Japan
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This afternoon, as I sat there watching and reading the news about the earthquake in Japan, I cannot help but feel a sense of sadness and a certain emptiness inside. The quake measured 8.9 on the richter scale. This is no little affair even for Japan which is used to having earthquakes. I pray that there are no devastating aftershocks…
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And so my week long vacation in Japan has ended and what a better end to the vacation than going to a live piano performance by Yundi, the 2000 Chopin Competition Winner, at Bangkok’s Cultural Centre which happens to be built with a grant by the Japanese in celebration of our King’s 60th Birthday. All’s well that…
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For the first time this year, today Bangkok citizens felt the first cool breeze of the upcoming winter season. Last year we barely had a day of cool weather, this year seems promising. Since early morning, the sun was out but instead of being hot and humid, it was wonderfully cool averaging around 25 degrees…
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The Thunder Gate After we eat at Tokyo, we go pray. Somehow this sequence reminds me of the novel Eat, Pray, Love. As a first time visitor to Tokyo, I had to go see Tokyo’s oldest and most significant temple, the Sensoji-temple or also known as the Asakusa. The temple is dedicated to…
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In Tokyo, I discovered quite by accident an unexpectedly good kaiten sushi place on my way to visit the Asakusa. I had to change trains at Ueno and I was hungry, so I walked out the station to find something to eat. It wasn’t the best sushi on earth, but it was definitely worth the…
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Menu No. 1, Toro, Tuna, and Uni What is a holiday if you don’t allow yourself to enjoy a little bit of eating? Japan is heaven for Japanese food lovers like me, so you have to eat and enjoy yourself while you’re there. What I always tell myself is this: eat whatever you want,…
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Tokyo’s Underground System After the silent Shinkansen ride where everyone was quiet, and extremely orderly, I arrived in Tokyo. The capital of Japan, Tokyo was a completely different story from Osaka, Kyoto and Nara. With a population of 13 million people it was bustling with people. Everywhere I went, I was surrounded by people. At…
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This morning I rode the famous “bullet train” or Shinkansen for the first time from Osaka to Tokyo. It was fun and exciting. This train is supposed to be one of the fastest trains in the world with speeds averaging around 300 km per hour and one so punctual it’s stressful. I stress that I’ll…
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Not far from Osaka, Kobe is a city of approximately 1.5 million inhabitants and it is said to be one of the most attractive cities in Japan. I thought it was a very “cute” and quaint city especially if you go walk around the neighbourhood of Kitano where there is a uniquely European-American atmosphere. Very…
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On holiday one goes to so many sites within the space of one day that after two days you feel like you’ve seen so much, experienced so many things and nourished your senses. Yesterday I went to visit Nara, founded in 710 as the first capital of Japan and it is definitely a site not…
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