The Road to Hell is paved with Chinese layovers and Touchdown in Kunming

My destination in China was Kunming, located in the southwestern province of Yunnan. Being so close to the Laos, Burmese, and Tibetan border, Yunnan is renowned for its cultural and ethnic diversity. Indeed, in some parts of the province, one hardly believes that they are in China anymore. This cultural diversity is what brought Colleen to China on a Fulbright scholarship. She is currently studying China’s ethnic minorities and how modernization and especially the tourist industry have affected their cultures and their daily lives. Thus, my experience in China was would be absent of the usual sites such as the Great Wall and the Forbidden City but would be filled with quite a cultural experience no less (China really is huge and diverse!)

My journey to China kicked off with a rather rough start after my plane from Tokyo landed in Nanjing. After waiting for several hours for my plane, which was being delayed due to bad weather, I noticed that all of the passengers sitting next to me started moving after an announcement made by the flight attendants. Thinking that my flight had finally arrived, my moment of euphoria soon turned to dread. After showing the flight attendant my ticket, he started jabbering at me in rapid Chinese (of which I know zilch) but the only word that I caught on to was “hotel!” “hotel!” I soon realized that he was trying to tell me that my flight had been canceled and that they were going to whisk me away to a hotel for the night. Thus, not knowing where I was going, and who was taking me there, I got onto the bus they kept pointing at. During the whole bus ride, which took about an hour and a half! the single thought of “oh god! oh god! what the hell is going on? where are they taking me?” played prominently in my head. The bus eventually dropped all the passengers off at a really dingy hotel with no heat (it was about 35 degrees). The pillow on my bed had a large brown stain that suspiciously resembled poo and several springs protruded from the mattress and into my back. Consequently, not too much sleep was had that night dear readers. Oh and I forgot to mention that they paired all the people traveling alone with roommates…you know that one really smelly, hairy and overall sketchy-looking guy that you pray doesn’t sit next you on the flight? Well guess who my sleeping buddy was! Thus, sleeping on a mattress digging into my back with no pillow, in a room with no heat and a guy who looks like he might shank me if I fall asleep I concluded my first night in China. The next day was thankfully much better. After taking the 5:30am bus back to the airport and fighting my way through the crowd of people who had also had canceled flights the previous night I finally boarded the plane to Kunming and was on my way! This mad scramble full of pushing shoving and yelling really hammered home that I was not in Japan anymore (contrast this scene with the woman who was too polite to push her way through the giant Buddha in Kamakura). I met Colleen at the Kunming airport and was finally liberated from the confusing prison in which I was held.

One of the first things about Kunming that I noticed as we took the taxi to Colleen’s place was how much construction and development seemed to be going on. Indeed, everywhere I looked either a new building was being built or was getting reconstructed. Colleen told me that Kunming is the main hub of the Yunnan Province and has also experienced rapid development in the recent years much like the rest of Chinese urban areas.

Kunming, similar to San Francisco is known for its perpetual spring-like weather. The days usually hover around the mid 60’s with temperatures getting a bit chillier at night. This weather conditions can be attributed Kunming’s location in the southern part of China and given that it is located higher in the mountains so is a bit cooler than other cities on that latitude.

On the first day, Colleen showed me around the city and offered a glimpse into Chinese urban life. One of our first stops was a restaurant that is famed for its dumplings (which were excellent). Our next destination was the Yuan tong Buddhist temple. This temple certainly highlighted Kunming’s cultural diversity. Although the exterior resembled a temple one might expect to see in China, the interior had a pagoda that looked like something from Southeast Asia and an altar to the Buddha that looked like a Middle Eastern influence. There was also another spectacular altar to the Buddha that had a multitude of beautiful statues and mosaics.

Yuantong Temple

Altar to the Buddha 

We also stopped at the Bird and Flower district where an assortment of birds, pets, and other assorted goods where being sold by street vendors.

Clash of Old and New China

Another highlight of Kunming was the next day when Colleen and I visited a temple formerly dedicated to Confucius. The contemporary temple was more like a park where the elderly live out the best retirement I’ve ever seen. The temple grounds were filled with older people playing music, mahjong, and Chinese chess. 

Confucian Temple, now a sort of park for the elderly

Playing a game of Chinese Chess.

Shogatsu and the Journey to Nikko.

The day before New Years, Dad, Will, and I boarded a train bound for Nikko, located about an hour and half away north of Tokyo. Nikko is famous in Japan for its many temples , the mausoleum of Tokugawa Ieyasu (the first Shogun of a  completely unified Japan) and natural beauty. I chose to take Dad and Will to Nikko as it was the New Year or Shogatsu. New Years in Japan is a pretty big deal (think Christmas in the U.S.) and many people celebrate it by spending time with their family and going to visits to shines and temples (called Hastumode). For our accommodations, we stayed at a mountainside inn, run by a really cool guy (whose name, I’m sad to say I have forgotten). The innkeeper told us that later that night, many people would be gathering by Tosho-gu (the mausoleum of Tokugawa Ieyasu) for hastumode. He also mentioned that would be more than happy to give us a ride. So, around 9:30 at night we departed for Tosho-gu and were dropped off. I’m glad that we got there early as, once again, the crowd of people at the shrine was overwhelming. Luckily, we were all able to get a good spot at the front of the line to go and see the main part of the shrine and when the clock struck 12 o’clock, we were let in. The mausoleum was quite magnificent and was all lit up for the New Year jubilation.  At this point, however, we were all quite chilly and didn’t stay too long (I feel bad for the people who were in the way back of the line...at the pace the line was going, they probably had to wait several hours to get in!)

Waiting in line at Tosho-gu

Tosho-gu 

The next day, we all decided to do some hiking around Nikko’s national park and take in some of the winter scenery. We started by taking a bus up a long and very, very steep mountain road and were on our way to Kegon falls. We then hiked around lake Chuzen-ji and took in the outstanding scene of the lake surrounded by mountains. Probably the most spectacular part of the day, however, was taking the bus back around the mountain road during sunset.

Kegon Falls

Ice Rock at Chuzen-ji

Beautiful Sunset at Nikko

As our journey was coming to a close, the next day the three of us took several trains back to Narita airport where I would begin my next journey to China and Will and Dad would return to America. I became a bit ill during this point in the journey and lugging a huge bag around for several hours really took it out of me so I slept the whole rest of the day at our hotel in Narita. Thankfully, I was feeling much better the next day so I said my goodbyes to Will and Dad and was off to Part 2 of my journey. I was off to the oldest continuous civilization in human history, China.

東京 (Tokyo)

On December 28^th, I took the nightbus bound for Tokyo to meet up with my brother and my dad. Taking the night-bus (the cheapest option) would be a harbinger of many uncomfortable transportation experiences to come. The bus left at 11 at night and got to Tokyo around 6 in the morning. For reasons that escape me, the bus stopped for bathroom breaks and subsequently turned the lights on every hour. This made sleep near impossible on an already uncomfortable bus seat.

Anyway after arriving in Tokyo, I had a good 10 hours or so before Will and Dad’s plane arrived so I decided to acclimate myself to the Tokyo train/subway system and do some self-exploration. After a few hours, I was the master of the labyrinth that is Tokyo public transportation. One of the highlights was traveling by myself to Meiji Shrine near the Harajuku district and doing some sightseeing there. I finally met up with Will and Dad near Shinjuku station later that night and we concluded the evening by having some udon noodles at a nearby restaurant.

Meiji Shrine

The next day we went to the Tsukiji fish market and witnessed the thriving market atmosphere there.  Very interesting to see throngs of people gathering to get into very small sushi establishments next to the fish market. I guess sushi that fresh is worth the wait and the lines.
    

Will and I checking out the wares at Tsukiji

After Tsukiji, we went to the Hama Palace Garden, which was built as a retreat for the Shogun and his family, who also hunted duck here. Especially gorgeous was the Nakajima Teahouse where President Grant once sipped tea with the Meiji Emperor in the late 1800’s.

At the Hama Palace Garden

As we left the quiet atmosphere of the garden and the teahouse, we ventured to Tokyo Tower and got a glimpse of the very modern and futuristic buildings of Tokyo.  For lunch, we stopped at  a rotating Sushi restaurant that had the best I’ve ever had.

Tokyo Tower

Dad at the sushi restaurant

That night, I took Dad and Will to the Akihabara electronics district. Both of them were pretty overwhelmed by the district with its blaring lights sounds, and strange things popping such as maid cafes and anime pictures. Will summed up it up as much ”I’m tired and there’s all this weird shit coming at me.” To counter this assault on the senses, we decided it was an appropriate time to have a drink at the Park Hyatt Hotel (the one from Lost in Translation). The drinks were ridiculously expensive but the view from the bar was absolutely stunning. Well worth it for one drink I think.

Akihabara

View from the Park Hyatt

The following day we took a train to nearby Kamakura, which has a smaller town atmosphere and is riddled with temples. Some of the highlights include visiting a temple once owned by the powerful Hojo Samurai clan, a temple dedicated to divorcees, and visiting the Daibutsu, a colossal bronze statue of the Buddha. One amusing anecdote at the Buddha was when we went inside of it (as its hollow). The interior of the Buddha was packed with people and as we were trying to leave, we got caught behind a lady who would not assert herself through the crowd and leave. After about 5 minutes she finally seemed to get the idea that there was nothing to do but shove her way through the crowd and exit before the whole statue got clogged. As I will talk about in a few posts, this reaction of being too polite to shove will contrast wildly with my experience in China.

Shrine at Kamakura

The Daibutsu

On the third day, we ventured to Northern Tokyo and our first sop was Ueno Park, which has an ambience similar to New York’s Central Park, a nature-filled atmosphere with museums galore. Unfortunately, almost all of the museums were closed due to the encroaching New Year holiday.

We then wandered in Northern Tokyo for a bit until we accidentally stumbled on to Ameyokocho, Tokyo’s thriving market, which reminds of the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. This place was so unbelievably crowded! It took forever to navigate though the crowd. After surviving one congested street, we went to yet another at Senso-ji. This cool temple began with enormous gate at its front adorned with the kami of thunder and wind. Beyond the gate was an extensive road filled with small shops. At the end of this narrow market place was an enormous temple with a beautiful and lavish interior.

Crowded market at Ameyokocho

Strolling around Ueno

The gate to Senso-ji

The long market road at Senso-ji

As it was raining that night, we were walking though one of Tokyo’s underground tunnels when I saw on the most heartwarming things I’ve ever seen. Towards, the end of the tunnel, we began to hear some music being played, which I recognized as being from Hayao Miyazaki’s famous movie, Totoro. When we got closer, we noticed that it was coming from one guy dressed up in a black suit playing on his trumpet. We also noticed that he was playing it for the homeless (who were camping in the tunnel). I don’t who he was or why he was doing it but it was still a really uplifting scene to witness.

Playing for the homeless

Long expected update and Christmas in Japan.

Well folks its been a while and many many adventures to tell so let’s dive right in. I’ll start with my first Christmas in Japan.

Christmas in Japan is basically an amalgamation of all the things I hate about Christmas with none of the aspects about it that I like. For starters, it must be made perfectly clear that I despise Christmas music in all of its forms. This Grinchish behavior can largely be attributed to my stint as a grocery bagger where inevitably after every Thanksgiving I was subjected to Christmas music playing on a loop non-stop for about a month and a half and let’s just say one can only listen to so many renditions of “Silver Bells” before they go mad (to this day I still can’t listen to this song without developing a nervous tic and feeling a strong urge to annihilate whatever or whoever is playing it.) Thus, much to my utter dismay, Japan too follows the maddening ritual of playing Christmas music starting around late November. Indeed, by the time Christmas rolled around I dreaded going grocery shopping as I knew I would be tortured with another five versions of “Jingle Bells,” “Silver Bells” and whatever other shitty song about bells and winter that have been spawned by people trying to erode my last remaining bits of sanity. 

The part about Christmas that I do like, however, is spending time with friends and family in a relatively stress-free environment. This aspect of Christmas was unfortunately absent and it was definitely a time when homesickness hit me the hardest. In fact, for all the hulabaloo and ads Japan puts on about Christmas, the actual delivery is underwhelming. Evidently, the big tradition is to buy some fried chicken and “Christmas cake” and eat them…and that's pretty much it (I even had to go to work on Christmas day.)

Fortunately, I had a pretty good Christmas eve though. I started off the day by going to a local glass museum with Jillian and one of the office ladies at my school named Miwani-san. We saw some pretty neat glasswork and afterwards, Miwani-san treated Jillian and me to a nice western-style lunch with pasta and superb desserts. Afterwards, the three of us went to Jillian’s place to whip up some home-made pancakes and damn they were good! Although fruit is super expensive in Japan it sure does taste good and made the pancakes taste awesome. For dinner, Jillian and I joined two other JETs in the area, Zac and Amber for some Chinese food (reminds of A Christmas Story) and had some greasy delight.

Delicious Christmas dessert

Christmas Pancakes

Enjoying them.

While Christmas day was pretty lonely, I was nevertheless in pretty good spirits afterwards, as I would be bound for Tokyo in a few days to meet up with my dad and my brother.

Before I jumped into my Tokyo exploits, I did experience one more intersting part of the Japanese office life…the enkai’s estranged brother the Bonenkai, which is yet another excuse for coworkers and the bosses to get absurdly drunk together. The reasoning behind the Bonenkai is that it is a way to forget the bad parts about the previous year and to welcome in the hopefully better new year…and what better way to do that than by having an ancient Rome style hedonistic feast of food and drink.

Winter Has Come

As my life is now controlled by the wild cluster@*%# that is Ishikawa weather, its time to divulge the latest madness. Winter has come to my region with a fury. I have seen weather conditions in the past three days that I never even thought existed. (And when a Minnesotan is shocked and appalled by the weather you know something is wildly wrong with this picture). The first startling aspect of the winter in Ishikawa is that snow here does not fall like normal snow should. Instead, it behaves rather like its summer-time cousin, hail, and pelts you with big pachinko-shaped balls of ice and slush (the slush ones kind of explode on impact). The second bizarre surprise Ishikawa winter throws at you is lightning snow. No that wasn't a typo, I'm dead serious, lightning, freakin, snow. Evidently, apocalyptic atmospheric conditions (something sciency about the Siberian winds crossing with the flow of the Sea of Japan) dictate that the seemingly incompatible phenomenons of lightning and snow can happen at the same time over here.

Thus far, the quantity of the snow has been ridiculous, which given the rainpocalypse in November, I was at least able to see coming. In the span of only one night, my world went from no snow at all to this:

The snow begins

One day later

This was a a pain in the butt to scope off. The snow here is very thick and slushy.

Ok it is all a bit pretty though

Compounding the limitless lightning snow is my sworn enemy, cold. Although Minnesota winters are definitely colder in terms of temperature, one can at least escape the booger freezing weather by seeking shelter indoors. This is not the case in Japan. A rather amusing article posted on cracked.com recently mused on how despite Japan`s popular perception as a technological wonderland, the heating systems here are rather abysmal. The article really hit the nail on the head especially at many of my schools. As evidence, may I present the pinnacle of heating technology, the lastest device in the war against cold, a tea kettle on gas stove.

Tadah!

To be fair, its not like people here just like being colder than Americans. One of the reason I really enjoy studying geography is that it plays such an an enormous role on the lives we live. Indeed, I believe that my being colder here than in that it has more to do with geography of Japan rather than the people. With the exception of shale, Japan has very few domestic energy resources and according to the United States Energy Information Administration, is only 16 percent energy self-sufficient (compare this to America which is around 70%). This lack of domestic energy sources, compounded with Japan being the third largest oil consumer in the world has made the pricey importation of foreign oil very important to Japan’s modern economy. The March 11 Tohoku Earthquake, Tsunami, and subsequent meltdown at Fukushima has exacerbated this energy dilemma. After the Fukushima disaster, many Japanese are demanding that all nuclear power be abolished (which due to Japan's geographic location on the Pacific fault line and chronic earthquakes and natural disasters that follow raise a rather fair point). The problem, however, is that it has been estimated that this reduction in nuclear power will mean that Japan ‘s oil and gas consumption will and have skyrocketed along with the cost of energy. As I am aware that schools don't have magical budgets that can create money out of nowhere, I guess that means I will have to just put up with more or less always being cold for the time being. 

Anyway, wintertime is also Christmas time and it has been a rather interesting observing the Christmas season here. As Japan is mostly a non-christian nation, most people here are only aware of Christmas on the most superficial of levels. In fact, from what I've heard thus far, most people here are hardly even aware that there is a religious component behind it. (Some Christmas traditions here include buying a christmas themed cake and going out to buy KFC.) Thus, schools here have no compunctions about asking me to teach Christmas lessons. One of the most amusing things to observe in my Christmas lessons is the portion where I demonstrate how to make a paper snowflake and then let the kids make their own. Whether they are 1st or 9th graders, all of the students really really really like this activity and take it really really really seriously. Whereas I recall being content to cut a triangle or three in mine and call it a day, there are many students every class who spend around 20 minutes constructing the best damn snowflake they can make. I've even had one guy who spent the whole class secretly working on his snowflake so that it would pop-out 3-D. 

Unfortunately, one of my Japanese teachers insisted that I play Christmas music during one of my lessons. Call me the grinch, but I can't stand the stuff ever since I worked at a grocery store that played the stuff on loop for weeks on end. I'm sorry, but once I heard "Silver Bells" for the twelfth time in one day, I forsake Christmas music forever and being relatively isolated from it has been a great great blessing. That being said, I can't pretend that I miss other parts of Christmas, mostly being with friends and family (and eating delicious cookies). At least I'll be getting my fix when my dad and my brother come to visit me in a few weeks! We will be hanging out in eastern Japan for about a week or so and I am very very excited to see them and to tour Tokyo. Any who, that's all for now folks I'm not sure I'll be having too many exciting adventures until winter break unfortunately as I am trying to save money for the epic trip but I'll post if anything exciting comes up.