Reasons To Live: Amongst The Tectonics

13th August 2008

Gah. Bored and very impatient to get home. Travel today is a bit long and could go wrong as after this bullet train to Tokyo I've got to find the N'EX to Narita Airport, then somehow ring my hotel, communicate where I am and find some abstract pick up point for someone to get me. I also fail to have the brain cognitive power to red today, or anything else productive. Maybe I just lack caffeine. The kid next to me appears to be eating half the junk food on this train. The world is going by fast. I need to eat something other than sushi. And find a cash machine that likes my card. So mainly only 7-11s.

With extreme rushing, a grumpy man sold me a ticket to the 14.03 Narita Express with only 3 min to go, so I had to hotfoot two floors of Tokyo station. Not impressed.

12th August 2008

Well after a strange bout of insomnia I got out of the hotel a bit late, and began my trek to the start of the Lonely Planet walking tour, while munching on some yummy sushi. Walk was shorted than I thought, which as good as the sun was baking and I was devouring water bottles. Turning up Goko-zaka and then Chawan-zaka (teapot lane) the streets were all lined with quaint Japanese shops and houses, and were really well kept. Next stop was the ancient temple Kiyomizu-dera, originally built in 798 but currently from 1633. A big sprawling temple complex with stunning views out across Kyoto from its huge veranda. The green hilly landscape was impressive as well so I looped around past a waterfall that has therapeutic properties. There was also a lovers shrine where people try to walk 18m between two stones to ensure success in love. There was also a bit where you could write your troubles on a piece of paper, for 200 yen and watch them dissolve away in some water. Unfortunately, I was so sweaty I was dissolving troubles before they could be written! The whole temple seemed to be making money from people trying to either make wishes or improve success somehow, a bit odd.

Next the LP took me through a load of tiny, beautiful streets with traditional buildings and paved floors. Ishibei-koji was particularly amazingly tranquil, lined with "elegant, traditional Japanese Inns and restaurants". I then went in a temple with a huge Buddha and was given a huge incense stick as part of admission, to plant. Next door was Kodai-ji, an amazing temple and extensive beautiful gardens. It also appeared to be sponsored by google....

A short walk via a water dispenser and I entered Marugarna Boen (a park), amidst a few others who were deviously following the LP as well. Finally, visited the immense temple of Chian-in, built on the site where the priest Honen taught and fasted himself to death. The fool. There are apparently 7 wonders of Choin-in, but only 3 are open to the public. On completion I stumbled to the subway station and got back to Kyoto after some out of service conclusion. More sushi was had along with buying tomorrows Shinkansen ticket to Tokyo. Played around the impressive station and on the sky walk and then returned to an evening of battling the washing machine and 'dryness machine', which fails to dry. Olympics are cool to watch though.

11th August 2008

Blam. Today I will be mostly waiting for a train to Kyoto as my check in is very late: 4pm! A cheeky bonus though, was that my hotel gave me a free ticket to Kyoto! Nice. I stayed up last night to watch USA vs China basketball, very good game, and china, with their iconic player, lost. Anyway, I spent till 3pm chilling, writing a few postcards, and sending them. I then grabbed my kit and managed to scramble on a series of express trains to Kyoto station. Hotel was very easy to find and I like the feel of it. Room is Japanese style, with mattress to roll out, sliding door and wooden floor. En suite though and hotter than a blast furnace. Hotel has free net and laundry. Woo!

After a cold shower I investigated the Kyoto tower, which, as well as looking cool, gives a great view as far as Osaka apparently. Got some tasty snaps of orangy sky up there. Had a quick dinner in the big station based malls and then got disillusioned by how much cool clothing is is for women and kids but all menswear is boring. I scowled at many people, made way back, net an ready for early sleep so I Can utilise a full day tomorrow, following the Lonely Planet's Kyoto in a day walking tour.

10th August 2008

Lose Campesinos: Another surprise, no idea who they were but very energetic, jumpy. Lead guy is crazy, 4 guys and 3 girls. AND I saw them wandering around just after. Then they were jumped on by 7000 Japanese. Awesome.

Kids in Glass Houses: Awful. I ran.

One Republic: Only caught last half but were very good, chillaxing and I recognised 1 or 2 of their songs

The Subways: Great fun, though starting to get all the girl/guy bands mixed up. Rocky and energetic.

Zebrahead: A bit crazy, knew less songs than I thought but they really got the crowd moving with circle pits and sitting down/jumping. Japanese favourite I think, not as good as I hope though.

Death Cab For Cutie: Why I was here. Totally awesome, though had some technical hitches and the crowd were a bit rubbish I think. I had overhyped it. Still amazing.

Lostprophets: Fantastic to see Last Summer as the sun was setting behind us. Great gig as always.

The Verve: Just caught bitter sweet symphony. Awesome!

9th August 2008

To really journalise the past two days I can really only talk about each band I saw play at this music festival, interrupted between eating far too much, mainly foot long hot dogs ('sonic dogs'), and drinking insane quantities of water as both days were extreme scorchers. So much so that I managed to partially burn my neck on the first day, needless to say the second day I joined the strange yet fashionable cult of draping a towel over the back of my neck. And although it took 4 tube trains just to get to the bus, it was pretty easy and the number of buses laid on at night is astronomical. First night was dropped off at Universal Studios and saw it's cool exterior.

Anyway the bands:
The Wombats: On briefly, caught these, but this British Act seemed pretty good, tho the bands did start to meld together

The Ting Tings: Surprisingly awesome, big in the UK right now but I didn't really know their songs as I haven't been in the UK for half a year. Really got the crowd going, fun and jumpy. Lots of energy.

The Hoosiers: Big attraction for me, they were awesome, did a cover of Eternal Flame and crowd loved them, guy is crazy

Becca: Walking to Biffy Clyro, heard a tiny bit of Becca, sounded good.

Biffy Clyro: Meh, meant to be awesome, probably should of known some of their songs to like/hear them over their own noise. Very Red

The Kooks: Great, though a bit sloppy, funny when they got the whole crowd to sit down and all leap up when song started.

Super Furry Animals: Now it turned out I didn't know any of their songs by the end of the gig, but they were still very good, though not sure I'll 'obtain' their music.

Alicia Keys: After failing to see Hadouken! I was forced to see the pain and agony that is an Alica Keys concert. A bit too gospel and fake for me. Luckily I knew who was next

Coldplay: Mind blowing. Far better than I could have imagined, I knew nearly all the songs (thanks to getting their latest album) and their energy, showmanship and plain Britishness was awesome. Bonus points. Funny as well.

8th August 2008

Woke up with some difficulty this morning as it was nice to have a normal bed and I stayed up a bit late as I used the wrong gadget as a time keep device. After showering and doing the packing thing, I checked out and set up camp in the seating bit as can't check into next hotel until 1pm. So far I've been flitting between coffee and facebook, so now everyone thinks I'm crazy with a vast array of caffeinated comments peppering the facebook. I'm very excited. About Summer Sonic and about going home and seeing peeps and new house. ARgh, man took away the coffee!!! I may check out Osaka-Jo (the castle) and the Osaka Museum of History this afternoon, and then head to Tempozan, as it's meant to be a nice port area, which I like at night. One day, in between the realms of musical euphoria, I want to see the Blade Runner esque Dotombari, which I suspect I should have seen last night. One I may also check out the Umeda Sky building, if I have time, it's meant to be dramatic and you can go up it to gaze across the landscape of ant like folk.

I shall let the caffeine simmer for now.

After successfully navigating the easy to use and distinctly empty Osaka underground service and battling with a man who sent me the wrong way, I found my excellent Keihan Tenmabashi Hotel, was a bit early so dropped off bag and pattered around outside a bit. Come 1pm, I checked into my very nice, though Japanese sized, room and after a shifty shower I burst forth to discover the nearby area. Was feeling very good and buzzing on caffeine. First stop: Osaka History Museum. Very good, quite a bit of English, some extremely intricate models of old style Japanese villages, a hands on archaeology section and a life size mock up of a Victorian Osaka street. Good view of the castle and park as well. Museum was a bit short though and the extra admission for the temporary exhibition wasn't worth it. The building itself is crazy and cool look though.

Next up was a short walk through Osaka-Jo gardens/park and across the moat to see the spectacular, though rebuilt, castle/jo. On scaling the steps to its entrance, past a water spraying device, I entered the castle and looked a bit confused. Mainly as its definitely not a castle on the inside, it's like an armadillo. Inside is a pristine, fully modern, built recently museum about the castle, meaning none of the original layout of the castle has been recreated. Built initially by Toyotomi Hideyoshi after he unified Japan, it took 3 years and was finished by its 100,000 strong workforce in 1583. Its apparently impregnable status was shattered 32 years later when it was destroyed by Tokuawa Ieyasu. Destroyed and rebuilt a few times more before being built out of concrete in 1931 and refurbished in 1997. Anyway, some of the displays concerning a number of mysterious archaeological findings were interesting and there was a great view from the top observation deck.

On leaving, I got slightly lost, met some metal birds and became unlost, so got the tube to the Temporzan bay area, which was NOT as good as Tokyo bay area, but I had my camera charged. I had a very fancy sushi meal with Udon noodles, with was massive. Very yummy as well. Then my brain broke and for some reason I thought I only had 1 hour till the Olympics opening ceremony, when in fact I had 3. So I rushed back, past a so called biggest Ferris wheel in the world, though aren't they all these days? Spent the rest of the evening watching the phenomenally amazing opening ceremony. Those Chinese sure know hot to put on a show. 2012 could be interesting....

7th August 2008

Happily checked out of capsule hell. Station. Far too early. Long tube ride. Sit on platform. Sexy train. No battery in camera. Fast nice ride. Easy tube system. Found hotel, nice to have room and shower. Went to find a convience store. Food. Random wander. Find zoo. Cool empty and eerie, better condition than Beijing. Evening chill and net and food. Good.

6th August 2008

Up. Happy. Alive. Better. Went to he 7-11 for food. Tube to Pagoda. Turtles, Tram. Tokyo National Musuem. Hot. Walk around temple and the lake, very pretty lillies. Saw a tram and fountain. Nice musuem. Art and stuff. Cool deserted museum building, like the style, not sure why? Wandered around. Back to station. To Ginza and saw the Sony Building, with an aquarium outside and musical/light up stairs. Hibiya Koen park. Metal guy. Nice food. Tokyo Tower in distance. Imperial Palace, outer garden and Palace. Hot hot hot. Water fountain plaza. Tube to Shimbashi. Tokyo version of DLR, nice ride to Odaibo and Tokyo Bay. Big ferris wheel. Beach. Bridge. Sega Joyopilas. Statue of Liberty?! Camera death. Took DLR all the way to the end of the line, back to Tokyo, bought Shinkansen (bullet train) to Osaka for tomorrow. £70!! but only 2.5 hours for 450km. Not quite maglev speed. Back, found some internet. Blam.

5th August 2008

Feel Crap. The Pod hotel that I stayed in was incredibly Hot and Sweaty. I think I have dehydration death or something similar, I ventured out, however. Went around some Governmental buildings, and threw up on the way which made me feel much better, expelling china I suspect. Walked around Shinjuhu Chuokoen park, and went into some Tourist info/eco place, that was very confusing and no one seemed too helpful.

Went up a tall tourist tower to see across Tokyo, which was unfortunately a bit grey. Meh. After talking to the very friendly and nice tourist information place, I found the correct ticket selling merchant to buy summer sonic tickets!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Summer Sonic, is an awesome 2 day music festival in Tokyo and Osaka, with some amazing bands, like Coldplay and Death Cab For Cutie. After I had my precious precious slips of paper I went off to somewhere crazy I think, possibly a place called Times Square, followed by an awesome shopping place called Akihabara, which seemed to sell everything imaginable. Got a bit lost around the streets though.

4th August 2008

This is how to do it. Japan wins. Amazingly nice people and survivable without a trust LP. Beginning with the Japanese Lady who shared a taxi with me, after 4 hours of sleep, at 5am AND wrote out some interesting places for me to visit in Japan, in Japanese! Also directed me to my airport check in. Then a plus for the Chinese, Beijing airport is excellent and so is the Japanese airline All Nippon Airways. Checked in mega quick, took easy internal train to my gate area depature lounge. Milled about, used all my final money on a variety of Beijing Olympics merchandise, still unable to find a cool jacket though. Had a coffee and breakfast in a small restaurant and bumped into my Japanese friend again.

Finished off cash in Olympic shop, and wandered to my gate to find the plane boarding, no queue, but about 15 staff memebers. Turns out the plane is mostly empty and I had selected a most excellent window seat with no one next to me or behind me. The plane had a camera on the front which you could watch the entire flight as if u were a plane nose, or like me, you could have selected to watch the fantastic Kung Fu Panda movie. Though I was interupted quite often with piles of food, drink and wet towels. Excellent food.

On landing, used the spotless toilets in the mostly deserted airport, got bag quickly and had an extremely nice and helpful man look through my bag at customs. Everyone is very polite and helpful, so after some initial ATM currency exchange calculation brain ache I went to the tourist information office, who printed me an exact map of where my hotel is and cheapest way to get there!

3rd August 2008

Said bye to charlotte as she was flying home this morning, then strolled into town with my shoes of Death on my feet. Unfortunately it turned out that all the shops were shut for some unfathomable reason, until 11am. Luckily the PCC opened first so I chilled in there with a coffee until I met up with Lydia. Then participated in a long Jandal saga as my last pay had self combusted earlier, resulting in David having to lend me his. Found a cool north face pair in a 50% off shop.

We took the tube to beijing zoo. Very very hot and it was a long walk from station to the Zoo, though I guess we could have found some other mode of transport. Die. Heart. We got there, and it turned out most of the animals were living in horrendous condition and all the visitors were crazy and evil, not great. Therefore we decided to start a campaign to save all the animals. In other events I bought a loaf of bread from a food stand, then got a Subway for real sustenance before returning to the centre. Had dinner in a nice Japanese fast food place to get me ready for my next tectonic and said bye to Lydia. Returned to the hostel and made friends with a Japanese lady who I will accompany to the airport in the morrow. Blam.

2nd August 2008

Breakfast at Hotel and then said bye to everyone before taking a Taxi to the City On The Wall hostel hostel, driver was extremely rubbish and went past the place 3 times, quite annoying, still tried to charge us the full wack so I got a bit shouty. Met everyone at the Pacific Coffee Company after another failed attempt at getting books. Lydia lost her bank card somehow so spent a while sorting that out. Then had to say a sad goobye to Liz and Martin before heading off to Silk Street in the evening. Madness! I did some excellent haggling. Then. Death. Back. Had food in a food court, Charlotte said farewell to Lydia then back to our exceptionally nice hostel for sleeps.

1st August 2008

Had some yoghurt for breakfast, I'm not exactly sure why I wrote that down in my notebook, but it must be of vital importance. Went to Tiananmen square today though most of it was off limits due to the Olympics and whatever craziness they need to do, we saw an athletes team, though can't remember where from, possibly Jamaica or south Africa. Very odd security at the actual square where they would look through chinese people's possessions for books and paper that might contain anti-government propoganda and the such like.

Next went to the Forbidden City which is just across the road, and until last year (maybe) had a Starbucks in the middle. Apparently there was an outcry, so they got rid of it. And replaced it with their own generic coffee outlet. City itself was cool, though possibly not quite as impressive as I imagined, though I guess I have seen a lot of similar places by now. It was exceptionally big though and we got a bit tired walking all around it.

Afterwards David took us to a special needs school, in the winding back streets of Beijing, that Intrepid sponsor. We had an explanation of their work and then watched a performance put on by the students there, good fun! From there we walked to the main pedestrian shopping precinct, the long way round, and found a pacific coffee company to chill in.

In the evening we got some wine and had a drink or two in Martin and Liz's room before heading off to have our final dinner, in a traditional Peking Duck place. Very scrummy, and the chef comes out and cuts up the duck in front of you. It also happened to be Liz's Birthday, so we celebrated that with cake and magic. Finished off the day with a few more drinks. Good times.

31st July 2008

Went to Great Wall today, following the Step-Way of Moun-Ting the Great wall. Weather was unfortunately misty, and cloudy which was a bit of a shame but it did clear up later, and the wall looked mysterious as we walked as far along as we could. Most of it had been fully restored, but after a crazy end step situation we saw some of the original wall, which is much more rubbly than the pristine area we had walked along. Top of the wall is big enough to possibly drive a car down!

Our return to civilisation was by way of a Luge, where you sit on a personal toboggan, and go down a long metal half pipe to the bottom, good fun, exceptionally touristie, though David didn't fancy it and took the chair lift down even though I think he could do it free with his magic tourist guide pass. Went back to the city, and some yummy noodle based food, where Martin and Liz were late buying suitcase as they had horrendous taxi issues. Took public bus to a really good martial arts kung fu show, which was most excellent, unfortunately David looks quite ill. Hope he gets better.

30th July 2008

Went to the Yungang Caves before carrying on to Beijing, where some of the earliest Buddhist carvings in China are located. There are huge buddhas, tiny buddhas, and crazy buddhas in the 50 or so grottoes, though most of the impressive carvings are in the first 21. We spent a good time wandering around, taking photos and the such like, I think I may even have purchased some form of carbonated beverage. Afterwards we said our goodbyes to our mini-on-the-side guide Jenny and clambered majestically onto our train to Beijing, which awesomely was a soft sleeper for once, even though the trip was not in fact overnight, though I was a bit miffed as the other 4 were in 1 section and because of our crazy numbers I now was just with David. Ah well. We met some crazy Dutch lady in the carriage and we chatted for a while, though I think there were large periods of mistranslation between her and David, especially as he was trying to explain something guide related to her. Rest of journey we chilled with music and writing in my journal, though apparently in rather sparse detail, unless I was catching up with previous entries. On our arrival in foggy Beijing, we took 2 taxis to our hotel now that John and Jenny weren’t with us. Hotel was extremely nice, and after I threw my stuff in the twin room I had to myself (much luxury), I went down to the nice little coffee place they had in the foyer, and grabbed a coffee as you can see to your left, extremely strong but yummy. When we met for dinner I hadn’t finished it as it was very hot, so Charlotte polished it off. As Martin and Liz went off for a couple based dinner, Charlotte, David, Liz and Moi went to a cool cheap and phenomenally yummy pancake restaurant round the corner that David knew. The hotel’s surrounding area was very strange, almost west London like, very nice looking. The pancakes weren’t how you are probably imagining them to be, they were in fact indistinguishable to fried noodles, but tasted even more awesome. Then had an early night, where I must have done something productive, as that is indeed my special skill.

29th July 2008

Woke up moderately early as always, missed breakfast due to a short bout of unconsciousness and woke with only 10 min to spare. Got on bus that was to take us to Datong. Got stuck in traffic jam for ages, caused by some unknown incident. Had a toilet stop or two before arriving at the famous hanging monastery. Weather was great, like a warm British summer day. With cliffs either side of a medium sized river, the hanging monastery is attached to one of the sheer faces, supported by long, spindly stilts. And possibly some modern day bolts into the cliff. Still, it's fun as you clamber through small hatchways and sidle along ledges with small guide rails. The monastry itself has shrines to buddism, taosim and confucism, so it's a right old mix up, but as the LP says, it covers all bases.

We clambered back on our infinite bus and carried on, not getting into datong until 7pmish. In the entire bus journey, I managed to finish Polly Evans' Chopsticks with fried eggs (meg) and Arthur Conan Doyle's Hound of the Baskervilles (awesome). Had a break, shower, nice dinner in hotel and then wrote my journal for ages in my awesome room.

28th July 2008

Today we have mostly been visiting the Wang's residence, where all 100 million of the world's Wangs apparently originated. The Wang courtyard house consists of a labyrinth of 123 courtyards split into 2 main sections connected by a bridge. The new section is designed in the Chinese symbol for Wang, obviously much money had been made since their original bean curd business.

In the afternoon we visited on interesting newspaper museum, which showed a variety of local papers during some of the most momentous moments in Chinese History. We then walked to the Confucian Temple, which was a bit dull, checked out the very run down Catholic church and another close by temple before heading back to our cosy hotel and free wifi.

Had a cool dinner of that beef dish and cirspy onion. Yum in the face.

27th July 2008

Arrived in Pinyao and took a stretched golf cart into the centre of the walled old town. Our guesthouse is really nice and traditional, we ate a scrummy breakfast and gout our rooms. All double bed rooms, which was alright for me as I had the room to myself. We spent the day touring various government houses, the first bank in China, treasury, a cool money place and some residences, intermingled with drinks in a restaurant somewhere. Oh, and the first place was a prison, and we watched a performance that all the Chinese tourists ruined by getting on the stage to take photos and crowd the actors. We left in disgust. We also visited the town wall, though my leg was in quite a bit of pain by then and was glad we had no plans to walk it's circumference. I also bought some crazy spicy and sugary twirly snacks, 10 Yuan for 0.5kg! Also went to:

• Risengchang Financial House Museum
• Former Residence of Lei Lutai
• County Government Offices

By the end of the day we were shattered and my camera was full of many photos of cute animals we encountered on our way. Spent the evening eating awesome beef and potato based local favourite and chatted the night away.

26th July 2008

Up early to go and see the crazy terracotta warriors, built by the emperor Qin Shi Huang to serve him in the after life, it was only discovered by some farmers digging a crazy well. We initially saw a cheap alternative to Imax movie, which showed a rather good re-enactment of the army being built. While waiting, one of the only two of the remaining farmers came to sign books, and Martin and Lydia bribed him to get a photo with them, rather than get viciously battered away with a fan, as everyone else was. I bought a pepsi max and an ice cream instead.

On to the first pit, which resembles a huge aircraft hanger, and we came face to face with the warriors, all be it from quite a distance, I'm not really sure how to describe the whole experience, it's all very surreal. On the one hand, it's amazing to see the vast expanse of warriors, but then you couldn't see up close to notice each warrior's unique details or take interesting photos. Plus a lot is still uncovered or just earthly trenches, still a great experience though. The other two pits were similar one a small scale, and one had a few warriors in glass cabinets surrounded by flash happy tourists.

In a very dark building there were also 2 half scale chariots that had been pieced together. We didn't see the tomb of Qin Shi Huing as at the moment it isn't excavated mound, but it is thought to contain palaces and rivers of flowing mercury, along with all manner of Indiana Jones style defences against intruders. No such luck to see it though.

Bus back and then all went to the Muslim quarter to participate in a food kafuffle, where the girls got a road side veg pancake and I got a spicy meat metal tasting one. Very hot temperature style. David wanted a restaurant extravaganza though, so the lads followed him through a labyrinth of roads to a restaurant that was shut, so we then followed David blindly for a while, then he got us some bread type rolls, and found a butcher to throw raw cow in them. Needless to say, John was not impressed, I loved it and munched it down, and Martin was a soldier, even though he didn't like the concept, he still ate nearly all of it! I finished his off. Anyway, after that we met up with Liz and Lydia, as Martin had stolen their money, for a sneaky coffee. Martin and I went interneting while the other two got their nails shined or something.

Met later and went to a nice bar for a beer or two, then Charlotte, John and I found a nice little square where we watched some more tribal umbrella dances, checked out a very local night market, photographed Wal-mart and got some epic cheap croissants from Bread Talk. Charlotte and I bid our final farewells to John who was staying on in Xi'an to join a 5 month silk route truck based tour! All met up, met Jenny a trainee guide who would be with us till Da Tong, took bus to train station, plush lounge and then soft sleeper overnight to PinYao - I was abandoned in cabin with guides. Everyone hates me *sob*.