I started to say that the first thing we did in Japan was to visit the Panasonic Center, but actually the FIRST thing we did was to eat at TGI Friday's and catch up on our sleep! The next morning, Terry navigated us on the Tokyo subway to the Panasonic Center.



They gave us a VIP tour, and it was very interesting. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

They showed us some really cool things that are not on the market yet, and unfortunately they wouldn't allow photographs of those. We saw the biggest plasma TV in the world - nine times as large as ours at home! We also saw the next generation of plasma TVs - less than an inch thick with improved resolution but using only half the energy. The thing I liked most was a huge interactive video wall where you could watch multiple channels, cruise the internet and play games all by touch.



They had a big Olympics display,



a car of the future,



and even things like dishwashers, potties and refrigerators, which I didn't realize were made by Panasonic.

They also had a display here called "Future House" where you could see all these new technologies in an actual house. It sort of reminded me of the "World of Tomorrow" ride they used to have at Disney World.



They had a hands-on science section, and just like in the U.S., there were lots of school children there on a field trip.



They also had a video game section. They had a great cafe upstairs where we enjoyed some pasta and ice cream.



We tried to explain the "Living in HD" program to our Japanese tour guides. Though they spoke English fairly well, we could tell they weren't getting it. Nathan had on his LiHD t-shirt and they had the ability to pull up the internet on their big TV in the lobby. So we had them type in the website from the back of his T-shirt. They got really excited when they saw our picture on the screen!

Panasonic News @ Yahoo! Video

This last part is a demo video they made while we were there.

Surprise!

After the Olympics, we went to Japan! Stay tuned for more about our trip there!

He Got It!

Ever since we started trading pins at the Olympics, Nathan was on a quest for one special pin - one depicting the water cube. He was just SURE he would get it. But after four days of trading, he had not ever seen it (his sister saw it once). So even after everyone else packed their pins away (so as not to set off all the metal detectors at the airport), Nathan insisted on keeping his with him in case he saw the water cube there - he was SURE he would. Well, wouldn't you know it - right as we got ready to show our passports to leave the country - he noticed that the businessman in front of us had several pins on his backpack. One was the water cube pin! Nathan asked him if we wanted to trade, and the man nodded yes and just gave him the pin - no trade required! Then he threw in another cool pin depicting the National Stadium (Bird's Nest). Nathan was ecstatic and wanted me to be sure and post this so that the folks traveling with us would know - especially Eileen - that he really did get the pin!

More About the Closing Ceremonies

I wanted to share a bit more about our experiences at the closing ceremonies.

Right before the closing ceremonies, we had a conversation on the bus with one of our guides. He was telling us among other things that "yes, he was allowed to leave the country any time he wanted" because "it fits with the government's goal to make the whole world Chinese." That's a bit unsettling when you think about it, and this conversation came to mind several times during the closing ceremony. So instead of just being beautiful, the ceremony was also a bit sobering in terms of China's status as a world power. But not too much - as the mood was too fun to be very sobering!



This gal is the way I prefer to remember the Chinese. She was so obviously proud of her country and literally smiled like this for three hours straight.





We seriously would love to have toys like this! After the ceremonies were over,the guys on the bouncy stilts entertained the crowd with stunts for quite a while.



When they first built this human torch, it really looked like ants swarming on a banana or something. This would not be a good job for a claustrophobic person.



This isn't a very good picture, but I wanted to show how these acrobatic guys were right on top of us. Not a job for someone scared of heights!

Here are our jobs during the ceremony - much easier!

Cloudy with a Chance of Doughballs

Several readers have asked for a description of the food that was photographed, so I thought I would update the previous slide-show with captions and add all the other photos we’ve taken of food. But first I should explain the title. This is a take-off from a popular children’s book and also describes our first day in Japan. The doughball part will be obvious from the photos.

In China, we ate mostly Chinese food but also enjoyed Greek and French. I loved everything served from the latter two. American Chinese food is considerably more appealing to the American palate, IMHO.

If you are considering a move to China, breakfast would take a lot of getting used to --- mostly meat and vegetables --- and unrecognizable ones at that. Additionally, you will have some fun with some of their adjectives. Specifically, we noticed “hairy” and “gelatinous” used a lot, and my favorite descriptor was “sauteed assorted fungus.”

Additionally, the Chinese seem to enjoy most of their meat as close to natural as possible with bones, shells, and skin. The most unusual in my opinion was eating crab that was all covered in cheese. Apparently, you either eat the shell or separate it in your mouth.

I would be remiss if I didn’t comment on the desserts. We did find most of them to be fairly good. There were a few odd ones like ice cream and bean curd, fried potatoes, and my favorite ”eight treasure pudding (glutinous rice with assorted beans) --- looked great, but I just couldn’t order it.

Closing Ceremonies

By now, you folks back in the USA have had a chance to see the closing ceremonies, so this won't be a spoiler.

The main theme of the show was that even though the torch has gone out, the people can each carry the torch in their hearts and become collectively a "human torch." It's a nice setiment, and the imagery was stunning! Probably the overall image was better on TV (particularly if you have high definition), but our seats were on the sixth row, so we could see lots of details. Rebecca took tons of pictures, and I'm sure she'll be saying more on her blog.

There was lots more security in going to the closing ceremony than there was when we simply attended olympic events. We went through at least three security checks involving an electronic pat-down and we had to show our tickets at least six different times. At one checkpoint, someone accidentally (we hope) set off an alarm for radioactive material, and you should have seen those volunteers scrambling! They quickly decided that it was a false alarm.

Once we got to our seats, we all had a gift bag full of mementos and props. Before the ceremony, there was a training session where we learned when to flap our glittery paper or our fans and when to turn on our little battery-powered torches or play our drum replicas.

One of the biggest surprises is that we were told the ceremony would last four hours, but it was only two.

I have more to say, but we have now arrived in Japan and are getting ready to go see the Panasonic Tokyo Center this morning - then on to Kyoto by bullet train this afternoon.

Shopping in China

Shopping in China has been a real experience for us. Terry loves to bargain, and he was right at home in the silk market (except that the sheer number of choices of things to buy was overwhelming). I would have loved to "window shop," but that is apparently just not done in China. If you even hesitate a little in your step or cast your eyes over the merchandise, you will be accosted and have items shoved in your face over and over. They don't seem to understand "I'm just looking." We shopped at the Cloissone factory and one woman followed me all over the superstore there. I could not get away from her. I probably would have bought several items if I had been able to shop in peace.

It was actually even a little scary when going down the path from the Great Wall back to the bus. There were vendors on either side of a narrow walkway, and they were jumping out at you from both sides. Our family got split up, and each of us ended up running this guantlet alone. I was almost in tears by the time I got to the bus.

There are great bargains to be had in China if you have the stomach for this sort of approach. In fact, Terry is out shopping right now!

One exception has been the Olympic superstore. It was Western-style shopping - meaning that the price is what you pay. There is no bargaining and no hard sell. I bought a lot there.

Another bargain in China has been concessions at the Olympic venues. Drinks of all kinds are just 70 cents!

Our Great Wall Day!

Aug23

Here are our pictures from yesterday. Unless you're a family member, you may not want to wade through all of them. I haven't had time to edit!

One of the best things about our trip has been meeting all the folks that we are traveling with. Nathan said yesterday that was what he would miss the most about China. We took a group picture at the Great Wall yesterday.

All in a Day!

We are running non-stop here, and to give you a little of an idea of what can be fit into one day, I'll give a brief rundown of what we did all on August 22nd.



First, we packed up and left our hotel about 8:45. The day before had been rainy, but today was bright and clear.





Our first stop was the National Stadium where the men's 50 km walk and discus throw was taking place. It was very hot, and the men's race was taking a while to complete (as you can imagine it takes a while to walk 32 miles - even if you are walking 7-minute miles), so we did lots of pin-trading and photo taking. There seemed to be lots more locals at these events today - I assume it wasn't quite as hard to get tickets to - and we enjoyed visiting with some of them - especially this little girl that was sitting behind us.

After enjoying track and field, we went shopping at the silk market and then to a Greek restaurant for lunch.



Next we went on a tour of a hutong (old-style Chinese neighborhood) by rickshaw. We got out at a home and got to visit with a Chinese family and see the inside of their house. It was quite interesting.



Next up was a trip to a tea house for a lesson in Chinese tea. We got to smell and taste several different kinds. My favorite was the jasmine tea. Nathan wasn't too sure about it, but he tasted it all.



Next we had another elaborate meal. We are seriously served about 20 dishes at each meal - only about 3 of which are recognized by any of us. I'm glad to know that some of the adults are just as picky as my kids.



This is what Nathan did through most of supper. Bless his heart - he was so tired - and we still had our major event, men's basketball, to attend.

I figure most of you have seen highlights from this game already. Our Chinese guides are actually basketball fans and were rooting for the US, but most of the non-USA crowd was rooting against us.

There was interesting entertainment at every time out. Here's a Fuwa doing a slam dunk.



After the game (which ended after midnight), we moved to our new hotel which is closer to the Great Wall. We arrived at almost 3 am. Whew!

Pin Trading!

We have been fun doing what has been called "the greatest olympic spectator sport," -pin trading. Panasonic started everyone out by giving us a stash of Panasonic sponsor pins to trade with (and a few that are really too nice to trade). There is one gal in our group - Eileen - who says that she could sell a comb to a bald man, and she is a natural-born trader! She got so many pins the first day that Rebecca asked if she could "shadow" her yesterday. She shared all her strategies, and all of us had a blast trading pins. It is interesting to see who likes what kind of pins. I like the sponsor pins (especially the NBC one I got yesterday), and Terry likes the olympic pins. Rebecca likes the pins with moving parts, and Nathan likes ones that have Fuwa on them doing olympic sports.

Here's a slide show of our pin trading yesterday. You can see from the umbrellas that it was a rainy day, but at least it was not hot at all.

August 21

I'm going to post on this blog today (or tonight) and I just thought I would remind everyone to read the Panda blog and my blog. The links are on the side of this page.

Anyway, today we did a lot! First we went to the women's semi-final 10m platform diving. All I can think to say is: Wow! There were so many impressive dives and one cool thing is that we got to see Laura Wilkinson dive. She didn't qualify for the finals, but it was nice to watch a former medalist. She is also a Christian and that is a very neat thing.

We were divided into groups after lunch and toured the Internation Broadcasting Center. That was really neat and I was impressed that it had only taken a few months to construct. There were so many computers and TVs and cables that it boggled the mind! The security was also very tight and we had to give them our passports while we toured it. The guide for the tour told us that they even had back-up power from three different places if anything ever went wrong. They also have about 300 generators to help! That is really crazy!!!

This afternoon we went shopping in a Super Store and it was an absolute madhouse! There was a huge line to get in, but thankfully we were able to talk to the staff of the store and got permission to enter through a back door without waiting in the line outside in the rain. When we got inside it was very crowded and noisy. The Chinese are somehow a communist country and they don't seem to believe in turns or waiting. They all pushed a lot and there didn't seem to be any real lines....just mobs! I think I will need therapy when I get home for that! My mom and dad bought a few things for family and friends so the time I spent going crazy inside there was productive anyway.

When we got finished shopping we went to the women's softball finals and it was a very good game! The US team played Japan for the gold and about a third of the way through the game they had to stop playing for a while for the rain. They brought out these huge tarps (that would have been great for slip'n'slides) and laid them over the field to keep it dry. I was surprised how fast that happened! As soon as it was only a slight drizzle they pulled off the tarps and started the game again!

Anyway, we had an overall great day even with the rain! I can't wait 'til tomorrow when we get to watch the men's basketball games.....but it is hard to believe that we have already been here for 2 days!

Day One, Part Two

Day One in China

I can some up Day One in one word - WOW! This whole experience is just so unbelievable. When we walked into beach volleyball this morning after having just watched this team a few days ago on our own TV, it was like stepping into the TV (Rebecca says sort of like Blue's Clues). There they were, as big as life! I've had a similar feeling with all the sites. I can't take the time to choose just a few favorites, but click on the picture above and you can see all the pictures (350 of them) that we took yesterday.

As several of the pictures show, Nathan is the one who suffered most with jet lag. He actually fell asleep at dinner. We finally got him to drink some coke, and he perked up.

Probably the biggest WOW! factor for me yesterday was walking into the Bird's Nest Stadium. I fully expected to sit in the "nose bleed" section, but when I saw our seats on the 50 yard line right in front of the runner and medal stand, I was speechless. Tom told us that our seats for the closing ceremony were even closer.

We have enjoyed getting to know the other folks on tour with us. All are from the broadcast division - meaning that they buy the really big cameras from Panasonic used in TV/video production. In fact, today they have planned a tour for us at the International Broadcast Center on the Olympic green. It is apparently not open to most folks. I'm really looking forward to seeing how everything works behind the scenes. It seems like every detail is taken care of. We even noticed that when they raise the flags for the medal ceremony, as soon as the flags reach the top, there is an internal blower in the poles that makes the flags start waving.

Well, I've got to run. We're seeing diving and softball today. It's raining outside but much cooler. I checked weather.com, and we're supposed to have clear skies the rest of the week, so I won't complain.

Food Adventures (by Terry)

I decided that since sports fans often get sidetracked on food that I would simply start on food. Bottom line is if you like everything and like to try new stuff, then you would have had a blast. If you're not so inclined, then nuf-said.

I pride myself in liking almost everything, and I'll say that I really didn't try anything that I couldn't eat. However, I do believe that genuine Chinese food has a little room for improvement --- you won’t find any good ole American/Chinese food like Kung Pao Chicken.

Most of the meats I tried were very good. However, I would have to get used to the idea of several being served cold and with sweet spices. The best meats were duck and pork --- mostly enhanced by higher fat content than westerners are accustomed.

The vegetables are considerably different and are served in a wide variety of ways, though most were bland in flavor. Additionally, they all seem to have a similar aroma --- kind of like broccoli, greens, or cabbage. Add that to curry and that is what I seemed to smell all around town.

Bottom line, if you come to China one day, then you need to accept the idea that meat is often served whole --- eyes, beaks, and fins, that few vegetables taste like you are accustomed, and deserts can be anything --- e.g., pumpkin soup (sweet, warm, and with rice added).

Day One, Part One

Wow, I only have about 3 min. to type before we head out for dinner and then track and field. Here are just a few of the tons of pictures we took today at the Beach Volleyball venue, lunch, the USA house (where Nathan got his picture with a gymnast), the Forbidden City and Tianamen Square. We'll have to follow with details later so we don't keep everyone waiting for supper. We're having a great time!

We're Here!

We arrived in Beijing just a few hours ago and are headed to bed for a much-needed rest. We flew 18 hours in three different legs and now have about six hours before we need to be at breakfast. We hope to have time to update our blog a bit more tomorrow, but here are a few pictures from earlier today.



Here's a picture when we were leaving Knoxville. We were fresh and well-rested then, and very excited!



These Korean stewardesses had very interesting head decorations. They were made of metal, so they all had to take them off when we went through security.



We sat on the very back row of the airplane for our flight from Chicago to Narita, Japan. Nathan absolutely loved the flying! We were able to sleep 2-3 hours on the 12-hour flight. We had some interesting food to eat, but those pictures haven't been uploaded yet, so that will have to wait for another post.

Left Behind

Today we drove to Knoxville where Terry's parents live. They will be keeping our sons Caleb and Noah while we're in China. Next to Panasonic, they deserve the biggest thanks for making this trip possible.

Today was a whirlwind of packing and housecleaning, but now we are enjoying a relaxing evening of watching the Olympics on TV - still in disbelief that we will be sitting in the stands ourselves in just two days!

We leave at 10 am tomorrow and fly first to Chicago, then to Japan and then to Beijing. Nathan does not ever remember being in a plane, so we're hoping for a window seat for him.

Rebecca and I don't dread the long flight at all - it's a good excuse to spend lots of time reading! Terry and Nathan don't share our love for reading, and I'm not sure how many games of travel chess they can play without going crazy.

Lord willing, the next time we update our blog, we will be in China!

LiHD T-Shirts!

Hot off the press! Here are the LiHD T-shirts which I understand are going to be sent to all the families soon. We got ours early so we could wear them to the Olympics. We actually got a gray set and a blue set. All are size large so we may have to do some creative washing and drying for size adjustment.

Thanks for the Memory!

Panasonic sent us this cool backpack to take on our trip and lots of extra memory cards. I am also planning on moving most of our photos from our laptop to an external hard drive before we go. It is amazing how many photos we have. I am soooo behind on scrapbooking, and we haven't even made this trip yet!





Last night we had fried rice and egg rolls for supper, and Rebecca gave us a lesson in using chopsticks. She has issued a challenge to all of us to only eat with chopsticks on our trip. I think it would be a guaranteed way to lose weight. Between the chopsticks and all the bicycle riding in China, it is obvious why they don't have the weight problems that we have in America.

Caleb and Noah even used chopsticks with breakfast this morning. Noah found out that they don't work too well with poptarts, but Caleb thought they worked perfectly on his mini-wheats cereal.

We Did It!

Our sprint triathlon was this morning, and we did it in record time - not olympic record time, mind you, just our personal bests. We swam 1/4 mile in Lake Chicamauga, rode our bikes 8.2 miles to downtown Chattanooga, and ran two miles over bridges and through parks to the finish line. It was a beautiful morning - bright and sunny and not too hot.



Laura beat us all with a time of 1:06. She is a speed demon on her bike! I am very proud of her agreeing to the challenge. She is a great friend!



Rebecca came in next at 1:14. She was just glad to have it over. She hates running!



I finished in 1:16. I have three excuses - I am older, I am spastic (I wasted 2 minutes in transition because I couldn't get my helmet to snap), and I am riding a bike meant for a 10-year-old boy.

At the beginning of the summer we had set our goal to finish in 1:30, so we were just pleased to make our goal. I'm not sure we would have stuck with it if I hadn't written in my Panasonic olympic-essay entry that we were doing this. That gave us the extra motivation to keep training.

Before we started the race, they gave all the participants "body marks." Since this is the closest we'll probably ever get to tattoos, we thought you might want to see them. The ones on our legs showed our ages.





And here's one more picture of us at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo. We stayed at the Holiday Inn there.