March 8 - Stanley, dinner at Ruth's

March 8 – Thursday

Alan & David asked me if I would mind very much going to the Peak & getting an oil painting like John & I have. I guess they really liked it. I explained that I’d come back after our day in Stanley & the ones out there were really about the same. I think they must have a factory where people do paint by number of the same picture, just changing the colors once in a while from blues to oranges to pinks to browns to black & whites. They all look the same, just different shades. I explained also that the woman is only at the Peak in the evening & I didn’t have an evening to go up there. Since they were leaving today, I decided to be really nice & go back out to Stanley to get each of the an oil (Alan actually wanted 2, one for office & one for home). It’s an easy bus ride out there & it was a nice day & I wouldn’t be long as the order was small & specific.

On my way down the hill to the bus depot, I passed a woman that I’ve noticed before who makes & sells jewelry. It is typical HK jewelry; jade & agate carved necklaces & bracelets & charms. I stopped to see what she had. Alan told me his 12 year old daughter is really into horses & I knew these places always had horse charms, for those born in the year of the horse. I asked the woman, whose name I learned is Gerry, is she could make a horse necklace & she could, but showed me an even nicer one that was already a necklace. The price was right (it wasn’t my money anyway), so I got it & then I decided to get something for his wife as well. I got a circular piece of yellow agate with a green shape in the middle of it. I liked it a lot, so figured she might was well. After all, it’s the thought that counts, even if you didn’t buy it yourself. I was told that she is an LLBean kind of woman, since I’m the same I figured what I’d like she’ll like. Makes it easier.

I then headed on out to Stanley. Went straight to the place I remembered the paintings being the least expensive. They all looked the same so I figured get the cheapest. Even the guy whose pictures were twice the cost of the others & claimed it was better canvas & finer detailed work, looked just the same. At the same place I noticed some embroidered bags that are typical HK. I got a small black one with Chinese characters on it for the wife & a little case with flowers embroidered on it for the daughter (they were all of $5US for the both). Then I saw that they had t-shirts, so I figured that would be a safe & inexpensive thing to get for his 2 boys. I got black ones with dragons & Chinese characters on them, so hopefully they’ll like them. They were about $6US for both, so no big deal if they don’t like them. My task accomplished in record time, I headed home to deliver the packages to the apartment so the guys could pack them up. I think I did pretty well.

John got home early for a change. Poor guy, he’s exhausted from having visitors & entertaining & getting up early to take these guys to China & staying up late answering phone calls & emails. BUT of course he said he met with a customer today who is here from Japan & he speaks no English & just to be nice he offered to take him out for dinner. John was sure he’d say no, but to his surprise he said yes. John asked if I’d please join him since maybe it wouldn’t be so awkward for them if at least 2 of us at the table could talk to each other. It sounded like it would be a very uncomfortable meal.

We met the guy at his hotel, John thought maybe he wouldn’t show, but he did. I had done some research on restaurants in the area (called Sarah, who seems to know a lot about restaurant & everything for that matter). Nobody at the hotel spoke Japanese, so John just started naming types of food: Italian, Chinese,…… and before he got to the 3rd choice the guy said “Steak, please American steak.” So we made a quick reservation at Ruth’s Crisp Steak House which was not very far away & I is certainly good American steak. That was much easier than we thought.
As it turns out he does speak a little English, he was just didn’t have to at the printer in China, because they had a translator for him. He works for Bridgestone, the tire company, who also is into sports equipment, golf balls in particular. He is the director of the packaging design. He told us that he went to University for 6 years to get his degree. We found out that he is married but has no children. He likes to play golf. Between drawing & sign language & his English we learned a lot about golf balls and Bridgestone’s place in the world market. They have a factory in Atlanta so he’s been there 5 or 6 times. All in all it was an extremely pleasant dinner. I guess the steak was good, I had a $20 plate of Portobello mushrooms & veggies. The conversation was sparse, but meaningful & fairly unbusiness related. This allowed all of us to relax & just enjoy the good food and get to know each other a little. He seemed to enjoy the evening as well. He said all he’d eaten for a week in China was Chinese Chinese Chinese, too much Chinese. It was funny to hear him talk about it. We returned him to his hotel & we were home before 9:30.

John called the sales person from his company who is on the Bridgestone account to let him know we’d had dinner with his client. He was really happy & said that he’d been reading up on Japanese culture & apparently they will not accept a dinner invitation unless they trust you, so he was really glad the man had accepted & that it went so well. We do what we can for the company, who doesn’t like having a great meal?