Finally met up with the agent guy and picked up the key to the flat.
Dropped off my bags and got money at the Citibank in Oxford Circus. That�s a shopping district with stores typical of the Third Street Prominade. I mean, they have two Starbucks and a Gap and other stalwarts of American capitalism. Good bird watching too.
Wi-fi is a bit hard to find out here so updates will probably be weekly since T-Mobile charges 5 pounds per hour (that�s US$10 folks!).
But after I got settled in, the rain stopped and the skies cleared. Grimley told me that this is a RARE RARE thing.
About that price thing: candy bars are 50 pence and drinks like iced tea are 1 pound. That�s US$2.00 man!
So now I�m going to get a briefing from Grimley about places to check out in Paris. And Meghan, a former SMWMer like moi will be meeting me at Paris Nord tomorrow when my train arrives.
Almost like a bad movie, but it IS Paris…
AAAaaagh
Delayed into London! My flight, unusually, had a stopover. SFO-JFK-LHR.
The flight to JFK was no problem. Until we had to land via autopilot because JFK was foggy. That�s unusual according to the fei poh UA flight attendants.
Eeeerrrrrrwhiiiiineeeee THUD. “Welcome to New York”.
Because of the fog, my Heathrow flight was delayed two hours!
The food was mediocre. Beef or pasta on both flights. The domestic flight beef was salty. The potatoes had no character and the spinach was pale. The international pasta was better. It was a tortelinni dish.
I should have given into my darker self and gotten Chicken McNuggets before I got on the LHR flight.
There’s a lot of weather over the Atlantic. I was rocked to slumber by turbulence. Couldn�t get much sleep otherwise.
Once we landed, the plane was shunted to the part of LHR where planes get parked.
That meant airstairs and than a basi.
Took the Tube to Lancaster Gate, that took an hour. (note to self: take Heathrow Express when leaving).
Then the agent that was supposed to meet me with the keys left.
I still don�t have a SIM card (they aren�t as available as they are in HKG or SIN).
And on top of it all, it�s cold (San Francisco cold) and it�s raining!!!
The one saving grace is that there�s a pub nearby that serves lunch. So I�m waiting for an order of Fish and Chips with a pint of John Smith�s Extra Smooth bitters.
Then I get to call the agent guy back.
Oh yeah, stuff is expensive here. Makes Tokyo look like a bargain.
London Calling!
Well, I’ve been stuck in San Francisco for the past few months, hence the lack of new interesting posts.
But there’s a good chance that I will be heading off to London and other places for a couple of weeks. The fares are decent (even if the Euro isn’t) and I’ve arranged a place to stay there.
Maybe stuck on UAL though. The other Star Alliance airlines either cost too much or it just won’t work schedule wise….
…just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!!!…
Ever feel the need to bowl?
Bowling is an international sport.
Though I’d question the word of “sport” since people who sit at a table shoving cards and chips at each other is also considered a “sport”.
In HKG, you can go to an old airport and bowl in the terminal.
In Tokyo, all you need to do is look for one of these. Or it could just be a piece of moderne retro design…
Usually they’re out front like this one but sometimes they’re huge on the rooftops making a very weird statement on the skyline.
Lost in Translation’s Tokyo
I received my DVD right before my recent trip over there. I watched it on the way to Tokyo (on a 12″ Al Powerbook and noise cancelling headphones) and again (on a big screen and proper Dolby Digital sound) when I returned home.
The movie does a good job portraying the sensory overload of Tokyo and the various islands of calm that can be found in that big big city. It connects at many levels and I’d gander that most foreigners who visit Tokyo on a regular basis can relate to many things in the flick.
Anyhoo, here’s a rundown of some of the places that Bob and Charlotte visit in the movie. And if you’ve not seen it yet, go do so. Tonight.
Then book your trip.
Shameless Plug
When I’m in HK, I usually find some time to go here to have a smoke. This place is above the main Shanghai Tang store in Central in the Pedder Building.
Now since I’m here to smoke, I usually go downstairs to shop. The clothes are nice and the home decor stuff is nice. It’s nice and nice & expensive! So I don’t buy but I do shop. I did pick up a CD of old Mandopop songs remixed, much like the recent Verve Remixed CDs called Shanghai Divas in Residence.
Except this was only 6 songs plus the remixes so I guess that’s 12 songs. Still kinda short but it’s a nice CD. I found myself listening to this a LOT on the Tokyo subway after I ripped the CD to my iPod. The remixes are about as long as the ride from Sendagi to Hibiya. It’s a nice groove and being on the train, it just fit.
Go here and click “next” at the bottom right corner of the page. You’ll see the CD on the next page.
Lodging in Tokyo (why pay twice as much as last time?)
On my last trip here (November 2003), I stayed at the New Koyo in Taito-Ku. It’s a bit out of the way, then nearest JR station being Minami-Senju. That’s several stops outside the Yamanote but you can’t beat the price.
This trip, I decided to stay somewhere different, albeit a tad pricer. The Annex Katsutaro is in Yanaka, a little bit closer than the New Koyo is. The nearest subway stop is Sendagi on the Chiyoda Line. It’s a one block walk (as opposed to the 6 block death march from Minami-Senju to the New Koyo). If you’re on JR or jumping off the Skyliner, you get off the train at Nippori Station and walk for about 10 minutes.
There’s a big pedestrianized street after you walk past the Yanaka Cemetary with all kinds of markets and shops. That’s called the Yanaka Ginza.
Walk to the end and make a left. Walk another block and you’ll see the Annex.
It’s new and it’s modern and it has three times the space that a room at the New Koyo has. And it has free internet via CAT 5 jacks in the walls. Wah!
The room was roomy, clean an it had a microfridge. And its own bathroom. Next time me and the fellas come to Japan, we stay here. No more friggin’ business hotels for me!
Best of all, if you dun bring yr Powerbook w/you, there’s FREE internet in the hall, a pee cee and a slot loading iMac. An iMac! Cool!
Thumbs up, and this is why I stayed here as opposed to the New Koyo this time, April. =P
Leaving on a (crowded) Jet Plane and other forms of transport
Today was my last day in Tokyo. Blah. The plane leaves for San Francisco at 1945 which means I go BACK in time and arrive at 1100 today.
That date line thingie can be a real pain in da butt…
I had some time today before I had to leave for Narita on the Skyliner. Since it leaves at 1445 and it takes about an hour to get to Narita, I had the morning to putter about. Now what is the Skyliner? Well…
There are several ways to get to Tokyo from Narita. Most people take the JR N’ex, the Narita Express. It takes about an hour to get to Tokyo Station and another 15 minutes or so to go to Shinjuku and another 30 to get to Yokohama (at Tokyo Station, the train splits in two). It’s in the neighborhood of 3000 yen (yes, that’s about US$26 or so) EACH WAY! It’s not worth it unless you have a JR Pass (in which case, all JR lines are free) or if someone else is paying.
There are also private railways here, usually ran by department stores (go figure!) such as the Tokyu Lines or the Hankyu Lines in Kyoto. Keisei Electric Railways runs the Skyliner that runs from Narita to Nippori, terminating at Ueno. The trains are older and look a tad funky, but it’s only 1900 yen each way (and if you hunt around, you can get discounted tix).
I had a chance to visit Roppongi Hills, a very upscale redevelopment in Roppongi. It’s an attempt to bring some grownupness (respectibility) to the area. It’s pretty nice. I visited the Mori Institute for the Future, a urban planning exhibit that compares New York, Shanghai and Tokyo with some neat 1/1000 scale city models and a bunch of multimedia shows. And naturally, no cameras allowed.
Sorry bout that.
Gotta boogie, the train will leave soon…
Last nite in Tokyo (snif!)
Besides visiting questionable icons of bubble-era architecture (see below), today was an eating day.
I had lunch with Yumi which was good. She’s off skiing tomorrow. Fun!
Lunchtime is the same over there as it is over here. Short. Only an hour. Bummer.
I had a late supper with Takeshi, a friend I met when he was in San Francisco for a few months rooming with Cesar after graduating college. He works too hard. But he did have the time to hang out after work. We watched the football game between Japan and Oman (Japan won 1-0 with a last minute goal) at the Jazz Cafe London and had some drinks and smokes.
Then dinner with race queens! Well, the food was pretty good actually, but the service was fanstastically beautiful! Couldn’t take pix inside tho, so you’ll just have to be happy with the link.
The Golden Turd!
If you take the Ginza line from end to end, you’ll begin in Shibuya (yum yum!) and end in Asakusa. Not Akasaka, which I’ve had a horrible habit of confusing the two.
You can tell you’re in Asakusa because:
#1: There’s a river. Neat.
#2: The oldest western style tavern (since 1891) is here.
#3: You can see the Phillipe Starck designed “golden turd” when you come up from the subway and look towards the bridge.
Actually it’s called the Asahi Dry Golden Beer Hall or something like that. There’s a couple of restaurants inside but nothing like the Yebisu Beer Museum that I went to on my first visit here.
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