神戸の会議 / Kobe Conference etc.

I just got back from the JET Programme Re-contracting Conference in Kobe. While it was pretty formal (the conference, not the participants), to be honest, it was more of an excuse to see Kansai. The day-time was spent attending lectures, participating in workshops and chatting with people; the night-time was spent exploring the city. Kobe is pretty much like any other Japanese city so, I didn't feel the need to take that many photos. In fact, the picture displayed above is not even a photo of Kobe -- it is a picture of Osaka's "Great Wall of Lights" (my title). Probably the best part of the conference was that I got the chance to eat Kobe Beef. It was a little bit pricey but definitely worth it. I love meat.


As the conference came to a close, and the weekend rolled around, I headed to Osaka to enjoy the rest of the weekend. Unfortunately, after arriving in Osaka, my friends and I seemed more interested in just taking it easy. And I couldn't agree more. After spending all those hours stuck in a conference room during the day, then enjoying Kobe until the wee hours of the night, the last thing we really wanted to do was "party". So, we did a little sight-seeing (I actually knew my way around Osaka pretty well since this was my second time there), Korean BBQ (which, when you tell Japanese people what 焼肉 is in English, are shocked) and lots of people watching (Osaka has some of the loudest and most outrageous fashion styles).


The next day I went to the most beautiful castle in Japan -- Himeji-jo. The entire tour of the castle took approximately 90 minutes and it was well worth it. The castle is fairly big and, like most Japanese castles, sits atop a hill that overlooks the city. While the view at the top wasn't all that spectacular, I would recommend to all potential visitors to Japan to see, if they are to see one castle in Japan, to see Himeji-jo. I've been to a few castles since arriving to Japan and though most of them look pretty similar, Himeji-jo was probably the best.


Aside from doing some other stuff, it was a pretty good weekend. Although I must admit I'm getting a little bit travel-wary. Oh yea, I lost my keys in Osaka so, if anybody sees a house key, bike key, bike chain lock key and suitcase key, please send it my way. Thanks.

志賀島 / Shikanoshima Island

Saturday marked another beautiful day at the beach. This time I went to Shikanoshima Island which is an island just off the coast of Fukuoka. Actually, it isn't really an island because there is a man-made land attachment from the coast to Fukuoka proper. Technicalities aside, it was a good day of bbq, sun soaking, swimming (for some of us) and just "taking it easy."


For some reason the crows in Japan grow to gigantic sizes (as do many other insects and other wretched pests).


The day was mainly clear but there was a thick cloud of pollution hovering over the sea a little bit. As the Japanese like to say, it must be from Korea.

I will be heading to Kobe on Wednesday for a very important, all-expenses paid, conference. It should be great fun as I'll get to see some people I haven't seen since orientation day in Tokyo. After the meeting, I'll be heading to Osaka for the weekend for a little bit of partying then, if the weather is good, head to Himeji to take some photos of Japan's most beautiful castle -- Himeji-jo. More updates to come!

忍者村 / Ninja-town

On Thursday, Skip finally got around to show us local Maebaru-JETs Ninja-town. This would have been a pretty standard post except that the "amusement park" is abandoned. The eerie part of this story is that the park looks like it was abandoned overnight. It just seems like one day, everybody just disappeared or stopped coming to work. There were tshirts, game prizes, and even admission tickets still there -- all in their original wrappings. It was very weird.


Anyways, this place was pretty freaky I have to say -- definitely one of those "Old Finch"-type places (that's for my Toronto readers). Some of my pictures are a little too graphic for this blog (some of my students "read" my blog (to be honest, it's not so much reading but looking at the pictures) so, that's why I try to keep most of my material PG-13) but, if you're interested in seeing some strange things, email me and I can send you a few photos.


All in all, it was a pretty interesting place. Don't worry Skip! I will definitely pass on the Ninja-town legend to the new Maebaru-JETs.

Made in China

No comments this time .. just some of my favourite pictures from China


A rock with some info. regarding the Great Wall.


Another Great Wall photo.


A cross-bred tree.


Group contortions.


A crane in the Forbidden Palace.


A 6 or 7 year-old boy showing off some kool balancing act.

上海 / Shanghai

I didn't take as many photos in Shanghai as I thought I would've or wanted to actually. By day 7 or 8 of our trip, all of us suddenly felt really homesick (for Japan, not our respective home countries) and it kind of took the wind out of the trip a little bit. Pretty strange, huh?

Anyways, aside from the unexpected downturn, Shanghai was an awesome city however..

First, some of the bad stuff: After leaving the train terminal in Shanghai, we were quickly surrounded by people asking for this and that. It was stressful I have to say. After seeing a fight break out between a cab driver, cyclist and passenger, I wanted to get us to our hotel ASAP. We were tired, hungry, disoriented and anxious. Spotting a Holiday Inn close-by, we decided to head towards it and flag down a taxi from there. After getting the address written in Chinese, the bell boy at the Holiday Inn flagged down a taxi and made sure the driver knew where to take us. In fact, the bell boys in China were great and very helpful throughout our trip. From arranging cab rides to just general information queries (the front desk is useless IMO), I was constantly impressed by how professional they were.

Shanghai is THE modern city in China. With a population of 16 million, it not only ranks as one of the most populated cities in the world (more people live in Shanghai than Tokyo although Tokyo's population density is much higher) and it's economic power and citizenry wealth are rapidly approaching Western standards. Although this may be a premature assumption, I think in 20-25 years, if China continues modernizing at the pace it has been (GDP growth of +10% a year), Shanghai may overtake Hong Kong as the premier Asian city. It was amazing to see the amount of new construction projects in not only Old Shanghai, but also in the new, ultra-modern and business-oriented district of Pu Dong (New Shanghai).

Anyhow, our time in Shanghai was spent mostly just shopping, eating and walking around. We walked along the famed Nanjing Road (nowhere near as spectacular as Tokyo's Shinjuku district or Hong Kong's Mong Kok district), took pictures at The Bund (Shanghai's waterfront park) and generally just milled about. On the last night of our trip, we went to a Shanghai Acrobatic show which definitely was the highlight of our weekend in Shanghai. The contortions were jaw-dropping and the acts were unbelievable. I didn't take any pictures of the acrobatic show because I was just too enthralled with the show and didn't think photos would do it justice. One has to actually go see it to fully appreciate just how amazing the show was. You can check out my friend Dori's blog for some pictures if you are interested.

Anyhow, it was a nice way to end the vacation and by the next day, we were definitely ready to go back home. Sometimes in order to appreciate the familiar, one has to experience something completely different. Japan has definitely become a second "home" to me and, though I may gripe and complain about certain things, I wouldn't want to live anywhere else right now.


Wow, long post. I apologize for the lack of photos this time .. I'll try to keep the next few posts short with lots of photos. Oh yea, the above picture was taken on Shanghai's Maglev and that was the actual speed we were traveling at. The maglev tops out at a little over 430 km/h -- it was awesome. Faster than the Shinkansen you ask? You bet -- Japan must be jealous. :)

北京 / Beijing

I wish there was an easy way to summarize the past 10 days -- but there isn't. Simply put, this was probably one of the best trips I have taken so far since coming to Japan. Though there was definitely a lot of ups and downs, some anxiety and a little bit of stress, it was all worth it.

I could just write about the day-to-day stuff but that would take far too long so, I think I will just mention some of the more interesting parts of the trip. Everyday we tried to do something new and see as much as possible during our stay in Beijing. Some of the more famous attractions included: Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden Palace, The Temple of Heaven, The Great Wall, CCTV Tower, the Beijing Zoo, Silk Road, etc. etc.


A shot of CCTV Tower taken from the park across the street. Unfortunately we weren't able to go up because they were doing renovations (probably for the Olympics in 2008 .. a lot of other places were under renovation as well). It was unfortunate we weren't able to go up as it was probably the only REAL clear day during our stay in Beijing. Beijing is POLLUTED as heck. During most of our stay there was a thick layer of smog that blanketed the city. In addition to the smog, there was weird, fluffy-looking particles that kept falling from the sky. None of us could figure out what it was but I am guessing it was pollution-related. It got so bad one day that it looked like falling snow and it accumulated into dust balls the size of tennis balls. It was truly disgusting.


The Temple of Heaven is the largest temple complex in China. Naturally there were a ton of tourists which completely ruined most of my shots. As temples go, it was nice -- nothing particularly interesting except that my friend Jamie, who is white, kept on getting requests from random Chinese people to take a shot with her or of her. I think they actually thought she was some sort of celebrity; that, or we were at the zoo (correction: we WERE the zoo). This happened a lot during our stay in China and it quite surprised us. At first the attention was kind of funny and ego-boosting but it got annoying rather quickly. All I can say was that it was definitely a different kind of experience than if I had gone by myself or with just people who were Asian-looking. A definite cultural eye-opener. Reminder to Jamie: "You're nothing special." :)


By far my favourite part of the trip: climbing the Great Wall. After sitting in a taxi for 4-hours, I was eager to hike the famous Jinshaling to Simatai part of the Great Wall. I was probably a little bit too eager as I led our group the wrong way for about 15 minutes. After making a U-turn and confident that this was going to be a "walk in the park", we started our 4-hour journey along some of the most scenic, and non-tourist-friendly, parts of the Great Wall. The views were breathtaking and although sometimes it got a little bit rough, we got to see some of the most untouched and climb some of the most dangerous (okay, exaggeration but you know what I mean) parts of the Great Wall. One medieval Wonder of the World down, 6 more to go.


Aside from the eating, relaxing, other-sightseeing, clubbing and just having fun, Beijing was a great city to visit. At times it was a little bit too pushy and aggressive for my taste (or maybe that's just how people generally are and I'm just too Japanized) but it was a great experience nonetheless. Anyways, that's enough about Beijing for now, stay tuned for Shanghai.

中国 / China

It's been a couple of hours since I got back from my trip to China and I am tired! That being said, it was an awesome and eye-opening trip -- I am definitely considering going back again just because there is just so much more I want to see and do.

No comments at the moment because I'm too tired .. but here are a few photos I thought I'd share.

The above-photo is the view of the Forbidden Palace from Tiananmen Square.


Inside the Forbidden Palace.


Waking up in Shanghai after a long, but comfortable, 12-hour overnight train ride.


My favourite part of the trip: hiking along the Great Wall for 10 km. Absolutely breathtaking.

More to come tomorrow.