anoisette

last week-end i went to Koyasan with some friends. despite the fact that the weather was complete crap (we were there right as a typhoon was hitting the area) and it rained cats and dogs the whole week-end, i have to say that it’s one my favourite places i’ve visited in japan so far.

Koyasan is up in the mountains in the prefecture of Wakayama, and the journey there was great. we took a train that wound its way up the mountain, going through beautiful lush forests and passing small villages perched on steep hills. the last leg of the journey consisted of taking a steep cable car up the mountain, which was quite the experience.

we stayed in one of the many temples open to tourists, which was a really great experience. one of the highlights was getting to try shojin ryori, which is vegetarian buddhist cuisine. our stay included dinner (pictured) and breakfast. (although i suspected the package of dried nori seaweed included in the breakfast was not vegetarian so i didn’t eat it, it’s been my experience that a lot of those little packs of snack nori aren’t vegetarian because they somehow add shrimp to them).

my favourite part about Koyasan was walking through the cemetary, i just wish it hadn’t been raining so hard.

using the happy cow vegetarian restaurant directory i found a (new to me) restaurant in kyoto that i decided to check out. it’s called mikoan, and while it was a little tricky to find, it was well worth it. it’s in a pretty central location, just south of Shijo St, not too far from Hankyu Kawaramachi station. the food was of course delicious (in the photo curry rice on the left and set on the right), and i’ll definitely be going back next time i’m in the area. the pictures on the website definitely helped me to find it. in fact, it’s so hard to find that i just read on the vegan japan blog that a couple of tourists were unable to find it even with the help of local police. guess i was lucky to find it indeed.

The last few days have involved going all over Kansai. Today we went to the Kyoto Studio Park Toei Uzumasa Eigamura. We dressed in yukatas (picked up cheaply and on impulse yesterday at a Uniqlo near Kyoto Station) and got half-off admission. The park was pretty neat, it was fun to poke our heads into all kinds of traditional style Japanese buildings. Unfortunately they weren’t filming anything today so we didn’t get to see any of that. But it was still fun to check out the park and I’m glad we went. Then we headed over the to Nishijin Textile Center and caught the Kimono Show and admired beautiful textiles.

After that we headed over to Gion because my friend wanted to check it out. While walking around the narrow streets, it was uncanny how many tourists kept snapping pictures of us in our yukatas.  My friend kept wanting to tell everyone “We’re not real!” as in, we’re just just tourists too! Throughout the day we also noticed lots of old Japanese ladies would look us up and down and smile at us. Maybe they were happy to see young folk in yukatas? Anyway, it was a pretty interesting experience to see how people will react differently to you just based on what you are wearing. And of course it was fun to get to wear a yukata for a day. I had no idea how to put it on, or tie the obi. But I followed the picture directions included with mine, as well as these useful videos and we were on our way.

Good footwear might even be more important that a good pack. If you can’t walk far, chances are you’re not going to be enjoying your travels.

I’d say for your basic well trod SE Asia backpacker trail trip you basically need a pair of flip flops and a good pair of walking shoes. That’s all I had, plus a pair of foam/plastic slippers bought in Toronto’s Chinatown, just coz I had them before I left and was going to throw them out otherwise.

I lucked out and found what I think were the perfect shoes. I got a pair of Salomon Tech Amphibian women’s shoes and here’s what I loved about them:

• The collapsible heel allowed me to wear them as slip ons when circumstances were such that it was more convenient or comfortable to do so.
• A one pull lacing system meant no laces to tie or get tangled. Great for when having to take the shoes off to go into temples and other shoes-not-allowed places.
• Mesh sides allowed for lots of airflow, kept feet cool and dry.
• Comfortable to wear barefoot or with socks.
• Designed to get wet and drain. Dried quickly when they did get wet.
• Good sole with a good grip.

Between the shoes and the flip flops I felt like I was pretty much covered. Sport sandals like Tevas or Chacos would have provided more support than flip flops but also taken up more space and been heavier. For the sake of traveling light if I wanted more support I just wore my shoes.

The slippers were actually really useful as shower shoes or bathroom shoes and didn’t take up any more space than flip flops. When we did splurge for the luxury of an en suite bathroom, it was usually one tiled room with a sink, toilet, and shower coming out of one wall. As in there was no separate shower stall and the entire bathroom floor would get wet from a shower. That is when the slippers came in handy, keeping my feet dry when I had to go into the bathroom and the whole floor was wet. So while they may seem like an unnecessary extra, I feel they were worth it. And while I’m all about multiple purposes, I wouldn’t use flip flops I wear out on the street as shower shoes coz that’s just dirty. Dust/dirt from the bottom of flip flops worn out on the street mixed with water from a shower = mud.

Before I left for my South East Asia backpacking adventure I carefully researched what kind of camera to get. My number one priority was to travel light, so a digital SLR was out of the question. I decided that what I wanted was a small and light point and shoot that would produce good quality pictures. There are tons of cameras on the market that meet that criteria, so I stepped it up a notch. I also wanted a camera that I could use to take pictures under water without a separate (expensive) waterproof housing.

After researching carefully, I settled on the Pentax Option W10. At the time it was their latest waterproof model. The newest one now is the w30, which of course has many improvements including longer underwater time (up to 2 hours).

Just under 2000 shots later, I have to say that i am very happy with my choice. On land the camera takes good quality pictures, and also takes surprisingly good macro shots. Under water, I’ve used it to take pictures and video while snorkeling in Malaysia and also in Australia on the Great Barrier Reef. I’ve also taken it snowboarding in the Japanese Alps without having to worry about dropping it in the snow. It’s small, light, waterproof (and sand proof!) and did what it was supposed to do: let me take pictures. It has a large LCD screen, but no viewfinder. However I didn’t find that to be a problem for me at all.

And the best part is that on top of being all the camera it should be, I was also able to use it as a pocket watch and alarm clock. It has a very useful clock function that allows you to check the time, without actually having to power on the camera. And it has an alarm clock function as well, which was super useful for the days when I had to wake up at a certain time to catch a train or bus or whatever. Those additional features were really useful while traveling, and made it unnecessary for me to pack or wear a watch or portable alarm clock.

A couple of weeks into my trip I accidentally dropped my camera down onto some sharp rocks while overlooking a beautiful beach in Thailand. The camera suffered some scratches but seems to be otherwise unaffected.

So all in all, the Pentax Optio W10 (or newer model) is a great point and shoot camera to consider if you’re shopping around for a new camera for an upcoming trip.

In some ways South East Asia is an easy destination as far as packing light because the warm climate makes bulky and heavy warm clothing unnecessary. Clothing really depends on personal preference and personal comfort and so I’m just going to be writing about what worked for me personally based on my own personal preferences, which could be different from what would work best for you. But hopefully some of this information will be helpful for you to make decisions about what to pack. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve spent a good chunk of the day learning about the basics on how to put together a wordpress theme from scratch. I’m hoping to make a nice theme for a photoblog, something I’ve tried to do a number of times in the past but have never been satisfied with my attempts. Anyway, I did find one really useful tutorial on making wordpress themes that I started working through.

When I was preparing for my 3 month backpacking trip through South East Asia last summer I had a hard time finding information on what exactly I should pack. I searched online and read heaps of travel advice books at the library and in bookstores, and while I did find some information a lot of it was very vague.

Now that I’ve been there done that, I figure maybe I should share some of what I’ve learned. So I’m going to write a series of posts on what to pack for a trip to South East Asia.

Read the rest of this entry »

so yesterday i just wrote about needing to get a start on ‘real life’ (whatever that is), and funny enough i got a wedding invitation in the mail from one of my dear old friends. i guess it just drove home the point that while i’ve been gallivanting around the globe, other people my age are getting married and buying houses and establishing careers. not that i’m trying to compare myself to them, but i guess it just goes to show that life keeps going along whether i acknowledge it or not.

unfortunately the wedding is happening before i’ll be back in canada, but since it’s a dear friend of mine i still want to give her a wedding present. actually, she’s the first of my good friends to get married, so this is my first foray into buying wedding gifts. knowing nothing about anything, i figured a google search reconnaissance mission was in order. and so i found a useful collection of wedding etiquette on the emily post site.

a couple of interesting points:

• If you are invited to the ceremony and/or reception, you should send a gift, whether you are attending or not.
• Preferably, send the gift to the bride before the wedding or to the couple soon thereafter. In some regions gifts are brought to the reception and placed on a special table. Contrary to a current rumor that you have a year to send a gift, it really should be sent right away or within three months of the wedding.

the first point was news to me, but since i want to get her something even though i can’t make it, it’s all good. as for the second point, good to know i have some time to figure out what to get her. it would be cool to send her something from japan but then again sending something via mail could limit my options of what i could send. and of course at this point i have no idea what to get her. i emailed her to ask if she had a gift registry set up. maybe that will give me some ideas.

it’s been a busy week. i’ve been frantically emailing back and forth with a friend who is traveling to japan from canada. we’ve been trying to sort out some semblance of an itinerary and book the hostels. so starting saturday i’m going to be zigzagging all over central honshu, starting with an overnight stay in a temple in koyasan and enjoying some much anticipated shojin ryori.

i’ve also been arranging my ticket back to canada and finally decided to take advantage of a stopover in beijing. trying to sort that out gave me itchy feet (why not go home overland? by ship? why not go via korea? etc. etc.), but i finally convinced myself that really, i need to go home and start working towards this financial freedom goal of mine. enough of this bumming around.

so now i’m going to have to do some research on beijing. i’ll only really have 2 days. i think i’ll go to the great wall one day and check out the forbidden city the other day. so much to think about!