Well it was hard to believe that I went from catching the garder at a wedding to a high school visit in the western suburbs of Tokyo all within 24 hours (by the way, I think catching the garder means that I am going to be the next to marry...hmm, we'll have to see about that). Anyway I didn't sleep at all after the wedding and not much on the plane so by the time I arrived in Tokyo I was exhausted!!! I still had a 2 hour bus ride to my hotel. I barely made it to my room before I passed out.
On Tuesday I had two school visits to go to, the thing with Tokyo is that it is really expensive to take a taxi anywhere, rates start out at around 6 dollars, so I decided to take the metro. Tokyo has so many subway lines, the map looks like a jigsaw puzzle. I spent about 30 minutes staring at the map trying to figure out where to go before I even bought my ticket. It ended up taking about 2 hours to get to my first visit but i was able to get there on the first try without getting lost, so in the end I was definitely happy. By Wednesday, I had the metro down, and was able to get to my first visit within 30 minutes.
On Tuesday night I was able to go out with my friends mom for dinner in Tokyo. It was a really good place, kind of like a test kitchen of sorts, we had about 12 different courses of small dishes, maybe a piece of sushi, a bowl of a cold soup, abalone pudding, cooked fish, gingko beans and finally finished with beef. The beef was so good! It was cut up just like sushi into bite size pieces and with a little bit of wasabi on top it tasted phenomenal!
Unfortunately by the time I woke up on Wednesday I was sick. Not from the food or anything that I had eaten in Tokyo, but just because by now I was worn out from travelling and the lack of sleep. I was barely able to get through my visits before I passed out in my hotel room at 3p.m. It is now 5a.m. the next morning and I have finally woken up after a nice 14 hour sleep. I am feeling much better, my throat doesn't hurt nearly as much. My only regret is that I didn't get to have the sushi dinner that I wanted to have last night. I was just too exhausted and sick to get up. I hope next time I come I'll be able to have a good sushi dinner (I hear there is a decently good sushi restaurant in the terminal, if I find it I am going to get some, even if its only 10a.m.)
Well this was one of the shortest trips I have ever taken to the other side of the world and now I am on my way home. I will be back in Boston by Thursday afternoon eastern time. Unfortunately I only have about 2 days before I head back out to Nassau, Bahamas; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago. Keep a look out for more blog postings next week!
P.S. because I got sick I was unable to take any pictures of Tokyo, but it is by far one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been in. I really enjoyed the 10 minute walks from the subway station to the schools through suburban sections of Tokyo. Hopefully next time I will have more time to explore and take some pictures.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
The languages of China
Today I finally realized that there are two languages in China, the main language being Mandarin and a new language that has been emerging over the past decade...auto better known as beeping (car horns).
While we may think it is against our better judgement to pull out in front of a tractor trailer, it tends to be a common practice in this society. With the sophisticated system of beeps cars can actually communicate with each other which allows them to use the rules of the road more as guidelines instead of the law, this can even allow them to drive the wrong way on a busy highway and not cause an accident.
The system is based on the one-beep, two-beep, short-beep, long-beep system, for instance if a driver beeps once it means that he is on your right or left and to watch out for him if you decide to switch lanes, two beeps means you are going to run into me back off! When multiple cars are beeping at you it means that you have broken a vital law of the communication system which usually is due to drivers who are not proficient in this very complex language.
The effect on the passenger of any taxi is the equivalent of a 45 minute workout or a loss of 10 years on your lifespan. Some people who are thrill seekers may like to bungee-jump or skydive, however for many a trip in a Chinese taxi far exceeds any thrill of skydiving. Add to it the inability to understand the second language in China (Mandarin) and you have one hell of an adventure, you truly put your life in the hands of the driver and in many cases you do not know if you will live to see your destination.
While we may think it is against our better judgement to pull out in front of a tractor trailer, it tends to be a common practice in this society. With the sophisticated system of beeps cars can actually communicate with each other which allows them to use the rules of the road more as guidelines instead of the law, this can even allow them to drive the wrong way on a busy highway and not cause an accident.
The system is based on the one-beep, two-beep, short-beep, long-beep system, for instance if a driver beeps once it means that he is on your right or left and to watch out for him if you decide to switch lanes, two beeps means you are going to run into me back off! When multiple cars are beeping at you it means that you have broken a vital law of the communication system which usually is due to drivers who are not proficient in this very complex language.
The effect on the passenger of any taxi is the equivalent of a 45 minute workout or a loss of 10 years on your lifespan. Some people who are thrill seekers may like to bungee-jump or skydive, however for many a trip in a Chinese taxi far exceeds any thrill of skydiving. Add to it the inability to understand the second language in China (Mandarin) and you have one hell of an adventure, you truly put your life in the hands of the driver and in many cases you do not know if you will live to see your destination.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Beijing
Well Beijing is completely different from the last time I was here 2 years ago. On Sunday I was able to go see the Olympic Green which is massive! I spent over an hour and a half walking around and seeing the National Stadium (the Birds nest), National Aquatics Center, and the National Indoor Stadium. It was really cool to see the place that just held the olympics. Afterwards I was able to have my favorite Chinese dish Gong Bao Ji Ding.
Today it was pretty cold out but otherwise a beautiful day. I was able to visit a couple of schools and meet with a couple of students in the hotel. In the evening I went to dinner with the representative for Kaplan in Beijing. The food was really good, we had fish in a spicy sauce, sharks fin and sausage. All of it tasted so good and the amazing thing...IT WAS ALL TOFU!!!! Yep everything was made from tofu and it tasted so realistic, the fish by far was the best dish, but the sausage actually tasted like real sausage, not bad for tofu!
Tomorrow I am off to Tianjin for the day which should be fun, another ride on a bullet train. I'll update everyone before I leave Beijing.
Today it was pretty cold out but otherwise a beautiful day. I was able to visit a couple of schools and meet with a couple of students in the hotel. In the evening I went to dinner with the representative for Kaplan in Beijing. The food was really good, we had fish in a spicy sauce, sharks fin and sausage. All of it tasted so good and the amazing thing...IT WAS ALL TOFU!!!! Yep everything was made from tofu and it tasted so realistic, the fish by far was the best dish, but the sausage actually tasted like real sausage, not bad for tofu!
Tomorrow I am off to Tianjin for the day which should be fun, another ride on a bullet train. I'll update everyone before I leave Beijing.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Taiwan
Ok, I have a confession to make...I'm in Hsinchu right now, anyone know where that is? I didn't think so, Johnny you're probably the only one. This city southeast of Taipei doesn't have much, except for TV in the cabs (I watched the Dodgers/Cubs game between visits) and a TGI Fridays which is where I had dinner (I know I know, not exactly native food). After close to 4 weeks on the road it was nice to have a nice american style dinner. I love the food over here, but every once in a while you need to have food you know.
Well Taipei isn't all its cracked up to be, there wasn't really much there. I visited the two schools and walked around the area a bit but there really wasn't much there. Hopefully next time I'm in Taipei I will have time to see Taipei 101.
I actually liked Hsinchu a bit better. It was smaller and seemed a bit newer (and I was able to get a good sandwich). All in all I really didn't do much in my two days here, time to go on to Beijing. My flight tomorrow is at 8 in the morning which means I need to be at the airport around 6ish, which means I need to leave my hotel in Hsinchu by 5. Its going to be an early morning...
Oh one more big thing to tell you, so I booked a hotel here in Hsinchu for the night because I figured it was too far from Taipei to visit for the day, by car it usually takes over 2 hours. But once again the transportation has amazed me. The bullet train took me from Taipei, through 2 additional stops before Hsinchu in 25 minutes, all for less than 10 dollars. If I took a train from Boston to New York it would cost at least 100 dollars and would take over an hour! Man these bullet trains move fast!
Well Taipei isn't all its cracked up to be, there wasn't really much there. I visited the two schools and walked around the area a bit but there really wasn't much there. Hopefully next time I'm in Taipei I will have time to see Taipei 101.
I actually liked Hsinchu a bit better. It was smaller and seemed a bit newer (and I was able to get a good sandwich). All in all I really didn't do much in my two days here, time to go on to Beijing. My flight tomorrow is at 8 in the morning which means I need to be at the airport around 6ish, which means I need to leave my hotel in Hsinchu by 5. Its going to be an early morning...
Oh one more big thing to tell you, so I booked a hotel here in Hsinchu for the night because I figured it was too far from Taipei to visit for the day, by car it usually takes over 2 hours. But once again the transportation has amazed me. The bullet train took me from Taipei, through 2 additional stops before Hsinchu in 25 minutes, all for less than 10 dollars. If I took a train from Boston to New York it would cost at least 100 dollars and would take over an hour! Man these bullet trains move fast!
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Singapore
The Grand Prix night race was fun to watch! There were over 50,000 tourists in Singapore for the event so everywhere was packed, but I was able to watch the race on TV. It is definitely a fast race, and the night makes it even harder, there were a number of accidents, luckily it ended up not raining so that road was dry, preventing even more accidents.
On Monday night I decided to check out the Night Safari, apparently the only night zoo/safari in the world. It is just like a regular zoo but the animals are much more lively at night, since many of them are nocturnal anyway. I was able to catch the Creatures of the night show and took a 45 minute tram ride around the park to see animals from small mousedeer to leopards, lions, giraffe, zebra and elephants. Many of the animals came right up to the tram. Afterwards I was able to walk around the many trails to see the animals. It was cool because I was there when many of them were being fed so they were a lot of fun to watch. I saw some Hyena's fighting over some meat and a lot of Hyena "laughing" was happening it was actually really cool to hear. I ended up staying at the safari until about midnight.
On Tuesday night I was able to get out with an alumni for a really good native Singaporean dinner (which is very similar to Chinese, the style coming from the island of Hainan). We stayed out late talking about NU and Singapore.
On Wednesday I travelled to Taiwan which took most of the day, I am currently in Taipei for some visits. Unfortunately I don't know how much time I am going to get for sightseeing as I leave tomorrow morning for Hsinchu, a city about 20 minutes away by bullet train.
I am currently watching the Red Sox game in the middle of 2 visits so at least I'm able to follow one sport.
The end is near, on Saturday I move on to Beijing, my final stop before heading back to Boston. This trip has been a lot of fun, a little bit stressful and very exhausting but I'm looking forward to getting home for a while. I'm hoping to take some more pictures of Beijing and will post them when I get there.
On Monday night I decided to check out the Night Safari, apparently the only night zoo/safari in the world. It is just like a regular zoo but the animals are much more lively at night, since many of them are nocturnal anyway. I was able to catch the Creatures of the night show and took a 45 minute tram ride around the park to see animals from small mousedeer to leopards, lions, giraffe, zebra and elephants. Many of the animals came right up to the tram. Afterwards I was able to walk around the many trails to see the animals. It was cool because I was there when many of them were being fed so they were a lot of fun to watch. I saw some Hyena's fighting over some meat and a lot of Hyena "laughing" was happening it was actually really cool to hear. I ended up staying at the safari until about midnight.
On Tuesday night I was able to get out with an alumni for a really good native Singaporean dinner (which is very similar to Chinese, the style coming from the island of Hainan). We stayed out late talking about NU and Singapore.
On Wednesday I travelled to Taiwan which took most of the day, I am currently in Taipei for some visits. Unfortunately I don't know how much time I am going to get for sightseeing as I leave tomorrow morning for Hsinchu, a city about 20 minutes away by bullet train.
I am currently watching the Red Sox game in the middle of 2 visits so at least I'm able to follow one sport.
The end is near, on Saturday I move on to Beijing, my final stop before heading back to Boston. This trip has been a lot of fun, a little bit stressful and very exhausting but I'm looking forward to getting home for a while. I'm hoping to take some more pictures of Beijing and will post them when I get there.
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