So I can speak a little bit of Japanese, and read a little bit, but when I say ‘little’, I mean it. Generally I suck.

If I am home alone, I don’t answer the phone. If I pick up the phone and say ‘moshi moshi?’ — which is the Japanese greeting on the phone — and someone immediately starts speaking to me in rapid Japanese, I freeze. I don’t know what to say or do. Once I told the person to please hold on for a second, and then in a moment of panic, I hung up the her.  Terrible, I know. But how was that conversation going to end?  Like a farmer putting a lame horse out of its misery, I simply put down the phone.

See, the thing is I can have some basic conversations with people, I can get around, I can order in restaurants, I can ask directions, read a menu, and usually follow a conversation when friends are talking, even though I don’t catch 100% of it. But say the phone rings, and it is the electricity company, and they want to ask me something, I have no clue what on earth they are saying! I don’t know enough vocabulary to have that kind of conversation. So why bother to answer the phone? It can only end in disaster.

I usually don’t answer the door bell either. We live on the 3rd floor, and have an intercom downstairs by the entrance. Once, when I was feeling brave, I answered the intercom bell, picked up the phone, and listened. I had no clue what the guy was saying but I told him to come upstairs anyway, thinking perhaps it was the post office. When I opened the door and he saw I was a foreigner, oh the shock on the poor boy’s face! I think he was a political campaigner or something, he had a stack of flyers in his hand. We went through the whole ‘I’m sorry I don’t speak much Japanese’ routine, which is a sentence I have perfected by now, and he went on his way. But in all truth, why answer the door anyway? If it is the post office, they will put a note in the mailbox. Anyone else is probably going to engage me in a conversation that I won’t understand anyhow. So, like an ostrich hiding its head in the sand, I simply don’t answer.

Sorry delivery people, I don’t mean to waste your time. I’m just too shy, and I don’t speak your language well enough!

We are moving back to Hong Kong! Surprise!

A nice new job awaits, and we go in just four weeks. It is an incredible relief. I am definitely looking forward to returning to a normal life, re-joining a group of wonderful friends, finding a new job, and just getting on with the business of regular old living.

The past 15 months or so have been some of the weirdest and hardest of my life. In fact, since we sold everything we owned and left Hong Kong a little more than a year ago, let’s just say nothing has really worked out. Or, perhaps in a strange way things actually HAVE worked out, and going back to Hong Kong is simply the closure of this cycle of change.

So today I want to talk about the downside of travelling, and trust me such a thing does exist. When I was a cubicle slave, I dreamed of the day that I would unshackle myself from my desk, burn my black suits, and take off for some little piece of paradise and do nothing but sit under the coconut trees and swim in the sea.

When I had enough savings, I did just that. It sounded like a good idea — to take a year off ‘to travel’. A vague and very nondescript plan. Something that I thought was a golden opportunity. Something I might never get to do again in life. I had no mortgage to pay, no kids to support, and enough dollars in the bank to take the time off. I figured it would be fun, so I gave it a try.

Well, be careful what you wish for. Sometimes fantasy is better than reality.

We packed up and we left and rented a little house on the beach in Thailand. Sounds nice, right? But what did I learn? I learnt that 30 is much too young to drop out of the real world. Thailand is a wonderful place to live if you are a 60 year old retiree with a pocket full of Viagra. But what was I doing there? I went to Thailand, but real life simply continued without me. I had no job, all my friends were back in Hong Kong doing their thing, and I was just bumming around on the beach, wondering what to do with myself.

What ensued after leaving Thailand was months of living out of a suitcase. I had a great time visiting friends in England, China, Japan and so on. I spent five amazing, incredible, dream-like weeks in France. But after a while, what I really started longing for was just to have my own home again. To not live in a hotel any more. To wake up and cook breakfast in my own kitchen in my buss-up pajamas. To walk around naked in the living room. To sit on the couch and watch a movie. To call up a friend to go liming. And when you’re constantly moving every few weeks, you just can’t do those things. Life has no stability, no real direction. And we humans, are creatures of habit.

Here’s another thing you don’t realise about a life on the road — you get fat! When you don’t have a real home you don’t have a real kitchen, which means you end up eating out all the time. And you are not a member of any gym either. It starts off innocently enough. You think, oh man I am in London! I better eat some yummy fish and chips! Then it’s oh wow I’m in China! I better et some dumplings while I am here! Next thing you know, you’re buying a new pair of jeans to cover up your fat ass! You read the book ‘Eat Pray Love’? Remember how she puts on 10 pounds in Italy? I can vouch for this phenomenon!

After the six or seven months of travelling, The Husband got The Job in Dubai. I wasn’t keen on going, but I had to admit it sounded pretty good, and I was ready to settle down somewhere (anywhere!). Dubai gets you with what are called the Golden Handcuffs — the perks and the so-called sweet life that you just can’t give up because you could probably never afford that lifestyle back home. Our house, fully paid for. All the bills paid for. Interest free loans for cars. If we had stayed and had babies, we would not have paid a cent of tuition until they turned 18. It is no wonder people are flocking to the Middle East for work. Those Golden Handcuffs sure are shiny.

But god how I hated Dubai. I thought it was a horrible place, for a number of reasons I won’t get into here. I loved where we lived, I loved having four toilets, I loved our massive living room and all the new furniture and appliances we bought. But overall, no I did not like Dubai one bit. Then what happened? A disaster and a miracle of sorts. We left after just a few months! The job didn’t work out, and if you ask me, it was the best thing that could have happened. I didn’t really want to spend three to five years there, deep down. We spent a few very stressful weeks frantically selling everything we had just bought, but when the plane took off from Dubai International Airport, I never looked back.

So for the past three months we’ve been in Tokyo, doing an intensive international job hunt to try to find our next home. We both sent out dozens and dozens of resumes to different countries, from Malaysia to Mauritius to Malta. But somehow, deep down, I just knew that Hong Kong would be the place we would end up in again. I’ll be honest, part of me wasn’t 100% sure about going back to those crowded noisy streets and the endless hustle and bustle and pushing and shoving. After all, we had tried so hard to get out of Hong Kong just a year ago! But finally, two days ago, the job offer came through, and I received the news with a huge sigh of relief.

So in conclusion, what have I learned from this mad, insane, ridiculous year of constant immigration?

I’ve learnt first and foremost that as a young person you need to have something you care about to do every day. You need to be productive. You need to be needed, to have people depend on you, to have challenges and successes and milestones.

I’ve also learnt that having a good group of friends you can rely on is incredibly crucial, because no man is an island. Travelling around for a year was actually very lonely because life goes on with you while you are off gallivanting.

I’ve learnt there is no perfect place, but once you have a job to do every day and good liming partners, then life is pretty damn good and you should be grateful.

And last but not least, I’ve learnt that travelling is a fun hobby, but is not a healthy lifestyle, both physically and mentally.

I asked myself, do I regret this year of never ending homelessness? Absolutely not. But will I ever take a year off again? NO WAY IN HELL. My moving days are over, officially.

Everyone needs a place to call home.

Looks like Hong Kong will be home, once again.

Nope, you don’t wear shoes — you wear slippers! And lots of them!

Allow me to explain.

When I come home, I remove my ‘outside shoes’ at the door, and put on my ‘inside slippers’.

First set of slippers

Then, inside the house, of course you do normal housey things, like liming in the living room and drinking wine. These slippers are fine for this purpose.

However, if I need to go outside onto the balcony, I remove these slippers, and put on these ‘balcony slippers’, which are only ever used for the brief moments when I step outside to hang up laundry. These balcony slippers, since they have been outside and are dirty, must never come inside. They have been banished to the balcony to live a life of isolation.

Second set of slippers

Then, when it comes time to cook, it’s time to change slippers again. These are the ‘kitchen slippers’ which are used just for cooking, since oil and food and bits and pieces of edible things fall on the kitchen floor during the cooking process, and you would not want to drag all that crap all over your beautiful clean tatami floors, now would you?

Third set of slippers

But wait, there’s more! You’d think by now we would have covered all the basics — indoor slippers, outside balcony slippers, and kitchen slippers. Let us not forget the bathroom slippers!

Fourth set of slippers

You put these plastic bootie thingies on your feet when you go into the shower room to clean or prepare the bath. They are actually to protect you from getting your feet wet. No, you don’t have to wear these in to the bath. What, are you crazy? That would just be ridiculous!

Actually, there should be one more in this set of slippers — toilet slippers to wear in the pee-pee room. In hotels and restaurants, there is ALWAYS a specific set of toilet slippers which you must put on. And rightfully so. Would you want to step in some drunk dude’s shake-off? No, didn’t think so!

If you think all these various use-specific slippers are a bit weird, I can tell you about one slipper that is even weirder — the gym slipper. Since gyms are indoors, you are not allowed to wear your favourite Nike running shoes inside if you’ve been wearing them outside. So most people wear either slippers in the gym, or change into ‘indoor gym running shoes’ which have literally never touched the filthy ground outside. I once saw a dude on the treadmill running in his socks! Guess he forgot his indoor running shoes at home?

Anyway, I for one like the shoe rules, and have been implementing it for years. When you think about how much nasty crap you walk around in all day, why would you ever bring that into your house? Now when I go home to visit Trinidad, I always have a pair of indoor slippers, and I am sure my family thinks I am barking mad.

But I don’t mind. I have happy feet. Happy, and clean.

10 shots of this week in Tokyo…

Name Fail

Old paper umbrellas

Homeless people in Yoyogi Park -- the equivalent of squatting in Central Park in Manhattan -- and surprisingly nobody evicts them!

Grumpy stone statue

Big bottle of sake -- twice the size of a bottle of beer

Dude reading porn on the train

Woman in kimono taking pictures of boyfriend

A grown man wearing a sweater with a hood that has EARS! Like a bear!

Ahhh! It's gonna bite me!

So the tall tool in the middle with the curve at the top is apparently a traditional weapon used to keep samurai far enough away from you that they would not be able to stab you with their sword!

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Snorkelling Boracay — A Trip Report about a tiny island in the Philippines that was rated the Best Beach In The World a few years ago. Perfect beaches lined with bars and cafes and massage parlours, Boracay is a hot spot in Asia and famous for diving, kite surfing and snorkelling.

Herbert Visa Run Koh Samui — When I lived in Thailand I embarked on a “visa run” whereby you cross the border into Malaysia/Cambodia and then re-enter with a renewed Thai visa, thus extending your stay. Many tourists who try to live in Thailand do this indefinitely, or at least until they get caught. I’ll certainly never forget my visa run with the notorious Herbert, a crazy German who has the run down to a T.

Pulau Bintan — Another isolated little spot in Asia, Bintan is a tiny, quiet island off of Indonesia but closer to Singapore than anything else. I spent new years here a few years ago in some very quaint water bungalows.

Curfew Pass Trinidad — Ah the joy of being in Trinidad during the SOE and the days of curfew passes. After posting this story, my site visits went up dramatically and in fact it was the busiest month of the entire year!

Rapid Penang — I don’t know why this is such a hot search, I simply mentioned the Rapid Penang bus during a Trip Report to say that it is easy for tourists to get around in Penang. I guess a lot of tourists are concerned about public transport in Malaysia?

Wreck Diving — Again something I’ve never actually done, though I did go diving and SEE some wrecks. I however did not have the cajones to swim through the wreck, and I am not certified to dive on wrecks.

Mount Emei — Not surprised many people looked for this one, as this giant mountain in China has pretty much no information in English, other than that provided by tourists who have been there. Located in Sichuan province, Mt. Emei is a World Heritage Site and one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. The climb almost killed me but it was worth it.

Dim Sum Pictures — Yum! Yes, pictures of dim sum. I have many of them.

Trinis in Hong Kong/Singapore/Thailand/Dubai/Japan — Oh Trinis, how we love to travel. I guess there are a lot of Trinis out there in faraway places wondering if any of their kin are also out there. I also got a lot of searches for ‘Shipmate Services’ from people interested in working on a cruise ship, ‘Can Trinis Work in  (Fill in country here)’, and ‘How to Teach in Japan’.

Why Do Thai People Want White Skin — Haha, another weird top search. It is true, Thai people put ‘whitening agent’ in damn near anything that you can rub on your skin… soaps, creams, moisturisers, face masks, sun block, and so on.

And here are some other weird search terms that I have no idea about:

• Your head looks weird turned like that
• Onsen boys naked
• Funny pictures of Kamla   (of which I have none)
• Japanese men in onsen
• Housewife happy
• Asian girls squatting
• Island girl Philippines thick ass

Okay, so all you perverts out there — I may write about travel in Asia, but I am not promoting any kind of sex tourism okay! And please stop looking for naked Japanese boys in hot tubs because it’s GROSS! Get some help will you?!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

If you’ve ever been inside a Chinese grocery, or a Chinatown, or any Asian country for that matter, you may have noticed a little cat statue with an upraised paw, beckoning you inside. Some are small, some are big, some have mechanical arms to make the arm move up and down. The basic premise is that the ‘lucky cat’ will bring good customers in to your business, and bring money in to your pockets. People have lucky cat keychains, lucky cat stickers, and lucky cat key straps that dangle from their phones.

There are lots of various stories about the origin of the lucky cat, but in fact it comes from Japan, and is known as Maneki Neko, which translates into ‘Inviting Cat’, but as it is such a popular figure all over Asia, many believe it to be Chinese, not Japanese.

I recently learned that the so-called ‘birthplace’ of the Maneki Neko is right in the town where I live, so I hopped on the train the other day to head to Gotokuji Temple, and see for myself.

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There were only a handful of people visiting the temple that day, but as I stood there admiring the pagoda a group of three older gentlemen approached, walking with what seemed to be a very enthusiastic temple guide. The guide was holding a folder of close up pictures of features of the pagoda, and they asked me if I could speak Japanese. ‘Just a little!’ I replied. So I joined the group and the guide pointed out the original wooden statue of the cat, hidden carefully up by the roof.

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Sorry for the lame zoom. I had the small camera with me, not the big one.

Anyways, the story goes like this…

A long time ago, this area of Tokyo was countryside, and Gotokuji Temple was relatively poor and humble. The priest who worked at the temple had a cat, Tama-chan, which he loved dearly, and shared all his food with. One day, the priest fell ill, and he said to Tama-chan, if you are grateful for all that I’ve shared with you in the past, please go out and bring us some luck. So, Tama-chan went out.

Later that day, the priest heard a noise outside the temple. In his weakened state he went outside, and saw four finely-dressed samurai warriors. They said to the priest that they were heading back to the castle when they came across the cat sitting in the middle of the road, raising its paw at them, beckoning them to come. They were so amazed by the cat that they followed it, and it led them to the temple. The priest invited them in and served them tea.

Just then, out of the blue, a huge thunderstorm hit, with lightning striking everywhere. The warriors were so grateful to have somewhere safe and dry to stay during the storm. One of the warriors turned out to be a famous feudal lord, and to show his gratitude to the humble priest, he decided to become a sponsor for the temple.

When Tama-chan died, the priest made a statue of the cat to commemorate the luck that it had brought to the temple. The people in the neighborhood, who knew of the story, began visiting the shrine, hoping to also get some good fortune. Soon they began selling small statues of Tama for the townspeople to buy as good luck charms. And today, the Maneki Neko is a ubiquitous symbol of good fortune all over Asia.

(A special thanks to my husband, who translated the story for me from the Gotokuji Temple official website)

Hundreds of maneki neko outside the shrine, given as offerings

Maneki neko 'ema', for writing prayers (on the back of the tablet)

Freaky.... I think they want to keeeeel me

How to get to Gotokuji Temple

You have two options: -

1. The recommended route is to take the Den-en-toshi line from Shibuya to Sangenjaya, and then change to the Setagaya Line. This is a really cute route because the street car winds through the tiny streets. Get off at Miyanosaka station, cross the train tracks on your right, and the temple is just up ahead on the left. Just look for a huge wooded compound; that will be the cemetery attached to the temple.

2. The other route is to take the Odakyu line to Gotokuji Station, but apparently it is a longer walk.

Last night for Christmas Eve I went with a friend for Korean food. Yes, Korean food on Christmas Eve in Tokyo, and no, it’s not some kind of weird tradition to eat bibimbap on Christmas Eve. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. We walked past a few KFCs last night en route to the restaurant and the place was jam packed with people, mostly young couples out on a date.

So who takes their date to a KFC fast food joint on Christmas Eve in Tokyo, and more importantly, why? According to my friend, it’s been that way since she was a child. “Kentucky for Christmas” is a well known slogan from an obviously successful advertising campaign over 30 years ago. In fact, KFC is synonymous with Christmas lunch/dinner. While in the Western world a baked whole chicken or turkey is traditional, in Japan very few people have ovens so baking a turkey is out of the question. After all, this is a land of rice and fish, not bread and ham.

Perhaps it’s not that hard to make the jump from Colonel Sanders to Santa. Let’s look at their similarities:

COLONEL SANDERS:

Old white guy

White beard and mustache

Glasses

Jolly old fellow

Delivers delicious deep fried chicken to hungry families

SANTA:

Old white guy

White beard and mustache

Glasses

Jolly old fellow

Delivers presents on Christmas Day to good little boys and girls

Maybe it’s not that different? Substitute ‘presents’ for ‘chicken’ and voila! Colonel Sanders becomes Santa! It’s simplicity is brilliant. I’m not which advertising company came up with ‘Kentucky for Christmas’ all those decades ago, but it has certainly stuck, and obviously this is a Japanese Christmas Tradition that will be around for more decades to come!

Shishamo!! おいしいよ！！！

So yes, I’ve eaten some ‘strange’ things in Japan, like raw horse, for example, but one of my favourite bar snacks which would be considered strange in the west is shishamo, which are smelt fish (?) that are only eaten when full of eggs. Yup, delicious pregnant fish. They can be grilled or fried, and eaten whole. Yes, head and tail and everything. Just pick it up with your chopsticks and nom-nom-nom to your heart’s content. The whole body is not hard and therefore edible. Generally just a bit salty in taste. The head is my favourite part. The eggs themselves don’t particularly taste like anything other than grilled fish, so dig in. Yum!

Poor little smelt babies never got a chance to live

I’m not sure why shishamo are considered so strange… after all, don’t tonnes of millionaires all over the globe chow down on caviar? At least these little dudes got to die with their mummy!

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Weird phallic wood carving

Beautiful old ceramic tea cups

Old kimonos, some for as cheap as US $3

Obaachans (grannies) warm up on tea... or maybe hot sake!

Doggy baby

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There was a lot of great old stuff I would have loved to buy, like lovely traditional kitchen items that are generally VERY expensive brand new, but since we have no idea how long we will be in Tokyo, or where we are going next, it seemed prudent not to add another box of stuff to our future shipping.

If you live in Tokyo, or happen to visit Tokyo on the 15th-16th of any month (it is always on the 15th and 16th), be sure to go check it out, not only for quirky shopping, but also because you can try lots of yummy local food as vendors set up takoyaki, yakisoba, beer tables, dango, and a variety of other street food. Vendors also tend to like to try out their English with you and give out freebies to tourists.

To get to the Junk Market, get off at Setagaya Station and you can’t miss it. You can plan your route HERE. If you can read Japanese you can find more info here.

So, what’s in a Tokyo mansion? Well there’s the kitchen…

Gets a bit crowded in there!

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Then there’s the living room, next to a nice balcony…

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Then my favourite is the tatami room. Tatami are the floor mats made of rice straw. The size is standardised and usually rooms are designed to fit a certain number of tatami. For example, this tatami room where we sleep has six tatami — and is the same size as my first tiny apartment, believe it or not! In today’s Japanese homes usually only one room has tatami, but in the real old fashioned houses I’ve visited in Japan, particularly in the countryside, there are huge rooms and hallways covered with tatami. Tatami are very expensive, with usually one mat costing over US $150. However tatami last a long time so as considered a good investment for a new home. The tatami we have here is brand spanking new and the smell is extraordinary and fragrant. I really love opening the sliding doors at night and being greeted by the scent of fresh tatami.

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Tatami room, with sliding doors separating it from the living room

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There are two small rooms at the back of the mansion, but they are nothing really to write home about, and only accommodate a single bed. Right now they are both full of junk and boxes so I won’t bother to show a picture.

So that’s the grand tour of our Tokyo mansion!