This is the blog/travel journal for Chris & Joanne Reilly from Glasgow, Scotland. After quitting our jobs and selling our house, we plan to travel around the globe for the next year.

Monday, October 31, 2005

Xian Gate Dub

Our second overnight train was just as crazy as the first. A family were in the beds opposite us and I missed the lovely delight of the baby girl wetting the floor in between the beds. This might be the time to explain the clothing of kids from about 6 months to 2 years old which consists of trousers with a split in them from front to back and normally no underwear or nappy to be seen. Now this might seem a great idea for potty training but I have seen children sitting in dirty streets and also sliding down chutes dressed in this attire - I shall say no more! We also had a couple of people with no beds one of which sat on Chris’s bunk for a while and shouted at each other for a couple of hours. So we were fairly tired when we arrived in Xian at 6.30am and after getting into our hotel the Canaan International right away we tried to get some sleep. Unfortunately we had a couple of drunken smokers next door who had their room door open and were shouting and laughing at each other so we managed to get our room changed.

We realised that we could get internet access and also this would allow Chris to view some games via the Celtic’s Channel 67 + network. So Chris set up his details and imagine our surprise later when we were phoned by someone from Celtic to confirm his details!! Normally this kind of thing would take weeks to be sorted out but for once Celtic definitely on the ball.

Xian has a large Muslim population which is renowned for it’s street food and as we were both in need of some sustenance we headed out to sample some of this. We managed to have our first chicken on a stick which was deep fried with a batter around it (not exactly the healthiest for breakfast) which was spicy although you could have added dried chillies, a chilly sauce or a pepper powder to it! We were not disappointed. We were both fairly exhausted after the amount of walking that we’d done in Beijing and Pingyao and decided to take things easier for our first few days in Xian. In addition to this we also booked into a much more plusher hotel than usual which was still under 15 pound a night.

Other than our first week in Beijing the weather here has been mainly grey also due to the amount of pollution in the air and Xian was much the same (we even had rain the first night). So it was back to the hotel in time for a quick snooze before waking Chris up for the Celtic game which they won 5-0 against Dundee United (I am not sure if I like this Channel 67 it’s making me wake up at the oddest of hours).

The following day we tried another street delicacy pita bread with extremely spicy chicken and pepper on it, again maybe not a great idea for breakfast but boy was it good! Our mission for the morning was to get to the train station and find our way to the tourist information office, well we must have wandered in and around the train station for over an hour looking for this place. We eventually found out that they had moved to the other side of town. We were trying to book a trip to the Terracotta Warriors and eventually went to a youth hostel to book it. This turned out to be another drama, as we turned down the street we couldn’t see the hostel but there was a huge pile of rubble with a digger on top of it. Someone asked us were we looking for the hostel and told us to follow him up over the rubble and down the other side (I think I would have cried had I come here and saw this as my accommodation!). Well we managed to book our tour and had to retrace our steps carefully over the rubble since there was only one entrance (doesn’t even bear to think about if there was a fire!).


It was Friday the day of our tour which included a decent breakfast in the ticket price. Got chatting to Ruth and Dave who we had bumped into the night before - they told us when they arrived in the morning there was a huge gate to the hostel and when they got up later on it had been demolished. Both of them were from London and so was another guy Nigel who sounded like Ian Dury. Our guide Abbey took us firstly to a large shop/manufacturer of Terracotta soldiers and a guide in there explained how they were made. We then went to a museum which had loads of ancient artefacts and a list of punishments that included death by poking, being boiled in water, hung drawn and quartered and the death of the individual, their family and even sometimes several of their neighbours - good idea if you don’t get on with the Jones’s. We then went for lunch in a huge restaurant but the most bizarre thing was being taken all the way up to the back of the restaurant and put into a room at the back (obviously used for Westerners). We all got chatting and had a bit of a laugh even although the food wasn’t that great.

We then headed to the Terracotta Warriors around 2 o’clock, this was the part we’d all been waiting for. The soldiers were discovered in 1974 by a farmer digging a well (he has now written his own book about it and when we were there he was doing signing sessions). The Army of Terracotta Warriors are over 2000 years old, and there are thousands of these soldiers and horses in battle formation. Over 10,000 pieces of weaponry were also found with no corrosion or rust due to their surfaces being treated and due to this when found were still sharp. An emperor decided that on his death he wanted to be surrounded by an army and hence the reason why these soldiers were made. It is a fairly amazing sight to see and there is still a lot of excavation work being carried out. One of the good things is that this is being done properly and the soldiers are being pieced together carefully. Our guide wasn’t up to much and we were whizzed around the site with a brief talk which was also included on boards around the place. This was in between being pushed, shoved and prodded by the thousands of Chinese tourists. We were also inundated by the street sellers trying to sell us all manner of trinkets including the fake copies of the Terracotta Warriors.


We didn’t feel too hungry that night after our big lunch so we decided to have a few more things off of the street vendors to keep us going. So we had that good old faithful chicken on a stick and also some delicious garlic and herb flat bread. We then were looking for somewhere for a drink and headed into the Moonkey bar which we had spotted the previous evening. The music sounded ok from outside so we went in to be surrounded by a sea of staff wanting to serve us (we were the only customers).
After one drink we decided to leave and to find somewhere with a bit more atmosphere, but despite being a Friday night we failed our mission and ended up back at the hotel before 10pm.

On Saturday we strolled around the Muslim quarter which was full of stalls and the ubiquitous Chinese crowds pushing and shoving as if their life depended on it. There have been calls in the local press that there should be a new event at the next Olympics in Beijing namely “Jostling” with China winning Gold, Silver and Bronze. There were also lots of different smells coming from the food vendors and we bought a deep fried cake with a fruit jam filling which Chris put into his mouth immediately even although it had just come out of bubbling oil “It’s hoooottt!!” he exclaimed, but they tasted much nicer than they sound.


We sharpened our bartering skills and bought packets of Mao and Cultural Revolution playing cards for a fraction of the actual price requested by the vendor. After this we headed back to the hotel through the main streets of Xian passing by hundreds of mobile phone shops. There are currently 377 million mobile phones in China making it the world's largest market.

During the day we stumbled on a lane full of bars and decided that this must be the “happening” place so after dinner we headed there only to be met by more disappointment with several couples sipping coffee or empty bars. We decided to head to the bar in the hostel to see if that faired any better, it wasn’t really much busier but we bumped into Ruth and Dave and had several beers with them.


We had a lazy Sunday just walking around the city buying some last minute things for our 16 hours train trip the following day to Chengdu. That night after dinner we settled down to watch another Celtic game well Chris did whilst I packed our bags. There wasn’t loads to do in Xian, but it was well worth it being here for the excellent street food, the Terracotta Warriors and only being charged for 1 days internet instead of 5.

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Last Train to Pingyao

We were both sad to leave Beijing as there was plenty of things there that we still wanted to do but onwards and upwards to our next adventure on an overnight train to Pingyao. We arrived in plenty of time to get on our train and managed to get onto our carriage but you would have thought that the train was about to leave with the amount of pushing and shoving going on. There were 18 carriages and out one had rows upon rows of 6 bedded cubicles with no dividers - just like a big dorm on wheels and then there were two small chairs with an even smaller table facing each cubicle. We sat on the seats for a while waiting for the train to go.

So the train took off on time about 7.30 pm and shortly after we both got settled into our middle bunks (we were even provided with a pillow and a thin duvet) and managed to read for a while until the lights were suddenly switched off around 10pm. So I was wide awake and left lying listening to all the noises around me whilst Chris was listening to the MP3. Well we had all sorts in our compartment there was a snorer, a sniffer, a stripper and a snoozer: The snorer believe it or not was neither Chris nor I but the guy on the top bunk, I was the sniffer (I had a bit of a cold), the stripper was a guy who came on later in the night and took of his trousers on our bunks - I had to turn away (Chris told me later that he had legging things on) and lastly that leaves Chris as the snoozer since both he and I only had naps throughout the night.


We got off in complete darkness at 5.30am and managed to eventually get a motorcycle cab to take us to our Hostel. So we drove in complete darkness into the ancient walled city (we could have been taken anywhere), Chris even spotted a street cleaner sweeping the streets with no light!! So we were deposited off at our hostel and woke two girls sleeping in bed which turned out later to be a table in reception and we were taken in through an unlit courtyard to our room which involved a few tricky steps. The bed was huge and both of us just fell into it without really taking much notice of our surroundings.

When we woke up we could smell the drains from the bathroom….not very pleasant. The room was ok but seemed to be a bit cold/damp and the bed well it turned out we were lying on top of bricks - apparently this was all the rage hundreds of years ago for beds in China. We then headed out past reception where we found 4 girls sleeping at a table. We didn’t want to disturb them so we quietly slipped past them onto the street. We wandered along several streets/lanes full of tourist shops selling your typical Chairman Mao things along with Chinese paintings and paper cut outs. Pingyao’s claim to fame is that this is where the first cheque was ever written and it used to be the financial headquarters for China during the Qing dynasty. Most of the buildings within the city’s walls are original from the early 1800’s and the wall surrounding the town is still intact. The place was thriving merchant city but when the Qing dynasty collapsed in 1911 the city fell into poverty and there’s was no money available for modernising the buildings and streets. The city was named a world heritage site as it is a excellent preserved example of a traditional Han Chinese City. Several films have been shot here using the town as it’s backdrop. We went through an archway out onto a busy main street and walked for a bit with the locals staring at us again. We had lunch by grabbing a few small spring onion and garlic dumplings off of a stall which were so tasty we went back several times over the next few days.

We walked back through the town which wasn’t that big replying “Hello” to the kids several of them also even said how it was nice to meet us in very formal accents (obviously stage 2 of the English book). Plenty of restaurants seemed to have ‘English menus’ and ‘Western Food’ but we hadn’t had enough of the Chinese food yet, so we went into a small place which was busy downstairs and managed to get a seat on a small balcony for dinner. We ordered pork fried dumplings, a pork dish and a potato dish (both of which were local recipes). The dumplings came and were excellent - we were off to a good start. Then the main courses came with the pork being delicious but the potatoes turned out to be similar in taste to the small frozen potato fritters you can buy back home. The city had closed fairly quickly and by 9pm there was very little left open so we wandered slowly back to the hostel. The room was freezing but fortunately we did have air conditioning which doubled up as a heater.


The following morning we went onto the internet first and then decided to walk the 6Km Ming Dynasty wall around Pingyao. You paid for a ticket which seemed to get you into lots of places although there was no full list in English to be found which told you where you could go. As we walked around locals (adults and kids) would smile and wave up to us from the houses and streets below the wall. The buildings were all dark grey/black in colour and probably looked like Glasgow might have in the 1900’s due to the soot from coal fires and pollution from the surrounding factories. The houses are not allowed to be altered and have to remain the same but we aren’t sure if the locals are that happy with that. We saw cows, sheep, pigs and goats being kept in back gardens, corn on the cob and chillies drying on the top of roofs and a prison with several inmates waving at us (or maybe it was some backpackers in a really cheap hostel).


After this we headed for a well earned beer and whilst doing this found out why the locals were staring at us so much. Since I had a skirt on and Chris had shorts on we both had bare legs which the locals couldn’t understand as to them it was cold. A wee old lady pointed to my legs and gave a brrr sound whilst another woman walked by commenting on them (later on Chris had the same type of reaction from an old man). So after a beer and a chicken burgers (our first western food since our MacDonald’s in Japan) we headed back towards the hostel. The sun was starting to set and we climbed the Fengshui tower just outside our hostel and we quickly whizzed round the financial museum which also explained punishments before they closed the door on us at 6pm sharp.


A few words about the hostel apart from having a smelly room, being the only guests, no lights in the courtyard at night and the hardest bed in Asia we were also very disappointed by the staff. Anytime we asked for assistance or advice, even buying a bottle of water felt as if we were disturbing them from their sleep or food. We were never made welcome at any point in time and since found out it wasn’t just us they didn’t like as we’ve met another couple who were treated exactly the same. They also advertised their services for booking train tickets and tours but any enquiry was met with a curt ’No’ and no guidance on how to get them. So you won’t be surprised to see no link to the Yamen International Youth Hostel and if you are ever in this area don’t come here but read the next paragraph.

We had dinner that night in the Tianyuankui Hostel and had noodle soup and dumplings which were both delicious and we also managed to book our train from here with extremely helpful staff. This place was also a guesthouse and we really wished we were staying here as there were plenty of people around the place unlike ours.

On the Monday we decided to walk to the Shaunglin Temple which was 6km from the city. We weren’t bothered too much by the cyclo drivers trying to give us a lift and it took us just over an hour to get there. There was lots of restoration work being carried out around the buildings and pathways but internally a lot of the statues and buddhas needed some major work on them and some loving care to bring them back to their original splendour. We were a little disappointed in the temple as many of the statues were behind huge iron cages and you couldn’t see them fully but we would like to go back and see this place once it has been fully restored.


We had time to kill on the Tuesday but tried to tick off as many of the other museums and temples from the invisible list on our ticket. We went to the Rishenchang Financial House Museum which gave a little explanation of the rooms and the titles and job description of the people employed there. After a lunch we went into a Taoist temple and then the Confucius Temple which also held an International Photography Exhibition which had some great photos from around the world.


We also went into a Martial Arts place but the demonstration was 3 hours away and all we saw were numerous ancient looking implements for fighting (I tried out some of my Shaolin Buddha finger moves out on Chris who was soon writhing in agony on the floor). I saw what I thought was a religious festival but it turned out to be a Buddhist’s funeral procession. There were cars at the front, huge circular flower displays, a band, several men in chef’s hat holding food on plates and mourners following behind in the strange little golf carts you see all around town. We had a quick dinner and collected our tickets before having the second of our motorcycle cart rides through the city to the train station and our second overnight train journey.

Friday, October 21, 2005

Beijings, crivvens, help ma boab

It was dark and misty when we arrived in Beijing but it didn’t take too long to get through immigration and into our taxi organised by the hostel. The hostel was about a half hour drive from the airport and as we zoomed along the motorway we got held up slightly with a crash that everybody slowed down to look at. I think this was our first indication that the roads were going to be a bit mad. We couldn’t find an ATM machine at the airport but the hostel kindly let us pay the next day after getting to an ATM. It was after 10 when we arrived so we decided just to have an early night so we could make the most of out first full day in China.

We were staying at the Red Lantern Garden Hostel a newly opened annexe of the Red Lantern Hostel about three streets from our building. During the day there was quite a bit of work going on in the hostel and at night the family took over the main sitting area so it felt like you were intruding slightly when asking for something from the bar, but the family were always very friendly and helpful. The main Red Lantern seemed more like your typical hostel with a nice central area for chatting with other backpackers and exchanging advice and tips on places in the city and further a field.

After sorting out our debts we decided to head to Tiananmen Square so we could get our bearings and get a feel of the city. The area the hostel was in was a maze of tiny crowded streets but once we made it out to the main road it was very straight forward to get to the centre of Beijing. The sky was slightly overcast as we wandered the manic dusty road, with loads of shops selling musical instruments, copy DVD’s & wedding dresses. We also noticed that there weren’t too many westerners about and that most people were staring at us but not in a menacing way but more of curiosity, if we smiled they would always smile back and usually say hello. We decided to try something from a street stall for breakfast, we used the universal language of pointing and raising a few fingers to indicate how many. I’m not sure if the guy realised that it was out first morning but he charged us 20 Yuan for 2 savoury pastries, we soon realised that the going rate for this kind of delicacy was between 1 and 2 Yuan. They tasted great but maybe just a bit spicy for first thing in the morning.

We passed some large department stores quite like the one’s that are everywhere in Japan but didn’t seem just as busy here. As we got closer to Tiananmen Square we noticed an increase in the presence of the police and army by ten fold, we also soon realised that all the 'not so secret police' were wearing the same beige Harrington style jackets. We passed a really nice entrance to something military and the guys in the beige Harrington jackets would only let you take photos from a certain point and if you crossed an invisible line they would approach you and ask you to step back. We watched them do this hundreds of times to the tourists every time we passed this area.


We were soon at the Gate of Heavenly Peace with the large painting of Chairman Mao at the north end of Tiananmen Square, this gate is also one of the entrances to the Forbidden City but we decided that we would investigate this later. So we crossed under the subway and emerged in the square just as the sun started to make it’s way through the grey skies. Tiananmen Square has many similarities to Glasgow’s George Square, both are covered in lovely concrete, both have a history of tanks being used to quell rebellious crowds and there’s also many a local trying their best to get some cash out of the unsuspecting tourists. The Chinese tourist industry is one of the first to benefit from China’s rapid acceleration into a fully blown capitalist superpower as most of the tourists who visit Beijing are Chinese. If you're after a genuine fake Chairman Mao watch with moving arms or a copy of an official first print of the wee red book (and I don’t mean the Evening Times one) then Tiananmen Square is the place for you as every few minutes you will have some dodgy looking geezer opening up the inside of his jacket to show you his wares.

We passed by Mao’s mausoleum but decided the queue was too big and to go there another day, so we went for some lunch and on the internet for a bit. We managed to get a cheap lunch of rice and beef for under 1.50 pound for the both of us, which wasn’t too bad after our breakfast scenario. We then wandered back through Tiananmen Square and into the Forbidden City, we didn’t enter the main complex but skirted round the side as it would take a whole day to explore. We headed back onto the main street we came down this morning and I jumped into the first hairdressers I could find, I had been putting off getting a haircut for quite a few weeks now because of the cost so I was quite glad that for 1.50 I got a reasonable cut and still had both my ears.

We went to a restaurant quite near the hostel which had been busy when we passed the night before and was again busy when we went in. There was no English menu but one of the staff came over and hooked a large pot to gas canister under our table, they then stuck in some stock with water and the pot began to boil up. Another member of staff took us over to the other side of the restaurant to what looked like the vegetable section in Asda as if it hadn’t been cleaned for a month and someone had left a lot of fish in it. So Joanne and I looked at each other and decided what the hell let’s go for it and started putting some vegetables, fish & pork on our tray. Back at the table we slipped the contents of our tray into the now bubbling pot and started to worry if we had enough toilet paper back at the hostel. Turned out the food was ok but not brilliant by any means but we both survived without any lasting effects.

Friday morning it was back down to the Forbidden City this time we paid our entrance fee and headed in, the place gets it’s name because it was off limits to Joe Public for over 500 years and was home to the Emperors of the Ming & Qing dynasties. I’m not sure of the exact size of the place but it is massive and after five hours we felt that we only scratched the surface it. We entered at the north entrance into some beautiful small gardens with lots of lion and dragon sculptures with many small pagodas that the emperors would disappear to get away from their daily duties. Lots of the small pagodas had different exhibitions on the various times of the Forbidden City’s history. After a few hours we eventually reached the central courtyards, this is where you start to realise that China has over a billion people and it seems at times that a good percentage of them want to get up close and mingle with you as you try and see some of the sites.


We’ve been to a large Chinese Emperor‘s compound in Vietnam a few years ago in Hue, but the Forbidden City has been preserved/re-created to a much higher standard and we were thoroughly impressed by the work that was on-going throughout the site. We could speak for hours about all the different rooms and pagodas but I think it would be best if you all just get on a plane and come over here as it’s definitely the best value you will get for 4 quid anywhere in the world. After a great day we headed back to the hostel to recharge the batteries, on the way back we took a slight detour in and out of all the small streets towards the hostel. At one point in a tiny street a local chap in his late 40’s or 50’s spotted and shouted out to us in voice straight from a Harry Enfield old time BBC sketch “Helloooooo How are you doing???????” but never stopped to hear our response, we just waved and said hello back but he definitely caught us off guard.

That night we headed out to the main street about ten minutes from out hostel for something to eat and we ended up in a large restaurant with the ubiquitous red lanterns outside but once inside we managed to navigate the picture menu and ordered a brilliant meal with crispy beef coated in a honey syrup, to be honest this was one of the best things I have ever tasted and made all our tribulations from the previous night’s dinner disappear. After dinner we wandered back to the hostel through all the street hawkers selling sport socks three for one Yuan and Copy DVD’s for less than what it would be for a tenth of a DVD rental back home.

Saturday morning soon turned into Saturday afternoon after a late rise but we got on the underground after our new lunchtime discovery. The local supermarket had a bakery which sold a real tasty pastry with a nut paste for about 7p and a potato and onion combo for about 14p, so after a nut pastry each and half a potato/onion combo thingy we where ready to take on the hordes of Beijing on the subway and local buses on our quest to the Panjiayuan market. We managed the subway without too many mishaps, for 12p you can get to any other station so it’s a cheap and great way to get about this sprawling city. The bus was slightly different as we pushed on to a already bustling bus, after a few stops with more people pushing on I’m sure I could feel the person’s kidney next to me pressing against my abdomen and a few other internal organs seemed to be in very close terms by the end of the trip. Once we squeezed ourselves off the bus a friendly local showed us the direction to the market.

The market had countless rows upon rows selling mostly the same trinkets and fake antique furniture and to be honest we were quite disappointed with most of the stuff. It just wasn’t like the markets back home: no counterfeit DVDs, no Duty Free Tobacco, no fake Burberry, no dodgy watches. The only thing we bought was an old Cultural Revolution poster advocating that the workers united will make China stronger, quite ironic since I haven’t done a stroke of work in almost a year and I’m sure some of you will say a lot longer. We thought we done quite well in the old bargaining getting the poster down to 40 Yuan from 150 Yuan but the following week we picked up a similar poster for just 10 Yuan without evening bartering (10 Yuan - roughly 70p). We decided to catch the rush hour and head back on the bus to see if we could get in the Guinness Book of Records for the most people on Public Bus.

Saturday night we headed to Chaoyang the supposed best area for bars and nightlife which took us quite a time to get to, a few changes on the subway and a good half hour walk. We managed to get another great meal on route and once again it was well under 5 pound for some fabulous food and decent beers. Once we found the bar street we soon realised it was more like a Mediterranean resort with all the reps trying to get you into their bars, offering happy hours and free drinks and with crowds of German tourists' seats all facing out to the street. We had been quite surprised by the lack of western tourists in Beijing but most of the ones we did see seemed to be large group of Germans in there 50’s and 60’s. After walking up and down we didn’t really see any great bars so we decided to head to the Poachers Bar that was recommended in the Lonely Planet book but after a drink we decided the book was over generous in it’s appraisal and we decided to cut our losses and hit the road back to the hostel. It was quite a nice night so we took the decision to walk it back, so after an hour walking along a large carriageway we made it back safe and sound, it’s amazing for all the people you see during the day how quiet the streets get at night.

We decided to have a lazy day on the Sunday and headed to Beihai Park and sit by the lake and catch up with our diaries and recharge our batteries after all the walking from the previous few days. It was a really hot day but it was a bit hazy overhead, we found a nice quiet spot that looked like a cross between a band stand and a ornamental pagoda. When I said it was quiet well it lasted for all of 5 minutes as a busload of Chinese pensioners turned up and squeezed in besides us, and then in the next pagoda thingy a band turned up playing traditional Chinese instruments accompanied by a woman who’s range was causing the local dogs some earache and bending spoons of picnickers near by.

The park was a lovely setting with a large white pagoda on an island across the lake from us, the park was also the location for Kublai Khan’s Palace whilst he was holed up in Beijing for awhile. On our way out of the park we passed through a small ornamental garden with willow trees, gold fish filled ponds, small timber bridges and thousands of people taking photographs in the late afternoon sun. We also passed the nine dragon screen which was quite impressive, a large wall covered on both sides with green glazed tiles and a gaggle of dragons (does anyone know what to call a group of dragons??? )

Back at the hostel we got talking to one of the local girls who worked there and we asked if she could recommend anywhere for trying the city’s speciality dish. We’re not sure if it’s called Beijing Duck or Peking Duck but nevertheless she told us about a small place not too far from the hostel, up a few dark winding lanes but we managed to find it after walking past it twice. We had a note from the girl in Mandarin describing what we wanted so we never had any problems ordering the food. The place was very basic and we could see into the kitchen and watched them pick the duck from the rack, but once the food was on the table we soon realised that we were in for a real treat. The duck was so succulent and not as fatty as it usually is back home, we soon devoured the whole duck between us and then had the biggest shock when we got the bill for the meal and our drinks. The total came to a grand 2.60 and that included two 600ml bottles of Beer, we weren’t sure if there had been a mistake but the bill seemed fine.

Next morning it was an early rise as we were off to the Great Wall, there are many different tours available and numerous locations with everybody telling you why some parts are better than others. We decided to head to the most famous part at Badaling, being so famous also meant that we had to contend with the crowds but we were starting to get used to all the bustling and shoving that seems to be the biggest participatory sport in China. We also decide to skip the organised tours and went to get a local bus, for the hardship of finding the bus and then asking in limited Mandarin for a ticket we managed to save 10 pound which would be the equivalent of a night’s accommodation. We managed to get on the correct bus and got to Badaling about 9:30 in the morning without any problems.


Once at the site you are immediately targeted by the hawkers trying to sell the usual tat and cheap t-shirts but being me I easily side stepped these guys but the next thing we came across before we got to the entrance was large enclosures with lots of brown bears. At this point more hawkers arrive now with fruit to feed the bears and so it goes on until you get to the entrance. Most of the people seemed to be elderly Chinese and they were all heading for the cable car or toboggan type carriages that take you to the higher parts of the wall, us being the fit young things that we are headed for the climb. Luckily due to the steepness the first part wasn’t too busy but you still got some old pensioner climbing a step an hour just in front of you. It was a beautiful day and the location was just stunning with the wall snaking away into the distance in all directions and the trees starting to turn red and orange as Autumn was slowly arriving.

Some parts of the wall were really steep and slippy but the hand rails were quite useful, I’m not sure how useful they would have been for the horses that used to trek these walls in the early days. You really have to watch where you walk to avoid all the spit and snot, no matter where you are you will hear the disgusting chorus of phlegm sliding up someone’s oesophagus and the splatt as it hurtles out of someone’s mouth and onto the ground. This is one of the most annoying things about China at the moment but the authorities as starting to raise awareness of the health implications of this. Once at the top it started getting a whole lot busier but we managed to push our way through the crowds and make it down the other side. We even managed to find our bus back to Beijing so all in all it was a successful day and the wall certainly lived up to our expectations, another must see even though you can’t see it from outer space as it was thought for many years.


On Tuesday we once again jumped on the Subway and headed to the Silk Market this turned out to be a massive department store with hundreds of stalls spread out over 6 or 7 floors. We survived the constant pleading from the sales staff to look at their merchandise with their whining “Very Cheap, Very Good, You will Like these”, but some of them were a bit over the top and started pulling at your sleeve and trying to usher you into their stall. After about half an hour we had enough and decided to make a break for the doors. So we headed down to the train station to try and book our tickets for the next part of our trip, everyone we’ve met who’s been to China in the past has always mentioned how difficult it is to get around the country so we didn’t know what to expect. At the station we found the Foreign desk where the woman behind the counter spoke some English so it turned out not too bad and we got two overnight hard sleeper tickets to Pingyao.

We once again wandered through Tiananmen Square in our way back to the hostel and a large floral display promoting the 2008 Olympics had disappeared and loads of young army recruits where sweeping up the remainder of the site. The motto for the Beijing Olympics is “One World, One Dream, One Big Building Site”, not all of that is strictly true but everywhere you go at the moment buildings are being torn down and new skyscrapers, fancy hotels and large shopping malls are appearing everywhere. My Uncle was here in late 70’s for a few months with Rolls Royce and I’m sure he would see quite a lot of changes since he was here almost 30 years ago but I’m sure if Joanne and I come back after the Olympics we would be lucky to recognise anywhere with the amount of changes that seem to be happening at present or planned to in the next year or two. One down side to all the building work is that the city seems to be covered in grey dust and mixed in with all the pollution and smog it sure plays havoc with your lungs and nostrils.


The night before when we had duck we noticed that there was loads of other small restaurants near by so we headed back in that direction to try one of the other places out. Once inside there was no picture menus, no English translations and no staff with any English so out came the Mandarin Book and with lots of patience and help from young waiter we managed to order 2 main course, 2 bowls of rice and 2 beers and not end up with something that we couldn’t describe so once again it all worked out well in the end. The meal on the first night in Beijing had worried us because we had heard that the food was good so we were glad that place was not the norm and every meal since has been great and the people in all the restaurants and street stalls have been really friendly.

Wednesday morning we once again headed back to Tiananmen Square this time to get in line with all the locals and queue up for a quick whiz round Chairman Mao’s Mausoleum, we had previously been Ho Chi Minh’s in Hanoi a few years back so we thought we would tick another dead communist leader of our checklist. We decided to head in separately as you can’t take any bags and cameras in with you, and both time we were the only non-Chinese person waiting in the line. As you marched inside the compound a small booth selling flowers comes into view and hundreds of the line just start running over and fighting to get to floral tributes. I managed to contain my self and stay in line and soon got up the steps which lead into a large open room with a huge marble statue of Mao sitting looking forward with a massive landscape painting covering the entire length of the room. At this point the queue splits in two as your filtered left and right into the next room as you slowly file past a large glass box with what looks like a plastic head lying in a bed, audible sobs and gasps could be heard by some of the other people passing through and a few seconds later your out the back of the building and into the throes of dozens of vendors each trying to outdo the next with the tackiest item with the Chairman’s moniker on it.

I find it really difficult to understand the Chinese people's relationship with Chairman Mao, everywhere we go you see his picture and I’m not just talking about official Government buildings or public places it’s in cafes, people's houses and in the line for the mausoleum people weren’t there like myself just to be nosey but to actually pay sincere homage. This is a man who’s policies and dictates caused the death of millions of his own countrymen and left his country in a third world state most of the time just to stroke his own ego and to remain central to everything in his peoples life. One of the stories I always remember about his so called “Great Leap Forward” economic policy of the late 50’s was that he thought the reason for bad crops one year was due to the birds eating all the seeds, so Mao ordered the country to stop all other work for a week to catch and kill every bird they could find. Not only was this a total waste of resources from all the important industries the experiment was a total disaster as the following year almost all the crops failed as they were eaten by the bugs and other beasties that the birds would normally have eaten. This and hundreds of ill thought plans sent China into famine of staggering proportions that an estimated 30 million people died from but some people put the figure nearer 60 million.

On our last day in Beijing we headed to the Drum Tower and climbed the steep steps to large room where for centuries the monks would bang certain drums to indicate the time of day for the people in the surrounding areas. From the Tower you get a good idea how the city is changing with large cranes in every direction but you can still see the glinting tiled roof of the Forbidden City and the shimmering water in Beihai Park. We strolled back through Lotus Lane where there are loads of bars and cafes along a small lake and then through the Hutong the name for all the small streets and lanes around our hostel. We stumbled on street markets and took loads of photos of the people as they got on with their everyday stuff just as we had to think about leaving them and get on the train our next destination. We both really loved Beijing and could have stayed a lot longer but we thought we’d better try and see some of the rest of this huge country.

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Land of the Missing Sun

On the Monday morning we were due to catch our train and manoeuvred our way through the metro carrying our bags in plenty of time to wait at the platform. This was no ordinary train though as we were booked on the Shinkansen (the bullet train) one of the fastest trains in the world. The trains had a distinctive aerodynamic nose and can reach speeds up to 300 miles per hour. Once we got settled the train left on time (unlike back home), we were sitting on the right hand side which would give us excellent views of Mount Fuji but unfortunately due to the cloud and mist we didn't see any of it. One of the other strange things was that every time a guard left the carriage they would stop at the door and complete a low bow to all the passengers. We had to change trains which was no problem at all before arriving in Kyoto exactly on time at 2 pm.

We hadn't booked accommodation as our Japanese was pretty poor so we headed into the tourist information who booked us into a ryokan (a traditional Japanese style inn) for several nights. Arrived at Ryokan Ihora (near the Gion district) into our room and what seemed like a different world. It felt like we were transported into a 60's James Bond movie and half expected a band of female assassins to spring through the sliding screens. We took off our shoes and donned the lovely slippers left out for us. The coffee table was knee height (mine not Chris's) with chairs on the straw matted floor and we were left a couple of kimonos to wear. There was no bed insight though as expected there were mats in the cupboard for us to lay out later……so we did - every last one of them (although I am sure we were only supposed to sleep on one of them.)


We then spent several hours wandering around the Gion district which was full of huge department stores and several lanes of undercover shops/market stalls before catching something to eat and finding an internet cafe. Woke up the following day to overcast skies so we walked bacl into the centre to the Tourist Information place to do a couple of admin things. It was raining cats and dogs when we came out so we took the metro back to hotel rather than walking over an hour in the rain and ate our lunch there where Chris ate his first Japanese pot noodle (he says it was much better than those back home). At night we wandered along the shops and we stumbled upon a temple in the middle of this district. It was lit up by loads of lanterns and there seemed to be some service going on as we could hear the chanting coming from inside. We ate our dinner in that good old Yoshinoya after being on the internet.


On Wednesday the weather was not fairing any better so we headed to the Hein Shrine which had a huge red gate entrance. We soon realised that Kyoto was the school trip capital of Japan as we passed about 3 classes of young school kids which was the theme for the rest of our days in Kyoto. Several of the kids (usually the boys) would shout 'Hello’and when we said it back they would giggle behind their hands. We then went to Shoren In temple which had huge camphor trees before heading to the Chion-In Temple. This had a huge main hall and there was some sort of service/ceremony being carried out as lots of older ladies sat singing and hitting bells and the hall was closed off to us mere mortals. We also sat in one of the temples for a while listening to the chanting of several Buddhist monks and the noise seemed to reverberate through the whole of the room. When we came out the heavens opened again so we headed back and chilled out. We bought our second souvenir which was two fabric wall hangings which is not too bad considering we've been away for 7 months.

Thursday turned out to be much better and we woke up to a glorious blue sky so we quickly changed our plans and rather than heading for Osaka we went back to the temples we'd been in the day before. The sky was a much better backdrop for the metallic red in the Hein Shrine. We then went into the Muruyama Park which was huge and wandered past the numerous school groups, the pond, a graveyard, several other temples and a massive white stone Buddha. This is where we saw loads of women wearing the traditional Japanese Kimonos before stumbling on an area where they have created loads of tiny streets with traditional Japanese houses which now just sell tat to tourists.


We walked back to the centre of Kyoto and into the magnificent Kyoto station building which is a huge structure of steel and glass with great views over the city and a scary sky walk for vertigo sufferers like myself. There is also a bamboo garden on the roof of the department stores for workers/shoppers to chill out with great views of Kyoto Tower and surrounding areas. That night we saw a guy with a belt on holding at least 20 mobile phones (wonder what would have happened if they all went off at once). The internet café here was similar to the one in Tokyo with free drinks but the best of all was that they had a free slush puppy machine.

On Friday we took our second trip on the bullet train and headed further west to Hiroshima. Once again Japan rails efficiency was never in doubt, as well as being very fast the Shinkansen are also very safe and in 30 years of operation they have never had any fatalities. We had already booked our accommodation so it was a short walk to the Flex hotel in which we had a small but lovely room with an added bonus of free internet connection. We dumped our things and went for a wander well Chris had spotted two CD shops in all of the five minutes that took us to walk from the station to the hotel so this was our first stop. We then managed to visit 4 out of the 5 shops that this chain had in Hiroshima and Chris bought a few things to keep him occupied.


At night we tried to find a certain area for dinner but we wandered around a place that was completely dead so we managed to find somewhere in a small place in a more happening area. The chef/owner came out from behind the counter and stood outside whilst we pointed to the plastic version of what we wanted in the shop window. Not sure if we have mentioned this but there's an area in Tokyo where you can go and buy plastic plate versions of all types of dishes which are supposed to look like the real thing, some are close but others are nowhere near the mark. So we sat at the counter and watched the dinner being made up and then we quickly devoured the delicious chicken tempura and pork and rice.

We then headed to a place called Mac's Bar which had thousands of CD's, I even have to say I think it may have put Chris' CD collection to shame!! We sat and had a few beers and got chatting to Alan from Ireland who was travelling alone throughout Asia before heading to Australia. The music was really good ranging from Bob Dylan to Belle & Sebastian with some choice Velvet Underground tracks and a smattering of Radiohead and Beck. Everywhere we’ve been on this trip we’ve heard Franz Ferdinand and we've even been known to have a dance to ‘Take Me Out’ - as we did on this occasion quite late into the night. Several beers later and Alan thought he'd better head home….well we left not long after and it was about 4ish when we landed back at the hotel.


Woke up the following morning to more grey/whitish sky, at least it wasn't raining. We walked along to the Peace Park and saw the A-Bomb Dome which is the symbol of the destruction of Hiroshima. The bomb exploded almost directly above it and it's structure has remained intact (although it's now propped up) and remains as a permanent reminder of what happened.


We walked through the Peace Park which holds many different memorials: the centotaph (containing names of all known victims which is updated on an annual basis), the Flame of Peace (will only be extinguished when the last nuclear weapon has been destroyed), the Children's Peace Memorial (inspired by Sadakoa, a 10 year old girl with leukaemia who decided to fold 1000 paper cranes a symbol of longevity and happiness who died before she could reach her target) this memorial now contains paper cranes from all over the world and lastly the Korean A Bomb Memorial, a large number of Koreans worked as slave labour in the factories and prisoner of war camps. It has taken several decades for the Japanese to recognise the fact that more than 1 in 10 people who lost their lives at Hiroshima were Korean.

We then went into the Peace Memorial Museum which tells the grim story of what happened on 06 August 1945. The museum had many displays, which thankfully were also in English, that explained the science behind the creation of the bomb, the decision why to bomb Japan and not Germany and the destruction and aftermath of the world's first atomic bomb used in warfare. It describes the allied decision not to carry out air raids on Hiroshima beforehand so that they could understand the full power of their new weapon. For days leading up to the bombing and afterwards the USA took many aerial photographs of the city to enable them to assess the devastation. Many thousands of people lost their lives almost immediately and thousands of others suffered for years afterwards due to the effects of radiation including rescue workers. There were many tragic stories in particular those of the school children whose parents only had clothing or school bags left as reminders. This museum definitely is a thought provoking place and drives home the realities of atomic warfare. The museum doesn't hold back in it's condemnation of the USA using the atomic bomb, but it also recognises that the Japanese forces also carried out many atrocities throughout Asia and the South Pacific.

We had a fairly relaxing night (following our late one the night before) and watched the Lithuiania vs. Japan football game on tv with Celtic's Shunuske Nakamura scoring and the rest of the night chatting to folk on the internet. The following day we headed back to Tokyo on the ever punctual Bullet Train. These trains hold far more people probably in one carriage than we hold in three back home and are extremely clean. We ate some sushi on the train which was really nice and promptly arrived in Tokyo. Our hotel room was even smaller than the last one although we did manage to get free internet access this time. We ate dinner in the hotel restaurant and had dim sum which was really good along with a main course.


Our last few days in Tokyo were slightly hampered by the weather and a bank holiday which we knew nothing about. On the Monday we went to Shibuya and wandered the shops for a while. To get out of the rain for a while we headed into one of the many amusement arcades and had a shot on a drum game, where you had to beat a drum and cymbals as they appeared on screen, Chris won by two points but he did have a warm up game before hand (well that’s my excuse anyway). We had lunch in a wee counter place with two huge bowls of noodles - they were lovely. Headed back towards the station and noticed the massive Shunuske Nakamura billboard above the main department store advertising adidas.


The following day we headed to a photography exhibition in Ebisu which was closed on Mondays (unless it was a bank holiday) and guess what the Monday was a bank holiday so we missed the exhibition. We had also planned to go to the Sapporo beer museum and do their tour but this was also closed for the same reason. So we headed off on the subway to Tokyo Bay across the Rainbow bridge. We wandered through the Sony shop which had Eye Toy games…..well again Chris proved he was the champion - I could hardly get the game started whilst he was chopping cucumber like I have never seen before and squishing tomatoes all over the place. We had look in a Coca Cola shop selling hundreds of different merchandise with the world famous logo. Afterwards we ate a great lunch in a Sake Brewery called Hanashibe. We had decided that we couldn't leave Japan without experimenting with their local drink so we bought a bottle of Sake from their shop for later.


We then passed the big wheel and no matter how much Chris tried to persuade me I wasn't going on it and certainly not in their see through cabs. We stumbled upon the Toyota Exhibition which isn’t all just the latest models of cars, we went inside a huge stimulator which took you around the Fuji Formula One course where you could feel every bump and gear change. We also had a roam through their small car museum before another lengthy walk through a bizarre designer shopping centre called Venus Fort which had a fake moving sky which changed colours. We toasted our last night in Tokyo back at the hotel with the Sake, pot noodles and sushi. The sake didn't last too long as we only had two small glasses each but since it was fairly potent at about 50% proof it was probably just as well.


We had an early rise on our last day for our travel to the airport and took the long train as opposed to the express train. We also met this really strange American who took the liberty of depositing himself opposite us on the train in a fairly empty carriage and decided to shout at us all the way to our stop. His stories ranged all mainly around him and his famous brother in law (whom he didn't name but apparently is a Thespian). We finally arrived at the airport in time for our flight to Hong Kong and then onwards to Beijing.

Sunday, October 02, 2005

It's So Japaneasy

We didn’t arrive in Tokyo until after nine at night and by the time we got through immigration and picked our bags up it was closer to ten before we headed to the train station. We had to cross almost the entire city to get to our hotel and once we worked out the psychedelic spaghetti like Tokyo subway map we where soon on our way. The journey took about an hour and a half with two line changes, but luckily it was quiet and we could get a seat with our backpacks without any problems. Our Hotel the Tokyo Inn was in an area called Magome but there didn’t seem to be much happening here apart from people passing through. The room was very small and the bathroom even smaller, Joanne had to have her knees fully bent in the bath so there was no chance for me to stretch out and soak. We decided to have an early night so we could have a early start the next morning.

The subway station was right beside the hotel so we decided to get a Tokyo day pass that would get us onto any Tokyo Subway line and the Circular JR line. We decided our first stop would be the central Tokyo station which had a tourist information centre so we could pick up some maps and information in English. We had two changes to get to our destination but we never waited more than two minutes for a train. The trains where busy but not packed as we had waited until just after rush hour, once we got our maps and stuff we decided to have a quick look round. We seemed to be in a business district with huge offices towering above us, but on the ground floor of all these offices where shop after shop of all the most famous designer brands like Gucci, Louis Vutton, Armani, Tiffany’s and so on. We had a look at some of the shops but I didn’t see much I liked so we decided to look for somewhere for lunch.

One of the flight attendants on our flight recommended checking out the basement floor of most department stores for reasonable priced food so we did as he said and after picking one from a dozen of small restaurants we jumped in for our first taste of Japanese food. The restaurant was called Fumotoya and it was mobbed with business people having lunch. The décor was really cool but the staff spoke as much English as we spoke Japanese, but we managed to order a great lunch with the help of a picture menu and lots of pointing and nodding. We both had a small bowl of miso soup then Joanne had a chicken rice dish and I had beef and noodles, the food was excellent and it was all washed down with green tea.

It was still quite overcast so we decided to hit the shops and jumped back on the subway to Shinjuku, there was a large shopping centre just as we got out subway so we decided to head to the top and work our way down. Top floor Tower records, supposedly the best stocked record shop in Tokyo. The place was massive and covered three floors, it also had a huge book and magazine section. It was the day of the new Franz Ferdinand CD Japanese release so we got to hear most of it while we browsed about, they had quite a few large displays promoting the album and showing the new video. The CD prices were ok probably equivalent to HMV back home but Tower was almost the most expensive record shop in Glasgow when it was open, so I refrained from increasing my collection any further. The remaining floors of the shopping centre were filled with loads of sports and fashion shops selling well known western brands. We spent the next few hours blissfully wandering the busy shops people watching as much as window shopping, the Japanese sure like to shop.


After a while we decided to give our feet a rest and started our hunt for an internet café. The lonely planet guide mentions that there’s not that many internet places in Tokyo, but we managed to find one quite quickly. Once inside we soon realised it was more than just your usual internet café with some clapped out PC’s and plastic bucket seats that we’ve been used to the rest of the way round on our trip. First you are allocated a room number and given a free ice cream and told to help yourself to as much free coffee or soft drinks as you wish. Once in your private room you have a large TV, DVD Player, Playstation 2, PC, comfy leather chair with foot rest and access to an extensive library of magazine, books, DVD's and games. We only really wanted to check our emails so all the extras were wasted on us apart from the ice cream.

When we emerged from our private rooms into the neon lit streets it suddenly felt like we had really arrived in Tokyo, the place was manic with business men making their way home, high pitched juveniles shrieking to their friends and a few dazed tourist bumping into each other as their eyes jump from one flashing light to the next. My first ever full time job was with a sign making company and for a short time I trained in the art of making neon tubes, this is a process that is a lot more difficult than it looks and one that I never really mastered and was quickly moved onto other tasks. So I had a lot of respect for the work that created the millions of iridescent tubes glowing above my head advertising things I couldn’t read nor understand.


Some of the guys we met on our trip in Peru had recently been in Japan a few moths before reaching South America and has tipped us off about a few things in Tokyo, so it’s with thanks to Sharpy, Tubbsy and Matt that we found a place for our next meal. The Yoshinoya restaurants are Japan’s answer to McDonalds serving quick cost effective Japanese food, which can be found not to far from any subway station. Over our two weeks in Japan we returned to Yohinoya to fill up on the miso soup, noodles and rice on many occasions. It had been a long day so after some walking about the neon lit streets we jumped back on the subway and back to Magome to rest our weary feet.

Next day we went for the cheaper day pass that got you onto all the subway stations apart from the circular JR lines, this saved us a few pound each and we could get to everywhere we wanted but maybe via a few extra stations. We headed to the Ginza district to see the Imperial palace, well you can’t actually get in to the palace as it is only open to the public two days of the years. So we took some photos and headed back to Ginza and to the Sony Building to play with all the new gadgets and some that were still in development. The place was spread out over 5 or 6 floors and we played with robot dogs, listened to Franz Ferdinand on headphones that cost more than my stereo and TV back home, played the latest football game on the Sony PSP which has Shunske Nakamura and Zico (legendary Brazilian footballer who now manages Japan) in all their marketing campaigns and whiled away an hour so without spending any of our hard earned Yens. Well I say hard earned but being unemployed and homeless for seven months certainly has it drawbacks when in a city with so many great shops with prices tags to match. We noticed on the map there was a Godzilla statue in the area so we walked a few street to where it was on the map and once we got there we both nearly fell about laughing. We were expecting a gargantuan replica of Japan’s biggest movie star but what we found was a two foot model on a 4 foot plinth stuck in a corner near a subway exit.

Since the sky was still quite overcast we decided against sightseeing round the cultural highlights and headed instead to Akihabara home to Tokyo’s world renowned electrical and gadget district. We wandered from Ginza past Tokyo station which had a large exhibit featuring a F1 racing car and some genetically elongated Japanese girls in short mini dresses and big boots sponsored by some company called The Royal Bank of Scotland.


Akihabara must have over a 1000 shops selling endless amounts of MP3 players, Cameras, Computers, DVD players and the ubiquitous mobile phones and with the helium voiced sales staff squeaking out the reason to go to their shop and not the one next door selling exactly the same goods. The prices are definitely cheaper than back home but maybe not as cheap as Bangkok or Hong Kong so we didn‘t pick up too much but I‘m sure if there was an electrical appliance you’re after then you would find it here no problem. The area also had loads of shops selling Japanese Comics & Animated Movies (Manga) but some of this stuff was a bit weird and a bit different from the Beano and Dandy. Every newsagent has thousands of comics on sale and it’s not unusual to see loads of businessmen engrossed in them on the subway.


Friday morning we caught the subway to Ueno and wandered about the Ameya-yokocho market which was the famous black market district after World War II but now just sells the same counterfeit goods you can find in most markets around the world. This is where we saw the fake Celtic strips with Nakamura and the number 25 on the back, the quality wasn’t too bad and they even had a copy of the new Green away kit which was only released in the UK a few weeks before hand. We were in a shop the night before that had a large display showing a Celtic Strip and loads of cuttings from Nakamura's first few games for Celtic but I’m not sure if either all the strips where sold out or they don’t have the distribution network set up yet to cash in on the interest. We picked up a hot takeaway box for lunch which had some rice, salmon and some chicken tempura which was once again very tasty.


In the afternoon just as the sun came out we went on a free guided tour of Ueno Imperial Park with an English speaking volunteer. The volunteer was in her late 50’s and spoke very good English and had a good sense of humour. We were told some of the history of Tokyo’s first public park and how it was once the highest point in Tokyo. The park is also home to most of Tokyo’s homeless who sleep under tarpaulin in the northern end of the park, while we were there a Christian charity was having a service and afterwards they would give out food and clothing to the homeless.


We also went to a Buddhist temple where the guide showed us the correct etiquette for using the water purifiers at the front of the temples. The temples were very beautiful and we had a chance to look around as we were the only ones there. We then saw giant stone lanterns, monuments to fallen Samurai, 5 storied Pagodas, fountains and countless other shrines. The ninety minutes flew passed and was a great way to learn a bit more about the area and people so if you ever make it to Tokyo ask at the tourist information office about free tours by the SGG (Systematized Goodwill Guide) club. Once we said our goodbyes to the guide we headed to the Shinobazu pond which was split in to three main ponds. Two of the ponds are completely covered in water lily pads and the other is a boating pond with large pedalos in the shape of swans for hire.

After wandering about the park we headed back to the subway to catch some of the shops in Ginza. We walked and walked as it turned from day to night and streets slowly started to glow with the massive billboards and neon signs but once again it was all designer palaces thronged by the hip young things throwing their money at French bags, Italian footwear and Swiss watches. I’m not sure what the average wage is in Tokyo but on the subway nearly everybody has an Ipod, tiny mobile phones and wearing really smart expensive clothes. Since we’re not hip young things with money to burn we had some dinner in the cheap and cheerful Yoshinoya. We were quite intrigued by a massive sign for a shop called Don.K which turned out to be Japan’s answer to Poundstretchers but with a few twists. It had all the usual stuff like cheap aftershave, Rolla-Cola, cheap plastic toys, Pink Balaclava’s and sports socks. Yes Pink Balaclavas and nurse’s uniforms popped amongst all the usual banal stuff you usual find in bargain basement shops. After getting some provisions it was back on the subway back to Magome for another well earned rest.

When we woke in Saturday morning it was another glorious day so we put on our sunscreen and headed out for another day pounding about Tokyo. We arrived at Omotesando Subway and walked along past another collection of designer stores this time interspersed by loads of small café’s and coffee shops mobbed by people showing off their best clothes and trying very hard to look very cool. At the end of the street we came across a totally different crowd of poseurs, the cos-play-zoku (Costume Play Gang) are young teenage girls dressed in some of the most outrageously over the top get ups you could ever imagine. Some of them are in Little Bo Peep, others are dressed as children’s cartoons characters like Pokemon and some in weird goth like creations all topped off with massive boots and a million beads or ribbons.


After people watching for a bit we had a quick wander round Shibuya-ka park with it’s massive Shinto shrine one of the biggest gate like shrines in Japan but the one we see today is only a replica as the original was destroyed in bombing raids by the Americans during World War II. We then headed to the nearby Takeshita Dori area which is a bit like Ashton Lane or the Merchant City in Glasgow but a hundred times bigger. This is where the cos-play-zoku shop and the there are hundreds of cool little boutiques, record shops and cafes. We came across a shop selling Disney character clothing for dogs and another selling English football hooligan memorabilia. We also spent half an hour in the Beatles shop where I could quite easily have spent hundreds of Yens but Joanne kept reminding me that I’m unemployed and homeless. There was also quite a few label shops like X-Large, Triple Soul 5 and Stussy where I would normally pick up a t-shirt or two but this being Japan there’s not much of a market for X-Large stock so I had to once again stick to my Window Shopping role.

We headed back to the hotel to get changed and have some dinner as we planned to go out for the night at hit some of the bars as we had been very well behaved all week. The hotel’s restaurant was very good and we especially enjoyed the dim-sum. We got the subway to Roppongi which supposedly had Tokyo's best night life, so we decided to have a look about first before diving into the first pub we see. This took a bit longer than we thought and with so many bars to choose from and so many touts trying to get you into their bar or club. The first bar we went into was a reggae bar on the fourth floor which the tout told us was beginning to get busy, but once we got into the bar we found out we were the only one’s inside and a small beer would be 800 Yen which is about £4, so we made our excuses and headed back down to the street.

The first bar we had a drink in was called Gas Panic one of may of the same name throughout Tokyo, as we walked in there were people dancing on the bar and the place was mobbed but we managed to get a drink in the upstairs bar which was a bit more sedate but this wasn’t really our kind of place. So further up the street a young Canadian guy who was touting for a bar that had just opened that night gave us half price passes for the Dollar Bar. Once again it was on the fourth floor but this time it wasn’t empty but there were two other people sitting in this beautiful bar with all the best of fittings, plasma TV’s but has as much atmosphere as the sea of tranquillity. So once again after one drink it was back on the street looking for the so-called happening bars of Roppongi. The next place was the Kingston Town bar which once again wasn’t too busy but the music was great so we stayed in here for a few drinks. The DJ was a 7ft Jamaican guy wearing a White suit and a large fedora hat and between playing some of the best music I have heard in a bar in moths was also playing darts for drinks against some other Jamaican guys. On the TV screens dotted about the bar was the 2005 Miss Dancehall competition and if you know anything about Dancehall Reggae you will realise that the screens were full of young Jamaican girls shaking their plentiful rears and anything else that jiggled at the judges, audience or anything that happened to be in the Caribbean that night. Some of these girls are known to inject there backsides with chicken fat to increase their chances of impressing the judges in this very serious Jamaican competition. After Joanne took a few notes on some of her favourite moves it was time to move to another bar.

Next stop was the Motown bar which was full of drunk middle age Japanese business men singing and dancing along to some of the most awful Euro Pop and 70’s Disco records ever to be heard. There was one guy we noticed up dancing who was cradling a bottle of beer as if he had known it all his life and was deeply in love and another guy who had obviously been to the Kingstown Town bar and was shaking his behind in all directions in hope of a few extra points. The beers in all the bars ranged from 500 to 800 Yen so to be honest it wasn’t a lot more expensive than drinking in Glasgow City Centre but the night was still young and had a few more twists before the end.

We decided to go to one more bar before we hit the road back to Magome so our last pub for the evening was the Geronimo which was facing the subway station, once inside we were quite surprised to find the small bar completely mobbed and what seemed like a mad party. We managed to get a place in a corner to stand and sip our Coronas, a few minutes later a girl in front of us reaches over the bar and hits a large gong with a drumstick. Within the next few minutes we were handed a shot of some cocktail because this girl had banged the gong, this happened nearly every ten minutes and over the night far to many to count. We never did really find out what it was all about but supposedly if you bang the gong you have to buy everyone in the bar a shot, there must have been about 40 to 50 people in the bar.

We got talking to Angel & Jane two girls from the Philippines who where standing next to us in the bar, Joanne had been asking them if it was one of their birthdays as they had banged the gong. The conversations got a bit hazy after this but we had a good laugh when we brought the camera out and started taking loads of silly group photographs, as the night wore on the faces and poses where getting more and more contorted. At about 3:30am we called it a day, said our goodbyes and headed down to get the subway. Once outside we soon realised that the subway was closed so it was into a notoriously expensive Tokyo taxi, which was only £16 and it did get us back to our hotel a lot quicker than the subway would.


Well we never saw much of Sunday morning but by lunchtime we were in booking our train tickets for our journey to Kyoto the next day. We had hoped to wander round some of the second hand camera shops in Shinjuku but we could only find one and it didn’t really have what we were after, but every cloud had a silver lining. On some of the small lanes and side streets behind the large department stores we found hundreds of small specialized record and CD shops, so I had a great afternoon browsing reggae, northern soul, Indie and sixties shops. There was also so many live bootleg concerts and DVDs available I’m sure if I looked long enough I would have found a Static, Limehouse or Twister CD for sale, even though the furthest east we ever played was Cowdenbeath. These where a few of the bands I was in when I still thought I was going to have a career in music before realising I was destined for a life stuck behind a desk numbing my brain.

After Joanne was totally bored by the fifth Dub parlour we had been in we decided to try and find an internet café to catch up on some emails. You would think that with Tokyo being the modern metropolis that it is it would be easy to find somewhere with an internet but no it was a nightmare, the one we had been in a few days earlier was closed so we wandered for hours before we eventually found somewhere. After that we had to find an ATM as most cash machines in Tokyo don’t accept cards from outside Japan, so once again it was another wild goose chase for an elusive Citibank ATM which took a good 50 minutes. By this time it was 9:30 and we where really hungry so we decide to got to a Curry place we had seen a few hours earlier. Before you enter you select your choice of meal and accompaniments from a vending machine out on the street, once we selected our Chicken Kormas and Nan’s we clambered into the tiny restaurant and handed over our tickets from the vending machine and waited a few minutes before we where served two massive meals with two gigantic nans, it’s always a worry when you start eating something bigger than your head. Another great low cost meal in Tokyo so it is possible to Tokyo without spending a mint, but I’m sure you would probably enjoy it a bit more if you had a bit more to splash.

We loved our first six days in Tokyo and we know we only skimmed the surface but the place is filled with fun and the people are very friendly but just a little shy. We also never had to many language problems which is good going since we only knew about 5 phrases in Japanese.

Arigato - Thanks
Konnichiwa - Good Afternoon
Kombanwa - Good Evening
Sayonara - Goodbye
Wa doko desu ka skanku dreadu shoppe - Where is the Dub Reggae Shop?

Next morning it was off to Kyoto on the Bullet train.

Saturday, October 01, 2005

Dear DubCentral

Here`s some comments we`ve had about the blogger from old & new friends over the last few months.

Chris & Joanne

Your trip sounds shite. We're glad we stayed at home. All that foreign food like pizzas....yeuch!!! And the weather? Don't get me wrong, I like it warm, but not that warm. Give me a balmy 17 degrees and the easy availability of Greggs, Irn Bru, junkies and sectarianism any day. I especially thought that the whole of South America sounded like a complete waste of time and money. Once you've seen one Aztec or Mayan temple you've seen them all. The pictures of Macho Pishoo just looked like a pile of rocks with a few hills and sweaty middle class drop-outs swarming all over it. And San Fransisco sounded as if you needed to wear a full metal jacket rather than flowers in your hair. F*** that for a holiday! I'll stick to Benidorm. You can get your English breakfast, everyone speaks the King's Own, a Red Lion and a pint of bitter on every corner...and you've got the weather. What more would you want?

Anyway, I hope for your sake the second half of your trip picks up a bit so at least the year off hasn't been a complete disaster.

Cheers!

Vinny
Head of English
Larkhall High
Darkest Lanarkshire







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Dear Mr DubCentral

We haven`t taken to kindly to some of your observations and comments about our beautiful country in you so called travel journal. We have your name on a list and you will never darken our door again whilst I`m in power.

Thanks but no Thanks>



Helen Clark
Prime Minister of New Zealand<









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Hi Chris & Joanne

Enjoying reading about all your exploits, remember if you meet any good looking female capitalists who need protecting remember to pass on my name, rank and phone number. Keep safe and don’t believe half the lies they tell you.

Name: David J. Whyte
Rank: Outsider
Likes: Public Order, 60’s Beat Combos and the early works of Dostoevsky.





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Dear Chris & Joanne

Thanks again for mentioning my show in the blogger, since then it’s shot up three places in the ratings and we‘ve been nominated for a few Emmy’s. Also looks like the Mighty Thistle might get to play Rangers next season if we can win promotion. Anyway Sharon says hi and says if you can remember the third verse of “You cannae shove yer Granny” please get in touch.

Thanks again.

Craig Ferguson (a.k.a Bing Hitler)