shanghai

This might be crazy, but I’m actually going to start posting every day again. Just a lil’ daily update.

Went to Shanghai over the weekend to visit my friend from language school (who is actually Italian, but she decided to go to China after 6 months in Tokyo). I wanted to see my friend of course, but admittedly, it was a bit of escapism too - Miles finally left and I’ve actually never properly lived alone before, so, just delaying the inevitable lonely feelings. I had visited Shanghai when I was much younger, but it has obviously changed a lot since then. I’ve heard from many people that it’s become a beautiful, fancy, shiny city, so I was excited to check it out. It was a really short trip since I can’t miss much school (they bumped the attendance requirement to 95%…), so admittedly, I didn’t get the full experience. But based on what I did see, here were my brief thoughts:

• When it comes to the public space experience (e.g. in the subway station), previously, my China experiences have been pretty much the exact opposite of my Japanese one - loud people shoving each other, no respect for queues, just general rude chaos. Even my most recent trip in May was pretty much exactly as I expected (especially in Shenzhen, but also in Chongqing). But was surprised to see in Shanghai, the vibe was much closer to the Japan experience. People were generally very quiet and calm, and in the subways people actually did a bit of queuing and waited for passengers to exit before making their way inside. Mind was actually blown.
• Buildings were huge and indeed very fancy, but it was pretty evident that perhaps they were too large and it was difficult to keep everything fully functioning and clean. Lots of places fenced off for construction, even inside malls.
• Touristy areas really cleaned up their acts, even the “underground fake market” was pretty polished and things were actually not dirt cheap (we tried pretty hard to get some $1 Labubus but the best deal we could get was $7…need to brush up on my bargaining skills)
• Speaking of dirt cheap, when we were in Chongqing, we hardly spent more than $5 on a meal for two people. Shanghai was definitely way more expensive (still a lot cheaper than Tokyo), but it did end up being a pricier trip than expected.
• I just can’t get over the bathroom situation. Most toilets are still squat toilets. Toilet paper is often not provided. You have to throw away your toilet paper in the trash can instead of flushing it. It’s the exact opposite of the Japanese experience, and it was so apparent as soon as I landed in Narita - the first bathroom I entered was absolutely spotless, heated seat with bidet, and it even had a platform you can put down for changing your clothes so you don’t have to stand on the dirty ground with your socks.

tl;dr - China certainly has newer stuff, but the overall experience in Tokyo just feels way better in my opinion. Keeping things clean and maximally practical, even if it isn’t glittery and fancy, makes the biggest difference in my opinion.

Our hotel was so weird. Very similar vibe of fancy (marble staircase that lit up individually with every step), but just like random trash hanging out in a corner. They were extremely stingy with the toilet paper (we ran out the first night and I asked for more, and they gave me like 1/4 of a roll…), and they would take away our bar soap every day during housekeeping. I had to ask the desk for more bar soap, which promptly got confiscated the next morning again.

One final thing, usually when I land in Narita, I look for the Narita Express that takes me to Nippori, where I then transfer to the Yamanote Line to get back to Takadanobaba. But I landed in Terminal 3 this time, which is in the middle of nowhere. It’s so far from Narita Express that there weren’t any signs indicating how to get back. But, there was a bus terminal, and I did see on the internet that some people actually preferred the bus, so I tried it out. It was cheaper than Narita Express (by a bit), and it did take longer (about 1.5 hrs vs the usual 1 hr), but it was extremely nice and chill. I’m usually a train person because it’s smooth and you can do work/eat, whereas busses have much more stop-and-go, but it was way less stressful of an experience. The bus stop was so accessible and took me very close to my apartment, so there was just way less transfer and movement headache in general. Would recommend considering the bus in the future, especially if you’re feeling lazy and aren’t time-constrained.

Sorry for being so scatterbrained, probably expect more of this style in the future though since it’s the only way I’ll be able to pump out posts. I’ll aim for a once-a-month properly well-thought-out post though.