Congratulations China

1 October 2009 it might be remembered as a sad day in most places of Asia. Some earthquakes shook up Samoa and an extra earthquake surged next to the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. Those quakes provoked some major currents and tsunamis, who hit several countries, including Vietnam.

But other Asian countries will not be that sad today.

On 1 October Japan has a special day called : Koromogae. On this day Japanese have to change their summer clothes for winter clothes. An extra layer will help to survive winter. As this year is quite warm for the time being, it just means businessman have to start to wear their tie again. More formal dresses are the trend for the winter.

Meanwhile Chinese people are proud to celebrate 60 years of People's Republic of China. I got some warm hearted messages today form Chinese friends telling me to watch television, so I can be amazed by the military parade next to Tienanmen.

Some pictures:

Shanghai crash

A 13-floor apartment building under construction collapses in Minhang district, Shanghai Saturday morning June 27, 2009, killing one worker.
The construction fever hasn't stopped in China and new buildings are built every month in most major cities. Because of the high demand top materials and top workers are not always available. So the crash of this massive building is probably caused by bad materials and construction errors.

Japanese cars

Japan is the number 1 car producer in the world. Everybody knows the big car brands like Toyota, Honda, Mazda,... These car companies have special models for Asia and specific models for Japan. As the Japanese are quite rich they also like to spend some money on their cars. That's why in Japan you can see a collection of different Japanese models and expensive foreign cars.

Do you know the ones in the pictures?

P.S. BMW and Mercedes are often associated with the Yakuza (Japanese Mafia), so normally Japanese people will not buy one.

Capsulehotel

A few nights ago I decided to spend a night in a capsulehotel. These kinds of hotels are typical for big business cities like Tokyo and Osaka. As the land prices in Japan have sky rocked out of proportions, a night in a hotel room is quite expensive. But capsulehotels are not really meant for tourist who want to look for cheap accommodations. The rooms are too small and impractical for this purpose.
Businessman in major cities in Japan have a hard and tense life, so they like to relax with colleagues after work. But when relaxing and having fun, time is sometimes forgotten. If you miss your last train, around 00.30. You might have several options. Take a taxi for about 10.000 ¥ and go sleep home or stay in a cheap accomodation, such as a capsulehotel (3000-4000¥ a night). So most capsulehotels are found near train stations in the middle of the city.

I spend the night at a caspulehotel in Shimbashi. Before getting in I had to pay for the night and found a small locker room next to the reception. In the locker room the shoes had to be taken off and slippers would replace them. Accessing the elevator brings me to the second floor, where I find a corridor with 20 capsule rooms. I open mine and sigh in relief, it is bigger than I thought. I was thinking of sleeping in a space as big as those drawers where they put the corpses in hospital. Mind you I can not stand up in the capsule, just sit and bent my head. In a side room of the corridor I find 3 toilets and 2 sinks and 1 shower. As I am the second guest, one person is already watching TV in his capsule, I can notice from the slippers in front of his capsule. So I change clothes to a pyjama, similar to a hospital's gown, provided by the hotel. Inside I have a small control panel where I can switch off the light and can control the radio and TV. I turn on the radio to find out there are 12 channels. 1 channel has English movies and 2 channels provide Japanese (block)porn. Nothing interesting so I decide to get a sleep as it is still quiet.
In the middle of the night different people get in between midnight and 2 am. The corridor fills up with an awful booze smell and my half-sleep gets totally disrupted. The air con is not working well and I don't want to open up the sliding door.
In the morning I wake up around 7.00 and decided to get up and take a shower. When I climb out of my capsule I see more than a dozen pair of slippers, all the capsules got filled up in the night. The snoring and alcohol smell fills up the room and I hurry to get take a shower, pack my stuff, take my shoes, return the key and get out.
Good experience but a terrible night, I suppose you have to be drunk to be able to sleep in a capsule hotel.

Chiang Mai Baby Panda

Exciting news from Chiang Mai, Thailand:

After the first successful artificial insemination of a panda by a Thai veterinarian team a cub has been born to Lin Hui, a 7 year old Panda, on a 10 year loan from China, in Chiang Mai Zoo, northern Thailand. The birth came as a complete surprise to zoo staff who did not know Lin Hui was pregnant. The success follows the 2nd attempt at artificial insemination.The 1st attempt in 2007 failed. Previously, zoo staff had tried everything to try to get the pandas in the right mood, even showing the two Pandas a Panda Sex Movie to try to get them feeling romantic.

There is some concern that Lin Hui may not be able to take care of the baby herself as it is her first. A team of Chinese experts has arrived today to give advice on how to raise the cub. The Chinese experts say that the baby Panda is a female. Officials say the cub is feeding from its mother’s breasts and both are doing well. The Public will be allowed to see the new baby Panda cub in about a month.

Mount Fuji

Mount Fuji or Fuji-san (富士山) is the highest mountain in Japan. With its 3776 it stands lonely on a plain, just 100 km from Tokyo. Mount Fuji is an active volcano that last erupted in 1707, leaving Tokyo at that time full of ashes.
Mount Fuji is also considered a Kami (God) in Shintoism and is often depicted in paintings and literature.
As it is rare to see mount Fuji very clearly it took me about 2 years of travelling to make a collection of nice views of Mount Fuji. For most Japanese people Mount Fuji is considered as shy as a lady. But when you see her, she blows your mind.

Cherry Blossom festival

Last month the Hanami (花見) festival was officially opened upon reporting the first cherry blossoms in Tokyo. This TV report is a nationwide sign to start travelling and looking for the hot spots with the most beautiful blossoms. The cherry blossoms or Sakura are considered the greatest of all blossoms. This Hanami festival takes about 1 months the period that all the blossoms over Japan have perished. But this is a month in which Japanese go crazy about Sakura. Special food is sold like sakura tofu and sakura ice cream, both are pink coloured of course. It is a time of crowds visiting sakura spot, resulting in traffic jams.
As beautiful as the flowers are so are the people visiting the flowers. People feel relaxed and open-hearted just like the blooming of a flower. Special tea ceremonies will be held and some people will put on their best traditional clothes for viewing these blossoms. No the girls are no geisha's! Just woman dressing in their spring kimono to enjoy the Hanami festival.