Ramen shop in the Tsukiji area Tokyo.  Ramen originated in China.

Shinjuku area in Tokyo. Lots of young Japanese people.

Ticketing consoles in a Tokyo subway station. The subway map and pricing charts above the machines are really easy to understand (yeah).

Subway train in Tokyo. Has a retro look to it which adds a cool factor. The subways are really well maintained and clean. People don’t talk on their phones in the subway trains in Tokyo out of courtesy for others. Quiet.

Coolest scooter ever.

Design and utility.

Princess for a day. I wasn’t the only who thought she looked tip-top. This photo was taken at a place called Meiji Shrine in Harajuku, Tokyo.

Maybe a wedding? Not sure.

Fancy Toyota limousine with a swinging roof for those of us who feel that ducking our head getting into a car is just too uncomfortable.

Sign posted on the wall of a bathroom stall.

Shop-owner with a sense of humor.

Food ordering computer at our table. Kind of like in “Back To The Future Part 2″ when Marty orders a Pepsi at the diner.  The tablet is removable for ease of use. That’s our friend Jeong Eun. She is Korean, but studied at a famous design school in Tokyo. She is now working for that school in Tokyo.

Japanese Izakaya style food. Izakayas are Japanese bars that serve appetizer-sized dishes.

Little cubby holes where everyone puts their shoes. Typical in traditional Japanese restaurants.

Appeared ordinary. Just one of many, many vending machines in Tokyo.

Until I read this.

It seems like everyone smokes in Japan. Everywhere. That’s why hotel management decided to put a “no smoking in bed” sign on our bed. Certain Hollywood movie scenes would be in trouble if this was a rule everywhere.

Can’t stop smoking. Indoor smoking station with an exhaust system. Every McDonald’s in Tokyo I went to had a designated smoking area.

This was our toilet in the bathroom. Toilets in Japan need to be installed near electrical outlets. Bide and seat warmers come standard on most models.

That’s what Tokyo looks like from Roppongi Hills Mori Tower. It cost us 1,500 yen each to get in, which is just under $20 USD. That’s the Tokyo Tower on the right side, aka “the fake Eiffel Tower.”

Our big night out included Womb, a nightclub in Shibuya (this is the club where the Japanese girl in the movie “Babel” took ecstacy for the first time).  Shibuya is know as the center of nightlife in Tokyo. A little pricey. Cover was 3,500 yen, which is close to $50 USD.

We almost missed the club because it was so quiet outside the club. It was unbelievable when we got inside. Probably a thousand people in 3 different levels of the club. They were also very particular about photo-shooting. When I tried to take a picture of just the front door, the bouncer freaked out.

Drinks were expensive, but not outrageous. Beers were 500 yen – about $7 or $8 USD. Kinda cool – they have beer vending machines on the first floor.

Busy Tokyo subway tunnel.

Building security at the Shinjuku Metropolitan Government Building. Better view than the Mori Building, and it was free.

You guessed it. The sign means, “don’t get your fingers caught in the elevator door because you will cry.”

View from the 45th floor of the Shinjuku Metropolitan Government Building. They are actually twin towers. We checked out the views from both buildings, although they were very similar. You can see Mount Fuji on a clear day.

Weird.

Weirder.

Weirdest.

Have you ever wondered what the first Korean-made car was?

The Hyundai Pony was the first Korean-developed car in the world, built in 1975. Being also the first car to be exported out of Korea (to Ecuador in 1976), the Pony helped South Korea become the fifth largest producer and sixth largest exported of automobiles in the world.

The Hyundai Pony in the photo above is a second generation 2 door pick-up model built around 1980. It’s been modified to be used as a nicknack store on wheels. I took the photo above in the Gangnam district of Seoul.

This was what I was looking at in deciding whether or not to take the plunge. It’s 14,900 won for take-out before 10pm. The same pizza delivered is 18,900 won. After 10pm, add another 1,000 won late-night surcharge. I was awaiting anxiously.

While I was waiting for my pizza, I thought it might actually end up looking like the disgusting pizza above. It’s actually a Pizza Hut advertisement for one of their premium pizzas. I had my fingers crossed. The typical Korean style pizza has lots of random goodies like shrimp, potatoes, fruit, and corn to name a few.  I really didn’t want any extra goodies on my pizza. I was nervous.

The typical pizza also has lots of colorful sauce (usually bright colors like neon yellow) sprayed all over (I always ask for sauces on the side when I can, an attribute I owe to growing up with my mom). The pizza above was delivered from a Dominos’s pizza in Korea. Yes, that is a Star of David.

That’s what I was looking at 20 minutes later. It was Jun’s Pizza’s 2nd day, and I was his first customer taking advantage of his credit card payment service. He couldn’t use my Korean bank card because he hadn’t finalized the contract with them.  I was on the phone with Eunmi, who was translating for me. She said, “he’s going to come back tomorrow to get payment.” I ended up just using my American card after 5 uncomfortable minutes of looking at a Korean pizza delivery guy at my doorstep struggling to process a payment.

Part of his opening promotion was a oven-baked spaghetti dish for an extra 100 Korean won (about $0.10).  You’re looking at a Korean made Italian dish. Tasted a little weird. Strangely sweet, but not bad.

You’re looking at 45cm of Korean-Italian goodness.

That’s my hand holding the first piece of pizza. I couldn’t eat any more than 2 pieces. It wasn’t bad. It looked similar to the pizza on the flier. It tasted similar to delivery pizza in the states.  It was close enough to get the job done.

For 20,000 Korean won, I got a 45cm supreme pizza, a spaghetti dish, and a free liter of Coke, delivered. Decent value, decent taste, and a decent blog entry.

When I was riding the elevator, I couldn’t really feel how fast it is. It accelerates and slows its acceleration on the way up and on the way down (maybe to prevent people from jumping in the elevators and hitting the ceiling). But, after you step out of the elevator to a view of the city half a minute after entering the elevator, you realize how fast it was.

The video above is the dampening system in Taipei 101. It’s the largest of it’s kind. It’s some sort of suspension for the top portion of the building to prevent damage from strong winds. The system reduces swaying of the building by 40%, as mentioned in the video. There’s two more of these devices above the observation decks.

Gorgeous beach in Taiwan, about 5 kilometers east of Kenting.

Kenting was definately my favorite city visited in Taiwan. The easy-going vibe everywhere, clear waters, big waves, and friendly natives, matched with lots of surfers in the area draws the obvious comparison to Hawaii. There was actually a big surf competition wile we stayed there (Pro Australian surfers and photographers with huge telephoto lenses).

Kenting is located in the southern coast of Taiwan. If you fly into Taipei, it takes about 3 and a half hours to get down to Kenting. Hour and a half by bullet train (about $40 each way) to Kaohsiung, and a 2 hour taxi ride to Kenting (about $20 per person if you share the taxi with 2 or 3 other passengers).

It is regarded as the Hawaii of China and Taiwan. In fact, we even stayed at a hotel called “Hawaii.” Everything at the hotel was Hawaii-themed with a Haiwaiian shop in the lobby of the hotel. The owner of the hotel’s name is Duggar. He was very helpful and basically gave us a whole tour of Kenting. He’s from Hawaii but has lived in Kenting for 17 years now. He’s got 4 hotels operating in Taiwan along with a few shops, all “Hawaii” branded.

The cost of our stay in the hotel was only 1,200 NT, which is about $40 USD. Cheap. Well appointed hotel room on the second floor with a balcony facing the ocean. Definately give it a look if you plan on staying in Kenting.

I was cruising by on the electric scooter when this car caught my eye. Penghu must be the name of the beach of something.

My ride in Kenting. It was twice as expensive as renting a gas-powered scooter, but it was our only option. I didn’t realize you needed what’s officially called an “international driver’s permit,” not “international driver’s license” which many mistakenly say.

So, we were limited to an electric scooter that barely got us 60 kilometers with a max speed of 30 km/hour. That’s under 15 mph. If you want to go anywhere, you need to calculate the distance to make sure you have enough juice to get back to the rental place to swap out the battery pack. We negotiated the rental fee from 500 NT (New Taiwan Dollar) for 3 hours to 500 NT for 5 hours.

To tell you the truth, it was actually quite nice. The electric motor was virtually silent and since it wasn’t gas powered (or maybe because it was just too slow), we weren’t required to wear a helmet. This was nice since it was sunny and 90 degrees Fahrenheit with high humidity. If you get pulled over for not wearing a helmet, you’ll get a ticket for over $100 USD.

Cute guest houses/ hotels in front of the beach. Eunmi saw an ad for a room at the yellow house pictured, but it wasn’t within walking distance of Kenting, and there weren’t any units available with views of the ocean.

Beautiful beach in Kenting.

Lush greenery on a breezy, beautiful day in Kenting, Taiwan.

Me and Eunmi getting tanned at the beach in Kenting.

Close to sunset.

Just about sunset. Eunmi’s camera does something with the lighting to create the weird effect you see in the photo above. Notice the waves aren’t just little bumps. As the winds picked up, and with the news of the THREE typhoons coming, it was an unsettling feeling hanging out in the water.

Cute Mini copy-cat you can spot all over Taiwan. Must be a domestic car. I’ve never seen these before.

Creative second-life of a compact-car. The owner of the hotel we stayed at told us this guy with the food stand above gets lots of business every night.

Nasty. Smelled really bad too. But, had to take the picture. I was wondering why all the foods are fried. Someone told me it’s because with the hot and humid weather, the food spoils quickly.

Winds were picking up when I took this photo. The typhoons (three typhoons were suppose to merge in Taiwan) were expected to arrive during our visit, but arrived after our stay.

Scooters are driven all over Taiwan, night and day, rain or shine. You’ll see rows of sometimes 50 scooters perfectly parked along the streets. Totally forgot to take pictures of those.

Somebody taking a picture of me taking a picture of somebody – using Josh’s huge, badass camera.

Wasn’t completely sure what these were when these first caught my eye – Taiwanese mail-boxes.

That’s me and Beth waiting to order western food at a cute restaurant called “Grandma Nitti’s.” For some reason, the whole place had a Greek look to it even though they served just about every foreign food you could think of.

I have wanted to visit Taiwan for a few months now, but the deciding factor in visiting Taiwan last week was to see my friend Beth. She came to Taiwan to visit her friends Josh and Tessa, and to see her newborn niece in Tokyo, Japan. Beth and I have had a special friendship for almost 10 years now. She and I met in Minneapolis when she was attending the Aveda Institute and I was attending the University of Minnesota.

Day’s end at a reggae-themed bar near Taipei 101. Eunmi, me, Beth, Tessa, and Josh. Everything was reggae-themed, but they had a solo act, a single guy singing the blues with his guitar, harmonica, and some sort of a drum machine he operated with his foot. Pretty good, but pricey drinks.

Eunmi waiting in line for her drink at a club in Taipei. Popular in Taiwan, clubs charge a cover (usually around $20 USD) with free drinks. Very different atmosphere in the bar since everyone is on a level playing field. This is not where the “ballers” hang out. As you can see in the picture, everyone has to wait in line for their drink – it doesn’t matter who you are.Everyone was well-behaved. No idiot alcoholics causing problems or issues with bar tabs. It was actually a little boring because that whole glitz and glamour of a nightclub just wasn’t there.

Kaohsiung was nice. Humid. About 30 degrees Celsius, or close to 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Too hot when the air wasn’t moving, but with a slight breeze, the evenings especially, were perfect.

Scooters EVERYWHERE. Everyone has a scooter. Often times, a family of four with teenagers will have four scooters.

Twin towers. I don’t know what they’re called, but they’re famous and are popular with the tourists.

Walking around in a night market in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Smelled really awful (turned out the “aged tofu” was the culprit), but had a lively atmosphere.  They sold everything from weird street foods (almost all deep-fried) to nail clippers.

Eunmi and Ashley posing inside a huge tiger’s mouth. We showed up right when they were closing the interior, so I can’t tell you about what’s in there.

That’s Chris (from Ireland), Charlotte (native Taiwanese), Ashley (Korean living in Taiwan), and Eunmi (holding a Taiwan Beer).

Here are those nail clippers I was talking about. I have never seen more than 4 different types of nail clippers in one place before seeing this. Never thought I’d have a picture of nail clippers on this blog.

Some sore of addictive chew that all the taxi drivers in Taiwan keep in their mouth all day. The taxi driver that drove us the 2 hour drive from Kaohsiung to Kenting had one in his mouth at every moment. When he was taking one out of his mouth with one hand, the other had was reaching for another from his bag. His teeth were black and half-deteriorated. All of his taxi driver buddies he was waving at also had black teeth when they smiled back at him.

Korea has the fastest internet speed in the world!

Eunmi told me she downloaded an entire show in just a few seconds. She says that you can download 1 gigabyte movies in just 10 minutes in Korea. I told her that can’t be right.

She looked around and found an article that shows South Korea ranking 1st in internet connection speeds.  It turns out that South Korea has the world’s fastest internet, with average connection speeds of 11 Mbps. That’s the average.

I tested the speed of the internet connection at my place in Seoul, and my download speed was 45 Mbps. Thats ten times faster than a cable connection in America. A study states that Korea has the fastest connections, with the US placing 18th in the world.

That means that I can download a gigabyte in less than 3 minutes. Insane.

With integration of wireless technologies such as the WiMax egg, watching streaming HD movies wirelessly anywhere in Seoul has become a reality. Just imagine what will happen when WIFI is available via iPhone when it finally arrives this fall.

Look below, that is a screenshot of an internet speed test from speedtest.net on Eunmi’s laptop at my place.

Traditional Korean dance. Women dancing in circular arrangements.

Really interesting:

This dance originated as a military tactic in the Joseon Dynasty when women and their daughters dressed in hamboks and danced in circles on mountain tops to intimidate Japanese invaders. I suppose when the Japanese were looking up at a mountain-top with a constant stream of women dancing, there was no way for them to gauge the population of their village or city. Hence, the Japanese would be confused in estimating the size of the opposing Korean military force.

Today, masters of traditional Korean dance are considered “national living treasures.” While Korea was occupied by Japan between 1910 and 1945, the knowledge of traditional Korean dance was secretly kept alive despite attempted “cultural genocide.“  The more I learn about Korean history, the more I realize why there’s so much tension between Korea and Japan still today. I wrote a post on the history of Korean pottery a while back, uncovering what was a similar political situation between Korea and Japan during the Pottery Wars.

While I was eating at a Korean restaurant earlier today, I noticed the same patterned dance at a Chuseok festival on the news.