we arrived in CHINA

Gate of Heavenly Peace - Tiananmen Square
Beijing - June 25th 2008.

Imperial Palace - Tokyo

Japan is awesome! :)

Tokyo International Forum

Tsukiji Market - Tokyo

Tsukiji Market - a quantidade de atum pescado e leioado diariamente e inacreditavel!

Depois de vermos o mercado, fomos num sushi bar da regiao onde sao servidos os peixes mais frescos que ja comemos - nosso primeiro sushi breakfast!

:)

Golden Gai

Golden Gai - uma parte muito interessante "off the beaten path" of Tokyo.

Nesses "micro bares" se concentra a bohemia de Tokyo...tivemos a sorte de conhecer esse lado BEM descontraido da cidade.

A conversa com as locais foi MUITO positiva e nos mostrou um lado muito especial dos japoneses!

Geisha

Geisha em Gion, o bairro do nosso hotel em uma regiao antiga da cidade.

Ryoanji Temple

In December 1994, this temple was designated as World Heritage by UNESCO.

It is a simple rock garden, consisting of nothing but white gravel/sand and 15 rocks, laid out just after the Onin Wars in the late 15th century. Put simply, this rock garden is acknowledged to be one of the absolute masterpieces of Japanese culture. The simple yet striking garden is just 30 meters long from east to west and 10 meters from north to south. There are no trees, just 15 irregularly shaped rocks of varying sizes, some surrounded by moss, arranged in a bed of white gravel/sand that is raked every day. The elimination of trees and plants and overall simplicity is reminiscent of abstract art.

Kinkaku-ji Temple & Kiyomizu-dera Temple

The Golden Pavillion in the Kinkaku-ji Temple is one of the best known temples in Kyoto and probably in Japan. The Kiyomizu-dera, is a Unesco World Heritage and is one of the oldest temples in the city of Kyoto.

Depois desses 3 dias em Kyoto ficou evidente porque Kyoto eh considerado um dos maiores centros culturais do Japao...a cidade tem em torno de 1600 templos, 400 shinto shrines e dezenas de jardins e museus.

Dificil foi visitar tudo isso de bicicleta e com chuva : )

Chishaku-in Temple - Kyoto

Sanjusangen-do Temple - National Treasure

The principal images of Sanjusangen-do are the 1001 statues of the Buddhist deity Kannon.

Ficamos impressionados com a quantidade de detalhes das 1001 estatuas de madeira (cipreste), dos seculos XII e XIII.

BakPak Kyoto

Lilica atualizando o blog!

:)

Off to Kyoto (via Trem-Bala!)

Shibuya

Shibuya is the youth culture mecca.

There were tons of people showing off the latest and craziest trends in fashion!

Tokyo National Museum

Plastic Food

Kappabashi - Kichenware Town - Tokyo

This is the area where the restaurants come to buy the plastic food displays.

The Sensoji Temple - Tokyo

Sensoji is dedicated to the bodhisattva Kannon, a popular Buddhist God.

It was very interesting to observe Asakusa locals offering prayers to the Kannon.

The five-soried Pagoda is one of the tallest in Japan.

Japan Airlines 5-course dinner menu

Including free beer and sake :)

Can we live with only these for three months????

"The Departure"

Depois da correria para organizar a mudanca e os ultimos detalhes da viagem, encerrramos a nossa estadia em LA com um churrasquinho para os amigos no apartamento vazio... e fechamos a noite com o Pedro e a Dani (and a bottle of wine) :)

Amigos, obrigada pela ajuda com a mudanca!

Despedida LA

Our "shortcut" to Brazil starts today. But, before we departure to Tokyo, our first stop, we wanted to create a space to share a few moments of our trip with you. This is it! Please check our blog regularly so we can keep in touch.

Before we start writing about this trip, we want to thank you one more time. Without your support, LA would not have been the same! We will miss you all.

All the best,
Alex & Lilian