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Published: August 28th 2009
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Shanghai
As far as I can tell, its always this smoggy. I finally moved into my new apartment, which is very nice though a bit far from my school. Shanghai is mind blowing enormous, so everything is really far from everything. So far, I am really liking it here. The city is really neat, and has a totally different energy than any city I've ever been too. There are people from all over the world here, and the city has some sort of 1930s swinging vibe to it. Last night John and I went with some friends to a bar called the Cotton Club, which was a very classy establishment- all red velvet, candles and dark wood inside. We listened to the best jazz band I've ever heard play- and the singer was a big black woman from Alabama who called herself Sugar Mama and sang some mean blues... But you can go to a different part of town and find the very Chinese streets with people selling live ducks and eels, and vendor stalls. But anyway- more on Shanghai in a week or so. Here is the blog I wrote a while ago and never put up..
Yesterday, John and I embarked upon the main part of our voyage- the
China portion. I wasn’t sad to leave Japan behind, though I liked being there very much. Japan is a very confusing country- and a compelling one... and Im glad to have seen it.
Our hotel in Osaka was in an older neighborhood that was built before WWII as a sort of restaurant/entertainment district. Now it is pretty dingy, and filled with cheap restaurants ,Pachinko Casinos, bums, tourists and lots of neon lights. The area, called Shinsekai is dedicated to a fat, mischevious looking god named Billikin. Billikin is the ‘God of Things as They Ought to Be’ which I thought was a very interesting pick for the neighborhood of Shinsekai, once hoped to be a nicer area, then bombed to pieces, rebuilt, and described by some as “East LA” or the ghetto. ((If Shinsekai is Osaka’s ghetto, then Japan is doing extremely well for itself.. Ive felt more threatened on Campus Corner in Norman than I did there.)) I did alot of thinking about Billikin, and the meaning of how things ought to be- so I decided to look a little further into Billikin’s history. Turns out, he was invented by an American woman in the early 20th
Shinse Kai
Me and Billikin century, made into a popular fad doll toy, traveled to Japan, became so popular he was instated as one of their traditional luck gods, shunned during the war, and brought back to represent Shinsekai. I still can’t figure out where, why and how this ties into how things ought to be, unless perhaps one shouldn’t think about it at all and just let things be as they are. For some reason this seems to be a fairly decent representation of my feelings about Japan. Most of it went entirely over my head, despite my suspicion that I was a lot closer to Japan than I was aware of. I liked the odd contrast of the beautiful and peaceful mountaintop shrines in the middle of unbelievably big cities, which light up at night so much that it hurts your eyes. I liked how polite and patient the people were, and how surprisingly easy it was to get around everywhere.
I didn’t appreciate the food very much, despite my love for sushi in the US. It turns out that my favorite rolls- such as the California and Philledelphia rolls, are aptly named because they have almost nothing to do with Japan.
Dotombori
John eating gross octopus balls My guidebook informed me that Osaka is the culinary capitol of Japan, though I was not so impressed. One item that came highly recommended was the tokoyaki- or Fried Octopus Balls which are sold at countless vendors across the city. John and I decided to be brave and try some one night so we bought 6 from a vendor for 300Y- $3. They are about the size of chicken nuggets, only round, and look like hushpuppies. Once one bites into an octopus ball, they are greeted with the surprising fact that the insides are not cooked all the way- but some sort of creamy octopus gravy with a chewy little purple tentacle in the middle. It wasn’t the grossest thing I’ve ever had, but it was fairly close.
I am writing this from the boat to China, which is very nice, though the food isn’t much better. So far my favorite thing to do is to sit on the top deck and watch the islands float by. I sat on deck by myself for hours yesterday listening to my ipod, watching fishing boats and lumpy green mountains, and feeling lucky and grateful. This morning while I was up there,
DSCN1024 1
Temple exploring in Kyoto listening to This American Life, a group of Chinese women approached me with a camera. I assumed they wanted me to take a picture of them- but after a few minutes of awkward communicating I realized they wanted to take a picture of me! The few Chinese words and sentences I was able to say were met with the sort of shock and raw enthusiasm that one would expect if a monkey at the zoo were to suddenly stand up and begin reciting Shakespeare. Later, when John and I went to the cafe to eat lunch everyone we passed stared at us with such astonishing enthusiasm that we nervously and confused backtracked to our cabin. Later on a very tall bald headed German informed me that you get used to this behavior, and he thinks maybe he should use it as a way to raise money by asking 5RMB for every pic.
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Emily Vick
non-member comment
Hi Mea- Mea
How are you Mea- Mea? Glad to see you made it to Shanghai and have a place to live. If I were you, I would stay away from any food with, "balls" in the title. Just some useful advice from your older and wiser Aunt. Love you-- Auntie Em