Live from China and Japan: rizzuto reports
Apr 6th, 2009, 12:51 AM
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Live from China and Japan: rizzuto reports
<i>This post and others that will follow are copies of my blog entry -- but the blog has photos. Blog is at http://travelwithtopaz.blogspot.com/ </i>
Spring has begun to arrive here: white and purple blossoms are out, though the trees are still bare. On first impressions, Beijing is a jaw-dropping place, not so much by its style than by its scale. Everything is everywhere: people, buildings that stretch up and sideways, more people, boulevards ten lanes wide, an airport that seems to be the size of Delaware.
The city center goes on forever -- think of Bangkok times 20. Many of the spots best known to tourists -- the Forbidden City, Tienanman Square, the Great Hall of the People -- are close to each other, but most of the rest require taxi or subway rides from one to the other.
It is about a mile from my hotel to Tienanmen Sq, and yesterday's weather was perfect: sunny, 75 degrees, just a hint of a breeze. The walk was a good one: I took one of the small alleyways (hutongs) instead of the main street, and that was a good choice: storefronts everywhere selling groceries, bric-a-brac, cooked [and decidedly unidentifiable] food, and plenty of people of all ages ambling along, a hotel with a seemingly ironic name, and who knows what all else.
Tienanmen Square defies description. When you talk about "scale," TS is at one end of some scale, and I have no clue what that scale might be. It is rectangular, a lot of football fields wide by many times more football fields long. It's mostly open except for a few monuments scattered here and there, a big building in the middle, megazillions of people hanging around, and, maybe above all, the slightly faded picture of Chairman Mao Zedong overlooking the scene. Other than the need to pass quickly through a security checkpoint to enter the Square, there's little or no visible security presence.
This is not a beautiful city on a macro level, not in the way that Paris is strikingly beautiful, or that the New York skyline or Hong Kong's Victoria Harbor are beautiful. But as you peel away the layers, it becomes more and more interesting. Not many older buildings have survived, and until recently those that were built were created for function, not for design. That has changed: like crocuses sprouting up in expanses of dead and matted grass, new and interesting buildings dot Beijing's cityscape.
I don't know how qualified I am to be an architecture critic (Art Vandelay was my classmate at Architecture School), but some of the buildings strike me as more successful than others. This is a new office building [photo on blog] a block from my hotel, and I think it's a welcome sight. It looks sturdy and functional, fits in as if it has been there all the time, yet is has a certain panache that says "I'm a bit special." Not a bad place to work or to notice as a landmark while you're stuck in traffic.
I'm less enthused about the National Grand Theater, an enormous place that is more or less Beijing's Lincoln Center (3 huge performance spaces under a single titanium dome). It certainly catches your eye, but I don't know that the design is timeless: 50 years from now, will people marvel at it, as they do for the Empire State Building or the Eiffel Tower, or will they roll their eyes and hold their noses, as they do for the Pompidou Center?
I'm at the Grand Mercure Xidan hotel, a good but certainly not top-notch place. It was incredibly cheap ($45/night, prepaid, during a 50%-off sale that the Accor chain ran about a month ago). It's 5 minutes from the Xidan subway stop and walkable to the Tienanman area, so the location is excellent. Staff are pleasant and speak English unusually well; the clientele is overwhelmingly Western.
I am not staying at the Xinyu Wonderful Hotel, but my guess is that it’s got its merits and is extremely affordable.
Getting here from Boston was even more of a pain that expected, due to horrendous weather between Boston and NY on Friday. What should have been the simplest part of the trip - the shuttle from Boston to La Guardia -- turned out to be the most troublesome. Sparing you most of the details, I got to Logan at 3 and checked in for the 4pm shuttle. That one got canceled, and I flew to New York on the 5pm shuttle which boarded at 6.30 and arrived at 8.45. My suitcase, unfortunately, did not take that flight. Happy ending: suitcase showed up on the 8pm shuttle that got in only 30 mins after the 5pm shuttle, and we all made it over to JFK for the flight to Korea. Yeah, there are direct flights from NY to Beijing, but I routed through Korea so that I could start a round-the-world ticket there. Flight to Seoul and connecting flight to Beijing were long but uneventful. Trip in total took 33 hours (all times Boston time):
Leave Billerica: Friday, 2.30pm
Take off from Logan: Friday, 7.45pm
Arrive JFK: Friday, 10.00pm
Take off from JFK: Saturday, 1.15am
Arrive Seoul (Incheon): Saturday 3.45pm
Take off from Seoul: Sat., 7.30pm
Arrive Beijing airport: Sat, 9.30pm
Arrive Hotel: Sat, 11.30pm (which was Sunday morning at 11.30, Beijing time)
Slept a lot en route and took a short nap when I got here, then spent most of Sunday afternoon walking to and around Tienanman. Slept soundly Sunday night (I'm writing this on Monday am), and looking forward to a quiet morning before heading off to Chengdu later today.
Yes, I know, I know, this is far too brief a stop in Beijing. Next time I'll stay longer.
Spring has begun to arrive here: white and purple blossoms are out, though the trees are still bare. On first impressions, Beijing is a jaw-dropping place, not so much by its style than by its scale. Everything is everywhere: people, buildings that stretch up and sideways, more people, boulevards ten lanes wide, an airport that seems to be the size of Delaware.
The city center goes on forever -- think of Bangkok times 20. Many of the spots best known to tourists -- the Forbidden City, Tienanman Square, the Great Hall of the People -- are close to each other, but most of the rest require taxi or subway rides from one to the other.
It is about a mile from my hotel to Tienanmen Sq, and yesterday's weather was perfect: sunny, 75 degrees, just a hint of a breeze. The walk was a good one: I took one of the small alleyways (hutongs) instead of the main street, and that was a good choice: storefronts everywhere selling groceries, bric-a-brac, cooked [and decidedly unidentifiable] food, and plenty of people of all ages ambling along, a hotel with a seemingly ironic name, and who knows what all else.
Tienanmen Square defies description. When you talk about "scale," TS is at one end of some scale, and I have no clue what that scale might be. It is rectangular, a lot of football fields wide by many times more football fields long. It's mostly open except for a few monuments scattered here and there, a big building in the middle, megazillions of people hanging around, and, maybe above all, the slightly faded picture of Chairman Mao Zedong overlooking the scene. Other than the need to pass quickly through a security checkpoint to enter the Square, there's little or no visible security presence.
This is not a beautiful city on a macro level, not in the way that Paris is strikingly beautiful, or that the New York skyline or Hong Kong's Victoria Harbor are beautiful. But as you peel away the layers, it becomes more and more interesting. Not many older buildings have survived, and until recently those that were built were created for function, not for design. That has changed: like crocuses sprouting up in expanses of dead and matted grass, new and interesting buildings dot Beijing's cityscape.
I don't know how qualified I am to be an architecture critic (Art Vandelay was my classmate at Architecture School), but some of the buildings strike me as more successful than others. This is a new office building [photo on blog] a block from my hotel, and I think it's a welcome sight. It looks sturdy and functional, fits in as if it has been there all the time, yet is has a certain panache that says "I'm a bit special." Not a bad place to work or to notice as a landmark while you're stuck in traffic.
I'm less enthused about the National Grand Theater, an enormous place that is more or less Beijing's Lincoln Center (3 huge performance spaces under a single titanium dome). It certainly catches your eye, but I don't know that the design is timeless: 50 years from now, will people marvel at it, as they do for the Empire State Building or the Eiffel Tower, or will they roll their eyes and hold their noses, as they do for the Pompidou Center?
I'm at the Grand Mercure Xidan hotel, a good but certainly not top-notch place. It was incredibly cheap ($45/night, prepaid, during a 50%-off sale that the Accor chain ran about a month ago). It's 5 minutes from the Xidan subway stop and walkable to the Tienanman area, so the location is excellent. Staff are pleasant and speak English unusually well; the clientele is overwhelmingly Western.
I am not staying at the Xinyu Wonderful Hotel, but my guess is that it’s got its merits and is extremely affordable.
Getting here from Boston was even more of a pain that expected, due to horrendous weather between Boston and NY on Friday. What should have been the simplest part of the trip - the shuttle from Boston to La Guardia -- turned out to be the most troublesome. Sparing you most of the details, I got to Logan at 3 and checked in for the 4pm shuttle. That one got canceled, and I flew to New York on the 5pm shuttle which boarded at 6.30 and arrived at 8.45. My suitcase, unfortunately, did not take that flight. Happy ending: suitcase showed up on the 8pm shuttle that got in only 30 mins after the 5pm shuttle, and we all made it over to JFK for the flight to Korea. Yeah, there are direct flights from NY to Beijing, but I routed through Korea so that I could start a round-the-world ticket there. Flight to Seoul and connecting flight to Beijing were long but uneventful. Trip in total took 33 hours (all times Boston time):
Leave Billerica: Friday, 2.30pm
Take off from Logan: Friday, 7.45pm
Arrive JFK: Friday, 10.00pm
Take off from JFK: Saturday, 1.15am
Arrive Seoul (Incheon): Saturday 3.45pm
Take off from Seoul: Sat., 7.30pm
Arrive Beijing airport: Sat, 9.30pm
Arrive Hotel: Sat, 11.30pm (which was Sunday morning at 11.30, Beijing time)
Slept a lot en route and took a short nap when I got here, then spent most of Sunday afternoon walking to and around Tienanman. Slept soundly Sunday night (I'm writing this on Monday am), and looking forward to a quiet morning before heading off to Chengdu later today.
Yes, I know, I know, this is far too brief a stop in Beijing. Next time I'll stay longer.
Apr 6th, 2009, 02:04 AM
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Don-sounds like a real pain to get there. Logan is always a treat. My experience is that Logan has the worst baggage handling of any airport in the world. The communication with the passengers is also horrendous.
You're an official scout for the upocoming Panda China excursion. Report back in detail, as I know you will.
You're an official scout for the upocoming Panda China excursion. Report back in detail, as I know you will.
Apr 6th, 2009, 12:58 PM
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Kathie, yes I was in first on Asiana (OZ), and I got a full 8 hours sleep on the flight to Seoul. Once at ICN, I had lots of time in the lounge to take a (very welcome, much needed) shower and enjoy a nice breakfast. This was my first time on OZ, and it was probably the most comfortable sleeper suite I've had - roomy and soft, though the pillow left a great deal to be desired.
Apr 6th, 2009, 02:14 PM
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Don - we are heading to Hanoi tomorrow and will have a couple of legs on Asiana (business class) to get there from Tokyo. The rest of your report will have to wait until we return, however. I hope the remaining days of your trip are just as good or better as your time in Beijing.
Apr 6th, 2009, 10:23 PM
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Visited the Chengdu Panda Center today and saw 20-30 giant pandas and 6 or 8 red pandas. (Lots of pics on http://travelwithtopaz.blogspot.com/.)
The giant pandas are amazing -- incredibly photogenic, playful, and generally lots of fun on the relatively few occasions that they decide to actually move.
The Chengdu center is a bit more zoo-like than I had imagined. While the pandas do have a certain amount of room to move around, it's not at all as if they are free to roam for acres and acres. (That would of course be one of the reasons that they're relatively inactive.) I had intended to pay the money to hold a young panda -- and good lord they are adorable -- but decided against it at the last minute. While it's clear that the young pandas enjoy being around humans, there just seemed to be something weird about paying a bunch of cash for 5 minutes of the panda's attention.
Craig, I am sure you'll be treated well on Asiana. Excellent in-flight service, and the business class lounge at ICN is one of the nicer ones around. You planning to go to any games at the new ballyard this year?
The giant pandas are amazing -- incredibly photogenic, playful, and generally lots of fun on the relatively few occasions that they decide to actually move.
The Chengdu center is a bit more zoo-like than I had imagined. While the pandas do have a certain amount of room to move around, it's not at all as if they are free to roam for acres and acres. (That would of course be one of the reasons that they're relatively inactive.) I had intended to pay the money to hold a young panda -- and good lord they are adorable -- but decided against it at the last minute. While it's clear that the young pandas enjoy being around humans, there just seemed to be something weird about paying a bunch of cash for 5 minutes of the panda's attention.
Craig, I am sure you'll be treated well on Asiana. Excellent in-flight service, and the business class lounge at ICN is one of the nicer ones around. You planning to go to any games at the new ballyard this year?
Apr 8th, 2009, 03:22 AM
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[<i>Copy of blog post -- the blog has the photos.</i>]
Today's theme was to explore Chengdu. Chengdu sitting in the dead center of China, has 7 million people and is the center of Szechuan, which is now spelled Sichuan, some of the time. Jin Li Street is a wonderful spot, I was told, so I bundled myself in a taxi and off I went.
Getting there is half the fun. I don't know any way to describe traffic patterns in China. Lane markings are on the road, but they might as well have a picture of Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs (Dwarves?) for all the attention that anyone pays to the markings. Right turn on red is allowed, as is pretty much anything else on red. The streets have cars and buses, also plenty of bicycles, motor scooters, 3-wheeled cycles (motorized and non-), occasional animals, and other various surprises. Drivers stay on the right side of the road, unless they feel like being on the other side. Anything that's paved, or remotely flat, is fair game. And pedestrians might as well have targets painted on them. But it all seems to work, somehow.
Jin Li Street is sort of a Chinese faux Quincy Market. Reproductions of old buildings, filled with shops and eating places. It looks kitschy at first glance, but it is very much an area where people seem to enjoy hanging out and walking around. Some of the food stalls looked downright terrific (though, admittedly, most were serving up stuff that looked frightening to this Westerner).
Jin Li didn't hold my attention for very long, so it was off to Chun Xi Road, the main downtown shopping area and roughly the equivalent of Boylston St or Fifth Avenue. Lots of shops, lots of pedestrian streets, lots of people window-shopping down the sidewalks, groups of women and men and teenagers doing their respective things. In short, indistinguishable from any similar street in Boston or Brussels or Johannesburg.
One major difference was the complete absence of Western faces. Now I saw plenty of blue-eyed devils at the panda center yesterday, and there's a smattering of us at the hotel where I'm staying. But I saw exactly 0 in Chun Xi. Around this time I needed to buy a bottle of water, found a nearby stand, and handed over 5 Yuan for the 2 Yuan bottle. No deal, said the shopkeeper. Now I had vaguely heard that some shops do not like to give change, that they need exact amounts, but this seemed odd. Anyway, I abandoned that place and headed over to the WoWo, which seems like a local 7-11 chain. Got the same response!! Feeling completely at a loss (look, the burden is on me to speak Chinese, not on the Chengdoobies to speak English), I skulked off, found a Starbucks (!), and bought a coffee for 15 Yuan (about $2.25).
Took a cab back to the hotel, fare was 9 Yuan, and I gave the cabbie 2 5's. Now I get histrionics from the cab driver! I have him drive me around to the entrance where there's a doorman, who I know can act as interpreter. And the cheerful doorman informed me that the 5 Yuan notes that I'd been trying to use are actually worth 1/2 of 1 Yuan. Oh.
I was confused. See the 5's on the left? They're halfs. The ones on the right, with the smiling Chairman, they're the real 5's.
Chengdu is the main city of Szechuan, and that means that it's the capital of Szechuan cooking. And I have had some great food here. The signature Szuchuan dish is Mabo Dofu, which is fried tofu in an incredibly spicy and mouth-numbing sauce. The sauce includes some type of "meat," and it's almost surely best not to inquire further. They have a fantastic sense of knowing how to create foods that are viciously spicy while at the same time being insanely delicious.
And that's where the Faustian part kicks in, the Deal with the Devil. You eat this stuff, it is delicious beyond all wild possibility, and you know that you will pay the price. But that price will be paid later. (Not a whole lot later, but later.) And the deal is done.
That's it for today. Glad to see that the Sox have a nearly insurmountable lead over the Yankees and Rays. Off to Japan tomorrow.
Today's theme was to explore Chengdu. Chengdu sitting in the dead center of China, has 7 million people and is the center of Szechuan, which is now spelled Sichuan, some of the time. Jin Li Street is a wonderful spot, I was told, so I bundled myself in a taxi and off I went.
Getting there is half the fun. I don't know any way to describe traffic patterns in China. Lane markings are on the road, but they might as well have a picture of Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs (Dwarves?) for all the attention that anyone pays to the markings. Right turn on red is allowed, as is pretty much anything else on red. The streets have cars and buses, also plenty of bicycles, motor scooters, 3-wheeled cycles (motorized and non-), occasional animals, and other various surprises. Drivers stay on the right side of the road, unless they feel like being on the other side. Anything that's paved, or remotely flat, is fair game. And pedestrians might as well have targets painted on them. But it all seems to work, somehow.
Jin Li Street is sort of a Chinese faux Quincy Market. Reproductions of old buildings, filled with shops and eating places. It looks kitschy at first glance, but it is very much an area where people seem to enjoy hanging out and walking around. Some of the food stalls looked downright terrific (though, admittedly, most were serving up stuff that looked frightening to this Westerner).
Jin Li didn't hold my attention for very long, so it was off to Chun Xi Road, the main downtown shopping area and roughly the equivalent of Boylston St or Fifth Avenue. Lots of shops, lots of pedestrian streets, lots of people window-shopping down the sidewalks, groups of women and men and teenagers doing their respective things. In short, indistinguishable from any similar street in Boston or Brussels or Johannesburg.
One major difference was the complete absence of Western faces. Now I saw plenty of blue-eyed devils at the panda center yesterday, and there's a smattering of us at the hotel where I'm staying. But I saw exactly 0 in Chun Xi. Around this time I needed to buy a bottle of water, found a nearby stand, and handed over 5 Yuan for the 2 Yuan bottle. No deal, said the shopkeeper. Now I had vaguely heard that some shops do not like to give change, that they need exact amounts, but this seemed odd. Anyway, I abandoned that place and headed over to the WoWo, which seems like a local 7-11 chain. Got the same response!! Feeling completely at a loss (look, the burden is on me to speak Chinese, not on the Chengdoobies to speak English), I skulked off, found a Starbucks (!), and bought a coffee for 15 Yuan (about $2.25).
Took a cab back to the hotel, fare was 9 Yuan, and I gave the cabbie 2 5's. Now I get histrionics from the cab driver! I have him drive me around to the entrance where there's a doorman, who I know can act as interpreter. And the cheerful doorman informed me that the 5 Yuan notes that I'd been trying to use are actually worth 1/2 of 1 Yuan. Oh.
I was confused. See the 5's on the left? They're halfs. The ones on the right, with the smiling Chairman, they're the real 5's.
Chengdu is the main city of Szechuan, and that means that it's the capital of Szechuan cooking. And I have had some great food here. The signature Szuchuan dish is Mabo Dofu, which is fried tofu in an incredibly spicy and mouth-numbing sauce. The sauce includes some type of "meat," and it's almost surely best not to inquire further. They have a fantastic sense of knowing how to create foods that are viciously spicy while at the same time being insanely delicious.
And that's where the Faustian part kicks in, the Deal with the Devil. You eat this stuff, it is delicious beyond all wild possibility, and you know that you will pay the price. But that price will be paid later. (Not a whole lot later, but later.) And the deal is done.
That's it for today. Glad to see that the Sox have a nearly insurmountable lead over the Yankees and Rays. Off to Japan tomorrow.
Apr 8th, 2009, 07:36 AM
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Thanks for writing in while traveling. I have seen photos of pandas in Chengdu before but these are the best yet -- very engaging. I also loved your description of road traffic and your account of currency confusion. It is fun and instructive for the reader-at-a-distance to vicariously experience these kinds of discoveries.
I gather that they are planning some kind of ceremony to mark the one-year anniversary of the earthquake in Sichuan province. Any talk about that?
Best wishes for enjoyable onward travel.
I gather that they are planning some kind of ceremony to mark the one-year anniversary of the earthquake in Sichuan province. Any talk about that?
Best wishes for enjoyable onward travel.
Apr 8th, 2009, 08:02 AM
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"The giant pandas are amazing -- incredibly photogenic, playful, and generally lots of fun on the relatively few occasions that they decide to actually move. "
The above cannot come as a big surprise. There's a reason why we are the universal symbol of fun. Even those pandas with a slightly dark side are beloved by all. It's the basis for my personal and professional lives.
The trip sounds great. Don't worry about the after effects, eat everything. You're only middle-aged once.
The above cannot come as a big surprise. There's a reason why we are the universal symbol of fun. Even those pandas with a slightly dark side are beloved by all. It's the basis for my personal and professional lives.
The trip sounds great. Don't worry about the after effects, eat everything. You're only middle-aged once.
Apr 8th, 2009, 08:48 AM
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jayc, I'm not so sure that I'd wholeheartedly endorse a detour to Chengdu. Not that I've had a lousy time, but I think I might look for an area that is perhaps more physically beautiful (Lijiang, for example).
<i>You're only middle-aged once.</i>
The crack legal mind of Brother Gpanda strikes again.
If I am middle-aged, you would expect me to live until I'm 122. Oy.
<i>You're only middle-aged once.</i>
The crack legal mind of Brother Gpanda strikes again.
If I am middle-aged, you would expect me to live until I'm 122. Oy.
Apr 8th, 2009, 09:52 AM
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I deduce therefrom that you are 61. You are not yet a senior (just a few short months away), therefore you are at the upper boundary of middle age. You will soon be able to say, "I was once middle-aged."
Apr 8th, 2009, 02:42 PM
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<i>You will soon be able to say, "I was once middle-aged."</i>
Not if I down too many more plates of Mabo Dofu.
Well that won't happen as I'm now in the "First Class Lounge" of the Chengdu airport. My experience is that any lounge that serves multiple airlines and is labelled "First Class Lounge" is, in most cases, a place that you don't want to be. Chengdu seems better than most, though (Nairobi holds my award for all-time worst), as there's comfortable seating, several available PCs, and some wrapped "snacks."
Not if I down too many more plates of Mabo Dofu.
Well that won't happen as I'm now in the "First Class Lounge" of the Chengdu airport. My experience is that any lounge that serves multiple airlines and is labelled "First Class Lounge" is, in most cases, a place that you don't want to be. Chengdu seems better than most, though (Nairobi holds my award for all-time worst), as there's comfortable seating, several available PCs, and some wrapped "snacks."
Apr 8th, 2009, 05:03 PM
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Don, greetings from Hanoi. Asiana business class service was extremely attentive. We did not have time to stop in the lounge at ICN however. I will be visiting the new cathedral in the Bronx at some point this year.
Apr 10th, 2009, 01:37 AM
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<b>No Place for Old Men</b>
The trip from Chengdu to Osaka seemed like it would be long, but not difficult. The 2.5 hour flight from Chengdu to Shanghai would leave at 7.45, then a 2-hour layover in Shanghai, and a 2-hour flight to Osaka. From the Osaka airport, there's a train to the city center, and my hotel sits on top of the train station. Piece of cake.
First problem was at Chengdu airport, where the agent tells me I can't check my bags through to Osaka. Huh? The two flights would be on different airlines, but they are both Star Alliance airlines, and I'm on a single ticket from Chengdu to Osaka. No go sez the agent, I can only check your bag to Shanghai.
Land in Shanghai, plane parks at the furthest gate, about 20 or 30 miles from the terminal. The terminal is hot, of course, and half of the (few to begin with) moving walkways turn out to be non-moving walkways. Eventually reach the baggage claim, then start searching for the departure area, for which there are no signs. By this point, I am in a foul mood. Reach the check-in a full 45 minutes after the plane had parked at the gate, politely told the check-in agent that it was preposterous that I had to reclaim bags and check in again. She smiled, told me that "unfortunately" Shanghai airport does not have any interline baggage facilities. Are you kidding me!?!?!?!
So I get my boarding pass, head off to go through immigration and security, and 30 yards before the immigration line a muscle gives way in my calf and I go down like a shot. [Fornicate], [fornicate], ten thousand [fornications], ten million curses on every goddamned Chinese who decided that Shanghai airport would be some 3rd world outpost.
So now I am here in Osaka, hobbling. Hobbling down the hotel corridor and the streets, like a Dickensian wretch.
Are you feeling sorry for me yet? Don't waste your time: I still managed to enjoy some great sushi today, got myself to a modest park where the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, and I'm making the best of it. Hoping that another night's rest will help.
The trip from Chengdu to Osaka seemed like it would be long, but not difficult. The 2.5 hour flight from Chengdu to Shanghai would leave at 7.45, then a 2-hour layover in Shanghai, and a 2-hour flight to Osaka. From the Osaka airport, there's a train to the city center, and my hotel sits on top of the train station. Piece of cake.
First problem was at Chengdu airport, where the agent tells me I can't check my bags through to Osaka. Huh? The two flights would be on different airlines, but they are both Star Alliance airlines, and I'm on a single ticket from Chengdu to Osaka. No go sez the agent, I can only check your bag to Shanghai.
Land in Shanghai, plane parks at the furthest gate, about 20 or 30 miles from the terminal. The terminal is hot, of course, and half of the (few to begin with) moving walkways turn out to be non-moving walkways. Eventually reach the baggage claim, then start searching for the departure area, for which there are no signs. By this point, I am in a foul mood. Reach the check-in a full 45 minutes after the plane had parked at the gate, politely told the check-in agent that it was preposterous that I had to reclaim bags and check in again. She smiled, told me that "unfortunately" Shanghai airport does not have any interline baggage facilities. Are you kidding me!?!?!?!
So I get my boarding pass, head off to go through immigration and security, and 30 yards before the immigration line a muscle gives way in my calf and I go down like a shot. [Fornicate], [fornicate], ten thousand [fornications], ten million curses on every goddamned Chinese who decided that Shanghai airport would be some 3rd world outpost.
So now I am here in Osaka, hobbling. Hobbling down the hotel corridor and the streets, like a Dickensian wretch.
Are you feeling sorry for me yet? Don't waste your time: I still managed to enjoy some great sushi today, got myself to a modest park where the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, and I'm making the best of it. Hoping that another night's rest will help.
