Ten Things You Can Get in Japan You Can't Get in China

As part of the recent news that China has just overtaken Japan as the world's second largest economy and our comments on that here, let us now take the opportunity to run another of our occasional, tongue firmly in cheek pieces on the 10 things you can get…and this time, featuring Japan and China. We'll run the 10 things in China you can't get in Japan in a couple of days.
Useful coins
Apart from the useless aluminum 1 jiao and the mighty 1RMB disc, China has dispensed with coins. Not so in Japan, where the four lines of the Tokyo Metro almost seem to have their own, separate currency. JPY260 to Shinjuko? Drop them right in the slot and a ticket comes out. Hell, you can even buy a bowl of lunchtime noodles with the JPY1,000. Try giving your average Shanghai noodle seller a fistful of jiao for his cooking and he'll show you the door, followed by a bowl aimed at your head.
Imperial Family
Bernardo Bertolucci's film "The Last Emperor" showed us what happened to poor old Pu Yi, the Dalai Lama of his day. Abdicating 99 years ago in 1912, we wonder if any 100 year anniversaries will be planned by the Chinese government in 12 months' time – the deed being a catalyst for their eventual victory of control of power in China. Not so in Japan, where despite being defeated and made to admit being humans after all following their surrender in World War II, the Imperial Family is still going strong. The world's oldest surviving monarchy, with an unbroken chain of ancestors dating back 125 generations, they live in the seclusion of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.
Decent cartoons
From Manga to Anime and Hentai, Japanese cartoons rule. Chinese and other Asian copies are just that – pale imitations. From Pokemon, Doraemon, and my favorite, Dragonballz, not to mention the astounding animation of Hayao Miyazaki, Japanese animation and art is pretty much globally unrivalled. Check out the films My Neighbor Totoro and the Oscar-winning Spirited Away for confirmation.
The kimono
Only the Japanese could come up with something as bizarre as the kimono. Platform sandals, wings, yards of embroidered silk…these magnificent, yet utterly dysfunctional items of clothing are a far cry from the Mao suit. One can still see older ladies wearing them in fashionable areas of Japan today, while advice on how to actually put the thing on can be found here. Which brings us to geishas….
Geishas
The exquisite arts of singing, dancing and pouring tea? Or an up-market form of prostitution? Off limits to the barbarians of the West, geishas are an ancient tradition in Japan (mind you, so is sex). The word geisha itself literally means "person of the arts" – indeed the earliest geisha were men – and it is as performers of dance, music and poetry that they actually spend most of their working time. Hiring a geisha these days though is serious money – you're talking about US$700 an hour per person, for a minimum four hours, four guest evening. Japanese only spoken.
Hello Kitty
Ok, you can get plenty of Hello Kitty in China, but only the knockoffs. The world's only feline with no mouth, she is beloved by every Japanese female aged from 5 to 150. A weird staple of five-year-old kids' innocence that seems somehow to have morphed into a fashion icon for the late twenties, Hello Kitty is to be found dangling from Louis Vuitton bags, as iPhone skins and (presumably not skinned and furred) as handbags. Weird, slightly creepy, but with the added advantage of not talking, many men globally think the latter trait should be taken up by women – well, everywhere.
Sumo wrestlers
For a nation of people only across the Sea of Japan, the Japanese can sure grow their menfolk to supersized proportions compared to China. Even though the sport has recently begun to include the occasional Hawaiian and Mongolian bruisers, it's hard to imagine any Chinese male being able to attain such bulk. Although some of the little emperors, fed a diet of Big Mac's to make them "smart like the Americans," may come close in about 10 years' time. No, it's the Japanese who reign supreme, and all that salt chucking and blubbering collision of homo leviathans means if it were an Olympic sport, the Japanese would gain revenge for being excluded from Ping-Pong.
Senkaku islands
The Japanese control ‘em, the Chinese want them, and fishing vessels, submarines and the Japanese coast guard all play quasi cat and mouse games around them. Known as the Diaoyu Islands in Chinese, the weird thing is that Beijing recognizes they actually belong to Taiwan. Meanwhile, the earliest recorded map identifies them in both Chinese and Japanese languages. Who cares? They're mainly uninhabited apart from a load of squid swimming around them, although they do possess a creature found nowhere else on the planet. Step (or burrow) forward – the Senkaku mole. Whichever side you're on, the Senkaku have in fact been under Japanese control since 1895. Leave those moles in peace, the Chinese would only eat them.
Katana swords
Despite its often warlike periods, Chinese military weapons never seemed to match the honing of the more sophisticated Japanese counterparts. The katana sword, as used exclusively by Samurai, is a case in point. Renowned for its sharpness and cutting ability, the katana has an almost mythical status about it – an object of beauty as well as death. Best of the best though are the Meitou swords. A rare class of katana, Meitou means "Celebrated Sword" or "Named Sword." They are prized swords typically handmade by renowned sword-smiths and passed on through generations, won in battle, or given as a gift out of respect. Meitou are superior to ordinary katana in most aspects: cutting, endurance, and so on. Meitou are more expensive, due to their quality. The Chinese, meanwhile, used to sharpen up the bamboo.
Sake
More refined in their drinking habits, the Japanese have sake, which can be served either hot (good in winter) or chilled (excellent with sushi). Made from milled rice grains, it's actually made in a process not dissimilar to brewing beer. Cool, light and refreshing, it's great in a saketini. Meanwhile, its more alcoholic cousin, shochu packs a more powerful punch at about 25 percent proof. The world guide to sake is here. Somehow, maotai or baijiu just don't have that elegance.

Healthy Eating on a Budget - Important Things You May Not Know

Some people have this notion that in order for them to eat healthy meals, they have to fork out a lot of money every time they go grocery shopping. Well, nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact, those foods that are high in salt, sugar and saturated fat content are the ones that cost too much. There are a variety of nutritious foods around that are high in nutrients but are surprisingly cheap. Welcome to the world of low budget nutrition.

Winter Festivals In Japan: Things To Do When The Snow Piles Up

When you think of snowy winter festivals, Japan probably isn't the first thing that comes to mind. You probably imagine Scandinavia or Canada. But, if you're interested in snow and ice sculptures, you probably know that Japan boasts some of the world's most interesting and unique winter festivals. In the winter in Japan, up in the snowy north, there are winter festivals every year that draw great crowds and offer lots of attractions for everybody.

The big one is the Sapporo Snow Festival, also called "Yuki Matsuri." It is held every year in February on Japan's snow covered northern island, Hokkaido. The Sapporo Snow Festival was the first of its kind held in Japan, and it is still the biggest.

Every year, 2 million snow lovers flock to Sapporo, the biggest city in Hokkaido, to enjoy the Snow Festival in the first 2 weeks of February. At the Festival, there are hundreds of snow sculptures made by artists from all over the world. Some are a couple of building stories high and weigh tons. There are ice sculptures too, and ice bars where you can go inside and have a frosty beer.

The Sapporo Snow Festival was starting in the 1950's by a group of high school kids. Bored and shut-in by the harsh winter, they began to have competetion making snow sculptures. Every year, more kids joined in, and now the festival draws snow artists from 15 different countries.

There are also musical performances, light shows, snow slides and massive snowball fights.

The second biggest city in Hokkaido, Asahikawa, has its own Asahikawa Winter Festival in early February. It's not as big as the Sapporo Snow Festival, but it's good for snow lovers who want a quieter and less crowded winter festival. They have huge ice sculptures and night time illumination. At the Asahikawa Snow Festival, restaurants serve Asahikawa ramen, a type of ramen that is famous all over Japan. The noodles and warm soup are a special winter treat, and visitors from all over Japan go there to taste it.

The northern part of Japan's main island, Honshu, gets dumped on in the winter too. Every major area has its own snow festival. One of the most popular is the Iwate Snow Festival. It's held in the small town of Shizukuishi in early or mid-February. Iwate Snow Festival has giant snow statues, restaurants and bars in igloos, snow slides, and a giant snow maze that's slightly different every year. Iwate is also famous for its yearly fireworks displays, where festival-goers can watch the colors reflect off the snow.

Iwate is a great winter festival for those who want to see a more traditional celebration. The modern snow festival is mixed with traditional yearly festivals that are hundreds of years old. In Iwate, you can see traditional Japanese musicians and dancers perform on floats.

There are snow festivals held all over northern Japan. Even in the smallest villages in Hokkaido, residents have some kind of celebration when the snow piles up. Northern Honshu also has snow festivals in all the major cities. The northern prefectures, like Aomori, are good places to go if you don't want to leave the main island.

If you want a truly unique winter festival experience, northern Japan is a great place to go. Just make sure you're bundled up!

Thoughts Become Things

So many people I know say they hate reading. What they seem not to get is that a book is an alternate universe, where you can go anywhere, or choose to just set the book down and leave that universe alone. -Zeke Willey

The steps to success are arranged in this chronological order:

Visualization ===> Thoughts ===> Action ===> Results

First, we visualize. Then, we summon up our talents, charm and virtues and act on our dreams. We become as powerful as the protagonists in our favorite stories and defeat the obstacles along the way. Finally, we live our dreams. In every step of the way, reading helps.

Making dreams come true: Stories can bring us to wonderlands that we have yet to imagine prior to reading a book. Through stories, our dreams are either created or expanded into our own reality.

Here are some characters we meet in fairytales:
1. Snow White represents the danger in being an object of envy.
2. Little Red Riding Hood is an ordinary girl who has great devotion to her grandmother and the big bad wolf is literally and figuratively a wolf dressed in sheep's clothing.
3. The Ugly Duckling, before its swan hood stage had to cope with issues concerning rejection and poor self esteem.
4. Cinderella is the epitome of a person whose transformation from a dirty ash girl to a lovely bride happened because of hard work and charm-attributes which can help us succeed in life.

In both work and play, we meet our own versions of Snow Whites, Riding Hoods, big bad wolves and ugly ducklings. We have bosses and friends who can be as kind as the huntsman in Red Riding Hood or as cunning as the witch in Snow White. Cinderella inspires everyone -students, workers and even office managers to be as humble, hardworking and charming as Cinderella.

Aside from fairy tale characters, there are embellished heroes like Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan; Davy Crockett and the seven Chinese brothers who solve problems in funny and exaggerated ways; the wily tricksters like Anansi who's capable of outwitting the gods and lots of people whose brains are filled with noodles and do foolish things. We call them noodlehead characters.

In nonfiction reading, think about what we could learn from the biographies of successful people like Thomas Edison, Helen Keller, Bill Clinton, Beatrix Potter, Hans Christian Anderson and so many more.

Children are able to empathize with these characters in some way or another. Reading about the characters' adventures and misadventures; their successes and follies and their vices and virtues can guide our children into undertaking the most appropriate actions and solving problems in the most intelligent way.

Reading also prepares our children to deal with all the types, shapes, sizes and characters of people they will be meeting in real life. It makes them realize the consequences of certain actions; magnifies the mistakes to avoid and guides them to the right directions.

3 Fun Things to Do in Vietnam

If you tell a person that you are going to Vietnam, the one thing that springs up in their mind is the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War had a huge cultural and political impact on Americans. However, the war happened more than twenty years ago and the country has changed dramatically since then. Vietnam is now a country full of young people and most of them have forgotten about the war. It is now a vibrant country with a growing economy. There are so many things to see and do in Vietnam that it might take a few years to explore the whole country.

Here are a few fun things you can do in Vietnam:

1. Eat beef noodle soup in Hanoi. The traditional Vietnamese soup, Pho, was invented in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi. It is a beefy noodle that is usually eaten during the morning but can be eaten anytime during the day.

2. Walk around the numerous lakes around Hanoi. Hanoi has approximately a dozen lakes where you can stroll around and see people exercise in the morning. It is a great way to people watch and see how they live their daily lives.

3. Ride a motorbike around the Mekong Delta country side. This is perhaps the most fun thing to do in Vietnam. You can stop anywhere you like and eat the local food there. You can see the beautiful rice fields and the beautiful kids playing with each other. If you are the more adventurous person, you can try out the beat cobra heart alcohol drink from some pubs around the area.

10 Things to Do in Penang

Every tourist spot are always full of things or activities to do, usually time is not always enough for us to really go all over these interesting places. A handy summary guide on what to do from local folks is a best option and reference. Here there are total of 10 top things to do in Penang:

1. Walking and Sitting in a Trishaw Around World Heritage Town in Georgetown
You should really spend 1 to 2 days to cover all interesting buildings and stories behind this world heritage town called Georgetown, there are churches since 18th century, temples, house of Dr. Sun Yat Shen the father of Taiwan, banking buildings with Europe building designs, Noyna and Baba houses, Weld Quay Port, and many more. The heritage area is not that big, but the treasures inside it is very dense and needs a lot of time to enjoy it with details and pleasure, so suggestion is to hire a trishaw to go around 1 time and then mark down the places that attract your attention which later you can spend some good times to visit it.

2. Soaking into Sun Bathing in Beautiful Beaches
Since Penang is an island it has many beautiful beaches, particular the beaches at north and north west region which many big resorts are located there, the place is called Batu Ferringi which is not stranger to foreign tourists. There will have many local folks as well as international tourists so it is pretty pack, advise is to go further north west region where only reserved forest and camp areas are like Muka Head, Monkey Beach that has very less visitors and it is an very idea place for private sun bathing.

3. Enjoy the Local Authentic Foods & Fruits
Local famous foods are the hawker foods like Hainanese Chicken Rice, Hong Kean Noodles (prawn soup noodle), Fried Kui Teow (frying rice noodles), Rojak (mix fruits in special paste), Lasak (Fish soup rice noodle), Satay (Meat skews with peanut butter chili source), fresh seafoods, some sweets like Chendol (greenly flour tiny noodles with black sugar syrup plus red beans), and many more.
Many tropical fruits here in Penang, there are seasonal one and all year long one. Particularly you should try out the mangoesteen, mango, durian (just a try, since not many people can stand the special smell and taste which very milky and strong), rambutan, and drinking whole fresh coconut juice here is very cheap, it is about RM2.50 to RM3.00, which is less than a US dollar.

4. Temple Visit
Since Penang has multi nation and culture resident, the main one is the Muslim, Chinese and Indian. All religion has its own temple, but those that are really famous is Chinese and Thai temples in Penang. The famous one are: Khoo Clam temple, Kuan Yin temple, Kek Loh Shi temple, Sleeping Buddha temple, Snake temple.

5. Local Authentic House Hold Operated Handy Craft and Food Visit
There are big operated handy craft shops or factories in Penang, but in order to see the real art, you should the one that past down from generation to generation. There are couple of true local arts are: the making of Chinese big lantern, chopstick, batik cloth, cake house, nyoya cake house, special chili paste and others.

6. Hiking
Hiking is another recommended activity, especially take a hike up to Penang Hill early in the morning. You can feel the cooling breeze up on the peak of the hill and you can walking around some of the gardens, small little bird park and oversee the whole Penang island.

7. Back to British Colonial Time
Penang in fact is discovered by British back in late 17th century. There are couple of famous British related spots in Penang, they are Fort Cornwallis, War Museum, British Christian Cemetery, and an old 300 years old Church.

8. Nightlifes & Hang Out Places
There are numerous hangout places at night in Penang. Upper Penang Road is the one stop weekend hangout places, you can have coffee, enjoy football match at sport bar, dancing all night long at couple of disco here, some famous KTV around this area also. Another place is Gurney Drive, there are a lot of restaurant, coffee shops, pubs and massage center here.

9. Festivals
Multi nation country bring multi festivals, there are Thaipusam in January to celebrate the new year of Hindu, Chinese new year in either January or February, international dragon boat racing in May, Wesak Day in May, International Flora Day, Bon O Dori and Hungry Ghost festival in July, St. Anne's festival in July too, and the Nine Emperor God festival in October.

10. Shopping
Lastly, shopping is an avoidable activity no matter where you go. So do Penang, you cannot miss out the shopping opportunity here, you can choice to shop in very high end complexes like Queensbay Mall and Gurney Plaza, or you can shop around the authentic local handy craft shops in Georgetown and some souvenirs shops along Penang Road.