Mikenet

Japanese Smoking Station

2010-03-14T09:04:00.002-04:00

Here is a smoking station on a Tokyo street, these things are all over the place:

These are the messages inscribed on both sides, I like the one about the 'cool cowboy':

Wakabayashi

2010-03-14T06:19:00.016-04:00

Today I went to see the house that my Great-Grandmother lived in, which is located at 2 Chome 18-3 in Wakabayashi. The Japanese addressing system is quite unusual, they do not name minor streets, the addresses are broken up by districts. This address can essentially be translated to 2nd District, 18th block, 3rd house. Below is the address and name placard (which reads 'Akaogi') of the current resident:

Here is the town-block marker that indicates this is the 2nd district (chome) of Wakabayashi:

Below is Wakabayashi Station, which is part of one of the few remaining street car systems left in Tokyo. To get here from the center of Tokyo, you need to take the Tokyo Den-en-toshi Line from the Shibuya Station to the Sangen-Jaya Station where you can transfer to the Tokyu Setagaya Line. Wakabayashi Station is the second stop:

Here is a view from inside the street car:

Here is the entrance to the street:

Here are the pictures of the actual house:

Next door there is a shrine:

Meet & Delikatessen

2010-03-14T06:08:00.002-04:00

Nice:

Edo-Tokyo Museum

2010-03-13T17:11:00.006-05:00

I went to the Edo-Tokyo Museum yesterday. The building it is housed in, which is huge, was set on stilts. I tried to get a good picture of it but due to it's size and height that proved to be very difficult. Here is a view of the building's fifth through seventh floors from the metro platform:

Every exhibit in this museum was translated into English except for this one:

日本

2010-03-11T16:25:00.004-05:00

The title of this post is the Japanese word for Japan (Nippon). This word loosely translates into 'Land of the Rising Sun'. The photograph below is from my hotel room's window:

Once the sun got higher in the sky it was too bright to photograph, so I got quite lucky with this shot.

Big America Hawaiian Burger

2010-03-10T17:13:00.003-05:00

There is lots of interesting looking food here, I believe that is part of an Egg McMuffin on top of a hamburger:

Hello from Tokyo

2010-03-10T06:52:00.002-05:00

I am currently sitting in Tokyo. Besides the long flight from hotel and the two hour bus ride to the hotel, everything has been nice. Last night it started snowing here, but outside of that, it has been warm. Here is the view from my hotel room:

Seafood Selection in Japanese Grocery Store

2010-02-26T12:04:00.002-05:00

While in Thailand, I stopped by the Isetan superstore and found an interesting selection of fish available for purchase:

Fish heads:

Pizza

2009-10-23T13:28:00.003-04:00

Wow, this must be some good pizza:

General Thoughts about Bangkok

2009-10-11T12:44:00.004-04:00

Bangkok, I have found, is a nice place. The food is good and the city is relatively clean. One thing that I found to be quite surprising is that there are a huge number of people here who speak legible English and almost all signs are printed in both Thai (sample below) and English:

General points:

It is fairly easy to move around here. There are taxi's and tuk-tuk's everywhere and these guys are generally aggressive, following you around and showing off pictures of girls you may be interested in.
The written form of the Thai language, other than numbers, is a Brahmic (Indic) script. Since almost everything is written in both languages in Bangkok, a basic understanding of this script is not mandatory.
The Thai people seem to be the friendliest people I have ever encountered. Everyone here is interested in helping out or talking. The service in restaurants and the hotel I am staying at is extremely attentive.
The food is delicious. Today I had a Japanese feast for lunch, in the states, the equivalent lunch would have been about 60-70% more expensive.
Public transportation (sky train) is quick, cheap and clean.
Everything can be found in the streets, from complete meals, hair cuts, clothes alterations to key makers, these vendors are quite flexible.
There is a large number of middle aged white men around here.

Man receiving haircut in the street:

Streetside alterations:

A Quick Snack...

2009-10-10T15:10:00.003-04:00

While walking through the Tops Supermarket I noticed this tasty treat, pre-fried fish, just unwrap and eat. Talk about convenience:

Pad Thai

2009-10-10T11:18:00.002-04:00

Today I finally found a restaurant that had Pad Thai and it was certainly delicious.

This is exactly how it looked when they brought it to the table, notice the rather large prawn stationed directly on top of the noodles:

Street Vendors

2009-10-09T14:54:00.004-04:00

Here are some pictures of random street vendors around Bangkok:

Pictures from Hotel.

2009-10-09T14:42:00.003-04:00

Here are some shots from the hotel balcony:

Hello from Thailand

2009-10-09T14:22:00.003-04:00

Hello, I am sitting in Bangkok, Thailand enjoying myself right now. So far, what i have seen is nice, food is delicious and streets are busy with activity. This picture was taken at the National Stadium BTS Station:

Room With A View

2009-05-26T20:08:00.001-04:00

Here is the view from my hotel room, it was quite nice. I stayed at the Westin Grand (location), even though it got mixed reviews I found it to be quite nice and would definitely stay there again. Green Point Stadium can be seen in the background of the first picture. This stadium will house many of the World Cup 2010 games, including a quarter final and semi final match.

Mama Africa

2009-05-26T19:57:00.000-04:00

The food at this restaurant was quite good:

Mosques

2009-05-26T19:52:00.001-04:00

I was quite surprised to discover that Cape Town had a significant Muslim population. There were a number of Mosques scattered throughout the city. This particular mosque had a very nice door:

Unusual Paint Job

2009-05-26T19:40:00.000-04:00

This building, located in downtown Cape Town, had an unusual paint job:

Meat Dealer

2009-05-26T19:34:00.000-04:00

This woman cooking and selling miscellaneous meat parts on the side of the road. Some of the products that she was reselling were similar to the sheep's heads (smiley) discussed earlier in the blog.

Assorted Township Housing

2009-05-26T18:56:00.001-04:00

These houses were mostly built illegally, they are built without permits and are considered squatter housing. The South African government is currently building new, permanent housing in these locations but the current occupants need to be relocated. The government has been having some issues with this task since the new housing is not free.

As you can see, houses come in all shapes and colors:

More Views From the Townships

2009-05-26T18:36:00.000-04:00

Here are some pictures from the Townships.

This kitchen is shared by several families that live in dormitory style housing. When the people were forcibly relocated here by the apartheid government an entire family shared a single bedroom and up to 15 families shared this common area:

The kitchen sink:

The newer dormitory housing being built by the government. I believe that a room in this building costs R300/month, whereas the other dormitory was free.

Church:

Recycled Shipping Containers

2009-05-26T18:23:00.001-04:00

Another interesting thing done in the Cape Town townships is that they make buildings out of old shipping containers. Here is a shop where they sell diapers:

Crabs in Cape Town

2009-05-19T18:35:00.000-04:00

After seeing these giant spider crabs at the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town, which by the way is one of the best aquariums I have been to, I began to wonder why the crab bodies are not sold in the store. The legs do look much less appetizing when attached to the body.

Penguin Video

2009-05-19T16:42:00.000-04:00

Finally, I figured out how to upload the video of penguins hanging out on a beach. I missed by about 2 seconds these guys rolling in with the tide:

The quality of this video after upload is not so great, maybe I will try putting it into youtube to see if I get better results. On an interesting side note, youtube is banned in Turkey.