Shanghai

We have spent the last 10 days getting as acquainted with Shanghai as we started to do with Tokyo. Though here I feel more like a foreigner I also think I've gained more insight and understanding into this place than any of the others I've been.
This is partially to do with being able to walk around with people who speak Chinese and are able to show us the ropes and explain things to us so that we are better able to function here. Also partially to do with the fact that so much is out in the open. The food you eat is being cooked on the street in front of you. The places you are thinking of going into are wide open or have windows across the front and it seems a rarity for a Chinese person not to express exactly how they are thinking or feeling whenever they feel like it. The reserve of Japan is gone.

The first day it was more overwhelming than it has been in the past to leave the house. The noise, the traffic, the dirt, everything was full of energy and we had to timidly navigate through to fulfill little errands like getting money from the bank and finding food. But just three days in everything normalized or became natural or at least largely understood. Life here is still covered every which way with absurdity and confusion but we can cross the street, which had provoked mini anxiety attacks initially, without too much concern. We eat food from street vendors, drink milk tea, Anna had a dress made for her, I bought fake Bose headphones and have made Chinese flash cards. We, superficially, are well on our way.
Monday we leave for Beijing and the great wall and Xian where the Terracotta soldiers are and possibly some other northwestern towns. From there it's still up in the air but it seems possible we might be back in Shanghai for a couple of weeks... why not?
Semi entertaining stories:
Anna has been reprimanding me the last few days and i laugh alot.

She also ate super spicy hot food and her reaction brought me to tears. i got this dish with hot peppers in it but I'm not eating them b/c china food is more spicy than at home and those things are spicy at home. the rest of the dish though is really mild. so when she asked if it was spicy i told her no. and then she went right for the hot pepper, or she had too because there were so many on the plate since i hadn't been eating them... anyways her mouth was on fire and she swallowed and was dieing and went to get a drink and when she came back she was angry at me because i said it wasn't spicy. and the way she said it "you said it wasn't spicy" all crinkled faced and angry and red faced, i just died laughing and she did too. possibly you had to be there... really so funny.

Anna is also with me all day long every day.
She is there when I'm happy and when I am sad.
She is there when I'm lost and hungry and when I'm tired and cranky.
She is like Jesus.

Yesterday after getting fruit salad fixings we were walking through the parking lot of our friends place and there was curve and two mopeds came around all of a sudden right at Anna. and it's normal for us to get nervous and act surprised and jump out of the way and laugh at our selves. but this time we witnessed our first startled moped driver. Anna gasped and jumped and he swerved and yelled and the guy behind him started laughing. fantastic.

We've also been enjoying bargaining. Usually we don't really want to spend any money and aren't convinced we really need anything so are great at bargaining. We look non committed and disinterested and start walking away and the price is lowered and we're still not convinced and it's lowered further and on and on, ideally. but we've also started bantering with the sales people, laughing at their prices and low balling them absurdly which they laugh at and exchanging looks of dread and concern coupled with the face of knowing we're all just putting on a show. pretty enjoyable.

I don't know what else can be conveyed, there are constant little moments of only being able to point at what we want for lunch or otherwise, of wandering the city and the vehicles overflowing with things or people, or the way people drive or the way people try to sell you things constantly and follow behind you calling you Cinderella and snow white... little things.

I'm going to put up some pictures if I can and hopefully that will convey a little better and/or a little more.

Last night in Japan, sweet Osaka hotel, ferry time and arriving in Shanghai

Moving onto Kyoto, our Japanese cooking, the day I was Muslim all day, Dance Extravaganza, Nara w/ giant Buddha

Nikko continued, Kiso Valley, Hiroshima and over to Miyajima

Dorthy and her daughter getting ready for fireworks, Leaving Dorthy's, day in Nikko including "patron buddha" of travelers