Do Not Get Joey Angry

Water fight in the BBQ party. I guess I was half drunk and got really angry that someone poured the whole bucket of icy cold water from my head. I was soaking wet from head to toe. Furious but couldn't find the proper containers (bottles, cups, too small to show my determination of revenge). I lifted up the plastic pool, used all strength as I might, chased the guy who was responsible.
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We skated for 3 hours from Shinagawa station to the seaside park near Haneda airport. Too many people and you have to watch very carefully where the foods are coming from, otherwise there is no beef. Playing too hard to notice that the sun was really strong, I went home with burned shoulders and heavy head (too much alcohol is not very good for you on Sunday afternoon).

Sleepy Head on My Shoulder

I have not felt so sleepy for years. I was trapped in a meeting, sitting next to the translator, the topic was the integration test plan. Oh well, I was struggling trying to keep myself staying awake but my attention drifted constantly into the flurry eternity. Trying to wake myself up by reading the handout to no avail. It is so interesting what a meeting can do to you.

If Romeo is a Middle Age Man

He carefully weights what is the benefit to play this suicidal plot. Would he be able to leaverage this threat so he can get more supporters from his family or even holding Juliet as hostage so her family would give him a hefty ransom in order to keep him away from their innocent, pretty daughter?

Romeo not only wants the wealth but also is very careful about his reputation. However, playing suicide with a teenage girl doesn't give him a very good name. People would think how could a sophisticated middle age man be crazy like a testosterone-filled, sex-drive-everthing youngster? There must be something fishy about him. This certainly impedes his chance of landing another woman in the future, or getting an important position in this community (oh well, guess not many places are like France).

Unsurprisingly, he successfully convinced Juliet that he loves her but he cannot participate in this plan. He married to a woman whose profile helps him to climb higher in the social ladder and regularly meets up Juliet who also married to a guy her family arranged.

The sad thing is that everyone thinks the arrangement is the best they can have, and thank god no one died.

Life in the Undergrowth

Isn't she beautiful?

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I first watched the series when in London and my jaw dropped for one whole hour. I am always fasinated by BBC's high quality TV drama, documentary and news (there was a series about cosmetic surgery, have seen some scene that American audience would not even dream in their wildest dream, that deserved another blog). The cinematography (uh... there is no script) and music were definitely at the top of the game.

That episode, invasion of the land, has the scene about slugs. A slug is both male and female, however, it has to receive another slut's sperm to be impregnated. They move slowly and gracefully, tangled by each other while hanging by their slimy fluid from the tree bark. The reproductive organ sprung from the back of their heads, transparent and moist. Again, those interwinded elegantly while both of their bodies swirling, rotating in slow motion. Wow, this is almost as sensual as porn.

David Attenborough is another reason why the series is so successful. Born in 1926, it is amazing that he was close to 80's when making these series. You can feel his passion toward these beautiful creatures. He's passionate but subtle, he acts but not to the degree you feel annoyed or embarrassed for him. The dull science suddenly becomes so mysterious that you want to know more about it. That's what a great educator should be.

Okutama Hike

Before rushing out to take the train, I quickly grab the rain coat without really thinking why. I paddled like a mania to Tokyo station, from waking up to jumping into the rapid service to Shinjuku station, 25 minutes. That's really the best I have ever achieved these years.

The hike was pleasant despite our tendency of losing our way (struggled for 1 and half hour before getting the entrance to the 10 km trek). Things were nice until it rained. The rain came abruptly and we were all soaking wet. I tried my best to stay dried under my raincoat. At the same time, scolding everyeone who didn't listen to me preparing for the rain. Though I am worried very much about my hiking mates. Gee, do not go back to the office again saying that you are injured or catch a cold, I am already famous in hurting people while taking them out for rock climbing, sea swimming or hiking.

Save Water and the Earth

I am getting more interested in thinking of ways to preserve water resource (at least in my household). The only thing I can do right now is to use the waste water to flush my toilet. My little bath bucket has become my best friend recently. After coming back from work, I wash my face and catch a bucket of water, good to use for flushing the toilet later. The shower in the morning is the great time to collect a couple of buckets to flush and wash the toilet. When washing veggies in the kitchen, the waste water is saved, then down the toilet. It feels nice to be able to contribute a tiny bit in saving the planet.

Snail on Lettuce

This book cover is really classic.
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Mentioned more than once before that living along is a great place to develop certain habbits. One of those is to remember what object is supposed to be where the last time I place them. I think this sprung from my insecurity and wariness about my space being intruded or altered without my knowledge (I remember reading Stephen King's Misery, the crazy nurse, Annie, would skillfully placed her hair on floor so that if the poor captive, Paul, came out of his room by unlocking the door with a hairpin, she knew!).

I even remember how my books are arranged or whether the toilet seat cover is up or down (I pull it up to scrub the bow every morning, it is not like I can do my business standing up). I meticulously make sure my kitchen is clean, everything is in order, including my fridge.

One morning I took out the juicer jar from the fridge in which contianed the processed veggies prepared the night before. Thought it was only a second, my corner eyesigt caught something unusual was lying on the floor of the fridge divider. It looks like a small streak of tea leaf but I quickly dismissed the idea because I am quite sure that I washed my thermo thoroughly last night. That's a foregin object that wasn't registered in my brain.

That's a tiny slug! I picked it up and carefully put it on the celery leaf, place it on top of my speaker box. Thinking it would be quite cool if I have a slut as a pet. I then start to get worried that maybe I have blended quite a few its friends in my morning veggie juice. Unfortunately, the tiny slug dried and died with the leaves when I returned from work. I guess I am no good in having any pets.

Derman

After reading "Trader, Guns and Money", "My Life as a Quant" was the living proof of Amazon's business model. I ordered this book simply because it says "People who possess Das' book also bought it". Shopping online for books though hard to replace the joy of finding a good read in bookstores, I still reward myself of new books every months by ordering from Amazon Japan (their English books are usually 10% less than Kinokuniya or Maruzen).

Derman implemented the famous BDT (Black-Derman-Toy) model for bond option valuaiton. Not consider myself a hardcored Financial Engineer, but I am very curious about how the serious academic transit, adopt and perform in the dog-eat-dog investment banks. Almost finishing the book, quite interesting in reading it as if it is a story since the stories, names, mathmatical equation and concepts are so familar. Even the experience of jumping ships (transfer from one company to another) is damn similar.

I am not sure what Derman is doing now, given a chance in particle physics academia research, would he ever wanted to end up in Wall Street? Or would he surrender to the reality and money?

The Buddhist Saying

All pain and stresses are originated from our desire. When unable to satisfy our desire, pain and anxiety arose.

Earthquake

I finished an episode of the life in the undergrowth. It is about insects relying ont each other in the game of survival. The grey blue butterfly's lavas give out the same smells like ant's lava. The ants dutifully clean and feed them, in despite their twice of the size and different colour. As I was surprised by the cleverness of the lavas, the wasp ran into the ant's nest and release a sort of hormon which makes ants to fight each other. During the chaos, the wasp found the butterfly's lavas and lay one egg in each of them. Damn, the line of incident has more twists than most of the movies I have seen recently.

I surroundered to the hot and humid summer night in Tokyo and finally switch on my air condition. I lay in my bed, enjoying the dry and cool air. As I turned to my side, my bed was shaking violently. I was thinking oh gee, my bed is really not strong enough or I am too heavy. Only a couple of seconds later then I realized it the earthquake. Wondering what could happen if the building collapses, I fell asleep again.

Concussion

The conversation I had last night with my dad (he finally learnt how to use MSN, the best way to catch his daughter)
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我是廖爸 says:
坤兒
Joey says:
你會上網了哦
Joey says:
你好嗎?
我是廖爸 says:
我前天晚上和孫子打球摔倒撞到桌角，右耳骨斷了，有腦震盪，入三總急診，今天會走路了。
我是廖爸 says:
老爸要睡覺了。
Joey says:
那真是太可怕了
Joey says:
好好睡
Joey says:
明天就會好了
Joey says:
保重
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My dad was playing throwing balls with my 10 month old nephew and XiaoHo after dinner, XiaoHo threw the ball high up in the air and my dad jumped up, trying to strike the ball with his head. He landed on top of another ball and fall, his head smashed the table, broke his left ear bond and had minor concussion. He was driven to the emergency room and had stitches.

Amazing that he learned how to MSN me to complain his condition after the tragedy.

28 Celcius

Most offices in Japan are obsessive with economical living. Our project room temperature was set to be 28 degree, most foreiners (including westerners and indians) cannot tolerate it. But amazingly that most Japanese are OK with it, some girls even need to put on the shawl. Anyhow, our project manager can no longer being bullied by this temperature, she wrote to the top guy in the bank management and complained. A couple minutes after the email was sent, the admin guy came up to adjust the temperature (the thermometer is locked).

We now enjoy the 26 degree air. The bank manager came to the project room with a fan, fanning, dressed in shirt and tie, "Are you feeling better now?" He said "Our floor is still 28 degree".

Vegetarian and Stability

I agonize everytime going out dinner with our Indian colleagues. They are not carnivorous, some of the Jain cast are even not allowed to eat anything grows underneath the ground (thus, potatoes and carrots are banned). Not all of them can drink alcohol. Musilum collegaues cannot take anything that's not halal. They are so used to the strong flavor and spice-filled foods. Tokyo foods which mainly focusing the delicated taste and original flavor of food ingredients is like drinking tab water for them. Sitting in a Japanese restaurant, they can only drink bland water and eat Salad. Even the salad dressing is not interesting, they require salt on top of the grounded daikon soy sauce.

Things are not any better if going to western style restaurant, they can only eat french fries (I didn't want to tell them that the oil might be made out of animal fat). Dining with them is like seeing them being tortured in an interrogation room. Not only that, they have to pretend things are fine to be polite with us.

However, I think that's the only way that India can sustains 9 billion of population with a large percentage of vegetarians. Ever since Chinese economic starts to pick up speed, the demands of seafood and meat has gone up hugely, the rich Chinese's stomach is like the blackhole sucking in all expensive delicacies that used to be consumed by Chinese other than Mainlanders. Resources are eaten away in a faster pace. It is truely worrisome, and perhaps it is a good idea to be a vegetarian. I guess I should pay my vegetarian colleagues more respect.

GString san in France

This is too funny not to post on my blog.

90210 - Akagawa Version

Temperature 32 Celcius, Humidity 86%, we bladed for 20 km from 10 to 1, I am very much like a cooked shrimp toward the end of the day.



There is nothing better than a pint of icy cold beer after 4 hours under the beating sun.

PS. 90210 is the TV drama very popular in my university days. That's the story about a group of rich (and pretty) kids in high school in California. The plot is always evolving around who is sleeping with whom until all possible permutations and combinations are exhausted.
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I rollerstaked slowly back to where we started this morning with L. It was around 3pm we set out our run, it is getting cloudy but still quite humid. Along the way, L was telling me about his difficult divoice process with his Japanese wife (L is from New York, very eccentric New Yorker). As I couldn't really say anything then he quickly jumped into a story that he is seeing another woman. Though he makes it clear that he eventually want to get back to his wife to this woman. They sat down, they talked, and the woman cried.

I asked, why are you seeing another woman if you try everything you can to get back to your wife. L said that I need companionship, I am only looking for short-term relationship. Yeah, damn you complaining that you cannot find anyone who wants to fill in your vaccume. No sympathy, and I curse you never ever be able to be back with your wife.

However, I am very entertained by all these stories. He is rivaling with another skating over a girl. The other skater had huge crush on her (a single monther of an 13 year old who moved to Tokyo and left her husband in Osaka). The other skater has a wife and just being promoted into grand father recently. I was really really amused. The other skater is the second to the leader of our skating group (the amount of politics in this seemingly naive weekly activities was also amazing). He is ultra nice to the girl that everyone can see. And he became hostile to those men who approached her. Ha ha ha ha ha ha, this piece of juicy gossip really made my day.

Strange Characters

I always think that I am quite a strange character comparing to my peer. However, as I grow olders, I have met more and more weird, quirky, eccentric people around me, then I come a realization that I am actually quite normal. Chatting with a friend in a train about Miyazaki Haoyo's work. I am a super fan of his work, I like his crazy and fancy idea about flying, imagination of the world after the 3rd world war, huge insect like beasts who suffered from the pollution. My friend alleged that he doesn't like any of his work because he simply felt scared by it. He doesn't like the idea that some human beings can turn into pigs (spirited away) and he hates the ugly-looking giganic cockroaches roaming around (village of wind). Grown up in Japan, he's never watched Ultra man because he is afraid of the beasts and Gozilla. Even til now, he cannot take those movies because it gives him creeps and nightmares.

Life should be safe and peaceful, he claimed, those movies which depict things cannot be normal in everyday life is not his cup of tea because it raised his anxiety and nervousness level. I am very amazed. Isn't that's why movie is movie? Movie makers create the world and situation that cannot be seemed in reality, it brings us an experience that we cannot easily obtained via our every-day life. Through movies, you can see the world from others viewpoint and, perhaps, understand what makes of this world a bit better. However, this doesn't interest my friend at all.

I am reading James Oliver's Affluenza (painfully repetitive, I think Oliver' failed to pinpoint the cause and outcome of "keeping up with Jonses" phenomenon sweeping of English Speaking world). Distress and anxiety are not middle-class's specialty, everyone has to some degree crooked mind and dark side of emotion. Oliver's stressed too much about why the multi-millionare screwed different woman every night is also a drug addict and bored all the time. (To be honest, that's the most interesting topic in the book to me). People with weak mind and low self esteem would have problems no matter which class they are in.

However, the down side of reading this book is that I started to trying to analyzing why my friend is so strange. Marketing Character syndrom?

Hot and Humid Summer

Though the rainy season, we had a very sunny weekend. We set out for a hike in somewhere north of Ikebukuro, but some friends missed the train, while waiting for them to catch up in a station, we decided last minute change to hike in a nearby route. The map we picked up from the very station looks very interesting.

The route is near the river, after a hard walk across the small town. The sun was beating down on us and the humidity is so unbearable. However, the map lead us walk away the river, we placed our trust heavity into it, and followed the instruction religiously. We continued walking along a unknown road hoping to see a nice, beautiful trail at every turn. However, it never turned up, we ended up walking in the heat for almost 2 hours for nothing. We were lost!

Feeling unjustified not to see anything pretty after setting out for a hike, we boarded on a bus and headed toward west and ended up in Okutama mountain. It was raining hard after we reached the top by bus. Things don't seem running in our favor the whole day.

Our luck finally stroke, the rain stopped and we were able to have lunch peacefully sitting next to the Okutama lake. The air was refreshed and mountains looked greener after the rain.

Very Nice Police Officer

Party again in the Buba Gump restaurant in Korakuen.

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It was a sunny Friday afternoon that we decided to leave the project room early for a farewell party in the Korakuen, which is only 4 stations away from Marunouchi. The project room temperature was set to 28 celcius (which is close to 82F). Everyone has a small fan. We needed to fight to get the temperature is set to 26 in our project room. Anyhow, in the sunny afternoon on Friday, this temperature still felt a bit too high.

I decided to bike to the restaurant without checking the map, I was biking purely based on my intuition. It is only natural that I found myself in a place that I don't know. It was hot and humid, I was already sweating lots and reeking.

Very much reluctant to ask for help, I had no choice but bike to the small police station, Koban, nearby. "Juodo Sumimashen!", I tried my Japanese to the best of my ability to ask for direction toward Tokyo Dome. The 2 police men obviously not very busy, the middle-age one didn't reply my inquiry but rather examing my bike. I thought he is going to ask me for my bike registration which I don't really have. Instead, he pressed down the rear tire and exclaimed my tire is so flat. He squated down and removed the plug and the air soon all released. I was like, shit, a soft tire is better than a flat one. He replaced the piece of rubber inside the plug. I felt very obliged and also squarted down to see how he fixed my bicycle and kept nodding my head when he spoke. He signaled the young police man to bring out the air pump and started pumping up the tire. Wow, what a service.

After the rear tire, the front tire, he was fixing. The young police man chatted me with limited English and me replying with my limited Japanese. "Last year October came Japan", "Japanese study little", "Korakuen Company Party go". Finally got the direction and waved them goodbye, I continued my quest to Buba Gump with 4 mosquito bites.

What are They Doing There?

Sorry, there is no picture provided because I really do not know what is going on in the 9 sqrt feet space.

I still continue my loud pee protest in any toilet in Tokyo. I refuse to use the "sound queen" to play the flushing sound in order to disguising my peeing noise. I pee as loud as I can in train station, office, client site or restaurant. What is the point of covering your sound of having a relief? Everyone makes sound when peeing, do you think if you cover the sound, no one is going to realise that you are peeing in the toilet? Phony. I cannot stand it. Of course I am not saying that I am OK with Mainland China ladies who can pee in public, but I think Japanese ladies have taken this resentment of we are all human and we need to pee and poo into an annoying level.

The other thing I cannot tolerate is that those delicated, cute Japanese ladies spend very very long time in the small space. The flushing sounds continue, what are they doing there? Washing themselves or pick their noses? There is always a long queue in the ladies room around noon time, which makes me angry.

Crystal Skull like Cheap Plastic from 100Yen Shop

I am not sure what it is making me so disappointed about the latest Indiana Jones movie. Maybe I have read too many Chinese advantures exploring the ancient tombs. The writing is so good that the protagonists are so vivid, as if he is your next door neighbour. The author has very good knowledge of old Chinese customs, fairy tales, folk legends. A bigger suspicision was elaborated on top of those facts or stories we have known before. Damn, so hard to tell whether it true or fictional.

There are so many mind games the tomb designers played with the tomb thefts. Some planted the arrows inside the body, triggered by tugging the gold or jade inside the body's mounth (Chinese believe that Jade can help preserve the bodies from rottening. The jade from ancient tombs can be very very expensive, it is said that it can fend off evil spirits). Some stories described the deceased deliberately planned to be buried on top of some innocent victims, so those dead bodies can absorb the ill CHI. The entry to the tomb is far more complex than Indy's heroic entrance. The Chinese tomb is obviously more interesting because the dead body sometimes turned into living dead (too much bad CHI) who has no sense only know to kill. They are nick named "sticky rice ball". Only the black donkie's trotter can scare them away (no one knows why).

Watching this Indy's funny not so adventurous adventure, I deeply sighed, both Georgie Lucas and Harrison Ford are too old to play new tricks.

Scorpian

I watched "Juno" on a website whose slogan is "Movie should be free". Very well made, the kid, Juno, has sharp tongue and fearless attitute toward the world (I wonder what is behind her upbringings). She is no-nonsense, rational and 140% certain what she wants and doesn't want. The reviews describe her as off-beat, oh well, it is indeed unusual to see a teenager so sure about what she is after. The unplanned pregnancy didn't beat her down, she searched for the perfect parents to adopt her unborn kid, continued going to school, library, shops with big belly. After the kid was born, she and her boy friend (fathered the child) didn't even want to see it. She just wanted to get it over with and get back to her own life.

The only time she lost it was when she realised the perfect couple is not so perfect. I think she is angry because things ran out of her control. Was she attracted to the sophisticated and handsome Mark (the husband of the perfect couple)? I guess so, she rationally calculated her odds and what she might be getting out of it, she backed out, keeps playing her bold, playful and do-not-care pregnant teenager role. I like her.

Was reading an article about Scorpians (though I don't really believe in horoscope, this novelist refers to it a lot). Scopians are like fire, quiet fire, can be too angel sweet and horrifically evil . Once irritated, the Count of Monte Cristo real life version would be activated, and the one who suffers is definitely not the Scorpian. Scorpians are sensual, that doesn't mean that they all have huge dicks or super boobies, just sexy and highly active, not shy away from taking action. Scorpians can put their lifes on stake when chasing things they like.

For some reasons, I think Juno is very likely to be in my Scorpian family.

Successor of World's Ugliest Dog

This competition was on for 20 years. We have another hairless dog this year.

Tumor in my Brain

I swear I wash my shirt every week, it just happens that the light blue polo shirt came in handy everytime I need to go hiking.

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It took me a couple of seconds to realise that I am OK after waking up. In my dream, I was found having a brain tumor and immediately needed medical attention. I was in the doctor's clinic with my friend, T, who was suffering from the acute lymphatic leukemia. The nurse came to me and gave both of us some pills, huge as candies, saying this is the ones that could supress the cancer cells. T took the candy-like pills obediently, and waiting for the surgen to take him to the operation room.

I clearly know that these type of medication results in all kinds of side effects. Yet I was weighting the pain if letting the cancer slowly eats away my brain. I walked out the room and do not want to be treated.

On my way to work this morning, I started to think people do want to live less if childless. There is less obligation and responsiblity. Is that a recipe to a care-free life?

I am reading James Olivers' Affluenza. The selfish-capitalism epidemic spreads in English-Speaking world. Young people who have wealth, youth and widely accepted success are depressed. It is quite interesting when Oliver explores why young Chinese do not suffer as much as their western counterpart. He thinks, Chinese do not think too much beyond the material world (I disagree, I think that's because Chinese are just getting the taste of Capitalsim. When materials are abundant enough, this viewpoint can easily be challenged). He also thinks that Confusious' teaching which make us (yes, I am Chinese) think less of self, and attribute glory and failure to the society.

Concise English-Chinese Dictionary

This book was another surprise of the year. I never really like reading novels in English because I read much faster in Chinese. I guess the other reason is that I don't quite buy into the western way of thinking. Western fiction is more fictional if reading the translated version, further away from my real world. My English reading is mostly non-fiction or work-related. I think I am still in the exploring phase of English literature. The message expressed in English is only informative rather than entertainment.

However, this book quickly drawed me into this tiny Chinese girl's world in London. This 24-year-old, broken-English woman came to UK for 1 year English study. She is like most stereotype young generation in China, blunt, rude and not refined. She fell in love with a British guy. The whole book was her own monologue. There are questions everywhere at the first half of the book. Seeing the English world via a pair of Chinese girl's eyes, what privacy is? Why everything is old? Why women with kids living without a man? Her curiosity drown her into this 20 year older English artist's life. Her love to him was suffocating, she is constantly demanding attention and security. When he cannot provide enough, fighting started yet there is nothing they can change because they are still hooked into each other. The relationship was like storm, like fire, it came with all the destructive power.

All these are too familiar, that was me when I was in my twenties. It is too hard to imagine myself being in this type of madness again, too cynical and rational to avoid the embarrassment.

Ohgiyama

This is the 3rd of 100 famous mountains I climbed in Kanto area of Japan. If I can organize a hike every other week, I should be able to get 20 mountains down before end of Summer. There is no injury during this trip (my line manager was saying that "Joey, maybe you should consider not taking people out since quite a few people come back with bruised arms and swallon knees).

We had 8 people going. One of them is from IBM Mumbai. I was asking him if they have something similar in India, I mean, mountains that people go hiking. He said, of course, they usually bride the park rangers so they can bring alcohol into the park and party near the river. However, he's never stayed after 6pm.

"Because the park closes after 6pm?" I asked.

"No, the elephants run down the hill to the river and drink water".

1000 Yen Haircut

I walked into the 10 minute - 1000 Yen hair cut shop in hope of someone can take care of my unrulely and thick hair. I am also quite tired of the length (they got in the way when hanging my heavy handbag on the shoulder). It is really a hassle to pick up the hair every morning from my bathtub.

It took the barber 30 minutes to finish me off, while the other chairs had turned around 3 customers each. I felt a bit guilty.

Money Laundrying

Finished a pretty good Japanese novel about money laundrying. The protagonist understand every single loophole in Japanese taxation laws and is familiar with financial insttitution operation. 400 million USD was supposed to be invested in an offshore company, which will in turn come back to Japan and buy those investor's bad debt. The investors would like to take the bad loan off their balance sheet. However, the money disappeared. The story developed as the protagonist got involved with this massive amount of money. It is exicting just thinking about the zeros trailing behind the single number 5. I really do love money, ha ha ha ha.

When asked how to get rich, he replied "Do not invest and do not pay tax".

Climb Every Rock

For some strange reasons, I am very good at climbing since young. I manuvered my way through the playground equipment, trees very swiftly. I spent most of my after school hours in playground, playing the game of a ghost catching other kids. If you are touched by the ghost, you will become the ghost, and the ghost is freed (it is hard to imagine why I was so crazy about this simple game, I spent hours and hours chasing and being chased).

Spending some time with the lesson of basic rock climbing technique and safety, we hit the rock after a mini hike. The rock climbing shoes are very tight, and it miraculously provides very strong grip once you push into the rock. Together with the safety rope, I felt invinsible and I can go anywhere I like on the rock. It is quite fun to find a good foot holds by touching and kicking the rock. I climb naturally, excited and thrilled with every move upward. Very confident that I could challenge a more difficult rock next time.

The only side effect is that when I touch the solid, stone, or concret walls today when skating, my first reaction is to feel for the good grip.

Mitake Mountain Hike

The fall after lunch, when we were still all very energetic.

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At the end of our 2 hour hike, where the sign indicates we will have another 50 minutes walk before returning to the cable car station. Our spirit was high and didn't anticipate the end of this trip came so fast. Raj suggested we should challenge ourselves to another mountain, Otakesan. Jen didn't object and I felt fine to walk more. We set off, heading to the other top.

When the hiking trail got steep, we realized it is not a really good idea. However, we were all too proud to turn back (hey, I really had no problem to lose face). We struggled to get to the top in another 2 hours. Exhausted and hungry, I decided to go back to the Mitake cable car station via a short cut which we saw on the way. It is so not fun to walk the original route and I thought it is a real short cut. I am the only one who understand the Chinese characters and we didn't have a map. My friends place their life in my hand, ha ha ha.

We were walking on the spine of the mountains, the trail turned out to very remote, we didn't see any fellow hikers and some parts of the trails were almost covered by aggresive vegetation. After an hour (the sign shows it should only take 50 minutes) we still see, hear, feel not civilization. My friends' trust started to shake. Jen was really exhausted and kept tailing behind. We had to stop from time to time, that could be also the reason why the estimated time was distorted. Luckily, we got back before my friends killed me with their distrusting eye sight.

I haven't been this tired for ages, I walked like an old lady the whole day Monday because both of my legs were so stiff and sore. I should remember to bring a map with me to any hike.

Scary Experiments

"The Lucifer Effect" gets more and more interesting as I read along. Situational power was verified in some simple experiments. Just to name a few that are rally scary:

A group of college students were explained the benefit of eliminating those genetically "unfit" human by a fake authorative administration. The result was astonishing, very high percentage agree it is OK and some even agree it is fine supposed those to be eliminated are their family members.

Another experiment started with a rigid classroom rules that had to be obeyed without question. All answers have to be replied in maximum 3 words, preceeded by "Sir". The dynamic changed and intellegent students lost their prominence, becoming less verbal, physically assertive ones took over. They shout slogans "strength by community/displine" in unison. The students were told that they were selected as the hope of changing/save the politics/country, "the third wave". Soon the 20 student group swell into couple hundred. When these true believers gathered in the auditorium, the teacher showed them the film of the Nuremberg rally, these high school students were behaving exactly the same as "the Third Reich".

Situational power and social dynamic are not to be taken easy.

Age is Important?

My late bloomers. They are supposed to blossom in May. The buds swell up and bursted into beautiful lilies overnight.
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When watching Japanese News, whenever there is a unfamiliar face coming to the screen, on the side of the frame, it always writes the name of the suspect/government official/ordinary person being interviewed. Follow the name is the famouse "san" or "kun", which is the title (it is very impolite to address another human being with his/her name only, regardless how young. The "kun" is the formal title for kids).

What is more interesting is it indicates the age in a bracket. I do not remember seeing this in other culture. Not only the TV news, after the 3rd or 4th time meeting a new Japanese friend, he (usually guy friends) would not suppress his curiosity and throw the age question.

Age, the number actually gives you a pretty good idea of interviewee's education background, experience, and what stage of life he/she is in . In other words, it sort of creating an 3D image of a person in your mind. It is one of those many niceties in Japan.

Lust in Translation

Finish the book in 2 days, I don't think the author , Pamela Druckerman, has done a rigorous research and her statements tend to be much of the stereotype generalization (Gee, that's the thing about getting old, you have enough experience to be opinionated and judgemental). Religious Americans suffered the most, French cannot be bothered to suffer because they are too sophisticated, South Africans do it despite the high chance of getting AIDS, Russians manage to do it though most of them live with in-laws and kids in a small apt. China is the heaven for remorseless opportunitsm. Japanese's sexless marriage execuses both parties to have some fun on the side as long as a family is still functioning.

Religions also give away loopholes for cheating. Monogamy is not built for human beings? At the end, even Pam is frustated, she concludes infidelity just happens and the best we can do is to prepare for it. Ha, not sure what I have got from the book, but a pretty entertaining read.

Lightness of Being

When talking to my father about my experience in Kyoto Zen class, my father was envious about the monk's life. I was a bit surprised, what are the appealing factors to my father, who was very devoted to his family names (probably the means are not very wisely chosen or so on).

I pondered about it, perhaps it is because that a monk is completely detached from the widely recognized social values, such the duty of glorify the family name (which might includes being successful, well respected and having outstanding offsprings). That's what he's thriving to have had all his life.

Shyness Awareness Campaign

As many of you have guessed, my brain is filled with junk.

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The main theme in "the Lucifer Effect" is about situational power. Why a teenage soldiers could do unthinkable cruelty to captives in Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo, and claims it is only a game to have some fun. The author even spelled out 10 conditions to get a normal person into the tourmentor, such as instructing him this action is good for some complex, high and long term goal, such as someone is standing aside indicating he/she will take all responsiblity, etc.

However, I am paying more attention to the victimized side of the evil situation. Shyness in victims to protest sometimes provokes more attack and more violent treatment. Of course, keeping silent and avoiding being too outstanding is some sort of oriental way of living. I have seen quite a few overly sensitive people (usually guys, perhpas this contracts stereotype male quality more ) missing out a lot of fun, chances, and opportunities because they are shy.

A friend insisted to finish his Starbucks coffee before entering a Lavazza coffee shop. I was like, what's the big deal. It is not like we are remorselessly sitting there without making any purchase (I am buying coffee for a group of 3). Being honed by other drivers in the road, what is your problem, not everyone has to drive like a Formula One professional. I eat whenever I feel like to eat in the office, never mind others' scrunity about why I am eating a full plate of pasta at 10:30 am.

As I age, I start to understand there is nothing to feel apologetic for. Being disliked? Hey, com'on, take a number, there is a queue of not liking me.

WenHui and Alison's Kid

The crying monkey

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At my last day in Taipei, the mother's day, I went out shopping spree with my mom. But that's the worse day to shop in the city ever, because every store we went to was close. Both my mom and I were irritated "why should we have mother's day? Does it mean you don't need to be nice to your mom on other days of the year?". Anyhow, we make it a piority to visit Alison's wife, WenHui, who just delivered a baby in that very morning. Alison is my brother's elementary school mate, but for some reason, this guy shows up in our every family photos, from elementry school to college. Wenhui is the sweetest, purest girl you can meet in the whole Taipei city. She became my mom's friend, she introduced me as her god mother's daugher to others.

We seemed to be the first visitor in her room, Alison was on his way back from China, the kid was delivered earlier than expected. Wenhui saw us coming in and she started to tear. But anyhow, my mom and Wenhui started to chat about labour and I execused myself to the toilet. Gee, just walking around this department of a hospital is enough to weak my knees.

13 Meters Under (5)

That wasn't me, but it is pretty similar what we were seeing 13 meters under.

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When coming back to the shore in one of our dives, I was waiting for others and I put my face down under the water, using the snorkel to breath so I can see those pretty fishes. A big wave came and I was chocking, instructor Lai questioned what a smart act not to use regulator, you want to feed the fish air? I was made fun of by my classmates Queenie and Hui the whole time. "Hey Joey, want to share your air with fish?" "Oh your friends have problems breathing, look at them gabbling with open mouth, time to feed them some air".

I was OK to be made fun of, nothing wrong to provide some entertainment. Besides, they all want to team up with me because I am famously consuming very little air. We enjoyed each other's company greatly, hanging out dinner and lunch the next day.

I gave up my last dive on Saturday afternoon in order to hurry back to Taipei for the mother's day dinner. When finishing my last dive, I skillfully and hastily walked toward the shore, released myself from the weight and BCD, stripped off my wetsuit. My instructor came after me asking why the hurry. "I really need to use the bathroom". He nearly cracked up "I am afraid I cannot let you graduate if you cannot do the business in the sea".

13 Meters Under (4)

Hanging out with another group of inline skaters, all of them are serious slalom players.

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I guess people who dive are very positive and amiable. The dive center I register in constantly have divers in and out, to refill the air tank, to collect their equipments, or just to hang out. All are tanned with broad smile. I made friends with the dive center staff. After harvesting coconuts with Chou-Tou, who looks after the equipment. He secretly upgraded my BCD and wet suit overnight, and told me to hold on to them. I chatted with Shiu over coffee whenever possible. Anything I need from room service, I will have it, she assured me (unfortunately, I wasn't able to take the advantage since I even brought my own towels, shampoo, coffee pot and mug). I thank them for giving me such a good time and warmth.

The only bad thing of hanging out with the young kid instructor too much is that I started to talk and walk like a gangster, hey, which is very useful in southern Taiwan. One of the divers (he was chewing betel nuts and looks like a real gangster) watched me walk toward the storage room, and commented that "Miss, you walk with a lot of CHI".

The dive on the second day and third got easier and easier. I became more and more familiar with the equipments, assembling and washing became pretty routine. Of course, we did spend a lot of time studying and practising the tests, such as what to do when goggles were filled with water, what to do if the regulator drops, what to do if you are running out of air or if we can take off and put on the BCD or the weights in water. It is actually quite challenging to stay awake after dinner to finish our writing test until midnight.

13 Meters Under (3)

Assistant instructor Tony and the very experience young kid, Instructor Lai, accompanied me to my first dive. It is right next to the nuclear power plant's cooling waterduck outlet. With regulator in my mouth, I test dived in the shallow water for 2 minutes. So far so good, I can see so many tiny fishes and colourful tropical fishes swimming in front of my eyes. Getting up from the test dive and being asked how I felt, I seriously told my instructors that I could lay there face down for the whole day.

We slowly submerged into the water, I breathed slowly, inhaled deeply and exhaled as much as I can to reduce the dead air space in the air passage, which is our breathing passage lengthened by the regulator. Though the air supply is amble, I seemed not able to overcome the irrational fear that I am suffocating. It is quite impossible to surface to grab air without spending time to depressurize. There is no way out! I only had the panic attack the second time with diving with my 2 other classmate, Queenie and Hui.

Surprisingly, coral reef survive and thrive near the warm water outlet of the nuclear power plant. A thousands of small silver fishes swriling in the light blue sea above my head, I could only concentrate on my breathing (breathing through mouth doesn't give me much confidence that my body is getting enough oxygen). However, I was so distracted by the beauty of under water world. A pair of semi-transparent squids flying in the distance of my arm's reach, when disturbed, the pair dashed away with a faint cloud of ink.

When I was a kid, I went fishing with my dad at seaside almost every Sunday. It is so fun to see those fishes we used to catch swimming next to me, just like seeing a long lost friend. There is a kind of black fish with buldge oragne eyes, size about my palm, very territorial. When approaching its rock, it came and stared at me without considering our sizes are dramatic different.

The water temperature is around 29 celcius, by applying this breathing techinque learnt in my Zen lesson, I consumed very little air, while my classmates used up all. What a strange benefit Zen class has brought.

13 Meters Under (2)

The chief instructor finally turns up, a young kid (thinking he is in his mid 20 max) with authorative look, that might be because taking noivce diving into the deep sea takes a lot of responsibilities. You have to make correct decisions in the split second, usually live-death ones. The oldest son of the diving family, the father is in a diver conference in Taipei, this young kid is in charge of the whole shop. Speaking fluent Taiwanese, he has the perfect gangster image, unrefine, grass-rooted but alert and intellegent.

I like this young kid right away, he has the absolute power, seriously going through the equipment configuration, scolding me mercilessly if idiotic mistake surfaces. After wetsuit was worn, air tank connected, everything loaded to the truck, I was so excited asking which swimming pool we are going to. Ciggarette butt hanging in the corner of his mouth, my young instructor said "Pool?! We go straight to the sea". I guess this is the Taiwanese way of diving training. If you can dive in open water, why wasting time in confined water, you learn more anyways and it saves money.

13 Meters Under (1)

Rene (the middle one) came to experience diving, Queenie and I are the hardcore entry level open water divers, are seriously after the license.
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I packed up my backpack again and set out for my quest of entry level open water diving license in Kenting. With the high speed railway, I arrived in Kaoshiong within 2 hours. My cousin, Sandy, came to pick me up, we had nice seafood dinner in the night market. I was really anxious about my diving lesson the next day at 9am, which is still 2 hours bus ride away from Kaoshiong, didn't get too much alcohol in my system. My cousin, Sandy, is a real cutie and still looks 14 though 22 years old. Seeing her sleeping soundly in her shorts and tan top, man, it is really good to be young. Jealousy made me wake her up without mercy, I forced her to get ready and drive me to the bus station at 5:30am.

Traveling alone is actually a very nice thing, you don't really need to seek approval from anyone, the only person you need to please is yourself. It is a strange type of sense of freedom, hey, I am a big girl now, I know what I am doing. Backpack proved to be very useful, improvising changing transportation or changing direction is not a problem at all.

I arrived in the diving resort place and my instructor is still asleep because there has been some mess up in my reservation. Nevertheless, I proceeded studying the courses in the morning with the assistant instructor, Tony. Tony was a bit timid, guess that's because he was still painting woman's face a couple weeks ago (he quit his job as a make up artist).

I pretty much learnt the chemistry and physics about diving after the first 2 lessons, was very eager to expericne the dive, at least that's what the video tape tells me.

Wake up at 4:30am

Thinking my ordeal of lacking of proper sleep is going to an end after returning home, I happily hung out with my parents the night I arrived. Things were not as cool as I expected it to be, because my mom wakes up 4:30 every morning to play TaiChi. Though she didn't want to wake me up on purpose, I woke up and walked down to the park with her around 5am. I read my books while she played her Taichi in super slow motion, didn't want to pay her too much attention just in case she felt shy. It is indeed very nice to keep her accompany. We then went to my brother's house to take over my nephew, the golden pig, from my sister in law, who is going to take the 6:15 am community bus to go to work. I spent my morning hanging out with my mom until 8am (when I feel bored with my 10 month old nephew).

Geez, it is more tiring to vacation then work.

Trip to Nagoya, Kyoto and Back (4)

Though I wanted to sleep more, I awaked at 6. Getting ready in the morning includes brewing a nice cup of coffee, getting some reading done, and applying sun block. By the time I reached the bus station, I knew I am going to miss the 9 am class. Oh well, not very good but I still walked into the temple complex with thick skin. Attending the 10:40 class, I was the only guest. The monk is surprisingly young, he explained that he only decided to take over his father's abbot role last year, speaking southern US accent English, the temple complex was tranquil and calming, it is so hard to imagine what it is like to grow up in this environment. We talked about the art work, history and Zen while strolling across the garden.

The Zen experience is amazing, by concentrating on the breathing, the body is very relaxing yet the mind is alert. Half an hour motionless sitting doesn't seem long or boring at all. I thanked and farewelled the monk, started my real Kyoto journey on foot and by bus.

Failed to hook up with my rollerblade friend in Kyoto, I set out rollerskating in the city, the town is very romantic, small streams ran through the heart of it, crystal clear that you can see to the bottom. I took a nap near the river under the shade, submerging in the tranquility and grace. It is something invisible yet so powerful, what is the difference between Tokyo and Kyoto? The architecture? The people? The food? Hard to conclude in one single sentence.

By the time I reach the bus station, I was sweaty, stinky and exhausted. However, my spirit is high because I will be boarding the flight back to Taiwan the next day. I awaited my bus patiently, however, it seemed no receptionists knew where my bus is. With my limited Japanese, I managed to find out that my bus was delayed. So I waited patiently. However, when the bus was overdue by 30 minutes only then I was alerted. I managed to miss my bus back to Tokyo. It is already 10:30pm, no more bullet train to take me back to Tokyo, and calling every hostel in Kyoto replied no spare bed available.

I was really panicking, it wasn't too fun to spend a night in train station after 72 hour lacking of good sleep. I called Irene to do an internet search for beds (running out of tricks in my sleeve). This smart girl, she immediate suggested to move westward, to Osaka. It is a bigger city than Kyoto, I might have a chance to find beds or even a ride back to Tokyo. I rushed to the JR ticket center, luckily someone is still there. Upmost helpful, he found me a fast train to Osaka and the invaluable bus ticket leaving from Osaka to Tokyo. However, I only have 10 minutes layover to find my bus station after touching down Osaka. He said to me with serious face, "Please run".

I did run and didn't miss my last chance to get back to Tokyo. After settling in my seat, I plug in my ipod and it plays the Viens, Mallika (Lakmé). At the moment I felt there are singing angels flying and flowers bloossoming.

Trip to Nagoya, Kyoto and Back (3)

Aoki and Irene took me to the famous ramen shop in Nagoya, the taste is very different from Tokyo one. Thick pork soup with thick chewy noodles full of nice wheat flavor. The most amazing thing is that they add full spoonful of chopped up raw garlic into the steaming hot soup. It feels very Taiwanese, I am just a bit worried that I will be reeking of garlic smell in Zen class tomorrow.

I did plan my trip this time (normally I didn't do any research before traveling). Due to my cheapo traveling philosophy, I managed to find the cheapest way to Kyoto by taking a local trains, the only catch is that I had to change trains 3 times. Arrived in Kyoto around 11pm, the hostel is 3 big blocks away from the station on the map, so I decided to walk.

Kyoto is very different from Tokyo, there are not that many high rise and the ambience is much more quieter and friendly. I enjoyed the walk though my back pack was heavy and noted that I haven't had proper sleep for almost 48 hours. It took me a while to figure out where my hostel is, I am supposed to share the room with 7 other girls, I cannot help but singing in my heart, imaginig the flat, clean, dry bed I can rest on.

I carried my exhausted and stinky body up to fourth floor, reaching my bed, using extra effort not to make any noise to awake others. However, my bed was occupied. I then carried my tired body down to the ground floor to explain the situation. The hostel staff was very embarrassed, she apologized for the mess up. I squeezed my last streak of energy to smile, saying I don't care where they put me, as long as I can have a place to sleep after showering.

The hostel staff managed to put a bed in the storage room, I was so exhausted that I passed out the moment my head touched down the pillow. Though I had only 5 hours to sleep because I have to wait up at 7 to find my way to the Zen class in west Kyoto.

CEO Pay

K was a our family friend for years, and his long-time hands-off CEO turned up in the company one day and claiming he want the full control over the operation. The most shocking bit was the CEO claimed that he should have 70% of the shares instead of 60%, which was agreed upon when they started the VC firm 2 years ago.

I was very shocked, in western culture, integrity and consistency are the 2 important qualities to measures a human being. Without them, it is hard to find yourself a job/friends/partner. K's CEO is a very well-known, widely respected politician, yet he can backed down on what he had promised before. Yes, money is very important but reputation/integrity/consistency is the ulmost important virtues for survivals. Perhaps the old CEO doesn't care and he doesn't need to want to preserve any face. I despite him, he could have done it in a clever way without showing his ugly face. Perhaps things work differently in Chinese world?

Speaking of CEO pay has gone sky high after 1980's, that's because their pays are mostly linked to stock. CEO are paid relative to the performance of the company instead of being paid like a bureaucrat. It is hard to mesure how well a CEO has done to increase the revenue of the business, stock price seems to be very good indicator. CEO will spend less since spending the company's money is like to spend his/her personal wealth. At the same time, CEOs are taking more risk (because of their big fat paycheck, it is said that they take higher risk if fired, how about me???).

It doesn't mean paying CEO a sky high salary is to rip off the shareholders. Suppose the CEO has made the revenue increase tenfold, guess it is OK. This high paying CEO also boosts CEO to push high the stock prices - by all means. Such as re-pumping the revenue into its own stock holding. CEOs are hoping they can vast their option and take profit.

Vitas Opera #2

I first heard about Vitas's opera #2 in Beijing, his song is so full of emotion and engaging. The damn thing is that he is pretty attractive. Maybe not good looking in a sense of handsome, manly. But full of style and quickiness, espcially when he's on stage.

I think you have to be very full of yourself to be an artist like him. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjO_VXHxsRw

Trip to Nagoya, Kyoto and Back (2)

Ayumi is a flower arrangement specialist, this is one of her work, I believe.
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Nagoya was fun, I rollerskated around the city with my backpack, it was only 6am in the morning. I literally owed the whole city but I was also extremely tired and hungry, I finally gave up the ambitious plan of skating around Nagoya before Irene wakes up and retired to the cool Starbucks for a huge cup of Latte.

Irene came to rescue me and commented if I can still fit into those trousers she gave me because my belly fat was visible. OK, I need to be more careful with icy cold beer from now on.

Drove another hour to Ayumi's house, it was a perfect picnic day, hot and dry, we joked and ended our picnic lunch with a stroll in the fields, of course, I put on my rollerskate, enjoyed the speed and cool breeze, anticipating my trip to Kyoto and hoping it is not too hard to find my hostel tonight.

Pretty Cool Quotes

feel obliged to put something on the blog, it has been a long time not seeing pictures...
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I was reading a young Chinese writer's work recently, it is so comical and fun, I bursted out laughing loud in train, in restaurants and in bus during my travel to Kenting. Feng studied medicine in Beijing, MBA in US then worked for consultancy firm in Hong Kong. A couple of interesting quotes:

"Being a doctor, 3 things to remember. One, do not question the patient why he/she caught such a disease. Two, most of the disease are self-healing. Three, those cannot be self-healed are usually not curable."

"What type of wife you like to marry?" "The interesting one, gussing we are going to live very long with modern technology, it would be boring if she is dull".

The protagonist was trapped in the lab continuously dripped the solution for days and caught tendon inflammation in his right hand, while his classmate had the same problem by feeling up too many pairs of breasts in gynecology department. Ha ha ha..

Please Wait

I spent the past 10 days traveling like mad, there are so many things I need to write about. But really sorry that I was too lazy to use my camera during the whole time, no pictures. I would have to translate my crazy traveling into words in the next couple of days.

To begin with, I thought about a short story written by a useless guy in mid Chin dynasty. (The reason I called this guy useless because he was writing something that was despited by his peer self-respected scholars. He went around China gathering ghost stories and edited them into a book - 聊齋異誌).

I thought about the story on my flight back to Tokyo, the turbulance was shaking the aircraft violently, it almost wanted to answer the call of gravity. Damn, I was practicsing the newly acquired Zen breathing technique and thought, it wasn't too bad if I die here. The story goes like this.

There was a big boat ferrying passengers over Yanzi river. When the boat reached the middle of the river, where no shores on both sides can be seen, strong winds thunders and lightenings arised out of blue. The boat was tossed in big waves helplessly, everyone on board thought this's going to be the end, rain kept falling on their scared faces. All of sudden, the thunder god appeared behind the furious cloud with eye-irritating ray, holding a piece of wood board with only three words "Sun Bi Zhen (孫必振)". The captain immidiately shouted to the crowd "who is Sun? You must piss off the river god, we have to sacrifice you." A young man surfaced himself with ghostly white face. Angry people started to push and pounch the poor young man. The captain threw him a wood board so he can hold on to and threw him into the river.

Sun watched the boat sailed away while waiting for his final to hit, a moment later, a ear deafening thunder struck the boat, broke it half. Sun witnessed it sank to the bottom of the huge river without anyone survived.

Trip to Nagoya, Kyoto and Back (1)

You must neither strive for truth nor seek to lose your illusions
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I finally set out my trip to the west of Japan, Kansai, where people are more friendly and loud. I am the true believer of abusing oneself in order to save money (in fact, it is very fun to do to calculate the expense and seriously control my budget, I don't know why it is almost like an addiction. However, my experience told me 99% of the time, the cheapest turns out to cost me similar to those expensive package).

Anyhow, cheapo grad student traveling usually registers more fun. We tend to remember the catastrophic events more than pleasant ones of our traveling years later. Cheapo grad student travel style proves to bring more trouble and embarrassments, I think this is a great way to kill time if traveling alone.

My main purpose to Kyoto is to attend the Zen class, which is taught by English speaking Monk. I went through his resume carefully, University of Austin grad study of international affair, I only hope that he didn't earn his degree in 1950. Anyhow, since Nagoya is between the Tokyo and Kyoto, I decide to pay Irene a visit (and party with friends, Ayumi, whom we met in London). I decided to travel by night bus, which was scheduled to depart from Tokyo around 11pm and arrive in Nagoya at 6am. The fare is half of Shinkensien (bullet train), and I was only too eager to experience the overnight bus. I walked to the station with my backpack, huge because I had to stuff my rollerskates in. It was raining very hard, I had a very feeling when seeing the bus that is going to take me all the way to Nagoya.

It is just a normal bus, the seat is small and air stuff, there is no bathroom on board, man, it is even worsen than the airport limobus. It is too late to turn back, I have paid for the ride therefore I went. The seat was definitely worse than anything you can imagine, there is no way you can correctly place your head when sleeping without pain after waking up. The interior was sealed by heavy curtain, we cannot even see the driver, who is very diligent, dutifully awake when arriving in a service area every 2 or 3 hours. I still managed to sleep, however, it is just very annoying that when I arrived in Nagoya, I had to spend some coins to sit on the massage chair to release the uneasiness.

How Doctors Think

I am reading a surprisingly good book written by a doctor with 30 more years of experience. He is trying to decode the mystery of the interaction between patients and doctors. The relationship between patients and doctors is quite a strange one, you have to trust your doc, and tell her/him every embarrassing pieces of information/history about your body. Though not a doctor myself, but I bet you get better attention when she/he likes you. When bonding forms, the communication flows freely in both direction. It doesn't matter whether she/he is the best in the field, patients get better treatment when their doctors listen. Mundane theory but amazingly how similar it resembles to any relationship in life. You don't need to have the brightest in the team to do the work, you have to put the right person in the right place to do the best job. Oh, I am flying off the tangent line again.

Of course doctors make mistakes, a lot of medical theories or procedures were not properly tested (you cannot test on human beings). For example, there is a standard point of entry to poke the bone needle into the fibric sack wrapping the heart if filled with liquid. If you ask any internists or surgen, where is the point, they can precisely recite the information. When asking why it is so, no one can really answer, they were taughted that is the correct way to go by their teachers in med schools, and so were their teachers.

To be honest, I was not expecting too much when purchasing this book, however, it is another very engaging read. Are doctors a special breed of intellectuals, they need to be logical and empathizing with their patients. It is also very interesting to see the world through their eyes. Highly recommended.

Economist's World View

I am reading Tim Harford's "The logic of life". I read his "the undercover economist" in Chinese translation, Harford's work was not much my cup of tea then. However, "The logic of life" started with very interesting opening, the game theory. The mathematician, Von Neumann vowed to decode the highly irrational human factors in poker game with mathematical modeling (whether he had succeeded or not is still of a question, at least I cannot quite see). We all respond to incentives, we trade in everyday life, making decisions in the hope of being better off. Harford tries to find out answers to our everyday life, such as why oral sex has increased dramatically among teenagers or why the lobbyists only protect a handful number of people's interest without being scrutinized by the public. The heartbroken facts about life, racism. Why is that companies respond to "white" sounding name resumes more than "black" sounding name ones?

In fact, every chapter is equally engaging. The particular chapter is about marriage. Marriage is basically an arrangement in response much of economic sense. A factory is more efficient when workers have a particular skill and the collabration of workers with different skills speeds up the productions. The union of a girl and guy is much like this, a family produces desired well-off feelings, such as stablity and share of offspring rearing. Man tends to be the breadwinner, not necessary because he is good at it, most likely because he would create a mess if staying home taking care of kids.

It is a bit scary to see marriage as a contract to create a economical agreement. However, if you think really into it, that's indeed what's going on for anyone in it, you give what you can (willing to give) and harvest the fruit out of it.

Exhausted

Warren Buffett once said to be successful in life, you don't need to make the right decision every single time, you just need to make a couple of right ones. When there is a clear goal, you spend less time wandering around. I admire those who don't stay overtime in work yet make both the bosses and cutomers happy. He/she has pioritized the duties, there is no need to detail attending every single emails. Most of the emails are junk anyways. It also creates better working relationship with your colleagues, at least you are more predictable instead of going around pleasing every one on both sides. I am not saying that I would rather work with slickly, sinister, finger-pointing backstabbers. But I am feeling tired explaining the same design/logic/piority over and over again, the next day, the same questions and blank-looking face re-appear. Perhaps I should be smart enough not to be bothered.

There is another type of coworkers that could wear you out, the senseless ones. Those you would like to slap some senses into their heads, be wary, they cannot be reasoned and are helplessly stubborn. The danger is always that they think they are doing the right thing (in the name of project/customers), they appear honest and firm but, in my experience, they create the worse damage than the naive type we discuss earlier.

Working smart is much more efficient then working hard. I guess I was naive and stubborn the first few years of my career. Oh well, I owe a lot of debt to people I worked with before.

Re-Stage of GString-san

For those of you who are really interested in GString, I met with GString-san again this Saturday. I was sitting in the bench waiting for the hourly clean up, GString-san walked toward the bench in my direction, holding a little piece of face towel at the 2 corner of it, covering up his package. I only recognized him as soon as he turn around.

Sailor Moon

It was really a hot day yesterday, we skated 13.5 km and I went home like a cooked shrimp.

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I postponed my pilgrim trip to Kyoto for the Zen class this weekend because there was this so-called very special farewell concert of the Akihabara band on Saturday and the inline skate slalom practice on Sunday. Compounded that I have a party to go to next Friday in Nagoya, gee, I'd better save money by going to the west in one trip next weekend.

My colleague, M, is the very much fan of those young bands. The singers are usually 16 years old school girls and base/guitarist are men (Cannot quite tell their ages, they all dress the same way, very pronounced coloured hair and big pair of sun glasses though the hall is very dark). M kept telling me how exciting/innovative the musics are and how friendly the fan club people are, when I arrived to the heart of odaku (geek) heaven, I knew immmidately that I should not be so trusting.

The so call fans are mostly middle-age men and balding (it would be an interesting study to find out if there is a correlation of liking some 16 year old sailor uniform dressed singer and balding). The younger looking people are all nerdy, yet trying very hard to make themselves look cool by micmicking the guitarist's hair style or put on funny cowboy hat. OMG, it would be more effective if they spend one hour in gym or just simply go jogging in the morning. OK, I do not discriminate nerdy or geeky people (in fact, most of my university friends are of those types) but for some reasons these geeks are a bit revolting.

After a long wait, finally the first singer appears. She looks like one of those amine girls, big eyes and light brown curly hair in little cute pink dress. Everything about her is cute (kawaii) but you don't see anything else other than that. My friend managed to find me a spot at very front, he wants me to experience the craziness and fun, I resigned the moment all those middle-age, balding uncles(ojisan) started to jump up and down and waving their arms like mania when the cute girl sang her cute songs (I cannot quite tell one from another, they all sound the same). Soon the tiny, badly ventilated concert hall was filled with men's sweat, body order and breath. I quickly retired to the pub outside and tried very hard to sterilize myself with a lot of gin and tonic.

What is the Japanese man's complex about cute and pink girls? Why are those fans cheering and chanting exactly the same way? Why are those bands playing more or less similar music/songs? What are they getting from this mania-like cheering? So those people can bond with each other?

I like young girls as well (nothing kinky about it, I just think young people are naively brave). But I like to see them as individual on their own right, everyone has her/his own personalities and quirkiness, that's why it is interesting. Unfortunately, I just don't see it that night.

You are the Roller Blades You Wear

I have seemed to write too much about my rollerblade events, however, I cannot help it unless there are more interesting happening at work. This rollerblade group assembles people from different age groups, different cultural backgrounds and different way of making our livings. The only command thing among us is the drive to roam around the city on wheels.

It is very interesting to observe the linkage between roller skates and the owners. You will see the showy type, who wears skin-tight racing suit, futuristic sunglasses and helmet, carries with them the most professional looking blades. Yet the down-to-earth type wears the functional ones. The inline skate kid type wears the funky looking blades, earthy yet subtly showy. I am the practical and sensible type, middle price range skate, the only thing makes me look crazy is that I wear no guards.

While I was talking to Chin-san about my observation, the young kid went though the crowd knodding, agreeing with me. He bursted out laughing when our scrutinizing glaze falling upon a middle-age guy who looks nerdy with messy hair. His blades are products about 20 years old, battered and not cool looking at all. I was a bit embarrassed but Teru-san immidiately scolded Chin-san. Japanese education teaches kids to conform and empathize, or perhaps this comes naturally with aging?

To Be or Not to Be

Listening to my Tokyo friend's match making arrangement stories is quite a fun thing. There are a lot of unspoken rules and etiquette in this whole process. For example, although you are starving to death, you cannot initiate the thought of going to dinner since the guy should take the lead of the whole activity, such as what and where to eat.

Since the date is fabricated and artificial, the guy is often very afraid of showing too much aggression such as agreeing to a dinner. My friend had only tea and a small piece of cake from 4pm to 8pm, when they finally bid each other farewell.

What's more, the converstaion topics are very limited. She asked what he usually does when he's free, he said he likes to take vitamins. How strange yet so politically correct, you won't expect him to say the truth such as I am a odaku and like to read AV mangas when I have free time.

Sunday 8 Hour Roller-Skate

My new rollerskates, I was so excited that I can finally go faster and farewell my Oxygen, purchased in big 5 on El Camino when living in California.

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We started from Ueno park every Sunday at 9:30 am, it was a bit of a struggle for me to get up today because of the strange hangover attack initiated by mixing Macoli and draft beer. Meeting those familiar faces again is very nice, though we just split after the party like 10 hours ago. Amanda was intoxicated and managed to put her pasmo (a touch on train pass) into the tiny opening for real train ticket. She had to get the station manager to retrieve her pasmo card, miraculously, undamaged.

We continued our journey through Tokyo station, passing prime minister's residence, having coffee break. Going through Asakasa, ending in Aoyama park where we usually picnic and practice tricks. I took another bad fall today, thankfully I have fatty tissues in good places.

We decided to rollerskate back to Akihabara, usually only Chin-san, Amanda and Teru-san would go with me. But today we have a rather large group, some crazy nut cases came, 8 of us were skating like mania again. So we skated another 2 hours on the street, and stopped by a famous taiyaki shop where we consumed the steamed hot cake filled with redbean paste. Then, more skating.

Went home so exhausted, I was only able to record this crazy journey after 3 hours of sleep. But funny that I had such a strange dream about my high school friends, her 2 year old daughter, her father, my parents and my brother's family were all hanging out together. So real that it tooke me a couple of minutes to figure out that I am in Tokyo alone after waking up.

Rain Woman

I was named the rain woman because, after I started participating the group's activities, the rollerskate nuts were not able to do a couple of Sunday City Run and last night's Saturday Night Skate due to rain. I said that must be because of my new rollerblades, I should use my old blades next time.

It was rainning so hard that we had to go straight to our party place. The regulars and not quite familiar faces all turned up, we had to keep adding chairs to almost 30 people. We went back in time, laughing like school kids, totally out of control. Anything small things tickle the crowd to cheer. When the electricity went out for a couple of seconds, someone started to sing happy birthday (I guess that's the only song that penetrates language barrier) though no one is having birthday. The Korean friend taught us to mix Macoli with draft beer, it is so delicious that everyone is drinking cloudy bubbly mixtures.

I moved to another table that no people spoke any English, but abvious half drunk. They kept cheered me with shoujiu and said "ChinChin". Before I showed the mischievous smile, the chef friend said "cheers in Italian". So I started to tell them the story in my broken Japanese that when I first went to Osaka a couple years ago, my friend told me Kansai people say "chin chin wa dou" as "how are you". Of course, it means how is your penis and all my Osaka friends were cracking up so hard when I thought I was saying how are you.

Without failure, the story cracked up everyone (oh well, jokes related to sex organs are universally cheered, it is such a taboo to talk about in every culture, so interesting). Then my chef friend tried to introduce me the couple sitting across the table, said they were just married. Without thinking at all, I asked "chin chin wa dou"?

Pre-war education in Japan

I am almost finishing the last chapter of "Dogs and Demons, the falling of modern Japan". I can feel that why some of my Japanese friends commented this book overly sentimental and melodramatic. Alex Kerr was born and raised in Japan, however, I do not agree that many of his points in his book, of course, this only came clear to me after 3 years coming back to Asia. He is seeing Japanese society with a pair of American's eyes. There are certain rules of games what cannot be explained. Like if you are trying to explain why the Wall Stree is still the white man's ferternity club and why US is supporting Iserali unconditionally?

Anyhow, he is still not bullshitting too much. There is one chaper dedicating to the education system. He compared the pre-war education system to post-war, which government had started to regular the contents of teaching. He found that the Japanese culture's blooming era was funded by people from pre-war education, where no rigid control was exerted. Thus, Japanese people in their 70s or 80s today have the most sharp togue and liberal thinkings, hard to find the same qualities with younger generations.

When a society matures to a certain level, where everyone is comfortable, that's only natural that people want to preserve the way things are. At the same time, if you look at Taiwan, Hong Kong and China, that's where many unrested souls are fighting for better world. Perhaps, we can see those area step into Japan's track in a decade.

Career Planning

My rollerblade friends. Chin is from China, so young and green. Amanda is from Singapore, wondering aimlessly in Tokyo. Teru is one strange Japanese who likes to watch Taiwanese soap opera, thus, speaks good Mandarin. We hang out together most Sunday after the skating.

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I forced myself to go out interviewing every one year or so. It is a very interesting way to feel the pulse of the market and make sure you are paid the market worth. However, it is also a very good way to learn how to bluff and see how mean people can be.

I had one very scary interview with the investment bank in New York. The technical test can be easily passed given a couple of days of preparation. The psychological grilling was the real killing. The trading floor rewards people well if you can take the abuse and violence. Traders are basically all 5 years old in Amani suit, they scream and swear when things don't go their way.

The people seeing me were all sharp and quick. I think I was intimidated the moment I walked into the floor. One of the managers asked me how much I am making and how much salary increases I have earned. He wanted to know why he should hire me (this type of bloody blunt questions are really good and scary, you have to be so sure of yourself to answer it well). The manager's body language was all showing impatience and "why am I wasting my time with you". I went back to the hotel and slept right away to ease the emotional trauma, but woke up in the middle of the night sweating.

I was not confident enough and yet too naive, I might be eaten alive if hired. I am sure I can do better if going there again, I will walk into the trading floor as if I own this place and perhaps throwing a couple of comebacks.

I am recently interviewing people, I find myself talking and behaving like the mean manager in New York i-bank. I would set up traps, inducing the interviewees to agree with my thinking then turn around to question why if it is so, why that is not so. Most of them couldn't turn around quickly enough. I cut out interviewee's answers if they are not concise. I guess they would think twice whether to work with such a smart ass if joining the company.

Why Japanese wife stays home?

That's really puzzling, in Taiwan, most of my friends' mothers work when we were kids. When we are old enough to get married, all my friends continue working until the day the baby is due (no joking, Grace was working until she was rushed to the hospital). It is very complicated why Japanese ladies choose to stay at home. The thing is, if they go out working, there is no daycare center where they can leave their kids, yet if they are lucky enough to find one, her salary will go to the daycare center. Besides, women is not pay as much as men with the same position. I think Japanese girls were forced to stay at home due to the society strucutre and culture.

The First Lady

I was very interested in the news about next Taiwanese president's family. I am particularly interested in his wife. Though Ma is the mayor of Taipei, she takes bus to work every day, doesn't apply make up nor wear expensive jewelries. She is herself, wearing convervative style of clothes, taking bus to work every day. She could be the last person in Taipei possessing no mobile phone. She said "I will be either home or office, if you cannot find me there, I will be in a meeting and cannot answer the phone, no need to have a mobile". She is not considering leaving her job to become the full time first lady.

I like her right away. This is a person with value and independent thinking. She doesn't need to use her special status to make money, show off, be popular in order to feel she is better than any one else.

There is an old Chinese saying, if you don't have desire, you are invincible. Material desire easily destroys and corrupts people.

Gay Bar California

Having a conversation with a friend about how he attracts gay guys rather than women, which reminds me of my gay/lesbo encounter in California. I was freshly out of school, green and naive. Living in Silicon valley is so much like living in another huge university campus, everyone is nice and friendly. The weather is like virtue reality, I had blue sky and sunshine every day.

James was our HR manager, taking part in the sinking boat because I had to join at least 2 or 3 farewell lunch/drink/dinner every week. That was the dotcom boom, everyone is leaving to become a multimillionaire. I was not touched (only too happy to have a job from the cold and dead Toronto job market) and thought, well, if people kept leaving in this rate, I would become a director in no time. James was a friendly chap, I think he likes me because of my naiveness and purity. He is out of closet gay, he was holding back and didn't tell me whereabout his hangout is. A couple months later, he gave in.

James is flameboyant, stylish, not entirely girlish (you can feel the manhood in him). I was very suprised to find out his secret hiding, which was a seedy, rundown community pub in the quiet end in Mountain View on El Camino. I thought he would hang out in those posh, snobish and seemingly sophisticated (but at the end of day, we are just 5 year old and are too scared not to look sophisticated) places. And, most of all, it is a Karaoke bar, and everyone there is gay, from the bartendar to the Karaoke man, they are all down to earth and friendly. I love the place right away.

Not really being hit on by lesbians, just one woman old enough to be my mom (but have the boyish hairdo and stocky body build) was making a pass to me. The Karaoke crowd loved me, we sang and dance together (because i was not afraid of making fool of myself by singing and backup dancing for others). Ha, those were the good old times.