Category: Travel

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Wednesday/ around the Embarcadero

I took BART out to San Francisco to spend the day at my firm’s office in the Embarcadero. The Ferry Terminal is close by, and it was warm enough to enjoy the cool air and sunshine by the waterside during lunch.

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This lunch place puts together top-notch bento boxes (lunch boxes) of Japanese food.  I had teriyaki chicken, a spicy salad with lotus root, and carrot ginger soup. 
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This passenger ferry runs back and forth between Marin County (the the north of the Bay), and the Embarcadero. 
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Here is a late afternoon view of the San Francisco Ferry Building from the 17th floor of the Embarcadero Center 3 building.
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A view slightly further to the west reveals a little bit of the Bay Bridge between the ‘classic’ 70s and 80s Embarcadero buildings in the foreground.
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Here I am at the corner of California St and Front St, on the way to BART’s Embarcadero Station.
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Monday/ afternoon flight out

I ignored Saturday’s baffling and crazy mass shooting in Kalamazoo, Michigan* and ordered an Uber driver nonetheless, to get me to the airport today.  The driver was fine, but I really should take the train next time.  We got completely stuck in traffic for 15 minutes even before we got to Interstate 5.

*Uber is a popular online taxi dispatch company (rides are ordered with a smart-phone app).  Uber does vet its drivers and does background checks on them.  During Saturday night in Kalamazoo, a forty-something Uber driver – a dad with two kids, no criminal record – shot eight people in cold blood at three locations, for no apparent reason whatsoever. Six people dead.  He was found and stopped after seven hours.  He really had no explanation to offer for his actions at his arraignment today.

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Sunset this afternoon, around 5.30 pm, at Seattle-Tacoma airport’s North terminal. That’s our Boeing 737 that is bound for San Francisco, in the foreground.
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Thursday/ going home

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An ‘early bird’ floor mosaic in Sacramento Airport’s Terminal B.
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The ‘International’ in Sacramento International Airport is for the flights to Mexico.

It was a short trip to California this week, but I was still glad when it was time to jump into my little Prius compact car and drive south to Sacramento airport.  Man!  but there was so little air traffic at the airport : all of three planes in sight at the twenty or so gates at Terminal B.  One from Southwest Airlines, and two from Alaska Airlines.

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I’m on the jet way, and about to step into the Seattle-bound Alaska Airlines 737.
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Tuesday/ driving out to Chico

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My rental car for the week is a little Prius-C. (I like it a lot).

I traveled to Sacramento airport on Tuesday, and drove out to Chico, an hour and forty minutes to its north.

Our project is winding down.  We are bringing our last group of users into the system that we had built for them.   We’re also steering clear of the Bay Area this week.  Air fare and hotel prices are through the roof with the upcoming Superbowl 50 that is hosted by Santa Clara.at the south end of the Bay.

P.S.  Hillary Clinton won the Democratic caucus in Iowa with a razor-thin 49.9% share of the votes, over 49.6% for Bernie Sanders.

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The drive up from Sacramento airport is mostly on Highway 70, but Highway 99 is the one that gets one into Chico.
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Saturday (Seattle time)/ don’t lost your belonging

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Here’s a poster from Tokyo’s Haneda airport with cute English translations. Hey, it’s all good advice. The monorail I took into Haneda airport actually looks like this inside, too. (No bullet trains run to Haneda airport, but it is a lot closer to the city).

I’m home, with all my ‘belonging’ !
I made it into Seattle-Tacoma airport at 5 pm local time.
(So I arrived at 5 pm in Seattle on Saturday after departing at 9.45 pm on Saturday in Tokyo, the result of flying east across the International Dateline.  I got the 24 hrs back that I lost when I traveled out in the opposite direction).

My connection in Vancouver was again a little tight, but once more it helped that Canadian customs and baggage claim there were very efficient. Vancouver airport actually does Canadian arrival and USA entry processing right there, so that Vancouver-Seattle passengers do not have to go through United States customs upon arrival in Seattle.

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This is the departure lounge at Haneda Airport’s International Terminal.
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The view from my seat on the way in from Vancouver. Our Bombardier Q400 propeller plane came to a halt at Seattle-Tacoma’s Terminal C, with the main departure lounge of the airport in the background.

 

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Saturday/ one more day in Tokyo

I arrived at my fancy hotel on Friday night.  (Decided I need to ‘upgrade’ my hotel that I had coming in.  The Prince Sakura Tower Hotel is a special ‘autograph collection’ Marriott Hotel, and I used Marriott Points so that I did not have to pay $400 for a night’s stay!).  I packed it in today, spending most of the time I had in Akihabara and Shinjuku, and now I am at Haneda airport waiting for my flight to Vancouver.

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The Prince Sakura Tower Hotel is on the left. The room was great; the breakfast buffet was a little bit of an East-meets-West thing with less Western food one normally finds at a Marriott, but it was all good).
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The rail network in Tokyo is very, very extensive (make that rail networks; several rail operators have train lines and trains). The platform is unusually empty since it is late at night.
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Many buildings in Akihabara Electronics Town are decorated with huge anime art.
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Japan Rail’s Shinjuku Train Station is on the left. It is by far the world’s busiest train station hub. It has to be experienced to be believed. The station itself has 36 platforms, including an underground arcade, above ground arcade, numerous hallways, there are well over 200 exits. Another 17 platforms (51 total) can be accessed through hallways to 5 directly connected stations, without surfacing outside. (Data from Wikipedia).
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Friday Jan 1/ Happy 2016 !

I’m in Hong Kong, waiting for my flight to Tokyo.  We got pushed back from the gate at Perth airport just about at midnight, and arrived in Hong Kong shortly after 7 am this morning.   Happy New Year!

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These little egg characters from German chocolate maker Kinder in the Perth airport shop seem happy ! Yay!
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The check-in area in Perth airport’s Terminal 1. The passengers in the foreground are checking in with South African Airways, bound for Johannesburg. The counters with the blue glow in the distance are those of Richard Branson’s airline Virgin Australia.
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Hong Kong International Airport shortly after we had landed this Friday morning.
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Wednesday/ Cottesloe Beach

10 Mar 1979, Perth, Australia --- Prince Charles is kissed by Jane Priest, a model, as he emerges from the water at Cottesloe beach in Perth, during his 1979 tour of Australia. --- Image by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS
10 Mar 1979, Perth, Australia — Prince Charles is kissed by Jane Priest, a model, as he emerges from the water at Cottesloe beach in Perth, during his 1979 tour of Australia. — Image by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS
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Cottesloe Beach is on the Atlantic Ocean, slightly south of downtown Perth.

We stopped at Cottesloe Beach today for coffee and a bite to eat before we went down to the beach for a quick swim.

Cottesloe Beach is where Prince Charles got accosted and kissed on the cheek by admirer and model Jane Priest in 1979.

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Cottesloe Beach on Wednesday morning, Perth’s iconic beach for visitors and locals alike. The beachfront street is lined with coffee shops and restaurants.

Prince Charles returned there this November for a beachside barbecue for his 67th birthday celebration, and as part of a 12-day visit to Australia and New Zealand.

(The celebrations came to an abrupt end after an unexpected thunderstorm sent guests running for cover as they sung him happy birthday, reported the website WAtoday, here).

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Tuesday/ Perth, old and new

Here are pictures from my random walk around Perth downtown on Tuesday.  The train ride from Bull Creek Station here in the southern burbs to the Perth downtown station is just 11 minutes.

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The Perth Arena is an entertainment and sporting arena in the city center of Perth, and opened in 2012.
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The Railway Hotel operated from 1847 through the late 1900s and its façade was partially demolished by a developer – in contravention of a stop work order. He was prosecuted under the Heritage Act and ordered to rebuild the façade.
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The Old Perth Technical School building is ‘a restrained and incomplete example of the Federation Free Medieval architectural style’, says Wikipedia. It now houses offices and specialty stores.
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The Perth railway station has been around since 1894, and today serves six railway lines and serves as a bus terminus as well.
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Built in 1936, in the ‘Inter-War Classical Style’, the Bank of New South Wales now houses retail stores.
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The Wentworth Hotel was built in 1928.
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Monday/ Rottnest Island and its quokkas

We got up early on Monday morning to take the ferry to Rottnest Island, and spent most of the day there on Salmon Beach.   It was another sweltering day in Perth (41 °C/ 105 °F) but a good ten degrees Celsius cooler on the island.

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We took the Rottnest Express out to Rottnest Island, a passenger only ferry that takes about 30 mins to do the crossing westward from the Perth area to the island.
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The island is about 11 km (7 mi) long and 4 km (2.5 mi) at the widest point. There is a shuttle bus that does the rounds between the beaches in the little bays around the island. Or visitors can rent bicycles and bike around from place to place.
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This is Salmon Beach, with white sand and crystal clear turquoise and blue waters. There are little fishes in the seaweed and underwater rocks, and it’s easy to check them out while snorkeling.
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The ‘rat’ of Rottnest Island : the quokka. Dutch ship captain Willem de Vlamingh who spent six days exploring the island in December 1696, mistook the quokkas for giant rats. The quokkas are about the size of a domestic cat and quite used to people, but I was a little leery to get too close. They are herbivores and mostly nocturnal.
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Saturday/ Mandurah

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Mandurah is about an hour’s drive south of Perth.

We drove down to the seaside city of Mandurah (say ‘MAN-duh-rah’) on Saturday (the day after Christmas, called ‘Boxing Day’ here), about an hour’s drive south of Perth.   The Peel-Harvey estuary is heavily used for recreational boating and fishing.  It is now mostly salt-water, after the construction in 1994 of a channel that let seawater push in with the tides.   Still, the estuary is home to the blue swimmer crab, the western king prawn and fish such as black bream and cobbler, and is even visited occasionally by dolphins.

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The waterfront around the estuary has lots of apartments and touristy businesses (restaurants and shops).
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The estuary is shallow enough at low tide at the edges for wading into with the water only coming up knee-deep.
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This is Silver Sands beach on the Atlantic Ocean. It was very warm – too warm to spend too much time in the sun – but we went in for a quick swim in the sea.
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Friday/ the Perth Zoo

We went to the Perth Zoo on Christmas Day, and here are my favorite pictures.

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The black-necked stork is found in Northern and Eastern Australia. The sharp bill is used to impale frogs, fish or even large crustaceans in the water.
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The blue-winged kookaburra is the largest of the kingfisher family and can live for as long as 20 years. They are found in North-west Australia.
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Red kangaroos are the largest living marsupials, and found in the arid central parts of Australia. They are herbivores. The Western Grey kangeroo is smaller, and wallabies are smaller still.
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This little nocturnal creature is the Northern Quoll, a carnivorous marsupial. (The enclosure is dimly lit with red light). They are under threat of extinction from eating the poisonous cane toads (a pest in Australia), and from falling prey to feral cats in the wild.
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And here is a Banded Knob-tailed Gecko They are found in the Pilbara area – a large, dry, thinly populated region in the north of Western Australia.
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The White Rhinoceros is NOT an indigenous Australian animal (of course). The beautiful beast was standing in the shade far away, and then lumbered over to come and take a few sips of the water, right in front of us, flapping its ears.
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Thursday/ the Bell Tower

The Bell Tower is touted as Perth’s top tourist attraction (think: Seattle’s Space Needle), and so I had to go check it out.  The surrounding area is still a major construction zone though : the $400 million Perth waterfront redevelopment project has been three years in the making and is now at least two years behind schedule. (Mmm.  Seems very similar to the Bertha tunnel boring machine & waterfront development project’s delays in Seattle!).

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Here are the attractions close to the Esplanade station where we stepped off the train.
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The Bell Tower’s sides are ‘sails’ .. a nod to Perth’s maritime history and connections as a port city, of course.
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These bells are connected to a computerized jukebox. For a dollar, anyone can pick a song, and then the bells play the song. Several national anthems were offered as well – and so I picked the Star Spangled Banner, of course.
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Here’s the view from the Bell Tower’s viewing deck northwards, of the city’s skyline. Three years in (work started in 2012), and there seems to be a long way to go  with the work on the waterfront project.
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The ‘cat’ bus offers free transportation around the city.  CAT stands for Central Area Transit.

 

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Wednesday/ downtown Perth

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It was still very warm on Wednesday (that 39 for Perth is Celsius and equals 100 °F !).

My brother and I made a jaunt into downtown Perth with the Transperth* train on Wednesday.  Downtown is a mix of old and new buildings, with the tallest ones belonging to the giant multinational mining companies such as Rio Tinto Group and BHP Billiton. (Iron ore is the country’s largest export earner, and lost 43 per cent in market price this year as low-cost miners such as Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton pressed ahead with production to defend their market share).

*Part of the Perth public transportation network of trains, buses and ferries.

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Our north-bound train is arriving at Bullcreek Station, on the way tp Perth downtown.
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The Queen’s Building on Murray Street is right by the downtown train station exit. It was constructed just before 1900.
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This is the Perth General Post Office building in the central business district. Construction commenced in 1914, and was finally completed in 1923. This is the precise location where distances from Perth are measured on maps and road signs.
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This is still downtown. We’re making our way to the Western Australia Museum and the cultural center. I still have to go and check out the modern buildings visible at the far end of this street (one is a cobalt blue).
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The Western Australia Museum is getting an expansion and renovation, with the ‘new’ museum slated to open in 2020.
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Time for a ‘selfie’ in a reflecting metal outdoor work of art outside the museum.
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A view of the Swan River on the train ride back (it forms a lake of sorts before it reaches the ocean). For nearly 40,000 years the area on which Perth now stands was occupied by groups of the Nyoongar people and their ancestors; this had been verified by the discovery of ancient stone implements near the Swan River which have been carbon dated at 38,000 years old. In December, 1696, three ships in the fleet commanded by de Vlamingh anchored off Rottnest Island and on 5th January, 1697, a well-armed party landed near the present-day Cottesloe Beach, marching eastward to the Swan River near Freshwater Bay. They tried to contact some of the Nyoongar to enquire about the fate of survivors of the Ridderschap van Hollant, lost in 1694, but were unsuccessful. Following this encounter, they sailed north, but not before de Vlamingh had bestowed the name Swan on the river because of the black swans he saw swimming there. Just over 100 years later, in 1829, Captain James Stirling founded Perth as part of the Swan River Colony.
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Tuesday/ South Beach

We visited a local beach called South Beach on Tuesday, and I went in for a dip in the Atlantic Ocean (the water temperature was very pleasant).  The beach is south of the city of Perth, in Fremantle.

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Bicycles for rent.
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This is South Beach, looking north towards the city of Perth. That’s a little pontoon in the water, for beachgoers to swim out to and stand on.
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The ‘Local’ Hotel on South Terrace Drive in Fremantle used to be the Seaview Hotel, and the old building was given new life with a renovation inside and outside.
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Monday/ arrival in Perth

I traveled due south from Hong Kong for 7 hours to arrive in Perth late on Monday night.   It is warm here : last night is was 27 °C (80 °F) at the late hour of 11 pm.

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Crystal maker Swarovski’s eye-catching display in the departure hall of Hong Kong airport.
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My Cathay Pacific Boeing 737 waiting at the gate for us to board.
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It’s a 7 hour flight due south from Hong Kong to Perth .. at this point about 2 hours of flying time remained.
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It’s a kangaroo, which means I’m in Australia! This is outside the arrivals hall at Perth International airport.
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Sunday/ arrival in Hong Kong

I made it into Hong Kong airport late on Sunday night.   My layover is so long (16 hours!) that I could leave the airport to go to the Novotel Citygate hotel nearby for some sleep before the fourth and final segment of my travels to Perth, Australia.

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Here is pepper the personal robot, in the Softbank store in Tokyo station. (I want one). The robot ‘notices’ you as you walk up by looking at you, and the tablet on its (his?) chest offers all kinds of services. I selected some music and Pepper did a little wave with his arms and swaying of his head as the music played. Don’t touch! Don’t hug! says the sign behind Pepper.
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I took the Narita Express, the shinkansen (bullet train) to Narita Airport. At Tokyo station, two sets of cars are connected before the train leaves .. the on-lookers are watching the other section of train approaching (slowly).
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Display ad for a capsule hotel stay at Narita Airport. I should try that some time, not? These are not for the claustrophobic traveller, I am sure.
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A larger-than-life anime character at the entrance of the Akhihabara electronics store in Narita Airport.
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.. and a giant stuffed My Neighbor Totoro character from the classic 1988 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Totoro is a friendly forest creature.
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We’re on the runway at Narita Airport, and Hong Kong bound. It is an All Nippon Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner under the floodlights.
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Saturday/ shopping & sightseeing in Tokyo

Here are more pictures of my Tokyo experience from Friday and Saturday.

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Mitsukoshi is a popular department store headquartered in Tokyo. At 10 am there was a long line of shoppers waiting for it to open .. and then they were warmly welcomed by the assistants are the door opened. I love the characters in the window. ‘Life is a gift’ says the slogan that goes with the pictures.
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This display is in the WAKO Main Building, that houses a Seiko watch store among others. I ogled a US$2,000 Seiko Astron, a titanium watch with two dials : one for one’s home time zone, and another that syncs with GPS to the time zone that one has traveled to. Perfect for me, right? I resisted since I already have um, 4 Seiko watches.
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Wow .. nice roof on this square koban (police box) building. Private ownership of guns is not allowed in Japan (imagine that!). The police do have guns, but don’t wear them, as a rule.
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This is in Yodobashi Akiba, surely the world’s largest and fanciest electronics and appliances store. The shop assistant is getting two half scale Star Wars characters – Darth Vader and a Stormtrooper – ready for display. Each goes for about US$170.
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Godzilla lives large in the Japanese monster imagination and the store offers many more varieties of creatures that are similar. Or maybe this is a modern-day Godzilla.
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Don’t rush ! The gate is closing and the train begs the passenger to stop and wait for the next train. This is late at night, so not a lot of people around, but early Friday night I was in the fullest train EVER, one of those where we were pushed in like sardines. You cannot move your arms. Luckily my destination was just two stops away. ‘Excuse me, excuse me’, I said politely, and people spilled out of the train to let me out.
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Tokyo Station’s 5½-year renovation was completed in 2012, in time for its 100 year anniversary in 2014. The station suffered heavy damage in World War II. This is the restored ceiling of one of the two domes in the station.
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And here is the old main entrance. There is a much bigger modern entrance with an enormous white canopy and large JR Tokyo Station lettering on the opposite side of the building.
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This is a new elevated and automated metro line (three years old), so the train has no driver. I am on the way to Odaiba (お台場), a large artificial island in Tokyo Bay. The bridge is the Rainbow Bridge.
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And look! The Statue of Liberty* with the Rainbow Bridge now in the background. *A replica, of course.
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Friday/ the Ginza district

My Marriott Courtyard hotel is tucked into the 4th floor of a building just outside the upscale shopping area of Tokyo, the Ginza district.   Here are some pictures of my walkabout there last night.

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‘We’re sorry!’ says the little picture after the ATM had declined my debit card. I eventually found an ATM that gave me cash; I should have gotten some Yen at the airport, though.  Amazingly, Japan still transacts in cash. You put your cash in a little tray, and the change gets put back in it with your receipt, a little ritual. It does seem to me that most stores grudgingly accept credit cards and maybe they do so for me just because I am a foreigner.
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Japanese porcelain maker Noritake has moved their store from Akasaka to the Ginza district, and I eventually found it.  This set of mini serving plates is gorgeous! .. just a little pricey at US$240 for the set.  And it’s not like I have 5 people over every other night at my house to serve up little tidbits to! (unfortunately).
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Yes, it is Christmas in Japan as well. (Missing : the pervasive Christmas jingles playing in the stores the way we do it in US shopping malls). There are little Christmas trees lining the street in the Ginza district, with wishes of Merry Christmas in the windows, and a Happy Holidays here and there, as well.
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I love this lit up creature – a salamander, maybe? – on the Bulgari jewelry store.
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Lots of blue in the Fendi storefront, and check out the fluffy creature (from the Blue Lagoon?) in the window.
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It’s just after 10 pm, and the Apple store’s employees are wiping away the days smudges from the demonstration devices in the store.
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One of the flagship department stores, the Matsuya Ginza. By day there is a Japanese national flag (the red sun on the white) on a flagpole on top of the building.
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Thursday night/ arrival in Tokyo

My flight to Tokyo went without incident, and the airline staff were super helpful and friendly.  It was 7.30 pm Tokyo time when we had arrived, and commuters were still leaving the office, so the monorail train from Haneda airport got crowded a few stops down.  But that got me to the nearest metro station, and I could get to Tokyo Station from there.  (My Marriott Courtyard hotel is close to Tokyo Station). Of course, the station is very big, so I could not find the hotel immediately.  Tired and with two bags in tow, I went for Plan B : got into a taxi to take me there.  The cabby’s English was poor (and my Japanese non-existent), but I could tell he was taking me to the wrong Courtyard (there is one in Ginza as well) .. so I just called the right Courtyard Hotel and asked them to give him directions .. and hey! I have a bed to sleep in.

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Here’s our Dreamliner 787 flying machine at Vancouver airport. i have to say : inside it did not feel a whole lot of difference from other aircraft ! But there are a few changes in the cabin such as : no physical shutters on the windows .. they are darkened to a choice of 6 shades by a button below the window; and the faucet and flush button in the toilet are motion activated. Our plane did not have wi-fi on board.
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It was 10 hr flight to Tokyo, and actually a straight shot when looked at on the globe.
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Man! I was happy to see some English translation coming up on this display board. There is a monorail train from Haneda airport to the nearest metro station. And from there I took a metro train to Tokyo Station.
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My Marriott Courtyard Tokyo Station hotel room is barely big enough to fit the queen size bed into, but there is no problem with that! I just need a bed to sleep in.