Beijing, China

Guest Bloggers: the Koreys

Yes folks, Beijing has a pollution problem! How they're going to fix their air quality by next year for the Olympics is the 64 thousand dollar question. When we arrived in Beijing by train on Tuesday morning it was raining. And of course, rain cleans the air so our first impression was that the air seemed pretty good. What's the big deal! The next day was sunny and breezy, so no traces of pollution. By the end of the week, though, the dirty air came back with a vengeance. Just imagine living in a London fog made up of chemical and dust emissions. We may see the first Olympic marathon run with gas masks and oxygen bottles strapped to the runners' backs.

If Shanghai is like NYC and Xi'an, Cleveland, Beijing is a cross between Wash DC and Toronto. It's a beautiful world capital with tall buildings just about everywhere, either completed or under construction. Obviously, there is alot of money pouring into Beijing either from Chinese or foreign sources. And, it spreads out in all directions. It has traffic that rivals or surpasses any city in the world, with taxi drivers all trained at a demolition derby school. Riding in a Beijng taxi is like going down Disney's Magic Moutain ride. It's playing chicken on wheels. The good news is that we survived to tell the story!

On day 2, we went to the Forbidden City where the emperors and their lady friends(concubines) numbering at about 1,000, spent their time living and doing the obvious. The amazing thing is that some of these emperors lived well into their 70's. Talk about stamina! Our impression from the guide is that emperors did a little bit of affairs of state and alot of experiments with population enhancement. Now you know how China got to a billion people.

Next to Tianamenn Square (yes, the infamous stare down the tank place) which is bounded by the Great Hall of the Peoples (China's Parliament), the China History Museum and the final resting place of Chairman Mao. Huge place, can hold a million people. Speaking of Mao, did you know that most Chinese women wear an article of clothing in his honor....yes, the somewhat hidden and trendy Mao Tse Thong! Did you also know that Mao's theme song was the ever popular (have to be at least 50 to remember this one) Papa U Mao, Mao. And finally, the name of Mao's final resting place is the, you guessed it, Maoseleum. We did the Mao walkby. Either he's had a great pickling job or a good coat of wax.

Day 3 had us at the Great Wall of China. And great it is! An engineering marvel probably financed by a bunch of cardiologists. The faint of aerobic fitness need not apply. Hauling up and down the stone walkways is more than enough to get your heart pumping and your hamstrings soar. Quite impressive though! Also, visited the Emperor Mings Tomb which wasn't all that interesting, kind of a dead spot in the day in more than one way.The closer for the day was a real hoot; we went to a massage school of sorts to get our feet massaged and our palms read. The foot soaking and massages were quite welcomed at the end of a long day. However, the topper was the palm reading. Palm reading is the ability to evaluate your health by inspecting various parts of your hand. We were joined by a group of so called "Tibetan doctors" who were straight from central casting. Charlatan and scam come to mind. All four of us had our palms examined and here's the results without exageration. Dad Korey had thick blood and a hot liver, Mom Korey had a weak kidney, Erin had digestive system problems (which by the way we've always known) and get this, Geoff had sexual function problems. However, both Geoff and Erin assured us that that wasn't the case. For all of our maladies, the Tibetan doctors were more than happy to write a presription and sell us the remedy. No sales that day!

Our final day was Mom Korey's 60th b'day which we duly celebrated by going to a Chinese restaurant for Peking Duck and to a presentation of Chinese acrobatics which was amazing, and, something that you definitely should not do at home. Never thought the human body could be gotten into such varied and imaginative positions.

One last Chinese to English translation puzzle......if you walked into a Chinese bathroom and saw a sign on the wall that said: Caution..Landslide.... what do you think that means? If you thought that meant that the floor was slippery, you're a better man or woman than me Charlie Brown.

A very enjoyable, ineteresting and educational 2 weeks! However, it's great to be sleeping in our own bed and living in a community of non existent traffic!

Shanghai and Xi'an, China

As we suspected but didn't really think would
happen, we have been blocked from our blog in China.
And our picture site. The irony is as I write this,
the girl to the right of me is playing Halo 3 and the
boy on my left is watching porn (no joke), but Geoff
can't even check Wikipedia for stats on Jackie Chan. I
can't figure out the logic. Lucky for us, my friend
and fellow blogger Sarah [hi!] has agreed to post for us so
you'll know we're o.k. and hear the hi-jinx of the
Korey family trip to China.

We arrived in downtown Shanghai via the Maglev Train
from the airport. That stands for extraordinarily fast
train on sketchy elevated track. In 8 minutes you
travel 50 k.m. on a Disney like monorail. It was scary
the first time, terrifying the second time (to pick up
my parents), and deliriously fun the third time.
Except when we were banking on a track at 250 mph over
Shanghai rush hour. That made me yearn for the
rickshaw accidents in Mumbai traffic. We made it, and
that's all that counts.

On day 3 my mom and I were walking to dinner and she
said, "I wasn't sure how traveling with you would
be... but I'm having so much fun!" I agree. 10 days in
a foreign country with your parents could go in many
directions. Lucky for us, our direction is up. We're
having a blast. We've figured out that we all have the
same "poop-out" factor in the middle of the day and
just wandering with no agenda has some of the best
results.

My parents love a good bargain, and China is the place
to be. It is knock-off heaven. Nibu is Nike, Wanandu
is Adidas, Eake is Nibu which is Nike, Amani, Prado,
Lous Vitton. There are no rules. And my dad can not
pass up a bargain. He will be returning to the US with
a new pair of Wanadus which he proudly got for $15 and
a new pair of socks thrown in. They love the haggle
just as much as we do and they bargain hard. It's
impressive.

We've been staying in really nice hotels, which is a
first on our trip for Geoff and I. Maid service!
Buffet Breakfast! Bellhops! It's heaven. My dad even
booked a hotel in the Chinatown of China. You can't
get much more integrated than that. The driving around
here is insane. And it's each man for himself. Drivers
and Bikers will stare each other down and play chicken
in intersections. The Boston left has now become known
as the Shanghai left to us. Sadly after our experience
in India, Geoff and I don't even flinch at near
accidents and broken seat belts.

We traveled to Xi'an from Shanghai via an overnight
train. Once again, how would 20 hours in an 8 x10 room
fare for the Koreys. Great! I couldn't even hear my
mom snore at night. And my dad made friends with every
English speaking passenger on the train which got us
some free coffee. They're making this easy for us.

Xi'an is the home of the Army of the Terracotta
Warriors, a massive excavation in the middle of China
of over 6,000 life size terracotta human figures. It's
really quite astounding, and they've covered three
huge sites in airplane hangers, so you can see the
archaeological sites still being unearthed. I wish
they did more of that around the world. I would love
to watch people unearth Woolly Mammoths in Iowa. My
favorite part is the gift shop which could be the main
attraction. The site was unearthed accidentally in
1974 by a farmer digging a well. And wouldn't you
know, he sits in the shop and signs books. A bit
suspicious if you ask me. I'm pretty sure there is a
staff of Pat Morita look-alikes who take turns signing
books. I just wasn't buying it. Plus we weren't
allowed to take a picture.

Other than the warriors, Xi'an is just another big
city in China. We've had to find our own fun. This
includes renting tandem bikes and riding along the top
of the city walls. Spotting badly spelled signs. Our
favorite: Antique Ture Furni. Counting the number of
KFCs per street block. And of course watching Geoff
roll the dice when ordering dinners. So far he's 0-3.
Dinner #1: Raw beef. I tried to convince him it was
marinated in a pink sauce. Dinner #2: Fried Chicken.
Complete with feet and claws. Dinner #3: Twice cooked
pork fat. Enough said.

We're off next to Beijing where we will no doubt
endlessly discuss the topics of pollution and the
Olympics. And watch Geoff try to order more dinners. I
mean, us Koreys are wacky.

Fukuoka, Japan

After sobering up in Tokyo, we embarked on our whirlwind tour across southern Japan. We realized upon boarding the Shinkasen (bullet train) that the equivalent of our 9-day itinerary would be hitting Boston, New York, Philly and DC with a night in the Poconos. Needless to say, I similarly have a lot of ground to cover here so let's get started.

The first stop, Kyoto, held great promise for both of us: the Kyoto Costume Institute for Erin and the Nintendo World Headquarters for yours truly. Unfortunately, the KCI had no exhibitions and the Nintendo HQ was heavily fortified. Not ones to be easily turned back, we made it through Nintendo's front gate before being encountered by a stern security guard with a polite piece of paper that read, in English, "I am sorry. You cannot go in this building." At that, we decided to leave before the guard alerted Bowser to our presence or put a shell on his back and started throwing hammers at us.

The remainder of Kyoto involved a bit of historical sightseeing, mostly temples and shrines. Luckily, we were able to find a Hollywood Cinema Costume exhibit in a department store of all places that was actually quite good and interesting - even for me (the Matrix and Fight Club exhibits helped).

From Kyoto we headed to Koya-san in the mountains for some Buddhist-style relaxation. The town of Koya-san is a bit secluded and we had to take a cable-car up a mountain just to reach it. It felt like the start of a roller-coaster without the pay-off. Once in town, we headed to the Buddhist temple where we were staying. Our bed consisted of tatami mats laid down on the floor and we were given yukata robes and slippers to wear around the premises. After being served a traditional vegetarian dinner beside the rock garden and goldfish pond, we retired for a peaceful night of sleep as the rain fell outside. Although Erin fell quickly to sleep, I tossed and turned with images in my head of ninjas crashing through our bamboo and paper walls at any moment.

We awoke early (real early) the next morning to witness a Buddhist ceremony and visit Okuno-in where more than 500,000 Buddhist remains have been put to rest. We then climbed back into the cable-car and headed down the mountain on our way to Osaka.

Our initial intent on spending a night in Osaka was to catch a Hanshin Tigers baseball game but it looked to be a rain-out when we got to town so instead we visited the area of Amerika-Mura which means "America Village". Basically, it's just like the rest of Osaka (and other Japanese cities) except that all the Japanese guys have fantastic Bon Jovi-style haircuts and the Japanese girls have Barbarella hair helmets of such remarkable size that they nearly tip over. Inspired by Japan's homage to America, we returned to our hostel to drink cans of beer and watch Airheads.

From Osaka our "America in Japan" theme continued on to Hiroshima for hot dogs, baseball and, regrettably, the A-Bomb.

As for the good, the Hiroshima Carp baseball team and its fans deserve their own blog, or at least their own post, but I'll try to touch on some highlights. For starters, their mascot is a complete rip-off of the Phillie Phanatic with a total misinterpretation of the original Phanatic's pelvic thrusts. The Carp Phanatic was only a sign of more good things to come. We sat in the bleachers which were packed full an hour before game-time, even though nobody seemed to sit in any other area of the stands. I guess Hiroshima is a blue-collar town. A half-hour before the first pitch, the crowd was already in a frenzy, led by the Carp band (props to the Yokohama Bay Stars who traveled with their own band). There were also Carp cheerleaders who did not hesitate to blow horns or whistles while the Carp players were trying to hit 140km/h fastballs. The whole set-up was very NASCAR-esque with the fans bringing all of their food and beer into the stadium with them. A father in front of us brought his 3 kids to the game, all under age 6, and they watched and cheered the whole time - for 4 hours - even when he went to the men's room and left them in the stands alone. The game was longer than normal because there was a "stretch" every other inning - probably because the entire infield was dirt and needed to be swept frequently. The cheering never died down (Erin and I were exhausted by the 3rd inning) and when Soyagi cranked a grand slam, the locals were more than happy to slam high-fives with a "gaijin" (me). The Carp won the game and the entire crowd respectfully stayed to hear Soyagi interviewed afterwards at home plate. Apparently he's really funny. The crowd then - get this - picked up all of their trash and carried it to the recycling bins outside, very un-NASCAR-esque. Japanese baseball, like most things Japanese, is awesome.

For the bad and ugly, one only has to go back 5 years before the Carp played their first game to when we dropped the A-Bomb (literally, right across the street from where the Carp now play their games). Obviously, there's a context to war but being in Hiroshima seems to erase any context for using atomic weapons. We took an informative, guided tour of the Peace Memorial Park and the A-Bomb Dome, below where the explosion took place. The overwhelming message here is peace, not Anti-America, which was certainly welcomed. Of course, we felt somewhat obliged to make a donation.

One last bullet train and we're finally in Fukuoka on the west coast and looking forward to more ramen, some beach time and a local soccer match. Assuming there are no typhoons or Godzilla-related interruptions, we're here until Monday when we fly out to Shanghai and will be met by Erin's parents. We don't know what to expect with China's Internet censors and whether we'll be able to keep this blog current while we're there but we'll find a way to get the word out and hopefully you'll hear from us again sooner rather than later.
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Tokyo, Japan

We have made it to Japan which is truly a breathe of fresh air, literally and figuratively. We were in India for so long we kind of forgot that we had a full trip ahead of us, and not just India. By the end we had figured out the culture and kind of felt like we lived there. As Geoff mentioned, the flight was like a time warp. Going from toilets that consisted of holes in the ground, to toilets with heated seats. Ahh, paradise.

Tokyo is wonderful. So wonderful it is painful because all I want to do is shop, talk to people, ride in taxis with automated doors, live in a big city. We are sooooo lucky to have Geoff`s friend Mark as host and tour guide. Honestly, we didn`t do much historical stuff. We are saving that for Kyoto. Tokyo was about seeing the city, eating tons of good food and drinking lots of beer. Oh, did I mention karaoke!! Mark was great showing us around and putting up with my need to look in every store and touch every piece of fabric, paper, cell phone. Little does he know we may just cancel the rest of the trip and live on his couch for the next 5 months. We love Tokyo that much. Did I mention how awesome the toilets are. The little things.

When we arrived in customs, the officer asked us where we were staying and we said, `Roppongi Hills`. He said, `Ohhhhhhh, your friend must be very rich.` Well, maybe not rich, but Roppongi was a great starting point with modern buildings lots of great restaurants and a Jamie Fox/Jennifer Garner press junket in the hotel we got dropped off at. Alas, no celebrity sightings (I tried), but still a great section of Tokyo to begin. We spent all three days exploring different sections of Tokyo, checking out the Harajuku girls and being wowed by the expanse of neon. I think if my young nephews came here they would spin in circles until the went up in smoke like a cartoon. Geoff thinks his little brother would be in heaven with video game arcades on every block, crazy looking food and Japanese school girls. The Japanese culture was made for 12 year old kids. I now understand why kids have seizures. The sensory overload is overwhelming.

After 5 weeks moving through India, it was finally nice to just exist in a city as a participant and not a tourist. The Japanese are unbelievably nice and patient and so helpful. We needed a break from traveling and a good dose of hanging out. Next up: the bullet train and Kyoto.

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