Chinese time machine #2

The other day, as I was riding in a taxi, it occurred to me that in some ways, Beijing is like Tokyo (modern, bustling, Asian) crossed with Los Angeles (sprawling, wealthy). One thing that sets Tokyo apart from both of the others is the ubiquitous public transportation system. LA has little of that, comparatively speaking, and Beijing is rapidly trying to catch up, constructing new subway/train lines and modernizing the buses. All three are centers of their countries’ entertainment industries. I’m sure the comparison breaks down if you examine it much more than that, since in truth Beijing is just Beijing, just as Tokyo is Tokyo and LA is LA.

I recently had the opportunity to spend some time talking to someone who lives in Shanghai, and she said that in spite of all the English and Russian and whatnot you see written around Beijing, and all the foreigners you see, Beijing is still much more Chinese than Shanghai is. Shanghai, as a seaport and center of trade, has had non-Chinese influences for much longer than Beijing. And Shanghai is in fact famous for a street called The Bund – how Chinese is that?
Since I had such good responses from the Bimbo Bread post a while ago, here is another amusing Chinese bread bag. What do you suppose “USA Style” bread would be like?
It’s a bit like Wonder Bread, only has a slight yellow tinge, allegedly from all the butter. I’m sure cowboys made it that way.
There are Starbucks all around the world, but this one in Beijing has décor you would not see in Seattle.
And now we’re setting the controls for 23 February, during the Spring Festival. Here’s a picture from the Baiyunguan Temple that didn’t make the original post. How’s this for a contrast between tradition and modern life?
Later that same day, I came across this sight in the hallway on the fifth floor of a luxury apartment complex, outside the K/JW door. I’m guessing there’s a spoiled kid living very nearby.
This establishment is not far from where I live. Coffee, tea, pastries, and sandwiches are advertised – I haven’t been in yet, though I can surely imagine a day where I’m desperate enough for coffee to wander in.

Wasn’t that fun? We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Japanese time machine #1

Starting music: The Allies – “Emma Peel”

Here’s an entry catching up on some Japan pictures I didn’t post in the entries about the trip. First, for people curious about cars around the world...
The Nissan March (AKA Micra in most of the rest of the world).
Toyota makes the Fielder (AKA Corolla, apparently).
A cute little delivery van.
This shot is from the Tawaramichi Kitchen District. This ordinary store is painted with a nifty trompe l’oeil design with a dinosaur – how could I not take a picture?
If you refer to my previous posts, you’ll notice that the Shiodome area features a great amount of public art. These odd spotted people-things are a recurring theme. I like their whimsical appearance, but they seem incongruous when positioned next to a lovely naturalistic statue.
There’s art inside as well. These “rocks” are suspended from the ceiling, and below them is a large matching piece on the floor.
And look: Seattle is famous for soup! All these years living there, and I never knew.
I mentioned that people gather to take pictures of Howl’s Moving Clock.
This is me and my friend Black Jack in Kyoto.
In my post about the Studio Ghibli Museum, I mentioned a Russian-titled film they were involved with. We also saw materials about it at the Anime Fair. From the little bits we saw, the entire film is done in this dreamy watercolor style. From the descriptions I’ve read, Petrov actually paints his cels with oils on glass to create his films, but to my eye they resemble watercolor paintings. I’ve edited the previous post to have more information. You can watch the Japanese trailer here. You can see why it keeps winning awards at festivals.

Ending music: T.Rex – “Jeepster”

No, I can't read them

This is just a quick little post about a shopping trip I made yesterday. I walked to Wangfujing Street, which is one of Beijing's major shopping areas. I had a mission: to visit the gigantic bookstore and try to find Chinese editions of books by Robert Silverberg. I have to play the part of the definitive authority (or is that obsessive collector?) and keep the web site as comprehensive as possible. I'll spare you all the details of my search. It's a huge store, but the sections have signs in both Chinese and English, so it wasn't too hard to find FOREIGN SCIENCE FICTION on the fourth floor (or was it fifth?). Then I simply pulled every book off the shelf and looked at it. The section was small enough to make that a practical method. Oh, sorry. I said I would spare you the details, and there I went and typed them anyway.

On to the results, which will be added onto the Quasi-Official site as soon as I figure out how to do them.
This is Thorns, with cover art not resembling anything I remember from the story. The painting actually looks familiar, as if I've seen it on some other book.
And this is Lord Valentine's Castle, divided into two volumes (shang and xia) because they don't seem to like thick books, at least in the SF section.
The inside of LVC features some familiar artwork.
The interior layout is rather nice looking, with graphics on every page. All the other SF titles I saw had similar features.

I took quite a lot of pictures on my walk. It will take me a while to sort through them and make a proper post out of them, but for the Silverberg fans out there, I wanted to get this part taken care of.