Hanging out in the borders

I went up to Scotland while Syd gallavanted all across Tokyo! I really only went to South Scotland to 'the borders' where my cousins live. It gave me a chance to see a couple more castles and have quality time.
We took some pics at the border itself. One side of the rock says Scotland, and the other says England (duh). We had some fun straddling both countries...hee hee.

The highlight of the trip was a visit to Alnwick Castle. It was the castle used in the first two Harry Potter movies to represent the exterior of Hogwarts! There was a cute knight school there where we got to play some fun games (who cares that they were for kids) and then we went on a tour to see where the movie scenes were shot. The first shot below is where the kids had their first flying lesson, and the second shot is Hogwarts from the front (sans special effects of course).

Automated Draft Beer?

Ok so I'm sitting in the Narita airport and I noticed they had both Asahi and Sopporo on draft, self-serve styles. Toronto airport (Air Canada lounge) has Keiths, Canadian, and Blue on draft that you pour yourself, so it was not entirely new to me. However this machine was different -- it was Japanese after all. There was a single button with instructions 'press once'. There is a little metal tray at the bottom where you put your glass, you press the button, and the metal tray folds forward causing your glass to tilt and then the beer pours.

I get the intention -- its meant to pour a nice beer with less head because its smart about the tilting. But I still ended up with a huge head, so it begs the question why all this technology is required when I could have poured my own draft beer better, with a mechanism that would cost half as much to manufacture :)

All that said, the beer (I prefer Asahi to Sopporo) was still fantastic.

Syd.

Japanese and Efficiency

They weren't kidding when they said the Japanese are an efficient culture. I think being efficient is something they are just born with and it permiates their entire society. Where to get started....

Trains. Trains, and subways, apparently run to-the-minute and are virtually never later and the system virtually never breaks down (unlike London). In fact, the other night the train I caught was actually early, which one could argue means they need to fix the discrepency :) Everyone relies on the subway to get around... 2 million people commute through Shinjuku station (the Grand Central of Tokyo) every day. And apparently everyone goes to work at exactly the same time: 8:20am-8:40am. The only time trains are really ever late is when there has been a suicide on the line, sadly.

Vending Machines. First of all, these things are _everywhere_ in Tokyo. The entire experience is super fast compared to back home. It accepts your money quickly (ie shows the readout), and immediately the drinks which you can afford light up to make it easy for selection. The lights under each beverage are all also buttons, so there is no messing around with B2 or H7 either. Oh, and the lights/buttons themselves don't become lit until you've entered enough money to afford that particular drink. Crazy cool. Oh, and when you select your drink it is shot down to the bottom area super fast too.

ATMs. The vast majority of ATMs here don't take international bank cards... fortunately I had an internation ATM in my hotel, but before I figured that out I put my card in a bank machine near work just to give it a go. The machine literally took less than a second to spit my card back out and flash invalid onto the screen. North American machines take several seconds just to respond to an inserted card.

Subway turnstyles. These are really neat and beat the snot outta the way London works (which I thought was pretty efficient itself). The gates themselves assume you will pay, so they are actually open all the time. If you don't pay as you walk through, it detects you and closes some padded doors and the turnstyle goes red.... James' card didnt work one time (though it was valid) so he just tried going through to find this security measure. If you card is valid, it says thank you straight away, and you fly through the gates. Pretty neat considering London itself is fast and the only delay really is the second or two it takes for the gates to open and close again.

Subway schedule. Most subways operate pretty frequently -- usually every couple minutes during busy times. Better subways like London tell you when you enter the station or platform how many minutes until the next train arrives. Apparently Barcelona counts down the seconds until the train arrives (i havent been). In Tokyo, the trains are all on a schedule... _always_. During rush hour when they run every 2 minutes, the schedule is something like:

8:05, 8:08, 8:011, 8:14, 8:16, 8:18, 8:20, 8:22, etc etc

For all lines, for all days the subway has an exact schedule. Imagine how this would impact your commute if you no longer just 'went to the tube' and got on the next train, but you knew exact trains. You could say to your friends 'i'm generally take the 8:18 train in the morning'... crazy.

As an aside, apparently everyone in Tokyo commutes to work at exactly the same time, so for like 25 mins the system is packed. The guys working on the platforms wear white gloves and are apparently professional 'pushers' who help squeeze people in to max space in the train. Seems weird to intentionally be pushed into the train, but it means there is no wasted space and therefore can move more people through. Apparently in Tokyo you don't wait on the platform for 'the next train' since the first one is full.... that would be inefficient, and we wouldn't want that.

Syd.

Tokyo -- What a fantastic place

So I've been in Tokyo for 5 days now and been so busy working and seeing the town, I havent had time to blog.

Ok, so I'm going to divide up my posts a bit -- one will focus on what I've done thus far and one that will focus strictly on observations -- and there are lots of them!

Tokyo is way cool -- since this is my first time anywhere in Asia, obviously its all new and exciting to me. In case you're wondering how I ended up here, its because I'm involved on a project for Credit Suisse that is for a business user (trader) who is based on Tokyo. When I found out there was potential for a Tokyo trip, that may me push even harder to close the deal and kick things off. Fast forward to now.

I arrived Saturday at Noon after a 12 hour red-eye flight from London (though I was on British Airways, business class, so the flight could have been twice as long and I wouldn't have minded) -- I slept 3 or 4 hours which was nice, and still watched 3+ movies (The Bucket List, Charlie Wilson's War, Fool's Gold, and some of Ocean's 11). I was told they might interogate me at the airport asking why I'm here etc, but it was pretty smooth sailing -- the customs guy spoke really slow, nodded a lot, and didnt even make me open my bags for a look through (they were doing this with almost everyone since the airport was surprisingly dead at that time).

Tokyo airport is in a town called Narita, which is 80km East of Tokyo and about an hour by train. I was told to grab a Limo Bus (which sounds cool but is just a regular coach bus) directly to my hotel, but it wasn't leaving for 1.5 hours, so we decided to train it into Tokyo then taxi. Pretty painless overall, but the train was 'normal' (albiet lots of leg room) and I was holping for some super cool/futuristic bullet train that whisks me to the city in 15 minutes at 400km/hr and runs every 5 mins. Instead it was regular speed, and ran every 30 mins... how normal. But clearly my expectations were a little too high :)

Once in the city it was errily quiet... turns out where I arrived and where my hotel is (the Okura Tokyo) is in a 'financial wasteland' area that is devoid of shops/restaurants and although convienient to walk to work, is kinda crap. I was travelling with Lance, a kiwi from work who will be the lead developer on the project, so we ventured for a walk around to find 'real Tokyo'.

Tokyo is incredably green with lots of parks everywhere. We wandered around exploring, saw the Tokyo Tower, and hit an area that had some shopping stores. Found a 6 floor electronics store that I just had to go into... wow are they serious about electronics here. They had a floor dedicated to digital cameras and you could shop either by brand or by... wait for it.... colour! Yes, they had a wall of cameras all of the same colour and as you moved along the colours changed like a rainbow... black, dark grey, silver, gold-ish colour, blue, pink, red, and purple. It was pretty neat, though the cheapest camera was around 22,000 yen, which is about 110 quid, or 220 dollars... I think i was again expecting too much -- some sort of unreleased-in-the-west-camera for like 40 bucks. Clearly unrealistic :)

Saturday night we ventured to nearby Roppongi, a nice night life area that is popular with the ex pats, though we still felt like minorities you saw other white guys and cultures. We had great sushi and sat at the sushi bar. Afterwards we stumpled on the 'New Zealand Travel Cafe', which is basically a kiwi bar, so we had to go in and have a couple of Lance's favourite beers, Maltieths.

Sunday we got up early and hit Ueno Park, a huge park to the north, for which we ventured to figure out the subway. Near the park were stalls selling food and merchandise... this was the most 'real tokyo' I had seen thus far. For 100 yen (50p, $1) I got fresh pineapple on a stick and it was damn good. We then hit the Tokyo zoo which is in the park, with a surprising bargain entrance cost of 600 yen. ($6! Isn't the Metro Toronto zoo like $10 just for parking your car, then another $25 or $30 to get in?). The zoo was great, although the animal pens were a little small for my liking. I need to post some pictures when I get back. They had a Giant Panda but it wasn't outside when we were there so I was gutted. Did see Giraffe's, Hippos, Rhino's, Snow Owls, Polar Bears, Penguins, Monkeys, Hawks, a Tiger, a couple Lions, an Armidillo, a Red Panda and a Zebra. Also saw this neat half Giraffe / half Zebra thing called a Okapis which is apparently super rare and really only found in the Congo. Very cool.

We ended up having some chinese for lunch since all the sushi restaurants close between 2pm and 5pm... a Japenese ciesta (sp?) if you will.

Monday was busy with work but also very fun as the office tower I'm in (The Izumi Garden Tower) is really neat since its got an all glass exterior and some of the elevators are glass on the side of the building. I'm working on the 27th floor so it has nice views. Monday night was dinner with the client -- we went for Yakatori, which is Japenese BBQ of pork/beef/chicken cooked on skewers right in front of you -- very tasty. Apparently Tokyo has 80,000 restaurants which is insane.. mainly because each restaurant is typically very small. Oh, had some nice Saki after dinner too which was smooth.

Tuesday after work we went for Japenese steak in Roppongi with the clients at one of the restaurants again where they cook in front of you and let you sit at a bar style thing, although we were a group of 5 so we had a table. Tasty dinner again. We then hit a traditional Japenese bar for a few drinks which was pretty neat, although since it was in Roppongi they had standard issue top-40 music on so it lacked some authenticity that way.

Wednesday Lance had dinner with a friend who is a flight stewardess, so James (an interaction designer with Infusion also here for the project) and I went for true Sushi at a restaurant Steve Harris (another Infusion UK colleauge who loves Japan (he's British)) recommended. It was in Ginza, which is a shopping district kinda like Regent Street in London -- high end stuff like Louis Vutton, Armani, etc. Many of the stores were closed (it was 10pm) and had their own gaurd standing by the doors since the goods are so expensive. Sidewalks were super huge!

Thursday (tonight) was another late one at the office but we grabbed sushi in the hotel which was just as tasty as the night before, except 2x as expensive since its hotel food. Short commute though and we again sat at the sushi bar. Maguro (tuna) is definately my fav sushi.

More observations to come in another post. Japan is crazy efficient, to say the least. And the people are massively friendly.

Syd.

Tokyo Bound

So I'm pretty excited -- After 5 years at Infusion I've finally managed to get to Tokyo for a project. Its somewhere I've always wanted to travel, but somewhere I've never bothered to put high on my list on my own since I figured eventually I'd get there for free with work :) I'm in town for all of next week for a project for the head of the Exotics trading desk who is based in Tokyo (his name is Kobiyashi :)). The project sounds fun, but whats even better is that I'm arriving Saturday and not leaving until the following Sunday which will give me some nice weekend time to check out some sites and get a feel for the city.

Mmmmmm sushi.

Syd.

Les Playas y Montagnas de Espana

This past weekend we headed to North Spain to check out new country terrain (beaches and mountains) in the Basque region of Spain near France (on the coast), and it didn't disappoint! Since we came in late Friday night, we stayed in Bilbao, a neighbouring city that we flew into. Bilbao is famous for an architectural masterpiece designed by Frank Gehry - the Bilbao Guggenheim museum. Unfortunately we didn't stick around long enough on Saturday to visit the museum, but upon viewing it from the bus as we drove across the river we have no doubt that its fantastic!

In San Sebastian we stayed in a hotel on a city street, so it was not optimal for sleeping late, but it was within walking distance of a great beach, and 30 minute walk along the promenade to the old medieval section of the town where there were bars galore. The town is famous for having a international film festival, on par with Toronto and Cannes (though not as popular), for the last 50 years. The promenade and massive modern theatre certainly gave us a flavour of how it would be in early September when the city is awash with theatregoers.
I was thankful for knowing a touch of Spanish before going on this trip, as very limited English was spoken by shopkeepers or bar staff - much to Syd's frustration he had to leave the talking up to me. Syd said that he was impressed with how well I did at getting the things we needed - including a refund on tickets for a bus that we bought from the wrong company by mistake. ;o)

We rented bikes for 24 hours to cruise around the town and go out at night so that we could avoid cabs and the long walk. I love city bikes with the upright seats. Mine even had a basket, and I was right chuffed to put my purse and any purchases in the basket while we drove around. We especially enjoyed the somewhat grueling uphill climb up Mount Imuelda to where we had the best views of the city and bays. There was a cheesy run-down amusement park at the top as well as a tower, but the views made it worth it. Of course, the ride down the mountain was the best part, it was hard to not speed like a demon down the steep street! ;o)

Later that day on Sunday after we returned the bikes we climbed to the top of Mount Urgull, which we thought just had a statue of Jesus at the top, but were pleasantly surprised to see that Jesus sat atop a castle that used to defend the city back in the 1600s to the 1800s. There was a great exhibit up there describing the history of San Sebastian as a main iron-weapon making and commerce town. In 1863, San Sebastian was named capital of the Gipuzkoa province. The role of the city changed, the walls were demolished, the focus was more on commerce, the city became a popular tourist destination and spa resort, the economy boomed and it became one of the most cosmopolitan cities in Europe. We quite enjoyed learning about that evolution.

Also deserving mention was the cuisine. Being the culinary capital of Spain, the people really appreciate and identify with their food. In fact, the city has more bars and restaurants per head of population than anywhere else on the planet! Don't say tapas, say 'pintxos' in San Sebastian, as that is all that you will find when you walk in every bar there. What makes the pintxos unique is that they are served on top of the bar, in every bar, like wares for people to select and eat, and then people all eat standing up while they drink their cervezas/vino and smoke. It's quite weird...its like fast food with a twist! Syd learned quite quickly to say 'no pescado' so that they would show him some tapas without fish in them (a very limited selection to say the least). The limited spanish/basque language knowledge coupled with the copious amounts of tuna/squid/octopus/crab and some other unidentifiable pintxos left us feeling quite wary as to what we would order day in and day out. Needless to say, we ate chorizo and prosciutto on baguettes for most of the weekend - not very adventurous we know! ;o)
On Monday we checked out of our hotel and had a fabulous lunch (okay, fabulous starters and dessert and sangrias - the battered pork chops for the main left much to be desired) in a great cafe overlooking La Concha Bay.

To make the most of our last day we decided to rent surfboards and long wet suits and try out the beginner surfing beach. As it was my first time ever on a surfboard I treated it mostly like a boogey board, but Syd had fun getting into a standing position a couple of times. It was a fun hour and a half, and Syd said the sexy beachy hair made me 'au naturale' for the bus and plane ride home!

Booze on the Tube - The end of an Era

On Saturday May 31 we decided to 'make a statement' with 10,000 other revellers and enjoy one last evening of drinking on the tube. A number of parties (called Last Orders of the Underground, Circle Line Party, Booze Tube Party and the like) were organized through facebook and other social networking sites to get people pumped up to oppose a new June 1 ban implemented by the new mayor, Boris Johnson, to ban alcohol drinking on the tube. It was predominantly organised to take place on the back carriages of the Circle Line, starting at 9 pm at Liverpool Street.
There was a fancy-dress element to the event, so Syd sported a 'stache' while I sported a sash, and we grabbed the circle line going 'clockwise' or eastbound around 9 pm from Baker Street. The back carriage was already well on its way to a good party. Everyone was drinking their own form of poison, and the mood was generally convivial and respectful. Groups were singing Hey Jude - which I got a video of in the bottom of this post - and others were just drinking and dancing along to their portable ipods/speakers. The group did start to get rowdier around 9:30 and were hitting the roof of the train with excitement and singing.

We decided to get off the tube to try and find our friends, but when we tried to go back to Liverpool street to meet them we learned that Liverpool street station had been closed due to overcrowding...duh! We happened to meet up with our friends Alan and Suzy at monument tube and got back on the circle line, this time going anti-clockwise (or westbound) since the clockwise direction had been suspended due to damaged trains.

This train ride was now taking place at 10:30, and the tube riders had consumed much alcohol by this time. Surprisingly, it still didn't feel as crowded as it does on normal commuter mornings! They were chanting rants like "Boris is a Wanker, Boris is a Wanker" and ripping all of the maps off of the tube walls/ceilings.
I managed to get a map 'given' to me, but I still can't believe how they defaced the train to bare walls. When we barely went 3 stops, our train stopped and they made everyone get out as they were terminating the service. The crowd mostly just stuck around and partied on the platform though.
We thought this may be the end, but then a poor unsuspecting Hammersmith and City Line train came through and everyone (including us) piled into that one. Well, the violent group really did it this time. We made it past one more stop, and then the train was suspended between two stations, in the middle of a tunnel, with the last 2 cars being in complete darkness. Nobody was alarmed though, they just continued to party until the train finally started moving again. We got annoyed with people deciding to smoke in the train, and eventually moved out of that carriage and awaited the train to get moving again. Needless to say, when the train pulled into the next station, there were angry transit workers getting everyone out of the train, and there were police at the top of the stairs ushering everyone out the station.
Thankfully, we decided to take the overground home from there to West Hampstead as many underground lines had been suspended due to the stress of the circle line party. It was a truly London experience, and I'm glad I went, but I'm also glad we never made it to Liverpool station because crowds of hundreds of people partying in the station concourse didn't seem appealing!

You can watch a fun music video of the event on this link and those of other budding wanna be directors on YouTube.