Typhoon, Restaurant Drama and Arcade Otaku

So it's nearing the end of my first week in Hong Kong, seems like so much has happened already, and yet it's no time at all since I left Edinburgh. I feel like I'm settling in really well with Ken's family, they have been incredibly welcoming, and despite the language barrier, we seem to have become close really quickly, which is great!

The morning after

I have seen many interesting things so far in my trip, one of them being finding myself in the middle of my first typhoon. Having been told that people were being sent home from work and school, I thought it would have been a lot more scary than it actually turned out to be. Having gone to a dinner in a different area of the city, we had to go and get the bus in the middle of the storm, which was mostly just consisted of being soaked by hot rain and being blown around a little. I suppose the building must have shielded us from the worst of the storm as it didn't get at all as bad as I had expected it to... not that I'm complaining :P Still, I have now weathered my first typhoon (ho ho ho).

Another interesting story ties into the afore-mentioned dinner; perhaps the most dramatic public argument I have ever seen. As we sat at our table at the restaurant watching a 20 something year old woman shouting and throwing a bowl at the man opposite her at the table, I was creating my own subtitles and wondering if we had found ourselves in a soap opera. It was very bizarre, but also very entertaining. I think everyone in the restaurant was enjoying the free drama, just hoping that they wouldn't look our way and start throwing stuff at us as well.

So after the excitement of a tropical storm and an emotional storm in the restaurant (ha ha?), we decided to take it easy for a day or too, just playing in the many shopping malls. After a school reunion at Ken's high school we went to one mall that had a large arcade on the top floor, where I finally realised how rubbish ours are in Scotland. This place was noisy, like deafening. The kind of noisy when you can hear the person beside you better if you stick your fingers in your ears. After trying all sorts of games, mostly the weird japanese ones that don't really make much sense, we discovered the guy in the video below. He was so into this game that it was just a bit creepy. There were a lot of guys in the arcade that obviously had invested a bit too much time in their game of choice, but none had gone to the same level as this guy. I'm not sure if the ribbons were part of the game or if he had made them himself, but he obviously wields them with PASSION. Can't help but have some respect for how shamelessly this guy dances away to cutesy kpop infront of the crowd that rapidly gathered around him.

Until next time~ Hopefully this man will inspire you to dance about with a burning passion too~

x