Hello everyone and Happy new Year(^▽^)/ How did you spend your New Year’s holidays? In my case, I watched “Kouhaku Utagassen(紅白歌合戦）to see Amuro-chan, and I cried loudly on New Year’s eve. (I am a big fan of Amuro-chan) I went shopping to buy “lucky bags” with my friends after New year’s day.
By the way, I was in Vietnam at this time 2 years ago for a school trip. I’m going to talk about this and the culture-shock I experienced, and give you some recommendations!
1 Many motorcycles
We never see this in Japan. When I went to Taiwan, I was suprised because there were many more motorcycles compared to Japan. I couldn’t even cross the crosswalk by myself, and they didn’t stop in spite of my crossing. I mean, while I was crossing, they were still driving as if I wasn’t there.( ´∀｀ ) But when my students were crossing the crosswalk, I had to stand in the middle of the crosswalk to protect them. It was so scary.
2 Everything is cheap
I recommend that you buy leather things and coffee. As I usually do, I went to the downtown to go shopping… I mean… study when I got a break time. Anyway, we could get those items for almost half price or 30％ off compared to Japan. (It depends on which stores), also the quality is good. I thought that ” I might be able to buy brand items cheaper than Japan!? “So I went to “Chanel”, and I found out that those prices were the same price as Japan. I ran away from there in less than 2 minutes. By the way, speaking of Vietnam, not only “Pho” is famous but also coffee too. Vitetnam is ranked second in the production of coffee in the world. Subjectively, Vietnam’s coffee has deep aroma, a litttle strong but also a little sweet. Please try it sometime!(^_-)-☆ By the way, I want to recommend beer which called “333”(Ba-Ba-Ba-) .This taste is similler to Japanese beer.
３ Food
I think some foods in Vietnam have a peculiar taste. I mean, those foods are made using many unfamiliar spices for us, so some foods can taste too strong for us. For example,”Pho”. We usually eat it at restaurant or convenience store in Japan, and it is seasoned to suit us, but when I ate it in Vietnam, it was made to their seasonings and Pakchis, so it had a stronger taste than Japan. Other dishes were almost the same. So, please give them a try whether or not they suit your taste. By the way, my favorite food was “Fried snakehead Mullet”, which is a type of fish. The fish was about 30cm. It’s body was skewered and deep fried, then put on a plate. So, we eat it whole on the same plate!
4 War
There were many buildings which remind us of the many wars in Vietnam. I went to the “war museum” in the city and a place called “Kuchi”, where Vietnamese people fought Americans during the war. The guide took us to a long underground tunnnel which was used to hide from the enemy. The guide told us how they fought America, who had the more modern weapons, and showed the clothes which they used to wear at that time. I was so suprised by their wisdom and bravery to win, despite the overwhelming odds.
At the war museum, there were many bodies of preserved dead babies in formadehyde in the exhibit. Some students felt sick. In one of the exhibitions, there was a picture of “Beto-chan and Doku-chan” who became famous in Japan. At the night of the day, Doku-chan came to our hotel to make a speech for us. There was a translator and he made a speech about how cruel the war was, and how he hopes it won’t ever happen again. We all were moved by the speech. Then, my chief asked me to take him to the dressing room after the speech, so fortunately I could take some pictures with him. 🙂
Extra edition
By the way, I realized something while I was staying in Vietnam. No bird flew in the town. I have never seen“pigeons” which familiar to us in Japan. I asked the guide who sat next to me and she said “Ah, yeah. Maybe if they fly around there, they will be caught and eaten.”….I see. I got it.
Anyway, Vietnam is very attractive country as you can read. Nowadays, many Japanese companies are expanding to Vietnam, and the country is becoming more and more developed. I can’t write about all that I ate and experienced, so I hope I will be able to talk to you all at the cafe(⋈◍＞◡＜◍)。✧♡ See you then(^_-)-☆
