Showing posts with label [Travel]. Show all posts
Showing posts with label [Travel]. Show all posts
31 December 2015
A week in Hakodate
It’s new year’s eve. This year I’ve been lots of places this year I think, but most of them are business trip… Anyway, this month I went to Hakodate which located in southwest of mainland Hokkaido.
I’ve been here in Sapporo for about 5 years, but I’d never been there yet.
Hakodate is the third largest city in Hokkaido after Sapporo and Asahikawa, and one of the most important port town in northern Japan. Hakodate also will be the first station which stop Shinkansen (bullet train) in Hokkaido next March.
I’ve been here in Sapporo for about 5 years, but I’d never been there yet.
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| Map of Hakodate |
As usual, I’ve been there for business trip then I didn’t have much time to enjoy sightseeing there… But I could enjoy local gourmet during my stay.
Hakodate is more than 300 km away from Sapporo, and it take about 5 hours to get there by car.
Well, honestly it’s not good for me to drive 5 hours with not comfortable car…
I had another job which I need to do until go to Hakodate, so I arrived hotel at 11 PM.
And of course, I couldn’t enjoy scenery during my drive. Yes, I cannot see anything, everything were in darkness...
From the hotel, I could see Goryokaku tower which is in Goryokaku Park.
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| Night view from my hotel room |
And here's morning view from my hotel room.
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| Morning view from my hotel room |
I wanted to delete the building on left to see perfect view, but of course I cannot use magic.
Hakodate is famous for beautiful night view from Mt. Hakodate, but it was a little away from my hotel and I couldn't go there during my stay. I hope I can see that next time!
You can check the review on trip advisor from the link below.
Hakodate is famous for squid. Look at the video above, it's still moving!!
Unfortunately, it's not the best season to eat squid, but it was really nice. I hope I can come back at the best season of squid!
Thanks.
02 October 2015
A week in Busan
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| View from Yongdusan Park |
In the late August, I was in Busan due to my job. It was my first time to visit South Korea. I though that I need to pay attention during my stay in South Korea, because I heard many bad things such as Korean people dislike Japanese. But there's no problem, they were very kind and nice.
I was working there same as in Japan, I worked overtime same as in Japan. I though working life both in Japan and Korea are almost same. Also, I've arrived there at evening of Sunday, and started to work from Monday morning. Then I left there early Saturday morning. Which means I couldn't have much time to go around Busan.
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| Townscape of Busan |
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| Foods there |
I also felt that foods there are similar to Japanese one, but some of them are hot because most of them include red peppers. But it was good.
If I can, I would like to visit there again and take more time to go around there.
Thanks.
15 May 2011
London trip: Day 5
In the morning, we went to Emirates stadium which is the Arsenal FC's home stadium. One of my friends who went to London with is the big fun of Arsenal FC. And he wanted to visit the stadium, buy some goods at official shop... Then we went there. Unfortunately, the weather was not good at all on this day. But we could know how big it is! I visited some stadiums in Japan such as Ajinomoto stadium in Tokyo, but the Emirates stadium was much larger than stadiums in Japan, I felt.
If we could, we would like to watch the match there. But we couldn't do so as I wrote before.
After we visited the stadium, we went to Buckingham palace. We've already checked the schedule of changing of the guard. Fortunately, we could arrived there on time, and saw that.
In front of the palace, we saw rainbow colored cab. We saw many cabs during our stay, but we didn't ride it at all. So if I have a chance, I would like to ride it.
After we saw changing of the guard, we went to Fortnum & Mason. I didn't know this shop, but my friend told me. According to my friend, Fortnum's is famous tea shop in London. When we arrived at Fortnum's, there were many Japanese tourists. They were buying so many teas and tea goods there, but I didn't have much money to buy such a many stuff there. So I bought one tea for my family.
I also didn't know the name Camden Market. At Camden market, there were many shops and I felt it's a little like Takeshita-dori where Tokyo's shopping district for young people.
But I felt it's much stylish, because I found two cool paintings near there. Of course, there are many graffiti also in Tokyo, but I felt most of them are looks so ugly, and I don't like most of graffiti in Tokyo.
We used Baker street station again and again during our trip, but we've never been 221B until the final day. So as our memorial, we get off the tube and went to 221B on this day.
Also, as our memorial we went to abbey road.
Well, we were not big fun of the Beatles, but there were fun of the Beatles who were taking pictures. Some of them were standing on zebra crossing to behave like cover picture of the Beatles' album "Abbey road".
But it's not look like cover picture, because the line on the road changed...
We had a lot of places where we visited on this day, and sky was getting dark. Yes, we needed to think about our final dinner during our stay.
Well, we were planning to take dinner at British pub during our stay at least one night. So, here it is. We went to pub near Hyde park. And this is the fish & chips. I felt it's so big!!
We ate this with British beer.
We mostly used undergrounds (or I should say tube?) during our stay. We bought Oyster card on first day, because it seems to be easy to pay our fares. In Japan, there are some similar prepaid card such as Suica. These prepaid cards are really useful because we don't have to buy tickets. The card automatically calculate the correct fee when we touched the gates.
I think, it's really useful, but I felt a little inconvenience. I felt a little inconvenience, because the gates sometimes didn't work right. And we needed to touch the card strongly to gates. Suica works so rapidly and we don't have to touch to the gates so strongly. Then I felt a little inconvenience. Anyway, it helped me to travel with undergrounds.
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I won't write about day 6 and day 7 as stand-alone article, because I don't have anything to write about that. Day 6, the day which our airplane leave London. So, we spend our time mostly at Heathrow Airport. Just waiting for the departure.
On day 7, we came back to Tokyo before noon. The airplane arrived at Narita Airport. And that is really far away from my house. I hope all of them will depart and arrive at Haneda Airport.
You can check previous articles that about my trip to London from:
Thank you!
10 May 2011
London trip: Day 4
We reserved tickets before we left Tokyo. I felt the price of tickets were cheaper than I expected. The airplane ticket for domestic line in Japan would be about 10,000 JPY (about 125 USD), it's not round-trip plane ticket. Of course, it's economy-class seat. But we could reserved the seat of round-trip plane London Heathrow Airport to Edinburgh Airport for less than 10,000 JPY!! And it's include tax! I felt it's really cheap. I don't know much about other countries' domestic line tickets, but in Japan airplane ticket would be expensive one even for domestic lines...
Unfortunately, the weather in London was not so good on this day. But we were not worrying about that because we would leave for Edinburgh on this day. So, how about weather in Edinburgh?
The weather in Edinburgh on this day was really wonderful!!
And it was not so hot, and not so cold for me. Well, we needed to ride the bus to get to centre area of Edinburgh. We rode the bus for a while, and arrived at Edinburgh station. We walked to Edinburgh castle.
I think, it's under construction, but I felt it's really nice.
Also, the view from Edinburgh castle was really nice!
Inside the Edinburgh castle, we could learn a little about Edinburgh castle and history of Edinburgh. And I could meet him. lol
After we enjoyed Edinburgh castle, we went to the Scotch whiskey experience. It's near from Edinburgh castle, and we could enjoy Scotch whiskey there. Look at the photo below, there were so many Scotch whiskeys!
At the Scotch Whiskey Experience, we could learn about Scotch Whiskey and its history. Also, we could taste the whiskey. There was a shop of Scotch Whiskey, and I wanted to send some to my house. But I couldn't do so...
We decided to walk around the city of Edinburgh. The urban area of Edinburgh was really beautiful, and took many photos. If you interest, please visit my facebook account. I upload some of them.
We could stay long at Edinburgh, because we chose night flight to come back to London. So, we came back to hotel at night. Anyway, we could enjoy the one-day trip to Edinburgh. If I have a chance, I would like to go there again!
So, this is the end of my story on day 4.
You can check previous stories from London trip: day 1, London trip: day 2, and London trip: day 3.
Thank you.
02 May 2011
London trip: Day 3
Today is about my London trip: Day 3. You can check London trip: Day 1 and London trip: Day 2.
In the morning, we went to Baker Street station. We passed that station again and again on Day 1 and Day 2, but it was the first time to got off at this station. When we got off, we found Sherlock Holmes's statue in front of the station.
There were many people who were taking picture of the statue including us. We took some pictures with this statue, but it was not our purpose to got off at this station.
Our first destination of Day 3 was Madame Tussauds. I didn't know this place, but my friend told me on Facebook then we decided to go there first. Inside the Madame Tussauds, there were many wax figures such as Albert Einstein, Barack Obama, Justin Bieber and so on. We took many pictures there. That was really fun. Not only the wax figures, but we could enjoy "4D movie" at there! It's worth to go there!
After the Madame Tussauds, we went to Westminster.
When we were crossing the Westminster bridge, the weather was wonderful.
After we crossed the Westminster bridge, we went to McDonald's to take lunch there. We chose McDonald's because we want to know the difference of menu, prices, taste and so on at there.
The photo on above is my lunch that I bought at McDonald's. Well, I felt it's bit expensive than Japanese price. But taste was not so different, and I felt the size was a little bigger than Japanese one.
While we were eating lunch at McDonald's, the weather changed so rapidly. The weather got bad like photo below.
Anyway, we walked to London Eye. While we were riding the London Eye, it was raining a little...
Unfortunately, the weather was not so good. But we could enjoy the London Eye.
After the London Eye, we went to Science Museum at Kensington. I went London with my 2 friends who are studying together at the college. We were all studying electronics engineering at the college. Which means we are really interested in Science and Technology. Then we were planning to visit such place. The Science Museum was exactly such place where we wanted to visit. It was really interesting place for me, and we enjoyed the whole afternoon of this day at there. We stayed there by closing time.
We took supper around there and came back to Wembley park.
On this day, there was the match Arsenal FC vs. Birmingham city FC. (We wanted to watch the match, but we couldn't get the ticket...) So, the stadium was lighted up and looks so beautiful.
We took some photos around there, then came back to hotel.
So here's the end of my trip on day 3. I will update my Day 4 story as soon as possible.
Thank you.
08 March 2011
London trip: Day 2
In the morning, we went to the Wembley Stadium which is located in near the hotel we were staying. I've never seen such a large stadium. It was really big stadium. The stadium was getting ready for the Carling Cup Final 2011 game that would hold on Sunday (27th Feb.) when we arrived there. The game would be Arsenal vs. Birmingham city, and we wished to watch the game at the stadium.
After that, we went to Piccadilly Circus again to check some tickets for the game. We went to some shops there, but we couldn't buy that due to its expensive prices... The cheapest ticket price was £450 for each seats! £450(about 730 USD; about 60,000 JPY)! We gave up to buy the ticket...
I surprised because the entrance fee of the British Museum is free! I also surprised how large it is! Unfortunately, we couldn't see all of these collections... I hope that I can visit here again!
We left the British Museum at afternoon, and visited the St. Paul's Cathedral. Unfortunately, taking photos inside the St. Paul's Cathedral was not allowed. Inside the St. Paul's Cathedral was just beautiful. You should come and see this place. When we entered the cathedral, staff gave us guide like iPod touch. Because of this guide, we could know the history, architecture, music, art and etc.
Of course, we went to dome which we can see around London, and here are some photos that I took there. (I took outside of the cathedral, not inside.) There are 3 galleries in this dome, which are Whispering Gallery (30 metres from Cathedral Floor), Stone Gallery (53 metres from Cathedral Floor) and Golden Gallery (85 metres from Cathedral Floor). In Stone Gallery and Golden Gallery, we can watch outside of the dome and it was really nice.
Thames river and Westminster (London eye, Big Ben and etc).
The City of London.
London Bridge and Tower Bridge.
Unfortunately, it was cloudy when we arrived the Golden Gallery...
We left St. Paul's Cathedral at about 4 p.m., and started to walk around. About an hour of walking, we arrived Tower Bridge. It was really beautiful, because it's nice time of sunset.
Also, the Tower of London was beautiful.
At night, we arrived at Westminster.
When we exited underground's Westminster Station, the big ben was located just behind us! Also, the Westminster Abbey was located near the big ben.
It was so beautiful. So here's the end of my trip on day 2. We walked so much on this day! We will update my day 3 story as soon as possible.
Thank you.
05 March 2011
London trip: Day 1
There are 2 airport near the Tokyo, which are Narita International Airport(成田国際空港:Narita Kokusai Kuukou) and Haneda Airport(羽田空港:Haneda Kuukou). Narita is far away from Tokyo, but most of international flights depart from this airport. My flight was also depart from this airport.
The airplane that is in the photo is the airplane that I board. My flight departed at noon on 25th, Feb. (JST). That was the beginning of my 12.5 hours of flight to London. Can you believe that 12.5 hours on the plane!!
It's the longest flight that I've ever board. The plane departed at noon in JST, and the plane goes north-west. Which means the plane is under the sunshine during its flight. The plane arrived at London Heathrow Airport at 15.30 (GMT). That's weird! I was boarding more than 12 hours, but I was still in the same day! I was a little sleepy, but it was OK. I felt the temperature was a little warmer than I expected.
After I arrived at Heathrow, we went to the hotel in Wembley. It took about 30 minutes to the Hotel by bus. We went to the underground station near the hotel, after we check-in. About 30 minutes of underground trip, we arrived at Piccadilly Circus.
It was cloudy, but we arrived at night so it was not so big problem. Anyway, there were really many people and people were talking in their own words such as Spanish, French and English of course.
I surprised many things at there on first day. For example, in Tokyo people stand on left side, and right side is for people who wants to swoop up when we use escalator. But in London, it was different. Another example, people cannot smoke outside and we can smoke in most of restaurant in Tokyo. But in London we can smoke outside, but we cannot smoke in public places such as restaurants. Of course, underground was not allowed to smoke.
I like this sign. I wrote about smoking, but I don't smoke.
So, this is my London trip: day 1. I hope I can update other stories as soon as possible.
Thank you.
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