Japan has to be the world export leader of all things cute and among their cute exports, Hello Kitty is probably the most famous. Everyone knows her, but very few are familiar with her equally cute, but decidedly more evil, twin Hell Kitty. Surprisingly, it's the good twin who seems to have set her sights on world domination, with stores and products all over the planet, while … [Read more...]
Homestay in Jiaju Where A Film Crew Steals our Feast
Once we had gotten rid of our drunk, lunatic driver, we had no choice but to walk around Jiaju village with all our bags until we found a place offering homestays that actually had rooms available. It took us about an hour, but we eventually ended up staying with a really nice family who had no other guests, leaving us with our choice of rooms. Of course that choice was between … [Read more...]
Even the Cows Demand Money in Pushkar
I though this photo pretty much perfectly sums up the town of Pushkar in the Indian state of Rajasthan: cows and demands on our money. To be fair, this donation box is obviously not aimed at foreign tourists and all cows have a tendency to look evil and angry when they stare straight into the camera, but I still found it fitting. As one of the five sacred pilgrimage sites … [Read more...]
Exploring the Tibetan Villages of Zhonglu and Suopo
Last week, I wrote about our first afternoon and evening in Danba, which we spent getting a hotel room, arranging a car and driver for the next morning, eating an average meal, and buying fresh fruit and a giant bag of peanuts to supplement that meal. I created quite a little mountain of empty peanut shells before going to bed that night, but barely managed to put a dent in my … [Read more...]
Spring Themed Japanese Smoking Manners Posters
I figured it's time for some spring-themed smoking manners posters. This first one refers to the pollen problem in Japan, which really does get pretty bad, thanks to the Japanese Cedar. Most visitors end up suffering quite a bit, even if they don't generally get allergies in their home countries. Luckily I never had a problem, but most of my less perfect coworkers always got … [Read more...]