My residence in China was the Fengleyuan Hotel in Zhengzhou. The place looked pretty cool from the outside at night. This first picture was taken from my room.

I went on the roof one night to see if I could see the nightly fireworks that I was hearing. I could barely see the top of them (perhaps coming from the CBD, new part of town). The place looked even better from up here, much better than during the day when gray building under gray sky looked more depressing than anything else.

The hotel was OK on the inside. The floor mat in the elevator changed daily which was kind of fun. The staff was friendly to me, although communication was difficult, to say the least, as none of them spoke or understood English. I could usually get my requests across by writing kanji or by writing a single word in English which they would look up in their electronic, cell-phone dictionary.

The biggest problems with the place are probably the same as those at any hotel in China–the smells and floor. You can smoke anywhere in the hotel (or China for that matter) and most Chinese males seem to always be smoking. The floors were also not clean, which I found to be true in restaurants and the two hotels I stayed at on my way out of the country as well.

Posted on March 24th, 2010 under China. Tags: buildings, night photography. Comments: 2

Based on what others have said, especially those who have only been to places like Beijing or Shanghai, and the propaganda from the Beijing Olympics, showing a modern China, I was expecting something different than I found. Sure, there are some modern buildings in Zhengzhou, and those living there claim that things have developed rapidly over the past couple decades, but most of what I saw looked like it was out of the pre-1970s era.

If you look closely you can see that some kids were playing on the above building.

Many of the buildings and walls around town made things look like a prison. The constant, extreme air pollution added the gas chamber element to complete the less-than-pretty picture.

Posted on March 23rd, 2010 under China. Tags: buildings. Comments: 1

Fall semester ended at Waseda University early in February. The entire campus was immediately transformed into a giant testing center. For most of February there are daily entrance exams for high school students (and some college students looking to upgrade schools) trying to get into Waseda. Most of the normal entrances to campus have been closed. The one or two that are open feature tight security.

For the few of us walking around campus it is rather bizarre. Just a few weeks ago there were tens of thousands of students. Now you can do several laps around the buildings and see few, if any, people. Regular students cannot enter campus.

The other morning, a Sunday no less, I happened to arrive just as some test takers were. We were greeted with shouts of ohayo gozaimasu (good morning) and ganbare (good luck/hang in there/do your best) from a cheering section of people. Not only did I have to show my ID to several people in order to get to my office, I had to show my ID to leave campus as well. I’m guessing they had a problem with someone pretending to be someone else to get that someone else into school at least once in their history. Why else would they have this ridiculous amount of security?

The sign above says test takers are not allowed to leave campus until the last test has been completed.

Personally, I prefer the normal campus to the February “prison” campus.

Posted on February 24th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: buildings, signs, waseda university. Comments Off on Entrance Examinations (入学試験)

Toki no kane (時の鐘) is the name of Kawagoe’s original bell tower, which is still used four times a day. We heard the noon ringing. The original is about 400 years old. This one was built in 1893, after the great fire that burned most of the town. If you look closely at the bottom, right part of this picture you can see some newlyweds having their pictures taken.

The bell and tower are also featured on Kawagoe’s manhole drain covers. (Kawagoeshi = かわごえし = 川越市 and shi means “city” in Japanese) (おすい = 汚水 and osui means “sewage” in Japanese)

There are all kinds of interesting shops and restaurants in Kawagoe. The one pictured above is called the Garden Cafe, run completely out of an old VW van, which I’m guessing isn’t from the Edo Period.

Posted on January 26th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: buildings, drainspotting, jinrikisha, kawagoe. Comments Off on Little Edo – Part 2

Last week we had some unseasonably warm days. On Wednesday we went to Kawagoe (川越) in Saitama Ken (埼玉県) to be tourists in “Little Edo” (小江戸). There is very little in town that is actually from the Edo Period, but there are many old buildings from the late 19th Century and early 20th Century, some made to look like they are from the Edo Period. It made for a great day trip from Tokyo, especially on a weekday with no crowds.

I lived in nearby Tokorozawa many years ago, but this was my first visit to Kawagoe.

We arrived at one of the temples (or was it a shrine?) just as the neighboring kindergarten was letting out. All the moms parked their bikes on the temple grounds before picking up their kids.

This lovely, 360-year-old building is known as Jigendo (慈眼堂) and can be found on the grounds of Kitain (喜多院).

Posted on January 25th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: bikes, buildings, kawagoe. Comments: 1