Capsule Tour

I've arranged some of these posts in approximate chronological order. Ideally, you would read the oldest post first, and so on. Unfortunately, Blogger makes this difficult. You should probably click through to the last page of posts, and open each post in its own tab. (If you don't open a post in its own tab, then when you click the back button, it takes you to the blog's home page and shows you the most recent posts, and you'll have lost your spot.) Sorry for the inconvenience.

Location: Hong Kong I got back to my hostel after a day of sightseeing. Turning the corner to my room, I heard a boom box playing eurotrash EDM at maximum volume, and I saw two naked Italian men in their 20s. They had checked into the room next to mine while I was out. They weren't completely naked. They were wearing Speedo-cut underwear, designer belts, and designer sunglasses. (Belts... but no pants.) They were having an enthusiastic conversation about which belt buckle went with which pair of sunglasses. One of them asked me to weigh in. "Which one is a-bett-ah, dis one or dis one?" I picked a pair of sunglasses at random, wished them luck, and retired to my room.

Location: New Territories, Hong Kong Lonely Planet recommended visiting a museum in the New Territories. I think it was the Hong Kong Heritage Museum. This was before smartphones, and the only information Lonely Planet provided about how to get there was which bus to take and which stop to get off at. I assumed that would be enough. Otherwise, it seems like they would have written more. The bus ride was half an hour long. It started out in downtown Kowloon, which is as built-up as Manhattan. As we entered the New Territories, the landscape transitioned to huge apartment buildings made of concrete. They had become stained with age. Each building had hundreds of old air conditioners and clothes lines hanging off its sides. Towards the end of the route, I started to see large undeveloped fields of grass and weeds. I felt like I was very far from what I thought of as "Hong Kong." The recommended stop turned out to be a small bus depot in the middle of nowhere. It was on a road th...

Location: Hong Kong I used Hostelworld to find a place to stay in Hong Kong. I found it suspicious that a dozen hostels had basically the same address, and none of them had existed for more than a few months. I guessed that the hostels were being rebranded every few months to eliminate bad reviews on sites like Hostelworld. But for $8 a night, I was willing to overlook a lot. I found out later that the hostels were in "Chungking Mansions," which is a group of huge run-down buildings in downtown Kowloon that are famous for drugs, crime, scams, illegal immigration, murders, and being fire traps. The hostel I booked occupied part of one floor. It wasn't so bad. The paint was fresh, the bed was comfortable, the sheets were clean, and it seemed safe enough. There was always a guy at the front desk, monitoring various CCTV feeds. There were problems. I had picked the lower bunk of a bunk bed. The mattress above me was suspended by wooden slats, and half the slats were broken. I...

Location: Seoul, Korea The last day I was in Korea, I went sightseeing. I got back to my hostel in the evening, and arrived at what appeared to be an Okinawan cultural heritage festival. A group of maybe 20 people had just arrived from Okinawa and they were singing, dancing, and wearing traditional garb in the hostel's common area. I asked what was going on. They were very excited to talk with me, specifically because I'm an American. I learned that they were an activist group, protesting the presence of the US military in Okinawa. Their ultimate goal was to travel to the US to protest. I felt bad for them that they were in Korea, i.e., they had only managed to travel a few hundred miles, and it was in the wrong direction. As an American, I was taught in school that the US had installed military bases all over the world, that the bases existed to protect foreign countries, and that the people in those foreign countries were grateful for said protection. It was jarring to run in...

Location: Joint Security Area, Korea I went on a tour of the DMZ in Korea. Part of the tour was to walk through a tunnel that had been dug by North Koreans in the 70s in order to sneak into South Korea. The tunnel was only about 5'6 tall and I'm over 6' tall. I had to hunch over to fit. Hunching and walking becomes very uncomfortable very quickly. We had to wear hard hats, which reduced clearance even more. I guess North Koreans were not tall people in the 70s. (I doubt they are now, either.) When the tunnel was discovered, the North Koreans claimed that they were mining for coal and had gotten lost, and that they were definitely not trying to invade South Korea. As proof that the tunnel was for coal mining, they had smeared some streaks of soot on the walls. The evidence was so flimsy that it was laugh-out-loud funny. Our tour guide told us that most South Koreans hope for reunification with North Korea and believe it can happen because of how East Germany was able to reun...

When I was in Korea, learning English was very popular. You could stand almost anywhere in Seoul, look around, and spot a private English school. Korea's economy was growing exponentially, per-capita income was increasing, and Koreans wanted to travel internationally. There were 70% more outbound tourism departures from Korea in 2007 than in 2003. So... English. Location: Seoul, Korea I flew into Incheon and took a train to Seoul. I had to take the subway to my hostel. I walked into the subway station and saw a huge map of the subway system printed on a wall. I stopped in front of it and started to plan my route. About 30 feet down the corridor, there was a group of teenage schoolgirls, in schoolgirl uniforms. They saw me and giggled. After some discussion, they literally pushed one of the girls towards me. She asked me if I needed any help. Her English was very good. I politely declined. She ran back to her friends. They were all still giggling. Location: Seoul, Korea I went to th...

Location: Busan, Korea I went to the beach city of Busan in the middle of winter, which was a stupid idea. I was there for one night. I walked along Haeundae beach in the evening. The temperature was literally freezing and nobody was on the beach or in the nearby bars, restaurants, etc. I needed somewhere to spend the night. Before leaving for Busan, several people had recommended that I spend the night in a Korean spa ("Jjimjilbang"). I'm told they're cheap, clean, comfortable, and that it's common for patrons to spend the night sleeping on the wooden floors. So in the back of my mind, I had planned to stay at a Jjimjilbang. But when push came to shove, I didn't have any idea how to find a Jjimjilbang, nor was I excited about sleeping on a wooden floor with a bunch of strangers. I started looking for a hotel on the beach. The Korean writing system is phonetic, and I knew enough to sound out the Korean word for hotel, which (lucky for me) is "hotel."...

Location: Busan, Korea I was walking along Haeundae beach and popped into a restaurant for dinner. The waitstaff didn't speak any English, but the menu had pictures. The restaurant offered a lot of stews. Korean stews are often an angry red color, and these were no exception. The pictures were a bit too small for me to tell what was in each stew. I picked a stew, essentially at random. The waiter looked nervous and motioned for me to wait a second. He came back with one of the cooks, who had obviously been in the middle of cooking something. The waiter asked the cook to translate something. The cook struggled, and came up with: "This... soup... not... for... white people." I have no idea what they were trying to communicate, but I assured them that it was fine and that I still wanted the stew. The stew arrived boiling hot, so I did have to wait a couple minutes for it to cool down. It was very spicy, but not unbearably so. I think the meat was chicken. It was a bit tricky...

Location: Seoul, Korea My friend Amie took me to see Namdaemun one night. It's a big gate that was part of Seoul's city wall roughly 550 years ago. It was the first thing to be designated a "National Treasure of South Korea." An arsonist set fire to the gate only three months after we saw it. The fire destroyed a large portion of the gate. It took three years and $21 million to restore it. I'm glad I was able to see it before the fire. Location: Seoul, Korea At one point, I was walking along the Han river. I was on a pedestrian trail that had signs posted about the history of the river. One of the signs had a large black-and-white photograph, taken in the 1960s, from the same location as the sign. It showed dozens of Korean women squatting at the edge of the river, washing clothes by hand. Behind them, there were dozens of wooden shacks with corrugated tin roofs. The standard of living was remarkably low. I looked up from the sign. Across the perfectly-manicured e...

Location: Seoul, Korea If you're in the US and you suggest that Koreans eat dog meat, people are quick to tell you that that's an inaccurate and offensive racist stereotype. But it turns out that Koreans have eaten dog meat for millennia. It's controversial now, but a small percentage of Koreans today still eat dog meat, and it's available at a small number of butcher shops. At one point, I was walking around downtown Seoul with my friend Claire. We passed by a butcher shop. She gestured at it and said, dejectedly, "you still see that sometimes." I didn't know what she was talking about. She had to back up and point directly at the skinned dog in the display window. It was at ground level, probably so that it wouldn't attract too much attention. The meat was the same color as all the other red meat in the display window. There's no way I would have noticed it if she hadn't pointed it out. Location: Seoul, Korea Seoul has a bunch of street food ...

Location: Seoul, Korea My hostel in Seoul was located in Insadong. Insadong is known for being a historic (old) neighborhood with narrow streets, and it didn't disappoint. Small Korean-brand work vans barrel down alleyways at speed, with only a few inches to spare on either side. While on foot in Insadong, I had to back out of several side streets to avoid being run over. I arrived at the hostel, checked in, and used the bathroom. I flushed some toilet paper down the toilet and it clogged the plumbing immediately. I told the guy at the front desk. He was upset, and told me that the plumbing in Insadong is not robust enough to handle toilet paper, as if I should have know that already. It's expected that people put soiled toilet paper in the small wastepaper bins that are located next to toilets, which is as gross as it sounds. My room had four beds and a small TV. I flipped through the TV channels. There were about a dozen, two of which were devoted to StarCraft. Watching them ...

Location: Nara, Japan There's a city near Kyoto (Nara) that's famous for having free-roaming deer. The deer are mostly found in Nara Park, but it's easy to spot deer elsewhere in the city. They generally know to walk on sidewalks, and they seem to understand how to safely cross the street at intersections. I don't know if they understand the pedestrian walk signals, or if they just wait alongside humans who are also trying to cross the street. Probably the latter. I went to Nara Park. I saw a few people petting the deer. I didn't know if that was safe, or recommended, but I gave it a shot. The deer I decided to pet was completely indifferent to my presence. Its skin twitched when I touched it. I think that's a reflex to keep flies from landing on it. I followed a group of tourists to a giant temple. There was a large paved area in front of the temple, with vendors selling food for the deer, and dozens of tourists buying said food and feeding the deer. I've b...

Location: Kyoto, Japan I stayed at a brilliant hostel in Kyoto. It was managed (and possibly owned) by two people: a younger woman and an older man who were members of a local rock band named "Niplets." The word for Japan in Japanese is Nippon, so a "Niplet" might be a little Japanese person? Or maybe it has something to do with nipples. The hostel had a large shared area with couches, bean bags, and a big TV that was showing the BBC documentary "Planet Earth" on a loop. The woman (I think her name was Junko) would organize outings to traditional Japanese restaurants in the evenings, and she would play her guitar for a while after we got back. Once a week, Junko would hold a traditional Japanese dinner at the hostel. She moved the furniture out of the shared area and replaced it with a long, low dining table. She put out mats for guests to sit on. The cuisine was specific to Kyoto. I got back from sightseeing in time for the dinner. Junko told me that nobo...

Location: Tokyo, Japan There's a district in Tokyo named Roppongi that's famous for Western-style nightlife. It's full of bars, clubs, restaurants, and foreigners. I took the subway to Roppongi and started out at an Irish pub. I sat at the bar. Two younger men from Australia came in and sat next to me. They worked construction in Australia and were spending a long weekend in Tokyo. I suppose that, if you're Australian, a city that's "only" nine hours away by plane seems close enough for a weekend getaway. I sipped a Guinness while they drank pitchers of beer. One of them had written down a nightclub recommendation. They asked me if I wanted to go with them. I said sure. I didn't have any other plans. We left the bar. The Australians wanted to take a cab to the nightclub. I said we should try to figure out where it was first. I didn't want to pay for a cab ride that might be very long, nor did I want to pay for a cab to somewhere that we could easil...

Location: Tokyo, Japan I went to an EDM nightclub in Tokyo that was recommended by Lonely Planet. I got there at around 9 PM. It was pretty crowded. Most of the people there were Japanese. There were a handful of tourists (or exchange students?) who looked American. I would have talked with them, but the music was too loud. So I leaned against the bar, sipped a beer, and enjoyed the music. From my spot at the bar, I had a clear view of the entrance. Shortly after 10, a group of three girls walked in together. They were attractive, and their makeup and outfits were on point. They surveyed the room for a second or two and split up. One of the girls walked straight at me and introduced herself. She only knew a few words of English, but she was friendly and enthusiastic. The situation was suspect, but I decided to not overthink it, and offered to buy her a drink. We talked with each other as best we could, given the volume of the music and lack of a common language. She tried to get me to ...

Location: Tokyo, Japan Before going to Japan, I had read that they don't use street addresses in Tokyo. That sounded too stupid to be true, but it is true, and it is stupid. Instead of street addresses, they use a system of numbered blocks and building names. Lonely Planet had a listing for a nightclub in Tokyo and I decided to check it out. I copied down its "address," along with directions that started at a nearby subway station. I followed the directions as best I could, but couldn't find the club. I ended up in front of a hotel and decided to ask for directions. The hotel was nice, and not busy. There were three employees at the front desk who spoke English and were eager to help. I showed them the address. None of them could make heads or tails of it. They pulled out a binder full of maps and eventually located the correct page. That narrowed the search down to a different, smaller binder that was also full of maps. They had many binders of maps. After a couple m...

Location: Tokyo, Japan When I was in Japan, Italian food was very popular. Foreign restaurants in Japan seemed rare, but I did see several restaurants that only served Italian food. And most of the Japanese restaurants I went to had a section of their menu devoted to Italian food. I suppose everybody in the world likes Italian food. At one point I was eating at a restaurant in Akihabara. Half the menu was Japanese and the other half was Italian. The restaurant was going for a romantic atmosphere, with dim lighting and a candle on each table. There was a young couple seated towards the front of the restaurant. Everything about their body language said they were on a first date. The woman had ordered Japanese food. The man had ordered a plate of spaghetti. I wonder if he had ordered foreign food to seem cosmopolitan. The spaghetti had been served with a fork. He obviously had no idea that you're supposed to twirl noodles around a fork. He kept inserting his fork into the side of the ...

Location: Tokyo, Japan I was walking around in Akihabara one night (the district of Tokyo with all the electronics shops, anime shops, etc.) and happened upon an illuminated, free-standing vertical map of the neighborhood. I wasn't going anywhere in particular and decided to check out the map to get a feel for what was nearby. From behind me, somebody said, "You got a problem?!" The tone of voice was aggressive and the accent was perfect American English. I thought to myself, "Shit, I'm just walking around and now I have to fight a guy?!" I turned around. The speaker was an older Japanese man. He repeated himself. He could say this one phrase with no accent at all. Then, with a thick Japanese accent, he elaborated: "You lost? You need direction? Where you going?" The guy was just trying to be helpful.

Location: Tokyo, Japan I met a German man at the hostel in Tokyo. He was a professional photographer, sent to Japan by his employer, and had managed to extend his trip to do some sightseeing. (Aside: I've found that being able to speak German is enormously useful when traveling. Germans love to travel. I can't remember the last time I traveled to somewhere and didn't meet a German.) We compared travel guidebooks. They both suggested going to the same onsen, so we did. An onsen is a facility that has been built around a hot spring, such that you can go and bathe in the hot spring. They figure significantly in Japanese culture. We arrived at the onsen. The lobby had prominent signs indicating that tattoos were prohibited. I've been told that this is common, and intended to prevent gangsters (yakuza) from entering. That was in 2007. Now that tattoos have become so popular, I wonder if the policy has changed. Traditionally, men and women would bathe together, naked, in an ...