Most of the Tokyo imperial palace is closed to tourist except on the emperor's birthday.

Many cars (taxis in particular) have big rear-view mirrors mounted on the front of the hood.

The Beatles and Starbucks are quite popular in Japan, apparently.

The Pork Chop meets a friend.

The inside of a Tokyo Starbucks.

The live and mechanized versions, side by side.

We didn't see any "Staleness Burger" restaurants, fortunately.

Relaxing in one of the many beautiful Tokyo parks.

The Porkster asked for directions to the tea house for us.

The (in)famous Yasukuni shrine and the adjacent war museum.

Watch out for the "Mighty Cars" when walking through the fish market!

Ginza is a very busy place.

Some subway cars (at certain times of the day) are "women only".

The famous Takeshita street.

Having fresh fish in a little dive near Ginza - wonderful food!

We took the fastest bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto - what an experience! The Kyoto train station is an amazing structure, topped with a "Happy Terrace".

Gambling is not legal in Japan, so Pachinko must not be gambling.

It's important to take time out for refreshments.

The numerous palaces are wonderful places of quiet, in the middle of the bustling city.

It seems like many people in Japan are not getting enough sleep at night.

In case you need an explanation of where to point your cigarette.

The main imperial palace in Kyoto (which is one the most famous landmarks) is generally closed to the public.

We ran into groups of uniformed school children everywhere.

Zen gardens are wonderful places.

Kyoto has a small but very nice subway system.

It's a mystery how a car with a Czech country sticker ended up in a Kyoto garage.

The displays of available dishes are quite cute (and a very practical idea).

What a wonderful way to travel - much nicer than flying.

We were not the only ones to pack a sushi lunch for the train ride.

One of us visited Xi'An to see the famous terra-cota warriors.

We also visited southern China and saw a Chinese-style cave (yes, there were many neon tubes tossed on the ground throughout the caves).

The karst formations in this part of the country are really beuatiful.

We shared the obligatory Li river cruise without about half a million other tourists, it seemed.

These little guys would hook up to the big tourist boats and either sell chickens and other things to the cooks, or hawk trinkets to the tourists.

The scenery is beautiful but a bit hard to see through the ubiquitous pollution.

The town of Yangshuo is one big tourist trap.

If you don't want to do any work when visiting the Beijing zoo, make sure to get the automatic guide!

The panda's were fortunately active (mostly muhcing on bamboo).

The pandas soon reverted to a more typical stance.

The Beijing zoo also boasts a number of beautiful cats.

By sheer coincidence a few former colleagues from Microsoft were giving lectures in Beijing during the time we were there.