Adventures of a Vagabond

Mt. Fuji as seen from Hakone, Japan (2/1)

Tagaytay Highlands, Philippines (2/6)

Okay, so it’s not exactly a day. But as far as my travels go, I had found myself in the brisk weather of Hakone on 2/1 and found myself in the balmy tropical weather of the Philippines on 2/2. I’m sure Fuji-san is well known to most of you. Tagaytay (pronounced Tah-gai-tai) is a hilly, semi-jungle region to the south Manila. Thankfully, getting here does not require a trek through Northern Luzon as described in Cryptotnomicon (although admittedly, this would be interesting). Tagaytay is a beautiful resort area built in a still-active volcanic region.

I realize that I haven’t given a current State of the Vagabond lately, so here’s a travel update. I’m in Manila, Philippines. It’s an unlikely destination for the world traveler eh? But alas, I have ulterior motives. The majority of my mom’s side of the family lives here, many of whom I haven’t seen in 18 years, most in over a decade, and others never at all. When I was planning my trip, it turned out that my mom’s family wanted to have a family reunion (first in nearly two decades) and my dad had some family business to attend to out here. So we scheduled our trips simultaneously. Not only is it fun to see my parents out here and take me around to the places they grew up, but they also brought my laptop.

Thus far, my cousins out here are a kick and I’ve discovered I have a lot in common with them. Of the ones I’ve met and heard of thus far, about half of them are in a technology field and the rest are doing something related to business. Sound like someone you know? To be honest, I was surprised too. Meeting them has also been a taste of reality. Several of them have goals of moving to America. It’s a humbling experience to realize how fortunate I was to be born in the country that others only dream of. I’ve also discovered what kind of a privilege it is to travel the way I am right now. A United States Passport allows me to walk freely into the majority of countries around the world. My family here has to go through arduous visa applications and waiting periods to go anywhere. Truly an eye-opener.

As far as language barriers go, I’ve been having a blast here. As many of you know, I speak a little-known dialect of Chinese spoken in the Fujian province. What I’ve probably not mentioned is that my parents are from Philippines and my particular accent is the Fillipino accent of Fukenese–that’s right, the roots for the Chinese here are in Fujian! Going around Chinatown yesterday, I experienced something new–my Chinese tongue was native. Prior to my visit here, my Chinese was only spoken with family members and a small handful of family friends. Today, it’ll get me around Chinatown.

While Tagalog is the true national language around here, the majority of classes are taught in English. As a result, most of the conversations with my cousins take place in a mixture of English and Tagalog. Turns out this is no problem for me–many basic Tagalog words, conjunctions, and modifiers have been unknowingly mixed into my Chinese. I’m able to understand the majority of conversations and catch the gist of the rest. I wholly expect Tagalog to start filtering into my normal conversation in a couple days.

That’s it from my end of the world! Happy Chinese New Year!

Bangkok, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Manila. Writing them out feels like I’m checking off boxes on a list. Now 19 days into my trip, I’ve already spent 30 hours on a plane. That’s already half of my scheduled flying time (61 hours).

It’s facinating to observe the style and character of major cities in different countries. Between geography, culture, and socio-economic conditions, each city is vastly different from the other.

Bangkok: From the 84th floor of the Baiyoke Sky Hotel, the tallest tower in Thailand

Looking down at Bangkok, I wonder if the term “zoning” ever crossed the mind of city planners. Buildings seem to have been erected where ever land was available, without regard to clumping into a central downtown or business district. In a lot of ways, this is analagous to how Thai people live. Walking down the sidewalks of Bangkok is an excercise in sliding between street vendors, food carts, and the crowd. Things are just everywhere. It’s an agglomeration of random elements that just somehow seems to fit. After all–it’s Bangkok.

Tokyo: From the top of the Metropolitan Government Building in Shinjuku

There’s no denying it. Space is the #1 premium in Tokyo. Buildings and high rises rule the land. But through all the towering hulks of rock, steel, and glass comes the glitz. The Japanese are very concerned about their outward appearance. They insist on immaculate perfection. Tokyo, with it’s bright billboards, astonishing architecture, and the best of…everything, is the epitome of modern Japanese culture.

Hong Kong: Out a window from the shopping center under the International Finance Center (IFC)

My time in Hong Kong thus far was limited to just six hours, but it was more than enough to get into the city and have a look. Hong Kong is quite possibly more constrainted for space than even Tokyo. Residential buildings of apartments/condos are built next to each other without any gap between them at all…but they don’t connect. It’s not uncommon to see a group of six to tweleve identical buildings building right against each other. Such is the nature of Hong Kong. And it works.

Manila: From the top balcony of the Citibank building in Makati

Manila is pretty much a two-class society. The rich and the poor. As a result, neighborhoods and principalities have organized themselves along these socio-economical boundaries. Buildlings and residential areas are clumped together, often connected by highly congested streets. High rise buildings have a direct correlation to the proximity of lavish homes in the surrounding area.

And just for a comparison…

Seattle: From the top of the Columbia Tower

It’s pretty late here (or early, depending on your reckoning), but I’ve got some new pictures posted from Ginza, Tsujiki Fish Market, Asakusa, Imperial Palace Area, Odiba, and Tokyo Tower on my Gallery.

After getting an extremely late start, John and I ended up in Ueno with Nick and Ellie, fellow residents of Guess T. Ueno famous as a center of Tokyo’s museums. What a kick! Although I had heard that Asian cultures were more technologically advanced in pre-modern times, I had no idea.

I have a little voice recorder with me and I’ve started to record sound bytes when I find myself in some sort of cool place.

Sound Byte – Recorded @ Tokyo Museum

Sound Byte – Recorded @ Ginza Food Court

At this point, I suspect that many of you are making the word Ginza synonymous with the semantics of Heaven. I’m no different and unashamed to say that I Freaked Out. The prices were high, but how often do I come to Tokyo? I took off with some glazed chicken, three pasteries from the local bakery, a fresh pear flan, and a small box of truffles (a gift). I’ve had the chicken and the flan, and both were double-plus good. John and I are going back there For Sure. There are pictures on The Gallery. For some reason, my pictures have been coming out a little dark on this trip–I’ll have to mess with my camera settings to try and improve upon that.

Side note: If you want to know where to truffles in Seattle like the ones at Ginza, talk to Wings at Star Life on the Oasis, coffee shop on 50th and the Ave.

It’s about 10:30a on the 27th here. John is still sleeping (with flights and everything, it was a really long day).

Akihabara was pretty cool yesterday, but nothing mind-blowing. Most of the electronic gadgetry I saw there could either be found in the US or had very similar versions in the US. The big electronics gap that people speak of seems to have narrowed significantly in modern times. The stuff was pretty overpriced too.

What was cool: Home appliances. The space-constrained Japanese have some very unique designs for washers, dryers, dishwashers, refridgerators, etc. Those of you that know me well will know that I was oogling over all of this stuff. I have pictures that I’ll try and post later tonight.

Traveling in Japan has been interesting. In Bangkok, many of the people there knew broken English. Most places had English on their menus (this is a testament to how much Thai people rely on tourism). No such luck here. All the menus are in Japanese and the staff speak only Japanese. We had reverted to a lot of gesturing and hand waving. It wasn’t until late yesterday when we discovered that the bigger food places had English menus upon request, which saved both of us (esp. John, which his fast-metabolism and constant seeker of sustinance) a lot of trouble.

Okay–time to go figure out what we’re going to see today.

We’ve made it to Tokyo and have checked ourselves in at the the Guess T House in Azabu. The hostel, which costs less than anything listed in our Let’s Go book, is surprisingly nice. It’s split up across three levels, very clean, and extremely well-kept. Two of the floors sleep 12 people in a shared room and the top level sleeps 9 with a plesant common area. About the only downside is that smoking is allowed in the common area.

Bonus:
Bedsheets, blankets, and pillows are all velvet.

Special extra bonus:
The pillows are sculpted memory foam.

We’re headed off to Akihabara now–the electronics capital of the world!

Can’t believe I’m finally here!