Comparison Between Jamie Ford's Hotel On The Corner Of Bitter And Sweet

Experiencing Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet Bitter and sweet moments between Henry and Keiko occurred often in Jamie Ford’s novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, which is the reason for the ingenious creation of the Bitter and Sweet Tour at the Wing Luke Museum. This tour, might I add, takes tourists to many of the famous places from the novel. Well-known scenes and major events take place in Chinatown and Japantown, being that the two main characters each descend from one of these cultures. Henry Lee, a young Chinese boy; and Keiko Okabe, a young Japanese girl, go through conflicts together and internally because of their heritage alone. The Bitter and Sweet Tour shows how strict the boundaries and the dividing line between

Our first stop was an envisioned replica of what the Lee’s apartment would have probably resembled. The designers had created the interior with an early 1940’s theme and asked the previous renters how they had the décor arranged. I personally pictured the walls more lively and upbeat, with posters and paintings, even though it was a miserable place for Henry. The tense, misunderstood conversations held at the dining table could be easily visualized. I felt the anxiety in the room as Henry hurriedly buried Keiko’s family’s photographs in his bottom dresser drawer. In the end, the Lee’s apartment was very close to what I had predicted. Our second stop along the route was at the hill that Chaz had chased Henry down in the novel. Chaz had seen Henry wheeling Keiko’s photographs home during the night as he was spray painted demeaning messages on Japanese storefronts in Nihonmachi. Henry had to jump onto his wagon, for it was going too fast, and then he began to rocket down the South King Street hill. He had claimed that the hill was so enormously steep that he could not control the wagon. I thought that Henry was just over exaggerating because it might have felt that steep to him, but when I saw the hill in person, I knew he was telling the truth. Never could I imagine even biking down the incline, let alone incontrollable wagon-riding. Our final, impactful point during the walking tour was the liveliness of Chinatown versus Japantown. In Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, after the internment of the Japanese in Nihonmachi, Henry and Sheldon noticed that is was like a total ghost town. Since the Chinese were evacuated and Chinatown was neighboring Japantown, Chinatown was still buoyant and full of people. Even nowadays, Chinatown bustles and thrives with roaming tourists, while Japantown is not as