Tokyo is the travelers’ favorite city

The Trip Advisor website had a survey for travelers to rank world cities in nine categories such as friendliest locals, cleanliness, public transportation, etc.

Tokyo ranked first place in five categories and second place in another.

Tokyo Tower and Zojoji Temple (image from “Trip Advisor”)

Here are the top three cities in each of the nine categories:

Category	First place	Second place	Third place
Friendliest locals	Cancun	Tokyo	Lisbon
Friendliest taxi drivers	Tokyo	Cancun	Singapore
Best taxi services	Tokyo	Singapore	Dubai
Cleanest streets	Tokyo	Singapore	Zurich
Ease of getting around	Zurich	Vienna	Singapore
Best public transport	Tokyo	Zurich	Munich
Best value for money	Lisbon	Budapest	Bangkok
Best for shopping	New York City	Bangkok	Dubai
Safest city	Tokyo	Singapore	Dubrovnik

And here were the ones that were voted as the worst in the same categories (except for “Safest city”…for some reason that category wasn’t listed on the site):

Category	Last place	Second to last	Third to last
Friendliest locals	Moscow	London	Hong Kong
Friendliest taxi drivers	Moscow	Beijing	Brussels
Best taxi services	Moscow	Beijing	Kuala Lumpur
Cleanest streets	Mumbai	Marrakech	Punta Cana
Ease of getting around	Mumbai	Punta Cana	Moscow
Best Public Transport	Hanoi	Sharm el Sheikh	Marrakech
Best value for money	Oslo	Moscow	Zurich
Best for shopping	Moscow	Oslo	Punta Cana

Have you been to any of these cities? Do you agree with the ranking?
Which cities would you rank as best and worst?

A million and a half

Today my blog has reached one-and-a-half million (1,500,000) visitors.

It gets an average of 1,400 visitors a day. (On my blog’s busiest day, it got over 10,000 hits!)

I appreciate everyone who visits my blog…especially if you leave a comment! The interaction is what makes blogging enjoyable…so, by all means, leave a comment often!

Just how big of a number is 1.5 million?

Well…1.5 million days, for example, is about 4,109 years!

Here’s an idea of what a crowd of 1.5 million people looks like:

There are an estimated 1.5 million people in this crowd of protestors (according to “Google Image” search).

Please answer my survey and let me know how often you visit my blog:

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How is X-mas celebrated in your country?

Christmas isn’t nearly as big of a holiday in Japan as it is in western countries.
In Japan, New Years is the biggest holiday.

In Japan, Xmas is a regular workday and many people don’t even bother to celebrate it at all.
Generally speaking, X-mas Eve is considered a romantic evening for couples to go on a date…often to a place with X-mas Illumination, and either on X-mas Eve or X-mas Day families eat a Christmas dinner (often of Kentucky Fried Chicken).
Champagne and “Christmas cake” are popular parts of a X-mas dinner in Japan too.

Japanese X-mas cake (from "Fujiya")

To give you an idea of how X-mas is spent in Japan, some statistics from a poll taken by monitoring group conducting a poll of Japanese people (the respondents were a ratio of 50:50 male:female and between the ages of 20-60):

• How do you spend Christmas?
  – Relax at home 45%
  – Nothing special 19%
  – Party at home 17%
  – Go on a date 10%
  – Go drinking 5%
  – Take a trip 4%

• Who do you spend X-mas with?
  – Family 64%
  – Boyfriend / girlfriend 11%
  – Undecided 11%
  – Alone 8%
  – Friends 5%
  – Other 1%

• What will you eat on X-mas? (multiple answers OK)
  – Christmas cake 61%
  – Roast chicken 53%
  – Fried chicken 47%
  – Pizza 39%
  – Salad 35%
  – Sushi 25%

• What will you drink on X-mas? (multiple answers OK)
  – Beer 44%
  – Champagne 43%
  – Wine 36%
  – Other 29%

How important is Christmas in your country? What is your country’s biggest holiday?
How is X-mas celebrated in your country?

Survey

Please take this survey about how many foreign countries you’ve ever visited…and then, please tell which countries you’ve visited, and which were your favorites (and why) in the comments section.

Thanks.