Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo Japan is the world’s busiest intersection. The intersection is directly in front of the Shibuya train station, and has a 4-way pedestrian crossing that is a sight that needs to be seen to truly be appreciated. Every couple of minutes when the walk light comes on, chaos ensues in the intersection.
Today is a rainy miserable day here in Washington DC — so a great day to edit video! Here is a video from my trip to Japan last December… looking at the neighborhood of Harajuku in Tokyo.
A continuation of our honeymoon coverage in Cabo San Lucas. We visit Playa Medano, take a glass bottom boat to “The Arch”, and dine at “The Hangman”.
For more pictures (and coverage in Chinese) of the Hangman, check out Tanya’s blog
Last month, me and the new wifey went to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico for our honeymoon. We stayed at the Hilton Los Cabos, in Los Cabos Mexico.
We booked the hotel using Hilton points for 5 nights using an American Express AXON6 award for 145,000 Hilton Points.
Although the directions from the hotel seemed easy enough from the website, basicly drive on the transpeninsular highway from the airport until you see the Hilton, we managed to miss the driveway for the Hilton and had to drive for another 4 miles before being able to turn-around again. Once we arrived at the hotel property, we were stopped at a little guard booth, and asked for our name before being able to drive on to the hotel grounds. We then drove up to the lobby/check-in area, were greeted by complimentary valet service, and also complimentary margaritas. Note that there is the option for self-parking as well, just drive past the lobby to the parking lot on the side of the hotel. There was a 2nd guard booth at the self-parking lot, but it never seemed to be staffed.
During check-in, we were informed that as a Gold member, we would receive complimentary continental breakfast at the “El Meson” restaurant, but that a $2 “service charge” will be applied to our bill at check-out for each free breakfast. That’s sort of an interesting twist on complimentary, but $2 is still pretty cheap 
. The restaurant also has a hot breakfast that we could “upgrade” to for another $7-8, but the continental was good enough for us. Really the best part of the breakfast was the view from the restaurant — definitely try to get a seat out-side if you can! The second best part of the breakfast selection was the juices each morning, orange juice, watermelon juice, papaya juice, cantaloupe juice, and cactus/orange juice.
The room itself had a southwestern theme, lots of orange and yellow — definitely very Mexican. All of the rooms in the hotel have an ocean view with a balcony. The floor was tiled as opposed to carpetted — this seems typical of beachfront hotels. I assume carpet is too hard to clean with all of the sand. The bathroom had a “window” that you could open in to the main part of the room, so that you could see the ocean while taking a bath. That’s definitely a unique twist. Other than those exceptions, it was a typical Hilton room.
The hotel has two very impressive “infinity” pools, four restaurants, and a beautiful beach. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so go watch the video already and see what those look like for yourself!
So I was walking along the National Mall today — and came across two very cool snow sculptures. A snow Capital building — and a snow Washington Monument. Check it out, with the real Capital and monument in the background of the respective pictures.
Feb 6, 2010 — a historic day. The day of the Washington DC Snowpocalypse. Over 2 feet of snow. The 4th largest snowfall in a single day in Washington DC History. No video — as it’s really hard to shoot good video in a blizzard, but check out some of these pictures.
In South Beach, Miami Beach, Florida, every lifeguard tower is different and unique. Check it out! Where else can you see a pink lifeguard tower?
The Thriller is a 50mph+ tour through the Miami Harbor. The tour also includes some “slow” stops by “Star Island” where many celebrities live including Ricky Martin, and Elizabeth Taylor.
Orlando Phillips, a RastAmerican — plays the Steel Drum at the Eden Roc hotel in Miami.
When I was in Paris for a weekend I stayed at the Paris Marriott Rive Gauche. The hotel is located in the “south bank” of the river, in a fairly residential area. Although it is not located directly near any tourist sites, it is convienently located 2 blocks from the Saint-Jaques stop of the number 6 metro line and about 5 blocks from the Denfert-Rocherau stop of the RER B line. The RER B line runs from the airport… so no transfers required.
As a Platinum member I was upgraded to a suite — which is essentially 2 rooms converted to be a single room. It looks as if the hotel originally didn’t have any suites, but at some point they decided to provide some upgraded rooms and the only way to do it was to combine two existing rooms. Therefore the room has two bathrooms, although only one bedroom.
The concierge lounge was definitely one of the better Marriott lounges that I’ve been too. For dessert time every evening they always had delicious French pastries, and even provided breakfasts on weekends.
Would definitely recommend this hotel to other travelers to Paris. Check out the video for all the details.