New York

Nothing like being in NY for the holidays. Kenn and I went to see the tree on Sunday, did some shopping, and had take-out Chinese. Classic NYC style. Christmas dinners and family time on Mon and Tues. I am trying to fit everything and everyone into my schedule for the rest of the days I'm here. I can't believe how 2 weeks can get filled up so fast. It's nice to be home though.

Just hours

I am leaving for the airport in a few hours. Getting to the airport in Tokyo is a real pain in the butt. It's so far away and takes forever. I personally like taking the aiport shuttle bus from a local hotel because it's simpler than dragging around bags to the train. Train is faster but in my opinion less convenient. Bus is about $26 and takes 1 1/2 usually but can be longer with traffic.

So I already had enough miles to upgrade my flight back to business class. I could have saved the miles but figured, live it up, why wait. I change planes at LAX, hopefully there are no delays because of that whole Denver weather mess.

I hope there are good movies and that I can sleep on the plane a bit. I'm one of those weird people that like plane food too - ha. Business class plane food is pretty ok though.

See some of you in NY soon!

Ok I am at the Red Carpet Club at the airport, I got here with waaayyyy to much time to spare but it was worth it because this lounge rocks. It's huge and i can have beer. :) And wireless internet and all that goods stuff. *sigh* I wish I were rich so can fly business or first class all the time. It seriously makes a difference in the whole flying experience. They have the coolest beer machine here. You take the frosted glass from the fridge then place it on the machine, press a button, and it tips the cup back and poors the beer. Cool man. ;)

Ok so I have some time to kill and just read an old comment on my blog from Alexis. I guess I have a blog reader from Japan-- Alexis, if you are reading this, here is the link: alluc.org -- enjoy it! We should meet up sometime in Tokyo!

Ok folks, one more hour til flight boards. They just pulled the shades here- that is random. Guy next to me is talking really loud on his phone or on skype or something. And the guy on the other side just got up to leave after I asked him why they pulled the shades. Maybe I smell?? Haha...

Bye again!!

1 more day

Just one more day of work and I'm headed home to NY. I'm so excited I can hardly contain myself. Reasons:
1) First and foremost this marks the end of the long period of Kenn and I driving or taking the train/bus to see each other. And the end of the 4 months of being apart. Marks the start of living together!
2) I get to see family and friends I've missed
3) I get to be in NYC, my favorite place
4) I get to go home for Christmas, one of my favorite times of year
5) It ends the boredom of being at work with nothing to do

So last night I met up with another friend of friend I was introduced to. My friend Adam from college has a friend living here in Tokyo and we've finally been able to sync up for dinner. Nice guy and he also introduced me to a friend of his, she was really nice too. Even though our meeting was brief we seemed to click so exchanged numbers and hopefully I'll hang out with her again, both of them.

I realized that I have that 'getting older' bug where you sometimes feel too lazy to go out and the thought of staying home and vegging seems so much more appealing. Never used to feel like that in my youth but admittedly sometimes it's an effort to go out now. So sad. But what I realized is that it feels really good to be out and meet new people and interact with people. It's more rewarding than staying at home...so I've decided that I will push myself to make more of an effort. Life is short, why waste it one the couch?

Should I do it? ok fine... ODE TO MCDREAMY

Haha-- I am now taking requests for blog posts.

I guess it doesn't make for an interesting read about what I'm up to in Tokyo but to be honest, I haven't been up to much besides work and even that is boring as I wrap up the year. But let's see I'll write some tidbits: I am still drinking a liter bottle of green tea every day. For breakfast I am addicted to premade sandwiches with the crusts cut off and cut into triangles - they usually are a variety pack of egg salad, ham, etc. I make something simple for dinner like pasta, noodles, fried rice, or buy something pre-made. My Japanese vocabulary hasn't grown much but I noticed when my friends were visiting that I definitely know more than when I first got here. I can kinda direct a cab (at least to the main intersection in my neighborhood). I can ask for water at a restaurant and understand what the wait staff is asking (like "what would you like to drink"). I can understand simple commonly used phrases like "it's cold", "that's cute", "what is this?" "that's expensive". I can even decipher some katakana characters, enough to figure out words. What I really need to do is take lessons so that will be my new year's resolution.

Ok, back to Ode to McDreamy. If you are totally in the dark, McDreamy is a character on Grey's Anatomy (of course!) and is Patrick Dempsey's character and Meredith Grey's love. He's definitely dreamy - handsome, a brain surgeon, sweet. He's a new yorker but loves the outdoors and fishihg. The way he looks at Meredith just melts your heart. Here's a pic of him from the episode where the guys go camping in Season 3:


Now Patrick Dempsey is actually pretty old, though he looks good for his age. He's turning 41 next month! He's orginally from Maine. He has been married twice. First marriage was with a woman 27 years his senior- ick! And now he's married to a make-up artist. They have one daugther and twins boys on the way.

5 more days

I took a nice long walk yesterday around the neighorhood and neighboring hoods. Weather was nice. Did a little shopping too. If I can just get through the next boring 5 workdays. It's a busy time of month in Japan and for my coworkers, clients are all trying to spend the rest of their advertising and research budgets. But for me, that means it's slow because my coworkers are all swamped with other things and can't help me. Because of the language barrier with many clients, I can't even send follow-up emails without translations. So here I am posting to my blog, Christmas shopping online, emailing friends, reading news.

Oh bummer.. I just checked my phone and noticed that I had a voicemail (which I hardly ever get so hard for me to notice the little symbol). I mentioned awhile ago in an old post that a couple I know from back home (girl used to go to my church when I was in HS) might be relocating to Tokyo. Well it turns out they are moving here. Serena is in town this week on an "apt finding" trip. Looks like she tried to call me yesterday but I totally missed the call and missed the voicemail. That sucks. Anyway supposed to meet her tonight for dinner.

Ode to McSteamy

AKA Dr. Mark Sloan AKA Eric Dane AKA Delicious... haha.
This post is at the request of Livia and for the enjoyment of Johanna and other female fans.

WARNING: the following pic is not for children or the faint of heart.







So Eric Dane is 34 years old, from SF, and married to Rebecca Gayheart. For those of you who have no clue. McSteamy is a character of Grey's Anatomy.

--------------------------------------------------

So Friday's office outing was a ton of fun. It ended up not raining. The clouds cleared briefly for an awesome view of Mt. Fuji. The amusement park was fun and we went on this awesome roller coaster where the seats spin around. There was a drop where it looks like you are just falling straight down to the ground, cool stuff. The only downside to the day was that my coworkers spoke Japanese most of the time (none of the expats went on the outing). So a lot of the time I was left out of the conversation or someone would remember me and translate a bit. I'm used to it by now I guess. We did go to the Onsen (hot spring). I forgot to mention in my last post that the baths are separated by gender. In the end it was not uncomfortable to be naked in front of female coworkers. After all it's just the human form and we all have the same body parts. No one is there to stare. The Onsen was great, very relaxing. Back in Tokyo we were joined by some other coworkers for a dinner outing. We had our own private room and a huge feast of a variety of beef we cooked on the grills at the table. The beer, wine and sake was flowing like nobody's business and typical Japanese business style we got toasty and went to Karaoke. It was great fun and I got to get to know my coworkers much better. Today has been spent sleeping and recovering. :)

What do i blog about today?

I've been posting to my blog regularly. I'm back in it to win it... Okay, I'm a dork.

This has been the longest slowest week. I'm not quite sure why. I think it might be because I'm looking so forward to going home for Christmas and the new chapter that begins after Kenn and I return to Japan.

Tomorrow is our office outing. We are going to an amusement park outside of Tokyo somewhere and also possibly to an Onsen (hot spring). You have to be naked at Onsens and I'm not sure how I feel about being naked in front of coworkers. It's not the nudity that I have a problem with really but naked with coworkers?? Kinda weird. Oh well, when in Rome I guess...

Man, I am bored today.

10 days...

...until i head back to NY. Interesting work stuff has been going on but I can't mention it here. But I like change, I've always seen change as a positive thing. You know what they say "out of chaos, is opportunity". Some people like status quo but I get bored easily. :)

My DVD player seems to not want to play some DVDs. It will play for awhile then suddenly get all blurry. I wonder if it is because it won't read pirated copies. Anyway it took me 3 days to watch Bend It Like Beckham because of this. Once it gets blurry, you can stop it and then play it again later and it clears up for awhile. Good movie. For some reason I thought I had seen it already but I hadn't.

I have done most of my Christmas shopping online this year. I love Christmas shopping. Tonight is my building's Christmas party. I'm not used to saying "Christmas" parties anymore but they're not holiday parties here because not many people celebrate anything else. They most likely don't celebrate Christmas either except in a very secular, commercial way. They love Commercial Christmas here actually. It's a big date night, you're supposed to take your honey out on a date.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Eric Mabius

I read Livia's comment and I couldn't resist ;) I really enjoyed Ugly Betty and thought Eric was pretty cute too. I am a little surprised Livia likes him because he is way past her age preference - he's 36! He definitely does not look 36, I wouldn't have thought that. Btw, he also just got engaged this year to his gf of 5 years. In my search for pics, I found that he is actually not that good looking after all. It took me some time to find these 2 decent ones that I liked. He is pretty dorky looking in most. I think it takes just the right angle...

Taipei pics

Here are a few pics from Taipei. For all, visit my Kodak Gallery link. Below are of/from Taipei 101 building:





Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall:



Night Market:




Was a rainy Saturday in Tokyo. My brother found me this great url that has links to streamed TV shows (including current!) that I can watch from Japan! Totally great. I watched all episodes of Ugly Betty yesterday. I also managed to get out and meet up with Lauren. We tried to go to her friend's friend's house party but either got the address or day wrong or something because no one answered the doorbell. We went for dinner in Meguro and dessert in Ebisu instead. Sunday was spent working out, doing laundry and cleaning up the apartment. A perfect Sunday if you ask me. :)

Taipei Part 2

My second presentation was a bit better I think, I tried to speak slower. I still got a lot of blank stares and no questions but I can't say that was abnormal. I had the late afternoon and evening free and went to the Taipei 101 building which was very cool. I was impressed and thought they made a typical tall building tourist attraction pretty interesting. Free audio tour, bits of information about the building, and a big exposed wind damper - a really big ball that helps prevent building vibration or something.



Then I hit up another night market. Night markets were really cool. Lots of locals eating at food stalls. Lots of weird things to eat that I didn't attempt. But did get a fried dough with chicken thingy, delicious pastries, and hand-rolled egg rolls. I had Thursday morning free before my flight back so I went to the National Palace Museum. I really liked it, interesting exhibits of lots of really old stuff. ;) Pottery, jade, bronze buddha statues, paintings and calligraphy... I took the time to read a lot of the explanations so learned quite a bit. It sparked a new interest to learn more about Chinese history which I may or may not follow through on. All in all, cool museum though. It was actually recently redesigned and renovated. I quite enjoyed Taipei. Maybe I'll get to go back sometime with a travel companion or someone who knows more about where to go.

I flew China Airlines which I have to say is one of my new favorites. Large plane with really spacious seating in Economy. Decent meal service including wine. And a lot of polite flight attendants to help out, more per person than on other airlines. Temperature was also at a decent level. The only bad thing was the entertainment. Movie on the way to Taipei was Flickr, some horse movie, which I didn't bother to watch. No movie on the return flight because it was much shorter I guess.

I'm back at the Tokyo office today but being Friday makes it a lot easier. When I get back to Tokyo after travelling from another Asian city (ok, I've only done it twice so far), I am finding a feeling a relief. Or that feeling of comfort to come home. I thought that was interesting. I'm comfortable in Tokyo now, at least in comparison to other cities. I keep realizing how easy it really is to live here.

I'll post pics from Taipei soon.

Taipei

My first day in Taipei has been pretty good. Taipei seems like a pretty cool city. Last time I was here for work I literally spent less than 24 hours here. This time I have a little time to see a bit but not much. I arrived yesterday early afternoon. The company had a driver pick me up at the airport but there were sooo many drivers with signs at arrivals it took me awhile to find my driver, that kinda sucked. The hotel they put me up in is sort of a low budget business hotel but it works. Weather is actually a little chilly, windy and rainy unfortunately. I ventured out to the National Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall after settling in and ate at a food booth there, I had some fried fish thingy. Then I walked down to the Tunghua Night Market. That was pretty cool. I walked around there a bit and bought some dumplings at a stand.

Today's presentation went ok. My presentation was the only one in English and I think I spoke a little too fast for the crowd so will have to slow down the pace for tomorrow's audience. Then coworkers took me out to dinner, a famous/popular dumpling place. Delicious. Then a famous/popular dessert place. Yum.

I will have the late afternoon free tomorrow and also Thursday morning. I'll try to hit the 101 building and maybe Chiang Kai-shek memorial hall or a museum or something. But so far, my impression of Taipei is a good one.

2 1/2 weeks til I'm back in NY :)

New pics

50% of my blog readers are my friends from outside of work. Ok fine, so my total sample is 10 people...

So I've been travelling and have had visitors and am going to Taipei for work next week. I'll actually be speaking at a small client seminar. That should be interesting, a first for me. I will have a little time to see Taipei too, at the very least get some good meals in. With all going on I haven't been much in the mood to go out in Tokyo. Been laying low, staying in, and watching a whole lot of Grey's Anatomy. I have a serious addiction to that show. I won't even get into how bad my addiction is, it will sound really pathetic. Hehe. Thanks to Greg, Jenn, Kent and Girish for the movies and DVDs. I am doing a bit of damage on some of those also. I've started on Buffy and Arrested Development and watched a bunch of movies.

I have decided to come back for Christmas and New Year's. I wasn't going to because I was just home but it will be too depressing to be here by myself. Plus I have a lot of days off, Japan has 7 days off during those 2 weeks. I hope I get the chance to see a lot of people, email me and let's set up some dates! I am not sure when I will be back to NY again. Kenn is coming to Toyko with me in January! YAY! Finally, I am so excited!! I think we're going to have a great time here together.

I have uploaded all my new Tokyo pics to my Kodak Gallery link. They start from picture 137. If you don't have the link anymore or never got it, let me know and I'll send it to ya. Here is a taste including some from the Design Festa I went to today. Design Festa is a freestyle International Art Event open to all artists, both professional and non-professional from all over the world to exhibit their creative talent. Cool stuff. Enjoy.


Jenn and Larry eating Udon :)



Jenn and I at Park Hyatt (where 'Lost in Translation' was filmed). Check out the awesome view of Mt Fuji!!



We walked in the rain to find The Sad Cafe and spent the rest of the rainy afternoon drinking beer



Live music stage at the Design Festa



Live painting



One artist's booth display



I don't even know what they are supposed to be.

Who's reading this blog?

New poll! Obviously non-scientific - please choose option that best describes you:

Who is reading this blog?
	Jenn's Family
	Jenn's friend from outside of work
	Jenn's friend from DL
	Friend of Jenn's friend
	Random person
Free polls from Pollhost.com

So here are my latest Tokyo fashion observations:

Jenn, Larry and Kenn can confirm this one - boots are hot here. Seriously, boots with anything...jeans, shorts, short skirts. Boots and short skirts are especially popular. Practically everyone woman is Tokyo is wearing that now.

One of my pet peeves - skirts/shorts and long socks/stockings with regular shoes. yuck. (some weird version of the boot look)

Hats are very hot now too.

Guangzhou pics and my Toyko visitors

Finally Guangzhou pics:

This is a popular shopping street I visited. The glass thing on the ground was displaying a piece of actual old railroad tracks still exposed from around 960-1200s - crazy old!



The seafood restaurant I wrote about where you pic your meal out.



Poor turtle trying desperately to get out!! :(



ICK!!! Eel? Water snake? GROSS!



So my good friends Jenn and Larry were visiting last week and we had a great time (at least I did). They did quite a bit of sightseeing when I had to work and I had off Thursday (similar to Labor day here) and I took off on Friday. We sampled various restaurants, enjoyed wine and beer, went to Shinjuku for great views from skyscrapers including the Park Hyatt where Lost in Translation was filmed... Jenn doesn't like heights or weird food so Larry and I pretty much tortured the poor girl all week. One of the most amazing things that happened is that Larry lost his wallet in a cab after his first full day here. In typical Japanese fashion (the stories are true!!) the cab driver brought it to the local police station. I had the cab receipt so my front desk helped call the cab company and found out where the driver took it. Larry got his wallet back with ALL of it's contents including the cash he took out that day from the atm!! Gotta love the honesty here. That is the short version of the story. Needless to say we didn't let him live that down all week ;)

Guangzhou Part 3

Friends in town has kept me too busy to complete my Guangzhou series of posts. I figure I better do it now before I entirely forget the experience.

When I first arrived in China and was going through immigration one of the guys behind me got yelled at my an immigration officer to take off his hat. That was one of my first impressions of the country, wow they are strict.

It's very crowded as expected but something that struck me was the traffic. Everyone just dashes into or across the road, in front of moving vehicles and everything. I thought taxis in NYC were crazy but taxis there were all over the place. You can help but feel a little motion sickness. It was just insanity in the streets, free for all. I was scared to cross but my coworker said you just have to do it, run right in...

I still have to get those pics up at some point. My client meeting went very well. All the people in the meeting understood English. I wonder how Guangzhou compares to other cities. I'm especially interested in visiting Beijing and Shanghai. I think I will get to visit both for work, which would be really cool. As long as I have a Chinese tour guide to take me around. It's too much of a hassle to try to get around myself with English. Also, I'm not a big fan of travelling alone. I don't mind it for business trips. But to enjoy a place, I like having a companion. I know a lot of people really enjoy or say they enjoy travelling alone but I don't at all. I think life is more fun when enjoyed with someone else. :)

Guangzhou Part 2

Amazing. This really short trip for business has really got me thinking a lot about cultural differences, about my heritage, so many things. Where do I begin.

So this being my first trip to China in general, as I mentioned in the previous post there was a bit of culture shock. I still am struggling to figure out why I feel like China and Guangzhou are different than other Asian cities I've visited - even Hong Kong. Tokyo is just a completely different world of it's own so that's no comparison. Similar to Hong Kong, the buildings here are mostly old and dirty looking. Maybe there is something to be said about the familiarity of the people here. I was noticing today the facial features of some people and found it astonishing how similar their features are to my own or my family. It's like a step beyond just everyone being Asian but everyone is from the same region as my family. I wish I could explain it better. My uncle mentioned to me how when he visited, he walked into a restaurant where everyone was speaking our dialect of Cantonese, which is Toisan, also spelled Toi Shan or Taishan or Hoisan. I hardly hear the dialect outside of my own family. In fact today, I was in a taxi where the driver was listening to a radio station where they were speaking Toisan. Weird!

My coworker and I took a taxi back to our hotels and he dropped me off first. He told me today that after I got out, the taxi driver asked him where I was from. He was really curious because I didn't speak Chinese and I am really tall (comparatively), but he thought I looked like I was from the area. That really struck me as interesting. So that is a good theory on why people look at me strangely here- my height. Again, it's the beast syndrome, I look like an amazon woman to the locals. Then I was thinking maybe it's the way I dress. A lot of people here who are just walking in the streets are pretty poor. The fact that I am wearing nice clothes and carrying a big red Coach back probably looks a little odd. I later ruled that out because I changed to just jeans and a plain old shirt and still got looks.

I actually ventured out after my meeting today to a mall. My coworker left to catch his flight but he wrote the name of a local shopping mall down in Chinese for me. I was going to hide out in my hotel room but decided I should at least try and check stuff out. So I braved it and gave the cab driver the paper and went shopping. I didn't realize things were so inexpensive in China, stupid me never really gave that much thought. Too bad I wasn't really in the shopping mood. I managed to get a taxi back to the hotel after walking around a bit. It really is not that easy getting around here not speaking Chinese. And the problem is amplified for me since I look Chinese. Even worse than I get in Tokyo, Japanese at least realize at some point I am not Japanese since I don't look it at all.

Yesterday my coworker took me to this seafood place where you pick out what you want from tons of tanks. Rows of tanks filled with fish, crab, all kinds of shrimp, clams, everything you can imagine and more. There were even tanks with turtle, snake, eel! There was a tank with these nasty cockroach looking things, so gross. I have a few pics I will post later. The concept was cool though, fresh seafood. You also get to choose the veggies you want and then they cook it all up and bring it to your table. Yummy.

Ok, I have more to write about but will save it for Part 3. I have an 8am flight back to Tokyo so have to get up early. My good friends Jenn and Larry are visiting me this week!! Yay! I am meeting them at the airport tomorrow.

GUANGZHOU

Ok, first off I am officially an idiot for not realizing my grandparents are from Guangzhou. I have come to discover I know virtually nothing about my heritage which is pretty damn sad. It's funny though, growing up I just pictured China as a far away place that my distant relatives were from. I don't think I ever really tried to picture where exactly they were from, what life was like. That said, I have always wanted to visit so after the realization (thanks dad for posting the comment), I was pretty excited to come here. I mean, it's a big city and I'm not even sure where exactly in the city my family is from or if they are from the city at all (probably a suburb). But anyway the point is I am pretty darn close so that to me is cool. I'm sure many people reading this don't identify at all with what I am saying but it is very profound to me.

I am also happy I came here because being in Tokyo for 3 months its lost its "newness" for me a bit. If you remember from an early arrival blog post, I wrote about how eye opening it was to see the world from some place else. It's harder for me to feel that in Tokyo now but coming here made me realize again how different the world is. How different America is. I have so much to say on this topic but will leave it for another time, I am exhausted and want to hit the sack.

A few more thoughts - I definitely feel more of a culture shock here than in Tokyo. Ironic being that I am Chinese and my family is from this exact area. It's also my first time in China. Somehow it feels different to me than other Asian cities I've been to (btw, my uncle is right it's a lot of old buildings and construction). I haven't pinpointed why yet but that's another point to explore in a later post. I feel like people are looking at me strangely here. Not sure if it's because I am tall or dress differently or what. I actually wanted to take a walk near the hotel earlier and walked half a block and felt really uncomfortable for some reason and turned right around and back to my hotel room. Don't laugh, I really did that. But truthfully, I didn't have much time before meeting my coworker anyway and there was actually nothing around here to see.

Ok, more to come on the Guangzhou trip....

This post is for Livia

It's an ode to Livia post! I don't know why I have been so stumped for post ideas lately. After being back home and having Kenn here and being busy with work, life in Tokyo just seems so boring to write about.

So Livia, another person that will enjoy your comment is my uncle Ging. Sorry I haven't been keeping up but how is Michigan doing these days, I take it well judging by the excitement of your comment? Here's a stupid question - what's a^2? Ann Arbor?

You will love this, I have been on a serious Grey's Anatomy marathon. I've almost completed all of Season 2 in like 2 days. I really love that show.

Btw, haven't seen you on Google Talk lately, what's up with that?

Ok fine, I won't turn this blog post into an email...Let me add a pic to draw people back in (it's me and Livia - really old pic from a Buffalo Bills game):



So here is a link to pics Kenn took while in Tokyo. There are tons and they load kinda slow on my computer but I think he's gonna decrease the file sizes. Check it out anyway if you want: http://www.inthedesign.com/tokyo06/index.htm

So I am definitely going to Guangzhou China on Thursday and Friday. Timing of the trip kinda sucks because it was last minute so couldn't schedule multiple meetings and at least get a chance to check stuff out. Oh well. My first time in China, should be interesting.

No title

Stumped for a title today. But wow, it's been busy. I had 10 client meetings this past week. Kenn left for home yesterday. He had fun here I think and we had a great time together. It's too bad I couldn't take off more time. Having had him here makes it even harder being in Tokyo now. I'm thinking of coming back to NY for Christmas. Work gives be one more flight home and I plan to take a 2 week vacation next spring so I'm thinking I might as well use the flight to come home for Christmas and New Year's. Would kind of suck spending the holidays alone here.

Guess I will keep myself busy for the next month and a half though. I'm glad I'm having visitors next week. I may have to take a day trip to China (Guangzhou) for a client this week. I will also be going to Taiwan for a few days in December. I suppose Christmas will be here before I know it.

Tokyo has been nice weather. Mostly really sunny and still pretty warm. Winters here are supposed to be pretty mild and I hear pretty sunny most of the time, that should be nice. Looking forward to some snowboarding too, there are plenty of places an hour away and for weekend trips.

The client meetings this week were 'interesting'. They were all in Japanese so of course frustrating for me to just sit there and listen to the same presentation in Japanese 10 times. Then clients ask questions and if my colleagues can't answer them they translate the question for me. A real hoot. And a whole lot of bowing. But in the end we are still making a lot of progresss so things are going well. I'm also noticing I can start to pick up bits of conversation. With limited vocabulary and just trying to make sense in the context of the discussion, you'd be surprised how much you can pick up sometimes.

I'll send a link to pics Kenn took while exploring Tokyo soon. Hope you enjoy(ed) your weekend.

This blog is not dead

Ok, very sorry for the long delay in posting to my blog. I was in fact back in NY for a short trip. Sorry to those of you I did not get to see when I was back :(

Kenn returned to Tokyo with me for a 2 week visit so I have been pretty busy since I've been back. We've been having a blast so far, it's so nice having him here. It's so much more fun exploring with someone else. I unfortunately have to work which sucks. It was tough getting motivated to come back to work. I have to admit that sometimes work is pretty boring. Of course there are exciting aspects to it but I think I am just in "play-mode". I had off last Friday so we took a day trip to Kamakura. It's an area about an hour away by train with a lot of temples and shrines and the Great Buddha (a really tall Buddha statue). I'll be posting a ton of pics soon.

Kenn has been otherwise exploring the city on his own during the day. He's getting around pretty well so far and getting used to the train and the language barrier. He loves the food here too. We have been brave enough to try out some restaurants using the pointing to pictures method. :) We went to Yoyogi Park yesterday, it was beautiful autumn weather. Still warm here actually - I think it was around 70. I mentioned in previous posts that there are usually a bunch of bands playing on the street beside the park. We stumbled upon a dj booth. We bought some Chu-hi which are these delicious flavored alcohol drinks. Kinda like wine coolers but sooo much better. The sell those as well as beer in the park. Japan is strange like that, they would would never do that in NY. We went back to the dj booth and it was a jumpin rave-like party. It was really fun and different. Also something that would never occur in NY anymore.

Ok- more updates to come. I'm getting back on track.

Yea yea

Mets lost.. I don't want to talk about it.

LET'S GO METS!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so excited they just won today's game. On to Game 7!!! I am able to keep up with night games at work by watching play-by-play online on Mets.com but it's a little delayed. Better than nothing. I am sooooo jealous now that my brother is going to Game 7. I had the opportunity to buy post season tix because I bought a 6-Pack this year. I accidently chose Game 7 instead of 6 but it was better seats - Mez seats. If they win, it will be an experience of a lifetime.... Oh WOW! My brother just went online and got World Series TIX!!!! I am freaking out now. I'll get to go. They have to win!! This is too much anxiety for me. 20 years agao the last time they won the WS, I was a kid in love with the Mets -- we are so close now I might have an ulcer.

On a lighter note, I've been reading Cliff Floydd and David Wright's blog, though David hasn't written in it recently. Man, that guy is cute. See adorable pic below. So young. He was talking about how he was a Met fan when he was a kid and how he remembers the 2000 WS before he was in major leagues. I realized he was just 18 in 2000. I remember being in the bars watching the subway series after work. Though I do prefer to block that out of my memory. I named my Mets teddy bear Davey after David Wright. :)

Another earthquake

Yesterday morning there was another earthquake which actually woke me up! It was around 6:40am and I woke up and felt my bed shaking. I wasn't sure if I was dreaming or imagining it but I freaked out and got up into the doorway. I suppose I overreacted, it was about the same level of earthquake as the other one I experienced last time in the office. Enough to feel if you are indoors but you probably wouldn't notice if you were outside. I'm surprised it woke me up though. I did look it up online confirming there was one and some people at dinner later mentioned it also so I definitely wasn't imagining things. I have to admit the whole earthquake thing freaks me out a little. I need to get or make myself an emergency kit just in case.

So Saturday I was psyched to find the Mets game on TV in the morning. They lost the game though. Afterwards I went to the Edo-Tokyo museum. It was pretty cool, they have recreations of the Edo period in intricate models. Pics below don't do it justice. These elaborately created models have binoculars next to the displays where you can examine the scene. When looking at it through binoculars it gives you this really cool feel of being "in" the scene and a great sense of what life might have been like back then. Very educational exhibits and got me learning and thinking about the history and growth of Tokyo. Very enlightening cultural experience. See, I do expand beyond partying at Feria and watching Grey's Anatomy - hehe. On a serious note, there was this whole section about the WWII bombings by America and the destruction it caused. That was pretty uncomfortable and depressing. Did you know they killed some of the animals at the Tokyo zoo because they were afraid that bombings might free some of the animals who would then get loose in the city? Very sad.



Went to a nice group dinner with a bunch of Lauren and Sarah's friends. It was a fun dinner but I had a horrible headache so that ruined it for me. We went to Karaoke afterwards and I was going to go home because my head hurt so bad and then I started to feel nauseous for some reason but I went anyway and felt better after some ginger ale. Karoake was fun, my first karaoke in Tokyo. For those of you not familiar, it's the sit in a room with friends type of karaoke. In Tokyo (or maybe just this place?) it's all you can drink. Sang a bunch of usual group fun songs for 2 hours. Then not surprisingly they wanted to go to Feria again! I dodged out and went home. I stuck to my word and did not go there yet again.

Feeling sorta homesick but I really don't know if it's because I know I am going home soon. Maybe I wouldn't even think about home otherwise but I am sooo looking forward visiting NY. Top items on my list of things to eat: Pizza, bagels, mac & cheese or anything cheese, a huge Amercian beef burger, steak, mash potatoes, mexican, takeout Chinese. Mmmmmm.... I suppose I am looking forward to seeing Kenn, my family and my friends too. ;)

My shows

So I am so excited - I bought a season pass on itunes for Lost and Grey's Anatomy. I was pretty upset that I would be missing my 2 favorite shows when I moved to Japan. Some of you may be saying, why buy Lost when you can watch episodes for free on abc.com but guess what -- you cannot watch those internationally. Yes $35 may seem like a lot but it is sooooo worth it to me. I am a happy camper :) Yes, I am a TV junkie, sue me. Monday night I discovered the ability to purchase and download and new episodes are downloadable throughout the season after they air. Of course on Monday I had to watch every single one I missed so far - the Lost premiere (man, that show is good) and all 3 new Grey's (man, the guys on that show are hot).

So now I have something to watch on weekends. When I come home to visit soon, I will also be bringing back seasons 1 and 2 of Grey's, seasons of Buffy (thanks to a coworker who shall remain unnamed), and as many movies as my brother can burn for me. Hehe. That should last me huh? Well, one rainy (or bad hangover) weekend can probably kill those off pretty quick. Just to keep people feeling sorry for me, you will not believe what I resorted to watching the other day: Junior! Now if you cannot remember what movie this is please go to imdb.com right now and look it up. It's the 1994 Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito movie where Arnold impregnates himself and carries the baby full term. Uh huh. Exactly.

Though every once in awhile I find a gem. Today I got caught up in watching Gattaca which I've never seen before. I thought it was actually a pretty good movie. If it wasn't, then someone must please tell me that I am totally losing my taste in film and TV... Every once in awhile I catch old episodes of Lost, Six Feet Under, American Idol, The OC, or Dawson's Creek - not bad. Oh and Knight Rider!! Gotta love Kit - ha!

Asakusa - Senso-Ji Shrine

Sunday I checked out another neighborhood - Asakusa. The Senso-Ji shrine is there. And also a whole lot of people :) There is a whole shopping row of little booths/shops selling souvenirs and rice crackers and things leading up to the shrine. I like visiting shrines. There is definitely something spiritual about them despite all the tourists. One of the pics below is of a painting on the shrine ceiling.




Here is the fortune I got at the shrine. You pay 100 yen and shake this container of sticks until one comes out. The stick has a number on it and then you match it up to the corresponding drawer with that number and take out a fortune. The English is pretty funny to read, see if you can make sense of it...



I was walking around and saw this shop - an actual official Monchichi shop! Do you guys remember Monchichis?? Now that's a blast from the past.

Asakusa is also known for good tempura so I roamed around trying to find a restaurant for some. Finally found one and ordered a plate of assorted tempura (fish, shrimp and veggies). It was good but I realized eating a whole plate of tempura isn't exactly easy on the stomach. Ha.

I uploaded more photos to my Kodak Gallery link if you're interested.

Ramen

Museum didn't happen yesterday. I ran some errands and walked around the neighborhood a bit. I stopped in a music store and listened to some CDs, I actually bought a CD! I don't think I've bought a CD in over 5 years.

I know I said I would not got back to Feria again soon but I did. I mean what are my choices? Stay home, go out by myself, or go where other people want to go. I am definitely getting old. I get tired now just after a few hours of being out. We had ramen afterwards though. Yummy. Went to this ramen shop where you buy tickets for the ramen and stuff that you want in it from a vending machine. Then you go in and sit at like these single mini booth things (like partitions) and you go at it. Another funny new unique experience for me. :) I had ramen with pork, scallions and a boiled egg.

Love this sign

Here's my first spotting of a strange and interesting English sign in Japan. I took this pic with my camera phone. Guess where I saw this:



It's in multiple language too. This sign was in a public restroom in an office building/mall! The ladies room is the place where police men patrol? Huh? :)
I thought it was kinda funny and waited for everyone to leave to take the pic but some lady walked in and probably was wondering why I had my camera phone out in the bathroom... oh well

Yesterday I was wearing this bright blue button down shirt and walking to work I felt like people were staring at me. Even though I am asian, I often feel like people look at me because I definitely don't look Japanese. I was also thinking, maybe the brightness of my shirt was a little too much for Japan. When I finally got to a seat in the subway car, I looked down and notice that a button in the middle of my shirt was undone! Oops, guess that explained the stares. How embarrassing.

Last night I met up with Sarah and Sophia for a couple drinks and some light food. On my way home, among all the hustle and bustle of people in the street was a guy laying on the ground, passed out, next to his puke, IN THE RAIN! He was sort of off to the side next a building but still. Everyone was just passing him by like it was normal. And to be honest in this area (well a lot of places in Tokyo actually) it is kinda of normal to see drunk people passed out everywhere late night or early morning. Mostly on stoops, park benches, subway stairs.. but many times just in the middle of the street. No one bothers these people, but on the flip side no one checks on them either. Hope that guy in his puke in the rain was ok. I guess it's what you could expect from a culture where social and business drinking is common and also everyone being asian, there's a high incidence of alcohol intolerance.

It's a three day weekend for me. I'm staying in tonight, it's super windy and rainy out (typhoon i think). Think I'm hitting up a museum tomorrow - Salvador Dali exhibit, going out with Sophia and some friends she has in town tomorrow night, and there was talk of dim sum and maybe getting out of the city for some nature.

I am Blog-Ng

Hahaha... I've decided to change the name of my blog. I crack myself up.

I have learned that my own fiance does not regularly read my blog. His excuse is that we talk everyday so he's updated on what's going on with me. In my opinion he is missing out on little details, things I notice, and funny antics. His loss. I'm going to see how long it takes him to read this post and comment. If you know Kenn, ask him when he met Albert Einstein. hehe...



In yesterday's post: "I've noticed a high incidence of bow-legged people here. I wonder if I'm just imagining that." -- well my friend PC sent me this pic (which he actually got off of Sophia's blog):



Apparently I am not imagining it because I also did some online investigating and read references to possibly 70-80% of the Japanese population being bow legged. Mostly women. A lot of theories include wearing kimono shoes, the way they sit as children, it's just in the genes, etc. Interesting. I am very curious about this now.



So I dropped my computer the other day by accident and the #5 key fell off. It still works if you press the little plastic thing that's there but gonna have to get that fixed. The key itself didn't break but there are a few small pieces to it...Oops.

Japan is made up of over 6000 islands

I've been here long enough to finally start to miss home a little. I wouldn't say I'm homesick but when I think about it, the thought of being in NY seems so comfortable. I'm constantly trying to understand, learn, behave appropriately, and search. It would be nice to just "be" sometimes.

Bills: Today I paid my cell phone bill at a convenience store. That is how bills are commonly paid here. Pretty convenient huh? Get your sandwich, juice, and pay your bills all at once.

Food: Did I mention the curry here is delicious? I've had curry and rice 2 days in a row for lunch. Last night I ate pre-packaged sushi for dinner that I bought at a convenience store. It was surprisingly good. I think even better than some I've had at an actual restaurant.

Fashion: I see a lot of skirts worn with leggings on women. Socks that fit with your toes seems to be common also. You know, like a glove for your feet...

Misc: I've noticed a high incidence of bow-legged people here. I wonder if I'm just imagining that.

The elevator got so packed this morning, the overload sign turned on and people had to get out at the next floor. If you have claustrophobia, Tokyo is not for you.

Lazy weekend

I've been slacking on the blog posts again. First to clarify, this is my personal blog and anything I post here may be true, fiction or opinion. I do realize people get fired for posting about work related things in blogs but I choose to express my thoughts here for better or for worse. Besides, I don't think I said anything harmful. And I certainly didn't name any names or even mention my company name. Despite my gripes, I am loving my work. It's keeping me interested and constantly learning.

It was definitely a lazy weekend for me. After 7 weeks of sensory overload it was soooo nice to just lay around at home like a normal person. I do want to make the most of my time in Japan but I can't be on the go all the time. I have plenty more weeks and months to explore, it was time to just live like anyone in Tokyo would and stay home and veg. I organized my apartment a little but mostly slept and relaxed. I did go out for some drinks with Lauren and Sarah again on Saturday night though. We were going to keep it low key but ended up at Feria yet again. No more! I refuse to go back there for at least a few weeks. It really is getting old.

Next weekend is another 3-day weekend here, we have Monday off. It's Sports Day. I have no idea what that means. Maybe I'll go look it up... ok here you go:

Second Monday of October (national holiday)
Health and Sports Day (taiiku no hi):
On that day 1964, the Olympic games of Tokyo were opened.

Work woes

So for the most part, I'd say work is going pretty well. I feel very lucky that I have been given this opportunity. It's very rare I think to have a chance like this. To be sent to another country (a cool one at that!) at no real additional financial expense to me personally. Also for a short period of time with no strings attached or committment beyond a year. Besides the personal experience and gain, from a career standpoint it's a great move for me. To do more sales and business development. To train others and share my knowledge in online research. To learn about business in a new region. To virtually build a new market for our products in the new region....

At the very basic level, I am doing much less day to day operational work and much more strategic work. It's a change of pace which is so nice when you kind of get stuck in the rut of the same day to day work. I am also learning the challenges of doing business in Asia, doing business in Japan specifically, the differences in the online market out here, product pricing, sales technique, and a whole lot of other things.

There are many challenges of course. One I've mentioned already is doing business in Japanese. There is certainly a language barrier and it makes things very difficult when there is a need for translation. I'm also responsible for work in all of Asia Pacific which means it's hard to really get a hold of any one market (though I am concentrating on Japan). Operationally things are still a bit hairy. I am working with the larger company which acquired my company which means we are trying to fit or teach our processes into theirs. Sometimes it really is like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. They are also a much bigger research company so in my opinion, they move so much slower and have more bureaucracy than a smaller company does. That just doesn't work well in the fast-paced online world in my humble opinion.

So the work woe today is that I feel frustrated that I am limited in what I can accomplish given the circumstances. I am working hard and trying to succeed and do well and sell more and make money. The problem is, I don't think they are capable of executing as quickly as I would like. There is a lot of talk and desire for business to pick up and for client interest to grow but realistically someone will have to manage and execute these projects and give clients quality work. I am not confident that they're equipped fully for this yet. I am doing everything I can to help with the project management and client contact and even operational work (which technically I am not responsible for). But I am only here for one year. The time will go by quickly and they will need to learn how to manage these things once I am gone. I also feel bad because one girl here who is a native Japanese speaker gets stuck doing all the translations which I am sure is not glamorous work. Today she was complaining to her boss about it and I can't help but feel bad for her because she has plenty of more important work to do here. I almost wish they could just hire a translator for these things.

So I am not quite sure what I should do, I feel a little stuck. If I continue to push business through and develop clients, my fear is that more work will come in that they can't handle or will handle with poorer quality that it should be. If I don't continue to do what I'm here to do, it's just a waste of my time and company $$.

Well, nice ranting. I'm sure this post was more for my chance to complain than for anyone's reading pleasure. :)

Sometimes I forget

It's so easy to get into a routine and I sometimes forget I am in Tokyo! Being here just over 6 weeks now, I can mindlessly commute to and from work just like I used to in NY. Without thinking, I walk my usual route to the subway station, dodge people, take out my subway pass and stand on the platform exactly where I know the doors will open where I want to get out. The funny thing is also that everything is in Japanese, the announcements and all but I don't even notice it anymore. Even when I am in the office and people are talking on the phone in Japanese, I just tune it all out. It's like background noise to me because I don't understand it so it's just sound. I'm also really used to the fact that most everyone is Asian. I don't even notice that anymore when I walk around. Every once in awhile like last night when I was commuting home, it will hit me. I am in Tokyo! A whole other city in a whole other part of the world....

Another good weekend

Friday night I went to Sarah's birthday party (I met Sarah through Sophia). We went to a really good french restaurant and then to Feria yet again - that's the same club/lounge I've been to 3 times now but it's Sarah's favorite place. I have to start going somewhere new. It's a fun place but getting sick of it. It was also super crowded to the point of annoying but we had fun anyway.

Saturday I met up with Gen again (girl I know from church I used to go to in HS) and Serena's husband. Serena is another girl I knew from back then and her husband Justin was in town for an interview. They may be moving to Tokyo in January. Would be fun to have more familiar people around to hang out with. Anyway, we went to this World Expo thing, it was at a convention center with booths representing different countries trying to get people to travel there. That's how much the Japanese like to travel I guess, they have a whole convention advertising places to go. Gen's friend was in a performance there so that's why we went to it. They had music/dance performances from different countries and her friend was in the one for Jamaica. Afterwards we went to dinner in Shinjuku.

Sunday I met up with my coworker Yuki (she's the one in the middle). She invited me out with some friends of hers that were in town and we went to Yokohama. We ate at Chinatown (which is one of the biggest in the world) and walked by the port/harbor and then over to this mini amusement park area. We rode a couple of their small roller coasters and the giant ferris wheel (kinda like the London eye). It was a goregeous day today, perfect weather. It was really nice walking around today.

A good work week

It's been a fast 4 day work week with tomorrow already being Friday for me. I've also kept myself busy and interested by working on some presentations and gathering information on the online advertising markets in Asia. Had a few good meetings this week also. My meeting today was in Japanese again. It went well but the conversation was so frustrating. Answering client questions about research methodology is already sometimes challenging but having to first understand the interpretation of the question and then responding back which in turn gets translated just doesn't seem efficient at all. This is why it is always best to know the language in the country in which you are doing business in. In this case, we're doing the best we can since I don't think anyone at my company speaks Japanese. Translation is also happening through coworkers which is hard because 1. they are not trained translaters and 2. I feel like there are things I say that I want them to translate but they don't. If I had a real translator that would not be any better because the technical terms for online advertising and explanation of some things really takes at least a little understanding of it. It's not straight translation of words or phrases. All in all we are making a lot of progress and seeing a lot more interest in business than we projected at this point in the year.

Food update. What have I been eating lately? I haven't been cooking much this week. Tokyo has so many "quick food" options like ramen, precooked meals, seaweed wrapped rice balls, etc that it makes eating simple if you want something fast. 2 day example of my diet: Yesterday I had cereal for breakfast (home), curry and naan for lunch (restaurant), and peanut butter and jelly sandwich for dinner (home - thank you DL ppl for sending me the PB - probably Debbi/Michelle/Rachel). Today I had a late breakfast after a client meeting (egg sandwich), small premade salad for lunch (it had potato and egg in it), and precooked noodles and rice ball (bought on the way home). Not very exciting I know.

Think I'm going to crack open a Kirin now and unwind.

Calling all movies

So I am desperate for something to watch in English. As I mentioned my options right now are:
- CNN or BBC News
- Discovery, History or Animal Channels(but all boring shows, none of the good stuff)
- 5-6 random channels with old TV shows or old movies

Last night I actually watched "When a Man Loves a Woman" with Meg Ryan as an alcoholic. And "Ladder 49" with Joaquin Phoenix as a fireman. Ouch, was I desperate or what?

I have not only completed watching every episode of my Sex and the City series collection but I've watched every deleted scene, interview and bonus extra.

I am happy when I find a Felicity episode on or if I am really lucky an old episode of Lost.

I've considered watching Simpsons or Friends in Japanese.

I know I should move on to reading books but I can't help but be a TV bum.

So here is my desperate call for movies... if you have some spare time or spare movies, please feel free to mail me some dvds. I'm not asking for originals, burned copies are fine. :) I'll watch action, drama, comedy, romance, cartoons, foreign with english subtitles, copies of TV episodes - basically anything in English.

My mailing address should in the farewell email I sent with all my contact info. If you need it again, email me and I'll forward it.

Thanks!

Mori Art Museum

I forgot to mention that when I was in Ginza on Saturday I stopped in the Sony building to check out the showroom. There were some really cool laptops and awesome flat screen high def TVs.

Cloudy and gloomy today and I thought it was going to rain so I didn't take a day trip anywhere. Decided to walk over to Roppongi Hills again and check out the Mori Art Museum. Same building where I saw the Pixar exhibit the weekend I first got here. They have rotating exhibits so this time there were paintings and sculptures from The Cleveland Museum of Art's Monet to Picasso collection. Very nice. There are also other galleries so I saw a BMW Heritage exhibit that had vintage BMWs. Gorgeous pieces of machinery. And I stumbled into some weird exhibit that had some handbag theme and was all these random pictures, short films, and things. I didn't get it. Also in that building is the Tokyo City View. Panoramic views of the city from the 52nd floor. Though it was cloudy, it did get bright enough to see decent views. After awhile I got dizzy looking out those floor to city windows. I ended my afternoon excursion eating at a conveyor belt sushi place.

Btw, if you have my Kodak gallery link, I uploaded this weekend's new pics.