Robot Claw

The flight was tiring and uncomfortable, but the most notable was that ANA now uses Pokémon for their safety videos 🙂

The fruit meals were up to their usual standards, especially the super fresh watermelon and strawberries. I was given two on the flight, each more or less the same.

And then I was in Japan! The above is my hotel room view of Ueno station. I’ve stayed in this hotel before, albeit not since Covid. The entire room is smaller than my bathroom at the Sheraton but I’ll be comfortable here.

I went and ate my favourite meal at an ungodly hour, then spent a bit of time unpacking. I didn’t get to sleep until after 1 am.

But now I’m up heading out to see what’s going on in Tokyo (I’m sitting on a Yamanote line train as I write this). I look tired don’t I? Maybe that’s because I am 🙂

In a few minutes I’ll board that plane and fly to Japan. I’m very exhausted after this past fortnight but I’ve got 10 flying hours to relax and that should be enough to raise my stamina to 200%!

What will I see and do in Japan? Watch this space to find out…

I walked down to Circular Quay and arrived about 15 minutes before the lights went on. Finally I could see some stars! The above shows the bridge before the lights…

And there it is after they flipped the switch. The lights were very bright and vibrant this year, and the bridge looked magnificent.

The crowds were thick and very excited, but my limiters are half-removed and I weaved through the throng effortlessly. I quickly ducked around the quay to see the Opera House from the other side:

You can see the projector beam, which seemed to originate from next to the bridge. The spotlights are cool as they scan the sky and I overheard a woman saying when she flew into Sydney a few days ago they could see them from above the clouds.

The rest of this post will just be a gallery of various installations, at Martin Place and Darling Harbour. This isn’t all I saw, and most of these are animated or interactive as well. There was a lot to see, and I believe this may be the biggest Vivid I’ve seen yet.

On this last pic, fire was clearly a theme this year. I saw several fire installations, and places where you could cook over open fires. I believe there was a fire juggler as well in Darling Harbour, but the crowds were very dense and I was tired so I went back to the hotel.

All told I spent about three hours running around and estimate I only saw half the installations. It’s a great Vivid, much better than last year and possibly the best I’ve seen. I’m glad I was here to experience it.