Eat, Pray, Love

I recently read the book, "Eat, Pray, Love." I thought the title was catchy, and heard from others that it was an easy and fun read. My opinion of the book was quite opposite - I hated it. Yes, of course there were some good parts and it was very soulful at moments, but I though it dragged on and was soooo boring.

The movie premiered in Nagoya this weekend - and a group of friends were going to see it. I debated whether it would be worth it to see the movie - since I disliked the book so much, not to mention that the movie got such bad reviews, and it's really expensive to go to the movies in Japan. But we gave in, and decided to go out with friends and give the movie a chance. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised with the movie - so much better than the book! But it's one of those movies that you see one time, and never bother watching again. Joe even liked it - but that's probably because you can drink beer in the movie theaters in Japan, so he was content ;)

After the movie we ventured over to a little Spanish bar, for sangria and tapas.

It was an open-air bar, which was really nice since it's finally starting to cool down here. It was nice to sit "outside" and feel the breeze. There were 6 of us so we decided to order a pitcher of sangria. We asked the waitress how many people a pitcher would serve, she said 5. So we ordered two pitchers. This is what we got....

We couldn't help but laugh when the pitchers arrived at our table... they were "Japanese size" - I don't know how in the world they think that pitcher will serve 5 people! It's enough for one person! :)

4 years at Boeing

Congratulations to my wonderful hubby for his 4-year Boeing anniversary! It's hard to believe that it's been four years already. It seems like yesterday that he graduated from college and we took the exciting adventure to move across the country to Seattle. Who would have known that 4 years later we'd be living in Japan.

I'll never forget one of the first times we went on a date and I asked him what his dream job was. Without even the slightest hesitation he said, "Boeing." I thought to myself - Boeing? No way will I ever move across the country... this relationship is never going to last. Now, 7 years later, I look back on that moment and smile. Despite the difficulty of living far away from our family and friends, we've really had an amazing adventure together! I know we'll look back on this time in our lives and be grateful for all of the opportunities we've had to travel, learn about different cultures, gain work experience, further education, save money, and grow as individuals as well as a couple.

I found a homemade bakery by my new school. I walk past it everyday, and it smells so delicious. Today was the perfect occasion to try one of the scrumptious cakes. Of course, I chose a chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling, and chocolate mousse frosting... Joe's kind of cake!

Congratulations, Joe!

Seto Festival

I've posted a blog about Seto before (the town near Nagoya known for it's pottery). Well in September each year, the small city holds a giant festival - where the streets are filled with vendors selling tons and tons of ceramics. I read somewhere that there are about 250 stores that line up along the Seto River to sell their pottery products for very low prices. The festival has been held each year since 1932... and more than 50,000 people from Japan and abroad visit the festival. My friend Mimi and I ventured out there on Saturday, and found some great deals!

So many vendors lined both streets up and down the river. We probably only made it through about a quarter of the shops.

We loved the festival decorations hanging in the background.

I found many pieces that match the sets I've started here. :)

One of my favorite pieces - the color matches my set perfectly! I love the mountains and subtle art on it.

Update - Teaching, etc.

It's been a while since I've written a blog post. I guess we've been really busy lately!

It's been HOT & HUMID and in the upper 90's for WEEKS... actually, MONTHS now. It's completely miserable and we can't wait for fall! We watched the Michigan game over the weekend and noticed the wind blowing, everyone wearing long sleeved shirts and jackets. We miss that.

Go Blue! Picture of Joe watching the Michigan game... sporting his Michigan jersey and new yellow crocs. I don't have to tell you that he was thrilled to see his team start off the season so well!

I got a part-time job teaching first grade at an international school, twice a week. Today was my first official day, and it went really well!! The kids are super cute! I have 8 students, all Japanese, who speak English fluently. Their parents generally put them in school starting around the age of 2 - so they learn English naturally. By the time they're 5, they speak incredibly well.

Joe's job is still going well. He loves it here and stays busy. He's still taking private Japanese lessons about 1-2 times a week, and lately has been busy getting his application ready for grad school. He's looking into doing a dual degree program for a masters and MBA.

That's all the news around here... working, studying, and traveling.

Mt. Fuji

We hiked Mt. Fuji on Saturday! 1400m vertical, 3776m altitude at the peak.
We hiked the Fujinomiya Trail, which is the shortest course for reaching the highest point on the mountain. This also means that it consists of many difficult and steep areas! We started at the 5th station on the Fujinomiya Trail: 2400m.

You can see the route we took on this map. We started at the 5th station on the Fujinomiya trail, which is on the bottom left hand-side of the picture.

And we're off! We went with Daryl, Kirk, and Rob (Joe's co-workers from Boeing). This was actually Kirk's second time climbing Mt. Fuji... and as the Japanese say, "A wise man climbs Mt. Fuji once in their life, only a fool climbs it twice."

Everyone around us were wearing coats, pants, gloves, hats, etc. The 5 of us, on the other hand, were taking off as many layers as possible and still sweating. It was a lot steeper than I thought it would be. I think this was about the time that I was saying, "I don't think I'm going to make it to the top!"

Finally broke through the clouds - it was beautiful.

I was surprised that it was all rock and gravel. I was expecting more trees and greenery. It wasn't a very scenic hike up, but the views from the top were worth it!

On top of the world! We made it to the top in 4 hours :)

Crater at the top.

Shrine at the top.

We bought these walking sticks at the bottom of the mountain. As you hike the mountain, you can get each hut's unique "stamp" branded onto your walking stick. It helped us on our hike, and is a neat souvenir.

Starting our descent... we've got a long way to go.

We were trying to make it down before the sun set, since we didn't bring flashlights with us. We all agree that going down was more difficult than hiking up the mountain. It was so steep, and with so much rock and gravel it was hard to keep your balance and footing - and hard on your joints.... not to mention we were physically exhausted from the climb up.

Beautiful sunset. We made it down in 3 hours.

It was an amazing adventure and accomplishment. But also the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. I'm glad we did it, but I will never do it again! If you want to see more pictures, I posted an album on facebook and shutterfly: http://emilyandjoepictures.shutterfly.com/

Tokyo

We went to Tokyo for the weekend, and loved it! Joe had to go to a town called Utsunomiya for work for a few days, which is north of Tokyo. So we decided to meet in Tokyo for the weekend. After spending a frustrating hour searching for each other in the ginormous Tokyo Station, we finally found each other and had a great weekend!

This may not look like much during the day, but at night this long street comes alive! There are tons of restaurants, bars, and cafes under the train tracks... a very unique setting and fun atmosphere. We ate at a little Italian restaurant our first night just down the street from here.

We didn't have the energy to get up at 4am to see the actual famous Tokyo fish market, but we did venture over to a little market area near the fish market later in the morning. :)

Did you see the fish Joe caught!? It was a whopper!

We spent the afternoon shopping in an area called Shibuya - a popular and trendy shopping area for young people. This picture is of the famous Shibuya Crossing intersection right outside of Shibuya Station. It's known as the world's busiest street crossing, and one of the world's largest cross walks. When the traffic lights turn red, all traffic stops in every direction. So the entire intersection opens up for pediestrians to cross. Thousands of people cross within minutes, all day, everyday: morning, noon, and night.

At night we went to a neighboring district called Roppongi, known for it's nightlife. We loved all of the international food choices and decided to go on our own little pub crawl. We started out at a German pub, ordering appetizers and beer. Second, we went out for margharitas and dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Next, we found an Irish pub with my favorite Strongbow Cider! Last, we went to a sports bar which had a variety of draft beer choices. Very fun night!

The next day, we wandered the streets of an area called Ginza, which is one of Toky's upscale shopping districts. They close the streets on weekends to accommodate all of the pedestrian traffic. Our favorite part of this district was probably the Sony Building, which is essentially a Sony showroom with hands-on displays of the latest gizmos and gadgets.

We ventured into the 12 floor Abercrombie & Fitch store, famous and popular for being Asia's first store. I wasn't surprised to smell the perfume from down the street and hear the booming music, but I was very surprised to see girls dancing in mini-skirts and male models without shirts on displaying the classic "abercrombie look." I was too uncomfortable to take a picture, but copied a couple from the internet to show you what I'm talking about:

Most of the male and female models were "white," and people were lined up to take pictures with them. Prices were over double what you would pay for an item in the U.S. The lowest price we saw for jeans was $250. And even still, people were buying like crazy... if they only knew how much they were overpaying!

Overall, we had a great weekend trip to Tokyo and plan on going back soon!!!

Memoirs of a Geisha

I just finished reading Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden. It was one of the best books I have read in a while, and I highly recommend it! The story is about one of Japan's most celebrated geisha working in Kyoto during World War II. It's a heartfelt story of a young girl sold to be a geisha... spending the rest of her life wondering if this was her true destiny. It gives great insight into the life of a geisha during the 30's and 40's... describing how the war effected Japan and the depression that followed. Geisha life has always been a secret part of Japanese history and culture - so not only did I find it intriguing, but I also learned quite a bit about the culture.

After finishing the book, I immediately watched the movie. I have to say that I was quite disappointed in the movie. It left out a few important parts, and frequently didn't explain what was happening. I think it might be difficult for someone who hasn't read the book to truly understand the movie. I kept having to pause the movie to explain to Joe what was going on and why.

China FAQ

Many people have been asking us similar questions about China, so I decided to do a FAQ blog post:

1. Was it clean?

I have to say that overall China was a lot cleaner than I had imagined. With that said, there was still plenty of trash on the street, the rivers were brown and had trash in them, many stray dogs around town, and many areas smelled of urine.

2. Was it crowded?

I can't even begin to tell you how crowded it was! I have never agreed with the law allowing Chinese to only have 1 child... but now I completely understand why that law is in place.

If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you will see all of the people on the background.

The crowds only got worse as the night went on. On this particular evening, the subway ticketing was even shut down because there just weren't enough machines and staff to accommodate the thousands of people needing to use the subway. So everyone just got on for free. That was one of the few times that I felt unsafe in China - it had a riot type of feel - and I can see how people can get easily trampled.

3. Were the people nice?

No. I would describe people as having no "spatial awareness." The concept of personal space does not exist. People were loud, yelling into their phones or while talking to another person. They were pushy, grabby, and not afraid to talk to us or touch us. I had many people grab my arm to try and sell me something. Also, pedestrians do not have the right-away in China... and drivers don't care if you're in their way. I have heard that the #1 way tourists die in China is from getting hit by cars!

4. What was the most annoying or frustrating thing?

What I found the most aggravating was the constant cameras in my face. Sometimes people were nice enough to actually ask to take a picture of me, or with me. But the majority of the time people would just walk right up to me and take a picture. They either thought I was someone famous, or don't see light hair/blue eyed people very often.

What Joe found the most annoying was the umbrellas. People use umbrellas to block the sun, but when you're talking about millions of people using umbrellas - it's a lot! Unfortunately for him, he was tall enough to constantly be knocked in the head. Sometimes he would have to walk down the street with his hands near his face to deflect the umbrellas. Like I said above, people aren't nice - and they don't care if they hit you in the face with their umbrella.

5. What did you find especially odd or different?

Many men walked around town without shirts or shoes. It's not a conservative society what-so-ever. Also, babies don't wear diapers - in fact, their clothing had holes cut out and their private areas were exposed. We also saw young children without underwear, who would squat in the street to urinate. I guess that explains the constant urine smell.

6. How was the pollution?

Of course there was pollution, but I was surprised to see blue skies everyday. I was expecting smog and constant gray skies. I was even told by someone that when you visit parts of China, the inside of your nose will turn black after spending the day outside and breathing in the polluted air (this didn't happen to us). Trash, on the other hand, was horrible.

7. How was the food?

To sum it up, Chinese food in China is not the same as Chinese food in the U.S. The food was oily, greasy, and fatty. Not to mention they eat just about every part of an animal... so the items you would see on menus were not very appetizing. After a couple of meals, we decided to stick with international foods the rest of the trip. I will however say that we love dim sum (steamed buns or noodles filled with whatever you want - chicken, beef, pork, seafood, vegetables, etc).

Dim sum

8. Can you drink the water?

No, you can't drink the water. We even bought bottled water to brush our teeth at night.

9. Did you get sick?

Joe got really sick one day, and we're thinking it's from the draft beer he had at a local brewery. I also got sick a few days later, and I'm thinking it's from the juice I had.

10. What was the weather like?

Hot and humid. I wouldn't recommend going in the summer! Temperatures in the upper 90's.

11. What did you like the most about China?

It's cheap! You can eat, stay, and shop for reasonable prices. You can go anywhere on the subway for 20 cents! The subway system was also very easy to use - digital touch-screens and in English. It also has a lot of history, and we enjoyed seeing the famous sights.

12. What was your favorite sight?

#1 = The Great Wall!!! #2 = Big Buddha in Hong Kong

13. What was your favorite city?

HONG KONG! We loved Hong Kong and want to go back. It reminded us of a bigger and better Seattle. It's surrounded by water and mountains, and tons of islands. It also has different unique districts and a very young population - which makes for a fun atmosphere! It was diverse and international - great food and everything was in English! It definitely exceeded our expectations.

14. Is China similar to Japan?

Not in the least bit! People in Japan are nice and helpful. Japan is also a very conservative society, with people dressed up and in suits all the time. Japan is less crowded and more diverse, and clean! China was the opposite from all of this. The only thing that reminded us of Japan was some of the architecture.

15. Were you happy to be back in Japan?

YES! It was a great trip, and we would do it again. But we were glad to be "home."

16. Would you go back?

Probably not. Unless it was back to Hong Kong or to a different area to explore.

Hong Kong

City #3 - Hong Kong! Hong Kong was by far our favorite city, and nothing like China. It was clean, people were friendly, very diverse, and everyone speaks English. The scenery actually reminded us a lot of Seattle... surrounded by the ocean, mountains, and islands. It had steep & hilly terrain, and quite a few unique districts - also similar to Seattle.

We took the historic peak tram up to Victoria Peak to enjoy the beautiful views of Hong Kong.

The longest outdoor covered escalator in the world! All uphill, covering 800 meters (2,625 feet). It went right through out favorite area of town: SoHo.

One of the streets of SoHo. It was hard to capture the feel of this area on camera - it had tons of little streets and allies filled with restaurants, bars, cafes, bakeries, etc. It had a very fun atmosphere - many of the restaurants and bars were wide open, since Hong has a warm climate... and if the bars were full, people would just drink outside of the restaurant/bar in the street. We also loved that it had a variety of international food and drink choices! We went out for tasty Mexican food and margaritas! [Good Mexican food is something we have had difficulty finding in Nagoya.]

Our last day in Hong Kong was spent on Lantau Island, where we took a cable car to the top of a peak to see the Big Buddha. Second to the Great Wall, this was one of my favorite things that we did on our vacation. It was a beautiful ride to the top, through the mountains and overlooking the ocean.

Can you see the Big Buddha in the background (sitting on top of the mountain)?

Tian Tan Buddha statue - the world's largest outdoor bronze buddha statue.

View from the top of the Big Buddha - gorgeous!

After visiting the Big Buddha, we ventured back to the SoHo district that we loved so much... a great way to end our trip: lots of beer, great food, and cake!

The Great Wall of China

We loved the Great Wall. It was such an awesome experience!

We went to 2 different sections: Mutianyu & Badaling. We reserved a private tour, which turned out to be fantastic. It was nice not having to plan the day or worry about anything, travel in an air-conditioned car, and our guide was terrific.

The 1st section of the great wall: Mutianyu. It took us a little over 2 hours to get to this section from Beijing. We loved this section - it was less crowded/touristy, more scenic, and more original. We had an hour and a half to explore and climb this section.







The 2nd section of the Great Wall - Badaling. It took about an hour to get to this area from Mutianyu. This area was also beautiful, but more crowded and touristy. We had another hour and a half to explore this area, and we needed just about all that time to climb to the top and then back down.


Another hour later, we were back in Beijing - exhausted and sore. Such a long day, but it was worth it! This was our favorite part of our entire trip. :)