Dear England: A Letter from America: 7/8/07

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Sunday, July 08, 2007

Hong Kong by Night, Twice!

This is Hong Kong by night. Quite simply a breathtaking view, a bit like a panoramic Manhattan. New York is kinda a line of impressive skyscrapers, Hong Kong is more of a circular habour with buildings everywhere! The most impressive sight was the combined lights and fireworks show that happened at 8PM every night. Plus if you turned on the radio there was synchronized music - like Chinese elevator music - to go with the show! We watched from our YMCA corner suite! Everything was in celebration of Hong Kong's 10-year anniversary as ending its 300 years under the British. It is currently the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and in 50 years will be fully Chinese. Quite simply, I had an amazing time.

This is Hong Kong from up on the hill behind Hong Kong Island. What a sight! You take the cable car up the mountain to get this view of the whole Fragrant Harbor (the translation of Hong Kong)!

Hiroshima Peace Memorial, Atomic Bomb Dome or A-Bomb Dome

This is a special building in Hiroshima, Japan. It was a governement building that has been preserved as one of the few buildings within the A-bomb blast zone of 1945 that survived the bomb. Basically the atomic bomb dropped at 8:15 on the morning of 6 August 1945 by the B-52 Enola Gay exploded 600 feet above this building, and the blast was so close and direct that the walls were aligned and withstood some of the impact. The horrors of the bomb as an isolated incident are recreated in the Peace Museum in Hiroshima as a testament to those who lose their lives in what was essentially a firebomb causing terrible destruction. Knowing that A-bombs of 1000 times the capacity of the one dropped on Hiroshima is a sobering thought, given that means bombs exist to kill 7 million people, whole cities, and essentially usher in a "nuclear winter" and the end of the whole party. I really don't know what to say other than Hiroshima is a lesson in history, WWII, fascism, military aggression, and the innocent people - and children as ever - that caught in these moments. As a curio the above building gives you the very eerie feeling of reality to stand below the spot where an atomc bomb detonated. Hiroshima was city with a military history, but was only chosen on the day over the other potential targets because it had clear skies overhead...

Karaoke, the Japanese way

What can I possibly say about Karaoke in Japan? It is awesome! You basically wander into any high-rise in Shibuya, a district in west Tokyo, and get ushered up in an elevator and presented with your own room. Watch out for groups of multiple Japanese relaxing after work in the adjoining room with beers and microphones! For once the equipment is really easy to use, plug-and-play, and the sound is really good. You can order your drinks, but they don't seem to mind you smuggling them in from the local Family Mart or 7-11 (also called 7-and-iHoldings whcih amused us without explanation!) And that's Karaoke baby! 1000 sounds, and no money back on your vocals or vocal chords!

I began to realize that Japan is a small country, and so not unlike England, has some kind of represeive mentality, or at least a respect for space and privacy. Thus Karaoke is a private deal and not a bar-entertaining deal. Small bars in skyscrapers, in Kyoto and not just Tokyo, outnumber larger more public bars. But the winner has to be the private booths at McDonalds. Who wants to eat their double Fish o' Fillet burder (fish is big in Japan naturally) in public when you can get a private booth! The other place we found was a private DVD-viewing store, mostly for Anime, and run by teenagers like a bowling alley - but basically offering you a video and a booth to watch a movie or Anime film in the middle of the day if you feel like it! The idea of "the private area in public" seems to be very "big in Japan"!