My Trip to Japan (er, China) – Part 1 of 3

I left Seattle in the afternoon on Wednesday, September 16; flew into Chiba, Japan, on Thursday, September 17, in the late afternoon; and caught a morning flight to Dalian, China, on Friday, September 18.

My favorite part about China has got to be the food; the tastes and types of food are totally different than what we’ve got in the United States. And, as a visitor, I am asked to drink alcohol as part of the whole dining experience with family members and family friends. It’s not exactly a leisurely drink—it almost seems like a sport. Someone will raise a glass of some throat-burning, Chinese-brewed drink, and those playing the game will drink everything in the glass (clarification: strong stuff is in a shot glass; beer is in a typical beer glass). It’s fun but difficult when I’m supposed to have energy when I’m around others. Anyway, I’m sure you know how that goes. :)

On Sunday, September 20, we did a few things:

1. In the early morning, Yang’s family and a few of their friends banded together and we went to their family gravestones to pay respects. The climb was only about 15 minutes, but we spent about 30 minutes at each site. There was a ton of mosquitoes, but it was a nice experience.
   
2. Yang and I had our wedding reception at the hotel we stayed at. There were about 70 people in attendance and it lasted for about two hours. During the reception, we did the usual rituals: took pictures with people, thanked people for attending, cut cake, ate, drank, and talked with guests. After people started leaving, we got in a car and the driver took us to various spots to get our pictures taken and have another guy take short videos of us that he’ll edit into a compilation video.
   
3. After having our pictures taken, about 15 of Yang’s family members and I went to a restaurant for my father-in-law’s birthday. By that time, I’d had enough of alcohol over the previous 48 hours, so I refrained from drinking.

Other than eating good food, drinking potent liquor, climbing the mini-mountain, and having the wedding reception, I walked around Dalian with Da Xuan—one of Yang’s family friends. Since I don’t speak Mandarin Chinese, getting around is pretty difficult, so I always had someone else with me and we didn’t venture too far out of the city.

Yang’s brother, Pon Pon, showed me this iPhone application. Apparently, it teaches you how to be a better kisser. It’s pretty simple, you pucker up, kiss the screen, and it rates how well you did.

And, as a heads up, I was unable to access Twitter or Facebook while in China.

For more pictures of my trip to China and Japan, visit my China & Japan – September 2009 photo set on Flickr.