Japan Trip Part 4 - Giant Moving Crabs and Blowfish

I am still writing about day 1 of our Japan trip! On my last post, we finished lunch after a much anticipated morning of pokemons and toys. When we finished lunch, it was around 3pm, and we were surprised by how much we have accomplished. (Randy and Curtis's Japan to-do list basically only consisted of going to the Pokemon store and looking at toys. So they basically crossed everything off their list)

Curtis and his new purchase

I read in my map that there is a neighborhood in Osaka called Matsuyamachi (松屋町). It is supposed to be an 'off beat area that wholesales and retails old fashioned toys and candy'. When we arrived it was raining lightly. The street was very empty, lined with shops that looked like the dollar store. The kids quickly bought some very cheap useless toys. We found some candy for sale, but you do have to buy in bulk, and I  couldn't get any samples. We did not stay too long because the empty street was too strange for us on a Saturday afternoon in Osaka. Half the stores on the street were closed. Is it the economy, or the rain, or do they practice sabbath too?

Next we headed to the major tourist district of Namba and Doutonbori. When we got out of the subway at Namba, I headed to a huge department store called Takashimaya, since I was craving for some dessert. At the basement of the department stores, there is a dizzying amount of food stalls with all the fancy gourmet food and snacks you can think of. I don't know how big those basements are, but they are huge - I believe just the dessert section had 40 stands at least. I was hoping to try some free samples, but it was packed, so we tried to find a store that has seats. At least we decide to wait in line to eat at a dessert store called Gramercy New York, whose cheesecake was recommended in my guide book, which Curtis (he loves cheesecakes) has circled. The desserts were very tempting, and we had a hard time deciding which one to try.

My dessert combo. It was almond flower 豆腐花 in the shot glass. It was actually pretty taste; very almondy

After stuffing ourselves with dessert, we headed North towards Doutoubori through a series of shopping street. It was still raining, but the streets were packed with people out on a Saturday evening. We noticed most Japanese people carried clear see-through umbrellas, which was really pretty, so we bought one also. (We will return to China with 3 of those. Anyway...) The streets were lined with shops and arcades, and half the stores were regular chain stores like Claire's and Zara. All of a sudden, at one of the busiest street corners of Osaka, we ran into Randy's school friend Rory and his family.
  
 What a small world! Randy was so excited to run into him. Together we continued to wander down the shopping street (I think it is called Shinsaibashi), checking out the games in the arcades and cute shops. Shinsaibashi seemed never ending, and eventually we turned around to look at all the crazy store signs at Doutoubori. That is where the famous moving crab sign is. There are also some large signs of octopus, cows, dragons to advertise different restaurants.

The restaurant we ate at

I was still totally full from dessert, but Randy has developed some crazy appetite and was hungry again, so we just went into a regular sushi restaurant. The food was nothing special. When we left we realized why we thought the restaurant looked familiar - some guy's face is on the sign, the same face that was on the sign of the tonkatsu restaurant from the previous night. Maybe it is the same chain, but the tonkatsu was way tastier.



So that concluded our day in Osaka, and the next morning we will be heading to a small town famous for its ninja museum called Iga Ueno. I was hoping we would get to try the famous okonomiyaki or octopus balls, but with kids I guess it is better just to go with the flow.

One last thing, there is this one figure that you see all over Osaka calledくいだおれ太郎 (picture on the right) who is dressed up in some American flag gear. The story goes he was created as the mascot for some restaurant over 60 years ago. He is now sort of a symbol for Osaka. I found some basic information about him here.

LASER TAG

On the 15th of October 2012 I went to laser tag with my friends in my grade. We all went on a bus and played on ipods, ipads, etc. It took about an hour and a half to get there from our school. When we got there we were all excited! The team colors were white and green. I was on the white team. We could all pick from 2 kinds of guns: machine guns and pistols. I picked the machine gun, but a lot of people picked the pistols.

The arena was a giant outdoor maze on hills and in the woods. At first we played team death match, but that round ended very quickly. Because not every body knew how to play the game and we did not all stick together, that's why we lost so quickly. Next we all played team death match but with more lives, and we still lost. The next activity was capture the flag. We hid it really well but they still found our flag. I think maybe 1 of my teammates was a spy! Then my other friends joined us, but even with two extra people we still lost.

After every body finished playing laser tag, we all went down to the obstacle course. At the obstacle course we climbed rope, raced, etc. After that we all went back to BCIS. It was so fun!!!

Japan Trip Part 3 - More Osaka

On September 26th, Saturday, we spent a full day in Osaka. Randy and Curtis have been waiting impatiently for weeks to go to the 'World's biggest pokemon store' at Osaka City Station ever since I found out it was there. Osaka City Station is a pretty new mall (I think .... it wasn't there the last time I went to Osaka, which was maybe 5 years ago?) on top of the JR Osaka Station.

There is a big department store called Daimaru (大丸 - Hey whatever happened to the one in Hong Kong?), and the Pokemon Store is on the 13th floor of Daimaru. Before that though, we have to walk through the 'trap' of Tokyu Hands located on the 10th-12th(?) floor? I called Tokyu Hands a trap because with all the cute pens, stationery, toys, and lunch boxes, it was very hard to get away from without leaving a pile of cash. We will end up at Tokyu Hands again in Tokyo, but actually I think the one in Osaka is newer and nicer.

 Obviously this is where you can get
the newest pokemon cards. 

 


Finally we made it to the Pokemon store. It was not big at all, and was packed. It was full of kids and adults probably downloading and trading characters (capturing Pokemons maybe? Who knows.). That only works if you have a Japanese version of the game, so Randy and Curtis just walked around peaking at what everyone else was doing. Being in Pokemon heaven, we did stay around for an hour, and we got some new Pokemon cards and toys from the Pokemon capsule station.

Pokemon merchandise

Ahhh, capsule station, and it brings us to our next destination. Across the street from the train station, there is a huge store called Yodobashi that cannot be missed. It turns out to be a huge electronics store. When we first walked in, we saw rows and rows of electronics and sale signs - razors, printers, cell phones - in other words, nothing fun. We decided to take the escalator to the 2nd (or 3rd? I forgot) floor, and on our right was the largest capsule station section we have ever seen.

Capsule stations (扭蛋机) are these little vending machines where you put in a coin, turn a knob, and out comes a toy inside a plastic egg. The toys that you can get are pretty cool, and on the front of the machine you can see all the styles made. Of course you hope to get the one cool one, and when you don't, it can get addictive. And like comic books and Pokemon, half the people wandering and putting money in are adults. I was tempted.


Anyway, yes the place was pretty huge, and there were maybe 20-30 rows of machines there.We were again trapped on this floor for over half and hour. Afterwards we made it through the remaining floors in Yodobashi. In addition to electronics, there is also a toys section and some cute stores. The good thing about all Japanese department stores is that on the top floor, there are usually at least 10 (sometimes 50 or more!) decent restaurants on the top floor of the department store.  So when we got to the top floor, we got some habachi lunch.

Japan Trip Part 2 - Osaka

We are really behind on our blog! We just returned from a trip to Xian, and we barely started writing about Japan!

Anyway, so we last left off with us finally flying to Japan. After a longer than necessary flight (Probably got stuck on the runway for an hour), we arrived Osaka at the Kansai Airport (关西机场）. But we still needed to get to the hotel, which would be another hour of travel. I was exhausted by the time I got to the hotel, so below is the directions on how to get to the hotel, and hopefully it'll be easier next time.

Randy, Curtis and our friends Eli and Finn on the JR Train

From the airport, we took the JR Kansai train to Tennoji （天王寺)by limited express Haruka, which took around 40 minutes. Our friends were going directly to Nara, so that was where they switched trains to the JR Nara line. Our hotel was at the Osaka Station, so at Tennoji we had to switch to another line that goes around the loop. Most of the trains would stop at Osaka, but I was confused and wandered around the terminal for a while before finally taking the dedicated loop train. From Tenoji to Osaka it was approximately another 30 minute (maybe shorter, but it felt like a looong ride. I was just starving at that point), but I suspect it was because we took a local train that stopped at every stop.

The hotel we chose to stay at was Hotel Monterey Osaka: http://www.hotelmonterey.co.jp  It was pretty nice, designed after the Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna. Well all I can say is that the hotel was very yellowish, just like the Schonbrunn.  I expected a very small hotel room, but our triple room was spacious enough for us. The hotel was a little dated, but we paid around $200/night, and for the location I guess it was not bad. The hotel had an old fashioned elevator, and we stayed on the 13th floor, so it looked a little freaky when the hand reached 13.

Oh but I got ahead of myself. To get to the hotel was not easy. Lesson learned: print a map with the hotel on it next time.

After arriving at the Osaka station, we had to get out from the Sakurabashi Exit. We found the exit, but we could not find any escalators, so I had to drag all our heavy luggage up the stairs. And that was where the directions from the hotel stopped. Going straight seemed logical, so we went straight through a street of restaurants, called 梅三小路。After getting out from the other side of the restaurant street, take the first right and the first hotel on the left hand side is the Hearton Hotel. Keep walking, and the Hotel Monterey is next hotel.

Unfortunately my map of Osaka Station ended at the Hearton Hotel, so we wandered around the area for maybe 10 minutes before finding our hotel. The Hotel Monterey is actually just conveniently 5 minutes walk away from the JR and subway station, so we may stay there again in the future.

After check in, it was already 8pm. Having barely eaten anything, we gave up going to the Pokemon Store, and got dinner at 梅三小路. There were maybe 15 restaurants, all with delicious fake foods displays outside, and we finally decided to get tonkatsu. It was so good that Curtis would get tonkatsu for breakfast the following morning. Then I made the mistake of telling them that we need a variety in our meals. By the last day of our trip, I would be craving tonkatsu so bad, but the kids would tell me that "we've already had it and should not eat it again" and made us eat something else.

After dinner we took a walk around our neighborhood, Umeda (梅田）. It was Friday night, and the street was full of people going to little bars. Randy and Curtis went into the first arcade they have ever seen in Japan. Anyone who has been to Japan knows that the arcades are pretty crazy, where you can win anything from toys and giant boxes of Pockey sticks, to vacuum cleaners and GPS. The strangest thing we saw that night was a machine where you can win these cute fish. The fish were alive and swimming, and I'm not sure how they would feel if someone manages to grab them and drops them down the chute.

After watching some old guys battling on the dance dance revolution machine, we capped off the night after eating some crepes.

One guy is dancing on the machine, while another is just freestyling on the side. Pretty funny.

Japan Trip Part 1

We have done quite a bit of travelling since we moved to Beijing, and I really should write a little about the trips! Not only would we then remember what happened, I can try to avoid the travel mistakes we may have made. And if I ever travel to the same places again, maybe I don't have to research as much.

So last week we went to Japan. It was the National holiday 国庆 in China, and combined with the Moon Festival on Sunday, became an 8-day long holiday. It is the peak travel week, and there are many places you should avoid due to the crowds:
http://www.cnngo.com/explorations/life/182000-visitors-and-other-china-golden-week-records-419951

Photo taken from the Great Wall. Actually someone from the government came out to say that the Great Wall looked crowded only because of the 'camera angle'. Not sure what angle should've been used instead.

Anyway, so we decided to leave China and to avoid the crowds, and we chose to go to Japan. It turned out not to be the best timing because Japan and China decided to fight over the Fishing Island 钓鱼岛 again, as they seem to have been doing every 10 years or so. For over two weeks before the holiday, there were protests outside the Japanese Embassy in Bejing and other cities. In Bejing, streets around the Japanese Embassy were blocked and people were marching and throwing eggs at the Embassy for over two weeks. (Where do all these patriotic people come from? I really think most protesters show up for the free lunch) People are boycotting Japanese businesses, trashing Japanese cars, and I think even some Japanese car owners got beaten.

Most of the Chinese tour groups cancelled all trips to Japan. I didn't feel these political maneuvers have anything to do with tourists like us. But it did for our plane ride there. Probably because of all the flight cancellations, they cancelled our 8am flight altogether and we had to fit onto the 11am flight. Instead of sitting together, Randy, Curtis and I ended up with 2 middle and 1 aisle seats, none of which were together. I guess most Japanese businessmen would rather sit next to a whining child than to give up their window seat, so although Curtis and Randy ended up sitting next to each other, I could not sit with them. 

Looking sad next to the guy who won't give up his window seat.

But the plane ride was only 2 1/2 hours long, and soon we landed in Osaka.

Notes to self:
Plane tickets were booked on elong.com, since they take all the visa/master/AE/Discover cards. Plane tickets were 12650RMB for one adult and two kids (Japan is not cheap!)
We flew by China Air - or Air China? It was 中国国际航空公司
Beijing airport terminal 3 seems much prettier than terminal 1 and 2. 1 is domestic and probably the ugliest, and I think the only one with black taxis hanging outside the gate. However, terminal 3 is too big, and you have to walk a lot more than terminal 2, and I kind of hate taking a bus to board the plane, which we had to do.

A Walk in the Park

Our apartment complex in Beijing is called Park Avenue, located in Chaoyang District (朝阳区）next to the fourth ring road. True to its name, our complex is close to two parks: Chaoyang Park and Honglingjin Park (红领巾公园 ). Chaoyang Park is huge and is designed to sort of function like Central Park, with amusement park rides, a water park in the summer and ski area in the winter, and many scenic spots where most of Beijing get their wedding photos taken. Honglingjin Park is a typical park that local residents enjoy their mornings and evenings.

During one of the great fall-weather days last week, I took a stroll around Honglingjin Park and took some pictures.

View of my apartment complex from Honglingjin Park

jogger in the park

In a way, it's great to be an older person in China if you are at least middle class. People usually retire by age 55. You can stay active and social by going to the public parks in the morning and in the evenings, and the exercise options are limitless. If you don't feel like exercising, you can also fish illegally, sing or just play your music loudly, gamble, etc.

Park exercise machines

Ping Pong

Ballroom Dancing

Tai Chi

踢毽

Dance and wave some ribbons, or handkerchief, etc.

Play music by yourself

Sing with a big group of people

My Favorite Foods

My favorite restaurants in Beijing are Quan Ju De, Da Dong, Fat Burger, Bellagio, and Hi Di Lau. Quan Ju De (全聚德）and Da Dong （大董）both serve the same food: Beijing duck. The duck is roasted and a chef comes out from the kitchen with the duck in a cart, and you get to watch the chef cut it up. The duck is good because it's crunchy, juicy, and I like the sauce. I think both restaurants are as good, but Da Dong always has a huge line if you don't make a reservation.

Fat Burger serves burgers and it's so good! It's good because of their skinny fries. We just went there for Curtis' birthday.

Bellagio (鹿港小镇）is a restaurant that serves Cantonese and Taiwanese food, and its so good too! I especially like their roast pork （叉烧）. After we finish eating, we always stop by Honey Moon Dessert （满记）, and I always get my durian pancake or some mango juice thing （杨枝干露）.

Hai Di Lau （海地捞）is a hot pot restaurant. At night you probably would have to wait like one hour, but while you are waiting, you can get your shoes shined, nails painted, eat free food and drink juice, play games, etc. When you eat they give you an apron. You can also make your own sauce for your food, and the food is delicious.

The Poconos

In the summer I went to the Poconos 2 times. I went with my Mom and my Aunt, cousin, cousin's friend, my brother, two of my friends with their Mom and Dad, our 3 other friends with their Mom. That time we stayed at a dirty hotel, the Ramada Inn. It had bugs all over the place, and sometimes the ac didn't work. There was yellow water first when you turn on the faucet. But we only stayed one night. 

On the first day we went to Camelback Beach, a water park. 

Then the next day we went white water rafting. It was fun but it rained a lot. During that weekend, my favorite part was white water rafting!

 

On the second trip I went with my Dad's family and my other cousin's family. We stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge. Everybody loved it! We only stayed for one night though. The first thing we did was play at the water park! Then we ate at a buffet and it was good! At night we got these wands and played a game called Magiquest and ran around the hotel acting like a wizard, knight, king, princess, and a Queen. My favorite part was Magiquest and the water park!