Category: Travel

Technology has dramatically changed people’s travel experiences by allowing people search and browse pictures, articles and videos of their destination on-line nowadays. Before the space for my imagination of one of the greatest culture and economy hub in Europe – London runs out, I decided to travel to UK’s capital for the fist time. Besides, the pound sterling is very weak, as nearly as half of a few years ago for my Japanese yen. I thought this could be a good timing.

Since I have travelled to some metropolitan cities like New York a few times already, my expectation for London is similar to New York except that everyone would be speaking a different accent of the English language. To my big surprise, London’s public space such as the underground is well-maintained and much cleaner than that of New York despite being of the oldest subways in the world. The train itself is also cleaner than the ones in Paris.

Compared to the concrete jungle in Tokyo or high-rise buildings in New York, London has its incredibly lush greenery and parks in the city centre. Despite being a modern financial and economic centre in Europe, most of the buildings in London are well preserved for hundreds of years with beautiful architecture and designs dated back Victoria and George eras. It is quite a scenery for people like me who are used to dwelling in high-rise buildings to saunter around these old buildings and walk under the huge green lawns in the park.

It is also quite strange when some one who you do not know refers to me as “gentlemen”, as I was walking towards a lady and her kid was running around and kind of blocking my way, the mother shoved her child and said to him, “You are blocking this gentleman’s way.” It is an odd feeling when you were referred as “gentlemen” like that. It feels like you were in one of the TV drama.

I was lucky enough that the weather was lovely during my stay, a great escape from the rainy season (Tsuyu) in Tokyo. Summer (especially July and August) is truly the best time to visit London. It does not get hot as cities that I used to live like Shanghai, Tokyo and New York. People are mostly polite and welcoming.

Londoners absolutely love flowers. You can see flowers decorated everywhere both on the street or on people’s home.

London has one of the oldest department stores in the world. I enjoyed both the shopping experiences in the famous department store ‘Harrods’ with glamours interior design and the magic experience staying hundreds-years-old college in Oxford as a student. There are no cafeterias at Oxford University. There is only a place called dining hall. How fancy! Having breakfast or we shall say dining there feels not just like formal but also a privilege. I have heard that from times to times, dinner will be served and pre-booked and proper attire are required to dine there. I think it is a nice tradition to keep from time to time. My friend James helped me to get into these colleges and experienced the lives there in Oxford University.

Many of British friends in Singapore and Tokyo had already warned me about British food, however, I have enjoyed some of their dishes such as fish pies. The ales in the pubs in Oxford are definitely the best that I ever had. And there are so many of them. The vegetables comes with the pies did not have much taste but, hey, it is quite healthy in my opinion.

London has an astronomical number of food options. I tried some nice Italian pasta dish and a glass wine near where I stayed. The chef recommended me a pasta dish called langoustine Linguine. The pasta was freshly prepared so was the prawn. The waiter even took out a basil plant and started cutting off fresh leaves from the plant into the olive oil for the bread. It was really tasty but of course, the price was also steep – 43.7 pounds for 1 glass of wine and a dish of pasta.

Overall, London is a great city to visit in the summer time if you are interested in historical English and European cultures. A bonus point is that almost all the museums and galleries are free to enter! During the colonial period, the British have collected many valuable artefacts from the rest of Europe and East Asia. With a low expectation in my mind, it was a truly satisfying and enducational journey.

Last night, a friend of Sayaka who is currently working in China as an English teacher, complained the Chinese working visa process for foreigner is bloody cumbersome, and even getting a tourist visa is expensive.

I joshed a bit, “Getting a Japanese passport! They don’t need visa to go to China”. Then her jaw dropped! “Seriously? Are you kidding!”

I know I am not kidding. Oddly enough, the Chinese government opened up its gate to the tourist from the following countries without any inspections.

•  Brunei: 15 days (since July 1, 2003)^[7]
•  Japan: 15 days (since September 1, 2003)^[8]
•  Mauritius: 30 days (since October 31, 2013)^[9]
•  San Marino: 90 days (since July 15, 1985)^[10][11][12]
•  Seychelles: 30 days (since June 26, 2013)^[13]
•  Singapore: 15 days (since July 1, 2003)^[14]

Many people probably know the famous Buddhist temple – Lingyin Temple (灵隐寺).   But not many know that there is an hidden village next to it. It is renewed and opened to public by Amanresorts, a hotel group founded by a Indonesia business man Adrian Zecha. The village is an incredible tranquil Buddhist valley – Amafanyun (阿曼法云) in Hangzhou, compared to the bustling world in China. Approximately one hour drive from my home, Jiaxing, it is a fantastic place for meditation during your weekend.
This place is magic, making you feel like time-traveling to ancient China hundreds of years ago.

The food was fresh and, I must say “elegant”, particularly at the Buddhist vegetarian restaurant (斋菜馆).

I am at the top of the Mountain Austin, which is surrounded by an area of super rich residential where HongKong tycoons live.

Hong Kong’s skyscrapers are not so high from this Angle.

I would like to really thank you Takanobu and his friend in Bali – Suzie, who had made this Indonesia trip so fun and great! Had not you guided us in Bali, we would have not found these nice spots so easily. I landed the famous tourist island – Bali,  a place where you can see both well-developed western standard restaurants and bars and poor local house. Thanks to its unique geographic position and , it is a popular holiday destination for Australian and its Asian neighbour, as well as tropical beach lovers from Europe and North America.

These western standard bars can be found every nook and cranny on the island, where the same price tag is expected when back to your home country and where local people are rarely seen in these bars.

This beach is heaven for surfers. Suzie and I in this photo was taken by Takanobu.

 

Then, we forayed into the inner part of the island, finding ourselves emerge into some tropical forest, where you can find these old Hindu temples, which are preserved well. According to Suzie, Ninety per cent of Balinese are Hindu. Wild animals are also well protected by the local law. As you can see, the monkey below in the pictures are not in a zoo, by the way.

It’s my third year doing snowboarding in Japan, and it becomes much fun after you can balance your body not falling over. Occasionally, even if you fall over, it does not hurt so much anymore.
Japan is one of the best countries for snowboarding lovers, where there is a load of snowboarding resorts, with easy access from Tokyo. The temperature on these moutains usually is not too low so you can enjoy the sport, not worrying too much about the cold weather.