New York, baby!!

'New York, duniya ka sabse bada shaher...' - so begins Kal Ho Na Ho, followed by a montage of Preity Zinta jogging through various famous neighborhoods in New York - defying logic, obviously, her morning run takes her from Queens to Brooklyn to Manhattan - nevertheless, the film manages to capture the heady magic of New York. As did Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna and many other Bollywood films that have shaped my perception of New York!! American sitcoms - starting with Seinfeld and Friends, all the way up to the recent How I Met Your Mother - have brought NY home, made it so familiar, that going to NY was like visiting an old friend!!

The train from Princeton took us to New York Penn station - it was Sunday, so no express trains - which meant that it was a slow ride, stopping at all stations. Right outside Penn Station is Madison Square Garden - and the first thing we did here was buy a map. Seriously, all the places we've travelled, never had to pay for a map - oh well! We had a kind of rough plan of what we wanted to do - high on the list was the Statue of Liberty - so once we got our bearing, that's where we headed - Line 1 all the way to Battery Park at the tip of Manhattan.

The first sight of the Statue of Liberty was thrilling - but it was going to be another day before we got to see her up close. Lines for the ticket, lines for the ferry were absolutely horrendous, and after waiting about 30 minutes in the scorching sun to get through the 'airport style security', we decided a strategic retreat was in order - our tickets were valid for 3 days, so we would be back first thing the next day - couldn't have made a better choice!! Back to the subway, this way all the way up to Central Park. I wish we had walked a little further into the Park, but just a short stroll had to suffice - tired and hungry, we were happy to get lunch from a falafel vendor, and watch a couple of mimes and street shows, New York style!! By the way, how is it that street food always tastes so much better than the best of restaurants??

From Central Park, we walked towards Fifth Avenue - admiring all the fashionable stores - Coach, Louis Vuitton, Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy's, this is after all the mecca for shopping!! For me a walk through the Apple store - would have been sweet to buy an Apple in the Big Apple! - and F.A.O. Schwarz for Manasi, of course!! We made our way down to Rockefeller Centre - the Christmas tree scene from Home Alone? - of course, it's summer, so the famous ice rink is a fancy seafood restaurant, but the GE building and the statue of Prometheus in the Plaza are exactly as seen in so many films - well, duh!

Louis Vuitton

Prometheus, Rockefeller Plaza

What's a day in New York City without a ride in a New York yellow cab - took a cab down to Empire State Building - staying firmly on our touristy path!! Everyone knows I'm a sucker for going up tall buildings - and come on, Empire State Building, how can I miss this one?!! Of course, Ajey and Manasi didn't really see it that way - in the end, it was the crowds that made the decision for us - even I didn't really have the energy to wait in line for who knows how long! So after getting ice-cream and souvenirs, Times Square it was!! Along the way, a place close to my heart, the New York Public Library - what an absolutely amazing building, and a glimpse of another Mid-town landmark, the Chrysler building!

New York cabs

Empire State Building

New York Public Library

Chrysler building

Finally, Times Square!! The song from Annie running through my head - NYC, the shimmers of Times Square! We were a little early for the full effect of the shimmers, but even then, it was still pretty dazzling - could have done without the construction, although it was cool to see our Cat machines at work!! Again, Times Square was exactly as I thought it would be - didn't I say NYC is like an old friend - my first time here, and still everything was so familiar!! Our original plan had been to hang around Times Square till it got dark, see the city lights - but the full day of walking had completely exhausted us - nothing seemed better than heading back to Princeton, so that's what we did - even managed to catch an earlier train back!

Quite exciting, huh? I actually had to pinch myself a couple of times - I was in NEW YORK!! You would think that after having seen so much of the world, I would be a bit more nonchalant - but hey, New York is New York!! And I still had one more entire day to spend in this wonderful city!! Another day, another post though! Coming up soon!!

Road trip!

After a month in the US, being back in China is almost surreal!! China, really, that's where I live now?? It is so easy to slip into familiar rhythms of life back in the States, so easy to drink in the blue sky and fresh air, so easy to believe that I never left, that China is but a fantastic dream. Sigh!

As always, time flies when you're having fun!! This last month is actually quite a blur - at last count, we visited almost 11 states - unbelievable, right! An incredible amount of traveling, including all possible modes of transportation - planes, cars, trains and even a ferry or two! The plane rides getting to the US and back are always the dreariest - 14 hours each way, the only saving grace being the on-demand entertainment! Manasi and I flew Delta this year, so our connection to Peoria was through Detroit - compared to Chicago's O'Hare, the Detroit airport is considerably smaller, easier to navigate - so even with the short layover, we made it to our next flight with plenty of time to spare!!

After a week in Peoria, we were off on our first mini-vacation - to Houghton, Michigan, to visit Ajey's uncle. Houghton, of course, has a special place in our personal history - Ajey and I both went to school here, and it was here that we met 17 years ago! Located right at the tip of Upper Michigan, near Lake Superior, quite literally a stone's throw away from Canada - Houghton's main claim to fame is its school, Michigan Tech. Locals joke that there are only 3 seasons in Houghton - last winter, this winter and next winter! Having lived through 2 of these winters, let me tell you that this is no joke!

Severe as the winters are, the summers in Houghton are breathtakingly beautiful! While the rest of the country swelters, temperatures here are pleasant - in fact, this time we were there, we had to put on sweaters and coats - unthinkable in July!! The air is ambrosial - it has been years since I've slept so deeply, my allergy medications and nasal sprays unused - again, a sobering reminder of just how bad the pollution in China is. Despite couple of cold, rainy days, our 5 day stay in Houghton was very, very relaxing. Lots of naps, good food, a little drive around the town, badminton in the evening - perfect, just perfect!!

Lake Superior

Back in Chicago, it was a weekend with the B family - family friends who are more family than friends!! I have known them since forever - Manoj mama's mom was my first teacher in Kindergarten, and she had an especially close bond with my mother. And when I first flew to Chicago (seems like a lifetime ago), it was Manoj mama and Anu Maushi who received me at the airport, and later, even drove me to Houghton!! A more welcoming, warm couple would be difficult to find - being with them is so comfortable!! I always think of spending a week here, but somehow, have never been able to manage more than 2 days - this time was no exception, and soon, too soon, it was time to head back to Peoria!!

Not for long, though - Ajey flew in a couple of days later, and then right after, we left for our much-awaited vacation - a road trip to New York and Washington DC!! I love driving in the US - and while having a driver is undeniably a luxury, I do miss this simple freedom in China! It had been quite long since we had been on a real vacation in the US - was it to the Niagara Falls in 2002, or was it the Kentucky trip a year later?? Anyway, we were all quite excited - especially Manasi - more so after we stocked up on snacks for the trip - I do think we went a little overboard with these! Walking into Walmart after 2 years in China is a sensory overload - almost a bit too much to handle!!

The plan was to drive all the way to New Jersey - almost a 1000 miles - with an overnight halt in Pennsylvania. The landscape all through Illinois, Indiana and most of Ohio is almost the same - cornfields, cornfields and more cornfields - the monotony broken by huge silos and farmhouses! Cornflower blue skies above, powderpuff clouds floating gently, verdant green fields all around and the road, straight as an arrow - it was like being in a trance almost!! Midway through Ohio, the cornfields started giving way to woods and rolling hills - the road now winding its way through a short stretch of W. Virginia into Pennsylvania and our first halt - the little town of Somerset.

Town? Crossroads, more like it!! Seemed to be a popular stop for bikers - there was a huge Harley store in this tiny place, and all the hotel parking lots were full of bikes! Not too many dinner options though - we finally ended up eating at our old standby - Pizza Hut! It had been quite a drive - just over 600 miles!! A shorter drive the next day, but still an early start - we made it to Princeton, NJ just in time for lunch with our friends the Vs. Again, a nostalgic meeting - it has been 11 years since we last met them!! It is actually quite a surprising friendship - KV came to Michigan Tech the same time as Ajey, but he transferred out a mere 4 months later. And yet, over the years as other people faded away, we have always stayed in touch with KV!!!

We spent that evening walking around Princeton, admiring the historic old buildings, awed by the sheer weight of knowledge that seemed to permeate the atmosphere - how awesome it would be to be a student here!! It was a lovely place, the town square lined with with quaint little restaurants and cafes, flowers blooming everywhere! Dinner, not surprisingly, was to be at an Indian restaurant - but this was a place unlike anything I had seen before. First of all, the strip mall where it was located was dominated by a huge convenience store named - are you ready? - 'Subzi Mandi' (Vegetable Market in Hindi) - with a poster of a beaming Madhuri Dixit! The other stores in the strip mall were also all Indian - a pizza place, a dry cleaners and of course, Mithaas - which was actually a combination of a sweet shop and restaurant!! What a mouth-watering array of delicacies!!

The next 2 days we experienced the joys of commuting to New York City - a 90 minute ride one-way on the New Jersey Transit Rail. And while the novelty was fun - I can't imagine doing this day in and day out - almost 3 hours a day, unimaginable! Give me good old Peoria any day, with work barely 5 minutes away!! The trains were a bit disappointing - most Asian cities these days have highly sophisticated rail networks, and comparatively, the NYC metro trains were quite old, even dingy! The Vs were a big help in planning our 2 day exploration of NYC, and it was so nice to come home to hot meals and warm beds and great conversation!! What absolutely wonderful hosts!! And no, I did not just skip over NYC - that of course, will be another post - so moving on...

From NYC to DC is another 4 hour drive - and 3 more states! From New Jersey into Delaware - barely 10 miles before we crossed into Maryland, and still, it took us a couple of hours. Why? Well, Delaware is on of the 4 states in the US that has tax-free shopping, that's right - no tax! And barely a mile after we crossed the border was this huge, huge mall - of course we had to stop! I did have something particular in mind that I wanted to get - a little addition to our collection of Apples - that's right, a brand new Macbook Air that is just so awesome!! My Toshiba I've had for about 10 years now - time for an upgrade, don't you think?!

In the DC area, we had the chance to meet up with one more of Ajey's friends - this time a school friend, AN, from the VB days - a solid 24 years have passed since these guys met! Talk about reunions!! Drove to Ashburn, Virginia from DC - another state to add to our kitty - and spent a wonderful evening with AN and his lovely family!! Like NYC, DC will be a separate post - so we're finally all the way at the end of our vacation - driving back to Peoria! Once again, one solid day of driving to Elkhart, Indiana - which turned out to be a surprisingly happening place with all kinds of restaurants! A few hours in Chicago the next day - a quick catch-up with our dear friends BH and NK - and then it was straight to Peoria!

So how many states was it? Let's see - Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, W. Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia - of course, we did go to Michigan too, bringing the total to 11!! Well on our way to get all 50 done! After all the excitement, coming home to Suzhou is a bit dull - Manasi and I are severely jet lagged - staying up till 2am, and then falling asleep at oddest hours - not having a routine to get back to is not helping!! I do have my new Mac to play with - indeed this is the first post on my new laptop! Ajey will be back next week, and soon we will all be caught up in the new year at school! Until then, I'm happy to get some time to get caught up on my posts - NYC and DC coming up soon!!

What's new in Peoria???

September 1999 - that's when I moved to Peoria as a contract employee - so I guess I can actually say that Peoria has been home since the last century??!! Ajey was working in Chicago then, and either of us would have been hard-pressed to find Peoria on a map - no wait, the agency was based out of Chilicothe - that had sounded even stranger than Peoria! Of course, Chilicothe was pretty much a 1 street town - and we drove past the agency office, the Super 8 motel I was booked into, a Pizza Hut and a Kroger - hmm, disappointed much?

We decided to keep driving to Peoria - followed signs to the Riverfront, looking for a good restaurant - the word 'riverfront' always conjures up images of a happening pier, tons of casual restaurants with outside seating, bustling with life - pretty much sums up everything that the Peoria riverfront was not!! Actually, the whole downtown area had a deserted look....no people, no cars, just buildings! A big letdown, especially after cheerful Westmont where Ajey had his apartment!! Was I really considering moving here?? Maybe I should just wait for an opportunity in the Chicago area...

Well, I did go into the interview next morning - and everyone I met was so incredibly nice and welcoming!! So I took the offer - as a stop-gap, mind you - and the rest, as cliched as it may sound, is history!! Within a few months, Ajey had accepted an offer in Peoria too, and although we didn't know it then, Peoria was to be our home base for the coming future!! The first place I had in Peoria absolutely sucked - a 'garden view' apartment which actually was a basement apartment, and the next one, though absolutely luxurious by Peoria standards, still left a lot to be desired!!

Nevertheless, it was a good time for us - lots of laughter, lots of fun. The friendships we made then are close to my heart and deeply cherished. So in the natural progression of events, when we decided to buy a house, it was almost like putting a seal of approval on Peoria - putting down roots, settling in. Strange how things work, though - three short years later, we sold our house and set off on this exciting expat life. But no matter where we go, how far we travel, one thing remains the same - Peoria still remains our home base!!

All this nostalgia - I've completely lost track of what I was going to write about in this post!! Anyway, enough with the rambling, back to the topic at hand - so, what is new in Peoria? I've been known to say that nothing changes in Peoria, even the potholes are familiar friends - of course, this is not true! Over the last decade and half, I have seen plenty of changes in Peoria. The new Walmart and Menards on Allen road, the new mall - Grand Prairie - with its glitzy shops (yay, Peoria now has two malls!!!), the amazingly upgraded public libraries - just to mention a few. The cornfields have given way to row upon row of suburban houses, and the people are all new too - the lack of familiar faces a bit unnerving, to be honest!!

The Riverfront has also gone through a transformation - and it surely is a vast improvement on what it was 15 years ago! Two added attractions since we left for China are the Caterpillar Visitor Center and the Peoria Riverfront Museum - both right across from the Riverfront building. We're saving the Cat museum for when Ajey gets here, but the Riverfront museum was a good way to spend a rainy afternoon on the July 4th long weekend - well, at least Manasi and my little nephew were pretty excited to go!!

In the lobby

How high can you jump??

Big hug!!

Funny mirrors...

It's not a huge museum - but it does have a little bit of everything! A movie theater - was it IMax, can't remember - we had just missed a show on Mummies, the next one about Transformers didn't sound that appealing, so was off the list. What was most fun for the kids - the interactive sports displays - jumping high, strength tests, tests for reflexes and so on! A whole section for the Peoria river conservation effort was completely ignored by us - don't look at me, the eco-counselor is on vacation!! 2 really interesting sections - the Peoria Walk and the Ripley's-Believe-It-Or-Not.

The Peoria Walk is a little slice of history - Peoria from the days of the French settlers, to its boom-town days with its infamous breweries, all the way up to its staid reputation as Caterpillar town! Plenty of pictures, sound clips and curios on displays - did you know that one of Abraham Lincoln's famous speeches was here in Peoria, or that Charles Lindbergh delivered mail here before his famous flight?? Interesting nuggets of information - I'm hoping the next Quiz night will have a whole section on the Peoria - what, it could happen, you know!!

Made in Peoria!!!

The RBION section had an amazing display right at the entrance - look closely at the picture of Albert Einstein below - you'll never guess what it's made of!!! 440 pieces of toast - believe it or not!! This was a really interesting part of the museum. If you've seen the show on TV, you know what to expect - but seeing the kids' reaction is priceless, and it's such good entertainment!! I wish we had spent more time here, rather than hurrying out to catch the last show in the planetarium!!

440 pieces of toast!!

A python made of used washers..

Model of a python..

Ah yes, the planetarium - we wanted to see the Amazing Universe show, but we missed it by minutes. The last show of the day was a special weekend show called Journey Into Space. I was looking forward to plush seats, cool air and views of the night sky and beyond. First of all, no plush seats - what's up with that??!! Secondly, I felt the show would have been better suited to a flat screen rather than the dome screen - there were a lot of photos and videos - all distorted because of the curvature of the screen. All the rockets and space stations were curved, which led to a lot of confused questions from Manasi. And here I was hoping to sneak in a quick nap - oh well!!

It's not a fantastic museum - not even close! But it's a start - and will hopefully get bigger and better as the years pass. I'm looking forward to going to the Cat museum - I'm sure they'll have some of the bigger trucks in there - and I absolutely love those!! Meanwhile, going back to what I started with - there's actually not much new in Peoria, and that is exactly what makes Peoria so easy to come back to!! And while I'm enjoying being an expat too much, it's always nice to know that Peoria will be here for us if we do decide to return to a 'normal' life!!

Closure...sort of....

I thought I'd take a walk today. After a stormy night, the day is a perfect July day in Peoria! Thought it would be fun to walk in the park by our old house, the house we lived in for a brief 11 months before we moved to China. Set off quite cheerfully - and was totally unprepared for the staggering onslaught of memory - a visceral, gut-wrenching memory that literally left me gasping. For as I walked past what used to be our backyard, there she was - on the deck, tail thumping, ears twitching, waiting for us to get back home. There again, snuffling in the grass, loping to the gate to welcome us. And again, a streak of white by the lake, running back to us. And in a flash, I was back in the vet's office - a summer day much like today, the trust in her brown eyes fading away, a last wag of her tail, twitching paws stilled forever. I sat down on a bench, struggling to gain control - finally gave up and kept walking, tears streaming down my face as I kept feeling the tug of an imaginary leash - oh Ajey, where is our beautiful baby now?

I hadn't expected it to be so hard. After 2 years, I thought I was at the point where I could think of and talk about our Snowy without crumbling into a mass of raw emotion. But then, we never really had any closure here in Peoria - we left for China the day right after, and I think what kept me functioning  then was Sunny - making sure he was ok on the flight over, settling him in the new house. Losing Snowy almost seemed like a bad nightmare - surely she was waiting for us to come get her in some vague, undefined place, and soon, very soon we would. Yes, denial. Denial which was relatively easy in China, denial which has sustained me for the last 2 years. Now back in Peoria, I'm reliving her last summer, when we were literally counting down the days left to her - the nerve-wracking anxiety, the choking sadness, all those doubts and conflicting thoughts, all the what-ifs...

When Snowy was diagnosed in February, our move to China was already in the works. And although at the time the doctors gave her only 6-8 months, with the medication and diet, she rallied remarkably. She was never visibly sick - and that actually made it harder in the end. Right until we made our house-hunting trip to Suzhou, I was convinced everything would work out for the best - we would fly Snowy with us like before, and she would live out the rest of her days with us in China. That trip changed everything - first one thing and then another, and then pretty soon, before we knew it, we were in a spiraling freefall.

 First, the length of the flight - almost 15 hours in the plane, and here was Snowy needing to be fed and medicated every 4 hours. As much as I tried, I could not a flight with 2 legs, so that we could break the journey in Europe, give her a respite. Then we found that United Airlines had revamped their pet transport services - they gave it a fancy new name and description, but the bottom line for us was that our pets would not fly in the same plane with us, but would be shipped as cargo - straight away that put the clock up by at least 4 more hours. Unacceptable, United, totally, unforgivably unacceptable. Then there was some confusion regarding flying both our pets together - someone came up with the brilliant idea that cats and dogs cannot be together on 1 flight. Seriously, a lot of times I felt like I was talking to them through a fog!

The problems with the airline aside, what really broke my resolve to take Snowy with us was the quarantine in China. I thought then, and still do - the quarantine was only a way to extort money, and I was sure that we could get around it by paying. And we did find a agent who would help us - but even after paying through our noses, Snowy would still end up staying at least 1 night in quarantine. The worst-case scenarios were frightening. I kept dreaming over and over again of Snowy not eating on the plane, going into hypoglycemic shock, scared and alone - it was soon clear that I could not put her through so much stress and trauma, I would never be able to forgive myself if something happened to her on the flight.

So the inevitable, agonizing decision - the end of this difficult road, the appointment with the vet. We timed it such that we didn't have to say good-bye until the very end. But Peoria and Snowy are inextricably linked - and I didn't realize that until I came back. I can't walk past that house again, the last home Snowy knew. And I'm sure I'm going to be navigating an emotional minefield the next few days - because her memories are everywhere. I'm hoping that this month will lead me to a final acceptance and closure - help me to let go one more time and help me celebrate Snowy's memories, her love in a way she absolutely deserves. Happy trails, my darling, wherever you are - you'll live on forever in my heart.

Sayonara, Japan!

Sayonara, Japan - a fitting title to this final post on our vacation to Japan!! Our first night in Tokyo, I found myself humming 'Sayonara, sayonara' from the 60s Bollywood film - of course, the name is totally cheesy - 'Love in Tokyo'!! Before long we had pulled up the song's video on Youtube (hurrah for no internet restrictions) - seriously hilarious, Asha Parekh dressed in a kimono (she's supposed to be Japanese), dancing with mincing steps, complete with fluttering fan and twirling umbrella!! Absolutely priceless!!! For an entire generation (or maybe even two), this song was the very definition of anything Japan, and Sayonara - saying goodbye in Japanese was very, very cool!! Back then, I'm sure I would have laughed at the idea of me ever visiting Japan- but that was then, and now - I can't believe I had the most amazing vacation in Japan!!!

We got around quite a bit in a week - and surprise, surprise - I was a bit erratic with my posts after I got back. 8 posts - this one the 9th - spread over 3 months! Sigh, I have to get better at managing my blog - well, maybe some day! Meanwhile, I thought it would be a good idea to have all of them linked right here - easy access to all our fun adventures in Japan! Here they are, in chronological order...

Getting ready for Japan
Konichiwa, Tokyo! - Part I
Konichiwa, Tokyo! - Part II
Shinkansen to Kobe
Universal Studios, Osaka
Hiroshima and Miyajima
The beauty of Kyoto
Last day in Kobe

The thing with Japan is - there's no one big thing, no must-see attraction - nothing like the Taj Mahal or Great Wall or Eiffel Tower! And while that makes the days a little difficult to plan - there is a limit to how many temples and pagodas and gardens you can go to, it is also liberating in a fashion. Without the typical tourist traps, I felt we got a better feel for the country, the culture and the people - what a refreshing change! The Japanese as a people are absolutely in a class of their own! Soft-spoken, polite and patient to a fault - I can't imagine any other place in the world where hundreds of people would queue up 4 hours (and more) for a ride with barely a murmur or any sign of restlessness or irritation! I am, of course, referring to the Amazing Spider-Man ride at Universal! No loud voices, no pushing or shoving, most surprising - no screaming kids anywhere! Everyone seems to be in a state of zen - what's the secret?

I've already raved about the JR - and I'll say it again - undoubtedly, it was the trains that made the whole vacation so enjoyable and stress free! In hindsight, it would probably have been better to fly into Osaka, and then just stay in Kobe - making couple of day trips to Tokyo instead of staying there! That way, it would have been possible to fit in an afternoon at Mt. Fuji too....I do regret missing that one! The other great thing on this trip - totally unexpected and all the sweeter for it - was the quality of restaurants, especially in Kobe! Small little places, with the most incredible food - coming from China, an absolute treat!

And finally - just cannot resist this - the cherry on top, the cherry blossoms, of course!!! This is kind of funny - I wasn't prepared for how many flowering cherry trees there would be, and I did spend a couple of days wondering what happens to the bumper crop of cherries that was sure to follow - until I found out most of the trees were ornamental!! So much for my visions of giant cherry pies! To conclude - go to Japan, go in April, and don't forget your JR passes! Good times guaranteed!!

Last day in Kobe

Our vacation in Japan is almost at an end! Our company has an office in Akashi - not too far from Kobe - and Ajey wanted to take the opportunity to go see the facility. That meant that the last day was a Girls Day Out! Of course, Ajey was fully convinced that Manasi and I would spend the entire day lolling in our hotel - and very honestly, I will admit that the idea did appeal to me - it had been quite the week so far! Fortunately, an unanticipated snag almost forced us out of the hotel - the air-conditioning anywhere in Japan isn't turned on until the government says so - save the environment and all that!! So our room with it's gorgeous view turned into a veritable furnace by 9am!! We had been leaving quite early on all previous days, so we hadn't noticed this teeny detail!!

Well, in any case, Manasi and I were out of the hotel - all ready to explore! Manasi got to pick where to go - she had behaved so well all week long, she deserved a day of fun - and it was Kobe's famous Oji zoo that she chose to go to! It wasn't too far from our hotel, and the weather was a mild - so we decided to walk! And this was kind of funny - after a week of me gushing over every possible cherry blossom that we saw, minutes from our hotel was the most beautiful sakura ever!!! No seriously, this was better than anything I had seen/admired/photographed so far!! So glad we decided to walk!!

The walk was actually a bit longer than anticipated - and I had just started wondering if we were headed in the right direction - but there it was, Oji Zoo!! I'm always a little conflicted when it comes to zoos - on one hand, there's the whole PETA and animal abuse thing, on the other, well, it's a zoo - a fun place to spend time with a child!! And Oji Zoo is surely one of the 'better' zoos - you can see the attempts to actually place the animals in natural seeming habitats! Anyway, Manasi and I spent the next couple of hours animal gazing - starting with the brightly colored and extremely loud macaws, past the majestically lazy big cats - and the whole wide animal kingdom in between!! A really, really good collection - my favorite was the koala - hadn't really seen one before - how cute is that little face!! Wish we had packed a lunch - could have enjoyed a picnic under the sakura like so many others!!!

We took the bus back to the hotel - neither of us really wanted to walk all that way again! Manasi had such a good time at the zoo, that she agreed to come to the Nunobiki Herb Garden with me! Bit of a story to that excursion - our hotel backed up to Kobe's famous Mt. Rokko, and for the past 4 days, every time we left the hotel, I would signs of a cable car to the Herb Gardens. To be honest, I could care less about the Herb Gardens, but cable cars are irresistible!! I had been trying to convince Ajey that we needed to go up the mountain - no luck!! So when Manasi agreed, I was really happy!! I had an idea of taking the cable car up, and then walking down the trail - didn't realize that it was a good 3-4 hour hike, even downhill! So cable car both ways!!

Going up, really wonderful views of the Nunobiki waterfall and what looked like a dam? - have to look that one up! At the top was a leisurely walk to 4 huge glass greenhouses - along the way were beautiful flowerbeds - I'm sure the variety would be of great interest to any avid gardener! The greenhouses were really artistically arranged too - a very pleasing, soothing effect. And of course, not to forget the viewing terrace with the whole of Kobe-shi sprawled at the base of the mountain - breathtaking!! It was so relaxing that we ended up staying longer than we had planned - and almost reluctantly we headed back! It had been such a while since I had spent an entire day with Manasi - and it was so much fun, listening to her chatter away, make silly faces at the camera!! She's growing up so fast - days like these are an absolute treasure!!

We met Ajey and AD for dinner - another long walk to get to the restaurant!! For our last dinner in Japan - again, an Indian place called Madras Kitchen - but the food was probably the best we had eaten all week!! The crisp dosas and fiery Chicken Chettinad brought back fond memories of Chennai. They even had an instruction pamphlet on 'How to eat your dosa' - priceless!! Would highly recommend this place to all visitors to Kobe! They even have a Facebook page - believe it or not!!

Last ride on the JR - getting to the Osaka airport - even after a week, still amazed at how easy this train system is!! This vacation had been a little longer than most - and we enjoyed every moment!! Of course, after all that walking, there's a foot massage with my name written all over it in Suzhou!! Japan - Land of the Rising Sun - thanks for the wonderful memories!!

The beauty of Kyoto

Kyoto - the ancient imperial capital of Japan! Kyoto - city of ten thousand temples! Kyoto - known as the most beautiful city in Japan! I had been hearing so much about Kyoto - not only from our friends in Japan, but also random strangers we met in Japan - don't bother about Tokyo, Kyoto is where you should spend all your time! Although, in spite of all the recommendations, I still had only a day for Kyoto - just have to make the best of it, I guess!! In addition, we were at the tail end of our trip, and Manasi's patience was running thin - she could care less about how beautiful Kyoto was, she just wanted a break from all the walking!!!

The train took less than half hour - seriously, how awesome is this JR system??!! The Kyoto station is, of course, huge - it took us a little while to get our bearings. Almost by chance, we stumbled upon a Tourist Information Office - actually, this is should definitely be the first stop for any visitor to Kyoto - level 2F at the station, just follow the signs! Here, not only did we get a couple of excellent street maps of Kyoto, but we were also able to buy a daily bus pass - the attendant was very helpfully, and marked out bus routes to places she thought we might be interested in! There was also a whole lot of information about happenings in Kyoto - including ads for walking tours, tea ceremonies, hop-on hop-off bus tours - indeed, it would be possible to plan an entire visit to Kyoto just from this one room!!

So, duly armed with maps and bus passes - we headed out to explore the city! The first impression was not of any great beauty - Kyoto appears to be like any other bustling metro - in fact, maybe even a little grimier, if truth be told. The buildings, roads, everything is old - with none of the charm of other cities we had seen. Our map did tell us that the southern part of the city, where the bus station was located - was the more urban part of Kyoto. As we headed north, the view would (hopefully) get better!! With so many tourist spots and temples to choose from, and so little time - we had decided to stick to the tried-and-tested - first destination in Kyoto, Kinkakuji Temple or Golden Pavilion.

Golden Pavilion

Kinkakuji Temple is a Zen Buddhist temple - the 3 storeyed pavilion has gold leaf coating on the 2 upper floors. Gold or kinkaku, a symbol of purity is used to reduce negative thoughts - and gives the shrine its name. The pavilion's setting in the middle of the pond adds to its tranquil, serene beauty. The grounds around the pavilion are landscaped - described as a Japanese strolling garden in the brochure. The pavilion itself was closed to visitors, which I found a little disappointing. Walking in the garden? Could take it or leave it!! Also, to accommodate the large number of tourists, a one-way path had been marked around the garden - a restricted walk is not really much fun!! Ajey did find some excellent wasabi covered peanuts - and bought a whole pack of them - I'm sure that alone was worth the whole walk for him!!

A few minutes walk away from Kinkakuji is the Ninnaji Pagoda - my daughter had reluctantly allowed me only 2 temples - so decided to skip Ninnaji, and chose to go to Ginkakuji, the Silver Pavilion! About halfway there, I changed my mind again - so we got off the bus to walk to the Kyoto Imperial Palace. The procedure - yes, there was a procedure to visit the Palace - was to write a couple of months in advance and get an appointment to visit. The Tourist Information Office mentioned that there usually are cancellations, and if we got there in time, we still had a chance!! Just our luck - on that particular day, everyone showed up - and the outer wall was as close as we got to the Imperial Palace!!

Outside the Palace walls

The walk to the the Palace was quite interesting, though! We made our way down from the Kitaoji Bus Terminal and walked past a couple of universities - the Doshisha University and the Doshisha Women's University. A very campus town feel to the whole area - tons of students walking back and forth between classes, little pizzerias and sandwich places - glad to have seen this side of Kyoto!! There was also an excellent Thai restaurant - just a little place, perfect for lunch. And really tasty food! Didn't make Manasi too happy - not only is she not a big fan of Thai cuisine, the walls of this particular eatery were lined with aquariums teeming with fish which were all (apparently) staring at her!! Luckily, there was a fast food place right next door, and she was appeased with a veg burger and fries!!

As promised to Ajey and Manasi, last stop in Kyoto - the Arashiyama scenic area. Back to our JR passes to take the train to the Sagaarashiyama station! This is a picturesque little town - not very modernized - lots of shopping and local restaurants. Again, there are a number of shrines and temples in this vicinity, but what I was really interested in was the Sagano Romantic Train - a ride on a steam train along the river, into the mountain - known as the best place to view cherry blossoms! Again, fate intervened in the form of the large number of tourists - we wouldn't be able to get on that train without a long wait - and there was absolutely nothing romantic about that waiting room!! So settled for the next best thing - a walk to the Togetsukyo or 'Moon-crossing' bridge across the river Hozu.

 Personally, I thought the bridge a little underwhelming. Seriously, this is one of the most beautiful spots in Japan?? It could be that the cherry blossoms were not really in full bloom, and the cloudy weather didn't make things better - but still, I don't get it - I'm sure I'm missing something! Anyway, we walked back to our JR station - caught a glimpse of the Sagano train on the way back - I wonder how special that really was! Our day in Kyoto was done - I'm guessing you need more than a day to truly appreciate Kyoto's legendary beauty. For me, it didn't particularly stand out in any way - just another check mark on my itinerary, really! Oh well!! And if you had asked Manasi, she would have said that the best part of the day was getting back to our hotel in Kobe!!!

And yes, how can I forget - the Kyoto sakura!! Just a couple...

Last post in the Japan series coming up soon!! Stay tuned!!