And so horror of horrors the day before the holidays started I got handed a big assignment, a large piece of paper to write. I had no idea how to get it started and worse still I was in great fear that I could not get it finished before my long awaited holiday road trip to Japan !!!

I slogged through much of the Chinese New Year holidays and went back to the office twice to work on it even though JinBear and KaiBear were visiting with their parents. Had CNY eve dinner with them and FredBear before going on the midnight tour of the temple and praying with his family. Unfortunately this year there was a slight drizzle and it was getting pretty wet. It was pretty interesting though, just like last year. Lots of cultural and religious learnings, and though I did not pray at the temple it was interesting to hear about why they did what they did. Though a little ludicrous.

The days are a bit blur, but I do remember it being freezing cold the whole of CNY weekend. I could barely get out of bed and when I did, it was to work and to eat. Did some minor visiting and of course some tiny bit of mahjong and also had dinner when RoxBear and MrChris came over to visit. We also celebrated an early birthday for RoxBear with HaagenDaaz ice cream cake and a Coach baguette. I believe I won five bucks from KaiBear at a very short game of 3 player mahjong.

A very short week at work later it was the weekend again. I had my Chinese class before returning home to help a friend move his stuff into my apartment as he would be sharing the place for a few months. I also treated myself to a very hard massage that night. Sunday I spent having a meeting on my Japan trip with my fellow road trippers before going off to SaiKung for a round of golf at the driving range and a steak dinner at Tom's Bar and Grill.

Now it is midnight on Wednesday and it is only 1.5 working days to the weekend since I took half of Friday off to start welcoming the guests for the weekend. SailorJeow and GAJan and MrKap and MrLin are all coming during the HK marathon period. And very soon the marathon on Sunday will happen and I shall be flying off that night itself. Au Revoir Hong Kong !

The best news of course is that I have just completed the final draft of my large paper and have handed it up again. Just in time to have a great holiday !!

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How in the world is it possible that my previous post was the New Year post and it is already the first week of February ? It seems that the month has just flown on by and I cannot even recall most of it. But basically after the first month of January, I was told to go to Japan for another two week stint crossing over the end of January into the first week of February. Spent some time preparing for that as a colleague was on leave for almost the whole of January anyway. Successfully made it through without any problem and so I left for Tokyo happily.

This time I had two weekends free in Tokyo itself as compared to last time when I was only there for the five work days so I had plenty of time to discover the city. Armed with a Lonely Planet on Tokyo which I bought at the HK Airport on my way home to KL for the weekend for MsJlee's wedding, which incidentally was a great time, and also gave me a chance to see my family as well as various personalities from the Causeway MA channel and old colleagues, I made the journey on an airplane while watching some great movies. I had read the book quite a lot and made some research as well as to where to go so I was pretty prepared by the time I touched down. I flew on Thursday so only had to work on Friday before going on my great exploration trip.

Friday night I went around Akasaka and Roppongi which I had sort of covered the last time round anyway, but I did some revision and also found more secrets in the busy part of town. Saturday started off with a very early visit to the Tsukiji fish market where I had the chance to see giant tuna and eat fresh seafood as well as experience the feeling of being at the biggest fish market in the world. Later I walked to Ginza, where along the way I passed some small temples and a Kabuki Theatre before I reached the shopping haven of Tokyo. I was early so had to wait for about ten minutes before the large shopping centres like Mitsukoshi and Matsuya opened and was one of the first people in. It was quite an experience as I usually went straight to the top and along the way at every floor, the staff would be at full attention and would bow and wish me a happy shopping trip and a great morning. This was one place to be if you wanted to feel like royalty and have people bowing to you at every step. Fantastic.

After that I skipped back to the apartment for an hour's nap until I met up with MsChil who was there on her last day of her months long work trip. She had been there for about 13 month so she knew loads about the city. She brought me to Omotesando, very reminiscent of 5th Avenue where we witnessed a big wedding and many large brand shops and some very interesting architecture. We weaved our ways through the little alley that is Harajuku before passing the Meiji Shrine and looking for cosplay participants. A small walk later and we ended up in Shibuya where we crossed the busiest road crossing the world where masses of people walk around in every direction. In the middle we also had a great sushi lunch in a hidden basement restaurant. We had dinner right there among the bright lights before I took a bus home.

On Sunday, I made a beeline for Asakusa where I visited the big and great Sennonji Temple. The sights and sound were drowning and it was fantastic. There were temples and pagodas and lanterns and worshipers as well as a monkey show. It was a good time to be there as well as there seemed to be some sort of carnival on the temple grounds selling knick knacks and various snacks. Then I walked blocks across Ueno to the Kappabashi area which was a whole collection of shops selling all kinds of things for the kitchen and restaurants. Then it was blocks again to the Imperial Palace to walk around in the gardens and another trip to the Yasukuni Shrine. By this time my feet were killing me and I had walked for double digit hours. Thankful to be at home again, I fell asleep really easily.

The next week at work flew by and sometimes I went looking around after work as well. Several mornings the city was covered in snow for a while so it was pretty amazing, especially walking while the snow was coming down. Really a dream come true. And not to mention that the food in the city was amazing. I loved all the food from sushi to sashimi to tempura to nabe to ramen to soba and tonkatsu to omuraisu to okonomiyaki and the list just goes on an on. the next weekend I had a visit from SailorJow and we went around the city and I even managed to meet her friend from Tokyo as well. I only had to work Monday before flying on Tuesday so it was a pretty short week and now it is already the weekend which is incidentally followed by two holidays as it is Chinese New Year. So here I am typing away finally, before going off to the office as there is this big piece of work that I need to get done and I really have no idea where to start and it has been hard to concentrate while other people are around. Hopefully this will turn out good. Ciao

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