Itinerary '07
From Macska Travel Co.
Contents |
Trip Itinerary
Macska and Macskafogo Take on the World!
Countries
Japan
Robots in Tokyo!
Tokyo - May 1-8 2007
Tokyo is our first destination. We'll be arriving May 1 at 3:55pm Tokyotime. Our stay is set for 7 nights, 8 days. Our current conception of Tokyo is really just Neon Genesis Evangelion, so it will be interesting to contrast that with reality. The plan as of now is to explore Tokyo for a few days and hopefully get out to see some of the Japanese countryside.
- From Lonely Planet Guidebook
- Shibuya
- Harajuku fashion especially on Takeshita street
- Love Hotel Hill is a concentration of love hotels around the Shibuya district. Delightfully gawdy and over-the-top, love hotels are a young Tokyoite's response to the mounting problem of overcrowding. Many young couples still live with their respective families and needless to say, a parent's home is not the most conducive environment for a romantic rendezvous. The Love Hotel industry comes to their aid, complete with chintzy decor and bed-vibrating magic fingers. Themes vary from an Arabian Night's Palace to a Cupid explosion. Apparently, in order to preserve the anonymity of the couples, rooms can be ordered by touch button with no human contact (quite possibly the best use of a vending machine ever)!
- Details: Take the JR Yamanote Line or Subway Ginza Line to Shibuya (Hachiko exit). Follow the road up Dogenzaka to the left of the Shibuya 109 building. At the top of the hill, on the side streets that run off the main road, is a grouping of love hotels that cater to all tastes :) Cost: Reasonable nightly rates after 10:00pm.
- Chuo-ku and Minato-ku
- Tsukiji Central Fish Market is part of the renowned Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market in the Tsukiji district of Chuo-ku. The biggest wholesale seafood market in the world. I guess this means Kat has to buck up and try sushi ...
- Details: Take the Teoi-Oedo subway line to Tsukijishijo(exit A1) or Hibiya Line to Tsukiji (exit 1 or 2). Cost: Free!
- Hamarikyu Gardens is a detached garden to the palace of the Shogun Tokugawa family. It seems very calming from available descriptions, with its manicured trees, elaborate floral displays, and tea pavillion. In the evenings, old Japanese couples frequent the park to play chess and dance.
- Details: Take the Toei-Oedo line to Shiodome (exit A2 or A3) or Tsukiji (exit A2). Cost: 300 Yen
- Akihabara and Kanda
- Electric town is looking to be one of the biggest highlights of Japan. The place is brimming with gadgets and cheap-tech as far as the eye can see down those tortuous, neon-lit streets. Also a chance for Matt to meet his Japanese cousin, the otaku (as I read up more on the term, Matt's association with the otaku becomes a mite dubious, but not enough for me to change anything previously written). Electric town is also a haven for manga/anime catering to a wide gamut of tastes at all-night manga cafes. Particularly interesting is the female-otaku preference in manga, specifically a male-homosexual genre called Boy's Love that depicts an ideal of love and tenderness between men. The latest Japanese bizarre fads are alive and well in Electric town. One such example is maid cafes, where alluring girls, clad as French maids, serve drinks and baby the cafe patrons. No doubt, Electric town will be something else.
- Details: Take the JR Yamanote or JR Sobu line to Akihabara (Denki-gai exit). Cost: Free :)
- Nagatacho
- National Diet Building is the governments!
- Odaiba
- Ikebukuro
- Ueno
- Ameyoko is a genuine Asian bazaar, where vendors and patrons are expected to haggle to their cheap heart's delight.
- Asakusa
Asakusa is the location of our booked hostel and since its primarily known for its temples and shrines, we should have a nice buffer from the city noise.
- Roppongi
- Roppongi Hills is an enormous shopping complex and commercial hub. The brain-child of real-estate tycoon Minoru Mori, construction of the complex took 17 years and cost over $4 billion to complete. According to the wikipedia article, "Mori's stated vision was to build an integrated development where high-rise inner-urban communities allow people to live, work, play, and shop in proximity to eliminate commuting time." Ah, efficiency at its finest. The gem of Roppongi hills is the Mori Tower, a veritable Mecca of Mallrats the world over, with 54 stories of entertainment and fine dining including a hotel and art museum. This would be interesting just for the sheer size of the thing. Neither Matt nor I are normally one for malls, but it will be awesome to sip some caffienated beverage and watch the crowds bustle by.
- Details: Take the Hibiya or Toei-Oedo line to Roppongi (Exit 1c). Cost: Nothing to wander about
- Shinjuku
- Nishi-shinjuku is Tokyo's premier skyscraper district. Featuring some pretty neat architecture, the highlights of this urban sprawl are
- Kabukicho is the local red light district. Besides the bawdy nightlife, the area is also infamous as the playground for various crimnal groups like the yakuza. Apparently, this connection is exagerated and Kabukicho is quite safe for touring.
- Outside of Tokyo
- Mount Fuji or Fuji-san is a must. Iconic throughout Japanese art and literature for its rugged beauty, what a stark contrast it will be to the Tokyo-mega-metropolis. Mount Fuji is surrounded by 5 lakes as part of the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park. It is listed as an active volcano and sits at the juncture of the 3 tectonic plates that comprise the Japanese mainland, Honshu. At the base of the mountain lies the forest Aokigahara ("Sea of Trees" ), which has been the subject of many fantastic rumors. Ice caverns within Aokigahara such as the Ice and Wind Caves can be explored by hikers, providing yet another wonderful excuse to wear our headlamps. The forest has taken on a morbid and sinister reputation as a prime locale for suicide. The problem has become so rampant that signs offering help are posted throughout the area. It's decided: Matt and I are climbing Mount Fuji!
- Details: Transport offered by the Keiokosoku bus line (5376-2222). The 1.75 hour journey departs from the long distance bus station on the west side of Shinjuku Station. Cost: 1700 Yen
South Korea
Seoul - May 8-13 2007
Next we fly to Seoul.
- Five Grand Palaces of Joseon-Dynasty Seoul
- Gyeongbok Palace
- Changdeok Palace or Palace of Prospering Virtue
- Changyeong Palace
- Deoksu Palace
- Geonghui Palace
- Jung-gu
- Namsan
- Seoul Tower is quite a communication station.
- Tower Palalce is a collection of very spiffy apartments.
- Namdaemun Market
- Sungnyemun
- War Memorial
- Seocho-gu
- Seorae Village is called the Montmatre of Seoul. It is a hamlet of French buisness folk who maintain a bit of their language and culture among the Koreans. The village has more bakeries and wine shops than it knows what to do with, but that's the French joie de vivre, non?
- Jongno-gu
- Insadong Area
- Munmyo Shrine
- Cheonggyecheon is a creek that flows through downtown Seoul and later converges with the Han River. In the late 60s it was covered in concrete for road construction, but a $900 million renovation project was undertaken in 2003 to revive the creek and beautify the city.
- Yongsan-gu
- Yongsan Electronics Market will be a good contrast with Tokyo's Akihabara. And of course, more cheap tech.
- Itaewon is home to a sizable American Expat communiity. It is also a hub for LGBT bars and specialty stores. Prostitution is fairly rampant, with the most active site named Hooker Hill. Interestingly, Itaewon is dotted with luxury hotels and high-end real estate.
- Seodaemun-gu
- Sinchon is a college district and entertainment
- Yeuido Island
- DLI 63 Building
- National Assembly Building houses the South Korean governments!
- Yoido Full Gospel Church is the biggest Christian congregation in the world. If the building itself is any indication, these parishoners are very serious about their praising. The church looks more like a gladiatorial arena than a house of the lord. Every week, a membership of 800,000 attend any of the 9 Sunday services translated into 16 languages.
China
Shanghai - May 13-15 2007
Next comes our flight to Shanghai. We are expecting nothing less than Blade Runner.
- Huangpu District
- Luwan District
- Pudong District
- Jin Mao Building is the tallest building in the PRC.
- Oriental Pearl Tower is a TV tower. Though iconic of the Pudong skyline, the tower was actually modeled after Berlin's Fernsehturm.
- Maglev trains! Matt will be in bliss.
- Xuhui District
- Jing'an District
- Hongkou District
Beijing - May 15-19 2007
Mongolia
Ulaanbaatar - May 19-24 2007
- In the City
- Choijin Lama Monastery
- National Museum of Mongolian History
- Gandantegchinlen Khiid Monastery
- Opera House
- Zaisan Memorial
- Outside Ulaanbaatar
Russia
Our first stop in Russia is Irkutsk, on the southern edge of lake Baikal. Word has it that the Trans-Siberian railroad is the primary way for people to get around Russia and because they are mostly poor, the railroad company cannot raise their rates. To make up for this, a second class four-bed sleeper is about four times as expensive, and a first class two-bed sleeper is about eight times as expensive as third class. However, even given these rates, a second class trip is fairly affordable for a pair of college students.
Another benefit to paying more is that you get service where there is a reasonable chance that someone can speak English! Apparently the thing to look for is "CV" (in Cyrillic letters) or "CB" (in Latin letters), which means something like "Highest Class".
Irkutsk - May 24-28 2007
One Stop Along the Trans-Siberian Railroad
We decided to stop off at one city in central Siberia -- below are our notes for the three possibilities we've considered! All of these cities are located on major rivers or the intersection of major rivers, and seem to have gained much importance during WWII as destinations for industries threatened by the eastward expansion of the Germans. After weighing our options, we're set to visit Omsk :)
Novosibirsk
Novosibirsk along the Ob River
- From Wikipedia entry
- World-famous zoo -- over 700,000 visitors yearly.
- Largest city in Siberia, 3rd largest in Russia
- The city lies along the Ob River in the West Siberian Plain. = pretty?
- Home to Russia's most powerful shortwave relay station east of the Ural mountains.
- Siberian Branch of Science Academy of the USSR, so called Academgorodok.
- From Vladimir and the Hungarian Wikipedia entry:
- City's importance really took off during WWII, when Stalin relocated over 50 heavy industry operations from Europe to Novosibirsk.
- Research university established in late 50's.
Omsk
- From the English Wikipedia entry
- Gateway to Siberia
- Languished during the Soviet-era, but also grew militarily during WWII as over 100 industries were relocated here.
- Now something of an oil town, with remnants of its ~1900's heyday
- About 1,130,000 inhabitants.
- From Vladimir
- Very good for wandering: Omsk is an old city with lots of history around the 1900's
- Swampy
- Dostoyevsky lived and worked in exile here
- From the German Wikipedia entry
- There are pockets of German-speaking peoples around the city of Omsk who were driven here during WWII from lands near the Volga river
Krasnoyarsk
- Wikipedia entry
- What makes Krasnoyarsk different from either Omsk or Novosibirsk is the Stolby nature reserve and the Krasnoyarsk Hydroelectric dam, once the largest, now the fifth largest in the world (and over 90 years old, too!)
- Otherwise, Krasnoyarsk shares a similar history: boom during WWII, dilapidation during the early 90's, financial scandals during the 90's, slow recovery beginning in the 21st century, and lots of higher-education institutions.
- Krasnoyarsk was actually closed to foreign visitors until the late 1980's.
- Famous Trans-Siberian Railroad bridge crossing the Yenisei river here.
- Fantabulous Siberian Tour Guide -- focused on Krasnoyarsk and surrounding region.
- There is some gorgeous, lush green nature here.
- Krasnoyarsk is the smallest city in our list, with about 900,000 inhabitants.
Crossing the Urals
There is a fantastic sign as the Trans-Siberian railroad crosses the Ural mountains, pointing out to you that you are crossing from Asia into Europe (or vice-versa).
Moscow
When I told Vladimir that I was planning on stopping in Moscow, he said, "The criminal element in Moscow is fairly strong, but I think that you will be too small for them, so it's OK." Moscow is very expensive (more expensive than New York!) but word has it that there are cheap ways to get around -- hey, the local, non-mafia need to get around too, right?
St. Petersburg
Another recommendation from Vladimir: St. Petersburg (or Leningrad, as Vladimir put it), is supposed to be much calmer than Moscow, with plenty of history and travel friendly as well. It also happens to lie practically on the line from Moscow to Tallinn as the crow flies, so how could we pass it up?
Finland
Helsinki
Finland, why not give it a go?
