Shrimp were on sale at the market so I decided to buy a package. Also made up some fried rice with all the vegetables left over from last week.  Also had some poki that I bought at food land.
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Topped it off with some Ben & Jery's.  On sale as well.

New Chinese word of the day:塗鴉 tu2ya1- Graffiti/scribble

Loco Moco is a Hawaiian staple consisting of rice, a hamburger, egg(s), and gravy.  This is island comfort food at its finest.  I've ordered it a few times at restaurants but wanted to make it myself. 

Start off with some hamburger.  I use salt, pepper, bread crumbs, and a tad of paprika.



I wish I had an indoor grill... but just using a pan works fine for this.

Try to soak up some of the grease with paper towels.

Now, most loco moco's out there come with more than 1 egg... but since those crossfit pullups are hard enough already, I figured that one egg was enough here.  Using some of the left over hamburger grease eliminates the need for more vege oil.


Here is the final result.  I think the cheap supermarket gravy I used was a bit too watery.   Anyways my first homemade loco moco: brown rice, hamburger, 1 egg, and gravy.

Tasted good to me!

The old one was getting a bit dirty so I decided to replenish and it arrived just in time for the World Series....  Samantha requested one as well.

Very special day today... I did my first muscle up before the WOD started. Been working on this for months!  What is a muscle up? See the video.
  

WOD: 

Max push press
then..
3 rounds for time
3 hand stand pushups
3 dead lifts (rx is 305... I did 225)

Results: 1:52/max pp 165

Morning:   As many rounds as possible in 15 mins.

Knees to elbows
Elevated pushups (on a 24inch box)
Box jumps (24 inch)

Rounds: 13 plus 3 knees to elbows.  A lot harder than it looks.

PM:  5.4km run. Time 31m15s. Faster!

There is an interesting article in the Economist this week about Japan and its high level of government debt.   This got me thinking...

I've been negative on Japan for years mostly because of the negative population growth and more recently, appreciating Yen.  Yet... the high level of public debt makes me even more pessimistic. I am no fx expert (actually I think fx is one of the more complicated markets out there especially when you're trying to make money in the short term) but it is pretty clear that a strong Yen is bad for Japan or any country that likes to make things and sell them to others.  So, the Yen gets stronger and the price of a Sony TV or  DVD player either goes up...or the profit margin for the Japanese company making it goes down.  Not too complicated.  

Over the past few years, prices in Japan have been flat or even declining.   Money has been basically free for years as the government tries to encourage people to invest and grow the economy.   The big downside to all this is that it has prevented companies from raising prices and, thus, making more profits. Deflation also discourages consumers from spending. Aside from the more recent US-initiated global collapse, this is why the Japanese stock market has underperformed for years.   Anytime a CPI reading came out that showed even a slight increase in prices, the market got a boost as investors thought (and prayed) that the deflationary malaise had finally come to an end.  With all this free money around, the Government has had an incentive to spend money too and they have running up the largest gross government debt as a % of GDP in the developed world.  People here in the US are worried about a 60-80% debt to GDP ratio while in Japan, the figure is already 175% and excpected to top 250% by 2014.  Yikes!     Currently 20% of the government budget is used to finance this debt which is manageable, but, what happens if interest rates go up?   You see where i'm going with this?  Imagine a scenario in which interest rates go up and the government has to increase taxes to keep up with the debt payments.   This is scary: higher taxes, declining population resulting in lower government revenues, and a  higher Yen to boot.  Again, I am no macro economist or a Japan expert but these are strong headwinds. 


Image from the Economist website.

Long Wod today.

For time:

800m Run
50 Thrusters (#45)
400m Run
7 Muscle ups (i did modified)
10 cleans (#135)
200m Run
50 double unders (I did 250 singles)
50 Situps

Time: 23:22  Not including my 1.5km cool down run.

Morning:

3 min per round.

Round 1
270m run
Strict pullups

Round 2
270m run
Squat snatch (95 lbs rx, I used 65)

Round 3
270m run
1 legged squats

Score: 17-7-15.  Did well on the pullups... terrible on the snatch.  Cooled off with a 1.5km run.

Afternoon: 5km jog.  Didn't keep time.

Cooked some fried rice and shou yu chicken.  Tried to really cut down the soy sauce in friend rice which is why it isn't brown.  Because I thought the meal was so healthy... I added a beer. Yum yum.

Morning: 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1

Weighted lunges 135lbs
Slam ball

Time: 10:35 full rx not including my 1.5km run.  Those lunges were hard for me.

Afternoon: TBA

Pictures of turksih getups and skin the cats from last week.

Saw some nice looking eggplant at the farmers market today so I took the opportunity to make 魚香茄子. Had some poki too.

Been a little late in posting these.

Friday Morning:

2 Turkish getups right side
2 DB Snatch (on way down)
2 Turkish getups left side
2 DB Snatch (on way down)
5 185 lbs wide grip dead lift

Time: 17:35.  I used the rx weight for the getups for the first 3 rounds before I couldn't handle it and had to move down to 35's.  RX used for the DL.

Saturday Morning: 22.5km run.  Time 2h16m

Still doesn't exist in Hong Kong yet.  Glad to see some people demanding it.

Had dinner with Tony and his wife at a local Chao Zhou restaurant.

Cool shellfish/lobster for sale

Tony ordering our dinner

The pig intestine soup was great!

Oyster Omlet

Desert: sweet potato soup

Fran

21-15-9

#95 Thruster
Pullups

Time 13:03   Much better than 10 days ago.

Saw this when I was waiting for the boat.  Pretty amazing for a place in China.