Preparing for Asia

The long-awaited business trip to Tokyo and Shanghai is growing near. This time next Sunday (Tokyo time), I'll be sitting in my hotel room after about 14 hours in the air. Lucky for me, my employer springs for business class seats for overseas travel, and puts us up in hotels I probably would not consider, if I were footing the bill.

The planning for the trip is tough. We'll be in three different hotels and taking a bullet train and a plane ride in between the flights to and fro, so I want to beware of overpacking. However, I do want to be comfortable and to bring as much 'home' as I can. So between packing my simple clothes, I'm also filling my iPod Nano with favorite tunes, my iPhone with familiar TV shows, and carrying several DVDs. Bought the third season of "Weeds," which will be my primary entertainment, along with the movie "Atonement," which I've wanted to see for a while. Mixed in with these, I'm bringing Part 3 of the Ken Burns "Baseball" series, "Bull Durham," and games 4 and 6 of the 2004 American League Championship Series. (Seeing a trend there, perhaps?) On the couple of times I was in Europe, I found myself longing to hear English being spoken, and I imagine it will be worse in Asia. So all of these comforts will sustain me, I have a feeling.

Another challenge is figuring out when I'll be able to catch Red Sox baseball while traveling and it appears that night games will be starting while I am getting ready for work most days. And the good buddies at "Surviving Grady" will take care of the rest - just reading game threads there is nearly as good as watching a game. Looking forward to taking a peek at Japanese or Chinese TV - wonder if there will be any English shows? I doubt it, unless CNN International is there? Don't know the answer to that one.

Food is another story. I like American-style Asian food, but I suspect the spices and cooking methods will be quite different. I've been practicing with chopsticks and think I can make my way through most meals ok. The plan is to steer clear of anything with eyeballs or feet still attached. To tell you the truth, I doubt whether I'll have much meat at all as I'm never sure exactly what it is...if you know what I mean? So, let's look at it this way - it will be a nice 12 day diet. And that wouldn't be a totally unwelcome occurrence.

Mostly, I want to survive the trip with no incidents: international or otherwise. My company takes good care of people when traveling abroad, so I am not worried about finances or health situations. Our colleagues in Asia will be great hosts and I'm just hoping I will have time, on occasion, to just relax and enjoy the hotel's bed.

Anyway, I hope to blog the trip, including pictures, so stay tuned (if you're interested).