Thank God for Sling Box

It took a while but I now have American TV via Sling Box...it's these little pleasures that make living abroad easier.  My laptop which is wired to some LA based location is then connected to the TV with some cables, and I have to manouver through 6 Japanese screens and voila, we have everything we did at home and more.  Most importantly, I have TEVO. And yes I am still watching Dancing with the Stars. I am rooting for Brooke "Fake Boobs" Burns...wasn't her ex husband Beverly Hills top plastic surgeon? More importantly (maybe), Paddy and I have been following the baseball. We spent the weekend mornings watching the Red Sox play the Rays.  There are many Red Sox fans here, walking around the hood of Hiroo.  I, like a dork, scream out "Go Red Sox" when I see a stranger is wearing a baseball cap of our beloved team.  It takes them a second to react since they think I am a meek Japanese housewife pushing the stroller around.  Good to surprise people once in awhile.

Shanghai (Not a) Surprise

For Paddy's 40th Birthday we went to Shanghai for a quick 36 hr trip without the kids. We flew out of the local airport here called Haneda which flies to Korea, HK and China. Upon arriving at Shanghai, we realized we had landed at their local airport as well, and not so bright and shiny. I had heard that from the international Shanghai airport, there is a train called the MagLev which magnetically levitates at its peak speed of 430km/hr, faster than the Shinkansen.  Cool, huh? Instead we got a shady taxi that literally drove up on the sidewalk, instead of the driveway, of the Fours Seasons. "Here" wasn't meant to be that literal. 

Paddy had been to Shanghai in 1996 before the construction boom and so the city was new to him as well in some ways. Back then there were two skyscrapers, now the tallest building in the world has just been finished (until Dubai finishes theirs).  We took a guided tour of the Old City, where even two Starbucks have managed to sneak in. In the Old City, there is a 3 acre walled garden that was very pretty, filled with koi fish. Shanghai is famous for its dumplings which we saw being assembly line produced with amazing speed. They had to with the line of people waiting to buy them.  

In the center of the city is a park called People's Park. In 8 months in 2001, the goverment relocated 5000 families from the center and built the park practically overnight. They say the quickest way to get rich is to wait for the government to move your home.  The sheer speed in which buildings go up shocked me. The tallest building (the one with the rectangle cut out at the top) was built in 1.5 years by Chinese that worked 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week.  There are no unions there I guess.

I was excited to have some authentic Chinese food and I have to say the soups are very good. Real wonton soup is quite delicious. The dim sum was also tasty but I have to say the Shanghai Noodles were a disappointment. They are thick and chewy and rather bland in their oily stir fry.  And still, the Chinese restaurants just don't seem to care about ambience. It's all about the food.

So all in all, it was an interesting experience. The city still feels like one that is under construction; they still have to deal with pollution. It has a good buzz, but calling it the Paris of the East may be a slight exaggeration.

Shoe Fettish

Slim Jim has been trying on a few new looks. Should we be worried?  Note a gigantic Pooh has arrived on the scene thanks to Uncle Jamie.

Happy Birthday Paddy!

I should have posted this yesterday but one day late isn't so bad...Happy 40th Birthday to Paddy. We are celebrating tonight with Jamie (Paddy's brother) who is in town for a few days. Here's to a fun and exciting year (and to not thinking about the markets)! Home made chocolate cake seen here not made by me...

Squeaky wheel always gets oiled

Our final weekend in Shimoda was a little cool and chilly so we went to the floating aquarium in town. There were gigantic turtles and some cool tanks with manta rays, which I can't help but think about that Australian animal lover who died after being freakishly pierced by one in the heart. Anyway, I digress.  There was a sea lion and dolphin show, and in typical form, Aidan was clapping hands and giggling while Conor was clinging on to Daddy for dear life. He asked to go pee about 5 times during the show as an escape route. Paddy does claim he was able to squirt out a little urine each time. I have noticed that this is his trick to leave any situation he doesn't like, knowing that his parents would never say no and risk the prospect of soiled undies.  So young yet so manipulative.  So Conor made and early exit from the dolphin show and found some small less scary fish...Nemos. And of course while I was in the ladies room at the gift shop, I emerged to find the largest Nemo sitting on his lap. Paddy the softy had agreed he could have it. I tried to bargain down to the smallest Nemo. Hey, there is a credit crisis going on and we cannot be buying the largest Nemo in the rip-off gift shop. Conor, like Congress, voted no and proudly carted off his Nemo. In the car riding home, it filled the space between the two car seats and Aidan could have cared less about the big orange fish. He's looking for some french fries.