Going East

Photo of the day

2011-04-29T09:30:00.001+09:00

Walking to work

Hong Kong views part II

2010-12-07T20:34:00.000+09:00

Views from my current apartment:

From Views Hong Kong

Hong Kong views part I

2010-12-07T20:32:00.000+09:00

Views from the serviced apartment (first month of stay in Hong Kong)

From Views Hong Kong

MEGI is coming

2010-10-20T00:30:00.000+09:00

See here:

Welcome to Hong Kong, Megi. But please be gentle ....

Photo of the day #New Neighborhood

2010-07-18T20:17:00.000+09:00

I moved! And now I live near a pretty crazy neighborhood, Akihabara. Always fun!

Another Tokyo picture

Photo of the day #Orange

2010-07-18T20:12:00.000+09:00

Excitement in the middle of the night: watching Dutch football from Japan

Another Tokyo picture

Photo of the day

2010-04-12T20:35:00.002+09:00

Picnic under the tree.

From Blogger Pictures

Another Tokyo picture

Photo of the day

2010-04-10T22:35:00.002+09:00

7 hours.
3 people.
3 bikes.
34 laps, ie about 250km
29th, not bad.

From Blogger Pictures

★７ｈロードチーム
29位 331-ＲＡＢＯＢＡＮＫ
タイム 7:04:12.64
ラップ 34周
トップとの差 -5 Laps
時速 34.6km/h

Another Tokyo picture

Photo of the day

2010-04-02T20:58:00.001+09:00

Jazz and Dixieland in Jerusalem

From Blogger Pictures

Another Tok-ehhhh Jerusalem picture

Photo of last week

2010-04-02T20:56:00.001+09:00

Barrio Santa Cruz, Sevilla

From Blogger Pictures

Another Tok-ehhh Sevilla picture

Photo of the night

2010-03-16T21:44:00.001+09:00

Premium voyageur .... Not bad!

From Blogger Pictures

Another Tokyo picture

Photo of the day

2010-03-16T20:19:00.001+09:00

Summertime:

From Blogger Pictures

Another Tokyo picture

Glowy Tokyo

2010-03-13T19:32:00.001+09:00

Tokyo/Glow from Nathan Johnston on Vimeo.

hattip Alexandre Gervais

Photo of the day

2010-03-13T16:15:00.000+09:00

Learning from mistakes by others: reading the nearly 2500 pages on Lehmans demise:

From Blogger Pictures

Photo extra of the day

2010-03-04T21:07:00.002+09:00

Amateur bluescafe

From Blogger Pictures

Another Tokyo picture

Photo of the day

2010-03-04T19:49:00.001+09:00

Train is leaving ...

From Blogger Pictures

Another Tokyo picture

Photo of the day

2010-03-01T13:24:00.000+09:00

Guess I liked it:

Another Tokyo picture

Photo of the day

2010-02-28T13:52:00.003+09:00

Tsunami-warning on TV.

Expected to arrive in 30 minutes here, about 1 meter to 2 meter.

From Blogger Pictures

Another Tokyo picture

Photo of the day

2010-02-26T13:18:00.001+09:00

Watching the tele during lunchtime.
Why?
Figure skating of course!
Olympics live.

From Blogger Pictures

Photo of yesterday

2010-02-26T13:16:00.002+09:00

Eat at the sidewalk:

From Blogger Pictures

Another Tokyo picture

Photo of the day

2010-02-20T17:25:00.001+09:00

Weather is getting much better! Enjoying being outside again:

From Blogger Pictures

Another Tokyo picture

Photo of the day

2010-02-02T08:43:00.000+09:00

About to take off, first plane to leave:

(destination Hong Kong, in case you wonder)

Another Tokyo picture

Photo of the day

2010-01-29T20:55:00.003+09:00

Our coffee man making coffee:

From Blogger Pictures

Another Tokyo picture

Photo of the day

2010-01-27T13:24:00.004+09:00

On my way to lunch, I took the longer road to enjoy the sun.

From Blogger Pictures

Another Tokyo picture

Photo of the day

2010-01-02T00:08:00.000+09:00

Beautiful moon out here today.
Happy New Year everyone!

Photo of the day

2009-12-31T14:12:00.002+09:00

Lunch above Tokyo Station

Another Tokyo picture

Photo of the day part II

2009-12-30T22:07:00.000+09:00

End of year karaoke

Another Tokyo picture

Photo of the day

2009-12-30T20:33:00.002+09:00

End of year sushi

Another Tokyo picture

Shibuya Crossing

2009-12-25T18:25:00.001+09:00

It is always fun to see so many people crossing at the same time in all directions:

Photo of the day

2009-12-25T18:24:00.000+09:00

Italia? No, this is also Tokyo:

Colleagues and Activities

2009-12-24T22:33:00.003+09:00

Photo of the day

2009-12-24T21:30:00.000+09:00

Tsukada-san creative on our way to Gala, for a ski trip

Photo of the day part IV

2009-12-23T18:53:00.001+09:00

Leaving the train:

Another Tokyo picture

Photo of the day part III

2009-12-23T18:43:00.000+09:00

In the train:

Another Tokyo picture

Photo of the day part II

2009-12-23T18:40:00.001+09:00

Train arriving :

Another Tokyo picture

Photo of the day

2009-12-23T17:45:00.000+09:00

Waiting for the subway

Another Tokyo picture

Photoos of the day

2009-12-20T22:57:00.002+09:00

Tokyo night life

Batman in White?

Shopping bicycle

Photo of the day

2009-12-19T16:11:00.000+09:00

An exceptionally clear day; you can even see the mountains in the distance.

Event of the day

2009-12-18T18:28:00.003+09:00

Quake. Very Early Morning. Woke me up.

Source: http://www.jma.go.jp/en/quake

Photo of the day

2009-12-17T19:22:00.001+09:00

Smoking room near the Office. Smoking outside is prohibited.

Photo of the day

2009-12-14T22:31:00.003+09:00

Reward after 5k run:

And this was the run:

Photo of the weekend

2009-12-13T21:13:00.003+09:00

Yes, I missed some days. Been a bit busy. Here we go for the weekend: Akihabara shop:

And street in Marunouchi:

Photo of the night

2009-12-11T05:09:00.000+09:00

2 AM Tokyo time:

Another Tokyo picture

Photo of the day

2009-12-09T13:51:00.000+09:00

Think my lunch today deserves an entry:

Another Tokyo picture

Photo of the day

2009-12-08T19:59:00.000+09:00

Waiting in line to have your picture taken with a tree.

By IPhone on the move

Photo of the day

2009-12-07T23:29:00.000+09:00

It's getting cold!

I cycled through Tokyo and counted in about 20 minutes 175 taxis standing idle, waiting for passengers. And I only counted those pointing in my direction, I am sure there were at least as many pointing in the opposite direction.

Photo of the day II

2009-12-06T23:49:00.002+09:00

Quality food:

By IPhone on the move

Photo of the day

2009-12-06T18:30:00.001+09:00

Would that really be worthwhile, 130 yen?

By IPhone on the move

Photo of the day

2009-12-06T00:04:00.002+09:00

Taking the subway:

Last Update Worldwidele and spam

2009-12-04T22:40:00.004+09:00

This will be the last time I will update about Worldwidele.com and their dodgy marketing methods.

See here and here for my earlier posts.

As a quick search on the subject on the internet will show you, I was not the only one who had his email account taken over and abused for the sending of spam in order to promote their website. As you can also see in the comment section of this blog, there are more people with negative experiences in relation to worldwidele. Please note I have not verified their claims, so I can not say whether it is true or not. But the current steady stream of daily visitors to my blog based on the posts of Worldwidele says enough, there are a lot of people out there being spammed by Worldwidele.
I just got a similar email from fdcera.com , and I am sure that website is as dodgy as worldwidele.com. See for instance this link: opgelicht op internet dot com. Simply stated: if it uses spam methods to promote its website, its will not be shy to use other illegal methods which could easily cost you money or compromises your privacy.

If something seems to good to be true, it will be to good to be true. A very basic fact of life.

Photo of the day

2009-12-04T22:30:00.003+09:00

This time from the Kanda station:

Photo of the day

2009-12-03T13:48:00.002+09:00

Lunch time:

By IPhone on the move

Photo of the day

2009-12-02T23:27:00.002+09:00

Chatting with Big Bro:

By IPhone on the move

Photo of the day

2009-12-01T13:08:00.002+09:00

Demonstration in front of our building:

By IPhone on the move

Photo of the day

2009-11-30T23:10:00.001+09:00

Once committed, you have to produce:

By IPhone on the move

Photo of the day

2009-11-29T13:56:00.002+09:00

From the cycling cafe:

By IPhone on the move

A picture a day

2009-11-28T16:50:00.001+09:00

With many of you complaining there is not much news about me, I thought I start a new project that is easier for me. So for as long as it lasts I will post a picture a day. It should tell something about where I am and what I am doing. Herewith the first:

By IPhone on the move

Blogging on the move

2009-11-21T18:22:00.002+09:00

Using an IPhone means I can blog anywhere. Theoretically that means no more excuses to post only once every three months. Realistically it probably means I will put even more trash out there on the Internet as it will be difficult to come up with anything good and write about it using the IPhone. Time will tell.

Yesterday I had the pleasure to meet the former owner and main man of Internet start up http://spectives.com through a mutual friend, while he was on a holiday here in Japan. We dined with about 10 people and later had some drinks and dance moves. I had a good night. As it goes with Internet start ups, they need links. So I recommend you to go there and set up an account and enjoy the picture Rss.

Let me leave you with a picture of the train coming through my Starbucks livingroom:

And this test is complete.

By IPhone on the move

Spam and worldwidele

2009-11-11T22:07:00.004+09:00

The number of visitors to my, quite dormant, blog are up a lot, from maybe 2 a day to 25 or more a day. It is not very hard to guess why. Worldwidele.com has been very active hacking email accounts of people in order to make their site well known. Luckily a lot of these people use google to search for more information about worldwidele. And when you type Spam + Worldwidele you are quite likely to get to my weblog.

The fact that most references to my weblog now come from searches involving wordwidele and spam, and especially the combination of those two words, proves to me fully that you cannot trust the people behind this website. If you don`t respect other people`s privacy with respect to email accounts, how are you going to do what you promise on your fancy website, respect peoples privacy with respect to their money, and their shopping habits? So my conclusion is still: www.worldwidele.com is a bad site. And strongly advise you not to shop there. There are plenty of reliable internet shopping sites out there.

Update: Hotmail seems to have picked up on the increase of this sort of incidents as well, see this website. However, being already 6 months old, I don`t think this comment is about worldwidele.com but about others. In my case I have no indication that there was a virus or a worm at play. However for some people this information might be helpfull.

In the mean time they did bring me to a memorable number of visitors to the blog:

Help! A BreakIn

2009-10-23T00:06:00.003+09:00

www.worldwidele.com is a bad site!

Don`t go there, and definitely don`t try to buy anything. Most likely you end up either losing your money or getting bad quality. People that hack into other peoples email accounts to use those accounts to send emails with their links are not representing good businesses.

How do I know? Well, they broke into my Hotmail account to send emails on my behalve.

I use Google Reader to stay up to date with many sites, including my own for some reason I cannot remember anymore. However, today it was a good thing I did.

Today I was the victim of a break in of my Hotmail account. I have had a Hotmail email since 1998, amazing how time flies. That was back in the days that I was writing my final essay to finish my studies. For that Hotmail account I never changed the password, ever. And when I set it up, I used one of the easiest passwords ever. Just a following of keys on my keyboard, or on every ones keyboard for that matter. So very easy to guess. However, in more than 11 years no-one ever tried or managed to break in to my Hotmail. Until today.

I was alarmed by my Google Reader. There was suddenly an entry showing up on my blog, but I had not written any since a long time (as my good father reminded me recently: "even your blog has not been updated since the 21st of September!"). At first I thought my Gmail account was broken into, as that is linked with my blog and the posting appeared on my blog. When I checked my Gmail, I saw an email from my Hotmail address with the same spam as that appeared on my blog. So both my Hotmail and my Gmail where broken into, were my first thoughts, and frantically I started to change my passwords and anything else I could change for my Gmail and my Hotmail.

Calming down I took another look at the trail of evidence. Actually there was no email sent from my Gmail to anyone. And it turns out, the email address that posts emails to my blog as a new entry, was in my contact list in my Hotmail address. So only my Hotmail has been broken into, not my Gmail. Luckily, as I don`t really use my Hotmail anymore, but I use my Gmail for lots of things.

The email has a link to a website, and the website just recently has been opened by a Chinese person. Moreover, it seems websites with similar names have been used in the past for fraudulent things, as per this website. I am sure many people will get emails with the link in there, so therefore I will post the information here:

www.worldwidele.com is a bad site!

Don`t go there, and definitely don`t try to buy anything. Most likely you end up either losing your money or getting bad quality. People that hack into other peoples email accounts to use those accounts to send emails with their links are not representing good businesses.

Hope I helped some people making the right decision.

Hanoch landed

2009-09-21T09:59:00.003+09:00

Hanoch just landed in Tokyo and we are busy touring Tokyo and soon also surrounding areas.

You can see the pictures on my mobileme page:
http://gallery.me.com/doekes#gallery

What is it with this picture

2009-07-06T23:06:00.005+09:00

Obviously I am glad that once in a while someone comes by and reads what I write down. In order to have an idea about who, why and where from that happens I have the sitemeter below, which tells me all about it.
However, ever since I put up the post about my hike in Hong Kong, lots and lots of people visit my weblog for only 1 thing: above picture. Almost five people every day come to my weblog because of their google search for a picture is ending up with this picture.

I WANT TO KNOW WHY

After seeing all this trafic for such a long time coming here, and continuously coming here, I think it is time I know. So everyone who ends up on this blog based on above picture, can you please let me know what it is you have searched for and why you choose to follow the link to this picture?

You can see from below list that 65% of my trafic comes in on that 1 story of the hike. Wondering if that will change now I put the picture in this story.

Singapore Dreams Entry Pages Ranked by Visits
	Entry Page
65	http://singdream.blogspot.com/2008/04/strenuous-hike.html
15	http://singdream.blogspot.com/
7	http://singdream.blogspot.com/2007/06/scary-heights.html
3	http://singdream.blogspot.com/...innering-bel-ons-goedkoop.html
3	http://singdream.blogspot.com/...-year-party-lets-dress-up.html
2	http://singdream.blogspot.com/.../japanese-elevator-habits.html
2	http://www.singdream.blogspot.com/
1	http://74.125.47.132/search?q=...dual"&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
1	http://singdream.blogspot.com/2005/03/in-da-house.html
1	http://singdream.blogspot.com/2009/05/joy-of-music.html

Japanese Elevator Habits

2009-06-28T18:02:00.004+09:00

Sometimes you are noticing things in the daily life routine that are not fully registering, until you crack the code and realize what is going on. One of these things for me has been the Japanese attitude to elevator rides. Common knowledge is probably the notion that a lot more Japanese can fit an elevator than Europeans. Not because of the size of the bodies, but because of the acceptance of no personal space in the elevator. If it is nearly full, there can no one be added in a European elevator. However, in a Japanese elevator count on at least another five people.
However, more specific I find is the way the Japanese rule over the buttons. Especially women I have to add. Once a woman has entered the elevator, it is usually her that will stand near the open/close button. She will press the open button religiously until everyone is in and after that press the close button. Never mind there is an eye that will keep the doors open as long as people step through it. On every stop they will hit the open button again, until everyone steps out that needs to step out, and hit the close button again. If it happens the woman in charge is reaching her final destination, she will keep the open button pressed until everyone has stepped out and only leave the elevator as the latest. If there happen to be two buttons (one on each side of the doors) count on two women taking the stand and managing the buttons.
So far, it seems polite and reasonable behavior. However, it gets to you when the last woman (to be honoust, recently it was actually a man who did it as well) leaves you alone in the elevator and presses the close button for you. I mean, what kind of action is that? As if I cannot press the button myself. It does not work anyways of course, because the lift door will not close when there is an arm coming from outside the lift to press the close button. But it happens time after time. Maybe there is a deep mistrust in the Japanese for foreigners being able to handle elevator buttons?
I just make sure I stay on the safe side of the elevator.

Joy of music

2009-05-24T19:28:00.003+09:00

I was honored to be invited to The Blue Note, Tokyo, a truly famous place for quality music. We witnessed the concert of the Tower of Power, 40 years of funky soul history. Great show, great place. See below for an impression, from the Blue Note website:

Book quote of today

2009-05-17T20:44:00.002+09:00

I should do this more often, pick a line from a book I am reading and write it down.

This time from Haruki Murakami, The Elephant Vanishes:

"Stupid Japanese rock music. Love songs sweet enough to rot your teeth."

From the short story "Sleep".

My Personal Credit Crisis

2009-05-15T21:56:00.002+09:00

That is the title of again an interesting article in the New York Times Magazine. Interesting because it shows just how easily people can be sinking down the drain with easily available credit. Even people who in most people's eyes should know better.
Reading the article, I cannot help but think at certain stages: how could you do such a thing. But then, I cannot really pretend to know any better myself. Have been waking up at night as well with money issues on my mind, and have been at the ATM as well myself hoping there was still something there.
See the story here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/magazine/17foreclosure-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

Quote of the day

2009-05-07T21:45:00.002+09:00

Of course from “Netherland,” by Joseph O’Neill.

"Like an old door, every man past a certain age comes with historical warps and creaks of one kind or another, and a woman who wishes to put him to serious further use must expect to do a certain amount of sanding and planing."

Follow the leader

2009-05-04T19:12:00.002+09:00

I`m inspired.
Mr Barack Obama, president of the United States, is reading a book.

At the end of our conversation, when I asked him if he was reading anything good, he said he had become sick enough of briefing books to begin reading a novel in the evenings — “Netherland,” by Joseph O’Neill.

I had to read it as well.
I just bought it.

Maybe it was not just the fact that he was reading it.
Maybe it was the title as well.
Maybe it was the subject of the story as well.

"Netherland" is about a European man living in Manhattan after 9/11 who has two loves -- that for his wife, and that for his adopted country. Among other themes, the novel explores the cricketing subculture of New York, as well as a tragic friendship with a Trinidadian immigrant.

Maybe I am not inspired, maybe I am just aspiring.

American in Amsterdam

2009-05-03T20:16:00.002+09:00

Interesting American take of Dutch society:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/magazine/03european-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

and whilst reading the same paper, another story about Holland:

http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/02/remembering-the-voice-of-dutch-soccer/

Whats Flu between friends

2009-05-02T10:36:00.002+09:00

Economics and blogs

2009-02-21T19:41:00.004+09:00

I have combined my interest for blogs with work nowadays. In the past I used to trade at blogshares.com in virtual blogshares, and kept track of interesting blogs as a meaning of making virtual money. These days I keep an eye on (a lot of) blogs in order to keep track of what is happening in the real world, and to make sure I can do my job of making real money for my company.
In Google Reader I now follow about 40 blogs about economics and the state of the world, and I keep on adding continuously. You can see some of them in the bloglist in the sidebar of this blog. They offer an alternative look at the financial and political world that is not always (or later) reflected in the main street financial news sources of Bloomberg, Reuters, and the Wall Street Journal. Moreover the writers are often specialists in their own field rather than journalists which means at least on their specialization they offer more insight than the average journalistic writings.
Furthermore, these days blogs are starting to be taken serious by more important people then myself. See for reference this story by Jon Friedman of Marketwatch, explaining the importance of President Obama calling on Huffington Post reporter Sam Stein to ask a question. Another main story breaking first in the blogosphere was the Stanford Story. Aparently the man was being investigated on for a while already, but only when Alex Dalmady started writing about it, and others like Felix Salmon started picking the story up, it seems like some real action was started by the SEC. Some established news sources were already sniffing on the story, but were afraid to publish before all facts could be confirmed. An overview of all what happened can be found here (the first entry of a series, with a link to all entries at the bottom).
And so I am going through thousands and thousands of words on a daily basis, in order to stay up to date with what is happening and to understand more of certain issues. Across the curve was one of the first blogs I found that added something to my knowledge and gave me an idea of what happened during the US day, which happens to be just finished when I start my day. It usually also has a handy overview of what Libor did last night, so even before I log into more complicated systems I know what to expect.
From there it was just: follow the links. So I somehow followed a link to Calculated Risk, which turned out to be a very good source for mortgage related news and information. Would I have found this site back in 2005, 2006, I would have seen at least some of this crisis coming. One of the bloggers on the site became quite well known and her passing away recently made clear the impact her blogging had (at least in hindsight) on the establishment with even an obituary in the New York Times.
Currently the financial crisis has a lot of bloggers on possible solutions, and some very famous names between them indeed: Paul Krugman, Willem Buiter, Greg Mankiw, Nouriel Roubini, to name a few, are on a nearly daily basis discussing ideas and plans and outcomes of plans in the blogosphere. Some lesser well know names offer different insights to complete the picture, like Steve Keen and Cassandra Does Tokyo, whoever that is the commentary is sometimes brilliant. CDT also is part of the team of Naked Capitalisme, another excellent site with a lot of following, shown by the fact that Yves Smith was invited to talk to CNBC about bank nationalization.
The only problem is to keep track of all those feeds, to make sure you stay curious out there to hear the new voices and stay alert for new developments. The mortgage story is almost already yesterdays story, and should have been picked up in 2006, 2007 by followers of blogs. Debt deflation, inflation, bank nationalization, China`s story and many other stories are still out there and will determine in some way our future.

Flying away

2009-02-07T15:02:00.003+09:00

I think this past 12 months I have been flying away the most flying miles ever in 12 months in my life. It started last year January with flying from Hong Kong to Langkawi, there were multiple trips between Hong Kong and Tokyo, and going back to Holland three times since August did help as well accumulate the flying miles. So these 12 months I came to roughly 86,135 kilometers crossing the world in the sky. That is equivalent to more than two times around the world.
I should create a nice spreadsheet with a nice graph showing the distances covered since my birth. I am sure there will be a huge spike since I arrived in Asia as distances here are so much greater than back in Europe. However, am to lazy to think back to all the times I flew and calculate the distances.

Cycling to work in Tokyo

2008-12-13T18:54:00.003+09:00

I finally managed to finalize the editing of the short movie I shot cycling to work. Inspired by Elise Seywells "Shanghai Bikeback" I decided to take my foto camera to work on my bicycle and shoot away. Unfortunately it is all very unsteady and shaking but it still gives a good idea of how I go to work each day.

The music is from Katie Melua and Manu Chao.

Welcome to Recession Land

2008-11-22T20:03:00.004+09:00

With all central banks around the world racing towards ZIRP and global recession upon us, to see where the world will go you can just have a look around in the country that has had ZIRP for a long time already.
First thing you notice: it is not a quick solution. Japan moved to ZIRP back in 2001 and it is still there. We are in for a long term recession. Then how do you keep as many people in a job as possible? Grow government employment. Stop population growth. Be very reluctant towards immigration. And find new problems stemming from that along the way.
Some of the most useful jobs I`ve noticed Japan has created:

A trafic light alone is only good enough when it is quiet, for instance during the night. During busy hours it is very good to add someone, preferably two, who physically will stand in the way of the cars waiting for the red light. They best have a flag as well and a whistle, to make sure they are seen and heard. They can also whistle very loud in order to announce that the traffic light will change to red or to green.
All those bicycles parked all around the city are not a clean sight. Better employ some people to move the bicycles around to another place, preferably chaining them somewhere after a couple of days of puting notices on them.
Security in offices can best be done by many people. And in the morning they should be standing at the entrance wishing everybody a good morning. Each person individually.
When doing a security job in the street, best to employ one person to watch the traffic, and then another person to watch the person who watches the traffic. Safety first.
Make people count people on busy intersections and in train stations, so you know how many people pass by on an average day.

On another thought, it is cold! It has been below 10 degrees, and it is only November. I cannot say I enjoy that part of Japan, and I still need to get myself a decent winter coat.

Back to the roots

2008-10-16T23:17:00.002+09:00

I was back in Holland again this weekend, and enjoyed a beautiful week of great weather, great people and a great party on friday. I met my nephew who I have not seen in about a lot of years, he is a rapper now and pretty good at it, watch his space as his album is about to be released.
Which brings me to the next thing: when I grew up in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, the rap scene was not found in this 'largest village of the Netherlands'. I had to go to Amsterdam to hear and see how it worked. So I was pretty amazed to see that Apeldoorn now has given birth to three real rap idols. Apeldoorn is one large ghetto of friendly people, who go around on their bikes and nikes. I especially like the lirics: "Basta, van Kinsbergen straat vol met koffie" and "we staan voor kwaliteit, de grondleggers, Apeldoorn, 055".
Something else noticeable: the amazing amount of people walking around in Apeldoorns main shopping street. I remember when I was 12, 13 I thought it was busy there ...

See this movie:

Asian H&M crazyness

2008-09-21T16:22:00.007+09:00

H&M is expanding to East Asia and somehow is following us, opening up new stores in our neighborhoods. Normally it would be something I would totally ignore, if it was not for the crazy reactions is seems to create around our fellow citizens in respectively Hong Kong and Tokyo.

In Hong Kong H&M opened a new store in our street, the Queens Road Central, just one or two months after we started living there. Therefore we saw the madness from close by, including the immens lines starting to build up in front of the store one or two days before opening. As you can see on the picture on the left there was a long, long line of shoppers waiting to shop at H&M.

Now I remember H&M from back in The Netherlands, where it also enjoys some popularity I believe, but I never thought of them as being something special and worth waiting for in a queue hours and hours. They had nice clothes that were not to expensive but usually fell apart quite soon. At least that is how I remember it was back maybe 10-15 years ago. Here in Asia though, they are opening up in the most expensive streets of town and attract a lot of people.

So now they've followed us to Tokyo and opened up in one of the main shopping streets of Tokyo, and the same thing happens again. Thousands line up for the opening. And not just for the opening. Below photo we made Saturday the 20th, a week after the opening. The line spans the length of the photo. And actually more. Because where we thought was the end of the line, was just a break in the line. Around the corner was another 200 meters of line.
It looks like though they are still adjusting to Japan. Because on their website, where they show the new looks for autumn, they are advertising with the Japanese numbers but the Euro sign. Paying ¥ 12,990 for a long coat is pretty cheap (for Japan) but paying € 12,990 for the same coat is outrageous. And the site shows €12,990. Guess they are not that cheap after all?

Train

2008-09-13T22:35:00.003+09:00

I don't take the train very often. Luckily I live close to work and can take the bicycle. When the weather is bad I can take the subway. When I enter the subway station, many people are coming out but not that many go in. The same for the subway train I need to take, many people come out of it but not many have to go in, which means I usually can even sit. I need to transfer trains ones, but even there the train is usually empty enough to have breathing space and sometimes even sit.
It means I am lucky, as below films show that it can go pretty different in Japan. Certain subway lines are similar, for instance the ones that go in the other direction for me. For you to enjoy the scenes below and hope I will never be in the middle of it:

This is a train somewhere on a suburb station. No chance to miss it because it is to full:

This is the train between Yokohama and Tokyo. You can see that especially elderly have absolutely no intention to miss this train and to take the next one that comes in 5 mins, no matter what:

And one more with the process close up:

Sirene

2008-09-12T22:59:00.004+09:00

In every country I have been so far, and as far as I can remember I need to add as a disclaimer, police, ambulance and the fire brigade have a sirene on their motorised vehicles. As there can be an emergency, this makes perfectly sense. It is pretty clear that the sirene means in every language: get out of my way immediately because I am in a big hurry, there is an emergency.
In Indonesia sometimes they add some people on scooters with sticks to it, to make sure everyone really understands what the sirene means. Here in Japan there was a novelty for me. Not only is there a sirene, speaking its universal language. There is also speaker added on top of the car and the guy in the shotgun position will make sure that a bit of Japanese language is added to the sirene. Of course I cannot understand what they say, so completely make up that they say the following:
"Our dear fellow citizens of Tokyo, our sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused, but we politely ask you to please give us free passage as this is an emergency. We apologise again for the inconvenience and please ask you to accept our sincere apologies. Thank you very much. Thank you very much."
I really have no clue what they are saying but am pretty sure it is not something like this:
"Get lost, you losers and worthless piece of rubble. We need to get through, take your fat ass of the road."
But then, if it was, nothing really shocks me anymore.

Japanese Men and Magazines

2008-09-12T22:46:00.004+09:00

What is it with the Japanese Men that read Magazines in one of the many 24h shops that are all over Tokyo. Obviously I cannot read the Magazines, but they must be mighty interesting as nearly everytime I pass by a AmPm (yes, the name says it all) or a 7-11 (that is 7 yesterday to 11 tomorrow), a Familymart (ehm ..) or a Lawson (yes, that name does not say anything) there is a group of Men with a Magazine in their hand, reading. It can be so full (lunch time, just after work time) that it is difficult to actually buy something.
Theory 1: The Magazine is very expensive, though very interesting. To expensive to buy, so we read it in the shop.
Theory 2: Those Japanese Men are so poor, they cannot afford to buy the Magazine, even though it might be not so expensive. Therefore we read it in the shop.
Theory 3: The Magazine deals with a subject that we don`t want to be seen reading by the missus at home, so we read it in the shop. In such a case it beats me why it is acceptable to read it in public in the shop, but ok.
Theory 4: anyone?

Monjayaki

2008-08-17T14:31:00.005+09:00

Cycling home from work, I usually pass through Monja Street in Tsukishima, on the same un-natural island as where Kachidoki is located.
This island was created back in 1892, using the earth that was dredged up when a shipping channel was created in Tokyo Bay.

View Larger Map
Every time I pass through the street it is always very busy in the many restaurants and on the streets, so I suggested to Indri that we should have a look what it is all about. So last night we walked there to have a look. We noticed all the restaurants had the same set up: a hotplate in the middle of the table to grill food. We also noticed the lack of english in the place, it is basically a very local scene. After we passed by about 100 of the same places, we decided to give it a try at a place that had at least a few pictures outside to give us an idea what to expect.
Once seated around the hotplate, the menu card turned out to be pure Japanese and no pictures to be seen. We tried to look around to see if we spotted something nice other people were eating but it was all quite confusing. At some stage they showed us the pictures we saw earlier outside but still no clue what exactly to chose.
Of course if I would have done my homework it would have been easier. I should have read Mike`s website and I would have known where to go. And I should have read the Otafuku Foods Website and I would have had an idea how to go about it once it is served. But I did not.
Luckily, as usual is our experience, there was a friendly group of girls who knew english and helped us to order of what I now know to be Monjayaki. And as we did not know how to prepare it ourselves, the food was prepared for us by the server, which helped a lot as well. In between we got some more tips from the girls, like how to get the food of the plate once it is ready, and in your mouth. Indri got a tip of what to drink and so the night did work out actually. However, despite the fact that the pancake (what I now know to be Okonomiyaki) from our neighbours looked very good, we decided there was enough confusion and we left it at just a Monjayaki.
Of course, now I know how it works, we should go back soon and taste some more!

Sundown and lightning

2008-07-28T21:58:00.001+09:00

The amazing view from our balcony:

Living in 2nd most expensive city in the world

2008-07-26T18:20:00.003+09:00

I learned today that we are living in the 2nd most expensive city in the world, according to this research. I believe the research. It is pretty expensive here. To save cost, we have bought bicycles today. It will save us 4 to 5 euro a day being spent on public transport. But then we will have to rent a bicycle parking space in the building (and I was just told there is only one available for each apartment, very strange) for something like 15 euro per month. Which is much cheaper then a car parking space, which, if available, can easily cost 200 euro`s per month.
Lunch will set you back around 6 euro's depending on what quality you expect, a grande cafe Mocha at Starbucks cost 2.80 euro (in Hong Kong, city number 6, that was actually about 2.30), a 6 pack of beer cost 6.60 euro (in Hong Kong that was around 4 euro, but in Singapore (city number 13) that was more than 7 euro).
Easy to see what my current daily diet is ... but it is more that our daily rythm here is slightly different from Hong Kong, where we nearly always ate out. Here we don't often eat out as especially eating out at night is not very cheap. So our spending pattern is also different.

Japan - what can I say

2008-07-20T21:34:00.004+09:00

For the first time in more than three years in Asia I feel I am really an alien. So far we have been living in the more foreigner friendly countries of Singapore and Hong Kong, where a little English can get you a long way. At least anything you need to arrange is in English, all products come with English names and explanation and there is always someone around that can explain things that are not that straight forward. But here in Japan that is not the case. Nearly everything is in Japanese, from the products you buy in the supermarket to the computer and internet connection explanation. We have a washing machine since Friday and I am still trying to work out which button does what we want the washing machine to do. There have been occasions that the same bunch of clothes got washed three times because I did not know how to activate the dryer. The internet connection was a similar story, for three hours I tried about every button I saw on the login screen and finally we were able to connect to the internet.
The main problem with the Japanese language is obviously the script. It has more than 26 letters and none of them look familiair. If I see Italian I can usually kind of make out what the meaning is because I know English, some French and Dutch. There is a connection there, and it helps you to at least understand in general what is being said. And even in a language like Indonesian, where the words sound completely different and there is no connection to another language I know, at least it is using the same 26 letters and therefore it is easy to use google translator or something else online. Luckily I have wonderfull colleagues who are kind enough to help me, explain what is what and what the meaning is of things we receive in the post box.
Outside in the real world things are also not always easy. It is usually not the attitude of the people or willingness to help, usually the people we meet are very friendly and helpful. However a stream of Japanese friendly words will still not help us very much. Some people think that if they rattle on in Japanese long enough I will understand. Unfortunately that is not the case, even though I sometimes pretend it is in order to politely get out of the conversation. We did learn a few words in Japanese by now, and that also helps us to be polite: hello, good bye, thank you, we can say all of those.
Overall though I must say the experience so far has been very positive. It is a nice, lively city to live in, there is great food, it is easy to get around, even on a bicycle. Obviously there are always things you need to get used to when you arrive in a new country, but that is just part of life.

Moved in

2008-07-19T12:10:00.003+09:00

We finally found our apartment and moved in already. We have been to busy looking for all kinds of things and adapting to our new life to update the blog regularly, but herewith some first impressions, with the view from our house as below. It is a fantastic view, and it should be from the 46th floor.
Now it is time to go out to find myself a bicycle. Tokyo has many cyclist and with the current weather it should be great to cycle to work. Well, a little bit sweaty maybe, because it is pretty hot, but I am sure it will beat the subway easily.

Japan

2008-06-29T00:30:00.002+09:00

We are already nearly a month in Japan, but have been to busy with working and searching an apartment to write down the million and one new impressions we have picked up here.
I would not even know where to start. For instance: yes, the stories about subway officers pushing people to be able to close the doors, they are true. I have seen it with my own eyes. Luckily I have not have had to experience it myself, but I have taught (myself) the technique of shuffling butt first into the subway and just keep on moving till the doors can close.
The food is fantastic, it is easy to get around, we still can't read Japanese but start to learn the first words. Work is good as well, a lot to learn but at least the hours are a lot more friendly than they were in Hong Kong. We have seen many apartments by now, and hope to be able to move into one next week. It will be nice to have our own place again, but there is still a lot to do to make it really our own, as we have not a lot of furniture brought with us.
I know now how to write my name in Japanese. Unfortunately not sure how to do that on a pc ....

Our first Japanese earthquake

2008-06-14T20:21:00.004+09:00

This morning we were woken up by a strange noise, some kind of squeeking, as if a bed was moved back and forth. Just before I was in a sportsbar in Roppongi, where the dutch football fans caused there own little earthquake jumping up and down enjoying the wonder of Bern, and I did not get back to bed before 6. Therefore it was a little hard to immeadiately assess the situation and take appropriate action. Actually I did not do anything but somewhere in my mind registrating this must be an earthquake and the building must be making the noise as it was being shaken. About 10 minutes later the same happened again and I had the same non-reaction.
Thinking about it now, we should have jumped out of bed and crawl under the table. Actually, the two of us don't fit under there, so one should have been standing at the door. Anyway, the key is that we should do better next time and make sure we are a little prepared. Living in a serviced apartment certain things are taken care off, but once we find our own place we will need to make sure we are prepared as well. I read 1/5 of all strong earthquakes in the world do happen in Japan. It means Japan is quite well prepared for them, as you can see from the relatively low number of victims of todays earthquake. However, it also means you need to be prepared for the worst.
We are looking at an apartment on the 44th floor of a very new building, which with this in mind is both comforting and scary. Comforting because new buildings are supposedly prepared for the worst. Scary because the building will move a lot in case of an earthquake. We are still considering ...

As if it was a holiday

2008-05-11T17:57:00.003+09:00

One more week of relative rest, and then some travelling to do. Thinking it through, it is actually quite hectic. First friday, go to Macau for a conference with all our Asian GFM colleagues. Two days later come back to Hong Kong and straight away on to a plane to Tokyo. Stay there till friday, when we fly back to Hong Kong. To two days later again jump onto a plane, this time to Phuket for a quick beach holiday. Coming back on wednesday, we will fly to Tokyo the next weekend for the final move.
Of course I hear you thinking: why add the Phuket holiday when you are that busy? But it was like a last opportunity to an easy holiday, and I also would throw the money away if we would not go before we moved to Japan.
In the mean time the apartment here is already nearly empty as most of our stuff was packed last friday and is being shipped to Tokyo. Hopefully next week we will manage to find a nice apartment and settle in as soon as possible.

A Strenuous Hike

2008-04-27T23:22:00.009+09:00

Hike. It sounds pretty dull at first, but then, when put in the right context it can actually be quite exciting. So was the three day hike in Laos November 2006 definately a highpoint in our holiday. It was situated in the mountains. And I enjoyed the hikes back in 1997 in Indonesia, though I did not call it hikes back then. Also in the mountains. And now Hong Kong, it has mountains. And it allows for great hikes.
In December I did the Dragonback trail with Joram and a hike from Discovery Bay to Mui Wo with Gerrit, Margiet and Joram. Now it was time for a serious hike with Patrick. Of course I was ill prepared, bringing only a bottle of water, but luckily he was better prepared with 3 liters of water, two bananas and some more survival food. I learned a lesson today. Don't go hiking when ill prepared. Or if you do, make sure you bring someone who is prepared.
Originally we had the plan to walk around Sai Kung, maybe do the Maclehose Trail part 1 and 2. But in the end we settled for the Maclehose Trail part 5. A strenuous hike it was called in the book, and it looked like an interesting part of Hong Kong. It also looked like the start of the trail was not far from a MTR station so easy to find.
Arrived at Choi Hung station we jumped in a taxi and asked him to bring us to the start point of the trail. It looked easy but it turned out more difficult as the taxi driver had a vague idea but not an exact point in mind. He stopped a few times to ask, and hesitated when going on to a one way road up the mountain, but apparently did not want to deny us the trip. Fairly soon we came past a resting point with a map and we told the driver that we would take it from there on foot. Thinking I was generous I gave the man 50 hk dollars for a 30 dollar ride, as I thought it might take him a while to get off this one way road. Little did I know it would take him a long time to get off it as it goes on for a long time. Just hope he managed to pick up someone else along the way.
Looking at the map, we realised we had still a bit to go before the start of the trail. We got out of the taxi to early and so added about 200 to 300 meters more of verticle climbing to our hike. At that stage however things did not look that problematic and we happily started following the road up the mountain. Finally we thought we found the starting point, only to realise not long after that we were following the Wilson trail part 4 in stead of the Maclehose Trail. Luckily they came together at some point, so from there on we were where we wanted to be, on the Maclehose Trail.
At the start of this part of the Maclehose Trail there was a signboard with some warnings and explanations about monkeys and their behaviour. So we were fully prepared in case we would meet them. That did not happen for a long, long time.
The trail itself was not to bad, it went up and down but the path was relatively good and also the weather was not to hot. However, the fantastic views that should have been there were not, as the clouds were low and everything was grey. Whilst we were happily following the trail, there was this teasing sidepath. Teasing, because it had this warning saying that you should only go up (it went up steep from the start) if you are an accomplished and prepared hiker, it was a very strenuous hike. Obviously, though hesitating, we could not not follow that path to Lion Rock. It was only 0.4 km to go horizontally, but vertically at was also about 200 to 300 meters.
Now the sweat really started to pour out of all possible places, and we had to take a break halfway on some sort of rock. The next rock looked like a lion, but it was not the rock that gave the name to the mountain. Coming to the top, the view was absolutely amazing, even in this type of weather. Unfortunately, we realised we were not there yet. There was a top just beside the one we were on that was even higher. However, it did not just mean going up, it meant going down again first and then back up. Moreover, this was not a well maintained path, this was nearly a climb, and the ropes that someone kindly enough installed came in very handy.
After conquering this mountain top I must admit I was getting a bit tired. We went down again all the way to join the Maclehose trail again a bit further then where we left it earlier. Unfortunately, not far after that there was another mountain to climb: Beacon Hill.
After Beacon Hill it was mostly downhill. By that time my knees did not agree that that was much easier, but somehow we made it safely to the last part of the hike, a nature trail near Tai Po. The nature part meant that there was explanation about nature every few meters. Concentrating on the messages along the road I nearly stepped on a green snake with a red patch on the back of his neck. I just managed to keep my feet in the air and then let it sink slowly back to where it came from. The snake at first was not intimidated and stayed frozen in the position halfway the path as it was. Patrick did not even see it at first, and would have just walked past it without noticing. Unfortunately I took to long to take out my camera, and going to my knees in order to be able to take a better picture I made it turn around and take cover. Therefore you can only see its tail on this picture. I still don't know what snake it was, somehow no descriptions I find on the internet matches it.
Just escaped death from a snake bite (actually, death from snake bites is very, very rare so not likely to happen to me) we wandered on and stumbled upon a group of monkeys foraging in the forest. As we were warned, we were very carefull and made sure we had no food in our hands. The monkeys did not seem interested in us at all, and walked past us on touching distance without the blink of an eye. Only the youngsters were a bit more curieus from the trees but only when we had our back towards them as you can see on below movie.
Finally we managed to find the end of the trail and came upon a busy highway. The next steps were not difficult: in the taxi, up to TST, find us a restaurant with a simple but filling dish. And so happened.

Exploding nose

2008-04-12T22:30:00.002+09:00

For some reason there was vulcanic action below the surface of my nose recently. It kindly enough let me walk around with a red nose the whole week.

No chance to hide something obvious as your nose, so I had to explain lots of times that I was not drinking and that I also did not know what was happening. However, though the pressure was building for a while, the actual explosian never came and slowly the vulcano went back to sleep. My nose went back to normal. Obviously it is easy to blame the Hong Kong pollution and the oil in the food for it. That must be it. Unless it was something else.

It is a matter of principal

2008-04-09T00:18:00.007+09:00

We live now in the same street as the office is located. Not because we moved, but because the office moved. No more great views over the harbour, and no more lift to the 43rd floor. Now the office is in a corner of the Landmark, which is a chique shopping mall, hotel and office building. It is only the 8th floor, and you have to do your best to look past the buildings to see the Peak far away. Though the view is less, the inside of the office is a bit better, we have a lot more space and it looks actually as a Rabobank office, with some orange and blue around.
Though we live in the same street now, the walk to the office is about the same time. And is more dangerous. It seems they decided that on that part of the Queens Road that comes after where I used to turn off and go up the stairs, is to busy to maintain. So not only do you have to fight for your right to a part of the sidewalk with the other million people that are walking there, you also have to avoid the potholes, temporary bamboo scaffolding, temporary steel scaffolding, newspaper selling eldery, begging elderly, waving umbrella's and so on. I usually get there without injury. But I had to give up on reading the free newspaper on the way.

Let's do some more complaining

2008-04-01T00:16:00.004+09:00

Complaining about the weather, isn't it great! I mean, if there wasn't the weather, what would be left to talk about. And as one of the few things, weather is the type of subject you can change your opinion on as often as you like. So if I now complain that Januari and Februari were freakin' cold, nobody will look back at my recent entry laughing at the cold weather warning. It was actually very necessary, that warning, and I should have listened to it! I should have run out of my (then still warm) apartment looking for a heater. I should have gone to the shops to make sure I had a warm winter coat and gloves and shawls, all a normal Dutch person would do when winter is approaching. But no, I was stupid enough to laugh at it and think I knew better. Not until a little later I realised it was actually cold. And it remained cold. When I finally got smart enough and went out looking for a heater, they were all gone. The coats were gone. And the gloves and shawls, well that was a bit overdone anyway. After a few days, returned from the nice warm beaches of Malaysia, nearly freezing, well ok, just uncomfortable cold, we finally managed to find a small heater that would warm us a little. If we would sit close enough. And not the two of us at the same time, that was to much to ask for.
But that was then. Now is the time to complain about rain. Drizzle is a better word. And the heat is starting again. The combination of both means sweat. The relative humidity is back in town. Now there is a relative humidity of 95%. One step, one liter of sweat.
New season, new warning: it is the monsoon this time:

STRONG MONSOON SIGNAL

The Strong Monsoon Signal remains in force. Strong winds
with mean speed exceeding 40 kilometres per hour are
expected from the east. Gusts will occasionally reach gale
force.

1. If you are not well sheltered from the east, you are
advised to take precautions against strong gusty winds.
Flower pots and other objects likely to be blown away
should be taken indoors.

2. Those planning for water sports activities and
operations at sea should take special care against high
winds and rough sea conditions.

DISPATCHED BY HONG KONG OBSERVATORY AT 22:45 HKT ON 31.03.2008

I am not laughing at it this time. Anything exposed to the east is well secured. And I will cann my plans for watersports. It is just the wrong time of year. Time to turn up the airconditioning and disappear under the blankets.

New Blood

2008-04-01T00:06:00.003+09:00

Some new, dutch blood has arrived in Hong Kong. And as I am to lazy to write my blog about all the wonderfull things that happen to me in this crazy city, it might be worth reading his blog. It is nearly the same as what happens to me, just another face. And then he has a bit more energy it seems, hiking and cycling the Hong Kong mountains. And, he has actually time for lunch!

Going East

2008-03-15T19:32:00.003+09:00

We are going East again. We have been going east for the last few years and we are continuing to do so. So after moving from Utrecht Oog in Al to Utrecht Rivierenwijk, to Singapore and to Hong Kong, we will now move to Tokyo. Well, not now as the original plan was, but on the 1st of June at the latest. Let's keep it simple and say: on the 1st of June. It has been up in the air for a long time, so I am glad to at least have the clearity of a date and the security of the solution to the current situation.
So there we go again: new country, new house, new language, new neighbourhood, new transport system, new office, new colleagues, new church, new internet connection, new address, new phone number. However this time: a real new job (though related), a real new type of phones (Japan has quite a different system), a real big city.
All in all, a whole new adventure that we are looking forward to.

Kung Hei Fat Choi!

2008-03-01T21:51:00.002+09:00

It was already a while ago, but obviously my blog would not be complete without mentioning Chinese New Year, which was on 7th and 8th of Februari this year. In Cantonese one greets one another with Kung Hei Fat Choi, so I had a little trouble remembering what to say as I was just getting used to the mandarin expression of Gong Xi Fa Cai.
As it is mainly a family occasion not much is going on for us, non-chinese and with family far away. However, on the night between the 6th and the 7th I went with Joram to the flower market where ahuge crowd gathered on a small area. Lots of flowers, orange trees and other things believed to bring luck in the coming year are for sale there. Later I learned that you should buy something like a specific flower and then walk around the market three times, but we didn't know at the time. We just felt trapped in the immense mass of people walking around in a predetermined direction (now I know why, but then we did not) and were not really interested in buying anything.
Later, on the 8th, there were the massive fireworks. You can see a lot of it on my Youtube site. But the main day for many of my colleagues was the monday ...
Already more than a month in advance I got strong advice from my colleagues to load up with red packets, lai see is the name in Hong Kong, and how much to put in it ("Oh, you are so rich, you can easily put 100 euro's in the one for me!"). I knew about the tradition in Singapore, but there it was more a nice to do, not really that you had to do it. Hong Kong is different, it is all about the lai see, and the more the better. It is common for groups of unmarried people to go arround the office and wish all maried people Kung Hei Fat Choi, which should be replied by giving them the lai see filled with some money. Not giving anything to someone that whishes you Kung Hei Fat Choi is seen as bringing bad luck to you, and the more lai see you give the more good luck you are expected to receive. Therefore they are doing you a favour, per Chinese beliefs.
The days before Chinese new year I was frantically trying to collect new looking notes of twenty (the newer, the better the luck is the believe) which was quite hard as the ATM is only giving 100 notes and I did not feel like lining up at the bank to get them. Someone tipped me to use the iron and that helped a lot, most notes were good enough to go. After giving all the Erba workers two lai see (one from me, one from Indri), I still had enough when the group of 14 or so unmarried people visited my desk at the office.

Extreme weather

2007-12-31T00:34:00.000+09:00

Hong Kong is experiencing some extreme weather. It is getting so cold that the Hong Kong observatory has issued a "Cold Weather Warning". I think the KNMI (dutch weather observatory) would be very busy if it followed the same guidelines ....

This is the text (no kidding, no editing, just copied):

COLD WEATHER WARNING

Cold Weather Warning

The Cold Weather Warning has been issued by the Hong Kong
Observatory at 4:20 p.m.

The Hong Kong Observatory is forecasting cold weather in
Hong Kong in the next few days.

The minimum temperatures in the urban areas for tomorrow
will be around 11 degrees. It will be a few degrees lower
in the New Territories.

As Hong Kong is being affected by a cold winter monsoon,
people are advised to put on warm clothes and to avoid
adverse health effects due to the cold weather. You must
also ensure adequate indoor ventilation.

If you must go out, please avoid prolonged exposure to
wintry winds.

If you know of elderly persons or persons with chronic
medical conditions staying alone, please call or visit them
occasionally to check if they need any assistance.

Make sure heaters are safe before use, and place them away
from any combustibles. Do not light fires indoors as a
means to keep warm.

Whatever the temperature, please ensure that there is
plenty of fresh air in your room when you are using an
old-type gas water heater.

DISPATCHED BY HONG KONG OBSERVATORY AT 16:21 HKT ON 30.12.2007

A clear evening in Hong Kong

2007-12-30T15:07:00.000+09:00

A clear evening in Hong Kong is something to celebrate. Therefore we did the tourist thing and went over to the Kowloon side to enjoy the Symphony of Light, then hurried back to Hong Kong Island to visit The Peak and enjoy the clear view from there. Below the photo results of the journey:

End of Year party: Let's dress up!

2007-12-15T19:17:00.000+09:00

Traditionally in Asia a bank organises a Dinner and Dance End of Year Party. Usually a theme is chosen and one is invited to dress up according to the theme. The first year I did not take that to seriously and was awfully underdressed to say the least. Now I learned my lesson and this years Bling theme made me look for gold anywhere I could get it. So here I am testing my Bling outfit the night before. Last night it was the actual party and again I was pleasantly surprised in the amount of time (and money probably) some people put in getting really in the Bling spheres. With my Ali Baba head and batik shirt, I was not really in the theme (as bling usually refers to the excessive Hip Hop outfits), but I was very populair for getting my picture taken with others. Unfortunately I missed out again on the lucky draw, for the third time in a row, so I did not go home with any goodies.
The way the party works is that everybody is received with some drinks and can choose a table to sit at. There will be a table with more or less the management team, a table with the front office, a table with Finance and Control and so on, naturally everybody groups together with their team. Then the first part of the lucky draw will start. People will be receiving small gifts first, usually shopping vouchers, and during the night the prices will be getting bigger. Main reason for that is, next to creating the excitement, to keep especially the local part of the colleagues at the party. By free choice many of them would go home after dinner is finished, but since there is still a big price to win (and you don't get it if you are not there) people will stay around. After the first part of the lucky draw, dinner starts. Then when everyone is seated again (dinner is a buffet, so you have to walk to get your food), some games will be played. Last night I think it was about drinking beer fast and karaoke (of a rap song, which turned out quite difficult for some). Furthermore there will be an election of best dressed male and female and a lot more banter, before the night more or less comes to an end with the Grand Prize in the lucky draw. Some stay a bit longer to drink and joke around a bit.
Additional fun part last night was that courtesy of one Rabo employee we were granted free entrance into Dragon-I, a famous local club here with a lot of upper-society visitors. So there we were, all dressed up, in this posh club, extending the Rabo bling Party. Unfortunately my camera ran out of battery very early, so I could not take pictures.

See Through

2007-12-08T01:50:00.000+09:00

This is a see through to our place. It is the red building in the middle, with the windows on the front (don't hesitate to click on the photo for a clearer look). It also gives you an idea of how steep the area is where we live, as I took the foto on top of a staircase that leads straight down to Queen's Road Central below.
A colleague and I were waiting for a table to become free at a restaurant when I took this picture. They told us to wait about five minutes and come back as there were some people about to leave. So we waited a little further up the road, and once we saw people come out, we went back and were about to sit down. However, apparently they changed their mind, and suddenly a reservation had come in and we were not allowed to sit down anymore. Completely baffled we nearly took it out on the waitress as we already spent quite a while finding a restaurant with a free table. However, we decided to keep it civilized and left after making clear we were very unhappy with how we were treated. Luckily the next restaurant accross the street was still open, and the elderly employees (apparently the restaurant is famous for employing elderly), though in a hurry, were very friendly and the food was very nice.

On my way home

2007-12-04T23:55:00.000+09:00

Going home. As so many others. This part of the elevated walkway has some funky name, like eternal luck covered shopping centre. Well, I made that one up but it will not be very different. It smells like the eternal urinoir covered shopping centre. In the weekends it is the eternal Phillipino day out shopping covered centre. But it is still my way home. And up I go, following the eternal lights into the night towards home.

On my way to work

2007-12-04T23:47:00.000+09:00

It is a beatifull day. The sun creeps through the buildings. Just a snapshot of a moment on my way to work. Hong Kong is buzzing with activity, and still asleep at the same time.
On my right, the older couple has not arrived yet to open their stamp and coins shop. I see them often arrive, or just begun their day. The man will carry a small chair in order to be able to reach the lock at the top of the iron blinds in order to open them. They look like they are past pension age, they must have had the shop for ages.
In the middle, the cleaner brings his little car with garbage basket and street sweeper. They are all around, the cleaners and garbage collectors. Hong Kong is not the cleanest city, but without them, it would be much worse.
On the left, a poster is inviting me to buy a magazine at the news stand. News stands are every 50 meters availlable. So is the news, but much more, gossip.
The Wing Hang bank reminds me of a colleague in Singapore, but most of all, the sun is inviting me to step forward. It is not warm, and the sun is nice. Not to close, but still warm. I am only halfway on my daily walk to work.