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I finally have put the first few days of Africa pix up in the Image Galleries, there are still a TON more, so stay tuned…

South Africa was indeed not ready for the World Cup. I’m not sure how the media is portraying things, but it has been a mess.

That being said, I’m taking it in stride and keeping good spirits. I’m also managing to have a great time!

Internet is hard to come by, as are other such commodities as reliable electricity and heat, petrol, food, and water, depending on the location.

We have a car and did some interesting exploring between games, and there may be more of that to come.

Our last game in Joburg is tomorrow, and then we have a week before our last two games in Durban.

Not sure yet where or what we will be getting into after the US vs Slovenia game tomorrow, but I’m sure it will be a challenging adventure.

Since Internet has been hard to come by, updates will probably come sparsely, and pictures will come after I get back. (I have no computer with me, only my phone)

Until next time, I’ll try to be tweeting as thoughts come to mind, but they may get queued for upload until I get connected, so hopefully that will explain any confusing delays.

Ayuba!
(I still don’t really know what that means)

Leaving Friday for the Cup, can’t wait. Watch Twitter for updates, although with this post I am also testing an iPhone app to update this blog directly.

I’m probably not going to do summaries for Japan days 19 and 20. It’s been long enough now, if you really want, look through my tweets from back then, or the pictures and ask questions.

As another update, I finally got my airfare for South Africa squared away. I’m connecting through Dakar, Senegal. Maybe I’ll see if I can extend a stopover there, or accidentally miss my connection. Plans to fly through and stop at Egypt or otherwise were put aside when I found a great round trip special from PDX to JNB. There are 3 of us going, but we are all coming from different places, and probably will be arriving/leaving at slightly different times.

Other than getting ready for the World Cup, not much new over here.

If anyone is looking for a summer vacation, May is completely open for me, and I have a newly remodeled Guest Room! Come check out Portland / the PNW!

Cheers!

I found myself again in Tokyo, with only a few days left before I left, and as with this whole trip, no real agenda. I did know, however, that today was “Coming of Age Day”, a national holiday in Japan. On this day, everyone who turns 20 that year is now considered an adult, and they celebrate. Everyone has the day off, people make visits to shrines, and the 20 year olds dress up, women in Kimonos, men in suits. I decided it would be a good day to stroll around and people watch.

I decided to head over to Ueno Park, and there were a lot of people out. While at the park I also visited the Science and Nature museum, which was marginally interesting. (I had already visited the National Museum on a previous visit, which is the best museum in the park.)

Afetr Ueno, I decided to head to Harajuku, on a hunch that a lot of people would probably be there. I had hit the nail on the head! People were everywhere in Harajuku, and there was also apparently an ice sculpture exhibit. (Which, based on the condition of the sculptures, must have occurred earlier that morning lol)

I moved on to the Meiji Shrine, which is one of my favorites, since it is in a nice wooded area, and found it too packed with people for Coming of Age day. It was fun to watch everyone so dressed up and in fancy kimonos.

After Harajuku, I walked over to Shibuya for some more people watching, and then decided to head over to Beer Club Popeye. This is when I discovered their Happy Hour deal; one free plate of food for every beer you order! This was bad news lol. While at Popeye, I met a professional brewer from Australia, and we had a good time talking about beer. We eventually when out to Shibuya to drink and mainly people watch, as there were quite a few people out for Coming of Age Day, many of who were learning that they can’t drink much. Good times.

We started the morning off in Shirakawago with a great, bug breakfast served in our minshuku. We cooked a very sweet, egg based substance on a leaf, and ate it on our rice. The breakfast was really big, and tasty!

After breakfast, we watched the town clear yet more snow, as we waited for a bus out to Kanazawa. We spent the day in Kanazawa, visiting an extremely large Japanese garden that was beautiful, as well as a castle. We also got to have some Okonomiyaki for lunch, which is one of my favorite Japanese dishes, and it was great!

In the evening, Yukiko had to head back to Kobe to get ready for work, so I decided I would be on my way to Tokyo. It took about 4 hours by train to get there, as we were in a pretty remote area. I checked into the hostel I found in Asakusa, and got ready for my next few days in Tokyo.

Day 16, Shirakawago

I started the next day early (Which was difficult after a late night of drinking in Pontocoho with Katie and Sono), but we had a train to catch! I met Yukiko at Kyoto station, and we were on our way to Shirakawago. It took us a few hours by train to get to Kanazawa, where we stopped for lunch, and then took one of the 3 buses a day in and out of Shirakawago.

You could tell on the way that we were gaining a lot of elevation, and we went from great weather in Kyoto to snow and cold fairly quickly. The mountains on the way there were beautiful, and covered in snow. When we arrived in Shirakawago, I could not get over how much snow there was. People all over the town were on the roofs of buildings, clearing off the snow from the night before. Accumulated snow on the ground was taller than myself in many areas.

The town itself was amazing, and you could tell why it was a UNESCO World Heritage site. The historic farmhouses were quaint, and with the snow covered roofs and ground, it was extremely picturesque. It was fun to walk around the town a bit, and visit some of the farmhouses. We decided to work our way up to an overlook, but the path was blocked because of the snow. We found an alternate way up, which was actually a road. We started the hike up, and then realized that there was actually a shuttle bus making the run. We figured we were already on our way, so decided to just make the hike. It was actually quite nice to hike up, and we got to enjoy the snow and sights as we climbed. Once at the top, we had a great view of the snow covered village below.

In the evening we caught a bus over to where we were staying, in a nearby village that seemed equally small. We stayed in a traditional minshuku, that also had an outdoor onsen! (Natural Hot Spring). It was like most traditional Japanese baths, however it was great to be able to soak in the hot spring water outside, surrounded by snow. It was extremely peaceful and relaxing!

We were also served dinner in our room by the very nice family that ran the minshuku, which was also great. Overall, it was a great experience, and I’m glad we got to experience it!

Day 15, Kyoto

Day 15 was my first full day in Kyoto. It was a really nice day, both with the weather, and just walking around. I decided to visit the Golden Temple, since it is pretty much the only major tourist sight that I didn’t see on my previous trip. It was about as I expected, beautiful, and very picturesque.

After the temple, I decide I was just going to wander around and explore northern Kyoto, since it is an area that doesn’t get a lot of tourist traffic. I’m glad I did, it was a great experience! I came across a lot of really cool temples that seemed completely off the radar of most people, many of them I was the only one there! I was amazed at how vast and beautiful some of them were, when they get no attention at all regarding the things you “must see” in Kyoto.

I continued walking, pretty much aimlessly, and eventually arrived at a farming area that was really rural. It was fun to just walk around amongst the farms, although I definitely had a few local farmers think I was lost. I guess I kind of was, but I didn’t mind. I came across an interesting pond that served as a place to fish, and watched one lone fisherman sit on the floating docks fishing away.

I walked around on a path through a bamboo forest, and ended up at another temple where I met Katie and Sono. (The girls in the kimonos in the pictures.) We ended up hanging out for awhile, and eventually stopped for some tea and sweets. Later that night we went out to Pontocho, and had some great food at an Izakaya, and then did some more drinking at various odd establishments Katie and Sono are a lot of fun, and I hope we can hang out again sometime in some country in the future!

Overall it was a great day of walking around and exploring, and a fun night at Pontocho!

In the Image Gallery section. I warn you, I take a lot of pictures!

I’m going to try and write summaries about the remaining days soon.

Today proved fairly uneventful. It’s funny how a one hour 20 minute flight can become your whole day.

I had been trying to decide where to go after Seoul, debating a quick trip to Taipai, or back to Japan since I need to fly home from Tokyo. (And if Japan, what part, since there are still a lot of places I’d like to see).

I had also been keeping in touch with Yukiko, and late last night we worked out plans to meet up again. She has a couple days off coming up, so we are going to head up to Shirakawa, which is a traditional farmhouse village in the remote mountains that span from Gifu to Toyama Prefectures. It is an UNESCO world heritage site, and when Yukiko suggested it I was up for it, since it has been on my list since before even my last trip to Japan.

Because she lives in Kobe, but I didn’t want to make yet a third visit to Kobe, I decided to fly to Osaka and then take a train to Kyoto, where we will meet to head out to Shirakawa Saturday morning.

Because these plans were extremely last minute (I was finalizing our plan on my phone while out drinking with Matt and Andreas), I ended up booking the flight to Osaka late last night. My flight was at 2:10PM, but Seoul airport is over an hour away , and when you add in extra time to be safe etc, I was up early to make sure to be there in time. Luckily Seoul airport is really nice actually, so I had some time to relax and unwind before my flight.

Unfortunately the flight was delayed, I’m guessing because of all the snow. By the time I got in, it was after 5, and then I had to wait for and take a 75 minute train to Kyoto.

I checked into my hostel, which is an interesting place. It’s huge (which I guess should have been expected by the over 1000 positive reviews it had). I have mixed feelings on it, I think it is mainly because Kyoto seems to attract the “See Tokyo and Kyoto then move on” type of tourists/backpackers. I had a group of four whom met that profile come into the small Sukiyaki-ya I was at, which was otherwise pretty peaceful until they entered. I felt sorry for the local patrons. That being said, Kyoto is a beautiful place and I’m glad to be back here. I’m looking forward to having one full day tomorrow to explore at a leisurely pace, not really feeling like I “have to see” anything, having been here before. I might even let myself sleep in for a change lol