If you're really bored and feel like reading about Japan, then do so!

Sorry I haven’t posted anything recently. My internet minutes were up while on the ship the last couple of weeks, and I didn’t even think about posting this until today. I’m sure nobody’s reading this anymore since I’m home, but I don’t care. I wrote this about 2 weeks ago, so I might as well not let it go to waste. …

JAPAN! I’ve been waiting for years to visit. Here’s a quick recap:

Taiko Drumming

During the Japan pre-port, we experienced a taiko drumming performance. I was happy to cross that off the list of things I need to see in Japan…but that wasn’t the last taiko drumming I experienced.

My friend James and I stopped at probably every arcade (they called them amusement parks) we passed (A LOT of arcades). Some places were literally towers with floors and floors of games. They’d have a different theme on every floor (crane games, pachinko machines, action games, photo machines, etc). some of the games were incredibly hi-tech/advanced; any gamers dream come true. The objects one can grab in the crane games are ridiculous in itself. We literally spent tons of money trying to get a few souvenirs, but all I ended up grabbing were 2 weak little yellow birds, and James got a small Mario doll.



Anyways, there’s this taiko drumming video game where two people each have a large drum and hit it according to the spots/times indicated on the game. Think Dance Dance Revolution with drums instead of dancing.
Because of the sheer quantity of Japanese video game buildings, we slowly became expert taiko drummers. We engulfed our money into these games. No regrets.

Also, seriously, when you’re in Japan, visit a pachinko machine building (they’re on every damn corner) and watch the poor souls who just sit and stare at the tiny balls dropping down the machine. These guys must all be single…

Japanese Toilets

After my many crazy adventures in Japan, here’s what I’ve come to tell all of America: the Japanese toilet is the single greatest invention ever.
Granted, after the holes in the ground in China (I’d have to “hold it” until we made it back to our hotel everyday), anything would seem nice. But come on… the lid automatically opens for you when you walk up to the toilet…just like magic (just like the taxi cab doors do too). The heated seats. Spurts of warm water that…well…you know…and well, they shoot…up (alittle discomforting). A whole little computer console next to the toilet with other buttons that I didn’t even dare touch…I was too scared after the spurts-of-water button. You’ll probably end up detonating a nuke or attacking some random Asian country if you press the wrong button on the toilet computer console. I’m sure the Chinese would rate almost every toilet as a “5 Star Toilet.”
Pardon my French, but after you use a Japanese toilet, you’ll seriously never want to wipe your ass again. There was another weird contraption that we didn’t recognize. It took me a whole 2 minutes to figure out that it was a hand dryer. After placing both arms in this plastic torture device hanging on the wall, ones hands get dry within 2 seconds.

SOOO efficient; so energy-saving too. I mean, the Japanese have nailed down energy efficiency. Even the escalators won’t move until you walk up to them. They sit dormant, until they actually NEED to be used. I love Japan. Let’s get started:


Day 1: Tokyo

I was so happy that I got a Japanese Rail Pass way back in Vietnam. We were ahead of the game. Not only that, but James and I knew exactly where and when to catch our trains to Tokyo, because we did the research the night before (I seriously think we were the only ones on the ship who figured all of this out ahead of time). I also definitely took advantage of using the Japanese that I’ve been taught. An older man surprisingly complimented me on my Japanese accent, so of course, I felt really proud of myself. Maybe he was just being nice.

The shinkansen (bullet train) to Tokyo was smooth, fun, and FAST. The US can seriously learn a thing or two about transportation from the Japanese.

Tokyo was unbelievable. Some of the activities on the first night included traditional Japanese food, meeting up at the Park Hyatt Hotel (the “Lost in Translation” hotel) and completely denying the insane $20 cover charge + $30 drinks at their bar. Just walking around Tokyo and visiting some of the crazy stores is an adventure in itself.

Eventually, James and I met up with others in our group of friends and we had a rather boring night at a karaoke bar. Halfway through the singing, a couple of us left and searched the area, which turned out to be the talked-about Red Light district of Japan (I swear, I don’t wonder into the red-light districts on purpose!). Just roaming the streets proves to be more than enough of an adventure. All of the colors everywhere…wish we had a place with so many colors in America. I love lights! Some of the characters we met were also rather…ahem…interesting. I’ll leave it at that.

Day 2: Tokyo

We slept rather uncomfortably in the karaoke bar. I was awaken at 5:30 in the morning when the employee knocked on the door where Mark and I were sleeping, and informed us that it’s time to leave. At 5:30 in the morning, there’s absolutely NOTHING to do in the Shinjuku part of Tokyo.

Me and James stopped at an internet café for alittle while to waste time. We then got some early morning food/coffee, and visited the Godzilla statue, spent some time at the Imperial Palace/Imperial Palace Gardens, walked through the Sony Building/Spiderman exhibition they had set up (Spiderman was EVERYWHERE in Japan), explored Tokyo Dome City, visited a Disk Union (a 7 floor cd shop with a different genre on each floor. We both loaded up on some goods), and did a bunch of other stuff along the way. That night, we went to a Tokyo baseball game. The game was one of the most interesting experiences I’ve had on this trip. I never want to go to an American baseball game again…it just doesn’t compare. You have to see the video footage I got!


That night we walked around the city again, then decided to settle in at a manga café for the night. At the manga café, I had my own little booth with a computer, a flat/cushiony Japanese-style floor to sleep on, and an endless supply of manga, internet, DVDs, coffee/drinks, blankets, and ice cream. So much better than a hotel.


Day 3: Kyoto

We woke up early in order to catch our shinkansen to Kyoto. We were told by all of the people we came in contact with that Kyoto was the greatest city in Japan. It was certainly an unbelievable city, where the old, traditional Japanese culture mixes in with the new (for example, there’s at least 2,000 temples in the Kyoto area). We began the day visiting a temple right near the train station. One temple down…1,999 to go!

Soon enough, we met up with a group of friends, and the rest of us traveled together through the rest of the day.

Japanese schoolgirls and older businessmen monopolize the streets all over Japan. This was especially true in Kyoto, for we were stopped various times by young, trendy groups of girls who waved to us with bashful/awkward smiles and/or wanted us to take pictures of them. The older businessmen obviously didn’t show the same kind of interest in us, but still, a nice contrast.

While in Kyoto, we visited a bunch of other temples, gardens, and shrines. We also tried some sushi, and even spotted some geishas walking to their appointments while in the Gion district! Not only did we spot some geisha, but also came in contact with THE Peter Macintosh…the famed geisha expert from the Lonely Planet books! I could easily write an entire story about our “geisha hunting” shenanigans, but I’m worn out and don’t feel like writing too much. Ask me about it, and I’ll guarantee a good laugh or two.

The night was spent wondering around the crazy shops around the city and visiting a few amusement parks (arcades).

We searched and searched and searched for a place to stay that night in Kyoto. Keep in mind, hotels are really expensive in Japan. None of us wanted to waste cash on one, but after some intense searching, we split up and found another manga café. While walking around the café, we ran into this Asian dude from California who’s backpacking all the way across Japan. I was insanely jealous of him. That be sooo much fun….but I’m on a ship. Guess I can’t complain. I surprisingly got around 5-6 hours of sleep! Finally!!!

Day 4: Kyoto/Kobe

We woke up and explored some more gardens and temples around Kyoto before leaving for Kobe.
The train ride back wasn’t too long, and it felt good to stop back at the ship again and FINALLY take a shower.

James and I then began our journey to Kobe’s Home Stadium (a stadium designed specifically for the 2000 Japan World Cup), and experienced a soccer game. It was Kobe vs. Tokyo, and in the end they tied. Just like the baseball game, the fans were totally mad. We had seriously been trying in the last few countries to find a soccer game, and folks, Japan is the place where dreams definitely come true.

After the game, we walked around for a bit around the city. There were tons of street musicians playing along the streets and tons of kids shopping. There were ALSO tons of drunk SAS guys and girls making complete asses of themselves. I totally witnessed the term “Ugly Americans” in action that night. After 1 AM or so, I made it back to the ship. Keep in mind that within the last 4 days or so, I maybe got about 12 hours of sleep. I was very, very tired.

Day 5: Osaka, Nara, Kobe

I left early for Osaka. After arriving I met up with some friends for an early lunch. Afterwards, I made my way to Nara. Nara also has tons of temples and interesting sights. One of the most interesting sights was the tons of deer that just walk around everywhere. You can feed the deer anything, and they also bow when they walk up to you. Pretty shabby...even kids in wheelchairs like the deer!
(are they screaming in terror or are they happy?)

Among other things seen in Nara was the world’s largest wooden building and other gardens (I could literally take an entire tour of Japan just to visit all of the gardens).

After Nara, I wondered around Osaka for a bit, and appreciated the city that has brought us all probably the greatest Japanese band in existence…Boredoms!

Osaka was pretty cool, though it was huge, so I didn’t get to see tons of sights. I arrived back in Kobe, and went out for some sushi with a big group of friends. After that, we stopped at an Ice Cream Sundae shop. Delicious!
(somehow Eric, me, and Natalie ate this without creating a mess and making fools out of ourselves)

I shopped around for another half hour or so, and then boarded the train that took us back to the ship. I really wanted to catch an anime at the movie theater, but didn’t have enough time. Theater tickets are about 15 bucks anyways, so at least I saved some money.

That night, I was incredibly pissed off and truly sad that we were leaving Japan. It was the country that I was most looking forward to on this trip. It was the last foreign country that we visited, and it was definitely my favorite country. I’m considering traveling back in the near future…hopefully to teach English or something.

Out of all the countries we’ve visited, the people here were the friendliest. They had the greatest fashion (though the India youth were pretty stylin’ too). The music/movies/comics are all awesome. The art is enriching. Their history is SO interesting. And the language is great too.

Let’s all move to Japan!

I have one more blog entry that I wrote while at the Chicago airport on my way home from the ship. I'll post it tomorrow. Sorry for the delay.

May 2nd

So I wake up. It oddly feels the same as yesterday…I mean it REALLY feels the same as yesterday.
Crap! It’s 9:17…Global Studies begins in 3 minutes. My roommate’s still asleep, so at least I won’t be the only one late.
I get dressed, find my notebook, brush my teeth, ignore my contacts and just make do with glasses for the day, and leave the vicinity of my room. I pass my cabin steward in the hallway and he says “good morning Rick” as he always does.
“Good morning Kenton. How are you today?”
“Ohhh…alright.” He always has a sad tone to his voice in the morning.

I walk up two floors and scramble into the union…it’s the same speaker as yesterday. Everybody’s sitting in the same exact spot. It’s also the SAME EXACT LESSON! Seriously, what’s going on?
I failed to notice a few minutes ago, but when I reach into my pockets to find a pencil to take notes, I notice that it’s the same pair of pants I wore yesterday. Well, that’s not a big deal, especially when you’re living on a ship and only have a limited amount of clothes. What IS a big deal is the fact that I’m also wearing the same shirt, socks, underwear, and shoes as yesterday. Hmm…I’m never THAT dirty while onboard.

I want to run back to my room to figure out what’s going on, but when I get down to the 4th floor, my cabin steward’s cleaning my room. Damn, I hate it when that happens.
I’m wondering why I’m so tired. Did I sleep last night? I honestly can’t remember. I need fresh air.

I dash out to the 7th deck and lean over the rail while viewing the beautiful water. It’s surprisingly cold out…aren’t we traveling south? Why’s it so cold? It feels exactly the same as it did yesterday.
It becomes too cold for me, but before I walk inside, I spot some activity in the water. Dolphins! Nice! It’s been a few weeks since I’ve seen dolphins in the water, but these weren’t regular dolphins. These dolphins were the most freakish beasts I’ve ever seen. They LOOKED normal, but they were jumping out of the water backwards. Literally..backwards. Rather than leaping out with their heads first, they jumped in reverse, with their tails leading the way back into the water.

My watch beeps. It’s 10:00 now. I turn the sound off, but while doing that, I notice something very peculiar. The date is the same as yesterday’s date. May 2nd. It’s May 2nd again?! What the hell? Is my watch broke?
No. It’s not broke at all. I’m simply in a time warp (cue Rocky Horror Picture Show song). This is what happens when you cross the international dateline. You repeat the same day…the same exact day. At least I knew what to expect for lunch.
In conclusion…time warps suck. I hope we’ll make it out alive…





Umm, yeah that was my journal entry for today for my writing class. It IS May 2nd…again. It’s very odd, but definitely much more subtle than my story.

Here’s some pictures of yours truly from China and Japan. The next two weeks are going to be spent getting TONS of pictures from friends on the ship before we leave. It’ll be fun.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

Ohhhh yes. Cue the awesome English overdubs.

It's the end of the game at the Kobe Home Stadium (a World Cup stadium by the way). That's why there's so few people in the stands behind me. Kobe vs. Tokyo. They tied by the way. I still have to get my baseball game picture from James.

By the way, Global Studies has become much better. They started doing things completely differently and they honestly should have been doing it this way all along. We’d definitely learn a lot more and think much more critically about things.


Ok, I have some more journal entries to get caught up on. Hawaii in a few days, but after Japan, it’ll definitely be underwhelming. I’m still excited though.

I'M A CAT!!!!

CHINA


I woke up bright and early in Hong Kong and met up with the 72 other people on my trip. We left the confines of the MV Explorer and took a motor coach to the Hong Kong Airport, where we caught our 3-hour flight to Beijing! On the flight they played these odd tv shows including Chinese clowns galloping around a stage, a Chinese game show, and Tom & Jerry. They also gave us a surprisingly good meal. I didn’t get much sleep like I was hoping for, but still enjoyed the relaxation.

We arrived at the Beijing airport. It only took minutes until we were bombarded with “Beijing 2008 Olympics” banners, other odd signs displaying what one can/cannot do, thousands and thousands of people in spaces not big enough to hold hundreds, scrolling messages written in broken English, and small pieces of cotton-looking dust that flew around throughout the air in Beijing. These specks of cotton obviously spread germs; most of which cause ones body to break out into so-called “Communist rashes.” If one doesn’t seek medical help quickly, he or she may be completely red in a matter of days.
One cannot see far into the distance around the city because of the incredible pollution problem. They’re apparently working on ways of improving the air quality before the Olympic games, but I’m thinking that they’ll need Gandalf or someone with some wizardry powers to do a feat like this.

Even though there were 72 people on this trip, this large number didn’t affect me having a good time. Many friends strategically signed up for the same trip together, so we luckily had a really good travel group.

We stayed at Tsinghua University, located right outside the city. The university is the largest in the Beijing area...huge! When I learned that we were going to be staying on campus, I figured that we’d be lodging in the leftover crappy dorm rooms, but oh was I wrong! We were staying in the university’s guesthouse. This was literally a hotel on campus.

After the 40-minute bus ride to campus, we crowded in the guesthouse lobby to pick up our room cards; they then gave us roughly 10 minutes to check-in and inspect our rooms.
James and I walked into our room and laughed at the many accessories offered to us including slippers, a sewing kit, “shower shoes,” a hot water maker WITH teacups, and a television with at least 60 different stations. Oh, and I forgot to mention the sweet doorbell located outside each room that we definitely took advantage of. All of these accessories kind of lost their touch when later that night we noticed all of these weird stains, spills, and blemishes all over the bed sheets and the carpets. THAT’s why they provided us with the slippers!

Staying on campus was a blast, because we got to interact with other Chinese students directly, and everyone was super kind. After a student gave a few of us a tour of the university, they treated us to a Peking duck dinner in the guesthouse’s restaurant. Starting with this meal, every meal in Beijing followed this trend:

1. The waiters/waitresses bring out food as soon as we sit down and place it all on the lazy susan located in the middle of the round table.

2. We begin questioning what we’re eating, but continue to try new things.

3. Every time someone slowly spins the center circle around to get their food, I begin humming carousel music or at least “The Final Countdown” in my head.

4. We’re only given small plates to place our food on, along with a set of chopsticks, but by the end of the meal, someone always makes some type of social blunder with the chopsticks. The funniest was when Kyle insisted that one serves the food with the top of the chopsticks, but only eats with the bottom sticks (this IS true in Japan though). The two Chinese students sitting at our table began laughing hysterically at this.

5. Eventually so much food sits on the table that the waiters begin pilling plates on top of plates, creating this collage of different cuisine.

6. One cannot judge a food by the way it smells. The taste is always completely different. This also holds true with the food in Vietnam, except all of the Vietnamese food I tried was actually good.

7. The meal’s main course is usually brought out 2/5 of the way through the meal; the dessert is always brought out halfway through the meal; the rice and/or noodles are always brought out 4/5 of the way through the meal.

8. I only end up liking 2/5 of the actual food.

ACTUAL Chinese food is much different than the stuff they serve in America. Some foods were really wonderful, but most of it wasn’t very filling.

After dinner, a bunch of us decided to spend our night walking around the beautiful campus. A couple of Chinese students joined up with our small group, walked around with us, and showed us the interesting hangout spots. We spent the night telling ghost stories (most of which were very lame) and talking about “college stuff.”

Back in our room, I found that flipping through the television stations was so much fun. China seriously has at least 5 or 6 American Idol-esque shows. The main difference is that, unlike in America, these performers actually have genuine talent. Other interesting observations concerning Chinese television:

- I’m often disappointed how no news source in the US is completely truthful, because everyone throws in their own opinions/propaganda throughout the newscasts (examples include the Fox News Corporation, as well as CNN and CNBC), but when you watch men in military uniforms delivering the newscasts on Beijing television, at least you can appreciate their complete lack of subtlety.
- Jackie Chan is HUGE here. Within a half hour timeframe, I saw him advertising 3 different products on three different commercials…two of which were competing credit card companies.
- The lack of western influence is awesome. The only westernized thing I saw on television was some random Michael Keaton comedy that I couldn’t remember the name. It was dubbed in Mandarin of course.
- Chinese opera is amazing to watch and hilariously unique at the same time…I don’t care what you say.

I woke up early the second day and took a long shower, for I don’t want any communist germs turning my skin red (please appreciate the sarcasm in this post…don’t take anything too seriously).
A couple of us joined up outside the hotel for a session of tai chi before eating a breakfast unlike one I’ve ever eaten before. Let’s just say that my breakfast the following two days only consisted of bread and cookies.

We took an hour bus ride and soon enough, I saw a long wall running along the mountainside. We visited the Great Wall of China that morning, and yes, it was pretty great. I’m still kind of confused on how the Mongolians couldn’t find ANY way past this wall, but still, it certainly deserved its “great” title. After walking up the hill and being bombarded with dozens of men and women selling products, we made it to the actual wall. Most of the people were taking a right and walking up to the more picturesque part of the wall, but four of us decided to make a left, solely because there were A LOT less people this way.
The path we took was still rather steep, but still offered us a wonderful view of the surrounding mountains. While at the top, a woman started pestering James about buying this warm Russian-looking hat. Long story short, James, Noopur, and I all ended up buying one. VERY warm hats indeed, which did come in handy because it was rather windy up on top of this wall. They also make for some really hardcore pictures.

After our wall trek, we visited a restaurant that served the traditional dish titled the Mongolian Hot Pot. Cooking food in my hot pot was exciting, especially when I began getting bored and got creative, as I just threw every kind of food on the table in my pot at once.

We then went to the Beijing zoo where we had the opportunity to visit the ultra cool Giant Pandas, who had their own wing of the zoo. These giant pandas were HUGE. I naturally thought that they’d live up to their name, but they far exceeded my expectations. These pandas seriously measured up to the size of a small building. You could probably fit a small child inside one of its ears. Hell, these pandas could battle Godzilla if he so challenged them. Why didn’t the Chinese just release giant pandas on the Japanese when they invaded their country during WWII? Makes sense to me.

Actually, sorry; that’s all quite a lie—just like the Chinese lied to us by referring to them as “giant” pandas. They weren’t that big at all…but they were still cute. I had the Deerhoof song "Panda Panda Panda" in my head for the rest of the day.

After viewing the No-So-Giant Pandas, we decided to check out the rest of the zoo. The zoo was incredibly spread out…you seriously needed a shuttle to take you from one side to the other. We learned this when we tried to walk to the other end of the zoo to see the penguin exhibit. That’s right…I was FINALLY going to see some penguins on this trip! We made it to the building, walked up to the front door, but we were sad to learn that you had to purchase tickets in order to catch the penguin exhibit. I didn’t want to see penguins THAT badly. Still, we enjoyed our time walking through the heaps of cotton dust (probably a panda shedding somewhere), viewing catching some reptiles, and trying to figure out why some Chinese guys were laughing at us (always a fun pastime).

For dinner, we were promised Pizza Hut. Pizza Huts in China are not fast-food-like establishments. They’re actually really nice restaurants. Unfortunately, Pizza Hut actually meant the university’s pizza restaurant, which was ok, because the pizza still tasted like Pizza Hut.
Before we ate though, we were brought to the university’s basketball/volleyball courts so that us Americans could play some basketball and volleyball with the students. As you can imagine, I chose not to play, along with everyone else in my group of friends.

After James, Haley, and I left to watch some students play soccer for 20 minutes or so, we met up with this girl named Jenny. Jenny was awesome! She asked us if we wanted to learn a new game, and we all said, “sure,” so she taught us “I’m a Cat.” Basically it’s freeze tag, except when the tagger’s running up to you, you can just scream, “I’M A CAT” and he/she can’t do anything. About 15 of us played, and we had soooo much fun! You’ll have to see the video. After everyone grew incredibly tired, we thought that we’d teach Jenny and a few other students an American game. That’s right, we played Red Rover until they made the announcement for dinner. The game, of course, ended with half of us in pain, but that’s how it’s supposed to end, right? The Chinese students were very bewildered why we would play a game like this when we easily could just play a real game, like basketball.

We ate dinner at the Pizza Hut restaurant on campus, but a bunch of us felt like going out afterwards…possibly hit up a karaoke bar? Our good friend Jenny helped us out, as she took us to this incredibly nice karaoke club. When leaving the campus, we had a lot of trouble securing three separate cabs that could transport us all to the same place. Apparently, nobody knew where the club was! In the end, Jenny’s Chinese skills really helped secure us three drivers that took us to the really posh, underground karaoke club.

We spent the next 2 hours or so in our own VIP karaoke room with a huge projector screen, comfy couches, crazy neon lights, and some dancing space. Me, Steph, Kate, Mark, Matt, Kyle, Katie, Caitlin, and a few others sang the night away in true karaoke style. Some of the highlights included Kyle’s stunning/hilarious renditions of “My Heart Will Go On,” and “Do-Re-Mi,” Caitlin and Katie’s Spice Girls dance moves, Matt and I bringing life to “These Boots are Made for Walking” with Kyle dancing around the room/filling in on tambourine, and everyone joining together for many Disney sing-alongs throughout the night. The night ended with Jenny and her boyfriend singing a popular Chinese love song. Of course, the video played behind the lyrics had none other than movie footage of Mr. Jackie Chan doing his thing. I’ll be honest, and say that some of the English translations were pretty funny, but still, it was a beautiful moment and a perfect way to end the evening. My first Asian karaoke experience was a success! I only wish I brought my video camera with me.
Even though we all pitched in for the karaoke room, Jenny and her boyfriend refused to let us pay for anything else. This is a Chinese custom…since they were our hosts, they couldn’t let us pay for anything. I still felt bad that I couldn’t throw in a few bucks, but didn’t want to make a scene (something my dad would probably do because he’s too nice).

We woke up the next morning and left straight for Tiananmen Square. It’s been hailed as one of the biggest squares in the world…damn straight. It was huge. It was rather odd that the entire center of the square was filled with trailers, campers, and some gift shop stands. I can’t tell you how many sellers approached me with hopes of selling me a Mao Zedong watch. Still, the historical relevance of the area made it an intense experience.

Afterwards we were given a few hours to explore the Forbidden City.
I just LOVE the Chinese’s use of adjectives in their titles: the GREAT wall, the GIANT pandas, the FORBIDDEN city. It makes each sight seem more grandiose than it really is. Still, the Forbidden City was incredible. It didn’t take us long to walk through the whole thing, but some interesting sights WERE observed:

- We were told that there was a Starbucks hidden inside the Forbidden City, and that many Chinese historians weren’t pleased with this addition to the historical sight. Matt and I spent over a half hour trying to find this Starbucks for him to shoot for his video. Eventually, we did spot some friends drinking some cappuccinos, and behind them was a building that housed none other than a Starbucks. The search was a success! Unfortunately, the line was at least 20 feet long…the whole line occupied by white people by the way. Figures. Luckily, Haley was near the front, so she got me my Banana Chip Java with success! Thanks again Haley!
If you would have asked me beforehand what I thought about a Starbucks located within the Forbidden City, I would have probably said that it’s ridiculous, but I definitely don’t think that anymore. Considering the fact that there are souvenir and gift shops located EVERYWHERE in every sight we’ve seen, the fact that Starbucks sells some coffee in the middle of the city isn’t really THAT big of a deal. All of the gift shops are ruining the authenticity and historical mood of the ancient places, but hey, if there’s money to be sold, one might as well go for it.

- They grade the bathrooms in China! Fortunately, for our sake, all of the bathrooms located within the Forbidden City were all 4 star bathrooms! Woohoo! The best part is the fact that they proudly display all of the ratings outside each building with a plaque, as if they’re bragging or something. Later on in the trip, I ran into some 3 star bathrooms…I’m not going to discuss the details of those. I’m sure that the 2 star ones don’t even have a rating in front of them. How embarrassing.

We ate lunch and then spent time at the Temple of Heaven. This was also a very picturesque area, filled with shrines, temples, and gardens. While on top of the temple’s main structure, I saw a Chinese teenager wearing a Pittsburgh Pirates shirt. I walked up to him and asked if he’d ever been to Pittsburgh. He didn’t speak English very well, but he still enthusiastically shook his head “yes.” I told him that I’m from Pittsburgh, and he ran to his father and younger brother and started pointing at me while smiling. The two others soon smiled after.

Rather than choosing a place for us to eat dinner, they agreed to give us some money and let us go in this market area and buy whatever we want. Instead of eating, I choose to shop. The women in this market area were the worst I’ve encountered so far. They seriously heckle you, grab you, and won’t let you go until you go inside their booths. I’m going to miss all of this bargaining when I get home. I’ll walk into a Best Buy and try to hassle them to lower the price…yeah, that’ll work.

That night, we had a trip to the theatre to catch a show put on by the Chinese Acrobats. These were mostly kids and teenagers…except they weren’t real children…they were mutants. If you’ve ever seen X-Men, you’d understand where I’m coming from; these kids could do things that are clearly impossible. If I was working for the US Secretary of the Defense, I’d seriously look into the Chinese scientific community and make sure that they’re not breeding superheroes. I mean come on! Have you ever seen anyone fit 14 people on top of one bicycle WHILE someone’s still pedaling or watch men climb up smooth walls with their bare hands or watch women catch umbrellas with their feet or walk down the street and see children jumping rope…10 different ropes at one time.

My mind was blown away by the acrobats, but we still wanted to go out afterwards. James, Haley, Matt, and I tried to catch a cab to KFC (not too far away from the campus). Somebody brought up KFC earlier that day, so all of us developed this intense craving. The problem is that no cab drivers in Beijing speak a word of English, and none of us spoke a word of Chinese. Even writing “K F C” on a piece of paper did nothing, so they ended up eating some convenience store snacks while I went back to my room because I wasn’t feeling well (the Chinese food was probably destroying my digestive system or something).

Our last day in Beijing started with another breakfast, and then moved onto the Summer Palace. I thought that the Summer Palace would be this big castle-like structure that would take us about an hour or so to travel through, but I was wrong. We spent 3 or 4 hours exploring the area surrounding the Summer Palace, and still didn’t have enough time to see the entire place.
Mark, Kyle, and I paid the extra bucks to actually travel inside the palace, and boy was it worth it.
After a nice final breakfast, we made our way to the Beijing airport and said goodbye to the cotton flying throughout the air. Make sure to watch out for the cotton while watching the Olympics next year.

We didn’t fly back top Hong Kong. While away in Beijing, the ship moved onto Qingdao, China. The bus picked us up from the airport, and took us through this murky, creepy, foggy, crappy-looking town known as Qingdao. This was the ugliest, least-attractive port on our trip so far. Seriously…why go to Qingdao? The only decent thing about the bus ride back was the fact that the bus driver was crazy, and was racing the other bus back to the ship.

We spent the next day walking around the shopping district of Qingdao, which was somewhat interesting, mainly because not one person in the entire city spoke a word of English, and I rather liked that. This was also the first place where no ATMs took our credit cards…though a few found some select ATMs that worked. We did end up getting our KFC that we were craving.
I did catch some distinctive things around the city. For example, I saw this odd-looking building with Spiderman and Lord of the Rings posters surrounding the door, so I voted on going inside. I walked through the meat flaps (many, many buildings have meat flaps instead of doors), walked down the long staircase into the basement, turned to my right, and there were literally hundreds and HUNDREDS of computers. This internet café was huge. The computer monitors were enormous, they had separate rooms with leather reclining chairs for a few select people, and nearly every kid at every PC was either playing World of Warcraft, Age of Empires, or some random soccer game.
While on my computer, I googled “Tiananmen Square” and was actually surprised that 3 sites were found…I figured that it wouldn’t list any of them. Ohhh government censorship!
I bought a few cds because they were so cheap, and then we made our way back to the ship, narrowly avoiding any dock time.

China was certainly the most different country we’ve visited on this trip. Like every other country, I wish I could have seen more, but still, I saw a lot of important sights and sounds. I was mostly excited for Japan, for it was only two days away!
I’ll try to write about my Japan experience sometime before Hawaii.