Sunday, June 19
We spent just two nights and one full day in Osaka before heading to our city of choice, Kyoto. It's smaller, full of shrines and temples, and purportedly retains much of the old-world charm of Japan. This city has been on Lee's bucket list of places to visit since he was a little kid. It was starting to rain when we left Osaka and fell harder and harder as our train headed north to Kyoto. We've been really lucky with the weather for most of our travels but today wasn't one of them.

There were lots of trains to choose from to get us to Kyoto so it was hard to go wrong. We ended up on a local rain that stopped a lot but we both enjoyed looking our the window, watching the countryside go by. It took less time than we anticipated and were surprised that we'd reached Kyoto so quickly. Everyone got off the train, including the conductor. Hmm, I guess we've arrived. A big sign saying Kyoto would have been useful, especially since this train station is HUGE. I guess everyone (except us, of course) just knows when you've arrived at the end of the line.

When I say the station is huge, I really mean it. I've never seen anything like it. The architecture is stunning.

We had some lunch and headed out on the 10 minute walk to the hotel. It had stopped raining when we set out but that was short-lived. We crouched in a doorway for awhile but it didn't look like it was going to stop so we just kept going. Fortunately the stuff inside our suitcases didn't get too wet, which is especially good since this is a traditional Japanese guesthouse which, in part, means sparse and no place to hang anything up to dry. It also means beautiful, refine, "authentic."

When you want to go to bed you move the table and chairs to the side and put the futons on the floor. This is a six tatami-sized room.

Saturday, June 18
Welcome to Osaka. We started our day with a traditional Japanese breakfast at the hotel. Cushions on the floor, low table and many dishes of sometimes unidentifiable foods. We filled up and headed out to Osaka Castle. The subway system is relatively easy to figure out. Friends had given us their transit cards which are like magic passes to get through the turn styles. (They had put money on the cards when they had visited Japan but didn't have the chance to run down the balance.) Then all we had to do was get on and off at the right stops. We did fine with that and arrived at the castle with plenty of time to walk around the grounds and explore the castle.

It was hot but not too humid and there were crowds but mostly congregated in one area. The park is the largest in Osaka which tells you how big it is, but also, maybe, how little park area there is in the city. The original castle was built in the 1500's but burned down a few times. The one there now was built around 1930.

Much of the historical artifacts have been moved to the Osaka Museum of History so we crossed the street and had a visit.

It was a nice museum but the English signage was an after-thought and minimal at that. I have mixed feelings about the lack of English. I get that this is not an English-speaking country and if I want to understand the Japanese culture I should learn some Japanese language. But if you want tourists to come visit, and they seem to want that, given the advertising I've see, then you need to provide a bit more English. When we were on the train yesterday a couple, who were speaking Chinese to each other, switched to English to speak with the conductor. Like it or not, English is the universal language.

Back to our day in Osaka. Our hotel is very close to the touristy market and restaurant area called Dotonbori. It reminded me of similar places in Siem Reap, Cambodia; Bangkok; Yangshuo, China; and even the Central Park area of Kaohsiung. There are pedestrian-only streets lined with little shops, bars and eateries where people gather to spend their yen. Like all those places, Dotonbori gets especially busy as night falls. We wandered through a couple of times, had some coffee, ate some okinomyaki. It was even nicer in the early morning to walk along the river when most people were still in bed.

Friday, June 17
We couldn't arrange our flight from Yichang to Osaka without an overnight lay-over in Beijing so we made the best of it. We spent the night at a cheap, forgettable airport hotel and met a guide at 6:30 in the morning for a trip to the Great Wall. We'd arranged with the Chinese tour agency to have the same guide we had in Beijing with Leslie and Cady in April. David seemed happy to see us again and shared pictures of the trip he took to Taiwan in the spring. He didn't make it down to Kaohsiung but he said that he asked about us on the streets of Taipei, although no one there seemed to know who we were. :)

We went to an area of Badaling that's further up the mountains than where we went last time. It's really steep and apparently not many foreigners go there. But plenty of Chinese do. At the gate you can choose to go left, along with pretty much everyone else, or right, where you can be nearly all alone. We started out towards the left because David suggested we go that way, but quickly turned around and went to the right.

The gate

Lee hikes up and up...

...and reaches the top!

But there's always one more hill to climb, one more tower to reach.

It was good to go to the Wall instead of sitting around the airport for an extra six hours but it wasn't nearly as much fun as April. You only get one first time and I enjoyed sharing that with Lee, but it just wasn't the same today.

The rest of the day was spent flying to Osaka, this time internationally on ANA instead of China's domestic airline, yay. Once we arrived in Osaka we had a rare travel glitch and ended up on the slow train instead of the express from the airport into the city. We make it to our hotel just fine but it took way longer than necessary.

Our hotel is more of a traditional guest house than a hotel, which means tatami mats on the floor instead of a western mattress and pillows that are more like sandbags than true pillows. A good night's sleep will make us all rosy and ready to explore a new city in a new country.

Thursday, June 16
Wednesday night we went through the Three Gorges Dam locks. We were scheduled to go through around midnight so we left a request for a wake-up call at the desk and went to bed. It was interesting to be out on the top deck and be able to reach out and touch the huge concrete wall inside the lock. Lee suggested that they should supply pieces of chalk so we can leave messages on the wall. I lost interest in the process more quickly than he did and headed back to bed. It takes about three hours to travel through four locks - there are five locks at the dam but the river level is low right now so it takes one less lock to get to the downstream side.

The next day we docked and took a bus back to the dam and locks. Walking around gave me a good feel for how truly massive the project is. The guide rattled off all of the statistics but there weren't any museum-type displays. I overheard one of our boat companions say, "There aren't any exhibits? All we get to do is walk around?" On the one hand, I thought she was being lazy, but I also would have liked to see the history of the project or an explanation of how the power is harnessed or exactly how the locks and boat elevator work. It's like they want you to look around and be amazed, but don't linger.

Looking down at the two bottom (down-stream) locks.

The doors of the locks starting to open.

This is a barge waiting to move upstream.

A long view of the dam.

The dam, closer up.

It was so hot even the trees are hooked up to IV's. Just kidding. It was hot but not unbearable, to us anyway.

After the dam we went another two hours down the river to the city of Yichang. We'd arranged for a transfer to the airport and with a couple hours to spare our guide took us to a "cultural exhibit." It was actually a store selling silk embroidery and a very minimal explanation of the process. The work was beautiful - it reminded be of the silk fabric I saw in Changsha 15 years ago - so we did our bit for the Chinese economy and bought a few pieces.

Then back to the van, off to the airport and a short two hour flight to Beijing. That, by the way, was how Lee spent his 56th birthday. Last year we were at Versailles in France, this year in China. Next year, who knows?

Here's the birthday boy.

Wednesday, June 15
We sailed most of the night and docked around 6:00 am, just west of the first gorge, Qutang. Some people paid for an excursion to Baidicheng (White Emperor City) but we chose to wait an hour after they departed and disembarked on our own. It was nice to walk around, off the ship. Even all the stairs weren't a minus, considering all the sitting around one does on a cruise ship. Mind you, I'm not complaining. We busted our tails to get everything done to pack up and leave Taiwan, physically as well as mentally. Having this time to write, read and gaze at the scenery going by has been wonderful.

The stairway from where we docked up to town.

We found a wall around the the edge of town along the river. 

It wasn't a Great Wall, but it was Pretty Good.

The scenery, now that we've gotten well east of Chongqing, has gotten rugged and sparsely populated. We still go through some small cities but it's been mostly villages or trees.

When we pull up to dock there's often a small boat permanently anchored along the shore that our ship ties up to. I suppose it allows the big ships to come close to shore without having to worry about running aground.

At one point we docked and took small boats up a tributary. There were some other ships' passengers there as well and I had an interesting conversation with a gentleman standing nearby.
Him: Where are you from?
Me: America. And you?
Him: Singapore. You like Obama?
Me: Yes, he's good.
Him: Do you like Mr. Trump?
Me: No. Do you?
Him: Yes!
Me: Why?
Him: His is change and change is progress.

Now there's a conversation stopper.

Once I figure out how to upload a video from my camera I'll post it here.

Tuesday, June 14 (cont'd)
I feel like we're in pretty good shape when we can climb the stairs in these hilly towns when it's over 90 degrees and the humidity is just as bad. There were plenty of complaints from our shipmates yesterday when we took the excursion to Feng Du (the Ghost City Temple).

We swore we'd never find ourselves following a guide with a flag, but alas. At least we didn't have to wear matching hats or t-shirts.

It's just as well that the heat and humidity made people peel off partway up the climb and head back to the ship early. The mixim still holds true, the farther the walk the fewer the people.

Here's our ship, waiting for us after our hike up to the temple.

 And here's the temple we visited.

Tuesday, June 14
The Victoria Cruise's Jenna set sail (can you really say that if there are no sails?) at 5:00 am, heading down-river towards Yichang. The river banks are often pretty industrial, but they've also been dotted with rural sections. There was fog early in the day so we had to pull up to shore for a little while until the sun burned it off. The delay altered the itinerary so they changed our shore excursion to Feng Du instead of Shibaozhai. I hadn't done much reading ahead of time about this area so I wasn't disappointed about missing something I had my heart set on seeing. I'm just looking forward to getting off the boat for a little while each day.

I'm reading a book right now, River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze River by Peter Hessler. It's about his teaching experience with the Peace Corp in the late 1990's in Fulin, China. We passed through the city during lunch today. It's really interesting to read about the area just before the Three Gorges Dam was finished. It's hard to imagine how much has changed in the 20 years since the book was written. I need to find some documentaries about the building of the dam and see some before and after pictures.

Speaking of pictures, here are some.

Enjoying coffee on our balcony.

Sunset in Chongqing.

Sunrise in the fog.

Interesting geology. Makes me want to do some research...

River traffic - barges with sand and coal, car ferries, cruise ships, fishermen, you name it, it was on the river. Along with trash, such as plastic, shoes, the carcass of a pig, more plastic, etc.