Cirque du Soleil's Viva Elvis at the Aria Resort: Las Vegas

I was invited to the premiere of Viva Elvis the new Cirque du Soleil tribute show to Elvis Presley in residence at the newly opened Aria Resort in Las Vegas.

In brief, the show was mildly entertaining, the cast and band were very good, the sets were impressive and there were one or two great moments but, in general, the show lacks cohesion, creativity and vision. It certainly does not move the artistic bar higher for Cirque du Soleil and it essentially felt like a high-budget amusement park song and dance revue.

I thought LOVE, Cirque's Beatles tribute playing down the street at Mirage Resort, did a far better job of marrying Cirque's signature creativity with a classic rock songbook. LOVE was an abstract biography of the Beatles and their career, Viva Elvis was a literal biography of Elvis. Whereas LOVE creatively sketched these abstract tableaux replete with metaphor and symbolism to evoke the spirit of the Beatles and truly create something groundbreaking and original, Viva Elvis felt more like Cirque du Soleil's answer to Jersey Boys. Viva Elvis is just a very average tribute show, it doesn't really work as a piece of theatre and is really pedestrian as a dance show.

I didn't like the Colonel Parker character as a narrator; his numerous monologues literally narrating Elvis' life, "Elvis was born in Tupelo, Mississippi . . ." were long-winded, humourless and hackneyed. The character is utterly charmless and his delivery was unconvincing and flawed (he flubbed his lines a couple times last night). I thought the Col. Parker monologues were too literal and too frequent. I guess I just like my Cirque shows more abstract and interpretive and don't like being "narrated" to.

The dancers were obviously talented and delivered with a lot of conviction but for a show with three dozen choreographers I found the choreography in the show very one-note and for the most-part utterly unremarkable.

The live band was amazing, they really rocked the music and infused it with an amazing energy. The singers for the most-part were okay although none of the four really wow-ed me.

The sound design, however, was absolutely atrocious, at least from where I sat, down in front in section 101. The mix was horribly uneven, often Elvis' vocals were buried in the mix, the volume levels fluctuated throughout the show and sometimes bordered on intolerably loud. I was shocked at how absolutely awful the sound in the Viva Elvis theatre was given the pristine sound design in the LOVE theatre. If you're doing a music tribute show . . . you better make sure the sound isn't completely off.

Viva Elvis lacks a coherent grand vision, it's really just a pastiche of scenes representing different periods of Elvis' life. What I really couldn't get over was how kitschy and cheesy the show was.

The one act I did really enjoy was the aerial cradle duo performed to "One Night", the act took place on a massive guitar-shaped aerial frame and featured two male performers representing Elvis and his stillborn twin brother Jesse. I thought the acrobatic choreography needed more refinement but the scenographic context was nicely drawn out and at the end of the act when the "Elvis" acrobat climbs the neck of the guitar and beckons to his brother only to see him dropping into the abyss was a poignant piece of symbolism.

The massive trampoline contraption used in "Got a Lot O' Livin' To Do" was visually interesting . . . although the Marvel superhero theme of the act was totally cheesy. I thought the set-up for the act was more promising than the delivery, the pacing and choreography of the act was not very refined and the act lacked musicality, i.e. the act is not performed to the song, the act is performed and the song is just playing in the background.

Similarly, the cowboy lasso act performed to Mystery Train was really more fit to be a county fair side show attraction.

This massive prison set was dragged on stage for the Jailhouse Rock scene, there were a lot of performers running around willy-nilly on the set but the scene was chaotic and lacked focus.

The other more "Cirque" type acts, a chair balancing act to Bossa Nova Baby and the mixed-acro duo performing to Suspicious Minds weren't very well integrated at all and felt tacked-on at the last minute. The wedding ring aerial cradle act to Love Me / Don't was totally cornball and the pseudo stripper pole act performed to It's Now or Never was awkwardly staged and ultimately uninteresting as an act.

In addition to the very average material, the transitions in the show are non-existent. The tableaux of LOVE flow and morph into one another, in Viva Elvis the scene ends, it fades to black and the next scene begins. Sometimes the show will come to a dead stop and Col. Parker will deliver a monologue or, a couple times in the show, a movie screen would come down and a song would be performed to a cheesy Elvis film montage (what is this the Academy Awards?)

So in the end, I didn't feel that Viva Elvis delivered the level of creativity one would expect of a Cirque du Soleil show. Sure it's big and flashy but honestly just about anybody could have delivered similar or better content for an Elvis tribute show and Cirque really didn't push the envelope creatively on this project and it feels like their name is just attached to the project to give it creative credibility.

I suppose if you're a hardcore Elvis fan you might enjoy this show but there is definitely not enough "Cirque" content to satisfy someone looking for a Cirque show and somebody just in the mood for a rock tribute show would be far better served by LOVE which is superior to Viva Elvis in almost every conceivable respect.

Air Canada Commercials Directed by François Girard

Earlier this year Air Canada released these two TV Spots that I absolutely adored. I remember I'd stop and watch every time these ads aired and I'd always be affected by this calm afterward.

They're centered around this beautiful surrealist concept of finger-painting in the air, and using it as a play for "at your fingertips" to suggest service and convenience.

The production is gorgeous, the commercials are beautifully shot and they have this ethereal and evocative quality to them. I recently found out that the ads were actually directed by Canadian film maker François Girard, (Silk, The Red Violin, Cirque du Soleil's Zed) which explains their dream-like quality. I love his visual style. If you've seen his films you'll be familiar with his style.

I love the choice of the song; a child singing in what sounds like some South American indigenous dialect (Quechua?) backed up by a Bulgarian children's choir. Because of the second ad, this song became my Hong Kong soundtrack when I visited the city this year; I remember strolling down Tsim Sha Tsui (the waterfront across from HK with a view of the skyline, a location in the ad) and listening to the song on my iPod.

TV Spot 1: Paris


TV Spot 2: Hong Kong


EDIT: The song featured in the commercial is El Vuelo by Hughes de Courson

Macau vs. Vegas

I'm currently in the town of Kaiping in the Guangdong Province in the South of China. This is the region that my family comes from and I'm visiting relatives here. The town is also located about a hundred miles west of Macau, making it an easy day trip. I went with my parents and brother last Thursday.

Macau is definitely an interesting place. First of all, entering from the China side is a hassle. You require a special (and expensive) license to drive in Macau, for whatever reason they drive on the left side of the road in Macau (like the British although Macau was a Portuguese colony and to the best of my knowledge they drive on the right side in Portugal). My cousin drove us to the border, parked the car at a garage at the border gate and we proceeded to enter Macau on foot.

Though Macau is technically a part of China again since the 1999 re-unification it is a "Special Administrative Region" like Hong Kong and the border is very tightly controlled, free access is not allowed. You must first exit China at the customs and immigration gate, then you have to clear customs and immigration on the Macau side . . . welcome to the new China of "one country, two systems". I found it really ironic that the border is so restricted even though Macau is part of the same freakin' country! It's much more of a hassle than going between Canada and the US or between European Union countries.

Macau is incredibly hot and humid this time of year. I've been to Vegas in August and it gets damn hot there too but it's so incredibly muggy in Macau, if it were any more humid I swear I'd need scuba gear! With the humidity the temperature felt like 120 degrees Fahrenheit! It's like a sauna, you break a sweat just standing outside!

Compounding the heat is the fact that I had to wear long pants, a shirt with sleeves and proper shoes (i.e. no athletic shoes or sandals). The casinos in Macau follow the European customs where dress code is strictly enforced. I saw security turn away a guy in a sleeveless shirt and shorts at the Wynn Macau.

Luckily, as soon as you cross the border all of the major resorts have free air-conditioned shuttle busses that will take you directly from the border gate to their properties. We hopped the "Cotai" shuttle headed for the Venetian Resort.

Throughout the day I had a chance to visit the Venetian, the MGM Grand, the Wynn, the Lisboa/Grand Lisboa (original home-grown Macau casinos) and the new City of Dreams project.

On the surface, the properties look like exact replicas of their Vegas counterparts, the interior designs of the Venetian and Wynn match their Vegas versions exactly. It was actually really trippy walking through, I kept getting Vegas flashbacks.

It's only after the initial amusement wears off that you start to notice the subtle differences. The layouts of the casinos are different. In Vegas you must cross through the gaming area to get anywhere in the property. In Macau the gaming area is very tightly controlled and you must pass through security, more often than not a metal detector and a bag inspection (or in the case of the Wynn a bag check as backpacks weren't allowed). Absolutely no children are allowed in the gaming area and there is an amusing pictogram of a family with a big red slash over it on the signs. Also, absolutely no outside food or drink is permitted, my brother had to throw out the rest of his Boost Juice when he entered the MGM Grand.

They militantly enforce the no pictures inside the gaming area rule. At one point at MGM Grand I saw a diorama of the City Center Project in Las Vegas and snapped a couple pictures of it when a security guard ran over and not only told me to stop taking pictures but forced me to delete the pictures I had already taken! Geez, talk about enforcing the letter of the law while ignoring the spirit of it, I was taking a picture of an ad!

One immediately noticeable difference in the gaming area is that the ratio of slot machines to tables in Macau is much lower than in Vegas. In general, Chinese don't play slots and prefer the table games (which puts the house at slightly less of an advantage because the slots are big revenue generators since they have the worst odds and least labour requirements). This also meant that the Macau gaming floors were a lot quieter than the Vegas ones and I didn't miss the constant cacophonous electronic din from the one-armed bandits.

My brother and I did a good once-through of all the properties we visited and at the end of each we left with the same general impression . . . "That's it?" Though they superficially resemble their Vegas counterparts the Macau resorts are severely limited in the variety of dining, shopping and nightlife/entertainment options. They're beginning to realize that the Chinese market they cater to don't really care about these things. If you live in Hong Kong why would you go to Macau for dining, shopping or nightlife/entertainment? I would venture to guess that hotel rooms at the resorts are rarely sold out too since Macau is an easy day-trip for most of its visitors. The resorts are obviously focusing their efforts on maximizing gaming revenue which is the opposite of the Vegas model where the emphasis has shifted to the "entertainment" aspect of the resorts.

In the end the Macau resorts felt like hollow imitations of the Vegas originals. They may look superficially alike but there definitely isn't as much variety on offer in Macau and it's a long shot from being "Vegas of the East".

I did, however, also get a chance to visit the Old Town Macau, designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Walking around the streets of the former Portuguese colony you'd swear you were in Europe not China! I was also fortunate enough to sample some Macanese cuisine. It's an interesting fusion of the cuisines of the various Portuguese colonies with African, Asian and South American influences. It was delicious! Those experiences were more impressive than any of the resorts.

China (so far): Beijing, Nanjing and Shanghai

China has been an interesting experience with its ups and downs but it's been a great time overall.

The first week or so we were stuck on this insipid package tour which took us to as many scam "tourist malls" and other tourist traps as it did to actual sites of interest. The tour was dirt cheap so I guess you get what you pay for. With my parents in-tow I guess it was the easiest way to "see" China but of course it meant sacrificing my time and independence and not getting to see everything I wanted to.

Beijing

We started off with a few days in and around Beijing before flying down to Nanjing and environs, Wuxi, Suzhou, Hangzhou and finally Shanghai where the package tour finally finished and my brother and I had a couple days to ourselves sans the 'rents as they went ahead to Guangzhou to see the family. My brother and I re-joined them yesterday as we flew from Shanghai to Guangzhou.

Beijing was a lot of fun, I saw Tianamen Square, toured the Forbidden City, I kept on remembering scenes from the movie the Last Emperor and was comparing this palace to Versailles in France. I stood at the top of the stairs of the palace and imagined what it must have felt like for the Emperors who stood there and gazed upon their courts below.

I then visited the Temple of Heaven Park and saw Beijingers at play, for such a conservative town it was nice to see people dancing, playing music and singing en masse before visiting the actual temple.

I climbed up a portion of the Great Wall of China. Mao Zedong said, "He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man" but Ghengis Khan said, "The strength of a wall depends on the courage those who defend it!" Regardless, it was a real workout climbing it.

I toured the Olympic sites in Beijing and had a chance to visit inside National Stadium aka the Bird's Nest. I remember watching the stunning pageant that was the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics almost a year ago. It was one of the most impressive theatrical events I had ever seen and it was surreal visiting the venue. Surprisingly, the stadium looks a lot smaller in person than it did on TV. The place still retains that amazing energy from a year ago and it felt amazing to walk around the track and imagine what it must have felt like for the Olympians to enter the stadium and circle that same track to the cheers of thousands.

Nanjing

In Nanjing, I had a chance to visit the Zonghua Gate, one of the gates of the original city walls. It was a sobering experience to stand on top of the gate and recall that this was one of the gates of the city that the retreating Chinese government officials had locked, trapping the citizens of Nanjing inside to be massacred by the approaching Japanese Imperial Army during the rape of Nanking.

Wuxi / Suzhou / Hangzhou

The next few days saw visits to Wuxi, Suzhou and Hangzhou to experience the "classical" China of temples, gardens and water towns. I toured the area around Tai Lake and West Lake as well as visiting Shantangjie in Suzhou which is a water town . . . although it's reputation as "Venice of the East" is exaggerated.

Shanghai

Finally, we arrived in Shanghai. Shanghai has been one of my favourite cities on the trip. Although apparently 2009 is a bit of an off-year to visit China. We're too late for the party of the Beijing 2008 Olympics and too early for the part of Expo 2010 in Shanghai. Already a city in rapid development/re-development, all of Shanghai is virtually a construction site as the city furiously prepares for Expo 2010. The city's famous Bund road is awash in construction as several countries' pavilions for the world fair are being built there. East Nanjing Road is as colourful as ever although it wasn't as up-market as high-fashion shopping streets in other places such as Fifth Avenue in New York, the Champs Élysées in Paris, Oxford Street in London or Ginza in Tokyo. It did, however, have an abundance of seedy guys hawking fake watches or offering "pretty girl, massage".

The Pudong new district is a stunning city-scape straight out of a sci-fi movie, especially with the iconic Oriental Pearl TV tower. I had the chance to ascend to the 100th floor observation deck at the newly-opened Shanghai World Financial Centre . . . although by this time next year there will apparently be an even higher observation deck at the Shanghai Tower being built next door. It was pretty cloudy/hazy when I went up but as the sun set and the lights came up in Shanghai it made for a stunning view. My brother and I also stopped for a drink with a view, chilling at a bar almost half a kilometer in the air, above the clouds!

We also had a chance to ride the Maglev from Shanghai to Pudong International Airport. The Shanghai maglev was the first and only magnetic levitation train in commercial operation. With a top speed of 430 Km/h it soared past the countryside and made the cars on the adjacent freeway look like they were driving backwards. The 30 Km trip only takes 7 minutes and you only cruise at the top 430 kph speed for a minute or two but it felt exciting and cutting-edge nonetheless.

Kaiping, Guangdong

I'm currently in the town of Kaiping in the southern Guangdong province where my family originates. While we've been very lucky with the weather for the trip so far, the infamous Chinese summer heat and humidity have been kept at bay and it has been reasonably tolerable the past couple weeks, there's currently a tropical storm/typhoon rolling around in the area (the storm is named Goni). It was windy with torrential downpours today.

We went to visit my grandparents who were ecstatic to see us, they hadn't seen us for probably over ten years. I met my aunts, uncles and cousins too and they prepared lunch for us. It was really interesting to finally meet them and I think my brother and I were as much of a curiosity for them as they were for us. It was strange to think of these people who are as close to me as the aunts, uncles and cousins on my mother's side, whom I grew up, with but who are essentially complete strangers. Even more interesting was observing my father who was basically re-united with his estranged family after almost forty years.

They were very warm and welcoming, despite our limited ability to communicate directly (i.e. not through my parents) and I was only asked once when I was going to buy a house and get married :P

More interestingly was when it came time to leave the storm had flooded the road in front of my grandparents' apartment building . . . we had to wade through thigh-high raw sewage water to get back to the car, it was disgusting. I couldn't wait to get back to shower. Still, it really gave me a new-found appreciation for what I have back home and maybe I'll curse a little less next time I'm crunching through a (relatively clean) snowbank this winter.

I'll be spending a few more days in Kaiping. We're slated to go to Macau tomorrow if the weather isn't too bad, we're probably also going to day trip to Guangzhou and possibly the Shenzen "Special Economic Zone" before finishing the trip in Hong Kong. I'll be back in Canada on the 19th.

The not-so-magic bus ... Tourist traps and the Chinese tour industry.

Ugh, these past few days have been really aggravating. Basically I've come to learn that traveling with your parents requires a lot of compromises.

I'm normally a very independent traveler. I've backpacked through Europe by myself, did a solo trip to Japan and visited several places throughout the States on my own. I like the independence if traveling alone. On those trips I could see what I wanted when I wanted without compromising for anybody.

My mom is incredibly neurotic so she would never trust me to arrange travel for the entire family. To save everybody headaches and to avoid my mother's inevitable constant nagging I opted to allow her to sign us up for a package tour via a local Chinatown travel agency for the first ten days of our trip. I'm beginning to regret that decision.

In the best of times I dislike package tours because I can't stand how overly-structured they are. I dislike being herded around like cattle and being so restricted in terms of what is on the itinerary and the kind of time constraints associated with it. I feel "handled" and know I'm only seeing the touristy places leaving no room for authenticity in the experience. Package tours are usually the realm of elderly travelers who don't particularly care where they go or what they see. These people like the convenience of not having to think about anything. These tours are generally not aimed at young, independent-minded culture fiends like myself.

In addition to all the regular disadvantages associated with package tours, in China tours are also centrally coordinated. Very few independent tour operators exist and foreign travel agents are forced to deal with these approved tour operators.

The tour we have the misfortune to currently find ourselves on is little more than a scam to bilk money out of Westerners at a string of asinine tourist traps. Although many of the popular and famous sites are on the itinerary, interspersed are a ridicous number of "shopping stops" where bus tours are herded into these complexes, given these demonstrations (think Vince with Sham-Wow) and then hit up to buy a variety of ridiculously overpriced wares. Everything from Chinese medicine to pearls to cloisonné vases to jade to painted crystal spheres to teapots and more are shoved down these Western tourists' unsuspecting throats.

The less-savvy among them (like my mom) are happily and naïvely suckered into being hosed by these scams. My brother and I argued with my mom for close to an hour in vain before she parted with $300 USD in some snake oil "Chinese medicine" after being examined by this quack Chinese doctor and enduring a high pressure sales pitch. At another tour stop at a "Pearl factory" we were being hawked everything from phoney baloney pearl cosmetic cream to cheap pearl jewelery. My brother found a $70 USD bracelet identical to one he paid $10 USD for at a market in San Francisco.

The tourist trap stops wouldn't annoy me so much if it weren't for the fact that they're so frequent and long. If the actual sites of interest were a TV program and the tourist traps were commercials this stupid tour would be at least 40 minutes of commercials for 20 minutes of actual programming content.

When we get off the tour bus and go into these places we're given cards with numbers so when we buy stuff they know which tour operator to give the kickback to. The tours also get a set amount for every hapless sap they herd into these traps. It's all an elaborate scam and hence operates most of China's nacent tour industry.

Compounding my frustration is the fact that on this particular tour the guides do not speak English. This fact wouldn't be a huge deal if they could at least provide an accurate itinerary I could follow. I hate being kept in the dark and led around blindly. Yet whenever I press the guides for this information they are sheepishly stand-offish to provide it. It seems their state's penchant for controling information has trickled down to them which would also explain why they are surprised and don't seem to know how to handle "dissenters" like me who keep questioning their motives and drilling for more information.

Suffice it to say that these package tours are horribly run. They are also a mess logistically; they don't prebuy admission tickets so we're left waiting in line regardless, their communication of itineraries is horrible, they also have no contingencies in place if members of the group are late or lost. My brother who has worked extensively in the tour industry back home has been constantly pointing out shortcomings in their operations and consequently I'm not impressed.

While it's true we did buy the tour for rock bottom prices it is not the bargain it appeared to be. Instead of seeing the sites and experiencing the China I wanted to see I'm stuck sitting in the corner of a room full of overpriced teapots annoyed and tapping out this note on my iPhone waiting for the tour operators to herd us to the trough for lunch and then likely to the next textile factory or jade shop or whatever.

Sure, the tour was dirt cheap but when it just turns out to be a waste of time you really have to question its actual value.

Luckily we only have to slug it out for another couple days before we reach Shanghai and the end of the package tour portion of the trip.

Obviously I would never have signed up for this tour if not for the fact that I have my parents in tow. There are several younger families with kids here who seem to be able to enjoy it more and maybe I wouldn't have been so annoyed and critical of the experience had my parents brought me as a child or young teen. Whether this experience was worth bearing through to spend time with my parents is questionable. It has defintely been a learning experience and I've learned or re-affirmed a lot of things about myself and my relationship with my parents.

Regardless, I will definitely never sign up for one of these immense wastes-of-time again and I would caution everybody who might be considering it as a quick, easy, cheap option to see China. You'd only be seeing the best of China's ugly budding capitalist bent. Package tours of China are little more than thinly-veiled scams. Caveat Emptor.

I can't wait 'til we get to Shanghai.

Wangfujing Daijie Street Market

No Some Reservations . . .

Wangfujing dajie is a busy night life district in Beijing with a food market. There are several "interesting" items on offer, among them scorpions.

Now, maybe I watch a little too much television ... the Market was featured on last season's Amazing Race and I'm a huge fan of Anthony Bourdain's travel log/food show No Reservations and his willingness to try new and "exotic" foods.

So when I looked at the skewer of scorpions at one of the stands, I decided to have a taste.

My brother was there to document the experience:

China: My Voyage to the Middle Kingdom

So as some of you may already know I am about to embark on a one-month trip to China and Hong Kong with my parents and brother.

Our itinerary for the month takes us to Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Macau, and Hong Kong among other smaller places along the way.

Since my parents are both originally from China and I grew up as a "Chinese"-Canadian I suppose China has always occupied a sort of deferential yet mysterious place in my psyche although interestingly enough, I've never been there. My parents ran a business and never had much time for traveling when I was a child. As a teen and young adult I was more interested in exploring Europe and the opportunity to visit China never arose.

I now regret not having had the opportunity to visit sooner. Being "Chinese" yet never having visited the country or meeting my family there is slightly paradoxical. In recent years China has opened up a lot to Western tourism especially with last year's Olympics in Beijing and next year's Expo in Shanghai. I also have many world-beating friends who have visited and who are always surprised to hear I haven't yet been. It's gotten to the point where I'm actually really embarrassed to admit that I've never been.

Traveling with my family will be a bit of a challenge, or at least a new experience. Until now our family vacations consisted of weekend trips to Toronto, day trips to Montreal.

This trip will be the first time we'll be taking a substantial family vacation. It's been quite a few years in the planning. My grandmother (who helped raise my brother and I when we were children then subsequently returned to China) has been asking us to visit for years. My brother and I have also been asking our parents to take the trip with us for years. It's only been recently that the stars have aligned for a trip like this to take place, my parents have started to scale down their business operations and are now comfortable with taking a month away, my brother and I are in jobs where we have enough vacation to do a trip of this length.

Unfortunately, we will be visiting China during the hottest time of year. My brother is a teacher which means he has very little flexibility as to when he can take time off and summer was pretty much our only option. With temperatures in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong forecast to reach into the low 40s Celcius with humidity the trip will be a hot, sweaty endeavour.

Traveling with the family will also mean giving up some of the freedom I'm used to. I'm normally a very independent traveler having backpacked through Europe, visited Japan and several places in the States by myself. I like the flexibility of solo travel and the fact that I'm able to do what I want when I want without making any concessions to other people's wants or needs.

The first part of our trip, Beijing through Shanghai will consist of a ten-day package tour. I normally despise package tours for several reasons; being herded around in big groups like cattle, not having any flexibility to what you see or when you see it, being corralled from one overpriced gift shop to the next, only seeing the sanitized touristy parts of places and never being able to interact with locals or have any authentic experiences is not my style of traveling. However, seeing as I'll have my parents in tow, I was willing to make the concession of going on a package tour because my neurotic Chinese mother would never trust me to arrange the trip logistics on my own and would be constantly badgering me and second-guessing me the entire time. What I give up in independence in accepting the package tour I'm sure to get back in sanity. And as my brother told me, I'll likely have plenty of other opportunities in my lifetime to return to China to visit the places I want to see the way I want to see them.

While traveling with my parents will undoubtedly present challenges; my brother and I don't live at home anymore and we're not used to constantly having to deal with my mother's neurotic tendencies anymore. I'm sure there'll be times of frustration and times where we all get on each others' nerves as we really haven't spent significant time together as a family-unit for years now. I am, however, looking forward to sharing this experience with my brother and my parents (while they're still physically fit enough to undertake such a lengthy trip). The experience is a little bittersweet as this is our first trip of this length as a family but it may also be the last time we get to do something like this. I know I'm going to make my best effort to taking the little annoyances in stride and focusing on maximizing the experience at hand.

The first little annoyance . . . the 16-hour flight from Chicago to Beijing. Wish me luck!

The Sun Sets on the Land of the Rising Sun

Wow, what a whirlwind adventure to reflect on. I had such an amazing time in Tokyo and honestly didn't want to go back home.

Even though I traveled to Tokyo by myself, I was able to meet-up with several friends who were either also traveling in Japan at the time or working in Japan (Michelle, my friend from University) and I was also able to meet people while I was here (like a whole bunch of people who are teaching English in Japan) so I had people I could hang out with.

I knew Tokyo (and Japan) would present me with an onslaught of new experiences and I was fully bracing for the culture shock that I would experience being plopped into the middle of this hyper-frenetic futuristic mega-metropolis of 12 million people. Unexpectedly, that culture shock never really happened. Even though Tokyo is a huge city packed to the gills with people constantly coming and going at all hours of the day and night, I found it to be clean, organized, remarkably easy to get around and I found Tokyoites to be remarkably courteous and considerate people.

What I didn't expect was to instantly take to Tokyo the way I did and I didn't expect to feel so comfortable and to frankly fall completely in love with the city the way I have.

I love how exciting and cosmopolitan Tokyo is. The city constantly hums with an excitement and energy that gets under your skin and courses through your veins. I felt so alive in Tokyo.

Tokyo carries itself with a distinguished grace but it also has a wicked sense of style. I felt so dumpy-looking and constantly felt under-dressed while in Tokyo. I was amazed how virtually everybody there seems to be a fashionista, or at least extremely style conscious. From the school kids wearing expensive cashmere Burberry scarves as accessories to their standard school uniforms to the teens in Shibuya and Harajuku with the outrageously big anime-style hair-dos (I'm talking about the guys!) and matching elaborate emo-outfits to the young salary men dressed in fine European suits, Tokyo is probably the most fashion-forward city I've ever visited, and I've been to some of the fashion capitals of the world; London, New York, Paris, Milan, Tokyo outdoes them all in terms of the everyday stylishness of its regular citizens.

Even though I only know a handful of tourist phrases in Japanese, I found it remarkably easy to get around with a combination of miming and the average Tokyoite's ability for basic English. Though they'd often coyly reply "no" when I asked "eigo ga hanasemasuka?" (do you speak English), I soon realized that they often did in fact speak it and spoke it quite well and that the "no" was just the subtle self-deprecation and humility typical of the Japanese.

Tokyo is Mecca for foodies! I ate so well while I was there. Having grown up in an Asian household the every-day foods here in Tokyo didn't really surprise me as much as it might for other Westerners. In fact, I loved being able to get prawn chips from a vending machine, and I also loved how my package of assorted rice cracker snacks included little dried, salted fish. Grabbing breakfast from Japanese bakeries every morning was a treat, I love the buns with "sausage" (aka hot dog) baked inside them or the flaky pastries filled with red bean or egg custard, since I'm so used to eating these things when I was growing up, foods that might normally seem odd to Westerners were actually familiar comfort-foods for me.

Other foodie pilgrimage sites that I visited in Tokyo include the Tsukiji Wholesale Fish Market, I visited on my first day since I was jet lagged and you have to get there super early (the action happens between 4am and 8am). Seeing the acres upon acres of every type of seafood imaginable was an awe-inspiring site. I was also able to cap off my visit with a breakfast of the freshest and most delicious sushi I had ever tasted, I'm totally spoiled now, that previously-frozen crap we have at home just won't cut it anymore!

Another interesting site was Kappabashi-dori, the restaurant wholesale supply district where they carried every type of kitchen and restaurant implement you could think of (yes, including kitchen sinks). I especially loved the stores that supplied the plastic food models that many Japanese restaurants display outside their doors, I was tempted to buy one of those faux plates of spaghetti bolognaise, complete with a fork sticking in the air.

The department stores all have restaurant floors where you'll find a collection of eateries ranging from noodle shops to sushi bars and yakitori houses to Italian spaghetti houses and oyster bars. I took full advantage of these essentially upscale food courts. Department stores also have large food markets in their basements and I hit up the one at Isetan regularly to pick up bentos for dinner. The variety of the food available in these places was stunning and I loved the fact that it was all laid out like a fancy boutique. When I bought a piece of cake at a French pastries counter the attendant basically gift-wrapped it for me.

The standard of service in Tokyo is outstanding, it's the best service I have ever had. The service people I encountered in Tokyo were without exception, extremely courteous, polite and went out of their way to make me feel comfortable. This fact was especially amazing since there is no tipping in Japan so they really do their jobs so well out of a sense of duty and propriety and not because they want a bigger tip for their service.

Other than the food I just enjoyed being in Tokyo and seeing the sites and having uniquely-Tokyo experiences;

Meeting up with friends at the Hachiko statue in Shibuya then crossing the insane all-cross intersection at the same time as hundreds of other people at Shibuya Crossing,

Window shopping and gawking at all the haute-couture boutiques in Ginza and Omote-Sando,

People-watching in Harajuku (yep, lots of real-life Harajuku girls, and boys),

Shopping in Akihabara the electronics and defacto-Manga district in Tokyo and seeing the girls dressed up as french maids (Maid cafes are huge in Akihabara),

Visiting the international district of Roppongi, going up to the top floor of Roppongi Hills and seeing a breathtaking aerial view of Tokyo from the outdoor Sky Deck on the roof.

Getting lost for half an hour while trying to find my exit in Shinjuku station (the station is the second-busiest commuter train station in the world, serving 3.5 million people daily and it is gigantic, if you take the wrong exit you can end up miles from your destination),

Walking around the blazing neon streets of Shinjuku (the neighborhood where I was staying) was a total sensory experience. It was the Tokyo that I'd always dreamt of. Basically, take all the lights and people on the entire Las Vegas Strip, concentrate it and condense it down to the size of about one New York City block and then repeat and you have Shinjuku. It was constantly a beehive of activity and was as busy at 3am as it was at 3pm.

Also in Shinjuku, I had a great time walking through Kabukicho, the red light district and seeing all the "love hotels" (exactly what you'd think they are with that name) and the Nigerian guys trying to hustle me into strip joints.

These were just some of the highlights from my trip I could go on and on.

I did manage to get out of Tokyo for a couple day-trips. I went temple- and shrine-hopping in Nikko and Kamakura and visited Japan's second largest city Yokohama.

Yokohama was an interesting trip, it has some stunning architecture and the cruise ship terminal in the port was amazing. I also visited Yokohama's famous Chinatown (the largest in Japan) but was somewhat disappointed in it. It definitely is large (several square blocks) but there was something a bit off about it. I described it as a Chinatown if it was run by Disney. There are several Chinese-style buildings and monuments, the lanterns were strung along the alleyways in the hyper-kitchy style but it all seemed a little fake to me. Chinatowns are supposed to be ghettos, they're typically located in the oldest most run-down parts of town, they're supposed to be a bit gritty with all sorts of funky smells and Chinatown restaurants are supposed to be a little bit intimidating to non-Chinese. Think of Spadina Street in Toronto or Canal Street in New York City. Yokohama's Chukagai was clean, the restaurants were impeccable and many had people on the street promoting them, it really made it feel a bit too sterile and artificial to be authentic. Plus when I subtly tried to drop a few words in Cantonese they reverted to Japanese pretty quickly . . . you know it's not a real Chinese restaurant when the owners speak the local language fluently. As for the food, I walked around sampling different items, the food was okay but nothing special and I didn't come across anything I hadn't had a much better version of in Toronto or even in Ottawa.

But every time I day tripped outside of Tokyo I found myself anxious to get back to the city.

I'm completely enamored with Tokyo. I came expecting to feel a bit alienated and alone by the end of my trip and was completely surprised at how comfortable I was in the city. Maybe it's a more-telling truth that after flying half-way around the world and immersing myself in this city of 12 million people, virtually none of whom I know and with whom I can barely communicate, I don't feel any more alienated or less alone than I do back home.

In any case, I really felt at home in Tokyo and it has become one of my all-time favourite cities and I would totally love to spend more time there, maybe even live and work there for a while. I really am sad to have to leave Tokyo and can't wait to come back!

In Tokyo

So I finally made it to Tokyo after a full day of traveling.

It's insane here, it hasn't even registered with me that I've flown half-way around the world!

I checked into my hotel, it's pretty swanky, it's decorated like a boutique hotel but the room is about the size of a cruise ship cabin . . . should be interesting when my friend comes to visit me next week.

Anyway, I'm off to go sightseeing.

Sayonara

Chasing the Tokyo dawn

I'm packed and ready to fly to Tokyo!

I'm über-excited about my first trip to Japan. I love traveling and don't do it nearly enough.

I especially love trips where I can explore and discover new cultures. There's something about visiting a country where you can't speak, read or understand the local language and where the social customs are so different than your own frame of reference that really heightens your senses. I'm actually really looking forward to being plopped into the middle of this alien world where I'll definitely be outside of my comfort zone.

I'm also very excited to visit Tokyo. There's something about Tokyo; the blazing neon and concrete jungle, the city that never sleeps, the densely-packed throng of humanity, the frenetic buzz and relentless pace of life, that really appeals to me. I love visiting cosmopolitan, world-class cities and Tokyo, like New York and London has a palpable energy that is derived by the dense accumulation of the sheer number of inhabitants in one space. I love tapping into the energy of the city and feeling it course through my veins. It makes me feel so alive. I can envision myself standing at Shibuya Crossing, staring up at all the neon lights and electronic screens and excitedly proclaiming "Woo!!! I am in Tokyo!!!"

I'm looking forward to exploring the different neighborhoods of Tokyo, the fabulous shopping and of course there's the food. I love sushi and one of the biggest draws of Japan for me is the opportunity to sample some of the freshest and highest quality sushi on the planet. I'm definitely a foodie and I love trying as much of the local cuisine as possible even if it means that those foods are "spoiled" for me. I haven't found gelato quite as tasty as the varieties I had in Italy and I'll never forget how delicious that fresh seafood paella I had in Barcelona tasted. Tokyo is a foodie's wet dream and I intend to take full advantage of it!

Also, I find that when I travel it is almost always a chance for self-discovery and self-realization. The backpacking trip through Europe I did in the summer of 2005 turned out to be one of the most formative experiences of my life. When you leave the comfortable little bubble in which you live and the regimented monotony of the daily grind you are really forced to observe things from a different point of view and I find it really puts things in perspective.

I'm ready to take on the full brunt of what Tokyo and Japan are going to hit me with!

My "Wicked" Halloween in NYC

I've been in NYC for a couple days now and have been taking in some new (or new to me) shows.

I saw Spring Awakening last night, the winner of the Best Musical Tony this year. It was composed by 90s alt-rocker Duncan Sheik and is about a group of teens and their respective sexual awakenings in 19th century Germany (it was based on a play of the same title). I found it interesting in that it was kind of antithetical as a musical; it consisted of a young, energetic and good-looking (early 20s) cast belting out a pseudo-punk score (think "punk" made palatable for a broadway audience) and kind of figuratively telling a story in broad impressionistic strokes through the lyrics. At times it felt like it was trying too hard to be "edgy" and different (like the odd stylistic choice of having the characters perform the major numbers in "rock concert" style complete with hand-held microphones) but overall I enjoyed it, there was some good talent on display and the tunes were agreeable enough.

Here's a music video for "The Bitch of Living" Scene:



And I finally saw Wicked tonight. I wanted to catch it when it was in Toronto but the run was sold out and even nowadays on broadway the show is one of the hardest tickets to get; I scored a seat fourth-row dead center which was perfect for being close to the performance but just far enough to take in the big picture.

I didn't really know if I'd enjoy it going in; I'd heard a rough synopsis and given the popularity of the show I figured it would be a pretty vapid affair with some techy production designs. It certainly had the production design part but I actually found myself really enjoying the show. I thought the story was really clever and really enjoyed the "other side of the story" take on the Wizard of Oz and all of the social and political undercurrents woven into the story. The score was pretty standard for a broadway show, it's enjoyable if not particularly unforgettable. The performers were all really good (as is expected on Broadway). And of course I really enjoyed the production design. It was definitely extravagant and way over-the-top but I think the show balanced the razzle dazzle with a solid storyline that an audience member could really think about if he or she were so inclined. Maybe because I deliberately didn't listen to the score beforehand or research the show in too much depth but I thought Wicked lived up to all the hype.