China, Introduction

Beijing is a city full of contrasts. I spent four days in the Capitol of the PEOPLES Republic of China, and had an amazing time. This city is host to Five Star Hotels, priced like Three stars, Taxi cab ripoffs, incredible countryside and natural beauty, great wealth and great privation, often meters away. It is a city trying to put a new face on, and dance the same tune as a lot of other large cities do, but in a hurry. If you have not been there in a while, you will not recognize parts of it. Over the next week, I will try to share with you all my thoughts and impressions of the place, and I have to confess, I am still trying to digest all of it.
The Thousand Li Wall was, indeed, great.

One thing I must warn you all about is the prevailance of hucksters, promoters, and procurers. Everyone in the city is trying to make a buck, and someone with a Western face is mercilessly hounded or cajoled into this place, or that place or this thing or that thing. My tour book, and my good friend JJ both warn about not getting into a gypsy (non-licenced) cab, one that is procured by a "cab-pimp" for you at the airport. And if I had gotten either her email or had read that part of the book before I got in one, I would definitely have not been such a sucker. Let me tell you , they cost an astronomical in RMB, the cab ride was 350, the "road tax" was 50, and the two "tips" (read, "hostage ransoms") were each 100. If you add this all up, and convert it to US dollars, it was about $70, which is about what a cab ride from Reagan National to Washington DC can cost, so, in real terms, it is about what I m used to paying for the distance, but in relative terms it is about 10 times what one should actually pay. I got to my hotel safe and sound, but a little poorer and a lot wiser. I hope that most of you can appreciate this: without a hint of irony, in an actually friendly manner, the rider offered me a smoke. Quite appropriate, I thought, after having been screwed.

Walking into the hotel, I got my room, lay down and relaxed for a while after the flight and the cab ride, and talked to the concierge, to get myself positioned well in the place. He gave me a lot of tips and information, and then I went back to the room, to get some rest for my following busy day. Tomorrow: the City and the Square.

Shod

A trip walking to work sent me by a shoe store in the Amerika Mura area of Osaka. If you have ever been to Baltimore's Fell's Point, and then travel to Amerika Mura, you will see a close analogy. It is chocabloc of bars, clothing stores, and people looking to be seen, especially by the under 30 set. I love Amerika Mura ("American Village" in Japanese), because while it has a dazzling array of US style clothing, there is really nothing American about the place. But, it is the Japanese image of America, where the pants hang low and the baseball caps are worn backwards (which, incidentally, if you look at pictures from the 1930's, you will find similar images on Irish and Italian immigrants in the larger cities---food for thought). Anyway, this store had a sale on sneakers, and the one that caught my eye was a canvass-colour Converse All-Star TM for only about $30. I pondered the purchase, and decided it would be a good thing. Well, I went yesterday, and the sale was still on, but, much to my disappointment, they did not have my size. I thought that I should still buy sneaks, and asked how much the black one's were.
I had seen a price on the black style for $52, and figured that I need the footware, so just bite the bullet and get them.

SURPRIZE! They were only $10 more than the sale of the one's I had resigned myself to buying! I like the black Chuck Taylors, they will never go out of style. So, I bought them. And, as I walked towards my train station, I found a place selling flip-flop sandals. They are kind of a cross between flippies and Birkenstock and they feel great! Only $15 to boot. Thus, for only about $3 more than I thought I would spend for one pair, I got two great sets of footwear. The only better bargains to be had will probably be in China, which i arrive in a mere 48 hours.

Apparently, Apparel

Last week I bought a nifty looking hat for myself, which has replaced a hat I left behind in Ireland three years ago. I do not often buy clothing for myself, mostly because clothes remain a good gift for people to give to me. My Mom even laughs at me when she hears that I have purchased new shoes, as this is an infrequent event. Case in point, the last pair of shoes I bought for myself was when I bought shoes just before I went to France. That was almost two years ago. I still have the shoes. But, I am thinking of buying new sneakers, Chuck Taylor All Stars, Fish Heads, you know, the black Converse High Tops. Japan must be really changing me, going on a clothes buying spree like this.

Working for a living

Osaka is constantly renewing itself. I looked out the window of Nova, and counted, just in my eyesight, fifteen cranes. I took a stroll around the town after work today, and counted six buildings either being renovated or recontructed, none of which needed a crane operation. In toto, 21 buildings which I just happened to notice. I can imagine only NYC has a comparable rate of construct.

But, Osaka has always been that way, here today, gone tomorrow. Everybody selling to everyone else, everybody knows everyone else. The degree of separation here is reduced probably to two. Case in point: I go to the cafe at the base of my building most days of the week, because the staff is friendly, and the food is cheap--- and as far as cheap food goes, still pretty good. Last week, I was having a beer at Murphy's, and who should come into the joint but the materfamilias of the Cafe Sanmarino (sic). Well, everyone has the right to be in a bar, and many people come in, so, just a coincidence, eh? No. She was there to visit her friend, who just happened to be the barmaid.



All dogs are brothers*, and all shopkeepers know each other, and, apparently, so to do all food purveyors. So, you mess up with one, and you are history. But, that keeps the wheels of the city moving. Overall, Japan is like that too. Critics of the Japanese economy, I think, fail to take into account the fact that most stores want to keep people employed, so that they can have money, so that they can buy things, so that they can keep stores in business, so that those stores can pay their workers, so that people are employed....... I am not sure who would approve more, Mr Marx, Mr Keynes or Mr Ford. So, is the economy stagnant, or at status quo? Sure, salarymen can get fired now, but it still is uncommon. You have to work harder at getting fired than at not doing your job, and the only way that you lose your job is if your company goes belly up. Solution? Get a new job, work for a store, or another company which bought the one you use to work at, and is now making succeed, because it has quality, or cuteness, or whatever it lacked before. It is about as close to communism you can get without a planned economy, or social programmes from the government. Think about it: no one has religion, the government is comprised of an elite few and everyone has a job, and no one complains in public.
And, Osaka is in the middle of this racket, as it has always been; importing and selling all the things that Japanese corporations are making in China to people in Japan, who might work in a restaurant, who cook for people who work at an English school, who visit a bar and drink beer, where they all meet. Just like they did four hundred years ago, and will do four hundred years in the future.









*I adapt this phrase from the book, All Men are Brothers by Shi Nia'an , as well as the movie, All Men are Brothers directed by Cheh Chiang. The idea, in both, is that trouble falls on all of us, and by that we are all bonded as brothers. Dogs also love each other, initally, having intrinsic "dogness" as their bond, thus they all run around together and play around. You have seen it happen, when dogs get together. Thus, all dogs are brothers, all men are brothers, we are all equal, yadda yadda.**

**Can you tell I am ready for China? Only 13 more days.

Now is the Winter of Our Discontent Made Glorious Spring By this Rising Sun

Hey everyone!
I want to apologize for not posting for so long, and not having any pictures. My digicam is acting wiggy, and will not take photos, and I was not able to upload new pics. I can look at all the old ones, but not add new ones. I was posting the pictures on my phone cam, but since I got the new one, I cannot figure out how to send emails, because even though I asked them to give me a phone with English components on it, they did not, and my Japanese, while improving by leaps and bounds, is still not good enough to read the manual. As soon as I figure it out, I will have more photos for you. I also took alot of pictures on a disposable camera, but no one would print it with a cd accompanying. So, I got nothin. And, therefore, you got nothing too.

But, the beauties of Spring are here, and so are the cherry blossoms. If you have heard tales of the Japanese going nuts for the flowers, well, it is true. They pretty much have Fourth of July style picnics all during the "official" two week period of Sakura watching. About as much alchohol is consumed as well, and there are people who will march up and down Japan, to follow the blossom openings all the way up Honshu, the main island of Japan. Some of my students were depressed this week, because they said that the rain had washed away the blossoms already. When I reminded them that only about one-fourth of the trees had bloomed, really, and that there were three times as many blossoms to come, they radiated. I wish I could be making that up.





But, it is an indication of the tie between a culture and an important metaphor, because inherant in the idea of cherry blossoms is the heralding of spring, which is a very comfortable season here in Japan. Cherry blossoms are cheery, pink and delicate. They can be easily washed away, and no-one forgets that April is a dicey month, where, yes, you can have 65-75 degree F days, but you can just as easily have a snowstorm, which kills the flowers, only to melt away a few days later, bringing more warm weather, but not flowers. Blossoms are like people, easily destroyed, but there will always be more, with the same hopes. And we are all beautiful while we bloom.