Queen Alice at Central Airport

Four Toastmasters in Nagoya area showed up at the 26th PHP Annual Convention in Nagoya Saturday afternoon, the 20th of October, including Kato Yoshiko (the convention simultaneous interpreter), Sawaki Hiroko, Ogawa, and I. Toastmaster Sawaki is even considering joining PHP Friendship Club Association.

I got to know Toastmaster Sawaki better when we bumped into each other in Dunedin, New Zealand, in January this year. We happened to sign up for the same peninsula tour coincidentally the day before. She arrived earlier in the morning and called me on the van, I was thrilled to meet a friend from afar to keep each other's company in a cold summer day on South Island.

Toastmaster Sawaki came to Royal Park Hotel in Nagoya Tuesday afternoon, the 16th of October. She took me to a coffeehouse at the train station and chatted with me for two hours. Then she took me to "Sans Frontier", a fancy restaurant on the 10th floor of the twin-tower building for dinner. In order to reciprocate her generosity, I invited her to Queen Alice of Central Airport to see the beautiful sunset at the beautifully designed and constrcted international airport in Nagoya.

We walked into Queen Alice at five thirty, the sun has already long set (the sunset hour was 4:30). But the panoramic view of the glittering early night was magnificent. We both ordered French cusine with a good white wine to spend our great evening together. While overlooking at the take off of international and domestic airplanes, we studied the airplanes of different nationalities.

I must say that Queen Alice is the best restaurant in the airport in the world. The view was good, the food was good, the atmosphere was good. On top of that, I love their service. The waitor who served us was a handsome and friendly young man. He speaks English very well, and answered many of my crazy questions. After dinner, Hiroko and I even got a special oolong tea as the complimentary drink from the house. I left a long thank-you note to the restaurant manager, praising their excellent customer service at Queen Alice.

After arriving at Meitetsu Station, I looked at my watch "22:30", and I started running hard on the dark alleys. I knew the directions and distance, but I fastened my steps. I didn't want to get to the Aichi Youth Hostel at the last minute of 11PM curfew.

The following day, I gave myself one day off to tour the beautiful Nagoya on my own. I returned back to the Dotour, the popular coffee chair store near Nagoya TV Tower. I walked up to the 2nd floor to see the beautiful view of green trees on the famous brand shops Boulevard. To my disappointment, the 2nd floor was full of heavy smokers. I had no choice but order a cup to coffee, sit by the door, watch the pedestrians, and plan what I could do in the coming month!