We knew Mark and Sunny from our years in Tokyo. The last we saw them was in 1994 when they relocated to Hong Kong and we moved to California. They are now in Shanghai with a 2-year-old daughter. We talked about the past 8 years of our lives.

Mark and Sunny kindly hosted us in their spare bedroom. During our stay, we focused on catching up on this webpage. Not having had a computer at our disposal for 3 months, our journal needed days of continuous work.

Masami met a Japanese friend from our years in Singapore who now lives in Shanghai. They toured the city for an afternoon while Wes continued to type away. After 4 days in Shanghai, Masami saw a section of the city and Wes saw none. Foreigners we met at a dinner party, however, recommended Shanghai as an excellent place to reside and work. "Many Japanese company's service centers are relocating to Shanghai to run operations at one-third the cost," one Japanese woman coaxed, "and Japanese employees can receive nearly the same salary in Shanghai as in Tokyo." "If you speak English, you can find work in Shanghai. With English and Japanese, you'd have no problem," Sunny chipped in.

We must admit, after 2 continuous years of travel, settling down, having a child, and seriously working is very appealing. But we're not convinced that we'd be happy living in China. A high tech job in Provence, France, Northern California, or Tokyo we'd definitely consider. We would like to continue our itinerary to Paris, but travel through South America is now looking unlikely. We'll assess our feelings as we move towards Europe.