Los Angeles - Goodbye for Now

Chiliburger Goodbye
After the Clippers game, we went for a late night chili burger.  Tommy's is famous in Los Angeles, it's open 24/7 and everything they sell comes with chili.

Los Angeles - Clippers Game

Jinxing the Streak
As we drove down Vermont through Little Armenia and Little Korea, we discussed the jinx.  We joked that our presence at Staples would surely halt the Clipper's winning streak at sixteen.  I envisioned a blow out, the angry crowd filing out in the middle of the third quarter.  Little Korea isn't so little anymore - it's come back from the riots and expanded.  A left turn onto Pico and the Korean gave way to Spanish.  We parked on Figueroa about a block away.  Thanks to the magic of the internet I'd prepaid $25 for a $10 parking space.

Los Angeles - More Laziness

At Least it Was Sunny
We started our day at a schwanky breakfast place on Wilshire called Milo and Otis.  It was good but overpriced.  When anglos serve food cooked by Mexican chefs it costs you double what it should.  I hoped the place was owned by the chefs.  After breakfast we walked to the Santa Monica pier and took photos.

Los Angeles - the Lazy Life

Nobody Walks in LA
After living in New York and Paris I've come to value a city's "walkability."  I like to be able wander out of my front door on foot, eating, shopping, jumping on a subway if needed.  It's a quality that Los Angeles lacks, or worse - mocks.  Nobody walks in LA.  You want breakfast?  Drive out of your hotel and keep driving. We lucked into a great place, not too far away by LA standards, in Santa Monica.  It's called Amandine and by all accounts, is a French patisserie run by Japanese transplants.

Palm Springs - Redux

Shopping With Foreigners
Our morning view, onto a snow-draped Mount Jacinto, was amazing.  We headed to breakfast and shopping at a nearby outlet.

Tucson - the Low Road

A More Interesting Way to Palm Springs

Rather than go back to Palm Springs on Interstate 10, we took the low road on 8, along the Mexican border and swung up around the western shores of the Salton Sea.

Tucson - Out and About

Basketball and Other Happenings
I see my nephews once a year, if that.  I've watched them grow up in intermittent flashes, kinda like a PowerPoint presentation. Slide 1: Caleb is 2 feet tall, Slide 2: Caleb is 4 feet tall, Slide 3: Caleb has a girlfriend, Slide 4: Here he is with me on a dusty basketball court in the desert asking "One more game, Uncle J?"  After he soundly beat me again he went on to beat his older brother.  Made me smile, but only on the inside.  The old lion kept his game face as he was pushed out of the pride.

Tucson - Prickly

Saguaro National Park
"You'd better go strapped", Miguel, my sister's fiance, suggested.  His normally smiley face had turned dark.  We'd told him of our plan to take a hike through Saguaro National Park and he wanted us to take one of his firearms. He must have seen some very bad things during his stint in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement department.  "It's the high season" he went on, referring not to cactus shooting but drug importation.  While he was fingering one of many padlocks on what I figured was his gun locker, I quickly led our small group to the car.  I'd never considered the possibility of running into drug mules in a national park but I figured it would be better to leave the gun play to the pros.

Tucson - As Much Mexican as Possible

and Homecooking of Course
Living abroad for so long, there are three things I miss a lot: burgers, Mexican food and home cooking.  I got all three in spades.  Jenny whipped up an amazing dinner that lasted for days.  While not stuffing ourselves with her home cooking, we made sure to stock up on Mexican.  I tried a Sonoran style hot dog for the first time.  As far as I can tell it's a normal hot dog loaded with all kinds of condiments like chiles, salsa, mayo and cheese.  It wasn't as good as I hoped for.  I made up for it with plenty of tacos and huevos rancheros for breakfast.

Tucson - The High Road

Up Over the Mountains
To get to Tucson, we took the high road, through the mountains.  The speed limit was an impossibly fast 75 miles per hour, much too fast for the creaking two-lane interstate.  I tried to keep a modicum of self-respect but even moving vans were passing us..  "Babe, you ok?  Your eyes are getting really small!"  Of course, she asked me this after waking from a short, deep nap.  What did she expect?  Two red-eye flights and hours of sandy monotony were taking a toll.

Palm Springs - Refuel

Elitist Breakfast
It didn't look like much when we checked in but the next morning in the light of day, our hotel impressed.  Dodo booked it using a chunk of award points accumulated through her travels.  Most of its charm was lost on me however, as my brain wrestled with the confusion of bright sunlight at midnight.

Los Angeles - Second Slice

Star Struck
We shared our Tokyo to Los Angeles flight with a Japanese movie star.  According to Dodo he starred with Tom Cruise in the Last Samurai and I took her word for it.  We landed to a crystal clear Los Angeles morning, we could see all the surrounding mountains.  The smog is no more, apparently they've cracked down and eliminated it.  While getting the car at Enterprise, I checked and re-checked my pockets.  Too many young salesman in starter suits shaking my hand and calling me by my first name.  After years in the more formal cultures of France and Singapore, I found their easy familiarity strange.  It felt like a con man was selling me a recently "borrowed" car that would probably break down once on the freeway.

Narita - More than an Airport

A Japanese Pause
We carved our Tucson trip into three easy-to-digest slices, the first being an eight hour layover in Tokyo.  Well, not exactly Tokyo but the town whose namesake, Narita, has been subsumed by the airport.  We stored our carry on luggage at the arrival terminal, something still possible in Japan, and took the train one stop into town.  It was cold, in the upper forties, but there was little breeze in the narrow lanes. Many of the small stores were just opening for the day, the shop keepers placing their wares along the sidewalks.  Narita is known for two specialties: traditional rice crackers and barbecued eel.

Tokyo - Goodbye for Now

I'm Gonna Miss You

Tokyo - Yanaka Neighborhood

Going Back in Time
Yanaka is the only neighborhood to survive the WWII firebombings and as such, it looks like no other area in Tokyo.  This is the first time either of us had visited.  Unlike the rest of Tokyo, there are few high rise buildings.  There are a lot of weathered wooden single family homes, many covered in vines and flowers.  No one house looked like another, as if each had been built by hand by the great great grandparents of the current tenants.

Tokyo - the Signs

Open for Interpretation
Like any large city, Tokyo comes with instructions.  There are signs telling you what to do and how to do it.  However, since I don't know Japanese I often applied my own spin.  Are you only required to stop when a serious man in a hat is crossing?

Tokyo - Sumo

Fall Tournament Live
The fall tournament was showing live on television.  Every day, no matter what we were up to, I would harass Dodo to go back to the hotel from 4pm to 6pm to watch.  At first she did so just to keep me happy but after a few days she got caught up in the drama.

Tokyo - Neon

Shooting in Shibuya

Only Ginza has more neon than Shibuya.  At night, you feel like you're walking inside a giant light bulb.

 

Tokyo - Back to the Maze

Sayonara Sapporo
On this visit we stayed near Shiba Park, home of the Tokyo Tower.  Neither could be seen from our hotel window.

Sapporo - Wandering

Without Tour Guides

After eight glorious hours we popped out of bed and hit the streets, just the two of us. Like Toronto, Minneapolis and many other winter cities, Sapporo can be criss-crossed on foot underground.  Our hotel was linked to the underground by a small staircase in the lobby.  We joined the throng, who were walking, shopping and pondering the many small art exhibits.  These strange dolls peered up at the ceiling as if expecting the arrival of a spaceship.  

 

Hokkaido - Sapporo

Greysville
I'd only known the word Sapporo from their famous beer.  It was nice to put a face to the name.  It was cold when we arrived, near the freezing mark.  Perhaps that colored my perception.  The buildings were hunkered down together, trying to find warmth in numbers.  What little light there was struggled through the clouds to get there. 

Hokkaido - Soba Master

It Ain't As Easy as it Looks
After our Otaru afternoon we headed to the outskirts of Sapporo for a soba making class.  If you're not familiar with soba noodles, they're made from buckwheat and are often eaten cold with a dipping sauce.  The word "soba" means buckwheat in Japanese.  I was really looking forward to this and it didn't disappoint.  This is the finished product that Dodo, David (a colleague of Dodo's) and I made.  Looks good, right?  The small round container holds the dipping sauce.

Hokkaido - Being a Tourguide

Comic Timing Helps
As I explained earlier, our tour guides were from Hong Kong.  One, shown below, is married to a Japanese lady and lives in the outskirts of Tokyo.  He had some interesting insights into Japanese culture and he delivered them with great comic timing.  I knew this only because after listening to him speak in Cantonese for five or ten minutes the entire bus would erupt in laughter.  I asked for a translation of a few of his stories.  Here they are....

Hokkaido - Otaru

Cheesecake City!
Otaru is a small port town of 130,000 people on the Sea of Japan.  It's a thirty minute drive north of Sapporo and is famed for sushi, glass works, ice cream and cheesecake.  We took our bus from Noboribetsu, past Sapporo to Otaru for lunch and an afternoon stroll.  Dodo and I stormed right past the glass works and everything else on our way to a lunch warm-up of cheesecake and coffee.

Hokkaido - Goodbye Hotsprings!

Thanks for Nothing, Yukijin
Our two days of hot springs in Noboribetsu were up, we were heading north to Sapporo.  On the way out I took a shot of Yukijin, the demon whose job it is to guard over the hot springs.  Looks like he was undergoing a distracting touch up.  In my two days I'd spent a grand total of 2 minutes soaking in our hot springs tub - it was just way too hot for me.  I think the thermometer was broken and now I know why.

Hokkaido - Driving to the Rim

Man = Insect
On a late evening drive home we stopped at a scenic lake for phototaking just as the sun was setting.  Light flurries were being whipped about by a slicing wind.  I was so cold that I had a hard time focusing the lens.  It was a very large, round lake with a mountain range poking out of its depths.  I suspected we were standing on top of a volcano, at the rim of an old caldera that had filled with water over the millenia.  I shrugged off the thought, it was simply too big.

Hokkaido - Long Live the King

King Crab and Co.
When you can't read Japanese, you rely on context.  Clearly we were in store for a crab and seafood lunch.  Not just an ordinary one, our tour guide promised, but a superior one. He'd made an earlier observation in his tour-guide-slash-stand-up act: "What's the difference between the Chinese and the Japanese?  Simple, in China everything good is exported but the Japanese keep the best things to themselves."  Part of this theory was about to be put to the test.

 

Hokkaido - Edo Wonderland

Historical Theme Park?
I didn't know what to make of this place, a re-creation of an Edo village. If nothing else, it was photogenic.  I would've liked to learn more Edo period history but that wasn't to be.  I settled for photo taking and cheesy samurai reenactments.

Hokkaido - Setting the Scene

Let Me Help You With the Big Picture
In Asia many companies have an annual trip to reward employees for their hard work.  Not all of these trips are created equal, this one being grander than most due to the Boss, a hard drinking bon vivant originally from China, now transplanted in Australia.  This is the same Boss whose bus of a Mercedes I tool around Singapore in. The Boss, seated on the front left of this photo, does everything in a big way.  His aim, from what I can tell, was two-fold: for us to enjoy as much expensive food and pricey sake as possible while draining from the Frenchies a maximum of Euros.  You see, this was an all expenses paid trip a la my former French company.  Every bite and sip tasted the better for it.  All I packed were my fancy Paris sweaters and an appetite.

Hokkaido - First Imressions

Natural Beauty
After a one and a half hour flight from Tokyo we landed in another world.  The Russian on the airport signs stopped me dead in my tracks.  I later checked the map and noted that Sapporo is closer to Vladivostok than it is to Tokyo.  In addition to Japanese and Russian, the signs were in Chinese and Korean, all close neighbors

Sapporo - Coming Up Next

Another Dodo Company Trip
I missed Dodo's company trip last year due to my Paris work schedule.  Luckily I'll make this one.  We're headed to Hokkaido, Japan's northern most island.  It's home to Sapporo beer and a famous ramen loaded with seafood.  Included in our itinerary is a visit to a volcano, walks along a downtown canal and soba noodle making.  We leave on Monday night, spend a day in Tokyo, then fly to Sapporo for a five day stay, then another three days in Tokyo.  Sapporo shares a latitude and weather pattern with Syracuse, so I'll be packing my sweaters and leather coat.  After this trip, I'll have experienced this wacky, interesting country from top to bottom.

Singapore - Babbling in Chinese

At Least I Passed...
I was nervous throughout, you can hear it in my voice.  I said "ummm" a thousand times, so embarrasing.  Enjoy.  Click on this LINK to watch the video.

Singapore - Cramming for Finals

Three Minutes of Hell
I never liked giving speeches. I've become better at them over time but they're still not my favorite.  Tomorrow night I have my Chinese class final exam.  It's simple, get up in front of the class and speak in Chinese for three minutes.  Probably going to be the longest three minutes of my recent life.  The speech is written - I'm memorizing it.  I've got a deck of pictures to go along with it to help my recall.  The teacher will film it, if it's not overly horrendous I will post the video.  As you may be able to tell from the few English words, it's mainly about family.

你好。大家晚上好。
我叫Josh. 我的女朋友叫我小明。
我不喜欢 这个名字。我喜欢大明。
这是我的女朋友叫 Jean。我叫她豆豆。她是新加破人。
她喜欢笑。
她有一个妹妹，叫 Joanne.
和一个弟弟，叫 Ben.
Ben 有一个女儿，叫 Giselle.
我不是新加破人。
我不是英国人。
我不是 澳大利亚人。
我是美国人。
我来自纽约。
我家没有八个人。我家有四个人。 爸爸，妈妈，姐姐和我。
他们住在美国。
这是我的爸爸，叫Dan。他是教授。
这是我的妈妈和她的朋友门。她叫Sal. 她也是教授。
我的妹妹叫Amaya。
她有三个孩子。一个女儿和两个儿子。
他们叫Caleb,Mach and Dee.
我没有孩子。
我和我的女朋友 一起住。
我们住在波东巴西。
我的女朋友 是 CFO。
她的工作很忙。
这个星期她在印度.
我是顾问
这是巴黎。我在巴黎工作了三年。
我在学习中文和法文。
我喜欢做饭。
我喜欢喝咖啡。
我喜欢旅行。这是韩国。

Singapore - Destruction

Top Down, All Around
Were they dropped from helicopters or assembled on top of the building?  They chewed noisily, reducing the building next door floor by floor.  They reminded me of the hungry caterpillars you see on nature shows, biting down a jungle tree one leaf at a time.  Our living room became brighter and breezier by the day, the neighborhood microclimate shifting slightly.

Singapore - to be Four...

Prepping for 1st Grade
Nowhere are parents as crazy as here in Singapore.  There is a Hokkien word used here, "kiasu", which translates to "a fear of losing that is used to describe someone who is overly competitive." While we were dropping off Jean's niece at ballet class this morning at the mall, I noticed many small businesses aimed at kiasu parents.  They were targeting parents of four year olds - here are some of the classes they can attend to prepare themselves for 1st grade!!

Singapore - More Language

From the Pan to the Fire
Chinese makes French seem like a leisurely hobby.  The day after I started French class I also began a Chinese class.  It meets Tuesday and Thursday nights for two hours at a time but demands daily study twice that.  Whereas I study two hours of French outside of class per week, I easily spend ten times that on Chinese.

Singapore - Language

Trying to Maintain
While in Paris I picked up French by osmosis.  I never got a formal introduction to the language other than a year in seventh grade.  Sitting in meetings all day long listening to French in a business context will only get you so far.  So, here in Singapore, I'm trying to fill in the gaps.  I'm taking a French class once a week on Monday nights for three hours.

Singapore - Sunrise

Haze Amplified
The haze has subdued somewhat, though there is still enough to enhance the sunrises.

Singapore - Haze

Sumatran Forest Fires to Blame
Just when my basil sprouts the haze appears.  Murphy's law.  Visibility is low but it's not at an unhealthy level yet.  The sun was out there this morning as I watched the Giants lose to the Cowboys but it could barely be seen.

Singapore - Sun Power

Growing
I'm ashamed to admit that I've done nothing much to the roof as far as plants go.  However, with a nudge from the girlfriend, we bought some pots and soil and planted a few seeds of Basil on Saturday afternoon.  We bought the seeds in Syracuse during our summer sojourn.

Gold Coast - Surf Lessons

Only the Brave Need Apply
The thermometer was stuck in the high 60's and the clouds were there to stay.  Only four were brave enough for the surf lessons: The Bro, Sis, Sis-in-Law and Sis' Girlfriend.  They wouldn't admit it but as we waited at the meeting point they hoped the instructor had overslept or decided to cancel.  When he appeared, cheery and loud, barking out orders, they slumped and dragged their feet.  They slowly donned their wetsuits.  They were joined by another student who'd driven down from Brisbane that morning.

Gold Coast - California Parallels

It's Eerie
If they didn't drive on the left and speak with a funny accent you'd swear you were on the Pacific Coast Highway somewhere near Del Mar or Oceanside.  The Hoop pines that line the roads remind me of the Torrey pines in Southern California.

Gold Coast - Bushwhacking

Binna Burra
Lamington National Park is 25 miles inland and spreads west from the strangely named town of Binna Burra.  It's a subtropical forest growing from the remnants of a large volcano.  Most of the park is on a plateau 3,000 feet above sea level.  Lamington is one of the fifty reserves that comprise the Gondwana rain forests of Australia.  The name refers to the ancient singular land mass when Antarctica was joined to Australia.

Gold Coast - the Beaches

They're Spectacular
Though reminiscent of Southern California, the beaches here have a special beauty.  The skies look to have been painted in watercolors without a hint of imperfection.  This was shot with a miniaturization filter, giving a blur to the skyscrapers that tower over this stretch of beach. 

Gold Coast - Native Species

Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary
In the 1940's an enterprising horticulturist bought a tract of land near the beach,  He lured the local birds with twice daily feedings, making his inland flower farms less popular amongst the feathered set.  It has since grown to house many of Australia's native species.

Gold Coast - Touchdown

Cribs
After a less than enjoyable overnight flight in which I got about an hour's sleep I was happy to reach our home.  One benefit of coming to the beach in the winter is you can live like a superstar for cheap.  Ok, perhaps not cheap but less expensive than 5 hotel rooms.  Our house is a half mile from the beach on a quiet street.

Gold Coast - Here We Come

Is it Vacation?
If you're unemployed, can you actually take a vacation?  "Vacation from what?" those around me ask.  I see their point, I guess.  However, this one was not my idea.  This is a Chan clan family vacation to Australia's "Gold Coast", just south of Brisbane.  There will be 8 of us: me, Jean, Mom, Sis, Sis's girlfriend, Brother, Sis in Law and Niece.  It's a surfer's paradise but since we'll be visiting in their winter, the highs will only be in the low 70's and much chillier at night.  We're taking a 10pm flight tonight and will arrive seven hours later.

Singapore - Climbing over the Roof

New York to Singapore Direct
Flight SQ 21 is famous - it's the longest commercial flight in the world - 18.5 hrs from Newark to Singapore with no stopovers.  There are no coach or first class seats, it's all business class.  Where there would normally be seven seats across, there are only four: one on each window and two next to each other in the middle.

Brooklyn - Two Days

Whirlwind
After Sunday golf with Che and the crew and Dodo's mall shopping, we hopped into the rental and finished off the final 80 miles to Brooklyn.  We walked all around, cruised the subway and took cabs.  There are many more bike lanes - even a few that slice through Times Square.

New York - B&B

Communing in Sugar Loaf
We drove down 17 for about 4 hours and settled at our B&B in Sugar Loaf.  Not sure they're a "community of craftsmen" but there were a block or two of arts and crafts stores around the corner from where we stayed.

Syracuse - Relaxing

Underappreciated
I've not spent so much time here in twenty years.  It was relaxing and fun.  I played a lot of golf, spent time with the old lady and Geppie.  Ate tons of ice cream from Gannons.  Ate fish sandwich at my favorite place in Baldwinsville.  If I ever hit lotto, I will spend each summer here.  Sal is all back together wrist-wise.  No sling anymore and identically arm-strong.  Goodbye Cuse, I am gonna miss you.

Montreal - Odds and Ends

A Great Three Days
I always liked Montreal but now I like it much more.  I guess vacationing there turned up the love.