Tokyo, Japan

While it certainly seemed to take us a long time to get to Vietnam, the beauty of the international date line comes when traveling back east. We left Vietnam at midnight on Saturday, and arrived at 7am Sunday in Tokyo. We had 10 glorious hours to get lost in Japan, and left Tokyo at 5pm Sunday. We boarded our 8.5 hour flight, ate, took sleeping pills, and woke fairly rested at 9am Sunday in Vancouver, Canada. I love gaining a whole day of life back!

We hadn't planned out our Tokyo stay very well (I had a hard enough time before the trip finding time to make sure we had places to rest our heads in Vietnam) so while we had read a few webpages, we hadn't written anything down other than the train station we knew we wanted to get off at. That, and a plan to eat as much sushi as we could afford (which isn't much in Japan!).

Countryside outside Narita from the train

Japan was a whole different world - fast, modern, bright, and utterly confusing. Not to mention the proliferation of anime, cartoon characters, and odd fashion styles. We were comforted to see English characters on many of the train station signs (just the names of the stations), and some of the street signs, but aside from that we were pretty much on our own. We had decided not to get cash, seeing as we were only going to be there for 10 hours, and it was a first world country after all. We stepped off the train and simply wandered til we found a hotel that was kind enough to give us a few maps. Then we were off to the Imperial Palace & Imperial Gardens. Unfortunately, from what we could ascertain, Sunday meant that much of the grounds were closed, but many of the trees were still in their full fall colors and it was fun to explore.

love the colors

We then decided to get a little risky and hopped another train to the Shinkjuku district. This was supposed to be one of the busiest parts of a bustling city. We were getting hungry, couldn't find a wifi connection to save our lives, and instinctively stepped into an adorable little 'standing sushi bar'. The beauty of Japan is that most menus have lots of pictures. So we just kind of pointed, and held our breath. The food was delicious, but about halfway through the meal I looked around said to myself  'Mackenzie, even if we were in the United States, this place probably wouldn't take credit cards'. Oops. We decided that once we finished, one of us would just run out and find an ATM. Well, what ensued was roughly 45 minutes of each of us taking turns at failing miserably to find an ATM that would accept our debit cards. Visions were floating through my head of spending my last 6 hours in Japan in a kitchen trying to work off my debt. Eventually though we succeeded in buying our freedom.

I realized there is not a single picture of me in Japan. Oops

But here's Matt, happy as a clam with his sushi

(I think this was before we realized we didn't have money)

We also visited the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, which is two tall towers with great viewing platforms at the top - that are free! We wandered, explored, and of course, ate some more sushi before finding out way back to the train station and the airport. Japan was beautiful, invigorating, dumbfounding, and full of good food. If I had boundless resources I would be back in a flash, but as it is, this perfectly sunny day in November will have to do us for a while. Cheers, and thanks for following along with us on another adventure.

Map. huh?

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building

Sorry about my reflection. I guess thats as close as you get to a picture of me

I don't think you can see it in the picture, but we actully saw Mt Fuji back there

Enough signs?

Sushi #2

See, pictures of food. I don't know why, but I like it.

 

Saigon & the Mekong

After our days of leisure on Phu Quoc Island we hopped a quick flight back to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), by far the biggest city in Vietnam. We arrived midday and after settling in headed out to try to navigate our way to the War Remnants Museum. On our way we stopped by Ben Thanh Market, which while very interesting we found to be similar to many other markets we had visited in other countries. We're normally not huge museum goers and while this certainly was not the most well done museum that I've visited it was interesting to see some of the artifacts from the war and 'interesting' (in that same uncomfortable way the we experienced in Cuba) to see such an important event in our country's history from such a different perspective. After the museum closed, we spent the rest of the evening just experiencing what the city had to offer and hunting down food. We decided that having spent virtually nothing most of the trip we could splurge a little in the big city and ended up a nice sushi place with great cocktails. The (scooter) traffic was truly astounding even after two full weeks in the country.

Donut for lunch. One thing I did not expect to find in Vietnam.

Museum

Posters showing Cubas solidarity w/ Vietnam during the war. This November, last November.

So. Many. Scooters.

The next day we went on a great tour of the Mekong River Delta. We used the same guide my parents had used when they were there a month earlier and had a great experience. It was about a two hour drive southwest of Saigon and when we arrived we hopped on a boat with our guide and captain and proceeded to visit a number of interesting family run businesses. The guide was super informative, and we learned a lot about life on the river and the different trades in the area. We also got paddled down some canals in a smaller boat, and enjoyed a fascinating lunch at a family restaurant. It was a great way to cap off the trip.

Making rice pancakes

Drying rice pancakes

Mixing coconut candy

Chopping

And that would be rice wine fermenting in a bucket...

Looks very sanitary, eh?

Rice wine anyone?

He's making rice krispy treats!

Step 1: Throw rice in a pan of very hot sand

Step 2: Let rice pop b/c it's so hot

Step 3: Sift out all the yucky stuff. Then they mix it w/ coconut milk, put it in a mold to form, and cit it up!

The other kind of pancake making

coconut milk, mmmm

Many people live on their boats and sell produce off them for a living.

Lunch, anyone?

Jackfruit. We got a 'tour' of the garden area to learn about all sorts of tropical fruits.

We've both been to 5 continents now, and one thing that struck me throughout the length of the trip was that despite how different Vietnam was from anywhere we'd ever been, so much of what we saw could have been anywhere in the (non US/Europe) world. If you squint your eyes so you can't read the signs, the scenes could be Morocco, Chile, Turkey, or Nicaragua. While there are unique things everywhere we go, it's sort of comforting to feel at home around the world too.

We had one last evening to wander Saigon, and then a midnight flight out. Next stop: 10 hours in Tokyo.

We really enjoyed Vietnam. It was not one of our very favorite trips, but we are certainly glad we went. It was beautiful, relaxing, and intriguing. We both agree that our day on Cat Ba Island was our favorite, but there are many other highlights. We'd definitely like to get back to SE Asia, though it will probably be at least a few years.