For anyone who has watched the film Lost in Translation, this is a magic place: the New York Bar in the Park Hyatt Hotel in Shinjuku. Shinjuku is somewhat elevated over the rest of the city and full of skyscrapers. This hotel is one of those buildings reaching 53 floors, and with the wise idea of installing a bar on that top floor. That, together with the five stars (you feel the stars both in the service quality and in the price), good drinks, live jazz music, and an unimprovable view of the city, makes it an excellent place for an evening.
Of course, this is nothing without good company. Do you want to come? 😉
After walking around Tiananmen Square, I went to the Olympic Area. I had thought about going there in the night, as I had read it is very nicely illuminated, but I discarded the idea when I felt the cold. I would go nowhere in the night, rather than doing sightseeing… :S
The Olympic Area of Beijing is in the north of the city. The main spot is the new Olympic Stadium, also known as Bird’s Nest because of its external shape. Apart from this, I did not really see many more interesting things during the daytime. I was also trying to see something like in Munich or Barcelona, but it is still too early to see the Olympic Area being used by people.
Today, we are enjoying another public holiday on Monday (it is the fifth in the last four months), due to the Coming of Age Day. This day is basically a celebration of all those becoming adults after the teenage.
Today, the city was full of young people very dressed up (specially girls with those beautiful kimonos), who were during the morning in a shintoist temple with their family to pray for the new time…
… and in the afternoon they had already gathered with the friends, and were having some fun in Shibuya…
Esta foto fue tomada por Paticas cuando estuvieron visitándome en Japón. La siguiente foto, de una calidad de iluminación que es la envidia de muchos profesionales, tiene muchos elementos curiosos… Estos amigos, que los tengo bien ilustrados en Alcoy y sus tradiciones, me hicieron llegar la foto con carácter de urgencia… ¿Véis por qué?
Aunque no lo averigüéis, sigue siendo una foto muy curiosa en conjunto…
A bit of Japan among the posts about the trip to China. This is the famous Shibuya Crossing. Shibuya is one of the centers of Tokyo, and is a very common place to meet, as there are lots of restaurants, shops, and pubs and discos in that area. But one thing it is quite famous for is its crossing. There are 5 streets with heavy traffic getting to this point, and a lot of human traffic around. One of the particularities, is that the green light for the pedestrians is for all directions. So, all cars stop, and for a few seconds the street is for the people…
Another main characteristic of this place is the huge screens and all the advertisements surrounding this area. The screens have not also advertisements, but also some music clips.
And I wrote a few lines before, this was a common place to meet, and at least for me it is the case. There is a specific point in the square, where all kind of people gather. It is called Hachiko and it is a dog which everyday waited for his owner in front of his office, and after the death of him, remained going there everyday until it died after a couple of years.
That is the story (it can be improved, but this is not my point). My point is that it is such a common place to gather, that it is not strange to meet people you know there, which is especially surprising if we remember we are talking about one of the biggest cities in the world.