My Favorite Places In...

My favourite place in Seattle, WA, USA is the Starbucks Reserve Roastery. The store is built around the roasting factory that runs all around an above the customer area. The combination of colours, the copper of the roastery and the browns of the wooden interior, create a wonderful atmosphere of relaxation. Here you can have coffee from beans that were roasted while you've been in the store!

p.s. This is not the very first Starbucks store. That one is located near Pike Place Public Market. 

My favourite place in Kobe, Japan is Futatabi Park, located on top of Futatabi Mountain. It's not easily accessible. A true "off the beaten track" location. There's a beautiful lake there with wooden tables and benches making it a wonderful picnic spot. A short walk from the lake brings you to the Foreigners Cemetery where there are two Jewish sections. The old one is the burial place of Kobe's Jews who moved there from Nagasaki and Yokohama when those communities dissolved, and the Jews moved to Kobe. Originally buried in the old Foreigners Cemetery which was in what is today downtown Kobe, they were moved and reinterred in Futatabi Mountain cemetery when the city was undergoing major construction in the downtown area. Those names are primarily Ashkenazi, seeing that Japan's two communities were made up primarily of Jews from Eastern Europe and Russia. The Jews buried in the newer section were mainly from Syria and Iraq, and the names are thus mainly Sefardi.

This is arguably the hardest one. There are so many places in Kyoto that have captured my heart. But I must choose, so my choice as my favourite place in Kyoto is Kiyomizu Dera, the ancient, wooden Buddhist Temple located on the mountain slopes in eastern Kyoto. Built in the year 1663 out of wooden beams wonderfully interwoven to support its considerable weight, and yet without the use of a single nail, it affords visitors one of the most spectacular views over Kyoto. The English expression “to take the plunge” has a Japanese equivalent, in which they say, “to jump off the stage at Kiyomizu.” Well, it is, in fact, quite literal. Taking the plunge means to accept a dare or to take a bold, dramatic step forward. The stage at Kiyomizu is 13m high, and many people have indeed taken the plunge off it. During the Edo period of Japan’s history, it was said that if one survived the jump, one’s wishes would come true. Many did jump. Most, but not all, survived.

Visiting Hiroshima is always a sombre experience even though I find it an unusually delightful city to return to, and an absolutely essential part of any tour to Japan. Not to visit Hiroshima is to not understand Japan in the modern age. Since it’s reconstruction after the war, the city is dedicated to the concept of world peace and has placed many sculptures and urban art installations around the city created to depict or enhance world peace. My favourite place in Hiroshima is the Shinto shrine of Itsukushima on the Island of Miyajima, just a 10-minute ferry ride across the water. The shrine and it's "floating" vermilion Torii is one of the iconic images of Japan that appears on so many tourism advertisements. It was first built in 1555 during the reign of Empress Suiko and has been restored many times since. 

 My favourite place in Bangkok is the intersection of Sukhumvit Road and Asoke. This is usually the place where Bangkok's notorious traffic expresses itself in the extreme. The red light counts down usually from 180 seconds to zero, and just as you're getting ready to floor the gas pedal, your heart picks up speed, the adrenaline rushes in, you lean forward... and the digits go 4,3,2,1,180 and it starts all over again. It has been known to go on like this for 5 rounds, so that when the light eventually does turn green, the cross traffic has long since blocked the intersection. Added to this is the pedestrian traffic on the street, above the street and beneath the street, as street traffic, elevated train, underground train and pedestrian all come into the funnel at this intersection.

Banff (Gaelic: Banbh) and Macduff (Gaelic: MacDhuibh) are neighbouring towns and former burghs in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. In 1870, Banff was served by the Banff, Portsoy and Strathisla Railway. Strathisla distillery is owned by Chivas Brothers Ltd, which in turn is owned by Seagrams of Canada. But you needn’t be a connoisseur from the Scottish Banff to fall in love with it’s Canadian twin.

My favourite place in Banff, AB, Canada is the Buffalo Nations Luxton Museum, which is dedicated to the appreciation, interpretation, demonstration and display of the cultures, traditions, and values of the First Nations of North America and their trading partners. The museum seeks to show how the native peoples of the Canadian plains lived and adapted to their surroundings and each other prior to contact with European culture, and how they continued to adapt after European influences. It's a small museum and most people miss it. But it's an absolute treasure. When you're next in Banff, go there.

My favorite place in Tokyo is the Meiji Shrine to be found in the thick of the forest in Tokyo’s Yoyogi Park. Emperor Meiji ascended the Chrysanthemum Throne in 1867 at the age of 15. Young in age but wise beyond his years, he shut down the 268 years of feudal rule of the Tokugawa Shogunate which, on the one hand, had united Japan into a single nation, but on the other had created an inward-looking and backward society. Meiji opened Japan to the outside world, and turned Japan into an industrial powerhouse, which it remains to this day. A stark Shinto shrine with some Buddhist features in keeping with Japanese custom, it houses the remains of Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken.

Choosing a favorite place in a country as huge as China is difficult. But if there is one place in China that I truly loved, it's the Li River as it flows between Guilin and Yangshuo. The river meanders peacefully between karst hillocks that surge up steeply from the earth in an area that I call "Romantic China." The river provides a livelihood to many fishermen who practice their trade from bamboo rafts using cormorants they have trained to dive for fish.

While my Bucket List destination of Machu Picchu has never disappointed, no matter how many times I have returned, my favorite place in Peru is the ruins of Pachacamac, 40 kilometers in the desert south of the capital of Lima. Dating back to the year 200, this pre-Inca and Inca ruin was built to honor the Earth Creator god, Pacha Kamaq. When the Inca took over the site, they added pyramids, altars and burial sites, as well as a hotel for pilgrims. The hotel has a very mikveh-like bathhouse.

For the literary folk, Pachacamac was the name of the ship that carried the abducted Professor Calculus in The Seven Crystal Balls of The Adventures of Tintin. In the book, Prisoners of the Sun, Pachacamac was the name of the Sun god worshiped by an ancient Incan tribe still active in South America. In the book, The Broken Ear, a wooden head of Pachacamac is exhibited in the museum of Ethnography in Brussels.

Now this may come as a surprise; my favorite place in Cambodia is the Raffles Grand Hotel D'Angkor. This historic hotel opened its doors in 1932 and has maintained it's "grandness" ever since. It's the only hotel I know of that has a resident historian who lectures to guests at their request on the chronicles of the house and it's setting. Set in over 15 acres of thoughtfully landscaped tropical gardens and built around its iconic swimming pools (the largest hotel pool in Southeast Asia), the hotel provides a relaxing retreat from the temples and the bustling town of Siem Reap. If you ever have an opportunity, it's a stay that is so definitely worth it.

My favorite place in Xi'an, China is the great Mosque in the Muslim quarter of the city. Besides the steels testifying to the arrival of Muslim believers to the city in ancient times, the Mosque itself is built along the same lines as the now destroyed synagogue in Kaifeng. Unlike the synagogue is Kaifeng which faced west, and other mosques which face Mecca, this one is built, like other Chinese temples and important buildings, on a North-South Axis, closed to the north (from where evil comes) and open at the south. So, other than seeing the model of Kaifeng's old synagogue at the Museum of the Diaspora in Tel Aviv, if you want to see what the real thing looked like, go seethe Mosque in Xi'an. 

My favorite place in Victoria, BC, Canada is the Terry Fox memorial. Terry Fox was an athletic young man whose right leg had to be amputated because of cancer. Convinced that it was his mission to call attention to the plight of other cancer sufferers, Terry announced that he would run clear across Canada -- over 4,500 miles -- in the Spring and Summer of 1980. He made it two-thirds of the way on his "Marathon of Hope," but the cancer spread, and he died. Terry's effort was nevertheless seen as a victory by Canada; his statue stands at the target spot that he never reached.

My favorite place in Osaka is the Floating Garden Observatory which connects the two Umeda Sky Towers at the 40th floor. This rooftop observatory enables visitors to enjoy a 360 degree view of Osaka, Japan's third largest city after Tokyo and Yokohama. On a clear day one can see as far as Awaji Island. But at 170m high, the winds up there can get pretty strong, so hold onto your kipot. The observatory offers a great view of one of Japan's highway curiosities, a highway that goes through the middle of a building! Only in Japan... You can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=C5gRAMFdO_Y

My favorite place in Alaska is the Klondike Gold Rush Cemetery, a two mile's walk north of the town of Skagway, AK. Beyond the graveyard, there a beautiful waterfall, where folks can sit down and have a picnic lunch and enjoy the bounty of nature. 

In the years 1897-98, Skagway was a lawless town, described by one member of the North-West Mounted Police as "little better than a hell on earth." Fights, prostitutes and liquor were ever-present on Skagway's streets. Con man "Soapy" Smith, was a man of considerable power, and a sophisticated swindler. For example, his telegraph office charged five dollars to send a message anywhere in the world. Consequently, unknowing prospectors sent news to their families back home without realizing there was no telegraph service to or from Skagway until 1901. Smith was shot and killed by Frank Reid on July 8, 1898, in the famed "Shootout on Juneau Wharf". Smith managed to return fire — some accounts claim the two men fired their weapons simultaneously — and Frank Reid died from his wounds twelve days later. Smith and Reid are both interred at the Klondike Gold Rush Cemetery.

My favorite place in Johannesburg is the Apartheid Museum. When the museum was still in the planning stage, I was consulted by one of the architects regarding work I had done on another museum, of which I had been part of the design team, and I shared an idea with him. Early in 2020 I paid my first visit to the museum and I was pleased to see that they had adapted the idea to the theme of this museum. The experience at the Apartheid Museum is a sombre, saddening and in some cases quite horrifying experience. Yet is an essential visit if a visitor to South Africa is to understand where that country had once been.

My favorite place in Chiang Mai, Thailand, is the ancient part of the Buddhist temple of Wat Chiang Man (or Mun, according to some). It's located within the old city of Chiang Mai, which was once surrounded by a thick brick wall (the remains can still be seen in some places) and a moat. Today it's easily accessible by foot or vehicle in the bustling traffic of Chiang Mai. It was built in 1297 by Mangrai, the first king of Lanna who made Chiang Mai the capital of his kingdom a year earlier. The part of the temple that really caught my eye is the Elephant Chedi, which is the most ancient part of the temple. There are 15 life-size brick and stucco elephants which "carry" the temple on their backs. Elephants are by far my favorite animal, and I have a definite "thing" for Buddhism. But that's a different discussion.

The two most beautiful synagogues in which I have ever davened are the Portuguese Esnoga in Amsterdam and the Paradesi Synagogue in Jew Town, Matancherry, in Fort Cochin, India. And that’s my favorite place in India. It’s nestled at the end of Jew Street, opposite the home and shop of the late Sarah Cohen, who once hosted us for a Shabbat lunch after shul at the Paradesi. It’s India’s oldest shul, and possibly the oldest standing shul anywhere. It was built in 1568 by Jews who had migrated from Kodungallur(Jews arrived there in the 1stcentury CE) due to persecution by the Portuguese colonial overlords. It appears that wherever Catholics landed in the old world, the first thing they did was set about finding some Jews to persecute. Reminds me of the story of the camel and the scorpion. Later, in 1662, the Portuguese came to Cochin and set the shul ablaze. Camel and scorpion? Two years later the Dutch, who were now the colonial masters in Cochin, helped repair the damage. The floor of the shul is covered in blue hand-painted tiles brought from Guangzhou, China by a Jewish trader, Ezekiel Rahabi. Today, there are very few Jews in greater Cochin. The Paradesi Is still open to visitors on weekdays, but not on Shabbatot and Chagim. There is another active shul, the Kadavumbagam synagogue in Ernakulam, Cochin’s new city, which was once almost in ruins and has been refurbished and has a more active community. 

My favorite place in Beijing is Jingshan Park located on Coal Hill, immediately north of the Forbidden City. Back in 1420, when the moat around the Forbidden City, and Behai Lake were being dug, the earth had to be put somewhere, and so it was simply piled up north of the Forbidden City. The park itself was built in accordance with feng shui principles to protect the Imperial palace from chilling northern winds. Moreover, since it was constructed on land formerly occupied by the Yuan dynasty palace, the hill symbolically squashed the Yuan and buried its emperor. Coal Hill is also associated with the Ming because the dynasty's last emperor hanged himself there as Manchu troops approached. (Another version of the story has him committing suicide in the Forbidden City's gardens). This hill is known by two names in Chinese: "Coal Hill" (Meishan), deriving from the fact that coal was often piled at its foot, and "Prospect Hill" (Jingshan), its Qing era name. The best, the iconic, view of Beijing can be captured by photographers early in the morning, when the view over the world's largest palace is best.

My favorite place in Hanoi is the Old Quarter, the city's historical civic urban core. It's also known as the 36 streets, named thus for the 36 streets or guilds that used to make up the urban area of the city. The Old Quarter came to be during the Lýand Trầndynasties and was then located east of the Imperial Citadel of ThăngLong and along the Red River. It has an eclectic mix of architectural styles, dominated by very thin, narrow buildings. That is because municipal taxes are calculated based upon the space occupied by the front of a building. So many building are very narrow, but very deep. Some of the streets are still specialized in the trade that gave them their names. Others still specialize in one specific trade, but a different one from their traditional specialty — such as Hàng Buồm street ("sails street") which has become dominated by Vietnamese cakes and candy.

My favorite place in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam a.k.a Saigon, is Nguyen Hue Walking Street, a pedestrian mall island in a city of millions of motorbikes. 900m in length, it runs from Saigon's beautiful French Colonial City Hall all the way to the banks of the Saigon River. It's not an attractive plaza, and it could do with more greenery, but at night it becomes a hive of colorful activity, with a fountain show, music and hundreds if not thousands of Saigonese out and about. A great place for people watching. The Walking Street also plays host to two of Saigon's iconic hotels: the historical/classic Rex Hotel (the bar on the roof is THE place to be) and the completely over-the-top Reverie Hotel which surely view for the title of most opulent hotel on the planet. I once met a group of three doctors from Damascus on Walking Street and we stopped to chat and took a picture, but at their request I have never posted it to social media.

My favorite place in New York City is a tiny cemetery, the smallest in Manhattan, which is the remaining corner of the Second Cemetery, built by the Congregation Shearith Israel, the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue.

The triangular cutoff is a result of the implementation of the New York City grid system, which was placed directly over the burial land. The cemetery was established in 1805. However. in 1830, the City of New York paid $1,099 to the Congregation Shearith Israel to disinter bodies and place infrastructure. The ones that remained in the corner are buried unusually deep due to the layers of dirt added to level the ground.

+The graveyard on 11th St in Greenwich, was created as a secondary site to the main burial ground at Chatham Square, where the bodies of disease victims (mainly yellow fever), and other people not directly connected to the congregation could be buried. 

Despite the oxidized plaque bearing the site’s statement of purpose, the cemetery is misperceived by many New Yorkers as an overgrown garden or small back yard. A peek behind the iron bars reveals deteriorating tombstones with mostly illegible engravings, a tall obelisk, and a single above-ground tomb.

I bought my very first Starbucks mug in Hongqiao, Shanghai, China. My favorite place in Shanghai is the Huangpu River, which divides Shanghai into two parts, Pudong ("east of Huangpu") and Puxi ("west of Huangpu"). There are very different architectural styles on either side of the river, which makes sailing on the river so interesting. To enjoy the scenery along the river, the Bund on the west bank and Binjiang Avenue on the east bank are, in my humble opinion, the top two places in the city. Binjiang Avenue is less crowded, but the Bund offers more beautiful views. The Bund is home to Shanghai's historical architecture with abundant buildings in western styles built around 100 years ago, when Shanghai was partially a foreign settlement. On the east bank, Pudong, are the tall modern buildings constructed in recent decades. The skyscrapers on the east and the classical architectures on the west reflect the sharp contrast in the development of the city over the past 100 years. Shanghai's city fathers once imagined they would be the world's largest and tallest building by 2020.

My favorite place in Vancouver, BC, Canada, is the Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge. There are two fascinating suspended structures in Vancouver: the suspension bridges at Lynn and at Capilano Canyons. While the bridge at Capilano is more famous, and MUCH more toured, the suspension bridge at Lynn Canyon is the scary one. Stepping onto the bridge causes it to wobble, and if you’re half-way down across the ravine, you’re going to want to hold on real tight as the folks behind or in front of you step onto the bridge. Built in 1912, this two-astride suspended footbridge has wooden slats under your feet, through which you can see the waters of Lynn Creek gushing by 50 meters below, as they rush down from the mountain into the Fraser River inlet. There are wonderful hiking trails here that wind along the creek, and if you’re looking for a place where you can hear the breeze rustling through the leaves, the water flowing in the stream and the swift footsteps of squirrels scurrying around the woods all at the same time, Lynn Creek Park is the place to be. For those of us who’s kids grew up in the 1980s, many scenes of the TV series “McGyver” were filmed here.

My favorite place in Singapore - well there are two of them. The first is the Gardens by the Bay, a magnificent botanical garden that has the most expansive collection of plants and trees, sown to create a literal paradise created from a multitude of diverse plant life. It's also home to the world's largest and most abundant greenhouses, which alone are probably worth going to Singapore to see. My second favorite place in Singapore is the lobby of the Bay Sands Hotel, the three-towered complex that has become the iconic image of Singapore's rush to modernity, designed by Israeli-Canadian architect Moshe Safdie. The lobby is vast and lofty, and even though you are indoors, you feel like you're aloft, somewhere in the sky perhaps. I've had the pleasure of working with Mr. Safdie on a different project, and I never cease to be amazed by his ability to create magnificent structures.