Having a great time!

having some:

1. porchops
2. asparagae

It was hard to leave Shanghai because there's still so much I want see, but I knew that the Great Wall, the Forbidden City and Tienanmen Square were waiting...

Beijing is the capital of China. It is very large with crazy traffic and very wide, straight streets. It is very dry, cool and also has the air of commerce flooding in.

I just had a wonderful time in Shanghai. It is an incredible city -- a cross between tradition, modern and blade runner. Tall, tall new buildings in such unusual shapes and colors. Yet, at the foot of these buildings people hang their clothes out to dry. Down the alley you will see rows and rows of clothes, underwear, sheets hanging out drying.

We started the day taking a ride on a magnetic train. It went around 430 km per hour, so we did in 7 minutes what had taken us ~35 minutes the night before. Amazing! We then toured a temple, now turned market, where we bought chopsticks from a famous store. Deep within the temple we got to see a ceremony performed to honor gods.

George and Helen, our awesome hosts, took a break from walking and we visited a tea house where we saw furniture over 400 years old. Young girls performed a special tea ceremony that was once done for generals. The tea was incredible and we had wonderful nuts and dried fruit for snacks. Once again the time and beauty, as well as the innocence of this moment brought tears to my ears. The girls took such time and care with grace in every movement. Each girl had a role in the process. Their hands and bodies moved rhythmically in tune to the effort.

We ended the day by seeing the chinese acrobats perform a version of swan lake. Imagine a cross between classical ballet, traditional asian dance and a circus. Breath-taking twists and turns on polls and in the air, as well as mind-boggling balancing acts. The colors and costumes were brilliant and reminded me of Cirque de Soliel (sp?). Evidently they were only performing for 5 nights in China before going to Sydney.  I couldn't believe we were lucky enough to see this event.

I awoke on the 82nd floor of the Grand Hyatt, Shanghai hotel. I was struck by the beauty of the fog lifting outside my window and the emergence of tall buildings. There is much construction going on here with a mix of old world, new world and hope.

http://shanghai.grand.hyatt.com/

I love Tokyo…it’s a mix of las vegas, new york city and the future. There is a riot of color everywhere I look, along with masses of people politely going about their day. People stand in line, wait their turn and are never rude. This is something quite different from what I’d expect from such a large, congested city. Technology abounds as well. Large screen displays that are crisp, clear and distracting decorate tall buildings. Neon signs crawl up every available inch towards the sky. Lights move, music plays and characters dance, all in effort to grab attention and draw people near.

Shopping is simply overwhelming. I don’t even know how to explain it. Jammed packed? Every inch of space in any stall, on any shelf is packed with color and goods. Yet the space is skillfully used. Items are actually easy to find and navigating through streets or department stores somehow feels easy and well organized. Well, except for the fact that streets are not named. Now that is strange. But explains why maps, train schedules, etc on cell phones or printed from a PC is critical.

We visited Au showplace and DoCoMo’s future lab. Au has astounding phones! Music plays when you open the phone and the cameras blew me away. I found that many use their phones for photos since the quality is so good, yet still use their iPods for listening to music. Mmmm. At DoCoMo we got to play with video cell phones where we had up to 8 people doing live video conferencing. Working code, great experience – they’re phone development cycle is a new phone every 6 months. We also saw Assimo the robot walk and talk. I thought I was going to pass out from how advanced the technology is here.

So my favorite moment in Tokyo was when we went to a park and shrine built to honor the passing of the Samurai and the beginning of modern Japan. It was breathtakingly beautiful with such a presence of history. There was a wonderful wishing tree, where people write their wishes on a piece of wood and hang them on the wall protecting the tree. I found many, many wishes is languages from all over the world. As I approached the actual temple, an elderly man stood in the door for quite some time looking inside. I didn’t know if it was polite to enter yet, so I waited. After a moment, he sighed and bowed deeply towards the ground. He held this bow for a bit and then turned to leave. I don’t know what it was about this moment, but I cried. It was something about the stillness, beauty and great honor in his bow.

Well our 2nd day in Korea was a full work day. We did not get to do any more shopping but we did have an awesome dinner and karaoke night. The work was interesting though because we got a deep understanding of the market and shared some of our current plans. I could feel a cold coming much to my dismay knowing tokyo was coming up. So Nikki and I left the meeting early to go change. I was in a skirt and heels, and while I was walking back to the hotel an elderly woman stopped me. She kept point at my feet in great dismay. We figured she must have been concerned about my feet in such pointy shoes.

Dinner consisted of having lots of beef cooked right there on grills built into the table. We ate lots of meat and drank lots of beer! I'm so glad I was able to to eat meat again! We also drank shots of some kind of liquor made from sweet potatoes that was amazingly light and tasty. We were asked to do the shots in a "wave" where one person after another drinks their shot as we go around the table. It's definately true that socializing and work are blended and expected! Good times.

We then left for karaoke in a part of town where the young people go. People get a private room and no alcohol is served in these places. It is considered rude not to participate and sing. Nikki and I sang the Go Go's "We Got the Beat" and I did a solo of "I'm Your Venus" ala Bananarama style. Once the night was over, Nikki and I escaped the group for a few minutes to run to one of the cute shops. We quickly bought a fuew trinkets and lost the pack in the meantime. It was totally worth it! We got a cab easily and made it back without any trouble. Finally we got some cutesy stuff! Check out my photo album for shots of us doing karaoke!

Overall I get the feeling that Seoul is an interesting city and I think next time I'd want to spend more time exploring the city. On eof my favorite moments was when I waas in the mall taking a picture of characters on a huge sign. I turned around only to find that almost everyone behind me was either photographing or video taping me in action. I bowed to my audience and blushed. They in turn bowed back. A true tourist moment...

Staying up the entire flight to Korea was a smart idea. I felt pretty alert our first day here. So far much of the city reminds of modern cities in the US. Yet the thing most striking so far is that it feels like a city of glass shapes. The buildings are modern shapes, full of glass and built in reaching to the sky in puzzling directions. I hope to capture some of these before we go. 

We spent the afternoon exploring a traditional Korean street and market. The were lots of pottery, art and wooden box shops, as well interesting food being made there on the streets. I quickly caught on though to items directed to tourists since we kept seeing some of the same things througout. The art though was so beautiful. It's a mixture of modern and traditional. This is true throughout...you see a large traditional clay pot in front of a modern glass entryway where a scooter with a pizza hut delivery sign sits on the corner.

We stopped at a tea house where I had the most wonderful tea! It contained five flavors -- sour, sweet, salty, spicy and, um, I can't remember the fifth but it had a wonderful grapefruity flavor on top. I have to bring some of this tea back with me.

We then went to dinner and had a traditional Korean dinner with lots of beer. The Kobe steak was interesting but the kim chi was to die for! I had root, cucumber and cabbage kim chi. So good...and we learned the proper way to pore beer according to age. So far the food has been spectacular and no one has gotten sick yet.

We go to a part of town today where young people hang out -- which I am very excited about. I am ready to do some shopping!