Category: 2004-11: HKG, NRT and PEK

Long Entry Ahead!
I’ve been to Kyoto a couple of times before. This will have been my fourth visit. And there’s so much around here and in the City that I haven’t seen yet (like Nara) that I’ll probably have to come back here yet again.
My first visit, I stayed in Osaka with Schu and one of his “friends”. The person in the quotation marks requires a separate entry to explain. I’m pretty sure that if you poke around in the archives, you�ll find an entry or two that tells the story. My second visit, I stayed in the Ponto-Cho district near Gion. That was pretty fun. My third visit, I stayed at J-Hoppers, which is now the preferred lodging of me and the Walking Ixus.
On this visit, I was actually able to reserve a room at Tour Club. On my previous three trips, Tour Club was sold out. It’s easy to see why. Tour Club also serves as a gaijin central, with plenty of other tourists to meet. Staying at a place that has been written up as much as Tour Club pretty much guarantees that you, english speaking traveler, will meet many of your own kind if you stay there.
Which we did and we did.
Once we got settled in and grabbed some dinner, waffles for dessert and a wet night tour of Gion, we came back and hung out in the common room. We met a lot of people including Gen (an Ozzie girl teaching english in the ROK with a soldier boyfriend), Kyle (a Houston native who teaches in Sendai, in southern Kyushu) and people from the UK, Ukraine, Slovakia, France, Japan and Singapore.
The default lingua franca was English, much to the chagrin of the french speaking duo staying there.
Kyle was arranging a early morning trip to the Golden Temple. It requires a walk to Kyoto Station and a bus ride. We left the Tour Club before the owner was up and stashed baggage in the lockers at the station.
They still have lockers here. How civilized.
The bus ride was boring until about 40 high school students on a field trip to the shrine boarded the bus. Then the bus became a lot more lively, loud and navy blue.
Besides the attraction of the Golden Temple, the grounds are gardened to within an inch of its life. Which means that it was absoultely beautiful.
I wish my backyard could look like this. =p
Then we went to the temple with the famous zen rock garden that is supposed to be the world in metaphor. Much of these grounds are devoted to the concept of zen as you can see with the clensing sink, lake and lots of souvenir shops.
Or omiage (oh-me-yah-gay) as they call it over here. Remember, you�re not buying for yourself, you�re buying for peoplel you know that couldn�t make the trip.
Kyle continued on his temple trek, while Gen, me and Schu headed back to downtown for lunch at the Misoka-an Kawamichi-ya. It�s been around since the 1700s and for me, this is a return engagement. I thought it would be a neat place to bring Gen and Schu to. And I was right. It was good food and fun. We even chatted up the woman at the next table, winding up taking a lot of snaps.
After lunch, Gen went on to the Imperial Palace and Schu and I left for Beppu. Two changes of train (Shin-Osaka and ) and 4.5 hours.
I call this “nap-time”.

Aiya…
So last evening, I got into Tokyo and am staying at the Juyoh Hotel. It’s another affordable place near Minami-Senju. It’s worlds nicer than the New Koyo. And more importantly, they have free Wi-Fi and a hard ethernet hub to plug into.
Yippee! Here’s my disaster of a room. Only took a night to mess it up.
Anyway, as is tradition, I met up with Yumi-chan at the Izukaya. Usually, I simply follow her there. This time, she went ahead while I attempted to meet her there.
Long story short: I missed the turn and wound up in the wrong alley. After a few calls and her coming out to meet me, I found my way there.
Again, by following her. This time I paid attention to the way we were going. =/
Too much beer and too much sake and the last subway train back to the hotel = sleeping in to 1000 this morning and a medium sized hangover.
I was trying to avoid the greasy food cure so I tried to walk it off. I went to Asakusa and wandered around the temple grounds, trying to chill.
That worked. The chill part that is. I still had the “hit on the head with a softball” size hangover.
It’s not as bad as being hit by a truck and wondering if you’re still alive. Now that’s a bad hangover!
I gave in and went to McDonald’s. I figure that’s the greasiest thing I could think of. An hour later, it worked! Wah!
Moral of the story: Stay hydrated before you drink. Or be ready for greasy food!

Apparently, I took these pix last night on my way back from the Minami-Senju Metro station. Here and here.
I don’t remember taking these, but when I iPhoto’d my Ixus these pix were on there.
I’m amazed that I could hold the camera still…well, not quite so still.

In case you didn’t know…

Now we have to teach the 2.3 billion or so people just north of HKG this simple fact.

WAR walking to find open Wi-Fi in Hong Kong can be an exercise in futility. There just aren’t as many networks out there (open or otherwise).
begin social commentary
Maybe it’s because there’s lots of things to eat and things to do. And since it’s easy to get around, it encourages people to go out (unlike San Francisco).
end social commentary
If you go to Pacific Coffee, Starchucks (yes, they’re out here too o_o) or try to log on at HKG Airport, you will get the login page for a pay service similar to T-Mobile Hot Spot.
Except it asks for HK specific information to register for airtime. Like your HK Residence Card number. If you’re a tourist, chances are you won’t have one of these.
I have found one place that offers free Wi-Fi with a purchase. Come in, plunk down HK$34 for a yummy white chocolate mocha and log in.
Here’s how to get to Zambra Coffee in Wan Chai:
Take the MTR Island Line to Wan Chai
Exit A1 and turn right. Go down two stoplights.
Second stoplight should be Stewart Road. Cross Stewart Road (the Novotel is on your left before you cross).
Make a left and walk about 50 meters.
Corner of Jaffe Road and Stewart Road, across the street from the HK Jockey Club is Zambra Coffee.
Wah, useful!

I took the roller-coaster doubledecker bus ride to Stanley. Ride on top and try to get the front seats for best effect.
In Central, go to Exchange Square and head down to ground level. The bus terminal is there. Get on a 6X (there are other buses that go to Stanley, but that’s the fastest one, I think) and make sure your Octopus Card has funds on it.
Otherwise you have to cough up exact change in odd amounts like HK$5.95 or something like that.
After shooting through the tunnel, around down the hills, through low hanging trees, past questionable architecture in Deep Water Bay, you finally land at the terminus in Stanley.
It really feels like a small seaside town here. The big draw is the Stanley Market choked full of tourists hunting for bargains. Being the sucker I am, I picked up two rugby shirts for HK$150. Not bad, I guess. He wouldn’t go down on the price, even with the “I’m outta here” trick.
There’s also a block full of restaurants and a couple of bars. Good looking food and the brunch deals weren’t bad. There was even an impromptu concert by a local HK band that has a following of sorts.
This is how I could tell: Band sets up. Big big crowd forms around band. Cameras get whipped out. And not wanting to stick out, I did the same.
Click click.
The HK Government pitches the Murray Building as the big draw to come here. It’s an old restored building with restaurants inside.
The fact that Stanley is quiet with a shoreline and is walkable should be enough of a draw. It was a good break from the urban chaos.

When you cross back into HKG from SZ, you walk over a river that is the official border. That’s Shenzhen in the distance with the tall buildings and the like.
It’s a tepid stinky icky river that if you were to try to swim it, you would lose body parts on the way.
Really gross. Makes Victoria Harbour seem like a clean swimming pool by comparision.
But with everything out here, this too reeks (bad pun!) of politics. When you cross over to SZ, you don’t see the river because the hallway that leads over is covered up.
Coming back, it’s an open bridge so you get the full smell and sights of that icky river.
Phew!

There used to be a plaza that connected the LWCC with the Shangri-La hotel. Now there’s a big hole in the ground that looks like the beginnings of another high rise.
To get to the Shangri-La after an exhausting afternoon trolling the warrens of LWCC, you now need to walk up and down a lot of stairs and you need to go around what was once the plaza.
However, once you get to the Shangri-La, it’s all gravy. Clean bathrooms. Afternoon Tea. Habanos. It’s a welcome break.
And to continue my still life series started in Paris, here’s my afternoon break. A Partagas (Habano) and some ginseng tea.