Empty mind, empty blog

What does one say after 3 months in a blogless abyss? Of course life goes on, even if one's blog doesn't. The Tokyo nights have been getting longer, the workdays have been getting shorter, and the drinks have been emptying more quickly! Things have not been boring at all - just the opposite, really. To be honest, though, I just didn't have anything I felt like commenting about.

I've been taking 4 hours of French lessons a week, which means that Tuesdays and Wednesdays are for working, studying, parler-ing francais, and sleeping. I also just ran 10K for the Tokyo FIT for Charity Run, so until then I was training on my free nights. Not to mention I have sadly become another spineless victim of the tv series Prison Break, which means the very few nights I spend at home relaxing, I have my eyes glued on Michael Scofield. Those activities, work, and the remaining dinners and nights out with friends literally make up my life. On the surface.

In my brain it's a different and much more complex story, as the pieces of life have been shaken up again, and they are starting to fall in different places... sometimes in French or Japanese, but mostly in English.

Last Friday the official announcement of my resignation circulated around the office. The world of recruiting will soon be a bittersweet, but mostly sweet, memory. And so will Tokyo, I'm afraid. I've accepted a brutal fate of three years of law school back in the US, starting in August. So once again, JoLo in Tokyo will have to change identities. Leaving Tokyo is a sad prospect as well, but I don't really see my long-term career in service industry marketing, so I suspect that it is not a bad idea to get some certified skills. All signs are pointing to University of Michigan at the moment, but there is still an off chance that I could be in New York. I'm not sure what I am hoping for myself. I've never wanted to live in Michigan in my life, but the academic programs there fit my interests really well, so it might do me some good to surround myself with some peace and academia for a little while, as in the Cambridge days I didn't take advantage of it as much as I would have liked. What can I say, though, in the other ear New York is calling me -- loudly, and with a bad accent of course.

In either case, I suppose things will work out alright for me. I just have to keep in mind that Japan will always be here (barring any horrible natural catastrophies), and I've already come here 4 times - what would stop me from coming back again if I want to?

To make myself feel better, I will be adding to the map below by taking a trip the end of this month to Vietnam and Cambodia. 8% of the countries in the world is really not a whole lot to have conquered, I realize. A bit of vacation time to bid adieu to Asia, and then I will leave Japan the beginning of August.

Until then, I will be having fun and doing all the things I like to do before I start law school and will never get to do them anymore :-)

Why I am so bad at blogging

Because my life is a circus!

And I've found some down time finally, at work (shh!), during the busiest week of my life! My college friends A & L are visiting this week, and it is my complete responsibility to show them a good time! I think so far I'm doing a pretty satisfactory job.

During just their first 2 days here, they have already taken umpteen photos of Mt Fuji, cabled/roped/boated around Hakone's Lake Ashi, breathed enough sulfur from the volcanic geysers to think Japan smells like farts, and partaken in every kiddy exhibit possible at the Hakone Open Air Museum. It gets better. We were arm's length away from Shaggy at the annual CLSA party, which began with open bar and ended at Velours at nearly 4am. Almost all the normal stomping grounds have been hit, and it's a sign that it's the end of a very busy week.

Tonight we are topping it all off with another party - my combined "pre-birthday" + friends visiting party, which should be a 60+ person extravaganza. I hope I stay awake through it all! The plan is to finish up at the fish market, where god-willing I will not be lying passed out in a pile of fish guts and octopi.

I'm almost asleep now, dreaming of... sleeping maybe?

zzzzzzzzz

A Little "Peace" of Japan

The past few weeks have not brought a peaceful beginning to 2007. Domestic troubles in Frenchy land is the primary cause. My colleague said to me, "It's really funny how domestic troubles bring trouble to every other part of your life," and it's the God's honest truth. Work is tougher, sleep is limited and less restful, and in general, there's a big, ticking bomb interrupting the normal peace in your life. Fortunately, the bomb hasn't exploded yet.

I thought it would take time, and it has, and things seem to be on the mend, with another weekend behind us. Yesterday we took a long walk around Jyuugaoka, an area of Tokyo that brings back fond memories of my past, living with P in Gakugei-daigaku, and escaping the normal frenzy of urban life in the residential districts on the Toyoko line.

S and I discovered this cafe, an old Japanese house which had been turned into quite a hopping little business while still holding on to its traditional charm. I sipped a "matcha au lait" (green tea latte) and thought about the power of time. The setting of the old house, the fusion beverage I was drinking, and the fact that I was still sitting in front of S... all of it made me conscious that time is always running and every element of life is changing by the second. Change brings discontinuity, like the old house-turned-cafe in the middle of Jyuugaoka, but somehow it really works. So I'm hoping that S and I, despite all of our differences and discontinuties, will be able to fix all the pieces in a complementary way and make things work. The history is there, so only time will tell the future.

It Can't Come Quickly Enough

I can't decide
Whether you should live or die
Oh, you'll probably go to heaven
Please don't hang your head and cry

No wonder why
My heart feels dead inside
It's cold and hard and petrified
Lock the doors and close the blinds
We're going for a ride

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

My 17 day trip home is coming to a close, only with the best ending to 2006. I did another whirlwind tour of the Northeast, having stopped in Ann Arbor, Michigan for a night to visit with A, and then on to Baltimore for Christmas at my sister's, home to PA, and then to NYC for our New Year's extravanganza. It couldn't have worked out better, since two of my best friends (one from uni and one from high school) who didn't know each other live in the same apartment building on the upper East side, so a lift later I was in either of their apartments. It was one of the best new years ever -- we forked out a pretty penny for Tao, a trendy restaurant in New York, but it was completely worth it. The food, atmosphere, and company of course were unbeatable, not to mention that it was amazing to see the best of New York rockin' the new year away.

The moment I stepped onto the subway in New York, I felt different. It's difficult to explain in words, but the best way I can describe it is that I felt a rush of reality. If New York City were an object, it would be something hard, cool, with pointy corners -- maybe like a square block of swirly marble. It's tangible. Tokyo would be a bubble of reflective light, with the colours of the rainbow exchanging places on the surface, floating away, transient. It's surreal, dreamlike. I like both. But I feel like life is richer or fuller in New York. I guess there are plenty of times to live in your dreams, like when you are old and gray and no longer able to let life absorb every part of you. But isn't now the time to experience the full-bodied taste of life? That's what I feel New York is... a big rush of air that makes you open your eyes and realise you are living. Can a city really have that much power? As crazy as it sounds, I don't doubt it.

That being said, I guess one has to be prepared to really face life in all its dimensions. Tokyo is a different reality, and I emphasise its escapist qualities. But it's my reality, and it's where I see my 2007.

My new year's resolution is to do whatever it takes to feel absolutely fabulous as often as possible. It's pretty abstract, but I think I know what it entails. Maybe it will take more than 2007 to accomplish, but I've got time.

Tokyo is empty!

Finally, the dust has settled and everyone is on their way home. My bags are packed, and I am leaving in 1.2 minutes! YIPPEEEEE!!!!
(By the way, can anyone guess this location!?)

Nutcracking & Christmas

The first gift of the season -- I took S to his first ballet to see the Nutcracker, my favourite since I was a child watching the toy wooden soldiers standing guard outside of FAO Schwartz in New York. It's such a classic and an icon of the holiday season. How could he not like it?

Well, clearly it was a pretty good idea, because he hasn't stopped whistling Tchaikovsky or pirouetting around the room since. Personally, I think if a guy enjoys ballet it adds a whole other dimension of attraction. I love the performing arts, so I would definitely want to be with someone who I can enjoy them with. Not to mention that in Tokyo where Christmas is not as in-your-face as at home, the Nutcracker builds up some holiday spirit.

It did for me, anyway. I went Christmas shopping the rest of the weekend, which meant elbowing my way through the swarming crowds in Harajuku and fighting my way through the zoo of Kiddyland. Believe me, you have not seen anything until you have seen Harajuku station on a December 16th Saturday afternoon. David Beckham might as well have been swinging on a rope in a Tarzan speedo in the middle of the station. Complete and utter mayhem.

Speaking of holiday spirit, S may have liked the Nutcracker, but he is still a big ol' scrooge. Ok, I need your opinions, PLEASE! S and I won't be together on Christmas day, since we are both going home to our respective countries. Being the sensible one, I think we should exchange gifts before we leave this Wednesday the 20th. It's five days before Christmas but the best we can do. Scrooge, on the other hand, thinks no one is allowed to open presents before Christmas day, so we should open them when we get back to Tokyo on January 8th, which is not only WAY after Christmas, but in 2007! I tried using logical examples: Christmas parties are always before Christmas, not after; the Christmas season usually ends on Christmas day; Santa goes into hibernation after December 31st; but stubborn Scrooge won't have any of it.

Was I really a bad girl this year??! Let me know if you agree that if you are not together on Christmas or until January 8, 2007, gifts should come first!

Heartwrenchingly Intense

The Wind That Shakes the Barley.

One of the most powerful films I've seen in a while... and not just because of my Irish roots! After the first scene, you can't even breathe normally until the film is over. The acting is incredible and the story is one I didn't know too much about -- Ireland's fight for independence in the 1920s and the subsequent split between the radical freedom fighters in Ireland and the Irish wanting to compromise and accept a treaty of semi-autonomy from Britain. The brutality and anguish of it all of course makes the British look like a bunch of inhuman pigs, but can anyone really single out Britain? How many countries have been invaded, occupied, and colonized, with their people being subjected to complete injustice?

The film urged me to recall that hate breeds hate, and injustice only provokes revenge. But no matter how many times history repeats itself, it seems that others, particularly the ones with power, ever seem to realize that gravity of such a cycle.

Stop! Police!

With the shrill screech of a whistle, a pleasant afternoon outing came to a halt and ended in the Harajuku police station. It's not as bad as my other police stories, if you've heard them :-) We were coming back by scooter from a walk in Shinjuku-gyoen and were en route to our favourite creperie for a dessert and coffee. S had missed a sign, made an illegal right turn, and got about 50 meters before the whistle blew. We were close to getting off with a short lecture and a warning, until they saw exactly what we didn't want them to see-- the expired date on S' Japanese driver's license.

In truth, we've known for a while that it's been expired. S had received a letter back in June but waited for me to get back to Tokyo to read it for him. After that, the letter and instructions ended up either in the rubbish or somewhere else equally useless. We never found it, and therefore, S never went to get his license renewed.

Fortunately, the Japanese police are prone to believing that foreigners who don't speak or read Japanese are just as useless as the lost letter, so it was pretty easy to convince them of S' mistake. "It's heisei year 18!? That means 2006?! Ohhhhhh.... I'm so sorry, we didn't know.....!" But still, we had to go to the police station so they could check S' records and make sure we understood the gravity of our situation. Once inside the station, it took not one, not two, but EIGHT policemen and TWO hours to figure out whether or not S was driving illegally or whether his French license could still be valid for driving. It was surely the case of the week. Funny to think why there are so many policemen in Japan and no crime... but I no longer have to wonder what they do. It's obvious that the case of the gaijin without proper license is a big one! In the end, the verdict was: "Yes, he was driving illegally, but he is an illiterate foreigner and therefore too stupid to understand the superior nature of Japanese law. Poor guy. (And poor girl for having to come here and interpret our language for him!)"

Anyway, his punishment was to sign an apology letter saying that he was sorry for disobeying the law and that he would not do it again. And then we had to figure out how to get home, considering S could no longer illegally drive his scooter. After much deliberation, it was determined that one policeman would drive his scooter to our neighborhood, and two other policemen would drive us there to meet him, and we would push the scooter home from there. And that's exactly how our police story ended.

I must say, the Japanese police could not really have been any more pleasant to us. Considering S was in the wrong for driving without his license, we did not get fined, charged, or accused. An apology, a few bows, and some polite language on my part, and we were let off the hook. No doubt an experience that would only happen in Japan. All I have to say is that S was lucky to have me as his lawyer, with the plead of "stupid foreigner!"

Cotton candy and angels

If heaven were a gynecologist's office, I guess it would look like this... at least in Japan.

The trip to the womanly doctor is never exactly pleasant. But pink walls, carpet, and furniture, among the floating angels on the wall? That's a bit too much. Trust me, I am as big a fan of pink as anyone, but when you are already doing something consciously woman-esque, there really is no need for further emphasis!

Became I'm cheap, it was my first time to the Japanese doctor, besides the yearly full-physical health check-up necessary for working in Japan. I have always gone to the Tokyo Medical Clinic, housing all English-speaking doctors-- basically the place where all the ex-pats go. But then I thought for this time, since I was getting a simple check-up and I pay to have Japanese health insurance, why not do as the natives do for 1/3 the price!? I didn't study 5 years of Japanese for nothing after all. And all in all it wasn't such a bad experience apart from the cotton candy. As with most Japanese services, it was organised, pleasant, not the most efficient, but accommodating enough to make up for it. Sickeningly sweet (and pink) could have been much worse but fortunately wasn't!

Frances is reborn!

I am not naturally one to believe in reincarnation, rebirth, or even small miracles.

But the rebirth of Frances is something very close to one of these if not all.

S is especially fond of Frances and has nursed her and her mate Pablo from day one. They live outside on our terrace, and through all the seasons have been through some tough days. Momiji (Japanese maples) are not exactly known for being the most invincible of plants, but after waiting for 2 years, one would imagine that at some point they would have some nice, beautiful red leaves. Pablo is close to a lost cause. We left him with GG while we went on holiday, and he had surely undergone some harsh plant abuse while we were away (GG claims he pissed on him everyday but I don't really think it went that far). Anyway, ever since, Pablo has retreated into his own little momiji shell... or else he is one hell of an obstinate plant.

Frances, on the other hand, is a sight for sore eyes. For the first time ever, instead of dying at a momiji's prime time for colour change, she let her leaves turn a beautiful, dainty red, and she's displayed prettily atop our living room shelves instead of outside in the cold of the terrace.

Truthfully, I think she was just sick of taking Pablo's crap and decided to grow to her full potential as all females should :-)

End to the crap

Quick conclusion: My hero (the plumber) came tonight and resurrected my foundation from the toilet completely unscathed. A small miracle, no?!

OH, crap.

What better way to resume blog writing than with a crappy story.

Since I've come back to Japan, I haven't really been blogging. For the most part, it's been due to lack of time and lack of content. I haven't felt like regurgitating the details of the weekends' parties, the monotony of work, and for the most part, I've become so used to Japan that nothing seems to astonish me anymore, no matter how outlandishly weird it is. Maybe I am finally becoming culturally sensitive... or turning Japanese?

In any case, today of all days began with a most uncommon experience punctuated with a crash and loud shout from the bathroom. I was still lying in bed with the awake-o-meter on about 80%. Next thing I know, S is standing in front of me with my make-up bag asking me if I noticed anything missing. At first glance, nothing. At second glance, the brand new bottle of foundation I had opened last night and used one -- note one -- time. I dared to ask what had happened.

Basically, after doing his business, S had flushed the toilet, washed his hands, and while turning around to dry them, knocked over my make-up bag with such force that the contents had gone tumbling into the still-flushing whirlpool inside the toilet bowl. With a valiant effort, he swooped down into the toilet to fish out the bag in time, but missed a 'small white bottle' which is now still lodged somewhere in the depths of the toilet.

I suggested a plunger. He suggested calling his father in France to ask him what to do (apparently they don't plunge in France?). As one friend put it to me, it figures that when I need a man, I get a middle-aged French couple on the telephone...

In any case, the day passed, and finally we decided that my new foundation could not be far inside the pipes because we could hear a funny blockage noise when we flushed. So now onto the hunt for a decent plunger in Tokyo. I look up the word for "plunger" and find that it's, well, "puranjaa," and I call Tokyu Hands to see if they have one.

"Puranjaa??? Pu-ran-jaaaaaa... souuuuu...." is the response on the line. It's one of those foreign words that no Japanese know the meaning of. I try explaining myself but finally give up and read the definition of a plunger from the dictionary, which seems to turn on some lightbulbs. We gather that in Japanese, it is a "thing that fixes the western toilet blockage." Physical description is a "rod with rubber on the end that you put in the toilet to remove the blockage, making a 'gutcha gutcha' sound." Very, very precise.

Japan has not ceased to amaze me, is the realization. It is still and probably always will represent to me the home of challenges and of miscommunication, not only between Japan, its people and me, but also between S and me.

End of story, we found the plunger but it didn't work, so no choice but to hold it (literally) 'til tomorrow.

Sayonara, Jo-Lo in Tokyo

The big departure is tomorrow morning. By 6:30 am I will board the familiar Narita Express headed for a not-so-familiar continent, country, and life. Along with many farewells I have already bid, I must also say sayonara to this blog site, as I will no longer be "Jo-Lo in Tokyo." I will be making a page on this site, entitled "EngRish GiRL"-- because that's what I feel I'll be-- not quite a proper ENGLISH girl, bringing a bit of Japan with me. Give me a few days to set up the site, but it will be

www.EngRishGiRL.blogspot.com.

Until then,

Sayonara to

Akasaka, my new home in Tokyo, and all the ojisan I pass on my frantic dash to one place or another

My mama-chari, the best purchase I ever made in Tokyo. 5000 yen (45 USD), which paid for itself 100 times over in saved train fares, minutes on crowded trains, and commutes to the office

Squinting at the sharp sunlight after all nighters in Roppongi & Shibuya, drinking, dancing, and singing at karaoke until dawn

The wind against my face and an excuse to hang on tightly to S as we "scooter" around the city

Thursday nights at Andy's with the freshest, most delicious fish and the best company

Free time on the weekends to brunch, to explore the nooks and crannies of Tokyo, or to relax in a rotemburo shaded by a momiji at dusk

Automatic taxi doors, heated toilet seats, all you could want vending machines, onigiri & bento

Meeting someone for the first time and answering the questions, "where are you from?" "how long have you been in Japan?" "Nihongo jyouzu! why can you speak Japanese?"

Finding all the right sized clothes at too expensive a price

And much, much more.

I'll leave you with a quote that's followed me from my high school graduation (actually included it in my speech) through every big change in my life, and from country to country.

"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." ~Dr. Seuss

SAYONARA

The weekend was dominated by my Thursday night sayonara dinner & paa-tee, as it took me almost the rest of the entire weekend to recover from this 11 hour soiree. It wasn't such an unusual night after all, but I thought it best to end on a night of familiarity. Thanks to Mx, the party started with a small and lovely dinner at Kaikaya, one of the best fish eateries in town. The night was accented by a bit of fashion, thanks to Matt-o, who titled himself the night's comedian by literally bringing his "party hat." Level of drunkenness: 6.

Next stop was Ruby Room, where more friends joined us, and where too many weirdo Frenchy guys (apart from those in our own party) tried to put the moves on us. But the house was good, the drinks were aplenty, and the night passed on even more quickly. Level of drunkenness: 7.5, the increase reflected by S' not-so-graceful full on fall down the hard wooden steps coming down from the club. The half of our party at the bottom of the stairs burst into "glad it wasn't one of us" laughter at the drunken spectacle... until they realized, "OH NO, it was SAM." Then the laughing got louder! I was coming down behind him and scooped up his broken body from the bottom step... :-) hehe. (See pic of S brushing himself off) Still makes me laugh even now.

The bar hop continued on to Red Bar, the small hole in the wall adorned in red, red, red everywhere, including my face by that point. And, in true Tokyo fashion, the night ended in SHIDAX, karaoke mecca of Shibuya. Level of drunkenness: doesn't even matter, we can't count! And we sang (or shouted? fell off our chairs? took funny pictures?) until 6am, when the place thankfully kicked our butts out.

I doubt I need much more explanation as to why the rest of the weekend ended up in stomach misery 15 minutes after anything I ingested. But it was a superb finish!! A HUGE arigato to everyone who came out to help me celebrate, despite their jobs, friends visiting, early trains and planes the next morning. xoxo

A Last Weekend of Firsts

As luck would have it, my two last weekends in Tokyo include national holidays and are 3-day weekends. This means more time to spend out and about with S enjoying the little time we have before my imminent departure to the dark, cold and rainy side. For once, we successfully limited the all-night parties and subsequent hangovers and saw sunlight from outside the apartment windows.

Saturday, we set off for Mt. Takao on a nice sunset hike. Autumn in Japan has "officially" begun (meaning the date deemed "end of summer" and "beginning of autumn" has passed), and though we are sure to be sweating out another few weeks of humid Japanese summer, the weather was surprisingly fresh and cool. We dodged some spider webs and fallen trees along the way and made it to the top just in time to see a lovely sunset peek through the trees.

After, S treated me to an amazing Japanese dinner in one of the nicest settings I've seen in Japan. Ukai Toriyama was the restaurant, set in a huge, breathtaking Japanese garden complete with turning water wheels and the scent of yakitori wafting from a small pagoda opposite a traditional goldfish pond. Anyway, the photos can explain better than I can.

Sunday was even more fun I must say, especially since our inability to wake up and start the day for once didn't seem to shorten the time we had to accomplish everything we wanted. We started with a picnic and Japanese macha tea at Hamarikyu garden and then continued on to Odaiba, which I had perhaps unfairly prejudged the archetype of Japanese tackiness-- another sad product of bubble redevelopment. To my surprise, however, I can see how Odaiba has become the prime dating destination for young people. You can sit along the (man-made) beach and watch the boats sail the harbor at sunset, and if you sit long enough, you eventually see the harbor amidst the lights of the distant skyscrapers and scarlet lanterns on the water. At that point, it is easier to forget the reconstructed Statue of Liberty looming behind you. We finished the night atop one of the highest ferris wheels in the world (If you can't beat the corny Japanese couples, you might as well join them!), which was especially fun for S since it was his first time on a "fairy wheel," as he calls it (apparently "ferris" is difficult for a Frenchy to remember).

A perfect day, really, ended with pizza, ice cream, a tummy ache, and a highly recommended DVD -- think the artistic directing and lovely innocence of "Amelie" combined with a war movie-- in my opinion, it can't get better than that!

Every weekend should be so lovely...

Black Beauty... ?

This is me seducing the camera. No, really, I just wanted to see if you notice anything different about me....

HINT: I just finished a FIVE hour session at the hair salon! There is something very wrong when you arrive for your 12:30pm appointment and leave when it's almost dark outside! God, what a process! But it is the last (for a while) of my Japanese beauty experiences and thus had to go out with a bang.

I blogged once upon a time about the Japanese hair salon experience, though since then, I think prices have gone up and my patience has gone down. But anyway, since I am unemployed at the moment, I didn't really mind the day-long washing, drying, doting, sipping tea, reading ELLE, getting "massaji-ed," and making small talk, especially since I was pretty much satisfied with the outcome... (have you noticed anything different yet?)

In addition to the straight perm, an annual must for my wild mane, I went black! Really black. Blacker than I intended (though maybe you can't tell in the photo). Perhaps it was premature-- I feel a bit wintery now... but I've been thinking about doing it for a while, so why not now when my life is taking a new course? Anyway, what do you think?

The faces of Tibet

Stunning. That's all I can say to describe not only the Tibetan landscape, but the people as well. If some of these children had been raised in the West, they would be on TV modeling. Dark skin, rosy cheeks, high cheekbones, gorgeous smiles, and black, thick hair. The only problem is that by the time they reach age 30, they look double their age. I wonder how people so poor can live so happily, or at least appear to, while we often have so much yet think it's never enough. But I guess it depends on what you are exposed to. If you never had chocolate, you would never miss it, right? I guess it goes the same for flushable toilets, electricity, and clean water. Anyway, during the time I spent with those kids, I never missed any of those small conveniences either.

The kids were bundles of energy and wanted to play constantly! We gave them all the piggy-back rides we could-- I strategically chose the smallest one [above] to be my friend, and also in the pic is her big sister, and "the [Swedish] dad" ;-) . After that we hokey-pokeyed and played games with them until the sun went down. It took every ounce of resistance not to stash my little one in my bag and bring a big omiyage home to S. Perhaps we were even sadder to then say good-bye than they were. I think they all brought out the best in us. There I was running down steep mountains with a 4 year old on my back, but smiling like it was the easiest thing in the world. Another little girl got kicked in the mouth during a game, and J. and I wiped her tears away until she stopped crying. It's these little moments that really stick in your heart as well as your mind. I just hope that they too were touched in some way by us, too.

I digress

Ok, so I've already reneged on my "blogger penance," but I had a very good excuse.

T-pan was visiting me for a week, and we were having wild & crazy times, which left me sick and hungover for most of the weekend... however, extremely worthwhile! T-pan was my original partner in crime from the very first of my days in Japan-- back in Nagoya when we were both poor university students living with host families and going through the ups and downs of Japan together. How far we have come!

Here we are embracing Tokyo with open arms...


And then embracing champagne and, ahem, Miles (we are giving him birthday kisses for the big 2-5 ;-) !

We also embraced such things as karaoke with two crooning Frenchies, so much shabu shabu I never want to smell let alone consume it ever again, a psychotic and aggressive heroine addict, matching "Gallant" tank tops, and more ice cream than my jeans care to allow.

Back to the China stories next time, but needed to give proper credit to a stellar week in Tokyo!

The Great Wall

Step by step by step... that is how I saw the Great Wall. The place was Simatai, which I highly recommend for the best of Great Wall experiences. If you've gone all the way to Beijing, you might as well get the best view of this magnificent site. At Simatai, apart from the poor farm wives who follow you every step of the climb to sell postcards, t-shirts, or even to lend a helping hand, we were the only ones there! And if there is any site in China that is best seen without the other 1.2 bil, one is most definitely the Great Wall.

When I think of my experience, one of the first things that comes to mind is extreme, mind-boggling, melting HEAT! We hit Beijing during a record setting heat wave, and those steps looked less and less friendly with every breeze that failed to blow. Good thing my buns of steel were up for the challenge.. haha.

It is not cliche to say the Great Wall is one of the great man-made wonders. It is INCREDIBLE! And even better, it isn't even necessary for your jello-jiggly legs to take you all the way to the bottom after the climb up. A zipline was kindly provided for the lazier, though more adventurous spirits in the bunch, to aid our return. Only the two crazy Swedes and I opted to take part in this "at your own risk" activity, and I just can't seem to imagine why, being that the pulley had turned a rusty brown, and the rope could have probably snapped at a sneeze. But if you can't trust the Chinese, who can you trust (!!??) .... The sheer feeling of freedom while flying from the Great Wall with legs dangling over a lake.... the sense of awe while looking back on the great wonder behind you... soooo worth 35 RMB (about 4 USD) ! I heart China!