Soon after I was "Waking Up in the World" in Tokyo.To say Japan is an expensive place to budget travel is like saying Micheal Jordan was a good player...one is astronomical and the other was the greatest ever to play the game. Ex: Beer $8-10 a pop....hotel Tokyo..$45...Kyoto $85/night...ouch that hurts!! Aside from monetary restrictions..Japan is caught in the Cuting edge of Technology and the traditional ways of its past....both unique and both so diverse. I saw Giesha wondering the streets while teenboper girls had more modern fashion sence then any in the world. I have mixed emotions about Japan....I think if you went on a normal vacation it would be marvelous but it is quite restictive on a budget. Alot of people were authenticly friendly while others had an air of coldness....between the cities my favor w/o a dought would be w/ Kyoto....where temples and palaces, gardens and yesteryear allyways charmed the most skeptic of travelers. Its beauty is overwhelming...check out the "Golden Palace" photo on my home page and see for yourself. My first funny experience was at the Airport on arrival....having to use the restroom I hastely dodged to the toilet and much to my surprise there set inlayed in the ground a porsaline hole in which you are suppose to hover and do your business. I found out later that the locals do all this fancy work w/ their pants around their ankles....I however made the educated guess to disrobe for fear that my aim was lessthen Asian. The strain on your thieghs is incredable....go figure all the contortionist in the world come from these parts.....Japan can build a cell phone the size of a peanut but cant create a john where you can sit and relax. I keeping my Sports theme in tact enjoyed a day at the Sumo wrestleing venue in Tokyo....amazing....the pomp and cercumstance that goes on before the match is rivaled by only the Bull fights I saw in Mexico City and later would find in the Thai boxing in Bangkok. The matches would last only a minute but the preformance of the contestants took 10 minutes before the match. Their bodies clashing rang through the area like sounds I hav'nt heard before....and as you can imagine I was in the cheap seats. I stayed in a traditional dwelling in Tokyo called a Royaton....when entering the house shoes were sliped off and Japaneese music was piped in. Your issues a Kimono...actually its called something else but the word excapes me. Its a cloth type robe that people are strolling around in the common areas...also my place "the Kimi" had an old traditional wooden bath w/ delightfully hot water....a luxury on the road and my first bath in 6 1/2 months what a joy. Memories are fond of Japan, just bring a fat wallet w/ you when you go. Im off to communist China and to combat the dredful SARS!

   China...how can I describe Beijing???? Beijing.....yea thats IT!!!......I Know how to tell people......It's like one really, really big American CHINA TOWN !!!!! Actually Beijing ranks w/ Buenas Aries.....and since I've been traveling a bit longer, Saigon, as one of three of my favorite Big Cities on this trip. Forget the sites for a moment....but only for a moment...they're incredable.....Having never steped foot into a communist country before my thoughts roll to the worst....the Tienamen Square disaster of the late 80's and every negitive hollywood representation of their people. I came to find out they are the most friendly people....and they go out of there way to be helpful. I understand there is a huge void of tourist because of the SARS epedemic...(: SIDEBAR: By the time I got to Beijing and it was still monumental news in the States....The SARS scare was a creation of the media...certainly it affected many people..and perhaps still does, but the vast majority of heathy people carried on w/ daily life. Those affected....if I can be blunt were people on their way out anyway...which this just pushed them over the edge. I cant say I was'nt concerned at first but after arriving in China I quickly saw the attention to the problem being addressed....workers were constantly sanitizing public places w/ spray guns...and the city had a great vibe to it. )....and maybe thats why people were glad to be helpful w/ someone who took the risk and wanted to explore their country....I'd like to believe they are just super people. All the English language students were great trying to brush up on their speach....I ablidged....and made great sport out of it....introduceing them to New "Slang" words. The city is really gearing up for the Olympics in 2008...they have converted a majority of their street signage to both Chinnesse and English making far easier to get around then in Economic parnershiped Japan. Back to the city and sites, Beijing is a collection like many Asian countries of Old and New. The highrises and modernazation are evident, but the ties to the past are ubiquous. One of my finest days was when I rented a bike ( the Major mode of tranport) and peddled through a tour that my Loney Plant guide book ( LP the Bible for budget travelers w/ footprints and Rough Guide as close seconds ) suggested. It took me through the underbelly of the city and into the Hontung's ( misspelled) classic old nieghborhoods w/ passageways no greater then 6 or 7 feet accross and feed into small counrtyards that house four families each small home facing the center of the yard....to get a visual....if you have seen "good Morning Vietnam w/ Robin Williams there is a scene where he chases his friend who he just discovered was a Viet Cong into one of these maze like nieghborhoods. Also arolong the way were many temples, parks ( the chineese dump money into their parks....the spring beauty is out of this world!! ) and yea..it all circled the Forbiden City!!

   My major objecive since I was very young ( after Mrs. Yee's second grade class) was to walk on that amazing of all stuctures "The Great Wall" and more recently to peruse the inerts of the "Forbiden City" both of which I did to complete extasy. My tourism adgenda typicly works like this...hit the sights hard the first few days and hit the nightlife hard the other days. The forbiden city was on my very first day in China...remarkable...everything is hand painted..no detail is left off, the roofs are craftily carved w/ animals and serpents and other intriquet designs. They renovate the City ( which had never been open to the public...even Chinnesse until the last century....it was the greatest held secret ) every ten years and since it takes ten years to finish the renovations its constantly in that mode. Thank you SARS for giving me the most spended of photos...not a sole in them...I understand normally tourist abound and make for a very Non-Forbidden feel...but i felt like the Emperor......now where the heck do I find all my concubine????

        Since Im a month or more removed from my China experience and I've alreadly sent home my guide books...via "The Slow Boat From -----" my recollection of the different sections of the great Wall have excaped me....I appologize, however,There are many different sections that at one time was continuas. This wall was built w/ building materials of stone, clay, earth and the bodies of millions of dead chinnesse peasents who were laborers for their ambitious Emperors. The wall was built to fend off Mongolian aggression under the Ruthless Gingus Khan.....the concept failed but left a major trade route that was usefull for centuries. On two separate days I visited two sections..The first untouched by renovaters was magical..although bushes and schrubswere growing all along the walk way and the structure was crumbling, I felt as if I were walking in the steps of great Chinnesse worriors of the past. For a three hour trek, I crossed paths w/ not one person....fordging up and down the slithering snake of a architectural wonder. At its peaks wind blew accross my face and I could see this creation stretch on forever. On a following day, I wanted to witness the more touristic section and see how the wall would have appeared in  the day "Brand new". It was of course prestine, and all of our images of the "Wall" from National Geographic  and movies was confirmed w/ its beauty....it however was a bit spoiled w/ hand rails and elevated lights for evening events held there...but I blocked out those modern adaptations and imagined it New and as it was ...an overwhelming undertaking and Magnificent Creation.....I'm truely blessed to have experienced these great monuments...and Im even happier that, that "Common cold" did'nt alter my plans. To have skiped China would have been a tragedy of "Great Wall" proportion!!!.......Lets wake up next in Thailand!!