Vertical city

No, I'm not talking about Tokyo, we made it to Hong Kong. Not as big as Tokyo (7 million vs. 37 million), but apparently the population density of the district in which our hotel lies is over 53,000 people per square kilometer. It feels huge. The listed population density for Hong Kong is ~6,500 people per square kilometer, but most (80%) of Hong Kong is mountainous and can't be developed. How do they solve this problem? They build upwards. People literally live on the 40th floor of buildings here and it isn't considered upper-class or even that unusual. Anyway, I'll try to post photos sometime.

In the meantime, the trip from Japan was great, we had a fantastic time staying with Kawakami and Masako sensei and Motoe san, we got to see many friends (Eriya, Dr. Biwa and his wife Nariko, Saki, Pearl, Yoshitomo, Makoto @ the kubrrc, Shataro & Yuko, Takuma, Ai, Masato) and see many interesting places. Getting to Hong Kong from Sendai was not too stressful. The JR passes were great, I highly recommend them to anyone who doesn't like stressful vacations in Japan.

When we got to Japan, we met up with Elton who took care of literally all the details. He found us a places to stay all week, met us at the airport, and drove us to our hotel downtown. That was an incredible blessing - lodging would have been hard for us to find, since this week is a dragon boating festival.

Yesterday we met up with Smile and Carol and Crystal. We did the same today. Hilary has been a star to travel with. She is the funnest person to travel with possible, takes everything in great humor, and has really connected quickly with the people I introduce her too. Being that she is the most beautiful woman currently in Asia, she also garners quite a few stares. I will post photos and talk in more detail about our trip in Hong Kong later.