Intro Sorry it has been a minute, but the holidays have meant that I've been in and out of SJZ a lot. Because China does not celebrate Christmas, the only national holiday in this period was New Year's Day itself, but the western teachers at my school were given the day off for Christmas which I turned into a 4 day weekend by switching my Friday classes to earlier in the week with another teacher. Then, when I came back from Tokyo, I found out the next Monday that we would have Thurs-Saturday. off of school for New Year's so quickly booked a trip up to Harbin。 I'll drop pictures from both trips in a different blog post*
Tokyo In the morning, I ended up delayed on the tarmac for multiple hours, which was quite unfortunate, but there was not much to do, and I had the whole 4 seat middle row to myself, so I lay down and took a nap. I was seated right near one of the middle exits of the plane where a flight attendant was stationed, so I did get to hear lots of complaints from customers in Russian, English, Chinese and Japanese.
But, once we finally took off I absolutely loved getting the break and going to Tokyo. I stayed in Shibuya, and spent most of the evening on Christmas Day wandering the neighborhood looking at stores and stopping for food and snacks at different spots that instagram travel accounts recommended. I ended up having my favorite snack at a street cart called Cocoagepon which I hadn't seen on any accounts, but nonetheless had a lovely time, got a drink overlooking the Shibuya crossing, and took an early night in.
The morning of Boxing Day, I had booked a 10 hour Mt. Fuji road trip and it was awesome! Driving out of the city, we could see Fuji getting closer and closer in the distance. There was sporadic cloud cover throughout the day so we could only see Mt. Fuji off and on throughout the day (which for Mt. Fuji I will take as an absolute win!) We took a pirate boat across a lake and to a cable car to a viewing location. At the viewing location the clouds mostly cleared and we could see Fuji beautifully just across the way. In that viewing location, there was a series of sulfur hot spring deposits where Japan's famous Black Eggs are made, and I found the turquoise color splitting different rocks and the sulfur steam rising from the ground quite beautiful. But, I declined to try a black egg, because I don't eat regular eggs, and a hardboiled black one sounded unappetizing. Then, we hopped back into the bus and travelled to a lake where Fuji views should've been amazing, but by this point in the afternoon, there was cloud cover all over, so we couldn't see the mountain anymore. After the lake, we travelled to a UNESCO world heritage town just beneath the mountain full of historic buildings and shops. I once again essentially did a food tour of the neighborhood, and had the most delicious teriyaki style steak I've ever had. It was a skirt steak kebab with barbecue sauce, and it was delicious.
That evening I made it back in town in time for dinner and I went out for Mexican food. The lack of much international culinary diversity in Shijiazhuang has left me with a deep seated desire for terrible quest dip and delicious barrio tacos, and that is exactly what I found. While the Mexican food was lovely, that night was the first time I had really been sad and missed home. I think the atmosphere of quest and margs is simply not conducive to a solo restaurant experience (where are my friends to gossip with?), and the combination of a lack of holiday time really set in. Luckily, that really only lasted through dinner, so the next morning in Tokyo I was once again happy to explore solo.
I spent the day at the Meji temple and got the famous Fluffy pancakes (they are indeed not pancakes, but they are yummy nonetheless.) Then I spent time in the botanical gardens (my favorite place in any city) even though winter had rendered much of them devoid of very pretty plants. I then spent some time in Harajuku and Shinjuku and went window shopping. Unfortunately I need very little extra stuff here (since I already need to downsize in order to get my things back home in the summer) so I did not purchase anything, although I did take the free face masks from the hostel!
Harbin Now, the trip to Harbin was much less planned than my trip to Tokyo. I have wanted to go see the city of ice and snow since at least 9th grade, and I was determined to go this winter, but the official festival doesn't start until January 5th. Originally, I figured I would need to do a rushed weekend trip up to Harbin, leaving a random Friday night in January and coming back that same Sunday. Instead, I came back from Tokyo Sunday night, went to school the next day, and found out Monday afternoon that actually we would have no school that coming Thursday Friday, but a make-up day on Sunday. Since this meant I had a three day weekend, I immediately started looking at Harbin. 2 days is truly all you need to do the main sites in Harbin (unless you're going for a ski trip) so I booked the tickets and headed up. The ice city had been up since December 16, the performances were just limited until the actual festivals would begin, so I actually got to go earlier than the official festivals they start.
It was absolutely worth it! I spent the evening Thursday wandering Central street, a mix of Russian and Chinese achitecture, food, and goods spanning the avenue. Then, the next morning I stayed inside until noon, because the temperature was simply too cold to be wandering outside. (This meant I didn't have time for the Siberian Tiger experience, but I was okay to miss that one.) In the afternoon I hopped the train and went straight to Ice and Snow World. Entering it was jaw dropping. I felt like I was at Disneyworld again as a kid. Just so excited to see all the sculptures, go ice skating, and walk around. There is truly so much to do, but the main attractions are impossible to get access to day of. Had I realized this, I might have tried to get them earlier in the day, but I didn't so I waited until night time when the whole city would be lit up. Because of the cold, I went into the Harbin food and arcade pavilion for an hour or so leading to sunset, and had dinner, relaxed and opted out of the many games I could've played, choosing a book instead.
At sunset, I went back out and that Disneyworld feeling came rushing back in way stronger than when I had first arrived. All of the sculptures were lit up, changing colors, and shining like crazy. I rode some of the small free ice slides and watched a few curling matches. Then, I entered the exhibit wars. WAY more intense than the ticket master wars, the Giant Ferris Wheel and the Giant Ice Slides (350 and 500meters) drop every 2 hours, with either 600 or 1200 tickets available. They sell out in one second, and even if you click the button, you may be too late. On my third try, I managed to get the 350 meter ice slide tickets, but I didn't get the ferris wheel. The ice slide was absolutely worth it though. First of all, the view from the top of the slide is one of the best of the whole city. Second of all the slide is SUPER fun. If I were going again, I would try and get those tickets a few days in advance, because I think it is possible, or I might even pay extra for a skip the line pass that I believe exists. The nice thing about the rides though is that they are free with ticket (you just have to survive the wars.) Had I been in the ice city all day, I probably could have gotten all of the attractions as in the morning the park is less crowded. (The ice world is not as cool as the nearby snow sculpture expo during the daylight.) All together though, Harbin was absolutely worth it, and the 4 cab rides I had with long discussions in Mandarin while traveling also meant that I got to practice some Chinese on the trip which was great too!