Golden Week Adventures

Japan does not have many public holidays. Maybe I should re-phase that...In my opinion, Japan does not have many public holidays. I might feel like this simply because I come from a country were public holidays, Christmas holidays, Easter holidays and Summer holidays are a normal state of affairs. Well, Japan has shown me how different things can be. I have had to forego Easter holidays, Summer holidays and most of my public holiday lie-ins and little escapades. However, I have been blessed with a whole week of holidays known as Golden week. This falls in the last week of April and ends in the first week of May. The only problem is that all of the people in Japan take it as an opportunity to travel. Since Japanese people generally go on holiday inside Japan itself, travelling in this country could be a slight nightmare. This is what led me to cast my eyes across the sea of Japan and head to the mainland of China.

I decided to divide my week of holidays between Beijing and Shanghai. It was truly an amazing experience and turned out to be a very enjoyable holiday. We landed in Beijing rather late on a Friday night and caught a taxi to the hostel I had booked. I have to admit I was rather worried about the accomodation. Firstly, I'm not really a hostel kinda lady and secondly, a hostel in China sounded even more worrying for some reason. However, my worries were rather unfounded as the hostel ended up being a rather cool place to stay and I got to pretend to be back-packer savvy! The hostel was build around a 19th century court yard and most of the original building was still in tact. However, the bedroom window did overlook one of the busy Hutong roads and hence any chance of a good night sleep went flying out of the window on our very first night there. The hostel was two minutes on foot away from Tiananmen square and hence the Forbidden city. The square itself is bare but the sheer size of it is mind-blowing. Beijing does that to you.

Tiananmen Square

No matter where you go, the space available will take your breathe away (except maybe in some hostel bedrooms!). The forbidden city was interesting. I was rather disappointed as many of the palaces and temples are not open to the Public and so all you can do is walk around them. However, the Garden at the back of the property is beautiful and makes it all worth while. One of the temples within the garden, known as the temple of Happiness is perched on a mountain of jagged rocks which looks slightly impossible to climb. I did take some time to contemplate whether this was supposed to be symbolic. I did wonder if there is a reason why only this temple is perched on such terrain. I'll let you all form your own conclusions...

The temple of Heaven which we visited in the afternoon is surrounded by one of the greenest parks I've ever seen. Also, like everything else it spreads for miles and miles on end. However, we got to the temple too late and couldn't actually go inside. The area around the temple is full of shopping malls which are massive. Anyone who loves shopping and has money to burn will have a whale of a time in Beijing. The number of shopping malls is outrage! 

The following day, we headed to the Olympic stadium park. This I think was one of the best high lights of my trip to China. We bought a ticket and entered the water cube and sat in the stands looking over the pool where Michael Phelps won eight Gold medals. The architecture is also fantastic. The water cube's size is so deceptive. It looks small from the outside but is massive on the inside with five floors and three pools; one which was the official pool, another the training pool and another pool which is now open to the public with a small water park within. I took the opportunity to be slightly patriotic and locate the Maltese flag and take a photo of it too! In the evening, we stumbled across one of the coolest teahouses in Beijing. It is called Laoshe teahouse and it hosts traditional Chinese performances whilst serving fresh tea (including tea leaves) and nibbles. It was an awesome evening. The show was quite interesting with traditional Chinese music, singing, acrobatics and Kung-fu and the building in itself was worth the money. The building is a traditional teahouse and has seen the sights of many important people including Bill Clinton and George Bush Jr.

The Bird Nest Stadium

The Water Cube

Hehe! I couldn't resist :)

The last day of the trip was dedicated to trekking part of the Great Wall of China. I did a lot of reading up about which part of the wall is best to visit and concluded Mutianyu is where I wanted to go. I concluded this simply because Badaling is packed with tourists and lots of hawkers which can dampen the adventure of it all. However, getting there proved to be rather testing! This might be due to the fact that we wanted to get there on our own, without any tour guide or booked transportation. We decided to be proper back-packers and use public transport. One word of advice, unless you want to swear so much that you'll get a one way ticket straight to hell, do not attempt to catch a public bus in China; especially if you've only been there for two days and do not speak any Chinese. The experience was horrendous. It took us two and a half hours simply to find the bus let alone get a ticket and get on it. And, to make matters worse, we were at the right bus station!

 We did eventually get on the bus and rid it for around two hours before getting off and getting a taxi for the last stretch of the way. Although, it was a difficult experience, it was worth it all. Firstly, it turned out to be ridiculously cheap and secondly it was a very unique experience to ride two buses in China! The wall was amazing. I do not think I can describe how it felt to climb to the top of the wall and look down. I do not think I ever imagined getting there and being to say that I have climbed the Great Wall of China. I also can say that I bought a t-shirt saying the exact same thing and that I nearly died on the Great Wall too. My, my it was a hard climb. Stairs, stairs and just when you think you're done, more stairs! But...it was amazing! 

Yes, I did trek all of this part of the wall.

The surrounding area is also beautiful as it is a mountainous region full of greenery and waterways. If I had more time, I would have loved to stay overnight in one of the little hotels that are scattered along the roadside. However, I had to make my way back to the city to catch the overnight bullet train to Shanghai.

My time in Beijing came to an end and I did leave with rather mixed feelings about the city. It is a remarkable place and it has undergone a lot of change at a very fast rate and yet there is something about it just doesn't sit right with me. The city is dirty and I think this is partly due to the people who throw litter without anywhere and all the time. This is a rather big problem as the population of Beijing is so large and hence the amount of litter produced is phenomenal. I remember walking around in the Water cube and seeing piles of take away food boxes all over the floor scattered in big heaps everywhere when there were litter bins available . However, certain places are very clean and everywhere you look, someone is always close by sweeping up rubbish. It is a city of opposites I think. And, one word of warning, be careful where you choose to eat! Always make sure that the restaurant has a sanitation grade poster on display! Trust me, I learnt this the hard way; places that don't can be horrendously dirty and scary!

Next post, my adventures in the city of Shanghai!

A long travelled road

It's been a long time since my last post. This wasn't intentional. I was planning to blog during the first few days of March to share details about my birthday celebrations (1st March) in Tokyo as well as a Japanese tradition known as hinamatsuri or the doll festival. So... a brief paragraph about both events!


Birthday celebrations went very well. I had a lovely weekend in Tokyo and was treated to Teppenyaki in a restaurant on the 55th floor of one of the many skyscraper buildings in Shinjuku. I also got treated to dinner at another wicked restaurant! The restaurant Bassett which serves some mean mozzarella di Bufala. I have to admit I love Japanese food but sometimes my Mediterranean self does crave some good pasta, cheese and of course pizza!! This restaurant did satisfy all of these cravings at a ridiculous prize considering just how cheap it all is back home. But the food was good and the place is really cool and we washed away all our money worries with a little river of red wine.

My birthday which was on the following Tuesday was spent in Roppongi. I have to admit I have been rather biased since I arrived about Roppongi and I didn't like it at all! However, the daytime Roppongi is a lot more classy and cool then it's evil night-time partner. This is an area with serious Dr. Jekyll and Mr. hide issues! Daytime Roppongi is very enjoyable and I did get amazing cake at a stylish cafe owned by a world renowned Japanese Patisserie. Basically, you make a reservation (yes, you read correctly!) and when you're seated and have ordered, your dessert is baked and prepared right that minute in front of you. It was very cool and delicious. My work colleges threw me a small birthday nomikai and Utsumi (the lady who I'm partnered with at work) made me a lovely dinner at her house including a home-made cake. So, my birthday turned into a week long celebration! Who can complain?!

Next, Hinamatsuri is a Japanese festival for young girls. All or most Japanese girls own a collection of dolls ranging from two to thirteen in the collection. The two most important dolls are those or the emperor and the empress. The others include ladies in waiting, musicians and guards. These are all placed on tiered red platforms and put on display until the third of March when they must be boxed up. If they are not, any un-wed girl will not be able to find a husband. The festival began during the Heian period and till today young girls are given these dolls. Apart from the dolls, on the 3rd of March, certain food is prepared. This includes soup containing clams which are a symbol of chastity and rice made with shrimp and egg. During the meal people usually drink amazake and dessert consists of sakura mochi. It was an interesting experience and I am now the proud owner of my own little dolls which were given to me as a present during my home-stay in Aizu!

So...now the reason why I haven't blogged for such a long time. Well, as the whole world knows, on the 11th of March Japan was struck by one of the biggest earthquakes in history as well as a tsunami and a Nuclear power plant failure. I and the rest of Vulcanus were together in Tokyo at the time giving our mid-term presentations. I must say that it was one of the most terrifying experiences in my life. We watched in silence and horror as images of the tsunami washing everything away were broadcast on television and outside the city slowly started to shut down before our own eyes. The first thing everyone noticed was the panic buying. The convenience stores were jam-packed with people raiding the shelves for anything they could find. We started to realize that no one was going anywhere anytime soon. All the trains had been shut down and it seemed as though all of Tokyo was just stopping. Later that evening, walking to the hotel room we had managed to book, the streets were jammed with cars and the train stations were full of people on the floor planning to sleep there. There were so many people stranded with no where to go. That night was scary! The aftershocks were never-ending, long and strong. I guess after experiencing such a strong earthquake, you automatically think that every aftershock is just the start of another earthquake. That weekend was horrible, it felt like sitting on a washing machine that never stops spinning.

 Due to what happened we all decided to go down to Osaka for a few days and watch the story unfold from there. I remember sitting on the shinkansen and crying most of the way. I was filled with sadness at the thought that I might not finish my internship and just leave it all behind that very Sunday night. All of the stress and panic didn't really allow me to enjoy Osaka too much. I did see the castle which is a landmark and the river bank does have a very a pretty park running along the banks. As the situation worsened, most of us decided it would be a good idea to leave the country for a short period of time until everything calmed down and we could re-assess the situation. Hence, we ran away to Thailand for two weeks till the end of March!

Thailand was amazing! I enjoyed Bangkok tremendously and I must say it was a bit of a shock! The change from Tokyo to Bangkok is quite a big one! However, I loved it, from the food vendors on the streets serving all types of food, the river boats and of course the temples and Buddhas which are everywhere. I did watch a Muay thai boxing competition and since I was being stingy ended up in the cages at the back with all the Thai men gamblers. I was the only foreign woman amongst hundreds of men winning and losing bets. I did get to see my first real time knock out which was pretty cool! I also got served a chicken foot in my green curry just outside the venue. The street was partly closed and vendors set up cookers and tables and a few chairs to serve customers before the big match. The food was good apart from the foot and a few other rather undesirable poultry body parts...

From Bangkok to Chiang Mai in the North via an over night sleeper train. Chiang Mai is beautiful, young and hippy-like! Whilst there, we rented a moped for the day and travelled up to the Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep temple which is found on one of the two highest peaks in Chiang Mai Doi Suthep hill. We travelled further up and found a small crafts village where we walked around and drank coffee. It really is a wicked city to visit. There are loads of cool restaurants with amazing deco, day markets, night markets, temples and hotels which are cheap, modern and clean. I loved it!

After two weeks in Thailand, I decided to return to Japan. I have now been back for close to two months and although life isn't very different it still has changed. The problem Japan needs to try and solve is it's inability to provide enough electric supply to keep up with the demand. There is a reduction of 20% in the electrical power available and hence the people have needed to cut back as much as possible. No more electric toilet seats, excess escalators, air-conditioning and central heating. The country has taken a beating and the bruises are still very visible. However, we and the rest of the people of Tokyo are the luck ones. Everyday when I switch in television, images of the devastation and the on-going battle to try and fix the damage flood the screen. The world-wide media might have forgotten what's happened but here, it is still very real. The devastation and the after-affect of what has happened has not left our television sets or our minds. The people that have lost their loved ones, friends, homes, businesses, lives are still fighting, staying strong and pulling each other through these rough times. It's rather bittersweet being here to watch the true Japanese fighting spirit come to life in such horrible circumstances.

Golden week has also just passed. I decided to leave Japan once more and cross over to the other side! I spent a week in China visiting Beijing and Shanghai for a week. More about my China adventure in my next post...