Mmm gai

I'm sporting the worst overall haircut I've had in years. I don't know why it is I feel compelled to change my hairstyle when I move or travel somewhere new. When I traveled to Seoul last spring, I came back with a perm - it only took me 24 hours in Seoul for the fobby instict for permed hair to get into my system. Soon after arriving in Tokyo last fall, I straightened out that perm, but ended up with the most ridiculous looking short bangs which took about 5 months to grow out to normal length. And this time, just a couple days after arriving in HK, I felt compelled to change my hair slightly drastically - I've had long hair for such a long time now that I decided I wanted a long bob look - a little bit longer than shoulder length, super straight and slightly shorter in the back. I researched salons and settled on one in Central that caters to expats, has English-speaking, Western-trained stylists that received great reviews. I found a photo in one of their magazines of Jenny McCarthy a couple months back that had basically the haircut I wanted, except I wanted mine a couple inches longer. The stylist, a funky hip-looking Japanese guy (with great hair himself, which reassured me), told me he understood my request: "same style as picture, but longer." Yes, exactly.

I let him snip away and started reading magazines. I glanced up a few times and nothing seemed amiss. Until. I looked up and I saw chunks of short hair on the right side of my face. Seriously short chunks of hair in different layers. The shortest chunk of hair only came halfway down my ear. Wait a minute, I didn't ask for layers. I asked for a straight, sleek cut that's all one length but just a teeny bit gradually longer in the front. I made him stop and asked him why he was cutting parts of my hair so short and unevenly. He immediately got defensive and tried to explain that he was giving me the same haircut as the photo. I asked for a sleek long bob, I received basically a mullet on one side of my head. What the? WHAT??? Needless to say, a long argument ensued while I looked in the mirror and bit my lip trying not to burst into tears. A horrible haircut is like wearing an extremely ugly outfit EVERYDAY. His boss, an Australian guy who was way more professional, came out and tried to fix my hair the best that he could. But still, I have the worst haircut I've had in probably the last 10 years. Every time I look in the mirror, I get annoyed. *tear*

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One of the best things about HK is the access to a vast array of excellent Asian food for whatever price range you want. Among the more genius eateries here are fast food hotpot chains - for about $5-7, you order your own personal hotpot which comes with your choice of soup, meat and a generous array of vegetables and miscellaneous hotpot items. Today we went to a Japanese-inspired hotpot place that offered Hokkaido-milk broth as a choice, which El Hombre loved, but my favorite is a chain that offers a cilantro & preserved egg broth. A friend in Tokyo recently emailed me saying that food in Tokyo is better, but I respectfully have to disagree. It's true that Japanese food is infinitely better in Tokyo - no comparison. I think that after being spoiled with the quality of amazing Japanese food in Tokyo, I will never be satisfied with any Japanese food outside of Japan. And it's also true that Tokyo has a vast selection of excellent high end Michelin-starred French and Italian restaurants. But meals at those restaurants easily ran $100-250 per person - for that price, the meal better be excellent. So Japanese and high end French/Italian excepted, I think the food choices in HK are vastly superior to Tokyo. The problem with non-Japanese cuisine in Tokyo is that Japanese chefs almost always "dumb down" the authentic flavors of the foreign cuisine to make it more Japanese-palate friendly, which often means making it less spicy, less greasy, less flavorful, less satisfying. In HK, you can find authentic Thai, Indian, Korean, Vietnamese, American, British foods, in addition to the vastest selection of traditional and creative Chinese cuisine in the world. Gotta love it.

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I think I once described life in Tokyo as convenient, but when I compare to Hong Kong, I realize that life in Tokyo was only faux convenient. Sure, there are vending machines everywhere and subway trains are always on time. But the subway is also expensive and doesn't ever really take you where you want to go without transfers and always requires lots of walking through long corridors or up/down numerous flights of stairs or escalators. There are also no street names so giving directions to a restaurant always requires some crazy set of instructions, which is really inconvenient and quite frankly kind of stupid. The neighborhood numbering system is also entirely unhelpful because the number goes up based on how new the neighborhood is, so even if you find neighborhood 5 of a certain district, it doesn't meat neighborhood 6 is anywhere near it. When you think about it, Tokyo is extremely inconvenient with the facade of convenience. In contrast, although HK is crowded, muggy beyond belief and always smells like dried fish, it's actually truly convenient. Getting around is so cheap and easy - I love hopping on the tram, the MTR is fast and cheap, taxis are plentiful and also cheap and you can basically walk pretty much anywhere. Things are easy to find because there are clearly marked street names and a numbering system that actually makes sense. There are convenience stores and laundry places and noodle shops and shopping malls everywhere. Things in HK are not as orderly, clean or polite as Tokyo, but they are infinitely more convenient.