January 12: Hong Kong

I woke up feeling officially sick today, but I didn't want to waste the day. The movie "Wind Rises" was recommended and it seemed like the perfect thing to do for a semi-sick day. A walk through the beautiful Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens turned up a man walking his ferret!

In this same park is this amazing fountain that you can walk under, and through. It must be nice on a hot summer day. In the cool winter it's not to bad, as you don't really get all that wet.

So of course I walked underneath it, and only my shoes got a little wet.

The movie theater was in a mall, a massive sprawling mall. Hong Kong is shopping crazy, with vast amounts of high end stores. This mall was no exception. 

In the middle of the Taikoo Shing mall was this 10 story celebration to the Chinese New Year, which this year is the year of the Horse. Take a look at the people at the bottom left of the picture - that's just how big this thing is.

As a former colony, you can't have all the British expatriates not being able to shop at that English institution, Marks and Spencers.

The movie itself was amazing. Produced by Studio Ghibli, it is the Asian equivalent to Disney. "Wind Rises" is the story of a Japanese aircraft engineer that was critical to the modernization of the Japanese aircraft industry between World War 1 and World War 2 - otherwise known as the father of the Japanese fighter the Zero. Quite a controversial subject to say the least, and not one that you would expect to be told in the animation format.

After the movie, I wandered into Muji, a Japanese store that mixes the design esthetic of IKEA with the Gap and Staples. Quite an amazing store. I purchased a fountain pen (something I first picked up when living in the UK).

All in all not a bad day, but by the time I made it back to my bed, I was exhausted and fell asleep fairly early. Here's to hoping tomorrow is a non-sick day.