8AM, woke up and figured we might as well check out the Tsukiji Fish Market which hauls in fresh fish everyday at 5AM. (You can bid on the fish against the store owners if you wake up early enough at 3AM to line up, you might get beaten up and fed to the fishes, so Caveat Emptor). Upon reaching there, it was packed. Packed with people and stores hauling in fresh fish and catches of the day. We settled on one hidden restaurant that served Don bowls which are selected fish served over rice. I had the chance to get the Salmon Bowl and it was definitely the best sashimi I have ever had. The market has many different variations of sushi and seafood if you're a fan. Part of traveling is eating different foods, so ... read more

20 hours later, I finally made it to the Royal Park Hotel in Tokyo. The 12.5 hour plane ride was pretty rough as I sat in the middle seat of the middle row between my friend and this spawn Satan of a child that couldn't sit still, kicked and punched everything that moved. No wonder her mother was nowhere to be found, she probably was like "Allison, you sit right here, but Mommy is in First Class cabin if you need me." It was about 11:30PM after getting out of the airport and we still had about a 30 minute train ride to get to the hotel. First thing that I noticed about Japan is how clean it is. There is absolutely zero trash on the streets, no overfilled trash cans, let alone gum stains on ... read more

Today was the last full day of the residential and it felt somewhat good to complete it on a good note. We had presentations in the morning and I went exploring in the inner city today and my Cantonese is terrible. I had to draw a map for strangers to point my back in the same direction. We only had one company visit today and that was Cathay Pacific. This company is an airline, but it also does commercial transport of freight. We got to walk around this 220,000 square meters site and there was so much logistics involved in a cargo site like this. They had a cold room where they would store perishable goods and I stood in a -20 degrees chamber for 30 seconds and it was awesome. Sorry, Cathay Pacific did not ... read more

6AM. The alarm rings and I cannot believe I have a 2 hour bus ride, We had two classmates that showed up late to the bus and they had to sing for us. I included their American Idol tryouts here. I apologize in advance, but the videos are sideways as the phone was held sideways. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0hM9G_NEc9JLUpTcFdFdGZQcTg/edit?usp=sharing GUN https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0hM9G_NEc9JOGw5YjRLeDdDWnM/edit?usp=sharing CLIFTON So we drove towards Shenzhen and we had to go through TWO immigration checkpoints. The Hong Kong side was all happy and loud, and as soon as you walk into the mainland China side, everything is organized, color oriented, quiet, and very strict. No smiles here and the officials went through each passport immaculately. NO PICTURES HERE. I was stopped at immigration because my middle name "K" appeared on the list and they did not like... read more

Today was the first day of school here in Hong Kong as I will be here for the next 7 days visiting companies, touring facilities, and trying not to eat everything in site. The day began at 9AM as all 45 students huddled into a conference room waiting to be debriefed of the day. We had 2 expats come and speak to us about Hong Kong history and opportunities, and it was strange. I had two NON-CHINESE people telling me how to live in Hong Kong and be able to "fit-in" this lifestyle. Its almost like asking Kim Kardashian how to be a model citizen. Or asking Dane Cook to be funny. Or Adele NOT to be whiny. Its just weird. Group meetings ended around 12PM and we headed to get Dim Sum. After Dim Sum, ... read more