I was out at a bar last night and making small talk with this stranger when he hit me with the question, "So what's your background?"
My chest tightened and my stomach turned a little bit. "Ugh!" I thought, "really?" I really despise being asked that question. If I feel like being a jerk at the time I usually fuck with them a bit by replying, "Canadian," like, "What do you mean?" which forces the inquirer into the uncomfortable position of asking,
"No, I mean, where are you from originally?"
"Oh, I was born here."
"No, but, where does your family come from?"
. . .
While to most people it may seem like a relatively innocuous inquiry, to a visible minority, "What's your background" is a very loaded question.
If it's followed by a statement like "Wow, we don't see many of 'you people' around here" it obviously smacks of racism but even when it isn't so overt there's still a subtle underpinning of racism that can't be ignored. While it's not the pitchfork-wielding lynch mob racism of past generations it's still an indication that the "perpetual foreigner" image for ethnic minorities is still alive and well.
I was born and raised in Canada and consider myself as Canadian as maple syrup and bitching about the weather, it really irks me to no end that people can still view me as an outsider who somehow doesn't quite belong. It's a subtle, seemingly benign undercurrent of racism yet it's unsettling because I know that if push comes to shove it would manifest itself in ugly ways.
I guess it's a pet peeve of mine. Even without the racist undertone I always thought it was just kind of rude and socially unacceptable, like walking up to a guy in a wheel chair and asking point blank, "So what? Did you lose your legs in some sort of car accident or were you born that way?" and nobody ever walks up to a white person and asks them out of the blue, "So what are you? Irish? French? Lithuanian? Khazakistani? Like, where are you from?"
While I'd like to dismiss this incident as the social faux-pas of a backwoods rube, part of me is still offended because I've struggled all my life to find acceptance in this society and with one comment I'm reminded that acceptance isn't a given and that I still have to struggle with these issues. It's frustrating.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Le dragon bleu - Robert Lepage
If an image is worth a thousand words; in China, a word is worth a thousand images . . .
I just got back from the Canadian English-language premiere of Robert Lepage's play The Blue Dragon (I had seen the original French version Le dragon bleu a couple weeks ago with the same cast).
The Blue Dragon is a testament to why writer, director and actor Robert Lepage is a master of the theatre arts. His play is deep, layered with symbolism, abounding with spectacular stage technology yet also features an engaging and deeply human story.
The story follows his character Pierre Lamontagne from a previous play (The Dragons’ Trilogy) after he moves from Quebec to Shanghai, China. Pierre meets up with Claire; a friend from back home who has come to China to adopt a baby. Both characters are at a crossroads in their lives and the play explores the nature of their relationship within the broader context of the rapid commercialization and Westernization of China. It is definitely high-brow but the wit and humour in the dialogue as well as the relatable characters keep it accessible.
I love how Lepage’s theatrical productions are so visual and cinematic. The play is paced and edited like a movie, there's a musical score, visual montages, and title sequences.
The set-design is dazzling; employing a mechanized two-tier stage with a variety of moving conveyors that morphs into places as diverse as a loft, a nightclub, a subway station and an airport. There is a staggering amount of technology and the number of automation cues must be mind-boggling but the technology is used to accentuate the cinematic quality of the show; it allows for smooth scene transitions and works to complement the storytelling without upstaging it.
I'm also impressed that Lepage is able to convincingly converse in Mandarin with one of the Chinese actors, it must have taken him quite a while to learn all those lines phonetically! Luckily, surtitles are projected onto the set during those brief exchanges for us non-Mandarin speakers.
As with all Lepage plays, The Blue Dragon really defies description other than to say it was a stunning piece of theatre that I highly recommend anyone go see if they get the chance.
I just got back from the Canadian English-language premiere of Robert Lepage's play The Blue Dragon (I had seen the original French version Le dragon bleu a couple weeks ago with the same cast).
The Blue Dragon is a testament to why writer, director and actor Robert Lepage is a master of the theatre arts. His play is deep, layered with symbolism, abounding with spectacular stage technology yet also features an engaging and deeply human story.
The story follows his character Pierre Lamontagne from a previous play (The Dragons’ Trilogy) after he moves from Quebec to Shanghai, China. Pierre meets up with Claire; a friend from back home who has come to China to adopt a baby. Both characters are at a crossroads in their lives and the play explores the nature of their relationship within the broader context of the rapid commercialization and Westernization of China. It is definitely high-brow but the wit and humour in the dialogue as well as the relatable characters keep it accessible.
I love how Lepage’s theatrical productions are so visual and cinematic. The play is paced and edited like a movie, there's a musical score, visual montages, and title sequences.
The set-design is dazzling; employing a mechanized two-tier stage with a variety of moving conveyors that morphs into places as diverse as a loft, a nightclub, a subway station and an airport. There is a staggering amount of technology and the number of automation cues must be mind-boggling but the technology is used to accentuate the cinematic quality of the show; it allows for smooth scene transitions and works to complement the storytelling without upstaging it.
I'm also impressed that Lepage is able to convincingly converse in Mandarin with one of the Chinese actors, it must have taken him quite a while to learn all those lines phonetically! Luckily, surtitles are projected onto the set during those brief exchanges for us non-Mandarin speakers.
As with all Lepage plays, The Blue Dragon really defies description other than to say it was a stunning piece of theatre that I highly recommend anyone go see if they get the chance.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Repo! The Genetic Opera
I saw Repo! The Genetic Opera on the weekend. I really enjoyed it.
It's a sci-fi rock opera that's been alternately compared to The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Sweeney Todd. I loved the visual style of the film, it reminded me of a mix of Sin City and Baz Luhrmann/Moulin Rouge with a healthy dose of Tim Burton thrown in the mix.
The movie takes place in this dystopian future-world and it had this awesome goth/comic book surrealist sensibility. The music is really catchy, most of it is a mix of industrial, punk and metal with some definite classical influences.
There's a fair bit of violence and gore (it's from the same director as the Saw sequels) but it's done in the over-the-top comic book style where it's so violent it's actually kinda funny.
Sarah Brightman is in it. She has a small but memorable role as a character called Blind Mag, an opera singer with these awesome digital eyes. I love how they styled her for the movie, she looks like a Tim Burton wet dream:
Paris Hilton is also in it and I never thought I'd see the day where I'd say I enjoyed watching her in something but she was really well cast in this movie . . . although it wasn't much of an acting challenge. She plays a spoiled, bratty, talentless air-headed daughter of a wealthy tycoon. Kudos for the casting director of the film for scoring Paris to play a character which is basically a parody of herself.
It's a pretty limited release but it's definitely worth a look. Here's the trailer:
It's a sci-fi rock opera that's been alternately compared to The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Sweeney Todd. I loved the visual style of the film, it reminded me of a mix of Sin City and Baz Luhrmann/Moulin Rouge with a healthy dose of Tim Burton thrown in the mix.
The movie takes place in this dystopian future-world and it had this awesome goth/comic book surrealist sensibility. The music is really catchy, most of it is a mix of industrial, punk and metal with some definite classical influences.
There's a fair bit of violence and gore (it's from the same director as the Saw sequels) but it's done in the over-the-top comic book style where it's so violent it's actually kinda funny.
Sarah Brightman is in it. She has a small but memorable role as a character called Blind Mag, an opera singer with these awesome digital eyes. I love how they styled her for the movie, she looks like a Tim Burton wet dream:
Paris Hilton is also in it and I never thought I'd see the day where I'd say I enjoyed watching her in something but she was really well cast in this movie . . . although it wasn't much of an acting challenge. She plays a spoiled, bratty, talentless air-headed daughter of a wealthy tycoon. Kudos for the casting director of the film for scoring Paris to play a character which is basically a parody of herself.
It's a pretty limited release but it's definitely worth a look. Here's the trailer:
Monday, December 8, 2008
I've officially switched teams . . .
I'm officially a Mac-guy!
I'm now the proud papa of a brand new 2.4 GHz Macbook.
My 3-year old HP/Compaq finally kicked the bucket when the power connector started breaking off the motherboard and despite my best soldering efforts I was unable to salvage it. I was really not liking the prospect of having to buy a new PC laptop and being forced to "upgrade" to Vista and when I got a chance to play around on my friend's brand new Macbook I was sold.
First of all this girl is beautiful, the aluminum unibody, CNC'd from a single piece of extruded aluminum is so sleek. I love the light-up keyboard and the multi-function touch-pad/button combo is pretty cool too.
I used to be wary of Apple products and thought they were all style over substance but after getting my iPod earlier this year I've slowly been won over to the other side.
I'm still grappling with some of the differences in OS X but I'm sure it won't be a steep learning curve.
This could be the start of a beautiful relationship :D
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Social Networking from Work
My work has just unblocked access to social networking sites including Facebook, Myspace and Blogs (apparently)!
I guess that means they trust us enough to set our own limits as to when we access these sites on our personal time.
I feel like a teenager whose curfew has just been lifted :P
I'm still not allowed to access any web-mail services (Hotmail, Gmail, etc.) because it's apparently a network security risk.
Do the places where other people work block out these sites?
****************************************
EDIT:
It turns out the unblocking of social networking sites is part of a larger new policy on the usage of Web 2.0 technologies.
It's refreshing that the organization realizes that it's pointless to pretend that employees aren't posting on blogs and joining Facebook groups and that it's better to allow access to these sites and educate employees on their responsibilities when posting on blogs rather than take the head-in-the-sand approach.
It's a surprisingly progressive approach for my company.
I guess that means they trust us enough to set our own limits as to when we access these sites on our personal time.
I feel like a teenager whose curfew has just been lifted :P
I'm still not allowed to access any web-mail services (Hotmail, Gmail, etc.) because it's apparently a network security risk.
Do the places where other people work block out these sites?
****************************************
EDIT:
It turns out the unblocking of social networking sites is part of a larger new policy on the usage of Web 2.0 technologies.
It's refreshing that the organization realizes that it's pointless to pretend that employees aren't posting on blogs and joining Facebook groups and that it's better to allow access to these sites and educate employees on their responsibilities when posting on blogs rather than take the head-in-the-sand approach.
It's a surprisingly progressive approach for my company.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
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!
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!
Thursday, November 6, 2008
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
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
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