New York!
2007-06-29 08:20:09

Haven't even gotten round to blogging about Kyoto, and now I'm in New York!

Work sent me to a customer site to support an enterprise software install. It's gone pretty smoothly, so I've had just the smallest bit of free time to explore Manhattan.

The hotel where I am staying is in Midtown, just South of Central Park. After completing the day's tasks, I popped into a Rite Aid and bought a pocket sized tourist's map. This was a Rite Aid located on the ground floor of the Empire State Building, by the way. Seem like such a historic and majestic building would look for historic and majestic tenants!

I took the subway south to the Financial District and paid my respects at the site of the World Trade Center. It looks like any construction zone now, though some of the nearby buildings still bear the scares. I tried to imagine it in my mind's eye. Nope - even being here, right on the very spot, I couldn't imagine what it must have been like.

Then a marathon walking tour of downtown commenced. Battery park in on the east, a peek at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, over to Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange, past Trinity Church, then west, past the fish market (closed) and under the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges. A jog east into Chinatown, north through Little Italy, where I grabbed a Gyro, and the expensive shopping district of Broadway and Soho. Some shaved ice in Washington Square got me into Greenwich Village, followed by a cab ride to Times Square. All in three and a half hours! Fhew!

Reminiscing Tokyo
2007-06-14 11:29:03

Back in Seattle now, and I had sushi for lunch. Is this sad?

What an adventure Japan was! Our little trip was a lot to pack into ten days.

We spent five days in Tokyo. The bullet train took us to Kyoto where we stayed another five days.

The density of Tokyo is amazing. They'll drop a ten story building onto a 500 square foot lot, and pack it to the top with retail. Even the narrow spaces between buildings contain dozens of shops, cafes, restaurants and bars.

In the US, a retailer wouldn't rent a space unless it has street front access and plenty of parking; in Tokyo, they seem to have no problem opening up a shop on the seventh floor facing into an alley. There is absolutely no unclaimed real estate anywhere in the city, which is why, I think, they go up, and in many cases, down. Most shopping arcades have two or three basements.

I really dug the pace of the city. Very non-stop. You can engage in just about any pastime, any hour of the day -- or night.

With so many people in such a small area, niche retailers, in tiny little shops, can specialize in only one kind of thing. Akihabara was some special example of this!

And despite its size, Tokyo is super easy to navigate. All throughout the city, regardless of where you are, you are only a block or two from a subway station. We became lost on several occasions -- but by descending into a subway station and checking the Tokyo Metro map we where able to immediately orient ourselves.

Tokyo is neither as crowded nor as expensive as you've been lead to believe.

We saw a subway platform full people push their way onto a train that I would have thought already past capacity, but the trains run every three to five minutes, and the next one was empty.

Food is everywhere, and for the equivalent of five or six US dollars, you can eat a giant bowl or Ramen, Udon or Tempura on rice. For less than ten, you are satisfied with a plate of fresh Sushi or enough Okanomiyaki for two. I usually spend more on food in Seattle.

I loved Tokyo and wished we had had a lot more time to explore. I would totally jump on a chance to go there again.

Kyoto!
2007-06-01 06:56:10

We're in Kyoto today, after a relatively short journey from Tokyo via high speed train. The bullet train was cool.

I had planned on posting regularly during the trip, but we've been too busy doing stuff and the hotel in Tokyo charged 1200 yen per day for internet access. The hotel here in Kyoto offers free access to the intertron, but that's no guarantee we won't still be too busy enjoying the trip!

I've uploaded some of our photos to flickr, so have a peek.

Domo.

Tokyo: Day 1
2007-05-29 03:58:07

Northwest Airlines flight 7 departed Seattle at 3:00 pm and arrived in Narita, just outside Tokyo, Japan at 5:00 pm. Oh, if only it was just a two hour flight. Tokyo is 16 hours ahead of Seattle and the flight lasted 10 and one half hours.

International flights offer a few more services than domestic flights. Each of the seat-backs held an 8 inch LCD-TV and a menu of two dozen or so new and popular movies. Leslie and I both watched "Letters from Iwo Jima", which we both agreed is better than "Flags of Our Fathers".

Most of the passengers on our flight were continuing on to Singapore, so after we cleared customs, we found ourselves alone in the deserted baggage claim. In a large facility like an international airport, how you figure out what to do, or where to go, is largely based on clues taken from the people around you; you go through the green doors because that's what everyone else is doing!

The train from Narita to downtown Tokyo took about 2 hours. Narita is in the countryside and it was interesting to see the transition from rice fields to skyscrapers.

We checked into our Hotel about 7:00 pm, enjoyed the view from our 30th floor room for about an hour, and went to bed exhausted.

I woke up at 2:00 am sharp. My internal clock is very confused.

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