Chris' World

Pictures from Toulon France

I spent a day exploring the town of Toulon in Southern France. Here are some pictures from the cable car, and a view from the mountain atop Toulon.

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Representing In-N-Out at White Castle

Today is the 2nd day of my drive back to San Diego from Washington DC. Passing through Indiana, I saw a sign off the freeway advertising a White Castle Burger at the next exit. I’ve always wanted to try White Castle, but I’ve never been in a region of the country that has them before. Well, I have to say that overall I was truly unimpressed by this burger. It seemed only fittting that i had one of my In-N-Out shirts on while taking this picture to represent what a good burger should be.

Cow Tongue (Gyutan) in Sendai Japan

Sendai Japan is the original home of Cow Tongue, aka Gyutan in Japan. This video highlights the cow tongue culture.

Yamadera Temple in Yamagata Japan

Yamadera, literally “Mountain Temple”, is a temple in Yamagata Japan that requires climbing a staircase of over 1100 steps to reach the top! Checkout the video to see the climb, and the Ryūshaku-ji Temple (立石寺) at the top!

Best Gyoza in Japan

In the city of Utsunomiya in Japan, they are crazy about gyoza! Inside and outside the train station are many restaurants that specialize in gyoza (potstickers). There’s even a gyoza statue! This video highlights “gyoza street” inside the train station, and two of the restaurants outside of the station.

1000 Year Old Cherry Blossom Tree

The Miharu Takizakura (三春瀧桜) in Japan is a cherry blossom tree that is estimated to be over 1,000 years old. Perhaps even 1500 years old. It’s an amazing sight, with an equally amazing amount of tourists who come to see it. This is truly a sight to be seen! Considered one of the three best cherry trees in Japan! It is located near Fukushima in Japan… a couple hours from Tokyo.

Peter Luger Steakhouse in Brooklyn New York

Peter Luger Steakhouse in Brooklyn New York has been rated as one of the best Steakhouse in New York for over 20 years…. Is it worth the hype? Check out the video! It’s certainly one of the most expensive, at $86 for the “steak for two”.

Matsushima Bay in Japan

Matsushima (松島) is a group of islands in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. There are some 260 tiny islands (shima) covered in pines (matsu) – and is ranked as one of the Three Views of Japan. This video shows the views from the boat tour of Matsushima Bay, and also highlights three of the Islands that are accessible on foot. Matsushima is accessible via a 20 minute train ride from Sendai.

Fairfield Inn & Suites New York Manhattan Fifth Avenue Video Review

Over Memorial Day weekend, we visited the big apple, New York City and stayed at the Fairfield Inn & Suites New York Manhattan Fifth Avenue. We picked the Fairfield Inn because it had the cheapest rate of any Marriott Property in the general vicinity of Times Square ($227/night with AAA discount) and yet was still centrally located.

Although the name of the hotel is “Fifth Avenue”, it is actually located on 37th street, between 5th and 6th Avenue. It’s about 4 blocks from Macy’s, and 6 blocks from Times Square (about a 10 minute walk). The hotel is a new hotel that just opened this year, in 2010. It has 18 floors, and 92 rooms — and is actually a nice alternative to the huge hotels in Times Square, like the Marriott Marquis that has 2,000 rooms. Each floor of the hotel has only 6 rooms, except the top floor which has 2 rooms.

The hotel doesn’t have any onsite parking, but they do provide discounted parking at an off-site parking facility one block away on 36th Street. Make sure to get your parking ticket validated by the hotel’s front desk to get the discounted rate of $30/night. The off-site parking garage is “valet” parking and does NOT include in-out privileges. But you’re in Manhattan, so you really won’t need a car anyway. Park it and forget it!

As a platinum member I called to request an upgrade the morning of arrival, and we were given the suite on the 18th floor, room 1801. The room was quite big for a Manhattan hotel room… it has a sofa that could seat 3 people and a desk in the main entry part of the room. The desk has a flat panel TV mounted on the wall above that can be viewed from the sofa. The king size bed is off the right, and also has another flat panel TV on the wall across from the bed. The closet in the room is a very odd long noodle shape located behind the desk. The balcony is huge and has a wonderful view of the empire state building. It was also a great place to enjoy breakfast, as the hotel just recently purchased some outdoor furniture for the balcony two weeks prior to our stay. Although I’m not sure whether the cleaning staff has realized the furniture was outside yet… because it looked like it hadn’t received any cleaning in those two weeks. The final part of the room, the bathroom, is also a pretty good size. The shower is very intriguing because one side is frosted glass, with a thin clear glass section at the top that we could see the Empire State building from while showering.

Unfortunately the hotel was experiencing some water pressure issues during our stay and the water pressure available in our shower was very very low. On the second night we spent in the suite, no water would come out of the shower at all. This was due to a defective water pump in the hotel, so the hotel transfered us to a “standard” king room on the 7th floor that actually had water pressure.

Our newly transfered room was room 703. A very small, but nicely appointed room. There isn’t much “extra” space in the room, but it didn’t feel particularly cramped as other reviewers on tripadvisor have described it. I’ve stayed in many hotels in Japan that had waaaaayy smaller rooms.

I’m a pretty light sleeper, and found both of our rooms to be quiet and free of room neighbor noise. Having only a few rooms per floor I think helps in this regard.

The hotel provides the standard complimentary Fairfield breakfast, pastries, bread, cereal, bananas, coffee. The breakfast area was pretty small, but had a nice glass ceiling to let the morning sunlight in. The staff at the hotel was great, check-in/check-out was a breeze, and they were very accommodating and apologetic when to moving us to the different room to actually get some water pressure.

I highly recommend this hotel to singles, and couples visiting the big apple. It’s centrally located, and reasonably priced. The rooms may be a bit on the small side, but how much time are you spending in your hotel room anyway? You should be out enjoying New York City and not hanging around your hotel room!

Shiogama Shrine

In April, Tanya and I went to Japan to check out the Cherry Blossoms. One of our first stops was the Shiogama Shrine 鹽竈神社 . Shiogama (塩釜) is located about 20 minutes via train from Sendai in the Miyagi Prefecture– and about 2 hours from Tokyo. We visited during April, which is Cherry Blossom season. We also had a tasty snack of odongo at the shrine which were some chewy rice cake things seasoned with red bean, soy sauce, and sesame.