August 2013 part 1 Hong Kong

Erica's showband was going to the World Marching Band Championships in Chiba Japan in August.  Ed and I started tossing around the idea of going about 10 months before.  I even started learning Japanese.  I learned about 10 words.  I also read the book Shogun which actually taught me more Japanese than I ever learned on my own.   Edward was always disappointed we didn't get to go to Hong Kong while we were in China.  So we decided to do a whirlwind Asian Temple tour.  We flew to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tokyo, Seoul and Fukuoka.  This is part one. 
Hong Kong is one of the safest cities in the world.  Our friend told us we could go anywhere anytime of the day and night and feel safe.  It is also one of the most densely populated cities in the world.  It is boasts several high ranking international statistics:
-fifth most important city in the world
-leading financial centre
-most vertical city
-highest per capita incomes in the world
-longest life expectancy
-highest average IQ score (out of 81 countries around the world)
 (Wikipedia)
My perceptions?  Well, it is very vertical.  I've never seen so many high rises.  They just go on and on and on.  It had a distinct western feel - unlike mainland China which was much more...er Chinese.  The streets had names like Salisbury and Aberdeen and there were many English people who had lived there much of their lives.  It was expensive.  It was hot.  Very hot.  There was a heat wave while we were in Asia and it was extremely hot.  It wasn't too bad walking down the streets with the shops because they leave the front doors open and the air conditioning was turned up so high that it was cool and delightful outside in front of the shops.  I had to use a blanket in the restaurant because it was so cold.  We were approached on every corner to buy a Rolex by East Indians.  It got old after a while and it was hard not to be rude.  We were the only ones getting approached.  To tell you the truth, I was a little bored in Hong Kong.  There was really nothing to do.  We rode the ferry to the island and walked and walked and walked.  We walked to the bird market (smelly) and the flower market (who buys all those flowers?) and walked and walked and walked.  We saw the church office building which was very nice.  We went to the temple.  We went the wrong way on the subway and had to backtrack.  (That doesn't happen very often to Edward...)  I had a nap for the first time in forever.  But we couldn't find anything else to do.  So I was happy to leave and go to Taiwan.