Category: Art

Sunday was bright and mild (57 °F/ 14 °C) here in Shinjuku.
The streets around Shinjuku station were closed for traffic all day.

A little parade of sorts came by, featuring bands and groups for firefighter and disaster support, and little league baseball teams. Elsewhere there was a protest for the war in Ukraine (offering support for Ukraine).

There are a Teslas on the streets, but not many. In the picture with the black Tesla, the hotel is on the left.
The beautiful building with the wavy top is Tokyu Kabukicho Towerー 48-story skyscraper completed in 2023. It was designed by Yuko Nagayama & Associates and developed by Shimizu Corporation. [Wikipedia]

At Shinjuku Station’s East Exit, the giant 3D cat is still there, entertaining crowds near the crosswalk for Studio Alta.

There’s a thundering (digital) waterfall in the check-in and departures area at Singapore’s Changi airport.
And watch out for the 3-D jaguar inside the secure area that will pounce on you!

Changi airport’s layout feels different than the standard airport floor layout.
There are no check-in counters, and I had to look around to find out where to take my tagged luggage for check-in.
(It is handled by fully automated stations with conveyor belts that swallow your bags.)

The security check is done right at the gate with its dedicated waiting area.
So no bottled water or other large liquids can be carried onto the plane. There are no toilets right by the gate’s waiting area as you wait to board.
(So what happens if it turns out there is a 30 min or 1 hr delay with the boarding process? Can you go out and come back in through the security check?)

All went according to schedule, though, and off we were on the 6 hr 16 min flight to Tokyo’s Haneda airport.
We were northeast bound with a flight path that had Viet Nam to the west, and going between Taiwan to the north and the Philippines to the south.

It was still Friday night rush hour on Tokyo’s trains upon my arrival, and I would have had to navigate my way out of Shinjuku station with bags in tow, the busiest of them all. (A station that handles 3.6 million passengers every day).
So Go Taxi it was, and the US $55 fare that brought me right to the entrance of the hotel was totally worth it.

Singapore has one of the oldest Chinatowns in the world.
The area around Pagoda Street has been a hub for the Chinese immigrants in Singapore since 1330.
To this day it has traditional shophouses, but also modern stores and busy street markets.

I sipped my coffee outside the Starbucks on Smith Street, while listening to a beautiful song in a language I will never understand or learn 😢, as the smell of freshly cut durian from a nearby vendor wafted through the air.

The mosque is Masjid Jamae (built in 1820), and the Hindu temple is Sri Mariamman. These are the sources of strange sounds—very, very strange to the Western ear— the calls to prayer from the mosque, and clanging and chants from the inside the Hindu temple.

The last two pictures are is of the main plaza in Chinatown.
I love the public space with the old-timers that are there just to shoot the breeze, or to play a game of checkers.