Where in the world are Sarah and Mike?

Ah, yep, sorry bout the lack of updates in 2007, I have been putting off telling you all what we're up to because WE DON'T KNOW!

The latest is that Mike has been offered a transfer to Singapore and we flew down there a couple of weeks ago to have a look. Mike spent the week working in the Singapore office, getting to know his possible future team mates, ten pin bowling and drinking expensive beer. I spent the week sitting by the pool at the Ritz-Carlton, watching Oprah while on the treadmill in the gym, having my nails done and drinking expensive mocktails. I didn't get to know anyone other than the pool staff. But it was great!

Singapore definitely has its pros compared with Tokyo: English speaking, bigger apartments, cheaper, a huge range on food, shops with almost "normal" sizes on their shelves ..... but can it keep us entertained after Hong Kong and Japan?? Many people have told us you can see the sites of Singapore within 4 weekends, others warn of the sterile environment and fines for the smallest little thing. BUT I was surprised to see people did cross the road against the lights, there was litter outside the the rubbish bins and people sure do pick their noses in public - just like in Hong Kong. Sure, it's not as exciting as Tokyo but I think there will be plenty to do on our weekends off.

Not that I will be happy to leave here of course! We have made some fantastic friends in Tokyo and haven't seen half of the things we wanted to in Japan. This chance has come about rather quickly and it looks like we may be off in only a couple of weeks - just enough time to visit Yokohama next weekend and cram in as many social engagements as possible!

Meanwhile Mike and I have booked flights home to New Zealand in late March so we will be seeing many of you very soon! My Dad is remarrying on April 7 in Nelson and Mat and Bridgette are also tying the knot on the 7th in Wellington. We'll be hoping to catch up with as many people as possible in the few weeks we have back home, I'm really looking forward to it!!!

And yes, we've booked out tickets from Singapore!

Day 4 - Kobe

On Friday we woke up to SNOW in Kyoto! Very pretty and fun walking to the bus stop. After a few delays on the train (I guess due to the snow) we arrived in a sunny but freezing Kobe.

First stop was Merikan Park where there is an earthquake memorial and a section of the port which has been left as it was after the quake. Pretty scary to see how much damage was done in the area - and then look up to the multi-storyed freeway running past the waterfront!

We also visited Chinatown, which wasn't sposed to be all that great (as far as Chinatowns go) according to LP, but we enjoyed the food for sure! Did a wee bit of shopping and then made our way to lunch.

I wanted to go to a Kobe beed restaurant recommended by LP for lunch as lunch deals in Japan are always fantastic value (particularly compared with the dinner menu!). We spent ages wandering up and down this particular street and being very confused that the place we were looking for seemed to be another cafe who happened to be celebrating their 6th birthday. My copy of LP is not that old!

When Sarah managed to have a look at the map, it transpired that someone had been looking for the wrong restaurant. In fact, the whole time we were actually "looking for" the 6-yr-old cafe. Oops.

Eventually we found Wakoku Beef and it was so worth it. Absolutely amazing food and a great show by the chef who made sure to tell us how to use every condiment and when we were sposed to eat what.

The next big adventure was the Herb Garden and cable car. We took the cable car up the hill and wanted to walk down. Didn't look too difficult. Until we found the goat track that meandered all the way down and all the way back UP the hill before taking us back to Shin-Kobe station. Not such a good idea at 4pm in the afternoon (sunset isn't long after 4.30) when it's been snowing intermittently all day. Oh well, it was good exercise and we felt rather proud of ourselves at the end!

Day 3 - Osaka

Hmm .. Sorry it's so late .. but I am determined to get this down or I will forget what we got up to!

A clear-ish day in Kyoto but it was raining and cold in Osaka, which wasn't so fun when we first arrived! We planned to visit the Umeda Sky Building first as it was close to the station but the view wasn't as good as we'd hoped because of the low cloud. In the hour or so we spent there the weather actually began to clear up though which meant we got a fairly decent view of the city in the end.

Next stop was Amerika-Mura and Domtomburi. This is where we saw the sorts of things I think Japan is famous for: crazy shops, crazy people and endless neon lights. Finally worked up the courage to use some Japanese and ordered okonomiyaki for lunch. It seemed easier to use the little Japanese I do know in Kyoto and Osaka ... and I have since heard from other people that they agree. I wonder why? You would think people in Tokyo would be more used to figuring out what the foreigners are saying, but who knows?

Found the famous market where you can buy plastic food and everything else you might need to open a restaurant in Japan. We bought an icecream scoop.

We spent the afternoon walking and walking .. and walking some more, through vast streets of shops. My favourite pastime.

Dinner was at Kyoto Station again, this time on the 11th floor overlooking Kyoto and watching the sun go down in the evening - beautiful! The food wasn't bad either!

Day 2 - Kyoto

Overnight we realised:
- Sarah had forgotten her glasses (and had to wear contacts all week and go blind at night)
- Mike had forgotten his contact lenses (and had to wear glasses all week and therefore look geeky in all his photos)
- Mike had also forgotten his shaver. Rats.

For our first (and only) full day in Kyoto we got up early and bussed back to the station to pick up all the guide maps we should have take the day before. The Tourist Information Centre is on the 9th floor of Kyoto Station. And it's closed on Tuesdays. Fortunately there is another Tourist Information Centre that gives out Japanese information on Level 2. On Tuesdays the will also give out English maps and info ... if we went back I'd just go to the second floor ... surely they have that stuff sitting there all the time?

First stop Sanjusangen-do, about 20-30 minutes walk from the station and in the end we decided not to pay the ￥600 entry fee to go in and took photos from the gate. There would be plenty more temples to see on this trip!

From there we followed one of the tourist walks through Eastern Kyoto visiting temples, shrines and pagodas. Many of Kyoto's sites are World Heritage Listed and considered to be culturally important not just to Japan but all humanity. The best part for me was usually the view at the top of a hill, or watching Japanese tourists take part in all the good luck rituals, reading their fortunes or trying to walk from one statue to another with their eyes closed in order to find their true love.

In the afternoon we followed the Philosopher's Path to Kinkakuji, the Silver Pavilion. This was the most crowded site we visited in Kyoto and felt like we were waiting in line to leave a lot of the time! You walk in one entrance, follow the path (and the people in front of you), take a few obligatory photos and walk out the other entrance (pause to use the bathroom facilities optional). The sand garden was fairly impressive however, as was the lack of patience from the European family in front of us who pushed through the rest of the tourist hordes - pretty bad form!

Mike was determined to walk back to the station after this so we followed his directions (which, admittedly were spot on) and arrived at Kyoto Station about 2 hours later, legs exhausted and starving. Of course we had just missed a bus and since it was after 6.30pm the next one wasn't coming for 45 minutes so time for our daily dose of Starbucks!

Starbucks over here is not like home. The first thing you do here is reserve a seat, often on another floor altogether from the service counter. Generally speaking, a shopping bag or your coat is used to reserve a seat and the others around the table you wish to use. If you're lucky you'll be in a group of 2 or more so one person can organise a table while the other waits in a queue to order and then receive your coffees. Getting your coffee takes longer as well because not only do they repeat your order back to you here, but the barista really does repeat it to the service staff. And so do the other 5 staff behind the counter. Which is hilarious because you get to hear your Japan-ified order being repeated in stereo by 7 chipmunks. Priceless.

Then you take three hours to drink your one short coffee between three friends, all the while emailing another three friends on your keitai or reading a magazine, or doing your homework, or fixing your make-up but never actually talking to your companions (unless it's via your keitai of course).

Day 1 - Kyoto

Before I get started, you can see photos from all 4 cities of our trip here.

On Boxing Day Mike and I took the Shinkansen down to Kyoto. Since Kyoto is only 2 hours away on the bullet train I picked a slightly later train than our 6am departure to Hiroshima back in October. Plus I was let in on the "secret" of Shinagawa station recently so things were a bit better organised all round really.

We arrived at Kyoto Eki just before lunch time and managed to find the JR bus stop and the next bus to Takahana-cho without too much trouble. As we got further and further away from the centre of Kyoto I could see Mike worrying a bit that we were on the wrong bus. Nope, but our ryokan was a little further out than I think he had realised.

We stayed at Yamazaki Ryokan which is the same place that Mum and Alex stayed in back in May. Our room seemed huge compared with others we've stayed in in Japan and we were both looking forward to sleeping on futons after the uncomfortable beds in Thailand (not to mention a night of no sleep on our flight home). But first we had an afternoon of sightseeing to do!

First stop was Ginkakuji or the Golden Pavilion, which had been recommended not only by Lonely Planet but also a guy we talked to at the Toyota City Showroom in Odaiba back in August (? September?). As promised it was very beautiful, although it probably would've looked a bit nicer had the sky not been so grey and ominous. Still, it was a nice walk around the temple grounds and not too far from our ryokan - only 5 minutes on the bus followed by a 5 minute walk.

Unfortunately the weather decided to pack in around this point and we saw Gion and Ponto-cho in the pouring rain. Taking the bus from downtown Kyoto to the station reminded me so much of bussing home in Wellington, I felt a little bit homesick! Something to do with hot, stuffy busses and wet roads with everyone around you just waiting for the ride to end. Kyoto was cold and wet but at least the train station had a shopping mall and hundreds of restaurants! Unfortunately we were a little early, and it was a bit wet, to see and geishas or maiko, but Ponto-cho was a nice walk (despite the rain!) and we had a fortifying starbucks coffee overlooking the river at the end of the afternoon too.

Dinner was okonomiyaki at Kyoto Station. Mike was in Heaven. Actually, so was I - it was delicious!

Happy New Year

What are your New Year's resolutions this year? I was reading an article on stuff yesterday that says more than half of Brits who make resolutions will give them up within 6 months. So I'm going to beat them all and forego the resolution making altogether this year. Easy.

Mike and I arrived back in Tokyo yesterday after two weeks away. Thailand was relaxing but not quite as sunny as we'd hoped. Admittedly it is their rainy season right now and we didn't get any rain, so perhaps we should just be thankful for that rather than moaning about the lack of sun. Still, it was great fun sitting round reading books all day and playing backgammon, eating thai food and drinking Chang. While on Samui Mike spoiled me with an early Christmas present - a half day "Sweetheart Together" spa treatment at Bandara Resort which was AMAZING.

Back in Japan for Christmas and we had a nice quiet one at home. Slept late following our overnight flight home (possibly the first and last Christmas I have ever slept more than 12 hours) and enjoyed a cooked champagne brunch followed by roast lamb for Christmas dinner without feeling at all guilty about not going outside because it's WINTER.

On Boxing Day we were up early again and off to Kyoto. We took the Shinkansen down there and arrived just before lunch time which gave us the afternoon to check out Gion and Ponto-cho. In the rain. We stopped in at Starbucks after 4 or so hours of walking and I was really disappointed to find they had already stopped serving their special "Christmas" drinks - no more toffee nut lattes for me until next Christmas then!

Fortunately we had pretty good weather for the rest of the trip, although it was a lot colder than Tokyo has been. We arrived back in Tokes late yesterday arvo, after a bit of drama with our return train tickets we managed to get back in one piece and even lasted until midnight to pop open a bottle of bubbles and welcome in the New Year.

Mike's back at work tomorrow so I'll be getting the place organised and sorting out our holiday photos before I go back to work myself next week. I'm looking forward to sleeping in and having some home-cooked dinners! On tonight's menu is thai red curry ....