calvin aka p.phresh

Here’s something that I’ve never come across. Cellphone rentals.

In japan they have their own phone system which does not support any other providers. My rogers phone doesn’t get any coverage in japan. So when we arrived we needed to rent a phone so Carrie’s friends could contact us during our stay.

The rental fee is ¥200 per day and ¥4/sec of outgoing calls. Incoming calls are free.

The lady at the counter was kind and courteous. As I believe that all people in the service industry will be in Tokyo.

So we just arrived in Tokyo and we are currently on the skyliner to the subway station that will take us to the hostel. This train ride will be 60 minutes to our destination. It snakes its way through the city and I can see bits of the suburban areas between the airport and central Tokyo.

My last night in hong kong couldn’t have been better. I went down to mongkok.

The streets of Mongkok are always busy. As it gets later the streets get busier. And this is just on a Monday night. There were so many people out on the steeets. But one of the main reasons I came down to Mongkok was to check out the airsoft district.

There are tons of stores littered around this one block. All airsoft stuff, all sorts of guns and all sorts of gear.

I went down there with my old friend that I ran into earlier in the week. It was incredible and so much neat stuff to see. I saw the WGC office and den trinity stores. Places I often order from online!

My friend and I then got some street meat! Mmmm BBQ squid! It was so tasty!

And no trip to Asia is complete without looking at electronics! We headed to a building that was several floors of all electronics. Game systems, TVs, computers, entertainment systems, home theatre systems, you name it they got it. This one building wasn’t just one store, this building was just filled with tiny stores all little stores that were maybe 200-300 square feet. Tiny!

I came for one thing here. It was to purchase a new laptop. I purchased an Asus Eee PC, $200 HKD less at this place than the cheapest one I found in a large retail outlet. We bargained with the guy and paid less than the advertised price and paid cash. I’m happy with the purchase.

After getting the laptop we went out for drinks. We went to this lounge type place where another table was playing drinking games. We ordered a bucket of budweisers and caught up on each others’ lives. It was awesome. Yes I know, I was drinking buds because that really was the only good tasting beer that I tried.

We left the lounge and tried to remain balanced. I think I might have had one too many and on an empty stomach it hit me quick. We hailed a cab and met up with a couple of Bernard’s friends. And ended up in another lounge where I had one more to drink.

I had to meet up with the rest of my family so Bernard called a taxi driver specifically that he knew and told him to take me across town. The guy drove me from downtown hong kong into the suburbs. Normally a 45 minute bus ride and had me at my destination in 15 minutes, off the clock. I paid the man $100 HKD, thanked him and had one last meal with my relatives.

Chinese fondue. I hadn’t seen so many different types of food for Chinese fondue ever before. It was probably the best I’d ever had. Plenty of seafood and meat. Also had some different types of tofu and freshly minced fish balls. WOW!

And then that was it. We went home and I packed up my stuff and went to bed for a few hours before waking up at 5AM to catch re flight to Tokyo.

Well it’s another 4 hour flight to Tokyo now as I embark on the last half if my trip.

1 hour
Time for breakfast. It’s eggs with chicken sausage, potatoes, and a mushroom. The eggs were like mushy and tasted like nothing. The only thing that was not bad was the chicken sausage and the potatoes.

3 hours
They are showing Nim’s Island. Not really interested in watching it so I’ve chosen to watch something on the laptop.

The flight attendants are all oriental on the flight and are not bad. Still better than the first flight I was on. LOL

4 hours
We are approaching Tokyo and are passing through the clouds. The plane is surrounded by white. When you look out you cannot see past the wing.

As we continue descending the plane breaks through the clouds and you can see the earth below. We break through right at the point where you can see the land meet the water and it goes on forever.

The plane dips lower and lower and before I know we’re in the ground and travelling down the runway.

Tokyo. I have finally arrived!

After staying here for a week you begin to notice a few things that are quite different from Canadian mentality and the small luxuries that Canadian life can provide.

One of the first things that I noticed was you have to bring your own napkins/tissues when you dine out. Every where you go they have no napkins at the table you are expected to have your own. Even at a nice restaurant they won’t have anything for you. It’s odd.

Hong Kong people are always in a rush. Well at least it seems so. They are always pushing and shoving. You know when you are at the door and you hold the other door open for the person behind you before you go in an then they say thank you? Well it doesn’t happen here. If you are standing there holding the door open then everyone ail just walk through and you’d be left holding the door open for an hour. And no one will thank you. LOL

The streets are always filled with people late at night. Stores are open later and people will shop all night, on all days of the week.

Hong Kong’s population is a materialistic society. People are not judged by their personality, how good they are or what they can do. People are judged on how they look, how much their clothes cost and where you rank in the society’s classes. It’s all about money over here.

People are always dressed in the latest trends whether they look good or not. Who has the newest stuff and the nicest toys. You won’t see very many that are “down to earth” and not materialistic. Fashion moves fast here.

You don’t here a lot of please, thank you, or you’re welcomes around here. Everyone is concerned about number 1.

One thing that Hong Kong does have that Winnipeg doesn’t is fast service. Service moves fast cause Hong Kong people are pretty impatient. We’ve never had to wait more than 15 minutes for anything. At all the restaurants food was always on the table no more than 15 minutes since ordering. Which always made for a quick meal.

All in all though it still made for a good place to visit. Although it wouldn’t be too hard to get used to if I chose to live here.

Dammit, i just realized, i didn’t take any photos of R2 while i was at the Peak… crap.

Sunday is all maids day off. They all gather in central Hong Kong in the streets talking and doing each others’ nails. Just a 15 minute walk from the restaurant to The Peak rail car station I saw 2 parties, all filipino maids gathered together.

On the bus ride taking us to the subway station there was a building where there were many all gathered in small groups sitting outside on the ground I guess just socializing. The malls and subway are filled with Filipino women hangin out. I feel like I’m in Winnipeg but instead of white people it’s Chinese people! LOL

I dunno what kinds cake it is. But it looks awesome

Following lunch we went to “the peak”

It’s hong kong’s highest point. It overlooks the city and ocean. It’s very high in tourism traffic. And thus everything is overpriced. Bottle of water, $8hk. Usually goes for $5hk. It was a good view at the top though!

After travelling 45 minutes via train, 5 minutes by subway and a few minutes on a bus, we arrived into central hong kong for lunch.

We are having lunch with my other cousin and aunt from my father’s side.

Today’s lunch is completely vegetarian. Although I’m a meatatarian I can cope with this one.

We’ve got our own private room that overlooks the zoo and some of the hong kong skyline.