Japan – Restaurants and Work Culture

We arrived in Tokyo at Sunday night (4/25). I woke up at 4AM in the morning the next day and couldn’t get to sleep any longer, so I decided to have a morning walk around the city. Our hotel is only 5-minute-walk to Ginza (银座). With the reputation of one of the most expensive districts in the world, Ginza failed to impresse me. However, I was surprised by the density of restaurants in the area. Every block, every corner, under the bridge, in the subway station, next to the most high-end store or in the 3-feet-wide alley, they are everywhere. Many multi-level buildings are all taken by restaurants. When you have too many choices, it’s actually harder to make decision. Luckily, my sister has a friend who helped us out in Tokyo. We went to almost every restaurants he suggested.

The plenty of restaurants is the direct result of Japanese’ work culture. I never saw these many of people on the street at 10PM in a workday. It’s a norm in Japan for men to work overtime everyday to at least 7PM and then have dinner together with their coworkers after work. They may go back to work till midnight. While humble and quite in the day, they crowd every restaurants, drinking, smoking and talking loudly at night. I’ve heard that wives in Japan would look down their husbands if they get home early, now I know it must be true.

On one hand this is the time that working men can finally relax; on the other hand it shows how much pressure they carry everyday. It’s not unusual to see people having dinner alone in the restaurants, sometimes still working on their jobs. There are small noodle houses that provide no seat at all, so people in a hurry just stand there, finish their bowls and leave. A lot of people fall sleep in the subway while the train take them home at the midnight. This work culture and long commute time effectively cut their connections with the family. It makes a distinct comparison to American working styles.

Restaurant under railway overpass
Restaurant under Railway Overpass
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Restaurants in a Narrow Alley
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Restaurant near Tsukiji Fish Market(筑地市场). While other restaurants were empty, this one had a line.
Noodle Menu
Noodle Menu
Restaurant in kabukicho (歌舞伎町,东京)
Restaurant in kabukicho(歌舞伎町,东京)
Restaurant in Shinbashi (新橋,东京)
Restaurant in Shinbashi(新橋,东京)
Noodle House with no Seat in Shinbashi Station (没有座位的面馆,新橋駅)
Noodle House with no Seat in Shinbashi Station(没有座位的面馆,新橋駅)
Restaurant in Pontocho (先斗町,京都)
Restaurant in Pontocho(先斗町,京都)
Restaurant in Pontocho (先斗町,京都)
Restaurant in Pontocho(先斗町,京都)
Restaurant at Sanjo (京都三条)
Restaurant at Sanjo(京都三条)
Huge Ice Cream Display in Restaurant in Kyoto (京都)
Huge Ice Cream Display in Restaurant in Kyoto(京都)
Inside a Udonn Noodle House in Kyoto (京都的乌冬面馆)
Inside a Udonn Noodle House in Kyoto(京都的乌冬面馆)
Restaurant at Sanjo (京都三条)
Restaurant at Sanjo(京都三条)
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Sydney – Royal Botanic Garden

2009.12.31 Flying Foxes It’s our last day in Sydney. At the morning, I had a walk in the Royal Botanic Garden in the area we didn’t visited last time. The garden is very big with a lot of exotic plants, and it’s free. I was frightened when I stepped into one corner of the garden. Hundreds of Flying Foxes hanging on the tree. They are the largest bats in the world. Although they are necessary for spreading seeds for plants, many palm trees have been destroyed by these over-populated bats. The Garden is planing to use noise disturbance to drive them away.

Half of the garden was blocked to prepare for the New Year Eve event. At 10AM, a lot of people have already waiting there in order to get the best spots. Too bad the following video is not shot by us, but the video is a good way to conclude my travel log of Sydney trip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhN6v7E5Yhk

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悉尼 – 蓝山国家公园

2009.12.30 Utzon Room Opera House We took the Essential Tour to get into the Opera House. Besides showing music halls and different function rooms, the tour also focused on the story of the designer, Jorn Utzon, his creation, resignation and re-engagement.

Left: Concert Hall Back
Right: The Utzon Room

The Three Sisters Demon's Leap 2-hour train took us to the rural side of Sydney. Blue Mountains is one of the nearest national parks to Sydney. The best-known landmark of the region is the Three Sisters. Compared to the national parks in North America, Blue Mountains is less impressive in terms of majesty. It is a good recreation area for families.

Train Station Top Left: The Three Sisters
Bottom Left: Leura Train Station
Right: Demon’s Leap

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悉尼 – 邦迪海滩

2009.12.29The sky finally cleared up. We got chance to take some photos we have to take, around Farm Cove and using the Opera House as the background.

Panorama
Royal Botanic Gardens Royal Botanic Gardens After taking pictures of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, we walked through the Royal Botanic Garden.

Town Hall QVB We walked to the city center to have a lunch at a Japanese noodle house and shopped around Queen Victoria Building.

Bondi Beach Bondi Beach is a popular beach in Sydney suburb. A lot of people were surfing, playing soccer or simply getting tanned.

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悉尼 – 达令码头和市中心

2009.12.28 Sydney Aquarium Sydney Aquarium We took bus to the Darling Harbour and visited Sydney Aquarium. If you have visited some newly built aquariums, such as the one in California Academy of Sciences, Sydney Aquarium is not worth seeing.

Darling Harbour Darling Harbour

City Centre Galleries Victoria Monorail took us to the city center. The Galeries Victoria has a wonderful bookstore, Kinokuniya, and some asian restaurants and stores.

Dumpling Restaurant The most tasty dinner we had in Sydney.

Hyde Park Hyde Park was named after its London equivalent. Right next to the city center, the park is a quite and ideal place to have a after dinner stroll.

Harbour Bridge and Opera House Overlook the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House across Farm Cove.

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悉尼 – 悉尼动物园

2009.12.27 Rocks The first fleet arrived The Rocks in 1788. It is where the modern Australia starts. Today, The Rocks is packed with boutique stores, restaurants and galleries. The weekend market is held under a canopy.

Latte Latte in Guylian.

Harbour Bridge Climber Harbour Bridge climbers: I’m sure it would be a totally different experience, but the weather was not very good and it doesn’t allow you to bring your own camera, so we decided not to go. The Sydney Harbour Bridge is the tallest steel arch bridge in the world.

Opera House from Ferry We took ferry to the Taronga Zoo. It’s only a 10-minute ride, and it’s the only chance that I could take pictures of the front of the Opera House.

Emu and Walleby Koala In the Zoo.
Left: A Koala is awaken and ready to do some excercise.
Right: An Emu is chasing a …, wait, is it a Kangaroo, or a Wallaby, or a Wallaroo?

Harbour Bridge at Night The Harbour Bridge at night.

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悉尼 – 节礼日

2009.12.26 InterContinental Hotel We checked into InterContinental Hotel in the morning. The location cannot be better. Circular Quay, the Opera House, the Rocks and the Royal Botanic Garden are all within 5-minute walk.

Yacht Race It’s the boxing day. We took bus to Watsons Bay to watch the start of Yacht Race. The race is from Sydney to Hobart. The boats normally take 2 to 3 days to complete the race. The picture was taken right before the race started.

Strand Arcade We did some window shopping at CBD in the afternoon. The boxing day is the busiest shopping day in Australia. The queue was especially long outside of the LV store. What in the picture is Strand Arcade – a restored shopping center of Victorian era.

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悉尼 – 悉尼的东南西北

Sydney is one of the biggest cities in the southern hemisphere. It is located in the east coast of Australia. By any means, from buildings to culture, from parks to restaurants, it is a typical city of the western country. In fact, I found it is very much like San Francisco Bay Area. Both are around a bay, both are multicultural and both have an eminent construction that defines the city. While San Francisco Bay Area is known for its hi-tech fast-pace style; Sydney is more relaxing with a British touch.

Queen Victoria Building We stayed in Sydney for 4 full days and visited almost all attractions. Except, we left the city on December 31st, right before the world-famous NYE fireworks. It is indeed a pity, but at 10AM when we left the hotel, people have already lined up for a mile for the event. Hopefully next time, we would be more financially prepared, so we could reserve a seat at the Opera House.

Opera House The Opera House is an iconic construction to Sydney. Arguably, without the Opera House, Sydney would not achieve its status in the world as of now. Although it was built 40 years ago, the design is still modern and bold by today’s standard. At night, when you leave the clamorous Circular Quay behind and watch the Opera House across Farm Cove, it is such a peaceful view. I researched the Internet about the resignation of its original architect – Jorn Utzon. How unfortunate it is that he could not complete his own masterpiece because of the political reasons. Otherwise, what we see today would be even more grand.

Influenced by the British tradition, tea house and cafe are all over the city. There are also many choices of Asian restaurants. But, the food is generally mediocre and expensive. For the first time, we felt the pain of dollar depreciation directly. Chocolate Dipping I calculate that the average price is more or less reasonable before the dollar depreciation, but US dollar has dropped 50% against Australian dollar in the past year. The restaurant we like the most is called Guylian, a Belgian Chocolates cafe, located in Rocks and Circular Quay. Its chocolate dipping is my wife’s favorite; to me, the blue cheese salad is the best.

More pictures will be posted.

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Banff and Jasper – Edmonton (2009/8/11)

After consulting the local tourist office, we changed our plan for the day – instead of going back to Miette Hot Springs, we decided to spend our last couple of hours in Edmonton, the capital city of Alberta. It has the largest shopping mall of North America.

WEM - Sea Life Lake Again, we were driving on the road in the middle of miles of forest and often with no single car in sight. It took us about 3 hours to get Edmonton. West Edmonton Mall (WEM) accommodates more than 800 stores and an indoor amusement park with several rides, an indoor water park with wave pool, WEM - Wave Pool an indoor skating field – ice palace and an indoor sea life lake with 4 sea lions. It even has a Chinese grocery store inside the building. It is the largest mall in North America, and ranked #6 in the world. All the first 5 malls are in Asia. WEM doesn’t have many fancy stores. Most shops are middle end.

Leaving the mall, we had a quick driving tour around the city, and then drove to the airport. This is one of the best wild nature trips we have so far. We are deeply touched by the force and beauty of Canadian Rockies. What make them stand out is not just their mountains, but those innumerable glacier lakes. It is them that make the Canadian Rockies powerful, graceful and vital at the same time.

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