i may be japanese.
Japan...Yay!
Confession: Japan was such a culture-shock. Just two hours away by plane in a neighboring island. YET-- we were suddenly in a completely different country with its own set of of language, customs, traditions, beliefs... etc. etc. In my head, I had envisoned Xiao Ding Dong in his japanese house eating sushi and playing with the most-advanced electronic games and cell phones.... but in reality, Japan was... different.
During our first few days in Hiroshima, we were independent travellers. I wore a backpack so I'll call myself a BACKPACKER! Me, mom, Norman, and our new friend Joey backpacked everywhere ON FOOT. We walked to temples, shrines, museums, family mart (hahaha)... every night we went to the night-market-ish place under the KIRIN BEER sign and had our midnight snacks there. Mm.. Okonomiyaki! We also took a ferry and went out to a neighboring island to visit this humongo temple!
In Kyoto, we were templed and shrined out! We watched a quick kimono fashion show thingy and did touristy things. I was bitten my evil mosquitos and my foot swelled to the point where I couldn't even wear my sneakers! Let's just say... thank goodness for flip flops.
In Osaka, we stayed in the center of the city-- practically inside the train and underground station at the HANKYU hotel. haha. We shopped 'til we dropped and went to the infamous American Village, ate crab like all tourists do (got ripped off btw), and continued trekking towards shrines and temples and praying, drawing 'chien' and taking lots and lots of pictures.
the best part about the Japan trip was bonding time with mi familia that I never get to see! I've never been able to spend soooooo much time with Norman and it was great being with him 24/7 travellin' togetha! Hopefully, my next trip to Japan will be Tokyo!
interesting tidbits about Japan:
- cities and people that are non-english friendly. what the heck! even the taiwanese know words like 'phone card' or 'visa' or 'how far..."
- osaka's airport is a man-made rectangular island!
- japanese makeup is aaamazing.
- crab legs are NOT to die for.
- miluky-naru can me "you look milky" or "you are charming" or "you're almost there!"
- all stores close at 20:00 on the dot. Even if you're there at 20:05 and you charge past the doorman and into the mall, you'll realize that the escalators have already stopped running and you still won't get what you want.
gotta run!
dinner party in Taipei city, followed by the last and final episode of my soap opera. Ohh what will I look forward to starting tomorrow???