Somewhere in ... the city of Love

Yes, we do mean San Francsco, California. After a horrible flight on United Airlines,we arrived to hippie, chilled out (and I mean cold) San Francisco. We loved it from the start, a mixture of hip cafes, expensive shops, many homeless people and poor neighborhoods but also a sophisticated, european charm with its abundant, gorgeous 20s architecture with fire escapes everywhere, the tram-covered hills, Chinatown and a relaxed feeling in the streets which gets under your skin.

We also got surprised again to arrive to San Francisco right before the biggest event of the year which brings a million people to town, the Pride Parade of Gays and Lesbians, just as it had happened before to us in Sydney, clearly we're being followed! Thankfully we had already prebooked a hoel as rooms go for at least $400 a night in this period, so we got to see a most colourful and extravagant parade, we even got photographed for the local gay newspaper as a lovely heterosexual couple (we hope!)

Next biggest attraction was the Rock, otherwise called Alcatraz prision, impressive specially due to the audio tour given by ex-inmates and officers. Golden Bridge was also a must on the to-do list in San Francisco, but for us, nothing so special as we have drunk many beers under a bridge exactly like this one, back in Lisbon (if you really want to see San Francisco but can't afford it come to Lisbon instead where the hills, trams, cafes and bridge will make for a similar experience).

Tomorrow we'll have a final trip around the charming "streets of San Francisco", and we'll start our tour of the West Coast in Schwarzenegger's country, sunny California!

PS- And a big congratulations to Lenka's sister Lucka for graduation with honours! We knew she is the best!

Somewhere in ... Waikiki Beach

Aloha from Waikiki beach, where we are relaxing our tired bodies and souls for almost a week now. It seemed to us that we are getting less and less readers as people got used to us being away, but it flattered us when we heard from various sides, that we haven't written for some time and that we still haven't posted photos from Japan! Apologies, apologies to everyone!

We have successfully finished our great two weeks in Japan with Richard and I must say that we were really busy and we have seen lots of things (as it is difficult for us so far to upload our photos, you can look at Richard's picasa as it will be nearly the same anyway). Rich is not a big sleeper, even if he is jet lagged, and one of our mottos for the Japan trip was: "to maximise our holidays":) It was very intensive two weeks, but our bodies were telling us slowly, we are tired, give us a break for a bit. So we have hapilly accepted our planned and (very importantly) pre paid holidays. Yes, it is an ordinary lazy holidays on the famous hawaian Waikiki beach.
The trip from Tokyo to Honolulu was as well an important landmark on the journey of all around the world travellers as we left at 7pm on 13th June and we have arrived at 7am on 13th June. Yes, indeed - the Earth is turning!

The change of environment was so obvious from the moment we stepped out of the plane! First of all we understand the language around us again!!, second of all we need ID if we want to order drinks (not because we look young, but everybody who looks under 40 needs an ID)!! and finally, but not least important, it is difficult to get a decent meal for a normal price (other than making some of our meals from bread and jam, the cheaper options include KFC, Subway, McDonald, Burger King not a good everyday option as we'd end up rather overweight!). And this being Hawaii, we had to make an exception from our cheap meals and splash out on a meal of our favourite pizza - ham and pineapple, otherwise called the Hawaiian Pizza!

We can't really complain here... The weather is excellent, the sea is blue and clear and our hotel is approximately 30 seconds from one of the most famous beaches in the world - Waikiki beach - so we have decided to change the motto of our holidays and we are trying really hard to minimise them here. Our australian friends would be proud though... USA's most famous beach is actually australian! The erosion of the soil due to deforestation had already wiped out the original Waikiki beach by mid-20th century, and the latest reconstruction effort has involved shipping tons of sand from Australia! So we find ourselves back in an Australian beach, with the difference being this one is far more crowded!


This lazying about on the beach is the reason why we haven't been rushing our blog, as nothing much is happening.
We have just two more days left and we have decided to be a bit more
active and hired a car for the last day to see a bit of the island and not just the main Waikiki street. As you might not know, on this island - Oahu - is the place where the famous Pearl Harbour attack took place, so we will continue our cultural journey and visit it... after
being in Hiroshima, it will be a symbolic stop over.

On Friday night we will be once again aboard the US airline and fly to San Francisco, where our big US trip will start. We will be starting with the West Coast where we will cover all major attractions including LA, many national parks, Disneyland and Las Vegas (where we'll be spending 4th July!)... Hopefully we will be able to upload the photos as well and write more frequently...

Today's the Solstice, so Happy Northern Hemisphere Summer everybody and let us know how you are doing!

Somewhere Lost in Translation, Tokyo

And so the goodbyes are said to Richard, our travelling, drinking and sushi partner for the past two weeks, and soon we will also be leaving the land of the rising sun.

We loved Japan, that is clear! This proud nation surprised first and foremost through its friendly, polite and respectful people. Everywhere we went, be it train stations, restaurants, hostels, supermarkets or simply walking down the street, we got a smile, a greeting and a polite bow, a willingness to help regardless of their ability to speak english that was surprising and extremely comfortable, making us feel at home! If only back in Europe it was this polite!

But let's start from where our guest blogger Richard left off. Did you know one can only climb up Mt Fuji two months of a year? Neither did we, and as it turned out June was not one of these climbing months so our plans had to be again rearranged and Mt Fuji will have to be climbed some other day.

All was for the best though. We returned to our beloved Kyoto where we enjoyed sushi from our favourite conveyer belt restaurant and some more live japanese music - we even spotted an apprentice geisha on her day off enjoying a dinner at an Irish bar - a very weird sight!

After Kyoto (an alliteration of Tokyo, we are still to find out why) we toured the old japanese capitals of Nara and Nikko, both world heritage-listed with their very old, very amazing temples and shrines. In Nikko, north of Tokyo, we stayed at a very traditional Japanese inn where we enjoyed the typical hot bath "onsen" and the local sake, both great! Nikko is also the site of the original three monkeys who "see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil" and we were not disappointed, they looked really cool!

Back to the Singansen, the bullet train system in Japan, fast, clean, safe, comfortable and so punctual one could set his watch by it. If only we had something this good in the Western world there would be much less cars, pollution and bad accidents! We returned to the busy metropolis Tokyo, where we saw the night skyline from the jazz bar at the top of the Park Hyatt hotel, sitting not far from where the lovely Scarlett Johansson sat in the film "Lost in Translation" and we treated ourselves to some luxuriously priced drinks to the sound of a brazilian song sung by a Quebec-born jazz singer living in Paris.

Now it is time to close yet another chapter in our journeys. Bye Richard-san, Sayonara Japan, we loved our time here with you and hope to see you again very soon!

PS- We will upload this entry later with some photos - we could not find any USB ports in the internet terminals at Tokyo airport.

Somewhere in Hiroshima .... With guest Blogger Richard Gower

Pedro and Lenka are fast asleep on the train after a busy day in Hiroshima, so I have stolen their computer and am taking over the Blogging duties. In the last exciting installment we had just left Tokyo. The adventure continues........

Straying off the Shinkazen Bullet Train main-line we headed up through the Japanese Alps to the historic town of Takayama. The place was a great contrast to the skyscrapers and bustle of Tokyo and gave us a taste of small town Japan. The highlight was an open air museum where we could see the wooden houses where the Japanese lived hundreds of years ago.

Our accommodation was with our Couchsurfing hosts Becca and John, a very nice couple, although a little mad as they are planning a cycling trip from Japan to London this year. As usual I got very excited about the idea, but Pedro and Lenka assured me that if I was going to do it, I would be on my own.

Kyoto, our next stop, has been one of the best few days so far in Japan. There's far too much to do there in the short time that we had, but we still managed to pack in a week's worth of temples and shrines. Kyoto at night is fun too... We walked around the Gion district for ages trying to find some real Geishas for Lenka to see, but eventually gave up and hunted down some beer instead. After a while we reluctantly went into an Irish bar for an emergency Asahi before finding somewhere more local. It turned out to be a great diversion as there was a cool live band of Japanese people playing traditional Celtic folk songs.

Heading further south again we stopped for a night Couchsurfing in a small town called Mihara with a lovely Canadian girl called Jane who had been teaching English there for 2 years. We were introduced to the local delicacy called Okonomiyaki: really delicious and a nice break from our 3-times-a-day Sushi-fest. Later that evening we had the unusual experience of being an Englishman, a Czech, a Portugueser and a Canadian drinking in a French restaurant in Japan!

Near Hiroshima we took a small ferry to Miyajima island to see the Floating Shrine. It was a really beautiful place and a must-see for anyone inspired to come to the region. In Hiroshima itself we visited the Peace Memorial Park and the A-Bomb Dome where the Atomic bomb devastated the city 62 years ago. The museum in the park showed a very graphic description of the events at the time. It was an educational, and quited unsettling 2 hours, but something that we all thought was important to see while we were there.

Now we're on our way back towards Tokyo where we will be staying a few days in the Mt Fuji area and, hopefully, climbing to the peak on Monday...... And to see if we make it you'll have to stay tuned for the next Blog in a few days!

Japan has been a real adventure, much more exciting and easier to experience than I imagined, but travelling with Pedro and Lenka has been the best bit. Two weeks ago I was imagining how 5 months of travelling together had affected them. Might they have split up? Would Lenka be pregnant ? As it turned out, neither had happened, instead they are noticeably closer and much stronger as a couple. I'll be sorry to leave them next week, but I'm sure they'll be glad of a break me and the early morning trips.

That's all folks ! Our usual authors return next week.

Somewhere in ... the train in Japan

... With Richard!

As always we have changed our plans a little bit and stayed in Seoul for one more day. We couldn't resist the party and the BBQ invitatons from our hosts, and as Richard (who we were meeting in Japan) was arriving two days after us so we had some leeway. We have made it again with Asiana Airines to Tokyo and got 90 days entry visa to Japan without any problems. Another stamp on our passport, another country before us. This one is special, as is Richard, who is joining us for 14 days and who had planned the whole journey (which made Pedro extremely happy and he is taking a break from planning and organising).

Arriving to Japan left us without a mobile phone as the roaming is not working and we can't buy a new SIM card, but if we wanted we could rent one:)! This made the initial communication with Richard a bit complicated, but we have managed and met at the right time, on the right subway station:) It was great to see a friendly and familiar face again and we have 14 days to explore Japan together.

Off we go, exploring Tokyo, from the beautiful flat of our first host, beautiful Hitomi and her mom, who welcomed us straight away with a most delicious japanese meal (what better way to start the trip?), and continued as the most gracious guide to this wonderful metropolis. Tokyo is a collection of many different, huge towns all put together into a giant metropolis, full of neon lights and modern buildings but aswell shrines and temples rebuilt from the successive 20th century disasters which raided this city, earthquakes and air raids (the lovers of japanese gardens would have to wait for other photos as Tokyo is not famous for its greenery)...

Walking around Tokyo was a fantastic experience to the senses, and with the speed with which Richard is walking, we have seen nearly everything in Tokyo in two days. We were very impressed with this neat, sophisticated, busy town and its hardworking, friendly people, and look forward to coming back for the final couple of days of our japanese tour.

Our first experience in the Bullet train was a travel south to Takayama, a very comfortable ride, where we as always had as lunch the delicious sushi and maki takeaways from supermarkets, these are the most common and one of the cheapest ways to eat in Japan - which so far has not been as expensive as we feared!

Takayama is a very small town, where we ventured out to see an impressive collection of old Japanese homes brought here from all over the country, a walk in an impressive forest where on top of many old temples we also glimpsed a most impressively long snake, and chilled out with our anglo-american english-teaching hosts!

Tomorrow we go to Kyoto, immortalised recently in Hollywood through the Geisha film, where we go seeking new gardens and bonsais, kimonos and, most importantly, more of the delicious japanese sushi!