In Tibet

Now one week into my trip, I've made it through Beijing, Xi'an, and now I am in a small town called Xiahe in the Tibetan province of Andou. I won't go through all the details of the trip until now because it would just take hours, but I am traveling with an amazing group of people and having the most incredible experiences.

We are 3000meters high right now in this town up in the mountains. Tomorrow we will visit the Labrang Monastery, which is one of the largest monasteries in Tibet. But today we left the town to go to a village of people of the Bon religion, which is the original religion of Tibet before Buddhism arrived. We were the only tourists in the village, and it seemed that they didn't get many visitors. We were so close to the clouds and over the mountains it made everything feel so mystical. In the grasslands, which house the Tibetan nomads, I stood about 2 meters from yaks and goats grazing everywhere, and wild flowers were growing in every inch of the grass. It's beautiful.

Also, the people are so so lovely! I played with all the little kids in the village-- they seemed to really like me, maybe because I am near their size and look morelike them! But anyway, I gave them my camera, and this little girl was acting like a photographer taking photos of everyone! Then we had lunch in the house of one of the monks in the village-- just different types of bread and yak milk tea. Can't wait to upload all my photos, but it won't be until I get back to Tokyo.

Next onto the small village of Langmusi, another town in the grasslands, before moving on to Sichuan.

Until then...

Fuji Rock & Rain

It all started with a shower and ended with sunshine. Unfortunately, all of the concerts were during the shower part-- the showers that started and never stopped all day and night Saturday. As you can see, though, it didn't stop the people from coming. Over the course of the weekend, 120,000 people were said to have shown up-- and these are the Japanese who don't go ANYWHERE in the rain!
It was a fun time, but the weather most definitely put a damper on things. The cost of one day at Fuji Rock was 18,000 yen (including a camping pass), and the train was another 12,000 or so, which brought the cost to around $300, plus a pair of muddy Pumas which will never recover. For that cost, I spent my night in a tent wet, freezing and miserable.

We did see Fatboy Slim, as you can see in the pic, and though it was a great show, I decided I didn't feel like wearing my bulky rain gear anymore, and stripped down to normal clothes-- hence the freezing cold by the end of the night. Another great new band who I heard of thanks to S, is Asian Dub Foundation-- a band of "21st century MIDI warriors" whose favorite quote seems to be "Son of a Bush!" They are kind of a cross between rock and hip hop, and I found myself in the middle of a huge mosh pit having more fun than I thought possible for being totally trampled on. Good thing I had my 3 Frenchy bodyguards with me or for sure they would have been scraping up my bits blood and bones off the ground.

Maybe everyone should try this Fuji Rock thing once, but our group agreed, next year the attendance number will be minus 119,990, minus the 10 of us. Of course next year will probably be the first year of all-weekend sunshine... Anyway, the rest of my first and LAST Fuji Rock!