I’ve managed to stay put on the East Coast for almost a year now, saving up for our big trip to see my cousin Robin who is currently living in Tokyo. My brother Kevin, who loves all things Japanese, will be travelling with us for the first time overseas. Kevin seems to have this silly notion that he might actually have time to sleep and relax on this trip. I told him that’s what the plane ride home is for. We’ll see if I’m still his favorite sister when we get back to the U.S.
We’ll be spending the first few days at Robin’s apartment in Tokyo. She assures us that there is enough room for all of us to have a place to sleep. I believe that her Tokyo apartment is even smaller than her Hong Kong apartment. Small living quarters seem to be the norm in Asian cities.
On Tuesday, June 18th we join our tour group. The first day we’re in Tokyo and then it’s a six day trip west stopping at Mt. Fuji, Hakone, Hamamatsu, Iga, Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Okayama and ending in Hiroshima. On June 24th we fly from Hiroshima back to Tokyo where we hope to catch a baseball game before leaving to come home to the U.S. on June 26th. Here’s a link to our travel itinerary https://www.box.com/s/m79l3my3s2b1z7gob319. I also want to plug Robin’s blog as she does a fabulous job at sharing her experiences living in Japan. http://robinhood72.wordpress.com
I’ll leave you with a recap of our trip to Vancouver last July. Robin invited me to be her “plus one” at a wedding for her friend Janet with whom she taught in Hong Kong. Since the couple had so many guests coming from out of town, they planned activities during the week prior to the wedding -- very ambitious on their part.
We left the morning after New Jersey got hit with those terrible storms in late June and ran into some other weather issues trying to get out of Chicago. Robin and I were booked on different flights. I was able to get into Vancouver on our expected arrival date but Robin was stuck overnight in Chicago. Our first two nights were at a beautiful bed and breakfast called the Windsor Guest House. We had a delicious made-to-order breakfast each morning.
Our first full day together, Robin and I explored Vancouver stopping at the Granville Island market, hopping on a water taxi over to Vancouver’s China town (not as impressive as San Francisco’s) finishing the day in Gastown. We celebrated Robin’s birthday with dinner at a Mongolian barbeque.
The next day, Janet and her fiancé picked us up and we started on a road trip up to Whistler Mountain, picking up other guest along the way. Bring eleven almost total strangers on an overnight trip could be disastrous but we all got along fabulously and had a great time.
Whistler was gorgeous. It was one of the sites for the 2010 winter Olympics so I’m sure that everything was recently refurbished. I had never been to a ski village so maybe they are all this way. The hotels all opened up into a piazza that was filled with outdoor restaurants and cafes.
While New Jersey was in the midst of a heat wave, we were bundled up in winter jackets, sitting under outdoor heaters. We had hoped to do some hiking but the alpine trails were all still closed because the snow had not yet melted. Instead, all eleven of us went mountain biking. The the views were astounding.
In the evening, we went out to dinner to celebrate with the soon-to-be newlyweds and then to an Irish pub where we saw this amazing band, just two guys and their instruments, who are evidently staples of Whistler. http://www.ruckusdeluxe.com
The next morning, after a group breakfast, some of us went to the Squamish Lil'Wat Cultural
Centre and then half of the group went back to Vancouver. I was semi-familiar with the Pacific Native American tribes from a recent trip to the American Museum of Natural History in New York but the cultural center provided more insight into Squamish life today and their attempts to preserve their heritage.
Robin and I stayed on an extra night in Whistler with a couple from Hong Kong, Mike and Veronica. The four of us decided we would take the ski lifts to the top of Whistler mountain. 
This was on 4th of July and it’s the first 4th of July I’ve ever spent in the snow. By the time we got to the summit of the mountain, the temperature was 1 degree Celsius. There was one short trail that was open. Robin and I were able to hike around and see the surrounding valleys below. It was absolutely beautiful and eerily quiet. I guess I don’t realize just how much background noise there is in our every day lives.
We took another cable car that stretched between the two mountains, to the peak of the adjacent mountain, Blackcomb, and then went back down the lifts to the village. On our way back to the hotel, the band from the Irish pub was playing at another outdoor pub. They were so good that we had to stop and listen to them again. Whistler actually had 4th of July fireworks (I guess a lot of Americans must vacation there) so we found a Mexican restaurant where we could sit outside and watch the display.
Ironically, my first experience riding a Grey Hound Bus came in Canada as that’s how we travelled from Whistler back to Vancouver. Upon returning to the city, we stayed at a different bed and breakfast, King’s Corner, in which we were more of guests in the owner’s house. Our host, Anne, was very health conscious and cooked us an organic breakfast each morning.
The weather had warmed up considerably by this time and we were able to spend an afternoon walking the around the 5 ½ mile seawall at Stanley Park stopping to see the rose garden, totem pole collection and a somewhat anti-climatic light house (which was nothing like the lighthouses we have here on the east coast).
On our way back into town we stumbled upon a Japanese bakery which also sold these gelato dessert creations with ingredients such as red bean, rice cakes and cornflakes. The combinations sounded a little strange but they ended up being delicious.
Our last free day in Vancouver, we took a bus out to the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park. The original bridge was built 1889 by George Grant Mackay who owned the tack of land. His house was on one side of the ravine and the best hunting grounds were on the opposite side. Mackay grew tired of trekking to the bottom of the ravine, crossing the river and hiking back up the other side just to go hunting so he built a bridge.
The current bridge is somewhat of a tourist trap, but it was nice to be outside in the fresh air and we enjoyed the Treetop Adventure Course and Cliff Walk. We also took one of the nature tours where I learned quite a bit about the Pacific rainforests and its native Douglas firs and Western Red cedars.
Our final day in Vancouver was Dave and Janet’s wedding. They choose a beautiful outdoor venue for the ceremony. Janet looked stunning and Dave wore a traditional Scottish kilt. The reception was held at a country club atop another mountain just outside of the city. The couple blended their Chinese and Scottish heritages together with some local Canadian traditions. This was the first wedding I attended where each member of the bridal party gave a speech during dinner. A guest list of people from around the world meant that the speeches were given in English, Mandarin and Cantonese. At one point, a toast was made in Italian. It was a much different experience than any American wedding.
No comments:
Post a Comment