Protocol Snow

I’m back in Taipei and returning to Los Angeles in about a week. Japan (especially Tokyo) is awesome, and while it was made painfully clear to me that I’m nowhere near fluent in Japanese after 2.5 years of classes, at least I could still communicate somewhat and get my point across. When that failed, gesturing usually did the trick. If you ever want to improve your charades skills, fly to a foreign country.

As I expected, even in Tokyo, the vast majority of Japanese people I encountered knew very little English. It was far easier for them to try to decipher my broken Japanese than for them to comprehend English phrases. So I got to practice my Japanese quite a bit. Lots of fun, and I would love coming back and visiting Tokyo again.

My next post will likely be up after I return to the U.S. Get ready for lots of photos!

Today has gotta be a popular day for weddings, Vegas trips, and the like ;)

I’m currently staying in Tokyo, Japan (Shibuya to be exact) and shopped at Shibuya, Harajuku, Omotesando and Aoyama today and yesterday. Tomorrow I’m heading to Akihabara!!

I’m in Taipei, Taiwan! One of my all-time favorite cities, though I went to Taipei 101 this afternoon (the tallest building in the world) and I wasn’t as impressed with the shopping center and food court this time. Still, I love being here.

Tomorrow, I have to catch an early shuttle to the airport to meet up with my tour group going to Hokkaido, Japan. So I’m sleeping early today, but right now I’m watching what I call the Voyeur Cam on the hotel TV. One of the TV channels is a direct feed of a security camera  fixed on the lobby counter where guests check in. It’s enormously addicting to see what kinds of people are staying here and to see people milling about the lobby. I can watch this all day! But I have to sleep soon.

I spent last week in Tainan and Kaohsiung, both major cities in Taiwan, and I’ve been in Hong Kong since yesterday. I will be leaving for Taiwan tomorrow and going to Japan a couple days after that! As expected, I don’t have much time to spend online so I’ll be posting a lot more pictures by the end of July when my vacation ends. Here’s a quickie I snapped today while at The Peak overlooking the Hong Kong Harbor (I think it’s called Victoria Harbour).

I’ll be in Hong Kong for only a total of three days and this is my first time here, but I gotta say, I prefer Taiwan infinitely more. If nothing else, Taiwanese people in general are exceedingly gracious and helpful. Hong Kong folks… well, I get the impression their lives are so hectic they can’t bother with anybody else.

One thing I’ve noticed is that there’s flocks of fashionable Hong Kong girls roaming the streets and shopping at the many malls in the middle of the weekday. I was wondering why they didn’t have school or work and could afford to spend prime hours of the day shopping, but I figured they might also be on vacation like me.

The more pressing question I have, though, is how these girls manage to look so fresh at all times. They look gorgeous in their immaculate make-up and don’t even break a sweat in this humidity, nor do they even seem bothered. Short of popping into a bathroom every five minutes, I don’t understand how they can achieve this state. It would be a nice survival tip to learn as I am still pretty miserable from this weather. Not that I want to be called gorgeous, you see (I am a guy after all). But to be immune to humidity is a pretty handy status effect to have.

Visiting Asia during the summer is typically always a bad idea because the weather is so insufferable. Unfortunately, summers are the only times I’ve been able to make the trip overseas. The heat and humidity here makes it feel almost literally like I’m walking into a giant sauna every time I step outside. But it’s a giant sauna with none of the therapeutic properties and all of the discomfort. Still, as this is likely to be the last summer I can enjoy without having any responsibilities or worries whatsoever, I’m determined to make the most of my trip while I’m here.

I’m watching the PGA U.S. Open Championship now in HD. It’s been long known that movies and sports are the prime reasons for getting HD programming, but wow, watching this stunning golf course in HD is just unbelievable. The clarity and sharpness! The brilliant greens! You truly can’t go back after seeing HD.

I leave for Taipei, Taiwan in a couple days so I’m busy packing and applying the finishing touches on the points of interest I’ve planned out. My flight to Taipei two years ago was supremely awesome so I’m really looking forward to the flight itself, believe it or not. I fly using Eva Air, and last time I had the best instant beef noodle I’ve ever tasted and was serviced by some hottie flight attendants. YMMV on that last bit, since the planes are gigantic and probably house over three dozen flight attendants each. But I’m hoping the instant beef noodle is still being served.

This is a great time to introduce a guilty pleasure of mine: Airline Meals.net! If you’ve ever been dying to know what those guys up in first class are being served, this is the place. They have tons of photos for pretty much any airline you can think of.

UPDATE: While I’m on the subject of food, CheapyD from Cheap Ass Gamer posted a video of himself trying out the new Pepsi Ice Cucumber drink in Tokyo. He’s entertaining as always, check it out.