December 1993 - Japan & Hong Kong
I left for this trip in early December so I missed about 2 weeks of grade 9. I was supposed to go to Hong Kong for Christmas and to attend my Aunt Fanny's wedding. My parents thought it would be fun to first stop off in Japan to visit my mom's cousin.
Japan is an interesting country full of culture and customs, something you don't really see in Canada due to the cultural diversity we have here. When I first arrived in Japan, my family had to take the subway to my mom's cousin's apartment. The subway wasn't quite crowded because it wasn't rush hour yet. My mom's cousin's place was very small.. and the four of us crammed into this tiny room (must have been smaller than my V1 room in Waterloo).
I remember the streets of Tokyo to be very crowded. I found it very strange that a lot of people wore these surgical face masks, but I later realized it was because of all the air polution and the smell of cigarette smoke. It seemed like a person either wore a face mask covering their nose and mouth or a cigarette hanging out of their mouth! Haha :)!
I think the first time I experienced cultural shock was when I was at a highway rest stop. My dad had called up his friend to show us around the city and the sights. He had a car so we drove everywhere! He even had a TV in his car! Anyways, at the rest stop, I had to go pee (what else is new eh?). My mom, Kathy and I walked into the washroom and discovered that the stalls did not contain a toilet.. but a hole in the ground. I was thinking "how the hell am i gonna piss in a hole??". Luckily, we spotted a stall that had a sign that said "Western Toilet". Boy were we relieved! haha!
During my stay in Japan, I had a chance to visit many Buddist temples and I got to see the big Buddah. I even got to visit a japanese style house. The house belonged to my daddy's friend (the one that showed us around). I swear.. that guy has the most high-tech toliet I've ever seen (yikes..I'm beginning to realize that most of my funny stores on thie trip involve toilets! haha). This thing had a control pad with a gazillion buttons, all written in Japanese. I was not surprised when my sister, who had to go to the bathroom, came back, asking which button was the "flush" button! haha! I'm not sure what the other buttons did but I'm not eager to find out!
My next stop was Hong Kong for my Aunt Fanny's wedding. She got married on Christmas day. She had a Chinese style wedding.. where they go visit the homes of the bride and groom's parent's and pour tea for the elders and immediate family memebers that were married. Me and my sister were bridesmaids at the ceremony. After that, we all went to this restaurant for the wedding banquet, where they played these wierd typical chinese wedding games. Some where quite gross (I think all you chinese people out there know exactly what I'm talking about). I spent the whole night listening to my walkman, watching those games and watching my aunts play mah-jong.
Besides Aunt Fanny's wedding, I got to sightsee around Hong Kong. I went to Shallow Water Bay, a very popular beach and tourist attraction. I also got to go to the Temple of 1000 buddahs. Man.. I had to walk up so many stairs just to get to that temple! I remember on my way out of the temple (after walking down all those stairs) there was a cop arresting a kid. Apperently (my mom told me later) he was an illegal immigrant from China! Dang! Of course, I went shopping!
At that point in time, I didn't know when would be the next time I would visit my homeland...
Back to Travel Log Main Page