Beijing - Stop spitting, there is a car coming...

Ok, so if we were writing this entry at the beginning of our stay here, it would have been from an entirely different perspective all together.

However, after a relatively smooth 3 hour flight from Kyoto, where Jo was once again obsessed by the surprises of plane food, we arrived at Beijing airport. Negotiating a flight link bus was of somewhat ease, even if the lady on the ticket desk did just constantly nod at my every question as if she completely understood my ramblings of how much it would cost and which stop we needed to get off at?

Anyway once aboard, a host of amazed looks and glares latter, we weren't quite ready for what was the craziest of driving systems. With constant tooting of horns and sheer madness, no cars seem to stop - even at red lights!

Arriving into central Beijing to finish the short ride to our hostel, we got off the bus to the alarming sounds of taxi, taxi, taxi, taxi, taxi, taxi, you want taxi? No. You want taxi? No. where you want taxi? To my amazement it was just as Jon and Ant had described, but not quite so funny in the 36 degree heat!

Once we made our way to the hostel, it wasn't exactly as the pictures suggested, our room wasn't the 5star palace as we were shown but never the less, was quite cute, a good size and actually had 4 walls. After the past 8 days in Japan, we decided to have a quick nap, however, sleeping the rest of the day we finally awoke 16 hours later.

Our first real day was now a Sunday, obviously a weekend day but oblivious to the fact, we somehow decided it would be a good idea to take the short trip from the hostel to visit the Forbidden City. How wrong could we be! Walking down a road that seemed to suddenly vanish, think the yellow brick road, suddenly ending at a building site. Victims of a few attempted scams latter and we were finally there.

Getting to the Forbidden City we were met by crowds of Chinese people and tourists all pushing and shoving to get in with the occasional eastern habit of spitting. All of which Jo was not only horrified at but absolutely fuming at their somewhat lack of manners. Even though this gave us a bad impression to begin with, the trip round the attraction was actually very pleasant, yet chaotic as the sheer size and history of the place took over. Possibly one of the greatest places of Chinese heritage, I am glad to say we have seen it.

Somewhat adapting to the lifestyle here and trying to ignore our somewhat celebrity status, the rest of our time here has gradually made us realize that Beijing is in fact a pretty amazing city. Although it seems to be constantly redeveloping and has been obviously patched up for the Olympics, there is so much potential here for its future.

Managed to visit lots and lots of great places, including The Summer Palace, The Olympic Village with it's amazing Birds Nest stadium (WOW), Beihai Park, Beijing's finest Hutongs (slums), Tian'anmen Square, The Chairman of Mao Memorial, a Chinese Acrobatics performance and much much more.

The highlight of our 9 day trip however was the Great Wall! Ranking up there with our previous visit to the Grand Canyon, this place was out of this world. Incredible! We went on a trip to the Mutinyu side that also included the Ming Tombs and a few weird stops at other destinations such as a tea ceremony, a jade factory and a silk market, of which we were told was going to be a supermarket. Much to Jo's displeasure she would in fact be bombarded with sales for silk bedding instead of what she had thought would have been browsing a nice range of cheese's! Oh well!

Before we go, the weather has been brilliant, easily 32+ degrees every day. The food has been so good and so cheap. We have had some great meals but nothing really compared to the Milk ice lollies here, only 10p for possibly the best ice cream ever! Although everything we ate we enjoyed, we weren't quite brave enough to try some of the local delicassies including Snake, Sheep Penis, Dog or live scorpion.

A big thanks to Kev, who with his well written essay of an email describing exactly where to look, go, buy things and eat, we rarely needed our guide book.

Like we said, we have had an ace time here after a rocky beginning. Hopefully it will continue. Roll on Honk Kong!

Next Stop Beijing

Having come to the end of Kyoto now (leave at 5am in the morning) That is it for Japan. Well what an amazing country, one which I would definitly recommend to everyone. Just wish we had more time here. However, it is bloody expensive!!!!!

Looking forward to Beijing and will hopefully keep you updated. Just uploding the last our ouyr photos alongside a few local beers.

Gotta go pack, up early in the morning.
Bye for now.

Hello Kyoto!

Left the hostel in Tokyo for the Airport for our tiny 1 hour flight to Osaka　Kansai airport．Had a bit of a nightmare on the train on the way as we thought it would terminate at the airport, but instead it turned right round and headed back to Tokyo.. with us on it! Got there just in time though luckily, and Jon slept the duration of the flight.

Arrived in Osaka Airport and had a bit of a heart attack when our cards were declined at the cash point! Luckily it was just the cash point playing tricks on us though and we sorted it out, or we:d have been on the first flight back to England! After a 1 hour train ride to Kyoto we arrived at the main station and our Ryokan which was a 5 minute walk away... very convinient location! We booked a traditional Japanese Ryokan to stay in, and once we saw our room we were really excited.. it:s the cutest thing with Tatami mats (bamboo) floring and a little floor table and cushions in the day, which we convert into a bedroom at night by laying out futon type mats and bedding.

Since arriving here weve been exploring non stop.. lots and LOTS of walking til i cant feel my feet anymore! Yesterday we visited lots of temples and parks, most notably the Nishi-Hoganji Temple which was huge and really cool. Also, we found a really cool shopping street called Pontocho which was full of very traditional old buildings, restaurants and shops, and we visited Kyoto station and climbed right to the top (it:s a massive station, really architectural) to look over the city from the roof garden.

Today we went to Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine first thing which was a trail of red gates leading into the mountains, then took a train ride to a suburb of Kyoto - Sagano Torokko Ressha - which was a little traditional village type place with an amazing Bamboo path that led to several Temples and rock gardens. We nearly got killed several times on the way back on a crazy Tram ride which diced death with cars/bikes/motorvbikes whenever it felt like it!

Tonight we walked through Gion which is the Geisha and theatre district and probably what Kyoto is most famous for. We waited ages in the main street to see a Geisha.. but apparently they come out when they feel like it - not on demand! Gave up after half an hour and headed home, but bumped into one on the way and she was very friendly and let both me and Jon have our pic taken with her :)

Went to a local noodlebar for tea and Jon ordered Pork & Vegetable Noodles.. which consisted of Quails Egss, Prawns, Mussels, Squid, a little bit of PORK, VEGETABLES... and no noodles! Work that one out! However, luckily he really enjoyed it.. would NOT have been impressed if that had happened to my dinner!

Tokyo Goodbyes!

With the deadline for our time in Tokyo fast looming, we have encured many things in such a short space of time. Not only have we seen nearly every major landmark Tokyo has to offer; belive me there are quite a few, especially temples, but we have also ran into the same festival in 3-4 seperate districts!

Having visited over 8 temples and seeing a fair few weddings (see photos) we have also visited Harajuku (Camden esc area with amazing crepes), Roppongi (loads of shops and cool area), The Sapporo Beer Museum (where I got a bit drunk), Risked our lives at the fish market (that was mental! wore flipflops - really bad idea and also attaked by EELS EELS EELS!), Loads of nice parks, Sumo wrestling tournament (really cool - met some of the fighters) and lots more....

The weather has been really hot, probably reaching 26-28 degrees each day but also due to the jet lag, I have developed a mild form of narcolepsy from around 6-8pm each day. The hostel is really nice and clean, loads to do; internet, Wii, TV etc but apart from the net we haven't had time to participate. Ordering food has been easier than first thought, especially as the rule in most places is to either point at a picture on the menu of what you want and hope they understand or use one of these funny little vending machines to accquire a ticket and then take the ticket upto the counter. A bit like an argos food restaurant really! lol.

Other random things we have notcied range from beer in vending machines in the street, petrol station pumps that hang from the stations roof and then the driver pulls then down (weird) and people taking cats for walks on leads.

Have seen and done loads more cool stuff, crazy really as it seems like we have been away for ages but only been 4 days! anyway, starting to ramble on now but check out our Flickr stream to see all our photos whenever we get a chance to upload them! They should make a bit more sense than me.

Anyway got to go and pack, getting up early in the morning for our flight and still have lots to do. Hope everyone is ok and look out for our next post, will try and get Jo to write that one!

First stop Tokyo!

After an 11 hour rather grueling flight we have safely arrived in Tokyo, and even managed to find our way through their subway system to the hostel without any slip ups! Quite amazing considering the craziness of their tube network! No pictures as yet, but we're going to attempt to attend a shrine festival tonight - should be an experience! 4 nights here then headed on South to the old capital of Japan, Kyoto via Osaka.