Singapore (and a bit of Guangzhou)

After another fun week-and-a-half in Tokyo, the time came for me to leave fair Nippon and journey onward to Singapore.

My flight included a layover in Guangzhou, a city I'd never heard of before arriving, but which I learned was the third-largest city in China.  The airline put some other travelers and I in a hotel for the night, but as we arrived late in the evening and returned to the airport early in the morning, I sadly didn't get to see any of the city.  My sole experience of China was of the airport and what could be seen beyond it through the glass walls of the terminal complex.  

From this vantage, I witnessed urban China's legendary smog, and it was as bad as I'd heard.  As the sun rose the brown morass turned it into an angry red ball, dim enough that I could comfortably look directly at it.  The only other time I'd seen the sun look like this was near a forest fire in the interior of BC, when a thick plume of black smoke passed in front of it.  Later, as my plane lifted off and circled over the city, I could tell the skyscrapers were not far below from their apparent size, but they appeared only as barely visible outlines in the smog.  Near the end of the initial ascent, I saw a clear horizontal line cutting across the entire sky - thick brown below, crystal blue above.

My first sight of Singapore as the plane descended was of its futuristic downtown core and the bay just beyond it, where dozens of huge tanker and container ships were idling.  This fit with most of what I'd read about Singapore's wealth and its status as major international business hub.  Not long after landing, though, my impressions changed dramatically.  Beyond the core, much of the city is comprised of residential towers built by the government's Housing and Development Board, most of which resemble Soviet-era apartment blocks with brighter paint jobs.  85% of Singapore's population lives in these "HDBs".  It was in one of these that I spent my six days in the city, in the apartment of my friends Anita and Elliot, where they generously provided me a couch to sleep on (if either of you are reading, thanks again!).

Anita and Elliot were my guides around the city, and I wouldn't have had nearly as good a time without them.  They showed me around Little India and Arab Street, and a mostly-abandoned Chinese theme park called Haw Par Villa.  We went on runs through the jungle that still covers parts of the island, and they brought me to an underground comedy club where comedians from each of the island's sizable ethnic groups (Chinese, Malay, and Indian) showed off their startlingly racially-charged material.  Together we went to the Jurong Bird Sanctuary, which was not bad, and the Singapore Zoo, which was great.  Most of the zoo's enclosures are designed with no fences or cages.  Instead they have dry moats of width and depth calculated to be just beyond the leaping and climbing abilities of the animals within, allowing unobstructed views for visitors.  

They also gave me some glimpses of the absurdly-rich parts of the city, such as one weirdly Americanized area filled with newly-constructed restaurants, bars and clubs populated almost exclusively by white people.  The most impressively opulent sight of all was the bar in the lobby of the Parkview Hotel.  This cavernous, moodily-lit Art Deco space was dominated by a wall of liquor bottles several stories high which stood behind the bar.  The bartender, a young woman in an early-20th-century cocktail dress, wore a harness which was connected by cables to a motorized rig that hung from rails embedded in the ceiling.  She used a remote control for the rig to fly around the wall's surface retrieving bottles.

Singapore's famous food culture was the highlight of the city for me.  Singaporean cuisine includes Chinese, Indian, English, and traditional Malaysian foods, as well as dishes resulting from cross-pollination of some or all of these.  The best places to eat were hawker centers, open-air complexes with row upon row of stalls selling a tremendous variety of cheap food.  A common breakfast is lightly-toasted white bread spread with kaya (a sweet coconut jam) and sandwiched around slabs of solid butter, served alongside a cup of "kopi", super-strong coffee with pancreas-stomping quantities of sugar and condensed milk.  I wouldn't want to eat like this every day, but still, delicious.  Some other favorites were laksa (rice noodles and bean sprouts in a spicy coconut-milk broth), chicken rice, and fresh-pressed sugar cane juice.

The hawker centers and HDBs represent a far less affluent side of Singapore.  This makes up a much greater part of the city than one might imagine from Western media coverage.  The People's Action Party, which has (democratically) been in power since 1959, has been actively fostering the city's role as a nexus of business and a haven for the ultra-rich, pursuing aggressive urban development.   There were lots of construction projects underway throughout the city, and I was told that a common joke among Singaporeans is that construction of the city began in the 1800s and is still underway.  Certainly life in Singapore is much more expensive than in most of neighboring Malaysia.  With the city's future planned so heavily around the influx of foreign capital, and with the local population in decline (Singapore's birth rate is the second-lowest in the world after Japan's*), I can't help but wonder what role the poorer majority will have in this future.

I felt that six days was enough to see everything Singapore had to offer, so while it saddened me to say goodbye once again to my friends (and to leave behind the food), I was content with the time I'd spent in this strange city which is so rapidly being transformed - into what, only time will tell.

And now, photos.  Here are those from Singapore and Guangzhou:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152137238810879.1073741841.514945878&type=1&l=4d8aa2b4d9

And here are those from my return to Tokyo:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152137172320879.1073741840.514945878&type=1&l=e0f38231d6

* One last note - the Singaporean government paid the Mentos corporationthis year to put together some propaganda to encourage people to have more kids.  The resulting mess of a music video tries simultaneously to stimulate the viewer's libido, to remind them of their duty to procreate, and of course to sell mints to them.  Its bizarre blend of crass commercialism and appeals to Confucian values make it a uniquely Singaporean cultural product.  If you haven't already, watch and enjoy (or recoil in horror): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jxU89x78ac

More Japan: Kamakura, Kyoto, Osaka, and Hiroshima

Having heard of Kamakura from a fellow lodger at the hostel in Tokyo, I decided to go there before heading to Kyoto.

Kamakura was the capital of Japan during the rule of one of the Shogun governments.  It was selected by these warlords as their capital because it was easily defensible, being surrounded by mountains on three sides and by the sea on the fourth, and these same geographic features mean that the town is surrounded by natural beauty.  Many tourists are drawn by hiking, windsurfing, and the long, sandy beaches; just as many are drawn by the town's many impressive temples, shrines, and other historical sites dating back to the Shogun period.

Japanese temples and shrines all tend to be quite similar to one another, and between Kamakura and Kyoto I managed to see quite enough of them for my tastes.  Nonetheless I enjoyed exploring Kamakura for the three days I spent, and its relative quietude and small-town feel was a nice change of pace from Tokyo.  I'd readily recommend Kamakura as a destination on par with to Kyoto in terms of classical Japanese spiritual sites and Japanese-style natural splendor.

Once my three days were up, I hopped onto the Shinkansen for the first time and headed for Kyoto.  If one is planning to travel around in Japan at all, the JR pass is a fantastic deal.  (More on this later.)

Kyoto, while a significant city in its own right, is much smaller than Tokyo, and its feel is much more laid-back.  Its value as a tourist attraction, like Kamakura's, stems from its abundance of temples.  The most impressive of these, for me, were Fushimi Inari, a mountain covered in shinto shrines with Torii-gate-lined paths leading up to the top, and Kinkaku-ji, a Buddhist temple the outside of which is gold-plated.  The nearby city of Nara, with its friendly (and at times aggressive) deer, is also worth visiting.  As much as I enjoyed them, though, the best times I had in Kyoto were spent singing at Kareoke parlors into the wee hours with a crowd of other backpackers from all over the world.

Osaka followed Kyoto.  Osaka had more of a big-city vibe, closer to Tokyo than Kyoto but with a distinctive edginess to it.  It was for the most part more run-down and seedier than Tokyo.  My hostel was located in a poorer part of town, which seemed to be mainly populated by 'homeless people and retired Yakuza', as one fellow lodger put it.  This is not to denigrate the city, nor to say that it is without more refined, upscale districts.  Indeed, it gave the nightly wanderings through the town with other guests a more adventuresome feel.  Another thing I found was that the residents seemed friendlier and more open than those of Tokyo.  They were more prone to starting conversations with Western strangers.

One adventure in Osaka is worth special mention.  There's a local law in Osaka that all foreigners are required to carry their passport at all times, and that if you couldn't show it when asked by a police officer, they could detain you.  I'd heard that this rarely actually happened, so for the first few days hadn't bothered to carry my passport with me.  

Then one night, while walking back to the hostel from halfway accross town at 1 AM, I was stopped by two plainclothes policemen who asked to see my passport.  This was slightly scary, but I figured the smartest thing to do was to be honest and to try to get on their good side.  Swallowing a knot of panic, I cheerfully told them I didn't have it with me but that it was back at the hostel where I was heading to.  They asked if they could come with me so I could show it to them.  I said I didn't mind, but that it was still a long way - an hour's walk, probably.  Hearing this, they called a car from headquarters to drive us there.  We stood around chatting for a few mintues; I asked them about their lives - one of them had studied English on exchange at UBC! - and I managed to impress them with my limited Japanese.  When the car arrived it took us straight to the hostel.  I showed them my passport, they asked that I keep it with me in future, and then they said goodnight.  So because I broke the law, I got a free ride home!  Still, I did make sure to keep my passport with me after that.

Next was Hiroshima.  I only spent a few days here but I had a great time.  Sumo wrestling was happening in Fukuoka, another city not far from Hiroshima, so I made a day trip out there to watch the higher-tier matches, which were quite gripping (ha, ha).  The second day I explored the peace park and attendant museum, and in the evening enjoyed the street food and traditional drum performances going on at a street festival, which by fortunate coincidence was happening over the same three days as I was there.  The third day was spent at Miyajima island with some Australians and an American.  As far as Japanese shrines and temples go, those at Miyajima are the best I've seen so far, better than any of those in Kyoto or Kamakura.

Once again, most of the details of each trip are captured in the associated photo albums:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152060702940879.1073741835.514945878&type=1&l=41fedbc7cc

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152090913085879.1073741836.514945878&type=1&l=d0467584ad

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152098080900879.1073741838.514945878&type=1&l=bdbb4c573b

Now I'm back in Tokyo for another week, after which I'll be heading to Singapore.  Thanks for reading!

Japan 1: Tokyo

Tokyo is an enormous and highly varied city.  In parts of Tokyo, if you ignore the street signs you feel like you could be in any wealthy Western city.  But most of it fulfills the North Amercian idea of the city as being at once futuristic and anachronistic.  Highrises and animated LED signs are shoulder-to-shoulder with paper lanterns and kawara-tiled roofs.  Simple wooden shrines are nestled in alcoves in the outside of multi-story department stores.

All this is in the central parts of the city, which are busy and crowded.  Yet they contrast sharply with other parts of the city that in many places are just a few minute's walk away.  Cross a bridge from busy downtown Asakusa and you may find yourself in Sumida ward, where the narrow streets are lined with miniature gardens of potted plants and a strange silence pervades.  The hostel where I stayed was situated here.  This contrast, between quiet serenity and riotous modernity, was another of those that characterized my experience of Tokyo.

After a week I still felt as though I'd only scratched the surface of this city.  I'd only seen one or two of the notorious Harajuku kids (though on the street and in train stations I did pass one or two girls in elaborate goth-loli dress).  And apart from walking in on a performance by a local gypsy-jazz duo at the bar near the hostel one serendipitous evening, I hadn't gotten to enjoy any of the city's jazz scene, which I'm told is as vibrant and varied as Tokyo itself.  So I've decided to return for another week once I've visited the other parts of Japan I planned to go to.  I'm glad I held off on buying my ticket to Singapore, giving me the flexibility to extend my stay in Japan.

Am I missing anything?  Hanging around the club district in Shibuya around Halloween was a lot of fun.  Other than that, the specifics of my time in Tokyo are mostly documented in my two photo albums that I've linked below (if you've got me on Facebook you'll already have seen them).

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152016831060879.1073741833.514945878&type=1&l=2cc81a4379
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152030145070879.1073741834.514945878&type=1&l=613cd37e93

Next time, my account of Kamakura and Kyoto!

Last night I was awoken around 2 AM by my bunk shaking, and I thought I could hear an excited female voice through the wall.  After a few minutes it stopped and I went back to sleep.  I found out this morning that my initial conclusion was incorrect - there had been an earthquake in the night.

Japan!

It's early Wednesday morning and I'm about to leave home to head to YVR.  Feeling more tired than inspired at this moment, so I'll keep this brief.  I'm going to spend the next eight-odd months circumnavigating our fair planet, by train, plane, automobile, and a bit of foot.  This blog is where I'll record what I find noteworthy about the journey.  You can expect pictures too.  If you're here, thanks for embarking on this journey with me.  I'll aim to keep things both interesting and succinct, but I'm not a professional, so no promises.

Next stop, Tokyo.  Cheers!