Musings of a Food and Travel Addict
Well, the cuts in airline food budgets have even hit the international flights, at least in steerage.
This carb-laden plate passed as “dinner”. Another passed as “breakfast”. It looked exactly the same as this except for different meat. The snack box inbetween meals consisted of a small instant noodle cup, an apple and a cookie.
I shoulda brought some Shin Ramyun like I did the last time I flew UA to HKG…along with some Diet Coke.
Any doubt that the TSA is just another government bureaucracy?
I’m at the front of the line with about 150 people behind me. There are two open checkpoints.
Stop, make that one open checkpoint. Despite the frumpy hordes behind me in line, they close the checkpoint anyway.
It’s just like the customer service “commitment” that the post office or the DMV has.
Meaning none.
Next up: a 14 hour flight on a packed 747-400 to HKG…
I tell everyone…
Besides the abundance of bijin (literal translation, not common usage), there are many many forms of booze at many different price points.
When asked what I liked to drink over there, I say “beeru” and “shochu”.
What’s shochu? I really couldn’t explain it very well. Saying Japanese vodka doesn’t give it justice. This does though.
There’s a form of cheap beer that’s not really beer too. Good for a quickie.
Still not going anywhere so far this month. Blah.
This is all you need for a smooth trip…
Your JR ticket, an iPod and a brewski…
Ramen is practically a religion in Japan. And I’m a convert. I understand the obsession about finding the best ramen shop (while sampling many along the way). It’s truly a delicious quest for the best.
This is a picture of my favorite ramen shop in Shinjuku. I can’t tell you what street it’s on but I can point it out on a map or tell you where it is.
It’s across the street from a Citibank. How appropriate!
This was lunch today, from a famous ramen shop, Menya Musashi, on the other side of Shinjuku Station.
mmmmmmmm. And worth the 55 minute wait!
The last train of the night arrives at Shinagawa station and I’m there to start my journey back to Minami-Senju and sleep.
Funny thing though, all the other lines that start from a Yamanote stop will wait for the last Yamanote to arrive before it leaves.
It’s funny only because I live in San Francisco and MUNI never does this, ever.
Because of the SARS attack last year, Hong Kong has been on a health kick since. That’s a good idea because littering and the health effects that result from it have been implicated in how quickly SARS spread through buildings and the like.
On my many visits over there, I did notice some litter, though nothing of the magnitude of San Francisco, cesspool and refuse dump for California. The HK governmnent has now declared a new policy: If you have been cited previously for littering and you do it again, it’s now a HK$1500 (about US$195) fine and manditory community service.
It’s a serious matter because when Hygiene officers began writing citations, they were attacked. Then the attackers were arrested and prosecuted. As a result, these officers have become a tad shy in doing their duty.
This new ordinance should put some teeth into the regs they have to enforce. Good luck.
News info from the unlinkable South China Morning Post
More fun news from Asia via the BWG.
To sum it all up, HK is going to try to impose a smoking ban. Read the BWG’s entry on the subject; it sums up my position as well.
Sheesh. What happened to choice?
Well, it’s been a nice summer, but as the seasons begin to change and the chill (relatively speaking) returns, so has that nasty thing called SARS.
Hope it’s a misdiagnosis (which happens) because if it’s not, the patient caught it from someone else. And hopefully that someone else is NOT in Singapore.
It’s the little things in life that change that portend bigger changes ahead.
During my many visits to Hong Kong, the locals told me that HK is truly dead when you begin to hear putonghwa on the MTR announcements.
Well, according to the unlinkable South China Morning Post, it’s happened.
“The MTR Corporation is going after the mainland tourist dollar by promoting its train services and malls at the border and at mainland visa counters. And this month it will make its train and platform announcements trilingual, rather than using just English and Cantonese.”
The communist government has tried to crush Cantonese dialect (and pretty much everything else) in favor of putonghua, with the exception of Shanghainese because much of the communist leadership hails from there.
Historically, it’s easier for a dictatorship to keep control when everyone is forced to speak the same language (think Yugo-Slavia during Tito and then after). I hope, for Hong Kong’s sake, that this small change in everyday life is not part of something darker in future.
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