In Kyoto

About three days ago I arrived to Kyoto. The train was fast, so I only managed to briefly check Lonely Planet suggestions for places to visit (and to stay in case my couchsurfing arrangements would not work). It was sunny and rather warm after cold and rainy Tokyo... a pleasant change. I left my luggage at the locker and headed in search for some food, following couple of maps I got from the tourist information desk. I found my lunch place across the temple that happened to be the biggest wooden structure in the world. I crossed the street, deeped my hands in the sacred water running from the mouth of a dragon and this way started my exploration of an old city that once used to be the capital of Japan.
Kyoto is easier to navigate in, the bus system is well developed and takes you everywhere; besides there is metro. But one of the best ways of going around the city is probably a bike, it costs as much as a daily bus pass, but allows you to get to places faster (if you know the way - I personally never do). Kyoto is full of temples and they are nicely sold to you in Lonely Planet or in the Tourist office. So you go, but after second or third (if you are slow) you realize that it is not all that there is in Kyoto and beautiful but limited and overcrowded paths inside could be skiped without much damage to your experience. You`d probably still want to see some just to form your opinion and leave the rest to the tourist crowds.
Walking is fun too if you avoid big roads; old houses in this very japanese stile you`ve seen in the movies and thought it was part of history rather than everyday life (I live in one currently and enjoy waking up with sun rays playing on the rice paper of the sliding walls) next to the new ones, small specialized shops, covered markets, food stalls, river side full with people on Sunday morning, parks with picnicking people and shrines that you walk through on the way somewhere. It feels rather slow and very peaceful regardless of tons of tuirists coming from all the directions and not only with foreign passports. It feels wise, like and old buddhist monk; it feels very traditional with geisha and maiko still mastering their skill as they did hundreds of years ago. And it feels like a place to share with someone...

Tokyo, first impressions

Already three days I feel like I am from Mars, or maybe from Venus (as John Gray reserved Mars for men). I don't speak the language and I am completely excluded from the whirlpool of everyday life. I am not even noticed like in Shanghai, where foreigners often mean potential good business. I feel like I am invisible and have an advantage to watch, I am a fly with a camera. People are busy here, they know where they are going and they don't bother with the rest. Or maybe it just feels like it, as I most often don't. I mean it literally, very often I find myself some place that I can't locate on the map. As the street names rarely have English script and maps don't have pictures of the places... If I would be looking for something specific, I would probably get worried, but I am just wondering about.


Today it was Shinjuku, just one district or ward (ku they call it in Japanese), but took the whole day (well, this one district accommodates as many people as the whole country me and some of you are currently residents of). Well, discount for some time in Starbucks - hiding from the rain and boosting up energy (local coffee shops are often full of cigarette smoke, as smoking inside is allowed; strange as smoking outside is not and there are places designated specially for smoking. I'd walk in and, while queuing up, feel dizzy and rush out for some air... and go and find Starbucks. I don't even like their coffee, but it is a place I can be at). In many places, Starbucks attracts the young and the 'wanna be cool' people. In Tokyo you can find all kind of people there, as many young as old; sometimes families stop by, and of course foreigners.

Shinjuku is great for shopping; my favorite stores are there, Zara, United Colors of Benetton, H&M, even BoConcept...


It is nice to just walk around, especially closer to the evening, when the streets light up and it seems the whole country should work just to keep this ku's screens and banners on and blinking.


I checked out the bookstore (7 floors! - stores rent or own houses and those houses are generally high, but rather narrow. So lots of stores stretch up vertically rather than horizontally . Same with the restaurants. Imagine 4-floors McDonald's). Books in Japan are smaller - shorter in length, so they appear cuter. Also they are printed and read from right to left; so for us it'd feel as if we are reading a book from the end (I do it sometimes). The characters could be arranged either vertically (more often) or horizontally (in this case the books look like ours, left to right print). Same applies to magazines.


On the way back I hit the traffic. Shunjuku is always crowded, but this time (around 7pm) they barely could fit on the platform. Some needed to stop on the stairs and wait until the train picks up the spilling over crowd. The train and metro systems are still a puzzle to me. There are a few points where you use your card even before you take a train (as there are different operates - train, metro, private lines), sometimes it feels I pay just to be walking underground. I get home by chance as I have no idea what the address is, neither would I care as the streets are not identifiable. I often follow the crowds, or just walk where the lights show green or where it looks nicer. It works somehow, so far...

Btw, I could not resist walking into Shinjuku passage, which is a playing parlor. Hundreds of machines are arranged in multiple rows where chain smoking males (and couple of females) stare at the screens and lazily push buttons. This is gaming Japanese style.

Zhouzhuang

Shanghai to Tokyo

It is probably time I wrote a continuation to my story. I am waiting for the flight to take off as half an hour delay has been announced, so no time can be better. I haven’t been too frequent in my posts recently, well not my fault. Chinese government banned 25% of the foreign websites and Blogspot (along with Facebook) are in the list. It did not occur to me earlier just to put it down in writing or type it in Word document so I can catch minor detail of what’s happening outside and inside me. So here it is in short, as it was and is:

I am on a flight from Shanghai to Tokyo, flying business class (second time in my life). Did not really plan it (either time), as I am rather short on cash and don’t know what my paycheck will be like and if there will be any at all, so I am up for saving…. In fact, pursuing this idea of saving in mind I happen to be here. It’s a funny story, but I wander if I should share actually. It kind of describes me wrong. I am not like that, at least most of the time. Hopefully I secured my future enjoyability by stating that, so, here is the story.

My adventure was rushed. I was told that I can leave about 4 weeks before I left Iceland. My passport was still on the way and I could not apply for visas yet. And I had to get 3 of them. Being Russian, it is not as easy as one (Icelandic human) might think. Takes time, lots of paper (coming from various places with various things written on it about me) and proper pictures. They like to keep your passport for a few days as well. It is not really needed, I’d think, as it takes seconds (from experience in Mexican embassy) to place the visa stamp in your passport. Well, they want people to contribute to economy I guess, so they keep them nervous and worried about the 50% chance of not getting visa and walk to the drugstore to get something calming. Well, I don’t know what calms people and I contribute to economy the least in that way. Anyway, before I loose myself in the forest of unconnected thoughts, back to the story.

As I was 50% sure that I will get all the visas needed, I was booking my flights only for 50%. In a way I was not really booking them, but just looking them up and keeping in mind the dates, the prices and the airlines. After I’d get a visa, I’d go to the airlines website and locate the flight I was intended to buy and would book it. With a 30% change in price. At least. At some point I realized that I am overdoing my budget, but 30% at least and kind of stopped caring. I stopped booking my flights. I thought I could be flexible now, as money was not a question (I did not have 30% more anyway). I’d arrive to a country, I thought, and would get a flight to go to the next destination. That should work and sometimes some people get last minutes deals. I could be that ‘some people’, could I? Ever? Well, that’s what I thought when I found a flight for 80 dollars. A flight leaving from Shanghai going to Tokyo. A flight that I had to book anyway. And here it was, colored in pink, screaming of a good deal, saving my budget and more or less fitting the dates. One thing, my stay in Japan according to the ticket was supposed to last 16 days (they had some special deal on certain dates). Which is fine. But I have 15 days visa. Hm? Could one day be a problem, I thought. For 80 dollars? Of course not. I tried booking it. Somehow I could not finish the booking process though using my card, as Iceland was not included in the country menu when you proceed to payment. Minor detail - the payer had to be the traveler - that was clearly stated. Some rules are less important and this one was really unnecessary from my perspective... To make the story short I booked the ticket with a credit card belonging to my brother in law, only to discover the next day that I mixed up the currencies and Japanese yen that I was so excited the previous day about turned out to be Chinese yuan :( (the difference of about 10 times). All the hustle for nothing, as moderately priced ticket would cost even slightly less than mine. Besides I had that one extra day to worry about...

Well, that's how I ended up sitting in the business class next to people that probably had more cash in their pockets than I have on my bank account. Too bad the flight lasted only 2 hours... the service was great for everyone, regardless of the chance that brought you there.

Asakusa

Asakusa... Sounds so beautiful when pronounced by Japanese... That's where I am staying tonight. It's not in the center of Tokyo (there is no a real center), but to get even here from Narita airport took an hour by train.

The district is very beautiful, lively, many places to eat (lots of deep fried shrimps and vegetables - tempura), street markets and not that many foreigners around. I spotted two Starbuckses, plan to have coffee there tomorrow morning. No internet though. No place can compete with Reykjavik in it.

I am staying in a capsule hotel tonight, wanted to try that experience while I am here. Capsule hotels are generally a male lodging, so when I arrived the women floor was completely empty.

For us, relatively westerners, it might seem to be an exotic experience; for them there is nothing exciting about it, it is one of the cheapest ways to stay. That's about it. My hotel is just next to the metro, very convenient and it could have had a nice view over the river if the rooms had windows. Normally they don't - there are 2 levels of shelves on both sides of the room with a narrow corridor in between. I thought you could close a door on your shelf-cabin, but it is a bamboo curtain that you normally put down for some privacy, but nothing you can lock. There are plenty of other lockers though.

When I just came (I did not reserve a... shelf btw, as I knew it was not that popular among women) I was asked to take my shoes off and place them in a small locker; I got slippers instead (frog-green and kind of nice). I was given a key for another locker, where a towel and a pajama was waiting for me. And then I had to put my luggage in the third locker, that I can open only when I leave if I do not want to pay every time I open it. Actually the shelf itself reminds a locker in a way, just you can't lock it.

On the second floor there is huge ballroom. They used it for dinner tonight, lots of small tables and pillows arranged by the perimeter of the room. Some huge group was having dinner. Then there is a common room (very small) with a computer that does not work and a TV. There is a Japanese old man in his pajamas watching football at the moment. He also has slippers like mine. I would not be surprised if the sizes are the same, both for slippers and pajamas... He was so kind as to let me use his adapter, as the electricity plug is not the same. It resembles US power outlet and I might even have that in my suitcase, but remember, it is locked and I don't want to waste money.

About the money, it is not as expensive as I expected. At least compared to Iceland. Even Starbucks is affordable.

It was raining when I went for a walk, so the guy at the counter offered me an umbrella. That was nice as I never carry one since I moved to Iceland. The streets were busy with people, same umbrellas like mine. I noticed that people were bumping onto me, which they did as they were walking on the other side of the street. I checked the road and learned that Japan has left side traffic. I might have known it before, but today I learned it again. Taxis are very similar to the ones in Shanghai. They have red and green signs on the window depending on if it is taken. The car models are also similar.

People are generally very helpful. Few of those that I talked to, spoke any English, but somehow it is enough to flash hand signs, they'd flash them back and you have the information needed. I was recommended a restaurant by an old couple like that, we might have played a nice pantomime together.

I am going to put on my green pajamas and check out the sleeping locker.
What a marvelous contrast - business class flight and a capsule hotel :).

Back in Russia

Some days can be really long and eventful and today was one of those days. It started at 5:30 in the morning when I woke up from a weird dream just before the alarm went off. I am a master of weird dreams; it almost feels like I watch an intricate movie every night when I go to sleep. I could be a prolific writer if I ever put them down on paper. If...

Anyway, it's not every morning that alarm is set for 5:30 in our house. I was starting my journey today and I had a morning flight, so 5:30 felt like a necessary and least painful time to wake up. After running up and down for couple forgotten things we took off. Airport life is rather simple and structured in Iceland, so am not in favor of the idea of arriving much ahead of flight time. Actually I do not like it anywhere. I like flying, but airports are not on the top of my list of places to hang out at. But this time, I guess, objectively, I got too relaxed; I forgot to check my flight time! I just knew it was sometime after 7 and I assumed it was at 7:45 as that sounded like a good time for a flight. Doesn't it to you? My guess was off by 25 minutes, backwards! It means a lot when you arrive with a comfortably short half an hour to the necessary stuff so you end up on a plane and get to the fun part of traveling. It magically worked for me though and hitting the airport 20 minutes before the departure I still managed to be one of the first passengers to board the plane.

The flight was uneventful. I was too sleepy to care for a conversation. So I slept through the trip, misbehaved child on the seat behind and a chance to order food. I woke up with a fresh idea to skip stopover in Frankfurt - that was a plan originally. The clouds outside of the plane window were not promising a single sun ray and I overheard that the Frankfurt book fare - the biggest in the world - was already over. What else is there to do in Frankfurt? For 10 hours? Honestly?

I picked my luggage at a quarter past one and headed straight to the Aeroflot check-in desk. I managed to change my tickets to the flight that was leaving in 40 minutes - plenty of time compared to my morning flying experience.

To make it short, I made it. It's almost not worth mentioning that I was the last passenger to board and the crew new me by name and a seat number by then, as I happen to be holding the departure. The thing is they arranged for a second security control, exclusive for flights to Russia. So made my duty and stayed in line to be double checked for half an hour... until the boarding crew member, the same that changed my ticket, came running straight to me with crazy eyes. I had to go through the full control regardless of the waiting flight. The last thing I heard when running through the corridor - "Never again, will I change a flight for you!" Was it my fault? Honestly? They create stupid rules on stupid assumptions that Russians are more cunning on hiding their drags and WMDs that we all carry of course, just in case and then they blame you for following the rules and not protesting to be put through security twice.

I walked through 19 rows of judgmental eyes before I had a chance to dive into my seat next to a Chinese man who did not seem to mind even if he had a flight to Shanghai to catch that evening. We chatted through the trip and I learned that the textbooks about Chinese culture are true in those part where they say that personal income is a common topic for discussion.

All of a sudden we were landing into a complete dark. 4 hours time difference made me miss a good part of a day and offered late evening right after early afternoon.

My luggage happen to stay behind in Frankfurt, so I did not have to worry about carrying two suitcases through Moscow metro. I have this thing about escalators and luggage. Always get nervous when approaching one with a suitcase, not to say having two to take care of.

Moscow was dark and it was snowing a little. And it smelled like Moscow. And there were people in metro. And people spoke Russian. And it felt nice to be home.

It's been some time

Wow, it has definitely been long since I blogged last. Long enough to forget my password at least - just spent an hour figuring it out. It has been pretty busy and things were happening, but somehow I couldn't bring myself to quietly seat and write about them.


Summer was beautiful, couple of new countries explored, my family came for a visit - trip around the island and great time together followed. I run half marathon, killed my iPod, bought another one, went to New York, learned to love my cat and do a toe stand at yoga class. My visa was maxed up the whole time and now, when I am back to grand zero, I am going to India. And not directly to be exact, but through 4 other countries - Germany, Russia, China and Japan. How can one go to India through Japan? A valid question. A few flights will take me there. Eventually.