Today, we look at a summarized view of the US, Italy and Japan.
US - LA, San Francisco, Vegas, San Diego and Seattle
We self drove with 2 large vans and about 18 of us. We spent a lot of time on the road as we wanted to cover as much as we can in 12 days. Our family spent a week in Seattle with our oldest and dearest friends, The Fongs.
People : Very friendly and helpful. We saw random acts of kindness as someone bought a homeless couple dinner from McD. LA was a little scary but we didn't stay that long at night. Only to watch a Lakers game at the Staples Center!! Folks in general are pretty nice.
Service : Service is amazing! People are extremely courteous, helpful with us, efficient especially at the check out lines and very patience. Restaurants, fast food, shopping, airport, The Magic Kingdom, we had a great time with the service folks. If you return a purchase, not only do they not treat you like a criminal like here but they kept apologizing! They apologized that their product was not up to my liking! I was so taken over, I almost wanted to take my purchase back.
Food : Food is very western of course. Burgers, meat chops, fries, pasta. You know the usual stuff. Some are good, some not so. The McD is better simply because they include bacon! But I find our KFC better. The portions are bloody huge though. So we usually share. Mikey went to a chap-fan place called Panda Express and selected 3 dishes and rice. His serving could have served 3! Asian food is also aplenty so no problems here, if you start craving for something Asian.
POI : I need a few postings to do this. Many, many places to go. SF was our favourite. We also visited the Grand Canyon and saw the Hoover Dam. Absolutely breadth taking! Took a game at the Staples Center. Was at Hollywood Boulevard, Walk of Fame, Chinese Theatre in LA. Of course Disneyland and Universal Studios. Drove by the Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39, Chinatown and Ghiradelli's in SF. Vegas was just the sight and of course the amazing Grand Canyon. We took a helicopter ride to the bottom of the canyon for our river cruise. Seattle was more relaxed for us. It was a very calm and serene time of our holiday and we hung out at the local spots like Snoqualmie Falls, downtown Seattle and of course the Microsoft campus.
Shopping is amazing too. We got to shop at Gilroy during the Black Friday sale. It was crazy!! We were also at Barstow, Desert Hills, North Bend and Seattle Premium Outlet. The American brands are amazingly cheap, so we did go crazy! Best feeling ever!!!
Italy - Rome, Pisa, Florence, Venice and Milan
This was a couple's trip with my cousin and his wife. We went on a tour and spent quite a fair bit of time on the road as well.
People : The Italians are a very talkative bunch but not the most friendly towards foreigners I thought. Still they will reciprocate when you speak to them. We went towards the mid of Summer so the weather was extremely gorgeous and I guess that put people in a good mood.
Service : Not the friendliest bunch as not the most patient. They get snippy if you take too long to decide or try on too many stuff. Since we were on a tour, food was pre-arranged so we didn't get to see too much of the restaurant staff's natural habitat.
Food : As it was a tour, we didn't get to choose what we ate. We had lots of pizza and pasta. Some were good, some forgettable. Highlights were a lobster pasta in Milan, Florentine steak in Florence and a Penang restaurant in Rome.
POI : Similar to the US, this would have taken many postings. It's a country that is cultural, religiously and historically rich. It was the center of Western civilization at one time and is now the head of the Catholic Church. So we got to see many sights from Ancient Rome and churches. Every city had it's own glamour and sights. My only advice is to take it slow, spend more time there and to please buy a ticket to see the mural of The Last Supper by Leonardo DiVincci in Milan.
Shopping : This is the place to buy all the Italian brands as they were cheap! Yea we went crazy. My only problem is that they don't have shirts my size because all Italian men apparently look like models! Best place to shop was in Milan's outlet called Serravalle. But downtown Milan and Florence were good too. We didn't get to shop in Rome though but we were told it was more expensive. Leave some space and cash for Rome's airport! Good duty free stuff there as well. While it's cheaper, you may not get the style or design you want. But shopping is shopping!!!
Japan - Tokyo, Kyoto, Nagoya
We travel with the whole village this trip for a Winter experience in Japan. There were almost 25 of us and it was our largest group so far.
People : I think the Japanese people are the friendliest, most humble, helpful, courteous, etc. I can go on and on with all the expletives. They so helpful that even if they didn't know the answer, they will find someone who does. Also many Japanese folks don't speak English well, though they read and write ok. Another observation is that they are very, very clean. The streets are spotless and even their cement truck and garbage truck is in immaculate condition. We passed by a garbage truck and it didn't smell! How do you do that?? The weird part is that, it's so hard to find a garbage can!
Service : Because of the people's attitude towards others, the service industry is one of the best I have experienced. Everyone is smiling and chirpy, to a point sometimes it's creepy. I don't know if it's the anime thing or something they put in the water but restaurants, shopping, airport and immigration were all very good experiences for us.
Food : I love Japanese food so I had no complaints whatsoever. Though it's interesting to see that they eat very unlike us. The famous restaurants serve a specialty food. For example, a famous ramen restaurant will only serve ramen. Same for sushi or tempura. City folks love ramen as it's fast and quick. In the outskirts they serve in a bento. So you have a variety of dishes. Japanese food however, has very little oil and fat so great for weight watchers. However, their rice is incredible! So be careful that you save on fat but stock up on carbo!
POI : Many cultural sites to visit. We had a great time visiting temples, food streets, cultural villages and the Bullet Train and Toyota museums. My highlight was the samurai class that we took and Mt Fuji. We only managed to shop at 1 outlet, Gotemba in Kyoto and prices are pretty good. However, we bought more snacks back and many, many different flavours of Kit Kat.
So that ends my 3 part summary. I may decide to write in detail of the places that we visited. If you have any such requests, drop me a feedback. Sayonara, Ciao, Chai Chien, Good bye, Choi Kin and Au Revouir!
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