Tokyo

"It was nice to meet you. I'd take a picture with you but it's going to be crowded soon in 2 seconds…” Then the subway doors opened and I walked out briskly towards the street exit. I didn't look back; I didn’t want to show that I’ll miss it so much. But just before I reached the stairs I lingered a little until I saw the subway from my peripheral vision, moving again, faster and faster. I waited until it was a blur before I stepped towards the platform, faced the whoosh and waved goodbye. Thus, I was able to express and not get seen.

Tokyo is my last international business related trip this year. It hasn’t been days yet since I’ve been back but I’m already having withdrawal syndromes. Every month this year I’ve traveled so getting back into the rhythm of things will take a while.

Tokyo is home to the gaudy and the traditional, the $17 breakfasts and $1 sushis, the sensei and the senseless. My 8 day trip to Tokyo was an amalgam of extremes - never have I found more expensive basic necessities nor met more honest and genuinely hospitable people in my life.

Perhaps, the highlight of my trip was meeting my high school classmates whom I haven't seen in 8 years. It was a blast. Now that I've counted, I just slept 6 hours while I was with them for 3 days. We started off our Saturday morning by venturing to Tsukiji, the largest fish market in Tokyo. While we never made it to the 4am auctions, we still got to eat the newly arrived fish for breakfast. I had the freshest maguro (tuna) sushi I have ever had in my life! I also ate the "squilla" sushi that resembled pumba's grub – both slimy and crunchy!

Afterwards, we went back to my hotel and saw the most attractive piece of red metal on my city block. We took pictures with it but the police won't let us climb it all the way.

We then took the subway to the Imperial gardens and to the Akihabara electronics district where I almost bought a used digital Rebel for $450. Akihabara is a thriving testament that Tokyo is the mecca of electronics, useful and frivolous notwithstanding. Solar powered plant anyone?

Then we went clubbing. Considering that I didn't really sleep the night before because of excessive clubbing also, it was quite a feat staying up til the next day. My eyes were bloodshot; everyone on the plane avoided staring at me. Yay for shots and beers and endless crazy dancing.

Til the next adventure folks... this weekend is my sister's wedding. Au revoir.

The Calendar

Has your calendar ever been so packed that you actually cover up the day itself? Just 12 hours ago I realized that I am flying out to Tokyo tomorrow, er today. I'm up to my neck in to-do lists but I actually like it that way since I feel like I'm more efficient when I always am on the go. I'm a masochist, I confess.

But can I deal with that until 2009? My graduate classes in Stanford don't wrap up until then and work is becoming more routine and less challenging. I had to shake up my life a bit for some needed refreshening. Traveling won't do that for me anymore since traveling has become routine for me too. Writing as well.

Thus the triathlon. I started training for it and the plan I am following details down to the second the exact things I have to do in my workouts. But I will be working out 7 days a week to get ready for all three sports. What now that I'm losing a day going to Japan?

Nah, I will keep up with it. I want the challenge; I need it. I want to experience for myself what Albert Camus said, "In the midst of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer."

New Things

I like it how I have a July celebration every year - it allows me to do another set of resolutions.

Well, time to freshen up a bit my life's direction, motivations, and of course my blog.

First up, triathlon. 15 weeks to go!

2006 and Jesus

Let's flash back to my past blog entries from Xanga:

Written October 25, 2004 (has it been that long?) - I've done everything except the X's, but for 10 I did learn how to ski and snowboard...

X 1) Be in shape physically by Summer of 2005. (It happened 2006)
2) Master an individual sport (heavily contingent on the presence of an activity partner)
3) Learn Basic Greek
4) Learn Basic Mandarin Chinese
X 5) Take the FCC Licensing for Radio Ham Operators
6) Learn guitar/piano
7) Review and master relevant course material from college
8) Study for my GRE, improve my writing skills and increase my vocabulary
X 9) Learn how to race professionally
X 10) Skydive and bungee-jump, learn skiing and snow-boarding.
11) Learn how to cook gourmet food for my visitors...

Written July 7, 2005

July 7, 2000, I met this old lady at the bus stop and through her message I knew God existed. 2001, the computers in the lab I worked at got reformatted by a virus, and somehow God calls me to become a professor and a missionary. 2002, I am in southern Philippines for a mission trip, and guess what, on July 7, I witnessed the miracle of belief happen in another person. 2003, I joined a Catholic group. I eased into a group of believers that were outside my stereotype box. I also threw away the box. 2004, July 7, I was underwater (scuba diving not drowning), praying for my upcoming interview with Intel. On the same day, I received an email from Agilent and the rest is history. My soul learned about believing faith. 2005, I was considering quitting Agilent because they offered substantial exit packages for everyone eligible so we can downsize gracefully.

But God told me to stay and I learned about faithfulness.



2006, I have traveled around the world and saw God's heart for it. Now I steer my life towards his heart.

Things fall into place. Not too long ago I was unsure of my career path, now I have a clearer vision of the next five years. Back in 2004 I weighed in at 240 lbs, 26% body fat, now I tip at 184 lbs, 15% body fat, am leaner and more adaptive. There was a time when I budgeted money to pay off loans, now I budget to save for the future. I don't know if I am more mature but now I will be more precise and realistic with my goals:

1) Participate in a Sprint Triathlon.
2) Learn 200 new Chinese characters, write to and converse with Chinese employees.
3) Write 20,000 words for my "creative writing endeavor".

To be achieved on or before 07/07/07.

They're challenging enough to shake things up; they're in line with my long term goals; and they're bound to be fun. Light my fire,

.

@ the top of this mountain

I think I've been resting too much on my laurels. There's barely any improvement in my character, physique and efficiency over the past few months. And my motivation levels have dropped a lot. Have I grown lazy and complacent? Is this the after effect of biological clock shaking?

I will have to do something about this. I am not motivated to workout as much anymore, am not driven to perform 110%, oh and a lot more... I have two reasons - 1) I've reached the top of my current mountain, and had time to enjoy the views, now it's time to move on to the next. 2) There are things I have to fix between me and God.

I like shaking things up once in a while. I'll start drafting another set of goals for 2007. Expect my annual July 7 entry in a couple of days.