Observations

I haven't been here long enough to make any thoughtful commentaries on the following observations, but I want to take a minute to record them in case i decide later on I have an informed and balanced opinion on them. 

it appears that everyone HAS a bicycle, but no one actually rides them.  Bikes are everywhere, but everyone is taking a bus or train.  I haven't found a single bike shop repair shop or even found a single bike for sale.  Why have them if you don't use them? Do HK people feel culturally bound to possess a bike even if they refuse to ride them?

HK appears 40% Japanese, 40% American and 10% Chinese (and another 10% I have no idea what).  the first thing mabo and I said when we went to the local mall ( in Ginza, BTW) is "where is China and where are all the Chinese things?"  there was taco yaki, shabu-shabu, "Nihon Home" 'Aji ichiban"  "Okashii Land"  and Juso (and of course Mc Donalds and KFC) and 7-11 (which was exactly like the japanese 7-11 and nothing like the USA 7-11).   But we were hard pressed top find anything remotely remembling Chinese culture.  

they are CRAZY about all things Japanese.  which makes life easier for Mabo, and allows him to enjoy the same mirth i enjoy with the local "engrish", as  the random Japanese often is  nonsensical or has another meaning entirely than probably intended. 

the local Pizza Hut serves escargot and enchiladas, in addition to Pizza and pasta.  When was the last time YOUR Pizza Hut served escargot? Or enchiladas?  After that experience, I HAD to go to KFC, just to see if they served caviar. No such luck.  Just chicken and rice.  But no biscuits, boo.    

Kids here don't play.  teenagers line up in the book stores not to buy the latest manga or Twilight book, but to buy.....textbooks.  the local mall has a public library, next to it is the local public study zone, where kids in uniforms congregate in large groups.  Kindergardeners have homework. Absolutely no one on the bus or train can understand why my son does not go to school.  they keep asking which school and when i say he doesn't go to school, they say again, which school?   the playgrounds are few and far between and completely empty, except for perhaps 30 minutes in the evening. My primary school has two "playgrounds" where children can play basketball or run in circles.  there is literally nothing else to do. 

HK people love basketball.  And running in circles.  I have been in the local hotel for 7 days, and below my window there is a large field track, swimming pool, and 6 basketball courts.  At all times of the day and night, even in pouring rain, people are running in circles around the track and playing basketball.  In fact, most of the time they have so many kids playing basketball they can only play 1/2 court because there are clearly more than 6 games going on.  At my new apartment, I can still see people running in circles and playing basketball, only different courts.  This is what they do all day and all night.  I think I saw something like this on the Twilight Zone once. 

Despite 100 degree temperatures, you need to wear a sweater here.  the A/C, everywhere, keeps every kind of enclosure at a frigid 40 degree room temp.  Why oh why must they do this?  isn't it hard on their system to constantly go from 40 degrees to 100 back to 40 every time you go in or out?

I freeze and melt more often than a 50 year old menopausal woman here.  I would rather just feel the heat and let my body adjust to it.  I never used my A/C in Japan and didn't even have a fan in the US. 

I have never been to any country that posts more signs telling you what not to do, complete with fines how much you will pay if you are caught doing it.  yet despite all the forbidding and foreboding signage, absolutely no one pays attention.  Sometimes i feel like i am the only one following the directions on the signs.  I recently gave up caring about the "don't Walk signs".  So many people were pushing past me to get to the other side despite the warnings not to cross that I mostly ended up spilling out into the street anyway, so to keep the flow of the foot traffic, i have entirely stopped watching the walk signals.  If nothing is bearing down on me, I head out. 

there is a damn lot of paperwork.  everything needs to be copied and duplicated, triplicated, and quadruplicated.. No kidding.  I never even saw the word "quadruplicate" until I came here.  did you even know there was such a word?  it is written frequently here, as in "the duplicate goes here and the triplicate goes there and the quadruplicate should be filed over there".  I need to fill out a paper to request paper.  I need to fill out a different paper to request copies of papers.  Anything i need, i can get, if only I fill out this form, by hand, three times (photocopies not accepted) and wait for processing.  Argh!!!  Is there any sane rationale for all this paper consumption?

These are the observations i have made so far. Stay tuned next time, same bat time, same bat channel!