China Day 1

First, thanks to everyone who let me know that my posts to “The Captain’s Blog” are working even though I am not allowed to read them myself.

I heard from Aleksandra shortly after my last post. As I thought, she missed her flight from Tokyo to Newark. However, she seemed to be enjoying her hotel room and even managed to score some green tea ice cream. Green tea ice cream ranks second only to shopping on Aleksandra’s list of pleasures. I think I am in the top 10, but I can’t confirm that.

While Aleksandra was delayed in Tokyo, I decided to take a stroll around the neighborhood where my hotel is located. It is very clean and relatively quiet considering it is in the middle of a city of 20 million people. The first thing that caught my eye was this:


It is a condom vending machine located on the sidewalk outside of a small park. It appears to be made by a company called “Strong Man.” I can imagine many scenarios where this vending machine could become handy ;) Actually, I think I will lobby for one of these bad boys to be installed in the parking lot of Graham Hills (that’s an inside joke for the mountain bikers).

Speaking of bikes, the street I was walking down had a HUGE bike lane with a metal divider to separate it from the traffic. See below:


Biking is a MAJOR form of transportation here. I have never see so many people on bikes and every large building has literally hundreds of bikes lined up outside. Kudos to the Communists for their support of bikes ;)

After observing the condom vending machine and bike lane I decided I had done enough sightseeing for the evening and it was time for a drink. I popped into this little convenience store to buy a beer. As I perused their selection, something caught my eye. It was a short bottle made of smoked glass and a shape resembling a traditional whiskey flask. As it turns out, it is some sort of glutinous wine called “Black Fragrance” which contains honey, ginger juice, wolfberry and other “natural elements.” It is native to this part of China. I took the “Black Fragrance” back to my hotel room and did a number on it. I didn’t see any little green fairies like I hoped to, but I did see Mao Zedong give me the finger as he took a dump in my bath room.