Snowboarding pics

I have sent a Kodak Gallery link to all our snowboarding pics to many of you reading this blog. If you don't get it and wanna see the pics, let me know :)
As I wrote about in the last post, our first snowboarding trip of the season and in Japan was awesome. I can't believe what good snow and good riding there is so close to Tokyo. It's possible to day trip to Naeba/Kagura as well and many people do that. There is also some messenger service that someone told us about that delivers your snowboard for you. We might try to do that next time. We did manage ok with our bags. Kenn carried the big snowboard bag with both our snowboards and boots. I hauled the rolly bag with the rest of our clothes and gear. It wasn't bad but as you can imagine the last leg on the subway home was tiring.

So this first pic is of our room in the Ryokan-type Japanese accomodation. It wasn't really a full Ryokan (no food or Onsen), just a cheap room. We named it the "Ice Box" - enough said. Minimal, which is totally fine by us, but it was just too darn cold.



Connecting Mt. Naeba and Mt. Kagura (for same all access lift ticket price) is the longest Gondola in the world they call the "Dragondola". It was pretty long, maybe 15 minutes? It went up and down through the mountains, valleys, trees. We even saw monkeys!



This next pic is night skiing/riding at Mt Naeba Asagai Snowboard Park. This was situated about a 10 minute walk from the main mountain and where the Snodeck bar is. We were planning to ride here on Sunday but didn't this time because we were too exhausted. Trying to hit some jumps, rails or boxes at that point would have been a bad idea. (Not that I do jumps and rails but I wanted to try some easy ones).



Breakfast of Champions! We had steamed pork buns, croquettes, and coffee at the base of the snowboard park. Typical Japanese style, you pay at the vending machine which dishes out food tickets that you hand to the people behind the counter. The second morning, we had a bowl of rice and salmon! Mmmmm mmmmm..... :)



As you can see, lots of powdery snow and mountains. We had a great time and look forward to our next trip!

Tons of new pics!

I forgot to mention yesterday that Kenn and I were woken up around 3:30am by an Earthquake! Kenn's first in Tokyo. Just the usual little rumble but very noticable when lying still. Still think they are totally freaky....

First pics taken from my brand new camera that Kenn got me for Christmas! Enjoy!

Here is the fruit centerpiece I bought for Christmas dessert for my family. It was a big hit!


My parents, my brother Greg, and my grandmother (dad's mom):


The Suhu's: My aunt Helen, cousin Kristen, grandparents (mom's dad and stepmom), my uncle Ging (my mom's bro), cousin Matt's fiancee Grace, cousin Matt, and my other uncle Lewis (my mom's youngest bro / Helen's husband):


Livia and her boyfriend (hehe):


My good friends Christina and John (they live in London and are tons of fun!):


New Year's 2007:



Catching up with good friends:






Since my friend John didn't make any of the pics, I'm adding a random one of him from Aruba:)

Mt. Naeba and Kagura

Kenn and I had a fun time on Thursday night at Departure Lounge. Music was pretty good and of course Kenn danced the night away. We were pretty slow on Friday but got all packed up for or snowboarding trip and went to get some Udon. Kenn looks like he's going to fall into the bowl :)


We took the high speed train to the Mt Naeba & Kagura resort area a little up north. High speed train takes 77 minutes. We were staying at the Mt. Naeba area so had to take the bus from the train station about 40 mins. All in all literally door to door was about 3 hours. Such great snowbarding so close to Tokyo!! It snowed the days we were there. We rode on powder and it was really great riding. The mountains are huge, there are tons of trails and tons of lifts. A ridiculous amount of lifts actually. I don't know if it was a slow weekend but there was virtualy no waiting. We rode almost a different trail every single time! We took the longest Gondola ride in the world (they call it the 'Dragonola') to the Kagura mountain side on Saturday. It was so powdery that it was almost too difficult to ride in the flat areas and I kept getting stuck. The temperature wasn't too cold either. They even sell 2 hour or 4 hour lift tickets so we rode on Sunday for a few hours too. Prices are so much cheaper than lift tickets in the Northeast US - equivalent to $45 for all access to all mountains. And the conditions were so much better, it really was a fantastic trip!



We stayed on the Naeba side because we wanted to go to this bar called Snodeck. A very international bar at the base of the snowboard park. Cool people, good pizza and fun, chill place. The rest of the town is pretty dead and that was pretty much the only happening place in town, some weekends they have live djs. The owner/manager also runs a small ryokan-type accomodation. Dirt cheap but it really was the just basics if that. It's about $25 per person per night and you get a room with futons


a space heater


on tatami mats


(I'll post actual pics soon)

There was a small tv (all japanese channels), clean sheets and towels but shared bathrooms. Let's just say we roughed it for a few nights. It was convenient because it's right across the street from the Snodeck bar. But it was absolutely freezing in the room, the only heat is from the space heaters so needless to say we will not be staying there again. We went traditional this one time but it's not like we can't afford a regular hotel so think we will treat ourselves from now on. ;)

It was a great weekend and now that we've learned a lot about how to get there, the mountain, accomodations and everything, we wonder if we should go back or try a whole new mountain... Guess we'll see, there's plenty of snow in Japan to explore!

Lost

Kenn and I are now starting on the first season of Lost. Just a few more weeks until the new episodes start up again. And tonight the new episodes of Grey's start.

Tonight we might go to this lounge that one of Kenn's DJ friend's friend is spinning at. He got us on the guestlist. Yay, I have a buddy to go out with in Tokyo!

I think I might work from home tomorrow. Steven is out and we have no projects we're really working on at the moment. Once he has more free time we can start to get back in touch with clients again. I would do it myself but it requires emailing in Japanese. In the meantime I will keep busy with updates and a new training deck I'm working on. No reason why that can't be accomplished from home now is there?

Land of the Rising Sun

Days are short in Tokyo this time of year. Sun rises just before 7am and sets around 5pm. In the summer I could swear it was bright at like 5am. From the view from our apt the sun rises behind the Tokyo tower, it's nice. It is super bright in Tokyo in the winter. It's sunny most of the time nowadays. Views of Mt Fuji from tall buildings including our office here are clear, it's a gorgeous mountain.

Kenn and I are planning to try to do a snowboarding trip this weekend. Either a day trip or spend one night. The closest mountains are only like an hour to an hour and a half away. We're just trying to figure out the details of how to get there and all that now. Excited for some snowbarding in Japan!


We have been cooking and eating in. It's so simple to make easy meals like stir frys. The rice comes out perfect a a little sticky, yummy. They have lots of sauce packets that you can choose from for different flavored seasonings. Add veggies and chicken or tofu and whip up a delicious healthy meal.

Work has been dull. Only the second day back though. I've been catching up on all my industry news and reading so much about advertising, marketing and the internet has gotten me bored. Just seems so unimportant to anything that really matters in life. I wish I had a fun craft or cool skill that I can apply to a useful job or at least something I was really passionate about. Don't get me wrong, I am passionate about my job and I am really interested in all this internet crap but when it comes down to it, I don't really believe I am really contributing much that's meaningful to society... I think I need to get back to doing some volunteer work. It's been a few years since I was last really involved in something.

Kenn and I have completed watching Seasons 1 and 2 of Entourage that my brother gave us for Christmas. We also watched one of the movies Kenn's brother gave us - Nacho Libre. TV in English has been uninteresting lately so I imageine we are going to burn through the plethora of DVDs we have.

Blog-Ng in 2007

Back in Tokyo!

Kenn and I arrived safely to Tokyo and managed to get all our bags back to the apartment without a tremendous amount of hassle. We unpacked and organized and are having an absolutely wonderful time so far living together. :) It's only been a few days of this honeymoon phase and I've been joking that only one of us is going to make it back to NY alive. hahaha...

We've had jet lag all weekend but managed to get out Monday (I had off for a Japanese holiday) and walked all the way to Shibuya. Weather is hovering around 50F and it's pretty sunny all the time here in the winter. We've been hitting the gym and trying to get back in shape. Personally, the last 2 weeks being home I've indulged in all the food I wanted and missed and noticably gained at least 5 pounds. Back to the Japanese diet, small portions, and exercise.

It was really nice to be home in NY and I did manage to see most people I wanted to catch up with. It was such a busy 2 weeks though running around. Some highlights: Christmas with family, I got to spend some time chatting with coworkers in NY, I had a great afternoon hanging with my mom, nice lunch with my parents, caught up with some friends I knew from church in HS and all their kids (5 kids between 2 couples that are all 31 and under!), rang in the new year with Livia and her cousin, a wonderful dinner with old friends from elementary school, watching the Michigan game with my brother & Caroline & Livia, lunch with an old coworker, and fun dinners/drinks with all my closest friends. I'll miss everyone, especially those I won't see again until next summer!

Kenn got me a great new digital camera for Christmas so now I don't have to be embarrassed of my camera in Japan anymore. hehe. I will post pics soon.

John, if you are reading, stay tuned for the Ode to John blog post. ;)

Happy New Year everyone!! May you have a healthy and prosperous one!

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.