SeattleSteve

Tokyo Travel Log – November 2011

seattlesteve — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 13:46:53 +0000

Event though this was only my second visit to Tokyo I can easily say I will be back for a third visit soon, hopefully in the next few months. There are some tough things to get over as a non Japanese speaker. When it comes to being a foreigner I find it a little easier to get around Taipei than Tokyo. From what I have read many Japanese speak English quite well, but are too embarrassed to use it.

Welcome to Japan. The sushi restaurant in the background is located in the 400 year old garden of the Hotel New Otani.

A quick meal before heading out for the day.

Finally, with the help of Dave from Shoottokyo.com, I have conquered one big hurdle, the Tokyo subway system. The best tip of the weekend, if in doubt, just buy the cheapest subway ticket (120yen) to get you on a train. Then, when you are about to exit the station go to the left or right side of the turnstiles and present your ticket to the attendant. The attendant will scan your ticket and you simply pay any difference right there on the spot. The alternative is to pick up a Suica card from a machine. I believe it costs a minimum of 2000yen, but that includes 1500yen worth of travel. With the Suica card you just swipe it entering and exiting the station and the deductions are automatic.

A wedding party at the New Otani

Neighborhoods. There are a lot and I cannot even begin to explain the differences between them all. I can tell you that this time I stayed in Akasaka at the New Otani and it was clean, comfortable and conveniently located to shopping and restaurants. It is pretty close to the American embassy so the restaurant area did seem full of expats. That is helpful when you are looking for an English language menu. I would be happy to stay in Akasaka again.

A dinner spot in Akasaka

The only other neighborhood I have stayed in was Shinjuku. Shinjuku is home to the busiest train station in the world for a reason. The area is dense with shopping, restaurants and entertainment seems to be the crossroads from several of Tokyo’s subway lines. The amount of neon in this part of Tokyo is phenomenal. Shinjuku would be on my list of places to stay as well.

A menu at a local yakitori restaurant

As a photographer, Tokyo ranks up there with Paris, New York and Hong Kong for photographic opportunities. The beauty of the temples, the masses of people, the colorful lights, the people, oddities like a cat and dog rental shop, rooftop soccer, and again, the people make it ripe for photography.

Good night Tokyo, see you again soon.

Good Morning Tokyo

seattlesteve — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 01:50:31 +0000

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday was poring down rain and generally miserable; today’s beautiful.

I’m headed out to shoot with a friend from ShootTokyo.com. I have admired his work for quite some time and to top it off, he’s a fellow M9 shooter. Looking forward to seeing Tokyo through his eyes.

Back…again and a little Cathay Pacific Rant

seattlesteve — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 15:02:31 +0000

It’s been a long time, but feels good go have a little space to write. Facebook is great, but sometimes it’s not enough. This past month has been hectic. In the last 4 weeks I’ve seen New York, Seattle, San Francisco, Hong Kong and Tokyo. Next week we’ll add Bangkok to the list and then it’s back to New York for Christmas. All that travel has taken a bit of a toll on me.

One area that you’d think I’d have down pat is boarding and exiting planes. Well, unfortunately in Hong Kong last week I left a bag on the plane. Leaving a bag is not a big deal, it’s the all the goodies that occupy that bag. My camera, iPad2, headphones, travel wallet and the bag itself were all left behind. Now, I take full responsibility for leaving it behind, but Cathay Pacific did a tremendously poor job of helping me recover my bag. Even though I was only ten minutes away from the plane and hadn’t even gone through immigration yet, the bag was nowhere to be found. To make a very long story short, Cathay Pacific said that they wouldn’t be able to let me back on the plane and they wouldn’t be able to look on the plane for at least 20 minutes, because, ‘our office is so far from the gate.’ Needless to say, the bag was gone when they finally made it back to look. Not happy.

To be fair, after emailing, I did receive a personal email from the CEO of Cathay Pacific. It was a very kind gesture for him to take the time and write me. Mostly it felt good that I was being heard.

Ok, beyond that, all this travel has been a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to getting SeattleSteve up and going again. See you around.

2010 in review

seattlesteve — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 06:27:40 +0000

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 9,300 times in 2010. That’s about 22 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 141 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 291 posts. There were 296 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 252mb. That’s about 6 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was April 30th with 78 views. The most popular post that day was From Seminyak to Ubud.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were alphainventions.com, blog.sina.com.tw, haroldhollingsworth.blogspot.com, search.aol.com, and theendivechronicles.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for crocodile fish, uno h2o, lankayan island, scooter names, and school of fish.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

From Seminyak to Ubud June 2008
3 comments

Red Sea Diving July 2007
8 comments

Lankayan Island Turtle Hatchery April 2008
1 comment

Scooter names December 2007
2 comments

Borneo and Lankayan Island March 2008
2 comments

A Fun New Game…Crossing the Street in Hanoi

seattlesteve — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 05:12:23 +0000

It was always fun trying to cross the street, safely, in Hanoi. Here’s a clip from our trip.