Japanese food

Another lunch consisting of a box full of food that I absolutely cannot identify.

I'm not kidding. After the rice, I have no clue here.


The Gelatinous cubes on the right are kinda fishy. The colorful gelatinous stuff at the center top are kinda Garlic like. The shredded black stuff on the right, and colorful stuff lower right are kinda pickly.

The breaded, fried things at the bottom are unidentifiable meat.

White meat
.
That's all I know.


The front of my video rack during show. Looks clean and professional.


The back is a Frankenstein mess of wires. Not what it was supposed to look like. But we had issues.

Tokyo Odds and Ends

Next to last day. All long working days. Hope to get out for a little sightseeing before I leave Saturday morning.


You don't get real coffeepots in any Asian hotel. This little pot just boils water, so you can make tea or noodles, and instant coffee is the norm in Asia. Kind of cool having hot water, soup packets become easy to use.


Hard to get a good shot outside the window at night. Impossible to hold still enough without a tripod for night shooting. But, you get the idea of how impressive the lights are.


Store bought coffee, pre made nad sealed. The label is suspiciously Starbuck green. It says "Mt Rainier Espresso and Milk, The Mountain of Seattle" This was the most normal thing I found in the grocery store. The little old Japanese ladies thought I was funny looking at the packages of dried animal parts in bags with no idea of what I was really looking at.


Getting around the internet was a challenge at times. Pages auto loaded the local language, and it was hard to find the button to change it to English at times.

One more day, hope to get some real great pics up here.

Tokyo 2

Went our for sushi. I'm in Tokyo, it's the law, and had a good time.

First though, this is cool. All these buttons on the nightstand work the lights all over the room, and the blinds. A lot like "Lost in Translation"


Took these with my phone, so they're not as good, but it's still cool. Sushi bar in Tokyo! Have to say, the food was incredible. We were having a great time, until.....


This guy. They scooped him out of the tank, and then filleted him while he was still alive. Left his head and backbone intact and skewered him on a stick. Since the head wasn't severed, he was still alive on the stick. When the chef touched his mouth it opened and he worked his gills to try to breathe. We were all horrified, then the guy who ordered it picked up the meat and ate it while looking into the eyes of the gasping fish. Kind of made him watch himself get eaten. Again, horrifying.

Way too fresh for me.

Tokyo

Hit Tokyo finally. One and a half hour drive from the airport.

This is the view from my room. If you click on the pic it will grow and you can see Mt Fuji in the distance. Makes me feel like when you go on the Space Needle and see Mt Rainier looming over the city. As you can see, this city is huge. Our hotel is the tallest building in Tokyo, and this view is spectacular.


Depressing when the tv in the bathroom is better than the main one in my home.


Heated toilet seats ROCK!

Misc in Singapore

Just a few extra things.


This is the hotel doorman at the Shangri La hotel. I love the old uniform.


This was the Marriott in downtown. Hard to tell unless you click on the pic to make it bigger, but those overhangs were all Chinese style.


Another strange Asian entryway to a modern building.



The fountain by the pool at the hotel.


The view out my window. I've had much worse views.

Next up, Tokyo.

Streets of Singapore

Very crowded, and people have a different sense of personal space here.


View from the noodle shop I went to for dinner. Block after block of malls and department stores. The crazy thing is, they were all full. The Asian malls were packed tight. At my size, I could barely get around.


The angle of this picture shows how much taller I am than everyone here. I stick out normally, here I felt like a giant. People thought because I had sunglasses on I couldn't see them nudging each other and pointing at me. I don't speak the language, but they make it so obvious they are staring and talking about me. Kids would follow me around, and when I turned around they would scatter. How dumb do they think I am? It was a very unnerving experience.


I like this guy, lots of personality. I have no idea who he is or represents, the sign was in Malay.



Crazy doorway to an office building. This was pretty common.

The whole shopping trip was a let down. It was either regular American/European stores, or the Asian markets that were impossible to deal with. Being an American, I don't like people pouncing on me when I shop and putting everything in my hands and yelling prices at me. The other problem was the store owners would push over the Asian folks to get to me, thinking I'm a big American spender. At a minimum, 20 different tailors came running out want to make me a shirt. If it didn't feel so much like an attack I might have. I just got so put off, and felt so pressured, I didn't want to have anything to do with the whole thing.

It was still a very interesting experience.

Downtown and Shopping District

Took a trip downtown hoping to find something cool to bring home. Should be easy.

The steps down the back of the hotel. Feels like jungle everywhere.


All of the sudden, you're in a metropolis. Complete with Starbucks, Cartier, and more. Not feeling real exotic.


The outside of the mall is ultra modern. Actually kind of cool.


A little farther down is the Asian mall. Quite an entryway.


OK, this was just for my own entertainment. "House of Hung"
I know, sometimes I need a helmet.

More Night Safari

This will be hard to see. With no flash allowed in the dark, it's hard to hold perfectly still.


This is during the night show. Lots of nocturnal animals come out and interact with the handlers. This guy hanging is called a Binturoung. There is one at the Long Beach Aquarium also. As you can see they hang from their tails quite well. They also have a very strong musk odor, but oddly enough, it smells just like popcorn.


This is the whole group of handlers holding a Burmese Python.


Nothing else of the tram ride came out, just too dark. The outdoor restaurant was pretty good, but expensive.


Here is something you won't see in the states, no, it's not the food or the beer, it's actual glass plates, containers, and beer bottles at an outdoor restaurant. Nowhere at home, even in an indoor food court will you get glassware for the general public to eat from.

More to come.

The Night Safari. There are two parts to the Singapore Zoo, and they close the regular area at night.


This is pretty freaky. They call these the doctor fish. They exfoliate your feet by eating the dead cells off of them. Five bucks for ten minutes. Europeans were lining up for this.



Just too bizarre for me.

Second set of pics

The hote is quite elegant. English is the main language spoken here, but there are several official languages of the country.


The front desk.



The lobby is huge.


The waterfall at the Waterfall garden pool.


"The Sunbather"

All in all, very nice, very hot, and very humid. More pics to come.

Singapore

The first few pics. I haven't left the hotel yet. I just woke up and wlked around the hotel. It will be a couple of days before we get out.


In the Courtyard, just very picturesque.


Koi in the Waterfall garden pool.


Garden pool.





Very tropical. Only 85 miles from the equator. The humidity is amazing.