Xi’an started to developp after the Warriors were found and is still far from the modernity of Chengdu or Beijing.

I reached the city after a 14 hours train ride from Beijing. I had big expectations, but it was raining, and as I looked outside the window of the car when my guide showed me around, I felt… uneasy.

Unfinished buildings, chaotic driving (the worst I’ve seen in this country) and huge bundles of electric wires, pending from everywhere, just made the place really ugly.

I was impressed by the Warriors. The wall surrounding the city was pretty, and I liked the architecture, modern buildings made to look like old China.

I think the combination of bad weather, bad hotel room (no hot water in my shower, A/C and boiler weren’t working) and unfinished, messy city got me. I couldn’t wait to get out of there.  I have to add, that when I got there, I had not eaten in 30 hours and since my train was 2 hours late, my guide had to respect her schedule and made me visit everything right away. It was only 7 hours later that I could finally eat something.

I was delighted to arrive in Chengdu after 2 days in Xi’an, but I do want to go back one day, in 10~15 years when the city will be finished, and with a sunny and warm weather.

And, let’s not forget that Xi’an has the best Engrish sign I ever saw :

- I used the services of TravelChinaGuide. You can read my testimony on their website by clicking here. If you read it, you’ll know that I was really satisfied and would not hesitate using them again.

- For the first time of my life, and probably the last, I traveled as if I were rich. I got many upgrades : once in a 4 stars hotel, they gave me the suite on my second night ; once in a 3 stars one, I got another room (more expensive, prettier, bigger, at no extra charge) just because I was quite desperate that Internet was not working properly in my other room ; another 3 stars hotel got me the suite, sadly I couldn’t spend any time there because I arrived at midnight and had to leave at seven the next morning. I used the room service so many times, because I didn’t want to go alone to the restaurant.

- I fell into the huge tourist traps that are the “factories”. My guides received commissions if they brought me there, and a bigger one if I bought something. Let’s say that I was taken aback and kicked myself later when I bought a jade pendant. I’m weak like that. I refused to visit the next factories, except the last one where I did buy something but it was my choice, and it was cheap.

- My best meal was in the hotel in Beijing (and was not a Chinese meal at all) where I had lemonbutter swordfish. The second best was in Chengdu, also from the hotel : beef noodles. Third : in Leshan, my guide brought me to a small restaurant where I got what he recommended, some classic Sichuan dishes. Fourth : Suzhou, I had eggs with baby sardines, absolutely wonderful !

- The Engrish ! Oh my… I  laughed so hard…

- Using squat toilets in a train is NOT nice. I peed on my socks.

- I took the plane three times for domestic travel. And twice, it was delayed by two hours ; once with China Airlines, once with Eastern China Airlines.

- I am addicted to the scent of Osmanthus flower, the wonderful perfume you can smell everywhere in Southern China.

- I used the VPN “Astrill” and highly recommend it. Safe, fast, convenient, cheap.

This post is the first in my “China” serie. I spent a few days in Sichuan province as part of my private tour, in late September – early October.

The best part of Chengdu city is Jinli street. Crowded with tourists in the afternoon, I was lucky to get there at 8 am ; perfect ! A step into the past, too bad it was raining.

I also visited Leshan, where a giant Buddha carving sits in front of the river (biggest carving in the world, actually) and Mount Emei, where I visited a few Buddhist temples.

The best part of all this region is the panda base. I enjoyed it so much (I had been waiting for it for a very long time), and I’m not really an animal lover, nor am I into zoos. There was just something amazing about  these pandas living happily in the base that is everything but a zoo. It’s so huge, it’s a 5 stars hotel for pandas. No fences, glass or anything like that. Just trees, bamboos, rocks, water and toys, and the best part for them : no predators. I was also very lucky because four babies had been born recently and I was able to see them.

Sadly I can’t find my pictures of the base anymore.

When I come back to China (because I will, one day), I’ll probably go to Chengdu again, because I really want to discover the city, something I couldn’t do because my tour schedule was tight.

What did I do in OKAYAMA :

I visited the (very pretty) castle and gardens, and ate the most delicious prawn curry in the train station. But Okayama has a special spot in my memories for something else : the Franponais (the French version of Engrish). I think I never laughed so hard in my entire life, for 3 days straight, and even weeks later, everytime Nadia and I talked about it, we laughed again and could barely breathe. For HOURS.

This was in Beppu, but it shows you what I am talking about

We went there as a daytrip from Okayama and the curse followed us (it wasn’t over yet). The castle was hilarious because of the helmets :

The train ride, too, made us laugh. We were both looking at the landscape and passed a building. Here is how it went :

Me : *sees the building and frowns*

Nadia : *looks at me*

Me : *looks at her*

Together : I didn’t see what I think I saw, right ?

Me : I don’t know, what did you see ?

Nadia : Franponais.

Me : Did it really say “Le Café du NAVET” ? (“Turnip’s Café”)

Nadia : ….yes…

Me : OMG

What did I do in TAKAMATSU :

Mh, not a lot of things, I must say. Shopping, mostly, and discovering Megijima. Oh and of course, laughing. Franponais, again.

Palourde Rouge means Red Clam

Visited the city and castle (the prettiest I saw so far). And freaked out because of THIS :

Huge spider's head and legs (body wasn't there) VS my hand

Matsuyama Castle

I think I already said that I dislike Kyoto, the old capital of Japan, mainly because I feel like I am back home, seeing foreigners everywhere, and having to deal with loud and obnoxious tourists (the kind that would throw a soda can on the floor inside a zen garden… I bet you all saw someone like that once).

Takayama is prettier than Kyoto ; its History is less interesting, though. Sadly, the masses of tourists make it look like Disneyland.

Takayama was also the only place in Japan where Japanese people have been rude to me, and I had a really bad experience in a restaurant where the cute waiter forgot my food and we got kicked out because we had stayed too long waiting for the food he forgot. I was so pissed off at that point that I didn’t even try to say “where is my food, then ?” (throwing people out is normal in Japan, I know that, but there is a polite way to do it, and that’s not what happened there).

I caught the travel fatigue in Takayama (when you just want to lay down and relax and NOT visit anything for a few days), probably increased by all this.

But… would I go back ?

Yes. I would go in the middle of January, probably alone or with someone who knows the region. I would enjoy the scenery a lot more, I know it !

This kind of thing is a GREAT help for a writer whose books focus on feudal Japan

If you dislike a place, try to go back. It may not change, you might hate it again, or you might fall in love with it.

I have nothing to say about Niigata. It was very hot, Nadia got sick because of the sun, and my left leg and foot were still hurting from when I fell in Aizu. We visited the gardens and a temple, and after just a few hours we had enough and left for Nagano as soon as we could.

We were in Nagano because of its proximity with Joetsu, a small city in Niigata prefecture. The heat was too strong for me, so I didn’t really do anything in this place, besides going to the Net café and enjoying the location of our ryokan (inside a temple complex).

Joetsu, though, is another story.

Every year in this city is held the Kenshin Kousai, a festival about the famous warrior Uesugi Kenshin, and for 3 years now, Japanese rockstar GACKT is playing this role. Being a huge fan, as you might have noticed from earlier posts, I couldn’t miss a chance to see His Prettiness riding a horse in front of me, and I couldn’t miss a chance to take pictures of him either.

(note : most of the pictures in the following gallery are mine. The ones that are wider in length are Nadia’s)

This festival is in two parts : first, you get a ~ 1 hour parade in the city, and second, a ~ 2 hours battle reenactment in a field.

Everyone gathered in Joetsu very early in the morning to get a spot in the front. In Japan, it works that way : if you are there first, and mark your spot (with a chair, cover or anything to sit on), you can then leave and nobody will steal your place. So, everyone did that.

Everyone except us !

We had booked a hotel in Joetsu for the next night only, six months in advance (it was the only hotel of the area), but the night before we were in Nagano, and didn’t want to get up too early.

The festival was held on a Sunday. On Saturday, my friend went to Joetsu alone to visit the area and she came back knowing exactly how the city looked and where we should go to have a good spot. So, Sunday morning, we took the train and got to Joetsu around 1 pm. Of course, everyone was already there. We walked, until we found a place on the second “row”, there was someone in front of us. We sat down and waited. And around 3 pm, just before it started, they left because they wanted to go sit somewhere else, and we grabbed their spot immediatly.

Arriving after everyone else and still getting to the front ? Amazing. I have to say that it was one of the hottest days of that already hellish summer and that Joetsu is a shadeless town. Umbrellas were obligatory.

During the parade, a group stopped in front of us and wanted to offer drinks to us (beer, actually), and stayed there, using a fan on us. I really wonder how horribly sweaty we looked ! They simply wouldn’t leave ! I had seen 3 other foreigners on the other side of the street (one of them was an online friend of mine that I met later at the station), but I think, with them, we were the only ones there. Of course we were going to attract a lot of attention !

We did see my dearest god, we did take a lot of pictures of him and a few videos too, and it was already dark when we got back to the hotel.

To this day, I still remember this afternoon and evening as some of the best and funniest I spent in Japan. I will also remember the people of Joetsu in a very good way. Friendly, nice, curious and more open than in a lot of places. I regret not having been there this year.

What did we do during our 3 days stay ?

- we took the loop bus with two guys in complete samurai outfit, swords included

- we visited historic reconstructions, a samurai house and gardens

- we discovered how shitty the train schedule was when we tried to get to the old samurai school

- I fell down the stairs and hurt my knee so badly everyone in the hotel lobby panicked and ran to me with bandaids

- I listened to a young, cute and talented singer in the underpass

- I sat down in a park to try to write a chapter for a novel and was unable to do so because an old Chinese lady started talking to me and wouldn’t stop. I understood 20% of what she said (she spoke Japanese with a huge accent so it was very hard), and she was very shocked that I was not married, and was travelling by myself.

- we saw a man yelling insults to every tree he saw before falling asleep on the ground

- we ate delicious food

- we fell in love with the city and swore to go back one day

So, how did it start and when did we notice ?

Right after Osorezan, we went to Hirosaki for one day, during the Obon (a festival to honor the dead). Apparently everyone in the city had left to go see their family as it was a Saturday and a holiday. And I mean everyone.

The first thing we noticed was the emptiness and Hirosaki got named “Silent Hill” by the great Myself, something I do with every place looking like the town from the video game. Then, we saw that every single store was closed. Being in Japan, it was really strange, even more than not meeting anyone in the streets.

I had read a few reviews about Hirosaki, how it was a touristic spot, a historic place and so on. The latter, I could easily notice, but the touristic part ?

That’s when we crossed a bridge that we said yes, there was a curse somewhere. Until then, we had followed a map we got at the train station, to find Hirosaki’s castle. We had done everything correctly since we found ourselves where we needed to be, but there was no castle, just a temple complex. We thought it was like Sendai but soon, we realized the castle did exist, it was just not put in the right place on the map. We walked in the direction opposite to the 33 temples road, since it was indicated that way on another map or in the guidebook, but found ourselves ON the 33 temples road.

During that day, every single thing we did brought us to a temple even when we had tried to avoid it.

After a while, being hungry, we started looking for a restaurant and spent 2 hours trying to find one (did I mention we were lost, at that point ?)

Looking at our map, there was no doubt : the North was now South.

Our hotel was the only tower so when I decided to go back, it was really easy to find. I let Nadia go alone with our cursed map to finally get to the castle (she did find it, it existed).

This experience was hilarious, a bit frightening and very frustrating. Everything that could go wrong, went wrong, add to that the emptiness, crows everywhere and grey sky, and the day ended with two girls wondering what the gods would do next. Two girls who are not easily believing that kind of stuff, but who decided that maybe, just maybe, there was a slight risk that actually, monks were not praying to the Big Old Nothing (or flying spaghetti monster).

Was it over ?

Noooo !

So, what did we do next ? We continued our travel and everyday, something reminded us that stealing an offering had NOT been a good idea. After 3 or 4 days filled with situations we should not have encountered and Nadia being a target for everything (including bugs. Everything that could bite, bit her, she was covered in red itching dots every day and we once had to go to a pharmacy because it was so bad. Me ? Nothing.), we came to a decision : we would make an offering in each and every temple we would find until what we angered was satisfied.

So we started.

Actually, it was a good idea because when you go to Japan, if you are like me, you end up with a shitload of 1 yen coins. So we filled the donations boxes with 1 yen coins, even in convenience stores and McDonalds but especially in sacred places.

And so, did it work ?

Yes, after three weeks of donations it finally ended. I kept doing the donation thing, though, not because of the curse that was not even targeting me, but because I wanted to get rid of these useless 1 yen coins.

So, uhm… just a thought : don’t steal from the gods.

Osorezan is believed to be a portal for souls. Thus, it is considered one of the most sacred places of Japan and is more often visited by pilgrims than tourists. When Nadia and I got there, it was probably too hot to bring a crowd so we could truly appreciate the place and its atmosphere.

Acid lake, fumes, boiling mud, crows and a pond looking like a blood pool are waiting for the visitor. The fact that it is considered a gateway to Buddhist Hell is perfectly understandable.

The visit would have been every better if the weather had been less good. A grey sky over this scenery ? Probably perfect !

To go to this remote place we had to take a train from Hachinohe to Mutsu and then, a bus up the mountain. Buddhist chanting was the only thing we heard in the bus for the entire ride up and down, they only had one song on repeat, it was very irritating after a while.

The story of the place is, if true, quite impressive, but I will let you learn it by yourself when you go there and read the pamphlet at the entrance of the temple complex. Yes, I’m a tease.

I had the great idea to go walk on a very thin layer of ground and I could have been seriously injured if it had collapsed : under it, boiling water / mud. I could feel it under my feet ! There was no warning at all, nowhere.

I highly recommend a visit there. It was one of the highlights of my 2010 tour of Japan and definitely a place I would go to again. Below are a few of my pictures (the first one was taken by Nadia, obviously since I’m on it), but not my best ones, which will not be displayed on the Internet. It can just give you a little idea of what the site looks like.

Every time I walked out of a train station somewhere, the first thing I did was entering the Tourist Information Center. They exist for a reason, and believe me, they will not direct you to the most touristic places of the city if you tell them what you would like to see. Thanks to the one in Takamatsu (Shikoku region), we discovered what I will name my first travel secret :

1) Megijima

This is a very tiny island in the Inland Sea of Japan. A short boat ride from Takamatsu takes teenagers from the city all the way there to enjoy the beach in summer and a few Japanese tourists visit the caves up the hill of  Washigamine. Foreigners do not know about this place : when we arrived to the caves, one of the guys collecting the entrance fee asked me if I would like to be the English voice guide for the eventual non-Japanese speakers who would come there in the future. Why did I say no, I have no idea, and I regret it. I was too shy, maybe.

What I found thrilling about this place was not the caves, nor the melted ice cream which dropped on me and caused me to fall in the sand with my chair in front of everyone in the café : it was the night.

People don’t spend the night on the island ; we did. The Tourist Information Center booked a room in a family owned pension (named Takasago, but only written in hiragana on the building : たかさご ) for us for the night and we stayed.

As soon as the sun disappeared, everyone took the last boat. Megijima became a desert. The island hosts about 200 people but it looked like nobody was there. We walked in the streets of the village, in the dark, hearing the sound of the few greenish electric lights we saw on the way, barely seeing anything. It was surreal, and quite refreshing after the frenzy of Takamatsu.

2) The unknown Indian restaurant

In Saitama prefecture, on the Tobu Tojo line, is a city, Shiki, where I spent a few weeks of my life and, thanks to a friend living there, I discovered a gem : a very small Indian restaurant, hidden between a karaoke and an izakaya called 笑 – 笑, wara-wara. To find it, exit Shiki station from the left when you arrive, walk straight and after the smoking area, Pachinko parlor and bus stop, cross the road to arrive in front of the Italian Tomato restaurant, turn right, cross the road again. You will be near a convenience store. Walk a little bit on your left, and you will see the izakaya. The Indian restaurant is a bit further ahead.

This is the real deal : the food is delicious, cheap and very spicy ; the restaurant is small and makes you feel like you are in India ; the cook and the owner are Indian. A TV shows you the most recent Indian PV and you will have a taste of the most perfect chai tea I ever had. I recommend the chicken Masala. You can stay there all day if you want to, they will not kick you out.

Another Indian restaurant I recommend is located downstairs in Okayama station, you can find it easily, it’s the only one there. There, the prawn curry is fantastic, and the waiter alone makes it worth it to eat there, because he’s so friendly.

3) Aizu Wakamatsu

This city, in Fukushima prefecture, is in a remote area and I would never have heard about it if a friend, a Japanese History obsessed girl, hadn’t urged me to go. If you watched the recent anime or played the game “Hakuouki : Shinsengumi Kitan”, Aizu is probably ringing a bell to you. Museums, gardens, hot springs, temples, samurai school, a castle and an impressive historical reconstitution of a samurai lord’s house await you there, where nobody speaks English and everyone is friendly.

Taking the bus and having two guys wearing a complete samurai armour, swords included, join you for the ride ? Priceless.

I will surely go back ; three days weren’t enough to visit the region (historical sites are scattered everywhere outside the city, too, and the train schedule is not very convenient).

And if you are wondering : according to Japan-Guide.com , radiation levels in Aizu are only slightly heightened and pose no health risk to tourist .

So, this was my contribution to the 3 Best Kept Travel Secrets. While I wish Aizu would stay unknown to tourists, I also feel guilty when someone goes to Japan and misses it.