Shinya Ota

I made a visit to Takahata, a town of some 22,000 bordering Yonezawa city to its west in Yamagata prefecture. They produce rice on the flat area and peaches, pears, apples, grapes, cherries, etc., on the hilly areas. Takahata town is the largest producer of ”Delaware grapes” in the nation. With its abundant gifts from nature, the town has been called as “Mahoroba” in ancient Japanese word, or a fertile land surrounded by hills and Mountains.

Yonezawa is the seat of Yonezawa clan which governed the south part of Yamagata in the Edo period. The land was not so fertile. With large servants to feed and frequent orders for supports in terms of labor and money from the Tokugawa shogunate, they had bee under financial difficulty all the time. Uesugi Yozan (September 9, 1751 – April 2, 1822), the 9th load of the domain, has been admired as a leader to turn around the situation through frugality and encouragement of business..

I visited Shanghai from May 20 until May 26 for business. I do not remember exactly how many times I had visited the city. It could be over 10 times.  Every time I visit there, I would always realize the city is changing at a rapid pace. It’s been almost 8 years since I visited last time.  I thought I might have landed at a completely different place when I saw the view of the city from the aircraft.  I stayed at Intercontinental Shanghai Expo in Pudong near the Nanpu bridge..

I’ve never seen beautiful beach like this before.  White beach, clear water, palm trees swaying in the winds. It is never an exaggeration to say ” heaven in this world”.  The beach was ever ranked the most beautiful beach in the U.S. There are no shops near the beach. Only parking lots and wash rooms. People are enjoying themselves in a quiet setting. The beach is located on North East across the island from Waikiki. I takes about an hour to come here taking a city bus by way of Ala Moana ..

The city along the Yangtze river is a starting point of many cruises to the Three Gauges Dam. It is known as mountainous city. The center of the city is occupied with modern tall buildings. But It still keeps the atmosphere of old Chinese city, which Shanghai has lost now.  During my stay, I was able to enjoy myself walking around in those nice atmospheres.
As it is called mountainous city, there are a lot..

I flew a direct flight to Kona, the Big Island by JAL. I’ ve been here before in july, 2001 by JAL. But I arrived at Hilo, the eastern town in the island that time. I remember the flight flew along east side of the island shore line, which was black and smoke from lava flowing into the waters. This flight touched down the airport soon after the land appeared.,
Kailua Kona, the pricise name of the island, is a town on the west side, has different atmosphere from Hilo, which often rains. The airline..

I headed to the ferry terminal in Sheung Wan soon in the rainy morning after I grabbed some dim sums at Lin Heung Kui.

This small island was once a step stone for Jesuit monks to spread Christianity to East Asia. I wanted to visit the historic area of the former Portuguese colony and enjoy its exotic atmosphere somedays. I was visiting Hong Kong to attend a business meeting and leaving for Tokyo..

I visited Qingdao to attend a business meeting from May.17 through 19, 2017. This is a new place for me to visit first time in China. I was a bit excited about this trip. I left Haneda by a Cathay Dragon’s red-eye flight and got by way of Hong Kong after 12 hours.

Qingdao,  once a German colonial town before the WWW.I, is a beautiful city on the south of the Shangdong peninsula, Northeast China…

I went to Chenung wan by tram and walked around the streets. Then I took MTR to HKU station. There is an elevator at the station which takes you to the entrance of the school on the hill top. You can see the harbor from the campus. The moist and gentle winds from the harbor feel good. It seems a good location to study something for me who was burned and raised in Yokohama. There were a few students in the campus of quite Saturday morning.  I returned to the hotel as I had to check out before 12 o’clock.

I took a red-eyed flight by Cathay Dragon from Haneda and landed at Hong Kong early in the morning. Few people were there in the vast gate area. I am taking another flight to Kunming the afternoon. I decided to stop by “Cabin”, one of the Cathay Pacific’ lounges to have breakfast and kill time. After having Yakisoba noodle with beer, I moved to another section and relaxed with snack and drink. I realized some people got around a large..

After landed the current job, I was working hard without taking any vacation since then. I found a travel book on the tram of Hong Kong and the towns long the system at a book store. That made me think when the last time I visited Hong Kong was and I wanted to visit my most favorite place of the world again. I planed a trip of two days with three nights into the city and booked the flights and the hotel room. My theme of this trip was taking tram end to end on the island and din sum at a local restaurant loved by locals……

I had to attend a business meeting held in Xiamen. You cannot expect there is a direct flight from Tokyo unless you go to a major city in China. Maybe you take another flight from a major city like Shanghai, Beijin, or Hong Kong. I usually choose to fly by Cathay Dragon by way of Hong Kong if there is no direct flight. But there is a direct service to the city, but only from Narita, which is almost two hours away from my town. ANA is an only carrier to serve the route..

I am staying at Courtyard Bangkok on the weekend before going to Phuket beach for a business meeting. I planed to visit Jim Thompson’s house and Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya is located approximately 80km north of Bangkok. The city thrived as the seat of the Ayutthaya Dynasty from the 14th century until the 18th century. Now the area of the ruins of the city called Ayutthaya Historical Park is registered as a world heritage site. I joined the half day tour by Panda Bus tour..

This is my third visit to Bangkok. Last time I visited a decade ago, I remember the airport has no access to MTR and I had to take a taxi to get down to the city center in a crowded road. The airport has been replaced by a new airport which had MTR service. Now I enjoyed view of Bangkok from the window of the MTR train.

I flew by Japan Airlines from Narita..

I visited Shanghai with my colleague to attend a business meeting held there by a reefer container manufacturer, which has a large factory in Jiangsu province. They invited all attendees to the tour of the factory at the last day of the meeting. We left the hotel we were staying near Shanghai Zoo, also close to Shanghai Hongqia airport, the old one, in the city. (The flight of Shanghai Airlines we took landed at this Hongqia airport. ) The airport was the only international airport in the city before Shanghai Pudong International airport was inaugurated in 1999…