Hong Kong

I was lucky enough to score a work trip to Hong Kong last week. It was fantastic, partly because of the balmy, tropical weather, but mostly because I could speak English and take cabs every where. And two of my best friends (Jane and Blythe, who you've seen on previous posts when they came to visit Tokyo) live there. Blythe is a foodie extrordinaire. She took us to the best spots for pork buns and suckling pig, and all that good kosher stuff. And Jane and I had a lovely time catching up. One night we snuck white wine into the sauna at her swanky gym and just chatted, as if we were on a beach some where, sweating profusely. I was officially there to cover Hong Kong Fashion Week (see link:
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB116945487194883543-C1_FuSCGQfPZLgFQGL2giR3lDfU_20070130.html) but Guangzhou's finest button makers weren't exactly news worthy. So, I worked out of our Hong Kong office on some other stuff...including acquiring a Chloe bag and a, um, Cartier watch (wink, wink). By the time the trip was over, I was kicking myelf for moving to Tokyo instead of Hong Kong. Everything is so much easier there and it's all so cheap and familiar, like a big Chinatown with English every where. When I got back to Narita Airport, the Narita Express had stopped running for the night...Sure, it was 9pm, but still...I had to take three trains and two hours to get home and was in a big Japan-hating mood. But the next day and the following week I realized that I moved half-way around the world for a reason and living in Hong Kong wouldn't feel so different than NYC. I wanted a foreign expreince, and in Tokyo, boy did I get it...So I'm grateful that I'm here, even if it makes my life tough some times...ok, all the time.