We're going to Xiamen

The May Day holiday is coming up and it's similar to Labor Day in the US. The kids are off from school for two days and it makes for a long weekend. So, we're packing up and taking off when Matthew gets off the school bus and heading to Xiamen. Ina and her family will be joining us as well and that will be fun. Xiamen is about 1.5 hours away from Shanghai and it's got very balmy weather.

Xiamen is better known by it's former name of Amoy and it became a foreign concession in 1903 with most of the foreigners living on the tiny islet of Gulang Yu just off Xiamen. By the 1930's there were about 500 resident foreigners and nine consulates. Over the past four centuries, it was host to the Portuguese, British, French and Japanese.

We're going to wander around Xiamen and then go visit a Hakka Earthen Fortress (tulou) located in Yongding about 128 miles outside of Xiamen. The Hakka are Han who emigrated south from near Kaifeng in five waves beginning more than 1,000 years ago. Many kept moving around southern China because of civil war, famine and discrimination by earlier Han arrivals. Unlike other Han, the Hakka women did not bind their feet and worked alongside men in the fields and tended to marry only other Hakka. They maintained what they claim is something close to early Chinese that is unintelligible to speakers of Mandarin, Cantonese and Min Nan Hua.

The Hakka are an officially recognized minority and they are known for their hospitality to outsiders. The direct translation of the word Hakka means "guest family". My great-great-grandfather is of Hakka descent and settled in Hong Kong. This will be interesting for me to explore the village and discover information about my background.

Senso-Ji

Last day in Tokyo. Packed up and headed out with my friends for our final tour. Checked out of the hotel and hopped the train to Tokyo Midtown to run an errand, pick up breakfast and visit Lisa. She's a friend of Andrea's who is also from the US and she recently had a baby. After cooing over the baby, we hopped a cab and headed over to Senso-Ji.



Senso-Ji is a grand old temple that attracts millions of tourists and is a working temple as well. It services the people of Asakusa. Legend has it that the golden image of Kannon, the Goddess of Compassion was fished out of the nearby Sumida-gawa by two fisherman in AD 628. In time, a temple was built to house the image and it has remained in the same spot ever since. The Senso-Ji is also known as the Asakusa Kannon-do.



We arrived and did our precursory browsing around the temple. There is a shopping street that sells traditional Japanese Edo-style craft and lots of snacks. You can even find a shop that sells wigs to be worn with kimonos. While we were shopping, Andrea spotted a geisha wandering through one of the side lanes and practically knocked down the visitors at the temple in order to get a glimpse of her. Well done. She captured the photos and we can say we've seen everything now that we've been to Tokyo. We had to run back to the hotel to catch our ride to the airport.



We had a fabulous time in Tokyo and are grateful for Andrea's tour. We will always look back at our pictures and remember all the laughs we've had together. I am going to see if I can arm wrestle Tony into finding a job that will take us to Tokyo. That will be another adventure for us. In the meantime, we're planning a trip to Seoul, Korea with the kids this time. Bulgolgi anyone?

Harajuku

Wandered around town on Saturday after the fish market. We headed back to Shibuya to meet Heather, an expat friend of Andrea's who is from the US as well. Heather's children were performing taiko drumming at the annual gathering for the Miyabi Arashi Taiko School. Of course, no visit can be complete without a meal somewhere. We headed for lunch at My Lebanon- a great Lebanese restaurant. Since we overdid it at lunch, we needed to walk off our meal, so we did a bit of shopping and wandered around Andrea's old neighborhood in Motoazabu before calling it a night. The weather in Tokyo has been rainy and windy so we weren't able to get a lot done.



Today, we headed out for Omote-sando, Harajuku and the Meji shrine. We hopped the train from the hotel and got off at Omote-sando to begin our adventures. Omote-sando, the boulevard that runs from Harajuku to Aoyama is lined with upscale shops found in all the major cities. We did some shopping and met Heather for lunch at Fujimamas. After lunch, we headed to Harajuku. This is a place where parents do not want their children to be at. Every Sunday is Cos-play-zoku (Costume Play Gang). This is a group that consists of many kids from the small towns who ride out to Tokyo to participate at Harajuku to strut their stuff.



The Cos-play-zoku will pose for you when asked and they are quite proud of their outfits and makeup. We saw everything from Goth, punk, fantasy, S&M, Victorian, anime and more often than not, nursery rhyme characters. It was basically the Rocky Horror Picture Show comes to life or the freak show circus. The streets were packed and we arrived at the height of the crowd. We were lucky that the weather was nice and it was filled with many people. We found a spot and just hung out to see the different costumes walking past us.



After hanging around and people watching, we headed over to Meji shrine. Compared to the mayhem that was going on around the corner, the Meji shrine was a much needed respite. It was so peaceful and calm that its hard to believe just right outside the park is the freak circus. We were lucky to see three brides at the shrine. They were each dressed in the traditional Japanese wedding kimono and were really beautiful. We left the shrine to continue our adventures and saw the remants of the Cos-play-zoku group at Harajuku. It was an interesting day and I must say, when we go back to Tokyo as a family, I'll make sure that Matthew does not get to see Harajuku.

Tsukiji Market

We arrived into Tokyo yesterday afternoon and were greeted by rainy weather. Not exactly what we wanted but nevertheless, we made do. We headed over to Gonpachi for dinner. We had a fabulous meal and then headed over to Shibuya and Roppongi Hills. Along the way, Andrea took us to a pornographic restaurant that featured various parts of the human anatomy on display. I will leave the details to your imagination. If you didn't know anything about the human body, this is definitely the place to go. No details have been omitted. If you are a medical student, this would be a good place to study. Let's just say the parts of the body are extremely exaggerated and it was "hard" to take it in. We wandered around town and returned to the hotel about 12:30AM.



Andrea and I went to bed at 2:30 this morning and got up at 4:45 AM to head over to Tsujiki Market to watch the fish mongers work. It was quite active when we arrived at 5:30 AM and nearly got run over by the vehicles transporting the fish throughout the market. I must say, the market was clean without any fish odors. I can't say that would be true in Shanghai. We topped the morning off with a Japanese style breakfast. Sushi! Very fresh tuna. Words cannot express how fresh the tuna was. We even had salmon, shrimp, octopus and tamago (egg on rice with nori). Gotta add the egg to make it officially breakfast.

We returned to our hotel room and found Anne and Irene still asleep. They are amateurs. Heading out to explore the other parts of town and will undoubtedly, have more eating adventures.

I'm heading to Tokyo

Well, I'm taking off on Friday with my girlfriends Anne, Andrea, and Irene for a long weekend in Tokyo. Mom's only. No kids. The kids will be left with their fathers and we'll be running loose through Tokyo with Andrea as our guide. Andrea lived in Tokyo for about a year and a half before she got shipped out to Shanghai. I've always wanted to go but have never found the time to do it. Matthew's a bit disappointed that I'm doing this trip without him but I promised that we'll go again later as a family. Tony and Matthew will be on their own for a few days...which means Guy Night for several days. Four glorious days without me hounding them to clean up. I'm sure there will be endless videos, games and takeout. As long as the house is clean when I return, all will be fine.

Longhua Pagoda and Temple

Took a ride over to Longhua Pagoda and Temple today with Anne and Andrea. Longhua Pagoda and Temple is located in Shanghai and was first built in 242 A.D. during the Three Kingdoms Period and is the oldest temple in Shanghai and the largest as well. It contains numerous Halls and is filled with statues and treasures. There is also a Bell Tower and Drum Tower. On the top of the Pagoda is a small calabash shaped structure with an iron plate over it, popularly known as the "treasure bottle" because it contains the ashes of Buddha. The Longua Pagoda is the only pagoda in Shanghai.

According to the history I was able to find, the scenery near the Huang Pu River was very charming. When King Sun Quan sailed to Huang Pu, his mother found the area lovely and decided to stay. After staying several months, she was relaxed and in good health, King Sun Quan erected a temple in her honor to express his thanks to heaven.

By the end of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) the temple was almost destroyed in a war. According to legend, King Qian Chu of the Song Dynasty anchored his boat for the night and noticed the temple was on fire. He immediately ordered his men to save the temple. By 977, the temple was rebuilt. In 1064, the temple was renamed Kongxiang Temple. The name Longhua was restored during Emperor Wanli's reign (1573-1620) in the Ming Dynasty. In the early years of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) the temple underwent extensive renovations to its present shape.


Chinese Pagodas were first found in India. Buddhism was spread into China in the 1st Century A.D. and it was recorded in the Buddhist scriptures that when Buddha Sakyayumni died, his disciples cremated his body and took a portion of his remains, for which they built pagodas. Longhua Temple is a wood and brick structure with a brick body. In 1892, the wooden balustrades on the lower stories of the pagoda were damaged in a fire. They were later replaced with cement structures, losing their original appeal. In 1953, the government rebuilt the Pagoda and restored its original look. We arrived and wandered through the surrounding Longhua Temple and witnessed many followers observing the Qingming ritual (Tomb Sweeping). Tomb Sweeping is an annual event (much like Easter celebrated by Christians) where you honor your deceased and follow the ritual as dictated by the Buddhist religion. We saw people burning paper money, paper cars, paper homes and offering food to the memory of their deceased. This is all done in hopes of bringing good fortune and luck into the family. There are various temples on the grounds and we were able to see each of them. We noticed many Peach Blossoms in bloom and were able to just enjoy the serenity in the temple.

Fifth Grade Soccer Day Part II

We had absolutely fabulous weather today. Sunny skies, 70 degree temperature and it was Soccer Day! The entire fifth grade got together and competed against the local British school, Korean school and Singapore school. Two additional international schools traveled to Shanghai from Suzhou and Nanjing to compete in the tournament. Suzhou is about 2 hours away and the students arrived this morning. Nanjing is about 3.5 hours away by car so the students from Nanjing arrived into Shanghai Wednesday night and stayed overnight.

Matthew's class competed against all the schools and there were some injuries and some crying. He did the kickoff at each game and was busy with his classmates chasing the ball. It was a great experience for the kids to be able to play with other schools. The weather was perfect and the kids needed a day to be out of the classrooms and just goof off. Spring has definitely arrived in Shanghai and we're happy about it!

Jewish Ghetto Walk

I went with my friends Anne and Andrea for a walk through the Jewish ghetto of Shanghai. This area was home to many Jewish refugees during 1937-1941. It was a historical walk and it taught me a bit of history that I didn't know about Shanghai. The Jewish ghetto is located in the Hongkou district and was home to many foreigners. Mainly missionaries and others who couldn't afford to live in a better area. Shanghai experienced several waves of Jewish immigration. The first happened in the late 1840's with the arrival of the Sephardic Jews. They were businessmen who made their fortune in opium and property. They built large estates and as many as seven synagogues and were responsible for some of Shanghai's finest architecture. The Sassons, who emigrated from Baghdad in the mid-19th century were the first Jewish family to make a fortune in Shanghai and is known for the Peace Hotel and a villa estate now know as the Cypress Hotel.

The second wave of Jewish emigrants comprised of Russian Jews fleeing the Bolsheviks at the beginning of the 20th century. They were then followed in the 1930's by the third wave of European Jews who were fleeing Hitler and who landed in Shanghai because it was the only city in the world that would accept "stateless refugees." Just before World War II, the number of Jews in Shanghai topped 30,000.

In February of 1943, the Japanese army who had occupied Shanghai since 1938, forced the "stateless Jews" into a "Designated Area" in the Hongkou district (north of the Bund). Tens of thousands of Jews lived in facilities abandoned by the missionaries and other foreigners. They lived in this area until the end of the war.


We walked around the area and saw some of the interesting architecture styles and visited the Shanghai Jewish Refugee Memorial Hall. One of the things that I was able to do was listen to the locals go about their day. We were the attraction for the locals since a large group of foreigners were wandering through their neighborhood. My friends and I met a man who told me a bit of history about where he lived and upon chatting, I found out he was 88 years old. We even met an 80 year old man who was able to speak English very well because he was a teacher at a university in Shanghai.

My friends and I were quite taken back by the architecture found in this area and most of all, I was happy that I was able to utilize my Mandarin and Shanghainese to speak to the locals.

4KZ Reunion

Matthew had a reunion with his former classmates from the Pudong campus. The kids from Pudong came over to the Puxi campus to participate in the Band Bonanza. This is an annual event between the two campuses. It was great since Matthew had a chance to see his former classmates. I went to the school for the afternoon concert and was happy to see the kids again. They've all grown and were happy to be together again for the day.