Bright Lights in a Big City

After all the excitement of Japan, I arrived in Hong Kong late-ish Friday night. Friends of friends had very kindly offered me somewhere to stay and Robin even gave me a lift from the station. I'm staying in Stanley on the southern tip of Hong Kong island, where allied troops made their last stand in WWII before surrendering HK to the Japanese.

On Saturday I discovered that I had somehow managed to bring the less-than-brilliant weather with me from Japan, and a message later from Marthe confirmed this. In the afternoon I went for a walk around Stanley, visiting the market (where you can find everything from solar-powered waving cats to shops that blind you with the quantity of shiny objects in them to rather peculiar T-shirts) and the waterfront. Unfortunately the weather meant the view wasn't the best, but it was still a nice temperature.

That evening Robin and I went up to The Peak, hoping to be able to see views of the harbour, but alas it wasn't to be. There was instead a large amount of dense fog which wasn't quite as exciting, although he did take me on a mini-tour of the city side of the island on the way back.

Robin and his family are members of Jackie Pullinger's church, which is very charismatic, so it was a little bit of an experience on Sunday morning when I went on a prayer walk to pray for the government and those in power in Hong Kong with a few of the other English-speaking members of the church. While it was a little unusual, it turned out to not be hugely different from what I was expecting. Afterwards we went to a Beijing Dumpling place for lunch and then I decided to set out on a bit of an explore of the city by myself.

I didn't really have much of a plan, so just set off in a direction where there appeared to be people and eventually saw signs for the Hong Kong Botanical and Zoological Gardens. One of the things I've really noticed here is how there are patches of jungle and forest mixed in closely with the ubiquitous skyscrapers.

The gardens were nice, although some of the animals weren't in the largest of cages and you could still hear a fair amount of noise from the roads around the outside.

As I was admiring the fountain near one of the entrances I thought I heard some kind of Wind Band music in the distance, and so with no other plans I left the gardens and headed roughly towards where the music was coming from. The first sign that there was something going on was the sheer volume of police officers, it seemed like the entire police force was out and about on this one street. I found where the music

had been coming from but there was a no-entry sign and people coming out, but no indication as to what was going on. Mildly bemused, I carried on following the wall around past many more police officers until I found what appeared to the be the entrance, where bag searches were being carried out. It turned out that this was in fact the Government House where Hong Kong's leader resides and it was open because the remarkable garden was in bloom.

This was clearly a popular occasion as the path was packed with

people taking photos of almost every single flower they could see.

After winding it's way through the garden, the path led up to the house itself where there

were a few displays and rooms which you could look inside. Continuing on through the house I came out the other side to discover the music that I had heard earlier had been performed by the Hong Kong Police Band. Shortly after I exited the building, some of them took to their feet for another performance, including a slightly unusual arrangement of 'Bad Romance' by Lady Gaga.

Eventually I left the house and headed down the

hill through Hong Kong Park and after some wandering came across a small pub/bar which was showing India v. West Indies and had a remarkable selection of beers from across the world. After having my age questioned (as usual), I had a few drinks and did a spot of people-watching before heading off to the bus to head back to Stanley.

On Monday the weather finally changed and we had a day of blue skies, fluffy clouds and blazing sunshine. I decided that this wasn't a day for strenuous exercise and instead went for a walk on the beach in Stanley before finding a cafe on the waterfront to have lunch and enjoy the sun.

After lunch I still wasn't feeling particularly energetic so I went and got a book and sat out on the waterfront for most of the afternoon. A day well spent I feel.

Tuesday brought the overcast weather back, so in the absence of an excuse not to do anything I headed back to the north of the island and had another day of wandering, including some rather nice Thai food for lunch. After perusing some of the shops I found myself near the ferry terminal for the Star Ferries over to Kowloon (the mainland) which have been running since 1888 and are supposedly in the top 10 ferry journeys in the world. After finding a nice, if slightly expensive, place to eat I was ready for the real reason to come to Kowloon; to see the Hong Kong skyline lit up. It is truly quite a spectacular sight to behold.

Today the weather still hadn't really improved, but I was taken for lunch at the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club by some old friends of my aunt and uncle. It's quite a fancy place with just about every facility you could want, from bowling alley to swimming pool to multiple bars. There's even a bell in the main bar that people try to climb without ringing, and if you ring it then you have to buy a round for everyone who makes it to the bar within 5 minutes.

Although I'm not normally a huge fan of big cities, I am really enjoying my time here, and with the Rugby 7s starting on Friday things can only get better!

Evacuation

OK, maybe not quite evacuation but I'm leaving Japan. Judging by the number of other people in Narita airport as I'm writing this I'm not the only one either. The queues for the chinese airline check-in desks stretches most of the way down the side of the departure lobby. That's a long way. And just for extra fun the police are here. Not just normal police either, this appeared to be the Japanese equivalent of a SWAT team. I couldn't quite make out what they were up to but they'd roped off part of the lobby and had what appeared to be a suspicious package under investigation.

I made the decision to leave early after the Foreign Office began advising British Nationals in Tokyo to consider leaving. There's still no real danger but the fact that the transport system had been affected and that there are now regular blackouts convinced me that it was probably best to try and leave sooner rather than later. It's completely fine if you don't need to go anywhere, but since I am flying on to Hong Kong I didn't really want to end up stranded (especially with the HK7s next week) and if something else happens it is perfectly possible that some people will start to panic and leaving the country could become significantly harder.

Speaking of panic, I really haven't been a fan of some of the media reporting on the situation in Japan both by the press here and at home. There has been a lot of sensationalist reporting which just makes life even harder for people. For instance, a number of times it has been reported that the radiation level detected in Tokyo is higher than normal. What the reports have failed to point out is the fact that the level is still nowhere near the level where it could affect human health. Then there was also a picture on the Daily Mail website (yes it is poor journalism at the best of times, but still) depicting a small child wearing a facemask as part of an article on how people are being affected. As soon as you visit Japan you notice that a large number of Japanese people where facemasks in public, it's simply a courtesy if you have a cold and don't want to be spreading germs. Yet there was no mention of this in the Mail article which could give worldwide readers (there must be at least 1 person who can bear it) a completely inaccurate impression of what it's really like. Yes the devastation in the North-East is huge, but in Tokyo and it's surrounding areas the majority of the Japanese are just going about their days normally. It annoys me that the press find the most tragic story they can and report it in a way that implies the apocalypse has come, just to attract more readers. If panic starts to spread then the situation here could get a whole lot worse.

In the end I haven't really managed to see that much of Japan. The only place I really managed to get to was Yokohama (which was lovely) and the rest of the time was just spent in the suburbs. I didn't even manage to see any more of Tokyo than what is visible from within trains and buses. Having said that, I have had a great time, so much so that I am probably going to try and come back at some point and spend a few weeks properly visiting the whole country. I may not have seen as much as I would have liked but the main reason for coming was to spend time with Marthe and I definitely managed to do that. It was an experience of Japanese suburban life really, we took some nice walks, had some nice food, met some nice people. I even managed to get the true Japanese experience of being on a rush-hour train so crammed that you can't even fall over.

Anyway, onwards to Hong Kong!

Stranded

While things have calmed down a bit we've still been a bit on edge. It's hard not to be when the main thing in the news is earthquake/tsunami/radiation related. Although to be fair this area seems pretty normal at first glance. All the buildings are intact, there are no riots or signs of panic and everyone seems to be getting on with their lives as normal.

There are some signs of the disaster though. Some shops are running low on certain essentials like bread, milk and toilet paper. There are rolling blackouts throughout the region leaving us without electricity for about 3 hours a day. And there are limited train services. The trains are slowly returning to normal, but it hasn't really been possible to go anywhere particularly exciting. Yokohama is the only place I have so far managed to get to, I haven't even managed to get to Tokyo. We've been pretty stranded here really, but while that's slightly frustrating it could definitely be a hell of a lot worse.

Things are looking up though. Trains have started running through the area now, albeit less frequently than normal and with suspension periods during the day. Hopefully I'll manage to go somewhere tomorrow, we're planning to try and go back to Yokohama again, mainly because it's one of the easier places to get to and there's plenty that we didn't do on Sunday. And hopefully if the trains keep improving I'll be able to make it into Tokyo at some point over the weekend.

While it may not have been quite how I envisaged my visit to Japan, I have enjoyed it. It's been nice seeing the suburban side of life and having a nice sedate trip.

So far the British Embassy is only advising caution and as long as it stays that way I fully intend to stick it out and make the most of the trip.

Taking it easy

Compared to the excitement of Friday the last couple of days have been remarkably sedate. Saturday was in fact incredibly sedate. We had good intentions but it turned out that many train services were still suspended in the aftermath of the quake so we had a lazy day involving a short walk through the local area over to Ebina which is a bit of a local hub (although the massive shopping complex was in fact closed, probably due to earthquake related issues). That night we went out for dinner with some of Marthe's teacher friends (not as you might expect to a Japanese restaurant, but instead an Indian, so I had so far managed 2 days without any Japanese food). There was talk of potential karaoke afterwards but this soon fizzled out into a quieter night in.

We awoke on Sunday to a glorious day,

the sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. A perfect day to do a spot of sight-seeing. We decided on Yokohama and set off about midday. Thankfully it seemed that the train schedules were now resembling a somewhat normal service so there weren't any travel mishaps and we made it successfully. Our first stop in Yokohama was Chinatown, so we had Chinese for lunch (still no sign of any Japanese food). This was then followed by a walk along the bay, taking in the weather, laughing at people running past and admiring the architecture of the pier. All in all, a rather successful day.

Unfortunately, not all is well. There have been reports all day of the status of the nuclear power stations and various explosions. This has all led to the fun situation of rolling blackouts, so different regions get power at different times in order to lower the pressure on the power grid. Apparently there is also a risk of losing water as well, so stockpiling may well be the order of tomorrow morning... Unfortunately getting information isn't always easy because despite there being regular Public Service Announcements over loudspeakers, I haven't got the foggiest what they might be saying.

After the disappointment of the cricket I'm hoping the rugby team can do better. I would be watching it but the BBC website stream keeps crashing so it looks like it will be a case of iPlayer tomorrow.

All in all, it certainly seems like I chose the right time to come to Japan. If nothing else it'll be a good story to tell...

Hello Tokyo

Well, my travels have certainly started with a bang. Or at least a very large rumble.

The travelling itself went suprisingly smoothly. Flight from Heathrow was on time, landing at Narita at 9am. Bought a bus ticket at the desk right opposite the terminal exit, got on the bus at 1005 directly outside the terminal and had an uneventful 2 hour bus journey from the airport to Hon-Atsugi Station. Since the weather looked pleasant enough (and I'd been stuck in a tiny space that BA call a 'seat' for 11 hours or so) I decided to walk to Marthe's flat directly from Hon-Atsugi. After reconfiguring my luggage into one large rucksack, fiddling with the straps and getting my bearings I set off across town. Again it was a pleasant enough walk although I realised that I needed to fiddle some more with the straps as I found myself having to lift my shoulders slightly to keep it in a comfortable position.

The walk took 20mins and I was soon at the flat.

So far, so good. I sorted out some of my stuff and retrieved the items destined for Marthe, mostly intact (the Ginger Cake now had a slightly 'interesting' shape to it).

Then I proceeded to the most important part of unpacking, getting online (I mean, how is the world going to survive if I wasn't available via various digital means). After sending a couple of emails I made a start on the second most important thing, food. Marthe had kindly provided me with all the things required to make a delicious Italian lunch, pasta and sauce.

So there I was, boiling my spaghetti, when all the mugs start swinging on their hooks. Now I thought this was rather odd, but that thought didn't really last long as I was soon struggling to stand up properly. After a couple of seconds I realised I was in Japan. Where they have earthquakes. Having never really experienced one before, I wasn't sure what to expect. Thankfully Marthe doesn't have lots of loose stuff lying about, so the mess was kept to a minimum, but I was still rather disconcerted. Should I jump in the bath, under a table, stand in a door frame, try and make it downstairs? After 5 minutes or so of what felt like being on a boat in choppy seas, it stopped. Now clearly my first response to an earthquake is to look it up online. Initially there was nothing, but eventually it came up as a 7.9 (later revised to 8.8) which is pretty damn big. Wow.

After a walk to stretch my legs and take a couple of photos I came back to all the news being full of the earthquake and potential tsunamis. There have also been quite a lot of aftershocks, but nothing compared to the quake itself. Thankfully they too seem to have calmed down now. Most of Tokyo seems to have survived reasonably unscathed and apart from the lack of transport things (at least in this area) seem to be going along normally.

So here I am waiting for Marthe to get home (all public transport in Tokyo has been suspended) with the BBC and the cricket for company. Hopefully not every day will be quite as 'exciting' as this.