Musings - Cannot think of anything better to call my random thoughts!

Well Andrew has well and truly finished his job in Japan, although he does not seem to understand that this means he does not need to go to the office (I am sure he will make four out of five days this week!) . We are trying to finalise our plans for moving out - it is looking at the moment like it might be the last week in February before I get the movers in to pack us and finally depart for Hong Kong. Poor Sachi is going to have to put up with many visits from the pet sitter in the next few weeks as I have three trips to Bangkok planned in the weeks before I leave, and we have a week long trip to the snow in the North of Japan over Chinese New Year at the beginning of February.

We will definitely miss Japan, although it makes sense on so many levels to be leaving. I will have much more freedom to find a job that does not involve constant travel, and Andrew's job at Sungard gives him good opportunities to build networks back into New Zealand. It is also a challenge - something his job (although cruisey!) was just not giving him at Metlife/Alico. We will miss the ultra polite culture, the stunningly beautiful winter days where you freeze but the sky is sooooo blue and the amazing food. We are not looking forward to the humidity and smog of Hong Kong, but at least the church is 1000% more onto it :-)

Andrew starts his new job on Monday and is flying directly from here to Vietnam for a start-of-year kick off conference for his company. He will then fly into Hong Kong on Friday and begin the job of trying to find us the best place to live. Please pray for us as we balance the convenience of city living with the affordability of living outside the city. We need to make the right decision as leases in HK are usually for two years with significant penalties for leaving within 12 months. Andrew will also need to make the decision on his own as I cannot get to HK in the next few weeks so that also adds some stress to the equation. On the positive side, I think he has selected 4 out of 5 of our last apartments without me seeing them and he has done pretty well so far!

I am in Bangkok for the next two weeks working with a team from NZ on some nasty performance issues my client has. I have insisted on coming home for the weekend (could not leave the poor cat on her own for two straight weeks!), but in some ways that just makes the whole period even more stressful with an extra set of 6 hour flights to get me home and back. I will be looking forward to that week off!

We spent New Year in Seoul - predominately because it is the closest country to fly to from Japan and it was important for tax reasons that Andrew was out of Japan (and handed back his 'Alien Card' on leaving) on Dec 31 and Jan 1. This saved us about 10% of his 2010 income in tax, so was well worth doing! Here are our photos from Seoul...honestly... don't bother!

The Christmas Tree beside the skating rink in the middle of town.




















A kind of Korean Style Gate... we had to find something kind of local to take a picture of!



















And here are my favourite pictures of Andrew and Sachi this week - very typical poses in the Tokyo cold...


Finally... the view sunset outside my home office window this week - who could ask for more!

Love

Sonia

Christmas lights

Well the Christmas tree never did get any lights. It's Boxing Day today, so I guess Sonia will soon give in and dismantle the tree. Without lights. Quite an achievement, I think.

We went to a friend's place yesterday, around 1pm, for a Christmas lunch. As one of the other couples was late, this turned out to be somewhere between lunch and dinner, finishing as it did around 6pm. Turkey, ham, lamb, etc. We did dessert - chocolate cheesecake, lemon meringue cupcakes, and chocolate brownie. The baking started at 7.30am and finished ten minutes before we needed to leave home, so it was a busy Christmas Morning! Glen (the friend) had got a chimineya for Christmas, so we ended up sitting around it until quite late in the freezing Tokyo weather, talking about life in Japan and Asia. The others who were there were mostly Australians with a token American couple. It was a good Christmas.

Speaking of life in Japan, ours is at an end. I've accepted a job in Hong Kong with a consulting company - heading up the insurance business for Asia Pacific. The scope includes NZ, so there is a chance of getting to NZ from time to time. We'll be moving sometime in late January - February, although not we are exactly sure of the timetable at this point. I officially start on 17th January, but we will need to find an apartment in Hong Kong, sell the car (the motorbike will probably be shipped), and pack up the furniture (getting rid of the couches first). Life is never boring :-)

Merry Christmas

Andrew and Sonia

Everyone's Home Again - Yay!

Well Andrew walked in the door from his London flight 3 or 4 hours ago and has now gone off to the office for a couple of hours work and then a colleagues farewell 'sayonara' party. I finally made it home from Bangkok on Wednesday morning after having to extend my stay by a few days to deal with some issues we were experiencing. It is good to both be home! It does not last long though as I am off to HK from Tuesday thru Saturday next week, and then Melbourne Monday thru Friday of the following week. Andrew is also looking at needing to be in New York that same week so poor Sachi will be deserted once more and left in the care of the ridiculously expensive cat sitter. At least Sachi seems to tolerate her now and at comes out of hiding - bit hard for the poor cat sitter to 'play' with our cat for 30 minutes when she won't come out from under the couch!

Roll on Christmas when we are both likely to be in Tokyo for a full fortnight! No leave over the actual Christmas period, but we do both get a couple of days in the New Year, so that will be nice. We are staying in Tokyo for Christmas this year - guess we will have to decide soon if we are going to book a restaurant or cook in. In Asia the night of the 24th is a much bigger deal, so often there is nothing of much substance going on once you get to actual Christmas Day.

After my darling husband disposed of yet another of my Christmas Trees in our last move (it just would not fit in the shipping boxes... or so he said!) I decided that the next time I bought a tree it was going to be

a)Exactly what I wanted and not just a temporary compromise and
b)Significant enough that Andrew would think twice before throwing it away!

I can think of at least 3 that he has chucked out over the years, plus the one that lives with one of the relatives back in NZ...

So while in Bangkok I splurged and we are now the owners of a lovely 8 ft Christmas tree that is really bushy and looks great. It touches the ceiling and takes up half our tiny apartment lounge...but hey - this is the LAST one I am ever going to buy :-) It needed to fit into any future houses we may live in as well.

So here is a little picture or two for you. After spending a full ten hours believing the tree was evil and was going to attack her (she hid in the kitchen where she could not see it for most of the day - our cat NEVER spends time in the kitchen other than to eat!) Sachi has decided to make friends with the tree and has taken to curling up underneath it. Now if I could just put a 'To Paul, Love Andrew and Sonia" bow around her neck she would make a perfect playmate for Toby.

So far so good and we have had very little interest in batting the baubles off - long may it last if she knows what is good for her.






And here are my latest decorations - so ugly they are cute Make a Wish Foundation Thailand fairy/elves that my hotel was selling to raise funds for local kids with cancer. Hey it is Thailand - the don't know that fairies and elves are not really the same thing!






Perhaps once Andrew relents and buys me some Christmas Tree lights it will be time to take a picture of the whole tree and add it here for your viewing pleasure. In the meantime you will just have to imagine...

Love,

Sonia

Autumn in Tokyo

Well back in Tokyo, it's getting cooler. This weekend has varied between about 12 degrees and 18. I washed the car this evening, and it was definitely on the cold side. We went a for ride on the bikes yesterday afternoon, and while it was not hot, it was ok as long as you stayed in the sun. Speaking of which, the sunsets are getting earlier - about 4:30pm at the moment.

I go to a new office tomorrow morning. We packed everything up on Friday, and it is being shifted over the weekend. The new office is a lot closer to home, but it will still take almost 30 minutes to get to work. The train system is such that there is no direct line from home to the office, so in the end the train trip will only be about 5 minutes shorter. And because this office is right in the city, close to the palace, I won't be able to afford to drive and park. Oh well.

Sonia is in Bangkok this week. I'm heading to HK on Thursday for some meetings, back on Friday. Then on Sunday I take off to London for next week. And a possibility of another trip to New York in the middle of December. A fair bit of travel at the moment - the bummer is that it's not all on the one airline network, so the points are not consistent! The trip to London will be Virgin Atlantic - apparently their business class ("Upper Class") is pretty good, so I will let you know.

New York, Nu Yoick

I have the pleasure of participating in a "Product Conference", which is supposed to be about product strategy. However what is turning out to be the case is that I am locked in a conference room with a bunch of actuaries who are all talking in monotones and reading their Powerpoint slides. A pretty grim situation really, especially when it runs all day, and we are only about 25% of the way through but have used almost 50% of the time.

What can I say about New York? Rude taxi drivers (honking their horns all the time), dirty streets, and lots of people. Nice to be able to visit, but I will not be itching to come back. The hotel is right on Times Square, which is nice, but the price is incredible given what you are getting. Much better quality in Japan, which I had always thought was expensive. NY is much more so.

Back from Beirut

Well I am back in Tokyo safe and sound. No war breaking out while I was in Beirut. There is certainly a level of tension in the air, as I saw on Tuesday night when out with the local manager. We walked around the centre of the city before having dinner, and a few times we were passed by mini-convoys of armoured vehicles. Filled with solders with machine guns and their fingers on the triggers. The local guys that I spoke to were all optimistic, while at the same time recognising the challenges of maintaining peace.

But other than that, it was a nice city. There is a very definite Mediterranean feel to the place, and a few times I was reminded of Athens. Bad streets, crazy driving, lots of horns honking. Great food - the best hummus I have ever had, anywhere.

Well, Sunday night I fly to Seoul for Monday/Tuesday, then Tuesday night off to New York. Fun.

Lebanon

Well the flight over was uneventful - just very long. Turkish airlines turned out to be excellent - the plane was on a par with Cathay Pacific, and the food was better.

Beirut seems nice. So far I have really only seen the hotel, and the main street that it is on. I arrived at the hotel about 1230 last night, so I have only had about an hour to walk up and down and look at the shops. Starbucks, Gloria Jean's, and a couple of other coffee places. All sandwiched between a hundred shoe -shops, tailors, and brand-name clothing shops including H&M. The roads and footpaths are a little closer to parts of India, or Athens, but there are a fair number of nice cars embedded in the traffic jam that covers the main road.

I am at the gym right now, in an attempt to stay awake until closer to 10pm (it is about 8:30 now). Walking on the treadmill and trying to write this email post without too many spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. The gym itself is really nice, with lots of treadmills, cross trainers, and bikes (both upright and reclining). Lots = 20 treadmills. All facing a wall with 17 huge flatscreen tvs. A bit different to what I assumed I would find.

Well, almost done my 30 minutes so I need to move on to weights.

World Travel

I'm about to embark on a few weeks of travel around the place. Tomorrow I head to Beirut, Lebanon. On Monday and Tuesday I am attending a Middle East Healthcare Insurance conference, then meeting with our local team on Wednesday. Wednesday night I fly back to Tokyo via Dubai.

Then on the following Monday and Tuesday I will be in Seoul, South Korea, for meetings with the Metlife guys. Tuesday morning I fly back to Tokyo, go check the cat, and then in the evening I fly to New York. There are meetings on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and on Saturday I will come back to Tokyo.

Then a week in Tokyo, before heading to London for the week of 29 November. Possibly with a stop in Paris on the way back, but this is not confirmed.

Sonia, on the other hand, will be stuck between Tokyo and Bangkok like normal!

Driving

I forgot to put something on here about drivers' licenses. I got mine. Finally. Last Thursday, I took the morning to head to the licensing centre to go through the process. It took about 3 hours, but in the end I know have a Japanese license. That is not such a big deal, as kiwis get to simply swap licenses over without having to sit tests, etc. The Americans on the other hand...

The big news is that I have a full motorbike license. And that is something that no-one else managed to achieve. Anything over a 400cc bike normally requires people to sit a practical test, which in usual Japanese style is very picky. It includes riding slowly over a "bridge" (a 10cm wide piece of wood), swerving through cones, braking test, etc. The story goes that people who take the test normally fail for the first 4-5 times. The normal way around it is to spend about USD 3000 to attend a school that teaches you how to pass the test (I mean how to ride correctly) over the course of about 40 hours of instruction.

But Kiwis are apparently well-trained enough to be trusted with a full license without sitting the test. So I have my license, to the chagrin of the other guys at work who have had to go through the school...

Post 400 - Where did the time go??

Well Andrew is clearly doing a very poor job of maintaining our blog so I guess that it is up to me...

Tonight is the annual Alico Fancy Dress Halloween party hosted by the Regional CEO. Andrew is off dressed as a Cowboy - I am extremely naughty and do not 'do' either Halloween or Fancy Dress so I am at home alone with the cat - the fact that I really do feel flu'ish with a sore throat and a headache is just validating Andrew's claim that I am unwell and therefore could not attend :-)

Tomorrow I am off to Hong Kong to get my work permit renewed. It seems amazing to me that this means I have been just over three years back with Bravura - time really does fly! I am still (mostly!) enjoying what I do, but a job that did not demand quite so much travel would not be badly received. The rest of next week I will spend in Bangkok - I really will miss that city when the project there ends. It is looking like the end of the year may see the end of my involvement (we shall see!) and it will be sad in a funny sort of way after visiting at least twice a month for the last three years!.

We have been exploring Tokyo by bicycle the last few weeks - we picked up our (not too 'japanese shopping bike' looking) bikes while Kyla was here, and realised that most of the places we go on the weekend are no more than 8 to 10 km away - easily doable in a city that provides ultra wide pavements and expects you to ride on them. It has been good to get some exercise and the fresh autum ('fall') air has been lovely. We slept without the air-conditioner for the first time in ages last night and it was great. The cat has also become much more cuddly as the weather has cooled down - she likes to sleep leaning up against one or other of our legs.

Andrew is currently talking within Alico about a potential move back to Hong Kong next year - our lives are never dull! We should find out within the next few weeks if this is really going to happen. It would be kind of strange because I have not really been here long enough for it to feel like 'home' but I guess I will adjust. My last visit to HK seemed particularly seedy and smelly - I guess it really does depend which part of HK you are in :-)

Not much else happening I am afraid - life just goes on! Hope yours are going well too...

love, Sonia

And one of the cat - just because she is cute....

Where is Sachi.....



















Ah - there she is :-)




I knew there was a reason I spent large sums of money on a silk throw for my bed - it was to keep the cat warm!






I hear that Toby is looking forward to seeing his new home as well..... wonder if he will get to sleep on the bed?

Home again

Well for some reason the blog won't let me respond to comments today - guess that means I'll have to write a new blog to answer your questions.

You definitely can be the next visitor Tiffany -bet you know how to turn off lights and shut toilet doors!

They biked for an hour and five minutes - does that count as serious? If the weather is any good tomorrow Kyla and I will bike up to Andrew's work in the morning to shop for a Yukata (summer weight kimono) that she really wants to get to take home with her. It is about 8km each way so should be a good ride. The Japanese all ride on the footpath so that makes life easier - no chance of being run down by speeding cars

At the moment Kyla and Andrew are making a cheesecake - something she has been very keen to do ever since she arrived. This really is her last opportunity - in 24 hours we will be on the way to the airport - amazing how time flies!

We had a great night away in a very quaint little old town about 4 hours our of Tokyo - it was good to get out of the city and be near the river and forest that runs through the Kiso Valley. We tried to get pictures of Mount Fuji for Kyla but it insisted on staying we behind a cloud. We saw lots of other mountains so I guess that will have to suffice.

I'm sure Kyla will have much more to tell you on her blog about her night in a Ryokan, but here are a couple of photos to get you started.



Here is the path down to the Ryokan - very quaint...
And then the Traditonal Japanese Garden our room overlooked

































And here is Kyla acting elegant - Sharon this is the idea for the alcove in the lounge - somewhere to hang our Japanese scroll.

Starving and Exhausted

Well today has been a much nicer day weather wise. We have managed to Starve and Exhaust Kyla all in one day. The morning started around 10 with a 30 - 40 minute walk to Toyosu to pick up our new bikes that we ordered a couple of weeks ago. We stopped for a late breakfast at Tully's where you will be horrified to learn that the mistress of healthy eating had a mocha and a donut for breakfast :-). After collecting the bikes we walked/rode them home again, stopping at the dry cleaners on the way to pick up the week's order.

After a quick stop at home to put on the next load of washing (it is Saturday after all!) Andrew and Kyla rode the bikes up to Bic Camera while I took the train and met them there. We spent a loooooong time looking for a present for Braden (has anyone ever told her she is indecisive?????) before finally making it to lunch at 3pm - delicious noodles for Andrew and I and dumplings and rice for Kyla.

We then rode/walked on to Ginza and more present shopping - for Daryl and Sharon this time. Andrew took over the supervision of the shopping and decisions were made a bit faster! Home again for a change of clothes and then Andrew and Kyla went for some serious 'exercise' riding while I cleaned the house.

With lunch running late, dinner did too and we enjoyed chicken and salad at 8.15 in the evening while sitting in front of the 27 Dresses movie.

By the end of the movie eyes were definitely getting heavy and Kyla has gone off to bed... we'll have to get her up bright and early in the morning to update her blog because I think she missed doing it this morning. Tomorrow we are off southwest of Tokyo for a night in a traditional Ryokan - should be fun :0)

We are still enjoying having Kyla here - she seems to have been reasonably well dragged up! Wonder which of the neices/nephews are lining up to be the next to visit?

Keeping Busy

Sonia here

Well while Andrew has been off working all week Kyla and I have been having a blast around Tokyo. The weather has been dreadful (after weeks and weeks of solid sun I guess it had to rain eventually) but we are proud owners of plastic raincoats and managed to make our way around the city anyway.

We spent Wednesday in having a bit of a cook-up. Kyla is a great little cook - now to work on her cleaning up skills! (seem to recall the same was said of me when I was 12). She assures me that at her house you do all the cooking first and then clean up in one go - does not work so well when you only have 1 metre of bench to work with!

Thursday at Disney was great fun despite the miserable weather. We did a couple of the roller coasters, lots of other rides and then a couple of the Disney shows (great coz they were inside!). We left home at about 8.30 and got back at about 8pm so a long day but lots of fun.

Off to see if we can find Sharon's rice bowls this morning, and then to see if we can get tickets to Cirque de Soleil this afternoon. Decisions decisions, do we spend an extra USD 30 each to get better seats or do we strain our eyes from the back of the theatre... might be a spur of the moment decision coz I cannot make up my mind.

Another grey day

The weather has not been helpful this week. I write this from the gym at lunchtime, looking out through the glass to a grey sky and light rain.

Sonia and Kyla were heading off to Disneyland this morning, hoping to get there before the rain sets in too heavily. Tomorrow is forecast to be worse on that front, so today was really their last chance. Yesterday was better, but they were cooking dinner all day - two appetisers, steak with creamed spinach and garlic mashed potatoe, and some sort of meringue/mousse thing with candied lime for dessert.

Not exactly sure what we'll do Saturday, but Sunday we are off to Tsumago to spend the night in a Ryokan. Should be interesting, but it is about four hours drive from Tokyo.

Rain

Well it seems like autumn has arrived with a vengeance. Yesterday was fine and sunny, although down to around 25 degrees. That is in contrats to the 36 we had the preevious weekend. This morning started at about 15 agrees - at least accordind to the car on thw way to work this morning. And it is raining. So from 36 degrees to 15 in less than 10 days? Crazy.

We went to Kawagoe yesterday, had a look around, then raced back home to make lemon cupcakes (lemon cake recipe) for dinner at my boss's house last night. Kawagoe was full of people (mostly OAPs) who were taking advantage of the cooler weather ahead of the rain coming this week. Lunch was ramen (cheap noodles) in a place somewhere down one of the side streets. It was ok rather than great.

Now at the gym, need to concentrate on the weights. Should be more information(?) On Kyla's blog.

One exhausted Kyla

Sonia here...

Well Kyla has indeed arrived and managed to make tentative friends with our very nervous cat. Made us realise how much of a stressful experience moving back to NZ at some stage will be for Sachi - she does not cope well with people other than 'her' people in the house and Kyla put up with a lot of hissing before a tentative truce was called.

Kyla really picked her day to arrive. Narita airport always has a decent amount of turbulence on descent. Today was exceptional. My plane got in about 40 minutes after hers, and for the first time in all my flying history I had a landing aborted just feet above the runway because the winds were buffeting the plane so badly the pilot could not hold it steady enough to touch down. We turbo charged back up into the air when we ran out of runway for him to keep trying :-). Pleased to report that Kyla did not have quite that scare, but she did get a pretty bumpy approach that she seems to have dealt with just fine. We will make a world traveler out of her yet!

We spent the morning at home and introduced her to the concept of Saturday morning house cleaning. Then headed up the road to introduce her to her first taste of 'real' sushi. She gave it a good shot but I think it is fair to say she prefers Sharon's chicken based variation. The Japanese would be horrified! We had a great 'counter' experience at the Sushi Bar though with a couple of the sushi chefs and a two of the other customers taking great delight in testing Andrews Japanese skills. The noise was as always in the sushi shops loud and boisterous - a very interactive experience- much to Kyla's amusement.

Afternoon was spent out and about running weekend errands and then dinner at home (can we have non-Japanese food being the request :-)...). The Freaky Friday movie finished the day off - with very heavy red eyes it was off to bed and hopefully a good long sleep.

Looking forward to some fun days ahead - visiting the beach tomorrow, shopping Monday, Disney Tuesday, cooking a three course dinner for Andrew on Wednesday, Kawagoe or Kamakura on Thursday and Cirque de Soleil on Friday. We will be exhausted by the end of it!

We'll let you know how it goes.

Ok

Found her. Guess she does not have to catch the bus home after all.

Hmmm

5 more minutes then I give up and go home. Kyla can find her own way to the apartment.

Flight update

Apparently Kyla's flight arrived at 603 instead of 630, but there is no sign of her. Perhaps I was too late (arrived here at 630) and they sold her into slavery?