The Flyin' Liz Ryen

16 Sept  My days of luxury came to an end. Walking around the temples and shrines of Nikko, and staying in one place for 2 whole nights was exactly what I needed. Using my legs to walk through people's wedding pictures instead of cycling was a wonderful change of pace.  I ate everything I saw including the local delicacy-the skin that forms when you boil bean curds. It tastes like tofu (so it tastes like nothing) and I ate it a few different ways. In thin slices dipped in wasabi and soy, rolled and plopped into a bowl of soba noodles, and wrapped around sweet rice and deep fried. All good. With 150kms left to tokyo, rainy days, and navigating traffic, I planned to break it up into 2 days. Since there weren't any hotels less than $200 per night in between, once again I found myself wild camping, this time in the very strange park of Koba.   The park looked like an old military base and most of it was head high bamboo and foliage. Now it was perhaps a nature ref...

17 Sept- Monday (national respect the elders day)  With the temps above 30 and the humidity above 87% I slowly walked toward the closest botanical garden and tried to be motivated to explore Tokyo. It just wasn't happening. I couldn't even motivate to get up for ice cream, so I spent the morning reading in the park. In the early afternoon the humidity seemed to drop and I began to explore.  Plastic food lined every street which can be very handy helping you work up an appetite. The city is non stop simulation, flashing lights, gigantic tv's, robots, music blasting from shops and from music trucks that cruise the streets. You can dress up like super Mario and drive a go cart through the city. There are cafes filled with cats that you can play with while you drink coffee and cafes with live owls and hedgehogs. It took me awhile to find things because not everything is street level. Restaurants that are advertised at ground level can be 7 floors up and today I found a h...

20 September 2018- Thursday Oh Japan. When deciding on this trip I though it would be an easy place to go. Little did I realize that this country had a lot of challenge in store for me. I had days with rain, humidity, and very steep hills. There were many moments when I wanted to fire my vacation planner and wondered why I couldn't be happy just sitting on a beach drinking Mai Tais.  Now, sitting at home, it's dawning on me just how unique, how special, and despite how it may have sounded in my blog, how fun it was to travel through Japan. Tokyo is Japan condensed into a city of immense proportions. I had thought I would walk everywhere but going 2 inches on my tourist map equaled almost 2 hours of walking. So, with a deep breath I faced the Tokyo subway starting at the busiest station in the city... just in time for morning rush hour. The subway becomes so overcrowded that men have jobs standing on the platform to push people in as tightly as possible in order to a...