(no subject)
Just got in to Beijing. It's a little crazy. People everywhere, "taxi drivers" taking bags and leading us off to their far off black car with inch thick rope in the trunk 8/ . It's absolutely nothing like I imagined it and also nothing like Japan. It shows up Osaka in all the hideous insanity of bizarre building regulations - they've got trees, nicely laid out and well spaced skyscrapers which are actually worthy of being called skyscrapers, in addition to having some sense of continuity - it's great to see more than one building looking like the one next door. Honestly, I've been turning a blind eye to the fact that much of Osaka is a large collection of low-rise buildings rammed up next to each other. Apartments here are spaciously liveable and I'd love to show every Japanese person living in a prison the size of a c-list celebrity's wardrobe so they'd know what the bog standard of a rapidly modernised country can be. Oh yeah, and what a tree is.
There was a group of elderly tourists on our plane and while I laughed inwardly at anybody willing to take a package tour and mocked their "oooh ehhh, Maureen, it's chilly" (they didn't actually say those exact words), I realise, after the taxi driver incident, that without a huge dose of common sense the average Japanese senior citizen could well end their first day naked in the middle of nowhere. I exaggerate. But there's a damn good reason the taxi rank outside the airport is manned by police giving out legal advice leaflets.
Going for some Chinese food and I can't wait...
There was a group of elderly tourists on our plane and while I laughed inwardly at anybody willing to take a package tour and mocked their "oooh ehhh, Maureen, it's chilly" (they didn't actually say those exact words), I realise, after the taxi driver incident, that without a huge dose of common sense the average Japanese senior citizen could well end their first day naked in the middle of nowhere. I exaggerate. But there's a damn good reason the taxi rank outside the airport is manned by police giving out legal advice leaflets.
Going for some Chinese food and I can't wait...