Happy Birthday to ...

the best Dad out there!

xoxoxox

Two tickets to paradise on the MTR please!

A bike path, a pool, tennis courts, mountain air, the harbour.....what more could you ask for of a vacation? How about being a 45 min subway train ride away from your downtown city apartment!

Sha Tin is a wonderful weekend spot to get away from it all. It's located in the New Territories region of Hong Kong, a place where most expats will never venture during their stay here. Many locals have "country houses" in this part of Hong Kong so they can escape the heat and the crowds of expats taking over their city.

D and I found the weekend to be more relaxing than most vacation trips we've been on! The hotel amenities were wonderful and food was delicious (except for the fact that you had to deshell your own shrimp and conch)

I just couldn't bring myself to eat it

There were a few language confusions, since English is not as widely spoken in Sha Tin. D asked for a Caipirinha, Brazil's national cocktail, made with cachaça sugar and lime. I told D that the waitress looked a but confused when he ordered and that he should have stuck with something more local. In the end, I was right because instead of his drink he ended up with a pot of peppermint tea.

Our favorite activity was the long bike ride we took one afternoon. We had beautiful views of the harbor and it was so nice to breathe in some fresh mountain air (that is when we weren't riding next to the sewer treatment plant). We planned on using the gym and the tennis courts the following day. Unfortunately, we were both too sore from biking to move.

Before 1.5 hour ride

After 1.5 hour ride

After a busy few months this summer, Sha Tin was the perfect weekend retreat. Would I do it again? Of course, but next time I think I will just stick to the basics.

Fly me to the moon

Thanks to my days as a teacher in Chinatown, I'm already an expert when it comes to the the Mid Autumn Festival, the holiday people all over Hong Kong celebrated for the past 2 days. Every year my students would bring me in a variety of moon cakes, the traditional food of this festival. (My brother Jason wrote his own blog on this subject matter so there is no need to go into any kind of explanation here...see earlier blog comments) The moon cakes were so dense that I could split one into 28 pieces and feed the entire class!

We used to have to test our students' reading levels with a program that was created from Teachers College at Columbia University. In order for the students to pass the I level, they would have to read a book about the Mid Autumn Festival in Vietnam. After reading this book almost 28 times a year, I became very familiar with the meaning behind this holiday.

D and I sat in our living room on the eve of Mid Autumn Festival gazing up into the sky hoping to get a glimpse of the full moon. Unfortunately, because of the typhoon like weather we have been experiencing all week, the only moon we saw was that of the baby in the building across the street. (We can see a lot more going on then we want to!)

D had the day off from work yesterday for the holiday so we strolled through town admiring all the different colored lanterns that soared through the sky. Our apartment building decorated for the festival as well. They even had a special lantern for us!

Black rain, amber rain....it's all a pain

When it rains, it pours.

I remember walking through the rainy, windy Chinatown streets wishing I had an umbrella made of steel. The bottoms of my pant legs would be soaked with dirty puddle water and my umbrella would constantly be flipping inside out at every street corner. I would strip out of my clothing as soon as I got home and cuddle up in my soft bathrobe thankful to be warm and dry.

I THOUGHT I knew what a thunderstorm sounded like and what a lightening bolt looked like as it lit up the NYC sky. Little did I know I hadn't experienced anything when it came to storms.

I moved to Hong Kong during the perfect time: Typhoon Season

Yesterday I ventured out for lunch with a friend without my umbrella. Big mistake. By 4p.m. what started out as a light rain had turned into a Level 3 Typhoon signal warning also known as a tropical cyclone. There was an Amber rain signal in effect all afternoon.

When we see this signal we are supposed to secure all loose objects on our balconies, stay away from the shoreline, and listen to the radio announcements for further information about the tropical cyclone.

The typhoons can be a level 1, 3, 8, 9 or 10. When they reach an 8 the entire city shuts down like it would in a snowstorm. Offices are closed and people are advised to stay inside, away from their windows. I haven't yet experienced the level 8 although it would be nice to have D home from work!

There are also three signals of severe rain: AMBER, RED and BLACK.

The AMBER signal gives alert about potential heavy rain. The RED and BLACK signals warn people of heavy rain which is likely to cause serious flooding. Employees are not expected to travel to work in a Black rain storm. We had one when we first arrived here in July. D was already at work of course!

It can be a nightmare trying to travel around town when these rainstorms hit. You can't get a cab, the buses are beyond packed, and the escalator up the peak is very slippery. Sheets of rain pour down from the sky and you can't see 2 feet in front of you. D and I both made it home safely but were soaked to the bone. We got into bed thankful to be out of the storm.

Trying to fall asleep was a task for me. The bangs of the thunder sent vibrations through the floor and the bolts from the lightening crept in from the sides of our curtains and lit up our entire bedroom. Of course D slept through the entire thing.

The forecast says it's going to continue to storm for the next few days. I think maybe I'll just stay home until the end of October when typhoon season has passed!

Free massages....BYOM (bring your own mask)

Running around Tokyo in September can really take a lot out of you. The weather is still incredibly hot and the air conditioning isn't on full blast like it is in the buildings in Hong Kong. Apparently, the best place to take a load off is the mega electronic store in Shibuya. Just grab a massage recliner, kick off your shoes, and enjoy a late afternoon nap. All are welcome! If you are sick, just slap on a mask and don't sit directly next to someone.

I can only imagine how many people sleep in those chairs on a regular basis. I was surprised there wasn't a line of people waiting for their turn in a chair. It makes you think twice about sitting down in public places. The good thing is that because of SARS and Swine Flu many Asian countries practice proper hygiene. It wouldn't surprise me if this store has people who sanitize the chairs once the nappers awake from their sleep.

You are constantly seeing attendants wiping down the front doors of buildings. Most of the public bathrooms in Tokyo and Hong Kong are cleaner than our own. (At least the one's that don't require you to squat over a hole!) Our apartment building has someone who cleans the elevator buttons every two hours!

Anyway, if you are ever in Tokyo and need a place to relax and get a massage, you don't have to spend your Yen on a dirty foot massage, just head over to the electronic store in Shibuya, just don't forget your face mask!

Talking Toilets in Tokyo

They play music, they make flushing sounds, they heat your bottom, and they even clean up after you when you are all through with your business. I am talking about the toilets here in Tokyo. These toilets are not just located in your fancy hotel room bathroom. You will see them in the airport, shopping malls, and restaurants. D and I took a trip to the Mega Electronic Store in Shibuya to see if we could get one to bring back to Hong Kong. We would have loved to have purchased one...if only we could have read the information that went along with them...or understood the salesman who was having a full conversation with us in Japanese.

I should mention that these amazing toilets are not everywhere. Occassionly, you will run into the not so pleasant toilet in the floor. The ones in Tokyo are not as bad as the hole they have in China but they still require you to get into the squat postion. As most of you could have guessed, I did not use the bathroom facilities at this place.


They give instructions for those who are brave enough to give it a try!


Tokyo really is an amazing city. There is so much to here from visiting old Japanese Shrines and gardens, to eating at some of the finest restaurants, to SHOPPING SHOPPING SHOPPING! The Japanese don't care that you can't understand what they are saying. They speak to you in full sentences as if you understand and then you nod your head, place your Yen in the little tray and say Arrigato Gozaimasu.

I have now been in Tokyo for 3 days and I have learned the following:
*Slurping your noodles is more than acceptable...it means you are enjoying your meal
*Taking your shoes off before entering an establishment is widely practiced....this includes ANA Flight 98 from Hong Kong to Narita.
*Blowing your nose in public is unacceptable (we found this one out before we got here)
*Dressing up like a school girl is very popular with the teenagers as well as the woman in their 20's, 30's, ....and is enjoyed by some of the the local businessmen
*It you want your food cooked, don't eat in this city
*Bowing is a great way to work out your stomach muscles
*No one here speaks any English
*Kit Kats come in a variety of flavors including wasabi
*General Tso's chicken is to Hong Kong as California rolls are to Tokyo...they both don't exist

The Chinese Jewish New Year

(view of the Shul from our bedroom window)

Oddly enough, out of all the millions of apt buildings to live in on Hong Kong Island, D and I chose an apartment building directly across from the JCC (Jewish Community Center). The first time I went to check the place out, the security was so tight, I hardly made it into the building. It was much harder to get into the JCC in HK than it is to get into the country itself.

D and I wanted a place to spend the holidays (Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur) and we figured it would be nice to be part of the Jewish community here in Hong Kong. We weren't really sure what to expect.

When we arrived at the Shul we found there were already assigned seats. D had a seat right in front, and I had to sit at the tippy top of the shul in a chair that had been brought in for the service. I would lean over the balcony every now and then to try to catch D's eye and also to try to get some fresh air. Shul's back in the states are known for being freezing! Every year my mom would bring her heaviest pashmina which we would use to cover ourselves like a blanket. You would think that with temperatures in the 90s here in Hong Kong that the air would be on a little higher for everyone's comfort. Well, at least they had the fans going!

Many people asked me if there were Chinese Jews here in Hong Kong. Most of the congregants were from England, Australia, Israel, or the US. There were a few Asian faces in the crowd but they had all married a Jewish person or converted.

After services had ended, D and I made our way back to the apartment building. Our only doorman who speaks English, named "Dickie", looked at D and said "Oh you are Muslim?" D laughed and said "No, I'm Jewish" Dicky then said, "Oh right you have your little party today!" D and I decided we should have a little party so we headed out to have a typical Chinese Rosh Hashana lunch, Dim Sum!