The Wayfarer Blog

One of the last vestiges of the British Empire, Hong Kong, was returned to Chinese rule ten years ago today. Funny, I found out that today is the anniversary when I went to look up something on Wikipedia just now, but I was thinking about Hong Kong earlier today. I wonder if I remembered the date subconsciously…? Nah, just a coincidence, I’m sure. At any rate, as you probably recall, I took a trip there last summer. It was a nice place. I’d really like to go again sometime.

I wrote a couple articles about my trip last August:

Hong Kong!
Hong Kong, Part II

And I also have a Flickr Photoset:

Photos from My Trip to Hong Kong

One year ago today, I was in Beijing, China. I went to attend my friend’s wedding in Harbin, and before that, I stayed a few days in Beijing. I arrived on the evening of the 29th, so the 30th was the beginning of my tour.

I took a bus tour, which included:

• A museum with lifelike models that recreated famous events in Chinese history
• A jade museum
• Some of the 13 Tombs of the Ming Dynasty Emperors (A World Heritage site, by the way!)
• A tour of a Chinese medicine clinic, with presentations and free consultations with the doctors (which I didn’t take advantage of).
• The Great Wall

(more…)

My sister and I went to the Country Club Plaza, in Kansas City, Missouri, on January, 3, 2007. One of Kansas City’s sister cities is Seville, Spain. The Plaza is an outdoor shopping district that is modeled after Seville. The Plaza has a website. This line, from the “Art and History” Page, says it best: “Only Rome has more fountains than Kansas City, and several of the more spectacular ones are found on the Country Club Plaza.”

I only took a few pics, and I missed a lot of great fountains and buildings, but here a few I took. Enjoy. You can see the whole set (and also a few pics from Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport here).

The homepage for the Country Club Plaza is here. You can also take a virtual tour of many fountains and buildings, if you want to see what I missed or learn more about the pictures i took.

Yesterday was a good day. It was Wednesday, a day I usually find myself struggling to get through. But for some reason, I woke up early–despite being tired–and everything seemed to flow. My last company class of the day was canceled, so I was able to go home early. To top it off, the weather was nice. It is beginning to feel like spring, though it still gets chilly at night.

I don’t know how common this is outside of Tokyo, but outside of major train stations, people often give away various free advertisements and gifts. Usually, it is just a piece of paper or a small pack of tissues. But sometimes they give away pens, hand towels, drinks, or other things that are more interesting.

Every Wednesday morning for the last several weeks, when I walk out of Ichigaya Station in Tokyo, several people have been handing out Manga (comics;漫画) magazines for free. I had read a post on another blog about this, but I had never gotten one. When you are walking out of the station with a huge group of people who are in a rush to get to work, it is all about simple timing: if they happen to be handing it out when your hand is in front of them, you can take it.

Of course, the fact that I am not Japanese makes it a bit more likely that I won’t get something like that. After all, I am not Japanese, so there is no way I could possibly know Japanese…that is how many, if not most people, seem to think.

Now, you might be thinking that comics are for kids. But in Japan, comic books and magazines are available for people of all ages, and the stories often revolve around everyday people. There are comics about everyday life, historical events, baseball or judo experts, to name just a few. You can often find people reading them on the long train ride home. And if you are interested in learning Japanese, they are quite useful, because they provide a good lesson in realistic Japanese in various situations.

I don’t read comics all the time, but when I do, I usually prefer historical or educational ones. I recently got one a cheap book from the used bookstore. It is a historical manga that focuses on certain key historical events from the Meiji Period (1868-1912), such as the assassination of Toshimichi Okubo (大久保 利通).

Actually, I haven’t really been reading much manga lately, but I should. It is a great way to learn about Japan. I remember many years ago, I saw a two-volume set of books called, “Mangajin’s Basic Japanese Through Comics.” But I only wanted to study “serious” books, so I never looked it them. But one day, at Border’s Book Store, curiosity got the better of me, so I picked up Volume 1 and began leafing through it. I was amazed! It was really useful, because it showed realistic situations, with realistic Japanese expressions, and lots of detailed translation and explanation. To see an example, look here. (Click on one of the Manga links, for example, “Ojama Shimasu” to see what a typical lesson looks like.) Mangajin was a magazine series that taught Japanese through comics. The books I saw at the bookstore were taken from the magazine series. Although the magazine shut down almost 10 years ago, you can still get those books. If you are interested in Japanese language, I highly recommend them. (By the way, you can also pick up back issues of the magazine from the link supplied above.)

(Note: Ok, wow..this is way old, but I’m going to post it anyway. I took this quiz during the holidays, and I never posted it. As they say, better late than never! I’m learning to live with the fact that, according to this test, I am more like Catwoman and Supergirl than Batman!)

I normally don’t bother with online quizzes, but this one tells you which superhero you are. I keep telling everyone I am a genius…now I have scientific proof!

Your results:

You are Iron Man

Iron Man 75% The Flash 70% Spider-Man 65% Superman 65% Catwoman 60% Hulk 60% Green Lantern 50% Supergirl 46% Batman 40% Robin 38% Wonder Woman 26%

Inventor. Businessman. Genius.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test

This is one of those little moments I have that never seem blog-worthy, but for once I am going to post it, just because it was a bit surreal to me.

Tonight, during a break between a two-hour class at my home school, I went out to a vending machine to get a drink. As I was putting my money into the machine, an odd, conflicting set of stimuli really hit me:

1. Business people were walking past me, laughing and talking.
2. I put a 5-yen coin into the machine and it didn’t accept it (10 yen, which is about 12 cents, is the minimum you can use).
3. A restaurant was playing music on its speakers: that old Motown hit: “Shop Around.”

I don’t know. It just amused me. Maybe I was just tired, but it really struck me. It was just a good example of the kind of thing I never would have expected in Japan. Hearing music like that, or seeing famous American movie stars hawking Japanese products on countless billboards…

Does Cameron Diaz really use the same cell phone provider as me? Does Richard Gere own property in Japan? And does Tommy Lee Jones actually crack open a can of Boss Coffee when he needs that extra burst of energy to kick butt? Somehow, I doubt it. But I’ll keep my eyes peeled. Especially when I walk past a Softbank cell phone shop!

When I was in Seattle, I met many Japanese students at the University of Washington. There was a special one-year program, now defunct, called the English-International Business Program (EIBP). I still keep in touch with many of those students, at least sporadically.

A couple weeks ago, I reunited with two of my closest friends, who are now husband and wife, from that program. They met during the program, and got married when they returned to Japan. His family has a clothing business, and now they run it together with his family.

I hadn’t seen them for a long time–far too long. But I was happy to see them again. They had a clothing exhibition. His sister designs all or most of the fashions. It was a small, boutique showing, but very busy. I was able to go between classes and see how their business is growing. I told them I was glad to see them living their dream.

A dream can start small. It might even stay that way for a long time. Sometimes, it seems like we are not making progress, or we are wasting our time. But even if it isn’t readily apparent to others, we should always keep the fire in our heart burning. We should never give up on our dreams.

It’s great to see people living their dream…but it is even better to see yourself living your own dream.

October 8, 2006. Angela and I had survived the capsule hotel. It was time to start exploring Hiroshima! The first thing we did was get on the “Hiroden” tram, and head for Miyajima. In Japanese, Miyajima (宮島）means “Shrine Island.” It is a floating Shinto Shrine (or you could say it is a flooded Shrine; it sits on a shallow pool of water.)

I will write more about Miyajima later. For now, I wanted to share this picture of a deer at Miyajima. There are many deer on the island, and they are not shy at all. They eagerly beg for food, and if you don’t have food, they are happy to eat paper or anything else they can. Maps, papers, even clothing is not safe from their greedy mouths! Alas, Angela’s English map fell victim to a hungry deer. We were left with my Japanese map!

I took this picture of a deer. I thought it was funny, because he just stood at the cart for a minute, looking like he was waiting to buy some food!

Keep checking back, as I will keep posting more pictures as time permits. I am extremely busy, but I will try to get them up as fast as I can. As always, you can view the pics here on this site, or click on the picture to go to my Flickr site.

“Hey, what’s a deer gotta do to get some service around here?”

From October 7th-10th, Angela and I took a short trip to Hiroshima, Himeiji, and Kyoto. Although the trip was great fun and a success, the first day didn’t look promising. When we got to Tokyo Station, we couldn’t get a shinkansen (bullet train) for several hours. So, we stored our luggage in one of the countless lockers at the station, and went sightseeing. (Note: Japan has its share of inconveniences, but they do so many things right here. One good example is all the coin lockers in/around stations. You can easily store your bags, so you don’t have to carry them around all the time.)

We decided to try to go to the Imperial Palace, since it wasn’t far away. We were also hungry, so we walked around looking for a place to eat. But everything was closed! We ended up having a really pathetic meal at Wendy’s. Angela joked about asking them, “Where’s the beef?” but it would have gone over their heads, and we definitely didn’t have time to try to explain that one to them! (In Tokyo Station, there are many restaurants and coffeeshops. We should have eaten there! There was also a vending machine that sells different kinds of bread in a can. I still need to go back and try that!)

Finally, we got on the train and we were on our way. Our next problem came when we got to Hiroshima, and had trouble finding a place to stay. I had lost my cell phone, so I had to get in a phone booth and just start dialing numbers like crazy. The good thing was I learned how to ask for hotel openings in Japanese very well (Yes, I did everything in Japanese, from hotels, to restaurants, to the trains, so I was proud of myself…) A couple of nice older ladies tried to help us, but to no avail. Finally, a couple employees at the train station helped us find a Capsule Hotel.

Capsule Hotels are uniquely Japanese. Basically, you sleep in a little capsule with a TV, an alarm clock, and a radio. The sleeping arrangements are quite spartan, but the facilities are not bad. They had hot/cold/salt baths, internet, lazy boys with private tv screens, etc. I spent some time soaking in the hot and cold baths, then I dropped off into a deep sleep.

The next day, we went to Miyajima Island, and from then on, we stayed in hotels. But that first day, I thought I was going to be a bad luck charm! On the bright side, we had a nice time in Tokyo before we caught our train. Another dumb idea I had was to walk from the Imperial Palace to Tokyo Tower. By the time we got there, we had to turn around and go back to the station to catch our train! I felt so bad. But I did manage to take this shot, as the clouds drifted rapidly to the left…

The rest of the trip went quite smoothly.  We found hotels and we saw many interesting and memorable things.  But that first day was a bit odd.  Still, looking back, even that day was wonderful.

(That is my Forest Gump impersonation of the day….Can you dig it?)

Last weekend, I took another impromptu trip to Beijing.  It was a three-day weekend, and I wanted to see some of my friends.  We went to a restaurant that serves food from Xinjiang (新疆), which literally means, “New Frontier.”  Xianjiang is a large province on the western edge of China.  The food is very delicious and and a bit spicy.

I also went to another World Heritage Site, The Summer Palace (颐和园), in Beijing.  I stayed in a hotel that was like an apartment.  Everything looked new.  It even had a small kitchen and washing machine!  It was really nice, comfortable, and inexpensive!

It is always nice to get away and see something new.  This has definitely been a year of short trips and varied experiences, both in Japan and in other countries.  I have been working hard, but also having fun.  Unfortunately, I didn’t take my camera this time!  If you want to learn more, check out these Wikipedia pages:

Xinjiang: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang

The Summer Palace: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_Palace

Beijing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing

By the way, I took Air China and I was very happy with the service.  I left early for my flight, but for various reasons, I was late getting ticketed.  One of the attendants ran with me and helped me get on the flight.  Then, on the way back, I flew Business Class.  (It was like First Class.)  It was very comfortable and the service was great.