You ever go somewhere and feel like you've been transported to another time and place? Or should I say, it reminds you of someplace you've been to before? Perhaps it's because at this time last year I was already in Hong Kong and en route to Japan that it's making me a bit reflective and hence I'm trying to find some familiarity in the places I've seen and felt.

On a whim, I went to have Sunday Brunch at the New Otani Hotel in Little Tokyo at their A Thousand Cranes restaurant. I've seen it before but never ate there and so I took a chance and went in for a try. I was lucky enough to get a seat by the window where looking out, you can gaze upon the view of the garden and pond. They cleverly camouflaged the surroundings to make you feel like you're a zen garden without any reminders of the actual Downtown Los Angeles surrounding it.

If you're wondering about the food, their Sunday Brunch isn't cheap ($25/head) and the selection of food isn't over exaggeratedly impressive but it isn't bad either. I think Sunday Brunch at Sam Choy's is much much better though. It's more of a place that you go for the ambiance and service rather than the fare. Waitresses clad in kimonos with an embroidered crane on their obi reminded me alot of the sukiyaki place I went to in the New Otani Hotel in Akasaka. And although their garden is rated very highly in Zagat's Survey, it doesn't even begin to compare to the Japanese garden at the New Otani Hotel in Akasaka. But it was still worth the time and money spent there.

And then I was lucky enough to also be seated alongside one of the traditional dining rooms. So I snapped this shot of it from my seat. It reminded me of Kyo-ya in Honolulu but not quite as lovely.

What is the magic of traveling and seeing all things old and new in its natural surroudings? And what power smells, sights and sounds have on the human mind. In a split second it can catapult you to another place and time just by the mere memory of a place you've been to, a place you've smelled, touched, heard and saw. Luckily for me, what words I cannot put down on "paper" expressing my feelings at that certain place and time will always be kept up there inside my head and my heart. Unfortunately for you though, what I write here online reveals less than half of what I truly experienced and sensed because some things can never be put into words.

I'm out.