The Great China Adventure - Part 1

When: April 29, 2007
Who: Laura, Miyuki-sensei, Shinobu-sensei, Goto-san, Mateo and Mark (Mateo's uncle)
Where: CHINA!!
Info: Shinobu found this cheap tour of Beijing early in the new year and it slowly morphed into a kind of staff trip (4 of us work/worked at Obu school). It was my first time on a tour...and it was a Japanese tour. There were ups, there were downs, there were good times and bad but wow...what an experience!

The insanity began at Chubu International Airport (another Japanese man-made island airport located only 30min from my apartment). After some tense moments [due to Mark and a BIG bottle of Armani cologne (more than the allowed 100mL)] we finally got into the airport and could look around.

It only took 3 hrs to get to Tianjin and I slept almost the whole way. The food was pretty good (way to go JAL). No dust cake or tasteless pasta, like on Airtransat. We emerged from a cloud to see the countryside of Tianjin.


Our first encounter with our tour guide involved running across the road of death in front of the airport (I should have known that meant something...). We hopped in our van with another Japanese family (mom, dad, 20-something son) and I think we all thanked the gods that we weren't in the van beside us, which had to be pushed by three men to get it started...

It was a 2 hour ride to Beijing. A 2 hour ride to Beijing going at least 150km. My window photos are kind of blurry because that's how it looked due to the speed our crazy bus driver was going. Immediately I could tell I wasn't in Japan anymore. Nothing was the familiar. The countryside was dotted with shacks and crumbling neighbourhoods. People pushed bikes laden with scrap materials and drove cars with passengers' feet hanging out of windows.

Again, I think everyone on our bus (well at least those of us who were awake) said a little prayer of thanks when we passed this bus (below). If you squint, you might be able to see that people are lying down, scrunched up and squeezed into the little compartments of this double decker bus.

Once we got off the toll highway and into Beijing it all changed. The poverty disappeared and now new snazzy cars drove along a highway decorated with flower planters.

2008 Olympic sight #1: The very modern-looking stadium.


So the tour we were on was quite cheap. One way they could offer such a cheap tour was by making us go to designated tourist shops, where they pressured us to buy expensive (and tacky) souvenirs. First stop, the jade store. I was more interested in the insane architecture around this place than the overpriced jade doo-daas.



To me, this looked like a temple (above) had met some kind of Lord of the Rings inspired amusement park. Below, is some kind of olympic themed garden...it was sketchy...

Next door to the overpriced jade store was our first meal. We were all kind of anxious and not sure what was going on (our tour guide just kind of disappeared and one of the waitresses was really moody)...

Above: Mark, Mateo and Miyuki


Food was good. But it was no Lee Gardens.

Eri, Shinobu, me.
You know you're on a tour when...a guy comes out of the kitchen to do a noodle cutting performance.

Back in the van, I marveled at all of the construction...and the pollution/yellow sand. Interesting fact: The nearest desert is only 18km from Beijing and the sands are blowing towards it at a rate of 2 km per year! Who knows, one day Beijing might be a desert.

Below: Olympic sight #2 - another stadium??


We drove for about 1/2 hr and suddenly parts of the Great Wall appeared in the hills. We all jumped to the windows of the bus and ooo-ed and awww-ed. Finally we pulled up at at building right beside a huge gate that led to part of the wall. Ladies and gentlemen, this was our hotel for the night!

The amazing Juyongguan Great Wall Hotel.

While the rooms weren't amazing (you can see how the hallway light shone into the room and the bed was crazy hard)...

this was the view from the hotel courtyard!




We hung out at the hotel, taking pictures and walking around, until the sun went down. Back into the bus we went and off to Badaling (the most touristy section of the wall) to see it illuminated.





We returned to the hotel. Miyuki and I watched some Chinese opera (it was on at least 5 channels) and then went to bed early because the next day we were going to climb the Great Wall of China!!

Stayed tuned for Great Wall climbing, the Ming Tomb race, dim sum, more tourist trap horror stories and a night at the Chinese opera!

Yatai!

What: The Takayam Spring Festival (Sanno Festival)
When: April 15 & 16
Info: This is called one of the three most beautiful festivals in Japan. It is held twice a year, once to wish for a good crop (spring) and then to thank the gods for the harvest (autumn). According to the brochure, the festival began in the 1690's and the yatai (floats) were introduced in the 1700's.

Takayama is located in the Japan Alps so spring comes a little bit later. The sakura were blooming, especially in Gero. For once my camera co-operated with me and took some decent train-window shots.

We arrived on Sunday, the second (and last) day of the festival and made our way downtown area to check out the floats.

Elspeth and I had seen the floats at the festival museum the last time we came to Takayama but it was so much cooler to see them out in the sun. Twelve yatai were spread out throughout town but the three involved in the marionette performance were in a square near the famous nakabashi bridge.


Check out the samurai outfits! I remember hearing at the museum that each household has one samurai outfit and that Takayama is one of the only places where they are still worn for festivals!

These were my favourite outfits - they helped carry the portable shrine through the streets.

The floats are worth a lot of money (a couple million dollars per float!) and they are so important that if they are damaged, the Japanese Government will pay to fix them!


With the yatai out around town, their storehouses (yatai-gura) were empty and the huge doors were left open. This one had a small shrine near the top.









The festival procession going across Nakabashi in Takayama (below). Children, also dressed in costumes played flutes and small gongs (the brochure describes their song as 'kan-kako-kan' and that actually sounds exactly like the gongs!)



Later in the afternoon, everyone gathered in the burning hot square to see the marionette/puppet show. Even though the sun burnt our faces and there were a few technical difficulties (sound), it was still really interesting to see the performances.

Each puppet is manipulated by the puppet masters (!) who are hidden inside the float. The puppets are controlled by dozens of strings that are strung through the projecting arm.They can even pick objects up, walk up stairs, put on masks or do flips.


We had heard about the scandalous marionette performance involving the puppet of a courtly lady who suddenly turns into a tiger. This particular performance had been banned for hundreds of years and only returned to the festival in the 80's! (as a tiger - below)

The courtly lady (below)


The really awesome mirror-image drum and flute float (Kaguratai) (below).

We walked around for a bit but came back to the floats just as they were being put back into their storehouses until next year. This was the highlight for me because we got to see the teams of people pulling/pushing and steering the floats!

The streets of Takayama are narrow and require sharp turns to get down. The float makers took this into account and devised a brilliant fifth wheel mechanism that makes turning a corner quick and relatively painless.







This little girl (above) was my favourite. I had seen her dancing to the music earlier and then saw her again watching the kid-flute-band. I loved her yukata/sneaker/ponytail style.

Helping dad pull the float (above)



That night we stayed at the posh Takayama Green Hotel. It has an onsen, a foot onsen, 3 restaurants, a Japanese garden and a shopping center. The food was delicious and very spring festival inspired.


And of course, when in Takayama you must eat as much Hida beef as you can. Here we got to grill the meat ourselves.

Our garden view table (below)(Unfortunately our waiter couldn't take a picture that was infocus)

After mulitple visits to the onsen, a good nights sleep and a weird 'American' buffet breakfast we headed back into town to the morning market. Being the rain goddess, I summoned the rain to Takayama.



Goodbye yatai!

Hida Kokubun-ji - 8th century temple (below)

1200 year old gingko tree (below). My brain can't quite take in how old this tree is...


I am so glad we went to this festival. Unfortunately the autumn festival is during the week or I'd go to it too. I love Takayama with its mountains, floats, beef, onsens, sembei, shopping, mitarashi dango, late sakura, bridges and little lime green tree birds!

Mom,

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Thank you for being the best mom I could ever imagine.
You are one amazing person.
I miss you sooooo much!

Who sends homemade birthday cake and scones to the other side of the world? My mom. And that's only one of over a billion reasons why she rocks.

I can't wait for July to see you!

Love, Laura

Happy 'Quarter-Century' Birthday Taryn-san!

Have a blast this weekend! Eat lots of cake, drink lots of girly cocktails and dance up a storm in your silver shoes!

Happy Belated Birthday Justine-san!!

I am so sorry this post is late! I hope you had a wonderful birthday! Remember, whenever you want to come and travel from one 100 yen store to the next, around Japan - I'm ready!!
Miss you!