Janhoo's Blog

2008-07-25T18:32:00.003+09:00

During the last part of our Africa trip, we went to Cape Town. On our first day in Cape Town, we experienced shark diving, which I will get back to later. However, on our last day, we took a tour of various sights around Cape Town, including a township tour.

A township refers to urban living areas that previously (under Apartheid) were reserved for non-whites (principally black Africans and Coloureds). The townships were usually built on the periphery of towns and cities, where also the townships that we visited around Cape Town were located.

Before venturing out to the townships, we visited the District Six Museum. The museum serves as a remembrance to the events of the apartheid era as well as the culture and history of an area called District Six, which is the name of a former inner-city residential area in Cape Town. Approximately 60,000 of its inhabitants were forcibly removed during the 1970s by the apartheid regime.

By visiting some of the townships, you really get a feel for the tremendous poverty that still exists in South-Africa. Compared with the extreme wealth enjoyed by the people living in the residential area close to our hotel, it is difficult to comprehend that both can exist in the same country.

Our township visit lasted for approximately 3 hours, during which we mainly drove through small streets in the township and looked at shacks and people. Our guide was babbling in a somewhat understandable English for most of the trip, and was actually able to provide some interesting information. A guide, preferably a black one for safety reasons, is recommended for visits to the townships.

A highlight was a visit to a traditional "medical clinic". With AIDS being a major problem in the townships, let us hope HIV positive individuals visit a real doctor instead of their local con/medical artist. Some colleagues of these village doctors (i.e. witch-doctors) in Tanzania have recently caused a killing spree of albinos, as the witch-doctors say using albino body parts in a potion can make people rich. Sounds like a great theory to me. However, the people in the townships will probably get richer (or at least healthier) much quicker if they instead kill their witch doctors.

2008-07-24T10:35:00.005+09:00

I wrote the following a couple of days ago on my flight from Singapore to Johannesburg. After arriving in Tokyo, I realized that my cell phone had been stolen from my luggage. At Johannesburg airport, they actually asked me at the airline counter whether or not I had a cell phone in my luggage (in addition to many other items), but I answered no assuming this was a security check to prevent cell phones being turned on while in the passengers' checked in luggage (my cell phone was out of battery). Anyway, when arriving in Tokyo, I realized that someone had been in my luggage and stolen my cell phone.

While in South-Africa, I actually read an article about rampant airport crime in Johannesburg, but I did not think about this when packing my luggage at 6 AM. At the same time as scanning luggage for bombs, the Johannesburg airport personal apparently also scan the luggage for valuables, which are then kindly removed from the luggage. I guess a business case study in effiency is warranted. Anyway, bye bye cell phone. It was getting old anyway... Back to what I wrote on the airplane:

Having just watched “Street Kings” on my flight back to Singapore, I must say yet again that I do not understand how Keanu Reeves manages to get any acting jobs. To restate that, I do not even understand how he got his first acting job, but he proves that talent is not necessary for success in the entertainment world. Also, when will the alcoholic cop concept finally grow old? I am hoping soon. “The Bank Job”, a British film which I also watched on this flight, was a much more entertaining flick. Anyway, back to Africa.

We spent the most of one day driving the almost 600 kilometers from Kruger National Park to Johannesburg. While I did not spend any time in Johannesburg, let me write a few lines about this miserable city. The wealthier parts of Johannesburg are what I imagine Baghdad’s green zone to be like. Crime is so rampant that a big portion of the city’s successful population is considering to emigrate or to move to safer parts of South-Africa (many have already done so). Now, most politically correct guidebooks will inform you that crime is a problem in Johannesburg, and that you should take precautions there just like you would in any other major city. This is complete crap. The safety level of any major city should be compared with other cities based on crime statistics, and Johannesburg would come out poorly in comparison with most developed European, American, or developed Asian cities. It is simply nonsense that the same level of caution is required in all major cities, but this is the impression I got from several guidebooks and message boards that I read prior to going to South-Africa. Carjacks, robberies, muggings, and all other types of crime are rampant in Johannesburg, and anyone travelling to Johannesburg should really reconsider the necessity of going there.

Johannesburg is situated on flat agricultural type land and does not have any of the charm or the magnificent scenery that can be found in and around Cape Town. In addition, there seem to be zero tourist attractions in close vicinity of Johannesburg worth visiting, though Johannesburg remains the most convenient starting point for visits to Kruger National Park. Luckily it is possible to travel to Kruger National Park without driving through central Johannesburg.

After staying one night at a hotel in Johannesburg, we took a flight to Livingstone in Zambia. This city is located close to Victoria Falls, though it is less conveniently located than the city of Victoria Falls located in Zimbabwe. We decided not to visit Zimbabwe in consideration of the uncertain domestic situation. Robert Mugabe, who brought Zimbabwe to independence from British rule, has managed to destroy the country and the situation is probably worse now than it was during colonial times. We spoke with some tourists that had visited Zimbabwe during the previous week, and apparently everyone including airport personal is begging for money. The individuals I spoke with had stayed at the colonial Victoria Falls Hotel, which used to be considered one of the best hotels in the world. On one morning, the hotel ran out of coffee, and there apparently was no champagne available in the champagne bar.

While we are discussing Zimbabwe, some whites I spoke with in South-Africa are worried that the likely future president of South-Africa, Jacob Zuma, will ruin South-Africa in a similar fashion to Robert Mugabe. Mr. Zuma has been charged with several offences, but is the favorite to succeed the current President in the upcoming election. The fear is that corruption will be even worse than in the current government, which is considered to be utterly incompetent. My favourite Jacob Zuma is the one of him knowingly having sex with an HIV positive lady (who also accused him of rape), while excusing the incident by claiming that he had a shower afterwards. Let us return to Zambia.

If you had asked me a couple of weeks ago to locate Zambia on a map, I would probably have placed it somewhere in the middle, but now I am more enlightened. Everyone I met in Zambia was friendly and positive, and in general people seemed much more confident about the future than people in South-Africa. Due to the proximity to Victoria Falls and the current situation in Zimbabwe, hotels in and around Livingstone are popping up almost on a daily basis, and the town is buzzing with commerce and developments.

The only negative surprise when visiting Zambia was the abhorrent visa fees. I “only” had to pay $50 for my single-entry visa permit, but certain nationalities (including British and American citizens) need to fork out more than $100. The visa fees can only be settled in USD cash, no other currencies are accepted. With only two immigration lines and hundreds of tourists, it took us more than 1 hour to clear immigration and customs. I understand that visa fees provide much needed income for the poor government of Zambia, but they can at least try to make the entry process speedier and less miserable.

There are several attractions in and around Livingstone worth seeing, and on my next visit I certainly want to cross the border to Botswana in order to visit the Chobe National Park. Since we were only going to spend two days near Victoria Falls, we decided not to take anti-malaria pills, though I know anti-malarial pills are highly recommended. I have never seen more mosquitoes in my life than in my hotel room that was located next to the Zambezi River, and I spent a good portion of the day killing mosquitoes with a newspaper. In the end, Yuka and I left Zambia without being bitten by mosquitoes even once, but I would not recommend the risk or trouble to anyone else. I will write more on malaria in my review of the hotels we stayed at while in Africa.

It is easy to spend an entire day just watching the Victoria Falls, and there are lots of nice walks to be taken around the falls. I would recommend getting a re-entry visa upon entering Zambia, as this will allow you to visit Zimbabwe to see the falls from the Zimbabwean side. We decided not to do so due to the expensive visa cost, but I honestly was not very excited about the prospect of visiting Zimbabwe. There is an area between Zimbabwe and Zambia that you can visit without getting an exit stamp in your Zambian visa, and I am sure we could have been more adventurous than what we were. At least we were able to cross the bridge over the Zambezi River and to step on Zimbabwean soil, though I did not venture any further than that.

On the Zambian side, there is an interesting trail that takes you down to the foot of the Zambezi River, and on the way down we came across a gang of locals that were in the process of killing a spitting cobra. It was a rather gruesome scene that I caught on tape, not sure if these actions should be approved in a National Park.

After visiting the Victoria Falls, we took a cab to the city of Livingstone, which has some interesting colonial houses and a very good African restaurant. We felt safe while in the city, though there are no attractions that would compel anyone to stay there for very long.

On the day of departing Livingstone, we took a morning helicopter flight over Victoria Falls. The cost was $100 for 15 minutes, and it is true that the size of the Victoria Falls can only be appreciated if seen from the air. It is simply not possible to get a sense of the gigantic size of the Victoria Falls when seeing them from the ground, and there are some portions of the falls that are only viewable from the Zimbabwean side and vice versa.

While we generally used South-African Air while in Africa, on the return flight to Johannesburg from Livingstone we used Zambian Air as there were no available seats on any other airlines. This airline is fairly new, based in Zambia, and not part of any alliances, thus I was fairly skeptical about the safety prior to boarding. However, we were very pleasantly surprised. For some reason, the crew was mainly foreign, probably because qualified personal cannot be found in Zambia. The service was impeccable, the Boeing plane seemed reasonably well kept to the naked eye, and I was almost a bit disappointed not to be offered anything more exciting. I was thinking we would be placed in a Soviet type propeller airplane without windows commanded by a drunk crew, but as usual reality turned out to be less exciting and dangerous than my imagination.

2008-07-23T10:06:00.001+09:00

Today I posted some more pictures from Nagasaki:

Jan Visits Nagasaki

2008-07-22T07:09:00.001+09:00

I have added a bunch of pictures from Hashima Island - Gunkanjima - Battleship Island!

Jan Visits Hashima Island - Gunkanjima - Battleship Island

2008-07-19T04:38:00.003+09:00

Today I have been shark diving in a town close to Cape Town. We saw five different individual great white sharks, the largest being about 3 meters long. The longest one recorded was apparently over 6 meters, though I am not sure if I would have dared going into a cage to see that one. Anyway, more on that later. Here is what has happened earlier this week:

Kruger National Park is the largest national park in South-Africa, and the park is connected to another national park in Mozambique. As stated above, the park may not be sufficiently large for certain birds and animals, but when visiting the park in a safari vehicle, the park certainly looks impressive. Our guide from Thornhill Lodge, Oscar, spent most of the day driving around to find cars that had stopped on the road. If you see a parked car on the road in Kruger National Park, it usually means that the passengers in the car have spotted an animal. The trick is then to stop next to the car, ask the driver of the vehicle what they are looking at, and then to look in the same direction.

Now, the biggest difference between a zoo and a national park is that the animals in the naional parks are free to venture around as they please (obviously within the borders of the national park). Another distinction is that the animals hunt or find their own food, but otherwise there are some similarities. For example, we spotted a few lions that were just lying around doing nothing, just like they would in a zoo (in fact, lions are inactive on average 22 hours a day). While the lions in a zoological garden would be located just a few meters from you, in a national park they can be located several hundred meters away. Since safari vehicles are not allowed to leave the main roads, in Kruger you end up starring at the animals though binoculars. It is true, however, that the animals look a lot less sad in the national park than they do in a zoo, though it perhaps is unlikely that an impala (type of antelope) finds as much pleasure in freedom as humans do. For starters, in national parks the impalas are surrounded by lions and leopards that are constantly looking for ways to kill and eat them, thus a zoo can at least provide security from attacks and a stable food supply (if the lucky impala avoids zoos such as that in Kabul).

While driving around Kruger, we were lucky to see hippopotamus, zebras, crocodiles, lions, impalas, giraffes, elephants, buffaloes, baboons, warthogs, several types of vultures, vervet monkeys, and a wide range of other animals that I cannot recall as I am retarded.

Once we returned to Thornhill Lodge, it was already dark, thus it had been a long day in the bush. Our guide spoke barely intelligible English and had limited knowledge about animals other than the Big 5, thus the trip could have been more rewarding with a better guide. Since a visit to Kruger involves driving around without seeing much at all for most of the time, a trip would be much better if the guide could provide general information about the park and the animals and plants within it. In comparison with the guided trips I have taken in the Australian bush and the Everglades, the guided tour of Kruger was quite a disappointment.

The following morning we were woken up at 6 AM for a guided bush walk that was to commence at 6:30 AM. While there are plenty of wild animals living on the Thornhill Lodge property, this morning we were only able to see a bunch of impalas. However, after having finished the guided tour and returned to Thornhill at 8 AM for breakfast, we realized that a group of four giraffes had decided to visit our lodge to eat from some trees just outside. The same group of giraffes arrived the same evening for some more food, and giraffes can be surprisingly loud when walking around outside. One interesting fact the guide told us is that giraffes are not able to make any sounds, thus even when attacked by lions they are not able to scream or entertain other giraffes with an oral deliberation of what it feels like to be attacked. I know that if I were to be attacked by a wild animal, I would at least scream like a mad man, though I probably would die of fear shortly afterwards.

Talking about being attacked by animals, there are apparently three smart things to do when attacked by a crocodile. The first is to open the crocodile’s jaw to let water pour into its throat; I guess the theory is that the crocodile will drown. Alternatively, you can stick your fingers into the crocodile’s eyes, which at least to me sounds like the most viable option. The third alternative is apparently to hit a vulnerable spot around the crocodile’s ears, though I doubt the best time to find this spot would be when one is being attacked by a crocodile. After telling us about these three alternatives, the guide told us that no one had yet to survive a crocodile attack, though I am not sure if that is true or not. More importantly, I guess the one thing to remember is to stay far away from any body of water that is NOT a swimming pool.

After eating breakfast, our guide drove us to the Blyde River Canyon. This natural attraction is located in the southeast of the country close to the border with Mozambique, and Blyde River Canyon is apparently the third largest canyon in the world (after the Grand Canyon and a canyon located in Namibia). The fast-flowing Blyde River has slowly carved its way through 700 meters of shale and quartzite to create a 20 kilometer canyon. While we did not see any wildlife, the Blyde River Canyon is apparently home to baboons, different types of monkeys, and both species of bushaby (don't really know what a bushaby is, ask my guidebook).

Unfortunately, on our first day in the Blyde River Canyon, we did not see much at all due to fog. Therefore, on the way back to Johannesburg on the following day, we stopped by the Blye River Canyon yet again and were able to take some magnificent pictures.

After our first visit to the Blyde River Canyon, we returned to the Thornhill Lodge for lunch, after which we went on a game drive in the Thornybush Big Five Reserve. There are a lot of private reserves that border the Kruger National Park, and the private reserves are mainly fenced in. The plan is, however, that the fences will gradually be taken down so that animals will be freely allowed to transfer between the national park and the private reserves. Not surprisingly, many of the private landowners are opposing such moves for a variety of reasons. While I did not have the chance to speak with any of the landowners, I imagine the main reason would be that they no longer will be able to guarantee that the Big Five are available on their property. Also, with the properties secured and fenced in, it is easier for the landowners to prevent poaching and other illegal activities on their properties. Also, since they effectively own the animals on their properties, there is an economic incentive for them to protect the animals on their land.

I believe most serious environmentalists believe that capitalism can be combined with effective environmental management. If a landowner can guarantee biodiversity on their properties through arranging game drives on their land, I believe they should be able to keep the fences. On the other hand, careful management is needed to prevent inbreeding.

Back to our game drive on the Thornybush Big Five Reserve. The difference between Kruger National Park and the private game reserves is obviously the size, and in the game reserves the cars drive straight into the bush in order to get as close to the animals as possible. As a result, we were able to see all the Big Five except the leopard, which apparently is seen only on rare occasions. While it was satisfying to be able to see a lot of wild animals close up, essentially a private game reserve is like a massive largely self-maintained zoo. The sense of adventure just is not there as much as it was in Kruger National Park, though the animal sightings were less impressive in the latter.

Just to comment on what I am seeing right now at the Livingstone International Airport in Zambia (we've visited Zambia to see the Victoria Falls). A bunch of conservative Jews are about to board a plane, and some of the men are engaged in a serious religious prayer now just before getting on the aircraft. I am happy that I am not boarding the same flight, as the entire scene is making me a bit nervous. Most likely, these are Americans Jews as they are fairly overweight and mainly wearing sneakers. There is a tour group of about 20 individuals, and they just shared a big cake as one of them is celebrating his birthday. Since they had forgotten to bring plates, creativity was needed, thus one particularly fat guy was eating cake out of his hat. When suddenly called by one of his buddies to say a prayer, he stood up with cake crumbs still hanging from his mouth, thus it was quite a comical scene. In the end, this side of the airport has gotten fairly dirty, but I guess someone will soon be here to clean up after the rich tourists have left.

More Later....

2008-07-15T00:59:00.005+09:00

I had always figured that flying to South-Africa would take a lot of time, but I was only partially right. From Singapore, the flight to Johannesburg is only around 10 hours, thus it is about the same as going to Europe. However, due to various reasons that are not really that interesting, we ended up flying to Singapore through Bangkok. With a waiting time in Singapore of approximately 10 hours, we thus ended up travelling around 30 hours before reaching Johannesburg.

Since Singapore is such a tiny country, taking a train from the airport to the city center takes only about 30 minutes. Another aspect I enjoy about Singapore airport is that almost all the airport shops are open 24 hours, which makes a 2:30 AM morning flight a whole less troublesome. We were also able to take a shower at the airport, thus we were very refreshed when boarding our flight to Johannesburg.

Singapore Airlines is a fantastic airline, and its entertainment system in economy class beats the business class alternative of most European and US airlines. It is also difficult to complain about the quality of food and wine, and perhaps even more importantly, the stewardesses are beautiful. However, this does not help at all when you are seated next to the Monster Kid from Hell.

On the other side of my aisle, a blond kid of about 4 years old was sitting on his mom's lap. Now, it is a mystery to me how this child was able to sit on his mom's lap during take-off, as he looked much older than the infants that normally are allowed to sit with their parents during take-off (thus providing the parents with a cheaper ticket price for their kids). He also had a milk bottle, which for a while made me wonder if he had some invisible mental retardation, but this did not seem to be the case. As they say (or ought to say), "Behind every annoying child stands an incompetent parent", and this was certainly the truth in this case. During the preparation for take-off, during take-off, and after take-off, the Monster Kid from Hell was screaming at the top of his lungs. It was so loud I was surprised the captain did not kick the kid off the plane. Mainly he was screaming "Papayan", and I still have no idea what that means (probably something in Afrikaans). The mother was just sitting by doing next to nothing. Before landing, she asked a stewardess whether her child could sit without a seat belt during landing as he would start screaming again if forced to wear a belt. Crazy mother.

Luckily all the screaming and shouting made the kid tired after about one hour following take off, and when he finally went to sleep the rest of the passengers could get some well deserved rest. Yuka, on the other hand, was sitting next to a character from Angola (we saw his passport), who obviously did not have much experience flying. During the flight, he even woke up Yuka to ask how he could use his remote control A normal person would probably think to ask a stewardess rather than to wake up fellow passengers, but this guy was not normal. He also thought he could control the main TV screen with his remote control, and was thus surprised to see that he had a personal TV screen under his seat (just like every other passenger).

When arriving in Johannesburg, we were met by our guide at the airport. Yuka tried to find a phone box that she could use to call home, and we had to go all the way to the departures hall to find one. As soon as we had found one, we discovered that it was out of order. Welcome to Africa.

The drive from the airport to our lodge was approximately 510 kilometers long, but it passed quickly as the roads are relatively good and there is little traffic. On the way to the lodge, we stopped at a rehabilitation center for wild animals. The living space of Africa's wild animals is gradually decreasing, and this is particularly serious for the birds and animals that require large territories in order to live. Certain eagles and other birds, for instance, may fly over hundreds of kilometers within a short period of time. Since there are virtually no parks that can offer wide spaces of this magnitude, many birds and other animals end up being killed when they leave the park. In addition there is the persistent problem of poaching, and many of the animals can be quite valuable on the black market. The poaching method of choice seems to be poisoning. While this option is indiscriminate as it ends up killing lots of animals that can not be sold on the black market, poison is cheap to purchase and ends up killing lots of animals. The people at the rehabilitation center were mildly speaking not very optimistic about the future of African wildlife, thus it was an eye wakening experience. On a more positive note, the rehabilitation center offered the opportunity to get up close to several birds and other animals that you are not likely to see when visiting the Kruger National Park. In my view, the focus of the Kruger guided tours is mainly on the Big 5 (lion, rhino, buffalo, leopard, and elephant), thus many of the other animals and especially plants end up being ignored.

We stayed at the "Thornhill Safari Lodge", which is located within the Greater Kruger Park ecosystem - approximately 40 km from Kruger Park's Open gate. Our bedroom had en suite facilities, including mosquito nets around our bed. Prior to visiting Kruger National Park, I researched quite a bit regarding the risk of malaria. During winter, the risk of malaria is very low as there is little water in the park and temperatures can get down to the freezing point. During the approximately 3 days that we spent in the park, I did not see a single mosquito, though that is not to say that there is zero risk for a mosquito bite.

On our first safari day, we were woken up at 4:45 AM and left the lodge area at approximately 5:30 AM. We then reached the guide of Kruger Park just as it was getting light, and I will write more about our experiences there later.

2008-07-08T09:53:00.003+09:00

In the back pocket of my chair in the airport bus from Nagasaki airport, I found a little magazine titled "Pocket Navigation Nagasaki". While also providing information on a couple of bars and dining establishments, most of the advertisements in the magazine were for various hostess clubs and other shady businesses. This one particular advertisement could not help to catch my eye, however, as the ladies featured are amazingly beautiful. The lady in the middle in the shop's Madam, while the other two are Tomoco and Akina. You can meet them all at the shop's website. While the shop only opened on June 2, it is hard to know how long it will be in business. If I ever go to Nagasaki again, I will make sure to visit.

Please note that this shop is simply a bar with supposedly female hostesses, and the only fun going on is drinking and karaoke. More precisely, it is a sunakku, though the exact definition of a sunakku is rather ambiguous. No matter how you define it, Hige Mama certainly looks like a memorable place to go for an evening out.

2008-07-07T10:22:00.002+09:00

Hashima Island - Gunkanjima - Battleship Island.

Nagasaki has sufficient sights to keep anyone occupied for at least a couple of days. On our last day in Nagasaki, we did some shopping before going on a boat cruise of Nagasaki bay. The goal of our boat journey was Hashima Island, more commonly known as Gunkanjima ("Battleship" in English). Gunkanjima is uninhabited and situated about 15 kilometers from Nagasaki itself.

The island is known for its coal mines, and Mitsubishi bought the island in 1890 with the aim of retrieving coal from the bottom of the sea. During the Second World War, many Korean and Chinese slave labourers did most of the work, but through most of the period through the closing of the coal mining facility in 1974, regular Japanese workers and families lived on the island. According to some sources, in the late 1950s the island had the highest population density in the world, and more than 5,000 people lived on this tiny spot in the ocean. The island was fully equipped with schools, bars, a movie theater, and other facilities.

However, after the closing of the coal mine in 1974, the island was completely abandoned, and today the island is uninhabited and travel there is not permitted. According to our boat guide, efforts are being made to have the island included as a World Heritage Site, and it is certainly to be hoped that the island will be opened for tourism in a controlled manner. It is possible to sneak in though, as we saw a couple of people that had managed to enter after going to the island by canoes. Even when seeing the island from offshore, it is easy to understand why the island is being referred to as Ghost Island, and it certainly is not a place I would like to spend an evening or night by myself.

I used "The Rough Guide" Japan while in Nagasaki, but could not find Gunkanjima featured at all. My old Lonely Planet, admittedly an old version from 2000, bears no mention of the island either. It is all very odd. I have sent an email to "The Rough Guide" to see if they will consider including it in their next edition.

Apart from seeing Gunkanjima, we visited an Ukiyo-e exhibition in the Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum. The paintings (mainly woodblock prints) were on loan from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. During the Edo period, the Ukiyo-e paintings were apparently more popular in Europe than in Japan, which is why so many Ukiyo-e paintings are currently located outside of Japan.

The last sight we visited was the "Memorial to the Martyrdom of the 26 Saints of Japan". While there today are not many Christians in Japan, the main reason is that most Christians were killed off after the ban of Christianity in 1597. Almost all of Japan's Christians were killed in various brutal ways, and among these martyrs were the 26 Franciscans that were crucified in Nagasaki in the same year. In addition to a memorial for the crucified Christians, there is a museum that commemorates and explains the role and history of Christianity in Japan and various parts of Asia.

2008-07-05T23:46:00.006+09:00

Nagasaki is a surprisingly beautiful city. While it is true that the architecture is not that different from most other Japanese cities (i.e. mainly concrete and random buildings), the location of the city is fantastic. According to "The Rough Guide", which I am using while in the city, the British landscape painter Sir Alfred East once stated that "As the passage into the harbour widened we had our first glimpse of Nagasaki town in the haze of the morning, nestled in a most beautiful inlet at the food of wooded hills".

Yesterday was of course a regular working day in Japan, though I am aware that the US spent most of the day barbecuing and celebrating its independence day. In the evening, Yuka and I took a JAL flight from Haneda to Nagasaki, and from Nagasaki Airport there is a 40 minutes bus trip to the centre of the town.

Today, I think we have seen most of the major sights in the city. We started by visiting the Atomic Bomb Museum, which was gruesome but provided little insight into why Nagasaki was chosen as a target. In addition, Japan's role during the war was not really discussed at all. While this can be viewed as an attempt to ignore Japan's role during the war, which again helps victimize Japan as it is the only country in the world to have suffered a nuclear bombing, on the other hand not politicising the atomic bombing helps bring focus to the actual human disaster of the bombing. It is certainly possible (and likely probable) that human lives were saved through bombing Nagasaki (as an invasion of Japan was thus avoided), still the effect of the nuclear bombing was unprecedented and will hopefully never be experienced again. Today's visit to the Atomic Bomb Museum makes me fear what would happen if a nuclear bomb were to fall into the hands of someone without any sense of reason, thus it is to be hoped that Iran never gains possession of a nuclear weapon.

I was interested to read that Nagasaki only was the secondary target on the day of the bombing. The city of Kokura was the primary target, but it was saved as the city was covered by a cloud cover that obscured the city, thus prohibiting the visual attack required by orders. In other words, there were some very lucky people living in Kokura on August 9, 1945, and there were some very unlucky ones living in Nagasaki.

While the Atomic Bomb Museum probably is the most memorable sight in Nagasaki, I also enjoyed visiting a couple of churches. The Urakami Cathedral is located close to the Atomic Bomb Museum, and it is still possible to view certain sections and statues that were damaged during the nuclear explosion. Equally or even more impressive is the Oura Catholic Church, which is beautifully located in a different part of town. This was apparently the first church built in Japan, and the location could hardly be more magnificent. Nearby is the Glover Garden, which exhibits a wide range of old Western houses. Nagasaki was Japan's first truly cosmopolitan city, and in particular I enjoyed reading about the Scotsman Thomas Glover and also to visit his residence.

Yuka and I ended the evening by eating a fantastic shippoku meal at Nagasaki's oldest ryokan; Sakamotoya. While it set us back a couple of hundred bucks, it certainly was worth the experience. As part of the meal was a large portion of raw whale meat, which was a bit too much as I already had some unexpected whale sushi yesterday evening (no kidding!). While I enjoy whale meat when properly cooked, raw whale meat is rather chewy and not to be recommended. After the rather extravagant dinner, we took a cable car up to see the panorama offered by Inasa-yama, before ending the evening with a couple of cocktails at the New York Diner on the 15th floor of the Best Western Premier.

2008-07-01T22:53:00.003+09:00

Today's ITN interview with "President" Mugabe again shows that Zimbabwe would be better off if the old man would just drop dead. The man has obviously gone mad or senile, or perhaps even a combination of the two can be blamed for his current stupidity.

2008-06-12T02:39:00.003+09:00

I am writing this on the train from Bratislava to Vienna. Prior to visiting Austria, I did not know that Vienna and Bratislava are two European capitals that are most closely located (at least according to one guidebook that I read, I will check the map when I get home). It only takes 1.25 hours from Vienna to Bratislava by regular train, thus the journey can easily be made in a day.

This morning, I had originally intended to take the Twin City Liner to Bratislava. This company operates high speed ferries between the two cities, and I met up before 8:30 AM by the ferry port located on the Danube River (close to Schwedenplatz subway station). However, I quickly learned that both the 8:30 and 09:00 ferries were sold out and that only VIP seats were available. The total for a round trip ticket would be over 60 Euros, and just thinking about how much that would be in USD made me freak out (mild exaggeration). If I had been with people and less concerned about seeming cheap, I probably would have gone for it, but instead I chose to check the train schedule. It took me less than 30 minutes to get to Sudbahnhof train station, from where trains depart for Bratislava approximately every hour. For only 14 EUR, I got a round-trip ticket to Bratislava, and the ticket included one free day of local transportation within the Slovakian capital. When arriving at Bratislava’s Petrzalka station, the old city of Bratislava was just a 10 minute bus ride away from the train station (by bus number 80, free when you have bought the 14 Euro train ticket).

The capital of Slovakia spreads out over the banks of the Danube River. With a population of almost 500,000 people, it is the largest city in Slovakia, and thanks to its strategic location it has long been a crossroads of long-distance trade routes. During the 16th century it was the seat of the coronation of Hungarian kings, which in its time was about as popular as hosting the MTV Music Awards. Things pretty much went downhill from then, but since the fall of communism, huge EU investments and a liberalized economy have helped stimulate economic growth. Big parts of the city are currently undergoing construction, and Bratislava will with time likely become a much more interesting city.

I knew from before that Slovakia is a rather small country, actually that is probably the only thing I knew about the Slovakia. The other piece of knowledge I had was that Slovakia used to be behind the Iron Curtain, but unfortunately I was not able to find any cool Stalin or Lenin statues during my visit today. Then again, perhaps it is a healthy sign that the city does not publicly display statutes glorifying mass murderers. Back to the part about Slovakia being a small country; When visiting the Grassalkovich Palace today (home of the president), my brochure noted that there is an attractive park located behind the palace. After entering the garden, I noticed that a press conference was going on, and none other than the President and his wife were giving a speech and answering questions from reporters. There were plenty of journalists around, but none of the locals in the park (I assume these individuals were not tourists) were not interested at all in the press conference. To them, it seemed like a daily occurrence to see that President, and no one seemed interested in his presence. While I tried to sneak rather close to steal some pictures of the President (it seems like his name is Ivan Gašparovič), his bodyguards stopped me from getting too close. Being very sun burned and dressed rather awkwardly (pretty much covered up due to sunburns), I guess they could have mistaken me for a crazy pale white terrorist, violent political activist, or assassin (depending on your point of view).

While seeing the Slovakian President probably was the most exciting happening of the day, I also visited the city’s other major tourist attractions. These include the castle, which is the dominant feature of Bratislava. This is where the Hungarian coronations took place, though the current structure is a replica built in the 1950s. Other attractions include St. Michael’s Gate, which is the only part of the city fortifications that has survived to this day. Originally, there were four gates to the medieval fortified town, but now basically only St. Michael’s Gate remains.

After doing the bicycling tour yesterday and eating some rather poor ice cream, I visited the Schonbrunn Palace, which was the home of the Habsburgs. The puny Napoleon also lived there for a little while, and I guess everyone enjoyed the 1441 available rooms. Despite the size of the property, I probably would prefer a modern apartment with modern showering and bathing facilities, but each to his own. After visiting the palace and taking the Imperial Tour (which is all time would allow), I headed off to a pub to watch Spain beat Russia 4-1 in the European Championship. After the match, I headed back to the Schonbrunn Palace and attended a fantastic classical concert in the Orangerie. While I cannot recall how much I paid through Expedia, the amount on my ticket stated 48 EUR, and I would not be surprised if I saved a bit of money paying for the ticket in USD.

2008-06-10T22:15:00.001+09:00

PEDAL POWER Vienna

This morning I went bicycling with Pedal Power Vienna. I booked the trip through Expedia, and it turned out to be an informative experience. However, the guide was not a particularly exciting person, thus the bicycle trip ended up being a little disappointing.

Yesterday, I tried eating the "world famous" Wiener Schnitzel, which apparently originates from Milan. Being close to Germany, the food here is rather plain, but I guess I can survive for a few days. If I were to stay here longer, I would have to start hitting some Asian restaurants.

The fact that has impressed me most about Vienna so far is that people are capable of standing in lines. On the escalator, people neatly line up on the right side and let people pass on the left. It is extremely hot here at the moment, almost too warm to be quite honest. If global warming continues, someone really needs to introduce the concept of air condition to the Austrians.

Also, thanks to Holland for beating Italy 3-0 yesterday in the European Championships. It was a fantastic match to watch.

2008-06-09T18:38:00.004+09:00

I wrote the below rant about Korean Air the other day, though I did not get a chance to post it. Right now I am sitting in a lounge in Schipol Airport, and I just got back from seeing the Anne Frank Museum. I am catching a flight to Vienna in about one hour. Amsterdam was really showing itself from its best side this morning. It seems like everyone is Amsterdam bicycles to work, and there are hardly any cars to be seen. This is probably a result of the city being better suited for cycling than for driving, and it certainly makes the town much more pleasant. Amsterdam feels like a small town, and when it is sunny the canals look more beautiful than ever.

The Anne Frank Museum is a great place to visit. I think it is worthwhile once in a while to relearn the lessons of the Second World War. There was already a fairly long line around 8:30 AM (the museum opens at 9 AM), thus you're hereby advised to visit the museum early in the morning or late in the afternoon.

Anyway, back to my Korean Air rant:

While I have already flown around the world a few times, and up and down as well, I still find flying to be rather fascinating. At least, that is, for the first 1 hour or so of each flight.

The amusement usually starts before boarding, when lots of frantic business men and other passengers feel a strong urge to grab their cell phone and call someone. I have yet to hear anyone having a meaningful or important conversation, the topic is mainly that they are about to board the plane (like that is some fantastic achievement) or that the plane is five minutes late. These days, taking a flight is barely more expensive than getting on a bus or a train, but I am glad more people than me still find it exciting to get on a plane and feel like bragging about it.

Now, each plane ride usually ends up having its share of horrors. In the US, it generally takes hours to board a plane as everyone is watching their space and usually blocking the aisle with their huge bodies. There is usually never sufficient storage space in the overheard compartment bins, a problem that is likely just to get worse as airlines start charging for checked luggage (like American Airlines just announced). It is not long ago that I read a WSJ article about how airlines need to schedule significantly more time for boarding in Europe and the US compared with for example Japan. The Japanese are simply more organized, not to mention that an average Japanese person will not manage to block an entire aisle.

Anyway, today I flew Korean Air from Incehon to Vienna. While I have flown Korean Air several times already, I only have positive memories, and they mainly relate to sexy stewardesses (very important) and relatively good airplane food (also important). They have also been kind to upgrade me on a few occasions, which is one of the reasons why I chose to fly with them again on my way back to Europe for a brief holiday.

While Japan and South-Korea are only separated by the Sea of Japan (or the East Sea as Korea prefers to call it), the cultural divide between the two countries is huge. While I have unfortunately never had the pleasure of living in Korea, the temperament of the Koreans is completely different from that of the Japanese. While passengers on a Japanese transcontinental flight barely will make a sound for 12 hours, on a Korean flight you will see Koreans up and about running through the aisles. On today's flight, a random Korean grandmother type started singing a traditional Korean song, and enthused passengers (me excluded) cheered her on. The flight was noisy the entire way to Vienna, and I barely managed to catch a couple of hours of sleep.

Anyway, I guess the only way to guarantee a pleasant flight is to fork out the thousands of bucks you need to buy a business class ticket. Unfortunately, I don't have the will or cash to do that right now.

2008-05-06T22:51:00.001+09:00

Telephone Numbers of Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau: "Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau was relocated to a new location (address: 5-5-30 Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo) on February 1, 2003. However, some people still look at the phone number on an uncorrected old website, and make phone calls to our former phone number, which was effective two years ago when the regional bureau was in the second joint government office in Nishigaoka, Kita ward, Tokyo or Otemachi building. These wrong phone calls are bothering the new telephone subscribers who now use Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau's former telephone numbers."

It really makes me wonder why the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau does not simply update its old webpage?

2008-05-06T21:20:00.002+09:00

Idiocracy

This is simply a great movie, I laughed really hard throughout the entire film. It makes me wonder why it was not widely released (check out the above article). The movie was directed by Mike Judge, the same guy who made "Office Space" and "Beavis and Butt-head". Mike Judge is apparently working on another movie now, "Extract". No idea what it'll be about, but I look forward to its release in 2009.

2008-04-07T20:38:00.001+09:00

Olympic torch extinguished during Paris leg - CNN.com

It is somewhat politically correct these days to argue that politics and sports should not mix, thus one should not demonstrate against or boycott the Olympics. On the other hand, if one goes to the root of this argument, it would mean that it was wrong to boycott Hitler's 1936 Berlin Olympic Games.

Basically, the argument about not mixing sports and politics does not hold water, particularly when China is turning the event into a self-glorifying Han Chinese event. The reason why every single country on the planet refuses to boycott the Olympics is that China is a tremendously important trading partner, and no one really cares too much about a Han Chinese dictatorship brutally suppressing a mainly Han Chinese population or China's role in Darfur, though we care a little bit about Tibet. If politicians could simply be honest and explain that a boycott of China potentially could have disastrous economic consequences, perhaps people would be less upset. Then again, if everyone tells the same lie at the same time, many people will eventually manage to fool themselves into believing their own folly.

On a related note, congrats to the French public for extinguishing the flame. I can't wait to see what will be the fall out of this event.

2008-04-07T00:04:00.001+09:00

Norsk Cafe is an interesting small restaurant located nearby Toritsudaigaku Station in Meguro ward, Tokyo. While the name means Norwegian cafe, the food is basically a mix of Western and Japanese food, and I think the Norwegian name was chosen pretty much at random. Anyway, we met some friends there for lunch today, and the food was ok. The furniture inside is all of wood, however, thus I recommend going there just to see the interesting design. Also, we were advised to go back once for dinner as both the food and wine collection apparently is much better than at lunch.

In the evening, we went to Spa Libur in Yokohama, which is a Bali style Japanese onsen (hot spring). There are several floors, and Yuka and I enjoyed some Indonesian food after spending some time in the onsen. The only problem about Spa Libur is that it is kind of out of the way, and I did not like that one has to go to a different floor before entering the hot bath. The changing room is on one floor, and after getting dressed in a Japanese bathrobe, one has to walk up two floors in order to enter the hot spring. Anyway, for us it is more convenient than going to La Qua in Korakuen, though I prefer the latter.

2008-03-25T00:10:00.001+09:00

I ate at RISTORANTE RUBY Sopraffino's branch in Kawasaki this evening. It was my second time there, but it also turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. The service is rather uninspired, and the food failed to amaze me. You should expect more when paying around $70 for a course meal.

I spent the weekend in Shanghai and hope to post some pictures from there shortly.

2008-02-12T15:55:00.000+09:00

When you are worth $475 million, you can basically write whatever you want. This is a great article by Michael Lewis, who of course is just a good author and not really worth $475 million, though I have to read it once more to figure out exactly what his point is:

"It wasn't until one night, a couple of weeks ago, as I sat alone in my $17 million apartment, that it finally dawned on me: Ordinary people don't have a net worth of $475 million".

Sexual Politics Enlighten the Hedge-Fund Trader: Michael Lewis

2008-01-14T23:38:00.000+09:00

Some pictures from Okinawa:

Jan Visits Okinawa - Naha & The Main Island

This weekend we went to the IKEA store nearby Yokohama, and it was crowded like no tomorrow. IKEA is lucky not to have a problem attracting customers, the problem is rather that they are attracting too many. With thousands of adults and children storming around the store like it was Disneyland, it is almost impossible to find anything to buy. The again, with only two stores in the Tokyo metropolitan area, there is a lot of demand to satisfy.

On a related note, this evening I tried going to my local gym. It was so crowded, I decided to go running outside instead. The only problem running outside is the number of homeless people sleeping in the streets, not to mention that it is cold. I usually run next to the Tamagawa river, and that is where the homeless people hang out. This evening, I virtually had to jump over someone's bed today as I was running. Tokyo certainly is a crowded place.

2008-01-03T19:24:00.000+09:00

I left Europe on December 29. While I had a somewhat bad running nose, I did not think much about it. However, on my first flight, my ears really started hurting after departure. It seems like I came down with a condition known simply as airplane ear, which is a condition of discomfort associated with your middle ear. You will always experience this when taking a flight, in other words that there is some pain and that sounds are somewhat muffled.

However, if you fly with a cold, the pressure in your middle ear can't be equalized as something called the eustachian tube is blocked. Trust me, I looked this up searching Google. Anyway, after landing in Amsterdam, I was able to get my ears back to normal in about 30 minutes after landing. While I had bought special ear plugs, ate candy during landing, and used all the other available methods (including blowing air with my mouth and nose shut), the problem occurred again when I landed in Tokyo on December 30. This time around, it did not get better until the following morning, in other words 24 hours after landing.

Unfortunately, I was due to get on another flight on December 31, this time a relatively short domestic flight from Tokyo to Naha, Okinawa. After getting off the plane in Okinawa, I realized that the same problem had happenend again. This time around, the problem consisted for three days, and it was a bit of nightmare. I went to an ear doctor in Tokyo on December 30 and got some medicine against the cold, apparently there is not much they can do directly to fix a blocked eustachian tube. Anyway, now my ears have been back to normal for approximately 24 hours, and I am glad I will not have to get on another flight for another three days.

About my trip to Europe, I flew regular economy class to Europe with Air France. The food was surprisingly good, I actually enjoyed dinner and the cheese/wine was great. Going back to Japan, I flew business (using airline miles), but Air France business class really is not worth it if you have to pay the cash. While you obviously get a bigger personal TV screen in business class, the entertainment system is not on demand and worse than even the economy version on most Asian airlines. As normal on European airlines, there are no cute stewardesses. How come European and American airlines will not hire attractive women? There must be a conspiracy somewhere.

Yuka and I have mainly been visiting northern Okinawa during our stay. Today we went canoing, which was actually a very nice experience. We got to see some mangrove and other rather exotic plants (for someone living in Tokyo), and I have been surprised to find that most of northern Okinawa is rather empty. Anyway, I will try to write more about this later and hopefully also post some pictures from our stay. I am just glad that I do not have an airplane ear condition any longer, and hopefully the problem will not reoccur when I return to Tokyo later this week.

2007-12-17T21:20:00.001+09:00

I recently had a couple of beers with Dear Leader President Kim Jong-il to discuss how I can best help him develop cool weapons. It all got pretty relaxed after a little while, and this picture reminds me what a great evening it was.

2007-11-25T23:57:00.000+09:00

I have not written all the comments yet, but at least it is a start:

Jan Visits Vietnam - Saigon & Mekong Delta

2007-11-16T13:08:00.000+09:00

The legal system in Saudi-Arabia is really interesting:

"The couple was sitting in a car when a group of seven men kidnapped them and raped them both, lawyers in the case told Arab News, a Saudi newspaper"

Ruling Jolts Even Saudis: 200 Lashes for Rape Victim - New York Times

2007-11-11T20:59:00.000+09:00

The Bourne Ultimatum (film)

Great movie, almost up there with "Casino Royale" as far as action movies go. Even more impressive that they manage to do so without any attractive female beauties, that is something the James Bond franchise has not tried yet (not that I want them to).