I got into London on Saturday at noon then went sightseeing for the rest of the day in order to stay awake.  I visited the London Tower.  I saw the Crowd Jewels and, of course, where a lot of people, both criminals and royalties, where imprisoned centuries ago.  Since I just watched The Other Bolyne Girl on the plane a couple of weeks ago, I got to see where Anne was imprisoned.  I passed by St. Paul Cathedral.  Then I went to try Fish and Chips, duck pate, and the British traditional ale at a very old an atmospheric place full of history.  The duck pate and fish was good, but the fries were not cruchy and the mushy beans that came with it was very salty. 

On Sunday, I went to Trafagar Square, National Gallery, the Buckingham Palace.  I tried to catch a glimpse of the Changing of the Guards event at 11:30am, but there was waaaay too many people.  It wasn't worth the wait.  I'm sure you can see it better on youtube.  I passed by the Westminster Abbey, the House of Parliament, Big Ben, the London Eye (the world's tallest ferris wheel), then walked along the South Bank of the Thames River all the way to the Tate Modern Museum.  I love their free museums!  The South Bank is full of life ane activities; it's a nice place to take a stroll and see street performaners.  I stopped by the Gabriel Wharf for crepes and ate at the outdoor patio.  I ordered smoked salmon and prawn crepe.  It was good, but a little bit salty for my taste.  I think all the salty food is meant to go with beer, but I probably need to drink a lot of beer to not think the food is salty. 

In the afternoon, the driver arrived to take me to Ashridge (1 hour 15 min. away from central London).  The road to get here was quite pretty.  We took nice, countryside roads and arrived at an imposing castle.  This place is 700 years old and was once the home of young Queen Elizabeth I.  My colleague told me the website also states that certain scenes of Harry Potter was filmed here.  This is where I'll be staying for the next 5 nights for business meetings.  I'm just glad my room is not actually within the castle because I'd probably been freaking out.  Certain places are nice for looks and play, but not so good to live in...hmmm, there's a parallel there...=)

This place is now called the Ashridge Center and is being used as an Executive Business School.  I'm staying in a newer building next to the castle.  The grounds of the property consists of nice manicured lawns and a forest.  I took a walk along the peripheral yesterday and it felt so refreshing to see the English countryside after a full day of meeting.    The nice thing is it doesn't get completely dark until 9:30-10pm.  The weather so far has been perfect, sunny but cool (in the 70s).  It's nice to escape the heat of LA.  The food here is also wonderful so far.  If only I can get a horse to ride on, life would be perfect. 

I went to Ueno area's park and Japan National Museum today.  I also happened to venture into the Red Light District in Shinjuku.  I'm sure it is different at night.  I had lunch there.  I had ramen and a bowl of rice with 2 pieces of meat on top.  Good thing I could point at items on the menu.  It was very good.  I'm still not sure what the meat was.  The texture was like tuna, but they looked like pork.  Although they were cooked, they were so tender.  I recognize the Kanji as being a type of fish, but I'm not sure if they use that character differently.  The flavor was just perfect.  The rice bowl (regular size rice bowl, so not very big) with the meat was only 320 Yen.  The ramen was 760 yen. 

Then I went to dept store to check on rice cookers.  I saw one I like, but they ran out.  I also went to Tokyu Hands, a store with everything that's uniquely Japan.  They had so much interesting stuff.  I plan to go back tomorrow since I only finish looking at 1.5 floors, and the store has 7 floors.  I got a bag for my computer - yes another bag for my computer.  This should be the last though.  There are lot of other interesting knick knacks, but they're too expensive for what they are and I don't need them (knick knacks eventually become piles of things I don't need).  I'll check out more stuff tomorrow.  I'm sure there are also things I need (or shall I say want) that are of reasonable prices.  Although knowing Kanji helps, but I wish I could read more.  I can't figure out what some of the things are unless I can read.  I'm sure it's not  too hard to learn if I get to practice it. 

FYI, I never put that "I'm bringing Xanga back thing", Xanga did it.  But hey that worked well for April Fools. 

I was in Vegas for work.  We had a few Chinese customers over.  They bought a lot of stuff at the Premium Outlet.  One interesting observation:

American people would bring pictures of coach bags given to them by wives/daughters/sisters to buy knock-offs (fake ones) in China when they're there for work.  Chinese people would bring pictures of coach bags given to them by wives/daughters/sisters to U.S. to buy real ones (which are Made in China) when they're here for work (which is 95% pleasure in this case).  Apparently, we think these little cute things are worth $20 each, and they think $200.  "No comment" is my response since I don't own any Coach bag (fake or real).  I guess I'm probably one of the few. 

I heard by June 1st, Chinese tourism to U.S. will be much easier than before.  This will really help the U.S. economy because they shop so much.  Who knows, maybe it'll even help alleviate the trade deficit by bring Chinese money in and U.S. merchandise out (which are mostly made and shipped in from China to begin with). 

The customers were also asked by friends/relatives to buy Bubble Bee and Kiehl's products, as well as i-Phone, which is currently not available in China since the deal with the phone company hasn't conclude, but both Apple Stores in Vegas were sold out of the i-Phone. 

On another occasion with other Chinese customers, I heard one customer tell the other to drive her own car and not use a driver.  He said, "it's much more convenient.  You should definitely do it".  The lady then said she can't see very well at night.  The guy then tried to convince her some more, "just drive slow, no problem."  Driving is apparently the new, cool thing to do.  Now imagine that same social pressure being applied to the others in China, think about how many more cars that adds to the road.  I find that very scary...when people want and want and want even more material things even when they're no apprant need.  Consumerism drives the economy, which makes people rich, which drives more consumerism.  Is that a sustainable cycle or will that drive ourselves into depletion?

There places called "lifestyle center" these days.  Such as the Victoria Garden in Rancho Cucamonga, The Tustin Legacy, The Block, The Grove, etc.  Shanghai has one called "New World".  Other than the fact that it has some original architecture (pay attention to the stone gates), it's really another westernized establishment with a German beer house, a jazz club, a health club, a Vidal Sasoon, Cuban food, bars, fusion food, etc. etc...  Real locals can't afford to eat or do anything there on a regular baiss (and probably wouldn't want to) unless it's special occasion because they charge the same prices as U.S.  The upper-middle class and expats frequent that place quite a bit.  I personally don't think much of it because it feels like walking into toned-down Downtown Disney or Universal Citywalk.  The Chinese customers (same ones as the ones wanting to drive) really like that place.  They denounced another establishment in Beijing, which in my view was much more authentic and interesting, as being "backwards".  The "problems" with China is that it's changing so fast and trying so hard to westernize that it's wiping out its own characters, traditions, and legacies that make it unique.  Opening its doors to the world after enclosing itself for decades has unleashed a whole other psychological layer of its people.  They don't want to be seen as backwards, they're sick and tired of living on basic necessity, they want the best-of-the-best.  But nobody is seeing them as backwards.  I certainly don't see any backwardness in countries such as Japan and Europe, where people are protective and proud of their traditions, where they exist in harmony with the old and the new.  Am I being unrealistic?  Am I being unfair to judge?  I don't know, maybe I'm just seeing through another pair of biased western eyes.  But I'm willing to sit back and be mindful of my own thoughts.