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I’m back in Tokyo now after nearly two weeks on the road visiting Singapore and then Shanghai. I’ve posted some pictures over at Flickr but unfortunately wasn’t able to take so many while in Singapore. I did walk around a little on Shanghai and tried to take some pictures of busy shopping area on Nanjing Rd. (South) down near the Huangpu River.

I also took a few pictures from my hotel room that turned out ok despite shooting through a dirty window.

I spent my last full and free day in Shanghai doing a little sightseeing along the Huangpu River. It was a warm and slightly hazy day – a good time for a walk along the Pudong side of the river. I enjoyed a frappucino at the river side Starbucks (Starbuck is everywhere – I think worse than McDonald’s). One of the first walks I took in Shanghai was right in this same area. I wrote about it in this blog entry. I guess it was fitting that I end my time in Shanghai right back where I started.

Here are some pictures (more over at Flickr).

The farewells are basically done now. I even got a bouquet of flowers. I’ve gone through this several times in the past so I guess I’m used to saying goodbye. It’s strange to think that my office, my home, my co-workers for the past year will soon just be another memory. Hopefully our paths will cross again sometime, but it’s hard to know when that might be. I have a day off tomorrow before flying to Japan on Thursday. Perhaps I’ll do some sightseeing in Shanghai if the weather is good. I’ll miss the constantly changing skyline and fast pace. I’ll miss the people. I’ve been blessed to have had the opportunity to work in so many places and meet so many people. Shanghai is no exception.

I’m not usually one to comment on examples of poor English. Not being able to speak any dialect of Chinese, I don’t usually thinks it fair to pick on a non-native speaker’s English ability. But this sign giving emergency instructions in my hotel room was just too good to pass up. It’s a good thing it comes with a map otherwise I would have no idea what the meaning is. Especially the last point, “Point profess your excellency seat.” I have no clue what they wanted to say. For a 5-star hotel I am little disappointed the hotel management couldn’t bother to spend a couple of extra bucks to have a native speaker (or even a person with a couple of years English instruction) check this. Any ideas?

Well, I’m down to my last 7 days of living in Shanghai. I still have a number of farewell parties to go and it is difficult and sad sometimes to realize that most of the people I’ve met here I will probably never see again. With tools like Skype and of course email it is easier to keep in touch, but without face-to-face contact it is hard to keep up with everyone.

I’ve always enjoyed living in new and different places and making friends in so many different countries. But it also means that I’ve had to say a lot of goodbyes along the way. I hope I have the chance to see a lot of my friends from Shanghai again but realistically it’s going to be difficult. Perhaps one or two I’ll have the chance to meet here or in Tokyo again. I certainly hope so.