Hong Kong Or Not?

I have previously said that I would move to Hong Kong if the right opportunity came around. I still feel that way. Yet, I have never been to Hong Kong and do not have a trip planned in the immediate future. Tokyo, although I’ve never been there, is somewhere where I think I could do fine given [...]

100 Days of Hanna

This week marks the 100th day since Hanna was born. I am happy to say that she is doing well. She is grabbing her toys now, is finally laughing, and is close to rolling over consistently. She sleeps well too, which is a huge help. It’s getting her to bed that is sometimes tricky. Her [...]

Hashimoto Ni Mei Sama . . .

Of all of the summer jobs I had the best was during the summer of 2001. As if being a college student in Hawaii, as I was at that time, was not good enough, I had a job that many people could only dream of in college. I worked for the largest paid-tourist attraction in the [...]

At The Speed of Technology

I am amazed at how quickly technology has changed in my lifetime. This past weekend I was required to come into work to complete a project that had to be finished by Monday. Part of the initial groundwork was to review documents that were finalized in the late 1990s. In my mind, the late 1990s is not that [...]

Points of View

It’s interesting how two people can have such various opinions on the same thing. Here’s an example. In my office I have a watercolor painting of the old skyscrapers of lower Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge as seen from Brooklyn. I didn’t buy the painting, I merely claimed it for my office because it was [...]

Japan On My Mind

It is often said that to find what will be satisfying to you as a career, think about how you spend your free time. In doing so, I found that much of my free time – from the books I read to the news I follow to sometimes even the music I listen to – [...]

Soon The World May Be Ours

Our house hunting may have to be put on hold for a little while. Not only have mortgage interest rates gone up, but banks and other lenders are now more careful as to who they loan money to. We have good credit, but without a large chunk of money for the down payment, it may [...]

On The Floor

I will never forget the time I spent half a day on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Prior to September 11, 2001, the second-floor gallery was open for visitors to observe the madness of the Exchange during the business day.  But tours have not been available for almost six years. And even when [...]

Nanny Days

Our part-time nanny started yesterday. And by part-time, I mean that she works three days a week for twelve hours each day. That would hardly be considered part-time to many people. Our daughter Hanna is not yet three-months-old but my wife had no choice but to start her new job yesterday in Greenwich, Connecticut. And so [...]

Manhattan Criminal Court

I was reminded today why I chose to go into private law practice over working for the government. I stopped by to visit a friend and former supervisor of mine this afternoon that happens to work in the Manhattan Criminal Court, that decaying, filthy-looking building at 100 Centre Street just off of Foley Square in lower [...]

Vacation From Vacation

Vacations can sometimes be more hectic than real life. I just returned from a so-called vacation and feel that I am now ready for a real break. From airport delays and over crowding to trying to fit in seeing everyone and doing everything while you’re away, the past many vacations my wife and I have [...]

Writing 104

Believe it or not, this post right here that you are reading will be my 104th post since I started Sound to Sound. Who knew that when I decided to start a blog last November that I would write so much. One of the things that I have always wanted to do is to write a [...]

Planes, Trains and Wedding Bells

This week is a week of firsts for me. On Wednesday My wife and I are flying out of JFK for the first time as parents and bringing our daughter Hanna along. I hope we are not the couple on board the plane with the screaming kid. We have over a four-hour flight, and although Hanna [...]

Do I look like Daddy?

Some people say that my daughter Hanna looks just like me. What do you think?

Seven Years and Counting

It was exactly seven years ago today that I came back from Japan. I have yet to return to the country that I called home for two years, although I tell myself that I will with each new year. The two years that I spent in Kansai now seem like a dream. Yet, I remember them well. I [...]

Dotcom Madness

I am currently reading an account of how insane the dotcom bubble of the late 1990s was when every start-up online company was pushed to go public within a matter of months whether the company had any profits or not. The worst of it occurred at a time that I was completely out of the [...]

Corporate Debt

It’s amazing the amount of debt some companies have outstanding. For example, I went to a $700 million bond closing this morning for one of the large U.S.-based global investment banks. You would think that $700 million would be too much debt for anyone to service. But it’s not. This Company has been doing this [...]