Gallery – Page 3 – Willem's Planet

December 28, 2016March 2, 2018

Wednesday/ more Hong Kong

Here are my pictures from Wednesday’s walkabouts in the city. I spent some time on the Hong Kong mainland side (Kowloon). My Marriott Courtyard hotel is on Hong Kong island.

This is the Kowloon train station entrance from the plaza by International Commerce Center (the 108-storey, 484 m skyscraper completed in 2010 in West Kowloon). The ICC is behind me.

This is the base of the International Commerce Centre skyscraper. Besides the international financial services firms, there is a Ritz-Carlton Hotel in the skyscraper as well. (Here’s to hoping that the ‘smartest guys in the room’ in their suits are not brewing up another 2008-style financial crisis for us!).

There is a Christmas tree with Fantastic Mr Fox characters on display inside the ICC. This is Rabbit, one character of many in the Fantastic Mr Fox novel. (A children’s novel written by British author Roald Dahl, also made into an animated movie in 2009).

Lots of Hong Kong taxis outside the Times Square mall in Causeway Bay. These old Toyota taxis are hanging in there; I don’t see too many Priuses that had replaced them yet.

I cannot leave Hong Kong without a tram ride, I thought .. this is the view from one taking me to Lan Kwai Fong (‘party central’ for the expats in the city). I am sitting upstairs and right up front, and trying not to annoy my fellow passengers ‘too much’ by incessantly taking pictures.

This is the start of a whole series of escalators and stairs that make it easy to go up the hillside to the ‘mid levels’ where more shops and restaurants are.

Check out these gorgeous exterior wall decorations from a building in Wellington Street in Lan Kwai Fong.

December 27, 2016March 2, 2018

Here are pictures from my late night venture into Central District. It’s been four years since I have walked around in the city. The city continues to add to its already staggering inventory of skyscrapers, and there seems to be more Starbucks coffee shops around than ever; some of them just hole-in-the-wall take out locations.

One can now get to the Marriott Courtyard a little easier with the westward extension of the Island Line. Ironically, the hotel is right in between two new stops .. so still a good 10 minute walk from either station. The old street trams are still running, though; some of them now nicely refurbished on the inside with new seats.

December 26, 2016December 27, 2016

Monday night/ back to Hong Kong

Almost there .. about one more hour of the 7h 45m flight to go to get to Hong Kong.

A picture from our approach into Hong Kong airport. Another year had gone, and I see the world’s longest bridge, the HongKong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge will now only be completed by Dec 2017 – at the earliest. This is one of the man-made islands. The white rectangle in the middle of the island is where the ‘bridge’ actually becomes a tunnel (see next picture).

The three cities that the HongKong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge connect with one another. The bridge is actually a bridge-tunnel-bridge combination, so that large ships can cross it.

Here’s the inside of an almost-empty Hong Kong metro train car. (At the end of the Island Line, on my way to the hotel). The cars have open gangways, so you can see all the way to the front as it snakes through its tunnel.

On Monday night I started to make my way back to Seattle, but with stay-overs in Hong Kong and in Tokyo. Our flight out of Perth departed at midnight and brought us into Hong Kong by 7.45 am on Tuesday morning.

December 26, 2016March 2, 2018

Sunday/ Perth downtown

Here are some pictures from Sunday afternoon and Monday, of Perth downtown and its surrounding area.

Here’s a panoramic view of the Perth skyline from Kings Park, on the western edge of the city.

These are black ducks, in Kings Park and its botanical garden.

A protea from the small South African section in the botanical garden.

The Western Australia museum is closed for renovations, but I liked this billboard with its swimming dinosaur-lizard.

This building at 139 St Georges Terrace looks like a church, but it is a school : Old Perth Boys school, the earliest government school building in Western Australia, and established in 1852.

This bright red Alfa Romeo caught my eye, in downtown against the old buildings.

And the inevitable city tourist bus, with a kangeroo on the side with the ‘hop on, hop off’ text.

December 24, 2016December 24, 2016

Friday/ back to Perth

We drove back to Perth from Albany, with highway 30 most of the way over Kojonup and Williams. Here are some pictures from our stops on the way.

This is in Kojonup, and the mileages are in kilometers. The last two town names are from the Noongar language. The Noongar are Aboriginal people that have lived in the south-west of Western Australia for more than 45,000 years.

This is a giant replica of a loaded horse-drawn wool wagon from yesteryear. In 1908 some 10,000 sheep were shorn in the Kojonup Shire (a shire is a county). By 1969 that number had reached 1 million. Nowadays the local wool industry has become much more mechanized and specialized.

Here’s the abandoned train station building at Kojonup. It has been at least 30 years since the last train went through here.

The old main hotel in Williams is still standing. There is still a bar downstairs, but its heyday has by now been long. long gone.

December 23, 2016March 2, 2018

Friday/ the Albany from yesteryear

Here are some of the older buildings around York Street and Princess Royal Drive in old historic downtown Albany.

The Albany town hall was its first civic building. It opened in 1888.

The ‘London Hotel’ is on Princess Royal Street. It is the oldest licensed hotel in Western Australia, first built in 1856 and rebuilt after a major fire in 1909.

This train came steaming through the main station in Albany this morning. It is westbound, towards the town of Denmark.

This beautiful old gazebo overlooks the main train station.

December 22, 2016

Thursday/ Flinders peninsula

A whaling station was located at Discovery Bay on Flinders Peninsula, and was operated on and off from the early 1800s to 1978, when it was finally closed down. The two main species of whale hunted were the Southern Right Whale and the Humpback Whale.

A whaling ship is part of the historic whaling station display (the busy background interferes a little with the image of the ship).

Man! Watch out! Lots of calamities that can befall the careless explorer of the cliffs and coastline around the peninsula (check out the pictures).

We drove out to Flinders Peninsula on the King George Sound today, and stopped by a historic whaling station (now a museum), and the coastline on the oceanside of King George Sound.

This view of the Southern Ocean from the view point called ‘Blow Holes’ on peninsula. Sea caves form in the rocks, which result in blasts of water from the top of the opening. We did not see much of that today, though. Maybe the tide was low.

December 21, 2016December 21, 2016

Wednesday/ Albany

We spent a little time at the beach at Greens Pool in the Denmark area today, before heading out east to Albany for the next few days. Albany is a port city in the Great Southern region of Western Australia. It is the oldest permanently settled town in Western Australia, since it was actually founded more than two years before Perth and Fremantle.

Kangeroos come quite close to the chalets and tents in our camping area, usually as the sun sets. These fellas are probably eastern gray kangeroos, found throughout southern and eastern Australia.

Greens Pool beach is part of William Bay National Park. It has a large natural tide pool with a sandy white beach ringed by large granite boulders that keep the surf of the Southern Ocean out.

Lichens and a hardy succulent on the granite boulders by Greens Pool.

Albany has a peninsula and two natural harbors. We are staying at Emu Point. Look for it at the top right of the picture, by Oyster Harbor.

December 20, 2016December 20, 2016

Tuesday/ the drive to Denmark

We got a late start out to the drive down from Perth airport to Denmark on Monday afternoon, and took a wrong turn on the way there, to boot. (Yes,I should have turned on the Google Map navigation, but I wanted to save some data and the cellular signal is very weak in some remote areas). But we did eventually make it in to Denmark at 9 pm.

The drive from Perth to Denmark was as follows : Perth-Armadale-Williams-Arthur River-Kojonup-Mt Barker-Denmark.

This beautiful Memorial Hall building in Kojonup shows the typical architecture of buildings found in the small towns on the way to Denmark.

A very cool surfer Santa Claus, in front of a store in Denmark.

The Ocean Beach estuary at Denmark. The ocean on this part of the Australian coast is called the Southern Ocean.

December 18, 2016December 18, 2016

Sunday night/ stop in Hong Kong

Here are some pictures from Hong Kong airport.
The flight from Tokyo to Hong Kong was 5 hours. I am on the way to Perth shortly.

We’re still on the ground at Tokyo’s Narita airport, but not for much longer. Here is the in-flight camera showing the ground crew removing the stopping blocks from the aircraft wheels.

Arriving at the gate at Hong Kong International airport with its wavy roofline. These are all Cathay Pacific birds, same as the one I am in.

Inside the terminal at Hong Kong International airport. The display of giant polished spheres are by fashion house Dior.

I love the dragon boat with the M&M characters in. The red one and yellow one in front are the cutest with their *nón lá* (conical Vietnamese style hats). Of all the varieties, the almond M&Ms are still the best.

December 17, 2016March 2, 2018

Sunday/ Shinjuku

I made a run out to Shinjuku station on Saturday night, if only to test my mega-train station navigation chops (Shinjuku is by far the world’s largest and busiest train station).

Later on Sunday I have to head out to Narita airport for my flight to Perth, with a stop in Hong Kong.

This is the Isetan department store near Shinjuku station, in a beautiful historic building. Life is a Gift .. smart marketing? wise outlook on life? Probably both.

This giant crab on a building near Shinjuku station has animated arms, and is about 20 feet across. I assume it advertises seafood at a restaurant inside.

More upscale shopping in Shinjuku san-chome (Shinjuku Block no 3). Maybe the rainbow colors are purely incidental, or maybe not : the gay night life district is just next door in Shinjuku ni-chome (Shinjuku Block no 2).

There is still construction going on in the streets around Shinjuku station (there was last year). As far as I remember that skylight pyramid is new.

This is Sunday morning, on the Yamanote line from Japan Railways company. I’m at Shimbashi station, going to Tokyo station. Check out the old controls on the pillar on the left.

December 17, 2016March 2, 2018

Saturday/ Ginza and Akihabara

Here are pictures from the time I spent in the Ginza district and in Akihabara. I spent way too much time in the Yodobashi electronics store – some of it drooling over a beautiful $430 Seiko titanium watch (no! go and think about it first is what I told myself).

A Nissan concept self-driving car in a display on a street corner in Ginza.

This giant ‘polar bear’ with two cubs is in the Wako department store. There is a button in the window that passers-by can push to ring the golden bell (up and to the left of the little guy checking out the bear). And then the bear stirs lazily and opens her eyes, and go back to sleep.

Many of the streets in Ginza were closed for traffic, to allow shoppers to wander around in the streets. Several light displays of giant flowers add some festivity.

Here’s the Sony building in the Ginza district. Look for a sleek all-electric BMW i8 at the bottom of the picture in black and white.

This is the Ginza station on the Hibya line. I’m getting ready to go to Akihabara.

This is a new sign, evidently warning of the dangers of texting or browsing while walking around on the platform at the same time. Yes – it can be very dangerous.

The Yodobashi electronics and appliance emporium is as popular as ever, and I spent a lot of time there. That’s the iPhone 7 that is featured on its billboards.

There are many, many sets of make believe characters in the toy department : the Sylvanian rabbit family, Lego friends. monsters and warriors, and then there are the ‘pose skeletons’. (A little weird, not?).

Another somewhat jarring concept: anime characters dressed up in Christmas gear, for a show called ‘Precious Christmas’.

December 5, 2016December 5, 2016

Monday/ to San Francisco, one more time

There was no sign of snow as I left my house this morning at 5 am, but then as we boarded the plane at Seattle-Tacoma airport a few snowflakes mixed in with the light rain, came down. The pilot said he could still get us out there without needing to call for a de-icing of the wings of the plane. I work in the city office for my final week on the project (yay!), and is cold here in San Francisco as well.

img_8811-sm — The Salesforce Tower on Mission St still needs a lot of work! .. but getting there, I suppose.

img_8813-sm — There was a terrible tragedy in Oakland across the Bay over the weekend : a fire raged through a converted warehouse with apartments and and an entertainment area, and more than 30 people perished in the blaze.

img_8820-sm — Here’s the scene at the bottom of Powell Street where it meets market. The cable cars are still running, there are still plenty of tourists on the streets – and homeless people as well, some wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.

December 4, 2016December 4, 2016

Saturday/ the levels of self-driving cars

There was a great documentary by Japanese national broadcaster NHK on TV on Saturday, about the advances made to create self-driving cars. NHK mentioned four levels of sophistication, but I see Wired magazine uses five levels (credit to Wired magazine for the Level 0 to Level 5 pictures). Google is going for the making the software, and will sell it to car makers, much like it is selling Android software to mobile phone makers. Car makers are partnering with technology companies for the hardware and software that is needed for these cars. Other vendor companies to car makers are retooling and scrambling not to be left out, for the day when items such as rear-view mirrors for the driver, will be obsolete. NHK had a rear-view mirror manufacturer on that is rapidly transitioning to mirrors that show an image generated by a camera, instead of just being a mirror (presumably the rear-view mirror’s image is just part of the bigger all-around image that the car ‘sees’). Anyway, check out those levels of self-driving cars. Everyone wants a Level 5 car, of course!

img_8786-sm — This is the camera picture fed to the computer, from a detection system called MobileEye, an Israeli company that works with Japanese car maker Nissan. The G’s mean the traffic light up ahead is green.

November 12, 2016November 13, 2016

Saturday/ 12th Ave, Capitol Hill

These pictures are from my walkabout this afternoon here in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.

img_8592-sm — Sam’s Tavern with a vintage USA/ American flag motif .. kind of reflecting the way I feel about the United States of America’s image overseas right now: tarnished.

img_8593-sm — Display in a store that sells eclectic clothing, with Leonard Cohen’s image on a jacket. Cohen was a Canadian singer, songwriter, poet and novelist, and passed away on Nov 7 at the age of 82.

img_8594-sm — Sign for a community meeting to discuss the aftermath of the election. (Well, to the writer of the sign: I empathize, but if you are an American citizen, he actually IS your President).

img_8596-sm — Art in a parking lot across from Cal Anderson Park.

November 11, 2016

Friday/ San Francisco’s MoMA

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art reopened in May of this year after a major three-year-long expansion project. And so when I miraculously found a two-hour break in my workday meeting schedule on Monday, I walked down to 3rd Avenue and Mission, and took a quick romp through the museum. 1 ½ hrs of time is not nearly enough for seven floors of art – but there is only so much one can take in at any one time, then one has to call it a visit and come back later (which does not apply only to museums, right?).