a weblog of whereabouts & interests, since 2010
It’s still Saturday and I have arrived in a sunny and clear Seattle – same as Hong Kong was when we left it. It was the usual 3 1/2 hrs to Seoul with a connection time of an hour before we did the 9 hour trek east to the West coast of the USA. There was a diagram of the trajectory of the North Korean rocket in the Korean newspaper.
I am at Hong Kong International Airport, bags checked and all. I am always a little stunned when I am done packing to see how much stuff can be squished into a suitcase. (Many years ago when I used to pack the family car’s trunk for a road trip with everyone’s stuff and food, I had the same experience). I am stopping over in Seoul, and then on to Seattle for an arrival in the middle of the day.
I have packed my two bags and checked in on-line with Asiana Airlines. (And hey, nice to know the airspace is now clear of North Korean rockets. The rocket was launched this at 7.39am this morning but broke apart before leaving the atmosphere). I don’t have a scale to weigh my bags but I think I’m under the 70 lb mark.
Our project is rapidly nearing its end. I am leaving on Saturday, so I have to start packing up – and clear out the little food items I have squirreled away in the hotel room. These cute little cans of peas and mushrooms are from Japan and came complete with pull-top lids.
Here is an 8 am in the morning glimpse of the Da Peng town plaza as we drive by in the bus on the way to work. The pedestrian is listening to his music and the Tai Chi exercise group is at it in the background. I no longer read e-mails or news articles on my phone or iPad on the bus but just take the time to relax or even take a little nap if I can. 
This ‘Big Pasture’ beef jerky brought back to us from a colleague that visited Mongolia is very good ! It’s dry and breaks up as you chew it, so it doesn’t stick between one’s teeth the way jerky sometimes do. The black 肉
The picture is from NHK TV, showing a news conference at the site of the scheduled rocket launch from North Korea. Japan prime minister Noda has given permission for the Defence Ministry to shoot down the rocket with Patriot interceptor missiles if it strays over Japan airspace. (The missiles are parked in the grounds of the Defence Ministry in the heart of Tokyo : two giant green batteries surrounded by a stunning white blaze of blooming cherry trees). And on state TV in North Korea it was announced ‘Whoever intercepts the satellite or collects its debris will face resolute and merciless punishment by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’. I am keeping track of the events since I am scheduled to stop over in Seoul on the way to Seattle this weekend !
The sign is new – but the ’80 Step Sea House’ apartment building across from our hotel is not. (50 sq m is small – only 538 sq ft. 140 sq m is about 1,500 sq ft). Construction of the complex was completed a long time ago, more than a year. Some units might have been sold, but not a single person has moved in yet. Singapore-based investment guru Jim Rogers for one, says the property bubble in China is ‘over’, and that there will be no hard landing for the economy. If that is true, that is good news for everyone. 
The project team is going out to the new sites to provide support for the new users in the system. The map shows two of the three sites where the new system has started up : Taishan and Yangjiang. I stay put in Dameisha to provide support from a central place (at the offices at Daya Bay).
It’s the centennial of the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington DC. And the blossoms (called sakura) are out in Japan as well. Cherry blossom forecasts are available on-line for both places so that visitors can time it just right.
Check out Google’s ‘Street View guide to Japan: Cherry Blossom Season Edition’ with 360° views at the most popular sites there.
Here is the link http://www.google.com/intl/en-US/landing/japanview/#cherryblossoms
This is from a recent Wall Street Journal : a guy that takes his folding bicycle with on international trips to save his company money on taxi fare. And he refuses to fly business class on 16-hr flights to India, he says. ‘I would never dream of spending an extra thousand dollars to stay in a hotel room that’s slightly more comfortable than the bed I get in a $100 hotel room. Why would I do that with an airline seat?’.
Wednesday was Tomb Sweeping Day. I found the colorful little shrine on the sidewalk in Hong Kong near the hotel (those are incense sticks in the tray). Some enterprising individuals have started to offer tomb sweeping as a service, but it is not without controversy. Can one really outsource the activities that go with remembering someone very personal and close? (No – the point that the cartoon from the South China Morning Post is also making).
Life goes on in Hong Kong after the conclusion of a bitter election for new Chief Executive. Leung Chun-ying or Leung CY was elected by the 1,200-member Electoral Committee over Henry Tang and Albert Ho in a campaign marked scandals, dirty tactics and smears. The city also had some protests against the Electoral Committee, saying every resident should get to vote (of course). Then last week there was the arrest of two billionaire brothers Thomas and Robert Kwok who run Hong Kong’s top property developer in a high-profile corruption probe. They proclaimed their innocence at a news conference yesterday, and were released on bail.
The pictures are all from Monday night.
This outdoor-indoor exhibit is currently on display at Times Square in Hong Kong in Causeway Bay. The artist is Won Tin Yan, a graduate from the Department of Fine Arts at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2000. He has been making farm animals from junk wood pallets over the last 10 years. Here is his website http://www.wongtinyan.com/
Our belated holiday weekend (the Qingming Festival or Tombsweeping Festival) has arrived. We are all very happy – double happy – to get a break from the grind on the project. The start-up went well, but it is always necessary to stick around for a few weeks to coach the new users and to work out any remaining wrinkles with the new system. So Sunday night finds me at my old haunt – the Marriott Courtyard – on Hong Kong Island. I took a coach bus from the Shatoujiao border crossing to Kowloon Tong station, and from there a taxi to the Marriott on the western side of Hong Kong Island.
I may have to apply for an extension for filing my taxes since I don’t have the information for the foreign taxes I owe. Applying is easy enough : there is a Form 4868 to file and extensions for 2 months are then granted automatically. HOWEVER – as the form says ‘Even if you had a good reason for not paying on time, you will still owe interest‘.
Four of us worked late Friday night with the ‘Basis’ team (they provide technology and systems support). But in between work we had time to dash out for a dinner close by in the ‘expat’ village here by the nuclear power station. The wall decoration is from the restaurant. This Friday is no Friday anyway, because we work Saturday and Sunday as well .. but then Monday through Wednesday is Qingming Festival or the Tomb Sweeping holiday.
This is a street corner in Da Peng around 6.15pm from my perch on the bus back to the hotel. The weather has warmed up and is pleasant, so more people are out and about. Maybe the convenience store will sell more ice cream now (the ice box in the doorway). And the red lanterns, red carpet and red banners on the entry on the right must have been put of for the start of the Year of the Dragon, and was not taken down.
From the New York Times : ‘The Seattle Mariners rode a wave of Ichiromania in Tokyo to beat the Oakland Athletics in extra innings Wednesday in the opening game of the Major League Baseball season’.
Attendance at the Tokyo Dome was an overflowing 44,227 (officially 126% full), so it was great that Ichiro Suzuki gave his fans in Japan a performance to cheer about. He had four hits, Dustin Ackley a home run and a single in the go-ahead run in the 11th inning, which had the Seattle Mariners beat the Oakland Athletics 3-1 on Wednesday night’s season opener.
There is a second game Thursday night in Tokyo. Major League Baseball and the players’ association are using the series to assist rebuilding in Japan following last year’s earthquake and tsunami. On Tuesday some players and coaches traveled to the disaster area to conduct a baseball clinic.
One of these days I’m going to buy one of these durian (‘king of fruits’) from the fruit market close to where we go for lunch every day. The last time I had some was about 20 years ago on a trip to Malaysia (it is native to Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia). The fruit has high levels of protein, fat and carbohydrates but the trouble is the aroma of the smooth buttery segments inside : overpowering and offensive to so many people that it is banned in public places in Thailand and on public transit in Singapore. 
