Stormy in Mexico too

Well I'm back from my week-long vacation with my girlfriend Andrea in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. It was great to relax and laugh so much, we had a really good time. Unfortunately, the cold front that you all had to endure here in Canada made an appearance in Mexico also, but instead of -25 deg C we had 25 deg C, which made for lots of clouds, wind and rain... but I'm not complaining. We did get to do some nice snorkeling, visit some Mayan ruins in Chichen Itza and shop in Playa - as well as lots of resting, drinking, eating and dancing! The ocean was gorgeous and we took every opportunity to spend time on the beach. I have to mention the beach bar which had a great bartender and a dancefloor on the sand, it was really cool to dance next to the waves. I guess I'll have to wait until summer to work on my tan. Check out the photos!

Ahh the luxury...

We've been here, in Playa del Carmen Mexico for two days and Andrea is already trading in her Canadian citizenship. The room is great, the food is great, the drinks are great, it's too luxurious... but I'm not complaining. There's this nice little bar on the beach with a dance floor and all that serves awesome shots and has different music each night...it's the place to be. Spent the day snorkeling today and we'll be visiting the Mayan ruins tomorrow. Can't seem to find the time to read my book, but I have found time to nap. Gotta run to make our dinner reservation. Wish you were here!

Coming home

Today is our last day in Japan. Last night we went out for a lavish meal at an upscale restaurant to celebrate our month here and to say goodbye to Japan. I can't describe the food because of the variety and creativity of tastes and presentation, so I'll just let you imagine a perfect Japanese meal. I've compiled two short lists of things that I'll remember from here, notice that the second one is a lot shorter than the first.

The things I love about Japan and Tokyo:
1. Trains are always on time... exactly on time

2. Ice cubes are square, actually if you want perfection you can find it here

3. Breathtaking landscapes

4. Finding a restaurant is not a problem (reading the menu is a different story)

5. Japanese women wear the nicest shoes (in big cities)

6. Beer in vending machines on the street

The things that I won't miss about Japan:

1. The noise and all the people (especially in Tokyo)

2. The humidity (although it's great for the gardens)

3. Rainy days in big cities

3. Smoking in restaurants

See you in Canada!

The ocean must be empty now

It's been raining for days. Last night the sky opened up and there was torrential rain and booming thunder all night long. Because of this, I haven't been spending much time outdoors or taking many pictures of the sights around Tokyo so there isn't much to see in the Tokyo album yet, but I'll be updating it.

Anyway, this morning we got up early and tramped accross town to witness the biggest fish market in the world, the Tsukiji market. We dodged trucks, forklifts and mad carts to get into the market then we were dodging fishguts and sea water. If only I'd followed local fashion and bought a pair of stylish rubber boots, I'd have been happier.

I never knew that so many fish could be pulled out of the sea in one night, it was really something. There were stalls upon stalls of freshly caught fish, mollusk, and crustacean all waiting to be bought by local restaurants and stores. There was even a tuna auction where a whole tuna can go for ￥1,ooo,ooo ($10,000)! I saw a man cutting up a tuna with a knife that was at least 4 feet long and another that was chopping frozen fish with a circular saw. There were so many different sizes of shrimp, from krill to almost the size of a lobster. I'm amazed that the ocean still contains any fish with our appetite for seafood. I actually hesitated before ordering fish today, but it's nearly impossible to order a seafood-free meal in Tokyo.

Later we went to see the exhibits at the NTT Intercommunications Center. It was an interesting blend of technology and art, some of which was interractive. For example, there was a room where a 3-D projection was controlled by a joystick and you could zoom in and out of the projection as well as navigate through it. There was an "inorganic" creature that resembles and acts like a living thing but survives on the energy generated by urban environments (it was a robot that resembled a huge insect/plant and had lifelike movements, and an interesting fictional description). There was also a room with a visual gravity-field display representing the people in the room and showing the gravitational field around each one. Anyway, it was cool. The next couple of days should be pretty laid back since we're gearing down to go home. I'll have more time so I'll post again tomorrow.

Kimono exhibit

Today I visited the Suntory Museum of Art because of their Kosode exhibit. These are kimono worn by upper class Japanese in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries as fashion and art. Kosode masters produced books with pages of black and white designs from which women would choose new ones to be made. The amount of work was incredible, for instance many were made of patterned silk (where a complicated pattern was woven into the silk first) then they were resin dyed (where resin is painted where you want the silk to stay white then removed after dying), hand painted and embroidered. Apparently women had different ones for each season and occation with appropriate themes. This was another highlight of the trip for me since some of the pieces were really spectacular. I've attached some pictures that I got off the web, so they're not the actual ones that I saw, but they're very representative and you get the idea.

Tokyo!

On the final leg of our travels, we're now in Tokyo and it's living up to its reputation as a big, busy, stimulating urban jungle. Last night I saw the entire city from above and it was like an ocean of lights that stretched into the distance in all directions. Honestly, I think that it'll take me a couple of days to adjust to the crowds, noise, lights and excitement.

Now for the exciting news! We found the place where they sell the fake food - Kitchenware-town in Asakusa district here in Tokyo. I spent the morning wandering around the restaurant supply stores and shops that carry all the fake food you could ever want from whole fish to mixed drinks. I was really impressed by how well-made the food is, which is probably why one item costs upwards of 5000￥($50). After spending some time perusing all that food we were hungry and went for lunch.

Other highlights have included a visit to Senso-ji (a very big and active Buddhist temple), a Kabuki performance last night (none of which I understood), and a visit to Electric-town where they sell all things electronic. I'm a little tired from all the hustle and bustle so I'll get a good nights sleep and post more later.

Impressions

The last couple of days were pretty hectic as we covered a large part of Shikoku in two days. Both days were somewhat dissapointing since the things we'd planned to do didn't turn out but were interesting none-the-less because we still had some adventures. The whale-watching trip turned into a whale-waiting trip, but we landed in a fetching little village and met a really nice Japanese couple who rented us their entire house for very little money. The hike in the Iya valley turned into a frantic hitch-hiking adventure, but we slept at a rustic guest house tucked away in the mountains and overlooking the rapids of the gorgeous Yoshino-gawa (river) in the Oboke gorge. The guy who lives there uses the river water, has a goat... and a cell phone.

I'd like to tell you about some of the stuff which has become comonplace for me here, but which you might find interesting. For instance, I'm in an internet cafe right now but they call it a media cafe. There are probably 200 computers in here in various rooms with different music piped into each one. They also have books, blankets, showers, tanning beds, meals and beer... oh and you can buy a 10 hour pass if you want.

Toilets are very odd. They have so many buttons, many of which turn on automatically, that you can't find the handle to flush. The seat is heated, the toilet blows air and can spray water in four different ways, there's even a musical note which plays the sound of water running.

People on public transit are pretty funny. In every case, every bus, plane, train or boat that I've been on, everybody is sleeping... Everybody! One time I swear the bus driver was sleeping too. They don't curl up and lay down either, they all sit with their heads forward bobbing along and almost falling over, it's crazy. The worst part is that I've started falling asleep too!

There's this ridiculous music that's played on public transportation, in stores and at cross walks, It's kinda like the music on kids shows or jingles for chewing gum, which is probably to wake people up (Pawel loves it!).

My favourite is the fake food. In the front of restaurants there's sometimes a display window with dishes of the food that they make inside but it's all fake AND it looks delicious. I still can't figure out who makes this food, if there's a fake-food-factory somewhere in the country side where they pump out tons of rubber food items to be made into complete dishes or if the dishes were once real and have a thick layer of shellac to seal in their yummy appearance.

There's also vending machines everywhere, usually for drinks, and even the bottles on display here are fake!