Hong Kong, China

I am back in Hong Kong!

The view from my friends’ apartment on the 37th floor in Pok Fu Lam. The view is fantastic! I would love to live in a place like this. They also have nice facilities in the building, and one of them is the gym. Today, we went to work out together. This was the first time for them to try the gym since moving into this place a couple of months ago. So we all were particularly excited.
It's been about a month since I started jogging, and I love doing it in Amsterdam. The view is fantastic while jogging. Today, I had this ocean view in front of me. It was pretty nice. I also realized that it is much easier to jog on a treadmill. First of all, there are no bridges like in Amsterdam. And also, you don't have to kick the ground to go forward, so it is much easie And there is no wind to make you breath harder. So… I jogged the farthest today; 4.5miles (7km) for 45minutes straight! I was surprised myself.

... after this work out, we went for dim sum, and we all ate like pigs.

De Haag, The Netherlands

I came to visit The Haag. My colleagues invited to his place on the weekend. Unfortunately, I do not have any friends in Amsterdam or in the Netherlands, so it was a great pleasure that he invited me over to his place on the weekend!
The Haag is about one hour drive from Amsterdam, and his apartment is only five minutes away from the beach! It is incredible that somebody lives that close to the beach! I grew up near by the beach in Japan, so living by the beach is the most attractive fact for me. I would love to do that in the future. What’s even better is that I can jog along the beach. Fantastic!
I really liked the atmosphere, so I would consider moving to this place. I love Amsterdam, but living by beach may beat it. There are tons of restaurants and bars along the beach. So I can come here when I feel like it to read or just to relax! I can see myself being here every night!

Bungy Jump! I have done something very similar about 10 years ago. It was fun but also awful. What’s bad is the going up and down in the air after cutting yourself loose once. Maybe when I come back here, I would try this. We'll see.

London, England

I visited London for a couple of days.

The night we arrived, my colleague brought me to Covent Garden for dinner. I had no idea about the place until I got there. And suddenly, all my memories came back as soon as I saw the place.

Yes! – I was here 10 years ago with my best friends!

All the shops were already closed, and it was raining and dark, but I remembered the cold morning I was standing there 10 years ago at the exact place. I remembered very small detailed things like me sipping a cup of coffee sitting by the side walk watching people shop. I remembered myself looking at the market thinking what a beautiful morning it was.

What is interesting is to realize how much I have changed or my living situation has been changed sine then. 10 years later, I am standing at the same location and the place hasn’t changed much, but I felt like there were two complete different “back-then-me” and “now-me” figures. I completely forgot about this place even though I visited London a couple years ago again. And now, my views to look at things are completely different. Well, now I can understand all the signs in English! (I didn’t speak English 10 years ago.) Since then, a lot of things have happened to me. I felt that I finally grew up! Well, I am thirty, so I guess I have grown up by now, of course.

A gift from Israel

A souvenir wine from Israel. Fiends of mine came to visit Amsterdam. Unfortunately, I was out of town, but it was very nice of them to bring a gift for me. They left the wine at the hotel they were staying, and I went to pick it up.
They are very much into food, and because of them I really could enjoy the food in Israel, so this wine must be very good. I thought to open it the night I picked it up, but I realized that it is too sad to sip nice wine alone. I will keep it for a special occasion. I’m very looking forward to it!

Hong Kong, China

On August 20th, 2006, I arrived in Hong Kong and stayed there for six days. My first feeling about Hong Kong was it is very similar to Japan. Probably because Hong Kong was a British colony until 1997, people did not look like the typical Chinese figures; like the way they dress, their hair styles are very similar to Japanese ones. Also, shopping malls, subway systems and underground shopping areas were very similar to Japan’s.

There are a lot of people in Hong Kong. The precise number of their population is about 7 millions. That’s a lot of people in that small piece of land. So, in and out of the city, there are massive amount of residence buildings, and each one of them is very very tall. The each apartment is not that big. As a matter of fact, my hotel room was the smallest one I’ve ever seen. There is a bed, and that is it. Probably the whole room was 2 meters by 3 meters including a bathroom.

The first day to work in Hong Kong, someone came to pick me up at my hotel, and he brought me to this local restaurant. According to him, people in Hong Kong come to local restaurant and have breakfast including rice soup, sandwiches, noodles etc. And what’s worth, it is very cheap! I think the sandwich he recommended (in the picture) cost about 1 dollar. This was a looks-like-SPAM and scrambled egg sandwich. It was pretty good.

My friends in Hong Kong took me to a floating restaurant, called JUMBO. This was the first time for them as well, so it was kind of an experiment for all of us. The reason the restaurant is on the water seems something to do with the taxation. Perhaps, if this was built on land, the tax (property tax?) would have been much higher. Anyways, because it is a floating restaurant, we had to take a boat to get there. It was fun! The course we had start with shark’s fin soup, abalone with nappa and five more dishes, and deserts. It was A LOT of food, and I couldn’t even touch the deserts!

I think this was very Chinese, or more like I felt that I was in Asia. This is a street that I take to go to work. This is not a back road or anything. This is an official street that people take. This street or side-walk is made right below the high-rise apartment building. The space from the ground to the ceiling is about 2 meter high. So, typical Asian people can go through here, no problem. But any Western peoole would feel uncomfortable. I walked with a Swedish person, and even though his head did not reach the ceiling, he was putting his head down, just to make sure that he did not hit his head.

The food that I enjoyed the most in Hong Kong was dim-sum. I love dim-sum! And they taste sooo good! The typical dim-sum that I know of is from China town in New York. And there is a big difference between that and this. There are no old ladies with pushing the dim-sum carts! I was told that it is an old style, and you don’t see it anywhere in Hong Kong, or maybe in China any more. I suppose some place like China town all over the world has a stopped-culture from China when mainland China is changing their culture every day.

	(top-left) Sweet buns, (top-left) Shrimp steamed dumplings and (front) pork buns.
	Xiaolongbao (Sho Lon Po in Japanese) is the best! Not in this particular restaurant, but I was lucky to be treated for the best Xiaolongbao in town! Basically, it has ground pork with vegetables inside with tasty soup. As you can see, there is a leaf of Chinese cabbage at the bottom of the basket. It is necessary so that the skin doesn’t stick to it; therefore, the juice inside is still kept within until it is in your mouth! oh, delicious!
	At dim-sum restaurants, there are a small bowl and a plate. When I was brought there for the first time, I was using the plate during the meal and kept the bowl for when soup is served. The second time I was there, I realized that Chinese people keep their bowl on the plate. It’s strange, huh? so I asked. Okay, the answer is… when you have Chinese food, you have fish bones or some garbage, right? Chinese people like to separate them from food. Understandable. What that means is that people use the bowl during the meal, and use the plate as a disposal space. Wait a minute! So I was using the garbage plate as a eating plate the last time… ouch! Okay, why didn’t this person tell me from the beginning!!

Every time I travel to different countries, I really am thankful for the opportunities that I have. That is because I am there not as a tourist, but a local visitor, so I get to visit places that typical tourists wouldn’t even know about. Okay, I also get to eat something not really eatable some times. But I feel that I am in the culture that is close to the local people live in.

… Of course, as always, I really enjoyed the food here! Hong Kong was delicious!

Paris, France III

The town view in Paris. The historical buildings are very attractive. The architectures and the city made out of them are very beautiful. Every few blocks, there is an intersection like the one in the pictures where more than 2 streets meet. This is a very common view in Paris, so all the intersections look very similar from one to another. It was very easy to think that we just passed this intersection a few minutes ago.

The windows are decorated by some flowers on apartment buildings.

I love Crêpe! The first morning in Paris, I had it for breakfast; Banana chocolate Crêpe. Actually, this was more like pancakes and chocolate and banana were inside. It looks almost like an omelet.

The last morning also, I had Crêpe. This one is more like it; it’s thin and folded more than once. But there is no whipped cream or powder sugar like how I know it from Japan. The Crêpes in Paris were thicker than what I am used to. Is this the local style?

The last night, we came back to the Eifel tower. Good bye, Paris!

Paris, France II

The last four days of July, I went to Paris with Josh who was visiting Amsterdam for two weeks. The trip was very easy; four hour ride with a train. I am still having difficulty getting used to going to one country to another without an airplane in Europe. Paris was something I was saving for my honeymoon. Oh well, who knows whether I will have such a thing in my life, so I decided to go when I had the chance. (I’m trying to be positive here.)

It was hot in Paris. It seems this year, we have a hot summer in Europe compared to other years. So, we were not very looking forward to coming back to the hotel every night because our hotel did not have an air conditioner. When we got back to the room, we were opening the door to get as much breeze as possible. It was actually not that bad if we opened the door. Of course, there are people passing by in the hall way, and they peek in the opened-door room. But we cannot be sensitive about that. The heat was incredible! I think it was close to 90 degrees. But of course, we have to close the door when we go to sleep, but the window is wide open without a screen. Because of that, every night, mosquitoes were after me. Every night! What’s frustrating is that Josh never got a mosquito bite! They just love my blood regardless of which country I am in!

Even with this horrible hot summer experiences, I actually enjoyed the trip very much. The picture is the Louvre museum. Because I read “The Da Vinci Code,” I was very curious about this museum. When I saw the pyramid, I was so excited! Also, I saw Mona Lisa and some other paintings that I’ve seen in magazines or in text books. It was great!

After the museum visit, we went into a café. The iced coffee that I ordered was serviced first with two containers. I could tell which one the sugar was because I could see it through the container, but the problem is the other one on the left. I thought it was milk because of its shape. After I poured some of that, I realized that some oil was floating in my coffee. It was actually dressing for the side salad for the sandwich we ordered. I wish they did not put dressing in such a container that totally could mislead when you order some drinks! Oh well, I ended up finishing my ice coffee though.

	When walking down the street, these little round sweets caught my eyes. This is something my sister asked me about a few weeks ago, and that’s when I learned about it. These are French sweets, called Macaron. I think I’ve seen them in the states, too.
	After passing by some bakeries, the next thing I saw was this one. It’s huge, and it looks like a hamburger! I tried it and it was very sweet. I am not a big fan of it (yet).

	We passed by this temporary amusement park, and there was this swing-thing. I love this since I was a child. Everything in this park was very old, especially the rides, and they all look like they’ve got some history behind them. Even the horses of the Mary-Go-Round have some characters in them. Actually, their faces crack me up. They look pretty funny.

Paris, France I

Hello Paris!

Israel VI

Oops! I thought I was going to home with all the good memories of Israel…

A lot of people suggested me that I should arrive at the airport three hours before my departure time. So I did. As I heard, there are so many security points to go through.
At the first check point, I was asked so many questions. At the second point, my bags were scanned. At the third point, the items inside of my bags were checked very carefully (somehow, they had a problem with my laptop, and I ended up spending about 10-15mins here). After this, I finally arrived at a checking-in counter with Alitalia. After checked in, I saw another security checking point, but because I had plenty of time left until the boarding time, I decided to hang around in where I was, having lunch and doing a little bit of work. After an hour and a half later, it was about the time to go through another security point, not knowing if this is the real ‘last one’. Who knows how many more are inside?

At this checking point, my bags are scanned many times. They asked me to take off my shoes and started asking bunch of questions; “it seems you checked in very early. When did you arrive here? What were you doing? Where were you for all those hours?” oh my goodness! I was told to come early! Now that they use it against me! I knew I didn’t have anything illegal, so I was calm, but of course, I started thinking about the worst case; will they bring me to “the small room” with mirror walls? What if they put me in a jail?

When I started thinking positively telling myself that everything was going to be fine, this security guy goes, “okay, take all your bags, and follow me.” O-oh. Not a good sign. I was very nervous, but I had to act normal and confident.
The place I was brought to was the third checking point where I was about two hours ago. This time, they dumped all my stuff from my bags into a basket and started scanning each item; like a pen, a wallet, a book etc one after another by two ladies. When I was worrying about my flight departure time, this guy comes up to me and says
“I am the supervisor here. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask me.”
So I did. “Could you tell me what’s going on?”
He goes, “I can’t answer that for a security reason.”
In my mind… “Then don’t tell me to ask you questions!!”

Anyways, after body-check, nothing came out, but they told me that I could not bring everything here, but only the necessary items that I need on the plane. The rest would be checked in. they told me that all my bags could not come with me, but the only option is to check in. So they brought me the black bag in the picture. (Not many people own this bag!) They put as much stuff as they could in this security bag, and the rest went into a little white box. They told me that I should get it at the baggage claim in Amsterdam. Okay – so I thought.

I watched a bag after another coming out at the baggage claim in Amsterdam, but I never saw my little white box. It actually went to Düsseldorf under someone else’s name. Great. After two days, I got the box, but I was really glad that I had the house key with me. Remember, I did not pack my stuff, but security guys did. So I didn’t know what I had and didn’t have in my new black bag!

”Bon Voyage” Thanks, but you are the one ruined my trip in the end!

After coming home, I realized why the security had to be that tight then. The war had started. But after I opened my new bag, I realized that I had tons of things like web camera, chargers, headphones, camera etc. All of them have cords. Maybe they looked very suspicious when they were scanned…?

Today, on the 17th of July, I spoke with someone in Israel on the phone. She lives in Tel Aviv but she is from Haifa, the city under the attack currently. She told me that all stores are closed and no one goes to work but stay at home right now. Her mother lives in Haifa, so she is trying to persuade that she should come to Tel Aviv for a little while.
Until before, something like this was “someone else’s life on TV” but now, I take it more realistically as in this is reality and possibility that could happen to anybody at any time.


The view of Alps in Italy. This looks very peaceful. If we want peace, we can create one, but why some people make a choice to go for a war without considering civilians?

Israel V

The view from the morning of my departure day on July 10th from Israel. The sea is very beautiful! The wave stoppers in the water create the equal distanced arcs one after another on the beach. It is pretty amazingly beautiful though it looks very much man-made for American hotels standing by the beach.

The view of Tel Aviv. The city is still developing. All high-end apartments have a large balcony. Even most of the smaller apartments have balconies to enjoy the sun!

In Israel, security guards always carry a gun standing in front of restaurants, hotels and other public buildings. To me as being Japanese, it is very awkward to see a man with a gun in public space except police officers. From what I heard, anybody can purchase a gun in Israel, so actually, it is a good idea to have security guards with guns. The guy in the picture is a security guard at my hotel, not a bell boy. Bell boys stay inside.

By the way, I happened to run into solders in Old Jerusalem. I think they were taking a field trip there. They all look like 18-20 years old. All Israelis are supposed to go to army, for three years for guys and two years for girls. It is possible form them to get a recall, up to the age of 40 years old for guys and 25 years old for girls.
Because everyone goes to the base, it looks like people continue with workouts even after the due is over. People are in a very good shape there, and I saw many people jogging all the time by the beach.
Those solders' commutes are usually by public transportation, and they all carry those machine guns. What that means is that it is pretty much a standard view to see people walking around with guns. I did not get used to this view or to get comfortable with it for the entire stay there.

…so, there were those signs at the airport entrance; the same level as no-smoking!?

Good-bye, Israel.

Israel IV

On July 14, I took a day tour to Jerusalem. The picture shows Old Jerusalem in Jerusalem. Inside the walls is Old Jerusalem.

The wall.

The views inside of Old Jerusalem. There were many orthodox Jews there.

At the corner of the balcony, a man is praying to the dome.

Close to the dome, there is a part of remaining West Wall. Some of the Jews pray by putting their heads on the wall. The praying spaces are separated for men and women. Somehow, the men’s space is larger. When entering this space, there is a security point to go through. Because this is a holy place, people, especially, women are forced to borrow a stole to hide their shoulders. I was one of them and because I had my sweater with me, I ended up wearing it in a very hot weather!

After the prayer, some people leave this place by walking backwards. I suppose it is rude to face their butts to the wall (the dome?).

Once entering to another street, everything is Arabic. Muslims live in this area.

	The church is a size of football field, and buildings are built on top of it. It’s like a town built on top of buildings. This is the view on top of the church. You can see that they are very old.

The spot where Jesus was put on the cross. There is a hole in front of the frame of Jesus, and this is the hole where the cross stood. I am not religious and I do not believe all the stories in the Bible, but when I see something like this in real life, it makes me think. There was a person whose name was Jesus, and he was actually executed on a cross. I have never imagined of such a place existed, and I never thought that I would be standing in front of that place. Other than this, there was a stone bed where Jesus’ body was washed after the execution. Something like this really happened 2000 years ago…

In souvenir shops, the most of the things are religious. The picture is statues made out of olive trees. These are really heavy. One of the Americans from my tourist group purchased a 1,000 dollar nativity statue set! It was pretty impressive, but it seems she spent about 2,000 dollars the last time when she was here. After purchasing this statue set, this sales guy was trying to sell her a Persian rug for another 1,000 dollars. Okay, she was really thinking about it but had guts to say no in the end. I’m very impressed by how some people shop for souvenirs!

This tour to Jerusalem turned out to be one of my most important trips in my life. Not that I will become religious from now on, but more like something opened up my eyes to something that I didn’t think was real. I certainly would like to recommend this trip to everyone!