Kraut_in_HongKong

Originally Posted By: Black Mountain It'll also be interesting to see how badly Brazil destroys North Korea... It was the other way round and Brazil got badly crushed.... But sure, with the manipulating western media you mind gets washed.... Now see the REAL news: http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/G7m4_KqJkF4/

Originally Posted By: KlingKlang Locked to Softbank. ...here goes that dream.... But thanks for pointing it out.

The iPhone 4 is also on my must have list. Are JP iPhones SIM-Locked? I know all US iPhones are (and ever will be). Hong Kong iPhones are all SIM-free, but the iPhone 4 comes only out here end of July and not sure it will be really SIM-free. Who knows?

Originally Posted By: klingon So just out of interest who eats those things? The water beetles are not that easy to find in China. I would say that only 1 in 10 seafood restaurants have them in Southern China, and only there. It's a Cantonese dish. The bee babies I am not sure. I saw it last time in a restaurant in Shenzhen. I would say many Chinese also don't touch them. Some even shudder at dog meat, which I find quite normal and tried before.

China has lots of stuff that is really out of question. One I tried was "bee larvae" (no taste at all) One I did NOT try was "Water Cockroach" , or 水曱甴 in Cantonese. Food rule in China is: Simple is best or more expensive = more disgusting

Originally Posted By: thursday semolina? wouldn't that make it pasta like. I never tried that. Have to say I am very happy with my crisp dough. Since I go for strong taste toppings (anchovies - yum!) I doubt the flour type will make a big taste difference. But I know this new little Italian food shop at Olympic 1 and I will get some flour there and give it a try before it goes bust. Originally Posted By: thursday pretty cool pizza oven. Actually mine is extremely simple - but works perfectly. If I had a bigger garden I would build a wood fired stone oven. Originally Posted

Originally Posted By: JA ....topped with a coating of cheese. I do: Tomato puree > Cheese (Mozzarella) > Toppings I have a special small pizza oven for it that makes a perfect pizza in a few Minutes.: Problem with normal ovens is that they don't bring the heat. 250ºC ain't really enough. A professional pizza oven goes up to 450ºC. What you can do as a workaround: Get a pizza stone (it's a must anyway!) Preheat the stone for at least 30 Minutes at full power Put the Pizza on the stone Switch oven to grill My dough is: 450g flour, 250ml Water, TS salt, 1/5TS

I played with it the day it came out in Hawaii. There was a line before 09:00am but everybody got one, and they were still available the next few days. For the Hong Kongs, I saw a 1000 yesterday in Mongkok. Played with it for some time. It is certainly cool to operate. Multitouch is amazing. Loved: Even as a non iPhone user could install the Chinese language input method in a moment. There was Japanese input method too. After that you had a special key on the softkeyboard to swap input methods. Surfing was easy too. Did not like: No USB, no Network. Hotels in China se

In the end stayed in the Airport for both ways. 2nd time was loaded with videos to watch. Didn't really felt like leaving the airport, changing money etc. Even though I checked with the ANA staff, which looked at me in great disbelieve and gave me plenty of reasons why I should not leave the airport. Have to add here that I had to go to the departure area first since I was given only a boarding pass for USA>Narita and knew I get the onward pass in the departure area. Really don't wanted to leave and not being able to enter again. Pity I saw your post late - and saw the WiFi access

BTW, does Yoshinoya serves dolphin? Was there with the kids and they said one item of the menu was dolphin. Didn't bother to investigate, kanji and hanzi are not necessarily the same anyway and maybe it was all an error. PS: We all had the usual beef bowl. I don't eat wild animals that are endangered. That includes tuna too.

I have to switch plane and will be stuck for 4 hours in Narita. Is there anything useful to do in close proximity? With that amount of time in Hong Kong there is i.e. Citygate Outlets, just a 5 Minute bus ride from the airport. (Sapporo as I remember has also a similar outlet near the airport). Anything near Narita?

Seen over the weekend: The Hurt Locker Very worthwhile watching if you are into that Iraq genre. A bit similar to "Generation Kill" (the TV series). Saw some trailers of "Alice in Wonderland". Actually planed to give it a miss. Wasn't aware it was a Tim Burton movie (really loved Beetlejuice). AiW is on my watch-2b list.

Rainbow Rental in Hakuba Echoland gave me a wrong boot-ski combination. The boot was too large for the binding and the rear binding wasn't properly locked in. In the shop it was still ok. Then we went from Nikayama to the top (well, McDonalds area) of happo and while sliding down somewhere in the middle of the hill my boot came lose. Tried to fix it, but worked only for 50 meters of slide. Had to walk down the last few Km to Saka lifts. Tried to fix it again in one of the rental shops. Still couldn't. Binding was simply not suitable for that boot. Took a bus back to Nikayama, then c

You mean ¥92,000 or ¥9,200 ? The first would be US$800 or so and should have a gym in your room.

Can't imagine to clean up .....

Sure, Alps has sometimes similar problems. I heard Whistler had weather problems too. Didn't meant it's a typical JP problem. Other quality places just a little out of reach. My plan would be just to book Tokyo (or Sapporo) and then decide on any ski place on short notice. I try to avoid weekends anyway, that makes transport and hotels easier. PS: Hokkaido must be stunning in summer too I guess.

I have no worries for you JP dudes, you can just look out of your window and go, or not go. But fur us 'tourists' it's really worrisome. We have to book tickets to JP way way in advance. Ok, you got a snow height that takes time to melt. But to ski in + temps is not really fun. I did a few times summer ski in the Alps, that's usually at plus temps. That's way different from winter-ski. If that warm trend goes on it would be really "Niseko bubble about to burst". And other places too.

Originally Posted By: dyna8800 You mean the kind of spray like they use at the bowling alley for rental shoes, right? Exactly! For sure you can buy it in Japan. I saw it. I guess the ski rental companies use it too.

GN, I guess that means management fees will be quite high?

I would still go the spray for now. It really works instantly. Before they go into spring/summer rest I would make sure they really dry out. Then put them in a sealed plastic bag with some silica gel or other sort of drying agent.

Is that a normal weather situation this year? The week before I went to Hakuba they had a peak +7°C for a day. When I was there it was around zero. Next seven days is up to +13ºC. Isn't that too warm for February? Seems I was really lucky.

Thanks for the feedback. Capella certainly looks nice from the leaflet pix. $1m is even not really expensive for an apartment here in Hong Kong. I wonder what the ROI is? I guess your apartment can be let when vacant and the management company takes care of everything (incl. a nice slice from whatever money comes in).

Originally Posted By: Nisoko Well put Mike. So how is the skiing in Bavaria then? I was in Balderschwang some years ago. A smaller resort and quite nice. Nothing agains Bavaria, but next time I would rather go to bigger resorts in Austria. Back to topic, I just had a flier in my letterbox for a development in Niseko, Capella Niseko, no prices on it. I guess too risky.

For checking price in Japan I use Kakaku dot com. They have a wintersport section too.