Hanoi is chaos!  Between the millions of motorcycles, cars & buses, narrow streets, constant vendors, and people galore, riding/walking the streets of Hanoi is challenging to say the least.  Crossing the street requires confidence and hope!

We began our private Hanoi tour at the Temple of Literature, a 1000 year old institution that pre-dated most universities.  High school students come to the campus (it is now a shrine) to bring them good luck in their upcoming university studies.  The focus is on the early Vietnamese leadership that recognized the importance of education.

Ho-Chi Minh is clearly loved by all in Hanoi.  This month Vietnam celebrated its 70th anniversary of independence from France with parades and other celebrations.  We weren’t able to see Uncle Ho’s preserved body in the mausoleum because he is sent annually to Russia for a 3 month “rejuvenation”.

We visited the “Hanoi Hilton” which before American pilots stayed there, was one of the toughest prisons in Indochina – a French colonialist legacy.  The USAF prisoner pictures focused on their free time (volleyball, basketball, raising chickens, receiving packages from relatives, etc.).  It was clearly a very tough facility.

Saturday night we left for Sa Pa in our private berth on a very old train – the overnight ride was almost 9 hours to cover 200 miles.  Thank goodness for Ambien!

Wednesday we were impacted by the typhoon that landed between Tokyo & Kyoto.  We had significant rain but not the 20 inches near the typhoon’s center.  To get away, we took the bullet train to Himeji, the site of the Himeji Castle, an iconic white castle built in the 1600’s when the castle construction technology in Japan was at its zenith.  It is a UNESCO World Culture Heritage site.  The castle is stunning and the inside is filled with great wooden beams and steep stairs.  It is highly visited and often, the interior tour is delayed for 10 minutes at each of the staircases throughout the 6 story structure.  A mid-week day and the rain kept the crowds down.  One of the disappointing aspects of Japanese temple & castle interior tours is that they are just empty rooms.  They may state the room purpose but imagination is not a substitute for furniture, armaments, etc.

We rode the Mt. Shosha Ropeway (cable car) near Himeji in the pouring rain & fog.  The views were non-existent.  We hadn’t realized how much rain the Kyoto area receives but it doesn’t deter the crowds.  Covered shopping areas abound.

We are heading back to Tokyo on Thursday, then Vietnam on Friday.

On Tuesday we took the bullet train to Hiroshima and a long subway & ferry ride to Miyajima, an island in the harbor.  It is “The Island of the Gods” and one of the top 3 scenic spots in Japan.  It has one of the World Heritage sites and numerous shrines, temples and monuments.  Miyajima has two cable cars to the top for great views of the Seto Inland Sea but time was too short.  The most famous scene is the giant Torii (shrine gate) that is in the bay.  It is walkable in low tide but provides even greater pictures when surrounded by water.  While there are several temples on the island, Daisho-in, a Buddhist temple on the side of the hill had lots of opportunities for pictures.  The island is beautiful and one of the highlights of our trip to date.

We headed back to Hiroshima for the “Atomic Bomb Dome” – detonation site where a city building survived and the related Peace museum.  The museum has all of the details of the events on 8/6/45, including damaged school kid’s clothing, etc.  It was depressing but one of the many horrors of war.

Today our plan was to take a 2 hour boat ride down a mountain river in the Arashiyama Mountains.  Unfortunately, after we took a long train ride to the country, the river rides were cancelled because of the increasing water flow from the recent rains.  We should have known – Arashiyama means “storm mountains”.  DANG!!!

We toured the nearby bamboo forest walk (once you see one bamboo tree, you have seen them all) then went to the Monkey Park.  It was questionable in the beginning but the native monkeys were cute once you hiked up a mountain.  It was nice that they had free roam of the mountain, sad that they begged for food.  The hike was good exercise.

Tomorrow we head to Hiroshima and Miyajima for the day.

A day of rain delayed us today.  We visited Kinkaku (The Golden Pavilion), a Buddhist hall containing Buddha relics. The site was the summer home of a shogun and built in the 1300’s.  The Pavilion is quite spectacular.  Unfortunately, they kept the sliding doors closed because of the rain.  In spite of the rain, the crowds were intense (it is Sunday).

We dropped into the Kyoto Station to get our Hiroshima tickets for Tuesday.  When we arrived in Kyoto on Friday, we had not been above ground.  The station is spectacular with 2 different underground malls, restaurants and a large integrated hotel.

We are trying to figure out where all of the non-Japanese tourists are.  Again two meals with us being the outliers.  We rarely see non-Japanese on the subway.

Our first full day in Kyoto (Saturday) introduced us to its numerous shrines – I think that there are probably 10+ World Heritage Site temples that you “should see” – we will limit it to 2-3.  At the Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine, there are thousands of Toriis, shrine gates that have been contributed in honor of the shrine.  They lead up Mt. Inari – the path consists of at least a thousand steps.  We hiked to the top with great views of Kyoto.

We wandered through the Nishiki Food Market as well as probably the longest shopping mall that we have ever seen.  There is quite a mix of shopping in Kyoto – large department stores and an unlimited number of boutique shops.

Today we wandered into the “French Section” (Kagurazaka District) of Tokyo.  We dined at a small French bistro and had the most challenging time ordering since we arrived.  The owner was disappointed to learn we weren’t French!  The Imperial Palace Gardens (that are open to the public) weren’t that interesting.  We also visited Shinjuku Golden-gai District – a area of old narrow streets and many small bars.  The Kabukicho District (a portion of which is the Red Light District) has entertainment for all ages!! Off to Kyoto tomorrow!

Tokyo is a city of contrasts – from the 170 acres of the Meiji Shrine which consists of 120,000 trees of 365 different species to the few interesting skyscrapers among the mostly boring buildings.  We visited Shibuya Crossing within the fashion district.  Shibuya may be one of the busiest intersections in the world with crowds pouring onto the street from all sides as the crosswalk signs turn green.

We spent the day wandering.  Sushi in the fish market is outstanding.  The subway system is great – but it is important to remember what entrance you originally used.  We are near the busiest station in the world – 3.5m people use it daily!  Heading back to the hotel we got hopelessly lost within the station for 40 minutes.