Wednesday, June 1, 2005
Photos now on-line!
I have finally got my photos set up on-line on Flickr. Check it out! From time to time I will post photos to this blog, but you'll be able to see the entire archive at flickr. Mind you, these aren't all the photos I've taken, as I'm a little trigger-happy... just the best ones!
Belated blogging
This is only my third post, and I have to concede that I am not a born-blogger. It's been six days since my last post, and so much has happened I barely know where to begin. Other than from the beginning.
I was in Melbourne from Friday to Monday for Nicky's 30th birthday, which was actually on Sunday, but the party was on Saturday night. Kevin and Ben also flew down for the event, and the three of us stayed at a fantastic apartment hotel in South Melbourne, the Quest on Dorcas just of St Kilda Road. Our view looked out towards the Shrine of Remembrance, which we visited on Saturday morning. Check out the photos.
I highly recommend the Quest apartment hotels. I don't have any photos but you can google their site. I think they're franchised hotels, but all look very good. We got a Wotif rate of $186/night which is very cheap for Melbourne, especially if you saw how beautifully decorated our apartment was. The hotel is brand new, and is fully-wired with Ethernet. They even supply wifi modems at no extra charge, on request. I was able to hook up my PDA to the net using my iPass account. Amazing.
While in Melbourne we also caught up with Mandy and Nick. Mandy used to love in Brisbane, before her returning to her home town and marrying the lovely Nick. We had lunch at a little bistro off Greville Street which summed up everything about eating in Melbourne. The food is always good and almost always quite inexpensive. Later we visited their house in South Yarra. It's a cute duplex which they renovated themselves. Nick laid down the wood flooring himself. It looked stunning, and the house brand new.
But the big event was Nicky's party on Saturday night at Alumbra, a cute little bar/club right on the water in the docklands. It was decorated with a Thai/Outback/Post-modern fusion theme thing, with lots of couches and a high wog-quotient. I always forget how woggy Melbourne is, until I go. I find myself blending in to the background. :-)
After the party proper, we partied on into the wee hours with Nicky's friends, who were all lovely and very generous and accomodating. Let me just say it was a huge night, with hours and hours of fun, laughs, and hijinks. I even learned a new dance - which you had to see to understand how funny/cute it was. Thank you Claire! (Mind you, I'm not sure how much of it I still remember). And thank you Adam, Marco, and Lena.
On Monday I had lunch with Nicky at The Stokehouse, which is a restaurant right on the bay at St Kilda (just near the Palais). I love how Melbournians call the bay "the beach". The sand is coarse, there are no waves, the sky is gray, and the wind (let alone the water) is bone-chillingly cold.
Nicky dropped me off at the airport, and it was sad to say goodbye. But it was fun leaving Australia via Tullamarine rather than Brisbane. I had a fantastic flight, with a window seat and an empty seat next to me... all the way to Singapore. The food was really good, and there was plenty of it. I was stuffed after each meal. I've planned all my flights on this trip with airlines and planes that have personal televisions. I'd heard the technology is good, but I was still very impressed. I counted 60 different movies I could watch on-demand. Unfortunately, all are presented in a 4:3 aspect ratio, so I passed on the movies. But there were dozens of tv shows and countless audio albums to choose from. And also video games. I played Super Mario for about two hours until I developed a severe case of Nintendonitis.
We landed at Changi around 9:30pm. My phone switched over to roaming straight away, and I could get free wifi internet in the airport. How did we ever live without the internet?
Fearing the rumours of the cost of meat in Japan, I went to Burger King for my last supper. I also stopped by the pharmacist to pick up some protein bars. It seems that health food hasn't made it to Singapore. The clerk stared at me when I explained what I wanted, before directing me to some high-fat/high-sugar bars that best matched my description. However, on a high note, it seems that drugs are cheap in Singapore. A 24-pack of Panadeine with Sudafed was AUD $3. Go figure.
If my flight to Singapore was perfect, then the yin of that yang was the flight from Singapore to Osaka. I cannot recall what made me think that I should book a 1AM flight, especially knowing this would follow a big weekend, but it was far worse than I could imagine. According to my boarding pass sequence number, I was the 20th passenger. I asked the check-in clerk at Tullamarine for window seats on both flights, but she made a complete mess of the SIN-KIX flight. I was in seat 31A on a 777-200, which is the left-most seat in the very first row of economy class seating. As it's the first row, behind the door bulkhead, there is actually no window and only half the leg room of a normal seat. I felt myself slipping into the depths of claustrophobia. But the plane was completely full. And I mean every seat was occupied, so I couldn't move to another row. The only good thing about this seat was that I was close to the emergency exit if we had to crash.
I stayed awake long enough for the meal, if you can call it that. Aeroflot would have a better in-flight service. I got a ham baguette, which was devoured before the stewardess moved to the next row. I tried to get some sleep but my neighbour had a snoring problem. Early in the flight I would nudge him gently every few minutes and go back to sleep. By the end of flight I was jabbing him in the side and/or pulling his pillow out from under him. I know this sounds extreme, but let me assure you it did NOTHING to wake him up. It just managed to stop him snoring for a minute or two. I had to laugh when the Nazi stewardess insisted he wake up to have his meal. God forbid Singapore Airlines allow you to sleep on a flight. The breakfast meal was the flight's nadir. It was a sweaty, broiled omelette, that leaked water when I cut it, as if it were a sea cucumber. And quite possibly the most revolting in-flight meal I have ever endured. So I arrived in Osaka, tired, hungry, and probably still somewhat hungover.
I had a ten hour stopover in Osaka. This seems long, but the domestic (and old international Itami airport is about 70km from Kansai International where I landed. The government started building Kansai in the 1980s to ease the pressure on Tokyo. A man-made island was built a few kilometres off the coast of Osaka but developed massive cost overruns when the island started sinking faster than expected before construction finished. It ended up costing US$14 billion, by completion in 1995. It is still sinking, at the rate of 1 foot per year, which is six times faster than the estimate. The American Society of Civil Engineers rank it as #2 civil engineering project of the 20th century, right behind the Panama Canal. The main terminal building holds the distinction of being the largest (in terms of area) single-roomed building in the world, and is 1.6km long in one direction. My photos don't really do it justice, but you'll be able to see a little of what I mean when I say it's big. Despite all the problems, the Japanese government is committed to making it work. They're actually doubling the size of the island by 2007. Check out this satellite photo to see how big it looks from space.
At the end of the taxiway, the airport authority built an observation deck. This is actually two 6-story buildings joined by a 5-th level bridge. The observatory is open to the public and has a cafe on the top floor. There must have been 100 people there who looked like they had come on a tour especially to see the airport. Most of these people looked like planespotters. Judging from their equipment there must have been at least a few professional photographers, but I also see many people with less elaborate equipment, and charts where they could mark off what they'd seen. There were even guys with shortwave radio equpment, listening in to the tower. It was almost as interesting to watch the people here, as it was to watch the planes. And post-S11, Kansai must be one of the few places in the world where you can photograph planes so close without being arrested!
I was speaking English for the first few hours that I was in Osaka, but the observatory was the point where I managed to combine my phrase book with high school Japanese, and give it a go, and I was successful. Yay! Up until then I felt incredibly isolated. In fact, from the time I landed in Kansai, until a few moments before boarding my next plane at Itami, I did not see one other non-Japanese person nor heard a single word of English in passing. In the few hours at Kansai, on the bus to Itami, and then at that latter airport, it became quite apparent to me why it is that ex-pats (like my friend Paul) love Japan so much. The people seem obsessed with non-Japanese people. They treat you like a rockstar, and giggle in excitement when you approach them. I felt like Ricky Martin at Itami.
From Itami, I took a flight to Niigata, which is the "country" town where Paul lives. The population of the city is about 600,000 (and maybe a milliion or two in the prefecture, or state), but this is definitely country living despite how it may look in the photos. No-one speaks English, although they are still as warm and accommodating as in Osaka. The Shinano, the longest river in Japan, winds its way through Niigata to the river mouth. One of the many bridges (and the bridge I've mostly photographed so far) is the Bandai Bridge. It was built in 1929, although it looks brand new. The lightposts were removed during WW2 as all scrap metal was appropriated for the war effort. The lightposts were only reinstated last year to restore the bridge to its original glory. Paul tells me that Niigata's primary industry is rice and paper (which of course, can also be made from the rice). Japan is supposed to have some of the best rice in the world, and Niigata makes the best rice in Japan. So I'm looking forward to checking this out. Funnily this is my second day here and I still haven't had anything with rice! Niigata is the capital of the Niigata prefecture, and a port city. I learned yesterday that when America forced Japan to open up after 250 years of self-imposed isolation, Niigata was one of only five designated ports that were allowed to trade with the west.
The night I arrived, Paul and his friends took me out for a special welcome dinner. We had a wonderful meal which can only be described as like a Japanese tapas. Most of the friends within this group are ex-pats, or Japanese people who have lived abroad, but all have interesting stories to tell. I have met Prue and GA before, so it was great to catch up with them again.
Paul lives in Niigata Manshon (as in "mansion"), the first high-rise apartment building in Niigata. I like to think of it as Niigata's Torbreck. It's pretty old now, but has a great view of the city. However, the elevator and passageways scare me as they remind me of the Japanese horror film Dark Water. If you've seen the film you will know what I mean. The movie is being remade this year with Jennifer Connelly. I am trying to get everyone here to see the original before I leave.
That's about it for now. Make sure you check out my photo blog at flickr.
I was in Melbourne from Friday to Monday for Nicky's 30th birthday, which was actually on Sunday, but the party was on Saturday night. Kevin and Ben also flew down for the event, and the three of us stayed at a fantastic apartment hotel in South Melbourne, the Quest on Dorcas just of St Kilda Road. Our view looked out towards the Shrine of Remembrance, which we visited on Saturday morning. Check out the photos.
I highly recommend the Quest apartment hotels. I don't have any photos but you can google their site. I think they're franchised hotels, but all look very good. We got a Wotif rate of $186/night which is very cheap for Melbourne, especially if you saw how beautifully decorated our apartment was. The hotel is brand new, and is fully-wired with Ethernet. They even supply wifi modems at no extra charge, on request. I was able to hook up my PDA to the net using my iPass account. Amazing.
While in Melbourne we also caught up with Mandy and Nick. Mandy used to love in Brisbane, before her returning to her home town and marrying the lovely Nick. We had lunch at a little bistro off Greville Street which summed up everything about eating in Melbourne. The food is always good and almost always quite inexpensive. Later we visited their house in South Yarra. It's a cute duplex which they renovated themselves. Nick laid down the wood flooring himself. It looked stunning, and the house brand new.
But the big event was Nicky's party on Saturday night at Alumbra, a cute little bar/club right on the water in the docklands. It was decorated with a Thai/Outback/Post-modern fusion theme thing, with lots of couches and a high wog-quotient. I always forget how woggy Melbourne is, until I go. I find myself blending in to the background. :-)
After the party proper, we partied on into the wee hours with Nicky's friends, who were all lovely and very generous and accomodating. Let me just say it was a huge night, with hours and hours of fun, laughs, and hijinks. I even learned a new dance - which you had to see to understand how funny/cute it was. Thank you Claire! (Mind you, I'm not sure how much of it I still remember). And thank you Adam, Marco, and Lena.
On Monday I had lunch with Nicky at The Stokehouse, which is a restaurant right on the bay at St Kilda (just near the Palais). I love how Melbournians call the bay "the beach". The sand is coarse, there are no waves, the sky is gray, and the wind (let alone the water) is bone-chillingly cold.
Nicky dropped me off at the airport, and it was sad to say goodbye. But it was fun leaving Australia via Tullamarine rather than Brisbane. I had a fantastic flight, with a window seat and an empty seat next to me... all the way to Singapore. The food was really good, and there was plenty of it. I was stuffed after each meal. I've planned all my flights on this trip with airlines and planes that have personal televisions. I'd heard the technology is good, but I was still very impressed. I counted 60 different movies I could watch on-demand. Unfortunately, all are presented in a 4:3 aspect ratio, so I passed on the movies. But there were dozens of tv shows and countless audio albums to choose from. And also video games. I played Super Mario for about two hours until I developed a severe case of Nintendonitis.
We landed at Changi around 9:30pm. My phone switched over to roaming straight away, and I could get free wifi internet in the airport. How did we ever live without the internet?
Fearing the rumours of the cost of meat in Japan, I went to Burger King for my last supper. I also stopped by the pharmacist to pick up some protein bars. It seems that health food hasn't made it to Singapore. The clerk stared at me when I explained what I wanted, before directing me to some high-fat/high-sugar bars that best matched my description. However, on a high note, it seems that drugs are cheap in Singapore. A 24-pack of Panadeine with Sudafed was AUD $3. Go figure.
If my flight to Singapore was perfect, then the yin of that yang was the flight from Singapore to Osaka. I cannot recall what made me think that I should book a 1AM flight, especially knowing this would follow a big weekend, but it was far worse than I could imagine. According to my boarding pass sequence number, I was the 20th passenger. I asked the check-in clerk at Tullamarine for window seats on both flights, but she made a complete mess of the SIN-KIX flight. I was in seat 31A on a 777-200, which is the left-most seat in the very first row of economy class seating. As it's the first row, behind the door bulkhead, there is actually no window and only half the leg room of a normal seat. I felt myself slipping into the depths of claustrophobia. But the plane was completely full. And I mean every seat was occupied, so I couldn't move to another row. The only good thing about this seat was that I was close to the emergency exit if we had to crash.
I stayed awake long enough for the meal, if you can call it that. Aeroflot would have a better in-flight service. I got a ham baguette, which was devoured before the stewardess moved to the next row. I tried to get some sleep but my neighbour had a snoring problem. Early in the flight I would nudge him gently every few minutes and go back to sleep. By the end of flight I was jabbing him in the side and/or pulling his pillow out from under him. I know this sounds extreme, but let me assure you it did NOTHING to wake him up. It just managed to stop him snoring for a minute or two. I had to laugh when the Nazi stewardess insisted he wake up to have his meal. God forbid Singapore Airlines allow you to sleep on a flight. The breakfast meal was the flight's nadir. It was a sweaty, broiled omelette, that leaked water when I cut it, as if it were a sea cucumber. And quite possibly the most revolting in-flight meal I have ever endured. So I arrived in Osaka, tired, hungry, and probably still somewhat hungover.
I had a ten hour stopover in Osaka. This seems long, but the domestic (and old international Itami airport is about 70km from Kansai International where I landed. The government started building Kansai in the 1980s to ease the pressure on Tokyo. A man-made island was built a few kilometres off the coast of Osaka but developed massive cost overruns when the island started sinking faster than expected before construction finished. It ended up costing US$14 billion, by completion in 1995. It is still sinking, at the rate of 1 foot per year, which is six times faster than the estimate. The American Society of Civil Engineers rank it as #2 civil engineering project of the 20th century, right behind the Panama Canal. The main terminal building holds the distinction of being the largest (in terms of area) single-roomed building in the world, and is 1.6km long in one direction. My photos don't really do it justice, but you'll be able to see a little of what I mean when I say it's big. Despite all the problems, the Japanese government is committed to making it work. They're actually doubling the size of the island by 2007. Check out this satellite photo to see how big it looks from space.
At the end of the taxiway, the airport authority built an observation deck. This is actually two 6-story buildings joined by a 5-th level bridge. The observatory is open to the public and has a cafe on the top floor. There must have been 100 people there who looked like they had come on a tour especially to see the airport. Most of these people looked like planespotters. Judging from their equipment there must have been at least a few professional photographers, but I also see many people with less elaborate equipment, and charts where they could mark off what they'd seen. There were even guys with shortwave radio equpment, listening in to the tower. It was almost as interesting to watch the people here, as it was to watch the planes. And post-S11, Kansai must be one of the few places in the world where you can photograph planes so close without being arrested!
I was speaking English for the first few hours that I was in Osaka, but the observatory was the point where I managed to combine my phrase book with high school Japanese, and give it a go, and I was successful. Yay! Up until then I felt incredibly isolated. In fact, from the time I landed in Kansai, until a few moments before boarding my next plane at Itami, I did not see one other non-Japanese person nor heard a single word of English in passing. In the few hours at Kansai, on the bus to Itami, and then at that latter airport, it became quite apparent to me why it is that ex-pats (like my friend Paul) love Japan so much. The people seem obsessed with non-Japanese people. They treat you like a rockstar, and giggle in excitement when you approach them. I felt like Ricky Martin at Itami.
From Itami, I took a flight to Niigata, which is the "country" town where Paul lives. The population of the city is about 600,000 (and maybe a milliion or two in the prefecture, or state), but this is definitely country living despite how it may look in the photos. No-one speaks English, although they are still as warm and accommodating as in Osaka. The Shinano, the longest river in Japan, winds its way through Niigata to the river mouth. One of the many bridges (and the bridge I've mostly photographed so far) is the Bandai Bridge. It was built in 1929, although it looks brand new. The lightposts were removed during WW2 as all scrap metal was appropriated for the war effort. The lightposts were only reinstated last year to restore the bridge to its original glory. Paul tells me that Niigata's primary industry is rice and paper (which of course, can also be made from the rice). Japan is supposed to have some of the best rice in the world, and Niigata makes the best rice in Japan. So I'm looking forward to checking this out. Funnily this is my second day here and I still haven't had anything with rice! Niigata is the capital of the Niigata prefecture, and a port city. I learned yesterday that when America forced Japan to open up after 250 years of self-imposed isolation, Niigata was one of only five designated ports that were allowed to trade with the west.
The night I arrived, Paul and his friends took me out for a special welcome dinner. We had a wonderful meal which can only be described as like a Japanese tapas. Most of the friends within this group are ex-pats, or Japanese people who have lived abroad, but all have interesting stories to tell. I have met Prue and GA before, so it was great to catch up with them again.
Paul lives in Niigata Manshon (as in "mansion"), the first high-rise apartment building in Niigata. I like to think of it as Niigata's Torbreck. It's pretty old now, but has a great view of the city. However, the elevator and passageways scare me as they remind me of the Japanese horror film Dark Water. If you've seen the film you will know what I mean. The movie is being remade this year with Jennifer Connelly. I am trying to get everyone here to see the original before I leave.
That's about it for now. Make sure you check out my photo blog at flickr.
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