Travel Journal

Blogger has been a bit of a bee-yotch lately, so I wasn't able to post more before I left Tokyo, and now here I am back in Ottawa experiencing some pretty major jet lag. When I left Tokyo it was Monday afternoon at 5, and when I arrived in Ottawa it was still Monday, 7.30 in the evening, and I'm pretty certain that my flight was more than 2.5 hours long. Mt. Fuji ended up being a bust, as I seemed to have caught the extended tail end of a rainy season in Japan that just doesn't want to end. Going to T's colleague's parents' place in the country was also a bust due to an illness in the family, so instead we went down to Koya-san, the holiest mountain in Japan, to stay in a Buddhist temple, eat surprisingly delicious vegetarian meals based mainly on tofu, and take part in a confusing, fairly unintelligible but wholly spiritual Buddhist prayer session. After visiting one of the largest and most beautiful cemeteries I've ever seen, we accidentally hiked down ...

The weather forecast predicts 100% chance of rain for the next 3 days. It was certainly right for today, as it pretty much poured all day today. It was the kind of day where you don't feel much like going out and walking around, so I didn't. I got up, made two one-hour-long long distance phone calls (sorry T, I owe you dinner for those!), and watched the pirated DVD box set of Season 4 of Six Feet Under that I had bought in KL. I didn't leave the house until nearly 7 p.m., when I met T at Ebisu Station after work and we went for conveyor belt sushi in Shibuya. After dinner we did crazy photo booth pictures, and browsed at Tower Records. I'm going to buy the new Thom Yorke album as well as the latest Radiohead tribute album tomorrow. I did, however, pick up a copy of " Charisma Man " which is probably one of the funniest things I have read in a long time. (If you are familiar with the term rice king , then you'll probably find Charisma Man hilarious ...

Due to popular demand, anonymous comments have now been enabled on this blog, policed by word verification - sorry, comments-bots! Of course, now that I've enabled this, probably no one will care enough to actually leave a comment.

Tricycle and child's helmet, Peace Memorial Museum, Hiroshima. On August 6, 1945, the U.S. bombed Hiroshima with the world's first atomic bomb, in the effort to get Japan to surrender in World War II. The Japanese have preserved the site of the bombing, the A-bomb Dome, and established the Peace Memorial Park which contains the museum, the Children's Peace Monument, the Memorial Cenotaph with the names of all the known bombing victims, and the Flame of Peace, which will not be extinguished until the last nuclear weapon on earth has been destroyed. The Peace Memorial Museum presents a very balanced picture of the event, explaining why it took place, the science behind nuclear weapons, and the harrowing effects on the environment and humanity. It is a very moving experience to visit this place. Garlands of paper cranes, Peace Memorial Park, Hiroshima The paper cranes are folded by schoolchildren all over the world and sent to Hiroshima, where they are kept at the Child...

Lanterns at the Kasuga Taisha grand shrine, Nara Women in traditional Japanese kimonos, Kyoto Some of the 1001 Kannon (Buddhist goddess of mercy) at the Sanjusangen-do temple, Kyoto The floating red torii (gates) of Itsuku-shima, Miya-Jima, Hiroshima The temple of the Golden Pavilion, Kinkaku-ji, Kyoto

I:m being kicked out of the free Internet place in Kyoto because they:re closing, so I gotta make this fast. I:m not even sure if this will post because all of the button and tab headings are in Japanese! I sometimes hit some weird button that makes everything look like this: qっうぇcs亜 And as you can tell, I can:t find the apostrophe as it:s not where it usually is. Kyoto has been fun, a bit stressful but definitely too short a visit. I:m a bit templed and shrined out, but I:ve seen some amazing things which I hope to post shortly when I return to Tokyo on the weekend. I:ve walked virtually everywhere yesterday and today. Culture shock hit me big time and now that I finally feel a little more comfortable, I:m outta this popsicle stand. (Piece of advice: never travel in Asia in the summer. It:s quite horrible because you:re basically melting all day, unless you happen to be somewhere with air con.) I:m only now realizing how lucky I was to have people driving me around in Malaysia ...

ENVIRONMENTALLY UNFRIENDLY At the grocery store, all the fruit is wrapped in plastic packaging as you can see. After paying for your purchase, the cashier puts the fruit into individual paper bags and tapes it up, then puts those packages into a plastic bag or paper carrier bag for transporting. T says this is to ensure that your fruit does not become bruised. Back home, I have often lamented the fact that all food shopping seems to be geared toward the non-single consumer, i.e. groups of two or more. But this is pushing a bit! Umbrella bags. When it is raining and you are going into a store, many establishments provide umbrella bags, plastic bags to cover your umbrella while you are inside the store. This is to prevent water dripping from your umbrella onto their floors. When you leave the store you discard the bag in the garbage provided. Tokyo has no recycling program that I can see. T says garbage here is divided into two categories: burnable (food, paper, organic-based) a...

EXPENSIVE Currently, the exchange rate is about 100 Yen to $1 Canadian. The price tag says 6668 Yen. Yes, those melons are $84 and $105. And, yes, those cherries are over $138. These photos were taken at a high-end grocery store and the prices are so high because apparently the fruits are specially grown - each fruit is exactly the same size and taste. We went to a cheaper store where you get (relatively) cheaper but variably-shaped fruit. The cost of living is very high in Tokyo!

CUSTOMER SERVICE AND EFFICIENCY After I basically slept through the 7-hour flight from Singapore to Tokyo, trying to ensure that my body would continue to retain much-needed fluids, I somehow made it through a 45-minute wait at Immigration. Once I collected my bag (the very last one remaining next to the baggage carousel), I found my way to the Japan Rail office where I activated my 14-day rail pass . (This amazing deal is only available to tourists, allowing unlimited national rail travel at an insanely discounted price.) Now how to obtain a train ticket to Shinagawa Station, where T would be waiting to meet me? No worries, the helpful agent at the JR office offers to reserve a seat for me. It's now 16.40 - would I be able to make the 16.43 train? No, sorry, it's too late for that one, but would I like to take the 17.13 train to Tokyo Station and make an easy transfer to Shinagawa? You bet! Ticket is soon in hand, with departure and arrival times and platform numbers written d...

So, I have been on vacation for 14 days now and I have arrived in a completely new city and the next two weeks are completely booked up with hiking trips to Chubu and Mt. Fuji, ryokan (traditional Japanese inns) and onsen (hot springs) visits, a Coldplay concert on the 19th, trip to Kyoto and a visit to T's friend's parents house out in the country...and I'm sitting in T's apartment and I. Don't. Want. To. Do. Anything. What's wrong with me? Here I am in one of the world's most cosmopolitan, dynamic, fascinating cities, and I don't want to leave the house. Am I a big loser? I don't think so. I've come to realize over years that I really need my "me" time, where I can do whatever I want. Not just "me" time, but "alone" time too. For the past few weeks I have not been alone for a single instant. Don't get me wrong, I love my family and it was so great to re-connect with all of them after so many years and they we...

Just a quick note to say that in spite of a terrible bout of food poisoning/24-hour virus/I don't know what yesterday, I made it to Tokyo today and am safely ensconced in T's cosy little apartment. I'm still not quite sure how I ended up here. Everything has been a blur of culture shock, as Japan is unlike any place I've ever been. But my headache is ruling out over posting any initial observations, so we'll just have to wait a bit.

The coolest uncle ever. Uncle Jeff took me out for a quick spin on his BMW motorcycle. Man, it was a sweet ride. We sped up and down the highway and I couldn't keep the grin off my face (or maybe it was the rushing wind that contorted it, who knows.) I want my own bike! Uncle Jeff now surpasses my Uncle Derek, who took us out for midnight visits to the A&W in his red Honda Prelude when I was 9, as the coolest uncle ever. Paper money used for burning at Chinese temples. We went to "pray my grandparents", meaning we went to visit my father's parents' ashes which are kept at a Thai Buddhist temple in KL. It's a somewhat elaborate affair that requires preparation. You must buy food and drink for offering, and paper money for burning. There is a table in front of where your loved ones are resting, and you lay out the fruit, buns/dumplings/cakes, and drinks (orange soda for my grandmother, Coke for my granddad since that's what they used to like to drink) a...

My dad was very excited for me to go on this trip. When I was first deciding where to go on vacation and I asked him to ask his travel agent for quotes on flights to Japan, he was the one who got her to find out how much it would cost to add in Singapore/Malaysia. The thought of visiting my parents' homeland hadn't really occurred to me as an option before. My dad was very excited for me to go on this trip. In the months leading up to my departure, he would always ask me about how my planning was going. I had contacted some family members to let them know I was coming, but little else in the way of actual concrete plans. Little did I know that he was also in touch with some of those same family members, and he was consulting with them behind the scenes. In fact, on my last visit to Toronto, he kept nagging me about letting my aunty Winnie know exactly what I wanted to do well in advance of my arrival (I think I still had 4 or 6 weeks left to go) - he wanted to tell her so...

One of the reasons I was looking forward to this trip was because I would have the opportunity to interview various family members about our family history. I knew virtually nothing about either set of grandparents, as they lived in Malaysia and died before I was born or when I was quite small. In fact, I am actually in the process of developing a family tree for both my mother's side (the Wans) and my father's side (the Tans). My father's mother was of Peranakan heritage. I had never even heard the term before. Also known as baba-nyonya or Straits Chinese , it refers to the descendants of very early Chinese immigrants to Singapore and Malaysia, who partially adopted Malay customs in an effort to be assimilated into the local communities. This unique blend of Chinese and Malay cultures has led to very interesting cuisine and dress. Here I am in traditional Peranakan dress: on top, the kebaya , secured by the 3 attached brooches or kerosang ; on the bottom, the flowered s...

It's been a while since I've had a chance to update the blog, so here are some pictures that I hope you will enjoy while you wait for me to get my ass in gear and actually write something decent. Joss sticks used for praying at Chinese temples Beautifully coloured and patterned silk sarongs at the market Not sure if you can make this out too clearly, but this is from the park across from where my aunty Winnie lives. The sign says "Watch out for falling durian". The durian trees are very tall and the fruit is not harvested - you have to wait for it to fall to the ground. Me, my second cousin Caitlyn, and a fat little boy named Hoong-Hoong. On my dad's side, I am the oldest cousin at 30 years of age, and Caitlyn is the youngest at 4 months. Hoong-Hoong is babysat by my aunty Nellie, and became my best friend while I stayed at her place for 2 days. Secret fact: On the inside, I was freaking out while holding this baby. I'm surprised she wasn't wailing - I...