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Sydney Oct 20
2019-10-20 22:00One thing I don't think I mentioned: when I flew from Brisbane to Sydney, the jetway on this domestic gate serving domestic flights said "Welcome to Brisbane" in English and Japanese. And very distinctively Japanese, all kana, no overlap with Chinese. Interesting.
Today I confirmed the Sunday fare cap, doing lots of train travel for the sum of $2.80. First some kaitenzushi nearby, tempting because they put out lots of grilled salmon, though at AUD$3.80 a plate it's way more expensive than the 100-200 yen plates of Sushiro in Osaka. Then the T4 to Town Hall station, and I noticed that this train doesn't announce stops either, like the terrible buses! WTF. Well, there was no sign, and I think there was no voiceover, though I'm not certain now.
Walked around Town Hall a bit, popped into St. Andrew's Cathedral which was decently impressive, then got caught up trying to get to a Japanese bookstore. Found myself in the Galleries, which might be underground shopping tunnels, but led up into a mall, with Muji, a store of Japanese goods, many with Japanese labels on them. I finally got up to Kinokumiya Books, which is a brand I think I've seen before. It's actually a full-service bookstore, and huuuuge -- one floor, but it just kept going. But they do have translated manga right up front, including a rather more-than-racy volume of How To Train Your Devil out on a sample table. Though I didn't find any *other* raunch manga. Yes I looked.
Rather large section of translated light novels. Well, not that big, but big compared to how many light novels I knew had official translations.
Waaay at the other end of the store they carry actual Japanese manga and books, plus "learning Japanese materials". I find it hilarious that the Japanese manga are in sealed plastic as in Japan, to prevent free browsing, but the English manga are not. A couple of Japanese volumes were around AUD$11 vs a 440 yen cover price, so fair bit of markup. I forgot to look at the English prices.
I walked toward the next stop, Central, and found Chinatown by accident. There was a building of "the Chinese Nationalist Party of Australasia", with KMT up on top. I haven't looked up what that's about yet. What's the KMT doing in Australia?
Didn't pass any really obvious dim sum places, whether bakery or cart.
Then got on the T1, which definitely did have signs and voiceover, and ended up riding out west quite a way. Not to the end, that seemed really long, though maybe not as much as I thought. Got off at Doonside, not much there -- some shops, some extent of one story buildings. I was traveling to see things (surface rail!) and also wondering if I can find places to go stargazing without making a huge trip or going camping (i.e. subway or ferry and *back*.) I definitely found some candidates, though I have no idea what the city glow would be.
Headed back, got off at Strathfield, got reminded of Osaka. Shops and malls and multi-story buildings around a train station, as it should be! Also a plaza. I found a food court with a Japanese style bakery, meaning a wide variety of products and you use tongs to put some on a tray, and I got a curry donut, which I never did in Japan because I couldn't tell what anything was.
From watching others I discovered that the T1 also has reversible seats. You just grab a handle on top and the back leans the other way and now you can sit forward instead of backward, or face your friends. It's great!
A tree was full of birds who collectively sounded like a mass of cicadas, only louder. Don't know what they were. From the silhouettes I would have guessed parakeets but the one bird I could see looked more like a magpie or the other black-and-white bird around here.
T9 back to Central. Also had the stops and seats of the T1. Explored east. Not very exciting.
T4 back, no visual sign, possibly audio announcements I stopped paying attention, and no reversible seats. So older models, I guess. All the trains have the three level design though, where most of the seats are above or below the boarding level but there are some disability-friendly seats at boarding level.
I've been feeling cramped by my phone battery not lasting as long, and my external battery no longer recharging it well. I at least diagnosed the latter problem: a bad cable. When I switched to the cable I use with my laptop, the batter charged the phone quite quickly without any fiddling.
I really wish I had more USB ports on this laptop. I basically have one socket adapter, and 3 things to charge or run right now -- phone, battery, and a tiny cheap USB fan I bought to help stay cool.
Public toilets seem a lot harder to find in Sydney than in Brisbane, and are stinkier when found. Well, lots of the train stations have toilets, which may be more than Brisbane had, but still stinkier.
Today I confirmed the Sunday fare cap, doing lots of train travel for the sum of $2.80. First some kaitenzushi nearby, tempting because they put out lots of grilled salmon, though at AUD$3.80 a plate it's way more expensive than the 100-200 yen plates of Sushiro in Osaka. Then the T4 to Town Hall station, and I noticed that this train doesn't announce stops either, like the terrible buses! WTF. Well, there was no sign, and I think there was no voiceover, though I'm not certain now.
Walked around Town Hall a bit, popped into St. Andrew's Cathedral which was decently impressive, then got caught up trying to get to a Japanese bookstore. Found myself in the Galleries, which might be underground shopping tunnels, but led up into a mall, with Muji, a store of Japanese goods, many with Japanese labels on them. I finally got up to Kinokumiya Books, which is a brand I think I've seen before. It's actually a full-service bookstore, and huuuuge -- one floor, but it just kept going. But they do have translated manga right up front, including a rather more-than-racy volume of How To Train Your Devil out on a sample table. Though I didn't find any *other* raunch manga. Yes I looked.
Rather large section of translated light novels. Well, not that big, but big compared to how many light novels I knew had official translations.
Waaay at the other end of the store they carry actual Japanese manga and books, plus "learning Japanese materials". I find it hilarious that the Japanese manga are in sealed plastic as in Japan, to prevent free browsing, but the English manga are not. A couple of Japanese volumes were around AUD$11 vs a 440 yen cover price, so fair bit of markup. I forgot to look at the English prices.
I walked toward the next stop, Central, and found Chinatown by accident. There was a building of "the Chinese Nationalist Party of Australasia", with KMT up on top. I haven't looked up what that's about yet. What's the KMT doing in Australia?
Didn't pass any really obvious dim sum places, whether bakery or cart.
Then got on the T1, which definitely did have signs and voiceover, and ended up riding out west quite a way. Not to the end, that seemed really long, though maybe not as much as I thought. Got off at Doonside, not much there -- some shops, some extent of one story buildings. I was traveling to see things (surface rail!) and also wondering if I can find places to go stargazing without making a huge trip or going camping (i.e. subway or ferry and *back*.) I definitely found some candidates, though I have no idea what the city glow would be.
Headed back, got off at Strathfield, got reminded of Osaka. Shops and malls and multi-story buildings around a train station, as it should be! Also a plaza. I found a food court with a Japanese style bakery, meaning a wide variety of products and you use tongs to put some on a tray, and I got a curry donut, which I never did in Japan because I couldn't tell what anything was.
From watching others I discovered that the T1 also has reversible seats. You just grab a handle on top and the back leans the other way and now you can sit forward instead of backward, or face your friends. It's great!
A tree was full of birds who collectively sounded like a mass of cicadas, only louder. Don't know what they were. From the silhouettes I would have guessed parakeets but the one bird I could see looked more like a magpie or the other black-and-white bird around here.
T9 back to Central. Also had the stops and seats of the T1. Explored east. Not very exciting.
T4 back, no visual sign, possibly audio announcements I stopped paying attention, and no reversible seats. So older models, I guess. All the trains have the three level design though, where most of the seats are above or below the boarding level but there are some disability-friendly seats at boarding level.
I've been feeling cramped by my phone battery not lasting as long, and my external battery no longer recharging it well. I at least diagnosed the latter problem: a bad cable. When I switched to the cable I use with my laptop, the batter charged the phone quite quickly without any fiddling.
I really wish I had more USB ports on this laptop. I basically have one socket adapter, and 3 things to charge or run right now -- phone, battery, and a tiny cheap USB fan I bought to help stay cool.
Public toilets seem a lot harder to find in Sydney than in Brisbane, and are stinkier when found. Well, lots of the train stations have toilets, which may be more than Brisbane had, but still stinkier.