Trip to Hong Kong and Macao

It has been a busy week since I returned from Hong Kong. I left on November 18^th and got back on November 27^th. Hong Kong was interesting and I had a lot of fun walking around and spending time with my family. It was nice being around Asian people and actually understanding what they were saying for a change. Hong Kong wasn’t as surprising to me after being in Japan, as it is similar to Tokyo in many resepcts. I know the impact would have been greater if I had gone before my time here in Japan. The city isn’t that big but it is amazingly dense. Hong Kong has about 7 million residents, comparably Canada has 30 million. The best way I can describe the city is that half the city is like downtown Robson. There are many shopping malls and complexes. What also helped was the exchange rate right now is very favorable for Canadians, $1HK is about $6.6CDN, which made everything in Hong Kong amazingly cheap. So I ended buying lots of dress shirts, shoes, pants and even got 2 suits tailored made for less than 200 dollars. picture below: famous church in Macau

While in Hong Kong I took a side trip to neighboring Macau we spent two days there touring the city and seeing my godmother and god brother. We also took a small trip into China and shopped a bit and walked around. Very different then Hong Kong I must say and it was interesting seeing the people there. A small amount of beggers on the street and lots of vendors selling you products. They can get pretty aggressive to grabbing your arm and wanting to sell you stuff. Being there you really get a sense of the economic power china is becoming as their capacity to build and modernize is amazing. You see some of the most gorgeous buildings. China is a really interesting place and I wouldn’t mind visiting it again sometime.

The majority of the trip was spent shopping and eating. Being in Japan, I really missed good Chinese food and when I was in Hong Kong I ate an enormous amount of food. I really didn’t stopped eating and by the end of the week I could barely put anything in my mouth. We went to a few buffets and I just constantly snacked and had large meals with my family. Hong Kong definitely has great food and I look forward to going back there someday. I’m definitely entertaining the idea of spending a few months teaching English in Hong Kong after Japan as I can stay at my god mother's place. Picture below is off a lamb pot. Had lots of neat and intresting food when i was there; including snake skin, frog umm..let just say "special parts" and even almost went into China to try a certain domesticated animal.

I also met us with maria from High school and we had a good time chatting and walking around hong kong. Even though it took her awhile to find me as I didn't know what exit to come out of. Sorry maria. We managed to grab Pho noodles for lunch- which i really missed eating. For dinner, we went to a coffee shop and had 3 pieces of cake. The sad truth was how we finished all 3 pieces but the table of 4 beside us didn't. Overall, it was fun seeing a old friend and a lot of fun spending time with my parents and sis, and walking around Hong Kong.

This past weekend I went to Hiroshima and played hockey on Saturday, then stayed over at one of the player’s house, Hiki san. At night, the hockey organizer Tawara san, invited Hiki and I for dinner at his house with his family and we had oyster nabe (similar to hotpot). It was a fun night and I had a good time practicing my Japanese and eating good food. Check out the hockey website. http://hiroshima.plala.jp/HIHL/ The next morning we woke up at 6am to make our way to Okayama prefecture for a hockey tournament, but while driving we got a call to tell us it was canceled due to rain. So that was a bit of a let down. Other than that, the week has been good. Doing a bunch of Christmas lessons with my kids.

On tuesday night my sister arrived in Japan. The next morning she came with me to Noro-Nakagiri, one of my elementary schools. We had fun teaching the kids and we managed to snap some pretty good pictures with them. They are all 1st and 2nd graders so they are all adorable and pretty funny at times. On the weekend, Jocelyn and I are heading to Miyajima and then to a old city about an hour from where I live, called Onomichi. Jocelyn is going to head to Kyoto on early next week and then we are both heading to Tokyo where she flys out from. Should be a fun and interesting week.

Japanese factoid#11, well this is more of a Chinese factoid as i took this picture on a bus in Hong Kong. You can draw your own conclusions as to what purpose this compartment serves. Signs in english are quite amusing in Asian countries. Actually Japan has some pretty good Japglish, as translations are usually done literally. An amusing pastime for me in class is reading what kind of english my students have on their pencil cases. I'll make sure i post some of the more amusing Japglish in the coming months.