Although I stayed sick for a few days I pressed on to the main tourist attractions in Beijing. I decided to pay Chairman Mao a visit first mainly to see how the Chinese tourists react to him. Apparently the unofficial tagline here regarding Mao is that he was 70% right and 30% wrong. Before you can enter the 1,000 person line for Mao you must check your bags and cameras across the street. You then wait patiently in 4-person rows to approach the large mausoleum. A lot of people ran out of line to buy flowers from the official flower seller, so the Chinese still go to pay their respects–not just to see if he’s really dead. Interestingly, this is the only instance I have ever seen Chinese people stand in a line, perhaps the police with megaphones and military guards have something to do with that. When entering the mausoleum the line splits in two in front of a large statue of Mao where people leave their flowers. You are then quickly ushered past Mao, who lays in a glass coffin covered with a Chinese flag, in a matter of 10 seconds. Mao’s tomb exits into a large hall full of official souvenirs followed by a gauntlet of souvenir stalls outside. In total, the entire viewing takes only 10 minutes even though the line is massive. This is mostly due to the fact that no one is allowed to stop to look at Mao, even slowing down is met with prods from the military. Mao’s body was a bit strange to see, especially because the lighting and waxy covering causes his head to glow orange from certain angles. I’m glad I went, just for the surreal experience.

After Mao I spent the day in the Forbidden City. I knew it would be a large building of some sort but I was completely unprepared for how massive the complex is–it really is a city in itself. Aside from the huge buildings in the center of the complex surrounded by huge plazas, there are walls on either side which lead to smaller alleyways and a maze of living quarters and reception halls. After the complex closed at 4pm I headed up to the park behind it. By climbing up a hill to a small pavilion I was able to see not only the rooftops of the Forbidden City, but the entire Beijing skyline.

The next day I took the subway and a bus out to the Summer Palace. Although it should have only taken two hours I walked out of the subway in the wrong direction and ended up spending an hour in a residential district. The Summer Palace is a vast wooded area set on a large lake. It has living quarters, temples, pagodas, bridges and walkways all beautifully designed and set in very deliberate locations. Most tourist sites in China have to be appreciated from the outside, but some of these building had furnishings and antiques on display if you looked through the windows. I liked the less-visited hilltop sites which were sit into rocks and perched on the hillside. Down by the lake is a covered walkway painted with scenes of Chinese society that stretches along the lake between the main buildings. It was a beautiful, sunny day and many people rented boats to see the more remote parts of the Palace across the lake. You could easily spend an entire day walking around the Palace, maybe more. It was a beautiful example of Chinese architecture and turned out to be one of the better sites in Beijing.

China’s not working out real well for me so far. My first full day here was spent at the Temple of Heaven Park where I tried to understand why Coke “light” costs more than Coke. I drew a bit and met a nice older German couple who invited me to visit them in Hamburg. I decided to go to a western-style mall for dinner because it has a large food hall that’s clean and easy to use. Unfortunately, my chicken fried rice didn’t stay with me for long. After only three meals in China I am throwing up and completely miserable. At this point it’s been going on for two days so I’ve decided to break out the antibiotics. I wanted my body to fight it on its own and build resistance but I couldn’t even leave the hostel today.

I think most people know China is different than Japan but I can’t begin to explain just **how** different it is. Tokyo is to Beijing like Paris is to Budapest. It’s loud, disorderly and dirty. People shout, spit and cough, there are very few street signs, nothing has a fixed price and the air is filled with cigarette smoke and pollution. There’s a lot of talk about the Olympics in 2008. I know I said the same thing about Athens, but I don’t know how the city will be ready. The government appears to be placing large billboards around all of the shanty towns so they aren’t visible from the road. It’s a shame that more permanent clean up couldn’t take place but that would also require a total change of lifestyle for the Chinese people.

My flight from Tokyo to Beijing was uneventful. I used my last 360Y to buy a very large bag of M&Ms. ANA (All Nippon) has a camera mounted under the plane’s nose so you can see the land approaching during you descent. I’m sure I haven’t seen that on any American or European airlines. I was treated to roughly the same movie choices as my flight from LA to Tokyo. This time I watched all of *Envy* and caught the first half of the latest *Harry Potter*. Because it’s a Japanese airline the food isn’t much to my taste–even for airline food. Although I did manage to eat the rice and the Nestle Crunch bar.

Customs and baggage took about an hour and I was cleared with no weary glances. The shuttle bus to town took about an hour and dropped me off nowhere near a subway station. Once I found it, the subway was easy enough to navigate and even had Pinyin translations of the characters. The real trouble came in when I tried to get to my hostel from the station. I looked at my map, consulted my compass and glanced at the neighborhood map at the exit. I was sure I knew where I was going. The problem came in when the next street (what I would consider a street) was very far–far enough to be another subway stop. Walking between two subway stops when you’re lost is always a bad sign. That’s when I realized that my definition of a street must be different than the Chinese definition. I passed numerous alleyways that looked like bombed-out war zones but no streets. Knowing I had gone too far I backtracked and asked for directions–no one seemed to know what a map was. This process went on for hours. Finally, after walking around for 3.25 hours I found it. My backpack must weigh 500 lbs. Maybe not quite that, but after more than 30 minutes it really feels that way.

I was too tired to speak Chinese and ordered some dumplings and a beer for dinner. Beer was the only drink on the menu. My bill was 3.5Y. That’s less than 0.50 cents U.S. I think China will be okay but first I have to figure out how to get back to the main road.

Rather than head down to Hiroshima I decided to go to Takayama after Kyoto. After switching from the wonderful Shinkansen (bullet train) in Nagoya I took a small “express” train into the mountains. The ride was very pretty but the mountains aren’t as uninhabited as you would think. The Japanese have to use every bit of land they can.

Takayama is mostly known for it’s traditional houses. I walked around the area and felt like I was in a zoo. There were only a handful of Western tourists but literally busloads of Japanese. Since there’s two large groups of Australian teenagers staying at my hostel I was surprised to see so few Westerners around town. The town was definitely a tourist town, shutting down at night after the tour buses leave.

One major attraction is the Hida Folk Village with plenty of traditional houses on display. It wa since to walk around and the tour groups’ pace was much faster than mine so I was able to stay away from them. Nearby is a large temple with a gold, sweeping roof. Apparently it’s been pegged as a cult, but it was a distinctive part of the mostly one and two-story skyline.

Out of everything in Takayama I liked the tradtional houses the best. One in particular has beautiful clean lines and a high ceiling. A lot of early 20th century modern architecture the west calls innovative is obviously influenced by houses like these.

The hostel in Takayama is part of a temple complex and has very strict rules. The lights were turned off at 10pm and we were awakened at 7am by a flute player. The 15 year-old Australian school group stomped around and hogged the shower and Japanese bath. However, I did meet a great girl about my age from Tokyo. She was also travelling with her iBook and we got them out to compare. I gave her some icons and she gave me some serial software. Her keyboard has a slightly different configuration of keys and a much smaller space bar to accommodate the Kanji keys. She called me a geek but I think she appreciated me cleaning her keyboard for her.

As some of you know, I try to take a photograph of myself doing a cartwheel in each city I travel to. I’ve amassed a good collection so far–in front of the Eiffel Tower, on top of Machu Picchu, in front of the Statue of Liberty… but this trip I considered stopping the tradition. The entire spectacle feels more disrespectful as I get farther from home. On a more selfish note I have to plan it out, find a place, wear pants, bring along my disposable camera and find someone to take the picture.

When I was in Nikko, Japan I visited a lot of the sites with an Israeli man named Erez. He had a very nice Nikon D100 which he used to take a second cartwheel picture. I have gotten in the habit of using a disposable camera for many reasons. It is not valuable and less likely to be stolen by the stranger I’ve handed it to, all of my cartwheel photos will be on one roll of negatives and it’s easy enough for anyone to use. Erez wanted to take a digital picture as well as my disposable camera picture and managed to shoot the entire cartwheel sequence. You can see the cropped pictures below.

*This* is the reason I’ve always wanted to come to Japan. It wasn’t the geishas, the samurai or the ancient temples–it was the fashion. I’m not sure that you could call the cosplay kids fashion, it seems like they’re just teenagers that want some attention. In any case I think they’re wonderful, I would have been sitting out on that bridge when I was in high school if I was Japanese.

Cosplay is basically a group of kids who like to dress up in costumes or assume characters on the weekends. This usually occurs on Sundays in the Harajuku neighborhood in Tokyo. The was a large range of people and costumes. Some girls were alone and wearing what looked like sheep herder outfits. Some girls were with large groups of friends and took on a more goth or punk look.

By Sunday I had grown a bit bored with Tokyo and wanted to make my way down to Kyoto. I only stayed because I knew Sunday was the day to see cosplay in Tokyo. I had saved the best for last and it didn’t disappoint. You can see photos of some of the costumes in the Gallery section.

In addition to the cosplay kids on the bridge the neighborhood of Harajuku had just about everything I could want–fast food, junk jewelry stores, sock stores and teen-oriented clothing stores. I was in love.

I made a day trip from to Tokyo to a smaller town called Nikko. It is very famous for it’s well-preserved temples. Taking the Shikansen train (bullet train) was great because it goes so fast. I normally wouldn’t travel by the expensive train but I bought a Japan Rail Pass before I left home and it covers most of the rail lines and I am legible to ride it unlimited for 14 days.

A lot of walking around the sites was involved and I spent the entire day on the grounds. The most impressive temple contained three large wooden buddahs covered in gold leaf. They sat above the passageway, high above onlookers on their lotus stools. Most of the temples were painted red and much more intricately decorated than traditional Japanese temples or shrines.

A vendor on the grounds was selling what looked like beautiful, round marshmallows on a stick. As soon as I handed him my 250 yen he brushed them with a brown-colored liquid. Unfortunately, when I bit into them I did not taste fluffy marshmallows–it was something else, something that may have been tofu and was definitely covered in something fishy tasting.

Seeing all of the temples was exhausting and I was glad to make my way back to Tokyo. Apparently there’s a beautiful lake and waterfall in the area but most of you know I’m not the hiking type. Overall, Nikko was a good introduction to Japanese temple design but it turned out to be a much different style than everything else I’ve seen since.

Japan has turned out to be a very easy place to travel in. Most signs are also written in English so transportation is no problem. Tokyo is an interesting place. I don’t feel overwhelmed by it at all. There are a lot of people, but I’ve seen worse. Even the process when conductors pushed people onto the metro so they could fit behind the closing doors was entirely polite. The politeness and cleanliness is actually a bit unsettling. The metro is always silent and everyone faces toward the doors. Even the school kids in their uniforms are completely well-behaved. No one talks on their cellphones and no one eats or drinks.

The only real problem I’ve had is the food. I just don’t like Japanese food. Ramen is okay, but other than that everything tastes a bit fishy.

I started out slow the first day, visiting the Imperial Palace gardens and walking around the shopping district of Ginza. It had all of the upscale shops like Prada as well as the Sony building where I played with gadgets that haven’t been released in America.

The next day I dove headfirst into what most people think of Tokyo–Shibuya and Shinjuku. These are the areas with huge television screens, lights running along every building and people as far as the eye can see. I don’t understand the advertising ao much, at some point you stop seeing anything because there’s just so much. I almost think a large white billboard would be more effective.

I also visited the Edo-Tokyo museum where life-size displays of daily life have been created. The way in which Tokyo was all of a sudden bombed by the U.S. was pretty funny.

I’ve taken a lot of pictures with my new digital camera. I’ve posted some of them in the Gallery section.

Overall I am surprised at how few Western tourists I’ve seen in Tokyo. Even in hostels I’ve mostly met Germans, not the typical English or Australian backpacker. There is a large number of Japanese tourists however and a lot of the tourist facilities are geared toward them. I think Tokyo was a good way to ease myself into travelling again, I’m glad I started here first.

My parents had a small going away dinner for me with my closest relatives. It was good to see them before I leave—all of my cousin’s kids will be so grown up when I get back. Tomorrow is my last day to get things together and pack. I feel like there’s so much to do but I don’t know how you can ever really feel prepared for a trip like this.

The site is nearly finished at this point, I have been having a little trouble with the formatting of the gallery section which I hope to get done before I leave for Japan. To test the system I posted a few photos I took recently at Chicago’s new Millennium Park.

After 5 business days of waiting I was given my Chinese visa. I’m glad I was given 60 days instead of the typical 30, it even cost the same amount—$50. The pick up process was a lot smoother than last week and only took a few minutes.

Now I have to figure out where I’m going to go in China. I fly into Beijing and want to head toward Xi’an, maybe stopping Pingyao on the way. From there I may head toward Chengdu. Kunming and Xishuangbanna sound interesting but they are quite far. I would like to spend some time in the Guangxi Provance and I have a friend who should be home in Shenzhen (near Hong Kong) by the time I arrive. If I’m there I might as well hop over to Hong Kong and grab a drink with a guy from my Chinese class who’s teaching English there. The only problem with that is I have a **single** entry visa and would rather not nullify it by leaving in the middle of my trip.