Second Round: China

Fuzhou China… a strange port city with a downtown that lights up and reflects off the water. We arrived late at night after a terrible airplane transfer that we navigated well, each Pacrimmer taking their place, helping out and working as a team. Moments like those, all running through an airport following the person in front of you, picking up the slack, alphabetizing all 27 passports, picking up extra bags, these moments make it possible to see it so clearly… what an amazing trip I am on… with even more amazing people.

Our apartments in China are huge. Four of us share a flat bigger than any apartment I have even dreamed of living in. We don’t really have a proper kitchen but Anna, Rachel M, Jane and I could care less because we have… A WASHING MACHINE! These things are hard to come by and we could not be happier the first time we pool our laundry together and actually sort it! The shower doesn’t really stay warm for too long and the beds are squeaky but there was fruit and candy on our table when we arrived, and this instant homey feeling was priceless.

The next day we are taken to see the school that was hosting us. Fuzhou happens to be a Tacoma sister city and the school we are studying at is Hwa Nan Women’s College which was started by the Trimble family. This same family is the one that built Trimble Hall at UPS and gave me much of the financial aid that allowed me to come on PACRIM. The school is a series of buildings fairly close to our apartments and we have a classroom on the 3rd floor that overlooks the river and the downtown area.

For Thanksgiving Hwa Nan and a few of their best students had prepared a wonderful meal and event for us. Prior to our meal we all met our Hwa Nan buddies, girls at the top of their class who were paired with us to show us around Fuzhou. They were all very excited and could not wait to practice their English and hear all about our freedoms and challenges as young Americans. My buddy and I spent a bit of time at our first meeting talking about our similar interests. Christina is her English name and she is a very creative, beautiful person. She is an applied English major and although words sometimes failed her out of nervousness she was a very eloquent speaker and thinker. After a great traditional thanksgiving meal and a strange pumpkin tart we went out to walk down to the river and see the area a little bit. At this point we got over some of our initial stereotypes about each other. For instance… not all Americans are Christian and we do have Chinese food in America. Likewise I learned that Christina did not get to choose her major and that despite the one child policy she had 3 siblings.

Over the next few weeks we spent a lot of time in class learning about the cultural and political makeup of China. Christina and I also spent more time together and she took me to see some her favorite parts of Fuzhou and we had fish ball soup… which sounds terrible but reminded me a lot of matzo ball soup with its salty broth and flavorful dough. Fish balls are famous in Fuzhou and Christina could not have been happier when I actually enjoyed them. One particular day Christina and I, along with Marline, Rachel J and their buddies, found ourselves across town at a popular shopping area. We had an idea to get our photos taken together and this idea turned into a full day event. China (like many Asian countries) has colorful, cheery photo booths all over the place. Many of these are actually more like studios and have costumes, digital backdrops, props and so many other options. We found one we liked the look of and our Chinese friends spent ten minutes talking with the man in charge. We stood around taking it all in even though we had no idea what they could possibly be debating for so long. In the end we walked away with huge glossy sheets of photos of us doing very silly things and airbrushed to the max. The day was a successful one.

One night after a day spent reading huge packets of political commentaries and historical accounts about the opium trade a few of us decided to venture out on the city bus to find a certain restaurant. One of the young woman teachers (a recent UPS grad actually) took us under her wing for the evening and taught us the ropes of the bus and we arrived at the restaurant with no problems at all. Soon enough we had plates of Chinese dumpling filled with everything from mutton to wonderful Chinese green onion. We sat around the table talking about class and beer and all those good things until it was time to find a public bathroom. The meal was wonderful… the bathroom… not so much, but that’s China for you.

The apartment building we lived in was pretty much filled with pacrimmers so we decided that for Anna’s 23rd birthday our apartment was going to host an event. After much discussion and consternation we decided that the party would be half birthday and half costume party… the theme: Dance Party American History. Each pacrimmer was required to come dressed as a certain character from the history of America. In the end we had a greaser, a bag lady, a few hicks, an American Indian, a 1950’s housewife, coked out Mary Kate Olsen, characters from Back to the Future, Doug, and Doctor Quinn Medicine Woman and many other creative costumed individuals. We spent the evening drinking brandy and cokes and dancing and eating cheese (and by cheese, I mean an entire wheel of Gouda) and a cake made entirely of processed choco’ pies. The party was quite the success and the pictures surely prove this.

After awhile we all had to really get down to business concerning school. Our new professor who was out visiting from UPS, Karl Fields, expected a lot from us. His lectures were well planned and interesting so we read the materials he gave us cover to cover and prepared for class with questions, notes and definitions about everything from the opium war to communism. One weekend we took a trip to the historical sight of Gutien. This place is famous for a small building that housed the first meetings of the Chinese Communist Party. We sat outside on some stairs as Professor Fields lectured and this was perhaps the most distracting class I have ever been in. All around us people were taking pictures of us and running to sit in front of our group as their friends took their pictures. Motorcycles were whizzing in between us and Professor and even a tiny rooster decided to disturb the event and come and walk around Professors legs as he tried to compose his thoughts. In the end the lecture was a bit lost on us but the event was amazing. We were able to visit Mao’s office and view the small, airy room where the original concepts of a Communist China emerged. On this same day, not to far from Gutian, we also visited the traditional round houses that were being built in the early 1900’s. These houses served as tiny communities were everything from gardening to child rearing happened in the same large, multi-family house. These houses are built from very durable stone and have very few ground floor windows. In this way they are very safe and the community living within them could survive for months without leaving the safety of their home. The tour guide that took us around actually still lives in a round house today with her family. In addition to these visits we also had the worst Chinese meal of our visit, complete with many unidentifiable meats and spices.

When we got back to Fuzhou our time was coming to a close. We wrote a paper, studied for and took a test and all spent a little bit more time with our buddies before we headed for our next stop.

December 11 2008

I stood on the porch of the noodle shop, I stood one step off of the street and again wondered why there is such little sun here. I stood there eating an egg pancake dripping with hot sauce and studied the sky for any signs that sun would be coming soon. I took a rest. I wrote a paper. I peeled Asian pears with a very sharp knife. I did laundry and hung it all up on the front balcony. We drank beers and ate tuna and gouda sandwiches off of cardboard boxes we used for plates. We had a meeting about the PACRIM family, about issues and confrontation, but somewhere out in the farmland of Fujian province, somewhere behind a row of drying persimmons and roosters all fighting for space, it occurs to me that China is as big and vast as my future. It is as unknown and undetermined as my future, as confused and conflicted as my heart and mind… but somehow people still smile and hold babies, people still drink beer and pick persimmons, just as I keep traveling.

a little taste of winter...

There was a moment, riding this train to the islands border. All the lights form a contour that meets the waters edge. The Notwist sets the tone and I close my eyes: blink in reverse like Doug Coupland taught me. There is a moment when my face is blended as a reflection in the window with all of this and I remember one late night looking at my face in Tory’s rearview mirror, wondering how our feelings came to be displayed there…. on our faces, for all to see. On northern Honshu the weather is cool and stings your face awake. There is light and dark that share the island well, lighting it up in the morning with a wonderful haze and then setting it dim early in the evening. We pull into the train station and Hokkaido brings the beginning of our adventure, a new island, a new city.
Steph and I packed our things into two groups; things we were taking with us to Hokkaido and things we were leaving in Osaka at our host families house for the week. We bought pocky, water and cheese breads and headed to Kyoto station to meet Todd’s smiling face. By late afternoon we were on our way to Tokyo to transfer to our overnight train to Sapporo, and by late evening we were settled on our northbound train with whiskey nightcaps and pajamas. We arrived in Sapporo very early the next morning and were greeted with immense cold and chilling wind, so we took a few moments to bring out all our winter gear and bundled up to go explore the city. With our bags in one big train station storage locker we left the station and had a fine breakfast of coffee and toast at a nearby café with a view of the clock tower and the bustle of a workday morning in Sapporo. We waited patiently for the airport visitor center to open and then like children in a candy shop we gathered pamphlet after pamphlet of museum guides, history tours, and other various tourist attractions. We were all so excited that we determined A) we needed coffee and B) we needed a plan. In a few hours time we were on our way to a huge sculpture park just outside of the main part of Sapporo. We took a fairly quick train and a bus and found ourselves in a pretty vacant area… quiet, relaxed and pristine, we entered the park and proceeded to explore for the next 4 hours.
The Sapporo art park and sculpture garden is a huge plot of land just outside Sapporo and houses the Museum of Contemporary art, 5 different studios and residencies, 3 event and display centers and a garden containing over 70 locally or internationally sculpted works all placed within a landscape of white birch and green lawns. Our arrival date was not particularly well planned and soon enough we found out that the Museum was closed between exhibits and that during the winter months the park was also partially closed. We wondered around for a bit, visiting the buildings with displays and the studios but eventually discovering that we could not see much of the work in the park without trespassing. We were a little irked that we had traveled this great distance and the park was off limits. So in an act of curiosity and great concern for the future of my thesis Todd used his Japanese to inquire as to why the park was closed. Steph and I stood by him and nodded when it seemed appropriate and also tried to look earnest and slightly disappointed.
In the end we were sent to an office and a man handed us informational packets and badges and we were off to explore the cold, beautiful park… and best of all admission was somehow free! We spent a long while exploring the grounds, taking pictures, discussing works, watching a school group run about and finally we played a little in the cool air as it began to gently snow on the group of bronze portraits that encircled us.

Eventually we left the park and headed back to the train station to get our bags and head to our hostel. After a brief train ride we found our home for the night and made ourselves comfortable. That night it began to heavily snow and so we went out into it after dinner and wrote our names in the slush while we took pictures of each other. By the morning Sapporo was a white beauty and the remnants of our names were covered with ice and snow. The shoes I bought in Mongolia were now full of holes and so the task of buying new shoes was the first of the day. After a bit of searching we eventually found an athletic shoe store and from this point it was actually very easy. I pointed to a pair I liked and asked for the right size and when the clerk motioned that they did not have them she just brought out the one pair that they did have in my size. My choices were limited, but easy. I paid and then Todd, Steph and I headed to our event of the day, the old Hokkaido city.
This is an area with a bunch of historical buildings and forest. We spent a few hours roaming around and playing in the snow. We visited an old time-y post office, print shop, and farm. I took a few family portraits in the snow and then we all ran to catch the bus to our departing train.
As we waited for our train to Hakodate, (a picturesque bay area town almost on the southern tip of Hokkaido) we drank Sapporo beer tall boys and chatted about our coming days. We boarded our train and waved Todd goodbye as he stood on the platform holding his beer. The train to Hakodate was relatively easy and short and we arrived in the early evening to the beautifully snowy, tiny town of Hakodate. That night we were on a quest for crab (a delight that Hakodate is famous for). We decided on a cute little restaurant with a colorful front and nice woodwork. We went inside, took off our shoes, sat on tiny pillows and proceeded to hand gesture the word “crab”! It worked well and after awhile we had a plate of crab, sweet and delicate. The entire menu was in Japanese so we asked “sake?”, “sashimi?” and soon enough we had flasks of smooth rice wine and flavorful, melt in your mouth fish of various types served on beds of lettuce.

It began to snow and so we paid and went out to explore. We walked around the town and found a park that had been untouched by footsteps. Steph and I teeter tottered and bounced around on the playgrounds spring-loaded Anpan Man characters (this is a strange Japanese children’s cartoon that encourages healthy eating habits). We walked towards the beach, through a temple and down a bank until we reached the waters edge. It was covered with snow and the waves came to meet it. When they did touch, a tiny strand of snow would turn to ice ever so briefly before melting into the sand. We stayed awhile talking about Hawaii, throwing snow into the cold water, and looking at the surrounding landscape, trying to place ourselves.
The next day was our big day out in Hakodate. We had planned the day very well, according to the 5 pm train we needed to catch to Tokyo. The day started out with coffee and apple pie at a very cute little shop we noticed tucked down an alley. At this meal we pulled out our maps and brochures and decided we would go to a few museums, do some shopping, head to the ropeway to see Hakodate from its highest point and then proceed to the train station. We began our walk and I promptly dropped the map into the water as I peered over the edge at the boats. We managed to have a pretty good idea of the city though, so we took off to find some outdoor art and hit up some little shops and a hotdog restaurant our host mother recommended. We found the ropeway and bought tickets. The ropeway took us to the top of Mount Hakodate and we stayed there for a long while, exploring the view, looking at the gift shop, enjoying the cold air and beautiful sky before we headed to Tokyo.

Soon enough though, Steph and I have to run to the train station. We run with heavy bags over the icy streets in the evening darkness. We find ourselves standing caught at a crosswalk and we both look at each other knowing very well, we could be stranded for the night, but neither of us decide to entertain this idea… we just wait and when we can, we keep on running. We arrive just in time and the train starts to move as we settle into our seats. It is dark out now, but the large train windows allow us to view the bright speckled lights of the coastal cities. We barely make our connecting train and to ease the fright of our upcoming transfer at Toyko station we bought a few beers and had a meal of nuts, beef jerky, and Pringles. When we arrive Tokyo Eki is big and crazy and we regroup to navigate its many lines. In the end, with the help of a Japanese railways ticket man, a silly British dude and his Japanese friend, our maps, notes and the guidance of a construction worker itching to take a break from work, we arrive at our hostel to find Norah and two nice beds waiting for us.
Tokyo was a busy next few days. We spent our time at museums doing research for our various thesis projects. We took the above ground subway to the Mirakan technology museum and spent a very long time there watching demonstrations and seeing Asimo man. We went to the natural history museum and I visited a huge public park with art throughout it and several areas of art museums that displayed outdoor art. Norah, Steph and I ate some wonderful food and some not so wonderful crunchy meat kabobs. One night while sitting in the lobby of our hostel we got sucked into watched comedy Utube videos with a group of Slovenian karate instructors staying in Tokyo for an international competition. Eventually we all headed to a nearby jazz club, but the cover was costly and the bar was packed so we opted for a tiny Irish pub and spent the evening talking about geography, music, politics, food, and Japan, drinking dark beer and Asahi. Oh how universal it is that everyone falls in love with Japan! The next night Steph and I venture out for sushi. We find a great looking, crowded and tiny place and so we take a seat and wait for some room to dine. When we finally get seated we order beers and just smile at each other as the fish rolls on past us. There is a huge bowl of wasabi and boxes of ginger. We are very excited and after the meal we walk around a huge market before we head back to the hostel.
On our last day in Tokyo we wake up and have a leisurely breakfast. We pack our bags and head to an area that has a huge 3 story stationary store. We have a very hard time finding it and so we stop for a bit to admire the huge buildings all around us. In the end we never locate the store but we do find a million camera stores and so I buy a new lens cap and we board our train back on towards Osaka. Although we were very sad to say goodbye to the new places we met, we were very excited to see Otasan and Okasan and tell them all about our adventures. We arrive in Suita and walk one last time, back towards their house. We are greeted with warm tea and special little mochi sweets. We sat around the warm rock table and showed them pictures and gave them our gift of Hokkaido cakes. Otosan was insistent on driving us to the hotel where we were expected to meet up with PACRIM again and so unhappily we all piled into the Honda and headed to downtown. We were very sad to have to say goodbye and Okasan must have been as equally sad because she repeatedly invited us to visit again. Steph and I were not sure if it was ok to hug her but when we asked, a huge smile covered her face and she held us and said goodbye a few more times. We waved goodbye and finally they drove off as we stood watching the street.

Later that night (my last night in Japan) as I am trying to fall asleep i find myself thinking about how small things all go together to form the bigger picture. It is odd to listen to all the sounds that form into music, to see all the mountainous things that form islands. It is strange, to notice all the memories that happen to contribute to my idea of love and worth and validity.