a day in the life of piano monkey

eating while travelling is quite a topic. it is exciting, and sometimes downright sketchy/dangerous. haha. since i came back, ive been cooking. i realize that even at grocery shops, i was buying cooking materials than ready-to-eat-things.  as an extension of cooking my dinner at 10pm in toronto school days, i do take much joy in making food for myself and others. it's nothing fancy but i like it, and it tends to be good for my system (certain element repetition makes it easier for body to work with it). when i thought of being away for 40~ days, one of the first thoughts were: crap, what am i going to eat. i do enjoy the variety and the wealth of choices for food when im travelling. yes, it is one of the big joys of being away.  however, it can be quite tiresome- all that sugar, salt and fat, all the time.  especially in commercial, quick food.  as nice as it is to eat out 'quality' food at a great restos, it is simply not feasible (budget-wise and mentally). and

whenever i get to a new place, people were asking how i would find it.  and funny enough, the answers i had were probably unexpected... it usually involved the ambient sound and smells.  you see, with the globalization and the hyper-focus on visualization of EVERYTHING, we are almost too used to the images.  well, i am.  for instance, when i was at the shibuya crossing, it felt a bit weird- like ive been there before. but of course, ive been there before, through countless screens, many times. perhaps ive seen it more often than i have seen the middle of high park in toronto. so what i remember is the information that was never on those images- the smells, the slight air movement, the energy of the crowd. shibuya was fairly quiet for its density, though the wind never really stopped. the smell of transport exhaust and the slightly damp ground hit me right on the face as i got out of the subway stop.  similar thing in hong kong.  i landed in hongkong in early afternoon of thur

hullo blog, it's been a good awhile... during the semester, it felt a bit too crowded to write anything, and during travel, it felt a bit too crazy to write anything. but as i, fortunately and thankfully, am back in chinley hermitdom, it would be nice to unfurl the thoughts from last few weeks. i left toronto, then scuttled through vancouver, japan, south korea, hong kong, macau, then finally to uk (for now). it's a nice point of pause. during those steps, i met my 40th birthday, and it was a rather a nice feeling- that it was good, and it will continue to be good, whatever 'it' may be.  i saw many things and it's almost too much to process as things went on.  perhaps the best way to do this is to start somewhere- and then it will go however as it needs to. for minimalist-life-style-strivers, it would be a great practice to backpack for awhile, and stay at little rabbit-hutch hostels. with a big and small backpack (may be total of 35L?), i had enough stuff to