The Tsujiki Fish market in Tokyo is biggest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world and strangely and is a major attraction for foreign visitors who get up as early as 5:00 AM to come to the market. The highlight of the market is the daily auction which kicks of about 5:20 and runs through to 7:00 here wholesalers who are called nakaoroshi gyousha sell their fish to agents who are acting for restaurants, fish processing companies and retail outlets. Once the auction is finished the fish are either cut up and transported or transported whole to their next destination. It is amazing to see the knife action on the huge frozen tuna and swordfish, some of the blades are over a metre in length. The market closes at 11:00 to give them time to clean the place and get ready for the next shipments. The market is also home to the Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market which sells about everything it is the largest wholesale market in the world. The markets are open six days a week being closed on Sunday and is only a short distance away from Ginza. Read the rest of this entry »
Wangfujing in the centre of Beijing is home to many of the worlds’ best brands and a haven for shopping but it is also the best place to try traditional Chinese snacks. Snack Street is exactly that a street that sells snacks, there is just about everything available and quiet a few things you wouldn’t imagine like silk worms and tasty scorpions. But the dim sims and noodle dishes are just amazing and with the amount of people visiting this street the food is just so fresh. The street is jam packed with small stalls down each side of the road selling dumplings, interesting things on skewers and some real specialties including luzhohuoshao which is stewed pig intestine with wheat cakes and another favorite zhaguanchang which is a fried sausage which is served in garlic sauce- they are actually very tasty. If you would like something a bit more interesting you will be sure to find a boiled sheep’s head or even some tasty tripe- but trust me the dim sims are good and the good bits of the animal would surely go in them? There is a huge variety of foods something and there is something to suit everyone. Read the rest of this entry »
The Japanese Cherry festivals are only a month away from reaching Tokyo and if the blossoms in the southern city of Naha are any indication this year is going to be one of the most spectacular for many years. The festivals move from south to north to coincide with the blossoming and attract thousands of tourists from all over the world to see these beautiful pink blooms. Blooms are a little later this year so some of the festivals might be a week or so later than they were last year, the weather plays a big role in the flowering. Ueno Park is one of Tokyo’s best parks for viewing the blossoms and a fantastic place to join in the festival with food, drink and plenty of attractions for all. The park features over 1000 trees and they are an amazing sight when in full bloom with the castle and city backdrops. You need to pick your spot in the park pretty early as thousands flock to the grasslands to sit back have a drink or two and enjoy the cherry blossom celebrations.
The Grand Hyatt Shanghai is in the business centre of Pundong and not only is the world highest hotel it also has the worlds highest pool and the world’s longest laundry chute running the full length of the tower. The chute has baffles along the cavity to slow the laundry down during it’s decent to the basement. The hotel is located on the 53rd to 88th floors of the Jin Mao Building which is the worlds 3rd tallest building. The rooms offer spectacular views of the Bund, Huang Pu River and the city when the weather is clear. The hotel is one of the most luxurious and beautiful hotels in China with an art deco Asian inspired rooms and lobbies. The 555 room hotel opened in 1999. For those wanting the best cocktail lounge in Shanghai- check out the view from Cloud 9 on the 87th floor, on a clear night you have never seen anything so spectacular.
The Osaka monorail holds the Guinness Book of Records award for the world’s longest monorail with a track spanning 21.2km. The elevated train runs between Osaka International Airport and Kadoma-shi Station and also has an offshoot to Saiito-nishi . Opening between Senri-Chuo and Minami-Ibaraki in 1990 the monorail track has had several extensions over the last 18 years. The entire trip takes about 36 minutes and stops at 14 stations. As with most of Japan’s public transport system the cost is fairly reasonable the entire trip only costs a little over Y500 which is about $5, but fares start as low as Y200 and kids can use the system at half price. The monorail can get quiet busy with over 70,000 people riding on it every day. Each monorail has 4 carriages and is made by Hitachi and uses 1500 volts of power to glide along the concrete track. Read the rest of this entry »
One of Kuala Lumpur’s most popular attractions is the Butterfly Park, its lush tropical gardens in the heart of the city are home to more than 6000 of the beautiful insects which are made up of over 120 species. The park even features an insect museum where you can see plenty of creepy and crawly creatures. The gardens have quiet a few lovely spots where you can sit back from the hustle and bustle of the city and just watch these tranquil creatures go about their short lives. The best thing about this attraction is it’s free! and if you haven’t had enough of flying things, the bird park is just next door! Read the rest of this entry »
We have featured a lot of weird and whacky attractions and things to see around the world on Tripandom but this one even shocked us! It’s a supermarket in China which has a rollercoaster like ride built around the isles of the supermarket where people can just reach out from the little car and pick up their groceries. No longer do you have to fight your way through dozen’s of chatting people with kids and trolleys, you just hop on this system and cruise around the supermarket. The only problem if you forget toothpaste you cant go backwards you have to go around the supermarket again- but who cares, it’s more fun. One report we read said the trip around the supermarket took about 2 hours on the ride, so it might not be the most practical place to go for a loaf of bread. The supermarket is located in Shenyang, which is is the capital city of Liaoning province in Northeast China with a population of about 7.2 million residents about 500km north east of Beijing. Lets hope the big supermarket chains take note and start installing them everywhere.
Nagoya was the home of Expo in 2005 and one of it’s most popular attractions were robots. So many of the robots featured at Expo and quiet a few others now make up Japan’s first Robot Museum in Nagoya. The two story complex has a huge range of robots and many interactive displays, including manufacturing robots, toy robots and the next big thing helper robots. Already companies like Honda and Toyota are planning to produce robots which will live and assist around the home and be more than a futuristic gimic. The museum has over 1000 exhibits and a gift shop which is just as big with plenty of toys and gizmos to empty your wallets. Click our more info link to visit the official website- the Japanese cartoons are really fun.
Komodo National Park includes the Indonesian islands of Komodo, Rinca, Gili Mota, Nusa Kode and Pada and is now protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There park is very rich in animal, plant and marine life but the highlight of the park is the Komodo Dragon which are found nowhere else on earth. The dragon is the largest and fiercest of the monitor lizards and can grow to a length of over 2.5 metres and weigh well over 100 kg. They have become very rare and it is estimated there are little more than a thousand of these magnificent reptiles in the wild. Diving in the area is also very popular with dugon, sharks, manta rays, whales and dolphins all calling the surrounding waters home, not forgetting the coral and reef fish.
Harbin is located in north east China, it lies east of Mongolia an just below Siberia and at this time of the year it is freezing, during the day expect -2f on a good day and -19f during the night. But what better way to celebrate the icy conditions than to have an ice festival. The festival is great fun with ice rides, ice bars and some amazing sculptures. At night the ice becomes magical with a kaleidoscope of coloured lights. This YouTube video gives you a great insight into the fun and the clever artists who create these works of icy art.
The Osaka monorail holds the Guinness Book of Records award for the world’s longest monorail with a track spanning 21.2km. The elevated train runs between Osaka International Airport and Kadoma-shi Station and also has an offshoot to Saiito-nishi . Opening between Senri-Chuo and Minami-Ibaraki in 1990 the monorail track has had several extensions over the last 18 years. The entire trip takes about 36 minutes and stops at 14 stations. As with most of Japan’s public transport system the cost is fairly reasonable the entire trip only costs a little over Y500 which is about $5, but fares start as low as Y200 and kids can use the system at half price. The monorail can get quiet busy with over 70,000 people riding on it every day. Each monorail has 4 carriages and is made by Hitachi and uses 1500 volts of power to glide along the concrete track. 
