Beijing - Temple of Heaven

Temple of Heaven was built in 1420 and used to be a place where emperors of China went to worship Heaven and offer sacrifices to pray for good harvest. It became an official UNESCO World Heritage site in 1998.

The Temple of Heaven is in the middle of a large park:

 

In this park, people were doing taichi and even ballroom dancing!

 

Trees and grass are rare in Beijing, so it was great to see there were so many of it in this park and how well it was maintained!

 

The entrance of the Temple of Heaven:

 

The doors opened up so we could take photos of the inside. But no one is allowed entry into the actual temple.

 

 

This is the East Annex hall used to house and worship the divine tablets of attendant gods.

 

 The temple is surrounded by a marble fence. Lovely, isn't it?!

Great Wall of China - Jinshanling

Hiking along the Great Wall of China has always been a part of my bucket list, things to do before I die, so it was extremely exciting for me to be able to actually do it.

We picked the Jinshanling section of the Great Wall for several reasons:
1. It was 2 hours from Beijing, so it cut down on the volume of visitors
2. There were some ruined parts along the path
3. It's one of the oldest parts of the Great Wall of China

There are many more pictures and I will put them on DropBox. Let me know if you want to see them as well and I will send you the link.


Map of the Jinshanling Great Wall, along with a welcome mural in marble depicting the history of this section.

 

Along the great wall, there are many tunnels, watchtowers, stairs, and little hideaways. Matt looks like a giant in the doorway!

 

The more renovated parts of the section:

 

This part of the great wall is NOT FLAT. Very curvy as it follows the top edge of the mountain.  Here are pics from several points along the hike.

 

Matt and I at one of the watchtowers: 

 

 

The exterior side of the wall:

 

The remains of a watchtower:

 

Very steep part of the section. The slope was ridiculous. Notice how the walls are missing on both sides! Scary, as it is a long way down the mountain and it was a breezy day.

 

This is a far shot of what we climbed. See how steep it was!!!

 



 On the way down, we decided to take a cable car:

 

And then relax a little before our bus ride home with a couple cans of beer. Well deserved!!

Big Band - Nagoya style

Our friends Chris and Michelle invited us out to a big band concert near Yagoto. We didn't know, but it turns out the saxophonist band leader works with Chris at Toyota. He's a great saxophonist!

PS: He's the guy in the close up photo.

Fish Market - Tsubakai Ichiba

Japan is famous for its fish market and Nagoya is no exception. Fish markets typically open from 4:30am - 8:30am, so it is imperative to get up early and head to the fish market to get the freshest stuff.

Note: Those who are suffering from jetlag should go to fish markets. You're up anyway....

So one very early morning, I met up with my friend Shayla and headed to the nearby fish market.

 

 

Inside was a maze of many vendors trying to sell any seafood you can imagine. There were some who were cutting up tuna right in front of your eyes:

 

And others who were just trying to sell whatever they caught that morning. Here's a few amazing shots of products. Can you believe the size of these shrimps?!

 

Or the size of these octopus or oysters:

 

It was truly amazing. If it wasn't so early, I'd be going there for my fresh fish everyday.

Here's what I ended up getting - big sashimi slices of tuna -

 

and ALL FOR 500yen ($5 CAD)

Summer weather is HERE!

Hello, hello,

After a few awful weeks of intense schoolwork and Beijing, I am now able to take a little break and blog. So be prepared for many blogs!

Now that nice weather is upon us, we've been enjoying the weather on our balcony with our newly purchased patio set and hibachi grill.

Our lovely patio set - 2 wicker chairs with matching round glass table. Perfect for our balcony.

 

Here's Matt making our dinner using the hibachi grill. Yum - grilled meat!

 

 

Goes great with a couple glasses of Bordeaux wine.

 

So nice just to be able to relax and enjoy the view. Compai!

Johan and Brie

Our first cheese plate in Nagoya.

Cheese is very expensive here, so it's a real treat and a little splurge when we have it. Here's to our first (and many more) cheese plates in Nagoya.

 

Thank you Johan for the amazing baguette. It was so delicious and baked fresh everyday!

Sushi - Conveyor style

Japan is famous for conveyor sushi, basically plates of sushi goes round and round a conveyor and you pick up plates of sushi you want to eat. Sushi's come on different coloured plates to distinguish price of each dish.

Delicious conveyor sushi - salmon, white tuna, tuna tempura, and mackerel.

Can't wait for the next round!