Last Week I Went to China. No, Really!

Whew! So after a whirlwind tour of Beijing with my lovely friends Sarah and Kristina, I finally have found the energy to return here and update again! So last week, I went to Beijing. It was quite possibly the most insane trip humanly possible; I'm not sure if that was Beijing or just us. Our trip began with Sarah and Kristina almost missing their flight because someone had committed suicide by jumping in front of Sarah's train and so it was late. (Sidenote: if a train is ever late in Japan, somebody probably used it to kill themselves. Because otherwise Japanese people are never late, and that goes for planes trains and buses, too.) In the meantime, I ended up spending the night sleeping under police supervision at the Haneda Airport koban (police box - yes Japanese policemen are just so badass that they work in a box. And also the emblem for it is a cop giving a kid a lollipop. Hardcore man.). As it turns out one cannot camp out overnight in Japanese airports, as they close. I was informed of this at midnight, after all the trains had stopped running, by a surly Japanese man in a uniform who stood about shoulder high to me. After much groveling, pleading and ninety degree bowing, I and the two other stranded foreigners who had glommed onto me because they spoke no Japanese, we were permitted to camp out on benches at the koban. They took down our passport numbers so that we can't ever do it again though. The next day I finally arrived in Beijing and to the hostel, where I met up with Sarah and Kristina. We decided to ride bikes over to the Forbidden City.

This was a horrible idea. Beijing traffic is what the ninth circle of Hell must be like, and helmets have yet to be invented in China. It is like a nightmarish game of Frogger, if Frogger had a love child with Grand Theft Auto. To make things worse, it was way below freezing! We got lost for several hours, and spent them being chased down by buses, cop cars and taxis, bouncing from Beijinger to Beijinger trying to get directions - which we did get, in both English and Chinese, and all of which were horribly wrong. We eventually arrived, but it had already closed. We went and wandered in Dongshan Park instead. Sarah had to give me handwarmers because I was so cold! Eventually we found our way to Starbucks, and warmed up before returning to the hostel.

That night we went out for hot pot with some new friends from our hostel, and those same friends talked me into going out with them that night. It turned into a ridiculous late night of drinks and dancing. I made it back just in time to grab a few winks before we departed for the Great Wall! One of the perks of visiting Beijing in February (which translates roughly to "visiting Beijing in the dead of winter")  is that nobody else is crazy enough to do it, so you have major attractions like the Great Wall entirely to yourself!

After the Great Wall, we went back into town and wandered, ate some snacks at a local restaurant, and rested up for the Peking Opera that night!

 

I filmed this guy. He caught me. And winked.

After the opera, we went out for Peking duck with two of our new hostel buddies. Well, Kristina and I (by the way, dude, I still have to stop myself from calling you Kemmi all the time...) did. Sarah was sadly too tired and didn't come with us. Sad face. Suffice to say... Peking duck was AMAZING. EAT IT. Don't miss it. It's really, really good.

The next day, we got up and went to the Forbidden City. Folks, this is a palace. It makes Versailles and Fontainebleau look like total and complete pikers. The sheer scale of the place is overwhelming.

After the Forbidden City we went for lunch. We picked a random restaurant. They didn't speak English. We don't speak Chinese. We coped. Though I have no idea what the NAME of what we ate was, it was tasty. Though our attempt to order 400 grams of chicken apparently only came through as "four" and "chicken", resulting in four orders of chicken, we managed to eat it all. We were hungry from all the exercise we were getting!

 

When we tried to leave the restaurant, a random guy started talking to us and flagged us a cab. Then the cab driver tried to screw us and was generally being difficult so we got back out; but some random old lady was biking between the cab and the curb and we hit the back of her bike with the door. She went flying! For whatever reason, our random street corner friend shouted her down in Chinese for us and made her go away. What actually happened here I have no idea. We went back to the hostel and rested, then went tea shopping! The first tea shop we tried, the owner told us to go away! I don't think he wanted to sell tea to foreigners. After over six months of living in Japan, this is the first time I've been chased out of an establishment for being foreign. It wasn't that big of a deal; the next tea shop was cuter anyway and the girls were really friendly. Win! Also they gave us free candies and let us taste the teas.

 

After that we went back to the hostel for a dumpling/Chinese New Year's party with the AMAZING gang of Chinese Box Hostel . If you go to Beijing, I don't care if you can afford a luxury hotel. Stay here. Trust me. You will not be sorry.

Anyway, the New Year celebrations were a wonderful success! We learned how to fold dumplings... er, well, we tried. Most people had more luck than I did!

Later in the night, we set off fireworks of our own, and at midnight, the entire city lit up as Beijingers writ large greeted the Year of the Tiger in style. As a proud feline representative myself (1986) I am especially delighted to have celebrated the lunar New Year in China! Sadly, this was the end of my trip - I caught a cab to the airport at 4:45am to return to Akita. Back in the office the next day, if you can believe it! 8:15 just like always.

While this post is basically just a trip report, I found a lot of interesting and compelling things about visiting China. It has certainly given me some new perspectives on all the talk you hear about "emerging China" and so on. Since you read my blog, and this is where I talk about stuff I want to talk about, and I want to talk about that, expect a post in the next few days addressing my social and political observations from my trip! But till then, enjoy the pictures. There are more on FaceBook!

Sarah, Kristina, I had so much fun. Sarah, like me, is recontracting; I'm going to try and chase her down for another Asian adventure come fall! Sadly Kristina is leaving us - but I'm very excited for her, as she will be attending grad school next year! Seriously, dude, I'm crashing your pad in London. Thanks also to the Box Hostel gang and all the new friends met there! This was an awesome trip. Let's hope the awesome ball keeps rolling for my upcoming adventures in Cambodia and Thailand next month!

A Year in Review

Today marks the 6 month anniversary of my stay in Japan. Given that, it seemed like a good time for a quick recap of the last year.

I had reconstructive ACL surgery last January and spent most of my time in physical therapy and being unable to walk. This sucked. I was also beginning the final semester of my fairly protracted tenure as a college student. At the end of January, I was notified that I had qualified for an interview with JET.

Knee surgery is a bitch.

In February, I went to Chicago for my JET interview and continued the usual business of studying (well, sorta) and physical therapy for my knee.

March marched along more or less the same. In April, I was notified that JET had accepted me, and I also ended my tenure with TeachStreet. In May, the longest romantic relationship of my life came to an abrupt and unexpected end. Four days later I graduated from college.

Me and Jackie, my wonderful beloved roomie.

June brought a three-week trip to France (though, for the sake of bragging rights, we went via Copenhagen, even though I saw nothing save the airport) with my family, during which I celebrated my 23rd birthday in Paris.

In July, I went to Yellowstone Park with my mom. At the end of July, just one week after the end of the Yellowstone trip, I threw most of my stuff into two gigantic suitcases and boarded a plane for Tokyo orientation with JET.

Yellowstone.

Tokyo.

In August I arrived at my new home in Akita Prefecture, and began my work with the JET program. September and October continued much the same, with some travel within Akita Prefecture.

Welcome to school.

Halloween was pretty awesome.

In November, I took a trip to Kyoto and Osaka.

December saw me coming home to Seattle, with
an overnight stay in Seoul, Korea on the way home. I am now back in Akita, with JET, and am eagerly looking forward to a trip to Beijing next month.


I guess you could call it a busy year.

Onward! (That's for you, Dave.)

We went birdwatcing at Nisqually while I was home!

Brought to You By Request

As any of you (are there any of you?) who are regular readers may have noticed, I've been a bit... Well, let's just cut to the chase. I haven't updated at all in a while. In fact it's been so long that the notion of trying to catch y'all up has become kind of daunting. But thanks to the wishes of my wonderful friend Meg, here you go; the longest update in the history of humankind. Ready, steady....GO!

As of my last update, December 16th, I was a few days away from returning home to visit the USA!! That trip went swimmingly, despite the fact that the kaki (persimmons) and mikan (mandarin oranges) I tried to bring for my family were confiscated in Customs because I declared them. I tried really hard not to yell at the Customs man lecturing me on fines for not declaring things. Since he was wearing a uniform, and I was not yet through Customs, I was unfailingly polite. My internal narration went something like this...

"You facking idiot, I am only over here BECAUSE I declared my oranges. If I had not declared them, you never would have noticed. WHY ARE YOU LECTURING ME ABOUT DECLARING MY ITEMS??!! The people who need that lecture are already halfway to baggage claim you asswipe!".

These are not things one should generally say to uniformed persons in airports, however. And so I bit my tongue.

At any rate, I was welcomed home to Seattle (albeit both persimmon- and orange-less) by my mom and dad waiting as I came up the escalator. I have never been so happy to see two people in my entire life! We drove home, where I was also so happy to see both of my baby brothers! It was the most beautiful thing in the world to be home, with my whole family around me. I was biting back tears (sorry guys - 7,028 miles and 17 hours' time change of separation warrants a wee bit of sentimentality). We spent a glorious winter break together, joined by one of my best friends ever (DL!!!). We went skiing, ate tons of delicious food, watched movies, went to see Avatar, drank lots of good wine, and went to the rock climbing gym. Luckily, two of the coolest people ever, Kim and Dave, also carved out some time to see me, as did my old high school friend John! I have never had such a wonderful vacation in all my life!! Thank you to all I saw, and sorry I missed you to those I didn't. It was very hard to say goodbye and return to Japan.

Of course I did. On the way home I spent a night in Seoul, South Korea, before returning to Akita Prefecture. I had begun seriously reconsidering my decision to recontract - I miss all of you at home so much! But the next few weeks held enough good things that I think I will probably stay after all.

Shortly after I returned to Japan, I was so fortunate to be invited into the Takanos' (one of my coworkers at Yuri Elementary, Mr. Takano's) home for a mochi-making party! We made traditional rice cakes using a mortar and giant hammer, then ate a huge, delicious supper featuring our very own rice cakes. The Takano family is a very talented bunch - they shared with me everything from Frisbee golf in their living room (Mr. Takano's father is the Japan National Frisbee Golf Champ), to juggling (Mr. Takano's mother can juggle one-handed), to magic tricks, string games, strategy board games and traditional Japanese toys with his son and daughter. (Note: I am purposely not mentioning names, as I don't have permission from the persons in question, and Japanese people are very careful about Internet privacy.) It was a wonderful evening, which culminated in the grandfather giving me a sixpack of beer for the road, the whole family seeing my taxi off in the snow, and a fifteen-minute chat with my taxi driver on the way home - hooray for immersion language learning!

That weekend was my skiing debut in Japan - I went to my friend Alfonso's for the weekend. We went skiing, played my new PS2 karaoke game, and ate way too much sushi.
It was a practically perfect weekend! The following weekend was similar, although the weather was much less cooperative, so we gave up (the wind was blowing us UPHILL at the ski area!) and went to Odate for arcade games and dinner instead.

This past weekend, I attended a Shinto ceremony with my fellow teachers, followed by an enkai (work drinking party). The Shinto ceremony was very interesting, and I had to participate as well! I was kind of watching everyone else out of the corner of my eye, trying to time my clapping and bowing correctly. The ceremony is specifically to help our sannensei (third graders) pass their high school entrance exams... So much for confidence in our own teaching prowess. After the ceremony we treated ourselves to a sumptuous feast in a gorgeous tatami room at Anraku Onsen, right near my house.

I spent the rest of the weekend mostly on housekeeping and errands. Some things never change, even overseas.

This week, I'm looking forward to an organized snowball fight among JETs in Akita City on Sunday. I'm not sure yet what I'll do before that - on Saturday, Alfonso and I may meet up at Lake Tazawa for some real skiing (as opposed to the limited bunny hill offerings of our local areas).

Today, I got the final step (my visa application) of planning for next month's trip to Beijing out of the way - China, here I come!!! I am very excited to visit Beijing. Stay tuned for pictures of me on the Great Wall of China...