Vietnam - Hanoi

Hello everyone,

It has been a lovely 6 weeks summer break. Though it would have made sense for me to blog more often during my time away from school, it was better to have fun instead and enjoy my time off. Now that I'm back in school, why not add blogging as another thing to my to-do list.

So we have some catching up to do. Our big summer trip was to Vietnam in August for 9 amazing days with our first stop in Hanoi.

Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam. No, it's not Ho Chi Minh City. Hanoi has a lot of history and the French colonialism is still very much part of the culture. We stayed in the Old Quarter section and witnessed many things that can only happen in an emerging country.

I was amazed and sometimes shocked by the difference in the infrastructure and public safety or lack thereof. Here's an example of typical scooter - notice the child (without a helmet no less) is sandwiched between 2 adults in a scooter fit for maximum 2 people.

 

Well, at least the adults had helmets - in this picture, there's a man that isn't wearing a helmet at all as he's crossing a busy intersection. Side note, there are not enough traffic lights!

 

What about pedestrian safety, you ask? Well, here's a wide street and this poor couple was trying to cross on the crosswalk. First, it's good that there's a nice designated crosswalk. But there were no lights so they had to merge into the street and inch forward against incoming traffic. We were this couple many times during our stay. At first, I was scared and intimidated and I would constantly hesitate. But I soon learned that if you just keep walking across the street, the scooters will swerve around you. Though I have to say, there were some CLOSE CALLS.

 



 

Even when we weren't trying to cross the street and just wanted to stay on the sidewalk, we couldn't. The sidewalk here are scooter and bicycle parking spots or restaurant eating areas, so many times we had to walk on the street, with the cars and the bicycles and the scooters.

 



 

Ahh - finally, we were safely inside and able to enjoy some people watching. But what's this across from us but a bunch of LIVE electrical wires bundled together. Argh - the engineer inside of me is alarmed.   

 

 Anyway, now that I've learned how to walk and cross on the street, we actually found the city quite fascinating. There were French colonial buildings everywhere, some brightly colored, others desperately in need of renovations. The atmosphere was what I imagined: vibrant with many people trying to sell you food and souvenirs along alleyways and side streets; busy nightly market fairs selling everything and anything you can imagine, and very friendly people who tried to help despite the language barrier. 

 

That's right ... even in narrow alleyways, we still had to deal with bicycles and scooters.

 

There were many old ladies like her carrying these heavy seesawing things, trying to sell fruit and whenever a policeman came by, they scurried away. I guess you can't be selling fruits without some sort of permit.... My favourite was the lady who carried a pot of broth in one and fresh pho and chives in the other - she was selling Pho!

 



 

Here's Matt buying coffee beans from one of the vendors on the street. We even got to taste the coffee. Did you know that Vietnam is the 2nd largest coffee exporter in the world, only second to Columbia. Vietnamese coffee is known to be strong tasting (more on Vietnamese style coffee later).

 

 

Busy night market - you know it's good when it's full of local people! Incredible deals.

 

 

And to round out our Hanoi experience, a few night shots at The Rooftop Bar overlooking Hanoi. Pretty, isn't it?!

 



 

 Hanoi - great experience. Highly recommended. 

Proud new parents of our Santoku knife

Another stop we made while we were in Tokyo was to the Kappabashi district. This is the famous district where one can buy a handmade knife, formed by the same steel and made by the same masters as samurai swords. That's right. Nothing but awesomeness.

There's really no need for other words, except for everyone to congratulate us on our new addition to the family: my very own Santoku knife.

Handmade
Powdered steel
101 layers
Traditional wooden handle
 Engraved with the name of the maker

Isn't she beautiful?! She was made in Osaka-Sakae. The stamping on the handle says it's handmade.

 

Close up of the engraving. The pattern on the knife is created from the powdered steel and the 101 layers being packed together. The higher the number of layers, the stronger and higher the quality, the blade is. 

 

The box it came with, says kitchen knife:

 

And the meishi of the store we bought it from. Tsubaya is the actual manufacturer of the knives and they sell directly to the public at this one store. 

 

A beautiful masterpiece and cuts everything like butter. It makes me feel like a chef when I'm using it.  

The famous Shibuya Crossing

Another Tokyo highlight and a favourite of all visitors, is to witness the Shibuya crossing during rush hour. Since we went to Tokyo on a weekend, we were unable to see firsthand the ridiculous amounts of people dressed in black suits crossing at 5pm.

However, what we did see was still pretty amazing. Hailed as one of the (if not THE) busiest intersections in the world, this is what it looked like at midday on a typical Saturday.

First, we watched the mayhem from a safe distance at the second level of a Starbucks.

 

Then we thought we see it for ourselves at ground level, and cross the intersection with other people. And it was pretty crazy. People from so many angles coming at once towards the same intersection. Lots of weaving and shuffling to cross it in 60 seconds.

 

 



Yet another memorable experience!

Tsukiji Fish Market

When Matt and I were in Tokyo recently with a few of our friends from Canada, I decided to brave the early morning and go watch a tuna fish auction.

Now it may sound weird to everyone who is not from Japan, but this is in fact a big deal and a main attraction in Tokyo. It is currently listed as the #1 thing to do by Lonely Planet and #3 on Tripadvisor.

Since I was afraid I would sleep through the fish auction, which is held Monday - Saturday between 5-6am, I didn't sleep the night before. Tsukiji recently added a few more rules to the fish auction. First, last year, they decided to limit the number of people to attend each auction. So now, they only admit 120 people total everyday, 60 people to attend the auction. Second, they now only allow 2 auctions visitors can watch.

This means it is actually very difficult to see the tuna fish auction. But I had a plan. I was going to get there by 4am, wait in line and hope that I would be one of the lucky 120 people allowed in.

And thankfully, I was. But I cut it too close. Within 10 minutes, the doors closed and people were turned away.

After the excitement of knowing I will be able to watch a live tuna auction, I settled into the waiting area and waited. It was actually a pretty long wait, about 90 minutes as I was part of the second group.

Here's a picture of the waiting area, with my awesome neon blue vest and so jealous I didn't wear a green vest, especially as they were getting up to go to the fish auction :(

 

And FINALLY, it was my turn. We were led outside, through a huge open docking / warehouse area, with many tow trucks driving past. We should have signed a safety waiver because these truck drivers DO NOT yield to pedestrians. Pedestrians have to watch where they are going! Here's a nice security officer telling us to be careful and to watch out for the drivers.

 

And we're inside the auction area. It looks just like another warehouse, except it was freezing inside, probably to keep the tuna fresh. It was a huge space, with many tuna fish lined up row by row, for the buyers to examine. Notice how the fin is partially cut. This is to show the colour of the meat and it also allows the buyers to pick it to feel its texture. They even smelled it, yet no one tasted it. Weird.

 

This is my "I am here at the Tsukiji fish auction" picture. 

And the auction begins. There were 3 auctioneers and their styles could not have been more different. Unfortunately, they all started at the far end of the warehouse, so we weren't able to hear what was going on (Not that I'm so fluent as to understand anyway). The one auctioneer yelled until his face grew red, the second barely uttered a sound and was using hand gestures instead, and the third was somewhere in the middle - enthusiastic, shouted out numbers, and pointed at the person when his bid was accepted. I liked him the best.

 



Here's the video of my favourite auctioneer in action:

And then it was over. It was short, but it was all worth it. Next up was to walk around the market. The Tsukiji market is similar to any other market in Japan. The rows are divided into food types - so you'll have one "street" selling only meat, another selling only fruits and vegetables and so on.

These are only a fraction of the people waiting in line for Sushi Dai. It's supposed to be excellent, but waiting in line for 3 hours for a couple pieces of sushi?! No thank you!

 

 

I prefer this guy. A standing sushi, excellent sushi made to order. The line was still long, but not as long, and the patrons were ALL Japanese people, which is a major stamp of quality sushi in my eyes.

 



Tsukiji Fish Market - Cool experience! Would definitely go back. Highly recommended.

Flood warning

 

Just received an URGENT NEWS bulletin on my phone. First of all, what is the point of alerting me if I can't understand what it's trying to tell me? But that's besides the point.....

 

 

But friends were able to translate that it is a flood warning message. Those who live on lower grounds should evacuate to the local designated shelter. Those in Moriyama and Chikusa areas should beware of landslides.

 

 

STAY INSIDE!

 

 

Oh, and this was what a friend of mine posted on Facebook - thought everyone might want to see what type of weather would result in a flood warning.....

 

One of the main streets in downtown Nagoya is actually flooding.



Learning Science at the Nagoya International Science Center

Check out an actual simulation of a tornado and this is a real life size of a dinosaur.

 

 

 

Science is FUN!

Yatai in Fukuoka

Fukuoka is famous for yatai's, basically temporary food stalls along the sidewalk that typically sells ramen and other hot dishes. Each yatai can only seat roughly 7-8 people and typically opens at dusk until about 2am.

There are yatai's along the canal, but we went to Nagahama based on local recommendations.

We picked this one and the taisho (chef's) were so proud they kept telling everyone we were from Canada. We had turned his yatai into a global business for the few hours we were there! :)

 

 

Can't beat authentic street food. Delicious.