VS Shanghai(1)

It was my second visit of Shanghai in this year.
I am not a china freek but China is close to Japan. It is easy to go.
And it is valuable to go.
I and my friends made a tour and visited there.

My last visit was early February. It was a chinese new year season.
Then it was a holiday for many chinese people.
Many shops, restaurant, company and places were closed.
This time in March was different.
All places were open. Compared to last month, Shangahi was more active
and more and more noisy this month.

I rushed to see many sightseeing spot on the previous trip in Shangahi.
But ths time I don't have to rush.
I walked around Shangahi slowly, and I found many things I could't find last time.

Our party walked around the area where many old modern western architectures were built.
They are historical architectures when France, England, America and Japan etc governed China. They are not only historical but also very beautiful. I looked at one old church. It was like a church in fairy tale.
Now the area is a good sight spot. But also it is a target of real estate investment.
The land price becomes too high.
Unfortunately the people only watching the old houses, like me, don't drop money in the area.
It is good for the land owner to scrap them and build new office buildings.
Then I heard that the old architectures become less and less.
It's a disappointing thing.

We went to the antique goods shopping street.
Old books, pictures, photos, plates, swords, crowns, marjang pies, chinese chess boards, Mao Tsu-tung pins etc. This place was very nice. I was not bored with watching this area.
If chinese peoples sales is softer, this place is better.
They tend to hustle on business.
It is OK for electric equipment sales.
But an antique market is the place which a well understanding buyer meets a well understanding seller. Aggressive sales is not sophisticated there.
I bought some old postcards there.
(to be continued.)

VS Narita

I am in Internet Cafe in Narita airport.
From now, I am going to China again.
Narita is very uncovinient to reach. It is located in very rural area in Japan.
In addition, this airport is not attractive for me.
Maybe here is very boring for all passangers.
Then, when I found this Internet cafe, I was very happy.
Now I am waiting for my flight. I and my friends came here 3 hours before flight time.
It's a taugh work to kill time here.
I will drink beer after this cafe.

But staying in a air port is exciting for me.
I don't know the reason. I like to watch many passangers, flight attendants, air planes...
Airport has its own unique rules.
Then we have to adjust the rules. All peoples' behavier here is different form non-airport.
Many many checkings. Very correct time schedule. Existence of rule breakers.
Police dogs. Non-tax goods. Uneconomical price foods.
When writing, I become excited.

Hm, Narita may be more attracive than I thought.

VS Photo

There are so many photographer, professional or amateur, in Japan.
Everbody has a handyphone with camera or a digital camera.
And they love taking a photo. Japan is filled with a lot of photos.
But studying photo is unpopular in Japan.
We don't know which photo is good or bad.
I sometimes sell good photos to my customer.
Selling good photos encourages photo study, then I think it is a meaningful job.

Sebastiean the British photo hunter emailed me last month.
He found the very old photo recently.
His job is to find out the antique rare photos, to study them and to sell them.
To search for them, he travels all over the world.
The photo was found in Paris.
It was a portrait of Alfred Dreyfus, who was unfamilier with Japanese but maybe
famous in European history.
One musium in Japan is collecting the documents and photos about this man.
Then we tried to offer it to the musium.

We met one professor to offer the photo.
I realised soon he was very interested in it. He seemed to understand the value.
Such a rare photo is usually expensive.
Of course we wanted to sell it by higher price.
But the professor's position was oposite. He didn't want to pay money so much.
He checked it with calm face.
I checked his face with calm face.
Our faces were calm. But the situation was hot.

We found a sign "Alfred Dreyfus" in the margin of the photo.
If the autograph was written by him, the photo price becomes extreamly high.
I found the professor's nose hall to be bigger and bigger.
Maybe he also found our nose hall size changing.
But to judge if it's himselves or not was difficult.
Then now the proffesor is investigating it.
I don't konw if he will buy it, but it is sure this photo must be very valuable.
Don't miss it ,professor.

VS Live show

Tsukuba in Ibaraki prefecture is a developing city.
I sometimes visit there to see my friend,Peter the great entartainer .
This city was only rural site at first, became scientist living area next and now is becoming very young modern city.Basically the population in the cities in Japan is decreasing, but Tsukuba is getting many new comers.

This time my purpose of visit was to go to Peter's Live show.Live space was "CORK HEAD'S" which was a very good Australian bar.
The bar owner was a frank and kind guy. I enjoyed a real ozzi hamburger with beer.It was my first time burger after watching the movie "Supersize me!" a few month ago.
I had thought we don't need hamburger in our life after the movie.
But I changed my mind.
We must eat it.

His show was successful regardless of twice broken of his guiter strings.
He would think the accidents were terrible.
But I think it proves his guiter playing was powerful and perfect.
Last year he broke one Live show by himself because of too much drinking before the show.
The strings broken was not good but better at least.

I hook whisky and listened to the music with some junior high school teachers.
Decreasing children give an serious impact on all schools in Japan now.
Some famous school group is making new campuses in new location to get students.
Developing area like Tsukuba must be fitted. Of course, many competitor schools aiso exist there. The teachers I drunk with are new challengers in Tsukuba. I hope they can win the school survival race.

VS Old newspaper

Now one IT company in Japan try to take over one radio company.
The radio company is a sister company of one big TV company.
Then, if the takeover succeed, the IT company will infulence big media.
The media group with radio, TV, newspaper etc has a strong political
opnion which is very Right.
But the IT company's president is not interested in the opinion.
He said he would rid the media company of political parts.
We are enjoying the battle between new company and old company in
stock market now.

I hook a glass with one publisher this week.
He published many old English literature books before.
Now he is trying to publish an old newspaper, which is the former of
Japan Times.
This newspaper is famous, but nobody in Japan have it completely
from the first volume. Then he thought about republishing it.
I like this kind of challenging publisher.
His policy looks simple. He makes what he likes.
I am not sure he will succeed in the business.
But, anyway, I cheer him.

We drunk two bottles of Syochu.
I think we talked about sales tactics.
But all idea had gone after drinking.
But, anyway, I cheer him.

VS China(2)

Chinese people loves eating. They walk on the street with eating something. Of course such a scene is not special. But the percentage of eating pedestrian may be bigger in Shanghai than Tokyo.
I was impressed by the people standing on the road, who did nothing, just standing still.
I met such a people in the poor area in Shanghai.
People usually do something; talking with others, working for anything, sleeping, running or smiling by any reason. The impressive people in Shanghai were the just standing people outside.
If I can speak Chinese, I want to ask them what they are thinking about deeply.

Starbucks, MacDonald, KFC and Big Echo(Karaoke) ; there are too much familier things in Shanghai. I found Oden in a convinience store. It is arranged by chinese style, but it is a clearly Japanese popular junk food. Maybe these unspecial things get rid of the color or character from each cities. On the other hand we can easily understand or share the life pattern and the thinking style of differnt people.

In the last article I reported about very god drink.
I bought another type of Sake at the same time.
The drink is stronger than another one. I t has over 50% alchool.
It is made of the oil of five differnt types on snake.
I heard form seller that this drink make my hook hand bigger, harder, stronger and taugher after drinking. I couldn't miss it. I had thought I needed very hard training to get better my hook hand. But, Once I drink it, I can get the great ability of hook hand. This is the easiest way. My purpose of this trip had been reached.
I bought the one bottle of anacondic drink.
I have never tried it. But I can hope my hook hand gets super performance to any enemy.

VS China

I went to China last weekend.
The main purpose was to master kung fu technique.
I needed to get new skill for my dangerous hook hand.

Japan and China have a complex memory.
Japan was an unchained young dog before, and bit at an old silet dog, China.
Next the young dog tried to bite an another big dog, Russia. And it succeeded.
Japan got confidence and challanged America next. But it failed.
After that, Japan became a peaceful puppy and forgot the old memory.
But some,many,most or all chinese people still remember the memory.
Then our relationship was not as close as our geographical relation.
But generation is changeing.
And the economical relationship with China is biggest for Japan.
Our distance may become closer and closer, following necessity.

This visit was second times for me. Shanghai was changeing rapidly four years ago.
Still now it is changeing. The people in Shanghai is very aggressive.
Especially taxi driver is too offensive.
Their driving technique is, I think, crazy.
We can experience car race on the road in the city.
I often saw the scene that people were arguing loudly on the street.
Someone was kicking the stopping car to move it.
Basically the center of Shanghai is noisy like a festival.
In fact, when I visited Shangahi, it was in new year's festival days.

I enjoyed very best chinese foods. But I don't write about it in this blog.
Patrick the food master will write about it very well in his blog someday.
I have to report the experience to meet God in a chinese restaurant.
I drunk very good Chinese wine. The name was "The God of Sake".
It was an amazing name. I couldn't miss the chance to try it.
To be honest, I am not a religious people.
I suspected the existence of God.
But, in China, I met him. It was unbelievable.
He was on my tangue. It was natural I couldn't see him.
After finishing one bottle in the restaurant, I bought two Gods as a suvenier.
Now they guard me on the refrigerator in my room.

(to be continued)

VS Hay-fever

February 10th is a X day in my living area. The battle royal starts today.
Many mask men and women emerge in the city.
They don't intend to fight with my hook hand. They want to protect themselves against hay-fever.
A lot of seeds start to fly in the air today.
We are in the space filled with plant gene in this season.
The metal wepon attached with my arm is not useful to defend from the nano-scale enemy.
But my condition is good because I have a good medcine.

Today I made a book list about allergie.
(I have to explain my job for unknown readers. I'm a book sales man.)
My cliants are studying allergie science.
For me, to be honest, it's boring. But I know it's useful.
I expect them to defeat the botany bomb when I make a list for them.

I got a chance to escape from Japan for a while.
I will go to China tomorrow and stay for a few days.
I will write "VS China" report soon.

test

I've never written a blog in my life, then I need to test many things, ah maybe the message written in this box will be published. But I don't know the character type and size. I can arrange them freely? I don't know.
Anyway this is a test writting. I can write anything freely. About my friends, my job, my favorite food..
Mmm, but I may have to think about a private policy. There are many dangerous hooker in this net world. I can use my hook hand for self-defense in the physical world. But it can't work in this net world. Sometimes this hook hand is my disadvantage when typing a keyboard. Ok, my private policy is this. I will never write my credit card number.
Test writing was done.