Oh it was a terribly busy weekend with perhaps too much mahjong involved. I think with the combination of the late hours we were spending as well as too much sugar and too much mahjong, there were plenty of short tempers around, but I guess you can only do this with close friends.

A group of friends had managed to snag the Lantau Island Bungalow for another weekend, so we all grouped up to go for a weekend of relaxation. It started off with mahjong and late night hotpot. The next morning after more mahjong, and a great breakfast of sausages and eggs, I went back to HK Island to pass my keys to PatBear and KimyBear who were here for 3 days. I also walked them down back to Central before taking the ferry back into Lantau. Once back we settled in for a very heavy dinner of barbeque meat, as well as steamboat boiled vegetables and various meatballs. It was followed by a very vague playing of Space Risk, which FredBear bought all the way from Melbourne. More mahjong later, everyone went to sleep only to wake up the next morning for more mahjong. Haha. Call it addiction.

And then I just spent the last two hours, going through my expenses again, as the year is almost ending and I want to be sure that all my numbers are correct going over the year. With Christmas coming up, I have a whole truckload of work to get done before the New Year as well, and I am not even sure because I may have to work on Christmas Day ! Perhaps.

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So it was a week in Tokyo !!!

It was pretty exciting, but had a minor headache on the plane due to a very late night the night before, in fact I only started packing at 2 am, and had very little time to nap at all. I was nodding off on the train to the airport, and falling asleep in the lounge. A little into the flight I asked for a Panadol, and suddenly an inner part of me urged me on, and I kept up the act, and became very sick. So sick that I asked for a place to lie down, knowing full well that they would have to give me a business class seat for that to happen. After a little more fantastic acting worthy of an Oscar, I was lying down in Business Class. What I did not anticipate was that the head steward making an announcement asking for a doctor on the flight. And there were actually two which came to feel my head and looked for a fever, took my blood pressure and asked loads of questions. Somehow, I managed to fend everyone off and made them believe I just needed sleep, which I did.

Arriving at the airport, I was pretty excited and after getting my limousine ticket to the city and having some time to spare, I settled for spending some yen and bought two hotdogs. I was starving as I had not eaten since dinner having slept on the plane. It was surprising how far Tokyo was from Narita airport and it took about two hours to reach my apartment. I was picked up later by my manager in Japan and a colleague and we went for fast food, Japanese style. It was great ! Then we walked around a bit so that I could find my way to the subway the next day for work. I went home and slept after that. Oh and soaked in the big tub of course. Looking around the apartment, I guess I could get used to staying in a studio apartment in the future, however, this might mean less room for guests.

Next morning bright and early I woke up and had breakfast downstairs. A short subway ride later, I was an hour early and spent the time walking around the Parliament, a little shrine on a hill and took some photos of the amazing dawn. Work was getting used to a different setup with the same basics and also getting used to hearing Japanese all around me. It really was a little kawaii to hear them speak, and at the same time, it felt like I had just stepped into an office themed Japanese dorama. So funny. My first lunch in Japan that day was ramen, followed by a complicated multi course dinner at an Izakaya later with the manager amidst much warm sake and I also had my first taste of horse carpacchio. The following days were a blur of work and fantastic lunches, having tried a fabulous tonkatsu, some great sashimi and sushi, a vegetarian buffet and also tempura with MsChil (who was coincidentally in Tokyo for work).

At night I started walking around Roppongi on Tuesday and explored quaint little shopping streets that were unfortunately closed (due to my late hours). On Wednesday I walked round and round Akasaka and had a great gyudon. Thursday was also spent having a great time as I followed a secretary on a track across Shinjuku on a hunt for a Sanrio store where I had orders to buy some presents for a colleague. This was followed by a fantastic multi course dinner of ChankoNabe, over much sochu and laughter. My last dinner was of course sashimi, korokke and various other seafood, with a colleague and the secretary at a Tsukiji fish market themed restaurant. It was fantastically fun, with a rowdy atmosphere and more sochu ! I love sochu !

I escaped to Roppongi later that night to watch the Christmas decorations and also managed to sneak into DonQuixote where one supposedly could find various things to buy from second hand branded goods, to diamond rings, costumes, sex toys, televisions, gloves, clothes, shoes, food, cosmetics and so on at the very cheapest prices ! It was fun to root around as the whole place was a mess and reminiscent of a large warehouse of loot. I finally had some stuff to bring home for souvenirs in the form of food and snacks and spent the rest of the night packing up. I napped for two hours before going off to the airport again where I was bound for Singapore !

And the reason I was in Singapore was of course for EsdaBear's wedding ! It was really great. I went up to the room I was sharing with JinBear and SherBear, XXBear and FredBear were all already there. We took some time to change and then went down to the ballroom for cocktails. After finding our table, we caught up on lost time, even though I last saw JinBear in September and I last saw XXBear and SherBear in October, and I saw FredBear the week before. We went through the motions of watching the bridal pair walk in, flinched through a lousy best man speech, and oohed and aahed at the powerpoint on display of the day's celebrations. All too soon, it was over and we adjourned to a hawker centre, for roti, chilli crab and oyster omelette. Stumbling back to the hotel room, I fell asleep on a not very nice bed.

The next morning, CNN woke me as we had promised to have breakfast with EsdaBear as she did not have any time to talk to us during the wedding. We talked and talked as I have not met her for about almost 4 years, though we catch up from time to time online. Then it was back to the Singapore airport in less than 24 hours and a flight home. It was altogether an eventful week and marked the second time that I have had to fly in to another country for a friend's wedding. It was a reminder to me that I would be doing so again next year as XXBear's wedding was coming up next as well !

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I have been looking forward to the next week very much, because it was all planned well in advance. It involved flying over to Singapore, cranium games and dinner, then a half marathon run. Then there would be a weekday's worth of home, meeting friends and family, and you can be sure there were lots of plans there. Then it would be back down to Singapore again to attend EsBear's wedding, with close friends flying in from around as well.

Unfortunately, there is only so much planning that you could do, and even though you have booked the air tickets, booked the hotel room, applied for all the right marathon timings, and started the expensive gym visits to train for the half marathon, things could still not go your way.

I got an sms at 10.30 pm on Sunday night, asking me if I were able to make an emergency trip to Tokyo for a week. And then realised that I could not run and be at work on Monday in Tokyo, so that was off. And since the only flights to Singapore from Tokyo would see me arriving in late evening, I would miss my friend's reception in the afternoon. And would probably only spend a short time in Singapore before going back to work on Monday in Hong Kong.

So, a week's worth of plans. Smoosh Kaboom. But who knows what will happen in this week ?

Life is an amazing wondeful journey. Walking down alleys sometimes is how you discover treasures.

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