Hong Kong, China

Ok, sorry for the long delay between posts. I bought a Chromebook for the trip for ~$150 for the following purposes:
- Having a real keyboard
- Being able to watch videos
- Backing up photos to a flash drive

It performs admirably at these tasks, really. What it doesn't perform so well at is opening up photos from my flash drive so I can look through them and figure out which ones to post. Since I'm impatient, this does not work well for updating my blog. Sorry, it is what it is. Here's the post I had typed up from Hong Kong with pictures I was finally patient enough to go through.

Day 1
Arrive, get settled in

Day 2
Hong Kong Museum of History - This is a museum that goes through a history of Hong Kong, from how it formed as an island to colonization and so on.
Central - Mid-Levels Escalator and Walkway System - The longest outdoor covered esclator system in the world.
Peak Tram to Victoria Peak - Victoria Peak is the highest mountain on Hong Kong Island and thus provides an awesome view of the area (when it's not foggy like it was for us). There's a pretty steep tram that takes you up that we took to the top.
Light Show - At a certain time of night, the buildings all create a "light show". What that really means is they just randomly light up beams of light from the top of buildings for 15 minutes in no particular order.
Outdoor Market - What is Hong Kong really known for? The markets. It was fun walking through until you realized that every 5 shops had the same thing.

Selected pics:

The ridiculously steep streets on Hong Kong Island and the escalator system to the left.

The skyline of Hong Kong Island, or at least the part I could capture in this photo.

Day 3
Tian Tan Buddha - Giant Buddha statue near the Hong Kong airport in a village called Ngong Ping. There's a really scenic lift that takes you to the village in about 20-30 minutes.
Po Lin Monastery - Monastery next to the Giant Buddha statue.
Blooming Tea Demo - This has its own section because I thought it was pretty cool. There's this stuff called blooming tea that we got to see made live. This thing starts as nothing and ends as a flower in a vase filled with tea that you can drink. Here's the link to a demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRlgM4MYdpg

Selected pics:

Big Buddha.

Looking out from Big Buddha.

360 view of the Po Lin Monastery.

Day 4
Leave

Random tidbits:

• Hong Kong Island is very, very hilly (which is probably why they have a system of escalators installed... so people aren't discouraged from walking around).
• I actually thought 2 days in Hong Kong was perfect. It's probably a cool city to live in, but there's not necessarily a lot to DO there. The only thing I would change is adding 1 day to the trip to take the 1 hour ferry to Macau, explore, and come back.
• People are extremely aggressive about selling there, especially when they sense you're a tourist. There was a white guy wearing a giant backpack and walking off a tourist bus there, and 4 people followed him for a while trying to get him to buy their fake watches. I was actually a little scared for him.
• Hong Kong has the most impressive skyline I've seen. Sorry, NYC.
• In most places in the world, the direction you drive on is generally the direction you walk on (escalators, street, etc.). In Hong Kong, they don't like doing that. Instead, they decided that what side you walk on should be random, and they would have arrows indicating which side it is for wherever you are. It's really, really confusing.

Tokyo, Japan

Dates: May 23 - May 26

Tokyo was the first time this trip where I really felt rushed somewhere, and didn't feel like I got to do everything I wanted to. The city is huge, there's tons of things to do, and everything is pretty spread out. Also, coordinating with three other people (since my parents and sister were also there) makes it a bit more difficult and takes up a lot more time. On the bright side though, seeing my family on the trip made it a lot better.

Accommodation: The Westin Tokyo

I almost forgot how awesome hotels were. Ok, not really, but it was nice change from the hostel life. The Westin Tokyo was also the first Westin I've been to with a lounge for breakfast and hors d'oeuvres (with free alcohol, including liquor!).

Itinerary:

Day 1

• Arrive at airport, meet up with parents and sister
• Get to hotel, walk around the nearby vicinity

Day 2

• Meiji Shrine - A shrine dedicated to Emperor Meiji, who moved Japan from a feudalistic society to a capitalist one (think of The Last Samurai)
• Shibuya - a district in Tokyo; also famous for being a crazier version of Times Square
• Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden - garden area with three different landscape designs: British, French, and Japanese
• Government Building Observation Deck - highest point in Tokyo

Selected pics:

One entrance to the Meiji Shrine.

Artistic shot 1

Artistic shot 2

Shibuya at night. For those of you who have seen Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, I think this is the place Han died when drifting through all those people.

Day 3

• Senso-ji - Oldest Buddhist temple in Tokyo, with a huge market right outside
• Akihabara - An area where you can buy lots of electronics, appliances, etc.
• Cruise down the Sumida river to Odaiba, an artificial island in Tokyo Bay 

Selected pics:

View from the hotel.

Senso-ji in the morning.

Ferris wheel on Odaiba.

This station's name is "Tokyo Teleport Station". I think this proves that Japanese people are masters of efficiency.

Day 4

• Early train to airport
• Fly out

Random Tidbits:

• Tokyo is probably the most efficient city I've ever been to. Everything is pretty much optimized as much as it can be - they have markings for the subway where people should stand to optimize flow and speed of the trains, almost every ticket counter everywhere is a machine (with one person helping if necessary), etc.
• Japanese people are really, really nice. Despite not necessarily knowing much English, they're extremely willing to help.
• Japanese sounds like the coolest language ever, but unless I lived there, it wouldn't be worth learning.
• Why is it the coolest? Here are the names of some stations within 3 stops of the station our hotel was at (which was called Ebisu): Shinjuku, Shibuya, Roppongi. How fun is it to say these names?
• Why isn't it worth learning unless I lived there? According to Wikipedia, it's only the 14th most spoken language. Side note: Apparently the top 5 are Mandarin, English, Spanish, Hindi, Arabic. After looking that up, I realized that I can somewhat get 3/5 of those. Kinda cool.
• The subway system is very well orchestrated and relatively easy to use as a tourist, but they have weird restrictions, such as if you buy a ticket (for example, for 150 yen), you can only use it on the day you buy it. Not realizing this almost made me miss my return flight.
• Japanese/Eastern architecture in general is very cool. See images above.
• Only certain ATMs let you withdraw cash from international bank accounts. I thought this was especially weird.
• Ramen is still delicious.