Great Globalization

Shopping for consumer goods in Amsterdam is not a difficult task though knowing no Dutch. Walking past the house cleaning aisle, I can pretty much figure out what those various bottles contain. Dish detergent and toilet cleaner bottles are shaped in the exact way you can see in North America or UK. To double confirm, the graphical explanation (for laundry detergent, you can tell by sign showing the number of loads this bottle can support) helps greatly. The marketing and branding have to conform, we are brain washed by this culture. It is hard to imagine if Colgate starts to sell Chocolate, for example.

It started raining in Amsterdam since Friday night, the weater is freezing cold. I am numbering the days going home.

Super Surfing Weekend (end)

I really appreciate Sandy being in Taipei, she has opened a window in the city in which I grew up. Besides, it is more fun to go with my cute cousin (she has more connection in Taipei than me after moving to Taipei in Feburary) Uncle Thomas accompanied us for the super surfing Sunday. To compensate his sacrifice, we went to the upscale hot spring resort for our after-surfing bath. The bath is outdoor, we bathed in the 40 celcius spring water, looking over the green mountains and blue sky.

We went back home to pick up my mom for dinner, 4 of us went to a restaurant only sells goose. The goose meat was boiled, but tender and with a lot of flavor. We ordered so much food that almost covered the whole table, unsurpringly, we finished them all and ordered some more for take away...

Super Surfing Weekend (3)

We went surfing challenge again the next day, my arms were really sore after a night's rest. I almost want to give up the idea of carrying the heavy surf board and nonstop paddling, flighting with the waves. The moment we hit the beach, everything just came so naturally. The surf boards were picked up, and before we realised our sore bodies, we were cutting through the waves paddling agagin.

The waves are better today, they come in unison (it is really hard if the winds blow in different directions, you will have to handle waves coming from everywhere). I had a couple of successful 1-second standing, good no hitting the nose so far.

In one of the successful standing, my board was carried all the way to the shore. I naturally dived off the board (wrong, wrong, wrong, I should stay on the board, I only understood this later), wanting to carry my board to the shore and have a rest. However, the wave was too strong, I was knocked over by the wave. Another wave came, my board was (luckily) at my waist and butt on the sand, I was pushed all the way to the shore. It is really not fun when your butt is sunburned the previous day and very sensitive. When the wave subsided, it carried my board (and my butt) down again... While waiting for another butt sanding to come, Sandy came to my rescue. She helped me fix the surf board and help me stand up. Oh my god, I was leaving the water in such a messy condition, I can see the guy with surf board walking pass trying hard not to burst into laughing.

Super Surfing Weekend (2)

My bikkini panties are loose, I am very worried if they would be washed away by the strong wave. Apart from that, everything is great. The sea water is not exactly clean and clear, but just sitting on the board waiting for the wait, enjoying the warm sunshine on my body and seeing the endless sea water is quite relaxing. The undesired side effect is that my butts and back of my legs were pink at the end of the day, I guess it's because those areas were not exposured to the sun that offen.

On one of the attempt to stand up on the board, I was like the princess of the sea for 1 second and fell off the board. Panicking, trying to get my head above the water, the board was pushed by the wave toward my raising head. My nose took the hit and I finally understood the feeling of being knocked over. Not really serious, I climbed up to the board, started to paddle out and realised I had had the first bleeding nose experience. Cool as it can be.

Sandy and I went to have food and hot spring bath in the nearby town, the hot spring bath is public and free of charge, relaxing our sore limps and sunburned skin in the warm water. Ah.... Life is pretty good sometimes.

Super Surfing Weekend (1)

When hiking with Sandy and Jennifer earlier this year, Sandy revealed the secret of surfing to us. To be honest, when I was in Taiwan, I was really a kid, moving only between school and home, never explored anything in this island. Surfing sounded too much fun to let pass, I determined to learn this and experience the beauty of sea once again.

I picked up Sandy and set off to the coast in the early morning, reached the surf board shop just before 11am (I was lost again, I'm never be able to get to the hiking trails or beach on time). We had a very experience instructor to come to the sea with us (although Sandy is going to be my coach, the surf board shop owner sent one of his patrons to go with us anyways). After a brief explanation, we dived down to the sea.

Paddling out is challenging. It is not easy to fight off the waves while laying on top of the huge surf boad, belly down. Once reaching out, we sat on the board to rest and wait for the broken wave.

I have never gotten so excited about seeing the white cap coming toward us (waves are no good, white caps are where real pushing power exists). Timing is everything, we had to wait, judge whether the coming wave is good enough for us to take off, including the time we need to turn around, and paddle. Before the board sits exactly on top of the white cap, we need to paddle really really hard to generate the momentum, ideal the same speed as the wave. If everything goes, the board would ride the wave effortlessly. That's the time we need to jump onto the board and start to rock.

Returning Home

Spending 3 days in Tokyo before heading back to Taipei, it is so nice to sleep in my own bed. My wash machine is the busiest moving item in my tiny apartment, 3 loads of non stop washing. Though I still not speak the language, I find myself seeing Tokyo as my home, a place with books I've finished and I am planning to read, a place with my clothes, a place with my rollerskates, hiking shoes and running trainers. I like to lie on the floor in sunny afternoon waiting for the sunlight slowly crawling over me, listening to my limited music collection, and pondering what to cook for dinner. Walking around in my neighborhood shopping, or going to the community center hoping to meet GString-san again.

The big project has come to an end, and there is little reason to keep non-Japanese speaking consultants in Tokyo office. I am dispatched to projects in Europe, Amsterdam, possibly Munich or Johnessburg afterwards. This makes me think what a home means. Friends, family, books, foods, or some addictive hobbies that entertain you when you are bored?

The 7th Hotel

This last hotel I checked in is totally different from those before. It is chick, posh and unpretentious. Very Shoreditch like, the remake of deprived, running down neighbourhood is very clever. It is not trying to demolish all old, shaby Victorian features of the streets and buildings, it rather uses clever art work display and to-the-point decor and lighting to give it a modernized feel.

The hotel staff behaves like those in a youth hostel. The room is suprisingly nice and clean. No mini-bar, if you want to buy them, come down to the front desk. Free organic breakfast from Pre-a-manger. The brochure in the bathroom encourages visitors to hang their towels for re-use like every other hotels, but makes it clear that the hotel wants to save money, too (I always wonder how often the cleaners leave the used towels as is, I think it is much easier for them to replace the used with freshly clean one and it is happening in all the hotel I stay).

Not pretentious in a way this hotel tells you its every effort it does to save money (and preserve the environment). No nonsense, no excessive attention, no fake welcome, this is pretty much my style of hotel.

3 Weeks 6 Hotels

I cannot believe that I have checked in and out hotels almost 6 times during this 3 weeks. I hate hotel living... The stress is showing on my face with a severe eczma attack, which hasn't been a problem ever since I moved back to Asia. There must be something about the water (or Fenshui) in London. Or perhaps I am not eating proper meals.

The redden skin and rash went all over my face, itchy like hell. I ran out of the steroid cream which might effectively control the inflammation. Anyhow, I have no other choice but live with it.

The only good thing is that I am now used to fundation, powder and concealer. Those really effectively cover up the uneven, patched skin. That also has a funny side effect, I don't scratch my face at all, afraid of destroying my make up. But toward the end of the day, when my body is tired and exhausted, the problem is more pronounced. I racked up my limited understandings of Chinese medicine. The heat in stomach would result in the skin condition on face (fire supress metal, which is the element controling breathing and skin), perhaps there is too much heat. The heat is also damp, so that means I have excessive water element in my body. If water is the element to supress the fire, but why under the condition I have dampness yet the fire is not supressed? More study required...

Grade C Duck Noodles

I have strange appetite of animal innards. Mosunabe is one of my favorite dishes in Japan.
________________________________________
After eating cold Sandwiches for 2 days, I think I should have something hot and soupy. Walking around Amsterdam, found a couple Chinese restaurants, and I decided to trust one of them to provide me something to calm my Chinese stomach.

When walking into the restaruant, I can smell the long grand Thai rice smell, not the top quality one. Ok, at least we are sure this is run by Hong Kong immigrants (Hong Kong people have this strange habbit of eating long grand Thai rice, very very fragrant, whereas Chinese from other places don't). I can guess this is a not fancy but practical Cantonese food shop.

The soup is the clear broth base, cooked with dried fish, which is the traditional way. Good sign. It is scolding hot, even better. The egg noodles are those mixed with some alkaline. Texture is bouncy, full of wheat and egg flavor. However, I found some noodles are still stick to each other, oh no, point deduced.

The duck meat is dried and the skin is too fatty. The funny thing is I found I have around 5 or 6 pieces of fresh duck meat, and 2 old one (maybe the unsold roast duck being sent back to oven the next day, great way to sell not so fresh meat). Which is exactly the same as those duck noodles in London. I wonder if the duck noodle chefs all went to the same cooking school?
I cannot have the second helping.

Chain Saw, Chain Saw

Sakura in imperial palace, this year's sakura is not as angry as last year (maybe I have grown used to it), still quite a view.
______________________________
Akiko arranged a get-together-dinner with SunGard people, we went to a casual French restaurant, and let Michael (the wine connoisseur) to do the wine ordering. For some strange reason, wine doesn't taste as good as it was before to me, damn, it is getting harder and harder to please myself.

Michael is an American living in Japan for more than 15 years, with a Chinese wife, speaking fluent Japanese. He is the most cynical person I have come across. Very funny guy, but he never laugh or smile at his own joke, sometimes looked uninterested and I-am-bored. Anyhow, one of his stories he told us happened when he was teaching English some years ago in Aomori, a small town.

He was drinking beer with his colleagues and 2 Yakusa-looking men (they miss some fingers or something) came taking the table next to them. The whole pub went quiet but these 2 innocent young American couldn't understand the reason. They chat with the gangsters, those 2 gangsters like American horror movies a lot. With their broken English, one of the guy shout in excitement "American Horror movies good, I like chain saw". The other guy agreed and they chantted in unison, "chain saw, chain saw, chain saw" with the geasture of moving a heavy chain saw. One Japanese guy sitting close by dropped his glass, he immidiately bowed mumbling "sumimasien, sumimasien..." and tried to clean the floor with his bare hands.

Michael's comment is those Japanese gangsters have very easy life.

Window Shopping

I duly followed everyone's advise, you have to do some window shopping when in Amsterdam. Like other Nordic countries, Netherland people get off work really on time, I had some daylight after work and I set out walking around.

The redlight district is not as seedy as I imagined (or the area of old city is equaly seedy and dirty everywhere, you sort of get numb. My Tokyo sense of clean street subsided in a week). It is hiding inside the narrow alley ways between canels. People strolling around (most of them are tourists), bouncers hanging around (funny they all look the same, with the same body build across countries, culters and cities), peeping show and sex stores scatter around. When walking past one of the windows, a man walked straight into the door, I clearly heard the girl inside greeted him "How are you doing", as if he is one of her friends, no remorse, it is just a business. Let's make it as pleasant as possible.

I think sexiality has a lot of elements in it. The main driving force is desire, to want and to be wanted. That consequent emotions are passion, fullness beyond desire and satiety. It is more than just 2 opposite sex stripping naked and tangling together. Perhaps for men it is harder to (or it is not necessary) to identify the difference.

Hotel Survival Guide (3)

I wrote the Hotel Survival Guide (1) and (2) 2 years ago when I was doing the crazy traveling, practically living in hotels 3 weeks a month. After 1 year and half of peaceful life, I am back on the road. There are many factors that made me to consent to this schedule, anyhow, it is a welcome change (I am a bit tired of my Tokyo client, also, I think the feeling is mutual).

I swang by the local supermarket before heading back to my hotel room afterwork. Fancying ice cold beer, I abandoned the can beer on the shelf but go straight the freezers for bottle beer (Not really thinking that I have no can opener). Anyhow, when there is will, there is a way. I managed to pry open the beer with the coffee spoon, man, I am so proud of myself. I think we need to have a small swiss army knife thingy whenever we travel.

The other thing we need to really pay attention to is that the floor towel and face towels are really the same size. After arriving, I routinely took the contact lens off and started my face washing. Without seeing much, I took the towel on the top of the pile, scraping and wiping, thinking this towel's texture is really good, crispy and firm. Perfect for exfoliating. Only the next morning when I step out of the shower I realised I was using the floor towel last night.

What do You Do When Riding a Bicycle

I listen to Pimsleur's Japanese language lessons while biking to Shinagawa, good duration of 45 mintues. It is just too much fun to stop doing it, especially when the weather is good. I picked up Japanese through it more than the formal class.

This morning I saw a guy, stopping in front of red light, moving a small electronic device in his chin. Oh my god, he is saving while riding a bicycle.

Scared the Dog

I do not quite like the traditional Japanese soba, with 100% wheat. The texture is soggy and floury. The good soba should break when your chopsticks pick it up. I do prefer the chowy version, which mixed in higher percentage of flower. With dashi, it is a good meal on its own. If keep eating soba and tofu in Japan, I guess you can easily live up to 100 years old. But why do you want to live that long?
____________________________________

The spring equinox holiday, I spared myself to enjoy the extra-long swim session in the pool. Really feeling good, but the allergy reaction toward chlorine was keeping me looking sick and ill for almost one day afterward.

Visiting a friend near Yoyogi park, walking past the the narrow street to a pub. My sudden burst of violent sneezes scared a dog, which was held in his master's arms. The dog barked, I hope the dog didn't pee on his master.

After Death

The famous Budda monk in Taiwan passed way a couple weeks ago. He could have prolong his life by kidney transplate but he refused. His arguement was "I have lived long enough, it is meaningless to take a young healthy kidney from a person who can live with it". He could definitely afford it but his value system stopped him from doing so. He also mention "Death is like transfering to another bus, a ner journey begins". I wish I could do so if the inevitable occurs to me.

Gero Onsen

Went to onsen with Irene, Gero is supposed to be one of the top 3 onsens in Japan.
________________________________
It is very nice to travel with Irene, feeling that we are easily excited high school girls again. We spent some time in Nagoya, had the nice Taiwanese style bubble tea with topioca, walked around the flea market, then heading toward Gero, staying in a small ryokan. Food, bath, breakfast, bath, walk around, then bath. It is very relaxing in the mountains....

Landmine Explode

I think this frog like thing might be more interesting than my Italian food experience in House Bee Crystal
___________________________________________________
I went to a very bad Italian restaurant in Shibuya last night. It is not easy to get that but we managed to have a bad meal. The carpaccio was made from the cheap Salmon, not the good cut (I am expecting some clean tasted, greasy white fish such as Aji). I ordered the Avocado shrimp salad, the shrimps were cleaned fine (the discussing black intestines were gone), however, I am just afraid they were processed with some chemical, such that the meat textures are firm. But there is no flavor left. The dressing is too sweet, worse than most bottled dressing in the supermarket. The worst part of it is it doesn't go well with anything in the bowl of salad. The only eatible thing is the bowl is the avocado, if you carefully remove the dressing.

The pasta is alright noodles were cooked al dante, but my tomato sauce is still on the sweet side, there is no fresh tomato smell, nor oliver oil, it is just canned sauce. The seafoods were coming from the frozen package. My friend's cream sauce pasta is also a disaster, the cream is too rich and salty, unfortunately the smoke han didn't help a bit. I cannot believe I had this type of Italian in Japan, I was so angry that I almost wanted to talk to the chef. I wish this restaurant go belly up soon so that to poison any other innocent patrons.

Who's Got the UpperHand?

The hat is amazingly warm.
___________________________________

I have a friend who is amazingly talented in dealing with complicated relations in everyday life. When we grew older, of course, she handles office politics. She observes, protects her turf, no one can really take advantage of her. Marriage to her is just like another power play.

Observing from my friends, marriage is never a matter of 2 people. The girl is marrying into a family, being fed/imposed a complete different sets of values. How laundries should be handled, how money should be spent, and how foods should be prepared are all different from the way she was brought up. It is a game between 2 parties, who should conform and who should take the upperhand?

The subtilty of overthrowing the master of the household (normally the mother in law) was staged. She lost the first war because the newly wed didn't get to live in her choice of location. I guess she knew it is time to fight back. She insisted on redoing all interior to her standard. This is like a big bomb in her husband's household. Though very rich, they live very frugal and simple life. She didn't give in, continuously debate/negotiate/install her thinkings. Her family is also supporting her, paying for the renovation cost... Oh well, the mother in law had nothing to say, though unhappy. She successfully won the second battle. Though still many value concept clashes, She is left alone.

I guess it is true for everything, you need to set the tone right (what is right? In favor of yourself is right) at the beginning. No matter it is the first time you step into the project room, meet a new friend, or walk into the restaurant.

Really Hungry Today

The famous huge ramen near our client's office in Shinagawa.
_________________________
I am feeling very very hungry today. I finished my lunch as breakfast, beef stew with noodles. Finished my colleague's snack on the table, started to work on the gummy bear candies. Around 5pm, I was so hungry that thinking is impossible (my is stomachaching). I ate my supposingly breakfast. Now I am thinking something with grease and temperature...

Fooled by Randomness

Rollerskating around Tokyo street is very fun thing to do
____________________________

Just read Gladwell's outliner, the ran into Taleb's "Fooled by Randomness". I guess there is all fate. If I have read Fooled by Randomness, I guess I would have laughed by way through the outliner. The 1000 hour rule, the connections, and all other factors deciding why some people outstand others in any field... are all becoming objects of my skeptism.

According to Taleb, there is no prove why you should put your money to a fund manager because of his track record of not lossing money (when time is good, he is even making money) for the past 10 years. Why is he famous? Because no one can be bothered to study the 99.9% of failing fund managers. There is really no enough statistical data to support any pricing models or money making strategies.

In financial market, randomness is the king. The book "Millionaires next door" depicts frugal people saved money and invested wisely, they eventually become rich. That's all pure luck! What if they bought the loser stocks that went under and, thus, losing all their investment?

It's depressing, all our work in financial market has been depending on luck.