I've posted a selection of photos from Japan and Mongolia. A few pictures from both places aren't up there yet, including some more nice shots of Khongor Sand Dune area. Both sets have not been touched, no chance to crop or adjust contrast on the road here, so this is straight out of the camera and a few of the pictures may appear too dark or light or have extraneous stuff around the edges.

There are many homeless street children in UB. They have to survive the streets and -40C winters. They live in the sewers and along the underground steam pipes. They beg on the streets. The Christina Noble Children's Foundation in Mongolia helps by providing education, medical care, housing, support, and food. For around $770 they can provide a family with a fully furnished ger. They have doctors on staff who visit the kids. A dental clinic. A school in the children's prison. A ger village. They are non-political and non-religious.

When the sun sets over Khongor sand dune, it is setting across your heart that has been stolen by an open land. Khongor, my sweetheart. You do not really understand how beautiful the land is until its company, across the vast open vistas, is sufficient unto itself.

When you sleep surrounded by every dairy animal known to man you might think that cheese would be easy to come by. Let's see, Yaks breathing down the door of the ger. Cows munching their way across the hills. Horses deciding that galloping is better done another day. Sheep ignoring your car until they bound off in a rough approximation of those counting sheep cartoons. Last, but not least, goats doing, well, trying to make more goats. Yes, all these animals make milk.

As a photographer, I tend to shoot a lot of RAW images. I need to back these up to DVD before clearing the flash cards. I don't carry a computer, just a portable DVD drive. There are many Internet cafes in Japan and Ulaanbaatar. In Japan, the only one with a DVD writer was Manga in Shinjuku, Tokyo, but the imminent typhoon Fitow terminated my attempts at burning at DVD. On to UB, where cheap 24h internet access is readily available (T600/hr, or $0.50/hr). But they don't have DVD writers and won't let me plug in my DVD writer (not sure why). Hmmm.

Going to a museum is a simple affair. Find the big building, go to the place labeled TICKETS in 15000 languages, pay your money, and enter. In UB, things are done a little differently. First, walk up to the (unsigned) ticket-like booth, only to be waved on, as if you were an idiot, by the guy inside--who doesn't open the window. After passing through the gate you come to an interior building. Enter here, as it seems like maybe they would sell tickets here (again, no signs). A woman, not wearing any uniform, will indicate that you should buy a ticket.

There are three manly sports in Mongolia: wrestling, archery, and horse racing. But the most popular sport in Ulaanbaatar (UB) is dodge car. The rules of the game are simple and are laid out below, along with gameplay tips for beginners.

Players: There are two types of player: car and pedestrian. Any number of players may participate.

sim coverage
http://travelsimshop.com/roaming_free_cost_sim.php#CoverageMap

weather
http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=mongolia

lonley planet mongolia

ger to ger http://www.gertoger.org

currency conversion http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/time-zone/asia/mongolia/currency.htm