Commze

We were looking forward to comparing our experience with the luxury hotels Asia has sprinkled around the continent like pearls on a necklace with those of Japan. We were on our way the Obon Festival by train when we found out it is about the busiest travel days of the year in Japan. My guide and now wife Niki could only shrug her shoulders (she might have if she had had space to move in the throngs waiting to get on to the train to Tokyo) at the sea of humanity trying to get any where but here. Apparently the festival is where people return to their hometowns and believe it is the time when the spirits of ancestors return and are reunited with their families. We looked forward to seeing a traditional Bon Odori dance. It is performed to light and happy music to invite the souls of the dead (one would think they would be happy just to show up, and the music is quite nice).

A couple from Nagata whom we were sitting with on the train explained that the best part of the celebration was the teriyaki buffet that is often set out, as well as the sakes one could sample and the great Japanese beer, all to the rhythm of the taiko drums. There may well be bonsai displays and even contests, as this art of gardening is taken very seriously in Japan. It sounds like a county fair for honoring the dead. I do not know if thinking about one’s ancestors is what folks back in Austin do when they go to a fair, but it might not be a bad idea. Happily, our new friends has some rice rolls with them that they had planned to eat on the train. We produced some of our own teriyaki beef and we decided it would be great fun to combine our lunches like a pot luck. I wonder what they call pot luck in Japanese? We had a wonderful lunch and regrettably, never saw them again.

Related posts:

1. Benidorm International Song Festival
2. New Year in Goa
3. Great Music at X Fest 2010 in Modesto
4. Experiencing Cape Town
5. South Africa’s Hugh Masekela

We decided to get out of Dubai for the day and head to Hatta. Then on to the Hatta Rock Pools, with its blue pools and waterfalls. We squeezed through narrow rock crevices, and we felt like we were in a real desert oasis. We felt a world away from any luxury hotel Dubai offers, and that was OK from the point of view of the respite from the sophisticated city of Dubai. Hatta Village is built around an old settlement and meant to evoke a kind of life style traditionally practiced at a desert oasis. There always seems to be a fort built in these sort of medieval  villages. Two towers stretch above the settlement called the Northern Tower and the other the Southern Tower and were built in the late nineteenth century. Back in the day the original village settle at the creek where pottery and weaving were created, and visiting here is a step back in time.

We bought some vegetable dyed cloth and a few pearls that are dived for by locals from the nearby seabed. W also had some interesting food, as we were able to get pizza with lamb sausage sand feta cheese and sun dried tomatoes. the crust was thin, very thin, like a flat bread, well it was much like a flat bread since that is what they make here, so pizza seems like a good use of that traditional skill. The pizza was delicious after our foray around the town as we sat in a tiny restaurant. Despite its traditional charm, even modern advances could be found here. If you looked carefully, satellite dishes can be seen, and the blue light of the television screen makes its presence known. Still, we were grateful to allowed to go back in time and visit a bygone era.

Related posts:

1. Dubai, UAE
2. Blackpool Tower
3. Top Attractions and Places to Visit in London
4. The Best of the Best Restaurants in Florence, Italy
5. Visiting Jaipur, India

So you’re a savvy traveler looking for the perfect five-star hotel.  New York City is where you want to be.  It has everything, literally, in terms of the good things in life.  And for accommodations, there’s no place more equipped to take care of all your needs.  New York City is the greatest city in the world, and our hotels put you in the lap of luxury, to ensure that you’re going to like it here.  There are a host of luxurious amenities to add spice and pizazz to your stay, and there are also all the usual features that meet or exceed the highest standards in the industry.  You’ll find yourself enjoying the perfect meal, or having the perfect work-out, after a splendid night of rest, to help you get ready for exploring the city.

New York has a thousand histories on every sidewalk at any given time.  Some of the world’s best minds and talents have spent days or months hitting the pavement here, and it’s a heady proposition to be walking in these footsteps.  The ghost with the most gorgeous voice here just might be that of Billie Holiday.  As we move past the 50th anniversary of her death, her time spent in New York City hasn’t been forgotten, nor has her contribution to world music.  Billie Holiday’s voice is one of the most distinctive ones on vinyl, and she’s been inspirational to singers all over the world, combining technique and passion to make the world listen.

Born Eleanora Fagen in Philadelphia in 1915, she had an extremely rough childhood and left with her mother for New York when she was in her teens, and began to perform in clubs when she was only 15.  She sang with Benny Goodman when she was nineteen, and was discovered by John Hammond.  The world would never be the same.  She worked with nearly every jazz great of her time, when the music was undergoing some of its most vital transformations.  There is a good argument that Billie Holiday herself helped to spawn these transformations, or at least played a major part.  Her peculiar vocal techniques were able to harness a raw emotional power that few artists before or after could tap into.  The heart and desperation of the world itself seemed to come from her vocal chords, and her songs haunt the city, and the world at large.

Related posts:

1. Unique Concert Venues in Philadelphia
2. Eureka and a Local Sound