Its the first time that I have been back in quite a while and one of the ones that I have most enjoyed. Firstly we flew in to London City Airport dodging the bad luggage of Heathrow, the bad connections of Stanstead and the general grottyness of Gatwick.

It only took about 30 minutes to get to our hotel, the Hoxton situated nicely on Great Eastern Street. Upon arrival the hotel lived up to our expectations, and generally exceeded those of you would expect of a cheaper hotel in London. Clean silky beds, nice big shower and bathroom and all quite modern and well looked after.

On the first night we met up with some old work colleagues of mine at Liverpool street, a short walk from the Hoxton and had a good time.

Saturday was introduced with brunch at Smiths on Smithfields – a great English breakfast, though I think K was rather surprised with people already having Pints and champagne so early but I rather enjoyed the Bloody Mary that they served up! Then we went on to the V&A museum – perhaps my favourite because of the sheer variety of exhibits on offer, and after a short train ride some shopping and coffee and other things. We met up with Eric and Ellie at this point, and after a brief visit to some more shops, we all went back to have a drink at the Hoxton.

Jem, Katherine and Matt soon joined us for more drinks and then we went to a Vietnamese where I tried the frogs legs. Surprisingly good.

Sunday was spent at Spitalfields market – much better than the tourist trap of Camden, then Bricklane for a breather before going to Neals Yard and Covent Garden to be socked in the July rain.

Next update will be soon, when I have time to write basically!

The first thing that I noticed about Japan was how good the food is there, it is just excellent. This apparently has a lot to do with the Japanese work ethic, where they just improve and improve on things and it really is apparent in the quality of the cusine. Folklore tells of cows being massaged and being fed beer, but apparently this is true and at up to $100 for 100 grams of prime quality Japanese beef you could believe this is true. The sushi, the ramen and of course the Sake is excellent. Even the Japanese rice is of high quality.

I also paid visit to Mitsukoshi, in Nihonbashi – the oldest department store in Japan to see the food store and it was quite amazing, the Chocolates in particular were amazing and everywhere I walked I was greeted by bows, quite disconcerting after the up-tenth time.

My hotel was close to Nihonbashi underground station, itself not far away from Tokyo main station. The room tiny, but it had the Japanese baths like the hotel in Chiba, great to relax in after a hard day of being a tourist.

Close to Tokyo station was the Imperial Palace with the East gardens proving worth a visit, though if you are looking for photos the mid day sun is probably rather bright. From here I went south down to Ginza, perhaps the most upmarket area in Tokyo, home to many amazing shops including most of the flagship stores for many well known designer labels such as Chanel, Gucci, Louis Vuitton – who have gone to much effort to out do each others shop fronts. They certainly exceed the shop fronts I have seen in London, New York and other so called shopping mecca’s.

Moving on from Ginza I visited Shinjuka, another area with many shops and home to some of the famous sites seen in typical pictures shown of Tokyo. In fact the many retail outlets seem to point to the fact that shopping is one of the preferred past times in Tokyo. Its worth a visit and there are quite a few restaurants to pass the time.

If you are after electronics of any type then Akihabara is the place in Tokyo, not that the other areas are left wanting, but this is home to many duty free shops and places which offer items only available in Japan. I didn’t pick up much other than some more cables and some memory cards. Ebay and online retailing seems to offer just as much these days but it is interesting to see everything in store side by side anyhow. It is also the last bastion of gaming, with many long forgotten arcade games taking pride of place with their own fans excelling on the score boards. A playground indeed.

My favourite area was probably Shibuya. This was home to some excellent Anime stores, and is central to modern Tokyo youth culture with many unique clothing and items for sale. Walking up from here towards Harajuku on a sunday past the NHK television studios I was greeted by many kids on the street performing and hoping at their chance of fame. Indeed it seemed that many had already had their own fan base, whether they are performing Spice girls covers or just doing stand-up comedy. Closer to Harajuku their was Japanese Rockabillies dancing, and even closer the unique Cosplay girls – girls dressed up in maids outfits and more, emulating characters from Manga novels or computers games.

Roppongi had a more western feel to it due in part to the large number of ex-pats who have made their home and base here, I didn’t spend that much time here but there is definitely a large number of bars to explore!

For a more relaxed time Ueno park was great, home to the Toshogu Shrine the oldest in Tokyo, with the oldest tree in Tokyo. It also houses a large number of Muesems and Galleries though be aware that these are closed on Mondays. This is also extremely popular in the spring due to the Cherry blossom coming into flower.

All in all Tokyo was perhaps the most interesting place that I have visited this year, though Beijing was perhaps the most different but that was the second time that I had visited the place. The transport system although vast I found was decipherable after a couple of trips around, my top tip being buy from the ticket machine nearest the line that you wish to use. Now I am looking forward to drinking the Sake that I bought back!

I got some time to experience some more of Beijing at night, eating Scorpions, Centipedes and Snake (don’t try Centipede – it doesn’t taste so good and is twice the price of the other snacks) and I totally recommend trying Scorpion. Really. Hotpot was of course on the menu and as always was excellent.

The hotel was good, though I couldn’t find the gym and asking the people that worked there resulted in directions to some building down the street somewhere. Oh well hopefully will get better directions in Amsterdam where I will go next week.

1. The Asian food. I have had some really good Asian food here, whether its Japanese Ramen, Korean Octopus or simply Chinese noodles, it really puts Europe to shame – I have yet to have even a mediocre dish put in front of me.

2. The place looks absolutely stunning, it really does have some fantastic views, skylines and buildings. I wish my photography would do it justice.

3. The people generally look very happy, and its no surprise if this is the worst their Winters can bring – the weather here is very good and would have the average North European out in t-shirts and shorts sunbathing.

That being said I am looking forward to getting home to Stockholm.

I am in Sydney at the moment, mainly been working but we have a great view from our vizrt Office overlooking the office district.

Sydney is really beautiful, and although the locals think its cold – it really is the perfect temperature for an English Man!

Take a look at http://www.flickr.com/people/timc3/ for more photos.

I think this is the first time that I have been somewhere so humid, but I really enjoyed it here.  Broadcast Asia 2007 seemed to go well, our main reason for coming here but we got a couple of evenings to sample the food – which was great, particularly the crab and the venison.  Singapore is a interesting mix of cultures of Chinese, Malay, Indian and English backgrounds and I must say that I was really impressed with how well everyone is integrated.  I really haven’t seen that much in some of the places that I have visited.

I was also impressed with how well they kept everything in Singapore, the streets of a decent sized are almost always lined with beautiful trees, there are flowers everywhere and its all very clean.

One thing that I was wondering was how it could have changed in the last 55 years since my Grandparents went.  Will have to look into that one.
We are currently waiting in the airport lounge for the plane, so I will be back in Sweden in approx. 24 hours, and then I will be staying for a couple of days before flying to England for the wedding.  Busy days.