== Bernie's brain dump as of April 2009 ==
+=== April 30th: Departure ===
+
+TODO
+
+==== Productive flight ====
+
+**GEEKY UPDATE**: On the flight back to Europe, I spent some time to add lots of new goodies to [[GeekiGeeki]],
+including a nice grid view for photos, the possibility to specify css style for links and inline objects,
+and automatic generation of human-readable link tags from wiki URLs, which should make the wiki markup
+much cleaner. As usual, these additions resulted in simplification of the codebase rather than code bloat :-)
+
+{{{
+git diff --stat v3.0..HEAD geekigeeki.py
+geekigeeki.py | 709 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-----------------------------
+1 files changed, 352 insertions(+), 357 deletions(-)
+}}}
+
+If you see any regressions in the output, please report them to me. I'm hoping to release
+4.0 soon.
+
+=== April 29th: Back to Tokyo ===
+
+TODO
+
+=== April 28th ===
+
+==== Guided tour ====
+
+Pictures of our day-long [[Pictures/vacation/japan_2009/Nikko/waterfalls_tour]] are now online.
+Our friendly guide, the Buddhist monk whose name I forgot, answered many of our pending questions
+about Japanese traditions and religion. Hiking through these sacred mountains and woods was an
+enjoyable experience.
+
+{{Pictures/vacation/japan_2009/Nikko/waterfalls_tour/00038.jpg|maxwidth=800|The Yutaki Waterfalls}}
+
+TODO: assemble a good video from all the scenes I took along the way
+
+==== Nikko Temple Area ====
+In the afternoon, we went to visit the [[Pictures/vacation/japan_2009/Nikko/world_heritage_site]].
+One would expect to grow bored of Shinto and Buddhist temples after seeing many of them
+all over Japan, but visiting the Nikko temple area was once again an extraordinary experience.
+And I could finally spot a few [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miko]]s too!
+
+{{Pictures/vacation/japan_2009/Nikko/world_heritage_site/00096.jpg|maxwidth=800}}
+
=== April 27th ===
==== Afternoon: travel to Nikko ====
and busses connect them directly, so we had to take an expensive -- yet very fast -- Shinkansen
detour all the way down to Saitama and then up again.
-Once at the station, we immediately realized that our was a good investment, after all.
+Once at the station, we immediately realized it was a good deal, after all.
This mountain town overflows with temples, world heritage sites and statues of Buddah
spread in an extremely beautiful natural environment with many great falls, ancient woods
and hot springs where even wild monkeys take an onsen.
always happen to speak English somehow, saving James from the embarrassing need of resorting
to silly gestures in order to get his stupid Vodka Martini the way he likes it.
-Tomorrow -- after our morning yoga and vegan breakfast, of course -- we're going on a day long
+Tomorrow, of course after our morning yoga and vegan breakfast, we're going on a day long
guided hiking tour with the monks, which sounds really cool.
+**UPDATE**: ouch!
+
+{{Pictures/vacation/japan_2009/Nikko/00026.jpg|Ouch!|maxwidth=640}}
==== Morning: Zenko-ji ====
-In the morning, we tried again to visit the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenk%C5%8D-ji]].
+In the morning, we tried again to visit the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenk%C5%8D-ji|Zenko-ji]].
Even on a Monday, the queue was not much shorter. A nice volunteer guide advised us that
the pilgrims where queuing just to touch a wooden pole with an inscription on it that was
right in front of the temple, and we could skip aside if we weren't interested. So we did.
years. Quite a lucky combination! I was impressed by the devotion of the people around me.
The spiritual side of Japanese people does not seem to clash at all with their high-tech lifestyle.
-TODO: dark corridor
+Behind the temple, we were led down a narrow staircase to a dark and twisty corridor beneath
+the temple. We had to walk in the pitch black obscurity, touching the walls in search of a
+metal key of enlightenment. I could finally get hold of the key and turn it, but the most
+enlightening part of this experience was hearing the crowd of tourists apologizing for bumping
+into each other all the time ;-)
I only have outdoors [[Pictures/vacation/japan_2009/Nagano/Zenko-ji|photos]] becuase taking
pictures inside was strictly forbidden. A monk yelled at me just for fiddling too much with
my camera, which was quite surprising, considering how tolerant Japanese people usually are
towards our ignorance of their culture.
+{{Pictures/vacation/japan_2009/Nagano/Zenko-ji/00186.jpg|The sacred inscription we can't read, let alone understand|maxwidth=800}}
=== April 26th: Matsumoto again ===
ryokan, but we spotted a really long queue of pilgrims at the entrance, so we went back to the
station to visit the [[http://localhost/wiki/Pictures/vacation/japan_2009/Matsumoto/Castle|Matsumoto Castle]],
one of Japan's top 3 castles ([[Pictures/vacation/japan_2009/Matsumoto/Castle|photos]]). The adjacent
-museum was also great ([[Pictures/vacation/japan_2009/Matsumoto/Museum|photos]]). On our way back, we did see
-a [[Pictures/vacation/japan_2009/Nagano/dancing_kids|dancing show]] with cute little girls and their teachers.
+museum was also great ([[Pictures/vacation/japan_2009/Matsumoto/Museum|photos]]). On our way back, we've found
+a peculiar [[Pictures/vacation/japan_2009/Nagano/dancing_kids|dancing show]] with cute little girls and their
+teachers.
Apparently, by leaving Nagano we missed some kind of prayer or event held by Tibetan monks at the
[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenk%C5%8D-ji|Zenko-ji]]. Too bad, it might have been a good chance
-to show some support for the Tibetan cause. Go, Tibet, Go!
+to show some support for the Tibetan cause. Go, Tibet, Go!!
+
+{{Pictures/vacation/japan_2009/Matsumoto/Castle/00147.jpg|Soooo conventiinal!|maxwidth=640}}
+{{Pictures/vacation/japan_2009/Matsumoto/Castle/00108.jpg|Scary, uh?|maxwidth=640}}
=== April 25th: Matsumoto ===
we spent the best part of the day at the [[Pictures/vacation/japan_2009/Matsumoto/Station|station]] and
with some dumb [[Pictures/vacation/japan_2009/Matsumoto/Shopping|shopping]].
-In the evening, we headed to [[http://wikitravel.org/en/Nagano]], a city famous for the
+In the evening, we headed to [[http://wikitravel.org/en/Nagano|Nagano]], a city famous for the
1998 winter olimpics and for an ancient [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenk%C5%8D-ji|buddhist temple]].
-
-**UPDATE**: the report for [[blog/2009/April#kyoto-higashiyama|April 21st]] is now available!
+{{Pictures/vacation/japan_2009/Nagano/Shimizuya_Ryokan/00053.jpg|All sorts of accommodations come with good wi-fi, including traditional ryokans|maxwidth=800}}
=== April 24th -- over 1 [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megametre|megameter]] by train ====
+**UPDATE**: the report for [[blog/2009/April#kyoto-higashiyama|April 21st]] is now available!
+
We left our comfortable hostel in Kyoto early in the morning for a second Shinkansen
ride of 360Km, this time on the faster [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nozomi_%28train%29|Nozomi]].
The one-way ticket was "just" 10,250円, equivalent to $105 or €80.
Shinkansen for another 690Km ride to another location which will be revealed
in due time. Don't miss the next amazing episode of Bernie's Adventures!
-{{Pictures/vacation/japan_2009/Hiroshima/00079.jpg|"Peace" written with origami cranes|maxwidth=480}}
+{{Pictures/vacation/japan_2009/Hiroshima/00079.jpg|"Peace" written with origami cranes|maxwidth=640}}
Also check the story behind the [[http://www.city.hiroshima.jp/shimin/heiwa/crane.html|millions of paper cranes]]
sent from all over the world in memory of the little Sadako.
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