4AM

Tokyo is really God damn big and sprawls for as far as the eye can see. But it never loses its vibrancy. Here are a few of the neighborhoods I visit:

Shinjuki, which is a large business, entertainment and shopping district centered around JR Shinjuku Station. It's the busiest train station in the world with 3.64 million passengers a day. Due East is Kabukicho, Asia's biggest red-light district.

Shibuya, a large shopping and entertainment district best known for the Shibuya crossing, which is the busiest pedestrian crossing in the world. Estimates are that almost 1 million people cross the street here each day (2.18 million people use Shibuya station daily).

Tokyo Station Area (Marunouchi & Yaesu), which handles over a million passengers a day. It's Tokyo's intercity rail hub connecting Tokyo with the rest of Japan by Shinkansen (bullet train). More trains pass through Tokyo station each day than any other station in Japan. My hotel, the Shangra La, located nearby.

We also visit the Park Hyatt, where Lost In Translation filmed, and dine at Gonpachi made famous in Quentin Taratino's bloody Kill Bill.

Robataya

We enjoy a robata style dinner, which is similar to barbecue, where the food is skewered (often alive, brutal) and slow-grilled over hot charcoal. Traditionally the servings are a combination of seafoods and vegatables while we have shrimps, beef and .. fish. The ingredients displayed, and cooked, before us ("Like a puddle" our host helpfully tells us) interrupted by a traditional Japanese dinner chant complete with brusk clapping. Robataya is one of the best restaurants in Tokyo.

Tokyo

I arrive in Tokyo for business, meeting Thierry at the hotel and off we go.

It's my first visit Tokyo and the city is BIG - the most populous metropolitan area in the world with 37.8 million people. From the 33rd floor of my hotel, Tokyo just goes on forever.

Tokyo has eaten everything around it due, mainly, to the decision to build the Shinkansen (or "new trunk line"), a network of high-speed lines in Japan that opened in 1964 weeks before the Tokyo Olympics.

The Shinkansen owns 1,483 miles of lines with max speeds of 150-200 mph. It links most major cities on the main island, making Tokyo ever more important as the central force of the economy while weakening regional cities. By an odd quirk, employers pay for the commute time making a 2 hour one-way somehow tolerable or even desirable. Any case, it carries over 300 million passengers a year. It runs like a Swiss clock.

I watch the World Series, game 5, which is broadcast on Japanese television delayed for prime time (Giants beat KC, 5-0. There will be a Game 7). The commentary is in Japanese. I note that restaurants and bars are showing the game to locals who watch, enthralled. No surprise, either, since baseball introduced to Japan in 1872 by HOrace Wilson who taught at the Kaisei School in Tokyo and the first baseball team here was called the Shimbashi Athletic club in 1878.

España

Madeleine unpacks

Madeleine's half-term break takes her to Madrid, where she flies in Monday until last night when I scoop her up from T5 followed by a late dinner. She is a chatter box, filled with enthusiasm and good cheer. 

In Spain,  the school group stay in the Sierre de Gredos mountains: "very hot and sunny, mountains everywhere. Streams and lakes, too, along with forests". Madeleine bunks with nine other girls and gets maybe four hours of sleep despite the designated curfew of 23h30.  During the week, the kids horseback ride, hike, mountain bike, enjoy archery and visit Real Madrid football stadium. In addition, for us parents, there is an hour and a half of Spanish lessons per day (Madeleine groans). 

Madeleine tells me the best part of the trip was "playing 'Slender Man' at night, pitch black, through the forrest, with my friends." (Slender Man, dear readers, is when the Slender Man, dressed in dark clothes, try to capture the non Slender Men; once captured, the captured join the Slender Men or the chasing team. Or so I think).

I prepare for Tokyo tomorrow.

Minneapolis St Paul

Twin Cities with Mike and Gretchen

Sonnet is in Minneapolis St Paul for the opening of Italian Style (renamed from "The Glamour of Italian Fashion" for the Americans") at the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts.  Eitan joins her from some mother-teenager bonding, and are hosted by the Bransfords who roll out the red carpet.  Recall Mike and Gretchen part of our original ex pat group, post business school, who returned Homeland maybe ten years ago. Bill and Whitney join for the opening and it is a family affair.

As Madeleine has been in Spain this week, I am solo for several nights. I take advantage by catching up on work, a trip to Manhattan where I see Katie, and going to the Egon Schiele opening at the Courdault.

Any Given Sunday

On being a teenager

Eitan celebrates his freedom - half term! - watching football from dawn until dusk (right now it is the ever important match, Stoke v. Swansea). In between televised matches, The Sheen Lions take on KPR and win 3-2 on a nail-biter though the Lions outplayed their opponents.

Dear reader, Eitan began his club play with KPR and there are a handful of kids that I recall from Eitan's very first competitive run down the pitch with the Rangers. 

Sonnet and I go to yoga which is something I have not done in, like, three years - shocking, really, as yoga was once an important part of our routine. Back in the early days of our relationship, ca. 1993, Sonnet introduced me to Bikram yoga in North Beach - it was their second studio though now they can be found everywhere (though Bikram's system has come into question). I still can't do the balancing poses and I sweat like a maniac.

Me: "Why don't you you put on some NFL?"
Eitan: "Do I have to?"
Me: "Let's watch some real football."
Eitan: "Whatever."
Me: "Who do you think would win - the Baltimore Colts vs Man U in soccer or vice versa?"
Eitan: "Well it depends on who is playing. But, um, probably the Colts."
Me: "Manchester wouldn't make it through the fist quarter. Look at how big the players are."
Eitan: "It probably wouldn't be pretty."
Me: "I'll say."

School Press

Madeleine wraps up top place.

Friday night and everybody has been working hard. Since Sonnet out and Eitan at football practice, Madeleine and I have a date: Praline's And Cream ice cream+several episodes of "Modern Family." Doesn't matter that s/ we have seen every episode maybe more than twice, it is still funny and shows us what the 'normal' is. 

“I’ve always said that if my son thinks of me as one of his idiot friends, I’ve succeeded as a dad.”

--Phil Dunphy, Modern Family

Focus

I take Madeleine to her drama class in NW London where today she "goes over a script called 'The Accident'. I play a guy named Dillon, who is the director of the play. The play is a 'play within a play.' We had to perform the play without props and costumes as the the van (in the play) gets into an accident and loses all of the props and costumes.  Yep, that's it. That's what we did." Intriguing.

During the interim I visit Panzers in St John's Wood. Panzer has the lock on American food for homesick ex pats. Like me. I pick up Captain Crunch, Fruit Loops and Nestle chocolate chips for (maybe) chocolate chip cookies.

The kids are now officially on half-term break which means I find Eitan flat on his back on the couch, television on, dull lifeless look on his face. I join him.

Julian's Pot

Julian is a potter. He makes pottery in his studio in Dulwich. The pot on display, pictured, was made as part of a 2012 series of over-sized urns. In order to fire them, Julian found a special kiln in North England. Just getting the things there, and back, a challenge. Now one is on display at the Frieze Art Fair. Many years ago we introduced Julian to Scott who is on the acquisition committee of the Rhode Island School of Design museum - RISD commissioned a tea set.

Sonnet returns from Milan and Rotterdam where she gave a lecture at Palazzo Morando and attends a fashion conference at Erasmus University.  She has a five hour dinner with the conference speakers in a renovated train terminus in a gritty but up-and-coming part of Rotterdam. They discuss fashion, mega egos and prostitution (Sonnet tells me). Not my usual conversation about private equity.

Frieze Art Fair

Sonnet and I attend the opening of the Frieze Art Fair this week - Frieze on the serious art purchasing 

calendar and an international contemporary art fair that takes place every October in Regent's Park.  It features more than 170 contemporary art galleries and their works from Damian Hirst to Alberto Giacometto. But it is really the people watching that is most fun. There are a lot of French collectors for some reason and of course the Good and the Great, but also the artists and the strivers. Everybody dressed to impress and having a good time. 

Sunset at 30K

Modern life. In my absence, Madeleine runs the Wandsworth Borough 2K around Tooting Common for Years 7 and 8s. Our gal finishes third of 120 runners and first in her age group (Text to Sonnet: "I came first out of everybody!!!!"). The Shakespeares trial track teams in Wimbledon and Kingston (Madeleine wants the former, Eitan the latter. Of course).

In school news, Madeleine nails the never ending Tudors with a score of 97% on a mid-term exam while Eitan delivers results with top marks in biology, physics and chemistry. Even better, they bring their subjects to the dinner table.

Back In Action

Eitan plays midfield

I return from the West Coast and spend the weekend catching up with family, yard work and soccer which sees Eitan in only his second Sheen Lions match of the season. Pictured, vs Shelton, who is top of the league and a full head, on average, taller than the Lions who go down 3-1 (but in fairness should have drawn on a goal-line block and goal bar strike). Eitan scores the Lions goal.

California (San Francisco, Menlo Park, LA and Newport Beach) is filled with business meetings and friends including an evening with my Berkeley pals at Pizzaiola in a trendy neighbourhood in Oakland.  Everybody doing what they should be: Ivor overseeing major architecture projects in San Fran and the peninsula; Mike and Tyler representing the Winklevoss twins of FB fame; Debbie is a local theatre legend and Eric is the Associate Commissioner of the Pac 12. Secretly or openly we all wish for a Cal Rose Bowl but it ain't ever gonna happen.

Christian and Lisa show me a special evening in LA with a sunset drink at the Wilshire Hotel overlooking the Hollywood Hills, than a pre dinner cocktail at the LA County Museum of Art, followed by dinner at a local Terroni. Fabulous.

Newport is a strange alternative lifestyle: alternative for the rich and super rich. It keeps its beach culture but the harbour yachts stuff the gang planks. Surfers walk along the high street where I have coffee; the black Bentley driven by the housewife somehow out of place in the glorious sunshine.

I bring home a stack of comic books for Madeleine.

Almost 14

Eitan turns 14 (we celebrate early as I will be in Paris on the actual day).

How could Sonnet and I wish for anything more? Eitan has become an independent and confident young man while navigating his second year as a teenager.  And this has been a year of change. At school, he has a new form and friends; he has added new coursework in French while dropping design, technology and art. Hampton won the Surrey Cup. Momentarily, his social scene shifted towards crowd sourcing and the High Street (often leaving Sonnet and I perplexed) but now, in the new term, he has adopted a more focused approach towards his studies.

Eitan remains a quiet and thoughtful young man. He is rare to open up with us but we know he feels deeply about those things he holds dear: sport, school, friends and Manchester United. He also carries nostalgia linked, perhaps, to his dislike of letting go of things from his past. I recall he sadness at the last game with Elm Grove or his tears leaving Sheen Mount.

Mostly Eitan has remained true to a first vision I had of him as an infant. He is cautious to jump into new things but when he moves, it is with well studied conviction. He wants to please those around him and so sets high goals for himself. We watch as external feedback becomes less important to the standards he sets for himself.  It is our joy be along for the ride, wherever it may be going.

Field Trip, WWI

Chateau Wood Ypres 1917 by Frank Hurley

Eitan up at 4AM (Sunday) for an over-night field trip to Belgium to trace the route taken by an Australian WWI platoon on their way to fight at Passchendele (near Ypres). Tomorrow the boys will drive to the Somme where the trenches have been preserved. This followed by a visit to the British memorial at Thiepval and a British Cemetary. 

The Battle of Passchendaele was a campaign of the First World War, fought by the British and their allies against the German Empire. The battle took place on the Western Front, between July and November 1917, for control of the ridges south and east of the Belgiam city of Ypres in West Flanders , as part of a strategy decided by the Allies at conferences in November 1916 and May 1917.

 

Passchendael lay on the last ridge east of Ypres, five miles from a railway junction at Roeselare, which was a vital part of the supply system of the German Fourth Army. The next stage of the Allied strategy was an advance to Torhout-Couckelaere, to close the German-controlled railway running through Roeselare and Torhout, which did not take place until 1918. 

Further operations and a British supporting attack along the Belgian coast from Nieuwpoort, combined with an amphibious landing, were to have reached Bruges and then the Dutch frontier. The resistance of the German Fourth Army, unusually wet weather, the onset of winter and the diversion of British and French resources to Italy, following the Austro-German victory at the Battle of Caoretto (24 October – 19 November) allowed the Germans to avoid a general withdrawal, which had seemed inevitable to them in October. 

The campaign ended in November when the Canadian Corps captured Passchendaele. In 1918 the Battle of Lys and the Fifth Battle of Ypres were fought before the Allies occupied the Belgian coast and reached the Dutch frontier.

(source: Wiki)

Friday Night Scrabble

The Indian Summer continues which sees lovely autumnal weather, warm and friendly, easy to sit on a park bench and write some emails or in Green Park to make my calls.  In fact, this has been the driest September in 50 years.

I am with Madeleine for the club swimming sprint champs and our gal swims all the disciplines. Unfortunately no PBs but she is up for the task, swimming her little heart out (She says, "I didn't do that well but I don't think I could have swum any better"). I love the team camaraderie as the kids scream and wave their team mates along; from the stands, an occassional explosion from an enthusiastic parent livens things up.

Eitan seems to have let go of any feelings he had for swimming to concentrate on his football, athletics and school (update on Osgood Schlatter: Eitan back to training and hopes to play in the next week or two with his physio's permission).

Madeleine: "I tried to buy some spray paint with Williby but kids aren't allowed to buy spray paint. How come?"
Me: "Because they sniff it."
Madeleine: "Why do they do that?"
Me: "It makes them high."
Madeleine: "Doesn't it turn their nose all different sorts of colours like green and blue and red?"
Me: "Yes. It is one of the many hazards of sniffing paint."

Holocaust Memorial Museum

Riverside

Diana invites us to her home to meet Mike Abramowitz, who is the the Director of the Committee on Conscience, which conducts the genocide prevention efforts of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Diana and our friend Todd are on the museum's council. 

Before the Holocaust Museum, Mike was a reporter and editor for The Washington Post since 1985-06 and the White House correspondent for the Post from 2006-09 covering the Bush administration’s conduct of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. No, I did not ask. 

I visited the Holocaust Museum in 1993 or 1994 around when it first opened, a truly moving experience. Of the many things I remember, the pile of discarded children's shoes remains in my mind's eye.

Madeleine: "What are you watching?"

Me: "The news."

Madeleine: "The news is boring."

Me: "I hope you didn't just say that."

Madeleine: "Can we watch something interesting like 'Modern Family' or something?"

Me: "You go, girl.'"

Adam 40

Madeleine, Dead Horse Point

We are at Adam's 40th birthday party last night in Notting Hill, which really is a lovely part of west London - in the 1980s it was run down and my friend Gilbert bought a house here for half a mil which is now worth maybe 20. Or 25. But I digress. 

Adam I met at Ben's bar mitzvah when he (Adam) had recently acquired Pushkin Press which publishes authors from around the world like Stefan Zweig, Marcel Ayme, Antal Szerb, Paul Moran and Yasushi Inoue (none of whom I have read dear reader). Often Adam translates these works into the English language for the first time. 

Before Pushkin, Adam was Publisher of Penguin Classics and best known perhaps for rediscovering the work of the German writer Hans Fallada, with the first English-language publication of Alone in Berlin. He is now excited about 'Fortune of France,' which chronicles over many fictional volumes the French religious wars in the age of the Tudors; it has sold more than five million copies but not in English. I immediately think of the Master And Commander series and may have to investigate.

For the record: Eitan is 5'7'' and Madeleine is 5'3''. I once took their height and weight every month or so up until 2010. I will plot it on a graph one day.

Football

I can't resist buying an American football.  It's been an unusual season - Eitan no football as he recovers from a growth spurt. He is being smart about it, resisting jumping into training or games that could set him back. It will come.

I reminisce of four or five years ago when went to the park at the crack of dawn to practise corner kicks and run drills. I worked him pretty hard, it was good for both of us.

Without afternoon swimming, I often come home to find him in the den, hunched over his books, intensely beavering away.

The Way Back Machine

Winter 2010

Yes, these kids grow up quickly and only yesterday it seems that Eitan and I played football together.

It is unseasonably warm for mid-September and tomorrow we may even have humidity and thundershowes.  Usually Indian Summer a bit later and a bit drier but I smile and sweat my way through it.  Sonnet meets me at my office and we walk home chit-chatting; at 45 we peek into the den to spy Eitan working away at his homework.

Bill and Martine arrive in London. Bill has cancer but nothing slows him down. He recently bought a condo in Arizona to play golf.  I love this about him.

Me: "How is Jack doing?" (Dad's note: Madeleine's friend Jack broke his femur playing rugby)
Madeleine: "We've had to move all our classes to the first floor since he can't climb the stairs."
Me: "Poor kid."
Madeleine: "It's like the second worse bone to break."
Me: "After your neck?"
Madeleine: "Your head. Or your back. Then you could be paralysed."
Me: "So true."

Berry Picking & Scotland

Sonnet, Madeleine and I head to Buckinghamshire to pick some fruit - mainly raspberries and plums but also sweet corn for corn chowder.  This is a nice family ritual.

Scotland's decision to leave the United Kingdom put to vote on Thursday and on every body's mind. The referendum question is rather simple, "Should Scotland be an independent country?", requires a rather simple 'yes' or 'no.'  All residents of Scotland 16 or over or about 4 million people can vote (about 800,000 Scots live in England and they largely won't participate nor the 6 million Scots who live in the US). Independence requires a simple majority.

Until last weekend, a yes-vote seemed improbable but then a poll put the majority at independent. Panic. David Cameron and Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband went north for the Hale Mary. Some open ended issues: currency, public expenditure, defence and North Sea oil.  It is a once in a lifetime, 100-year decision.

It would be shocking and tragic if Scotland broke from a union that has served Britain for 300 years.