This is Too Good

You may recall stories about American car companies naming their cars in silly ways for the foreign market (like the Chevy No va). Check out what SAIC (Shanghai Automotive Industrial Company) did with its newly-bought marque, Rover.

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/art/2006/10/25/295174/SAIC_makes_its_marque.htm

The Rong Wei 750!

A Brief Side Journey to Japan

China has three major holidays: New Year's, May Day, and National Day. These are each officially 3 days, but people work 6 days the preceeding and following weeks, so it ends up being 3 5 day vacations. (Of course, as you'd expect, it's awfully quiet on the Saturday.)

This year, since we're here, we decided to go someplace. We were advised by everyone to not travel in China. So, off to Japan. My former roommate, Lang, lives in Tokyo with his wife Mari, so, heck, we figured we'd stop by. Of course, he was traveling on business. So...

2 1/2 days in Tokyo: Ginza, temples, shrines, the fish market
1 day in Kyoto: temples
1 day in Yudanaka: Snow Monkeys!

You know, I'll never complain again about San Francisco being expensive. Geez. An OK, not excellent, sushi/tempura dinner in Kyoto for 3? 13,000 Yen ($100). A room in a Ryokan that hasn't seen renovation since 1978? 14,000 Yen/night.

Everyone is orders of magnitude more polite than in China, everyone queues up, like the British, everyone keeps to one side of the escalator if they are not walking, even the punk'd out kids.

But. Entirely different cellphones, so you have to rent one at the airport. Most ATMs only take Japanese cards, and using credit cards seems to be unheard of. Mind boggling.

Back in Shanghai, I can be in a bad mood and take it out on people on the subway and not feel guilty. I guess that's OK :-). And dinner for 3? Hmmm. Maybe $10.