Into the World:
The Random Thoughts in My Mind

As a society develops, it increasingly obtains the energy and the luxury to look toward its past, and begin to incorporate its remaining history into sustainable future development.   Europe, as the leader of modern economic development, has already reached a stage where tradition is combined into modernity .  The same traits of tradition's new-found role in economic progress is spreading from Europe to Asia, especially China where, despite large scale destruction over the course of ten-year-long Cultural Revolution, significant amount of traditional customs and architectural heritage remains intact.

By anyone's standards, traveling in Japan is not a cheap affair.   Shoe-stringing backpackers that frequent Southeast Asia should definitely not be here, considering that cheapest lodging tend to be around 30 USD per night and the cheapest lunch 6 USD.  Combine that with extremely expensive local transportation, which can average 20 USD for even short-distance train travel, and the expenses pile up in ways that does not justify the incomes of even the average person that lives and works in this country.  Most of the time, the money flies out of the wallet without even the user really noticing.

For those who are knowledgeable about modern history of Japan, Kagoshima is very much considered a pivotal place.  Led by the open-minded Shimazu family, the former Satsuma domain remained in contact with the outside world, absorbing Western technologies and ideologies during the long self-isolation imposed by the Tokugawa Shogunate.  As the 19th century saw the forced opening of the Shogunate to Western military coercion, the leaders of Satsuma emerged to lead the reformist movement in Japan to modernize the country, ending the Shogunate and rapidly catching up with the West with Meiji Restoration.

今回の日本旅行も時間でいうと明日で半分が終わるとの時点になるが、今夜でこの作者は鹿児島以外九州すべての県とほとんどの大きな都市部に携わることができた。 楽天時代の終了で日本在住も約4年前 の話になるが、この来たこともない九州で意外と「家に戻った」雰囲気を感じる。最初、作者はこれをただ親しみがある言語か文化にもう一度触れるちょっとした感動と思い込んでいたが、今夜偶然宿泊先で見てたテレビ番組が「地方活性化」のトピックで議論をしていたところで突然デージャーブーを感じた。

"Omotenashi" (おもてなし) is a cultural concept that the Japanese are deeply proud of.  While difficult to translate directly into other languages, it pertains to attentiveness toward small details when dealing with customers in the service industry.  Often, it is most visibly displayed in the meticulous training Japanese personnel receives on what kind of languages and gestures to use under what circumstances when speaking to clients , as well as the little things Japanese restaurants and hotels use, such as tools and signage, to make customer feel comfortable and convenient while dining.

The older generation of Japanese often lament that the youth in the country are not aggressive or ambitious enough.  They are easily satisfied by the status quo and seem to be quite narrow-minded and short-sighted on how they see the changing world around them, much unlike the older generation that has experienced so much of sudden changes in their lifetimes .  The elders say want the youth to go out there to the big cities and outside Japan, so that they can become global citizens capable of changing not just their country but be a much more active force in global affairs than Japanese have ever been.

"Hey, do you know what time is it now?"  A fairly normal-looking elderly man casually asked the author as he was walking down the backstreets of Nagasaki.  Given the time, the elderly did not simply walk away.  Instead, he pointed the author to the nearest streetcar station (without the author's prompting), and motioned the author to walk with him as he was heading toward the same direction.  The author was a little hesitant at the beginning as he was eager to head to the next major scenic spot in the scenic port town, but little did he know that he was about to speak to one of the most legendary figures from a legendary time.

It was field meeting day at a small Tanzanian village 45 minutes down a one-lane dirt path from the nearest paved main road. The staff of the NGO, myself included, was waiting in the village’s main “square” for the farmers’ arrival. The field team has been working hard all day to go door to door, getting people’s commitment to showing up for a 2pm meeting that explains in detail what programs the NGO has to offer to help farmers increase their agricultural yields for the next planting season.

For some reason, Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, is the transport hub of intra-Africa flights.  The country’s flag carrying Ethiopian Airlines host flights across the continent, bringing visitors of the continent to the city’s smallish but comfortable airport.  Aside from the usual assortment of foreigners (backpackers on their way to safaris, mid-level managers of commodity firms, sprinkled with a few diplomats), the demographic of the airport’s transit population says much about the state of the continent’s political economy.

In North Jakarta, there is a neighborhood named Pantai Indah Kapuk (PIK) that neither show up on tour guides or in any Jakarta tourists' itineraries.  It lies beyond a highway and a mangrove forest that separate it from the main commercial areas of old town Jakarta.  Sure, the traffic on the main streets of PIK still remain, as is the case for most of the metropolis, but the hectic mass of people and shops that is the old North Jakarta is replaced with straight neighborhood roads, devoid of street-side shops and even pavement for pedestrians, but full of delicately manicured bushes and flowers.

The guidebooks describe the traffic jams of Old Town Dhaka as "mesmerizingly hectic," a place where roads can be blocked off completely with just presence of bicycle rickshaws and nothing else.  Indeed, the narrow, winding lanes of the Old Town, euphemistically termed "roads," can hold no more than one and a half rickshaws by width.  Yet, as the rickshaws navigate the tiny lanes, dodging streetside stands, pedestrians, and other rickshaws in the process, what is noticeable is that the presence of these physical obstacles may not be the biggest obstacles slowing down traffic.

Over here in Metro Manila, the construction of new hotels with in-built casinos are not at all abating.  New areas devoted to attracting high-rollers in the names of Entertainment City and City of Dreams have now finished phase 1 of construction and continue to aggressively expand into open lands next to Manila Bay (at least part of which are reclaimed from the sea).  Despite the author's frequent travels within Manila during his time of residence , this development (and the scale and pace of construction) is certainly not previously seen and can be considered unprecedented.

For many countries that have some colonial past, the national identity is often supplemented, and in many cases, defined by struggle for freedom and throwing off colonial rule.  That of the US is a great example.  The cherished principles of freedom is evidenced by the early rebels' personal sacrifices in battlefields against the British.  And their struggles are epitomized as heroic in places like the lyrics of the national anthem.  The US is often not the exception but the norm in post-colonial countries, many of which systematically link the idea of nation with pain of colonialism.

On the massive central plaza inside the sprawling Korean-owned mall that is Lotte Shopping Avenue, there was an event involving what seems to be an exchange between Korean and Indonesian high school students.  Yet, the event was nothing fun and games.  The students were drawing massive South Korean national flags, with additional one-story high color posters hanging on the walls behind the central plaza.  The posters, with large English texts and cartoon drawings, claimed "Dokdo: islands of Korea!" "Donghae: the East Sea of Korea!" and "Celebrate the Life of An Jung-Geun!"

There were two young female DJs in the middle of the nightclub.  Pumping out electronic and house music for hours at an end, she was in the clubbing mood herself, completely ignoring the gaze of the massive crowds thronging around her DJ table and perhaps even forgetting the fact that they are in a mega-club in which the clientele did not really dance.  Instead, a massive elevated performance platform, lighted from the bottom, surround the DJ table, showing female dancers at work.  The mostly male clientele looks on as the dancers display energy and surprisingly good choreography.

On the way back from a short journey to see his grandparents, the author was riding a cab from Beijing's train station to its airport on the outskirts of the city.  The city, as is the case in most Chinese New Year's, was completely deserted, even on a 10 pm on a Saturday night.  The cab driver was a bit overtly joyful of how the normally insanely crowded city can be so refreshingly devoid of human density, making the usually painful drive to the airport (even on the five-lane expressway) a complete breeze with little traffic and fantastic speed.

When in China, one does what the Chinese do.  And when it comes to doing, eating takes up a huge chunk of the average Chinese's time and money.  The results of the devotion is apparent in how large shopping malls, most of which filled to the brim with different eateries, are popping up across the country.   Yet, for the Chinese, that is not enough to justify their love of food in special occasions, and interestingly enough, the author had firsthand experience of the lavish extremes that his extended family, like many others, are willing to go to celebrate their love for good food.

"Since the regular room is booked out, we will move you into a two-bedroom suite for your stay," the receptionist casually mentioned upon the author's check-in.  The author, for his business trip this time in the Philippines, was placed into a gigantic service residence unit.  Wowed by the sheet size of the bedrooms, the living room, the kitchen, the bathroom...the author was just giving himself a tour of the place when he noticed a little dark alley on the side of the kitchen, away from the bedrooms and the main door.

On the road, the biggest enjoyment a traveler can possibly have is food.  Going to new places and indulging on the delicacies that raised a whole new unknown civilization cannot be underestimated in its value in communicating with the locals.  It is like the Chinese says, "民以食為天" (people see food sky/heaven).  The centrality of gastronomy in not only the cultural expression of a place, but also the economic realities of the common people residing there  provides possibly the most concentrated and succinct method to get know the good and bad of a foreign location.

Sri Lanka is scheduled for another presidential election on January 8th.  As a result, the streets are filled with campaign posters and pictures of the two main candidates, more notably that of Mahinda Rajapaksa, the incumbent.  His party's blue flag grace the man streets of the country's main cities, with campaign personnel busying themselves plastering posters with photos of him shaking hands with notable foreigners or cuddling a small child on the campaign trail.  His campaign team is on the road through main towns, drawing huge crowds with fiery speeches.