Post #16 - October 27, 2012 - Hiroshima, Japan

Howdy, it's Patty.

Sitting here in our hostel watching the clock tick by slowly as we wait for our bus to Osaka. Osaka will be our last stop in Japan before heading to Beijing, China on Monday, October 29.

Today we slept in, and were in no rush to get anywhere. The lack of haste was largely to due to the fact that we decided to fast today i.e. go all day without eating anything. This probably comes as a surprise and perhaps some concern to my parents, and in particular my Italian side of the family. But, since getting here, it has been abundantly clear that I am a slave to my stomach and so too is Jeffrey. We don't even really know when we're hungry. We just eat because it's that time of day to eat. And, in our lifetimes, we have been so incredibly fortunate to have never gone an entire day without eating. That's insane when you think about people dying of starvation in some areas of the world. According to sources online, 25,000 people die of hunger or hunger-related causes everyday. So, to show homage to those suffering, and to try and get a better understanding of what it truly means to be hungry, we decided to not eat a single thing all day. We're not becoming hippies, we just wanted to see what hunger is really like, so that hopefully, we begin showing more appreciation for so many of the luxuries we take for granted back at home.

So far, it hasn't been as bad as we thought. We were thinking we would end up killing each other by the end of the day, but actually Jeff and I have been in pretty good spirits! We have been trying to kill time and keep our minds off of food, but everywhere we go in this country, there are smells and pictures of food. Jeff has been reading up on China and its cuisine, so unfortunately we've been unable to escape the beauty that is food, but man are we pumped to eat tomorrow. China is going to be soooo cheap for food, and so varied, and it sounds so delicious! Wow I've been talking a lot about food. 

We didn't really get out of the hostel until about 2:30 in the afternoon. We spent a lot of the morning packing, and doing laundry before heading out to the mall. We made our way to Fuji Grand Mall. I mentioned in an earlier blog that I think scrunchies are going to make a come-back. I still believe this, so today I bought 3 on sale. I also bought a cute little thing called a fascinator - it's like a comb that goes in your hair with jewels on one end which was also on sale at 50% off. All the neat stuff sold in Japan has gotten me thinking about how it would sell in Winnipeg... Maybe I could open my own shop with international fashions... travelling gets you dreaming and gets you thinking. And, hey who knows? 

Shopping/browsing kept me occupied most of the afternoon while Jeff hung out on some couches at the mall reading up on China. We're both pretty excited to get to China. As much as we have enjoyed our time in Japan, I think it feels like we are ready for a new adventure. We haven't totally mapped out our 30 days in China, however here's a look at our tentative schedule:

Beijing - 6 nights, October 29 - November 3

PingYao - 3 nights, November 4-6

Xi'an - 4 nights, November 7-10

Luoyang - 2 nights, November 11-12

Kaifeng - 2 nights, November 13-14

Shanghai - 5 nights, November 15-17

Xiamen - 2 nights, November 18-19
(unknown - 4 nights, November 20-23)

Macau - 1 night, November 24-25

Hong Kong - 5 nights, November 25-29

We're pretty excited! Anyways, it's 9:25pm here. Our bus leaves at 11pm, so we should be getting on our way.

Ciao for now,

Patty

P.S. "I think we're gonna get fat in China" - Jeff