Time to Evacuate

We were up fairly early again, and fast-moving clouds were covering the city. I brought my rain jacket when we went for a walk. We had first walked toward the Kyoto Railway museum as I liked the idea that their gift shop might have a Shinkansen t-shirt that was also a character. Eyes, and nose, and a big smile, but ALSO a train. The Japanese sure do love characters . . . and so do I. Because we were up ungodly early again, the museum and store were still closed, so we walked to nearby Toji Temple instead.

As we walked around the complex, the clouds parted just enough to show a little bit of blue sky. And just a little bit. Within 30 minutes of these pictures being taken, it started to rain steadily.

And speaking of that rain . . . remember the typhoon I mentioned in the last post? Greg and I had a bit of a chat about our airport options, flight loads, and all the things that normal people don't have to worry about. Due to pending tropical storms and such, there was a good chance that flights were going to start getting canceled. That prospect was a bit concerning since the backlog on standby passengers would surely overwhelm the system and we could be stranded.

Our best bet, we decided was to take the train to Osaka-Kansai Airport, which was the closest. It was, unfortunately, also in direct line of Typhoon Cimaron.

After doing a bit of last minute shopping near the train station, we bought train tickets to Kansai airport. The lady selling the tickets warned us that we had to leave by 3:00pm because all remaining trains for the day were canceled due to the typhoon. That statement made it all seem a little bit more ominous and real. I'd been watching the weather radar pretty closely, and it was a slow-mover, so I had estimated it wouldn't reach land until about 10pm, five hours after our planned departure. The fact that there would be no trains after 3pm was a bit disconcerting to say the least.

After our hour and a half train ride to Kansai Airport, we breezed through security and emigration control with the efficiency that only the Japanese could deliver. Even the airport felt a bit muggy. We ate our last meal in Japan with a bit of sake on the side. It wasn't very good, but it is also possible that I just don't like sake.

Then we made our way to the gate where we were relying entirely on United's numbers being wrong. It technically showed oversold seats, but I convinced myself that this was a lie.

Maybe this was wishful thinking, but I felt it a better option than going all the way back to Tokyo, whose loads were marginal at best. That being said, if we didn't get on this United flight out of Kansai, we would be stuck...

Fortunately, we got cleared into business class seats and after we reached our cruising altitude, the Captain reported that they were close to canceling the flight. Evidently, winds had already accelerated to 75mph within 30 mins of our departure. Some nine hours later, we landed in San Francisco and then back home.

Shinkansen to Kyoto

Greg decided to get up and take pictures early in the morning. He banged around all his camera gear and tripped a few times to make sure I was also awake. While I attempted to get some rest, my body refused to fall back asleep. When he returned, we grabbed some breakfast from the 7-11 down below and decided to head to the train station. We hopped on a Shinkansen to Kyoto and were in a new city hundreds of miles away by 10am. We left our bags at the lobby of our hotel, and went to Fushimi Inari Shrine. You may recognize this better as the place with the rows and rows of red torii gates. Many other people knew this as well. In spite of the selection of pictures I am choosing to display on this blog, it was nearly impossible to get a picture without someone's appendage sneaking into the the frame. We had to be quick.

Note the arm creeping into frame. People really do ruin everything. And yes, I understand I am part of the problem.










We hiked quite a ways up the mountain before electing to turn around. The heat was quite oppressive with humidity to match. The weather patterns in Japan have been very unusual this summer, with a record-breaking heat wave claiming human lives. There are a pair of typhoons moving in on the Japanese mainland bringing unstable tropical air, which has not aided the mugginess. If there is any bright spot, Japan has plenty of vending machines, even at the shrine, so we could try and stay hydrated.

We returned to our hotel to complete check-in. We are staying right at the train station, which is like its very own city. Not only is it the massive above-ground facility you see here, but it extends well under ground with an entire subterranean complex of food stores, restaurants, and shops which ultimately branch under the surrounding streets and connect to other massive department stores and shopping complexes. It's really quite an impressive engineering feat.

We ate at the top of the train station, where we had a sort of katsu chicken and rice dish. The gentleman sitting next to us explained, in detail, how we were eating the dish completely wrong. We were to crush the sesame seeds in a bowl with a special wooden muddler of sorts. Then we were to pour the tonkatsu sauce over the crushed sesame. The rice was to go in its own bowl. Basically, everything was supposed to be separated and organized. I had made the egregious error of wanting to mix everything together like a Hawaiian plate lunch, which brought a bit of a laugh from the gentleman sitting next to us. I wish I had pictures or video of this exchange, but I was too embarrassed -- hiding in shame like a Japanese schoolboy.

After lunch, we took a long walk to Kiyomizu-Dera Temple. You see, while the Kyoto train station is really impressive as a structure, it is a bit lacking in its actual rail network around the city, so I brought Greg, a fragile, and fair-skinned individual on a sort of trail of tears under the afternoon sun.

We never actually went in to the physical temple itself because it was under massive scaffolding and renovation, so we hung out on the outside and awaited sunset from our elevated position on the hillside. Misters spritzed a bit of water from a nearby shelter, but it all seemed to evaporate before reaching my body. As the sun disappeared behind the horizon, Greg and I started walking down the narrow pedestrian streets and encountered another pagoda shortly thereafter.

The pagoda was part of Hokanji Temple, and as we raised our cameras to try and capture it, 20 people in our vicinity decided to stop and do the same thing. Such is life...

We enjoyed our walk through the old areas of the city. Sorry. I enjoyed the walk. Greg was suffering from blisters, and all sorts of ailments. He was limping along behind me like a whale struck by a harpoon. To ensure he didn't end up as sashimi in Tsukiji, I hailed a taxi to take us back to the station.

Romping around Tokyo

As is pretty standard with large changes in time zones and traveling, Greg and I were up at 5am. Most things didn't open until 10. We first walked through the periphery of the Tsukiji Fish Market. Each time I come, the restrictions become more and more strict on this famous market. I guess tourists such as ourselves are ruining the whole experience by standing in the way in the narrow aisles and slowing down the sale of fish with our cameras and instagram selfies with giant fish.

By now, things were starting to open, so we went to the Edo-Tokyo Museum. It covers a lot of history and has a lot of life-size structures to liven up the aforementioned history. Things got interesting in the 20th century. There was a temporary exhibit of photographs from the last 150 years. Naturally, this covered World War Two, and what was fascinating was not just the complete destruction of the city of Tokyo, but the fast pace at which it was rebuilt.

One thing I have learned about Japan in the 30s and 40s, is that they have a selective acknowledgement of world events. Unlike Germany, which has grappled with its dark past head on, Japan acts more embarrassed while at the same time denying through omission. The museum, for its part, did acknowledge the war and made light of poor tactical decisions on the Japanese side that led to so many deaths during the firebombing of Tokyo, but it fell short of really explaining the root causes of all these horrific events.

After the museum, we walked to the Akihabara, or electronics district. One of Greg's "must-sees" was Yodobashi Camera, which is not just a camera store, but a massive complex of anything electronic covering over 8 floors with anything from refrigerators to rice cookers, video games, cell phone cases, and Star Wars toys. Greg was having great debate over whether to buy a particular camera lens or not. He would save over $100 by buying it in Japan, but we had to weigh the pros and cons over a couple of beers and okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake with various stuffings). We ate at the top of Yodobashi after narrowing our choice down from the 20+ options of different restaurants. This setup is pretty common in Japan with self-contained shopping centers. And if the anticipation isn't killing you, Greg did decide to buy the lens. He was very happy.





We returned to the hotel and then proceeded to take some pictures at night from a nearby pedestrian overpass. Below is the outcome of that venture.

For our final act of the evening, I took Greg to Shibuya crossing, the busiest crosswalk in the world. I tried to get us an elevated view of the intersection, so I went into a multi-level shopping center in hopes of finding a cafe or restaurant overlooking the street. We had overpriced beers and parfait on the 8th floor of the building while watching the streets below. Then, after our unfortunately high bill, we discovered that there was an actual viewing platform on the roof that usually charges, but for whatever reason was now free. Oh well...I shall keep this in mind for next time.

Japan Again

Those in the know may be aware to the fact that I am fixing to be wed in a few months. As is customary with such events, I embarked on a so-called "Bachelor Party" to Japan. Super cliche, I know. I was originally thinking Scotland, but they seem to have a problem with midges and throngs of tourists this time of year. Thusly, I embarked from LAX to Narita with the gentleman in the blue shirt sitting behind me. He weaseled his way into United business class and insisted on following me through customs and would not leave me for the rest of the trip.

The gentleman in blue, whom we shall henceforth refer to as "Greg," remarked that he was very happy with the ubiquity of bathrooms in Japan as well as their overall cleanliness. These are things that are very important to him. While searching for an ATM, we were interviewed by a Japanese TV station and asked why we came to Japan. I did a bit of research on this, and apparently it's an ongoing segment every Monday.

They were intrigued with me because this was my fourth visit. When asked why I keep coming back, I said because people are very respectful, friendly, and I like all the buttons on their toilets. I'm not sure if something got lost in translation because it didn't elicit the chuckles I had hoped for.


We arrived at our hotel in Tokyo sometime  around 4:00pm. While "Greg" claimed he slept a lot on the plane, I did not. That being said, we set out to do a bit of exploring. We took the subway to Shinjuku to look at all the lights and take in the chaos.

From Shinjuku, we walked all the way to the Tokyo Tower, which is not particularly close, but we didn't also want to deal with rush hour in Tokyo and getting pushed with white gloves into a subway. We eventually got there, and it was a fairly calm walk once we got out of Shinjuku at least. We ate crepes underneath it. It was a complete pseudo French experience with Japanese crepes being eaten under an Eiffel Tower imposter.

We eventually made our way to a subway stop and headed back to Ginza, where our hotel is located. I had been awake for about . . . I don't know. I've been awake too long to do math. Until tomorrow...

New Trip to Asia

As a result of my training over the summer and Nicole's work on the set of Homeland this fall, we had not gone away on a real trip in some time. And that, of course, is if you disregard New York, DC, New Jersey, Richmond, Denver, Florida, and Houston. We had initially had our eyes on a United flight out of San Francisco that would have gone direct to Seoul to start our trip, but for some reason everyone is traveling right now. It would have been a challenge to even get on the flight, much less get business class. We were then settling on Delta, but noticed that elite customers were using upgrades to take the few remaining business class seats. With limited options remaining, we took American to Haneda airport in Tokyo and used miles to take us from there to Seoul. All of this would be in coach. As we had to remind ourselves, there was a time when each of us only flew coach, and it cost a lot of money to do that. More than $1.30 anyway.

What separates this from previous trips is the general lack of planning. We left LAX without a hotel to spend the night at. We only have a general idea of where we'd like to be and when. After a couple days in Korea, we will continue to Beijing, then Hong Kong, and finally Taiwan. I used the airline wifi to book a hotel when we were somewhere over the Pacific. This is all in the interest of flexibility, but there's something to be said about knowing where you'll be and when that probably calms the nerves. Perhaps this is why people do tours...

Around the World in 14 Days

Yes, I had already fashioned a blog post to close out the end of my around the world trip, but since I have lots of time at hotels on my current work trip, I'd like to do another with a different tone. My previous one was a bit snarky, even for me. I will attempt to make this one more traditionally reflective on our actual trip.

It's almost hard to believe at this point, but our journey encountered its first stop in Tokyo. We kept commenting on how it felt like we were in familiar territory. Yes, familiar because we had been there before. We recognized streets, subway stops, knew where to find Starbucks and sandwich places when we got sick of ramen and miso. And this "familiarity" is somewhat shocking. We know virtually no Japanese. We cannot read any text. I had to use a google translate app to figure out how to do simple tasks like changing the settings on the washer/dryer in our hotel room. As I've probably said in the past, Japan is this crazy mix of western comforts combined with just absolute confusion. You cannot simulate this experience anywhere else. There is this simultaneous feeling of hopelessness and relaxation. Not being able to communicate effectively is a huge issue, but the Japanese people are some of the warmest, friendliest, and helpful people I have ever met in my life.


This is an important distinction because we were about to go to a country that would really not be any of these things. Ah, India. It has been described as a feast for all the senses. Lots of horns. Lots of interesting odors. Bright vibrant colors. Smartly dressed men and women walk in front of crumbling buildings. Our welcome was not especially warm. It seemed that everywhere we went, we were treated like morons. My parents had once told me that Indians were extremely friendly. I would be lying if I said I had the same experience.

It goes without saying that the cultural chasm between India and the United States is vast. This is why Nicole and Uma's movie proposal is such an intriguing idea. The separation of men and women in security lines, movie theaters, mall entrances, or in other aspects of life was a bit jarring to us. But that's the way it is. Maybe you have to look at India the way you look at the operations at Newark Airport. People are yelling at you and telling you conflicting instructions that make no sense. "Why?," you protest. That's just the way it is. Did you know the U.S. is one of the only countries in the world to still require the removal of shoes?  I could see visitors or non flyers getting into a line and wondering, "Why the hell am I doing this? This makes no sense." Yep. That's the feeling you get in India. When visiting our friend, Uma, her mom graciously prepared us a hearty meal of rice and curry with beets. We ate entirely with our right hand. They were aware that this is not our normal procedure and offered us spoons, but we declined. We were here to experience India, not Epcot.

Yet despite Uma's awareness of our cultural differences, we quickly became aware that there were many things that separated our cultures. On at least three different occasions (that we're aware of), people asked Uma if Nicole and I were a proper couple...as in married. The driver, people on the street, men in shops, it didn't matter. It is evidently frowned upon to be dating, much less galavanting around the world with some floozy. No wonder the hotel staff were so rude when discovering not only did we have different last names, but in some cases Nicole, a woman, had actually booked and paid for the hotel. Scandalous. That's just the way it is. Walking around Uma's neighborhood, a lady stopped to ask Uma some questions. It wasn't, "Who are your friends?, How's your movie?, What have you been up to lately?" It was immediately about my marriage status with Nicole. Uma said we were engaged (a lie, so don't get excited Mom and Dad). Then they asked when the marriage is. Soon? People in the south were more friendly, but within the confines of what they thought was appropriate. Americans might find it all a bit . . . intrusive.

Nicole and I being a bit more progressive-minded found this all a bit jarring. What does it matter if we're married or not? Why doesn't anyone date? What's the point in getting married if you barely know someone? We had lots of questions, but we were the radicals in this country. The newspapers we read were saturated with stories of rape and victim shaming. While not immune to this in the United States, it seems to be an epidemic in India. It makes me wonder if this culture of getting married quick has indirectly led to some of these problems. If it opened up a bit to encourage dating, might we see fewer sexual assaults? I would compare it to Catholic priests in the U.S. They are embroiled in decades-long sex scandals. Perhaps we should have let them date as well? More mixers with the nuns? Maybe they would have those most basic of human needs met. Who knows. Our time in India was brief, but we learned a lot in just a few short days. I think it would take a lifetime to try and make sense of it all. And that goes the other way too. Ask the man who ran up to Nicole just to stare at her.

But now we were off to nearby Sri Lanka. It was less than an hour flight from Cochin Airport; and perhaps in my mind I was expecting to find a landscape similar to the one I had just left. It was not. Cranes and skyscrapers towered over Colombo's skyline. Cars were staying in their lanes on the new highway that connects the airport with downtown Colombo. The hotel staff treated us with respect and did not act surprised when they realized Nicole had made the booking. Nobody ever really talks about going on vacation to Sri Lanka, but they certainly seemed a lot better prepared in the tourism and hospitality industry. As far as tourism goes, Nicole and I were part of the tip of the spear as far as American tourists go. British and French tourists have been coming for some time, and the industry is expected to take off judging by all the development in and around Colombo. The next day we set off for Galle, a beach area to the south of Colombo by using the second of two highways that exist in Sri Lanka. It too had all the trappings of a modern resort area.

But as we worked our way away from the coast, the landscape began to change. No more highways. Journeys that would take less than an hour and a half in the U.S. took almost five. Traffic rules became vague. Tourists became fewer. The terrain transformed into cinematic landscapes of mist-draped green mountains and high plateaus. Due to time constraints, we couldn't stay anywhere for long, so it seemed we spent most of our time eating peanut butter crackers and fruit snacks in the backseat of a small Suzuki hatchback.

It was not the most ideal way to experience a country, but luckily we were rewarded at each stop with a very memorable and unique experience, even if getting there was a bit stressful. It certainly gave us perspective on patience and what constitutes a long drive. Back in April I drove 350 miles from New Orleans to Houston without stopping and it took the same amount of time as it did to drive the 100 miles from Galle to Ella. The whole country is only about the size of South Carolina, so the prospect of an infrastructure overhaul is not unrealistic.

These changes are already taking place at a fast rate and I wonder what effects the development will have upon the culture, especially in the smaller towns. This could result in easier connections to goods and services, but perhaps not everyone is ready for that. As we've seen with the Brexit vote and the election of Trump, many people would prefer to disengage from the outside world.  I'd be curious to know what people think of the rise in tourism. It's certainly a moneymaker, but it could also lead to overdevelopment.

Sri Lanka's civil war is still fresh, having ended less than a decade ago. Even Isuru said it was unrecognizable when he returned from flight training. It's the same reaction that journalists I interviewed had when they returned to Vietnam after just a few years. And just as I observed there, Sri Lanka is quickly becoming a land of contradictions, old and new. Isuru was kind enough to pick us up from the airport in a nice Audi and deposited us at a fancy hotel with an infinity pool, but the following day we had to give way to a cow crossing the road. The country is growing very fast, but it will have some growing pains.

Enrique Iglesias performed there recently and it caused quite a stir with the president himself voicing his opinion on the "uncivilized women" who threw their bras at the stage. He further suggested the promoters should be beaten with poisonous stingray tails. It's a bit of predicament when you have a modern pop singer performing club songs in a country where people still catch fish from stilts. There are certainly two very different Sri Lankas, and it will be interesting to see how they interact over the coming decade.

When we finally arrived in Vienna, it became surreal. Where we had been enjoying a beer outside by the beach the day before, we were now huddling inside a tavern drinking dunkel and trying to stay warm. We observed efficiency we had not been used to for some time. An express train took us from the airport to the heart of the city in less than 15 minutes. We had returned to our "comfort zone" and quickly ordered meat. The bookends of our trip, one east, one west, were like our safety zones. Everything in between was very . . . well, foreign.

But as I mentioned in my previous blog post, you have to get out of your comfort zone to gain perspective. You don't reap any of the rewards of new and exciting places if you never go. Sure, there are some challenges. Can I eat this? Do you think there's tap water in that juice? Why is it green? Why does the city smell like it's on fire? But you also have the unique opportunity to be part of something that few others have enjoyed. We saw elephants in the wild, ate with our hands, slept under mosquito netting, gazed at one of the wonders of the world, and huddled next to a thousand year old buddha while it rained. It was all pretty incredible and an experience that neither of us could replicate any time soon. We may have flown around the world, but we have only just scratched its surface.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

The temperature seems to be dropping every minute we stay in Japan, particularly after the sun goes down.

We first took the subway up to Akihabara this morning to check out the Sega building for some fun games. We basically arrived at rope drop (10:00) and could have had our pick of anything including a new version of some game called After School Audition, which appeared to be some kind of DDR dance game type thing with school girls as characters. Whereas Americans queue to catch a glimpse of the latest Battlefield or Call of Duty games, the Japanese seem to favor fantasy and dancing. In any event, Nicole and I didn't play anything. Nicole was still bitter about being foiled with the crane games during her last visit. #rigged #blamerussia
After Sega, we checked out lenses and cameras at Yodobashi Camera, but came out empty handed. There was a compact digital camera that Nicole liked, but discovered the menus were only available in Japanese.

After Akihabara, we continued to the Yasukuni shrine, a site famous (or infamous) for its political controversies. To summarize quickly, it is a shrine dedicated to the spirits (kami) of Japanese war dead, particularly those from WWII. Numerous Japanese prime ministers have visited the site to honor these war dead, which is seen as a slap in the face to China and Korea, who suffered war crimes and other atrocities under Japanese occupation. We briefly set foot inside the Yushukan museum next to the shrine, but didn't get past the lobby. Like many sites referencing the war in Japan, there's a bit of revisionism -- without taking any responsibility for the war or acknowledging the consequences of their actions. In the brochure I picked up, it mentioned the small Ohka jet aircraft that was used by Japanese pilots to attack American vessels. Nowhere is it mentioned that this was purely a suicide aircraft flown by kamikazes, but sometimes the details just aren't important . . .

Later in the evening, we walked through the Shiodome subway stop to see these christmas lights and then continued on to Akabanebashi to see the Tokyo Tower, which was also supposed to have a display starting at 730p, so we went to look for dinner first. Nicole had a hankering for pizza, so we had a place picked out, but despite the available tables and chairs, we were told by the host that because we didn't have a reservation, we couldn't be seated. This is because Italians are, by nature, quite lazy and do not want to do any more work than they have to.


We killed some time and returned to the subway stop just to stay warm until it approached 730. For whatever reason, the winter display on the Tokyo Tower is a single heart that lights up on the side of the observation deck. I guess it is a sort of tradition for couples to visit the base of the tower when the lights shut off at midnight as it is considered good luck and eternal happiness to witness this event. But in the winter, one only has to stay up to 730pm, to see the lights turned off and the heart lit up. We then had pizza at a restaurant next to our hotel since we could no longer handle the cold. And that is that.

Dinner Time

Thanks to our lack of skills with the Japanese language, it took us a while to find a place to eat. There were numerous restaurants in the area, but we didn't want to go into one that was filled to the brim and with a line out the door, since it was actually quite cold outside. Most of the menus were entirely in Japanese with few pictures to fill in the gaps. We were about to go downstairs into one when a man emerged and a confused exchange took place. There was some kind of miscommunication and he was instructing us to go to the restaurant upstairs, which was a completely different establishment with completely different menu. Eventually we found a place whose name was entirely in Japanese, but they had one sentence in english claiming to have an english menu. After another confused exchange we were sat down at a booth that was encaged in its own sort of room. Also, when I was trying to shuffle around the sliding door to sit across from Nicole within the semi-enclosed room, it appeared that I was being instructed not to do this and to sit next to Nicole instead.

We became those people who stare at an empty booth across from them while they awkwardly eat their food. Nicole ordered buckwheat noodles and I got beef ramen. We both at least put a decent dent in our food. After a while, the unique Japanese flavors that pervade all taste and smell in this country reached an apex for our American taste buds. Fortunately we each had a Kirin to wash it down. After our dinner, we briskly walked back to the hotel to warm up. Nicole casually pointed out a few Italian restaurants on the way back. Perhaps she is trying to hint at something . . .

*Burp* Oh, hmm. Tastes like miso.

Something Fishy Going On

Due to jetlag and the time zone difference, we had no difficulty in being out the door by 6am. We walked to the Tsukiji fish market, which is a massive complex where fishermen show up to auction off giant tuna, octopus, or anything else found in the sea. It was supposed to have shut down last spring, but it's still ticking due to logistical issues with the proposed new location. Since I was here back in 2001, the rules have somewhat changed. The public is no longer allowed onto the premises until 10am, so we were a bit early. We walked around Ginza and back to the hotel where we napped and tried again.



As you can see from my video, it's a bit congested, even after all the auctions have taken place. I can understand why they wouldn't want just any person roaming around and taking up space when everyone is trying to work.

We returned to Ginza to look for a christmas ornament. We are attempting to find an ornament from every place we visit together and we missed out on Japan last time. Luckily we are ridiculous people and are back in the same year. One of the main streets in the Ginza district was closed off to cars, so it was a bit more relaxing than dodging bikes and carts inside the fish market.

Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful with the ornament hunting. We did see some, but there was nothing distinctly Japanese about them. In fact one of them had the stars and stripes on it. No good. I ate some sort of chicken katsu-esque thing from 7-11 for lunch and then we checked out the Sony building.

Sony had redesigned the exhibits since our May visit as a sort of history museum starting in the 1940s. As we progressed through time, we saw betamax tapes, walkmans, discmans, digital cameras that recorded to 3.5" diskettes, and this little gem here -- the Sony airboard. It was in the Sony showroom during my visit back in 2001 as the next big thing, a portable TV for businessmen or students. So, it was interesting to see it displayed again as a piece of Sony's history.

Then we began the slow walk back to our hotel. Our progress, however, was foiled by a protest and counter-protest taking place on the streets. Not knowing any Japanese, we were at a loss to try and figure out who we would be more likely to support. One group was all elderly folk, who presumably had more conservative ideals. Across the street was a group of young people waving imperial Japanese flags, so who knows.

Not knowing the language is difficult. The protests could have been about anything from concerns about pensions to blaming Mexicans for stealing jobs. Either scenario is equally as likely given my knowledge of the Japanese language.

Now we are going to try to find a good ramen place for dinner. There are probably 500 within a mile of our hotel, so it shouldn't be too difficult. What will be difficult is adapting to is the business culture of eating rapidly and bolting. The idea of loitering in a restaurant or cafe is more an American or European idea. Ready set eat!