Japantown

Bento bo 

Tokyo : Stephane is a super dude who recently made partner at Astorg.

Our arrival too late for restaurants so we find a 24 hour sushi joint near our hotel in the Shiodome, not far from the fish markets. It's honestly the best sushi I've ever had - better than London's Akeda or Umu, which nets a check for several hundred pounds for dinner. As cool is the hustle-bustle at 2AM : businessman, revellers, couples. No tourists.

Tokyo is the most modern of all cities - there are multiple skylines in different districts, putting Manhattan to shame. The streets are clean, it feels safe, and the Japanese don't speak English (though the signposts are also in English even if they make no sense). If asked for directions or anything else in English, the Japanese will walk away - not rudeness but embarrassment for not being able to answer.

The Japanese remarkably polite. My favourite : upon departure, the hosts wait in a bow until the elevator doors are closed.  

Teipai

B2 - two levels below surface

I arrive Taipei at midnight, time for a swim before bed.

Of my meetings, most impressive is WTT, the family office of Tsai Wan-Tsai (public record) who founded the Fubon Group, the biggest and most profitable insurance company in Taiwan which recently overtook Cathay for the  No. 1 spot ( Cathay remarkable founded and run by by Tsai’s brother).

Not moved ? The family further owns Taiwan Mobile (#2 mobile co in Taiwan), the largest cable TV company, the biggest TV shopping network and China Bank (regional license for Taiwan). All in, WTT controls over one-third of the Taiwanese economy.

Unusually (to me), much of daily life takes place underground as restaurants and shops and fitness centres must take advantage of the free-space beneath the city streets. 

Taipei, compared to Tokyo, Singapore or Seoul, has shabby infrastructure despite its $45k per capita. Most expect China to invade one day - why invest ?

Last time I was here was 1994 sourcing eye-glass frames for Help The World See.

Beijing

View from my room

Beijing traffic is surprisingly sparse as we make our way around the city's tourist sites and to meetings. I learn that many of the main roads closed for a military parade (joint, with Russia) for 3 Sept, which requires practise and planning: public not allowed. The celebration marks the 70 year anniversary of the Second World War's end. Interestingly this is the first time for the parade - a signal of strength, perhaps ?

Also: the World Athletic Championships taking place at the Beijing "Birdcage" National Stadium and factories ordered shut to reduce pollution. It works, too. No smog.

Beijing's population is ca. 21m or world's 8th largest (Tokyo number one with 37m). I arrive as 2015 H1 growth below expectations while Xi Jiping's anti-corruption campaign has caused a serious political  wobble inflicting pain on equity exchanges around the world : Hong Kong down 30% from its May peak; the NYSE around -10%. Yet it is only calm with the investment professionals I meet. Of course concern, but otherwise only confidence.

From Beijing to Taipei.

Center Of The Earth

Visiting The Center Of The Earth

Stephane and I pay a visit to the China Investment Corp with its $600bn of assets under management. If one wants to know where the power is in China, have a look at the Board of Directors and Board of Supervisors, all public on Wiki, a website not available in China. Nor is Facebook, Google or Youtube. 

From CIC it is CICC, the largest investment bank in China. 

We meet only women, as is JJ, who shows us around. She tells us in China, a male dominated Asian culture, women have equal opportunity. 

Back home, the Shakespeares enjoy summer - Eitan has pre-season football practice while Madeleine "chills out and nothing else" (Me: You must have done something? Madeleine: Nope) which makes me feel good.

"NBA games are exciting to watch and have global appeal. They are very popular in China. I do watch NBA games on television when I have time."
--Xi Jinping

Temple Of Heaven

Temple of Heaven

I catch the direct from Heathrow to Beijing Capital Airport, the sixth largest building in the world by area AND a third runway built in no-time-flat for the 2008 Olympics. Heathrow may get a third runway after 20 years in 20 years.

I depart London on Saturday, 2PM, arriving in China on Sunday, 12 noon, a bit disorienting : travelling East always the difficult direction.  At our hotel I swim on the 59th floor (the building once the tallest in China and now it is No. 2) before joining Stephane and Laurent for lunch on the 68th floor. At this height, inside an atrium, everything a bit weird like the trees or the floor-to-ceiling wine on display behind glass walls.

From the Park Hyatt we go to the Temple Of Heaven (pictured), a medieval complex of religious buildings visited by the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for annual ceremonies of prayer to Heaven for good harvest.

"Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun."

--Mao

Railroad Tracks

One year of braces

We go for a day hike Alpes Maritimes which are remarkable for the rock formations that tower above the path.

Madeleine finishes re-reading "Fault In Our Stars" and when I get a bunch of "dunknows" to my questions regarding the book, I ask her to make up the sequel. She entertains me for a several miles of walking. Her creative mind always at work.

S. France

Chillax

Eitan about as excited for Manchester football as about anything and we plan the evening around ManU vs. some unheard-of-team which is broadcast on the cable channel. The kids beg for McDonald's and Sonnet relents meaning they enjoy the perfect night in France.

We are on the beach for one week.

Eitan reads the biography of Sir Alex Ferguson, the legendary Manchester United coach. Joyce's 'Dubliners' stays in the suitcase. Fair enough.

Turn Around

We arrive home from a long-drive from Scotland to catch a plane to Provence.

Madeleine: "Do they call you forehead because it is as big as four fingers ?"
Me: "I'd not thought of it like that before."

In the line at customs we ponder the notice, "P before Q"
Me: "What the hell does that mean?"
Madeleine: "Pee before queuing. Go to the bathroom before the line."
Me: "You are a genius."

Coastline Of Muck

We do a hike circling Muck and ending on its peak or ca. 421 feet from sea level.  This entails a mild/ slushy hike across fields, along the coastline, through ferns and finally up a sharp path that takes us to the summit. It ain't Rakaposhi.

The kids are mostly good sports about it but happy when the walk behind us. At the tea house Madeleine feeds a cow. The dog is in his element.

Welcome To The Isle of Muck

"Come to the Isle of Muck to get away, relax, and enjoy the wonderful wildlife and scenery."
For many years I have wondered about the islands off Britain and so Sonnet puts things in motion: We visit the Isle of Muck in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland (we cross Rum and Eigg on the ferry). 

Muck measures about 2.5 miles east to west and has a population of around 30, mostly living near the harbour at Port Mor. The other settlement on the island is the farm at Gallanach. There is a small hotel, a tea shop and not much else on the High Street.

Tom picks us up at the ferry station in an ancient Land Rover meant not for Chelsea but the unpaved roads of the isle. With us are 12 or so visitors here for a family reunion which means the local accommodations are otherwise sold out (this would qualify as "packed"). Tom and his family live here 365 days a year for the peace and solitude. They own a bunch of sheep, which Rusty chases with joy to Sonnet's horror, on a farm estate that stretches to the water. Amazon delivers the essentials. Of course it is rainy and window but that is the point.

I find an unexpected emerald bay to skinny dip.

Maillag

Sound of Sleat looking at the Isle of Rum

Eitan and Madeleine survive camp and we pick them up outside Ft William and drive to Maillaig, a fishing town founded in the 1840s, where we catch a ferry to The Isle of Muck.

Sonnet, Eitan and I have visited Maillaig before - for a day-trip in October, 2001 - or shortly after Eitan turned one-year old. We were visiting Fort William so I could climb Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Britain at 1,344 meters located on the western end of the Grampian Mountains in The Highlands. The summit can be reached with a vigorous day hike up. So I and Eitan (dutiful strapped in a backpack) set out for the base in the pouring rain and spring snow. The taxi driver suggests it might not be an optimal day for a climb and Eitan's howls convince me the reasonable - safe! - thing to do is to not do it. Probably the right call.

So Maillaig. along with being the busiest Herring port in Europe during the 1960s, is famous for its scallops and the family restaurant where we dined in 2001 still there and we enjoy a meal while I ask myself the inevitable question : where did the time go ?

Dad's factoid: The Mallaig railway - Hogwarts Express - used during the filming of the Harry Potter

Loch Hourn

Self Portrait XXXXVII

Sonnet finds a charming hiking station at Loch Hourn where we hole up for the night following a day trekking along a section of the 200 mile Cape Wraith Trail.

Loch Hourn runs inland from the Sound of Sleat (about right) opposite the island of Skye for 14 miles to the head of the loch at Kinloch Hourn. At the entrance, it is 3 miles wide, becoming less than 1.5 mile wide for much of its length, with successive narrows in the upper reaches and reducing to a 300-metre-wide basin at the head, where we start our walk.

The Loch is fjord-like and mostly steep-sided, with Beinn Sgritheall to the north and Ladhar Bheinn rising from the southern shore. The sea floor has been shaped by glaciation into five progressively deeper basins with relatively shallow sills; combined with the narrow and sheltered aspect of the loch and the high local rainfall, these result in an unusually wide variation of salinity and sea habitats over the length of the loch.

The Highlands

The kids shipped off to Scotland and Outward Bound for a week of outdoor activities including hiking, camping, canoing and surviving [Dad's note: Outward Bound founded in the UK, now more popular in the US, and aims to foster the personal growth and social skills of participants by using challenging expeditions in the outdoors. Bill is on the Board]. Madeleine: "Do I have to go?"

Sonnet and I drive to The Highlands for some hiking before picking up the Shakespeares. Despite the population density of Britain (64m people in an area half the size of California), most of Scotland is remote, beautiful .. . and wet. Our rainy days punctuated by brilliant sunshine that warms one to the bones.  Unusually for so far North (56.8 degree latitude) the fauna is tropical thanks to the jetstream, which dumps warm damp weather across the British Isles.

The Berkeley Way

This dude a fixture in my and many friends' memories from years ago. Every morning, rain or shine, Jeremy stood on the corner of Martin Luther King Jr Way (formerly Grove Street until 1984) and Russell Street waving to motorists and encouraging us to have a good day. This was the 1970s and not everything hunky-dory btw. He made the corner a better place. Where have guys like this gone ? (photo from Laurel, 3rd grade friend)

Madeleine and I go to the local pool. A cartoon poster of an overweight balding sunburned middle age man exhorts us to "get in shape this summer."
Me: "Does that guy look like me?"
Madeleine: "No."
Me: "Well, phew."
Madeleine: "You don't have a sunburn". 

Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?
Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.
What's that you say, Mrs. Robinson?
Jotting Joe has left and gone away.

--Simon & Garfunkel, Bookends

Still Crazy After All These Years

Park and 57th

I am in New York for a few meetings, travelling with JL from Astorg. JL a founder of the firm and charismatic like few people I know: he draws a room's attention without saying a word. He could easily be in the movies, playing an enforcer or ruthless assassin. I mean this as the highest complement.

A joy of visiting Manhattan is seeing Katie which works out to a bunch of times a year. I always make sure to plan my trips around at least one dinner with her, solo. She is doing the most interesting things and the only little sister I have. One of those things that makes life worth living and I cherish all the more with age.

In college Katie and I spent a night dancing at the Palladium (1986!) then hanging out in an all-night  diner, me smoking, waiting for the first morning train from Grand Central Station to Bronxville. Pretty cool, youth.

Manhattan Sunrise

OK, seriously catching up on my blog. I am feeling the loss of momentum - whereas until recently I pounced on each missive, I now find myself resisting, a drag - like running in water. So why the inertia ? Partly, perhaps, there is less to blog about : not that the daily humour of life and kids diminished (my main subject matter of course) but rather I find a greater need to filter what the Shakespeares say and do. No teenager wants their Dad writing over their shoulder.

Also this is a crunch period : kids becoming adults, parents aging - I'm aging - and work requiring full-on attention.

So, that aside, here is a Manhattan morning taken from the southside of Sheep's Meadow. Like nowhere else, a new day in New York City can change one's life.

Cultural Experience

Tuileries fair (Eitan far right)

Eitan in Paris. Sonnet: "Are you kidding me?"

I refuse to join.

Eitan works on an algorithm for his Rubik's cube. After 24 hours straight, he is moving: "Well, it's really complicated because first, you have to know your Rubik's cube, and you have to understand the relationship between each piece. There are certain steps to cracking it. Gradually, over time, it gets closer. Pretty much it all involves understanding where to put each colour in relationship with all colours."

And, he adds, "there are 43 quintillion combinations."

Madeleine: "Math just ruins everything."

8e

Place de la Concorde

Eitan and I finish our time in Paris visiting Petit Palais off the Champs for coffee/ hot chocolate and croissants and some art followed by the Germaine Krull photography exhibition at the Jeu de Paume. We then stroll across Tuileries before heading back to the hotel along rue du Faoubourg St Honoré. It is nice to see Paris through his eyes.

In Eitan's eyes, it's a Rubiks cube and we look for the toy in le marais.

Eitan finishes "The Great Gatsby" and now reads Joyce' "Dubliners".

Me: "Give me one sentence on the Gatsby for my blog."

Eitan says: "Um, it sums up how being so close to something you desperately want can drive you mad."

Me: "Pretty good."

Paris Express

Etan joins me in Paris.

I give the boy €100 and tell him to explore Paris while I go into Astorg. He does a good job, too, visiting Madeleine Cathedral, St Augustine Church and the Tuileries garden, where he spends the afternoon basking in the sunshine, reading "The Great Gatsby."  We have dinner together.

Me: "Are you looking forward to summer?"
Eitan: "It's almost half-way over."
Me: "I suppose you're right. I guess we have different perspectives on it."
Eitan:
Me: "Don't grow up kid."

So Sozy

We spend the afternoon with Dana and Nathan and their growing crew - photo on the top of Primrose Hill on a summer afternoon. Nathan returns from a stage of the Tour de France despite having a metal plate and screws in his shoulder following a biking accident three weeks ago. Dude is tough.

Me: "I've noticed you've been having your friends over more often."
Eitan: "Yeah, I guess."
Me: "No longer embarrassed?"
Eitan: "Well I'm still embarrassed but my friends think you and mom are pretty cool."
Me: "Oh?"
Eitan: "Yeah, you're liked 'what's up dude' " and mom is really friendly.
Me: "She bakes you chocolate chip cookies and begs you with ice cream."
Eitan: "Yeah."
Me: "Pleeease come to our house with your friends."
Eitan:
Me: "I'm so like mupload in my ish, sozy."
Eitan: "Huh?"
Me: " It's how teenagers talk these days."
Eitan: "Definitely not cool Dad."
Me: "That's so IDC"
Eitan:
Me: "I don't care."