The World Is Yours - Sydney, Panama & Tokyo

Are you ready for a great adventure? Today on The World is Yours! We're headed to three awesome destinations. First, we're off to Sydney, Australia, where we will climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge, overlooking the city, on our way to the famous Sydney Opera House. Then, on to see the Isthmus, the strip of land separating the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, also known as Panama, where we'll hit the waves on two oceans in the same day. And finally, we'll finish our adventure in Tokyo, visiting bustling fish markets, the Imperial Palace, and the oldest Buddhist temple in the city. It's time for another unforgettable adventure. The world is waiting, and the world is yours! Welcome to Sydney, the most populated city of Australia and Oceania. Over 5 million people call Sydney home. Sydney was founded in 1788 by Admiral Arthur Phillip. It was originally founded as a prison colony, when Admiral Phillip landed here with the First British Fleet and 850 convicts. Today, it's the oldest city in the country and the capital of the state of New South Wales. However, it isn't the capital of Australia, as many believe, despite its reputation. The city of Canberra holds that honor. Sydney ranks as one of the 15 most visited cities in the world, and there are many reasons why. First, Sydney has lots of beaches, nearly 70, the most famous of which is Bondi Beach. It surrounds the magnificent 4.5 square mile Natural Harbour, which is the largest in the world. Sydney has many other natural attractions, such as beautiful public gardens, bay islands, and pristine coasts. Sydney welcomes millions of tourists every year to enjoy such attractions as the Botanical Garden, the City Port, the Royal National Park, the Opera House, and many others. Architecturally, Sydney mixes the modern with the traditional. The wonderful Sydney Opera House, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007, looks like a giant origami boat floating quietly on waters of Sydney Harbour. There's no other building like it, and it's one of the emblems of this great city. Surrounded by water, the Harbour District of Darling Harbour offers exciting activities, including a chance to immerse yourself in this underwater world, thanks to Sea Life, home to 700 species of aquatic animals and plants. To enjoy the design and architecture of this beautiful city, there is an impressive panoramic view from the top of the Tower Eye, or the Eye of the Tower of Sydney, which offers a 360-degree view way, way up at a height of 820 feet. You can really get a good view of Sydney in all its splendor. The Port of Sydney is considered one of the most beautiful natural harbours in the world, and with over 150 miles of coastline and winding waterways, there's plenty to explore and discover. Sydney Harbour is a water recreation area for residents and visitors. On warm, sunny days, the harbour displays a vibrant blue colour and is filled with hundreds of sailboats, cruisers and ferries. The vibrant hub of Sydney Harbour is Circular Quay, a ferry terminal located on the edge of Sydney's city centre. From here, ferries leave throughout the day to different parts of the port, connecting the city with the Sydney suburbs. Stretching across the harbour is the impressive Sydney Harbour Bridge, a steel-through arch bridge that connects the central business district with the North Shore across the bay, and it carries rail, vehicular, bicycle and pedestrian traffic between the two areas. The original idea for the bridge dates all the way back to 1815, but for numerous reasons, work wasn't actually started until July 1923. Famous for its distinctive arch and its enormous pylons, which are the massive concrete support posts, the bridge was completed in 1932 and is considered the largest and widest steel arch bridge in the world, but not the longest because it is surpassed in length by the Bayonne Bridge in New York City as well as others in China. It contains about 6 million hand-set rivets, which are short metal bolts that hold it together, and for every paint job, it needs an unbelievable 7,295 gallons of paint! Wow! That's no joke! On each end of the arch of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, there are four enormous concrete pylons covered with a granite facing. Although from the bridge itself you can have spectacular views of the bay and the Opera House, it's possible to climb each of these structures to platforms, which are over 220 feet high, and from here, we're treated to an even more amazing 360-degree view of the entire city! It takes about 30 minutes to walk all the way across the bridge, but more if you stop to take pictures, and I can tell you, you'll probably want to. You can also bike across it. If we want to get way above the traffic, we can make a reservation to climb all the way to the top of the bridge's arch. This climb, known as Bridge Climb, takes three and a half hours, ascending over 1,000 steps to the top, where we can walk along the outer arch of the bridge on the side that faces the Sydney Opera House. It's an experience you won't forget! Sydney is one of the most multicultural cities in the world. More than 250 languages are spoken here, and it's the main destination for immigrants in Australia. It is considered one of the top 10 cities with the best quality of life in the world. We'll be back to visit our next destination, but first, let's test your world knowledge! The answer coming up when we return to We're back! Let's find out the answer to our question. If you guessed B, Panama, you're right! Panama is home to over 900 different species of birds, which is more variety than the United States and Canada put together, and Panama is actually only ranked as the 20th country in the world for the variety of bird species it has. Panama is located in the southeast of Central America. Its official name is the Republic of Panama, and its capital is Panama City. The Panama Canal runs northeast to southwest across the country, and because of Panama's central location, it offers the world a broad platform of maritime, commercial, real estate, and financial services, including the Cologne Free Zone, the largest duty-free zone on the continent, and the second largest in the world. An interesting walk through Panama City would start off in the morning through the Casco Viejo. This section of the city faces Panama Bay. Historic buildings from the colonial era, and from the late 1800s to the early 1900s when the canal was built, show the Panamanian history shared with Spain, France, and the United States. Striking historic buildings like the Church of San Jose, with its famous golden altar ruins from the 16th and 17th centuries, and a moving monument to the 22,000 Frenchmen who died during the construction of the Panama Canal, stand out as unique features of this area, which is called the Old Quarter. There is a museum and an elegant building that once was the headquarters of the French canal builders. Because the Old Quarter is in an elevated area, cooling sea breezes and great views of the ocean and the bay can be enjoyed. Panama City is a multicultural city with a population of more than 1.3 million inhabitants. It is a city of sharp contrasts. Shantytowns filled with rather modest houses stand right next to dazzling skyscrapers and apartment towers in a unique landscape. And interestingly, just 10 minutes from the capital city, you can be in the rainforest. Like Sydney, Panama is a country of beaches, with about 1,500 miles of coastline. There are two coasts. One faces the Caribbean Sea on the north, and the other faces the Pacific Ocean on the south. Panamanians are proud to say that you can see the sun come up on one coast and catch the sunset on the other coast on the same day, because it's only about a 90-minute drive one to the other. White sand beaches and beautiful blue waters are almost everywhere you look. And the beaches offer a great setting for all kinds of water sports, like surfing, windsurfing, kayaking, and others. Crossing the continent of Central America from one end to the other, from the Atlantic to the Pacific by ship, is only possible thanks to this man-made wonder, the Panama Canal. A work of engineering that allows travel between the coasts of the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, the Panama Canal has significantly influenced world trade for more than 100 years. And now, with the recent inauguration of the expanded canal, it offers even greater capacity for ships to transport goods and merchandise. This inner-ocean canal is located on the narrowest point of the narrowest passage connecting the Caribbean Sea, the Atlantic side, and the Pacific Ocean. It was formally inaugurated on August 15, 1914, with the first voyage by the cargo ship SS Ancon. Since its construction, it has provided a shorter, safer, and less expensive route between the east and west. Previously, ships had to travel all the way around the Cape Horn in southern Argentina or through the Magellan Straits in Chile. These trips were long and dangerous for the ships and the sailors themselves. The Panama Canal changed that. The Panama Canal is almost 50 miles long, stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Though we might assume it goes from east to west, it really runs from the northwest to the southwest. Its entrance to the Atlantic is about 31 miles to the north from a bird's-eye view. This canal is without a doubt an incredible work of engineering. Despite its apparent complexity, the operation of the canal is simple thanks to the inventiveness and engineering expertise of its creators. Water is used to raise and lower the boats in each set of locks that form a series of giant pools. In fact, sets of stairs whose steps ascend or descend are filled or emptied with water through large underground aqueducts. This is achieved simply by gravity flow from Gatun Lake. When ships are in transit through the original Panama Canal, which typically takes about nine hours, they are towed from one chamber to another in each set of locks by electric locomotives or mules, while the new and wider canal uses special tugboats. Let's see what it's like for ourselves. The journey begins in the Port of Cristobal through a stretch of more than 6.2 miles in length over Limon Bay. Here, our boat rises up to 87 feet through the three chambers of Gatun Locks. At Gatun Lake, we sail almost 24 miles from the locks to the northern end of the Corte Gallard or Culebra. This is one of the largest artificial water reservoirs in the world. It covers an area of almost 165 square miles. This path, like no other on the trip, shows the Panama Canal as an immense ditch. Before arriving at the next set of locks, this is the highest elevation in the whole canal at 668 feet above sea level. At the Pedro Miguel Locks, our ship descends about 9 meters in a single step to the level of Lake Miraflores that separates the two locks on the Pacific or south side. We cross Lake Miraflores and then we descend the last water steps to the level of the Pacific Ocean through the Miraflores Locks, whose gates are the highest in the entire Panama Canal system. This is because they need to accommodate and handle the large tidal variations on the Pacific Ocean side. And from here, we complete the last stretch from the locks of the Miraflores to the exit of the canal out to the Pacific Ocean. Well, now that we've finished that cool journey, it's time to travel to our next destination. But first, let's test your world knowledge. Which city has the largest fish market in the world? A. La Paz B. Malibu C. Tokyo D. Vigo The answer coming up when we return to The World is Yours. We're back. Let's find out the answer to our question. Which city has the largest fish market in the world? A. La Paz B. Malibu C. Tokyo D. Vigo If you answered C, Tokyo, you're right. Yes, the Tsukiji Market in Tokyo, Japan, is the largest fish market in the world, and perhaps the most famous, too. Nearly 3,000 tons of 455 different species of fish and seafood are sold in this market every day. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, an island country in East Asia located on the Pacific Ocean. Tokyo is the largest metropolitan area in the world with more than 30 million residents. 30 million! Are you ready to see this awesome city? Let's go! With all of these residents, Tokyo is a bustling, busy, almost chaotic place where just watching all the people on the street is itself a tourist attraction. But Tokyo has much, much more to offer visitors. Let's explore. First, we'll cross Nujubashi, an elegant double-arched bridge that leads to the main entrance of the city. After a 10-minute walk, we enter Ginza, famous all over the world for its elegant shops and the multicolored neon glow of its signs and billboards, even more so than Broadway in New York City. Away from the hustle and bustle of Ginza, we cross into the spacious Ueno District, home to Ueno Park, the largest park in the capital. It's filled with numerous and varied museums, and it's a large center for art and culture. To venture into Tokyo's past, there is nothing better than the Asakusa District. Here, the streets are flanked by old houses and stalls that sell traditional items, such as handmade kimonos and combs, weaving between and around the Asakusa Kannon Temple. Also known as the Sensō-ji Temple, it can be reached in many ways, but the typical and undoubtedly most recommended is through the Door of Thunder, or Kemuriman, the outer gate of the temple and authentic symbol of the Asakusa neighborhood and the city of Tokyo. It is one of Tokyo's most colorful and popular temples. The legend states that in the year 628, two brothers fished a statue of Kannon, the Japanese goddess of mercy, out of the nearby Sumida River. And even though they put the statue back into the river, it always returned to them. Consequently, Sensō-ji was built nearby for the goddess of Kannon. The temple was completed in 645, making it Tokyo's oldest temple. This is one of the main things that makes Tokyo so unique. Ancient, magical buildings standing right in the shadows of the colossal Mount Fuji. One must-see destination in Tokyo is the majestic Mount Fuji. Mount Fuji is massive, and it's as impressive as it sounds. Mount Fuji has erupted several times since the first records in the 8th century, but fortunately, not in a very long time. The last eruption occurred about 300 years ago in 1707. Scientists have detected magma movement inside the volcano, so it is considered an active volcano. But there's not much risk that it will actually erupt anytime soon. Since Mount Fuji can be seen from hundreds of miles in all directions, there are many places to admire it. In Tokyo, going to the top of the Bunkyo Civic Center or the Tokyo Skytree Tower provide awesome views of this epic mountain rising behind Tokyo's skyscrapers. We'll be right back with more of Tokyo to explore, but first, let's test your world knowledge. How many entrances and exits are there in the Shinjuku train and subway station in Tokyo? A, 20. B, 85. C, 8. D, more than 200. The answer coming up when we return to The World is Yours. We're back. Let's find out the answer to our question. How many entrances and exits are there in the Shinjuku train and subway station in Tokyo? A, 20. B, 85. C, 8. D, more than 200. If you answered D, more than 200, you're right. The Shinjuku train and subway station in Tokyo has more than 200 entrances and exits. It also has more than 37 train platforms. Wow, all are in one station? It's true. This station serves as the main hub for all rail traffic between central Tokyo and its western suburbs. It's the busiest transportation hub in the world and is even recognized as such by the Guinness Book of World Records. The Imperial Palace in Tokyo is very close to the Shinjuku station and is the official residence of the Japanese Imperial family. It was established in 1868 and is located on the grounds of an ancient castle. Much of it is not open to the public except for the Oriental Gardens of the Imperial Palace or Kokyo Higashigyon. Although the palace was largely destroyed by the bombings of World War II, it was rebuilt in 1968 including traditional architectural and stylistic elements to preserve some of its original features. To wrap up our tour of Tokyo, what better place to go than the Tsukiji Market? Remember, the largest fish market in the world? Here, we'll witness the world-famous tuna auction which is an amazing experience. Travelers from all around the world come to see this auction take place each day between 5 o'clock and 6.15 in the morning. Crowds gather as the seafood vendors sell tons of freshly caught and frozen tuna. Appraisers inspect the fish and evaluate the value and the bidding begins. It is, without a doubt, a unique and unforgettable experience. This concludes today's adventure. We saw the stunning architecture of Sydney, Australia. We crossed the American continent from side to side in Panama. And we entered a world that was built all the way back in the year 645 standing today in modern-day Tokyo, Japan. It was a lot of fun exploring these unforgettable places. There are many more adventures ahead. Until next time, the world is waiting and the world is yours.