Saturday, March 10, 2007
SEVEN DAYS!
Eduardo will be here in ONE WEEK. SEVEN DAYS SEVEN DAYS SEVEN DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Friday, March 09, 2007
Hong Kong, Part Three
The last part of my babbling!
Sunday was our last full day in Hong Kong, and we pretty much did the same stuff as we did on Saturday! We got up and went to dim sum at The Garden Restaurant, a place that Sean and Jenny highly recommended. It was good!!! The egg rolls were the best egg rolls I have ever had! Thankfully Winsome made a cheat sheet for us to order things with, so we had some kanji hints. Mmm, it was yummy. Thanks, Sean and Jenny!
After that we did some shopping. Because of CNY, a lot of places were closed or opened really late. However, Hong Kong people are totally night people, and most places open really late anyway! They close and open really late, it is way different than Japan! We hadn’t had much luck shopping until we found Tough Jeans, the most Japanese store we could find in Hong Kong, haha. Calvin, Cindy and I all bought things there! Yay new clothes!
We then wandered around some more until we wanted to die and were all very grumpy and tired! Thankfully we found a Starbucks where we had a small afternoon nap. After that Cindy had to go visit her family, so Ann, Calvin and I hit the town on our own. We wanted to make sure we went to this dessert place that Winsome recommended before it closed, so we had dessert before dinner that night! Haha. It was also REALLY embarrassing, as we ordered SEVEN DESSERTS for the three of us! Um, families of six only ordered like two! Hee hee, oh well. Some of the desserts were really good and some were only okay. I FINALLY tried durian, a fruit I have heard a lot about from Cindy. It is popular in Southeast Asia, but is a you-love-it-or-really-hate it fruit. I had heard that it smells like cat poop and was very intrigued for some reason. Anyway, we tried the durian pancakes, which were actually pretty good. Then we got this one dessert with ice cream on top of jelly. Inside the jelly we found some mysterious food and were like, “Oooo, there is something in here!” We instantly devoured it, but instantly regretted it, as it was durian and was NASTY!!!!! IT DOES smell like crap and tastes like it, too! It was freaking gross!!!! It took us a second to realize how nasty it was, but it was BAD. I don’t know how people can eat it?! For the next half hour the table smelled like crap! Um, EWW!
After that we headed to the Chinese New Years Parade. Despite purposely going there for CNY, there really wasn’t that much CNY-related stuff to do. They made a huge deal of the parade, though, so we wanted to make sure we saw it. Um, we SORT OF saw it, hehe. First of all, there were like seven bazillion people there. Also, they had two barricades? Like, the early people got to stand by the first barrier, right on the parade route. Then there was a big empty space behind them, with another barricade, where the late-comers (i.e. us) got to cram into with no room to breathe! Fortunately I am freakishly tall and could BARELY see things, but poor Calvin and Ann couldn’t see anything! I was also happy to be tall, as I had fresh air at my height, while everyone who is not-so-tall was sweaty and couldn’t breathe! Sad! We didn’t stay at the parade for too long, then went to a vegetarian restaurant for dinner before sleeping again. Once again we walked about 700 miles in one day!
The next day we didn’t have that much time before our flight, but we DID have time for dim sum! Mmmmm! We ordered a lot, but not as much as the EIGHTEEN dishes we ordered the day before! HAHAHA. The sad thing is we barely left ANYTHING on the table after we finished, either. We devoured it all! Anyway, it was good. However, I would not be very amused to live in HK, as the service is SO bad! The complete opposite of Japan. Waitresses are NOT afraid to show you how much they hate you and their job! The only time they ever smiled was when they got CNY red envelopes from their regular customers. Dude, I want to be a waiter just during CNY, as they were getting red envelopes like every five minutes!
Anyway, after that we headed to the airport, flew home and missed our stupid last train back to Ota. I figured we would, but it still pissed me off. Fortunately Calvin was nice and housed me and Cindy for the night. We got a WHOPPING 3 hours of sleep before we had to get up at 5 in the morning to head back home and get ready for work. In a NORMAL country, one could call a cab at that hour. However, only ONE cab company runs at that hour and they were too busy to pick us up (I think they only have one car running so early). Um, WTF!!!!!! So Cindy and I had to walk 45 minutes to the train station with all of our bags in the cold at 5 in the morning. AWESOME! Hmm, perhaps our lives are strange in this country. Hehe. It wasn’t that bad, though.
Fortunately I didn’t have any classes, as I may have killed kids that day, with 3 hours of sleep and getting up at 5 in the morning!
Anyway, that was our Hong Kong trip! It was fun! But now I must diet and not spend any money until Eduardo comes!!!
Sunday was our last full day in Hong Kong, and we pretty much did the same stuff as we did on Saturday! We got up and went to dim sum at The Garden Restaurant, a place that Sean and Jenny highly recommended. It was good!!! The egg rolls were the best egg rolls I have ever had! Thankfully Winsome made a cheat sheet for us to order things with, so we had some kanji hints. Mmm, it was yummy. Thanks, Sean and Jenny!
After that we did some shopping. Because of CNY, a lot of places were closed or opened really late. However, Hong Kong people are totally night people, and most places open really late anyway! They close and open really late, it is way different than Japan! We hadn’t had much luck shopping until we found Tough Jeans, the most Japanese store we could find in Hong Kong, haha. Calvin, Cindy and I all bought things there! Yay new clothes!
We then wandered around some more until we wanted to die and were all very grumpy and tired! Thankfully we found a Starbucks where we had a small afternoon nap. After that Cindy had to go visit her family, so Ann, Calvin and I hit the town on our own. We wanted to make sure we went to this dessert place that Winsome recommended before it closed, so we had dessert before dinner that night! Haha. It was also REALLY embarrassing, as we ordered SEVEN DESSERTS for the three of us! Um, families of six only ordered like two! Hee hee, oh well. Some of the desserts were really good and some were only okay. I FINALLY tried durian, a fruit I have heard a lot about from Cindy. It is popular in Southeast Asia, but is a you-love-it-or-really-hate it fruit. I had heard that it smells like cat poop and was very intrigued for some reason. Anyway, we tried the durian pancakes, which were actually pretty good. Then we got this one dessert with ice cream on top of jelly. Inside the jelly we found some mysterious food and were like, “Oooo, there is something in here!” We instantly devoured it, but instantly regretted it, as it was durian and was NASTY!!!!! IT DOES smell like crap and tastes like it, too! It was freaking gross!!!! It took us a second to realize how nasty it was, but it was BAD. I don’t know how people can eat it?! For the next half hour the table smelled like crap! Um, EWW!
After that we headed to the Chinese New Years Parade. Despite purposely going there for CNY, there really wasn’t that much CNY-related stuff to do. They made a huge deal of the parade, though, so we wanted to make sure we saw it. Um, we SORT OF saw it, hehe. First of all, there were like seven bazillion people there. Also, they had two barricades? Like, the early people got to stand by the first barrier, right on the parade route. Then there was a big empty space behind them, with another barricade, where the late-comers (i.e. us) got to cram into with no room to breathe! Fortunately I am freakishly tall and could BARELY see things, but poor Calvin and Ann couldn’t see anything! I was also happy to be tall, as I had fresh air at my height, while everyone who is not-so-tall was sweaty and couldn’t breathe! Sad! We didn’t stay at the parade for too long, then went to a vegetarian restaurant for dinner before sleeping again. Once again we walked about 700 miles in one day!
The next day we didn’t have that much time before our flight, but we DID have time for dim sum! Mmmmm! We ordered a lot, but not as much as the EIGHTEEN dishes we ordered the day before! HAHAHA. The sad thing is we barely left ANYTHING on the table after we finished, either. We devoured it all! Anyway, it was good. However, I would not be very amused to live in HK, as the service is SO bad! The complete opposite of Japan. Waitresses are NOT afraid to show you how much they hate you and their job! The only time they ever smiled was when they got CNY red envelopes from their regular customers. Dude, I want to be a waiter just during CNY, as they were getting red envelopes like every five minutes!
Anyway, after that we headed to the airport, flew home and missed our stupid last train back to Ota. I figured we would, but it still pissed me off. Fortunately Calvin was nice and housed me and Cindy for the night. We got a WHOPPING 3 hours of sleep before we had to get up at 5 in the morning to head back home and get ready for work. In a NORMAL country, one could call a cab at that hour. However, only ONE cab company runs at that hour and they were too busy to pick us up (I think they only have one car running so early). Um, WTF!!!!!! So Cindy and I had to walk 45 minutes to the train station with all of our bags in the cold at 5 in the morning. AWESOME! Hmm, perhaps our lives are strange in this country. Hehe. It wasn’t that bad, though.
Fortunately I didn’t have any classes, as I may have killed kids that day, with 3 hours of sleep and getting up at 5 in the morning!
Anyway, that was our Hong Kong trip! It was fun! But now I must diet and not spend any money until Eduardo comes!!!
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Hong Kong, Part Two
On our first full day in Hong Kong, we woke up a bit early to have DIM SUM, mmmmmmm! Fortunately Cindy’s cousin, Winsome, volunteered to be our dim sum guide, as we don’t know the kanji for dim sum words! It was my first time having REAL Hong Kong dim sum, as I had only had it in Taiwan before. Oh my god, it was so good! Um, Winsome MAY have been scared by how much we could eat! Hong Kong people just go there for the tea and to relax while they eat a bit. Us hungry gaijin, on the other hand, came for the food and ate EVERYTHING! She kept suggesting things and we were like, “Sure!” She soon learned to just order anything she could think of, as she knew we would eat it! One time she called the waiter by saying, “Come here, the table with the biggest eaters…” Haha, sad. MMMM, it was good! I finally had fresh chicken feet, as the ones I had in Taiwan were like a day old. They sound nasty but they are yummy! We also had this YUMMY dessert that looked like some sort of pineapple thing, but was made of horse feet. Holy crap, it was good. EVERYTHING was good. We ate so much!
After that we walked off our calories by shopping. Well, more like walking around and window shopping. Hong Kong was a waste on us in that way, as we didn’t really have anything we needed to buy, and pretty much all you can do there is shop! Hehe. I did get some DVDs, though (um, Aaron Kwok up in here!!!!!). We walked around enough until we could get desserts from the street vendors, mmm!
After that we walked ALL OVER Hong Kong. We went to the Avenue of the Stars, which is kind of like a boardwalk on the bay dedicated to Hong Kong stars. Aaron didn’t have a star there and it was sad! Sniff. Fortunately it was a lot clearer than the day before, so we could finally take pictures of the Hong Kong skyline!
Oh, I forgot to mention three things! One, it was damn warm in Hong Kong! It got up to about 25 degrees or so during the day! That is much different from Gunma, which is about 10 degrees during the day, and MUCH different than Hokkaido the week before, which was 0 degrees!
Second, Hong Kong totally feels like NYC at times! I think it is a mix of humidity, heat, the big city feel, and the sorta-dirty-ness without being really dirty. I dunno, it is hard to describe, but it felt like I was in NYC a lot of the time!
Three, I am secretly fluent in Cantonese! Well, I cant speak it, but I can somehow understand it! Like, I totally knew what people were saying most of the time before Cindy would translate it! It was weird! But like, people are pretty much the same in any language, so I just imagined what the person would say in whatever situation, I guess. Still, it was weird, I am so secretly Chinese! Hehe.
Oh, also, HK is TOTALLY like in movies. I always thought they exaggerated the streets with tons of bright signs advertising everything, but it really is that way! I felt like I was in the second season finale of Alias! Yes, I am a nerd.
Anyway, yeah. After walking we were EXHAUSTED and needed a place to sit, so we MAY have gone to McDonald’s! Hehehe. Oh my god, their McD’s rocks! First of all, they have breakfast ALL DAY LONG! It is like heaven! They also have jo-jos! Might I add that apparently jo-jos (I don’t know how to spell it) are only an Oregonian word, as no one had any idea what I was talking about. They are like the big potato fry-like things with seasoning on them. And they have chocolate-dipped cones, etc. Mmmm!
After that we wandered some more, then went to see the Hong Kong light show. Every night at 8 PM they have a light show using the buildings on Hong Kong Island. You can see it from the Kowloon side, and it is a big deal and is one of the top 10 something something. In other words, they make a big deal of it, so we expected a lot. Um, it was FREAKING BORING! It was the crappiest show ever! The lights barely matched with the music and it was just random and BORING! It was only ten minutes but we were waiting for it to finish! Haha. Sad.
After that we met up with Winsome for dinner at a Macau restaurant. Because of our HUGE breakfast we barely ate there (for us) and it was a little worrisome!
We then made our way to Victoria Peak. Victoria Peak is THE place to go to if you go to Hong Kong. Like, it is the only thing on list of things to do there, hehe. It is a 552-meter tall mountain on Hong Kong Island, and it has an amazing view! You are like RIGHT above the skyscrapers, and can see the water and Kowloon from it. It is really beautiful. We went up there at night so we could see the skyscrapers all lit up, and I am really glad we went. Unfortunately we didn’t go again during the daytime, as you can hike around there and get really close to the buildings, but that will be next time, if I ever go back!
After taking about 7 million pictures, none of which turned out because digital cameras suck at night time, we went back to the hotel and slept!
One more part coming tomorrow and then I am caught up on travel-related blogs! Oh, except for Shanghai, but I dont want to finish that, haha.
After that we walked off our calories by shopping. Well, more like walking around and window shopping. Hong Kong was a waste on us in that way, as we didn’t really have anything we needed to buy, and pretty much all you can do there is shop! Hehe. I did get some DVDs, though (um, Aaron Kwok up in here!!!!!). We walked around enough until we could get desserts from the street vendors, mmm!
After that we walked ALL OVER Hong Kong. We went to the Avenue of the Stars, which is kind of like a boardwalk on the bay dedicated to Hong Kong stars. Aaron didn’t have a star there and it was sad! Sniff. Fortunately it was a lot clearer than the day before, so we could finally take pictures of the Hong Kong skyline!
Oh, I forgot to mention three things! One, it was damn warm in Hong Kong! It got up to about 25 degrees or so during the day! That is much different from Gunma, which is about 10 degrees during the day, and MUCH different than Hokkaido the week before, which was 0 degrees!
Second, Hong Kong totally feels like NYC at times! I think it is a mix of humidity, heat, the big city feel, and the sorta-dirty-ness without being really dirty. I dunno, it is hard to describe, but it felt like I was in NYC a lot of the time!
Three, I am secretly fluent in Cantonese! Well, I cant speak it, but I can somehow understand it! Like, I totally knew what people were saying most of the time before Cindy would translate it! It was weird! But like, people are pretty much the same in any language, so I just imagined what the person would say in whatever situation, I guess. Still, it was weird, I am so secretly Chinese! Hehe.
Oh, also, HK is TOTALLY like in movies. I always thought they exaggerated the streets with tons of bright signs advertising everything, but it really is that way! I felt like I was in the second season finale of Alias! Yes, I am a nerd.
Anyway, yeah. After walking we were EXHAUSTED and needed a place to sit, so we MAY have gone to McDonald’s! Hehehe. Oh my god, their McD’s rocks! First of all, they have breakfast ALL DAY LONG! It is like heaven! They also have jo-jos! Might I add that apparently jo-jos (I don’t know how to spell it) are only an Oregonian word, as no one had any idea what I was talking about. They are like the big potato fry-like things with seasoning on them. And they have chocolate-dipped cones, etc. Mmmm!
After that we wandered some more, then went to see the Hong Kong light show. Every night at 8 PM they have a light show using the buildings on Hong Kong Island. You can see it from the Kowloon side, and it is a big deal and is one of the top 10 something something. In other words, they make a big deal of it, so we expected a lot. Um, it was FREAKING BORING! It was the crappiest show ever! The lights barely matched with the music and it was just random and BORING! It was only ten minutes but we were waiting for it to finish! Haha. Sad.
After that we met up with Winsome for dinner at a Macau restaurant. Because of our HUGE breakfast we barely ate there (for us) and it was a little worrisome!
We then made our way to Victoria Peak. Victoria Peak is THE place to go to if you go to Hong Kong. Like, it is the only thing on list of things to do there, hehe. It is a 552-meter tall mountain on Hong Kong Island, and it has an amazing view! You are like RIGHT above the skyscrapers, and can see the water and Kowloon from it. It is really beautiful. We went up there at night so we could see the skyscrapers all lit up, and I am really glad we went. Unfortunately we didn’t go again during the daytime, as you can hike around there and get really close to the buildings, but that will be next time, if I ever go back!
After taking about 7 million pictures, none of which turned out because digital cameras suck at night time, we went back to the hotel and slept!
One more part coming tomorrow and then I am caught up on travel-related blogs! Oh, except for Shanghai, but I dont want to finish that, haha.
Hong Kong
(this is literally only for my own Alzheimer's-y memory so that I can remember my Hong Kong trip in the future....but I figured since I wrote it, I should at least post it for the like half a person that would be at all interested! Hehe. So sorry, it is long! But you can skip it :)
A few Fridays ago, Cindy, Ann, Calvin and I took a long weekend and went to Hong Kong! However, the trip sort-of started on Thursday night, as Narita is the WORST airport in the world and is TOO far away. Our flight was at ten, meaning we had to check in at 8. However, the first train from the Ota area wouldn’t get us to Narita in time, so we had to stay at Calvin’s in Tatebayashi and take the freaking 5 AM train (not amusing) to get there in time. Ugh. However, it was fun, as Calvin made us a YUMMY Filipino dinner, and then Mami and Tatebayashi JETs came over, so it was nice to see everyone.
For some reason I couldn’t sleep, so what already should have been a crappy night’s sleep turned into a REALLY crappy night’s sleep of about 2-3 hours. FUN! Anyway, all went fine getting to Narita and everything, and fortunately we got to skip the HUUUUUUUGE check-in line for JAL, since we didn’t have check-in baggage.
The plane ride to Hong Kong is way longer than it should be, yo! Almost five hours?! Hello, it is Hong Kong, it is not exciting enough to have a five-hour flight! Hehe. I watched a Korean movie, but it wasn’t any good, sadly. Plus they are all the same…one of two lovers gets sick, and everyone cries. Usually it is good in a formulaic (whoa, big word!) way, but this one wasn’t, hrm.
Anyway, we got to Hong Kong and our tour company picked us up to drive us to our hotel (it was a “free” tour, so it isn’t what Americans think of as an actual tour). Our “guide” on the bus has the easiest job ever, as he didn’t tell us anything about Hong Kong! Haha. Unfortunately Friday was HELLA cloudy or smoggy or both, as you could barely see anything in the city! So our view of the city (country? Hehe) was limited on the drive. We got to the hotel, which was nice, then decided to wander around the city. The good thing about having to get up hella early to fly out is that it felt like we had a whole day in Hong Kong! That was awesome, as I hate travel days where you cant do anything.
Our hotel was right next to Nathan Road, which is a major road in Hong Kong with lots of eating and shopping (which is good, since that is all there is to do in Hong Kong! Hehe). So we wandered around Nathan Road for a while. This was kind of the story of our entire trip, as I swear we walked around the same area about 300 times! Hehe. Anyway, we kinda wandered around the shops and food vendors and of course had to snack on Chinese beef jerky, waffles with butter, peanut butter and condensed milk (mmm!), fresh fruit juice, etc. This was also the story of our trip, as we spent ALL of our time either eating, or waiting to be hungry so we could eat again! I am not joking!
Oh, for those who don’t know, Hong Kong is split into a few different areas/islands. The two main ones are Kowloon and Hong Kong. Kowloon is where our hotel was, and is where most of the shopping and stuff is. Hong Kong is mostly financial, but also has Victoria Peak and stuff. Hong Kong has the Manhattan-ish skyline, which you can see from Kowloon. Anyway, we went to the bay to look at the Hong Kong skyline, but it was SO cloudy that we could barely see ANYTHING! It was sad! Since that was a bust, we decided to take the ferry to Hong Kong to visit a flower market.
Oh, I forgot to mention that it was Chinese New Year! We scheduled it that way on purpose, as we figured it would be cool to be there for CNY. Anyway, flower markets are a big part of CNY, as EVERYONE goes there to buy flowers and stuff for the new year. However, they not only buy flowers, they also buy the MOST POINTLESS things in the ENTIRE world. Like, I have no idea why they would ever need any of it! There were obviously necessary items such as blow-up “slippery when wet” signs, blow-up hammers, blow-up pig hats (and ANYTHING pig-related, as it is the year of the pig), blow-up “no smoking” signs, toys of all varieties, etc. Pretty much anything that is inflatable was there! It was seriously weird, but not THAT surprising, considering the crap people would buy in China for Christmas Eve and New Year’s. So really the flower market was about 30% flowers and 70% pointless crap! People apparently love it, though, as it was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo packed. Holy crap, there were so many people! And it isn’t like it is the only flower market in Hong Kong, either! It was crazy. It was interesting to experience it, but very overwhelming! The flower part was pretty, though, and smelled really good!
After walking through it and being exhausted by people all over, we left (well, not before eating a snack!) and went out for dinner. We ended up at a place on the street that was YUMMY! It was an izakaya-type place (drinking and eating place), and was kinda like places we ate in both Korea and China. All Asian countries have cool street places except for stupid Japan that thinks they are better than everyone! Sad. Anyway, it was really good, and I got to try pigeon for the first time. I don’t even remember what all we ate, but fortunately Ann greatly enjoyed her new digital camera and took pictures of EVERYTHING! So I am excited to see the pics :)
After that we wandered around a market, where I got some illegal DVDs (woot!) and Ann got her palm read. Then we decided we had burned off enough calories to go for dessert! Hong Kong has awesome desserts, as they are all fruity and yummy! Most of them include mango, which is VERY good in my book! I got a mango dessert with black glutinous rice and it was goooood. Mmm.
After that we walked back to the hotel and slept like mofos, as we were TIRED!!!!!!!!!!!!!
To be continued!
A few Fridays ago, Cindy, Ann, Calvin and I took a long weekend and went to Hong Kong! However, the trip sort-of started on Thursday night, as Narita is the WORST airport in the world and is TOO far away. Our flight was at ten, meaning we had to check in at 8. However, the first train from the Ota area wouldn’t get us to Narita in time, so we had to stay at Calvin’s in Tatebayashi and take the freaking 5 AM train (not amusing) to get there in time. Ugh. However, it was fun, as Calvin made us a YUMMY Filipino dinner, and then Mami and Tatebayashi JETs came over, so it was nice to see everyone.
For some reason I couldn’t sleep, so what already should have been a crappy night’s sleep turned into a REALLY crappy night’s sleep of about 2-3 hours. FUN! Anyway, all went fine getting to Narita and everything, and fortunately we got to skip the HUUUUUUUGE check-in line for JAL, since we didn’t have check-in baggage.
The plane ride to Hong Kong is way longer than it should be, yo! Almost five hours?! Hello, it is Hong Kong, it is not exciting enough to have a five-hour flight! Hehe. I watched a Korean movie, but it wasn’t any good, sadly. Plus they are all the same…one of two lovers gets sick, and everyone cries. Usually it is good in a formulaic (whoa, big word!) way, but this one wasn’t, hrm.
Anyway, we got to Hong Kong and our tour company picked us up to drive us to our hotel (it was a “free” tour, so it isn’t what Americans think of as an actual tour). Our “guide” on the bus has the easiest job ever, as he didn’t tell us anything about Hong Kong! Haha. Unfortunately Friday was HELLA cloudy or smoggy or both, as you could barely see anything in the city! So our view of the city (country? Hehe) was limited on the drive. We got to the hotel, which was nice, then decided to wander around the city. The good thing about having to get up hella early to fly out is that it felt like we had a whole day in Hong Kong! That was awesome, as I hate travel days where you cant do anything.
Our hotel was right next to Nathan Road, which is a major road in Hong Kong with lots of eating and shopping (which is good, since that is all there is to do in Hong Kong! Hehe). So we wandered around Nathan Road for a while. This was kind of the story of our entire trip, as I swear we walked around the same area about 300 times! Hehe. Anyway, we kinda wandered around the shops and food vendors and of course had to snack on Chinese beef jerky, waffles with butter, peanut butter and condensed milk (mmm!), fresh fruit juice, etc. This was also the story of our trip, as we spent ALL of our time either eating, or waiting to be hungry so we could eat again! I am not joking!
Oh, for those who don’t know, Hong Kong is split into a few different areas/islands. The two main ones are Kowloon and Hong Kong. Kowloon is where our hotel was, and is where most of the shopping and stuff is. Hong Kong is mostly financial, but also has Victoria Peak and stuff. Hong Kong has the Manhattan-ish skyline, which you can see from Kowloon. Anyway, we went to the bay to look at the Hong Kong skyline, but it was SO cloudy that we could barely see ANYTHING! It was sad! Since that was a bust, we decided to take the ferry to Hong Kong to visit a flower market.
Oh, I forgot to mention that it was Chinese New Year! We scheduled it that way on purpose, as we figured it would be cool to be there for CNY. Anyway, flower markets are a big part of CNY, as EVERYONE goes there to buy flowers and stuff for the new year. However, they not only buy flowers, they also buy the MOST POINTLESS things in the ENTIRE world. Like, I have no idea why they would ever need any of it! There were obviously necessary items such as blow-up “slippery when wet” signs, blow-up hammers, blow-up pig hats (and ANYTHING pig-related, as it is the year of the pig), blow-up “no smoking” signs, toys of all varieties, etc. Pretty much anything that is inflatable was there! It was seriously weird, but not THAT surprising, considering the crap people would buy in China for Christmas Eve and New Year’s. So really the flower market was about 30% flowers and 70% pointless crap! People apparently love it, though, as it was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo packed. Holy crap, there were so many people! And it isn’t like it is the only flower market in Hong Kong, either! It was crazy. It was interesting to experience it, but very overwhelming! The flower part was pretty, though, and smelled really good!
After walking through it and being exhausted by people all over, we left (well, not before eating a snack!) and went out for dinner. We ended up at a place on the street that was YUMMY! It was an izakaya-type place (drinking and eating place), and was kinda like places we ate in both Korea and China. All Asian countries have cool street places except for stupid Japan that thinks they are better than everyone! Sad. Anyway, it was really good, and I got to try pigeon for the first time. I don’t even remember what all we ate, but fortunately Ann greatly enjoyed her new digital camera and took pictures of EVERYTHING! So I am excited to see the pics :)
After that we wandered around a market, where I got some illegal DVDs (woot!) and Ann got her palm read. Then we decided we had burned off enough calories to go for dessert! Hong Kong has awesome desserts, as they are all fruity and yummy! Most of them include mango, which is VERY good in my book! I got a mango dessert with black glutinous rice and it was goooood. Mmm.
After that we walked back to the hotel and slept like mofos, as we were TIRED!!!!!!!!!!!!!
To be continued!
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
I LOVE YABUCHU!
So I realize that I am the most bi-polar blogger ever, but I LOVE MY SCHOOL! So I had been thinking since last year that I should buy a yearbook this year, since a) I am technically a 3nensei teacher, so it is my class, b) the 3nensei this year rock, and c) it is a good souvenir to bring back home. Anyway, I had been thinking it a year ago, but then totally forgot until it was too late to order it. They came in today and I was all jealous and looking at another teacher’s copy, when the teachers GAVE me a copy as a present!!!!!! Dude, I was totally willing to pay for it, but didn’t think I could get one this late. I fucking love them! It is awesome. It is not that many pages (especially for how much they charge the kids for them, damn!) but they are good pics and a very cool thing to have when I go back home. Plus it has every 3nensei student’s photos, so it is a good way to remember all of them. I can’t believe they even thought to offer me one, let alone as a present! I love my 3nensei teachers! I am gonna be the biggest bitch to my co-workers in April because there is no way they will be as cool!
Monday, March 05, 2007
Influenza is the Word
Dude, Japanese people are OUT OF CONTROL with talking about the flu. Like, seriously. They talk about “infuruenza” every other word! I am barely even exaggerating! Like EVERYONE is wearing masks (in Japan you wear masks that cover your mouth when you are sick, but some people also wear them to prevent getting sick) and talking about it ALL DAY LONG.
It is a usual practice that when you walk by the nurse’s room during winter, they will have a daily count of how many people are sick with the flu, but now it is getting even more hardcore! On the board in the shokuinshitsu (staff room), every day each class writes who is absent. Lately the nurse has been circling the student’s names who are sick with the flu in bright pink. Um, why? What does it matter?! They aren’t at school!
And TODAY the nurse busted out a GRAPH (Japanese people loooooooooooooooooooooove graphs! I think it is math porn for them) showing the last week and a half of influenza cases in school so one can see the ebb and flow of influenza! Jesus!
However, I guess since Japanese co-workers never talk about personal stuff, and can’t bitch about the cold this year (their favorite topic EVER) due to global warming, it just leaves them extra time to talk about the flu. Sad.
Having said all of this, my kids better not give me the flu! Bitches!
It is a usual practice that when you walk by the nurse’s room during winter, they will have a daily count of how many people are sick with the flu, but now it is getting even more hardcore! On the board in the shokuinshitsu (staff room), every day each class writes who is absent. Lately the nurse has been circling the student’s names who are sick with the flu in bright pink. Um, why? What does it matter?! They aren’t at school!
And TODAY the nurse busted out a GRAPH (Japanese people loooooooooooooooooooooove graphs! I think it is math porn for them) showing the last week and a half of influenza cases in school so one can see the ebb and flow of influenza! Jesus!
However, I guess since Japanese co-workers never talk about personal stuff, and can’t bitch about the cold this year (their favorite topic EVER) due to global warming, it just leaves them extra time to talk about the flu. Sad.
Having said all of this, my kids better not give me the flu! Bitches!
Abe is a fucking retard
Dude, Abe is so fucking stupid. CNN article about Abe and a more interesting Japan Times article about the truth.
Dude, Abe fucking blows. Even though Koizumi was Bush's bitch, at least he was somewhat cool. Abe is taking Japan 50 years into the past, making it even more sexist, nationalist and xenophobic. It is just going to fuck them over in the end. Grrrrrrrrr!
Dude, Abe fucking blows. Even though Koizumi was Bush's bitch, at least he was somewhat cool. Abe is taking Japan 50 years into the past, making it even more sexist, nationalist and xenophobic. It is just going to fuck them over in the end. Grrrrrrrrr!
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