I have reported of the elusive hills just outside campus before (here). This time I went into the opposite direction, i.e. southwest, to explore the hills further, to a place called Xikou. Xikou’s cultural significance comes from the fact that it is birth place of Chiang Kai-shek, who’s ancestral home has now been made into a tourist attraction.
Since my return from Japan, I have not done much else but teach and tackle various other academic jobs such as research paper writing, meetings and admin, so I am due a blog entry and my g*d I was due a trip off campus. So finally the excuse lent itself that a very good friend of mine was in the country and we could return to Hangzhou. Unfortunately he had to fly out again a day before we had the chance to go, but nevertheless some other friends of mine and I decided to set off as planned.
ç¯‰åœ°å¸‚å ´, Tsukiji shijÅ – Tokyo fish market etc.
Got up at 5 am on friday morning, to experience the Tokyo fish market in Tsukiji. It’s one of the world’s largest fish markets, handling over 2,000 tons of marine products every day. The whole place is filled with fresh fish, shellfish and huge tuna and with its many scooters, trucks, sellers and buyers in full action, it exudes an atmosphere of real excitement. The trading and bidding for the huge big, torpedo like tuna fish seemed very tense indeed.
Took the Shinkansen train from Osaka to Tokyo – the penultimate leg of my trip to Japan. The train as well as Tokyo were simply amazing. I picked this picture, as it epitomises Japan for me: the Shinkansen high speed train, the neon signs, the funny shaped cars … it’s a civilisation at the edge of technological advancement and sophistication.
Couldn’t come to Japan without seeing the wonderful gardens of Kyoto, however to my disappointment, they are spread out around the city and so it’s almost impossible to see more than two or three a day, and so that’s what I had to make do with. My first stop was the Fushimi-inari Taisha shrine of the Inari cult, dedicated to the god of rice and sake.
ã“ã‚“ã°ã‚“ã¯ã€‚- Konnichiwa
As a result of a national holiday here in China, I thought I’d take the opportunity to see some more of Asia and travel to Japan. Flew to Osaka from Shanghai to go and meet up with one of my friends for a few days, who is currently out there on business, and then traveled to Kyoto and Tokyo.
Sometimes, living on the other side of the world is really bl**dy frustrating. It’s not just the time difference, the miles apart and the fact that we are living in a completely alien country which can get exasperating, but also the fact that due to it being so alien, it feels as though we are completely cut off from what is going on around us (and the rest of the world for that matter). Yes, there is always the ONE and only international, english speaking, tv channel which we could watch, or the abundant rss feeds on the internet to keep us feeling the pulse of what’s going on in the rest of the world, but somehow that’s not the same as actually being part of and interacting with the (now so far away) more familiar part of the world.
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Shanghai (上海) during Typhoon season
Spend last weekend in Shanghai to catch up with friends and explore its streets some more. To my despair we are currently in the middle of typhoon season and heavy downpours followed me around throughout my trip; running for shelter, standing in passage ways and being forced to stop and appreciate my surroundings at length and in more detail enabled me however to find new alley ways with antique shops and observe some more extraordinary behaviour.
The view of Pudong during the day; the view of Shanghai from Pudong in the evening
Told you there’d be no escaping the mooncakes … as part of the celebrations of ‘teachers’ day’ yesterday, we all got given mooncakes. I should probably provide you with a ‘cutting a long story short’ explanation of teachers’ day: to commemorate and celebrate Confucius’ contributions to Chinese culture and society, the Ministry of Education set his birth date (28th Sept.) to be national teachers’ day; fortunately it doesn’t just involve the big man, but symbolises a pat on the back for all teachers and educators in China. The date was recently changed to the 10th Sept.