China: perhaps the second time's a charm?

oh China.  It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.  I tried. I really did (ok, maybe I didnt).  China was a whirlwind week of the spectacular and the... not so spectacular. 

First off, the ferry from Osaka to Shang-hai.  If you ever have the opportunity to do this, DO IT.  it was great! But get a private room, its worth it.  We shared ours with a father/son pair from nowhere else but New York!  Small world!!  These guys, along with an eccentric, free-spirited French Canadian woman who is just to die for, made the boat ride go by in a flash!  Tons of great conversations, travel stories, life stories, and more were shared. Inspiring.

Shang-hai: Amazing!  I think I have a tendency to love the French-influenced Asian cities the best.  maybe its the food? the architecture? not sure.  But Shang-hai was great. We missed the 2010 World Expo by days, which was fine because we reaped all the benefits (cleaned up city! crazy blue gumby icon guy!  lots of really neat buildings to stare at!) without all the crowds.  We loved the futuristic bridge we had to cross to get from the hostel to the main subway.  I loved all the architecture! You would see an old-world colonial building right next to a space-age glass skyscraper.  it was fantastic.  Shang-hai mostly consisted of 2 days of walking and gawking, getting lost in an underground mall for ages, trying to see Alice in Wonderland in 3-D (at last!) but failing due to... AVATAR!! (ARRGHHH!!), the Shang-hai museum, and bakeries.

On to Beijing.  Which I really wont say much about, except...  the Great Wall of China was awesome.  Totally not what I expected, but in a good way.  zip-lining off the wall was an unforgettable experience.  and we found a great Vietnamese coffee shop near our (under construction!) hostel with one of the best cups of coffee I have ever had in my life (right up there with the kopi luwak).  And the Forbidden City was pretty cool.  And there were lots of funny warning signs/symbols.  There, that was pretty positive, wasnt it?

Last Stop: Hong Kong.

Japan, as briefly as possible

In three words: WE LOVE JAPAN!

Japan was amazing.  Originally, we had only budgeted 2 weeks in Japan. HA! We ended up staying for about a month.  It was just incredible.  And too much to post about right now, so some highlights are:

Sakura Matsuri.  <3  The cherry trees were in full bloom and EVERYWHERE! And at night, they light them up in pretty colors, which makes them even more beautiful.  Ueno Park was gorgeous, and I loved every second of it.

Cuteness.  Japan <3s cute. We <3 cute.  It was great.  We discovered meow-pires (a little kitty vampire), visited the Ghibli Museum (even more amazing than it sounds), laughed at every commercial - every product had a cute cartoon icon - toothpaste, denture cream, ramen noodles, you name it.  Even the police stations each had a little cartoon icon!  Harajuku girls are amazing, and we determined we will wear frilly dresses and dress outrageously whenever we want when we get home.

Disney.  To make myself feel better about not getting into grad school, we went to Disney.  Both Tokyo Disney and Disney Sea (described as "Disney for Adults", but not in a naughty way, more of in a roller-coaster kinda way).  Favorites include: crazy popcorn flavors, crazy pizza flavors (seriously, NO plain cheese???), food in general, its a small world in Japanese, ok, well, every ride in Japanese, and Bunny hop-hop-hopping at the Easter parade.
My favorite story: "Its gonna be just like Splash Mountain, I know it!!"
-So we get on the Indiana Jones ride at Disney Sea after going on some kind of roller coaster ride.  Everything is in Japanese, so there are no ride descriptions or anything.  But there are lots of warning signs about people with bad backs or pregnancies.  And there's a place where you get your photo taken during the ride.  I become convinced that this is a Splash Mountain kinda ride (which I HATE) and start getting really nervous. I want to get out of line, but dont want to be embarrassed and have Megan hate me forever/tease me mercilessly.  So I suck it up and get on.  Its a pretty standard Disney ride, a few fast jerks and spins and turns and such, and I'm sweating like crazy the whole time because I just KNOW the big drop is coming.  And sure enough, we start climbing and we're going down this dark tunnel, and its the scene where the big rock is rolling after Indiana Jones and the cart your in is heading right for the rock.  I know that we are going to go under the rock in a straight dive down, so I scrunch really low in my seat and close my eyes and hold my breath and put my arm around the back of the seat to hold on better.  And a lightbulb flashes and we do a little "woosh" turn thing and its over.  No drop. Though I dont let me guard down until we are pulling into the station and the the guardrail comes up.  Best part - having to walk by the pictures at the end, and see tons of people laughing at my terrified, scrunched-up expression.  Shame-faced.

Sushi. I discovered a love for sushi in Tokyo.  Conveyor-belt sushi is amazing, especially when you have a super-awesome friend to explain everything to you (ohhhhh the plates are color-coded so you know how much each dish costs!).  Thanks Akane!

Temples.  serene.  magical.  Japan is magic.  A war was started: who would have more pictures - Steffany and the cherry blossoms, or Megan and the red gates.  close-ups of flowers was thrown into the mix. temples + cherry blossoms = mind blowing.  Helping school children with their homework, and having them help us with the many temple traditions, including a love shrine walk. 

Space issues that reminded us of home (or not).  capsule hotels.  car garage ferris wheels.  24 manga cafes where you can watch dvds, read comic books, surf the web, or sleep. with free food and drinks!!! and soft serve!!

Soft serve ice cream.  it gets its own category.  Megan was in heaven.

Geisha dance. Bamboo forest. monkey sanctuary. Scary Ferris wheel. Aquarium. bath houses. 

love. love. love.

 

Better late than never: our journey onwards

Dear Malaysia,
Its not you, its me. (or, well, us).

That's how the letter we composed to Malaysia started. I cant remember the rest.  To be fair, it was like over a year ago now and I think we were pretty delirious at the time. 

So, now to pick up where this blog so inelegantly left off (sorry about that, most of our little internet time in Japan/China/Hong Kong was spent catching up on earlier posts, and we just, kinda... fizzled).

We were heading from Bangkok to Japan.  Just had to make a quick connection in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia (or "KL" as the cool kids call it).  However, upon a more in-depth scrutiny of our boarding passes, I realize I have managed to miss the whole AM/PM thing, and we have about 14 hours to spend in the airport. overnight.  woops.  we slept on benches until we were so frozen we caved and got an airport room.  real bed. real shower. luxury!  got up, explored a bit, changed some money, had a pathetic breakfast as we tried not to take out money at an atm (only to have to change it over in Japan).  The indoor rainforest in the KL airport is pretty awesome, but our pictures dont do it justice (mostly because we are exhausted and look like train wrecks).

Megan's favorite story: "Where does Steffany go when she reads?!"
On the plane, I immediately start reading.  Apparently, this is what happens next, as Megan tells it, though I have absolutely NO recollection of this:
- Megan is itchy from our close encounters of the creepy kind in Laos, and is covering herself in Tiger Balm (LOVE Tiger Balm!!)  A lady sitting near her notices, makes a sad face, and asks "itchy?" while making a scratching motion.  Megan nods.  She then offers Megans drugs.  I'm not sure what they were supposed to be - pain relievers, antihistamines? (antihistamines, yeah that sounds about right).  Megan protests and claims she's quite fine, but this little old lady insists, and starts digging through her purse to find her pills.  And then gets up and looks in her bag in the overhead bin.  And goes through so much work to find them, Megan no longer has the heart to say no to her. So she accepts them, takes one, and saves the other for later.  Her thought process: "Well, if this isnt what she says it is, at least Steffany is right beside me looking out for me". Ha!  She could have died.

Next up, Japan: cherry blossoms and so much more!