Temple Street Night Market

Hong Kong is famous for its markets- there's the Bird Market, the Goldfish Market, the Jade Market, and the Ladies' Market. Close-ish to our hotel was the Temple Street Night Market. It's open from 4:00 pm-midnight and really gets crowded around 9:00. That's about what time we went. Above is just one of the streets on our walk to the market.

More street life.

Here's a shot of the market itself. It's basically a big flea market. There are some designer knockoffs and lots of cheap souvenir-type things. You're supposed to bargain. Gen and I are bad at bargaining. I actually think he's worse than I am. He doesn't want to hurt the vendors' feelings.

There's one section in the market that's lined with dai pai dongs, the Hong Kong word for street food stalls. We stopped here for a late-night snack.

Here's where you can see what the catch of the day is. Those giant shrimp in the middle were still squirming. There are also a ton of clams, including razor clams (right bottom). Also scallops, squid, and fresh fish. The fish are in tanks below the table. You can kind of see them at the bottom of the picture. And crabs, of course.

It was lots of fun. Grab a table, order a beer, and peruse the menu (which was long, and in English).

Here I am with our order, the spicy prawns. They were stir-fried with lots of garlic, hot chilies, and green onions. We also got some stir-fried green beans, but they aren't as interesting looking. But really tasty. Chinese vegetables are the best. I really think the best veggies I've ever had were in China, both Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Victoria Peak

This is the view from the top of Victoria Peak in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, it was a hazy day so the pictures aren't as sharp as I wish they were.

There's me! It was hot. Around 90-95 degrees and 90% humidity. My hair did some weird things.

And Gen! This was at a little lookout that was all decorated Chinese-style. The Peak was used as a military fort, so the mountain is riddled with tunnels. It was the last stronghold for Hong Kong in WWII. But I think it fell to the Japanese eventually.

I just thought he was cute.

Lots of skyscrapers. Looking to the south, it's all mountains and uninhabited (or less-inhabited) islands. Hong Kong has a really pretty topography. There aren't nearly so many trees in Tokyo.

This is how you get to the top of the Peak, the Peak Tram. It's very fun. The ride is extremely steep.

This is how the buildings look as you are in the tram. The camera isn't tilted at all. I believe it ascends at steeper than a 20 degree angle.

One of the steeper parts. No joke, it really looked like that. It make you feel kind of wobbly when you get out. Good times!

I Heart Hong Kong

Last week was another Japanese holiday, so Gen and I went to Hong Kong. I have been looking forward to this trip pretty much the whole year. And it was fantastic! That is the view from near the Star Ferry Pier in Kowloon at sunset. Jealous?

They have a light show here every night at 8:00, but it was pretty hot, so we decided not to wait. We caught it from our hotel later in the week.

There are lots of boats and ferries that cruise the harbor, especially around sunset and for the light show.

After we strolled the promenade, we had dinner at a Sichuan restaurant. It was great, with the exception of kind of a weird appetizer. It was dried and sugar-glazed beef strips. Kind of like a sweet and slightly crunchy jerky. It must be very popular, because we saw a ton of stores selling something similar. Gen tried a sample in the stores and said it was actually better than the restaurant version.

This is Nathan Road, sometimes called the Golden Mile. Lots of shopping. We ended up in two hotels because of some maneuvering with the plane tickets, and this was really close to the first hotel we stayed in.

Geisha Sighting

This was so exciting. The first time we went to Kyoto, I didn't see a single geisha. (Well, they're actually maiko, apprentice geishas.) I was totally bummed. Gen tried to cheer me up by pointing out a statue of a geisha in the Kyoto station, but it just wasn't the same. But this time we lucked out and got a good taxi driver who took us to the right spot. We just hung out outside of the most famous geisha house like paparazzi. Aren't they pretty?

This is us, waiting for an appearance. The entrance is to the left in the picture.

This is all we could get at first. Those girls move much faster than you would expect. I suppose they're used to running the gauntlet of tourists.

Here she is from the front. I liked her purple kimono the best.

I love the hair decorations. Some of them have little bells so they make music when you walk.

I thought about cropping that guy out, but he's pretty funny.

A good view of the back of the very complicated hair. That guy in the orange shirt was kind of a jackass. He got right up in the maikos' faces with that dinky little camera. Our has a good zoom feature, so Gen was a nice, respectable distance away.

Escape, at last! See him, shoving his camera in their faces? We wondered where they were going, as this was early in the evening and they were leaving their restaurant. Maybe to a private party? I wonder how much it costs to have a private dinner with four maiko? One of the hotels was running a special maiko dinner and I briefly considered it, but it was around $200 per person. In general, it's pretty hard to book a dinner with the maiko. Very exclusive and very expensive, so the hotel dinner was a relative bargain.

The Harmons Take Japan By Storm

I haven't written in a while because my parents came to visit! I never thought I would see the day when June and Ken Harmon set foot in Japan. They were here for 9 days and we had a great time. Here we are at the entrance gate to Nijo Castle in Kyoto.

Gen had the camera for this weekend, and he's into the candid shots. My mom was tickled by the schoolkids' uniforms. Everyone wears a uniform over here, public and private schools.

Kinkakuji, Kyoto. Mom and Dad arrived in Tokyo on Thursday, and we spent Thursday and Friday in Tokyo, then took a trip to Kyoto. Then back to Tokyo on Monday, and the left on Friday. A whirlwind trip.

Here we are at a Chinese restaurant near the canal in Kyoto. It was really hot during the day, but cooled off to make the nights quite pleasant. Dad was so comfortable he almost fell asleep at the table!

Gen talked this snazzy group into taking a picture with us. We're such dorks.