, with gypsy cab drivers and "luggage helpers" bothering me, pulling on my clothes and luggage. I finally make it to the taxi queue and turn around as I see a kid trying to nick something out of my hand bag.
I get in the taxi, tell the driver where to go. I doze off, wake up - not at the right place, give the driver directions to my house, street by street.
Get home, and can't sleep.
But I go to class the next day. I feel right at home...it's hard to believe that 30hrs prior I was in Salt Lake.
I go to lunch with Jade and Letizia, I have the Xin Jiang(Uighur) hand pulled noodles with spicy beef and potatoes that I was craving the whole time I was in America. So, so good.
I go home, and go upstairs to the Ho's(family in our Branch) I play around with their awesome kids awhile, planned Christmas dinner with Elsa. Returned home for an hour nap that lasted almost 5hours.
I woke up to my Dad watching some movie in the living room.
Now I'm awake, thinking that I'm home from home now...such a weird sensation.
I loved being back and seeing everyone, it felt natural and right. But it was the strangest feeling, that it wasn't home anymore, even though it was full of people I love and miss. My home is far away in another place now.
Maybe it's because I've moved so much.
Maybe it's destiny.
But at least for right now, I'm home.

Thanksgiving in Macau

So on Thanksgiving Day I bunked off classes and went to meet our domestic helper in Macau. Jacky, our Filipina maid couldn't get another visa to return to China so I was meeting her to give her plane fare to return home. I'd never been to Macau before, but it is an hour ferry ride from the port 5min from my apartment.
As we left the port, I could see my apartment complex(small whitish ones) the Shenzhen Bay Bridge to Hong Kong and the distant skinny high rise apartments of the Ha Tsuen neighborhood in Hong Kong, barely visible through the suffocating South China smog.

As I rode the ferry I got to see the industrial side of Hong Kong: gas banks, electric power stations, and the oyster beds of the Pearl River Delta. I passes many container ships heading all over the world; Panama, Los Angeles, Hamburg, Sydney, Columbia etc. I waxed philosophical about all the things humanity has accomplished and yet the tender thread that we still hang by. A situation that was at the front of my mind since the bombing in South Korea two days prior. We have done so much, I live in a place that sends products to all ends of the earth at record speed, but malaria still kills children; millions per year, and no matter what we will grow, love, age and die. Somber I know, but the power and the beauty of all we have done is a result of our fear of mortality. We want to do so much, make so many things, experience more and more, create more and more, because we all know our time is finite.
Out of my thoughtful mood, I arrived in Macau for the first time - breezed through immigration and met Jacky our maid. We at lunch/dinner at the Sands Macau, I had sushi for Thanksgiving day. And I saw a Michael Jackson impersonation concert. I missed my first ferry trip, so I bought the next departure, and found a toy store in the ferry terminal!
Optimus Prime!!!
Star Wars Legos!
and Board Games!



silly I know, but I don't get to see things like Harry Potter Clue and Pirates of the Caribbean Life everyday!

Island Fun

So the previous weekend(not the most recent one) I visited Hong Kong again, for a Temple trip but also to meet some other YSA from Guangzhou and grab some Mexican food on the Island and do some touristy things. My Dad has seen everything and my Mom isn't all that interested in waiting in a long line to go up a mountain. So after getting lost in Soho for a little while, we found the Mexican restaurant, ate amazing Mexican food(I had a pork chimichanga) and we lucky enough to happen upon a street fair on Elgin St. while we were there. I bought a beautiful handmade necklace from this artisan selling her beautiful wares. And we saw some singers advertising their Macau show.


Kenya, Sharah and I went up Victoria Peak to take a look at Hong Kong and enjoy some actually brisk autumn air.

We hunted down dinner at a place called Modern Toilet...and Taiwanese chain...however, the location that we found seemed to have been closed for good(it seems that some people don't appreciate the novelty of eating their food out of miniature toilets)?
We were all pretty bummed, but Kenya most of all :(

The Art of Subway Flirting

When riding the metro, perchance you spot a young coed that catches your fancy it is important to meet their eye and hold their gaze for a bit...release.
In a minute or so, before the next stop meet their eye again, allow a coy pleased smile.
Wait.
Glance again.
Catch a thinly veiled grin.
Enjoy.

Canteen Craziness

So today I decided to eat on campus. The closest canteen to my classroom building is for teachers, but students are allowed to eat there too. The food is a little better, a tiny bit more expensive and people wait in line better. So I usually eat there. Today, I was planning on going there for lunch with my Mexican classmate Josimar but he told me that the system of payment had changed. Instead of just paying at each booth with you student card, quite easily after pointing to what I want, I must tell a cashier at the front, where I want to get food from and how much money worth of food, pay him, he gives me a receipt and then I can go and ask for my food at the booth that is written on my receipt.
Evidently this is because the teachers were complaining that too many students were eating in the "Teacher's Canteen," but the management likes the students eating there because they make more money. So making it more difficult for everyone to eat there was the compromise.

Yesterday and Today

Today actually started yesterday.
Friday in Hong Kong I bought a new skirt from the Mong Kok market, at H&M a new coat(it will get cold here), a scarf, sweater, green corduroy skirt, and a wool muffler. At Uniqlo(a Japanese chain, that I’ve fallen in love with) two pair of legging pants, and a smock shirt/skirt. If you didn’t already know this…I have a shopping problem. I actually decided to go to HK because I needed a new pair of loafers, my awesome pre-mish white leather loafers finally wore through on the heels, and I conceded I needed a new pair, I had already checked the big markets here for shoes…alas most were made of plastic and just awful. So I headed to Mong Kok, and started looking for Sperry Top-Siders. After seeing a few, and their price tag – I started looking at other options. I found a pair of Sanuk’s that I really liked and definitely thinking about my friend Randy Hurd and his fondness of these shoes, I bought them. Anyways, heavy laden with shopping I returned home late to Shenzhen, the border crossing I chose was packed with people, and people who kept cutting in line. 200+ people and only 5 open checking terminals to exit Hong Kong. Then to enter China, only one Terminal for foreigners and the guard was getting trained. I nearly threw my shopping down and turned around. But I couldn’t because I needed to return home to stay at someone else’s apartment that night.
I slept at a Branch member’s apartment because both parents were going to be out of town and they asked me to just spend the night, so I watched The Sorcerer’s Apprentice with three of the kids, and slept there. I awoke early to get back home and get showered to head to the Temple in Hong Kong with my Dad. However, when I got down to the parking garage, my scooter would not start, either the cables or the batteries are bad again, or something else. Who knows, it was made in China, not for export….
So, it isn’t yet 6am, and I’m trying to get a piece of machinery to work so I can go to the Temple. It won’t work, so I start walking(I hadn’t brought any money with me at all and I was locked out of the apartment I slept in). It’s about 3km home, so I walk as fast as I can. Even though I speed walked it was really pleasant, the streets in the dusk before dawn in Shekou蛇口(my neighborhood) are peaceful, don’t smell like they do during the day, and they aren’t full of loud spitting people. A few breakfast carts were out early for bus and taxi drivers, smelling of steaming bamboo and warm soy milk. As I pass the wharf on the way to my apartment, it doesn’t smell as strongly as it does in the afternoon, and most of the ships are still out busy over-fishing the Pearl River delta. In the distance I can see trullers out checking the oyster beds on the Hong Kong side.
I get home and my Dad isn’t even awake yet. I hurriedly shower and get ready in a new skirt I bought in the street market in Hong Kong the day before(so awesome, that I’ve lost enough weight to buy things in the South Chinese markets that fit me…even if it is the largest size they have). So I’m rushing to get ready to get in a taxi and head to my Dad’s favorite border crossing(Fu Tian Kou An). I’m about ready, and my Dad knocks on my door saying he was up most of the night throwing up(bad bacon) and isn’t going. I was going to go anyways, but remembering the state of the apartment, and my broken scooter, I decided to stay at home. I sleep a little more, wake up and walk to the import market a km away, get treats for my Dad, and cheese to make quiche for a Young Women’s service project in my Branch. I walk home, do my Dad and I’s laundry as the quiche bakes. Not my usual crazy fancy fare, but I hope it did me proud. I take the quiche to the school, catching a ride with the “Black Taxis”(Gypsy cabs) that wait outside our apartments and the guy driving me drove me once to University when I was running late, and he remembered me, and we were able to talk a little bit, we talked a bit about the weather, about Minnesota, about where he’s from in China(also a cold place) and about how the wharf smells bad. I didn’t even realize it till now…but that’s probably the longest conversation I’ve ever had in Chinese.
After I drop the quiche off, I decide to walk home. Shekou at night is a completely different place. Cafes are open and teaming with people. Men are squatting or sitting on stools on the side walk playing cards for small bets, there is this one restaurant(still have no idea what the big deal is) with huge crowds waiting outside, sitting on chairs waiting to eat there. I side stepped bike shops repairing cables and inner-tubes on the sidewalk. I walked past the Shekou theatre where a movie was playing outside, I don’t know exactly what it was about, but the subtitles I could read kept mentioning Beijing. I bought a sugar cane/aloe/lychee fruit drink and it was bit too sweet, but really refreshing as I walked. I found a restaurant down the street from our apartment complex(across the street from my bus stop and right by the future metro station) that has parts of dogs hanging up to be ordered and eaten. The streets are full of people strolling, and smoking. The site of the future metro station is so interesting. As soon as there were no gaping holes in the ground, the barriers were pushed aside and people have been walking through the construction site to get to their destinations more quickly. Something completely unthinkable to me a few months ago seems obvious, “well of course I would walk through an active construction site to get home faster.” As I walk the song “South China Moon” by Bishop Allen starts playing on my iPod. I look up, and the sky is smoggy and I can’t see the moon. I realized I had made a list in my head of places to go and see all around my neighborhood. Even though technically most of the foreigners in the city live in Shekou, it is still China, and Shekou is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Shenzhen, so it is teaming with nightlife and character. I can get a drink at Starbucks and then walk down the street for dog BBQ. When I got home, my Dad had Mexican take-out waiting for me, and it was still hot.

Bangkok

Ok...I know it's been over a month since I got home - but here are a few photos of Thailand
I had a really great time, being there with my folks, getting out of China was great for my Dad and I was able to see more of Asia. Here are some highlights.

Wat Phra Kaew




Royal Palace


Wat Pho(largest indoor reclining Buddha...also...yes that is sweat on my Dad's shirt)




Bridge on the River Kwai...the REAL one...yeah it was awesome...My Dad and I were in nerd heaven.






Ayutthaya - old capital - while we were there, a few of the sites were having water pumped out of them, the river was at flood stage











Random Photos

returning from Bangkok

So, my parents and I went to Bangkok. It was National Golden Week in China and my Dad needed to get away. So we got cheap flights to Bangkok and planned a lovely trip. A following post will express all my love for Thailand, and have photos and anecdotes. This post is dedicated to our return trip that we made today.
The morning started off with me still recovering from too much delicious green chile laden Thai food...I'll leave it at that.
We arranged for our bill to be paid, but my Dad like all great Jews wanted to get rid of as much cash as possible while settling our hotel bill. This prolonged and complicated the process, he also declared that he lost his debit card, because it wasn't in the stack of cards he kept in his pocket. This was the same man that claimed to have been pick-pocketed the day before, only to find the money in another pocket the next morning. So that dilemma aside, we get in our taxi have a few monetary and lingual fumbles with the driver over the payment of road tolls and arrive at the airport. I started to lift suitcases out of the taxi and the driver grunted and me sternly and made it clear that I was not to lift the luggage, which annoyed me greatly - being the strong, proud, able-bodied woman that I am.
We get checked into our flight, move through passport control and get to security at which point my Mom holds up the line a few times, not understanding that yes, an iPad is a computer and must be scanned separately, yes you have to remove your fanny pack/bum bag and it must be scanned. She makes it through and they ask to look at her carry on roller suitcase. She then opens it, and starts taking things out and explaining what they are, what her c-pap machine is etc. mind you there are people piling up behind me(not to mention the back up of items shooting out the x-ray conveyor belt) and I tell her, "Mom, he just wants to test your bag, go over there with him, you are holding up the line" she goes over there and somehow convinces them to let her keep her over-sized Crabtree and Evelyn perfume bottle she thoughtlessly packed in her carryon. I love my Mom, and she is so accommodating that she sometimes doesn't understand what is being asked of her.
We have over an hour till our plane boards so my Dad and I find a bookstore with lots of newspapers, magazines and books to peruse. After about 10min my Mom announces from outside the shop that she is going to get a drink. I said "wait!" and she was off. We get to the check out counter with our over-priced foreign newspapers(the guardian, because I'm a raging liberal and the IHT for my snobbish father) and we realize that she walked off with all the money. So we go on a hunting party for her...but she has vanished down a long terminal lined with one place to procure food and drink and the rest places to purchase any duty free item you could want. After speed walking in heightening frustration and desperation like McCallisters in the O'hara - we find her at very end of the terminal staring at a leader board trying to find our gate number. Still needing a beverage my parents spot a Dairy Queen(wth!) and I head back to get my newspaper.
When we head to our flight my Mom keeps asking me if I need help with her tink roller hand luggage. Finally I tell her, "I don't know if you know this Mom, but I am an adult that has paid her taxes by herself for the past 7 years, I'm a quite capable highly functioning adult and a testament to your skill as a parent. You really should be very proud because I'm quite fantastic." Rarely to I get to toot my own horn so sardonically, but we all have our shining moments.
We make it all the way to the gate(after following a labyrinthine ram and stairs that were make out of metal with a bumpy pattern that didn't really consider what it would sound like with a battalion of roller luggage parading down it) to get in line to have our tickets checked yet again, and right as we get to the front of the line, a Chinese fellow who is standing off to the side, greets his family who have just arrived, and pulls them all in front of me completely cutting in line, in my terrible Chinese I say, "what are you doing?! I am here!" my Dad turned around and in English got rough and angry and said "NO! get in the line! are you children?!" he pushed them physically off to the side and pointed at the end of the line, and they were yelling and I tried to say "rude, it is rude - must begin over there" that only made them yell at me more.
We arrive in Hong Kong, make it through - decide against taking the ferry home, and opt for a "limo van". Limo vans are really nice vans(roomy comfortable etc) that are a bit spendy for most to hire to take them through the border, but you don't have to get out of the car, or be jostled in line by Chinese trying to cut in front of you, you can read and make your way through the border, and they take you all the way to your house if you pay a little more. Each van seats six passengers and the driver. My parents and I were half the passengers. First my Mom had an unholy fight with the seat-belt. Then as we made our quiet journey through the SAR I started hearing fart noises. We are on leather seats, makes sense. Move around, adjust your weight in the seat, and the unfortunate noise comes forth. I noticed them more and more, coming from my Mom's seat...only she wasn't moving. Farting noise + no movement = actual farting. I couldn't believe it. I mean I really could, my Mom feels really free about passing gas, in a vulgar uncouth way, but in a car! A confined space with strangers?!
As we are waiting at the border crossing my Dad starts making this awful lip-smacking, saliva sucking sound. The poor Taiwanese guy next to me looked disgusted. "Dad, what are you doing?!" his reply, "There is something stuck in my teeth."
"So, wait until we get home to get it out, like a civilized adult."
Thankfully he stopped, mostly. Every now and then he'd make an attempt.
We get home and my ability to open the front door is questioned before we get inside. And I escape to my room. Before long I hear my Dad's cackle as he watches his favorite middle-american show Two and a Half Men. I never should have bought him all 6 seasons from the DVD stand on the street for $4. It's probably where he is picking up bad social habits.
Seriously though, I love my parents.

my class

1 Fin
1 Frenchman
1 Mexican
1 Kazakh
1 Jordanian
1 Uzbek
1 Tajik
1 Korean
1 Japanese
1 Ghanaian
1 Turk
2 Columbians
2 Pakistanis
2 Dutchmen
2 Ukrainians
and Me

I'm the only one in the class whose native language is English (although many grew up learning English), yet the class is taught English to Chinese.
One Pakistani for sure doesn't understand English the way our teachers talk, I think it is a little fast for him. So this morning(before class) in the cafe downstairs the Ukrainians were helping him through their broken English to help him practice. We have a really interesting dynamic in the class. Right now we are still getting used to each other, although the Ukrainians and I are already chatting all the time, the Turk speaks English and ok Russian. Regardless it is really nice that the only other girl in the class and I share a common language(she's one of the Ukrainians, her and her boyfriend are in the class together).
As we become more comfortable I hope we get less formal with each other. There are three in their late thirties I think...but most seem to be in their 20s.
Bonus! in our classroom building the restroom has western toilets, hand soap, paper towels and a hand dryer! Now this sounds like a lot to get excited about I'm sure. But Chinese public toilets are squatters and are devoid of hand soap, paper towels and often toilet paper. So it isn't really a mystery why the most advanced strains of diseases develop here, because the sanitation is poor, no one washes their hands properly after the toilet, and it is densely populated.
Anyways, I don't know if toilets like this are standard on campus, or if they are just like this in our building as a courtesy to us. Seeing as how we pay WAY more than the Chinese students to be there, and if that is what our tuition gets us...AWESOME.
So far I haven't learned too many new words, but I'm sure it will get difficult soon enough, over the weekend I need to ask our close Chinese friends to give me a Chinese name, we are supposed to pick one by next week or they will assign us one, but they said it is better to have someone who knows you pick a name for you, or help you pick a name. So for those of my friends that know Chinese, any suggestions?
PS - Also, I found Jelly Bellies at Toys R Us in Hong Kong...good day!

Back to School

So, less than a year after I graduated I'm super excited to be back in school, granted I'm just studying one thing, but I'm studying that one thing in earnest. Being around people my age is nice too(I'm mostly around children or people my parents age, or just my parents)
First I need to detail a little bit of the drama that I'm still going through to get my student visa.
A week ago I registered for classes, I was given a list of documents that I needed to get in order to get my student visa, I wasn't told where to get all of them, or that I would need an assortment of other documents from other places in order to get the listed necessary documents. The list doesn't look so bad, only 7 items if you are over 18 years old, and they give you one to start with. Not so bad right?
1. The Original and photocopy of your valid passport and Chinese visa.
2. A form of Application for Visa and Residence Permit which you have filled correctly, and one of your recent passport-size 2 inch color photos(full face without hat)
3. The Notice for Residence Permit and Records of Conversations with a Foreigner Applying for Residence Permit(Students are required to apply for such documents by themselves from the Nanshan Branch, Shenzhen Public Security Bureau if they apply for the first time)
4. A Registration Form of Temporary Accommodation for Aliens issued by local street police station.
5. The original Admission Notice issued by the Teaching Office for International Students.
6. Your Health Certificate issued by Shenzhen Port Hospital.
7. Form JW202 (form of Chinese Visa Application for Foreign Students)
Ok...which one do you think the International Student office already?
if you though #5, you'd be wrong.
#5, when I asked about where I get #5 they said "here, of course" and I said, "well, can I have it?" my only answer "it is not here"
#1 - easy
#2 - was given this form at the Security Bureau, but then told at the Police Station that it is the wrong one, and I must get the right one from them
#3 - still have no idea what this is, and no one is telling me
#4 - finally got this on my 3 trip to the police station, they kept sending me away telling me I didn't have the right documents, and even on the third visit they told me to go next door and make a copy of the page in my passport of my last entry stamp, which they hadn't told me I needed before.
#5 - this mysterious document the International school is missing or something
#6 - This I went to the hospital, they checked me all over, even swabbed my gums - and in a week I can go back to see if I can be admitted to the country...only I'm already here.
#7 - This is the form that they did give me in the International Student Office.
So I'm missing a few important pieces to my Student Visa puzzle....and Thankfully I have 30days after my start of study to complete the process, but knowing the way bureaucracy works in China, I will need all 30 days.
Second thing, less that 24hrs before classes start, I finally found out where and when my classes are, and who my teacher is. This occurred after 2 hours of mind-numbing "Opening Ceremony" then in no particular order it seemed, different classes were called out and then you had to listen to see if your name was called and then go to the front of the auditorium and meet your teacher, or someone who is meeting you on behalf of your teacher, and get your schedule and then are lead to your classroom. It was chaos, the names of the classes were read off in alternating English and Chinese, which mish-mashed pronunciations, mixed with a echoey auditorium and the chatter of students and the distraction of the heat, it was chaos. Efficiency is not the name of this game
Document hassles aside, I got a cable on my electric scooter repaired today and I'm set to scoot all the way to school tomorrow.
I bought pencils, notebooks and a stylus for my iPad to enter the characters by stroke function easily.
Yeah, that's right...I'm excited.

Back from Japan

I had an awesome vacation in Japan, much needed to get me rested and relaxed before school started.
I have much to thank Kats and Sarah and Bill Bockman for being such awesome gracious hosts during my stay there.
Thanks to the Japan Rail Pass I travelled all over Japan, and I got to see many things. I have lots of pictures posted on Facebook, and I'll put a few on here.


I First went to Tokushima on the island of Shikoku to visit my High School friend Bill, and I came just in time for the Awa Odori Dance festival, which I got to dance in.
We also visited a Sea Turtle Museum while I was there.
The Awa Odori Dance Festival is held every summer in Tokushima and is the city's biggest claim to fame. Many tourists from all over Japan and the World flood the small coastal city for the festival every year, and university, local business and social groups prepare dance groups for weeks to showcase in the festival. Festivals are prime locations for fair food - Octopus balls or Takoyaki - are a festival favorite, and a favorite of mine as well...so delicious.
I was able to dance in the Festival with the Tokushima International Association thanks to my friend Bill, and it was great fun - we even had our photo in the local newspaper!
The Sea Turtle Museum was awesome, unfortunately almost all the information was only in Japanese, but there were lots of tanks of sea Turtles which you don't really need translation for. The Museum is situated right on a beach that the Loggerneck Turtles use for nesting, unfortunately every year fewer and fewer turtles show up, and this is a phenomenon that is going on worldwide at large sea turtle nesting sites.

Then I went to Hokkaido, where I visited Shiretoko National Park and Sapporo briefly. Hokkaido is Beautiful and if you get a chance to go to Japan, Hokkaido is a must.

The Photos here are of the Old Government Building in Sapporo, Hokkaido was one of the areas that Japan opened up for Western Trade after it's period of isolation. This building reflects the Western Influence in its design and function.
Shiretoko National Park is on the far Northeastern Peninsula of Hokkaido, and borders the Sea of Okhotsk, it is mostly wild untamed forest and mountains, with breathtaking views and diverse wildlife.

During the winter months the Sea of Okhotsk is home to many times of seals, and the local populace on both sides of the sea (Russian and Japanese) have traditions of hunting the seals, however due to climate change and species endangerment the hunting has been curtailed.


While I was in Shiretoko, I saw a great many deer, and foxes. I was repeatedly warned against bears, but I didn't see any, even though I went hiking on animal trails. I did see a rare stag which I have a photo of posted on facebook, I hiked a great deal and it was really nice to be out in nature, away from the stench, pollution and noise of the city.
As you can see the wilderness in Shiretoko is relatively untouched, not many people go hiking here because it is so far removed from not just Hokkaido, but all of Japan. Shiretoko-go-ko is a spot with 5 lakes all really close together up on a high valley that gives great vistas of the park and the Sea of Okhotsk, it is well travelled by tour busses, and for the enthusiastic hiker, the trails are easy and congested with tour groups with inappropriate footwear, but it is beautiful.

Next I hit the Japanese Alps, Narai and Matsumoto.
Narai is a small former post town on a road that connected Edo era Tokyo and Kyoto. It is a cultural heritage site and has been preserved well.
In Narai, there were many Temples for the travelers of the old road to rest their tired souls, the main street also still has many inns and guesthouses, the town is busier in the fall season when the leaves change color, then it is a romantic destination for the city folk of nearby Nagoya and Kyoto. But there were relatively few tourists on the hot summer day that I was there, I was the only one staying in the Minshuku(guesthouse) that night, and it looked like I was the only one for quite sometime.
There was a statue of the Virgin Mary in the town that had it's head forcibly removed and the statue was renamed after the god Jizo, protector of children, a ghostly relic of the lives that secret Christians led in Japan for many centuries.

I was planning on staying in Narai two nights, but you can experience it all in one day pretty much. So I left early in the morning for Matsumoto.
Matsumoto was in the midst of their summer festival, most Japanese towns or cities of decent size have a festival of some sort in the summer. Matsumoto's is a music festival, there was a lot of activity in and around the castle grounds while I was there, in fact there was a High School Band festival taking place on the Castle grounds while I was touring the Castle. It is a strange sensation to be in a 400yr old Japanese Castle, and all of a sudden being treated to Stars and Stripes Forever by John Phillips Sousa. I missed 4th of July in America and I guess this was my reward!

The Castle was really interesting and scary to traverse, the stairs were really steep and there a great deal of people crowding them. At risk of sounding non-PC larger people should not go on this tour. The stairs are at a steep 63 degree incline and narrow already, but made narrower, being divided in half for two way traffic.
But the Castle had a great collection of armaments and a museum just outside the castle grounds that elaborated on the history of the area. Much of the water in the area was brought in through a wooden piping system from the nearby mountain streams, diverted to supply the fields and orchards. The Japanese Alps region is known for its vineyards and orchards. The fruit from there is delicious and I'm told the wine exceptional. After my Matsumoto trip I head back to Tokyo, and spend a day lying about, then cook dinner for my lovely friends Kats and Sarah.
On the last day I can use my Japan Rail Pass I go to Kyoto, for one last Shinkansen ride.
I went to Kyoto and soon tired of the Temples and went shopping.

After Kyoto, I kept to Tokyo, and I went to the Parasitological Museum and the Pokemon Center. I really wanted to go to the Ghibli Museum but it was all sold out, and this was a huge disappointment to my trip. The Parasitological Museum was pretty cool, small but cool. I wish that more information was in English, but a lot of it was self-explanatory given the explicit photos that were frequently on display.
After the Parasite Museum I hit Shibuya(Shibuya is the big shopping area and has the famous pedestrian zone that everyone has seen photos and footage of when Tokyo is involved) for some tourism and window shopping.
Only I ended up buying some shoes...and a skirt...
The next day I went to the Pokemon center, and there were a few too many Pikachu dolls for comfort, but it was a fun experience and unfortunately photographing is not allowed there, so I only took a couple clandestine photos.
Then I hit one last Temple, and next to it was this large Eiffelesque Tower...but in the Temple Gardens were all these Shrines that were well adorned with crochet-bonnets and arrayed with plastic flower windmills, hundreds of them. It was really interesting, I don't know what they were for, but they were an appropriate ending to my trip in Japan, the stoic Shrines adorned with colorfully lush plastic accouterments, it really just summed up Japan to me, stubbornly in the past, while giddy in the in future.

I finished off my trip by seeing The Karate Kid with Kats and Sarah, that movie should really be called The Kung Fu Kid, but whatever.
If you want to see more photos of the trip in Japan, please check them out on facebook!