TravelStream™ news feed for member oliver.wai on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/oliver.wai en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:38:57 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oliver.wai/china_india2006/1136343840/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oliver.wai/china_india2006/1136343840/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oliver.wai/china_india2006/1136343840/tpod.html Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:38:57 -0500 Beijing, Shanghai & Rajastan

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Shanghai, China

Today was a long boring "kill time" day. Our flight to India is at 1 am so we spent the day wandering around shopping malls and local bars. Man that was so damn boring. Probably the only decent place was the "Cotton Club" where there was a live jazz band playing. I ended up talking with this black musician from the US. He was a stylish guy who spoke fluent Mandarin & English. Gave us a good heads up on how to find out what was going on in the city. Gave us a copy of "That's Shanghai" which is equivalent to the SF Guardian in terms of trying to find out the latest and greatest in bars/events.Air India-----This is the worst airline I've ever been on.1. First thisairline arrives 2 hours late. Then they take their time getting the plane ready. In the US, the crews do things in parallel but on Air India does things 1 at a time. Add fuel. Stop. Add Cargo. Stop. Load some baggage. Stop.2. The customers are pissed off. Easter China Airlines run the gates for Air India. A near riot breaks out as customers are irritated by the delay. This British young guy spends the next 1/2 hour yelling at the poor Chinese staff. The chicks don't speak English well causing the guy to yell louder & start pushing people around. After awhile I get irritated and had a talk with the Brit to calm him down. I guess speaking w/ an English speaker worked and he calms down a bit. He does have a case though as the worst thing to do is to not tell the customers what's going on.3. After I left to take a rest, I see a new crowd forming. The Brit is at it again, demanding to know why Air India people are taking so long. The angry Chinese people join in, basically overwhelming the staff. Fortunately a bilingual woman calms everybody down and helps the e. China staff control the situation. The customers are pissed off because they have no where to complain. The staff doesn't care. All request & complaints over the phone to the Air India staff are ignored (or worse put on hold). The irate customers then ask the e. China to complain to the Air India staff on board but those bastards refuse to come out of the plane to explain the situation.Flight-----Things got a lot better once we were in the air. The steward(ess) were all real friendly and helpful. The pilot seems to be flying the plane real smoothly.Layover in Bangkok-----We have a layover in Bangkok. The last 1/2 of the flight was highlighted by a crying baby who just won't stop. We are not allowed to deplane in Bangkok, yet the cleaning crew still has a job to do. It's complete chaos with crews changing shifts, crews cleaning the plane around passengers. What a mess.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oliver.wai/japan_2006/1167553800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oliver.wai/japan_2006/1167553800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oliver.wai/japan_2006/1167553800/tpod.html Fri, 16 Feb 2007 03:57:31 -0500 Winter trip to Japan

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San Francisco, United States

Today is the last day of my trip. To tell you the truth, part of me is looking forward to going home. I like Tokyo and I like Japan a lot but it was time to head back. As I look back on my trip, I wonder when I will be back here again. Unless I come back on business, it will be awhile before I'll be back here again. I think I've seen most of what I wanted to see in Japan and there are plenty of other places that I want to check out first before coming back here again...but I will be back, I just don't know when...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oliver.wai/japan_2006/1167465600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oliver.wai/japan_2006/1167465600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oliver.wai/japan_2006/1167465600/tpod.html Fri, 16 Feb 2007 03:56:55 -0500 Winter trip to Japan

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Tokyo, Japan

I wake up and turn on the TV. It's always interesting to see what the national interests are by scanning the news. Today the big news on CNN is the execution of Saddam Hussein. It's probably 90% of all topics on CNN. However when you switch over to BBC, it's only on 50% of the news story. Then you switch over to NHK and see what the Japanese are interested in and the top story is about the rising price of Tuna caused by China's new appetite for Tuna. I find it to be an interesting ad hoc sociological study on the consciousness of the various cultures. Back to Business After a leisurely morning I meet up with Hiro (my old roommate from UC Berkeley) to catch up and talk about some business. My company is thinking of expanding internationally and I was in charge of doing some research of the Asia Pacific region. Hiro has been an expat in Japan for the last 6 years now and I wanted to pick his brain on his outlooks/viewpoints on expansions to Japan. We meet up and head to a cafe in Omode-San district. Omode San is a nice high end shopping district. We head to a French cafe and proceed to catch up on what has happened over the past 3 years since we last saw each other. Hiro is now at GE Japan after 4-5 years at APC. He now has a 2.5 year old daughter Kokone whom I am looking forward to meeting for the first time after coffee. I give him a brief update on me, how I got disillusioned and quit Brocade, how I went back to school at Stanford, and how I went traveling for awhile after I graduated. I gave him the update about SF Bay Area and what he had missed over the past 5 years. Hiro was surprised at the gentrification of South of Market (SOMA) district in SF and East Palo Alto (EPA). When we were in school at Berkeley in the late 90s, these were some ghetto places. SOMA is now home to the new AT&T ballpark and some the most expensive apartments in SF. EPA is now home to a Four Seasons hotel, Ikea, and some high powered law firms. The South Bay is now primarily minorities and Fremont is now mainly Indian and Mainland Chinese. The Oakland A's are moving to Fremont and the SF 49ers were considering moving to Santa Clara. I hadn't thought about all the changes in recent years and I in speaking with Hiro I realized how much has changed over the years. Lunch with Tomoko & Kokone After finish up with our business meeting, we meet up with Tomoko (who was my other roommate @ Berkeley) and their daughter Kokone. The last time I was here, Kokone was still unborn as Tomo was 6-months pregnant. I'm generally not a big fan of babies but I was really excited to see Kokone. I was real close to Hiro & Tomo during my undergraduate years. They were and still are almost like family to me. In sense Kokone is kind of like a niece of some sort... We have lunch at the Westin in Tokyo. I meet Kokone at Lunch. She's a real shy girl but a very cute kid. We have a wonderful lunch and I was sad to see Tomo and Kokone leave after lunch. Back to Shibuya Hiro and I end up hanging around in Shibuya for the rest of the afternoon. Hiro doesn't get many visits from friends back stateside so it was nice to get a "guys night out". We're a hell of a lot older so a "guys night out" is simply just getting a few drinks over Yakitori. The funny thing is that Hiro has been a good family man since he's got to Japan and I end up showing him around Shibuya rather than the other way around. I showed him some of the old haunts that I hung out at...it was a good night and I have to say it was great to see old friend again. It felt like nothing had changed in the past 3 years while in actuality everything changed...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oliver.wai/japan_2006/1167377760/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oliver.wai/japan_2006/1167377760/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oliver.wai/japan_2006/1167377760/tpod.html Fri, 16 Feb 2007 03:55:14 -0500 Winter trip to Japan

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Tokyo, Japan

Today is a snowy day. Coming from California, I actually appreciate a bit of snow. If anything else it makes the photos that I will be taking much more interesting to look at. Today is another leisurely day and another travel day. The Shinkasen train is scheduled for 2pm so I have a nice morning to pack and grab lunch. After lunch, I wander around to find gifts for friends back home stateside. I find some black sesame mochi thing for a friend. I wonder if she's going to like it... Shibuya Once again I take the Shinkasen back to Tokyo. The Shinkasen is not a bad way to travel. You get to your destination in a reasonable time and you also get to see the landscape. I arrive back in Shibuya, Tokyo in about 3 hours. Shibuya was where I stayed the 1st time I came to Tokyo 3 years ago. It's pretty much what I remembered it to be. It was nice to see that many of the bars and restaurants that I went to on my first trip are still around. Walking by these places brought back memories of good times. However I do notice a few differences: 1. There seems to be a lot less smokers. In general it just seems like there area a lot less smokers in Japan. I wonder if it's because there are less smokers or rather that it has become taboo to smoke in public... 2. Shibuya is MUCH cleaner. The last time I was here, the red light district was nearby the hotel. There would be tons of peddlers who tried to get people to go to these hostess bars. This time there seems to be a lot less of these peddlers. It also seems that the seediest places have now been replaced by an artsy music scene. I did however notice that the "Love hotel" Hill is still there. I have to say I'm very curious what's inside of these places. They look like theme hotels with signs that say 3 hours for ~$35 or $65 a night. Today will be a chill out night. I'm quite tired from the traveling...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oliver.wai/japan_2006/1167290400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oliver.wai/japan_2006/1167290400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oliver.wai/japan_2006/1167290400/tpod.html Fri, 16 Feb 2007 03:53:49 -0500 Winter trip to Japan

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Kyoto, Japan

Today was the first day where I slept in. Because I'm a bit older now, the clubbing/drinking scene doesn't interest me as much and as a result, I typically go to bed around midnight and get up early in the morning. Today was a good leisurely morning where I took my time. I got ready and watched CNN. I typically find the international edition of CNN to be much better than the US domestic version. The international edition deals more with world news and none of the stupid topics (i.e. Britney Spears or other celeb crap) or the boring local stuff. I don't really care if Wal-Mart is headed to small town Texas. I don't care if there is a snow storm in Iowa. I'm much more interested in what's going on in the world. Road to Kinkakuji Temple (Golden Temple) The first thing that I am going to visit today is the Golden Temple along with the surrounding areas of the Golden temple. The trip to Kinkakuji is by bus. After a day of wandering around, I realized that in Kyoto, the bus system is much more organized and much easier to navigate than the subway system. The trip to Kinkakuji Temple is by the Bus 101 which takes us from the Kyoto station to the doorsteps of Kinkakuji. Because Kinkakuji is a major tourist destination, I meet my first set of English speakers ever since I got here. The first people I meet is a young couple from Philadelphia, a family from Fresno and some Brits. I probably spoke more in that hour bus ride than I've had so far in Kyoto. I didn't really like the Philly couple. The woman dominated the pair and I could tell that she was an attention whore. The man was friendly enough and chatted about his experience in Japan so far. The problem is that his annoying girlfriend kept interrupting ever 2 minutes because she wasn't getting the attention. I get the feeling that she thought I was ruining her vacation because he wasn't waiting on her hand and foot. WHATEVER... Kinkakuji Temple We reach the Kinkakuji in about an hour. As we get off, I started to converse with the Fresno family. The father was an orthopedic surgeon and his family was visiting their daughter who was teaching English in Japan. The mother was a teacher and her daughter had followed in the Mom's footstep as a teacher. The two sons were in college. The elder one was at George Washington University and I forget where the younger one went to college. They were a lovely family and spoke at length with the father. He really started warm up when I mentioned that my sister went to MD school at Georgetown (a renowned place for orthopedic surgery) and was doing her residency in surgery at Tufts in Boston. We had an interesting conversation about how he might not do medicine again if he knew what he knew today. Apparently he's very dissatisfied with the US medical system. He hates how the US was moving towards corporate medicine. We had another interesting conversation about Japanese culture. The dad read some books prior to this trip and he mentioned that the Japanese seemed to borrow heavily from other cultures. Specifically he mentioned how major advances in Japanese history was due to the adoption of technology and culture from the dominate power of the time (i.e. the Ming Dynasty of China for ancient Japan and the US in more recent history). I agreed with him to an extent. It seemed that while the Japan borrowed heavily they also made much progress in improving what they borrowed. Ryoanji Temple I left the family and walked about a mile to Ryoanji Temple. Ryoanji was family for its rock gardens. Apparently the rock garden originated from 3 monks hundreds of years ago. They placed rocks in finely combed sand. This represented something that I forget but it was a breakthrough in Zen thought. Check out the other pictures of Ryoanji in the album associated with this entry. Naneji Temple From Ryoanji, I walked to Naneji temple which was a converted palace. The emperor had converted his palace to this temple for some reason that I forget. Anyways Naneji had beautiful gardens. It had rock gardens just like Ryoanji. I should probably go back to the US and read more about the combed sand because it seemed to show up in many of the temples during that era. The great thing about Naneji temple is that Bus 26 stops right at the entrance. Bus 26 takes us right back to Kyoto station where my hotel was located. It's interesting how you meet so many interesting people on these excursions that you will never see again. It's like ships passing in the night. You share a few moments with each other only to go your separate ways. On the way back, I met a couple from the Czech Republic. We spoke at lengths about our experiences so far in Japan and we exchanged suggestions on where else to go. I told them that when they went back to Tokyo to check out Kamakura. Niski food Market I went to the Niski food market in the evening to check it out. I had thought the Niski market would be like one of those dirty food markets in Chinatown. I should have known better. It was probably the cleanest food market I have ever scene...probably cleaner than many of the supermarkets back home. I spent most of my time just wandering around and trying different types of food. Half of the time I have no idea what I was eating but it was pretty good whatever it was. Alleyway Restaurants After the Niski food market I randomly wandered to the restaurant row of Kyoto. Another interesting quirk of Kyoto was that the high end restaurants are hidden in alleyways. As a tourist, you'd never find these places because it's unmarked on the maps and you'd probably never wander into these alleyways. I was lucky to find this area. I got lost after the Niski market and just randomly stumbled onto a high end restaurant row. Random Thought #1: Taxes/Tips The one thing I really like about Japan is that taxes/tip is already included in the price of meals. There is none of this 20% extra in tax/tip like in the US. What you see is what you get. An $8 lunch is just that...an $8 lunch. It's much more efficient and less complicated. If you take this fact about tax/tip, you'll find that food is actually slightly cheaper than things in California. Random Thought #2: Buses in Japan Another interesting difference in Japan is the way you pay for buses. Instead of prepaying for the ride, you enter the bus from the rear and pay as you exit from the front. It's the exact opposite from the US. This implies an interesting fact about Japan. The Japanese trust that you will pay for the bus. This is why they allow you ride to the destination before asking you to pay. The system works quite well and people never take off without paying. In the US, they don't trust you hence they ask for the fare first. Maybe it's because public transportation is a way of life in Japan whereas in the US public transportation is only for the poor. Who knows? Random Thought #3: Lack of Trash Cans One of the things you will notice in Japan is that there are no trash cans on the streets yet the streets are ridiculously clean. Apparently all the trash cans were removed after the Shin Arum terrorist attack. For those of you who don't know about the Shin Arum, it is a cult in Japan that placed Sarin gas in trash cans. Because of this attack, the government banned trash cans from public locations. What's interesting is that the people subsequently learned to hold onto their trash until they found one. This is in start contrast to the US where there is an abundance of trash cans and yet still people litter everywhere.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oliver.wai/japan_2006/1167281340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oliver.wai/japan_2006/1167281340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oliver.wai/japan_2006/1167281340/tpod.html Fri, 16 Feb 2007 03:50:27 -0500 Winter trip to Japan

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Kyoto, Japan

My sleep was comfortable but unfortunately frequently interrupted by thunder. I've never heard thunder so loud as to wake me up from a deep sleep... Japanese Breakfast I wake up in the morning to a full Japanese style breakfast. I was to leave at 8am to catch the train but Mrs. Muraki woke up at 6am to prepare the meal. Once again I felt really touched by their hospitality... Breakfast was a feast. We had Japanese wasabi sausages. These had wasabi herbs mixed into the sausage. We had ground sashimi cod over rice. This was eaten with a high grade sushi. Essentially you were making your own hand roll using the rice, seaweed and cod. We also had a small plate of pan fried salmon, some pickles and some fruit. After breakfast they made a small pot of high-grade coffee. Coffee was especially good because of the care that went into making it. Mrs. Muraki explained that for good coffee it all starts with good water. Therefore it's critical to use highly pure water or else you can ever get good water. (BTW, I use tap water in the US...what I big contrast!). They also don't use machines to brew the coffee. Coffee is brewed in personal sizes using a ceramic filter that looked like a funnel. A high grade filter lines the funnel and is used to filter the grinds. You don't just pour the hot water and coffee together. You first line the filter and pour some hot water until the filter is completely wet. They you grind fresh coffee and put it in the filter. Finally you pour water and wait for the coffee to drip through the filter. It's low-tech, labor intensive but extremely good. You can definitely taste the quality. Leaving the Muraki's I was sad to leave the Muraki's. I've never been shown so much hospitality by any family and I greatly appreciated it. I have to say that my experiences with the Muraki's over the past 24 hours have more than justified my trip to Japan. As I was leaving, Mrs. Muraki hands me a lunch bag. She had prepared a lunch for me on the train. I was surprised and did not know what to say. In addition to the lunch, she gave me a package of high-grade seaweed. She remembered my comment about never finding high grade seaweed in the US. The seaweed was from the village where Mr. Muraki grew up in Hokkaido and was renowned for its quality. I was once again surprised at the hospitality. I was left speechless and all I could do was to thank them profusely. They invited me to come back to visit them the next time I visited Japan (whether Shino was there or not!). The Road to Kyoto   Fortunately for me, the weather was really nice today and I took the subway into Tokyo station. Traveling at 8am on a weekday was a challenge since it was rush hour. As we got closer to Tokyo station the train became more and more crowded. I got a few stares when people saw all my luggage. It was out of the ordinary for somebody to take the subway with all the luggage. I didn't care what they thought and just ignored them. The subway took about 1.5 hours to reach Tokyo station in central Tokyo. I from there I boarded the Shinkasen train to Kyoto. The Shinkasen is the bullet train run by Japan Railways (JR). It was the mode of travel between all the major cities in Japan. There were two different types of train. There was the regular train that made multiple stops along the way and there were the express trains that only stopped in select cities. I took the Express train to Kyoto. The distance between Kyoto and Tokyo is about 600km between the two cities, about the same distance as San Francisco to Los Angeles. The bullet train was an amazing piece of engineering and reaches a maximum speed of about 200km per hour. It takes about 3 hours to reach Kyoto from Tokyo and I reached Kyoto by 3pm. Fortunately for me, we were to pass Mt. Fuji and I was able to see this famous landmark from the train. Kyoto   Kyoto is much more difficult to get around than Tokyo. First there aren't any maps of the subway. Secondly there aren't any English signs so getting around is definitely a challenge. Finally none of the locals actually spoke any English. You were really on your own out here. I took my map from the tourist package and just wandered around Kyoto. It took me half and hour to figure out the Subway but I finally figured out where to go. I just took it to Gion (old Geisha district) and just wandered around to various landmarks. Unfortunately nothing was draw to scale on the map so I walked for quite awhile to reach the destination. Anyways I ended up at a Temple, a Pagoda, and Kiyomizudera (pure water) Temple. Check out the photos section for more pictures. ATMs - The Japanese Post Office?? The weird thing about Kyoto is that none of the commercial banks took foreign ATM cards. For awhile I thought I was stuck with only ~$20 in cash for the next 2 days. Fortunately for me, I found out from the hotel that the Japanese post Office took foreign ATM cards. For those of you who don't know much about the post-office in Japan, it does much more than deliver mail. The Japanese Post Office is the largest savings and loan institution Japan. It is an international institution like any commercial bank. I have to say it's weird to get cash at the post office but hell I was super short on cash and Kyoto was mainly a cash-only city. Thank goodness the hotel was next to the Post Office!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oliver.wai/japan_2006/1198734840/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oliver.wai/japan_2006/1198734840/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oliver.wai/japan_2006/1198734840/tpod.html Fri, 16 Feb 2007 03:47:50 -0500 Winter trip to Japan

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Yokohama, Japan

The unfortunate thing today is that it is raining very hard. This will make the trip to Kamakura difficult. It is going to suck walking around in the rain but since I am only meeting up with Shino for the day, we cannot reschedule. Shino used to be a tour guide in Kamakura when she was younger. This will be awesome as I should get some really good insights into the different monuments. In looking at the travel guide, Kamakura was the capital for a brief period in Japanese history. It is also where the warrior-zen philosophy first flourished hundreds of years ago. Many of the temples were built to honor the meditative warrior ideal. Kamakura Shino was at the Kamkura subway exit when I got out of the station. We had agreed to meet at 10am but she was there at least 20 minutes earlier. It was so considerate of her to come early to make sure that I did not have to wait. We walk from the station down the original cherry blossom road that was preserved from a thousand years earlier. We follow the path from approximately 1 km where it ends at a large shrine. According to my guidebook, the Shrine represents a sect of Shinto that the warrior class adopted. From this religious belief came the whole concept of the meditative warrior. Kamakura Shrine The shrine was in amazing condition. You can see that the government spent a lot of money to upkeep the monument. What was especially interesting is that New Years is a big holiday for Japan. Typically people come home and be with family during the New Years holiday and then go to the Shrine on New Years day. The concept is similar to Chinese New Year except that in Japan they follow the solar calendar instead of the lunar New Year. What was nice was that I got an opportunity to see the workers prepare for the New Years festival. We went to the offering box and Shino tells me about a Japanese superstition on what type of coins to throw into the offering box. The 5-yen coin is associated with good luck and the 10-yen coin is associated with bad luck. Apparently the reason behind this superstition is due to the phonetic similarities between the 5/10-yen coins with some Japanese words for good/bad luck. As a result, the Japanese only offer 5 yen pieces and not 10 yean pieces. The whole process consists of throwing the 5-yen coin into the offering box and then clapping 3 times and make a wish. I forgot to ask what the significance of the 3-claps is for. I guess I will have to look it up when get back. The unfortunately thing about the whole morning was that it started to rain harder as the day went by. We were soaking wet despite of having umbrellas. Worse by cloth shoes were soaking wet and felt very uncomfortable. The silver lining to all of this was the fact that there was nobody at the monuments. This made it easy to take nice pictures of the area. Check out the photos in the section for yourself. The Great Buddha After the Shrine we head towards the Giant Buddha in Kamakura. There is an interesting story about how a few hundred years ago the Buddha sat inside a small wooden building. However there was a large flood that came to Japan and washed away everything but the Buddha. From that point forward the Buddha has sat in the open air. On the way to the Buddha we run into some older travelers from Mexico. It's rare that to see Mexican travelers in Asia and if you thought it was hard to find an English speaker in Japan, good luck on finding a Spanish speaker. Fortunately for them Shino's Spanish was better than her English. I was surprised at how well Shino spoke Spanish. She was surprised too that I actually could speak some Spanish. Heck, the Mexicans were super surprised to find ANY Spanish speakers in Japan! The Mexican travelers tagged along with us to the Buddha. At this point the rains turned into showers and soaked all of us. Yet when we reached the Buddha, I quickly forgot about the rain. There's something serene about seeing a Giant Buddha in the rain. Probably the most interesting question I got from the Mexicans was about the swastikas on their map. On the Kamakura tourist map there were symbols of shrines and temples. The Temples had the traditional Buddhist Swastikas whereas the Shrines had a different symbol. The Mexicans had thought the Swastikas as being an exclusive Nazi symbol but I corrected them by saying that the Swastika had been associated with Buddhism for years and that the association with Nazism was only an unfortunate by product of Hitler's choice for his party symbol. Buddhism vs. Shinto Probably the most interesting story I read was about rivalry between Shinto and Buddhism hundreds of years ago. These were the two dominant factions of Japanese Religion and often the followers with one clashed with the other. However a Great Monk whom both sides respected resolved the differences by stating that Shinto & Buddhism were in fact different expressions of the same philosophy. As a result of this great epiphany, Shinto & Buddhism have co-existed peacefully for hundreds and hundreds of years. Japanese Curry For Lunch Shino took me to a famous Japanese curry shop in Kamakura. I had seen Japanese Curry before in stores but I have never ordered it. I had assumed that it would be very similar to Indian curry so I never bothered to try it out. Boy was I wrong. The Japanese curry is less like Indian curry but more like American gravy. Similar to American gravy, Japanese curry is served as a sauce with shredded meat and poured over a plate of rice. It's very similar in texture and functionality to mash potatoes and gravy but it tastes like a hybrid of curry and Japanese sauces. Another interesting point about lunch is that they serve the salad with the entre. Unlike in the US where the salad always comes first, in Japan salad is eaten concurrently with the main course Back to Shibuya I had asked my travel agent to send my Kyoto package to my hotel in Shibuya for pick up. I should have sent it to the Yokohama hotel instead. I was going to pick up the ticket tomorrow morning and then head straight to the Shinkasen (bullet train). Fortunately Shino convinced me to pick it up today. I had assumed that the tickets were like the subway, where you just go at any time. I was wrong. The train had assigned seating and assigned times. Good thing we went back and picked things up because I would have missed my train! Shino's Town & Meeting the Parents We head back towards Shino's town after Shibuya on the Tokiado subway line. Shino lives in a small town about 1.5 hours away from downtown Tokyo. We arrive at the station and Shino's father picks us up because of the heavy rain. We would have walked back but it was raining heavily and it would not have been practical with all my luggage. Shino's town was a small village community built many, many years ago. The population is about 30,000 and was a quiet sleepy place. Her house was built by the Muraki's 20 years ago on a plot of land her father bought many years ago. It was a good sized house by Japanese standards and it comfortably housed Mr./Mrs. Muraki, Shino, and her 2 brothers. The decorations straddled between traditional Japanese items (Tatami Mats) and Western items (cuckoo clock). Probably the most difficult part about meeting Shino's parents was the fact that they spoke zero English. They were friendly people but we could barely converse without Shino's help. They seemed shy and I was told by Shino that they had assumed that as an American that I'd be a blonde haired, blued eyed person. They were ultimately relieved that I was an Asian because they would have felt awkward otherwise. Dinner with the Muraki's For dinner Mrs. Muraki made a huge Japanese feast of 8-9 dishes. It wasn't a "feast" like in Chinese banquets but rather more like tapa-style with numerous small plates. The dishes were things I've had before but the presentation and flavor far exceeded anything I've had in the past. Dinner consisted of 5 types of sashimi fish, Yakitori, Japanese pickles, two types of salads, and Japanese vegetables. Each dish was amazing. I never knew there were so many different grades of Tuna (Maguro) or that there were so many different types of sauces. From the untrained eye, the food seemed understated but when you eat the food, you taste the complexity and subtlety of each dish. As part of dinner, Mr. Muraki brought out his collection of alcohol (Sake, Shoju, and beer). The Muraki's rarely get guests from overseas and Mr. Muraki wanted to share some of his favorite drinks with me. He starts the meal by pouring me his favorite unfiltered sake from a micro-distillery. The sake was a first distillation using last year's rice harvest. The taste was very fragrant and sweet, unlike the dry vodka-like taste of sake back stateside. The sake was some of the best stuff I've tasted. Apparently he buys from the same distillery each year. I felt much honored that he'd share with me his best stuff. I could tell that he only brought it out for special occasions. He then proposes a toast to me for taking care of his daughter while in SF. Secretly I feel embarrassed because the amount of effort or help that I actually did was minimal. All I did was take her out to dinner a few times and show her a good time in the city. Definitely nothing compared to the hospitality that I am being shown right now by the Muraki family. With the toast, we began dinner. I've had a lot of Japanese food back stateside but I have never eaten with a Japanese family. It's interesting to see how they eat the food. The first thing they tell me is that Americans mess a lot of things up. For example wasabi is supposed to be accent the soy sauce. Americans tend to put WAY too much wasabi in the soy sauce. The second thing is ginger is not mixed in with wasabi and soy sauce; rather it is mixed separately with soy sauce in another dish. The over mixing of wasabi, ginger and soy sauce takes away form the natural flavor of the food. Equally interesting is the role of rice in a meal. Rice is not eaten with the meal but rather after the main dishes is consumed. I'm not sure of the reasoning behind this but my guess would be that eating dishes with rice takes away from the flavors of the dish. The rice becomes the central focus and you lose out on the flavors of each dish. What's also interesting is the drinking etiquette at dinner. The host always poured for the guest and when the host is pouring the guest must hold the glass up to receive the drinks. The host never allows the guest's cup to go empty. I didn't realize this fact until much later. I had learned to not waste food/drinks from a young age. As a result, I try to eat and drink whatever was placed in front of me as not to be rude. Long story short, I kept drinking what Mr. Muraki was pouring. The problem with that is that he kept pouring because it's inhospitable to let the glasses go dry. Mr. Muraki kept drinking himself because he didn't want me to drink alone. After about 1.5 hours of this I finally broke the silence by declining any more drinks because I was pretty buzzed after consuming large quantities of alcohol. Japanese Baths After dinner, I was treated to a Japanese style bath. Once again this was a cultural experience that I thoroughly enjoyed. They explained to me that it was a ritual for the host to offer his guests a bath as a sign of hospitality. Taking a bath was different from the US. What you were to do was to first take a shower to wash away the dirtiness of your body before soaking yourself in the bath. The Muraki's did not understand how American's can wash themselves in a bath and then soak in the impurities that they just washed off. I think symbolically baths had to do with purification. Therefore the act of taking a bath is one full of ritual and meaning. The bath I took was in a special tub that had an electronic heater that allowed you to control the water temperature to the exact degree. Contrast that with the US bathtubs which are essentially a ceramic tub that fills with water. It was a neat experience for me but I probably missed out on a lot of the intricacies of the symbolism.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oliver.wai/japan_2006/1169441640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oliver.wai/japan_2006/1169441640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oliver.wai/japan_2006/1169441640/tpod.html Fri, 16 Feb 2007 03:41:30 -0500 Winter trip to Japan

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Yokohama, Japan

Narita Well after 10+ hours of flying, I'm finally here. I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing and apparently nobody speaks English either. I'm lost at the airport and since I'm flying solo and traveling solo for the first part of the trip, I have to figure things out for myself. I guess here's where the adventure begins!! The first thing that I notice is that I left my contact lens back in the US. CRAP!!!! Well there's not much that I can do now. It's not like I can fly back and pick it up.... The first task that I do is go pick up a rental cell phone. The price isn't too bad. At current US exchange rates, it works out to be $10 base, $5/day, and $0.70/minute charge. It's not the cheapest but I guess it's reasonably priced. Next I try to take a shuttle to my hotel in Yokohama. When I get to the counter the girl informs me that there's no direct shuttle to any hotels in Yokohama. The best that I can do is to go to the Yokohama air terminal. I didn't know that Yokohama had an airport!? I have no idea what's going on so I figured I might as well buy a ticket to the air terminal and figure out the rest when I get close. Hopefully once I get there I can find a way to the hotel. This is turning out to be more exciting than I had hoped for. To Yokohama I get on the bus and find a seat. Everybody is speaking in Japanese. I don't see any tourist either. I guess Yokohama is not a big tourist location. This is not good. I'm a stranger in a strange land and I have the slightest idea what I'm doing. The bus is starts filling up and we leave the terminal. As we pull out of the stop, a Japanese woman sits down next to me and proceeds to text message on the phone. All of a sudden she gets a call and she starts speaking on the phone. Mandarin. When she finishes speaking on the phone I start speaking with her in Mandarin to get some information on what to expect in Yokohama. Apparently her husband is Taiwanese and she's able to speak in intermediate Mandarin. I explain my situation and she agrees to help me once we get to the Yokohama station. Wow my good fortune!! Of all the people who could have sat next to me, I end up with the one person who can speak a language that I can understand! Apparently I was mistaken when the Bus lady said Air Terminal. Yokohama does not have an airport. What she had meant it was the Bus Stop for the airport shuttle. The woman sitting next to me was of little help when we got to the station. She just said she had no idea where I was staying and just ditched me once we got off of the bus. Confused I find an attendant at the information counter who showed me where my hotel was located. Fortunately it was a very short cab ride away. If I did not have my luggage, I would have just walked there. Instead I elected to take an $8 cab ride. While in the taxi line, I ended up chatting with a Japanese woman named Keiko who was working in London for a real estate company. Apparently she was home for the holidays and we ended up having an interesting conversation while waiting for the taxi. We exchanged business cards and I told her that if she should drop by SF Bay Area to look me up. It's really interesting how random people on this trip have just been chatting with me. The last time I was here in 2004, nobody said anything to me at all. I wonder what's different this time, is it because I just seem more mature? Yokohama Yokohama is the neighboring city to Tokyo. It's about a 25 minute train ride from Tokyo. I'm meeting my friend Shino tomorrow in Yokohama. She suggested that we meet in Yokohama because it was closer to some of the famous shines and landmarks. My hotel (Yokohama Excel) was nothing special. However because it was in a convenient location, it was an excellent choice. It's near a bunch of shopping malls and right next to the subway. I'm beginning to think that this was the design of the Excel hotel chain. They seem to be moderately priced hotels right next to shopping and subway lines. After checking in I spend the evening just walking around. The thing I immediately noticed about Yokohama is now unfriendly it is for non-Japanese speakers to navigate. There are only Japanese signs. Nobody speaks English either. Ironically a good number of people speak Mandarin. I think it's because it has on of the largest Chinatown in Japan? Good thing I can speak Mandarin. That has been extremely usefully for me in trying to figure out how to get around. Who would have thought Mandarin would have been so useful in Japan?! I ended up just wandering around for a couple of hours to beat the jet-lag. I ended up eating at a food cart that served ramen. Dirty by Japanese standards, the food is still MUCH cleaner compared to other places that I've been to (i.e. China/India). I always liked to eat the street food in different country as it seems the most authentic representation of what a typical person would eat. I got a bowl of cha-siu ramen for like $5. I did have some difficulty ordering because the old man at the cart spoke no English. He thought I was Japanese and tried to have a conversation with me. I couldn't understand what he was saying so I just pointed to the noodles the guy next to me was eating and pointed 1 finger. That seemed to work. After the noodle cart, I wandered around some more and ended up at a Yakitori place for another late night snack. Yakitori is essentially bite-sized meats on a skewer that chef cooks over a tiny coal grill. Yakitori is like bar food in Japan. You typically go to these places order a few skewers and have beer/sake. You really have to see the chef cooking to get an idea how weird it looks to see a large man grill tiny skewers on a tiny grill. It's like these guys are grilling on a toy grill. It's highly inefficient but highly tasty food. It's unfortunate they don't have any of these types of places in SF Bay Area. I've been to one in LA but I guess it's just not that popular back home.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oliver.wai/japan_2006/1198557180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oliver.wai/japan_2006/1198557180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oliver.wai/japan_2006/1198557180/tpod.html Fri, 16 Feb 2007 03:39:00 -0500 Winter trip to Japan

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San Francisco, California, United States

UA 837, Seat 58A It's been a year since I wrote a travel-blog. One of the difficulties of working is that you do not get an opportunity to write. As a result, my writing skills have deteriorated substantially. The other thing is that you don't get enough time to read books. Most of my free time is spent relaxing. After a hard day's work, the last thing I want to do is spend the time trying to read or write. When I do get an opportunity to read, I usually just read magazines such as The Economist. Air travel gives me an opportunity to read the books that I've been meaning to read for awhile. The good thing about having a frequent flyer account is that you can cut the huge lines at the economy check-in counter. That in itself is worth having an account. Having flown to Singapore and China a few times over the past year or so, I now have Silver Status on Singapore Air. Practically, it doesn't mean anything as there aren't any "real" rewards but the opportunity to skip the economy check-in lines on United (Star Alliance member) makes it worth it. This makes me choose the Star Alliance airline partners whenever the prices between airlines are negligible. Smart program, whoever came up with the idea in the first place! Flying never ceases to amaze me. That these giant vessels of metal full cargo and people can actually flying into the heavens is a testament to the creativity and engineering prowess of mankind. Mid Flight The point when I start getting restless is about the 6 hour mark. Domestic flights in the US never go over 6 hours so anything longer starts getting tiresome. The other issue is that this flight starts out at noon when the other flights to Hong Kong, etc. are midnight+ flights. As much as I want to sleep on a noontime flight, you can only do so for a few hours. Your body rhythms prevent you from sleeping more than a few hours. Equally importantly the UA 747 airplanes have terrible entertainment systems so effectively you are just staring into space for hours and hours. At least the people on this flight have been decent. This flight is one that stops in Narita but continues to Thailand. As a result you get a mixture of Japanese and Thai's on the flight. Additionally there is a decent number of Taiwanese who will be changing flights to Taiwan once they reach Narita. The good thing is hasn't been any out of control kids or rude adults on this flight. Most of the passengers have been really shy/quiet and they've been ignoring all interactions with strangers on the plane. I did meet 2 travelers around my age. One of a Japanese guy who is a 27 y.o. student at SFSU and the other is a Thai girl also at SFSU. They didn't know each other and I spoke with them on separate occasions in line and on the plane. They were friendly people, both striking up a conversation with me without my initiating anything. I may meet up with the guy in Japan but we'll see how things go on the trip. I did find out from the guy that it's relatively cheap to rent a mobile phone at the Airport. He says it should cost around $50...I may just do that when I get into Tokyo.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oliver.wai/china-2006/1147170840/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oliver.wai/china-2006/1147170840/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/oliver.wai/china-2006/1147170840/tpod.html Mon, 15 May 2006 05:30:10 -0400 Beijing and Shanghai trip

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Beijing, China

Unfortunately since I was not able to change the port of return, I could not fly directly back from Shanghai and I had to buy another ticket to Beijing. The other dumb thing is that the flight between Beijing and Shanghai can be unpredictable in terms of being on time. The last time I was here, I got delayed by 6-7 hours on a return flight from Shanghai to Beijing. Since my flight was at noon, I didn't want to chance it I decided to stay an extra night.I spent the evening wandering the Wangfujing and the Sanlitun area. It was nice to be back on my own again. The only thing that can be annoying are the pushy madames or pimps who try to force you to hang out with their "full-service" girls. It really is annoying because they follow you from street to street even when you tell them to go away. I didn't let them screw my night up and I spent my evening in a bar on Sanlitun watching a live band play. Hey if the pimps and madames wanted to wait outside, be my guest!
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