Osaka, Japan May 6th, 2009

Osaka is Japan's second largest city.

We took a ride on the "what they say" is the world's largest ferris wheel. It takes about 15 minutes to go all the way around. The photos you can get from up there are wonderful. Would have been better if it was not raining!
Did some local "mall" shopping. Nicky found a license plate on a wall in one store. He wanted his picture made in front of it for one of his buddies back in Birminham that is from Mississippi! Peyton, this is for you! I guess there is some sort of connection between these people at this store and Mississippi but our limited Japanese and their limited English only allowed us to take the photo and all of us smiled!
The Japanese love animation. The food court in this mall was like sitting in the middle of a cartoon. We did find a KFC and it was our first "American" mael since leaving in January. I guess it is almost time to come home it we are wanting friesd chicken! It was just over $35US dollars for 3 of us to eat chicken, french fries and a coke. Japan is expensive!!!
We see kids on "field trips" all the time. They are fun to try to talk to and love seeing American kids!
Kathleen found some hats to buy in this mall, and that was all. We made our way back to the ship and said goodbye to Osaka. Onto Tokyo....

Osaka, Japan May 6th, 2009

We arrived Osaka early and got on a motorcoach for a 9 hour tour of Kyoto.

After being "on the road", "in the air", "on the sea", "in a bus", "in a taxi", "on a train", "on an elephant", "in a submarine", "on a ferris wheel", "on a junk"...and we still have a helicopter ride, dog sleds and wading through rivers of trout ahead...You'd think we'd be tired. We are. However, we still have much left to see and do!
The 9 hours tours though, those are over. Much to the disappointment of the whole family, we just completed our last "all day in a bus" tour. Kyoto. Unfortunately, we have landed in Japan while they are getting the outter reaches of the big storms that slammed into Manila, which was horrible. Here, there is only rain. We were fortunate that the Japanese like to have clear plastic umbrellas. One gal on our tour had the beautiful thought that maybe the Buddist people like to be able to see all of life twjile it is raining and be able to look up to the skies.... That was nice but not true. I asked a local man that spoke English why they like to have clear plastic umbrellas. He looked at me trying to understnad my crazy question and said simply "They are cheap"! So much for the beauty of it all! They cost $3-4 US dollars and are quite sturdy. Both a couple and they did come in handy.
Kyoto is about 2 hours by bus from Osaka. We however got lucky and got on a super highway with no traffic!! It only took a little over an hour to get there. We went straight to the Golden Pavillion or Kinkakuju, a beautiful 3 story structure covered in gold foil. The Shogun used to "summer" hre and actually, there was a spot on one end of this building that went out to a small island that was his "fishing spot".
Lunch was interesting. You can see it in the large black lacquer box. Not much of it was recognizeable. The raw fish was not a big hit with any of us, the shredded unknown vegetables were lovely to look at, the "Ginko leaf" wraped green dumpling for dessert was the same texture as a really old piece of Double Bouble that won't stick together well! The best thing in the "lunch box" was the grilled fish. It was the size of a small child's palm and was good. We did not find out until we were back on the bus that it was EEL!! Oh well, that is something new we can serve at the lake this summer!!
There was a Bride and Groom outside the hotel. It wasn't as beautiful as we thought. They were Japanese models doing a commerical for weddings that can be held at the hotel! Still nice to see their outfits.
After lunch we went to the 17th century Nijo Castle. Beautiful gardens, very ornate. This was the Shogun's Palace The Palace has a built-in security system. The ancient flooring has small clips built underneath that cause the floors to "Sing like nightingales" when anyone, especially intruders hoping to kill the Shogun, walked on them. There is not photo taking inside. Sorry. The gardens outside were beautiful. The trees, the flowers, the cranes. Cranes in Japan are a symbol of long life, so are turtles. The carp in the pond have their special meaning as well. It seems that many years ago the story was told that carp are the only fish that can swim upstream and successfully spawn. The "folk tale" as it is told says that the carp has the ability to turn into a DRAGON once it has made it upstream! That is why they are held in such high regard and you see them everywhere.
We had time for some local handicraft shopping. We were more fascinated by the rows of vending machines that extended forever than the shopping. You can get almost anything you need from these vending machines. Coffee, ice cream, cokes, cigarettes, drug store items...and you can swipe your credit card to use them!
The cute gal in one of the photos is our friend Katie from Oklahoma. She leaves us in Tokyo. She has been on many of our tours with us and we have very much enjoyed her. Safe travels Katie!

Osaka,

Nagasaki, Japan May 4th, 2009

A rainy cool day in Nagasaki.
Kathleen did not feel well and turns out she was smart to stay on the ship and not get wet but she missed some sights.
Peace Park.
The people here did a beautiful job with the historical preservation of what little was left here and what they did to memoralize it.
Many countries have sent statues as memorials over the years and it really is a beautiful memorial to the people that perished.
No wars are good. World War II basically ended because of the atomic bombs that were dropped here. Many lives were lost but many more lives may have been lost if the war had kept going. Sad for all involved. No wars are good....
More about Nagasaki when we have better connections

Sailing in the Yellow Sea May 3, 2009

We are just off the western coast of South Korea. We will be in Japan tomorrow afternoon. We may not have any type internet or phone service while we are in and around Japan. We will try daily to post but may not be able.
We are all fine.
Looking forward to Japan.

Beijing, China May 1-2, 2009

In 2007, we saw Beijing for the first time. In 2009, we saw Beijing as a changed city. Gone are the millions of bicycles, although many are still there, and on with the electric buses! Yes, electric. They have tried to eliminate the horrible pollution problem and they have certainly put a big dent in it from the last time we were here...only 2 years ago. The Nest, where the Olympic games started in 2008 is certainty a sight to behold and we wondered if they could possibly finish it. They did. The people here work. They work hard. Everyone, no matter what their job, does it diligently, and they seem to have armies of every kind of workforce. Whether they are planting trees, sweeping streets, trimming hedges,...there are large groups of people doing the work. The amount of trees that have been planted here in the last 2 years would have to be in the hundreds of thousands. Those that know me know I can exaggerate. This is not an exaggeration! The beautification award for the city that has done the largest clean up effort hands down goes to Beijing! If they have one giant rug they swept all the "ugly" under. we did not see it. The city has a whole new feel. The Olympics make many cities go broke. The Olympics made this city shine.
In our photos old and new are within miles of each other, blocks of each other, steps of each other. We stayed over night in the Regent Hotel. It was lovely. We toured The Great Wall of China...again. This time, there was no snow. This time there were more people and the weather was wonderful. The kids found the locks where, if you watch The Amazing Race, the contestants had to go to to unlock one of the padlocks to get a clue...fun for them/us to see. They climbed WAY up the wall. The part of the wall we visited last time was much more flat. This area was a CLIMB and very STEEP. They got quite the workout going up as far as they could and brought down the oh so wonderful "I climbed the Great Wall" t-shirts for us!
Day two we got a driver that did not speak English and managed to tell him we wanted to go to the old antique markets. My goodness. If you love antiquing or shopping for junk...this is heaven on earth. I had no idea if I was holding something that was B.C. or 1960's Mao! There was SO much to see and look through we were overwhelmed. When we return, notice I said when, we will go back there. There are not many cities that are for sure repeats. This is one of them. The changes this city has made in 2 years is quite shocking. All for the better. I hope that Kathleen and Nicky both will learn how to speak Chinese before they go off to college, as the young generation there is certainly learning how to speak English. If they don't they might need to move to China right after high school graduation and learn. At the rate the Chinese are going, who knows what they might accomplish. Mandarin lessons for the over 40 could be handy as well!