Canada trip day 2: August 25, 2009

We woke up at 9:15am because we went to bed near midnight. We missed the breakfast time at the hotel, so we ate breakfast at Sunset Grill restaurant near the hotel. The portions were generous, but my vegetarian omelet was tasteless. Their freshly squeezed juice was good.

Printed VIA tickets. Walked to the Hippo tours station. Missed the 1pm bus. Took the skywalk to CN tower. Bought Citybook passes. Did not enter the tower because they told us that we need to wait 30 minutes. Looked for a restaurant. Found one after 2pm. Dan and I ordered Angus meatloaf, which was good. The weather was comfortable. Not too hot, and not humid. Much better than the weather in Japan or New Jersey at this time of year.

Dan walked back to the hotel after lunch. The four of us visited the CN tower. The view from the lookout floor was nice but not spectacular. We did not wait in the long line to go to the top observatory. The glass floor was not amazing either. Bought a shirt for Shirley in the gift shop downstairs, and bought two postcards for Rena. Our picture was not ready when we tried to pick it up. We asked the attendant to pick it up the next day.

We missed the 5pm Hippo bus, so we bought tickets for the 6pm bus. Dorit and Rena ordered shakes in a restaurant, while Shirley and I went to a soft ice cream stand. Shirley liked her chocolate-vanilla swirl. Then we tried to pick our pictures from the basement of the CN tower. We got our pictures after 40 minutes and 3 conversations with the attendant. She was either extremely confused or inept.

Took the 6pm Hippo bus tour. The Hippo bus is an amphibious bus, which can drive on the road and travel on water with ease. The guide gave detailed explanations of the sights and included recommendations of attractions, restaurants, and current events. The highlight of the tour was splashing into the inner harbor.

We walked back to the hotel and bought food for dinner at the local 7-eleven store. It carried a much smaller selection of food than the Japanese counterpart. The selection was similar to the US selection.

Canada trip day 1: August 24, 2009

We took two limos to New York Penn Station for the 5 of us. The limos arrived at 5:30am as scheduled. The trip to NY Penn Station was only 50 minutes long. Shirley forgot her glasses at home. We arrived almost an hour before the train departure time. We had to get our passports inspected before boarding the train. We could not find cheap plastic replacement glasses for Shirley in the drug store at the station. They carry only reading glasses with a positive number, whereas Shirley needed a negative number.

The train departed at 7:19 am, which is 4 minutes late. The view of the Hudson from the left side of the train was amazing. However, the train started to accumulate delays. At one point the train just stopped to allow a freight train to pass. The conductor said that they want to keep the train safe and upright. The train shook violently when it was traveling at any speed. We eventually arrived to the Canadian border with a 1.5 hour delay, which increased to a 2 hour and 15 minutes delay when we arrived to Toronto. We arrived to Toronto at 10pm instead of 7:46pm. The comparison with Japanese trains was not flattering (at all) to Amtrak. The lady who was sitting on the other side of the aisle said that even the trains in India have shorter delays!

One mistake I did before the ride was to staple the tickets together. I got 10 tickets: 5 tickets from New York to the Canadian border, and 5 tickets from the Canadian border to Toronto. I stapled the pair of tickets of a single person together, and then I stapled the 5 pairs together. The conductor took the first 5 tickets, which means that he took 3 New York to Canadian border tickets, and 2 Canadian border to Toronto tickets. I did not understand how he could tear the 5 interleaved tickets in one motion, but I did not notice his mistake until we already crossed the border to Canada. I explained to the cheerful Canadian conductor that the American conductor took the wrong tickets. I was afraid that he would cause us much grief, but he just accepted my explanation and got his superior's approval.

We got two connected suites at the Cambridge Suites Hotel in Toronto, which were very spacious.

Lesson learnt: do not staple two kinds of tickets together to avoid confusion. Staple only identical tickets together (to the same destination).

Fallingwater trip day 3: August 17, 2009

Drive back to home. 3 stops. About 7 hours on the road. 9 hours total. GPS is cool.

Fallingwater trip day 2: August 16, 2009

Visit Fallingwater. Arrived at 10:15am for the 11am tour (very fortunate that I thought that we had the 10am tour). Ate lunch in the visitors center. Empty gas tank. Drove to Kentuck Knob. Late for the 2pm tour. Got tickets for the 3:15pm tour. Visited the sculpture meadow. House visit. Beutiful scenery hidden by the 5000 trees planted around the house. Dinner in the hotel.

Fallingwater trip day 1: August 15, 2009

Drive to Summit Inn Hotel in PA.

Lessons Learnt from the Japan trip

• The main cities in Japan are hot and humid in the summer. If you or your companions suffer from the heat, you will be able to visit only two or three places a day instead of six to seven places in a typical daily plan found in most guide books.
• If you travel with small children, expect to spend a day or more in a doctor's office or hospital.
• If you travel with small children or somebody who suffers from motion sickness, you should avoid long travel by bus and most organized tours. You must have the flexibility to alter the plan if somebody feels sick.
• Pick hotels near or on top of train stations. For example, Hotel Granvia Kyoto which is located on top of the Kyoto train station. We could reach the train platform in 8 minutes from our hotel room. Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel near Shibuya station in Tokyo was also convenient.
• You need to visit alternating kinds of attractions to keep your children interested. For example, you cannot visit 5 shrines and temples in a row, which is the typical plan in Kyoto.
• You can save a lot of money and keep your dietary restrictions by eating store-bought food in your hotel room. There are many convenience stores in major cities, and the minuscule minibar refrigerator in the room has enough capacity to hold food overnight. You will need to restore the content of the minibar in the morning to avoid being charged for missing items.
• Before you visit any attraction, pay attention to the days it is closed. It is written in the guide book.
• Pay attention to the exit number from the subway/train station of the attraction. Some subway and train stations have more than 10 exits, and they point at all directions.
• Two triangular rice balls and a yogurt are a satisfying dinner after a day full of activities.
• Have a person in the hotel write your dietary restrictions in Japanese, so you can show it in restaurants and food shops. Once you recognize the food you can eat, it is easy to do your own shopping.
• Buy a Japan Rail Pass if you travel between cities or have frequent side trips. It will save you the hassle of buying individual tickets, and it enables much flexibility. You can just hop on the next train and sit in the unreserved car just by showing your pass at the entrance to the station. The ordinary pass is sufficient if you avoid the peak travel period (around the Obon festival and New Year).
• Your hotel concierge team can help you much by recommending restaurants and events, making reservations, and finding medical help as needed.
• There is no single best guide book for Japan. The two best books that I found are Frommer's Japan (by Beth Reiber) and Lonely Planet's Japan. The Frommer's book ranks the attractions in each area and across Japan, which is essential for preparing your own trip plan. The Lonely Plant book contains more up-to-date information based on the personal experience of a large team of authors that live in Japan. However, it does not rank the attractions. I found that the combination of these two books to be extremely useful.
• You can ship your luggage from one hotel to the next or from your hotel to the airport. It takes one day. It reduces the hassle of carrying luggage on the train. I did not use this service in this trip.
• If you rent a phone in Japan, you should use a discount call rates and not the default call rate. Otherwise you will pay ¥5-6 per minute. You need to program the discount call prefix into your phone. The company that you rent your phone from will typically give you this information.
• A netbook or a small laptop is useful during the trip to keep in touch with your friend and family and to get information about attractions. You can also download the photos and videos from your camera to the netbook or laptop to make room for new pictures and videos. If you have a teenager, he or she are likely to use your netbook or laptop extensively.
• Buy a few simple souvenirs representing your country before you start your trip. Postcards of famous locations or magents with similar pictures are handy when you want to thank a person in Japan. Since Japanese do not accept tips, this is a good way to show your gratitude. In addition, people on the street may help you, and you may want to thank them this way.
• Get good street maps. The maps in the guidebooks are often inconvenient or lack details. Get the "Bilingual map of Tokyo, Yokohama, Tsukuba, Makuhari Messe by Shobunsha Publications, Inc". Print the Tokyo subway map from their web site.
  

What we missed in the Japan trip

I prepared a detailed plan for the visit. However, we did not accomplish everything in the plan mainly due to the hot weather. Dorit and Shirley could not tolerate the hot weather for the entire day. Here are the major attractions that we missed in the trip:

In and around Tokyo:

• Kabuki play at Kabukiza Theatre
• Sensoji temple and shop for souvenirs along Nakamise Dori.
• Visit Tokyo National Museum.
• Visit the Edo-Tokyo Museum
• Stroll through Akihabara (electronics shops).
• Day trip to Yokohama:
  • Visit the Landmark Tower, which is the tallest building in Japan.
  • Visit the Sankeien Garden.
  • Eat in Chinatown.
  • Visit the Raman museum.
• Hot spring bath at Odedo-Onsen Monogatari or Azabu-Juban onsen (maybe go to a public bath in Osaka instead).
• Hakone open-air museum.

In and around Kyoto:

• Jizo-In temple near Saiho-ji (moss temple).
• Ginkakuji, the temple of the silver pavilion.
• drink tea along the philosopher's pathway.
• Heian Shrine and Shinen garden.
• Kiyomizu Temple.
• Bamboo grove.
• Taking a boat ride with fishermen. Cormorant fishing at night (optional).
• Eat a Kaiseki meal.

In and around Osaka:

• Osaka castle

What I would like to do in my next visit to Japan:

• Learn flower arrangements.
• Visit an automated car factory.
• Visit National parks (in the northern part of Japan).
• Attend a festival.
• Stay a night in a Ryokan (traditional inn).