slow start

We've officially been on our Asia trip for over a week now, but we're off to a slow start. We didn't expect to stay in Hong Kong so long, but by the time we were able to get our Chinese and Vietnamese visas, it had already been a week. In the meantime, we got travel vaccinations, I sent off one last grad school application, and we did some final shopping for our trip. In some ways, we were still preparing for the trip, not really on it. On another level, it didn't even feel like we were traveling, since Hong Kong seems to be more Westernized than Japan. We watched American TV almost every night, we ate at Pizza Hut, and we enjoyed being able to speak English everywhere. It was actually a good transition time.

Now, we've had a bit of a hold-up. Yesterday, we crossed the border into China, hoping to catch an overnight bus to a place called Guilin. But after a couple hours walking from bus station to bus station, we think we found out that there were no seats available until the 21st. The Chinese New Year is in a couple days. When we found out we would be here for that, we were pretty excited...but we didn't know how much it would affect our plans. We eventually got train tickets for tomorrow, so we are just spending a few days in Shenzhen while we wait. We are half expecting that to happen a couple more times before we leave China. Oh well. It's keeping us relaxed anyway. :)

in hong kong...

We decided to fly to Hong Kong for a few reasons: we got good tickets and we knew we could get visas and travel vaccinations there. Other than that, we knew little else.

The first day there, we went to the tourist information office and a couple hours later, we were on a free boat tour around Victoria Harbor to view a "360 degree skyline." It was pretty amazing. That evening, we took a tram up to the peak to overlook the harbor. It wasn't hard to find things to enjoy about the city. Over the next few days, we took a guided architecture walk, visited one of the outlying islands, went to the goldfish and flower markets, and walked around a lot. Of course, we also got poked in the arm and sat in line at embassies. But we really enjoyed our time there. Here are a few things we especially enjoyed about Hong Kong:

...the amazing harbor.
...an 800-meter outdoor escalator running downhill in the morning and uphill the rest of the day.
...bamboo used as scaffolding.
...learning that much of the land (including the airport) has been "reclaimed" (i.e., the sea filled in) AND that almost all of the land is government-owned, most of it on 99-year leases.
...diversity (especially compared to Japan).
...the beautiful outlying islands.
...seeing Jesse's cousin who lives in Hong Kong.
...the ferry you can take across the harbor for 25 cents.
...the public service announcements (everything from cover your mouth when you cough to keep your windows in good repair so they don't fall to the street).

Here are a few pictures:

An old boat in the harbor.

The harbor lights viewed from Victoria Peak.

The outdoor escalator.

A fishing village on Lamma Island.

A fruit stand.

sayonara japan

Since the fall, I’ve been spending a lot of time working on grad school applications, planning our trip around Asia, and preparing to leave Japan. While the former two items were really important (especially applications) it is the latter that has really been the focus of almost all my thoughts. The two years I spent in Japan were really special in so many ways. I went there knowing next to nothing about Japan, and started out not knowing how much I’d like it. After a few months, I started seeing things that I really liked, and by the end of the year, I was enjoying my time there a lot. But I think it was the second year that my love for the place really grew. We made good friends. I started learning the language a little better. Things became more and more accessible as I understood more about the culture. I grew really attached to Japanese style, and appreciated it every day in many ways. I became really comfortable with the daily interactions.

Which is what makes leaving so sad.

BUT. I want to be closer to my U.S. friends and family. I want to go to graduate school. I want to get settled in somewhere where I know I’ll stay for a while. And because of that, I have had a stronger and stronger sense that it was time to move on. The last few weeks in Japan, Jesse and I kept saying how satisfied we were with our time there. It was fantastic, really. But because it had been so great, we both felt like we could leave and be happy. It was hard in many ways. Some sad goodbyes. Lots of “lasts.” And a bit of a panic when they took away my resident card at the airport. I have loved being a foreign resident, and it was sad to let that go. But overall, I have a really warm feeling when I think about the past two years.