The unpredictable blooming of cherry blossom trees must be a real source of frustration for the punctual, orderly Japanese. Last year, the blossoms arrived early; this year, the prediction is they'll bloom ten days later than normal.
That means that Tokyo should have cherry blossoms by March 26, Osaka by March 30, and the mountains of Nagano as late as April 16. One of the really beautiful spots to experience hanamizake--drinking sake while looking at cherry blossoms--is in Kyoto, which should have its first blooms by March 29.
If you can get your timing right, this really is a magnificent time of year to check out Japan, and you only need to learn one word of Japanese: kirei. It means "beautiful," and we promise you'll hear it from one end of Japan to the other when the cherry blossom flowers finally arrive.
With Memorial Day around the way, folks in New York City are thinking more about getting out on the water than into some stuffy museum. But where to go to find a tropical island breeze and all of nature wild and free? We'd like to think Madonna would skip over to Governors Island National Monument in New York Harbor, which opens June 2.
Long a US Army post, the island--just a few minutes from Manhattan--just recently came under control of the state and the Feds. There's a sort-of back-room secrecy about the place, since developers and other wonky types are fighting over what to "do" with the island these days. (A Santiago Calatrava bridge is one idea floating around.)
But until that gets all sorted, it's easy enough to tour the island and take in some awesome views of NYC's Financial District. A ferry leaves from the Battery Maritime Building, which is just east of the Staten Island Ferry Terminal. All the schedules will soon go live on the Park Service's website.
If you've got your shirt on in Venice, and you've behaved yourself while checking out the ground level sights, then you're ready to get out of St Mark's Square and get above it. Turn to St Mark's Basilica and right next to it you can climb the Bell Tower for the very best views over the square and the canals. As with nearly everything in Venice, you might need to queue for a while--but wait it out if you can, it's worth it.
The Bell Tower (Salita Al Campanile) used to be a lighthouse for ships, but now all the flashes that comes out of the top are from tourist cameras. You can get a blurry bit of an idea of what your view will look like from the Venice tourist board's webcam. You're up high enough that all those streetside cafes look like wallpaper patterns and those annoying pigeons have all disappeared.
Oh, that zany Grand Canyon Skywalk. Gadling picked up a tourist's report that says cameras aren't allowed out onto the walk. We'd be inclined to agree, seeing as how you'll probably have to hock your camera to pay the $75 admission. (We even called up to confirm that, no, cameras aren't allowed.)
But then a Jaunted tipster (Thanks!) dropped some photos taken from the Skywalk in our inbox. Sure looks like some cameras got out there. If they won't let you out on the monstrosity with your digicam, check out more snaps after the jump.
The Grand Canyon Skywalk: Could it be worse than you thought? Yes, most definitely. As if the $25 fee for a holy stroll across the glass bridge wasn't bad enough, it turns out there's another overpriced fee you'll have to hand over to get there. It costs $50 to enter Grand Canyon West, a piece of the Hualapai Reservation that's closer to Las Vegas than it is to other Canyon entrances. This makes so much more sense as a Vegas attraction, but it's still a rip. Though we wouldn't really push Zion National Park as an alternative day trip from Vegas, it'll only take you an additional hour to reach. If you're into the national park thing, Zion is way cooler. Entrance there will cost you a fair $25, and basic camping is an additional $16.
If you hire a tour guide in Japan, you'd better check their credentials. Chambers of commerce across the country hold voluntary exams for anyone who wants to study enough--a hard concept to wrap your mind around, we know--and award those who pass with a certificate in the subject of the test. Originally introduced to increase the knowledge of tourism industry workers and taxi drivers, the weird thing is that now all kinds of people take these tests, just because they can.
One of the oldest and most popular tests is the Kyoto Sightseeing and Culture Test (10,000 candidates a year), while other more specialized tests are also growing in popularity, like the Akashi Octopus Test (since octopi are a special product in the Akashi region) and the Sakaiminato Goblins Test (of course). Apparently there are nearly a hundred different tests you can take and none of them sound too easy to pass. So don't just let any ol' Japanese guy guide you around the country: check how many tests they have under their belt.
Who's excited about Showtime's new series "The Tudors?" Sure, they may have picked a strange subject for their sexed-up take on British history -- most people know King Henry VIII for being enormously fat and getting the English church to co-sponsor his womanizing ways. (He also had syphilis. Score!) But this series focuses on a younger, hotter Henry VIII -- Jonathan Rhys Meyers hot, in fact.
You can watch "The Tudors" free on this Showtime site, but to really see some Tudor madness you'd have to travel to one of Henry's 50-plus palaces, including one of the more famous, Hampton Court Palace, better known as the site where James I would later commission the King James Bible. The famous maze which adjoins the main house wasn't there in its current form when ol' Hank brought his women there, but it's a great place to get lost for a day and still be close to London (just 35 minutes by train from Waterloo station).
If you get to Barcelona and become obsessed with the still unfinished La Sagrada Familia temple--and it's not hard to be quite taken with a half-finished church that has massive multicolored fruit attached to its towers--then the next step is to head out to another Antoni Gaudi site, the Park Güell and the matching museum and house of the architect himself.
The Casa Museu Gaudi (like so many of Gaudi's ideas, the website's not finished yet: English is on its way, but you'll need some Spanish skills for now) lies entirely within the zany lines and colors of the park, and Gaudi actually lived there from 1906 until he was hit by a Barcelona tram and died in 1926. Inside the house you can see various Gaudi memorabilia, including some of his furniture and drawings. Most of the sofas look far too strangely-shaped to be comfortable, but they'll certainly keep your interest more than Ikea junk. You can't miss the rose-pink building at the bottom of the gardens. You can miss your step while you're ogling at the weirded out furniture inside.
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by amandak
