Tiffany's journey in Japan: Taiwan, HK & Japan

To my uncles, aunts and grandmas,

Thank you for a wonderful time. It was fun visiting all the different sights and I loved spending time with all of you. Hopefully it won't be another 7 years before we can meet again!

Just a short recap of my trip (mainly for mom's sake)

Hong Kong: I think the highlight was seeing everyone and being able to spend time with family. The places that everyone took Andrea and me to were also very beautiful.

It was also interesting to take the subways and the trains as well. I was thankful that they were kept so clean too, just like in Nagoya. However, I would have to say that the subways in HK seem to be newer than the ones where I live. I really enjoyed riding the Disney line one as well because of the statues in each car and the disney shaped handles. ^_^

Going to HK also reminded me how scary and how cool it is to ride a cable car. In Japan, I don't think there are many of them, so I really enjoyed the cable car rides. Being up so high though was a little bit scary - I kept wondering about what would happen if something broke down and we stopped.

The fun was a nice break from eating Japanese food all the time too. As I said before, it's hard to find good Chinese food where I live; I'm not sure if anyone has found a place yet actually. I know there are a few places I have yet to try, so I'll try them this semester, but I'm pretty certain it won't be like food in HK. Definitely I won't find chicken tongue! :-P

I went to Taiwan for the first time ever as well. Thank you for also taking me on that trip! Even though I'm couldn't understand all of the explanations of certain sights or places, I had a lot of fun. The pineapple cake was really really good! It was a good experience. However, the cleanliness of Taiwan was really hard to be accustomed to; I'm used to everywhere being really clean, nice and not smelly from stinky tofu.

Going to Tokyo, I was really nervous. If Andrea and I had to wait for a train for more than an hour, then we most likely couldn't check into our hotel in Tokyo. Narita is about 1 and a half hours away from Tokyo, and since we arrived at 9, I was super worried about being on time. That's why I was so relieved when there was an express about to leave when we arrived on the platform - it was worth getting their a half an hour early for double the price.

Celebrating New Years in Tokyo made me realize how different the celebrations are. Although there are some people who go out to drink and have 'an American New Years', we didn't see them. Instead, people would gather and go visit the temple at midnight. AND IT WAS CROWDED. People literally waited shoulder to shoulder on the streets, lined up, just to go do their first visit to a temple. Of course, there were a lot of revelry going on as well. The next morning was just as bad too - Andrea and I visited Meiji shrine, which isn't the most famous shrine but it is pretty renown, and it was packed as well. To go from one gate(とり) to the next one (about 50km, I think), it took around an hour. In order to amuse people waiting, there was a huge screen showing advertisements and instructions on how to pray at a shrine. Needless to say, we were both a bit bored and started playing with our iPhones.

It was also during this time that the earthquake on New Years took place. All of the sudden we started to feel a vibrating underneath or feet. We all started to feel like we were a bit unbalance - not normal. It got quiet and people quickly begin to whisper "地震、地震 (earthquake)". From our right we could see the lanterns with the names of companies painted on them start to shake as well. That was the most obvious sign. It only lasted a few seconds though, and afterwards everyone was back to normal, talking and slowly moving up in line. They treated it as a daily occurrence; my friends who were in Tokyo before for Autumn break said that the one they felt back then was much bigger.

After visiting the shrine, we spent almost all the rest of time shopping. In Nagoya, we really got to see how big the sales were - every store had some sort of sale, and people crowded to them. The malls were way to busy for me - they were lines everywhere and it was literally a sea of people. In Nagoya, Andrea and I tried to eat at an all you can eat cake buffet, but the line for that was huge, and we had to wait for 2 hours to get a table. We ended up reserving a spot, and then going somewhere else for lunch. However, at the other place it was also at least a 45 minute wait, with a line that stretched around the shop. The mall we went to didn't have a food court, so it was filled with small restaurants or eating places. We couldn't even order to go because there was no where to eat it if we did.

However, it was a great time for the both of us. I know we both enjoyed the food that we ate, especially the desserts! ^_^