Japan: artem’s oriental adventure

Dear faithful reader. It seems that the blue moon is out today, as I have decided to write a blog entry. To those of you checking often - I apologize for the delay (as usual). On the bright side, the big breaks ensure that every entry is full of interesting information .. or so I hope.

As many of you know I have already left my life Japan behind - and of course there are many emotional stories behind that. I will save them for a later post, as the Hong Kong experiences are fresher in my mind right now.

A brief recap of the situation:
Before returning home to Canada from my Japanese (and briefly Taiwanese) adventure, I thought it would be a good idea to drop by another place in the East while I’m still here. Throughout my school years I have been force-fed the idea that Hong Kong is the most exciting and entertaining city in Asia - as many of my peers/friends have roots here. My current plan is to verify the rumors. These may include but are not limited and/or restricted to:

1. Hong Kong is the ultimate place for shopping as brand name items are cheaper than in Canada due to tax and exchange rate differences.

2. Hong Kong is famed to be the best place to eat. The best foods from all over Asia find their place in the HK streets ready for the hungry-hungry-tourist.

3. Hong Kong is the best place for young people to hang out. Ever.

4. Cities like Tokyo aren’t very special, and in a direct comparison HK is likely to come out on top.*

*This (or something similar) has been the claim of an un-named HKonger during his/her visit to Japan last year.

Now perhaps I may have skewed some of the wording of the above, but that’s the impression I got from the rumors about HK before coming here. I will be sure to comment on these in my final post about the trip.

How did this work out?
Ivan, my dearest roommate for the past year-and-a-bit is from the city and has of course helped form some of the rumors. When he said that he is going to Hong Kong after Japan and invited me to come along, I couldn’t refuse.

Here I am staying with his uncle Jack, a very energetic and guy who works at the H.K. University of Science and Technology. He lives in a nice pad on campus where he let Ivan, his dad, and I crash for the next little while. When he is free he takes us around the city in the car, but otherwise we manage to get around on the public transportation just fine. All in all - a great guy.

First Impressions:
Hong Kong in general is quite a sight to see to someone who has never been here. Since there isn’t much land in the province, people had no choice but to build upwards. In addition the geography of the place is very mountainous - similar to that of Taiwan. Combining these two factors together yields a very interesting place with endless mountains, tunnels and bridges, wily roads (often built above other roads), and of course endless buildings. In MOST of the areas I have seen in Hong Kong people have gone to great length to squeeze in another building or four.. and then make it very tall. Oddly enough, many people perceive Tokyo as this megapolis with endless skyscrapers, but it could not be further from the truth. Hong Kong is that place. At night many districts glow with neon. The amount of signage is unbelievable! There are huge signs hanging on teeny little cables stretching out across the road advertising BIG WANG RESTAURANT or something of the sort. Quite a sight to see. (yes I have pictures)

As a general impression it is quite a bit dirtier and grimier and more run-down looking than most parts of Tokyo. The spring weather is foggy and smoggy, but the temperatures are great. Most noticeably to mea though was the strong contrast between the poor and the rich, the new and the old. There are ridiculously gorgeous and expensive shopping malls right beside VERY run-down apartment buildings and people seem to get along just fine. People on the streetmarkets bargain to sell you their fake brand apparel for less than the cost of a phonecall in Canada, while others drive around in their Porsche and shop at very high-class boutiques. As I mentioned already: the contrast is very noticeable.

People act much differently here than in Tokyo. On a global scale, it’s probably Tokyo that is the outcast, but that’s not the feeling I get after just living there for 14 months. On one hand, there is more life to people - less manners and politeness enforced on everyone. On the other hand, I’m very used to the Tokyo way - a glance in someone’s eyes for over a second is an intimate relationship which should have many formalities preceding it.. not quite the same here. Some people sure don’t look like the type you’d want to make any eye contact with at all. Back to reality, where if you offend someone on the street.. they will probably try to do more than think impolite thoughts of you. Strangely enough, I do miss the way shopkeepers yell “welcome” as you enter/exit their store in Japan. However, I don’t intend to undermine the welcome of the Hong Kong crowd - all of the shops are welcoming but I just don’t know how to communicate with them properly just yet. The culture difference is huge in comparison to Tokyo, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Eating:
So far it has been VERY MUCH about the eating. Ivan’s dad and uncle have given me a very warm welcome by treating me to as many different types of food as possible (and that’s ALOT). I don’t think I have tried a quarter of the dishes yet, but so far so good. Everything tastes great and the prices are awesome!

Since I’m being treated to many of the dishes, there is a certain expectation of me to try as much food as possible - resulting in daily overeating. However I have been here for about 4 days now and my stomach has stretched to accept this harsh reality. With that said, my pronunciation of “I am very full, thank you very much” in Cantonese has improved drastically.

Chinese food is a very strong contrast to Japanese cooking where presentation matters most. Here many of the famed restaurants are decorated with a plain (and occasionally grimy) white tile and are full of people yelling and running around. Why? Because they’re too busy servicing the happy customers. It also gives the place a more down-to-earth and lively feel. Very different cultural approach though. The bottom line is the food tastes great - taste wins over presentation in my books as well.

I cannot begin to recap the names of the foods I have tried, but all of them have ranged from “decent” to “holycrapthatsawesome”. Yes I have eaten snake soup, and chicken feet among other interesting dishes. Both were delicious. We have visited all sorts of restaurants like little street-shops, food courts, dim-sum restaurants, and even a high-class seafood place. I have also had some home-cooking when we met up with Ivan’s mom’s side of the family. All in all: good food, good times.

Interesting Stuff:
Although a lot of time spent so far was eating, playing badminton, eating, getting a general impression of the city.. and oh yea, eating. However I did encounter some very notably interesting things thus far. In no particular order

• When I ate snake soup, our tourguides talked it up with the shopkeeper and as a result Ivan and I got to play with one of the snakes.
• When we went to the high-class seafood restaurant there were all these aquariums outside filled with live creatures ready to be picked for eating. I also got to hold one of the huge lobsters by the antenna and pose for my own camera.
• Most of the transportation system is powered by double-decker buses that from the outside very closely resemble tourbuses. The second floor idea is very cool. Up yours TTC / Mississauga Transit (not to even mention Milton).

Photos:
I have a running album to which I am posting pictures almost daily. Its on Facebook, so if you have access to my profile, please feel free to comment. If you don’t use Facebook, here is the public link (with no commenting). There have been many photos and this is only album 1. More to come soon! Once I’m done with all this I will put the cream of the crop onto flickr.

And for now.. that’s all folks. I still have much blog-catching up to do but it will be put off for a better day. In a few hours I have to be up for our trip to Macau!

Thanks for reading.