Spectacular Sydney

Hi all (we're actually in NZ where we haven't heard a single G'day). It is Saturday afternoon, December 22, 2007... our wedding anniversary.

I promised our next note would be about spectacular Sydney...actually we're in the south island of New Zealand now and had I only known I would have saved the adjective "spectacular" for the South island.  Who knew... so I will come up with another superlative later...but in the meantime.

We loved Sydney.  We started off with dinner with two friends from our Japan Tauck trip, Robyn and Warren Hillman, Aussies who live in Mossman (right outside of Sydney). We ate on the harbor where Robyn proclaimed that Sydney is by far the most beautiful city in the world (and they are VERY well traveled). Our cynical selves didn't believe her until we spent the next 3 days walking and boating around...but she was right.  What a spectacular city.  Situated around the harbor and accented by the Opera House and Bridge it is a breath-taking place.  And our experiences there were unforgettable.

After picking up Em from the airport, we walked around the Botanic Gardens (lovely), had lunch in the Central Business District, then ambled over to the Queen Victoria Building (a beautiful 19th century building restored into a Westfield--as in Old Orchard--mall).  We are doing our share of shopping on the trip but what stuck with us here was the architecture.  Amazing.  After QVB, we mono-railed around the city, then went back to the hotel to prepare for our next adventure--the Syndey Opera House--where we had a private tour, dinner in the chi-chi restaurant, and great seats for the Nutcracker.  The SOH is amazing... so beautiful and our guide had such interesting stories.  The dinner was splendid and the Nutcracker, though familiar, was special. I must report that Emily was an extraordinary good sport and was actually awake for a good portion of the performance!

The next morning, Andrew & Wendy left for a harbor tour (great photo ops), then Em and Wayne joined us for a spin at the Taronga Zoo. This is a beautiful zoo set on the harbor with astonishing views.  We focused on the wild Australia exhibits...actually had platypus and Tasmanian Devil sightings, saw some jumping kangaroos, and had our picture taken (up close and personal) with a koala. 

There seem to be conflicting opinions as to the docility of koalas.  One of our waiters told us that they seem docile but because they snack on eucalyptus leaves, they really exist in a constant state of being stoned.  hmmm .  We finished up the day with a visit to Bondi Beach to check out the surfers and do some of our own wading (watch out for the tides--Em and I ended up getting drenched at least 8 inches up!).  Our dinner was at Iceberg's on the beach...  this is a contemporary, all glass room overlooking the beach with awesome views.  Em & Wayne shared pasta with clams and zucchini flowers, Wendy had a bone-in flounder, and Andrew had sting ray in parchment (which is what we would call skate).

As you can read, I began to run out of superlatives to describe Sydney after 3 days... so good thing we didn't stay any longer!  Actually, we will end our trip there on January 1.

In the meantime, I'll sign off for now.  If we don't get back to you before then, "happy Christmas," as they say here.  Next email will be on the South Island of New Zealand, followed by one for the North Island.  As a preview, please know that we arrived in NZ on Thursday afternoon (it's Saturday), and I will need to get out a thesaurus for more adjectives.  The beauty here is indescribable.  But more on that later... time for a hike.   

South Island Splendor

Hello all,
It is Thursday, Dec 27, 2007 at 3:50 p.m.  We are on the North Island in a 5,000 acre country manor which doubles as a sheep station (Wharekauhau--we still cannot get the Maori pronunciation down).  But, I wanted to give you the South Island update. 

In our last installment, I gave you a preview of the South Island of New Zealand; I recall (in my after-massage stupor right now) that I may have described it as indescribable.  Several days later, that is still the case... but, OK... I'll try to come up with some words.  The South Island of New Zealand is one minute after another of absolute eye candy.  Beginning with our ride through Christchurch (a lovely English-style city with the most beautifully delicate rose gardens in colors we had ever seen and the Avon... a stream of a river with punting), we knew that New Zealand was something special and altogether different from anything we'd seen in Australia.  You say you're going to Australia and New Zealand on holiday, but (at least for us), you neglect to realize how absolutely distinct they are in every single respect (except for both countries using English as their primary language).  Anyway, Christchurch was lovely even though we were there for fewer than 24 hours.  Then, we picked up the TransAlpine train to Greymouth (on the Tasman Sea side)--a 4 hour ride through the Southern Alps that was just splendid.  Then we picked up our rental care where the true fun began.

On a friend's tip, we had arranged for GPS/Tour guide equipment (separate unit--for those planning a trip here, it's called Kruse and has become indispensable). John (the narrator) has been our guide...which was reassuring because driving the "proper way" on the left has been challenging!  Our first stop was to wind through the Alps toward the Fox Glacier.  Magnificent.  We hiked up to the glacier last Saturday morning and it was glorious. 

That afternoon, we hiked around Lake Matthison (which they say is a must not miss because if the sun is right, you can catch the reflections of Mt Cook and Mt. Tasman. The sun wasn't right but it didn't matter.  It was great. We went back to the lake for breakfast the next day and caught a wonderful glimpse of both mountain tops.

The following morning we left for Queenstown...a ride full of more beautiful scenery (mind you, we didn't even include Milford Sound in our trip which is supposed to be the most breathtaking scenery on the South Island; I can't imagine).  Arriving at Queenstown, we settled in for two days of activities.  On Day 1, Andrew & Wendy took the jet-boating route at the Dart River.  The jet boats (big tourist attraction but we enjoyed them) sped through the River (only 6" deep at points) with daredevil twists and turns.  Because there had been a lot of rain the night before, there were waterfalls galore.  Beautiful.  On Day 2, we took a 4WD Lord of the Rings safari.  My not being a fan was irrelevant because the scenery is so breathtaking you feel like you are on a Universal Studios set.  Divine. While we were off adventuring, Emily & Wayne checked out the bird preserve and the botanic garden.  We also made sure to get in some retail therapy and great eating in Queenstown (though I must say we haven't suffered for eating anywhere so far).  On Christmas Day, we got in our requisite Asian lunch (though it was Thai, not the traditional Chinese); no movies playing... but we enjoyed the day and prepared for our voyage to the North Island on Wednesday.

A word about the eating in New Zealand: We have been doing it nonstop (in between scenery).  The lamb is as good as they say if not better (although the sheep and lambs everywhere made it difficult to eat lamb the first time; we got over it).  The fish is great.  We are still looking for Pavlova (the meringue/fruit dessert which is claimed by both Australia and NZ).  ANNE V:  I am enjoying your skinny flat whites (capuccino's without the foam).  We found the most amazing chocolate shop in Queenstown and visited at least 6 times in our 3 days there.  The wines, needless to say, are wonderful.  In short, no complaints...except that I should have packed more elastic pants.

We'll check in again toward the end of the North Island part of the trip (New Year's Day, unless we provide a preview before then).  In the meantime, be safe, be well, and happy new year's.

North Island Nirvana

Hello everyone and Happy New Year!
It is 9:11 a.m. on January 1, 2008 and we celebrated by watching the fireworks off Sky Tower in Auckland (the largest structure in the Southern Hemisphere).  It was great.

We are leaving in just a few hours for Sydney, then the flight home tomorrow (January 2)...but we wanted to give you this catch up on the North Island of New Zealand first. First, everyone says the scenery in the South Island is more spectacular and that Queenstown is a tourist's paradise.  Well, we loved the South Island but we also loved the North Island.  Again, it was one sight after the other of extraordinary scenery.  We started off (on Dec 26--Boxing Day) with our flight into Wellington (the capital) and a visit to Te Papa, an amazing cultural, geophysical museum.  It's oriented for kids but quite wonderful for big kids as well.  A friend recommended we visit and he was right on the money. We only had an hour to spend there but we strongly suggest it for others. We followed that up with a 2 hour drive on a winding mountain passage-way and a gravel road to our next destination Wharekauhau (pronounce it Far-a Ko-Ho).  This was a beautiful farm estate on a hill overlooking Palisser Bay.  We had two attached cottages here that were incredibly appointed... you would never know we were out in never-never land... just exquisite.  The meals there were unbelievable; we ate with the other guests.  For dinner the first evening, we had: crayfish filled squid-ink ravioli, asparagus soup, salmon wrapped in corn husks, and apple turnover.  We walked back to our cottages to find white-chocolate sheep on our pillows... and prepared for our farm tour the next morning.  This was no ordinary farm tour...the grounds are huge, thousands of hectares... with amazing views.  And not only did we see the sheep, sheep shearing, dog herding,  and a "friendly" eel eating a raw rabbit (ughhh), we saw spectacular scenery. We returned to the estate for a beautifully served lunch, massages, then dinner.  This time, they served venison carpaccio, gazpacho, crayfish lasagna, and white chocolate/raspberry meringues (preceded by 10 appetizers in the lounge).

The next morning, we left for the wine country (Hawkes Bay)... including (yes another meal) at the Sileni Winery. It was (are you surprised, I told you I didn't bring enough elastic pants) amazing...and the views, once again, were wonderful.  We ended up in Napier, an art-deco city completely restored after the 1931 earthquake.  We stayed in a vintage hotel and couldn't see anything because of the rain but woke up on Saturday morning to beautiful sunshine and the opportunity to walk along the shore. We headed to Taupo and Rotorua.  Taupo is the sight of Lake Taupo and several large volcanoes--at least one erupted within the last 50 years.

We had been under the impression that Rotorua was the farming capital and not more...but we couldn't have been farther off.  This was where the truly unbelievable scenery came into play.  Think thermal geysers, big lakes, volcanic craters, mud pots, steaming multi-colored sulfur pools.  We were escorted by Ben, a member of a huge Maori family (I think they all have thousands of cousins).  Ben is a gentle man who chauffeured us around for a memorable, fantastic 9 hour day--not only to the eco sites but also to his Maori village and the local museum.  So we not only soaked in the scenery but also the culture.  An incredible day.

In Rotorua, we stayed at the best B&B (The Springs) where our hostess (Colleen) makes the world's greatest blueberry pancakes.  She said that Bon Appetit had contacted her for the recipe... so watch for it!  We will. Anyway, we headed for Auckland through dairy country so of course had to stop for burgers and milkshakes before we arrived.  (Dairy farming is MUCH more profitable than sheep farming.)  Once we arrived in Auckland, we took a wonderful walk and headed for the Sky Tower where we checked out the sights.  We had an amazing dinner at Cin Cin on the Quay (and we have the pics to prove it!) continued our Scrabble tournament and brought in the new year.

Regarding the weather here on the North Island.  It started out stormy and windy (Chicago has nothing on Wellington, the true windy city... and our sleep on the estate was interrupted by terrific winds). Napier was also rainy when we arrived.  But, by the time we got to Rotorua, the weather turned absolutely perfect.  We got loads of sun (and a mild sunburn) and we finally look like we spent 3 weeks in the summer!

Well, running out of time on this computer, so gotta go.  Off to Sydney (again)!

Antipodean After-thoughts

Hi everyone,
It is Wednesday, January 2, 2008 at 10:22 p.m. Chicago time and we are safely ensconced back home (Andrew in San Diego, Wendy & Wayne in Chicago, and Em packing for New Orleans even as we speak).  We arrived home at 4:00 this afternoon (technically 3 hours after we left Sydney, but in body-clock time nearly 24 hours after we left; this was truly our longest day!).  We thought it would only be proper to top off our trip with some perspectives.

They (at least in the books I've read) call Australia and New Zealand the Antipodes (the other side of the world).  They are and they aren't.  The long flights (and days lost or gained) certainly make these countries seem somewhat other-worldly.  But, once you're there, the language makes them very familiar.

They (mostly people who haven't visited) also say that as long as you're going, see both countries while you're there.  We disagree.  They're so different.  As long as you're going, go deeper into one country and go back for the other.  There's so much to see.

For a primeval feast of the eyes with amazing fern forests, volcanoes, thermal pools, geysers, mountains, rivers, waterfalls, overall spectacular scenery, and more sheep than people, choose NZ.  An amazing place, it is a haven for foodies and for adventure lovers. Feels a little like the road to Hana on Maui...but more wild.  There is a cultural angle with the Maori story, but it is interwoven everywhere you turn.  In fact, many of the towns on the North Island have Maori names.

For more diversity, architectural triumphs, great cities, culture, incredible eats, amazing shopping, time in the tropics, extraordinary Aboriginal history and sights, choose Australia (keep in mind, we tend to find amazing shopping everywhere and had the customs forms to prove it).  And mind you, we only saw a small part of the country.  In terms of wildlife, unlike Capetown where the baboons are on the loose a half hour out of the city, you won't see kangaroos in the big cities of Australia (except perhaps in Perth on the west coast).  They're in the zoos but don't run wild elsewhere.

Other Things We Learned (beyond our region updates)
New Zealand is renowned for its honey.  (Luckily, we had a food expert on our team, Andrew, who actually found a honey store and purchased at least 4 different types.)

Did you know that the loo's in NZ and Australia enable full or partial flushes?  So eco-friendly.

Did you know that when the continents were separated (centuries ago), Australia got all the venomous creatures?  New Zealand got the earthquakes and volcanoes but not a single venomous creature. 

In Rotorua, don't forget the Agridome (campy must not miss sheep show) and the Zorb (another action activity for the brave of heart, of course Andrew tried it).

This is the best spot for t-shirts in the world (so far at least).  If you travel here, pack half the shirts you would have.  You'll pick up more along the way.

We discovered two of the world's finest airlines with our transfers--New Zealand Air and Quantas.  What an improvement over United!

Top Ten
1.Being together as a family, couldn't beat it.

2.Sydney Opera House, the whole experience was amazing.
3.The people, everywhere.
4.Auckland on New Year's Eve (while the fireworks weren't on a par with what Sydney does, it was awesome to see in the New Year 2 hours earlier than Sydney with fireworks off the Sky Tower which we had ascended only 8 hours prior).
5.The Botanic Gardens--everywhere!
6.Knock-out scenery in NZ.
7.The special dessert arranged by Andrew & Emily for our 33rd wedding anniversary.
8.Getting drenched at Bondi Beach and our great dinner there.
9.Our audio expert, John, with funny stories, and his Maori warrior impersonations while we tried to "keep to the left" on some pretty challenging, winding roads.
10.The Wharekauhau country estate outside of Wellington, NZ.

And, of course, everything else.  We could do a separate top ten of the meals...but you got the idea.

So, thanks for being with us on our journey.  Now, for laundry, some sleep, a lo-carb diet, regular exercise, paying bills, and a return to the real world.

Happy new year everyone.

love,
wendy, wayne, andrew & emily

Tokyo Bound

It's June 15th and our trip to Japan is finally under way!

Our flight left O'Hare at 12:10...we were seated upstairs on the 747..and all prepared (as much as we could be) for the longest flight we ever took; 11.5 hours! There is actually a 14 hour time difference, and we crossed the international Date Line! Narita was nice; most signs were in Japanese and English! At the baggage check Wayne said "Konichiwa" ("Hello") and the agent asked (in English) "Do you speak Japanese?" "Just konichiwa", he replied. But the agent was very friendly. Got on board the hotel's shuttle ("Friendly Limo") for the 90 minute ride to the Imperial Hotel in downtown Tokyo. Our first big surprise was that they drive on the left! Who knew? On board, announcements were made in Japanese and English. The friendly female voice said "Please do not use portable phones on the bus as they annoy the neighbors."!!! We love this country.

At first sight, Tokyo looks a lot like New York, but with a Japanese accent. Lots of friendly helpful people in the hotel...even some ladies whose only job appears to be to push the elevator button for you and then bow as you get in. In our room the beds were small, but the robes fit nicely (they must have been designed for shorter people like us!). It was about 4 pm, so we decided to walk in the garden across the street.

Even though we had umbrellas and rain coats, it was raining too hard (rainy season!) so we had to come back in after only 15 minutes. We decided just to eat in the hotel, so we went to the top floor Teppanyaki. There we had Japanese beer, scallops, sea bass with mushrooms, salad, veggies, garlic rice, miso soup, and tea. We must have been hungry! All this for 112,000 Yen. Then we headed to bed even though it was only 8:00 (who knows what time it was on our bodies).


Friday, June 16: aarrgghh!!! Woke up to a pouring rain! Oh well..time to eat again: the traditional hotel breakfast buffet! There was a choice of Japanese foods plus Western foods (waffles, pancakes, bacon, omelettes, fruit, toast, and the ever popular chocolate croissant!). Then it was off to Ueno Park (think NY's Central Park, the park in Barcelona, the one in Madrid, Rome, Florence, San Diego's Balboa Park...same idea). This one had several museums which we sort of zoomed through (boring plus no air conditioning, so they were stifling). Came out and it was still raining.

Time for lunch! We went to an authentic Japanese restaurant. How authentic? a) shoes off b) we were the only non-Japanese there c) menu COMPLETELY in Japanese (though with pictures)   d) sat on the floor. Wayne ordered the basic Bento box and Wendy had the deluxe Bento box. They came in about 2 minutes and were sooooo beautiful. But as we ate, it was "What's this?" "What's this?" "Do you know what that is?" "Nope...no idea." Even after we ate some of the things we still didn't know! But of course there was rice and miso soup. Then, more walking and it finally stopped raining. Oh yeah...we got there an back by train (not subway). It was actually easy to figure out: announcements in English, not crowded (despite all those "stuff 'em in the subway" pictures we've seen), and very clean.

Back to the hotel...got changed for dinner - finally going to meet the rest of the tour group! Our tour guide, Larry, announced that anyone who was interested should be in the lobby at 5:45 am for a special (off tour) visit to the big Tokyo Fish Market. We're in!

Tuna and Baseball!

Saturday, June 17

A pretty sleepless night; jet lag (to be expected), and knowing that we had to get up at 4:45! So we were in the (very quiet) lobby at 5:30 waiting for the rest of the group. Time to visit the Tsukiji Fish market. The bus took us past the Ginza area. The market is unbelievable!!!!! 17,000 trucks per day come and go. They auction off these 5 foot long solidly frozen tunas.  Little carts are zooming every which way - watch out! - you can get injured. There are 1,700 stalls!  Eels, squid, octopi, still flapping fish, beautiful shrimps...amazing!  We spent about an hour there and got back to the hotel at 7:00.

Time to eat. Then we still had about 2 hours to kill before the tour actually started. Finally on the bus with the whole group. First, we drove around the city a little and stopped at the Imperial Palace, where we walked the grounds - an impressive compound.  Then back to the Ginza shopping district for a quick (!) 15-minute teaser.  Then we stopped at Meiji Shrine, a very important Shinto shrine.  Shinto is not a religion - it is more of a way of living. No "Bible", no rules, no pictures of holy creatures.  And, of course, as always happens on our trips, there was a wedding going on! By this time the sun was out and with the humidity, the bridal party must have been really shvitzing.

Then at 2:00 we headed for lunch. This time it was at another hotel where they gave us a delicious salad and steak with French fries!  Nothing mysterious here. it was very tasty.

Then back to our hotel where Wendy took a nap, while Wayne went back across the street to the Hibiya Garden. No rain this time; it was warm and beautiful. Lots of people, lots of cats!

7:00, and back on the bus for dinner!  They took us to a loud, jumping, Yakatori place. No one was hungry after that big lunch.  First, they brought out big pitchers of beer.  Then a beautiful (of course) salad with tuna tartare (Hey! You look familiar. Didn't I see you this morning?), a large chunk of tofu, and radishes and green onions.  Then a dish with meatball-sized potato croquettes and something that looked like sea urchin (but it was really ground shrimp fried in a ball with long "fried" tentacles). Actually quite yummy! No room for more. Oh look! Here comes skewers of chicken and beef...when you finished one they brought another!  Then, a bowl of shrimp tempura and bean sprout soup (no rice). Finally...dessert! Vanilla ice cream with bean paste cubes (looked like little dice but were rubbery). A very fun time. On the bus on the way back, our local guide Toshi-san told us that the Japanese government recommends eating 30 different kinds of food a day!  Makes sense. So that's why they have so many little things in each course.


Sunday, June 18

Still had trouble sleeping, so we got up early and went for another walk in Hibiya Garden.  Less humid and no rain.  Then onto the bus. More driving around Tokyo; first to a Buddhist temple, then to another Shinto shrine.  The temple had been damaged in the war so most of it was only 60 years old, but the shrine was from the 1700's!  From there we walked to a Maxwell-street-like market. Food, fans, shoes, cookies, clothes, etc., etc.  Our guide, Larry, warned us that there were a lot of tchotchkes, but it was still fun to look. Then back on the bus and back to Ginza!  We went into the big department store which had a two-floor food court!  Wow!  So many beautiful things. Bento boxes and fish and pastries and chocolates.  But no place to eat!  It was more like a take-out place. This was the end of touring for the day. We bought a tempura shrimp and asparagus to snack on.  We debated having a whole lunch, but opted for Plan B - lunch at the hotel.  So we walked back - 9 blocks in the rain! The hotel was very crowded and we couldn't get a seat in any of the restaurants, so we went to Plan C: Room Service!!! This was also good because we had to pack our one-night bags for the trip tomorrow. Wendy had tuna rolls (15!) and Wayne had a beautiful and delicious salade Nicoise (when in Rome....). This was also because we weren't sure what they would have to eat at the ball game (yes!  we are going to a baseball game!). Then we went to THE TOKYO DOME!

Wow!!!! It's "Tokyo Dome City"...the ball park, an amusement park, and an arcade. It's kind of like the Metrodome in Minneapolis. What an experience! The game was very good but it was more like a football or basketball game re the spectators. First of all: NO SCORECARDS :-(   No one keeps score.  Very few people wore baseball caps, but a lot wore jerseys.  Before the game there was no National Anthem, but in the 7th inning the Giants (home team) and the Eagles cheerleaders came out and did YMCA!!!! Yes! I kid you not.  We were glad we had eaten earlier, but it wouldn't have been a problem: there were many, many food stands: KFC, hamburgers, mystery foods, beer, Ritz crackers (!), but each stand also sold bento boxes (different sizes) and everyone was buying these.  Again, everything was soooo clean.  The people would eat their food and put the garbage in a plastic bag and then go to the concourse to throw it out!  Nothing on the floors.  The vendors were all young women. They sold beer (from kegs on their backs) and whiskey and scotch, and Tokyo Dome ice cream sandwiches.  That's it - no peanuts, hot dogs, or Crackerjacks. They did not shout "Beer here" which is good since no one would have heard them - the cheering was non-stop - not so much from the fans but from the teams' cheering sections. The home team had the whole right field and most of the left field bleachers; those fans wore orange shirts and waved flags and blew horns and they sang a different song for each player!  And not just before he batted or in between pitches, but the entire time he was up!  The Eagles had a smaller, but still loud, section in left.  Both sections did this the entire game!  The fans were very polite to both teams; no booing at all. In between innings the scoreboard would show ads and they played American songs from the 60's and 70's. There was lots of English. The score board often said "Make some noise!", but apparently no one could read it because mostly they didn't (except for the cheering sections). At one point the Giants were losing 2 - 1 but had the bases loaded and 2 outs and the batter (Joe Dillon!) hit a long drive to deep center. We both jumped up and started to yell and scream; the center fielder caught it at the wall - and we looked around and we were the only ones standing!   Cultural faux pas!!!!  Well, the Giants lost, but it was a fabulous experience. Took a cab back to the hotel (all the cab drivers wear white gloves and the back doors open and close automatically!  Don't touch!!  And...no tipping.), and tomorrow we say sayonara to Tokyo.

Crossing the Country

Monday, June 19
Up and out early with our bags to head for the famed bullet train.

Tokyo station was mobbed (at 8:30), but everyone moved in an orderly fashion. The train pulled out exactly as scheduled at 8:56. They said it can get up to 180 mph; it was hard to tell if it did.  It was very smooth and quiet, and we made 2 stops and then got to our stop and the whole trip was 35 minutes.  We arrived at Odaware-Hakone Station and hopped on our tour bus to go to the Hakone Open Air Museum. A beautiful park on many different levels just filled with wonderful sculptures and statues by Picasso, Moore, et. al.  And the weather was absolutely perfect. Toshi-san told us that japan (or at least this area) gets about 35 sunny days a year and the rest are cloudy or rainy. We all thought we were so lucky, but he said today was still cloudy "in the mountains", so no view of
Fuji-yama. 

Next a short bus ride to lunch in the Il Miraggio restaurant in the Hakone Hotel. Again - fantastic! The restaurant sits right on Lake Ashi which is in the caldera of a volcano that last erupted 40,000 years ago. The view reminded us of our lunch overlooking lake Louise in Banff.  Lunch was a splendid buffet with a wide variety of Japanese and other foods.  Next we took a ferry boat ride across the lake (45 minutes).  Very smooth, with beautiful tree-covered holls all around. Then, the "rope-way" - which is their name for a cable-car / gondola (the Alps kind, not the S.F. kind). The station is right above a sulphur mine so clouds of noxious sulphur hydroxide were venting out of the ground!  The gondola held about 10 of us. No ventilation, very hot and sulphurous-smelling, but a tremendous view (alas, no Fiji-yama!). The whole ride (which went across a chasm and then straight down) took 8 minutes.  Then we got on a funicular to go down the rest of the mountain (can you believe this?).  THEN....we got on a little train (jammed with locals) for about a 2 minute ride to the next station. Then, following Toshi, we walked for about 5 minutes and were back.......at the Hakone Museum!!!! Whoa!

Finally, a 10 minute bus ride to the Fujiya Hotel.  This hotel was built in 1887 and looks it!  A classic old wooden Japanese building (modernized somewhat), but with the typical old hotel "wall of photos" of dignitaries from the 20's, 30's, yadda, yadda....   The hotel has lots of beautiful gardens so we walked around for a while. Then to dinner.  Everyone had pre-ordered but when our waitress came we wanted a bottle of wine. This really confused her so we were just sitting there (with 2 other couples) while everyone else was being served!  Eventually we got our dinner, but the food was really unmemorable.   Tomorrow, a long bus ride to Takayama (and, maybe....a glimpse of Mt. Fuji!).

>> Time out for a word about the toilets.  The hotels and even most public places have toilets with an electronic seat. Press one button and you have instant warmth for your buns!  Nice!!  Press another and it works like a bidet.  When you first sit down (or even lean forward and then back again) it swishes fresh water into the bowl.  Very civilized and functional.  On the other hand, some of the less fancy public restrooms (like in a park) feature those good old squatter things.  How in the world they expect anyone (male or female) to use that is completely beyond us.  Luckily, haven't been forced to use an "Eastern" style one yet.

Tuesday, June 20
Hakone to Takayama.
Off on an hour-long ride to the Itchiku Kubota Art Museum to see the fabulous tie-dyed kimonos.

These are not like psychedelic tie-dyed, but feature beautiful scenes of nature.  And, from the museum we actually had great views of Mt. Fuji!  Toshi said it is only clear enough to see from this spot about 65 days a year.  Then a short bus ride and it was time for lunch.  We went to a hotel and again had a great view of Fuji, but that was the best part as the food was really bad (note:  when you go to japan, DO NOT order chicken! They don't seem to know how to cook it).

Next, a 2 hour ride to Matsumoto Castle, a national treasure.

Note that this is not a castle like we think of them (thick, stone walls), but a tall (5-story) wooden structure (but still with the obligatory moat). It was pretty neat.  The stairs inside are intentionally steep to slow down invaders (too bad for the folks who lived there the other 99% of the time!).  Then, another 2 hour ride, but this time it was a beautiful ride up into the mountains as we followed a river past 3 dams, many switchbacks, and through long tunnels (some over 2 miles).  The temperature was posted by the side of the road every few miles and it went from 24F to 18F by the time we arrived at the Takayama Resort.

Wendy checked out the hot springs bath (in fact, all of the hot water in the hotel comes from the natural springs!). Then we had an amazing 11-course Japanese dinner. First, a rectangular wooden box with 3 little bowls inside.  One had pickled fish, one had mooshed tofu, and one had ???? (some sort of jellied stuff; we had no clue).  Then fish dumpling soup with a green soybean matzoh ball (which, surprisingly, had no taste).  Next, 3 little dishes of raw fishes (sounds like a children's book!)....shrimp (tiny ones), tuna, and ?????  Next the waitresses fixed up some little stone stoves at each place and put on a plate of radishes, pumpkins, eggplants, shrimp, green peppers, all with a miso-based sauce. It cooked for a few minutes and then we ate it.  next...a plate with a 6" whole fish (which did not appear to have been gutted) which had been grilled, accompanied by citrus, ginger, and pepper, and a small tomato filled with other veggies. Then!!! the stoves were relit and she brough us plates with thin slices of Hida beef (local - better than Kobe). We each grilled our own and ate that. Yum!  Then a bowl of rice with tiny dried baby sardines.  Then (of course) miso soup.  All was washed down with sake (Wendy) and 2 bottles of beer (Wayne). Next, a plate with 3 kinds of pickles. FINALLY, a slice of watermelon and soy milk tofu.  We were totally stuffed!