Beijing Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City: Heading to see a hutong (traditional Chinese townhouses), and dumpling making: Meeting a “Cricket”champion, no not the sport, but the insect. He claims he paid for his hutong with his winnings from...
The Terracotta Warrior Day in X’ian
Today, we went to see the Terracotta Warriors, outside of Xian, China. The Terricotta Warriors were constructed by Emperor Qin (pronouced chin), the first ruler in China to use the title ‘Emperor’ for himself. He unified all of the...
Pingyao, The Wang Family Mansion and More
Today, we took the bullet train to Pingyao. We all had to get up extra early so we could beat the Beijing traffic. We learned that we had to go early because a lot of the soldiers in the...
THE SUMMER WALL OF CHINA or wait was it THE SUMMER PALACE and THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA sounds right
Today we went to the Great Wall of China and the summer palace. Two places I’ve always wanted to visit. First we took a chair lift up from the base of the mountain to the top, where we got...
A Day of Peace in Beijing
Though we, technically, had a day off today (translation: we were on our own…no guide), we decided to visit three temples, but the first and last were the most special to us. The first was the Yonghe Gong Temple (Lama...
Visiting the Forbidden City
Today, we visited the Forbidden City in Beijing. We started by driving to Tiananmen Square, and getting a good view of the front gate. When we get out, the first thing I realized is that there are thousands of...
Kanpai! Tokyo Photo Blog
While we were only there for essentially 2 days, we had an incredible experience and really enjoyed ourselves in Tokyo. It was amazing to see a city of 34 million people. There were certain times of day when you...
The Art of Ninja
Today we were trained in the mysterious ancient Japanese art of being a ninja. We learned about the history of ninjas and their role in espionage (being a spy). We also learned that our preconceived notions of ninjas yelling...
Tsukiji Fish Market Adventure
Today in Tokyo we went to Tsukiji Fish Market. It was crazy and cool to see. We met a really nice and smart chef named Andy, who is British, at the Tsukiji (pronounced Su-Key-Gee) Fish Market. He has been going...