Onsen Nearby

I found this nice little onsen (hot spring) place in Tsukishima near where I live. After a long jog, it is rather nice to take a hot bath in the open bath house, the water is hot, women in the onsen are working so hard to wash their hair and body. The temperature is actually rather alarmingly hot (46C), I can barely stay for 1 minute, need to take a break and spash myself with bucket of cold water. I looked like a cooked shrimp when coming out of the huge bathtub.

I think taking a bath outside of your house is a great experience. The process is as following: walk to the senton (錢湯), wash up, soak in hottub, listen to woemen greeting each other, dry up, relax after the short period of dizziness after hotbath, put on lotion, walk home, enjoy the breeze of the night. Everything is essential part of onsen visit, hard to leave out any one of those.

The local onsen I went to was discovered by accident. I always like Tsukishima area, it is rather old community, not as trendy as Ebisu or Meguro (young Japanese are proud of having those addresses). Somehow these shitamachi (下町)　preserves the sort of the old Japan, without much of the western influence, not quite refined in a way but very intersting. Tsukishima () is famous for the monjayaki, which I never like. But I like the automosphere, love to walk around the busy street looking at crowds roaming around for the best monjayaki restaurant in mid Summer nights. In the midst of heat and noisy, oh my god, there is an onsen house. I made a mental note that I will come here one day.

The funny thing about Japanese senton place is that you walk in and pay the fee to the old lady sitting on high up in at the divider between girls and boy's sector. Today it was a old man sitting there, oh my god, what is happening? Is it because there are only old women and kids coming to the girls sector therefore it doesn't matter? What if some 30 something come into the hotbath house?

I didn't want to back out (hey, leaving the bath house after paying is more strange, isn't it). I deliberately found a locker where I can knee down to strip, pretending I don't notice anything walking bravely toward the bath area all naked. As I soaked in the water, I cannot help but thinking if the old man is peeping through the steamed grass door. I guess I was thinking too much, as I left the bath house (again, hiding myself behind the waist high locker block to get dress), he was laughing hard on the TV show.

I don't like Roponggi

Rogponggi has the name of party town, meat market. In fact, it is the only area in Tokyo, when you are in it, you don't feel like you are in Japan. You would probably feel that you are in the sleezy dodgy corner of New York, San Francisco or London, but with a lot of hot Japanese chicks. English is heard everywhere, the Nigerians are working very hard for their club to drag men into their pubs, they alleged it is filled with beautiful ladies (hey, I am not being a racist, it is just quite a few time these African men talk to me when I was half drunk trying to find my way home, we chatted a bit, 9 out of 10 they are from Nigeria).

Beautiful ladies are another story, it seems like it is a meat market for men, on the surface. It is also a meat market for woman to hunt for one night stand. But men are too sturbbon to believe they are actually being hunted by those looking innocent and cute Japanese ladies. Let's let them continue believing that.

One of my consultant friends said that anything can happen in Roponggi, I do believe him. That's the charm for them. However, I never like this area. Clubing and dancing is not really listed in my dictionary of fun definition (jogging and working out maybe, ha). The drink they serve is not premium type of alcohol, most people are just there to get a quick buzz. The music is so loud that you have to text message your friend sitting next to you so that two of you can communicate (no wonder everyone is reading his/her mobile phone). This is actually very stressful, where is the fun? I want to sit in a cozy nice bar with good Jazz music and premium single malt. That's not in Roponggi.

Being Fair and Square

After being Japan for a while, you sort of getting used to the way Japanese think. They prefer to be fair. A bottled water sells for 90 yen in the city, but sells for 400 yen in the top of Mount Fuji. People understand the difficulty and trouble to get goods transport to the top of Mount Fuji, deal. Raman is about 800 yen mark, anything costs less probably does not taste as good as 800 yen ones (of course, there are exceptions, but rarely). You rarely are in the situation feeling that you are being cheated, I guess it is because in Tokyo, the population is 13 millions (Taipei 6 million and Hong Kong 6 million), you have to be really really lucky to cheat and survive on the same time. There are so many other alternatives in terms of food and drinks. If you are not running your business in the honourable way, chances are you are going to be put out of business fairly soon.

Dealing with Japanese in every day life, you can also feel this "fair and squre" principle in every aspect. They would never want you to buy them a free beer, although you offer. They would somehow remember it and pay you back with something else later on. I think this is to release themselves from the burden of owing anyone anything.

The only exception is probably the telecom industry, so many political and legacy reasons, I think it is hard to break.

Coming back to Hong Kong (3)

Rollerblading on the street? Not possible in Hong Kong.
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The only thing I am not used to is the crampiness of the living space. There are people, cars, skype scrapers everywhere. This is a place that you find no room to breath. Comparing to Hong Kong, Tokyo is much more relax. Even in the Wall street equivalent area in Tokyo, there are spacious corridors, pedestrain walk, and open space. There are more parks and trees. You only have air pollution in Hong Kong. And also, bicycling is not allowed on the street.

I cannot go out running during my whole stay, I can only run in the tiny gym in the hotel, which is also suffocating.

Nevertheless, this is an amazing island, such a small space with so much energy. But living in Hong Kong would really be a challenge.

Coming back to Hong Kong (2)

I made a mistake by using the shampoo provided by the hotel, my hair looked dry like straws sticking out. I really wonder if those shampoo were meant to be used as detergent. When I stopped by the shops during lunch break to look for the solution, the sales woman look at me and comments you really need to use some good shampoo. I know, that's why I am here.

I worked in IFC, which is the most prestigious location in Central. Most people around are dressed in the designer suits, I think it is probably time for me to get some shopping done... Oh well, I guess I will be soon forgetting about it as soon as I see foods. However, my feelings about Hong Kong is that it is more international than Tokyo. After all, English used to be the official language and I guess, expats are feeling more at home.

I walked around the hotel area. In the mid summer nights, there are a lot of ghost people (that's how Hong Kong people address westerners, Chinese are real human and those with golden hair and tall nose bridge are ghost) hanging around in the pub with open windows to the street, sticky, humid and hot winds blew around, not really cooling anything. Only this shows you the true Hong Kong, a small island in the sub tropical weather. If there hasn't been so much business activities in this financial hub, this could very well be another Puket island.

My Cantonese is really rustic, but enough to order food and get my way around. I think Hong Kong people are now more used to Chinese not speaking perfect Cantonese due to a large influx of Mainland Chinese immigrants. 20 years back, I used to be so concious speaking Mandarin in public when visiting Hong Kong. Mandarin speaking is usually associated with low class or poverty. Things are so different now, Mainlanders are the rich ones going spending spree while Cantonese are the stingy ones.

IOP

With my running regime, I am eating like there is no tomorrow. Yakiniku, yummy.
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Getting my health check results, I was told there might be a chance that my optic discs are enlarged. This could be caused by intraocular pressure. A further examination is recommended. I went on internet searching everything I can to understand what this means, oh my god, IOP and enlarged optic disc are the possible cause of glaucoma.

I made appointment with English speaking ophthalmologist, but damn it, all of the English speaking doctors are not available until next week (is there a optic medical conference in some tropical island or something?). I can do nothing but wait. All kind of horrific thoughts came to me, what if the nerves are really going through some irreversible damage, what if I am really going to go blind slowly, what if there is no cure? Should I quit my job and spend the rest of my eyesight surfing? Or I should stay put making as much money as possible for I can see nothing? Would I have enough money to support myself if I am going to be disable?

Work pressure is not getting lighter, I was still working like crazy (amazingly if I am focusing on work, I don't remember the stress about my eyes). Only on my way home from work, I got really stressed about the whole business.

2 weeks later I finally got to see the eye doctor. First of all, my IOP is normal. Secondly, my optic disc ratio is larger than average, but the thickness of the nerves appear normal. I probably was born with the larger than normal discs. Though I will need to have regular eye check up because I am seriously nearsighted.

Reaching out for the stars

Um, I was super hungry that I ate everything before the picture was taken... Running is not very good sometimes.

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Michillin star restaurant in Hong Kong, Caprice. The lunch set is very reasonable, and this is my first experience with star restaurant.

I ordered the fish consomme with Rouille Custard and Melba Toast, Braised Beef Cheek with Vegetable Tagliatelle, Charlotte Potatoes and Red Wine Sauce, finished off with Raspberry Éclair with Tropical Vanilla, Dark Chocolate and Wild Berry Sorbet. I have read so much about consomme, how the broth is carefully prepared, filtered so to be clear as water and full of body. Um, it really tasted like soup with a lot of MSG, I guess French kitchen has nothing of that sort, man, I am drinking a very good bow of soup. The temperature is surprisingly Chinese, I hate lurk warm soup like most western style ones normally are. Many thanks to the jog in the morning, I had 3 pieces of bread that are freshly out of oven, spreaded loads of butter over them, um, I love bread.

The beef cheek is a bit disappointing, I guess it should be fattier, it is lacking the "wow" factor. The texture or something? I think I am more excited with the beef noodle in Din Tai Feng. But it is eatable, fine.

The real climax is the desert. The Eclair is pretty light and elegant. The espresso is just about right to finish off the sweets.

Coming back to Hong Kong (1)

Going through the Hong Kong immigration is an very nice thing to do. All I have to do is to swipe the ID card and let the machine scan my thumb, the gate opens within 10 seconds.

I am staying in the used-to-be famous hotel in Wan-Chai, before the landfill was built in Victoria harbour, I guess this hotel is really right next to the seashore. Right now, it has the red-light district in the back and the huge government building blocking the view of everything. But when I told my mom where I was staying, she was like "Wow". I guess the hotel was pretty cool back when my mom was young.

I had a dinner plan with Uncle Thomas the night, since Chinese food needs to be consumed by a large group of people (dishes are meant to be shared, the quantity cannot be small because heat has to be retained), uncle Lam's family were also joining our feast. I have not met with Uncle Lam's daughters after leaving Toronto, that's almost good 10 years.

Seafood restaurants in Hong Kong have all the living sea creatures in the watertank, we have to pick them and discuss what is the best way to cook them with the chef. The sea snails are done in the sichuan style, the fish will be steamed to just-cook state with thin sliced ginger and scallion. Same treatment for the crabs, they are just cut in half and steamed. The razor claim were also steamed with fermented soy beans. If a Cantonese chef dares to overcook the seafood, he or she would be condamned to death. I have never tasted crab meat so freshly sweet and texture is so tender. I think that's the highlight of the whole meal.

Scary Airport

Returning from the exhausted hike over the weekend (I was so tired that I kept dozing off in our car ride. The traffic is not particularly good (um, the section around Sagakimoko is always, forever, eternal congested, 10K is normally taking about 1 hour to go through. This painful 10K is still 50K away from Shinjuku).

I finally made to home by 11pm, seriously exhausted, but I have to pack for the Hong Kong trip tomorrow. My brain was really not functioning very well, and I was pondering whether I should take a big back pack or 40 liter roller. For a 1 week trip, the big suitcase is really an overkill. I had to put my laptop bag into the suitcase to fill up the space, so that I only need to carry a handbag, which is not too bad.

While I was on the bus, I started to think about the horrile possiblity that someone might steal the computer (hey, who tells you to pack the valuable in check-in luggage?). I hasitly pull the laptop bag out before throwing my suitcase into the check-in weight scale.

Everything was uneventful until my laptop bag was stopped by the security guard, they are very polite asking if they can search through it and X-ray it again. I was curious but nothing alerted me yet until the security fished out the cutter from my pencil bag. Oh well, I kept a small cutter, which is handy to use in the office. Ok, I started to apologize. The security guy asked if he can run the bag through the X-ray again, sure, no problem, why should I be worried.

My spin chilled when he fished out my special edition swiss army knife, which is a gift from my uncle for my love of outdoor activity. Man, I was too tired that I didn't think much when throwing the army knife into my laptop bag and the bandage (that's used to tape my toes, for some reason, my toes screeze each other while I jog). My face turned ghost white because he was checking my boarding time. Shit, I would be interogated by the police and they are calculating if I am a real terrorist worth spending the time and money to make me miss my flight.

The policeman came, asking me why I brought the knife. I told him I need that to cut my nail and this is really an accident that I completely forgot about it is in my carry-on. (I remember a story of a young kid who was jokingly saying to the security that he has a bomb in his carry-on... he was arrested for that). I tried my best to look innocent, thankfully they let me go after noting down my name and passport number, I was at the gate just couple minutes after the boarding time.

Climb Every Mountain

Feeling really tired after the whole week of work and stress, I left the client site around 9pm. Although the new project is so close to my home, I cannot really relax because we are heading out to the mountain in 3 hours time.

Yes, it is another crazy hike. We left Tokyo by 1am in the morning and planed to hit the mountain trail by 5am to avoid the heat. I was really tired, that I crashed in the backseat the moment the car door slamed close. I cannot even be bothered to talk to Henry, the 7 year old boy, it turned out that both of us were sleeping like babies during the whole trip.



This hike is actually more interesting than Mount Fuji, we went through many different vegetation, from bamboo forest to needle leave pine, then to rocks. For the last 30 minutes, we even had to do a bit of rock climbing. The elevation is high enough (2500 m) that we were somehow away from the humidity and heat of Japanese summer for the whole ride.



This is what the last 30 minute hike looks like. Going up is a lot easier comparing to coming down...



Um, after the picture was taken, Yoshio, Tomomi and Yukiko and I all found a place to sit then dozing off... We were really too tired. If you come by to the mountain top, you would see us laying around on the volcanic rocky slabs in various position, sleeping and snoring. Man, how some people can function without proper hours of sleep is still beyond me. I am just half dead if not getting 8 hours of sleep every day.

After the hike, our whole body was reeking and sweaty, Yoshio has made the best planning, we are heading to the natural hotspring!

The onsen (hotspring) bath house is very intersting. It is obviously built by an amateur builder with cheap wood panels, not new at all. The owner has very interesting view of decoration, the western greeky statue about 40 cm high is pieced together with the Chinese style lucky lion in our outdoor bathtub. It is not too odd, I think the strange combination works just fine with the not-so-professional building style. And the best thing is, it is clean and the natural hotspring is so relaxing.

You can mix in the fresh cold water to the overheated bath, the cold water is also flown in from the nearby stream coiling down from the mountain. It looks and feels so pure and cool, um, I drank some of the untreated water, it is too tempting.



We ate soba after the onsen, um, very hungry.

Happy Tomo-day

The food in CARB is actually very nice. A great restaurant discovered!

Tokyo Grilling

Going to the milk tea shop after our city run. The owner is not going to make any money, he gives out free cookies whenever pretty girls stopping by for a cup of ice tea.
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We are crazy bunch rollerblading under the heat. The city run is too relaxing, definitely not true workout (it is more like a social event). I need to wake up early to jog before the run...

Ocean Day (4)

Getting home to wash away all the dirt and sand, I was told we need to go to a friend's house that very evening in order to make the 3K swimming competition at 9am in Tateyama since there is no train available to move us from Tokyo to the beach early enough. I was bloody tired (I really need my 8 hour sleep a day to function properly). I packed my bag getting ready to go Tokyo station then my friend called again that he's found a train leaving Tokyo @5am would be able to move us to Tateyama by 8am.

Happily unpacking my bag, I set 2 alarms and fell deeply into my long awaited, much needed sleep. Waking up at 4am, getting on the train by 5am, we are ready to rock.

The Hojuo beach is actually very nice, the sky is blue and clear, as soon as we arrived, we were tugged into the registration desk. They drawed the registration number on my both arms with markers and we were asked to wear the transponder on the ankle for finishing time marking. The sun is strong and it was quite nice to jump into the cold water. All these 200 people are like pros, they paddled away like mad. The waves were so strong, it is so frustrating because no matter how hard I stroke, I felt that I am not moving forward at all. There are also fishes swimming 2 meters down, very distrating. They made the 3 floating buoys, distanced 500m from each other. It is so easy to get disoriented after the 2nd buoy, you are far away from the shore and especially very far behind from those pros, I am completely alone! I paddled in the wrong direction for a while, then the lifeguard (on surf board) had to came by and told me to swim in the right direction.

50minutes later, I finally finished the race, thankfully I didn't get picked up by the boat (if not able to complete the course within 1 hour). I won the last place in my age group! Um, the beer tasted very good afterward. I think this is the toughest weekend I ever had for a long while.

Ocean Day (3)

Coming out of the water, very tired but needed to run through the finish line such that the transponder on my ankle can register the time.
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Walking uphill is really not that difficult, but I am short of breath from time to time (no matter how hard I breath, I felt that I am not getting any air), feeling dizzy also. The high elevation of course is a factor but I believe my problem is more related to lack of sleep. I dozed off whenever we stopped, and felt much better after napping for 10 minutes (I was so tired that I sat down, holding my bag then passed out... Not even remember to eat the onigiri in my hand). The easiest path is actually paved by soft sand and pabbles, it is very hard to walk, that dissipated a lot of energy. To fight off the dizziness and short of breath, I walked slowly and breathed deeply. Terribly boring and hard.

Finally getting to the top of the mountain, where a bottle of water causes400 yen from the vending machine (we are still puzzled how the huge machine was put on the top). Japanese people are trying to keep Mount Fuji clean and eco, there is no modern establishment above 5th station. All the supply should be carried by human force. I guess we should not complain about the price.

We hurried down the hill after 15 minute break at the top, inspired by the thought of nicely cold Magareta. While others carefully select their foothold on the sandy path, 3 of us ran like crazy. I actually quite enjoyed the downhill run, it feels like skiing downhill. The soft ground works like snow, I carried the downward momentum, running pass people and leaved behind the sand dust. Ha ha ha... 2 hours later we are back to the 5th station. Yoshio thinks that is the record breaking speed (he hiked mount Fuji just a week ago, crazy guy came to the mountain again with us a week later).

4 hours later, we were sitting at the nice little Mexican pub drinking Magareta, and I am pondering about how I am going to move myself to Tateyama for my open water swimming tomorrow.

Ocean Day (2)

Not sure what I was doing, I must be trying to cheer up my colleagues by doing some silly things.
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It was 30K away from the base station. The good thing is that our cab can go pass the queue for the parking lot, we set off the hike just slightly pass 4:30am. Sleeping 8 hours a day is vital to me, lacking of sleep is really the hardest bit of the whole hike. I was dozing off in every break we took. The high attitute is also difficult. The air is thin, I felt that, no matter how hard I breathed, I am not getting enough oxygen. After starting my running regime, I have not felt short of breath as much as this hike. I even felt dizzy and felt like to puke at some point. Man, I should have stayed home and slept... I was even thinking about quiting a number of times. But I guess I wanted to see how far I can go and before I know, I got through it alright.

The hike is actually very boring, it is like climbing stairs non-stop. All you need to do is keep walking, and walking up. The sun is high, the only good thing is the temperature is like 20C at such a elevation.

During the break, we ate and enjoyed the scenaries of Lakes Kawaguchiko and Yamanakako. We can even see a bit of the Tokyo bay, cities around the bay, perhaps Tokyo and Yokohama. Um, of course, Mount Fuji is the highest mountain in East Japan.

Ocean Day (1)

This must be somewhere after 6th station...
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It was really an accident that I had mount Fuji hike and open water swimming compeition in the same weekend. This long weekend is the ocean day, 海の日, in Japan (this day must have something to do with sushi). I was a bit worried beforehand thinking I might not be able to get through this long weekend. The plan is to leave Tokyo on Sunday morning just past midnight, go straight to the 5th base station of Mount Fuji and start the hike before 3am. The traffic was surprisingly light at 1am from Tokyo, it took us less than 2 hours to Mount Fuji. However, the queue to get to the parking lot at 5th base station is like 3 to 4 hours long. We were all very disappointed and almost wanted to give up (actually, I was secretly happy about giving up, at least I can go back home and have a good night sleep), we saw a taxi driving pass by.

My colleague quickly formulated the solution, we parked our car in some parking lot then call the taxi. We stopped by a 7-11 to stock up the food and water. At the same time, I thought, it might be not easy to find any available taxi at 3am in the mountain area. Regardless, we got the local taxi company's phone number from the nice 7-11 clerk and the only Japanese colleague ordered the cab over the phone.

As we were unpacking and packing the hiking gear outside of the convenient store, a Taxi driving by. I went jumping up and down, waving like mad and the taxi stopped. Using my broken Japanese to let the cabbie know that we need to go to the 5th station, um, while I was struggling, my Japanese colleague came to my rescue. Soon afterward, We were on the way to start our hike!

MSN with My Dad

劍臣 says:
你哥叫我出去伯爵山莊下吃客家菜晚飯‧兩小孩皮到他夫婦無法吃飯、又打破碗、又撒一地、一個指東一個指西‧就和你們两小時一樣難搞
Joey says:
很忙啊
有吃白切雞嗎?
我也好想吃啊
今天晚上熬夜看冠軍爭霸戰嗎
劍臣 says:
哈哈哈！養兒育女世代傳都一樣、由他小孩煩回他、
有吃到白切鷄‧梅干扣肉‧山下金龍市場每天中午＋二點左右鷄肉攤位有折價白切鷄每盒一百賣五＋曾叔評價讚和萬華名店無差
Joey says:
好吃極了,等我回台北買來下酒吧
劍臣 says:
我先睡‧二點閙鐘响才起來看西班牙奪冠，我信章魚哥、拜湃

Um, my dad said that he is going to take a nap first, and wake up to see the world cup (he set the alarm). The most amusing bit is that he said he truely believe the octopus that Spain is going to win the champion.

What is your hobby

Tokyo is officially getting into summer, I went for a 5K jog then dashed straight to our Sunday morning 12K rollerblading.
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Going to the sushi store in Tsukiji with Irene and her sister, in the shop, everyone (from the sushi chief to the wait staff) has to wear a nametag showing his/her name and hobby. One of the waitress has her hobby labeled as "Saving Money (儲金)".

Japanese Sword Fighting (2)

I begged Taro to let me participate their sword fighting training session on Sunday. In fact, he is very keen in getting people to join the club as young Japanese generation is slowly losing interest in this tradition. The problem is ... um.. quite embarrassing for the weak-nerve young Japanese kids, the problem is the SMELL! The protection gears cannot be washed, you can only wipe them or put them under the sun to control the smelly bacteria from growing too fast. The heavy-duty outfit cannot be machine washed, either. The traditional dye is not made of the best perfumy substance, it gives out irritable odor.

As for me, I don't care too much about it (sport is supposed to filled with sweat and danger), besides, I think the smell is not as bad as in underground subway station in New York City in the middle of July. What I don't quite like is the rigidness of order, ranking, manner, and respect. Sword fighting is not a sport for fun, it is rather a spiritual training to get yourself tougher (the idea is suprisingly fitting so well into Japanese culture). Thinking about the Chinese style of martial art, it is comparatively less formal, um, what do I know, all my knowledge of Chinese martial art are from the KungFu movies.

Nevertheless, it is an very interesting experience, you get to hit people (gear-protected) as hard as you can and yell as loud as you can at the same time. The only problem is that you are not allow to run, you have to slide across the wooden floor with grace.

Japanese Sword Fighting (1)

Hanging out in a nice little pub in Shibuya with my colleagues. The basement restaurant specializing everything skewered. In Japanese crusine, skewers are so important to accompany drinking activities. Everything can be skewered, including minced chicken, entrails, chicken skin, scallops, veggies, or any combinations of the above. They can be grilled(chicken skewer - Yakitori), panfried (tepanyaki) or deep fried (Kushiage). The best of all is that they serve my favorite sake, otokoyama (man mountain) from Hokaido. It is clear and crispy. Not much annoying after taste, oh man, I miss it very much.

We started drinking and eating late (worked until 10pm on Friday evening... This Japanese project is really vaxing). I rode my bike over to Shibuya and it took me a while to find the little pub. My manager was so surprised that I have no idea of the famous department store Shibuya 109's whereabout, he had to gave up his nicely cold beer, came up to the street level and looked for me.

Anyhow, the food and drink were both good, we left the restaurant around 3am. Everyone was half drunk and wanted to ride my bicycle on the still-busy Shibuya street. Taro, my Japanese colleague, is the Japanese traditional sword fight master, who has practiced the art for more than 25 years. He insisted to show me the trick(I guess he wanted to lift up the rear wheel and keep balance with the front for a while). He fell over while breaking abruptly. With the rigid sword fight training, he cling on to the handle bars when he was flat on the floor.