Friday, May 19

Today started with a button - or lack thereof. I put on my parachute pants only to see that the button was gone! I went to the front dest to inquire about a sewing kit. when i said "i need a pin" the deskworker thought i said "pen" and i had to use some creative sign language to get the point across.

after that little fiasco and breakfast (which was interesting), Jodi, Erinn, Veronica, and I went to find the subway to get the maglev train. (chris was supposed to come too but we couldn't find him). the bus there cost 2 yuan and at People's Square we had no idea where the subway was ... people kept pointing various directions. We probably walked around for 30 mins before we found it (apparently in China, subway is any under-the-street crossing, not just a train). Veronica and Erinn had left to make a 1200 appointment for their project, so Jodi and I took the subway to the Maglev station (4 yuan) and got tickets for the ride (80 yuan round trip). The Maglev is the world's first/only magnetic train and goes between downtown and the airport (30km, 7 mins at up to 431 km/hour). the ride was definitely very smooth and it was a rush. when we got to the airport, we turned around and went straight back. fun on the maglev.

Jodi and I walked out of the station and stopped at pizza hut for lunch. we got a supreme pizza, pepsis, and ice cream cake all for 106 ($13 total). what a deal! our pepsi came with ice but since we aren't supposed to drink the water, we tossed the cubes into the plants only to later learn that they were fake. oops.

wandering aimlessly around people's square, we stopped in the marriott hotel to get a map. best stop all day ... we got an amazing map that has every point of interest in shanghai in english and chinese. great for the cab drivers.

looking at the attractions, we decided to go to the Jin Mao tower. it is the 4th largest building in the world and the 4th largest hotel. it took about 30 min to get there by taxi and only cost $3.50. It cost 50 yuan to go to the 88th floor and it was an awesome view. shanghai is full of interesting and unique architecture that is great to see from above.

we hurried through the tower so we could go to the old market of traditional vendors. i had my first haggling experience - what fun! i got a couple of trinkety things and then a beijing 2008 shirt for 25 yuan ($3.12). That's less than a thrift store!!!!!

then we went to the actual shanghai fake clothes market. we didn't have a whole lot of time and we don't have very much luggage room left to stay under the 44 lbs limit, but i got (all prices in yuan, 8-1 exchange):

2 Lacoste polos - 70
pumas - 80
northface jacket - 80
rolex - 100
cashmere sweater - 200

It takes a long time to buy anything b/c the vendors start at such high prices and you have to work them down. for the cashmere sweater, for instance, she started at 1200 and it took probably 15-20 mins to get it all the way down. the markets were a blast until my pumas got stolen. i was trying on my northface jacket and had to set the bags down and then the shoes disappeared. i was uber concerned about my passport and wallet so i neglected my other items a bit.

anyway we caught a cab back to the hotel before going to KFC for dinner. the chicken was a lot spicier than in the USA.

at 1930 our group got on a boat for a river tour of Shanghai. the weather was perfect and it was an incredible night to see the city lights. it was an hour and a half and i hope i got lots of good pictures!

after boating we rode to a major nightlife shopping street and hung out for a while. the bus left for the hotel at 2215 but jodi, chris, and i weren't on it. we struck out on a biblical quest for Hard Rock Shanghai, beacon of civilization. little did we know that no one else would know where it was! all the cabbies we asked told us to get away and sped off in a rage. finally, in the Shanghai ghetto, we found a local who told us that the restaurant had closed 2 or 3 years ago. bunner! so another cab ride back just in time for SNL. just kidding, it would be FNL for friday. but i wouldn't know because i had GONE! (to bed). and thus ended the market day in the year of our lord Anno Domini 2006.

Thursday, May 18

Another day, another country. we left our beloved Senshu University for shangahi at 0517 on the train bound for Shinjuku. It was sad to see all the stops with fun names go by for the last time - Noborito and Mookogaoka-yuen especially. anyway, at shinjuku we caught the Narita "Express" which in fact still takes over an hour. we got to the airport and did the whole check in/security thing. the line for security was kind of long so we went through even though we all wanted to go to starbucks on the nonsecure side. surprise, there wasn't one on the other side! i had to spend my last yen coins on a coke and some ritz crackers.

we got to shanghai at about 1220 but then had to wait for the rest of our group to come in an hour later. we changed our money and tried to readjust to the new 8-1 exchange rate instead of 100-1. once everyone made it to shanghai, we got on the bus for our ride to the hotel.

the hai tai (or Harbour) hotel is amazing, especially after senshu. it is ultra modern and our rooms are done with lots of accent lighting and frosted glass walls and a sweet sink. there are switches for everything - even the do not disturb sign! we only had a few mins before leaving for dinner.

shanghai traffic is not fun. we were stopped for over an hour on the way to eat ... i am really glad we didn't have to take buses in Tokyo. driving must be the most stressful and hazardous thing because there are basically no rules on the road.

our dinner was a traditional Cantonese dinner. it is kind of like tapas in that there is a little of everything. all the food is on a lazy susan on the table and you dish yourself. the sad thing is that you can only have one glass of a beverage for a whole meal (sprite, coke, beer, or water). we can't drink the tap water so our choices are limited. the food was excellent though. and a huge selection!

after dinner we went to the chinese acrobats and what a show it was! the performers all looked to be 11 or 12 years old and they did some stuff i couldn't dream of doing ... duh. my favorite was the jumps off the seesaw where one person was launched off and landed on someone else. the show went on for 1.5 hours and although it was coold and definitely worth the $14 (112 yuan), the end was a struggle to stay awake. it was really, really sweet though.

happy to be done with stuff for the day, we went back and crashed after the acrobats. i think i'm going to really like shanghai.

other notes from today:
-a typhoon, named pearl, is currently hitting us with lots of rain. go away!
-tokyo is a city of umbrellas and suits; shanghai is a city of bikes and ponchos.
-i love the harbour hotel!
-i may or may not have our key from senshu. my roommates don't have it but i don't think i do either. yikes!
-there are TONS of kfcs in shanghai, just like tokyo.

Wednesday, May 17

So I'm hopelessly behind ... and in Beijing now. But I will try and speed through these entries so you can get an idea of what I've been up to!

May 17:
Today we got the latest start yet -- I didn't wake up until 0730. Went to check the email (no time to blog) and stopped at Mister Donut. By the time I got back people were getting up and about so we left for Ginza - home of the world's most expensive advertisement. It was a ways out but when we got there it was still before 1100 (when everything opens). Even in the subway stations, things are closed during the morning rush. It's really weird. Anyway, we tried to look for some cool shops but there were none to be found in Ginza - just clothing stores and American chains. We succumbed to the western pressure and went to Starbucks. One of the people there kind of spoke English so that was a huge victory.

After the coffee fix we decided to try and find A Bathing Ape, a store where they have hoodies that zip all the way up (thru the hood) and make a creature. Jodi's friend told her about them. We found a guy at Brooks Brothers that told us where one was - conveniently on the other side of Tokyo. Using our day passes to the fullest, we rode out only to find that the store was in a VERY ritzy district. I'm talking Prada, Hermes, etc. So it was expensive and they didn't even have hoodies (out of season). But we were partially redeemed b/c the store was so cool. The shoes were on a conveyer belt and there were LEDs that changed colors on the stairs. Really high-tech but I guess that's what you get in a store where they only have one of each product on display and a hat costs $70. Across the street was Levi and that was even more expensive. $168 for a tshirt! feeling dejected and poor we hopped on the Ginza line for the 17-stop trip to Askaksa.

How cool was the bazaar that awaited us?! It was really traditional and had a ton of small restaurants and shops. I got a really cool Japanese notebook and a headband like the one from the Karate Kid - with the red sun in the middle. We were super hungry but kept getting lost among the rows of shops. We also needed to find a place that took cards because none of us had that much cash. We finally saw a sign that said "Cards welcome. English here." The meal was, well, kind of expensive (what isn't in Tokyo?!) I got fried shrimp and saki - the shrimp was awesome but the saki was lacking ... I should've gotten it hot I guess. We sat on the floor to eat and that was cool. When we were leaving we went to pay and they had problems splitting the check. Our waitress, who spoke English, sorted things out for us. Whew! After what seemed an eternity, we got back on the train and headed for Tokyo Disneyland!

Even though we left the bazaar at 1545, it still took almost an hour to get to Disney. Steph and Dani were there and we got our after 1700 pass for 2900 yen (roughly $29). We went in at five and went straight to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. All the signs were in English but the narrative was in Japanese. After Pirates it started drizzling and we got in line for Thunder Mountain Railroad, a 60 minute wait. After about 20 mins we saw Russ and Chris (Barr) in line behind us. So we had met two others (obviously). Then we did splash mountain, space mountain, star tours, and Peter Pan. By then it was nearing close - 2100 - so we headed for the exit and souvenir shops. None of the waiting times were as long as they'd said, so we were happy. It took probably an hour and a half to trek all the way across Tokyo back to senshu. It is now 0024 and we are leaving for Narita Airport at 0500. Great.

Final observations about Tokyo:
-you can't hand money to a person directly; it always goes into a tray first.
-Everyone pursues their own fashion style and people are very concerned with hair. Women always weair pointy high heels.
-Not that many people speak English.
-Starbucks, McDonalds, and KFC are taking over the world.
-Men always carry what we cann "man bags" and wear brown shoes with black suits.
-Even at 12am, at least half the people in Tokyo have suits on. They are always at work.
-I saw no bums in 4 days here. In a city of 33 million, that's pretty good.

Tuesday, May 16

Definitely woke up at 530 545 555 600 and 610 today. at 630 i decided to just get up and take a walk. mister donut wasn't open yet so i got some oj and donuts at the 99 yen store. by the time i got back more people were moving around and at about 8 we left for the Imperial Palace and stopped at ... Mister Donut, which conveniently opened at 8. at the imperial palace it was drizzling and cloudy and I tried to ask some British lady for directions but she basically had the boo-nastiest stink and didn't know anything. We walked over to the main gate where a bunch of paparazzi was waiting for the Japanese soccer team. They finally pulled up as we were walking away. Go Japan World Cup 2006!

Some of the next 30 mins ... most of it ... was devoted to finding out how to get IN to the imperial palace since we had only been walking around from outside the moat. we did get in (admission: free) and walked around, but it started raining more heavily so we left in search of an ATM. We found one in a hotel, in a complex where we would be spending the next hour or so. It was a really cool area with shops and restaurants. Most too expensive for our tastes. After taking a jaunt by Tiffany and Co, Chanel, etc, we went to eat at a traditional Japanese place. I ate teriyaki chicken with misu soup. It was really tasty, and a good deal at 900 yen until i decided to order a coke. Ended up costing an extra 368 yen ... and no refills. C'est la vie, I suppose. Next we went to a post office to exchange money since the ATM we'd found earlier didn't take foreign cards.

Across the street from the post office was Tokyo station so we decided to duck in to that to catch the subway. Lo and behold, we got lost in the tunnels and when we came i[ we were at the restaurant building from earlier. Hmph. Anyway, we hoppped on the Metro (I had bought a child's day pass for only 360 yen -- half price) and went to Shibuya -- fashion central for young girls. There was an 8 floor mall and the only stores there were girls' clothing stores. I mean for 12 or 13 year olds too. Craziness. Then Chris, Veronica, Erin, and Jodi left to go back to Senshu. I had to meet my frisbee friend.

Instead of meeting Hisa at 1600, her friend was there -- Hisa was sick -- and this other girl didn't speak any English. We threw at Yoyogi Park for a bit before I had to leave. It was fun but not as fun as it could've been because we couldn't really communicate. With not enough time to go all the way back to Senshu, I walked extensively through various areas of Tokyo ... just exploring. I had arranged to meet everyone at Hard Rock at 1900 and when I got there at 1830 they weren't there yet. I was just about to leave an hour later when they showed up and we ate there. Ridiculously expensive! I was glad to have found them though ... it's really hard to split up without cell phones and definitely very scary in a city of 33 million.

After dinner we found out that our metro tickets were only good on one line. There are actually 2 separate subway companies that operate in Tokyo, each requiring its own ticket. When we tried to get on the train, then, we were rejected at the turnstile. So we jumped over the little gate. Whoops! Getting back we basically crashed. Twas a lovely day. Tomorrow: Tokyo Disneyland!

First full day ...

Okay, so I am going to skip the flight over ... maybe I will cover it later but I am running short on time in this internet cafe here so I am going to cover the essentials:

Monday, May 15.
Since we were all still jet-lagged, we woke up early today (430) to go to the Tokyo fish market. I actually wasnt tired at all, so it was okay that it took almost 2 hours to get there via train and subway. On the way there we met a crazy Japanese guy on the train. He didn:t speak any english but insisted on taking all of our pictures ... individually. we tried to tell him no, but it didnt work. Mary was especialy disturbed because he pretended to take a picture of her crotch. yikes. anyway, when we transferred to the subway we left our new friend and made it to the fish market. in a word: insane. Our group of 20 got split up among the aisles and aisles of frozen fish and salespeople peddling their wares. it was pretty neat -- except for the smell and the fact that the floor was soaked with water, blood, and other fish juices.

After the lovely fish adventure we went to Shinjuku -- the busiest train station in the world -- to find coffee since the majority of people here are addicted to it (including me). All the sizes here are super small, even though things cost the same as or a little more than they do in America. I guess that is why everyone here is so thing. We went up to the tallest observatory in Tokyo, the metropolitan government building, and took some pictures from the deck. it was cool because you could really see how vast the city is. our group, which had reunited before leaving the fish market, split again into two groups and i went to the park and shrine with 9 or 10 others. Everyone else went to the stock exchange. the park was huge and VERY densely forested with the main shrine in the center. It was free (yay) and definitely worth the trouble we had finding it -- we thought we could just follow the path we saw from the observatory, but we were wrong. oh well. we made it there. After leaving we ate lunch at Yoyogi sttion ... a place called First Kitchen. The workers spoke limited english and so i ended up accidentally getting these weird curry fries. they really like curry over here, i guess ... anyway, the fries were good -- surprisingly.

If finding the shrine was hard, finding the museum was harder. we were trying to go to a beer museum but instead walked aimlessly through a neighborhood (we only knew what subway stop it was) and finally found an English speaker who copied her map and pointed us in the right direction. Unfortunately, it was closed on Mondays (that seems to be quite common here). Since that was a bust, we went back to Shinjuku and walked through the grounds of a boarding school where hordes of young Japanese girls waved and giggled at us; crazy americans. i started to feel sick and went back to senshu. since we only get one room key i couldnt get into the room and went into jodi and veronicas (where they were asleep) and crashed on the floor for about 2 hours, until 1930. we woke up and decided to grab something to eat so we were walking down to the station and ran into chris and the professors (chris was the only one who hadnt gone to the fish market so he had gone to mount fuji with the professors). we decided we didnt want to point and guess at our food again -- or spend a lot -- so we went to mcdonalds. hooray. still not fully adjusted to the time, we hit the sack at between 10 and 1030. and thus ended the day.

Grant

12 hours away ...

In less than 12 hours I'll be on my way to Asia! I've just about finished packing -- I may need to go through my clothes again and take some out -- but otherwise I'm all set. I can't believe I'm actually going abroad again; once was amazing but I'd have never thought that I'd be doing something like this again the next summer! For those of you who may not know exactly what I'll be doing, I'm going on the Pan Pacific Study Tour, a 3-week jaunt through East Asia. Basically the timeline for our travels looks like this:

-Tomorrow (May 13): Fly to Tokyo
-May 14-May 18: Tokyo
-May 18: fly to Shanghai
...here's where it gets choppy ... and for the moment I can't seem to find my schedule. Anyway, we spend a couple of days in Shanghai and then go to:

-Hangzhou/Wuzen
-fly to Xian (for the terra cotta warriors!)
-and then fly to Beijing.
-After Beijing, we'll fly to Busan for the Pan Pacific business conference, and then on to Seoul. Our return will take us from Seoul to Tokyo to Dallas and back to Omaha on the 3rd of June.

Anyway, I was on a discussion board the other day for ultimate players in Tokyo and although no teams will be playing while I'll be there, someone did respond to see if I'd want to get together and throw and meet some of the ultimate players there. How cool is that?! As you may know, I'm slightly obsessed with ultimate and since I'm missing a tourney in Kansas City while I'm gone, I can think of no better way to make up for it than playing frisbee in Japan. There are also Beijing and Shanghai frisbee boards so maybe I'll actually get to play a full-out game over there. I sure hope so! Anyway, that's about it for now. I'm not sure how accessible computers will be but everytime I get on I'll be sure to update the blog -- I am required to keep a journal for class so I can just transpose everything onto the screen. Sweet! Talk at ya from the other side of the Pacific!