This town is such an easy and great place to walk around and we've spent hour upon hour getting lost amongst the streets.  We've filled most of the past 4 days just wandering - that's what we wandering walkers do best.  The contrast of modern/contemporary architecture and classic Georgian and Victorian structures are wonderful, and gives the city quite an eclectic feel.  This truly reminds me of the contrast between the Victorians of SF and the contemporary style of 1600 Webster (our home)!

The Melbourne Aquarium was a wonderful way to spend the morning yesterday, as I am a true lover of sea-life.  We were even lucky enough to catch the sting ray and shark feeding.  Although the place was filled with mom's and their 3-year-old toddlers, I was just as amused as them watching and absorbing all the wonderful exhibits.

We strolled along the Yarra River Walkway in the South Bank to the Crown Casino, which was seriously Las Vegas style in size and granduer.  From there we crossed the Queens Bridge and headed towards Chinatown.  When a street merchant handed us a fortune cookie we were inspired to dine on dim sum (smart sales tactic), which we thought was a perfect way to celebrate Chinese New Year.  I even had my first taste of a shark fin dumpling that of course was similar to chicken.

Today we took the tram to St. Kilda, an area that has great beaches, tons of restaurants and cafes, and is esepcially known for the cake shops.  Once Jason found out about the notoriety of this area for sweets we were sold and on the next tram out there.  We couldn't forgo trying at least one little cake delight so we indulged on a vanilla cream pastry thingy.  We needed to work off our splurge, which a walk to St. Kilda beach, out to the pier, and up Fitzroy hopefully took care of.

We've enjoyed everything about Melbourne, particularly the "homey" feeling of being close to SF as this town is earily similar to our dear city by the bay. We only have one last night to live it up in this remarkable place.  Next we're jetsetting to Brisbane where we begin an exciting two week stint along the Queensland East Coast.

Melbourne has an intersting transit system consisting primarily of trams which run along tracks that get you around town.  Now Jason had taken note that when people were getting on the tram there was noone checking their tickets, so he summised there was probably no need to actually even purchase a ticket.  Anyone who knows me understands my level of anxiety around things like this which challenge the legal system, so I convinced him to buy at least one day tram ticket. 

By the end of the day we had  bundled so much change that on our way back from St. Kilda beach we decided (more like I pleaded) we'd buy a second ticket just to be safe-- BUT, we we were literally 5 cents short only having $6.05, and not $6.10 to purchase a second day pass.  We were braving it with a single ticket. 

At this point on the tram ride I had taken note of a sign in my nervous state, that read it was a crime to ride without a ticket and punishment could result in a fine or jail.  Okay that's when my sweat factor shot through the roof.  That ride felt like forever, but we arrived back to out destination no problem, no worries, we were free as birds.

Then came our evening excursion to dinner, which we decided to take the tram to.  At this point I was feeling brave, since we'd gotten away with it several times throughout the day.  Again we boarded the tram no problem, we had a pleasant ride, and then came time to depart.  I don't know why but stupidly I chose to depart the front of the tram, when every other time we had departed the middle door of the tram.  As I was climbing down the stairs, a uniformed tram police guy asked to see my ticket.  All I could do was point to Jason and let him take over.

Lets just say they take traveling without a tram ticket very seriously.  Jason managed to convince them we thought we only needed one day pass for the both of us.  That's when they started to question how long we've been in Melbourne, to which Jason replied one day (when really it had been 4).  Then they wanted to know which hotel we were staying at so they could call the hotel to confirm that we had only been here one day.  Next, they wanted to know specifically who's tram ticket it actually was, since the one without it was the culprit.  Jason considered throwing me under the bus, but he stuck by my side.

They were seriously on to us like white on rice, but my clever little husband maneauvered his way throughout the whole ordeal.  Anyway, we got off somehow after a 30 minute drill by both the tram police and his supervisor. 

We were very lucky this time, but I promise you there will be no tram rides without two tickets from here on out even if Jason tries to convince me of it!

We heard from many people that Fraser Island was a must see, so we opted to do it as a day trip instead of a whole camping out thing.  It's described by many as an all sand island, which of course conjures many images in ones mind.  We were expecting paradise on earth, and we certainly were not met by that. Lets just say the whole day trip to the island was something we could have done without.

The nightmare of the day began at 6:45am at the transit center where we all waited around for someone to pick us up.  Finally, this wiley looking guy pulls up in a 4 x 4 that looks like it could maybe hold 4 comfortably and we're informed that all 8 of us are squeezing in to this sardine can for what would be a 12 hour day of driving.  That's the first time Jason and I looked at each other and questioned whether we should bail on the whole thing.  Then we remembered the $400 we paid between the two of us to be on this trip and thought we'd tough it out (I know, we're troopers!)

Okay, lets just say the lack of leg room in the back of this jeep caused much headache and we were all upset about it.  It took 3.5 hours just to get to the island, and we all had to constantly switch around seats so we could get some circulation through our legs.  It was soooooo uncomfortable, especially for my knees that have tendinitius in them.

We took a barge over to the island, which was actually only 10 minutes away (kind of anti-climatic when the island is that close).  When we arrived we were kind of disappointed to see that the island was actually all sand as the base, but had lots of forests, and rivers, not the "all sand" island we were picturing.  The scenery although beautiful was not that unique from many things we had experienced in New Zealand. 

Again, not to get stuck on the leg room issue, but it was definitely a problem and made it difficult to enjoy some of the experience. The fresh picnic lunch that was advertised in the brochure was actually a sloppy mesh-hall buffet, which was disgusting. 

The one highlight of the day was visiting Mckenzie Lake, which had the most gorgeous beach we've ever seen.  The water was warm as a bath, and the sand was 98% silicate making it the silkiest, softest sand we've ever touched. We gave each other exfoliations on our backs with the sand it was that soft, and also cleaned our jewelry by rubbing the sand on it.

Another high point of the day was finally getting to see kangaroos on the side of the road.  They are the cutest thing ever and it was amazing how close we could get to them.  All Jason could think about it how tasty they looked, although that was the furthest thing from my mind. 

By far arriving back home and being able to stretch our legs was the biggest relief of the day. In hindsight it's easy to say I'm glad we got to experience Fraser Island, but I certainly would not rush back especially with the tour company we were with.  You can check out all the highlights in the video clip.

I'll just preface this by saying both Jason and I think we're having withdrawal symptoms from our amazing 3 day/3 night sail around the Whitsundays Islands.  We are grateful that so many people talked us into the "sail" experience, since it was something we were initially questioning doing at all.

One of the most difficult things for us was choosing just the right boat to sail around the 74 island chain of the Whitsundays since there are literally dozens to pick from.  Thanks to the guidance of a helpful tour operater who steered us away from the "backpacker" scene and more in the direction of a boutique cruise ship experience on-board the Pacific Sunrise, we sailed the Whitsundays in style.  Basically this meant more comfortable accomodations (having our own private room and bathroom), less people on the boat, fully catered meals prepared by the ships chef and served to us by the crew, and a gorgeous and spacious ship to move around on.  This certainly made the experience even more enjoyable.

We both agree the greatest part of the sail was the lack of decision making we had to do.  There was no thinking involved in any part of it, just complete and total relaxation.  Each day was filled with gourmet meals, champagne toasts, laying out on the ships decks, snorkeling sessions on the Great Barrier Reef, walking along and sunning on Whitehaven Beach, playing cards, reading our books, viewing the beautiful islands, and making new friends with our fellow shipmates who were all so much fun.  This was definitely paradise for us both.

Although we had heard so much about how amazing the Great Barrier Reef was, nothing could prepare us for how vibrant that world truly was.  The coral literally took on a life of it's own, quite different from what we had ever viewed or experienced in Hawaii.  The array of brightly colored fish were so much fun to watch, and Jason actually ended up quite far out getting stuck following the same fish.  At this point we are quite revved up to do some scuba diving once we arrive in Cairns in a couple days, since the snorkeling definitely wet our palettes for more.

Now, we're back to the grind of actually having to think about what we do each moment of the day, where we go, what we eat, where we stay, etc.  We will certainly never forget our time on-board the Pacific Sunrise and how majestic the Whitsundays were.

It's hard to determine whether we love this place so much b/c of the great town, beautiful rainforest, and gorgeous beaches, or if it's the AMAZING 5 star resort we're staying at.  I think it's probably a combination of both.  Either way, we switched our plans of staying 3 nights Port Douglas/3 nights Cairns to 5 nights in PD/1 night in Cairns, so that says a lot right there.

The Sea Temple Resort where we're staying is one of the nicest places we've ever been.  The thing that makes this place so great primarily has to do with the wonderful, insanely large pool and wrap-around lagoon that circles the entire resort.  This place is so trpoical and lush, and the swim out pool from our unit is fabulous.  The service and staff at the resort leave's nothing to be desired, but the spectacular setting makes up for that.

Our time in PD has been a combo of a lot of things including some exploration, relaxation, fun and frustration.  Jason pretty much summed up a lot of our adventures in the previous journal entry, which is where we did the most of our exploration. 

Relaxation just seems to come naturally in tropical, resorty places, and we've probably spent more time in the pool then anywhere else these past 5 days.  The intense heat and humidity also has made us kind of lazy, leading naturally to lots of lounging around and hanging out.

Fun is the first thing that comes to mind when I think about our wild night on the town with Eddie and Benrnadette, our new Irish friends who we met on the Daintree trip.  Although Port Douglas is not the most happening town, we managed to have a blast with these two -- from dinner and lots of wine at Mango Jam, to introducing us to Magners Irish Cider at Paddy's Irish pub, to ending the night at Fluid night club (even though we were the only people in the bumping place!)  This was definitely a night to remember.  We just hope they managed to catch their 5am flight out of Cairns the next day.

The frustration part comes in about this time yesterday when Jason realized his wallet was gone.  Now part of the reason we had extended our time here in PD was Jason needed to do a re-install on his computer and figured a nice comfortable resort was a great place to do it (considering how much time it could take.)  That plan went out the door since his 4 gig USB drive was in his wallet and that was MIA.  Although we could have both freaked out over this situation, I think we handled it very calmy - Jason got on the phone and cancelled all his CC's and then tried to figure out another plan for the reinstall.  We've actually just chalked it up at this point to a good life lesson of learning how to stay cool, calm and collected in stressfull situations. 

We have just one night left here in Port Douglas, since we're taking off for Cairns in the morning.  There's no doubt we'll miss this place, but know we still have a lot more adventure ahead of us.

We arrived yesterday afternoon back to Sydney after our 2 week journey up the coast of Queensland.  What a shock coming back to a big, bustling city after being in small towns for a period of time.  We spent the afternoon wandering around trying to figure out a plan for the evening.  Oh yeah, Jason bought his 4 gig USB drive and I got a haircut.

When we got back to the room Jason checked his e-mail and there was a note that read: "Hi Jason, Franco has said that you and Joy will be in Sydney this weekend.  I don't know what your itinerary is like but if you have some free time I would be very happy to spend some time with you and Joy over breakfast/brunch/lunch/dinner/drinks - what ever suits you. Julie" 

We had no idea who this person was, but if she was game to hang out with us we were down to hang out with her.  Jason wrote right back and we made a plan to meet her on The Opera House steps that evening.  Now there are a ton of people around the Opera House steps but her clue of 5'8'', blond hair and black pant suit helped narrow it down.  We saw what we thought was her to be approaching from far, but b/c we weren't sure if it was her we didn't want to pull that stupid wave, and the person not acknowledge us.  Anyway, it was her and right on time.

Julie Marcus turned out to be the nicest, sweetest person ever.  She was insistent on treating us to drinks and dinner at the Opera Bar, a lovely place to sit outside, view the Harbour Bridge and have great conversation.  The place was lively and bustling with tons and tons of people.  It was the perfect place to reacquaint ourselves with Sydney, especially since we would be climbing the Harbour bridge the following day, which we were staring out upon.

It was such a nice feeling having a total stranger welcome us to their city with such warm and open arms.  How did she know we weren't total freaks, and that the evening wouldn't be completely awkward?  I guess maybe it could have been any of those things for her, but we had a really nice time getting to know Julie. 

We certainly hope to reciprocate when our new found 26-year-old, very hard-working lawyer friend Julie, takes her retirement trip to SF (hopefully sooner then later!)

The Harbour Bridge Climb is one of those quintisential things everyone told us we must do when in Sydney.  We certainly had our doubts about the whole experience, since it really seemed like quite the tourisy thing.  But wait, we are tourists.  As it turns out, lots of locals do the climb as well since it truly is spectacular and give you such an amazing vantage point of the city.

The deal with the climb is you make your non-changeable/non-refundable reservation (we made ours the day before).  They have this whole process down to a science.  From the time you check in to the time you leave the building everything is choreographed beautifully (total of a 3.5 hour process).  They have groups of 12 climbers begin the climb every 10 minutes, and our group was at1:45pm.  This really funny, I'll just say quite overweight guy dressed in the really tight climb suit, was the one who gave us the initialy spiel on everything we needed to know.  He even took breathalizer tests on us all, since you clearly can't be annebriated for climbing a 167 meter bridge. 

Then we're passed along to another room where we're all given out climb suits.  Definitely not the most stylish thing, but they'll do.  Unfortunately, after Jason and I were all suited up, had our harnesses on, and all our clips, I majorly had to go pee (probably just the anxiety of knowing I couldn't go for the next 2 hours) and Jason decided he'd try as well.  Once again, although we make fun of "those people" in groups, we were "those people" that held everyone up while we went to the bathroom.

Anyway, next thing they do is give you a little test run up some ladders, just to make sure you can actually climb.  We passed no problem.  Our climb began through the large pylons.  We walked under the bridge on some kind of precarious looking mesh stuff, climbed some ladders and we were on the main support that took us up. 

The climb wasn't very difficult, and at quite a leisurely pace so you have time to really absorb the magnificent views.  Apparently the total number of stairs and steps for the whole climb is around 1,300 and the total climb time on the bridge is 2 hours.  We were so lucky to have blue skies that day, with few clouds, epecially since it was pouring rain the night before (and tours go out even in the rain--the only exception is lightening).  The Opera House looked truly amazing from up there, and you could see everything in a 360 range.

Jason's totally into the idea of creating a bridge climb on the Golden Gate, although apparently those rights have already been sold to the same guy who created it on the Harbour bridge.  At $169/person,12 people per climb, departing every ten minutes from 7:30 am -9pm, you do the math on what they're raking in.  That aside, the experience is so worth it especially because you can get a cheesy picture taken at the top with the Opera House in the background -- definitely worth the extra $25 for that single image on a disk (not allowed to bring own cameras on the climb, since that could be bad news if it fell!)

It’s really quite difficult to know where to even start with this one, since the past 24 hours in Bangkok have been insane. I’ll do my best of trying to communicate the chaos, the charged frenetic energy, and fascination we’ve experienced here thus far.

We began the day with the quest to get our Visas for China obtained, since we didn’t do that back in SF. The trek of getting there alone was a nightmare, but got worse when we walked into the Visa room where there were literally hundreds of people all waiting for the same thing we needed. We grabbed a number to begin our time in line – we were 365, and they were on 150. The wait alone in this room of endless energy got me a little on edge. Just a little over an hour later we were ready to hit the streets, hoping for the best that we’d get our Visas the next day.

From there we walked to the subway, and took it to the last stop on the system figuring it would be an easy walk from there to the river, where we were then planning on catching a boat to the Grand Palace (we came up with this plan on our own). Let’s just say it didn’t quite happen that way. As we were walking in the direction we thought the river might be, this local Thai man named Nick started talking with us and led us to this local temple that he thought we just had to see. He must have spent at least 45 minutes with us showing us around, just chatting, (I think he liked practicing his English), and then he was off since his lunch break was over. He was so nice and hospitable, and although I kept waiting for the scam to come or for him to sell us something nothing happened – just a nice guy wanting to share some of his culture with us.

He suggested we take a Tuk-Tuk to get around town, a little mini open air cab/motorcycle thingy, since they are incredibly cheap and you hire them by the hour – we negotiated 50 Bat per hour for 4 hours, which translates to about $1 US/hour. We actually felt kind of guilty at how cheap this was, but that’s apparently the norm here.

I wish I could say that our driver alone was the only nut case out there when it came to maneuvering and driving about town, but really every single driver in Bangkok must have a death wish. Let’s just say that bungee jumping didn’t even come close to the fear we felt in the Tuk Tuk. Definitely fun at times, kind of like roller coaster fun, but mostly lots of “oh my god’s, I can’t believe he just did that!” The video clips hardly do the chaos of the drive justice.

The whole Tuk Tuk is a brilliant concept, although it would never work in the US. This driver takes us where we want, waits for us while we eat, see a temple get a massage, etc, and then takes us to our next destination. You don’t pay them until the end, so it’s blind faith on their part that we’ll return – that’s the part the sadly couldn’t fly in the states.

So with the aid of our speedy driver we managed to check out a whole bunch of temples, all of which were gorgeous and ornate, filled with lots of different Buddhas in different poses and stances, and all of which kind of began to blur together by the end of the day. The Grand Palace definitely stuck out as the most opulent of the temples we saw. It’s size, grandeur, and attention to detail was amazing. It even gave us some inspiration for some décor in our home maybe someday (minus the gaudiness!)

After about 4 hours of the pandemonium of the Tuk Tuk ride, we decided to get dropped off at the Skytrain, and take that back to our hotel to regroup and try and figure out a plan for a Thai massage (our attempts to find places earlier in didn’t come to fruition). We checked the Ananda Spa at our hotel, and low and behold they had availability for two 90 minute Thai massages for both of us that evening.

When they put us in a room together with two tatami mats on the floor, had us change into these weird looking outfits and then had two little, tiny girls come in who would apparently be our masseuses, we were a little skeptical. Let’s just say those next 90 minutes were pure ecstasy! The way I’ll describe this, since there are no words to explain how incredible this felt on our bodies, is kind of like spiritual experience. It was truly amazing. . .

We couldn’t get over the way these petite girls manipulated our bodies in positions we thought we’d never be able to get in– Jason apparently was hoisted onto his girls back and was air born at one point. Of course one of the greatest things is how cheap the whole experience was -- $30 US/person for a 90 minute Thai massage was a deal (although by most standards in Thailand this is considered overpaying). This was a really nice place though and so worth it (our second experience of Thai massage confirmed this!) We both don’t know how we’ll ever go back to the over-priced, Swedish massages we used to get at home.

So we were all tranquil and could have easily passed out from the total relaxation of the Thai massage we had just gotten,  and what do we decide to do with that calm state -- we get ready to go out on the town in Bangkok. That is certainly the quickest way to kill a soothing state.

The Sukhimvit area where we are staying is out of control when it comes to night life. There actually appears to be more going on at night in this area then during the day. From the hot trendy bars, to the international restaurants, to the bustling street vendors, and mostly the masses of ladies of the night crawling all over the place, this area was utter chaos. Add into the mix your random elephant here and there walking down the street, and you have a full fledged circus.

We had to do our part to take advantage of all this insanity, since we would only have one night in Bangkok (we’re so ready to get out of this place even after just one day). Let’s just say we ate it up, drank it up, mingled with the locals, fed an elephant, and even got a 1am massage. The hour long foot reflexology and back massage session seriously hit the spot at that point in the night, and for only $8!!!! Jason’s massage experience was definitely different – let’s just say he had to set some boundaries with his masseuse, and ended his whole experience early!

Although we were in desperate search of our late night doner kabob tradition to help ease the pain of all the festivities of the night, we had to settle for a 2am Subway sandwich. We were definitely done with Bangkok for that night, and it will probably be a long time before we hit up this very unique town again!

As we were descending on the airplane into Chiang Mai we noticed how hazy is was outside -- you could barely see the mountains and landscape.  I immediately thought of LA and the smog, and the problem Chaing Mai was experiencing wasn't too far off from that.  Apaprentely during this time of year (summer), the farmers utilize the slash and burn technique to clear out their land.  We also heard that one way people hunt animals is by smoking them out of the forest.  Whatever the cause, Chiang Mai was smoke ridden.  You could not only see it in the air, but could feel it on your eyes and skin, and definitely the smell of burning was strong.  Both Jason and I seriously considered getting masks to put over our mouths like many of the locals do, but thought since we were only there for 3 days we'd be fine.

That aside, we really enjoyed Chiang Mai.  There was much less of the chaos we experienced in Bangkok.  It was more of a ...controlled... chaos.  Don't get me wrong, this isn't some little village (it's 1/10th the size of Bangkok, which has 9 million people), but there was more of an authentic Thai feel. We felt things were much more accesible, the people were very friendly, and it was just easier to get around.  We also found better street food vendors here.

We stayed in the center of the city at D2 Hotel, which was in the heart of where the night bazarre was located.  Basically, this night market opens up at night (fancy that), and has every thing you could imagine you might want to buy or eat.  We spent partsof all 3 of our nights in Chiang Mai wandering through the market, eating much of the street food, looking at all the different things, and we even got a leg massage our last night there.  Really fun experience, and great friendly people all around.

Of course we couldn't go without the full Thai massage experience in Chiang Mai (figured we got to test them out in every town we're in), and were referred to Legends Spa.  Here we got a 2 hour Thai massage and hot stone treatment which was incredible.  These Thai people really know what they're doing when it comes to touch and massage, since again we were put into a state of utter bliss from the experience. Although again we may have paid a little more for the massage, it was definitely worth being in an incredibly beautiful atmosphere at Legends Spa ($100 US total for both of us). 

Our last full day in Chiang Mai we decided to do a day tour to some of the more remote and scenic areas.  We ventured out to an elephant camp, where we got the chance to ride on an elephant.  I won't say much about that, since the commentary in our video clip gives you a taste of it.  We also took a beautiful hike to Maewang Waterfall, where we got to enjoy the beauty of our surroundings. 

From here we went to a Karen Village, and learned about the people and their culture.  I even bought some bracelets from the children (less about the bracelets and all about supporting the people), who live in absolute poverty).  We had a delicious Thai lunch at another little local village.  Our last experience of the day was bamboo rafting down the river.  This was quite an experience.  Basically these hobbled together bamboo rafts carried us down the river, which Jason and I took turns steering in the back using long bamboo sticks to propell us. 

We definitely were quite sad to say good bye to Chiang Mai, as we really feel like we got to know Thai culture and people more here.  Although it's quite far and remote, I think we could both see coming back someday to visit this beautiful place.

Lets just say Phuket was not what we expected it would be. The images I had in my mind of a tropical oasis, secluded with few people, and beaches that you had to yourself was certainly not what we arrived to. Kamala Beach, where our Hotel Layalina was located was considered the least of the chaotic areas, which we were surprised about. The main analogy to describe Phuket was like a Cabo San Lucas, or a Waikiki Beach – there were tons and tons of people crawling all over the place, especially Scandinavian tourists. Half the restaurants were European or Scandinavian food catering to that clientele, and it was difficult to find anything that felt truly authentic to Thailand.

Coming from Chiang Mai, where we experienced the deeper culture of the people, we were quite disappointed to arrive to what could no better be described as a zoo of tourists. Now, our hotels location on the beach was lovely, however the fact that every person walking by the beach esplanade could see directly into our room was a little uncomfortable. I guess that’s what you get for being right on the beach.

I’m not saying we didn’t enjoy lounging on the beach, swimming in the warm water (which we actually discovered was littered with garbage on a swim during low tide), relaxing by the pool and reading our book, but it certainly is not somewhere we would rush back to. The constant stream of vendors trying to sell goods to you while we were trying to relax in the sun was quite annoying. I’m not against supporting a community, but when it’s in your face all the time, it just a turn off.

The highlight by far of our 4 days in Phuket was going on a day trip on a fast speed boat out to the Krabi Islands. This was a wonderful excursion, and gave us that feeling of the beautiful Phuket we had expected and yearned for. From our swim in our private island lagoon, to the picnic lunch on the beach, and the swim and attempt at snorkeling in a secluded bay, this was true paradise.

Now although we had initially thought that Kamala Beach, where we were staying was a little over-run with people, it didn’t come close to the complete insanity of Patong Beach (one beach south of Kamala). We spent one night wandering around the very flagrant area of Patong. The hardest thing by far for me to take in was observing all the ex-pats with very, very young Thai girls. There is a definite seedy undertone or should say overtone to the scene in Patong – sex, drugs and more sex and drugs seem to rule this area. It’s quite a turn off.

I would certainly say that if we were to return to Thailand, we would go to the more remote islands to check those out. Although I can’t complain about our killer tans, I don’t think Phuket will be on our list of “must returns” in the near future.

We LOVE Tokyo!  We just arrived yesterday and already we're making plans to stay a week longer in Japan.  The city is so exciting, lots of energy, but not in an out of control chaotic sort of way that we experienced in Bangkok.  Everything is very clean, people are quite friendly, speak little English and all the menus are completely, 100% in Japanese. 

The whole subway experience is fascinating.  One station we got off on, Shinjuku, apparently has 200 different exits from the station, and is the busiest staion in Japan handling more then 2 million people a day!  It truly is an obstacle just trying to find your way to the street out of the station, but fun.  We were proud of ourselves that we managed to get from Narita Airport on our own to the hotel, however our main difficulty again was trying to just get out of the enormous station.

We had an exciting day with Shane (an employee of Jason's who happens to be visiting his g/f in Japan) and Asuko.  We explored our immediate area of Ginza for a bit, and then headed over to Shinjuku which was a blast.  From bars, to restaurants, to train stations, and more bars, it was an exciting night in Tokyo for us.  Thank goodness for Asuko, who was able to order and translate for us, since really there is no English on the menus.

Although we're getting a late start this morning, we're so excited to get out an get lost in this amazing city!

Although the Arashiyama (嵐山) area to the west of Kyoto is dismissed in most Western guidebooks in a brief paragraph suggesting "other attractions", the area is rightfully very popular with Japanese tourists and is well worth a visit.  When we read about the possibility of feeding the macaque monkeys atop the mountain in Iwatayama Monkey Park we just couldn't resist checking this out.

When we woke up in the morning it was a miserable, rainy day, and we weren't too sure about whether we wanted to make the trek in the yucky weather to see the little creatures.  We then remembered our lovely rain-proof parka's we had purchased in Milford Sound and had yet to use, as well Jason just could not resist the idea hanging out with monkeys (he feels a strong comradery with the animals), so we braved the trip.

Lets just say what an experience! I seriusly thought this might be some touristy, kietchy thing with a bunch of monkeys in a cage that you could throw bits of food at - yet that still sounded good enough to us.  Little did we know that after our 20 minute hike straight up the mountain, we'd be welcomed into a completely open, uncaged park area with over 150 monkeys wandering freely around the top of the mountain. 

I was definitely a little frightened at first being sourounded and very close to these wild animals, mostly b/c we were the only people that day who decided to make the trip up the mountain in the rain, so basically no other people for the monkeys to attack but us.  The fact that my bright red parka attracted a lot of attention we thought might be a problem as well.  They didn't give a darn about us though, that is until we got into the little caged room where we could feed them from. 

Good thinking with the barred windows between you and the hungry monkey waiting eagerly with outstretched hands for the little peanuts and apple bits. These guys couldn't wait to get their chow, and had it not been for those bars, they probably would have taken our hands off trying to get the food.

Wandering around the mountain and watching the monkeys frollick so freely was truly amazing, and Jason felt like he had come home to his mokey people.  We're definitely glad we got off the beaten path and explored this monkey park, since it's probably the closest we'll ever be to mokeys without them being in a cage. 

Kyoto is known as "the city of a thousand temples," but actually it has more — an astonishing 1,600 Buddhist temples, plus 400 Shintō shrines, a trio of palaces, and dozens of gardens and museums! Kyoto boasts more World Heritage Sites per square inch than any other city.

Thus, the question for us was how do we narrow down the "must sees" of the city. This is where our incredibly touristy, "Kyoto 1 Day Tour" through Sunrise Tours came into play.  Unlike every other place we had visited so far in the world, this was the one and only English speaking  guided tour that was offered.  Lets just say this was one of those tours we really try to avoid - a bus packed to the gills with plaid-dressed seniors, families with loud children, and not much in between.  It isn't quite the tour demographic we try to aim for, but there was no choice.

As it turns out, being led by our flag-yielding guide through what were "the" sites to see in Kyoto made the day easy and fun.  We learned a lot of facts about each and every one of the 6 sites we visited that day.  I'd say don't mess with us when it comes to Trivial Pursuit: Japanese Shrines Edition, but let's face it: most of it has all blended together or we've already forgotten it entirely.

The highlights by far were the breathtaking Japanese gardens that most of the sites contain.  They are all beautifully laid out, and easy to walk through.  We learned about the main elements that make a Japanese gardern--water, garden plants, stones, waterfalls, trees, and bridges. 

The Heian Shrine's garden was magnificent, with a stone path through the pond that was fun to "prance" along.  The Golden Pavillion was set amongst a vast garden, the pond reflecting the beautiful image of the 200 lb's of gold that covered the temple.  Lastly, the Kiyomizu Temple nestled in the mountainside of Kyoto had a breathtaking view of the city of Kyoto.  Making the climb up the quaint old lane lined with pottery shops to reach that temple was also fun, especially b/c most of the shops offered food samples, which we delighted in.

Kyoto's beautiful images of cherry blossoms in bloom, Japanese gardens, temples, shrines and palaces will always be a strong image in both our minds.

We heard so much about Nara from several people that we decided we'd make the day trip from Osaka to visit the town (since it was only a 40 minute train ride.) I'm so glad we decided to get out of the big city and check out this ancient town capital, since it was truly unique compared to many of the places we had exprienced thus far in Japan. 

The first thing that struck us as we approached the town was the amount of open land and greenery this region contained.  Unlike Kyoto, Tokyo and Osaka, which are over-taken with concrete and skyscrapers, Nara had a more open, suburban feel.

With just one day to spend in this area we focused our attention to Nara Park, which is where most of Nara's sights, including temples, shrines and famously mercenary deer are concentrated. 

That's right, you heard deer.  There were literally hundreds, maybe even thousands of deer roaming around freely in the Nara Park area.  I'm not talking like Golden Gate Park style where they say there are buffaloes in the park, and you may be lucky if you see a couple of them poke their heads out through a chain-link fence.  These deer were out and about everywhere, and we actually were encouraged to feed them (don't think they'd appreciate this with the buffaloes).  We had a fun time feeding them little biscuits, and watching them harass us for more food.  We were reminded about our precious little Hank, since these deer are quite similar when it comes to how food obsessed they are.  It seems the only time they give you any affection is when they think they're going to get something yummy to eat, just like our little man. So, we spent much of our day hanging out with deer.

The one temple we really wanted to check out in the park was Tōdai-ji (東大寺), which is home to the Daibutsu (大仏), the largest Buddha statue in Japan and one of the largest in the world.  The Daibutsu-den, which houses the statue, is said to be the largest wooden building in the world and it was definitely quite large and magnificent. At this point we've seen a ton of temples, shrines, palaces, and I think the Todai-ji was our favorite.  Set up against the backdrop of Nara park and the mountains, with deer roaming around the area, gave this place a very special feel.  Add to that the cherry blossoms being in bloom, and you have a beautiful combination.

The rest of our day in Nara we just roamed freely through the park.  We stopped at a couple of the ponds, one to just sit and relax by, and the other one to watch the cute little turtles swimming around.  We ended our day with a stroll through the Naramachi neighborhood (at least we think we were there), and sampled a delicious, gooey, green delight, that was filled with red beans - it was quite good.

Nara will no doubt stick out in my mind as a special place I would like to spend some more time in some day.