Clear Lake, Oregon, USA

Took a trip to the 38th parallel last weekend.

Snapshots from the Tokyo-Kyoto Tour.

All this language learning, SRS talk and no how’s Matt and what’s he REALLY doing?

Japan!

Really, I should say I did a tiny fraction of Tokyo and and a bit of Kyoto and a bullet train in between. It was one week of an almost completely tourist adventure. I should emphasize that one unit of measurement, the week. It didn’t feel like seven days. Days and nights were one.  Every hour was different but the whole week was the same. Ramen meals were perhaps the only consistent ingredient in action packed nonstop attempt to experience a bunch ‘o stuff. I’ll run through it here  as I did in Japan  —>  Arrive Toyko,  find Ueno district, find crew and the hotel, eat at best ramen joint ever, wander  Higashi-Ueno market, see Sensoji Temple, see Five Storied Pagoda, eat sushi, wander Asakusa Market , visit Asahi brewery (no more), ascend Tokyo Tower…eat best ramen ever… cross the Shibuya crossing, all-nighting in Roppongi, eat best handcrafted mochi ice cream ever, check out Akihabara cosplay, sleep in a capsule, visit Kappabashi kitchen town, visit Tokyo Contemporary Art Museum, watch  bustle of Tsukiji Fish Market… eat best ramen ever… tour Ueno Park and temples, ride bullet train, check out International Manga Museum, view Silver Pavilion, visit Samurai shops and manga store,  play video games, bike Kyoto,  tour Imperial Palace… eat best ramen ever…train ride back to Tokyo. And that’s maybe 1/3 of the trip, the highlights.  The highlight of the highlights for me, was the Imperial Palace in Kyoto with those sweet  nightingale floors and awemazing murals.  Impressive. I don’t have any interior pictures though. They wouldn’t let me take ‘em.

What about the stories in all that stuff? -Like how Cezar and I played human frogger at Shibuya crossing and lost Melodie in the mass of people and how she wasn’t so happy, and how and why my image of ramen is no longer Top-Ramen, and how dangerous it is to first look left when crossing  street, and what happens with you share beers with carnies? That’s for another time.

새해 복 많이 받으세요. Said something like [Saaaay-bong mani pah-deu-sehh-yo] as I heard from a Korean friend. It’s not just a new year though it’s a new decade, sort of….not technically, but close enough I’d say. (My weeks start on Monday.)

This New Years I hiked with friend Melodie.  There was a temple somewhere on the mountain but we had a late start so we decided to skip the temple and simply go to the picturesque bridge in the Lonely Planet travel guide.

My second visit to Naejang Mountain. This was my first visit. This time, in the fall…on the weekend…with the rest of Korea. People really like the colors red, orange, and yellow… a lot. Visit a national or provincial park on a weekend during the months of November or October and you will find crazy loads of people.

An opening between the camera, me,  and the tree!

No break in traffic here.

Orange balls.

Melodie, Dakshini, and Matthew were tired of the warm colors and posed for a picture next to the last green tree in the park.

With a long weekend, why not go the state right next door? That’s right, except this state was China, not Ohio. If I had to describe my four day visit to Beijing in a couple words I would say huge and colorful. The scale was unbelievable. Going too big clearly wasn’t a concern. The city is huge, the buildings are huge, there are huge numbers of people, and the aforementioned are all colorful. Vibrant, rich, active and whatever. -So much going on.

Here stand the guards during the morning flag raising ceremony. It was way too early. I believe is was 5:11AM.

The entire travel crew inside the Fordbidden City.

Salsa dancing in China? (Yeah, never thought I would do that)

Scorpion on a stick. They were actually squirming on the stick. For about five bucks the cooks fry these up for you to eat. And, of course, as tourists and boys, Evan, Herman, and I had to. I had one. Evan, the truely brave one, had three. I wonder if I knocked a couple years off my life for that experience. hmmmm…..

Jumping. It’s an addiction. I couldn’t help it, especially when tempted by the greatest wall of all.

We have a house in New Orleans! Built in the 1833 by Nicholas Girod, the first mayor of New Orleans. It was built for his son Francois. girodhousecondo.com , travel.yahoo.com