Happy New Year! It is already past midnight in Japan and Shanghai is just a few minutes away from the start of 2007.
I hope I can climb and conquer a few new mountains in 2007.
I just scanned this picture in yesterday. It is actually from when I climbed Hokendake (2931 meters high) in Nagano, Japan way back in the fall of 1994. At the time I didn’t quite realize it, due to the freezing rain and heavy cloud cover, but if I had fallen backwards I would have gone done a big cliff.
This is a picture of Hokendake in the clear. That little point of rock on top is where I was in the picture above.
I think it was in my favor not to have been able to see the rock cliffs behind me due to the mist. Sometimes it’s better not focus on the risks and just get to the top.
May everyone have a peaceful and happy 2007!
For the first time since Tuesday night I have been able to access my own blog. As you may have heard on the news recently, an earthquake near Taiwan resulted in the failure of 6 of 7 major fiberoptic lines forming the majority of the network that keeps Asia (including mainland China) connected to the USA and Europe.
At best I have been able to see the first page of my blog the last couple of days. Right now is the first time to actually be able to login and get to the page to make a new post since my site is actually hosted in the USA.
According to what I’ve heard it will take 2 to 3 weeks for everything to get back to normal. During that time my ability to post regularly will most likely continue to be severely affected.
Happy holidays and best wishes for the New Year!
It’s Christmas Eve here in Shanghai and that means…just another Sunday night. Tomorrow, Christmas Day, is just another Monday here, which means just another work day. In fact I have some budget meetings with people from our regional HQ coming in so Christmas Dinner will be just another business dinner.
So tonight I decided to treat myself to a delivered meal to celebrate the season (the reason for the lovely plastic dishes).
I ordered tenderloin steak with vegtables, a mixed salad and tomato & mozzarela.
Desert was cheesecake. Yum!
Not exactly a “traditional” Christmas dinner, but you take what you can get when living by yourself overseas.
Happy Holidays!
After having dinner with a friend last night, we walked part of the way home. To be honest whenever I’ve taken a walk in Shanghai during the day I’ve usually given up and gone home after a short time. Especially on the weekends the streets and stores are crowded with people. But last night the streets were quiet and I actually enjoyed taking a look around.
I walked by the Paramount Theatre. Apparently it was one of the biggest nightclubs in the 1930′s.
Even the little side-streets and alleys are interesting at night. There are so many little streets and alleys to explore. During the day with people going about their business I wouldn’t want to walk down one, but at night they seem somehow mysterious and inviting.
A friend of mine in Japan sent me some Hint Mints. They seem to be very popular in Japan right now, even though they are actually an American product.
From a quick scan of the net, it seems they’ve been around a couple of years and are something like a designer mint. This is from a Hint Mint press release talking about the people who developed this product.
Believing the package should emulate the product, the pair wanted to redefine the perception of mints, changing them from mere breath aids to elegant and hip accessories.
Mints as accessories…. not sure I would ever really think of candy as an “accessory”.
Long considered an arbiter of trends and cutting edge design, Japanese customers are going crazy over Hint Mints. They are now found in their finest retail stores (Sony Plaza), department stores (Mitsukoshi Tokyo), and hotels such as the Park Hyatt (of “Lost In Translation†fame) and The Four Seasons, etc. Japan’s culture is one that expects exacting quality, placing very high value on refinement and beauty. In this kind of environment, Hint Mints have naturally been a blockbuster hit.
Well, at least from what their press release says, it does seem they are doing well in Japan.
I can now also confirm they are loved by Chinese consumers. They were an immediate hit in my office and one person even asked to have the box after I had eaten all the contents. I don’t know how much they cost per box, but I think I have an idea what my omiyage will be when the next time I go to Japan or the USA.