Kanji on the hills above Kyoto

If you find yourself in Kyoto and want to escape the hubbub, I recommend a climb up Mount Daimon-ji, famous because of the large kanji symbol (literally meaning “big”) carved on the hillside. You can see it huge from the centre of town, look on the hillsides to the northeast.

For such a beautiful nearby hike its surpisingly hard to find. Here’s what you do

• Travel to Ginkankuji, “The Silver Temple”, in the northeastern outskirts of Kyoto. There are plenty of buses from Karawamachi station.
• Facing the temple entrance, head down the street to the left, and take the first right before you go through the stone gate. Note there’s no need to pay the 500yen entrance to the table.
• Start heading up the valley, past the car park. The path splits a couple of times, take the branch each time with the most “footpath-looking” signs!
• After 30 mins you arrive at a small shrine at the centre point of the kanji, and you will be rewarded - if its clear - with a beautiful sweeping view over Kyoto, all the way down to Osaka to the south and the hills of Kurama to the north.
• The kanji turns out to be made up of a system of concrete bonfires which are lit for festivals.
• You can climb up further to the summit of the mountain through lovely forest (another 20 minutes each way - 466m). The path continues east from the summit. Watch out for snakes! I walked 200 or so metres further and saw the biggest snake I’ve ever seen slithering into the buses. Admittedly I haven’t seen that many snakes, but I was glad I had my trusty walking stick!

Here are some more pics:

The Utah Subway

Just back from Zion NP in Utah, a truly amazing place. Thanks Mor and Tonya for inviting me along, and to Mor for taking the pics.

We did 3 fantastic hikes - all of which I think would make my lifetime top 20 (if I kept one)

• Firstly, Subway, which we did top-down, the more exciting direction. This is way off the tourist roster and was positively Indiana-Jones-esque. Imagine a 10 mile long slot canyon, hundreds of sheer rock face above you on both sides, carved into wonderfully surreal shapes by the occasional flash food. You need 60 feet of rope, although Mor managed to bring 60 metres (he should get a job with Nasa ;-). You need the rope for 2 of 3 spots where you need to abseil down waterfalls and small cliffs, so make sure you have someone who knows ropes, how to belay etc. The water was pretty low for us, but I still got wet - there’s a couple of places where you have to swim (imagine carrying 60 metres of rope over your head whilst treading water!). In the end I just hiked in my swimming trunks.

• We also did “The Narrows” bottom-up - basically hiking up a river in the bottom of a canyon. Top-down is the classic backcountry 15 miler which gets you away from the hordes who do it bottom-up. We set off at 9am on a Sunday since we didn’t have a permit for top-down, and were basically alone for 90% of the hike. So the morale is - leave early.

• The third hike was Angels Landing in the valley, a prime spot to head to for amazing views. Its much more accessible than Subway, but thankfully is steeper and the final portion involves clambering up a ridge with a chain which puts off a lot of the daytrippers. The views are amazing and the path itself is an engineering marvel.

Other tips:

• Depending on water levels you may get soaked, and if the risk of flash floods is high they don’t let you go up the Narrows or anywhere near Subway.
• There’s a lottery to get a permit here for Subway and Narrows (top-down). You can turn up the day before but you have to get there early I’m told.
• For both hikes, its worth renting canyoneering boots and a stick from Springdale just outside the park. Incredibly, quite a few people do the trek in heavy boots.
• Park your car outside the park in Springdale and take the shuttle in.
• Oscars in Springdale is great for dinner. And lunch. And breakfast. They do real beer too (Utah isn’t as anti-fun as rum ous might have it), including Polygamy Porter, the Mormon’s favourite! Oscar’s Cafe 948 Zion Park Blvd. Springdale, Utah 84767 (435)772-3232
• We stayed at the Zion Park Hotel - which proved a satisfactory motel. One weirdism - the showers are designed for ewoks so you have to squat down to wash your hair (Zion Park Motel, 865 Zion Park Blvd, Springdale, UT 84767, 435-772-3251).
• More Zion routes on canyoneeringusa.com.
• More pictures courtesy of Mor (warning - Rick in swimming trunks):

Historic London on Google Earth

The British Library is offering some fabulous historical map data which you can layer over modern day London in Google Earth. It includes maps of my old stomping grounds of South Kensington and Paddington in the days back when Imperial College was pasture (thanks Sal for the rec!)

24 hours in Reykjavik

If you find yourself here:

• Its reykjavik not rekjavik or rekyavik. Hooray for the Google spellchecker
• Its one hour behind the UK in Summer (don’t let the timezone maps mislead your jetlag-fuddled brain)
• Get your bearings up the Hallgrímskirkja
• Food is pricey! And especially so if you’re after steak or lobster … handily though, there are some lovely vegetarian restaurants, e.g. “One Woman Restaurant” (A Naestu Grosum) (20b Laugavegur 101 Reykjavik, red house 1st floor)
• The coffee is excellent. Kaffi Vin was my favourite (cosy basement cafe where you get your own personal thermos flask). There’s many many more, and not one single Starbucks …
• Stroll along the seafront from the fishing harbour north and east - past Hofdi House (if this place seems strangely familiar … its where the Reagan-Gorbachev summit meeting happened in 1986), great views across to Mount Esja
• Go for a swim in the thermal pool at Laugardalslaug (etiquette tips, including “don’t get the changing floor wet”, here)
• Get the free English newspaper, Grapevine, to find out whats going on
• Have a look in the phonebook and count the Bjorks (its organized by first name …)
• Official touristo site: http://www.visitreykjavik.is/

Tokyo wifi cafes

Surprisingly, it can be quite hard to find good cafes with wifi in Tokyo, at least ones that you'd want to spend time in. As I find places during my stay I'll note them here:

• Ben's Cafe - great coffee, wifi, jazz/electronica on the stereo, awesome breakfast beigels, plus the bonus of indecipherable poetry readings on a Sunday evening (as I write).

Lost in Los Angeles

I just spent a wonderful weekend in LA with Jon and Rashmi. Unlike my previous 3 visits, this time I really felt like I found "the city in the suburb".
Whats the secret to enjoying LA?

1. Buy a decent street map and skip the freeways. Last time I spent hours on I405 and I10 … this time drives down Wilshire, Western and Sunset stunned me with just how colourful the city is.
2. Have a car (OK, OK, so this is obvious, but you'd be surprised as to how many friends I have who have gone to LA and been p*ssed off that they can't get around easily on public transport)
3. Hang out with locals who know fun places to go and where to park.
4. If you can't hang out with locals, at least do some research before you go.
5. Through a combination of 3. and 4., know where you are going before you start driving (reference "trying to find a cocktail at 4pm in downtown Culver City)

Talking of research, here are some tips on museums, cafes, bars, restaurants and neighbourhoods I would recommend: