Scenes from Cairo

The very busy roads.

The Nile River

Just taking a nap.

  

The Egyptian Museum

I don't know what to say about this place other than I was amazed. It was absolutely wonderful and my favourite place in Cairo. I was just blown away with the exhibits. It is so huge that I wasn't able to see it all. Unfortunately at the time I was there, many of Tutankhamen's artifacts were in the US for an exhibit. Of course there was still plenty of things to see there. There is no photography in the museum allowed, but I did take a photo of the outside.

My Apartment in Cairo

It was cheaper this trip to rent an apartment rather than pay for a hotel It was a very decent sized place with 2 bathrooms and 3 bedrooms. The apartment was bigger than my house, though the colours took a little while to get used to. 

Interesting tidbit about Japanese Law

I read in the paper today that if a Japanese woman has a baby less than 300 days following a divorce with another partner then the ex-husband is legally named the father. The only way to sort it out, regardless if they have married a new man, is to have their ex-husband state for the record the baby is not his or have the new husband go to court to prove he is the father. 

Gotemba

I went with Ai on a day trip to Gotemba, which was very cool. Of course we started at the outlet shops, it's like this village of exclusive shops I would usually never be able to afford anything from. After that we went to Tokinosumika, which is this beautiful place that is just lit up with lights. There is a big archway that you can walk through for about 200m, it was just gorgeous.

"love"

White Day

I was walking around the city with my friend and there were Valentines Day decorations everywhere. The streets were red with hearts and streamers and everything else 'love'.
On Valentines Day, it is the girls who give the guys presents, and the Japanese have made up ANOTHER day called "White Day",a month later (March 14th), where the guys give girls presents. My friend was dating a foreigner and became very upset when he didnt give her anything for White Day...the poor guy was confused and had no idea why he was in trouble.

Egypt

I didn't sleep on the plane at all from Narita to Amsterdam or on the plane to Cairo, so I went about 20 hours without sleep, arrived at 2am at the airport and 4am at the hotel. Credit Card issues, which was fantastic to hear so early the morning, thinking they were going to kick me out of the hotel!

I went to the pyramids and saw the sphinx. It was so amazing being so close to them. There were ruins of the old houses that the workers lived in, and also ruins of their graves. I didn't ride a camel, I am sorry to EVERYONE who asked me to, but surprisingly my tour company had run out of camels. Luckily I am a horse person, offer me a horse or a weird shaped spitting animal, and I will choose the horse everytime. After the tour of the pyramids I bought some really nice perfume that will supposedly help me get a boyfriend (I am still waiting for my omamori to kick in), but it just smells so good!

Driving to the pyramids was an adventure, they are crazy drivers! I think at one point he was driving at about 140km/h down a very busy road. There is meant to be 3 lanes of traffic, but somehow Egyptian drivers manage to squeeze in 5 lanes. They all just beep each other when they want to get past. I would never want to drive there.

My driver took me to the papyrus museum, that was really interesting and beautiful. I bought a piece of papyrus with the Eye of Protection painted on it. The guy who showed me around then also gave me a free hieroglyphic alphabet on a small piece of papyrus. It was a pity I wasn't allowed to take photos of them.

I found that everyone in Cairo stared at me, men, women, children. I was proposed to about eight times, all up. I was offered many cows for my hand in marriage. One of the managers at the hotel took my photo and the staff who stand at the dining room doors would stare at me. It was the weirdest feeling. Everyone was really nice though, and so the trip was fantastic. I made friends with foreigners too at the bar...oh I was at home at the bar!

I wanted more photos, but on the tour because we were riding horses and I didn't have my bag, the guide had my camera. There were also a few places I went to that I couldn't take photos, but I had lots of fun! 

Let's Learn about Japan!

My lovely friend Ai gave me 'The Illustrated Guide to Japan - Daily Life & Society' (JTB). It's a book about everything possible in Japan. I have found some things I thought I would share, from what I have read...

On December 31st in the Akita Prefecture (state) 'Young men dressed as demons in fearsome masks enter people's houses yelling, "Whoop, whoop, naguko wa inegaa?" ("Are there any whiny children here?") to warn children against laziness' It's called Namahage. - I do wonder how well that would work in Australia....I am thinking about returning to work in Australia wearing a demon mask.

Did you know that Japanese people rarely wear loincloths in daily life??? Nowadays loinclothes are for climbing up ropes hanging down from the temple roof during the Yanaizu hadaka mairi festival in July.

In Japan they actually have a name for a certain type of single person...the Parasite Single! These are apparently single people who earn steady incomes but remain living with their parents...charming isn't it?!?!

Kyoto

Kyoto is one of my favourite cities in Japan. I have to admit that I loved almost everything about Japan, so I would probably say that about every city I visited, if I was honest. While over in Japan I did become quite interested in photography because of all the interesting sights there were. It did make me a better photographer and made me appreciate that you can find interest and beauty all around. 

Some weird statue of a dog chasing a guy in front of a restaurant, I'm guessing to prove how yummy the food is. He was anatomically 'correct' too, which you see if I had taken 3 steps to the right.

This is gravel that has been shaped this way, it was just so amazing some of the structures they had made.

The tree has fortunes tied to it that people didn't like. If you have a fortune that is negative you can tie it to the tree and pray.

The view from the Kiyomizu temple

The Kiyomizu temple

Byodion, Phoenix Hall. This is what is on the 10yen coin.

The Golden Pavilion (Kinkaku-ji) in Kyoto

Ai and I again packed our bags for another adventure. This time to one of her favourite places, Kyoto.

We stayed at Goju Guesthouse. It was a cute little place and a nice place to stay. 

Our beds in the Backpackers, just drag them on the floor and unroll. It was heaven for me, it was thicker than my normal 'futon' at home! 

The Golden Pavilion: kinkaku-ji

The Silver Pavilion: ginkaku-ji, it was intended that it would be covered with silver leafing (similar to the Golden Pavilion), but it was soon realised that it was going to be too expensive so it remained the way it was.

T is for t-shirt

Usually I can figure out what they mean but not this one....

Ueno Park and Zoo

I spent the day riding around on a bicycle in the busy city of Ueno. I was terrified I was going to plow right into someone because people were all over the footpaths, where it is common to ride your bikes.  It is not particularly a normal thing for me to do back home because I hate riding on the roads, so I was really apprehensive but had a smile on my face when a friend suggested we hire bikes...yay :)

Aside from the absolute terror that I would knock over someone, Ueno was a beautiful place to see. Gorgeous park and the zoo was so big I was unable to see the whole thing.

Click here to read more information about the Ueno Zoo