Matthew’s Website

I was having an interesting coversation with the mother of the Japanese family I was staying with in Tokyo about marriage. She was talking about how the divorce rate in Japan is rising. She was shocked when I mentioned that the divorce rate in England was currently approximately 50% (update: just checked the government figures, [...]

I have to admit there is a lot to dislike about the New York subway aside from it’s safety at night which is excellent but it has a further good point on recycling.
In New York all the rubbish thrown away at stations is sorted for recycling; now while this isn’t a pleasant job it brings [...]

I was always going to give some awards at the end of my trip, but so they stay relevant I am going to do some as I go along. So I’m going to split my trip into thirds. Firstly the Americas, then Oceania and Japan, and finally mainland Eurasia. Then finally I’ll sum up the [...]

I said I’d discuss in more detail about why I didn’t like the Chicago Smart home. I don’t really want to be too political/critical in my blog but the environment is a really important issue at the moment and it really affected me that it really wasn’t very good. The building itself was designed to [...]

Yesterday evening I went out to Plymouth bar in downtown Chicago; this bar had a roof terrace which was popular though it had a great view overlooking a car park and the “L” tracks. I also had burger 4 of my time in Chicago there (I had 2 on Sunday and 1 more on Monday [...]

Yesterday I had some chores to complete including uploading some more photos; due to Vista having problems remembering how to drag files from my camera there may be some strange immissions but there should be still a good selection.
After completing my chores for the day I headed to the museum of contemporary art as it’s [...]

After arriving yesterday in Chicago I went out in the evening with some friends and we went to a Chicago pizza restaurant called gramaldies then we headed to a bar with live music called the Hideout which was hidden away in an industrial district in northern Chicago.
Then the next day I went to watch the [...]

So the next day I went back into Washington DC, I was quite late up, so didn’t get in until lunchtime, but I still had time for two museums recommended the previous evening, first I tried to go up the Washington Monument, but then found to get tickets you had to queue before 8.30am when [...]

After New York I flew to Washington DC. However due to the plane being late it would have been quicker on the bus (and even though I only pay taxes probably cheaper too!). Once in Washington I got the metro to my mother cousins house where I was staying. The train was definitely nicer than [...]

After visiting the UN two days ago I headed up to the museum of modern art (MOMA). The first thing I saw was an exhibition on prototype buildings; unfortunately they were too prototype, the best one was made of cellophane and metal so you had to touch the metal regularly to discharge the static from [...]