So why was our trip to Japan, in which we spent much of our time in transit between and around Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka, a historically faithful experience? Back in the time of the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1868), a lot of people did a lot of expensive and time-consuming traveling back and forth between Tokyo and… Continue reading Traveling the Tōkaidō
Category: Travel
News and notes from trips outside Beijing, or relating to previous trips to Beijing or other parts of the world.
Tokyo trains
(Dear reader, I promise sometime I will write a post that discusses something other than public transit or language. This is not that post.) Last week, during Sonja’s spring break from school, we took a trip to Japan. It meant that we missed Taiwan’s biggest earthquake in 25 years, which was both a relief and… Continue reading Tokyo trains
Fifteen years later…
Hello! We had a bit of a hiatus, I guess; I think my last post was fifteen years ago. In the meantime, Babi got a library-science degree, we moved to central Pennsylvania, had another kid, and then moved to Denver. Since 2014 we’ve had the same jobs and no more kids, so I guess we… Continue reading Fifteen years later…
Meteora
This is a story that, like many disaster stories, starts out great, then ends in, well, disaster. Only the disaster wasn’t really a disaster, more like just a bad afternoon. And, like many tales of travel disasters, it gets less disastrous and more amusing with every retelling (for those who were there, anyway, not necessarily… Continue reading Meteora
Back in Beijing, Hu in Seattle
We arrived Monday afternoon back in Beijing, flown from the sunny blue Aegean to the Chinese capital at the tail end of a 10-day dust storm. Parked cars and buildings are coated in light brown powder that matches the color of the sky. Bicyclists squint against the dust, pedaling furiously and blindly against the wind.… Continue reading Back in Beijing, Hu in Seattle