Merry Christmas Everyone
It's mid afternoon on the east coast as I write this. The time difference between Tokyo and NYC means I am eary or late to most things this week.
Christmas isn't much of a thing in Tokyo so I am mostly getting my holiday cheer from Tumblr and Instagram. Though our family hasn't celebrated Christmas at home in over a decade, I still miss it. We did celebrate it with the Gotham Gal's family last year in Utah which was nice.
Christmas to me is family time. And our family has made it a tradition to go away somewhere far away for two weeks every Christmas for the past decade. So like most families, we have amazing Christmas memories. But ours don't include Christmas trees, holiday music, opening gifts, and family feasts these days.
So I'd like to wish my family and friends and all of you a merry christmas. I hope you are able to spend it with loved ones.
With that I am signing off so I can grab a livestream of the Lakers Knicks game. Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, you can watch the NBA anywhere in the world these days.
Comments (Archived):
Merry Christmas to the Wilson Family!Fred thank you for all of your great writing this year, it has become an important part of my life!
Have a great time in Japan! Merry Christmas from the McNeely Family
You mean there is not a sign of Christmas anywhere on the streets? I thought it might be sporadic at least.Couple of Christmas puns I posted on Twitter:What did Adam tell his girlfriend on December 24th? “It’s Christmas! Eve.”Where does Santa go swimming? The North Pool.
Is this supposed to be a joke ? Me smells rot ..
Mcguire to Mougayar – that’s funny.
Christmas is definitely a thing in Tokyo (at least until Dec 26th. They’re diligent about taking down decorations for anything the day after the date passes), maybe Fred means there’s not much to do on Christmas in Tokyo? There are certainly a lot of decorations and displays around the place, and Christmas advertising etc. Places like Tokyo Midtown and Roppongi Hills, and I’m sure places in Shibuya and Ginza would have had a lot of Christmas decorations around. I felt this December in Tokyo had a much more Christmas feel than last year, though that may have been a personal thing.Or maybe he means that in comparison to the US it doesn’t feel very Christmasy?
Interesting! So, I take it you live in Tokyo? Thanks.
Yep, just the last year and a half, but liking it so far! Lived in Singapore prior to that and have been around most of Asia at one point or another.
Merry Christmas, all!
to travel is to broadband the mind? – tut, tut.
That’s good.
Merry Christmas Fred, have a great 2013!
Very good game so far. Carmelo is struggling mightily against World Peace.
That’s because Artest is a great defensive player. Tough matchup for Melo
Brilliant adjustment in the second half. Have Melo bring the ball, a quick screen… Woodson is a great coach.
NBA Coach of the first quarter of the season
for sure. unbelievable how he’s transformed the knicks.
Having seen Artest play in person, it is hard to describe his size/build/athleticism. Surreal.He would make, it would seem, an unstoppable defensive end / tight end (as would a ton of NBAers).
If you like sushi, Kyubei is a must visit. I lived in Tokyo for 2 years. They have 2 locations, one in Ginza.
i hope your family has a fabulous holiday. as a regular (but quiet) reader, i wanted to say thank you to you and the community for the time and effort you put into AVC. it’s a wonderful resource.
Nice.
you’re welcome, but it mostly thanks to readers like you (come back any time)
you know chicken on christmas is a big thing in japan. because of a kfc advertising campaign a few years back. killer marketing.except for the grinch, i’m not a fan of christmas. overpriced, often filled with unhealthy food, inescapable corny christmas music. i give it two thumbs down.but i hope everyone who likes christmas enjoys it. for any cycle believers, happy new age/solstice.
Me too.. Never a big fan of Christmas especially a rainy one. Christmas keeps me indoors that I grossly hate about…
Me too.. Never a big fan of Christmas especially a rainy one. Christmas keeps me indoors that I grossly hate about…
Cant knock Elvis Presely’s “here comes santa clause”
Our kids still drag us out of bed on Christmas morning. Now they’ve retreated to their rooms to take a break from the festivities with their new devices and consoles or things you play, watch or listen to on them. Just before preparing for the next group of friends to stop by and Christmas dinner, wanted to connect with AVC for a quick moment.Merry Christmas Wilson clan. In Japan.Merry Christmas AVC community. You mean a lot to me.Now for a strong cup of coffee or builder’s tea before the next thing.
Mine too…of course, mine are three and five. We managed to wait until 8:30am (since they had a late night on Christmas Eve). What a blast.Merry Christmas, AVCers. It’s great to be a part of this community.
Been following your tweets Aaron.Great story unfolding. Fun to experience through a friend’s eyes. Christmas to me is gym, a walk in the park, a movie and takeout Thai!
Enjoy, my friend…
the instagrams of your kids were a Christmas treat
Ah, thanks 🙂
what livestream are you using?
http://www.vipboxsports.me/…
thanks. oy… knicks trailing.
What’s your plan for watching the Jets this weekend? Is there a sports bar there that plays NFL games?
sadly, i am not that interested in watching the Jets since mid season. i have continued to do so but it has been painful. i won’t work too hard over here.
Merry Christmas to everyone.Enjoy the day….
Merry Christmas to everyone in the AVC community.Much love + thanks for all the interesting conversation and insights.
Merry Christmas, Fred.Thanks for all your insightful content that you share and the inspiration. You touch so many more people than just those in companies that you invest in.Ironic how VC never took off in Japan, even though they have innovative companies like Softbank, Rakuten, Recruit and stalwarts of yore like Sony, Olympus, and others— most of which now are a shadow of their former selves.
KFC and Strawberry Shortcake is Xmas in Japan for some.The whole runup to and New Year’s itself is a much better celebration in Japan.Merry Christmas to Fred and everyone else in this community!
Merry Christmas!
merry xmas!An aside, how useful are you finding foursquare in Tokyo / Japan?
Its fantastic in Tokyo. My only challenge is its mostly in Japanese. But there is enough English in it to make it quite useful
How much of the local web is in english? Have you tried exploring it or do you stay with your native (US) web?
I love seeing the Foursquare check-ins that come in from other countries with the native language.
but that is the challenge too. foursquare could fix that but it would take a lot of work.
Merry Christmas and happy holidays, everyone. Watching A Christmas Story, which is as close as we get to tradition around here.
Merry Christmas
As Fred knows, i’m in Myanmar/Burma on this day. This is–for the moment– 1 of the very few countries where bandwidth, especially mobile, is almost non-existent. Which is a main point of coming here.This country is at such a fascinating time, and is so beautiful, so the challenge is not being able to post our pix on foursquare et al, as we did in Tokyo and Thailand last week. But google maps has remarkable coverage here and my Android phone is indispensible, even off-line.
Nice to hear this report, Ken. I know so little about this part of the world. How is your android indispensable off-line? (I have one.)
Surprised about google maps! I just gave up on using my phone (apart from for sms and calls, on a Burmese sim) when I was there. Their IT industry was a lot more developed than I expected! They have (at least one) decent sized IT campus outside of Yangon, but it was all Burmese firms as near as I could tell when I briefly visited. Agreed about the internet experience there, was awful. Everyone there _is_ on facebook and twitter though, which I thought was cool 🙂 What’s your take on Burma’s development? I’m wary of it going the way of Thailand in terms of the sleaze and the lower end of the tourist trade (I know Thailand also does high quality high end too).
🙂 Happy Christmas everyone.I had soup dumplings…which I would have never heard about if it hadn’t been for mark birch….
Merry Christmas to all & to all a good night!
Merry Christmas AVCers…. enjoy the holidays with family and friends.I was in my home town the last week … attending a Muslim friend’s nephew’s wedding. It was really enjoyable to see the streets filled with lights for Christmas and people at many commercial places dressed up like Santa.There is almost a equal mix of Hindu, Muslim and Christian population in my home town and I owe my education to christian and Muslim community. I did all my schooling and college until bachelors degree in Christian and Muslim institutes (almost no tuition fee … …may be my father would have spend $1000 for the entire 15-years of education as tuition fee).
So ..
So ..for which one?My home town filled with equal population of hindu, christian and muslim ORstreets filled with lightOR people dressed up like SantaORI owe my education to christian and muslim communityORMerry Christmas to AVCersORspending only $1000 on educationORmy name is Kasi Viswanathan Agilandam
Ha! The cliff notes version. Enjoyed both versions. And you have a very cool name. Almost as cool as “Arnold Waldstein”
Looks like there was a very nice reader among us today …
Merry Christmas and goodwill to all avc’ers. I hope Santa was kind.Hope you, Gotham and the kids are having a blast Fred.
Well Merry Christmas everyone! I know that this comment was late but to me Christmas is spending time with your family, so I was away from my Computer
A great holiday to all.Christmas…to me, was gym, a walk, a movie and take out thai food.Nice….although I’m the only one it appears that was not blown away with Les Mis.Enjoy!
Merry Christmas. One of my favorite holidays. If you don’t celebrate it, blessings of the season to you and your family. For a pretty unbelievable but factual story, pick up this book: http://www.amazon.com/dp/03… It’s the story of how two people and families overcame incredible grief to find themselves and each other.
Merry Christmas. Happy Japanese travels. Enjoy the food and experience! Thank you for bringing interesting and sometime provocative topics up for discussion. I have enjoyed them immensely.
Merry Christmas!We’re having an “at home” Christmas this year. Our tradition is one year at home, another year somewhere *warm* (which, when living in Europe, necessitates a long plane ride). Thailand was last time. Next: maybe Mexico or Israel.
we spent the christmas holidays in egypt, jordan, and israel two years ago. it was an awesome trip.
WeLebanon and Syria two years ago (fortunately before all the trouble in Syria) and it was terrific.
All the best to you and your family – and thank you for the effort this year
Merry Christmas Fred and to your family, and everyone else on AVC.I look forward to someday to have a Christmas that feels good, like family time should feel. Unfortunately my family has never really functioned how a family should. They try, though there is no real closeness. How I want Christmas to be is intimate time with family members, enough individual time and then as a group. There never really has been the space or safety and acceptance/understanding/guidance to allow the closeness and bonding needed for such.I did go over to my parents’ place for a Christmas dinner, and then we went to see The Hobbit together. Both evenings afterward were difficult.They try, though it’s not what I long for or how I envision truly enjoying family time. I’ve never really considered to have been involved or apart of a closeness that a family should bring, in what would resemble family time – deep trust and understanding with those you love. And so comes with it my quirks, and my attempts to find family and community elsewhere in the world – and to try to better prepare myself, constantly improving myself in all of my relationships, to be ready for when I can find that someone who seems amazing and special, someone who I would want to start a family with.They’ve always tried their best, though life threw them curve balls, too.It’s not easy to be out in the world fighting when those comforts above currently don’t exist in a deep and secure way, though I manage, and I can find peace these days more often than not. I also find solace in that I know I am nearing the point of fostering a relationship that will foster every creative need, and be able to hold and reciprocate every loving need that needs to be given or received. When needed they will receive every ounce of kindness, thought, and consideration and love I have – they will have my heart, of course – and soul possibly too.I have a friend, who I mainly sit and talk with at random when we see eachother around. His flamboyancy and unfixed creativity is a bit much for my more serious view of reality – though I still much appreciate him and his poetic ways; He could evolve into a Hemingway, if he just learned to write down most everything he says – through having more solitary time. He doesn’t like sitting still with just his mind. He too, I feel, is uncomfortable with being alone for long periods of time – I on the otherhand do enough yoga to allow that unease dissipate away from the physical. Of course loneliness and other forms of suffering is what drives many of us to become the characters we become, and to express ourselves however we need, whether that is through poetry, song, or driving change through organization or business.Anyway, this is what is going through my mind during this relatively solitary time of the year. Apparently I needed to write this, and AVC is as good as a place than any to put down my thoughts.
Matt, looks like we hit a dead end with our email conversation?
Hey ho! Wilsons and all of AVC. Sorry to be late to the party. Been swamped. Merry Christmas to all.
MERRY GRIMSMAS!OR ELSE!
It’s Boxing Day already!
or else what?
Hi Fred – I trust you had a nice holiday season.And now a word from our sponsors…..I have been a community member here @ AVC for a little over a year, over that time I read / got reviews from a bunch of great consumer electronics, that said, some of the gifts we received in our home included;For me;Sonos Connect Amp ( I connected to some ceiling speakers in our kitchen) – it will allow us to start building a Sonos system through out our home.Nexus 7 – it is good to use and see how the driod UI works – great device for the price.For our oldest daughter – MacMini – allows her to use the mac OS a year b/f college at which time I think we will send her w/ a mac bookFor our son – a Kindle Fire – I am sad that he seems more likely to use the game apps vs readingSide note – I think the # of WiFi devices on our home airport express network went from approx 6 devices to over 14+, we added several wifi (airprint) printers.I even got a Honeywell Wifi Tsat – I really want to adjust the home temp while we are away from home.Merry Christmas
🙂