Overnight, the snow fell and beganto settle. In the morning, we went to the onsen which was the hottest one I've been to yet. It had an outside part and the snow came down hard. Weird sensation, immersed in boiling water with mini icicles landing on my face. (And everyone being naked, of course.)
Not too hot. Not too cold. Just right.
By the time we arrived back at the house, the roads were covered.
Happy New Year's Eve.
I haven't been back in Tokyo for 5 minutes and I'm in Sendai to bring in the New Year. The snow just started falling.
Not your typical resolution from me this year. I made so many decisions this year on a number of things, especially concerning the Hong Kong move. I don't regret any I chose, but I wish I had been more confident in listening to my initial reactions. From now on, I've decided to trust my instincts a lot more.*
Any resolutions this year?
* Malcolm Gladwell would be proud.
The Japanese version of the Crazy Frog. This is 'oshiri kajiri mushi' - roughly translated as 'bottom biting bug'.
Because I had to endure it. Think of it is a belated X-mas present.
Considering Hong Kong has less English faux pas', I think this is my favourite spelling mistake so far in my entire time in Asia. I guess you can't enter the water, but it sounds like Snoopy is proud of his belly. Which is full of turkey, hold the stuffing.
(taken in Snoopy's World - 12th December, 2007)
But I did get a present today - exactly today, the severance pay came through. Also, I found out that another guest will take my hotel room from the 5th January so I will only lose 1 week's worth of deposit, and get back 3 weeks, which is an added bonus. So I guess it's over - a big wave of relief has passed over and now I don't have to look back.
I could get all bitter about how much my boss screwed not just me but all of us over, and how his lack of management skills are second to none, but I don't really care anymore. Spilled milk and all that. Or is it spilt milk?
Just back from a delicious Mexican meal to celebrate - how festive and Japanese. Now, some mulled wine I made (get me!), Christmas cake and an episode or two of Desperate Housewives.
Again, love you all x
This really was one of the most remarkable and extraordinary sights I have ever seen. I was walking through Sha Tin park (see the entry before) and I came to an open area of grass, with benches around it. The day was, as usual, hot, so when I saw a woman sitting on the bench with an umbrella I was more than confused. Not that it was strange because the umbrella was open and she might have been protecting herself from the sun. No, she was sitting in the shade, and the umbrella was fully open and dripping wet.
Why would it be wet?
And then it clicked.
When I saw the sprinkler in the grass.
Every minute or so, the sprinkler would come round to her and she would hold the umbrella up to protect herself from getting wet.
How insane is that? Why wouldn't she just move to an empty bench?
I was momentarily stunned and when I went to get my camera, her sensible friend who was sitting further away shouted to her about me, and they started laughing, so I politely backed off. I regret not taking a picture every day.
On Wednesday, I went to the centre of the New Territories, to an old area called Sha Tin, formerly a market town. There were a few temples, the remains of a walled village (Tsang Tai) and a nice park. It was nice enough but nothing of great interest to warrant it a tourist destination. However, I saw one of the most extraordinary sights here, which warrants its own entry.
One feature is Snoopy's World, just outside the newly developed shopping mall. This is a playground for children, with a small boat ride and statues of all the characters. The last is my favourite by far:
I also had a look at laptops in the electronics store as mine, as wonderful as he is, was really starting to play up. Important later.
I moved further down through Kowloon to the harbour, to the Avenue Of The Stars, a promenade dedicated to the movie industry of Hong Kong. Interesting fact, Jackie Chan is actually Chen - no idea why we distorted his name. It was also here that a woman stopped me and I participated in her survey about tourists; my answers (from the beginning of my stay where I came over for business, to the end where I was unemployed) made for contradictions all over the place and she was getting really confused as the questionnaire didn't allow for this narrative.
I finished my day in the Mid-levels, an area high up the mountain on Hong Kong side where many foreigners live. The synagogue was well hidden away, underneath a tall building, and behind 4 security guards.
I was searched, and metal detectored, but I made it through to the Wednesday night buffet. The food was great (roast beef, baked potatoes, challah, smoked salmon) but there was a function on in the main hall, so the place was deserted (apart from me, there were 3 Israeli, American and French families). Seems a shame to have a 'do' on the same night as the restaurant's highlight of the week - like the community is losing its own money. Did I mention the food was great?
As I expected, Hong Kong through the eyes of a tourist has a lot more going for it. There are certain things I'll miss about the place, but none so desperately that I would consider living here again. It's a fascinating place, as all places are. However, there are too many things that I just wouldn't want to deal with on a daily basis. The general public are, both generally and publicly, rude and selfish.
I've seen everything I wanted to, and would advise anyone that is interested in visiting Hong Kong, that a few days (plus one more for Macau) is more than enough.
So I'm not leaving on a bad note - in fact I'd be happy in the far future to come and see how the place has changed.
I'm really looking forward to going back to Japan, for a number of reasons. One of which can be described best in 3 words:
Bourne. In. Odaiba.
That's right, I might be the last person in the World to see The Bourne Ultimatum, and I know it's out on DVD, but the cinema in Odaiba is still showing it next week - I love that place.
Hong Kong Post Office staff are M.E.A.N.
I've been trying to pack for the last few days, working out how best and where best to send all of my things, with only a 20 kilo limit on the plane and my life's possessions with me. It didn't help that I'd recently brought a few more jumpers over from England, and that I'd just stocked up on toiletries.
I decided to send a box to England (surface, which takes about 6 weeks) and a box to Japan (air, about 10 days). I went to the Post Office to pick up a couple of 10 kilo boxes and began organising them.
Yesterday I sent the England box. Surface weight is measured by kilo; I'd already taped my box up and it weighed as 7.06 kilos. That's 60 grams, not 600 grams - yet the woman charged me at 8 kilos!! There was no talking to her, she wouldn't have any of it. For a measly 60 grams.
Today, I was more prepared and didn't seal the box until I weighed it; air is charged by every 0.5 kilos. The box was 8.52 kilos - the man said it would cost 9 kilos. For crying out loud - 20 grams over?! These people have no heart.
So I took out the first small thing I saw; a bar of soap.
I'm one of the suckers who buys bottled water because, for as much as I know it's not any different, I feel better for it. However, water from the tap in Hong Kong is not good at all. It tastes like soil, or patatoes freshly picked from the ground, even when shrouded by a mask of lemon. And then I saw the description for this teabag:
It's all starting to make sense.
I was waiting for the shuttle bus in the hotel lobby and popped into the public toilet. I did a double-take when I saw the bin. Look past the tissue and cigarette box. Is it...could it be.... why, it's egg shell!
(taken in hotel public toilet - 8th December, 2007)
Who takes a hard-boiled egg with them to the toilet? And if you do happen to have one in your bag, when does inspiration strike and you decide to peel it there? After all, you're either returning from a trip (wait until you get to your room) or you're heading out (can't you wait).
You may think it's equally weird for someone to be taking photographs of the contents of bins, but I'm showing you the world for what it really is.
Careful kids, there's a lot of strange people out there.
I'm a little bit drunk right now, so this will be a slightly more personal entry. I'm trying to pack and organise belongings into piles I'll send to England and Japan. I'm also trying to eat my way through the remaining food in my fridge and on my shelves, but most of it now is condiments. However, I did open a bottle of wine:
I've been reading a book by Jeremy Clarkson (thanks, Dad) and I'm not sure I like the guy - he's very homophobic to the point of closet denial - but he has some excellent points to make. How can I hate anyone who shares my personal mantra for the rudest act any human can carry out:
There are many ways of insulting a man. You could snort with derision at pictures of his children or you could chop him in half with a chainsaw. But I've always argued that the biggest insult of them all is to turn up late for a meeting. It's the stiletto subtlety of the message that hurts most of all, the quiet implication that your time is worth more than the other guy's. That it'll be OK to leave him hanging around because, hey, what else is there for him to do.So when my coworker and I were invited to a BBQ with one of our newly-forged Chinese friends for last Saturday, it seemed like a good way to distract from the troubles the very day before. That morning I spoke to him from my hotel phone - no more work, no more work mobile - to confirm that we'd meet at a station in the New Territories at 5:30pm.
Hi, it's 5 o'clock - we're going to be late so we'll meet you at 6:30 instead.30 minutes before we were meant to meet, and the fact that I wasn't in the room wasn't a good indication that I had left already? There was another message:
Phil, it's 7pm and we've been waiting for 30 minutes. I guess you're not coming. It would have been nice if you'd told us so we didn't waste our time waiting. We're all pretty pissed off.How can I even reply to that? So I decided not to bother, but had a lovely email from him the next morning:
Thanks for letting us know you weren't coming last night!We haven't spoken since. I guess I'm over it, but this was meant to be a mate who I'd moved to Hong Kong with, and he really thought so little of me. I guess I'm biased because I was pretty upset, but is there any justification for this behaviour?
The real beginning of my first week of freedom, I wanted to celebrate with something purely entertaining, so what better place than a theme park? Ocean Park is Asia's equivalence of SeaWorld, with a few land animals on top. The park was a short bus ride to the Southern Part of HK Island, situated near Aberdeen, a small fishing village famous for its floating restaurant, Jumbo - probably the only thing in Hong Kong that I would have like to do but won't. Mid-week was an ideal time to go as it was pretty empty.
The first exhibit I went to was the Giant Panda House, which was the home to two recently acquired pandas from China, Le Le (the black and white one) and Ying Ying (the white and black one). They were very playful but I wouldn't get too close.
