Jakarta Run

I had a nice visit to Jakarta, Indonesia this week.

From Tokyo, it is about 7 hours flight to get there.

Thursday morning, I could go for a jog from my hotel - at 6:00 am it was already getting very warm!

Because it was the commuting time, there were many cars, motor bikes, and of course, commuters.

Some people take free rides on commuter trains - on the roof!

Here's a photo of an amazing traffic congestion due to so many commuters came out of a train causing auto traffic to stop.  The motor bikes were the first to get out of the mess.

The city is getting ready for SEA Games 2011. Banners were all over the place.

Here's a view of Senayan Sports Complex where the games will be played - as seen from the hotel I stayed.

Another view of the city from my hotel room - the golf course is under repair.

Jakarta is a very vibrant city and there will be a bright future for it, I am sure.

Autumn walk

On Friday, I had a nice walk in a park in Funabashi, Chiba.  It is now getting very cool in Japan.

There was a field of pink flowers of buckwheat.

There was a cherry tree with flowers - that is very rare for they usually bloom in spring.

There also were pretty cosmos flowers along a pond.

A bush of Firethorn.

At the cafeteria of a golf course close by was a chigiri-e tile picture of fireworks by Kiyoshi Yamashita.

Osaka walk and jog

Last week, I was in Osaka.  I took a walk in the evening of Thursday around Osaka Station.

Red whales at the entrance of HEP FIVE.  The stores were open late.

The tall building on the left is Hankyu Department Store and across the street, Hanshin Department Store.  The white little round light over Hanshin building is actually the moon.

Nest morning, I could go for a semi-long jog.  Three tall buildings are being built at the same time on the north side of the station.

Here's Shin-Osaka Station - approx. 4 km away from Osaka Station.  This is the terminal for Tokaido Shinkansen.  A new tall building addition was being built there.

A commuter train crosses a truss bridge over Yodo River.

There were many commuters back at Osaka Station.

San Francisco Run

Last week, I spent three days in the Bay Area and could go for two nice morning runs in San Francisco.

The San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge was beautiful at sunrise on Thursday.

I could not figure out what this monument was - it said "Local Earth".

A statue atop Dewey Monument at Union Square.

Running up to Coit Tower was a very good hill workout.

Pretty parrots at a bush by Coit Tower.

An interesting painting at the Chinatown.

Beijing Run

On Tuesday afternoon, I had a good run in Beijing, China.

Took a run north from my hotel and ran into Chaoyag Park.  Unfortunately, I could not run in this big park - I only saw things around it.

At its south west end, I saw an interesting construction going on. It looked a bit like the famous  Bird's Nest Stadium.

This is a river on the west side of it. It curves through the park all the way to the east side.

On the east side of the park, there was a nice woody trail. It was nice to run through the trees.

Also on the East side, there was an amusement park with this enormous statue of a basketball player.

This lake was out of the park on the east side - very peaceful.

But, the traffic in Beijing is actually very bad all over. I was told later that the air quality is not good at all.