Happy Birthday, Michael!!!

Just pop in and give Michael a "Happy Birthday" greeting, though this is the last hour of his birthday!!!

Hello, Japan!

In response to Nuno's contribution, I quickly manage to finish my report in Japan, with our kind Japanese Jesus, Yasu. (Thanks, Yasu, for flying over!!! I later found that Fukuoka is quite distant from Kyoto. Thanks for your hospitality, too!!!)

Yasu recommended us to visit the old capital of Japan, Kyoto, which had been the capital of Japan for almost a thousand year. In the first place when I decided to go to Japan, I wanted to see something really Japanese and Kyoto is just the right city to go.

Arrived Kyoto finally after failure communication with the "really-willing-to-help" taxi driver in the airport and missing the hotel's shuttle taxi.... Had my dinner, Lamen noodle. Very tasty!

The first morning in Kyoto, waiting for Yasu to come.

Went to Shionin, a Zen (a branch of Buddhism) temple built in 1175 A.D.

Later met a God of beauty's temple, saw a young lady praying to the God, guess was for her beauty :-)

I therefore tried putting some "water for beauty" in the pond placed beside the temple on my cheek, wished to gain some more beauty!

Later, caught Yasu in the hotel and started for our first day in Kyoto. Here is Ginkakuji Temple, also a Zen temple built in 1482 A.D. by a general to spend his retired life.

We then followed the so-called "Path of Philosophy" and enjoyed a bit of Japanese flavour. The Path of Philosophy was named after that once a philosopher went on this path and came out with his some famous philosophy. I was glad that it is not the tourist season now so we could walk on it without piles of people flooding in.

Our next stop was Kiyomizu Temple, also a famous one and attracts lots of tourists throughout the year.

The start of the second morning in Kyoto. Yasu very generously bought us this quite expensive but very delicious (to me) traditional Japanese breakfast in the hotel. That was because Yasu had free breakfast in the hotel but we didn't.....why????????

Our first stop for the second day was Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion) Temple built in the 13th century. Started to snow and got freezing. Maybe it was because I left Newcastle for too long and almost forgot how to be in snow. Yasu's quite a strong man. And oh, don't forget to see the beautiful architecture of the temple covered with gold-leaf in the background!

We later moved on to Nijo Castle, previously the household of a general. We could see the inside of the castle but however could not take any photo. Well, the inside painting on the walls were fabulous and very well preserved, just the Japanese-style interior was with absolutely no furniture at all :-) (How could they manage their daily life? Need nothing at all?) I have so many questions of this kind during this trip regarding Japanese way of living or habits. Sometimes even the Japanese, Yasu, could not give me a proper answer. However, in my thought, Yasu is not the kind of "Japanese" with the stereotype that other typical Japanese have. So, Yasu, I forgive you for sometimes answering me with a "I really don't know"! Nevertheless, Yasu knows quite a lot of Japanese history, which in a way completed my trip this time. Did you work really hard before you came, Yasu? Ha....

The traditional narrow lane in Kyoto. Reminds me of the setting of the film, Memoirs of a Geisha.

We had lunch in one of the resturants in this lane with a grand view of Kyoto city. Nice!!!

The food I had. Yam~ (up). Yasu had eel rice (down).

In the afternoon, we walked on the streets and thought maybe we would find something interesting. And we found this -- Nuno in Lisbon!!! (A second-hand DVD) Is this Nuno a popular star in Portugal?

In the lobby of our hotel, we found that President of Portugal once stayed in the same hotel. Yasu recognized the guy cuz he said he once saw him in World Cup or something... :-)

Then... Yasu flew home......(Thanks Yasu, bye~will come again!!!)

Without Yasu, we had to survive our own with just very little Japanese. We moved to the next city, Osaka, where Takoyaki (baked squid leg with flour liquid and other ingrediants) is one of the famous dishes. Though Yasu did not highly recommend we take it, we still try once. Not as delicious as I previously thought :-) But the size of the squid leg is relatively much more bigger than the vendors in Taiwan offer.

We did not do too many things except keep eating and eating in Osaka, hahaha.... This is Linda eating Yakitori (grilled chicken).

Our last day in Japan was finished with visiting Universal Studio. We took a photo with the star Saint Bernard (he's real) at the entrance.

Got eaten by the Jaw,

and had a close-to-death ride with Spiderman.

After five days of pleasant stay, we said byebye to Japan at the exit of Universal Studio~~

Ciao, Japan! I'll come again~~~

Madeira II - Moving around...

Hi again dear northterracists

Here go some more photos of the days spent in Madeira. The theme here is the ways we used to move around in and between islands. If you wish to see more pictures please link to my Portuguese blog.

(In Porto Santo we travelled around by bike. Lu behaved much better when going down than when pedalling upwards ;) Anyway Lance Armstrong would be proud of us)

(Boat we travelled in on the trip between Madeira and Porto Santo. We were both quite sea sick during the trip, damn waves!!)

(Cable car that connects the downtown of Funchal with the top of the hill. Too much wind and balancing for my taste! I thought I would end up down in the middle of banana plantations or the garden of a private house...)

(One of the most typical experiences of the island: going down hill at high speed inside this kind of basket-car. The guy's job is to keep the car on the road and not let it turn around. Quite funny!!)

Madeira I - tastes

Dear friends

The Madeira archipelago was, until the end of 2005, one of the only parts of Portugal that I had never been to. In the Portuguese imaginary it is a semi-tropical place, on the same latitude as the north of Africa, with luxuriant vegetation and a very typical President: he is certainly one of the most rude Portuguese polititians, rules the island as if he was a king, and says whatever he likes about national politics, journalists and anybody that dares to criticize him. Some of my friends claim that they are not going to put their feet in Madeira while the guy is in power.

The other side of him is of a big joker and of someone that brought a lot of economic development to the island. Madeira is now on of the richest regions of Portugal, due almost exclusively to tourist attraction: there is a huge amount of hotels and resorts, restaurants, sport activities and everything that makes a good holiday place. It is also a smart strategy to attract mostly retired, rich northern Europeans and Americans - they also come in winter when it is quite good weather in Madeira and the peak of an usually dark and cold winter in England, Sweden or Germany. Flowers and sun all year round is argument enough!

So there we went, me and Lu, check out the place and have a good new year break... The pictures in this first post have mainly to do with the nicest things to taste in Madeira.

Madeira wine is the most famous product of the island. It is produced since the XVI century, from particular types of grapes. The peculiar thing about it is that, like Porto wine, it is sweet. It gains its qualities after some years in the oak barrels in warm cellars. The process was discovered during the ship voyages of the Portuguese navigators: the heat in the tropics improved the qulity of the wines transported. Nowadays these conditions are re-created by placing the barrels/casks in warm terraces. The wine cellars can be visited and old wines tasted. As you see in the photo above, Lu was refusig to leave the place without taking at least a barrel back to London ;-)

One of the features of the capital of the island, named Funchal (one of the largest cities in Portugal, after Lisboa and Porto), is the decoration in the streets. Bunches of fruits and vegetables hanging around are a beautiful thing and make some persons have uncivilized attitudes (as usual...)!

And then the meals... In the photos above you can see squids roasted in coal and lapas fried in olive oil - very good stuff, believe me! And they taste even better with a good white wine.

To finish this post, the visit to the producer's market of Funchal: the Mercado dos Lavradores. It's really cool to see the diversity of fruits for sale, most of them produced in Madeira. Some I had never seen: the Adam's rib, or the banana-passion fruit. In the picture above our chinese friends can see that they are not the only ones to like chili!!!