Nov 27, 2006

北京/Beijing/Peking


First time in China continent!(I've lived in Taiwan so...)
I've always wanted to see the country that is becoming one of the main country in the world, I was so excited.

-Things I did in Beijing.

Day 1. Arrived in the afternoon, went to the hotel, and headed to the city center to make china dress! custom made china dress♡



Day 2. The Great Wall, the old castle, shopping, ate the famous Taiwanese dumplings.

Day 3. Hair cut, shopping, road bicycle around the lake, walking around the city, my friend's friends took us to eat Peking Duck at one of the most famous restaurant in Bejing.


初めて中国大陸に渡った!旅行は結構行ってるけど、中国大陸は初めて。今や世界の中心でもある中国にすごく行ってみたかったからうれしかった。

-北京でしたこと。

1日目 午後着。ホテルに荷物置いて、速攻チャイナドレスを作りに行った!オーダーメイドの赤いチャイナドレス♡

2日目 万里の長城、故宮(入れなかったけど)、買い物、台湾の有名な小龍包を食べた。

3日目 美容院、買い物、池の周りを自転車みたいなやつに乗って一周、街歩き、北京で有名な店で北京ダック。

I'll post some of my favorite pictures that I took in Bejing. Enjoy!












































































































China Discoverys

I was in Beijing for only 3 days but made me think about many many things during this trip.
北京にたった3日間しかいなかったけど、いろんな事を観て、感じた旅でした。

Things that I found out, surprising, shocking etc:
驚いたこと、発見したこと、感じたこと:

1. Overwhelming number of staff in restaurants, shops, everywhere.
Some places there were 10 staffs for 2 customers, I saw lots and lots of restaurants with no customers and staffs doing nothing, just sitting and chatting. How can you run a business like this??
 
 客数に対してあまりにも多い店員。初めて入ったお店ではうちら2人に対して10人くらい店員さんがいてすごく居心地が悪かったよ。レストランでも客がいなくて店員が暇そうにぺちゃくちゃしゃべってる光景たくさんみたし、こんなんで商売大丈夫!?って本気で思った。

2. Waiters and waitresses are mostly 16, 17 yld. just after highschool.
They live in a dorm with few staffs together, working all day. The girl in the pic is 16, very charming girl!

そしてそのほとんどが16か17歳。写真の子に話を聞いてみたところ、彼女は16で田舎から出てきて寮に住み込みで働いているそう。しかもその寮は数名一緒に住み、給料も相当低い。この子中国人にしてはめずらしく気の利く子で写真撮ろうっていったら恥ずかしがっててかわいかった☆


3. There are no middle class, no average salary. People are either Rich or Poor.

中国には中流階級がいない。だから平均所得というものもない。金持ちか貧乏か。知ってはいたが、現実を目にするととても考えさせられた。私には何ができるのだろう。







4. Women love red, pink, yellow clothes.

女は派手な色が大好き。特に赤やピンク、黄色など。









5. Not friendly, not nice.
This, my friend told me that the more you go south, the more people gets friendly.
Is this because of the temperture? My chinese friend said that you gotta be strong and aggressive to survive in 13 billion population.

やっぱりあまり親切ではなかった。国民性もあって、それは普通なのかもしれないが、日本ではありえないだろう。中国は南に行けば行くほど人が親切になるらしい。気温のせい?でも中国人の友達が言ってたけど、こんなにも人が多い国で自己主張しなかったらやっていけないといっていたなぁ。



6. Kids are so cute! everyone was wearing colorful clothes. but one more thing I've noticed is that I've seen far more boys than girls. Strange. Does this have something to do with one child policy?

 子供が本当にかわいい!みんなカラフルな服着てた。あと、もう一つ気づいたことは子供がほとんど男の子だったこと。たくさん子供見たけど、女の子はごく僅かだったと思う。一人っ子政策と関係があるのだろうか。
7. Kids wear underwear and pants with a hole in it.
It's for their parents convenience so that they can let their kids "do their business" quickly and anywhere they want. But aren't you cold in winter with your butt open? Poor babies... (I wanted to take pics but didn't have a chance...)


子供たちがみんな穴のあいたパンツとズボンを履いていたの!これにはマジびっくりした。いつでもどこでもすぐにトイレにいけるかららしい・・・。でも冬は寒いよぉ。かわいそう。。

8. Many "beautiful woman with ugly guy" couple.
きれいは彼女にかっこよくない彼氏カップルがたくさんいた!!っていうかかっこいい男の人がいない・・・。

9. Starbucks power controlling the world.
There were Starbucks even in the entrance of The Great Wall. Can you believe this?? Also, Starbucks coffee price is the same all around the world. Which means a cup of Starbucks coffee is very expensive for normal chinese people. But still Starbucks has customers. The fact is they are mostly tourist and foreigners from industrialized country.


スタバの浸透力には改めて驚いた。世界中にあることは分かっていたが、まさか万里の長城にまであるなんて。。しかも中国に行っても日本と同じ値段。中国人にとっては高級なはずなのに一体誰が買うのだろう・・と思っていたら、客はほとんど欧米や日本の観光客だった。っていってる自分も何回か行ったし。つい、行きたくなるし、スタバに入ると落ち着く。これが彼らの狙いである。スタバのマーケティングは本当にすごい。恐るべし、Starbucks.


10. Police were standing and chatting, looked like they were not doing their work.
警察が何人かでただ突っ立って、道端でしゃべっている光景を何度も見た。仕事してる?

11. I saw lots of meaningless labor work; like just taking the tickes at the entrance of the station, a guy who pull down the railroad cross manually when train comes, 3 or 4 guards in one place, too many waiters and waitress. This shows how much low the labor cost is.


さっきも書いたけど、意味のない労働力がたくさんあると思う。不必要に多い店員もその一つだし、益でただ切符を受け取るだけの人、何人かでかたまって突っ立ってる警備員、電車が来る度に踏切を手動で降ろす人など。それだけ人が多いいし、労働力も安いのだろう。


12. Is Beijing Olympic 2008 really possible???
  2008年北京オリンピック、本当に大丈夫?今の街の状態を見ていると心配になってしまう。
13. My friend was surprised that people were in a line to buy the ticket.
Few month ago, chinese peopld didn't know how to line up to do things. They were pushing each other to get what they want.
 
 友達は、中国人が切符を買うために並んでいたのをみて驚いていた。数ヶ月前まではみんな押し合っていたとうい。「並ぶ」ということを知らなかったらしい。

14. The weather in Bejing is always dull, no blue sky.
北京の空はいつも曇りでどんよりしている。
15. People don't care about the stop lights, cars. You cross when you want to.
人々は信号なんか全く気にせず渡る。車がきてるのに無理やり渡ろうとする。信号の意味があまりないのでは・・?

16. A stop lights for bicycles!
 自転車専用の信号!!









Nov 22, 2006

Today's work
















Today I attended a seminar from my company about consumption taxes and stamp tax. Not really interesting topic but one thing I enjoyed was this view from the building! It was right in front of "Osaka Castle" ! Plus, the leaves were starting to get red so that made the scenery more beautiful. I think I've never been there before... that's a shame. I should go sometime.
When I was falling asleep during the speech, I just looked outside and enjoyed the view:)


Sorry that it's not a good quality. I took it with my cell camera so if I zoom it, it becomes like this. My cell is a bit old now. Needs to be changed soon.








And after the seminar, since I was with my senpai (I think this is only in Japanese language, no direct translation in English- which means elder people in a certain group or community. ex. high school, University, company etc.), we went for a dinner. A nice dinner:)


This is one of the place I've wanted to go.
It's called "Le Bistrot de Paris" パリのビストロ(@大阪西天満)
French cuisine and wine restaurant. We had wine and salad, we also ate wild boar (猪)! I assumed it would taste like pork (since it is a kind of a pig) but it was more like a lamb. I liked it but senpai said it tasted wild (?) and a little heavy. Inside was just like a restaurant in Paris, which reminded me of the days I visited Paris last year.

Bon Appetit!













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Nov 10, 2006

Amazing !!!!


I found this amazing blog when I was surfing Internet the other day. I was soooo impressed by her artwork that I want to share with you guys. I'll attach the link but also one of my favorite artwork of her. Fabulous, gorgeous, amazing!!!





久しぶりにこれっ、すごくいい!!といったものを発見してうれしかった☆



Yuki's Design
http://kissui.net/blog/designs/