Vacation trips to far away places, are generally not appreciated as much until you are no longer there.
Family trip to Japan was definitely memorable, but I think not as much fun as everyone had expected. Probably didn’t help to go just before winter, as alot of things were not open at normal times, but was definitely worth the trip. Probably the two biggest disappointments were the small (and therefore mostly unavailable) size of the ramen shops, and forgetting that most of the items that the kids were interested in (toy wise) were not going to work back at home. The sushi and sashimi were fantastic, and was definitely challenging to find food after the first week of trying different culinary stops. The Tsukiji market was really interesting to see, yet a bit dangerous, especially with younger children. There were lots of sites to see even in the middle of the cities, such as aquariums, and gardens. Unfortunately the gardens were pretty barren due to the time of season we were visiting, but still quite nice, and in some cases very large. It was always quite interesting that no matter that the building was a skyscraper, valuable office space was utilized to create atriums, or other non-office areas. People everywhere, no matter what time, and all very nice. Despite the number of people and shopping areas, I rarely saw a anti-theft security device, or in a lot of a cases … a trash can. Yet, despite the lack of trash recepticals there was very little (if any at all) litter. It would be good to get more out of the larger cities and more out to the country (which I’m sure would pose other challenges) on the next trip. One of the unexpected occurrences was experienced at dinner time. There seemed to be a very large abundance of hamburger-like and spaghetti-like shops around. These are places that serve a hamburger looking dish of various varieties, or a spaghetti place that served something close but not exactly unlike spagetti (didn’t actually try it, was too chicken). There was only one bad experience (for me) on the Japan trip; tamago kake gohan … this has to be the worst dish I have ever had. Basically the maguro on top was great, but the extremely slimy raw egg mixed rice below is the first food item to ever surpass uni as my least favorite Japanese food. Overall it was a good trip for the adults, but we’ll have to see how eager the kids are to go the next time around. As per my youngest son, “Are we walking today again?”…
We all get those emails about friends or co-workers starting up new businesses, but very seldom truthfully is it all that interesting. It could be a business to business type setup which isn’t that appealing at the consumer level, or it could just be something that isn’t really all that great. Fortunately there are those seldom seen occasions where an actual product emerges, and doesn’t hold merit only due to personal familiarity. First of all Kudos to Cyndi and her family for the bravery to put forth such a novel and creative idea, and working so hard to bring it all the way to market. Yubo is a great idea, and everything from the live presentation and spot on examples (who doesn’t have a kid who leaves stuff in the lunchbox over the weekend?) to a colorful and professional website. It’s always amazing and refreshing to see innovation at work, and hopefully we’ll also get to see it’s success. Congratulations Cyndi and all the success to you and your great new product! Jump to www.getyubo.com
