Think about how many times a day you cross against the light?

As dozens who got off the bus at 8:30 pm tonight, I was one of the many tired, hungry folks who were rushing back home for dinner. On the pavement there were a couple and a kid in front of me, while me and most others were waiting for the light to turn green again, this couple decided to cross the road against the light. They started walking quickly and their little boy followed reluctantly. The light turned green just when they were half way through and as I followed them I heard the boy asked, “Mom, why do you cross when the red light is on?”. No response from the lady, she didn’t even look at her son and continued to walk ahead of him. The boy asked at least three times again and the lady just ignored him completely.

Very soon they were out of my sight after I walked into the shopping arcade. At that moment, a point made by Milton Friedman crossed my mind:

He said, “why should we risk the rest of our lives to save 20 seconds?”

Even a primary school kid knows jaywalking isn’t worth the risk, do we need a Nobel prize winner to remind ourselves? Every one could imagine the consequence of jaywalking on a busy road where your views were blocked. In absolutely no way one could be fast enough to dodge the speedy vehicles turned from the hidden corners. Not to mention the danger created to the driver and other road users.

What’s more disturbing to me is the attitude of the boy’s parents.

Merry Christmas to all of you! I am not going to any party on the X’mas eve or the X’mas day, I feel like I already have a very great season after my birthday celebration and the Tokyo trip. So I am just using these four days to catch up my work, it’d be good for me to start off a new year fresh. With nothing planned, it just happens that my good friend Arnold is in town from London for a short stay, so we went out for some shopping and a dinner in a french restaurant in Lan Kwai Fong. I got a nice pair of running shoes at a pro shop he took me to, and a new 1GB SD card (the faulty one will be taken to repair) while we checked out the camera shops in 298 computer mall. The dinner was great (price is doubled, as expected), we were so full!

Den ganzen Beitrag lesen…

We had to leave Tokyo by a 6 pm flight today, so there wasn’t much we could do. We went to Tsukijishijo (築地市場) again, hoping to eat some beef rice for lunch, but ended up eating sashimi rice, which was even better! Then we bought some seafood like long-leg crabs, ark shell and toro for family and friends in Hong Kong. It was such a crowded market, there was a lot to see and eat but we were running out of time. We hurried back to Shinjuku, did some last-minute shopping and got on the airport bus for Narita airport. The flight was very smooth, I watched two movies on the plane and got home at around midnight. It’s so nice to be back again, I honestly don’t enjoy the cold weather in Japan. So much work is waiting for me and X’mas holidays are coming soon, Merry X’mas to all of you!

Yummy curry pork chop rice at Narita Airport, Tokyo

Den ganzen Beitrag lesen…

Today is mostly for shopping, I feel sorry for my soring legs. Our first stop was Harajuku (原宿), we had a nice “Rice in Egg Omelette” at a place called Apple Tree and started shopping around the area. There were so many well-designed shops that kept my eyes busy even though I wasn’t interested in most of their goods. The only stuffs I bought were some T-shirts from GRANIPH. Then we arrived at Ameyoko (上野アメ横公式ホームページ) for gifts shopping (手信). We bought a lot of Japanese snacks and fruits, as well as some cosmetic and medical products. After a short break in hotel, we shopped around the Shinjuku area and had the best long leg crabs and Shabu-shabu for dinner.

Den ganzen Beitrag lesen…

Thank God that my two remaining 256MB SD cards are working! Today we got up a bit late, and went to the famous temple 淺草寺 in Asakusa (淺草) and Onsen in Odaiba (台場). We enjoyed the hand-made soba lunch and the hot springs very much. We didn’t have much time left otherwise there would be so much more to see like the Fuji TV headquarters and Toyota City Showcase. The “Rainbow Bridge” is nice, but I think our own Tsing Ma Bridge is superior.

Den ganzen Beitrag lesen…

It is a very long day, we went to the outlet Garden Walk early in the morning and spent the afternoon and evening in the Tokyo Disneyland. It was very cold out there and I almost freezed during the night parade! I was planning to elaborate on today’s trip, but something really terrible just happened. When I was downloading today’s photos via my USB card reader like I did last night, the process halt and the 1GB Sandisk memory card became unreadable after system reboot!!!

I tried to put that back into my Canon IXUS 500 camera and it displayed an error: “Memory Card Error. Memory Card Locked”. The card is not locked physically, so I guess something went terribly wrong and I would risk losing all the photos we took at the Disneyland and Tsukijishijo (築地市場) if I do anything further. After more googling, I decided to leave the card intact until I return to Hong Kong where I could seek professional aid.

I am not sure whether the photos could be recovered. Since we didn’t use a second camera today, I am just sure that my mom would kill me if the photos are lost in the end. God help me please …

The flight was very smooth and we arrived in Tokyo at around 3 pm today. We took the Skyline train and checked in at the hotel easily. Then we went out for dinner and shopping. We just chose this place randomly, the food was very nice but more expensive that we thought. As we finished dinner quite early, we continued to stroll around the Shinjuku area and went to ramen for late snack. Internet access is available in our hotel room so I am able to post up these photos, let’s start with the delicious uni:

Den ganzen Beitrag lesen…

This is the first time in 6 years that my whole family goes on a trip together, I’m very excited and grateful for this. Our destination is Tokyo, we will be travelling on our own and stay there from Dec 16 to 20. My sister Peggy organized everything and will be our tour guide as she just went there two months ago. It would be a relaxing trip, our main activities will be eating, shopping and sleeping. We all tried the typical HK travel tours before and are convinced that we will be better on our own. Hopefully I would be able to sleep more and gain a few pounds at the end of the trip.

Japan is not one of my favourite travel destinations but I figure that it is the best choice for a short family trip. The Yen is much cheaper than before, and it is not hard for us to get around the city on public transport. I have just packed but there are still a few things to complete: draft a contract for a new project, set up call forwarding and voice mailbox for my mobile phone and do a full backup of my PowerBook.

The hotel we stay in provides Internet access in some rooms, but I don’t know if I will be in one of them. If not, that would be a very tough trip for me, I am planning to post up some nude photos of myself in Onsen! Haha … if you don’t see any blog updates during these few days, don’t be depressed! See ya!

Still enjoying my hangover right now, but managed to upload some of the pics taken last night, thanks so much to all of you who came and made my birthday so special:

With my sister Peggy and brother Henry

Den ganzen Beitrag lesen…