Tokyo Day 2

The morning started off with a splash! After a nice breakfast buffet, we headed out to the fish market. We scoped out the different styles of fish and it's packaging and marketing to consumers, like the raw tuna served up in a oyster shell that we tried. We arrived at one restaurant right as an R2-D2 looking vehicle drove up to deliver a 140lb tuna, along with sword-length knives to be used for quartering and carving the massive catch. Many restaurants use those catches as events to draw crowds to their tables, so we got to watch the show! Fish, I learned, is much easier to cut when it is frozen. That being said, it still took long, sharp blades and two men to carve through the biggest sections of this tuna!

We got back to the car, which it is worth noting was a “Century” brand with a V12 engine. This is a Japanese car company that is not mass-produced but is only manufactured to order in Japan.

Lunch was at a traditional rice pot restaurant. This type of meal is rice cooked in a traditional style pot along with several other ingredients: shrimp, fish, vegetables, mushrooms, and chicken was included in our dish.  

After lunch we walked through a neat shopping alley and picked out a few souvenirs. Then we went into a Buddhist temple, which we learned is primarily for honoring spirits of ancestors. We also went next door and visited a Shinto shrine, which is for honoring the natural world. Both religious sites coexist next to each other because the Japanese culture accepts and values each equally. I commented to our tour guide that many other religious groups would do well to learn that type of tolerance and acceptance of religions other than their own.

We walked through a trendy pedestrian street lined with restaurants on our way to dinner. Our guide pointed out a fish tank in one restaurant’s window and explained it contained a type of fish which has organs that are poisonous to humans, so the chef that prepares it must have a special license. I was glad that was not on the menu for us! Instead, we would be helping prepare our own meal at the private kitchen of a Michelin-star chef.

The menu: Kobe beef. Anthony was in heaven to be able to learn hands on from a chef of that caliber, and Simon and I both enjoy cooking so we were excited. First the chef walked us through the creation and beautiful presentation of a few appetizers, and explained why he chose particular ingredients, and the way in which to prepare those ingredients. 

There is a lot of legend and lore about Kobe beef. I’m not sure how much of it is true, but what I do know is the beef was so tender that we could actually cut through it with our wooden chopsticks. Because it is so tender and has about an 85% lean meat ratio, the taste is almost too rich for me. Just almost J 

We finished with a dessert of fruit covered in whipped cream, topped with finely-grated chestnuts. Although I’m quite biased towards chocolate, the dessert was quite nice and I ended up finishing Simon’s. 

After that fine meal, and bowing to our gracious hosts, we walked around Tokyo for a bit before retiring back to the hotel, where Simon was overjoyed to play Pokemon Mahjang with us. The instructions and pieces were all in Japanese, but we think we figured out the proper way to play. The champion and reigning Pokemon Master was, of course, Simon!

Continue to Tokyo Day 3 here.

Tokyo Day 1

I arrived just after lunch, and after a short bus ride I met up with my travel companions for the week, whom informed me that we were headed to the amusement park. Straight off the airplane and straight onto the roller coaster! The ride we took was a lot of fun and had a massive drop. I hope to transition from more of my future flights this way!

My travel companions are: Anthony, my best bud in Asia. He was the first person I met in Nanjing three years ago (he’d actually interviewed me for the job there as well) and we’ve been close ever since. We’ve traveled to Hong Kong and South Korea together prior to Japan.

Companions two is Simon, twelve years old. Simon is the youngest son of Anthony’s employer, a Swedish family living in Hong Kong. Anthony works exclusively as their personal chef, but Anthony has such a warm and caring personality that he has really become part of the family. The family keeps such a busy schedule between work and different travel arrangements around the world (they are in New York right now) that they occasionally ask Anthony to take family members on travel experiences. Having Simon along on this trip will be fun and entertaining on a different level, something I can appreciate more knowing that my brother will have those experiences as a father down the line. Traveling with a kid provides all kinds of youthful, innocent experiences like questions posed such as: “If you could choose between a house boat or a house on land, and all the food is taken care of, which would you choose?”

Speaking of food, we had a nice, traditional Japanese meal for dinner. The restaurant requires guests to take off shoes, and the tables are kind of sunken into the floor, so you literally step down to your table. This is because of their culture of service here, so the waiter/waitress who attends your table can kneel on the floor next to you. The service here is definitely at an entirely different level!

We also walked through a main electronics street mall at night, and that provided some interesting photos.

 

Continue to Day 2 in Tokyo here.

Moments in China

Just wanted to share a few interesting sightings from my continued adventure in China this week.

1) This is perhaps one of the saddest signs I've ever seen:

It was posted inside a subway station, which is normally not a quiet place as it is, anyway...

2) The street names here can be rather poetic with names such as "Sleeping Dragon Highway" and "Beauty Water Street". A new favorite that I just discovered the other day is: 天钥桥路 which translates literally to: "Sky Key Bridge Road," though I think it could be translated with more literary flare to be: "The Key to Heaven Bridge." Now a street name like that makes the morning commute feel a bit different, doesn't it?

Swanky New Penthouse

OK, that title might be a bit deceiving. I moved into a nice apartment, but it is far from swanky, and is definitely not a penthouse. It is, however, comfortable, affordable, has more storage space than I know what to do with, and features a couch with a pull-out mattress for guests! Have a look at the pictures and let me know when you'll be visiting--I am taking reservations for couch space now!

The apartment is about 600 square feet, which can be summed up in about 6 pictures:

1) Here is my best attempt at making my bed. More important: the killer sliding closet doors. I kept them closed for the viewers' safety, because this closet is armed to the teeth with nifty closet organizers and space savers! I think I have more places to hang my hangers than I have actual hangers!

2) The other half of my bedroom:

3) A partial view of the bathroom and the transparent shower doors:

4) Here is where the "food magic" takes place:

5) My couch space / home office and workout center:

6) The entertainment center. I have yet to turn on the Smart TV, preferring for the books on the right instead!

My neighborhood is one of the trendiest areas of Shanghai and is full of expats. I am lucky to have lots of nice international restaurants and supermarkets within walking distance. There is also a gym down the street with reasonable prices, and since my apartment is on the 6th floor with no elevator, I get some exercise every day anyway!

If living abroad has taught me anything, it's that travel is best shared with family and friends, so I hope these photos will entice some of you to come visit!

Shanghai Easter

Some cute, artistic Easter displays around town. The message of this holiday in China seems to be pretty clear: go shopping!!

New Beginnings

April 8, 2014

Just over 27 years ago, I entered the world and was followed up by my twin brother, Ryan. Now, 27 years later, this day marks some pivotal new beginnings. At 9:48pm, Rocky Mountain Time, Ryan and his lovely wife, Jill, welcomed into the world their own little girl, Rylee.

That very same day (Beijing time zone) marked my own beginning in that I received the official, approved documents and starter kit for my new business, freshly registered in Hong Kong. The starter kit came with an official company stamp, seal, and several copies of the paper work, packed away in a very legal looking box. 

Just look at the size of this kit compared to some of my heavy reading materials!

My package was delivered by a mail man on a scooter bike; my brother’s and his wife’s package came by way of stork delivery, and while the deliveries weigh about the same 6 pounds, 9 ounces), the Rylee package is entirely more adorable!!

Congrats to Ryan and Jill, and welcome baby Rylee!

Disney Land Hong Kong

My family and I were lucky enough to visit Disney Land and Disney World in the US, so I decided to try and relive some of the magic at Disney Land Hong Kong. There was certainly no shortage of magic, and all of my favorite Disney movie memories came back to me, like Tarzan swinging through the jungle of my mind. 

Still the experience was not quite the same. Beyond the obvious differences—my age, being without family on this trip, the Disney characters speaking in Cantonese—I noted a few other interesting differences for the destination being localized to China. The snack selection at the food carts can perhaps give readers a taste of this point:

Thinking back to my childhood trips, I remember the family coverage scheme that mom and dad had to run at Disney: since my folks had to manage three of us who were tall enough for the more adventurous rides, dad took us off to those, while mom had lil’ sis duty for the more gentle rides. (sorry you both missed out on the roller coasters!) This was not as significant a factor in Hong Kong, because I noticed most families (at least the large amount of those visiting from mainland China) have only one child, so the younger children’s rides had long lines, but the rides I sought out did not have a large presence of the older sibling demographic. These lines had young couples or young professionals on holidays, mostly. So I made it through most of the rides I was interested in without too much of a wait time, and the rides were definitely worth it!