Nick Hodge's Blog

Peter and Jordan with the New Gate City tower (East) containing the Adobe Japan office

Cat in Shinagawa

Shrine in Shinagawa

Nick says: Don’t rush the Train in Tokyo

Nick in Shibuya. Amazing

Night lights in Shibuya

Mark in Shibuya

Shibuya

Lee and Mark brave the JR Yamanote Line in Tokyo, Japan

Please translate this! Tokyo, Japan

JR Yamanote line, Tokyo, Japan

Paul, Craig, Jordan and Lee waiting for a train in Tokyo

Hotel Sunny in rainy Tokyo

Lee and Jordan arriving at Narita, Japan

Over the Pacific, going to, Japan

Yodabashi Camera, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan

Nick, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan

View from Park Hyatt, Tokyo, Japan

Shrine, Kyoto, Japan

Mt Fuji on the Shinkansen to Kyoto, Japan

Mt Fuji on the Shinkansen to Kyoto, Japan

Adobe signs, Akihabara, Japan

Nick in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan

JR station, Tokyo, Japan

Suntory time, Tokyo, Japan

Apple Store in Ginza, Tokyo, Japan

Roppongi, Tokyo, Japan

MINI store, Roppongi, Tokyo, Japan

Ponte Vecchio store, Roppongi, Tokyo, Japan

Roppongi, Tokyo, Japan

Leaving Hong Kong; looking toward Sham Tseng

Leaving Hong Kong; bridge across to Lantau Island

In the taxi, leaving Hong Kong. Our bags almost destroy the suspension system.

Some of our bags in the Sheraton, Hong Kong

Lights of Hong Kong from the roof of Sheraton Towers, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Streets in Kowloon, Hong Kong

Streets in Kowloon, Hong Kong

Starbucks attempts to invate the streets of Kowloon, Hong Kong

Peninsula Hotel nextdoor to our hotel, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Waringah Freeway out of sunny Sydney

Nick reading Qantas Club, Sydney

Emmah and Judith waiting in Qantas Club

Doing a Jordan: one bag for this Trip

Mating Sony-Ericssons

Lee Gale

Craig Tegel, Hotel Lobby Bar, Sheraton

Arrival Maori sculpture, Auckland International Airport

Departure gate, Sydney for QF49 to Auckland

Maori iconography, Sheraton Lobby Bar

Best record store in the world: Real Groovy Records, Auckland

Skytower, Auckland

Bridgework over Auckland

On the Freeway returning to Auckland

Luke the new dad and Emmah

Stuck in a meeting room, looking furtively westwards from Auckland

Karangahape Road. Shorted to K-Road. I wonder why

Judith, Emmah, Nick, Two Dells and an IBM. Working in the Qantas Club

Judith, Emmah: retail therapy Auckland International Airport. I purchased nothing

Leaving Auckland

Random shot from outside the taxi in Singapore

Nick, Sydney in the background, Qantas Club Sydney Intl

Laptop somewhere near Darwin

Even the toilet in the new 747 as a window. Now the world gets to see your bare arse

Yes! The bag arrives in one piece

Rainy night on arrival in Singapore. The taxi driver had it in hand

View from my hotel room. Large buildings is the Suntec centre

Hotel room, Pan Pacific, Singapore.

View from hotel room toward residental portion of Singapore

Inside Pan Pacific hotel. Yes, 33 floors up!

Morning over the CBD of Singapore. This was the view whilst eating breakfast.

View from the meeting room. Stuck in here for 3 days.

Waiting for taxis, Suntec

Off and away

Ray bowling, Singapore

Asleep after a long day

In the lift to the 33rd floor looking at the night lights of Singapore

Stod, Lee and Nick somewhere underground in Singapore. Everywhere a store.

Inside the Funan Centre. Every computer store in Singapore is in here.

Outside the Pan Pacific

Three of the Suntec towers

Fountain of Wealth, Suntec

Adobe office, Suntec, Singapore

Limo to the airport, Singapore

Inside Singapore airport. Yes, more shops.

Three Australians doing last minute toy shopping, Singapore airport.

Nick asleep, Singapore Qantas Club. Later that night I had 2 hours sleep.

On the flight from Frankfurt via Singapore, we had inappropriate reading material

Friday, 12th March, 2004

Thursday and flying home. 20 minutes from hotel to checked-in, and through customs. A posse of Singaporean soldiers patrol the airport with their machine guns at the ready. The world has changed.

Whatever you want, there is a place to purchase it at the Singapore airport. The prices are more than the Funan, and the Funan is only about 10% cheaper than Australia.

QF6 from Frankfurt via Singapore leaves 30 minutes late. De-icing in Frankfurt took “frightfully long”, so we’re late leaving Singapore.

2 hours sleep on the flight, and a full day of work on Friday.

Wednesday, 10th March, 2004

After 2 days stuck in internal meetings, and short sojourn to a bowling alley, its time to go shopping. Stod, Lee and I leave the hotel and head toward the Funan Centre: a building with IT stores.

If you are smart, you can walk from one end of Singapore to the other without losing sight of a retail store, and underground so you miss the sky. Half way, we see a tourist-y couple looking at a roadmap of Singapore. Stod assumed they had been stuck underground for days and were permanently lost in the mall underground.

So I got lost too. Too many changes in buildings around Raffles City, one wrong turn and you’re lost. Thankfully, a short S$6 taxi ride and we’re at the Funan. The Funan Centre houses most of the IT stores in Singapore, all under one roof. I am looking for a PCMCIA Compactflash card reader. Lee clocks one in a store on a high level. S$18 and we’re away.

Standing in the rain, 45 minute tough phone conversation. I wonder what people around thought of my conversation? Missed lunch, but didn’t miss lunch if that makes any sense.

Monday, 08th March, 2004

Flight QF5 is delayed by 30 minutes. Something about the engine needing to be “run up”, so it looks like Qantas have just fixed something on the tarmac. QF5 is also on its way to Frankfurt, absolutely full of an eclectic mixture of Formula 1 pilgrims and tragic Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras attendees.

On the pointy end, and I mean pointy end, of a sieben-sechs-sieben vier hundert on its way from Sydney to Frankfurt via Singapore. This time, I am alighting in Singapore. Watching the inseat entertainment, choosing “Lost In Translation” from the various choices. Bill Murray (my father-in-law’s name), Scarlett Johannsen (I am in love) and Giovanni Ribisi (from “Saving Private Ryan”). Hmm, Tokyo in May; Normandy in April. The world is a small place, indeed.

Note to self: purchase the Lonely Planet guide to Tokyo so I don’t get lost. In the past 3 months, the Hodge family has purchased about 12 guides for various cities. The Seoul guide helped my not get lost. Which I think is the point.

I blame my father for giving me professional wonderlust and a desire to travel. As a sailor in the late 1960s, early 1970s I remember seeing pictures and souvenirs from exotic places including Singapore, Hong Kong, San Diego, Hawaii and Toyko. Either by nature or nuture, I want to see other places in the world. The next 70 days is going to be many cities compressed into a short time span.

In roughly 70 days time, I am in Tokyo for the first time. Watching “Lost in Translation” holds many resonant moments. Calling from a very strange time in an unfamiliar hotel room to a chaotic family at home is very common for partner’d travellers.

Sitting at the front of the 747, and I do mean the absolute front: seat 1B, the rain beats on the nose cone. It sounds like rain on a tin roof, but we are in a plane travelling at a couple of hundred kms per hour, on the equator, 25 minutes from Singapore. Ah, the tropics.

Fast and efficient Singapore: out in a taxi within 20 minutes off to the Pan Pacific hotel. The taxi driver is speaking on his mobile, hands free. Also, hands free from the wheel as he gesticulates his points in a language unknown to me. As we aquaplane in Changi to the Pan Pacific, I am eagerly awaiting to get horizontal in a hotel bed.

Thursday, 25th March, 2004

Due to the timezone difference, presently only 1 hour, or more likely the lack of decent sleep: about 4 hours a night for three nights has taken its toll. Forcing myself to concentrate in meetings and actively add value. Mental fuzziness.

Sleeping in strange beds in many hotels you learn how to get a good night sleep. Its an occupational skill. Rule One: keep the room cooler than 17 degrees C. Rule Two: use a flat pillow. The problem with many hotels is they pride themselves on big puffy pillows. Instant neck problems here.

I have a bad habit of falling asleep about when the cabin crew start the safety demonstration and wakeup when level flight is reached. Its uncanny.

Reading the my new purchase in the Lonely Planet range: Japan. I have a theory that I enjoy travel to countries that I wrote school projects on (if that makes any sense) Love Actually on the screen in economy. Ahh, London. See you next week.

Sick of forms. To leave Australia, arrive in New Zealand, leave New Zealand (after paying NZ to get out of Auckland International Aiport, thank you very much) and finally arrive back into Australia takes 4 forms. Name, address, email, SARs, Passport number. There has to be a better way! In the time between the Singapore trip and the Auckland trip, the Australian arrival form has changed!

5 minutes from Immigration to Australia. The joys of packing light!

Wednesday, 24th March, 2004

The Auckland Sheraton property has been sold to someone else, according to the gossip. I hope they have deep pockets as the place is a little tired. The hotel rooms are still stuck in 1983, maybe 1984. No high speed internet access. At least BBC-World is on TV.

Meet Luke in NZ. He is a new dad, only 4 days in. He has another 21 years of fun. Men that have had children, and been involved in all the birthing action, remember more about the process of child birth and other obscure obstitric details than one would expect through the years. Is this universal?

I also realise that I am carrying 896Mb of CompactFlash memory to Europe. This is a massive amount of storage (about 900 digital camera shots) before I load them into the laptop. How the world of memory has moved on.

Tuesday, 23rd March, 2004

6.50pm flight to Auckland, NZ. Hello Qantas Club International Sydney, my second home. Almost second office as I run into Barry and discuss business.

Neil Perry my arse. The food on the 2hour 20 minute flight tastes vaguely familiar. Yes, I am reminded of 3 years of boarding house food. The lamb was probably from the mid 1980s as it was tough. Thanks to the iPod, apart from the dubious food, its a quick and painless flight. Arrive 11pm, hotel lobby bar until late.