zambia and zimbabwe: livingstone and victoria falls

In another post I briefly mentioned my arrival in Livingstone, but I made it a bit more adventurous than it needed to be. When the bus got to the Namibia/Zambia border everyone piled out. We all had to go through the exit side of the Namibian border control, then to a health tent where they took our temperatures and gave us some sort of a card. My card was actually a piece of cardboard, they obviously didn't have enough of the 'real' cards, which were just slips of paper.

I got all the way to the front of the line at the entry to Zambia, filled out a piece of paper, reached for my wallet, and realized I didn't have any US dollars. (I'd put them away in another part of my luggage.)

Since the visa for Zambia has to be purchased with US dollars, I had to race back to the bus and explain that I needed to get into my pack, which was under the bus. Fortunately, it wasn't too buried in all the luggage. I got my money, and went back to the border control counter. Since I was flying out of Livingstone to Lusaka, (after spent one of those entries by going to the Zimbabwe side of the falls,) I knew I needed a double entry visa to Zambia. $80 lighter, I had a full page sticker visa in my passport. I can't help it, I like these things.

From there the bus continued to Livingstone. I knew where I wanted to go, sortof. I had an address for my accomodation, but I wasn't exactly sure where the bus droppoff was located. While I was at the dropoff, I saw a stall selling Zambian SIM cards, so I got one of those. It was an adventure to get it to fit my phone, the guy was actually using fingernail clippers to do the cutting! I don't even have the latest iphone, I can't be the only visitor who has come throuh this area needing a SIM card in that particular shape. Anywho, it fit.

A taxi took me to my accomodation, which let me check in immediately. I wasn't exactly sure what I had booked, but I was thrilled to find out I'd have a two bedroom suite. I didn't need all that space, but it felt luxurious anywho. he manager gave me answers to my questions about what there was to see in town, and how to get to Victoria Falls, which is the main reason visitors come to this town.
He also booked a taxi to come pick me up an hour later. Normally I'd be all about walking (10km each way doesn't bother me, I like walking,) but everything I read and heard said the walk was unsafe.

Apparently its common for attacks to happen on people silly enough to try to walk. This was one time I decided to heed all the warnings, especially because I wouldn't be in a city during that walk, I'd be out kindof in the middle of nowhere.

The taxi arrived exactly an hour later. The first time I experienced promptness in Africa, yahoo!! The taxi driver explained where I was going, how much the entry fee would be, and the best areas for walking and photos. He also told me about other options in the area.

Victoria Falls, also known as Mosi-oa-tunya (the smoke which thunders in the local language,) is a UNESCO designated area. It's gorgous. The falls are in a deep gorge, and stretch for almost two kilometers. The amount of water coming over the falls depends (a lot) on the season. There wasn't as much water during my visit, but there was still plenty of beauty.

The entry fee to the Zambian side of the falls is $20USD or 200KWN. I entered, and walked up a path that kindof took me behind the upper area of the falls. I had a couple views of the river flowing down, and when you see that it's almost surprising that the water continues onto such a huge waterfall. I realized immediately that I would need help crossing those waters, as it's easy to fall, and also easy to get completely lost.

I walked back toward where I'd entered, then followed another path down toward an area called the boiling point. It's a curve in the river where water swirls around, and really does look like it's boiling. The sign at the top of the path tells you how far down you'll be going, and says it isn't an easy path.

It wasn't easy exactly, but it also wasn't as challenging as I expected after reading the sign. I had plenty of water with me (thank you camelbak) so I wasn't worried about dehydration. The boiling point was pretty, and it was nice to sit on the rocks in the area and just take in the beauty of nature. Getting back up the trail was harder than going down, go figure. As I was going up I was going the opposite way as a group carrying kayaks. Just down from the boiling point is the put in area for kayaks and whitewater rafting.

My last trail of the day was the so called Photography Trail. It didn't end up being very photogenic, but I think that's because the sun wasn't at the angle I would've liked. It is a trail crawling with babboons, and they will take your stuff. I was a few meters behind a girl and saw it happen to her. A monkey came and grabbed her backpack, and scampered off with it. We watched as the monkey emptied the backpack, then tried to open many of the items inside. She was most concerned about getting her passport, camera, and phone back. Eventually she did, thanks to a couple random men in the area.

After watching that happen, I was a bit nervous about holding up my camera to take photos. I most certainly did not get my snacks out of my bag either.

Beforehand Eric had chosen a time at which he would be waiting at the entry gate, and again he was there on time. I wish all tours, taxis, events were on time like him!! On the way back to town I arranged the next day with him, as I wanted to come back to the falls and follow a local guide to a natural swimming pool. Might as well take advantage of what is there, right?

There is a better known natural swimming pool called Devil's Pool, which is right on the edge of the gorge. Getting out to see that is $100, and involves lunch. I was happy to stick with my choice of Angel's Pool, which is smaller, not as far, and also on the edge. Angel's Pool only costs $15 to get to.

After Eric brought my back to my hotel, I walked into town. I found a supermarket which had hot food ready to eat. I got a pile of roasted veggies and yogurt.

The next morning I got to have another hot breakfast, which I loved even though I felt like I was missing bacon. Booo. There was plenty of other food available though.

I walked to the Livingstone Museum in town, which wasn't far away. The entry fee was 50KWN, the lady didn't have any change. The museum isn't big, but I enjoyed wandering through.

There were areas describing the geology of the area, the flora and fauna of the area, and the human history of the area. There was also a room dedicated entirely to David Livingstone, who was the first European to document the area.

Eric picked me up again at noon, taking me back to Victoria Falls. He introduced me to Nicholas, the guy who would take me to Angel's Pool. Following Nicholas through the water was like creek stomping. It was so much fun. I slipped a couple times, but was generally okay. The water runs fast in some places, and hardly moves in others.

Without Nicholas there is no way I would've found Angel's Pool, as it would be impossible to walk straight along the edge of the falls.

Angel's Pool was amazing. I was able to jump off the surrounding rocks into the water, as it was quite deep. The water felt good, and I loved swimming around. Even better was standing on a ledge on the edge of the gorge. Nicholas didn't really understand what I wanted in a photo, so none of those turned out the way I wanted, oh well. I have a fantastic memory of standing on the edge and looking down. AMAZING.

Since my bikini was still wet, I wore only it and my shoes (my clothes were in my camelbak,) on the way back to the entrance area. On the way I took a photo with random local women who wanted the photo. Good fun.

My dinner that night was more ready to eat food from the ready to eat counter at the supermarket.

The next day was the day trip to Botswana, read about that in another post. When I got back to town I had to switch hotels, as my first one didn't have room for me that night, and I'd only booked for two nights when I first arrived, not three. The new place was okay, but not as spacious, ha ha.

The next morning the breakfast cook was late, argh. This was even though I'd specifically arranged what time I would be having breakfast, much to my annoyance. Eventually the cook arrived, and I ate.

The food wasn't nearly as good, nor was there a buffet. (On the other hand, the room was half the price, soooooo.) Thankfully, Eric waited for me while I scarfed down the food. Instead of leaving at 8, we left at 0830.

He drove me to the border and told me what to do. I got myself stamped out of Zambia, then walked across the bridge. In the middle of the bridge was a sign saying welcome to Zimbabwe. Of course I took a selfie. There was an opportunity to go bungee jumping off the bridge, I had no interest in doing that.

Entering Zimbabwe was a $30USD (the official currency of Zimbabwe is the US dollar for the time being,) visa, another full page visa in my passport. I continued walking and got to the entrance of the park, and paid even more dollars to enter.

I started at the statue of David Livingstone, which wasn't all that interesting. Then I followed the path to a staircase that brings you a whole lot closer to some of the water coming over the falls. There was a whole lot of water spraying everywhere, but it was really neat to see.

I followed the path along the falls, getting a kick out of knowing that I was looking across to another country. I got to see different parts of the falls, as each little area has it's own name. Looking down in a few places was rather scary, but awesome at the same time. At one area I found an American who took a photo of me sitting on a cliff the way I wanted it. Yay!! She liked it so much she asked me to take one of her doing the same thing, hahahahaha.

After soaking up as much of the beauty as I could handle, I walked into the town of Victoria Falls. It was basically built for the waterfall and its' visitors. The town was full of people trying to sell me something, even though all I wanted to do was walk. I found the same postcards I'd seen on the Zam side, and they were more expensive. I was not impressed with the town. At all.

I walked back toward border control, and got myself stamped out of Zimbabwe. When I got to the Zambian side, I expected to have to buy another visa, as I'd already used my two entries to the country. The lady told me that since I'd only gone to Zimbabwe for the day, and hadn't spent the night, I only needed what they called a day visa. I asked questions to make sure it would be enough, since I'd be spending another night in Zambia before flying to the capital, she said I would be fine.

Eric picked me up again, and on the way back to town we stopped at a giant baobab tree. HUGE! There was even a ladder to use to climb up, and I could see the steam from the falls off in the distance. Awesome.

From there Eric took me to the local market. I'd told him I wanted to buy some of the cloth for which Zambia is known, and he knew a good stall for me to go to. They let me look at everything without pressuring me to buy anything, which I really appreciated.

I ended up buying a couple different patterns, and loving them both. I might've been able to negotiate the price, but I was totally okay with what they suggested, so I didn't.

Eric dropped me off at the hotel, then I walked to the supermarket to get more food for lunch. I also took the time to pack everything and check out. Eric came back a couple hours later and drove me to the airport, which was practically empty. I arrived a couple hours before my flight, and the check in area wasn't anywhere close to open.

They made me gate check my bag because I was over the allowable weight, but I wasn't as concerned since it was a direct flight.

It was a short flight, but I got a snack on the way, yay!

Will I come back to Livingstone? I'm not sure, but I did love my visit. I loved the natural beauty of the area.

hong kong and china 1

after a ridiculously long day of traveling, i arrived in hong kong around 2200...the airport is quick and efficient, and it's easy to get into the city...everything is just as crowded as i remember it...getting out of the taxi in front of the building where i had booked us, at least three people tried to get me to look at their rooms...apparently, saying "i already have a room booked" doesn't work...anywho, i figured out where i needed to go, and the first thing the guy at reception demanded was money...he wanted me to pay the rest of the amount we "owed" which i refused to do...i hadn't seen the room, met up with layna, anything!!! he became rather angry and belligerent, and i don't react well to that sort of behaviour...i stood my ground, and refused to hand over money until i at least got to see layna and the room...more than anything i wanted to make sure she was there, and that we had a room...
anywho...the room we had was a box...we each had a single bed, there was a small dresser in between the beds, and we had the smallest bathroom ever...(it makes my bathroom in korea look like a palace!)...there was a tv, though it didn't have much of interest...(but it was still good background noise distraction for me...and i watched the entire bbc newscast)
the main reason we went to hong kong was to get our visas for china...we had heard it was the easiest and quickest place to get them, and that ended up being true...though, being americans, our fee was the highest of any nationality...(ugh)...all we had to do was fill out the form, give them a passport picture and our passport...that was monday morning...thursday morning we went back and picked up our passports, and voila, our visas were in there...after being worried for whateva reason, i'm glad it was so easy to get the visas!!
i'd been to hong kong once before with my irish friend ivan, thank goodness...because i spent the next day in bed, in our room, not doing much...trying to write blogs, get a little caught up on email, upload pictures, etc...i also felt like crap, and was hoping the day of not eating anything would help...but it didn't really...everything i ingested, even just water, made my stomach cramp painfully...two days after this (it had already been going on for 5 or 6 days) it FINALLY got better...i guess i can't complain, this is the only time i've actually been sick during this entire trip...i've definitely been lucky!!
the next day i went out with layna in the afternoon...but the weather was craptastic, thanks to an approaching typhoon...rain, wind, etc...we wandered, but not far...that night i met up for dinner with my friend tanya...she's canadian, we got to know each other through rugby in seoul...she and her partner had moved to hong kong less than a year earlier...(i think?)...it was fantastic to catch up with ty, she's awesome...after dinner we also hung out with david (known to most as jr) who had stayed away from dinner due to an ear infection...a great night, totally chill...
thursday night ended up being the only afternoon/evening with clear skies...we took the opportunity to take the tram up to the peak and look over hong kong at night...beautiful...hong kong has a great night skyline...several of the buildings take part in what's called the night symphony...they light up at night, supposedly working with each other...i never noticed that myself, but i loved all the lights, and watching them change...beautiful...trying to get a picture to work out properly just didn't happen though...darnit...good pictures, but we wanted one with the two of us, and we couldn't make it happen...oh well...
friday morning we crossed the border...really easy to do...take the subway to the border, walk through the appropriate lines, filling out a health form, get passports stamped in the appropriate places, etc and walk out on the other side into a city called shenzen...hong kong residents can cross into shenzen for day trips, it's a special economic zone...a whole lot of CHEAP chinese shopping...cheap foot massages too, i wish i had had time for one:)
we took a bullet train to guangzhou, the capital of that particular province of china...walking out of the train station we walked all over trying to find the ticketing office, it took a while...signs seemed to point one way, but when we went that way, the ticketing office definitely wasn't there...anywho, we finally found it, booked our tickets, and took the metro to where we thought we could find a cheap hotel...we did find a cheap hotel, with the help of a tout, though it wasn't the one we were originally looking for...apparently the posted rates in a hotel in china, mean absolutely nothing...we paid about a 1/3 of what was posted!! we had an air con room, each with our own big bed, a nice bathroom, tv, etc...our own water filter...after some of the places we've stayed, particularly in hong kong, this was a palace...we walked around and explored, and found great street food...(this would be the start of my love affair with real chinese food)...and it's so CHEAP!!! our adventure in china began, and i already loved it, even though it was the country i was least fussed about when our trip started:)

cambodia 2

after phnom penh, we took a bus to siem reap...the town itself isn't any great shakes, but about 6km outside town are the ruins of angkor...angkor is actually several former royal cities, built by a number of different khmer rulers...
to see all the ruins you have a number of choices...first, how to get there...we decided to hire bikes, and pedal ourselves around...apparently this isn't a common choice, because we didn't see anyone else doing the same...we saw a lot of people who had hired tuk tuk drivers for the day...the second choice is what kind of ticket you want to buy...1 day, 3 day, or 7 day...we went with the three day...there are over 100 ruins in the area, and we figured 3 days would be good to see a few of them...(as it was, after three days, we were more than templed out)...the tickets were expensive, but angkor is easily the most well known thing in cambodia, so we didn't have much of a choice...
the city first built was called hariharalaya (yeah, you have to slow down and read it a couple times before saying it out loud, correctly) but the area is now called ruolos...there are about 3 temples worth seeing in that area...i did it on day 3 of our ticket...riding my bike out i missed the turnoff the first time, and rode an extra 5km or so...not a good thing, since that involved turning around and riding back, and the day was HOT...oh well...the ruins at ruolos were similar to all the others i had seen, but that was expected...not very crowded, which was nice...one of them has a still active wat right next door...it was on this day that i ended up with severe heat exhaustion...since the ruolos ruins are a bit farther than the rest, i rode farther on the totally exposed highway, in the 40-42 degree heat...HOT HOT HOT...apparently, drinking 6L a day of water wasn't enough, even with taking breaks under trees every now and again...i had to cut this day short because i realized i wasn't feeling well at all and still had to get back to town...i couldn't cool down, despite taking several showers, and sitting in front of a fan for a while...ugh...that night i couldn't sleep much, because i still wasn't cool...ugh...
the first day we went to the ruins we started with the most famous of them all...angkor wat...the profile of angkor wat is on the cambodian flag...it's beautiful, no doubt...but after all the hype, neither layna nor i felt it matched up...(or maybe we've seen too many temples during this trip)...angkor wat was built by suryavarman II, who was one of the greatest khmer rulers...it "only" took 40 years to build, and afterward was a city whose population was at least 750,000!! this guy was a pretty good ruler...he rewarded those who were good at their jobs, like artisans, ministers, courtiers, etc...he built up a good relationship with the chinese, but didn't like his next door neighbors, the chams...he wasn't so good militarily...he tried to go after some cham (current vietnam) lands and failed...anywho...not far from angkor wat is the former city of angkor thom...built by another ruler (one of the jayavarmans i think?) the most famous temple in the city is the bayon...with 54 towers on the third level with four faces each, you always feel like you are being watched...there are 216 faces in all, and it feels like you can climb all over the temple for quite a while...also in angkor thom are the elephant terrace, and leper king terrace...(and a bunch of others)
i could go on and on about all the temples i saw, but it gets a bit boring...lots of temples, lots of ruins...the ones i liked best were the ones that didn't have a lot of people hanging about...several of the ruins have trees growing in them, and through them, and under them, and over them...beautiful...i wonder if they'll ever do anything to stop the eventual takeover by the jungle...
one of the days i was riding around i met three peace corps workers...currently, the only peace corps program in cambodia is teaching english, though these three said some health care workers will be coming in july...they said it really was a good idea to wear long sleeves, but i just couldn't do it...too HOT!!
after three days of templing, we decided to stay in town and actually see the town...i read about a silkworm farm just outside town, so i caught a shuttle out there, and learned all about silk...a labour intensive process, to say the least...we got a chance to see the silkworms eating, you could even hear it!! they eat for 24 days, all mulberry leaves...yum...hee hee...walking around town was nice too, though there wasn't much to see...it's relaxing though...
our last stop in cambodia after siem reap was sihanoukville...no one really comes to cambodia with the idea of spending time on a beach, but this is the place to find a cambodian beach...we came because we heard it was the quickest and fastest place to get a vietnamese visa...it was certainly fast, it only took about 10 minutes!!! i loved the market, sooo much good food to choose from:)

nepal 4

at the end of my last email, i think we were about to go for our third trek...we trekked the helambu area, which is pretty close to kathmandu...well, the start of the trek is close to kathmandu...this trek wasn't as high, or as long as our first, but it was still my favorite...there wasn't quite the variety of scenery, but it was still awesome...we saw soooooooo many farming terraces, each of which was farmed by hand...absolutely incredible...they went all the way up to about 2200m...each day was both physically and mentally challenging...rarely did this trek go flat...most of the time the ascents and descents were rather steep...this trek is less popular than other treks, we saw very few other trekkers during our time on the trails...it's also not marked like the other two treks we did...there were quite a few times we came to forks in the trail and had to decide where to go...most of the time both options looked equally good...several times during the 8 days we missed a turnoff and were lucky enough to run into a nice local person who sent us in the right direction...two of the days we spent 3/4 of our day without any clue as to where we were...it's a bit scary to walk through/over/around hills and valleys when you don't know where you are, and people can only communicate vague directions...
during one of my last days in kathmandu i went to the town of bhaktapur...waaaayyyy back when, during the days of the malla kings, the kathmandu valley was divided into three kingdoms...patan, (which i visited during our first few days in nepal,) kathmandu and bhaktapur...now they're all one giant area, but bhaktapur has held up the best in terms of what it used to be...there is almost no traffic in bhaktapur, it's much more pleasant to walk around than kathmandu...lots of temples, etc...two different guys decided they wanted to be my guide, w/out me asking for that service...one guy got the hint when i said i wanted to wander around on my own...the other guy, not so much...he kept telling me things, and showing me places in the town...i sat near one temple for over an hour and watched people, he even hung around for that!!! i knew he wanted money, and while he did take time out of his day for me, i knew he did it because he got to practice english, and was hoping for money from me...i didn't ask for it though...
another one of our last days in kathmandu we spent more than 5 hours total at the indian embassy...all waiting around, not doing anything...when they finally called our numbers, we were at the window for less than a couple minutes!!! getting a tourist visa to india involved going to the indian embassy a total of three different times...
we spent new years eve day in the village of lumbini...most of you have probably never heard of the place, unless you are buddhist...lumbini is where buddha was born...he was born as a prince...prince siddartha gautama, or something along those lines...just before he was born, someone prophesied to his father that he would be a great teacher or a great ruler...obviously, his father wanted him to be a great king, so he kept him in the palace, learning only the life of a ruler...i don't know why he left, but when he did, he saw the opposite side of life...the sick and the poor...eventually, in bodghaya, in india, under a tree, he found enlightenment...and thats how the "middle path" was born...anywho, in lumbini there is something now called the lumbini development zone...all the countries with strong buddhist histories were asked if they wanted to build a monastary there...nearly all of them did, even countries in which it is currently not a good thing to be a practicing buddhist...(like myanmar and china)...the monastaries in lumbini are big and ornate...another area to visit is the temple in which there is a rock that marks the exact spot where buddha was born...(how they know that for sure, i don't know...cause the rock was put there several hundred years later i think)...just outside this temple is a pool in which buddha's mom supposedly bathed before giving birth...again, how they would know that, i don't know...there are also remains of quite a few monastaries that were built and in use from the 3rd and 4th centuries BC to the 4th century AD...
the morning of new years day we got up early, and somehow managed to avoid all the cycle rickshaw drivers who wanted to take us to the border...they all said the bus wouldn't get us close, that we'd still have to walk 2km...the bus did get us close, we had to walk about 100m at most...we've learned not to trust distance measurements from anyone, as none of them are ever correct...(even signs during trekking shouldn't be trusted completely)...we officially left nepal, walked over the invisible line, then officially entered india...the immigration office in india was a completely open room...four men sat on one side of a table, drinking chai and reading newspapers...if someone hadn't pointed it out to us, we would have missed it completely...
after entering india, we got on a bus, and 30 hours later ended up in delhi...definitely a LONG bus ride, but not nearly as bad as either one of us expected...sure, we were stared at the whole time, but we're used to that...while talking to one guy who sat next to me for a while, i discovered that all of india's problems can be attributed to pakistan...he was also looking forward to obama becoming president:)
and so ends the saga of nepal...

FUKUOKA, JAPAN

Friday, December 08, 2006
FUKUOKA, JAPAN
Before any description of the trip itself, here is some basic information about Fukuoka…it's the biggest city on Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan's main islands…also located on Kyushu is Nagasaki, the sight of the second atomic bomb blast during WWII…among Japanese, Fukuoka is known for food, especially a particular type of ramen (noodle soup)…for visitors to Kyushu, the international airport in Fukuoka is where planes, trains and buses will arrive…Fukuoka was originally two cities, (Fukuoka and Hakata) that merged in 1889…the differences in personalities of each area are much like the differences between Garmisch and Partenkirchen, for those of you who have been to Germany…they may officially be one town, but locals refer to them as distinctly different places…the airport is in Fukuoka, the train station is in Hakata…Fukuoka has recently emerged as the cheapest place to fly to and get a Korean work visa…as Fukuoka is very well aware of it's proximity to other cities in Asia (it only takes an hour to fly to Fukuoka from Seoul, as compared to 2.5 hours to Tokyo from Seoul) it has become increasingly international…a number of Asian countries have consulates set up in Fukuoka, and Fukuoka has recently emerged as the cheapest place to fly to and get a Korean work visa…
Which is the whole reason for my trip…since I didn't fly home in between jobs in Korea, I had to do what is usually called a visa run…this trip used to be done in one day…they used to send you on an early flight, make you get to the consulate as soon as you land, then wait a few hours to get the visa processed, then fly home that same day…thankfully, that has changed…now the rules require you to stay one night…which still means you take an early flight, and get to the consulate as soon as you land…howeva, instead of waiting around for a few hours, you have the whole rest of the day to get out and see/do stuff…my flight left Incheon (where the international airport close to Seoul is located) at 830am…which meant I had to take the earliest possible shuttle bus to get to the airport…I'm a morning person, but still, getting up at 430am to make that bus is NOT my idea of fun…the bus ride and flight went smoothly…arriving in Fukuoka was easy…they have several terminals, you can take a free shuttle bus from terminal to terminal…since I landed at the international terminal, I took the shuttle bus to one of the domestic terminals, from which I was able to catch the subway into town…as I said before, the first stop was the Korean consulate, to turn in my passport, money and paperwork for the visa…I was glad I had gotten directions from a coworker, as the directions my school had printed for me didn't make a lot of sense…after that stop, I had the adventure of finding my hotel…as many of you know, addresses in many Asian countries aren't nearly so easy to understand as addresses in the west…luckily, the hotel my school had reserved for me was really close to a subway stop…the bed in the room was a western bed, single size…the room was tiny…there was a desk, but I couldn't pull out the chair from the desk and sit in it…there wasn't enough room…there was a TV, but everything was in Japanese…(not surprisingly)…I had my own bathroom, it even had a tub!!! (not at all common in ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Korea or Japan)
After getting settled, I set out to see the town…first on the list was Tochoji…a temple in which the largest wooden Buddha in Japan was located…it's a big big Buddha…the temple itself is small, (and very convenient to find, just outside a subway stop) and you have to go up a set of stairs to see the Buddha…it was basically one large (meaning tall, not long) room…while I was there, only one other visitor was in the room…there was a lady in a little side booth selling knick knacks, nothing I couldn't find anywhere else…I stood quietly (there was a monk praying as well) and admired the Buddha, and on my way out, paid for and lit a couple sticks of incense and a candle…while Tochoji was easy to find, the next temple, Shofukuji, wasn't so easy to find…I had to wander around a bit, and come back to where I started a couple times…after half an hour, I did find it…Shofukuji was the first Zen Buddhist temple in Japan…(founded in 1195)…founded by Eisai, who brought tea and Zen to Japan…the big stone from the emperor stating this fact is still at the entrance to the temple area…one of the temples inside the complex was under renovation, but there was a nice garden area to walk around…at one end of the garden area, there were a number of artists, all painting slightly different views of the main temple…I didn't find it to be that amazing, but it seems to be very popular among locals to paint…
Another quick subway ride (there are two subway lines in Fukuoka, I only rode one) and I was able to walk along a canal into Maizuru park…it's a large park area that goes all around the remains of what used to be the castle of Fukuoka…inside the park are several smaller parks/gardens…one I visited was called the peony garden…while I'm sure this is beautiful in spring and summer (for those of you who don't know, the state flower of Indiana is the peony, so most of us Hoosiers have seen plenty of peonies) it isn't much to look at now…just small mounds of dirt where everything was planted to come alive in the spring…the ruins of the castle itself are almost nonexistent…just one wall is left…howeva, the sight where the castle was located is on a hilltop, on which there is a platform conveniently built to take panoramic type pictures of the city…it's not that great of a skyline, so I didn't try to take shots that could later be glued together…but it's still nice to look out over the city, and it was great weather to do so…one of the more interesting images in the park was that of makeshift shelters…I got the impression that homeless people have created these shelters, but I don't know for sure if they live in them or not…they appeared to be made of that blue tarp that is often used to keep out rain…certainly large enough for several people to be inside…piles of different types of recyclables were neatly arranged outside each shelter…after wandering around the gardens and parks for a while, (several hours) I went back to the subway, back into the center of town…
While perusing the guidebook, I had decided to get dinner at a restaurant in canal city…canal city is actually one gigantic mall made up of six buildings…there are a couple hotels, a 13 screen movie complex, and tons of stores and restaurants…in the middle, there is a man made canal, hence the name…each building is totally different architecturally, and reading the maps to figure out where you are isn't the easiest thing to do…they all connect in different ways…the stores I saw were for the most part upper middle class stores…Disney, north face, gap, etc…bigger stores that don't have cheap stuff…while I enjoyed wandering and thinking about buying stuff, I didn't actually do so…I ended up getting ramen noodles for dinner…this is not exactly breathtaking news, but the restaurant at which I got them lets you order them exactly to your specifications…how much green onion do you want? How many eggs? Do you want pork? How fatty do you want it to be? How spicy do you want it? How tender do you want your noodles? All sorts of questions, with several different levels to choose from for each item…very cool…I ended up wishing I had gone for a higher level of spice, but was otherwise very happy…a nice walk back to my hotel room, where I fell asleep watching an NBA game…since the commentary was in Japanese, it was more for the background sound than anything else…
The next morning I was up early, and headed downstairs to eat breakfast (included in the nightly price of the hotel)…breakfast was most definitely in the Japanese style…rice, fish, and some other stuff I didn't recognize…I'm glad I don't find breakfast to be absolutely necessary…I only ate what I recognized…I'm glad I walked around a lot the first day, because this second day kept me wet…it just rained and rained and rained…I showed up at the consulate 30 minutes before the official time to start handing out the visas that had been applied for the previous day…fortunately, they already had mine done…I got out, and hopped back onto the subway, out to the airport…a quick change of flights, and I arrived back in Korea 7 hours earlier than my original itinerary had planned…
Even though this trip was short, it did give me the chance to see a new city and new sites, and I did get a chance to practice what little Japanese I know:)