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I just got back yesterday from a week in Japan. My kid and I were tagging along with my husband as he had a conference in Tsukuba. Over the next couple of days, I will post notes on each day’s events, but here are the big learnings:

1) Stay within the area you want to travel in. We stayed in Tsukuba, about an hour outside Tokyo for my husband’s conference. There is not much to do there, so my kid and I would travel into Tokyo everyday. The first couple of days, my kid was totally into riding the choo-choo train. By the 3rd day, she was having none of it.

2) If you are traveling with kids, your agenda must be kid-centric. My kid loved Sanrio Puroland (Hello Kitty’s house). She was not so much into the shrines, temples, museusm and stuff. Next time, the trip will revolve around amusement parks.

3) The first thing you should do is get a map with Kanji and English. I had an English tourbook. Sometimes, the stations are only labeled with Kanji. What the heck does the Kanji look like for Akihibara? No idea. Lost again. Also, when asking for directions, it helps to have a map. The folks in Japan are very kind and patient, but most do not speak English. So they could be saying “Go down the street and turn right, then left” but you would have no idea. So get yourself a map and they can show you on the map.

4) “Excuse me. Do you speak English?” Should be the first thing you learn. Mostly they don’t, but then you know where to start with your request.

5) Bring your own medicines. My husband got sick during the trip. I finally got him what I thought was flu medicine ( I could read the Chinese in the Kanji), but to this day I am not sure it is flu medicine.

I woke up at 2am and could not go back to sleep until 5am. I ended up trolling the channels for something interesting. There is really nothing on between those hours except infomercials.

It would interesting to see the rationale behind what informercials play when. Between 2 and 4, they were largely get -rich-selling-on eBay, land or your internal organs. At 4, was when the exercise ones started, Winsor Pilates, HipHop Abs, AirStep. Girls Gone Wild was on the whole time.

I suppose if you are up between 2-4am, you probably just got home and want a way to make money that means you can sleep when your neighbors sleep. From 4 on, folks are waking up for the day and are thinking over breakfast that they need to fit exercise in…hmmm, 20 min, 3 times a week? And as for Girls Gone Wild, I guess there is a market for it at all times of night.

I want cheung (elephant). What cheung, Mui? In the deen see (TV). Hmmm. What TV show has an elephant? What cheung in the deen see, Mui? Cheung and then baby find daddy.

Anyone know what my kid’s talking about? Hint: It’s an animated movie.

I was never this creative in school. Their parents must be so proud.

I just ordered some stuff from BR, Banana Republic to the uninitiated, over the phone. My browser is not compatible. It keeps freezing or dying. Anyway, I called the BR customer service number and they told me to wait a moment as they found me a Style Consultant. They are not Customer Representatives. They are Style Consultants. BR knows how to be consistent with their brand image. It’s impressive. Although, I was tempted to ask the Consultant whether the striped sweater made me look fat.

My husband surprised me with the Wii this weekend. We have played Wii Sports every night since. I like tennis best as I suck at it least.

I am painfully realizing that I am out of shape. My right lat and delt are sore. I just started a new work out routine so I can keep up with the Wii. Sad.

I just met a colleague who grew up in Canada who now lives in China. He decided one day he wanted to live in China and find his roots. Wow. That’s like me, an ABC with limited Chinese speaking and reading skills moving to China. I can’t imagine. He said that it was like having your head screwed off and back on again. He also said it’s not really returning home because it was never really home. The funny thing is that his parents and family still live in Canada. He would be able to tell his parents, “Actually, Mom, Chinese people do do that” and be right.

I just finished this book that my husband’s friend left, Sons of Fortune by Jeffrey Archer. It was slow in the beginning, began picking up in the middle and the end was just a holy mess of adrenaline and “what the hell?” I stayed up way too late trying to finish it and was disappointed.

The book drew me in about half way through and I couldn’t put it down. One hand cooking, the other holding the book. It was difficult keeping the two protagonist straight as their stories were similar. I gave up after a while and just went for the ride. I was disappointed in the end chapters. There was too much stuff going on. I felt like the author was just trying to be clever and failed. Especially the last 3 pages where he wouldn’t tell you what happened, you had to go and calculate it yourself. Encyclopedia Brown is better at the a ha moments.

All in all, if someone left the book on a seat and you have time to kill on a lay over, it’s a good book. But it’s not worth reading more than once.

I just discovered another artifact from our visit with family over Chinese New Year. My 2 year-old is pregnant. You read it right. My kid keeps telling me she has a baby in her belly. You see, my sister is about 9 months pregnant. She is the Yi-Yi with the baby in her belly. My husband and I think it’s hilarious. But then again she’s two. If she was 16, I think we would have a different reaction.

I knew there was a reason to blog. I have been working on a project lately with this great person, Jean Cunnington. She found my blog by chance because it was referenced by Melanie Gao, a blogger she knows. Isn’t that cool? Now, in addition to being exposed to my neurotic self while we work on this project, she can be exposed to my neurotic blog.

I tried to talk her into starting a blog. She seemed interested. Fingers crossed.