Ippoippo

Got a bit of spare time before I head off for Japanese class tonight, so I figure I’ll write up some stuff on my first trip to China.

The first two days were spent in the Pudong area of Shanghai. To be honest, I didn’t think much of Shanghai. While Mumbai (India) may be horrible, in that it’s full of dirt (of the organic type), Shanghai is dirty too. It’s just this time it’s concrete dust, and chemicals, for all the industry. You can feel the polution in the air as you breathe. I don’t think I saw any blue sky while I was there.
Mind you, we went to a great restaurant in Shanghai. Food was great, staff were very friendly. They were trying to help out as much as possible even though myself and my collegue speak no Chinese, and they couldn’t speak English. Luckily, my collegue was Japanese, and through the writing, we could communicate a little bit.

On Tuesday evening we headed off to Changsha, in the middle of the Hunan Province. A very different place to Shanghai. I also get the impression that the central government has less control over the population here. Neon lights everywhere (think of a poorer version of Hong Kong), and a laid back lifestyle. There also seemed to be a lot of ‘paid pleasure’ places (something which is illegal in China). The big thing they had was karaoke booths in the hotels (called KTV), except, they were also hostess bars where the girls would entertain you (and I’m sure if you paid more cash, you could take them away for the night).
Although we’d seen these places as we drove through the streets, we never went to any…. until the last night. Out potential customer decided to take us out. My collegue and I were somewhat worried about what kind of place we would be taken too. Turned out to be not too bad. Although we had to pick a girl each, once we made it clear we were both married men and there would be no funny business, it was pretty much a normal karaoke night, sort of like the ones in Japan.
Would I want to go do that again? Hmmm, not sure. I think I felt more uncomfortable about the whole thing, compared to my Japanese collegue. In fact he, seemed to enjoy himself a lot, and I think would have had more fun with his lady if I hadn’t been there.

It was quite funny speaking to Yuko yesterday about this place, and how Asian attitudes are different to Westerners.

I’ll be in Shenzhen soon, but I fancy more western (or normal Japanese) entertainment, so I’ll be searching on the internet for Irish pubs, Aussie Sports bars, or Japanese Izakaya’s me thinks

Out of the countries I’ve visited so far though, Singapore is still the best one on the list.

Well, last night, I finally got back to Japan, from my week long trip to Shanghai and Changsha (in China).
Work was shite, and Shanghai and Chnagsha aren’t that great. Also sick of Chinese food at the moment…. I need a break from it

Shame then that on Tuesday night, I have to fly into Hong Kong, and take a limo onwards onto Shenzhen

Come back to Japan on Friday, and then fly back to Hong Kong/Shenzhen on Sunday. Then stay there a week!

Looks like there will be a lack of updates on the Chinese trips until when I’m on Holiday during the first week of May.

Woooo, my website seems to work behind the big Chinese Firewall.

OK, back to work, and not surfing the [restricted] internet.

Last night, after work, I went over to Ueno to have some food and drinks with Yuko and a few of her work collegues.

It started off sensibly, in a Izakaya. Afterwards, we moved on to do a bit of karaoke.
Whoops, we had a bit too much fun there, and five of us ended up there until about 2:45 in the morning…. way after the time the last times go back. Bugger. So, after a bit of food in the Yoshinoya we wandered around a bit for a manga cafe. We figured it would be a good place to waste some time until the trains started running again at 5:00ish.
Shame that most of the other late-nighters had the same idea, so they were all full up.
So, we then wandered over to Ueno park for a bit of late-night/early morning Cherry Blossom viewing.

That was quite fun. We met two people who had already had a few drinks, and were now reserving their spot under the Cherry Blossom trees, ready for a party they were having today (Saturday).
I couldn’t believe though how early they were reserving their spot. Nutters.

We hung out with them until the trains started running again, before we all headed back to Matsudo.

Must admit, I’m a bit tired now. Whats more annoying is that tomorrow, I need to head off to Narita again. Yep, I’m on my travels again, and I’m in China next week.