The Wayfarer Blog

One year ago today, I was in Beijing, China. I went to attend my friend’s wedding in Harbin, and before that, I stayed a few days in Beijing. I arrived on the evening of the 29th, so the 30th was the beginning of my tour.

I took a bus tour, which included:

• A museum with lifelike models that recreated famous events in Chinese history
• A jade museum
• Some of the 13 Tombs of the Ming Dynasty Emperors (A World Heritage site, by the way!)
• A tour of a Chinese medicine clinic, with presentations and free consultations with the doctors (which I didn’t take advantage of).
• The Great Wall

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October 8, 2006. Angela and I had survived the capsule hotel. It was time to start exploring Hiroshima! The first thing we did was get on the “Hiroden” tram, and head for Miyajima. In Japanese, Miyajima (宮島）means “Shrine Island.” It is a floating Shinto Shrine (or you could say it is a flooded Shrine; it sits on a shallow pool of water.)

I will write more about Miyajima later. For now, I wanted to share this picture of a deer at Miyajima. There are many deer on the island, and they are not shy at all. They eagerly beg for food, and if you don’t have food, they are happy to eat paper or anything else they can. Maps, papers, even clothing is not safe from their greedy mouths! Alas, Angela’s English map fell victim to a hungry deer. We were left with my Japanese map!

I took this picture of a deer. I thought it was funny, because he just stood at the cart for a minute, looking like he was waiting to buy some food!

Keep checking back, as I will keep posting more pictures as time permits. I am extremely busy, but I will try to get them up as fast as I can. As always, you can view the pics here on this site, or click on the picture to go to my Flickr site.

“Hey, what’s a deer gotta do to get some service around here?”

(That is my Forest Gump impersonation of the day….Can you dig it?)

Last weekend, I took another impromptu trip to Beijing.  It was a three-day weekend, and I wanted to see some of my friends.  We went to a restaurant that serves food from Xinjiang (新疆), which literally means, “New Frontier.”  Xianjiang is a large province on the western edge of China.  The food is very delicious and and a bit spicy.

I also went to another World Heritage Site, The Summer Palace (颐和园), in Beijing.  I stayed in a hotel that was like an apartment.  Everything looked new.  It even had a small kitchen and washing machine!  It was really nice, comfortable, and inexpensive!

It is always nice to get away and see something new.  This has definitely been a year of short trips and varied experiences, both in Japan and in other countries.  I have been working hard, but also having fun.  Unfortunately, I didn’t take my camera this time!  If you want to learn more, check out these Wikipedia pages:

Xinjiang: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang

The Summer Palace: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_Palace

Beijing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing

By the way, I took Air China and I was very happy with the service.  I left early for my flight, but for various reasons, I was late getting ticketed.  One of the attendants ran with me and helped me get on the flight.  Then, on the way back, I flew Business Class.  (It was like First Class.)  It was very comfortable and the service was great.

Halloween came and went before I realized it. I realized around 9pm what day it was. It just isn’t a big deal in Japan at all. It was never much a big deal in my house growing up, so I don’t miss it, at all.

If you haven’t seen this, here is a picture of Kinkakuji (金閣寺), in Kyoto. It is a world heritage site. It was originally built in 1397, was burned down and rebuilt several times (most recently in 1950 by a mentally disturbed monk).

This is supposedly the most popular tourist attraction in Kyoto. It was truly a beautiful place. If you want to learn more about Kinkakuji, check out the Wikipedia article here. (As always, you can click on the photo to see it on my Flick page…)