Goodbye China, Hello Japan

April 2, 2006

I started Sunday off like I would like to start every Sunday, or every day for that matter – at Starbucks. I know that many people think of Starbucks as the McDonald’s of coffee houses, but quite honestly, I heart it. You might already know that, though.

After breakfast, FG and I headed over to Yuyaan Bazaar to do a little shopping. I am collecting the booties that Chinese women were forced to wear as children to bind their feet. Normally you can find these at any antique shop in the area, but not today. Fortunately, one of the Texas guys is heading to Shanghai next weekend, so he is going to look again for me.

Remember how I said boys like trains? Well, FG was incredibly excited about taking the Malgev train from Shanghai to the airport. I’m pretty indifferent about such things, but it was really cool. The Malgev train was engineered by a bunch of Germans, but then the German government couldn’t afford to build the train. So they sold the rights to China. This train travels at a max speed of 431 km/hr. If my rough math is correct, that should be just under 270 miles and hour.

So, I said goodbye to Mainland China. I don’t know when I will see it again (since my Visa doesn’t allow me to go back without paying extra money). I’ve hit the things that I really wanted to see, so I think I can safely call my China explorations a success.

After a brief stop-over back in Hong Kong, I’m off to Japan next Wednesday. Thanks to careful class selection and the Easter Holiday, I get to spend a week in Japan. I’ll be in Tokyo for 3 nights with five other people, then two of us are heading to the Kyoto area to discover the real Japan for 3 nights. Then… it’s back to school to take two tests and attend one class.

Then folks, I begin my James Taylor impersonation. I played “Going to Carolina” maybe 10 times on my drive to Chapel Hill. I may well play it continuously for the week leading up to my departure. That is, if Apple does in fact deliver my new iPod.