For years, I’d heard rumours of a set of amazing public toilets in central Melbourne that doubled as a sight-seers delight. A Loo With a View, so-to-speak.

The rumour went that you could see for kilometres whilst conducting your business. Intrigued, and with some time on my hands, I decided to scout these toilets out and see this apparent marvel for myself.

After researcing their location, I took a visit to the infamous bathroom yesterday and can affirm that the view really is something to behold!

The Loos With a View are located on the thirty-fifth floor of the Sofitel, and take in views of State Parliament, the Treasury and Fitzroy Gardens, the Melbourne Cricket Ground and the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. On a clear day you can see as far as the Dandenong Ranges.

This grand vista is provided through floor-to-ceiling plate glass windows that span the breadth of the bathroom. As soon as you enter the bathroom, the view is there to greet you.

It probably goes without saying that most folks would not take too kindly to sharing the bathroom with a photographer. Luckily it was quiet when I visited, so I was able to take these photos before anyone entered. I’ve since discovered that the Ladies are just as impressive as the Gents!

The Loo With a View is well worth a visit, just to satisfy one’s curiosity. And believe it or not, the view is even better than the one at the Eureka tower!

How to get there: The ‘Loo With a View’ is located on Level 35 of the Sofitel Hotel at 25 Collins Street, Melbourne. The toilets are open to members of the public. You can enter from Collins Place (at the foot of the ANZ Towers) and proceed into the hotel foyer. From there, take the lift to Level 35 and then proceed into the Gents or Ladies as is appropriate.

The Commonwealth Government has announced that it intends introducing a compulsory national petrol prices regulation system similar to the Fuelwatch scheme that presently operates in Western Australia (WA). This should finally bring prices stability to the Australian fuel market.

According to the official press release, the scheme will work by:

1. Forcing all petrol stations to notify the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission of their next day’s prices by 2pm the day before;
2. Forcing petrol stations to maintain this advised price for a 24-hour period; and
3. Applying the scheme to unleaded petrol, premium unleaded petrol, LPG, diesel, 98 RON and biodiesel blends.

The scheme is designed to prevent the wild fluctuations in petrol prices that are commonplace across Australia.

Just yesterday I purchased unleaded petrol for $1.34 a litre and today it was selling for $1.52 a litre, representing an overnight price increase of 14%. Fuelwatch will effectively bring and end to this pricing absurdity.

Fuelwatch has been operating in WA for several years now under the auspices of the state’s Department of Consumer and Employment Protection. Whilst prices stability is a given, there remains considerable debate about the effectiveness of the scheme in bringing down petrol prices.

Western Australia’s Royal Automobile Club claims that Fuelwatch has had a negligible effect on overall petrol prices and the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria agrees, stating that the scheme would deny motorists “the opportunity to purchase heavily discounted fuel on a weekly basis”. As many Victorians are aware, petrol is always cheaper on a Tuesday for some inexplicable reason. Yet the National Roads and Motorists’ Association in NSW was in favour, with NRMA president Alan Evans telling the ABC “The sooner we can get (Fuelwatch) into NSW, the better off NSW motorists are going to be”.

So, who’s right? According to the Western Australian Fuelwatch website, the mean petrol price in Perth today was 140.8 cents a litre, whilst the RACV unofficially calculated today’s mean price in Melbourne at 140.2 cents a litre.

For me, this all raises a number of interesting points.

Firstly, I accept the RACV’s argument that the Fuelwatch scheme would deny the opportunity to purchase discount fuel on Tuesdays. But then again, if petrol is cheaper overall, isn’t that better? I hate having a choice of either queuing up for lengthy periods on a Tuesday to get cheap petrol or paying through the nose on the following Thursday or Friday. Prices stability (or at least daily predictability) would be convenient, if nothing else. I cannot think of another consumer commodity that suffers hourly price fluctuations in such an absurd manner.

Secondly, I think a Fuelwatch scheme is worth trialling nationally. Whilst it is debatable whether the scheme will lower prices, no-one is suggesting that prices will rise. So what have we got to lose?

Thirdly, I don’t think this will have a detrimental effect on independent petrol sellers. They simply have to lower their prices sufficiently to undercut the majors. Sure, there’s risk that some days they’ll be overpriced, but it will also work in the reverse too. Regardless, I’ve never seen an independent retailer ever undercut a major by more than a tenth of a cent in all my years of driving. Competition is hard to find as it is, despite the protestations of the independents, so I don’t see that we have much to lose, again.

I welcome a nationwide Fuelwatch scheme and look forward to petrol prices stability, if not some cheaper petrol. I believe that the petrol industry as a whole (and petrol pricing in particular) requires better government regulation, but this scheme is a good start.

I had the recent pleasure of spending some time in Tokyo, a city of 8 million inhabitants. Exploring Japan’s capital was really enjoyable with all its marvels and technology. But nothing really prepared me for a discovery I made late one afternoon at a major intersection.

It all started in the Tokyo suburb of Yūrakuchō (有楽町) whereupon I came across a curious street display outside the Sony Building at the Sukiyabashi crossroad.

What is it? The Yurakucho Marui display photographed at night.

The display featured four vending machines, lined up in a row and elevated on a platform like poker machines. Positioned above them was an object that resembled a giant illuminated pill or capsule. Displayed in each vending machine were smaller versions of the red and white capsule, each of which was about 20 centimetres long. About five staff attended the display, and the phrase “Yurakucho Marui – Fashion Therapy” was painted in English on the front. All other signage was in Japanese.

Passers-by retrieve a capsule from the Yurakucho Marui machines. (Photo: avic.co.jp)

As I stood there, I tried to figure out what those capsules were, but I couldn’t.

Aside from the giant “pill” on the top of this display, my eye was drawn to the people queuing to participate. Each person would come up onto the platform and a member of staff would assist them in purchasing a capsule. The display would stay open for maybe 20 minutes, then be closed for 15 minutes before resuming again. I considered joining the queue, but decided that my lack of Japanese language skills and their probable lack of English skills could be a problem. And of course I didn’t know what I might be buying anyway.

Still curious at the sight before me, I took some photos and decided I’d investigate further when I returned to Australia, which turned out to be much trickier than I had anticipated.

Searching on the Internet didn’t really help answer any questions.

My first discovery was that Marui (丸井) is a department store with a logo consisting of the letters “OIOI” (based on some Japanese ). This logo was reproduced on the capsules.

After showing my close friends at work (who were equally confused and intrigued) it was suggested that I ask a Japanese colleague to translate the signs in the photos. Sadly, the translations didn’t assist us in figuring out the mystery. But he kindly did some “homework” and found a number of Japanese websites that discussed this very display. And whilst he was doing that, I did a search for “Yurakucho Marui” on Flickr.com, the photo-sharing website. We then simultaneously discovered what was in those capsules…

Underpants!

…and not just any underpants, free underpants! I really didn’t expect that.

The Yurakucho Marui underpants. (Photo by Jesse Wu).

It turned out that a number of Japanese-language blogs have documented their respective author’s amazement at the Yurakucho Marui free underpants dispensing machine.

Each blog author had queued to get a capsule, then gone home to inspect the contents whilst photographing the whole sequence of events. The photos showed that each pair of underpants had a slogan, which I have had translated for me. The male underpants read “僕はいつでも準備ＯＫです”, which I am informed translates as “I am always OK (ready) for it!”. Alternatively they read “Make people happy, but first yourself”. The women’s underpants only had one slogan which translated as “You can’t change others, only yourself”.

A pair of Yurakucho Marui underpants. (Photo: avic.co.jp)

As it turned out, the Yurakucho Marui was a brand new store scheduled to open a week after I had visited their unique display. The purpose of the display was to promote the store, by offering “fashion therapy” in the form of message-clad underwear packed into a giant plastic capsule, dispensed from a machine.

And with that, the mystery was solved.

People do say that Japan is full of odd surprises, and I reckon that a row of free underpants-dispensing machines at a major Tokyo intersection fits that description perfectly. How bizarre!

References (all Japanese language):
http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/hanabi2007hanabi/23228433.html
http://www.avic.co.jp/blog/sonybuild/archives/2007/10/post_55.php
http://cocolo-pikan.jugem.jp/?eid=165

Translations kindly provided by Harumi Shinozuka.

Image credits:
First image: © Adam Dimech, 2007. All rights reserved.
Second and fourth images: Reproduced under a Creative Commons Licence from avic.co.jp
Third image: © Jesse Wu, 2007. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

I have just recently visited the Philippines for a holiday. The flight is a lengthy 7 hours from Melbourne to Manila and having been three years since my last visit, I had a lot to see and do in this great country.

Yet for all the touristy places I wanted to visit, there was one lesser-known Philippine attraction that I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to witness. I speak of the famous “Fertility Tree”.

You will never find reference to the Fertility Tree in your Lonely Planet guides, nor on the Wow Philippines website, nor in your glossy holiday brochures. It is only something that the locals know about.

The infamous Fertility Tree (and corillon) at the
University of the Philippines at Los Baños (UPLB).

I learnt of the existence of this tree when I was socialising with Filipino friends here in Melbourne and it came up in conversation somehow. Everyone had a cheeky grin on their face as it was discussed in Tagalog and I was left confused until with repressed laughter, the story was explained to me in English.

The Fertility Tree is located at the University of The Philippines in the town of Los Baños, which lies 63 kilometres south-east of Manila. The Fertility Tree grows on the edge of what we’d call an oval (large field) and during the day is the favourite place of joggers, sports players and students looking for some sunshine whilst studying.

But at night, I am told the story is very different.

When the sun has set and most students are asleep, the Fertility Tree is a favourite spot for student couples to meet up for private romance under the protective darkness of its large canopy.

The story goes that many children have been born as a result of this magnificent tree. Such is its reputation that students and alumni from across the seven-campus University of the Philippines system are aware of the magic powers of the Fertility Tree.

With almost universal recognition amongst the Pinoys that I have met, I decided I had to make time to see the Fertility Tree whilst in the Philippines.

I arranged to be driven from Manila to the University of the Philippines at Los Baños (UPLB) one afternoon and was shown where the tree was. The tree is known scientifically as Samanea saman and has a grand canopy.

Being a foreigner at UPLB doesn’t go unnoticed and it is not uncommon for Filipino students to greet overseas visitors with a friendly “Hey Joe!”. Given the purpose of my visit, I was trying to blend in as best as a pale Australian can when walking purposefully to the university’s most infamous tree with a large camera. Needless to say, I took photos of the tree at some distance but resisted the temptation to walk under its canopy. I therefore cannot comment on the rumour that prophylactics are occasionally found there!

After viewing the tree and the surrounds for a little while, I then took a tour of the rest of the UPLB campus before leaving Los Baños for the return trip to Manila before dark.

Having seen the Fertility Tree for myself, the question remains about whether the story of the Fertility Tree is even true? Who knows. Some doubt the likelihood that anyone could do ‘that’ unnoticed at night beneath the tree.

Regardless of the veracity of the story, the Fertility Tree is as much a product of the Filipino sense of humour and psyche as anything else and I am glad that I had the opportunity to see it for myself and experience this small piece of Philippine culture.

Even now that I am back in Australia, the thought of the Fertility Tree brings a smile to my face!

Last weekend, I had cause to leave Melbourne and travel to Wollongong (as I have done previously) along the Hume Highway. This time, I took my digital camera to record some of the highlights. One of those ‘highlights’ (that’s probably not the right word) is a small town called Tarcutta, located near Gundagai between Albury and Goulburn. It is approximately half way between Melbourne and Sydney.

Most of the Hume Highway has been ‘duplicated’ into a freeway that bypasses all the towns and regional centres between Melbourne and Sydney. However there are some sections that have not been completed yet, and Tarcutta is located on one of these stretches.

The Hume Highway just south of Tarcutta

What has caught my eye in this town is the lack of anything really. As The Age Travel Guide poignantly puts it; “It is hard to see Tarcutta as anything more than a stopover place on the Hume Highway between Sydney and Melbourne”. So true, even Australia Post says so. Tarcutta is not much more than a petrol station, a small number of houses and a pub.

However, it is the pub that is of most interest. It is called the Tarcutta Hotel and is the most prosperous-looking establishment in this town of 263 people. Out there in the middle of nowhere is this rather bold-looking, well-maintained pub. I have even found some people who have visited it! Having seen the inside, they say it has a “… fireplace and bar on the first floor and the price is reasonable”. I myself didn’t visit… you know what they say about drinking and driving. But I just had to take a photo of this place.

The Tarcutta Hotel

Still, it has to be said for Tarcutta, that it is not quite devoid of attractions (aside from the Hotel). There is apparently a Truck Drivers’ Memorial in town, and also a speed camera. There was a historic railway station, until that burnt down in 2001. I am not sure there is much else I can say about Tarcutta, really.