Final Post 16: See ya later

Written on Monday, 8th of February 2010 at 8:59 am

Well, we’re back in Australia now. We arrived into the airport this morning at 7 and took a taxi home. The taxi driver was a bit of a knobhead, speeding down the highway and doing quick overtakes. He nearly hit the back of another car.

When we were safely home I noticed the weather was nice and warm, and there was a cloudy blue sky to welcome us. Our two fat chihuahua dogs also welcomed us with their chirpy barks.

Inside the house was untouched. Nothing had moved – the calendars still read 22nd of January 2010. Also some bread in the pantry had collected mould.

We started to unpacked some of our luggage. My brother and I played with the things we bought, while my mum and dad laid out the gifts they received at their anniversary party.

Then we looked at some of the photos.

And that’s it; my family’s trip to the Far East. It was great fun and something I’ll always remember (with the help of this blog).

But right now I need some sleep.

Cheers,
Terence

Post 15: Joi gin

Written on Sunday 8th of Feb, 2010 at 5:34 pm

Our last day in Hong Kong was spent with my mum’s family at their old house in Cheung Ngao Shan (literally Looking at Cows Hills), a very small and remote village located near the major town of Yuen Long. My grandad built this house after the war was over and he retired from the army and moved to Hong Kong. It was simple and rustic shelter – a relic of the old days along with the rest of the village. There were three small bedrooms, kitchen and dining area, concrete floor with no carpet or tiling and an outdoor water closet.

There was also another room where my Uncle 5 had constructed an elaborate aquarium. A tank of water was perched higher than smaller tanks which were all connected by constant flowing water, like a pond waterfall. Each of the tanks housed different types of goldfish, and the waterfall ran down into a man-made pond which lived koi.

Most of the family from Uncle 3’s wedding and my parent’s anniversary were there. When we first arrived to the house we payed our respects to grandma and grandad by burning incense. Then we had a BBQ while it poured down with rain.

After the food was all gone Uncle 5 dug up an old firewood box from storage. It contained the keepsakes of my grandparents such as; their wedding certificates, poems and black and white family photos. There was a photo of a naked baby who everyone insisted was Uncle 6, but he protested loudly. The photos made my mum and her brothers reminisce about their childhood. Apparently all of them were afraid of my mum when they were little since she would scream her head off telling them to be quiet. This was all too familiar.

Everyone had a funny story to tell, but we couldn’t listen to them all as we had a plane to catch. We were going home, back to Australia. So we said our goodbyes and I thought about when I might see them again.

Probably not for a few years.

We left Cheung Ngao Shan and went back to Sheung Shui to pack our luggage and then took a bus to the airport. This was also a goodbye to Hong Kong (literally Fragrant Harbour).

Post 14: Sayonara

Written on Saturday 6th of Feb, 2010 at 11:02 pm

Our last day in Japan wasn’t as busy and rushed as the rest of the trip. We packed up and left the hotel at 9:30 am and as we drove off it started to snow. It’s been so cold ever since we arrived 4 days ago but this was the first time it snowed. It was a nice farewell present from Osaka.

We went to a pearl jewellery store where a man in a suit showed us how to dissect clams and how pearls were made. He made a girl in our tour group model a few pearl necklaces. I thought pearls only suited older women but it looked alright. Then he pulled out a pearl from a fresh clam and did a lucky draw to see who got to keep it. None of my family won, but my dad ended up buying a pearl for my mum anyway.

After the show we were left to wander the store. I ended up chatting to one of the sales clerks. She was Japanese but grew up in Canada so we spoke English to each other. It’s been awhile since I had an enjoyable conversation in English, because my family doesn’t count. Plus she was cute.

Osaka definitely has a higher percentage of good looking gals than anywhere else I’ve been. So it wasn’t the weather making my glasses fog up. However, almost every girl was caked in make-up. I didn’t notice until I started to see girls overdoing it. Cheeks pinker than fresh ham, skin with no pores and eyelashes long enough to be weapons.

After that we went to an outlet plaza. It was just a shopping area full of international brands - nothing uniquely Japanese. I spent most of my time in a music store playing on a miniature piano.

And that was our day. At night we went to the airport and in the morning arrived back in Hong Kong. It was going to be our last day here too.

Post 13: Laugh Riot

Written on Saturday 6th Feb, 2010 at 4:23 pm

On Friday, we went to Universal Studios theme park in Osaka. We arrived when the gates first opened at 10 am and were allowed to stay till 4 pm. So we had a full day of theme park awesomeness.

The park was fairly empty compared to the maximum capacity of 50,000 people. Most of the people in the park with us were schoolkids on an excursion. The kids were so excited that when the gates opened they all rushed in and started running in all directions.

The first area we visited was made to look like New York in the 1960’s and that was where the Amazing Spiderman ride was located.

It was amazing.

They made us sit in a motorised cart, which tossed us about while we immersed ourselves in Spiderman’s battle with Goblin, Dr. Eight Arms and other villains. The projection was done in 3D and the cart was able to move forwards, backwards, sideways and elevate into different rooms as the fighting progressed. They made a new villain out of water just so they could spray actual water on us. When explosions happened on screen they would blast hairdryers in our face. Even an actual fireball appeared next to the cart when a grenade was thrown. The climax of the ride was when it simulated a 500 metre fall from the sky. At the last moment before we hit the ground we were saved by Spiderman’s webbage.

Other rides we went on like Back to the Future and Jaws were just as good.

When we were too nauseas from the rides we went and watched a few shows. There was one show that was done as a one man play. A guy in an orange shirt was performing in a set that was behind glass. He was a room that looked quite cartoonish and had a TV in the middle. Suddenly a 2D cartoon Woody Woodpecker jumped out of the TV and started harassing the guy. It was like Roger Rabbit or Space Jam but live. The set also reacted to the animations, like when Woody Woodpecker jumped into the file cabinet files flew out, or when he went under ground the floorboards popped up. And in classic Tom and Jerry style the guy tried to hunt down Woody Woodpecker which was hilarious. Another show, Terminator 3D, also had live actors mixed in with 3D cinema.

We didn’t have enough time to see the whole park, which was disappointing, but the whole family enjoyed themselves. It’s just too hard not to smile when you’re watching cartoons.

Afterwards we ended up in Osaka’s city centre where we had Japanese BBQ for dinner. It’s like a regular BBQ except that you’re not allowed to wear shoes. We ordered some Matsusaka beef which was worth 10,000 yen for a very small 300 gram portion. This beef was particularly expensive due to the special production procedure. Only virgin cows were used and while alive they were pampered with massages, afternoon walks, beer and soothing music. All this was done to increase the quality of the beef. When I ate it medium rare, it had almost a creamy consistency, but with the texture of beef and it melted in my mouth like chocolate.

After that we went back to our hotel for one last night in Japan.

Post 12: The Long and Whinging Road

Written on Friday 5th of February at 10:46 pm

During this tour of Japan my dad hasn’t been exactly thrilled. Actually he’s been more like the kid who sat at the back of the classroom, one arm slumped over the chair, chewing gum with a t-shirt that says, “Down with homework.”

When we first arrived my dad was annoyed that Japanese people seemingly refused to speak any English, even at an international airport. Whenever he asked a question the locals would reply in Japanese as if he understood. This sort of thing occurred everywhere we went; at hotels, shops and restaurants. My dad felt that they weren’t being very welcoming to foreigners.

The Japanese have been very welcoming though, through extreme politeness. Whenever we would enter a shop they would always greet us with a cheerful, “Konichiwa.” Every shopkeeper has thanked us and bowed even if we didn’t buy anything. When our tour group left the hotel the staff stood outside and waved till the bus was out of sight. Instead of horns, some cars used a recorded message which asked you to politely step aside.

None of this impressed my dad.

There were other things that he didn’t like, but let’s not go into all that. I figured he couldn’t help acting the way he has. After all, he was in the generation of Chinese born after World War II and specifically the Second Sino-Japanese Wars. And war is just one of those things that has long lasting effects.

But what we did today cheered him right up.

Post 11: The wheels on the bus are round of course

Written on Thursday 4th Feb, 2010 at 10:36 pm

Yesterday the tour bus left the hotel at around 8 am. We drove for 2 hours up a mountain until we reached Nachi Falls. It was quite a sight, a beautiful scene created by nature. It was only marred by the fact that I was feeling carsick and a lady in our tour group gave me some herbal stuff that made it worse.

After that we drove back down the mountain to an aquarium. There were all kinds of weird sea creatures like giant eels, giant lobsters and flatfish. Flatfish are freaky asymmetrical fish that lie on their sides, and as a result have both eyes on one side. It must of lost a bet when they were handing out evolution chains. There were many other types of fish, crustaceans, corals and anemones, but the most interesting were the turtles. They had over a dozen of them and some were over 200 years old.

Our next stop was Kumano Suigun Basyogoya or The Pirates Lair. This was where Japanese pirates from ancient times hid from the navy. It was a cave with an entrance at the side of a cliff connected to the sea. When we were leaving the cave a man who owned a deli kept insisting we try his free mushroom tea. I was thankful he didn’t charge us for it.

Then we went to some rocks by the sea where I caught crabs of a hermit kind and that was our second day in Japan.

Today, we visited a Binchotan charcoal museum. Here they showed how Ubame oak was burnt into charcoal and then made into various objects like; figurines, statues, spoons, bowls, chopsticks, windchimes, xylophones and lightning rods. They even had an old charcoal-powered car. Binchotan charcoal was pretty impressive but the whole tour group ended up spending more time playing with a puppy at the front of the museum.

At lunchtime we went to Kuroshio Ichiba fish market where we watched a chef cut up a fresh 19 kg tuna fish. After the show some lady kept trying to pawn off her seaweed to my brother by making him eat all the samples.

It obviously wasn’t selling.

After driving a couple more hours we arrived at Arima. Here we checked out the Toy and Automata Museum which featured 3 floors of toys from the post-war era. The most interesting were the automata, or mechanical toys. They were wooden contraptions that operated via a crank which made dolls play out animations. There was one of a skeleton man flogging a dead horse.

For dinner we went into Kobe City and were left to wander around a mall area for 3 hours. I got separated from the family for 2 hours, so I just walked around until I randomly bumped into them at a restaurant. While I was lost I visited a Pachinko arcade. I watched an old man play for 10 minutes and I still have no clue how to play that crazy ball-ping game. It looked like a really boring way to spend a night out anyway.

We transferred to a new hotel in Kobe to end our third day in Japan. The family has been enjoying the trip so far. All of us except for my dad.

Post 10: Kimono man, it’s not that bad

Written on Tuesday 2nd of February at 8:27 pm

After leaving Hong Kong we arrived at Osaka/Kansai airport in the late afternoon. Osaka time is ahead of Hong Kong’s by 1 hour so a total 4 hours was gone in the air. Going through customs and baggage collection made us realise that this was not an international-friendly place as none of the staff spoke any English. My dad tried miming to a counter lady when he was trying to buy an ice tea.

He looked like an Egyptian hieroglyphic.

For this trip the family was booked onto a tour bus. The tour guide explained that there wasn’t going to be any sight-seeing today as the sun sets at around 5 in the winter. I didn’t mind since I just wanted to relax at the hotel. As the bus drove along the highway I didn’t see anything particularly interesting. Then I’m pretty sure I heard the guide say that Osaka is "famous for nothing". He tried to justify what he said by adding that holidays are about who you spend it with. Hmm...

We arrived at our hotel in Wakayama in 2 hours. We checked in and found that, like before no-one spoke any English, put our kimonos on and then had dinner.

Japanese food is always too something. Too sour, too salty, too sweet, or too bland. Put those extremes onto one tray though and it’s a bloody good feed.

After dinner my dad made my brother and I go to the community bath area which meant being in a space full of other naked, bathing men. For the first time in my life being glasses-wearer became a benefit. I just popped them off and every head had blurry face.

Soaking in the pool heated to about 40°C was very relaxing. They also had a space for you to shower sitting down which was more comfortable than standing. I must of spent an hour scrubbing. I could see what the tour guide meant when he said the Japanese enjoyed bathing. They did it right.

Tomorrow the tour begins.

Post 9: Here we go again

Tuesday, 2nd Feb 2010, 9:16am

Well, I’ve reached that point in a long holiday where I get a little homesick. I miss my friends back home, my dogs and my old routine. I especially miss being able to take a break from my family because as I type they’re arguing about how to fill out the embarkment forms.

We’re all sitting at gate 1 in Hong Kong airport getting ready for a 5 day trip to Osaka, Japan.