brian + japan = ?

Of Stumps and Sakura

As spring makes its way to the north of Japan, it leaves in its wake the short-lived blossoms of sakura (cherry trees), which in turn spark the will of the Japanese to eat and drink outside, beneath the splendid sea of pink. This tradition is known as ohanami, "flower viewing". Some Japanese are apparently so wild about it that they actually follow the blossoms' migration from south to north, like Deadheads into bud of a different sort. Most folks, however, seem to be in it mostly for the drinking, so when the tour finally reached Sapporo last week, we fit right in.

Pretty!

Hard-core fans.

After a few token glances at the pretty flowers, it was down to business with a rousing game of Stump. Stump was introduced to us by Ben. Stump is a drinking game involving 1) a stump, 2) nails, and 3) a hammer. As with most things involving Ben, Stump is clearly a recipe for disaster.

Each player has one nail, which is initially pounded into the log far enough to be stable, like so.

The goal is to pound other players' nails into the stump completely before yours suffers the same fate. A completely pounded nail is defined as one whose head is entirely level with or beneath the stump. Any time your nail is struck, you drink. Pounding is the tricky bit. Rather than simply giving a nail a whack, you must flip the hammer into the air, let it make at least one full rotation, then catch it by the handle and attempt to strike a nail. Making a normal hammering motion and interrupting the hammer's descent, known as "cocking", is forbidden. It's actually very difficult to avoid doing this, and only Tim seemed to get the hang of it, as seen in this video (4.3MB). (Sorry, you'll have to turn your head or monitor 90 degrees until I either find a way to rotate videos or learn to not shoot them vertically.) Mark displays a degree of cocking here (3.5MB), but the unquestioned cocking champion was Brendan (3.4MB), hardly surprising, given his startling resemblance to the Unabomber (his girlfriend Seiko is clearly terrified).

For those still stranded in modemland, here are two pity still shots to keep you occupied while the videos download.

Evan, looking sharp, or perhaps like a blind panhandler.

Mark in mid-stumpgasm as Seb and Merek look on enviously.

Shanghai

Sebastian and I decided to spend a few days in Shanghai, China. You know, just for fun. Two of the trip's five days were spent almost entirely in transit, and the remaining three weren't nearly enough to get beyond the surface of one of the world's biggest cities. But if travel success is measured in volume of pictures taken, it was a total victory for our little international coalition (Seb is German, which is an instant 2x comedy multiplier). [Modem-users beware, lots of pictures within!]

That Shanghai is enormous goes without saying. Its ginormous nature can't really be appreciated from the ground, so we headed to the Jin Mao, the 4th tallest building in the world at 421 meters. Just as in Tokyo, the urban texture extended to the horizon. Unlike Tokyo, the average height of buildings didn't drop dramatically beyond the city center. Shanghai seems to be wall-to-wall high-rise buildings as far as the eye can see. This picture sucks, but may give you a very vague idea of what it's like.

It's been reported that China's explosive growth of late is propelling some to great wealth while leaving many behind, and Shanghai seems to bear this idea out. Everywhere you look, bright shiny new buildings are under construction. Everywhere in between, folks apparently not swept up in the wave of prosperity go on with their lives, socializing or selling their wares on the street in front of their homes.

Shaving is good.

Dry clothes are good, too.

Street mahjong.

A tasty array of dishes for sale. The red stuff in the center is mabo-dofu, which basically means "spicy tofu". I'd eaten it quite a few times in Japan, and it never lived up to the "spicy" part of the name. China was a different story! The deep red sauce was bursting with chili seeds. Hot hot hot.

Though it sometimes made me feel like a dirty voyeur from Planet Wealth, wandering the streets may have been the best part of the trip. Obviously, we did lots of blatantly touristy stuff as well, frequently with the help of Seb's friend Stephanie, who lives there.

For instance, she gave us a wonderful tour of Yuyuan Garden, which has some neat history that I've already forgotten, I just liked the design.

She also suggested the Shanghai Urban Planning Museum, much more entertaining than it sounds. It goes to great lengths to describe a golden vision of Shanghai's future. The centerpiece is a gargantuan model of the city center.

Amazingly, not a single visitor has entertained their Godzilla fantasy on that thing yet. The museum also featured a boating/driving simulator that illustrated something or other, piloted by your Able Captain, Seb.

"Liebe, aufregend und neues. An Bord gekommen, wir erwarten Sie. Das Lieeeeeeeeebe Boooooot!!!"

We also rode the fantastic maglev train, the only one of its kind in existence!

An hour-plus drive to the airport from the city center takes a mere eight minutes on this bad boy, which, though it lacks pickup, has an insane top speed.

Things are a bit shaky at 431 km/h, thus the blurriness.

We also found the most wonderful place in the world for those suffering from overconsumption of awful Japanese beer: a bar. A real bar. A German bar! Shanghai has no less than three Paulaner Brauhause (plural?), enabling us to get our fix of hefeweizen and dunkelbrau every night. The view was a nice touch.

In spite of my best efforts to get us lost, we also managed to find the Propaganda Poster Art Centre, easily the greatest museum-like place I've ever been to. Very Mao-centric.

Mao in the fields!

Birth Control for the Revolution!

Castro is our pal!

Joey Stalin, too!

Fantastic art style. Also, Mao is the sun from which all good things burst forth.

Several images depicted the United States in a predictable fashion. Here, we are apparently trying to disrupt China via Taiwan. The characters mean something like "a road to death".

Mao, enjoying some tobacco with his admirers from all walks of life.

Thronged by peasants, Mao is truly at one with the people.

We also hit the most famous antique market in town, Dongtai Lu, now with 5% actual antiques! Still, it was full of funny stuff and more Mao curios. These statues were great. I especially love the kids riding the rocket (or nuclear missile?).

Seb bought a few Mao cigarette lighters that play a nationalistic tune (possibly the national anthem) when you light 'em. I found this Mao watch (video, 2.6MB) to be the highlight. Couldn't bring myself to buy one, though. We did some other stuff, but that pretty much sums up the pictorial of the adventure.

The next trip is Kyoto, with Tim, Laura, and Paul, in a few weeks. Then a weeklong break, and off to 'Nam with Tim. Travel binge = goooooood!