I woke up a bit before 8. Everybody else was already up and going. Kozue had taken the day off work, and Kenichi was working from home, so we got to spend some time talking in the morning. Minami had already gone to school, and Yukari was getting ready for work, so we got to say goodbye to her again this morning. After breakfast I turned the laptop on to catch up on a few things, and Kaoru did some more research for things to do for the rest of our trip.
Author Archives: darryl
Sunday May 18, 2025
OK, now for one of our busy days…we were up a bit after 6, to make a start on the day. After a leisurely breakfast and relaxing chat, we started packing things, and I had a walk around the gardens. The rain had stopped and it was a bit warmer.
I drove us to the farmers market, and we said goodbye. Kaoru and I caught a bus to Nasushiobara station, so we could catch the Shinkansen back to Tokyo. We had a bit of time to kill, and saw some gaijin (westerners) so I went up and spoke to them, to ask what they were doing here. We don’t often see westerners in Nasu. They were Americans (Texan’s I think, from the way they said “Y’all” 🙂 ) and were here to do some hiking. Perfect weather and a lovely place for it! I also found a take-out cafe near the station.
The Shinkansen took us to Tokyo station, and we walked around to look for a place to have some lunch. Definitely not going here, if this is how the beers look….
We went to a fish restaurant and had some sushi, and relaxed for a while. We then caught the train back to Kozue and Kenichi’s house. Everybody was home, which meant a big welcome. Then Kenichi took me for a drive in his Mazda Roadster. Luckily the weather was perfect – not raining, but overcast, so not too hot. He took the roof off, which certainly made it easier for me to get down to it! Damn I’m getting old. We went to his local alcohol shop, which I had a good look around. I want to buy one of the big sake bottles but they are more than 2 litres, so I’ll have to do it when Kaoru and I are returning together. We stopped for a beer in the craft brewery next door, which Kenichi had never been in, and I enjoyed a Hakuba Hazy, which was delicious!
We went back to the house, and after a while Mio, Youichi and Arisa came round for a party. So we were celebrating Kaoru’s birthday and also Arisa’s graduation from high school. It was great having all of us together again – I think last time was probably June 2019 when I was jetlagged and a complete zombie after our Europe trip, and I had 24 hours in Tokyo as a layover.
I had brought some beers from Australia to enjoy with Kenichi and Youichi – even Mio joined us for a tasting! They weren’t used to the strong craft beers (we started with a 7% and then had a 9%) but enjoyed them.
We had Hiroshima-yaki for dinner – the Hiroshima style Okonomiyaki. Because Kenichi is from Kansai area, it is what he learnt to make. So he did the first one, and then Arisa made one, and then it was my turn. It’s a lot more involved than the Okonomiyaki we make at home, but enjoyable to do together.
Around 8.30, Yoneda’s caught a taxi home, but not before I got a photo of my 3 Japanese nieces together. Amazing how much they’ve grown up, from the young girls who used to laugh at the guy who spoke funny and they couldn’t understand anything that came out of my mouth (and that was before I had started drinking). Now I can have a conversation with each of them, and while they struggle with vocabulary at times, they certainly do a better job of English than I do of Japanese.
Kenichi and I had a few more drinks while Kaoru had a bath. Then I went in, and after a bit more chatting we called it a night.
Saturday May 17, 2025
We woke up early this morning – well, Kaoru was super early, as expected. I got up about 7, and we all had breakfast. It was raining, and going to be all day, so our plan to paint the deck wasn’t going to happen. After breakfast we sat and talked in the kitchen for some time.
We then went for about a half hour drive to Ottosan’s garden-sensei’s house. They were picking up some vegetables, so we went inside and chatted with him for a while. Then we started the journey home, going via the supermarket for some shopping, and to the soba restaurant which I hadn’t been to for a few years – but I always remember it as the place where the children came once and caught fish, which we then cooked and ate. We have been there several times. I had a curry soba which was nice, but too big! Kaoru had to help me with it.
Back at the house, we had green tea, and started the fire. It was surprising how cold it was today, since yesterday had been so hot! We then all had a sleep for a bit. After waking up we had a snack, and then watched some sumo for a while. I had a bath and then we had a wonderful dinner of meat, sashima, vegetables, prawn, etc. After a bit of chatting around the table, we went in to the lounge and watched the news, and called it a night. Fairly uneventful.
Friday May 16, 2025
I was up before 6.00 local time. It was Kaoru’s birthday and I wanted to wish her Happy Birthday before she went downstairs. She was still fast asleep though, but not for long. She went downstairs, and I came down about 15 minutes later.
Kozue made us some breakfast – a beautiful Japanese breakfast to start my first day. We talked for a while, and then it was time to start the day. We left the house about 8.40, and went to the Toho studio, which was about a 5 minute walk away, to catch up with an old mate…
We hadn’t seen this statue before so that was pretty cool. We then walked back to the station and caught the train to Tokyo and got to Zoff about 2 minutes before it opened. I had an eye test, and it was good to hear my eyes hadn’t changed much in the last 6 months. I then picked another pair of glasses to be made up, as I’m currently using my old ones when I leave the house (if I remember them), and they’re a weaker prescription. So after picking a frame, we were told they would be ready in a week. Kaoru had gone there yesterday and had her eyes tested and bought a couple of pairs herself.
We left there about 10.35 and were off to the Shinkansen station. We stopped to get a bento box on the way (yakitori, sushi (of course) and beef), and then went to the platform, with an “only in Tokyo” experience on the way…
There we met Mio and her friend Tomoko (who I have met on previous trips), and we caught the train to Nasu, enjoying our lunch on the way. Tomoko hired a car from Nasu and the 4 of us drove to Okaasan / Ottosan’s house. The garden was beautiful as always, but especially now in Spring, and they were happy to have us all there.
I had a bit of a snooze, and we chatted for a while, and then went to dinner just before 5. We went to an Italian restaurant which saved anybody cooking / cleaning. I drove Kaoru, Okaasan and Ottosan, and Mio and Tomoko went in the hire car. I enjoyed a alcohol free beer with dinner.
After eating we said goodbye to Mio and Tomoko – they were staying at a hotel in Nasu for the night, and then going home tomorrow, and I drove us back to the house.
Okaasan gave me a present – some sake! 2 local bottles, in a beautiful bag. I had the first bath, and then was allowed to enjoy a beer (I’m not allowed to drink before my bath – Okaasan’s rule), before calling it a night.
Thursday May 15, 2025
5.45 alarm. The things we do. Checked my phone, and I was unsuccessful getting a business class upgrade. So not the best start to the day. I had a shower, some breakfast, and caught an Uber to the airport.
Kaoru had flown to Japan last Friday (9th) and has been with her parents. I’ve been busy with work for the last week. Yesterday was supposed to be an unwind day but lots of problems left me quite stressed – I didn’t even get my suitcase out of the cupboard until after 6.00 last night. But now it was time to focus on some holidaying.
I bumped in to Brett and Naomi at the airport. By coincidence they were off to Vietnam with some friends of theirs on the same day. They were flying a bit later but Brylie drove them to the airport on her way to work so they just got in early and had breakfast there. Since I didn’t have lounge access (flying cattle class and all) I joined them, and had a brekky beer, while waiting for boarding the plane.
We took off a little late – it was probably about 10.00am by the time wheels lifted off. I had managed to sweet talk my way to an exit row so at least I had some extra legroom. I watched a movie, and a few TV shows, had a couple of meals, and tried to sleep as much as I could, and we finally landed about 7.00pm local time (8.00pm Melbourne time). I power-walked off the plane to immigration, passing several people on the way. Once in that line, within a few minutes it had grown exponentially, so I was certainly glad I made the effort. After immigration I collected my suitcase (which had been taken off the carousel already) and waited in the customs line. Then some more power walking, and I made the 7.53 Narita Express train with 3 minutes to spare. If I had missed that I would have had to catch the bus, which is slower, and the next Narita Express isn’t for another hour.
I met Kaoru at Tokyo station, where we walked to the other end (quite a long way – about 15 minutes). It was then about a 40 minute train trip to Seijogakuen-mae. We got off the train and started working out where the lift was, when Yukuri came up to us! She was actually on the same train as us, coming home from work. So we headed up out of the station, where Kenichi was waiting in the car. We then waited another 10 minutes or so, for Minami to get back from school, and the 5 of us drove home. This was now about 10.00pm local time.
Once at the house we met Kozue and went inside. I had never been to this house before, and it was beautiful. We had some food and beer and chatted for a bit, and then I had a bath and called it a night. Kozue and Kenichi gave us their room, which had 2 massive single beds in it, so larger than king size! It had been a long day so I wasn’t up for long.
Wednesday October 23, 2024
I woke up before Kaoru (for a change), and had to wake her at 5.45. We put on our yukata’s and raced upstairs to the bath to watch the sunrise. Unfortunately once we got there, it was cloudy, and even a little bit of rain. We were lucky though – there was a gap in the clouds and we got to watch the sun rise through that.
We were both pretty tired, so after our bath, we went back to sleep, and then got up around 7.30 for breakfast. Once again, an all-you-can-eat smorgasbord, with “tamago gohan” (raw egg rice) to cap it off. We were quite full after that, so returned to our room and went for showers. There aren’t showers in the room – we had to go to the public bath, and use the “pre-bath” showers.
We packed what little we had at the hotel (most of our stuff was back at Okaasan and Ottosan’s house), checked out, and made our way to the house, around 9.00. There we had some tea and chatted for a while, leaving the house around 11.15 to go for lunch. Ottosan was happy for me to be driving us all, although we did make a wrong turn, since navigation was coming from Okaasan in the back seat, through Kaoru, to me. Kaoru was getting stressed but I just said no problem.
My last *real* meal in Japan was tempura-don. The tempura sauce on the rice made it delicious! So we had a great last lunch together. Then it was in to Kurioso, to the pharmacy to by some tissues. The (good) Japanese ones are coated in lanoline, so whilst I don’t like to use daily, when you have a cold they are the bees knees! I had room for 3 boxes in my suitcase, and they sold a 3-pack, so made for it. It was then just a short drive to the station, where we said goodbye. Ottosan was happy with my driving and said any time we come I can use his car. So an international driving license is on my preparation list from now on. He had to pay about $40 for one month to have me a nominated driver on his insurance, but it was well worth it as Kaoru doesn’t trust his driving.
The train from Kurioso was just leaving as we got to the gate. But we had planned for the one after so it was no problem – we went in to the waiting area and packed the tissues into my second suitcase, and passed the time until our train came to take us to Nasushiobara; there we waited for about half an hour for our Shinkansen to Tokyo. It is such a nice way to travel!
Once we arrived at Tokyo station, we got some money out from the bank. Today was the best day exchange rate for the whole trip! 101.5yen to the dollar! So Kaoru withdrew $1000 worth from my account, and also from hers. It’s always a gamble with exchange rates, but I figure it’s not going to get much better, but will get worse, so we may as well use cash, and put leftover money into Kaoru’s bank account.
After buying my Narita Express ticket, we still had some time to kill, so went in to a coffee shop to have a (last) iced mocca latte, and a piece of cake. We headed downstairs to the Narita Express track about 10 minutes early. As expected the train ran on time, to take me to the airport.
Check in was easy, and I had dinner in the lounge. Boarding was smooth (love business class checking in!). I went to sleep after some dinner.
Flight was uneventful. Melbourne immigration is a disgrace. It wasn’t any better than when I travelled in August last year. Very few kiosks, a slow process, and no direction of where to go. For example, once you’ve been to a kiosk, you don’t need to go through the “ePassport holders” line further up, as that just funnels you to kiosks. With a few kiosks down, and a few flights coming in, at 1 minute per person and I reckon maybe 15 operational kiosks, it’s going to be slow.
Customs was easy – they took one look at the piece of paper Kaoru had prepared documenting what was in the suitcase, looked at me, believed it and sent me through the green lane! I was expecting him to say “too hard” and put me through the red lane for them to look at it. So that was my one win.
This trip was no where near as hectic as our last trip to Japan; the weather was much better (cooler); we got to see Mai (for the first time in Japan!), Kenichi, Yukari, Minami, Mio, Mikiko and Yoshi, Okaasan and Ottosan, plus Kaoru’s friends from our wedding. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see Kozue this trip (Kaoru is going to her house now for the night), Youichi or Arisa. I drove for the first time (unless you include Mario Kart, in which case it’s the second time). No bad hangovers, or late night parties. We did more craft breweries than we’ve done on other trips, and enjoyed that, as well as a few Oktoberfests. A few new areas of Tokyo, and also the usual haunts.
Tuesday October 22, 2024
Kaoru woke up early this morning, to have a bath – which I knew would happen. What I didn’t know is the view she was going to be treated with for sunrise!
I had a case of bath envy when I got up, so went to the bath on the other side of the hotel (mountain-side), and was treated with a different view.
We met downstairs for breakfast. This was a proper Japanese breakfast, so we had much more variety than at Toyoko-Inn. It took me a few trips to get through everything. We finished breakfast off with a raw egg, mixed in some soy sauce and bonito flakes, poured on rice.
We were quite full by the time we left. We returned to our room to get dressed, and then drove to Okaasan and Ottosan’s house. We had a cuppa and an apple, and then it was time to take Okaasan to her singing group. So I drove us there – Ottosan was very happy being a passenger! After dropping Okaasan off, Kaoru, Ottosan and I went to a temple to pray. It was the same one we went to on New Years Day many years ago.
Then back in the car, and we drove to the farm, to get some soft serve. We also bought some to bring home, and went back to the house. Kaoru and her father talked for a while – I wandered around the property, and had a bit of a doze. It’s always so peaceful and relaxing here.
For anybody who we have tried to describe a wet room to; you can see the shower and bath in here.
Kaoru and I picked Okaasan up from singing around 12.00. She then took us round the back where there were a couple of people doing Kyudo – Japanese archery. This is something Kaoru used to do as a child. It was interesting seeing the size of the bows, and the focus used to prepare for every shot.
Then it was back to the house for lunch – Okaasan had prepared Japanese Curry already, so it was just a matter of heating it up. Delicious! It’s nice not having to think about where and what to eat for every meal. And knowing that we are getting lots of vegies in too!
Otoosan had a nap, while Kaoru and I re-packed our suitcases. The intention is to not to have to open them tomorrow. I’m going home with 2, and want to leave Kaoru’s as empty as possible for anything more she may want to buy.
We then all had a chat in the lounge, and watched some TV, until 3.00 when it was time for a snack and hot drink. I also installed Teamviewer on Ottosan’s computer – it had crashed since I was here last and set everything up, and Kenichi had to factory reset it. After that, Kaoru and I returned to the hotel to have a bath. It was a lot busier today. There was even a young boy in there with his father (maybe 8 or 9?). I used the inside (public) bath this time, and it was noticeably hotter than the outside one I had used yesterday. Once the outside one was empty, I moved out there, and it was much more comfortable. The cool air really helped. I had a shave, which was great with the nice soft skin after my bath.
I knew Kaoru would still be a while, so I had a go on the massage chair downstairs. It wasn’t anything fantastic, but killed some time. Kaoru arrived quite soon, which was a surprise. I must have been in the bath longer than I had thought! We went to our room to get dressed, and came back downstairs at 5.00 for “welcome snack”. We were about 5 minutes past 5, and it was much busier than yesterday!
After our snack, we hopped in the car to return to the house for dinner. Okaasan had made Sukiyaki (at my request). By coincidence, Youichi’s parent had just sent some Kobe Beef to Okaasan and Ottosan (they regularly send seasonal food back and forth, because their areas are so different).
We couldn’t quite finish the second plate of meat – although we had a good crack! It’s so nice, with the raw egg.
We chatted for a while, and then returned to the hotel, in time for 7.00 dessert, 8.00 “all you can drink”, and 9.30 “private bath”. For a relaxing few days, it’s still quite busy! We didn’t get to dessert until 7.30, but it went until 8 so that was fine. It was quite busy, and the same creme brule as yesterday. We tried out the massage chair for 5 minutes or so, and then got a seat at the bar before it opened – because the place was looking busy, we thought it would fill up quick! Once they started service, I started with a Riku whisky, which was a bit harsh at first, but once it had warmed up, it smoothed out nicely. I followed that up with a grape sour, and then a beer to finish the day.
At 9.30 we went to our bath, using the same one as last night. There was a very light rain as we got in the water, but that was fine. It made things a little bit cooler so I could stay out there longer. However I was getting tired, so we only stayed in for 15 minutes or so, before calling it a night.
Monday October 21, 2024
I’m not going to miss this bed! The pillow is flat and the bed quite hard. I woke up about 7.30 again. We needed to get going, so after our last breakfast at the hotel, we returned to the room, had a shower, and re-organised some packing to make things easier. Luckily we were still able to keep my second (smaller) suitcase in my main suitcase. So we checked out, with two suitcases, my laptop bag, and Kaoru’s big black bag (holding our clothes for the next couple of days).
We caught the train to Tokyo station. Kaoru went do do some quick shopping while I stayed with the bags. Then we went through to get on the Shinkansen. We didn’t have a reserved seat, and particularly with our bags, we wanted to be there early, so were a good 10 minutes before the train arrived. 10.07 they were still cleaning the train – I said to Kaoru that there is no way this train can leave on time, at 10.11. But somehow, the doors opened, everybody got on, and we left right on time.
It took about an hour to Nasushiobara. The train to Kurioso was running 10 minutes late, but eventually we got there. It was then about a 10 minute walk with our bags to the chinese restaurant, where Okasan and Ottosan were having lunch. So we joined them for some food, and then played tetris trying to get our bags into the car.
Eventually we managed to get it all in, and the doors closed. I had gotten my international drivers license, so I drove us back to the house. My first time driving in Japan (other than Mario Kart, of course). Pretty easy – especially as it’s the same side of the road. Ottosan was surprised at how careful I was to not go over the speed limit. Kaoru explained how strict the penalties, and low the tolerance is, in Australia.
We got to the house, and brought our suitcases in, and went for a cup of tea and some treats. This trip we are staying at a hotel, rather than at the house. During the year, Okasan and Ottosan sold a part of their land, including one of the houses, so there isn’t room for us to stay anymore. I will be driving the car, so it means no beer with the inlaws this time!
We showed them photos of our house and chatted for a while. About 3.00 we decided to go to the hotel and check in, to give Okasan and Ottosan some rest time. It was about a 10 minute drive. Once we parked, somebody came down to the car park to grab our bags and assist with checking in. We were offered a herbal tea while doing the checkin process, and we had to pick a time for our “private bath”. Knowing that it was free drinks from 8-10, and that we were going to have dinner with Okasan and Ottosan, we booked for 9.30 both nights. We were taken to our room, and left to relax a while. It was much bigger than we’ve had the last week!
We decided that we may as well have an onsen. The public one is closed at times, but was open now, so let’s kill some time. There were separate mens and womens ones, so I took the key as I would probably be finished first. It was nice and relaxing to soak in the warm water.
There was a “welcome food” at 5.00, so we decided to hang around to attend that – it was already 4.45 so why not. It wasn’t much – just a small sample plate. Kaoru also enjoyed a glass of lemon sour, but I couldn’t as I was driving. So we left about 5.10 to go back to the house for dinner.
Dinner was, as always, a big spread. Okasan’s Gyoza is Kaoru’s favourite so she had made that.
We chatted for a while, and left to return to the hotel a bit after 7. We were able to enjoy “complimentary dessert”, which was a creme brule and (small spoonful of) ice cream. We returned to our room to relax for a bit, before going to the bar at 8.00 for “all you can drink” until 10.00. This was included in the room price! So I tasted a hot sake, and a cold sake, before leaving just after 9. We returned to the room for a little bit, and then went to our “private bath” at 9.30. This was on the 6th floor, and outside. It was a beautiful way to finish the day.
Sunday October 20, 2024
I’m really looking forward to a sleep in the countryside without traffic outside the window! We were up before 8 and having breakfast. Showers afterwards, and we were ready to hit the road.
A real cool change has hit. Yesterday was 31. The day before was mid 20’s. Today’s forecast was 20 degrees. I walked out the room and second guessed shorts and a t-shirt, and grabbed my long sleeve T around my waist…just in case. I’m glad I did, as it cooled down in the afternoon!
We made our way towards Tokyo Skytree. We did the “tight arse” option and walked instead of catching the second train. Kaoru went to the “Koban” (police station) and asked for directions. We could see Tokyo Sky tree (our destination), and the officer kept wanting her to go a particular direction. She asked about taking the “back streets”. He kept making it sound like it was difficult. But ultimately we went the the back streets anyway. And crossing the street and river was a piece of piss. So we have no idea what he was concerned about.
At Tokyo tower we had a bit of time to kill, before making our way to the 6th floor, and meeting Kayoko, Michiro and their son Sorta – we met them in Akita last year (and Kayoko came to our wedding in Japan), but they have moved to Chiba now, so today was about catching up with them. After a short wait, Jun (another friend, who also came to our wedding) turned up, and the restaurant opened at 11. We enjoyed lunch together – most of the conversation was in Japanese but I had a few conversations in English, and also attempted Japanese; sometimes me speaking Japanese and them speaking in English. It was good practice for me.
After lunch we wandered around the shops at the skytree for a bit. This included seeing a “food sample” store, where children could create their own “plastic” food. And the “World Beer Museum”, but we didn’t get to stop in there.
We then started going upstairs, and found the Chiba University of Technology display, with robots that they had engineered. It was an interesting exhibition, and included a full scale version of an anime “transformer” character, in one of its intermediate phases. I have no idea who this character is, but Michiyo told me that he used to watch this Anime as a child. and now it was up to version 6 (season 6? Movie 6? I didn’t quite get that bit).
Then it was in to the “Post Office Museum”, for a walk around. Surprisingly, this was a paid exhibition, but about 300yen per person. So we paid and had a walk around. It was interesting to see the history of mail, and also a video of how the sorting in a post office works.
After killing half an hour or so in there, we left, and met up with another of Kaoru’s friends (I’ve forgotten her name), who was also at our wedding. Kaoru has met up with her on other visits to Japan, but I have not seen her since. Again, she spoke English, so we could communicate a bit while we were walking, but I wanted Kaoru to spend as much time as possible with her friends so I just stood back and tried reading and interpreting signs.
We were heading for a place to stop for a sit-down and drink. We were looking in a shop at possibly getting an ice cream or something, and before buying, we went outside to look for a seat. And what did we find?
So in we all went. It was all German-style beers, so no craft breweries inside, but the atmosphere was great. We managed to find a table for the 7 of us, and I got a tasting paddle from one of the places. We sat and enjoyed being out in the sun for a while, but quite suddenly it got cool, and I had to put my long sleeve T on. Kaoru’s friend (the last to arrive) had to go, and not long after we went inside for a bit more of a wander. Jun left after a bit, and eventually we decided to make tracks.
The 5 of us remaining caught a train, but after one stop, Miyako, Mitchiyo and Sorta got off, so we said our goodbyes. Kaoru and I had a bit of a doze on the train, as we made our way to Shibuya, and then changed trains for Daikanyama station. There, we got off the train, and made our way to Spring Valley brewery. This was quite an interesting area. The gap between the train and the platform was noticable. Kaoru mentioned that this was an “up-market” town, although it didn’t have the appearance of that at all. When we got to the brewery, we were surprised to find that it was actually a “Hop Festival”. So we had to pay 3,500 yen ($35) each to get in, which included 7 tickets, each being for one drink or food.
We sat and enjoyed ourselves for a while, until they announced that last drinks was in 10 minutes, and we hadn’t used many of our tickets. They hadn’t said when we entered that it was only a 2 hour session, and half an hour in by the time we had arrived. So the enjoyable atmosphere turned in to feeling very rushed, which was a shame. We ended up having 5 food platters, and 9 tasters, and I walked out with one in my hand.
We weren’t full (other than me being full of beer), so wanted some more food. So we made our way back to Shinagawa and went to the supermarket above the train station, knowing bento boxes would be on special. I bought a sushimi platter that was 40% off (from about $15), and Kaoru bought shumai and another assorted platter. I also bought a bottle of sake for tonight, and one to take to Nasu (not knowing what we would have available to us at our next accommodation), and dessert.
We ate food while watching TV, and planned a bit of tomorrow. We had an early night in the end, which was probably good for us – probably 10.30 lights out.
Saturday October 19, 2024
Kaoru finished the washing in the middle of the night. We then woke up a bit before 8.00, and had breakfast. We didn’t have any plans for starting the day, so after a shower, we went to Shinagawa for a cuppa. We ended up at Tulley’s, where I had an iced ginger. At 10.30 we walked back to the station and said goodbye, as Kaoru was off to visit her friends for lunch. I went back to the room, and had a bit of a rest, before heading back to Shinagawa station. I met up with Mai at 12.00. We recognized each other immediately.
Our first destination was a meat show in Shinagawa. Kaoru and I had noticed it when we were out at our cuppa this morning. So we walked around it, but were too busy talking to really look at anything. So about half an hour later we were back at the station, and went in for “Stand Up Sushi”. We had to wait about 10 minutes to get in, but eventually it was our turn, so we took a stand and got in to it. We ordered one by one, but saw somebody order 8 or 9 all at once. Maybe that’s the better way to do it. But then the rest in between each helps justify a longer time there.
After sushi we caught the train to Ropongi, and walked to our planned destination – Teamlabs Borderless. Mai had already booked tickets, which was lucky as Mum and Dad missed out when they were in Japan 3 months ago, and we have spoken to a few other people who have said it was hard for them too. We had a 3.00 entrance which was a good time, so we found out. Too many photos to upload from here. It was quite an experience, but impossible to describe. Lots of rooms with different visual light shows.
Once we had finished, we went to a tap room I had seen on our way. Mai had never been to a tap room, so I was obliged to introduce her to one. Their tasting paddle was for set beers, which was a shame as I didn’t like the looks of them, so I picked a beer for myself and one for Mai. Both were quite nice, although Mai preferred my higher IBU one which was interesting. The place was interesting – being in Ropongi it was tailored to non-Japanese people, so seemed to be owned and operated by Americans.
We then made our way to Tsukishima, where we met up with Kaoru at the station. We went to Monjayaki (or Monja) for dinner, which is something Mai has only had once or twice before (because where she comes from they have Okonomiyaki, so not Monjayaki). Tsukishima has a street that is famous for Monja, so we walked down there and found a place to eat. After about 10 minutes, Mai’s cousin joined us – Mai is staying with her cousin tonight so we invited her to come out for dinner. Her English is very good so it was easy to have a conversation.
After dinner we felt like one more drink, so we caught the train to Yurakucho – Mai’s cousin (Rika) had booked a table for us at a bar so we went in there for a cocktail. It was a very posh place. I had a dark rum chocolate drink, which I think was just dark rum on ice, with a thin slice of chocolate on top. It was quite nice.
We then said goodbye – Mai and Rika were able to walk back to Rika’s house, and Kaoru and I caught the train home. We went to a convenience store on the way (in Yurakucho) but it was so small and didn’t have any sake!!!! So we caught the train back to Shinagawa, and instead of going in to the 7-11, we just went to the New Days in the station. Their sake selection wasn’t as good, but we found dessert to keep us happy.
That’s right – I ended up with cup sake. But my cake was nice.
Friday October 18, 2024
I’m getting better at sleeping in. It’s definitely a trade-off of waking up early to do things, and enjoying some relaxing time on holiday. And also getting to breakfast when it’s not too busy. We went downstairs at 8.00, and there was quite a crowd. We managed to get a couple of seats though.
I had a shower and did teeth. We didn’t really have a plan for today, other than to just wing it. We did think we were going to catch a few JR trains, so bought a one day pass. And off to our first destination, which was at Yurakuchou station. We went to the “Art Aquarium Museum”. It was about $25 to get in, and we didn’t really know what to expect. It was quite amazing, seeing lots of different types of goldfish, in different types of environments.
After about an hour of looking around, we headed out and walked around the department store the exhibition is in. Then down to the streets of Ginza – the fashion area of Tokyo, which basically means anything we’re going to buy is going to cost a heap more. Kaoru wanted some Anpan (anko bread), and there was a particular place that she wanted to eat at; but the wait was 5 people, and we didn’t want to wait that long. So we just bought take-away, and I had a cream cheese pan.
Then it was off to the Nissan Love Story Exhibition, at Nissan Crossing. Over the two floors there were a few cars – one concept car, one “for sale” car, and two “vintage” cars, on display. We had a look around and took some photos. There was a sign advertising that the doors open on the concept car every 30 minutes, for 10 minutes, so we had to make sure we were around for that. The inside made it look pretty uncomfortable for driving!
It was then time for a more substantial lunch. Kaoru remembered an Unagi restaurant she had been to with Mio before, which wasn’t too far away, so we wandered around until we found that. It was beautiful unagi (eel). A bit expensive, as we’re overdue for a “cheaper” day, but I do love unagi.
We then made our way around Ginza Uniqlo for some more shopping. Then a brief stop at a Starbucks, on our way to “I Brew beer”. They had about 30 taps, ~70% of their own beer and 30% imported. I had a tasting paddle, so sampled 3 of their hazy beers. All were very nice. It was amazing to imagine them having all of these beers in such a small space. I started a conversation with one of the staff (which Kaoru then had to translate most of, but I made an effort), and found out that they have 15 litre kegs, and when one is empty in the night, that’s it until the next day.
Then we went to the train station, and caught a train back to Yurakuchou, to visit Tokyo Aleworks Taproom. This was just their taproom – the brewery was elsewhere, but they only had their own beers. I got to talking to the man behind the bar – initially trying to talk in Japanese (when Kaoru wasn’t around) and then found out he was Canadian so preferred English! This made it much easier to find out about the craft culture in Japan. He believed that it was growing before the pandemic, but that killed things. It has been growing again over the last few years, but he thinks it has plateaued.
Another (foreigner) couple walked in while I was chatting to the guy, so they were relieved to be able to order drinks in English. Kaoru and I chatted to them while enjoying a couple of beers – she was a kiwi working on Naroo, and he used to live in the UK but sounded more Aussie.
Eventually we left, and went to our hotel to drop off our shopping (Kaoru also bought some food at the station stall to take to work when she gets home) and then back to the station, to Ooimachi. We wanted to have a look at the hotel Mikiko and Yoshi stayed at, as another option for when we come to Tokyo. And then we went to a shabu shabu restaurant, as that was something else I wanted while I was here. Kaoru wasn’t sure because it was warm, and shabu shabu is more of a winter meal. But she had looked up a chain store and took us there. They had various options of all you can eat (and an extra $15 for all you can drink) for 2 hours – but we didn’t think we would need that much food, so just ordered a few other set meals (their best beef one, and a pork one), knowing we could always order an extra platter if we needed to.
It turned out to be plenty of food, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. A few drinks to go with it, dessert included, and still under $70!
We had a wander around their local supermarket, and bought dessert from there. Then it was back to the station, and return to Shinagawa. It was a planned washing day, but unfortunately somebody was using the machine, so Kaoru planned to do it when she wakes up in the middle of the night.
Thursday October 17, 2024
So much for good nights sleep. There must have been an accident at the station work site across the road during the night, as I lost count of how many ambulances we heard stopping during the night. I woke up around 7 and was still quite tired. But we decided to start the day.
I checked emails while Kaoru had a shower, and had a work problem to deal with. Luckily that wasn’t too bad. We went downstairs for breakfast, and came back up to get ready for the day.
We started the day with coffee at the walkway above Shinagawa station. They had a coffee shot which Kaoru enjoyed. I had a lemonade, which was a refreshing start to the day. We wandered around the grocery store up there, looking at all the yummy food for sale, and also compared the prices for whisky (it wasn’t as good as other places we’ve seen). But it killed some time, before making our way to Ebisu.
The multiple travelators from the station were great! We were in no rush so just rode them, looking outside along the way. We then wandered around the shops, having a good look at a camping shop, and a DIY shop, to see the types of things available in Japan. We then went up the Ebisu Garden Place tower to have a look over the city. It was beautiful, and we could see for miles!
We then headed downstairs to Lawry’s restaurant, where we were having lunch with Mio. I came here many years ago for dinner with the Yoneda’s, but don’t really remember it that well. For lunch you could pick how much beef you wanted (65g, 130g, 3x65g) and it included the salad and dessert bar. So the girls had 65g and I had 130g. We started with the salad bar, and eventually the guy came over with the beef, which he cut to our liking (medium rare, or medium). Apparently he is so good that he doesn’t need to measure the meat – he knows he is giving you the right amount, and just does a single cut. Meaning mine was a bit thicker (I wouldn’t have said twice as thick though).
After lunch we said goodbye to Mio, and Kaoru and I headed to Yebisu Tap Room. Ebisu is one of the few places where the product came before the town. So Yebisu beer started there (in the late 1800’s), and the train line was built to distribute the beer, and the town built around it. As for the difference in name (Yebisu beer, and the town Ebisu), we can only theorise that there is no Japanese Ye sound. Anyway, I enjoyed a tasting paddle of their beers.
A combination of sleepless night, the warm room for lunch, and the beer had left me a bit tired. So I went back to the hotel, while Kaoru went to Shibuya to do some shopping. After about an hours sleep I got in touch with Kaoru and made my way to Shibuya to meet up with her. I managed to take the wrong exit and end up at the wrong end of town in Shibuya, but it was still enjoyable. I eventually found the Shibuya Scramble (which was crazy-busy – at 5.45 on a Thursday afternoon) and found Kaoru outside the Starbucks. We went to the Nintendo store to have a look around, and then made our way to dinner. Tonight we wanted to try a “yokocho” – Japanese food alley. There is a new place which tries to imitate the traditional yokocho, but cater to the westerners, so we gave that a go. There were stores from all different areas of Japan, and you could take your pick. But none of this was in English, so for foreigners, it was lucky dip. We picked a place tailored to food from Hokaido, and I ordered a number of dishes, and some beers to wash it down. The people on the table next to us had two drinks delivered each, and we made a comment about “efficiency”, which started a conversation with them. They were from New Zealand and had never had a “sour” before, so were enjoying them immensely!
After dinner we walk past a real “yokocho” and could see most of them were full (ie 4 or 5 people) of westerners. We headed back to Shibuya station.
and made our way to Shinagawa. Once there we went to a food court above the station, which served American beers, so I had a nice hazy to finish the day. After stopping at the shops above the station (since we were there anyway….), we returned to our hotel room, and I decided to have a bath, some sake, and call it a day.
Wednesday October 16, 2024
7.30 this morning! I’m in holiday mode! I didn’t even wake up during the night until after the outside light was turned off. We had a rough plan for today, but didn’t finalise things until breakfast time – and even then, we changed it as we went.
After shower, breakfast, and teeth, we bought a one-day ticket for JR – it was going to be cheaper for what we had in mind today. We caught the train to Harajuku, and took a while to get our bearings when we got off. It was a new station!
Kaoru was suffering withdrawal from “good” coffee. Whilst she’s not a big coffee drinker, she does enjoy Melbourne coffee, and has not had a decent one since we got here – even though we’ve paid AU$5+ for cups. So we tried a new place at the station. And we were on a winner! I had an iced macha latte, which was nice, but they are all much the same (apart from the Starbucks ones, which have whipped cream).
After making use of the facilities, we went to Meiji Jingu shrine, talking about how busy it is these days. When Kaoru took me there on our first date there were very few other people. We joked how, bac then, I was able to take a photograph of a young Japanese girl in her kimono. These days the locals wouldn’t want to, because every body would stop to take a photograph, and they would never get to where they are trying to get to! Whereas the mother was thrilled to have a gaijin photograph her daughter 13 years ago.
Once we had prayed, Kaoru bought a token from the shrine for Arisa – it is one for good luck in studies, as Arisa has exams next week. We completed our walk around Meiji Jingu, and then did our trek down Takeshita street, veering off at the crepe stand to go to Togo shrine. It actually wasn’t “fully” open. We were still able to pray but most of the stalls were closed. We completed our walk around Togo shrine, and back down Takeshita street to Harijuku station.
Next it was off to Akihabara.
Whilst there is no real need to go there, I still feel like I have to. Before going to Electric City though, we found a place for a massage. I had a great 30 minute massage on my feet, and then 30 minutes “all over”. I was feeling sore from walking and having shoes on all day. So this was well worth the $60. We had some takoyaki for lunch, and then walked around Akihabara.
Back at the station, we caught the train to Shinjuku, to go to Bic Camera. We wanted to check the price of various duty free alcohol. While waiting to cross the road we were greeted with an amazing digital art sign in 3D.
We looked at the duty free prices at Bic Camera, but then found it was cheaper to buy the alcohol I wanted on Amazon Prime (which Kozue can do). So we made our way back to the station, and caught the 4.00 train to Fujisawa. Our plan was to go to “our restaurant” – the one we have been going to since we were dating. We arrived at 5.00 (opening time). Kaoru walked in first, and then me. The usual lady wasn’t working there, but the guy who was usually helping out, and the owner were there. When Kaoru said “Hunter”, he responded “Aaah, Darryl Hunter!” and remembered us. And that’s why we keep coming back. Unfortunately they were very quiet, so we are hoping they don’t go out of business.
We ate a lot of food, a couple of beers, Sake, and a Kaoru had a couple of mixed drinks, so it was a very enjoyable evening. We then went to Kaoru’s old local supermarket, as that is always cheaper than Tokyo. I found a bottle of “The Nikka” – my favourite whisky. I had looked and hadn’t been able to find it anywhere else, and I remember from previous trips that this was the cheapest place I had ever seen it (usually ~$70). Now it was up to $90, and not in the impressive box it used to come in, but it went in the basket anyway. As did plenty of other food!
We had to wait about 10 minutes for the train back to Shinagawa, but luckily it wasn’t too busy so we managed to get a seat. About 35 minutes later we had arrived at Shinagawa, and walked back to our hotel to drop off the shopping. Then it was back to the supermarket next door for dessert, which we ate in our room while watching Japanese TV.
Tuesday October 15, 2024
I slept in until after 7! What a good sleep! Although I woke up at one point, and thought it seemed to early to be daylight. I looked at my watch and it was 12.15. The light directly outside our window is bright! Each floor of the hotel has 2 king sized rooms (one at each end), and we have one of those. But for some reason, there is a light shining upwards directly below our window.
After breakfast downstairs, and doing our teeth, we headed out for the day. We bought a one day travel pass as that was most appropriate for our plans. We started by going to a station near Asakusa, where Kaoru is registered. She needed to go there in order to prove she doesn’t live in Japan – something which is needed for her to be able to buy things duty free and take back to Australia. It’s not as simple as for most countries where a stamp in your passport proves you have left.
We then travelled one stop to Asakusa, and did a walk through there to the shrine and back. We hadn’t been to pray yet this trip. We couldn’t believe how crowded it was for a Tuesday – lots of tourists but also Japanese people.
Back at the station we travelled to the Ginza area for a sushi lunch. Kaoru ordered a don bouri, and I had a sushi platter.
It was absolutely delicious, and great watching the sushi chef making it in front of us. I think the owner is retiring, as he stood up and welcomed everybody who came in, but somebody else was making all the food, and (presumably) his wife was serving drinks / miso soup / clearing the tables / etc.
Then it was a short walk to our next adventure – Kabuki. Kabuki is traditional Japanese theatre, and something I had been thinking for a while would be interesting to see. We had booked the tickets earlier in the morning. The matinee session had 3 performances, and you can buy “good” seats for all 3, or “cheap” seats for just one – but these are on the 4th level. That was good enough for us, so we had bought tickets to the second and third sessions. Of course there were no photos allowed during the show.
I also paid the extra 1,000 yen for the English translation, which meant I had a tablet which translated the performance. It unfortunately meant I was looking at the screen too much and missed part of the show, but certainly helped with my understanding of it. The first performance (so second show) was more of the “traditional” version – dominated by a song, with short sentences used now and then. This was enjoyable, but not overly entertaining. But the final show was more of a caper comedy and extremely entertaining. It was set in the 1100’s (or thereabouts). It was quite amusing because when I could read the translation, I was reading jokes before the actors had said them. So I would have a laugh to myself, and then a bit later the audience would laugh!
After the show Kaoru decided she wanted a parfait. So we went to a place in Ginza which she knew of.
I really have no idea how Japanese people manage to stay so thin with things like this being served regularly!
We went back to our hotel, and I had a bit of a snooze. I had fallen asleep briefly before the Kabuki, and Kaoru had dozed a bit during the it! So I wanted to rest up before the evening. About 5.20 we headed out, and caught the bus to Ni no machi to go to a soba restaurant, where we met up with Mikiko and Yoshi. We had a fantastic meal and great conversation, especially reflecting on my first trip to Japan and our experiences there – when I first met Mikiko, and then Kaoru (and they both met each other then, too).
After dinner we said our goodbyes, and caught the bus back to Shinagawa. Kaoru did a load of washing while we watched some TV.
Monday October 14, 2024
We woke up a bit more refreshed today. Breakfast wasn’t as busy downstairs, even though it’s a public holiday. We’re expecting people to be travelling back to their home towns today.
After some kanji study, and a casual morning, we left for todays adventures. We caught the train to Tokyo Station, arriving around 9.30. We had some time to kill until the Zoff (glasses) shop opened. So wandered around the food court area 🙂
Kaoru did an eye test to have some glasses made up, as it was a shop that came recommended by her work colleagues. I had a look at some of the frames, and ended up chatting to another older man who was in to get his glasses adjusted; and said how popular this shop was. I ended up getting my eyes tested there too, to get some new glasses. They went stronger by one point on one eye, and two points on the other eye. In the end, Kaoru bought 3 pairs (including prescription sunglasses) and I bought one pair, all for < $350! Kaoru needs to wait for hers to be ready, but mine will be ready later in the day.
Once we had finished, I had to haul arse, to catch the train to Gaienmae station, which involved a change on the way. Easy peasy. Kaoru stayed in Tokyo, but my plans (as of yesterday) were to catch up with Kenichi again, and go to Oktoberfest. So we met at the station, and it was then about 15 minutes to walk to the venue.
It was really enjoyable. There was a stage where a german band were playing, and we had several beers. Lyn had sent some jerky with me, so I decided it would be a good place to share that with Kenichi – it went very well with the beer! We also ordered some lamb, and sausages, to eat to keep us going.
It was quite a hot day, so drinking out in the sun was quite warm. Luckily after our first round we managed to find a seat undercover. But around 4.00 we were ready to call it quits, so made our way to Shinjuku, where we met up with Kaoru. She had enjoyed an afternoon shopping by herself.
Once we met up, we made our way to a ramen festival in Shinjuku. There was a marketing person there giving tastings of various beers, that they sell in a “kegerator”. But nothing of the level we are used to. The bottles (of beer) that they sell are probably 1.25 litre bottles, so not much in each – for 4000 yen! Very expensive. But they had about 150 different beers, so must have a good range. We tasted a couple of their IPA’s which were nice.
We then queued up for (different) ramen’s, and met up to enjoy eating them together, as well as another drink to go with it. It was quite a small serve though, so we were all still a bit hungry. Kenichi had a suggestion of a good ramen place to go to, so we wandered back through Shinjuku to eat some more. It was nice, but I couldn’t finish mine. Kaoru was happy to lend a hand, as always!
After dinner we made our way to Shinjuku station, and said goodbye to Kenichi. Kaoru and I got the train to Shinagawa, and went to the convenience store on the other side of the train tracks. It was empty, so much more enjoyable than 2 nights ago! At the station, we found Japan had taken vending machines to a whole new level – they are no longer just for “drink now” or “eat now”….
We came back to our hotel room, watched some TV, and had an early night, enjoying some sake and desserts.
Sunday October 13, 2024
I didn’t sleep too well. Woke up several times. Apparently there was an earthquake during the night, which Kaoru felt but I slept right through it. I got up about 6.00 (Kaoru was already awake), had a shower and we went downstairs for breakfast.
At Toyoko Inn, breakfast is included. It’s a serve-yourself-buffet – pretty basic foods, but it hit the spot, and fueled us for the morning.
Back in the room I got an eSim set up on Kaoru’s phone, so we both always have internet. Then we went to the bank as we had gotten cash in Australia some time ago when the exchange rate was looking good (it has since gotten better, but you never know). In Shinagawa we stopped for a cuppa – I had an iced match latte and Kauro had a coffee.
We then caught the train to Shibuya, and changed to get to Futako Tamagawa. This is where I used to catch the bus to from the airport, when I went straight to Mio’s. Our original plan was to have lunch with Mio, Arisa, Kenichi, Kozue, Yukari and Minami. Unfortunately Kozue recently caught covid, and Mio couldn’t make it, so it was just Kenichi, Yukari, Minami, Kaoru and I. We ate at a fantastic soba restaurant, with a set course meal that was amazing.
We started at 11.30 and didn’t finish until about 2.00, so were well fed! The girls english has come a long way and most of the meal was speaking in English to help them practice.
After lunch Kaoru and I went to Uniqlo to do some duty free clothes shopping. We then went to Starbucks where Yukari was working, and ordered a drink.
Our original evening plan was to go to a dance festival that was on – this is a long weekend in Japan. But luckily Kaoru looked it up and found that it finished at 6. So we found another festival to go to, which wasn’t very exciting but there were a number of stalls around. Unfortunately no craft beef ones. We had some yakitori to keep us going, and then caught a train to Oimachi and had dinner at an izakaya that specialised in tongue.
It was great to start with, but then some people started smoking, which was a shame. Originally we were there with no smokers – we could smell a faint smell of smoke but thought that may have been from in the past. But unfortunately not. It was certainly better than it used to be though, with some people smoking e-cigarettes which aren’t as bad.
We went back to the hotel after dinner and checked in to our new room. This was a king sized room – still very small, but certainly better than our last room. And is where we will be staying for the rest of our Tokyo part. We went to the supermarket next door to buy some treats (Sake / chocolate / ice cream / noodles), and had an early night as it had been a long day, watching some TV in bed.
Saturday October 12, 2024
A bit of a sleepless night. I had been sick for the previous 2 weeks, so at least I wasn’t coughing. But I’m always paranoid about oversleeping on the early morning starts.
6.15 the alarm went off. A shower and banana, final packing, and Kaoru and I were in the car just after 7. We left the car at the Inflatable World warehouse and caught a $25 uber to the airport. Check in was a breeze, as was immigration, and in no time we were sitting at a cafe eating breakfast.
The plane was about half an hour+ late to take off, but eventually we were on our way to Tokyo. A couple of movies, a bit of a sleep, and we had arrived at Narita.
The longest part at Narita was waiting for our bag to get off the plane. The immigration system was very quick, helped by the Visit Japan Web website (giving me a QR code). A Rapid train to Tokyo took us about 90 minutes, and then a Yamanote train to Shinagawa, and short walk to the familiar Toyoko Inn.
After check in (which had our wifi hotspot waiting for us) we went back to the convenience store at Shinagawa Prince for our customary snacks. It was probably about 11.30 by the time we got to bed.
Sunday September 24, 2023
A rude awakening. The fire alarm in the hotel went off a bit after 7 this morning. So we got up and dressed and awaited instructions. After 5 minutes or so we were told to evacuate, and less than a minute later (by the time we had gotten to the stairs) we were told it’s a false alarm. Well, that got the adrenaline going for the morning.
We had a shower, and I ate a banana to keep me going. And then we went to the Haig Park Village Market for a bit more breakfast and a wander. We sat at a table to eat, and returned to the hotel for teeth, and a final pack. We checked out and hit the road just after 9.30, for the long trip home.
Our first stop was at Holbrook. We got there about 12.15. We stopped at the sub to use the toilets, and had a look in the visitor information centre. We then ordered some lunch from the cafe, which unfortunately took a long time to prepare, so it was about an hour later that we finally got back in the car. We then stopped at the National Pottery Museum of Australia, and did a (paid) tour of that, looking at pottery created by early convicts, up to things created more recently. Some of the glazing was just amazing.
About 1.50 we were back on the road, and got to the servo near Euroa to fill up on petrol, and have a bit of a leg stretch / toilet break. Then back in the car for the final stretch, and we got home about 6.00. 1,500kms, and lots of things seen. It was certainly a nice holiday.
Saturday September 23, 2023
After a shower, we had left over pizza and donut for breakfast, and some juice. We then hopped in the car and drove to the Capital Region Farmers Market. It was in an undercover shed, with parts outside, including a jazzy band which was really enjoyable to listen to. We bought a chocolate croissant and a rhubarb tart, and put it in our bag for later. We also bought a tub of honey.
We then made our way over to the botanic gardens to check them out. We got a 1 hour parking ticket, so did the “main track” walk, which was said to be 30 minutes. It took us a while longer as we took it at a nice, leisurely place. At the end I had a hot chocolate, and Kaoru had a coffee.
We then drove over to the mint, and had a wander around there. Because it was a Saturday, it wasn’t “operational”, so there was nothing to see through the viewing windows, but it was still interesting to walk around and read a bit of the history of money in Australia. There were also some videos of the machines in operation. We bought the vegemite 100 year coin set, for $33 – hopefully that becomes a collectors item in the future.
It was getting to lunch time, so we drove to Parliament House, and had a picnic out the front; we got a parking spot in the 1hr zone down the bottom (away from the crowd), pulled out the picnic rug, and enjoyed our pastries from the market, and some water. It was quite hot out in the sun, and I had to put some suncream on! But it was nice laying down in the sun and relaxing for a while.
We packed the car and drove over to the Glass Factory. This was fantastic. “Artists” pay to make their own creations, so it’s luck of the draw on whether you see anything happening or not. We took a seat and watched a few people making their creations, and remembered back to our glass-making experience in Japan some 7 years ago. They do have a 1:1 45 minute lesson to make a tumbler, for $180! I think we paid about $30 in Japan to do it. There are also workshops / courses, but they are also quite expensive.
We drove back to the hotel and had a short lay down to recharge.
Friday September 22, 2023
After waking up, and a quick shower, we wandered around to find somewhere for breakfast. I had a benedict, which was nice, but a bit too much ham. We then returned to the hotel to do our teeth and plan the day.
We drove to the National Gallery and parked the car. We then enjoyed a nice walk along the lake to the library; despite it being cold it was quite nice in the sun. We had 20 minutes to kill, and then did an 11.00 tour of the library. It was great! Especially going in some “behind the scenes” areas, and seeing an old “archive” room which had a couple of old computers, a card catalog, and other old relics. We stayed for a while afterwards to look around the reading room.
We walked back to the National Gallery to have some lunch. Then we walked around the National Gallery to check it out. The contemporary art area was pretty dull – I’ll never understand how something which I could put together could be called “art”. But then looking at some 100+ year old oil paintings were amazing.
We got the car out of the carpark, and drove to Parliament House. We found a 1 hr free parking zone, so took that and walked around Parliament House. We went in to the House of Representatives, and the Senate, rooms, amongst other areas. We also caught lift to the roof and had a walk around the top, looking back to the War Memorial. There were some beautiful views. We also found a room which had a lego model of parliament house, which was extremely fascinating!
We got back in the car, and went for a drive out to Lake George. It was about 35km, and worth a look. We bought some donuts for a late 3-sies on our way back to the hotel. Then it was off to the pub for a beer, before italian for dinner. We couldn’t eat all of the pizza and pasta we bought, so took half the pizza back to the hotel room to eat for breakfast tomorrow, and went to the supermarket to buy some juice to go with it.
Thursday September 21, 2023
We started the day with no alarm which was nice. After a shower, we found a place for breakfast. Eggs, holandaise sauce on crumbed potato, brussel sprouts, carrot…interesting take on a benedict.
We went back to the hotel to do our teeth, and then made our way in to Floriade. We had seen a shuttle bus but we ended up just walking – it only took 20 minutes or so. We walked around for a couple of hours, taking photos and looking at all the tulips and flowers. We saw a bit of Lake Burley Griffin as well, so walked around the outside and back for a short distance. We had some lunch and a beer inside Floriade, which was just some dumplings – not our best choice :).
I was feeling a bit tired, so went back to the hotel for a brief siesta. Then we drove in to the war memorial. We didn’t have a booking, but were still able to go in. We totally lost track of time looking at the exhibitions inside – they started closing on us! So we had to cut the end of our tour short.
We then went for a drive up to the lookout and I had a hot chocolate. We then drove to the Black Mountain lookout (the Telstra Tower) and had a look from there, although couldn’t see as much from that one. So we then made it back to the hotel.
For dinner we went to Akiba. It was a much better meal, although we probably had too much. We asked for the “Feed Me” special, for $60 each. At the start it was a really nice pace with small serves, but then they came out with a few dishes at once, including rice, and we got quite full and couldn’t finish everything.
We came back to the hotel, watched some TV and went to bed.
Wednesday September 20, 2023
We woke up this morning, got ready, and hit the road about 8.50.
Our first “rest” was at Glenrowan. We arrived ~11.30 for lunch, and also met up with Ants there to drop the ladder they left at our place on the weekend.
Back on the road, we crossed in to NSW, and stopped at the famous Ettamogah pub. Last time we were there, we weren’t able to get in as it was closed down. This time we were able to have a wander around, and a drink. It was a good time for another rest.
Back in the car, and we drove pretty much straight through to Canberra, arriving at our hotel just before 5.00. We checked in to our room, which was quite large. I caught up on work emails from the day (naturally some thing had happened today, which could have happened over the last week or so).
We wandered around the area to find somewhere for dinner. There seemed to be a lot of asian-style foods (and people). We went to a place which looked quite nice from the outside – with an upstairs balcony. But the meal was all deep fried, and fatty. We were both feeling pretty bloated. So we walked around for 45 minutes or so, to get our bearings. We went in to the supermarket and bought some juice and water, and some noodles to have some different food.
Back at the hotel we watched some TV and called it a night.
Friday August 18, 2023 – Home
The flight was uneventful. I had a pretty nice breakfast, I must admit – in Business class. I didn’t get a lot of sleep, despite the flat bed. It’s still too narrow my legs (I like to spread them out more). Melbourne airport was a shambles coming back in – somehow they haven’t got a good system to feed people to the e-gate ticket machines. But eventually I got through, got my bag, and was home by 9.30am
Thursday August 17, 2023 – Shinagawa to Home
We had a bit of a sleep in, and went downstairs for breakfast about 8.30. The included breakfast wasn’t as good here as it was at the Toyoko Inn in Hirosaki, but the price was right. After some food, we went back to our room, got our bags packed, and checked out. Then it was off to the train station, to Shibuya.
We put my suitcase in a locker at the station. Then, Arisa had told Kaoru about Shibuya Sky – but tickets were sold out. We went there anyway to check it out, and we at least got to see the view from the 14th floor. The cafe’s / shops didn’t open until 10.00 so we had to wait 10 minutes or so. After a walk around we went in to the cafe and I had a Macha G&T, and we took some photos of Shibuya Scramble. There were noticably less people than in the past. I also spotted a few groups of Mario Karters, which was interesting as I had heard they were no longer doing that. Obviously it was back on.
We walked around the 14th, 13th, 12th and 11th floors. But they all only showed views out the same side. Not sure what’s out the other side, but you have to pay to see it!
We went back down to street level, and walked up to Don Quiote – basically to pass some time, and it’s always fun to have a look around there. Then it was back to the station, got my suitcase and then made a 12.10 train to Sakura-Shinmachi, and the 25 minute walk to Mio’s house.
It was (obviously) quite warm, so I wasn’t going to hug anybody when I saw them. I had a quick shower and put on a clean shirt, and then came and gave everybody a proper greeting. Mio had a beer out for me almost immediately. We exchanged some presents, and after not too long, our lunch arrived. Mio had organised some food, rather than us all going out. Being a Thursday, Youichi was home (his day off work), and being school holidays, Arisa was home. So I did some English talking with Arisa to give her some good practice, and she showed us the things she is learning.
Kozue and Minami came over after lunch. Kenichi was in Israel for work, and had taken Yukari to give her an experience. So we didn’t get to see them. Kozue and Minami stayed for about 10 minutes, which was a shame as it would have been nice to spend more time with them.
Mio opened a bottle of scotch whisky, but it was really too hot for it. So I only had the one (which she had poured while I was on the toilet) and then washed it down with another beer. I got my bag all packed, and at 5.00, we all (except Arisa) went to Haneda airport to drop me off. We met up with Michael and Leila at check in, so they got to say a quick hello to Mio and Youichi. I checked in, and then we said our farewells to Kaoru, Mio and Youichi, and went through immigration. I walked around for a while with Michael and Leila, and did a small amount of duty free shopping, and then went in to the Sakura (JAL) lounge. Unfortunately my Qantas guest passes didn’t work for the Sakura lounge – only Qantas lounges – so I couldn’t get Michael and Leila in this time. I had some Japanese Curry for dinner, and a few beers, and boarded the plane about 8.30.
Wednesday August 16, 2023 – Nasu to Shinagawa
Always a sad day when we know we have to leave. I woke up about 6.30 and went to the main house, where everybody was already awake (of course). After breakfast, Kaoru and I checked Otosan’s email and finished setting up his google account, knowing we could now recover the password should he ever lose it. We did our teeth and a final pack, and then passed time in the main house, watching TV. The typhoon had brought lots of water / flooding with it.
The taxi arrived about 9.25, and we were at Kuroiso station before 10. A 10.20 train to Nasushiobara, and then 11.05 shinkansen to Shinagawa. At Shinagawa station we managed to find the elusive vending machine, with the peach flavoured drink in it. It’s a special being done by JR East at the moment, and the drink is only available from certain vending machines. We had found one in Nasushiobara, but they had sold out. But this one in Shinagawa station was stocked, so we both bought one to drink. Over-rated, but that’s marketing!
We took our bags to the hotel, and I filled up my camel back for the day. We then went to a good sushi place for lunch – it was the best I had had on this trip (it would want to be at $50/head). But as it was Kaoru’s and My time, it was worth spending a bit more money to enjoy our holiday together. We actually had to wait outside for 15-20 minutes for a table, as the place was so busy and popular.
After lunch, we got a train to Harijuku, and walked up Takeshita street – which was as busy as ever – turning off at the familiar crepe stall to go to Togu shrine (where we had our shinto ceremony) for our customary visit and pray. We also went to Uniqlo so I could buy some Airism shirts (and also a couple of T-shirts). Then it was off to Meiji Jingu shrine – our other regular shrine as it was the first place Kaoru took me. Then we went back to Shinagawa, and a bit of a wander around the station, before checking in to our hotel.
We went to our room, and I walked in to the bathroom to empty what was left in my camelback – there was a disgusting smell in there. So Kaoru went back down to reception to tell them, and we got moved to a different room. We settled in to the room, and it was getting time for dinner. Our plan was to meet up with Andrew and his wife for dinner, but unfortunately he had to cancel due to being in call (as a result of the floods from the typhoon). So we had a date night! We went across the other side of Shinagawa, and off to a Korean BBQ restaurant for dinner. We had some delicious meat, and because it was too meaty for Kaoru, I got quite a bit extra. And she had some noodles. And of course a couple of beers to make the meal complete.
We made our way back to the hotel, but looked in the supermarket above the station. I found some hoppy beers there and bought a couple, plus some sake. But they didn’t have much in the way of desserts, so we went back to our hotel via the supermarket next door. There we found an eclair, and I also bought some meiji chocolate. We went back to the hotel, showered and ate our desserts while watching some TV.
Tuesday August 15, 2023 – Nasu
REST DAY! Absolutely nothing to do today!
I didn’t sleep too well last night. I think from the long siesta during the day. But it didn’t matter as there was nothing that needed doing today. So I was up at the house before 7, and we had breakfast. Not long after, the heavens opened on us, with quite heavy rain. That killed the internet – one of the things with living in the country! Breakfast was a good 45 minute affair, and then I did my teeth and grabbed my laptop so we could look at some photos of Kaoru’s and my adventures over the last few years. Since it was raining quite heavily, it was a good way to pass some time.
Eventually there was a break in the rain. Okasan and Otosan are planning on selling the original house. They’ve been keeping it so when family visit, they would have their own place to stay. But it hasn’t really been used lately, so not worth the extra maintenance work. So Kaoru and I a couple of the dressers up to the new house.
It was then lunch time. After lunch it was time for a siesta – but I was careful not to sleep too long this time! I came back up and had a look at Otosan’s computer. I wanted to add my email address as a secondary email address, and also backup his documents. But to do so required a 6 hour wait by Google before they sent the link. Really throws a spanner in the works, as that’ll be night time. I got the files backed up to Google Drive though.
Then Kaoru and I went for a short walk around the block. We bumped in to Mrs Shitoh and said goodbye to her. I then cracked a beer, and did the always-sad-job of packing the suitcase.
I had a bath to relax a bit, and then we had dinner. After dinner it was the end of the Obon, and we had farewell the spirits with the okuri-bi ceremony. After lighting the fire, we did the “3 times over the fire”, but this time going out of the house. Then ring the bell, and pray.
We went back to the house and Kaoru had a bath, while I showed Okasan and Otosan the remaining photos from our Japan trip (of all the festivals). When Kaoru was done we went to our house to watch TV. We left the windows open overnight as it was cool, and fell asleep to the trickling of the stream. We just had a fan blowing air in the room – I didn’t need an air conditioner!
Monday August 14, 2023 – Nasu
REST DAY! Absolutely nothing to do today!
I woke up a bit after 6.00 and came to the upper house. Kaoru was already there, and Okasan and Otosan were doing their morning exercises. We then had breakfast which consisted of eggplant in miso, miso soup, cucumber, rice and various extras. After breakfast I set up to get some work done, and Okasan and Otosan went out to a ceremony, as it had been a year since a friend of their’s had passed away.
Kaoru and I had a go at straightening the rug – Otosan had said that he wanted it done while we were there, as it required lifting the heavy table. We couldn’t do much, as the rug had stretched in different ways, so there was going to be some bunching up somewhere. But we did the best we could. I did some work.
I cooked lunch for all of us when Okasan and Otosan came home – Okonomiyaki. Okasan made the batter – she swears that it must have taco (octopus) in it. We also had some miso prawns Mio had sent, so needless to say, we were quite full. That means time for a siesta!
After a good rest I came back upstairs and had a couple of the craft beers Mio had sent, while getting a little bit of work done. We then showed Otosan how to use Google Docs. He has been keeping a diary for a couple of years now, and it’s all saved as Word documents. I’m worried about their (old) computer dying and losing it all, and he was quite keen on “the cloud” when Leila was showing some photos the other day. So we went through how its done. His memory isn’t the best, so it took a few times to show him, but he was quite proud of himself when he was able to easily add a picture to a document.
We had dinner, with some wine and beer. I had a shower, and then Kaoru had a bath while I talked a bit with Okasan and Otosan, and enjoyed another beer. Then Kaoru and I went down to “our house” and watched some TV.
Sunday August 13, 2023 – Kuroiso to Nasu
We had a later start today. The plan was to get a take-away breakfast from the bakery next door to the cafe we had breakfast at yesterday. But as we saw the line build so early, we knew we had to get there early. We had seen that they only allow 8 people in the store at a time, and we make half of that! So while Michael and Leila checked out, I rushed ahead and held a place in line. They were only a couple of minutes behind me, so it wasn’t a probem, but another minute later there were 4 people behind us, and 10 minutes later there would have been about 15 people behind us! So lucky we got there early! We bought some food from there, including some to take to Nasu.
We then said goodbye to Michael and Leila who went to Tokyo, and Kaoru and I went back to the hotel, to do our teeth and check out. We caught a bus at 10.15 from across the road from the hotel (convenient), back to the safari park. Traffic was building already, and the 15 minute bus trip took at least 35 minutes. We started the walk to the bus stop. We saw Kaoru’s parents car – they were in the traffic coming down to get us so we didn’t have to walk so far. It meant they were in the really heavy line, and must have been in it for a long time. Luckily where we met them, there was a shop on the right hand side of the road (to them) so Otosan could pull in to there, and easily turn around to take us back to the house. That was an easy run as we were against the traffic now. We got to the house and relaxed for a while before lunch. We had cold noodles for lunch – a much simpler meal than yesterdays! After lunch we all had a bit of a sleep. Kaoru and I have the bed in the old main house. So after an hour or so I came back up to the house, where Kaoru was working on her computer. I got mine out and started some things. In Japan, it seems people die in the bath after drinking….so I was encouraged to have an early bath. I did that, and then put on a Jinbei – a type of summer yukata. Being loose, it’s supposed to be cooler than the clothes I was wearing.
Because it was the start of the Obon, it was time for an omukae-bi ceremony. At the front door of the old main house, we lit a small fire, from which we lit incense, and then walked once over the fire towards the door, once back, and once again over, in to the house, and then at the mini-temple we put the incense down, rang the bell and prayed. This is to welcome the spirits of the ancestors to come to the house and visit us for the Obon holiday.
It was then time for dinner. Okasan and I had a beer, and Kaoru and Otosan had some red wine Mio had sent. I had a glass of red as well, as it was a good Australian Shiraz. Dinner was yukitori, with lots of vegies, and some beautiful meat that Mio had sent down. After dinner I showed Okasan and Otosan the video I had taken of Kaoru being interpreter for the Mayor of Hobson’s Bay, and the President of the Hobsons Bay International Friendship Association, while Kaoru had a bath. Then it was time to call it a night.
Saturday August 12, 2023 – Kuroiso
We met at 7.45 to get to the cafe by 8.00 for breakfast. Because it’s the only one in town, Kaoru thought it may be busy so we should get there early. We easily got a table, but again, 15 minutes later and we wouldn’t have. We could see people lining up outside as we ate. We could also see a line forming at the bakery next door – and that was before the place even opened! After breakfast we went back to the hotel, packed our suitcases and caught a taxi at 10.00 to Okasan and Otosan’s house in Nasu. Whilst Kaoru and I were going to be going back to Kuroiso for the night, we were moving to Nasu tomorrow – so to make things easier we brought our suit cases in the taxi, and we can catch a bus tomorrow. The traffic wasn’t bad at all, which was good as it was the start of Obon weekend. It took us about half an hour to get there. Kaoru’s parents were happy to see us. Everything was so green! And whilst it was warm, it was cooler than we had experienced the last week or so. We went straight inside, where we were greeted with a table of food – some fried chicken, and then Okasan cooked some “cheese in gyoza wrappers” (something Kaoru does for our parties sometimes). Mio had sent some beers to the house, so Michael, Leila and I went through them.
We had a walk around the garden. Okasan showed us the rose I gave Kaoru for valentines day some 11 years ago – she had planted it in the garden. Then took a cutting, so has a couple of rose bushes there. And also gave a cutting to another friend! So it was a good one! Then the 4 of us went for a walk. We only got as far as the Shito-san’s house on the corner. They were outside, so showed us around their garden. We had seen them on previuos trips – Mrs Shito-san played the flute for us. And she remembered us all (hard to forget the 4 aussies who keep coming back!). We spent probably 45 minutes there, before moving along for our walk, but as it was after 12.30 we made it a shorter walk. We then returned to the house for some lunch and more beer.
We posed outside for our usual photo out the front of the house. Then Otosan drove us to the safari park, and we walked about 5 minutes down the road to the bus stop. We got off a few stops down the road – at the cheese factory. After a walk around there, we ordered afternoon tea, and then walked back to the bus stop to catch the next bus to Kuroiso. We didn’t have to wait too long, which was lucky as there was quite a bit of traffic so everything will be running late. We went back to our rooms and I had a sleep, with the plan to meet at 6.45. Kaoru found that the ramen restaurant we were thinking of going to closed at 7, so we left at 6.30 instead as we were all ready. However they were sold out of ramen! Luckily we had seen a soba place closer to the station so we went to that. They close at 8, and were able to fit us in. So we had our last meal together, enjoying some beer and a sake tasting paddle each (Kaoru just had a yuzu sake). During dinner we had heard a hanabi (fireworks) and could see them above a building. As we left the restaurant we could hear music – so we followed the sound to see what was going on. It was a bonodori festival – at the primary school. The temporary structure they had put in was amazing – absolutely massive. They were playing live music, and kids dancing around in a (massive) circle. Kaoru explained to us that she used to do this, but the music was regional, so she didn’t know the songs they were playing and dancing to. We couldn’t eat anything as we were full, but I watched an enormous batch of hiroshimayaki being made.
We then went back to the hotel. We were all pretty tired so no dessert / drinks tonight. We watched some TV, had a shower, and went to bed.
Friday August 11, 2023 – Hirosaki to Kuroiso
We met for breakfast in the hotel at 7.45. It was inclusive, so we wanted to have it at least one day! Nothing fantastic, but a nice Japanese breakfast anyway. We got our bags packed and checked out about 8.45, leaving our suitcases in their capable hands. We then caught a local bus to the Starbucks. The reason for this is that it’s in a tangible cultural property – so in a historic building. We were just going to have a look inside but Kaoru loved it so much that we stopped and had a drink (I had an iced macha latte). We then made our way to Taishou Roman Tea Room, which was in another historical building and faced a beautiful japanese garden. They sell apple pies from a number of the different apple pie stores in town, so it let us experience a range of types, instead of just one. We ordered 6 and shared them between the 4 of us, as well as drink, and just passed the time, relaxing.
When our hour at the tea room was up (they put limits on – the place was empty when we arrived, but full by the time we left!), we went to the Hirosaki castle grounds and had a walk around there. It was a nice walk, and I was getting a bit acclimitised as I wasn’t struggling too much with it. We exited the grounds and got on a local bus.
Our next stop was the rainbow fish market (again), for an early lunch – we got there about 11.30, and had until 12.20. Kaoru organised to send some local seafood to Mio, and I walked around and got us both some food to eat. I also had a banana smoothie to finish off. We bought some food for later, and then walked back to the hotel to get our bags, and then over to the train station.
The train we caught was a “theme train” (Resort Shirakami) to Shin-Aomori. Each of the 4 carriages had a different theme. The front carriage was very open, and you could see the driver doing his thing, and had a fantastic view out the front window. The second carriage was booths, so a group of 6 people could easily sit around a table. The third carriage had a bar in it, with some stools so you could face outside and watch the scenery go by. Our carriage was the same as the front carriage (but facing the other direction, so we couldn’t realy see much). But our seats had much more legroom than a normal train – probably as much as a green car on a shinkansen. It’s a pity we were only going one stop on it, but we were definitely glad Kaoru managed to book this last night.
After a 25 minute wait and wander, we got on the shinkansen to Sendai. I had some work issues to deal with, but it was complicated by the fact that we were in tunnels a lot of the way so I had no internet. What should have taken a few minutes took most of the trip! We had another half hour or so stop, before catching our next train to Nasushiobara. This was on the same line as the train we were already on, but unfortunately the other train is a super-super fast one and doesn’t stop at Nasushiobara, so we had to use a super-fast one instead. We had another 30 minute wait at Nasushiobara, where I bought some salmon and cheese jerky. Sounded good at the time, but wasn’t anything fantastic. Hopefully will be better with beer later. We then got our local train to Kuroiso station, at which point we walked the 5-10 minutes to our hotel – the only hotel in town, apparently!
Kaoru had worded us up that this hotel would probably be the shabbiest of all of them. In actual fact, it was a nice, quaint place. There were only 6 rooms on each floor. The keys were old school, and we had to remember to lock the door whenever we went out. We had 2 single beds in the room, but there was still a bit of space in there to move around. So we dropped our bags in our room, and then went out to dinner. Kuroiso is a very quiet town, and there wasn’t much happening. So we ended up at an Italian restaurant. We got a table outside, and within 15 minute the place was chockers, so lucky we arrived when we did! I tried ordering as much as I could but still needed some help from Kaoru – we all shared a pizza, and then ordered our own mains.
After dinner we went to the supermarket for a browse. Leila and I kept ending up in the alcohol section (I found apple Jim Beam!), while Michael and Kaoru were enjoying looking at all the food. We made our purchases just before the store was closing – about 8.45 – and went back to the hotel. Michael and Leila came back to our room to eat desserts, and have a few drinks. Michael did a load of washing so kept an eye on that. After a shower I went to bed.
Thursday August 10, 2023 – Hirosaki
I woke up this morning before the alarm – which was set for 5.55. We had planned to meet Michael and Leila downstairs at 6.25, for a 6.39 train. We got there early to fill my camel back with ice and water….but the ice machine was “making ice” – it wasn’t ready yet! This would be a long day without cold water. So I went across to the Art Hotel (where we had spent the first 2 nights), and used their ice machine. I filled my camelback, and the two thermoses. Then had to go back to our hotel to put water in, as Art Hotel doesn’t have water with the ice. And then back to the station (which is between the two stations). There, I topped up my Suica (because it was down to 13 yen after yesterday’s travelling), and we went through (but using our JR passes) and got on the train. We were still 10+ minutes early, but the train was there, and it was filling up, so lucky we were so early.
It was about a 40 minute ride to Aomori. We had a light breakfast and juice on the way (which we had bought last night from the 7-11). Once we arrived, we went to the local fish market. They have a “ticket” system, whereby you buy a bunch of tickets (2000 yen for 12), and can get a bowl of rice for 1 ticket, and then various fish for 1 or 2 tickets – depending on the size and quality. So we walked around getting various foods to eat with our rice. What a way to start the day! We then waited for 20 minutes or so, for our 9.00 bus for Oirase Gorge. This was about a 2 hour bus trip (again, on the JR pass). The driver stopped a coule of times for photos and also a couple of times for toilet breaks. We arrived at our destination about 11.00, where we picked up the e-bikes Kaoru had organised the previous night. After a (very short) briefing, we got on the road.
It was a beautiful ride up the road, along the stream. We stopped to look at a few waterfalls along the way. Whilst it had been extremely hot when we boarded the bus in Aomori, it wasn’t too bad here, with all the greenery around. It was still hot – but not as bad as it could have been. And we were all very happy to have the electric assisted bikes! I also dipped my hat in the water a couple of times to cool myself down. The water was not icy cold like you would expect in an alpine area. It was almost warm. But it was wet, so still nice. At the end of the rice, we reached Inokuchi. It was a massive lake, which has a ferry on it. At one stage we were going to catch the ferry, but that got a bit difficult, so we returned our bikes, and had about 15 minutes until our bus arrived to take us back to Aomori.
The trip back took us down the road we had just riden up, and then all the way back where we had originally come from. We all had various times of sleeping on the way, as it had been such a long day. We finally pulled in to Aomori just before 5.00. We made our way to the A-Factory, which is the Aomori Apple Brewing factory. There was a gift shop there, and they also brew ciders for tasting. There were a number of food outlets too, so I had an apple burger, which had a big chunk of apple in it! The picture showed a few slices but this was about a 1.5cm thick slice. A very nice burger indeed, washed down with a beer. I then tasted 4 of their ciders. The factory was right on the waterfront, and there was even a beach to get to the water. It was really beautiful…until we saw the sign that said no swimming. What the???
We made our way to a stand up sake bar for a drink, becaes we thought that would be a novelty. Unfortunately it closed earlier than it had advertised, so we missed out on that. Instead we made our way back to the station, and did the 40 minute train trip back to Hirosaki.
It was about 7.50, and the JR office was still open. So Kaoru went in and got our tickets for tomorrow’s first train trip. The office closed at 8, so we were lucky to get that done today. We dropped things in our room, and then felt like some dinner so went to an Izakaya near the hotel. I did all of the ordering – we just needed Kaoru to explain a couple of the things on the menu. But at least I was able to give her voice a bit of a rest. Although we were all tired, we still did our usual Family Mart stop for some sake and dessert. We had a shower, set the alarm, and went to bed.
Wednesday August 9, 2023 – Hirosaki
The hotel we had spent the last couple of nights at included a free breakfast. We were supposed to have it yesterday (as Monday night was the expensive night – due to the festival) but Kaoru had asked if we could change, and they agreed. So we had an absolutely massive breakfast to start the day! They had all sorts of Japanese and Western foods – even ice cream that you could scoop yourself! So we got our moneys worth.
We checked out at 10.00, and asked them to keep our bags. And then we caught a local bus out to Inakadate, to see their rice art. We paid 300 yen each to go up a tower and look out over the rice paddys which had art in them. The colours were done with different types of rice. It was absolutely amazing. However it was also the hottest day we had had, and all of us were struggling a bit. Even Kaoru had a sweat going! So out in the open sun looking at the field was hot stuff – and we were on a tight timeline, as we caught a (free) shuttle to another viewing area to see some more rice art, and also rock art. We had a bit more time at this place, and then caught a train back to Hirosaki.
We went to Mister Donut for an (early) lunch. They now do some pastas, and I had a fried rice. We moved our bags from the hotel we had been staying at, to the one we were to spend our next couple of nights. Basically, it was a cheaper hotel, hence the move. We still couldn’t check in, but at least it was one job out of the way.
We caught a 1.10 local bus to our next destination, which was Iwakiyama Shrine. This took about 45 minutes, and is a shrine at the bottom of Mount Iwaki, which is a mini-Mt Fuji. Because of its location, it’s considered a very powerful shrine. We were hoping it would be a bit cooler in the mountains, but we reckon it was actually hotter! At the bottom we bought an ear of sweet corn, as that’s soemthing famous. It was nice, but nothing to write home about. We then made our way to the top to pray. Rather than the usual cleansing place at shrines, this had a large area, and people were pouring water on their arms. I took full advantage of that, and drenched my hat and neck cooler. The icey cold water was so lovely! We made our way back down, and caught the bus back to Hirosaki. If we had missed that one, the next was in 90 minutes, so we had to keep track of the time!
In Hirosaki we checked in to our hotel. Kaoru is now a member of this hotel chain, so we could check in from 3, but non-members can’t check in until 4 (membership costs, but the discounts made it worthwhile for Kaoru, but not for Michael and Leila). So we had to wait about 20 minutes before going up to the room, where I went straight in a cold shower for 5 minutes to bring my core temperature down. It was heaven! A bit of a lay down to kill some time, and then we met Michael and Leila downstairs at 5.45. They wanted to treat Kaoru to a night off, so researched and found a nice restaurant and bar (for pre-drinks). We ended up meeting in the hall, as we were neighbours, and started walking to the first destination, which was a place called “Asylum”. It was quite difficult to find, and was a “500 yen” bar – any drink you wanted was 500 yen. Beer / wine / whisky / etc. We walked in, and nobody was at the bar, and it was quite warm inside (no air conditioning). So we decided to walk out and go to plan B. This was a bar called “Bar Grandpa”, and was nice and cool, and quite a funky little bar. We had a quick drink there, and then went to the restaurant Michael and Leila had found.
The restaurant was known for its local cuisine – which we knew meant apples. I did my bit in giving Kaoru a night off by doing my best to order. Unfortunately the menu only had so many pictures, so we did need Kaoru to translate parts of the menu. And when it came to ordering, she couldn’t help herself and still kept trying…which meant they kept talking to her. I think we were given the work experience student serving us though – twice I ordered water and it didn’t come. Eventeually I asked for a large jug, a couple of times in the one order (with some food), and they brought that out. But we had a few sake’s, and also some beer and apple cider. They did a delicious apple graten. But the highlight was at the end, when in the last order, Kaoru ordered a rice dish with wasabi – meaning fresh wasabi. When I say fresh, I’m talking they gave us a grater and wasabi root. It was delicious – I could (and did) eat it straight. Kauro mixed it in to her rice, topped with bonito and some soy sauce.
After dinner, we made the customary trip to Family Mart, where I bought a sake-in-a-can, and we also all bought first breakfasts for tomorrow. Because……..
Tuesday August 8, 2023 – Hirosaki (Goshogawara Tachineputa Festival – Float festival)
We went to the market for breakfast at 8.00 this morning. It was nice and cool – maybe 25 degrees, and we were feeling great! We purchased various small serves of food and ate together at a table. Sushi, sweet potato smoothie, igamenchi (chopped squid)…delicious way to start the day.
Michael walked back to the train stsation we were at last night, as he had lost his glasses and hoped he had left them there. Kaoru and I went to the Tourist Information to confirm some plans, as we weren’t sure of the train situation. When Michael returned we had a quick meet-up to plan the day, and decided we had an hour or so to kill, so just rested in the room for a while.
11.45 we met up, topped up our Suica’s, and had “ticket soba” at the train staion. Basically you buy a ticket from a vending machine and just hand it over at the counter, and they make the meal. No need to interact to place the order! It was a small restaurant, and we had to go in separately to get seats as they became available. We were able to sit next to each other in the end, and enjoyed our lunch. Then it was off to catch a 12.40 train. We were lucky to all get seats on it, as it was only 2 carriages long. A nice old lady swapped seats with me so I could sit across from Kaoru. Her friend (who I was then sitting next to) was a very chatty lady, so I tried a bit to talk to her about various things. She always spoke back to Kaoru though, and too fast, so I couldn’t really understand her responses. But she seemed to understand what I was saying so that was good.
After about an hour on the train, we arrived in Goshogawara, where we then got on a local bus. This was quite a small bus, and took us way out of town. After about an hour we got off (along with 2 other groups of 2 people) at some random stop in the middle of nowhere. Kaoru wandered down the road about 100 metres, and then signalled for us to follow her. She had found hte local taxi! He had also received a call from the local payphone (one of the other groups), so he pulled out his 9 seater and took all 8 of us on the 5 minute drive to Fushimi Inari Shrine. We had to walk up stairs (as you’d expect) and then down some others, where we were presented wtih a path of 1000 tori gates! 2 hours of travelling was definitely worth it to see this! We walked through them all to the end, where there was a shrine. And we then made our way back, concluding our walk with an ice cream.
Kaoru had organised for the taxi to pick us up after an hour. The bus we needed to take us back to Goshogawara runs every 90 minutes so we needed to be on time! And like clockwork, we got back to the bus stop, and made the journey back to Goshogawara. We got off the bus and went to the distillery, where we had an apple cocktail, which was nice. We then went outside to watch the giant floats come out of the museum where they are stored for the year. We also had some food from the stalls, and drinks. We then walked further up, towards the station, for when we wanted to make our getaway at the end of the night, and waited for the sun to set. At 7.00, after a few fireworks (which we couldn’t see, as they were behind the building), the floats were all lit up, and were dragged around the city block. They looked amazing! And to think they were all being pulled manually (no motors). People playing the drums and flute followed and led each float. Some of them were stopped and spun around, and some smaller ones were brought close to the crowd, and then the brakes slammed on.
We left about 8.00 and went to the train station, for an 8.26 train. It was already getting full, but luckily we all got seats – just scattered around the carriage. Another hour and we were back in Hirosaki. Then off to the 7-11 for our usual treats, and Michael and Leila came to our room to talk about the day, and the next day. By the time we had showered we were in bed around 11.
Monday August 7, 2023 – Akita to Hirosaki (Neputa Matsuri – Burnning of the Floats)
No alarm this morning! Not that I had been needing the alarm to wake up other mornings, but not being on a time table was great. We met up with Michael and Leila for breakfast in the hotel (it was included), and discussed plans for the day. After doing our teeth we checked out and met up in the lobby about 9.
We walked to the train station and got on the “Hop On Hop Off” bus, thinking that would be a good way to see the whole city. We got off at the Old Kaneko Family House and had a walk around the home and also the museum which was part of it. Luckily we were ahead of the crowds – the whole time we were there, there was a constant stream of tourists entering, so it was quite busy by the time we left. Unfortunately we weren’t paying attention to the time, so we missed the bus, and ended up just catching a taxi to the next stop, which was the food market. We walked around there, and Kaoru bought some fish for us to try. It was delicious, even though we ate it straight (raw, no wasabi or soy sauce). Then Kaoru found the “proper” way to eat at the market – there is a place to buy a tray, and rice, and then a number of the stalls had a blue lantern out the front – these were the ones that you can buy small measures of food to add to your rice bowl, for a don buri. We found a table and sat down to enjoy a delicious morning tea.
We made the next Hop On Hop Off bus, which took us to the back of the station, and then walked back to the hotel. I topped up ice and water, we got our bags, and then went to the station. Soto met us there with presents, and we bought some bento’s before catching our 12.40 train to Hirosaki. Along the way it started to rain – in fact we had to stop the train for about 10 minutes to check the conditions. There must be a dodgy part of the track.
We arrive at Hirosaki about 2.50. Our hotel was very close – so we checked in, settled in our (gigantic) rooms, and then went downstairs for an “apple pie” (which was like an apple danish, with ice cream and sliced apple on top) and I had an iced apple tea. Kaoru had a hot one. Hirosaki is famous for apples, so we needed to enjoy the local fruits.
We planned our afternoon and then went back to the room for 20 minutes or so, before meeting to go out. We caught the 100yen loop bus, and then had a 5 minute walk along the river to the other train station in Hirosaki (not the JR one). We learned there was a derailment yesterday and teh trains weren’t running; we didn’t need that tonight, but it could throw a spanner in our other plans for the next couple of days. We then caught a shuttle bus out to some random point, to watch the burning of the floats at the Neputa Matsuri. We had about a 15 minute walk from the bus stop to get there. We could see a massive mountain – shaped a bit like Fuji. It was partially hidden by clouds, but you could see its outline. The weather had dropped off, and was quite bearable. The rain must’ve cooled everything down. We saw some gigantic floats up on show, and some food stalls. There was a bit of a crowd, but nothing like what we had seen the last few days.
We found a spot on the grass, but the view of the floats that were to be burnt was blocked by some speakers. There were a heap of chairs with people sitting on them, and few empty ones. Kaoru suggested we grab single ones and make our own group. I didn’t think we were supposed to, but if Kaoru gave us the go ahead, let’s do it! So while Michael and Leila got food, Kaoru and I grabbed some chairs and we set up. This was fantastic! Kaoru and I went to get som dinner – yukisoba, yukitori, a tacoyaki-type omlette, and some beer. There was singing and dancing to keep us entertained, as the sun set. We could also see that the crowds were growing behind us, so it was lucky we arrived when we did.
At about 8.00, a few speeches from locals, and then they burnt the floats that were on show. Before they finished, we rushed back to get the shuttle, as Kaoru thought they were finishing at 9, and we didn’t want to miss it. Unfortunately the 100 yen bus to get us back to the JR station wasn’t running. But as the weather was so nice, we just did the 20 minute walk…stopping at an Irish bar for a drink on the way. THen our usual 7-11 stop, and Michael and Leila came to our room to have a drink and snacks. Kaoru did a load of washing an we went to bed.
Sunday August 6, 2023 – Sendai to Akita (Kanto Matsuri – Pole Lantern festival)
This morning we had planned to go to a market for breakfast. But Kaoru did a last minute check and to her dismay, found it was closed. So it was time for Plan B; she found a restaurant that did (rice ball triangles?). We had to wait for about 30 minutes to get a table, so most of our free time for the morning disappeared.
We went back to the hotel for teeth and checkout (I filled my camel back with ice), and then we caught a 10.30 Shinkansen to Akita, which took about 2 hours. Kaoru’s friend, Kaioko (who came to our wedding), and her husband (Mitchuyou) and Son (Soto) met us at the station. They walked us to our hotel and waited while we checked in, and then we went for some food – a very scenic walk though, through a part of the evening festival. Michael and I both had a turn at balancing some mini Kanto poles.
Eventually we arrived at a Soba restaurant. But there was a line, so we put our name on the door and waited. Mitchuyou and Soto took us gaigin to an ice cream stand to buy some ice cream. Eventually we were “top of hte line” nad seated in a beautiful room. Unfortunately one of the sauces for the Soba was a nut-based sauce so I had to have Tempura instead. It was a lovely meal, while we tried to work through language barriers and enjoy ourselves.
After lunch (which was about 3.30) we went back to the hotel, via some shopping at a local souvenier shop. Kaioko, Mitchuyou and Soto went home, and we all had a little sleep. We all woke up again a bit before 5, so met up and went to a beer hall to sample some beers and have a little bit of food to keep us going. Just after 6, Kaioko and Soto met us, and we walked towards the main street, to see the night parade. Again, the place was extremely crowded and it wasn’t easy to find somewhere to watch the events. And again, a police officer decided Michael was the line again. We watched the procession of people carrying massive lantern poles made of bamboo, listening to the drumming and fluting of local songs. Another policeman didn’t like where we were standing though, and after a bit of a stand-off, we decided to move along. However, we hadn’t gone far when one of the pole lanterns came crashing dwon to within a few metres of us! WHilst there was a panic, nobody got hurt, so they must be light enough, even though they are made of hard bamboo. It did cause some people to move though, and suddenly there wsa room for the 6 of us!
We watched the parade for another 10 minutes or so, and then decided to go and get some food. So we went to the pop-up food stalls, where there were tables in the middle. One by one we managed to get chairs and ended up with a table of our own. So we got assorted food, and also some beer, where I had a delicious DDH Hazy. We could still hear and see the festival, but were certainly a lot safer, and it was much less crowded too.
Eventually it was time to call it a night, so we headed back to our hotel. Along the way (almost at the hotel) we found the Seibu pole lantern’s “base”, where they set up and did a private show to those lucky people who were walking past. So we took a seat on the floor, grabbed our cameras and enjoyed a bit more of a show. And again, as people were getting more and more confident, there was an incident where the pole was dropped, and missed us by a matter of a couple of metres. As they lifted the pole up, there was a man sitting on the floor with a grin on his face, so again, it mustn’t be as bad as it looks – even though they can weigh 50 kgs. After a bit more watching we went to Lawsons for some late night treats, and called it a day.
Saturday August 5, 2023 – Shinagawa to Sendai
We woke up about 7. We met Michael and Leila about 7.45 and headed out. Our plan was to do Shinkansen tickets first, but the ticket office to exchange our JR passes wasn’t open, so we found somewhere for breakfast instead.
After breakfast, we returned to the hotel to check out. I filled my camelback with water and ice, and we went back to Shinagawa station to exchange JR vouchers and get some tickets organised. Kaoru ran into some technical difficulties, so we didn’t get all of them.
We caught a 10.06 Shinkansen to Tokyo station. It was running 5 minutes late! Not Happy Jan! Kaoru and Michael then sorted out all remaining Shinkansen tickets to get that out of the way.
We then had 2 hours to kill, so found a beer place. We all had a tasting paddle and some food.
After shome shopping for bento boxes, we got on a 1.00 Shinkansen to Sendai. I was expecting the Shinkansen to be nice and cool, and even had a long sleeve top handy…just in case. But no, it was stuffy. After my bento box, I had a bit of a sleep to kill some time.
Sendai – checked in to hotel. Killed time – beer? Check what we did. Ate something
Walked to where Kaoru had found we could see the fireworks for free. Took about 30 minutes in the heat. Very crowded. We walked down to the river but then back up, and tried walking through the gardens, which were packed. It was a “no stopping” area. We got told to move after spending too long “resting”. Eventually found a spot, nad at one stage the security lady picked Michael to be “the line” – anybody behind him had to move on. I think that was easier than dealing with the big Aussie!
There were several firework shows, with a couple of minute gap between them. Each had a differnet company creating the fireworks, so this was there chance to “show off”. It was without doubt the longest fireworks exhibition I have ever seen. After about 45 minutes we decided to leave before the crowds. And even that was hard!
On the way back I was getting hungry, so we stopped at an Izakaya for a little bit of food. A nice beer, some sake, and quite a bit of food later, and we were all feeling much better. We paid and left the Izakaya – it had cooled down a bit, and the streets were almost empty! Seems the crowd had completely gone in the time we were eating. I couldn’t believe how quiet it was for a Saturday night.
We were so tired, that we didn’t even go to 7-11 on our way back tot he hotel. I had a quick shower, which felt great to get the sweat off, and went to bed.
Friday August 4, 2023
I woke about 6.15. Kaoru was already up and about. After a light breakfast, final watering of the garden, and double-checking our lists, we booked an Uber and went to the airport.
Check in was smooth. We had a look through the duty free shops, and then headed to the Qantas lounge where we met Michael and Leila. I had given them guest passes which were due to expire, so it allowed us all to get together before the holiday began. We had a glass of champagne together. Then I had a shower and got changed into shorts, ready for our arrival.
We boarded the plane on time, a bit after 10. I watched a couple of movies and ate lots of food on the plane. The service was the worst I’d experienced. There wasn’t somebody walking around the cabin with drinks (even water / juice), and even asking for one resulted in long waits.
We landed on time at Haneda, about 8.00 Japan time. Immigration was really easy. Not sure if it’s because Haneda isn’t as busy as Narita, or if they’ve improved the processes. But we then had to wait about 15 minutes for our bags to arrive. Mine was quite quick, but Michael and Leila’s took a while longer.
We caught a train to Shinagawa, and checked in to the hotel. We stayed at the Toyoko Inn hotel this time – we’ve never stayed there before but it’s cheaper than Shinagawa Prince. We both had Double King rooms, so heaps of room to spread out. Our portable wifi was waiting for us, so we now had Internet everywhere. The room was stinking hot though, so we had to turn the air conditioner on straight away and do something about that! While we were waiting, we went out for a beer and some food. The pub wasn’t air conditioned (or even fan) so very hot inside.
On the way home, we did our customary shop at 7-11, and also went to the ATM in Shinagawa Prince to get some cash out. We went to bed about midnight, quite exhausted from a long day.
Monday May 15, 2023
Technically, it’s still Sunday night. Our flight boarded at 0:20. Row 1 again (Business Class). We both fell asleep not long after sitting down, and missed out on the meal. We were hoping it would be a breakfast, but no, it was a late dinner. No idea what it was. I didn’t even have a bourbon! Luckily I had already consumed a few in the lounge though.
Landed early, and we got home just after 6.00. We both slept for a couple of hours, before starting the day. I was a bit of a zombie for most of it, but made it through, getting some work done.
Amazing holiday. Such a beautiful part of the country. It’s a bit of a tease seeing all that water but not being able to swim. And nice escape from Melbourne’s cooler weather.
Sunday May 14, 2023
Woke up to the sound of a million cockatoos.
Some pastries for breakfast that we had bought back in Darwin, then checked out and left our bag at the hotel. Picked up at 8 for our “adventure”. Modified 4wd-bus, which seated ~18 people.
Stopped not far up the road to see a Jabiru fishing in the river flowing over the main road. Then drove up the road a bit to stop and hear our guides “level 1” story of a rock formation and its history in Dreamtime. The stories get more involved as you “mature” and progress in Aboriginal culture, so only the Elders know the “Level 7” story.
The day was spent going to a number of rock art sites, and hearing our guides interpretation of a lot of them. He was very knowledgable.
Had morning tea on one plateau looking out over the plains. Lunch was at the East Alligator River, near a crossing / boat ramp. After lunch we crossed over into Arnhem Land, for a few more stops. At the river crossing we could see a car that didn’t make it a few years ago. Family of aboriginals fishing in the river. Nobody else would go in the water though!
Turned around at a point where we couldn’t go any further, as the road was still recovering from the wet season. Stopped at an art gallery.
Back on the bus, and we got back to the crocodile hotel ~4.00. We waited to be picked up at 4.30, then picked up a few more people from the airport, and made our way back to Darwin.
Last to be dropped off – we decided to go to the casino. Left our bag at reception and went to the Mindil market for some dinner. Back to the casino for an hour (no luck), and then Uber to the airport. Gates weren’t open. Got changed in to “Melbourne” clothes, checked in, killed time in lounge.
Saturday May 13, 2023
Early (5.30) start. Finished packing and left hotel by 6. Got a coach which took us to Kakadu, stopping at a roadhouse on the way for some breakfast (although we had brought same quiche and salad with us, so we were OK).
Saw some rock art, with about a 45 minute walk.
Another 40 minutes drive and then lunch. 1.00 we caught a shuttle bus, and did a cruise up the Yellow River, to look for crocs. Saw a few, as well as lots of birds and ducks. Beautiful countryside.
On our way back, we saw a croc swimming in the river. Awesome sight.
Then shuttle to the airport to do a scenic flight, to the Twin Falls and Jim Jim falls. Fantastic scenery from the air. Only way to see the place.
Scenic flight landed at Jabiru, where the coach picked us up, and took us to the Mecure Crocodile Hotel. We got off and said goodbye to our coach captain, and checked in.
Raced up to room, got changed, then to the bar to get a beer, and in to the pool. Another beer, and then a walk around the town of Jabiru. Everywhere was closed though.
Dinner at 7.15. We went the buffet and filled ourselves. Went outside to get a photo of the hotel (the eyes glow red). Lots of cockatoos in the trees – all in pairs. Off to bed.
Friday May 12, 2023
Bad night sleep. Air con kept making the room cold and blowing too much air (noisy). Got up a bit after 9. Found somewhere nearby for breakfast.
Back to hotel for shower and teeth, and then out exploring. Decided to rent e-scooters for our trip to the museum, which was past the Mindil markets. Took us about 20 minutes, and $12.50 each. Taxi may have been cheaper, but not as much fun 🙂
Excellent time at the museum! Lots to see, including listening to sounds of Cyclone Tracey. Had lunch there about 1.45ish. We got scallops which were $36 for 6 small ones (bit of a rip off), but since the museum was so enjoyable and free, we considered that our donation. We then caught an Uber to the Royal Flying Doctors Museum.
RFDS started with VR of the bombing in 1942, and then a 15 minute holo-video about the RFDS, and a 15 minute holo-video about 1942. Then a VR of the RFDS from the pilot, and also a nurse view. Look inside a plane. Bought a glass to go with our shotglass from Alice Springs.
Walked back in to town (about 30 minutes from the waterfront) and had a beer, and then back to our hotel for a 30 minute power nap. Killed some time before going out to dinner at Tim’s Surf and Turf, which was fantastic. Order on a piece of paper and take it in to pay. Very efficient.
After dinner, back for another beer, and then to the hotel for a shower, and watched TV before going to bed.
Thursday May 11, 2023
6.30 wake up. Breakfast, email tidy up, and drove to airport at 8.00. Long term car park, and checked in. Not many people going through security.
Some work at the gate, and then boarded flight for Adelaide. Was given exit row!
At Adelaide went in to the lounge. Had some food. 12.00 had some champagne to toast the start of our holiday. More food and drinks.
Boarded just after 1. Row 1. I had decided to splurge and use points to get us in Business Class, as it gave us the lounge, and a comfortable seat. Big meal on plane and a couple of drinks. They also gave us a plastic cup full of Lindt chocolate balls! I spend a lot of the flight reading.
Landed Darwin. Got bag and then found a shuttle bus to town – $15 each.
When we got to the hotel, there was a “back in 15 minutes” sign on the counter. Luckily we didn’t have to wait too long. Checked in, got changed and walked to Mindil night market (about 30 minute walk). Arrived about 5 minutes after the sun had hit the water, so saw red sky but not the actual sunset.
Walked market looking for food. Ended up with Paella and a mango slushie. Walked back to town, one block over from our walk out. On the way passed a pub so got a beer.
In town we were now on the “party side”. Lots of bars and hostels. So went for another beer – much better! Craft beer and music.
Went back to hotel. Long day.
Friday February 11, 2022
Luckily I had taken it pretty easy last night, so didn’t feel too bad when I woke up. We didn’t see Nick for some time though! We hung around the house, had some breakfast, and then Sharon had to leave at 10.30 for an appointment.
Nick took Kaoru and I on a tourist drive of Victoria Point. Whilst I have a customer here, I’ve never had a proper drive around the point. It’s a beautiful area, with some lovely homes. Then Nick drove us to the airport.
We checked in, and went in to the Lounge to have a drink and lunch. Eventually we were called, and boarded the flight home. Again, about 2/3 full (maybe a bit more). The person across the aisle from us rarely had her mask on, from sitting down to landing, but most of the other passengers did.
We caught an Uber home, and then did our usual “Friday Night” trip up to Brew Works, picking up Dan, and a Piggy Smalls burger on the way. But we were pretty tired from a busy week so were home by 10.30.
What a nice get-away!
Thursday February 10, 2022
I woke up this morning, realizing that when I made plans to catch up with Rese today, I was thinking Queensland time, but she would have been on NSW time. So I’ve suddenly lost an hour! To make the morning even more interesting, there was no water in the house as one of the circuits had tripped. Uncle Owen got that sorted pretty quickly – he was expecting a visitor at 8.30 so was up early this morning.
Our original plan was to go to visit her in Ballina overnight; but due to Jesse having caught Covid, that wasn’t allowed. Kae had an appointment in Tweed Heads, which was a good “half way” spot, so we met at Kirra Surf Club. It was an easy run down (I borrowed Uncle Owen’s car again).
We had a couple of beers, and an early lunch, and just a general long-overdue catch up. We then drove up to Point Danger and had a walk around there; as it’s somewhere Grandpa used to like, I always like going there as I drive through and having a walk around, and watch the surfers.
We said goodbye, and then did a bit of a scenic drive, down Shearwater Parade to see Nanna and Grandpa’s old house. Then back in to Coolangatta to get an ice cream, and then on our way back home. We went via a flower shop to get some flowers for Aunty Linda, and got back around 5.00.
After a quick chat, we finished packing, said our goodbyes to everybody (Shannon was already home luckily) and then Uncle Owen drove us to Victoria Point, to see Nick and Sharon (and Georgia), who had moved up in May last year. Sharon let us in and started to give us a tour; eventually Nick got out of the shower. We then piled in to the car and drove down to the jetty, to catch the ferry over to Cuchimudlo Island. They had to hold the ferry for us for a few minutes, but luckily we made it, and were on our way for the short (10 minute) trip over.
We had dinner and a few beers at the Cuchi Pub, while watching the sun set. It was a beautiful location, and a very relaxing way to finish our holiday. We caught the evening ferry back to the mainland, and Sharon drove us back to the house, where Nick gave us the rest of the tour, and we sampled some of his home made bourbons / gins / sambuccas / etc. This also involved a chat with Pete back in Melbourne. Sharon and Kaoru went to bed, and eventually we both did too, after a great evening.
Wednesday February 9, 2022
Aunty Linda went out for the morning to visit a friend. I had a fly of Uncle Owen’s drone and passed the time. Tom (their “maintenance guy”) came round so I met him, as Uncle Owen directed him to his chores for the day.
Once Aunty Linda returned, she took Kaoru and I to see Nanna. We ordered some lunch at the cafe and then Aunty Linda brought Nanna out, so she could see Kaoru. Even though only one visitor per day is allowed in the room, we could get around that limitation by bringing Nanna outside. She was very happy to meet Kaoru again, and the time was over very quickly.
On the way back to the house, Aunty Linda took us to Donna’s grave so we could say our final farewell to her.
Once back at the house, Kaoru and I packed a bag, and borrowed Uncle Owen’s car to go to see Gavin and Donna for dinner. Donna wasn’t there when we arrived, but we made our way round the back and had a dip in their new pool to cool off. Eventually Donna got back with the kids, and we sat out the back and talked for a while. They have both grown up! Donna cooked us roast pork for dinner.
Gavin didn’t get back until after 8.00. So he ate dinner, while on the phone for a BMX meeting. A friend of theirs came round, who had a wound (from dropping a cabinet on his shin), which Donna needed to re-dress.
Gavin told us some stories about his new job, which he is thoroughly enjoying, and then I gave him a demo of the software I had developed for him. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to get in front of his boss to demonstrate it, but Gavin was certainly happy with what it does, and hopefully we will be able to catch up in a couple of weeks in Melbourne.
We said goodbye and left about 10.30. Aunty Linda and Uncle Owen were getting ready for bed, so we said good night, and went ourselves.
Tuesday February 8, 2022
In typical Brisbane form, the house was light and I was awake quite early. The fact we were an hour behind made it even earlier. But I got up, saw Shannon as she was leaving for school, had a shower and breakfast, and then did some work for the morning (catching up on emails, etc).
Kaoru and Aunty Linda went for morning tea. Uncle Owen and I got out his new ride-on mower out so I did some laps of the house paddock. I also had a look at their network setup as Aunty Linda had been having internet problems on her computer. After Aunty Linda and Kaoru returned, Aunty Linda went to see Nanna, and Uncle Owen took us to the sushi train for lunch. It has modernized a bit – when you order something special, instead of a staff member bringing it to you, a robot brought it out!
We went shopping for dinner on our way home, and then passed the afternoon away. Uncle Owen got his drone out for me to see if I could get it working. We showed Kaoru some of Uncle Owen’s toys (the model boat and helicopter), and then Costa (Shannon’s boyfriend) came round so we met him.
After dinner, Shannon took Costa home and we all sat up and talked until bedtime.
Monday February 7, 2022
It’s been a long time between travels!
After spending the morning working, Kaoru and I caught an uber to the airport, and off we flew to Brisbane!
The airport was very quiet, with not a lot of travellers. Security was simple and quick to get through. Kaoru had made us some lunch, so we bought some champagne and beer, and ate in a quiet corner of the airport to pass the time, while also checking our “Check In Qld” apps were working.
The flight was uneventful. The plane was probably 2/3 full, and most people (that I could see) were wearing masks as required.
We landed about 15 minutes late, but our bag came out quickly, and we were picked up by Aunty Linda and Uncle Owen. We went to their house, dropped our bag off, and then I was taken in to see Nanna at her new home. Only one visitor, for one hour per day, was allowed, so Aunty Linda visited another person she knew in the same home, while Uncle Owen took Kaoru shopping.
The hour with Nanna flew. She couldn’t hear too well, so I had to talk loudly, but it was nice seeing her again after so long. Eventually I had to leave, met up with Aunty Linda, and waited for Uncle Owen and Kaoru to pick us up.
Back at the house, Shannon was already home and came outside to greet us. We talked and passed the time until dinner. And then more talking, until going to bed.
Tuesday May 18, 2021
The end of our holiday.
We had booked late checkout, so at least we had a relaxing day. We went for breakfast at the bar and grill – where I had wanted to eat yesterday. It was OK. We went for a bit of a walk to the scenic lookout and were treated with marvelous views of the ocean, apart from the fact it was very cloudy. We didn’t really have walking shoes on though (both in thongs) so we turned around and went back to the room; a little tired so took the opportunity to sit and do nothing for a while.
We showered, packed our bags, and called an Uber to take us to the airport at 12.00. We checked in and went in to the lounge. We had used Kaoru’s frequent flyer points to upgrade our tickets to business class for the trip back to Melbourne (we had tried to coming here, but there were none on offer). So we had a champagne, and a few other drinks, and food, to pass the time. The food was pretty average. Eventually we boarded our 3.00 flight to Brisbane. Row 1 – beautiful way to end the trip!
In Brisbane we went straight to the business lounge and had a couple of drinks. We also got changed into warmer gear in preparation for our return to Melbourne. The stopover was only an hour or so, so eventually it was time to board the flight. Row 3 this time (but still business class). We landed in Melbourne on time.
We got our bags, booked an Ola (I had a 15% discount but it was still only marginally cheaper than the Uber *to* the airport, which had bad traffic for a while) and were home around 9.30pm – happy to have had a holiday, but damn it’s cold back here in Melbourne!
Monday May 17, 2021
This is our relax day.
We woke up and went to the place we had picked out for breakfast. We got there, and they said they don’t do breakfast on Monday’s! So we went to another place (where we had enjoyed the drink with Gavin and Molly) and had a large breakfast there. We went back to the room and I had a sleep in the lounge. It was a “Nothing to do” day, so I made sure I did nothing! When I woke up, Kaoru was asleep on the bed.
I had a cup of tea on our balcony, and when Kaoru woke up we had a game of Saboteur (the present from Rob and Anthea). After a shower it was time to go and have some lunch. We wandered for a bit and ended up going to the tavern. After lunch we went back to the room and had another lay down. It had been a busy few days and it was great to have nothing to do! When I woke up we went to the pool for a swim. It wasn’t as hot as I was expecting (certainly not as hot as it was the previous few days) but it was still nice being in the water. We sat by the pool as I dried off and just enjoyed our holiday.
I had a shower to rinse the chlorine off, and we wandered for a bit before going to the tavern for a drink (Happy Hour), and then to the Thai restaurant for dinner. We then went back to the tavern for dessert, as I had seen an apple crumble on the menu at lunch time. Unfortunately that was a lunch-only special. So we went back to our hotel room and had a drink there (I had brought a small bottle up with me, and we bought a bottle of Dry Ginger Ale from the local supermarket), and watched TV for a bit, before going to bed.
Sunday May 16, 2021
Kaoru’s Birthday
We woke up early and Kaoru unwrapped a present from Rob and Anthea, which we had carried around, and a card from Mum and Dad. We showered, and then I looked at my phone and decided to read the text message that had come in. Luckily I did, as it was from our tour for the day, saying the scenic railway to Kuranda wasn’t running today due to a problem found on a bridge. I called the booking place and they said as we had a return package, they had also cancelled our skyrail ticket back down. Very annoying as there were limited times we could catch it.
I got online and found a booking for the same time (1.30) skyrail – went through the process of putting my credit card in, and it got rejected saying no more tickets available (somebody must’ve done it at the same time). I saw a “limited availability” for the 1.15 timeslot and luckily got that. Now we had to work out how to get to the top. Our options were Uber, public transport, or a shuttle bus. I found a 9.25 bus departure which was our planned train time anyway, so it just means we’d have an extra hour at Kuranda (as the bus is quicker than the scenic railway); they don’t take bookings so we just had to make sure we were there in time. All good – let’s start the day!
We checked out and put our bags in storage, and started walking to the bus stop / train station, looking for a cafe to have breakfast at. We found one and sat down to relax and eat a big breakfast. We continued our walk and got to the bus stop about 9.10. It was then that I realised I had looked at the Monday-Friday timetable. On Sunday’s the bus doesn’t leave until 10.30! So we now had another hour to kill. We walked around for 15 minutes or so, but then stayed at the bus stop, worried that if a lot of people were doing the same thing as us, the bus could be full and we wanted to make sure we got on. So it was a lot of “hurry up and wait” for the morning. Eventually the bus arrived, we paid the $7 or so, and were on our way.
The drive up was uneventful. There were some nice views looking out, but I slept for a bit of it. Finally we made it to Kuranda. After getting our bearings we walked around aimlessly and eventually ended up at the honey shop – which was one of the things we wanted to do. After sampling some honey we purchased some, as well as some balsamic vinegar with honey. We then continued our walk around and Kaoru bought some opal earrings “from Mum and Dad”. When we first arrived at Kuranda it seemed quite small, but as we were walking around we noticed it is really very large, and got to the point of being in a bit of a rush! Once we were comfortable we knew where the skyrail departure point was we stopped for some lunch. The staff there were very laid back. They were sitting down having some food of their own when we arrived and casually finished that (without even acknowledging us) before making a coffee and then *finally* asking us if we wanted some lunch. We ordered and took a seat. Not eventful.
We caught the skyrail down, stopping at Barron Falls for a walk around, and then at Red Peak. Both beautiful sites and it was great to break the ride up and enjoy it a bit more. We arrived at the bottom about 2.40. I called Gavin, and he had just arrived. He and Molly had been in the area for BMX, and had a few hours before their flight back to Brisbane, so we took the opportunity to catch up. They drove us back to Cairns to get our bags, and then to Trinity Beach, which was where we were spending the next couple of days. At Trinity Beach Kaoru and I checked in and then the 4 of us went to the pub and had a drink and chat. It was really good catching up with them, but just after 4.00 they had to head back to the airport, so we said goodbye.
We went to our room and put thongs on, and then had a walk on the beach. The water wasn’t too cold, but I didn’t go in. We had a good walk around the vicinity, having a look at the restaurants that were on offer, and stopping at the Tavern for a cocktail or 2, which had a lovely view of the ocean from upstairs; and as we weren’t staying long we were able to get a good seat – it was reserved but not until 6.30. As it was Kaoru’s birthday I wanted to find a nice seafood extravaganza, but no such luck. We ended up going to a place called “Koi” Seafood – a greek restaurant. It was next door to a Thai restaurant, and we were told we can order from both places, which doubled the size of our menu! So we had a drink and dinner.
Back in the room I took out my scuba gear (fins / mask / computer / etc) and washed them properly in the bath, to get all the salt out. We watched tv for a bit and called it a night.
Saturday May 15, 2021
7.00 wake up this morning…but I was already awake. After breakfast the boat moved, and we had a briefing and went back in the water for our first dive of the day. This was my best ever day dive. There were lots of big fish out, and I started to feel quite confident with diving. Kaoru had a great snorkel, and saw another turtle, and a shark. She actually went out before us, and didn’t get back until after us!
After some time on the ship and tidying up our room, we were ready for our next dive. I decided to go snorkelling instead of diving this time, as I wanted to see a turtle and Kaoru had seen one on 3 of her 4 dives. A few other people (experienced divers) decided to do the same thing! This dive site wasn’t very deep, and we could see the divers below us while we were snorkelling. Quite interesting watching people just 5m below us.
We had a shower and then had to empty our room. I actually started to feel a bit funny so had a lay down and sleep. We passed the time until 2.30, when the other boat came and picked us up, and took us back to Cairns. The Oceanquest (the overnight boat we had been on) will be coming in tomorrow with the remaining people, but that will take them about 3 or 4 hours; the Seaquest (the dive boat we had used for the first 2 yesterday, and was now taking us home) did it in about 90 minutes.
We stayed at the same hotel as last time, but a different room. We dropped things in our room and then went for a walk around the city. We wanted to know how long it took to walk to the train station (in preparation for tomorrow) so we started with that walk. We then just wandered the streets for a while, before deciding to have an early dinner at a Korean BBQ. Luckily we were able to get a seat, as even at 6.00 it was quite full.
After dinner we went back to the hotel, packed our bags and went to bed.
Friday May 14, 2021
The alarm went off before 7. A shower and bite to eat, and then we went out the front to wait for our pickup from “Divers Den”. There were a couple of people already in the bus, and we had to pick up another couple before going to the marina, where we boarded our boat. It took us about 90 minutes to get out to the reef.
On the way to the dive spot I was given a briefing. Not really a refresher though – I had luckily had Dan come round during the week to refresh my memory on diving, or I would have been much more concerned. Eventually we were at the site and in the water we went. When we were ready to descent I wasn’t moving anywhere! So the dive master put an extra 1.5 kg on me, which did the trick luckily. The breathing and moving in a scuba suit all came back to me quickly and the 50 minute dive went without further incident. Meanwhile Kaoru was snorkelling.
After lunch I did another dive (and Kaoru did another snorkel). We had some fruit, and then the boat took us to a larger boat, which was our “liveaboard” for the night. The 6 of us who arrived together all changed to that boat (and we later found out a few people also changed from the liveaboard boat to the one we did our first dives off), and then the first boat did the 90 minute trip back to shore. We, on the other hand, had a nice “welcome aboard” cheesecake and safety briefing, and moved to another dive site. We found our room and relaxed for half an hour or so.
After a pre-dive briefing we were back in the water for our 3rd dive of the day (again, Kaoru snorkelled, which was great!) My confidence was growing with the number and frequency of dives. Once out of the water we had some time to relax before dinner was served. Dinner was a massive meal of a curry, which was nice; and then it was time for our night time encounter…
Looking off the back of the boat, there were a number of sharks and other large fish hanging around – as they were being fed off the back of the boat. Kaoru did “Sharks in the Dark” – with just a snorkel and mask, she held on to the rear cage of the boat and was lowered into the water to be up close and personal with the sharks. She thoroughly enjoyed this, especially the part where a shark bit the go-pro stick of the person who was next to her! Meanwhile I did my first night dive. Wow! The fish were much bigger, and the whole experience was so much different to a day dive. It was very enjoyable.
After our dive (4th for the day) we had some dessert, and then a number of us played Uno (there were a few people who were already on the boat and had played on previous nights – they were doing 5 days of this!). A couple of beers and I was knackered so we went to bed.
Thursday May 13, 2021
Our first holiday post-covid.
We woke to an alarm this morning, although Kaoru was already up. After a shower and banana to keep me going, we ordered an Uber to take us to the airport.
We went in to the Qantas Lounge, using our passes (we both had some in our accounts, and thought this is the best time to use them). Unfortunately the breakfast in the lounge isn’t like it used to be, but we made do.
We boarded our flight to Brisbane. I watched a movie on the way. Once there, because of the recent Covid case in Melbourne, we had to basically tell somebody (nothing to sign) that we hadn’t been to any of the infected areas. Pretty pointless exercise, and wasted our < 30 minute stopover so we couldn’t get something decent to eat for lunch. We boarded our next flight – to Cairns.
The flight was over the water so we had beautiful views of the reef as we got closer. Eventually landed and our bags were available very quickly. Went outside in the heat. There was a long line for the taxi rank, but no taxis, so Kaoru waited and I went and got changed into shorts.
We checked in to our hotel, and then I was straight in to the pool for a swim!
After getting dried, we explored Cairns a bit, grabbing a bit of food while we were out. There is no beach, per se, so it’s not a “pretty” town. But it was nice and warm.
Back at the hotel we packed our bags for our next adventure, in preparation for checkout, as it would be an early start. We then walked back in to the night market for a massage, and some dinner. Then back to home and we went to bed. It had been a long day, even though we hadn’t really done a lot.
Monday March 2, 2020
Alarm in room went off at 6. Already getting light. Didn’t get back to a good sleep.
Woke up. Went for breakfast. Packed up in room.
Sharon picked me up at 9.20. Went to her clinic.
Met board – Gary, Roger and Mark(??)
Showed them what we have.
Went back to hotel – I left my pad of paper in the room. Had lunch nearby (Entertainment book!)
Sharon drove me to airport.
Business class upgrade! Worked in lounge, and flew home.
Sunday March 1, 2020
Woke up.
Went to breakfast. Best of all places. What was it called again?
Said goodbye to Kaoru. Caught ferry over to South Perth.
Couldn’t check in to hotel, but could access meeting room, so worked until Sharon arrived.
Worked with Sharon until 2.30ish.
Went for lunch – steak
Checked in. Worked on balcony with Sharon for an hour or so, and then she left.
Bit more work / reviewing notes.
Kebab for dinner, and some bourbons, back in the room.
Watched “The Firm” and went to bed.
Saturday February 29, 2020
Woke around 7.
Shower.
Went to breakfast. Slow cooked eggs on toast. Nice.
Did our teeth. Then went to Elizabeth Quay about bought ferry ticket to Fremantle.
~1.25 hour scenic trip to Freemantle. Lots of expensive houses.
In Fremantle caught bus to market. Some food.
Walked to prison. Tunnel tour. Amazing.
Walk to Little Creatures. Had a beer.
Ferry back to Perth, with wine tasting.
Beer at “The Island Brewery” and some houlumi.
Walked to a place for dinner but it was full. Ended up at a small asian place, where we ordered from an ipad.
Came back to hotel.
Friday February 28, 2020
We woke up about 6.00 but just had a slow morning. We went for breakfast at a place on Leila’s recommendation list. I had eggs benedict with pulled pork. It was a nice start to the day. We then went back to the hotel to do our teeth and pack a backpack, and then went to the train station. We caught the 10.00 train to Freemantle.
30 minute trip, and very scenic. We then walked to the Boat Shed and caught the ferry over to Rott Nest island. The seas were pretty rough, which Damon says is quite common. I was quite surprised at the level of movement. The boat was rocking, but not in a sea-sick way, which was lucky.
Once at Rott Nest we got off the boat and went to the information centre. It was just starting to rain a little as we got there. They had some brochures with walks so we had a look at them; knowing we had just under 4 hours, which was for lunch too, we didn’t want too long a walk. So we found a “3-4 hour” one, and saw a way we could cut it in half and still see a few of the sights we wanted to. The sun came out so we put some sun cream on, and off we went. We walked north along the beach, to Bathurst Lighthouse. We saw a sheltered area and as I looked in I could see a small lump, which I inferred was our first Quakka. So Kaoru went in with a camera to get some photos. It was amazing how tame they were! If we had wanted to pick him up, it would have been easy to.
We continued our walk and saw more Quakka’s at several locations.
Lunch
Ferry back
Market.
Prison – tour
Train to Cottesloe
Walk to beach – bought ice cream
Watched sunset
Train back to Perth
Festival – I had okonomiyaki for dinner. Kaoru had …..
Walked back to hotel.
Got a bit too much sun. Had a shower.
Dealt with work stuff. Phone had been ringing a lot during the day.
Thursday February 27, 2020
Alarm 6.15. Kaoru already up. Shower, some fruit. Called Bolt. 10 minutes later it was still saying 13 minutes. So cancelled and booked an Uber. Came in < 2 minutes.
Neither of us got an upgrade despite both receiving emails from Qantas asking us if we wanted to upgrade. No lounge either.
Quick trip to the airport – arrived by 7.45. Dropped off suitcase. Had some breakfast at a cafe.
Went through securiy and went to gate. Watched a plane arrive and the whole unloading and prep process. Quite interesting.
Eventually boarded. Watched a movie and had a sleep on the flight. Arrived to rain and muggy day.
Got our suitcase and caught a bus to town. Short walk to the hotel (Holiday Inn). Arrived before 12.00 local time. They let us do early check in if we signed up to the hotel club, so it was worth it. Massive room! 2 double sized beds in it.
Went to the bar / eating place next door. I had a pizza and ginger beer, and Kaoru had noodles, for “lunch”. It was in the entertainment book so saving of $12 already.
I was feeling quite hot after eating, and tired, so went and had a lay down. Kaoru went out and explored the town. After an hour I woke up, went outside and called her. She was nearby so we caught up and walked to the building Damon was working at when he and Leesa were living here. It was threatening to rain still, but we stayed dry.
We then walked along the water to Elizabeth Quay. We wanted to get a hot drink but the place we found had closed the coffee machine. I bought a gelato, just as the rain started. So I ate that under cover while the worst of it passed by. We had a look at the bell tower, but that cost to go inside so we gave it a miss. So we walked around for a bit longer, and then went back to the room to drop things off. It was about 5.00 local time but 8.00 stomache time so we were getting hungry. We found a place nearby that was in the entertainment book so went there, but they had loud, crap music, so we left and went to the belgium beer cafe, which was across the road, and also in the book! We shared a burger and a pate with sour dough.
After dinner we went back to the room and watched a “Fresh off the Boat”, because it was too early to go to bed. But once it was over I couldn’t stay up any longer so we went to sleep.
Thursday January 2, 2020
We woke up early, and had a shower, and then breakfast up in “The Trough”. We bumped in to Mum and Dad, and then saw Julie and Ethan a bit later.
We met just after 8 to get off the ship. Immigration, etc, got our bags, and the car took us back to our house. With a lot of unpacking to do.
A great holiday.
Wednesday January 1, 2020
The clock went back an hour again today, so we woke up at 8.00 “new time” – which is now Australian time.
Breakfast
Trivia
Coffee with Dad. Kaoru and Mum went to a food demonstration.
We did some laps of deck 7. It was all open. We could see the smoke from the Mallacotta bush fires, which was quite scary to see. It was quite thick, even though we were a couple hundred km from the shore.
At 12.45 we watched the “High and Low” game. I got called up, and got the first question right, but didn’t do any good at picking the “high or low” card.
We had lunch, and then got our bags packed.
Usual trivia, and early dinner, followed by the magician again (Tim Ellis) who was amazing. Then a final Trivia hit which we went well in, but a team got 1 more than us. We then saw the crew show – some members of the crew are quite talented and performed for us.
Tuesday December 31, 2019
Another “no diary” day (well, not in time anyway)
8.00 shower and breakfast. One of the couples from yesterday’s breakfast joined us again by coincidence. They were friendly so we were happy for the repeat.
9.15 we went “duty free alcohol” shopping, and had a tea.
10.00 trivia
11.00 we had a tour of the theatre. We got to go on stage and as the seas were rough, we could feel what it was like for the performers. Amazing that they can do what they do with that sort of movement underneath!
We wandered the ship for a while before lunch. Then had a sleep, and did some reading on the balcony.
4.30 it was trivia time.
Formal dinner night. I had my hawaii shirt on, with a suit – a good New Years Even compromise, in my mind. We had some photos and went to a show. Then passed the time until 11 when we celebrated NZ New Years. Then at midnight we did another New Years. Kaoru and I had our usual cuppa before bed, and went to bed at 1, just in time to say Happy New Year for Australia.
Monday December 30, 2019
No diary – just notes.
Sleep in because clocks went back an hour.
Breakfast.
Trivia
Dad and I had a walk. Half of deck 7 was closed due to winds.
Coffee downstairs
Met up with Julie on Deck 14 in the sun.
Watched Princess Pyramids.
Had a bite to eat
2.00 Kaoru and I did a waltz class
Drink downstairs
4.15 Trivia
Mum and Dad’s room for Proseco
5.30 all 8 of us went for dinner
7.00 we did “Twisted Trivia”
7.45 we watched “The Drop” do “Guitar legends”
8.15 we went back to the restaurant for dessert and lemonchello.
8.45 we watch the Maori singer again.
9.45 we watched George Kapiniaris – a stand up comedian
Sunday December 29, 2019
Auckland
We woke about 7. We had left the curtain open and were hoping for a lovely view of Auckland. Instead, all we could see out our window was the Hilton hotel! A bit disappointing as we had booked our complimentary balcony breakfast for this morning. Oh well…
Food came in about 7.20. And oh so much food! Pastries, bacon, tomato and cheese, quiche, fruit, smoked salmon…we ate maybe just over half. We put the Proseco in the fridge for sharing later.
Mum is better and having breakfast so we went and said hi. Then we walked around Auckland. We bought some water from the supermarket, and found that they don’t sell spirits in the supermarkets (but you can buy wine).
After some wandering, we ended up at the Skytower. It was $32 each to go up. We had a great view from the 51st floor, and watch a couple of people do the Skyjump from the top (I did this back in 2007ish). We had a great view of our ship too. We then went up to the 60th floor, with much the same view, except we could watch the Skyjumpers from above. Then it was down to the cafe on the 50th. We met up with Dad, Julie and the kids there. Mum had nearly fainted back near the ship so Dad had taken her back and joined the others.
We walked around a bit more and found a bottle shop for a couple small Captain Morgan’s. I bought a glass V bottle and drank that, and trans-bottled the Captain Morgan’s. There was some left over so I put that in a water bottle.
Back on the ship we had a coffee/hot chocolate and then found Mum on deck 14 having lunch, so she was better. We went to their room to mix drinks and then Mum, Dad, Julie, Kaoru, Ethan and I watched the sailaway from above the bridge again. It wasn’t as windy as y esterday and gave a great view of Auckland.
Kaoru and I had a laydown and then off to Vista lounge for “High seas heist”. It required work over the next few days including watching the tv shows for clues, so we didn’t take part. Then trivia, early dinner and shows.
Saturday December 28, 2019
Tauronga / Rotarua
Tried to hire a car but no luck – they only had 3 and the were all gone (and only 1 that would have fit Kaoru, Julie, the kids and me). Another ship arrived too, after ours, so they would have no luck.
We found a bus that was going to Rotarua so caught that. We had time for 2 runs on the luge. Julie went with Ethan (separate luges), and I went with Izzy and David. Kaoru just watched and walked around.
We got a message from Dad. Mum was sick and had to go to the Doctors. He put her in quarantine as she was running a fever.
We got back to port, and stood on top of the bridge for the sail away. It was very windy, but gave us a spectacular view as we went out to sea.
The show was a singer, who happened to be Maori. He engaged the audience in a couple of the songs, and was fantastic.
After a drink in the Explorer bar, Julie came back to our room to have a tea on the balcony, and then we called it a night.
Friday December 27, 2019
Sea day
Busy but not.
Wandered ship.
Load of washing.
I didn’t take any notes during the day so now have no recollection!
Thursday December 26, 2019
Wellington
We had left our curtains open last night to hopefully watch the sun rise, as we would be travelling North and we were on the right of the ship. At 6.00 it was already bright and we were well in the bay. I got up and watched 2 tugs hold us against the dock while we were being moored on the other side. We could see planes take off and many other ships in the bay. Then it was back to bed.
We got up a bit later and went to breakfast. We got sun cream on and were ready to start the day. We met about 9.25 in the casino for our tour. We got on our bus and drove around the bay to the lighthouse. They supposedly call this “Windy Wellington”. It’s windy 160 days of the year, but it was a lovely day for us in the sun. Our bus driver was a Maori and very entertaining.
At the end we had a light snack and drink, and were treated to a working dog demonstration. We watched a couple of dogs round up half a dozen sheep. It was great watching the dogs respond to different sounds of a whistle.
The bus then took us in to town, providing us more knowledge on the way. Mum was feeling a bit unwell so went back to the ship, and Ethan was tired so went with her. The rest of us went to the museum and saw an amazing ANZAC display, which was quite moving. We then wandered around town looking for a pharmacy to get Mum and Kaoru some medication (Kaoru wasn’t 100% either), and then we went to a pub for a couple of beers. Dad bought some more wine to take on board. David and Izzy left us to go back to the ship – this surprised us as they had Internet here in town but not back on the ship! So they left us and made their way back to the shuttle stop. We decided to walk back, which was a K or 2. Didn’t worry me (other than needing the dunny the whoel way) but Dad was glad to be back.
We went to check on Mum. We had a drink (mum didn’t) and then Kaoru and I rushed off to a clue game. We didn’t do too well in it, but we arrived late so missed the first half of the questions.
We went to “the trough” for dinner and ate outside. The weather was nice and we had a great view of Wellington. Kaoru decided to go to bed and rest, and I met Mum, Dad and Julie for a “Sherlock Holmes” mystery, which was quite enjoyable. It was music trivia wrapped up in a story and we got 17 out of 20, but another team got 18.
I checked on Kaoru and then wanted to go and see 80’s music in the nightclub. So up I went by myself at 10.00 expecting to hear some great tunes. It didn’t happen though. The DJ was playing some semi-techno version of an 80’s song, and then it went to crap, so I left. I got a chamomile tea and sat on the balcony writing my diary. Julie and I met back in the lounge at 11 to listen to The Drop, and then we called it a night.
Wednesday December 25, 2019
Akaroa
Xmas morning. The ship was anchored quite a long way off shore. We all met for breakfast at 8.30 and then went to Mum and Dad’s room for presents. We got ready and met up to catch the ender to shore. It was about a 25 minute trip to shore.
We wandered around Akaroa for a while. Lots of places were closed. Kaoru and I split off and went to a bakery for something to eat. We then walked up to the Giant’s house, which is a garden filled with mosaic structures. The town is quite artsy fartsy so this was one persons contribution. It was interesting but over priced at $20 each.
We walked back to town and got an ice cream before boarding a tender back to the ship. We realised we had about an hour before trivia so had a customary xmas day nap.
I got ready and went to Mum and Dad’s room while Kaoru prepared. Dad and I decided against trivia with just the 2 of us so we sat outside and had a Kraken, as Mum and Julie eventually got ready and cracked bubbles. Kaoru came down once she was ready too. All 8 of us then went to the restaurant for our 5.15 dinner.
In the usual Christmas tradition, Mum had brought hats, name tags, her “Friends” (that sing the 12 days of xmas), chocolte Santa’s, and something new – serviettes with some special fold technique, which she had just gotten from Aunty Lynette.
Dinner was average – nothing compares to Mum’s xmas meal! But enjoyable nonetheless. After dessert we raced off to do a xmas song trivia (which we were dismal at), and then went to see “A Christmas Story”, put on by the crew, with an aussie theme. It was quite enjoyable, but only Mum, Dad, Kaoru and I went, and we had to stand as it was full.
Back to the Explorer’s lounge to watch “The Drop” do a few songs, before “Battle of the Sexes Kaoaoke”, which both Dad and I (as well as Mum and Julie) joined in on. Then The Drop came back on to do some more tunes by which time we were getting tired so went to Deck 14 and had a chamomile tea on our balcony.
Xmas is done for another yer.
Tuesday December 24, 2019
Picton
We arrived in port about 7.30 / 8.0. Looked out the window and we were in a working dock. Thousands of logs waiting for export.
Casual breakfast and relaxed for morning.
10.40 met in casino for day trip. We caught a bus through the dock. The tour was running late so we walked around Picton for half an hour and then got on our 2.5 hr catamaran tour.
Fantastic tour of the Queen Charlotte sounds. The guide was very knowledgable as well as entertaining, and made the trip even better. We stopped in a bay to feed some fish, and also in a peaceful little bay.
Back in town we walked around and did some shopping at the grocery store. A bottle of white wine, tonic water and something to eat. We bumped in to Mum and Dad inside and Julie and the kids as we left.
We walked back to the bus stop and caught a shuttle back to the ship. Trivia, champagne, dinner, a show and then back to Mum and Dad’s room to lay pillow cases. Kaoru nad I went to Explorer Bar to watch the band and then take part in a game show. We made jury’s of 12 and had to work out what the verdict woul dhave been on a number of cases. It was about midnight by the time we got to bed.
Monday December 23, 2019
We had a slow start again. At about 8.30 there was an announcement shipwide for the medical response team to go to the restaurant. Hope that’s not a sign of food poisoning! After a quick shower we went down to eat.
After breakfast we watched a fruit and vegetable carving demonstration and had a coffee/hot chocolate. It was amazing to see them use skewers to stick bits of food together to create a bunny rabbit or bird. We then did our teeth and went up to deck 14 to watch the ice carving demonstration. Again, just mind blowing. We had no idea what they were making until the presented it to us. The level of detail was superb!
We wandered around to kill some time, and went to the gym to spend 15 minutes on the treadmill as we couldn’t walk deck 7. We then went to watch the game show “In it to win it”. I put my name down but didn’t get drawn out. But it entertained us for a bit. By the time it was over we were ready for a late lunch so got something light, and then back for a swing and jive class! Again the class was fun but they tried teaching too much so we could never get the hang of any steps.
We went back to the Piazza for some dessert and hot chocolate, and chilled a bit. Before we knew it, it was time for 4.00 trivia. So we got a seat for everybody and once again didn’t go too well. Then to our usual routine of a drink in Mum and Dad’s suite, and then dinner. We were sent to level 6 as the restaurant on level 5 didn’t have a table for 6 (David and Izzy were off with their friends). Dessert also entailed Baileys for Dad and I, and Lemonchello for the ladies. We then went to the music trivia to see if we could clean up again. We missed a couple this time though.
We had taken some wine which was empty by the end of the game. So I ordered Tokyo Iced Teas for Dad and I. Julie and Mum were dancing but by the time Julie was off she wanted one too.
We then went to see “The Juggler” – another performer. Kaoru was tired so missed out. Mum decided to get in on the Tokyo Iced Tea action. Julie had to go and get Ethan so she missed the first half. He was an amazing performer and we were all in stitches as he was comical as well as entertaining.
After the show I went and got a camomile tea and read a chapter of my book on the balcony.
Sunday December 22, 2019
We woke a bit earlier today. So after a shower we went down to breakfast. 5 other people were seated with us so we exchanged stories as we ate.
We went back to the room via Julies, and saw Mum and Dad, so Kaoru put on the first load of washing. Our room had been cleaned while we were eating. After teeth and some writing of my diary we put the washing in the dryer and went downstairs for a coffee and hot chocolate. It was quite crowded so we had to join a couple who were on their first cruise. We had a bit of a chat to them while enjoying our drinks and then went to get the washing out.
Mum and Kaoru folded washing and we talked about a Picton tour. We then passed time until 1.00 to do a salsa class. We learnt a few new moves which will have left our heads by the end of the trip (if not the day!)
We had a bit to eat on the 14th floor as a late lunch. We enjoyed it outside in the fresh air and relaxed a bit. But then decided to have a siesta, so went to our room for a nap.
We woke and met up at 4.15 trivia, which we crashed and burned at, but still enjoyable. Then we met in Mum and Dad’s room for champagne and cheese (from deck 14), and Dad and I moved to the Kraken. Then it was off to our rooms to prepare for the evening. Kaoru left earlier to make a start. I just put on a my suit and tie and was ready for the first formal night.
I went to Mum and Dad’s room to grab a Kraken and then we went down to the music trivia. By the time the trivia was over we had all congregated together. And we were much better at the music one, getting 20 out of 20! Of course that was because it was easy and several teams had a perfect score, so there was an extra question that we had to write down the answer for. The people next to us (who weren’t playing) gave us the answer and Julie ran up with it. So we won! Izzy was given a Princess magnet and we were given a bottle of champagne (we later found out it was a pretty crap bottle of “french” champagne – not really a prize!)
We then went to the Crown Grill for our formal evening, compliments of Geelong Travel. Dad brought along a bottle of Pepperjack which went great with my fillet mignon. It was a fantastic meal and we were too full for dessert. Luckily we had to leave to catch the show – Born To Dance. So we asked them to send dessert to Mum and Dad’s room and we rushed off.
We had seen this show before. We think on the Tasmania cruise 2 years ago. But this was a different cast and still enjoyable. Once the show was over we went back to Mum and Dad’s room and ate desert. Then we realized it was nearly 11.30! So we went downstairs for a specialty tea (which wasn’t really any different to getting it from upstairs, except it was larger) and took that back to our room. We got ready for bed and called it a night.
Saturday December 21st, 2019
We woke and realized it was almost 9.00 and breakfast closes at 9.30. So we threw on some clothes and went down to deck 6. David found us on the way so the 3 of us went to the restaurant and our table was eventually filled with other people so we could order. I had all bran and an omelette.
Not long after food arrived Kaoru wasn’t feeling too good. She had a headache and hadn’t slept well so she went back to the room. David and I finished our breakfast and then I went back to clean my teeth. I told Kaoru to stay in bed, while I went down to meet the others.
David got some sea sickness bands for Kaoru in case that’s what was affecting her, so I took them to the room. She was fast asleep so I quietly dropped them off and went for a wander around the ship.
12.00 we all met at the Crown Grill for a British lunch. Kaoru didn’t each much; Dad and I enjoyed the steak and kidney pie, Mum and Kaoru tried a ploughmans, and Julie went for the Fish and Chips. David and Izzy had bangers and mash, while Ethan had Mum and Kaoru’s break.
Kaoru and I did a few laps of the ship to pass the time and then went to watch the destination presentation for Picton and Akaroa. There was a strong perfume so Kaoru had to leave it and go lay down. I had trouble staying awake for the presentation so once it was over I went and joined Kaoru for a lay down.
We all met again at 4.15 for trivia and then just after 5 in Mum and Dad’s room after changing for dinner, to crack a champagne (followed by a cheeky dark and stormy for Dad and I). We then went to Bernini’s for dinner with a bottle of white.
We had to skip dessert and rush off to the auditorium to watch the stand up comedian. He was just telling old one liners, although there were a couple of new ones in there. Not anything fantastic though. Then Julie, Kaoru and I went to the Yes/No game (Kaoru and I got dessert first). Julie put us both down but only she got called up. She had to go 3 minutes without saying “Yes” or “No”. 2.5 minutes in she starts laughing and tells the quiz master that he missed it because she said no already! So she dobbed herself in and missed out on the bottle of champagne.
We then saw the 10.15 presentation of Motor City – the nights performance. Some good songs but I didn’t think it was too special. By the time it was over Kaoru and I were getting tired so we called it a night.
Friday December 20, 2019
We were packing until about midnight and were mostly done. We woke up, Kaoru did last washing and cleaning and I worked. We got everything done by 12 and had a 30 minute sit down before the bus arrived to pick us up, with mum and dad, Julie, Izzy, David and Ethan. We loaded the bus with our 3 suitcases and were on our way.
The line for dropping us off was long due to the number of passengers. Luckily we were in an air conditioned car as it was 40 degrees outside. Check in was the fastest we were ever in. We went straight to the check in desk with no wait. Then through customs and on to the boat.
It was the same boat as our Tasmania trip 2 years ago. And our balcony room was almost identical, however looks aged over the last 2 years. We walked around and got our bearings.
We weren’t made aware of our departure. I looked out the window at one point and we were moving! We wouldn’t have wanted to be up the top deck for it though as it was too hot outside. As we were near land we were able to keep in touch with what’s app which kept us going until we all set up on the internal network.
We met in mum and dads suite at 6 for champagne. At times it was cool outside and then it would get stinking hot again. We waved goodbye to port Philip bay and watched the pilot get on the boat to take him home. Then we all went to dinner in Berninis.
After a few laps of deck 7 (2.5 laps is 1 mile), Julie, Izzy, Kaoru and i went to see the band play for a bit. David came with his mates and asked to leave Ethan behind, which made him a bit grumpy, especially as he was already over tired. A long island ice tea for me and espresso martinis for the girls took us to karaoke time but it was getting late, and clocks had to go forward an hour so we called it a night.
Tuesday July 16, 2019
I was awake before the 6.30 alarm. I had a chat to Kaoru and then went downstairs for some breakfast. It was mayhem in the restaurant. I closed my suitcase, checked out and caught the shuttle to the airport.
Checked in, waited for the flight, and eventually got home.
Melbourne airport is really slow for getting bags! After immigration I was waiting >20 minutes for my bags to arrive.
But I’m home after a wonderful holiday!
Monday July 15, 2019
We have been traveling east for 11 hours – not sure what part of the flight we will say this started, but nothing happened anyway until about 10 minutes before landing when the girl across the aisle from me vomited butdidn’t look for a sick bag and just did it in theaisle. So the stewardesses had to work to get it all cleaned up quickly and get themselves seated for landing. Luckily none splashed on me.
Kaoru came through immigration with me. It was our first international arrival at Haneda. We had landed there once before coming back from hokkaido with Michael and Leila. Immigration was busy and we were in line for a good half hour. On the plus side, by the time we were through our bags were ready and we left.
We caught the bus to Futako tamagawa – theusual location when we are starting at Mio’s.Then a taxi to her house, and arrived just after 7. Mio gave us some food and then i went for a lay down to get some sleep, about8.
I was surprised that the next thing i knew it was 10! I dozed for a while and dropped off again until a bit after 11. I had a shower to freshen up a bit and went downstairs. Everybody was there (Nakao’s, plus Yoichi was home) so I said hello and we moved to the kitchen table to start eating and drinking.When we booked this trip we realized we hadto do an overnighter. By coincidence the day we were staying was a public holiday! Which meant we got to see everybody.
We started with some champagne and a spread Mio put on, and then beer. At 1.00 two large trays of sushi arrived. We were a bit quieter than in the past, for several reasons. All a bit older and wiser, me being tired, Yoichi had been out the previous night…but it was as enjoyable as ever. Kaoru disappeared for a sleep which i could tell sheneeded from a long time earlier. I went and had a half hour “recharge”, and got up to say goodbye to Minami as she had to go to Jouku. I then stayed downstairs and had a few more drinks, more food, and a green tea, which got me going. Mio, Kenichi, Yukari, Arisa and i played some card games.
As much fun as i was having, i thought i really do need to leave. I checked the Narita express train times and found they stop running at 8.30. And the last bus was 8.50. Crap. Plans a and b were not going to work as i couldn’t get to either on time. So it wouldhave to be a local train instead. Kozue drove us to the train station and Kaoru and i got ona train to Skytree (she didn’t trust me to get there on my own). We rushed to the connecting platform, said goodbye and i wasoff. Kaoru caught the train back to Mio’s.
It took about 90 minutes to get to the airport,and then i caught the free hotel shuttle bus to Narita View Hotel and checked in. I actually had a decent sized room! I had a bath (cause that’s what you do in Japan) andwent to bed.
Sunday July 14, 2019
The alarm was set for 6 but we were both awake before then. So we caught an earlier “Hoppa” bus to the airport than expected. Kaoru took the bags on a trolley to the tax refund counter, and because the line was long, i took our oyster cards to get refunded. Unfortunately because there was more than £10 on them i couldn’t do it at a machine, so was told where to go to the ticket office. Once I got there though, i was informed it didn’t open until 8 (it was about 7 at the moment).
I did the 7 minute walk back to where Kaoru was, and still hadn’t moved too far. So i wentto get some breakfast while Kaoru finished, and then we checked in. We went to the cafe to get Kaoru a coffee, and it was about 7.45. So i left Kaoru to relax and i went to do the oyster refunds. Luckily i left a little early as there was already a line forming at the visitoroffice, and by the time it opened it was even longer. But i got our £16.50 back for each of them which meant we now had some moneyto spend.
We went through security and wandered around the shops. Kaoru bought something from Harrods, and we bought a few other goodies. Our plane boarded on time at 920, but took off later than the 940 scheduled departure. It was probably closer to 1030 by the time wheels were off the ground.
We watched a couple of movies and got a little bit of sleep on the flight. We had a magnificent red sunset out the window! The 11 hour flight was long but non eventful.
Saturday July 13, 2019
It was nearly 9 when we woke up this morning. I had some toast and tea for breakfast, and passed the time until Hamish got up, and we all chatted for a while.
Kaoru, Yukari, Sean and i went in to the market. It was about a 25 minute walk in. There we bought some fish, veggies, wine and some bread. We got back to the house about 2, and Hamish and i got the (coal) bbq going, and then Kaoru and i went to the bottle shop to get some beers for Hamish and i. Hamish had bought some beautiful aged beef that we were going to cook along with the fish for the girls, while they preparedsome lovely accompanying salads.
I took the beef off earlier than Hamish was expecting, but to me it was perfect, and Hamish also enjoyed the meat a bit rarer than normal. The fish needed a bit longer though. We sat outside and enjoyed the sun, food, drinks and company.
Kaoru and i assessed a few different options to get to our hotel for the night (near Heathrow). We eventually decided to just get a car all the way – we were able to lock in £45, and it saved changing trains and buses, and also meant we didn’t need the un-air conditioned tube. It was considerably later than we expected by the time we got away, but an easy trip. The driver said he went as route about 10 miles longer but bypassed London traffic; it really was a hassle free trip,door to door. Sean was quite upset at havingto say goodbye which was very touching as it had been such a short time.
We checked in to the hotel and had some dinner. We did a little bit of repacking our suitcases as the room had a massive floor. We showered so as to not have to do it tomorrow and called it a night.
Friday July 12, 2019
I was pretty rough when i woke up this morning. I went downstairs and had a bit of food and then went back to bed. But we couldn’t waste the day so we left the house about 11.00, after a bit more food and rest; still feeling pretty bad. Hamish was at work (although he went in late) and Yukari had taken the kids to school but had other thingsto do for the day.
Kaoru and i walked in to Hackney and got a hot drink, and i also bought an apple to get some sugar and liquid in me. We then caught a bus in to London, going through Angel where Kaoru used to live, but nothing looked familiar to her. We got off at London Victoria and still nothing familiar to Kaoru; i wasn’t expecting it to look familiar to me as i only came in to London a couple of times in 2001.
We walked around for a bit towards TrafalgarSquare, and stopped somewhere for lunch. After our food stop we went to the National Gallery; it was somewhere Kaoru used to go to regularly, and she was able to make her way directly to her favorite picture – Madam de Pompedeau. The route to the picture was probably the most familiar part of the day to Kaoru!
We walked around the gallery for an hour or so, looking at a number of the works of art. We then left and had a look at Trafalgar Square. This was closed off largely, for a cricket demonstration, of different variations of the game. So we couldn’t actually get to the main structure.
We walked around for a while longer, eventually stopping for an ice cream. We even found a Moomin shop! After a bit more aimless wandering we caught a tube to London Bridge, figuring we should at least see that. We had to skip the first two “tubes” because they were too full. We pushed our way on to the 3rd. They are the most uncomfortable design for the last people on because of their shape – if you are against the wall you can’t stand up straight. There was also no air conditioning, and it was hot and muggy, so a pretty terrible experience allup.
Once we got to London Bridge, we both realized at about the same time that we wereactually thinking of Tower Bridge! Well, we were here now so we took some photos and walked halfway across the bridge for a look. We then started to walk towards the Tower Bridge, and decided to stop for food. I was getting quite hungry now which meant i finally felt sober from yesterday. Kaoru had pasta and i had lasagne and salad. Still without a beer though.
It was then time to make our way to Kings Cross, where we met up with Eiko – another of Kaoru’s friends from the travel company she was working at in the past. We found theagreed venue and went to the table Eiko had booked for us. But the venue was really loud and it wasn’t easy to communicate. We had 1 drink and then decided to leave.
We found another place very close which was much quieter. We had to wait 5 minutes for a table but it was well worth it. Yukari arrived not long after to join us, and we ordered some food and drinks. The girls mostly spoke in japanese and i just passed the time, but it was easier for them to catch up that way. Eiko had travelled about 2 hoursto get there so a good friend.
About 11ish, Yukari, Kaoru and i caught the bus home. We had to wait about 15 minutes for the right bus to come but it dropped us <5 minutes from the house. Hamish was up playing music but i was too tired to join him, as much as i wanted to, so we went to bed.
Thursday July 11, 2019
Kaoru was up early. I was woken by the bins from 8 to 820 so started the day with anothercooked breakfast. A small inflatable world issue to deal with, and then we finalized our packing and passed the time. The 3 of us caught an 11.50 bus to Oxford.
We went to the John Lewis cafe between the bus stop and our next bus departure point, and had some lunch. We said thank you and goodbye, and Kaoru and I caught the 1.15 bus to Shepherd’s Bush, where we bought anoyster card and caught the overground to Hackney Central, although enroute found thenext stop to be better. Once off the train we got our bearings and made our way to Yukariand Hamish’s, but stopped at Tesco on the way for some food.
Hamish wasn’t home from work when we arrived. I had spoken to Yukari a couple of times on Skype before but it was the first time of meeting her and the kids (Jana and Sean). Jana was a bit shy at first but eventually opened up. Sean was a chatterbox from the second the door opened.Watching this 4 year old talk confidently in Japanese and English was amazing.
Kaoru and Yukuri went to the shops to get some beer and I stayed and watched the kids. Sean and i played on his slot car set and Jana did a drawing. Aunty Diane had sent me back with her old badge making set so i got that out of the suitcase thinking she might like to immortalize a drawing. She loved it! So we made a couple of badges and a fridge magnet.
Hamish got home so we met, and after a bottle of red was drunk (with the babysitter assisting too) we caught an uber to dinner. We went to a nice tapas place that charged like a wounded bull and had small servings; but they were all delicious. During our first glass of bubbles Hamish announced that tonight was their 10 year wedding anniversary! So it was something to celebrate, and celebrate we did.
We split the bill and then went to another barwhere we had a couple more glasses of wine, i got to know Hamish better, and the girls got to have a good catch up. Eventually we caught an uber home, where Hamish and i had some scotch whisky and a stout as a night cap.
Wednesday July 10, 2019
No need to get up early, but Kaoru was back to her usual self so up bright and early. I got up and cooked breakfast and got ready to start the day.
We left about 10.30 and caught the bus in to Oxford. We then worked out the route to Glouster green in preparation for tomorrow. We picked up some bus timetables and checked prices. Some were £8 and some were £9 for the exact same place (London Victoria). So we took them with us and walked to the train station, and then to the Oxford playhouse where i used to work. It had a new paint coat and different clientele to when i was there, but looked largely the same. We then walked around Oxford to see if anything looked familiar. Very little. It was certainly much busier than either of us recalled but the streets and buildings were largely just like a new experience.
We stopped for some lunch and had a look at the drop off points for the buses, to assess ease of access. We also found what looked like a better way to get on the bus at the start, so we walked that to check it out – much easier! We walked around a Tesco express to pass the time and then met AuntyDiane at the Head of the River pub.
We bought tickets and then joined the 2.30 river boat ride to Abingdon. Aunty Diane had done this a few weeks ago, and i always wanted to experience a lock, so we thought this would be an enjoyable activity. In 2 hours we went through 3 locks down the Thames (or Isis, as it is called in the Oxford section), and had a generally enjoyable ride. Aunty Diane had bought some banana cake for a snack as well.
Once at Abingdon i got some more money out (at a much better exchange rate) and we caught the next bus back to Radley to get home. I then went next door to say hello to Eric and have a bit of a chat. I had forgotten what a card he was. So we caught up on a few stories for half an hour or so and then i went home.
Dinner tonight was spaghetti. I had never had this with Aunty Diane in the UK because of foot in mouth disease last time i was here,and a tart for dessert. We then couldn’t put it off any longer – we had to pack. It was surprising how we arrived with 2 suitcases, found very little in the roof to come back, but filled 3 suitcases! We had packed very loosely to ensure things didn’t bounce around, but still. ..
After a bit more talking and an email tidy up we called it a night.
Tuesday July 9, 2019
We had a great sleep in this morning. Nothing to wake up for, no noise, a dark room. ..It was about 9 when we got out of bed.
I cooked breakfast (bacon and egg sandwich) and we planned our day. First job was to go up in the roof and sort out stuff i had left here in 2002 when i left. It was a great nostalgic trip seeing old skydiving t shirts, maps and postcards collected from my travels, as well as old guidebooks and other assorted odds and ends -even old payslips, for £4.30/hour! Most of them just ended up in a box for the salvos or the rubbish bin, and a very small amount went inthe “coming home” pile. Kaoru was happy asit meant more suitcase space for her to fill up!
After a shower we drove in to Abingdon and went to the bank – i had a statement showing ~£50 and wanted to see if i could get my hands on it. I had previously communicated with the bank and they had told me to just come in with id. But no. They needed proof of my current address, bank account for it to go in to (in my name, meaning exchange rates, etc, as that would be in Australia) and it would take some time. I decided it wasn’t worth my time, as i would have to come back in.
We had lunch at a Costa coffee as it was something Kaoru remembered. After lunch we had a walk around Abingdon, Aunty Diane pointing all the sights out. We stoppedat a pub and Kaoru and I had a drink (warm beer on a hot day. ..disgusting) while Aunty Diane moved her car (she was in a 2 hour free zone). We met back at the museum/old town hall, and Kaoru and i went to the top for the scenic lookout. There was a volunteer up there who pointed out the sights in every direction, making it well worth the £2 each.
We only had 5-10 minutes to look at the museum as it was nearly closing time. So werushed through that (luckily not too big) and were done. We were taken around the rest of Aunty Diane’s favorite places before going back home. We relaxed for a while and had dinner (salmon and salad), and played a few games of “Set” a pattern recognition card game Aunty Diane had. We had a look at some options for getting to Yukari’s house, and then i took Kaoru up to the pub for a drink. She had a nice cold cider and i thoughtI’d give english beer another go. Nope. Last one. We went back home, chatted for a while and went to bed.
Monday July 8, 2019
It was no alarm this morning – there was no need. We grabbed a small bite from the supermarket and packed our bags. I weighedmine and it was ~26kg. We were allowed 2 bags of 23kg, so we did some shuffling between Kaoru’s bag and mine until i was down to about 24kg. This took us longer than expected and it was now 10.30.
We went to Pipsa’s flat to return the key to Bambi, and say goodbye to her and Tommi. We then went outside to catch our 11.00 busto the airport. Once there we had to use a Checkin kiosk. It told us the flight was overbooked and asked if we would volunteer to catch a different flight. Ummmm…no. We weren’t even next to each other although we were only one row apart and both had aisle seats so it wasn’t too bad.
I grabbed some food as i was quite hungry by now, and then we went through security and slowly looked at the shops. Eventually we were at a passport control checkpoint, which we weren’t expecting as we were still in the EU. But we even had our passport stamped. I was starting to get concerned – Kaoru had been told that she should do the tax free receipts in the UK; i hope they were right! Well find out in a week or so.
We found the gate as we were starting to wonder how far away it was. We then came back to look at shops and passed the time. We bought some food for the flight, and Kaoru bought some blueberry jam, getting ourselves down to just €10 exactly left over, so we considered that another win; and finally we boarded. Because of my silver status we could board early which was great- it meant we were guaranteed a spot to put our bags. We waited for the plane to fill up, and finally pushed off about 20 minutes late. Hopefully we will make the time up over the 3 hour flight.
The people i was sitting next to were friendly.I had a good chat to them. She spoke Russian and they had spent some time in St Petersburg. I was very interested as we weregoing to go there but decided we didn’t have enough time. They are the only people i haveheard say they didn’t enjoy the country. The people were rude and would ignore them, even though they could communicate directly with them. I think everybody else i have spoken to had done a tour so that mustbe the secret. I took a mental note that we had to do a tour when we do make it there.
The flight was uneventful and eventually we landed on time at 3.05. We collected our bags and got some money out from an ATM.First time I’ve been screwed with my ING card (but not INGs fault). The rate was worked out by the ATM rather than just giving me £’s and ING working it out. So i gota shitful rate. But at least i had money.
Aunty Diane was waiting to pick us up. So we got our 2 suitcases into her small car, plus the 3 of us, and off we went. It was a hotday -the car was saying 29! It was quite loudwith the windows open but it was needed! We went to Sainsburys to buy some ginger ale (i had some bourbon from Tallinn) and some dessert and then went to the house, unloaded the car and sat down.
After a bit of a chat we got dinner organized (cold pie and salad), had dessert (meringues) and then spent the rest of the night talking.
Sunday July 7, 2019
We were awoken about 6.30 to the noise of cars getting on the ferry. Even though we had boarded last night, departure isn’t until 8.00. Fantastic business idea – the ferry has to stay in port and incur costs, so they just open it up as a hotel and make a bit of money from it! Of course only passengers can stay, but it actually worked out cheaper for us than a hotel, and we didn’t have the stress of checking out and getting to the porton time.
We slept on and off for an hour and my alarmwent off at 7.30. Our breakfast was booked for 7.45 so we went and ate from the buffet, as the ship pulled out of port. After breakfast we went back to bed for an hour, and my alarm woke us again at 9.30. We were feelingmuch better after that extra hour! So we showered and watched the ferry go past Suomenlinna from the luxury of our couch, looking out the front windows. The whole tripin looked great, and once docked we headed towards the door to leave. We looked in a couple of rooms that were open, so could see what the interior rooms were like – we were certainly happier with what we had!
We disembarked and caught the tram and bus back home; we dropped our bags off, grabbed some things for the day, and headed off while our 90 minute ticket was still valid. Kaoru had read about the silent chapel in Kamppi so we went there. It was totally different architecture to any chapel wehad seen before. No big steeple on top and built of wood, but a modern design. Inside was very basic as it was Lutherian. Just some pews and a small alter; but they don’t do sermons there.
We then rushed off to get a bus; strictly speaking, as we understood it, a single trip ticket allows for changes to get to your destination, but you have to board the last transport within 90 minutes of buying the ticket. So we convinced ourselves that the stops at the house and chapel were just “transfer points” and we weren’t really finishing the trip yet. So the bus took us north, as we wanted to go to the Siberian monument. The bus took us close but we still had to walk 500 metres or so. We saw a Fazar cafe (the famous Finnish chocolate) so stopped there for a hot chocolate. Then just as we left it started to rain.
We had driven past the monument on the tour bus a few days ago, but now we got to have a closer look. We were hoping the rain would mean less tourists, but no, there were a few buses there so it was quite crowded. We took some photos and headed off.
Our plan, now that our ticket had expired, was to walk home. It was only about 4k according to Google maps. So we enjoyed the exercise and our last walk in Helsinki, even with the light rain. We stopped for lunchat a bakery which didn’t have a menu in English but the staff spoke great english and translated it for us. I also tried Google translate which did a good job. So we had salmon soup, and a shrimp salad, both of which were delicious but we struggled to finish it all.
Back at the house we did that job that always sucks at the end of a holiday – packing. We got things more or less organized and then passed the time until Pipsa and the boys got home. We then all went out for dinner. Kaoru and i wanted to take them out, especially Tommi as he gave up his apartment for us so we had a place of our own during our stay. So we took them to a sushi restaurant, which was actually an all you can eat buffet for €15.90 (and €11 for Bambi). We were wanting something “nicer” but they were all happy with it. The quality wasn’t that good although the salmon was great. The wasabi was terrible and had no kick. Pipsa had previously told me she didn’t eat wasabi in Helsinki and now i knew why. i told her that if she comes here again, bring the tube of wasabi we had bought them.
We were all pretty stuffed as we walked out. We then piled in to Tommi’s new car and he took us to his work. He is a producer so at his office there is a full size cinema screen and a few couches for customers to preview movies. We watched “Big Game” which has Samuel k Jackson in it and was filmed in Finland. It was one that Tommi’s company had produced.
After the movie we went back home and saidgoodbye to Ville. Pipsa came over to our room with a present for us to take to Aunty Diane. We said goodbye to her and then went to bed. It was actually dark. We couldn’t believe that in just over 2 weeks it had changed so much.
Saturday July 6, 2019
The alarm went off at 730. Kaoru was already up. We went downstairs and bought a salad for breakfast, brushed our teeth and were out of home by 830, on our way to the ferry terminal. The tram we wanted doesn’t start until 915 on Saturdays though, so we had to walk from central to the ferry terminal.
We didn’t have as much time wasted sitting around this time, as we knew how easy it was. So we were able to go straight to the departure lounge and wait for our call. We left on time (maybe even a little early) at 10.30. The ferry trip over wasn’t exciting – it was 2.75 hours this time though so noticablylonger. We found some seats and had a bit of a sleep. Then wandered the ship a bit.
Once in Estonia we returned our bus passes. We were expecting to get remaining credit refunded but (we thought roughly €2.80, plus the €2 deposit) but we only got the €2 deposit back. so that pissed us off a bit as we suspected she was going to do it after weleft and pocket it herself.
Then we went to an alcohol shop to buy some beer for Tommi. It was nearly half the price! I also bought a bottle of bourbon to take to the uk. We put the alcohol and our overnight bag in a locker at the station and were ready to start our day.
It was well past lunchtime so we found a place to eat. They had these little dumpling type things so i got meat and Kaoru got salmon. There would have been about 20 of each and we polished them off. Really nice and filling.
We then walked in to the old town. We came in a different gate so ended up in a part we hadn’t already seen. We found the centre square where i had read there would be a medievil market, but there was nothing. So we went to the tourist information to ask what time the parade starts. We are over here for the song and dance festival – a once-every-5-years event, and it starts with a parade so we wanted to see that. We walked out to the main road and there was a sea of spectators as well as and endless procession of people dressed in traditional Estonian outfits. Sometimes there were primary school kids, sometimes older people, sometimes playing music…We watched for awhile and took a heap of photos, and then started walking on towards the festival grounds.
We stopped at a fancy cafe for an hour or so.I had a macha latte and Kaoru had a latte. We didn’t need to be at the festival grounds for a couple of hours and enjoyed the sit down after all the walking. But we left and went to a supermarket to buy some food for the trip home, and a bottle of juice to drink.
We followed the procession another 15 minutes or so and went in to the festival ground. I think the entire population was there! Somehow we managed to find a spot on the grass to sit, but we were behind the speakers (so it was very loud) and we couldn’t see the screen. The audience were trying to get a Mexican wave going, and when they finally succeeded in going from the stage all the way to the back it was followed with a round of applause.
We were sitting on our homemade “sheets”. The ground was mostly dry, even though it had been raining earlier, as we were in the sun. But this kept us nice and clean, and i managed to lay down and even had a power nap!
The song festival was enjoyable. We couldn’tunderstand what they were saying and there was no translations, but the sense of pride these people had was very strong. I could see tears in the eye of one lady as they were singing what i assume was the national anthum.
Kaoru went and got us some food from a tent which was locally cooked meat, potatoes and sauerkraut. I got an ice cream for dessert, as it was still nice and warm in the sun. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
It was due to finish at 10. Boarding for our ferry starts at 11.30, and we estimated a 45 minute walk back to the port; but if everybody was leaving at once it would be much longer, and difficult to not get separated. So we headed off about 915, firstly by walking as close to the front as we could get, so we could experience the crowd more.
We walked in what we thought was the general direction of the port. We didn’t want to go on the main road again so walked through a park. There was a Japanese garden in it, with some japanese writing in it.Kaoru explained it was about a bloke who was giving visas to people even after being told he couldn’t, to let the Jews out of the country during communist rule.
Eventually we ended up back on the main road. We went in to a supermarket as we hadlearnt Finland doesn’t accept 1 and 2 cent coins, but we had a couple from our Baltic trip last week. We found a piece of chocolate for 27c which got rid of a heap of coins, and we felt like we had won, after losing the money from our bus passes.
As we approached the ferry terminal we werewell on time so stopped at a bar for a cider and rest. We got some more euro out from the ATM and went to the ferry port to pass the last 15 minutes before boarding.
Once on board we found our room. We had booked an interior room, so it would be dark (it was only one night). So we searched for our room and found we had the very front cabin (as in, facing the front of the ship)! We had 2 massive windows, and room for 2 more (but they were not cut out). We had a separate sitting and sleeping area! We had a huge bathroom! This was almost as big as the suites mum and dad get on their cruises!There was no bath but a massive shower. Then Kaoru opened the fridge and there was a sign saying “please enjoy these complimentary drinks”, which included a bottle of champagne. I had a look on the escape strategy diagram on the door and this was by far the biggest room on the ship.
We looked at our ticket and upon closer inspection, we must have decided to treat ourselves (since we weren’t paying accommodation), and we had in fact paid fora window room – the inside ones were all bunk beds. So the upgrade wasn’t quite as big as we had originally thought. But it was still a much better room than we had expected and the complimentary drinks werestill a surprise, so we cracked the bottle and watched the tv for a bit, before going to bed.
Thursday July 4, 2019
We woke around 8.30, and realizing we only had an hour before breakfast closed, went downstairs before showering. It was a big buffet with mostly Finnish style food. I had cold meats, salad, cheese, yogurt, fruit salad and hot chocolate.
After breakfast we showered and headed outfor the day. I left my backpack behind and just carried a water bottle, so it was a very easy day. We started by walking in to town and were pleasantly surprised to see a market operating! So we wandered through that, enjoying the smells of the fresh fruit.
We then walked along the water (Savonlinna is an island so there was plenty of it!) to the museum and walked around that for a bit. We then went to the castle and paid €10 for entrance to check it out. There was a guided tour starting in 10 minutes so we did that, and were able to go up into the towers, and learn some of the history of the castle.
By the time the tour was over it was almost 1.00 and we were hungry. Pipsa had told us about Hesburger -a Finnish fast food restaurant that was supposed to be good. We were thinking something like Mosburger, so thought we should give it a go; we had noticed one back in town. So in we went for our first and last. It really was just the same as McDonalds.
We went back to the market to get a Savonlinnain specialty – Lorsty (??). We had the sweet version – Kaoru had cloudberry and I had vanilla. It was basically a flat jam donut; it was nice and cleared the taste of fast burger from our mouths.
We had time to kill so walked aimlessly; we went in the Savinkinna cathedral, and a few other stores. About 3.00 I was feeling sleepy so went back to the hotel for a nap while Kaoru walked around on her own. By 4.30 Kaoru was back so we showered and put on our good clothes for the reason we had come all this way – our evening at the opera.
We were here to see The Barber of Seville. Kaoru had been to an opera before but it wasmy first time. We stopped by the supermarket to get a sandwich, and then had a beer at a food van just outside the castle walls, before excitedly going inside. We were still early so had to wait before we could take our seats.
The show was very enjoyable; a real modern version with some comedy in it. There were screens that gave a few english words to let you know the storyline at the current location. At interval i bought a bottle of waterbecause my mouth was getting quite dry.
The show finished around 10.15, so we went to the supermarket and bought an ice cream.I also had a drink left from yesterday’s purchase so we had that in the room and watched tv before bed.
Wednesday July 3, 2019
Today was another slowish start. However something made Kaoru look at the train tickets and she noticed they were for tomorrow instead of today! So panic set in.
We went to the R kiosk downstairs and explained the situation. Luckily the person spoke and understood english so it wasn’t hard to get the problem rectified.
We didn’t have anything on until 11, so went to a cafe next to the R kiosk for breakfast, reorganized our bags, and headed off about 10.30. We caught the train to the city and goton a Panorama tour. It was still (just) with the 48 hours (by 17 minutes). So we got the same seats as we had used yesterday and enjoyed a different route of Helsinki. This included a stop at the rock cathedral – a cathedral built into the granite rock. It was a nice place but very touristy, and the staff were constantly shushing everybody. Unfortunately we were there 10 minutes afterour Helsinki card had run out so we had to pay the €3 to get in.
The tour finished late and we already had a tight schedule. So we hurried through the city and got to the train station with just enough time to get a sandwich for lunch, andthen got on our intercity train.
Strangely enough the seats on our ticket hadus sitting on either side of the aisle; so we summized the train was going to be full. But there was nobody next to, in front of, or behind me. Kaoru had somebody next to andin front of her. Strange.
On the journey we were watching as the scheduled time to get to each station, and the current time, were getting further and further apart. We knew there was a 6 minute transfer time, and by 2 stops before, we werealready over 20 minutes late. We waited withbaited breath on what would happen.
Luckily it all worked out. There was a train waiting on the platform but the screen only mentioned the train we were getting off. We saw somebody getting on the other train andasked them, and they confirmed it is going toSavonlinna. So another hour of traveling and we were there. We could see the castle as wearrived in town from the train window; it certainly stood out!
We got our bearings and walked to the hotel. It was only about 10 minutes and luckily wasn’t raining as we had hit some bad weather on the way. So we checked in to our room. This hotel wasn’t designed for couples; there were no double rooms. Our heads were at opposite ends of the bed with a big gap between! So we did some rearranging.
We were both pretty hungry so decided to treat ourselves to a proper meal. We found a restaurant with a view of the castle and shared a ceasar salad to start, with a whisky sour (it included an egg white so i had to give it a go as it was something i hadn’t seenbefore-really nice). I had lamb with lindumberries and veggies and gravy (and a beer). Kaoru had tortellini with pesto (so she didn’t have to share with me 😠). Then for dessert we had blueberry pie, with a cider dessert wine. €100 all up, so by far our most expensive meal, but it was worth every penny!
We walked closer to the castle to get some photos while nobody else was around. The castle was closed though for final rehersals. We went to the supermarket across the road and bought a few drinks (still before 9). We then went back to our room and watched tv for a couple of hours (we hadn’t done this before and needed a lazy evening).
Tuesday July 2, 2019
I needed a sleep in this morning. Kaoru wokeme to say goodbye. I didn’t realize how late itwas (~9). So off she went to do some shopping. I had a shower and did a couple ofwork things, had a Skype with mum and dad,and was ready to leave myself around 10.15.
I got some breakfast (pastries from the supermarket) and caught a bus uptown, and went to the museum of technology. I got there just as it opened (11.00), so it was lucky i didn’t get there any earlier. I had a slow, nostalgic look at the history of technology and was amazed at what has been accomplished over a relatively short time.
There were a couple of extra buildings in the museum; these were from when it was a hydro electric plant. So i got to look around them too. And given it was raining, it was a good way to spend the morning. But eventually it was time to leave. I caught a bus back down towards the city. It was a bit of a walk from the bus stop to the market. Once i had grabbed a pastry i met Kaoru at our planned meeting point, to get on an Urban bus tour – a tour of the neighborhood’s.
We got a seat upstairs and looked at what we could through the wet windows. We stopped at the Aribba factory and museum, so got to have a 40 minute walk through there. The tour finally finished at about 3.
We went in to the main cathedral, and went down to the crypt to see an art exhibition that was on down there. On our way to the train station we suddenly realised we were outside the money museum so checked out their exhibition too.
At the train station we thought we would buyour train tickets for tomorrow. We got a number and it was going to be a long wait! i asked at the information counter and was told we could buy them from an r kiosk. That sounded easier! So we got that done in a matter of minutes.
Once back at the house Kaoru had a shower and did a load of washing. We packed our bags for the next day and then went out for pizza for dinner at a normal dinner time!
After dinner i went out for a couple of beers with Tommi and Ville – it was Tuesday night, after all! So they took me to a craft beer brewery nearby. We then went back to the house for Ville to make pea soup for Pipsa (as she missed out last night). We had a chatand then went home.
Monday July 1, 2019
After a shower, the day started with us finding a cafe in the station for breakfast. The old lady in the shop spoke english so it was easy to find out what the various foods were.
Back in the room, i had to deal with some work issues while Kaoru planned the day. Once i had finished we left a little bit later than originally planned.
We caught the train in to the city first, and bought 48 hour Helsinki cards. With our Tallinn cards we got a €5 discount each which was great! We then caught the ferry over to Suomenlinna – the Finnish castle. Which is really a fort, consisting of 6 islands. We walked around a bit and then did a 1.00 guided tour of a part of one of the islands. It was a very windy day, and it was a cold wind.
We wandered round a bit more before catching a ferry back to the main land. We then walked to Amos Rex – a museum of modern art. Pipsa had told us about it and asit was included in our Helsinki pass, why not?Well it was a different exhibition than when Pipsa went and we were quite disappointed. The only consolation was that we hadn’t paid the €15 to get in.
We went outside and had a beer in a sheltered area so it wasn’t too cold, and looked at the discounts available to us with our pass. After the drink we went up to the state museum as it was only a 7 minute walkaway. I think this was my favorite museum of the trip. It had the most detail of the stone ages, and non war related historical events. Of course there were floors on the atrocities of people in the past as no museum would be compete without it.
After the museum we caught a tram back to the centre and walked to the docks. We grabbed some food from one of the few stalls still open at the market and then got on a 6.30 boat cruise around the bay (€30 worth, but included! ). Because it was so windy and cool, we went downstairs and hada drink, and stayed down there for the duration.
Once we were back at Port we got off and looked at a couple of restaurants on our way to the station, as we needed a “proper” meal instead of the junk we had been eating. But because of the food we had eaten as the cruise started, and it was already after 8, our plan was to get a pizza when we got home. On the way i got a message from Tommi inviting us to join him for a drink so we went with that option.
It was a different bar to where Kaoru and i had been last night – Tommi and Ville were on the roof top enjoying a cool beer. We wentto the supermarket before it closed and bought a few bottles, and then joined them for a couple of drinks.
Ville was going to make pea soup and invited us to join them so we thought why not? So we went back to their room and had a chat. Pipsa was in bed, so we didn’t see her. But had a couple of drinks and some good soup with a special Finnish mustard for flavoring. We then went back to our room and called it a night. It was almost even dark!
Sunday June 30, 2019
I didn’t sleep well last night. So didn’t like thealarm at 730. Shower and breakfast downstairs, last check of the room and we checked out by 9. It was a short walk to the bus stop to await our tour to Trakai castle. This was discounted €15 because of our card. We had an audio guide on the way introduce us to some history of Lithuania. We then were dropped off for 2.5 hours of free time.
We went in to the castle and explored. In the courtyard there were a set of gallows and a cage you could go in to experience medievil torture.
We then walked in to “town” (Trakai is quite asmall village), to go to the chocolate museum. This was another one on our pass, and we could see numerous chocolate sculptures. These were amazing but i wouldn’t have paid €5 to see them!
We stopped for an ice cream on the way back and passed the time before going back to the bus stop. The bus was about 5 minutes late and 6 people weren’t there. Too bad though! We don’t know if they deliberately missed it (and had told the driver) or if they were just late, but once the 4of us who were there were on, we were gone! It was much hotter today and i was feeling the fatigue and lack of adrenaline so slept for some of the way back.
We walked for a bit and then had some lunch. We had beetroot soup, beef stroganoff and a potato pie, with a cider this time. Then it wasoff to the palace for a tour, which was free today as it is the last Sunday of the month. Bonus! Plus it was air conditioned inside so lovely and cool. Double bonus! We took our time walking around as we had an hour to kill. But we hadn’t factored in the size of the place! By the end we were rushing through, getting more and more urgent as the tour took us up a floor when we needed to go down to leave.
Finally we got to the exit, grabbed or bag from the locker and hurried back to the hotel to collect our other bags. We got in a taxi and went to the airport, sad to say goodbye to this country, and the Baltic component of our holiday. We checked in and boarded our twin turbo prop back to Helsinki.
We caught the bus back to Pipsa’s place no problems at all – we were locals here now! Pipsa and Ville still weren’t back from the farm so we went to a bar nearby and had a drink and some nachos. We thought we should grab some drinks to bring to Pipsa’s, but whilst the supermarket is 24 hours, the alcohol section closes at 9. So we were out of luck.
We walked round the back thinking we wouldwait for them to get home. And they were just parking the car! Perfect timing. So we went inside and had a chat, and then grabbed the keys to Tommi’s flat. Kaoru did a load of washing. We had a shower to makesure we didn’t being back any bed bugs, and passed the time until the machine finished. Once the washing was hung up we went to bed.
Saturday June 29, 2019
Kaoru was going to wake up early and go to the market before breakfast. But she slept in,so we got up, showered and had a relaxed breakfast (again, inclusive). We left the hotel about 10.00.
Our first stop was the cathedral, for a bit of a look. Then it was off to the tourist information centre to get a few plans. We decided to get the Vilnius city card for €19.99. We got them to start it from 12.00 as we didn’t really know what we were going to useit on.
We walked around the city and went to Uzopia – a Republic within the city. They have passport stamps but i wasn’t game to put one in my passport so i just put it in a notebook. We sat down and had a drink and a think.
Once we had made our plan, the rest of the day was going to be busy. So we payed and rushed down to the market for a look, taking photos of a few sites along the way, including the gates of dawn. It was quite a small market so didn’t take us as long as we were expecting. We bought some pastries for the afternoon.
Next was to get on the “hop on hop off” bus. So we went to the ticket office, showed our Vilnius card and were given our passes, just in time to catch the bus. We were doing this as a means to an end – we needed to be back at cathedral square by 1.30 and the busarrives there at 1.28. So we got to see some of the outside of the city, and then got off and rushed to the statue.
Now for the “alternative” city walk. Not around the old city but started by catching a bus (€1) to an old neighborhood, nestled between ever-growing skyscrapers of the business district. It was a lovely area, which still didn’t have running water to the houses!
Walking through the cbd a bit, we went to the22nd floor of the Radisson hotel for a commanding view of the city. There is a bar but it was closed so we could only look out the two end windows of the rectangular shaped building. It was still great to see the city from up so high.
After a short walk we stopped for a break, where we had a crepe and i had a bottle of gira. Everybody else had tea or coffee. Then to the bus stop to go to the other end of the city.
We walked through the train station and were shown a cafe recently opened that looks out on the tracks. It was about 4.00 so too early for hipsters to be there. Then we were taken to an older part of the station where a number of trains and the platform had been converted to another hipster cafe. Not having a man-bun or beard meant i couldn’t stay for a drink😊. But it was cool to see.
We went through a number of other similarly bizarre buildings, before getting to the market. We didn’t have to rush there earlier! but at least we got pastries last time (which we had consumed by now). Our walk then concluded with us saying goodbye and giving the guide a tip, as it was a free tour.
We went to the fort and were given another museum to walk through, and more views of the city. Seeing the artifacts discovered makes it hard to comprehend the times that people have lived through.
We walked back through the village with our next destination in mind, but decided to havean ice cream. While thinking about what to get i got a tap on my shoulder. It was one of the guys from our Riga trip! They invited us to join them (they were sitting across the road) so we sat down and had a beer while sharing stories of the day. But we couldn’t stay long as there were still some things to cram in.
We rushed to the cathedral belfry but were too late. We made it 15 minutes before closing time but last entrance is 30 minutes. So no luck there.
We tried to find the entrance to the grand dukes tower but couldn’t find it. We got to the palace but didn’t want to do that right now. so instead we went back to our hotel for the toilet, and asked where the entrance was. We got conflicting directions from the 2staff members but decided if we did a lap we would have to find it.
Sure enough we got to it and started the longwalk up the rocky, cobblestone path. We were wondering where we were supposed to pay. Once we got to the top of the hill (the base of the tower) we found the ticket office and showed our card. We looked around the ground floor of the tower and were pretty disappointed at what we had seen, as there was nowhere else to go. But on our way out we were directed up some more stairs and after looking through a number of rooms along the way, eventually made it to the top. And this was the most awesome 360° view of the town!
Once photos were taken and we had enjoyedthe view for a while we made our way back down to the bottom. Then across the river and up to the top of 3 cross hill (not to be mistaken with the hill of crosses). This was atrying hike after all we had done for the day but again was worth it to look back over the town from such height. We took photos with our “Shaw and Partners” hats for Ben, as thisseemed like a nice spot to do it.
We walked back a different way and made our way to the air kitchen. It was open this time! It was basically a food truck festival with music and beer. We walked past a truck that was scraping melted cheese on something so decided then and there it was what we wanted. It came with potato, bacon and salad, and was a melted Swiss-type block of cheese. I got a beer and we found a seat and enjoyed our dinner.
As we were finishing it started to rain so we waited 5 minutes for that to pass and startedthe walk back to the hotel. We were thinking of going for a drink but decided to just go home and have an early night. So we packedour bag for tomorrow and went to bed.
Friday June 28, 2019
The alarm woke me at 730. Kaoru was in the shower. Once i had showered we had breakfast and then checked out to catch our next tour bus. We found it just outside wherewe had been dropped off 2 days ago.
Today’s tour had 7 of us; we said hello and all got in our car and off we went. Our first stop was a the Salispals Memorial monument built by the Russians in the 1960s showing the suppression from the Germans. It is a controversial monument to the Latvians, and as our guide was explaining it, the emotion in her voice was clear.
Back in the car, after a quick rest stop we went to Rundalez Palace, where we could walk around the magnificent gardens and admire the palace from both inside and out.
Lunch was another half hour down the road, at a nice little restaurant. Kaoru and i both had venison, but she also had some soup. I had a beer but Kaoru tried the local drink – nesa (???). It was described as a fermented bread drink and was really quite nice and refreshing.
Our next stop was the hill of crosses. We knew this was on the itenerary so were looking forward to it. But it cannot be described by words or pictures. So many thousands of crosses on this hill in the middle of nowhere. Ranging from gigantic ones like from a cemetery to small ones made from twisting lollypop sticks together. Anna explained the history of it to us which was another reminder of the hard times these people have been through.
We continued on towards Vilnius, and i noticed a sign saying 205km to go. It’s 290km total if you go direct so we certainly were taking a scenic route. We made a slightdetour via Kaunas and walked around the old city. There were lots of churches and we went in the one that Pope John Paul II visiteda couple of years earlier. We also saw the high water mark from when the town floodedduring the construction of the hydro dam.
Another 75 minutes of driving and we finally made it to Vilnius. The traffic was that of a big city. Eventually we found somewhere to park, got out of the car and said goodbye. We could hear music playing so there was some event nearby. We walked across the road to Amberton hotel and checked in. Our room here was lovely! Much larger than our other rooms. However it was a twin, not a double. So we just had beds next to each other with about a10cm gap between them.
Kaoru did a load of washing and i checked work things. We then went out for dinner. Our plan was “open kitchen” – an open market that operates Friday and Saturday nights. So we made our way down there, through swarms of people coming down another street near the cathedral square – the event had obviously just finished (we later found out it was to do with the president standing down after her 2 terms); but there was nothing to be seen. So instead we wandered back up and found a Lithuanian cuisine restaurant.
Dinner was a couple of things from the menu. The first was a mushroom soup in a bread bowl. The second was a crepe with meat inside. The third was a Lithuanian specialty -potato around meat. Didn’t go down too well!But at least we tried it.
Quite stuffed, we needed a walk, and found a place to have a beer. But we were also quite tired so went back to the hotel and went to bed.
Thursday June 27, 2019
We woke up about 8, showered and had breakfast, which was included in our room cost. There was quite a spread to choose from. No bacon and eggs though! just local food.
After breakfast we left to start exploring. It was a dismal looking day and was definitely going to rain so i went back up to get my rainjacket and Kaoru grabbed her umbrella. About 5 minutes out of the hotel we stopped to put on all my layers and the umbrella was up. But we weren’t going to let that stop us.
We walked around the village, opting againstbuying the local tourist card. The architecture was beautiful and we enjoyed looking at the buildings down the narrow streets.
We decided to have a break and had a hot chocolate at a Belgium chocolate shop, which left us feeling quite bloated. So after a bit more walking we decided to do the war museum. Entrance was free and the sign says 3 hours! i don’t think we will be that long! I didn’t really know anything about Latvian history so this was a very moving stop. We were there for a good 90 minutes, and put some money in the donation tin.
A bit of a walk took us to the canal where we decided to catch a 1 hour boat ride. We went along the canal, up the river and back down again. It was windy and cold, but luckily they had a blanket in the boat for us-i was still in shorts. We got to see a number of the sites from the outside, including the freedom monument, and relax a bit.
We wanted to go to the market for lunch-it was about 215. But we were quite cold so i went to put jeans on, and Kaoru put on a jacket. We then walked to the market and wandered around deciding what to eat, and also looking at the food for sale. We bought a few things not knowing what they are, and they all tasted great.
A bit more walking and we ended up at the cathedral which we could go up the top of, and get one of the highest views of the area. It was beautiful but very windy. And after a couple of minutes the rain came too. So once we had taken photos and had a good look we caught the elevator down.
A bit more walking around and we decided it was time for a drink. We found a place called”Easy Beer”, which is the most awesome concept I’ve seen for beer dispensing. They give you a card, and you tap and pour your own drink. So you can put as little or as much as you want in a glass and it shows you how much you have dispensed and how much credit you have left. Then at the end you pay for what you used. You could also get shots of whisky or measures of wine.
We wanted to get some food for the day tomorrow so went to a supermarket; but theydidn’t have as good selection as the one we used in Tallinn, so we found another supermarket which was marginally better.
Then it was dinner time so we ended up at an Irish pub before going back to our room and packing our bags. We went to bed about 10.45 after thinking a bit about what we would be doing in a couple of days.
Wednesday June 26, 2019
We were both awake and showered before the alarm went off. We went to the same place for breakfast where i had the same but the croissants hadn’t arrived yet so Kaoru had the quiche. Back at our room we did our teeth, double checked we had everything, putthe key back in the key box and went across the road to wait for our 9.00 tour bus. There was a very light rain.
The bus was there. ..bus being a van that squeezes 8 passengers. We were 16 so filled2 cars.
Our first shift was about 2 hours driving. We got out and walked around the 6th largest city in Estonia. There were old castle ruins that we explored. After a good leg stretch it was back in the bus for another hour to lunch.
For lunch Kaoru had salmon and a sprite, while i had wild boar and a beer, and we shared an ice cheese cake.
5 minutes down the road we went to an old museum with war relics, including vehicles. Our driver briefed us a bit on the war of independence and on the history of the country. The museum was set in an old check point, as we were right on the Latvian border.
Back in the bus we had another long drive through the Latvian countryside and stoppedin the National park. We went for a walk down to the lake and then a short 1.5km walk around the old limestone cliffs. It was now really and warm.
Another 45 minutes or so took us to another town, called Cesis (?), which was famous for bombing it’s own fort so as not to lose it to Ivan the terrible. It was already 630 so we didn’t get to go inside but we found a toilet anyway (we had to pay €0.3 but once we did everybody else found it so we just left the door open between uses).
Back in the car for a bit longer, and we arrived at the point i was looking forward to -the bobsled park. This was a replica of the bobsled track used at the 1984 Olympics, built in 1986, so the Russians could train. Wecaught the lift to the top and were at the highest point in Latvia. We then walked down the bobsled track, slightly slower than people would be riding down.
At the bottom there was an old bobsled that we could sit in, so we all took turns with photos. Then it was back to our bus for the final 45km to Riga.
Once in Riga we said goodbye to everybody and walked to our accommodation. Kaoru had found a place very close to the drop off point which was also next door to an aussie backpackers. ..One place i will be staying away from! We checked in to our room and Kaoru did a load of washing while i found a place to eat. There were ear plugs on our bedside tables which was concerning.
It was less than a 10 minute walk and we passed plenty of suitable places but i had read a review on this place which looked good so we went there. It was a jazz craft beer hall. I ordered an IPA and got Kaoru a blackcurrant cider with Earl gray, which she enjoyed. I had some ribs for main.
After dinner we were both pretty tired so went to bed. It wasn’t loud so no need for theear plugs!
Tuesday June 25, 2019
We woke around 8 and it was pretty quiet and warm. After a shower we went outside inthe almost empty street and walked to a place called caffeine for breakfast. I had some quiche and a chai latte and Kaoru had a choc filled choc coated croissant with a coffee.
After breakfast we went to the tourist information to buy a Tallinn card – €26 each for free entrance to a number of places. Now to try to get value for money!
After our teeth we followed a walking tour i found online (from the app Izi). We skipped the first point (will pick it up later) and the second (town hall-just near our hotel) hadn’topened. ..So on we went to point 3. We followed the walk as best we could-sometimes it was hard to read it off the map.We stopped at a number of places including…
-puppet museum
-wall walk
-nuns tower
-Epping tower
-kgb headquarters
We went to our room to get something warm as it was now going on 3 and we were about to leave the city. On the way we bought some pancakes (15, but they were bitesized) and some ice cream. After recharging we walked to the bank and saw an exhibition there, and then caught a tram to the skywheel. The map we followed said to catch a number 2 tram but enroute Kaoru found another which said number 2. So we got off where they branched and could see the wheel, so walked the rest of the way.
The wheel was on top of a shopping centre so we had a walk through there. We got 10%off with our Tallinn cards. At the top we were given a great view of the city and surrounding area including the airport and harbor.
We found a cafe in the shopping centre and had a beer, dumplings and soup. They also served some black bread. Kaoru asked if it was for dipping in the soup and the lady looked shocked. There was a tube of mustard which we put on the bread. All fantastic. I wasn’t hungry at first but the dumplings were great with the beer. We then went to the supermarket to get some snacks for tomorrow. Water here was 3 times what we paid yesterday so we didn’t get that, but we were able to get some pastries cheaply. We then caught the tram back to the old village.
On the walk back to the hotel we got to see the main gates (spot 1we bought a couple of waters and picked up some last sites. We dropped our bags back in the room and went out for dinner. Kaoru had found a restaurant which had good reviews so we went there. Because we didn’t have a reservation we couldn’t get a seat inside but there was one “walkup” table left so we took that. We ordered mushrooms for entrée, i ordered the elk for main and Kaoru got the white fish; with a sparkling rhubarb for Kaoru to drink and I had a bottle of cider. The meal was also served with some black bread.
I shouldn’t have had those dumplings! not being mega-hungry, plus being tired, and no normal food time for so long, made it really hard to eat. Somehow Kaoru managed to still have a blue cheesecake for dessert!
Back at our hotel we got our bags organized for the next day which meant packing as much as possible so as to not be too busy inthe morning. We set an alarm for 745 and were in bed by 10pm!
Monday June 24, 2019
We woke up before the alarm. All of our washing was dry so we finished packing our bags and tidied up the apartment. We left our suitcases behind (and my laptop) and left with just a backpack and bag to cover a few days of clothes. We then went to Pipsas flat to return the keys, and were on our way. Our original plan was to have breakfast locally and return the keys but we changed our mind and did the keys first to get breakfast intown.
We caught the train and tram to get to the ferry terminal – very easy especially as Pipsahad installed the local transport app for me. Checkin hadn’t opened as we were more than 2 hours early. We wandered around for a bit and then used the self Checkin kiosk.
We went upstairs to the restaurant to grab some food and then just passed the time until boarding. It was quite smooth and took less than 20 minutes to get us all on – we actually departed a little early! We put our bag in the lock room so we didn’t have to carry it and had some food. We were feeling a bit sleepy so went for a walk around the ship.
Outside was quite breezy and cool, as well as smokey, so we went back indoors. There were several bars and entertainment areas around the ship.
We found some brochures for Tallinn, got a chai latte and planned how we would spend our time once we arrived. We pulled in to port at 2.00, right on time. We got off the ferry and made our way by foot to the old town where we were staying. There was no immigration which made the whole process much quicker than last time i did this trip in 2001.
With the help of Google maps we easily found Tallinn city apartments and luckily Kaoru remembered i had received an email with the access code – one for the front door and one for the key box. We took our bags up to the room and then left to make the most of the day.
We went across the road to the tourist information centre and worked out how to catch the bus to the Open Air Museum. We had to go to a kiosk to buy the bus ticket. Rather than paying €2 each way (the easy way) we decided to try the more challenging way of using the pass which is €1.10/hour or€3/day. And we were off.
We got off the bus one stop early. ..The name was the same but this stop had a suffix on it. So it took us a little longer to get there but the exercise was good. We payed to get in to the grounds and could then freelywalk around. Kaoru found a map (50c) whichhad a suggested route so we followed that. We got to look at old shacks and see a bit of farm life. The houses had people sitting out the front with varying levels of interaction with us. At one place the lady had some notes in japanese so she explained it to Kaoru and she had to explain to me! (What i hadn’t understood already).
We had some food and drink at a cafe to recharge us and continued our exploring. Wehad finished around 7 and caught the next bus back to the city.
We walked around the city to a couple of the sightseeing spots. Up high on the city wall we had magnificent views! For dinner we went to a themed restaurant from an old time tavern. I had a sausage and an ox rib, and a beer to wash it down.
After some more exploring Kaoru was hungry, so we went to a supermarket to get some food and some water for tomorrow. We got a rice meal which Kaoru fried up as we didn’t have a microwave in the room. It was delicious, for a cheap, easy meal.
We took our maps and went to find a bar to plan our tomorrow over a drink. We had planned to have an early night but by the time this was all done it was about midnight, so we went to bed and feel asleep pretty quickly. It was the darkest night we had experienced for some time now. Outside wasstill very lively with music from the restaurant across the road.
Sunday June 23, 2019
I was a bit rougher this morning. After eating breakfast i went back to bed.
Had some cheese for lunch. Kaoru, Bambi and i went for a walk to the b&b nearby. It used to be the milking shed, and had lots of old working equipment.
At around 5 we had my birthday lunch which was a whole salmon (which Ville fileted) and potatoes. Then pipsa brought out a birthday cake for me, which was traditional Finnish cake with banana in the middle and sour cream on top. Pipsa also gave me a mug as a present.
Tommy had a sleep to rest before the drive home. We just pottered around and eventually left about 7. With fingers crossed that there wouldn’t be a problem with the car!
We drove back on the old freeway as the speed limit is slower and we wouldn’t have to push the car as much. It also gave us different scenery than the way up. Luckily all was good and we were back at the flat around 830. First job was to do a load of washing. We then went to Pipsas flat and had some food (leftovers) and a chat before saying goodbye. We went back to our room to hang up washing and get ourselves organized for tomorrow. I booked us on the 1130 ferry to Estonia.
Saturday June 22, 2019
We needed a bit of a sleep in. We got up about 930 and had breakfast which was bread with salami, cheese and a garlic cream cheese. Followed by blueberries and yogurt.
Lots of talking.
Kaoru, Ville and Bambi went to shops for sausages which were cooked on the bbq.
A few beers.
I took the atv for a spin. Much easier without a passenger.
Passed the day. Really hard to know when the evening starts without the sun setting.
First sauna was short (5 minutes and i needed a break). Each time was longer though, usually with a swim in the break.
Eventually turned midnight and we were in the water. ..even Kaoru! Beautiful red sky reflecting in the water.
Went to bed about 2. It just never got dark.
Friday June 21, 2019
Woke up early. Had a shower and went for a walk for breakfast about 8. The place we wanted to eat at didn’t open until 9 though so we went to a convenience store at the station and bought a panini, a sandwich, a bottle of juice and a “double ginger shot” drink. We ate at a table in the store.
Did our teeth and then went to Pipsas flat. She and Ville left last night for the farm and Tommy was driving Bambi and i up today. We decided we would leave in an hour or so, so Kaoru and i went for another walk and drink at a cafe. We went to the shops for some drinks and bumped in to Bambi shopping.
Once we packed the car we left about 11. Kaoru and Bambi feel asleep pretty quickly. icouldn’t last long either so got 20 minutes sleep in. We arrived at the farm just after 12, and I was promptly presented with a beer.
Pipsa gave us a tour of the farm house, and it was getting warm so we had a bite to eat and then a swim. The water was 25 degrees so it was lovely for cooling down.
We had a few more drinks and passed the time. Ville had to change the engine on the back hoe so i hung around and supervised while Kaoru helped pipsa with cooking dinner.
We went back to the house and opened the bottle of sake that i brought. Nobody had tried it before so a good experience.
I took the ATV for a ride with Ville on the back telling me where to go. Then i got on the back with him driving which was about 3 times the speed. Got the heart going!
As the sun started to go behind the house it started to cool down.
We had dinner which was amazing. Salmon, mini potatoes and salad.
We spent some time at the water and then Kaoru and i had a laydown. We wanted to make it to midnight so needed a recharge. Then i moved on to bourbon. We passed the time with a sauna, which i could barely last 5minutes in. Then back to the lake but i had cooled down already so didn’t need a swim.
Another sauna to warm up and i did then go in the water. ..i checked my watch and it was1159 and still very bright. The water was warm.
Back at the house i got my laptop out and showed some photos of our Simpson desert trip. I then spoke to mum and dad as they had just woken up, and we went to bed about 130.
Thursday June 20, 2019
We woke up about 8 so on a good time zone.
Shower and went next door for breakfast. Then Bambi came with us for the day as she is on school holidays (she is 11)
First place was tourist information centre. It took us an hour or so to get there walking past beautiful buildings. We detoured past a market. It was a perfect day.
After collecting some brochures we went for a drink and thought about what to do for the day.
Walked down to the skywheel. We stopped atthe market on the way and had some lunch which included the small fish. Then we did the touristy “flight” over Finland (4d cinema) and skywheel. Fantastic views.
We had a look in an old church with an amazing chandelier.
Walked along the water edge for a while stopping for ice cream.
Went to Japanese supermarket.
Caught the train back to the house as Bambi couldn’t walk any further.
Kaoru taught pipsa how to make sushi.
Couple of beers.
Went back to our room and went to bed
Wednesday June 19, 2019
Went to airport Tuesday night. Driver missed turn on to west gate bridge.
Check in quick
Drink and got on plane
Flight to Tokyo. Watched a movie or 2 and tried to sleep
Transfer to next flight took over an hour. Quick shop and straight on to next flight
Just under 10 hours to Helsinki
Caught bus to suonienen. Pipsa and Bambi
met us at bus stop.
Went to her ex’s house and dropped bags.
Went to her house next door
Champagne and chat.
Ville got home. Not much english. Went out to fix car.
Chat for a while.
Went to a bar for a drink
Shops to buy Some dinner
Went to bed 11.00pm to get on local time Zone
Tuesday June 18, 2019
This will be our first serious trip together that isn’t Japan. Our plan is Finland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, before going to London and wrapping up in Tokyo.
Packing clothes is not easy. What weather are we going to encounter? Tokyo will be hot (but I’m only there for 1 day). Helsinki could be hot or cold. London the same. Baltic region should be hot.
So I’ve wrapped up from work (just taking care of important stuff that pops up), and waiting for dinner time.
Then off to boys night before the airport.