The last August Sunday of 2014.....in Hong Kong

Three adults, one mucho grande, the next petite......third of standard size......all crammed into a Hong Kong mini-apartment not quite large enough for just one.....

El Mucho Grande, yours truly, the writer of this here blog, today, was up early, as usual, getting himself ready for the joys of solitude prior to anyone else's movement from the bedroom......now, the elder female is up, brewing herself tea, warming bread, preliminary wifely things prior to her taking her morning shower.

Princess the sleeping one, ain't asleep - she's in bed, phone in hands, qq-ing.    

The computer just re-booted.  Why?  Damned if I know......so I am now switching from the Mets- Phillies (1-0 - good game) to the Padres-Dodger game........and it is just about to start as I am about to end this blog - no work - It's Time for Dodger Baseball!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happiness is being in Hong Kong!

Going to Bangkok is really, really nice.  Tokyo and points south, too, was wonderful.  Phnom Penh?   It is off the beaten path and is 'vacation' rather than work......Hong Kong means work.  Hong Kong means that business dinner at Jimmy's Kitchen and a business breakfast at the FCC the next morning.

Hong Kong has been 'my city' for a quarter of a century.  That possessiveness is obviously enhanced by having my apartment - same one for almost as long as I've been in HK - to make living tolerable.

Today is a working day:  lunch meetings and work on taxes......but it all transpires here in Hong Kong.....I like it like that!

At 6:45am on my balcony.....

Sitting in solitude as the day is about to begin, I watch, in semi-trance state, the boats traveling the Mekong.  That pace, slow, patient, seemingly without any motivation, is the day pace in a tropical place where air conditioning is not standard, where early mornings and late afternoons are far more vital (but also somewhat limiting in both time and the ability to communicate outside of the country).

Homeward bound early this afternoon.....this has been a good change of pace where I've been able to observe and render an opinion after my observations.  It is nice to still be 'relevant' as a 'guru' at this stage of life.   Glad that someone would hire me for a task I wouldn't hire myself for!!

Praise be those carbon emissions - when it is 36 outside

Sunrise, that period of dark blue to pink  flavors of coloration of the sky  is a brief - far too brief time of the day.    It gets white hot pretty damned fast.

Ah, but what a time to get up - it is, after all, an hour earlier here than China, so I would be getting my ass into gear at the time of a late Summer Cambodian sunrise.

I got bored with the Yankee-White Sox game and left it around 8:45am, this morning, coming down to the lobby of the Quay to find that our breakfast at 10 crowd had already eaten and were going into a final, summary meeting with the Thai/Cambodian contingent, leaving me to fend for myself.

I had breakfast:  2 cups of coffee, tomato juice, fruit salad & yogurt; bor bor (or something like that), a Cambodian rice porrage.  This was my 9th cultural variation on a rice porrage theme I've had the pleasure to experience in life.

My preference:  Thai boiled rice with minced pork.

Will we find Cambodian purple jade, today??   Only time will tell.....

Watching the sun rise over the Mekong

The Quay, a small, boutique hotel a block and a half away from the FCC-Phnom Penh and Herb's Happy Pizza (which makes the happiest and one of the best tasting meat sauces I have ever had!).  The room:  spartan but modern with a patio overlooking the river.

Yes, there has been noticeable change in economic status/development here....but go one or two streets 'deep', behind the facade and the poverty of 14 years ago is still here.......yes, Tijuana of the mid-50s is still thriving.....albeit, half-way around the world in Cambodia.....

Departure day

All you can eat sushi - set price for a 2 hour period.  Gluttony to which one volunteers because one wants sushi and there are no other sushi bars around (really - the two favorites we'd been going to for years have closed - one went out of business;  the other lost its venue when they tore down the building).  Going there was a mistake because, as little as I truly did consume (and I am eating far less these days), it was still far too much and I did not sleep well, at all.

It is now time to pack, go out for a walk, and then go to one of my two favorite barber shops in Asia (in Ochanomizu - the other is on Thonglor in Bangkok) for a shave and a haircut.  Alas, no longer 2 bits.....

This has been a good trip - lots of baseball!!!!   

Red sleeves

The burn is still there but after two days, it is not always on one's mind.....but for the next week or so, it is simply going to look like I am wearing a pair of red sleeves.  I definitely have to wear my watch as the burn is far more noticable without the watch and my white skinned watch area!

I'm reading much - go to my Shelfari site (prctaxman) to see what I've been reading......I'm not writing - will get back to that next week, as this is a vacation and writing (since I'm being paid for it) is work, albeit pleasurable work with minimal income.

We went to another temple, yesterday afternoon but this one was in sections and the sections were up a mountain and there were steps - lots of steps - too much for me in the heat and (especially) humidity - but I did take pictures - lots of pictures - most of which will be deleted.....

And we did see the latest version of Godzilla, last night.  Good escapism?  Yes!  Good movie?  Are you kidding???  I'd recommend it for one who wants to escape for a couple of hours, watching some good computer generated graphics.   The 1954 version remains in my mind (as does The Thing and The Creature from the Black Lagoon) as the film of ímpact'  that I'd probably like to see again.  This latest version (or the likely sequel)?   No way would I watch again....

Back to Tokyo, today.......and baseball again for the high school tourney?  If we get the opportunity, then absolutely - it was GREAT!!!

Flame broiled at Koshien!

Morning baseball is nice.....but beer girls at 8:15am?  As we took our seats in the VIP section of officialdom of the High School Baseball Federation, a couple of things were noticeable:  firstly, Joanna was the ONLY female there - all others were older Japanese men;  secondly,  these seats were great!!!!!  It is indeed nice to have contacts!!!!  Life definitely is based not only upon what you know but who you know!!!!!!!!!  Third, why were the beer girls coming to this section, which was not for the paying public but the guys involved who had to, by example, be alcohol-free?  Fourth,  without any sunblock, this morning was going to be brutal - the morning sun was so intense and I felt like a raw, Burger King Whopper being flame broiled in the sun!

Too bad I cannot transfer the pictures from my Leica to the iPad.  Too good was my feeling that I was, perhaps, the only one with a non-Japanese camera amongst the 45,000 in attendance.  Too sad am I that when I get home to Guangzhou, because of the internet restrictions, I will not be able to put the pictures on my website (that'll have to wait until the end of the month in Hong Kong).

And yet....I wouldn't have missed the opportunity to attend the opening ceremonies and first two games of this year's tourney.  47 prefectures.....with two teams each for Tokyo and Hokkaido (and the winning prefectural team from the rest of the prefectures).  49 teams in this year's event.

Going behind the scenes was a fantastic experience - the kids come first - physical trainers there to see that these young players stay healthy - stretching after the game and individual attention to all - especially the pitchers!   Seeing the emotions - tears from the losers, shit eating grins on those victorious.....no corporate sponsors - this is purely amateur and not ' western-hypocritical'.

I have new found respect for how the Japanese treat baseball.........it was an experience that simply cannot be duplicated.  

It ain't gonna rain on our parade!

.....and now the weather report says rain - severe at times - all week long in Osaka.  Will there be baseball tomorrow at Koshien?    I hope so.

It is 10:35am and I just got dressed on this wet Sunday morning.  I'm in our hotel room in Kyoto.  I've been reading......and liking it.

Today we'll first go for breakfast.  Then it'll be off to Osaka and a trial run at getting to Koshien Stadium, first, in anticipation of tomorrow's 8am appointment there to meet and be escorted to wherever we'll be sitting for the opening ceremonies (assuming no rain) and a couple of baseball games.  After, we'll go to Universal Studios-Osaka, to get tickets for Tuesday and our visit to the magical world of Harry Potter at the theme park.......

So much for the blog for today.....it is raining, now, on what appears to be a day of on and off rain......hopefully no wind squalls like last night - then, one knew that a typhoon had hit the southern part of the country.....

A typhoon postponement.....

The high school tourney - postponed from an official start on the 9th to the 11th because of a typhoon that should hit southern Japan today and tomorrow.

We'll get to Kyoto today but tomorrow's plans???  We'll re-arrange......such is life......

Anyhow, this is a wonderful break from reality and being here in Japan with my daughter is indeed a treat!!!!!

And as for anything else happening?  Who cares - we're having fun!!!!!!!!!!!

Time for the sweat towel!!!

The heat and humidity are stifling.   So what else is new???   Tokyo summers are not noted for their  'hospitality' to the visitor.   I sweat a lot....a whole hell of a lot!!!  I run through handkerchiefs because paper towels and napkins and tissues cannot take the force of my sweat!   I looked for my Kanemoto sweat towel, the one Joanna and I got during our first game together, in Japan, way back when......I couldn't find it but did bring my Rakuten Golden Eagle towel, which will now be put to use......

So, what's on our schedule today?   Nakano Broadway, the new apartment, getting tickets for the 13th at the Tokyo Dome (if possible - otherwise we'll go to Saitama for the Lions - Buffaloes game, that night)....and dinner with Joanna and her friends who are helping to move her to the new apartment she'll be living at for the next few years in Tokyo......

.....and, of course, I have to go to that 4th floor harmonica store - the óne of a kind' place for a frustrated, wanna be musician like me!