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22 travel world records
Help wanted: Japanese city recruiting new geisha
Video: A Chinese haka to support the Rugby World Cup
15 unique hotels and tips for flying with kids
15 unique, bizarre, amazing hotels
Best Hong Kong live music venues
最佳香港獨立音樂場地
Seen from afar: An outside view of the 'real' Japan

Posted: 15 Sep 2011 01:23 AM PDT

Highest hotels or huge sick-bag collections -- it's always good to maintain a sense of humility, and humor, when traveling.

To mark the launch of Guinness Worlds Records 2012 edition, published today, here are 22 travel-inspired superlatives from the extreme, to the insane.

Thanks to Guinness World Records for assistance with the article. Check out and search for other records on their website: www.guinnessworldrecords.com.

Help wanted: Japanese city recruiting new geisha

Posted: 14 Sep 2011 10:18 PM PDT

Call it a cliché if you like, but there really are few more exciting feelings as a tourist in Japan than spotting a real, live geisha in the street as she glides off to her next assignation.

Recognition of which is, presumably, one reason why the burghers of Shimoda in Shizuoka Prefecture have launched an ambitious scheme to keep the traditional art form from dying out.

Staying alive

At a cost of around ¥5 million ($65,000), a Shimoda citizens' group is asking its city hall to pay the wages of three would-be geisha from October for six months.

Video: A Chinese haka to support the Rugby World Cup

Posted: 14 Sep 2011 10:14 PM PDT

Shanghainese rugby fans perform a milder version of New Zealand's Haka.
(If video does not play, please try changing your browser.)

Although it might take a while for team China to appear in the Rugby World Cup, Shanghai fans have already picked their favorite in this year's biggest rugby event.

15 unique hotels and tips for flying with kids

Posted: 14 Sep 2011 07:57 PM PDT

Newsletter Date:

15 September 2011

Newsletter Contents

By City:

7 tips for flying with children

Thailand hotel rates set to rise

Kanchanaburi's 'Death Railway' gets another turn in the spotlight

Hong Kong midweek horse racing: And they're off

Frank Gehry's first China project: 'The building designed itself'

Robert Polidori photographs Hong Kong's 'rational planning'

iReport: Mumbai's prettiest neighborhood Ganesha

Cheap eats: Bandra local's food guide

Mumbai's Film City to open to tourists

Cruising lures Chinese travelers

China's 5 most scenic marathon events

World's biggest airport planned

Motor over to Marina Bay Sands on a bumboat

Best local neighborhoods in Singapore

Start-stop traffic drives Singapore crazy

Seen from afar: An outside view of the 'real' Japan

Japanese corner stores on wheels hit the road

Corpse hotels offer new final destination

The zine scene: Underground world of self-publishing

The great Sydney chocolate tour

'The Great Gatsby' begins production in Sydney

World's first Louis Vuitton airport store opens at Incheon

Seoul's 5 best bibimbap

Bone-setting: The new face of Korea

15 unique, bizarre, amazing hotels

Posted: 14 Sep 2011 06:00 PM PDT

Whether it's balanced on the rim of a volcano or made of crystallized salt, the right hotel can provide you with a good year's worth of bragging material.

The best part is you don't need to raid the kids' college fund to find some exotic, out-there rooms.

1. The Balancing Barn, England

Find a little balance in this precariously perched hotel. It was built by Living Architecture, the brainchild of Swiss philosophical writer Alain de Botton who wrote "The Architecture of Happiness."

Best Hong Kong live music venues

Posted: 14 Sep 2011 03:00 PM PDT

Hong Kong now has a handful of venues that can host international indie acts that would otherwise pass us by in favor of Beijing and Shanghai. Here are our favorite six.

Backstage

Drum 'n' bass, Cantopop, Christian rock, Icelandic indie pop, punk, Goth, jazz -- Backstage has hosted them all.

Since its arrival a few years ago on Wellington Street, just around the corner from Lan Kwai Fong, Backstage has committed itself to hosting international and local live music from and for all walks of life -- provided patrons can stump for the cover charge, which is usually in the HK$100-$150 range.

The long, narrow upstairs space is large enough to cram in 200 people standing, or, for quieter shows, 50 seated.

最佳香港獨立音樂場地

Posted: 14 Sep 2011 03:00 PM PDT

如果只是評論場地，你可以說香港的獨立音樂圈正處於這10年間最健全的時候。的確，現在每週晚上找地方舉辦現場、原創的音樂會仍是很難的事，但在幾年前，這根本是件不可能的事。此外，香港現在擁有一些可以舉辦國際性獨立活動的場地，吸引那些本來只喜歡往北京和上海的演出單位。在此我們將為您介紹最好的幾個場地。各有特色，排名不分先後：

1. Backstage

Drum 'n' bass、廣東流行樂、福音搖滾、冰島式獨立流行樂、punk、哥德式、爵士樂 -- Backstage 應有盡有。自從幾年前 Backstage 在蘭桂坊附近的威靈頓街開幕以來，就一直致力舉辦形形色色的國際性與本地的現場音樂活動，只要您願意掏出腰包購買門票，通常為港幣 100 至 150 元不等。上樓的狹長空間可以站立 200 人，要是安靜一點的表演則可坐 50 人。稍早的傍晚時分，在現場用餐的話稍後的活動可獲折扣，但飲品絕不便宜。一瓶喜力要大概港幣 50 元。

曾演出的音樂單位： Ólafur Arnalds、Sham 69、Chochukmo、DP、Poubelle International

中環威靈頓街 52-54 號 1 樓，+852 2167 8985，www.facebook.com/Backstage.hk

Seen from afar: An outside view of the 'real' Japan

Posted: 14 Sep 2011 02:55 PM PDT

It's almost impossible for the English-language reader with an abiding interest in Japan to avoid Donald Richie.

You may find him in print through his copious newspaper columns and reviews, his several wide-ranging books on Japan, assaying subjects as seemingly disparate as film, gardens, Zen and the Inland Sea (among others), or his forays into fiction.

If you live or stay in Tokyo for a stretch, you may also find him in the flesh. Last time I checked, the 87-year-old Richie was still very much a man-about-town, appearing frequently to give readings and talks at foreigner-friendly venues in the heart of the city.