Mid-Autumn Festival

Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is China's equivalent of America's Thanksgiving holiday - this could be recognized as one of China's happiest holiday besides of course the Chinese New Year! Like Thanksgiving, it is a time when people reunite with their families and get together, be with loved ones and celebrate the year's harvest. In China, people come together and enjoy a feast of mooncakes.

Like many Chinese tradition, this one stems from ancient legend. A long time ago, 10 suns circled the earth. One day, all 10 suns appeared in the sky together and the heat caused a great drought. A famous archer named Hou Yi came to the rescue, shooting down nine of the suns and earning himself vast acclaim. The Emperor awarded him a beautiful wife, as well as an immortality pill. One day while Hou Yi was out, his wife ate the pill. She became a fairy and floated to the moon, leaving a heartbroken husband at home on Earth. The gods noticed the couple's deep love and sympathized, allowing them to meet on the 15th day of every eighth moon.

The other legend has it that Chinese patriots used mooncakes to overthrow the tyrannical Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) by embedding messages outlining the planned rebellion in the seemingly sweet delicacy and smuggling them to their allies.

In Singapore, it is a tradition celebrated by all ethnic Chinese. The mooncakes will be sold around 1st day of the 8th lunar month - so for this year, it will be 1st September onwards. We buy mooncakes as gifts to families and sometimes to business partners. Though, it is not a public holiday we still enjoy the pleasure of eating mooncakes. It is usually celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month.


In Singapore and Malaysia, it is also called the Lantern Festival - At night, children accompanied by their parents will take out their laterns of different shapes and sizes, and walk around their neighbourhood and parks and just have fun. For some people who prefer to be with their loved ones and family, they will spent a romantic night together in their house garden or beaches or parks to enjoy looking at the sky with the brightest moon of the year.

The largest fish market in the world

TOKYO - I was determined to see this fish market which I understood is the larget in the world. Told the front desk to wake me up at 4.30am - had to repeat to her several times before she understood it was 4.30am. Got the morning call as expected..to be even "kiasu" - I set the alarm on my hand phone and the bed-side clock too.

At 4.30am, I did not want to wake up but I dragged myself out of bed and took the taxi (about Yen 17,000) from Hotel East 21 to Tsukiji about 20 minutes away by taxi.

Tokyo Central Wholesale Market handled 787,782 tons (2,888 tons a day) of marine products, 748 billion yen (2.8 billion yen a day). Some 450 kinds of fish are received; this figure is unparalleled in the world. Marine products sections are set up in three markets: Tsukiji, Ohta and Adachi. Above all Tsukiji Market, handling 87% of the total amount, is one of the biggest markets in the world.

There are plans by the Japanese Government to relocate Tsukiji fish market to another location about 3km away at Toyosu on Tokyo Bay - probably by 2012 - but are facing strong protest.

The taxi dropped me at the fish market retail end, so I had to walk quite a distance towards the wholesale part of Tsukiji market. I was looking around and it was so quiet, wondering whether I am at Tsukiji fish market. I realize I was very early and the Tuna bidding is still going on.

I reached the end of the Tsukiji market after navigating the dark alleys of this monstrous size fish market and was not disappointed after a long walk. Here I find 2 big rooms which are gathered many bidders and auctioneers. There is a sign warning against unauthorized entry into the TUNA Room. You can hear the loud auction going on with the shouting of the bid prices. I have never seen so many tunas all in one place and the tunas are huge! The auction was held in an air-conditioned environment. They have system of shouting and hand signals, cannot make out what they are doing. The bidding for Tuna was so exciting - middlemen were bidding it higher and higher. After the bid was won, the Tuna was tow away and put on wooded hand carriages pulled by the middlemen back to their store to be cut and sold to retailers and restaurant owners.

For a large fish market - the place looks decently well-kept but you have to be extra careful of the fork-lifts, one-man motorized cargo movers, and numerous small vehicles moving around the market.

Before going back to the hotel, I treat myself to a good sashimi and sushi breakfast - it was really good and fresh - costing about Yen21,000 for the set meal. There are only 39 restaurants that are allowed within Tsukiji market. Many of these restaurants are family business and I understand taht many of these dates back more than 3 generations. That is also one of the reason why these restaurants are so popular.

There are many simple restaurants around Hotel East 21.

• Had lunch at Lotteria - a burger joint - their burgers taste delicious - the set I had for lunch cost Yen570
• Dinner @Yamagoya - a fast food noodle shop - still will cost you Yen1,310 for a bowl of noodles. Below is what I had for my dinner meal.

Mukashi

French restaurant in Tokyo

TOKYO - After a day of meetings, Terry brought us to a French restaurant - this is really high class fine dinning. The restaurant is Ochanomizu Ogawaken and has 2 floors - 1st and basement. 1st floor is used only for Lunch and the basement is only used for dinner. The basement has only less than 10 tables.

The food is excellent and came in minute portions. They served 5 rounds of apetitisers, and then the main course. It is the ambience that made this place very cosy and classy. I understood the bill for 3 persons came up to over US$400 - wow!

Okonomiyaki

TOKYO - Arrived today from Seoul and stayed at Hotel East 21. The good news is that there is a direct Limo Bus to the Hotel but only twice a day from Narita to Hotel East 21. My first trip to Tokyo was on 7 Aug 2000, thus making this trip my 21st trip to Tokyo.

Leaving @ 10:25am and 5.25pm. I caught the 5.25pm Limo bus that took me directly to the Hotel - this is much more convenient. Next time, I will time my SQ flight to catch this Limo bus transfer.

Hotel East 21 rooms are much smaller but for the price I am paying - it's ok. This Hotel is also popular for families going to the Tokyo disneyland as there are shuttle to and fro provided by the Hotel.

This time I travelled with Mahboud and he wants to try Okonomiyaki (I tried it once before) and the concierge told us that it is around Kiba station, could not give us an exact location. It was quite a distance to Kiba station and we manage to find the restaurant with the help of a convenience store boss.

I was not disappointed with the food as it was really good and especially the chef. He looks like the master in Karate kid - always smiling. I like this restaurant and will come back again.

It is pronounced as O-ko-no-mi-ya-ki. Okonomi means "your choice" and Yaki means "grill" - so literally it means grill it yourself...LOL. But it was the chef that did it for us. Okonomiyaki is found in the Hiroshima and Osaka region. It is a pancake layered with cabbage and toppings of your choice. Toppings may include beef, chicken, bacon, squid, octopus and mushrooms. Sometimes called "Japanese Pizza".

Restaurant: Hai Sen Bon - contact: 3644-5956 (located near Kiba subway station and bridge)
The Okonomiyaki each cost about 650yen to 800yen. A can of coke cost about 300yen each.

Sashimi in Seoul

SEOUL - Meetings after meeting, we finally had a good dinner at a good sashimi (raw seafood) restaurant few kilometres outsides of Seoul City. It was a good drive but worth the time taken as the restaurant had a homey ambiance - Hari Sen Bon (tel: 031-707-6777, 2577, 1477) is the name of the restaurant. We had plates and plates of sashimi of many types of fishes. The fresh taste of sea urchin does not go well on my palate - it's taste is bitter even after dipping with strong wasabi (also known as Japanese horseradish).

Wasabi is the root of the Japanese horseradish. I have not seen the origination of wasabi - mostly in Japanese restaurant it comes in a small dish of green paste. But I was once introduced by my Japanese partner (Kinya) in Tokyo which he demonstrated to me the art of eating Soba. He took the greenish root (Wasabi) and grated it on surface of a small board made of shark skin. The root eventually became the green wasabi paste.

My 55th trip to Seoul

SEOUL - Arriving on a Sunday was good because of lesser traffic on the highway, so I got to the Renaissance Seoul Hotel much faster. It was a tiring flight as I just got back home from Beijing on Saturday and had a turnaround flight to Seoul on Sunday. I slept most of the time on the flight to Seoul.

I had an aisle seat which I reserved and had two unpleasant experience of passengers trying to take my seat. I stood firm and say this is my seat and I am not going to move, since I took the time to reserve it over the net.

Upon arrival at the Hotel, Young Jin was already waiting for me at the Hotel. He looks chirpy after a week of work cum vaccation with his family in Singapore. Dinner was at the Eel restaurant (same restaurant I had on 18 July) - it was very crowded this time with many Koreans. It's summer so the weather was hot so we sat near the air-conditioner. After dinner, we adjourned to a traditional drinking house serving dong-dong ju.

Beijing Duck, so delicious

BEIJING - You have not tasted Beijing till you had your Beijing Duck. I have tried numerous Beijing Duck but this restaurant in Beijing was the best ever. Beijing or Peking Duck it is the same. Peking is the former name for the Brits that cannot pronounce Beijing.

Restaurant: Beijing DaDong Roast Duck Restaurant -

The dish is mostly prized for the thin, crispy skin with authentic versions of the dish serving mostly the skin and little meat. Most Chinese restaurants will make two dishes out of one duck -- one with thin slices of skin with a small layer of fat, or none at all, underneath, and another one with the duck meat. The latter is often a stir-fry dish or made into duck soup.

Smog covered Beijing...

BEIJING - The flight from Singapore took about 5hrs to reach Beijing. The plane was packed like on most SQ flights. The last time I was in Beijing was more than 7 years ago. I don't remember the city being covered with so much smog. It would be amazing to see how the municipal government plans to rid of the smog covered city especially since the Beijing Olympics is only next year.

Apart from that, there are many foreigners everywhere trying to catch a glimpse of what ancient Beijing was. Beijing has a rich culture and for new comers it would be good to visit the Great Wall of China, Forbidden City, Tienanmen Square, Summer Palace, etc. I have visited these places of interest before and would like to revisit them again next trip.

I stayed at the Trader Hotel (part of the Shangri-La group) @ 1 Jian Guo Men Wai Avenue. The Shangri-La group is owned by a rich Malaysian tycoon family - Kuok, whose family are called the sugar king. They now based themselves out of Hong Kong. The hotel is situated very central and of course near the customer's location. Beijing is easy to navigate as they have 3 big Ring roads around the Forbidden City but the traffic is just bad with about 4 million vehicles plying the Beijing roads and not much of public transport.

The air pollution could be caused by the 4million vehicles plying the roads and also the numerous constructions around the city. Beijing is booming with huge foreign investments pouring into its economy. The Chinese government is also pumping cash into Beijing to built up the city infrastructure to be ready for the Beijing Olympics on 8.8.08. This is a very auspicious Chinese date - signifying great prosperity.