BY MASAKI MATSUMOTO

Many students aim to travel their four years at university. There are various ways to achieve this objective. For example, there are trips to hot springs, travel using all sorts of vehicles, domestic travel, and traveling abroad. When we think about money and time, it is a good chance to travel somewhere while we are students. I would like to tell you about my experience in Hong Kong and South Korea with my friend Taiki Nonaka, a junior majoring in Russian, from March 27 through 31 this year. I spent about ￥70,000 for this trip, but I think it is a reasonable price.

My purpose was sightseeing, and I wanted to grasp the state of today's Hong Kong which was returned to China one and a half years ago, and to see the effects of Japan's influence there. But we only had 5 days. Therefore, we could only see superficial parts.

We left Japan in the afternoon on the 27th and arrived in Hong Kong around midnight. On the 28th we enjoyed sightseeing until evening. We saw Victoria Peak, Ocean Park, Mon Mo Temple and so on. After that, we took a walk in Hong Kong and watched the "Million-dollar night view." On the 28th we were free all day. We used the subway to see a lot of places. On 30th we flew to South Korea and went back to the hotel after we finished sightseeing. On 31st, we left South Korea in the morning and we came back to Japan around noon. We did not have much time in South Korea, so I will avoid introducing South Korea this time.

The Hong Kong I experienced was beyond the image I had before I went. Many buildings stood in a row in small areas and many signboards were fixed to the buildings. I felt it was dirty there but it was actually very sanitary. Around 5 pm many street stalls started to set up on both sides of the roads. These stalls sold illegally copied goods, such as T-shirts, precious metals and so on. Nowadays, selling illegal goods is more restricted, so we could not find them easily. But, one stall was selling Gucci wrist watches for $40HK (≒￥700, $1HK￥≒16.2) and PRADA wallets for $85HK (≒￥1500). Of course, these were fakes. The regulations have become severe, so the stall keepers did not put them out openly.

During our stay in Hong Kong we did not have any chance to speak English because we could use Japanese at most places. Also, we saw Japanese things very often. What was surprising was the fashion and the music that Hong Kong young people listen to. Their fashion does not differ from today's fashion of Japanese young people. When we entered HMV-a store which sells music-we often heard Japanese songs. There was also a Japanese song corner in the store. And when we entered a used CD store we found the Mr. Children album "Discovery" which was released in Japan at that time. When we watched a Hong Kong music program, that program picked up many Japanese songs. For example, Tohko, Maki Oguro, Speed, and so on, appeared on that program. Hong Kong media caught Japanese fashion, and the Hong Kong market has accepted the culture of the Japanese youth.

I personally experienced the real Hong Kong for a short 3 days. I could experience the surface of Hong Kong only, but it was a very good opportunity to learn a lot of things.