I remember when I was in grade school - WAY BACK in the day - we always started the first week of writing class with the SAME essay - "My Summer Vacation."  If I had to do that today, I would never graduate!  My summer vacation is seemingly perpetual.

May 1-5 I was in Yokohama, followed by May 6 in Tokyo.  While in Yokohama, I attended the 2009 World Table Tennis Championships. 

Don't get me started with the whole, "So what's the difference between 'table tennis' and 'ping pong'?"  This "table tennis" tournament hosted 10,000 spectators every day, the best players from around the world (yes, that means China), and hungry autograph seekers like at a Dallas Cowboys Training Camp.

Assuming you don't follow table tennis news, China won Gold and Silver in every event (men and women's singles and doubles, and mixed doubles).  They also were semifinalists (Bronze) in at least one of each event.

But because I speak a little Chinese now, I hung out several times with the Chinese fans at the tournament, who either came from China to watch the tournament, or were currently in Japan working or going to school.  If you speak even a little Chinese as a Westerner, you can gain major respect very quickly.

May 6 was a quick day through Tokyo, due to time constraints.  Thankfully, one of my new Chinese friends acted as my guide, so we worked through the maze called the "Tokyo Subway System" with ease.

So what about Japan?  Two things:  VERY clean and VERY orderly.  You can walk in the streets barefooted - mark my words.  It is orderly in the sense that NO ONE jaywalks, even though the roads are a narrow 15 feet wide.  They also line up in straight single file to get on the subway.  In Beijing, EVERYONE jaywalks, and the subway is la disorderly madhouse!

Do I speak Japanese?  Yes.  "Otearai wa dokudeska?"  That means "Where is the bathroom?"