genman’s blog

ナナとカオル

nobody@vox.com(genman) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:22:56 -0800

Nana to Kaoru is a seinen manga, which is about the relationship between high schoolers Nana, who is an outstanding student, and her long-time neighbor Kaoru, who has a (unhealthy?) interest in bondage and other forms of SM play.

Nana to Kaoru

The message conveyed by most manga, is no normal girl is or should be interested in taking part in a boy's fetish. Girls are prudish; boys are hyper-sexual.

But in the case of my favorite adult manga artist, Amadume Ryuta, who I discovered back in the days I started collecting adult manga, his female characters aren't just "strong" in the sense of most men's comics, but have an innate curiosity for sex. Or at the very least, a lack of prudishness, which is what's usually employed for comedic effect, but is both cheap and tiring.

In Nana to Kaoru, most of the comedy is light-hearted situational comedy. Which balances the more serious aspects, of sexual exploration. With all the ropes tied tight through the thighs and around the breasts, outdoor urination, etc. it's pretty strong stuff for 2nd year high school kids to be playing around with. It's not entirely credulous but anything is allowed under the guise of comedy.

And it also seems to contain the beginnings of a love story: Kaoru is interested in SM play and not sex and isn't in love with Nana. Nana isn't interested in sex either, but finds SM play relaxing. They are just long-time friends, it seems. And might they go beyond just SM into sex? Or will they find themselves in love? Or both?

There are two things I'm looking forward to in volume 3: How will Amadume "step-up" (as it says on the cover) the SM? And will Kaoru and Nana ever develop love interest?

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Hong Kong: New Territories (East)

nobody@vox.com(genman) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 19:23:21 -0800

I was originally planning on two days in the New Territories, one for the east and one for the west.

The east part is probably the most straightforward and easy place to ride. There's extensive bike trails along the water, and plenty of bicyclists, unlike the rest of Hong Kong which is bus and taxi dominated. And beyond the trails, you enter the countryside and can skirt along the border of Mainland China.

Getting to the New Territories required a trip on a Blue Line train, which is one of two lines that allows for bicycles on trains. To get to the station from Hong Kong Island requires a trip on the ferry from Wan Chai to Hung Hom, then from the ferry terminal, it's about 1-2 miles to the station itself, that's surrounded with a maze of one-way roads, ramps, and forced turns you must avoid.

In the station, they might ask you to remove your front wheel. This is because it's The Rule. You will be chased down and yelled at with your front wheel on. (Hint: Remove your front wheel, then as you turn the corner, out of sight of the gate, put your front wheel back on.)

At the station, it was in the middle of morning rush hour and obviously very busy. But I was doing the reverse commute and didn't have to feel bad about taking up space. I picked a car at the end of the train, attached my bicycle to the stanchion in the middle of the car, with my helmet strap, and sat down.

I got off at Sha Tin and made my way to the waterfront. Again, I experienced a lot of confusion between bicycling from the station and getting to the water.

The trail itself is pretty narrow and bumpy enough that it's tough to ride very fast. In the early morning, and during the week there are evidently hardly any people about. I did encounter a nice older man who gave me directions at one point when I got lost.

The trail eventually transitions from the riverside to into Tai Ho city. Numerous old women were weeding and collecting trash along the way. At some point, I noticed I had dropped my map. This was my second map lost out of my jersey this trip. I went back on the trail and retraced my steps, but it's possible that it was just scooped up by one of the trash collectors.

No map, but I had studied the route the night before. It'd be simply a matter of returning the same way I came, if I got lost. But instead I carried on. I went through Pat Sin Leung park, which was full of high schoolers on student trip field trips. It smelled like BBQ and I realized I hadn't had lunch yet.

About 30 minutes later, I exited the north end of the park and reached the frontier area between Hong Kong and China. It was a restricted crossing, so I snapped a picture and headed now east.

To the east was Fan Ling. From there, I could head south along the highway. I went up a group of police to confirm this and they helped provide a few directions on a map. And I actually wanted to see a detailed map because I was planning a side trip on the return, but their English wasn't too great and whatever map they had I simply couldn't borrow.

I did make a couple of side trips. I went up to the top of a large hill, which was mostly turned into a cemetery. Before a long climb up, I asked at the gatehouse what kind of place it was, but nobody could tell me in English what it was. I did enjoy the view but since it was no through road, I simply had to turn around and get back to the highway. (For reference it was Wo Hop Shek Road.)

After returning to Tai Ho, I found lunch--deep fried noodles with curry sauce. And then a section of the Wilson Trail. Although frequently paved, this turned out to be more of a hiking not mountain bike course, so I ended up carrying my bicycle for a mile or so.

I could see Sha Tin in the distance and that's where I fortunately ended up. It was around 3PM and children were bicycling the waterfront trail. They were doddering around 8MPH and I was ambitiously going 18-20MPH. Although I could have spent a few hours in town, I was hoping to get to the Kowloon ferry before rush hour really began and nighttime came. Luckily nobody was hurt.

I was hot and sweaty, tired but happy. I bought a couple of cartons of Vitasoy and recharged before making it through the gate. (Dark Chocolate Vitasoy is awesome and I hope to find it in the U.S. at some point.) I wish I had a towel but made the most of it with some napkins.

Rather than cycle to Hung Hom ferry, I walked my bike to Tsim Tsa Tsui, then road along some busy road to the ferry. This is probably easier than what I did in the morning.

From the Star Ferry, I got to see another great sunset reflecting off the buildings of Hong Kong Island, the lower deck of the ferry to myself. Dropping my bicycle off in Wan Chai, I took a shower and headed out for hot pot.

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Days of Dim Sum

nobody@vox.com(genman) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 21:20:15 -0800

A lot of bicycling requires a lot of calories, and eating is really the highlight of a trip to Hong Kong.

Although I've been to dozens of dim sum restaurants in the 'States I had heard it was "of course" better in Hong Kong itself. My Lonely Planet Guidebook gave a few suggestions and one in particular seemed particularly charming. was based in the Central/Admiralty District, about a subway stop from Wan Chai. And it had decor of the early 20th century, e.g. stained glass, elaborate woodwork, mirrors, etc. Servers (all male) wore white frocks and all were quite old, for servers anyway. I think Hitomi would like it for the old man waiters, ala Ristorante Paradiso.

Eating alone is tough, but with a big appetite I was able to eat a lot. I felt the best part of my meal were the steamed cakes, though everything else was pretty much perfect. What you expect from a good dim sum restaurant are items freshly prepared. Dim sum cart items eventually become overcooked. The rice paper wrappings of shrimp balls go from chewy, to gluey, to gelatinous. Meats get chewy and hard.

Opening up my guide book, I found a few places nearby to check out. I went to the Sun Yat-Sen museum and saw the current exhibit on the building of his mausoleum. He's a hero to many Chinese, though I wonder how the Mainland Chinese communists tried (and try) to reinterpret his teachings to fit their approach to governance. For example, one of Sun Yat-Sen's principles is (Western) democracy, which Mainland China doesn't exactly agree with.

The museum's housed in a beautiful building, which is well worth seeing just for the architecture.

Nearby is another museum in a historical building. Their focus is on the medical history of Hong Kong and a few exhibits talk a bit about Chinese and Western medicine practice. With such a dense population, Hong Kong is susceptible to public heath crisis. The Third Pandemic of the bubonic plague entered Hong Kong in 1894 and spread quickly. Foreign doctors were brought in and eventually a vaccine was developed once the plague bacteria was isolated from dead rats. Entire neighborhoods were bulldozed and public health measures were put into place.

Presently in Hong Kong, you see signs everywhere explaining just how frequently buttons, handles, and escalator handrails are sanitized, e.g. "Door handles are sanitized every hour." (This came about post-SARS, I hear.) I doubt stainless steel or plastic surfaces would harbor much, but I think it makes people more comfortable.

I walked through the antique shop district, which I believe is called Hollywood. Most places were closing down, but I noticed a tea shop still open. It wasn't too busy and had chairs open for tea tasting. I was definitely in the market for tea but I insist on trying before buying.

It was family run and one customer was from the neighborhood, and though she grew up in Hong Kong, she had very good English. She was buying one of those pur-erh tea pancake things, which I haven't gotten into.

Available were some nice oolong from China, no lung-ching like I expected to see, that the family bought direct from the plantation it seemed. I got some tea ware as well, and almost bought a pot and set of cups. Chinese ceramic teapots (the real deal) are actually pretty small, unlike the ones in the U.S., so though I liked the designs, it just wasn't practical.

After I headed back to the hotel and dropped off my loot, I took the subway under the bay to the night market, on Temple Street, and ate at the aptly named Temple Street Crab restaurant. I already ate freshwater crab, which is a pain, so instead I ordered some very spiny giant shrimp things. Two ladies, on the table beside me, shared a few words and jokes, and I tasted some deep fried oysters and other things they offered. Your best antidote for eating alone is to somehow find people to eat with you, I guess.

Beer was cheap and I was a little tipsy. I wandered the market, which was mostly cheap junk or bootlegs or weird craft goods and actually spent a bit of money. I got a little pouch for my cell phone, and some empty journals for Ariel. Probably got ripped off, but it wasn't a lot of money to begin with.

I was a bit sore from all the bicycling, and luckily there's quite a few late night foot massage places open. It's about $88 for 30 minutes or so for foot massage, as the signs say. Having done this in Taiwan and other places, I thought why not? First place I chose was up the stairs a bit, and it was a bit dark and all. I was asked to lay down on a massage table-like bed and I took off my clothing. The TV's on and the lady is busily working my feet and thighs. And then my crotch, and then it seems she wanted to offer me additional services...

I was trying to convey, in English: Okay...since you did such a fine job, I'll pay you a little more for the "full" body massage but hands off the crotch, please. Me no want sex. And I did get a little more massage, but I suppose (for her) would be a lot less work for glandular therapy, which she was hinting at. Massage is a lot of work, I guess.

I didn't really get my 90 minutes, more like 45, and I pay and start to head out. I mention I'm unsatisfied, and they bring out a much younger (and prettier) girl, which offers an oil massage. And after being quite insistent--and being super naive--I thought I'd now get a legitimate massage but really she's just a sex worker as well. I said I didn't come here for sex, "I'm married and in love," and I apologize and leave.

The way the business was run was all quite illegal. If you work alone prostitution is legal, but in this case they were operating a brothel. And then there were quite a lot of these places operating quite openly around Kowloon.

Feeling simultaneously molested, weird, uncomfortable, and a bit sick after seeing that young girl, I head off for tofu dessert. It was only the equivalent of $35 for my misadventure, including tip. And just to finish the night, I get an unscheduled call from my work at around 11:30PM discussing Huawei and testing issues.

The next day I thought I might get some riding in but after almost missing the last train and showering, etc., I was not going to get up at 6AM. Why not go for another round of dim sum?

Again, I head back to Kowloon. My guidebook has a recommendation of a place and after wandering around for about an hour (hungry) I find out, it's no longer in business. (There's about three or so malls built together, so I was never too sure if I was in the right mall to find this place.) At the Marco Polo Hotel, I ask directions to a good dim sum place, in yet another mall.

The place I find is my favorite restaurant from Taipei, Din Tai Fung, which is my most favorite dim sum place ever, and one my most favorite restaurants, in fact. And I feel a bit ashamed that it is a chain but why shouldn't a successful restaurant be replicated?

Unlike most restaurants I've been to in Hong Kong, the wait staff usually isn't very nice. But here, there's a lot of friendly, beautiful waitresses everywhere and they really hustle. They are even wired to some sort of internal radio with headphones.

When the steamed dumplings came, I felt such a relief biting into one, that I became teary eyed. From the experience of the previous night, there was something about the warm, delicious food melting in my mouth.

I chat up one girl who's originally from Taiwan and interestingly enough, speaks pretty good Japanese. She says she's going back to Taipei in about a year and a half, and says to visit her at their branch.

In addition to dumplings, I got about 4 or so different dishes. My second favorite was an interesting blanched cherry tomato salad, with plum sauce, I'd like to try. Hitomi really likes tomatoes but I don't know what to do with them except either serve them raw or with salad dressing.

Invigorated, I made my way out to the waterfront boardwalk. There's a museum and performance hall. It was getting late, so I just did Hong Kong Cinema's "Walk of the Stars", analogous to the Hollywood stars. I'm most familiar with the movies of the 80's and on, but film history has gone back many more years than this. Since the late 90's, the prevalence of piracy, and the increased importation Foreign (including Western) films has supposedly put a end to the incredible output of domestic studios. Domestic studios now only introduce only a handful, rather than a few dozen, movies a year.

Jackie Chan has his own line of merchandise, apparently, as there was a kiosk selling goods with "J C" stamped on them. Hitomi made a demand of me to buy souvenirs, to give as gifts, so I bought a stack of Jackie Chan towels and whatnot.

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Hong Kong; Lantau Island

nobody@vox.com(genman) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:42:59 -0800

Sunday was a "rest day" in theory, but I went to Stanley for swimming.

Stanley was the only major area on Hong Kong Island that I hadn't cycled the day before and I wanted to see it.

There are two beaches and I managed to go to the one I didn't want to go to. Signs talk about protecting your valuables but as there are no lockers, good luck with that! A nice couple explained that it was safe, so I left my wallet and phone and everything under a towel and headed off. (With all the prisons on the island, what were the prisoners guilty of? Tax evasion?)

I got in a number of laps and wore myself out as usual. Lunch was at some cafe along seaside area that's obviously a big main tourist trap, but whatever. I went to the Hong Kong Maritime Museum, an obvious tourist destination, and learned about Chinese sailing history and the more recent history of Hong Kong itself and things like container shipping modernization, etc.

There was a fundraiser outside where people attempt to "fly" from a pier over the water on homemade wings, but they all pretty much flew like rocks. So I suppose the draw was to see them wreck their aircraft. I took a couple of videos out on some rocks (breakwater). Kind of seemed like a waste, but I guess it was for the kids so that makes it okay.

I went out for an afternoon swim at a different beach but ended up hopelessly lost.

Ending up back in town, I wandered around the market, which was closing up about 7PM or so. Still, there were a number of restaurants still open. I ended up in a high-end Chinese place that looked somewhat out of the warring-states period, with dark wood and medieval. This being Monday and the off season, only a few customers were present. I ordered a number of dishes and was told I was ordering too much, and suggested to substitute my noodle dish, but ended up hungry at the end of the meal which isn't great.

Next day I was getting up around 6AM for the ferry to Lantau Island. Again, not a lot of traffic before 7AM, and even the first ferry wasn't until about 7:30AM.

I expected it to be a nice difficult ride, but it turned out to be a very difficult ride. The morning part was great, since it was quite cool and almost no cars were around. I rode to the "Big Buddha", part of Po Lin Monastery. A group of old ladies were walking part of the road up and needed directions, so I tried to help them, though I spoke no Chinese. Anyway, they were going the right way--which was uphill--but seemed confused. (I took some pictures with them later.)

I arrived before the gondola started bringing the masses up. There wasn't much to do but walk around. There was some Buddhist chanting on the PA system, which was too loud and bad quality. I wandered into the temple, clad in bicycle shorts etc., and was told not to enter the ceremony area. The place was kind of shabby and according to the signage they were soliciting donations to build some new buildings. Already a new gate was being constructed.

There's a ton of incense getting burned it seemed, so much that there are huge areas set aside, containing just metal racks for holding incense sticks.

As the sign explained, no meat or alcohol was permitted in the temple area. And having bought a ticket to enter the museum of the Big Buddha, I was entitled to a vegetarian snack. They give you three or so gelatin and mochi cakes, with a plate of noodles for your snack, plus a drink.

Post breakfast, made my way to Tai-O, on the west, the "Venice of Hong Kong." It was a steep and huge descent from about the top of the island to sea level. Tai-O is a village, in the Hong Kong sense, meaning not a lot of tall buildings, but they're all buildings packed in cheek and jowl. There's no cars to get around, and no roads wide enough for a car anyway. It seems everyone either walks or bikes with carts from house to road.

It's called "Venice" but mostly a lot of buildings on pilings, canoes and a handful of draw bridges, some manually operated with ropes or chains. I think to be called Venice you'd have to have floating buildings, at least. It does have a tourist draw, as there were a few white tourists walking around. Normal people would take a bus, I guess.

According to Crazy Guy on a Bike who talked about riding the island, there's a trail from Tai-o to the next town west, but I discover it's really a hiking trail with lots of stairs, not even suitable for mountain biking, I would think. (Can mountain bikers ride up stairs?) Still, carrying a 20lb bicycle isn't too big of a deal for a mile or so.

I get to the Sham Wai, which is a hamlet but at least there's a restaurant, run by an octogenarian couple (or older?) who isn't serving much from the menu but instant ramen with some add-in meat. Still, I'm hungry and need the sodium. Then I realize I had dropped my map of the island out of the back pocket of my jersey.

I spend about an hour hiking back along the trail, but all I see are discarded tissues from some littering hikers. I really was concerned not having the map to get from Sham Wai to Tung Chung, since it was all little trails. Anyway, I make it back to town and attempt anyway to figure out the trails in the jungle.

The trail is all concrete, no stairs, and about 4' wide, so not an issue for riding, though still a bit steep for my compact double gearing, so I walk the bike at some points. And although it's a "trail", it's really just a walking path, as there's plenty of houses to either side much of the way. (And no road access to these houses, so I assume it's this path that's used to bring goods in.)

Tung Chung is subway accessible to the mainland, so it's basically been built up to contain about 30-40 or so mega apartment buildings. It overlooks the airport, which was built on reclaimed land. And although its maybe home to 250,000 people, there's just one little two lane road out of there, back into the rest of the island.

Now this little road is quite steep, and signs explain the grade is about 1:8 to 1:6, which is roughly 13% to %17 for about 2-3 miles. Killer hill! Stalling before the end, I walk up the last 100 feet, hopping off my bike, walking, and praying not to cramp up, especially for the descent. And it's no trouble: The descent is amazing, especially with the road surface as smooth as it was, and with no traffic, I could hit some pretty high speeds and curve some nice turns.

But even back to the south side, there's still many steep hills to beat. I make it to Poi beach and take a refreshing swim, though it's getting on to evening and it's quite cool. The beach is occupied by children (foreigners) from the states (based on their accents) and they're doing some sort of group games, like you'd do at Summer Camp. When I'm out about 100 yards, and nobody else is around, I worry briefly my legs are going to cramp up and I'm going to drown, like in the movies. But there's no issue, minus that I had no towel with me.

I make it back to the ferry area and consider dinner. There's nothing really open, and the ferry had just arrived so I head back to town. From the ferry, I get to enjoy an amazing sunset overlooking the city. I try taking pictures but they are so-so.

It's rush hour, and dark, in Hong Kong and not a great time to be riding a bike. I make it to a tram station, then see what other riders are doing, which is riding their bicycles, following the tram line. I make it back to Wan Chai no problem this way. Then it's a shower, dinner--I'm starving!

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Hong Kong; First Ride

nobody@vox.com(genman) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:55:59 -0800

It's probably best I catch up to present time...

I left Shenzhen by subway, arrived at the border, got through about four clearances. I had an easy time getting to Hong Kong Island itself, though it was about four transfers in all. A little practice with subway maps in general helps, I think.

I'm in a hotel in Wan Chai, which is about as central as you can get, on Hong Kong Island. I'm on Wan Chai road and about two blocks away from the famous trams, as well as the subway etc. The room's pretty nice. Problem is, there's no elevator and I'm on the "third floor" which is really about the 4th, or 5th since the street floor is about 20 feet below the "first floor".

First day I bought about four or five maps, for bicycling and future reference. There's a lot of parks and hiking paths. There's basically three, maybe four types of land in Hong Kong: Fully developed (or nearly so) land filled with skyscrapers or condos; park land; (poor looking) villages; and shipping industry. And roads, of course, full of red taxis, double decker busses, mini busses, commercial/construction vehicles, and expensive cars. I've seen more Mercedes, Ferraris, and Bentleys than anywhere else I've been. Not that many cyclists, a few motorcylists, and no car that hasn't been washed in the past week.

I also bought a cell phone, which was a lot less painful than in the U.S. You buy the phone, you get a sim card, and about two minutes later you can start talking. Unlike the U.S., in that you basically sign your life away, and forget about getting an unlocked phone.

First day I visited Victoria (?) park, a temple, and walked around endless shops and restaurants. Sidewalks are crowded with people everywhere. I'm not much into shopping but I was curious to poke around. I spend some time trying to get my bearings straight but in the maze of buildings and twisty roads, I can't tell east from west or actually any compass direction really.

I did manage to find a bicycle shop, to by a lock. I needed one, I thought, for the bit of eating (really) I would do during my rides.

So, early on a Saturday I start out on the ride around the island and inevitably go the wrong direction. I attempt riding some side streets but they're often one way and turn me around. So I decide to use only the main roads, which are actually pretty empty around 7AM. (Do Asians sleep in more than we do?)

I came up with a cue sheet for all the turns: Roads change names all over the place and I suspect the maps don't always match the (often hidden) street signs. But I make serious progress and I'm quite pleased. The views from the road are almost always amazing: If you're not surrounded by buildings, you're often exposed on a hill looking down on buildings and water. Given the scale and height of the residential villages, it's almost like seeing something from a science fiction illustration. Especially the actually named "Cyber Village". There are little cut-outs in the floors that appear to be common areas. There's something cool about holes through buildings.

Difficulties arise arriving in Aberdeen, where the traffic volumes grow and I'm on the road, quite confused sometimes understanding how to continue my trip. Very few side roads go anywhere at all, or worse, turn you around. But I have a quality map, so it's just a matter of finding where I am. Again, the road signs are often tucked away, which makes it tough to navigate in the midst of traffic.

I do a side trip to one of the south islands by bridge. And then I make it past most of the big roads, and there's more climbing as I go into the sparsely populated southeast area. It feels great going downhill, but the uphill sections I sweat profusely as now it's midday. My gloves are soaked with sweat and start to chafe.

I stop at a beach (Recluse Bay) and consider a swim, but I have no suit.

I start heading east. There's a bit of thinning of traffic as buses can't go the way I'm going, which is over the reservoir road. I see another rider and he points out where I need to go, which is Shek-O.

Shek-O is probably the best road for a cyclist on Hong Kong Island, because it isn't terribly steep, has great views, and has less traffic.

I head down to the peninsula, on a closed to non-local traffic road, and it's like being in a different country. I go through a village of mostly one- or two-story houses and then end up in a land of radio antennas and underground cables--their endpoints anyway--and I get stopped at a guard house by a man who waves me back to where I came. Supposedly there is a marine preserve, and it's well preserved since there's no road to it that I could go on.

Next stop was Big Wave Beach. I park my bicycle, walk down, and see lots of surfing and ex-pats. A lot of shops in the area but very little business it seemed as it was the off season. Who goes to the beach in winter? Waves didn't really compare to Hawaii's, but still not too bad. Bought soy milk (Vita Soy, unofficial drink of Hong Kong cyclists?), and headed to lunch at Shek-O Village.

Saw a couple of high-end ($5k+) racing bicyclists and a couple of HK'ers who, as it turned out, looked quite casual, at this very casual Western joint. This is where I ate lunch. Lemon Coke (with real lemon), and an egg sandwich. Could have eaten more but I still had a lot of riding. There was a hiking route off to some island, which I wanted to see, but got confused by the map and street name correspondence, as usual.

Headed back to town: Lots of hills again.

As an aside: Every few miles, you'd pass (or be stopped at) a construction site where they were working on erosion protection. Every tiny road had tons more concrete pored to stabilize the up and the down side of the hill you were on, lest it simply wash away. Still, I suppose they needed periodic replacement. Construction crews all looked like immigrants from poorer countries.

Heading into town was exciting, as it was just a fast downhill from the south to the north, and you were plunging into a maze of skyscrapers and roads. In the thick of it, though I was trying to make it back up again, as I wanted to get to Victoria Peak.

Forgetting it was Saturday: Lots of traffic to the peak as incidentally, there was a huge mall built up there for all the rich tourists to enjoy. And I was getting really overheated as, hey, it's afternoon. Eventually once I reached the tourist spot, and headed up to the actual top in a park, I experienced some extraordinary cramping. It wasn't a hydration issue, I suppose, but the result of too high a gear for the riding I was doing. (And as I would soon discover, to ride in Hong Kong, granny gear is definitely required. Mountain bike gearing is not a bad idea.)

Post-cramp, I headed up for a picture at the viewpoint. You go through another mall to get up to the top, by the way. View was good but definitely hazy at the time of day--or polluted?--so I was a bit sad. I had another lunch (pre dinner?) then cycled the remaining 100-150 meters to the actual top, almost cramping again. I rode down spinning the whole way so I wouldn't seize. My legs were shot, so I decided the next day I'd rest.

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China: Go!

nobody@vox.com(genman) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 03:43:16 -0700

As I blogged a few blogs ago, it was supposed to be going to China, but those plans had been changing up until about two weeks ago. Eventually it was decided I'd be going.

Hitomi came back that same week (Sunday) and I had less inclination to be anywhere without her. Plus I'd be missing out on Halloween. In some ways it was my fault, in that I was asked by work to give reasons why I was needed in Shenzhen and I came up with a pretty convincing e-mail, I suppose.

(By the way, I'm typing this in Hong Kong. China blocks pretty much all the blog sites out there. So that's why I hadn't posted any updates to Facebook or here.)

I'll need to update this as time goes by.

Flight: Eva Air leaves around 2AM for Taiwan from Seattle, and pretty much nobody's in the airport, so it's a pretty lonely affair. I was flying business but for whatever reason it was tough feeling comfortable sleeping. Shoulder room was great but I experienced the usual leg fatigue and being by a window of course I had to pee every few hours it seemed.

Felt pretty good in Taipei. The airport terminal I remember from my last to Taiwan with Hitomi brought back some good memories. But there was no Hitomi this time around. And though I had plenty of food on the flight in the middle of the night, I enjoyed breakfast yet again.

Hong Kong airport: Felt like a step up from Taipei. I was taking the ferry to Shenzhen and the ferry service will transfer your bags from the airline directly, which is a help. While waiting for the ferry, I bought some books and coffee. The ferry sounded better than it was: For one, you're inside. For another, there's a lot of waiting and being transferred.

Mainland China landing: Definitely pretty ghetto and strangely what I expect to see. Luckily, customs and immigration was efficient and not at all pushy like in the U.S. I exchanged some cash and proceed to the taxi area.

It was about 350RMB (Chinese money) to the hotel, and basically I was ripped off (again) by third World taxi drivers. Alas, it was only about $50 US, so no great harm. I thought I learned my lesson in Thailand: Never, ever ride in a taxi with no meter running. Plus I should have realized when the driver said he liked the U.S. I should have realized I was being conned.

Of course the first thing I do in the hotel is assemble my bicycle, which actually was difficult this time around. It's been awhile but also the front brake (caliper) was misbehaving. Somehow the nut on the middle of the screw got loose or something causing the head to get loose. A lot of knucle banging later and it was okay. Then: Where to ride?

Speaking of screws loose, yes I rode in Shenzhen, where the drivers are insane. Shenzhen, in short, is like a heavily polluted and spread out version of Hong Kong where the roads are bigger and traffic perhaps more vicious. In some ways, it's all a reflection of life is worth less and standards of living are sacrificed in the name of advancing progress. Some suspect Barack Obama may be Communist, but the Chinese are Communist, and the Party is more vicious and heartless than even your most avaricious right wing Republican's fantasy.

I highly value my life, yet paradoxically ride a bicycle in this sort of shit. Anyway, where should I go? I bought a map of the city, which was designed to work okay for drivers who take major roads, but I wanted to find minor ones, which tend to be more interesting. But the way the city was designed, there are basically islands of huge towers and communities and they are like islands surrounded by big roads. Taxis are thankfully cheap (for us foreigners) and there is a subway which provides refuge for pedestrians.

In terms of traffic safety, here are some things to note: Pedestrians must yield to motorists. Motorists never signal. They can drive however they want, as fast as they want. Note: There are bicycle lanes, but motorists can and will use those for parking or driving if they feel like it. If you are more than 1 second late accelerating, they will honk at you. They will honk when passing on the left or right or if you are in front of them. Seatbelts are optional, especially in taxis where the buckles might be broken or missing. If the driver wears one, he will likely be sitting on the shoulder strap.

First ride I did: Came back exhilerated but my lungs hurt from...something in the air. And in addition to the persistent pollution, which scarily blankets the sky with a dull brown on even a sunny day, a lot of places smell like old garbage, ala Ho Chi Min City. What am I doing here?

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Hitomi's Out

nobody@vox.com(genman) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:28:02 -0700

Hitomi (who's in Japan) called me out of the blue. It was good to talk to her. I hadn't talked to her since Friday. I was in the middle of work, unfortunately and had to keep the conversation short.

Something threw me off about her phone call. For whatever reason, I didn't really want to talk. Isn't there a rule when you're on vacation you're only allowed send postcards, letters, or e-mail? But I understand her position. More frequently, I'm out of town and Hitomi's at home. And being alone on vacation feels incredibly alone.

Last weekend I was out hiking with friends. We went off to Manning Provincial Park in B.C. Admittedly I didn't think too much about my wife while freezing in the mountains. I wasn't struggling to survive but the cold took my mind off a lot of things back home. And let's not discount the great scenery: Where we were camped probably has one of the best views of the North Cascades than anywhere else.

Also to keep my mind of Hitomi, I was busily ordering a bunch of manga. I kind of got shopper's euphoria there for a bit. Lately, I've gotten into girl's love manga (often called "yuri" in the West) so I ordered a couple of those sorts of titles.

From what I hear, Hitomi managed to assemble her bicycle and is getting ready to ride on her own through Shikoku. I wish her luck. She's only riding about 40-50 miles for a few days, but she said it was pretty warm so it might be difficult in the heat.

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Extraordiary September Weather

nobody@vox.com(genman) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 22:50:29 -0700

Things have gotten extremely busy (comparatively) these past few weeks thanks to a new project/demo we're putting together for a Chinese company. This is all good but I've been less motivated to spend my day in an office due to the incredibly fine weather as of late.

Most of the difficultly, project-wise, has been finalizing requirements. So, you build what you think you need but then expect some of that work to be wasted.

Anthony, a young Momoist who've we've met in Japan, San Jose, Vegas, but never in Seattle, came by our house on Friday. We watched/sampled a bunch of J-Pop concert videos as well as Evangelion 1.11, on Blu Ray. Dinner was nabe, not really appropriate for the warm weather but almost always good. Plus we had moon cakes. (Moon cakes are kind of like Christmas cookies that you do like them once in a while but wouldn't want to eat them all year long.)

Bedtime was around 3AM for me, so Hitomi and I spent most of Saturday morning in bed. Worked on my Chinese project at home: Not sure why I felt compelled to spend the day hacking. Maybe because of the weather. Didn't want to cook, though we had tons of leftovers, so went out to Malay Satay Hut.

Sunday was Tim's birthday. I rented a bunch of movies. Tim, mom and I watched one. Alone on the Pacific was about the first single-handed sailor from Japan, Horie Ken'ichi. Movie probably exaggerated and changed the order of events of his 94 day sail, although I'm sure there were numerous challenges. (Note: Ruriko Asaoka is incredibly sexy. Would not leave Japan with a sister like that!) Then I spent the evening hacking away at JBoss deployment configuration.

Monday I spent dealing with more configuration issues. JEE is like that.

Tuesday (and until Friday) I went into work, either the whole day or part of the day.

I went out two a couple of movies. First was 9 (3D animation). Animation-wise, and aesthetically, it was quite well done. However, it lacked pacing or something like it, since it was mostly scene after scene of crazy rescues and fights. Too much action and you stop caring. I was with Ian, and he suggested the movie, so walking out of the theater, I wasn't too sure if I should say anything bad about it. (It's easy to complain and that ruins the fun for people who enjoyed the movie.) But still, there were really good aspects.

By the way, I'm not big on celebrity voice acting for animation. Sure, it sells tickets, but well-known celebrities aren't necessarily qualified for voice acting. And rather than the celebrity sounding like the character, the character tends to be changed to fit with the voice actor. And celebrities are often famous because of how they look not because of their acting skill.

Eureka Seven (anime) was much more entertaining. There was a one-time screening on Thursday at Pacific Place, though it was unfortunately sparsely attended. The story was really too intricate and complicated for its own good. (Anime can either be inextricable or overly dense, it seems.) Fortunately, the character interactions were good and animation and action was high quality. The dub actors were good but the writing wasn't agreeing with my ears. Dub translation scripts often add extra words, so dialog often seems unnaturally wordy.

I managed to get out for a swim September 22nd. Water's been getting colder but, hey, mid-eighties temperatures should not be squandered.

Friday I left work early and shopped Uwajimaya. We had Sanma Hiraki, a fall-appropriate fish. If I stopped eating animal meat I'd probably switch to eating fish like this. These guys are really oily, which you'd think would appeal to Americans, but there's just something about oily fish which Americans don't like I guess. Plus, Hitomi made a bunch of interesting side dishes.

I watched two movies that night, since they were due Saturday. First was The Warlords, which was an interesting take on history but seemed to drag on. Spoiler: Everyone dies. Then I saw a classic movie, The Great Escape, which was a lot more entertaining but since it's based on a real event, it was sad at the end. Spoiler: Almost everyone dies. So I get to bed really late.

And then there's this hike the next day. It was a Sakura-con guest relations hike, plus a couple of friends of friends. It was just a short trip to Baring, then Barclay Lake and back again. We manage to start a fire out of embers left over from a fire pit. It kept us warm. I can't say the mountain (Baring) impressed as much as the glaciers on Rainer from Paradise but it was less than half the drive and a much easier hike.

I went to Ian's birthday party in the evening. Since Ian is poor, people were asked to bring their own food, though he did have some chicken, rice, and sauce but maybe enough for about 5-6 people. (About 15+ came.) I got him a massage gift certificate, since he walks around like a crippled old man with bad posture, and maybe a massage might help some. (Exercise would help him, but he's not too into anything intense enough to make much difference.) I pick on him some but he has lots of nice *other* friends, okay? And his mom's a yoga instructor, so it's not as if he couldn't do yoga for free.

Sunday (today): Slept in, or tried to. We have an obnoxious (old?) cat who doesn't let us sleep in on Sundays it seems. Left a little late for a football game. To this fan, football's much more interesting than baseball. I tried explaining the game to Hitomi but she got busy with crocheting and ignored the second half. Nintendo had a suite for this game, which included free food and drinks. It must have cost about $200 per person, times about 20 or so. Seahawks lost, of course, but I enjoyed the game.

We biked back: Beautiful weather again.

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Dying Washing Machine

nobody@vox.com(genman) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:41:31 -0700

I inherited a Maytag Neptune front loader washing machine with my house.

It's been mostly fine until recently. But now the front door no longer unlocks and the washer does not stop when the washing cycle ends.

I got a Maytag Repairman (sort of) to come by and 20 minutes later (at the cost of $150), he discovered the main circuit board was shot. Apparently by design, the circuit board will short out (and burn out) when the wax motor goes. So repair this mess would cost about $400 plus.

Which would still be cheaper than a new washer, but the bearings are also shot. To repair this would cost probably another $400 or more. $400 to repair bearings--and presumably bearing races--since the bearings are sold as part of a large assembly.

So much for repair. I'll need a new washer. For now, I can force the door open, but eventually the machine will seize.

I asked the repair guy what sort of washer to buy. He suggested a top-loading machine with a mechanical timer. Basically the repair guy suggests a non-electronic washer. (Not sure I'd want to go that way, as top-loaders use a lot more water.)

I wonder if there's a washing machine that has user-serviceable bearings. I joined Consumer Reports online ($12). Looking at the top rated machines, it seems most still have bearings that will last about 5 years at most. So get an extended warranty.

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Since Vegas

nobody@vox.com(genman) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:13:09 -0700

Back to work on Tuesday. Heard some more about my project at work. I'm going to China! But when?

Spent some time working on patches for Verizon. Nothing big but the change required fixing about 4-5 build scripts and migrating source repositories. And getting all the build configurations right through a GUI is a chore.

Most of the work for China so far has been pulling out code from existing places and making separate modules.

On the domestic side of life, I had my 10th wedding anniversary on Thursday. Hitomi's still quite the charmer. I put together a card and we had sushi at Village Sushi, which is always reasonable and good. There's probably better sushi places around but there's something I like about this place. Maybe it's the affable owner? Or that it's in a remodeled house with bad wiring? If you go, order the Omakase. At around the $60 level there's a lot of good stuff in there for two.

Friday we drove over to my parent's place and spent the night. We were doing a ride on Saturday which started at around 8AM so it was nice to be closer to Mount Vernon. The ride was beautiful. I liked crossing the Deception Pass bridge and the little bridge they have from the refinery over to Anacortes. On the way back, I was harassed by some random local. I was riding off course, so no other riders were around. Apparently the first time I wasn't harassed enough (by horn), so she pulled over, I passed by and then she came up behind me and leaned on the horn one more time.

In the evening, we had Yakiniku (BBQ) at Eugene's place. He lives in a condo in the U District but, like in most anime, his parents never seem to be around. Being the manager, he has access to the roof and so we had BBQ on the top of the building, in view of Downtown Seattle, and Mt Rainer, etc. Hitomi and I brought over the shaved ice machine, toppings, including fresh fruit from Skagit Valley, and we eventually got sleepy and went home.

Sunday was another BBQ at Ryan and Emi's place in (The People's Republic of) Wallingford. Again, we brought over the shaved ice machine. They have a nicer place than their old one in Magnolia. They're in a duplex and have a nice yard. They have a tortoise, named Isoroku, which seems considerably more active than our cat, Rei.

Monday I went to the DOL. The DOL in Greenwood's closed so I had to go to the Downtown office. In the waiting room, with my things, I smelled cat pee on my bike bag. Actually, I had realized Rei peed on it, and cleaned it up early, but I hadn't really noticed the smell hadn't really gone away. He peed on plastic--nylon--which couldn't absorb a liquid, but what do I know?

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