Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Kimonos and other things

Even when I'm in Portugal I like to indulge myself in a few moment of People Watching. When I'm in the subway or alone in downtown. I observe the common person, tourists and those who like to be different. It's maily driven by curiosity and it's enhanced when I'm travelling, and it peaks when I'm travelling alone. So in Japan there was a lot of that. Either in the coffee shop, or when I was waiting in line for something or in the busiest places.
In Kyoto I got specially obsessed with people in Kimonos. There are many people (specially women) that still wear them. The complete set, because without the socks and the sandals... it wouldn't be right.








But Japan is much more than keeping the traditions. Specially in the largest cities, specially in Tokyo, you find fashion loving people. And the looks can range from very sexy and modern to sexy and childish. But they're always sexy.






Tuna auction

One of the most mentioned attractions of Tokyo it's Tsukiji Market, the fish Market, specially the tuna auctions that happen really early in the morning. Like, really early... like, 5am early!
But sleep had been a secondary thing on this trip so the choice was clear. Me, and two other guests from my hostel met at 4am in the lobby and got a taxi to the market. When we got there we didn't know exactly where to go so we just followed a few other people (tourists) that had waken up as early as we did for the exactly same thing. After running around for 15 minutes we finally got there. To a line where we had to wait, where we could see people arriving a little later than us (around 5am) and going back because all the seats for the auction for that day (160) had already been taken. I was so happy I was not one of them!
In the entrance we saw a video explaining how the auctions were done and only after that we were able to enter the place.

Waiting inside the video room. There was a lot of waiting involved in this.

The environment inside was vibrant. Most of the times there are more than one auction happening simultaneously and they're so fast that I really believe that I wouldn't understand anything that they were saying even if I knew Japanese :P. There is tuna fish everywhere. Whole tunas, frozen tunas, being tossed from one place to the other, being analyzed, just standing there waiting for their destiny... And all of this was seen from a narrow corridor packed with tourists that were trying to take the same pictures you were, trying to see the same things, witness the same auctions. It was not a unique experience, but it was still worth the (very) early morning! :)
Here are the pictures that I was able to take.

Analysing a piece of each of the tunas. These analysis are very thorough!
Looking at the meet directly on the fish
Their color under the light tells them if its too watery or not
They may be very valuable, but they're not always dealt with like that
The bell tells that a new auction is beginning
And here are the bidders
Another auction taking place just a bit further down
Some people looked like retired samurais that now spend their time cutting tuna!
If you are wondering... these are frozen tunas, not fresh (before I thought they only had fresh tuna!)
Inside the market, cars are substituted by these things. My question is, where's the accelerator and the brake?
With frozen tune you use tools like this
A big market also implies tons of garbage. Specially if everything comes in a styrofoam package
Taking a rest. It would be a perfectly normal sight if wasn't 6am!


Thursday, October 25, 2012

The largest city

The transsiberian route was finished, all the goodbyes were said and what was next was a new kind of adventure. A flight away was a new city, a new country, that I would explore alone.
Just on my first walk in Tokyo I started to understand what everyone used to say about Japanese people. I wanted to find my hostel but my directions were incomplete. As I had the address and the name I decided to ask a local girl if she knows how I could get there. She immediately took her mobile and checked it online but as she was not sure we went to the police office that was just across the street. The girl and the policeman talked (in Japanese), looked at a few maps that he had, and reached a conclusion and finally she turned to me and gave a few instructions in her English (not perfect, but good enough). I start walking but the instructions could be understood in different ways and as I didn't want to be lost with around 20kg on my back, I stopped again and asked for directions. It was when they were trying to find where the hostel was that I see the first girl had came out of her way and followed me. She said: "I was worried about you. I'm going with you until the front of the Hostel" and she did! This was my first contact with Japan and it was how I began to respect it immediately.
But it did not end there. On the most populated city of the World (the whole metropolitan area has more than 35million people) it was easy to find amazing things.
Just near where I was staying there was one of the most well known temples in Tokyo, Senso-ji Buddhist temple. It was recently renovated and it shows, it's amazing, specially at night! During the day it is possible to see people going there to say their prayers.

Senso-ji temple in Asakusa in its beautiful illumination
The pagoda near Senso-ji temple

The temple by day, it's still great but I prefer the night version
In the surroundings of the Tempo you can pay for a kind of fortune telling which is divided into Good and Bad Fortune. And, of couse, I tried my luck... which got to be Bad luck, so I tied the paper where the wind could blow the bad luck away.
And when it's bad luck, it's really BAD luck

And here it is blowing in the wind with the others...



But these images were far away of my imaginary of what Tokyo was and it was only when I got to Shibuya that I saw something more alike to my the scenary in my mind. The crouds, the famous cross-walk, the smells coming from all kind of restaurants (Indian, French, Italian and Japanese, of course), the lights from the stores and the commercials. It's basically an overflow to the senses. But I loved it. I love that urban buzz that you can find only in the largest cities, and that was it!

A wall of people at the other side ready to "charge"


People, going from one place to the other... all the time... everywhere

Shibuya crossing seen from above... it's even more impressive

Every store is lit!

And then there are other things that make this city unique and that made me like it so much and here are a few of them.

A restaurant with people eating outside. A common view on the most traditional neighborhoods

Most restaurants have a display of their dishes outside But these are made of plastic! There's a whole industry behind these models.

Every neighborhood has its specific characteristics. This is a shop in Akihabara (the Electronic town). Of course, it sold electronic stuff like most of the shops here.

Akihabara is also known as the place for the nerds... And there are many girls like these that try to capture the attention of these nerds and invite them to bars were are more girls dressed like this. A bit weird I have to say.



And on the parks you can easily find street performers that are VERY good at what they do. This was in Ueno Park.
On the entrance of each home there is a hall where you should leave your shoes. This, of course, happens in all of Japan

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Beijing by day

My first thought about Beijing, when we left the train station was "This is not a place where someone gets lonely". I had never seen such a busy place. Lots of people going in every direction... It was crazy!... For a moment I asked myself if I could do 4 days of this, but there was no need. The city ended up being much more organized and not as crowded as I expected. Of course there were a few exceptions, and here I will show you some of them.
For the few that had been here before, the city has been losing a lot of its charm. The old neighborhoods, built over narrow alleys, called hutongs, have been destroyed to make place for the new western huge avenues with modern buildings and shoppings malls. Fortunally there are still of few around and just on the first day we ran into one by chance (I love when this happens).
First thing that struck me was that the atmosphere here was completely different! If the other street where we had been walking could belong to most of the cities I've been to, this was different... this felt... unique and vibrant! There is a lot of food for sale mixed with all kinds of shops. Some guys had no shirt on, the narrow alley was full, of people, of smells, colours... it was a feast for the senses. Finally I felt like I was in China! :)
I've walked through hutongs later on, mostly at night, and even got a bit tipsy on one! :P At night time, things are a bit different. 

There is a lot of food in the hutongs. Fruit...

Cold meat...
Meat at "room" temperature...
Yet to be meat...
All kinds of nuts
All kinds of eggs
Candied fruit

Some meat skewers... and much more!

There were no other clothes around, just these two manequins with winter coats on a very warm day (around 25ºC)
Another mandatory place in Beijing is the Forbidden City. At first I was not very curious and actually, didn't know exactly what to expect, so my expectations were imensly overcome. We had to wake up at 7am to be there when it opened (at 8h30am) to fleed the masses and because Natalie had an airplane to catch!
Even at this hour the amount of people was overwhelming (the name "Forbidden" becomes a bit out of place when you see so many people in the "city"). Being the last day of a big Chinese holiday didn't help at all, either. So we had to share the experience with thousands of other tourists, which was actaully okay, because the Forbidden City is so big, that you can even find yourself alone a few times in the smaller squares!

Of course, a picture of Mao at the entrance!
The hordes of people walking towards the center of the (not so) Forbidden City
The hordes of people walking towards the center of the (not so) Forbidden City - part2
This dragon statues were in almost every roof

The city is so big that you welcome one of these from time to time

One of the doors between one Holliness Serenity Square to the other (the names were all like this)

Sometimes you need some help to carry on
On our way out
This was taken on the next day. The forbidden city under the smog of a monday morning.
And here is the proof that I was there :p

But because Beijing is much more than this, I leave you here with a few other images of it.

This doesn't happen only in India
Music is fashion

It's very common to see people dancing or doing Tai-chi in the gardens. The two women facing the camera were doing just that

Everyone wanted to see/take a picture of what the others were seeing/taking pictures of
On the other side, the crowd. In the Temple of Heaven
And when you have to go,you have to go! Yes, the kid was peeing, not even aiming to the flowers! I've even seen a kid on top of a garbage can in the metro peeing inside of it!
And that is why they have these pants... with a hole from back to front! This way is easier... way easier!
On Tianmen Square we could see kids having fun...
...kids being patriotic...
...adults working/having fun...
...and adults being patriotic.
Signs of Portugal. Don't get too excited, they tasted like srambled eggs! :(
Arty cafe in district 798
Just around the forbidden city
We tried to go here, but apparently the Beijing Underground City has closed... for a while!
We found a park and in this small corner there were several people all playing cards and drinking tea! It was cool!
Sometimes you get lonely, even in Beijing

Wrong match!