This was a ramen shop close to our hotel. We would go past it at various times and see lots of commuters and locals eating there. So we gave it a go on a slow and quiet Sunday. There’s the occasional travellers like us because it is close to the APA hotel in Shinjuku.
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A few of the luxury shops in Ginza have cafes inside them. We visited the one in Dunhill. It is a small cozy café with plush comfortable sofas.
Taichung is, I think, the third largest city in Taiwan. It is about 40 minutes by fast train from Taipei airport. It is not exactly on the tourist map but it does have quite a few attractions. One of them is the Fengia Night Market, purportedly one of the largest and best in Taiwan. We stayed around this particular area. I would say the city centre used to be at the conventional train station, ie slow train. Fengia is on the west of the city and is now not far from the High Speed Train station. It also has a university closeby. This means it is quite crowded and popular on the weekends and most nights. This wasn’t always the case. This area used to be farmland. Now it is slowly encroached by tall residential buildings.
If you catch the train between Shinjuku and Tokyo Main Station, you will come through Yotsuya. I have always wondered about this station. Instead of an urban jungle, you come through a green valley of trees, tennis courts and basketball courts. A quick search of the internet comes up with Sushi Sho, the fabled sushi bar that banned one of the Michelin reviewers. We were keen to check it out on our last trip but the average price of 20,000 – 30,000 Yen (per person that is) deflated our goal.
Tin Lung Heen is a Michelin star restaurant in the Ritz Carlton at Kowloon, Hong Kong. We visited it for lunch and was guided to the West Wing and sat right in front of the window. The dusk seating with the sunset must be spectacular. The highway you see snaking through is the highway to the airport.
We were walking around Shinjuku Sanchome one night after dinner and noticed 2 oyster bars side by side. We decided to come back to one of them the next night.
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At one of the dance theatres in Walsh Bay is a bar called Theatre Bar at the End of the Wharf. This is like our secret bar. At certain times on weeknights you can get free street parking if you are lucky. When it is a quiet night with no shows on, you can have the whole place to yourselves. It also faces the sunset.
We especially like the fries and the wines are so bad either. We do wish they serve pizzas though.
At the sea side and northern end of Sydney about 40 km away is a little peninsula where the sea meets the Hawkesbury river, which has a number of oyster farms, and a lake called Narrabeen. And the at the tip of the peninsula is Palm Beach. One windy road leads to this narrow part of Sydney. It is also home to many designer houses and is more or less a weekender spot for many affluent people. Away from Palm beach are also many working class families suburbs. So this area of Northern Beaches is not just for the rich.
We were sad and disappointed to hear that Ocean Room (along with Wildfire) closed abruptly pretty much without warning due to circumstances beyond their control. The cruising business is booming and the boats are getting bigger. The cruise terminal decided to expand and needed more room. From the sound of things, the leases were bought out without warning and immediately. Both places were fantastic spots for dinner or just a drinking hole because it was kind of quiet and opposite to the Opera House.
The Railto Tower in Melbourne, I think, still is the tallest commercial building – in the Southern Hemisphere – Australia has a lot of structures with superlatives – in the Southern Hemisphere. There was an observation deck but this was converted to a restaurant in 2009 – Vue du Monde. If you want a fancy place for a swanky dinner in Melbourne, this has to be a top choice. The other claim to fame was that some years ago, 2 suavely dressed men went to the small outdoor observation balcony, ordered some cocktails, had a quick drink, then took off their clothes James Bond style and jumped off with parachutes. I don’t think they have been found and I am sure they are known legends in the BASE jumping community. I believe they have since installed window barriers to prevent this from happening.
