China's Pollution and Public Image Problem

Another article in the International Herald Times today reported on the algae problem choking China's waters. The IHT says algae is covering large portions of the coastline and the Yellow Sea, potentially threatening parts of the water designated for Olympic sailing events.

"But officials in Qingdao said pollution and poor water quality did not have a "substantial link" to the current outbreak, according to Xinhua. Instead, scientists blamed the bloom on increased rainfall and warmer waters in the Yellow Sea."

However, I would like to note that algae proliferates when its environment is saturated with phosphates and nitrates, which are pollutants common in animal waste. When algae dies, it falls to the bottom of lake/sea/ocean where bacteria feeds off of it. If there is an abundance of algae, there will most certainly be an abundance of bacteria. The bacteria then depletes the lake/sea/ocean bottom of oxygen and eventually, lake/sea/ocean becomes a dead zone, an area with no oxygen levels. The lake/sea/ocean is then only an area filled with algal slime.

I don't feel like China is facing a short-term problem. I think it needs to address the larger problem of pollution and find ways to curb it now before it goes too far, which is something the US once ignored and is now coming back to haunt this country.

The situation is hard for China because it wants to put up a picture-perfect front for the Olympic Games and the thousands of tourists who will be flocking into the country. In many ways, the country's pride and image are on the line because it only has 16 days to impress the world, and once the cameras start rolling, it has to be ready.

Continued Protests in Korea

The International Herald Times reported yesterday (Sunday) that hundreds were injured in beef protests that have persisted since the government lifted a ban on American beef. The IHT notes that the protest was the largest one since one of June 10 that brought together 100,000 people.

"Dozens of police buses lined boulevards in central Seoul and thousands of riot police officers were dispatched as protesters began rallying Saturday evening despite the government warning.

Clashes erupted late Saturday and continued into Sunday when thousands of protesters tried to march on Lee's office. The police stopped them with barricades built with police buses.

Protesters tied ropes to the buses and pulled at them. The police fired water cannon and sprayed fire extinguishers. The demonstrators hurled rocks and swung steel pipes while the police beat them back with plastic shields. People hooked hoses to fire hydrants to make their own water cannon."

I found this interesting because during my time in Korea, our guides said the protests had been dwindling. They said that though people were still protesting, the numbers have been getting smaller and smaller since the large protest on June 10. The reason for yesterday's abnormally large protest seems to be the Korean government's insistence on moving forward with serving American beef to citizens who are scared of mad-cow disease.

I thought it's particularly worth noting that South Koreans seem to care more about their country's relationship with the US than with their northern counterpart's submission of its nuclear program and the destruction of a nuclear facility. While the West seems to praise progress with North Korea, South Korea seems to be lamenting the new direction its relationship with the US is taking.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Our last full day in Tokyo was pretty free. We went to the fish market this morning, and I have to say I was a little disappointed. I had heard a lot about it, but when we got there, it wasn’t a busy day and I think the busyness normally adds to the atmosphere. The fish market is the first stop for some of the oceans’ best and freshest seafood. Japan consumes most of the fish brought to the market before it’s sent out to the rest of the world.

What I saw was really no different from what I’m used to at Chinese supermarkets, except that it was Japanese. Fishes, crabs, seaweed, wasabi plants. They were all laid out before me at the market, and we mainly just wandered up and down the small market streets before lunch.

At one stop, we saw these little balloon things and curious as we journalists are, we asked the man what they were. He then took a balloon, laid it out on Matt’s hand and then popped it! Inside was this oddly coloured silver mass. It was awkward looking and a little creepy, and the man said it was tofu. So we all took bites out of it, and it really wasn’t that bad, except that it was just weird. We didn’t end up eating the whole thing, but we didn’t let the polite Japanese man know it.

Lunch was a traditional sit-on-the-floor Japanese meal filled with sushi. I was a little skeptical about the tuna because the tuna sushi that I’ve always eaten has always had a weird aftertaste so I’m normally not keen on it. But since I was in Japan, I had to eat it since it was probably just catch 15 minutes ago. And it really was the best tuna sushi I’ve ever eaten! The eel sushi was sweet and tender. The egg sushi was amazing – a light sweet taste with a slightly salty afterthought. But I thought the salmon sushi was the best. It was fresh and slick and sweet.

Then we took a tour of Asahi Shimbun, the world’s second largest newspaper. The world’s first is also in Japan, and most people in Japan subscribe to a paper. The Shibun puts out two editions, a morning one and an evening one. The morning circulation is 8 million and the evening circulation is 3 billion. These are numbers the New York Times dreams about. People in Japan seem to really respect their journalists, much more so than in the States.

Asahi Shimbun has 1250 editorial staff and 3500 staff in total. In their introduction video, the paper showed their reporters as very multi-faceted. Reporters are also photographers, which I thought only just showed how journalists now need to play more than just one role. Just like how broadcast journalists need to know how to blog and take video, print journalists need to be their own photographers.

We spoke with Go Kawasaki, who I believe is a political writer, and Toshiaki Miura, an editorial writer. And through our conversations with them, I learned how the press is so pivotal in Japan. Historically, Japan got freedom of the press from the United States after the US helped democratize the country, and so newspapers are a symbol of the country’s freedom.

However, I was surprised at how journalists at the Asahi Shimbun are not moving toward the Internet. Kawasaki and Miura said Japanese journalists don’t do Internet reporting or blogging because it’s difficult for them to do morning, evening and Internet coverage of their stories. I found this particularly interesting because for such a technologically advanced country that you would expect would embrace new media, their newspapers and journalism are more traditional.

We were then abandoned by Brad and Hiromi and forced to find our way back. Actually it was fun because it was an adventure getting back and it really was a test of our travel skills. After a brief break in the hotel, Deanna and I went to Daimaru, one of Tokyo’s largest department stores and I was in heaven for about half an hour. Their first floor is full of desserts and pastries and I was just floating around from one to another, just trying to decide what to buy. To my delight, there were samples! So let’s just say I wasn’t stingy about those. Their desserts are so decadent but they don’t look too sweet and diabetes-like like American desserts; they seem to be just the right amount of sweet and savoury-ness. In the end, I bought a small pastry and a black sesame mochi with red bean filling.

Later in the evening, Matt, Amanda, Deanna and I went to Tokyo Tower, which is Tokyo’s respond to the Eiffel Tower. We would see it as soon as we stepped off the subway and we pretty much followed the light like the shepherds followed the bright star. We slowly made our way through the district and wound up at the legs of the Tower. It was really bright, not in a flashy sort of way, but just in a general this-is-bright kind of way. We bought our tickets (820 yen) to the observation deck, and though I’ve been to my fair share of towers, I really liked the Tokyo Tower. In most cities, only one section of the Tower’s view will be fully lit but it seemed like in all 360-degrees of the Tower, Tokyo was lit up.

Lights of business buildings and lights of the streets and lights of particular districts, like Shibuya, really seemed to fill up the sky. And in most cities, the lights seem to end after a while and disappear into the dark sky, but in Tokyo, the buildings never seem to end. We all noticed that even if there was a pack of buildings in the skyline, the lights didn’t end there; there were even more buildings behind those ones! The lights just seemed to keep on going and going.

We got back pretty late for our rendez-vous with everyone else and the rest of the night was very uneventful. Our attempts to find a late night dinner place were sadly unsuccessful, and our attempts to find a late night dinner place on the streets was even more difficult and unsuccessful. Needless to say, my last dinner in Tokyo wasn’t that tasty – I had burnt (possibly carcinogenic) chicken wings and untasty ramen.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

This morning, we headed off the imperial palace, which is where the emperor lives. After World War II, the American government made the emperor denounce his mandate of heaven, which gave him ruling power over Japan, so the Japanese people would stop following him. Thus the emperor is now only a ceremonial figure of Japan rather than a government leader. This, of course, would be an example of Americans culturally imperializing another country.

The current emperor and empress only have a daughter, and when she was born, there was controversy over whether this daughter would be allowed to carry on the royal line. After much dispute between the conservative, traditional side with the new, liberal side, the government decided she will not be allowed to carry on the royal line; her male cousin will.

After the palace, we took the subway to Asukuza where we saw the famous Senso-ji temple. It was beautiful, and we were able to go up close to see the shrines. The story is that the temple was built because a statue of Kannon, the goddess of mercy, was fished out of the nearby river. This temple, finished in 645, is Tokyo's oldest Buddist temple. Then we had time to go around and shop for a bit. This area seemed to be filled with tourists because I heard more English today, outside of people on this trip, than I have in the last week and a half.

I had soy sauce ramen for lunch, yummy.

After lunch, we headed to Akihabara, which is the electronics district in Japan. This place has the highest concentration of televisions, cameras, digital cameras, etc that I have ever seen. We walked into one of the biggest stores and it had seven floors! Every floor was filled completely with different gadgets and toys. That, and also the advertisements, was almost visually overpowering. A definite highlight was seeing the world’s biggest TV, which costs around $50,000 USD. Afterward, we walked into the older part of Akihabara where there are stalls that specialize in selling particular electronics, such as lightbulbs, switches, and wires. It was really intense to see how Japan thrives off of electronics.

Equally intense was exploring the Sega store in Akihabara. It had five floors and is packed with arcade games, whose titles I don’t even know. What was really interesting to see was how many business people there seemed to be at the Sega store. There were teenagers and younger men there, but there was also a high number of businessmen, who seemed to be taking their lunch breaks by playing arcade style games.

We explored a big more of the district and wound up at this store called Super Potato, which is supposedly where old school games wind up. Inside the store were new, unopened games that were never sold in the United States. The guys found games that they’ve always dreamed about playing, and it was really interesting to see how game-centric the Japanese are. The gamer revolution really is all about Japan.

Note: I don’t remember seeing any women in the Sega store or Super Potato.

We took the JR Line to Harajuku and spent about an hour and a half there exploring the shops and people watching. I’ve always heard so much about Harajuku, mainly from Gwen Stefani, so I was excited to see crazy styles and outfits. Much to my disappointment, I did not get to see as many as I thought I would. There were definitely some standout outfits, but most of the people I saw in the district wore typically stylish and fobby Japanese outfits. A lot of the styles on some people and in the shops there are definitely unique and irreproducible., such as the girl I saw dressed in a pink Little Bo Peep outfit.

After a break, we went to Shibuya, which is known for being where the young people hang out. It was crazy to see all these lights and buildings when we came out of the subway station, and I felt like I was in New York City’s Time Square for a split second. There were so many neon signs and bright lights and so much hustle and bustle. Even though it was a Tuesday night, Shibuya was packed with people, and we got to see a slight Tokyo Drift-esque scene at the “scramble” (where everyone crosses the intersection), complete with fancy cars and high speeds.

I ate a curry soup with chicken and vegetables for dinner. Food is really expensive in Shibuya, I paid around 1140 yen for my dinner.

Then we just walked around, looking at all the people, cars, signs, and buildings. Even though I had seen many of these things before in Japan, it just seemed different in Shibuya because everything was packed together so densely. There are main streets but the alleyways are more of the specialty of Shibuya. There are alleyways for ramen, alleyways for anime, and alleyways for pachinko. It seemed like I could endlessly explore Shibuya and not get bored of what I was seeing or doing.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Unfortunately I wasn’t feeling well enough to see Osaka castle in the morning, but I was able to muster myself up to go to MBS, which is the regional station for Osaka and covers Kyoto and Kobe. They were very kind in greeting us and four of their journalists did a question-and-answer session as well as a sit-down lunch session with us.

The journalist I spoke with was really great to talk to even though he did not speak much English. He said he watches CNN and CBS, and he thinks American news can be sensationalist, but then he also said Japanese news could be a little sensationalist as well. It was interesting to see the difference in how American and Japanese journalists respond to news; for this journalist, one of the biggest stories he said he covered was the murder of a small Japanese girl who was abducted right outside her home. I felt this particular journalist connected more to the emotion of a story rather than the spectacle of it, which I feel American news does sometimes. Also, news in Japan is very different from American news; for instance, the biggest story of the day for these Japanese journalists was a 30-year old woman wearing a black hat who took out a knife in Osaka station and started stabbing people. In America, this would be your typical crime-story-of-the-day; but in Japan, a country with a very low crime rate, this was an outrageous act far beyond comprehension.

Then the journalists graciously took us on a tour of their newsroom, and Japanese newsrooms feel very different from American newsroom. I think the starkest contrast was the open and communal feel of the newsroom. In America, everyone seems to have their own office and it feels more segregated and hierarchal. In Japan, it seemed that everyone worked together in a shared environment. There were no walls or partitions set up; everyone seemed to work as a big group.

Their studio is also very different from American studios. The background of the studio was a gold-green forest-like background. It seemed very cheerful and very exuberant. I do not think it would be possible to find this type of set in America; our sets are more cold, dark colours with very harsh feelings to them. Could this, in a way, describe the differences in our cultures?

At the desk, the anchors have laptops beside them where they can change and edit the rundown. This is very different from other studios I’ve seen where the producer is the only one who can make such changes. They also seem to have control over the teleprompter. When I looked at their laptop, I saw they did not use iNews, but another program specific to their station, and the rundown ran left to right as opposed to top to bottom.

MBS has around 10 people in their control room, which is about the same number we have at ATVN. Their edit bays were similar to the ones I’ve seen at CNN and NBC, but the reporter rather than the producer sits with the editor. MBS also uses AVID editing equipment. We got to walk through their graphics department and we saw an artist creating a graphic using Maya, which I learned no American station uses because it is too difficult and cumbersome to use. I think this clearly shows how the Japanese are far more technologically advanced in the news than we are.

We then had to leave Osaka to head for Tokyo and I was excited to take the shinkansen, also known as the bullet train. The train apparently reaches speeds up to 180 miles an hour in the countryside, and when we were out there, I could almost feel the speed but I could also see the speed based on how we were whizzing by everything outside. The train is magnetic so I did not feel any tension or friction on it; it was a very comfortable and soothing ride.

It was really cool to zoom out of Osaka and move into the countryside. The high-rises and business buildings seemed to melt into curving landscape, grass, and mountains. Japan is such a dichotomy of fast-speed business and natural wonders.

Tokyo is an amazing, although also overwhelming, city. When we arrived, we got a map of the subway lines and it is just unbelievable how interconnected this city is. It puts even the best subway systems in America to shame.

I had a small ramen at this restaurant on Kitchen Street, and it tasted amazing.

As we were walking around at night, we saw a lot of businessmen who seemed to be just getting off work (though it was around 11 pm). These businessmen and businesswomen like to go out to eat or grab a beer after a long day at work, but I can’t help but think that by the time they actually get home, they probably have very little time with their family. I thought this was really interesting, particularly because I’ve heard so much about how Japanese culture very much values family. Apparently though, they value the concept of family, such as providing for the family, rather than spending time with the family.

Welcome to Tokyo.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Today, we took the train to Kobe to visit the earthquake museum. In 1995, Kobe had a massive 7.2 magnitude earthquake. And over 6,400 people died in it, homes were flattened, and everything in the city was destroyed. We watched a video that showed simulations of what the earthquake did to different parts of the city, and in every single simulation, the location/scene was completely destroyed. It was really scary because living in California, I live with the constant fear of when the “next big one” will be, but after watching the videos I don’t think I want to be in the state when it happens. I got chills as I saw how homes and businesses were completely wiped out, and I got this gut wrenching feeling about what it would feel like to be in an earthquake.

As we toured the museum, we saw pictures of the aftermath, belongings of those that died, and other artifacts such as the helmet that saved a man from a falling brick and a newspaper made by children who survived the earthquake. The museum also included a disaster prevention section, which showed what items one would need in case of a natural disaster. There were exhibits of water bottles, rope, canned goods, flashlights, batteries, etc. As I looked at them, I realized that I don’t have an earthquake survival kit.

But another that hit me as I was walking through the museum was how little coverage I felt the earthquake received. This earthquake killed over 6,400 people and thousands more were injured. 9/11 killed around 2,900 and received endless press coverage for the next several weeks. The recent Sichuan earthquake killed more than 69,000 and was important for a week or so. I just feel sometimes that the American press focuses so much on itself and does not give equal importance to regions around the world that have far more people and that suffer in so many more ways. The American press needs to expand its international coverage. This isn't a thought or suggestion; it's a reality.

On a different note, we went to Chinatown for lunch. Yes, Chinatown in Kobe. It was rather an interesting experience to walk down the strip and see Chinese foods and snacks but to have Japanese people talking to me in Japanese trying to sell me Chinese food. A couple of them actually saw that I was Chinese and tried to use Mandarin to sell me stuff. It was cool to see and experience, but I felt a little odd eating Chinese food as opposed to Japanese food while I was in Kobe, Japan. I was really happy though because I had been craving Chinese food and it was really comforting to see it and feel a slight sense of belonging and pride about my Chinese culture and heritage.

Kobe is a beautiful city with a port, which is where all the business and trading happens. The day we went, though, it was slightly muggy and cloudy, but the cloudiness added to the mystical look of the mountains surrounding the city. We got a better look at them when we took a ferry ride around the port. While a lot of the stuff we saw was drills and shipping canisters, the backdrop of mountains against business buildings was breath-taking. We circled around for about 45 minutes, and I was just in awe at how beautiful this port city is.

Walking back from the port to the city centre was truly a long trek. It probably wouldn’t have been as bad if it didn’t have this horrendous pain in my back, which slowed me down and kept me at the back of the group. I was sad I couldn’t keep up with everyone and talk with them, but it gave me time to really look at the city. Sometimes I feel like, as tourists, we feel like we have to get from one place to another really quickly, but I think that takes away from just looking and observing the city and the people. We all just need to slow down and absorb, like sponges, the environments we are in. This, in turn, distinguishes a good journalist from a great journalist.

We walked through indoor covered malls and they were really packed with people. I feel like based on what I have seen of Japan, people like to eat, drink, and shop. But there is so much emphasis on shopping because everywhere we have gone has been all about the different shops and things we can buy. All the indoor malls and underground malls are about shopping and food, respectively.

We ate a traditional Japanese dinner at a very fancy restaurant. There was cold eel and potato salad for appetizers. Then we had regular English salad, tofu, egg rolls, fried chicken, chicken sticks, and tempura. The best thing I ate though was definitely the Kobe beef. I only had a small piece but it was tender and soft and simply just melted in my mouth when it touched my lips. I was really happy and glad that I got to eat Kobe beef while I was in Kobe.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Today, we took the subway to Kyoto. I really did not know what to expect there since the only thing I really knew about the city was the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto subway station is just an architectural phenomenon. It is so beautifully designed and the lines are so intricate.

The best thing I learned about Japan today was the taxis. When you first call a taxi, you don’t reach for the handle; you wait for the driver to press a button that will automatically open the doors for you. Then after you get into the taxi, the driver will press the button that closes the doors for you. It was hard at first to adjust to it since I’m so used to opening and closing doors myself; to have it done for me was a whole new concept to grasp.

We first went to look at the golden pavilion, which used to be a former Zen temple. It was breath-taking to look at because it’s a pavilion but it’s covered in gold leaf, and that just makes it stand out so much.

The whole area was swamped with tourists, schoolgirls, and older Japanese women and men. It was clogged and hard to maneuver through, which greatly contrasts with the Zen garden we went to later that day. The souvenir shops at the golden pavilion sold charms with effects such as “achieve success” and “good health”, but ones I thought were the best were “pray for easy delivery”, “get the Midas touch”, and “traffic safety”.

Then we went to the Zen garden, and the most interesting thing about it for me was that I had only ever known Zen gardens as those little trays covered with sand with mini-rakes, but today I actually got to see the real Zen garden. It was around 20 by 10 feet, and the sand was raked so neatly. On the sand were 15 rocks, but the thing about the Zen garden is that at no point, while you are sitting looking out at it, where you can see all 15 rocks at the same time. At most you can see 13 or 14 from different points of view, but never all 15 at once. This inability to see the rocks symbolizes the need to see the big picture; you need to look at a situation from all different directions (or see all 15 rocks) to fully understanding something. I sat there for a while and just contemplated for a bit about the rocks and about the serenity of the whole garden.

Also at the Zen garden was a water faucet that had four different characters around it. Each character used the Chinese word for “mouth”, which is where the water came down, and together they read: you can only be satisfied through learning. The Zen philosophy stresses knowledge and education, and it translates into how riches don’t matter; the most important thing to learn is how to be content, to be constantly learning.

The garden was so peaceful and relaxing. The whole environment was just so calm and serene, and this was probably supported by the lack of tourists at the garden. It seemed to be a less popular tourist spot than the golden pavilion, which really allowed me to get the Zen experience and take a second to ponder.

I had kuchikatsu for lunch, and it was pretty much mysterious fried objects with tonkatsu sauce. Very tasty.

The Shintao temple we went to after lunch gave us a look at how the Shintao religion still influences Japanese people today. Before you can even get into the temple, you need to clean yourself. You use a little water bucket to wash both your hands and your mouth so you are clean as you pray and worship the many gods of Japan. When you enter the temple, you first have to walk around the left side of the entrance then circle back and walk around the right side of the entrance before you can fully and finally enter the temple. By doing this, you shake off the evil spirits and enter the temple without bad luck.

Many Japanese people go to the temples for fortunes, which they get by drawing a stick out of a canister, and with the number on the stick, you get a corresponding fortune. The fortune gives predictions about travel, the best direction (mine was south-east), relationship, and school. Most of the fortunes seemed fairly generic and neutral, and I learned Japanese people don’t take the fortunes too heavily; they mainly use them to confirm something they already believe or to remind themselves to take heed. If someone has a bad fortune, one with low luck, he or she has to tie the fortune to a tree to symbolize leaving the bad fortune behind. Japanese students tend to go to the temple a lot before examinations, and they ask the gods to help them succeed and do well on their finals since the Japanese education system is far more vigorous and intensive than American schools.

At night, we were set free at Namba, which is a popular spot for young people. It seemed like a Las Vegas-esque place since it was crowded with people, shops and pachinkos, which seem to be arcades with lots of gambling machines. The district was so bright since there were neon signs and billboards all around. It was relaxing yet really fun to wander down the streets and different branches off of the main arcade street. And it was exciting to just walk up and down the streets and immerse myself in the Japanese youth culture.

For dinner, I got to eat really great beef udon then takoyaki (octopus balls) and green tea ice cream.