Law, Partially

Ambitions to write entries in every city have crashed. Entries by region? Failed. As we wind down the first half of the trip and leave Italy for points west, maybe I can succeed in documenting our adventure by country. If India travelled to France, Italy would result. Just like India, Italy is even jammed onto the southside of a continent. And just like in India, we enjoyed our adventure, though some days we were dirty and tired of it, and just like in France, we ate very well and went to museums. In Florence I felt like I was in India, often walking in streets (few practical sidewalks), along with cars driven by the unsympathetic, breathing in exhaust fumes, amidst crumbling old buildings and throngs of people. India is of course more crowded, dirtier, and poorer, but sewer smells often linger in those medieval Italian city centers as they do in India's more crowded neighborhoods. Like in India, sometimes I'm amazed that Italy works at all. But it works, and it is a great ...

I always wondered why Travis Bickel so casually ordered cheese with his apple pie in a New York diner as if it was a common order. Now I understand a little bit more. http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/cheese-apple-pie?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=atlas-page

We have one week in London to find an apartment before I start work again on 5 June (this is where I'd put a frowny face if that was a thing I did). My firm arranged for us temporary accommodations and a real estate agent to find a more permanent abode. Outside of the two days we spent with our real estate agent, we made some tepid explorations of London. We've been to Chinatown twice to scout restaurants. There is a Singaporean restaurant there, but sadly it is closed presently for some remodeling. Chinatown is lodged in the West End amidst many theaters and between Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square, so it is very well-touristed, overrun in fact with people walking at a slow clip. It is actually a very "expensive" part of town, nearby a number of high end residential and retail districts, but it is so crowded, who would want to live there? As Bobby is now quite an accomplished crawler, we took him to the Tate Modern, which has a huge open floor in its atrium...

Why do we (or anyone) travel? For Christine and me, we are just trying to satiate our curiosity. Making comparisons between places across time provides a method of organizing the knowledge accumulated during travel adventures. I was shocked and impressed to hear that the Quad Cities have a distinctive pizza style . The Quad Cities lie on the route just between Chicago and Cedar Rapids. Christine and I travel through there regularly on our frequent trips to the Linge homeland. Eating pizza while on the road is a bit tough. Pizza takes a while to bake, and we're usually too excited to arrive at our destination to wait for pizza. In addition, pizza is a heavy food that as a matter of tradition I tend to overeat. I'm usually sleepy while driving and become even more tired after eating, especially overeating. It's a shame we never tried Quad Cities pizza before because it is one of the best pizza styles in the U.S. We visited Harris Pizza in Bettendorf on Saturday. Quad ...

In Japan, raw fish and rice taste better, on average, than in the US, so trips to Japan must involve as much sushi consumption as possible. Owing perhaps to their training or the tacit cultural nous that may explain much of Japan, Japanese sushi chefs exhibit a surprising amount of control over the supply chain that sees a slice of raw fish stuck atop a oblong block of sticky rice. Compared to the US, the markets in Japan offer greater rice and fish options (because demand is just so huge), and chefs often have specialized for longer in the art of sushi (sushi chef is a career rather than a job). See Jiro Dreams of Sushi , again, to see the importance of rice and fish control to elevating sushi. The degrees by which some sushi is better than others are subtle, and I am certain my palate lacks the sophistication to distinguish among the best. But when you eat good sushi, your brain becomes dosed with the good chemicals. You are happy. Sushi can be very good in the US, but you will l...

Christine and I have shared a love affair with Tokyo since visiting for the first time in 2012. I also studied Japanese law and the economy during graduate school. Growing up in suburban environs, we must be attracted to the hyper urbanity of Tokyo. While in downtown Chicago it is not uncommon to find a vacant lot (or many), in Tokyo you will find no space wasted. Sometimes, the cramped confines of homes and service establishments seem almost indulgent -- why not just make it a little bigger, man? But this urban space is therefore packed with maximum human life. random Tokyo street at night Some cities may be denser -- Mumbai comes to mind -- but these cities are often in the developing world and lack the order and service offerings of middle class Tokyo. Tokyo has very little crime, the streets are clean, the food is good, transportation is reliable (just stay off the subway during rush hour), the people are unfailingly nice and polite, the food and drink are good, even the sh...

Visiting Singapore means for us a lot of visiting with friends and family. With less than one week left in country, time was running out to see everyone. We were going to need to eat a lot of food and take a lot of bus, subway, and Uber rides, but we were committed. On Saturday we went to a Chen family dinner party. On Sunday we ate dim sum in an old school restaurant with an old friend. On Monday I drank craft beer, talked to ang mohs (white people), ate curry, and still made it home in time to put Bobby to bed. Along the way, I engaged in one of my hobbies: spying traces of an older Singapore. Sometimes it's hard to find such artifacts because this island is always tearing down and building new. Chen party Christine's cousin, Justin, hosted us on Saturday for dinner. Justin and I are buddies because we both stayed at the Chen household back in 2011 and 2012. He was saving up some money before striking off on his own by staying with his mom's brother, Mr. Chen. I was s...

How great does five weeks in Singapore sound? So exciting, traveling to faraway lands, trying new foods, going new places, meeting new people. It does sound pretty good, and maybe someday we will go on such a five week adventure. Since we arrived on March 3 in Singapore, Christine has been working, and I've been sharing nanny duties with Bobby's grandparents. Christine's parents live in the suburbs, so when you exit the front door, it doesn't exactly look like this: view of downtown Singapore from offshore These three towers of Marina Bay Sands have become the most recognizable image of Singapore. Unfortunately, their image does a disservice to foreigners who may be curious about Singapore. Inside the towers are a luxury hotel, luxury restaurants, and a casino. It's really designed for super rich foreigners. Although I'm not a super rich foreigner, I could be there with a 45 minute train and bus ride. Alas, I am not likely to do that. There are a lot of ...